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

[Desiderius]

Deadfire is 50% off on Steam, thinking about finally getting it. I didn't finish PoE 1 but I did play a good chunk of it and enjoyed it. I probably played around 80 hours of that game, but finding it hard to get back into it again if I'm honest. PoE2 yes or no?

If you get it, do it for the combat and not the plot.

How's the side content? I can live with average main plot if side content is good.

The combat in PoE1 was kind of the weak point for me, so any improvement in that department will be welcome.

Combat is much better than in PoE1. I'd go as far as to say this is the best combat I've seen from Obsidian (not a very high bar sure, but it's pretty enjoyable). Main plot is kinda whatever so far and I've heard it's very short, but there's tons of side content and the world map is Fallout-style go wherever the fuck you want - another huge improvement over the original. The setting is cool too and some of the sidequests and world lore are interesting. Companions are a downgrade from the original. Nothing as good as Durance in the game and for some reason they picked some of the most boring ones (Aloth, Pallegina) to make a comeback.

I preferred PoE1 combat but Deadfire is fine.

 

[Prime Junta]

I preferred PoE1 combat but Deadfire is fine.

Weirdo.

I recently replayed the two back to back. P1 combat is a giant clusterfuck in comparison. Only thing I really dislike about Deadfire mechanics is everything per encounter. It makes the combat much more rote and repetitive (assuming you don’t rest spam.)

 

[Desiderius]

Yes, that’s why I prefer PoE1. Plus the Health/Endurance thing and Penetration was better IIRC.

 

[Haplo]

What if someone cuts the HP of enemies in half? Would that make Turn-Based better?

What suggestions that someone could accomplish by tweaking numbers would make TB better? Sadly I don't think it's possible to change the AMOUNT of enemies or encounters via modding, the only way to get less enemies is to play on Story Mode or Normal and NOT use the scaling options, but I think that amount of encounters is already considered too many for TB mode, right?

Don't think its a good idea, really. There are plenty of enemies that die fast already. Like to 1 good aoe nuke (or are near death afterwards). Would have to be on a monster per monster basis. Some are too bullet spongy, but many are not.

 

[Prime Junta]

Many of the bosses are too spongy, some like the mega pudding outrageously so. Most normal monsters are fine. The game is just so big, there’s just so much fighting, and you can hit level 20 so early it gets repetitive towards the end.

Nobody’s forcing you to do everything of course. Perhaps it would be more fun just to play until level 20, finish, and start over with a new party and do the stuff you missed with that.

 

[Haplo]

Indeed. Ending at level 20 might be a bit early. Its worth it to fight and explore a little more. Maybe do the Forgotten Sanctum if you didn't already. Or try the Megabosses if that's your cup of tea.
Butcher Nemnok and the vampires, if you didn't already.

In any case, I've long given up on "completionist" Deadfire playtroughs. Even moreso after the addition of DLC content. I skip entire factions/regions during a given playtrough.

 

[Prime Junta]

My last playthrough wasn't quite completionist but I did play all the DLCs, Nemnok, vampires, etc. and it definitely started to pall towards the end. It was fun to play at level 20 for a while but enough is enough. I do think the game would benefit from a slower leveling curve past level 15 or so.

 

[Cleric of Asmodeus]

Yeah, I’ve felt the same way about each pillars game.

Some sort of intermission mechanic for these games would be cool. A point (or two) where if you get that far, you can “lock in” your progress and have the choice of either continuing on with everything or switching your party up (and potentially taking a break).

So you could put the game down for a few months and come back to a new party and new stuff without feeling overwhelmed by the lack of context of returning to a game with a bunch of loose ends.

 

[Drakortha]

That's actually the issue I'm having with PoE1 right now. I want to pick it up and play it where I left off, but one look at my Journal and all the unfinished quests and I become overwhelmed and don't really know where to start. And I don't want to start from the beginning either.

 

[NJClaw]

That's actually the issue I'm having with PoE1 right now. I want to pick it up and play it where I left off, but one look at my Journal and all the unfinished quests and I become overwhelmed and don't really know where to start. And I don't want to start from the beginning either.

