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[ChairmanPoo]

I still feel like the only D&D-style CRPG that really hit home for me has been Temple of Elemental Evil.  It needs extensive modding to work because Troika didn't know how to make video games, but it's so damn good.  Kingmaker lost my interest a few hours in, where I felt like I wasn't strong enough to do any of the storyline content and what was available was just wandering around clicking on thylacines.  Sword Saint class is pretty cool though.

I'd say that Kingmaker has some major problems. I mean it's not what I'd say bad, but it has very clunky mechanics. It definitely favors minmaxing. And the line between a physical god and an useless character is VERY thin. You can hardly RP if straying from the minmax approach leads to unplayability and/or being stuck doing low level stuff.
Characterization and story are also a bit clunky. TBH I get an "amateur" vibe out of it. In a way it reminds me of HoMM5: Good intentions, good ideas, "We'll remake this classic game but *better*"... and yet you can't help but think there's a whiff of clunkyness underneath. Which you'd probably not even notice in an open-source community project, and ignore in a 10 euro game. Problem is P:K was hyped and sold as a superpremium.

IMO PoE Deadfire is a better game overall.

[Retropunch]

I still feel like the only D&D-style CRPG that really hit home for me has been Temple of Elemental Evil.  It needs extensive modding to work because Troika didn't know how to make video games, but it's so damn good.  Kingmaker lost my interest a few hours in, where I felt like I wasn't strong enough to do any of the storyline content and what was available was just wandering around clicking on thylacines.  Sword Saint class is pretty cool though.

I'd say that Kingmaker has some major problems. I mean it's not what I'd say bad, but it has very clunky mechanics. It definitely favors minmaxing. And the line between a physical god and an useless character is VERY thin. You can hardly RP if straying from the minmax approach leads to unplayability and/or being stuck doing low level stuff.
Characterization and story are also a bit clunky. TBH I get an "amateur" vibe out of it. In a way it reminds me of HoMM5: Good intentions, good ideas, "We'll remake this classic game but *better*"... and yet you can't help but think there's a whiff of clunkyness underneath. Which you'd probably not even notice in an open-source community project, and ignore in a 10 euro game. Problem is P:K was hyped and sold as a superpremium.

IMO PoE Deadfire is a better game overall.

I didn't get an amateurish vibe from it at all - some of the writing is a bit clunky and it lacks a bit of polish, but it also depends when you played it - it feels infinitely better now than it did around launch. I agree that Deadfire is definitely more polished, but I didn't enjoy it nearly as much even though it has a better story and polish. As a sidenote, I just replayed IWD2 and I'd say P:KM feels far more polished than that!

As far minmaxing goes, I think you're completely right and it's why I recommend everyone to use the respec mod which allows you to respec all your companions. It costs gold to do it, and you can't change base stats, but it allows you to have a better put together a party without mercs or aggressive min/maxing which actually fills the roles you need. Playing on normal difficulty this changed it from being wildly uneven to being challenging but fair for most encounters. Again, you shouldn't need to with a really well balanced game, but I think it's a small compromise.

My only dislike is that pathfinder sometimes leaves you without stuff to do, and expects you to just play the kingdom game for a bit. I got confused about what I was supposed to be doing, and had to look up that I was basically supposed to just wait for the next big event to come along.

[Majestic7]

I'd say that Kingmaker has some major problems. I mean it's not what I'd say bad, but it has very clunky mechanics. It definitely favors minmaxing. And the line between a physical god and an useless character is VERY thin. You can hardly RP if straying from the minmax approach leads to unplayability and/or being stuck doing low level stuff.

That sounds like a description of Pathfinder / D&D 3.5 family and as such, not necessarily the fault of the game itself. Incidentally, that is what always rubbed me the wrong way about those systems.

[Majestic7]

I'd say that Kingmaker has some major problems. I mean it's not what I'd say bad, but it has very clunky mechanics. It definitely favors minmaxing. And the line between a physical god and an useless character is VERY thin. You can hardly RP if straying from the minmax approach leads to unplayability and/or being stuck doing low level stuff.

That sounds like a description of Pathfinder / D&D 3.5 family and as such, not necessarily the fault of the game itself. Incidentally, that is what always rubbed me the wrong way about those systems.

