You don't learn spells from grimoires anymore, they exist just to give you extra options aside from the spells you take at level up.
You don't learn spells from grimoires anymore, they exist just to give you extra options aside from the spells you take at level up.
That's a shame. I enjoyed picking up spells from my dead foes.
You still do, sort of. You can combine different grimoires with your learned spells, and some grimoires have unique spells you can't take when leveling up.
That's cool, I didn't know there were unique spells in Grimoires. I've saved a few special grimoires, I hope some of them have a unique spell.
I thought I'd write up some impressions here. I'm pretty late in the game and I've done boatloads of sidequests.
+ Strong core gameplay systems. Statistics are (generally) understandable and interesting to play around with.
+ Very good system for battles. Great UI and lots of touches to make battles manageable and fun. Speed slider and AI options help a lot.
+ Great aesthetics. They really chose a theme and went with it. I love it.
+ Great worldbuilding. Interesting things are happening around the world and I got invested in exploring.
+ Well-written, simple characters with some nuance. Everyone has their opinions on a few things and a lot of them have a sense of humour. Everyone has their own voice writing-wise.
+ Many variables in the battles (much to play around with) and good flexibility
+ I love the simple crafting and enchanting system. And the rarity of some materials (although they could be even rarer making for harder choices)
+ Freedom of choice and freedom to travel the world.
+ Often multiple solutions to problems
+ Great voice acting for all main characters and generally everyone
- Slight buggyness in quest resolutions (particularly when doing quests in an unconventional order)
- Slightly uninteresting/middling main story (Haven't finished yet though)
I'm sure I have a few more niggles. Sometimes, as always with large games like this, the option I'm looking for doesn't exist. I hope there is good possibility to play a morally corrupt character. I played a goody two shoes this time, but I'm hoping I'll have time for another run.
And the difficulty on PoTD Expert was a letdown, but the patch did help. As did the Fampyrs :(
And a DLC is coming in July already. Looking forward to the rest of the year and more of this fantastic game!
I thought I'd write up some impressions here. I'm pretty late in the game and I've done boatloads of sidequests.
+ Strong core gameplay systems. Statistics are (generally) understandable and interesting to play around with.
+ Very good system for battles. Great UI and lots of touches to make battles manageable and fun. Speed slider and AI options help a lot.
+ Great aesthetics. They really chose a theme and went with it. I love it.
+ Great worldbuilding. Interesting things are happening around the world and I got invested in exploring.
+ Well-written, simple characters with some nuance. Everyone has their opinions on a few things and a lot of them have a sense of humour. Everyone has their own voice writing-wise.
+ Many variables in the battles (much to play around with) and good flexibility
+ I love the simple crafting and enchanting system. And the rarity of some materials (although they could be even rarer making for harder choices)
+ Freedom of choice and freedom to travel the world.
+ Often multiple solutions to problems
+ Great voice acting for all main characters and generally everyone
- Slight buggyness in quest resolutions (particularly when doing quests in an unconventional order)
- Slightly uninteresting/middling main story (Haven't finished yet though)
I'm sure I have a few more niggles. Sometimes, as always with large games like this, the option I'm looking for doesn't exist. I hope there is good possibility to play a morally corrupt character. I played a goody two shoes this time, but I'm hoping I'll have time for another run.
And the difficulty on PoTD Expert was a letdown, but the patch did help. As did the Fampyrs :(
And a DLC is coming in July already. Looking forward to the rest of the year and more of this fantastic game!
Man. I know it shouldn't be a shock when an isometric RPG with RTwP combat and an original setting doesn't light the sales charts on fire, but what a bummer if (as seems likely) Deadfire didn't sell in the ballpark of POE1. I want a healthy post-release life and for Obsidian to keep making these games.
I'm hoping it'll at least sell decently when it's on sale... It deserves much more success, especially considering how much better it is than PoE1.
Yeah, that and the fact that it wasn't riding the wave of CRPG revival hype. Not trying to start a Star Wars debate or anything, but it's similar to how TFA was some culturally-redefining event and now so many people are already hitting Star Wars fatigue. Being the tip of the spear in a situation like that has a lot of market advantages.
On the other hand, Divinity: Original Sin 2 did super well I think, so I dunno. People always try to figure these things out retroactively, but I really think there isn't that much rhyme or reason to it.
That being said, I do hope that Pillars 3 -- if we're fortunate enough to see it -- isn't a direct continuation of the Watcher's story. We've had plenty of 'Chosen One' trilogies before.
