#Deadfire Q&A Twitch Stream with Josh Sawyer and Adam Brennecke

[Aarik D]

Greetings Watchers!

 

We're having another Q&A stream with Josh and Adam on Wednesday Feb. 8th 4PM PST on our twitch channel. If you would like to have your questions answered on the stream on Wednesday, feel free to tweet us at WorldofEternity and make sure you use the hashtag #Deadfire. You are also free to list your questions here! 

 

[ushas]

​

You are also free to list your questions here!

 

Ok, here I go:

​

1. Are Backgrounds in? If yes, in what form and shape?

 

2. Any special treatment for raiders, sailors, sailing merchants or slaves from Deadfire Archipelago?

 

3. Do you plan new story arc talents for PC and companions in Deadfire?  

 

4. If the list of races is the same, what changes can we expect in the terms of reactivity?

 

5. The Deadfire Archipelago spreads across a range of climates and together with dynamic weather it sets up the mood of varying environments and effects. Can you tell us more - how that influences the Pillars' gameplay? Also whether it plays a part in the game's narrative, if you can talk about it.

 

6. So scripted interactions are supposed to be different and incorporate portraits, if I recall correctly. Can you elaborate on the changes and improvements?

 

7. How cross-platform development treats you this time around? And if already decided, are you planning to provide backer beta for all three PC platforms?
  (Btw. the nagging cape rests in peace, thanks!)

 

8. What about an auto-pausing scripting within the AI interface? So players can also setup their own auto-pausing rules.

 

9. Beside an ingame UI, would you be open to consider externalizing conditions and providing any API for more crazy fan made AI scripting?

 

10. In the last Q&A, you mentioned generally opening up data formats for easier modding. If I'm not mistaken, you're developing your own conversation tool. In PoE1 we could take a look at the text files and conversation structures, but would you also consider adding further support for that - for example, by releasing documentation? Or by any chance, have you considered releasing said tool for noncommercial modding of your games?

 

I would be thankful for any of those answered by any means.

[Boeroer]

- Will you rework unarmed combat, namely Novice's Suffering and Transcendent Suffering?

The way it is done now results in nearly the same damage for grazes, hits an crits because all damage modifiers only apply to the whimpy base damage and not to the bonus that the Suffering talents will give you. This also makes things like Savage Attack, Sneak Attack and all other base damage modifiers a bad pick for unarmed characters.

 

- Will there be throwing weapons?

 

- Wouldn't it be better if chaining commands (shift+click) would result in a visible queue or something like that?

 

- Will you allow to enchant other items than weapon, armor & shield? Like headgear perhaps? Pretty please?

Edited February 8, 2017 by Boeroer

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

1. Will there be a Kraken battle?

 

2. I believe you are reworking spells(Druid, Preist, and Wizard) to be all per encounter. How will this affect Chanters and Ciphers who theoretically have infinite spells per encounter? And will the rate they build casting resource be adjusted, particularly chanters who took a very long time to be sble to cast invocations?

 

3. Will "normal" magic items be able to compete with soulbound items?

 

4. An issue I had on PotD(my first and only playthrough) was that rather than add dificulty the DT sysyem added tedium. I like it in theory, but is it going to be tweaked?

 

5. With Berath's blessings we get cool stuff for achievements, are the points single use or apply to any new game?

[DozingDragon]

1. Will you reveal at least one Wizard subclass for the stream?

 

2. How will the switch to per encounter abilities affect the balancing of passive class abilities (like constant recovery)?

 

3. Will the state we left Stalwart in impact the availability of Durgan steel in Deadfire?

 

4. Speaking of Durgan steel, is there any chance you will be implementing a materials system for crafting, so we can finally revel at how wonderfully ordinary our Wyflan steel daggers are?

 

5. It was mentioned that food is directly incorporated into the Rest interface, would you provide an example of a bonus food will add?

 

6. Do you have something special designed to account for a game state where the Master Below was never defeated?

 

Thanks for your time!

[the_dog_days]

 

- Wouldn't it be better if chaining commands (shift+click) would result in a visible queue or something like that?

 

This. So much this.

