Eternity Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire + DLC Thread - now with turn-based combat!

[rusty_shackleford]

He's done a complete 180 in his political views since he made FNV, which has a decidedly libertarian(pro-House) bent from back when sawyer was libertarian in his political views

when i think about things like new vegas or dead fire which i think are
probably the two most politically or socially conscious of the games that i've made in
terms of really trying to engage the players thoughts about politics we we still see
people i i think there's value in this in in the capital d discourse i guess so for
example there are people who will play fallout new vegas and they're like caesar's
legion great it's like okay now hearing them sort of uh illuminate the reasons for
that or sometimes horrifying but it is also illuminating for the people seeing that
because they're seeing someone justify a lot of fascist like you know super duper
fascist tendencies in real time you're like okay i can see the gears in a person's
head working outside of the context of the real world in this fantasy world really
although it's very close parallel to our real world they're doing that in dead fire one
of the things that i thought was really wild and i still think is really wild is
um it's a it's about colonialism at its heart there's a native culture there are
two colonial cultures um which by the way was maybe a mistake on my part for
logistics like actually planning it but i thought it was a there are so many cases
historically where you have two competing colonial powers that are trying to like play the
native cultures off of each other and all that stuff and one of the colonial cultures
is um they're like well we don't want to strip the resources from these people
but we want to essentially civilize them and the native culture is definitely the
native culture and it have but it has a caste system and the caste system is uh
dysfunctional especially in the modern world with these um with these colonial powers
messing with them it's it's making their cast system even more dysfunctional and the
number of players that have basically given the same justification you would see of
like raj india or like belgian congo apologia like all this and they're just like
yeah like they're screwed up and so it makes sense that this this colonial culture
should dominate them and i'm like holy like that's crazy um like from my perspective
that's nuts um so that's kind of depressing but it's also i like seeing people having
these conversations because it does mean that they're engaging with this stuff um i
think it's up that that's the conclusion that they reach because i'm like this is
the same justification that people used 100 years ago 150 years ago 200 years ago
to do really terrible things

uhh excuse me, you did a big ol' fascism and a colonialism and a racism

something amusing I see frequently skipped over by a certain group is the love of FNV for its "heckin fascism stompin" while disregarding the extreme libertarian bent the game has to the point where it takes a rather neutral(!) stance on Caesar's Legion you'd expect from a libertarian perspective judging an organization based on what it is rather than what it stands for.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Haplo]

That's a pretty cool class combo, that enjoys highiest Accuracy in the game -> and therefore also good crit rate (and chances to land powers like mind control).
Doesn't really have a safety cushion, like the priest multiclasses, though.

 

[Grunker]

That's a pretty cool class combo, that enjoys highiest Accuracy in the game -> and therefore also good crit rate (and chances to land powers like mind control).
Doesn't really have a safety cushion, like the priest multiclasses, though.

He must have had a couple of runs that didn't go well before succeeding is my thought

 

[Iskramor]

Dooes any one think if BG3 sells tremendously well we can hope for sawyer free turn based rpg?

 

[Desiderius]

That's a pretty cool class combo, that enjoys highiest Accuracy in the game -> and therefore also good crit rate (and chances to land powers like mind control).
Doesn't really have a safety cushion, like the priest multiclasses, though.

I really liked the Arcane Archer/Wiz combo for (much) higher spell accuracy. You're mostly casting so the high Bond cost of the Imbued Shots isn't as big of a deal and you can use most ranger skill-ups buffing pet. This looks similar.

 

[CodexTotalWar]

To be fair, this specific Ranger/Ciphers combo seems to be designed to exploit the infinite buff extension bug (via equiping/re-equiping items like Strand of Favor or Cabalist's Gambeson). Not to take anything away from the runner though - the Ultimate is no joke even with all sorts of cheese.

The Soulblade/Ranger combo is particularly deadly way to use this extension bug since you can farm your own animal companion outside of combat for various on-hit item effects, and also boosts your Max Focus infinitely (and thus Soul Annihiliation damage), which you then tend extend infinitely with the item equiping bug. It does look completely ridiculous though.

For example, here's the runner stacking a bunch of stuff with this bug:
https://youtu.be/C0voJ7zPz3M?t=2925

You can't see the buff duration due to Wael's Magran Fire challenge, but because of the way the buff compounds, that amount of equip/re-equipe will extend the buff duration to 100k+ seconds. The ranger's accuracy IS very helpful for this combo too because you need to be able to land those Soul Annihilations.

For better or for worst, ever since this bug became widely known and was basically ruled okay by Obsidian for the Ultimate (since they allow bugs and never fixed it), a lot more classes have become viable for the Ultimate outside of Priests and Blood Mages, as any class can now extend buffs infinitely and effects like Blade Cascade to deal with notoriously tough fights like Huanai O Whe.

 

[Atlet]

Reminder that Pillars of Eternity 2: DEADFIRE is the best rpg ever made.

 

[Haplo]

That is a slight exagerration. Still a great game, though.

 

[Yosharian]

I wondered what the fuck he was doing with that item swap shit. Fucking disgusting.

