About what i've said that is very hard to solo P:K due the resting system, depends the build. Here is an guy soloing and deity on UNfair (obviously spoilers)
I don't enjoy create min/maxing chars, but looks like in order to solo this game, i will be unable to do RP builds, so i will try again with an mid sized party(4 guys) and now that i know what to expect, i will probably not be forced to increase my party size, since since the beginning i will know what i an expecting.
Kingdom management being designed as such a huge part of this game, and also critically tied in to the main story of the game, is one of the main reasons I stopped playing it. It frankly made the whole game not very much fun for me, with all the arbitrary time limits and storyline quests being dependent on certain kingdom events and attacks.
In PoE, the very difficult and ultimately irrelevant Caed Nua management and dungeon diving that was part of it was also a reason that game ultimately failed for me.
World of Warcraft made a similar mistake with both Warlords of Draennor and Legion, mostly because, in their case, since their business is based on releasing new expansions at least every two years, they always rendered previous "strongholds" parts of their game completely irrelevant to new, leveling players, and a complete waste of time. They restricted flight, an established crucial part of their game, behind the completion of stronghold quests in both WoD and Legion. I think this was a very terrible mistake on their part. Their player base is withering, and now they are trying to re-release the very first version of their game from way back in the early 2000's as "Classic", to desperately hang on to their constantly shrinking remaining player base, who are getting older and susceptible to nostalgia-based marketing ploys.
Baldur's Gate 2 and also Neverwinter Nights 2 got it right. There were strongholds that roleplaying players could really get into, and to feel like they were making a difference with their leadership of those strongholds, if they used their imaginations and were immersed into their characters. But, mechanically, they made no difference to the final outcome of the game or to the player's story, and were completely optional. You could succeed in those D&D games with pretty much no penalty if you chose to ignore the strongholds completely.
I've said before, my opinion is that, although PKM is a very good D&D simulation if you can work around a lot of its flaws, centering it on kingdom management was a very bad mistake.
Yes, I know, turn it down, turn it off, blah, blah. Doing that doesn't change the base design flaw in the story, as far as I can tell. I guess maybe I might try it again at some point in the future if anybody can honestly tell me that the main story of the game isn't damaged in any way by doing that. But heck, within the first hours of the game, the main story puts you in charge of this kingdom and tells you that managing it is your main priority and your character's motivation, so I really don't see how this (sorry, I think it's bad) story could be improved by turning that off.
EDIT: LOL, this comment turned out to be my 5000th, and got me a new forum badge. My 4000th was also kind of negative. In fact, my 4000th comment was part of a brouhaha that got started when a couple of forum friends and I started a guild in the Neverwinter MMO, that ended very, very badly. I wonder if the universe is trying to tell me something via karma about refraining from posting negative, critical comments of games online?
Well you are 100% right about World of Warcraft in it's current state. I've been playing since Ulduar came out, and I know this game like the back of my hand. At a certain point, Blizzard started inplementing features that they then completey abandon 2 years later. It started with the farm in Pandaria, was massively expanded with Garrisons, and made slightly better by Legion class halls. The problem with all of it is that it is useless and pointless outside of it's 20 month window.
Take the transition from Legion to Battle for Azeroth. Legion was, by any measure, a hail mary pass to save the game. The threw EVERYTHING into it. From a lore persepctive, what happend in Legion was what anyone who has followed the franchise for years would have assumed would be the final confrontation, which is the impossible showdown with Sargeras.
To aid in this, they introduced DOZENS of specialization specific weapons of lore for your characters to wield. WoW long ago become a power simulator, and this was it. You were wielding and levleing up the most powerful pieces of equipment imaginable to take on an unbeatable foe. And it was kinda great despite the game's problems.
And what do they do instead of keeping them going forward and finding new and interesting ways to expand the concept?? They drain them if all their power and make them as obsolete as Garrisons and Argent Tournament dailies. You go from wielding the Ashbringer or Doomhammer to hoping to get a green "Monkey Axe of the Fireflash" at level 111. And they added ANOTHER expansion specific progression system, which is just a bastardized version of the weapons (a necklace) that is worse in every way.
