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

[Grunker]

So I'm playing the hell out of Pathfinder: Kingmaker with the TB mod at the moment, and I'm in a state of bliss.

I've played PoE (very engaging till about half-way through, then my interest dropped off a cliff), but I haven't played Deadfire yet (I must confess to being someone who's bored by pirates and sailing ships).

Just as a matter of curiosity, how does the TB option in Deadfire compare to the TB mod in PF:K? Does it feel integrated in the way that hsinyucuan's managed to do with the P:K mod, or does it feel like an afterthought?

I wrote a long rundown like one or two pages ago

Can you link to it cause i can't seem to find it (maybe i'm going blind).

Also on an unrelated note, i found this bit from your write up on RTwP games so poignant.

Exposure to actual quality might bring you to the realization that the games industry is stuck in a juvenile rut, and has been since the inception of the medium.

As someone who is going through all these supposed masterpieces for the first time in 2019, i can't help but to scoff at most of them.

Apparantly it's more pages back than I thought, soz it was in a discussion with shade I think

And scoff away, I love PoE1 with WM

 

[PsychoFox]

So I'm playing the hell out of Pathfinder: Kingmaker with the TB mod at the moment, and I'm in a state of bliss.

I've played PoE (very engaging till about half-way through, then my interest dropped off a cliff), but I haven't played Deadfire yet (I must confess to being someone who's bored by pirates and sailing ships).

Just as a matter of curiosity, how does the TB option in Deadfire compare to the TB mod in PF:K? Does it feel integrated in the way that hsinyucuan's managed to do with the P:K mod, or does it feel like an afterthought?

I wrote a long rundown like one or two pages ago

Can you link to it cause i can't seem to find it (maybe i'm going blind).

Also on an unrelated note, i found this bit from your write up on RTwP games so poignant.

Exposure to actual quality might bring you to the realization that the games industry is stuck in a juvenile rut, and has been since the inception of the medium.

As someone who is going through all these supposed masterpieces for the first time in 2019, i can't help but to scoff at most of them.

Apparantly it's more pages back than I thought, soz it was in a discussion with shade I think

And scoff away, I love PoE1 with WM

I haven't played WM yet but i will later. PoE 2 so far has been really good as well.

Also i just realized i could use the search. im a dum dum.

 

[Shadenuat]

Just as a matter of curiosity, how does the TB option in Deadfire compare to the TB mod in PF:K? Does it feel integrated in the way that hsinyucuan's managed to do with the P:K mod, or does it feel like an afterthought?

tl;dr TB PK is better.

 

[Grunker]

Gonna try it myself soon but I'm a little worried about the AI. It was pretty terrible in PK already, has it been massively updated for the TB mod or are the mobs basically "oblivious to the mode change"?

 

[Crichton]

So I'm playing the hell out of Pathfinder: Kingmaker with the TB mod at the moment, and I'm in a state of bliss.

I've played PoE (very engaging till about half-way through, then my interest dropped off a cliff), but I haven't played Deadfire yet (I must confess to being someone who's bored by pirates and sailing ships).

Just as a matter of curiosity, how does the TB option in Deadfire compare to the TB mod in PF:K? Does it feel integrated in the way that hsinyucuan's managed to do with the P:K mod, or does it feel like an afterthought?

It's an afterthought with massive balance issues. Encounters also take forever. Not recommend for TB, but i do wholeheartedly recommend it in general.

For shame! TB Deadfire is glorious! Now it is true that some things, namely light armor and tiny weapons, have decreased in usefulness; but knife-faggots in pantyhose enjoy taking it up the butt anyway. Everyone wins!

 

[Shadenuat]

Gonna try it myself soon but I'm a little worried about the AI. It was pretty terrible in PK already, has it been massively updated for the TB mod or are the mobs basically "oblivious to the mode change"?

You're not so naive to expect modder teach enemies 5 ft stepping, positioning and action management are you?

It's not like killing boars and skeletons in choke points in Deadfire shows lots of brilliance of its AI either.

 

[MajorMace]

Aren't skeletons supposed to be literally braindead though

 

[Grunker]

Gonna try it myself soon but I'm a little worried about the AI. It was pretty terrible in PK already, has it been massively updated for the TB mod or are the mobs basically "oblivious to the mode change"?

You're not so naive to expect modder teach enemies 5 ft stepping, positioning and action management are you?

I pray to the shrine of DavidW, I never lose hope <3

 

[Lady_Error]

So I actually finished all the content plus all the DLC a few weeks back - and I agree that Deadfire is close to being as good as the Baldur's Gates.

The only part where it is still not as good are the mage battles (no actual hard counters). Everything else delivers in spades.

DLC's:
Beast of Winter - pretty good, dealing with some weird shit in another dimension
Seeker, Slayer, Survivor - a bit too much on the combat side, though those are really good ones
Forgotten Sanctum - my favorite, even gives you the option for a different ending for the whole game

 

[MajorMace]

 

[Agesilaus]

PoE 2 is at minimum a thousand times better than Pathfinder, which is a total dogshit game. Not Planescape levels of dogshit, but certainly dogshit enough that I can't be bothered playing past an hour or so.

