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

Mazisky

Magister
Joined
Mar 8, 2015
Messages
2,082
Location
Rome, IT
Guys, music in the beta is half made.

I remember Poe1 beta music was really bad and weird to hear, then i discovered a total different soundtrack in the final release.

Every single track in the Deadfire beta is missing many strings actually.
 
Joined
Jan 17, 2015
Messages
781
Anyway it seems that i will be running trough the game on normal,not caring about combat mechanics and shitty dual class system without scaling,hopping that the story is decent.

I'll probably play one time with single classed guys, another time fumbling over the multiclass system but with other companions, then another hopefully knowing what I'm doing with the class system

Then another when the first expansion releases

Then another when the second expansion releases

Then another which will be the "ultimate" and "last" playthrough, then another because I got a weird urge to play it all over again

Then another when the gold edition comes out (which will truly be the last playthrough)

Then another because I made some tiny mistakes story-wise in the last one

Send help before it's too late oh go
 

Elex

Arbiter
Joined
Oct 17, 2017
Messages
2,043
He meant Brittany, i.e. Northwestern France. Great Britain's very name is a tribute to the Bretons and Normans (i.e. the French), who brought civilisation to the barbaric Angles and Saxons in the 11th century. At least 30% of English words are of French origin.
normans conquered also sicily and south italy.
 

Lacrymas

Arcane
Joined
Sep 23, 2015
Messages
17,948
Pathfinder: Wrath
More observations:

Skeletal enemies are immune to piercing damage, making my Priest almost useless. The enemy AI is dumber than in P1, if I send my Paladin alone in an enemy group, they congregate around her, while she is a walking fortress complete with death cannons. Seriously, she is dual-wielding and does insane damage, but also has yuuuuge defenses because Paladin, there's no need for a shield, making Goldpact Knight/Berserker the best tank, instead of Shieldbearer/Berserker. I think my party isn't good, it's essentially made up of one-trick ponies apart from my Priest and the Paladin. The damage is there, but in very specific circumstances.

The one-trick ponies is a good thing to talk about. Lifegiver Druid is obvious, at this point in time he can only heal and very occasionally cast an Insect Swarm, maybe it will be better if it's multi-classed with something else, but you do slow down the access to some major heals. The Beckoner summons stuff, duh, but it's more than that, you can essentially focus around 1 or 2 summon spells because they are pretty strong. He has a very useful cone paralyze thing, which is tremendously more powerful than the Cipher's Mental Binding because it's instant and AoE. If you focus only on summons it's not so good. The Wizard plays exactly like low-level spellcasters in the IE games, you cast 2-3 spells and then cower somewhere. The point is that subclasses generally funnel you to one-trick pony states.

I get mixed messages regarding the Skaen Priest, it's mentioned everywhere that they do get a Sneak Attack, but it's not shown in the combat log, which makes me think it's outdated information. It also makes me think they should bring it back because the damage is too low compared to other melee. The deity weapon summon is too powerful if it's not bugged. It can one-shot shitty mobs and two-shot the more powerful ones. I am going to compare total damage done with my previous Druid and the Priest to see how much of a difference there is. To give some more perspective on the damage between melee and spellcasters - Skaen Priest 8900, Evoker 1400, Paladin Tank which I just now realized would be better off dual-wielding 3000. I empty my entire repertoire with the Evoker every combat.

And, like I said before, I get what their intention for the Empower mechanic is and I'd say it's not bad, but it needs refinement. Atm, it's essentially an excuse to not make spellcasters powerful, but melee shoot up because they don't have these limitations. It's a good system in the context of spellcasters, but a shitty one in the context of melee. I still haven't rested once in this playthrough of PotD as well, even though it's a spellcaster-heavy group. If the spells are stronger, like A LOOOOOOOT stronger, then this system would make more sense. Few casts, but powerful ones, with the occasional Empower in "oh, shit!" moments.
 
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Haplo

Prophet
Patron
Joined
Sep 14, 2016
Messages
6,138
Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
Skeletons immune to piercing is incline (even if nothing new). I mean sure, in PoE1 enemies had resistances... but not enough IMO and they kinda became irrelevant later on. I just hope there are many such immunities+vulnerabilities to exploit in PoE2.
 

Lacrymas

Arcane
Joined
Sep 23, 2015
Messages
17,948
Pathfinder: Wrath
Also, remove Penetration from spells, it doesn't make sense at all and it only works to gimp spellcasters who are already lame. It's not fun to see your only cast of Minoletta's Concussive Missiles do only 6 damage total. Enemies on PotD have much more reasonable HP pools, making offensive spells even lamer.
 

Ulfhednar

Savant
Joined
Apr 29, 2017
Messages
809
Location
Valhalla
You should be able to hold down shift in the combat log message feed to see whether you are activating sneak attack or not, though the UI is still buggy as hell.
 

Lacrymas

Arcane
Joined
Sep 23, 2015
Messages
17,948
Pathfinder: Wrath
Yeah, that's what I'm doing and it isn't showing up, I also haven't seen if it shows up on the Druid/Rogue's combat log, but he did great damage, so I just assumed it's there. My problem with Penetration on spells is that I don't see a way to affect it, Infinitron, so you are at the mercy of the mob stats without a way around that. Some inspirations do affect Penetration for melee, so that's good, but I don't think it affects spells, don't quote me on that.
 

