Pillars of Eternity Thread [Pre-Expansion]

[DosBuster]

hmm I'm kinda worried I'm up to the main quest where you have to go to Defiance Bay for the first time, which I've done, but I keep doing other things such as Stronghold stuff and side quests, should I press on with the main quest?

 

[Urthor]

hmm I'm kinda worried I'm up to the main quest where you have to go to Defiance Bay for the first time, which I've done, but I keep doing other things such as Stronghold stuff and side quests, should I press on with the main quest?

It doesn't matter?

Just do what you feel like, there's no pressure.

 

[Semper]

In Pillars of Shitternity, there is always a delay because first the running animation needs to start up, in which your character sort of bends forward and then it turns around before actually moving. So there's always a very noticeable and irritating delay between when you issue a command, and when it is actually executed. Even if you want to move one step to the right, the animation needs to activate and play. This also affects your degree of control. In the IE games, if you wanted a character to move your character 30% to the right, it could be done, and your character would always end up perfectly centered, exactly where you clicked. In POE, due to the stupid and retarded animation system, this doesn't happen.

while there's a marginal turn rate, you make it sound like there's second long delay. at the most it's a fith or a third of a second. also the other part with precise placement ain't true. the chars always stopped right where i clicked. dunno what you're doing wrong.

btw you sound as if playing the game is a painful process. do yourself a favor and quit right now. or is this some weird form of self-flagellation?

 

[AwesomeButton]

I'm playing blind on normal and the difficulty level is just about right. Not every fight is a great tactical challenge but I am also not having any major problems with the engagement system that other people are describing, or having to rely on kiting or any kind of cheese tactics.

I am disappointed with my class choice of Rogue, though. I only picked it because I had heard none of the companions are rogues. Maybe I chose poor abilities and talents or didn't optimize well, but it's a very underpowered character with not much to do in combat compared to all the companions I've found so far.

What are your might and dex? I'm playing with a rogue with 18 might / 17 dex and he hits pretty hard from sneak attacks.

As always, the BSN delivers:

http://forum.bioware.com/topic/550173-has-anybody-checked-out-pillars-of-eternityone-wordamazing/

Sorry if my opinion doesn't join yours people, it looks like it belongs in the 90s and should remain there. Too much stuff to read, barely any voice acting and slow sort of gameplay. Not my cup of tea. Like, it's cool if people like it, but to me who never been a PC player, I don't understand the hype and the nostalgia. I don't understand how people enjoy this type of game which is too slow and forces you to read for hours stuff that pop on the screen. If I wanted to read something, I'd open up a book. "Believe it or not, this is the type of game BioWare used to make," someone will tell me. Well, guess what... I'm glad they stopped.

I didn't like what I saw so far and I'm glad Bioware moved away from those kinda games.

Cinematics and voice over belong to the most important things in games for me. Don't care much for combat and thus the classics with their butt slow fights and super complicated skill system become annoying very fast.

But I like watching films more than reading books, too. Yeah, I'm one of those people.

This is about right (and I played Baldur's Gate and older games the first time. many times).

Ok, PoE looks gorgeous and the end point of the BG evolutionary tree.

But DAI is much more fun for me rather than hard work.

Not knocking PoE but I've kind of been there and done it.

And no BioWare should carry on the way they are going and PoE can carry on its thing.

Play the game you want to play.

(and ideally spend your time in the forum of the game you like too, though that would be too much to hope for).

For this I blame the education system which forbid telling retards they are retards from a young age and beating them into the right path before it's gotten too late. That's the reason we've got shit like DAI today.

Also, the way the dumb kids are lying about having played the original IE games is really fun to behold.

 

[Owlish]

"git gud"

 

[Owlish]

"Leyra" is a shade on steroids

Teleports around, heals itself, has minions. Tried to focus it but disengage and pathfinding.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Hi everyone, anyway to completely turn off the AI in this piece of shit? Everytime things are going well with those spiders, my characters end up running around stupidly and fucking things up.

