Eternity Pillars of Eternity + The White March Expansion Thread

[ArchAngel]

I remember there was talk about adding more dialogues for the expansion; it's possible they may have upped the frequency as well?

I can't say that I'm noticing that much more in 2.0 (I dunno, maybe a bit more, it's also possible that I'd already heard most of them already) but I haven't installed the expansion yet.

If you played the game just after release it was bugged. They fixed it within few weeks in one of the patches.

 

[Infinitron]

Currently in an expansion area which has a bunch of dudes who are only weak to electricity damage (weak to electricity and corrode damage is a recurring theme in the expansion), and for some reason my AOE lighting spells are bugged and won't cast. All my other spells are fine. Oh boy.

Turning on AI and enabling per-rest casting may fix this according to the Obsidian forums

 

[Immortal]

Hey, stop being so edgy, I see your playtime and I remember your brofists

Slowly the illusion falls apart.. Like the Tumblrina's of yore.. When there are no enemies left to fight and logic seems insurmountable, self-cannibalism is the only way to survive.
The Obsidian koolaid has dried up and soon our friends became enemies..

With his final gasping breath, he whispered.. "I remember your brofists"

 

[Ulrox]

Slowly the illusion falls apart.. Like the Tumblrina's of yore.. When there are no enemies left to fight and logic seems insurmountable, self-cannibalism is the only way to survive.
The Obsidian koolaid has dried up and soon our friends became enemies..

With his final gasping breath, he whispered.. "I remember your brofists"

*In his best Darth Vader voice* :"You dont know the power of the fanboy"

 

[Rivmusique]

Playing TWM content scaled up for a level 12 party isn't as good as going there at an appropriate low-level, unfortunately. It's just the same enemies with the ones on the critical path gaining boosted stats, rather than new abilities or enemy types, so they don't have any interesting new tools to counter what you now have. Nowhere near as good for a high level party as Cragholdt, which was ONLY designed for high-level. Still having a fair bit of fun, I'd forgotten what Druids and Ciphers were capable of, having barely used them on my last playthrough (GM and Hiravias were pretty much permanent party members on vanilla runs, so I gave them a break for first expansion playthrough). Their massive, high damage, foe-only AoE's have a good portion of most pulls dead within 2-3 actions.

I wonder how much the system will change for PoE2. If TWM part 2 brings us to 15-16 and PoE2 continues with the Watcher's adventures, with the way per rest abilities are being converted to per encounter (level 9 - spell level 1 per encounter, level 11 - spell level 2 per encounter, level 13 - spell level 3 per encounter etc.), there will be an enormous amount of abilities for the caster classes to burn through every fight. I was feeling like it was too much when level 2 spells became per encounter. With all this talk of multiclassing I'm beginning to think they'll cap the max class level pretty soon and make everyone multiclass as progression during PoE2, just to avoid dealing with every existing spell level becoming per encounter, and making fights that are meant to challenge that.

 

[Roguey]

Well Josh did say he was going to look into streamlining the number of abilities you have access to so people aren't overwhelmed.

I wouldn't be surprised if he borrows from Dragon Age Inquisition.

 

[Lhynn]

Well Josh did say he was going to look into streamlining the number of abilities you have access to so people aren't overwhelmed.

I wouldn't be surprised if he borrows from Dragon Age Inquisition.

woulndt be surprised if he borrows from facebook, he has in the recent past.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Hopefully they choose not to continue the Watcher's Story. I know that might annoy some, but if PoE 2 could be upped in scale, I'd love to play a 1-(Max level I am assuming is 30) character. Maybe the watcher could be a party member like in Inquistion. And now I've actually praised inquisition, I am going to go play Eye of the Beholder for the next hour as penance.

I imagine the Watcher being a party member would be sort of funny, because this would show us more about his character than PoE ever does. I wish the initial characterization choices in PoE mattered more - for example if you choose a background where you have ran away from creditors you'd get random encounters with headhunters trying to take you in, etc. I hope they add some touches in those lines to PoE 2.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Well Josh did say he was going to look into streamlining the number of abilities you have access to so people aren't overwhelmed.

I wouldn't be surprised if he borrows from Dragon Age Inquisition.

I agree there was too many of them. It wasn't overwhelming, mind, but it was certainly a chore, since you had fuckton of abilities, none of which were particularily meaningful in combat. When I pause and manually issue a command to character, I want it to have a visible impact, not "meh why did I bother".

 

[Starwars]

I just did the Cragholdt stuff. Eeeh, I'm not a really a fan of this... not the exterior at least. Don't get me wrong though. Those encounters are damn challenging, with the enemies seemingly really making use of their abilities and stuff. But again, there is so much of it. The exterior area feels very "this is our combat challenge level!". It's such an obvious thing and it was a slog to go through I think. Again, if they had spaced out some of this stuff it would've been a very enjoyable and challenging level. Now it's just combat-combat-combat.
So thumbs up for individual encounters being really challenging. Thumbs down for... the only thing you do in that area is fight.
And it just doesn't feel right that it's a bunch of mercenaries you're fighting. Yeees... other people in the world can also get to high level and be challenging, that's fine. But it feels really off in the manner it's done here.