Ulfhednar

Savant
Joined
Apr 29, 2017
Messages
809
Location
Valhalla
I'm pretty sure that sneak attack should appear but be greyed out in the expanded log if you have access to it but it doesn't activate for that attack. The only priest of Skaen I've played was also an assassin, so that's no help.
 

Sizzle

Arcane
Joined
Feb 17, 2012
Messages
2,471
Lacrymas what do you make of the optional hard combat encounters, like that Lagufaeth (I think) Cipher/Barbarian near the starting village?
 

Lacrymas

Arcane
Joined
Sep 23, 2015
Messages
17,948
Pathfinder: Wrath
About that - the optional side quests are much harder than the critical path. Either that or I still hadn't figured out how to play this party. I managed to skip the one you are talking about on this run, he offered me fish because I freed the hatchlings. It was cool when I fought him last time, though.
 

Sizzle

Arcane
Joined
Feb 17, 2012
Messages
2,471
It's the same way in PoE1 - the hardest battles are intentionally the ones that are not a part of the critical path.

I seem to recall them saying that it will be like that in PoE2, too.
 

Lacrymas

Arcane
Joined
Sep 23, 2015
Messages
17,948
Pathfinder: Wrath
Finished the fight in the Beyond. If the deity weapons hadn't been so OP I don't know if I would've managed to do it with this party tbh. The steady damage just wasn't there. The Evoker was still more useful to debuff than to do damage, the thing she was specialized in doing. Here's the kicker, though, this may be a controversial opinion, but I think many aspects of this combat system are better than P1. It's good that not all parties are viable, it's good that you can't spam spells without a care in the world, it's good that not all character builds are viable, the Empower system is not bad if classes get tweaked a little and the resting limited. What is worse is build options, melee being overpowered compared to spellcasters and Penetration. Neutral or no noticeable change are the attributes, you still dump to your heart's content. The combat needs work, starting with many of the classes, it's still a mess, but it has potential, maybe even the potential to be better than P1.
 

Lacrymas

Arcane
Joined
Sep 23, 2015
Messages
17,948
Pathfinder: Wrath
You mean on the Obs forum? I might do that after they get out the new build and I try that, too, because they probably changed a lot and will update the beta soon with it. I checked the damage done statistics between my Priest and my Druid and it turns out my Priest actually did close to double the damage of my Druid, which I wasn't expecting at all. This may be due to enemies having more HP on PotD, though. The thing is, what felt OP or pointless on Hard made sense on PotD. It's almost like a completely different game, it's mind-boggling. The caster-heavy party was also responsible for that, though, I predict that a melee-heavy runthrough can auto-attack their way to victory.
 

Lacrymas

Arcane
Joined
Sep 23, 2015
Messages
17,948
Pathfinder: Wrath
It depends on what you found bad about it in 1. I didn't catch myself thinking "oh, come on, move to your spot!" anywhere in the beta. I mostly moved around the battlefield with the Escape ability, though.
 

Jarpie

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Oct 30, 2009
Messages
6,603
Codex 2012 MCA
About spellcasters...didn't Sawyer say he hates wizards or spellcasters? He's probably getting his revenge on spellcasters in PoE 2 :D

:littlemissfun:

More seriously though, as I'm continuing my PoE playthrough, one of the problems with spellcasters is lack of the spells which aren't so situational, or require the wizard to be surrounded by enemies, like Torrent of Flame or Minoletta's Precisely Piercing Burst.
 

Lacrymas

Arcane
Joined
Sep 23, 2015
Messages
17,948
Pathfinder: Wrath
I think they don't buff spellcasters due to how Empower works. While you have very limited spells if you don't Empower, you do get MORE than you had in PoE1 if you do. So, basically use all your spells -> Empower -> use all your spells -> Empower -> use all your spells -> rest -> repeat. Having 6 spellcasts per tier is more beneficial than whatever food you can muster. See, this is why it's stupid to have a resting system but not be limited somehow. And this is what is going to ruin this system, regardless of how well tuned everything is and how varied the builds are.
 

Jezal_k23

Guest
I haven't played the beta, but isn't it limited by amount of food in inventory? Or is there so much food that this is no limitation at all? What about when you travel along the world map, shouldn't you spend food during those journeys as well?
 

Riddler

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jan 5, 2009
Messages
2,353
Bubbles In Memoria
I wish I had those lows in my voice like this guy, lol.

That's not lows (in the conventional sense), that's throat singing. While he is skilled, more or less anyone can learn to take deep notes by throat singing.
 
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Sizzle

Arcane
Joined
Feb 17, 2012
Messages
2,471
I haven't played the beta, but isn't it limited by amount of food in inventory? Or is there so much food that this is no limitation at all? What about when you travel along the world map, shouldn't you spend food during those journeys as well?

Supplies will be an issue when traveling the high seas (this still hasn't been included in the beta). They are currently not spent when traveling along the ground portion of the world map.
 

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