This game is just so bad, it's almost approaching the levels of east european shovelware grade RPGs. Seriously, how the hell does one even make use of AOE? The radius of spells, even with Aloth's intelligence bonus, are so small, and enemies keep running around at hyperspeed, so by the time you have casted any spells, none of the enemies are in the original AOE radius anymore. The only reliable way to use AOE seems to be if you use spells like Fan of Flames and also blast your own front line characters.

Man, and you joined this forum in 2004? I was 18 in 2004.

It's obvious you can't tell what's going on on your screen. My gf has played exactly 3 RPGs in her life, PoE being the 4th and she is better than you at PoE, playing on Hard, because she took the time to learn the combat mechanics.

It's a game where you have to learn the rules in order to progress, and there are people on the codex which call this a bad thing?

Go watch Sensuki's Beginner's Guides, because I'm sure you thought something named "Beginner's Guide" is beneath you, lol.

And if you post any further shit without having watched them, please include a disclaimer so we know not to read your posts.

BTW, I agree with your criticism on the animations that take some fractions of a second to start up before the character model begins moving. It really makes coordinating movement difficult, but I'm trying to get to the hang of it.

 

[J_C]

Quick question guys. I noticed that in the item discription windows there is a number like 4/10 or 0/12 etc. What do these represent?

 

[Semper]

that's the enchanting counter. different enchants have different amounts of anvils. the powerful ones up to six, which means you can only enchant your item with two of them. there's also the limit of only one enchant of each category.

 

[Owlish]

My girlfriend is great at this game. Git gud, lol.

I have a girlfriend did I mention that. I'm going to propose.

 

[Lone Wolf]

This game is just so bad, it's almost approaching the levels of east european shovelware grade RPGs. Seriously, how the hell does one even make use of AOE? The radius of spells, even with Aloth's intelligence bonus, are so small, and enemies keep running around at hyperspeed, so by the time you have casted any spells, none of the enemies are in the original AOE radius anymore. The only reliable way to use AOE seems to be if you use spells like Fan of Flames and also blast your own front line characters.

This isn't like BG1/2, where the Fireball is a precursor to melee being joined; an opening salvo, if you will. No, in PoE you maneuver your mage after the lines engage, you line up your AoE and then you let loose. It makes positioning, party formation and combat sequence all the more important. Honestly, though, Aloth/a wizard is a specialist. I get more traction from Aloth when I use him as a single target burst damage support character. He's fantastic in dealing with enemy mages and helping shape the battlefield. Again, the main obstacle to success in PoE combat is getting away from the notion that IE-style means IE-character roles. Casters aren't be-all-end-all killer blankets, here. No Horrid Wilting-style 'this combat is concluded' casts.

Gotta say I prefer it this way.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Quick question guys. I noticed that in the item discription windows there is a number like 4/10 or 0/12 etc. What do these represent?

From the strategy guide:

Weapon Enhancements
To enhance a weapon, you must have the appropriate ingredients in your inventory.
These materials may be bought, gathered, looted, or salvaged. During the process, the ingredients are typically used up, but sometimes they are reusable. For recipes like enchantments, the main ingredient is not used up, but is instead improved by the addition of a new bonus.

All enchanting is done using three ingredients: a creature part, a plant/herb, and a gem. The counts of each ingredient may vary, but there are always three ingredients. Additionally, there may be a copper cost that’s subtracted directly from your total wealth.

Each enhancement has an associated “cost” value. This is used in the crafting system and when calculating the value of an item in copper pieces (cp). Cost values on mods are added together to derive the cp total and the value does not scale linearly.

Enchanting a weapon can provide a bonus in quality, secondary damage, and slaying capabilities. Each of these has it own advantages and, when combined, it can transform an already good weapon into something quite awesome. Note that a weapon has a limit on mods and can have no more than 1 quality mod, 3 additional mods, and 12 total points of mods.

Oh, Owlish , did I hurt your feelings? I'll refrain from mentioning female people/animals in your presence from now on.

 

[hiver]

This isn't like BG1/2, where the Fireball is a precursor to melee being joined; an opening salvo, if you will. No, in PoE you maneuver your mage after the lines engage, you line up your AoE and then you let loose. It makes positioning, party formation and combat sequence all the more important.

It would if the engagement and how characters move and act was done in better ways.

