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[Xater]

Wow. I have over 30 hours played and I haven't done any critical path in Act II yet.

I on the other hand don't know how that is possible. Do you read all the books? Because I sure as hell don't. Only do quests (main and most of the side stuff).

I even had the stronghold completely built way before I finished the game. I accumulated so much money it's kinda funny.

 

[Nordicus]

Manual errata, patch being worked on, etc.

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/71830-pillars-of-eternity-support-faq/#entry1600390

Oh, those tweaked hit&accuracy numbers I did not know about.

Miss/Graze/Hit/Crit ranges have changed.

A Miss is any attack roll that is 15 or less. Does no damage and inflicts no status effects or afflictions.
A Graze is any attack roll that is between 16 and 50. Reduces damage and duration by 50%.
A Hit is any attack roll that is between 50 and 100. Standard damage with standard duration.
A Crit is any attack roll over 100. Damage is increased by 50%.

I was thinking that maybe I needed to equip my riposting rogue with a shield to maximize chances of counter-attack, but given that even against enemies with accuracy equal to my deflection (which is pretty high) they have 15% chance of missing (used to be 5% with the old numbers), I'd rather just keep my 1-handed accuracy bonus and make sure every counter deals actually decent damage.

 

[A-V-B]

Reminds me of that recent Jim Sterling video where he talked about how game companies just plain stopped making certain types of games, and there's no particular reason why. His examples were horror games and classic-style JRPGs, I believe. No decline in sales or popularity. Some executive decided that they should stop making them, and so they did. As a result indies are now reaping benefits, feeding the starved masses, and the companies are like "oh yeah, why DID we stop making those...?"

Huge publicly traded companies seem to dedicate boatloads of money only to what keeps them rolling in obscene amounts of dough. After a while they just can't take any risks because their shareholders expect an increase every single period.

 

[Pancakes]

Huge publicly traded companies seem to dedicate boatloads of money only to what keeps them rolling in obscene amounts of dough. After a while they just can't take any risks because their shareholders expect an increase every single period.

"The masses like shooters, put more shooting in this RPG!"

 

[Violet_0]

"The masses like shooters, put more shooting in this RPG!"

to be fair I quite like Mass Effect 1

 

[Sinatar]

Aloth is not always about AoE damage output, due to friendly fire concerns. Druids have the best AoE damage spells and have several that only target enemies and/or last the whole fight, so they take care of business on that end more straightforwardly.

Wizards are all about game-changer AoE crowd control spells like Exxon Valdeze, Confusion, and Slumber Party. Those can single-handedly win you fights.

I usually initiate with his FF AoE damage spells from stealth (pulling enemies into priest traps when necessary), and try to set up tank positioning to cleanly chain fireball the line of enemies afterwards, but that doesn't always work out, so when things get messy I focus on crowd control spells like the ones mentioned, and instabursting squishy back line spellcasters with his fast and consistent missiles (missiles at spell level 5 put in work), throwing in some debuff like Expose Weakness as appropriate. Sometimes, though, you have to go to Defcon 1 with his nukes and cross your fingers.

Wizards definitely require finesse in this game but they're a lot of fun to use and invaluable in difficult fights.

Yup. Aloth was single handedly won me more fights then any other character in the game. A wizards ability to completely shut down entire groups of powerful enemies is far more valuable then throwing out big damage numbers.

 

[Durante]

Wizards definitely require finesse in this game but they're a lot of fun to use and invaluable in difficult fights.

I think that's pretty much exactly what Wizards should play like. Though when you get to 28+ int you can start to substitute RANGE for a bit of finesse.

I on the other hand don't know how that is possible. Do you read all the books? Because I sure as hell don't. Only do quests (main and most of the side stuff).

I'm at 40 hours, and only ~50% done with Act 2 quests (I know of).

I read all books (but not the backer stuff) and do all accessible sidequests. I also fully explore every map. And I play on hard, which probably makes battles take a bit longer than they would on lower difficulties.

It's like, I went into a dangerous situation that I couldn't talk my way out of (well, I assume, because I didn't have the right backgrounds) and there was no way of beating that questline at the time. So, I had to go dungeon crawling and I reached a pit that I had to make a decision about and had to use a grappling hook to get down with. I then found an unexpected enemy that should have killed me because I was out of the ability to rest.

