Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Catch-All

PoE 2 Kickstarter wrote:

Why We're Asking For Your Help

In addition to localizing the game in both French and German languages, funding this campaign allows us to include multiclassing. This would offer players and companions alike the chance to branch their available skills over time, opening the way for more opportunities for the role-playing and customization that our fans deserve. Choice, as ever, is vital to the experience of role-playing games. By taking levels in multiple classes, your characters will be able to evolve in new and unique ways.

Wait wah? PoE 2 will have multi-classing in addition to sub-classing?
Yes, yes, yes!

That all sounds good but between the way DLC and updates already make playing games like Wasteland 2, POE, and Divine Divinity feel like early access games on launch the upgrades they describe for POE 2 just make me wonder if I should wait for a POE complete trilogy thing with all upgrades to come out and get that on sale a year after it's out. Granted that's at least 6+ years out if it ever happens so all told it's not really a fair thing to hold against them. But still I wonder.

ubrakto wrote:
Malor wrote:

I mean.... it was dull as dishwater, dull as dishwater, dull as dishwater... then holy-crap fascinating. I spent a long time thinking about the implications of the Big Reveal, and how the world might change.

Very much looking forward to PoE2. Gonna be a long wait.

I liked the journey getting their fine, but I think that's very fair criticism. I'm curious to find out, with a second run, if knowing the end game makes the early and mid-game more interesting.

PoE:2 is riding the high wave of how I feel about DOS:02 and RPG sequels right now (after poking around the EA a bit, D:OS feels like it was a tech demo for the systems, engines, art where story came second). Likewise, Wasteland3 (which I'm looking at as NewWasteland:2) shows possible signs of similar give-it-life improvement. Here's hoping they can clear our expectation bar.
--
edit/aside: I think that POE suffered from a combination of show me instead of tell me and, while I personally found the initial premise interesting, the staring info dump vs the execution didn't leave me invested in my character's plight. If you look at it on paper then, 'oh sh*t I better get to the bottom of this', but in-game I was 'ok.. um .. sure, if you guys say so'.

My general take on intros[ later edit: the intro area of the game rather, as opposed to the 'into' oops/derp] is that you're better served to spin up something high-octane but relatively 'real-world' (grounded) to kick open the gates before you mess with folks mind or introduce the interesting bits as a side avenue into the plot. Shipwrecks, jails-breaks, surprise assaults on the castle, etc may be mundane in and of themselves, but I feel they're necessary hooks (and also give a better chance to make at least some character defining decisions) before you get hit with something crazy about soul reincarnation. PoE's opening area really didn't help to cement or define the type of character I was going to be.

edit 2: there are other ways around this, of course. T:ToN grabs my attention as a player (after char gen) with a couple of dark screens, subtle background audio effect, and a few, short lines of text. At that point I'm ready for the crazy before it even really starts.

Pledged. It is nice that they give a $5 credit at any tier about $29 for previous backers.

Stay classy Obsidian!

Currently, everything is either per encounter or based on a resource that builds up (i.e. resources like Focus, Phrases, or Wounds).

The per rest resource is Empower. Every character has a certain number of Empowers per rest. When you click Empower, your active abilities will highlight, allowing you to click on one to boost its effect. The effect may be more projectiles, a longer duration, more damage/healing, etc. A wizard could empower a Minoletta's Minor Missiles, adding missiles. A fighter could empower Vigorous Defense, increasing the bonuses.

Sounds like it could be a great improvement.
As much as I loved PoE combat, Per Rest abilities were not part of it. Nor did I like it in D&D games.
This way, all abilities can be used in all encounters.
Unless they made abilities so weak that you have to empower them, would obviously be bad.

Shadout wrote:
Currently, everything is either per encounter or based on a resource that builds up (i.e. resources like Focus, Phrases, or Wounds).

The per rest resource is Empower. Every character has a certain number of Empowers per rest. When you click Empower, your active abilities will highlight, allowing you to click on one to boost its effect. The effect may be more projectiles, a longer duration, more damage/healing, etc. A wizard could empower a Minoletta's Minor Missiles, adding missiles. A fighter could empower Vigorous Defense, increasing the bonuses.

