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

[Yosharian]

Yes Harthwain that was his point

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

I didn't say Skyrim's UI wasn't bad, it was very bad but it has less problems than Oblivion's UI in my opinion

Oblivion's user interface is heavily consolized, designed to be easier for those using controllers, while displaying far less information and being far less convenient on PCs than Morrowind's UI; Skyrim's user interface is dysfunctional and a bad joke:

 

[Yosharian]

Don't worry, modders fixed it a long time ago

 

[Harthwain]

Yes Harthwain that was his point

It doesn't read that way to me, since he shows this as an example of a very "busy" UI that some AAA studios like.

 

[Yosharian]

Yes Harthwain that was his point

It doesn't read that way to me, since he shows this as an example of a very "busy" UI that some AAA studios like.

...are you serious

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Most of those modern UIs are designed to be navigated with a game pad and then just ported to PC as is.

 

[Harthwain]

...are you serious

Why?

 

[Paul_cz]

https://wccftech.com/kingdom-come-deliverance-cost-36-m-dollars/

This number is nonsense made up by czech Forbes, the actual budget was around 15-20 incl. marketing (but marketing was tiny portion of it).
KCD2 will have around two-three times bigger budget, around 50-60 mil (more than twice as many inhouse devs, inflation, bigger marketing budget).

Regarding UI, recent post about it from Dan Vávra:

If I'm happy about something, it's about this reaction of a Polish YouTuber (and not only him) to our new interface, inventory and the entire UI. Because I consider UI to be a very important thing, in all the games I've made, I'm the author of the design, often I also did its graphics. For KCD2, I wanted us to remake it completely in 3D with realtime lighting and keep the original principles from KCD1 that worked. It is inspired by wooden Gothic altars and the old town clock. And multiple people worked on it for 6 years. We really tinkered with every detail and with every pixel. The only thing we failed to implement is the 3D map. Which makes me annoyed, but we just couldn't make it in time.
After all that work, which is not always appreciated by everyone and at all stages of implementation, and when you really have to defend some decisions very hard because a lot of people on the team doubt them or even protest against them, then you are in doubt how customers will accept it. If anyone even notices that it took so much work. If it made sense to bother.
So it's quite a pleasure when someone sees it and their first impression is that they literally exclaim enthusiastically:
"OH FUCK! GOOD! THIS IS IT! THAT LOOKS BEAUTIFUL! GOOD! AND IT'S STILL BY CANDLELIGHT! THAT'S WELL DONE! THAT LOOKS COOL!"

 

[Wesp5]

Which is fairly minimalistic.

I believe minimalistic is okay, if the style fits to the game. Bloodlines for example still has an artful inferface because it's a fantasy game! I'm right now playing a retro game based on the Eduke32 engine called "AMC Squad" and they have different UIs for each of the 15 character you can play as, which is a little bit confusing .

 

[Maxie]

I didn't say Skyrim's UI wasn't bad, it was very bad but it has less problems than Oblivion's UI in my opinion

Oblivion's user interface is heavily consolized, designed to be easier for those using controllers, while displaying far less information and being far less convenient on PCs than Morrowind's UI; Skyrim's user interface is dysfunctional and a bad joke:

skyrim's menu displays the exact same amount of info, if not more

 

[Alienman]

Fucking loved this Winamp skin

Very Johnny Quest-esque and Matrix-like

I still use Winamp. It's one of those tools that never gets old. Like IrfranView.

Spoiler

Edit:
On UI elements, I hate floating UI, like health bars that move around, quest objectives that guide you to the exact place. But what I dislike the most above everything else, even a soulless UI, is hitmarkers. It's such an obnoxious and retarded addition to games. It also kills all tension, since you are told that you made a kill, like say when doing a tricky shot.

 

[Hace El Oso]

Regarding UI, recent post about it from Dan Vávra:

After all that work, which is not always appreciated by everyone and at all stages of implementation, and when you really have to defend some decisions very hard because a lot of people on the team doubt them or even protest against them, then you are in doubt how customers will accept it. If anyone even notices that it took so much work. If it made sense to bother.
So it's quite a pleasure when someone sees it and their first impression is that they literally exclaim enthusiastically

What an admirable, craftsman’s attitude.
His retirement will be a real loss.