I would love to see something set 30-40 years into the future, with you playing a new character whose story revolves around dealing with the Watcher, who has calcified into his/her own character based on the decisions of the previous two games. Say, for instance,
that after Eothas breaks the Wheel, the gods put the Watcher in charge of uniting all kith and fixing/saving the world... and he just hasn't. He's failed. So 30/40 years down the line, as the ever-diminishing souls drain out of the world and the gods themselves are fading, you're working with/against/around your previous character to save everything as it's on its last leg in a fantasy pre-apocalypse.
Maybe a little drab and dreary after Deadfire (and possibly a bit Dark Soulsy "fade to grey" and all) but that's my jam.
I can't help but think of Avellone's tell-all mudraking stuff when I think about Feargus deciding that Deadfire needs full voice acting—which also could have knock-on effects for DLC, new companions, converting sidekicks into companions, etc.
Especially now that the game looks to be ... chugging along, at best.
Especially now that the game looks to be ... chugging along, at best.
As little as I care about voice-acting and as much as I dislike the tradeoffs it (usually) forces on developers, I'm reluctant to criticize Feargus on that particular decision. Reading comments on this forum, I can see why someone might think full voice-acting could draw a wider audience to the game.
It's like, what, five scenes? And they had voiced narration at Act breaks in the first game.
Thank you. I haven't been on era (or on gaming internet in general) very much in the past six months or so, so hunting down these things can be a bit of a pain.
This stuff is fucking crazy. I had no idea, but... had my suspicions that there was crazy bad blood between Avellone and, well, everyone else. Obsidian has been my favorite developer since, well, they opened their doors 15 years ago. It's sad.
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A Deadfire fight put the biggest smile on my face last night:
I could tell exactly what was about to happen, and I went through all of Aloth's spells, and then another wave of Empower refreshed spells, just trying to CC them. It was glorious.
The waves of Rotghasts in the Old City.
I could tell exactly what was about to happen, and I went through all of Aloth's spells, and then another wave of Empower refreshed spells, just trying to CC them. It was glorious.
How is this game doing in terms of patches and updates?
I only losely followed the game so far, but I will probably start playing soon.
Shifter/Shattered Pillar is still the way to got for me, which is a bit like combining my last 2 BG2 characters, plus my POE1 character since I'm still planning to play a Death Godlike.
I'm madly in love with some of the fights in BG2 and I'm always looking for more.
To be fair, a lot of them are from TOB or mods, so I'm assuming that they are saving some of the hardest and best fights for the DLC's.
I only losely followed the game so far, but I will probably start playing soon.
Shifter/Shattered Pillar is still the way to got for me, which is a bit like combining my last 2 BG2 characters, plus my POE1 character since I'm still planning to play a Death Godlike.
I'm madly in love with some of the fights in BG2 and I'm always looking for more.
To be fair, a lot of them are from TOB or mods, so I'm assuming that they are saving some of the hardest and best fights for the DLC's.
OP
OP
There's been one big balance/systems patch and some general bug fixing stuff. Check out my second post on the first page if you want to read through the patch notes.
Generally the bug patch was aimed at balance changes and making the game harder on Veteran/PotD. It sounds like that process will continue into the future as well.
Eh, it sounds about right, but don't quote me on that. It might be intended for a level lower or a level higher, but if you're off, you're not off by much.
Okay, cool. I'm trying to play as organically as possible by roleplaying and taking—and prioritizing—the quests my character would care about.
Can't believe people are actually complaining about the game being fully voiced.
I'm as old school as it gets when it comes to RPG and even I had to admit it made the dialogues a lot more bearable compared to the long-ass (and dull) text dumps of the first game .
I'm as old school as it gets when it comes to RPG and even I had to admit it made the dialogues a lot more bearable compared to the long-ass (and dull) text dumps of the first game .
I hate voice acting pretty much across the board in videogames. It's almost universally mediocre, and Deadfire is no exception. It also costs a lot of money and puts certain constraints on writing and revising the game.
I disagree. Voice acting can truly give magic to a videogame. Some games wouldn't be quite the game without voice acting (The Last of Us; Curse of Monkey Island...).
I really felt that the voice acting in Deadfire helped to act as a sort of moderating effect for making the dialogue seem natural and not overwrought with floofy exposition compared to the first game or games like Tides of Numenera.
There was a mini-dlc lately adding crew members and things the ship. I'm waiting for the next big patch here, as some things don't seem balanced and Aloth's dispositions annoy me to no end.
