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

[Lacrymas]

Nothing worse in an RPG than a patronizing character that can't be taken down a peg or two.

You should play Age of Decadence if you want to do that kind of thing.

 

[Daidre]

What version of her do you prefer? Black haired or dwarf? I bet it is the dwarf.

 

[PsychoFox]

Leave my waifu alone

But your waifu is grinding my gears

You should play Age of Decadence if you want to do that kind of thing.

I will eventually. I'm playing simpler RPGs first for some experience.

 

[Quillon]

Nothing worse in an RPG than a patronizing character that can't be taken down a peg or two.

You should play Age of Decadence if you want to do that kind of thing.

Wut, just cos you can't kill a "god" outright in Deadfire it is more restricted than AoD?

"You can kill everyone" is Obsidian's unofficial motto since FNV ffs, tho "almost everyone" in PoEs' case.

 

[PsychoFox]

Nothing worse in an RPG than a patronizing character that can't be taken down a peg or two.

You should play Age of Decadence if you want to do that kind of thing.

Wut, just cos you can't kill a "god" outright in Deadfire it is more restricted than AoD?

"You can kill everyone" is Obsidian's unofficial motto since FNV ffs, tho "almost everyone" in PoEs' case.

Well i'm not sure about that being their motto. I mean there are tons of NPCs you can't kill in PoEII. All those citizens in the towns for example.

 

[Lacrymas]

Some NPCs come back and the characters who force the plot along, i.e. the gods, can't be killed. So it's just replacing one type of unkillable for another. Not to mention that you can slaughter the entire Neketaka and nobody will bat an eye.

 

[PsychoFox]

Some NPCs come back and the characters who force the plot along, i.e. the gods, can't be killed. So it's just replacing one type of unkillable for another. Not to mention that you can slaughter the entire Neketaka and nobody will bat an eye.

So how much reactivity is there in this game and to what extent can you affect the world? Say I want to get rid of the entire Neketaka nobility. Would that be possible and will that have any effects on the game?
I'm guessing from your post that there's no consequences for doing so whatsoever?

 

[Lacrymas]

No consequences at all. At least not any that matter. I don't know if anyone even mentions you killing the entire city. The vast majority of the reactivity in DF is dialogue-only and it doesn't change maps or gameplay.

 

[PsychoFox]

Well shame. That's wasted opportunity. I surprisingly ended up enjoying playing the game even though I pretty much hated the prequel. Maybe they should've spent more time on the world reactivity rather than on the dumb ship battles.

 

[Quillon]

I mean there are tons of NPCs you can't kill in PoEII. All those citizens in the towns for example

You can kill them and get a bad rep with connected faction with each kill, they should attack you on sight iirc past some point in bad rep, if not they won't work with you anyway.

There is reactivity... that you can piss off all the factions and get locked out of their quests but you don't essentially need them. I finished the game without siding with a faction and didn't like ending I got.(in NV, it was the best ending IMO)

Some NPCs come back and the characters who force the plot along, i.e. the gods, can't be killed. So it's just replacing one type of unkillable for another.

NPCs come back? There is a twin of a character showing up, which was cheeky af. For essentials, I don't mind it if I can't attack them/if there is no way to reach them so only Queen Oneqaza being unkillable pisses me off.

And in PoE1 they could have soo easily made Icantha and Lady Webb(without ending the game) killable also.

Its a lot of work to make more than 99% of characters/generic NPCs killable while being able to finish the game, and they are not killable cos this is fucking high fantasy not a somewhat realistic setting like Fallout or TOW(will be) where unkillable character counts are down to one. But sure, go ahead and downplay it anyway.

 

[Lacrymas]

It's not a lot of work, it's very easy to make all NPCs not essential when the essential NPCs only show up during those painted cutscenes and the main quest is 5 quests long. Same with PoE1 too, Thaos only shows up during cutscenes, the other essentials are Icantha and Lady Webb, like you said, and they aren't killable as well. Not to mention that you can speak to ghosts, so all of this is moot anyway.

