First good news I've seen in a while:
One of the major things is that most of our game data is now in .xml format. It makes it much more human-readable and easier to edit. Adam Brennecke can probably say more about modding overall.
If it's truly most of the game data, it should be possible to restore per-rest magic, party of 6, and tweak the mechanics in general.
Great! Thanks for finding this. I'm hoping that's the case (also creatures, weapons, etc..) Knowing next to nothing about game development, so please pardon my ignorance when I say that I would personally think about externalizing all those data among the first things. Not just because the modding. I mean imagine system designers wanting tune numbers here and there, and instead of just editing a config file on the fly (and perhaps restarting the game if there is not function to call for reset) and testing that right away, they would have to foremost wait for programmers to do a patch or even a whole new build of the game.
A few other tidbits from the AMA regarding Deadfire:
BrutalistYouth: since Pillars 2 takes place a couple years after Pillars 1 will we get to say what our Watcher was up to in the intervening years. Kind of like how we could tell Calisca why we moved to the Dyrwood?
AB: Yep, you bet.
So we will choose what we did in those 5 years, that's nice. However, I hope it will make more impact on the game this time, than Calisca's dialog. I've went through conversation files with grep and, besides a flavor text in the journal, just a small number of those special sub-backgrounds (what we said to Calisca) have been checked in very few places. Possibly added just as an afterthought. I dunno, a shear number of combinations and limited time shooting the reactivity to the foot?
logos__: Can you make the battles in PoE II feel more like Baldur's Gate/Baldur's Gate 2? The enemies in PoE felt very meaty, with combat often taking longer than it needed to. Less HP per enemy (and per player character) and more damage per attack makes for more tactical fights that are less of a slog.
JS: The new armor system results in less health/damage inflation overall and a more controlled range of damage.
Ok, So if that new armor system is what it takes to achieve this, then I'm going to champion the Penetration!
Perhaps it may also help with a whole inflation, not only health/endurance, but also accuracy and defenses (I really wish not getting all those automatically on lvl up, though in not enjoying the power ride for free I'm in minority) But one can always dream...
JS: Tekēhu, the big blue guy, can start off either as a chanter or a druid.
Lacrymas, so a druid is one of the core options for this companion.
JS: Ship size can limit the sorts of sails, cannons, etc. on the vessel. Different ships also have different inherent stats, changing how you might want to approach encounters at sea. It can also limit the number of defenders on your ship if/when you do get attacked.
On a side note, i've read comments (on fig I think) about perhaps just contemplating a possibility of split parties. Not sure, if that crew aspect would play a role in there.
JS: You can use per-rest Empower resources to make a power extra-strong or to replenish your per-encounter resources in long fights.
what does he mean by "replenish your per-encounter resources"?
JS: I've studied a fair amount of medieval French history and I'm always borrowing bits and pieces for elements in the world. I've always loved the city of Carcassonne and I thought it was interesting that it slowly developed into this fortress that was so impenetrable that enemies would rather take weeks of time to circumnavigate it than attack it. Over time, it fell into disuse and when one Napoleon's (I think) surveyors went to check on it, people were raising chickens and drying laundry between the walls.
We have a sea fortress in the game inspired by that: a place that once dominated travel on common shipping lanes but which has since fallen into irrelevance and was subsequently taken over by pirates.
This one?
SirJorn: What do you think about being able to "filter" the combat log (based on party members, afflictions, etc)? At least in theory, it sounds like a way to make combat more managable and clearer to the player.
JS: I think that's a cool idea!
I hope that means they'll do it this time.
JS: Our city map also allows shortcuts, so you can travel directly to an interior if you don't want to bother with anything in the connected exterior.
nice.