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

[fantadomat]

Thanks to the very generous Sizzle, I have access to the beta. Playing on Hard mode, I made a Druid/Rogue focused on dealing damage while shifted, will talk more about that when I actually get into combat. I talked to 2 people and I'm already annoyed with the highlighted words. I got annoyed at the first person because he kept using those made up words they like so much, he uses them constantly and it breaks the flow of reading because I have to mouse-over the new words every sentence. I got annoyed at the second one because they highlighted FOOD of all things. When you mouse over it it starts explaining the mechanical aspects of food instead of lore, so it's really bizarre.

Sooo it is like in Tranny? Here we are supposed to know most of the worlds lore,it is strange to have the world shit. Can't you disable it? Also is it all kangz?

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

In Tranny it was awkward as fuck, my brain couldn't process how do these people have wikipedia in what seems like Ancient Greece but with magic. The blurbs just didn't seem like part of the game world. I think that's just a force of habit though and eventually we'll get used to it.

 

[fantadomat]

In Tranny it was awkward as fuck, my brain couldn't process how do these people have wikipedia in what seems like Ancient Greece but with magic. The blurbs just didn't seem like part of the game world. I think that's just a force of habit though and eventually we'll get used to it.

It didn't bother me much,but i do get it why people think it is shit.

 

[Sentinel]

The whole hyperlinks idea is just the latest consequence of the degradation in quality of writers in videogames & of people who actually care for the game. Sawyer is so intent on developing a new world, but apparently he can't even be bothered to force the writers to introduce the player to it in a natural way (through fucking quests, characters & environment), instead of literal fucking wikipedia articles that constantly interrupt conversations. Who was the fucking idiot that had the brilliant hyperlink idea?

I'm ok with hyperlinks giving me reactivity info (ie why a character is acting a certain way), but don't expect me to read wikipedia articles halfway into a sentence to understand what the sentence means. Fuck off nigga, do your job.

 

[KevinV12000]

Is anyone really happy about the PIRATES! theme?

Did anyone want this?

Is there a huge OMGILOVEPIRATESINMYRPGGAMES crowd out there somewhere I've just missed to date?

 

[santino27]

In Tranny it was awkward as fuck, my brain couldn't process how do these people have wikipedia in what seems like Ancient Greece but with magic. The blurbs just didn't seem like part of the game world. I think that's just a force of habit though and eventually we'll get used to it.

To be fair, I did like the way they used the hyperlinks when talking to Voices of Nerat. I thought that was reasonably clever.

(I don't mind hyperlinks in general, but only because they are a lesser evil than having dialogue that involves massive lore dumps instead of actual conversation, which seems the best they can do otherwise. Regardless, the beta definitely has way, way too many of them.)

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

In Tranny it was awkward as fuck, my brain couldn't process how do these people have wikipedia in what seems like Ancient Greece but with magic. The blurbs just didn't seem like part of the game world. I think that's just a force of habit though and eventually we'll get used to it.

It didn't bother me much,but i do get it why people think it is shit.

I don't think its shit, I just think its new and hence feels awkward. In principle its a good idea to have lore dumps removed from the dialogue.

 

[Spectacle]

1q

 

[Kem0sabe]

I liked the idea of hyperlinks when they were first introduced in tyranny, but the execution left me really reticent to see them in any other obsidian game, they just lead the writers to become lazy.

 

[Jarpie]

So it is pretty much in the same state as was PoE 1 couple months before the release, and it will take 1,5 years of patching till the mechanics are ironed out?

I cant understand why Sawyer decided to retool the ruleset so much. Grimoire-stuff with switchable grimoires didnt really work in practice, but I don't think they would've needed to do that big overhaul. I bet they don't even touch on the biggest flaws like the crap buff/debuff/dispel/protection spells.

 

[Cross]

So it is pretty much in the same state as was PoE 1 couple months before the release, and it will take 1,5 years of patching till the mechanics are ironed out?

What do you mean, 1.5 years of patching? PoE came out in march 2015. It's been almost 3 years since PoE's release and the game is still being patched.

 

[Sizzle]

I liked the idea of hyperlinks when they were first introduced in tyranny, but the execution left me really reticent to see them in any other obsidian game, they just lead the writers to become lazy.

Exactly. They are alright in theory, but in practice just come off as an excuse to jam those newly-developed languages and phrases into every conversation, regardless whether or not they fit, making them seem awkward.

 

[Jarpie]

So it is pretty much in the same state as was PoE 1 couple months before the release, and it will take 1,5 years of patching till the mechanics are ironed out?

What do you mean, 1.5 years of patching? PoE came out in march 2015. It's been almost 3 years since PoE's release and the game is still being patched.

Correct if I'm wrong but didn't they fix (some of) the encounters for 3.something, along with working out at least some of the kinks in the ruleset/mechanics?