 

[Gargaune]

This number is nonsense made up by czech Forbes, the actual budget was around 15-20 incl. marketing (but marketing was tiny portion of it).

Really, that's with marketing? I recall the first I heard about KCD's production budget was $11m, then later it was suggested to be higher and the same 15-20m figure stuck with me for some reason, but I thought that didn't include advertising. In any case, what I was saying is that it might not have all been down to salary disparity, it seemed than even adjusting for that, Warhorse were just a lot more productive.

 

[Roguey]

And I haven't seen any speculation on Avowed's development costs yet.

I did earlier in the thread. It cost twice as much as Outer Worlds did, minimum.

 

[Gargaune]

I did earlier in the thread. It cost twice as much as Outer Worlds did, minimum.

And how much was The Outer Worlds, the 30-40m you suggested earlier? With or without marketing? I tried asking Copilot but it said "lol dunno" and then asked what I was wearing.

 

[Roguey]

And how much was The Outer Worlds, the 30-40m you suggested earlier? With or without marketing? I tried asking Copilot but it said "lol dunno" and then asked what I was wearing.

That was the production budget.

 

[Pink Eye]

That never gets old. Speaking of which, I like how Witchfire has better UI than whatever the fuck Avowed is going for:

Minimalist and not obnoxious.

 

[damager]

That never gets old. Speaking of which, I like how Witchfire has better UI than whatever the fuck Avowed is going for:


Minimalist and not obnoxious.

Interesting. Is this game worth playing?

 

[Drakortha]

Is that Baldur's Gate 3?

 

[Pink Eye]

Is this game worth playing?

Tricky question. It's a good game but it's still unfinished as fuck. There's only two maps - it's been in Early Access for a long time. There's another third map but it doesn't really count as a map since it's so small in size. I've been following this game's development for years now and it is slow, very, slow.

 

[damager]

The gay mans antler on its head tells me it must be some kind of Dragon Age abomination

 

[Just Locus]

A good HUD should tell you the necessary information in a quick and precise way while also not taking up ample screen space.

Black Ops IV for example has the worst HUD I've ever seen

• Super blocky
• Unclear how much max ammo you have (indicated by clips)
• large border around the minimap which only takes up valuable space
• Dark, blurry background for the kill-feed instead of making it transparent like the previous games
• We don't talk about the Zombies hud

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/o...vious-but-the-differences-make-it-compelling/

Obsidian seems scared people will compare Avowed to Skyrim, but it shouldn't be—the similarities are obvious, but the differences make it compelling​

Bethesda's RPG looms large over Obsidian's latest, but having played it, there's no need to shrink from the comparison.

Within seconds of being set loose in a behind-closed-doors demo of Avowed at Gamescom, I had already walked up to a plant and ripped it apart for some key ingredient. The Skyrim-ness of Avowed has been much debated—Obsidian repeatedly downplaying the comparison, no doubt due to fears of disappointing anyone expecting something the size and scope of Bethesda's sandbox behemoth.

This is all fine and good—I cannot speak to the size of Avowed, or the depth of its story. What I can say is that, having played through a dungeon-sized encounter, there is a comforting familiarity to Avowed's moment-to-moment exploration. Let's not beat around the bush: It's kinda like Skyrim.

So yes, I saw a plant I could interact with, walked up and stripped it of its ingredients. I picked the legs off giant spiders, and scoured around for chests full of potions and other assorted loot. I do not know what these things are actually used for, but I can certainly imagine how my growing alchemical collection might be put towards some familiar crafting systems. Sure, it lacks some larcenous depth, by which I mean I could not fill my pockets full of forks and cups and cheese wheels and other household items. On the macro level, though, the vibes are clear.

If it sounds like I'm being facetious, I am, but only a little bit. Avowed is a first-person fantasy RPG. I'm wandering around with a companion in tow, dual-wielding weapons, crouching in the darkness in order to sneak up on my enemies. The comparison to Skyrim is as obvious as it is inevitable, and as much as Obsidian seems to want to downplay it, I don't think the studio needs to.

