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

Jezal_k23

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I just think that auto attack to win gameplay might not be the best judge of the combat system.
 
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MajorMace

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let's pull em out and compare already

Easy Tekēhu. We're not in a bath house.
Ekera, Me say that el gringo should be free to play on normal difficulty without hardcore gamers awkwardly shaming him, ese.
His calluous hand slowly moves towards his richly decorated red huana sombrero, that he proceeds to gently yet firmly incline as a sign of salutation while a friendly, warm smile gradually appears on his disgracious face.
 

DeepOcean

Arcane
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Nov 8, 2012
Messages
7,394
I really found Irenicus, pompous and melodramatic, his arrogance was grating and borderline comical, he had no redeeming features beyond being a powerful competent mage, Thaos is a much better villain conceptually than Irenicus, especially on motivation, Irenicus motivation of wanting to be a god is Disney cartoon level of villainy while Thaos motivation is altruistic and rational even if insane and evil.

People feel Irenicus is better as a villain because he is much more active through the game and the bond between him and the player are stronger because he stole something from the player, so the player feels pissed off as the player vanity is offended by him right from the start with you being on a cage as an animal and Irenicus treating you like a little insignificant thing later. Thaos bond with the player character is weak, it happens through an accident even and the personal stakes for the player to stop Thaos are never explained, so while being much more complex and theoretically more interesting, the writers failed hard into realizing the concept for Thaos, that could had been an awesome villain.
 

Jezal_k23

Guest
I always loved Irenicus up until around Spellhold and beyond. I think he starts out compelling and declines the farther you get in the game because eventually you figure out he really is a pretty generic villain as the mystery and menace that surrounded him at the start fades. His voice acting is incredible though, and that alongside the dream sequences are what really imprinted him on my memory forever despite how generic he turns out to be.
 

IHaveHugeNick

Arcane
Joined
Apr 5, 2015
Messages
1,870,123
Anyhow, finished it. Ended up clocking 47 hours and I didn't bother exploring right-bottom part of the map. I'm assuming that's where those vampires are that you guys talked about, since I didn't run into any vampire gang that was hard to beat.

The finale of main storyline was okay, but nothing special. Beautiful locations on the final maps but I expected a bit more umph

Can't be arsed writing full review, so I'll go with the usual format

+ excellent worldbuilding
+ fantastic art, there's some gorgeous locations out there
+ arguably best itemization in the genre
+ the same goes for Neketaka
+ well thought out lore, much more coherent and consistent compared to PoE1 which felt like random locations lumped
together.
+ I like the structure. Neketaka alone is like 20-25 hours of gameplay, so islands packed with 30 minute dungeons provide nice change of pace
+ deep, complex system and mechanics that are very promising in terms of long term replayability
+nicely done skill checks
+ fuckton of cool CYOA sequences
+ companions are much more lively and interesting
+ much improved encounter design, plenty of set-piece fights.
+ relatively bug free. Other than one CTD at the start I didn't run into anything game breaking.


- music is an insult
- combat difficulty is a joke
- I am not sure if reputation system does anything
- ship combat is as generic and bland as it gets
- in general not enough ship related content
- reactivity seems rather limited compared to how much they talked about it. I'll reassess after 2nd playthrough
- wasted opportunity with shanties
- cut out content is poorly hidden. I get that every game cuts out content, but it's just hard to hide it on an archipelago setting
- writing is solid at best. Once upon the time writing was the main appeal of Obsidian games, but that time is long gone

Overall I'd give it a solid 4/5 with potential for more once patches and DLCs start rolling
 
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MajorMace

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actually the tough vampires are north west of the map.
Bestiary also makes them the highest level critter in the game. At least that's consistent.

South east is a cool dismissal playground, lower vampires there. It also has the best heavy armor and helm. And a lacklustre final fight.
 

AN4RCHID

Arcane
Joined
Jan 24, 2013
Messages
4,728
So, I got a sabotage mission from the Vailians added to my journal while talking to their leader lady. I was very careful not to say I would do it because I'm primarily working for the Rautaians, but it was added to my inventory anyway. Later after I finished Maia's quest, she stops me and says she's leaving the party because I'm helping the Vailians against the Rautai. I had already tried talking to Atsura and the Shogun lady and there was no way to tip them off about the Vailians, I was just doomed to Maia leaving the party as soon as that quest got on my list. Weak! :)
 

Sentinel

Arcane
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Ommadawn
Irenicus is a slamdunk antagonist who made history, and the themes behind him are very deep for those who might care
Ah

I always thought Irenicus was good because he was voiced by Ras Alghul

And because he was a simple villain that served the game excellently without overwhelming whole world and whole setting with his desire to destroy the celestial heavens and bring down the world order - he just wanted to be god, like many other D&D people, why hate the dude, eh? He was like a character a D&D player could come up with and finish at high level, as crazy but fun. He had small humane(elvish) part about banging elf queen and then betraying elfs, but was completely evil and irredeemable (before modders fixed it). He was larger than life and a powerful wizard, serving as a live presentation of one of the best systems in the game. And he was dangerous, because spellcasters are dangerous. And annoying. And his dream sequences while retarded, carried a simple message. He was also interesting in a sense that he was not, in fact, a bhaalspawn, but wanted to replace you.

