I thought about this in terms of balance. One could argue that act 1 was balanced around NOT having optimal civil abilities, but this mostly applies for the first playthrough of this act (and I guess many players restart multiple times, just to try things out until a certain point), so I think such considerations can be dismissed with relative ease, because when you're at the point, as a player, to be able to optimize your civil ability distribution (and I, for example, do this using Excel, and I'm not joking here), you're not in the target group for act 1-balancing anymore anyway.
I can only speak for myself, but the joy in doing act 1 now, after multiple fun playthroughs, is to see "how much can I squeeze out of the game", "how fast can I do it" and "what other tactics and builds can I use successfully". Gold was never a fun-factor for me, it was mostly something to work around. The true strategic decisions in act 1 in gameplay are, for example, the teleporter quest (because when you do it to early you lose the only Aerothurge dealer and the really good Aero skills only come with level 4) and the slaverer-junkie-lizard (who happens to be the only Pyro-vendor). And this is something I like. You're forced to THINK about such things when you start to min / max your playthrougs, you can even go as far as I did and jot down a plan in Notepad++ on your second screen where you lay out "when to buy which skill and when to do which quest, because it leads to this and that".
Just saying this to disarm a possible "balancing" argument against full custom parties.
When it comes to talents... you always get 2 talent points for free spending, even if you only recruit at level 1 so I don't think that balancing is a factor here, because the level 3-talent point could go into such crazy combinations that it is impossible to predict balance around them anyway (killer combo: give a melee fighter who already has "opportunist" that "executioner" talent - or vice versa... there goes any balancing, because in this very moment a virtually +100% physical damage dealer is born).
No, all in all I consider the fact that you have to wait until you get to the ship to, basically, correct the misplaced talent and civil ability points nothing but an inconveniance, something which doesn't add anything to the game but, quite the opposite, actually reduces the freedom you have.
An example is the decision to have both wizard and enchanter companions put points into "loremaster". It eludes me how this could be of any - ANY - use to the party at all. Same for "pet pal" and conjurer / wayfarer.
One can argue for this with "lore", but this factor can be left there by simply keeping such selections as "default" (like it is in the character generation screen) - and people who want to experience the game from a very lore-centric perspective, which is something I highly respect and also envy a little bit, can still keep it as it is.
It would be really amazing to have an official way to min / max right from the start, without having to resort to a semi-hack (mod). As I wrote somewhere else (maybe as "deepunderscore" on reddit?) I consider min / maxing a totally valid and, at least for me, totally fun way to play, one of the reasons I come back to D:OS2 so often, because the non-strict skill system offers so much here. I mean, I even found a way to make "scoundrel" useful for a caster. Sounds easy in D:OS2?
Yes. Here it is. No other game offers THAT. And this strength is something that could be built upon by offering full party customization. If you ask me it should even be possible to recruit companions on the Merryweather already (because those people are just... cool... I love all of them, even though I have a few favorites personality wise and a few favorites gameplay-wise [looking at you, stinky {stench talent 4tw} shadowblade Sebille]).
Oh, and yes, I used the "FortJoyRespec" mod for each of my complete playthroughs so far. Temporarily, just to get the party right.
Last edited by Firesong; 27/02/18 08:34 PM.
