TychoCelchuuu

Project Eternity, Obsidian's Isometric Fantasy RPG

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Only had enough time to make it to the first town with the tree last night. Setting is pretty interesting so far. What kind of characters are you all running? I made a nature godlike ranger with a bear summon. Need to recruit some wizards and a rogue asap.

 

I'm running an elven paladin dude, a Shieldbearer of St. Someone. I'm enjoying myself, especially after I abandoned the sword-and-board for a two-hander, but I'm also really having trouble figuring out what makes a paladin not just a shitty fighter. The auras are nice and apparently my character gets stronger based on roleplaying according to my order's characteristics, but all of that's hard to see in action thus far.

 

I'll tell you, the game immediately stops feeling so ridiculously uneven once you get your second companion. I have four companions right now and it's smooth going with actual tactics. It just makes me wonder at how smart Baldur's Gate II is to start you with a near-full party right at the outset of the game.

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I'm running an elven paladin dude, a Shieldbearer of St. Someone. I'm enjoying myself, especially after I abandoned the sword-and-board for a two-hander, but I'm also really having trouble figuring out what makes a paladin not just a shitty fighter. The auras are nice and apparently my character gets stronger based on roleplaying according to my order's characteristics, but all of that's hard to see in action thus far.

 

I'll tell you, the game immediately stops feeling so ridiculously uneven once you get your second companion. I have four companions right now and it's smooth going with actual tactics. It just makes me wonder at how smart Baldur's Gate II is to start you with a near-full party right at the outset of the game.

 

From what I've learned, the classes are basically divided into two camps:

 

  • Barbarian, Druid, Fighter, Ranger
  • Chanter, Cipher, Monk, Paladin, Priest, Wizard

And Rogue falls somewhere in the middle. The first group, generally starts out just as capable as they'll ever be, and they'll slowly grow to keep up with enemies as they go.

 

The second group however, scales up very, very fast. A Wizard at level 1 isn't very far from worthless. A Monk is a fighter who can't hold their own. Etc. But by level 4, my Monk is a high damage machine who can put up with near anything, and is nearly as accurate with his fists as anyone else is with just one weapon- while still hitting as often as a dual wielder. Oh, and she can debuff the Might of a whole group by 20% if I angle her right.

 

On the other hand, my Wizard(when he isn't getting his ass handed to him- I need to pick up that Paladin NPC) is a beast. He'll set alight the whole room, then take one look at the boss, and in 3 casts do 100 damage to him- by himself. It's pretty neato.

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Another thing to note is that the rogue is more a sneaky damage dealers than a thief... anybody can can sneak and pick locks, but only rogues can backstab by the looks of it.

I didn't twig that my Monk was "duel wielding" punching, despite such obvious clues as having two sets of damage stats and performing the long range attack thing twice. Sometimes I am an idiot :D.

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I like how this game allows you to have your cake and eat it too regarding companions. I'm not a big fan of the Icewind Dale approach of having to create a whole party, but it's really nice to be able to hire customized adventurers if you want to try out a gimmick build.

For example, I'm planning on hiring an Island Aumaua rogue and filling all her weapon slots with arquebuses, so when combat begins, she can cycle through and fire them off in quick succession before needing to reload.

 

Another nice thing is that having two characters with the same class is not necessarily redundant, in fact it can be very useful. I really like having two rogues in my party, because double sneak attack cuts through an enemy's health like butter.

 

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I'm only a few hours in, but I'm blown away by the job they did here. They built a really interesting set of RPG mechanics from scratch, made a better version of the Infinity Engine in Unity, and at least so far it's in service of an interesting narrative with unique characters. I was not expecting anything near this from the little bit I've followed the project since its crowdfunding campaign.

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the difficulty is all over the place. I started on normal, but turned to easy to get past the temple. I even got killed fighting of some boars on normal. Turned to easy, and I still encounter battles which I barely survive after a few tries.

It really feels like you you encounter areas you're not supposed to enter until a later stage.

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Things you really should know:

 

1. Hover over any ability and press an unbound key on your keyboard to bind that ability to the key.

 

2. There is a bug if you double click any gear to equip it to characters, it'll wipe out your passive effects somehow. For everyone that isn't your character, dismissing them then recruiting them again fixes it for them.

