Things you want PoE 2 to specifically avoid if possible

[zimcub]

From what I've heard the spells will now be per encounter instead of per rest? Did i get that right?

I fear that because the frequency of spell use will increase they will be simplified, like in Tyranny where they were mostly just another nuke/heal button.

I hope POE2 moves away from that and more towards utility spells like summoning, crowd control, teleporting, movement manipulation, etc. instead of just more stat manipulation that you can't actually notice unless you read the person's stat list.

That's really my only concern.

[rjshae]

From what I've heard the spells will now be per encounter instead of per rest? Did i get that right?

I fear that because the frequency of spell use will increase they will be simplified, like in Tyranny where they were mostly just another nuke/heal button.

 

Actually, if it becomes per encounter then I would hope the diversity of spell types will increase and become more specialized. That will give you more tactical decisions to make for a presumably decreased number of spell uses.

[zimcub]

I never thought about it that way.

I hope so...

[Katarack21]

Spells in Tyranny had plenty of other effects; prone, dazed, stunned, etc. They were *not* simply nuke/heal buttons; if that's how you were using Eb and Lantry, then you were doing things wrong.

[amazeing4art]

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.

Yes ... and the Great Unification seems to happen around when the game developer makes a post about how we are focusing on multiplayer now and how great it will be to play against your friends in the really great combat arena, but before we do that we are rebalancing all 12 character classes so every class is equal to every other because of... you know... the needs of Multiplayer Awesomeness.

Edited March 16, 2017 by amazeing4art

[Guest Blutwurstritter]

I hate it when the second game ignores the major events of the predecessor, given that the games are closely connected. Give me some information how the actions and events of the first game changed the world. I like that. 

[RPG Fan]

I hope they really look into the spells/abilities/talents which are under performing and should be changed for pillars of eternity 2. One that comes to mind is the wizard first level touch spells (Jolting Touch, Kalakoth's Sunless Grasp), the damage is very weak  and you take too much risk by moving your mage within melee range.  Another example is Rolling Flame , which makes it hard to control since the game is isometric so it is not easy to ensure it bounces back to the enemies.)

[injurai]

Politics that reflect our current world more than the in-game one.

[Ninjamestari]

Spells in Tyranny had plenty of other effects; prone, dazed, stunned, etc. They were *not* simply nuke/heal buttons; if that's how you were using Eb and Lantry, then you were doing things wrong.

Not really, why would you use CC spell effects that will just eat away from the experience you get from getting beaten up? With a proper build and healing spells you were completely immortal anyway, and that extra xp would just get you that much more punching power. The more you used CC the more you would lag behind in levels.

[Wormerine]

I hate it when the second game ignores the major events of the predecessor, given that the games are closely connected. Give me some information how the actions and events of the first game changed the world. I like that. 

True, it is always disappointing when sequels invalidate previous decisions. Sadly to some extand it is impossible to avoid as in some world changing scenarios you would have to develop multiple seperate games. Luckily I think PoE2 will be fine. The changes you made were local only, and we are moving to a different region. I hope that the state of Dyrwood will be referenced, and you will see results of your actions but being set in a different part of the world it doesn't need to be more expansive.

[hilfazer]

Cooldown rotation.

No friendly fire.

% damage reduction from armor (yes, i know).

[Count-JN]

I hope they avoid making addons just for "addons". I know we will get one (have allready payed for it).

 

I really hope when it will arrive it have something to add for mainstory. Make it deeper, more meaninfull. Sure you can play "just" mainstory but it would be really nice to get even once something what give you more of secrets from mainstory, maybe even add up some side twist for it.

 

Same for extra companions. I really did not like how they were in POE White March. Sure they did have side quests and so on.. ..but most what happen for them and what they had to say or give for player (and story) were tighly knit for White March.

 

I get it that some (ok, most) players want big weapons, more levels, extra spells, more gold, more "epic" enemies and so on. But do NOT forget roleplaying elements from expansions. They should be large and long experience, not just something rushed in few maps where you get huge amount of XP, level's and near godly items.

[basic_hitler]

Unless I missed an option I'm pretty sure backer NPCs won't be coming back, but no offense to you guys who bought a PoE1 character, your writing style was and character backgrounds were not up to par with the rest of the story. When I started playing I didn't understand why there were all these NPCs with bizarre and bad lore behind them that did nothing. I had to figure out they were a backer reward and the text was written by random people who paid to have their RP character inserted into the game.

 

When you don't know what's going on with those NPCs and that they're not necessary to the game, you keep reading them, and they ruin immersion, and they make the game lesser for their presence.

 

I was just kind of a jerk to the backers who paid for those NPCs and I'm sorry, thank you for supporting a great game so generously, but please understand that taken as a whole, those NPCs kind besmirched an otherwise very cool game.

 

I hope I don't see anything like that in PoE 2. Any backer rewards that allow them to put content into the game, I hope is thoroughly reviewed and edited to fit into the world, and not just a copy+paste of whatever the backer submitted like in PoE 1.

