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Eternity Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire Pre-Release Thread [BETA RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

FreeKaner

Prophet of the Dumpsterfire
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Positioning as a tactical skill is underrated as fuck. It requires more thinking and effort than cycling out goons on low hp.
 

Blaine

Cis-Het Oppressor
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Grab the Codex by the pussy
BG2 had great items. WM fixed it some, but just 10 soulbound items is def not enough.

Item variety is a real issue for the rest of the team when the lead designer is an obsessed hack insisting that everything in the game be rigorously "balanced" like an autistic kid's dinner.

049c862612.png
 

Blaine

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Grab the Codex by the pussy
Old and still completely true. The passage of time doesn't change how shit the man is at game design.

The best metaphors for Josh Sawyer's game design style are (aesthetic) food plating and flower arranging. A well-plated dish looks attractive and appealing and is balanced organically and holistically, but Sawyer's method results in autistically squared-off peas, carrots, and cubes of meat. An artistically arranged bouquet of flowers is attractive and enticing, whereas Sawyer's method results in a boring, squared-off, militantly-arranged bouquet that no one wants, typical of people with no eye or talent for arranging flowers.

If you stick your heads far down enough into the sand, you won't have to think about these self-evident truths. After all, there's nothing you can do about it, and apparently he's the best Obsidian's got.
 

FreeKaner

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You are literally talking in codex memes my man, Sawyer does none of the things you mention, his balancing is asymmetrical within a consistent general system.

I have no idea how this meme developed since Sawyer himself designed so few games and none of the games he actually did design have that sort of sterile balancing. It just went from "obsession about balance" which is true to a degree, into fantasy realm of obsession about uniformity and then finally into meme of autistic(clinical) organisation.
 
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Infinitron

I post news
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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
"Muh over-balance" has turned out to basically be a red herring, which Blaine is still fixated on while everybody else has moved on. PoE's initial release was the way it was primarily because of an overall cautious approach to game development (desire to remain within scope and not add too many wacky mechanics that require custom coding and end up broken, etc). Sawyer's philosophy of game design was always secondary to that.

I think Josh bears some blame for making himself appear more ideologically purist than he actually is, because he loves arguing with people on the Internet about his decisions and justifying them in terms of system design rather than development priorities. But he's turned out to be far less dogmatic than people thought back in 2014. PoE2's design decisions are evidence of that.
 
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vonAchdorf

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But he's turned out to be far less dogmatic than people thought back in 2014. PoE2's design decisions are evidence of that.

If he was really dogmatic, he wouldn't design a game according to (perceived) customer demand and against his preferred style / dogma. He always come across as quite professional in these things.
 

Blaine

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Grab the Codex by the pussy
"Muh over-balance" has turned out to basically be a red herring

No, it's still completely true. "Over-balance" was exactly what was wrong with PoE's gameplay, just as I'd predicted in the years leading up to the game's release. White March (the actual red herring in this scenario) didn't change that one whit.

You've "moved on" because you and people like you spend months desperately fawning over this shit, posting related news articles, Tweets, updates, et cetera, and end up deluding yourselves into thinking the next one will surely be good. It's the only meat on sale, and by God, you're going to chew it. The reason I haven't "moved on" is because I don't waste my time in these sorts of threads hyping myself into a delusional state of post-purchase rationalization. I post my thoughts very occasionally when my attention is randomly drawn here.

Brofisting each other for having convinced yourselves that it's not that bad after all won't change the reality of the situation, in much the same way that liberals upvoting each other's posts on Reddit doesn't change the fact that Donald Trump is still President of the United States. Brofists aren't sales or profits, they won't increase Sawyer's talent, and they don't actually make a game better than it really is.
 

