Stronghold and Prestige, again?

[omgFIREBALLS]

This has been a mild concern for me regarding PoE2 for a while, and today I post it because today it annoyed me too much in PoE1.

 

Now, I don't know if our stronghold will give us adventures like in PoE1 or if the quality of them will be tied to something like prestige. If not, you can just stop reading here and tell me so.

 

Anyway, as you all probably know, if you've completed all the "named" adventures in any category (large adventure, major adventure etc) and random a new one, you just get a generic one instead with really boring rewards. You do not, as has been suggested, instead get a lower category named adventure you haven't yet completed.

 

In short, this leads to annoying gameplay where I have to deliberately keep my prestige low if I want certain minor adventure rewards. And it can take a long long time to get them too unless I want to keep it so low that they're the most likely to appear (which also means it's so low I might get no adventures).

 

High security has no drawbacks (indeed, only benefits), except perhaps that somebody will intervene if brigands waylay Gafol the Drunkard. But prestige is a mess, and I really think it's poor design that I need to game it like this. So if we're getting an adventure/prestige system again, please take to heart the suggestion that an unused adventure of a lower category should take precedence over a generic one.

[Wormerine]

Interesting. I never payed to those much attention beyond sending someone I didn’t use to do them.

 

There is no stronghold in Deadfire, rather your ship is your stronghold. We know there is crew management, different ships to acquire and ship upgrades and ship combat system but we haven’t seen yet, so we don’t really know how it works. There are “repair tools”,and “cannon ammo” to be found in the beta plus one character can be hired as a ship cook.

[Aramintai]

I don't think any of the POE1's stronghold features will make a return in POE2. In POE2 you will have a mobile base this time - a ship, which you'll be able to upgrade and hire various crew members. And instead of adventures you will have sea encounters when you sail, some random, some not. Maybe there will be bounties, maybe not.

[Tigranes]

POE1 stronghold wasn't very good, and I think we could generally do with less half-baked strongholds with browser flash game style button-clicking in RPGs. Hopefully they manage to make the ship more consequential and exciting - at least the concept definitely is.

[Wormerine]

POE1 stronghold wasn't very good, and I think we could generally do with less half-baked strongholds with browser flash game style button-clicking in RPGs. Hopefully they manage to make the ship more consequential and exciting - at least the concept definitely is.

I think it was better than in NWN2, but in NWN2 it was an integral part of the story. In PoE it certainly felt like a kickstarter promise, which they had to fulfill but would do better to scrap it during development and focus on something else.

 

Making ship your keep worked for AssCreed, hopefully will work for Deadfire.

[Ninjamestari]

I just wish they could raise enough money for their next project without making any goal-promises. I think a game is better off if you either do a feature properly so that it is tied to the core experience in a fun and meaningful way, or if you can't achieve that, don't do it at all. These strap-on features like the stronghold in PoE1 don't really add to the game, they take away from it. Kinda like if you take a perfectly good meal, and add a couple half baked potatoes to it: the whole meal suffers.

[Wormerine]

That is why I liked that Deadfire used stretchgoals as a quality of polish meter not feature meter. They focused on orchestral music, more vo, more languages more companions, with couple thinks they wanted to do (like relationship system) but could do without. Clearly, couple stretchgoals during PoE were a bad idea - like two large cities, hold or ridicusly lengthy dungeon.

 

Still, I am tipping my hat to them for fulfilling all promises.

[rjshae]

Hoping for a submarine stronghold guarded by sharks with lasers attached to their frickin' foreheads...

[bonarbill]

I'll miss the story based adventures from PoE patch 3.0.  They were interesting to read and gave us lore about other parts of the world.

[Ninjamestari]

That is why I liked that Deadfire used stretchgoals as a quality of polish meter not feature meter. They focused on orchestral music, more vo, more languages more companions, with couple thinks they wanted to do (like relationship system) but could do without. Clearly, couple stretchgoals during PoE were a bad idea - like two large cities, hold or ridicusly lengthy dungeon.

 

Still, I am tipping my hat to them for fulfilling all promises.

 

I have to disagree on the mega dungeon; even knowing it's there brings a ton of atmosphere to the game, and it was one of the things in PoE1 that I really liked. I think the only mistake about it was that the mega-dungeon was completely separate from everything else; they could've scattered all sorts of quest items around the world that would've had functionality in the Mega-Dungeon, and more dialogue and actual NPCs instead of just straight up combat in order to have it be more of it's own character rather than just an incredibly long dungeon, but overall I really liked it.

Edited January 3, 2018 by Ninjamestari

[Wormerine]

I have to disagree on the mega dungeon; even knowing it's there brings a ton of atmosphere to the game, and it was one of the things in PoE1 that I really liked. I think the only mistake about it was that the mega-dungeon was completely separate from everything else; they could've scattered all sorts of quest items around the world that would've had functionality in the Mega-Dungeon, and more dialogue and actual NPCs instead of just straight up combat in order to have it be more of it's own character rather than just an incredibly long dungeon, but overall I really liked it.

No, I agree, dungeon itself was really neat, but I did feel they run out of content after a while and were creating short levels just to reach the depth number promised during crowdfunding. That last 5 levels or so before meeting the Od Nua felt really shallow.

Edited January 3, 2018 by Wormerine

[Ninjamestari]

No, I agree, dungeon itself was really neat, but I did feel they run out of content after a while and were creating short levels just to reach the depth number promised during crowdfunding. That last 5 levels or so before meeting the Od Nua felt really shallow.

 

 

So we're in a 100% agreement here, looks like I just misinterpreted your comment a little bit. The dungeon really suffered from being a strap-on feature instead of a core feature, but I think it speaks volumes about the concept itself that the Endless Paths still managed to be one of the most interesting parts of the entire game, at least in my book.

[Ethics Gradient]

Hoping for a submarine stronghold ...

 

Heck yeah.  I think you're onto something!