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KickStarter Pathologic 2 (AKA Pathologic remake)

PrettyDeadman

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Maybe some kind of outrage can be manufactured on resetera to boost game popularity with alt-right zoomers?
 

prengle

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Ok. Here is a slightly edited google translation of Dybowsky's comments on Pathologic 2 and the release of two additional storylines.

We talked about the future, the past and the present. What about the new Pathologic?

Not everything is as good and smooth as one would like. As Nikolai Dybovsky said, at the moment when fans of the original game asked them to do a remake, they (Ice-Pick) thought it would be easy. Indeed, you just need to transfer the existing project to new technologies, and you don’t have to worry about success, as there is a big fan base. Is it so? As it turned out -- no. According to Dybovsky, the original gameplay turned out to be very outdated, so they had to redo a lot of the game in order to get the same feeling, which the original game had in 2005. And despite all the efforts, transferring to a new engine, laudatory reviews and love from the fans of the original, commercially the game didn't succeed. As for the two other characters who were in the original game, but are not present in the second part, their release may be very delayed, and in the worst case, cancelled altogether. Also, Nikolai adviced to young (an not so young as well) developers never do what their fans are asking for, according to him this is not a rewarding task. He also said that they would no longer make games similar to Pathologic or other projects that they had done before. According to him, games of this type are hopelessly outdated. While these games have their own fans, and some people like it and want more such titles, those people are just a minority, and even Dybovsky himself is already tired of such games.

Source

not only is that an old interview by now, but this wasn't even a transcript, just some shitty game journo being insanely misleading and incorrectly summarizing information from one of dybowski's talks (the stuff about nikolay wanting to move away from traditional games is unfortunately true i think, but the journalist later admitted that he never said the other two routes would be delayed/canceled)

it looks like mandalore did tinybuild's marketing job for them so i'm hoping things aren't as grim as they seem
 

Jenkem

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Make the Codex Great Again! Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. I helped put crap in Monomyth
7126E173724640C8002CCACCE938DA89B552B6F0
 

prengle

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Jinn

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Uh, the only things about that post that seem bad is that some of the team left and that they are working on some mobile title. Dybowski is still there with other key members of the team and they're continuing work to try to release the other two campaigns. With that Mandalore video, I'm sure they got a decent boost in sales and probably some lifelong fans. Ice-Pick Studios will survive.
 

Wunderbar

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Uh, the only things about that post that seem bad is that some of the team left and that they are working on some mobile title.
in that DTF interview Dybovski states that they are going to reduce team to just 4-5 employees. Bachelor's and Changelling's campaigns are going to be drastically redesigned since no one wants to replay a 30 hours-long hard survival game.
 

Jinn

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Bachelor's and Changelling's campaigns are going to be drastically redesigned since no one wants to replay a 30 hours-long hard survival game.

Re-designed how? To be shorter or just drastically different from Haruspex campaign?
 

Jinn

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"completely different genre". Maybe they'll improve stealth and will cut combat for Changelling, or something like that.

I don't really like the sounds of that, as I was looking forward to the proper multiple playthroughs, but maybe they'll do something really good anyway....
 

Jenkem

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"completely different genre". Maybe they'll improve stealth and will cut combat for Changelling, or something like that.

I don't really like the sounds of that, as I was looking forward to the proper multiple playthroughs, but maybe they'll do something really good anyway....

It could just mean that the different characters will have different enough gameplay that they feel like different genres.. It was also right after the game launched to lackluster sales, so naturally Russian pessimism was creeping in. The image I posted was from today and directly refutes most of what was in that three month old interview, so you can also take it with a grain of salt until they announce something.
 

Wunderbar

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It was also right after the game launched to lackluster sales, so naturally Russian pessimism was creeping in. The image I posted was from today and directly refutes most of what was in that three month old interview, so you can also take it with a grain of salt until they announce something.
Dybovski said in comments that other devs answered them 3 months ago, while he wrote his answers recently
 
Last edited:
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I can't stop playing this game. It is so much more engaging compared to the first, and I love that one to bits despite its tedium. However, I can't tell if I ran into a bug or just missed something.

What exactly am I supposed to do to get the panacea at the end of day 6? After Rubin died I looked up how to save him and turns out I was supposed to receive a map marker in a dream or something but I got no such thing. The last thing I did to follow that lead was taking the bull's blood sample to the Bachelor. I did *not* test all the antibiotic tinctures but I thought that was a dead end anyway?
 
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Oh sweet, I just figured out the trigger

You must test tinctures made from at least 3 infected organs. I had already tested 2 and just happened to have one on hand so I don't even have to replay day 6! Dab.
 

HansDampf

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I can't stop playing this game. It is so much more engaging compared to the first, and I love that one to bits despite its tedium. However, I can't tell if I ran into a bug or just missed something.

What exactly am I supposed to do to get the panacea at the end of day 6? After Rubin died I looked up how to save him and turns out I was supposed to receive a map marker in a dream or something but I got no such thing. The last thing I did to follow that lead was taking the bull's blood sample to the Bachelor. I did *not* test all the antibiotic tinctures but I thought that was a dead end anyway?
How does Rubin die?
 
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I can't stop playing this game. It is so much more engaging compared to the first, and I love that one to bits despite its tedium. However, I can't tell if I ran into a bug or just missed something.

