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

[Iskramor]

It's interesting why he'd use a Gaelic "traditional" song (I looked it up and I was right, the song was written by Sìne NicFhionnlaigh in the 18th century) for a game/setting based on Polish myths.

Because the setting at its foundation is actually based on traditional western mythos and stories, and it was only awkwardly peppered on top with Slavic references to give it that exotic vibe.

Most European myths and legends are very similar,you may recognize some them as part of your culture the same way i recognize most of them as part of my culture. It is really hard to find the actual roots of some myths and legends. There are similar legends through out the world. Vampires are met in every culture around the world. In the Europa they come from Bulgaria.

Myths are often similar, correct, but the culture is not. And it just so happens that Witcher draws heavily from tales and legends that are uniquely tied to western culture, tales that have already existed at a time when Slavs were still living on trees.

It's a credit to Sapkowski's skill as a writer that his setting still seems coherent to people, despite the fact that it's actually a poorly put together, random mix of Tolkien's fantasy and western mythos, peppered with Slavic terminology and barely holding together with bandaids and duct tape.

Witcher is just plagiarsm from elric of melnibone

 

[Maculo]

Delterius, I have experimented with Priest of Wael on PotD. Although I did not get very far, I have been enjoying myself. I made him a back-line buff/debuffer and focused on range. Statwise, I maxed perception, intellect, and dexterity, and I also dumped strength and constitution. What is nice about Priest of Wael is those early defensive spells, such as Arcane Veil and Mirror Image. Those spells do not allow you to tank, but they do allow you to get away with dumping constitution and/or wearing cloth. For example, ranged enemies would randomly focus on my backlines or a zombie would get through, and those spells gave my Priest some much needed staying power.

I did not get far enough to obtain Confusion or Petrifaction, but I could see Priest of Wael bringing a decent mix of crowd-control (Confusion, Petrification), debuffs, and survivability. Furthermore, I found scrolls incredibly useful, and I could see planning a Priest of Wael character focusing just on buffs/debuffs, with scrolls as the damage source. It is a nice way to round up the character's deficiency.

Ultimately, I think the live version will be more enjoyable, especially once you have access to crafting and more party selection on PotD. I am rather positive on the game now, even with the remaining issues (UI glitches, balancing, etc.).

 

[fantadomat]

It's interesting why he'd use a Gaelic "traditional" song (I looked it up and I was right, the song was written by Sìne NicFhionnlaigh in the 18th century) for a game/setting based on Polish myths.

Because the setting at its foundation is actually based on traditional western mythos and stories, and it was only awkwardly peppered on top with Slavic references to give it that exotic vibe.

Most European myths and legends are very similar,you may recognize some them as part of your culture the same way i recognize most of them as part of my culture. It is really hard to find the actual roots of some myths and legends. There are similar legends through out the world. Vampires are met in every culture around the world. In the Europa they come from Bulgaria.

Myths are often similar, correct, but the culture is not. And it just so happens that Witcher draws heavily from tales and legends that are uniquely tied to western culture, tales that have already existed at a time when Slavs were still living on trees.

It's a credit to Sapkowski's skill as a writer that his setting still seems coherent to people, despite the fact that it's actually a poorly put together, random mix of Tolkien's fantasy and western mythos, peppered with Slavic terminology and barely holding together with bandaids and duct tape.

Witcher is just plagiarsm from elric of melnibone

And he is a ripoff of Zal from "Book of kings".

 

[santino27]

You just have to adjust your expectations. The island hopping is mostly on the overland map, at least in the beta, but I don't think it's going to be much different in the full game. Very rarely are there maps that you transition to with your party, there are a bunch of islands in the beta, but only 1 has maps, which are smaller than the main hall of Caed Nua. Most of the time, you get resources for crafting from the islands, sometimes there's gear. The whole ship thing does kind of feel like an afterthought tbh, at least the sailing around and buying supplies for it, so don't expect the sailing to be very exciting. I predict there are going to be scripted encounters from time to time that will break up the monotony, which is fine. It makes the world feel big, though, the whole overland map thing does, so that's incline, but the sailing is not a "core gameplay feature" if you get what I mean.

