Eternity Pillars of Eternity II Beta Thread [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Lacrymas]

Basically they shoved everything that affects a character next to his portrait, represented by a tiny icon.

Exactly like it was in 1, then. I had to constantly hover over the portraits to see what kind of debuffs and buffs they have on, it was awful.

 

[Abu Antar]

Now that Sensuki mentioned the UI - is the UI more clear in the beta? Do buffs and debuffs show up in a way that can easily be seen?

I hate the combat UI. What could be useful is that the game shows the probability of you hitting your target. If I see that I am unlikely to hit an enemy with something, I can decide to do something else.

 

[jaydee2k]

How's performance in the beta? POE 1 was a CPU murderer thanks to shitty Unity 4...

 

[Abu Antar]

How's performance in the beta? POE 1 was a CPU murderer thanks to shitty Unity 4...

I feel like it's more stable and doesn't want to murder your computer.

 

[Infinitron]

BTW, I was messaged by Crooked Bee, gave her my Obsidian forums account name, but I'm still not marked as a backer of Deadfire. Maybe the delay is on Obsidian's part?

Katrina tells me they're working on it.

They have your username, in the meantime I'm trying to get the ones that are still missing.

OK, I'm told backer portal accounts for Codex donors will be ready on Monday.

 

[Iskramor]

Well, they're essentially upset that the character building mechanics are more like the original AD&D Infinity Engine games.

Damn straight. Character building in P1 was a huuuuge improvement over any version of D&D, this is several steps back.

The biggest improvement, among others of course, is the reorganization of base stats and the "no dump stats" rule.

My opinion is that most of the common talents from PoE were pretty forgettable (specialization bonuses to Acc, defenses bonuses, unlock a quick slot (of all things)). If whatever from that list fits some character class, then let it be exclusive to that class.

This actually adds to class diversity, not take away from it. It's hilarious that people would be complaining about character classes feeling less unique after the removal of talents, in a game that gives them 55 combinations for multiclassing. Such is the quality of feedback you can expect to get from a den of fanboys I suppose. I mean the Obsidian forum.

The complaint on forum was talking about single class only

 

[Iskramor]

Noobs are already upset at the injury system, don't let them win: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/94422-injury-system-is-way-too-brutal/

Every time I go on Obsidian forums and I see posts from Gromnir and I feel like sticking a hot pineapple in his ass.

It will be difficult to play the beta backer and give feedback, seeing posts from this guy.

Gromnir is a degenerate who will probably support obs even if deadfire would be turned to diablo clone...

 

[santino27]

Still only have a few hours in, but in addition to the very narrow spell selection (which they say they are working on) for pure casters, the cast times seem seriously off right now. Facing the lagufaeth (many of whom have ranged abilities unlike the very easy titan), I can start casting slow at the very beginning of combat while all of my other party members rush in to engage, and by the time I get anywhere close to finishing that cast, the lizards have apparently had like 5+ attacks, my wizard has been hit by a paralyzing dart, and I lose the spell. Starting to think the area they chose for the beta was a poor one as the lagufaeth seem perma-hasted and that just exacerbates some of the oddities with combat.

With regards to performance, I feel like it's better than POE1 so far. I have about a 40% chance of crashing when I try to exit the game though; inevitably have to open the task manager and close it manually when that happens.

 

[Mazisky]

How's performance in the beta? POE 1 was a CPU murderer thanks to shitty Unity 4...

Not good. Main areas are choppy like white march in poe1 but they said they are optimizing

 

[Jezal_k23]

How does the fast loading work? Does it preload all possible maps you can get to from the map you're in? So if you're in the first level of a dungeon, the surface map and level 2 will have been preloaded. Once you go down to level 2, will levels 1 and 3 be preloaded, and so on? As in, can you possibly go through a whole dungeon without seeing a significant loading screen?

 

[Major_Blackhart]

So I didn't read alot but could someone let me know how the multiclassing works out in this?
Are single classes the way to go still or is multi better, allowing for versatility, etc? How does it all work out.

 

[Starwars]

How does the fast loading work? Does it preload all possible maps you can get to from the map you're in? So if you're in the first level of a dungeon, the surface map and level 2 will have been preloaded. Once you go down to level 2, will levels 1 and 3 be preloaded, and so on?

