The stronghold, at the very least. It was a major problem in the first game to have your base of operations be a thing that you had to return to with travel time, so it’s a significant course correction to have it come with you.
Sure but that's a mechanics improvement that people aren't going to realise because they never bought the game.... because an Age of Sail / Pirates setting has never been popular in CRPGs. They should have stuck with high fantasy.
Having a turn-based mode as an option is always welcome especially with large parties but again... people need to play the game to get a feel for any potential improvements there. They didn't buy it, didn't play it, and still didn't do either when turn-based was added.
Larian had zero reason to change a winning formula so I'm not sure why that factors in your mind? Literally a "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".
I agree that budget isn't the defining difference, the setting is. DOS2 starts you off on a ship then dumps you on a tropical island. Did it suffer? No... because their game is clearly not a Pirates (Age of Sail) game. You even see a shot of the characters on a big ship during the trailer but then go straight back to combat on land.
There are many discussions on this particular issue and John absolutely refuses to acknowledge it because he likes the setting.
I didn’t like the gunpowder in PoE1 but could overlook it.
I absolutely hated the initial impression I got that PoE2 was an Age of Sail sort of setting. I wanted more in depth Castle and town building with story not to trade it in for a leaky ship.
It was never a mechanics or art or story thing for me… because I have never bought it and I’m hardly alone there.
I’m simply not interested in ships, guns and naval settings in RPGs.
Sounds like he made poor choices, got Nissan into financial troubles and somehow thinks he’s negotiating on even footing with the much larger and healthier manufacturer Honda.
Temperatures during a fever can go high enough to damage cells and interferes with normal functions, it also interferes with viral, bacterial and fungal replication and other mechanics.
Not all chemistry ‘works better’ at higher temperatures with many proteins only functioning well within very narrow temperature ranges.
The US is now the single greatest threat to Western societies.
Current US allies need to be forging stronger alliances outside of the US sphere of influence, begin removing US bases, and withdraw from intelligence sharing agreements such as Five Eyes.
Yes, that’s how computers work. Like all other depreciating assets.