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[Tyranny] Obsidian's Brush with Evil

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Posts

  • korodullinkorodullin What. SCRegistered User regular
    Picked this up today a couple hours before it launched and snagged the pre-order.

    I immediately enjoy this more than Pillars.

    I went with a Diplomat Entropy mage, and my thoughts so far, in random scattershot format:

    The lack of hard-coded classes and the inclusion of skills that level on use are a large improvement, in my mind, over the more traditional D&D-style setup Pillars had. Stats don't seem to need to be min-maxed (or else you become a muddle of useless dead weight) as much as they needed to be in PoE.

    The spell creation is really cool, and I'm immensely thankful that Obsidian went with a purely cooldown-based system for spellcasting instead of a Vancian system of memorization and spell charges.

    Four party members is leagues more manageable than six in PoE, and due to the aforementioned spell changes, I don't really fear leaving spellcasters on AI mode now, lest they blow precious spell charges on complete naff.

    The dual combos are a fun addition and are powerful enough to turn the tide of a fight, but can be used often enough that you don't feel compelled to hoard them for a boss fight.

    Having actual straight-up healing of HP as opposed to this weird half-assed Endurance/Health dual system (that's worked in Darklands and virtually nowhere else) is a godsend. Having only to rest for Wounds is great (is there exhaustion for going too long without sleep?), and makes camping materials something you only need to use when you do poorly, rather than as a matter of replenishing very limited resources.

    As for the story:

    The world-building is more compelling to me than in Pillars, despite the obviously lower amount of time dedicated to it. You're not inundated with a ton of pseudo-Gaelic nonsense, presented with a host of gods to constantly remember, and it's just more straightforward and refreshing. I'm also really liking the cast so far.

    I'm eager to get more done in it.

    ZvOMJnu.png
    - The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
  • WotanAnubisWotanAnubis Registered User regular
    i can't stop thinking

    "how does he poop or eat?"

    Did you ask him? Because you can ask him.

  • vamenvamen Registered User regular
    Does anyone else instantly think 'General Grievous" when they see Barik's portrait?

  • SpawnbrokerSpawnbroker Registered User regular
    edited November 2016
    I think the absolute coolest thing to me so far is whenever The Voices of Nerat has a conversation near you, he talks to you with mind-speak using the green flavor text.

    Spawnbroker on
    Steam: Spawnbroker
  • WotanAnubisWotanAnubis Registered User regular
    So about those two factions.

    No real spoilers, except that this close to release everything is spoilers.
    The Disfavored are efficient professionals. The Chorus is a howling mob.

    The Disfavored prefer killing quickly. The Chorus enjoys quite a bit of torture.

    And yet... I find myself siding with the Chorus more than the Disfavored. At least the Chorus sometimes knows what mercy is. And aren't a bunch of racists.

  • ED!ED! Registered User regular
    Yea, this game is great. I had to take a sleeping pill yesterday to FORCE myself down for the day so that I wouldn't waste Veterans day (waste it by not gaming I mean).

    "Get the hell out of me" - [ex]girlfriend
  • SpawnbrokerSpawnbroker Registered User regular
    Yeah this game is full of weird ethical questions you end up having to ask yourself, like...do I kill everyone, or make them all slaves? Is slavery better than death? At least with the slavery, they can have some weird semblance of a life...

    It's super fucked up and interesting at the same time.

    Steam: Spawnbroker
  • rockrngerrockrnger Registered User regular
    Yeah this game is full of weird ethical questions you end up having to ask yourself, like...do I kill everyone, or make them all slaves? Is slavery better than death? At least with the slavery, they can have some weird semblance of a life...

    It's super fucked up and interesting at the same time.

    Is it ethical to have a crush on verse?
    False

  • ReddayeReddaye Registered User regular
    Yeah this game is full of weird ethical questions you end up having to ask yourself, like...do I kill everyone, or make them all slaves? Is slavery better than death? At least with the slavery, they can have some weird semblance of a life...

    It's super fucked up and interesting at the same time.

    But is a life without freedom truly a life at all...?

