Has anybody here played all the way through this? I'm about 10 hours in and I still can't decide if I like it or not. It's like part of me is enjoying it and can see the potential, and the other part is kind of like "meh." I'm enjoying the fact that the focus is on the writing and characters rather than flashy graphics, but I want to enjoy the actual process of playing the game too.
And I can't really get a handle on the combat system. It just seems like there's too much information coming in and everything is overly chaotic. I find myself just kind of using my moves/spells in a suicide burst and then running to an inn to rest if I win. It's really slowing the game down. Plus I can't fucking figure out how to build any of the characters for the roles I want them to fill.
Have any tips/suggestions to maximize enjoyment? Am I missing something or am I expecting it to be more than it is?
>I'm enjoying the fact that the focus is on the writing and characters
How interesting is it? Are the characters actually built and developed or are the bland cookie cutter "I'm a devout paladin" or "I'm a sly thief" sorts? Do they have goals? Quirks? Family? Do they ever have some character development?
I've just never heard a single thing about any of the characters from the game so I just assume they're unremarkable.
I just started too, what class are you playing? I find myself always being in scouting mode, put the game in fast mode and once i find a dude, try and set ,my party to pull them through a door way and "melee" lock them while the rest of my guys blast at range. I really only have the soldier and mage you meet in the first town, and made a rouge, with my main guy as a Monk.
Most of the enjoyment to me is looking as each encounter as a puzzle and figuring out how to kill them. Spells from the grimore and anything that is limited by rest i use only in a corner of if i know ill use a campfire soon. anything limited per encounter is safe to spam.
I do agree the combat can get a bit Chaotic, but it helps to go into the option screen and toggle various autopause features to keep things manageable.
Really its kinda hard to get into because it dumps you into a world that is largely spams you with vocabulary that you kinda have to figure out on your own as you connect the dots of a world that isnt just generic Tolkien fantasy.
>>323120479
The characters are deep. Only a little bit of the dialogue is voice acted, so they give you a lot of written interaction with the named companions. They also get a lot of backstory and they all have relatively extensive personal quests. And though they do have "classes," the characters are unique.
It's alright, I can't help but hate the boring setting though. For the life of me I don't know why they went with such a vanilla imitation of DnD.
>>323121105
I made a fighter so that I would always have a solid tank if I wanted to switch out some of the names companions. It just feels like my tank is pretty damn squishy.
I know that you can create your own adventurers to be in the party but I like having the unique dialogue and quests that the named companions provide.
>>323121638
This. I finished the game and never did a second playthrough, which is unheard of me for a game like this
Finished main story in about 60 hours. Tried again on a higher difficulty, that time around it took me about 100 or more but I did every fucking side quest and grinded for best gear and all that shit.
Some people can do it some can't. Personally I loved it.
The combat is clunky and having to pause so much can be a turnoff.
>>323122034
Yeah, I'm tired of all the damn micro for every encounter. Even most trash mobs take at least a little.
I find the combat difficult because I don't get feedback on what I'm doing. I really like turnbased combat but this I find a bit awkward. To be fair though I feel the same about baldurs gate 2, but at least that has the excuse of being the OG
Got to chapter 3 but having bothered finishing. Is it worth continuing?
>>323122950
That's kind of what I meant by chaotic. I can't really keep up with everything that's going on and that means I have to pause all the time.
>>323123443
Thought it finished strong after a slow start and meh middle.
this thread stinks of shills.
It's not a game with very good writing or characters. Battle system is bland and bothersome. Aesthetics fail to be anything more than the generic middle age brown shit
Honestly, I played through the whole game on hard, or whatever the equivalent difficulty was. It just did not grab me. The story, the writing, the gameplay. It all seemed really bland, everything was "balanced", but nothing really felt fun. By the end of the game, I was just doing it out of a feeling for necessity, and the twist you learn near the end barely even got a reaction from me. Some of the companions, and a few characters stood out, but overall there were very few memorable characters.
I only played Baldur's Gate 1/2 a year before this game, and those games somehow grabbed me much more than this one did.