The familiarity is a boon that accentuates the interesting things Avowed is doing that make it stand out. And while I only played for about an hour, I'm convinced. I want to see more—to draw out the things I experienced to their conclusion and fill out the bigger picture of how the games systems all interact.

The most striking difference, at least initially, is just how vibrant Avowed feels. Generally an RPG cave is a drab place—grey rock, murky puddles, just a real dank hangout. But Avowed makes great use of lush vegetation and luminescence to make its palette really pop. And magic effects feel well chosen to stand out against the naturalistic colours of the scenery. It gives the impression of a fantasy setting that wants to stand out—something further reinforced throughout the actual quest I play through.

My job, at least initially, is to find a missing expedition team. Instead I discover a gold guy—Sargamis, a dawn godlike. He's just hanging out, tending to the statue he's built of the god Eothas. He definitely hasn't seen any expedition, oh no, nobody has passed through here in a long time. But while we're looking for them, he asks that me and Kai, my coastal aumaua companion, wade deeper into some collapsed ruins to retrieve a splinter of Eothas—a relic that just so happens to be exactly what the expedition was looking for. "Perhaps you will meet your expedition along the way," he suggests, somehow managing not to wink at the camera.

My trek to the splinter, and the corpses of the expedition that Sargamis definitely killed, requires getting a better grip on combat. There are no locked classes in Avowed—you can mix and match between skills of different types—but the character I picked had been pre-equipped with a bunch of perks from the Ranger tree. In addition to the bows and pistols I was carrying, I had a couple of neat skills designed to make the most of ranged combat. Tanglefoot placed vines underneath an enemy's feet, rooting them in place for a time. And Shadowing Beyond let me turn invisible, repositioning around the battlefield and letting me unleash a powerful backstab that seemed to instantly kill most of the enemies I tried it on.

Combat was chaotically frantic, even with these tools. Using Kai as a de facto tank, I still found myself in a couple of tight spots, mostly thanks to ranged enemies and their ability to stagger me mid-potion quaff—disrupting my ability to heal. But there's a very satisfying loop to Avowed's ranged combat. Holding the attack button triggers a slow-down effect—thanks to a passive skill on the Ranger skill tree—and brings up a little red diamond that you can aim at for extra damage. There's a compelling rhythm to it.

That said, the PC gaming snob in me does wonder about how much depth there will be in the skill system here. Combat feels engineered to be comfortable on a gamepad—which is what the Gamescom demo was set up for. The ability to mix up different skills from different combat types should lead to some nice experimentation, but it's hard not to look at the UI and wonder about how streamlined and efficient it all feels—and how well it will hold interest over a full RPG adventure.

There's also a light elemental system in place. At one point, I had to ask Kai to use his fire attack on a web that was blocking my path. And later in the demo, when I was deep into the ruins, I could use the lightning effect on my primary gun to activate mechanisms that unlocked some extra loot. It was all pretty basic stuff, but showed the bones of what could be a fun wrinkle to exploration and combat—at least assuming Obsidian pushes out the complexity throughout the full game.

Eventually I find the expedition, and surprise, they're all dead. Or at least sort-of dead. Returning to Sargamis, he admits that he's ripped out their souls and intends to stuff them into his special god statue. His plan is to use the splinter to draw Eothas into his creation, where the souls of the expedition team will act as his conscience—forcing the god to atone for the wrong he has done. Which is a neat concept for what could have easily been a fairly bog-standard dungeon dive. Here's where Obsidian feels in its element—creating interesting story hooks that speak to the nature of the world it has made.

Since playing the demo, a handful of colleagues have asked me about Avowed, and for the most part I've told them: "Yeah, it's good. It's a bit like Skyrim." And as true as that is, it's also just the easiest answer, because hopefully—if this short play session is representative of what the full game might be—it's also the least interesting thing about Avowed.

 

[Jermu]

Combat feels engineered to be comfortable on a gamepad—which is what the Gamescom demo was set up for. The ability to mix up different skills from different combat types should lead to some nice experimentation, but it's hard not to look at the UI and wonder about how streamlined and efficient it all feels—and how well it will hold interest over a full RPG adventure.

goty

 

[damager]

Make a first person game > design it for controllers in mind

Obsidian truly knows how to lose all standing with its target audience!