In fact, it's not a very small thing. And I agree, it is excellent. Precisely this type of flavor increases immersion.
I'll give you an example of this in the other direction: one of the small faulty design details in P:K is the fact of random loot scattered around the maps. There's just too much of it. You'll find potions of this, scrolls of that, even high level ones. This works in the other direction: it breaks immersion. It makes you think: why is all this stuff just lying around? The answer, of course, is that the developers wanted to help the player out a bit by providing him/her with a little bit of equipment, but it's just too blatantly obvious. By contrast, on the PoE maps, this is done well: when you find loot lying around, there's generally a corpse, too -- and there's not too much of it. And this at least makes sense.
I can't really argue that there isn't really some role playing issues with how they use the might stat. I kinda just accept that if my mage does something using the might stat they didn't use physical strength to do it, but some form of magic, be it a blast or even telekinesis of some form.
That's just making the best of a very wonky situation though, its probably the one thing I wish they'd done differently.
The might stat makes sense from a mechanics and game balance standpoint: It ensures that priests could heal and deal damage or multiclass caster characters can use both weapons and spells with high damage output; all with the same stat. "One stat to rule damage all". You have to build up your perception anyway if you want to hit something and, depending on your build, your intellect or dexterity too, I think they made it to avoid too much stat spread in multiclass or priests.
That said, RP-wise, you have to be really creative when you use the might stat.
In a way though, I actually find Might to be quite imbalanced in Deadfire. Perhaps perception is still more of a god stat? But might just does so much for you from a combat perspective. Since keeping your characters upright is so much more important in Deadfire than its predecessor, healing spells or abilities are super important. And might effects potions, second wind as well.
Started a run of PoE2 and for all the people complaining about per encounter abilities and how resting was implemented, guess what? There's an option that makes all abilites per rest and puts restrictions on resting. Guess you guys have been complaining for nothing.
But that option does not balance encounters or change the world design. You can't just switch every ability to per encounter and then draft the same kind of dungeons you had in the original. Because encounters have to be designed to exhaust a party's power pools in their entirety (especially on PotD difficulty), it's simply not the case that you can just switch on Woedica's challenge and have a fun, balanced game experience.
Less important, but still a downside, is that the original had both per rest and per encounter charged abilities or spells. This created diversity in character building that does not exist in Deadfire.
Shifting away from per rest to per encounter was one of the best decisions made for PoE2. If it's per rest, for most people, you might as well not have that ability in the game at all. I don't even remember any of the per rest abilities from the first game (unless the # of times per rest was relatively high) because I automatically ignored them and built my characters around not having/using them.
Shifting away from per rest to per encounter was one of the best decisions made for PoE2. <2>
I could't play PoE 1 as an Wizard/Druid due the ultra limited resting. Ciphers was my mainclass on PoE 1 exactly because i could use cool stuff much more commonly.
In PoE 1, there are no class with a lot of casts / rest like Sorcerers on 3e or Warlocks on 3.5e (not confuse with nwn2 warlocks who is nerfed and bugged and require mods to be playable), other problem is that spells being limited / rest on PF:KM makes sense since an single cast of Wail of the Banshee can end an encounter. An single fireball can end an low level encounter. Spells on PoE 1/2 deals way lass damage and enemies has much more HP. Very limited casts / rest like 4~6(wiz/sorc) works when magic is very deadly. Look to Dark Souls 2(last from software game who uses spell slots), powerful spells like Forbidden Sun and Climax has few casts / rest, but an regular soul arrow can be spammed.
edit >
For me the ideal would be that some spells should be at will, some per rest and some per day. Eg : An lv 20 wizard able to cast per day spells tier 7,8,9, per encounter spells tier 6,5,4 and at will 1,2,3. An lv 10, capable ot casting tier 5 spells, able to cast at will 1,2, per encounter an 3 and per rest, 4,5.
Shifting away from per rest to per encounter was one of the best decisions made for PoE2. If it's per rest, for most people, you might as well not have that ability in the game at all. I don't even remember any of the per rest abilities from the first game (unless the # of times per rest was relatively high) because I automatically ignored them and built my characters around not having/using them.
Three of the classes including the class that was considered the most powerful (priest) were entirely built around per rest spells.
The per rest abilities became slightly more interesting when they implement the "bonuses on resting" mechanic, few patches after launch in PoE; but I do not really like them much. In POE2 I had them disabled entirely.
Psion? To be honest, I only played it briefly, and I do not find it very practical. You regenerate focus very slowly instead of gaining it while attacking, and you lose the focus regeneration if they hit you. You lose the damage bonus and focus bonus of soul whip and gain a spell that pushes enemies away instead. A spell that also requires focus.