 

3. This is the Citizen Kane 2 of video games.

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Nine hours in and I still haven't skipped any text, barring reloads. That's really something, because even in a well-written game like Sunless Sea I still compulsively skip ahead past sections that seem long or full of filler. Other little things I like:

  • Finding an enemy wizard's grimoire and pillaging it for spells feels great. It kind of sucks that scrolls don't really serve that purpose anymore, but it's awesome to kill someone and take the things they were using to fight you for your own.
  • It's awesome that spells now have an inner and outer radius, it's a very natural development.
  • Like Jutranjo said, the two health systems is also very natural and solves a lot of weird and gamey player behaviors. I'm not sure about having a fatigue system on top of that, especially because I can't find the stats dictating it, but maybe my opinion will change.

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the difficulty is all over the place. I started on normal, but turned to easy to get past the temple. I even got killed fighting of some boars on normal. Turned to easy, and I still encounter battles which I barely survive after a few tries.

It really feels like you you encounter areas you're not supposed to enter until a later stage.

 

This definitely is the case, but it's because everything is hard-coded in terms of levels. So some content will just be plain easy, and for other stuff you're pushing your luck.

 

Then, other stuff is just so ridiculously hard at any level that it's a struggle. It's pretty cool.

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Nine hours in and I still haven't skipped any text, barring reloads. That's really something, because even in a well-written game like Sunless Sea I still compulsively skip ahead past sections that seem long or full of filler. Other little things I like:

  • Finding an enemy wizard's grimoire and pillaging it for spells feels great. It kind of sucks that scrolls don't really serve that purpose anymore, but it's awesome to kill someone and take the things they were using to fight you for your own.
  • It's awesome that spells now have an inner and outer radius, it's a very natural development.
  • Like Jutranjo said, the two health systems is also very natural and solves a lot of weird and gamey player behaviors. I'm not sure about having a fatigue system on top of that, especially because I can't find the stats dictating it, but maybe my opinion will change.

 

I think only the Athletics skill governs fatigue. Consistently the members of the group that are the least athletic get tired first. Eder never tires. I'm putting 2-3 points into it when I can afford to so they need less sleep. Some fatiguing sections also only tire the fat slob that is our chanter shark man.

 

I gave almost everyone guns! It's great.

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One part of the main quest I stumbled across while exploring makes it considerably more difficult if you're a certain race, thanks to restrictions. I would have thought that the devs would have written it so perhaps you could send someone else instead, but no joy :-(.

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One part of the main quest I stumbled across while exploring makes it considerably more difficult if you're a certain race, thanks to restrictions. I would have thought that the devs would have written it so perhaps you could send someone else instead, but no joy :-(.

 

Don't put it on. Leave it in your inventory.

 

I had the same issue. Just leave it in your inventory and you'll see.

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I made an error. I overlooked pretty much the first main plot quest action (the dead woman), which prevented me from doing all sorts of things which made the game much easier. So I'm back to 'normal' now.

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Are you trying to disguise a giant flaming head?

A glowing blue and purple one actually :)!

Don't put it on. Leave it in your inventory.

 

I had the same issue. Just leave it in your inventory and you'll see.

Thanks!

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I'm really digging the stronghold gameplay, there is something really satisfying about slowly upgrading something like that. Does anyone know how deep it goes? It mentions sending out adventures on quests and recruiting security details.

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Nine hours in and I still haven't skipped any text, barring reloads. That's really something, because even in a well-written game like Sunless Sea I still compulsively skip ahead past sections that seem long or full of filler. Other little things I like:

  • Finding an enemy wizard's grimoire and pillaging it for spells feels great. It kind of sucks that scrolls don't really serve that purpose anymore, but it's awesome to kill someone and take the things they were using to fight you for your own.
  • It's awesome that spells now have an inner and outer radius, it's a very natural development.
  • Like Jutranjo said, the two health systems is also very natural and solves a lot of weird and gamey player behaviors. I'm not sure about having a fatigue system on top of that, especially because I can't find the stats dictating it, but maybe my opinion will change.

Totally agree with everything you said, this game feels true to the old infinity engine games, but also expands and iterates in awesome ways. I think the writing and voice acting have all been pretty awesome so far, and I actually like the text based "events" that have you making choices that reflect party skill. 

 

I think the sleep system actually feels more like DnD, you should be able to survive a few big scrapes in a single day unless something bad happens. I hated the fight, rest, repeat in the old games. 

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I'm really digging the stronghold gameplay, there is something really satisfying about slowly upgrading something like that. Does anyone know how deep it goes? It mentions sending out adventures on quests and recruiting security details.

 

Stronghold has 3 different schedules it sticks to, as far as I can tell. One is actual game time, for upgrade construction. The 2nd is any quests or tasks, maybe main quest too, those are called turns (maybe?). And main quest gated things, not linked thematically though.

