Josh Sawyer's tweets and teasers, part IV

[Dopsim]

 

https://www.fig.co/campaigns/deadfire/updates/692

 

" Another feature that the team is really excited about is what we are calling "Magran's Fires". Similar to Berath's Blessings, these modes can be enabled from the main menu and will add gameplay modifiers for challenges above and beyond Path of the Damned. In addition to the returning Triple Crown and Triple Crown Solo challenges, we will be rolling out challenges themed to Eora's gods, beginning with Berath, Galawain, and, of course, Magran."

 

I feel like Trial of Iron should be renamed to something pertaining to Rymrgand now, no?

 

I mean, it's technically a playthrough modifier.

 

O god dont tell me this is @fix for PotD@ they promised,,,

[InsaneCommander]

I feel like Trial of Iron should be renamed to something pertaining to Rymrgand now, no?

 

I mean, it's technically a playthrough modifier.

 

I agree.

 

As for Berath's Blessings, I don't intend to use them as a cheat. Starting at level 4 and/or +2 on each stat? I can only imagine using that if I decide to play solo and I don't want to get the triple crown solo achievement (which I assume will not be available with Berath's Blessings). In a case like this it is not rally cheating, since the game would still be more difficult than playing with a 5 character party with no Blessings.

[InsaneCommander]

O god dont tell me this is @fix for PotD@ they promised,,,

 

It can't be. They've been talking about other things, like increasing the number of enemies, for example.

[draego]

Telemetric data about classes and ... Lol

[draego]

Adjustments coming 

 

 

ianishar asked:

 

Hello Josh, i was wondering if higher difficutiles improvements are going to include changes to make Injuries and Empower usage more relevant? Perhaps by making Rest less accessible but there are most likely other approaches. Has it been talked about/decided yet? Thank you very much! PS : I love the game!

 

 

We’re toning down the impact Empower has on active abilities (+5 Power Levels instead of +10).  Some of the most ludicrous damage values we’ve seen are due to Empower (e.g. Inner Death, Meteor Shower) and +5 is still a big boost / worthy use.

 

Rest is still difficult to work around because the fundamental structure of the game (like Pillars 1 and the BGs) isn’t really about dungeon delving / venturing into places where it’s difficult to back out and just a) get more supplies b) go to an inn / your ship.

 

Something we’ve discussed doing is making hardtack and water come with a minor malus.  They would still clear injuries, but the character would move forward with a lesser penalty.

 

What we really don’t want to do is get back into the Pillars 1 situation where people angrily stomp back to to civilization for food / inns every 20 minutes because they feel “forced” to.  The reason why hardtack is ubiquitous (but provides no bonuses) is to combat that impulse.

 

 ye bohoo.

Edited May 24, 2018 by draego

[JerekKruger]

Adding a malus to hardtack and water won't change anything: I'll just use rice instead (same as I do for my ship). Add a malus to that and I'll just use the next cheapest food and so on. Money really isn't scarce so unless they make all but the most expensive foods come with a malus it's not going to matter.

 

Also I doubt many people actually felt forced to return to town to buy camping supplies in the middle of dungeons. I strongly suspect that's a narrative made up by people who didn't like the camping supply system (probably because it was a change from the Infinity Engine games). Some people might have gotten frustrated and given up on the game as a result, but the idea that any significant proportion of players were actually regularly sitting through three or four load screens to resupply sounds like bull**** to me.

[Shadenuat]

Balance the awesome button with less tasty galettes. Master class design.

 

 

Edited May 24, 2018 by Shadenuat

[AndreaColombo]

In PoE I just cheated to give myself camping supplies so I wouldn’t have to sit through all the loading screens

[evilcat]

Adressing Empowered Whitter/MeteorStorm is probably good idea.

They may also look at Ascession potion, that is some easy +6PL

 

Not sure what is the deal with food. Is it PotD thing?  Since anything resting related is not a problem. I do not rest often. Around once in a few difficult fights. Mostly in taverns. It could be a  long time without rest. If resting in wildness generally using good food. SInce if i can have free +3 mod on dex or might i would take it.

In PoE2 it is hard to abuse resting. And trying to "fix" resting will probably break some new things.