Iznaliu

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in much the same way that liberals upvoting each other's posts on Reddit doesn't change the fact that Donald Trump is still President of the United States

You promise to shut up when the next Democratic president is elected? If not, your comment is valueless. People have a right to express that (shockingly) they may not like the POTUS. The GOP also started the shitshow with the whole 'birth certificate' smokescreen

"Over-balance" was exactly what was wrong with PoE's gameplay

If you actually look at PoE's systems, you will see that they are far from sterile. They are reasonably balanced (as proved by the constant arguments over which builds are the best), but that is not achieved by making everything identical (except on a surface level 'everything has active abilities'; and you can still do builds that focus on passives). However, the distibution active abilities are different for each class, and some classes add to this further by having active abilities with special use requirements. It is quite a mean feat to balance this all.
 

Infinitron

I post news
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Messages
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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Saturday morning update! https://www.fig.co/campaigns/deadfire?update=375#updates

Update #33 - Some Quick Reminders
POSTED: 05/20/2017

Greetings Deadfire adventurers, it's time for a quick update on Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire's continuing (and concluding soon!) backer and investment campaign. We want to notify you of a few pressing items, and also tell you that we love you. There, we said it. Be careful, you've got our hearts.

Investor News
In case you missed out on making an investment reservation, Fig still has somel some Fig Game Shares available for Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire! If you're interested in earning a return from sales of the game, check out the link below:

https://www.fig.co/campaigns/deadfire/invest

Backer Surveys
We know you backers want to get your items locked down and set so we can start building your packages and sending them out. The surveys to help you do that are almost done and will be out to you next week. Get psyched!

Tyranny Coupons
Hey, have you redeemed your coupon for a discount on our awesome cRPG Tyranny yet? If not, don't worry, we've got your back. While the coupons were originally set to expire on Wednesday, May 31, we've extended them until Sunday June 18th! You've got more time... but don't wait too long, the chance to get Tyranny at a discount won't last forever.

Maia Update
Finally, a quick update on one of our companions! You didn't think we'd let you get out of here without some cool info about Deadfire, did you? Below are a couple of images of Maia Rua, our Aumaua Ranger, elder sister of Kana Rua, from Pillars I. Maia is wearing (in two of the pictures) a set of padded armor that is wearable by any companion in Deadfire, or the player.

https%3A%2F%2Fplayfig.s3.amazonaws.com%2FCampaignBodyImage%2Fimage%2Fdata%2Ffa586b35772c24b2%2F5b572bb671f848fa%2F9e2aba9ae620e007%2F5b8ae7ebdd815d96


Stay tuned for more info on the campaign and our characters, plus a lot more video content, as the team ramps up our pipeline on the way to E3!

So they're saving the good stuff for E3.
 

Abu Antar

Turn-based Poster
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Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is. Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Update #33 - Some Quick Reminders

Greetings Deadfire adventurers, In fact we have nothing new to say to you, but we would like to remind you that we are still alive.

WTF Obsidian
Not true, I remembered to finalize my $9.000 investment. It's also good to know that they will have a presence at E3.
I invested $1.000
 

santino27

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My team has the sexiest and deadliest waifus you can recruit.
Yeah, kind of a meaningless update, especially after several weeks of silence, but E3 does kind of wreck schedules in the gaming industry according to many other devs. Guess we'll see if they show up on the 'PC gaming show', if said show is any less cringe-worthy, and if they have cool stuff to reveal at that time.

(I'm still hyped for the game though!) :D
 

Lacrymas

Arcane
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Sep 23, 2015
Messages
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Pathfinder: Wrath
The last couple of years of E3 were ridiculously boring and uneventful imo, maybe Absurdian will show something interesting for once.
 

Sherry

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Jan 17, 2017
Messages
404
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Shrine of Compassion
Hi.

gosh you can almost hear the waves crashing to shore whittling away the rocks and seashells with each long break between something right? Still no cloud shadow updates yet they were available for u7 but no news from Deadfire even though they say no news is good news but growing worried with a lack of weather system updates and how it plays a part with low and high tide with night and day cycles with a fisherman who walks the beach at noon during low tide to look for a specific fish with cloud shadows when you're on a quest.

okay. There is going to be a lot of great things about Deadfire though with so many multi-class characters we can build around so in Pillars I was a Barbarian right through the adventure and both expansions I might just look into going to Druid or something else that is appropriate for the sequel. I really enjoyed my character in NWN campaign being part Barb/Druid so that is why I am thinking about it for Deadfire.

