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

[vonAchdorf]

For example the town screens in PoE have exact population numbers, including percentages of the races. This type of modern demographics used in world building is completely and utterly retarded. Approaching worldbuilding as if you are trying to draw a scientific journal of universe is a basic stemlord mistake that many fictional worlds do.

Meanwhile look at Tolkien, he drafts a genesis for his world but much of its history is buried under folk tales, oral history and sparse written accounts with lots of room for imagination and error.

I agree with your views, but gazetteers have existed for hundreds if not thousands of years.

 

[Lacrymas]

The gods can be made stronger, weaker

How do you know this? You act as if this is self-evident and that's the point of the whole thing, which is not even close.

 

[Grunker]

I don't see how lowering the difficulty to Hard fixes PotD's problems.

By not swarming the player with as many enemies, which only increase the dificullty by brute force - by more enemy characters' recovery timers and actions for the player to worry about.

it will remove the last remaining shred of challenge from everything but the megabosses.

Those fights "felt right."

Ultimately the problem stems from the fact that we are playing pre-defined encounters where the variable is the player with his tactics, party composition and degree to which he takes advantage of his party's abilities and synergies, and takes advantage of game metaknowledge.

Due to the same fact, any particular encounter's difficulty is very much in the player's hands, regardless of the difficulty setting. Of course, on Hard or PotD it would "easier to achieve the feeling of difficult", because you would be to a bigger extent forced to make the optimal/rational choices.

However, wouldn't you agree that, with enough preparation and metagaming, it is possible to have an easier combat encounter on PotD than you would have with the same encounter but with a less rational "roleplayer" behavior on Hard?

What I've said I don't like about PotD is the way in which it increases difficulty - by buffing and increasing numbers of enemies, instead of making their behavior smarter. I know - who did ever do anything more than that - buff and increase numbers of enemies? But still, I regret it.

Of course I agree that someone could reduce the difficulty of PotD, but since my point is that PotD is already too easy for most of the game, my point is that reduction of difficulty would fix nothing.

That said, I think you are reducing the added value of adding more enemies and changing encounter composition and placement which is what PotD does in addition to buffing stats. That method played a big part of making PoE1's expansion so good - it's why Laguafeth on Hard is your standard trash and Laguafeth on PotD is a struggle in attempting to deal with high damage dealers without sacrificing your own backline.

And I don't think HP is an issue outside of BoW. Maybe we should be talking specifically about some FS encounters: I think Deadfire plays nearly perfectly in the case of the mad child or the big spore fight in FS on PotD. I think those encounters with high enough numbers force you to do things differently. I have no criticism of them and wish more of the game was like them. Likewise, I enjoyed early game cave grub boss and skeleton packs A LOT, and wouldn't mind the whole game being designed with that kind of lethality.

Did those encounters also annoy you? Because then I guess at least we know where we disagree.

 

[FreeKaner]

For example the town screens in PoE have exact population numbers, including percentages of the races. This type of modern demographics used in world building is completely and utterly retarded. Approaching worldbuilding as if you are trying to draw a scientific journal of universe is a basic stemlord mistake that many fictional worlds do.

Meanwhile look at Tolkien, he drafts a genesis for his world but much of its history is buried under folk tales, oral history and sparse written accounts with lots of room for imagination and error.

I agree with your views, but gazetteers have existed for hundreds if not thousands of years.

Demographic consensus with precise numbers is not something that existed until very modern age. The listed numbers shouldn't be 124,00 for example but a rough guesstimate like "between 80 and 150" same for percentage of races unless it's countable easily like a small village. Even the tax collectors back in the day estimated households and extrapolated from that.

 

[Delterius]

How do you know this?

I played PoE1 and I have a passable understanding of the english language in which its story was written.

 

[Grunker]

But listen, AwesomeButton, I think I might get where you're coming from if the comparison is megabosses. I think those fights are brilliantly designed for the most part but also more fun on the recommended level at Hard compared to PotD, because the Accuracy/Deflection economy is so incredibly tight and consumable-dependent in those fights it becomes a bit tedious. So if your level is low enough, or party composition bad enough, I could see PotD overall having those problems.