[Wiles]

I think it is also good to keep in mind that you can change difficulty on the fly - so if you've been bashing your head against the same encounter for a while it might be worthwhile to adjust the difficulty a notch lower. You can always switch it back after. I don't like doing it because it feels like giving up, but I might have to do that where I am at in my game right now. I don't usually carry rations and now I find myself somewhere with no spells, no way to rest and no way out. I've tried the same fight 3 times now but my MC keeps getting killed. But my last try was so close...

As far minmaxing goes, I think you're completely right and it's why I recommend everyone to use the respec mod which allows you to respec all your companions. It costs gold to do it, and you can't change base stats, but it allows you to have a better put together a party without mercs or aggressive min/maxing which actually fills the roles you need. Playing on normal difficulty this changed it from being wildly uneven to being challenging but fair for most encounters. Again, you shouldn't need to with a really well balanced game, but I think it's a small compromise.

Can't you respec already by talking to an NPC in the tavern (I think this might be toggleable in the difficulty settings) Or is this something different?

My only dislike is that pathfinder sometimes leaves you without stuff to do, and expects you to just play the kingdom game for a bit. I got confused about what I was supposed to be doing, and had to look up that I was basically supposed to just wait for the next big event to come along.

And to top it off I found the quests related to playing the kingdom game to be incredibly vague. They ask you to do a thing, without telling you how to do the thing. I had to do lots of googling.

[forsaken1111]

Can't you respec already by talking to an NPC in the tavern (I think this might be toggleable in the difficulty settings) Or is this something different?

Yep, and the first 3? I think respecs are free. Thereafter it costs money. No mod needed.

And it is a full respect, as in you can change your character entirely. Race, sex, class. It takes you back to the character creation screen, essentially.

[Majestic7]

Isn't the respec only for your only character, not the companion characters? They are the ones needing respec.

[ChairmanPoo]

I'd say that Kingmaker has some major problems. I mean it's not what I'd say bad, but it has very clunky mechanics. It definitely favors minmaxing. And the line between a physical god and an useless character is VERY thin. You can hardly RP if straying from the minmax approach leads to unplayability and/or being stuck doing low level stuff.

That sounds like a description of Pathfinder / D&D 3.5 family and as such, not necessarily the fault of the game itself. Incidentally, that is what always rubbed me the wrong way about those systems.

The devs chose to  implement those mechanics this way. Its not like they didnt take other liberties with the source material. To be fair they toned down some of the most egregious shit already. I did say before that the game was better now than at release

I agree that Deadfire is definitely more polished, but I didn't enjoy it nearly as much even though it has a better story and polish. As a sidenote, I just replayed IWD2 and I'd say P:KM feels far more polished than that

I'm kind of enjoying DF more in general. I never really played IWD all that much but IIRC it was supposed to be more action focused than BG so it makes sense.
Tbh I'd say KM at release was par with BG1. Which also had some funny mechanics and writing, and some ludicrously out of depth encounters (remember that guy in Friendly Arm? He could one shot you with magic missile!). Now that its more polished I'd say its closer to BG2: bigger, better, but still with issues.

 I do think that BG2 was trying to get more meaningful with the storyline than KM. And writing was better, specially companions. Looking back BG2 did well with most of the companions, I was attached to them. Shit I brought Edwin along because he cracked me up, I found he was far better than MC spellcasters afterwards.
I just dislike all of the banter and most of the KM companions. Ekundayo is interesting, Jatehal has her  moments. The rest... eh, would do fine as mercs as far as Im concerned.  I loathe Jubilost

[Wiles]

Isn't the respec only for your only character, not the companion characters? They are the ones needing respec.

I just tried it and it seems like it isn't a full respec for your companions - it levels them down to around what level they would have been when you first met them.

[Wiles]

Is there a limitation on the resurrect spell? I had a character die (killed by my own ranger who was under the influence of a spell) and I could not resurrect them. I made sure I had diamonds to cast the cleric spell. I went to a town bought scrolls, tried casting them from the dead character's inventory, also didn't work. Either I'm missing something or I've run into a bug. Which would be pretty disheartening considering this would be the third boss fight in a row where the game has broken and I've had to reload to a point before the fight.