[Heijoushin]

No offense to you guys who bought a PoE1 character, your writing style was and character backgrounds were not up to par with the rest of the story.

 

How dare you, sir! I'll have you know that I studied RPG writing at Professor Xavier's School for the Gifted!

 

j/k. Yeah, they were pretty universally hated. And besides the problems you mentioned, they also increased Eora's Godlike population tenfold, which was pretty unnatural.

Never fear, this time I think the worst we'll have to deal with is backer-created SUPER PETS.

Edited April 2, 2017 by Heijoushin

[Aleh1811]

Talking about that, is there not a mod to get rid of them and replace them with normal humans? I think having so many godlikes really makes them less interesting.

 

OTOH, my main desire for the next game is less complicated item selection. Specially allowing effect stacking. Just make less powerful items overall to prevent great imbalance. I'm tired of having to check all items for overlapping enchantments every time I find something cool.

[Heijoushin]

Talking about that, is there not a mod to get rid of them and replace them with normal humans? I think having so many godlikes really makes them less interesting.

 

OTOH, my main desire for the next game is less complicated item selection. Specially allowing effect stacking. Just make less powerful items overall to prevent great imbalance. I'm tired of having to check all items for overlapping enchantments every time I find something cool.

 

I seem to recall a mod that changed their names, but not one that deletes them completely.

 

They're working on the effect stacking problem. One thing they've said is that different attributes will be linked to different item slots. So for example, you might find gloves or boots that increase your dex, but never a helm that increases your dex. This way, even if effect stacking is allowed, it won't get too crazy because you can't put items buffing the same attribute in every single slot.

Edited April 2, 2017 by Heijoushin

[Ninjamestari]

Talking about that, is there not a mod to get rid of them and replace them with normal humans? I think having so many godlikes really makes them less interesting.

 

OTOH, my main desire for the next game is less complicated item selection. Specially allowing effect stacking. Just make less powerful items overall to prevent great imbalance. I'm tired of having to check all items for overlapping enchantments every time I find something cool.

 

I find the godlikes generally uninteresting. They really give off the childish "let's make it even more awesomer" - feeling that makes it harder to take the game world seriously. There's nothing inherently wrong with the concept, but their appearance is so over the top that you can't seriously expect people to react normally to a character that essentially looks like a freaking monster from hell. Such an extreme appearance should cause rather extreme reactions, and since scripting around that is kinda way too much work for the very limited amount of value the race brings to the game, they shouldn't have been introduced in the first place. Not like this anyway; if they had a more subtle appearance, different enough that it's obvious they're not ordinary people, but not enough to make them look like some freakish demons from some hell dimension, then the concept would work and might actually be interesting instead of just something that increases the cringe factor of the game.

[injurai]

Godlikes were something that got decided very early and quickly during PoE1s extremely short planing phase. Plus it was a stretch goal.

 

To me the Bird/Nature/Moon godlikes sort of make sense. The Fire/Death don't. They should come across far more anti-social than they do, but these games are inherently social and your main task is to collaborate with the people of the world by performing tasks form them. So you loose that narrative reflection with godlikes.

[Ninjamestari]

Or they could just be more subtle. You know, a Death Godlike having blank eyes instead of no face at all, and fire Godlike could have a slightly more red tone in their skin instead of being on freaking fire all the time. And moon godlikes could simply emit a *faint* glow instead of looking like friggin space-aliens, or something like that.

[Katarack21]

Godlikes were something that got decided very early and quickly during PoE1s extremely short planing phase. Plus it was a stretch goal.

 

To me the Bird/Nature/Moon godlikes sort of make sense. The Fire/Death don't. They should come across far more anti-social than they do, but these games are inherently social and your main task is to collaborate with the people of the world by performing tasks form them. So you loose that narrative reflection with godlikes.

 

Here's the thing: Although the godlike are often stereotyped as having certain personalities or proclivities by the people of Eora, they actually don't. Nothing in the lore, anywhere, indicates that any kind of godlike are particularly prone to any particular kind of personality structure. We only meet *one* Bird-godlike and *one* Death godlike, as far as I know, so we can't judge all Godlikes of that type based on the sample of one.

 

People seem to act as if they expect Godlike to behave in certain ways, but they act the same way about Orlan. Nothing says that's true. So to say that the types and personality for this type or that type don't match, well I don't think that's a bug. I think that's a feature.

[Heijoushin]

 

Godlikes were something that got decided very early and quickly during PoE1s extremely short planing phase. Plus it was a stretch goal.

 

To me the Bird/Nature/Moon godlikes sort of make sense. The Fire/Death don't. They should come across far more anti-social than they do, but these games are inherently social and your main task is to collaborate with the people of the world by performing tasks form them. So you loose that narrative reflection with godlikes.

