Game News Pillars of Eternity Released

[Trash]

Yikes, that's one hell of a bug. POE seems to be the most stable Obsidian release for me so far. Well, apart from a funny bug with the Big Heads Mode adding big heads to some npc's and corpses after turning it off, I've run in little else than my achievements not working. Bit surprised that it bothers me as much as it does. Probably because the Kickstarter Backer one also didn't fire for me or something. Must be the last twitches of the highscore junk in me.

 

[pakoito]

Engagement is an idiotic mechanic. You can't try and escape a life or death situation or rotate your melees, you only make it a death or death situation. I understand AOO, but this is several levels of risk above it and restrains decition making.

Try to escape BEFORE you lose so much endurance that an engagement hit would kill you. Don't wait until the last moment. Problem solved.

When's that? When I'm at 80%? If ou start running and the enemies are faster than you, they'll gett fuckload of hits. Unless you pause, due to the lack of animation, you can go 100-0 in less than a couple of seconds when engaged with more than one enemy. Given that the AI likes to gang up on one character, no, fuck you.

 

[Ramireza]

I haven't really followed PoE modability-wise so I'm wondering - would it be possible to recreate BG/BG2 stories in its engine?

No need in my opinion. Whats wrong with the infinity engine?

@Topic :

PoE is fantastic, realy. My main complaint : It seems a little short. I have played about 15 hours now and reached Caed Nua, my Chars are @ Level 4 now and did all quests/map in and arround Gilded Vale.

A full playtrough is not longer then 40 hours, right?

 

[pakoito]

My current strat is 5 chanters spamming skellis to choke spots, bug pathfinding and force engagement, then shoot everything from afar.

10/10 COMBAT NOT RETARDED GOTY.

 

[J_C]

Engagement is an idiotic mechanic. You can't try and escape a life or death situation or rotate your melees, you only make it a death or death situation. I understand AOO, but this is several levels of risk above it and restrains decition making.

Try to escape BEFORE you lose so much endurance that an engagement hit would kill you. Don't wait until the last moment. Problem solved.

When's that? When I'm at 80%? If ou start running and the enemies are faster than you, they'll gett fuckload of hits. Unless you pause, due to the lack of animation, you can go 100-0 in less than a couple of seconds when engaged with more than one enemy. Given that the AI likes to gang up on one character, no, fuck you.

Then use your party and don't let them gang you. duhhh

 

[Naraya]

I haven't really followed PoE modability-wise so I'm wondering - would it be possible to recreate BG/BG2 stories in its engine?

No need in my opinion. Whats wrong with the infinity engine?

Nothing wrong with IE, personally I love it. It was rather a question with regard to what can be done using PoE mods.

 

[Tigranes]

"Engagement is broken, when I'm surrounded by 4 powerful enemies I can't just run away without getting hit a lot!"

"My strategy is to spam summons and choke doorways, this game so broken I totally couldn't do that in Baldur's Gate!"

Maybe you should learn to play properly

 

[pakoito]

Please go ahead and teach me, I'm listening.

 

[hiver]

"Engagement is broken, when I'm surrounded by 4 powerful enemies I can't just run away without getting hit a lot!"

"My strategy is to spam summons and choke doorways, this game so broken I totally couldn't do that in Baldur's Gate!"

Maybe you should learn to play properly

Its true, you can spec your party to deal with engagement, and play somewhat differently then just using those basic tactics - although to be fair, in number of places the environment is done in such a way that almost forces such tricks - but its still a far cry from something actually really good.
And its not fun to be almost forced to adjust to a system that is implemented in a very unoptimal way, with various negative consequences, only to negate its effects in a very limited manner.

 

[pakoito]

"My strategy is to spam summons and choke doorways, this game so broken I totally couldn't do that in Baldur's Gate!"

There is a difference between AOO and engagement with a whole char development branch around it so no, you totally couldn't do that in BG2.

 

[pakoito]

"Engagement is broken, when I'm surrounded by 4 powerful enemies I can't just run away without getting hit a lot!"

"My strategy is to spam summons and choke doorways, this game so broken I totally couldn't do that in Baldur's Gate!"

