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Pillars of Eternity 2:Deadfire announced spoilers for pillars1 ABSOLUTELY NO PILLARS 2 SPOILERS PLS

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  • deltagodeltago Member Posts: 7,811
    Haven't finished PoE (I am actually investing time in it ATM and am enjoying the story more now than when I first started playing it) yet but started playing PoE2 today after it came out and finally finished downloading 9 hours later.

    I have one (two) minor rant I needed to get off my chest in Spoilers (but it is early game spoilers, first map and all):


    Why is everyone calling The Watcher Captain?! HOW could they be captain when they've been knocked out the entire journey so far!! Come on... poor writing, especially since you have never captained, let alone served on a ship before. Make another NPC the captain, make The Watcher (and their friends) the people who commissioned the boat. Simple. Also adds conflict. The player doesn't always need to be the one in charge with all the cool titles.

    And everyone is talking to you (besides 1 NPC) as if you've known them for the whole journey! I expected better than that in the beginning!! Freaking irksome!

    And I get why The Watcher is level one. I do not get why other NPCs are level one especially ones that you have travelled with. I know there are different mechanics but everything that happened in the first game still happened. All that experience those NPCs had shouldn't have just vanished. If you're doing a reset like this you need to do it right.

    Seriously, I want to play a game that knows how to open right. PoE2 had so much potential of pulling you into the story after the cinematic then ruined it with the first couple NPC interactions. Bah!

    OK rant over.


    I am probably going to binge play the first one so I can import a save over and follow the story a bit better, oh and the graphics are improved nicely so I can't wait to dig into it some more. The story hooks you right away (which is needed in games like this and a gripe I had with the first one) so I am anxious to play it. Thanks @Shandaxx for the copy.
    Skatanmlneveselolien
  • mlnevesemlnevese Member, Moderator Posts: 10,214
    It finally downloaded today. I'll play it someday.. .when the kids allow me :)
    ThacoBellSkatan
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    Played up to the first town so far, and I like what I see. Not going to give any story spoilers, but it does a MUCH better job of the getting the player invested early, than POE 1 did.

    I went with a dwarven Ranger/Paladin, combining my love of nature and my pathological need to be a goody two shoes (Shepard is a VERY APT name for the multiclass). I absolutely love that there is a "sassy" option when you choose your characters idle animation. I love my sassy shepard.
    mlnevesebleusteelSkatanOrlonKronsteen
  • SkatanSkatan Member, Moderator Posts: 5,352
    edited May 2018
    Maybe I'll start up today. I'm imploding over what char to play! If I know myself well, and I kinda do by now, I will only play it once, maybe 1,5 times so choosing a good class is rather important.

    ...

    haha, just spent 15 minutes editing my legacy from the first game (i don't have a save) and just as I was rounding up my comp died from battery loss. I'm lying on my balcony in the warm evening sun here and had forgot to corrrectly plug in the cord :P Ah well, guess I'll start over again.

    EDIT: Made a "aescetic", Druid/Monk multiclass nature godlike. Cool that you could make the godlike use the dwarf sized avatar, didn't know that. Chose clubs and qstaff. This guy is probably not very powergamey, I am going in blind without reading guides and whatnot. I'm basing the guy on my druid/monk/sacred fist from NVN2 'cause I like the RP of that kind of character.
    Post edited by Skatan on
    ThacoBellmlneveselolien
  • megamike15megamike15 Member Posts: 2,666
    so like with poe 1 i'm gonna wait before i pick up poe 2. weather it's the end of the year or next year i'm not sure. i also need to get a new computer to run the game properly anyways.
    mlneveseSkatanlolien
  • SharGuidesMyHandSharGuidesMyHand Member Posts: 2,579

    So I didn't really care for the first one, so I was waiting it out for the reviews to come in. Since it sounded like they dealt with most of my complaints I gave it a shot, and so far it's been a lot of fun. So far the companions seem better written, the game has multiple ways of dealing with situations, and it seems like the choices have more impact. Plus, if you ever get bored with what you're doing, you can hop in your ship and do some exploration/piracy/bounty hunting. For me, the top complaint about the first one was the story just petered out after you left Defiance Bay, so hopefully things stay interesting the whole way through.

