Pathfinder Pathfinder: Kingmaker - Enhanced Plus Edition - now with turn-based combat

[GentlemanCthulhu]

Initial OPINIONS playing PFKM after finishing Deadfire first. I'm VERY early on in the game so this is all just first impressions.

• This game looks so much worse on almost every front.
• It has a much nicer soundscape.
• The writing while well done is very comedic and juvenile. In Deadfire there really aren't any evil for evil's sake characters, and most everything is very serious. Here everything is way more cartoonish. It's not a bad thing. Different styles.
• Having the pathfinder RPG (almost) fully implemented in game form is AWESOME. This game is poised to have great replayability from the get go.
• I much prefer the companions here over Deadfire's. They might be a bit cartoonish, but at least they are not annoying. I like most of them (except Amiri who is just a cartoon character. BTW she's straight from the rulebook 1ed artwork).
• The combat feels... sluggish. So far it doesn't come near the excellence of Deadfire's fluid combat. Mind you i'm not talking about the RPG systems behind the combat encounters, but rather the feel of the combat itself. In Deadfire all the characters move briskly and they don't get stuck or feel sluggish. Here, the pathfinding (no pun intended) is not bad at all, but the characters move slowly. There's also no locking people down (again more about the system), and the gfx are not as nice. Deadfire specially has a great lighting system that is missing here.

I still have to play WAY more of this game (if its optimization allows me) to finalize my opinions.

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

I have one question. Is there any way to disable that FUCKING ANNOYING screaming at the start of every fucking combat?

 

[Cryomancer]

GentlemanCthulhu, i don't know if you can disable this sound, i believe that you can let music only. I usually play listening to YT videos, but one thing that i love on PfK. I can assume dragon form and animate an army

How many games allow you to do something similar????

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

Yeah i know the possibilities in this game are extensive and awesome. Sadly i won't be able to play it. It stutters really horribly, even though my system is top of the line. Well fuck it. As much as it saddens me, i have no choice but to play something else. I guess i'll go play Mask of the Betrayer instead.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Yeah i know the possibilities in this game are extensive and awesome. Sadly i won't be able to play it. It stutters really horribly, even though my system is top of the line. Well fuck it. As much as it saddens me, i have no choice but to play something else. I guess i'll go play Mask of the Betrayer instead.

I had similar issues when I played it, only got worse the longer I played.

 

[Desiderius]

Have they added new companions since release version?

Only the kineticist(s) from a DLC. Still no pure arcane caster, no druid...

My Defender of the True World Amiri ran into her first Wild Hunt dude today - eleven levels higher, didn’t get a shot off. Wild Shape smilidon with 70 base speed means pounce from anywhere, even stealthed, everyone of those attacks are cold steel and like +4/+4. Her leopard pet would have finished him off.

The barb splash isn’t even wasted as speed kills and she gets an extra bite and uncanny dodge at lvl 2.

 

[Desiderius]

Yeah i know the possibilities in this game are extensive and awesome. Sadly i won't be able to play it. It stutters really horribly, even though my system is top of the line. Well fuck it. As much as it saddens me, i have no choice but to play something else. I guess i'll go play Mask of the Betrayer instead.

Didn’t they figure out it was just the cloak animations or something causing it?

 

[Haplo]

I guess this is the new single-hit damage record:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1836002129

Astral Projection seems to have taken my lessons to heart

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

Yeah i know the possibilities in this game are extensive and awesome. Sadly i won't be able to play it. It stutters really horribly, even though my system is top of the line. Well fuck it. As much as it saddens me, i have no choice but to play something else. I guess i'll go play Mask of the Betrayer instead.

Didn’t they figure out it was just the cloak animations or something causing it?

Isn't that for crashes? That's what the patch notes say. Anyhow, disabling them doesn't do anything to reduce stuttering.

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

Yeah i know the possibilities in this game are extensive and awesome. Sadly i won't be able to play it. It stutters really horribly, even though my system is top of the line. Well fuck it. As much as it saddens me, i have no choice but to play something else. I guess i'll go play Mask of the Betrayer instead.

I had similar issues when I played it, only got worse the longer I played.

