• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Pillars of Eternity |OT| You must gather your party before venturing forth.

Conezays

Member
So I'm in Act 3 now. Is there any reason not to install the patch for GOG? Almost debating just leaving it considering I'm nearing the end, or if there are any legitimate improvements. Just worried it'll mess somthing up.
 

Zeliard

Member
I'd say that Divinity's combat is easier to understand, but PoE is the easier game once you grasp the core combat concepts (excluding Path of the Damned maybe, but if you're new that probably isn't an option anyway). Also, Divinity does a ton less hand-holding in terms of progression and presents way more opportunities for you to fuck yourself over by doing things out of order or in ways that weren't intended/'canonical'.

PoE's quest structure is actually generally very simple. It's rare to get a quest where you aren't told almost exactly where to go or nearly all of what you need to do. In Divinity, on the other hand, you can end up spending several hours on a puzzle, or worse, you can end up not knowing what to do or where to go and end up missing 1-2 levels worth of content, causing you to push into content that's far too hard for you. If you do ever figure out how to get back to the old content afterwards, you're overleveled and the plot is broken. The game has tons of freedom, but that freedom has costs, and it definitely isn't something that I would recommend for someone new to the genre. I think the minor challenge of coming to grips with PoE's combat system is more suited for genre newcomers than dropping them into the chaos cauldron that is D:OS.

Those are very fair points, though co-op can potentially go some way towards mitigating some of those issues. Two heads are better than one, and such.

I'm curious, though - I have detailed quest logs disabled in PoE. How much information does it actually give you there if you leave the option on?
 

Aaron D.

Member
I could probably do it for Fallout but not this one. High fantasy tends to be too boring for me, though I do like the take on gods that they use in PoE.

I've found that the actual quality of the writing in PoE is compelling me to read every scrap I come across. It's quite exceptional for the medium.

I'm at 38 hours and I just started Act 2, so I can confidently assume that I've been reading just as much as I've been adventuring. The lore seems to tie together quite well. Between the warring factions & gods, the world feels incredibly well thought out and cohesive. Pretty amazing for a debut IP with no history to fall back on.

Pillars is simply a very interesting place that stands Best in Class in the writing dept.
 
I think you missed one companion in Gilded Valley (to be fair, that one is kinda easy to miss)
if a npc has a portrait, it's probably a companion

FYI, NPC companions are marked on the map. But hired adventurers will be just fine - the one level difference isn't huge.


Actually, one thing that's bothered me in PoE is the companion's nonexistant reasons for travelling with you. 99% of the time they seem like mindless automatons that just follow you around instead of living beings with their own agency and desires. Though, I guess BG & co. were about the same in this regard.
 

Violet_0

Banned
\Actually, one thing that's bothered me in PoE is the companion's nonexistant reasons for travelling with you. 99% of the time they seem like mindless automatons that just follow you around instead of living beings with their own agency and desires. Though, I guess BG & co. were about the same in this regard.

this is actually brought up at the end, heh

at least some of the companions have a good reason to follow you everywhere - either they're lost wandering souls or tied to the main story or both
 

pahamrick

Member
FYI, NPC companions are marked on the map. But hired adventurers will be just fine - the one level difference isn't huge.


Actually, one thing that's bothered me in PoE is the companion's nonexistant reasons for travelling with you. 99% of the time they seem like mindless automatons that just follow you around instead of living beings with their own agency and desires. Though, I guess BG & co. were about the same in this regard.

I think the only one who really strike me as that is
Aloth
the other companions I've come across seemed to have some reason for wanting to travel with you.
 

moniker

Member
Yep I just got it, though it's only 81mb, I don't know what the deal is with that, unless they just pack it way more efficiently than Steam.

Probably yeah. IIRC Steam uses 1 MB chunks which means that even if there's only one byte that's changed in any given binary chunk, the whole 1 MB chunk is included in the patch.
 

Burt

Member
Those are very fair points, though co-op can potentially go some way towards mitigating some of those issues. Two heads are better than one, and such.

