Eternity Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire Pre-Release Thread [BETA RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Rev]

I don't need it either, but it would make more sense this time. I mean, three old companios may join us and we know each other already, so it wouldn't be much of an asspull, when the relationship starts to change over the course of the game.

And why is that? Don't know about you, but for me it doesn't take months or even years to decide if I find a chick bangable or not. Actually it usually takes less than a minute.

 

[Prime Junta]

Hey, didn't see this tidbit posted here yet. Perhaps I missed it though. The Fearg on the figstarter earlier today:

Hardware requirements will be the same as Pillars 1. While we are doing some more graphical stuff, we've also worked on optimizing the engine.

(Sauce)

 

[Stainless Veteran]

I don't need it either, but it would make more sense this time. I mean, three old companios may join us and we know each other already, so it wouldn't be much of an asspull, when the relationship starts to change over the course of the game.

And why is that? Don't know about you, but for me it doesn't take months or even years to decide if I find a chick bangable or not. Actually it usually takes less than a minute.

We're talking about BG2 formula of romance, to bang a chick first you need to hear all her constant whining about her poor cut off wings, bear with assorted histrionics and finally be rewarded with a baby in inventory in the addon. :D
Although Viconia romance was pretty funny, at least at first.

 

[Harry Easter]

And why is that? Don't know about you, but for me it doesn't take months or even years to decide if I find a chick bangable or not. Actually it usually takes less than a minute.

Does this deep knowledge about your preferences help you finding a suitable mate or do you argue with your three mates a lot?

 

[Prime Junta]

My favourite romance in BG2 was the one with Carsomyr.

 

[Maculo]

Assuming survival skill makes into PoE2, I wonder if it should change to the ability to "craft" camping supplies from monster parts/foraging herbs. Increased skill reduces reagent requirement and/or what can be used.

 

[undecaf]

kofeiiniturpa asked:

In the first Pillars the character progression was rather straightforward job of building the most efficient combat squad. With PoE 2, do you have any intentions on broadening the spectrum on non-combat interactivity (e.g. more non-combat skills to further the world/item/NPC interactivity and reactivity in ways that don't necessarily have anything to do with how well the party can kill stuff)?

Yes. After a long (long) process, we’ve expanded the skill system. I’ve said many times that skill systems in class- and party-based games are difficult to design for a lot of reasons. This revision was no different, but I think people will like the changes we’ve made.

Here are the basics:

* Characters gain separate skill points for active and passive skills. Active skills are any skills that can be used actively during gameplay, either directly or indirectly (e.g. Athletics, Stealth). Passive skills are all of the skills that are called on by dialogues and scripted interactions (e.g. Religion, Metaphysics, Streetwise). This division of “currencies” means that characters aren’t forced to choose between combat and non-combat applications.

* The overall skill list has increased significantly. Since I’m at home, I’d rather not throw out of a number, but it’s quite a bit higher, with most of those skills being passive.

* In most circumstances, party members can grant bonuses to the main party member performing an action. The math is a little complex, but the end result is that nothing is really redundant. It the very least, you’ll gain a marginal bonus if multiple party members have points in a skill.

That's good to hear. The charactersystem in PoE was a tad rigid and uninteresting in the long run. Perhaps this time there's at least some intrigue there.

 

[Sizzle]

Doubt that many would cancel their pledges because of romances (only the most hardcore "BioWare was cool before romances, and if Obs is doing them that means they'll end up like that as well, so no!!"), but also don't think they would attract that many Biotards either - they have long since moved on to motion captured fully immersive HD porn they call the Dragon Age & Mass Effect series, why would they want to go back to text-based-twenty-lovetalks/therapy-lessons-then-fade-to-black-which-means-you're-boning romances? :D

 

[Prime Junta]

porn

oh you sweet summer child

 

[Rev]

I'm sure some would, but I'm fairly certain there aren't that many who hate them as vitriolically as all that.

