Tyranny + Bastard's Wound Expansion Thread

[rezaf]

25 hours is the exact number of hours they've been constantly advertising. The objective was to have more branching elements with this shorter experience.

Fair enough about the hours - I tend not to read any pre-release hype these days, so I was oblivious to this.
As for their objective ... I think it's pretty evident they failed. IIRC if you know what you're doing you might finish FO1 in this time (not speedrun, finish in earnest), and when I compare Tyranny with Fallout when it comes to what I guess is called C&C around these parts, Tyranny's end of the stick is so short it's basically thin air.

 

[Kaivokz]

I.e. light armor is tankier than heavy?

Seems like it to me, at least light armor + illusion magic.

 

[Fairfax]

I.e. light armor is tankier than heavy?

Seems like it to me, at least light armor + illusion magic.

Even without illusion magic there's a huge benefit. Grazes not only deal less damage, they also prevent any affliction or interrupt. You can also focus on shields, parry and dodge, so your tank will never take damage that your mage(s) can't handle.
I like many of the ideas they had for the combat system, and I appreciate that they didn't try to make everything balanced, but it's too easy right now.

 

[Bubbles]

Sirin is pretty buggy at the moment, but it's what a game designer would consider a "good" bug:

Update:

I figured out every time you dismiss her/add her to your group it lowers her stanzas duration.

So if you want to avoid the bug, you should never dismiss Sirin after she first joins your party, unless you plan on never using her again.

Official Obsidian response:

Hello all!

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We were able to reproduce this internally using the information you all provided, and are working on a fix for the issue.

Unfortunately I do not have any estimate on how long it will take to correct this behavior.

Thank you all for your support,
David

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/sirin-godspeed-bug.981957/

 

[Lacrymas]

From my experience with RPGs I've deduced that challenge doesn't come from individual fights (although it can, but it's not very reliable) but from somewhat large swaths of combat encounter after combat encounter. What consistently produces challenge that can be kept up throughout a game (as opposed to single encounters) is scarcity of resources and their management, everything else tends to devolve into trash encounters with little thought or even possibility of sustained challenge.

 

[Bubbles]

Here's the official workaround for one of the plot stopping endgame bugs (it involves loading an old save):

Spoiler

I am sorry this is happening to you, it is certainly a bug, and one that we are working to correct. This issue arises if you agree to meet Bleden Mark for a 1 on 1 dual (via missive) and then choose to instead go to Tunon's Court before meeting him in Ashweald. This results in you killing him in Tunon's court, but the bug is that this choice is not properly handled.

I believe you can work around this by either: Not reading his missive, or fighting him in Ashweald instead of Tunon's Court.

If this is not the same issue as described above, then if you could please tell me the order of events you did in Act 3, it would help me greatly in identifying the issue.

Thank you,
David

 

[vonAchdorf]

From my experience with RPGs I've deduced that challenge doesn't come from individual fights (although it can, but it's not very reliable) but from somewhat large swaths of combat encounter after combat encounter. What consistently produces challenge that can be kept up throughout a game (as opposed to single encounters) is scarcity of resources and their management, everything else tends to devolve into trash encounters with little thought or even possibility of sustained challenge.

With cool downs and once-per-battle skills, the design doesn't really make use of possible skill / mana scarcity in consecutive battles though.

 

[Lacrymas]

Well, duh. I wasn't saying Tyranny is remotely challenging :p D&D's spell memorization is a very good system for such scarcity, once you limit resting. Dungeon Rats also exhibits resource scarcity in the first "floor" of the mine, the one you start in. What I was trying to hint at is not for devs to try to balance every single encounter for challenge, but big swaths of them to be considered a challenge "zone" where you have limited resources.

 

[vortex]

http://www.pcgamesn.com/tyranny/tyranny-good-playthrough Obs tweet

Being good is Tyranny’s hard mode. Well, that’s not strictly true: Tyranny’s hard mode is ‘Hard mode’. But outside that gruelling combat experience, the way to bruise yourself most badly in Obsidian’s new isometric RPG is simply attempt to be an alright human being.

 

[Excidium II]

Is that moral challenge all on act 2? Unless he means being a goody two shoes, he probably thinks executing enemy soldiers to be evillllll even though he kills a hundred of them in combat.

 

[Quatlo]

I can't force myself to play this game. I'm at the very beggining and im flooded with obvious "faction A or faction B" choices that I already hate because obviously they are going to force me to choose one somewhere in the plot probably. I hate the faux-isometrical view and not-poe combat system.
God fucking damnit, PoE was such a letdown for me that I'm afraid of this game.

