Eternity Pillars of Eternity II Beta Thread [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[fantadomat]

http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Frightened

A frightened creature flees from the source of its fear as best it can. If unable to flee, it may fight. A frightened creature takes a –2 penalty on all attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks.

You can't flee in PoE so actually it made sense.

So many arbitrary mechanics to deal with an issue strategy games have solved a long time ago: giving characters Morale and allowing them to flee.

Brave, disciplined, and loyal characters have high Morale. Characters with the opposite personal qualities have low Morale. Morale decreases automatically as the character takes damage and becomes fatigued, or is hit by Morale reducing abilities like Fear.

As Morale decreases, there is more chance for the character to flee or skip its turn.

You can increase Morale by healing characters, inspiring them, and defeating enemies. Certain systems also give combat bonuses for high Morale and penalties for low Morale.

This is 2018, characters not being able to flee from battle is just ridiculous.

That is stupid! Only way to run away is death!

 

[Infinitron]

The Infinity Engine games had morale. If you ask Josh why PoE didn't, he'd probably say it's a combination of him finding it annoying to have to chase down fleeing enemies to the edges of the map, concern over combat being trivialized by causing routs, and probably some technical difficulties implementing fleeing behavior (what with the game's need to manage the combat state for the purpose of refreshing per-encounter abilities and so on). I do think even the IE games de-emphasized morale as they went on, it's mainly a thing I remember from BG1.

The game did support Dominate/Charm-type effects just fine though, so switching the enemy AI to some sort of flee behavior should have been technically possible. And now in PoE2 it's in.

 

[CptMace]

Morale is fucking retarded, give me a spell to double enemy's morale, I'd cast it on every damn pack of xvarts, kobolds and hobgoblins I see.

chase down fleeing enemies to the edges of the map

Damn straight. It's fucking stupid.

 

[Infinitron]

Not sure people realize what they're talking about re: "percentile-based damage reduction but without Penetration".

A system with armor that grants percentage-based damage reduction with no concept of "penetration" would be dumb/limited. It just turns armor into effectively an HP multiplier. Light armor: -30% damage, Medium: Armor: -50% damage, Heavy Armor: -70% damage. And eventually you run out of room to grow, it can only go up to 100%. You can implement it in different forms, but a sliding scale of Weapon Penetration vs Armor seems essential in an RPG of this complexity. Armor-only percentage-based DR might work in other kinds of games, like single character RPGs with relatively simple itemization.

 

[Iskramor]

Kate dollarhyde more like kate antifahyde.... Why feargus is hiring hipsters is beyond me.

He can only hire who applies and this is now the only type of person who applies for narrative designer jobs in southern California.

Even though i have only anecdotal evidence there is huge number of people all over the world who would want to work at obsidian.Not all of them are hipsters and ideologs.

 

[fantadomat]

Kate dollarhyde more like kate antifahyde.... Why feargus is hiring hipsters is beyond me.

He can only hire who applies and this is now the only type of person who applies for narrative designer jobs in southern California.

Even though i have only anecdotal evidence there is huge number of people all over the world who would want to work at obsidian.Not all of them are hipsters and ideologs.

Wanting and working are two different things guys. People tent to hire people with similar views,therefore we have soyboyz hiring soyboyz. In a few games time Obsidian will become a sjw shit place. For now i am enjoying their games but with every new iteration it becomes worst.

 

[Iskramor]

Kate dollarhyde more like kate antifahyde.... Why feargus is hiring hipsters is beyond me.

He can only hire who applies and this is now the only type of person who applies for narrative designer jobs in southern California.

Even though i have only anecdotal evidence there is huge number of people all over the world who would want to work at obsidian.Not all of them are hipsters and ideologs.

Wanting and working are two different things guys. People tent to hire people with similar views,therefore we have soyboyz hiring soyboyz. In a few games time Obsidian will become a sjw shit place. For now i am enjoying their games but with every new iteration it becomes worst.

So they are hiring on ideological base whats next racial one ? They fight discrimination with more discrimination interesting...

 

[fantadomat]

Haplo , please give me the shittiest build you can find and let's see how I will fare with it on PotD, with stock companions only or with custom companions allowed, as you choose.

I think it will turn out to be viable.

A solo play with all the stats at 6,use the console. A rogue will be possible if put all in the stealth...maybe.

 

[fantadomat]

Kate dollarhyde more like kate antifahyde.... Why feargus is hiring hipsters is beyond me.

He can only hire who applies and this is now the only type of person who applies for narrative designer jobs in southern California.

Even though i have only anecdotal evidence there is huge number of people all over the world who would want to work at obsidian.Not all of them are hipsters and ideologs.

Wanting and working are two different things guys. People tent to hire people with similar views,therefore we have soyboyz hiring soyboyz. In a few games time Obsidian will become a sjw shit place. For now i am enjoying their games but with every new iteration it becomes worst.

So they are hiring on ideological base whats next racial one ? They fight discrimination with more discrimination interesting...