 

For me camp food and taverns are now in sweet spot when i notice their existence, but the whole resting is not annoying.

Edited May 24, 2018 by evilcat

[Wormerine]

I didn’t rest many times in Deadfire, and only once outside an inn. Barely felt a need to use empowers and getting injured was a rare occurrence. I don’t think that returning to old system would add anything. Maybe rest bonuses could last for a limited time? Like 12hours? Thought it’s probaboy a bad idea, as Inns would become useless.

[Yosharian]

Adding a malus to hardtack and water won't change anything: I'll just use rice instead (same as I do for my ship). Add a malus to that and I'll just use the next cheapest food and so on. Money really isn't scarce so unless they make all but the most expensive foods come with a malus it's not going to matter.

 

Also I doubt many people actually felt forced to return to town to buy camping supplies in the middle of dungeons. I strongly suspect that's a narrative made up by people who didn't like the camping supply system (probably because it was a change from the Infinity Engine games). Some people might have gotten frustrated and given up on the game as a result, but the idea that any significant proportion of players were actually regularly sitting through three or four load screens to resupply sounds like bull**** to me.

 

 

You're completely right, people who dislike the resting system are just making it up, lying, being misleading, etc.  You figured it out!  Congrats!

[PangaeaACDC]

I didn’t rest many times in Deadfire, and only once outside an inn. Barely felt a need to use empowers and getting injured was a rare occurrence. I don’t think that returning to old system would add anything. Maybe rest bonuses could last for a limited time? Like 12hours? Thought it’s probaboy a bad idea, as Inns would become useless.

 

Haven't rested much either, in fact I sometimes rest just for the heck of it, for roleplaying basically, as going weeks without sleep might be a little challenging. Looks to me like bonuses already expire though. When I do rest I generally pay for a room or use "proper" food with a bonus (use hardtack and water only for crew food, unless morale is too low - never for resting, didn't even cross my mind). I've noticed that the bonus to skills/attributes expire at some point, and it was the same when I used the "protection against nightmare sigil" and suchlike items. Must be longer than 12 hours, but maybe a a day or two?

 

 

Interesting info about class selections. I've disabled telemetry as a matter of principle, but I'm using a single class cipher and having a blast. It's a lovely new idea and so much fun to play with.

 

A little torn on wizards. They are basically sorcerers now, and I do like that they are more versatile than totally slot based spells, but in the beginning of the game they feel terribly underwhelming with next to no options. Once you level up a decent chunk they are much more powerful though, and since spells renew after every combat, you can blast with top level stuff all the time - which almost feels like cheating, so I don't always do it (also because combat is easy). Despite it all, Aloth is dealing out some serious hurtin' and kills, so I'm a bit perplexed about threads claiming wizards have been killed, nerfed, destroyed, not viable and the like. I'm yet to user the empower button, but Aloth can certainly damage foes and does not feel 'nerfed'. Admittedly I do like damage spells instead of crowd control, but still, between various frost pillars, fireballs and death ring, that guy is seriously dangerous.

[Lexx]

Well, the game tells you in big letters that using a multi-class character for the first time isn't the smartest choice. So naturally most will stick to single classes right now. On my second playthrough I've created a multi-class character, and I'm partly doing that for my companions as well now.

[JerekKruger]

You're completely right, people who dislike the resting system are just making it up, lying, being misleading, etc. You figured it out! Congrats!

Sigh. I've no doubt people dislike the resting system. I didn't say otherwise. I said I doubt any significant number of people actually went back to town regularly during dungeons to resupply in PoE1.

[Sedrefilos]

 

You're completely right, people who dislike the resting system are just making it up, lying, being misleading, etc. You figured it out! Congrats!

Sigh. I've no doubt people dislike the resting system. I didn't say otherwise. I said I doubt any significant number of people actually went back to town regularly during dungeons to resupply in PoE1.

 

I didn't. I mean who wastes their time by going back and forth each time they need to rest? Who enjoys that? I just played untill I had no supplies and then only if I encountered something that difficult and mandatory that blocked my progression towards a point, I went back for resupply. 

In any case, resting supplies could be found in all dungeons and they were usually more than needed.

