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

[FreeKaner]

Dumpsterfire is a game that feels pathetic, because at every moment it tries to accommodate the player and not offend them, trying as hard as it can to present itself and make sure that player not misses anything.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Ukaizo was relatively small because we were responding to criticism that the end game of Pillars 1 (Twin Elms + Burial Isle + Sun in Shadow) was too long.

I'm sorry, but I think that either Josh is deliberately shifting the responsibility, or being coy/hypocritical. I just don't believe he of all people would have shipped Deadfire with an ending section that he personally finds to be lacking, but did it the way he did because of "criticism". Hence the final "Now that you are asking, we may have overcompensated..." back door.

Josh taking to heart criticism of the variety "this part of your game is too drawn out" and blindly acting on it? This is the same Josh who said "players think they know what they want but they really don't"? Josh of all people knows that when the player says a section of the game was too long, he means it wasn't engaging or interesting. If your game is engaging and interesting, no one will say it was too long. The criticism, if there has been so much criticism, was about the quality, not the quantity, and Josh is not born yesterday, he must have understood that.

Funny thing, I actually remember criticism that the last act in PoE was too short and done in a rush, not too long.

I agree, that's why I said it's climactic "on paper".

That's a great way to describe it. I felt the Magran's Teeth part could have felt much more dramatic and important if in addition to the conversation there was more dungeons, riddles, enemies to get through in order to reach Eothas. Of course, some people would have called it "filler" and "trash", "drawn out" but again - this is criticism of the quality, not the quantity of the game.

Anyone remember IWD's last chapter and how many fairly varied encounters you had to get through in order to reach the final battle?

 

[FreeKaner]

I am not surprised Josh, a Nazi apologist, went for the "we were just following orders" excuse.

 

[Lacrymas]

Inb4 FreeKaner writes the gaming equivalent of Eichmann in Jerusalem.

 

[pomenitul]

So FreeKaner is in fact… a Jew?

 

[FreeKaner]

Inb4 FreeKaner writes the gaming equivalent of Eichmann in Jerusalem.

Banality of Dumpsterfire.

 

[FreeKaner]

So FreeKaner is in fact… a Jew?

I am in fact not. I get this a lot however for some reason.

 

[pomenitul]

In an ever-changing, incomprehensible CRPG world, players had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and that nothing was true. ... PR departments discovered that their audience was ready at all times to believe in promises of incline, no matter how absurd, and did not particularly object to being deceived because it held every statement to be a lie anyhow. Feargus Urquhart based his propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that, under such conditions, one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the CEOs who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along that the statement was a lie and would admire the CEOs for their superior tactical cleverness.

— Hannah Arendt

 

[2house2fly]

Josh taking to heart criticism of the variety "this part of your game is too drawn out" and blindly acting on it? This is the same Josh who said "players think they know what they want but they really don't"? Josh of all people knows that when the player says a section of the game was too long, he means it wasn't engaging or interesting. If your game is engaging and interesting, no one will say it was too long. The criticism, if there has been so much criticism, was about the quality, not the quantity, and Josh is not born yesterday, he must have understood that.

This is true, and you can see it Beast Of Winter, which is essentially one big dungeon (clifftop leads straight to cave temple which leads straight to the Beyond, no breaks in between) and while I've seen various criticisms of the puzzles being simplistic, the new companion not having a lot to say, the writing being uneven etc, I don't recall seeing anyone say the dungeon (which is easily the size of any two dungeons from the main game) goes on too long.

Funny thing, I actually remember criticism that the last act in PoE was too short and done in a rush, not too long.

The end of the second act raised the stakes and the game suddenly presented chasing Thaos as urgent... and then plopped you into a whole second city with a ton of quests. While it's quite anemic as a videogame city, there was a lot to do before you could get back to the main plot and it was an obstacle in the way of pacing. It's disingenuous of him to compare Twin Elms and Burial Isle with Ukaizo though, because Ukaizo is past the point of no return so a better comparison would be just Breith Eaman/Sun In Shadow, which frankly I think is a comfortable length for a final dungeon and if anything could stand to be longer (as Eric Fenstermaker said too)

 

[Infinitron]

Yup it's a weird statement because if you remember, when you jump into the hole that's technically Act IV. So how can Josh consider Twin Elms part of the endgame when he even placed it under a different act than the actual end of the game?

I guess the idea is that people interpreted Twin Elms as an endgame even though it wasn't. But then in PoE2 they shrunk only the actual endgame so it turned out too short?

 

[AwesomeButton]

I guess the idea is that people interpreted Twin Elms as an endgame even though it wasn't. But then in PoE2 they shrunk only the actual endgame so it turned out too short?