I'm curious, though - I have detailed quest logs disabled in PoE. How much information does it actually give you there if you leave the option on?

I can't do a direct comparison because I had them on (didn't even realize there was an option to turn them off), but while I played I definitely remember thinking that the quest log/structure had a very MMO-esque feel to it. Not in terms of the content itself of course, but in terms of moving down a very clear checklist as you progressed. There were a few quests that weren't like that, often with companion quests like
Sagani's
open-ended hunt
, but generally speaking the quest logs were very direct. "Go here... talk to this person... decide this or this..." etc.
 

Sinatar

Official GAF Bottom Feeder
So what did the nerf to mind blades end up doing?

Nerf the damage, nerf the number of targets hit or both?
 

Xiraiya

Member
A little word of warning, if you have IE Mod installed, GOG patch will fail to install, so make sure you go install the 1.03 version of IE Mod before patching your game and then it should be fine.
Also apparently the patch doesn't contain the Hotfix, I guess since the Hotfix was only hours later, maybe it'll be out for GOG later today or something?
 

Zeliard

Member
Actually, one thing that's bothered me in PoE is the companion's nonexistant reasons for travelling with you. 99% of the time they seem like mindless automatons that just follow you around instead of living beings with their own agency and desires. Though, I guess BG & co. were about the same in this regard.

I'll throw out the caveat that I've yet to meet a few of the companions and that I haven't finished any of their quests.

Sawyer (or Avellone?) in interviews has basically said that the companions in PoE don't really follow the PC for any reason beyond liking him or her for whatever reason. Whether or not he was just trying to avoid spoilers, I don't know.

The companions in Planescape: Torment all had very critical reasons they were following The Nameless One in particular. In PoE's case, I think they were trying to veer away from that a bit.

I can't do a direct comparison because I had them on (didn't even realize there was an option to turn them off), but while I played I definitely remember feeling that the quest log/structure had a very MMO-esque feel to it. Not in terms of the content itself of course, but in terms of moving down a very clear checklist as you progressed. There were a few quests that weren't like that, often with companion quests like
Sagani's
open-ended hunt
, but generally speaking the quest logs were very direct. "Go here... talk to this person... decide this or this..." etc.

Ah, interesting. I just jumped into the game real quick to check it out. Yeah, when you disable detailed quest log, you actually don't get the checklist points directing you exactly where to go and what to do. You just get the flavor text, though that tends to be enough information to go on.
 
Gotta say, at first I wasn't wild about the suppression system, but it actually adds an extra layer to optimizing your equipment that I enjoy.
 

Burt

Member
Final battle is killing me...

CC is your friend. The statues are super susceptible to almost any form of it.

If you have a ranger, their 5/rest root should be more than enough to hold off one of the statues while everyone but your main tank focuses the other. It should proc for either 15 or 30 seconds each cast. If not, I would imagine that a mixture of the priest spell halt and slicken would also work well. Once they're both down, Thaos is easy.

Also, I wasted a tremendous amount of time trying to squeeze in as many spells as I could, but depending on your characters' stats, autoattacks might actually be better. I didn't find this out until my final victorious attempt, when I ran completely out of spells and was forced to auto Thaos to death. Turns out, the autos worked significantly better.
 

Violet_0

Banned
Final battle is killing me...
some tips
split the party up to avoid aoe damage, use summons (druid, items, chanter) to tank one statue, focus fire on the other, you can have one character (damage dealer) attack Thaos to trigger a sequence that makes him stop casting when he's at sufficiently low health
 

Purkake4

Banned
Raedric spoilers:
So I finished the keep, it wasn't that hard. However, I'm not very happy with the quest itself. Not sure if I missed out on something but basically I ran into a dude in the wilderness area before Raedric's hold who told me to go gank Raedric, which I was going to do anyway, so why not. He also mentioned the innkeeper at the Black Hound. So I checked with the innkeeper, but she had nothing new. I went on and talked to Raedric himself, listened to his sob story about having to do what he must in these tough times and ganked his punk ass. After that his cousin (or brother) waltzes in, takes over and tells me he's busy now, so I guess don't hang the rest of the population from a tree, bro. Are there different more satisfying ways to finish it off, the new guy doesn't really seem that much better.