    *cue intellectual pipe puffing*


    In all seriousness, I'm downloading this now. Was going to hold off, but I enjoy the setting and themes too much to wait on this one.

  • P10P10 An Idiot With Low IQ Registered User regular
    edited November 2016
    Yeah this game is full of weird ethical questions you end up having to ask yourself, like...do I kill everyone, or make them all slaves? Is slavery better than death? At least with the slavery, they can have some weird semblance of a life...

    It's super fucked up and interesting at the same time.
    not sure exactly what this is referring to, so to speak on the topic generally
    in the context of chorus vs disfavored, the chorus talk a good talk about offering mercy but their mercy is hardly a mercy. the culling is truly cruel and then you get forced into the chorus (or potentially mind-controlled into it) where you will probably die in your first battle. if you have the misfortune of knowing any information Nerat desires, you get your mind eaten and are consigned to being one of the Voices

    i've leaned towards the disfavored thus far since they seem to avoid wanton cruelty. and while they often advocate showing no mercy to their enemies (or perceived enemies), they still come across as the lesser of two evils given that the chorus doesn't really show mercy either.

    thus far my current playthrough really makes me want to try a playthrough where i try to minimize collateral damage as much as possible. ; _ ; i just want to be a peacenik goodie two-shoes. . .

    P10 on
    Shameful pursuits and utterly stupid opinions
  • SpawnbrokerSpawnbroker Registered User regular
    P10 wrote: »
    Yeah this game is full of weird ethical questions you end up having to ask yourself, like...do I kill everyone, or make them all slaves? Is slavery better than death? At least with the slavery, they can have some weird semblance of a life...

    It's super fucked up and interesting at the same time.
    not sure exactly what this is referring to, so to speak on the topic generally
    in the context of chorus vs disfavored, the chorus talk a good talk about offering mercy but their mercy is hardly a mercy. the culling is truly cruel and then you get forced into the chorus (or potentially mind-controlled into it) where you will probably die in your first battle. if you have the misfortune of knowing any information Nerat desires, you get your mind eaten and are consigned to being one of the Voices

    i've leaned towards the disfavored thus far since they seem to avoid wanton cruelty. and while they often advocate showing no mercy to their enemies (or perceived enemies), they still come across as the lesser of two evils given that the chorus doesn't really show mercy either.

    thus far my current playthrough really makes me want to try a playthrough where i try to minimize collateral damage as much as possible. ; _ ; i just want to be a peacenik goodie two-shoes. . .

    No spoilers, but the Disfavored are just as fucked up as the Chorus, just in completely different ways. You will not minimize collateral damage by being nice to the Disfavored, in fact I think it would be really hard to do that in this game. There do seem to be special options that piss both sides off that minimize damage, but I'm not far enough in to the game to see if those would have any repercussions.

    Steam: Spawnbroker
  • AstharielAsthariel The Book Eater Registered User regular
    How good is potential for roleplaying in this game? Are dialogues good?

  • FreiFrei A French Prometheus Unbound DeadwoodRegistered User regular
    Man I'm glad Edicts don't exist in our universe cause people would be using them all the time. Or maybe they'd be like nukes and act as a detterent.

    anyway I've given up on being eloquent or informative when I talk about games here but I just want to say this game is baller as FUCK. I love the class and spell design, the combat, everything. If it doesn't take a weird nosedive it'll end up better than PoE, which is high praise from me. I love the concept of the game, I love how you can pit these bastards against one another and just have machination upon machination going.

    Are you the magic man?
  • AegisAegis Fear My Dance Overshot Toronto, Landed in OttawaRegistered User regular
    Frei wrote: »
    Man I'm glad Edicts don't exist in our universe cause people would be using them all the time. Or maybe they'd be like nukes and act as a detterent.

    I predict they'd get more down to earth: "You WILL finish your vegetables before you leave this table."