Of course mate,it is the nature of terrans. If you are a nazi you won't go and hire bunch of niggers for the lolz. People do like to be surrounded with like minded individuals. Also the ones that call them self progressive and tolerant are the most racist and intolerant people. If you look at most studious out there you will see that the ones that call everyone racist and bigot are made by a lot of white dudes. Not arguing for sjw shit,just pointing out hypocrisy. Everyone likes their own kind and their own views no matter what. Same is accurate for most things people don't go in clubs that have music that they hate for example.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

did PoE2 change from flat DR to percentage based?

 

[Infinitron]

Ydwin:

 

[CptMace]

did PoE2 change from flat DR to percentage based?

It uses percentage based damage thresholds. In addition to the hit roll, there's another calculation which compares armor rating (replaces armor's DR) with penetration (new mechanic). You either do 70% less, normal or 30% more damage depending on this. In addition to the attack roll (graze, hit, crit, miss) which I think hasn't changed.

 

[FreeKaner]

It seems the artists of Obsidian took 18th century clothing as an example as well. So rather than this being just "Renaissance" (in itself a term with too much baggage), it is a general Early Modern period mash.

 

[Lacrymas]

Huh, Ydwin's model is very cool, not gonna lie. Still has that anime vibe, but in a serious way.

 

[Trashos]

Ydwin looks like crap. Maybe it's the hair, why is it white?

 

[frajaq]

Goddamn her outfit looks good

now only have to change her portrait

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

Ydwin looks like crap. Maybe it's the hair, why is it white?

red eyes, so probably an albino

 

[Sensuki]

Not sure people realize what they're talking about re: "percentile-based damage reduction but without Penetration".

A system with armor that grants percentage-based damage reduction with no concept of "penetration" would be dumb/limited. It just turns armor into effectively an HP multiplier. Light armor: -30% damage, Medium: Armor: -50% damage, Heavy Armor: -70% damage. And eventually you run out of room to grow, it can only go up to 100%. You can implement it in different forms, but a sliding scale of Weapon Penetration vs Armor seems essential in an RPG of this complexity. Armor-only percentage-based DR might work in other kinds of games, like single character RPGs with relatively simple itemization.

The outcome of PEN acts the same as "Effective Physical Health" except that unless you do a math calc against every different PEN outcome you will never understand the actual benefit you are getting, just that 'this is better' and 'this is worse' and sometimes 'this does nothing'. It is incredibly obtuse.

There is absolutely _nothing_ wrong with a % based reduction that is easier for the player (and designer!) to understand and calculate - that makes it much easier to work with.

Light armor: -30% damage, Medium: Armor: -50% damage, Heavy Armor: -70% damage

In no way does it have to be this way. I think the issue is the comparison of PEN vs Armor, while also having an attack resolution system - both together makes things really mushy and harder to understand than the DT system. It feels like the exact opposite of what they were trying to achieve by replacing the DT system (which wasn't fantastic, but not awful either).

 

[Infinitron]

In no way does it have to be this way.

So what way can it be?

I was expecting you to suggest the compromise of giving the weapons direct percentage modifiers, so a sword could subtract 20% from the DR, a stilleto could subtract 30%, etc. That's less scalable/harder to balance than using an abstract Pen value though.

If obtuseness and mushiness is your main problem though then like I said earlier, just throw damage reduction out the window and go back to good old accuracy vs dodge only.

 

[tripedal]

Honestly still a bit bummed we're not getting Ydwin as a full companion...

 

[Sensuki]

So what way can it be?

There are other ways to calculate how much % reduction you get, lots of games have examples of this. I'm not offering any suggestions at all for PoE2 :D

 

[AwesomeButton]

It uses percentage based damage thresholds. In addition to the hit roll, there's another roll which compares armor rating (replaces armor's DR) with penetration (new mechanic). You either do 70% less, normal or 30% more damage depending on this. In addition the first roll (graze, hit, crit, miss) which I think hasn't changed.

Graze is all but removed, except for some specific types of attack. I don't remember which/not sure if they were ever specified.

 

[Infinitron]

Didn't grazing come back after people complained about its removal ? Also it's not 70% anymore remember

 

[AwesomeButton]

Didn't graze come back after people complained about its removal ? Also it's not 70% anymore remember

Lol, if that's true, it's going to be really hilarious.

It seems the artists of Obsidian took 18th century clothing as an example as well. So rather than this being just "Renaissance" (in itself a term with too much baggage), it is a general Early Modern period mash.

This is something you and I discussed probably 100 pages ago. I don't know if Josh isn't enforcing standards for what period should the clothes stick to, or he is rationalizing that he is going for "feelz". I doubt it's due to simple incompetence, because he is certainly competent enough to discern 18th c. from early 16th c. fashion.

 

[Lacrymas]

Ydwin looks like crap. Maybe it's the hair, why is it white?

She's a pale elf and they are all borderline albinos.

Lol, if that's true, it's going to be really hilarious.

Grazes exist, but I'm not sure if it's universal or only a few abilities allow you to graze. I'm sure that some abilities in the beta specifically say they enable them, but not sure if that's a relic of the previous beta build (i.e. it's universal, but they haven't changed the tooltips) or it's still only them.