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[bati]

So does anyone have any impressions of the combat system? The PoE one was not something I particularly enjoy so I stayed away from it, is this more of that? Or is it completely different?

It's more or less the same but slightly easier to get to terms with. UI is a bit better and there are less combatants on the field in battles so it's easier to parse what's going on.

And while I don't particularly care for the PoE inspired game systems I have to admit that some of the conversations so far have been pretty great, especially the aggressive options. If you care more about the story then it might be worth getting anyway, but I'm not far enough into the game to make the final judgement on that.

 

[CrichtonKicks]

Yeah it's doing better than I expected given it's had so little marketing and even like barely any sites reviewed it. I certainly didn't expect it sitting between DH2 and Civ Vi on the top sellers, at least.

Paradox seems to know how to market to their PC base. Hopefully that's paying off. I expect they are looking for long tail sales anyway. Early days but it's looking like there is some good potential for word of mouth. The game should ultimately be catnip to the hardcore CRPG community.

 

[Poodlestrike]

Welp, after wrestling with it all afternoon, I admit defeat. This game simply will not run. It boots, I hit new game, pick my difficult, and the loading screen that comes up never ends (and soon crashes). Posted on the Paradox forums and an Obsidian guy responded, so they're aware and hopefully there'll be a fix soonish.

 

[Fantastapotamus]

So, quick question
What does "Eb" mean? I just had an encounter very early on and one of my choices raised the "fear" of Eb? Does this mean my whole party? Not quite sure what this is all about

 

[Lister]

Dat main menu music!

That's as far as i've gotten so far, mired in work.

The main UI doesn't seem to be ultra wide friendly, unlike Pillar's main menu. The game does support ultra wide though, right guys?

 

[MartyStu]

Any mutually exclusive party members? Any party members decided by conquest?

So, quick question
What does "Eb" mean? I just had an encounter very early on and one of my choices raised the "fear" of Eb? Does this mean my whole party? Not quite sure what this is all about

Eb is the name of one of the possible companions.

 

[Cryoteck]

I'm not really much of a CRPG guy but I'm really enjoying the game so far. The bleak atmosphere works much better than I thought.Glad to see evil portrayed in a way that isn't just cackling at obvious over the top cruelty. Also loving the lore popups in dialogue.

 

[Ulong]

.

 

[Sinatar]

So, quick question
What does "Eb" mean? I just had an encounter very early on and one of my choices raised the "fear" of Eb? Does this mean my whole party? Not quite sure what this is all about

Eb is the name of the character you were talking to.

 

[xealo]

Is there any way to scale up the UI a bit I'm missing? Poked around a bit in the menus but can't find anything. It's a little bit too small for my tastes at native 1440p.

 

[Conezays]

Is there any way to scale up the UI a bit I'm missing? Poked around a bit in the menus but can't find anything. It's a little bit too small for my tastes at native 1440p.

You can increase the font a bit in the graphics settings but I agree, it's still a little small for me as well.

 

[decoyplatypus]

I played through to the first meeting with the archons. I enjoyed character creation and Conquest. I'm happy with the dialogue choices and the lore tooltips. And, if I'm understanding this right, I think it's very cool that you can pick up bonuses for progressing along either reputation path with a given character or group.

I don't have much to say about combat yet. Fighting with one ally and a few enemies, there just aren't any meaningful choices to make.

I'm not crazy about the UI at the moment. I find it a bit less elegant and intuitive than PoE's. But maybe that's just me. I clicked with PoE right away. And I've spent so little time with this one.

 

[JoeyJungle]

So without spoiling too much (very early game spoiler), d

Spoiler

oes the whole 8 day timer thing get extended or does the game continue past that point? Cuz that seems kind of short. I assume it does because the tutorial that popped up had like 18 days, but I'm not sure if that's just maybe what it's like on normal or easy.

The RPS review said

Spoiler

The game ends if the timer runs out, but that they were able to complete every sidequest they found and still finished with 6 days left on the timer

 

[Ulong]

.

 

[JoeyJungle]

Just to clarify, there is more to the game

Spoiler

after the 8 day timer yes?

Oh yeah, sorry for the confusion, the game

Spoiler

only ends if you fail

. The timer section is basically just the intro bit (it's the bit that they gave journalists during preview events).

 

[Spirit of Jazz]

I've only played an hour or so but I'm really disappointed that they've replace good vs evil with another 2 party ideology. The whole conquest section would have been so much more interesting if it didn't simply come down to if you wanted to go with side A or B.

