PoE Reviews

[Bleed the Man]

I'm far from a minmaxer, as I like to choose things for roleplay reasons rather than mechanical benefits, but hard is still fairly easy.I think the creatures are reasonably tunned, it's just the levelling that is off, so once you arrive to Defiance Bay most likely you will start being overlevelled in most encounters you face. Once they manage to tune the experience gain and levelling progression, the difficulty curve should be mostly fine.

 

[J_C]

I'd really like to see some let's plays from these people who think that hard is a cakewalk.

 

[Ellef]

Let's players are on the whole drooling morons furiously mashing buttons of awesome rather than competent players. Try this; give four people guns, 2 people sword and board and cakewalk through hard with auto attack.

 

[ZagorTeNej]

Playing the game on Normal doesn't mean you are bad at them. I play it on normal. Only autists (and a few elite developers) play on hard or PoD.

Nah, this really isn't that type of game. I played an unoptimized rogue where I picked whatever sounded cool at level up (same for other party members), mostly just tended to my PC's gear while forgetting to upgrade companions' (some of them were stuck using fine weapons until the end almost), was new to the system and didn't even read most spell descriptions etc. and still had a largely uneventful romp on hard overall.

I think the fault lies with the system as much as it does with encounter design. Fighters are just too good at their job (even non mix-maxed ones like Eder) which makes tank and spank one tactic that beats everything, protection spells are shit so you can take out casters quickly, many of dangerous stuff from IE games like Web, Poison have been made mere nuisances instead of real threats, no immunities or ultra-damaging spells/abilities (except something like bugged Insect Plague), stealth system that always lets you get the drop on enemy etc.

I doubt the gap between Normal and Hard is big anyway (I wouldn't be surprised if it's barely noticeable), PoTD is probably a significant step up from those two but then again lazy difficulty increases never interested me so I doubt I'll try it out soon, don't enjoy combat that much to slug it out with HP spounges with bloated stats. Even in IE games while I used various difficulty enhancing mods that improve AI, abilities, spell selection etc. over the years I very rarely played any of them on anything but Core Rules.

In his Arcanum LP Avellone said he doesn't play on easy because it makes him feel like a wimp. Then he died repeatedly to wolves with a non-combat character.

Almost every designer at Obsidian is bad at playing games, and as I mentioned before, they can't design a game they themselves can't complete.

Didn't Avellone design some of the tougher fights in IWD2 (attack on Targos, Holy Avenger fight) though?

 

[Irenaeus]

Let's players are on the whole drooling morons furiously mashing buttons of awesome rather than competent players. Try this; give four people guns, 2 people sword and board and cakewalk through hard with auto attack.

I don't want to.

 

[Ellef]

Ignorance is bliss when it comes to Pillars mechanics. The less you know, the more enjoyable challenges remain, which is why reviews are so glowing.

 

[Sensuki]

Ironic for a Sawyer-designed system, too.

 

[J_C]

I don't want to.

Me neither. Finding the single most effective party combination and using just that is boring.

 

[Irenaeus]

Ironic for a Sawyer-designed system, too.

Not really, considering his design philosophy.

 

[SausageInYourFace]

Let's players are on the whole drooling morons furiously mashing buttons of awesome rather than competent players. Try this; give four people guns, 2 people sword and board and cakewalk through hard with auto attack.

I actually do this and its still no cakewalk.

Ignorance is bliss when it comes to Pillars mechanics. The less you know, the more enjoyable challenges remain, which is why reviews are so glowing.

And whats that even supposed to mean? The less you know about any system, the harder it is, the more you know about it, the easier it is. Duh? And thats bad how exactly..?

 

[ZagorTeNej]

Not really, considering his design philosophy.

Considering how much he yapped about transparency and that archaic, confusing DnD, it is.

 

[Irenaeus]

Not really, considering his design philosophy.

Considering how much he yapped about transparency and that archaic, confusing DnD, it is.

I mean that his philosophy is centred in making the playing experience more or less the same for every player (no bad decisions).

 

[Lord Andre]

People are intentionally playing the game badly to increase combat diversity ? And then call the rest of us retarded...

 

[LizardWizard]

Why this people dont play on Easy if they dont want hard fights?

Instead of making Hard difficulty Easy.


What the point of having Easy-Easy-Easy-Normal (PotD) difficulties?

In his Arcanum LP Avellone said he doesn't play on easy because it makes him feel like a wimp. Then he died repeatedly to wolves with a non-combat character.

Almost every designer at Obsidian is bad at playing games, and as I mentioned before, they can't design a game they themselves can't complete.

Which is why Ser Cain should be lead on whatever turn-based game they do in the future instead being regulated to program bitch.

 

[Apexeon]

The issues with the narrative aren't because of Sawyer. It's hard to pinpoint the cause of the problem. There's one guy that thinks it's Fenstermaker. It could also be bad editing (Avellone coming in and making edits and fucking other stuff up). I have no idea to be honest.

Sawyer did create the setting.

flagship titles

I'm afraid that Obsidian might consider this more of a flagship title:

Yeap all those tasty pay to win $$$ yum yum yum.

