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

[Darth Roxor]

gotta say this game overstays its welcome about as much as ELEX

although fwiw freeing the dergon under tikitaka and then going 'u mad? ' at the queen was p funny

 

[ScrotumBroth]

You can pacify her like nothing happened if your "go make me a sandwich" skill is high enough.

 

[Quillon]

gotta say this game overstays its welcome

You're overstaying the game's welcome, finish the damn thing already instead of posting about it every 5 mins

 

[AwesomeButton]

gotta say this game overstays its welcome

You're overstaying the game's welcome, finish the damn thing already instead of posting about it every 5 mins

Is this the hipster way of saying "I'm getting bored with this game"?

 

[Quillon]

No, its a way of saying "let's see that review already". Missed the action first time

 

[AwesomeButton]

Nah, I meant him. From the way things look, the reivew won't be so polarizing this time, I'm sorry.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Is this the hipster way of saying "I'm getting bored with this game"?

considering that i can select all -> left click and wait half a minute to see a dergon die, i would say yes

also loading screens


also, i have no idea why so many of you are praising the factions in this game

their characteristics, the interactions with and between them are about as by-the-book and generic as you can get

 

[AwesomeButton]

But can you be a dragon?

I haven't had much interaction with the factions yet. What I find annoying is the tendency of writers who are lacking inspiration, and are writing every quest-giver (which usually coincides with "faction chief" in a game which features factions) as a sarcastic prick who is bossing you around. Because of all the "oh the sassy edge!" attitude this inevitably results in shit dialogue. I've already seen enough of this in D:OS2, and I see the MO repeating in Deadfire with Furrante and Aelys. I guess when I meet the Huana queen it won't be much different?

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

but this is a chosen one story

in fact, you're literally the most chosen one of them all, especially in poe2

It's not, though. For a story to be a Chosen One story, protagonist needs to be put in a in position do actually something of importance. The only thing you end up doing in both games is pressing 1111111 in a final conversation with main villain.
( I guess you could make a case that it's a Poorly Chosen One story. )

I mean, you are the chosen of Berath and it does go somewhere. But, in another great irony, while you don’t have much agency with the quest Berath gives you, you end up being in a position to decide/accomplish all kinds of things that have nothing to do with it. You may not have a ton of leeway to sway Eothas, yet you can totally determine who gets to be the dominant power in the Deadfire (although YMMV as to whether you care).

Chosen by the god of death to resolve what looks like a huge supernatural crisis, you instead become a local power broker. It’s unfortunate. There’s a lot Deadfire does well; however, invariably, these are not the things Deadfire thinks it’s about. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say it doesn’t know what it’s about.

The RPS review said this is an RPG for people who like sidequests and don’t care too much about a tight main quest. I laughed when I read it: aren’t side quests always the best part? Turns out RPS actually had a point for once.

 

[Darth Roxor]

my problems with the factions are that:

- the reputations with them matter jackshit, i dunno how you'd even manage to go into deep negatives unless you are stupid
- you hear all the time about zomg how they are supposed to be competing, but it doesn't really translate into any tangible things in the game itself
- they are nothing more than glorified quest dispensers
- they are generic as shit for this kind of setting (yohoho poirates, fantasy jew vailians, naive natives, rauatai who like guns)

their leaders are for the most part cardboard cutouts too, except the huana queen, who I think is one of the stronger characters in the game, if not the strongest - because she's so pathetic and weak but she has to keep up appearances and try to make sure the others don't exploit her weaknesses, which in turn can be delightfully exploited by the protag

"yeah, i just made your watershapers useless - you gonna do something about it, or just stand there and bleed?"

 

[Lacrymas]

I like how the game tells you it's going to give you one type of reputation, but then goes "Sikes!" and gives you another one, decreasing the power of my Holy Radiance.....

 

[Darth Roxor]

at this rate bonerbill is soon gonna hand out more shits than brofists

 

[Lacrymas]

He's on a one-man shit-crusade.

