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Pillars of Eternity Beta - Torment: Tides of the Beetles

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Do enemy encounters differ by difficulty? Noticed Path of the Damned says it has all enemies from every difficulty, so figured it must be different each one. Was considering going Hard but might go Normal so I can see differences on a second playthrough (and I would probably never play Path of the Damned).
Path of the Damned is the only difficulty setting that actually affects attributes and numbers and stuff, as far as I know. The others affect encounter design. So you might face one wolf on Easy, two on Normal, and then on Hard one of the wolves is an Elder Wolf. That sort of thing.
 
Path of the Damned is the only difficulty setting that actually affects attributes and numbers and stuff, as far as I know. The others affect encounter design. So you might face one wolf on Easy, two on Normal, and then on Hard one of the wolves is an Elder Wolf. That sort of thing.

Path of the Damned affects encounter design as well.
 
Someone can explain it better, I'm sure -- but yes, pretty much. Each difficulty has different enemy placement for encounters. Like Hard might have more enemies, and different ones in an encounter you'd see on Normal.

I'd like to know about this too. I mean, I'm generally the sort to play on easy or normal, but if it means I'm missing out on unique encounters, enemies, or items, then I'll go hard. I hate missing stuff.
 
Path of the Damned affects encounter design as well.
Yeah, should have made that clear. They all affect encounter design; PotD is the only one that tinkers with anything else.

"Expert" mode and "Trial of Iron" are separate modifiers you can add on top of any difficulty setting. You can also turn on or off the individual components of Expert mode to taste.
 
I'd like to know about this too. I mean, I'm generally the sort to play on easy or normal, but if it means I'm missing out on unique encounters, enemies, or items, then I'll go hard. I hate missing stuff.

Enverxis mentioned in one of his videos that Hard is "intended" difficulty by designers when it comes to encounter design etc.
 
Enverxis mentioned in one of his videos that Hard is "intended" difficulty by designers when it comes to encounter design etc.

If you played Core Rules in Baldur's Gate games, it's pretty much equivalent to PoE's Hard mode.
 
Enverxis mentioned in one of his videos that Hard is "intended" difficulty by designers when it comes to encounter design etc.

Then playing the game in HARD mode is a must (I hope its the default option when you start the game), if you want to experience the game as intended by design.

Edit: 20 hours until the game is activated on Steam, but when am I getting my Backer_Slacker key/download link?
 
Enverxis mentioned in one of his videos that Hard is "intended" difficulty by designers when it comes to encounter design etc.

Interesting and scary. All the preview stuff I've read (which is minimal. Want to prevent spoiling myself too much) said the game is HARD even on normal.

Then playing the game in HARD mode is a must (I hope its the default option when you start the game), if you want to experience the game as intended by design.

It's presented to you upon game startup and you can change it in game without issue.
 
Jumping in on the attribute debate, if there's one criticism I have about Eternity's attributes it's that they're extremely conflated. Attributes work better when they're orthogonal so that you can feel the difference between them, not just understand the difference between them. And there's nothing about orthogonal attributes that leads to dump stats.

Really, there's only 2 things you need in your attributes to avoid dump stats:
1. Each attribute has to have equal use across every class.
(e.g. don't make wisdom primarily affect magic if only certain classes use magic, find an equally viable way of having non-magic classes use wisdom)
2. Each point of each attribute has to be equally useful regardless of class or level
(e.g. don't have a scenario where going from 16 to 17 strength is useful, but going from 6 to 7 isn't because 7 is so low that you can't make use of anything the attribute would give you)
 
I'd like to know about this too. I mean, I'm generally the sort to play on easy or normal, but if it means I'm missing out on unique encounters, enemies, or items, then I'll go hard. I hate missing stuff.

From the sound of it, you will miss out on some loot due to harder enemies not appearing and having fewer enemies in general, but I don't think you will miss anything particularly special. Instead of facing two archers with nice bows, you'll only face one. A wizard with a decent staff might no longer appear. But I doubt any of their equipment will be anything special that the developers particularly wanted you to see or get.

Edit: 20 hours until the game is activated on Steam, but when am I getting my Backer_Slacker key/download link?

You have to go to the My Products page on the PoE site. You can generate a key for either Steam or GOG there.
 
I'm still not convinced that avoiding dump stats or making every stat equally useful for every class are good goals in the first place.
 
Interesting and scary. All the preview stuff I've read (which is minimal. Want to prevent spoiling myself too much) said the game is HARD even on normal.



It's presented to you upon game startup and you can change it in game without issue.

