Pillars of Eternity Director's Commentary Streams with Josh Sawyer

[Sentinel]

they've been live for a while twitch.tv/obsidian

 

[Infinitron]

Whoops:

 

[Infinitron]

So yeah, that wasn't incredibly interesting. Josh ignored some of my questions but I'm also kind of running out of good questions to ask. It'll be good when PoE2 is finally officially announced and he can stop being coy about things.

 

[Quillon]

I couldn't think of a question to ask, asked about customizable AI at the last minute aaand it requires too much resources as most other things...

 

[jaydee2k]

So yeah, that wasn't incredibly interesting. Josh ignored some of my questions but I'm also kind of running out of good questions to ask. It'll be good when PoE2 is finally officially announced and he can stop being coy about things.

You should have known that he's bored from your questions since the last episode...

 

[Shadenuat]

I can't unsee using Iconic Projection & Ghost summon against ice monsters.

 

[Sentinel]

It's time for them to stop doing these streams.
we're 3 streams in and people were running out of questions. Most questions were repeated and most answers were "yeah that'd be cool but we don't have time or know how to do that shit".

 

[Fairfax]

I watched a bit of the stream and it was pretty boring. There was a good question about a tropical setting, which sounds really cool, but Sawyer dismissed it as too hard, just like most of the questions there and in the Codex interview. With that kind of mentality and a potentially less talented team, PoE2 will probably be the ultimate more of the same sequel rather than the BG1->BG2 jump some are expecting.

 

[Infinitron]

There was a good question about a tropical setting, which sounds really cool, but Sawyer dismissed it as too hard

? That doesn't make any sense. I watched the entire thing and don't remember anything like that. Perhaps you're referring to his references to implementing specific environmental weather effects or something like that.

 

[Fairfax]

There was a good question about a tropical setting, which sounds really cool, but Sawyer dismissed it as too hard

? That doesn't make any sense. I watched the entire thing and don't remember anything like that. Perhaps you're referring to his references to implementing specific weather effects or something like that.

What? It's right there in the chat, you even told the guy it was a good question.

Sawyer said it would be hard because of the vegetation and that they tested it early on, but it didn't work well. I was skimming through the vod, but I'm pretty sure he was talking about tropical scenes.

 

[Infinitron]

There was a good question about a tropical setting, which sounds really cool, but Sawyer dismissed it as too hard

? That doesn't make any sense. I watched the entire thing and don't remember anything like that. Perhaps you're referring to his references to implementing specific weather effects or something like that.

What? It's right there in the chat, you even told the guy it was a good question.

Sawyer said it would be hard because of the vegetation and that they tested it early on, but it didn't work well. I was skimming through the vod, but I'm pretty sure he was talking about tropical scenes.

Oh, he was probably talking about the trees that moved in the wind in very early Pillars of Eternity 1 footage. They ended up not being able to do that and some people were upset.

In general, since PoE2 isn't officially announced yet and Josh insists on pretending it's a secret, it's kind of understandable that he's deflecting questions away by turning them into theoretical debates about technical issues. But we've also seen this:

 

[vortex]

Now I have watched the whole stream part 3 and Infinitron's interview questions. Combined with long codex JS interview (http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=10493) this could happen to be the longest interview in gaming history ever. It's started in 2016 and continued in 2017 in Obsidian streams. And yet, it's still not finished. Part 4 is coming soon...

 

[Sentinel]

That answer to the mages and utility spells (invis, time stop, levitation and using them in dialogue/combat) makes me believe PoE2 won't see any major improvements over PoE1.

Seems like none of these devs know what made their past games good. Reminds me of DICE asking fans what they liked so much about Bad Company, because they couldn't tell themselves.

 

[Infinitron]

Wot. He said he wouldn't want to create spells that can only be used in dialogue and scripted sequences. The past games didn't even let you use the ones that are also useful in combat (like the White March does)

 

[Quillon]

There was a good question about a tropical setting, which sounds really cool, but Sawyer dismissed it as too hard,

I found it strange that he dismissed it too hard, saying weather effects are hard to author etc when not long ago he did a presentation with a weather effects section, how to do it etc.

