Eternity Pillars of Eternity II Beta Thread [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Sentinel]

Have they said anything about Steam Workshop support?

 

[Lacrymas]

If we are dealing with fragments of a second, then I don't think the combat is slowed down....

 

[AwesomeButton]

If we are dealing with fragments of a second, then I don't think the combat is slowed down....

Recovery times and action times definitely are slowed down, and so are casting times as we know, but when you hover over a character, the tooltip still shows the duration of an active effect in seconds and 10ths of a second.

Increasing your dexterity however is giving you a fraction of a second benefit to recovery, so that no single point invested is wasted, like it would be in AD&D. I just don't want these displayed. It kind of forces me to try to calculate my actions based on them, and I'd rather not know how much of a second I have left than deal with that much granularity.

BTW the bonuses and penalties from base attributes are still linear. +6% spell AoE, +5% spell duration, +2 Will from 1 point of Intellect.

 

[Magnificate]

Are racial skill/abilities still there?

 

[Fry]

Noobs are already upset at the injury system, don't let them win: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/94422-injury-system-is-way-too-brutal/

Is that noob or just peak autist? "Time passes when I rest! Muh immershun!"

 

[Infinitron]

Noobs are already upset at the injury system, don't let them win: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/94422-injury-system-is-way-too-brutal/

Is that noob or just peak autist? "Time passes when I rest! Muh immershun!"

Haha laugh but this was actually a factor for me in PoE1 because it had no wait-without-resting functionality. I didn't want to rest and wake up in the middle of the night in a not-completely-explored-yet area.

 

[Tartantyco]

The playable Backer Beta map area accounts for about 5% of the total world map in the full game: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/94449-spoiler-map-of-the-sail-able-area/?p=1951581

 

[Azarkon]

Can you explain how that's happened in more detail? I'm not sure I follow.

"Fool, you'll never get that spell off!"

"I'll just stand further back."

"...Shit."

 

[Azarkon]

Obviously making everything per-encounter was not a response to complaints about per-encounter abilities.

My impression is that Josh Sawyer views the people who have problems with excessive micromanagement in PoE as casuals who need to be assisted with crutches like AI, not as the core audience that the game needs to be oriented towards.

Making everything per-encounter was done to satisfy a different audience. The folks on the Something Awful forums and elsewhere who viewed resting and the concept of per-rest abilities as a failed gesture to grognards that had no real gameplay justification.

Pillars of Eternity: When Something Awful Designs Your Game

 

[Jezal_k23]

I would be really into having severe resting limitations through the increase of food requirements for rest, and I do hope that the higher difficulties do that. I think I can accept per encounter everything as long as you're punished harshly by injuries instead. I think that could work.

 

[Infinitron]

The playable Backer Beta map area accounts for about 5% of the total world map in the full game: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/94449-spoiler-map-of-the-sail-able-area/?p=1951581

What 5% looks like:

 

[anvi]

I don't get why people enjoyed the first one.

 

[CptMace]

The face of confusion

That's not what i mean.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code-switching

Yeah others have filled me in. Still not the same, as they pointed it out.

 

[Azarkon]

That may be so, but Baldur's Gate isn't my only point of reference for determing what the "RPG norm" is. I guess it's a fair argument that it should be the main point of reference. But again I'm not saying that Pillars of Eternity's writing is "good". I'm just saying its amount of exposition didn't seem unusual or particularly exasperating to me. I'm willing to accept the charge that I've become accustomed to lower standards. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Frankly this aspect was the one that got stuck in my head after the first playthrough. The comparison with BG was and still is almost natural because of how the game was pitched and how the project was born.
Now I think you're not very honest with yourself Infinitron when you say it's among the average rpgs in terms of exposition. Pillars' npcs are all the way down there with bethesda's when it comes to one-function-robots-pretending-to-be-real-persons. Bethesda kind of has an excuse - since they decided it was cool to have a fully voiced game. They can't really avoid giving the same lines to all npcs, resulting in this weird freak show in game.
In the case of Pillars - and that's why I brought that up back then - it really struck me. Did they really not want to give all these characters a semblance of characterization ?
Now, to the light of how development went, and how designers and artists alike were under pressure, I can understand their priority was elsewhere.
But still, it's pretty unusual for the genre.

Most people no longer want to engage in discussions about Pillars of Eternity's writing simply because, by now, we've poured more sentences into it than the fucking game, and that's an accomplishment. But I do like what you said about characterization, so I'll expand on it briefly.

