I thought it was bad enough that the auto-level for companions you get was turned ON by default.
I didn't even know it was possible to level them completely up until that and that bothered me to be honest.
Sure you can respecc them at an inn but until much later that money is not really available.
I've now completed the starting island and reached the 'cutscene' with:
The council of gods arguing about how to deal with Eothas
Everything to do with plot and world-building just feels a lot more natural and fleshed-out, which is to be expected now we've had the 'introduce everything' entry in the series.
Would have been nice to have a big red arrow or tooltip pointing towards the Ship Management button though. I spent far too long running around the deck and going to port/supplies trying to find out how to allocate my new crew members.
Finally, seem to have an odd frame-hiccup going on at the moment. Game runs fine for about 2-3 minutes at a time, then freezes for a couple of seconds, and keeps repeating this. I'm running a decent setup with a 1070, 16GB RAM etc. and the first game ran just fine.
Is this a known issue with the game or a particular graphical setting at the moment?
The pantheon encounters are probably the best thing about it!
It just feels incredibly short, incredibly rushed, and the player's involvement with it is overstated and very close to nil: you're definitely "The Watcher" rather than "The Person Who Does Anything." Everything after the point-of-no-return endgame save feels like it was thrown together, and Sawyer has already admitted he overedited endgame dialogue so some things are just ... confusing.
I have to take responsibility for the lack of clarity on this. It was not my intention to retcon via omission anything that's already been established in Pillars of Eternity. [REDACTED SPOILERS] These sequences felt like they disrupted the pacing of the conversations and they didn't seem strictly necessary. When we had our team play week, I didn't receive feedback that the absence of this information was bad/raised questions – but that may be because anyone who thought about it knew the information from our design documents/conversations/presentations/previous versions of [the] dialogues.
I think that this information can be explained in-game in the future, but I apologize for any confusion that the omissions have caused.
I'm with team hunting bow. There's only one unique hunting bow in this game. Need more. Also. I play ranger in Pillars 1 & 2, that's why I'm biased towards the hunting bow. Back in Pillars 1, there's a soulbound hunting bow the Stormcaller, and my build was built around that weapon. Disappointed when I learned that there was only one unique hunting bow in Pillars 2.
Day 2 - the Hunting Bow folks won a narrow battle. Looks like this choice is going to be much more decisive, though.
Also an article about the first of the season pass DLCs, the Beast of Winter. Out August 2nd.
Beast of Winter begins with a letter. You are cordially invited to an island at the very bottom of the map made home by the worshippers of Rymrgand. Rymrgand, the beast of the DLC's title, is the god of collapse: famine, plague, and disaster. The locals call you Duskspeaker - they've seen the way death follows in your wake, and they're really into it.
"The people there throw a feast in your honour," Scokel says. "Because they respect the way that you go about messing things up."
Is enabling level scaling working mid game now? I can check the box, but not sure if it's actually going into effect as I'm still devastating a lot of groups. Not sure if I was able to select it before the recent patches.
I think so? If it's like the first game it probably doesn't change for any maps you've already loaded, though, so if you're on the same map it might not make a difference.
I think so? If it's like the first game it probably doesn't change for any maps you've already loaded, though, so if you're on the same map it might not make a difference.
Haven't tested it yet, and I'm still rocking a 2500k so I couldn't even say if it'd help me. It'd be nice if it was a performance fix they could get in before BoW though.
I skipped a few quests and late game islands, but I will get back to them once the first DLC is out.
Once the other DLC's are out, I will come back one final time.
I was quite happy with my ending choice.
Joining Captain Aeldys was the right choice.
I was worried that the pirats would get too powerful from looting Ukaizo, but she just reativated the strom machine and layed mines on her way out.
Combat is really good, but there were a few thing that really annoyed me, such as how armor works.
Character creation is fantastic, but sadly that didn't carry over to the companions and I started before there were mods to change their classes (however, now you can).
Ship combat isn't as bad as people here say it is, but it ain't great either. It feels like a placeholder that got never replaced.
Story is good, but very short. I'm fine with that, since the plot clearly isn't the focus of this game. At least there is no filler.
The characters are still really good. World building is fantastic.
It ain't no Baldurs Gate 2, but it's still pretty damn good.
are any of the caster multi-classes any good? I decided to stick to single classes for my MC (chanter beckoner) and my caster companions. I think only the cipher has some subclasses that go well with physical attackers
are any of the caster multi-classes any good? I decided to stick to single classes for my MC (chanter beckoner) and my caster companions. I think only the cipher has some subclasses that go well with physical attackers
Ciper has some good stuff, yeah. Even after a couple of nerfs, Wizard buffs make it a strong complement to melee classes, especially tanks. Fighter/Wizard Aloth is at least as good a tank as anything Eder can bring to the table, for instance. Priest doesn't multiclass too well because of slow cast times, but going Wael subclass gets some of those good instant-cast Wizard buffs and opens up the entire priest healing/buffing pool to you -- great for a tanky support. Druid might be okay multiclassed with certain melees if you focus on shapeshifting synergy, but I haven't really messed around with that.