Since you can regenerate focus way faster using soul whip with barbarian rage and double blunderbusses I do not find the subclass particularly enticing.
I´ll pick Ascendant for bombardier duty or Soul blade (even if you do not want to melee with your cipher they have reduced focus cost with shred spells, the damaging ones) or even Beguiler for a cipher-rogue any day of the week.
If I may, @SorcererV1ct0r , I think you particularly are going to like the Ascendant. It is relatively easy to reach max focus with a blunderbuss barbarian-cypher so you can Ascend faster and start spawning spells non-stop at the enemies at zero focus cost for a while. Then rinse and repeat.
, I think you particularly are going to like the Ascendant. It is relatively easy to reach max focus with a blunderbuss barbarian-cypher so you can Ascend faster and start spawning spells non-stop at the enemies at zero focus cost for a while. Then rinse and repeat.
Multiclass is not a good idea. I could't test the high level psionics and other class powers on PoE 1 since they aren't available. Wanna play as an cipher, only to see if Protective Soul, Death of 1000 Cuts, etc worth the cost... Will try psion since i wanna use psionics, not weapons, if is that bad, will lower the difficulty.
Well, with blunderbusses you are not going to damage anything anyway, you only use them because you have 4 projectiles per shot so you can recharge your focus in fewer turns and then use your spells. https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Blunderbusses_(Deadfire)
ED: I forgot: Another thing about psion is that if there is a marksman bent on shooting at you you have no real options to defend yourself or generate focus to retaliate (invisibility potions or the escape cape, maybe)
The beguiler also recharges focus if you manage to use a charm/enchant spell successfully in an enemy if you get bored of the psion. Have fun!
@PsicoVic, I haven't used cipher much in PoE2 except for the little green goblin dude, but isn't Focus gained from the damage you deal rather than a fix amount per hit/projectile? Or do you mean the carnage from Barbarian adds to the four projectiles to increase the focus gained?
I also think, on a side note, that the Monks flurry of blows is the better attack speed feat since it's easier to use than barbarian frenzy. Well, tbh Monks are probably one of the best MC classes to combo with any other class.
@PsicoVic, I haven't used cipher much in PoE2 except for the little green goblin dude, but isn't Focus gained from the damage you deal rather than a fix amount per hit/projectile? Or do you mean the carnage from Barbarian adds to the four projectiles to increase the focus gained?
Biting whip and draining whip apply to all 4 projectiles separately, increasing focus gain. And unlike arquebuses, crossbows or bows you can dual-wield blunderbusses and use them in melee with no penaltiesI usually use Kitchen stove/Xefa empirical explanation.
It´s a more APR vs more damage per hit dilemma. I seek the former. Carnage is ok but uses the base damage of the weapon and blunderbusses do not have much to begin with.
Err... and I like Firearms in my dashing pirate captain. Also a parrot, if you could have one. Love the classics.
You can use any other weapon with less accuracy penalty and able to dual-wield, like pistols, scepters, even melee weapons and penetrating strike if you have a fighter build.
I prefer rage because that also speeds up recovery and cast time of spells for the time when you reach ascendant state but the monk is also a viable choice. You can also use barbaric blow with ranged weapons (+50% damage) for reasons unknown unless they patched it. ...And you have the Fury Shaper`s frenzy totem that increases action speed for the MC and the entire party https://pillarsofeternity2.wiki.fextralife.com/Shape+Ward:+Frenzy
To be honest, I do not see any practical reason why anyone would choose any other subclass of barbarian over Fury Shaper, right now.
I saw once a terrified enemy (shapeward fear) get hit by the Carnage AoE triggered on them. They were moving fairly quickly (Terrified) and just ran into their own AoE. It was HILARIOUS.
Yeah yeah. Pillars 2 sucks because it didn't do the thing. Except it DID do the thing, but people just want excuses to hate it, even though it literally gave everyone what they said they wanted. Its starting from a point of wanting to dislike the game, and then bending every argument around fitting that narrative, rather than looking at the games actual points and judging it based on what it does.
PsicoVic, about Psion vs archers, bows and firearms have BB gun range in this game. Is not hard to avoid being shot. Not mentioning that an priest with Withdraw(tier 2), can make you regain a lot of focus and hp. I an casually defeating higher level enemies using dominate... Psion is very good.
Oh, no, I did not mean to say It was bad. The classes in this game are very well balanced. I only meant that the Psion is slightly less effective than the other subclasses (at least for my playstyle) at generating focus to use psions, but all the subclasses have the same spells besides telekinetic burst.
But the good thing about this game is that you can use any build possible, make it work and have fun with it.
Shifting away from per rest to per encounter was one of the best decisions made for PoE2. If it's per rest, for most people, you might as well not have that ability in the game at all. I don't even remember any of the per rest abilities from the first game (unless the # of times per rest was relatively high) because I automatically ignored them and built my characters around not having/using them.