Yeah, I agree. Most people don't really give that much of a shit about romances and is pretty much neutral, or may like/dislike them but not to the point of enjoying more or less the game for them. I myself have tried romances in the BioWare games I've played, but the reasons I loved BG2 have nothing to do with them, and their presence (or rather the focus they receive) in BioWare's recent games doesn't make me a bit more incline to buy Andromeda.

We're talking about BG2 formula of romance, to bang a chick first you need to hear all her constant whining about her poor cut off wings, bear with assorted histrionics and finally be rewarded with a baby in inventory in the addon. :D
Although Viconia romance was pretty funny, at least at first.

It was at first, until the fifth time she goes lunatic and start attacking you again for no reason, which does gets boring. Also, the only sane answers you can give her end the romance, while the ones that let you go on with it are utter shit like "no please, Viconia, I know you don't want this", "I know this is not the true you, I love you, take me back" or other cuck-material like that.
At the end of the day, even DAO's model of "wow, you gave me a little pig/a broken mirror/other assorted useless shit as a gift, I think I should let you fuck my ass" was probably better.

My favourite romance in BG2 was the one with Carsomyr.

 

[Space Satan]

Gathering herbs and shit is awful mechanics. Dragon Age Origins toyed with it but 99 elfroots was an epitome of crap. Strangely, DA2 tried to go for somewhat better direction of finding a "deposits" of crafting resources but Bioware being Bioware - they fucked up the implementation. I don't want to gather 130 imp stool or 70 units of moss. It's a non-gameplay crap on par with Dragon Age Inquisition and gathering of shards or Mass Effect non-profit relics with new tapestry or cosmetic drapery in a toilet as a reward.

 

[Prime Junta]

TBF gathering herbs and shit was kind of okay in the Witchers. Trick being, you don't need to gather all that much.

(The less said about DA:I the better.)

 

[Prime Junta]

My favourite romance in BG2 was the one with Carsomyr.

I rescued her from a dragon. Me, a paladin in shining armour. None of the other romances were even close.

 

[Space Satan]

Yeah, Carsomyr. Good times

 

[Grunker]

TBF gathering herbs and shit was kind of okay in the Witchers.

It was pithy busywork at best

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

Gathering herbs and shit is awful mechanics. Dragon Age Origins toyed with it but 99 elfroots was an epitome of crap. Strangely, DA2 tried to go for somewhat better direction of finding a "deposits" of crafting resources but Bioware being Bioware - they fucked up the implementation. I don't want to gather 130 imp stool or 70 units of moss. It's a non-gameplay crap on par with Dragon Age Inquisition and gathering of shards or Mass Effect non-profit relics with new tapestry or cosmetic drapery in a toilet as a reward.

Xulima does it right, IMO. Herbs don't regrow and 10 of any single kind give you permanent bonuses. The game is balanced to make them kind of necessary, if not at least quite useful, on Hardcore difficulty. You also don't really go out of your way to find them, but there are some that are kind of "hidden" in the terrain.

It ain't bad.

 

[Prime Junta]

TBF gathering herbs and shit was kind of okay in the Witchers.

It was pithy busywork at best

Alchemy made a big difference in Witcher 1 on the hardest difficulty. I felt it contributed materially to the experience. Ingredient gathering wasn't a chore, but you did have to pay a little bit of attention to it, and the results were most rewarding.

 

[ushas]

AI scripts are meh for all players as they won't be sufficient for a suffciently difficult PotD run and as such won't see much use

As much as I would like to agree (I prefer to have total control, not using predefined AI packages), there were unfortunately also repetitive tasks, even in MW on PotD. For example, I would really like them to get rid of or change per encounter actions, which didn't really have any noticeable drawback or weren't for specific use. Eventually, I have gravitated towards not using those too often, for the sake of lowering the inssential chore and repetitiveness. It's not like one cannot win without using Flames of Devotion every encounter. But so far the most visible change done to address the combat issues is the drop to 5 party members + there is cited pathfinding, Afflictions / Inspirations, and some smaller changes few pages back from Josh's SA posts, which may or may not build up into incline. So unless there is more info about the systems I would agree with Parabalus, that it can still be useful in PoE regardless of difficulty. Even one or two conditions set by the player himself to his liking can improve the combat flow. But I can talk only for myself.

