Eternity Pillars of Eternity + The White March Expansion Thread

[rusty_shackleford]

Except it's the way it should be by default and the way it used to be by default.
More and more cheats are being enabled by default and lauded by this site as somehow being a good thing. It's disgusting.

The average person who really wants these features isn't the type of person who will actually dig through the options menus to enable them. I don't care if they're on or off by default as long as they're there.

I'm forming an organization that is against the casualization and cheaterization of cRPGs. You can either get with me or get out of my way.

 

[dacencora]

I like this one better, it's much less distracting. It lets you know that the situation can go differently without telling you what that dialogue would look like.

 

[Grunker]

Imagine asking your DM if before you do an action whether it needs a check and if you can pass the check before you even roll.

ban quickload

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Imagine asking your DM if before you do an action whether it needs a check and if you can pass the check before you even roll.

ban quickload

This is issue #1

 

[Ninjerk]

Nah, i'm too lazy to do that shit.

At least take pictures of stupid things and mock them here; it's been too long since I've watched someone learn to hate Sawyer in real-time and make a plan to time travel to stop him from being born.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Well, i can already tell the main problem with this game: death by a thousand papercuts.

What i mean is that if one looks at the over all, it seems like a fairly competent RPG in the tradition of the old IE games, and on some level it probably is. However, it's the little things that eventually wear you down. A retarded dialog line here, a stupid backer insert there, some particular retardation in the combat system, and on and on until you are sick of it and quit in disgust.

That's what my tingling spider senses are telling me at the moment.

 

[Lyric Suite]

All this autistic sperging about realism is a red herring.

The right word is immersion. It is a matter of getting invested in the world and the story and not have some of the meta of the game getting in the way and take you out of it.

In that sense, stuff like isometric perspective is not an issue as isometric RPGs have been proven to be capable of being spectacularly immersive.

 

[dacencora]

I am a pretty young guy and I like a lot of stuff that people on this site generally deride as vapid and banal, so keep that in mind. I really enjoyed Pillars. It wasn't the top of the class or anything. It was a couple years ago where I played BG1, then BG2, then Pillars all in a row, all for the first time (for reference, I was a toddler when BG1 released). I liked BG1 the most of the three but still greatly enjoyed both BG2 and Pillars. The spirit of the games all felt very similar to me, and I wanted to play Pillars after finishing Throne of Bhaal because I was very taken with the RTwP gameplay. (Throne of Bhaal sucks, btw, did not care for it at all, minus the HLA which were kind of cool, but not cool enough to discount how trash I thought the rest of ToB was)

My point is this: Pillars is a more than decent game. Yes it has its issues, but dissecting a game to the autistic level that many on this site do will sap enjoyment from almost any of them. There is a lot of charm to PoE. There are also a number of issues. I think it just depends on if you're willing to let yourself get absorbed into the game and its setting.

 

[pomenitul]

'It's shit because I want it to be shit' is a holy mantra here.

For reference, the correct attitude should be: 'I want it to succeed, in line with what is reasonably feasible, and I will endeavour to keep an open mind while simultaneously acknowledging the ways in which the game falls short of 1) its comparable predecessors, and 2) its own stated goals.' A key corollary is: 'I will not worship the past for its own sake, and recognize that if I were to use the classics of yore to grind the same nihilistic axe, they too would come apart at the seams, and I would be left joyless and full of self-loathing and alone'.

 

[dacencora]

Also I would recommend avoiding all the backer NPCs. That stuff is pretty worthless, in my experience.

 

[Delterius]

Well, i can already tell the main problem with this game: death by a thousand papercuts.

What i mean is that if one looks at the over all, it seems like a fairly competent RPG in the tradition of the old IE games, and on some level it probably is. However, it's the little things that eventually wear you down. A retarded dialog line here, a stupid backer insert there, some particular retardation in the combat system, and on and on until you are sick of it and quit in disgust.

That's what my tingling spider senses are telling me at the moment.

you're gonna quit 10 minutes in aren't you

 

[Lacrymas]

you're gonna quit 10 minutes in aren't you

I give him at most until Maerwald. Which is pretty funny because base game just gets worse and worse from there.

 

[Grunker]

odds are etc etc

Well, i can already tell the main problem with this game: death by a thousand papercuts.