Three of the classes including the class that was considered the most powerful (priest) were entirely built around per rest spells.
But you're missing the point ... or at least *my* point. It's not at all about what is powerful but rather about what is fun to play. In PoE1 I hated the casting classes and absolutely avoided them. And not just for my PC but also among the companions. In PoE2 I am very much enjoying playing the caster classes. I am about as far from a power gamer as you can possibly get. If it's not pure fun for me, it's not worth any of my very limited time available for gaming.
New info on PoE 2 sales and success (or the lack of it):
"i don't really know how productive this discussion can be because it's hard to pinpoint definitively why people bought or didn't buy something. deadfire was made on the assumption that the sales and reviews of that game indicated both a general desire for games of that type in the market and that the press and consumers thought that we did a good job overall. it made money and it reviewed well in the press and among players, which doesn't mean it's objectively good, but to us it indicated that 1) we should make a sequel and 2) we should identify the things that people didn't enjoy in the first game and address them.
i was involved in the PR and marketing pushes for both games and we had a lot more trouble getting marketing pieces out for deadfire. when we did research into how product awareness was tracking, deadfire was struggling leading up to its launch. it's true that critical role did draw a lot of attention to the game, but it's unclear how far that reached outside of our core market. yes, by now many more people are aware of the game, but the bulk of most games' sales are still made in the first two weeks following its release.
whether the scores and sales are deserved or not, pillars 1 had an 89 metacritic and sold over a million copies within a year of its release. deadfire had an 88 metacritic and sold much worse. i don't think i stuck my head in the sand re: criticism for pillars 1, so if there was a strong undercurrent of indifference or dislike for the first game and i just completely botched the sequel, it's hard for me to identify where i went wrong. the reason why i didn't/don't want to direct another pillars game isn't just general fatigue, but also because i don't think i have the critical insight to understand how to move forward with the series. the quality of the game is my responsibility, so if it's really that bad, it's my fault. still, by the numbers we had, general awareness was low outside of our core leading up to the launch.
D:OS2 sold incredibly well, way better than pillars 1. pathfinder: kingmaker sold better than deadfire. idk if it sold better than pillars 1."
This is terrible news. IMHO POE2 is one of the best games I’ve ever played. I don’t understand why people wouldn’t want to buy it (notwithstanding talk of marketing failures, etc.), but I would still argue that it’s a tremendous success. They made a true piece of art, and when all is said and done, this is more important than sales. You can’t take the money with you, but you can leave a legacy of high quality work.
Comments
I'll give you an example of this in the other direction: one of the small faulty design details in P:K is the fact of random loot scattered around the maps. There's just too much of it. You'll find potions of this, scrolls of that, even high level ones. This works in the other direction: it breaks immersion. It makes you think: why is all this stuff just lying around? The answer, of course, is that the developers wanted to help the player out a bit by providing him/her with a little bit of equipment, but it's just too blatantly obvious. By contrast, on the PoE maps, this is done well: when you find loot lying around, there's generally a corpse, too -- and there's not too much of it. And this at least makes sense.
In a way though, I actually find Might to be quite imbalanced in Deadfire. Perhaps perception is still more of a god stat? But might just does so much for you from a combat perspective. Since keeping your characters upright is so much more important in Deadfire than its predecessor, healing spells or abilities are super important. And might effects potions, second wind as well.
Less important, but still a downside, is that the original had both per rest and per encounter charged abilities or spells. This created diversity in character building that does not exist in Deadfire.
I could't play PoE 1 as an Wizard/Druid due the ultra limited resting. Ciphers was my mainclass on PoE 1 exactly because i could use cool stuff much more commonly.
In PoE 1, there are no class with a lot of casts / rest like Sorcerers on 3e or Warlocks on 3.5e (not confuse with nwn2 warlocks who is nerfed and bugged and require mods to be playable), other problem is that spells being limited / rest on PF:KM makes sense since an single cast of Wail of the Banshee can end an encounter. An single fireball can end an low level encounter. Spells on PoE 1/2 deals way lass damage and enemies has much more HP. Very limited casts / rest like 4~6(wiz/sorc) works when magic is very deadly. Look to Dark Souls 2(last from software game who uses spell slots), powerful spells like Forbidden Sun and Climax has few casts / rest, but an regular soul arrow can be spammed.
edit >
For me the ideal would be that some spells should be at will, some per rest and some per day. Eg : An lv 20 wizard able to cast per day spells tier 7,8,9, per encounter spells tier 6,5,4 and at will 1,2,3. An lv 10, capable ot casting tier 5 spells, able to cast at will 1,2, per encounter an 3 and per rest, 4,5.
