Pillars of Eternity II - Survey on Turn-Based Mode

If only Obsidian understood how reasonable and easy to please this crowd was, they'd never have dared to give players an entirely new way to play the game for free

They should have done what all those other throwback CRPG developers do, release a completely bug-free 100+ hour game at launch.

Shame on them!

I wonder how so many players managed to finish PoE 2 and give it such high marks.

Something must be wrong with them.

I for one will never understand gamer's preference for Turn-Based RPGs. Me personally I don't care if my RPG is turn-based, or RTwP I'll play it, and enjoy it.

Still credit goes to Obsidian for releasing it as a free update and not as a paid DLC.

PoE2 had a fantastic RTwP mode - but to provide such a substantial change as an entirely new take on combat is pretty unprecedented.

In fact, when I first heard rumors about it - I didn't believe them.

That's a pretty generous free addition, and I know there are countless fans who prefer TB mode.

To expect it to be bug-free and polished on first iteration is moron-level unreasonable.

Originally Posted by Darth Tagnan

To expect it to be bug-free and polished on first iteration is moron-level unreasonable.

Except they introduced yet more bugs to the entire game with that patch. It's not exclusive to Turn-based. So who's the moron?

Originally Posted by Drithius
Except they introduced yet more bugs to the entire game with that patch. It's not exclusive to Turn-based. So who's the moron?

Yeah, new bugs with new patches is an entirely new concept. That never happens, really.

I know, they should just stop patching things - or magically become incapable of making bugs.

They did it just to annoy you, because we all know how easy it is to make such a complex game bug-free.

I'm not saying you're a moron, I'm saying you're moron-level unreasonable. Basically all you do is bitch about how terrible games are, completely ignoring the good parts of them.

Maybe it would be better to focus on something that's not so detrimental to your health. How about going for ice-cream or something?

Dart, you used to put up good arguments years ago, but lately you're just here to be a straw-horse contrarian. You're seriously labeling me as unreasonable for wanting to play an unbugged game 8-9 months after launch.

I must have missed that time when you thought I put up good arguments.

Did you actually point them out?

I'm not labeling you unreasonable for wanting this, I'm calling you unreasonable for expecting them to not patch games or make them bug-free.

I think we all want bug-free games, I know I certainly do.

But when a game is great, like PoE2 is - and it's fully playable and perfectly enjoyable - then I tend to focus on that.

You're starting to sound like joxer when he spots a respawned enemy.

I had very few bugs in my many hours playing (finished once and half way through the second). No real bugs. Always odd how some folks just seem to always attract bugs for some reason.

No interest in TB though. Took the survey anyhow. Just not into TB combat, lack the time these days for it. Used to like it when I was younger though.

I had worries when this was announced whether it would be like Arcanum, and turn-based would be a poor fit (Combat in general was just done badly in Arcanum) . At least they are making that extra effort as it's needed for the console release.

My view on turn-based vs RTwP for the PoE series was that RTwP was too chaotic but was okay to play.

You can take the survey even if you don't own the game and haven't played the game, by the way. It's a short survey too. I chose the option basically saying that I'm much more likely to purchase POE 2 now that it features turn-based combat.

It should have been UgoIgo from the start: no demand for RTwP products, let alone games.

Originally Posted by Barghest
I had worries when this was announced whether it would be like Arcanum, and turn-based would be a poor fit (Combat in general was just done badly in Arcanum) .

Arcanum was weird, some weapons/spells/encounters worked better in tb and others in real time. I was switching constantly while playing.

POE tb is very D&D 5eish right now. It does make some things better than in RTwP and others not as OP. For example, AOE hit cascading isn't as useful now, because enemies aren't all stacking each others over a character the moment combat start. On the other side, spell cast AOE with friendly fire are much easier to use for the same reason.

Saying that some people are suggesting on the feedback forum that Obsidian should change the combat to follow FF ATB model. Hopefully that doesn't happen, that tb system exist to spam the same thing over and over again fast because FF has like 5 spells/attacks per characters and not that much tactical/strategy changes required from fight to fight.

What is FF ATB?

Originally Posted by Pongo
What is FF ATB?

The 'Active Time Battle' system from the Final Fantasy series. It's sort of a cross between turn-based and real-time.

Originally Posted by Pongo
What is FF ATB?

Final Fantasy Active Time Battle. You have a few seconds to take action before your turn skip, there is no concept of rounds and your next turn trigger based on a timer (well a gauge that fill technically). Oh and you can't pause. One party member could attack twice before another party members execute a single attack based on various factors.

It works in FF because you have few skills/spells, plenty of resources and can spam the same attack against the same type of enemy because of the "rock-paper-scissors" design. Boss fights are super scripted too.

edit: I forgot, in FF enemies and party members don't really move. They face each others and attack animation plays out.

Ah ok thanks. I'm not familiar with Final Fantasy but yeah doesn't sound like a great fit here. I'm about 12 hrs into PoE2 in TB mode and enjoying it.

I just could never get into this one the way I did with PoE. I mean I've played it and I enjoyed the character building system and scenery, but the characters, story, and the setting didn't grab me in the same way. I think it'll be a while before I do a replay.

I eventually got used to the active time battles in the Final Fantasy games, but I'm not a huge fan of that system at all.

This survey scares me a bit. I get the impression they're trying to determine which combat mode is more popular, so that's what they'll focus on in the future.

I'm one of the oddballs that hate turn based games and the only reason I got Pillars is because of its real time combat.

When they announced the addition of a turn based mode, I was delighted. Why can't all games offer this kind of choice to their players?

But now I'm a bit worried. If they decide that the 'majority' want turn based combat, then they might not bother with real time combat anymore and that will spell the death of a lot of games for me

Btw on Torment Tides of Numenera inXile did a survey as well. Turn Based won my a very low margin.

In Torment the combat type really wouldn't have mattered though as it was pointless anyways.