icemann on 9/5/2018 at 12:47
Pillars of Eternity 2 is out. Get on it.
icemann on 10/5/2018 at 18:42
Normally I'd post this in the "What are you playing" thread, but thought meh why not post stuff in here since it's relevant.
Had a play of Pillars of Eternity 2 tonight. Thoughts:
Pros:
* Plays really good
* Very similar to the first game in feel and look (except for one aspect which I'll get onto in the cons),
* Combat's about the same as before but looks much nicer
* Story from what I've seen of it so far seems good
* Music sounds similar in style to the first. More background type stuff you don't really pay attention but it sounds nice.
* Stealth appears to work slightly better now. Easier to stealth stuff.
* Multi-classing is in. Quite like this.
* You get to import your save data over
Cons:
* You might get to import your save data over, but you don't get to keep your character. So you have to create a new one from scratch and set all of his/her attributes again. That's annoying. Though you may have wanted to multi-class I guess.
* The water color character portraits in this game are HORRIBLE. The odd thing is that the style of them was a late inclusion in development. So you can go into the character portraits folder and remove all the portraits that have the water color on them, and the game will then use the prior portraits (same folder) which are of FAR SUPERIOR quality.
Compare:
Inline Image:
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4406/36223019152_c9a3ddfb9f_o.pngAt the bottom of that image is some examples. The bottom images look like fan art. Like something a kid draw. It's quite jarring and takes you out of the experience when you see them. Luckily as I said, you can go delete them. BUT for the NPC's you can't do this, as the water color versions are all there is for them. For the rest you can. Obsidian needs to rectify this, as the first game did not have this. It just gives an unprofessional look to an otherwise great looking game.
Renzatic on 10/5/2018 at 19:13
Quote Posted by icemann
Like something a kid draw.
That'd be one helluva talented kid.
icemann on 10/5/2018 at 19:36
Compare that to the versions above it though.
Renzatic on 10/5/2018 at 19:45
It all comes down to taste and preference. To me, the bottom portraits look like something you'd see on a Yee Olde Mappe Parchment or an ornate manuscript from days of yore, which fits in with the theme PoE II is going for. Yeah, the upper portraits are more detailed and more completely rendered, but the bottom ones appeal more to mood and style.
Sulphur on 10/5/2018 at 20:10
Yeah, those portraits are fine given they're meant to emulate woodcuts on parchment. As a matter of fact it looks like the original portraits were run through a process filter.
Renzatic on 10/5/2018 at 20:32
Eder and the lady who looks like Sagani do have that edge detect look to them. The rest look like they were redrawn by hand.
Sulphur on 10/5/2018 at 20:57
Could be for a few of those where changes appear like the eyeliner and hair covering the ear for portrait #2 (the 258/258 HP one), but they paid a lot of attention to retracing minute details if they hand-drew it for the rest. Most of it could be simple layer tweaking.
icemann on 11/5/2018 at 06:29
From what I've read over on the Obsidian forums, it appears that the devs went with the watercolor style since it was easier to get through the creation of the portraits far quicker under that style vs the normal style.
I hate the new look personally, but at the same time I see where you guys are coming from of the old parchment style look. To me it looks like something out of a book. Hand drawn illustration type thing. For some that would appeal and that's fine. For me it doesn't.
Wynne on 12/5/2018 at 00:21
I greatly dislike the portraits for Eder and Aloth, since they look nothing like their old selves. Eder looks dramatically older and much less attractive, and Aloth looks... less delicate and spooky, more roguelike than wizardlike.
The others are fine. I don't entirely dislike the watercolor theme by itself, Xoti's in particular is very cute, I only dislike how terrible some of the small portraits are. Eder's watercolor is even worse than his new regular portrait; he looks positively addled. I've replaced them with altered versions, fitting with the style of my custom protagonist portrait. Hopefully it's not too jarring for others, the difference in style, but I really like those two to look like their old selves.