Spoilers below.


I just finished the game (107hrs total time) and actually, I was happy with the buildup to the final encounter. I went with VTC help, so I had a couple of more missions for them, the change of leadership, you know what I mean, which was a quest very much to my taste, and finally I had two ship encounters before reaching Ukaizo, and then the Guardian combat. With my difficulty setup it was pretty challenging. Then there was one branch of the Principi that decided to attack me on my way towards Eothas. I suppose which faction attacks you there varies. So, for me, considering everything past the end of Magran's Teeth "endgame", this was quite enough. I can't say I felt disappointed by the pacing.

As for the complaints that the final battle can't be against the god himself, the ambiguity around his intentions and the fact that the game keeps asking the player for his interpretation instead of simply painting Eothas as a villain, should have tipped the players off that the game considers the brute force of a mortal too insufficient to be measured against that of a god. There is also the famous trope of the villain who, when his motivations are revealed, turns out to be the good guy. It's true I knew in advance, but I don't think I would have felt much surprised if I had learned this in the game.

This is true, and you can see it Beast Of Winter, which is essentially one big dungeon (clifftop leads straight to cave temple which leads straight to the Beyond, no breaks in between) and while I've seen various criticisms of the puzzles being simplistic, the new companion not having a lot to say, the writing being uneven etc, I don't recall seeing anyone say the dungeon (which is easily the size of any two dungeons from the main game) goes on too long.

Yep, I wrote a thread about the expansion and how good it is on the Obsidian forums.

 

[santino27]

On to the 3.0 beta, I guess...

New Features & Updates

• New Berath's Blessings - New Berath's Blessings have been added into the game:
  • Loaded Pockets - NPC pockets are filled with more and rarer items.
  • Legendary Crew - 3 Veteran Sailors become available in the Kraken's Eye tavern, they are better than normal and cheaper than normal.
  • Discount Craftsman - Crafting and enchanting costs are reduced.
  • Mythical Discovery - Start with a Mythical Adra Stone in the prologue armoire (free upgrade from Legendary → Mythic Quality)
• New Ranger Abilities - There are now 5 new Ranger abilities added to the game:
  • Hunter's Claw - (2 Bond) Full Attack, The first target hit with this grants +1 Accuracy vs the target's Race until Rest. Subsequent hits against the same race will increase stacks (up to +20). Resting clears all stacks and allows a different race to be chosen.
  • Hunter's Fang - Same as Hunter's Claw, but also grants +1% Damage per stack.
  • Beast's Claw - Same as Hunter's Claw, but also grants +1 Defense per stack.
  • Bonded Fury - (3 Bond), Grants the Ranger's Animal Companion all 6 Tier 2 Inspirations, for 30s.
  • Heart Seeker - (4 Bond), Primary Attack (Ranged Only) Fires an unerring ranged attack that strikes all characters in a line, dealing +100% Damage with +4 Penetration and Enfeebling for 20s.
• Crystal Eater Empress Megaboss - Megabosses make their debut with the first to make their way into the game; The Crystal Eater Empress! Test your mettle against one the toughest fights within the game.

Spoiler

Located to the West of Ondra's Mortar

• Kill Camera - A new feature has been added to allow for some excitement to combat! Kill Cam will exemplify combat with key events and text! This feature will include options to customize how it works and can be found in the new Camera Tab of the Options Menu.
• Eothas and Galawain's Challenge - Two New exciting Challenges will be coming in with this patch from Eothas and Galawain:
  • Eothas- Players must complete the game within a set game time or be met with a Game Over
  • Galawain - Beasts now contain random buffs that are defined at the start of the game, for the duration of the game! Can you survive these dangerous new changes?

Spoiler

Vengeful - Gain stacking Power Level when a friendly is killed
Exalted - Gain Permanent Tier 3 Inspiration (random)
Unstoppable - Cannot be interrupted / Immune to Afflictions
Reflecting - Reflect damage back as Raw
Vampiric - Heal from damage dealt

New Community Pet - You all voted and the tallies are in! Nebula the Astral Bat is now available in game!

Spoiler

You can find the new pet in the Pet Seller in Periki's Outlook.

• Recently Used Spells - Frequently used spells are now remembered and displayed in the UI, so searching through your high list of spells should be a little easier to manage.
• Resolved Major Issues
  • Characters no longer get stuck in an endless animation loop when using certain abilities with Two-handed weapons.
  • AI Options for Ghost Animal Companions now work as expected.
  • Many older saves that were not working previously due to conversation bundles now load as expected.
  • Various frame-rate fixes for players that experience drops during extended play.
  • The Enchanting Menu does not display when the Crafting Menu is opened.

