10 hours into the game

[artyom]

party is  level 7. And I cant remember last time I fought anything. All I've been doing is walking around and talking for 10 hours... kind of stupid. 

 

the hardest part about this game is remembering which dumbo to talk to when you're in an area so you dont have to come back to finish one of these "talk to X" quests

 

POTD is a joke. If this is how POTD feels, I cant imagine how easy the lower difficulties feel. There is absolutely no point of even understanding combat

 

there is no point of understanding combat. Just target an enemy and you win assuming you're not at a significantly inferior level

 

and the more I talk to npc's, the more I see how useless dialogue is. There is no point of reading all this bla bla bla from every retard. Its basically reading for the sake of reading.

 

As far as dialogue this is just another game where you just skip all the talk and all you need is an objective/quest/pin point where to go and who to talk to in order to fulfill a quest. If my (imaginary) gf or my mom were playing this, they'd love it

Edited May 11, 2018 by artyom

[Townsendvol]

I am sure they will value your well thought out constructive criticisms and can make a much better game by making use of them.

[freche]

I guess you are doing a lot of stuff in Neketaka, and that city is HUGE. Remember you don't have to "complete" the city in one go. Explore a district then go out and explore the world a bit, do a bounty or two. Then go back and explore another district.

[artyom]

I guess you are doing a lot of stuff in Neketaka, and that city is HUGE. Remember you don't have to "complete" the city in one go. Explore a district then go out and explore the world a bit, do a bounty or two. Then go back and explore another district.

I am not sure if 'exploring" aka naval combat, would make things more exciting. unless I am missing something, i'd rather play checkers with my own self than go through another 1 hour game of naval "combat"

[MrH]

I'm also about 10 hours in and have done very little combat, but I'm still enjoying the game a lot because I'm happy nerding out with the story, but I would like to hit some stuff lol.

[Jayngo]

Eeesh. Rough post. Look, this is a CRPG, it's not something to scoff at. There is a TON of dialogue. More so than combat. I would suggest you maybe start with Icewind Dale if you haven't played this type of game before. That was a little more combat focused.

 

PotD is bugged currently. This stuff happens. Not giving them a pass, but it will be fixed shortly.

 

If you are in Neketaka (really big city), then yeah, take a break and go back to the open sea. Kill some pirates. Loot some ships. Discover islands. Kill monsters. Just change it up a bit. I just got to Neketaka last night and while I want to "time" myself to see how long it takes to complete that whole area, I know I will grow impatient. At the point, I will set sail and do the above things I just mentioned.

[Shepard]

Really? I played the game for 14 hours and I spent talking maybe 2 in total, the rest I was exploring islands, ruins, plundering merchant ships, upgrading and training my own ship crew, looking for new equipment, doing cool quests and buncha things I can't remember, since there was so much stuff to do... We must be playing different games... Or it just shows how versatile and nonlinear POE2 can be, or it can be as nonlinear as you make it. It also sounds as if you got on a hype wagon with other people, and you were never really a fan of the CRPGs before...

 

party is  level 7. And I cant remember last time I fought anything. All I've been doing is walking around and talking for 10 hours... kind of stupid. 

 

the hardest part about this game is remembering which dumbo to talk to when you're in an area so you dont have to come back to finish one of these "talk to X" quests

 

POTD is a joke. If this is how POTD feels, I cant imagine how easy the lower difficulties feel. There is absolutely no point of even understanding combat

 

there is no point of understanding combat. Just target an enemy and you win assuming you're not at a significantly inferior level

 

and the more I talk to npc's, the more I see how useless dialogue is. There is no point of reading all this bla bla bla from every retard. Its basically reading for the sake of reading.

 

As far as dialogue this is just another game where you just skip all the talk and all you need is an objective/quest/pin point where to go and who to talk to in order to fulfill a quest. If my (imaginary) gf or my mom were playing this, they'd love it

Edited May 11, 2018 by Shepard

[artyom]

 

PotD is bugged currently. This stuff happens. Not giving them a pass, but it will be fixed shortly.

 

 

whats bugged? or can you link?