[Dolash]

Just anything you can share about hireable, created party members, like:

 

-Are they still in?

 

-Can you import yours from a previous game? (not sure how that'd work with the different party size limit)

 

-Will you do anything interesting with them?

[Dr. Hieronymous Alloy]

1) are we gonna be a revenant of berath 
2) will there be customizable hats
3) dogs?
4) are guns still gonna have an attack speed disadvantage due to reload times, vs bows?
5) if we have a ship will it be truly customizable (i.e., with tradeoffs, like heavier cannon weight the ship down) or will it just be build-all-the-upgrades as with stronghold
6) will the ranger pet fill in the 6th spot in party order giving us a nice 3x2 formation
7) Are any base classes getting significant reworkings from their current incarnations? Will the various White March powers be in the game?
since this is a pirate themed game, will there be a belt with a ship's wheel for a buckle, if not it'll drive me nuts
9) if NPCs are moving around all the time won't it get annoying to find questgivers? Any UI tools planned to help with that?
10) If I'm dual weilding a blunderbuss won't I break my goddam wrists off from the recoil (this is a problem in the current game animations also)
11) How much focus is encounter design getting? Is it going to be a lot more of big-blob-o-bads or will there be more emphasis on WM-style fights where the enemies use terrain more?
12) similarly, will the environmental effects ever matter in combat, or are they just visual? Will the wind and the rain ever push us around?
13) Reach weapons -- still a thing? Any changes?
14) will there still be the "I haven't found gloves of mechanics so I have to wait three extra levels to do that" problem with gating content behind random-drop loot?
15) soulbound weapons still a thing? SOULBOUND GUN? 
16) Will *reputation* scores like benevolent/honest/etc carry over to the next game in any way or has nobody heard of you in Deadfire?

 

 

whoa how did I post with this background

Edited February 8, 2017 by Dr. Hieronymous Alloy

[Ganrich]

Are any base classes getting significant reworkings from their current incarnations?

This. With Vancian casters moving to per encounter I think we will need to see revamps of the Cipher and Chanter at the minimum. The trade off was once spell management vs resource management. Now, Druids, Wizards, and Priests can dump spells with little repercussion while (if the old resource systems don't change) the ciphers and Chanters could fall behind building up.

 

So, that said, as a part two to your question: What will the devs do to keep this from occurring? Will they speed up resource gain? Will they increase Cipher weapon DPS? Will they increase Chant effect?

[Dr. Hieronymous Alloy]

 

Are any base classes getting significant reworkings from their current incarnations?

This. With Vancian casters moving to per encounter I think we will need to see revamps of the Cipher and Chanter at the minimum. The trade off was once spell management vs resource management. Now, Druids, Wizards, and Priests can dump spells with little repercussion while (if the old resource systems don't change) the ciphers and Chanters could fall behind building up.

 

So, that said, as a part two to your question: What will the devs do to keep this from occurring? Will they speed up resource gain? Will they increase Cipher weapon DPS? Will they increase Chant effect?

 

 

 

Yeah, I was actually thinking of chanters specifically as a class that out of all of them was probably most in need of a re-design. The concept seems good but somehow the gameplay always felt passive and lackluster in practice -- and that's in the current game, where per-rest is a real limitation.

 

My hope would be that it become possible to use chanters as more of a priest type class; right now Durance is mandatory due to the charm/petrify counters and it would be nice to have an alternative.

 

Ciphers I dunno if they need that much of a change and I like their current mechanic, but without significant per-rest limitations on everyone else, they do seem relatively underpowered by their need to build focus. I'm not sure how to balance that out really. I like the focus building mechanic is the thing, it's a fun gameplay challenge.

 

 

edit: VVV if I were making changes to the chanter class, i'd give them the priest AoE immunity spells, as phrases, and then hotbutton each phrase to its own individul chant, so that at any given point the chanter could be giving the party immunity to (one thing). I'd probably also give them elemental resist/ DR boost chants of a few different types (if they don't have those already?). Make chants a bit more active so you were more likely to pick different chants for different fights, depending on what different enemies you faced. VVV

Edited February 8, 2017 by Dr. Hieronymous Alloy

[Ganrich]

Yeah, that's more or less how I see it. Chanters are almost the only class that can dump dexterity with no major ramifications as it still effects the cast speed of every other caster and Invocations are too few for it to matter. Every build is a Tank (might, intellect, and resolve are maxed or near maxed), leave con around 10 and perception at 10+. They have two class specific talents, and those aren't too interesting. Their Chants take forever to build, and now with Vancian casters not being limited by per rest they are going to need a boost imho. Brisk Recitation won't help their viability at low level or on lower difficulties.

