The 'Sidian Tyranny thread

[Starwars]

Just played through the Conquest and then up until the first big "plot conversation". Don't think I'll enjoy the combat that much as pretty much all the changes from PoE are negatives in my book regarding the character systems and all that... but I'm really enjoying the tone of the game and the conversations are fantastic so far.

[Labadal]

I'm stilm early in the game but the changes I thought I wouldn't like are the changes I don't like.

[Raithe]

The whole Conquest slice of things was an interesting part to the character creation and I'm curious just how that'll turn out as the game proceeds. Made my way through the first stage and pausing at the meeting with the Archons so I can deal with real life stuff.

[the_dog_days]

My favorite reviewer and his thoughts: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DBJg5waC2uA

[WDeranged]

Early reviews sound good enough for me, but I'm not gonna read too many as I want to go into this game with as few expectations as possible.

[ShadySands]

I think I've replayed the conquest about 3 times now and still haven't started the game proper

Edited November 10, 2016 by ShadySands

[ManifestedISO]

Watching the Obsidian all-day launch-play live stream before I play, woo!

[Fenixp]

So, I have reached the beginning of the time limit (yes, the first major quest is time limited, but most who watched some info on Tyranny should know this)

- Combat does indeed feel a lot slower, which is not great in my book. Reduction to party size is another aspect I'm not a fan of, although I'm yet to meet more than a single companion, so it's not that big of a deal yet

- Somehow, the game has managed to take pretty damn good UI from Pillars and make it look a lot more busy and more difficult to navigate. Not a huge fan of that. (fullscreen map is gone. Why!? Especially since map is one of the few things that has actually improved... Also, dialogue window background is transparent for some reason, making text harder to read. I'd also kill for an option to increase font size. Oh and you can no longer resize dialogue window, because who needed that anyway.)

- At first I loved the decision to insert those colored hyperlinks into the conversation as I assumed those mean characters aren't going to dump lore at you and instead, lore will be hidden behind these hyperlinks, because surely your character knows all of these things. Well, turns out it's Obsidian and they can totally lore-dump while they lore-dump. Also, ignoring these hyperlinks is pretty much impossible as at least one conversation thus far has found a way of inserting fairly important information into them, as opposed to ... I don't know, just writing that stuff directly into conversation.

- Learning by doing system is pretty nice, but feels strange during conversations. That's because the momenty your character passes a qualifier in a conversation, not choosing that conversation option means losing out on XP using eligible skill would give you. (yes, when you need, say, lore skill for a conversation check and use option using that check in a conversation, you get lore XP. You don't get lore XP if you just skip the option)

- Writing is generally good, but sometimes it feels like the game has been written to take the whole "Everything is evil here" to comical levels of ridiculous. Nevermind the statue crying blood, I thought that looked pretty at the very least, first companion is just adamant in repeating how much she enjoys killing people in multiple ways.

- Spell crafting seems to be a really nice system, with a decent amount of possible choices with an outcome of interesting spells. Lore as a limiting factor also forces you to make tough choices, while allowing your spells to slowly improve. I like this.

 

I ... Think that's about it. The tutorial section has nothing on tutorial section in Pillars sadly - latter lets you loose in a reasonably sized area and then in a nice, seemingly open dungeon, whereas Tyranny has you following a linear path while fighting a string of battles with very little in terms of conversation options. I was not impressed. But things started improving rapidly the moment I reached the first open-ish location of the war camp, so the game is growing on me quite fast now.

 

Edit: Oh and character creation. Character creation is great.

Edited November 10, 2016 by Fenixp

[Tigranes]

Screw "reviewers", most of whom are idiots who can't write working for bribed desperate publications, or obnoxious hurr hurrs inflicting their voices on Youtube. Looking forward to impressions from people who've put a lot of hours in - esp. regarding overall combat difficulty (relative to POE POTD), encounter design variety (relative to POE), and the general tone (Nickelodeon? Goody good take on evil? Interesting nuance?)

[HoonDing]

"Screw "reviewers", most of whom are idiots who can't write working for bribed desperate publications, or obnoxious hurr hurrs inflicting their voices on Youtube. Looking forward to impressions from people who've put a lot of hours in - esp. regarding overall combat difficulty (relative to POE POTD), encounter design variety (relative to POE), and the general tone (Nickelodeon? Goody good take on evil? Interesting nuance?)"

 

i only trust impressions from ppl who played a gaem seven times

[Fenixp]

Well there are trustworthy reviewers and bad reviewers, trustworthy youtubers and bad youtubers, trustworthy people and untrustworthy me. The trick is in finding who you can trust and who to ignore as opposed to a blanket "All of these people are terrible", but as long as it works for you...

[Tigranes]

I've read many reviews from many different people for over a decade, and they've either been awful, or they've been decent but neither a good predictor of my preferences nor give the kind of information I want. Hence I go to a select few that that do work for me, and glean information I need from players. I don't find this particularly irrational.