    We'll see how long this blog lasts
    Currently DMing: None :(
    Characters
    [5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
  • rockrngerrockrnger Registered User regular
    Frei wrote: »
    Man I'm glad Edicts don't exist in our universe cause people would be using them all the time. Or maybe they'd be like nukes and act as a detterent.

    anyway I've given up on being eloquent or informative when I talk about games here but I just want to say this game is baller as FUCK. I love the class and spell design, the combat, everything. If it doesn't take a weird nosedive it'll end up better than PoE, which is high praise from me. I love the concept of the game, I love how you can pit these bastards against one another and just have machination upon machination going.

    Look up the sequester.

    I wonder if that was the inspiration actually.

  • CoinageCoinage Heaviside LayerRegistered User regular
    Whenever someone finishes I would appreciate your non-spoiler thoughts on the ending: I've heard it's really bad and I don't want to play the game if it's just going to make me mad.

  • AxenAxen My avatar is Excalibur. Yes, the sword.Registered User regular
    Coinage wrote: »
    Whenever someone finishes I would appreciate your non-spoiler thoughts on the ending: I've heard it's really bad and I don't want to play the game if it's just going to make me mad.

    Well there are many endings. Some probably do suck.

    A Capellan's favorite sheath for any blade is your back.
  • AspectVoidAspectVoid Registered User regular
    Coinage wrote: »
    Whenever someone finishes I would appreciate your non-spoiler thoughts on the ending: I've heard it's really bad and I don't want to play the game if it's just going to make me mad.

    What makes you mad about an ending? Creative stuff like that is really subjective, so one person can think its bad while another thinks its awesome.

    PSN|AspectVoid
  • korodullinkorodullin What. SCRegistered User regular
    Just finished Act 1, siding with
    the Disfavored.

    I have to say, that third option of [BETRAY ALLIANCE] was mighty tempting.

    This game is going to have me doing multiple playthroughs.

    ZvOMJnu.png
    - The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
  • ED!ED! Registered User regular
    I REALLY hope they patch combat or something. I need some kind of fucking feedback to know my skills are being queued or something. . .

    "Get the hell out of me" - [ex]girlfriend
  • AspectVoidAspectVoid Registered User regular
    edited November 2016
    ED! wrote: »
    I REALLY hope they patch combat or something. I need some kind of fucking feedback to know my skills are being queued or something. . .

    If you look above your character's head (not the portrait, but the character) you'll see a small circle with their next action in the middle and a ring that is counting down until it goes off. As far as I can tell, you can't queue more than that one action.

    AspectVoid on
    PSN|AspectVoid
  • SpawnbrokerSpawnbroker Registered User regular
    AspectVoid wrote: »
    ED! wrote: »
    I REALLY hope they patch combat or something. I need some kind of fucking feedback to know my skills are being queued or something. . .

    If you look above your character's head (not the portrait, but the character) you'll see a small circle with their next action in the middle and a ring that is counting down until it goes off. As far as I can tell, you can't queue more than that one action.

    Yep, this is correct. There is no action queue, your character will only do the last thing you told her to do. If they recently performed an action, the grey circle ticks down until they can do it.

    If it's a combo action, both characters have to be ready and within range of each other before the action will go off.

    Steam: Spawnbroker
  • korodullinkorodullin What. SCRegistered User regular
    edited November 2016
    There actually is an action queue, via the load screen tooltips. Hold Shift while selecting actions to queue them up to fire off in order.

    korodullin on
    ZvOMJnu.png
    - The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
  • AegisAegis Fear My Dance Overshot Toronto, Landed in OttawaRegistered User regular
    I see the tried and true AI scripting of, "The player has a party member in cloth casting a healing spell? EVERYBODY FOCUS HIM FIRST!" is in full effect. I have seen enemies engaged in melee with my other party members ignore the 3 dudes right in front of them, to lob a spear to target the Healer keeping his distance. I have watched an Archer on a roof refuse to switch targets to my PC stabbing him in the ass and track said Healer I as move him behind a House, around a corner, and 3x out of said Archer's range. And those are the more entertaining (read: frustrating) examples, as typically there's a lot more of "This enemy that was happily engaging my tank/other PCs, up and decided to just provoke 6 Disengagement attacks as he runs directly at said Healer."

