The Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice Edition - Obsidian's first-person sci-fi RPG set in a corporate space colony

[Zombra]

Sawya's tweets like "I still have 80 reactivity lines to write for Pallegina" towards the end of production. Which means they have a very "creative" process that in the end it comes down to ticking checkboxes.

As opposed to what? Shooting rainbows from your fingers and having a script magically just "be reactive"? Of course they start with a structural foundation and flesh it out with writing afterwards.

 

[Quillon]

As opposed to writing organically/adding to/editing at the same time. He knows the exact count of what he's gonna write, which means there are already lines written for his character to respond. All he has to do sit down one afternoon and fill the boxes as Pallegina, I'm sure after writing 80 lines for different situations he's able to catch what's missing/wrong etc.

Tho the underlying problem is there is apparently a template dictating & allowing this process. I'm sure its very helpful when writers want to be "more creative" with the template's goal is everything's spreading out evenly and affordably.

 

[Infinitron]

Since this thread has been bumped, what's up with that DLC they talked about in December? Maybe it ends up being a full blown large expansion announced at E3 for release when the game comes out on Steam in October.

 

[Zombra]

As opposed to writing organically/adding to/editing at the same time.

You're dreaming if you think any project of this scale can be written as one big stream of hippie consciousness with no plan and no outline. "Let's hope we find places to put reactivity", and expecting it to not completely fuck over earlier work and cause massive rewrites to make it all fit together ... ain't gonna happen.

 

[Quillon]

As opposed to writing organically/adding to/editing at the same time.

You're dreaming if you think any project of this scale can be written as one big stream of hippie consciousness with no plan and no outline. "Let's hope we find places to put reactivity", and expecting it to not completely fuck over earlier work and cause massive rewrites to make it all fit together ... ain't gonna work.

Yup, but they should be standing in the middle of hippie consciousness and "way too strict" as per now they are at latter end of the spectrum; they don't wanna take risks for anything anymore, they don't wanna overtime/crunch, release buggy game, they don't wanna have their twitter time disrupted etc. Soulless games we get out of it.

 

[Zombra]

They should be standing in the middle of hippie consciousness and "way too strict" as per now they are at latter end of the spectrum; they don't wanna take risks for anything anymore, they don't wanna overtime/crunch, release buggy game, they don't wanna have their twitter time disrupted etc. Soulless games we get out of it.

Don't disagree here. Do disagree that having quotas is in itself an indication that anything is wrong.

 

[Quillon]

TOW made me disillusioned with Obs. "What can we expect from TOW?" x number of journos asked, to them the answer was always "classic obsidian RPG". By then I saw nothing wrong with that statement and thought they were betting on the narrative&setting but the game came out, woke af, everything plays out predictably, even the most impressive quest is predictable, narrative doesn't hook you etc. They bet on all their old tricks in the consolidated RPG making guidelines of nu-Obs and by some miracle with the help of Bethesda they succeeded. They don't have ambition anymore.

When they get unions and shit, creativity will sink across the 'murican game industry.

 

[Vulpes]

"What can we expect from TOW?" x number of journos asked, to them the answer was always "classic obsidian RPG"

That was the first major red flag for me since I don't remember ever hearing them describe any of their prior work in so few words. The fact that they kept vaguely comparing it to New Vegas didn't help either. As a matter of fact, the way the interviews were handled between those two games was the exact opposite. Just compare how excited they were talking about the NCR, Caesar's Legion and their conflict to how vague they were about the corporations and colonists in TOW, the difference is night and day

When they get unions and shit, creativity will sink across the 'murican game industry.

You mean it hasn't already? Oh, my bad. I'll just go back to playing "Open World Multiplayer Survival Game No. 10042945" then

 

[RepHope]

Since this thread has been bumped, what's up with that DLC they talked about in December? Maybe it ends up being a full blown large expansion announced at E3 for release when the game comes out on Steam in October.

They asked what kind of DLC people wanted in that big survey they did a while back. I told them to go big with a Blood & Wine or Shivering Isles type expansion. If that’s what they’re doing it’s going to take a while.

 

[RepHope]

"What can we expect from TOW?" x number of journos asked, to them the answer was always "classic obsidian RPG"

That was the first major red flag for me since I don't remember ever hearing them describe any of their prior work in so few words. The fact that they kept vaguely comparing it to New Vegas didn't help either. As a matter of fact, the way the interviews were handled between those two games was the exact opposite. Just compare how excited they were talking about the NCR, Caesar's Legion and their conflict to how vague they were about the corporations and colonists in TOW, the difference is night and day

When they get unions and shit, creativity will sink across the 'murican game industry.

