Preview Pillars of Eternity: The White March Gameplay Footage on Twitch E3 2015 Broadcast

[Infinitron]

Tags: J.E. Sawyer; Obsidian Entertainment; Pillars of Eternity; Pillars of Eternity: The White March

Paradox Interactive had a 15 minute slot on Twitch's E3 broadcasting schedule today. That slot ended up being filled by none other than Josh Sawyer, who quickly got down to showing off some Pillars of Eternity: The White March gameplay footage. Seven minutes of it. And you thought they were just going to show a stupid trailer.

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Interesting takeaways:

• According to Josh, the expansion pack (both parts) is supposed to take a total of six months to develop, although it's unclear if that timeframe is still relevant now that it's been split.
• The expansion starts out in a village called Stalwart which is besieged by ogres. It is not another megadungeon.
• New UI features include new targeting circles and a hit chance display.
• Yes, the expansion is directly inspired by Icewind Dale. It'll have lots of winter variants of existing monsters, and some new ones too.
• In what may be a first for the genre, the expansion will have optional level scaling. It will ask if you want the encounters scaled to your level - which may be a good idea if you go there late in the game, as otherwise they might be too easy.
  
• Obsidian are implementing a limited form of multiclassing, by allowing you to learn weaker versions of other class' core abilities. Those are the "multi-class talents" we read about earlier.
• The reason there's no release date yet is that Obsidian decided to add more areas to make the expansion longer. But we already knew that was going to happen.

Also, there are ogres with bazookas. Just saying.

Update: A new Kickstarter update for the Pillars of Eternity: Lords of the Eastern Reach card game has revealed the identities of two of the expansion pack's companions. They are the Devil of Caroc, a robot-like "rogue construct", and Zahua, a monk. There's also a third companion that they're not allowed to reveal yet. Perhaps he'll be in the second part of the expansion?

 

[tuluse]

Any indication what kind of level scaling? Is it bg2 replacing encounters? If so

 

[Infinitron]

Updated OP with identities of the new companions.

 

[Septaryeth]

I wonder why do they have to split it into two parts?
How big are the two together? 10 hours?
I'll probably ended buying both but it would be nice if I can have them in one go.

 

[HanoverF]

1 part unbalance
2 parts balance

 

[CptMace]

The class talents flexibility is interesting, the game is too heavily class-based right now. Although I hope they addressed the itemization flaws and put some effort in unique weapons, especially since, considering the legendary forge and all that, it's pretty obvious we'll be given a choice a la icewind dale between several items to craft.
Sounds like the bestiary is mostly recycled, that's damn stupid.
Xpac out in September, part 2 in December, Paradox style

 

[Tigranes]

Class talents thing is probably the most interesting thing here. The rest of it depends less on a feature list and more on how they do things and what other minor refinements they pack in or not.

Still don't understand the two part business, though. Too DLC for my liking.

 

[Roguey]

Any indication what kind of level scaling? Is it bg2 replacing encounters? If so

They already do that with difficulty settings. Just levels.

 

[Anthony Davis]

Class talents thing is probably the most interesting thing here. The rest of it depends less on a feature list and more on how they do things and what other minor refinements they pack in or not.

Still don't understand the two part business, though. Too DLC for my liking.

It's nothing as nefarious as that, even though we had the same questions/comments internally here at Obsidian when the plan was announced during our company meetings.


As I understand it, and there are studies and numbers and maths to back this up, you want to get new content out within a certain window of the game being released, while people still remember it.

The expansion is going to take ~6 months to make. Again, according to the maths and the studies, 6 months is too long. So the decision was made to break it in half and get the first half out earlier, followed by the second half.


Still, I agree, it's unconventional.

 

[lurker3000]

7 minutes of gameplay? That's pretty bold considering its 23% of the DLC "expansion".

 

[Rivmusique]

The expansion is going to take ~6 months to make. Again, according to the maths and the studies, 6 months is too long. So the decision was made to break it in half and get the first half out earlier, followed by the second half.

6 months is too long from what? Game release? White March confirmed for pre-september release by Obsidian dev, run the story.

Edit: Sawyer said that anyway in stream, shit joke about dev revealing more than intended in forum post ruined .

 

[Anthony Davis]

The expansion is going to take ~6 months to make. Again, according to the maths and the studies, 6 months is too long. So the decision was made to break it in half and get the first half out earlier, followed by the second half.

6 months is too long from what? Game release? White March confirmed for pre-september release by Obsidian dev, run the story.