There is a damn good reason Classic is currently FAR more anticipated than new patches for the current game. Even with all it's tediousness and lack of modern features, it is still VASTLY superior to the interactive slot machine the game has become.
Not to tangent too much but I've been playing WoW since Burning Crusade and I've been watching a lot of videos on classic and I realize there's a lot of cool D&D-ish stuff that was in Classic-Wrath that got stripped from Cata onwards. Despite being an advocate of no race/class restrictions and Classic having the most, I'm willing to deal with that for all the cool flavorful stuff.
@jjstraka34 and @Vallmyr , LOL, good to see that at least two people heard me about "centering games on garrisons or kingdoms", and could sympathize with my problem about WoW.
Although, of course, yet again, I recently just paid the subscription fee for one month, and leveled a druid from 1-105, out of pure nostalgia, joined a guild to talk to many interesting people, made enough gold from gathering profs to get my druid 'looms upgraded to 3/4, get fastest flight, enjoy wearing "Loremaster" above my head, and at least start on "Pathfinder of Draennor" so my future 1-x characters could fly there, before I unsubbed at the end of that one month to play NWN:EE with @Arvia
I also made up an rp backstory for my nelf, and of course was using TRP3, in case I wanted to do that, since I always play on Moonguard, and had some fun with WoW player-to-player rp as well.
(I never go to old characters in WoW after a break. I *always* start again in WoW after a break all over again with a new level one toon. I credit my extensive orientation on single player games like BG and NWN for that. )
I'd still love to hear from any PK fans who love it that my completely disabling kingdom management in PK would allow me to enjoy PK without damaging or rendering irrelevant the main story of it reflected in the various event screens and dialogues.
If I can completely disable the kingdom management feature in PK without making the entire main story seem like it - I don't know exactly how to say this - "...Doesn't seem like it's referring in its entirety to a mechanical game feature that I've turned off?" ... yes, I guess that's it.... then, I'd still like to hear about that.
I had been following this thread for a time and thought I might like to try this game in the future, but the importance of kingdom management was one of the reasons that made me reconsider. I don't like it when you have to try to resolve multiple high priority issues while under a time limit. That was already kind of annoying in BG2. And stronghold management is not my favourite thing in games. If it was, I would be playing strategy games.
I have never played WoW, I'm suspicious of the concept with the monthly subscription, I think it might make developers want to drag out the time you need to resolve quests, level up your character and get good equipment and whatever. Although it's probably interesting to play with other people, I have no experience at all with multiplayer games.
BelgarathMTH i have an different opinion. Kingdom management is far different than on strategy games. You can do a lot of decisions that affects your char. For example, there are an advisor that you need to be evil to get. When someone that i will not detail betrayls you, you see it impacting your barony. Talk with your companion advisors and make decisions considering then, the quest, the kingdom and your main char and see it impacting you and the relationship of you and you4 companions is an experience that you cant have on a rts.
Kingdom management in a rpg is far different than an rts. And the game is based in a book. And note, in title the came is called pathfinder KINGMAKER. There are countless of books to make strongholds on pnp.
I would just turn kingdom management to effortless and making your kingdom invulnerable. Get the story content with your advisers with no worry about failure.
Edit: Also during the run at no point did the kingdom management interact with the main plot for me outside of one thing, the secret ending you have to research 13 curses and on auto-management its random if they will be researched or not.
Totally worth it. And holy cow, did that modder with the turn-based thing make some great progress with the UI and 5 foot step. It's like playing with tabletop miniatures and an incredibly cruel yet fair DM.
I'm about to finish POE 1 with it's expansions after nearly 180 hours of playtime. I plan to play through POE 2 but I couldn't pass up Pathfinder Kingmaker during the steam sale. I got the EE version with all of the DLC for under $50 which seems like an awful lot of content for the price. I've been watching this thread for a long time and it seems like the game is polished up and ready to play now.
After BG2 it seemed like the whole game industry decided that the isometric RTWP was a style of game that was merely a product of the hardware limitations of the time. They quickly rushed off to build the most advanced 3D games they could which led to a limited party with no RTS elements. Most RPG's these days feel like 3rd person action games that have stats. Disappointing to say the least. I can't believe Bioware never tried to capitalize on the RTWP genre after inventing it. I can see why they would want to try new things and they certainly got their time in the sun with the volley of Infinity engine titles but they never even looked back.
