Elukka posted:

I've currently got a damage-focused fighter (me), Edér for a tank, Durance, Aloth, Maneha and Grieving Mother. Not sure Maneha is being that useful for me, I mostly took her along just to see if she had any comments about her god.

rope kid posted:

Imagine a world where the base class is arguably as valid a choice as a subclass.

*Lord Richard Attenborough voice* Welcome... to Deadfire!

Vargatron posted:

I think my favorite part of the game is this:

You get to the point where you finally get answers for a potential "cure" for being a Watcher and then you find out that there's nothing you can do about it and you're basically going to end up like Maerwald. Then all your party members come up to you and try and lift your spirits and tell you that they'll stick by you. I think that's one of the only times in a video game where I felt like the people I was traveling with legitimately gave a gently caress about me as the main character. Normally the MC is the one that has to fix the problems of the other party members and that kind of got reversed in that one scene.

Dick Burglar posted:

Aloth is a boring dour wizard and Iselmyr does not do enough to make him not-boring. Her banter with Eder is absolutely endearing, but there simply isn't enough of it to make me want to use up a party slot for it.

Also there needed to be a conversation option to [punch Durance in the face] several times throughout the game. Or at least "shut the gently caress up, Durance." I know he gets his dues in the end but good lord dude is insufferable. And no, "he's intentionally written to be insufferable " is not a valid excuse when the writer gives you no recourse but to go along with it except to FINALLY rip the rug out from under him near the end of the game.

ProfessorCirno posted:

One thing I liked in the expansion is how it felt like Ondra didn't really want to do all the poo poo she was doing, it's just kinda her job to do it and she has to and is justifying it a bit to herself. Between that and Eothas and Magran's god-killer weapon, while the gods are indeed assholes, it looks like they were programmed to be assholes, and that programming is starting to break apart.

Mr.Pibbleton posted:

Man I remember playing baldur's gate enhanced edition and my LG monk met that wild mage npc they put in, she joined my party and then got super upset that I didn't want to bone her wacky pixie self that she left the party in a huff then I beat her to death in a public setting surrounded by dozens of witnesses and nobody said a thing BECAUSE SHE WAS THAT GOD drat ANNOYING.

Fruits of the sea posted:

PoE is all about tactical combat and the balancing thereof, while Numa Numa tries to provide a whole bunch of goofy alternatives to combat inside the combat system. If Nunenana's writing isn't grabbing you don't bother.

It's main focus is plot, and the little stories told by characters and items, as well as the choose your own adventure snippets. It's a lot like reading a science fiction anthology.

bongwizzard posted:

I would just find whatever humanoid monster has steel bones and take a skull from one of them.

Also in a world with electrical magic, some kinda arch-welder isn't outside the realm of possibility.

Ratios and Tendency posted:

Dog named Thaos ix Barkannon, named by Eder.

Basic Chunnel posted:

Sagani's the character who benefited the most from what you could call PoE's conservative approach to CNPCs. She's basically what Bioware tried and failed to create with DA:I's Sera, an adventurer standing in for the setting's common folk. She's a much less cynical portrayal, which helps - she doesn't hold any reactionary parochial views on anything, she's not simple or lazy. She's honest and matter-of-fact and preoccupied with providing for her family. Her quest conflict is all about how her tribal traditions have been keeping her from them. She sticks around because doing so appeals to her sense of fairness and mutual aid.

Everything Sagani does and says is consonant with that strong core concept. In terms of making the character feel authentic, she does a lot more with a lot less than the prog epic project that is Durance.

All of which is to say she's the kind of character that RPG smarks say they want whenever they lament how whole universes revolve around the PC, and find boring when she arrives.

bongwizzard posted:

Not at all, what I meant was that like every game where I have read much of the story has been varying degrees of bad about longwindnesses and awful, awkward conversation and I believe/wonder if writers who have been trained to be economical with words and timing could help with this. If I want to watch a movie or read a book I can do just that, what I want from a game is "to play a game" and like all the common examples of well written video games have been pretty awful to actually play, so I am disinclined to get excited about a game that talks about the importance of it.

Airfoil posted:

Please develop HAL-style AI so the Pillars engine can fully emulate a human DM, tia

bongwizzard posted:

That's why you reload and murder them for their treacherous thoughts you just discovered.

Iretep posted:

well the other problem i have with druids is i have a hard time roleplaying a tree hugging hippy who only craps in the woods.

rope kid posted:

Fighters and rogues both have an expanded set of active abilities in Deadfire but fighters (especially) can be built for more passive play. The fighters' various push/pull abilities are much more effective due to fundamental changes in those mechanics. Rogues' movement and invisibility abilities have also been expanded and improved across the board. We're also trying to make "murder from hidden" more of a rogue-specific thing.

