Eternity Pillars of Eternity + The White March Expansion Thread

[almondblight]

Good written for a video game is utilitarian, it works towards the benefit of a game. Trying to get failed novelists to try to imitate their idea of a good book is a recipe for failure. Maybe it satisfies people who are desperately trying to get validation by having video games labelled "art," but those people's goals run counter to the goal of having good games.

Pillars would probably have been a much more enjoyable game if they ditched the professional writers and got some veteran DM's to design some interesting scenarios and provide some utilitarian writing.

 

[AwesomeButton]

But Maneha does have some Americanisms and I'd say she's the worst of the bunch.

Yeah, I remember she was the worst, but I've forgotten any examples I had.

 

[Roguey]

Can't really blame Sawyer for short-circuiting after getting the mandate to fully voice Deadfire.

Didn't that mandate happen late in the process? So the terrible words were already written. Sawyer wore too many hats and with Fenstermaker checking out they had no narrative lead to enforce "these characters should not talk like people from the 21st century."

 

[AwesomeButton]

Pillars would probably have been a much more enjoyable game if they ditched the professional writers and got some veteran DM's to design some interesting scenarios and provide some utilitarian writing.

But then the problem would arise that they would have to "onboard" him and adapt him to their RPG manufacturing process. It's sad to even think this. By the time of The Outer Worlds Obsidian had turned into BioWare of Dragon Age and Mass Effect days (but with less money), in the way their RPGs were like clones of each other.

 

[Nano]

Didn't that mandate happen late in the process? So the terrible words were already written. Sawyer wore too many hats and with Fenstermaker checking out they had no narrative lead to enforce "these characters should not talk like people from the 21st century."

Oh, I thought we were talking about voice acting. Because Maneha's voice acting was pretty terrible. Her "actress" wasn't even acting, she was just talking into the microphone.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Sawyer wore too many hats and with Fenstermaker checking out they had no narrative lead to enforce "these characters should not talk like people from the 21st century."

Still sounds kind of ridiculous as an explanation, but it's a done deal.

 

[Delterius]

BTW, the fact all the Vailia people are Africans when the culture is obviously inspired by Renaissance Italy is cultural appropriation. This is an outrage.

actually they are not. vailia is humans and dwarves, mostly ocean folk but since it's relatively close to aedyr there's meadow folk in there as well. just as there are ocean folk in aedyr.

like i said there's no Dwarf Kingdom or Human Kingdom. pillars' world is made up of nations, empires and civilizations.

 

[purupuru]

two white skin tones

Just curious, how many different white color do you want? I was under the impression that white is literally just one color, maybe also slightly tanned since its skin color we are talking about, but apparently there should be a whole spectrum of "white"? Like a white rainbow or something?

 

[pomenitul]

I was going to say 'do not feed the troll' but then this entire website would evaporate.

 

[Lacrymas]

two white skin tones

Just curious, how many different white color do you want? I was under the impression that white is literally just one color, maybe also slightly tanned since its skin color we are talking about, but apparently there should be a whole spectrum of "white"? Like a white rainbow or something?

 

[Lacrymas]

I was going to say 'do not feed the troll' but then this entire website would evaporate.

The funny part is that I'm sure he isn't trolling and is 100% honest.

 

[AwesomeButton]

like i said there's no Dwarf Kingdom or Human Kingdom.

This has always been a pretty weak idea, although I liked PoE's setting in general.

 

[Delterius]

like i said there's no Dwarf Kingdom or Human Kingdom.

This has always been a pretty weak idea, although I liked PoE's setting in general.

?

 

[TedNugent]

As long as every character doesn't have an upper class English accent, Jesus I hate that trend, especially in high fantasy settings.

 

[Lyric Suite]

There's an easy solution to that problem. Don't fucking voice anything.

I don't understand where they got this idea that they HAVE to do that. And it's not just the massive burden that it imposes on the writers, but it also limits the writing in other ways, for instance, in the necessity to have to omit descriptions.

In this game, whenever something is voiced they have to skip descriptions and i have to wait for the voice to stop yaspping so i can go back and actually read the whole text. I can only imagine how obnoxious it would be if every single line of dialogue was also voiced.

 

[Bigg Boss]

There's an easy solution to that problem. Don't fucking voice anything.

I don't understand where they got this idea that they HAVE to do that. And it's not just the massive burden that it imposes on the writers, but it also limits the writing in other ways, for instance, in the necessity to have to omit descriptions.

In this game, whenever something is voiced they have to skip descriptions and i have to wait for the voice to stop yaspping so i can go back and actually read the whole text. I can only imagine how obnoxious it would be if every single line of dialogue was also voiced.

The sales for D:OS.

 

[ferratilis]

Wait, you read the descriptions? In 99% of cases, they add nothing of value. I just read the dialogue text most of the time.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Wait, you read the descriptions? In 99% of cases, they add nothing of value. I just read the dialogue text most of the time.

I read everything. It's part of the text why shouldn't i? Why bother putting them there if they didn't want you to read them.

I also used to read all the descriptions in Torment. If text showed up when pointing the mouse over something, i'd read it, and i'm doing the same here.

 

[Lacrymas]

I read everything.

Bad move in the context of PoE. I suggest these things -

The magical formula to enjoy PoE - skip ALL descriptive text in dialogue, skim through the dialogues just so you can get the gist of what is being said (nobody is saying anything important you can't check in the journal), don't click on golden NPCs, don't click on the tombstone symbols, take only the companion (singular) you like (if any), treat it as one massive dungeon crawl you play for the combat, you can safely skip the stronghold stuff (some adventures give good loot though, but that's a fire and forget thing), turn on disposition markings in dialogue, don't pay too much attention to the setting. Some optional things - put auto-pause on enemy sighting, put slow mode to activate automatically when entering combat, check the box to stop your characters from moving when you engage combat, auto-pause on discovering hidden things with mechanics.

 

[Ninjerk]

There's an easy solution to that problem. Don't fucking voice anything.

I don't understand where they got this idea that they HAVE to do that. And it's not just the massive burden that it imposes on the writers, but it also limits the writing in other ways, for instance, in the necessity to have to omit descriptions.

In this game, whenever something is voiced they have to skip descriptions and i have to wait for the voice to stop yaspping so i can go back and actually read the whole text. I can only imagine how obnoxious it would be if every single line of dialogue was also voiced.

The reason is

Spoiler

I read everything. It's part of the text why shouldn't i? Why bother putting them there if they didn't want you to read them.

I also used to read all the descriptions in Torment. If text showed up when pointing the mouse over something, i'd read it, and i'm doing the same here.

Dark Souls lore and story is apparently largely communicated through item descriptions (I've never gotten deep into trying to put the pieces together).

 

[ferratilis]

Let's take it a step further: don't read any dialogues, just press 1 all the time and you'll get the good ending.

Spoiler

 

[Lacrymas]

Let's take it a step further: don't read any dialogues, just press 1 all the time and you'll get the good ending.

Spoiler

This is intentional, iirc.

 

[deem]

Can you mute the voice-over in options?

 

[deem]

Or just cover your ears.

 

[Lacrymas]

Can you mute the voice-over in options?

You can. Otherwise it would be basically unplayable for me.