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Eternity Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pre-DLC Thread [GO TO NEW THREAD]

Glaucon

Prophet
Joined
Sep 11, 2016
Messages
1,000
It doesn't compare well to an MMO. Just because vancian casting has been replaced with per-encounter and some name overlapping occurs does not validate that comparison.
That whole post just screams typical steam user looking to throw around some salt.
That's a bit of a loaded statement. WoW certainly didn't invent generic spells like Lightning Bolts, Fireballs and Frost Bolts, which it has plenty. Neither did it steal D&D's thunder much by giving Paladins an ability named Lay on Hands. Unless one of the spells is named Sylvanas' Anal Beads, I'd see this as a coincidence. Like, giving Mages an ability called Fireball simply doesn't mean "A-ha! WoW was inspired by D&D and therefore was intended from the start to be a turn-based game!" I'm not really sure why the opposite would be the case, either.

I'm not talking about generic RPG abilities, but about the naming and functionality taken straight out of world of warcraft. Sure, the concept of rogues having cc is pretty common. But one named "Sap"? There's "Whispers of the Wind" a monk ability that functions and is described exactly like "Killing Spree" another wow rogue ability. I'm sure there are more, but that's what my cursory glance over two classes brought to mind.

Anyways I don't mean to say Pillars 2 is a single-player mmo just based on ability design choices. There are other arguments one could make that would be more convincing, and that others have made. I just wanted to point out it's pretty obvious the designers play mmos (not a bad thing, btw).
 
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Ezeekiel

Liturgist
Joined
Dec 19, 2016
Messages
1,783
I can state one thing already this early. The opening is weak. They should have gone with a new main character and just allow import of the world state, with plot continuity through a returning companion or two.

As it is, it’s just ponderous exposition and a really contrived hook to get you to the setting, followed by fucking brutal railroading. DM glue at its finest.

On the upside I’m not hating the changes to the mechanics as much as I thought I would be. And it’s very pretty indeed.

Mind telling us a bit about the mechanics? I'm afraid the gaming press unsurprisingly dropped the ball there, so it's up to you now, hero of the soviet union -san!
 

Prime Junta

Guest
Mind telling us a bit about the mechanics? I'm afraid the gaming press unsurprisingly dropped the ball there, so it's up to you now, hero of the soviet union -san!

Everything per-encounter, spells as abilities rather than a separate system, single fully regenerating health bar with knockout wounds rather than health + endurance.
 

Ezeekiel

Liturgist
Joined
Dec 19, 2016
Messages
1,783
Mind telling us a bit about the mechanics? I'm afraid the gaming press unsurprisingly dropped the ball there, so it's up to you now, hero of the soviet union -san!

Everything per-encounter, spells as abilities rather than a separate system, single fully regenerating health bar with knockout wounds rather than health + endurance.
Any changes to the melee combat/weapon mechanics?
 

Lyre Mors

Arcane
Joined
Nov 8, 2007
Messages
5,438
I can state one thing already this early. The opening is weak. They should have gone with a new main character and just allow import of the world state, with plot continuity through a returning companion or two.

While I agree a fresh protagonist would have probably been a better choice, I don't dislike the opening as much as everyone else seems to. I actually found the

process of reincarnation, the meeting with Berath, becoming the herald of the god, and essentially becoming Death's bounty hunter of Eothas
to be a great exchange, and a decent way to introduce a new player to the setting/story up until this point.

Anyways I don't mean to say Pillars 2 is a single-player mmo just based on ability design choices. There are other arguments one could make that would be more convincing, and that others have made. I just mean to point out it's pretty obvious the designers play mmos (not a bad thing, btw).

Thanks for the clarification. I understand what you were getting at better now.
 
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Prime Junta

Guest
Any changes to the melee combat/weapon mechanics?

Yeah but no opinion on that yet. You still hit things until they die.

BTW don’t expect in-depth commentary from me, I have limited time/opportunity to play this until mid-July or so.
 

Sentinel

Arcane
Joined
Nov 18, 2015
Messages
6,823
Location
Ommadawn
So I've been playing for like 5 hours straight, and I'm just baffled at how much of a shitshow the combat still is. I have complained about the terrible HUD before, but I hadn't realized until today, when I made the spell VFX completely transparent, just how fucking shit it truly is and how much it contributes to the problem.

Jesus Christ.

Also, what the fuck is the point of penetration? Why would they introduce this? And could they have made the Gods look any more dull? I mean after Abydon in White March I was expecting something more.
 