It's been 20 years and finally some new games are here that deliver tactical gameplay with depth thanks to the isometric view. It feels nice to actually have 2 games lined up that deliver isometric, party based, RTWP combat. I think POE 2 looks better than any of the fancy 3D games I've been watching and I have a feeling that it is going to date like a fine wine just like Baldur's Gate did.
Anyway, it will be a good long time before I leave my thoughts on this game but I thought I would share my excitement and support for Kingmaker as it looks like Obsidian got eaten by the big bad console wolf so I don't expect a POE 3 from them unless it's a different style of game. I have heard a rumor that Owlcat games is already working on a new game that may be in this vain. One can hope, somebody has to keep it alive.
I'm about to finish POE 1 with it's expansions after nearly 180 hours of playtime. I plan to play through POE 2 but I couldn't pass up Pathfinder Kingmaker during the steam sale. I got the EE version with all of the DLC for under $50 which seems like an awful lot of content for the price. I've been watching this thread for a long time and it seems like the game is polished up and ready to play now.
After BG2 it seemed like the whole game industry decided that the isometric RTWP was a style of game that was merely a product of the hardware limitations of the time. They quickly rushed off to build the most advanced 3D games they could which led to a limited party with no RTS elements. Most RPG's these days feel like 3rd person action games that have stats. Disappointing to say the least. I can't believe Bioware never tried to capitalize on the RTWP genre after inventing it. I can see why they would want to try new things and they certainly got their time in the sun with the volley of Infinity engine titles but they never even looked back.
It's been 20 years and finally some new games are here that deliver tactical gameplay with depth thanks to the isometric view. It feels nice to actually have 2 games lined up that deliver isometric, party based, RTWP combat. I think POE 2 looks better than any of the fancy 3D games I've been watching and I have a feeling that it is going to date like a fine wine just like Baldur's Gate did.
Anyway, it will be a good long time before I leave my thoughts on this game but I thought I would share my excitement and support for Kingmaker as it looks like Obsidian got eaten by the big bad console wolf so I don't expect a POE 3 from them unless it's a different style of game. I have heard a rumor that Owlcat games is already working on a new game that may be in this vain. One can hope, somebody has to keep it alive.
Yeah, PoE2's graphics are beautiful. I wouldn't write off Obsidian just yet. I think they will surprise by continuing to make good RPGs but with better financial backing behind them. So I am optimistic.
Owlcat is definitely making a second Pathfinder game. And they have said their second game will more closely adhere to the formula for a classic old-school RPG, so no more things like kingdom management and more emphasis on story and characters. Lots of guessing going on in their forum about which AP they may have chosen for it.
It is nice to know, you can never have enough d&d-based games.
I will kind of miss the "kingmaker" part of Pathfinder. They will have to change the name, nonetheless. Pathfinder: kingmaker is a tabletop game that includes kingdom management in their campaigns
I would looove Skulls and Shackles next but that has sailing as a gimmick so it’s not really a straight forward adventure.
Alternatively I like Carrion Crown, it could include the Agent of the Grave Prestige class
Yeah the general consensus on the Owlcat forum is that any AP that has some sort of mini-game part to it (like sailing in Skulls and Shackles) is out.
The other issue apparently is that Paizo is insisting that the timelines of their APs be strictly observed. So, if a second game is going to make any references to or have any connections to the first game, its AP must be chronologically after the Kingmaker AP. Alternatively, if Owlcat wants to use an AP that was published before or concurrently with Kingmaker, then the game cannot have any in-game connections to the first game. I personally strongly agree with this view, and don't see why a second game should have any in-game connections to the first game.
After the decreased sales of PO2:Deadfire that many people thinks it is because the pirate/corsair setting (or risen 2) I didn´t expect The S&S would be Owlcat´s choice. Also you have the issue of the inevitable comparison between those 2 games.
I would be cool, nonetheless. I liked the navigation system of deadfire (and the one of this mod in NWN2, I do not remember the name)
Well - I finally had to change the difficulty in my game. I had been humming along at the normal setting for most of the game, but then I finally got to the bottom of the Tenebreous Depths... and, well. Even on Story difficult, that fight took ~5 minutes and was touch and go at times.