[rjshae]

 

 

You're completely right, people who dislike the resting system are just making it up, lying, being misleading, etc. You figured it out! Congrats!

Sigh. I've no doubt people dislike the resting system. I didn't say otherwise. I said I doubt any significant number of people actually went back to town regularly during dungeons to resupply in PoE1.

 

I didn't. I mean who wastes their time by going back and forth each time they need to rest? Who enjoys that?

 

I'll take "Who are people who enjoy a challenge?" for 100, Alex. Who enjoys a long hike where you never have to carry anything, deal with obstacles, plan ahead, or enjoy the scenery?

[flamesium]

 

You're completely right, people who dislike the resting system are just making it up, lying, being misleading, etc. You figured it out! Congrats!

Sigh. I've no doubt people dislike the resting system. I didn't say otherwise. I said I doubt any significant number of people actually went back to town regularly during dungeons to resupply in PoE1.

 

The limit on camping supplies was the one factor which put me off ever setting difficulty higher than Normal though. It didn't genuinely make the game more difficult, only more annoying.

 

Real challenge added by making the fights more difficult or putting a real limit on the ability to rest? Sign me up.

 

Fake challenge added by making you more likely to have to sit through the load screens and a hike between you and unlimited resting? No thanks.

 

I think both the new and the old resting systems were bad, but I find the new one bad in a less obnoxious way.

[Gromnir]

Telemetric data about classes and ... Lol

and once again, Gromnir is playing at the margins. our first run were completed as a priest of eothas/helwalker contemplative... a build which we purposefully avoided avoided swift flurry as we knew from the beta how broken a crit build with swift flurry could be.  even so, our character were powerful and the contemplative starting skill array were ideal for us as we knew we wanted points in insight, diplomacy, metaphysics and to a lesser degree, religion and history. the helwalker mechanic added a layer o' complexity early in the game, which were a good thing.  the contemplative we played were a well-rounded character who could heal big, do eye-popping damage with spells and weapons, and were thematic intriguing.   

 

were actual considering a shaman for a subsequent run, though am current doing a cantor.

 

unrelated: rodrigo mendoza were first character name, but all subsequent names will be chosen from list o' the following: roberto clemente, honus wagner, willie stargell, arky vaughan, pie traynor, max carey, ralph kiner, lloyd waner, paul waner and fred clarke.  the cantor is bill mazeroski as am saving roberto clemente for a special build once potd is tuned better.

 

regardless, am mild curious 'bout telemetry.  if am ambivalent 'bout a build choice, may look to telemetry to choose the road less traveled. do our part to try what others dismiss.   

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Katarack21]

 

You're completely right, people who dislike the resting system are just making it up, lying, being misleading, etc. You figured it out! Congrats!

Sigh. I've no doubt people dislike the resting system. I didn't say otherwise. I said I doubt any significant number of people actually went back to town regularly during dungeons to resupply in PoE1.

 

Regardless of whether *you* feel that it was an actual problem experienced by a significant group of people, *Obsidian* believes that it was. They apparently got enough reports back from enough people playing the game to believe that it's a legitimate problem that they needed to address.

 

That feedback and the ensuing belief from Obsidian that it's a problem they needed to address is the whole reason hardtack is as commonly available as it is, so you don't have to slog back to town constantly.

 

It's honestly frankly ridiculous that you'd rather believe people are straight making things up about their experiences in a video game than just accept that some people play very differently from you.

 

 

"What we really don’t want to do is get back into the Pillars 1 situation where people angrily stomp back to to civilization for food / inns every 20 minutes because they feel “forced” to. The reason why hardtack is ubiquitous (but provides no bonuses) is to combat that impulse." --Josh Sawer on his blog

 

Edited May 25, 2018 by Katarack21

[JerekKruger]

It's honestly frankly ridiculous that you'd rather believe people are straight making things up about their experiences in a video game than just accept that some people play very differently from you.

It's really not, though I honestly don't care whether you think it is or not.

[Katarack21]

 

It's honestly frankly ridiculous that you'd rather believe people are straight making things up about their experiences in a video game than just accept that some people play very differently from you.

It's really not, though I honestly don't care whether you think it is or not.

