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

[Sentinel]

1. Are there any companions incompatible Korgan/Aerie style, i.e demand you to chose between them or have mutually exclusive side quests?

Not right away. Some might develop antagonistic relationships towards another companion and eventually leave the party. Although IIRC it's avoidable.

3. Which npcs are most carcinogenic and should be avoided at all costs?

Pretty much all of them sadly.

 

[Reinhardt]

Not right away. Some might develop antagonistic relationships towards another companion and eventually leave the party. Although IIRC it's avoidable

Not always. Half of them represent one of big powers, so if you go with faction quest to the end others will leave.

 

[TT1]

Woedica thanks you for reassembling her crown and rewards you with the unique hunting bow Moxen's Betrayal

 

[Ulfhednar]

1. Are there any companions incompatible Korgan/Aerie style, i.e demand you to chose between them or have mutually exclusive side quests?

My experience was that companion's abandon you based on faction requirements, though it seems there may be ways to get around that based on player inputs. Pallegina prefers the Vailians, Serafen the Principi, Tekehu the Huana, and Maia sides with Rautai.

2. Is POTD any hard now, or like in PoE1 - tough for first 1-4 lvls and then a cakewalk?

It's much better than it was at release, and FS DLC does provide some real challenge at the end game.

3. Which npcs are most carcinogenic and should be avoided at all costs?

Tekehu and Xoti seem to get the most complaints. I didn't find any of them too off-putting, but you're not really missing anything if you don't complete companion quests.

4. Is level scaling recommended? Don't want to get OPd 1/3rd into the main story and go on autopilot through the rest, but I'm worried about some obscene shit like lvl 15 xaurips with daedric weapons etc.

Personal preference? I'd probably keep it off, or just scale the main path.

 

[Butter]

Woedica thanks you for reassembling her crown and rewards you with the unique hunting bow Moxen's Betrayal

Is it contempt? I bet the answer is contempt.

 

[Ulfhednar]

Does the godlike not having a headslot count as a lore reason?

 

[TT1]

Another one

 

[entr0py]

I've just started my virgin run now and need some advice pls.

Due to other commitments, I probably won't have time for another one soon, so I have to avoid endless restarts and squeeze the most out of this

1. Are there any companions incompatible Korgan/Aerie style, i.e demand you to chose between them or have mutually exclusive side quests?
2. Is POTD any hard now, or like in PoE1 - tough for first 1-4 lvls and then a cakewalk?
3. Which npcs are most carcinogenic and should be avoided at all costs?
4. Is level scaling recommended? Don't want to get OPd 1/3rd into the main story and go on autopilot through the rest, but I'm worried about some obscene shit like lvl 15 xaurips with daedric weapons etc.

2. & 4. PotD is hard till ~lvl 14 with "Level scale everything only up" options, I definitely encourage using that setup. For some added challenge in early/mid game, you can add Galawain's challenge as well, which makes Beast type enemies more interesting by giving them some random traits (like having some permanent inspiration, making them invisible until they attack, blowing up when they die, reflecting damage, etc.)

1. Companions might hate each other based on beliefs like Xoti (religious priest) vs Pallegina (hates Gods and religion), but I haven't seen one of them actually leaving because of that, at least in my playthrough I asked them to play nicely with each other, if you are clearly favoring one of them, maybe it's a different story. Some companions are representatives of a faction, if you go balls to the walls against their own faction they can leave. I had that happening with Maia, in the very last mission I sided with the Vailian Trading Company, which involved doing some nasty thing to the Rauataians and that pissed her off enough to leave the party. But again this was at the very end of the game, literally last faction quest.

3. Unfortunately the writing of the NPCs are pretty bad. I liked Maia the most and didn't mind Eder and Aloth much. Most people hate Xoti, but I find her quite okay for basically a teenage girl that she is, I used her throughout the whole game. Pallegina's writing pissed me off the most, even though I liked her in PoE 1. Serafen is great, has a lot of flavor, really fits the setting, I just couldn't really like all that "pirate talk", the manner he speaks. Tekehu I simply disliked from start and he doesn't get much better. Sidekicks have interesting backgrounds, Idwyn and Rekke more specifically. Rekke even can learn to speak the common language if you roll with him long enough

 

[2house2fly]

I was expecting that the crown would have some kind of "unlock head slot" property so even godlikes could wear it, so the final thing was disappointing. I understand the reasoning, but don't make it a fucking crown then. Make it Woedica's Necklace Of Judgment or whatever.

E: regarding party members, sidekicks get a ton of dialogue in the DLC areas, so if you don't like the main party members there's three places you can take an all-sidekick party if you want

 

[2house2fly]

Another one

The staircase that was cut is in the hallway leading to the Oratory, which you need to unlock from the main room as part of a quest. I guess the staircase was cut because the area it leads to is the Quarantined Section, which would mean you could just bypass the lock

 

[Sailor Woedica]

Sailor Woedica why is not possible to talk on your profile? I wasn't even going to ask you anything dirty.

sorry, no manlets allowed.

 

[Cholo]

By including turn based combat josh sawyer and obshitian are basically admitting that Larian were the real geniuses of current gen RPGs

 

[turkishronin]

hello how turn based this game is

 

[Reinhardt]

hello how turn based this game is

Had exactly 2 fights between lvl 5 when i left starting island and lvl 9. Both were ambushes when i travelled Neketaka.

 

[2house2fly]

There's not a lot of combat in the city; you'll want to sail around and explore.

