Ninjamestari

Yeah, the past is what I'm interested in more because I'd really like to delve more into the history and origins of the gods of the setting. Then again, a post apocalyptic future version could work just as well, and an archaic part of the world would also raise interesting questions, such as does that area have its own gods, is the adra a global phenomenon and such. Either way, I thought that the two things could be combined; re-visit the themes of Tyranny AND broaden the lore of Eora at the same time, both of which I'd really like to see.

Now that Avowed is coming and being set in Eora, perhaps time is to start thinking about Pillars of Eternity as a franchise (you should add the Pillars of Eternity title to the Avowed logo btw, seems silly not to use the new product to also market the old ones), and the opportunity it offers for revisiting Tyranny. Tyranny was a failure as a game in many ways, the setting was unique and infinitely more inspired and inspiring than what PoE was at the time, the theme of power is interesting and fundamentally tied to the whole roleplaying genre, the art and music were simply phenomenal in creating the atmosphere and I could sing praises to the game all day long, but there is a big but. Tyranny also shot itself in the foot by simple bad game design decisions when it came to character progression and a lack of commitment to make it a proper full game and tell the whole story. In the end it felt like the story skipped most of the steps it needed to take in order to rush you into heights of power and didn't really cash in on the whole theme of the setting where you are a PAWN of the evil overlord, instead turning it into the boring "you are the chosen one" narration, which left the character's gain in power feeling utterly undeserved. Now that being said, there are MANY people who tasted what was good in Tyranny and were left hungry for more, myself included. Tyranny being owned by Paradox seems to be the end of hope for those of us who want to see more of Tyranny, but I think it is more of an opportunity to re-invent the game and the setting. A very similar game with the themes and style of Tyranny with a new story could be made for the Pillars of Eternity universe, set in the late Bronze Age era of Eora, in a time where the gods were not yet gods. Tell the story of how the gods became gods and create a spiritual successor for Tyranny all the while strengthening the existing Pillars of Eternity franchise. I really believe Obsidian should commit to this universe, making it richer with each game they make. There's absolutely no point in inventing new universes when you can draw from a rich existing one and keep enriching it with every story being told. Tyranny I think could be revisited in this manner, but this time without rushing the story and using proper game mechanics instead of a bastardized version of Skyrim that simply created a horrible unbalanced mess where you first had to plan the timing of your level ups to maximize training opportunities and where you could exploit xp mechanics by simply taking damage and healing yourself to become an unstoppable monster very early on in the game. This was later changed in a patch that tried to fix things but didn't really improve them, as you now had the most unintuitive system where you had to switch leveling skills on and off to essentially kill the whole point of having this kind of system in the first place, all the while now having to contend with level-scaling enemies which makes leveling up a completely pointless endeavor. There are countless ideas that could be pursued with this to also turn it into a universe of its own. For example, maybe Adra didn't exist yet in this time period and magic worked differently enough to have a different set of character classes, so it would also be an opportunity to explore new ideas while still strengthening the 'parent' universe. Maybe the gods didn't exist yet, or perhaps they weren't gods yet, rather something between a man and a god. Not rushing the story into heights of epicness and power would allow starting the story slow and telling it in parts; testing the waters with a first game that would progress between power levels equivalent to 1-10 in D&D, and if the sales justify a sequel, have the story continue for 11-20 and then perhaps 21-30 in a third game. I'm sure I don't really have to go into detail about the failings and successes of Tyranny, I'm sure they've been thoroughly analyzed by multiple people already, the essence of what I'm trying to say is simply that I think Pillars of Eternity as a universe offers a potential for a spiritual successor for that failed legend, and I absolutely think that the idea of that game deserves to be revisited, and the game could be a success if made properly and avoiding the pitfalls that caused the problems plaguing the original Tyranny. I really loved what Tyranny tried to do but I couldn't in good conscience recommend that game to anyone. I'd really love to see the idea resurrected in a form that I can honestly recommend to my friends and talk about without feeling the pain of witnessing so much wasted potential.

Obsidian isn't very good at handling criticism, as evidenced by all the threads that criticized the game being deleted on these forums. The Beta was likely suffering from the same sort of dishonest and narcissistic managing. If you read up on what's been going on with the owners of the company, what they did to their most talented writer etc, you'll understand how corrupted a company Obsidian really is, and why it has never been able to develop a single product without vast issues. You cannot save Obsidian because the corruption there begins from the high-ups. The best you can hope for is for Obsidian to die and for a new, healthier and overall better company to salvage the talent. Also, who knows, maybe this new company could even get Avellone to write for them, resulting in better stories for everyone.

I think Josh is finally getting fed up with Obsidian's bull**** and wants to leave the company.

Settle down doctor sarcastic. They worked hard on this. A few accolades from the fans are appreciated and deserved. It had to be said.

You guys really are a bunch of circle jerkers, aren't you.

Really? Doesn't anyone know?

Obsidian ****s up constantly because their owners, Feargus & CO, are pretty much **** towards their whole dev team. I've been reading on whats been going on in that company and it's obvious that it's the high-ups that are responsible for the company's poor performance when it comes to quality. That's where your money is going, the guys who piss on the artists and their work. And yeah, things may not be as bad as they are at EA, but things are obviously not good either, and things are obviously declining as the company drives away their most talented people and pretty much keep the ones who still work there in house by threats. That's the impression I've gotten from what I have read anyway.

So they decided to go with player-sexual companions after all, despite all their bravado of not doing so. Disgusting. It feels like Obsidian is in an utter moral decline, they obviously no longer have a moral spine at all.

I couldn't. This is kinda my frustration with the game, there is a crap-ton of these sorts of problems within and I really don't know how many are due to bugs and how many are simply bad writing. I really hope they'll fix the bugs in dialogue as soon as possible instead of giving us the giant "**** you" by simply pumping out DLCs in order to get more money as soon as possible. I mean **** you obsidian for planning 3 ****ing DLCs for the first 6 months when the actual game is essentially still in a Beta state. This is utterly inexcusable.

So I was wondering if multiple resistances of the same type stack, so that If I get two resistances against a group of afflictions (say one from a class ability and another from race), would all afflictions of that type be downgraded two tiers rather than one? Would a third resistance (from a piece of gear for example) make my character completely immune to those types of afflictions?

There are plenty of reasons to be hesitant about playing this game. My advice would be to get a refund and buy the game at some point when its on a sale if obsidian has addressed the countless issues the game has by then instead of trying to force down pointless unfinished DLC down our throats. I've enjoyed the game so far, but in hindsight, had I known the kind of mess the game is, I wouldn't have bought it yet, I would've waited to see if they'll actually fix the game.

PoE1 was dull and boring. There wasn't any life to the world and the atmosphere was way too gloomy in a gray boring way instead of an entertaining black and oppressive way. PoE2 has a lighter atmosphere and I very much like it; this is the stuff that makes me really feel that I'm on an adventure. PoE1 on the other hand didn't.

Overall, neither, but Nekataka definitely could use more combat. As for dialogue, the problem isn't the quantity, the problem is the lack of quality.

I think we can let it go now calling other people fanboys in order to make their opinion invalid. Fanboys are not the topic of this thread anyway. You have expressed your definition and your opinion about fanboys now. We have also all be reminded by a moderator to "Knock off the personal commentary". So at least in this thread, we should not call each other that anymore. The thing is, even if I agreed with your opinion and your definition of a fanboy, what good is that as long as I cannot use it against other forum members on this forum whose opinions I don't like? But that is exactly what a moderator asked us to stop doing! It's nice that you keep up the personal commentary while accusing others of it.