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Generic-Giant-Spider

Guest
I'm not talking about generic RPG abilities, but about the naming and functionality taken straight out of world of warcraft. Sure, the concept of rogues having cc is pretty common. But one named "Sap"? There's "Whispers of the Wind" a monk ability that functions and is described exactly like "Killing Spree" another wow rogue ability. I'm sure there are more, but that's what my cursory glance over two classes brought to mind.

On the brightside, at least it's not using that ultra shit combo point/finisher system.
 

Tigranes

Arcane
Joined
Jan 8, 2009
Messages
10,350
I'm fiddling around with a Monk/Barbarian.

I already miss Health/Endurance.
 
Joined
Jul 8, 2006
Messages
3,027
Launch trailer:


Meh, could have been better.


the running animations in this engine (and more generally the characters posture and how they look when they are just standing) look awkward to me. It always looks like they are struggling to run against a 100 MPH wind or something.

also LOL at the fire giants (or whatever they are ) doing the moon walk across the deck from about 55-57 seconds,,,but actually the game has very nice art direction and looks good.

The giant God dude at the end........is not cis-gendered it appears? He is transitioning? Maybe that's what the game is about...one can only hope.
 
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Prime Junta

Guest
What're you guyses MC builds?

wizzard

Your basic glass cannon. I don’t want to go with anything fancy at this point. Also I like how grimoires work in this one and don’t want to lock myself out of spells, so no subclass.
 

Sentinel

Arcane
Joined
Nov 18, 2015
Messages
6,823
Location
Ommadawn
I'd recommend you lads to lock framerate with external software because I'm seeing very sudden fluctuations to 500+ FPS in between the end of a loading screen and the return to the game on area transitions, regardless of vsync setting.
 

Seethe

Cipher
Joined
Nov 22, 2015
Messages
994
Launch trailer:


Meh, could have been better.


the running animations in this engine (and more generally the characters posture and how they look when they are just standing) look awkward to me. It always looks like they are struggling to run against a 100 MPH wind or something.

also LOL at the fire giants (or whatever they are ) doing the moon walk across the deck from about 55-57 seconds,,,but actually the game has very nice art direction and looks good.

The giant God dude at the end........is not cis-gendered it appears? He is transitioning? Maybe that's what the game is about...one can only hope.


89fff313.gif
 

Jezal_k23

Guest
RPS reviewer got overwhelmed with the journal and too many quests being open at once, apparently. And he was unable to figure out where to go for several quests.

And wow is the storytelling muddled. The game has so, so many quests open at once, and makes so little effort to make clear what’s happening where and why, that I more often accidentally completed them than deliberately. You can sort quests by the order you received them, or by location, but neither is helpful. The latter especially because sometimes it sorts them by the location where you received them, not where they actually take place, other times only one of multiple locations, and often fails to include key information about where to report them back when completed. With nineteen or twenty open quests at any time, this is dreadful. And even more so when there’s no way to track missions on the map, nor even assign one as your primary focus.

there’s no way to track missions on the map, nor even assign one as your primary focus

no way to track missions on the map

track missions
 

Monkeyfinger

Cipher
Joined
Aug 5, 2004
Messages
779
Is there a way to skip the "slowly walk a red line across the map" animation when moving between zones in a city?
 

Seethe

Cipher
Joined
Nov 22, 2015
Messages
994
Steam delivering uncomfortable truths already, or devious seditionist who knows a bit of grognard lingo? YOU decide!

Start the game, begin campaign. Completely inappropriate narrator explains to me all the worst parts of the previous game. 3 years of ruminating over all the things I didn't like about the first one flood back into me in one moment. I remember the reviews describe the things in the first game that were already bad (such as the narrative) are even worse in this game. And I know other things that were bad (like companions) will be even worse since they don't even have Avellone contributing to them anymore. [Editor's note: :lol:] I'm still listening to the narrator, wondering why it bothers me so much.

Then it hits me.

