Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire |OT| Josh Sawyer's Pirates!

[Zabojnik]

About to embark on my POE2 journey. A couple of quick questions. I'm sure all have been already debated (to death) in the thread, but I don't want to spoil myself.

1. What's the consensus on the game's difficulty? If Veteran the way to go for returning players / experienced rpg-ers? Or is Classic enough of a challenge?

2. Level scaling. Yey or ney? I'm not generally a fan of scaling in rpgs, but someone's bound to get it right eventually. How is it in POE2?

3. I'm having trouble installing the free DLC packs.

Grey text means DLC is not installed, right? I don't know if it's because I'm playing the game via Steam Family Sharing or what. When I click on the download icon(s) on the DLC's Steam pages, the game starts, however nothing gets added to the download list. Any ideas?

 

[Anno]

Free DLC is always wonky for me. I have to click Download on Steam, which then launches the game, then close the game and go back to the library page, check and uncheck the item in the DLC list, then it finally downloads and installs it properly.

 

[Feral]

About to embark on my POE2 journey. A couple of quick questions. I'm sure all have been already debated (to death) in the thread, but I don't want to spoil myself.

1. What's the consensus on the game's difficulty? If Veteran the way to go for returning players / experienced rpg-ers? Or is Classic enough of a challenge?

2. Level scaling. Yey or ney? I'm not generally a fan of scaling in rpgs, but someone's bound to get it right eventually. How is it in POE2?

3. I'm having trouble installing the free DLC packs.

Grey text means DLC is not installed, right? I don't know if it's because I'm playing the game via Steam Family Sharing or what. When I click on the download icon(s) on the DLC's Steam pages, the game starts, however nothing gets added to the download list. Any ideas?

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depending on how experienced you are with the genre, path of the damned, expert mode and full upwards level scaling

expert mode and level scaling are a must imo. PotD is still not really all that hard, but if you're new to CRPG it might be a bit too much

and yeah I frequently have issues with free DLC and the Steam Client, I solved them relatively quickly with google

 

[His Majesty]

Free DLC is always wonky for me. I have to click Download on Steam, which then launches the game, then close the game and go back to the library page, check and uncheck the item in the DLC list, then it finally downloads and installs it properly.

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same

 

[Zabojnik]

Free DLC is always wonky for me. I have to click Download on Steam, which then launches the game, then close the game and go back to the library page, check and uncheck the item in the DLC list, then it finally downloads and installs it properly.

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I tried doing the same, but nothing gets added to the DLC list. Only thing I see there is the Gaun's Pledge thingie. I suspect it has something to do with Family Sharing. I'll have my bro add the DLC on his side, hopefully it fixes it.

depending on how experienced you are with the genre, path of the damned, expert mode and full upwards level scaling

expert mode and level scaling are a must imo. PotD is still not really all that hard, but if you're new to CRPG it might be a bit too much

and yeah I frequently have issues with free DLC and the Steam Client, I solved them relatively quickly with google

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I'm most definitely not new to crpgs. I think I'll go with Veteran + scaling enabled for now. Expert mode sounds great on paper, not so sure about the practical side of it tho.

 

[Jon of the Wired]

I'm most definitely not new to crpgs. I think I'll go with Veteran + scaling enabled for now. Expert mode sounds great on paper, not so sure about the practical side of it tho.

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Expert mode is really more like gorgnard mode. If it's not immediately obvious to you that it's what you want, then you don't want it.

 

[CottonWolf]

It offers you "features" such as guessing where your spells will hit and whether or not your allies are in the friendly fire area.

 

[Arkain]

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.

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Thanks! Those challenges do sound like they might help. Let's wait and see.

 

[Feral]

It offers you "features" such as guessing where your spells will hit and whether or not your allies are in the friendly fire area.

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the good old IE experience. You can never be quite certain if that fireball is going to blow up your own party! That's how the game is meant to be played tbh

it also doesn't show you the other dialogue options if you can't pass the required skill checks. Like,
1. dialogue option 1
2. dialogue option 2 [Lore 45]
3. dialogue option 3 [Stealth 35]
4. dialogue option 4 [Athlethic 50]

how can anyone even play the game like that

 

[Boddy]

Maybe I will build a new character once all the DLC are out.
Wasn't there some really cool stuff you could do with Black Jacket and guns?