Maybe you should learn to play properly

Its true, you can spec your party to deal with engagement, and play somewhat differently then just using those basic tactics - although to be fair, in number of places the environment is done in such a way that almost forces such tricks - but its still a far cry from something actually really good.
And its not fun to be almost forced to adjust to a system that is implemented in a very unoptimal way, with various negative consequences, only to negate its effects in a very limited manner.

I'm not crying unplayable or unbeatable, just bad because of that enforced playstyle and in that aspect worse than D&D3(.5) or DOS.

 

[Tigranes]

Eder is usually the front line engager in most parties. Invest in his deflection and DR and Defender mode and he won't even die very often, unless you're on POTD. Same would go for any front line dedicated character.

Grimoire Slam for Aloth, Escape for Rogues, Withdraw from Priests, the numerous Cipher abilities for pushing enemies back or paralysing them, mage spells for paralysis, second level priest spell to knock many enemies prone, fighter knockdown... there's a million different ways to disable enemies or temporarily repel them to break engagement without penalty.

Summons and charm/domination is another option to distract enemies when there are too many of them.

E.g. a shadow has teleported to Alroth who will die in 2-3 hits. Use Grimoire Slam. Or any paralysis spell/ability. If Eder is only occupied by 1 or 2 enemies it might even be worth it for him to just run over and knockdown that shadow; Eder can take a couple hits without trouble on Hard in most cases, and Alroth will have time to run away.

E.g. Eder is surrounded by several powerful enemies and will die soon but can't move away. Durance can cast withdraw which works like Otiluke's Resilient Sphere. Maybe combine this with Kana's 3 skeleton summon, and they can move in immediately to engage the enemies that now ignore Eder.

E.g. use Durance's first level Halt to stop one enemy in his tracks at the start of battle. Cipher casts 1st level charm or 3rd level domination on another, if you do it right it will now engage another enemy. Alroth casts a paralysis spell. That's 4 enemies already out of commission for a few seconds, which should be enough time to at least kill one of them.

Many other options and combinations.

Anybody who's played some RPGs and puts in some time to learning the systems can handle it just fine. No doubt Lilura will come in here and tell me how I'm a noob and there are a million more efficient ways.

Of course, if you're just going to cheese skeletons in the doorway for every battle, isn't that really boring? Why even bother to play? Maybe put it down to easy or normal for a while.

 

[pakoito]

So if I play your party it's okay, and if I play the game the same cookie cutter build then it's fine. I didn't even pick the fucking companions.

Anybody who's played some RPGs and puts in some time to learning the systems can handle it just fine. No doubt Lilura will come in here and tell me how I'm a noob and there are a million more efficient ways.

I can handle just fine, have 3-4 strats to win most battles without receiving damage because going all balls to the wall melee like in many other games is not an option so I had to learn. Skelly spam is just the most efficient, but most of them are just variations of kiting. That is why the combat is bad.

 

[Tigranes]

I described party members that aren't even in my current party.

Maybe you can describe what you're trying to do with what characters, custom or not, and why you feel it isn't working.

Or maybe you can just complain, and deliberately refuse to discuss in a way where there's a possibility that you have fun with the game. Enjoy!

Edit: But wait! Are you perhaps suggesting you're totally fine at the game, but you just discovered a cheesy way to win battles and now you're complaining the game sucks? You're like that guy who walks back to GIlded Vale after every single battle to rest for free and complains about it.

 

[hiver]

"Engagement is broken, when I'm surrounded by 4 powerful enemies I can't just run away without getting hit a lot!"

"My strategy is to spam summons and choke doorways, this game so broken I totally couldn't do that in Baldur's Gate!"

Maybe you should learn to play properly

Its true, you can spec your party to deal with engagement, and play somewhat differently then just using those basic tactics - although to be fair, in number of places the environment is done in such a way that almost forces such tricks - but its still a far cry from something actually really good.
And its not fun to be almost forced to adjust to a system that is implemented in a very unoptimal way, with various negative consequences, only to negate its effects in a very limited manner.

I'm not crying unplayable or unbeatable, just bad because of that enforced playstyle and in that aspect worse than D&D3(.5) or DOS.

I know.

 

[pakoito]

Maybe you can describe what you're trying to do with what characters, custom or not, and why you feel it isn't working.

