So … maybe not the proper thread for this… but Pillars of Eternity II can be pre-ordered.
https://www.greenmangaming.com/games/pillars-of-eternity-ii-deadfire-standard-edition-pc/
I know there’s a code or two floating around that will let you get 10% off.
Is there a thread for POE2? I know Scott has put up a couple of videos but I don’t think it was in a dedicated thread.
There’s a PoE2 thread here:
So 2.5 years after my first go around that flamed out in the first third of the game, I am back for a second try. This time I rolled up an Elven Ranger (I know, so original) with a wolf pet. Having a pet that can both scout and act as a roadblock/tank makes playing a ranged character very enjoyable. The game has also had several updates/expansions since I first played, and seems to be more fluid/stable/approachable now. Just as in my first go around, I love the nostalgic feel of the game, like I’m playing a sequel to all those old Bioware/Black Isle RPGs I loved so much.
Oh, and this time through I found @Desslock! Nice little backstory. I could not bring myself to murder him, but he may have benefitted from the fact that plate is inefficient for a Ranger anyway.
Rangers are legit! I grabbed the NPC ranger on my current playthrough with the intention of replacing her with another character found shortly thereafter, but she (and her badass fox) are too awesome and have forced me to keep them around.
So much damage. Really excellent single-target shredding.
Agreed. I now have several party members as I picked up the mage and the fighter in Gilded Vale and the cleric guy on the road. This means I can pretty much select the strongest target from a group and sick my wolf on it while directing my character to fill it full of arrows (after using one of the combat abilities) while the rest of the party attacks the remaining critters. Seems to be working fairly well thus far.
I’d forgotten how beautiful the music is in Pillars of Eternity. The only problem is that I usually play at night, in the hour or two before bed, and the music is so soothing and relaxing that it’s making me sleepy as I play!
Razgon
3088
Dammit people - I’ve tried this three times, and stopped various places, mostly near the city (I hate cities in games - so much wasted time) - This is making me pine for another round!
Has anyone tried it on the consoles and can tell if they are any good there as well?
Curious about this myself I just watched a little random PS4 footage on YouTube. It’s probably fine, but one thing I can tell would drive me nuts is having to press a button to highlight stuff on the screen to get the same info a mouse-over would provide.
I can also imagine inventory management is a bit of a nightmare, but maybe they’ve solved that somehow. Either way, it’s probably sub-optimal to play on console, and likely unnecessary as even a potato can run Pillars of Eternity.
Razgon
3090
Thanks for the feedback @Scotch_Lufkin - its more of a convenience thing, and of course the fact that often my GF likes to watch the games I play, and comment on them, so it sorta becomes a couples thing.
I played on a console (PS4) and thought it was fine, a little fiddly but in general not bad. The micromanagement necessary during combat got a bit painful, of course that’s true on PC as well but would be faster. I did eventually lose the will to continue after yet another combat; I think I would have lasted longer on the PC but not too much.
Then you’re gonna love that this game has two cities! And the second one was a stretch goal! Yaaaay…
That is one big drawback to these kind of games, the need to watch your party walk from one end of a fully explored map to the other just to reach the Inn, or the Smithy, or the transition point to wherever…even enabling the fast mode only makes it slightly less yawn inducing.
I wish that the designers of these kind of games could make signposts around the towns and villages and near transition points, and that you could just scroll your map to any previously uncovered signpost, click it, and have your party appear there. If you’ve fully explored a map, you’re unlikely to have a further encounter there, so why not allow you to sort of skip across it when need be?
fdsaion
3094
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!?”
Bateau
3096
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.
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.