Overall, I wouldn't even say he was written better than Sarevok, especially if we combine BG1 Sarevok with ToB Sarevok (I just like the idea of 2 bhaalspawn, blood relatives, one of which got all the good mentors and another was abandoned and got all the evul ones and how roles could be theoretically reversed), but he worked. He was memorable. And also the end fight against him, just as against Sarevok, was friggin bonkers and larger than anything, and it did feel personal to your character. Hey, not just your character actually. For Jaheira, and Minsc too. And Valygar who hated wizords. In fact, all companions seemed to be itchy to fight the bastard. Worked well, surprisingly, even without too much extra content for this part.

Was larger than anything PoE has with it's own boss fights, that is. None of them are personal, and none provide similar satisfaction of a win against thing which felt so unreachable before.

Irenicus didn't have any "depth", imo. No more than any D&D villain had in some D&D books like loldrizzd. But thing is, Eothas does not has any either. He's pointless. Your journey in the end feels pointless. Eothas is no Myrkul or some other character from MoTB. The THEMES seem to repeat themselves (hey let's destroy thing holding souls), but the execution is like on whole multiple layers beneath writing MoTB has. Is there ever a friggin actual deeper twist on the whole thing? What is the conflict? What does one game matter? If in the end, Eothas just does his thing, and you just observe it. And then read bunch of slides about your gay friends.

An example of dialogue from PoE2:
Xoti: Eothas, look at me it's me, Imoen!
Eothas: Yeah yeah ok

An example of dialogue with your companion and a god about souls from better game:



Fuck. Where did it all go so wrong? Why did we lose this?

Fuck.

That MotB scene is one of the greatest ever. The eerie music, cold voice, the way he interacts with your companions, the wisdom check to reveal his plans. Holy fuck. George Ziets had divine inspiration for this game for sure.
 

Jezal_k23

Guest
What is it about the music that people don't like? I really love it.

I think it's ok overall but I expected more from it due to the change in scenery and tone. I expected it to sound more adventurous and energetic, instead it sounds just like POE1. The music fit that game, but Deadfire not so much imo. I wanted something more akin to the BG or IWD soundtracks.
 

Sentinel

Arcane
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Ommadawn
Acc bonus with proficient weapons/penalty to weapons you're not proficient with.

Ideally I'd just restrict use of weapons to weapon types you're proficient with though.
 
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Safav Hamon

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I agree with the accuracy bonus, but I don't support restricting what weapons players are allowed to use.
 
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aweigh

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Yeah, I agree. I find all of the modals to be completely useless, either too situational or too X-treme (yeah, sure, I'll lose -15 ACC in exchange for the equivalent of 1 attribute point's worth of DEX/recovery).

AwesomeButton

One thing I'd like to do is make it so that an item type can use the proficiency ability from another of its type, for example having a pistol utilize the arquebus proficiency modal and vice-versa. How would you go about this?

I can add the StatusEffect IDs of the pistol's wp prof to the Arquebus's wp prof, and vice versa, but that means that when you toggle the modal you'll get all the effects at once. Or give shields access to all 3 of the shield abilities.

How would you do this? I tried looking in the items list some parameter that says what modals the weapon has access to but didn't find one; the LaunchOnEquip IDs are all related to item properties and not modals.

Ideally what I want to do is: you equip a shield, you take the shield modals and regardless of small/med/large the equipped shield grants access to any proficiency you've taken.

I.E. you take all 3, you have all 3 regardless of the shield. I can't figure out how to accomplish this via IDs.
 

Alienman

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Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy Codex Year of the Donut Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
After watching the stream, with all those bugs now confirmed, it is almost required to wait a year now before playing an Obsidian game. It's just too much tbh, worst part for me is probably the broken level scaling.
 

Jenkem

その目、だれの目?
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An oasis of love and friendship.
Make the Codex Great Again! Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. I helped put crap in Monomyth
I like the idea that you pick a couple weapons you are proficient in, and get their bonuses, but are still allowed to use whatever.. It's flexible enough and certainly not every choice is good depending on your class and build.. What annoys me though is that through leveling you can get more and more.. it should just limit it to the two you select in the beginning imo
 

Latro

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Jun 5, 2013
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Vita umbratilis
Oh, come on, don't be asking for "citations", I don't want to go through that BS again. Aaaall right then, here is the current state of Obsidian. I am warning you that you are never getting these seconds back.