What we have in the beta feels very SoZ-y, as far as the overland map goes. I wonder how representative it will be of the final product though, once you add in the ship metagame layer and expand it beyond three (mostly empty) islands.

 

[aweigh]

Infinitron

does pre-ordering (i.e. buying poe2 today) get me access to the beta?

same question about pathfinder: kingmaker?

 

[Infinitron]

Infinitron

does pre-ordering (i.e. buying poe2 today) get me access to the beta?

same question about pathfinder: kingmaker?

I don't think you can get the PoE2 beta at this point. That's for "backers", not for "pre-orderers".

Pathfinder: Kingmaker you still can.

 

[Lacrymas]

and more party selection on PotD.

You can hire adventurers in the beta, so you can have whatever party you want right now. With Hiring Adventurers (™) (©) (®) everything is possible. ~*~The more you know~*~

does pre-ordering (i.e. buying poe2 today) get me access to the beta?

No.

 

[aweigh]

110 dollars for pathfinder beta access, yikes. i just spent 30 bucks buying the season 3 characters for SF V... i can wait. I would've bought poe2 beta access though, if i could.

 

[Infinitron]

110 dollars for pathfinder beta access, yikes. i just spent 30 bucks buying the season 3 characters for SF V... i can wait. I would've bought poe2 beta access though, if i could.

I think it might be possible for an existing backer to buy a beta key for you.

 

[aweigh]

https://store.steampowered.com/digitalgiftcards/selectgiftcard

i'm down. whoever wants to bother doing this for me just send me a Private Message, and as proof of goodwill/gentlemanly conduct I'll give that person the USD amount first as a digital Steam gift card.

 

[Maculo]

and more party selection on PotD.

You can hire adventurers in the beta, so you can have whatever party you want right now. With Hiring Adventurers (™) (©) (®) everything is possible. ~*~The more you know~*~

I have used hired adventurers, but I buy one at most in the beginning.

On a different note, Soulblade/Devoted is another good pair. Soul Annihilation is pretty useful to kill stronger enemies or mages. The sad part is I do not see much reason to use any other Cipher ability once you have Soul Annihilation.

 

[Lacrymas]

Devoted is the best class in the entire game atm, so pairing whatever with it is going to be strong regardless.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[jungl]

well if it anything like first pillars armor pen will become meaningless mid late games as classes get access to abilities and spells that neuter enemy armor.

 

[Quillon]

In many ways, contemporary animancy has already far exceeded what the Engwithans were capable of. Engwithans didn't have much knowledge about the finer points of animancy, i.e. what makes people tick. What they excelled at was large-scale soul manipulation: pulling souls out, putting them in objects, tearing them to pieces, and merging them together. All of the fine analysis and "treatment" (for better or worse) is all the result of contemporary animancy.

ProfessorCirno posted:
Again it's worth mentioning: the game, by the end, is absolutely all but screaming that the various nations of Eora would have surpassed the Engwithans by now if the Leaden Key didn't have divine cheat codes to desperately stop them at all costs.

Though they operate in a much different way than the Leaden Key, the Hand Occult is also responsible for a lot of intentional obfuscation.

 

[Fredward]

Have they said anything substantial about their "companion system" yet? It's on the Steam page so I'm assuming it's there but I don't recall seeing much about how it's wound up.

 

[Sentinel]

 

[aweigh]

anyone else feel like a side-effect of following a video game through its kickstarter/fig campaign and spending sometimes +1 years absorbing constant marketing (like the above PoE videos) leads to a type of overreaching predilection on the part of the consumer (player)?

i don't know how to explain this further right now but after watching so many of the PoE 2 videos (I wasn't that interested in the PoE 1 videos at that time, not like I am in this sequel) i've started to feel a little like i I've felt after corporate seminars or corporate marketing meetings meant to bolster sales (Personal experience here), or for a broader perspective: like i'm watching wolf of wall street.

i don't think this applies to every kickstarter-type video campaign, but when a company (like Obsidian) knows how to do this kind of thing and knows how to do it well (they do), i think this era of kickstarter-type +1 years long's worth of "motivational marketing" meant to placate the consumer into a state of willingness is unhealthy in the long-term.

tl;dr Years-long "viral video"-type marketing for a video game is the new, stronger kind of marketing that is more effective at creating long-term consumers via decades-old corporate marketing strategies. Regardless of its newness it still similarly squanders resources that could've been used to bolster the product.

