I can't quite get into DOS2

[snuggleform]

My path of crpgs was

Wasteland 3 -> POE1 -> POE2 -> dip toes in DOS1 -> skip to DOS2

I'm on story mode (the easiest setting).

I find myself overwhelmed and annoyed by a wide variety of things. Can you guys convince me otherwise? I'm 12 hours deep into DOS2, close to escaping act 1. My myriad issues are

- no button that highlights all objects/NPCs. The alt key highlights some objects that are on the floor, but I've easily missed many NPCs and other interactable objects that aren't revealed by the alt key. They just blend into the background unless I spend a few minutes on each screen scrutinizing for them. In POE1/2 I was super accustomed to the tab key showing everything relevant to click on

- having to rotate the camera constantly to not miss things. The default key bindings suck hard (should be on Q and E which like xcom which I switched to) but ok fine I changed them, but the issue is still I have to rotate every which way to make sure I didn't miss an important doorway or something. For example, in the mysterious cave I totally missed the super important statue in the room adjacent to the treasure room because I was rotated the wrong way. I only found out because I was reading information online. Even on the tutorial I almost gave up because the game never told me to rotate the camera to see a second switch I needed to press.

- overwhelming inventory management. Too many objects, and what's worse is the merchant system encourages you to figure out who best to sell to so you stack your favor with them. I find myself with a bewildering array of items and I don't even know who to sell it to. What's worse is as I pick items up they just decide to add themselves to my hotbar so I'm totally overwhelmed with the combat options do I use this do I use that omg.

- quests frequently require metagaming (reading faqs/watching videos) to figure out. On the one hand I do appreciate not having quest markers which are a bit too easy, but I'll give you one example withermore. I was able to find his soul jar just fine, but at that point I was expecting him to give me a way out of fort joy, as he told me. It turns out, he helps you like 4 hours later on some optional quest in braccus tower. He doesn't tell you where to go or how or when he will help you. I was like what? There are many quests like this.

Does the game get more enjoyable? I'm pretty frustrated always thinking about my inventory and always walking around in fear of not clearing an area properly due to camera rotating/lack of highlighting key.

[knowbot]

- Pressing ALT highlights most interactable stuff, and in the Settings -> Gameplay section you can choose characters to have highlights and circles.

- Camera rotating takes a while, but ther's not much to be done there. Personally I bound my spacebar to the "Center camera" command, helps a lot when you feel lost.

- You could use one of the Giftbag features (menu option while in-game) to enable loot-specific bags in your inventory. You can also manage what is/is not auto-added to your hotbar in your Gameplay settings.

- Idk about that, I do a lot of metagaming by habit but a lot of stuff is there for replayability I guess. Reading books and notes also helps, as well as talking to many NPCs. That's more of a matter of patience.

Personally, I'd go for an Origin character solo/duo playthrough for the first time so you can focus on learning the game. I am also available if you wanna play :D

[snuggleform]

Another annoyance I have is you can't move your center of attention by clicking on the map. If you click on the map it thinks you want to make a marker there; I don't. I want to skip to that location to look at the terrain. I have to manually scroll the map around which is quite annoying.

[Chaoslink]

As much as you’re not going to like this answer, the whole worrying about missing things situation has one simple solution. Accept it. You’re going to miss things. It will happen. There’s even things you won’t be able to do no matter what because you don’t have a certain requirement. You can’t do everything, you will miss things. It’s just the way it is. Don’t freak out. That important statue near the treasure room? There’s another one somewhere else. You probably wouldn’t miss both. If you do, the game accounts for that and has a solution waiting for you later. Other things you might miss are optional. Turn off Google and just play. The issue here is that you’re making a big deal out of things that really aren’t.

[snuggleform]

It doesn't help they added those 4 extra sets/quests in fort joy that are like impossble to figure out for new players.

[Chaoslink]

Can’t really see how the sets are all that difficult to figure out. Other than them being spread across different acts they’re pretty straightforward.

[snuggleform]

Braccus maze was another disheartening quest, I somehow missed a switch to progress which required me to look up the puzzle. Also the dragon quest, I couldn't find the witch cave because he gave me no directions where to look.

Does the game get more enjoyable?

I don't mind missing a thing or two (poe 1 and 2 were certainly like this) but this game feels much more frusrtating for some reason in that regard.

[Chaoslink]

Originally posted by snuggleform:

Braccus maze was another disheartening quest, I somehow missed a switch to progress which required me to look up the puzzle. Also the dragon quest, I couldn't find the witch cave because he gave me no directions where to look.

