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

[Grunker]

I might be (I'm at work so I can't check), I just seem to recall something about scaling only being activatable on a new game.

Pretty sure you can activate and deactivate it at any point, scaling (afaik) works when the area is loaded for the first time, so only the areas you've visited won't be scaled after activating the option in the middle of a game.

Brilliant, crossing my fingers for that. Will return when I'm home.

 

[AwesomeButton]

I might be (I'm at work so I can't check), I just seem to recall something about scaling only being activatable on a new game.

Pretty sure you can activate and deactivate it at any point, scaling (afaik) works when the area is loaded for the first time, so only the areas you've visited won't be scaled after activating the option in the middle of a game.

Ah, that's great. I wasn't sure whether it wasn't so.

 

[Grunker]

Level-scaling is possible from within the game

 

[Grunker]

Also: can anyone tell me whether multiple unique enchant paths are mutually exclusive? For instance, Saint’s War Armor has two unique upgrade paths - can I upgrade both?

Generally, if you see two options split off form one they're mutually exclusive. I don't know if that's true in every case (I seem to have the first two enchantments available after Second Chance on the Saints War Armour) but it's best to assume it is and pick the enchantment you want the most firstt

I just tested this with Saint's War Armor and Rock Solid is unavailable after I enchanted the armor with Veteran's Scars even though I have the required ingredients and funds - however, it might be it's just closed off until I make the armor expectional or similar?

Screenshot:

Spoiler

 

[Haplo]

Like I wrote, generally the enchantment paths are exclusive.

 

[Lacrymas]

Pretty sure they are exclusive, yeah. Sometimes the different options open up even more options, but they are also exclusive if you have 2 or more choices.

 

[AwesomeButton]

I just tested this with Saint's War Armor and Rock Solid is unavailable after I enchanted the armor with Veteran's Scars even though I have the required ingredients and funds - however, it might be it's just closed off until I make the armor expectional or similar?

They are exclusive but the message is misleading. Obsidian's UI design is an afterthought, "we'll do it if we have time".

 

[Lacrymas]

Obsidian's UIs trigger me.

 

[aweigh]

All the more so when Pathfinder just proved that making a decent UI for a more ability-driven RTwP game is not only doable but kind of fucking easy. Pathfinder has lots of things over PoE but I'd say that its biggest achievement was managing to avoid cluttering up the screen with shit.

 

[Grunker]

Good to know.

 

[Grunker]

All the more so when Pathfinder just proved that making a decent UI for a more ability-driven RTwP game is not only doable but kind of fucking easy. Pathfinder has lots of things over PoE but I'd say that its biggest achievement was managing to avoid cluttering up the screen with shit.

Really? Jaedar is complaining about the UI constantly on Steam lol

 

[AwesomeButton]

Obsidian's UIs trigger me.

Have you noticed how the patched UI added a completely useless list of all enchantable items where the list of enchantments for the current item used to be?

 

[Jaedar]

All the more so when Pathfinder just proved that making a decent UI for a more ability-driven RTwP game is not only doable but kind of fucking easy. Pathfinder has lots of things over PoE but I'd say that its biggest achievement was managing to avoid cluttering up the screen with shit.

Really? Jaedar is complaining about the UI constantly on Steam lol

Eh, it's not that terrible, but calling it good seems like a mistake.

 

[2house2fly]

I just tested this with Saint's War Armor and Rock Solid is unavailable after I enchanted the armor with Veteran's Scars even though I have the required ingredients and funds - however, it might be it's just closed off until I make the armor expectional or similar?

They are exclusive but the message is misleading. Obsidian's UI design is an afterthought, "we'll do it if we have time".

Still, the enchantment UI now is leagues ahead of what the game launched with


E: apart from this of course:

Have you noticed how the patched UI added a completely useless list of all enchantable items where the list of enchantments for the current item used to be?

 

[AwesomeButton]

"Leagues", no. I could design a better UI in an hour with Photoshop. The implementation and testing however may take days.

 

[Grunker]

Update: generally yes, but not always. Xoti's lantern can have both paths upgraded

Like I wrote, generally the enchantment paths are exclusive.

 

[Haplo]

Update: generally yes, but not always. Xoti's lantern can have both paths upgraded

Can it? I didn't think so. That's one case where the upgrade option is actually gated behind a story choice.

