Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

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

purupuru

Learned
Joined
Nov 2, 2019
Messages
414
I question Sawyer's authority in making such a list, many of those are not his characters. Besides, sexual fetish is the one thing that shouldn't be balanced across the board like that.
 

Desiderius

Found your egg, Robinett, you sneaky bastard
Patron
Joined
Jul 22, 2019
Messages
14,131
Insert Title Here Pathfinder: Wrath
Give the man credit, he takes no half-measures.

No one does cringe like Soyer does cringe.
 

gurugeorge

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Aug 3, 2019
Messages
7,437
Location
London, UK
Strap Yourselves In
I'm still playing this and I have to say I've fallen hard for it. Still haven't finished it, but I'm on my fourth char and run, on PoTD now.

Story and character-wise it's a mixed bag on account of the globohomo bs, but the quality of the writing in and of itself is good, most of the plots and quests are good, with decent C&C, interactivity, thoughtful moral and political choices, everything - and the rhythm of the RTwP gameplay (the timings of how long things last vis-a-vis how often you get into the swing of pausing to scan everything) is just great fun on PoTD, with the AI conditionals being the icing on the cake.

I usually prefer to play RPGs on last but one difficulty, as it's usually a good compromise between non-sleepwalking gameplay and story flow, but now that I'm more familiar with the game, I remember the thing that's so great about the hardest difficulties in games - you have to pull out all the stops and use every little tool at your disposal, every goddamn janky potion and sparklecracker, everything, just for that bit of edge to match up to the enemy OP-ness and bloat.

And it really does look a million dollars too.

It's funny, I kind of liked it a year or so ago when I tried it in turn-based to about 3-4 of the way through, but it didn't quite sit in the pocket for me. Now it does, I'm right there with my head buried in the mechanics and enjoying the virtual world.

(I read a comment a while ago about the PoE series to the effect that actually, the more of the lore you read properly and absorb, the more you enjoy the game. I think that's true. It's a bit of an irritating dump the first time you play PoE, but as you start to wrap your head around the epic scale and the fleshed-out details in both games, it's really good. One thing that keeps coming to mind is the kind of mega-superhero scenarios of the likes of Grant Morrison etc., the UK crowd - the "gods" remind me of that type of cosmic scale superhero stuff, and the puzzle of what whimsies would affect ridiculously powerful beings. Probably just a quirk of mine, but it enriches it for me.)

Again, I'm reflecting how sad it is that this wasn't the hit it deserved to be. So much love put into it, and attention to detail.
 

Desiderius

Found your egg, Robinett, you sneaky bastard
Patron
Joined
Jul 22, 2019
Messages
14,131
Insert Title Here Pathfinder: Wrath
Love yes, but also contempt. A poor combination. Also enough cowardice to be noticeable, which often goes with contempt. The game is good, but not as good as it should have been.
 

Fedora Master

Arcane
Patron
Edgy
Joined
Jun 28, 2017
Messages
27,819
The fundamental system is irredeemable.

Why do you think that? I know there's a branch of people here that do, but I'm curious as to why. (Straight question.)

Strength wizards and Intelligence barbarians.
Furthermore, the system takes all the awful parts from 3.5e while, for the sake of BALANCE, leaving out the fun bits.
Every decision when building a character comes down to "Which of these feats and spells are the least useless?"
 

Desiderius

Found your egg, Robinett, you sneaky bastard
Patron
Joined
Jul 22, 2019
Messages
14,131
Insert Title Here Pathfinder: Wrath
There is too much of that due to the overly narrow parameters they set for themselves - no adventuring spells for instance. There are Abilities and Spells that are very much not useless at all within those parameters tho. The weapon Modals are massively annoying, but evidently Haplo who knows more than anyone says some are good?

The STR/INT whining is just straight up ghey.
 

Lacrymas

Arcane
Joined
Sep 23, 2015
Messages
17,948
Pathfinder: Wrath
(I read a comment a while ago about the PoE series to the effect that actually, the more of the lore you read properly and absorb, the more you enjoy the game. I think that's true.
Literally the other way around. Reading less will make you enjoy it more. If someone has the opposite experience, that just means they've fallen victim to Stockholm Syndrome.
 

gurugeorge

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Aug 3, 2019
Messages
7,437
Location
London, UK
Strap Yourselves In
The fundamental system is irredeemable.

Why do you think that? I know there's a branch of people here that do, but I'm curious as to why. (Straight question.)

Strength wizards and Intelligence barbarians.
Furthermore, the system takes all the awful parts from 3.5e while, for the sake of BALANCE, leaving out the fun bits.
Every decision when building a character comes down to "Which of these feats and spells are the least useless?"

Thanks. Yeah, the first points I made my peace with long ago - "Might" is just an abstract "power level" stat. For a melee character it's an abstraction for strength, for a mage it's an abstraction of magic power. Maybe it's too overabstracted in simulationist terms, but I get the rationale. I think I posted a while ago that they should have just used "Power." The ideal word would be the French "Puissance," but it would be too clunky in English. For "intelligence" they could have used something like "acumen" maybe, or "cunning?" Both barbarians and wizards could have those :) I do appreciate the pea-under-mattress discomfort of it, but it doesn't bother me that much personally.

(And then again, the idea of a physically fit and powerful wizard capable of melee isn't such a weird idea, in fact it's the idea of the wizard as a weedy nerd that's rather the odd man out in fantasy historically. If you look at Gandalf or the Vancian wizards, they're physically capable people. Or again, look at the Anime tradition: nerds in the East Asian tradition may not be quite as physically viable as full-on fighters, but they're no slouches, they're not total nebbishes, they're alpha chaps who just happen to wear glasses. :) )

Re. the other point - wasn't that what the system was supposed to be doing, having everything viable? So (if yuou're finding some things that work and some that don't) the developers just failed in their intention; but if you're not and if one is hunting for works/doesn't work, maybe one is fretting too much over small differences that don't really make that much difference at the end of the day. But yeah, I know that the smoothing out of lumpy OP bits and odd discovered synergies is totally the opposite of what many people want from their RPG.
 

purupuru

Learned
Joined
Nov 2, 2019
Messages
414
I have grown to like Int barbarians. It's actually one of the more unique things that POE system offers. The idea of AOE range scaling with stats should be used a lot more.
 

Poseidon00

Arcane
Joined
Dec 11, 2018
Messages
2,039
I have grown to like Int barbarians. It's actually one of the more unique things that POE system offers. The idea of AOE range scaling with stats should be used a lot more.

You mean shamans? Or "im going to headbutt you with my big brain" type barbarians? I find it hard to imagine the concept
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom