Obsidian's "Pillars of Eternity"

[Sophismata]

So far I'm playing a Cipher and I'm just about to get to the first town - only thing I've had real trouble with was a mean-ass bear.

Also, opening a fight with blind + ranged rogue shots are pure money.

I'm going to attempt to go against type and see how it works out if I concentrate on getting and using all sorts of status effect/disabling abilities.

Have no idea if I'm building my Cipher correctly so far, but it's fun nonetheless. I also really like how they've seemingly solved the issue of having to constantly heal between fights.

Cipher's been a lot of fun so far. Nice gish with excellent control - I don't think there's anything wrong with focussing on that.

Edit: fixed typo thanks to stupid iPhone autocorrect

[Senses]

I started over 5 times so far and have pretty much discovered something new each time.  Here's some big yet general tips for newbs.

1) Watch fatigue.  Its a "buff" next to your picture and it might be the reason you can't kill things lol.  Just requires sleeping.
2) Invest in food.  Its cheap and will often lasts through camping. You can buy it from vendors or make some yourself. Just means more endurance.
3) Ignore the bear.  I believe its there to teach you the concept of sneaking but you won't be able to beat it on any class until you get a bigger party.
4) Recruit adventurers.  The inns, including the very first one allow you to recruit an adventurer which essentially just rolls a new character for you.  You can ditch them later when you fill up with true companions.
5) Do I have to tell you to save all the time? Seriously, like every 5 steps just do it.
6) Read quest text.  But if you don't and your lost, check your journal because the answer you are looking for is probably in that quest text.

[Miasma]

I killed the bear!  I play on easy though .

7) Scout everywhere so that you can find all the hidden treasure.

[Lucas]

As a druid (let's hug!), missed the opening spell against the bear; got instantly one-shotted.

The Watcher has died.



#rekt

(playing on Normal)

[lamaros]

The companions are ok, but the intergroup banter is seriously lacking.

[Hawkbit]

Get a mace.

Oddly, that's exactly what I was using. It was very early in the game, maybe in the second map zone. Not joking, I watched them fight for at least three full minutes before reloading.

[Senses]

I killed the bear!  I play on easy though .

7) Scout everywhere so that you can find all the hidden treasure.

Ahh ya know I just always go straight to normal in these games and then adjust to hard if I find myself starting over farther in.  I always worry that easy will make it too easy.

[tmp]

4) Recruit adventurers.  The inns, including the very first one allow you to recruit an adventurer which essentially just rolls a new character for you.  You can ditch them later when you fill up with true companions.

Fuck that; you get 2 free companions in the first village like literally 10 minutes into the main quest, two others on next two map screens and then one more right past the stronghold. That's full party with decent equipment that doesn't cost you a dime.

[tmp]

I noticed that with my fighter, too. There was an early fight with a guy that has 6DR and I was only taking a point of damage off him at max hit. I had to reload and skip that fight for the time being.

Get a mace.

Better yet, a pollaxe. The double damage type comes handy and the per-swing damage is large enough it goes through pretty much any DR. It's nice for interrupts, too.

(I had the exact same experience with that fight as the fighter. well, almost the same because after five minutes of pointless scraping at each other I reloaded, switched to the pollaxe at the start and cut the guy in a few swings)

[Ceryse]

Later on weapons with the DR bypass become real good.

Companions are good, but hired adventurers are better, as you get to build them up from scratch, meaning they are much, much better put together and don't have wasted attributes/talents. That said, I'm running a full Companion party for this first run. I'd ditch Durance if I could, but he's a Cleric. Already ditched Kana for the dwarf ranger who I like more. I've just reached the big city, though. Which brings me to an important tip (mild spoilers);

[lamaros]

4) Recruit adventurers.  The inns, including the very first one allow you to recruit an adventurer which essentially just rolls a new character for you.  You can ditch them later when you fill up with true companions.

Fuck that; you get 2 free companions in the first village like literally 10 minutes into the main quest, two others on next two map screens and then one more right past the stronghold. That's full party with decent equipment that doesn't cost you a dime.

I have 30000 money, I literally cannot spend it fast enough. And there is a seversevere companion shortage in many class options. Second play through I'm building half the squad as I like it.

[Merusk]

How the hell did you get that much cash. Wow.

It's pretty surprising how different all experiences have been. I found I had to create a companion because I made a sword & shield Paladin and then wound-up finding the Warrior companion that has the same. Trying to kill shit was futile and I didn't want to sleep after every combat to recharge the Wizard.

I agree on the healing, though once I got Durant things got easier. Priests are buff machines. Toss a few blessings and mights and you discover your healing requirement is a lot lower. You still run into the "must camp every 3-5 combats" problem of spellcasters, though.