[Amentep]

I think its less that it was completely bugged but it hasn't been tuned -https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/97171-josh-says-path-of-the-damned-difficulty-will-be-too-easy-on-launch-because-he-didnt-have-time-to-tune-it/

[Gromnir]

party is  level 7. And I cant remember last time I fought anything. All I've been doing is walking around and talking for 10 hours... kind of stupid. 

 

the hardest part about this game is remembering which dumbo to talk to when you're in an area so you dont have to come back to finish one of these "talk to X" quests

 

 

based on the start to the post, we thought he were taking 'bout ps:t.  'course the ps:t journal were far more confusing, and in spite of a few great characters it had more than a few "dumbo" encounters as well.  regardless, the notion you could wander 'round sigil or baldur's gate or athkatla for hours without fighting (if such were your choice) were frequent the Big Selling Point of such games. brass ring kinda quality for many.

 

wanna have party v. party combat for 10 hours? do ship combat and force boarding action. deadfire allows for near inexhaustible combats encounters, if such is the goal.

 

potd is tuned poorly, but such were a known issue before release.  sadly, is too few potd players for such to be a major concern when there is so many import, mechanical and game breaking bugs which need attention.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[lonelornfr]

I will admit i felt a bit like OP when doing Neketaka. That was waaaaay too much dialogue / new faces / lore in one go for me. But like others have said, just don't do the whole city at once, take a break and go do something else, explore a new island, do some boarding (naval combat sux but boarding is actually ok).

[PangaeaACDC]

I will admit i felt a bit like OP when doing Neketaka. That was waaaaay too much dialogue / new faces / lore in one go for me. But like others have said, just don't do the whole city at once, take a break and go do something else, explore a new island, do some boarding (naval combat sux but boarding is actually ok).

Have to say I've actually quite enjoyed the naval combat so far. The one time I boarded it led to a long combat where my main character got nuked due to bugs with formation/positioning. But naval combat has been quite fun and diverse, and it was cool to smash up a ship with twice as much hull strength.

 

Wish there were fewer bugs though. Most I've come across are fairly small niggles, but some are big (crash to desktop) and overall it leads to a worse experience than it could and should have been.

Edited May 11, 2018 by PangaeaACDC

[Purudaya]

There's plenty of combat if you seek it out, OP - surely you've run into some bounty givers by now? There's also quite a bit in the Old City but unfortunately you may have to talk to a few "retards" first.

 

I'm always surprised when someone comes to a CRPG and is annoyed by 'excessive' dialogue/lore content. It's like playing an RTS and complaining about all the base building.

 

I've actually found the Nekataka content refreshing so far; It's a nice shift to be able to meaningfully advance the plot without every quest devolving into a fight, and when the combat does happen the outcome feels more satisfying for it.

 

 

Edited May 11, 2018 by Purudaya

[whiskiz]

Apparently not many people play PotD though.

 

Even though most of the early access streamers straight up rolled PotD and most others i know about.

 

Also heads up - They haven't balanced PotD yet. Apparently they had to choose between bugfixes or balancing a difficulty, even after a month delay of release.

 

Kind of, disturbing, but it's apparently a thing here.

 

So PotD is going to be balanced post release.

 

Should have done your research and held off getting/spoiling/playing the game until PotD is fixed, like i am.

 

Can't wait.

 

Also, too many 'tards complained about too much "fluff combat" or something from last game, so they probably took it to mean to make alot less combat, instead of just more unique fights each time.

 

Now by the sounds of it you can either do an interactive novel in town, or some generic and repetitive but unlimited naval combat.

 

Ee-gad

 

Too much time and effort to make each fight more unique, while sprinkling in the dialogue/lore nice an balanced. Much easier to just segregate each so people can do what they want, then have people get bored from either, after doing it straight for hours from no direction.

 

P.S More unique fights doesn't have to mean less of them, it just means sometimes it might be great to fight 5 shadows, then 3 shadows and 2 phantoms, then something else and many other variations while taking into account enemy numbers, enemy type, enemy defenses and offense, enemy version (shadows/phantoms etc) and all the other stuff, instead of fighting 5 shadows 3 different times.

