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Post by mediocreogre on Jul 14, 2021 19:43:44 GMT
It’s fairly open ended I think intentionally but if you follow the logic of some of the quests you’ll see in Defiance Bay they kinda seem to make more sense if you do them first and then go out to Dyrford and beyond but honesty I think they intended for people to go to Defiance Bay, leave for Dyrford, Go to Caed Nua and do stuff p, go back out, repeat and they didn’t explain that very well. POE2 is better about quest progression but even then if you just chase the main quest you’ll miss stuff.
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Post by Lee on Jul 15, 2021 2:08:47 GMT
I played the whole game using the wiki and still missed stuff!
Fairly sure I skipped some stuff just to be donezo. I really wanted to enjoy those games, but overall I found the constant skill checks and wall of texts were too much to bear!
Still wish I could get into deadfire for the romances, but alas I felt very meh about it. It doesn't help that the game runs poorly on console.
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Post by mediocreogre on Jul 15, 2021 4:05:44 GMT
I really, really struggled with POE1, but for some reason I love POE2 and I don’t like sea/boat/pirate stuff at all. I don’t like the ocean in real life. I live on a desert way inland and never go to the ocean. But there I was. Sea dogging away.
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Post by farferello on Jul 15, 2021 4:43:03 GMT
Honestly I doubt going to Defiance Bay first would have changed my decision on two things I did in the Village that I think hit me with a reputation hit - and if the I assume factions, are anything like the people I met in the Village, then it's a good sign I won't like them much.  My current Reputation. I'm not enjoying the lack of turn based however, so I looked forward to that in POE2. Combat feels kinda clunky and it took me an embarrassingly long time to realize I needed to change my companions AI so that they'd actually do something in combat, but now I've figured that out, they're decent enough that I don't have to constantly micromanage anyone but my character, Eder, and sometimes Durance. As a plus side, I like all the companions I've met so far, even if I've no idea how to really use some of the classes. |
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Post by mediocreogre on Jul 15, 2021 13:03:51 GMT
There’s some interesting choices in POE1. Which I appreciated. Probably it’s best feature. Also the builds. My main was a rogue who used scrolls and a wand, and especially the missile scroll spells worked with dirty tricks and caused bleed. Only time I think I’ve ever done a scroll build outside TT pathfinder. But I also played on console back then and I distinctly remember falling asleep multiple times during that game.
The turn based mode is probably a big reason I loved POE2. And the magran’s challenge stuff. And Serafen’s fuzzy face.
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Post by farferello on Jul 22, 2021 17:09:16 GMT
I'm thinking I maybe shouldn't have tackled the final floor for The Master Below quest, at level ten.   I've no idea what happened but shortly into the fight, three of the companions were suddenly KO'd. Somehow two got back up but Durance didn't so I had to do near the entire fight without my healer. At some point I got the fun pop up of 'hey this portrait is flashing and the person is about to be dead-dead.' Though I honestly couldn't figure out who it meant at that point, luckily it didn't happen - I'm not fond of perma death. Toughest fight I've had so far and it made it very clear to me that I needed waaay better potions to use on the chance my main healer goes down again, so I've crafted the best I could. And ya know maybe I wasn't the intended level for the fight.  |
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Post by Andrew Mancer on Jul 22, 2021 20:19:18 GMT
Wow, so you actually finished that fight at level 10?
I remember having such a hard time with that one even near end game!
The first Pillars is a really good game - hope you are enjoying it!
I only played the second game once - when it was buggy on release. I don't remember liking it as much as the first game and there was also that whole "Eder is a straight non-romance" thing but I hope you get some enjoyment out of it as well. I definitely have to try these games again sometime.
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Post by farferello on Jul 23, 2021 14:48:25 GMT
Wow, so you actually finished that fight at level 10? I remember having such a hard time with that one even near end game! The first Pillars is a really good game - hope you are enjoying it! I only played the second game once - when it was buggy on release. I don't remember liking it as much as the first game and there was also that whole "Eder is a straight non-romance" thing but I hope you get some enjoyment out of it as well. I definitely have to try these games again sometime. I am playing on the easiest difficulty so that helped, also have the party with as many buffs, self heals, and 'oh shit' stuff as I can. Even then it was very tough. I also did the Siege of Crägholdt almost straight after at level 11 and the enemies there were pretty hard. The final fight however was pretty easy compared to the Dragon. I'm enjoying it, even though I have to spend a lot of time in the Wiki because I get confused about where to go and accidentally stumble into quests. I feel you on the Eder thing. He was annoying me at first with creeping on Aloth because of Iselmyr but when he's not being gross, he's pretty neat and is working pretty flawlessly as my off-tank. I like the majority of the companions, though my party is pretty much set in stone use wise now. Once I can get to the area for the others quests I'll swap a few out for that. I do eventually want to do another playthrough as a Cipher, so I will likely tweak the roster a bit then. |
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Post by farferello on Jul 26, 2021 12:43:38 GMT
I finished The White March dlc. I quite enjoyed it, especially the end part. It did make me laugh however all your companions saying nice things before they leave you, as I chose my character to stay behind and hit the crystal. Everyone thought he was going to die and then... he comes out of the water absolutely fine and no one says a damn thing about it. Though now I'm max level and I haven't even finished Act 2.  |
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Post by farferello on Jul 28, 2021 20:10:14 GMT
Finished POE1. Act 3 felt very quick and somewhat lacklustre compared to the first two acts. I was pretty happy with my ending slides, though Sagani went missing in a blizzard because of apparently one choice I made.  That sucks as I quite liked her. Pallegina was banished and then pardoned but I knew hers was going to screw up when I had her make a new trade deal. But the other companions were happy enough, so that's something ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ and now tomorrow I can start Deadfire. \o/ |
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Post by farferello on Aug 6, 2021 15:36:55 GMT
I have finished Deadfire. \o/ I liked things about the game, and I didn't like things about the game, some changes were welcome, some I didn't like, but overall I found it fun, even though I could have done without quite so many morally grey 'every faction is a bit fucked up in a way' conundrums. But I got decently happy endings for everyone considering, and Aloth stayed with me at the end, so I was happy about that. That said, I do plan to play POE1 again (this time hopefully not having Sagani lost to a blizzard) and then replay Deadfire with that character. I do have two more characters planned after though, but I'll only play through Deadfire for them, one to romance Tekehu and one to head canon an Eder romance with. |
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Post by mediocreogre on Aug 10, 2021 14:09:10 GMT
PoE is one of those series that is on one hand really “good” but on the other hand lacks that unidentifiable something something that makes you really invested in it. Is what I have come to terms with over the years. I like it a whole lot, but it’s not something that reaches levels of much worse written franchises that I obsess over.