But I used some of my remaining skills and a ton of pausing and issuing orders on the fly, I was able to funnel the hoard through a small gap that I plugged up with two melee fighters. Behind them I had a wizard slinging what few spells he had left and a healer patching up my fighters. They all died, save for my rogue who I had to stealth and creep up behind the big bad after he lost me in the dark. One quick stab in the back of his big, stupid face and I was victorious. And he dropped some unique loot with a story and not like, 34 potatoes and some hide armor.

And that isn't even the coolest shit I've run into today.

It's beautiful, man.

Beautiful indeed.

 

[WanderingWind]

Is that in the game folder because I don't have that many showing in game?

YOUR USER PROFILE\Saved Games\Pillars of Eternity

 

[Volodja]

I on the other hand don't know how that is possible. Do you read all the books? Because I sure as hell don't. Only do quests (main and most of the side stuff).

I even had the stronghold completely built way before I finished the game. I accumulated so much money it's kinda funny.

For example, I explore every corner of every map, sneak around everywhere to find hidden places, talk to everyone and read pretty much every dialogue option that is not an exclusive choice, I may mull over quite a few of the ones that are actually choices, sometimes after a dialogue I may save and reload a past save to see what the reactions to the other choices are. I also read all the Yellow NPCs stories. I don't read all books but I read everything else and do every quest, subquest, task and hidden task (the ones that are not actually tracked) I find.
Also some fights playing at Hard can be time consuming with my strategy.

 

[Annubis]

Does the chanter chant that drains enemy Endurance scale at all?
Doing about 1 endurance per second (according to tooltip which may be wrong) seems pretty damn awful.

Huge publicly traded companies seem to dedicate boatloads of money only to what keeps them rolling in obscene amounts of dough. After a while they just can't take any risks because their shareholders expect an increase every single period.

Which is the stupidity of the whole system since no business can grow forever.
Thus, constant recessions.

 

[KePoW]

Reminds me of that recent Jim Sterling video where he talked about how game companies just plain stopped making certain types of games, and there's no particular reason why. His examples were horror games and classic-style JRPGs, I believe. No decline in sales or popularity. Some executive decided that they should stop making them, and so they did. As a result indies are now reaping benefits, feeding the starved masses, and the companies are like "oh yeah, why DID we stop making those...?"

Depends on your definition of the extent of "reaping benefits". Pretty sure CoD and GTA will still make a shitload more than PoE

I doubt Activision or Rockstar are scrambling to make a game exactly like PoE

 

[Xater]

For example, I explore every corner of every map, sneak around everywhere to find hidden places, talk to everyone and read pretty much every dialogue option that is not an exclusive choice, I may mull over quite a few of the ones that are actually choices, sometimes after a dialogue I may save and reload a past save to see what the reactions to the other choices are. I also read all the Yellow NPCs stories.
Also some fights playing at Hard can be time consuming with my strategy.

Like i said I am not playing on hard. I read none of the Yellow NPC stories. But I did explore every map completely.

If you read all that or the books then it's bound to take you that long. It's not my thing. I only focus on the game part and the dialogues that are important to it.

 

[Pancakes]

to be fair I quite like Mass Effect 1

Oh I loved the first Mass Effect it's probably one of my favorite games of all time. But to be fair, it become more and more of a shooter and less of an RPG as the series progressed.

 

[KePoW]

Oh I loved the first Mass Effect it's probably one of my favorite games of all time. But to be fair, it become more and more of a shooter and less of an RPG as the series progressed.

This is true, but absolutely nothing wrong with that

 

[PoweredBySoy]

What goes into a check regarding finding hidden (purple) objects? Is it Perception? Mechanics? Are there hidden objects that are harder to find than others?

I realize you need to be in Scouting mode.

 

[Ketch]

I think I've finished Aloth's personal quest, but I'm not sure:

Spoiler

is there anything after talking to the lady in the sanitarium? A simply yes/no will suffice. thank you.

If his quest is done I'll probably drop him from my party for someone else.

 

[Durante]

Aloth is really overrated imo especially in longer dungeons when his spells run out of uses and you're left with only his super short range arcane AOE.

To be fair, Aloth also has a pretty damn shitty stat distribution for a wizard. 12 might and 16 int? wtfisthisshit.png

 

[Nordicus]

Yup. Aloth was single handedly won me more fights then any other character in the game. A wizards ability to completely shut down entire groups of powerful enemies is far more valuable then throwing out big damage numbers.