Does the game get more enjoyable?

I don't mind missing a thing or two (poe 1 and 2 were certainly like this) but this game feels much more frusrtating for some reason in that regard.

I think I figured this issue out for you. You’re using the journal. It isn’t really a quest log that tells you what to do next. The dragon doesn’t tell you where to go because he doesn’t necessarily know where she went. Therefore, you are expected to just go looking for her. With over 900 hours played I could pretty much count on my fingers the number of times I’ve opened the quest journal. Just explore. Don’t worry about objectives until you think you’re done with the area and use the remaining quests to figure out what might still be doable.

[snuggleform]

Does the game get more enjoyable?

I remember both poe1 and 2 were also extremely uphill for the first few hours, but eventually I really got into the systems and enjoyed it. Still hasn't clicked and I'm worried it won't for dos 2.

[Chaoslink]

Maybe not. I mean, many players who liked the first end up not liking the second as much, but that's almost always because of the armor system. You wouldn't necessarily be the first I've seen that didn't like things regarding the quests and all that, but I've never really seen quite the same kinds of complaints like what you have here.

[snuggleform]

Armor system does bother me because Im running 3 physicals 1 magic, and the magic always feels like a third wheel not doing much damage since it has to penetrate through magic armor on its own.

Another thing I hate is I feel the need to constantly quicksave every 2 seconds because of scripted encounters that I cannot foresee. So many times I've had to restart because the enemy surrpises you and you're all bunched up and get aoed to death. It seems like the only two options are to savescum like mad, or play completely awkwardly by unchaining one guy to scout ahead in sneak mode while the 3 others hide behind in case something weird happens.

[D-Jak]

Well, tastes are different. Maybe this game is not for you. I played PoE 2 for about 10h and then stopped, couldn't get into it. DOS2 on the other hand for me is one of the best rpgs ever. If not the best.

[snuggleform]

Another reason I don't like it is you are forced to talk to every NPC with every character in your party, for fear of missing out on quests or items.

For example, the undead merchant in fort joy gives iban a crossbow only if you talk to him with iban, AND the game gives you no indication of this otherwise (he does not "butt in" to ask to talk to him).

The game SOMETIMES butts in with other characters to tell you there's something they want to talk to the npc about but exxceptions like the undead merchant make me paranoid and talk to everyone with every character, which is clunky.

[Dust]

Originally posted by KnowBot:

- Pressing ALT highlights most interactable stuff, and in the Settings -> Gameplay section you can choose characters to have highlights and circles

I'll add that there's a mod in the workshop that adds the 500 or so remaining objects that wouldn't display for some reason to the highlight function.

[Wyrlish]

Originally posted by snuggleform:

Another reason I don't like it is you are forced to talk to every NPC with every character in your party, for fear of missing out on quests or items.

For example, the undead merchant in fort joy gives iban a crossbow only if you talk to him with iban, AND the game gives you no indication of this otherwise (he does not "butt in" to ask to talk to him).

The game SOMETIMES butts in with other characters to tell you there's something they want to talk to the npc about but exxceptions like the undead merchant make me paranoid and talk to everyone with every character, which is clunky.

Not quite sure why your game is bugging out but generally I've always had characters butt in when there is a quest specific person that I was about to talk to.... Like every time I've gone to talk to... Zaleskar is the undead guys name I think... Ifan interjects and asks to speak with him.

[gregfromthepeg]

I can't say if you will start liking it more. I had some frustrating moments early on when I couldn't beat any fights until I finally managed to explore enough and get decent gear, But once I was halfway through Fort Joy, I was absolutely hooked. Meanwhile, I lasted about 12 hours on POE2 and haven't picked up since. We all have preferences.

I can't give you any tips on the movement as I use a controller. And the inventory is definitely a lot. Use backpacks to keep stuff in. Select all your food etc at the same time and put it into backpacks. There is a point where you will be able to store stuff at a spot and not have to carry everything in your inventory. That may ease the feeling of being overwhelmed by so much stuff.

As for quests, know that the important quests have many, many ways to be completed. And other quests are often unnecessary. For instance, getting through the maze before Braccus Tower was annoying until I realized I could just jump everywhere and not care about those skulls and traps. I found quests I had never seen before and different ways to solve them through at least 3 playthroughs, maybe more.

I seem to recall looking up a few things from guides for puzzles or finding something but not too much. I did occasionally look up help for a few fights, because, well, I didn't want to break my controller.

I would say stick with it, but I am biased and love this game, which I may consider my favourite of all time.