Eternity Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire + DLC Thread - now with turn-based combat!

[111111111]

One thing I appreciate about deadfire gameplay now that I reinstalled it is that it made me actually a monk fanatic.

The monk class in this game is simply so fun to play. The feeling of oomph and sound feedback when the character smashes his fist into a random isn't really felt in any other CRPG . Also the skills you get later on really make you feel like a dbz/naruto character.

In contrast pathfinder km , playing monk style is insufferable.

 

[Prime Junta]

Prime Junta you thought BoW writing was funny? :O

It was! The whole notion of slightly dumb but very friendly Norwegian doomsday cultists was hilarious, and rather well executed too!

Rymrgrand's dimension itself wasn't funny, but I enjoyed the way it fleshed out the history. Shame about the fights though.

Edit: Lukrame monks and rogues are hugely improved in DF compared to P1. I really dig DF monks!

 

[AwesomeButton]

When I play for a while (3+ hours), I have to quit the game an re-enter due to what I presume is Unity memory leak? (I'm not tech savvy, but the game starts lagging when I play it for more than a couple hours without exiting)

I've observed the same when I've been playing for long periods, and I guess it's something that happened with the last patch. I guess it's connected with saving the game or loading of areas.

 

[Grunker]

I'll give you that the intro area to BoW showed promise. I was digging it.

 

[Grunker]

When I play for a while (3+ hours), I have to quit the game an re-enter due to what I presume is Unity memory leak? (I'm not tech savvy, but the game starts lagging when I play it for more than a couple hours without exiting)

I've observed the same when I've been playing for long periods, and I guess it's something that happened with the last patch. I guess it's connected with saving the game or loading of areas.

I think you're right about that. Saving is flawless for me but loading is very annoying. The load times aren't nearly as bad as in PoE1 but there's. so. many. transitions. Having multiple loading screens between even average dwellings is really bothersome. Like having to go through all the loading screens to go from outside to inside, to outside on some tiny balcony to pick one pet, to back again inside, to top floor, back to bottom floor, to outside.

There's no doubt what I dislike most about the Pillars' games: the time I spend on loading screens...

 

[Parabalus]

Not sure how Bugfinder has so much shorter loading screens though, like thrice as fast or more.

Guessing it's because of Dumpsterfire's huge backgrounds, doesn't make it sting any less though.

 

[Lacrymas]

They said they aren't going to have loading screens between sub-maps, but they do. The maps being small also exacerbate the issue.

Not sure how Bugfinder has so much shorter loading screens though, like thrice as fast or more.

Aren't people complaining the loading screens are insufferably long and frequent?

 

[AwesomeButton]

Not sure how Bugfinder has so much shorter loading screens though, like thrice as fast or more.

Guessing it's because of Dumpsterfire's huge backgrounds, doesn't make it sting any less though.

I don't think there is a way to partially load the backgrounds of areas, like it's possible with 3d geometry... or maybe I'm talking bullshit. If I'm right, this would explain why it's so difficult for PoE and Deadfire to have big areas like in the IE games. PoE/Deadfire's areas' backgrounds have so much higher resolution than those of the IE games that if they make an area of a similar size it will load very slow on most machines.

 

[Grunker]

Such a pity

 

[Parabalus]

They said t hey aren't going to have loading screens between sub-maps, but they do. The maps being small also exacerbate the issue.

Not sure how Bugfinder has so much shorter loading screens though, like thrice as fast or more.

Aren't people complaining the loading screens are insufferably long and frequent?

In bugfinder? Compared to Deadfire it's lightning fast.

Not sure how Bugfinder has so much shorter loading screens though, like thrice as fast or more.

Guessing it's because of Dumpsterfire's huge backgrounds, doesn't make it sting any less though.

If I'm right, this would explain why it's so difficult for PoE and Deadfire to have big areas like in the IE games. PoE/Deadfire's areas have so much higher resolution than those of the IE games that if they make an area of a similar size it will load very slow on most machines.

Is this a consensus that Deadfire has smaller areas than IE games?
Comparing e.g. Neketaka vs Athkathla Temple district, Easthaven vs dyrwood, D'arnise vs dunnage, dunno.
How did you measure size? Time to traverse edge to edge or what?

Never thought too much about it, but I'd wager the IE maps are bigger, but in the <25% range, maybe.