 

[Quillon]

The scenario works with all the supporting cast & extras being present or not, its a lot of work, a lot of extra work that most RPG developers(all?) nowadays(or past 15 years) opt out.

 

[AwesomeButton]

So how much reactivity is there in this game and to what extent can you affect the world? Say I want to get rid of the entire Neketaka nobility. Would that be possible and will that have any effects on the game?
I'm guessing from your post that there's no consequences for doing so whatsoever?

I know what you need. Buy it nao:

 

[Lacrymas]

The scenario works with all the supporting cast & extras being present or not, its a lot of work, a lot of extra work that most RPG developers(all?) nowadays(or past 15 years) opt out.

It just means no other NPCs are involved in the quest apart from a throwaway line or two. I think you can kill everyone in D:OS as well. It's just pointless and makes it extremely hard to do a character-driven story, which is one of the reasons why Obsidian didn't even try.

 

[Quillon]

It just means no other NPCs are involved in the quest apart from a throwaway line or two.

Yeah, no. Deadfire is teemed with throwaway line or two reactivities but entire companions and factions being present vs going alone in the MQs is huge difference. Ofc it hurts the story, RPGs are always a balancing act; agency vs narrative, Obs is far end of the RPG spectrum atm, there is a lot of unneccessary shit to react to in PoEs IMO but NPCs being killable isn't one of them.

 

[PsychoFox]

Well my main problem right now is that the factions in this game aren't all that interesting. They don't seem very distinct from each other either, which makes me want to go the "Yes Man" route here (solo without joining factions). But I hear that's not a very good idea and makes the story less satisfying. Now if there was a way to play the factions against each other to my own benefit, that would be great, but i'm not sure if the game allows for that stuff.

So how much reactivity is there in this game and to what extent can you affect the world? Say I want to get rid of the entire Neketaka nobility. Would that be possible and will that have any effects on the game?
I'm guessing from your post that there's no consequences for doing so whatsoever?

I know what you need. Buy it nao:

I know about this. It's just that the setting doesn't really interest me all that much. I will still play it, but probably later rather than sooner.

 

[Lacrymas]

entire companions and factions being present vs going alone in the MQs is huge difference.

Is it, though?

I know about this. It's just that the setting doesn't really interest me all that much. I will still play it, but probably later rather than sooner.

 

[Quillon]

entire companions and factions being present vs going alone in the MQs is huge difference.

Is it, though?

Yeah, it is. Ofc you can beeline and count only Port Maje, Ashen Maw and Ukaizo MQs. In the "normal" experience that almost all people play the game; companions & factions are very involved with the story; if you kill them outright/don't recruit or deal with them, it is a different experience and I tested the game with "playing normally" and also with killing everyone; with hero & psychopath characters. I'm yet to play it with a villain, a deceptive/cruel character.

Anyway, at FC atm, this Tayn dude is Paul Rudd right? Also, having Concelhaut and Nemnok(one of them on Eder) as pets is awesome here.

 

[Eisenheinrich]

They don't seem very distinct from each other either, whiThey don't seem very distinct from each other eitheri

Really? Tribal Huanas vs. pirates vs. imperial canoneers vs. greedy merchants? I thought the factions were quite distinct, one of the better parts of Deadfire and much more prepared than in PoE.

 

[Elephantman]

Peoples who recommend Turn Based mode are mental midgets with severe delusions.
I made a Fighter Unbroken/Blood Wizard Potd Solo (with 3 Dex...) and fought the ship and first cave and its
1. obvious that movement and cost of action are all out of '''balance''' and movement is prolly straight broken if you have space to kite
2. it takes aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaages

You know the fight in the Neketaka underground with hordes of Rotghasts? Well, they move at a snails pace in TB and the camera slowly pans after each one crawled their 3 feet. Looking at that procession 30+ times would be insane.