I've really taken to the game. It's a lot of fun, and even the hard parts arent so bad now that I've got an expanded toolkit to deal with them.
It's too bad that during the character creation any form of an encyclopedia is not available, and there is no manual released with the game. For example, how is the player supposed to know what these "DC"s are.
Add to that a fact that in order to create a character you need to read a lot about different abilities/treats, and all, - it makes getting into the game not easy.
The initial dialogue you read speaks about the main quest which doesn't actually provide any incentive to go complete it. You're being said that you should go defeat a bandit gang and for that, another person will become a baron.
The first party interaction you have after that shows a bard who for some reason decided to write a book about you, from all possible people, without providing any reason, except for the warrior lady having a sword twice as big as this bard.
I spent 2 hours creating a character, reading everything I could read in-game and was still unsure of whether the character I created had good choices.
Maybe Clint Gardnersonson, a gnome Knife Master, will soon start finding his way in the River Kingdoms.
Yeah, the game has many features, but many people complain that a tutorial or a good manual would be welcome. You eventually get used to it. I mostly knew most nomenclatures because of D&D, but yeah, it is complicated to wrap your head around so many things in Character creation because the many options you have. Albeit that is one of the things I like most about the game, the many character options.
You can try builds in the DLC, but if you do that you are not playing the campaign XDD
It is a party based game and RPG game, so you couldn´t be much wrong unless you do some pretty illogical choices. (Also put some persuasion and acrobatics on your MC, there are some skill checks that are MC only, but they are optional. And with 3 acrobatics you have +1 dodge in defensive stance, but it is not mandatory. Dodge bonuses and penalties stack to your AC).
One thing you can do during the character creation, is right click on the classes on the class selection screen. Then you can actually see everything for the prestige classes, and what they get on a level up. The feat selection screen, by default, hides any feats you can't take, too, but you can change that filter with the buttons at the bottom. The huge amount of options can be daunting, at first, but I'm thankful for them being there.
It's too bad that during the character creation any form of an encyclopedia is not available, and there is no manual released with the game. For example, how is the player supposed to know what these "DC"s are.
Add to that a fact that in order to create a character you need to read a lot about different abilities/treats, and all, - it makes getting into the game not easy.
The initial dialogue you read speaks about the main quest which doesn't actually provide any incentive to go complete it. You're being said that you should go defeat a bandit gang and for that, another person will become a baron.
The first party interaction you have after that shows a bard who for some reason decided to write a book about you, from all possible people, without providing any reason, except for the warrior lady having a sword twice as big as this bard.
I spent 2 hours creating a character, reading everything I could read in-game and was still unsure of whether the character I created had good choices.
Maybe Clint Gardnersonson, a gnome Knife Master, will soon start finding his way in the River Kingdoms.
Don’t play it for the story. You’ll be very disappointed with the amount of flaws in the storytelling in the first chapter alone.
Don’t expect your character traits (class, race, deity) change anything about the story either. Alignment however will have a restrictive choices place upon you however later in the game.
The combat, mechanics, and the ability to create a plethora of uniquely different characters through all the class choices makes this good game.
It's too bad that during the character creation any form of an encyclopedia is not available, and there is no manual released with the game. For example, how is the player supposed to know what these "DC"s are.
Add to that a fact that in order to create a character you need to read a lot about different abilities/treats, and all, - it makes getting into the game not easy.
The initial dialogue you read speaks about the main quest which doesn't actually provide any incentive to go complete it. You're being said that you should go defeat a bandit gang and for that, another person will become a baron.
The first party interaction you have after that shows a bard who for some reason decided to write a book about you, from all possible people, without providing any reason, except for the warrior lady having a sword twice as big as this bard.
I spent 2 hours creating a character, reading everything I could read in-game and was still unsure of whether the character I created had good choices.
Maybe Clint Gardnersonson, a gnome Knife Master, will soon start finding his way in the River Kingdoms.
Interesting. I agree that PfK should have an better manual and an "link" to open an manual page when you click on for eg "DC", but if you are new to pathfinder, one hunt. Play on easy. Even the normal, was balanced around pathfinder veterans that funded the game.