Dick Burglar posted:

How do you figure?

AngryBooch posted:

Or you know, like any polytheistic religion.

Khizan posted:

I feel like that is less "Mormon theology has influenced fantasy" and more "Mormon theology is a fantasy".

Kainser posted:

I honestly thought Calisca was the most compelling party member but welp

It actually felt like she had a purpose in the world and wasn't just waiting around for the main character to come pick her up like how I felt most of the other companions were.

hangedman1984 posted:

Yeah, but isn't that true of most games?

Fintilgin posted:

Well, watching the video, it's not SO bad. I could see it working in a fps rpg like the modern Fallouts. Like if you're 'good strength', 'good constitution', and 'awful agility', and that's carried through from level 1 to the end of the game and it's reflected well in mechanics, I could even see it being better then the numbers in new-Fallout, which are essentially meaningless in defining your character for long because you can just pump them up to whatever.

And.... if you listen to the video it's pretty obvious that whatever the project is it's a first-person rpg with guns that 'Fallout fans will love'. Tons of the examples are about recoil or putting the crosshairs over someone.

So off-brand Fallout the way Pillars is off-brand D&D?

ProfessorCirno posted:

I mean, here's the catch: Arcanum is easy. Very, very easy. The AI just straight up doesn't function - the only commands AI ever seem to have are "rush the enemy and melee them," unless they're already actively HOLDING a ranged weapon, but then, ranged weapons are terrible. Yes, even scrawny-rear end mages are going to run at you and try to feebly pummel you with their nonexisting melee skills rather then actually cast spells. Beyond that, even if you don't get Dog, itemization in Arcanum is berserk, and well equipped companions can essentially clear the game for you.

So in Arcanum you actually can play (almost) whatever character you want. Not because they're all good, but because Arcanum is broken in so many ways that it doesn't actually matter.

That said, if you wanted to truly be a singular god who turns Arcanum into a wasteland and who can slay anything with ease, and conquer all obstacles, you want a mage/warrior with max strength and dex, good willpower, and the spells Fireflash, Harm, Minor Heal, and the entirety of the absolutely hilariously unfair Time college. That said, not combat-based, but also take the Conveyance college, for Unlock Cantrip and Teleport. This is entirely needless, but hey, if you want to be an allmighty immortal murderous godling, this is how you do it.

Two things I forgot to mention. First is DR, which is huge, and one of the reasons half-ogres are so incredible. DR, or Damage Resistance, reduces all damage you take by itself as a percentage. That is to say, half-ogres start the game by default taking 90% damage from everything. Put on a ring of protection? 80%. Two rings? Every single thing in the game is now only dealing 70% damage to you. That's with two items.

Second is damage bonus caps. So, in an attempt to try to willow down the power of Speed, weapons have a "cap" on how much extra damage they do based on their minimum and maximum damage. Basically, your minimum damage cannot go above the weapon's default max damage, and your weapon's max damage cannot go above 3x it's default max damage. If you have a sword that does 5-10 damage, and you have strength 20 (aka +20 damage), your attacks with it will do between 25 and 30 damage - as you can see, that's a massive upgrade! On the other hand, if you were to raise your strength to 25 through items and backgrounds (aka +30 damage), your weapon will do exactly 30 damage every single time you hit, because 30 is it's max damage cap. Some of that strength is being wasted in the max damage, though of course, raising the minimum damage isn't a bad thing.

SirPhoebos posted:

Why does Arcanum have a multiplayer mode? What does that even look like?

EDIT: How breakable is Planescape: Torment?

rope kid posted:

You'll never see anything resembling steampunk in anything I direct. One of the reasons why I'd like to make a game set in the 19th century on Earth is because I love it and would like to make something set in that period that doesn't use the steampunk aesthetic.

bongwizzard posted:

No, that would make a dull videogame. Air to air zeppelin combat and lighting-bolt guns would be a fun video game.

Zeris posted:

I got a lot of insight into Avellone as a writer and human when I realized he used his complete control over the words of a computer rpg character (Durance) to give us a man who sweats continuously and spends all of his time cursing out a female god he worships by calling her a bitch and whore because he's worried that he offended her


lol

AriadneThread posted:

i feel like it's easier to swallow when your non-partied buddies have something else to do beside go murder-hoboing with you
like, ostensibly for this game, the non-active guys can be guarding getting drunk with the crew on your boat or something

frajaq posted:

doingitwrong posted:

DA2's plot is not about a world-ending Big Bad which makes it one of the most original game stories ever created, unfortunately.

Kurtofan posted:

https://twitter.com/jesawyer/status/920029698532323328