 

[CrichtonKicks]

I've only played an hour or so but I'm really disappointed that they've replace good vs evil with another 2 party ideology. The whole conquest section would have been so much more interesting if it didn't simply come down to if you wanted to go with side A or B.

I don't know- I tried to consistently side with the Scarlet group and it bit me in the ass by the end of Conquest.

 

[Ulong]

.

 

[Spirit of Jazz]

I don't know- I tried to consistently side with the Scarlet group and it bit me in the ass by the end of Conquest.

I just feel it would have been more interesting if your choice came down to your decisions in a sitch rather than are you Scarlet or Disfavored.

 

[Bebpo]

I've only played an hour or so but I'm really disappointed that they've replace good vs evil with another 2 party ideology. The whole conquest section would have been so much more interesting if it didn't simply come down to if you wanted to go with side A or B.

Yeah, I've played 4 hours and I like it, but don't love it. Definitely feels like a smaller scope/budget project.

Feels very similar to Fallout New Vegas if it was on a much smaller more linear scale with more binary choices. Although I'm still on Act I so maybe it'll get more open in narrative from Act II on. I like all the stat based choices and the reputation system which was great in Fallout is still pretty good here. Just not all that interesting so far.

Combat is fun but I agree that the attacks lack flash and impact. Otherwise pretty solid combat system.

 

[F!ReW!Re]

Can anyone comment on how the game runs on shittier systems?
Will I be able to run this if I can manage to run Pillars of Eternity on low?

(I've only got a shitty laptop to game on since I've been traveling for two years).

 

[aravuus]

I'm bouncing pretty hard off of this, for exactly the same reasons as with Pillars of Eternity: info dump at the beginning of the game, lots and lots of abilities that don't feel very powerful (ie, an attack that does +3 damage compared to auto attack - not very exciting), purple prose and the character names. In PoE it was some mishmash of Celtic/Welsh and here it's generic english words. This last one is completely on me, maybe because I'm not a native english speaker, but still.

And the ruleset still feels so...meh. Again.

I love the names. Fantasy names that are just a bunch of English words are by far my favorites.

 

[Bebpo]

I haven't played Pillars (haven't had the time for a long game like it, playing Tyranny because it's short), and in Pillars do you have more of a big world map to explore? I kind of feel like Tyranny is like a mix between 80 days or other choose your own adventure novels with set pieces and battles. Like you have choices, but it's still a very linear forward game without almost any exploration which I kinda miss.

 

[MartyStu]

Just to clarify:

You can lose loyalty with party members correct? So far, I have only seen that fear can be gained.

 

[CrichtonKicks]

I haven't played Pillars (haven't had the time for a long game like it, playing Tyranny because it's short), and in Pillars do you have more of a big world map to explore? I kind of feel like Tyranny is like a mix between 80 days or other choose your own adventure novels with set pieces and battles. Like you have choices, but it's still a very linear forward game without almost any exploration which I kinda miss.

Pillars isn't open world or anything. It's like the Infinite Engine games. You do have several maps and locations to explore at a time and the maps themselves are pretty large. So, yeah, it's probably more what you are looking for than Tyranny.

Basically, in Pillars you are adventuring party with no particular influence or power off the bat so it harkens to games of that mold. Wheras with Tyranny you show up on the scene as leader ready to get shit done and it makes sense to have a more directed format.

Personally, I don't think Pillars feels like it has a bigger budget or anything though. Tyranny definitely feels much more polished and they have clearly learned a lot from Pillars, especialy in terms of UI design.

I like all the stat based choices and the reputation system which was great in Fallout is still pretty good here. .

I'm really impressed that the reputation isn't on a single sliding scale. You can gain Favor and Wrath simultaneously. That's pretty cool and something that isn't done often enough.

 

[Labadal]

I just feel it would have been more interesting if your choice came down to your decisions in a sitch rather than are you Scarlet or Disfavored.

You don't have to join either of them. You can join the rebels or stay independent.

 

[LurkerPrime]

Agreed re: polish--it's a clear iteration on Pillars' design. And Although the UI is a bit messier it does a good job at conveying everything players need to know. One of the nicest little addition are those emotive portraits; they're kind of goofy, but a good compromise to give NPCs an identity while also giving the dialog a slight cinematic feel.

Another observation: in the first few hours (so far) there's been way less combat than in PoE, which I really like. Like, the cadence of adventure, shopping, combat, and dialog feels a lot better overall than it did in Pillars, where I'd swear the combat was 90% of what players did. Pillars really wore me down by the end.