 

[Sentinel]

Wot. He said he wouldn't want to create spells that can only be used in dialogue and scripted sequences. The past games didn't even let you use the ones that are also useful in combat (like the White March does)

He said he didn't want classes to have exclusive access to extremely powerful spells like time stop and invisibility and would rather relegate them to scrolls that anyone can use.
I don't even think he mentioned dialogue at all.

 

[Infinitron]

Eh? You just said that he did:

(invis, time stop, levitation and using them in dialogue

He said that if characters were to be given the ability to levitate in dialogue/scripted sequences, he'd prefer it be with the use of an item, like crowbars and ropes in PoE. That has nothing to do with spells that might have combat applications like time stop and invisibility.

BTW, he also said that theoretically you could have Wizard spells (not other spellcasting classes, just Wizards) that are only useful in dialogue/scripted sequences, because Wizard scrolls are also items that can be found in the world like crowbars (so a player wouldn't get them by wasting points on a non-combat ability on level-up). I kinda doubt that will happen, though.

 

[Sentinel]

Eh? You just said that he did:

(invis, time stop, levitation and using them in dialogue

He said that if characters were to be given the ability to levitate in dialogue/scripted sequences, he'd prefer it be with the use of an item, like crowbars and ropes in PoE. That has nothing to do with spells that might have combat applications like time stop and invisibility.

BTW, he also said that theoretically you could have Wizard spells (not other spellcasting classes, just Wizards) that are only useful in dialogue/scripted sequences, because wizard scrolls are also items you find in the world (so a player wouldn't be choosing an ability on level-up that can't be used in combat). I kinda doubt that will happen, though.

The question he was asked separated the usage of those spells in combat and dialogue. The guy first asked about them for combat, and then "What about using them in dialogue?". Sawyer didn't mention shit for dialogue usage. Just like he dodged the very same question on the previous stream with a "would be cool, but we have no time for that because there's so many options possible dude lmao i dont actually wanna put in effort".

 

[Infinitron]

He explicitly compared those theoretical magical ability items to PoE's crowbars and ropes, so he couldn't have been talking about anything other than dialogue.

Of course it's kind of funny to get mad about the idea of relegating powerful magical abilities to items that anybody can use. Invisibility potions, anybody?

 

[Sentinel]

He explicitly compared those theoretical magical ability items to PoE's crowbars and ropes, so he couldn't have been talking about anything other than dialogue.

Of course it's kind of funny to get mad about the idea of relegating powerful magical abilities to items that anybody can use. Invisibility potions, anybody?

He didn't at all.

Infinitron, be honest. Feargus promised you a share of the profits made from PoE2 sales, didn't he?

 

[Infinitron]

I get it, you're too lazy to search through the video and you want me to do the work. OK, I'll oblige.

 

[Sentinel]

Of course it's kind of funny to get mad about the idea of relegating powerful magical abilities to items that anybody can use. Invisibility potions, anybody?

Yeah, no one wants classes to have any personality or identity whatsoever.
Everyone had so much fun with PoE's interesting and entertaining spells.

 

[Fairfax]

There was a good question about a tropical setting, which sounds really cool, but Sawyer dismissed it as too hard,

I found it strange that he dismissed it too hard, saying weather effects are hard to author etc when not long ago he did a presentation with a weather effects section, how to do it etc.

It wasn't surprising, to be honest. Even if he knows there's a decent chance it could work out, he's not passionate and ambitious enough to take the risk. He's clearly not willing to go very far unless it's something he can try to fix on his own, like systems design. He'll play it safe with everything else, and that's why PoE2 will be much more Icewind Dale 4 than Baldur's Gate 3.

 

[Quillon]

he's not passionate and ambitious enough to take the risk.

Maybe he is also saving his passion and ambition for his historical rpg beside the cool historical lore bits which can be adapted into pillows also.

 

[Infinitron]

Which sounds more likely to you?

1) Josh Sawyer went to the effort of giving a full-blown talk about implementing fancy weather effects, but now he's going to throw all of it away because you heard him say the words "hard to do" in a livestream.
2) The game isn't announced yet and he's keeping his cards close to his chest.

Sawyer said it would be hard because of the vegetation and that they tested it early on, but it didn't work well. I was skimming through the vod, but I'm pretty sure he was talking about tropical scenes.

Oh, he was probably talking about the trees that moved in the wind in very early Pillars of Eternity 1 footage.

Yup: https://www.twitch.tv/obsidian/v/112158558?t=48m40s