Pillars of Eternity Thread [Pre-Expansion]

[bonescraper]

You can't cast spells over your own traps. Thanks, J. E. Sawyer!

 

[Owlish]

Did you guys notice how voice over often covers half a sentence that is on screen (and what is worse, the second half). This is most noticeable with Calisca at start.
Or they give a full VO to a NPC but for one screen. It really brings you out of immersion. You get used that all is VO and then few sentences are not and after that all is again VO.

What I find more annoying are the descriptions in between spoken dialogue. They should have had description, click continue, spoken dialogue, click continue, description, click continue, spoken dialogue. Would have flowed better.

 

[Sykar]

It's worth at least 22, which is what it currently costs.

Not on GOG at least.

 

[Bubbles]

It's worth at least 22, which is what it currently costs.

Not on GOG at least.

http://www.nuuvem.com.br/produto/2480-pillars-of-eternity-hero-edition

Use Hola plugin, proxy through Argentina, create account, put the game in checkout, purchase region free Steam key for cheap.

 

[Delterius]

Can you increase attributes after character creation (from leveling, etc.)?

Yeah, with gear (permanent) or food and resting (temporary). This game draws more inspirations from Diablo and Skyrim than it takes from actual IE games.

The same IE games that featured hilariously OP items that not just increased but actually maxed out attributes

They were balanced against each other.

So it appears PoE needs more balancing.

 

[e-mailio estevez]

2. Playing on Path of the Damned, and the difficulty level seems just about right to encourage a little bit of thinking and tactics. Any less and it would basically be a brainless hackfest not very different from NWN2. And speaking of combat, it really doesn't feel like an IE game. In fact with characters running at each other and everything glowing and quite clusterfucky, it really just reminds of NWN games. Considering this is the highest difficulty level will have to rate 2/5.

3. The combat interface is extremely shitty. There are too many fucking circles and arrows, everything keeps on glowing. When I use any ability, it's impossible to tell if it has actually happened or not without looking at the combat log. Which is filled with so many messages that it's tough to find what I am looking for. It's tough to even appreciate the enemies that you are battling because as as soon as combat starts they start glowing in all sorts of weird ways. When enemies use abilities against my characters, it's difficult to even comprehend what has happened. I also really despise the spinning circles that appear when I click on where to move my characters. Yes, it's obviously necessary to have some feedback to show where my characters are heading, but do the circles need to be thickly bolded, keep expanding and contracting AND spin as well? Dunno but every aspect of the feedback system is trying hard to be KEWL and AWSUM instead of practical and utilitarian. 0/5.

6. Per encounter abilities are a mixed bag. On one hand, it's nice that your characters have more to do than just normal attacks. On the other hand, it really does lead to you spamming the same bunch of abilities whenever you enter combat. A good idea on paper but when the game becomes a constant ability spamfest, not so fun after all.

7. "Grazes" are just a pointless layer of complexity and really don't add much to the game. And doing .5 and .7 damage? WTF seriously? Is it really necessary to go OCD on the mathematics? Rounding off is for grognards now?

10. No combat XP really does suck when you have beat one of the more challenging battles, but then find yourself gaining nothing from it except a stupid body part. Makes it feel like you have just unnecessarily wasted your time.

I do agree with all this.

I'm enjoying the game so far, but I'm finding the action a lot more difficult to follow than I ever did in the IE games.

 

[Owlish]

Which rpg has the best combat for you?

All the ones I'd name are turn-based and some of them are blobbers, so they don't really count when it comes to this matter. But I can say so far that I've had much, much more fun in both IWDs and in BG2 when it comes to combat (maybe BG1 too, but I played that one so long ago that I can't remember shit about it).

I would even risk saying that I had more fun in Storm of Zehir than in PoE.

Which rpg has the best character system for you?

I honestly can't say, because I've never thought about it.

I could, however, provide by contrast a whole bunch of character systems that are really weak, but which I still find better than PoE. And this even includes the ones from Original Sin or SRR. Even SPECIAL was better than this, in spite of how broken it was.