Though, the biggest surprise has been how much I like the Bethesda level-up system. It actually works a lot better than I ever thought in this kind of game. It's just flexible enough to allow hybrid characters a chance to compete, which I didn't realise during character creation. I think it'll work really well for multiple playthroughs alongside the conquest system and usual roleplaying stuff.

Just to clarify:

You can lose loyalty with party members correct? So far, I have only seen that fear can be gained.

Yup. They're independently tracked.

 

[peakish]

Though, the biggest surprise has been how much I like the Bethesda level-up system. It actually works a lot better than I ever thought in this kind of game. It's just flexible enough to allow hybrid characters a chance to compete, which I didn't realise during character creation. I think it'll work really well for multiple playthroughs alongside the conquest system and usual roleplaying stuff.

As I see it the biggest problem with it in Bethesda games is that you can grind stats which means that you will. Except for random encounters (are they even in Tyranny?) Obsidian games are more controlled which means that it might be less boring. I haven't played enough to tell whether its successful or not but it felt good to get actual lore skill points by saying lore things in my first encounters.

 

[Bebpo]

Hmmm, Act II got a lot more interesting. Bigger scope, bigger map, more factions, more characters. Hopefully it won't be like each location just has two warring factions and the choices are binary. I'm hoping now that there's 3-4 factions you'll have 3-4 choices in certain situations.

Very enjoyable game. Wish the major NPC characters had more unique art (2d portraits) instead of just some generic 3d model, but at least the party members have 2d portraits. Wait, do some of them have 2d portraits? Idk, it's 1am and I'm pretty tired after playing 5 hours and can't remember ^^;

Also I really like that you can play the game on fast mode using "+". Been doing that for a while once I learned about it.

 

[Intheflorsh]

I'm only a few hours in but I'm enjoying it a lot more than PoE. The setting is much more unique, the characters are more lively, and it seems like player choice plays a bigger role. So far this is a nice surprise.

 

[His Majesty]

I'm only a few hours in but I'm enjoying it a lot more than PoE. The setting is much more unique, the characters are more lively, and it seems like player choice plays a bigger role. So far this is a nice surprise.

Sounds great, PoE was all a bit too safe and dry for me.

 

[Monochromaticx]

I Love the concept so much


But...and i know this is an unpopular opinion.....I don't like these top down RPGs. I find them boring. Even PoE.

 

[Nzyme32]

I just feel it would have been more interesting if your choice came down to your decisions in a sitch rather than are you Scarlet or Disfavored.

Ultimately that is what it did come down to. Often it wasn't about picking the side, but the action - which is the one with the most favourable consequences. The factions you use don't matter imo.

 

[Tenrius]

Played through to the meeting with the Archons. Really great stuff so far! The way they used lore tool tips with the Voices of Nerat was really special.

I Love the concept so much


But...and i know this is an unpopular opinion.....I don't like these top down RPGs. I find them boring. Even PoE.

"Even" PoE sounds wrong. PoE is a really safe, slow, occasionally bland game. I really liked it in the end, but it's much likely to feel boring than most games (especially during certain parts of the main game; the DLC and the Endless Parhs were the thing that really put that game together).

Did you play any other isometric RPGs? What is it in particular you don't' like about them?

 

[Ulong]

.

 

[Tunahead]

Ultimately that is what it did come down to. Often it wasn't about picking the side, but the action - which is the one with the most favourable consequences. The factions you use don't matter imo.

That's pretty much what I did, as well. I got basically no favor or wrath with either faction, and was mostly satisfied with my choices, except for one which ended up being a huge mistake.

Oh well. No take-backsies!

 

[Doikor]

So at the end of the first section of the game, with the 8 day edict, how do you actually end up

Spoiler

in good graces with the rebels

? I made several choices that gained favor, and even

Spoiler

betrayed the alliance

, only for this to lead to all favor getting lost and wrath being maxed. Did I miss something somewhere?

Spoiler

What did you do when you ran into the rebels earlier blue flagging (so wanting to talk with you)

 

[Register]

Just started the game and I'm already in love with it. Holy shit how awesome can a game be? The intro with 'what did you do?' was very intriguing. Does it always play the same, or does it depend on which 'origin' you chose? I went with Fighter and was a general - are you one if you are a Pit Fighter or something too?

The game fly totally by me, despite having played every major cRPG to date. What a nice surprise.

 

[Durante]

I think I haven't had a "standard edition" box for a PC game in 2 or 3 years at least.

 

[Drillary Clinton]

Pillars is great need to finish it so I can get into this

 

[Monochromaticx]

Played through to the meeting with the Archons. Really great stuff so far! The way they used lore tool tips with the Voices of Nerat was really special.