Also ran into the bug where one character stays in combat and you have to reload, so that didn't get fixed in the last patch.
 

GDJustin

stuck my tongue deep inside Atlus' cookies
Is it too early to start talking about a wish list for the sequel? I love POE and think it's a strong GOTY contender, but I also can't help but think POE serves as a very strong foundation for the future, and that the sequel could be a BG ---> BG2 type situation. If Obsidian does it right, the sequel could potentially be a GOAT contender.

I mean, think about everything they don't have to do for the sequel:

  • Heavy pre-production lore/worldbuilding.
  • Class design.
  • Systems/stat design.
  • The game engine itself!
  • Understanding their workflow and delivery dates for various game assets.

Yes, I expect virtually all of these elements to be touched, and I half-expect the stat system to be totally rethought in any hypothetical sequel. But there's still many hours of team meetings about things like whether there is going to be a CHA stat or not that simply don't need to take place.

I also think a healthy amount of asset re-use will allow them to build a bigger/badder sequel. There's already modeled and fleshed-out Bestiary entries for Bears, multiple spiders, wolves, boars, lions, beetles, and so-on - and that's just wild animal foes. So POE 2 could have significantly higher enemy variety by combining those enemies with new ones like worms, bats, and so-on.

There's only two big things I'd like to see from a sequel that I can think of right now:
  • Advanced ally tactics system. Set up a priority list/sequence of if/then statements, like FF XII.
  • Romances!
 

KingKong

Member
Beat the game, 37 hours but I got bored of doing sidequests in the second half so had some left over and rushed through a lot of text

+ environments looked fantastic
+ combat was interesting and varied
+ fun and unique classes like the chanter and cipher
+ story was fine, its serviceable but I didn't find any of it well written
+ a lot of great systems/improvements for an rpg like the unlimited stash, easy enchating/crafting, merchants having unlimited money


- I found the world to be pretty boring overall except for a few standouts, it was mostly woodland plains, which makes sense for the location but meh
- all the pathfinding and AI problems made the combat really really annoying in closed areas
- I wish there were bigger and better dungeons (besides the endless one obviously), it was surprising that even the story ones were only a few levels big and didn't have too many cool mechanics
- stronghold was pointless
- the loot kind of sucked, I was surprised that even at the end of the game I was finding armor and weapons that were only slightly better than what I've had since the beginning, and since it was enchanted, there wasn't a ton of reason to switch

overall I was satisfied with the game, considering I'm not a huge fan of these kinds of RPGs, so I'd give it a 7/10. I would love for the expansion or sequel to go full on crazy with the locations and characters and quests
 

WanderingWind

Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
Guys, I think my game is broken. I finished a quest and it didn't let me solve it in a way that everybody was happy and nobody praised me for being awesome. Is this feature being held back for DLC?
 
Should I install the GoG patch, like is lockpicking broken in it and various other bugs? THat's a pretty big one. I would rather stay with the base game if they haven't fixed that.
 

Violet_0

Banned
There's only two big things I'd like to see from a sequel that I can think of right now:
  • Advanced ally tactics system. Set up a priority list/sequence of if/then statements, like FF XII.
  • Romances!

revamp the reputation system, maybe with a few less factions but they should matter more (for example, in Twin Elms
the factions there have absolutely no influence on the game whatsoever
)
party banter can be easily missed when you don't hover the camera over your companions all the time, and they only trigger in very few places from what I've experienced. I preferred the way they worked in BG2, where you can chime in into the conversation and speak your mind
there are not enough melee-focused companions and not even a single mage/thief, what sort of Baldur's Gate successor is this?
 