 

Ciphers should be ok, but it will effect them too. Just not as much.

 

I am working on a Chanter specific thread on this topic that will go into the GD section. I hope to have it up tonight, but we will see. Come by and check it out, and lets brainstorm ideas. I'm sure Josh has it sorted out, but it couldn't hurt.

[dragubaba]

Just anything you can share about hireable, created party members, like:

 

-Are they still in?

 

-Can you import yours from a previous game? (not sure how that'd work with the different party size limit)

 

-Will you do anything interesting with them?

This is what I've been wondering as well. I'm very fond of my dwarven siblings (brother is the MC, sister a hired companion) and would like to continue their adventures in PoE2.

Edited February 8, 2017 by dragubaba

[house2fly]

It's been said that companions can change their opinion of you based on your actions, but for the returning companions will the things they react to be fixed? Aloth, for example, can end PoE1 either loving or hating the Leaden Key and suppression of forbidden knowledge; he could have highly different reactions to a quest where you beat up a bunch of Leaden Key cultists.

[CaptainHammer]

Hi!

 

1. Will the powers/metaphysics of the god's be expanded upon in Deadfire?

a. What prevents gods from creating gods?

b. Are gods super-intelligent?

c. Are gods sentient?

d. Are gods equally powerful? And if not what determines this?

e. Do the number of souls used affect the power of a god?

f. What do the gods believe?

I. Do they believe they are gods?

II. Do they themselves believe in gods?

2. Does Eora have a creation myth/s? Even polytheistic regions of earth all have creation myths and they are often central to the religion, but I haven't seen any for Eora.

3. Was the specific use of a feminine pronoun for Berath intended or a typo?

 

Finally not a question but a suggestion: add an arena mode for the beta so that testers can test the entire level range. This is especially relevant considering the substantial changes to combat and the increased level range (18-20?). It doesn't have to be something that is included in the game, some sort of hordemode on a plain field would give a lot of valuable feedback. Although I think a lot of people are fond of arenas to test their prowess.

 

 

Best regards

Edited February 8, 2017 by CaptainHammer

[Gromnir]

will additional gods be available to priests in deadfire?  ondra perhaps?  

 

given how the poe story played out, have you considered the possibility of a "priest" w/o a specific deity? various d&d campaigns made it possible to be a priest who derived power not from the divine but rather from more abstract notions of faith. a priest of humanism?  whatever. is a non-specific faith (or faithless) priest a possibility for poe?

 

will paladins have access to additional orders in poe2?   fellows of st. waidwen martyr perhaps?  if the answer is yes, please provide a small amount of detail on one such new order.

 

on the fig campaign page, subclasses have been described with the "kit" nomenclature familiar to 2e d&d players.  bg2 kits were a no-brainer choice for a player as they were almost invariably superior to the base classes.  conversely, the fan base was not enthusiastic about the iwd2 kits the black isle developers initially presented before that game was upgrade to 3e.  paizo's pathfinder ruleset uses the "archetypes" descriptor to identify its subclasses. what is the inspiration for the poe2 subclasses?  are they more akin to bg2 kits, iwd2 kits, pathfinder archetypes, or some other source?  can you provide an example of an as yet unannounced subclass and how (specifically) it will differ from its base class?

 

cassowary ranger companions?  yes? no? 

 

with all the possible combinations of classes, talents, spells and abilities, have you considered a more expansive beta than was used for poe1?  as the game will cap at 18 (possibly 20?) perhaps the developers would benefit from community feedback regarding more than 8 levels worth of input. 