To put it simply enough, everything about the character system is just samey as hell. There's nothing fiddly about it. There's nothing cool about it. Going up a level doesn't make you go "squeeeeeee~", all it does is make you go 'oh, some more numbers'.

Which rpg has the best writing for you?

This is not just about rpg writing, this is about fantasy writing in general, and PoE falls into the pitfalls of just about every c-grade fantasy wankfest out there. Not only are most of the texts way too BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH for their own good, but what probably kills the writing for me and makes me go all the time I play, is the Generic-Fantasy-Author syndrome of bombarding you with dozens upon dozens of stupid-sounding names that are apparently supposed to be relevant in some way, but only leave you scratching your head. It's just empty information, like empty calories. You are served texts that are filled to the brim with words, but their actual semantic value is so low, they could easily be trimmed by two or even three times their original length and nothing would be lost. PoE is simply in drastic need of a bunch of editors.

I agree that the writing is the standard shitty high fantasy affair, but the game's presentation just really does it for me. That could be better still, but the only RPG I can think of with that kind of heart in its presentation is Arcanum. I can forgive the other stuff like combat which I don't even care about, except when it impedes upon muh immershun.

 

[Bubbles]

I DO get the feeling that more classes should have abilities which can help break engagement/ protect against disengagement attacks/ give a short duration of good protection when gangbanged though. It wouldn't be necessary for the party configuration I'm currently running, but it would help with allowing for more diverse party compositions... If that is a goal to strive for, that is.

You can also switch to a secondary weapon+shield set on top of all that.

 

[Volrath]

That roshan post...

Wtf

 

[ArchAngel]

I DO get the feeling that more classes should have abilities which can help break engagement/ protect against disengagement attacks/ give a short duration of good protection when gangbanged though. It wouldn't be necessary for the party configuration I'm currently running, but it would help with allowing for more diverse party compositions... If that is a goal to strive for, that is.

You can also switch to a secondary weapon+shield set on top of all that.

And those talents are only useful to people that already have a good deflection. Otherwise spend two talents to get a 17% less chance to be killed by disengagement?! LOL!!
I would rather see talents that give you abilities usable once per encounter that let you disengage automatically

 

[Bubbles]

+Deflection is actually a bit better for people with somewhat low deflection, since it can reduce the number of crits and increase the number of misses as opposed to reducing hits and increasing misses.

 

[ArchAngel]

+Deflection is actually a bit better for people with somewhat low deflection, since it can reduce the number of crits and increase the number of misses as opposed to reducing hits and increasing misses.

Not in case of engagement. If you want to move away you want to do that for a critical reason. Talents that don't really change much in this need are useless. If you already got high Deflection it means with these talents you can get to state where they can only miss or graze you which guarantee you reason for moving will not punish you.

 

[Duraframe300]

That roshan post...

Wtf

First day is over

Second day KKK bonus points get

As with any game on the codex theres going to be a lot of arguments. Some will overlook the bad aspects, some will downplay the good aspects and a shitton of subjective shit will be said. Mostly to get that sweet, sweet KKK cred.
All three will have valid arguments.

Like, as a storyfaq, I think Roxxors rant about the writing is fucking retarded from what I've seen so far.

Welcome for the ride.



In the end just enjoy the game and don't care about it in knowing at one point the game will be liked again, then hated, then liked....

All groovy man.

 

[roshan]

OK, I just wanted to explain what I meant when I was complaining about the graphics.

Look at this scene from the first dungeon. There is a wall that is supposed to be lit by several gigantic torches, not only that, my character is carrying a torch. Yet the wall is totally black. Art in this game does not look visually impressive, everything just looks either dark or bloomy, and always everything looks like it's been blended together. Even when it makes sense for a wall to be bright, it is still pitch black to the point that it is troublesome to even distinguish the area from the background. Compare this to Icewind Dale:

A fifteen year old game and it still looks miles better than PoE.

