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Pillars of Eternity Beta - Torment: Tides of the Beetles
- Thread starter Labadal
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I'm planning to go for Hard. Maybe I'll regret it, but I'd regret settling for less even more
Yeah I was planning on this too... Is there no way to adjust once the game has started? Didn't the ie games have a slider?
My memory swears that Neverwinter Nights was the first, as a big deal was made by previews/reviews out of the fact you could change difficulty on the fly, which was mostly unheard of all the way back in 2002.
Normal. I don't care about being challenged combat wise in games, but I also don't want to steamroll everything unless the combat is intolerable.
Buggy Loop
Gold Member
Im so playing this when i finish exams. So much BGII nostalgia. I'll make a monk for sure, beating shit up with your fists, nothing better than that.
There's definitely a slider on the backer beta that you can change on the fly. You need to load a new area for the new difficulty to take effect though.
I'm going to play on Normal without any Ironman/PathoftheScrewed/OwnedSoHard setting turned on. I want to enjoy a large long role playing adventure with delicious narrative options, cool combat options, and great backgrounds without getting destroyed every few rooms. I also suck at managing RtwP combat without AI scripting options, and I hate pausing every 5 seconds. So yeah, I think normal will be enough for me!
I'm really digging what Obsidian's up to with this game. It takes a lot of balls to build a new gameplay system for what is in many ways a purposeful throwback of a game. A lot of the old IE games had a load of junk core gameplay and I gotta give props to them for trying to create a better system.
I love everything about Sawyer. Honest Hearts was the best New Vegas DLC. I love his cold, dessicated, fun-hating heart.
From what people have been saying on Something Awful, hard offers the best initial difficulty balance. All those different character build options are no fun if you can steamroll most of the game!
I love everything about Sawyer. Honest Hearts was the best New Vegas DLC. I love his cold, dessicated, fun-hating heart.
I'm planning to go for Hard. Maybe I'll regret it, but I'd regret settling for less even more
From what people have been saying on Something Awful, hard offers the best initial difficulty balance. All those different character build options are no fun if you can steamroll most of the game!
Rad thanks for the info
I'll be playing on Hard. I played around a bit in the backer beta and it seems like a good choice. I generally find difficulty too easy, even on harder settings. I think I'll also end up turning off some the helper functions Expert mode disables, but leave Expert mode off so that I can pick and choose myself.
I'll be interested in Trial of Iron on successive playthroughs, and once the game is a little more bug-free. I might try Path of the Damned at some point, but the "throw every set of monsters from every difficulty in" kind of breaks encounter design, but I suppose that's the point of it.
I'll be interested in Trial of Iron on successive playthroughs, and once the game is a little more bug-free. I might try Path of the Damned at some point, but the "throw every set of monsters from every difficulty in" kind of breaks encounter design, but I suppose that's the point of it.
Dandy Lyin
Member
I'm going to start with Normal and see how it goes.
terrisus
Member
Sorry if it's mentioned somewhere (it probably is):
1) I assume we're keeping this thread free of any game details beyond character creation and systems functioning since it might be considered a spoiler?
2) How about screenshots taken from the beta? What's the situation on those?
1) I assume we're keeping this thread free of any game details beyond character creation and systems functioning since it might be considered a spoiler?
2) How about screenshots taken from the beta? What's the situation on those?
Pretty much right there with you lol.
All except for Path of the Damned, which I believe gives enemies a 50% boost in stats, and the packs consist of every one from the other difficulties. Like I said earlier, it breaks encounter design, but I suppose that's the point of it.
this dude posted some BB vids on path of the damned. looks appropriately brutal but do-able.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ktnVg4dFD0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFwtnr0uoFE
half his party gets perma-killed by traps at the end of the first vid which is hilarious.
Havent decided on difficulty yet but im thinking hard. Gonna record a playthrough of the latest beta on the hardest difficulty to help me determime.
Will share in case anyone is interested.
Also anyone manage to get nvidia down sampling working with this game? I get the option for the higher rez in game but it doesn look like it actually changed.
Will share in case anyone is interested.
Also anyone manage to get nvidia down sampling working with this game? I get the option for the higher rez in game but it doesn look like it actually changed.
I regularly fall out of gaming for years at a time and unfortunately missed all of those. By the time I got back into it, I never got a chance to go back and try those.
I definitely agree. I just didn't know if the game was more dialogue trees like Dragon Age which I lasted all of an hour on or something like Divinity Original Sin where I heard everything is buried in dialogue so if you miss something you quickly become lost on what to do or where to go.
I just have an itch for a good party based RPG or ARPG similar to the old Dungeon Siege 1 and 2.
terrisus
Member
You should definitely try Icewind Dale 1 and 2.
They're both excellent games, and both seem to fit what you're looking for.
Anyone know what the status of the music is in this game? Almost every video i see of the beta the locations are near-silent and it seems really absent of music. But there are still occasional uses of music which worry me cause it makes me think they are intentionally leaving the areas quiet. Or are they just withholding most of the music from the beta?
I'll pay more attention wiht my playthrough tonight, but I recall there being a lot of ambient music. It's can sometimes be very quiet and subtle, but I definitely noticed it and enjoyed it. The battle music is epic.