>>323124045
This
>>323119559
It's not going to be on my list of top favorite RPGs, but I enjoyed it a lot regardless. It's about on par with BG 1 but nowhere near as good as BG 2.
I enjoyed it more than Divinity OS which I always feel has been overrated as an RPG, although Divinity's combat is better.
>>323123443
Chapter 3 is pretty fast so might as well finish it.
Got about 80s hours into it. Play a little bit everyday. Really like it, plan to see it to the end, not sure how long it will take since i'm doing every side quest offered to me
I finished it but I was bored the whole way and wish I hadn't bothered.
>>323119559
Step one: just pretend the kickstarter characters aren't there, and never click on any of the memorial stones because jesus they're all awful.
Step 2: I dunno, it's not for everyone and I feel like if you're not loving it 10 hours in it's not gonna be for you, no need to force yourself through it. I had a lot of fun with it, though. I liked the world and stuff
>>323124045
>i didn't like something other people liked, they must be shills
>>323124045
>replies are generally rating the game mediocre, verging on not good
>Muh shills!
Literally what the fuck? Fuck off retard
So I just got the favour of the gods.
Clearly jumping into the pit is the endgame, but I got to ask: after that endgame can you still continue playing, or should I go back, complete side quests and clear the White March stuff?
>>323128143
I don't know if it's different with the expansion, but when I played vanilla you couldn't continue after completing the main quest
>>323128143
The game will tell you when you've reached the point of no return
>>323128357
That's just it, being on the island the journal entry straight up tells me that whoever jumped down would surely die.
To be on the safe side I could just go and deal with the White March content now in case >>323128310 is still in effect with the expansion, but half of said expansion isn't even out yet.
I'm about 35 hours in now, just started act 3, and even more confused than before about whether I like it or not
The writing is absolutely great for the most part, I love the companions, talking to them for their quests is great, and the world is a lot more interesting than your average Tolkien/DnD style world
On the other hand though they made a few odd design decisions that bug me, namely how dungeons and exploring become a slog because they filled the world with trash mobs where all you have to do to win is press backspace and click each enemy, and made it so combat doesn't even normally give any experience
The combat system is pretty good and I like that debuffs are actually viable and the more challenging boss fights are a lot of fun, but goddamn is it annoying walking through dungeons where every 5 steps I have to sit there and wait for my party to finish killing some trolls and slimes and darguls before I can continue on
I really wish there was like a mod or setting or something that just reduced the number of enemies in the world and maybe added a BG-style respawn system for them instead of them being finite, because with no exp gain it really feels like nothing but tedium fighting so much
>>323120479
Yeah its good. Each has its own different and unique story. Its gets boring after 50 hours tough.
>>323119559
Fucking redditor newfag underages cant handle baldurs gate combat, how suprising
>>323121638
They even imitated DnD's shitty magic system.
>>323121752
>I know that you can create your own adventurers to be in the party but I like having the unique dialogue and quests that the named companions provide.
Me too. I saw some people complaining that the companions aren't statted properly and don't choose the right feats or something, and the response was "Just make your own companions!"
Well, if I do that, I'm missing half the point of an RPG.
>>323123484
You're meant to pause all the time. If doing that makes you feel like you're playing the game wrong, don't worry about it, because you're not.
I'm three hours in and enjoying it so far. I feel like I should have played a Rogue to lockpick shit rather than playing Fighter which I always play. Is it true that the overall story is fedora-tipper tier? It kind of feels like it tries to hard to be all grim and dark. Then again maybe I like the overall balance of grim-and-darkness in BG1.
Also which weapon set I should specialize in?
This thread reeks of underaged kids who never played baldur
>>323131168
*puts my dick in your mouth*
Nothing personnel
>>323131161
anyone can pick locks in this game. you just need mechanics.
>>323131161
>/v/ finds the silver shroud outfit
>>323131161
>Is it true that the overall story is fedora-tipper tier? It kind of feels like it tries to hard to be all grim and dark.
Wouldn't surprise me. Isn't Avellone a bit of an antitheist?
