Pillars of Eternity II - Patch 1.2

I tend to buy and play the game at release/at a full price if it interests me enough. If I wait out for all DLCs/complete package or till the game hits the bargain bin, that means it didn't seem all that interesting to me - don't really care if I end up playing it or not.

I understand that some people want to wait out till developer finish tinkering around with the game, but I don't mind replaying the game several times if I really enjoy it

Originally Posted by Ripper
I wonder how many people that didn't buy it do actually want the game, but are waiting until they've finished screwing around with it.

The ongoing support is great in one way, but I think they might have shot themselves in the foot by training people to wait.

A lot. I can't even tell you how many times I've seen it mentioned on various fourms that a person was holding off because they were anticipating significant tweaks from patches.

I'm one of those people myself. I don't replay many games due to lack of time and the sheer number of games available, so it just makes sense to wait a little longer in most cases if I know the developer is likely to implement significant balance changes.

White March being inserted in the middle of PoE1 made sure that I won't play a PoE game until long after release. Plus, they still haven't even sent out the physical stuff yet.

Originally Posted by Zloth
As for supporting developers - if I ever decide to do that, I'll just write them a check. That way it all goes to them.

Yeah, in one sense that would be better for them. But, I think the actual sales numbers, particularly at release, are very important to them. It will determine the degree to which the game is regarded as a success, be a figure that investors want to see, and so on. I think that if those numbers are low, the chances of sequels and similar games being made also drop.

Originally Posted by purpleblob
I tend to buy and play the game at release/at a full price if it interests me enough. If I wait out for all DLCs/complete package or till the game hits the bargain bin, that means it didn't seem all that interesting to me - don't really care if I end up playing it or not.

I understand that some people want to wait out till developer finish tinkering around with the game, but I don't mind replaying the game several times if I really enjoy it

I never replay RPGs so that's not my reason. I do agree if I'm interested in a game I buy it early, I may wait a week or two for the first patches, but I don't wait for DLCs. If a game doesn't tell the whole story without DLCs then the game sucks. To me a good DLC would be a different story with even different characters in the same world, but I know I'm in the minority, most people just want to take their OP character on a roflstompage in a new area with new trees and birds.

Originally Posted by Ripper
I wonder how many people that didn't buy it do actually want the game, but are waiting until they've finished screwing around with it.

The ongoing support is great in one way, but I think they might have shot themselves in the foot by training people to wait.

I for one am waiting for all the "screwing around" the Obsidian does, including the DLC additions.

I tend to buy almost always on release or even pre-buy if very excited about a game. The only time I wait is A) lack of interest or B) thought the game would suck but find out later it might really be good.

There's been some grumbling about how certain single classes are now sub-par in terms of combat capability, such as the ranger and priest. Hopefully they'll revisit those and de-nerf them a bit.

Anyway, yeah, I'm waiting for all the rebalancing to die down (and trying to avoid the masses of spoilers).

It's only true for martial classes. Casters and monks are worth single classing.

Well I didn't wait, but got distracted playing other stuff. I couldn't care less about the balancing changes. I wish the DLC were available right away, but won't shed any tears if I finish before any come out.

I've been playing PoE for a long time, since May I play in PoE 2 and I'm delighted. I really like that the balance will be better.

Started it some days ago.

It's great fun but if I want to nitpick I again (like in PoE1) have problems with the main protagonist's motivation for following the main quest. I don't like being pushed by high magic or metaphysical demands. Instead of someone stealing a part of my soul I like more grounded things, like someone stealing my favorite toy, sword, Imoen or Triss.

I don't want to glorify Baldur's Gate again but especially in BG2 where you need to collect 10k gold to make it possible to follow your kidnapped childhood friend is a perfect motivator, not only because the main protagonist had a reason doing all the side quests for rewards. And if you didn't care about Imoen you could as well take the revenge reason trying to get to Irenicus and avenge Gorion.
Everything was better then. *shaking his walking stick*

Originally Posted by Morrandir
Started it some days ago.

It's great fun but if I want to nitpick I again (like in PoE1) have problems with the main protagonist's motivation for following the main quest. I don't like being pushed by high magic or metaphysical demands. Instead of someone stealing a part of my soul I like more grounded things, like someone stealing my favorite toy, sword, Imoen or Triss.