Banter picked-up once I got a full party and hit the big city. It's nowhere near ME or DA levels of banter, though, so still disappointing.

[Miasma]

Oh, you guys like Durant.  I guess I should actually try to read and parse out all those damn spells.

[Khaldun]

Basically I'm seeing it this way.

1) Filler fights, just tell your guys to swarm one target at at time, as long as they're not eating into END hard and not doing much in the way of health damage, who gives a shit.
2) Kinda serious fights: time to pause and use your per-encounter abilities and do a bit extra tactically to take down one or two enemies at the start hard, or go after spellcasters, etc.
3) Serious serious. Time to set up a doorway with a tank, send out someone with speedy shit on them, lure the bad guys back, unload spells on them as necessary, do what it takes.  Not many of those. But I definitely found for example that I couldn't really be talking to Raedric if I was going to end up fighting him, he has too much advantage if you fight him right there.
4) Heals are complicated--there's END healing (priest good!) and then there's health-healing, which is almost for after the fight.

[lamaros]

Yeah trash fights I just get my monk to solo it. With over 1000 health (level 5-6) he can take the punishment. Stunning blows, wound power attack, enemy dead.

I have so much cash for just selling every single thing in my stash whenever I meet a shopkeeper. I pick up everything and use very little of it. Maybe I have more money as I'm playing on hard?

Super serious fights I often find the thing is you need to outlast the enemy, which means heals while they drop their big shit, and focus down their healers where possible (not always possible or the best move due to the engagement system and heal system, though)

[rk47]

It's not really the trash encounters that bothers me. It happens in most games that's fine.
What I really dislike is the storytelling aspect that kept bombarding new lore terms within 15 minutes into the game.
What does this game remind me of?

You are traveling on an airship caravan to a new land. When suddenly the airship caravan is under attack. Everyone died, except you. A dying gnome handed you a ring band of cloaked figures performed a dark ritual. You have witnessed something horrible - and only you survived to tell the tale. Your adventure begins here.

I really like that game. Despite the horrible combat. The way it eases you into the world, telling a tale about magic and technology out-pacing each other, affecting people's way of life, kingdom status.

I walk into ... wherever this is in POE- I get hit with multiple cases of 'foreign lore' that I had no time to understand or digest.
It's jarring. I'd love to tell the game to slow down, but the only way to do so is to just take breaks in between plays and figuring out if I actually understood what was being discussed or said in game. Biawacs? Eir Glanfath? Hollowborns?

Oh, I can reach into souls of Kickstart Backers? 



C'mon guise, give us a toggle to turn those people off. I'm not interested in reading a bunch of fanfics that had nothing to do with the game. I can't even talk to them nor interact with them in any meaningful way.

[schild]

Is that what that shit is? Lol

[rk47]

Is that what that shit is? Lol

I was told they were, the bunch of gold plated name NPCs in the first village you enter doesn't seem to do anythng, just vomit out text and text.
I read a few and got bored. I thought it was gonna be a Torment-like affair where I unlocked the ability to speak to the dead and gain clues.
Except...only a select few have plot-related stuff. The rest are just KS backers.

[schild]

I can see it now. "Wow, Jerry. You're even fucking annoying as a non plot relevant character in a video game."

Alright. Who on f13 has a jibber jabber npc? Someone must.

[lamaros]

Its pretty easy to ignore them. They have coloured names.

I don't click on gravemarkers either.

I also found the lore a little strong. I guess that's the problem when you don't go with the amnesia/isolated orphan start. Seems pretty good now. Novel even.

Though I found Torment pretty full on too, much more so than this.

[Signe]

I play on easy too.

[Sophismata]

Torment had the skull to ease you in. He was so talkative and down-to-earth he acted as a great advisor and exposition machine without it seeming staid or obnoxious.

Then, "don't trust the skull." What, the guide I've been mates with since the beginning of the game, who has helped me and provided almost all my knowledge of Sigil can't be trusted?

That was actually meaningful for both the character AND the player.


…now I want to play Torment.

[lamaros]

I don't think torment was very good... Merely good. I didn't play it until 8 years later, though.

[Merusk]

I can see it now. "Wow, Jerry. You're even fucking annoying as a non plot relevant character in a video game."

Alright. Who on f13 has a jibber jabber npc? Someone must.

I dunno that there are. It was a $1,000 pledge 2 years ago to do that. That was right before the current peak of similar KS nonsense.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/obsidian/project-eternity/description

[schild]

I don't think torment was very good... Merely good. I didn't play it until 8 years later, though.

I don't think your opinion matters then. 

