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

[Yosharian]

To get back to the actual game for a moment; does it strike anyone else that Bounties, and to a lesser extent many other activities in Deadfire, are just meaningless, empty gameplay where nothing really interesting happens?

• A dude gives me a person to kill
  
• I either waltz around on the seas for 10 mins looking for that person (there's rarely any actual indication of where they might be other than the name of the place, no 'try looking in the northeast of the map' for example) or I find the location on a wiki/guide
• I kill the target, or kill them later once I'm stronger
• I get some good loot, or alternatively something shit that gets instantly vendored
• I go back to the dude for money and XP

I'm doing this sequence of bounties to get this particular item I need and I'm just struck by how empty and meaningless it is. I'm only doing it to get an item to make the rest of the game easier. There's no actual 'quest' here. There's nothing about the target that's interesting aside from that; no role-playing involved, certainly.

So what is the actual fucking point of these bounties? They seem like a terrible waste of time, both development time and player time.

 

[Prime Junta]

I know! A RPG with busywork quests, can you imagine that?

 

[Reinhardt]

Bounties are best part of Deadfire.

 

[Ulfhednar]

does it strike anyone else that Bounties, and to a lesser extent many other activities in Deadfire, are just meaningless, empty gameplay where nothing really interesting happens?

My personal pet peeve is the increase in CYOA/text events in the second game relative to the first.

 

[Lacrymas]

Bounties are optional combat encounters and some of the best fights in 1 were bounties. You get a cool fight and cool items, all in one very optional package. What's not to like?

 

[Reinhardt]

What's not to like?

Not enough gods.

 

[Yosharian]

Bounties are optional combat encounters and some of the best fights in 1 were bounties. You get a cool fight and cool items, all in one very optional package. What's not to like?

Ah, but you see these combat encounters are not 'cool', not in the least.

The boss encounters in the game, such as Dorudugan, are. Some massive fuckoff robot cunt jumps out of nowhere and stands there waiting for you like, wassup bitch? That's cool.

Bounties are not cool. They are boring as fuck. I know, cos I just did like 3 of them in a row to get Fleshmender. There was nothing interesting or unique about any of them.

 

[Yosharian]

I know! A RPG with busywork quests, can you imagine that?

Just because something is commonplace, doesn't mean it should be accepted.

And frankly, I don't remember any such content in older games that I could mention, that Deadfire (or at least, Pillars of Eternity) claims to be the 'spiritual successor' of.

 

[Prime Junta]

I know! A RPG with busywork quests, can you imagine that?

Just because something is commonplace, doesn't mean it should be accepted.

And frankly, I don't remember any such content in older games that I could mention, that Deadfire (or at least, Pillars of Eternity) claims to be the 'spiritual successor' of.

https://baldursgate.fandom.com/wiki/Vai's_Bounty_Upon_Bandits
https://torment.fandom.com/wiki/Office_of_Vermin_and_Disease_Control

BG2 didn't have any bounty quests.

Lots of people like these and they're easily ignorable so I honestly don't see the problem. These are nice little distractions, not mindless grind like e.g. the treasure hunts in Witcher 3 or the garbage in DA:I or others.

There's a lot wrong with DF but this kind of thing is so minor it shouldn't even register.

 

[Yosharian]

I know! A RPG with busywork quests, can you imagine that?

Just because something is commonplace, doesn't mean it should be accepted.

And frankly, I don't remember any such content in older games that I could mention, that Deadfire (or at least, Pillars of Eternity) claims to be the 'spiritual successor' of.

https://baldursgate.fandom.com/wiki/Vai's_Bounty_Upon_Bandits
https://torment.fandom.com/wiki/Office_of_Vermin_and_Disease_Control

BG2 didn't have any bounty quests.

Lots of people like these and they're easily ignorable so I honestly don't see the problem. These are nice little distractions, not mindless grind like e.g. the treasure hunts in Witcher 3 or the garbage in DA:I or others.

