Things you want PoE 2 to specifically avoid if possible

[Katarack21]

1) I play squishy glass cannons. It's my preferred character type. You know what I really hate? Like, really, really hate? When a scripted encounter occurs and my party is arrayed without my interaction with my protagonist front-and-center, in the perfect setup to get immediately murdered. I could do with less of that.

2) This is probably more of a writers-thing, but one thing that I always find jarring is when you first enter Gilded Vale and you're playing a Godtouched, they still ask you if you've ever had a Hollowborn child. No, ****, I've never had a child, Hollowborn or otherwise. >.< Just in general more checks about character state for dialogue to avoid glaringly obvious fails like this.

[Archaven]

Less than 6 party characters. Unfortunately what I'm foreseeing it will be gradually reduced in future to 4. As that's the number that's most "friendly" for multi-platform games. Going to that direction compromises has to be made.

 

At that point in time I won't be buying the game in full price but probably during dirt cheap bargain sales.

[Heijoushin]

When a scripted encounter occurs and my party is arrayed without my interaction with my protagonist front-and-center, in the perfect setup to get immediately murdered. I could do with less of that.

 

There are other games which should also know this by now... *cough*tidesofnumenera*cough*

 

For the most part, I trust Obsidian. But something I was thinking about this morning: I hope they don't try to get too clever with complex plots, conspiracies, and past life touchy-feely crap again. You know what moves a story along? A villain with a clear motivation. If the villain has a clear motivation, then the hero also has a clear motivation (to stop them). This prevents leaps of logic plot points like "Hmmm... I might go insane soon. You know what I should do? Renovate my castle, then go investigate the Leaden Key. That seems logical."

[Icesong]

Every time Obsidian talks about ships and/or pirates they seem to assume everyone loves those things. I hope that doesn't extend to dialogue options relating to them. I want my Watcher to be able to complain loudly and often about being forced to be out at sea. 

[eselle28]

I strongly second the first point. I actually didn't mind the second, even though I played a Godlike at one point as well and also noted the oddness of the comment. I just assumed that the people of Gilded Vale were parochial and badly educated - though an option to point that out to them might have been nice. A few more character checks would generally be a good thing. It would be nice for an artist to have an opportunity to talk about art or a scientist an opportunity to talk about science.

 

I'm hoping that Iovara doesn't return and that any future investigation into past lives is a little more concrete. Some of those dialogues didn't work for me because they required me to make choices, but not ones that actually had any effect on my character or on the events being described. If a conversation doesn't do either of those things, I don't know that I need to pick one of several fairly random options.

 

Oh, and I'm hoping the game doesn't decide to go the fan service route and is able to incorporate the promised romances without resorting to empty shell characters who have little to offer those who aren't there for the romance or the cuteness. I doubt that it is going to go that direction, even with Ydwin, but some of the player reaction to that character made me realize it wouldn't take that many changes for Eora to become a game world I didn't need to visit.

[AndreaColombo]

Romances

[Starwars]

Combat feeling too much like Tyranny.

[Katarack21]

Combat feeling too much like Tyranny.

The only problem with the feel of Tyranny's combat was that, with such a *tiny* party and the system being almost entirely cooldown based, it all felt really simple--almost like IE combat for children. The party size is different, as is everything else, so I doubt that will be a problem again.

[Boeroer]

Tyranny combat and mechanics are boring - with some exceptions.

 

What I don't want to see anymore is this very annoying bug when you try to drink potions while being attacked. If necessary, just remove the animation altogether. Better than having to click on that button all the time.

 

I also would like to turn off all that glowing aura VFX stuff for Vulnerable Attack, slayer enchantments, Savage Attack and so on. It just looks ridiculous and ugly. It's ok to put VFX when the weapon has an elemental lash like burning lash or freezing lash (actually, that one is quite beautiful) but that should be it.

[AndreaColombo]

Personally I thought the VFX for Savage Attack was pretty and that of Vulnerable Attack was OK. I actually made sure I disabled them before saving to avoid incurring the bug that would remove the VFX upon reloading

 

I agree, however, that the effect for Slaying weapons was horrible. Lashes weren't very good either, with perhaps the exception of Freezing as Boeroer mentioned. Adam did say on Twitter these VFX have been reworked, so hopefully they'll look good in Deadfire

[Boeroer]

I just find them to be too much. It's a fantasy game alright, but why do my weapons start to glow once I turn on Savage Attack or Vulnerable Attack?

[Katarack21]

I just find them to be too much. It's a fantasy game alright, but why do my weapons start to glow once I turn on Savage Attack or Vulnerable Attack?

Fighters use their soul-energy to combat just like mages, etc. The techniques they use are ways of unleashing that energy; unlike ciphers, priets, etc. these techniques generally aren't flashy, but it's still soul power. The glow from Savage Attack is actually the sign that you've just used this soul-energy technique.

 

I remember when PoE released, there was a big ruckus in the forums about how fighters just hit stuff and this whole soul-energy thing is ridiculous. True facts.

[Dr. Hieronymous Alloy]

My only real fear is that they'll find some way to **** up a good thing.

 

Dragon Age Origins was a great game but boy howdy did they **** up the sequel, almost entirely via bad encounter design.

 

So far 95% of what I'm hearing about PoE 2 has me really excited, but a few things (health changes, enchanting caps) make me nervous that they're going to screw up the things they did right in the first game.