 

[Alpan]

So, it's in RTwP (not surprising) with a Priest/Wizard. Which is surprising considering how nerfed Priests are, I was expecting maybe Druid/Wizard or Rogue/Wizard.

The priest spell that extends buff duration seems to be a favorite of the obsidian forums.

Yes, it's pretty awesome. For example coupled with a cipher's Ascension or fighter's Unbending.

The nice thing is that the extension time is fixed, so extending some short duration poweful buffs really makes a difference.

The Wiz/Pri gimmick is effective immortality with Wall of Draining (Wiz) + Barring Death's Door (Pri) + Blood Sacrifice (Blood Mage ability that lets you get back spell uses).

 

[ERYFKRAD]

PoE 2 is at minimum a thousand times better than Pathfinder, which is a total dogshit game. Not Planescape levels of dogshit, but certainly dogshit enough that I can't be bothered playing past an hour or so.

You're just saying that because it has Roman elves.

 

[Lacrymas]

The Wiz/Pri gimmick is effective immortality with Wall of Draining (Wiz) + Barring Death's Door (Pri) + Blood Sacrifice (Blood Mage ability that lets you get back spell uses).

Isn't Wall of Draining a high level ability? There must be something else before that, but I think it's obvious the combo of the Priest's buffs and the Blood Mage's infinite spells (in effect being outside the rules of the game, i.e. it's a borderline cheating subclass) has quite high solo potential, even if I didn't think it would be good enough for the Ultimate at first.

 

[Lawntoilet]

Although the main story is pretty lame, I'm really enjoying finally committing to a full playthrough of this game with all the DLCs (in TB mode). Multiclassing is great, the combat system is intuitive but not brainless, and there is, wonder of wonders, even some fun and memorable writing, like the autistic Goldpact Paladin in the Gullet.
Kingmaker is still my GOTY 2018 but Deadfire is a solid 2nd place (although I am admittedly biased toward games that let me be a pirate).

 

[Alpan]

The Wiz/Pri gimmick is effective immortality with Wall of Draining (Wiz) + Barring Death's Door (Pri) + Blood Sacrifice (Blood Mage ability that lets you get back spell uses).

Isn't Wall of Draining a high level ability? There must be something else before that, but I think it's obvious the combo of the Priest's buffs and the Blood Mage's infinite spells (in effect being outside the rules of the game, i.e. it's a borderline cheating subclass) has quite high solo potential, even if I didn't think it would be good enough for the Ultimate at first.

Wall of Draining is AL7, so it unlocks at level 19. In the meantime the Priest of Skaen features Escape, which I imagine is very useful as an oh-shit button when combined with Withdraw.

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

Although the main story is pretty lame, I'm really enjoying finally committing to a full playthrough of this game with all the DLCs (in TB mode). Multiclassing is great, the combat system is intuitive but not brainless, and there is, wonder of wonders, even some fun and memorable writing, like the autistic Goldpact Paladin in the Gullet.
Kingmaker is still my GOTY 2018 but Deadfire is a solid 2nd place (although I am admittedly biased toward games that let me be a pirate).

I get the feeling that Deadfire is hated way beyond how much it should be. Is it perfect? No. Is it as good as PFKM? Hell no. Is it still a great game? Definitely.

 

[Lacrymas]

It has a myriad of technical issues and ridiculous loading times without an SSD, so it's not only due to the creative aspects of it.

 

[vortex]

It has a myriad of technical issues and ridiculous loading times without an SSD, so it's not only due to the creative aspects of it.

And that is immersion killer for a game like this.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

It has a myriad of technical issues and ridiculous loading times without an SSD, so it's not only due to the creative aspects of it.

Purely subjective, but on my specific setup things had been great. But as someone who cannot play PFKM past a certain point due to technical issues, i fully understand.

 

[Sailor Woedica]

Those messages are just so cute!

 

[pomenitul]

'No fun allowed can actually be fun.' – This is Sawyer's true, koan-esque design philosophy.

 

[gurugeorge]

Well, having gotten a little windfall, I've just bought Deadfire, and ofc I'm using its TB option. Only a few levels in, but I'm enjoying it so far. Although it's not as deliciously, beard-strokingly intricate as P:K in TB mode, it's fun enough, and so far the story is engaging. It's interesting coming from an intense period of playing P:K - the fixed isometric "painterly" backgrounds thing PoE's got going definitely has its charms, and it's reminiscent of one's memories of BG, but in practice it's kind of annoying not to be able to spin the view around/zoom in really close when you get a bunch of mobs and characters, engagement arrows, fx, in a blob of graphic soup.

Also, after playing for a while, I'm reminded of one of the reasons I never quite dug into PoE the first time - the mechanics are irritatingly elusive. One feels they ought to make simulation sense on some level, but eventually one realizes they don't, it's just a bunch of balanced numbers with a simulation gloss they threw over it in some brainstorming session. And I just find that a bit off-putting, and a block to immersion (in this type of game). I want to understand the mechanics in terms of numbers, but I also want to picture the simulation abstraction in my mind while I'm playing, and I can't quite do that with PoE's system.

 

[vortex]

"gaming bushidō in the crucible of suffering = fun"

~ Sawyer 2019