You mean it hasn't already? Oh, my bad. I'll just go back to playing "Open World Multiplayer Survival Game No. 10042945" then

They were also pretty upfront about not getting to do everything they wanted. Didn’t Boyarsky even say he can’t play the game because all he can see is how much of a decline it is from what he wanted? But yeah the corps are a shitty joke compared to the Legion.

 

[DalekFlay]

Since this thread has been bumped, what's up with that DLC they talked about in December? Maybe it ends up being a full blown large expansion announced at E3 for release when the game comes out on Steam in October.

It'll be interesting what they do, since the game is kind of limited in scope as everyone's been saying. If it was a success and Microsoft wants to capitalize on the franchise, one wonders if the DLC might be an expansion that improves on the main game.

 

[Latelistener]

When they get unions and shit, creativity will sink across the 'murican game industry.

It sank already, especially when some estonian RPG made for spared money took all of the possible awards from Outer Worlds, a AA game led by legendary Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Cross]

TOW made me disillusioned with Obs. "What can we expect from TOW?" x number of journos asked, to them the answer was always "classic obsidian RPG".

Technically, there is no such thing as a 'classic obsidian RPG'. They've only ever made (spiritual) sequels to Bioware/Bethesda games. Which is probably their biggest problem: lack of a creative identity.

 

[FreeKaner]

I noticed that even in pillars & deadfire; whenever there is a reactivity or something, its way too deliberate, screaming: "HEY I AM REACTIVITY, I AM HERE BECAUSE YOU DID THIS REMEMBER, HOW REACTIVE THIS GAME IS! RIGHT? WINK WINK", subtlety goes out the window, a different version of Kojima-exposition/revelation dump but more often + repeated same expositions through different NPCs so dumbfuckest of us all shouldn't miss a thing. In the end it feels cringeworthy and that we're being treated like children yeah.

They need to shift-del their RPG writing guideline doc that has accumulated over the years; they may be thinking its sophisticated but its too stale and predictable at this point and didn't evolve for the better over the last 10 years. Quests in TOW plays out exactly the same as in pillarses, in terms of structure, I can recognize an Obs quest from a mile away

There is a certain anxiety right from the start of Deadfire. Anxiety that players will "accidentally" "miss-out" what they are trying to do, that's why the game starts with 2 cutscenes and one of them from the trailer, then a walk sequence holding your hand through the plotpoints of poe1, then you are sat down explaining what you did and what you are to do. This anxiety persists throughout the whole game, the devs seem to be dead scared that you will not get how to proceed and act like parents trying to guide you through the correct process.

It's part of the same trend in rest of the game, it seems that they did listen to criticism of the first game but they reached all the wrong conclusions, mishandled solutions or overcorrect. It's not enough to listen to criticism, you have to realise how to fix it and you also have to realise that what people directly voice as a criticism might not be the root of the cause but rather an result of it as well. Sawyer of course then gets to say "we just did what the players wanted!" and wash his hands clear of any misdeed.

 

[InD_ImaginE]

It's part of the same trend in rest of the game, it seems that they did listen to criticism of the first game but they reached all the wrong conclusions, mishandled solutions or overcorrect. It's not enough to listen to criticism, you have to realise how to fix it and you also have to realise that what people directly voice as a criticism might not be the root of the cause but rather an result of it as well. Sawyer of course then gets to say "we just did what the players wanted!" and wash his hands clear of any misdeed.

Nah I don't remember specifics, but I think from QnA and interview Josh understand that a lot of design decisions make PoE2 fail. I think he even admitted that some of his design decision is also a problem with the game.

 

[Wunderbar]

cainarsky be like: let's scrap this autism and replace it with only 3 types of ammo and leveled equipment. no one likes sawyer anyway.

 

[HoboForEternity]

cainarsky be like: let's scrap this autism and replace it with only 3 types of ammo and leveled equipment. no one likes sawyer anyway.

and the outer worlds sucks.

 

[Infinitron]

It lives: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/114201-patch-13-coming-soon/

Greetings employees of Halcyon,

We have been hard at work developing fixes and implementing features you all have shared with us, and we are excited to share that we plan to release Patch 1.3 later this week for all platforms. A lot is going in with this patch, but we wanted to share with you a few of the exciting changes you can expect to see when this patch goes live:

Top Community Requests:
UI Changes

• Font Scaling (added a setting to adjust the size of text throughout most UI)
• Ultrawide Support (loading screens & cinematics)
• Improved Font Visibility (coloring)
• Multi Quest Map Tracking (can see inactive quests on the map and select them)
• New Reticle HUD Setting Option "Aiming Only" (ADS or Scoped)
• Fixed the Chromatic Aberration Setting not Saving

Gameplay Changes

• New Invert "X-Axis" Setting
• Added Toggle for Sprinting
• Improved the quality of item drops when killing Manti-Queens
• Fixed the effects of Encumbrance not working correctly with the Confidence Perk

We want to thank you all for the continued feedback and patience while we continue to work to improve your gaming experience.

