Eternity Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire Pre-Release Thread [BETA RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Quillon]

Video update...hmn.

Normally it should be today right?

 

[santino27]

Normally it should be today right?

Hard to say. During the 'post-campaign but still collecting donations towards stretch goals' phase, they were doing updates every tuesday. Since then, we've only gotten one update (in almost a month), and that was on a Friday/Saturday.

 

[Infinitron]

This is likely to be their "What we're going to show at E3" update, so it could come out anytime in the next 12 or so days.

 

[Grotesque]

hi there!

it has been a busy month and I have not been as active as I would liek to be so the last update was sea shanty songs that will be original to the game and its regions kind of like the books we all read and enjoyed in Pillars rightg? there will be a lot of singing to be had as we sails around the sea plus a sea sahnty unlocked after a certain thingy happens that is what I am going to come out and say so I hope it happens because of a lot of what we discuss here has happened even with the lack of posts by some at obsidian who hang out here they still read so keep the suggestions c oming and help out!!

probablky kind of dumb with cannibals because would it be hidden from the player though righgt? Does a cannibal like a vegan and they tell you on the second conversation choice so you do or do not take them on your ship or does it just happen and as captain you have to figure out via a quest-line who is eating your crew? that would be kinda neat if there was a quest to catch cannibal-crew before they eat everyone and you become strandecd at sea. Can my barbarian/druid eat the crew? Can I get hungry and eat them. It should go both ways righgt?

"Hi my name is Crispy I am a cannibal can I join your crew anyway?"

makes me wonder how many players would be screwed if they were not told it was a cannonball and in the middle of sailing around your entire crew is eaten due to lack of food and does the coannonball eat normal food to blend in and just nbible on the crew when they can?

sailors ate one another due to conditions they encountered for survival it seams a little out of palce unless we are sailing in the open sea for weeks on end or get stuck in ice.

Thanks,
Sherry

Every time I read this dude's posts, an elusive feeling creeps out of wasting my life away reading his aberrations.

 

[CyberWhale]

hi there!

it has been a busy month and I have not been as active as I would liek to be so the last update was sea shanty songs that will be original to the game and its regions kind of like the books we all read and enjoyed in Pillars rightg? there will be a lot of singing to be had as we sails around the sea plus a sea sahnty unlocked after a certain thingy happens that is what I am going to come out and say so I hope it happens because of a lot of what we discuss here has happened even with the lack of posts by some at obsidian who hang out here they still read so keep the suggestions c oming and help out!!

probablky kind of dumb with cannibals because would it be hidden from the player though righgt? Does a cannibal like a vegan and they tell you on the second conversation choice so you do or do not take them on your ship or does it just happen and as captain you have to figure out via a quest-line who is eating your crew? that would be kinda neat if there was a quest to catch cannibal-crew before they eat everyone and you become strandecd at sea. Can my barbarian/druid eat the crew? Can I get hungry and eat them. It should go both ways righgt?

"Hi my name is Crispy I am a cannibal can I join your crew anyway?"

makes me wonder how many players would be screwed if they were not told it was a cannonball and in the middle of sailing around your entire crew is eaten due to lack of food and does the coannonball eat normal food to blend in and just nbible on the crew when they can?

sailors ate one another due to conditions they encountered for survival it seams a little out of palce unless we are sailing in the open sea for weeks on end or get stuck in ice.

Thanks,
Sherry

Every time I read this dude's posts, an elusive feeling creeps out of wasting my life away reading his aberrations.

Use the abridging technique I developed:

hi there!

Thanks,
Sherry

 

[Sizzle]

Video update...hmn.

Normally it should be today right?

Such a warm, loving look in Sawyer's eyes.

I wish I may, I wish I might,
make balanced love to you tonight :D

 

[Infinitron]

You've got it wrong, they're just siblings in Obsidian's Wisconsin Mafia (the only major counterweight against the Wildstar Mafia)

 

[Sizzle]

 

[Sizzle]

 

[Lacrymas]

Wow, that word soup of class names is getting pretty ridiculous.

 

[Fry]

It's flavor. BFD.

 

[Lacrymas]

This kind of flavor doesn't do anything by itself. It's like going "Hey, look! I've got turmeric, cumin, chili flakes, oregano, rosemary, thyme, curry, garlic powder, nutmeg and a bunch of other spices!", sure, that's a lot of flavors, but if you don't cook something with them it's for its own sake. It's not even that, it's more like "try to imagine all these spices I have". And I feel this is where this word mix is going. I suppose some people like that, but this is the Bethesda way, lots of stuff doing nothing. It's not really a criticism, mainly an observation. I guess you can argue that they technically do something, i.e. the classes change slightly, but eehhh.