 

[Anno]

the good old IE experience. You can never be quite certain if that fireball is going to blow up your own party! That's how the game is meant to be played tbh

it also doesn't show you the other dialogue options if you can't pass the required skill checks. Like,
1. dialogue option 1
2. dialogue option 2 [Lore 45]
3. dialogue option 3 [Stealth 35]
4. dialogue option 4 [Athlethic 50]

how can anyone even play the game like that

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Err isn't that its own option? You don't need expert mode to turn those off.

Stream tomorrow to talk about 2.0 stuff and do Q&A if anyone has any burning questions.

 

[CrichtonKicks]

Is Sawyer still involved? Interesting that they are already calling Brandon Adler "Game Director" without any type of DLC clarification.

 

[Anno]

Is Sawyer still involved? Interesting that they are already calling Brandon Adler "Game Director" without any type of DLC clarification.

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I dunno Josh was pretty straight forward about being burned out on directing and that he wouldn't be going forward. If Adler is the director for the game at this time I think they should just use his title without reservations.

Josh did say he would work on the project for design/balance stuff for some unknown time period. Going by Twitter he's also like hundred of pages deep into his Pillars tabletop setting, which he seems to genuinely enjoy.

 

[CrichtonKicks]

I dunno Josh was pretty straight forward about being burned out on directing and that he wouldn't be going forward. If Adler is the director for the game at this time I think they should just use his title without reservations.

Josh did say he would work on the project for design/balance stuff for some unknown time period. Going by Twitter he's also like hundred of pages deep into his Pillars tabletop setting, which he seems to genuinely enjoy.

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Have they indicated if they are done with the balance passes?

 

[Anno]

I don't know if they've explicitly said yes or no but there's no reason to think there won't be continuous balance patching up until whatever they consider the final build of the game. Especially as new elements are introduced through the DLCs.

 

[Burt]

If anyone's interested, in preparation for BoW I updated my difficulty scaling mod with some stuff I most certainly should've done a while back:

- Baldur now comes as a cape, ring, necklace, or trinket in addition to his pet form.
- Baldur and his many forms can now be equipped by any party member instead of only the Watcher.
- The reduced growth from Baldur now scales directly with Character Level
- Base values have been slightly adjusted to give both your party and enemies higher Accuracy.

 

[Burt]

double post

 

[Anno]

Patch notes for 2.0 beta. This doesn't account for the upcoming DLC/freeLC that's launching alongside the patch.

System highlights:

• Magran's Fires - New challenges and old favorites have been added for players that want a difficult experience with a twist. These can only be done on Path of the Damned difficulty.
  • Triple Crown
    • Expert Mode
    • Trial of Iron
  • Solo
    • Cannot recruit companions, sidekicks, or adventurers
  • Berath's Challenge
    • Any party member Knocked Out for 6 seconds is Killed
    • Cannot flee from combat
  • Magran's Challenge
    • The game cannot be paused
    • The game time cannot be slowed
• Essence Interrupter - A new Hunting Bow created by you, the community, that has been infused with animancer technology to provide interesting effects to attacks.

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The rest is a litany of bug fixes with a sprinkling of balance updates.

 

[CottonWolf]

I wish Galawain's Challenge had made 2.0. That was the one I was most interested to try.

 

[Kater]

No pause mode, huh. That might be worth a playthrough.

 

[Anno]

I'm positive I'm not good enough at the game to do that one since it's on PotD with upwards scaling. Maybe if someone makes a lot of cool AI scripts I guess.

 

[CottonWolf]

I'm positive I'm not good enough at the game to do that one since it's on PotD with upwards scaling. Maybe if someone makes a lot of cool AI scripts I guess.

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Yeah. That's just the all AI, all the time mode. It's really challenging your ability to script your party down to the smallest detail, which is pretty cool.

 

[lorddarkflare]

I have seen a ton of bellyaching on the official forums about the Magran Challenge.

Seems like people do not like the idea of being forced to play in real time.

I personally am more concerned about the fact that the challenges stack.

So far, the challenges can be reduced to:

-Don't Run
-Don't Pause
-Don't Die

I would like to see some more creative approaches.

A good example is that one Skull from Halo that removed shield Regen and forced you to Melee to gain health. That was a punishing mechanic that also opened a brand new way to play.