 

there was a recent suggestion on the boards of adding graze and critical damage ranges to the character record sheet.  even the hardcore veterans of poe have been stumped when trying to determine something as simple as whether criticals are a multiplier or additive, and there is a trap bug that went unnoticed for years until somebody finally did a spreadsheet analysis.  what is being done to make the combat mechanics more transparent?

 

godlike suck.  that isn't a question.  as much as godlike suck, the name is even worse. seriously, who came up with the name "godlike," and are they embarrassed about it? 

 

enough for the time being.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[ShadySands]

Because I'm somewhat single minded I have to start with this one. Sentient soulbound item?

 

How moddable will things be? Like some plain text or easily convertible or accessible formats? Messing with Unity files was a bit of a mess

 

With the move to all per encounter spells will we see a reduction in their potency? Please say no

 

Favorite Trek captain?

 

Maybe more when I'm sober

[Mazisky]

Guys, since Adam will be on stream, i suggest to ask more technical questions:

 

I would like to know from Adam all the improvements made in Poe2 engine compared to PoE1!

Edited February 8, 2017 by Mazisky

[CaptainHammer]

Will we be able to chose a god of worship even if we're not playing a priest?

[Boeroer]

Will you fix the sorting algorithm of the stash - or rather the appliance of the sorting algorithm - so that it no longer starts sorting every time you flip a page? Page flips in the stash take forever if you collected a lot of items in PoE. Mere stacking of xaurip spears and stuff like that and lower drop rates will not fix the problem, that will only be a cosmetic change. You could just save the new order and only trigger sorting when somebody changes the sorting options.

[Doppelschwert]

Can you ellaborate how the Nalpazca Monk meets your design goals for subclasses, when it mostly interacts with consumables that are actually class independent?

 

According to the Fig Update:

- We want each subclass to do something cool and distinctive that also has a built-in trade-off compared to the base class and other subclasses.

- The Nalpazca gain greater benefits from using drugs, but their Wound threshold is increased while under the influence.

 

This sounds like a Nalpazca Monk plays the very same as a normal Monk when not doing drugs, which are completely optional anyway. The other subclasses, however, sound like they will enforce necessary changes in gameplay. This does not feel very distinctive to me, and contradicts the lore of Zahua being the last of the Nalpazca.

 

Can we expect the second monk subclass to move the monk closer towards the traditional unarmored martial artists that monks were in DnD?

 

For example, something like getting a bonus to deflection when not wearing armor and generating wounds by dodging instead.

Edited February 8, 2017 by Doppelschwert

[AndreaColombo]

Do you plan on having a walk toggle so party members can walk instead of running while out of combat if we want them to?

[CottonWolf]

What underlying change the game mechanics from PoE1 to 2 do you think has had the biggest positive effect on the game?

[theBalthazar]

Questions :

 

1) Are you going to make the prestigious "soulbound items" more attractive ?

 

2) The arrival of immunities (priest) add beneficial mastery in the game, will you continue in this way in terms of meta-game?

 

3) Do you think you can improve the pathfinding in PoE 2? Similarly, the reaction of the characters when they can not perform an action?

 

4) Are you going to make a game mode more difficult than Path of the damned?

 

5) Are you going to continue to give real meaning to skills? (Such as survival)

Edited February 8, 2017 by theBalthazar

[TEEN ANIME WITCH]

1. There seems to be three art styles used so far during development of Pillars 2 – the main character portraits, the secondary watercolour portraits and the pen & ink style used for Eothas crushing the chapel and for full body drawings of the main companions. Is this pen & ink style used during the Fig campaign going to be present in the main game or is it purely concept art e.g. will Pallegina's pen & ink drawing be used for ending slides or some in game event?

 

2. If any dlcs or expansions are planned for Pillars 2, will they take place during the game or after?

 

3. Will the blessing we recieved from one of the gods near the end of Pillars 1 be commented on in Pillars 2? Undead Raedric recognises that you are Berath's Champion if you confront him after getting the blessing in Pillars 1 and I thought that was pretty cool

Edited February 8, 2017 by TEEN ANIME WITCH

[AndreaColombo]

Can you make characters turn to face you when you initiate dialog with them (and similarly, your characters turn to face NPCs who initiate dialog with them)?