I won't surrender!

[Slack83er]

You know... I'm not very into imagination myself... It's very hard for me to come up with something good and original. That's why I expect the game to tell me who I am. I'll make an example which is not to be taken in consideration, but I only do it for the sake of understanding: Anyone of you played God of War on PS? Well. Kratos has charisma. Since the very start. The game already tells me who he is. The ghost of Sparta. His background forges his story. In this game I know nothing about myself, and even if I come up with the best invented background ever, the game just wouldn't implement it in ANY way, it'd just remain on my sheet of paper, beside my keyboard. No matter if I'm a cipher or druid, I'm the watcher. I could have 3 INT, 3 PER, 3 RES and be dumb and stubborn as a goat, but somehow, I end up with this incredible power of the soul. This is what I don't like. This is why I keep trying to make my MC "believable" and possible. I REFUSE to have a character who is too dumb to talk, or too weak to stand. Even the fact that my dwarf has 7 CON just makes no sense... is he sick or has a disability? Dwarves are sturdy, strong and resilient! Not weaklings... But I digress.... I seriously fear I won't find a MC that suits me... 'cept maybe that undead slayer... but even that lacked charisma in my eyes.

[JerekKruger]

See, a game like God of War is boring for me because I don't have any choice over who I am. I am forced to be the character the game tells me to be and very often I don't like that character (Kratos, for example, was a terrible character in my mind). The only way I can enjoy a game like God of War is to completely ignore the lore and focus on the gameplay.

 

Meanwhile a game like PoE will never force a background on me (well, okay, it does in a tiny way if you discuss it with Calisca, but you can ignore that option) so I can have any background I want.

 

EDIT: you might be right about never finding a character that suits you, at least if you expect to find one that fits your Kratos example that is. The only thing I can't quite work out is how you ever played through Baldur's Gate.

Edited November 2, 2016 by JerekKruger

[Slack83er]

I can have any background I want.

Yes, a BG that won't ever mean anything, because in the whole game there are 2/3 referrals to it at most..

[JerekKruger]

 

I can have any background I want.

Yes, a BG that won't ever mean anything, because in the whole game there are 2/3 referrals to it at most..

 

 

Oh I'm not referring to the background you pick. I'd actually prefer it if that wasn't there as it interfers (a tiny bit) with my ability to be completely free. I am referring to the background that I construct in my head for my character. 

[Slack83er]

Oh, ok.. I just can't do it.

[JerekKruger]

Well as I said before, perhaps PoE isn't for you, and if that's the case there's nothing wrong with that.

[Slack83er]

Agreed. I'll leave the game. I've tried but I can't enjoy it. Thanks for all the time you've spent with me, really appreciate your kindness.

Have a good time!

[Boeroer]

Dancing Bolts, Winter Wind, Returning Storm, Twin Stones, Relentless Storm, Nature's Terror, Venombloom - those are all foe only - just to name a few that come to mind. If you'd taken decent CON and Veteran's Recovery you needn't to retreat in order to cast. You could also cast Nature's Balm before going into melee. In the early levels it's also good to summon Firebrand. Compared to the other weapons around at that time it does great damage. You can then use Taste of the Hunt with it to deliver damage while getting healed.

 

Edit: nevermind. I missed a whole page.

Good riddance!

Edited November 2, 2016 by Boeroer

[Kaylon]

I wasn't very excited by the story either and I had a hard time to go into the game because I found the rules not very intuitive/clear. I didn't like either the fact that my character felt weak - with average stats/items - while some monsters had unfair advantages and used cheap tactics even at low levels (stun/blind on hit, very high armor and damage, etc...). Over the time, once I started too understand the rules, I discovered it was possible to build some epic characters with the right build/items. And when you are more familiar with the lore/game you become also more invested/attached to your character. 

[Jojobobo]

I think if you're playing the game until you are level 9 though, and you're still finding your character weak, something must be wrong with your expectations of the game. I always notice a significant jump in power when I get to that kind of level, and I'd wager to say with a party it's even worse. It seems like Slack83er wants to feel strong and badass from the start, which seems strange as the entire point of combat and levelling in RPGs is a slow build up to power. Besides, running around curb-stomping every enemy in the game would be even more boring - this is a long game, so pancaking every enemy wouldn't give any sense of accomplishment after a point.

 

I do agree some things early game do seem like a mistake on the devs part however. Those Caed Nua Phantoms are ridiculous - even with playing with a fortitude save of around 90 (factoring in Towering Physique and food/drug buffs) if you're fighting two of those guys at once on solo you will usually die. Their Stun effect is made all the worse by the fact Obsidian gave them Sneak Attack (!) too. Really they should have provided early game a +10 resist against Stun item, or dropped the accuracy of their Stun effect by 20 points. There's other cheap things early game, but the Phantoms are by far the worse and are in no way enjoyable - and encourage the worse kind of cheese tactics.