    He's the only person who gets downed or gains Wounds in this group on Hard. I have him just Heal the fuck out of himself, I have my main character cast an illusion spell on him to keep himself alive, and I'm picking up every single one of his "Gain Passive Arcane Armour" talents because it's this fucking bad. It's almost wrapping back around to comedy, if I hadn't seen this type of AI behaviour many times before.

    We'll see how long this blog lasts
    Currently DMing: None :(
    Characters
    [5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
  • korodullinkorodullin What. SCRegistered User regular
    I'm noticing none of that at all on Normal, so I suspect it's something higher difficulties do as some sort of challenge. If so, it's kind of crap, just as it was in Pillars.

    ZvOMJnu.png
    - The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
  • taliosfalcontaliosfalcon Registered User regular
    So companion questioins (about the first 3 you get i think)
    i'm a couple hours in and have verse, lantry and..that's it, barik won't talk to me in the dishonored camp, have i missed him somehow? i'm starting to get absolutely decimated with no tank in fights :(

    steam xbox - adeptpenguin
  • VikingViking Registered User regular
    So companion questioins (about the first 3 you get i think)
    i'm a couple hours in and have verse, lantry and..that's it, barik won't talk to me in the dishonored camp, have i missed him somehow? i'm starting to get absolutely decimated with no tank in fights :(
    try talking to others standing near him....

    steam_sig.png
    Bravely Default / 3DS Friend Code = 3394-3571-1609
  • captainkcaptaink TexasRegistered User regular
    I got the water mage companion to 5 fear on my first meeting with her. Promising.

  • RainfallRainfall Registered User regular
    edited November 2016
    Well, I just did the first really evil thing. Kinda feel like a jerk now.

    Blade Grave/Edict of Storms/Rainfall did probably the worst thing in the game in the worst way Spoilers:
    So the Edict of Storms ends when the bloodline of Stalwart is ended. Naturally the old boss dude you fight has a baby.
    Rather than dirty my own hands I decide to unlock a new ability, so I ask Sirin to sing the baby "to sleep," which is absolutely the most monstrous option if you're aware of her backstory where she forced her mother into early labor so that her baby brother wouldn't take her mother's attention away and she regrets that mostly.

    I did it, I am the monster.

    Rainfall on
  • Moridin889Moridin889 Registered User regular
    Aegis wrote: »
    I see the tried and true AI scripting of, "The player has a party member in cloth casting a healing spell? EVERYBODY FOCUS HIM FIRST!" is in full effect. I have seen enemies engaged in melee with my other party members ignore the 3 dudes right in front of them, to lob a spear to target the Healer keeping his distance. I have watched an Archer on a roof refuse to switch targets to my PC stabbing him in the ass and track said Healer I as move him behind a House, around a corner, and 3x out of said Archer's range. And those are the more entertaining (read: frustrating) examples, as typically there's a lot more of "This enemy that was happily engaging my tank/other PCs, up and decided to just provoke 6 Disengagement attacks as he runs directly at said Healer."

    He's the only person who gets downed or gains Wounds in this group on Hard. I have him just Heal the fuck out of himself, I have my main character cast an illusion spell on him to keep himself alive, and I'm picking up every single one of his "Gain Passive Arcane Armour" talents because it's this fucking bad. It's almost wrapping back around to comedy, if I hadn't seen this type of AI behaviour many times before.

    The AI targets whoever has the lowest defenses unless taunted. Ranged units and the dual wielders will do it anyway. Two handers will gladly go toe to toe with your melee. I basically armor up my mage. When you get your second mage they can protect themselves a lot better.

  • hippofanthippofant ティンク Registered User regular
    Moridin889 wrote: »
    Aegis wrote: »
    I see the tried and true AI scripting of, "The player has a party member in cloth casting a healing spell? EVERYBODY FOCUS HIM FIRST!" is in full effect. I have seen enemies engaged in melee with my other party members ignore the 3 dudes right in front of them, to lob a spear to target the Healer keeping his distance. I have watched an Archer on a roof refuse to switch targets to my PC stabbing him in the ass and track said Healer I as move him behind a House, around a corner, and 3x out of said Archer's range. And those are the more entertaining (read: frustrating) examples, as typically there's a lot more of "This enemy that was happily engaging my tank/other PCs, up and decided to just provoke 6 Disengagement attacks as he runs directly at said Healer."