>>323131663
It is a story for fedoras but the story isn't dark.
>>323121496
>>323120479
>>323119559
THIS GAME IS NOT WELL WRITTEN
JESUS CHRIST, HOW CAN PEOPLE LIKE THIS GENERIC FANTASY SCHLOCK
FUCKING REEEEE
I thought it was a pretty mediocre game that failed to capture anything special about the games it was trying to emulate, it neither has the depth of combat of IWD nor the story of Planescape, and of what it has it doesn't balance anywhere near as well as Baldurs Gate.
Boring encounters and uninteresting lore dumps aside, the class/stat/ability systems are so rigid and unbalanced that I can't ever see myself replaying it, because just playing through once I've already basically tried everything worthwhile and there's no real variation.
I'm hoping White March part 2 adds a lot. It's supposed to be a really substantial expansion.
Are there any RPGs /v/ might recommend that are solid mechanically? I really want to just play an RPG that's actually an RPG
>>323132308
Oblivion
>>323132308
The Neverwinter Nights games are pretty good. They also have toolsets for people to make their own content, and there's a lot of good fan-made content out there.
>>323132518
>>323132547
Played those
Infinity Engine lite. After 5 hours, I wanted to replay Icewind Dale.Which I did, then refunded PoE.
>>323133147
Well, if you're into sci-fi, I've heard good things about Shadowrun Returns. I've also seen a lot of people praise Age of Decadence, but it looks too grimdark for my tastes. It's low-magic, too, which is another point against it for me.
>>323119559
beat the game on hard then got bored trying to beat it on path of the damned or whatever. I would of beat it, its just too easy for me.
Fun game just dont expect too much
khelgar guy are you here? I tried to like lords of xulima but the combat is just too atrocious and the story and setting is laughable
map exlporation was nice, the feeling of adventure was kinda there but the rest just sucked
I really don't know how can you hate on poe visuals while enjoying xulima
>>323135154
Xulima is so fucking awful. The art direction and mechanics are insulting.
Pillars is a good example of a WRPG forgetting what the point of WRPGs was and falling for what makes JRPGs so shitty in that instead of trying to push the genre forward as to better imitate the PnP experience they just stuck to imitating older video games
and they couldn't even do that right since they're leagues behind BG2
>>323119559
How does this shit measure up to Planescape or Mask of the Betrayer? I like long dialog sequences.
>>323136614
>Pillars is a good example of a WRPG forgetting what the point of WRPGs was and falling for what makes JRPGs so shitty in that instead of trying to push the genre forward as to better imitate the PnP experience they just stuck to imitating older video games
interesting, please elaborate
>>323137018
The mechanics are what you'd get if Baldur's Gate and Divinity OS had a deformed baby
It tries really hard to emulate Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale in many, many aspects and unfortunately most of the things it tries to innovate with end up being shitty design choices
>>323137224
they did tried to fix it with patches but yeah you're right
what do you think they should do for a sequel?
>>323137018
In a PnP you can do ANYTHING
of course that's impossible to do in a vidya since IMAGINATION is a lot better at creating assets than computers, but PnP campaigns often follow some sort of plot the players take part in and are limited by the amount of stuff the GM prepares or is willing to deal with, so you can make attempts to imitate this experience without just making it a tactics game with some reading in between the fights
BG2 tried to do this, one of the better ways it tried to imitate the PnP experience is by making the party members interact with the player and each other as if they were actual people (or played by actual people)
so the moralfag companions would cockblock you if you tried to be evil and get in actual fights (as in to the death) with the evil companions and vice versa, of course other characters without opposite alignments could come to blows as well.
Now in PoE, the companions never do anything like that, they have banter and make comments in certain situations but they never cockblock you if you do something they don't like, and they don't come to blows.
>>323138820
I personally think that d&d alignments system is limitading and make most interactions too oblivious and boring.