Here's the thing: Although the godlike are often stereotyped as having certain personalities or proclivities by the people of Eora, they actually don't. Nothing in the lore, anywhere, indicates that any kind of godlike are particularly prone to any particular kind of personality structure. We only meet *one* Bird-godlike and *one* Death godlike, as far as I know, so we can't judge all Godlikes of that type based on the sample of one.

 

People seem to act as if they expect Godlike to behave in certain ways, but they act the same way about Orlan. Nothing says that's true. So to say that the types and personality for this type or that type don't match, well I don't think that's a bug. I think that's a feature.

 

 

Yeah. That's kind of interesting. They should be "Champions" of their respective gods, and YET, like Pallegina, they still have the free will to say "no thanks".

 

However, Fire/Death Gods look so much like monsters, that its hard to imagine them fitting into normal society regardless of what they decide. They should actually play like Nosferato in Vampire: the Masquerade (ie people run and scream if they see you).

 

Or they could just be more subtle. You know, a Death Godlike having blank eyes instead of no face at all, and fire Godlike could have a slightly more red tone in their skin instead of being on freaking fire all the time. And moon godlikes could simply emit a *faint* glow instead of looking like friggin space-aliens, or something like that.

 

That would have been nice. They're a tiny bit over the top aren't they?

The new fire Godlike for Deadfire looks like Ifrit from Final Fantasy. Cool, but doesn't quite fit in.

[injurai]

 

Godlikes were something that got decided very early and quickly during PoE1s extremely short planing phase. Plus it was a stretch goal.

 

To me the Bird/Nature/Moon godlikes sort of make sense. The Fire/Death don't. They should come across far more anti-social than they do, but these games are inherently social and your main task is to collaborate with the people of the world by performing tasks form them. So you loose that narrative reflection with godlikes.

Here's the thing: Although the godlike are often stereotyped as having certain personalities or proclivities by the people of Eora, they actually don't. Nothing in the lore, anywhere, indicates that any kind of godlike are particularly prone to any particular kind of personality structure. We only meet *one* Bird-godlike and *one* Death godlike, as far as I know, so we can't judge all Godlikes of that type based on the sample of one.

 

People seem to act as if they expect Godlike to behave in certain ways, but they act the same way about Orlan. Nothing says that's true. So to say that the types and personality for this type or that type don't match, well I don't think that's a bug. I think that's a feature.

 

 

I wasn't talking about how the Godlike themselves behave, but for how they are to be treated as per the established lore given their manifestations. Obsidian simply can't write enough custom material to fully reflect a Godlike's position in society. Plus overdoing the social apprehension towards Godlike would drastically inhibit the player's ability to interact with a fundamentally social world. So at most you get some flavor text, but otherwise Godlike's are pretty unremarkable thus far.

 

At the very least, I'm hoping the improved character models at least make them "cool" to play as. Ignoring Pallegina, I really wasn't fond of any of the Godlike models last game beyond the nature godlike.

Edited April 3, 2017 by injurai

[Heijoushin]

Obsidian simply can't write enough custom material to fully reflect a Godlike's position in society.

 

I think you've hit the nail right on the head there.

[basic_hitler]

I like the idea of Godlikes but I wish it was a bit more subtle, as has been suggested. It would've been cooler if being God-like was a series of traits with positives and negatives that you can toggle on an otherwise 'normal' kith during character creation.

 

In Fallout 1/2/New Vegas there are traits with positive and negative attributes that change the way the game plays. From Logan's loophole, to Small Frame and Gifted, all of which offered some neat perks and cool drawbacks.

 

I think having pronounced godlike features could give you certain magic affinities, or combat prowess, at the cost of social interactions. Not just losing dialog options, but as people are afraid of you, or assume the worst, they may flee or become immediately hostile sometimes.

 

More mild godlike features could've meant less interesting bonuses but less costly drawbacks.

 

Fire and death godlikes looking like straight up demons or monsters sucks, but being "death touched" or "fire touched" and having visible but not completely appearance-changing traits of the gods would be more interesting and offer more possibilities I think.

[PizzaSHARK]

 

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."

 

 

Pillars aped BG1 in so many ways, including the overall plot structure.  BG1 was incredibly open-ended.  It was mostly about doing typical tabletop RPG things while also trying to figure out who murdered your step-dad (and has also been trying to murder you), and while there was some impetus to resolve the core plot, it wasn't the primary focus.  It's the same thing with Pillars - sure, catching up with Thaos and doing the climactic showdown is a thing, and the end of act 2 does sort of push things forward and make it more pressing, but up until that point... it's as open-ended as BG1 was.  In BG1, you get around to solving the iron crisis; in Pillars, you get around to solving the Hollowborn crisis (even if the people aren't aware of it at the time.)

 

What I'm expecting is that Pillars 2 will be much like BG2 was - you have a reason to be pressing forward after the main plot (we'll ignore the fact that you could do like 70% of BG2 while Irenicus waited before the almighty if/then block), you have a distinct, detailed villain, and it's a more "personal" journey than the first game was.