Eternity Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pre-DLC Thread [GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Alienman]

Poor kitty. I don't think he likes this area much.

 

[Blakemoreland Hybrid Boss]

The trailer is horrible. LoL at the companions being uglyfied on purpose by the SJWs at Obsidian.

 

[razvedchiki]

has anyone tried to run it on a low end laptop?for science purposes of course.

 

[Merlkir]

Poor kitty. I don't think he likes this area much.

Oh goodness, do the pets swim, or do they walk underwater?

 

[Bocha]

Where is the codex review?, The Game is good?

 

[razvedchiki]

Darth Roxor it is time.

 

[AN4RCHID]

To the people finding the game too easy, turn your game up to POTD, and upscale the level content. That should fix that. And stop cheesing

Thought about it, but I want to see the encounters as they were designed to be played. Iirc Sawyer said that PoTD isn't balanced at all, they just enable all enemy spawns and uniformly bloat the HP.

 

[Trash Player]

How is:

• At-a-glance visual clarity of battles. The animation system, speed, and VFX of PoE 1 often made fights feel like a muddy mess compared to the IE games
• Set piece combat. How are the 'big' set piece battles in PoE 2? Is there much of a lock and key aspect to skill usage reminiscent of SCS mage duels, or is it more of a MMO-style DPS race?
  
• Itemization, as compared to BG2. Are there weapons that inhabit the same class (sword, axe, etc) but offer distinctly different ways to play your character (per granted effects, for example) or shine situationally (double damage to undead, etc) in a meaningful way? Is there an abundance of flaming / epic weapons and gear, such that nothing stands out because it's all so epic? Is the presentation of item stats more AD&D-ish, or do players find color coded items of +5%?
  
• Pacing. Is the story broken up into Acts, and do those Acts present geographic restrictions? Such as Chapter 2 to 3 3 to 4 in BG2.

?

It is still more or less a muddy mess on the eyes but the feedback is somewhat better. Balancing is coming and forget about encounter designs at this point. Only wizards and ciphers have esoteric abilities that are reminiscent of IE arcane. Top items are PoE1 3.x: They are all quite situational/build-dependent. Non-weapons can't be switched mid-combat, so that is another dimension to consider. They are all more down to earth compared to those WMD in high level IE games. Pacing is almost sandboxy: world map open up after starter area.

 

[Parabalus]

To the people finding the game too easy, turn your game up to POTD, and upscale the level content. That should fix that. And stop cheesing

Thought about it, but I want to see the encounters as they were designed to be played. Iirc Sawyer said that PoTD isn't balanced at all, they just enable all enemy spawns and uniformly bloat the HP.

BTW, if you can't stop sidequesting and want more of a challenge, I strongly recommend enabling Level Scaling > Everything > Only Scale Up.

 

[AN4RCHID]

But level scaling is so gay

 

[Shadenuat]

(glares at bunch of NPCs stuck running into lampposts)

yeeeah

I'm beginning to remember which studio's game I am playing, and who gets fired if he doesn't launch game on tuesday

 

[Tigranes]

How is:

• At-a-glance visual clarity of battles. The animation system, speed, and VFX of PoE 1 often made fights feel like a muddy mess compared to the IE games
• Set piece combat. How are the 'big' set piece battles in PoE 2? Is there much of a lock and key aspect to skill usage reminiscent of SCS mage duels, or is it more of a MMO-style DPS race?
  
• Itemization, as compared to BG2. Are there weapons that inhabit the same class (sword, axe, etc) but offer distinctly different ways to play your character (per granted effects, for example) or shine situationally (double damage to undead, etc) in a meaningful way? Is there an abundance of flaming / epic weapons and gear, such that nothing stands out because it's all so epic? Is the presentation of item stats more AD&D-ish, or do players find color coded items of +5%?
  
• Pacing. Is the story broken up into Acts, and do those Acts present geographic restrictions? Such as Chapter 2 to 3 3 to 4 in BG2.

?

It is still more or less a muddy mess on the eyes but the feedback is somewhat better. Balancing is coming and forget about encounter designs at this point. Only wizards and ciphers have esoteric abilities that are reminiscent of IE arcane. Top items are PoE1 3.x: They are all quite situational/build-dependent. Non-weapons can't be switched mid-combat, so that is another dimension to consider. They are all more down to earth compared to those WMD in high level IE games. Pacing is almost sandboxy: world map open up after starter area.

Have people played 30 hours or something already? I'm reserving judgment on most of these until I've seen midgame.

There is better clarity, but it's like POE with better clarity rather than the supercrisp IE stuff, which, I'm increasingly appreciating, had better feels than pretty much every RPG we've seen since. The slower pacing & new hover-info options do help you keep track of shit better on the math side.

 

[agris]

Tigranes You're right of course, most of that could only be answered by people who've played more than a day. I believe we have a few people in this thread who reviewed the game and thus have a lot more playtime.

 

[duanth123]

Pretty surprised at the generally positive reaction to the game in this thread. But then again, this is the Obsidian subforum, so all the people who absolutely loathed PoE 1 are probably too busy shitting up GRPG with complaints about how there aren't any good games in the world anymore or something.

I though PoE1 was pretty good (not great, but entertaining enough) but I liked White March a lot (kinda felt like a less severe NWN 2 OC - > MotB jump in quality to me). So from what I've gathered PoE 2 is shaping up to be the Storm of Zehir of the series? I want to give it a shot, but at the same time I want the "complete version" with all of the DLCs they promised. So I guess I'm gonna have to wait for that. Or at least wait for a few months till they patch it, cause, you know, Bugsidian and all that.

