Eternity Pillars of Eternity + The White March Expansion Thread

[Grimnir]

I just finished this game and both expansions on PotD. This game is much better than before. My 1st attempt was on hard after its release. I grew bored after several hours and uninstalled the game.

Now there's less trash mobs, more interesting encounters, and the combat was improved. And the expansions are fun. The game still has some issues, but I'm cautiously looking forward to PoE2.

 

[Prime Junta]

Interesting developments ITT. Will The Sawyer eventually triumph over the howling mob of Codexia after all? Will justice prevail? Will the Balance be restored?

 

[AwesomeButton]

Interesting developments ITT. Will The Sawyer eventually triumph over the howling mob of Codexia after all? Will justice prevail? Will the Balance be restored?

There isn't a "development" here. I wrote this on 6th September:

I think it's evident that Obsidian are capable of producing a great quality cRPG which even improves on the classics, if given the right amount of time for the project scope.

 

[adddeed]

Biggest issue for me (and what is stopping me from playing again) is the abysmal load time. I mean for a 2D game to have a) that many loading screens and b) that long loading screens, let alone both, is inexcusable. I mean Metro 2033 loads about 3 times faser that this thing, and you dont need to transition between screens/rooms every couple of minutes either.

 

[vortex]

Biggest issue for me (and what is stopping me from playing again) is the abysmal load time. I mean for a 2D game to have a) that many loading screens and b) that long loading screens, let alone both, is inexcusable. I mean Metro 2033 loads about 3 times faser that this thing, and you dont need to transition between screens/rooms every couple of minutes either.

That's the curse of Unity 4.

 

[Immortal]

They won't, it's unheard of to give a single player game that much support this long after release.Unless a new patch beta gets released sometime this month, I expect things to be over. Still waiting for my drm-free disc patch.

I am sorta coming into this convo part way.. but I have to agree. They will likely be porting to Unity 5.2 / 5.3 for their next game and I'm not sure how backwards compatible their engine fixes / improvements will be once their branch is spitting out builds on that version.

They could back port changes and they might if a serious bug comes up.. but I wouldn't be too sure about it once they consider PoE -done-. Which it isn't.. Quicksaving and load screens get slower and slower the larger your save file gets.. it's kind of amateur the way they did it.

But then.. maybe you were talking about Kotor. I barely read this.

 

[Wizfall]

I played Pillar at release and it i did not like it.
Not that i found it awful but very dull/boring, especially the itemization and too sophisticated/pretentious setting for its own good.
I did not get far and quit at the middle of act 2.

I start replaying it this week and i find it much better that i could remember, i don't know if it's the numerous patches or what...
I especially appreciate all the possible builds and itemization seems somehow better now.
Graphics are very nice but still a bit dull for my taste and i also still did not like the might attribute at all.
Otherwise count me as very pleasantly surprise, PoE is really good, largely on par with B1.
Much hope for PoE 2, i have hope it could be (almost) as good as BG2 now.

 

[retamar]

I kept playing after ending the WM1, scaled the third act, very nice indeed, I really enjoyed the quests with the gods, and the environments in Twin elms are just fantastic. Just about to finish the game. I will head now to WM2
But the difficulty is all messed up now, It was a really bad idea to introduce the expansion on the middle of the game.

Anyways, very disappointed with Od Nua, I was specting the mother of all dungeons and I got a boring, samey and incoherent 15 store building, I cleaned every room without any difficult and then the Adra dragon just instakills my whole party on his first attack.
I am starting to realise that is plenty of bugs on the equipment stats not applying.
Also I am feeling very familiarized with the combat system and enjoying it more now, there is quite a solid system beneath the whole thing, but they need to improve the combat flow, is quite messy sometimes.

So far so good, I hope that WM2 and the finale are as good as I expect them to be.

 

[Gremius]

TWM2 is really good, like TWM1 was, maybe even slightly better. Finale of the game was for me the most interesting part of plot, has that tormentish feel, but it is clear it is too late, too little and rushed...

 

[Roguey]

Good news/bad news: An Obsidian dev went on a poststorm in their bug forum so there will be at least one more patch.

The bad part is that there's apparently a severe bug wherein saving in an area inflates enemy stats to

levels, and I love to save after every successful combat, so I refuse to play this until 3.03. I hope they didn't start on that DRM-free patch yet.

 

[Excidium II]

Man what the hell is wrong with their save/load code? Ever since the game launched it has caused all sorts of issues with area/character state breaking in the most varied ways.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Roguey they have been answering on the forum that they are "entering bugs into the database" since the last patch came out, so this leads me to thinking they're not just entering the bugs so they know about them, but there will be a next patch. However I don't see any developer going on a poststorm, and what's with posting screenshots from some IE game? Your post just doesn't make sense to me.

 

[Roguey]

However I don't see any developer going on a poststorm

I was referring to all those replies Aarik D made on the 20th and 21st.

and what's with posting screenshots from some IE game?

That's a "good" bug from IWD2 that allows you to stack buffs from activating/deactivating/activating bard songs. The current bug in PoE is comparable to that, only it's triggered by saving/loading and affects enemies, so it's a bad bug.

 

[Mexi]

I have to say that these enemies are a lot harder than I remember them. There were traces in Hard mode when rare battles lasted longer than usual, but here in PotD it's pretty noticeable. Enemies sometimes bypass my tank, disengage, and go right after Aloth or Durance.

