A minor rant/request for advice

[Longknife]

I'm addicted to Trial of Iron. This is something that began ages ago with other games. I simply enjoy the extra tension and the extra sense of satisfaction when you complete a game without dying, with no reloads or do-overs neccesary.

 

 

Sadly...this does not seem to translate into this kind of game well. There's two things about Pillars:

 

1) You cannot know how over-/under-prepared you are for a fight in advance.

 

2) You cannot run from a fight. (you can theoretically, but even accomplishing that in and of itself is a feat)

 

 

Basic things like "stick to the road and don't wander off anywhere you haven't been told to go" can help....to a degree. But you're bound to go exploring Od Nua a bit further or do a quest just a bit early or get handed a quest you've never done before and have no idea how to size it up, and then ta-da: you're dead, with no realistic chance of winning that fight, let alone running away from it. I've probably lost three game files now to simply encountering fights I didn't anticipate and didn't realize I was not ready for.

  On the opposite end of things? Tough fights are fun. The fights you win with only two party members left standing are some of the most fun.....but when you're discouraged from walking off the safest path so strongly, you tend to play it safe and overshoot. Then you've got absolutely nothing to challenge you and it's painfully obvious you're too strong the moment the fight starts. That's...disappointing.

 

 

 

My question is: wat do?

 

I'm just a little frustrated cause I'm sitting here wishing this game offered some form of disengagement for when you come across a fight, your tank takes 2 hits and has 10% HP left, and it's crystal clear it's not winnable and you WANT to run, but the moment ANYONE in your body dies within range of an enemy and you lack means to lure enemies away (a summon), you're done.

 

Are there any tips or tricks to circumvent this? Or is Trial of Iron playstyle just going to remain disappointing for me with this game?

[sim-h]

I'm playing trial of iron but reloading plenty of times, through various means (mainly exit just before your last guy dies, but I also have backup saves occasionally despite the readme . I agree it's more tense so that's why I do it. I don't care about the achievement etc. and if I get it, I will readily denounce it to anyone that asks. I just find it more fun to play this way. Trial of Iron, Path of the Damned and Expert Mode. Bring it on!

 

[edit] to be fair if you could turn off Trial of Iron I would have done so after the first reload. You can't. And I like my char and the two extras I hired and have since levelled up a couple of times. So I'm doing the reload thing rather than start exactly the same char again and do exactly the same things for 3 hours or whatever it was before my first reload).

Edited April 11, 2015 by sim-h

[LadyCrimson]

ToI is the die-once mode? If so, I have the feeling that setting wasn't really meant to be done the first time through the game - well, unless you don't mind starting over a lot of course. You could try a not-ToI game on EZ, to blow through and check out fights, then go start a ToI etc. Although I realize that takes the not knowing an encounter beforehand out of the equation, which is more than half the fun. :/

 

Other than that, building chrs. with high durb. so they can survive more mistakes and disengagements (no min/max squishies) would be the only thing I can think of. Maybe even higher CON tanks, vs. the usual "CON is a dump stat" route.

[Longknife]

ToI is the die-once mode? If so, I have the feeling that setting wasn't really meant to be done the first time through the game - well, unless you don't mind starting over a lot of course. You could try a not-ToI game on EZ, to blow through and check out fights, then go start a ToI etc. Although I realize that takes the not knowing an encounter beforehand out of the equation, which is more than half the fun. :/

 

Other than that, building chrs. with high durb. so they can survive more mistakes and disengagements (no min/max squishies) would be the only thing I can think of. Maybe even higher CON tanks, vs. the usual "CON is a dump stat" route.

 

 

I tried it for what was essentially my first playthrough (first to go beyond Act II) and beat it. But for that playthrough, I did just the main quest and any sidequests that were located not far from "the main road" so to speak. I didn't touch Od Nua or bounties or anything like that.

 

Now that I wanna go back through and experience content I've not experienced before though, it's like lolwtfbbq I have no idea when to do this stuff and it always screws me over.