What i mean is that if one looks at the over all, it seems like a fairly competent RPG in the tradition of the old IE games, and on some level it probably is. However, it's the little things that eventually wear you down. A retarded dialog line here, a stupid backer insert there, some particular retardation in the combat system, and on and on until you are sick of it and quit in disgust.

That's what my tingling spider senses are telling me at the moment.

you're gonna quit 10 minutes in aren't you

that much was obvious from the get-go

 

[Blutwurstritter]

I am a super young guy and I like a lot of stuff that people on this site generally deride as vapid and banal, so keep that in mind. I really enjoyed Pillars. It wasn't the top of the class or anything. It was a couple years ago where I played BG1, then BG2, then Pillars all in a row, all for the first time (for reference, I was a toddler when BG1 released). I liked BG1 the most of the three but still greatly enjoyed both BG2 and Pillars. The spirit of the games all felt very similar to me, and I wanted to play Pillars after finishing Throne of Bhaal because I was very taken with the RTwP gameplay. (Throne of Bhaal sucks, btw, did not care for it at all, minus the HLA which were kind of cool, but not enough cool to discount how trash I thought the rest of ToB was)

My point is this: Pillars is a more than decent game. Yes it has its issues, but dissecting a game to the autistic level that many on this site do will sap enjoyment from almost any of them. There is a lot of charm to PoE. There are also a number of issues. I think it just depends on if you're willing to let yourself get absorbed into the game and its setting.

I guess that one major gripe with Pillars is that it doesn't surpass or even reach the infinity engine games and it suffers also from the fact that it was made by Obsidian. It probably would have gotten a more benign reception if it was released in vacuum by a no-name studio out of the blue. Its a decent game and the sequel is even better but neither is great. I think they are on par with Owlcat's Pathfinder games and it comes down to personal taste whether your prefer one over the other; I liked both series but I hope that I may live to see the day when BG II is surpassed in its genre beyond a doubt.

 

[Lacrymas]

I hope that I may live to see the day when BG II is surpassed in its genre beyond a doubt.

You don't have to wait anymore because it has already been surpassed. By BG1.

 

[dacencora]

I am a super young guy and I like a lot of stuff that people on this site generally deride as vapid and banal, so keep that in mind. I really enjoyed Pillars. It wasn't the top of the class or anything. It was a couple years ago where I played BG1, then BG2, then Pillars all in a row, all for the first time (for reference, I was a toddler when BG1 released). I liked BG1 the most of the three but still greatly enjoyed both BG2 and Pillars. The spirit of the games all felt very similar to me, and I wanted to play Pillars after finishing Throne of Bhaal because I was very taken with the RTwP gameplay. (Throne of Bhaal sucks, btw, did not care for it at all, minus the HLA which were kind of cool, but not enough cool to discount how trash I thought the rest of ToB was)

My point is this: Pillars is a more than decent game. Yes it has its issues, but dissecting a game to the autistic level that many on this site do will sap enjoyment from almost any of them. There is a lot of charm to PoE. There are also a number of issues. I think it just depends on if you're willing to let yourself get absorbed into the game and its setting.

I guess that one major gripe with Pillars is that it doesn't surpass or even reach the infinity engine games and it suffers also from the fact that it was made by Obsidian. It probably would have gotten a more benign reception if it was released in vacuum by a no-name studio out of the blue. Its a decent game and the sequel is even better but neither is great. I think they are on par with Owlcat's Pathfinder games and it comes down to personal taste whether your prefer one over the other; I liked both series but I hope that I may live to see the day when BG II is surpassed in its genre beyond a doubt.

This will not be a popular opinion, but I think Pillars is the closest thing to a new IE game. It feels the same to me in a lot of ways, and I say that as someone who played Infinity Engine games and Pillars for the first time at the same time. It isn't the best IE game, but it's pretty decent. Same as Lacrymas, I like BG1 more than BG2, and I kinda doubt that anything will ever surpass one of those in this specific sub-genre (party-based RtWP RPG).