It's too bad that during the character creation any form of an encyclopedia is not available, and there is no manual released with the game. For example, how is the player supposed to know what these "DC"s are.
Add to that a fact that in order to create a character you need to read a lot about different abilities/treats, and all, - it makes getting into the game not easy.
The initial dialogue you read speaks about the main quest which doesn't actually provide any incentive to go complete it. You're being said that you should go defeat a bandit gang and for that, another person will become a baron.
The first party interaction you have after that shows a bard who for some reason decided to write a book about you, from all possible people, without providing any reason, except for the warrior lady having a sword twice as big as this bard.
I spent 2 hours creating a character, reading everything I could read in-game and was still unsure of whether the character I created had good choices.
Maybe Clint Gardnersonson, a gnome Knife Master, will soon start finding his way in the River Kingdoms.
The Owlcat devs have recently publicly acknowledged this issue. They said their expectation had been that their target audience would be mostly people who were very familiar with Pathfinder rules, and only later realized that lots of people who had never even heard of Pathfinder found the game interesting but got frustrated by their lack of sufficient understanding of the game's rules and mechanics. They will make sure to address this in their next game.
I personally don't hold this against them at all. They are a very small team (single digits?) with a very small budget working on their very first game. In that context I think P:K was an amazingly good game. I put a lot of money into their Kickstarter, and then bought the season pass at full price, all so I could support them as much as I possibly could so they will keep making more similar games in the future, games that I expect will only be better in every way.
I think the rules are reasonably easy to understand from in-game texts. you don't need to understand how every single mechanic works to play the game, just like you don't absolutely have to know how thac0 works to play bg, as long as you know that less is better
I ... don't know. I played for about 1 hour in the tutorial section. I am not sure this game (so far) reminds me of BG (I got a much bigger BG vibe from PoE), it reminds me more of NWN actually, with the castle being attacked by assassins, and the party going from one similar room to another. This is a bit... slow? Uninspiring? No voiced dialogues after the first introduction, no even dialogues - only lines characters say (in text) as a reaction to in-game events. It feels a bit dated?
I mean, even BG gave you options to talk with everyone. I was 100% sure I would be able to actually have a dialogue with everyone in that first crowded room (which then stopped being crowded). DA:O gave you options to talk a lot with everyone. Here we just get overhead texts with no voice.
I'm not sure I should be that sceptical, or what.
The amount of information that is unclear is increasing in size. They gave me an undead inquisitor, and how should I heal her? Party characters are not dying while reaching 0 hps, I guess it's because of the tutorial.
I ... don't know. I played for about 1 hour in the tutorial section. I am not sure this game (so far) reminds me of BG (I got a much bigger BG vibe from PoE), it reminds me more of NWN actually, with the castle being attacked by assassins, and the party going from one similar room to another. This is a bit... slow? Uninspiring? No voiced dialogues after the first introduction, no even dialogues - only lines characters say (in text) as a reaction to in-game events. It feels a bit dated?
I mean, even BG gave you options to talk with everyone. I was 100% sure I would be able to actually have a dialogue with everyone in that first crowded room (which then stopped being crowded). DA:O gave you options to talk a lot with everyone. Here we just get overhead texts with no voice.
I'm not sure I should be that sceptical, or what.
The amount of information that is unclear is increasing in size. They gave me an undead inquisitor, and how should I heal her? Party characters are not dying while reaching 0 hps, I guess it's because of the tutorial.
Just wait till you get past the tutorial and the world opens up. I know your first time the tutorial feels long, but once you've done it before, you can breeze through it in a few minutes. Once you get out into the world, you can move about. Think about how long you spent in the tutorial sections of BG1 and 2 the first time you played them.
I've got to say, even though you could technically talk to everyone in DA:O or BG, most of them didn't have anything worth saying.
You need to use inflict wounds spells to heal Jaethal, the undead inquisitor, she has the spell. There are potions that do that, too.
They gave me an undead inquisitor, and how should I heal her? Party characters are not dying while reaching 0 hps, I guess it's because of the tutorial.
