Eternity Avowed - Obsidian's first person action-RPG in the Pillars of Eternity setting - coming February 18th

[TumblingTorin]

Durance and especially Grieving Mother are poorly executed characters that were created by stitching together walls of text written by Chris Avellone after he overscoped their companion quests. Avellone himself basically disavowed their state in the final game.

Some of those walls of text were cool, though.

Even if they were poorly executed and heavily cut down, they were still interesting. Much better then someone who's boring like most of the other cast.

 

[Bulo]

Much better then someone who's boring like most of the other cast.

If you think they're bad, try playing the sequel

 

[Bulo]

A few hours into Deadfire I wanted to shoot myself

 

[MjKorz]

Much better then someone who's boring like most of the other cast.

The funny thing is that the best character out of the entire cast is a "boring" plain farmer guy - Eder. Eric Fenstermaker put Avellone to shame in Pillars and possibly in MotB (I think he wrote Kaelyn, but I'm not sure).

 

[Vulpes]

MotB was Ziets' creation. Avellone and Fenstermaker played much smaller roles in its development. The former was responsible for Gann and Kaelyn. While the latter helped design Ashenwood and the Thay Academy, and wrote some of NPC in those locations.

 

[MjKorz]

The former was responsible for Gann and Kaelyn.

Where did you find the information on Avellone writing Kaelyn? I didn't find such information in my search.

 

[Vulpes]

According to lead designer Kevin Saunders:

With Kaelyn, and I think George mentioned this, we were planning to cut her early on. Chris Avellone, who wasn't officially assigned to the project, said something to the effect of "if I make the time to write her, can we keep her?" He did an excellent job (of course) and we also lucked out with casting the perfect actress for the role - her lines are superbly read.

Source

 

[MjKorz]

According to lead designer Kevin Saunders:

With Kaelyn, and I think George mentioned this, we were planning to cut her early on. Chris Avellone, who wasn't officially assigned to the project, said something to the effect of "if I make the time to write her, can we keep her?" He did an excellent job (of course) and we also lucked out with casting the perfect actress for the role - her lines are superbly read.

Source

I see. Kaelyn was a good character, my complaints are directed towards the quality of Avellone's work after NV. Eder was still better than either Durance or Grieving Turd.

 

[luj1]

Eder was still better than either Durance or Grieving Turd.

>Eder
>literally a hollow shell lol

 

[Gargaune]

The only thing I remember about Eder is that he was Rusty's avatar.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Eder was still better than either Durance or Grieving Turd.

>Eder
>literally a hollow shell lol

He's alright you weirdfag

 

[Baron Tahn]

Yeah he was good by virtue of just being somewhat normal and believable instead of a zany individual with too many quirks and bullshit. Not much to remember about him and thats his charm. Stands out as being vanilla in a world of too much flavours sort of.

 

[luj1]

The only thing I remember about Eder is that he was Rusty's avatar.

True lol

 

[Gargaune]

Pillars of Eternity's writing had exactly two interesting elements:
- Avellone's character work;
- and the twist at the end about their gods being man-made.

That's it. I barely recall anything other than the wind stealing your soul, there being a fort, a grey city and a watermill, nor anything about characters beyond physical characteristics, like the feathered woman or the dwarf lass with a pet wolf. I think there was also a not-orc companion with sharp teeth, I see his portrait around these forums sometimes? That's two companions whose most memorable quality is appearing next to Codex shitposts.

Anyway, I remember Durance for his character, a broken and abrasive man, misshapen by his own failures and resentment into a fount of twisted wisdom without dignity. I don't recall anything about Pellagina beyond the "riveting" online debate about whether or not she had a cloaca.


P.S. No, actually, I guess I vaguely remember Eder's personality too, I remember him being dull. They were going for the relatable everyman (which I appreciate and RPGs need more of) but they overshot. For a counterexample, see Safiya in MotB - setting her backstory aside, she's the adult in the room (even as MotB's cast are more mature and composed in general), she's rational and reasonable, but she makes an impression to that end. Eder doesn't, he's just kinda "there."

 

[MjKorz]

Pillars of Eternity's writing had exactly two interesting elements:
- Avellone's character work;
- and the twist at the end about their gods being man-made.

That's it. I barely recall anything other than the wind stealing your soul, there being a fort, a grey city and a watermill, nor anything about characters beyond physical characteristics, like the feathered woman or the dwarf lass with a pet wolf. I think there was also a not-orc companion with sharp teeth, I see his portrait around these forums sometimes? That's two companions whose most memorable quality is appearing next to Codex shitposts.

Anyway, I remember Durance for his character, a broken and abrasive man, misshapen by his own failures and resentment into a fount of twisted wisdom without dignity. I don't recall anything about Pellagina beyond the "riveting" online debate about whether or not she had a cloaca.


P.S. No, actually, I guess I vaguely remember Eder's personality too, I remember him being dull. They were going for the relatable everyman (which I appreciate and RPGs need more of) but they overshot. For a counterexample, see Safiya in MotB - setting her backstory aside, she's the adult in the room (even as MotB's cast are more mature and composed in general), she's rational and reasonable, but she makes an impression to that end. Eder doesn't, he's just kinda "there."

The factions were good: Bleak Walkers and the Principi in Deadfire.

Pallegina made a great good/"bad" paladin duo with the MC Bleak Walker paladin.

Devil of Caroc personal story was great:

Spoiler

Same goes for Zahua:

Spoiler

Eder was indeed a relatable character, however, he wasn't relatable just because he carried himself like a stereotypical farm boy. Eder's character development arc deals with the dilemma of trying to understand the motivations behind divine actions while at the same time trying to stay loyal to his faith. The question of whether blind faith is a good thing is something most people will ask themselves at least once in their lifetimes, Eder's spiritual journey is part of what makes him relatable.