Three of the classes including the class that was considered the most powerful (priest) were entirely built around per rest spells.
Since you can regenerate focus way faster using soul whip with barbarian rage and double blunderbusses I do not find the subclass particularly enticing.
I´ll pick Ascendant for bombardier duty or Soul blade (even if you do not want to melee with your cipher they have reduced focus cost with shred spells, the damaging ones) or even Beguiler for a cipher-rogue any day of the week.
If I may, @SorcererV1ct0r , I think you particularly are going to like the Ascendant. It is relatively easy to reach max focus with a blunderbuss barbarian-cypher so you can Ascend faster and start spawning spells non-stop at the enemies at zero focus cost for a while. Then rinse and repeat.
Multiclass is not a good idea. I could't test the high level psionics and other class powers on PoE 1 since they aren't available. Wanna play as an cipher, only to see if Protective Soul, Death of 1000 Cuts, etc worth the cost... Will try psion since i wanna use psionics, not weapons, if is that bad, will lower the difficulty.
https://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Blunderbusses_(Deadfire)
ED: I forgot: Another thing about psion is that if there is a marksman bent on shooting at you you have no real options to defend yourself or generate focus to retaliate (invisibility potions or the escape cape, maybe)
The beguiler also recharges focus if you manage to use a charm/enchant spell successfully in an enemy if you get bored of the psion. Have fun!
I also think, on a side note, that the Monks flurry of blows is the better attack speed feat since it's easier to use than barbarian frenzy. Well, tbh Monks are probably one of the best MC classes to combo with any other class.
It´s a more APR vs more damage per hit dilemma. I seek the former. Carnage is ok but uses the base damage of the weapon and blunderbusses do not have much to begin with.
Err... and I like Firearms in my dashing pirate captain. Also a parrot, if you could have one. Love the classics.
You can use any other weapon with less accuracy penalty and able to dual-wield, like pistols, scepters, even melee weapons and penetrating strike if you have a fighter build.
I prefer rage because that also speeds up recovery and cast time of spells for the time when you reach ascendant state but the monk is also a viable choice. You can also use barbaric blow with ranged weapons (+50% damage) for reasons unknown unless they patched it. ...And you have the Fury Shaper`s frenzy totem that increases action speed for the MC and the entire party
https://pillarsofeternity2.wiki.fextralife.com/Shape+Ward:+Frenzy
To be honest, I do not see any practical reason why anyone would choose any other subclass of barbarian over Fury Shaper, right now.
I saw once a terrified enemy (shapeward fear) get hit by the Carnage AoE triggered on them. They were moving fairly quickly (Terrified) and just ran into their own AoE. It was HILARIOUS.
But the good thing about this game is that you can use any build possible, make it work and have fun with it.
Mark Twain (he´s good despite his 200 yo) also did it in TB mode. Hats off to him.
There is a mod that addresses that, a little, if you are interested. Gives some bonuses from your imported choices of POE
The challenges of the gods are also fun for NG+.
"i don't really know how productive this discussion can be because it's hard to pinpoint definitively why people bought or didn't buy something. deadfire was made on the assumption that the sales and reviews of that game indicated both a general desire for games of that type in the market and that the press and consumers thought that we did a good job overall. it made money and it reviewed well in the press and among players, which doesn't mean it's objectively good, but to us it indicated that 1) we should make a sequel and 2) we should identify the things that people didn't enjoy in the first game and address them.
i was involved in the PR and marketing pushes for both games and we had a lot more trouble getting marketing pieces out for deadfire. when we did research into how product awareness was tracking, deadfire was struggling leading up to its launch. it's true that critical role did draw a lot of attention to the game, but it's unclear how far that reached outside of our core market. yes, by now many more people are aware of the game, but the bulk of most games' sales are still made in the first two weeks following its release.
whether the scores and sales are deserved or not, pillars 1 had an 89 metacritic and sold over a million copies within a year of its release. deadfire had an 88 metacritic and sold much worse. i don't think i stuck my head in the sand re: criticism for pillars 1, so if there was a strong undercurrent of indifference or dislike for the first game and i just completely botched the sequel, it's hard for me to identify where i went wrong. the reason why i didn't/don't want to direct another pillars game isn't just general fatigue, but also because i don't think i have the critical insight to understand how to move forward with the series. the quality of the game is my responsibility, so if it's really that bad, it's my fault. still, by the numbers we had, general awareness was low outside of our core leading up to the launch.
D:OS2 sold incredibly well, way better than pillars 1. pathfinder: kingmaker sold better than deadfire. idk if it sold better than pillars 1."
This comes from Josh.
https://badgame.net/index.php?topic=54476.msg14375799#msg14375799 (requires an account to see)