To use specific example - Sneak Attack is a passive ability. One can actually see it as a preset condition:
IF TARGET IS Blinded OR Flanked OR Hobbled OR Paralyzed OR Petrified OR Prone OR Stuck OR Stunned OR Weakened OR (COMBAT TIME < 2 sec) --> THEN +50% damage modifier.

So if you are ok to have and use abilities like that in PoE, then having also an option to set similar things yourself, eg. for an active spell, sounds to me like giving more reins to the player. It depends on implementation. Just because the vanilla DAO Tactics wouldn't fit for PoE, doesn't mean the idea of AI scripting is wrong*. Though, I understand that for recreational players the story mode and some good predefined AI packages are the way to go. But Obsidian already commits to that.

(*) To be honest, I would be much happier them providing a robust and documented API for some scripting language than just limited graphical UI. So people can go crazy scripting their own party member's combat AI.

 

[Grunker]

TBF gathering herbs and shit was kind of okay in the Witchers.

It was pithy busywork at best

Alchemy made a big difference in Witcher 1 on the hardest difficulty. I felt it contributed materially to the experience. Ingredient gathering wasn't a chore, but you did have to pay a little bit of attention to it, and the results were most rewarding.

I wasn't talking about alchemy, but the process of clicking on plants. It was the least tedious in W1, but still not a particularly compelling mechanic.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

I wasn't talking about alchemy, but the process of clicking on plants. It was the least tedious in W1, but still not a particularly compelling mechanic.

Clicking on an enemy to attack isn't that compelling by that description. The compelling part is the use for the item you're picking up, IMO. At least in an RPG.

 

[Sizzle]

The campaign really picked up in the last half hour or so, less than $50k until the next stretch goal

 

[Prime Junta]

I wasn't talking about alchemy, but the process of clicking on plants. It was the least tedious in W1, but still not a particularly compelling mechanic.

Alchemy without ingredient-gathering would've been really dull.

 

[ushas]

In the comments section:

A6MZero: I don't know if this has been covered or not, but will Paradox be involved with this game similar to with PoE1 and Tyranny?

Obsidian: We are definitely talking with Paradox. The one thing we are thinking about is becoming more of a publisher ourselves, the way CD Projekt as evolved over the years, which I've been really impressed with. So, that means we might self-publish Deadfire, or play more of a role in publishing it.

Edit: Pirata Alma Negra, does it answer your question?

 

[Maculo]

I can't think of many games that made Alchemy interesting. I think the Witcher had a decent approach with potions that were aimed at certain creature types (black blood poisoned blood suckers, etc). Plus, I liked that alchemy had drawbacks, such as toxicity and side effects.

 

[Grunker]

I wasn't talking about alchemy, but the process of clicking on plants. It was the least tedious in W1, but still not a particularly compelling mechanic.

Clicking on an enemy to attack isn't that compelling by that description. The compelling part is the use for the item you're picking up, IMO. At least in an RPG.

Even in W1 combat is more engaging than simply clicking on enemies. Even then, combat was lambasted. The comparison is far-fetched at best.

I wasn't talking about alchemy, but the process of clicking on plants. It was the least tedious in W1, but still not a particularly compelling mechanic.

Alchemy without ingredient-gathering would've been really dull.

Picking up ingredients from monsters feels like being rewarded. To stay in the preposterous comparison, clicking on herbs is similar to if all monsters were pre-killed.

If plants were rare, there'd be a point. By Witcher 3, plants are so bountiful you can literally spend tens of hours just clicking on plants.

I can't think of many games that made Alchemy interesting. I think the Witcher had a decent approach with potions that were aimed at certain creature types (black blood poisoned blood suckers, etc). Plus, I liked that alchemy had drawbacks, such as toxicity and side effects.

Has anoyone actually expressed disagreement with this?