 

[Lacrymas]

I played PoE1 and I have a passable understanding of the english language in which its story was written.

Nowhere is it stated they can be "made weaker or stronger". Unless you mean they dethroning each other, which is not what we are talking about.

 

[Delterius]

I played PoE1 and I have a passable understanding of the english language in which its story was written.

Nowhere is it stated they can be "made weaker or stronger". Unless you mean they dethroning each other, which is not what we are talking about.

Please join some conversation clubs and english courses. They'll help you in becoming less of a selectively dense wordspastic.

 

[Reinhardt]

In my game grubs got "hardened" so this time i didn't enjoyed old city at all. Looooooong and tedious.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

You can show gods as flawed without showing them as helpless bystanders. No reader of ancient mythology was ever bothered with endless bickering and childish pettiness of Greek pantheon, because those fellas could still fuck shit up once they were done bickering. Meanwhile, nobody in Deadfire pantheon gives you a single reason to take any of them seriously. They talk big but can't even get it up.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Grunker , I think we're coming from different places when we talk about difficulty. Can't comment on the megabosses, because I haven't fought any one of them yet.

You said PotD is too easy for most of the game. I am again repeating my point - it may have been too easy for you, but I had set up my play in such a way that it was relatively hard most of the game. Maybe I was going to areas too early, maybe my party composition or tactics were worse than yours, never mind the reason, but my perception is that PotD was difficult.

Now we come to another measurement - was it the "fun kind of difficult" or the tedious grindy kind. I felt it was more the latter than the former. And I believe it felt this way for me because of the too many enemies which don't require new tactical approaches from me in order to defeat them.

 

[fantadomat]

Take it from me - your shitposts would improve if you would play the game.

I am,i promised after all. Ahhh the game have a lot of bugs. I am near the finish and i am just knocking off the DLCs and the shitty mega bosses. I am playing on Classic this time,the difficulty is fixed more or less but i feel too lazy to play on harder.

I am not shitposting mate,the game is really buggy,i just had half my party teleported and perma killed when i entered a random dungeon on some island,once i got past it with reloading a few times till it fixes the party positioning i couldn't move after i left the dungeon. Such shit doesn't happen at this point in kingmaker.

Still i am in the tentacle DLC and the writing looks surprisingly good.

 

[AwesomeButton]

The answer to your whole argument is called "Atsura". Atsura is imo the best written character in this sorry steaming pile that is Deadfire's writing.

I am disappointed by the gods as characters in the game. As character concepts there was no imagination or original thinking put into them and they are completely transparent, unintentionally cartoonish as a result. They lack personality so badly, that you could swap any two gods' spoken lines and they will all sound like the same character.

Meanwhile talking with Atsura is like taking an interview from Sergei Lavrov. He will always give you the party line, and intelligently present arguments which to the uninformed will seem to be sound and logical, "doing the right thing", but... the at least a little careful player, who can read between the lines knows there is more to each story which Atsura is not telling you. His role is kind of similar to that of Al Pacino in "Devil's Advocate" with gradation of the little favors you do for him up to the point where you serve the whole of Deadfire to the RDC.

All this makes Atsura's character sound so "realistic" in conversations that he is almost intimidating, frightening, and I feel a nice tingle when discussing missions with him. I don't know if there are dialogue options to catch him in his hypocricy, but it's fun to try.

That's what the gods should have all been, instead of "Avengers" superhearoes stand-ins. Have you ever asked yourself, if the gods are indeed constantly bickering as opposed to you just being told that "you see, the gods are constantly bickering", why don't they ever contact you one-on-one and try to set you against each other?

 

[AwesomeButton]

Sorry that it's buggy like that. I have no idea how come none of this happening to me.

 

[fantadomat]

Sorry that it's buggy like that. I have no idea how come none of this happening to me.

Well it is normal for PCs,some people have problems other don't. Many times i haven't seen bugs while other people do.

 

[fantadomat]

why didn't Frodo take the eagles to Mordor?

The big eye will see them and shoot them down with lasers and meteor shower!

malfunctioning AI that Thaos was trying to keep working.

