I've been revisiting anno 2205, infamously the ugly duckling of the Anno series of RTS games. I don't mind so much the fact that it's different, lacks customisation and random map generation - I'm bothered because the game is so slow to progress through on challenge settings, and it feels like a game designed just to artificially waste your time; in other anno games, you can always pull tricks to dig yourself out of economic crisis - selling off assets and surplus goods, completing quests for other parties, or taking loans. 2205 is very very confined in terms of what you can do to financially recover in the early game and forces you into a lot of military events.
Didn't hate it, but I just sort of slid off Baldur's Gate 3.
I love Larian's other games and even pre-ordered bg3 to play on vacation, but the combat just isn't as fun as Divinity 2. I kept trying to avoid combat but then I walked into a new area and combat started automatically and I just groaned and turned off the game.
I got to act 2, which isn't a lot of time, but it felt like it
I played a lot of bg3. Every so often I think about playing it again, and then I think about how DND 5e kind of stinks, so I don't.
There are mods to convert it to Pathfinder 2e... But then I'd rather just go play one of Owlcat's Pathfinder games
I tried one of them and either I don't understand pathfinder, or it didn't work right, or I didn't enjoy it. My to-hit on my first attack of the round was like 65%. Missing is not fun.
I think I appreciate pathfinder2e more than 5e, but it's still got a lot of DND-ness in it.
PF2e relies a lot more on tactical decisions than 5e, so I'm not certain how well the mod works depending on the other systems it has to lean on - missing mechanics can wildly unbalance the maths due to the assumptions it's built on.
Assuming it is fully implemented though, flanking, feinting, or another way of applying off-guard to an enemy would increase that 65% chance to 75%. Intimidating the enemy can push it up to 80 or 85%. Maybe have an ally aid the attack and get up to 95%. Crits also change gameplay quite a bit due to the 10 over/under conditions. A 65% chance to hit contains a 15% chance to crit, 75% a 25% chance, 85% a 35% chance, so the additional misses get balanced out by the additional crits beyond 5e's static 5% chance. A single character generally doesn't have enough actions to apply everything themselves though, so you have to coordinate actions across the whole team to be effective rather than each member being an individual powerhouse.
Maybe I should try it again. I like the idea of the three action economy and teamwork from what I've read of pf2e. The mod didn't have all the normal tutorial stuff, if I recall.
Does it do initiative the same way as 5e? Because that sounds like it would make teamwork annoying. "I need you to distract them, but you rolled low on iniative and I can't just like wait for you to do it"
Pathfinder 2e ruleset will mean your chance to hit is usually lower than it would be in DnD 5e. It aims for a much more balanced system so most things scale similarly with each other. As an example, as a PC if you are taking all of the important abilities for your class, the difference between your AC wearing a leather bikini is going to be 1 less than the guy wearing full plate.
I am interested to see bg3 on the pf2e ruleset though... I might have to check this mod out. I didn't hate the Owlcat pathfinder games, but they are on first edition which is basically just DnD 3.5 and really shows it's age at this point. Also, none of them are co-op with friends.
My biggest gripe with BG3 was that a major point of praise for it was how polished it was, despite it still being quite buggy and the UI being very annoying very often. Love the voice acting, I think it's good, great even, I just don't think it was God's gift to humanity or that it deserved game if the year.
BG3 was my first Larian game and I absolutely loathed getting into combat situations. It just took too long for the CPU to make decisions, I wish there was a fast-forward button for their turn. Overall, I didn't feel BG3 respected my time and felt I was constantly under leveled on every encounter, even on easy. Even when I returned for a 3rd attempt at the game and tried to save scum my way through, I felt it was way too slow. Never made it past act 1. I don't get the hype for it. I realize I'm in the minority with how well it scored and how much people praise it. I just don't see it nor appreciate it.
Would I be right in guessing that you didn't come to it from D&D? The computer taking 20 seconds to finish its move is positively frantic compared to the 30 minute waits I've had at some tables for everyone else to make their move...
Correct, I've never done D&D in general. I've been slightly curious, but then again I get that a tabletop experience would take longer, and it seems like it could also be a frustrating experience at times.
huh, I only just noticed that Dan Harmon wrote and acted in that
also context for any Gen Zs who may have stumbled on this thread: the original audio skit pre-dates the video, and was presented as a response to the 80s/90s "Satanic Panic" where the Christian Right were actively campaigning against D&D as dragging your kids into evil Satanist rituals. Full version with intro
Oh wow, I didn't realize that either!
People hate to hear it, but dnd is awful. The lore of the main setting sucks and the systems are horrendous. Pathfinder, shadowrun, cyberpunk, an original system altogether, anything else would have been better! Larian also failed the multiplayer, making it feel tacked on rather than improving on divinity.
What do you think makes the combat system of Divinity 2 better? I usually hear the opposite.
I dunno, been a while but faster paced while still intentional, fewer cheap deaths, more fun chain reactions, more interesting characters, more attractive effects, better abilities, no DNDisms surfaced to player level.
And I feel like they had more time to design the engagements because they're just so memorable. There are some great ones in BG3 and maybe more later on, but it starts slogging pretty quickly and the fights just become chores to get through rather things you look forward to.