This game is trying to be SERIOUS. It's a fantasy game about dragons and wizards and litearlly a giant ♥♥♥♥ing god stomping around crushing people with his massive statue feet and it's trying to be solemn and serious and realistic. Images of playing the game flash before my mind. More obnoxious worldbuilding, with sentences filled with irrelevant proper nouns for people and places I don't give a ♥♥♥♥ about and that have nothing to do with the story. More idiotic preschool-level philosophy for morons about the nature of the gods (another area, incidentally, where Avellone's input is sorely missed: Guy isn't the next Hume or Kierkegaard or whoever but he knows how to tell these simple pop-philosophy stories well, unlike the current rabble of idiots writing for Obsidian, who apparently don't even realize that you can't prove a negative, e.g. that there are no gods). More terrible, badly-overwritten "quirky" companions so obviously insane that you wouldn't willingly get within 30 feet of one without your weapon drawn never mind keep them around in your party (or so uninteeresting and forgettable you'd rather recruit a merc so you can at least decide their stats), the only saving grace of which is the double-edged sword that there are hardly any of them to begin with; a double-edged sword in that if there were 20+ of them then most of them being ♥♥♥♥ wouldn't be the problem it becomes when you don't even have half of that.

But I was like, ah whatever. I can still just play through the game as a paladin, recruiting only mercenaries, and - and then it hit me, again. The game doesn't even have paladins. It doesn't even have ♥♥♥♥ing gods, we learn at the end of the first one. It just has ♥♥♥♥♥♥, dispassionate warrior-philosophers (*named* paladins so they can say they have them even though any moron recognizes that these aren't paladins at all) who feel so shoehorned in I'm confident saying that they are only there in order to tick the box of "classes nerds expect to be able to play as because they're in every other game".

Then I remembered no vancian casting and other stupid decisions they've proudly made in order to turn the game more into an MMO (why?) and make all the magic (the part that should feel most exciting and powerful) feel like boring, underpowered crap.

"Why am I playing this game", I asked myself, when 15 minutes in I was already sick of it?

And I realized I already didn't want to anymore.

Implying that vancian casting is not a garbage concept, and a forcefully shoehorned "le balance" mechanic.
 

HoboForEternity

LIBERAL PROPAGANDIST
Patron
Joined
Mar 27, 2016
Messages
9,426
Location
liberal utopia in progress
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
RPS reviewer got overwhelmed with the journal and too many quests being open at once, apparently. And he was unable to figure out where to go for several quests.

And wow is the storytelling muddled. The game has so, so many quests open at once, and makes so little effort to make clear what’s happening where and why, that I more often accidentally completed them than deliberately. You can sort quests by the order you received them, or by location, but neither is helpful. The latter especially because sometimes it sorts them by the location where you received them, not where they actually take place, other times only one of multiple locations, and often fails to include key information about where to report them back when completed. With nineteen or twenty open quests at any time, this is dreadful. And even more so when there’s no way to track missions on the map, nor even assign one as your primary focus.

there’s no way to track missions on the map, nor even assign one as your primary focus

no way to track missions on the map

track missions
john walker.
 

Tigranes

Arcane
Joined
Jan 8, 2009
Messages
10,350
Played half an hour. It really does have a sozzy feel, which I think is a positive - have more gameplay wheels turning and less emphasis on Story Combat Story Combat. I'm usually not a fan of strongholdy mechanics so I'm not sure about the ship, but I like having the world map with points of interests, and I think it works really well with the CYOA sequences.

The dialogue - eh, there's a funny moment at the beginning where you walk into a town and see an angry crowd that looks almost identical to the start of Umar Hills. And thinking back to that, the dialogue style & quantity is really pretty similar - with the addition of some narrative text (which I think is toned down from POE1, but I would still have cut 95% of them, and I tend to skip past them now), and some nice faction flavouring re. Vailia/Aumana frictions. Time will tell whether they manage to play up that stuff into interesting faction-based gameplay and have the lore actually effect the quests.

Hard to say so far about combat changes, but one thing's for sure, a lot of things have changed, from health/endurance to the new ability system to things like the big fat Eye of Sauron empower button.

It's funny how that 2-minute chargen sequence has better Numenera-ish area art than Numenera itself.
 

AN4RCHID

Arcane
Joined
Jan 24, 2013
Messages
4,861
Okay, fuck this narrator. I can't handle every bit of descriptive prose being read out to me so painfully slowly. Anyone figured out a way to disable it yet?
 

MWaser

Cipher
Joined
Nov 22, 2015
Messages
614
Location
Where you won't find me
Mind telling us a bit about the mechanics? I'm afraid the gaming press unsurprisingly dropped the ball there, so it's up to you now, hero of the soviet union -san!

Everything per-encounter, spells as abilities rather than a separate system, single fully regenerating health bar with knockout wounds rather than health + endurance.
What do you mean by saying "everything per-encounter"?
 

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