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

[Feyd Rautha]

Maybe it was actually good that they laid such a strong foundation with the first game so that Nu-Obsidian can't fuck it up. People have said that it was annoying with all those info dumps about lore but the upside to that is that most of the lore is already established. Or will they do a Bethesda and just disregard lore established in previous entries?

e:
I mean all this is already known about the Living Lands prior to the release of Avowed.

 

[Iskramor]

Enter enemy camp just like in ubishit games.Cast slicken and controled/delayed fireball.GG..

 

[Roguey]

"Name me one RPG that allows you to CC and then nuke your opponent! Can't, huh? Thought so!"

This is different from a mechanic that allows you to bypass HP mechanics.

Why are you guys even debating this?

but Fallout 4 has it: the locked weapon in the first vault is "cryolator". Pretty sure andromeda has it too via cryo ammo, ME3 certainly had it.

Games where you can freeze opponents are not the same thing as games that allow you to freeze and shatter them.

Also DA:O

That's from 2009 and not an action rpg.

 

[AwesomeButton]

This is different from a mechanic that allows you to bypass HP mechanics.

And you know that the Avowid example allows you to bypass HP mechanics, how?

Also, yes, in its effect it's the same.

 

[Roguey]

And you know that the Avowid example allows you to bypass HP mechanics, how?

Also, yes, in its effect it's the same.

Optimistic assumption. If it's a cosmetic effect that happens when you bring its hp down to 0 then who cares.

 

[luj1]

Carie Patel seems like a SJW type of woman

 

[scytheavatar]

Maybe it was actually good that they laid such a strong foundation with the first game so that Nu-Obsidian can't fuck it up. People have said that it was annoying with all those info dumps about lore but the upside to that is that most of the lore is already established. Or will they do a Bethesda and just disregard lore established in previous entries?

e:
I mean all this is already known about the Living Lands prior to the release of Avowed.

Infodump is a problem in POE, but you are deluding yourself if you think it is the only or even the biggest problem of POE.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Optimistic assumption. If it's a cosmetic effect that happens when you bring its hp down to 0 then who cares.

Exactly, who cares? This effect means absolutely nothing taken out of the context of the combat system. And we have every reason to expect that system to be a dogpile.

 

[Roguey]

Exactly, who cares? This effect means absolutely nothing taken out of the context of the combat system. And we have every reason to expect that system to be a dogpile.

You're getting annoyed over a pessimistic assumption.

If Sawyer were involved, there would be Balance, but he's not here.

 

[Cryomancer]

Will this game have cipher skills?

 

[Cross]

You are a bloody idiot mate. If Avowed is an RPG then Diablo is too.

Diablo is a clicker, Avowed is an actual game. Might not be a good one, but a game nevertheless.

Avowed is following in Skyrim's footsteps by removing attributes, which makes it less of an RPG than Diablo.

If Sawyer were involved, there would be Balance, but he's not here.

Sawyer would have never even allowed you to shatter a frozen enemy. He essentially removed that effect from Pillars, where being petrified just functions like a generic stun effect, whereas in D&D being petrified and attacked shatters a character, making resurrection impossible.

As banal as Avowed looks, it might have been even worse with Sawyer at the helm.

 

[Gargaune]

And you know that the Avowid example allows you to bypass HP mechanics, how?

Also, yes, in its effect it's the same.

Optimistic assumption. If it's a cosmetic effect that happens when you bring its hp down to 0 then who cares.

That's kinda what we're saying here, man. We're not exceptionally optimistic about this, don't see any reason to be, so we don't care about what is very likely to be nothing more than a cosmetic finisher move. Expecting run-of-the-mill mechanics doesn't amount to undue pessimism.

Also, when you break it down, it's just mixing various common Action-RPG effects. For example, Skyrim has a spell that deals cold damage and stuns:

Frostbite is a novice level Destruction spell that deals frost damage to Health and Stamina, and slows targets for 1 second.

Effects
Frostbite, 8 pts for 1 sec
Slow, 50 pts for 4 secs
Deep Freeze Paralyze, for 3 secs; if the Deep Freeze perk has been unlocked

And Cyberpunk has a spell that stuns entangles and exposes victims to higher melee threat:

Cripple Movement

Disables enemy movement and cyberware that supports movement and dodging.
+15% melee damage against affected enemies.
Tier 4: Affected enemies are more susceptible to melee Finishers.
Tier 5: +5% Health and +2 RAM after performing Finishers on affected enemies.
Iconic: Doubles the effects of the Tier 5 bonus.

So I'm not sure what you find so exciting about this one feature, even if your optimism pans out, it's nothing all that special.

 

[sosmoflux]

He merely said that freezing and shattering an enemy in a game like this is worth marketing because it's surprisingly not done than often. And he's right. Quit sperging out about it holy moly.

