Tyranny + Bastard's Wound Expansion Thread

[Lacrymas]

What do you mean by "reactivity"? I sided with the Disfavored, but you are saying that if I side with the Chorus or the Vendrian Guard the game is basically the same after that, with just a few cosmetic changes, if even that?

 

[Urthor]

idk how you can say it has less reactivity. You go to the same areas and basically play them back to front, allying with factions you previously fought, travel completely out of order and the story is markedly different depending on who you ally with and which companions you murder

The biggest difference between PoE and this is absolutely the reactivity and branching paths

 

[Bubbles]

Is there any way to attack friendly NPCs at the start of the game? I know in PoE you could slaughter Odema's caravan right at the start and the plot would accomodate that; here the PC just says "Sorry, I can't!" when I try to target a friendly NPC.

Nope. Game has less reactivity than PoE.

I can't even attack wild deer anymore

 

[Excidium II]

Is there any way to attack friendly NPCs at the start of the game? I know in PoE you could slaughter Odema's caravan right at the start and the plot would accomodate that; here the PC just says "Sorry, I can't!" when I try to target a friendly NPC.

Nope. Game has less reactivity than PoE.

I can't even attack wild deer anymore

Most pacific boars ever too.

 

[Abu Antar]

Is it only me or is money not that easy to come by? I'm selling all food items and I'm not keeping "just in case weapons". I can barely afford anything.

I feel like things are getting a bit easier on hard. I had very little trouble with the last fight in act 1 and so far, I am doing fine after that. Dual wielding is decent, but two handed weapons are probably the best. On top of lightning spells, my main guy is now also using ice magic. I have on of the other mages focus on fire. And Lantry does all other spells.

I'm actually enjoying the game, but I still think it's a bit streamlined and tries to be more like Dragon Age or MMOs when it comes to combat. The writing is decent. Or should I say that it varies from mediocre to good? Some parts are well written, while others make me cringe a bit.

The thing I'd like to see transferred from this game to PoE 2 is the magic system, but even more robust. The Spires are better than the Stronghold but this area needs improvement still. Or scrap it altogether. I don't know how C&C is in the game. I'm going to make a new character once I beat it and judge. I want to see it in PoE 2 and I want factions to matter. I slaughtered one faction in this game before even knowing anything about them.

Some of the characters might be a bit over-the-top, but that sort of makes them more memorable, in either good or bad ways. While I like Pillars of Eternity, I don't feel like there were a lot of characters that stood out.

(I know I started rambling.)

 

[Excidium II]

The thing I'd like to see transferred from this game to PoE 2 is the magic system, but even more robust

No thanks. The magic system in this game is completely banal. All spells look and feel the same.

They could perhaps add more metamagicks but keep PoE's varied and thematic spells.

 

[Sentinel]

Some of the characters might be a bit over-the-top, but that sort of makes them more memorable, in either good or bad ways. While I like Pillars of Eternity, I don't feel like there were a lot of characters that stood out.

(I know I started rambling.)

Memorable for being fucking shit lmao.
PoE had good, memorable characters and none of them were over the top.

 

[Bonerbill]

Memorable for being fucking shit lmao.
PoE had good, memorable characters and none of them were over the top.

2 of the characters you get in the expansion where pretty over the top.

 

[Urthor]

They were cliches going hammy though, which is the great detraction. Voices of Nerat is Mark Hamill's Joker, so much score I actually had to check the credits, and Graven Ashe is probably the worst character in the entire game, just a boring one dimensional grandpa. Companions were pretty good though, even Sirin does a pretty great 16 year old girl impression even though you don't like her you acknowledge yes good character. Kills in Shadow does an amazing impression of my dog talking, it's unreal.

Mostly though they're pretty good, but the setting is stylised sp realism and immersion takes a backseat, and those two Archons are probably the worst of the lot.

 

[Wolfe]

I don't understand how I'm supposed to progress at Lethian's Crossing. I defeated the garrison, there are no side quests around, I can't figure out whom I should talk to about the charcoal partial symbol I discovered in the Oldwalls. Help?

 

[bminorkey]

Are there any companion quests? Do companions respond to your actions more than once in a blue moon? My team (Sirin, Barik, that sage guy) seems to rarely do anything or comment on anything. :c

 

[Bubbles]

No, there are no companion quests.

 

[Urthor]

I don't understand how I'm supposed to progress at Lethian's Crossing. I defeated the garrison, there are no side quests around, I can't figure out whom I should talk to about the charcoal partial symbol I discovered in the Oldwalls. Help?

Lethian's crossing is weirdo bullshit and the quest can't progress and you can't get the final Oldwall rubbing without metagame knowledge until later in the game. Eventually you get the quest to go to Lethian's from someone and you go there and it advances the story, the final Oldwall rubbing is in a boss area for the Lethian arc.

You apparently can still guess the rubbing if you use 2/3 and exploit the fact they're symmetrical symbols, but I just googled because fuck it

 

[Bubbles]

One of the earliest battles in the game, a 4 vs. 4 fight. At the start of combat, two melee enemies aggro to one of my backliners. They have no way to reach him, so they just keep running into a nearby wall until I've killed their allies.

Wait for patches. Many patches.

 

[Excidium II]

The AI really is a bit too aggressive with targeting squishies. Makes them very predictable.