An aged dwarf shares this strange floating platform with you. His face is creased by so many wrinkles that his features lie buried amid shadowy pockets of skin. Still, the dwarf's well-practiced habits have left telltale tracks of a welcoming rictus across his visage. You can see his smile coming before it blooms, reshaping the dwarf's face from a hanging sack of flesh into something resembling an oddly-carved, merry gourd, replete with unhealthy bumps and discolored botches.

A pale, slender neck rises from the gorget, topped by a hollow face. The milky skin stretched across it is delicate and translucent, like parchment that has been scraped clean too many times.

With each movement, her armor squeaks and groans as though bearing an incredible weight.

She points a a finger in the direction of the dwarf who led you there. Though the movement is slight, her gauntlet squeaks like a rusty hinge.

It is really depressing.
:lol:
 

Kyl Von Kull

The Night Tripper
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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
aweigh the modals that boost penetration are very useful when you get into a fight with enemies that outlevel you substantially. But other than that and the arbalest modal with knockdown, I agree that they’re very underwhelming. Maybe when combat is properly balanced there will be more of a reason to use them.
 
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Safav Hamon

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Village Idiot The Real Fanboy
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The problem with the modals isn't that they are too situational, but that there are few situations in which you actually need to use them. In a tough fight they can be a gamechanger.
 
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aweigh

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I think what would save the modal system is for modals to apply to more than one weapon. Like mentioned above, having the 3 shield modals accessible by any size shield.

Or having the Arquebus be able to Rush Reload, instead of only having access to the Arq modal.

You still need to take each proficiency anyway, and you can only use one at a time, so I don't see how it would imbalance anything. They're all so situational that having them tied to 1 specific item type makes them largely useless.

After all, what logical reason is there that a Morningstar (or Bo Staff) can't do what the Club's modal does for the club? Or what reason is there that a Stiletto can't be used defensively like a Dagger? Etc.

I would do this myself and I've tried to but I don't know how to make it so that weapons can access other modals. As soon as I do I'll do it. The closest I've come is giving an existing modal the effects of another modal, but they're all together so that if you toggle the modal you get 2 modals' worth of effects applied. Obviously that's a no-go.
 

duanth123

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Mar 22, 2008
Messages
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This island earth
writing is solid at best. Once upon the time writing was the main appeal of Obsidian games, but that time is long gone

Calling it solid is too kind.

I would say consistently low quality but serviceable. Rarely does a character say something that I'll reload to read again.

Characters on average are better grounded in the universe of the game, and I wouldn't say they feel haphazardly thrown about like in most shit tier rpgs, but they still feel like rpg trope inserts.I don't sense any ambition from their characterization or that of the factions.And the native shit with their Ekera Ekera is just cringe after a time. Only the queen seems intelligent and balances the native customs with the modernity of the setting, without coming off like some noble savage.


And that is when you're not being pestered by the weird, post-modern inanity of your companions.


Eder, aside from his odd mental regression from the first game (lacking the countenance of a war veteran) and the fact that every character seems to be telepathically aware of his farmer background, starts talking about fucking Xoti so loud that dogs started barking within 5 seconds of you meeting her.


Xoti is just an idiot who when she's not whining is giving poorly described explanations of her dreams. She is clearly in her late 20s or older but talks and thinks like a teenager.


Aloth is okay and will occasionally reference the events of the first game which I like. But the minute I start talking to him about past events, he starts discussing daddy issues. Which again, how old is he to have not squared this by now?


Teheku or the Druid manchild is some BDSM enthusiast degenerate (he has referenced this 3-4 times and shown me collar marks) who's constantly agog at mundane things and comments when adults with real goals are talking.


Maia is just an annoying teen snarky bitch whose characterization completely subverts the professional she's introduced as, with some 2000s era gag humor parrot.


Pallegina is also fucking annoying, but I forgive her because in my game I basically ruined her life by having her disobey the ducs. Still she rarely says anything that doesn't make me want to throw her overboard. Not only that but she also has some sob story from her childhood that she has unexplicably now decided to resolve after almost a lifetime of quasi-military service.


Serefan is tolerable, if only because he is a one dimensional pirate played straight. Not only that but he's basically Morte, in that he'll actually say something useful from time to time during a questline.


None of the above bodes well for the future of Obsidian, as most of the above represents the tipping point into the realm of AAA rpgs, where characters are just walking loot bags, quest dispensers, lol so quirky comic relief characters (think Moira from Fallout 3) or one dimensional plot devices.

You say the writing is at best solid and I say it is at best a vestige of F:NV and at worst a sign of things to come if Obsidian doesn't get its shit in gear and reassess their priorities.

Obsidian is not Bethesda. They can't just laugh off their buggy unfinished game while discarding one of their recognized strengths.
 
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Safav Hamon

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I think what would save the modal system is for modals to apply to more than one weapon. Like mentioned above, having the 3 shield modals accessible by any size shield.

I understand the logic of this, but it defeats the purpose of specializing in a certain weapon. You might as well just turn weapon modals into regular abilities and do away with proficiencies altogether.
 

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