As things are engagement and movement in RT are destroying positioning and tactics. Not completely and you can still use those but the whole is seriously degraded because of these two very unbalanced features.

 

[Semper]

regarding crafting: are there still recipes to be found in the game? or as a reward?

 

[valcik]

I have a girlfriend did I mention that. I'm going to propose.
romance.jpg

You'd better don't misbehave! This lady looks like she could kill ya with a single well-placed sucker punch. ^^

 

[Roguey]

Lead Designer

Doesn't make him the god-king of Obsidian Entertainment. The creative lead (the guy responsible for the execution of the writing) wanted dry exposition dumps, the creative director of Obsidian (Chris Avellone) agreed/rubberstamped the decision. Nothing Josh can do.

Apparently this also extends to things like animation.

Responsiveness. I've always felt that the IE was very responsive to player input and AI state changes. Selection, movement, and execution of commands were all very "crisp" in the IE games, probably owing to its roots as Battleground Infinity (an RTS). Other than pathfinding, controlling characters felt good in the IE (IMO, anyway) -- better than it does in a lot of other RPGs.

Clearly Josh is not a fan of animation-based microdelays and yet there they are.

Also, notice how I said PoE should have learned a thing or two from PS:T with regards tointroducing the player to complex/weird world through dialogue? That's what my sniley indicated back then. BioShock is an environmentally focused first-person game, the comparison is retarded, even for you.

To paraphrase Lesi, looks like the creative director of Obsidian Entertainment isn't just an animal that doesn't learn, but one that forgets.

I really detest situational gear-swapping, though. I didn't even like it back when I played old-school MMORPGs.

Ultimately, if your ranged characters don’t wear armor (or wear light armor), that should be a decision that is evaluated and re-evaluated with different areas and sets of enemies — and occasionally has negative consequences when someone beelines for you with no regard for provoking Disenagement Attacks or specifically hurls an AoE into the back line.

I didn't post all those Josh quotes for nothin.

And hell, situational gear-swapping is part of the IE experience, e.g. skeletons that need bashing, enemies that can only be hit by magic weapons, and so on.

 

[Owlish]

On ez
Loaded up so many traps and wards pre-battle, did lots of other things, slow mode (with all this micro needed and putting on slow why not just fucking make it TB?)
micro'd like crazy
Eliminated 2 right off the bat, killed another weak knight, only 1 knight left and "Leyra"

Spoiler

an apparently insignificant monster?

vs my still full and healthy party (6)
Still was about to lose the battle, un-frickin-believable

Used the cheat to heal my party, still almost lost them all a second time (all I did was click attack and watched though)
I thank the big man upstairs for cheat codes.
:kwafuckyeah:

 

[Grunker]

Doesn't make him the god-king of Obsidian Entertainment.

Sure it doesn't. It makes him responsible for high level decisions. Such as the overall scope and structure of the story.

 

[Blaine]

Roguey
Josh seems to be misinformed, since no one has yet observed enemies actually taking a hit from Disengagement Attacks. That's because Disengagement Attacks are so ludicrously strong that Disengaging is a choice the AI never makes. He's basing part of his assessment on scenarios that don't actually occur in practice.

For that reason, any player Talents or Abilities based upon strengthening their Disengagement attacks are absolutely useless in any scenario, and since Josh was on a crusade to avoid useless abilities, he failed miserably in this context.

In general, the Engagement system is much more advantageous for enemies than it is for the player's party, since many of them are melee-oriented... unless of course you spend 20 hours' worth of stingily parceled-out game money creating a party full of Fighters and/or Barbarians.

There's a whole thread about the Engagement system in which some very well-written analyses pretty much definitively powernuke the whole idea and implementation as being misguided and clunky.

That's the point of contention with Shadows. They get to bypass Engagement seemingly at-will, then deal truckloads of Disengagement damage to the weak characters they teleport in to target. It needs fixing, not because it's too hard or because anyone can't win those battles, but because it's fake difficulty and complete garbage game design. If Shadows weren't bog-standard trash mobs plastered all over the largest area at the beginning of the game, and were rarer or a special encounter, that'd be something different.