 

[Anno]

The Magran one is interesting to me because the AI scripting is interesting and it's definitely a different way to challenge yourself to play the game. The Galawain one sounds interesting too whenever they can make it in.

I'm interested to see whatever the Vela-related challenge will be. I'm gonna laugh if it's just a game-long escort mission.

 

[Kater]

Vela will be doing the escorting. The Watcher gets crippled and is from then on unable to do much but talk to souls and you play Vela, an Orlan kid, taking on giant beasts, undead, slavers and when confronted by the gods you might stick your tongue out at them.

 

[Massicot]

So Beast of Winter comes out super soon kinda packed (for me) right in the middle of Yakuza 0 and MHW getting on PC. I'll still probably try to get to it this weekend since I doubt it's going to be super long.

 

[Zabojnik]

Is there any way to get rid of the random slowdowns? Sometimes they last for a couple of seconds, sometimes more. Sometimes alt-tabbing to Windows and back gets rid of it, sometimes not. Is this a Unity thing? It's definitely not my system (7700k, 1080GTX).

Is there a way of changing the binding of additional mouse buttons (mouse 4)? I remember having the same problem in PoE1, but I don't remember how I went about solving it.

 

[Anno]

I think someone said that turning off telemetry helped them with that.

 

[Zabojnik]

I think someone said that turning off telemetry helped them with that.

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I had it off from the start, doesn't seem to help. I've found some additional suggestions googling, will try those.

I was expecting better out-of-the-box performance in PoE2, especially months after it launched. Guess not.

 

[Deleted member 6137]

Is there any way to get rid of the random slowdowns? Sometimes they last for a couple of seconds, sometimes more. Sometimes alt-tabbing to Windows and back gets rid of it, sometimes not. Is this a Unity thing? It's definitely not my system (7700k, 1080GTX).

Is there a way of changing the binding of additional mouse buttons (mouse 4)? I remember having the same problem in PoE1, but I don't remember how I went about solving it.

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https://steamcommunity.com/app/560130/discussions/0/2572002906843374108/

Not sure if this helps.

 

[Anno]

Far in the southernmost reaches of the Deadfire Archipelago, frost and death have encroached upon the land of the living. You, Watcher, have received a missive from the isle's residents: worshipers of Rymrgand, the god of entropy and disaster. They call you Duskspeaker, a harbinger of the end, and pray you fulfill your destiny.

In this new DLC for Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire:

Embark upon an adventure that will take you to Hel itself.

Join forces with Vatnir, an Endings Godlike and Priest of Rymrgand, to bring battle to the monstrosities that roam the Beyond.

Confront an ancient dragon, whom even the gods fear, before she brings Eora to an icy end.​

 

[marimo]

Yessss I'm so ready for this! My Watcher is a Pale Elf so I hope we learn a lot about them.

 

[boybrushdRED]

Just read that the best spell in the game will be nerfed. I'm talking about Dismissal. Xoti was best girl because of this.

 

[Anno]

Launch trailer:



I don't know that we had heard what the premise of the dragon thing was, so that's pretty neat. I love how much it matches Rymrgand's themes of inevitability and entropy.

 

[Moff]

that's a pretty good trailer. But I guess it's pretty short?

 

[Anno]

that's a pretty good trailer. But I guess it's pretty short?

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They've said it's not as long as one of the White March parts but not that much shorter. I'd be happy with anything in the 8-10 hour range, especially if it has some different options on another playthrough, and it'll have impacts outside of the DLC itself. People seem so all over the place with how long it takes them to play these games that it probably just varies a whole lot.

 

[Burt]

 

[sredgrin]

Is the DLC meant to be played mid game, end game, etc? I haven't finished 2 yet so not sure if it has a point of no return save point system like the first game.

 

[Anno]

Is the DLC meant to be played mid game, end game, etc? I haven't finished 2 yet so not sure if it has a point of no return save point system like the first game.

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This one is aimed at levels 14-16, so late-mid gameish. The other two are apparently going to be higher up the level chart, but I doubt any are going to be post-game. It does create you a point of no return save when you reach that point.

