Pillars of Eternity

Considering I'm still learning the ropes I believe normal is good. It's not too easy that you may snooze through the game and it's not too hard that it's punishing for no reason.

I never liked some of the difficulty mods for BG2 because what it meant was that you had to use cheesy tactics, metagaming and exploits to get through the fights.

In the end such things are not more difficult, they simply turn the game into an absurd gauntlet for powergamers to run.

dragoniguana wrote:

Ah, didn't know you like to find things on your own, Cara. Sorry 'bout that.

Yeah, pets don't do anything but sit there and look absolutely, ridiculously cute.

Ridiculously cute like my avatar?

It's not a big deal, I should have made clear that I wasn't looking for an answer outside of the game.

Kana wrote:

Oh, and I agree with Nakia that this is better than the BG games. The RP aspect is so much better. The D&D alignment system is restrictive enough, and BG's half-assed implementation of it just made it worse. I haven't encountered any situation in Pillars where I felt compelled to make a decision contrary to my ideas about my character. Granted, it might still happen, but so far, it's been great from an RP perspective.

I did feel restricted when I got to Gilded Vale and I had to pick certain answers to get out of the dialogue box but I understand that it's to get the player on track.

The alignment system never worked that well because the game couldn't possibly keep track of a character's actions without being arbitrary. A (good) human Dungeon Master could make it work by adapting to circumstances but otherwise it can feel totally random. Besides most players were just looking for the best rewards without taking into account the nature of their decisions. How many "good" characters went out of their way to get the silver pantaloons in BG2?

In any case so far I'm liking PoE a lot. I still prefer Fallout 1 as a crpg but this game is getting there right at the top with Arcanum just below it.

Does anybody know what's up with the guys on the left in this picture? I keep seeing these ghostly-lookin' fellas in wilderness maps. They pop up for a second before disappearing. Once I found one who was walking, and tried to follow him, but he ended up disappearing as he passed under a tree. These three disappeared soon after I walked near them. They're kinda freaking me out.

dragoniguana wrote:

Does anybody know what's up with the guys on the left in this picture? I keep seeing these ghostly-lookin' fellas in wilderness maps. They pop up for a second before disappearing. Once I found one who was walking, and tried to follow him, but he ended up disappearing as he passed under a tree. These three disappeared soon after I walked near them. They're kinda freaking me out.

I have no idea and if someone else does please either make the answer a spoiler or PM Dragon. Like Cara I am trying to avoid spoilers. For me this game is as much a mystery story as Murder:Soul Suspect.

Ha, sorry. I don't mind spoilers at all with games like this - just like Dark Souls, part of the fun for me is learning about the game's secrets by talking to friends. I forget that not everybody's like that.

Anyways, I finally settled on getting the two weapon style talent for my character, and I couldn't be happier with it. It lets me attack 20% faster, which is pretty insane in practice. I just made it to Caed Nua - I'm really excited to see what happens!

I'm glad I chose to be active on the forum again when I did - otherwise I never would have bought this game, and this game is freaking awesome.

Once I have completed my first play through I will want to talk more about the game. I love discussing a game once I have played it through. Especially a game like this one. It is that first play through where I don't want spoilers. I have a digital game guide but I haven't downloaded it because I don't want to be tempted to look something up.

I did play the Backer Beta some so I might be able to help with mechanics if anyone needs help there. One suggestion I made to Cara was when you level up don't use all your points up save a couple for future use. You only get a limited number but you may want some to level up a certain ability. If you are at Caed Nua then you have the Chanter Kana. Chanters are awesome they make the BG bard look sick.

I'm the same. I want to preserve the bloom of the first run as long as I can.

Speaking of which I should really try and play more because it seems D may have already caught up with me.

I broke down and restarted. Somehow I worked my way into a dead end or maybe there was a bug. We will see. I moved along quickly although doing things a bit differently and am almost caught up to where I was. The Cipher is interesting but I don't think a good choice for a first play through. I decided on a Monk, no armour but I did give hi a torch in the left hand. It lowers the damage that hand does but increases perception and accuracy. He is a fire godlike. I am a bit disappointed that no one has commented on that but maybe they are afraid of offending him. He has a Amuana (spelling?) body. Got a nice portrait that fits too. This should be interesting because one quest, an important one, that I did previouly requires wearing a mask and the godlike cannot wear head gear.

Have you noticed that on Steam the game is constantly updating? I needed Kana so I went to Caen Nua and got the stronghold. Actually going there to find the Old Watcher is important so that worked fine. No spoilers there as we have all done that.

Yes, Cara, please play as much as you can so Dragon and I can discuss the game.

Or we could have two new threads, one spoiler free and one filled with spoilers. Perhaps that would work...

Carabas wrote:

Or we could have two new threads, one spoiler free and one filled with spoilers. Perhaps that would work...

