Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire

So, I've recently started playing this Baldur's-Gate-for-pirates game, and although it's decent, something bothers me.

There's something about the aesthetic.

In a pirate game, with tricorner hats, the ships with decks full of cannons, the melee fighters are still, well, medieval paladins-in-plate-armour. I'd have liked to have seen something different there, instead of taking standard medieval DnD and sticking it onto a pirate ship in the tropics. Classes based more on a high seas adventure setting, as opposed to traditional medieval fantasy.

That, and the cultures, are hard to pin down. The races don't really differ culturally, making their inclusion pointless. The nations, while interesting, don't really stand out. The confusing mishmash of realworld cultures (Hawaiian and Pacific Islander seems common?), and the roles they take on, makes it hard to work out who is who.

That being said, I very much enjoy the voice acting, which is well-done, and very complete. The Gods are interesting characters.

Any thoughts? Or suggestions on mods to make it less King-Arthur-on-a-boat?

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Originally Posted by bluntpencil

So, I've recently started playing this Baldur's-Gate-for-pirates game, and although it's decent, something bothers me.

There's something about the aesthetic.

In a pirate game, with tricorner hats, the ships with decks full of cannons, the melee fighters are still, well, medieval paladins-in-plate-armour. I'd have liked to have seen something different there, instead of taking standard medieval DnD and sticking it onto a pirate ship in the tropics. Classes based more on a high seas adventure setting, as opposed to traditional medieval fantasy.

That, and the cultures, are hard to pin down. The races don't really differ culturally, making their inclusion pointless. The nations, while interesting, don't really stand out. The confusing mishmash of realworld cultures (Hawaiian and Pacific Islander seems common?), and the roles they take on, makes it hard to work out who is who.

That being said, I very much enjoy the voice acting, which is well-done, and very complete. The Gods are interesting characters.

Any thoughts? Or suggestions on mods to make it less King-Arthur-on-a-boat?

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Well, remember it is a direct sequel (to the point of having half the returning cast) to the game set in the more medieval-fantasy-lands of Dyrwood, so it's more like "the second half of the adventure path is set in Pathfinder's Golarion's The Shackles" than "Pirates of the Caribbean: the RPG."



I haven't gotten around to making a second stab at a playthrough since not long after release, myself, so I can't speak to much more than that to your complaints of culture.



But personally, as someone who really is not a fan of the whole "pirate" thing at the best of times, I much prefer it to be the way it is.

@bluntpencil- I agree with you wholeheartedly. I very much enjoyed my time with the game while it was fresh, but lots of little things added up until I couldn't ignore it anymore.

At the risk of sounding bitter and/or nostalgic, the "magic" seems to be missing. I adored the Tikawara/Poko Kahara sections, but the game seemed to be lacking a lot of its charm, compared to Pillars 1 at least. The item descriptions were flat, the NPCs were cardboard, the writing was overwrought... I don't know. Maybe I've been spoiled by previous works like Planescape or Baldur's Gate. The game was just... okay.

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Originally Posted by NRSASD

@bluntpencil- I agree with you wholeheartedly. I very much enjoyed my time with the game while it was fresh, but lots of little things added up until I couldn't ignore it anymore.

At the risk of sounding bitter and/or nostalgic, the "magic" seems to be missing. I adored the Tikawara/Poko Kahara sections, but the game seemed to be lacking a lot of its charm, compared to Pillars 1 at least. The item descriptions were flat, the NPCs were cardboard, the writing was overwrought... I don't know. Maybe I've been spoiled by previous works like Planescape or Baldur's Gate. The game was just... okay.

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Yeah, this is true.

The whole fish out of water thing isn't really addressed, either. You could be a wizard, or paladin, used to running around in plate armour, and that... is the standard. Plate armour everywhere, instead of saying 'be careful, you might fall in the water wearing that' or, you know, classes suited to a high seas setting.

Instead of the choices between heavy and light armour, maybe defensive and aggressive fencing styles, maybe flamboyant and practical styles, power vs finesse etc etc.

The original game inherited D&D classes, which I believe was because Obsidian was relying on D&D fans and grognards nostalgic for Baldur's Gate to make it happen. It worked well enough in the first game, but in the second one there is a bit of a clash.

They have a turn based mode now which makes the game way better IMO. Rral time with pause always felt so stilted in that I paused way much since everything was so fast. Turn based is fantastic as an alternative (there may be some balance issues though)

It's worth remembering that although the game uses D&D classes there's quite a lot of wiggle room within the classes to make them feel like they fit. You can be a Paladin in light armour focused on offense and action speed and that's a perfectly appropriate way of playing.

Also most designs look appropriate to a conquistador style period, certainly armour up to breastplates do.

To everyone playing, I'd suggest using the bar on the bottom and turning the combat speed to half speed all the time. Really helps getting a hold of the combat, even while using the pause regularly. Watching them run at full speed often translates to casters doing regular attacks %80 of the time, which means they could as well be stunned/paralyzed/debuffed but you just don't care.

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Originally Posted by Cespenar

To everyone playing, I'd suggest using the bar on the bottom and turning the combat speed to half speed all the time. Really helps getting a hold of the combat, even while using the pause regularly. Watching them run at full speed often translates to casters doing regular attacks %80 of the time, which means they could as well be stunned/paralyzed/debuffed but you just don't care.

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Yeah, I definitely agree with that. I do the same on PoE1 and Tyranny.

I'll have to try that. Currently playing pillars 1, and I gave Aloth the soulbound wand you get from being lord of Caed Nua. I leave him on auto attack a lot because he's got a 10% chance of dominating on hits and crits, and that's enough for like 2 or three triggers a fight.

I need to replay this game with the turn-based option on. I like the story, characters and everything, but RTwP is possibly my least favorite gameplay mode ever.

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Originally Posted by Chen

They have a turn based mode now which makes the game way better IMO. Rral time with pause always felt so stilted in that I paused way much since everything was so fast. Turn based is fantastic as an alternative (there may be some balance issues though)

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The balance issues in turn-based mode mostly concern action economy. Action speed becomes initiative, which only determines who goes first and is much less important than action speed. Also, weapon attacks have a much larger graze window and smaller miss window, so deflection feels less valuable.