 

[Haplo]

I wondered what the fuck he was doing with that item swap shit. Fucking disgusting.

Yeah, that is one and only exploit, which propagation and promotion really triggered me.

Still, its been sanctioned by Obsidian, apparently.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Finally, after 170h of PoE2, I have completed all 3 DLCs. Usually I felt satisfied with the main content that by the time I was level appropriate for them I'd just finish the game, although I did always do the Beast of Winter DLC. I just never did the Forgotten Sanctum and SSS until now. To preface my thoughts I think they are too all high level adventures. You get some interesting items from them but it's very late into the game and there's the sinking feeling that you're already done with the game by that point and you won't get much mileage out of the new loot.

Beast of Winter is my least favorite of the DLC. It sets itself up as an Icewind Dale-ish winter themed adventure with Rymrgand being the important god but it loses its focus entirely when you get to the main hub of the adventure. Obisidan took this opportunity to cram in as much unrelated world lore as possible, and it sucks. Doesn't help that it's still bugged and to this day I have not managed to "complete" the DLC in the intended way because the logic always shits itself with the water dungeon. I keep replaying it for the two boss fights which are neat, but the adventure itself is not good. It lacks a focused theme and it doesn't feel like you learn much about Rymrgand. He's just there. You also get a soulbound armor that requires you to get hit by many afflictions to upgrade it which at this point in the game is dumb as shit, although you can cheese it by going down to the Old City and stand in the fetid pools. The biggest standout to me here is Vatnir and his unique Rymrgand Priest class which looks really cool, but I always play with mercs and even if I used NPCs you'd be recruiting him pretty late into the game.

SSS is pretty meh. I don't really have too much to say about it. Felt really short and unambitious. I like the combat system in PoE2 a lot and I mainly play RPGs for combat, but I don't think this did anything interesting with it. It has more encounters which I like, but there was nothing special about them. They were just intense stat bloat encounters that weren't in any way particularly challenging. I like that SSS stuck to a theme, unlike BoW, and you did get some insight into Galawain. But yeah, content wise it just didn't feel like there was anything particularly interesting here even for a combatfag. Just HP bloat meatbags that you slap with zero effort. Some cool items like the Changeling armor but again you get it so late in the game and the concept of soulbound items and how they work is total crap.

Forgotten Sanctum is by far the best one and it is a really good one at that. Very interesting dungeon to crawl through, some uniquely designed combat encounters, has a strong and interesting theme. Even the narrative with the mages was fun. You also learn some interesting stuff about Wael. However, this adventure suffers the most out of the 3 DLCs with how high level the content is. You get an absurd amount of items, pets and even some new Wizard spells but once you're done with the FS it is quite possible that your next step is Ukaizo and then that's it.

 

[Delterius]

It lacks a focused theme and it doesn't feel like you learn much about Rymrgand. He's just there.

Funny how Beast of Winter is arguably the Eothas DLC. Going into Rymrgand's domain was mostly an excuse to shore up the main plot. Really, the plot of Deadfire could have been written in a way that each act is punctuated by the flashbacks you see in BoW.

 

[Haplo]

Well, I liked the story given in BoW.
But my biggest surprise reading your review was your evaluation of the combat in SSS. I absolutely think it has some of the most interesting and challenging set pieces in the entire game - and definitely not due to hp bloat.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

You can't see the buff duration due to Wael's Magran Fire challenge, but because of the way the buff compounds, that amount of equip/re-equipe will extend the buff duration to 100k+ seconds. The ranger's accuracy IS very helpful for this combo too because you need to be able to land those Soul Annihilations.

For better or for worst, ever since this bug became widely known and was basically ruled okay by Obsidian for the Ultimate (since they allow bugs and never fixed it), a lot more classes have become viable for the Ultimate outside of Priests and Blood Mages, as any class can now extend buffs infinitely and effects like Blade Cascade to deal with notoriously tough fights like Huanai O Whe.

Still, its been sanctioned by Obsidian, apparently.

what's the point of even having such challenges if you allow people to use game-breaking exploits?

 

[Yosharian]

SSS was utterly boring.

 

[RoBoBOBR]

Planning to play Deadfire for the first time. Any must have mods? Community patches? Is TB the way to go?

 

[Grunker]

Game is clearly made for RTwP so TB has some quirks (like one of the stats being entirely useless), but if you, like me, think the character system is not great for RTwP, TB is the way to go.

 

[Haplo]

Planning to play Deadfire for the first time. Any must have mods? Community patches? Is TB the way to go?

Community Patch is pretty neat. Includes some balancing - in that it also boosts some clearly underpowered stuff.
https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/335

As for TB vs RTwP, I'd skip TB. It truncates some important layers of game mechanics, such as Dexterity, attack/cast speed, armor slowing you down, weapon stances slowin you down in favor of "1 action per round" approach. And is therefore very "unbalanced". Of course, 1 aoe spell will have way more impact then 1 sword swing. Plus it can be a slog how long some fights may take.