Baldur's Gate 2:

"Greetings. I am Edwin Odesseiron. You simians may merely refer to me as 'Sir,' if you prefer a less... syllable-intensive workout."

Pillars of Eternity:

"I suppose introductions are in order after that little fiasco. Aloth Corfiser, at your service."

"I'm a wizard by training and an adventurer by necessity. I was born in the Cythwood, part of the mainland of the Aedyr Empire. Both of my parents served the nobility, which afforded me an education for which I'm grateful. However, there were no open positions in those houses, and so I decided to seek new means in a new land."

I ask you: which character has made a bigger impression within the first 10 seconds of the conversation? Which character has produced a larger emotional reaction?

I'm not talking about brilliant writing, here. Edwin Odesseiron is a walking cliche and in many respects, Aloth is actually a more complex character with better ties to the plot. But when it comes to character, Aloth - and most of Pillars of Eternity's cast - have very little of it. They're the kind of boring people that you get bored by just being around, and most of their dialogue consists of information dumps and vapid small talk that reveal a core so empty of any stylistic passion, that you assume the writers must have been bored just writing about them.

I hate to make it an issue of talent, but I do think there is a decisive absence of talent or inspiration, here, which better writers, especially those trained in screen writing, would know to avoid. Language is a window - and in text heavy games like these, THE window - into a character's soul, and when the writing covers it all up with cheap plastic dialogue, the character itself falls flat. How a character carries himself, how a character expresses himself, is of utmost importance, and we shouldn't have to wait fifty hours for the plot to explain why this character is worth our while.

 

[KevinV12000]

If there is one thing a lifetime of experience has taught me, it is that chicks named Katrina from Orange County know what they're fucking talking about when it comes to Computer Role Playing Games. This is going to be stellar.

 

[Lacrymas]

The lack of talent is obvious. A broad cultural palette is also missing, they have no reference point to what is good and what isn't. But we've been over this and I'm weary of this topic. Don't expect good writing in 2.

 

[Lambach]

Good to see more skills in the game. I knew of some of them, but not all.

Generally speaking, I have low expectations for Deadfire, but the fact that Obsidian actually added more character-building options in the sequel rather than streamlining and simplifying things as the vast majority of developers nowadays do gives me hope. At least Sawyer&Co. have their hearts in the right place. Whether they'll actually realize the potential in their game is anyone's guess, but I'm certainly more optimistic now than I was before.

 

[Iznaliu]

rather than streamlining and simplifying things as the vast majority of developers nowadays do gives me hope

Larian technically added character-building options in D:OS2. That didn't stop it being dumbed-down from the original because the new options weren't meaningfully different. However, PoE2 doesn't seem to be nearly as bad in this respect as D:OS2; in some aspects of character-building, it is measurably better than PoE1, which could not be said about D:OS2 from what I've heard.

 

[Abu Antar]

My 2am impressions.

I don't know man. It feels like the speed is way too quick for me. I did one hilarious thing twice, though. Both combat encounters I have played, I did so with fast mode enabled the first try. It didn't go so well.

The first encounter with spores went well, although I hate charm with a furious passion. These are in a jungle north of the starting area. You can probably avoid them. The encounter triggers based on your choices in an interactive painted sequence. You can choose which party member you want to pass a sneaking check or you can choose to move along and ignore them. The second encounter were with those lizard(whateverthehelltheyare to the west of the starting area. I got smoked. On my first try, I didn't have much to say about things. On my second try, I got most of them down but all my characters fell.
I need to get used to the slower casting speeds. I probably should have looked at the grimoires one of the tougher spores dropped, too. It had some spells I hadn't learned. But it's late and just wanted to do as much content as possible before I go to bed.

In general, the game looks and sounds good. I think they will nail the atmosphere, but remember that I am more forgiving than others. I'm not in love with the UI. It's very cluttered and buttons everywhere. It doesn't feel intuitive to me. Combat info makes more sense than the first game. That's my first impression. A big thumbs up to the spell effects. It felt way better than the blinding firecracker lights of PoE.

Stealth is better implemented than the first game.

General issues. Portraits don't show up when I start the game. Hit escape and then return and it solves the problem. Today, I had a lot of flickering and strange graphical bugs. A reload of the save fixed the issue.