Edited May 11, 2018 by whiskiz

[Ninjamestari]

Yeah, Neketaka is definitely poorly designed as far as pacing goes. They should've restricted your movement into several smaller chunks, making sure the player has to go explore the archipelago and maybe sink a few pirate ships and rob a few merchants between the districts. The game has a ton of flaws but I find it to be vastly superior to the first one, and I'm actually enjoying my ride so far. Here's hoping they'll fix the damn bugs that are everywhere and readjust PotD soon, so that I can make my second playthrough into a more serious and thought out one.

[Yosharian]

Well I just finished WM2 and I got so sick of the endless, boring battles

[Karkarov]

party is  level 7. And I cant remember last time I fought anything. All I've been doing is walking around and talking for 10 hours... kind of stupid.

And I feel kind of stupid for reading your post.

 

If you have found nothing to fight, and you are 10 hours in, HOLY CRAP are you trying hard to not find any combat.  Why don't you try I don't know, leaving Neketaka or doing something that is not crit path for an hour?

 

Also again for all those who lack reading ability, or the power to do even basic research.  POTD has been confirmed, days before release even, as being easier than intended and will likely get patched very soon.

[PangaeaACDC]

Well I just finished WM2 and I got so sick of the endless, boring battles

It's the reason I never managed to finish Dragon Age Origins. One group of trash mobs after the other, spawning out of thin air. It got incredibly boring. Good that they seem to have done something about this in poe2 -- although they should of course fix POTD if there is an issue with it.

[artyom]

 

party is  level 7. And I cant remember last time I fought anything. All I've been doing is walking around and talking for 10 hours... kind of stupid.

And I feel kind of stupid for reading your post.

 

If you have found nothing to fight, and you are 10 hours in, HOLY CRAP are you trying hard to not find any combat.  Why don't you try I don't know, leaving Neketaka or doing something that is not crit path for an hour?

 

Also again for all those who lack reading ability, or the power to do even basic research.  POTD has been confirmed, days before release even, as being easier than intended and will likely get patched very soon.

 

Mr. 2900 posts, not everyone shares your desire to read forums about a game prior playing it.

 

And i didnt leave Natakakakatakata or whatever its called because I like to get all quests in one go prior venturing forth and also because I expected POTD to be difficult and thus in need to get xp before fighting. But yea I guess i should leave, good point

 

As for not many battles, I agree that too many is bad as well and I am partly playing this game for the lore. Its just weird that I spent more time creating my character at char screen than actually fighting. I havent had the chance to really test anything...  I see all these strategy guides and all but whats the point if (at least it seems) fights are so rare and easy

 

The other kind of annoying thing is all the names and many clans/tribes are complicated to remember. This makes reading dialogues even more difficult since its hard to understand what NPC"s talk about.

[mrscojangles]

So you didn't want to leave the city because you want to get every single quest from the city, and then you're surprised that there is a lot of reading involved in running around a giant city and picking up every single quest? And you're annoyed that you haven't fought much yet when you've been specifically avoiding leaving the city. And you're annoyed because you have to pay attention to the dialogue in a crpg to understand what is happening.

 

I hate to break it to you, but you're bringing these issues on yourself. Personally, I explored islands and fought stuff on the islands and boarded ships and picked up/completed a handful of quests before I ever even went to Neketaka. And then when I was in Neketaka and had explored two of the city areas and wanted to do some combat and exploring, I left and did some of the quests I already had. If you're bored of the city, maybe you should consider not picking up 100% of the quests before you go out and experience combat or other stuff. The rest of the city will be waiting for you when you come back. And if you have to go back to a few zones for quests you didnt pick up beforehand, no big deal. 

[KentDA]

A city that big, and considered the "big thing" for the entire game is MEANT to be done in chunks. I mean, Dragon Age 2 was a relatively large city and it was done in chunks.

 

So, yes, this is entirely a You issue of complaining about wanting to grab ALL the quests and then whining about all the dialogue that comes with quests.

 

Quests involve dialogue! That's a given for any RPG.