It's pretty damn crazy. With the high grouping of enemies, this turns the tide of battle, sometimes, very fucking quick. I mean, damn, it's reminding me of battles in Rome: Total War where if you fucked up just a little the entire fucking tide shifts and you just see your soldiers dying left and right.

Damn, I'm having a lot more fun than I remember.

 

[AwesomeButton]

There were traces in Hard mode when rare battles lasted longer than usual, but here in PotD it's pretty noticeable. Enemies sometimes bypass my tank, disengage, and go right after Aloth or Durance.

When battle begins, enemies will either go for the nearest party member to them, or to the one who made the opener - usually a caster, or a ranged character. In order to lock them in engagement, your own party's tanks/melee characters need to be stationary, not to be themselves on the move towards the enemies. If your tank character is moving towards the enemies while the enemy character is moving towards your casters, the enemy won't be locked in engagement by your character, and will go around him. There are also instances when enemies will switch targets when a caster/ranged character damages them but I'm unable to tell what's the logic there, I guess there is some random chance involved too.

 

[Prime Junta]

Yeah, tactics are really important. Fuck up a fight and you're looking at a TPW or something close to, get it right and you'll barely scuff your armour.

 

[Infinitron]

Josh takes his German LARPing to the next level: http://jesawyer.tumblr.com/post/143507010561/for-a-long-time-i-mostly-opting-for-the-original
http://jesawyer.tumblr.com/post/143541248071/asked-this-one-in-regards-to-poe-before-2

Google Translate:

wegnachunten asked: Asked this one in regards to PoE before 2nd test: The way how to transcribe spells from other magic books into its own is dissolved in my opinion, not very good. Especially later in the game where you are practically in money "floats" (if you sold everything Captured) it is simply too easy, with only a few hundred copper pieces to take Zauberprüche in return. Are there considerations, as this could be done (in POE2) might be different?

I think there are two problems: 1) it is to transcribe too cheap Kraftige spells (if you have a lot of money) 2) all spells only take a "leaf" in einmen spellbook.

The first problem is easy to solve. We can increase the cost of spells geometric (or exponential).

The second problem is not really a problem, but I believe we can do more with spellbook mechanics - as a magic book could only have 25-35 pages. When a spell a page per level increases, there are more strategic problems for the players.

 

[Trashos]

Cool. I generally don't think there are significant problems with PoE's economy (but note that I started playing with patch 2), so no biggie for me. The game's problems lie elsewhere.

 

[Infinitron]

Now in English: http://jesawyer.tumblr.com/post/143...ase-repeat-that-german-spellbook-answer#notes

melnorme asked: Can you please repeat that German spellbook answer in English?

Sure. The original question was, “The way you transcribe spells from other spellbooks, in my opinion, broke down. Especially in the late stage of the game when you are practically swimming in money (if you sell everything you find), it is just too easy, costing only a few hundred copper pieces. Are there ideas how this could be done differently in PoE2″

I wrote (more or less): “I think there are two problems: 1) it is too cheap to transcribe powerful spells (if you have a lot of money) 2) all spells take only one “page” in a spellbook.

“The first problem is easy to solve. We can raise the cost of spells geometrically (or exponentially).

“The second problem is not really problematic, but I believe we can do more with spellbook mechanics – for example, a spellbook could only have 25-35 pages. If a spell takes one page per level, there are more strategic problems for the players.”

By "page" he means "slot". Spell knapsack problem!

 

[Prime Junta]

Cool. I generally don't think there are significant problems with PoE's economy (but note that I started playing with patch 2), so no biggie for me. The game's problems lie elsewhere.

Other than the usual RPG economy problem of drowning in money towards the endgame, yeah. You kind of expect it though; at some point the challenge goes from picking which items you can afford to picking which combination of items you want, and that's perfectly OK.

 

[Trashos]

Other than the usual RPG economy problem of drowning in money towards the endgame, yeah. You kind of expect it though; at some point the challenge goes from picking which items you can afford to picking which combination of items you want, and that's perfectly OK.

Since drowning you in money happens late enough, I agree that it is OK. I am not sure it is avoidable late anyway (for completionist playthroughs), not even AoD avoids that.

 

[Prime Junta]

Since drowning you in money happens late enough, I agree that it is OK. I am not sure it is avoidable late anyway (for completionist playthroughs), not even AoD avoids that.

I'm sure it's avoidable, just drastically restrict the amount of coin available in the game, and/or drastically increase purchase prices of the most desirable gear and enchantments.

Whether it's desirable is a different matter. I'm inclined to think, not for this type of game.

 

[AwesomeButton]

BTW, "a future patch" confirmed, which I guess implies more than one:

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/86177-damage-calculation-bug/#entry1803161

He dojoteef,

This is a known issue with save/loading multiple times on maps with certain mobs. We are hoping to get a fix in a future patch.

Sorry
-Sking

 

[Roguey]

Durability was supposed to be the systemic money sink to keep the economy balanced but everyone hated it and told Josh that they didn't care if they were drowning in gold by endgame (and some in fact prefer it). So he stopped caring.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

It's better the way things are, especially on PoTD, where by endgame you can just stop selling loot, and if some encounter is giving you problems, change your party lineup completely with some custom chars and have them fully geared with unique items.

I had some trouble with two archmages in WM (by far the hardest encounters in the game imo), so I swapped Grieving Mother for a tanky frontline Chanter, and things went smoothly.