There's a lot wrong with DF but this kind of thing is so minor it shouldn't even register.

I don't consider Baldur's Gate 1 to be a particularly good game, so pointing out problems with it is lost on me.

The Torment quest seems like a very minor thing you can do while just out and about generally adventuring. Only bears the vaguest similarity to Deadfire's bounties.

I agree that they are distractions, I never said they weren't. But they are definitely mindless.

 

[Lacrymas]

BG1 is a good game.

 

[Parabalus]

The bounties are a symptom of the handholding in newer games.

JES didn't want his base players to potentially stumble during the main quest, so bounties were born. They are extremely explicitly optional.

A decade ago or so they'd all be integrated into the main narrative, which is a shame since the encounters and items are great.

 

[Yosharian]

The bounties are a symptom of the handholding in newer games.

JES didn't want his base players to potentially stumble during the main quest, so bounties were born. They are extremely explicitly optional.

A decade ago or so they'd all be integrated into the main narrative, which is a shame since the encounters and items are great.

Right. I agree with this.

However, if they were integrated into the main narrative, surely they would have more things to say. Even a simple conversation along the lines of 'so, you've come to take my head, have you?' or 'you'll never take me alive', etc, would go a long way towards making these encounters feel more 'alive'.

 

[Prime Junta]

And frankly, I don't remember any such content in older games that I could mention, that Deadfire (or at least, Pillars of Eternity) claims to be the 'spiritual successor' of.

I don't consider Baldur's Gate 1 to be a particularly good game, so pointing out problems with it is lost on me.

'k

 

[Lacrymas]

I'm pretty sure some bounty targets in DF have dialogue, only the ship ones don't afaik.

The bounties are a symptom of the handholding in newer games.

JES didn't want his base players to potentially stumble during the main quest, so bounties were born. They are extremely explicitly optional.

This is extremely pointless, as it is the struggle that creates meaning in games. If you breeze through the content, there is no satisfaction and you don't register it. Whatever they wanted to do to streamline the game obviously failed, though, seeing how PoE didn't retain fans.

 

[Efe]

most (all?) bounty targets dont have dialogue.
you roll through map killing random people that are hostile to you for no reason and then find out theres a bounty on them and collect it.

 

[AwesomeButton]

So what is the actual fucking point of these bounties?

Money, to upgrade your uniques. Which you could do without anyway, but by this logic, you could do without the whole game anyway.

 

[Prime Junta]

So what is the actual fucking point of these bounties?

Money, to upgrade your uniques. Which you could do without anyway, but by this logic, you could do without the whole game anyway.

Some of them are pretty cool combat challenges in their own right also.

 

[FreeKaner]

In dumpsterfire they tried to make bounties seem more like part of the world and more involved by spreading them around by different people and giving them background and such. It is not completely outside of the game as optional arena challenge as it is in PoE1.

 

[AwesomeButton]

In dumpsterfire they tried to make bounties seem more like part of the world and more involved by spreading them around by different people and giving them background and such. It is not completely outside of the game as optional arena challenge as it is in PoE1.

"Tried" is the operative word. If only writing in Deadfire wasn't managed like running a sausage factory. As it is, Witcher 3's notice boards have tons more character and integration into the world than the fully voiced bounty givers, most of them mandatory "strong women" in Deadfire.

 

[hivemind]

most of them mandatory "strong women" in Deadfire.

yikes and incelpilled

 

[AwesomeButton]

most of them mandatory "strong women" in Deadfire.

yikes and incelpilled

I know it's painful, but try playing the game, and actually reading the words in the dialogues.

 

[hivemind]

maybe if they fix penetration

 

[Prime Junta]

maybe if they fix penetration

...and either learn the mechanics, or play something else.

 

[hivemind]

I mean ... I did learn them, and it made me want to stop playing because its anti fun design

like I'm not complaining because I cant beat an encounter or whatever, I just find it an obnoxious mechanic