Pillars of Eternity II - Going Turn Based January 24th

PCGamesN reports that Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire will be going turn-based from the 24th of January.

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Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire players are no strangers to choice. But when you boot up the game from January 24 onwards, your first decision will come even before character creation - real-time or turn-based?

Since the inception of the series, Pillars has been firmly rooted in the wonderfully messy but deeply tactical real-time and pause paradigm of the Infinity Engine games. That wasn't a decision the dev team made, so much as a duty they fulfilled to nostalgia-driven Kickstarter backers. Now, though, Deadfire is fully playable in a new turn-based mode. It's the most fundamental and far-reaching change Obsidian has made to any of its games after release.

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Wow, first I've heard of that. And I love the idea - can't wait to try it. Not to say I'll love it over the current system, but choice is never a bad thing.

Edit: After thinking about it, I love the idea even more. The AI scripts are great but I'm guessing they won't play a part in TB?

My only (other) question (and I guess I'll find out in 2 days) is what exactly happens with spells that have a cast time, particularly longer cast times; will the "long" ones stretch into the next round? I suppose the answer lies in how much time each round lasts.

That's…freaking…weird??? The game is already "old", and as far as I'm aware of it didn't sell very well although it's highly rated and critically acclaimed? And now they put resources into adding a turn based mode? Seems like a less than logical thing to do, although I guess Josh makes some good arguments in the linked article.

Either way, does this mean I can vote PoE2 as my Goty 2019 as well? Because there's a pretty damn good chance it will be…

Also, the ending quote:
“I’ve always preferred turn-based,” he says. “Because of my tabletop background, and because I prefer closer examination. When I play real-time with pause, I micromanage so much that it might as well be turn-based.”

Josh Sawyer is back on my approved list.

It's awesome to have the option. I'll probably stick with RTwP for now, but maybe on another replay I'll switch.

Wow, that's great news. Skipped the game due to being RTwP and having other games I prefered to play. But with introducing turn based, I kinda have to play it.

There's so much combat in PoE / PoE 2 that this would stretch out an already laborious game even further. In my opinion the combat, albeit chaotic at times, is fine in Deadfire.

What drags down the game is moreso the simplistic encounter and map design (and life-sucking overbalancing). Go to one island, kill this guy, go to another island, kill some other guy. I'm currently level 15/16 in my first and only playthrough and I just feel very little intrigue for the story and setting; at this stage of an RPG (50-66% through), it should be enrapturing me.

Well, they are mentioning that you have to chose the mode at the start of the game (cannot switch later), and for now they just implement a beta version.

So there is a good chance they will also just reduce the amount of combat to make it more interesting.

Fantastic, can't wait to try it out.

I'll be keen to hear if it works well.

Has anyone heard any more about improvements to the ship combat, which I think they mentioned at one stage? Perhaps they could harness the turn-based system to display ship battles as customised combat encounters, with a few new graphics.

I started the game a couple of months ago, but I didn't find it fun, combat was too cumbersome the way I was playing it (no AI script and pause after action ends), and didn't care for playing it real time, so this news is great for me.

This is exciting. I have never been a fan of real time with pause combat. I hated it the first time I saw it in Baldur's Gate, and it is a big reason why I am one of the few people in the universe who never fell in love with any of the Baldur's Gate games.

Giving people an option as to how they want to play a game is an incredible gift. I'm sure the work that goes in to making both styles playable through an entire game must be enormous.

I really liked the first game and supported it on kick starter back a few years ago. What I don't like is how they stagger the extra content after the initial release, so this time I just waited until it was all available. Now I'll also wait until the turn based system is fully in place before I pick this one up.

Originally Posted by Drithius
What drags down the game is moreso the simplistic encounter and map design (and life-sucking overbalancing). Go to one island, kill this guy, go to another island, kill some other guy. I'm currently level 15/16 in my first and only playthrough and I just feel very little intrigue for the story and setting; at this stage of an RPG (50-66% through), it should be enrapturing me.

Yes, for me the spread out nature of the islands can drag the mid-game down a bit. Some of the locations are particularly enjoyable though, like Splintered Reef, Fort Deadlight, and Crookspur.

Those who like turn-based systems should be very happy, because late-in-the-cycle patches from Obsidian often represent ideas they're testing for the next game. (Those who don't like turn-based systems should be unhappy for the same reason.)

I'm a fan of both RTwP and turn-based so no preference really. Still to decide to add this almost a year after it's release makes no sense. Still it's free so I can't complain to much.

Also not really new as a beta of the turn-based combat was was accidentally released a few months back in one of the patches. It was quickly patched so I had no time to try it.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
I'm a fan of both RTwP and turn-based so no preference really. Still to decide to add this almost a year after it's release makes no sense. Still it's free so I can't complain to much.

Also not really new as a beta of the turn-based combat was was accidentally released a few months back in one of the patches. It was quickly patched so I had no time to try it.

I thought TB mode was being implemented because of the console release?

Originally Posted by purpleblob
I thought TB mode was being implemented because of the console release?

Could be but why? As the original Pillars was also released on consoles with RTwP.

They did it to appease the rpgcodex glut

I ll certainly try it out and curious if they have reduced the battle encounters sticking to more meaningfull ones.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
Could be but why? As the original Pillars was also released on consoles with RTwP.

I also suspect this is connected to consoles release. Perhaps they realized RTwP doesnt work well with controller after they released PoE? So this might be attempt to get bigger audience on consoles for Deadfire? Dunno, but I personally wouldnt even try RtWP with consoles controller.

Anyway, Im gonna definitely try this. If they somehow re-designed encounters it might be greatest thing since ToEE (combat wise). Somewhat thrilled about it actually.