    He's the only person who gets downed or gains Wounds in this group on Hard. I have him just Heal the fuck out of himself, I have my main character cast an illusion spell on him to keep himself alive, and I'm picking up every single one of his "Gain Passive Arcane Armour" talents because it's this fucking bad. It's almost wrapping back around to comedy, if I hadn't seen this type of AI behaviour many times before.

    The AI targets whoever has the lowest defenses unless taunted. Ranged units and the dual wielders will do it anyway. Two handers will gladly go toe to toe with your melee. I basically armor up my mage. When you get your second mage they can protect themselves a lot better.

    3 of my characters have Jolting Bolt.

  • taliosfalcontaliosfalcon Registered User regular
    Viking wrote: »
    So companion questioins (about the first 3 you get i think)
    i'm a couple hours in and have verse, lantry and..that's it, barik won't talk to me in the dishonored camp, have i missed him somehow? i'm starting to get absolutely decimated with no tank in fights :(
    try talking to others standing near him....

    ah, derp, well, had to backtrack quite a ways but that did it, doh. Thanks

    steam xbox - adeptpenguin
  • DasUberEdwardDasUberEdward Registered User regular
    So I just got the second mage and now my party is 5 and I have a problem

    My characters build ended up being basically Verse but she's too cool and too much fun to drop from my party.

    and I need a tank and a healer.

    i'm conflicted. Can the new mage heal well or are the classes pretty well set in stone when you get them?

    steam_sig.png
  • hippofanthippofant ティンク Registered User regular
    So I just got the second mage and now my party is 5 and I have a problem

    My characters build ended up being basically Verse but she's too cool and too much fun to drop from my party.

    and I need a tank and a healer.

    i'm conflicted. Can the new mage heal well or are the classes pretty well set in stone when you get them?

    All Mages can heal. It's very easy for casters to pickup all sorts of spells. You can even put heal spells on non-Mages, and it'll still heal 25%, I think. I did have to take it off Barik though, because he'd cast it and lose engagement... All three of my other characters have Jolting Bolt too, for CC.

    I do wonder about how quest XP gets divided between your skills though. My mage character has like 8 Control X skills now, because at some point she casted a spell from one school and then never again. Not sure if those skills I no longer use get skill ups like that.

  • MaddocMaddoc I'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother? Registered User regular
    Lucky there's at least taunt

    Once they fucked with the AI enough in Pillars, tanking literally stopped being a thing because enemies would just ignore tanks

  • DerrickDerrick Registered User regular
    I was torn between buying this now or saving it as an easy gift my peeps could get me for Christmas... but I can't wait. Pillars is fantastic and Obsidian continues to be one of my favorite development teams.

    Steam and CFN: Enexemander
  • DasUberEdwardDasUberEdward Registered User regular
    hippofant wrote: »
    So I just got the second mage and now my party is 5 and I have a problem

    My characters build ended up being basically Verse but she's too cool and too much fun to drop from my party.

    and I need a tank and a healer.

    i'm conflicted. Can the new mage heal well or are the classes pretty well set in stone when you get them?

    All Mages can heal. It's very easy for casters to pickup all sorts of spells. You can even put heal spells on non-Mages, and it'll still heal 25%, I think. I did have to take it off Barik though, because he'd cast it and lose engagement... All three of my other characters have Jolting Bolt too, for CC.

    I do wonder about how quest XP gets divided between your skills though. My mage character has like 8 Control X skills now, because at some point she casted a spell from one school and then never again. Not sure if those skills I no longer use get skill ups like that.

    Is it reasonably effective though? Since she's new I haven't allotted any of her stat points yet.

