The difficulty level screwed my enjoyment of the AI editor as well. In the beginning I had to micromanage everything and was still learning the system so I couldn’t use the AI for much. Now that I understand things the default AI is more than sufficient to steamroll everything. All I do is select the entire party and pick the targets one at a time.
The AI really needs targeting rules I can modify or expand on. The current few choices suck.
Spend them where / how?
As you earn achievements you also earn “Berath’s Blessing” points that can be spent on New Games to add additional goodies, such as a vendor that sells magic gear early in the game, starting with a higher captain’s rank, starting at level 4, having a bonus to your stats, having the entire map revealed, and etc. There are quite a few, but because I had done so much in the game on my first play through I had 70 points, which was enough to buy every single blessing except playing with the map revealed (which I don’t think I would like anyway - I like to know where I haven’t been yet). Those points can be spent every time you start a new game to get different bonuses, and I believe the plan post-release is to expand on the list and even introduce hindrances to make the game more challenging, but I can’t find where I saw that now, so grain of salt.
Thanks. So you can only spend them when starting a new game?
That’s correct.
I’ve been fiddling around with restarting multiple times, and even I’ve earned 18 Breath’s Blessing points, so when I started my last game I used 15 for the +1 to each stat for the Watcher and the remaining 3 points for the choice that (I think) doubles your attributes at start (the Mechanics, Stealth, etc, points you get).
A lot of the Berath’s Blessing rewards don’t seem that meaningful to me - stuff like starting at level 4, or having 5k (or even 50k, really) gold to spend - or even having the map explored. I figured those things will all happen eventually, so why choose something that’s effectively a shortcut. That’s why I picked things that gave a bonus you can’t get otherwise.
The best is that early game trader, because he sells great stuff at a high but reasonable price for the mid-game that you can sail back to and pick up as needed, imo.
Y’know, when I first read about that guy I thought “eh, I’ll be picking up good stuff soon enough” - but after seeing that inventory list, it does seem like that’s a very good choice.
Hey thanks! I have a few blessings and I’ve been trying to evaluate their worth for the second play through.
How many hours is a typical first play through?
I think at 50 they also start giving part ownership in Obsidian.
There for subsequent “full” playthroughs, I think. For when you want to play again but don’t want to do certain things, e.g. explore the map. The money would matter for the magic item trader person, so you could further load up and start out like a boss.
I agree starting at level 4 is mostly just “whatever”, especially since you’re likely to turn on level scaling.
I wonder if with a game like this they would be better off making the path less open so they could have more control over how the content is accessed. I’m still not very far into the game because I don’t have the desire to play this for large amounts of time. I’m playing on veteran. Most battles can be handled by just selecting all and attacking a target, maybe using some abilities to be more efficient.
So far I went from the starting location to do the quest at Fort Deadfire, then to the island that started with N. This started to kill the game for me because I always feel like I need to go through towns and talk to everyone and it just kills the momentum. I know I don’t have to, but it’s one of those compulsions. I did a couple quests in the city and talked to the queen.
I decided to go down into the pit in the poor area of town and am glad I did. I’m fighting enemies that have 3 skulls of difficulty and am barely winning some of them.
Count me in the group that likes the country bumpkin priest. How could someone not be happy travelling around with her. She’s adorable.
The game looks great, the story and characters are pretty good - they just didn’t tune the combat again, just like in PoE1.
Edit: I just had a great battle down there that I lost. Made it closer than I thought I would. I knew it would be a doozy when I initiated it.
I just tried that fight again and won on the second try. I wish more fights could have that tension and force me to use buffs and the other tools at my disposal. It’s kind of an example of what the game can be.
They had to focus on bug fixing to get it out in as polished a state as possible, and will go back and tune Veteran and PotD post-release. Making the game extra challenging wasn’t as important for launch as keeping the bugs down.
I agree if the choice is one or the other squashing bugs is the one to focus on.
Robc04 I skipped that fortress attack until way later. I think after doing it at level 12 or so it was meant to be an earlier gold startup.
I think there is probably some smother play that will open up after a few patches next 6 months. I may roll back to Pillars one and play a monk group.
Soooo, after watching @Scotch_Lufkin 's video I 'm thinking I can mostly play this game without micromanaging. Is that possible? The party will basically do it’s best and heal when necessary as best it can? Should I set individual targets or have everyone whomp on one at a time?
On normal difficulty or “core” or whatever is medium: yes they fight very well on straight ai.
Depends on your difficulty level but the answer is pretty much yes. The stock scripts will get you through the hardest difficulty level minus the first 6-7 levels where you have to micromanage. After that its all hands off minus picking priority targets.
Almost finished with my first playthrough and will be looking forward to the next DLC and balance tuning. I really want to play again with a fully custom made party, not that I didn’t like the premade ones.