[Ganrich]

Oh this comes out today/tomorrow? The election has been preoccupying my attention. It's my last night of work. I'll probably dl it, and give it a crack when I get home in the morning. It will give me periodic Titanfall 2 breaks. Yay!

[Fenixp]

I've read many reviews from many different people for over a decade, and they've either been awful, or they've been decent but neither a good predictor of my preferences nor give the kind of information I want. Hence I go to a select few that that do work for me, and glean information I need from players. I don't find this particularly irrational.

Oh it's not irrational at all, you find people whom you trust and decide based on their opinions. But that's how it's always been, even with reviews in magazines of old - there were reviewers I knew I could trust and those who I could not. Now we just get access to massively larger number of information sources, and generally speaking, youtubers can relay some kind of information, reviewers other and players yet another, which when pieced together, you can be more or less 100% certain about a purchase. I'm not necessarily arguing with you y'know, just saying: You always trust people, regardless of their occupation.

 

Anyway, played a bit more of it. I'm not sure how much of a fan of the time limit am I, but it actually seems pretty generous - I just can't rest-spam, which is good.

 

I don't really like the wounds system tho - when a character gets down to certain percentage of his health, said character gets wounded. Problem is that the health limit for wounds is not really indicated in any reasonable way, so you're just fighting and suddenly a wound. And the only way to get rid of a wound is to rest. And to rest, you need to sacrifice time. I think you can guess where this is going... I'm also playing on hard and thus far, the game has not been particularly difficult.

[Malcador]

Sounds like I will get this on sale

[demeisen]

 

I'm also playing on hard and thus far, the game has not been particularly difficult.

 

 

How would you compare the difficulty to Pillars?  My first run of Pillars I played Hard and really wished I'd played PotD instead.  I'm inclined to try PotD for my first Tyranny play, but I don't know how they compare.  If it's about like PotD in PoE, I'll pick that.

[Keyrock]

Just started up a game and spent 35 minutes making my character, Muriel the Unyielding.

 

 

I made her an archer/vigor magic user with high subterfuge skill (for manipulating people).  Too bad the awesome outfit hides my hair, but I went with the dark skin/silver hair combo, which I always think looks super badass.  I am going to try to play my character as a ruthless manipulator.  Not a psychopath, she takes no pleasure in killing people or making them suffer, but she has no qualms whatsoever in making people suffer if it has a purpose and helps her reach her goals (the quest for absolute power!).  She speaks softly when it benefits her, but will not hesitate to bully people or stab them in the back if she stands to profit from it.

 

Now, let's get this party started!

 

/rubs hands together

[mindswayer]

Enjoying my way through Act I atm. UI is worse than pillars, and so is the gameplay, but at least I'm enjoying laying down the law on plebeians so far, even if the choices seem a bit high-school tier.

Voices of Nerat is sick btw. And whoever did the map art, congrats. That is beautiful.

Companions so far don't impress at all compared to PoE.

 

Anyway, let's hope this gets better.

Edited November 11, 2016 by mindswayer

[ShadySands]

I must just suck compared to you guys because I'm playing on normal and have died like 4 times already

[Keyrock]

I must just suck compared to you guys because I'm playing on normal and have died like 4 times already

I am also playing on normal.  After the soul crushing grind of the combat of Pillars, I have no desire to make the combat any more tedious than it has to be.  I considered doing story mode, in truth.

Edited November 11, 2016 by Keyrock

[mindswayer]

I must just suck compared to you guys because I'm playing on normal and have died like 4 times already

I'm playing on hard and have only died once so far. It's only difficult when you're still learning the UI.

The companion AI is also ****ing stupid. I don't know why they move all the time when they're engaged, but whatever.

[ManifestedISO]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xlpgS0tKIk

[limaxophobiacq]

I'm playing on hard and I'm hating the combat. I've only had to reload from dying once (I've also reloaded for wounds and not wanting to rest again not knowing how much time I need) but I don't feel like I'm getting information on whats going on and I don't feel in control, and I'm someone who really likes PoE combat.

 

Also prebuffing is back (and Lantrys party-wide buff before combat feels like a necessity) but I keep forgetting to do it because I'm now used to it not being a thing. Also combat takes so long you also have to remember to re-apply it mid-combat when it runs out.

Edited November 11, 2016 by limaxophobiacq

[Hurlshort]

The game is great.  Lot's of excellent storytelling, C&C and it's gorgeous.  Not a fan of the combat, but that was what I disliked in PoE too, so I'll be trying to talk my way out of stuff.  Might drop from normal to story mode too.

[Bartimaeus]

 

I must just suck compared to you guys because I'm playing on normal and have died like 4 times already

I am also playing on normal.  After the soul crushing grind of the combat of Pillars, I have no desire to make the combat any more tedious than it has to be.  I considered doing story mode, in truth.

 

 

well, screw that, if they somehow conspired to make it WORSE than pillars, good lord