Good idea for the fture. I would rather wait it is early I think for spoilers. This is a game of questions and no way do I want to know the answers this first play through. In fact I may never want to know the answers because I have a feeling the questions stay the same but the answers change according to how you play the game. Once we have played the game through we could have a thread where we talk about our answers and what we got out of the game.

Right now I am juust puttering around finally made it to level five with this character.

Yeah, Cara, I think I might be catching up to you - I just got the stronghold recently, and I'm heading out to Defiance Bay now. Haven't got the chance to play much today, though.

Turns out I really like the companions. Eder is my bro, Aloth's... I assume it's a second personality (the Scottish accent or whatever it is?) is absolutely hilarious, and Kana is the most badass fish-man I've ever met in a game. The one thing I really wish were in the game is more party banter, Dragon Age style. There's some of it, but I'd like it to happen a lot, like in Dragon Age. Really makes the group feel more like... Well, a group.

On another note, my enjoyment of Pillars of Eternity has me considering finally getting Baldur's Gate Trilogy up and running and modded out, as well as considering buying Planescape: Torment.

And why, oh why did this game have to have the acronym "PoE"? That's the same acronym the game Path of Exile uses, and it's so confusing. I keep calling this game "Pillars of Exile".

Yahoo, I just killed my first dragon.  Fun time, I didn't think my level 5 party could do.  Hokay, it was a ;   young dragon;  Wore me out as well as my party in fact I think my party did better than I did.  I really liked the animation.  My druid kept complaining about his weapon.  He had a spear or a wand.  I tried both and he didn't like either.    At least my monk never complains about using his fists.  

Kudos Nakia.  



I've finally met Sagani last night and she is awesome. All I can say is that I love the stories and the characters so far.

Dragoniguana it looks like you may have overtaken me!

dragoniguana wrote:

And why, oh why did this game have to have the acronym "PoE"? That's the same acronym the game Path of Exile uses, and it's so confusing. I keep calling this game "Pillars of Exile".

I understand it may be confusing but we probably shouldn't have to worry too much about Path of Exile. It hasn't caught on over here and as far as I know BSS residents don't seem to be playing it (but I may be wrong). I've tried it for a few hours myself since it was free and I was curious about the hype. It was fun for a while but it's not as good as people say. I may shock you but I'd much rather play Torchlight 2 or even Diablo 3 (with the expansion and the patches).

PoE is just a Diablo like action game whereas PoE is the most awesome computer RPG experience to date.

So far I have seven PoE companions plus my rogue. Haven't played enough with one to say anything except he has a very interesting back story. I had to upgrade the player house,Brighthollow I think it is called so they have a confy place to stay. Well I didn't have to upgrade but from a role play view I did. Didn't right to have them sitting in a dump with no place to sleep or stash their own belongins. When I role play I go all the way. Went to Dyrwood Village to get those quests out of the way and had a nice surprise with one quest. OE gave me another option I hadn't done. The quest giver wasn't happy but I was able to basically tell him to shut up and live with it. If he didn't like he should have taken care of the matter. I did get som coin for my troubles. He, the quest give, may have fear I do him in.

OE has already done quite a few patching. I was looking it over and to be honest I really have not had much in the way of problems. Once in a while my PC gets stuck after a fight and doesn't want to move but so far if I exit the game and then reload he is fine.

Oh I turned on the developers comments. Forget it. So far the comments pop up when I am in a tough fight and they distracting at best and since I have a couple of auto pause on really annoying as the two things conflict and get messy. Thought it might be fun to hear what the devs had to say about their game but it isn't.

Good to know. The comments may be interesting once we get to know the game inside out.

I really like the little things like the reputation system. I don't know how it works exactly but it sounds like a pretty nice addition.

The quests are just incredibly fun. The more you dig things up the better it gets.

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Dragoniguana it looks like you may have overtaken me!

Nope, I just met Sagani last night, as well. I finally have a full six-man (plus one fox) party! Looks like we're neck and neck right now, Cara.

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I may shock you but I'd much rather play Torchlight 2 or even Diablo 3 (with the expansion and the patches).

Nope, I highly prefer Diablo 3 to Path of Exile. Never understood the hype for "PoE" - then again, I couldn't get into Diablo 2, either, despite loving Diablo 3. I enjoyed Torchlight 2, as well, until I ran into an area full of spiders (I'm sorta kinda cripplingly acrachnophobic; same reason I can't play Dark Souls II). I think I found a mod that got rid of them, but it stopped working or something, and I never bothered to fix it. I oughta return to that game sometime.

Yeah, Nakia, I had to upgrade Brighthollow as well, as soon as I got the stronghold, for the same reason. Too bad it still looks all broken down on its ground floor, but whatever. At least my companions have a place to stay. I really wish I could upgrade the main keep, but it's too much money for me right now. Then again, I have a ton of stuff in my stash I still need to sell. Maybe that will get me the money to upgrade the keep.