 

It's not a mmorpg where farmer john says "go kill 5 bandits. they're making it hard for me to farm." and that's about the extent of the quest dialogue.

 

Oh, and I made a beeline for the city, I'm level 5 currently, and the combat has been relatively plentiful. If you're inside a city, combat IS going to be a lot more sparse! I mean, that's just common sense. Guards exist to keep the peace. Ergo, if you're wandering around the city, you're Not going to find a lot of fights. Unless you force them, and that usually isn't a good thing with City Guards around.

Edited May 12, 2018 by KentDA

[cokane]

party is  level 7. And I cant remember last time I fought anything. All I've been doing is walking around and talking for 10 hours... kind of stupid. 

 

the hardest part about this game is remembering which dumbo to talk to when you're in an area so you dont have to come back to finish one of these "talk to X" quests

 

POTD is a joke. If this is how POTD feels, I cant imagine how easy the lower difficulties feel. There is absolutely no point of even understanding combat

 

there is no point of understanding combat. Just target an enemy and you win assuming you're not at a significantly inferior level

 

and the more I talk to npc's, the more I see how useless dialogue is. There is no point of reading all this bla bla bla from every retard. Its basically reading for the sake of reading.

 

As far as dialogue this is just another game where you just skip all the talk and all you need is an objective/quest/pin point where to go and who to talk to in order to fulfill a quest. If my (imaginary) gf or my mom were playing this, they'd love it

I think I get where you're coming from. I'm about the same amount in, and have definitely found it easy and lacking combat. But I don't think it's a bad thing.

 

The one key difference is that there doesn't seem to be any early wilderness/dungeon areas that are loaded with essentially an army of enemies. If you take a zoomed out view of PoE1 early areas like Magran's Fork and Anslog's Compass, you essentially had areas that were loaded with tons of fights and you could just binge on a dozen or so straight combats. That doesn't really exist, at least in the early parts of PoE2.

 

But I'd argue that the dialogue, questing and things like thief skills are all way more interesting in the sequel and so it makes sense for the game to focus a bit more on that.

Edited May 12, 2018 by cokane

[artyom]

1) Everyone has a right to be annoyed by something. Just because I am annoyed, and you arent, doesnt make you somehow morally superior or in any way more or less correct than I

 

2) I was simply making an observation with my initial post. I did not suggest something should be changed. The way this thread is going reminds me of my anal friend who, lets say you make an observation that you dont like the weather, and he will start explaining how its your own fault for not liking the weather

 

I felt there was too little (little or few which is correct?) combat. Based on the argument "well thats because you didnt do X and you made the choice not have combat", by that logic one could argue against anything with that such as: the game doesnt work - "well thats because you need to learn to program and develop software and fix it so its your own fault, you are the one who made the decision to buy it and not to learn programming"

[Fluffle]

I felt there was too little (little or few which is correct?) combat. Based on the argument "well thats because you didnt do X and you made the choice not have combat", by that logic one could argue against anything with that such as: the game doesnt work - "well thats because you need to learn to program and develop software and fix it so its your own fault, you are the one who made the decision to buy it and not to learn programming"

 

I'm not sure if that comparison works. It is the developers responsibility to fix the bugs and to make it run on all the devices it is supposed to run on. That is not your responsibility, obviously.

 

The game offers a lot of quests with a lot of dialogues. But the game also offers a lot of combats.

You as the player, would like to see more combats.

 

So what you do is to seek out more dialogue-heavy quests and avoid combats.

And then you are annoyed at seeing more dialogue-heavy quests and no combats...

 

If the game offers both, lots of dialogues, but also lots of combats, and you prefer combats then it is your job to seek out the combats.

And people in this thread have given you enough advice on how to do that.

[Witness41920]

I'm sorry you're not enjoying the gaming experience so far. 

 

It could very well be that this simply isn't the type of game you're ultimately looking for. CRPGs tend to have a lot of dialogue and a lot quests that don't involve combat because they're about character and story development moreso than combat. 

 

I'd recommend giving the game a break at the moment if you're not enjoying it and revisiting it in a couple of months after they've fixed the difficulty and probably released some expanded content.