 

[111111111]

Not sure how Bugfinder has so much shorter loading screens though, like thrice as fast or more.

Guessing it's because of Dumpsterfire's huge backgrounds, doesn't make it sting any less though.

I don't think there is a way to partially load the backgrounds of areas, like it's possible with 3d geometry... or maybe I'm talking bullshit. If I'm right, this would explain why it's so difficult for PoE and Deadfire to have big areas like in the IE games. PoE/Deadfire's areas' backgrounds have so much higher resolution than those of the IE games that if they make an area of a similar size it will load very slow on most machines.

I thought the main problem was that Unity is terrible at running on multi core.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Which part of Neketaka are you talking about? Both the Athkatla Promenade, Docks and Slums are bigger than any Neketaka district. My metric so far has been only to open the ingame map. Measuring the time to cross in a relatively straight line may be a good way to measure, but I haven't tried.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Not sure how Bugfinder has so much shorter loading screens though, like thrice as fast or more.

Guessing it's because of Dumpsterfire's huge backgrounds, doesn't make it sting any less though.

I don't think there is a way to partially load the backgrounds of areas, like it's possible with 3d geometry... or maybe I'm talking bullshit. If I'm right, this would explain why it's so difficult for PoE and Deadfire to have big areas like in the IE games. PoE/Deadfire's areas' backgrounds have so much higher resolution than those of the IE games that if they make an area of a similar size it will load very slow on most machines.

I thought the main problem was that Unity is terrible at running on multi core.

Tell me modern games that run well on multi-core. Except the Frostbite engine and CoD, I can't think of others. What's the situation with Hitman or GTA V, I don't know. There are benchmarks for those games on guru3d though, so it can be verified.

 

[Lacrymas]

None of the Neketaka districts are as large as Athkatla's and Dunnage has claustrophobically small maps that maybe only mansions and other indoor areas in the IE games are. I don't know why they couldn't fit everything in Dunnage in one map tbh.

 

[Parabalus]

Which part of Neketaka are you talking about? Both the Athkatla Promenade, Docks and Slums are bigger than any Neketaka district. My metric so far has been only to open the ingame map. Measuring the time to cross in a relatively straight line may be a good way to measure, but I haven't tried.

Directly temple district vs temple district, Neketaka's is the sacred stair, it's the animancer tower + temple one.

Docks vs docks

Pretty poor showing for Dumpsterfire, it looks as big as the bottom half of Athkatla's, but has more content. If they added more empty space like the Bg2 one everything would feel bigger.

 

[Lacrymas]

I like how the docks in Neketaka have the space for literally only 1 ship lol. Maybe two if you count the space where the ramp from the shipbuilder is.

 

[Ulfhednar]

BG2 docks is enormous compared to most Deadfire areas if you also consider the interiors of the shadow thief hideout, Maevar’s guild, and the Harper complex.

That said, Neketaka certainly approximates Athkatla better than any other CRPG I have played.

I couldn’t tell if it was an intentional decision or not, but big map dungeon crawling seemed much less of a priority in Deadfire than in BG2 or even the first Pillar’s game. For all the shit it gets, the Endless paths at least had some largesse in terms of map size. For the first half dozen floors at least.

It’s also difficult to judge how much of an effect the low initial difficulty colored my impression of Deadfire. It has several medium size dungeons like Drowned Barrows, Crookspur and Sayuka that took almost no effort because I was north of level 12. Those areas probably felt smaller than they should have.

 

[AwesomeButton]

I like how the docks in Neketaka have the space for literally only 1 ship lol. Maybe two if you count the space where the ramp from the shipbuilder is.

I guess the assumption is that there is more of the docks which isn't visible, this is only the Vailian neighborhood.

I've been thinking if it would be possible that they implement that the characters make farting sounds at random when selected/commanded, if they have eaten spoiled food with Rymrgand's challenge. The game already contains fart sounds for some oozes, so the assets exist!

 

[Feyd Rautha]

Which part of Neketaka are you talking about? Both the Athkatla Promenade, Docks and Slums are bigger than any Neketaka district. My metric so far has been only to open the ingame map. Measuring the time to cross in a relatively straight line may be a good way to measure, but I haven't tried.

Directly temple district vs temple district, Neketaka's is the sacred stair, it's the animancer tower + temple one.