It may offer some fun to a dedicated caster, particularly arcane caster, such as a Blood Mage - due to a wide choice of Free Action wizard buffs (and unlimited resources in case of Blood Mage; Blood Sacrifice is also a free action).
I had fun with a Spellblade Bloodmage/Assassin - who was usually in Stealth and untargettable during enemy rounds - to attack from Stealth with Assassinate boosts of +25 Accuracy, +4 Pen and +50% Crit damage (works for spells). Plus Blade Feast from a certain sword passively healed my char on each kill, while doing aoe damage (often cascading further kills). But can't say it was fair or balanced.

 

[Abu Antar]

Dex in TB mode isn't bad for a summoner. At least not if you want have your summons ready before the enemy attacks.

 

[ferratilis]

Community Patch is mandatory imo, including the Extra package, for one very important reason:

• Added higher level gems (Adra Ban, Amber, Ruby, Sapphire) to Una's Luxuries store (located in Serpent's Crown). The mentioned gems already were in her loot table, but were never sold due to low level area. (credit goes to Pilchenstein and his "Una's Rarities" mod)

Due to a vanilla bug, your upgrade options at high levels are severely limited, this improves that. Not to mention a bunch of other fixes, rebalancing, and all those amazing icons for class talents.

Here's what I also used in my last playthrough:
https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/481
Legacy Creation Fixes - adds more options to shaping your legacy from PoE1, in case you lost your savefile

https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/32
Enhanced UI - great qol improvements compared to vanilla, must have imo. Makes tooltips a lot more useful.

https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/417
Everyone's Two Cents - when you get to an important new area, a companion comment will be randomly chosen upon loading that map. Obsidian recorded the lines for each companion, this mod makes them all say their lines in a lore friendly manner without overlapping. Very nice for immersion, skip if you don't care about that sort of thing.

https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/71
Slower Days and Longer Nights - for some reason, day/night cycle is unnaturally fast in PoE2, this fixes that. Doesn't affect world map traversal.

https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/371
Fixes missing music in one section of the game, don't read the description to avoid spoilers, just install it

https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/410
Binary Opposed Dispositions - vanilla has weird disposition system, you can end up with a character that has two antonymous dispositions. This changes it so that dispositions are binary, increasing one decreases the opposite. Depends on personal preference, I liked it.

 

[gurugeorge]

Game is clearly made for RTwP so TB has some quirks (like one of the stats being entirely useless), but if you, like me, think the character system is not great for RTwP, TB is the way to go.

The implementation of TB in terms of UI and use is actually quite nicely done, and it would be perfect if the game had been designed ground-up for TB, but as others have said, it really is more of a RTwP game in its bones. I think the guy just worked on TB because he'd seen the huge popularity of the TB mod for PFK (which was followed shortly thereafter by Owlcat's official implementation of TB).

Sadly, you can't switch between them on the fly, you have to pick one or the other at the start of the game and run with it, otherwise I'd say, "why not both?"- so given that, I'd go RTwP.

 

[Haplo]

Personally I think they've hired an intern to patchwork a TB mode during a weekend...

 

[Grunker]

Game is clearly made for RTwP so TB has some quirks (like one of the stats being entirely useless), but if you, like me, think the character system is not great for RTwP, TB is the way to go.

The implementation of TB in terms of UI and use is actually quite nicely done, and it would be perfect if the game had been designed ground-up for TB, but as others have said, it really is more of a RTwP game in its bones. I think the guy just worked on TB because he'd seen the huge popularity of the TB mod for PFK (which was followed shortly thereafter by Owlcat's official implementation of TB).

Sadly, you can't switch between them on the fly, you have to pick one or the other at the start of the game and run with it, otherwise I'd say, "why not both?"- so given that, I'd go RTwP.

I agree completely, both Pillars 1 and 2 are (systems-wise) designed for TB, and everything build around TB is pretty well done. It's just that some designs were forced to fit with RTwP and so work dubiously or not at all with TB. I completely prefer PoE2 in TB, but I can totally understand people who play it in RTwP given the quirks.

 

[Goldschmidt]

One major - and I think undebatable - decline from the first game is the companions. They're all fucking shit in POE2. They're all either babbling morons, faggots or quip machines. That they turned Eder into a quipster and NO NOT THE HECKIN DOGGOS! guy is almost unforgivable. Serafen is okay except he reminds me of like an early reddit or facepunch fag who thinks adding a bunch of adjectives to "fuck" or "shit" is super cool. It seems like a crime that the only tolerable companion I can have is a bird nigger.

Durance was a bro and everyone loved him. Grieving mother was interesting. What the fuck is going on in this one? Track down eder's friend with benefits? Help aloth find a dildo that will fit his stretched out clown pocket? Xoti comes across as literally brain damaged.

The only reason people say Durance and Grieving Mother are so great is because half the codex strokes Chris Avelonne's dick. The characters in Deadfire are not meant to be realistic and/or be your favourite book character. They are your typical fantasy npc's which you will encounter in any regular board game (like in Baldur's Gate) and which can be enjoyed by a younger audience as well. If you want intellectual stimulation, try reading "A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism." But something tells me you pseudo-intellectuals don't have the brain power to do so.