By including turn based combat josh sawyer and obshitian are basically admitting that Larian were the real geniuses of current gen RPGs

Actually, one of the harshest critics of the turn-based mode in this thread conceded that it is better than the DOS games

 

[frajaq]

hello how turn based this game is

a bit clunky and unbalanced at the moment

 

[Reinhardt]

There's not a lot of combat in the city; you'll want to sail around and explore.

But why? I can get rich and stronk just travelling Neketaka.

 

[fantadomat]

Sailor Woedica why is not possible to talk on your profile? I wasn't even going to ask you anything dirty.

sorry, no manlets allowed.

Also prestigious nobles like me are not allowed,it seems. Was going to ask "why did you decide to join the codex while being on the retardera?".

 

[FreeKaner]

I don't think this tablet is supposed to spawn on the bookshelf in Rinco's house, lads.

This is at the start of the game, I just walked into Rinco's home and looted the shelves in house and came across an Engwithan tablet that discloses the secret of Engwithan machinery and Gods.

 

[2house2fly]

There's a tablet that should spawn in the Forgotten Sanctum but I never found it, which is a record of the initial Engwithan reaction to finding out there are no gods and the beginnings of the plan to create them. I did find two copies of that tablet, though. Weirdly buggy, these stone tablets

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.shacknews.com/article/1...nity-2-deadfire-turn-based-combat-impressions

Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire turn-based combat impressions
The turn-based campaign beta is live for all Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire players and I spent a few hours with it.

To the untrained eye, the addition of turn-based combat in Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire is just a different way to play. Beneath the surface, though, this addition is a red carpet rollout for a community of players that may not have given similar RPGs a chance. A few hours into a fresh campaign, it almost feels like the ideal way to play.

I’ve only started one Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire campaign with turn-based combat enabled, so know that other character builds will influence how things start out for everyone. In my run, I created a monk. The very early segment of the game features only my monk and I chose rogue for Eder. In a real-time campaign, my two warriors probably would have made quick work of earlier enemies, but there were a couple of moments where I actually died. With every character or creature being given an opportunity to make a move, the dynamic shifted. This is not a bad thing, at all.

The Pillars series is built on real-time combat with pause, meaning enemies and the player’s party will jump right into the conflict and players can pause to asses what is or isn’t working and dish out assignments however they see fit. There’s a pretty robust mechanic that allows players to tinker with party member AI, lightening the micro-management load a bit. Nevertheless, the playstyle may be daunting to some. I don’t know if this specifically was in mind when a couple Obsidian Entertainment devs started working on turn-based combat, but it will certainly impact those overwhelmed players.

I’ve been one of those overwhelmed players, by the way. Even at my current level of experience, I am by no means an expert. I’ve learned to set up real-time combat to pause whenever a critical hit is landed on one of my characters, when attacks against a specific enemy are completely useless, and for a handful of other criteria. It slows down the game, for sure, but allows me to comfortably experience a very good series of games.

Turn-based combat adopts this slower pace from the jump, forcing me to manage every single step and pay attention to every single interaction. There’s a lot that can be missed in real-time and I would have to look at the combat log to catch all of the happenings. With turn-based, I can focus on every action and the effects of them naturally.

One element that frustrated me early on is the use of abilities that take time to cast. In one particular instance, I targeted an enemy and wasn’t given an option to switch to a different target after the enemy died. In another instance, I cast an area-of-effect ability to a spot that enemies had vacated by the time the move was activated. Over time, though, I realized I could somewhat manage the later of these two concerns by looking at the "current round" layout to see when the ability would cast. In real-time, both of things are easily managed and/or predicted, by the turn-based needs an adjustment in that regard.

Deployable items were a concern as well. I would throw grenades and they only exploded when the character that threw it got another turn. It'd make more sense for each to have their own timer. I have other concerns, like the quickly depleting health of some characters with enemies completely focus on them, but this is something I think can be addressed by managing items and abilities a bit differently than I would in real-time. I’ll circle back on the campaign either in a future article or on one of our Twitch livestreams.

There are certainly some adjustments that will have to be made to make turn-based a fully realized experience for Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire, but the team isn’t very far off. This is an incredible option for seasoned and inexperienced Pillars players, even in its beta stage, and is certainly something I hope is maintained for future cRPGs from Obsidian. Better yet, I’d love to see other developers flirt with having both real-time w/ pause and turn-based included if they have the resources to make it happen. RPG fans could be missing out on something sweet because of the intimidation of real-time and turn-based would be a nice bridge to those fans.

Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire is available now on PC and the team is planning to release on PS4 and Xbox One sometime this year. If you'd like to know more about the team behind the Pillars series and more about the games that inspired Deadfire, read Beneath a Starless Sky: Pillars of Eternity and the Infinity Engine Era of RPGs. Stay tuned to Shacknews for more!

 

[Cross]

I don't think this tablet is supposed to spawn on the bookshelf in Rinco's house, lads.

This is at the start of the game, I just walked into Rinco's home and looted the shelves in house and came across an Engwithan tablet that discloses the secret of Engwithan machinery and Gods.

Never attribute to incompetence that which is adequately explained by Obsidian's fondness of lore dumping.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Just realized there's a bunch of free DLC that doesn't come preinstalled with the Obsidian edition on Steam

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Any tips for playing Ascendant on POTD? As I get higher in levels I'm struggling to max out my focus once in a battle

 

[Safav Hamon]

I was researching Oceanic cities with casinos, and now I'm almost certain that the DLC location is based on Garapan.