Docks vs docks

Pretty poor showing for Dumpsterfire, it looks as big as the bottom half of Athkatla's, but has more content. If they added more empty space like the Bg2 one everything would feel bigger.

Should also be compared with the Brass Citadel:

 

[Parabalus]

On the difficulty, early PotD seems much harder than on release.

With the 3rd DLC and more challenges this'll probably shape up to be more than decent.

Too bad the chances of a 4th DLC are abysmal.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Which part of Neketaka are you talking about? Both the Athkatla Promenade, Docks and Slums are bigger than any Neketaka district. My metric so far has been only to open the ingame map. Measuring the time to cross in a relatively straight line may be a good way to measure, but I haven't tried.

Directly temple district vs temple district, Neketaka's is the sacred stair, it's the animancer tower + temple one.

Docks vs docks

Pretty poor showing for Dumpsterfire, it looks as big as the bottom half of Athkatla's, but has more content. If they added more empty space like the Bg2 one everything would feel bigger.

The Thieves' guild gives you immediate access to two internal areas. Maevar's building - 4 levels (5 with the basement), with interactible NPCs in there. The Harper's Guild - 3 levels and a few quests associated, The Raelyc Gethras' (or whatever) wizard's house has 3 levels. It's a rough comparison, I know, but Queen's Berth seems to have less content when directly compared.

 

[Parabalus]

Which part of Neketaka are you talking about? Both the Athkatla Promenade, Docks and Slums are bigger than any Neketaka district. My metric so far has been only to open the ingame map. Measuring the time to cross in a relatively straight line may be a good way to measure, but I haven't tried.

Directly temple district vs temple district, Neketaka's is the sacred stair, it's the animancer tower + temple one.

Docks vs docks

Pretty poor showing for Dumpsterfire, it looks as big as the bottom half of Athkatla's, but has more content. If they added more empty space like the Bg2 one everything would feel bigger.

The Thieves' guild gives you immediate access to two internal areas. Maevar's building - 4 levels (5 with the basement), with interactible NPCs in there. The Harper's Guild - 3 levels and a few quests associated, The Raelyc Gethras' (or whatever) wizard's house has 3 levels. It's a rough comparison, I know, but Queen's Berth seems to have less content when directly compared.

Queens has 2(3) embassy levels, 5 Noble house levels + vault and a bigger tavern.

I don't think content wise there is much issue here, but the packing is too dense and makes everything seem small. Just by spacing everything out by 20% it'd be much nicer. There isn't much of a "claustrophobic city vibe" to lose here.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Yeah, the claustrophobia is real both in the city and in dungeons. In dungeons it can be partially explained with "we don't do trash mobs any more", but in the city, I think it's due to a problem with the loading times for very big areas.

 

[Grunker]

Hmm, it certainly has that SoZ-problem of a lot of 1-level dungeons. But isn't that just a necessary byproduct of the fairly large overworld map and every location having to be unique (rather than Bethesda copy-pasta)?

The content itself is much, much more interesting and engaging than SoZ-content. It's not my prefered style of RPG but I think Deadfire has pulled it off better than any other RPG yet.

EDIT: Also Pillars1 certainly felt dense and insanely content-rich (to the point of matching or even superceeding BG2 in this regard), but the content was also very uneven. I haven't yet felt like Deadfire-content was tacked on or purposeless, every location/dungeon/quest has felt pretty unique. Just also more shallow than the depth of some PoE1 dungeons and mega-quests.

 

[Ulfhednar]

Queens has 2(3) embassy levels, 5 Noble house levels + vault and a bigger tavern.

I don't think content wise there is much issue here, but the packing is too dense and makes everything seem small. Just by spacing everything out by 20% it'd be much nicer. There isn't much of a "claustrophobic city vibe" to lose here.

They might be similar in terms of the numbers, but BG2 does a better job of “Oh shit, I had no idea this was here” type moments. Almost every district in Athkatla has a big underside that feels like a full separate area - slave trade at the Copper Coronet, the planar sphere, the theatre troupe quest to the planar prison, the eyeless cult and forgotten temple, spiders/vampires/undead beneath the grave district.

Neketaka’s Old Town, the Narrows, Delver’s Row and the Principi hideout, the Hanging Sepulchers, Arkymere’s manor, and the grove under Water-shaper temple are all welcome additions to the city, though.