The interior was some of the best shit in the game though I think. To the point where I really wished it had been a bigger quest all in all (it also felt really jarring when compared to the exterior situation and some of the questing inside felt a bit confused to me). Really enjoyed it but my god, if that had been a bigger sidequest it would've been truly glorious.

 

[Starwars]

Just completed my replay of the game. Still enjoyed it a hell of a lot, so can't really agree with the naysayers still (though I may certainly agree with some of the criticisms). It's a fantastic game overall.

The new ending slides were pretty nice. I wonder exactly at what points you influence what will happen.

The companion slides were a bit weird. Zahua obviously because he's... not finished yet. The Devil got this long, and rather beautiful, ending slide. But it felt kinda weird since there really isn't that much interaction with her in the game. It's all so quick yet she probably has the longest ending slide of them all.

 

[Infinitron]

Just completed my replay of the game. Still enjoyed it a hell of a lot, so can't really agree with the naysayers still (though I may certainly agree with some of the criticisms). It's a fantastic game overall.

The new ending slides were pretty nice. I wonder exactly at what points you influence what will happen.

The companion slides were a bit weird. Zahua obviously because he's... not finished yet. The Devil got this long, and rather beautiful, ending slide. But it felt kinda weird since there really isn't that much interaction with her in the game. It's all so quick yet she probably has the longest ending slide of them all.

Seems a bit silly to finish the game again when you know there's still another expansion part on the way, but I salute your thoroughness.

 

[Starwars]

Well, I enjoy the game a lot and wanted to check the new stuff out. I'm not gonna have a problem with doing a replay when part 2 comes around.

I don't really like to leave a playthrough hanging to finish it months later.

 

[Sannom]

The Devil got this long, and rather beautiful, ending slide. But it felt kinda weird since there really isn't that much interaction with her in the game. It's all so quick yet she probably has the longest ending slide of them all.

When did you pick up the Devil and what did you do after that? From what I've heard of the expansion so far, I'm thinking of taking her and then leaving the White March, as it is apparently very easy to trigger her quest by accident. That way I will ses if she can offer something in a more gradual way.

 

[Starwars]

I'm not sure when the actual quest triggers but she started talking about things when going back to Stalwart (which I did right after getting her in my party) and then it developed further in the inn there.

Doing the quest doesn't cut any of her content off I think. It's just that there isn't that much to her (regular conversations), and you can trigger her quest without ever having explored her regular conversations.

But if you want to avoid triggering her quest right away, don't take her to Stalwart.

 

[GloomFrost]

Feel like a proper retard for asking this but where do i find the Ice Caves?? Been stuck for a whole day now.

 

[Roguey]

Josh continues to reveal his superiority over hacks like Ed Greenwood:

once ogre clans get large enough, it's difficult for the matriarch to keep them all in line, so they often either fall apart or split off into new clans that fight with the old ones.

Any time we introduce an intelligent creature that is generally hostile to kith by default, I ask the designers why those creatures haven't waged extensive war against kith races and destroyed them. Xaurips have somewhat limited intelligence and are small. Ogres are paranoid and extremely aggressive, even toward each other. Vithrack have very low reproduction rates. Dragons begin as wurms, having very limited intelligence. They are more intelligent by the time they become drakes, but most are not intelligent enough to avoid notice and are often hunted down by kith or fully grown dragons/their agents. It doesn't explain everything, but we do try to have somewhat plausible reasons for why Eora isn't OgreWorld.

Canonically, what are summons?

They are amalgamations of soul energy given a physical form, not actual people/creatures. When they are destroyed or dismissed, they dissolve back into soul energy fragments diffused in the Between.

 

[Lhynn]

So his explanations are:

- Its just how they are man

- Magic

 

[Copper]

It also fails to take into account the opposite view, which is why these insane, hostile races managed to survive at all against humans, especially early modern humans with organised nation states or why, if they're inside the spectrum of human intelligence, they haven't found ways to integrate into society, either by their own choice, or through coercion (tokenism aside.) I guess Eberron, the dinosaurs and lightening-train setting, is a high bar to meet?

 

[Infinitron]

The ogres have in fact partially integrated into Glanfathan society.

But overall they seem to have a tough time of it. They might not survive for much longer.

 

[Sensuki]

Josh continues to reveal his superiority over hacks like Ed Greenwood:

This stuff doesn't matter in game though because it's not part of the gameplay. You can come up with a great reason for anything but if it doesn't result in fun gameplay then it's nothing but a good idea.

BG2s no reason for any of this stuff to be here + fun encounters > Pillars of Eternity reason for everything being here + boring encounters

 

[Roguey]

That's a pretty gamist attitude for you to have.

 

[Sensuki]

I'm more of a gamist than a simulationist. Not your typical grog

 

[Excidium II]

It's 2015 and people are still bringing up GNS theory, and worse, in the context of videogames.

 

[Roguey]

It's 2015 and people are still bringing up GNS theory, and worse, in the context of videogames.

And yet there are a lot of people here who fall into those camps (those who prioritize verisimilitude/story/challenge above all else).