[AeonsLegend]

I think he just surrendered.

[Slack83er]

I really did in the end. I want to thank all of you guys who have been patient, who have shared your knowledge, who have spent your time with this unsatisfied noob. Maybe the game isn't for me but you sure showed me friendliness and patience even when going to a dead end. The sensation that maybe there's a build I would like out there still remains, but I will leave the game now, as when I "insist too much" there's usually no good result to be found. Maybe one day I'll wake up with a build in mind that I will want to reproduce in game, and perhaps will ask for your help again

 

Enjoy the game and keep on rocking on this fantastic board!

 

Slacker.

[AeonsLegend]

I really did in the end. I want to thank all of you guys who have been patient, who have shared your knowledge, who have spent your time with this unsatisfied noob. Maybe the game isn't for me but you sure showed me friendliness and patience even when going to a dead end. The sensation that maybe there's a build I would like out there still remains, but I will leave the game now, as when I "insist too much" there's usually no good result to be found. Maybe one day I'll wake up with a build in mind that I will want to reproduce in game, and perhaps will ask for your help again

 

Enjoy the game and keep on rocking on this fantastic board!

 

Slacker.

 

I  bought Divinity II: Dev edition on steam for EUR 2,50 during the Halloween sale. Great fun. Maybe try that

[Slack83er]

I'll try to see what comes around. Thanks for your advices guys.

 

Divinity is fun but turn based combat with action points is kinda boring for me...

you know... I like Poe better for combat sake, it's more dynamic. With the last char, the Druid, combat was fun with the beast, but all began difficult once shifted back... casting is slow, areas are small or take your companions too... this I don't like.

[AeonsLegend]

I'll try to see what comes around. Thanks for your advices guys.

 

Divinity is fun but turn based combat with action points is kinda boring for me...

you know... I like Poe better for combat sake, it's more dynamic. With the last char, the Druid, combat was fun with the beast, but all began difficult once shifted back... casting is slow, areas are small or take your companions too... this I don't like.

 

Nooo!! Divinity 2 is a third person action RPG. Much like Skyrim, but much more story driven and actual abilities you can use in battle. You're talking about Divinity: Original Sin. Divinity 2 is an older game and was on sale. I played it a while back, but never got around to getting into it. And because it was on sale now I bought it.

[Slack83er]

Oh yes, you're right... Divinity Two!! Ego Draconis I LOVE that game, already own it and done it! That's the kind of games I like most...

But believe me, dunno why but I feel sad for not playing PoE.... here in Italy we say (translating to English) "I ve remained with the bitter in my mouth" to signify that something has been left undone, or could have had a better result. 

[AeonsLegend]

Uhm, well you could always check out Dragon's Dogma if you're into similar games. Not so strong on the story telling, but it's a lot of fun.

[Slack83er]

Uhm, well you could always check out Dragon's Dogma if you're into similar games. Not so strong on the story telling, but it's a lot of fun.

Dragon's Dogma is taken from console, alas. This means, that apart from graphic, it's a console game readapted for PC. You can clearly see this when going in inventory, it's all complicated and obviously joypad-friendly. I continue to miss my good old Dragon Age..

[Jojobobo]

I think you essentially just have restarteritis, and you do need to stick with the game to fully enjoy it. If you play through the game and get later on into it, you will appreciate it more - and you will eventually feel more powerful and your character will have grown a personality. Stick with any one concept past sections that you haven't reached before and I guarantee you that'll it be more fun.

 

I will say I think part of that process is posting on forums less about that initial experience you're trying to achieve, the game is fundamentally about roleplaying and it's a single player experience - in a way you're just supposed to go with it and do what you think is right. It's like in real life if you had to role play a scary clown, either for LARPing or sexually (if you're into that kind of thing), you wouldn't then go around everyone you know and ask, "Guys, how do I role play a scary clown?" You just do what your idea of a scary clown is, and enjoy the resulting experience (I wasn't commenting on the waning scary clown social media phase, I just really couldn't think of anything else suitably weird when I mentioned it).

 

Stick with the game, ask about mechanics (even then, they are easy enough to test yourself through the console), but I wouldn't ever encourage asking how to play to a certain character archetype - it entirely defeats the purpose of an RPG game. Nearly all the equipment and abilities/talents are covered on GameBanshee or the wiki to an extent, so look at that, decide what you think is cool and thematic and then play it. It's literally what I do all the time, rather than first asking people to think about those questions for me. Once you've completed the game, or got very far into it and lost interest, then is a good time to discuss thoughts about it.