I don't have a problem with characters I dress in tissue-paper armor getting wrecked if my lines are breached. I have a problem with teleporting trash mobs who enjoy the full advantages of the Engagement system while suffering none of the consequences, and hit like trucks.

 

[Doma]

Where do I find a forge so I can craft weapons? Do I have to build it at my stronghold?

My mini-review: Great game, really looking forward to Torment as well now. gg

 

[AwesomeButton]

Roguey
Josh seems to be misinformed, since no one has yet observed enemies actually taking a hit from Disengagement Attacks. That's because Disengagement Attacks are so ludicrously strong that Disengaging is a choice the AI never makes. He's basing part of his assessment on scenarios that don't actually occur in practice.

For that reason, any player Talents or Abilities based upon strengthening their Disengagement attacks are absolutely useless in any scenario, and since Josh was on a crusade to avoid useless abilities, he failed miserably in this context.

In general, the Engagement system is much more advantageous for enemies than it is for the player's party, since many of them are melee-oriented... unless of course you spend 20 hours' worth of stingily parceled-out game money creating a party full of Fighters and/or Barbarians.

There's a whole thread about the Engagement system in which some very well-written analyses pretty much definitively powernuke the whole idea and implementation as being misguided and clunky.

That's the point of contention with Shadows. They get to bypass Engagement seemingly at-will, then deal truckloads of Disengagement damage to the weak characters they teleport in to target. It needs fixing, not because it's too hard or because anyone can't win those battles, but because it's fake difficulty and complete garbage game design. If Shadows weren't bog-standard trash mobs plastered all over the largest area at the beginning of the game, and were rarer or a special encounter, that'd be something different.

I don't have a problem with characters I dress in tissue-paper armor getting wrecked if my lines are breached. I have a problem with teleporting trash mobs who enjoy the full advantages of the Engagement system while suffering none of the consequences, and hit like trucks.

Imagine the irony, they fix shadows to cause no disengagement attacks, and suddenly shadows become the most fun enemies to fight in the game.

 

[Blaine]

Where do I find a forge so I can craft weapons? Do I have to build it at my stronghold?

I don't think you can craft weapons. You can loot them and purchase them from shops. You can enchant them anywhere, anytime, by clicking that button at the bottom of the items' descriptions.

You get tons of mundane weapons as loot, so creating them from scratch isn't much of a concern. What does concern me personally is that putting decent enchantments on three or four items will typically bankrupt you of every cent you've found, at least until later on in the game.

 

[Roguey]

Sure it doesn't. It makes him responsible for high level decisions. Such as the overall scope and structure of the story.

Is there a problem with that? Because based on what other people are saying, it looks like an execution problem to me.

Roguey
Josh seems to be misinformed, since no one has yet observed enemies actually taking a hit from Disengagement Attacks. That's because Disengagement Attacks are so ludicrously strong that Disengaging is a choice the AI never makes. He's basing part of his assessment on scenarios that don't actually occur in practice.

The AI varies in what it attempts to attack and whether or not it will break Engagement to pursue a preferred target. Some creatures will go for the first target they see, others will use criteria like lowest Endurance or a specific lowest defense (often Deflection). Creatures like trolls will break Engagement to try to get to their preferred targets.

You think someone who completed 80% of the game on hard (with a wizard in his party btw) doesn't know how it actually plays?

 

[Doma]

Where do I find a forge so I can craft weapons? Do I have to build it at my stronghold?

I don't think you can craft weapons. You can loot them and purchase them from shops. You can enchant them anywhere, anytime, by clicking that button at the bottom of the items' descriptions.

You get tons of mundane weapons as loot, so creating them from scratch isn't much of a concern. What does concern me personally is that putting decent enchantments on three or four items will typically bankrupt you of every cent you've found, at least until later on in the game.

I was just curious about this post here.

http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Crafting

Under Crafting Locations.

 

[Jaedar]

Why is this game so bad at explaining its mechanics?

THere are plenty of items and skills with stats like "10% of hits converted into crits" but what the fuck does this mean in terms of mechanics. I assume it means that the threshold for a crit is lowered by 10, even though that is not what the sentance means at all(not even slightly).