3 chanters, 5 was overkill, bait with one, run around, get chant 3, spam skellis and shoot from afar. When there's only 1 enemy left use a couple of skeletons to attract more enemies and continue the streak. I cleared the Iron Keep basement in 3 prolonged fights receiving no damage.

What would I like? Lance priest party. Several priests cast increase size and bull's strenght in each other then use the lance's extra range to control a huge area of the battlefield. But that was ToEE.

 

[Athelas]

I'm finding the phanton a lot more useful than the skeletons. It can keep an enemy continuously stunned and even has sneak attacks. The skeletons do middling damage and die very easily.

 

[pakoito]

I'm finding the phanton a lot more useful than the skeletons. It can keep an enemy continuously stunned.

I just took it in a level up but didn't have time to test it with all the coming here to complain.

 

[Tigranes]

Maybe you can describe what you're trying to do with what characters, custom or not, and why you feel it isn't working.

3 chanters, 5 was overkill, bait with one, run around, get chant 3, spam skellis and shoot from afar. When there's only 1 enemy left use a couple of skeletons to attract more enemies and continue the streak. I cleared the Iron Keep basement in 3 prolonged fights receiving no damage.

What would I like? Lance priest party. Several priests cast increase size and bull's strenght in each other then use the lance's extra range to control a huge area of the battlefield. But that was ToEE.

I see. You have fun with that.

In other news, has anyone experienced any notable consequences to reputation? There seems to be an awful lot of modifiers (benevolent, clever, etc.) and I guess one downside of expert mode is I don't know if the game's been taking it into account at all.

 

[Grunker]

In other news, has anyone experienced any notable consequences to reputation? There seems to be an awful lot of modifiers (benevolent, clever, etc.) and I guess one downside of expert mode is I don't know if the game's been taking it into account at all.

They don't happen almost at all before well into Defiance Bay content.

 

[pakoito]

Maybe you can describe what you're trying to do with what characters, custom or not, and why you feel it isn't working.

3 chanters, 5 was overkill, bait with one, run around, get chant 3, spam skellis and shoot from afar. When there's only 1 enemy left use a couple of skeletons to attract more enemies and continue the streak. I cleared the Iron Keep basement in 3 prolonged fights receiving no damage.

What would I like? Lance priest party. Several priests cast increase size and bull's strenght in each other then use the lance's extra range to control a huge area of the battlefield. But that was ToEE.

I see. You have fun with that.

I wish I was, but gimping myself even more than trying a thematic party is not my style.

 

[Shannow]

In other news, has anyone experienced any notable consequences to reputation? There seems to be an awful lot of modifiers (benevolent, clever, etc.) and I guess one downside of expert mode is I don't know if the game's been taking it into account at all.

Should affect Pallys (and Priests). But I never played any as main char, so I don't know. But I've just reached The Bay and am now waiting for patches (since all the bugs I've been reading about make me uncomfortable).

pakoito is right in that I really feel that the game expects/requires you to have one or two dedicated tanks. I can't really imagine a non-cheesy party composition without at least one. So I too feel like the game is forcing certain roles onto me, where the whole balance-talk made me expect differently. I guess a diverse party with different roles is also a form of balance?
Otherwise he's being a little cunt. Sry, pak, but you know it's true.

 

[pakoito]

Bit of column A, bit of column B.

 

[Lagole Gon]

Bros, I gave it a try. Mmmeh... eh... it's okay. It's fine.

I would love to play it a little bit more, but I'm stuck because of Raedric’s Keep Crash.

THANKS SAWYER!

 

[Tigranes]

If the point is that the game expects one dedicated engagement/frontline handler - I think unless you're very good / have learned the system thoroughly, and if you're playing on higher difficulties, yes, I think so. I imagine when I've learnt how all the classes work and so on, I can figure it out. Just like BG1/2 on a first playthrough would have looked like you have to have a Fighter type up front, but later you realise you can do without - or even solo with a mage (though that's probably much harder in POE).

But really, I don't think that's such a big limitation. If needing someone to somehow do the frontline work is 'cookie cutter party' then I suppose you really wanted this to be Sawyer's Wet Dream where a party of 6 bards with 3 INT can still do just as well as anybody else, or something.