 

[Excidium II]

Well at least this game will make you realize PoE is not so bad.

 

[Roguey]

I'm at the very beggining and im flooded with obvious "faction A or faction B" choices that I already hate because obviously they are going to force me to choose one somewhere in the plot probably.

There are three factions and you can choose none of them.

 

[Excidium II]

I'm at the very beggining and im flooded with obvious "faction A or faction B" choices that I already hate because obviously they are going to force me to choose one somewhere in the plot probably.

There are three factions and you can choose none of them.

Can you still use all companions or the ones with faction alignment ditch you?

 

[Urthor]

You don't lose companions if the loyalty is above x

 

[Mortmal]

I'm at the very beggining and im flooded with obvious "faction A or faction B" choices that I already hate because obviously they are going to force me to choose one somewhere in the plot probably.

There are three factions and you can choose none of them.

Can you still use all companions or the ones with faction alignment ditch you?

All companions, but if you betray their ideals and choose their archenemy side , they will pout!.One whole line of text saying they are not happy about it but still stay and everything goes back to normal.

 

[adddeed]

Loving the game. With Pillars they really only tried to copy Infinity engine games (it was their kickstarter pitch anyway), but with this they made their own unique beast and its awesome.

 

[Tommy Wiseau]

This game was good and everyone who dislikes it is a vatnik.

 

[Azarkon]

Really, you felt the same way about Edér when you started the game and when you were done with it?
What about Aloth? Did you feel the same way about him too?
Durance also tells you that Magran is a bitch and he's mad at her right as you meet him.

Eder's only significant development in the entire game happens during the encounter with Maerwald in Act 1. Everything else - his back story, his prior beliefs, his loss of faith - he tells you almost immediately. For thematic purposes, his quest to find out what happened to his brother is ultimately futile, and after whining about it briefly, he shuts up for the rest of the game. That's his entire narrative. What am I suppose to feel?

As for Aloth, he DOES change through the course of the game due to having to come to terms with the other soul living inside of him, but his story was so silly I dropped him as soon as I was able to. That's my problem, though, and he IS an exception to the rule, in terms of narrative structure. A pity that it's played for laughs.

Durance tells you that Magran's a bitch immediately, but does NOT reveal to you that: 1) he made the Godhammer 2) he did not abandon Magran; rather, Magran abandoned him 3) he fears HE was in the wrong, and so his anger at Magran was actually a form of guilt. Completing his personal quest changes Durance's character completely, since he is now certain that Magran played him all along, and that his loss of faith was justified, and not a consequence of his own mistakes. And that's with most of his content cut, by Avellone's own words, so you can just imagine what other developments there would've been, had that not been the case.

Both Eder and Durance's narratives are supposed to be subversions of common CRPG cliches, in keeping with the themes of Pillars of Eternity. For Eder, it was the idea that the underlying facts must reveal themselves eventually - subverted by them not doing so. For Durance, it was the idea that a priest who loses his faith, always finds it in the end - subverted by him rejecting it altogether. As such, the ideas behind the characters aren't the problem. The presentation is what distinguishes.

As a side comment, Tyranny seems even worse at keeping character development going throughout the game, rather than throwing it all in at the beginning.

 

[Sentinel]

Really, you felt the same way about Edér when you started the game and when you were done with it?
What about Aloth? Did you feel the same way about him too?
Durance also tells you that Magran is a bitch and he's mad at her right as you meet him.

Eder's only significant development in the entire game happens during the encounter with Maerwald in Act 1. Everything else - his back story, his prior beliefs, his loss of faith - he tells you almost immediately. For thematic purposes, his quest to find out what happened to his brother is ultimately futile, and after whining about it briefly, he shuts up for the rest of the game. That's his entire narrative. What am I suppose to feel?

If by "shuts up for the rest of the game" you mean "doesn't aggressively engage in conversation with you", then maybe, although I'm pretty sure he still initiates conversation at least once after his quest is done. But you can ask him questions yourself, especially in Act III when you find out the Gods are fabricated, and get more insight into his dilemma and personality, which builds his character.

 

[Azarkon]

Really, you felt the same way about Edér when you started the game and when you were done with it?
What about Aloth? Did you feel the same way about him too?
Durance also tells you that Magran is a bitch and he's mad at her right as you meet him.