 

It *really* is. What it comes down to is you thinking "I didn't experience this, so I don't believe you did either, and if you said you did you must be lying."

 

You'd rather think that a whole chunk of PoE players decided to *make up their experiences en masse* just because they don't like a mechanic? That people are just *straight bull****ting* about their gameplay, just so you don't have to accept that people who are not you experienced different reactions from you and this affected their gameplay differently from you.

 

It's silly, it's illogical, it's actually *insulting* to a whole group of people and it does no good other than reassure you that *your* experience is the only *real* experience of Pillars of Eternity.

[cokane]

 

You're completely right, people who dislike the resting system are just making it up, lying, being misleading, etc. You figured it out! Congrats!

Sigh. I've no doubt people dislike the resting system. I didn't say otherwise. I said I doubt any significant number of people actually went back to town regularly during dungeons to resupply in PoE1.

 

 

I'm also tired of people complaining about going back to town to pick up more resting supplies. Even is some players *DID* have this problem, why weren't they solution-oriented in solving it? There's two points on this.

 

One: No matter how good you are, you were supposed to go back to town regularly and even revisit hostile map areas more than once. That's why things like the bounties exist. That's why there's new encounters in some areas you revisit, that's why there's sometimes monsters of very different level in some areas, that's why there were secret containers at higher level mechanics in areas. The game rewarded you for visiting areas more than once!

 

Two: Why can't some players take personal responsibility here? If you were very very regularly abandoning dungeons, trekking across empty maps and then trekking back with new camping supplies... why didn't you change something yourself? Lower the difficulty? Try being more judicious in your spell casts? Try doing a better job of protecting your casters? Upgrading you gear? This is akin to someone screaming that Mario games suck because every time you fall down the pit you restart at the beginning of the level. I mean, this is how video games are supposed to work. If you don't try an improve, expect to have to deal with some unenjoyable moments.

[Yosharian]

 

 

You're completely right, people who dislike the resting system are just making it up, lying, being misleading, etc. You figured it out! Congrats!

Sigh. I've no doubt people dislike the resting system. I didn't say otherwise. I said I doubt any significant number of people actually went back to town regularly during dungeons to resupply in PoE1.

 

 

I'm also tired of people complaining about going back to town to pick up more resting supplies. Even is some players *DID* have this problem, why weren't they solution-oriented in solving it? There's two points on this.

 

One: No matter how good you are, you were supposed to go back to town regularly and even revisit hostile map areas more than once. That's why things like the bounties exist. That's why there's new encounters in some areas you revisit, that's why there's sometimes monsters of very different level in some areas, that's why there were secret containers at higher level mechanics in areas. The game rewarded you for visiting areas more than once!

 

Two: Why can't some players take personal responsibility here? If you were very very regularly abandoning dungeons, trekking across empty maps and then trekking back with new camping supplies... why didn't you change something yourself? Lower the difficulty? Try being more judicious in your spell casts? Try doing a better job of protecting your casters? Upgrading you gear? This is akin to someone screaming that Mario games suck because every time you fall down the pit you restart at the beginning of the level. I mean, this is how video games are supposed to work. If you don't try an improve, expect to have to deal with some unenjoyable moments.

 

 

It's nothing like that but you go girl, have fun

[rjshae]

 

You're completely right, people who dislike the resting system are just making it up, lying, being misleading, etc. You figured it out! Congrats!

Sigh. I've no doubt people dislike the resting system. I didn't say otherwise. I said I doubt any significant number of people actually went back to town regularly during dungeons to resupply in PoE1.

 

That may depend a lot on the difficulty level you are playing PoE. The allowed supplies decreased with difficulty, thereby adding to the challenge. On normal difficulty, there were only a couple of instances where I felt compelled to return to town to stock up. Most of the time the loot acquired through exploration supplied the requisite supplies. But I'd imagine many of the players making a PotD run will already be intimately familiar with the camping supply locations, so they can plan accordingly.

[DaKatarn]

IMO, limited rest is a necessity for the rythm during a game and the feeling of wear and fatigue of the group. A new system of hurt and fatigue after too many fights or travels can be a solution.

 

Add an option for limited rest with the new Magran system and an achievement is a good way too.