I have said it in other threads many times, but I do not think the Pathfinders are in the same ballpark. Not sure what my distaste for them stems from. The character building in the Pathfinders is more to my liking than pretty much any Infinity Engine game, yet I have a hard time getting myself into them. I think the combination of silly art style and my distaste for Golarion as a setting precludes me from enjoying them, probably. I might give them another shot in the future, but as it stands now, I'd rather replay BG1 than play either Pathfinder (probably would rather replay BG1 than replay Pillars as well, but BG1 is great)

 

[pomenitul]

I, born in the mid-80s, was shaped by the IE games growing up and believe PoE and Deadfire to be their most inspired heirs, so it's not just a generational thing. Kingmaker and Wrath of the Righteous praise doesn't bother me, though, because the two games are quite good. Nay, solely the Cult of Larian is deserving of unending ire.

 

[Lacrymas]

Here's the thing with D:OS - you can play them co-op. Thanks for coming to my TedTalk.

As for the PoEs being the most inspired IE clones, mmm, maybe. But are there any other IE clones out there? I wouldn't say Kingmaker and WoR are in the same lineage, they are more like NWN2 than IE imo. Too bad only PoE DLCs have actually good content with very few exceptions in the respective base games.

 

[Sunri]

Imagine asking your DM if before you do an action whether it needs a check and if you can pass the check before you even roll.

ban quickload

This is issue #1

Your suggestions would kill an entire genre that is niche anyway, and I'm not talking only about quick loads but your overall autismo ideas.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

This will not be a popular opinion, but I think Pillars is the closest thing to a new IE game.

A lot of similarity between POE and IE games comes from POE copying things that (some) IE game didn't do all that well or did just plain bad. And the biggest similarity to IE definitely comes from Kingmaker, namely the Varnhold dlc. Some parts of that really feel like BG2, particularly the first big area with the wounded dragon, other adventuring party, centaurs and some treasure hunting. It seems like it was kind of a fluke though, as nothing I saw in Wrath came close to emulating or following up on that (didn't finish it, though). And vanilla KM did the "copying wrong things" as well to an extent.

 

[dacencora]

This will not be a popular opinion, but I think Pillars is the closest thing to a new IE game.

A lot of similarity between POE and IE games comes from POE copying things that (some) IE game didn't do all that well or did just plain bad. And the biggest similarity to IE definitely comes from Kingmaker, namely the Varnhold dlc. Some parts of that really feel like BG2, particularly the first big area with the wounded dragon, other adventuring party, centaurs and some treasure hunting. It seems like it was kind of a fluke though, as nothing I saw in Wrath came close to emulating or following up on that (didn't finish it, though). And vanilla KM did the "copying wrong things" as well to an extent.

Yeah I meant more in spirit than in mechanics. I think all of the RtWP games (Tyranny, Deadfire, Wrath, Kingmaker, Black Geyser, NWN 1/2, DAO, KOTOR 1/2, etc) have pretty similar mechanics to the IE games as they were their inspiration, but of all of those, only Pillars feels like it was born from the same ideas, even if it failed to live up to them in many ways.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Imagine asking your DM if before you do an action whether it needs a check and if you can pass the check before you even roll.

ban quickload

This is issue #1

Your suggestions would kill an entire genre that is niche anyway, and I'm not talking only about quick loads but your overall autismo ideas.

"if I can't cheat the genre dies!"
Yeah, clearly I'm the one killing the genre here. Not the tranny streamer who thinks the genre dies if cheats are taken away.

 

[Ninjerk]

Also I would recommend avoiding all the backer NPCs. That stuff is pretty worthless, in my experience.

Unless they changed it from launch, there is a backer NPC fully worth killing for his armor in the first town.

 

[Sunri]

Imagine asking your DM if before you do an action whether it needs a check and if you can pass the check before you even roll.

ban quickload

This is issue #1

Your suggestions would kill an entire genre that is niche anyway, and I'm not talking only about quick loads but your overall autismo ideas.

"if I can't cheat the genre dies!"
Yeah, clearly I'm the one killing the genre here. Not the tranny streamer who thinks the genre dies if cheats are taken away.

I'm sure people will play 100h long game on default iroman limited visibility and without other qol stuff

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Imagine asking your DM if before you do an action whether it needs a check and if you can pass the check before you even roll.

ban quickload

This is issue #1

Your suggestions would kill an entire genre that is niche anyway, and I'm not talking only about quick loads but your overall autismo ideas.

"if I can't cheat the genre dies!"
Yeah, clearly I'm the one killing the genre here. Not the tranny streamer who thinks the genre dies if cheats are taken away.

I'm sure people will play 100h long game on default iroman limited visibility and without other qol stuff

Not being able to savescum is not ironman you retard