Eder's only significant development in the entire game happens during the encounter with Maerwald in Act 1. Everything else - his back story, his prior beliefs, his loss of faith - he tells you almost immediately. For thematic purposes, his quest to find out what happened to his brother is ultimately futile, and after whining about it briefly, he shuts up for the rest of the game. That's his entire narrative. What am I suppose to feel?

If by "shuts up for the rest of the game" you mean "doesn't aggressively engage in conversation with you", then maybe, although I'm pretty sure he still initiates conversation at least once after his quest is done. But you can ask him questions yourself, especially in Act III when you find out the Gods are fabricated, and get more insight into his dilemma and personality, which builds his character.

Why stop there? Given you're going to use this argument, then you might as well say that every time characters react to events in the game, it builds their character, and you're right - it does. But building is not the same as developing; building can just be reinforcing: having the character repeat what you already know about them. Eder's response to Iovara's revelation is a reinforcement of what you already know - he basically says "man, gods are fake. can you believe that? oh well, guess it doesn't matter now. I wonder if my brother would've went off if he knew the gods were fake or if I didn't fight with him the morning of? guess I'll never know, but hey, this sort of justifies me fighting against Waidwen, but then again I'd have done so either way." It fits the personality we've always known Eder to have, but I don't think it changes him as a character. He finds validation, in a way, and perhaps Fenstermaker was going for a "Eder discovers that what matters in the end is not gods or ideologies, but family and feelings," but because Eder never struck us as much of a follower of gods or ideologies, to begin with, and his conflict of faith was never built up as much as, say, Durance's, it becomes a trivial detail. Maybe that was Fenstermaker's goal, or maybe he wanted the "I fought with my brother the morning of" detail to be a bigger deal than it was. Either way, I don't think he succeeded in the journey the character took to get there, and that's the problem.

 

[santino27]

I'm at the very beggining and im flooded with obvious "faction A or faction B" choices that I already hate because obviously they are going to force me to choose one somewhere in the plot probably.

There are three factions and you can choose none of them.

Can you still use all companions or the ones with faction alignment ditch you?

All companions, but if you betray their ideals and choose their archenemy side , they will pout!.One whole line of text saying they are not happy about it but still stay and everything goes back to normal.

I had to convince Barik to stick around in a rebel playthrough. Had him straight up and leave my party when I went anarchist and didn't kiss his ass to stay,

 

[Commissar Draco]

I'm at the very beggining and im flooded with obvious "faction A or faction B" choices that I already hate because obviously they are going to force me to choose one somewhere in the plot probably.

There are three factions and you can choose none of them.

Can you still use all companions or the ones with faction alignment ditch you?

All companions, but if you betray their ideals and choose their archenemy side , they will pout!.One whole line of text saying they are not happy about it but still stay and everything goes back to normal.

I had to convince Barik to stick around in a rebel playthrough. Had him straight up and leave my party when I went anarchist and didn't kiss his ass to stay,

Yes its all depends at their fear and loyalty which not exclude one another which is great innovation in the game; I also chuckled at Graven Ashe protects... they indeed make them into Imperial Fists; game has its moment but its showelware akin to Heretic Kingdoms... only the latter had much more fun combat.

 

[Haplo]

Well color me surprised, I'm actually having fun playing this after a few restarts and changed character concepts.
Initially I was put off by the lack of detail compared with PoE, lack of classes and focus, the skill cooldowns.
But now, I even kinda like the combat. Playing on PotD, so characters can get KO'd real fast and I guess this risk makes the combat more interesting.

The spell creation system is pure gold.
Sure, I metagame a lot to steer the faction/ally reputation where I want it to be... and reap the skill rewards. I found I don't mind it much though. But hey, maybe I'm a bit of an instant gratification guy after all.
Would the game be better if there were actual consequences and actual discipline, characters had integrity and were ruthless and consequent also in their interactions with the PC? Sure the game would really rock then. But I can live with what we got. It's a bit different beast - and a very refreshing and entertaining one.

There's only one thing that's very jarring for me and which I don't think I can come to terms with - the horrible, fugly 3d model "portraits". That's really a major fail. Static painted portraits would have been 1000x better.

 

[Mei Scarlet]

but does NOT reveal to you that: 1) he made the Godhammer

He does though, I'm replaying PoE right now and have just recruited Durance. He told me about his part in Godhammer right in the first conversation. Not in the details but he didn't make it a huge secret. But yeah, Durance is great and I'm glad to have him in my party again.