I don't particularly like PoE II so far. But I'm reserving judgment in fairness until I have more hours. As others have said, there are problems that smack you in the face within the first 5 minutes. The VO is cringey, the combat still feels boring, and the plot hook is both nonsensical and extremely safe, like some licensed comic.

You are right though that this is the Obsidian sub forum and it's been a good think circle jerk for some time now.

 

[Infinitron]

It don't think it can really count as a cloistered fanboy subforum when all of its threads are visible in the main GRPG index...

 

[MajorMace]

Can someone enlighten me on something : I have several hours in the game now, i'm level 6 and have Xoti, Edér and Serafen in the party.

(Aloth wasn't even there, turns out I have no memory of what I actually did in the save i've imported (besides the fact I sided with the doemenels and berath and played a fucking prick), I remember though that I played with mercenaries only and stocked companions in caed nua. Might be that I sent aloth away the first time I met him, so I guess he's not in deadfire in such occasion although I don't know why.)

Real problem though, is that on the reputation window, I don't have any companion showing up. I've cleared the first island, I did the pirate's lair quest to take the fucker form the beginning off. To utter a word : I'm pretty sure i'm passed the tutorial part (couldn't tell, expert mode disable pop ups). I suspect it's a giant bug ? Isn't this supposed to appear as soon as I recruit a companion ?

Spoiler

Other big bugs I had : impossible to alt-tab, or rather I would alt-tab and the pc would freeze. I had no other choice but turn it off by force, twice on separated occasions.

Finally, I got a letter from someone in gilded vale saying that she's glad I put his soul back in her baby... thing is I went with Berath ending, and I'm pretty sure the deal wasn't about that. I think Hylea is about that. So I assume everything regarding save import is potentially bugged ?

EDIT : Just realized my char sheet says Rogue, although I play a Trickster (?)
I'm super confused, obsidian games on release are a nightmare, you never know if it's working as intended and you lack the documentation or if it's completely fucked...

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Lmao this subform, a pro-Obsidian circlejerk? Last 2 years if you as much say that Josh Sawyer might not be as bad as Stalin, the next day it's a mathematical guarantee that you will open up a thread to 10 pages of whining from Lacrymas, Lurker King and Sensuski.

Get the fuck out of here with your martyr complex about being oppressed by everpresent fanboys.

 

[Prime Junta]

I don't particularly like PoE II so far. But I'm reserving judgment in fairness until I have more hours. As others have said, there are problems that smack you in the face within the first 5 minutes. The VO is cringey, the combat still feels boring, and the plot hook is both nonsensical and extremely safe, like some licensed comic.

I'm with you on the VO and the plot (hook). "Excuse me, have you seen a jolly green giant pass by? No? Okay well drop me a line if you do, I need to murder him."

The combat though is otherwise quite okay except the difficulty needs tuning up. I especially like the more active enemy AI, they seem to be targeting much more dynamically than before. And the encounter density is much better -- there's space to breathe on the maps, instead of having mobs crammed together every few steps.

I do think that if you don't dig the combat, there's not gonna be a whole lot for you here.

The exploration though is much more fun than I expected. Like SoZ done right.

Josh Sawyer might not be as bad as Stalin

As bad as what now?

 

[duanth123]

It doesn't really count as some cloisted fanboy subforum when all of its threads are visible in the main GRPG index...

You're right, it actually takes a specific group of easily pleased posters and maybe a proven shill with no taste spamming endless news updates.

Luckily we have both in ample supply

 

[2house2fly]

It don't think it can really count as a cloistered fanboy subforum when all of its threads are visible in the main GRPG index...

It always struck me as more of a filter for threads than a subforum

 

[Infinitron]

May 7th: Pillars of Eternity 2 better be as good as BG2 or Obsidian is a failure

May 9th: Pillars of Eternity 2 is basically SoZ 2 and it's fucking awesome

 

[Great Deceiver]

Definitely getting SoZ vibes from this, but the combat so far has been braindead easy. I just came from a playthrough of IWD/HoW though, so I'm probably not attuned to modern sensibilities.

The writing is a step up from the first game, in the sense that it's less verbose and therefore less insufferable. Lore dumps are still very frequent and they've again failed miserably in making me care about the world. So far, the colonial 'dillema' seems rather naive and the interplay between factions is entirely predictable.

Mechanically, the system seems overdesigned as always and a little pointless. I played and finished the first game during the first couple of weeks after release and they've apparently overhauled a great many things since then, but I don't think I care enough to figure out what they are exactly.

I hope that the game does well, for the studio's sake, but it would be really cool if they manned up and made a turn-based game for once.

 

[MRY]

I remember another funny instance of loot placement. In the slums district of Neketaka you find a beggar that says "please help me, I haven't eaten for days" etc etc, RIGHT NEXT TO HIM is a lootable barrel full of vegetables and rice.

Teach a man to loot...

 

[Alienman]

Poor kitty. I don't think he likes this area much.

Oh goodness, do the pets swim, or do they walk underwater?

Walk on the bottom. It looks like you have a little shark following you

 

[Blakemoreland Hybrid Boss]

Lmao this subform, a pro-Obsidian circlejerk? Last 2 years if you as much say that Josh Sawyer might not be as bad as Stalin, the next day it's a mathematical guarantee that you will open up a thread to 10 pages of whining from Lacrymas, Lurker King and Sensuski.

LOL how come you mention my name if I'm barely posting in Obsidian sub-forums? And why everyone keep using my first nick instead of the new one? It seems that my new nick was a flop, just like PoE2. Sad!