 

If you are going to regret not having played it, then stick with it - that's ultimately what it comes down to. For my Gunslinger build, if I'd actually bothered to really get a ton of advice beforehand I wouldn't have ever of played it ("guns suck, noob!" or "your defences are crap, no way you're doing this solo," or whatever) because it was a different kind of build that doesn't sound necessarily like it works on paper and because it's not the kind of thing people had tried before. The fun was trying that, and discovering what worked myself - without external input.

Edited November 2, 2016 by Jojobobo

[Jojobobo]

Well... I feel with Slacker... When I bought the game, it took me two months to get past act I, because I was unsatisfied with how the character developed. And not just build wise.. A lot of the time I was restarting because I was unhappy with the dialouge option I had choosen with calisca about my backstory or I was unhappy with the background in general  

And to be completely honest with you, I still do that way to much.... WAY to much. I'm actually forcing myself to stop playing for now so I can dive into it when I get back and stop worrying about the characters backstory (cause that is exactly what I am developing right now)  

 

THAT is how bad my restarteritis has become 

No I have bad restarteritis myself, I like to get a good grasp of mechanics early and then restart. With Pillars, this was unfortunately exacerbated by how buggy it was on release - giving me additional restarts on top of my regular lot (particularly with the bug that made your defences stack when you saved in an area, or on my subsequent playthrough where I played a Fire Godlike only to find the DR stacked and was permanent on Battle Forged) that made me burnt out faster than normal.

 

I feel like RPGs, or at least RPG players, have different stages: (1) Restarteritis - where you restart loads, then the game feels unrewarding, and it becomes hard to push through. (2) That middle phase - where you do push through, but maybe you do that once too often, so you get restarteritis even on the middle stages. (3) The zen mode, where you finally push through and complete the game - and develop a real appreciation for it. You now know the game and want to play it through again, so you're much more likely to stick at it, and also your restarteritis comes in handy - because you're now so familiar with the early game stages that you can get them done extremely efficiently (for example, I completed 13 Defiance Bay quests/tasks in under a couple of hours the other night, due to my gross familiarity with the early stages of the game and how to optimise quest completion to save time and avoid load screens).

 

I would have loved to see what would have happened to the person calling you a noob , especially on these forums

I was a bit of a noob at the start, I had all sorts of badgering mechanical questions and thought to activate cheats you needed to type the "iroll20s" thing in blind - and not into the text bar (like an old school console cheat code... I know, I was such a noob). I guess only one build I've written all by myself and two builds where I had only a slight input and really Boeroer put in loads of work really refining, developing and making them truly good still doesn't make me much of a master!

 

But I guess that's a little of the point, I was just asking mechanical questions - to an extent people in Slacker's situation need to try and make a character their own, even if they are imperfect, and then persevere.

[Slack83er]

Hehe thank you for the amount of effort you're still making in keeping me here, and to be honest I'll stay on the forum, because I enjoy your company

 

Matter is, Jojo, that my "restarteritis" is not a disease per se, but a consequence of the fact that I just can't have "pleasure" in playing if things aren't how I EXACTLY want them to be. I may be not a grand connoisseur of the game's mechanics, but I'm a superb RPGer on tabletop (no false modesty, it's been 20years of playing now) and I assure you that the game master hates me because I know all rules and commas, and I don't even start writing on the character sheet if I'm not convinced of how the character will be, from 1st to 20th level, every single aspect. I'm perfectionist, but since I know that a complete playthrough will take me dozens of hours, I don't want to spend them in something which is meh for me. Even more so on the tabletop games

[Jojobobo]

I'm the same way, but as the game allows for respec-ing at inns then if something isn't working as intended you can just change it later. Money in game is ridiculously easy to come by, so it's easy enough to perfect your build in game even when you do have a detailed plan going into it.

[JerekKruger]

I'm the same way, but as the game allows for respec-ing at inns then if something isn't working as intended you can just change it later. Money in game is ridiculously easy to come by, so it's easy enough to perfect your build in game even when you do have a detailed plan going into it.

 

This is particularly true in a first play through, where it's nigh impossible to really understand the ins and outs of the mechanics, and various abilities and items the game has to offer. Once you've finished that (particularly if you try out all the NPC companions) you'll have a much better idea of these things and can try your hand at designing a build from the ground up.

 

Think of it like learning to speak a foreign language. If you refuse to practice until you understand the language perfectly, you'll never speak it; you have to go out and speak the language badly, make mistakes and be corrected, if you ever want to improve.

[Boeroer]

For me, Cail the Silent will always be the most difficult of all the dragons. Also because my frame rate drops to 5 fps in that stupid cave...

[JerekKruger]

Cail is often one of the hardest encounters I face in my play-throughs, but that's because I usually pay him a visit early on for lovely lovely Tidefall.