In bg2 you could always know that your companion will serve you well if he was neutral good etc.
same goes for every npc in the game, you could always cast detect evil and know pretty much everything you need
companions in poe are more like people, not good or evil but just human
>so the moralfag companions would cockblock you if you tried to be evil and get in actual fights (as in to the death) with the evil companions and vice versa, of course other characters without opposite alignments could come to blows as well.
true, poe companions were too passive about your interactions in game world
>>323140039
which is a weakness of the DnD system but BG2 was going to be a DnD game instead of a game with a DnD combat system so they imitates the weaknesses as well, and again, not all interactions were good vs evil
what PoE should have done was remove the visible alignments and keep the interactions so you'd still have to think about who you're taking with you instead of just taking whoever you like more and whoever will fill the needed roles.
>>323140039
but moral companions should cock block you if they consider something you are doing is bad. Say Keldorn see's you about rob someone why as a paladin, of an order who's duty is to truth & justice turn a blind eye vs someone like korgan who would be chilled with it.The fact that you can cast detect evil and determine a characters alignment to determine their intentions is brilliant and makes the closer to the pen and paper experience,which is probably the highest form of rp.
DnD alignments system is only limited to the number of interactions,npc,party members the player is allowed to have in a game. Like Kotor 1 where there are light side dark side and neutral choices
>>323141358
>but moral companions should cock block
they should be you should not be able to know about their morality just by checking their stats
>>323140973
>what PoE should have done was remove the visible alignments and keep the interactions so you'd still have to think about who you're taking with you instead of just taking whoever you like more and whoever will fill the needed roles.
they kinda did that
>>323141632
True, but in general you can often tell the morals of individuals by their class and their scripted conversations between the pc or other party members.
>>323141718
But they didn't because the most you'll get out of the companions is some extra lines of text that mean nothing
I remember Durance constantly berating that fire priestess in the temple and she completely ignored him
I think the only time I saw an interaction involving a companion that actually did something (and wasn't related to their quest) was when Grieving Mother messed with a girl's memory in that Skald dungeon, but I think that's because the game allows her to be used in place of the player for cypher interactions
>Disappearing enemies and reappearing suddenly behind the party's rank
what bullshit is this? The elf mage always gets killed because of that fucking ability.
I know, git gud, you suck, etc.
>>323142219
>you can often tell the morals of individuals by their class and their scripted conversations between the pc or other party members.
not in poe, even palladins cannot be trusted unlike ones in d&d based games
>>323142328
well they tried but failed
>>323142665
yes but pillars doesn't take place in the dnd universe in the op >>323140039 anon didn't like the dnd alignment system in bg2 which was the point i was refuting.
In pillars it's super easy with paladins to determine their alignments based on their pacts bleakwalker vs goldpact
>>323119559
>I find myself just kind of using my moves/spells in a suicide burst and then running to an inn to rest if I win. It's really slowing the game down
What difficulty? I'm on my first playthrough, on Normal. After you get the Fighter party member you should be fine.
>>323143220
>yes but pillars doesn't take place in the dnd universe
which is a good thing, let's just hope they do everything better in poe 2
>>323142602
In Raedric's keep? I met some guards there that did just that. Just making them aggro my Fighter works for me.
>>323143502
good/bad pillars needs to do something about its world to make me interested to keep playing and unfuck it's mmo balance patches and class holy trinity system.i felt more constricted by class and party make up then bg2 and nwn 2.
>>323143812
> class holy trinity system
I don't have that much of a problem with that, what I have a problem with is that they're designing the encounters to imitate the boring trash mob grinding and not any of the boss fights which at least sometimes have something going on beyond a stat check
>>323143518
The thing is when I aggro them, they always use that ability. Not just the sellswords in the keep, the shadows in the abandoned village where you meet that companion bard/chanter with the shark teeth. Don't get me started on those Will'o Wisp fuckers who take over one of your party members.
Also what is the recommended level to take over the keep?
>>323144249
I dunno, but I did it at level 4. Normal difficulty though, dunno what you're playing at.
>>323143812
>needs to do something about its world
opinions, I did like poe world, story and setting in general
>mmo balance
very much this, if someone want to play as a godlike mage avatar soloing everything, let them do it
>Prayer against ________ spells now grant full immunity to their afflictions, though the base duration was reduced a bit.