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Sounds like everyone is way ahead of me. I rolled a Rogue with the intent of playing the game very slowly and methodically on hard mode. The basic idea was to scout ahead, apply the appropriate buffs, and start every fight with a back stab. Well, you can't buff before combat starts, so that's cut; there's a disengagement penalty if you try and run away from an enemy, and I stupidly did not take the talent that would let me break away, so no back stabs for me yet; finally, the game is so difficult that I'm rarely ever going to win a fight in my first attempt, and even if I do I'll probably reload because I think I can do it better.

 

I got stuck in a frustrating situation. I discovered that there was no way to progress unless I made some more adventurers. I didn't want to make them just yet because they start one level below your PC, and my PC was about to level up. They would effectively be two levels below my PC. So I tried to get those last 45 experience points. Problem was, there was nothing I could kill without more people in my party. How did I get out of this ridiculous loop? I went to sleep and had a dream that gave me a ton of XP. 

 

I just temporarily rage quit because of this: there's a group of bandits standing around, with green circles, not red ones. I can tell that they can't be reasoned with so I sneak attack them. Well, turns out these bandits also have the sneak attack ability, and so in the first two seconds of combat my PC is instantly killed. How the fuck do you perform a sneak attack if you're the one getting ambushed? 

 

I took the game down to normal difficulty and it is a lot more manageable now. I really like unlimited inventory and weight allowance, per-encounter abilities, slow and fast modes, HP being split into endurance and health, and the fact that any character can seemingly equip anything. I think they might have solved all the niggles I had with the Infinity Engine games, which are some of my game of the forever's. 

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there's a disengagement penalty if you try and run away from an enemy, and I stupidly did not take the talent that would let me break away, so no back stabs for me yet

 

You can backstab with ranged in case you didn't already know that. No need to disengage if you're not in engagement range.

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You can backstab with ranged in case you didn't already know that. No need to disengage if you're not in engagement range.

 

Yes, you're right, as long as I'm within two meters of the target I believe. It's just that... you know, it's a back STAB, not a back shot. I have to play these games to my own role-playing rule book, that's what makes them fun to me. The fun of the game mainly exists in the fantasy that I imagine as I play it. Maybe ranged back stabs are a thing in this game but in my brain it doesn't make any sense, unless I get a gun later I suppose. To me a back stab is slitting a guy's throat, or sticking a dagger between his ribs to reach his heart, or slicing a tendon in his leg, not getting really really close only to shoot a ranged weapon.

 

Sorry to just bitch and moan (I really like this game, I swear!) but does anyone else feel weird about hiring adventurers? I would much rather there be more joinable NPCs. I guess that's a really expensive thing to develop, ever since BG2 raised the bar for what a joinable NPC is in a CRPG (tons of voiced dialogue, a lengthy side-quest, interactions with other NPCs, unique abilities etc.). Maybe the game should just be possible to play with your PC and Aloth at the beginning? Or maybe I'm just spending way too much time in the starting area, because it sounds like everyone else has met other NPCs, whereas I haven't.

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Or maybe I'm just spending way too much time in the starting area, because it sounds like everyone else has met other NPCs, whereas I haven't.

 

Ha, I have run ahead and bumped into a new NPC who joined my party.  He said, "let's check out this dangerous area!"  Instead, I took him back to the first town and am trying to complete the quest I completely avoided until now.

 

I'm having a lot of trouble wrapping my head around how this game works.  Most of my battles take place hidden by trees or walls, so I just watch my character portraits go red and that's it.

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Sorry to just bitch and moan (I really like this game, I swear!) but does anyone else feel weird about hiring adventurers?

 

I don't know that I "feel weird" about it, but I am committed to getting through without doing it? There's a fighter available in the same map as Aloth, that's all I've got so far.

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Ha, I have run ahead and bumped into a new NPC who joined my party.  He said, "let's check out this dangerous area!"  Instead, I took him back to the first town and am trying to complete the quest I completely avoided until now.

 

I'm having a lot of trouble wrapping my head around how this game works.  Most of my battles take place hidden by trees or walls, so I just watch my character portraits go red and that's it.

 

Part of the problem for me is that each encounter can be swayed one way or another by the first few die rolls. If a couple of enemies are successful in doing their abilities and you fail yours then it's totally over. On hard mode I kept dying to a couple of wolves because they were able to knock me down right off the bat. In another area there was a child-sized monster with a spear that paralyzed me for seven seconds at the beginning of each fight. This guy was hanging out at the very beginning of an area so it was not possible to avoid him.

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