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#773637 19/05/21 12:32 PM
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In my latest playthrough I have strayed away from the Ironmade mode and done a small amount of save scumming to test out responses, tactics, etc.. to get a full feel of what all the game has to offer. Here are some new thoughts.

1. I have seen the many many threads regarding barrelmancy and I decided to try it for myself. I collected a bunch and them climbed up into the rafters above Hobgoblin boss in the Goblin Camp. I then carefully target 2 goblins at a time and wiped out the entire encounter save for the boss without ever causing it to go into combat mode. 2 thoughts on this. I feel the dmg the barrels do are actually on point simply because we are dealing with low level areas for now but as the game progresses they would not be nearly as effective because we would be dealing with much tougher encounters. The other thought was maybe reducing the number of barrels but then that would be inconsistent with the events that are taking place. The goblins are gearing up for a major assault so it makes sense that there would be a good number of barrels.... if not more than there are already. We need to continue to remind ourselves that we are in low level areas.... and this is EA, not a polished game which many seem to be treating it like.

2. After defeating the goblins and partying with the Tieflings I felt it to be a bit..... underwhelming. After everything this group had gone through, Eltuirel ( spelling ), goblins, druids, etc.... One would think that there would be a lot more merriment, dancing, music... Maybe even have another musical cutscene from the bard based on your conversation with her. Maybe have a scene within the party where Zevlor insists Halsin joins them to thank him for taking them in and assuming Arabella doesn't die some signs of respect shown. If it's going to be a celebration after all they have gone through then it needs to FEEL like a celebration. Maybe a PC that is proficient in performance can join the tieflings in a musical jam.

As I continue to play and delve into content with deeper detail i will no doubtedly come up with more feedback smile

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Originally Posted by Reckem
In my latest playthrough I have strayed away from the Ironmade mode and done a small amount of save scumming to test out responses, tactics, etc.. to get a full feel of what all the game has to offer. Here are some new thoughts.

1. I have seen the many many threads regarding barrelmancy and I decided to try it for myself. I collected a bunch and them climbed up into the rafters above Hobgoblin boss in the Goblin Camp. I then carefully target 2 goblins at a time and wiped out the entire encounter save for the boss without ever causing it to go into combat mode. 2 thoughts on this. I feel the dmg the barrels do are actually on point simply because we are dealing with low level areas for now but as the game progresses they would not be nearly as effective because we would be dealing with much tougher encounters. The other thought was maybe reducing the number of barrels but then that would be inconsistent with the events that are taking place. The goblins are gearing up for a major assault so it makes sense that there would be a good number of barrels.... if not more than there are already. We need to continue to remind ourselves that we are in low level areas.... and this is EA, not a polished game which many seem to be treating it like.

2. After defeating the goblins and partying with the Tieflings I felt it to be a bit..... underwhelming. After everything this group had gone through, Eltuirel ( spelling ), goblins, druids, etc.... One would think that there would be a lot more merriment, dancing, music... Maybe even have another musical cutscene from the bard based on your conversation with her. Maybe have a scene within the party where Zevlor insists Halsin joins them to thank him for taking them in and assuming Arabella doesn't die some signs of respect shown. If it's going to be a celebration after all they have gone through then it needs to FEEL like a celebration. Maybe a PC that is proficient in performance can join the tieflings in a musical jam.

As I continue to play and delve into content with deeper detail i will no doubtedly come up with more feedback smile


See I really want Barrelmancy to go away. A lot of people feel this way. It cheapens the encounters. Its an IWIN button.

The worst part is you are basically saying "I am not good enough to handle this on my own". I am not against people throwing things to start an encounter but the second you toss a barrel and it damages a mob it should start combat.

- There is a bunch of placeholder stuff in t he goblin after party. Of course if you really want to see a celebration you should side with the goblins. muahaha!


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I dont see any reason ...
I dont use barells at all, and their presence dont bother me anymore. Have you tryed it?


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I don't mind the existence of barrels, but players shouldn't be able to just carry them and toss them. Oil flasks exist in D&D for a reason.

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Same here.

I don't mind barrels at all because it doesn't have any influence on my gameplay or the encounters balance
(the ennemies aren't more powerfull than they should because of barrels).

I'm a bit dissapointed about "shove" as a "win button" because the whole game is build arround verticality so shoving them is something I'd like to use sometimes as tactical choices...
But barrels are just a choice for fun. Not my fun but I think many players like to create huge explosions and their pleasure doesn't have any inflluence on mine.

Last edited by Maximuuus; 19/05/21 05:01 PM.

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As long as barrels are a choice, not forced and general game balance isn't impacted let it stay. A good game design rule: Do not take fun unnecessarily away from players.