Did you manage to find a fix? Did you beat the game regardless? What did you do?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Yeah i know the possibilities in this game are extensive and awesome. Sadly i won't be able to play it. It stutters really horribly, even though my system is top of the line. Well fuck it. As much as it saddens me, i have no choice but to play something else. I guess i'll go play Mask of the Betrayer instead.

I had similar issues when I played it, only got worse the longer I played.

Did you manage to find a fix? Did you beat the game regardless? What did you do?

No, Yes, Nothing.

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

Yeah i know the possibilities in this game are extensive and awesome. Sadly i won't be able to play it. It stutters really horribly, even though my system is top of the line. Well fuck it. As much as it saddens me, i have no choice but to play something else. I guess i'll go play Mask of the Betrayer instead.

I had similar issues when I played it, only got worse the longer I played.

Did you manage to find a fix? Did you beat the game regardless? What did you do?

No, Yes, Nothing.

Hmm okay. On my end the game is not playable anymore, and i'm not exaggerating.

 

[ArchAngel]

Yeah i know the possibilities in this game are extensive and awesome. Sadly i won't be able to play it. It stutters really horribly, even though my system is top of the line. Well fuck it. As much as it saddens me, i have no choice but to play something else. I guess i'll go play Mask of the Betrayer instead.

I had similar issues when I played it, only got worse the longer I played.

Did you manage to find a fix? Did you beat the game regardless? What did you do?

No, Yes, Nothing.

Hmm okay. On my end the game is not playable anymore, and i'm not exaggerating.

Try to turn off AA.

 

[volklore]

Maybe you can try and download the cleaner mod. It seems to me stutters were caused by leftover corpses and loot in areas. Cleaner mod allows you to delete all leftover loot forever if you wish so and by using the mod-menu you can also delete the corpses. It helped me a lot with the stutters as the game progresses.

 

[Sykar]

I guess this is the new single-hit damage record:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1836002129

Astral Projection seems to have taken my lessons to heart

Just out of curiosity how would you rank the classes among each other at the moment in terms of balance?

 

[Cryomancer]

Just out of curiosity how would you rank the classes among each other at the moment in terms of balance?

I believe that the same on pnp

https://paizo.com/threads/rzs2rcbb?Pathfinder-class-tiers

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

Try to turn off AA.

Maybe you can try and download the cleaner mod. It seems to me stutters were caused by leftover corpses and loot in areas. Cleaner mod allows you to delete all leftover loot forever if you wish so and by using the mod-menu you can also delete the corpses. It helped me a lot with the stutters as the game progresses.

Tried both of these solutions. No luck. But thanks for suggesting.

 

[Haplo]

I guess this is the new single-hit damage record:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1836002129

Astral Projection seems to have taken my lessons to heart

Just out of curiosity how would you rank the classes among each other at the moment in terms of balance?

Hmm... sorcerors and wizards are certainly top tier... as well as well-built kineticists. Though I would rate kineticists a bit lower, as they are far less versatile and frankly... kinda boring.

Below them I guess Vivisectionists (and perhaps Alchemists in general) and Sword Saints (with other magus archetypes lagging a bit behind).
I'd not rank clerics or druids quite as high. They are okay, but not great, I'd say. About on-par with Bards in general usefulness, I guess (though not having a cleric will hurt more then not having a bard).
Then the martials:
Fighter ~ Ranger ~ Slayer > Barbarian > Paladin (although Hospitaler can provide nice support)

Not sure where to put monks and rogues. Both are great multiclass additions, but don't convince me as single class. Probably bottom of the food chain, along with Inquisitors. With the caveat that they offer highly useful stuff for other classes. Particularly the ultimate defense cheese in this game - the infamous 1 level monk dip.

 

[ArchAngel]

I guess this is the new single-hit damage record:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1836002129

Astral Projection seems to have taken my lessons to heart

Just out of curiosity how would you rank the classes among each other at the moment in terms of balance?

Hmm... sorcerors and wizards are certainly top tier... as well as well-built kineticists. Though I would rate kineticists a bit lower, as they are far less versatile and frankly... kinda boring.