What exactly am I supposed to do to get the panacea at the end of day 6? After Rubin died I looked up how to save him and turns out I was supposed to receive a map marker in a dream or something but I got no such thing. The last thing I did to follow that lead was taking the bull's blood sample to the Bachelor. I did *not* test all the antibiotic tinctures but I thought that was a dead end anyway?
How does Rubin die?

If you don't develop the panacea, he dies on Inquisitor's arrival (so at 7:30 on the 7th day.) I haven't played far enough into that timeline to know if he commits suicide or simply gives himself to the Inquisitor, but I remember in Bachelor's storyline in the original he wanted to do the latter as he basically broke every taboo in the book by stealing and dissecting Simon's body, which ended up being fruitless. I guess developing the panacea gives him enough hope to persist.
 
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Speaking of the Inquisitor, I kind of wish that they remade the original's arrival cinematic. They are obviously going for a slightly different tone this time around, so I understand why they didn't, but I just find the original one very endearing in spite of the terrible character models. The army arrival cinematic is likewise pretty neat (haven't seen its version in 2 yet.)



 
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Just to sperg out a little more:

Since there is some speculation about the "completely different genre" comment, I figure I should mention that in the same interview, Nikolai wrote the following:
"Никогда нельзя пытаться угодить «чужой аудитории» — в итоге и им не угодишь, и себе изменишь."
"One should never try to appease a "foreign audience ((that is to say people outside of your core audience; he is not referring to nationality here))" - ultimately you will only cheat/change yourself and won't satisfy them."

He said this in the context of their decision to start Haruspex' campaign with a flash forward to Day 12 in order to dissuade people from dropping the game after the first hour(s) due to the relatively unexciting first day (he actually considers what they did a mistake in hindsight), but hopefully this indicates a refusal to compromise their vision again, even if the new campaigns are going to be mechanically or thematically different from the first.

I personally wouldn't mind if characters had dramatically different challenges and abilities, even if that meant that some of Haruspex' mechanics would be dropped in exchange for new, equally engaging ones. For example, it would sort of make sense if Changeling didn't have to worry about, say, hunger or exhaustion, as long as there was some additional pressure that "took over" the rest of the challenge, so to speak - like her constant reputation drain from the original, only perhaps more interesting - or if the Bachelor received a "lifeline" of consumables from the Kains on the daily (like Haruspex' fund on steroids) but risked losing it all unless he stayed loyal to them and played politics (which could mean turning down favors from the Olgimsky's or Saburov's, for example). That's just two ways how IPL could make the survival mechanics less demanding in future campaigns without compromising the game's overall challenge or themes.
 

Jaedar

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Project: Eternity Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pathfinder: Kingmaker
He said this in the context of their decision to start Haruspex' campaign with a flash forward to Day 12 in order to dissuade people from dropping the game after the first hour(s) due to the relatively unexciting first day (he actually considers what they did a mistake in hindsight), but hopefully this indicates a refusal to compromise their vision again, even if the new campaigns are going to be mechanically or thematically different from the first.
Elaborate on this?
I think the flash-forward works quite well to immediately set the stakes.
 
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He said this in the context of their decision to start Haruspex' campaign with a flash forward to Day 12 in order to dissuade people from dropping the game after the first hour(s) due to the relatively unexciting first day (he actually considers what they did a mistake in hindsight), but hopefully this indicates a refusal to compromise their vision again, even if the new campaigns are going to be mechanically or thematically different from the first.
Elaborate on this?
I think the flash-forward works quite well to immediately set the stakes.

I personally found them effective (although I do hope they have the budget or intent to recreate Bachelor's intro when that rolls around), but let me quote the relevant bit from the translation that was linked above:

"Pathologic always had a very slow entre: the epidemic begins only on the third day, that is, it is preceded by four hours of immersion in a normal, painless life, where people have completely different worries and troubles. I always liked it very much: it is impossible to show the drama of the epidemic (which not only kills people, but also frighteningly changes their way of life, habits and moral attitudes) without contrast of what preceded it.

After the re-release of the first Pathologic as “Classic HD”, we noticed that even invested streamers quit the game after the first hour: they say, where are the adventures? Nothing happens, only conversations everywhere!

We decided to make a flashforward and show the epidemic and strangeness of the city immediately, from the first shots specially for the sake of these impatient players. In the “Marble Nest” this technique worked successfully (but the “Marble Nest” was thought up from the very beginning as a “nightmare”, as a fragment, and there the technique was appropriate).

But repeating it in the main game was perhaps a mistake. Moreover, as we see, this did not save the situation at all: people still either accept this game at once and as a whole (with any entry barrier), or do not accept at all. You should never try to please a “foreign audience” - in the end, you will not please them, and you won’t please yourself.

Nevertheless, we did everything possible so that these flashforwards fit well into the plot, so the game did not become worse: it just became so different that at the last stage of development it was foolish to hold onto the old structure - on the contrary, it was interesting to try new moves: what if it works out?"

Should note that the bolded part actually read "Но повторять его в основной игре, пожалуй, было ошибкой," which I understand more as a firmer declaration of error because 'пожалуй' ('perhaps') in this context reads as a kind of tactful flourish rather than something that is actually supposed to doubt the conclusion of the statement...if that makes any sense. My interpretation would, perhaps, (you see what I did there HEHCEHCEHCE) somewhat contradict the last paragraph so perhaps it is incorrect, and besides my ability to understand the nuances of the language has faded with time so perhaps someone else can interpret the sentence more confidently.
 
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Game seems to have gotten a shot in the arm thanks to Mandalore's video. It was briefly in the top sellers list for GoG.
 

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