I kinda need to rethink my team and try to configure the AI settings.
I kinda need to rethink my team and try to configure the AI settings.
OP
OP
They've already talked about the game being supported through at least this year alongside the DLC rollouts, so I don't think that's a worry. Where (if?) the series goes I guess is up to a lot of factors, but I think Obsidian has plenty of reason to support it well. Until that Cain/Boyarsky game is released this is still their only owned IP, and it's one that, worst case, has a decent niche of extremely devoted and interested fans.
Speaking of, 1.2 seems like it'll be released close to/alongside the first DLC next month. Features include improvements to the stash, a relationship tracker and, my favorite, in-game mod support. Hopefully they can get it set up in the Steam workshop at some point because I think the game could have an interesting mod life.
Speaking of, 1.2 seems like it'll be released close to/alongside the first DLC next month. Features include improvements to the stash, a relationship tracker and, my favorite, in-game mod support. Hopefully they can get it set up in the Steam workshop at some point because I think the game could have an interesting mod life.
As always, the team welcomes your feedback and discussions about the game, and we haven't veered away from our continued commitment to support Deadfire with ongoing feature updates, fixes, and quality of life improvements to make your every adventure in the Deadfire Archipelago the absolute best it can be. July will bring with it a bevy of new features, including the oft-requested stash improvements and in-game mod support, through Patch 1.2. As a sneak peek into 1.2, we want to share with you our planned relationship tracking feature, which shows players a history of the choices they made that affected their relationships with particular companions or factions!
Maybe, but having come straight from Pillars 1, I can tell you it also feels like they made a conscious effort to dial back the wordiness of the game, for the better.
I vaguely remember Josh discussing a new guideline prohibiting NPC dialogue from running more than a few lines per node. You can imagine how different Durance's questline might have looked under that rule.
Durance's quest was too condensed. It was wall of text after wall of text, just a massive exposition dump by a very disagreeable individual, didn't really respect the rule "Show, don't tell", and to top it off you were arbitrarily restricted in your line of questioning after a while.
Durance's character was very interesting. The execution, though, was terrible, period.
Durance's character was very interesting. The execution, though, was terrible, period.
Yeah, have to agree. There are some wonderful lines of dialogue in there, but clicking through all those trees to find the line you haven't read yet is bad, especially since it's kind of buggy about darkening the ones you've already tried. And using "number of rests" as the way of metering it out was awkward, too. Avellone came up with great concepts, and then they were kind of wedged forcefully into the game in a way that doesn't work well.
Old Engrim and the rest of the crew won't join me on the ship and instead stay in Vilario's rest. That seems like something that shouldn't happen. I rescued the remaining crew and I killed the leader(s) in Port Maje (killed the Valian, the Chief attacked me when I went to speak to her afterwards).
So, not really related, but I figured this'd be as good a place to ask as any -- anyone have any Tyranny impressions?
I was thinking about going back to pick up The White March I&II, but they cost as much as Tyranny itself and are for a game I've already beaten and a class system I'm not too enthusiastic about going back to after Deadfire multiclassing. So... Tyranny?
I was thinking about going back to pick up The White March I&II, but they cost as much as Tyranny itself and are for a game I've already beaten and a class system I'm not too enthusiastic about going back to after Deadfire multiclassing. So... Tyranny?
Seriously. In the wake of OS2's complete voice acting there were plenty of people on this forum (and GAF before it) asserting that the line had been drawn that Pillars needed to step up to full VA.
Burt
The DLC's together are about as long as Tyranny if you care about the length.
WM1 is most set up for part 2, but the second part is really good. Plus. the new party members are fun to use.
I haven't played much of Tyranny, but the way you create a backstory for your character is really cool.
If you feel like playing an evil bastard, this is the game for you.
The DLC's together are about as long as Tyranny if you care about the length.
WM1 is most set up for part 2, but the second part is really good. Plus. the new party members are fun to use.
I haven't played much of Tyranny, but the way you create a backstory for your character is really cool.
If you feel like playing an evil bastard, this is the game for you.
Oh wow, didn't realize White March was such a big expansion. I'm not one of those people who cares much for the whole dollars-per-hour game length debate, but WM being basically another game worth of content does change the equation a little bit. I had thought it was much less substantial than that.