 

[Gargaune]

MjKorz, sorry, but I just don't remember much of that. Which is kinda my point. I guess I do recall something about Eder's conflict over his faith, now that you've jogged my memory, but other stuff won't come back to me even after you've mentioned it - the Principi were a semi-organised pirate group, that's about all that comes to mind, and the Bleak Walkers I don't recall at all beyond literally just the name. I'm not making this up just to argue, just genuinely drawing a blank.

I don't need bombastic, in fact I'm usually opposed to it and prefer more down-to-earth material, but I do need interesting. And I remember not finding Pillars's fiction interesting even when I first played it, let alone now, after so many years.

 

[Beans00]

Pillars of Eternity's writing had exactly two interesting elements:
- Avellone's character work;
- and the twist at the end about their gods being man-made.

That's it. I barely recall anything other than the wind stealing your soul, there being a fort, a grey city and a watermill, nor anything about characters beyond physical characteristics, like the feathered woman or the dwarf lass with a pet wolf. I think there was also a not-orc companion with sharp teeth, I see his portrait around these forums sometimes? That's two companions whose most memorable quality is appearing next to Codex shitposts.

Anyway, I remember Durance for his character, a broken and abrasive man, misshapen by his own failures and resentment into a fount of twisted wisdom without dignity. I don't recall anything about Pellagina beyond the "riveting" online debate about whether or not she had a cloaca.


P.S. No, actually, I guess I vaguely remember Eder's personality too, I remember him being dull. They were going for the relatable everyman (which I appreciate and RPGs need more of) but they overshot. For a counterexample, see Safiya in MotB - setting her backstory aside, she's the adult in the room (even as MotB's cast are more mature and composed in general), she's rational and reasonable, but she makes an impression to that end. Eder doesn't, he's just kinda "there."

The factions were good: Bleak Walkers and the Principi in Deadfire.

Pallegina made a great good/"bad" paladin duo with the MC Bleak Walker paladin.

Devil of Caroc personal story was great:

Spoiler

Same goes for Zahua:

Spoiler

Eder was indeed a relatable character, however, he wasn't relatable just because he carried himself like a stereotypical farm boy. Eder's character development arc deals with the dilemma of trying to understand the motivations behind divine actions while at the same time trying to stay loyal to his faith. The question of whether blind faith is a good thing is something most people will ask themselves at least once in their lifetimes, Eder's spiritual journey is part of what makes him relatable.

All that stuff is boring as fuck. You're legitimately more entertaining than pillars of eternity was.

 

[Aarwolf]

Durance and especially Grieving Mother are poorly executed characters that were created by stitching together walls of text written by Chris Avellone after he overscoped their companion quests. Avellone himself basically disavowed their state in the final game.

Some of those walls of text were cool, though.

Problem is that their story is much more interesting than the story of a watcher.

 

[santino27]

Eder and Sagani were both fairly normal, neutral characters who benefited somewhat from being juxtaposed against either outright annoying characters or far more unusual ones, but I don't think either is particularly memorable. I didn't *like* Durance, and he and Grieving Mother could have both done with some editing to reduce verbiage, but they're a lot more memorable. To me at least.

I think Aarwolf is onto something too... iif the watcher's story and the narrative in general had been more interesting, maybe those two characters wouldn't have stuck out quite as much. As it was, PoE often felt like a fusion of disparate parts, duct-taped together, and Avellone's characters were definitely a distinct and separate piece.

(I'm not counting companions from White March. In general, the expansion(s) were a lot better, and the companions were more interesting too.)

 

[Cryomancer]

Anyone has details about the abilities and weapons enchantment in this game? I'm really curious if they will be just a butched down version of skyrim spells

 

[NaturallyCarnivorousSheep]

PoE and Deadfire were awesome games

Which part of "boring banal shit" did you not understand?

All the boring banal shit is a result of codexcore opinions. Had retarded nerds with no self respect not promoted Planshit borement as something good the whole post 2013 retro cRPG scene would be much better.

 

[Baron Tahn]

Havent really seen too much detail myself. Just a bunch of hype about companions I probably woouldnt use but at least it isnt the weird thing they tried to do with Outer Worlds...I wouldnt mind a more focused game with a polished selection of spells and items. Arx or Ultima Underworld or something a bit more dungeon crawly like them keeps coming to mind but thats fabulously optimistic I know.

 

[Haplo]

Havent really seen too much detail myself. Just a bunch of hype about companions I probably woouldnt use but at least it isnt the weird thing they tried to do with Outer Worlds...I wouldnt mind a more focused game with a polished selection of spells and items. Arx or Ultima Underworld or something a bit more dungeon crawly like them keeps coming to mind but thats fabulously optimistic I know.

Yeah, that'd be something... one can dream...

 

[Haplo]

Durance and especially Grieving Mother are poorly executed characters that were created by stitching together walls of text written by Chris Avellone after he overscoped their companion quests. Avellone himself basically disavowed their state in the final game.

Some of those walls of text were cool, though.

Well, this really hit Grieving Mother badly.
Regarding Durance, enough meat was kept on, to make him a very interesting, original character.

 

[Yosharian]

Durance and especially Grieving Mother are poorly executed characters that were created by stitching together walls of text written by Chris Avellone after he overscoped their companion quests. Avellone himself basically disavowed their state in the final game.

Some of those walls of text were cool, though.

Wait he said that about Durance? That's surprising.