Stop caring that much about completing everything. Maybe you will miss out on a couple of good quests, but that's also true if you don't play the game at all. Just follow whatever piques your interest and ignore everything else. If you feel paralyzed, skim through the journal, choose a quest that sounds cool, and follow it ignoring everything else. Just remember to go through both DLCs, because Sawyer loves to hide the best parts of his videogames behind snowy areas.

You don't need to do everything in a single playthrough, and you aren't supposed to: as others already said, you quickly reach your level cap, making good chunks of content obsolete. If you really enjoy the game, diluting it in multiple playthroughs might be the best thing to do.

 

[Verylittlefishes]

Maybe you will miss out on a couple of good quests, but that's also true if you don't play the game at all.

 

[NJClaw]

Maybe you will miss out on a couple of good quests, but that's also true if you don't play the game at all.

I mean... if you enjoy the game (and Drakortha said he does) but can't play it because you feel overwhelmed by the amount of quests in your journal, you are basically saying that there is a lot of stuff that you want to do but don't know where to start. In this context, if you stop playing the game altogether, you are giving up content that you enjoy only because there's too much of it. At that point, it's best to skip only parts of it instead of completely dropping the game.

 

[Robber Baron]

Were there even that many quests in PoE1 for the player to be overwhelmed with?

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Were there even that many quests in PoE1 for the player to be overwhelmed with?

I guess that it can feel a bit overwhelming if you pick up all the quests available when you land in the Huana capital.

 

[Robber Baron]

if you pick up all the quests available when you land in the Huana capital.

That's PoE2 though

 

[Heroic Liberator]

if you pick up all the quests available when you land in the Huana capital.

That's PoE2 though

Fuck, misread. Then no, even the larger hubs of PoE1 didn't have that many quests.

 

[Desiderius]

Were there even that many quests in PoE1 for the player to be overwhelmed with?

I guess that it can feel a bit overwhelming if you pick up all the quests available when you land in the Huana capital.

It felt a ton underwhelming after finishing Eder’s Dumpsterfire anti-quest. Was never able to continue after that.

Sawyer TFW no progeny?

 

[Jezal_k23]

I want to do a playthrough with reduced XP gains. How much should I reduce XP gain in order to avoid reaching the level cap TOO early if I intend to do all of the content and DLC? Is reducing XP gain by 50% enough to achieve that? Keeping in mind that I'll be playing in PotD and I want to allow myself to play some of the game at Level 20, but I just don't want to reach it outrageously early like the default game allows you to do.

 

[Robber Baron]

So the game is on sale so I got the DLC because why not. Haven't played since putting 50 hours on release but never finished it. And holy shit. What is this matrix slo mo shit happening at every magic cast/critical strike. I LOVE IT

 

[Luckmann]

I preferred PoE1 combat but Deadfire is fine.

Weirdo.

I recently replayed the two back to back. P1 combat is a giant clusterfuck in comparison. Only thing I really dislike about Deadfire mechanics is everything per encounter. It makes the combat much more rote and repetitive (assuming you don’t rest spam.)

If you recently ran PoE1 and PoE2 back-to-back, why didn't you run Woedica's Challenge? It turns most things into Per-Rest. It's not optimal, because the game is clearly not made for it, but it's an immense improvement.

 

[Prime Junta]

I tried it and didn’t like it.

 

[Brotherman Bill]

Picked it up now, 15 hours in.
I liked PoE1, tho this one is kinda meh.

It's the quest structure I think. Everything is just dumped on you, there's not really much structure to speak of, or anything that feels like the main plot. So you get overwhelmed by options where none feels particularly attractive.

The writing is a tad worse than PoE as well. I'd say it's Bioware quality atm. There's not really much to pull you in.

 

[Joseph Stalin]

Side content is quite good iirc. Main plot is kind of just there.

Kinda sound like Arcanum.

 

[Joseph Stalin]

I tried it and didn’t like it.

Oh, he deleted his account... why?

 

[Kazuki]

Oh, he deleted his account... why?

Probably something that happened on GD Forum.