With regard to Shove. The issue with shove atm is its a bonus action for all characters. Str based Melee characters have little reason to not shove. In Tabletop 5e, shove takes one of your attacks in the attack action. This is a better cost for the benefits shove provides. Pushing enemies in tabletop can be very strong too. Really depends on spell usage in your party and how much verticality your DM considers with battle design.

Random tad bit: They need item throwing to allow using Str not only Dex. It really sad you can't through spears and such with a Str character.

Last edited by JiruoVX; 19/05/21 07:00 PM.
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Originally Posted by Blackheifer
See I really want Barrelmancy to go away. A lot of people feel this way. It cheapens the encounters. Its an IWIN button.

The worst part is you are basically saying "I am not good enough to handle this on my own".

That is not what I am saying. I simply set up a scenario after reading a lot of threads complaining about Barrelmancy so having never really used it myself I wanted to gain first hand knowledge so that I could comment based on my own experience and not just what I read from others. I have beaten the fight 3 other times in a straight up brawl and 4th was me siding with Minthara. Using this Barrelmancy from the rafters made the fight absolutely insanely easy. So then after seeing for myself and taking into account that this is EA and we are only able to see the effects on low level encounters I gave my feedback. I still feel that yes early on it feels much like cheese but once we get further into the game when the encounters are much tougher that Barrelmancy wont make much of a difference.

Originally Posted by Blackheifer
I am not against people throwing things to start an encounter but the second you toss a barrel and it damages a mob it should start combat.

At the very least.... and if it were an explosion then the thundering sound would put the entire camp on red alert and come rushing at you... a consequence of using Barrlemancy...

Originally Posted by Blackheifer
There is a bunch of placeholder stuff in t he goblin after party. Of course if you really want to see a celebration you should side with the goblins. muahaha!

That celebration was..... well disturbing....but even on the Goblin side I feel there wasn't much of a celebration.... although if you manage to get ridden on the Altar to the Absolute you could make a reasonable argument. There should of been a bunch of Goblins beating War Drums, maybe even having a Tiefling/Druid prisoner being sacrificed on the Altar, maybe even have a hobgoblin getting into a drunken brawl with some goblins.... maybe even have some fun by having the skeleton in the camp make some snarky comment like... " Looks like I am going to be busy tonight..... I should of stayed in the Sarcophogus.... "

All I am suggesting on both sides is to make it feel like a real celebration and not just some people getting together at the local park to hang out.

Last edited by Reckem; 19/05/21 09:00 PM.
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Since the Barrelmancy is a holdover from DOS2, it is unlikely to lose effectiveness over time. At the best, you'll need more barrels to instakill everything, but it wouldn't be hard to achieve that. Ultimately, if they wants barrels to stay, for the health of the game it would need to be toned back A LOT. Have a lot less barrels, make it not do as much damage, and make them super heavy. By making them more rare you still could solve a hard encounter with it, but that'd be a product of saving resources and planning so it'd become actual; strategy and not a cheese to take care of everything. And by lowering the damage it'd become just a good first turn and not the instawin button it surely would be.

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I would opt more for a severe increase in weight as a barrel full of oil or powder or whatever would weight SIGNIFICANTLY more than any armor piece or weapon. change the weight to somewhere between 50-75 ( If a barrel of oil only weighs 10 then I should be able to carry a lid to a sarcophogus and fling it at a Gnoll like a frisbee.... right?? ) and I think that would have an immediate change into the cheese. I wouldnt necessarily change the dmg as explosions on that caliber would be quite devastating. let's be honest, if they were to follow any form of realism the dmg should actually be increased...

and as someone has pointed out.... remove the barrel inside of barrel.... that is just no where near realistic... I hope that was merely just an oversight by the dev team.

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Just preventing you from putting it in your backpack would go a long way

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Originally Posted by EvilVik
Just preventing you from putting it in your backpack would go a long way
Yeah, said the same thing already months ago.
It would be nice, quick and dirty fix to have either some of these barrels either as stating objects in the scenario you can't really move around OR to make moving them around a slow, cumbersome and somewhat awkward job, like in Shadow Tactics when the you use the big samurai (the "muscle" of your team) to carry a single barrel from a place to another.

Also, if we want to put the icing on the cake, it would be top if NPCs (or at least CERTAIN types of NPCs) would reacted when you are placing explosive shit like barrels suspiciously close to their position.
In a similar way as they already do when they see you stealing stuff/sneaking around them.

Last edited by Tuco; 20/05/21 09:10 AM.

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Originally Posted by Reckem
but once we get further into the game when the encounters are much tougher that Barrelmancy wont make much of a difference.
You’ll just need MORE BARRELS


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Originally Posted by VenusP
Originally Posted by Reckem
but once we get further into the game when the encounters are much tougher that Barrelmancy wont make much of a difference.
You’ll just need MORE BARRELS
I like the way Snrub thinks!


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BIG baddah B O O M !!!!


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