The White March part 2

Some information released today about The White March part 2 in press release:

• We are getting a Barbarian companion called Meneha.
• A new gameplay mode called Story Time which is supposed to let you experience the story faster.
• New abilities and another level cap increase
• More quests and will finish White March part 1 storyline (duh)
• Coming in late January 2016

Release date: February 16th 2016

Press Release

Teaser trailer

In addition to what the expansion bring, patch 3.0 (available to all) will also come with lots and lots of changes. You can read about some of the changes planned this thread).

Is "Story Time" just like a… super-easy mode?

Originally Posted by ElderGnome
Is "Story Time" just like a… super-easy mode?

Yes it's an optional difficulty setting for beginners. Can't see why this bothers many backers based on the various replies on this forum, and the games website.

Originally Posted by ElderGnome
Is "Story Time" just like a… super-easy mode?

It his unknown if it will really be super-easy and it doesn't replace the easy difficulty.

The way it will work (from J. Sawyer):
Story Time uses the encounter composition of Normal difficulty but biases the math heavily in the player’s favor. Enemies have lower stats overall. Party members Crit more often, especially when enemies are at low Endurance. Enemies have increased Recovery (attack less frequently), crit far less, have inaccurate Disengagement Attacks, do less damage overall, and do much less damage against party members who are at low Endurance. Hostile status effects on party members are reduced in duration. The party can also carry (effectively) unlimited Camping Supplies.

Originally Posted by azarhal
It his unknown if it will really be super-easy and it doesn't replace the easy difficulty.

The way it will work (from J. Sawyer):
Story Time uses the encounter composition of Normal difficulty but biases the math heavily in the player’s favor. Enemies have lower stats overall. Party members Crit more often, especially when enemies are at low Endurance. Enemies have increased Recovery (attack less frequently), crit far less, have inaccurate Disengagement Attacks, do less damage overall, and do much less damage against party members who are at low Endurance. Hostile status effects on party members are reduced in duration. The party can also carry (effectively) unlimited Camping Supplies.

Basically a way for beginners to play, or people who don't like the old combat system.

My old-self would be cringing reading that news but I'm not bothered anymore. So long as more challenging combat level is available. To be honest if I ever pick up PoE again, I will probably play Story Time mode since I don't really understand combat system in PoE.

I need story time mode only in all grinders and checkpoint system rubbish.
Elsewhere, please don't.

I wish all games would include a storytime mode. I have an elderly member of the family who's taken an interest in games, but who is very limited in their selection because they just can't cope with difficulty of games designed for people with developed gaming skills. This would be a real advance for accessibility, and does no harm to the rest of us.

That is a very good point. My father is retired, and with a lot of time on his hands, but I simply can't find games that would suit him. They're either uninteresting (gimmicky), too abstract (dice rolls etc) or too difficult. You'd think there was a fairly big, untapped market there.

I doubt that storytelling games is strong enough to warrant playing them without any gameplay, but whatever floats people's boats.

Is this the last DLC or are they planning others? I'm holding off a second play through until it's complete.

They only talked about one expansion for the game (that is the entire White March content), so it should be.

Originally Posted by azarhal
They only talked about one expansion for the game (that is the entire White March content), so it should be.

Great, thanks - nearly time to get it fired up again then!

PC Gamer has some new screens for the expac, along with a description and probably some spoilers in the text.

Nice looking screenshots and enjoyed the article. Hopefully will find time to play this come spring.

Small reminder that this release tomorrow (Feb 16th) and that there was some video showing the expac in the last few days.

A presentation of the new barbarian companion.

And Sawyer playing through some of the new expac on twitch

Ahh, bummer about the new barbarian companion - my most recent game (triple crown attempt) has a hired one already. I guess I could jiggle a companion here or there to make it work though. I still need to give Zahua and Devil of Caroc credible time in the party to fully complete their personal stories.

I bought the season DLC pass after the first part released (which I've completed in my second playthrough) so I definitely look forward to making time soon to play part 2.

Thanks for the reminder, Az.

The expansion is available on both Steam and GoG. and there is a release trailer and an abilities preview video.

Thanks, Az! Admittedly, that trailer is a bit spoileree imo, if people havent played any of the White March. At least I think so; I stopped watching after a few seconds

I need to put aside some New Vegas modding to finish my Wasteland 2 playthrough, so I can subsequently start a new PoE game (not played since first month of release). Backlogs suck.