To continue to report issues you come across and to share suggestions for the game, please visit the Technical Support forums for The Outer Worlds and search to see if a fellow player has already made a thread about it to help reduce duplicate threads. If you find a thread that matches your issue or suggestion, then please feel free to leave a comment and include any details you would like to share.

If you are not able to find a similar thread, then please share it with us on our forums and then visit our publishing partner, Private Division, and share this issue with them through their support website. This will help ensure that your specific issue or suggestion is in their queue and will allow us to prioritize requests to provide the fastest possible turnaround time.

Thank you all again, spacers. You are a fantastic community, and we are so excited to have you here with us helping to share your feedback, suggestions, and reports.

 

[AwesomeButton]

TOW made me disillusioned with Obs. "What can we expect from TOW?" x number of journos asked, to them the answer was always "classic obsidian RPG". By then I saw nothing wrong with that statement and thought they were betting on the narrative&setting but the game came out, woke af, everything plays out predictably, even the most impressive quest is predictable, narrative doesn't hook you etc. They bet on all their old tricks in the consolidated RPG making guidelines of nu-Obs and by some miracle with the help of Bethesda they succeeded. They don't have ambition anymore.

When they get unions and shit, creativity will sink across the 'murican game industry.

Obsidian - when creative recession (4 uninspired games in a row) meets midlife crisis.

 

[DalekFlay]

Amazing to me how big console gamers want the HUD. I'm guessing they play on 55" televisions or even smaller, from a far distance across the room or something. Good on Obsidian for making it an options scale though, instead of increasing the size for everyone. It's already too big on PC.

They should add official options to turn HUD elements off too, as they clutter the screen and most of them are pointless. Thankfully on PC you can edit them out of the .ini file, but it should be a real option.

 

[Zombra]

Weird to me that the devs specifically put in a disable HUD feature to take screenshots with, then buried it under 10 clicks and 20 seconds of scrolling every time you want to do it. Why no hotkey?

 

[Daidre]

Weird to me that the devs specifically put in a disable HUD feature to take screenshots with, then buried it under 10 clicks and 20 seconds of scrolling every time you want to do it. Why no hotkey?

There are not enough buttons on controllers to hotkey something so trivial.
Obsidian probably do not believe someone would play it on KB + Mouse.

 

[Orma]

 

[Zombra]

So I did buy this and started three playthroughs with different "rules" to try to enjoy the reactivity and freedom.

#1: "Pacifist" playthrough with a talky/stealthy character. No direct attacks allowed, no companion attacks allowed. Be nice, try to help anyone who asks you, avoid criminal activity, side with the "good guys".

#2: "Barbarian" playthrough with a pure melee fighter. Be mean to everyone, don't work with companions, cut conversations short, ignore instructions, skip quests unless there's something in it for you, level up, ruin your reputation with everyone, get tougher and look for opportunities to prove how tough you are.

#3: "Normal" mercenary playthrough with a selfish gunslinger. Always demand money, take jobs, hunt bounties, etc.

Playthrough #1 is currently (permanently?) stalled due to a cheap undercooked quest, where a hostage has been taken. The thugs are standing around talking to the hostage about "who will pay a good ransom for you", but there is no opportunity for the player to actually offer a ransom or talk to the thugs at all even though they are clearly intelligent and would prefer profit to mindless lethal combat. Sneaking up to try to cut the hostage free also simply doesn't work - he is magically welded to the chair until his captors are dead. I even tried distracting the thugs by luring nearby monsters to the area, but it turns out that savage man-eating apes have no interest in fighting marauders - the two groups instead fight side by side in a unified effort to kill a dangerous common enemy: a harmless girl running away from them.

#2 is going pretty good. I was especially impressed with the huge side option after Edgewater, where Phineas tells you you have to go get a navigation key to go to this one city. Instead you can say fuck it, I'll just land somewhere random on the planet and walk from there, using a completely different route. This is a super cool optional path that bypasses that whole space station completely. The downside: this character has no motivation to work for Phineas at all. I don't care about resurrecting the other colonists, but there's nowhere to step off these railroad tracks. Gameplay wise it completely works though.

#3 of course is fine, very much in the how this was really intended to be played vein, but predictably very formulaic.