The reason they said it was "hard" on normal was because they streamed the game w/o reading up on the manual and in-game Cyclopedia that explains the mechanics.

In today's world, the average gamer expects to mash A to win a fight. Not so in Pillars of Eternity. Same thing can be said for the Souls game and Bloodborne. You need to know the mechanics.
 
Bought this on a whim and the closest thing I've played to this game is Divinity OS. I'm a HUGE fan of thieves/rogues in games and I'm looking up stuff in regards to stats, and I'm a little unsure of what are a rogues most beneficial stats? Do I need might as much as DEX? Also, how needed is something like INT to get enjoyment out of dialogues and stuff?

Sorry if questions like this have been asked ad nauseam, I appreciate the help!
 
I'm still not convinced that avoiding dump stats or making every stat equally useful for every class are good goals in the first place.

I agree.

Although they tried to do this for Pillars of Eternity, they didn't succeed. I am planning to play a monk and I know that I won't care about a few of the stats.
 
You have to go to the My Products page on the PoE site. You can generate a key for either Steam or GOG there.

Awesome!, now I am a bit confused on what platform do I need the game (nail biting moment).

Any suggestions?

Edit: I choose Steam, because I'd like my friends to see me playing PoE on the friends list.
 
I agree.

Although they tried to do this for Pillars of Eternity, they didn't succeed. I am planning to play a monk and I know that I won't care about a few of the stats.

They did? I remember Sawyer being adamant that wasn't the case, rather that they're all viable. So Might/int might be the best for a class but you could still make the other stuff work.
 
I agree.

Although they tried to do this for Pillars of Eternity, they didn't succeed. I am planning to play a monk and I know that I won't care about a few of the stats.

I disagree. While I too am dumping two stats completely on my character, I think they did achieve their goal of making it so you don't feel the need to dump certain stats in order to be effective. You certainly can dump stats, but it's not a requirement in order to make a capable character, which is what matters most. Hell you can most likely dump stats that many feel are requirements for a class and still probably be effective in some ways.

Whether that's superior to other systems that do in fact require dump stating and being more fixed in how to build a proper and capable character remains to be fully seen, but by all accounts it looks to be working quite well.
 
I'm still not convinced that avoiding dump stats or making every stat equally useful for every class are good goals in the first place.

It doesn't sound like they're necessarily equally useful to each class so much as none of them are useless.

In D&D (especially back in the BG days), some stats literally did nothing for a given class. Like CON, IIRC, didn't provide any benefit to non-fighters above a certain level. CHA and INT have been dump stats for half the classes for ages. There's plenty more.

Even if this isn't ideal, it sure as shit is better designed than 2nd edition D&D.
 
Awesome!, now I am a bit confused on what platform do I need the game (nail biting moment).

Any suggestions?

Steam?

It's really up to you. I love Steam, a lot of people love Steam. The main benefit over GOG is that it will auto update your game. No need ot go chasing down patches. It also includes stuff like achivements and other stuff that might or might not interest you.

The main benefit to GOG is that you don't need ot have Steam on your PC to play the game.
 
Bought this on a whim and the closest thing I've played to this game is Divinity OS. I'm a HUGE fan of thieves/rogues in games and I'm looking up stuff in regards to stats, and I'm a little unsure of what are a rogues most beneficial stats? Do I need might as much as DEX? Also, how needed is something like INT to get enjoyment out of dialogues and stuff?

Sorry if questions like this have been asked ad nauseam, I appreciate the help!

Gonna quote the wiki here:

Might (MIG) Might represents a character's physical and spiritual strength, brute force as well as their ability to channel powerful magic. During interactions, it can be useful for intimidating displays and acts of brute force. In combat, it contributes to both Damage and Healing as well as the Fortitude defense.

Constitution (CON) Constitution is a combination of the character's overall health and stamina. Although it is not used much in interactions, it is sometimes checked to withstand pain or endure a physically taxing ordeal. In combat, it affects maximum Health and Endurance and contributes to the Fortitude defense.

Dexterity (DEX) Dexterity is an abstraction of a character's hand-eye coordination, balance, and overall grace. In interactions, it can be used for sleight-of-hand and fast reactions. In combat, it affects the character's Action Speed with all attacks, spells, and abilities and contributes to the Reflex defense.

Perception (PER) Perception represents a character's senses as well as their instinctive ability to pick up on details. In interactions, it can be used to catch someone in a lie, to make an observant comment about their appearance, or to notice something happening in the background. In combat, it contributes to the Deflection and Reflex defenses and grants a bonus to Interrupt.