Kinthalis

Banned
The sales numbers for Pillars from the Steam Spy site seem very good to me. Lets look at the numbers at the lowest end. 226k +/- 25k. So thats 200k in one week. We have to take into account that a number of those 200k are backer codes. Since being a backer is an achievement we can see that 18% of that 200k are non-sales on Steam. Lets make it an even 20% because ive heard one person mention their backer achievement didnt unlock. So we have a first week sales of 160k as the lowest possible number on Steam alone.

If we assume the lowest possible number then we have all those 160k buying the cheapest version of the game. 160,000 x $45 = $7,200,000. Take out Valves 30% cut.. and lets just assume that the Josh Sawyer curse is real and that Paradox has robbed Obsidian in their deal and is also taking a 30% cut.. that leaves Obsidian with a first week sales numbers of $2,880,000.

Remember this is assuming the worst possible scenario, not taking into account other sales avenues, and completely ignoring the fact that the game was fully funded before release. im sure Obsidian is completely ecstatic with the games performance.

Oh yeah, I definitely agree sales aren't bad. I'm guessing they probably took in more in a week than they did in their kickstarter, I just think sales should be better, whatever that might mean ;)

As a fan I guess I want to to sell a million units every hour ;)
 

cripterion

Member
Beat the game, 37 hours but I got bored of doing sidequests in the second half so had some left over and rushed through a lot of text

+ environments looked fantastic
+ combat was interesting and varied
+ fun and unique classes like the chanter and cipher
+ story was fine, its serviceable but I didn't find any of it well written
+ a lot of great systems/improvements for an rpg like the unlimited stash, easy enchating/crafting, merchants having unlimited money


- I found the world to be pretty boring overall except for a few standouts, it was mostly woodland plains, which makes sense for the location but meh
- all the pathfinding and AI problems made the combat really really annoying in closed areas
- I wish there were bigger and better dungeons (besides the endless one obviously), it was surprising that even the story ones were only a few levels big and didn't have too many cool mechanics
- stronghold was pointless
- the loot kind of sucked, I was surprised that even at the end of the game I was finding armor and weapons that were only slightly better than what I've had since the beginning, and since it was enchanted, there wasn't a ton of reason to switch

overall I was satisfied with the game, considering I'm not a huge fan of these kinds of RPGs, so I'd give it a 7/10. I would love for the expansion or sequel to go full on crazy with the locations and characters and quests

Yes and YES!

Really there was absolutely no point having a stronghold. Especially considering how annoying it was to go rest up there to go back to Od Nua dungeon with all these loading screens in between.
 

Xiraiya

Member
Haven't used a single console command, I'm pretty sure I've made more than 5 dishes, got 3 dispositions, and found all the companions.

Finished Act II too.
And you got no achievements? that's weird.

They're suppose to only disable if you type what Beloved posted, which is the command to enable cheats.
 

pmj

Member
I'm also missing achievements, such as my backer achievement and the one for finishing Act 1.

But Steam achievements are worthless, so whatever.
 

Durante

Member
I finally gathered all the companions and spent about an hour just catching up on conversations with them. Some of the best NPCs in any RPG I've played in recent memory, in dialogue writing as well as variety and characterization.

And it's extremely refreshing that they are clearly not designed solely to make the players feel good about themselves. In particular you can tell that
Durance
and
Grieving Mother
are Avellone characters, even if they might not be a full realization of his original design.

Still loving all the other aspects of the game as well, though I now think that maybe I should have started on Path of the Damned difficulty. Well, this way at least I can feel good about my tactical skills :p

You must gather your party before venturing forth.
nicegorillasharkhighflpq10.png


I'll hit the tilde key and craft the 5 foods needed for the achievement because I still haven't unlocked this one to see what happens
I've used the console before (e.g. to set the zoom range) and I still get achievements, including that one.
 

Brojito

Neo Member
Fuck Nalrend the Wise and merry band of insect conjuring ogres.

Time to go get my A-team and come back, this guy has pissed me off.
 
Top Bottom