Jaethal can be healed with Inflict Wounds spells. It’s usually enough to have her learn them herself. The devs recently added inflict wound potions to fill in the gaps. I’m not sure if they have any other purpose beyond healing undead party members x-)
There’s a difficulty setting that dictates whether you die or simply fall unconscious when you hit zero HPs. If the wound that drops you below zero inflicts enough damage, it could leave your character critically wounded. The next time a critically wounded character receives a critical wound they perish. Critical wound status can be removed by resting in your keep or at Oleg’s.
@JuliusBorisov Pathfinder: Kingmaker somewhat differs with how players can actively interact party members from the IE titles. You have to either travel to Oleg's Trading Post or your Capital (after the Stag Lord) - that's when the companions are basically on their "day off". That's the timing where you really learn about their background, advance their relationships and ask them about what they think of your current goals. Their own questlines can also advance while you're in your throne room later on. Also, the NPC's start dialogues themselves on a regular basis while you're adventuring.
It is also worth noting that the Kingmaker adventure path is the most sandbox-like of all the pnp Pathfinder adventures. Meaning that you will treck aimlessly through the wilds in order to save your barony on a regular basis.
Jaethal can be healed with Inflict Wounds spells. It’s usually enough to have her learn them herself. The devs recently added inflict wound potions to fill in the gaps. I’m not sure if they have any other purpose beyond healing undead party members x-)
Those potions are actually really useful for Cleric players and Blight Druids with the Death Domain, given that they are healed with negative energy. Also, also: it's possible to give your Baron the Undead Creature ability via the Bags of Tricks mod. Which does make playing a Undead blooded Sorcerer so much more authentic. Making those inflic wounds potions a true blessing.
The Death domain also makes you immune to positive (heal) damage at level 8 if you are undead, like Jaethal, so you can safely cast mass cure wounds around her ED: (And cure yourself and harm enemies in the process with mass inflict wounds)
You can only talk to your companions in the camp/city, but they really are more fleshed out than bg1 characters.
The game has a long prologue. Don´t really start until you beat the stag lord.
Comments
I don't enjoy create min/maxing chars, but looks like in order to solo this game, i will be unable to do RP builds, so i will try again with an mid sized party(4 guys) and now that i know what to expect, i will probably not be forced to increase my party size, since since the beginning i will know what i an expecting.
Well you are 100% right about World of Warcraft in it's current state. I've been playing since Ulduar came out, and I know this game like the back of my hand. At a certain point, Blizzard started inplementing features that they then completey abandon 2 years later. It started with the farm in Pandaria, was massively expanded with Garrisons, and made slightly better by Legion class halls. The problem with all of it is that it is useless and pointless outside of it's 20 month window.
Take the transition from Legion to Battle for Azeroth. Legion was, by any measure, a hail mary pass to save the game. The threw EVERYTHING into it. From a lore persepctive, what happend in Legion was what anyone who has followed the franchise for years would have assumed would be the final confrontation, which is the impossible showdown with Sargeras.
To aid in this, they introduced DOZENS of specialization specific weapons of lore for your characters to wield. WoW long ago become a power simulator, and this was it. You were wielding and levleing up the most powerful pieces of equipment imaginable to take on an unbeatable foe. And it was kinda great despite the game's problems.
And what do they do instead of keeping them going forward and finding new and interesting ways to expand the concept?? They drain them if all their power and make them as obsolete as Garrisons and Argent Tournament dailies. You go from wielding the Ashbringer or Doomhammer to hoping to get a green "Monkey Axe of the Fireflash" at level 111. And they added ANOTHER expansion specific progression system, which is just a bastardized version of the weapons (a necklace) that is worse in every way.
There is a damn good reason Classic is currently FAR more anticipated than new patches for the current game. Even with all it's tediousness and lack of modern features, it is still VASTLY superior to the interactive slot machine the game has become.
Although, of course, yet again, I recently just paid the subscription fee for one month, and leveled a druid from 1-105, out of pure nostalgia, joined a guild to talk to many interesting people, made enough gold from gathering profs to get my druid 'looms upgraded to 3/4, get fastest flight, enjoy wearing "Loremaster" above my head, and at least start on "Pathfinder of Draennor" so my future 1-x characters could fly there, before I unsubbed at the end of that one month to play NWN:EE with @Arvia
I also made up an rp backstory for my nelf, and of course was using TRP3, in case I wanted to do that, since I always play on Moonguard, and had some fun with WoW player-to-player rp as well.
