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

[Ulfhednar]

As much as I want this game to be great, this is hard to argue with right now - from the Obsidian forums:

While leveling up I get the feeling that the build options - especially for single class characters - are extremely limited compared to PoE1. Because all talents got removed (or translated to abilites) and there are only class specific abilites now. Talents that used to be pickable by every class (Quick Switch for example) are now part of a calss (in this case fighter). I don't understand this decision. Some classes share abilites (like Druid and Monk both can take Bull's Will or Bear's Fortitude), but it's a lot less than before.



Then, some of the best and most interesting talents that altered abilites in PoE1 (like Inspiring Radiation, Painful Interdiction and so on) got completely removed.



Now you end up with very similar builds if you are using a single class.



Also, this feels like a totally different game. I get a vibe of Tyranny and not that of PoE. Maybe that's just me though.

I have to say after 2 hours of playing/testing I'm a bit disappointed. Maybe this will get better when I get more used to the different looks and stuff, but at the moment I'm not very hyped. At least no crashes or hefty bugs so far.

 

[Lacrymas]

They removed general talents? The fuck?

 

[Infinitron]

"But I thought you guys wanted it to be more like AD&D!" :D

 

[Sentinel]

that guy's post just made me more hype

 

[Dorateen]

The stream is in the char-build screen and he is intentionally making a char with MAXIMUM PENETRATION and yelling PENETRATION aloud every few seconds.

Good going josh! Why graze when you can PENETRATE?

I will also be sure to only concentrate on PENETRATION and I'm sure the majority of builds will want to have the most PENETRATION possible.

The only way to make this funnier would be if the game had an Unreal Tournament announcer voice yelling MAXIMUM PENETRATION every kill.

 

[Lacrymas]

I knew they'd find a way to fuck it up, but I couldn't even imagine this would be it.

 

[cannondwarf]

Playing low level Fighter(Devoted)/Wizard feels worse than low level Eldritch Knight in 5e. They fucked up.

 

[Cross]

Sounds like Josh went so far in his streamlining efforts this time that he managed to alienate even die-hard fans of the first game.

 

[aweigh]

modders will fix it!

 

[santino27]

Multiclass leveling UI is odd... I'm hoping it's not in a finished state, as it's not very intuitive at all, (possibly made worse by the beta making you level up from 1 to 6). Reduced # of talents to select also seems like a decline.

 

[Infinitron]

I knew they'd find a way to fuck it up, but I couldn't even imagine this would be it.

I think Josh actually mentioned once he was doing this.

Here's the thread referred to above: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/94357-removing-non-class-specific-talents-was-a-bad-idea/

 

[frajaq]

well I guess that's what playable beta feedbacks are for!

 

[Ulfhednar]

The multiclassing is pretty strong (My fighter/cypher did 32 Slash 86 Raw Dmg! against the Engwithan Titan with a single soul annihilation attack at level 6), but I think the single classes are gonna need some help if they are going to get back to their PoE1 glory days. There is still a lot to play with, its just coming from a different source - i.e. multiclass combinations rather than a deep general talent pool.

 

[razvedchiki]

What about muskets\hand grenades?did they add bullets this time?

 

[Jezal_k23]

Without having played it, one of my main concerns is the apparent lack of resting restrictions. From what I read food is plentiful and it will be enough for people to rest after every encounter, which is something that Josh once wanted to prevent.

 

[Ulfhednar]

Probably true... the inn bonuses are more expensive now, so that's something.

 

[Prime Junta]

Pasting a comment I made on the Obsidz beta forums:

I think you guys already know what's good so I won't comment on that much. Main points though:

• Great job on the new stealth mechanics. The UI is intuitive and easy to understand and it feels a lot more "real."
• Great job on the various QoL improvements.
• World map is nice.
• Dialogue reactivity is nice.

The bad, however:

• Health/Endurance ---> Health only is a loss. Since there's no strategic cost, I don't care about taking some damage, which makes the game feel less "tactical."
• Everything per encounter is a loss. I don't care about which spell I should use now and which save for later, which makes magic feel spammy.
• Progression feels a lot more linear/streamlined. Magic doesn't feel all that magical as it's mixed with the rest of the talents, and the loss of non-class talents feels restrictive.
• One of D&D's signature elements is a magic system that's kind of chaotic and has entirely its own rules and mechanics. Merging that into the level-up talent trees blands it down.

Overall:

• The mechanical changes are mostly bad. The game feels streamlined and simplified in a bad way. Less thought is needed to play it, I just need to focus on the current combat and nothing else, and there appears to be less freedom to build my characters like I want them, despite the mass of subclasses and multi-class combinations.
• The QoL improvements are mostly good and the UI -- especially character creation and level-up -- is way better.
• The stealth system rocks.