Intellect (INT) Intellect represents a character's logic and reasoning capabilities. In interactions, it can be useful for deduction, sudden realizations, and problem-solving. In combat, it contributes to the Will defense and influences Duration and Areas of Effect for all Abilities and Talents.

Resolve (RES) Resolve reflects a character's internal drive, determination, fearlessness, and the emotional intensity they can project to others. It can be useful for mental intimidation, leadership, and convincing performances. In combat, it helps characters maintain Concentration and contributes to the Will and Deflection defenses.

The usefulness depends on what you're trying to accomplish, pretty much. Might helps damage output, so if you want to make a heavy hitter, put some points in that.
Or pump up Perception and Resolve to boost up your character's deflection and concentration (meaning it'll be harder to hit and harder to interrupt his/her attacks).
 
I'm still not convinced that avoiding dump stats or making every stat equally useful for every class are good goals in the first place.

Well I think they should be useful enough. It's problematic when an attribute's use is so narrowly defined that it almost completely disappears when you change classes. A fighter might be better at things associated with physical attributes, but that doesn't have to mean that 1 more point in a physical attribute has to be better than 1 more point in mental attribute.

You want this:
Stat = ClassMod + AttributeMod + X
Or this:
Stat = Base ^ ((ClassMod + AttributeMod + X) * Y)
Not this:
Stat = ClassMod * AttributeMod + X
 
This game would have to come out right before final exams lol.
 
Alright, this game is good. Too good. Take a week off people, it's so damn addictive. Also say goodbye to your family, won't be seeing them for awhile.
 
The attributes are pretty stupid because if you want a tank its best to go max res/per with dex being the dump stat. Everyone else just goes might / int or might / dex.
 
This will replace D: OS as my time-sink since Version 2.0 for that and Wasteland 2 are down the pipeline. Need to watch the How To videos tonight while I'm waiting on Bloodborne to load.
 
I got the guide book yesterday, but I had a surprise early delivery waiting for me when I got home today.

A5uSsvn


http://imgur.com/A5uSsvn

It's over 500 pages, and lots of pictures of ingame maps and screens. I'm not going too in depth into the content because I don't want to accidentally spoil something before my first play through.
 
Got home from classes and preloading now! Won't play it tomorrow, but starting on Friday I'll have a lot of free time for over a week ^^.
 
I think I'm gonna wait six months for all the patches to come out. I went day 1 with Wasteland 2 and while it was perfectly fine, I think waiting a bit on the polish wouldn't have hurt.

it's not the same studio, I have more faith in Obsidian even with their buggy games. inxIile didn't make as many games as Obsidian
 
the problem seems to be that currently there are two attributes that are better than any of the other attributes for most of the classes. Three attributes almost exclusively increase your defense (making one or two of them rather obsolete) and dexterity currently looks like a secondary offense-boosting attribute that is probably not that useful for any of the mages
 
Up to #1 best selling on Steam, boys and girls. Feels like this is a strong launch for the game, I imagine Obsidian have to be quite optimistic.
 
Up to #1 best selling on Steam, boys and girls. Feels like this is a strong launch for the game, I imagine Obsidian have to be quite optimistic.

Please be a ridiculously, beyond any reasonable expectations, surprise smash hit. I would love to see Obsidian just dunk on all the publishers who turned down funding games like this for the past 15 years.
 
It's coming out at a good time on PC so it'll probably do pretty well. April, May, and June each have one huge game but they're a little barren besides that. Nothing compared to how packed March was at least.
 
I wonder how much D:OS has contributed to this early interest. A number of people at work who I wouldn't have otherwise thought to be into these kind of games got on that hype train and, after I've shown them some stuff from PoE, pre-ordered pretty much instantly. Hopefully the success here feeds back over to whatever Larian is doing next, as well.
 
I've been addicted to watching youtube character creations/first 30 minutes to see how people build their characters with roleplay in mind and how they answer
Calisca's background
questions

so many male meadow human rogues/ciphers tho *yawn*

MY UNI INTERNET WORKS AT HOSPITAL THIS IS AMAZING AND MAKES NOT THAT MUCH SENSE

I wonder how much D:OS has contributed to this early interest. A number of people at work who I wouldn't have otherwise thought to be into these kind of games got on that hype train and, after I've shown them some stuff from PoE, pre-ordered pretty much instantly. Hopefully the success here feeds back over to whatever Larian is doing next, as well.
What caught my interest in this game was it was mentioned a couple of times in the Shadowrun: Hong Kong kickstarter thread (First kickstarter I backed)
After doing some research and seeing Pallegina and the
Grieving Mother
I bought the game.
 
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