The main map is brown. All character interface and inventory screens are brown. Interiors are all brownity brown, lit brownly for maximum brownness.
I mean, even in the top screenshot, where the actual game area looks a lovely lush green…look at all the brown! The vertical bars on the left. The chat/info box on the right. The borders on the hotbar.
I mean it’s fine and all. But it’s just so damned brown. (Even so, it isn’t as brown as Tyranny, so kudos to the devs for that.)
I never thought of it as Brown. More of a Sepia like in printed game manuals. It was what actually drew me to the game in the first screenshots.
Jeeze, you uncultured oaf – read a book sometime, why don’t ya?!
The game is clearly modeled after the Pathfinder Core Rulebook, which is the brownest goddamned thing.
My god. It’s full of brown.
(And while I am goofing on that palette choice–which apparently is completely consistent with the overall brownness of the original game I have since learned–I am really loving it so far. Has connected with me more than Divinity or POE did, I think.)
It reminded me of how much I’d grown to hate the tabletop game? :-D
Okay, so more seriously, when I was still playing it, it was still a buggy mess with a terribly implemented strategy game strapped on (see above comments about how the kingdom management was essentially only an additional way to lose that didn’t provide functional benefits and mostly just acted as a money sink and tedium generator). The balance implementation took all the worst habits from the tabletop game and amped them up to 11, while lying about what it was doing. And it implemented just enough of the TTRPG’s ruleset to make the omissions–that would have made mixmaxing to deal with the absurd difficulty jumps much, much easier and even more fun, in a sick sort of way–even more glaring.
In the interim, I hear that they’ve fixed a lot. They’ve added a lot. You can probably finish the game now and only lose a couple of companions to quest-devouring bugs. There is a modicum of control over high level gear (vital, since the virtually required Weapon Focus feat chain and related mechanics lock you onto one weapon style early on).
But I haven’t played that new, fixed up game. Just the kinda hilariously broken one released in 2018. Which I absolutely wouldn’t recommend to people I like.
I’m going to give this another shot in a few months, once all the major bugs are ironed out, the kingdom mechanics are totally revamped, the planned DLC hole-plugs are released, and things are just generally better all-around. And when I do I might regret leaving it off my list of 1. But for now, eh, I’m pretty okay with where I stand.
Not speaking for anyone else, but my inability to actually complete the game kept it off the list, much to my chagrin.
I found the Kingdom stuff to be OK. But I think they were saddled with it, along with the middling over-arching plot, when they chose their source material. Everyone definitely has to read how Kingdom Management works and even then you probably want to put it on Effortless difficulty. Because ultimately it’s just a die role.
There’s a tiny bit of control over high level gear when your craftsman come before you and you can tell them what you want them to make for next time, but the options are limited. And I kept trying to tell them to create their “Magnum Opus” creation and none of them ever did. Hopefully that was (or will be) fixed.
BTW, there’s a guy who created a pretty solid item crafting mod, along with the necessary feats and costs. You might want to look into that.
I was able to finish the game, though the last two chapters were terribly difficult. And at the final boss I threw my hands up and lowered the difficulty to Story Mode.
I’m really looking forward to another play through when all the DLC drops.
This is me as well, I’m actually really excited about the prospect. I did this with PoE 2 and am enjoying going through all the DLC with a new party of companions I didn’t use last time, and it’s amazing all over again. I hope P:K can grab me as hard when I play it a second time, because I had a blast for the first 4 or 5 chapters the first time.
That would fix one of my largest mechanics complaints about the game, certainly. Add in improved kingdom mechanics and fleshed-out DLC, and I’ll be genuinely excited to play it later this year :)
We come from brown, and we return to brown…it seems to say…
Wow AP. That is serious.
I am almost scared to play after Lufkin’s observations about the late game. I was having a big time with it in Chapter 1 but…
Should I be waiting? Modding it? or just slugging through?
I think this game is gonna be way, way more fun for anyone pushing through to the end three months and a dozen cool mods from now. Doesn’t mean you might not have a blast with it now, but for me, at least, it’s worth waiting on :)
It hadn’t occurred to me to mod before now, but I just jumped into the game tonight after adding the fast movement, exit to map from anywhere and visual changes (so I could get rid of my Inquisitor’s dumb hat) mods and those alone make a pretty nice difference.
That’s a pretty impressive mod. I guess he did the UI in the Unity mod manager but it takes into account what’s happening in the game for resting and actually creating your item.
Didn’t the devs say this mod would break stuff? Wasn’t there a warning in the mod description saying not to use it?
Edit now that I’m a PC - yeah, on Nov 1st developer said not to use this mod as it would break companions scripts. On Nov 2nd the mod author said he was working on addressing those concerns, but, there has been no update on this issue. I wouldn’t touch it with a 10’ pole.
I typically manage to avoid most bugs in games (somehow) but I’ve managed to lose one of my party already. Very early on with Amiri and the Tuskgutter. First she was duplicated so I tried to remove her from the party then add her back. Now she’s gone altogether and not back at Oleg’s.
Seems there’s no way to fix it other than reloading but my last save before the bug was a few hours previous. I might just shelve this for a few months after all. And I didn’t even get through chapter 1…
If you’re playing on the latest patches and not a launch version…holy hell how is this bug still there?