 

[ilitarist]

It certainly takes some magic from the experience. I followed PoE1 enough to know a lot about systems so the game was mostly about mastering of those systems. Compare it to BG2 where, as I remember, I had no clue about how many things work like multiclassing. Besides, PoE explains things better - so BG2 felt more like a sandbox where anything can happen. This is one of the reasons, I think, people like BG more - it's like comparing Heroes of Might & Magic games to a proper balanced strategy; HoMM may throw magic artifact of armaggeddon at you or it may give your Necromancer leadership skill - but you still have some agency. Same with BG2, there are bullshit artifacts and abilities and mechanics aren't that interesting when you learn them so that previews wouldn't give the game a favor. As PoE prides itself on its mechanics they show it off making you want to touch it, to embrace it.

It's very important for some genres like Paradox grand strategy games. There previews are also tutorials of sorts.

 

[Kem0sabe]

Thats some cringy shit, i wanted to see some footage of riding the Aumaua.

 

[aweigh]

i think what i'm trying to get at is that:

- previously the marketing was largely in the hands of video game magazine articles (previews, reviews, etc), the odd "CD pack-in" demo or the more recent downloadable demo of a video game and (Even further back than this) traditional television advertising either in the form of t.v. commercials or featured spots on video game-centric t.v. shows.

- now the most effective (And derived from corporate rule-books) form of video game marketing is to do it "themselves", i.e. without the aid of a third-party such as a magazine article, and (it seems to me that) the best way to accomplish this currently is via a viral campaign (kickstarter, fig, etc).

These new types of long-term marketing campaigns for video games are the stuff marketing department employees would've had wet dreams over 10 years ago.

I'm not saying it's good or bad, but hypothetically speaking:

- an update about a system or mechanic would theoretically be better received if reported/covered by an independant source than if simply fed directly to the would-be consumer straight from the product's marketing department.

now, i know we all know there has never really been "independant sources" covering video games, but that is why this is more of a thought exercise than an opinion.

 

[Trashos]

Lol, loved this.
Come on, guys, loosen up.

(it's again going to be all strong wymyn or milfs, isn't it? young, beautiful, feminine women are taboo or sth)

 

[Urthor]

I mean the marketing is very much about awareness, Obsidian cares way more that more eyeballs know that Pillars of Eternity even exists than about brainwashing you, that's the entire point of Kickstarter. That's the most important thing, the ability to cut through and have gamers actually be aware of a game being released.

Way more games like Banner Saga 2, Mirror's Edge 2, have just failed because nobody knew they were even being shipped than because people predicted they would be shit before they were ever released and didn't buy them.

 

[aweigh]

sure, i can agree with that Urthor, but my point is that brainwashing occurs regardless and it is both intended and unintentional. It is a "side-benefit" of the backer-campaign long-form viral marketing for the companies, and a "Side-effect" for the consumers.

in any case this isn't an interesting enough topic for me to go on about it as it isn't really that deep or complicated to understand or extrapolate.

one can simply encapsulate backer-campaign long-form marketing as a "net gain" for the consumer due to a higher amount of information processing at a faster pace and higher frequency with seeming interpersonal entity-to-entity directness and relationship...

...whether all of this incoming information is properly filtered or even accurate (no regulatory forces at work) is, in the end, not something that will directly affect a discerning consumer.

 

[Lacrymas]

If you don't want to be "spoiled" don't watch or read the backer updates, duh. Don't play the beta as well (aweigh, nudge, nudge, wink, wink, hint, hint).