I don't want to glorify Baldur's Gate again but especially in BG2 where you need to collect 10k gold to make it possible to follow your kidnapped childhood friend is a perfect motivator, not only because the main protagonist had a reason doing all the side quests for rewards. And if you didn't care about Imoen you could as well take the revenge reason trying to get to Irenicus and avenge Gorion.
Everything was better then. *shaking his walking stick*

Gorion was dead long before Irenicus was even created as a character, he had nothing to do with his death.

BG2 and Deadfire have the same plot structure. They just paced it differently.

You get your soul stolen in both games, one is at the start and the other is mid-way. You get to pick revenge/justice or "give my stuff back" dialogue choices in both games as motivations (also, a few "lets become pirates and not give a shit" choices in Deadfire). You also get locked from advancing the main quest in both games unless you do side quests, BG2 locked everything beyond chapter 2 which covers 95% of the game side content, Deadfire locked the last main quest instead.

Originally Posted by azarhal
Gorion was dead long before Irenicus was even created as a character, he had nothing to do with his death.

Indeed I mixed it up. Shame on me.
In BG2 you could find motivation in saving Imoen OR following Irenicus for revenge for locking you up and doing experiments.

Irenicus may not have killed Gorion, but he did kill Khalid. I'm not sure if anyone held that against him though. XD

I personally find it more motivational to want to get part of my very soul back then some material physical item. I had perfect motivation to track down Eothas. Not only did he take part of my soul but he destroyed my home and killed tons of my people. That certainly provides more motivation to me then if he had stolen my favorite toy.

Originally Posted by wolfgrimdark
I personally find it more motivational to want to get part of my very soul back then some material physical item. I had perfect motivation to track down Eothas. Not only did he take part of my soul but he destroyed my home and killed tons of my people. That certainly provides more motivation to me then if he had stolen my favorite toy.

I think the problem with your soul being stolen was that it didn't really feel like you even needed it back. You could do everything just as well as you could before, so it wasn't like anything was even really missing. I feel that losing a favored party member or something more tangible like that makes more of an impact (at least in this case anyway, since you're not adversely affected by the loss of part of your soul). If some gameplay mechanics were affected by not having all of your soul, then I'd be in a bit more of a hurry to get it back (well, I would if getting it back didn't end the game).

I haven't finished PoE 2 yet, but I definitely prefer the writing to the first game.

It's got a pretty straightforward and almost light-hearted tone - whilst still being plausible within the context of what's going on.

The first game had a very oppressively dark tone - and I didn't care for some of the characters, including the two written by Avellone.

Then again, I prefer straight talk - and while I love complexity, I don't like a complex or deliberately opaque presentation.

PoE 2 is just an overall excellent game, I find.

Well, it does have flaws. For one, it's way too easy - even after they tried to make it harder.

But it's not that combat in PoE was any harder - it was just much harder to control. Of those two options, I definitely prefer PoE 2.

Originally Posted by Darth Tagnan
Well, it does have flaws. For one, it's way too easy - even after they tried to make it harder.

But it's not that combat in PoE was any harder - it was just much harder to control. Of those two options, I definitely prefer PoE 2.

I think the hardest encounters on PotD with upscaling surpass base POE , but you have a point. With the first game the biggest struggle was following the messy combat and micromanaging the stupid AI. Deadfire does a lot to improve combat readability and gives you an extensive AI editor to control nearly every action.

Originally Posted by Silver Coin
I think the hardest encounters on PotD with upscaling surpass base POE , but you have a point. With the first game the biggest struggle was following the messy combat and micromanaging the stupid AI. Deadfire does a lot to improve combat readability and gives you an extensive AI editor to control nearly every action.

Exactly. After configuring my party to act pretty much like I would act in most fights, I don't have to actually do much except watch the show.

I'm frankly very impressed by PoE 2 in this way. I think it even surpasses the excellent DA:O in terms of custom scripts.

I haven't even worked that hard on my scripts - just common sense stuff like activating key abilities at the beginning and healing at the right moment, along with a few of the better CC abilities.

That said, I don't use upscaling - because I dislike scaling mechanics in singleplayer games.