Will shattering enemies be better or even on par with Dark Messiah made 20 years ago? Of course not.

 

[AwesomeButton]

People with more experience (figuratively) in playing action RPGs, answer me this - are combat mechanics the mechanics by which the ARPG lives and dies (again figuratively)?

 

[Delterius]

are combat mechanics the mechanics by which the ARPG lives and dies

If you're Skyrim you live and die by how many cool vistas you watch, and also there's dragon fights in them.

If you're Dragon's Dogma you live by wether your players can make it through the boring goblins and cyclopes to fight chimeras, drakes and dragons. Also there's cool vistas to watch out for.

Which is to say that a lot of ARPGs are really Action-Adventure games and wether the focus is on interesting fighting mechanics or exploration depends a lot on the game. That said after the Starfield fizzle out it does seem like the Skyrim way of doing things is falling out of favor.

Dunno about y'all but I don't think this bodes well for Avowed.

 

[Roguey]

Avowed is following in Skyrim's footsteps by removing attributes, which makes it less of an RPG than Diablo.

Sawyer didn't even want to include attributes in Pillars of Eternity and only did so under duress because they promised an Infinity Engine nostalgia title. Avowed with its classless, attributeless system is truer to what Sawyer wanted than what he was forced to deliver.

 

[scytheavatar]

People with more experience (figuratively) in playing action RPGs, answer me this - are combat mechanics the mechanics by which the ARPG lives and dies (again figuratively)?

There's Tales of Berseria which had meh combat and a pretty good story, and most people seem to like the game or at least consider it one of the best modern Tales game.

 

[Butter]

Should've known Patel was going to deliver a big pile of shit.

 

[Cross]

Avowed is following in Skyrim's footsteps by removing attributes, which makes it less of an RPG than Diablo.

Sawyer didn't even want to include attributes in Pillars of Eternity and only did so under duress because they promised an Infinity Engine nostalgia title. Avowed with its classless, attributeless system is truer to what Sawyer wanted than what he was forced to deliver.

That's a very elaborate way of saying Josh Sawyer's ideal RPG design consists of ripping off Todd Howard's work, but okay.

 

[Nikanuur]

People with more experience (figuratively) in playing action RPGs, answer me this - are combat mechanics the mechanics by which the ARPG lives and dies (again figuratively)?

I reckon it depends on the sub-genre.

Diablo likes could be inventive and genuine, demanding a specific approach—Titan Quest or Space Siege, for example—but in the more streamlined ones, I don't care. I just mindlessly button-mash with an occasional moment of awareness, like everybody else.
For the cross-breeds, such as Alien Shooter or Victor Vran—very much so. I can't imagine playing a game such as Victor Vran with different combat. Lore, characters, and all are also cool, but the game stands on the ingenuity of fighting implements and approaches.
For the 'true' ARPGs such as GoW, Darksiders, Dark Souls, etc., I'd say it depends. If the heart is in the right place, the atmosphere, or the adventure parts are great, I don't mind clunky combat much. And vice-versa: great combat can make me forget the lack of the latter.
And the same goes for first-person RPGs with real-time combat, those games seldom focus on combat alone. So, again, not really living or dying by combat mechanics. Btw, I've seen only a handful of games from the last mentioned sub-genre that had an okay melee.

 

[Iskramor]

How about not taking derailing discussion baits from the roguey for exapmle?

 

[Nikanuur]

...freezing and shattering and enemy....
Why is there even a debate about this, it's not like it enriches the game or something.

And yet, this is one of the few things that sparkled some positive emotion in me while watching the trailer
Just saying...

 

[AwesomeButton]

are combat mechanics the mechanics by which the ARPG lives and dies

If you're Skyrim you live and die by how many cool vistas you watch, and also there's dragon fights in them.

If you're Dragon's Dogma you live by wether your players can make it through the boring goblins and cyclopes to fight chimeras, drakes and dragons. Also there's cool vistas to watch out for.

Which is to say that a lot of ARPGs are really Action-Adventure games and wether the focus is on interesting fighting mechanics or exploration depends a lot on the game. That said after the Starfield fizzle out it does seem like the Skyrim way of doing things is falling out of favor.

Dunno about y'all but I don't think this bodes well for Avowed.

I'm trying to make up my mind on whether uninteresting combat mechanics in an action RPG result in a walking sim with extra UI elements tacked on camouflaging as if their settings matter.

 

[Quillon]

Games where you can freeze opponents are not the same thing as games that allow you to freeze and shatter them.

As if that is such an intricate feature; dismemberment is impressive/cool/harder to make not shattering, melting etc. and I'm sure there won't be dismemberment in Awoken.

 

[Roguey]

As if that is such an intricate feature; dismemberment is impressive/cool/harder to make not shattering, melting etc. and I'm sure there won't be dismemberment in Awoken.

Bethouts have dismemberment.