And regarding the writing:

Spoiler

This is your introduction to the game's plot. Nothing makes any sense at all - just a wall of random made up names being spewed out, seems like it's just masturbatory nonsense. Compare this with for example talking to Dhall in Planescape Torment where what you were reading actually made sense and served to explain your background and the setting, versus this blurting out of a ton of random names that have no meaning to the player whatsoever.

http://i585.photobucket.com/albums/ss297/Ashdate/torment01/torment01_40.jpg

 

[Bubbles]

Actually, the words "Oathbinder", "Queen that Was", "Favored", "Key", and "Book" all have meaningful connotations in my mind, even without any background knowledge of the setting. Maybe I'm just very imaginative that way.

 

[ArchAngel]

roshan: I don't know what you are smoking but the PoE picture looks way better.

 

[Duraframe300]

I have no problem reading that introduction and imagine things under it. Sorry.

 

[roshan]

Actually, the words "Oathbinder", "Queen that Was", "Favored", "Key", and "Book" all have meaningful connotations in my mind, even without any background knowledge of the setting. Maybe I'm just very imaginative that way.

I think they're certainly very evocative, but that doesn't inherently give them meaning or relevance.

 

[Morkar Left]

And regarding the writing:

Spoiler

This is your introduction to the game's plot. Nothing makes any sense at all - just a wall of random made up names being spewed out, seems like it's just masturbatory nonsense.

You can say that about nearly every religious text. It's just the style.

 

[Zombra]

It's intended to prevent metagaming where you see a skill check, save, assign your points to pass it, check out the reward, and reload. Easy fix is to just have one level-up saved up every time you get to a major settlement.

I never understood this mentality in design. I mean, its a single player PC game, if someone wants to exploit the game, it is a hex edit away. That is, they can't stop me from doing whatever I want with their game, so why bother? I understand the need to keep people from accidentally exploiting, but this need to force people to such is silly. /shrug

So the fact that hackers can mod video games to remove limitations means that no limitations should ever be designed into video games. Got it.

 

[Crooked Bee]

I hired a Chanter at the inn but she is level 1 even though my party is level 2 already. Are adventurers you hire supposed to lag behind you in level? For some reason I imagined they'd start out at your own level of experience when hired.

 

[ArchAngel]

I hired a Chanter at the inn but she is level 1 even though my party is level 2 already. Are adventurers you hire supposed to lag behind you in level? For some reason I imagined they'd start out at your own level of experience when hired.

You can choose their level when hiring and higher level ones cost more. And I think I read that you can only hire max your level -1

 

[Crooked Bee]

I hired a Chanter at the inn but she is level 1 even though my party is level 2 already. Are adventurers you hire supposed to lag behind you in level? For some reason I imagined they'd start out at your own level of experience when hired.

You can choose their level when hiring and higher level ones cost more. And I think I read that you can only hire max your level -1

Thanks, I overlooked that somehow.

 

[roshan]

roshan: I don't know what you are smoking but the PoE picture looks way better.

How could it possibly look better when it can't even be seen? You have a wall lit by gigantic torches the height of a human being but it looks as if it's a collection of mini black holes.

 

[Mastermind]

And regarding the writing:

Spoiler

This is your introduction to the game's plot. Nothing makes any sense at all - just a wall of random made up names being spewed out, seems like it's just masturbatory nonsense. Compare this with for example talking to Dhall in Planescape Torment where what you were reading actually made sense and served to explain your background and the setting, versus this blurting out of a ton of random names that have no meaning to the player whatsoever.

http://i585.photobucket.com/albums/ss297/Ashdate/torment01/torment01_40.jpg

Spoiler

Looks like a Woedica worshiper, something you can figure out by reading the encyclopedia entry on gods which is available from the start of the game. I can also speculate that the device he activated is the key (to what, I don't know). I can further speculate that the plot might have something to do with her desire to rule over the other gods again and she's gathering souls for this plot. Eothas, who disappeared, might have had his soul sucked into the machine. Or plot twist: you're eothas reincarnated, or the nigga latched on to your soul. Even if I'm wrong (I can't play past this scene due to a bug and the game runs like shit so I probably won't find out for a long while) it's still entertaining trying to figure shit out on your own. Bitching that the plot isn't spoonfed to you by convenient character exposition is retarded.