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

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Arcane
Joined
Dec 19, 2015
Messages
1,724
Location
Italy
I didn't follow at all the development, since I consider PoE one of the biggest disappointment of my gaming career.

Are there genuine hopes for this sequel? Did they learn from the shitton of mistakes they committed with the first one?
 

santino27

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Oct 1, 2008
Messages
2,683
My team has the sexiest and deadliest waifus you can recruit.
The problem with scaling is two-fold - the first one is the inability to see your character's advancement, making it meaningless. The second is making the different creatures nonsensical. As in, it can make a lowly rat as powerful as a dragon because only the numerical stats matter, rather than the logical consistency of the setting. This was obvious in Witcher 3, where the mobs didn't scale to your level, but they did scale to the level of the zone, so a dirty hobo could be more powerful than a creature of legend you defeated 5 levels ago.

So which open world RPG did this right according to you?

Baldur's gate 2, where levels mean nothing until HLAs?

Morrowind had fixed important stuff and scaling randoms, that's one of the options in Deadfire. Witcher 3 is again one of the options in Deadfire.

The scaling in PoE1 didn't suddenly make spirits and ghosts dangerous when you're lvl 16, but made them not explode instantly. It's the same as if you remove the +ACC/DEF per level for everyone, who's only purpose is to make you able to outlevel content - the plebs still didn't get high level stuff, so you still feel your advancement.

To be fair, BG2 did have (limited) scaling, but they did it by increasing the # of mobs and/or adding tougher mobs to encounters. I agree that just boosting a given mob's stats is a poor way to go.

As far as POE2 goes, I'm going to enable level scaling, but only up, because if I have to choose between always being challenged even though it ruins some of the internal consistency of the bestiary or simply blowing through content because it's too easy, I'll take the former.
 

2house2fly

Magister
Joined
Apr 10, 2013
Messages
1,877
I didn't follow at all the development, since I consider PoE one of the biggest disappointment of my gaming career.

Are there genuine hopes for this sequel? Did they learn from the shitton of mistakes they committed with the first one?
No, they did not. Welcome to the dumpster fire.
 

Parabalus

Arcane
Joined
Mar 23, 2015
Messages
17,442
The problem with scaling is two-fold - the first one is the inability to see your character's advancement, making it meaningless. The second is making the different creatures nonsensical. As in, it can make a lowly rat as powerful as a dragon because only the numerical stats matter, rather than the logical consistency of the setting. This was obvious in Witcher 3, where the mobs didn't scale to your level, but they did scale to the level of the zone, so a dirty hobo could be more powerful than a creature of legend you defeated 5 levels ago.

So which open world RPG did this right according to you?

Baldur's gate 2, where levels mean nothing until HLAs?

Morrowind had fixed important stuff and scaling randoms, that's one of the options in Deadfire. Witcher 3 is again one of the options in Deadfire.

The scaling in PoE1 didn't suddenly make spirits and ghosts dangerous when you're lvl 16, but made them not explode instantly. It's the same as if you remove the +ACC/DEF per level for everyone, who's only purpose is to make you able to outlevel content - the plebs still didn't get high level stuff, so you still feel your advancement.

To be fair, BG2 did have scaling, but they did it by increasing the # of mobs and/or adding tougher mobs to encounters. I agree that just boosting a given mob's stats is a poor way to go.,

Wasn't this just for the randomly spawned mobs?

So Temple Ruins could have a Lich in the lava room or on the Amaunator tiles, if you were high level (or forced the option in SCS), instead of skeleton warriors - I don't think there is any scaling in major encounters, outside of going to WK in SoA.
 

santino27

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Oct 1, 2008
Messages
2,683
My team has the sexiest and deadliest waifus you can recruit.
The problem with scaling is two-fold - the first one is the inability to see your character's advancement, making it meaningless. The second is making the different creatures nonsensical. As in, it can make a lowly rat as powerful as a dragon because only the numerical stats matter, rather than the logical consistency of the setting. This was obvious in Witcher 3, where the mobs didn't scale to your level, but they did scale to the level of the zone, so a dirty hobo could be more powerful than a creature of legend you defeated 5 levels ago.

So which open world RPG did this right according to you?

Baldur's gate 2, where levels mean nothing until HLAs?

Morrowind had fixed important stuff and scaling randoms, that's one of the options in Deadfire. Witcher 3 is again one of the options in Deadfire.

The scaling in PoE1 didn't suddenly make spirits and ghosts dangerous when you're lvl 16, but made them not explode instantly. It's the same as if you remove the +ACC/DEF per level for everyone, who's only purpose is to make you able to outlevel content - the plebs still didn't get high level stuff, so you still feel your advancement.

To be fair, BG2 did have scaling, but they did it by increasing the # of mobs and/or adding tougher mobs to encounters. I agree that just boosting a given mob's stats is a poor way to go.,

Wasn't this just for the randomly spawned mobs?