 

[Roguey]

It's going to be particularly buggy if they rush it out before the holidays, best to make Paradox feel some financial pain and wait a few months into 2017.

Another accurate prediction.

 

[Excidium II]

It's going to be particularly buggy if they rush it out before the holidays, best to make Paradox feel some financial pain and wait a few months into 2017.

Another accurate prediction.

Who could have guessed.

 

[Popiel]

And it's done. Took me 23 hours at Hard & ExpertM. difficulty level, I managed to grab 24 out of 50 achievements. I went with Barik, Verse and Lentry, I myself was sort of a battlemage – seems like almost any kind of build is feasible on Hard, it was the case in PoE as well, so no surprises.

I had fun, I guess? World as presented was completely dumb in ways I though unimaginable, it was a failed attempt at some Bronze-Age-but-not-really-oh-and-we-have-homosexual-marriages style. I loved spellmaking, I loathed crafting, I hated Obsidian for aborting both of these systems way too early for shits and giggles and leaving them half-baked. Nihil novi sub sole when it came to combat, I ran through this piece of gaming stuff with heavily specialised crew so just about nothing posed a challenge after not much time. Enemies come in like, what, four of five genres, and they quickly become boring. Act II is good, act I is nice and feels fresh still, act III is a fucking joke.

Yeah, before spoilers hit – is this really how Obsidian sees evil…? Kyros’ empire is legit, completely decent empire with a few quirks. It resembles Romans with its fixation over law and proper conduct, unification of customs and religion and so on. Sure, there are some psychos within empire’s ranks, but that’s normal as well… I would support Kyros all the way if I were part of the setting, and I was proud to be a part of the operation.

So, heavy spoilers hit now.

Spoiler

Way too much about the setting is revealed in this game, but that can be waved away with supposed one-shot nature of Tyranny. Yet still, I didn’t like it. We basically in the end know where does power of the Overlord come from, where power of the Archons in general come from. Not everything is explained (why Banes are drawn to manifestations of Kyros’ magic? who built the Oldwalls?), surely, but I feel that what we were given was too much. Graven Ashe is pretty straightforward character, I was highly sympathetic towards him and was happy when game gave me a chance of recruiting him. Tunon was a boring fuck and I was appalled how quickly he betrayed his mistress (way he was addressing Kyros by her gender bordered sexual obsession) and knelt before me, I hope that I’ll be given a chance someday to get rid of him. As for the Voices of Nerat, as was said already, it was Mark Hamill’s Joker and I couldn’t stand it. Just could not, disposed of him as fast as I could. So, yeah, setting is semi-interesting, albeit stupid, game offers branching storylines so I will replay it probably. Some day. In the future.

What I liked was how the game portrayed the good guys. Total pushovers with rare glimpses of Tolkienesque quality.

 

[prodigydancer]

is this really how Obsidian sees evil…?

Yes. Unlimited power. Killing everyone and destroying everything with Edicts as the solution to every problem is quite evil indeed. I was skeptical when the game was in development, but Obsidian did well.

Kyros is pretty much like Kallor from the Malazan Book of the Fallen. Apparently there are no gods to oppose him and he's kind of a demigod himself. But it's clearly stated that he's ready to annihilate everything if things don't go his way. Before the game even starts - in the Conquest mode - every serious obstacle is simply Edict-ed out of existence. If his authority were actually threatened, he'd destroy the whole continent - just because he can.

 

[Excidium II]

Bronze-Age-but-not-really-oh-and-we-have-homosexual-marriages

 

[Sentinel]

Shouldn't be surprising. Obsidian are based in Commiefornia and Matt McLean said in a panel that capitalism was evil, so yeah.

 

[Ent]

would a two handed off tank guy need quickness or should I pump strength with the occasional point in vit / res?

 

[ilitarist]

The game is noticeably easier and simpler than PoE, so no. That's why I don't understand why they made certain small parts of it more complicated. I have no clue where this idea of status effects not applying on graze in ~certain cases~ even came from; is that one of Josh's ideas for PoE 2 that was implemented here as a test case?

By the way, interrupts are no longer supposed to apply on graze either. Though they aren't shown in the combat log, so there's no way to be sure.

Oh bother. I played PoE on PotD difficulty and near the end it required me to actually use all available tools, as if I'm playing a varied and well balanced game. I'll still play for the world and epic but I'm annoyed by those kind of games copying Infinity Engine games, solving some of their core problems and still leaving others. I understand it's not a good place to look for consistency and elegance of design but even old Geneforge 5 I've just finished seemed to have no less good memorable fights and rarely felt as full of cheese and fluff. Where do you get consistent rpgs with balanced difficulty nowadays? In Japan? It's the only place I haven't checked. They also usually do not try C&C system at all and sometimes it's better than limited C&C system.

 

[anus_pounder]

So has anyone tried the "fuck everyone route"? I feel like I'm missing some entertaining quests, as anyone I meet goes "ese, you loco, lets fight".

I don't know about 'entertaining', but you definitely miss out on a lot of (filler?) quests. Anarchy route is probably the best route imo, since it's the only one where it seems like people actually acknowledge that you have actual skills.

 

[Bubbles]

More evidence of stacking bugs:



71% hit-to-graze is pretty good tbh