"Even" PoE sounds wrong. PoE is a really safe, slow, occasionally bland game. I really liked it in the end, but it's much likely to feel boring than most games (especially during certain parts of the main game; the DLC and the Endless Parhs were the thing that really put that game together).

Did you play any other isometric RPGs? What is it in particular you don't' like about them?

Thats good to hear. PoE felt very slow and I didnt enjoy the combat. Wasteland was also very slow, I didn't find anything interesting about it. Divinity 1 was fun, then i lost my save files and couldn't access my PC yada yada yada have not touched it since.

I think I haven't had a "standard edition" box for a PC game in 2 or 3 years at least.

took me a second to notice its real and not a photoshop lol must have been 10 years since I bought a physical PC game.

 

[bjaelke]

I think I haven't had a "standard edition" box for a PC game in 2 or 3 years at least.

I almost imported the Limited Edition.

 

[phoenixyz]

Short question: This game has no controller support whatsoever right?

 

[sssssszzzzz]

I absolutely didn't hear a thing about this game before, which is really strange because I usually do.

Just recently I was searching for good diplomacy games, of course you stumble upon stuff like Victoria II, Stellaris and so on. But to have an RPG where your political choices really matter sounds great. There were so many games saying that you choices matter and have consequences, but I never felt that way, espacially in the Fable series, apart maybe from Witcher 2. I will surely give this a shot, I have always liked Obsidian a lot. Still can't get how I didn't notice this game is even in development.

 

[bati]

One thing that's really refreshing in this game is being able to speak from a position of authority early into the game. This can lead to some very interesting outcomes since you're the one dictating the flow of the conversation and pressing the other party for information. I've had some amusing results so far, particularly those that were the consequence of taking a more aggressive approach.

And some of the dialogue options are pretty good - so good in fact that I'd recommend turning off Reputation gain and just go with what feels right to you.

And a question - is anyone far enough into the game yet to weigh in on the combat specs? I really dig the javelin because it's an underrepresented style in RPGs but if it gets outclassed later on I'm open to trying other things.

 

[Prismo]

I'm having a real problem with aggro management. I rolled a pure mage and I can't seem to figure out how to avoid having everyone and their sister bum rush my character. I took the taunt ability in Sentinel for Barik's first skill but it doesn't seem to do anything, or at least it's not very effective.

 

[johancruijff]

Barely played 2 hours

Started on hard and the companion's reactivity to my orders is unnerving

 

[bjaelke]

Short question: This game has no controller support whatsoever right?

Correct. The interface and micro management doesn't really lend itself to a controller layout.

 

[Sanctuary]

as far as we know it's pretty much designed for maximum replayabily, lots of choices and consequences

If the pacing continues in exactly the same way as it's been for the eight hours that I've played, it's more like maximum rereadability. It's getting to the point where I'm not sure I'm going to bother with Obsidian anymore. I'm reading a book that has a few combat sequences every now and then than actually playing a game.

I also don't know why Baldur's Gate is always cited by both them as well as cRPG fans as far as what Obsidian has been trying to make lately, because Baldur's Gate was way more balanced in terms of combat and exposition, and at times Obsidian seems to just be going overboard with dialogue because the assumption is a) Oh, cRPG players just love thousands of lines of text, where not even half of it adds up to anything truly interesting or in any way ehnaces the plot, and b) it allows them to have the "game" last 30 - 40 hours. The pacing has been as bad as Dragon Warrior VII's first two hours, and that game was legendary for terrible pacing.

Also, unless I've just been doing it wrong this entire time, even when there actually is combat, the UI and inability to rotate the screen makes it a clusterfuck for targeting more often than not, and it's a bit too busy.

I'm having a real problem with aggro management. I rolled a pure mage and I can't seem to figure out how to avoid having everyone and their sister bum rush my character. I took the taunt ability in Sentinel for Barik's first skill but it doesn't seem to do anything, or at least it's not very effective.

Same. Just grab a few root/knockdown spells and pray. Taunt is actually an AOE, but it doesn't seem like it initially, and Seasoned Veteran I & II seem to basically just prevent an enemy from disengaging from Barik, but it doesn't seem like much else.

 

[Shaldome]

Got it yesterday as an impulse buy. Actually wanted to wait a bit, as I still have a few games I have to take care of. But the self induced hype for it got me and as it is not that long play through wise, I bought it an hour before release. Will be playing over the week end, staring after work is over.

Normally I am more the rogue style stabby stabby character, but for some reasons on my first play through I nearly always play I fighter.