Eternity Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire Pre-Release Thread [BETA RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[prodigydancer]

Did system change much ? Still war of attrition ?

If you mean health drain, yes. Sort of. But you no longer gain fatigue from combat. I had no trouble clearing ~2 maps per every rest on PotD in 3.x.

Fights tend to be shorter than before because enemies have a bit less Def which means more hits and crits for you. Some of them are still p. anoying damage sponges though.

 

[Xeon]

Don't mind a no exp run if the game gives options to avoid combat often but I don't remember that happening in PoE, I did start playing again to try and get a save ready to import so I might get corrected but from memory, I don't remember.

In Underrail for example, there are 2 options to level up, 1 is with combat exp and the other is finding artifacts or something to level up, since there was just too much combat, I kinda regretted not choosing the combat exp instead.

 

[Jarpie]

If you mean by "realistic" and "harsh" as somekind of Game of Thrones crap, no fucking thanks.

Fuck no. I hate how "serious fantasy" nowadays translates into "like GoT".

Ah, good.

I fucking loathe the tryhard "oh we're so edgay and grimdork and completely serious! hurr durr!".

Edginess for the sake of edginess almost always turns out shit. But that isn't what I was talking about with Azarkon.

If you have a setting which tries to be more mature than the typical Forgotten Realms module, with something like the Hollowborn crisis - an event which will definitely change the way the entire region works: the importance of healthy children, inheritance laws, safe sex, etc. - all of those will be different, and that will reflect in how society functions. PoE sets up those things, but doesn't really explore their ramifications. It's a weird sort of half-solution - which doesn't please either the folks expecting a silly little DnD inspired romp, nor the fans who wanted to see what Obsidian could do if they didn't have the creative constraints of a publisher or license looming over them.

I probably would've found that stuff boring, unless the game is written especially well. The Hollowborn was mostly used just as a kind of "McGuffin" to some extent and to show the stakes pretty early. I wouldn't be surprised if it was suppose to have bigger part originally but was cut out for one reason or another.

I might be in the minority but I actually like the setting as such, places names actually sounds like they could be 'real'

Sawyer did a good job with those, I agree.

Though I would have preferred he put more thought into things like narrative cohesion than he did in constructing the Engwithian alphabet.

Yeah, and a bit more low-key story/plot would've worked IMO better, something akin to the first Baldur's Gate with the world building so they wouldn't had to spread so thin, which is how PoE looks now.

instead of "I came up with this when I was 14 year old!" as in Derp Age with Thedas (THE Dragon Age Setting) and Ferelden (what the fuck name is that?!) and Orlais. Changing the names of some monsters is a bit silly though, like xaurips = kobolds and fampyrs = vampyrs/vampires.

DA does have some interesting lore, but it barely comes across in the games themselves.

Kinda shame that they didn't keep the original plan to make the setting more like in Conan The Barbarian with quite low magic, instead they went with basically "American remake of The Witcher".

 

[Ivan]

Josh answered a question regarding companions in the Fallout New Vegas stream:

eyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy that was my question LOL :D

 

[Projas]

Go fish. More nautical adventure hints. Also what the fuck is hazanui?

 

[santino27]

Well, a maritime theme could be different and interesting at least. Is this a new companion? I don't recognize the sigil, but that doesn't mean much :D

 

[Sizzle]

Those cannons probably mean Rautai, but the quote doesn't remind me of either Kana Rua or Maneha.

 

[CptMace]

I expect to have my ship and crew. I'm serious.
Although I haven't paid much attention to the other regions' lore in PoE but Rauatai are kind of the more developped folks right ?
I expect my ship to have naval superiority thanks to the valuable modifications brought by this new Aumaua companion who seems to like guns and shit. Good thing, me too.

 

[Mazisky]

The ship could be the "Stronghold 2.0" of Poe 2

 

[Sentinel]

The ship could be the "Stronghold 2.0" of Poe 2

Would certainly solve one of the issues of PoE1's stronghold - you having no reason to go back. If the stronghold is your boat, you pretty much use it to get around the world itself.

 

[AN4RCHID]

The ship could be the "Stronghold 2.0" of Poe 2

That would actually be pretty cool.

 

[Sherry]

Hi.

Our quote for today, "Gunships, cannons, and the hazanui's will. If any order can come to this wretched stretch of brine and savagery, we shall be the ones to bring it."

Searching the Pillars of Eternity Officla Prima PDF for "hazanui" result in zero hits, but looking through it and the information available points to two possible locations of the one speaking these words.