I think they're learing
>Get to the first boss, the dragon guy
>He one shots half my party
>>323132018
You can have well written generic fantasy anon.
Who beat the dragon?
got 5 hours into white march Part I and uninstalled
they really made the expansion to have even MORE tedious combat than the base game. bravo obsidian
>>323144449
very god
>>323144532
you mean adra dragon? everyone who cared enough
whats the best solo class
fuck companions
no romance no fun
I really liked Durance. a priest who worships a god that he hates with all of his guts is a cool concept
>>323144704
You're playing the wrong game family
>>323144767
Its impossible to solo this game???
Anybody else hate this stupid fuck, his face makes me want to puke.
>>323144837
>muh magic book
>muh race legacy
>muh eternal dungeon
>>323144760
Second best character.
>>323144836
pff, of course you can
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6B6p2Wyl9I
try paladin, or rogue. or druid, monks are fine too
>>323142328
if you sacrifice the baby in that one quest and grieving mother is in your party she leaves
>>323144986
Thanks, I knew that other anon was a fag. Solo BG2 was fun as fuck. Doesn't surprise me Moon Godlike is the race of choice though.
>>323145084
also most of your companions would be pretty pissed
>>323145143
it is harder than bg2 tho
check out some tips before starting
forums.obsidian.net/topic/83694-potd-soloable/
>>323143812
>i felt more constricted by class and party make up then bg2
BG2 is an extremely easy game unless you mod it so of course you're not going to feel restricted, you can basically do whatever and get away with it. It's way more constricting if you play it with a difficulty mod.
>and nwn 2.
This is because D&D 3E is the world's least granular point buy system.
>nd a new companion: Meneha, the Barbarian.
>Directed by Josh Sawyer, Game Director of Fallout: New Vegas and Pillars of Eternity, The White March - Part 2 brings players through an expertly crafted story from the award-winning team at Obsidian Entertainment. A series of new features await fans of the Pillars of Eternity universe, including a new “Story Time” mode, letting players experience the incredible narrative of Pillars of Eternity at a faster pace.
![Bye-Bye-hipster[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/WnI3zvI.jpg "Bye-Bye-hipster[1].jpg")
>>323132018
>Things have to be unique to be good.
>"The gods aren't real!"
>game proceeds to explain that they are real
>>323149564
stop being dumb
Am I still able to kill NPCs with my ranger pet or did they patch that?
It's S H I T !
>>323149993
Explain.
Why did they bother creating such a boring, empty world
It's literally forests and caverns with 2 main cities holy shit
This is why low fantasy is pure trash
>>323153183
>empty world
It's not empty, there's wolves, beetles, zombie and shit every five step
>>323153183
It's not low fantasy
>no multiclassing
>no prestige classes
>unique items are nerfed to oblivion
>low as fuck amount of classes
>pantsu on head retarded attribute system (lel muscle wizards if you want damage)
How could they fuck up so bad
>small as fuck area to explore when the actual world is gigantic
>>323154387
So, apart from the unique items and the attribute system you're basically complaining that you want more?
>>323119559
Well, i played thought the game but near the end i said fuck it and rushed the ending, skipping a lot of side quests... I still dragged myself through some of them for no good reason... It took me around 35 hours iirc... desu the game is much less engaging and interesting than neverwinter nights, icewind dale, baldur's gate or planescape torment... Now that i come to think of this even the so so divine divinity: the original sin was a better game.
I'd never run out of camp fires on hard difficulty... You simply have to make a good use of buffing / debuffing spells, tank up one of the warriors and try to pull enemies, try to use of crowd controlling spells... There are some areas that were tough though (ogres, wyrm, dragon)... But anyways fighting gets repetitive quickly and story is mostly bland and not very captivating... Overrated game 5/10
>>323130525
DnD magic system is better than MP or CD. Better yet though is DnD magic + AP cost.
I never finished because around the start of act 3 I started playing BG2 again and never came back to finish it
PoE's mechanics feel inherently flawed. I get that they wanted to change things, but it really feels like an instance of "we didn't want to pay to keep a DnD ruleset" or "we're changing things for the sake of changing them"
>This reload chant makes everyone select guns, better nerf it!