Below them I guess Vivisectionists (and perhaps Alchemists in general) and Sword Saints (with other magus archetypes lagging a bit behind).
I'd not rank clerics or druids quite as high. They are okay, but not great, I'd say. About on-par with Bards in general usefulness, I guess (though not having a cleric will hurt more then not having a bard).
Then the martials:
Fighter ~ Ranger ~ Slayer > Barbarian > Paladin (although Hospitaler can provide nice support)

Not sure where to put monks and rogues. Both are great multiclass additions, but don't convince me as single class. Probably bottom of the food chain, along with Inquisitors. With the caveat that they offer highly useful stuff for other classes. Particularly the ultimate defense cheese in this game - the infamous 1 level monk dip.

Deadly Earth Kineticist is >> everyone else.

 

[Sykar]

I guess this is the new single-hit damage record:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1836002129

Astral Projection seems to have taken my lessons to heart

Just out of curiosity how would you rank the classes among each other at the moment in terms of balance?

Hmm... sorcerors and wizards are certainly top tier... as well as well-built kineticists. Though I would rate kineticists a bit lower, as they are far less versatile and frankly... kinda boring.

Below them I guess Vivisectionists (and perhaps Alchemists in general) and Sword Saints (with other magus archetypes lagging a bit behind).
I'd not rank clerics or druids quite as high. They are okay, but not great, I'd say. About on-par with Bards in general usefulness, I guess (though not having a cleric will hurt more then not having a bard).
Then the martials:
Fighter ~ Ranger ~ Slayer > Barbarian > Paladin (although Hospitaler can provide nice support)

Not sure where to put monks and rogues. Both are great multiclass additions, but don't convince me as single class. Probably bottom of the food chain, along with Inquisitors. With the caveat that they offer highly useful stuff for other classes. Particularly the ultimate defense cheese in this game - the infamous 1 level monk dip.

Deadly Earth Kineticist is >> everyone else.

In other words, avoid Deadly Earth at all cost unless you like mindbogglingly boring gameplay.

 

[Daidre]

Cloud infusion is almost the same in damage department comparing to Deadly Earth, only available a bit later. Even maximized + empowered composite Wall could do damage dangerously close to broken, with completely broken from companion due to switch.

So it is kinda tricky to draw the line with Kineticist.

 

[Sergiu64]

I'm a little surprised - but I do think PoE's got it right with prohibiting pre-buffing. The constant buffing I have to do in this game is annoying to all hells. Like the power difference between being fully buffed and not buffed at all is gigantic. With buffs I just do encounter after encounter without taking much damage, but the second those wear out or worse - I get attacked while resting - I might actually lose people to encounters of the same magnitude.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

I'm a little surprised - but I do think PoE's got it right with prohibiting pre-buffing. The constant buffing I have to do in this game is annoying to all hells. Like the power difference between being fully buffed and not buffed at all is gigantic. With buffs I just do encounter after encounter without taking much damage, but the second those wear out or worse - I get attacked while resting - I might actually lose people to encounters of the same magnitude.

No. PoE got that wrong, too. That choice was a convenience feature for lazy encounter design and poor AI disguised as reducing drudgery for the player. Right now PF:KM is working as designed. It's testing your endurance and attrition. If resting is risky enough to threaten ruin for your party, it suggests that you're over-extended yourself and either need to find safer locations or reserve some of your spells/resources as insurance for when you do rest in dangerous territory. This is the real kind of C&C we need it games.

 

[Shadenuat]

don't play pets and all buffs you will need is good hope + bard song and tank recasting mirror image, haste for harder encounters (my standard routine). don't build heavy micro classes and avoid 1 minute buff dips. use Extend wand for Enlarge.

many players overbuff without realising their things do not stack or use incorrect buffs when they could have stacked more.

I always wanted a game where strategic management is delegated to separate system. Something like if you could delegate some of spell slots to daily buffs which are cast on rest and use up ingredients or something like that.

 

[jf8350143]

Try to turn off AA.

Maybe you can try and download the cleaner mod. It seems to me stutters were caused by leftover corpses and loot in areas. Cleaner mod allows you to delete all leftover loot forever if you wish so and by using the mod-menu you can also delete the corpses. It helped me a lot with the stutters as the game progresses.

Tried both of these solutions. No luck. But thanks for suggesting.

Cleaner mod didn't work well mid game because it only cleans up the area when you tell it to do it. So all the past area you visit still has all the junk loot you left behind.

Though I doubt start from the beginning is a good choices either...