    As someone who also couldn't really get/stay into the 1st game, reviews like yours give me hope that I might still enjoy the sequel.
    mlneveselolien
  • FardragonFardragon Member Posts: 4,511
    The main change IMO is there is rather more humour in Deadfire than in the first game, which was very po-faced.
    lolienOrlonKronsteen
  • megamike15megamike15 Member Posts: 2,666
    yeah pillars 1 is way to dry. to be honest i have not touched the first game since i finished it. i just had no drive to replay it unlike say baldurs gate 1 and 2 or other rpgs made by obsidean.
  • mlnevesemlnevese Member, Moderator Posts: 10,214
    I had two problems with the first Pillars:

    1) I didn't like the mechanics
    2) The story didn't draw me in... I got to the Stronghold with 0 curiosity about what was going on...

    If the story had captured my attention I wouldn't care about the mechanics at all...
    OrlonKronsteen
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    Yeah POE1's story doesn't really start until you reach the city, its a slow burn and that hurts it in the beginning.
    Fardragon
  • DrHappyAngryDrHappyAngry Member Posts: 1,577
    ThacoBell said:

    Yeah POE1's story doesn't really start until you reach the city, its a slow burn and that hurts it in the beginning.

    And then it mostly falls flat when you leave the city.

    I forgot to mention another great touch in PoE2 is when you recruit an NPC, the game gives you a choice between 2 classes or a multi-class of the 2 for them. That gives you a lot more choice on who to take with you.
    ThacoBell
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    @DrHappyAngry Personally, I get more invested in POE1's story as I go. Once it picks up, it never really drops off.
    deltagokanisatha
  • SkatanSkatan Member, Moderator Posts: 5,352
    I'm the complete opposite, I think POE was great up to, and with, defiant bay city. Everything after that was just tedious and less intriguing for me. The maps after D.bay was mostly mob after mob after mob. There were of course some highlights, but after playing PoE about three times, I only finished it once. Last time ended in the Twins area, cause that city and its quests.. I dunno why, but it just doesn't grip me at all. By then I just wanna go to end-game. Maybe this is why I always do all quests in BG2 before I go to spellhold, so it's probably tied more to my personality than to the qualities of the game.

    And yes, in PoE2 you can choose companions' classes, but for me that is a "double-sided egde", as we say in sweden, it's both good and bad. The bad being that one NPC can be a singleclassed barbarian, if you chose it, but very obviously he is a cipher. The good is that you can use the same NPCs over several playthroughs and switch their class depending on charname etc.

    With this said, and I don't want to sound negative about it, I'm about ~4-5 hours into the game and I like it so far! About level 5ish, monk(shattered pillar)/cipher(vanilla). Dual pistols from a far, then switch to fists in melee.
    mlneveseDrHappyAngryThacoBellkanisatha
  • FardragonFardragon Member Posts: 4,511
    ThacoBell said:

    Yeah POE1's story doesn't really start until you reach the city, its a slow burn and that hurts it in the beginning.

    This. And then the Endless Paths/Stronghold - which where put in as a sop to backers and have nothing to do with the main plot - kill the story momentum just as the point when it is starting to get going.
    mlnevese
  • mlnevesemlnevese Member, Moderator Posts: 10,214
    Fardragon said:

    ThacoBell said:

    Yeah POE1's story doesn't really start until you reach the city, its a slow burn and that hurts it in the beginning.

    This. And then the Endless Paths/Stronghold - which where put in as a sop to backers and have nothing to do with the main plot - kill the story momentum just as the point when it is starting to get going.
    Thats's exactly where I stopped playing every time I tried. I'm a completionist and can't stand the fact that I can leave that place alone until much later in the game.
  • DrHappyAngryDrHappyAngry Member Posts: 1,577
    mlnevese said:

    I had two problems with the first Pillars:

    1) I didn't like the mechanics
    2) The story didn't draw me in... I got to the Stronghold with 0 curiosity about what was going on...