On random mechanics notes, the game is dangerously close for me to degenerate into POE1 style Eder-blocks-others-shoot everywhere.
I realized that I cannot save Eder with deflection like in POE1 since shields are a nerfed, sources of Defl rare. But you can save him with AR/dmg reduction, loads and loads of AR.
You can see that Soyer saw this coming and there is not a single, even Fine, Full Plate in all of Neketaka to find for free. Except the Exceptional (and improvable...) one on the Bardato.
That plate has 11 AR. As soon as you hit 45k gold, you can make it into Legendary 13 AR. Add 1 from food, add 3 from potion. 17 AR. Now, Tehecu has a spell that grants Robust for 17 sec, which is Healing and another 2 AR. Though I only have 1 cast at lvl5.
On Potd, an Arquebus has 9+2=11 Pen. Fine 12. Exceptional 13. Superb 14. And lack of Pen is some kind of multiplier instead of additive reduction.

Eder is literally untouchable except for crush dmg, and abilities that convert hits-to-crits..., which you try to charm or focus down quickly.
Casters are still a problem but are fairly rare, 4 druids at Sayuka are nasty.



Arbalest modals though =D
In POE1 I could prone dragons a couple of times in a fight with Arbalests with a rogue and ranger shooting (some, like the one under your Keep didnt even get of the floor with all the slicken, blind and arbalest crits). Arbalests proced Prone on Crit only. In POE2 Soyer went full retard for some reason - Arbalests proc Prone on Hit, so it says in the description! Thats 50 points of Accuracy less to proc. But they actually proc on Graze too... 75 Acc less... The Giant Grub is so slow with his attack, Maia alone kept him Prone through the fight... and I have a rouge with an arbalest too...
The log doesnt show if the enemy gets to roll vs the Prone but I suspect they do, though it seems to work on Grazes on that roll too.

 

[Elephantman]

Ahh, Malnaj, the terror of Deadfire, biggest (lel), baddest Shiphunter the Islands have ever seen!
I see them and be scared! 8 enemies, 2 fighters, pally - scary stuff. She has +27 to acc due to level, meaning she is level 9/10, right?
But her crew, her crew is level 1! Every single one of them. In Exceptional gear but thats not gonna help you if all you can do is whack Eder with normals...

Ahh, Serafens quest, such quality ending! Great stuff!
At least he is gifting me gear and I am up to 50+% hit to crit conversion.
10 minor threat, orlan
10 dirty fighting
10 hat, serafen gift
20 one handed style
15 45s potion merciless gay
25 30s potion perfect aim

 

[Daidre]

Are you sure that at least half of it stack? At least potions are the same source and should not. Plus hit to crit had some diminishing returns since each roll is separate last time a looked into mechanics for PoE.

 

[Elephantman]

Yeah, Sawyer's "Balance" was mostly a meme...

I mean, its a meme from POE1 which really tried to curtail all exploits - and I applaud it for it.
POE2 lets you stack Rings of Protection which to me was the sign that said that Soyer got broken internally.

 

[Elephantman]

Are you sure that at least half of it stack? At least potions are the same source and should not. Plus hit to crit had some diminishing returns since each roll is separate last time a looked into mechanics for PoE.

Potions dont stack but the separate rolls are news to me... That would be sad... I dont wanna look that up online though.

0.9 miss orlan
0.9 miss dirty
0.9 miss hat
0.85 miss potion
0.9 * 0.9 * 0.9 * 0.85 =
0.61965 chance to miss hit to crit conversion
40% chance to hit to crit convert

Additive would be 45% chance to convert. Not too bad, if I am doing everything right.


-edit-

Maxing out One-Handed is far more pronounced though...
One handed and good potion, Multiplicative:
0.9 * miss orlan
0.9 * miss dirty
0.9 * miss hat
0.8 * miss one handed
0.75 = miss potion
0.4374 chance to miss htc
56% chance to htc

Same but Additive:
10
10
10
20
25 = 75% chance to htc

56 vs 75 is Big

 

[Elephantman]

Sid Meyers Deadfeyers

holy shit ship raiding is profitable... i didnt know, another broken mechanic