Sounds like it could be a great improvement.
As much as I loved PoE combat, Per Rest abilities were not part of it. Nor did I like it in D&D games.
This way, all abilities can be used in all encounters.
Unless they made abilities so weak that you have to empower them, would obviously be bad.

Agreed. I had completely forgotten about how the per rest stuff worked and was quickly reminded that it just meant I wasn't using my Wizards abilities as effective. This seems like a very good alternative.

^ I like it. I'd always end up sitting on those abilities in case I really needed them for some boss type that might pop up. Which of course, you don't have a good handle on the first time through. Also, anything that undermines the 'need' (urge) to meta is ok in my book.

https://www.fig.co/campaigns/deadfire?update=263#updates

The relationship system sounds great. I know Josh and Obsidian were against having Bioware-like romances and so this more real and branching system seems right up their alley.

Also, the video

Anyone thinking of replaying the original in light of Pillars 2 being announced, Paradox are currently selling the White March expansion pass (both DLCs) for about $16 I think (I paid £11 here in the UK as video games are one of the few thing that haven't skyrocketed in price thanks to the Brexit vote.)

Very much looking forward to this. Looked at restarting a new Pillars 1 campaign last night, I'd forgotten how involved it all is trying to figure out a good build for a specific class. Ho hum.

The big city!

The parallax effect and scripted interaction screens look so nice.

Sorbicol wrote:

Anyone thinking of replaying the original in light of Pillars 2 being announced, Paradox are currently selling the White March expansion pass (both DLCs) for about $16 I think (I paid £11 here in the UK as video games are one of the few thing that haven't skyrocketed in price thanks to the Brexit vote.)

Very much looking forward to this. Looked at restarting a new Pillars 1 campaign last night, I'd forgotten how involved it all is trying to figure out a good build for a specific class. Ho hum.

Thanks... I almost bit and then realized that it is for the Steam version. I bought mine through GoG.
I'm playing rather than "replaying" though. I have owned PoE for a while but don't game on the PC much these days... was quite a fan of Baldur's Gate II though, so I couldn't pass it up... just took me a while.

50% off of tyrrany for the 45 dollar level I backed at (with $5 off for being a previous backer )
Love these guys! I hadn't picked up tyranny yet, so this is the perfect excuse

Tyranny is very good. My only real complaint about it is that you have to make choices of who to back before you understand what that really means and what they'll want you to do. There doesn't seem to be any way to nope out of supporting someone who turns out to be a jerk.

Tyranny is very good. My only real complaint about it is that you have to make choices of who to back before you understand what that really means and what they'll want you to do. There doesn't seem to be any way to nope out of supporting someone who turns out to be a jerk.

I'm pretty sure that is the whole reason for the game to exist. You wouldn't play a choose your own adventure and lament that there is no undo to get you out of the quicksand trap so that you can go feed the wild dog from a couple of pages ago that will catch the rope your bartered the meat (that could have fed the dog) for instead of the useless trinket you found in your pocket on page one when you awoke in a dark and mysterious place?

As far as I remember you can turn on the group you supported initially. Probably cant jump over to support anyone else. But why would you, when you can support yourself.
Sounds like Tyranny has sold very poorly. Quite a shame.

You wouldn't play a choose your own adventure and lament that there is no undo

I think you're misunderstanding. You have to choose to support someone before you understand what that means. In other words: "I'll help Joe." Joe tells you to go kill some bad guys, and then go kill some not-so-bad guys, and then demands that you do something unspeakable in front of your mother. There's no way to not horrify your mom; you can't say, "this far, but no farther." Once you've chosen someone, you'll back them all the way.

It's a frustrating design. They've got a ton of choices to explore, but you can't make the choices with any knowledge. The only way to know that Joe will demand unspeakable acts is by already having played the game. Once you're backing Joe, there's no escape hatch. It's be unspeakable, or stop playing.

edit with more info: plus, the choices are very binary and very early. When you first meet a faction, the choices seem to pretty much be "Hi, let's be friends, I'll do anything you ask", "I refuse to interact with you in any way" (leaving the other two choices open), or "I'm going to kill you all and defile your corpses." And this frequently happens when you first meet, before you know anything about who they are or what they're trying to accomplish.