 

[AwesomeButton]

FFS, I'm level 9 in Neketaka, on the first quest for the queen, in the basement of the watershapers guild, and I am getting my ass handed to me. PotD + scale only upwards. I feel like a wimp the whole game, and that's already 23 hours in.

 

[Grunker]

Update: generally yes, but not always. Xoti's lantern can have both paths upgraded

Can it? I didn't think so. That's one case where the upgrade option is actually gated behind a story choice.

It might be because one upgrade only does something for priest and one only for monk, and the second upgrade on both paths require a unique ingredient, so you're probably gonna have to choose even if you can technically upgrade both?

 

[Grunker]

Also did I just find Maia Rua's endgame weapon by random chance?

Spoiler

The Red Hand?

 

[Tigranes]

Grunker I highly recommend level scaling, because difficulty does take a big decline after level ~11-12. I mean, this is an issue endemic to the genre - once you play enough to learn the systems, and fit out the gear and abilities you want, then you've optimised the party to the point that enemies can't pose a challenge. I think DLCs etc have addressed this a bit. I think people willing to discover their own party combinations intead of reading up on 'optimal builds' or cheesing everything to high heaven will find it OK.

Another factor is that as the game goes on, you're more likely to stumble across areas that are now underleveled for you that you didn't tackle earlier.

The God talks were pretty cool the first time, but by the end you'll grow to hate them. Eothas is the only one who is more than a cardboard cutout personality.

 

[Haplo]

Also did I just find Maia Rua's endgame weapon by random chance?

Spoiler

The Red Hand?

There are competetive ranged weapons. There are dual aoe ranged weapons that target Reflex (awesome!). But yep, that one is clearly among the best. And requires practically no investment in class/ability to shine.

 

[Haplo]

Update: generally yes, but not always. Xoti's lantern can have both paths upgraded

Can it? I didn't think so. That's one case where the upgrade option is actually gated behind a story choice.

It might be because one upgrade only does something for priest and one only for monk, and the second upgrade on both paths require a unique ingredient, so you're probably gonna have to choose even if you can technically upgrade both?

Actually, depending on what you tell her before, I think only 1 of the options will be available, despite both needing the same item.

 

[Grunker]

Grunker I highly recommend level scaling, because difficulty does take a big decline after level ~11-12. I mean, this is an issue endemic to the genre - once you play enough to learn the systems, and fit out the gear and abilities you want, then you've optimised the party to the point that enemies can't pose a challenge. I think DLCs etc have addressed this a bit. I think people willing to discover their own party combinations intead of reading up on 'optimal builds' or cheesing everything to high heaven will find it OK.

Yeah I'm using the scaling now. Also high level difficulty balance was a lesson they learned and learned well with White March, so there's no excuse for it not to be great here as well.

Difficulty is alright for now, though it seems resting is basically IE-games free currently.

Also did I just find Maia Rua's endgame weapon by random chance?

Spoiler

The Red Hand?

There are competetive ranged weapons. There are dual aoe ranged weapons that target Reflex (awesome!). But yep, that one is clearly among the best. And requires practically no investment in class/ability to shine.

This weapon is nutso. Maia Rua easily deals as much single target damage as the rest of the party put together. My weakest companion currently is Xoti, not amazed by the monk so far, though it could be that she's pretty suboptimal for it, using a shield and all.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Yeah, the fun thing about this game is incredible amount of viable builds. Every wannabe pro-gamer can come up with an idea to max Might, Perception, Dex, dump everything else and fire Empowered alpha strike that cleans up half the map. It's not exactly something that requires a lot of thought and it certainly works, but you're losing what is basically the best thing about the combat system.

Like, my favorite character so far was Chanter/Barbarian with Might dumped to 3. How does it work? Well let's see, by dumping Might I can afford good defenses while also having high Per and Int. With he can cast and land Barb's Shaken in huge huge AOE, and then follow it up with Chanter's offensive paralyze invocation that now has ridiculous duration, because of high Int and because I just debuffed Resolve with Shaken.

I literally only took these two active skills on the guy and the rest was passive defenses and it was hilarious. Dude would never die I just set the script to spam these two skills and he doubled as full tank and insane CC bot while running basically on auto.