PoE Story & Setting Bitching Thread

[Lacrymas]

Terrible understanding of the story all around. You pretend the dream with the magic dwarf woman never happened. Liar or retard? You decide.

The dwarf woman is a perfect example of stumbling across plots...

 

[Irenaeus II]

Sure, if you were never in Guilded Vale, you would be an awakened Watcher lost in the world without guidence and with a mental heath threatening condition, driven to madness by the resurgent memories of your past lives. Luckily, her spirit was there to help direct you to Maerwald.

I thought it worked great.

 

[Lhynn]

I thought it worked great.

We know.

 

[Irenaeus II]

There may be newbies reading the thread, you know.

 

[Immortal]

Sure, if you were never in Guilded Vale, you would be an awakened Watcher lost in the world without guidence and with a mental heath threatening condition, driven to madness by the resurgent memories of your past lives. Luckily, her spirit was there to help direct you to Maerwald.

I thought it worked great.

The Dwarf ghost was a ham fisted attempt to give your character some kind of plot hook to move to the next area.

After that it all falls apart. You meet a talking status, kill a crazy old man then get some weak ass plot hook to head off to Defiance Bay.
You're basically begging the game to give you some kind of motivation to Find that Mystery man or later on to pursue the Leaden Key.

Even up to the end of Chapter 2, the game will ask you "why are you pursing this man" and your options range from "Revenge..?" to "I WANT HIS POWER"

It's fucking weak.. It's like Obsidian didn't know why you should chase him so they made you figure it out.
Except that it's their story and their conflict... They just couldn't be assed to give us an emotional reaction so we have to invent one.

 

[Xeon]

It was kinda the same in BG2, you either chase Irenicus for revenge or to save Imoen. Neither mattered.

 

[Irenaeus II]

Sorry, I was intrigued by the dwarf ghost woman and Mearwald is a great NPC. He hints that reversing the awakening (mental deterioration condition that leads to madness) would probably need the secrets of the Leaden Key, sending you to Defiance Bay to know more, continuing the game plot.

I'm sorry if people with reading disabilities had trouble following the story. I get it. Fallout 4 is there to hold your hand.

 

[Neanderthal]

Used to think to mesen that there was a basic difference between Bioware and Black Isle: In BG2 Bioware has you chasing Irenicus, if Black Isle'd made it they'd have you playing as him. Used to think same went for Obsidian but Poe really surprised me with how generic and Bioware-ish they went. Pity, once upon a time protagonist would probably have been Durance, and that would have been much better an all if you ask me.

 

[Lacrymas]

I really have no idea how they think up the plots for these things. This is at the very start of the game and they have to rely on contrivances? What kind of writers are these? Did they say to themselves "-So, the PC is at the very first town, what is the next move? - A magical dwarf-ghost woman appears and tells the PC where s/he has to go" ??? The fuck?

The game has a plot, but it's contrived, jarring, disconnected and, above all else, pointless.

 

[Immortal]

I'm sorry if people with reading disabilities had trouble following the story. I get it. Fallout 4 is there to hold your hand.

Don't speak in hyperbole. I obviously have no reading disability because I am able to read your shit stains that you smear up and down this forum.

The game is contrived as fuck, the plot doesn't have any strong narrative for doing the things I am doing until Defiance is burning down or maybe when you meet that web lady.
Up to that point you are literally a chicken with it's head cut off - ping ponging from area to area because "well fuck there's nowhere else I can go on these train tracks and the Journal told me to"

 

[Irenaeus II]

Used to think to mesen that there was a basic difference between Bioware and Black Isle: In BG2 Bioware has you chasing Irenicus, if Black Isle'd made it they'd have you playing as him. Used to think same went for Obsidian but Poe really surprised me with how generic and Bioware-ish they went. Pity, once upon a time protagonist would probably have been Durance, and that would have been much better an all if you ask me.

That could have happened if MCA was the lead writer instead of Sawyer and Fenst(...).

P.S. The Wire was awesome and I can highly recommend it to anyone, maybe excluding only those people who get triggered by seeing black people on TV.

Maybe if you didn't live in Russia, girl, you'd be tired of seeing niggers on the electric jew machine.

Funny thing, MCA does, and enjoyed it to the point he wished he could work on it.

Yes, I know that. That's why I wrote this:

Btw, I don't think MCA loves racism as much as cool people do, but I'm willing to forgive this character flaws on account of him being a great writer, superior to Sawyer, Pattel and Fenst(...).

 

[Lhynn]

It was kinda the same in BG2, you either chase Irenicus for revenge or to save Imoen. Neither mattered.

Well, you were promised more power, plus he obviously knew more about your condition than you did, so self discovery is in. Revenge, you and the people close to you were tortured for months, even murdered for fun, rape was implied. Concern for a childhood friend, imoen has been with you since you were a kid, shes like a sister in more ways than one. Self preservation, hes obviously coming back for you, you are better off facing him on your own terms. Justice, this guy is a dangerous monster.

These were all very powerful reasons to go look for him. If anything youd have troubles coming up with a character that wouldnt go after him, especially considering that you are the same character that did all those things back in baldurs gate.