    If the story had captured my attention I wouldn't care about the mechanics at all...

    I'm there with you, in the second one both are improved. Although I've been pretty much distracted from the main story by all the other stuff going on with the different factions. They dumped the needless Endurance system, which IMHO was the first game's THAC0, and by that I mean it was an unnecessarily complicated system. Most ability uses are per combat instead of per rest, so there's less holding back in every fight. Battles also tend to go a lot quicker.
    mlnevese
  • SkatanSkatan Member, Moderator Posts: 5,352
    ThacoBell said:

    I LOVE THE ENDLESS PATHS. Exploring a lost civilization on the heels of a doomed expedition, picking up notes and learning how badly it went, wondering whats up ahead. Plus, each level had its own contained narrative. It was GREAT. It has a similar (If not quite as good storywise) feel to Durlag's Tower.

    Totally agree. It's fascinating how different we think about different part of the games, hehe :) I loved the endless paths and it had a lot of interesting quirks and cool events. I liked that you could fall through a couple of levels by mistake and I think it was EPIC that there was a real choice at the end, battle or no battle. I only finished PoE once as said, so I never did finish that battle, but RP wise I think letting her go was so interesting, finding a body and all that. I hope she appears in POE2 somewhere.
    ThacoBellkanisatha
  • deltagodeltago Member Posts: 7,811
    mlnevese said:

    Fardragon said:

    ThacoBell said:

    Yeah POE1's story doesn't really start until you reach the city, its a slow burn and that hurts it in the beginning.

    This. And then the Endless Paths/Stronghold - which where put in as a sop to backers and have nothing to do with the main plot - kill the story momentum just as the point when it is starting to get going.
    Thats's exactly where I stopped playing every time I tried. I'm a completionist and can't stand the fact that I can leave that place alone until much later in the game.
    Do a couple of levels at a time, or wait till the very end to do it. As Thaco said, it is more like a Durlag tower than part of the main story and can be skipped. The game does have you backtracking to the stronghold a couple of times so you can always do a level or two each time you do have to go back to the stronghold.

    My gripe is that the game doesn’t let you complete unfinished quests after the final boss. That is usually standard in today’s games and I am surprised it didn’t let me.

    I already mucked up my PoE2 playthrough so I am starting the series over and hopefully do a more complete (and evil) run for A PoE2 import. Right now, I am enjoying the beginning more now that I completed the game and fully understand the story and what is going on.
    mlnevese
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    @Skatan I always feel bad about the end of that. I'd absolutely let her go if it didn't mean I had to sacrifice someone to make it happen.
  • SharGuidesMyHandSharGuidesMyHand Member Posts: 2,579
    edited May 2018
    Fardragon said:

    ThacoBell said:

    Yeah POE1's story doesn't really start until you reach the city, its a slow burn and that hurts it in the beginning.

    This. And then the Endless Paths/Stronghold - which where put in as a sop to backers and have nothing to do with the main plot - kill the story momentum just as the point when it is starting to get going.
    deltago said:

    mlnevese said:

    Fardragon said:

    ThacoBell said:

    Yeah POE1's story doesn't really start until you reach the city, its a slow burn and that hurts it in the beginning.

    This. And then the Endless Paths/Stronghold - which where put in as a sop to backers and have nothing to do with the main plot - kill the story momentum just as the point when it is starting to get going.
    Thats's exactly where I stopped playing every time I tried. I'm a completionist and can't stand the fact that I can leave that place alone until much later in the game.
    Do a couple of levels at a time, or wait till the very end to do it. As Thaco said, it is more like a Durlag tower than part of the main story and can be skipped. The game does have you backtracking to the stronghold a couple of times so you can always do a level or two each time you do have to go back to the stronghold.

    The problem here is that the game outright DECEIVES you into thinking that you need to take care of the paths ASAP, or else they'll take care of you. You basically have to use metagame knowledge to know that that isn't true.