LurkerPrime
Member
This is excellent news. Truly the best way to handle difficulty.
They might be following in BG's footsteps there too, where the game was mostly quiet.
hard difficulty, I'd describe myself as a somewhat experienced RPG player and real-time with pause makes combat much more bearable for me than turn-based
e: the expert mode sounds great
KuroPyonyo
Banned
Adding to that I read that they added a lot of patrolling enemys which can mess you up if you dont pay attention.
So I'll be definitly playing on hard.
decoyplatypus
Member
I think I'll try hard mode. I'm bad at managing the chaos of RTwP, but the fun of RPGs with tons of abilities is in facing challenges that force you to come up with creative applications of those abilities. I wouldn't want to deny myself that experience. Probably no extra options for me, though. Permadeath will have to wait for a second playthrough.
Normal difficulty for me. I tend to play normal difficulty for 99.9 percent of games I play, so not too surprising. I'll echo what someone said earlier in that I don't really play these games for the inherent challenge, but at the same time don't like it being too easy in that it makes everything seem trivial.
That was one complaint I had for New Vegas, albeit not a huge one. I think taking out the skill altogether and focusing on the rest of the skills to provide speech checks is a solid improvement. It sounds like addition by subtraction, now your dialog options will be more centered around the character you specialize in, whereas with NV you always had enough points to make a 100 speech character regardless the rest of your build.
Waiting for POE made me download and install BG1 + 2 again tonight. I'm following a guide to get through it pretty efficiently, and it suggested I try something new (to me at least): gather up all 6 of your party members right away. Like, immediately after gaining control of the PC + Imoen. The logic being you want to have everyone right from level 1, to guide their progression.
I know this isn't exactly "news" to BG veterans (I've only played through the entire thing once, and snippets of it ~3), but trying this out really illustrated for me how wide-open the game is. It's incredibly impressive, and empowering. And it feels really special.
I headed straight south, straight into the Gnoll Compound, and stealth-rescued Dynaheir under the cover of night. It's kind of ridiculous that that's the first thing you can do, after the tutorial. And it's such a perfect example of real gameplay and confident game design. Let people wander into the corner of the map and see what they can find! Why not? It's a shame that even "open world" games these days don't truly let you step beyond the velvet rope like this, these days.
It might be hoping too much, but I hope POE recaptures some of this feeling.
I know this isn't exactly "news" to BG veterans (I've only played through the entire thing once, and snippets of it ~3), but trying this out really illustrated for me how wide-open the game is. It's incredibly impressive, and empowering. And it feels really special.
I headed straight south, straight into the Gnoll Compound, and stealth-rescued Dynaheir under the cover of night. It's kind of ridiculous that that's the first thing you can do, after the tutorial. And it's such a perfect example of real gameplay and confident game design. Let people wander into the corner of the map and see what they can find! Why not? It's a shame that even "open world" games these days don't truly let you step beyond the velvet rope like this, these days.
It might be hoping too much, but I hope POE recaptures some of this feeling.
Didn't they say that it was going to be somewhere in between BG1 and BG2, both in terms of structure of and size?
Between BG1 and BG2 is the goal for many of their things.
btw here's another build video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hs_0NV-x-2M
btw here's another build video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hs_0NV-x-2M
AntiFacebook
Member
I don't think it will make much of a difference for me,since i plan to avoid combat as much as possible(until there's finally a game that lets you do that,i'm not gonna miss the opportunity).
Chance Hale
Member
I recently puchased the Age of Decedence and did a nearly complete playthrough (3rd act is unfinished) without ever entering combat although there were many places where it could happen. Of course that game is meant to be replayed many times and has a short ~5 hour play time to compensate.
First time I've ever heard of Age of Decadence, it looks like it's in the same vein as this game, should I give it a go as a way to kill time till PoE?
Age of Decadence is probably a good option for you then like ricochetguro said. As for PoE that's not going to be an option a lot of the time from what I've gathered. Combat is a main facet of the game, there will certainly be a lot of non-combat paths for quests and alternative routes to avoid as many enemies as possible, but you'll still be taking part in a good amount of mass slaughter over the course of the game. Whether it's just creatures and unsavory types out in the wilds, to occasional forced encounters.
Especially with the dialogue options/systems they have available, it doesn't look like the optimal path is always so clear with the choices available to you. As well I don't know how the reputation/personality system will play into things. The Benevolent/Honest route might work out much of the time, but with some rough characters that might not blow over so well with them.
Snapshot King
Member
I rolled a Druid last night and tried to test it against those three NPCs that the guy uses for his class videos, and got killed instantly. =\
Ouch! Was the Druid level 5?
Lostconfused
Member
So what is the optimal melee build. So far it's kind of hard to tell, dumping all of the stat points into something like STR/CON that would be purely combat focused does not seem to make it actually any easier.
Snapshot King
Member
Yeah? I'm worried that I may be total shit at Eternity.
loganclaws
Plane Escape Torment
Can I watch someone play this tonight using steam broadcasting please?
Snapshot King
Member
What are Druids supposed to be doing? They look like off-brand priests with the ability to pop a shapeshift when people get past your fighters and close you in melee range.
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