In deadfire they sneaked that the gods are dudes that transcended or some other shit. Not AI,they were flesh and bones. looking at the shit level of writing i am sure that the lead writer haven't played/read the first one.

hat's the entire plot of the first game.

There was a point to the first game?!?!?!?!?

Atsura is imo the best written character in this sorry steaming pile that is Deadfire's writing.

The tentacle DLC have better writing than the rest of the game. I just started it and already like the characters there. Tayn is pretty fun to read trough.

 

[2house2fly]

They being that is not the point, it's the baseline from which something else has to happen that is logically connected to that.

The event in the game which is logically connected to the gods being flawed creations is Eothas's plan to destroy the Wheel, which the gods need to live, in hopes that the process of rebuilding it will rebuild the relationship between gods and mortals

Nowhere is it stated they can be "made weaker or stronger". Unless you mean they dethroning each other, which is not what we are talking about.

Woedica, Eothas and Abydon are all shown to have been made weaker, and the main story of the game involves Thaos trying to make Woedica stronger.

In deadfire they sneaked that the gods are dudes that transcended or some other shit. Not AI,they were flesh and bones. looking at the shit level of writing i am sure that the lead writer haven't played/read the first one.

The gods having bodies was established in the White March part 2

 

[Lacrymas]

Woedica, Eothas and Abydon are all shown to have been made weaker, and the main story of the game involves Thaos trying to make Woedica stronger.

All three of them were weakened by other gods, not by people, which is what we were talking about. There is no evidence to suggest Woedica got stronger by you diverting the souls to her, the only thing was her crown being repaired in PoE1, but that's a stretch.

 

[fantadomat]

The gods having bodies was established in the White March part 2

I am not talking about the big ones,but being humans or what not before becoming gods.

 

[AwesomeButton]

The tentacle DLC have better writing than the rest of the game. I just started it and already like the characters there. Tayn is pretty fun to read trough.

You liked Tayn? Jesus. Do you also like "Iron Man"? To each their own I guess.

 

[2house2fly]

All three of them were weakened by other gods, not by people, which is what we were talking about. There is no evidence to suggest Woedica got stronger by you diverting the souls to her, the only thing was her crown being repaired in PoE1, but that's a stretch.

You see an image of a broken crown restored, and aren't convinced that it's symbolic of someone who lost power having it returned to them. This is what a fixation on logical thinking in stories gets you.

 

[fantadomat]

The gods having bodies was established in the White March part 2

I am not talking about the big ones,but being humans or what not before becoming gods.

The tentacle DLC have better writing than the rest of the game. I just started it and already like the characters there. Tayn is pretty fun to read trough.

You liked Tayn? Jesus. Do you also like "Iron Man"? To each their own I guess.

It is great improvement compared to the rest of the game. Also who the fuck is ironman,some cape shit?

 

[Roguey]

Woedica: Psst. Hey watcher. I don't care about Thaos, guy was getting useless anyway. Divert all those souls to me to make me stronger.
Lacrymas: What did she mean by this?

 

[AwesomeButton]

i want #2.
what did you do? replace intro files?

Yes. Not the intro video files, but only the music ".wem" file. I'm also able to replace the main menu music, though none of the ambient music so far.

The actual logos are silent .bik video files I believe - have to check. The music is set up with such length that it covers the videos' length exactly. Everything connected to the music suggests sloppiness. Even most of the music tracks names are "xxxxx_test" where the x's are some number.

I would replace the intro videos as well, but I believe this would not speed up the game's boot-up, because it just needs some time to load the main menu. Even if you skip the intros by pressing the spacebar, you see the game is like either hardcoded to wait some time before it shows you the main menu, or it's loading stuff.

I'll send you the file in 6-7 hours.

Damn, I almost forgot. Sorry.
http://www.mediafire.com/file/vu05ff0k94rzcxv/647847709.wem/file

 

[2house2fly]

A little further into the DLC you'll find some further entries in that series, and their content might make you question how true the previous volumes were.

E: for lorehounds, two interesting details in this one: the name Creitus is very close to Creitum, Iovara's home city. And the "Nua" mentioned in the book is surely Od Nua, whose quest to save his son precipitated the creation of the gods in the first place