Still it is not enough important updates to draw attention and excitement like the countdown did for me back in the new year there was a lot of energy on the forum with the final fig countdown for anyone who recalls we were all there together just having a blast!

Already fishing is out but maybe for the final third chapter they will be a little more focused on drawing interest for what is needed to make it even bigger and better! Sounds like it will be awesome for anyone going to E3 to speak with dev team and get some hands-on experience with the different directions the story takes from the opening. A strong selling point to anyone that wants to be a pirate on a ship sailing the archipelago.

All aboard! :hug:

Thanks,
Sherry
 

Doctor Sbaitso

SO, TELL ME ABOUT YOUR PROBLEMS.
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Codex 2013 Codex 2014 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Grab the Codex by the pussy Serpent in the Staglands
I find it fucking hilarious that crowd funding shit is now out of vogue, and assuming all the risk as 'investment' is the new pea under the shells. All the evidence you need that these investments are bad is that they need to ask for investors.
 

Quillon

Arcane
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Dec 15, 2016
Messages
5,214

Sentinel

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Ommadawn
Justin Bell writing sea shanties lol. This should be good.
Unless they just re-record historical sea shanties, but I'm not sure if they're public domain.

 

Sherry

Arcane
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Jan 17, 2017
Messages
404
Location
Shrine of Compassion
hi!

Guess what folks Prime Junta we have sea shanty songs that will be part of the outside world of the game and be sung on the forum, youtube and on the bus as folks listen to the soundtrack and get to sing along with each sea shanty. :hug:

okay, okay this is very exciting!!

So a sea shanty will offer a bonus to moral and ship speed and defenses even though Josh has not yet said so on somethingawful or on his twitter but that is okay as long as you know. it is worth working towards to gain such bonuses but it also takes away from being a piss-ant shit captain ( I am sorry for the lack of family friendly words I used ) but it is a lot like baldur's gate that cost of things go up when you have a low reputation and anyone who has played the game knows exactly what I am talking about!!! do not anger your crew!!!

So some of the more interesting aspects of the sea shanty bonus I think that we will receive a bonus on canon firepower, speed, ship repair speed while docked, and defense when high moral is activated via a sea shanty. That is what I want to see with a sea shanty but if anyone else has some thoughts on that it would be good to read because working so hard to hear and have your crew sing a sea shanty should be worth more than just some recorded sea shanty track that gets played because you have high ship crew moral right? Its gotta have teeth to want to strive for high moral, that is why I think a bonus to one's custom ship is very important, and not some dlc shanty song.

like maybe there is a difficult encounter in Bramble Rot Cove that requires a high moral from the crew to defeat and they sing the sea shanty during ship to ship battle or it just generally bridges the encounter to be easier to manage due to high moral. There is a lot that can be expanded and drawn upon with a sea shanty. Here is to making it worth our while right?

All aboard! :hug:

Thanks,
Sherry
 

Quillon

Arcane
Joined
Dec 15, 2016
Messages
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So a sea shanty will offer a bonus to moral and ship speed and defenses... ...we will receive a bonus on canon firepower, speed, ship repair speed while docked, and defense when high moral is activated via a sea shanty

that escalated quickly.jpg

Most certainly crew singing won't make a chanter effect; sea shanties will be the reward for keeping morale high. High morale will prolly effect most of those things tho.

Tho, chanters singing parts of potential new sea shanties as their phrases could be a nice touch.
 

Prime Junta

Guest
Unless they just re-record historical sea shanties, but I'm not sure if they're public domain.

Of course they are. Traditional sea shanties were never copyrighted in the first place, and even if they were, anything from the Age of Sail predates the Berne convention (1886) which established them.
 

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