Yeah the city transitions in Pillars1 are such a pain. You can manipulate what entrance you show up at based on where you traveled from (direction) so I often choose to take an extra load screen to end up at a closer entrance to whatever building I needed to run to.
Gah! Starting to recall why I abandoned this game two years ago.
Finished Act I, and in one of the Act II quests I’m tasked with heading over to Searing Falls to do something. No sooner have I zoned into the map than I’m immediately attacked by a Drake. Party wipe.
Reload. This time since I know what’s coming I get set up a bit, then have my wolf pull the Drake back to my party. We kill it. And I scout ahead with my wolf. A Young Drake appears. Knock him down. Some xuarips appear, including a caster. Knock them down, but during the fight another Drake appears. Start fighting him, and more xaurips pour in from the fog of war. Shit…losing fight now…and…party wipe.
The annoying tendency this game has to scale from zero to holy shit in about 5 seconds really grates on my nerves. Thank the gods for autosaves. It’s obvious I need to go elsewhere, work on different quests, and come back to Searing Falls later. The entire thing is made twice as annoying by the terrible pathing AI, which insists on putting my melee characters in the path of my casters spells even when I specifically place them in safer positions around the target and place the caster way off to the side with a clear shot. Nothing pisses me off quite like hearing Eder say “Hey, watch it!” two seconds after walking himself directly into the path of Aloth’s fireblast.
On the other hand, I laughed out loud at this exchange the other night:
Eder : “Hey Sagani, does your fox bite?”
Sagani : “Yes”
Eder : “Can I pet him?”
Sagani: “It’s your hand.”
Eder (excited voice): “I’m gonna pet him!”
two game hours later
Sagani : “How’s the hand?”
Eder : “Turning purple, I may have to cut it off.”
Sagani: “I warned you not to pet him.”
Eder (pained voice): “If I’m not supposed to pet him, how come he’s so soft!?”
You’re in luck then, cities in PoE are very easy to explore and find all the quests in them. The game’s overall design is pretty tight, it shows that whoever was calling the shots actually played his game - multiple times.
Still way too much running.
I’m a bit dubious about the ship combat.
I mean there was a text based battle in pillars 1, and it was fun enough, but I wouldn’t have wanted to repeat it.
My inclination here is that it’s going to be odd going from “naval” battles to land battles.
This is the only thing keeping me from buying right now.
Then I wouldn’t worry about it, it’s going to not only be an optional bit of fun for those that get into it, but it’s also going to have a “skip” style option in the dialog that you can use to just accept some hull damage and get right to a ship to ship combat (using the normal combat system).
But do look at some official footage with Josh explaining the combat, I’d link it if I wasn’t crazy busy at work, because he really turned me around on it and I quite like it now. It’s actually kind of awesome. I would do a new video on it but I want to see if the next backer update includes some of the UI changes and overall fixes they were talking about before with ship combat first.
@BloodyBattleBrain I think we should probably take this to the Deadfire thread. :)
All part of a glorious tradition.
wrong thread
Pulled my party out of Searing Falls for now and went back to Defiance Bay to focus on rep quests to get to the point where I can access the archives for Eder’s quest. In doing so, during the catacombs quest to kill the necromancer and free a fellow Ranger’s long lost love’s spirit, I also seem to have finished Aloth’s character quest (at least, it doesn’t currently have a next step, though maybe I’ll get one of those “we should talk” icons from him soon).
I think my strategy for now will be to keep doing side quests in the city until I can get my party to 6th level, reach the required reputation, and maybe swap out someone for the Paladin to add extra melee power to the party. I may try enchanting some of my equipment as well.
Yeah, you were way early to Searing Falls. That’s the hardest stuff in Act 2. There’s a mini-dungeon in Defiance Bay that can be extremely tough as well, but nothing like the freaking nonstop all night till the breaka-breaka-dawn drake party in Searing Falls.
So the strategy of returning to Defiance Bay and focusing on tasks there has paid off tremendously. My party is now Level 6, nearly Level 7, I’ve gained enough faction with the city to have advanced Eder’s quest, I’ve made several upgrades to the party’s equipment (both found items and purchased), and the stronghold is coming along nicely as well.
I may need to hire a few more NPCs at the stronghold though, as I just received a message that an attack by spirits and primordial is going to happen soon. Is it better to be there in person when such an attack happens?
I’ve also finished the Heritage Hill and it’s tower maps and quest line. That was pretty cool, lots of little story beats nestled inside the overall plotline there. Also very lucrative for my party both in loot and in experience/reputation.
I’m one step away from being able to add the Paladin to my party. First though, I may head out and try to finish off Sagani’s (the Ranger) quest. She is the party member I would most likely replace with the Paladin. Aloth, Eder and Kana are too useful to leave behind, so it’s pretty much between Sagani and Durance, and now that I’m getting more adept at using Durance’s clerical skills, I don’t want to give him up. Another heavy melee character would be nice up front, especially now that fights tend to have larger amounts of critters at one time.
Yeah, usually if you aren’t there buildings get damaged and NPC hirlings die and you have to rebuild/repair and it’s kind of a PITA. It’s really not a big deal though, by the end of every play through I generally stopped caring unless I was in the area anyway. I’m glad they are expanding on the stronghold quite a lot in the sequel for sure.
Glad you are enjoying it! PoE1 continues to be one of my favorite things!
Not to spoil anything, but Sagani’s quest isn’t something you can really blitz through where you’re at. I wouldn’t make that a priority. It’ll come.
Heh, I figured that out a bit last night when, on the very first leg of the quest, I ran into a pack of Feral Druids that came damn close to total party wiping me. Then it became obvious that chasing her quest was going to lead me well beyond the borders of where I needed to be for everything else I was doing, so I shelved it.
On the bright side, I successfully defended the stronghold (another very tough fight) and have opened up Dyrford Village and it’s quests, so I have plenty to keep me busy. Also found the Druid companion and sent him back to the stronghold. I may still swap out Sagani for the Paladin lady back in Defiance Bay, as I can always pick Sagani up again when I’m ready for her quest. I really wish the party limit was 8 instead of 6…
I am still really enjoying my solo run as a Monk. I just won the big pitched battle and now at the druid/elf town thingy on the lower right of the map. Very fun. My fists of fury are kinda awesome :)
I am a little stuck. I’m doing the Gilded Vale quests, finished Buried Secrets, The Smith’s Shipment, Against the Grain and Late for Dinner. The only quest left is Lord of a Barren Land, but the soldiers there wipe the floor with my party. My character is Lvl4.
Should I do something else and come back later after levelling? There are a couple of locations on the over world map, but I don’t know which one I’m supposed to head to next, or am I supposed to treat this game as open world and just randomly explore?
How many people do you have in your party? Iirc you can have 5 when you tackle that quest - PC, Durance, Eder, Aloth and Kana. Level 4 should be fine.
I had a similar issue, decided to move on to the Keep and then Defiance Bay, leveled up my party, expanded it to 6 (8 if you count pets), then went back and wiped the floor with everyone that wiped it with me previously. =)
I found that if I set the combat to the slowest time setting it helped immensely. Also, a good cleric is essential. I forget the names of the spells (maybe somebody can help) but there are a couple that aoe regenerate endurance and offer good buffs debuffs. Sometimes you just need to comeback to an area.
One last thought is the wizard crowd control spells like grease, etc. And the confusion spell is a game changer but that’s a lot higher level than what you get at level 4.
I got 4 people. The only named NPC i have is Aloth, the other 2 I recruited from the inn keep. I guess I’m really bad at this game. Where can I find these other guys?
I guess I’ll be off to some other locations first.