EDIT: It also begs the question - do these extra names represent actual professions/occupations people in Eora can have (which is the way to create actual substance with that flavor) or are they only a UI element? If they are only a UI element why do they exist? It affects the world as much as the color of said UI does. Why is the UI arbitrarily assigning names to random shit? Who is even watching their character sheet enough to remember they are an evoker instead of a wizard if such a thing doesn't exist in the world?

 

[Parabalus]

This kind of flavor doesn't do anything by itself. It's like going "Hey, look! I've got turmeric, cumin, chili flakes, oregano, rosemary, thyme, curry, garlic powder, nutmeg and a bunch of other spices!", sure, that's a lot of flavors, but if you don't cook something with them it's for its own sake. It's not even that, it's more like "try to imagine all these spices I have". And I feel this is where this word mix is going. I suppose some people like that, but this is the Bethesda way, lots of stuff doing nothing. It's not really a criticism, mainly an observation. I guess you can argue that they technically do something, i.e. the classes change slightly, but eehhh.

EDIT: It also begs the question - do these extra names represent actual professions/occupations people in Eora can have (which is the way to create actual substance with that flavor) or are they only a UI element? If they are only a UI element why do they exist? It affects the world as much as the color of said UI does. Why is the UI arbitrarily assigning names to random shit? Who is even watching their character sheet enough to remember they are an evoker instead of a wizard if such a thing doesn't exist in the world?

You could lob the same criticism right back at Bg2 kits, there is practically no in-game reference to them. Maybe Cernd counts. Psure they'll do better in that regard since they likely recognize it as a problem.

 

[Iznaliu]

You could lob the same criticism right at Bg2 kits, there is practically no in-game reference to them. Maybe Cernd counts.

The same problem would also apply to PoE's equivalent of BG2 kits; the subclasses.

 

[Sizzle]

You could lob the same criticism right back at Bg2 kits, there is practically no in-game reference to them. Maybe Cernd counts. Psure they'll do better in that regard since they likely recognize it as a problem.

I don't recall Cernd's class (Druid - Shapeshifter) ever being brought up in dialogues.

The closest we got to this was Yoshimo's (Thief - Bountyhunter. He's basically hunting you to bring you to Irenicus), Keldorn's (Paladin - Inquisitor. His racist views and even more rigid paladin behavior, especially concerning Viconia), and Valygar's (Ranger - Stalker. His magical ancestry (which he fights against) is probably responsible for the minor spells he has through his Stalker kit) classes being an unspoken, but logical parts of their characters.

 

[Fry]

Sawyer spent a few days thinking up multiclass titles because it amused him and he thought it would add a bit of character. Complaining about this is literally not worth the calories required to make your fingers move on the keyboard.

 

[Lacrymas]

You could lob the same criticism right back at Bg2 kits, there is practically no in-game reference to them. Maybe Cernd counts. Psure they'll do better in that regard since they likely recognize it as a problem.

I do, but I give it a bit more leeway because there was no other way to make changes to the classes. Feats didn't exist yet, so pushing arbitrary buttons at character creation on the UI was the only way. PoE doesn't have this problem, the special attributes of the subclasses can be feats or bonus feats you can pick up at level 1. It's also worth mentioning that Forgotten Realms does have in-universe lore for each class kit, even if BG2 didn't mention most of them.

 

[Parabalus]

I don't recall Cernd's class (Druid - Shapeshifter) ever being brought up in dialogues.

The closest we got to this was Yoshimo's (Thief - Bountyhunter. He's basically hunting you to bring you to Irenicus), Keldorn's (Paladin - Inquisitor. His racist views and even more rigid paladin behavior, especially concerning Viconia), and Valygar's (Ranger - Stalker. His magical ancestry (which he fights against) is probably responsible for the minor spells he has through his Stalker kit) classes being an unspoken, but logical parts of their characters.

I meant the cutscene when he kills Faldorn, that's the only direct use/mention of kits (both gameplay and dialogue) for NPCs I could think of.

The things you list are just fanfic rationalisations (that's not a bad thing, they just aren't reinforced in the game).

Sawyer spent a few days thinking up multiclass titles because it amused him and he thought it would add a bit of character. Complaining about this is literally not worth the calories required to make your fingers move on the keyboard.

They are pretty cool.

The arguing will start in earnest once the the full finals names are released, people love banal discussions.