I am going to start another thread for Poe, the PoE by OE.. I have some questions about what ya'all are doing. Curiosity is one of my major traits.

Fire away Nakia!

I'll try and catch up as soon as I can.

dragoniguana wrote:

Nope, I just met Sagani last night, as well. I finally have a full six-man (plus one fox) party! Looks like we're neck and neck right now, Cara.

Sounds like it.

Upgrading the keep is absolutely great. I really enjoyed putting tons of money to upgrade my hideout in Assassin's Creed 2 but this is incredibly better.

I got my first event by the way. Good thing that my custom character, an ill tempered female dwarf fighter, was there to take care of things.

Part of me wants to upgrade my stronghold, but the other part of me knows that that money could probably be better spent elsewhere. Hopefully I'll have the chance to make some more money in Defiance Bay.

Also, have you guys been looking at the souls (or whatever) of the characters with yellow nameplates? I absolutely love the little stories those NPCs have. I read all that there were in Gilded Vale. I knew that was a feature in this game going into it, and I knew I was going to look at them, but I always thought it was going to be a huge slog, that I would hate doing it and would just do it to satisfy my completionist self. Turns out I really, really enjoy them. They're very well-written.

It's part of the charm. You just take your time and read stuff for a while. No need to rush.

I don't know about you but I only buy cheap stuff or items that are too good to pass (and not too expensive). As a rule buying good items is too costly in these games so it's much better to find them or loot them.

So far I've been investing in the stronghold and I'm currently building walls. I've recruited some henchmen (with the barracks) and I have three companions who are currently staying over there (it's really hard picking characters for the main party in this game, I'd like to take them all with me). The more, the merrier.

The people with the gold names are backers. Don't know how much they had to contribute but I don't think it was cheap. After the Kickstarter ended I stopped going to the forum or paying much attention to the updates. The memorial plaques are also quotes from backers. The majority of backers contributed under about 50 USD but some paid in a lot. I also believe that some of the named items you can get are from backers. Some formed groups and got items or other bonuses for the group.

I did make it into the Silver Backer category which got me what I wanted in bonuses and a couple of things I didn't want such as ring tones and monitor wallpaper. I went for a digital tier. All I really wanted was the game and in fact when I made my initial contribution I wasn't even sure I would be able to play the game when it came out. I made it as my legacy to those who love real role playing games and not the tripe I see so much of today.

I don't buy much in the way of items but I do as much enchanting as I can and that isn't cheap. I also make potions. Those dungeon crawls are important because that is where I find a lot of ingredients. I probably won't finish this game for long time which is what I like. This is a game where getting to the finish isn't important. It just a great game in so many ways.

Enchanting is something I've been meaning to get into. I haven't done much in the way of crafting except some cooking.

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I probably won't finish this game for long time which is what I like. This is a game where getting to the finish isn't important. It just a great game in so many ways.

Definitely. The important part is not the destination, it's the journey.

True. I stopped by the forum I won't name to see what was going on there. Saw some threads whose titles indicated the player had finished the game. Didn't look at them. Did check a couple of others and it appears there are people who have finished the game. The game has been out all of two weeks. Now if these people work or go to school, have family obligations how much time do they have to play? The Endless Paths dungeon has seventeen levels that get harder as you go deeper. Exploring a region and talking to different NPCs to get quests is time consuming. Di fiance Bay alone will take me many hours to complete. Granted my reading is slow but even with speed reading I don't see how you can read even half of what is available and complete the game in two weeks unless you devote yourself to the game and nothing else. Where is the fun of rushing through a game? With seven camp anions plus hired adventurers to choose from it takes me a few minutes to decide who to take. Those boss fights can be hard. I have barely touched the Main Quest as I am having too much fun exploring.

Some people care more about "beating" the game than actually enjoying it. There is nothing to be done about that. I don't expect every player to read everything. In fact from what I've seen on the steam forums it looks like many are just skipping dialogue. Well, all I can say is that it's their loss.

When I'm playing I can sit for two hours and feel like I've barely touched a map. There are so many things to do (and read!) in this game.

Very true. Speaking of dialogue Steam downloaded my digital content and I was checking something about the Stronghold. I ran across the fact that here are NPCs in the game who can be unlocked to hire for your hold. I already missed one. Didn't check to see what the others are so Ican't even post a spoiler. They are unlocked through dialogue with them when you meet up with them. My guess is they are enemies in a quest but that is strictly a guess. Moral of this is read the dialogue.

"Sagani, does your fox bite?"

"Yes."

"Can I pet him anyway?"

"It's your hand."

"I'm gonna pet him!"

I love Eder.