 

[V_K]

my problems with the factions are that:

- the reputations with them matter jackshit, i dunno how you'd even manage to go into deep negatives unless you are stupid
- you hear all the time about zomg how they are supposed to be competing, but it doesn't really translate into any tangible things in the game itself
- they are nothing more than glorified quest dispensers
- they are generic as shit for this kind of setting (yohoho poirates, fantasy jew vailians, naive natives, rauatai who like guns)

How's that different from any other RPG with factions though?

 

[Darth Roxor]

How's that different from any other RPG with factions though?

Good rpgs with factions make sure that they are mutually exclusive in more ways than just their final quests, for starters. They also give you quests with conflicting interests whose outcomes are more than "pff i'm so disappointed and expected better from u protag. Now, for your next super-important quest..."

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

How's that different from any other RPG with factions though?

Good rpgs with factions make sure that they are mutually exclusive in more ways than just their final quests, for starters. They also give you quests with conflicting interests whose outcomes are more than "pff i'm so disappointed and expected better from u protag. Now, for your next super-important quest..."

Yeah, that I didn't like either. Obviously they do it to keep player's options open, but I felt the game treated me like a baby. If I already pissed a faction enough so they don't want anything to do with me, I should have to suck up to consequences of my choices, instead of simply passing a skill check and proceeding as if noting happened.

 

[Lacrymas]

Here's some random trivia - the bagpipes in the bathhouse are out of tune. They might be Scottish or something, I know some of their notes are usually out of tune.

 

[Quillon]

Here's some random trivia - the bagpipes in the bathhouse are out of tune. They might be Scottish or something, I know some of their notes are usually out of tune.

Blatantly unacceptable!

 

[fantadomat]

How's that different from any other RPG with factions though?

Good rpgs with factions make sure that they are mutually exclusive in more ways than just their final quests, for starters. They also give you quests with conflicting interests whose outcomes are more than "pff i'm so disappointed and expected better from u protag. Now, for your next super-important quest..."

We all know that the game is shit and written by braindead tumblr fags. Can you just finish the game and write the review,at least something good to come out from this dumpsterfire.

 

[fantadomat]

What's up with these loading screens? Is it just me or are they ridiculously long?

The more you play the longer they become. Maybe a memory leak,don't know for certainty.

No, it's somehow connected to the number of savegames (across all characters) that you have. Delete or backup old savegames and characters from previous playthroughs and it will improve. The savegame size grows as you play more of course, so that's also a factor. The game has to record somewhere the state of more and more areas.

It reminds me of Risen 2,i believe. It was fun to find that i have 37 GB of saves . Still Risen 2 doesn't have performance problem.

 

[Quillon]

What's up with these loading screens? Is it just me or are they ridiculously long?

The more you play the longer they become. Maybe a memory leak,don't know for certainty.

No, it's somehow connected to the number of savegames (across all characters) that you have. Delete or backup old savegames and characters from previous playthroughs and it will improve. The savegame size grows as you play more of course, so that's also a factor. The game has to record somewhere the state of more and more areas.

It reminds me of Risen 2,i believe. It was fun to find that i have 37 GB of saves . Still Risen 2 doesn't have performance problem.

Number of save games reason makes no sense. I keep only 1 manual, 1 quick save + the 3 autosaves during playthroughs, loading's just gets worse the more hours I play...memory leak or PC heat up

Size of a save file maybe but my biggest file is 5.5 MB.(and the whole save folder is 73 mb)

Also the game uses a lot more system resources this time around, my PC is struggling with alt-tabbing + opening browser.

 

[Tigranes]

How's that different from any other RPG with factions though?

Good rpgs with factions make sure that they are mutually exclusive in more ways than just their final quests, for starters. They also give you quests with conflicting interests whose outcomes are more than "pff i'm so disappointed and expected better from u protag. Now, for your next super-important quest..."

Yeah, that I didn't like either. Obviously they do it to keep player's options open, but I felt the game treated me like a baby. If I already pissed a faction enough so they don't want anything to do with me, I should have to suck up to consequences of my choices, instead of simply passing a skill check and proceeding as if noting happened.