 

[Xeon]

Yea, I only meant the options were for flavor, role play, doesn't change the outcome I think so no C&C like in Fallout for example and Obsidian added similar options for PoE for the same reason I think.

 

[Immortal]

Yea, I only meant the options were for flavor, role play, doesn't change the outcome I think so no C&C like in Fallout for example and Obsidian added similar options for PoE for the same reason I think.

Shhh.. Hush now.. Your back pedalling only makes it worse..

 

[Sensuki]

C&C isn't everything.

 

[Xeon]

Shhh.. Hush now.. Your back pedalling only makes it worse..

What? when did I back paddled? Its exactly what I said but expanded on it for more clearance. You pick revenge or go save Imoen, neither did jack.

I kinda like C&C, I never really played games with C&C before Fallout so yea, seeing how you play can differ makes replaying the game more satisfying.

 

[Sannom]

If I had to guess, I'd say Fenst(...) wanted the character in more of a comical way and MCA wrote the character with a serious direction and what we have is the final result between the two views.

I don't think Durance is in any way comical. It's how your character (if you want to) and the other companions react to him that is often very funny, from implied threats to insults to comments about his body odor and the fact that everybody finds him ridiculous and annoying.

Pity, once upon a time protagonist would probably have been Durance, and that would have been much better an all if you ask me.

Now you're being delusional.

Did they say to themselves "-So, the PC is at the very first town, what is the next move? - A magical dwarf-ghost woman appears and tells the PC where s/he has to go" ??? The fuck?

She doesn't appears, the PC gets a vision of her hanging on the tree.

What I can't remember is how does Maerwald know to point us toward the Leaden Key? Did he recognize Thaos' ceremonial get-up?

 

[Immortal]

Did they say to themselves "-So, the PC is at the very first town, what is the next move? - A magical dwarf-ghost woman appears and tells the PC where s/he has to go" ??? The fuck?

She doesn't appears, the PC gets a vision of her hanging on the tree.

What I can't remember is how does Maerwald know to point us toward the Leaden Key? Did he recognize Thaos' ceremonial get-up?

 

[Neanderthal]

Now you're being delusional.

I don't know, established backstory linking us to the godslaying, the way you react to that, the implication that your actions have caused the Bratbane. Seems to me that playing as a Durance like character might have neatly wrapped things up, could still have a fairly player forged background but all roads'd lead to that Godhammer thing, kinda like Mass Shadow Generator on KotOR 2. Don't even think you'd need to be a priest, just someone who wanted to defend their country.

Might be wrong though, no CRPG designer.

 

[Irenaeus II]

If I had to guess, I'd say Fenst(...) wanted the character in more of a comical way and MCA wrote the character with a serious direction and what we have is the final result between the two views.

I don't think Durance is in any way comical.

I have the type of silly humour where calling your goddess a whore and boasting about burning heretic towns to the ground makes me giggle. Nevermind that.

What I can't remember is how does Maerwald know to point us toward the Leaden Key? Did he recognize Thaos' ceremonial get-up?

You tell him about it. He has past experience with them.

 

[Lacrymas]

She doesn't appears, the PC gets a vision of her hanging on the tree.

She actually appears, she says that she's purposefully talking to the PC (as opposed to you going to her by your own accord). Whether it's in a dream or not is irrelevant.

 

[Irenaeus II]

Game should have given an option for player to never go to Gilded Vale and roam the wilderness in complete dementia over a few weeks.

 

[Sizzle]

The disconnect in PoE between your implied state (debilitating visions, sleep deprivation, and finally insanity), the fact that you don't suffer any ill effects at all (and no, a quick scripted conversation with some of your teammates where they fuss over you bumbling in your sleep doesn't cut it), is, coupled with your Watcher powers having so little an effect on the gameplay and quest solutions (they did do a couple of interesting things with it in White March, though), the biggest problem here.

When I first saw all the visions of people getting tortured, I thought the setting would allow me to manipulate souls to a greater degree - put the souls which haven't passed to the Wheel to rest, awaken the fragments of past incarnations in NPCs, meld them together, etc. Basically, I was hoping for a combination of PS:T, with your former lives playing a big part in the game, and MoTB's (optimistic, yes, I know), unique chosen one status giving the player the means to do quests only the PC can solve.

This should have definitely been handled better. MoTB was on the right track, even though I'm not a fan of timers in RPGs, and even BG2 had a better system in place when Irenicus took your soul (the Slayer transformation in Spellhold gave you a new ability, which came with a -2 reputation every time you used it. Granted, rep was laughably easy to increase, but at least it was something, here you have no penalties at all).

Still, even though they fumbled it, I still consider self-preservation a better motivation than BG2's, which doesn't work for every PC.

 

[Sensuki]

they fumbled it

The biggest surprise is Obsidian of all devs mucked this up.

 

[Sannom]

Bah, they had to tangle with the expectations of the backer and the promises they made them, re-accustom themselves to having 3D characters on top of a 2D background, build the lore and setting and rules in two years and a half, etc. If what Sizzle says is true and that they did some more interesting things in the White March, that might be a good indicator that now that the foundations are there, things will only get better.