Chill Fog is pretty amazing to cast on top of your characters since it only damages and blinds foes. Blinding is always awesome, especially when it lasts 10+ seconds

 

[Violet_0]

I think that's pretty much exactly what Wizards should play like. Though when you get to 28+ int you can start to substitute RANGE for a bit of finesse.

you're in act 2 and have a character with 28 int? I'm at level 8 and none of my characters have an attribute at or over 20 yet, what sort of crazy items did you find

 

[Xater]

you're in act 2 and have a character with 28 int? I'm at level 8 and none of my characters have an attribute at or over 20 yet, what sort of crazy items did you find

Remember that enchanting stuff you have can help you out as well.

 

[Volodja]

I don't actually use Aloth a lot for my playstyle, but he has contributed to a couple of harder fights with the fantastic "Stick the tanks in front, showever everyone with Fan of flames and hope that you still stand after" strategy.

 

[Nordicus]

To be fair, Aloth also has a pretty damn shitty stat distribution for a wizard. 12 might and 16 int? wtfisthisshit.png

notanevocationwizard.jpg

Edit: Admittedly i would have taken even more points from Might into Int, but I suppose they wanted people to mess with damage spells at least a little, and use Aloth's racial passive offensively

 

[Violet_0]

Remember that enchanting stuff you have can help you out as well.

ohh right, I haven't even used enchanting yet. That could certainly help I think

 

[Xater]

ohh right, I haven't even used enchanting yet. That could certainly help I think

Yeah I remembered that very late as well. Could have helped out in a couple of fights.

 

[Violet_0]

Yeah I remembered that very late as well. Could have helped out in a couple of fights.

eh, I might end up playing through Pillars without bothering with enchanting. Seems like you can do some stupidly powerful stuff with it and I don't really need the game to be less challenging at the moment

 

[Raggie]

Depends on your definition of the extent of "reaping benefits". Pretty sure CoD and GTA will still make a shitload more than PoE

Sure, but the only games to make money like GTA and CoD are GTA and CoD. Most games don't turn a profit, even the ones that try to emulate GTA or CoD.

That's the problem with mass market. There's masses of competition going for the same masses of potential buyers who spend masses of money, but on the same handful of titles each year. In that marketplace, it's not enough to make excellent games. The marketing budgets alone are higher than the development cost of a niche RPG.

 

[justsomeguy]

Anybody finding the "skills" on level up a bit meh for the NPCs?

I'm playing a rogue, so don't need any of my party especially stealthy.
Athletics: go longer without resting... eh so what, I'll just rest.
Lore: use scrolls: haven't needed to so far...
Mechanics: well as long as one char has good mechanics the others can sit at 0
Survival: not really using food buffs either

Playing on normal.

So yeah I'm kind of sat here looking at unspent points and thinking "why bother?". What am I missing, PoEGAF?

 

[Nordicus]

ohh right, I haven't even used enchanting yet. That could certainly help I think

Remember that once you insert an echantment on an item, you can't replace the enchantment with something of similar type but better.

Like, if you have an "Accurate" or "Mighty" item, you can't improve that enchantment to "Fine", which improves both damage and accuracy.

The different enchantment tiers have such huge level gaps that I suppose you shouldn't worry too much about enchanting your equipment early, however. You'll get more money and a boatload of similar generic items by the time your enchantments become outdated

 

[Volodja]

Remember that enchanting stuff you have can help you out as well.

The maximum base int you can have is 20.
18 + 1 from being godlike + 1 from old vailia culture
Now considering that + Intellect on various items don't stack but suppress each other until only 1 item with the highest bonus applies, you'd need a single item with +8 intellect to reach 28+. Enchanting only goes up to +2 Int, as far as I know.
I don't think that's possible. I also don't think that even if it were it would happen in Act 2 (I would've noticed it, I think).
Unless I'm missing something, I think that only the famous stat ballooning bug can get you that high in any stat. Or am I missing some skill that gives you a massive bonus?

 

[Brojito]

Anybody finding the "skills" on level up a bit meh for the NPCs?

I'm playing a rogue, so don't need any of my party especially stealthy.
Athletics: go longer without resting... eh so what, I'll just rest.
Lore: use scrolls: haven't needed to so far...
Mechanics: well as long as one char has good mechanics the others can sit at 0
Survival: not really using food buffs either

Playing on normal.

