Josh Sawyer Q&A Thread

[Darth Canoli]

Josh Sawyer Q&A Thread

Does he plan to retire soon?

 

[vortex]

I hope he doesn't. Deadfire was put out too hastily, IMO. Instead going through full voiceover 3 months before release, Sawyer should have worked to improve game overall I have high hopes for POE3 to rectify all of the issues with Deadfire but still change lore and writing for the better. Performance too.

 

[Ol' Willy]

For example, if you have an enemy with extremely high damage output yet reasonably low pen of a single type, then players will learn to raise armor value to get that 70% damage reduction, or if the enemy's attack with highest pen deals no direct damage but applies DOT, then maybe it's a good idea to use lighter armor and kill it fast. But if you just throw a bunch of generic mobs at the player with an even assortment of damage types and strengths then there really isn't much the players can do to interact with the system and optimize.

Sawyer, a 20+ years veteran dev, should go and take some fucking lessons from a Styg on topic of "how to design a proper RPG system using classic RPGs as your inspiration".

 

[Butter]

For example, if you have an enemy with extremely high damage output yet reasonably low pen of a single type, then players will learn to raise armor value to get that 70% damage reduction, or if the enemy's attack with highest pen deals no direct damage but applies DOT, then maybe it's a good idea to use lighter armor and kill it fast. But if you just throw a bunch of generic mobs at the player with an even assortment of damage types and strengths then there really isn't much the players can do to interact with the system and optimize.

Sawyer, a 20+ years veteran dev, should go and take some fucking lessons from a Styg on topic of "how to design a proper RPG system using classic RPGs as your inspiration".

But Underrail allows the player to make bad builds, and that's no fun. It's better when the decisions you make during chargen don't mean anything.

 

[Gordian Nutt]

I hope he is not putting the blames on the players here, because that would be irresponsible.

He often does

 

[rusty_shackleford]

For example, if you have an enemy with extremely high damage output yet reasonably low pen of a single type, then players will learn to raise armor value to get that 70% damage reduction, or if the enemy's attack with highest pen deals no direct damage but applies DOT, then maybe it's a good idea to use lighter armor and kill it fast. But if you just throw a bunch of generic mobs at the player with an even assortment of damage types and strengths then there really isn't much the players can do to interact with the system and optimize.

Sawyer, a 20+ years veteran dev, should go and take some fucking lessons from a Styg on topic of "how to design a proper RPG system using classic RPGs as your inspiration".

Underrail has GURPS heritage, PoE has D&D heritage. Even when far removed, the differences are still very distinct and GURPS was always a better system for combat.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Never did GURPS before, but if Styg & co did a D&D styled game, I'd imagine it would be implemented magnificently better than anything Sawyer could do with GURPS.

 

[Ol' Willy]

Never did GURPS before, but if Styg & co did a D&D styled game, I'd imagine it would be implemented magnificently better than anything Sawyer could do with GURPS.

Imagine Dark Sun game in Underrail engine...

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Never did GURPS before, but if Styg & co did a D&D styled game, I'd imagine it would be implemented magnificently better than anything Sawyer could do with GURPS.

Imagine Dark Sun game in Underrail engine...

I'm imagining Sawyer doing an Underrail style games. All I keep getting are snarky characters I want to punch, muh feminizm, and crap combat encounters./

 

[Desiderius]

its his fault ever thinking that armor/pen design is anything but failure

Giant Bergeronesque deadspot between pen and overpen.

 

[Desiderius]

I hope he doesn't. Deadfire was put out too hastily, IMO. Instead going through full voiceover 3 months before release, Sawyer should have worked to improve game overall I have high hopes for POE3 to rectify all of the issues with Deadfire but still change lore and writing for the better. Performance too.

Deadfire turned out much better than it started, though still limited in some exasperating places.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Nano]

What the fuck, Bobby?

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Dude, he should honestly stop communicating in general and just focus on whatever project it is that he's working on.

At this point, you have to wonder if he's ended up like Manderley, pushed into some obscure bureaucratic cubbyhole, as a result of Obsidian's would-be franchise falling flat on the sequel and 2 of the Troika returning to make Obs. big bucks with their own game.

 

[Ninjerk]

Wayne Reynolds

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Nano]

So Sawyer doesn't know what it means either?

 

[Quillon]

Gweath is Engwith and Moi Gweath is Engwithan.

Spoiler

maybe, I don't know :D

 

[Major_Blackhart]

This is the problem with being a faux Tolkien wannabe linguist.


How big of a fag you are shows quite clearly.

 

[Flying Dutchman]

The only thing that can made a boring fantasy setting worse is the addition of a crap fantasy language.

The depths sunk to for the language and insane focus on currency is Unfun Autism Verified.

 

[purupuru]

Fantasy language is cool. We need a "postenago" button for those who disagree.

 

[Keyboard Vomit]

Fantasy language is cool. We need a "postenago" button for those who disagree.

They can be cool but most authors completely miss the point and most devs too. Stories and video games are just as much about what you put in them as what you don't, so all the parts you make use of need to justifiable. Tolkien started the trend but his stories depended on linguistics while the cargo cults that were built around his books never did anything with it and should have saved us all some cringe by not trying to. In game dev the story is similar, it is very rare that a conlang is actually made a real part of the game. I never played the Pillows of Snoozternity but from what I can tell it is a game that decidedly doesn't make any real use of the conglang.

See Ultima Underworld for a game doing it right.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Dude, he should honestly stop communicating in general and just focus on whatever project it is that he's working on.

Feargus keeps him locked in the broom closet so he doesn't fuck anything important up

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Fantasy language is cool. We need a "postenago" button for those who disagree.

Coincidentally I've only even seen languages done to any meaningful level in MMORPGs. Likely, but not entirely, because they need to plan around social communications. But games like EQ2 have many quests that simply can't be completed at all if you don't speak the languages required.