Was that... did you just divide 6 months in half and add it to the release date?


You should put those deductive powers to work solving the Lindbergh Baby kidnapping or something.

EDIT: HAHAHAHAHAHA :D

 

[tdphys]

Ermm... I saw only a couple engagement lines, 0 enemy ones... has something changed?

 

[tdphys]

Ermm... I saw only a couple engagement lines, 0 enemy ones... has something changed?

ermm... I think it's just been ui'd away.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Haha, the host on Twitch just got busted.

Josh: What level is your party?
Host: 15 I think.

 

[Darth Roxor]

i dig all the love and care that went into the monster palette swaps those ice beetles and ice ogres and ice trolls looked really compelling

 

[Tigranes]

Class talents thing is probably the most interesting thing here. The rest of it depends less on a feature list and more on how they do things and what other minor refinements they pack in or not.

Still don't understand the two part business, though. Too DLC for my liking.

It's nothing as nefarious as that, even though we had the same questions/comments internally here at Obsidian when the plan was announced during our company meetings.


As I understand it, and there are studies and numbers and maths to back this up, you want to get new content out within a certain window of the game being released, while people still remember it.

The expansion is going to take ~6 months to make. Again, according to the maths and the studies, 6 months is too long. So the decision was made to break it in half and get the first half out earlier, followed by the second half.


Still, I agree, it's unconventional.

Sure, I understand that. And I'm sure it's a sensible decision ultimately. On a personal level I'm a media binger (as many of us these days are) and I won't enjoy having half a meal tossed in front of me with a few months still to wait. Ah well.

Of course, you now understand that Codex will quote your post for years onward as proof that MCA favoured a proper expansion pack and Josh Sawyer smacked it down, and also took Feargus' lunch money

 

[Forest Dweller]

The expansion starts out in a village called Stalwart which is besieged by ogres. It is not another megadungeon.

So...is it not just more content added to the game, but actually a new/continuing story?

 

[CyberWhale]

Class talents thing is probably the most interesting thing here. The rest of it depends less on a feature list and more on how they do things and what other minor refinements they pack in or not.

Still don't understand the two part business, though. Too DLC for my liking.

It's nothing as nefarious as that, even though we had the same questions/comments internally here at Obsidian when the plan was announced during our company meetings.


As I understand it, and there are studies and numbers and maths to back this up, you want to get new content out within a certain window of the game being released, while people still remember it.

The expansion is going to take ~6 months to make. Again, according to the maths and the studies, 6 months is too long. So the decision was made to break it in half and get the first half out earlier, followed by the second half.


Still, I agree, it's unconventional.

I think that you guys should've just named them similarly instead of having Part 1 & Part 2 subtitles. The White March and The White Death for example, or whatever suits the content best.

 

[Shadenuat]

i dig all the love and care that went into the monster palette swaps those ice beetles and ice ogres and ice trolls looked really compelling

And they walk in encounters in groups of 5
5 ice trolls, oh boy

 

[Anthony Davis]

Class talents thing is probably the most interesting thing here. The rest of it depends less on a feature list and more on how they do things and what other minor refinements they pack in or not.

Still don't understand the two part business, though. Too DLC for my liking.

It's nothing as nefarious as that, even though we had the same questions/comments internally here at Obsidian when the plan was announced during our company meetings.


As I understand it, and there are studies and numbers and maths to back this up, you want to get new content out within a certain window of the game being released, while people still remember it.

The expansion is going to take ~6 months to make. Again, according to the maths and the studies, 6 months is too long. So the decision was made to break it in half and get the first half out earlier, followed by the second half.


Still, I agree, it's unconventional.

I think that you guys should've just named them similarly instead of having Part 1 & Part 2 subtitles. The White March and The White Death for example, or whatever suits the content best.

That's a pretty cool idea, I'll pass it on.

 

[Morality Games]

Wouldn't a Pale Elf be a logical addition to a winter themed environment?

 

[Correct_Carlo]

Story sounds shit. Basically just "here's another quest not really related to anything." I wanted something exploring the fallout concerning the gods post game. Oh well.

 

[BGMD]

i dig all the love and care that went into the monster palette swaps those ice beetles and ice ogres and ice trolls looked really compelling

 

[Kem0sabe]

An add-in to the game, we already knew the expansion would be structured as such, but still disappointing that they are not continuing the story of the game and further develop the characters. Dont think its enough to motivate me to return to the game, just to go through a few areas, kill a few monsters with different paint jobs.