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Tags: Owlcat Games; Pathfinder: Kingmaker
The Pathfinder: Kingmaker Kickstarter campaign is about to enter its final 24 hours, and is well on its way towards reaching the coveted $800k archetypes stretch goal. Owlcat are amping up their promotional efforts now. They recently concluded another Reddit AMA with Chris Avellone and Alexander Mishulin, and in a few hours they're going to stream some gameplay from the prototype on their Twitch channel (also with Chris and Alex). As far as regular updates go though, there have been a few things worth pointing out as well. This morning Owlcat published a Kickstarter update with a new music track. It's a folk-inspired tune by a local musician named Dmitry Silantyev that will play in one of the game's cities.
And later today they published another Kickstarter update that goes into detail about Kingmaker's "book events", Owlcat's take on Pillars of Eternity's scripted interactions. Here's an excerpt:
The Pathfinder: Kingmaker Kickstarter campaign is about to enter its final 24 hours, and is well on its way towards reaching the coveted $800k archetypes stretch goal. Owlcat are amping up their promotional efforts now. They recently concluded another Reddit AMA with Chris Avellone and Alexander Mishulin, and in a few hours they're going to stream some gameplay from the prototype on their Twitch channel (also with Chris and Alex). As far as regular updates go though, there have been a few things worth pointing out as well. This morning Owlcat published a Kickstarter update with a new music track. It's a folk-inspired tune by a local musician named Dmitry Silantyev that will play in one of the game's cities.
And later today they published another Kickstarter update that goes into detail about Kingmaker's "book events", Owlcat's take on Pillars of Eternity's scripted interactions. Here's an excerpt:
There are two main types of interactions in the game aside from battle: dialogue and manipulating various objects. These interactions are usually further enhanced with elements like skill checks (try Disable Device on a locked chest) or small puzzle-like elements (figure out the sequence of a combination lock). But sometimes even combinations of these things are not enough to depict the event. When we were playing Pillars of Eternity a lot of us enjoyed their approach to special narrative events that were presented on scrolls, which didn't just contain text, but also used pictures. So it was natural that when we started discussing how we wanted to make events in Kingmaker come to life, we decided to take a similar route for some of them. And we wanted to take this approach even further.
Let us travel to the River Ford in South Narlmarches where gnomes are under attack by kobolds. Not only are they desperately trying to save their lives, but they also struggle to protect the cart of Jubilost Narthropple - leader of their expedition. Initially, you will come across several kobold squads, which will confront both the gnomes and your party. After you deal with the kobolds, a new challenge appears - saving the cart that is toppling into the water.
Interaction with the cart starts a new type of event, something we refer to as a "book event" in our game. You can try to help the gnomes right away, but it's not an easy task. While the gnomes are still holding the cart, you can explore the whole location to find items that can help. In this case you may discover a crowbar and a rope - or, being the resourceful adventurer that you are, perhaps you planned ahead and already thought to bring these valuable items along with you. Looking around the area you can also find ponies, which ran away from the cart. Your party may attempt to calm them with a skill check. All those actions will improve your chances to save the cart by decreasing the difficulty as well as providing new actions in the book event for the final check (for example by using the crowbar as a lever with a successful <Physique>/<Strength> check).
Your actions in battle can also have an impact on the event. While fighting the kobolds, you can make sure to protect the gnomes. Of course you could also just nuke the kobolds with area effects and take down a few gnomes along with them as collateral damage. However, each surviving gnome can lend their strength to your effort so save the cart, further decreasing the difficulty check, so you better think twice before blowing up some potential helpers!
By offering you all these possibilities we're letting you handle this encounter the way you want. If one solution doesn't work for you, we're giving you other options. If, for instance, your party fails to calm down the ponies, you could still enhance Amiri's strength with magic and let her use the crowbar. Compensate for your weaknesses in some departments with your strengths in others.
The rest of the update describes the evolution of the book event UI. The black & white art is pretty great. Kind of reminds of the mission briefing art from Myth 2: Soulblighter.Let us travel to the River Ford in South Narlmarches where gnomes are under attack by kobolds. Not only are they desperately trying to save their lives, but they also struggle to protect the cart of Jubilost Narthropple - leader of their expedition. Initially, you will come across several kobold squads, which will confront both the gnomes and your party. After you deal with the kobolds, a new challenge appears - saving the cart that is toppling into the water.
Interaction with the cart starts a new type of event, something we refer to as a "book event" in our game. You can try to help the gnomes right away, but it's not an easy task. While the gnomes are still holding the cart, you can explore the whole location to find items that can help. In this case you may discover a crowbar and a rope - or, being the resourceful adventurer that you are, perhaps you planned ahead and already thought to bring these valuable items along with you. Looking around the area you can also find ponies, which ran away from the cart. Your party may attempt to calm them with a skill check. All those actions will improve your chances to save the cart by decreasing the difficulty as well as providing new actions in the book event for the final check (for example by using the crowbar as a lever with a successful <Physique>/<Strength> check).
Your actions in battle can also have an impact on the event. While fighting the kobolds, you can make sure to protect the gnomes. Of course you could also just nuke the kobolds with area effects and take down a few gnomes along with them as collateral damage. However, each surviving gnome can lend their strength to your effort so save the cart, further decreasing the difficulty check, so you better think twice before blowing up some potential helpers!
By offering you all these possibilities we're letting you handle this encounter the way you want. If one solution doesn't work for you, we're giving you other options. If, for instance, your party fails to calm down the ponies, you could still enhance Amiri's strength with magic and let her use the crowbar. Compensate for your weaknesses in some departments with your strengths in others.