(I never go to old characters in WoW after a break. I *always* start again in WoW after a break all over again with a new level one toon. I credit my extensive orientation on single player games like BG and NWN for that.
I'd still love to hear from any PK fans who love it that my completely disabling kingdom management in PK would allow me to enjoy PK without damaging or rendering irrelevant the main story of it reflected in the various event screens and dialogues.
If I can completely disable the kingdom management feature in PK without making the entire main story seem like it - I don't know exactly how to say this - "...Doesn't seem like it's referring in its entirety to a mechanical game feature that I've turned off?" ... yes, I guess that's it.... then, I'd still like to hear about that.
I have never played WoW, I'm suspicious of the concept with the monthly subscription, I think it might make developers want to drag out the time you need to resolve quests, level up your character and get good equipment and whatever. Although it's probably interesting to play with other people, I have no experience at all with multiplayer games.
Kingdom management in a rpg is far different than an rts. And the game is based in a book. And note, in title the came is called pathfinder KINGMAKER. There are countless of books to make strongholds on pnp.
Edit: Also during the run at no point did the kingdom management interact with the main plot for me outside of one thing, the secret ending you have to research 13 curses and on auto-management its random if they will be researched or not.
After BG2 it seemed like the whole game industry decided that the isometric RTWP was a style of game that was merely a product of the hardware limitations of the time. They quickly rushed off to build the most advanced 3D games they could which led to a limited party with no RTS elements. Most RPG's these days feel like 3rd person action games that have stats. Disappointing to say the least. I can't believe Bioware never tried to capitalize on the RTWP genre after inventing it. I can see why they would want to try new things and they certainly got their time in the sun with the volley of Infinity engine titles but they never even looked back.
It's been 20 years and finally some new games are here that deliver tactical gameplay with depth thanks to the isometric view. It feels nice to actually have 2 games lined up that deliver isometric, party based, RTWP combat. I think POE 2 looks better than any of the fancy 3D games I've been watching and I have a feeling that it is going to date like a fine wine just like Baldur's Gate did.
Anyway, it will be a good long time before I leave my thoughts on this game but I thought I would share my excitement and support for Kingmaker as it looks like Obsidian got eaten by the big bad console wolf so I don't expect a POE 3 from them unless it's a different style of game. I have heard a rumor that Owlcat games is already working on a new game that may be in this vain. One can hope, somebody has to keep it alive.
Yeah, PoE2's graphics are beautiful. I wouldn't write off Obsidian just yet. I think they will surprise by continuing to make good RPGs but with better financial backing behind them. So I am optimistic.
Owlcat is definitely making a second Pathfinder game. And they have said their second game will more closely adhere to the formula for a classic old-school RPG, so no more things like kingdom management and more emphasis on story and characters. Lots of guessing going on in their forum about which AP they may have chosen for it.
I will kind of miss the "kingmaker" part of Pathfinder. They will have to change the name, nonetheless. Pathfinder: kingmaker is a tabletop game that includes kingdom management in their campaigns
Alternatively I like Carrion Crown, it could include the Agent of the Grave Prestige class
Yeah the general consensus on the Owlcat forum is that any AP that has some sort of mini-game part to it (like sailing in Skulls and Shackles) is out.
The other issue apparently is that Paizo is insisting that the timelines of their APs be strictly observed. So, if a second game is going to make any references to or have any connections to the first game, its AP must be chronologically after the Kingmaker AP. Alternatively, if Owlcat wants to use an AP that was published before or concurrently with Kingmaker, then the game cannot have any in-game connections to the first game. I personally strongly agree with this view, and don't see why a second game should have any in-game connections to the first game.
I would be cool, nonetheless. I liked the navigation system of deadfire (and the one of this mod in NWN2, I do not remember the name)
I've really taken to the game. It's a lot of fun, and even the hard parts arent so bad now that I've got an expanded toolkit to deal with them.
Add to that a fact that in order to create a character you need to read a lot about different abilities/treats, and all, - it makes getting into the game not easy.