    As it is, the entire stronghold aspect of the game just seems forced and out of place. "The owner of this deserted wasteland just died, so you have to assume ownership and rebuild it." Um, no, f**k off you talking statue, I'm just looking for a cure for a damn headache! "I can build areas with my mind, but you also have to pay me for some reason, even though I'm a f**king statue." Yeah, sure, whatever...

    mlneveseDrHappyAngrydeltago
  • DrHappyAngryDrHappyAngry Member Posts: 1,577
    ThacoBell said:

    I LOVE THE ENDLESS PATHS. Exploring a lost civilization on the heels of a doomed expedition, picking up notes and learning how badly it went, wondering whats up ahead. Plus, each level had its own contained narrative. It was GREAT. It has a similar (If not quite as good storywise) feel to Durlag's Tower.

    Wow, I don't remember any of that, just it being a slog. Maybe I missed the notes or something, but I thought the whole area was without story, or rather light on it. I always preferred Watcher's Keep to it for the reasons you described. It's been awhile since I did it (since I only did it on my first playthrough, the only one I finished), but maybe I just got so fed up I rushed through it and ignored the other stuff.


    As it is, the entire stronghold aspect of the game just seems forced and out of place.

    Ya, it definitely was a tacked on stretch goal. Then when everyone pointed out how awful and useless it was, they tacked on a battle at it in the DLC. I never got to that battle since I could never get that far again a second time.

    At least it's a ship instead of a castle you get in PoE2, so putting money into a good one and upgrades makes sense. It's a little sad the weakest part of the game is the ship to ship combat. It results in far less damage and crew injuries for me to just ram and board every ship I fight with. I don't mind the choose your own adventure style of doing it, but it's not very well thought out, and worthless since I can just board the enemy vessel with less penalties.
  • bob_vengbob_veng Member Posts: 2,308
    i like the game. i think it's at least 5 times better than the first game
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    @DrHappyAngry There are a bunch of notes for the previous expedition. For the individual floors, there are a bunch of contextual clues in the map design. Several floors also have npcs that will talk to you. Like the cannibal ogres and how that came about, the Fampyr (I don't think civil war is the right word, but they are at each others' throats.) The last few floors had a connected narrative. Starting wiht finding the lab and experiments on souls, leading into some kind of power struggle that killed most of the researchers, and learning WHY all this happened on the second to last floor. There is a LOT to unpack if you look for it.
    Skatan
  • kanisathakanisatha Member Posts: 1,308
    ThacoBell said:

    @Skatan I always feel bad about the end of that. I'd absolutely let her go if it didn't mean I had to sacrifice someone to make it happen.

    Hey, the person's a dragon hunter, which by definition means she's pursuing an agenda of exterminating an intelligent and noble race. I say good comeuppance. My only gripe is that you lose out on some really valuable crafting ingredients. The dragon could've at least rewarded us with some scales.
    Skatan
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    @kanisatha How many friendly dragons do we meet in Eora? Heck, the ones that CAN be resolved without violence require stat checks to succeed, stat checks way higher than can be expected of the average person to have. Anything supposedly noble shouldn't be that beligerant. Dragon hunters are performing a service by protecting the average village from the wrath of dragons.
  • deltagodeltago Member Posts: 7,811
    ThacoBell said:

    @kanisatha How many friendly dragons do we meet in Eora? Heck, the ones that CAN be resolved without violence require stat checks to succeed, stat checks way higher than can be expected of the average person to have. Anything supposedly noble shouldn't be that beligerant. Dragon hunters are performing a service by protecting the average village from the wrath of dragons.

    The dragon in Hyla’s temple can be reasoned with and you don’t need to kill. Or is it that the God can be reasoned with? In any point, the dragon there has a point it is one of the safest places to raise her young since her kind is being hunted. And a whale isn’t considered evil as it eats 8000 pounds of food a day.
    ThacoBellKamigoroshikanisatha
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    @deltago Whale don't eat sapient beings. That is a false equivalence.
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