So yeah I'm kind of sat here looking at unspent points and thinking "why bother?". What am I missing, PoEGAF?

Yea same here... Outside of a couple of characters I really don't feel like the skills mean anything.

The only one that seems really important is mechanics and you only need one person in your party with that. Mostly I just dump points into athletics and maybe lore, but I barely use scrolls.

 

[Burt]

ohh right, I haven't even used enchanting yet. That could certainly help I think

Enchanting stuff doesn't help, though. There are a few bonuses that stack, but generally speaking only the highest bonus is applied. Bonuses from equipment never stack. If you have multiple bonuses to a single stat on equipment, you'll see that the lesser bonuses are greyed out and labeled (suppressed) on your character sheet. Food and rest bonuses may stack with equipment, but I'm not sure at this point. Still I couldn't see a character getting more than +6-7 in one stat from bonuses, so if you wanted 28 INT, you'd still have to start pretty damn high up there.

 

[KePoW]

Sure, but the only games to make money like GTA and CoD are GTA and CoD. Most games don't turn a profit, even the ones that try to emulate GTA or CoD.

That's the problem with mass market. There's masses of competition going for the same masses of potential buyers who spend masses of money, but on the same handful of titles each year. In that marketplace, it's not enough to make excellent games. The marketing budgets alone are higher than the development cost of a niche RPG.

There are definitely other AAA games besides CoD & GTA that have/will make more profit than PoE

But I don't disagree with the general gist of your post, because certainly a lot of AAA games also bomb bigtime

 

[Volodja]

Enchanting stuff doesn't help, though. There are a few bonuses that stack, but generally speaking only the highest bonus is applied. Bonuses from equipment never stack. If you have multiple bonuses to a single stat on equipment, you'll see that the lesser bonuses are greyed out and labeled (suppressed) on your character sheet. Food and rest bonuses may stack with equipment, but I'm not sure at this point. Still I couldn't see a character getting more than +6-7 in one stat from bonuses, so if you wanted 28 INT, you'd still have to start pretty damn high up there.

Oh yeah, I completely forgot food bonuses in my breakdown because I never touched them.

 

[Violet_0]

The maximum base int you can have is 20.
18 + 1 from being godlike + 1 from old vailia culture
Now considering that + Intellect on various items don't stack but suppress each other until only 1 item with the highest bonus applies, you'd need a single item with +8 intellect to reach 28+. Enchanting only goes up to +2 Int.
I don't think that's possible. I also don't think that even if it were it would happen in Act 2 (I would've noticed it, I think).
Unless I'm missing something, I think that only the famous stat ballooning bug can get you that high in any stat. Or am I missing some skill that gives you a massive bonus?

there's also the rest bonus from inns that can boost some attributes significantly. Not that I would reallly know, I always sleep in the stables

Remember that once you insert an echantment on an item, you can't replace the enchantment with something of similar type but better.

Like, if you have an "Accurate" or "Mighty" item, you can't improve that enchantment to "Fine", which improves both damage and accuracy.

The different enchantment tiers have such huge level gaps that I suppose you shouldn't worry too much about enchanting your equipment early, however. You'll get more money and a boatload of similar generic items by the time your enchantments become outdated

gotcha, thanks. I guess I will just continue to ignore it for a little while longer then

btw, has anyone tried to set up multiple traps with different characters or is the one-trap limit party-wide?

 

[Ozium]

does Aloth have a quest? I think one time he died in combat and it said quest failed, but when I loaded the save prior he has no quest...

I could be wrong tho, but I definitely don't have a quest for him like I do for my other companions so far (Durance, Eder and that chanter dude whose name I forgot)

 

[Volodja]

there's also the rest bonus from inns that can boost some attributes significantly. Not that I would reallly know, I always sleep in the stables

Yes, I just realized it.
I never use them so they completely went over my head.
With those, I imagine you could reach those stat levels for a certain period of time.

does Aloth have a quest? I think one time he died in combat and it said quest failed, but when I loaded the save prior he has no quest...

I could be wrong tho, but I definitely don't have a quest for him like I do for my other companions so far (Durance, Eder and that chanter dude whose name I forgot)

He does, you find it out around Act 2.