    Also gosh it took me a long time to figure out that my lore skill wasn't going up because I wasn't finding the right dialogue options. That's pretty cool. Frustrating but cool. I'm hoping to find a trainer because gosh having high lore and subterfuge opens up neat options.

    Although I did get one really cool moment where my lore was too low but athletics gave me a dialog option. (no details other than what choosing the intimidating action did.)
    Instead of trying to navigate the dialog after getting wiped the first time. I chose to barge into the room weapons drawn and teeth-bared telling them the jig is up and it's time to die. Miraculously one of the enemy combatants just ran off in fear. Which made the fight way easier because it was an archer I couldn't get to.

    steam_sig.png
  • hippofanthippofant ティンク Registered User regular
    edited November 2016
    hippofant wrote: »
    So I just got the second mage and now my party is 5 and I have a problem

    My characters build ended up being basically Verse but she's too cool and too much fun to drop from my party.

    and I need a tank and a healer.

    i'm conflicted. Can the new mage heal well or are the classes pretty well set in stone when you get them?

    All Mages can heal. It's very easy for casters to pickup all sorts of spells. You can even put heal spells on non-Mages, and it'll still heal 25%, I think. I did have to take it off Barik though, because he'd cast it and lose engagement... All three of my other characters have Jolting Bolt too, for CC.

    I do wonder about how quest XP gets divided between your skills though. My mage character has like 8 Control X skills now, because at some point she casted a spell from one school and then never again. Not sure if those skills I no longer use get skill ups like that.

    Is it reasonably effective though? Since she's new I haven't allotted any of her stat points yet.

    Also gosh it took me a long time to figure out that my lore skill wasn't going up because I wasn't finding the right dialogue options. That's pretty cool. Frustrating but cool. I'm hoping to find a trainer because gosh having high lore and subterfuge opens up neat options.

    Although I did get one really cool moment where my lore was too low but athletics gave me a dialog option. (no details other than what choosing the intimidating action did.)
    Instead of trying to navigate the dialog after getting wiped the first time. I chose to barge into the room weapons drawn and teeth-bared telling them the jig is up and it's time to die. Miraculously one of the enemy combatants just ran off in fear. Which made the fight way easier because it was an archer I couldn't get to.

    I'm pretty sure the base heal spell always just does 25% healing; might not even scale with Control Life/Lore skill, which I think primarily influence accuracy, not intensity. Don't really want to fire up the game right now to check, but it should be easy for you to do so.

    As for stat points - I'm pretty sure spellcasters should just go all Quickness, pretty much, since it lets them cast spells faster (recover) and more often (cooldown). Unless there's a point in the game where they just have a million spells or something. +damage from attributes was a kind of a trap in PoE, because of how damage was calculated - it was only used as a flat additive modifier that didn't get multiplied by any other modifiers. This meant that attacking 5% faster was much better than +5% damage to attacks.

    There is a Lore trainer in, I think, the Scarlet Chorus camp. There are 4 trainers available in Act 1, 2 in the Disfavored camp, 2 in the Scarlet Chorus camp, always the "innkeepers". I think I did mostly Dodge and Lore with them... EXCEPT when I did some other stuff so I could sneak in some skill ups before hitting the next level. (Since you can only train 5 times per level, and training higher-level skills gives you more experience, I spent some time squinting at those exp bars.)

    hippofant on
  • FrozenzenFrozenzen Registered User regular
    If you miss out of training a level because you get several levels while out doing stuff, does that mean you missed on those training opportunities?

  • hippofanthippofant ティンク Registered User regular
    edited November 2016
    Frozenzen wrote: »
    If you miss out of training a level because you get several levels while out doing stuff, does that mean you missed on those training opportunities?

    Yes. I don't know if mechanically, somehow, it works out, but it's 5 times per level, and if you level up before getting your 5 in, you lose 'em forever.

    It costs more skill points to level up higher-level skills too, so I think you're best off training up your highest-level skills repeatedly?

    It's also really cheap. You can get, like, +5 Parry for a lot less than a gear upgrade from a shop.

    hippofant on
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