The initial dialogue you read speaks about the main quest which doesn't actually provide any incentive to go complete it. You're being said that you should go defeat a bandit gang and for that, another person will become a baron.
The first party interaction you have after that shows a bard who for some reason decided to write a book about you, from all possible people, without providing any reason, except for the warrior lady having a sword twice as big as this bard.
I spent 2 hours creating a character, reading everything I could read in-game and was still unsure of whether the character I created had good choices.
Maybe Clint Gardnersonson, a gnome Knife Master, will soon start finding his way in the River Kingdoms.
You can try builds in the DLC, but if you do that you are not playing the campaign XDD
It is a party based game and RPG game, so you couldn´t be much wrong unless you do some pretty illogical choices. (Also put some persuasion and acrobatics on your MC, there are some skill checks that are MC only, but they are optional. And with 3 acrobatics you have +1 dodge in defensive stance, but it is not mandatory. Dodge bonuses and penalties stack to your AC).
Don’t play it for the story. You’ll be very disappointed with the amount of flaws in the storytelling in the first chapter alone.
Don’t expect your character traits (class, race, deity) change anything about the story either. Alignment however will have a restrictive choices place upon you however later in the game.
The combat, mechanics, and the ability to create a plethora of uniquely different characters through all the class choices makes this good game.
Interesting. I agree that PfK should have an better manual and an "link" to open an manual page when you click on for eg "DC", but if you are new to pathfinder, one hunt. Play on easy. Even the normal, was balanced around pathfinder veterans that funded the game.
The Owlcat devs have recently publicly acknowledged this issue. They said their expectation had been that their target audience would be mostly people who were very familiar with Pathfinder rules, and only later realized that lots of people who had never even heard of Pathfinder found the game interesting but got frustrated by their lack of sufficient understanding of the game's rules and mechanics. They will make sure to address this in their next game.
I personally don't hold this against them at all. They are a very small team (single digits?) with a very small budget working on their very first game. In that context I think P:K was an amazingly good game. I put a lot of money into their Kickstarter, and then bought the season pass at full price, all so I could support them as much as I possibly could so they will keep making more similar games in the future, games that I expect will only be better in every way.
I mean, even BG gave you options to talk with everyone. I was 100% sure I would be able to actually have a dialogue with everyone in that first crowded room (which then stopped being crowded). DA:O gave you options to talk a lot with everyone. Here we just get overhead texts with no voice.
I'm not sure I should be that sceptical, or what.
The amount of information that is unclear is increasing in size. They gave me an undead inquisitor, and how should I heal her? Party characters are not dying while reaching 0 hps, I guess it's because of the tutorial.
Just wait till you get past the tutorial and the world opens up. I know your first time the tutorial feels long, but once you've done it before, you can breeze through it in a few minutes. Once you get out into the world, you can move about. Think about how long you spent in the tutorial sections of BG1 and 2 the first time you played them.
I've got to say, even though you could technically talk to everyone in DA:O or BG, most of them didn't have anything worth saying.
You need to use inflict wounds spells to heal Jaethal, the undead inquisitor, she has the spell. There are potions that do that, too.
Jaethal can be healed with Inflict Wounds spells. It’s usually enough to have her learn them herself. The devs recently added inflict wound potions to fill in the gaps. I’m not sure if they have any other purpose beyond healing undead party members x-)
There’s a difficulty setting that dictates whether you die or simply fall unconscious when you hit zero HPs. If the wound that drops you below zero inflicts enough damage, it could leave your character critically wounded. The next time a critically wounded character receives a critical wound they perish. Critical wound status can be removed by resting in your keep or at Oleg’s.
It is also worth noting that the Kingmaker adventure path is the most sandbox-like of all the pnp Pathfinder adventures. Meaning that you will treck aimlessly through the wilds in order to save your barony on a regular basis.
Those potions are actually really useful for Cleric players and Blight Druids with the Death Domain, given that they are healed with negative energy. Also, also: it's possible to give your Baron the Undead Creature ability via the Bags of Tricks mod. Which does make playing a Undead blooded Sorcerer so much more authentic. Making those inflic wounds potions a true blessing.
You can only talk to your companions in the camp/city, but they really are more fleshed out than bg1 characters.
The game has a long prologue. Don´t really start until you beat the stag lord.