Spoiler

Tekehu no longer prevents progression in the Shadows of Nekataka quest if placed in reserves.
The Ukaizo Guardian now spawns correctly when it should.
All abilities now work as expected in the Behavior Editor.
End Game Slides now work as expected when on the Atsura slide.

Fixes

• Many typos from our typo megathread have been addressed.
• Full Attacks from fireams in offhand no longer have a 0 recovery time.
• Portraits display correct images when playing the game in Linux.
• TEMP text no longer displays for Magran's Challenge.
• Menus no longer overlap in Ship Combat.
• Adventurers in towns now show the correct data.
• Mod Manager displays correctly in the Options Menu.
• All Pets use the correct model that is expected
• Director Castol has had his conversation fixed for typos.
• The Producer's Sword shows up correctly for Mac Users.
• The default text box displays in the selected language at launch.
• Combat Log displays in the language selected when changed in game.
• Alcoholic Beverages no longer display missing strings.
• Ikiuq Crew member now displays his correct model in game.
• Loading a save after a character dies in combat no longer results in an infinite load screen for Mac users.
• Orlans ears display correctly when wearing the Acorn Helm.
• The main menu can no longer be opened during SI conversations that would break Trial of Iron saves.
• The conversation window is no longer obscured if opened with the ESC button during a dialog.
• All interface layouts now display the UI notifications correctly.
• Druid Shift forms no longer crash the game when inventory items are moved.
• Performance no longer drops when viewing Spiritshift model forms in the Inventory Screen.
• The Crookspur Vessel will no longer continuously attempt to engage retreating ships.
• Spiritual Weapon VFX now properly aligns with the model.
• Rods now deal the correct type of damage when attacking with them.
• Crew member models no longer spawn at the same point simultaneously.
• Attacking destructibles from stealth now properly removes stealth from the attacker.
• Auto-Attack As Default Action toggle has been implemented to AI Behavior.

Spoiler

Eder's reaction is no longer triggered by his own dialogue line during Burning Bridges.
All abilities will now work when using Whispers of the Endless Paths
Lover's Embrace no longer contains typos in its stat block
Ball and Chain's "Irrepressible" effect does not activate on resisted effects.
Players can no longer kill the Bardatto family and make peace afterwards
Belda now holds her pistol correctly during the Bardatto Vault quest line.
Cadhu Scath Shield now displays the right texture on the inner side.
Uto's model reflects the correct eye is missing as mentioned in his conversation.
The Armor Invoice from Rowen no longer has a will keyword incorrectly.
The Drowned Kingdom now contains the correct end state if the King refuses to leave his realm.
Combat does not immediately start in the Balefire Beacon.
Chloe pet's name matches its stat block.
Xaurip Wildgards no longer get stuck when casting Wicked Briars

 

[Yosharian]

That actually sounds... really good.

 

[Roguey]

Kill Camera

Fallout 3: Deadfire

 

[Safav Hamon]

 

[Jezal_k23]

Creepy spider. I hope it's as difficult as they say.

 

[Safav Hamon]

The main threat are the six burrows that keep infinitely respawning enemies during the fight. You also have to watch out for Belranga's paralyzation attacks.

 

[2house2fly]

I literally can't land a single attack on the boss. Everything is 0% to hit, on Hard. Also it permakills out of nowhere. This might actually be a tough one.

 

[2house2fly]

holy shit I put God Mode on to see what you get for killing the spider AND IT INSTAKILLS WITH GOD MODE ON. Luckily it wasn't immune to KillAllEnemies. You get its mandibles as an equippable trinket and an Adra Stone, which is required for the new Mythic upgrade on unique weapons. No writing at all that I could see apart from the item descriptions, but considering modern-day Obsidian I wouldn't say that's necessarily a flaw

 

[Jezal_k23]

Maybe you gotta be max lvl before you can engage this one, which would be really cool in my book as it seems like when they say mega boss they mean it.

 

[Safav Hamon]

I've been fighting the boss this whole time and just realized the track in the background was from White March

 

[2house2fly]

Some people were complaining about the game's music on the Obsidian forums and I jokingly said what they really need to do is have unique boss music, and Justin Bell replied saying "what if we used the boss music from White March" so I think that track being there might be specifically because of me.

 

[Safav Hamon]

I discovered a secret mechanic to the boss fight. Not telling though.

 

[Safav Hamon]

God fucking dammit, I give up! Over an hour long battle and I get oneshotted right before I finish her.

Maybe it's easier at a lower level without scaling, but this is by far the hardest battle in the game even after you discover her weakness.

 

[Jezal_k23]

Well, sounds like incline to me. If they are gonna call it a mega boss then it better earn that name. Which it probably has. Cool.