I think it's something like that. Going into the dungeon, there are three levels as well as a fourth "separate" area that is still connected to it. All those areas load almost instantly when you're going around inside the dungeon as far as I can remember now. The "initial" load for an area seems to be quicker as well.

Performance-wise, the beta feels a bit lower FPS-wise for me in the larger areas than PoE did. But it's pretty good considering it's a beta and how much more is going on in the areas. With more optimization to be done, I'm pretty optimistic that it will run really well and feel like a smooth experience overall.

All my gripes about the combat mechanics set aside, the dungeon area was really nice I thought. A good size for a side-area to be sure, and pretty varied in terms of the encounters inside. However, I think they could've cut out one or two of the Engwithan Saints. It's a cool enemy that makes you play a bit differently but I think they could've been slightly rarer there. That's nitpicking though.
The final area (which looks awesome) fight was easier than I thought it would be.

I like the feel of the world-map but I really hope it will feel more fleshed out in the full game. Guessing it will since you have the crew shit and all that going on but it's pretty barebones in the beta, just running around and sucking up loot.

 

[Lacrymas]

Is the beta all in the one place they've shown in all the videos until now? Complete with teleporting to the other dimension?

 

[Starwars]

Is the beta all in the one place they've shown in all the videos until now? Complete with teleporting to the other dimension?

Yep, looks like they made a decision pretty early on that this was to be the beta areas. I guess that's good to avoid the spoilers.

 

[Lacrymas]

Does the other dimension ...make sense in the context of the setting? I have a feeling the second game is too early to introduce dimension hopping, which is usually saved for when you are totally out of ideas.

 

[Ulfhednar]

So I didn't read alot but could someone let me know how the multiclassing works out in this?
Are single classes the way to go still or is multi better, allowing for versatility, etc? How does it all work out.

Multi-classing is the way to go, since they scrapped the general talent system. You will get many more talent/ability options at level up for multi's than for single class. Seems like they are listening to criticism on this, so I am hoping they will expand talent selection for single class characters early on in the beta phase...

 

[Ulfhednar]

Does the other dimension ...make sense in the context of the setting? I have a feeling the second game is too early to introduce dimension hopping, which is usually saved for when you are totally out of ideas.

Spoiler

Sort of - It's souls trapped in an Adra Pillar. It felt somewhat out of character from the first game.

 

[Tartantyco]

How's performance in the beta? POE 1 was a CPU murderer thanks to shitty Unity 4...

Not good. Main areas are choppy like white march in poe1 but they said they are optimizing

Try playing it on a computer that from after 2005. There's no performance issues in the beta as long as you have a modern computer.

Edit: Also, with an SSD the load times are barely a second or two.

 

[Lacrymas]

Spoiler

Sort of - It's souls trapped in an Adra Pillar.

Spoiler

Of course it is..........

 

[Starwars]

Does the other dimension ...make sense in the context of the setting? I have a feeling the second game is too early to introduce dimension hopping, which is usually saved for when you are totally out of ideas.

I guess it's a bit of a contrast to what we've seen in PoE1 so far, will have to see how it fits in within the context of Deadfire itself. Keeping in mind the lore of PoE (with the Beyond and the way souls work and all that jazz) I don't think it feels all that "out there" so to speak.

 

[Cross]

Does the other dimension ...make sense in the context of the setting? I have a feeling the second game is too early to introduce dimension hopping, which is usually saved for when you are totally out of ideas.

More like they're copying someone else's ideas. PoE 2 has dimension hopping because BG2 had it, just like how PoE 1 and the first BG shared certain narrative devices.

 

[Lacrymas]

I guess it's a bit of a contrast to what we've seen in PoE1 so far, will have to see how it fits in within the context of Deadfire itself. Keeping in mind the lore of PoE (with the Beyond and the way souls work and all that jazz) I don't think it feels all that "out there" so to speak.

I've always pictured the Beyond and the Wheel as abstract concepts, not things that physically exist. Elemental planes and divine domains when?

 

[Infinitron]

We already saw an alternate dimension in PoE1 - the portal to Rymrgand's domain.

 

[Lacrymas]

Wasn't that a portal to complete obliteration of the soul?

 

[AwesomeButton]

"You subdue the furious souls, ripping them into motes of their constituent essence" God! These fucking sentences!

The streamer who recorded the first beta stream.