Put out a "premium tank" for $50 and profit.
DU rounds for 50 in game credits per shell called the Saddam sunday special.
Or the Josh round that will balance on impact.

 

[Roguey]

Didn't Avellone design some of the tougher fights in IWD2 (attack on Targos, Holy Avenger fight) though?

Targos is difficult to people like Brennecke. I believe he inherited the Holy Avenger fight from Josh (who said that Avellone and Maldonado took over his areas after he left).

People are intentionally playing the game badly to increase combat diversity ? And then call the rest of us retarded...

I do this with nearly every RPG in order to get enjoyment out of them. You probably do too.

Which is why Ser Cain should be lead on whatever turn-based game they do in the future instead being regulated to program bitch.

Cain doesn't want to lead, but he did complete ToEE with a party of halfling bards, so I'd say he is better at playing games than most of the clowns at Absurdian.

 

[Lord Andre]

I do this with nearly every RPG in order to get enjoyment out of them. You probably do too.

I don't play 2 tanks and 4 ciphers because I want to experience more classes, have more variety, so yes - it's normal to a degree. But I'm not gonna use a brigandine instead of full plate for diversity, not when full plate has a clear defense advantage at the loss of 5% attack speed. And probably neither would you.

 

[Roguey]

Making medium armors worthwhile seems like a struggle that's never been satisfactorily resolved. Whether D&D, Arcanum, DA:O, New Vegas, etc. I always either go light or the heaviest I can find. Sawyer's one in a long line of designers who couldn't answer the question. Oblivion/Skyrim did the obvious and just streamlined it to light and heavy.

 

[Rake]

Making medium armors worthwhile seems like a struggle that's never been satisfactorily resolved. Whether D&D, Arcanum, DA:O, New Vegas, etc. I always either go light or the heaviest I can find. Sawyer's one in a long line of designers who couldn't answer the question. Oblivion/Skyrim did the obvious and just streamlined it to light and heavy.

Min/Max will always win against average. Huge benefits/huge drawbacks will always be more effective than jack of all trades, because Player can find a playstyle that avoids the drawbacks.
medium armor is the same. It sits uncomfortably in the middle between heavy and light, avoiding both extremes. And as such, it's subpar. You either need as high as you can get, or you don't and you ignore it completely in order to avoid it's drawbacks.

 

[ZagorTeNej]

Targos is difficult to people like Brennecke. I believe he inherited the Holy Avenger fight from Josh (who said that Avellone and Maldonado took over his areas after he left).

Meh, maybe not that difficult but it's still a well designed beginner fight compared to most RPGs I've played, it felt like an actual attack/invasion on the settlement. Regarding the Holy Avenger, he inherited what? Some rough drafts? I imagine he still did some work there. Just because MCA turned into a casual player, doesn't mean he always was one.

Making medium armors worthwhile seems like a struggle that's never been satisfactorily resolved. Whether D&D, Arcanum, DA:O, New Vegas, etc. I always either go light or the heaviest I can find. Sawyer's one in a long line of designers who couldn't answer the question. Oblivion/Skyrim did the obvious and just streamlined it to light and heavy.

Talking about PoE specifically, Robes and Padded armor can still be somewhat useful for non-tanks but yeah anything higher than that and the opportunity cost is too big (even for a rogue that dives into melee). For tanks it was a no brainer, Plate Armor all the way.

 

[Infinitron]

Making medium armors worthwhile seems like a struggle that's never been satisfactorily resolved. Whether D&D, Arcanum, DA:O, New Vegas, etc. I always either go light or the heaviest I can find. Sawyer's one in a long line of designers who couldn't answer the question. Oblivion/Skyrim did the obvious and just streamlined it to light and heavy.

It's an encounter design problem, not a systems design problem. Medium armor can be nice for fights where you might need to be both at melee and at ranged at some point

It also needs to exist in the game so that enemy NPCs can wear it and you can face enemy NPCs with an intermediate amount of protection instead of just squishies and super-heavies

 

[Ellef]

In Pillars I haven't really found a use for light armour either. You either go full heavy because you're a tank, or you wear enchanted clothing rather than getting a small amount of DR at the loss of damage.

 

[Shadenuat]

Cain doesn't want to lead, but he did complete ToEE with a party of halfling bards, so I'd say he is better at playing games than most of the clowns at Absurdian.

Was it in some interview?

 

[Hatred]

The damage loss due to wearing fine robes is actually pretty small. Unfortunately the mitigation also turns out to be quite small.

 

[Ellef]

Let's players are on the whole drooling morons furiously mashing buttons of awesome rather than competent players. Try this; give four people guns, 2 people sword and board and cakewalk through hard with auto attack.

I actually do this and its still no cakewalk.

Ignorance is bliss when it comes to Pillars mechanics. The less you know, the more enjoyable challenges remain, which is why reviews are so glowing.

And whats that even supposed to mean? The less you know about any system, the harder it is, the more you know about it, the easier it is. Duh? And thats bad how exactly..?

Somewhat difficult to pick up, easy to master.