[ChairmanPoo]

VORDAKAI VORDAKAI VORDAKAI

[BlackFlyme]

Is there a limitation on the resurrect spell? I had a character die (killed by my own ranger who was under the influence of a spell) and I could not resurrect them. I made sure I had diamonds to cast the cleric spell. I went to a town bought scrolls, tried casting them from the dead character's inventory, also didn't work. Either I'm missing something or I've run into a bug. Which would be pretty disheartening considering this would be the third boss fight in a row where the game has broken and I've had to reload to a point before the fight.

There shouldn't be a limit on how many times someone can be resurrected, though some spells and death effects may make it harder to raise someone, and resurrection isn't possible if it would leave the target with more negative levels than actual levels.

Though you might want to double check whether it was Raise Dead or Resurrection you used. Raise Dead can't raise people who have been dead for longer than one day per caster level, which is often low for scrolls.

[Walkaboutout]

So here's my 2 cents for anyone that cares.

I've been playing D&D CRPG's (computer role-playing games) since SSI's Commodore 64 releases of games like Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds, etc. I'm not really a table top player, but I have to admit that some of my fondest memories come from D&D in various forms on computers.

With that said, like most (given the lack of availability of new games) the last ones I played were Neverwinter Nights 2. The online iterations never caught my attention. And there just haven't really been any new D&D CRPG single player games made.

Having played the non-D&D infinity-engine clones (clones of games that play like Baldur's Gate/Icewind Dale series and others), I have to say that none of them really sucked me in, in the way that, say, Baldur's Gate 2 did. Pillars of Eternity, Tyranny, and even Divinity and Divinity 2, while each with their own charm, just didn't have the same sort of impact on me. They were fun in their way, but I ended up walking away for various reasons going "Meh..."

I had sort of come to the conclusion that those sorts of games just didn't hold much interest for me anymore. With that in mind, I was in a recent dry spot of games and, out of boredom, I bought a copy of Kingmaker.

I must say, it hit the right spot, in the right way, at the right time. To be clear, the game is not perfect. But, I'm playing on the second to hardest difficulty (the one just below "Unfair"). I'm here to say that, with care and patience, the game can definitely be played from an RP standpoint in a successful manner. I KNOW that most of my character builds are just not optimal in-game builds at all, really.

For the first time in many years, an infinity-engine style game has completely engrossed me. A lot of people that I see in various forums or on the Pathfinder reddit for example, bash it for what it lacks. It does lack a ton compared to the pen and paper. A lot of people poo-poo a great many of the various classes available as sucking, or not being worth taking.

I have to disagree with this, from a "fun" standpoint, and say that perhaps people are not being entirely fair about what the game DOES offer. Maybe the game isn't perfect, maybe it doesn't have everything the tabletop does, but what CRPG really ever does? What's there is super fun (to me), and has lead to hours of my contemplating character builds, and trying various things in game, etc. I've now spent a lot of hours, weeknights, and weekends playing it and it's just good old fashioned D&D RPG fun.

Maybe it isn't for everyone and I'm just a freak, or maybe I just got lucky and found it at just the right time in my gaming cycle. But the fact is, I'm genuinely enjoying this game, and there's quite a bit of clever mechanics and polish there (even if not perfect, of course). I would excitedly recommend giving this game a whirl to anyone whose currently bored, and especially if you're a fan of D&D computer role-playing implementations.

Obviously I can't guarantee that someone would enjoy this, and perhaps I'm in the minority, but I'm having more fun with this game than I've had with similar games (or even different types of games) than I have had in years. It gets a solid thumbs up from me!

[BlackFlyme]

Announced just a few days ago, the second CRPG in the Pathfinder universe. Set in the demon infested lands known as the Worldwound, this game will see the players fight back the hordes to reclaim the lost nation of Sarkoris, and ascend to new mythic heights.

There will be two known new classes, the Oracle and the Witch, as well as one unannounced race, in addition to the options from the previous game. It will also include a progression system known as Mythic, which will be an overhauled version of the tabletop game's system, and includes options such as turning into an Immortal Lich or a Celestial Angel.

Not really much to talk about right now, but I figured I'd update the thread.

[Hanzoku]

....

Whelp. I know what I'm playing.

I've always wanted to play the Wrath of the Righteous campaign, but have never found a group doing it (that stayed together).