White March is huge indeed, and will take you quite a lot of hours to complete (it will still depend on your playstyle and level when attempting it - you have the option to use level-scaling if your party has an higher level than what is required for the expansion). What you will do in this expansion will have consequences for Deadfire too (spoilers below):
The most important thing is your impact on Abydon, as the god will be substantially different depending on your choices. It will also affect your relationship with Ondra. As for people you'll meet during the expansion, well... You will see.
Well Tyranny isn't that long (about 20-25 hours) and it's probably a bit longer than WM1 and 2 if you do most side quests, but we are still talking about like 20 hours playtime for the DLC's.
White March is a better "game" than Tyranny, but the latter does have a unique setting/conceit and some nice choice-consequence.
I'd probably recommend the Pillars DLC over it, though.
I'd probably recommend the Pillars DLC over it, though.
so far PoE2 is pretty damn great
been running around the city for a long time now, just got to lvl 8 now and had the audience with the queen, still have a few unresolved quests there
after the (hilarious) romance dialogue with Eder and Xoti I decided that I have to keep those two in the party. Serafen is another of my permanent companion, last spot is between Tekehu and Maia, who just joined, but I guess I'll stick with Tekehu. He's been decent as a character, and a druid that casts aoe spells without hurting your own party is pretty good
playing with the highest difficulty settings except permadeath, my character is a summoner chanter that is holding the party together atm. My frontline tends to get vaprovized right now even with the priest/druid healer combo I had in PoE1, I'm heavily relying on the chanter summons to do the heavy lifting, the summon 6 wurms spell is my MVP
I mostly recreated my save file from the first game in which I pledged myself to all the gods, and the payoff is exactly what I had hoped for from the first game. I love that the gods are way more involved in PoE2, they're easily among the best parts of this world. I'm having a great time running into gods that are pissed at me
one change I made was to let most characters live in the story choices, and now I encounter lots of people from the first game that I can't remember at all
been running around the city for a long time now, just got to lvl 8 now and had the audience with the queen, still have a few unresolved quests there
after the (hilarious) romance dialogue with Eder and Xoti I decided that I have to keep those two in the party. Serafen is another of my permanent companion, last spot is between Tekehu and Maia, who just joined, but I guess I'll stick with Tekehu. He's been decent as a character, and a druid that casts aoe spells without hurting your own party is pretty good
playing with the highest difficulty settings except permadeath, my character is a summoner chanter that is holding the party together atm. My frontline tends to get vaprovized right now even with the priest/druid healer combo I had in PoE1, I'm heavily relying on the chanter summons to do the heavy lifting, the summon 6 wurms spell is my MVP
I mostly recreated my save file from the first game in which I pledged myself to all the gods, and the payoff is exactly what I had hoped for from the first game. I love that the gods are way more involved in PoE2, they're easily among the best parts of this world. I'm having a great time running into gods that are pissed at me
one change I made was to let most characters live in the story choices, and now I encounter lots of people from the first game that I can't remember at all
I hate VA in these games because I read much more faster than the characters talk, it's just annoying background noise. I don't mind having key scenes voiced, but everything else? It's a waste of money that should have gone somewhere else. Most old CRPG fans from the IE days don't care about VA anyway and casual players are not going to buy an Isometric RPG because of the VA.
Hmm, didn't like only half of the bakers from PoE1 come back for PoE2? Honestly, I think it all goes back to PoE1 being uninteresting for a lot of people and not living up to the hype imo.
One of my main issue with the game (bugs aside) is that the french localization has a lot of errors. There are a few typos here and there, but the main issue is that some tooltips are completely broken, there are issues with affliction names, they use the same word for both "Concentration" and "Focus", and so on. The story itself and dialogues seem well-translated, but the rest needs a lot of work. As such, I can't recommended french speakers to play the game in French for now.
I'm going to guess the old city boss is not for a underequipped lvl 8 party
I got the quest item shell twice btw through a exploit - I hired the assassin to get it for me, then happen to walk by there myself and take it, then got it again from the assassin
I got the quest item shell twice btw through a exploit - I hired the assassin to get it for me, then happen to walk by there myself and take it, then got it again from the assassin
You can get there yourself organically through a quest in the Wild Mare in Queen's Berth. But, if you just want to know where it is:
It's the Oathbinder's Sanctum, on a desert island southwest of Neketaka.
Oh thanks. I'm actually done with that quest yesterday. I did not get any references to the old community forum, if there were any. Was there actual reference(s)?
But then again, I also did not get that Pillars 1's Goose and Fox inn was the community inn until I read the OT in the old forum