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Post by farferello on Aug 10, 2021 16:22:30 GMT
PoE is one of those series that is on one hand really “good” but on the other hand lacks that unidentifiable something something that makes you really invested in it. Is what I have come to terms with over the years. I like it a whole lot, but it’s not something that reaches levels of much worse written franchises that I obsess over. Honestly I'm more invested with my characters than the story as a whole though I kinda wish the game had more reaction to you being a Watcher when shit starts going weird, especially towards the end of the first game where you get the 'I'm going to die' sort of vibe. It also never really felt like most of the companions gave a shit about you and the majority up and leave you anyway. I don't mind them having their own lives and stuff but other than the returning ones in Deadfire, there's not much reactivity and just... not nearly enough 'oh hey I died, how are you doing?' kinda thing. Eder seems way chiller at the beginning than it feels he should be, if he's been watching vigilant over your body for however long. Though the same can be said for most of the Deadfire companions. Most are very much not there for you but for their factions own goal, which... understandable I guess, I lost two companions on my first run - it doesn't help with the 'no one gives a shit' vibe however, even the romances. (The only reason I had Aloth stay with me was because of metagaming and prior knowledge from reading the thread. My natural instinct for the character I played would have otherwise had him gtfo from my Watcher.) Returning to POE1 after playing POE2 is a struggle. As much as I didn't like certain things in Deadfire (Priest, and Wizard changes) the combat feels nicer, and hell, not having to re-centre the camera on my party every five seconds (and being able to click on a map and then click my party to run there, which hardly seems to work in the first game) was great. Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy the story, I just wish it had more. The pacing of the second game also felt off. I probably spent closer to a year dicking around in the Deadfire whilst Eothas was on the loose, it felt like that should have been more a pressing matter that just makes the main story and side stuff feel a little disconnected. That said, my favourite new companion in Deadfire, ended up being a sidekick. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ |
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Post by mediocreogre on Aug 13, 2021 20:57:03 GMT
Definitely if I were to summarize PoE’s writing on a whole it would be “sedated”. A lot of it is like if you were thinking about metaphysics while on Valium and completely numb. There’s good ideas but it just feels like nobody gives much a shit about anything. But I feel like that’s the Avellone influence metastasizing into it’s final form. It’s been in all the games he’s touched but for some reason it’s oppressive in PoE.
And yeah PoE2’s pacing is bizarre. It’s kinda like how in DAI you’re putzing around opening random doors in a desert while the world is ending, but now you’re half heartedly chasing a depressed god thing that’s killing tons of people and you’re naming islands that are definitely already named.
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Post by farferello on Aug 14, 2021 4:35:43 GMT
Avellone influence on it is probably not wrong for it feeling the way it does sometimes. I still enjoyed the game a lot, it was quite fun and I liked that the dlcs gave the sidekicks more content (well, all but Rekke, he had a bit of extra stuff in them but not as much at the others felt that had annoyingly.) The naming the Islands quest definitely made me feel uncomfortable, I likely won't pick that quest up again on my next run, and there's a few other quests where the only choices were incredibly dumb/frustrating. Like the one about the guy who stole the fruit because he wanted his people to eat/survive instead of the tradition of eating the fruit+seed, and your only choice was to condemn an innocent (albeit jerk) man, or condemn the guy who actually did it, but only did so because he didn't want every to starve. Where was my option to offer them some of the hundreds of food I was carrying around with me at the time.  My biggest annoyance outside of the Priest/Wizard changes was the drop down to only a 5 party instead of 6. In POE1 I would always have my core group and then an extra I would swap out to do companion quests, I couldn't do that in POE2 and it's a pain because I want to see how everyone reacts together. I'm also not sure how I feel about the approval system and companions approving of stuff - Aloth got so annoyed by the majority of the people in my group I thought he was going to pop a vein. |
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Post by mediocreogre on Aug 15, 2021 20:28:32 GMT
Yeah it’s probably one of my favorite isometric RPGs. There’s a lot to like and hopefully the franchise continues in a post Avellone direction, and it’ll probably be better with out him.
The class changes were kinda rough. I like multi classing but it creates issues from a game design perspective.
I ended up modding POE2 to get an extra companion slot, and I made my own subclass, tweaked the companion classes, etc.
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That sucks as I quite liked her. Pallegina was banished and then pardoned but I knew hers was going to screw up when I had her make a new trade deal. But the other companions were happy enough, so that's something ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ and now tomorrow I can start Deadfire. \o/