I found the initial choices to be like that, Malor, but nearly everything after that you can actively work against who you backed.

^ I can see where Malor is coming from to a degree...

One faction (of the three; and there are four broad ways to 'start' from that point) seems a clear pick for the 'good-ish' route, but it's hard to open up the one option. You have to hit several early notes just right with them. It makes perfect sense given the direct opposition of A and B vs them. Perhaps they could have loosened the requirements up, a tiny bit, to get in with the underdogs.

Big spoiler

Spoiler:

as I recall you can betray either the Chorus or the Disfavored but that doesn't opt you into VG, just anarchy -- which has some neat stuff but a little more hollow. Actually lining up for the Vendrien Guard requires you putting your neck on the line a good three(?) times before to get them to reach out to you prior to that battle

A lot of folks probably thought, at least the first time through, that it was off the table and that their choice was A vs B (or the neither option). Under that assumption side B is less horrific than A, but they're still hard to back unless if you are 'RP ok' with being a less bad, bad guy. To be fair, the main reason I had the 'VG' option is because I was trying to subvert both sides in what I expected was coming down the pipe (I just wasn't sure how it'd play out). When they approached me just before the split, in my head, I was like 'well those things were less for your benefit than mine, but hey maybe we can be each other's out here.'

As complete aside, I love the irony that Tyranny, of all games, is one of the few RPGs where I feel like I was actually the good guy. It was a satisfying change as I usually play the sleeper bad guy that takes control of 'the powah' at the end of an RPG.

Open world exploration and your own ship!

https://www.fig.co/campaigns/deadfire?update=277#updates

This game looks incredible. Only two days left but I hope they miraculously hit all the stretch goals.

5 million for another companion. Seems nearly impossible that will happen. Even if they count post-Fig money into it (supposedly they will allow paypal on their own site after Fig campaign ends).
4m is very likely happening at least.

The ship options are cool!

https://www.twitch.tv/obsidian
Looks like it wont hit 4.5 million
Well, at least not before paypal pledges.

They did a little better than they did on Kickstarter for PoE1; considering the relatively unknown status of Fig, and the sharply cooled attitude toward backing games, they did very well indeed.

Malor wrote:

They did a little better than they did on Kickstarter for PoE1; considering the relatively unknown status of Fig, and the sharply cooled attitude toward backing games, they did very well indeed.

Yeah, definitely.

That there was a stretch goal for 5mil I think just shows they wanted to be prepared this time since they were caught by surprise last time and had to scramble to put together goals.

And that speaks to how expectations change. That we weren't wondering whether this would get funded but by how overfunded it would be

Woooooooo!

I hope they make 5 million with slacker backers somehow.

Wayfarer wrote:

50% off of tyrrany for the 45 dollar level I backed at (with $5 off for being a previous backer )
Love these guys! I hadn't picked up tyranny yet, so this is the perfect excuse

Yeah, I just totally noticed that after I pledged. Awesome! How do we access that coupon? Do we have to wait until the game is launched?

They did well enough, but its worth remembering that half the funds on Fig is the "investment" stuff (which will eat into their post-release profits), so only really ~2 million from backers. Seems hard to imagine another 600k from slacker backers.
Both the 4.5 and 4.75 goals seemed decent too though, 4.5 should be given, and 4.75 might be possible.

Budo wrote:
Wayfarer wrote:

50% off of tyrrany for the 45 dollar level I backed at (with $5 off for being a previous backer )
Love these guys! I hadn't picked up tyranny yet, so this is the perfect excuse

Yeah, I just totally noticed that after I pledged. Awesome! How do we access that coupon? Do we have to wait until the game is launched?

I just checked the backers portal at https://eternity.obsidian.net/backer and it says that pledges will be imported approximately 30 days after the campaign ends. So I imagine we will get our coupons in about a month.

Ah, ok. Thanks! I was concerned I missed something.

The one thing I missed in PoE is that there were no eastern weapons and armour (no katana, sai, naginata); I'm sure it's to do with the lore clashing but BG2 managed to sneak some in.