I don't like the badges people have over their names, just like I didn't like it in the first game. Trying to click on NPCs is annoying, I have to aim at their feet for their name to appear. The fighter skill Into the Fray seems to be borked. It didn't seem to trigger for me.

The game was played on Veteran difficulty.

 

[TT1]

Noobs are already upset at the injury system, don't let them win: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/94422-injury-system-is-way-too-brutal/

Every time I go on Obsidian forums and I see posts from Gromnir and I feel like sticking a hot pineapple in his ass.

It will be difficult to play the beta backer and give feedback, seeing posts from this guy.

 

[TT1]

This archipelago really resembles the shape of a skeleton

 

[cannondwarf]

Playing a rogue feels really easy now, it feels like monsters have no engagement slots so setting up flanking is easier than ever

 

[Sensuki]

That may be so, but ...

Now I think you're not very honest with yourself Infinitron.

Most people no longer want to engage in discussions about Pillars of Eternity's writing simply because, by now, we've poured more sentences into it than the fucking game, and that's an accomplishment. But I do like what you said about characterization, so I'll expand on it briefly.

Baldur's Gate 2:

"Greetings. I am Edwin Odesseiron. You simians may merely refer to me as 'Sir,' if you prefer a less... syllable-intensive workout."

Pillars of Eternity:

"I suppose introductions are in order after that little fiasco. Aloth Corfiser, at your service."

"I'm a wizard by training and an adventurer by necessity. I was born in the Cythwood, part of the mainland of the Aedyr Empire. Both of my parents served the nobility, which afforded me an education for which I'm grateful. However, there were no open positions in those houses, and so I decided to seek new means in a new land."

I ask you: which character has made a bigger impression within the first 10 seconds of the conversation? Which character has produced a larger emotional reaction?

I hate to make it an issue of talent, but I do think there is a decisive absence of talent or inspiration, here, which better writers, especially those trained in screen writing, would know to avoid.

Double brofist for this post.

 

[Maculo]

I got to play for about 30 minutes before my game crashed. In part, I am pleasantly surprised by some of the additions/changes, but I can see the criticisms about single class character builds. I also need more time to digest how I feel about the combat.

In terms of positives:
1. Loading times are much improved. I cannot stress that enough.

2. I started on Path of the Damned difficulty and a single fish-person tore my party to shreds in a special encounter just south west of the starting village. The tank&spank failed miserably, but I am rather happy that it did fail.

3. Speaking of special encounters/adventure panels (not sure what to call them), this feature is much improved. The panels gave me a choice to check my surroundings, send my rogue to scout, and if one of my characters had lightning bolt/summon drake, I could have used that to soften up the enemies in the area. In my mind, it represents an improvement over PoE1.

4. I actually like the beginning town better than the Dyrwood village from PoE1 Beta. So far, I think the quests are better in terms of introducing you to the tribe and the inter-rivalries, from investigating who was the true thief to finding the lost expedition. I actually like how the tribe's dilemma was handled: does the tribe stay in a near-barren outpost in the hopes trade and trade partners will eventually save them; or does it move to a new island with more food, albeit without possibility of lucrative trade. In comparison, Dyrwood Village was about a kidnapped "daughter" and a cult subplot that turned in to a shallow "class conflict" story all thrown in together. I realize this is purely subjective on my part, but I expected to hate any native fish person subplot more.

5. Priests have a new spell that conjures weapons associated with their faith. Although the classes seem more streamlined (see negatives below), I could see this giving Priests a melee build associated with summoned weapons, provided it is balanced correctly.

6. Lots of skill checks for metaphysics, religion, bluff, intimidate, etc.

On the less positive side:
1. Single class characters feel incredibly streamlined. You pick spells and abilities and that seems to be it. Compared to the amount of wacky builds you could make in WM, this is a step down.

2. Combat felt fast to the point I cannot tell whether I like it or not. I realize that the fish person was meant to be a hard encounter, but it felt as though I was in combat less than 20 seconds.

3. (edit) No Deus Vult option to take the island for humanity.

It may seem I have few negatives listed, but I would count the above two as large issues that need to be addressed.

 

[Infinitron]

Playing a rogue feels really easy now, it feels like monsters have no engagement slots so setting up flanking is easier than ever

That's because they don't. Great victory for Sensuki here tbh.

There's still a disadvantage to running into a mob of enemies though - you don't want to get flanked yourself.