 

[cirr]

Hoping that this DLC will nerf the xp gain from the base game. It's way too easy to get to 20 imo. Still, very much looking forward to Beast of Winter; getting White March vibes and I suppose that's what they've been aiming for.

 

[Menome]

Finished the game today and was overall pleased with it, although I agree that the final parts of the main plot did feel a little 'rushed'. I sorted the final part of the Vailian story-arc and then whooshed ahead and was left feeling: "That was it?"

I fully explored the map, and didn't twig which island was the one that we funded as a community though, could anyone enlighten me please? (Feel free to spoiler-tag it)

 

[Xeteh]

So I bought PoE1 a couple years ago, felt completely overwhelmed with systems I wasn't familiar with and played about 2 hours before quitting. Earlier this year I wanted to give it another go but I figured I'd wait for White March 1&2 to go on sale but then earlier this month Twitch Prime gave away the Definitive version so I finally played through it. I'd get a few hours in, restart because I didn't like something. Get a few hours in, restart because something else sounded cool. And repeat that over and over until I finally just forced myself to stick with something. I thought I'd wait to buy Deadfire until it went on sale and I hadn't really looked at it so I didn't know what I was missing... plus there was still stuff I wanted to do in the first game. Oops, watched a trailer for Deadfire. And hey, a sale for 20% off of the Obsidian edition of Deadfire.

Now I'm back in the loop of playing for a few hours, restarting, playing a few, restarting. Send help.

 

[Anno]

Now I'm back in the loop of playing for a few hours, restarting, playing a few, restarting. Send help.

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At some point I think you just have to force yourself to load up the same character for awhile, I think. Just like you did previously. Is there some specific reason you reroll so often? Like to try our new builds? Or you worry your current one is bad?

 

[Killzig]

that's a pretty good trailer. But I guess it's pretty short?

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In a dev talk Feargus said the White March sold really poorly so they'd be focused on smaller DLCs. These are all sub $10 content hits so I wouldn't expect much more than an additional island with a short dungeon/quest chain. Already shows quite a bit that Vatnir is only a sidekick and not a full companion.

 

[Anoregon]

I imagine Vatnir is "companion-ish" while actually in the DLC areas, but doesn't have much to say/do outside of it.

 

[CottonWolf]

I imagine Vatnir is "companion-ish" while actually in the DLC areas, but doesn't have much to say/do outside of it.

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Yep. That's basically what they've said. Apparently he chimes in occasionally outside the DLC areas, but it's pretty minor.

 

[GiftBot]

Hello, I am a bot! I come bearing 1 gifts from Anno!

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Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire Season Pass -- GB-7c9e3825-a607-416e-ad76-f24b86f587f6 - Won by Salty Catfish

 

[Anno]

I went to redeem my season pass key and discovered I had two, so congrats to whoever wins that raffle.

 

[Xeteh]

At some point I think you just have to force yourself to load up the same character for awhile, I think. Just like you did previously. Is there some specific reason you reroll so often? Like to try our new builds? Or you worry your current one is bad?

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Its how I've been in any game where I can create a character. There's so many choices, things seem interesting and I try them for a few hours and maybe they don't go how I expect or something else catches my eye. Also a lot of builds that are out there (at least on Obsidian's boards and reddit) seem to focus on a specific piece of gear which I don't really care to do on a first playthrough since I don't really know where anything is or when I'm going to get it, general builds seem few and far between so I try to come up with something on my own and then I worry I probably fucked it up and try something else. But yeah, I need to just buckle down and stick with something.

Also super nice of you to give away the season pass!

 

[Anno]

Its how I've been in any game where I can create a character. There's so many choices, things seem interesting and I try them for a few hours and maybe they don't go how I expect or something else catches my eye. Also a lot of builds that are out there (at least on Obsidian's boards and reddit) seem to focus on a specific piece of gear which I don't really care to do on a first playthrough since I don't really know where anything is or when I'm going to get it, general builds seem few and far between so I try to come up with something on my own and then I worry I probably fucked it up and try something else. But yeah, I need to just buckle down and stick with something.

Also super nice of you to give away the season pass!

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I'm sure plenty of people can sympathize with that, myself included. When I was struck with this in the first game I'd recruit a random merc, spec them out that way and play around for a bit. After awhile I generally was satisfied that it worked or whatever, throw them back into Caed Nua and continue on my normal journey.