I have many questions about how Deadfire managed its scope, what were its top priorities and resource sinks, and how that changed as time went by.

We know that POE was made on a comparatively tiny budget, and they spent a great deal of time on non-negotiables: (1) the art style, (2) the second city KS promise, (3) the dungeon KS promise. I suspect everyone's expectations were raised because Deadfire now had the first game to build on, and we kept hearing how the budget was larger. But I wonder how much resources were eaten up by new mechanics like ships and islands.

It feels like POE1 really struggled to deliver the amount of content they scoped for, and POE2 is the same. Both games clearly didn't get the manpower/hours on actual quest and writing content that, say, NWN2 OC did, and I think that shows in places like the POE1 trial, Twin Elms, POE2 factions.

 

[frajaq]

Feel like the game's minor factions should have a bit more impact too, it feels weird coming from how New Vegas and even Tyranny handled factions in interesting ways, and then it seems PoE 2 have regressed a lot on that front

 

[fantadomat]

What's up with these loading screens? Is it just me or are they ridiculously long?

The more you play the longer they become. Maybe a memory leak,don't know for certainty.

No, it's somehow connected to the number of savegames (across all characters) that you have. Delete or backup old savegames and characters from previous playthroughs and it will improve. The savegame size grows as you play more of course, so that's also a factor. The game has to record somewhere the state of more and more areas.

It reminds me of Risen 2,i believe. It was fun to find that i have 37 GB of saves . Still Risen 2 doesn't have performance problem.

Number of save games reason makes no sense. I keep only 1 manual, 1 quick save + the 3 autosaves during playthroughs, loading's just gets worse the more hours I play...memory leak or PC heat up

Size of a save file maybe but my biggest file is 5.5 MB.(and the whole save folder is 73 mb)

Also the game uses a lot more system resources this time around, my PC is struggling with alt-tabbing + opening browser.

It is not a PC heat up,i have good cooling and still get the delay. Saves do make some sense,the game really have some strange way loading save games.I have noticed a few times that the game loads a save game with the effects of after save was made. I will give an example to clear it up.
I make save,then i go and dick around with bunch of thugs in the pirate base,i kill them to see the loot and explore the area,after this i load the save before i kill them. Well in loaded state they are still dead,you have to load the save again and the situation is fixed. I have seen this happening a few times during my play.It is really strange bug where it mix the pre-load situation with the moment of loading.

 

[Lacrymas]

Some early thoughts. The game is better than base PoE1, mainly due to exploration, at least for now. The maps are tiny, especially noticeable in Neketaka, only Queen's Berth feels like a proper district and even it is kinda small, which leads to very frequent loading screens. The combat is ...tortured, but it has potential to be better than PoE with more tweaks that I'm sure are coming. The writing, though. I'm mashing 1 to get it over with faster, it's just so boring and dreary, nobody is saying anything interesting or worth listening to. The only vaguely cool thing in Neketaka for now is the cursed fortune teller in the Dark Cupboard and Fassina's recounting of Arkemyr's eccentricities. The dialogue that awards dispositions seem arbitrary, sometimes even awarding you different disposition than the one you picked.

There are also a lot of missed opportunities for cruel dispositions, like the quest in the Gullet where you have to convince the ship captain to bring on the woman and the children. I didn't find a way to solve it without arranging this. No disposition is given, however, even if this would count as benevolent. There is also the quest for the medicine, you'd think there would be an option to either break the medicine in-front of the woman or tell her you are going to sell it and not give it to her. This quest also doesn't award any dispositions, even if you give it to the woman without expecting payment, which is a benevolent thing as well. There are a lot of such small details that scream "rushed" and "unfinished" to me, or at least not much thought is put into the roleplaying and dispositions.

Either way, I'll soon go to Deadlight and see what the fuss is about, I just have to get the Principi flag. Which reminds me, this is probably the only complex quest up to now, as in you can't just go to the Black Market and purchase the flag, you have to do some other quests for it. The game hasn't lost my attention yet, though, I'll see where it goes, but I have a feeling Neketaka is the best the game has to offer, and it really isn't all that great.