They were released in 2016 according to wikia.

 

[Lacrymas]

Enemies are way better placed in the beta than the majority of PoE1. There are hardly any trash mobs, maybe the only combat-heavy area is a waterfall zone with a bunch of lagufaeth there, but you aren't required to fight them to complete a quest.

 

[Infinitron]

Major patching for PoE concluded a long time ago. Cross is just being edgy because they've continued releasing minor updates once in a blue moon since then

I liked the idea of hyperlinks when they were first introduced in tyranny, but the execution left me really reticent to see them in any other obsidian game, they just lead the writers to become lazy.

Exactly. They are alright in theory, but in practice just come off as an excuse to jam those newly-developed languages and phrases into every conversation, regardless whether or not they fit, making them seem awkward.

The thing about the lore hyperlinks is that if you've read them once you don't have to read them again. It's like how when you go through the early stages of an RPG, you might read all the item descriptions for the basic weapons and armor, but eventually you exhaust the supply of those descriptions and there's nothing more left to read.

 

[Sizzle]

I understand their purpose, I even think they could be a nice addition to the genre if pulled off in a good way.

My problem comes with the style of writing that organically emerges when you are not compelled to explain what any of your made up words mean, but can freely sprinkle them into every other sentence.

Now, I don't think that PoE1's lore-overload was the way to go either, just that there has to be a nice middle-ground between "explain everything in excruciating minute detail in the conversation, or 'Huana adra delemrgan, aci?' hyper hyperlinking".

 

[Infinitron]

I understand their purpose, I even think they could be a nice addition to the genre if pulled off in a good way.

My problem comes with the style of writing that organically emerges when you are not compelled to explain what any of your made up words mean, but can freely sprinkle them into every other sentence.

Now, I don't think that PoE1's lore-overload was the way to go either, just that there has to be a nice middle-ground between "explain everything in excruciating minute detail in the conversation, or 'Huana adra delemrgan, aci?' hyper hyperlinking".

I get that, but I do wonder if at some point (after you've read all the lore hyperlinks for the common terms that are frequently repeated throughout the game) you don't just absorb all the new terminology, after which it becomes second nature.

 

[Sizzle]

Of course you do, I'm not arguing about that, only on how it will affect the writing.

Looking over the beta, it appears to be both a good and bad thing. Good because they can cut down on the superfluous exposition, bad because now they are almost compelled to shoehorn them in at every opportunity in order to make the player who maybe missed them - hover over the hyperlink again.

 

[Sannom]

Hey mods, admins and assorted programmers, the quote feature still works like shit. FIX IT!

Who was the fucking idiot that had the brilliant hyperlink idea?

Probably someone who remembered that most lore dumps were done in the manual back in the day and thought up a way to do it in the game itself.

 

[Elex]

Must be true! :D

...for what it is

and mod will fix it.

 

[Elex]

Is anyone really happy about the PIRATES! theme?

Did anyone want this?

Is there a huge OMGILOVEPIRATESINMYRPGGAMES crowd out there somewhere I've just missed to date?

no, it remind me stuff like risen 2, and Raven's cry

 

[FreeKaner]

Enemies are way better placed in the beta than the majority of PoE1. There are hardly any trash mobs, maybe the only combat-heavy area is a waterfall zone with a bunch of lagufaeth there, but you aren't required to fight them to complete a quest.

So they fixed issues with pacing and trash mobs but instead just broke down entire system of combat instead?

Just, why? like, why?

 

[Lacrymas]

Weeeellll, I wouldn't say they "broke down the entire system" per se. It's still the same one, just with more bullshit and less sense. Up to the point I am now, I think you can get through the entire beta without resting once. There is just no need. The Empower mechanic is a button you use when you've totally screwed up the fight and you need a reset, it isn't something you'd routinely use if you are playing well. At least on Hard mode. Phantom Foes or Chill Fog is enough for my Druid to totally savage the mobs. Wizards don't feel gimped at all btw, you can change grimoires on the fly and have access to pretty much all spells either way. The Priest feels limited, though. I'm not entirely sure where they are going with this, but if this is an attempt to nerf Priests by not giving them access to all their OP spells, then maybe it's working, but it still incentivizes a routine every combat.

Speaking of spells, there's this very weird thing about the leveling up. Not sure if it's a bug or what, but you can distribute the ability points when you level up in whichever class you want and you get extra points every few levels if you are multiclassed. Soooo, it turns out you get more abilities as a multiclass in a single class tree than a single-classed character if you want to. At least I think so, I'm not 100% sure.

 

[FreeKaner]

Have you received a beta key or was this experience acquired in less orderly manner? Either case your feedback is good and I trust it.

 

[Lacrymas]

I have a beta key, Sizzle gifted me one.