Also balance patches in a single player game
>>323160336
>Also balance patches in a single player game
This is the shittiest argument of all time.
>>323160336
>balance patches
Not just balance patches, just nerf patches.
Nerf anything remotely good. Nerf anything remotely fun. Nerf anything allowing some creativity with encounters. In a game that is not even fucking hard even on hardest difficulty as every encounter was balanced over generic tank n spank.
>>323161140
>spend the whole game with Durance picking up traps
>get to the bottom of the dungeon, mandatory super hard adra dragon fight comes up
>it oneshots my party except for Eder
>finally, a reason to do something fun
>I'll put down all those traps I picked up, the stupid dragon won't even knwat hi-
>I can only ever place a single trap at a time
I still haven't gotten around to get back to the game, that evaporated my will to play it.
>>323160486
Not really, I get where he is coming from. I played the game on release, and by the time I finished it my cypher PC was nerfed to hell and back and my gear completely changed abilities.
It's annoying as fuck. You shouldn't be forced to read through tl;dr patch notes full of spoilers every time a new patch comes out just to get up to date on how your party is supposed to play now.
>>323161926
It also make discussing the game a pain in the ass because nobody played the same version
Fact: one cannot appreciate this game without having played at least 3 Infinity Engine games to completion.
>>323163173
Is that because IE games are so shit, they make pillars look good in comparison?
no one finds those top down meme games entertaining anymore, granpa.
r8 my rogue.
>>323167028
Resolve is pretty fucking important for speech checks, you might want to know.
>>323168543
How about if I switch it and Intellect?
>>323168775
That's for area-of-effect of stuff, not something you'd really need. That too has a few checks to it of course, but not as many.
Bear in mind that depending on the character you want to play as you might not really even need them as you got a high Might and there are plenty of chances to bully people.
>>323124045
There's shills around this game
I witnessed some myself. Just stay clear of these threads and let them shill themselves
>>323167028
Hope nothing breath near you
>>323169270
Thanks.
Why on earth is it a recommended stat for rogues, then?
>>323163173
I'm the guy that dropped PoE to replay BG2. Having played almost all of the IE games to completion (never finished TOTSC for BG1) I can say I liked them all better than PoE.
>>323164421
>Is that because IE games are so shit, they make pillars look good in comparison?
The opposite is true tbqh pham
>no one finds those top down meme games entertaining anymore, granpa
pic related
>>323169829
maybe it effects trap aoes?
If you're looking for a dumpstat Constitution, at least however many balance changes ago, was easily the best stat to dump
>>323169829
Because it increase status effect duration
>>323168543
>speech checks
Pointless flavor text.
>>323119559
I know this sounds dumb, but holy shit they wrote too damn much in PoE. If you compare BG1&2 writing to this, it gives off the feeling like someone thought that writing endless boxes of text that goes nowhere is what made the original IE games good.
>>323170623
The problem is that they are setting up a whole world and are trying to cram in far too much. Meanwhile the books which should convey the background lore of places and the recent history are laughably short and few.
Plus for stuff like the visions you have with Grieving Mother or the Cipher/Watcher shit, there is little they can do but give you some bigass descriptions.
>>323170623
i agree
somehow they thought that text like
(the bartender looks at you before putting down the glass) is something people want to read
>>323119559
>And I can't really get a handle on the combat system. It just seems like there's too much information coming in and everything is overly chaotic
You might be a fucking casual actually, combat is pretty easy. The game is pretty chill, nice and comfy, perfect for a winter afternoon.
>>323171237
Torment did that a lot. It was always describing the physical actions of the NPCs. Avellone didn't write for BG1 or 2 but famously he did for Torment - a game famous and loved for its writing.
>>323119559
you should continue it starts to get really good.
or switch over to divinity original sin and play it with a bro and get a really good experience as well
I'm 26 and after reading this thread, I'm pretty sure I'm the oldest one here.
Would you fuck a dwarf?