Ciper has some good stuff, yeah. Even after a couple of nerfs, Wizard buffs make it a strong complement to melee classes, especially tanks. Fighter/Wizard Aloth is at least as good a tank as anything Eder can bring to the table, for instance. Priest doesn't multiclass too well because of slow cast times, but going Wael subclass gets some of those good instant-cast Wizard buffs and opens up the entire priest healing/buffing pool to you -- great for a tanky support. Druid might be okay multiclassed with certain melees if you focus on shapeshifting synergy, but I haven't really messed around with that.
It isn't that they aren't good, but the low number of casts early on does limit your options, and it's easy to lean towards using the magical stuff for defense when your melee stuff is probably offense-oriented. Offensive spells do work well too though.
Wizard's Thrust of Tattered Veils and Minor Missles are both fantastic -- extremely fast casts, always 100% to hit, and Thrust interrupts anything and everything -- and Fan of Flames is a pretty reliable early AOE, although the longish cast time sucks in melee. Citzal's Spirit Lance is nice, with the right build. All of the Priest's Spiritual Weapons are actually really good and the sort of thing you can make an offensive build around.
Overall, I'd say that there are certainly plenty of build options for offensive melee magic users, but using magic to supplement a melee defensively is generally quicker and easier.
are any of the caster multi-classes any good? I decided to stick to single classes for my MC (chanter beckoner) and my caster companions. I think only the cipher has some subclasses that go well with physical attackers
Would be great if we could get some specifics on the Challenge Mode stuff, though. It's probably the deciding factor between me starting a new run and me just booting up an old save and doing the new content.
Rymrgand is the best god. They're the only one who just doesn't give a damn. Also, they're a massive cosmic cow.
I'm totally starting a new playthrough for the DLC, PotD with some challenges (probably also the +2 to all stats, because I'm a terrible cheater). Mage Slayer/Bleak Walker PC running with Eder (tank swashbuckler), Xoti (healer priest), Ydwin (CC cipher) and Vatnir (DPS priest).
I thought at first Vatnir's portrait was like some other form Rymrgand could take. So Vatnir's just another sort of Godlike? That's interesting. What do people call him then, a Cow Godlike?
I already have around 150 hours logged into the second game, that's without even all the DLC as I'm still waiting for that, as many others here. I bet I'll have at least two hundred more hours after all of the expansions are released, just like I had for the first game.
Not something I would have thought of. Sounds less unpleasant than "Death" or "Fire Godlike", anyway.
Edit: The things I read about the challenge mode are interesting. Maybe there's an option to give enemies more abilities, something that Dragon Age Inquisition had as an option. I think it was called "Equal Grounds" there.
Not sure I like the idea of losing companions if they are knocked out for too long. Would mostly just use the companions you create at the inn then with such an option enabled instead of the existing ones which would mean less colorful commentary.
Any idea whether there are going to be any more difficulty patches?
I restarted after the latest difficulty patch, but POTD still drops off in difficulty way too quickly, even with scaling on. I'm still waiting to start properly playing the game because I don't want my first full playthrough to be ruined by lack of challenge, but if there are going to be no more difficulty patches, I might as well go in...
Any idea whether there are going to be any more difficulty patches?
I restarted after the latest difficulty patch, but POTD still drops off in difficulty way too quickly, even with scaling on. I'm still waiting to start properly playing the game because I don't want my first full playthrough to be ruined by lack of challenge, but if there are going to be no more difficulty patches, I might as well go in...
I think they said it will be an ongoing thing. We should have the patch notes for 2.0 soon, which I believe brings with it various challenge modes or options, so I suspect there will be some additional rebalancing to go along with that. Maybe best to wait for that information to get out.
A few tidbits of information from BoW I found interesting. From these two interviews.
Along with Beast of Winter, we are also releasing The Deck of Many Things DLC for all players. It's a free DLC which introduces a new ship to the world map, The Deck of Many Things. This ship, ancient Engwithan in origin, has some of the most unique items and crew in all of the Deadfire. And for those that want to try to take the ship on in naval combat, it's the hardest ship fight in the game.
We are also adding Magran's Fires, which are special challenges that allow players to go through the game with additional limitations. For example, a player doing Berath's Challenge is unable to flee from combats and their party members are permanently killed if not revived within six seconds of being knocked out. One of the stranger challenges is Galawain's Challenge, which gives all Beast type creatures additional random abilities in combat.
Beast of Winter adds all of the things you would expect from an Obsidian game – new areas and dungeons to explore, dozens of new items and creatures, and fun, engaging quests. We have also added Vatnir, an Endings godlike the player can convince to follow them into the depths of the White Void.
Due to the nature of the DLC, some of the game's previous companions will also have quite a bit to say. For example, Ydwin, as a pale elf animancer, has a lot to talk about as it relates to the people of the cult, Rymrgand, and the nature of souls.
There is a new item type being added to Beast of Winter – the Trinket. Trinkets are items that allows characters to cast powerful, once per rest abilities that can turn the tide of a battle.
We also have many other new features planned for future DLCs and patches, but we will talk about those later./QUOTE]
While players can access the DLC content at any time after they have their ship, it is specially crafted for parties of levels 14 – 15
The baby can finally get down before 9pm and mostly be counted on to stay asleep, so I think BoW is when I'll finally fire up the game and be able to commit sufficiently to enjoying it. Then by the time I'm done the other two DLCs will probably be out for next years replay!