 

[Durante]

Enchanting stuff doesn't help, though. There are a few bonuses that stack, but generally speaking only the highest bonus is applied. Bonuses from equipment never stack. If you have multiple bonuses to a single stat on equipment, you'll see that the lesser bonuses are greyed out and labeled (suppressed) on your character sheet. Food and rest bonuses may stack with equipment, but I'm not sure at this point. Still I couldn't see a character getting more than +6-7 in one stat from bonuses, so if you wanted 28 INT, you'd still have to start pretty damn high up there.

My character had 20 int straight out of character creation (basically all the racial and background bonuses possible). I think 28 might have been a bit exaggerated, but it's 25 at least. And 2 points are from rest bonuses.

 

[Volodja]

My character had 20 int straight out of character creation (basically all the racial and background bonuses possible). I think 28 might have been a bit exaggerated, but it's 25 at least. And 2 points are from rest bonuses.

Yes, this is far more reasonable.
Do you use food buffs?

 

[rickyson1]

just saw this on my twitter feed from paradox(article about attempting to play as a party of bears)

http://www.pcgamer.com/pillars-of-eternity-diary-playing-as-a-party-of-bears/

 

[Violet_0]

does Aloth have a quest? I think one time he died in combat and it said quest failed, but when I loaded the save prior he has no quest...

I could be wrong tho, but I definitely don't have a quest for him like I do for my other companions so far (Durance, Eder and that chanter dude whose name I forgot)

you get it at the beginning of act 2, I believe

 

[Nordicus]

Anybody finding the "skills" on level up a bit meh for the NPCs?

I'm playing a rogue, so don't need any of my party especially stealthy.
Athletics: go longer without resting... eh so what, I'll just rest.
Lore: use scrolls: haven't needed to so far...
Mechanics: well as long as one char has good mechanics the others can sit at 0
Survival: not really using food buffs either

Playing on normal.

So yeah I'm kind of sat here looking at unspent points and thinking "why bother?". What am I missing, PoEGAF?

Yea same here... Outside of a couple of characters I really don't feel like the skills mean anything.

The only one that seems really important is mechanics and you only need one person in your party with that. Mostly I just dump points into athletics and maybe lore, but I barely use scrolls.

I kinda feel the same. If I have all my skills covered, I usually raise Athletics to 2-3 to lower the combat fatigue to its minimum, then dump rest of the points in Survival because everyone can use consumable buffs anyway,

 

[Volodja]

As far as skills go, I like to have a decent distribution on everyone ignoring mechanics, because that's pointless on more than 1 character and Survival because I don't use that stuff.
Athletics is good to keep going longer, most of the times fatigue is what forces me to rest and not health issues.
Lore is for the emergency scroll.
Stealth to setup better, more important for frontline melees than anything else, however.

 

[Fantastapotamus]

The loadtimes are kinda annoying. I run the game on an SSD and loading still takes about 35 seconds here. No idea why

 

[Durante]

Yes, this is far more reasonable.
Do you use food buffs?

Not yet, I haven't actually dealt with food at all.

just saw this on my twitter feed from paradox(article about attempting to play as a party of bears)

http://www.pcgamer.com/pillars-of-eternity-diary-playing-as-a-party-of-bears/

Heh. Wouldn't 6 bear druids work better for this?

 

[EviLore]

The loadtimes are kinda annoying. I run the game on an SSD and loading still takes about 35 seconds here. No idea why

That's not normal.

 

[Brojito]

Did they say if they were making an expansion for sure or not? Pellagina's personal quest has me wanting to visit her homeland in future content.

If they do, and they don't call it Knights of the Vailian Republics, I'm gonna be disappointed.

 

[Shake Appeal]

To be fair, Aloth also has a pretty damn shitty stat distribution for a wizard. 12 might and 16 int? wtfisthisshit.png

I think you mean 16 PER. His 16 INT is the only truly useful thing about him, as it makes support casts like Slicken and Expose Vulnerabilities more effective.

 

[Fantastapotamus]

That's not normal.

That's what I thought, but I don't know what's wrong. Already reinstalled the game.
Weird.

 

[Volodja]

I think you mean 16 PER. His 16 INT is the only truly useful thing about him, as it makes support casts like Slicken and Expose Vulnerabilities more effective.

I think he means that 16 is too low.
I agree.

 

[Durante]

I think you mean 16 PER. His 16 INT is the only truly useful thing about him, as it makes support casts like Slicken and Expose Vulnerabilities more effective.

I meant that 12 might and 16 int is ridiculously low for a Wizard. At least a powergaming Wizard. The base stats of mine are 18 might and 20 int