Obsidian's Pillars of Eternity [BETA RELEASED, GO TO THE NEW THREAD]

Oh so you were that faggot in the youtube comments

 

I don't know what you are talking about. I don't have a JewTube account.

Yeah, the cool-downs in IE games were fun. Oh wait...

Have you recovered from your butthurt over DU's negative attitude, yet? I guess not.

 

Exactly. D&D in IE != Dragon Age. Thanks for participating. Now go back to your DU-inflicted butthurt, please.

 

Forgot to include this bit:

Cool-downs confirmed. Enjoy your MMO-influenced shit. It will be glorious watching those little counters or bars refill until you can use your favourite spell or ability again. The zenith of tactical combat in Crap Time with Pause. Obsidian at its best, left to their own devices, free of the shackles of publishers, creating utterly unoriginal generic fantasy trash.

Finally, no more of this "was not Obsidian's fault" bullshit.

 

Oh, you disagree? Perhaps you would even elaborate?

It's also puzzling to me now how a lot of you* are gulping down all this bullshit so unquestioningly. If it came from Bethesda or BioWare, a lot more of you would be up in arms about it, spreading the hate and misery. Not even MCA+TinCan+Sawyer is worth following so blindly, kids. Especially when they are bullshitting you.

Why don't you compile a list of the most critical questions you think might sway potential backers, particularly the Codexers, one way or another and try to reach a consensus on the most important ones that most here would like to know and submit them to Obsidian? You are like sheep on the sacrificial stone, waiting without even knowing what you are waiting for.

*: except for the bros not backing this crap fantasy trash.

 

I'd be surprised( though happily so) if the game doesn't have cooldowns for at least some skills/spells.

 

I just did and it didn't make sense because:

Oh, but right; I'm a troll anyway. Just keep waiting. Is the stone getting any warmer, yet? Your blood will pour and fill the goblets of liars and they will gorge on your meat.

 

Strawman argument. In Baldur's Gate, "new actions" can be performed anytime, overriding and thus cancelling the previous action in progress. You can interrupt your caster's casting for another spell or the waiting time between rounds between casting/fighting/whatevering to move your characters. Therefore, going by the example of Baldur's Gate, you would need a pause condition "when the current action is performed to completion", not "when a new action can be performed" because characters could perform any action at any given time, at various costs (lost rounds or wasted spells etc.). For a context where "a new action that can be performed" to arise, you first need "the new actions" in question to be disabled for an undisclosed amount of time. Now, this might be because certain actions can not be "cancelled" and *must* be completed before anything else can be done but then again, this would not be because "new actions" can be performed at a specific time.

In an attempt to be more reasonable, I'll admit to the fact that they might go after a more versatile and sensible option, such as having stamina/mana/whatever pools which the certain actions would drain and thus become unavailable when not enough stamina/mana is present but even then, I would doubt they would balance it properly to escape the metagamist shackles of the cool-down syndrome. In fact, I think it's more likely that they would do that and additional cool-downs and fuck it up all over the place.

 

There is quite a bit of difference between "Autopuse when you complete the current action" and "Autopause when you can perform a new action". The former doesn't say anything regarding the nature of the other actions. The latter kind of does.

Semantics, I guess.

 

I don't think many people backing Obsidian are expecting much from the combat, have they ever done great combat? If I get another MOTB I'll be happy.

 

TBH I don't know, but I was expecting more. At least some very appealing artworks or anything else than just words. But I don't want to repeat myself ...

 

Indeed... At one point, it would be great to see that they thought this through. For now, it seems they just threw some ideas on a napkin, drinking beers and went yeaahhhh kicksterteeerr yeaaahhh.

 

I think Obsidian needs to be asked these:

- What kind of health/damage system do you intend to have? Straight Hit/Health Points ala IE games?
- Will there be instant-restoration of stats (eg. healing) through commonly available items eg. potions, scrolls?

Will you or do you intend to do or have:

- any layer of social interaction other than talking in dialogue trees?
- unique item descriptions and perhaps art? Descriptions, yes. Art, not sure ATM :
http://www.formspring.me/JESawyer/q/378702272181336199

- environments and environmental objects have descriptions and interactivity similar to Fallout?
- a periodic management of some of the basic needs eg. hunger, thirst, need to sleep, dressing according to warmth and cold and if yes, to what extend do you intend for these conditions to effect the characters?
- any sort of "physiological" resource management to combat, eg. dealing with mana, fatigue, concentration pools?
- any sort of "tactical" customisation in combat, eg. adjusting an offense vs. defence pool or stacking actions for combos with their own bonuses and penalties or similar stuff that are prevalent in PnP RPGs?
- cool-downs for abilities or actions?
- formations that impose bonuses and penalties in combat?
- damage types and thresholds (eg. you just can't cut through plate. you can stick through openings though you need to be very accurate or deal blunt damage though you need to be very strong)
- authentic and tactical depiction of armour and weapons where there will be no one weapon that can do everything in every situation?
- Item maintenance eg. item deterioration, repairs, upgrades and enhancements?
- Crafting and if yes, to what extent?
- Diminishing returns of experience the types of enemy that has been killed one too many times?

Suggestions?

 

I think you guys expect to much. This is basically a pitch. This is what developers go to publishers with to try and get them to invest in the game. I think expecting some screenshots or in game footage when they've just selected an engine is crazy.

 

If a game has optional 'harder' difficulty options, is the game balanced around them being on or off? In my view, these toggle options should be to disable these options, with the game balanced around the fact that they are on by default, not the other way around.

If people want to play with "easy" options, then sure add them to the game. Just don't let them pretend they're still playing a hard game by selecting "normal" difficulty.

 

Huh? What would be the point of implementing the feature and then locking it? Why prevent people from playing the way they want? It wouldn't work anyway. How would you know on a fresh install whether that person has already played the game 100 times before?

 

It's just a pitch, but it's a good pitch. If you don't trust MCA and Cain to make a good game (and after Alpha Brotocol there is some reason to distrust Avellone) then don't donate. If it turns out well you can buy it when it's done.

 

Because the game is meant to be played with a single created character while recruiting your party through the story. Think about PST, you went through a lot of that game without a full party. Starting a new game with 6 created characters might change the balance and stuff. Not to mention the story and background elements you'll probably miss out on. You should play the game the right way first. Then afterward you can try creating a full party and playing through it that way if you want.

You can always load up a save and beat the game real quick or perhaps the game could read your saves that beat the game. I'm sure there also might be a cheat to unlock it too.