I do, but I give it a bit more leeway because there was no other way to make changes to the classes. Feats didn't exist yet, so pushing arbitrary buttons on the UI was the only way. PoE doesn't have this problem, the special attributes of the subclasses can be feats or bonus feats you can pick up at level 1. It's also worth mentioning that Forgotten Realms do have in-universe lore for each class kit, even if BG2 didn't mention most of them.

Psure there will be enemies with subclasses who will use their kits, I seriously doubt Sawyer pass on that.

I agree with you about feats, but PoE has been bombarded as being bland (even on aspects it really isn't) so subclasses are likely a pushback against that.

 

[Lacrymas]

Psure there will be enemies with subclasses who will use their kits, I seriously doubt Sawyer pass on that.

I agree with you about feats, but PoE has been bombarded as being bland (even on aspects it really isn't) so subclasses are likely a pushback against that.

Oh, yeah, I'm 99% sure they are going to use them, that's not the problem. The problem is that they'll likely exist in a vacuum, only relevant to the UI and quickly forgotten about. They won't be a thing that exists in the world of Eora. This is a very important issue that affects all the arts, how the elements are used and are they arbitrary and random or have a structural/narrative purpose. The irrelevant names of the subclasses/multi-classes are a symptom of something deeper, something PoE1 suffered from as well - the complete disconnect between elements. Much of the world building is simply a list of something someone came up with. The names of the subclasses/multi-classes are also literally a recited list of words Sawyer came up with or looked up in a dictionary. We have all these names, places and history, but we don't have a created coherent world in which they matter. That's why I gave the spices analogy, we have all these spices in front of us but we don't have actual food.

Not that having some fluff is bad, it can create a sense of mystery, expectation or being part of a bigger world, but PoE goes overboard with it, being comprised of 90% fluff which these names exacerbates and brings yet again to the table. The blandness of PoE that they are trying to push back against won't be fixed by this, it's just going to deepen the issue.

 

[Ulfhednar]

Sawyer spent a few days thinking up multiclass titles because it amused him and he thought it would add a bit of character. Complaining about this is literally not worth the calories required to make your fingers move on the keyboard.

My big beef with them is that inevitably they are going to clash with somebody's character concept. There's a big difference between a spellblade (Fig/Wiz 19/1) who wants to run into the frontlines naked for the increased action speed, and just intends to cast mirror image and arcane veil as armor, and an Eldritch Knight (Fig/Wiz 1/19) who wants to nuke from the back row in full armor and took a level in fighter for the reduced armor penalty on his casting speed. My vote is they should have the canon multiclass titles so they can easily describe the multiclassing of NPCs, but should let the player reassign the multiclass title to his PC so that it will fit with the character concept that he wants.

 

[Quillon]

I didn't see it as a problem or haven't really thought about it until now that Lacrymas mentioned it. I played Age of Conan years ago and it was nice that all 12 classes in the game was from the lore. In PoE's case, seems its a mash up of lore and UI names; Ciphers and Paladins with their orders used a lot, monks and wizards after those, tho "mage" is used more often than wizard. From the announced subclasses only Nalpazca comes to mind which has been used in the game. Guess we can rule out most if not all multiclass names.

They are still building the lore; I guess at this point it wouldn't be healthy to create castes in the world for all classes/subclasses, they can organically add those as they appear in the games to come, like Nalpazca monks.

 

[Ulfhednar]

The names of the subclasses/multi-classes are also literally a recited list of words Sawyer came up with or looked up in a dictionary.

I agree with the multiclass names simply being a list of terms. For the subclasses, I don't get that vibe as much - The ghost-heart lodge, the Nalpazca and even the Black Jacket (?) do seem like real concepts from the world lore, even if they don't get referenced much in-game. Personally, I would be fine with having all the subclasses be full realized concepts from the lore and letting the multiclass terms serve more utilitarian purposes, but I understand why other people might find it irksome.

 

[santino27]

Sawyer spent a few days thinking up multiclass titles because it amused him and he thought it would add a bit of character. Complaining about this is literally not worth the calories required to make your fingers move on the keyboard.

My big beef with them is that inevitably they are going to clash with somebody's character concept. There's a big difference between a spellblade (Fig/Wiz 19/1) who wants to run into the frontlines naked for the increased action speed, and just intends to cast mirror image and arcane veil as armor, and an Eldritch Knight (Fig/Wiz 1/19) who wants to nuke from the back row in full armor and took a level in fighter for the reduced armor penalty on his casting speed. My vote is they should have the canon multiclass titles so they can easily describe the multiclassing of NPCs, but should let the player reassign the multiclass title to his PC so that it will fit with the character concept that he wants.

Oh noes, muh character concept. :D

 

[Fry]

 

[Quillon]