We have a fish and two cannons crossed, like that of skull and bones of a pirate ship flag. The fish resembles a grin or smirk.

Deadfire Archipelago Culture.

As mentioned previously in the thread, the Deadfire Archipelago is known for its dozens of Aumaua settlements, and hundreds of lawless, pirate-infested islands along the southern sea.

Old Vailia

Once the crown jewel of the southern seas, Old vailia is now the crumbled remnants of an empire of warring merchant nations.

With that in mind, it could very well be words spoken by an Island/Coastal Aumaua and if the latter, points to Kana Rua.

The other would be Calbandra Ocean Folk of Old Vailia, which would make it a whole new NPC speaking those words.

Thanks,
Randal

 

[Sannom]

That companion is probably the blue guy whose arm we saw in one of the teaser images. He was behind Edér on a ship and wielding a gun.

 

[hajro]

I think the blue guy is actually a female pale elf and not this Aumaua.

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

Where he fucked up was when he said "I don't want to give people the incentive to grind out combat to get EXP. If people wanna talk their way out of a situation, they can do it without missing EXP." but then he showers players with trash mobs everywhere and it's rare the quest where combat isn't mandatory (don't even know if there's a single one).

This fucking This. Tyranny combat was shit too (except the fiddling with the magic system to a degree), but it was more bearable than PoE cause XP. No xp for killing requires a lot more thought into encounter and quest design, which Josh clearly failed to deliver in PoE and will fail again in PoE2. He will shower the player with loads of trash mobs and unavoidable fights...which will give no combat xp.

The way PoE is executed it would have been more fun with combat xp. I am not speaking about xp in the context of what was promised, but in the context of the trash-mob slog fest which was delivered.

 

[2house2fly]

I don't get why trash mobs would be more fun to fight if they gave xp. The mechanics of the fight don't change. The game has a level cap you can reach pretty easily anyway, so combat xp and no combat xp end with the player in the same place. The only real argument in favour of combat xp is the primal lizard brain pleasure at seeing numbers go up a la cookie clicker.

 

[Prime Junta]

what the fuck is hazanui

New word. The Ranga Nui is the Rauatai king or equivalent though, and "ranga" means something like "ruler" (going by an exchange between Kana and Ranga in Anslög's Compass -- something like "What are you ranga of, then?").

From what I can gather, "nui" probably means "big," which would make Ranga Nui mean "big ruler" which makes total sense for an overlord.

So hazanui would be "big haza," whatever "haza" means. Of that I have no idea. Anyone here who speaks a Polynesian language who could venture a guess?

 

[Delterius]

The only real argument in favour of combat xp is the primal lizard brain pleasure at seeing numbers go up a la cookie clicker.

So base and primitive, below the more refined pleasures in life and even better human beings such as you and I. Another example would be this whole genre of games based around gaining levels and seeing numbers going up a la cookie clicker. Its name escapes me, unfortunately.

 

[Infinitron]

PoE had plenty of options to take alternate routes that avoided fights. They were very deliberate. I suspect most people didn't think of using them because the instinct in isometric RPGs, especially on one's first playthrough, is to "map paint".

 

[Sentinel]

Care to name a few?

 

[Projas]

Well, two prominent examples would be Raedric's Hold and the Abbey of the Fallen Moon. Or Matron Beregan's caves.

I don't think it's necessary to remove combat xp though, you could just award xp for sneaking/bluffing your way in. And map painting is gonna stay even if you remove combat xp, because xp isn't the only thing you could be missing out on.

 

[Turjan]

Also this plot to steal something from the Doemenels' neighbor. The dragon fights. That Vailian merchant in Twin Elms.

Edit: Actually lots of quests.

 

[Infinitron]

because xp isn't the only thing you could be missing out on.

You could, but I think in practice the game was pretty good about never putting anything really important in or near an avoidable battle (not including cul-de-sac "treasure room"-type areas of course)

 

[CyberWhale]

Adding combat XP in a game where you become overpowered near the end seems utterly redundant. The real solution is fixing encounter design, and that can be done even post-release. The only reason why it didn't happen is because Sawyer, while being a competent project director, sucks ass as a designer. Not to mention that he is mildly autistic so instead of changing monsters that compose the enemy party he endlessly plays with decimals and percentages.

 

[Roguey]

I don't think it's necessary to remove combat xp though, you could just award xp for sneaking/bluffing your way in.

*sneaks in, then doubles back to kill everyone to maximize xp gains*

Josh is trying to save people from themselves.