[Sophismata]

Torment is, hands-down one of the top 4 video games of all time. That's just facts.

Subjectively, for me – easily top 2.

[lamaros]

I don't think torment was very good... Merely good. I didn't play it until 8 years later, though.

I don't think your opinion matters then.  

Torment is an ugly game with a shocking combat system, a self important and overly verbose attitude towards writing, and a rather cliche plot.

That it gets past these to be good is quite an achievement... /trolling

But seriously its a decent game, but I prefer the BG style.

In regards to this game and the BG series I'd say at the moment it feels like BG 1.5. Very good, but missing some of the things that made BG2 extra special.

It really is a huge achievement for Obsidion.

[Tannhauser]

Durance is my favorite NPC.  He's old and bitter and ugly and has a great voice actor behind him.  Personally, I liked the lore dump at the start and not exactly knowing what the Legacy, the Hollowborn, etc. meant.  I had to suss it out and then Durance clears up a lot of it. 

-I like how your cursor goes red to show if you move you'll 'provoke an attack of opportunity'.
-I like the bag system where you cans sort new items as you loot them.
-I like the little dialog window pops up when one of your party members has some dialogue.
-I like the combat system.  It's a good blend of ease of use and complexity.
-I like the wizard and cleric spellcasters.  They have a good selection of spells.

-I dislike other party members' stealth dialogue start up when my character goes into stealth.
-I dislike the Ranger class.  Pet dies easily and the Ranger suffers -20% on some stats.
-I dislike that I can't wait an exact amount of time (unless I am missing it).
-I dislike my rogue 'escape' ability.  When it works, it doesn't move me very far.  Almost useless.

[Senses]

This game reminds me far more of Torment then Baldur's gate tbh, but I loved both in their own way. 

[Sophismata]

I don't think torment was very good... Merely good. I didn't play it until 8 years later, though.

I don't think your opinion matters then.  

Torment is an ugly game with a shocking combat system, a self important and overly verbose attitude towards writing, and a rather cliche plot.

I know you're fake-fake-trolling on this, but for what it's worth, I think Torment has the best and most original plot out of any computer RPG. And has one of the best plots for fantasy fiction in general (since easily 90% is "kid with powerful heritage grows up to save the world").

You're a heavily scarred man, exploring a city at the nexus of infinite probability while on a quest to kill yourself.

Don't see that a lot.

[lamaros]

I prefer the plot of BG1 to 2, but the story in 2 is much better. Torment's plot and story are very good in many ways, but piss me off in as many others. I'm quite ambivalent about it.

I don't know how you'd get PoE being more like Torment than BG, at all? Its almost paint by numbers similar right now.

I hate work. I just want to play more of this (so far) great game.

More quibbles: combat camera is to close to the ground. This get way too overlapped at times and very hard to see. More of a top down view would have helped this.

Also auto pause doesn't work after a few monk and fighter abilities. It's fine with casters, but with melee characters it really sucks.

Edit: 'story as the chronological sequence of events and plot as the causal and logical structure which connects events'

[lamaros]

350 portraits, plus 59 more:

http://imgur.com/a/eOhqV (350)

http://imgur.com/a/1bQAJ  (59)

Quick way to import these?

[Jeff Kelly]

Torment was heavily influenced by the German RPG scene at the time. The producer for Torment was Guido Henkel who was also responsible for the Realms of Arkania Trilogy amongst other things. It's a pity really that his influence is downplayed so much today and that Avellone usually gets all the credit for Torment.

I'm skeptical if they can recapture the 'magic' of Torment. PoE has shown just how 'paint by the numbers' a story by Avellone and Sawyer will be when they don't have a strong producer backing them up. Going by their twitter and internet presences they have been more interested in system and world building than story for PoE.

[Comstar]

souls of Kickstart Backers? 



C'mon guise, give us a toggle to turn those people off. I'm not interested in reading a bunch of fanfics that had nothing to do with the game. I can't even talk to them nor interact with them in any meaningful way.

You do know that you can kill them, and take their stuff? Personally offended that someone else put their money into YOUR game? WIPE THEM OUT. ALL OF THEM. One of them near the temple has Plate armour! And you'll not really notice any impact on the rest of the town either.

I for one, plan on going back and killing Desslock. I recall him as being particularly obnoxious back in the day.


If they do another Kickstater, I am totally going to buy an NPC and have him remember a flame war from a forum board that no longer exists, about a world no one cares about. There's some guy with a hat I need to hunt down one day....

[Tebonas]

You can kill them for being obnoxious without the real people of that world minding? That annoying feature just got awesome. Maybe I can drag their corpses to the gravestones and smash them with the brittle bones of fanfic writers.