[George_Truman]

 

When a scripted encounter occurs and my party is arrayed without my interaction with my protagonist front-and-center, in the perfect setup to get immediately murdered. I could do with less of that.

I was just raging at this the other day.

[SkaenTemple]

Gathering resourses and manufacturing... things.

[molotov.]

Boring companions - Sagani and GV... -, bows being extremely better than guns - for the 16th century that don't make any sense -, simplified combat, few portraits - PoE 1 had a huge problem with portraits -, big shields and trash mobs being stronger than bosses - it was just me or those monks on WM II were stronger than the Kraken?

[Aotrs Commander]

Boring companions - Sagani and GV... -, bows being extremely better than guns - for the 16th century that don't make any sense -, simplified combat, few portraits - PoE 1 had a huge problem with portraits -, big shields and trash mobs being stronger than bosses - it was just me or those monks on WM II were stronger than the Kraken?

 

Yes (ye gods, that was a hard fight); but to be fair, it is an RPG truism that is almost always true that the most dangerous opposition for an adventuring party is ANOTHER adventuring party.

 

I've only (heretically) played Throne of Bhaal the once; I don't remember a lot about it, except for that fight against the monks there, which I still have nightmares about...!

[hilfazer]

The Great Unification.

 

It may take many forms, for example:

- EVERY ability is per encounter, EVERY class has a number of per rest powerups that can be used to boost EVERY ability.

- EVERY class has same accuracy and/or deflection.

[Androoh]

Backer NPC's with daft non-lore friendly names.

Edited March 7, 2017 by Androoh

[DigitalCrack]

The Great Unification.

 

It may take many forms, for example:

- EVERY ability is per encounter, EVERY class has a number of per rest powerups that can be used to boost EVERY ability.

- EVERY class has same accuracy and/or deflection.

This for sure... rpgs are easily ruined this way. Edited March 7, 2017 by DigitalCrack

[Stratagemini]

Scripted encounters where you have to fight. I want to be able to talk my way out of things, even if I have to bribe or give them something in return.

[Ganrich]

I want them to avoid something equivalent to a certain trial where I'm stuck on a balcony and bad things ensue outside my control.  This type of railroading should never happen.  It would have been better if upon arriving at the trial the building was on fire and you have to enter then decide to save as many as possible or fight big bad guy in a boss battle.  Then have that decision have ramifications such as:  If you save everyone, but big bad guy gets away unimpeded he is stronger in the end.   If you fight big bad guy then many people die, and you create more enemies in the last 1/3rd of the game via assassins or some such.  Or something to this effect.  Sorry, trying to keep spoilers to a minimum here.

 

During dialogue I would like the party to form up in the formation I have created for them.   Not a predetermined layout.   That way if combat ensues then I don't have my squishy PC up front and center.  Dialogue solutions to avoid these combats are also good when they make sense. 

 

A group of friendlies fighting alongside me (not in my party) should be treated as if they are in my party in regards to friendly fire.   If a spell is 100% safe to lay on top of your friendlies then it shouldn't effect them.  If it is like Fireball and can hit friendlies, but the area on the outside where Intellect increased it is safe, then I should be able to use that spell with proper placement and not hurt them. 

 

There are probably more.  I also agree with hilfazer on the "Great Unification".  Homogenization is a plague on RPGs.  As long as the classes are relatively balanced then I am fine.  To clarify "relatively balanced" I will say that they are all capable of completing the game on every difficulty.  Making every class identical in order to have them equal is appalling.  This isn't an MMO, and we don't need every class to have the same kit because it is too powerful vs what other classes have.

[rjshae]

Boring companions - Sagani and GV... -, bows being extremely better than guns - for the 16th century that don't make any sense -, simplified combat, few portraits - PoE 1 had a huge problem with portraits -, big shields and trash mobs being stronger than bosses - it was just me or those monks on WM II were stronger than the Kraken?

 

Bows were better than guns in the 16th century.

[Leferd]

 

Boring companions - Sagani and GV... -, bows being extremely better than guns - for the 16th century that don't make any sense -, simplified combat, few portraits - PoE 1 had a huge problem with portraits -, big shields and trash mobs being stronger than bosses - it was just me or those monks on WM II were stronger than the Kraken?

Bows were better than guns in the 16th century.

Tercio Pike and Shot tactics would beg to differ.

[rjshae]

 

 

Boring companions - Sagani and GV... -, bows being extremely better than guns - for the 16th century that don't make any sense -, simplified combat, few portraits - PoE 1 had a huge problem with portraits -, big shields and trash mobs being stronger than bosses - it was just me or those monks on WM II were stronger than the Kraken?

Bows were better than guns in the 16th century.

Tercio Pike and Shot tactics would beg to differ.

 

Hmm, are we comparing weapons or battlefield tactics? The minimum practice range for longbows was 220 yards. Muskets could barely hit anything at 100 yds. Longbow could penetrate plate armor, so muskets didn't have an advantage there. The English longbow rate of fire was typically six per minute so as not to exhaust the supply. Under optimal conditions, muskets could fire 2-3 rounds in the same time span.

 

The main advantage of muskets was that it didn't need anywhere near the same amount of training. Hence you could train a bunch of peasants to shoot in a few weeks, and group them into large formations. Longbows took years of training.