So Temple Ruins could have a Lich in the lava room or on the Amaunator tiles, if you were high level (or forced the option in SCS), instead of skeleton warriors - I don't think there is any scaling in major encounters, outside of going to WK in SoA.

Correct. You caught me in mid-edit... the scaling is far more limited than most cases we are talking about, but I still think that approach worked better than most recent solutions (and would still work better if also applied to major encounters too). :)
 

Lacrymas

Arcane
Joined
Sep 23, 2015
Messages
18,001
Pathfinder: Wrath
Scaling can work if they either replace the mobs with tougher ones or add more of them in the encounter, that way you get the best of all worlds - logical consistency in the setting, genuine progression curve and sidequests that don't overlevel you too much.
 

Parabalus

Arcane
Joined
Mar 23, 2015
Messages
17,442
Scaling can work if they either replace the mobs with tougher ones or add more of them in the encounter, that way you get the best of all worlds - logical consistency in the setting, genuine progression curve and sidequests that don't overlevel you too much.

Replacing the mobs with tougher ones = level scaling with massive art requirements.

I'd still like to know how you would solve the open world RPG issue, or at least point to a game which solved it satisfyingly - Deadfire's options seem to cater to everyone.

Disappointing news...




Next week is too long to wait. I'll test on the first beach location if Vela is there, if not, hello Legacy creator.


Looks like the bug is unlikely:

balance lord said:
I know the Vela issue has been fixed for our hotfix patch which will come ASAP (but not for launch today -- it still needs to be tested). The problem doesn't appear if you completed the quest that Vela is a part of. It appeared if you took the baby but didn't resolve the quest. I don't have confirmation on the Edér issue.
 

Orma

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Aug 10, 2012
Messages
1,698
Location
Kraków
Torment: Tides of Numenera
f9e5de4ff25c28847b2d209194253d2b.png
 

ArchAngel

Arcane
Joined
Mar 16, 2015
Messages
19,998
So no more excuses for this game. Now it is 100% going to be compared with BG2 and if it is not better than a 20 year old game, Obsidian can shut down their studio.
 

dragonul09

Arcane
Edgy
Joined
Dec 19, 2014
Messages
1,445
So what the deal with Thaos... will he come back?
Oh god please no, I already forgot everything about the first game, especially the boring antagonist, so please don't let him come back, in fact don't bring anything from the first game:negative:
 

Prime Junta

Guest
Fuck it, I'm gonna enjoy the launch even with all the drama. Godspeed Deadfire, and may the filthy lucre turn to ashes in your mouth, Feargus.
 

Lacrymas

Arcane
Joined
Sep 23, 2015
Messages
18,001
Pathfinder: Wrath
Replacing the mobs with tougher ones = level scaling with massive art requirements.

I'd still like to know how you would solve the open world RPG issue, or at least point to a game which solved it satisfyingly - Deadfire's options seem to cater to everyone.

They can use mobs that are already available, no need to make more models specifically for level scaling. Or don't level scale. I'd say BG saga does this relatively well, at least you don't feel like it's level-scaled. It can be smoke and mirrors, but don't make rats more powerful than dragons. I'd say PoE2's solution will be fine - only up-scaling and it doesn't go on forever.
 

AwesomeButton

Proud owner of BG 3: Day of Swen's Tentacle
Patron
Joined
Nov 23, 2014
Messages
16,242
Location
At large
PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath
Are there genuine hopes for this sequel? Did they learn from the shitton of mistakes they committed with the first one?
That depends on what kind of hopes you have.

So no more excuses for this game. Now it is 100% going to be compared with BG2 and if it is not better than a 20 year old game, Obsidian can shut down their studio.
No. Now it's 100% going to be compared to PoE, as it should be. It makes no sense to compare it to the games that PoE was supposedly a "spiritual successor" to. Compared to PoE, it easily wins of course.
 

Pizzashoes

Scholar
Joined
Oct 31, 2017
Messages
444
Shred the bastard to pieces. Woedica and her followers deserve nothing less than annihilation.
 
Last edited:

ArchAngel

Arcane
Joined
Mar 16, 2015
Messages
19,998
So no more excuses for this game. Now it is 100% going to be compared with BG2 and if it is not better than a 20 year old game, Obsidian can shut down their studio.
No. Now it's 100% going to be compared to PoE, as it should be. It makes no sense to compare it to the games that PoE was supposedly a "spiritual successor" to. Compared to PoE, it easily wins of course.
You misunderstand. I don't mean compare in mechanics and that, but in overall quality, fun, size, scope, story and the rest.
No more excuses now that they didn't have enough time, money, or needed to build engine first , spent too much time on world building and other pathetic excuses you people made for PoE1 (and it was still worse than BG1EE).

Now PoE2 is either better than a 20 year old game or Obsidian is not capable of making good games anymore.
 

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