Finally, a comment on the language -- certainly too late to change now, but anyway for what it's worth: I interact daily with people from literally all over the world, and nobody talks like that. The Russians don't go "Da, today is very nice day, harasho nyet?" and the French don't go "Oui mon ami, indeed the weather today is la belle." It's cool that you've got a conlang but there's way too much of "That kamahima has tipu my raumanuma, if I ever catch him he's going to be kaunahini!" It's grating, and the hypertext kind of underlines the "Look at how clever we are" aspect of it.

 

[Blaine]

Infinitron Is it time yet for me to start quoting my posts from many months ago and gloating about being right, or should I wait a little while?

I haven't read this thread in ages; just happened to see it in the New Posts pane on the index.

 

[HoboForEternity]

It's cool that you've got a conlang but there's way too much of "That kamahima has tipu my raumanuma, if I ever catch him he's going to be kaunahini!" It's grating, and the hypertext kind of underlines the "Look at how clever we are" aspect of it.

Please tell me that they aren't using Tyranny's shitty hyperlink dialogue...

the hyperlink stuff is good, so shut the fuck up

 

[Lyre Mors]

Pasting a comment I made on the Obsidz beta forums:

I think you guys already know what's good so I won't comment on that much. Main points though:

• Great job on the new stealth mechanics. The UI is intuitive and easy to understand and it feels a lot more "real."
• Great job on the various QoL improvements.
• World map is nice.
• Dialogue reactivity is nice.

The bad, however:

• Health/Endurance ---> Health only is a loss. Since there's no strategic cost, I don't care about taking some damage, which makes the game feel less "tactical."
• Everything per encounter is a loss. I don't care about which spell I should use now and which save for later, which makes magic feel spammy.
• Progression feels a lot more linear/streamlined. Magic doesn't feel all that magical as it's mixed with the rest of the talents, and the loss of non-class talents feels restrictive.
• One of D&D's signature elements is a magic system that's kind of chaotic and has entirely its own rules and mechanics. Merging that into the level-up talent trees blands it down.

Overall:

• The mechanical changes are mostly bad. The game feels streamlined and simplified in a bad way. Less thought is needed to play it, I just need to focus on the current combat and nothing else, and there appears to be less freedom to build my characters like I want them, despite the mass of subclasses and multi-class combinations.
• The QoL improvements are mostly good and the UI -- especially character creation and level-up -- is way better.
• The stealth system rocks.

Finally, a comment on the language -- certainly too late to change now, but anyway for what it's worth: I interact daily with people from literally all over the world, and nobody talks like that. The Russians don't go "Da, today is very nice day, harasho nyet?" and the French don't go "Oui mon ami, indeed the weather today is la belle." It's cool that you've got a conlang but there's way too much of "That kamahima has tipu my raumanuma, if I ever catch him he's going to be kaunahini!" It's grating, and the hypertext kind of underlines the "Look at how clever we are" aspect of it.

Haven't played it, but I'm hoping they listen to you. All sounds very reasonable. Particularly the comment on the Health/Endurance change. I'm worried all of this stuff is going to make it feel easier than even the initial release of PoE felt. 3.0 and beyond seemed like such a recognition of the right way to be heading.

 

[Efe]

Hyperlink is good but it certainly looks like they use it a bit too much, like PJ said.
Health/Endurance ---> just Health is a loss only if you do not factor in resting. Yes its streamlining but streamlining != dumbed down. i suspect they removed per rest abilities for the very same reason.
while there are a lot less level up options, most options were passives and many were useless. one part i remember from stream the guy was leveling up his rogue and more than half of his options had good and meaningful effects you could use tactically. definitely better than + %25 dmg talents

 

[bminorkey]

the hyperlink stuff is good, so shut the fuck up

It's the antithesis of show, don't tell. I hate it.

You're never going to get "show, don't tell" in this kind of game to be honest

 

[Lyre Mors]

the hyperlink stuff is good, so shut the fuck up

It's the antithesis of show, don't tell. I hate it.

You're never going to get "show, don't tell" in this kind of game to be honest

While I generally prefer a more emergent form of storytelling in games, I agree that it would be very hard to achieve in a game like this where the best parts of the story are contained within the actual lore and world itself. The hyperlink usage was one of the few aspects of Tyranny that I actually thought worked well, and would be a good way of dealing with dense lore in a game like PoE. But I'm also one of the few around here who enjoyed the setting and lore of Pillars.

 

[Prime Junta]

I'm worried all of this stuff is going to make it feel easier than even the initial release of PoE felt. 3.0 and beyond seemed like such a recognition of the right way to be heading.

It's not easy. Those enemies punch quite hard and take some doing to take down. It's streamlined, which is not the same thing.

 

[Lyre Mors]

It's not easy. Those enemies punch quite hard and take some doing to take down. It's streamlined, which is not the same thing.

I guess I was more referring to the resting mechanics. On Path of the Damned when you only had two slots for camping supplies, Health level really started to matter a lot in longer dungeons.