Game News Looks like Pillars of Eternity 2 is going to be officially announced soon

[markec]

I dont want an isometric Risen 2...

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/01/19/obsidian-next-game/#comment-2372935

And fuck RPS.

 

[axedice]

Any news on unity vs. unreal engine?

 

[Kem0sabe]

I dont want an isometric Risen 2...

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/01/19/obsidian-next-game/#comment-2372935

Seems like those idiots cant think beyond "omg new fallout"...

Prestigious gaming magazine investigative journalism at its best.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Dude, PoE2 is not clickbait enough for RPS.

 

[Prime Junta]

Any news on unity vs. unreal engine?

Why, you interested in modding?

 

[deama]

I'm hoping you'll play as a lesser God and battle/scheme against other Gods and slowly rise in power.

 

[Spectacle]

Any news on unity vs. unreal engine?

Why would that matter for a game that's basically just displaying a single textured plane for the background and a few tiny character models? I can't see any point in them switching when they already have the game engine set up for Unity.

 

[axedice]

They wanted to hire an unreal developer a few months ago, we guessed it was for the Cain/Boyarsky project but the announcement is to soon for a full engine revise, so yeah they'll probably stick with unity.

Why, you interested in modding?

Yes, I'll be the Drog of pillars2 and answer the eternal question

 

[thesheeep]

I'm interested to see if they improve the character & spell system so that anything might have some kind of impact beyond 5% here and there.
I'll play it either way. Though not .
The first part's graphics, audio and story were good enough™ to let me look past the horribly boring systems for one playthrough.

 

[Prime Junta]

I'm interested to see if they improve the character & spell system so that anything might have some kind of impact beyond 5% here and there.

Play better. The spells and abilities pack a massive wallop if you use them right. They'll only feel ineffective if you're trying to fireball a dragon.

(Since 3.0 they even made it innumerate-friendly by changing high resistances to outright immunities. So, y'know, the tooltip would say "Immunity: Fire" rather than Fire/60 which is clearly too hard to understand for kids these days.)

 

[aweigh]

markec, obsidian makes alright RPGs. no need to say something so mean.

SHIT i forgot sawyer fired Avellone because he was jealous of his bulging, vascular muscles AND also avellones superior writing and all-around smater intellect.

you're right: FUCK OBSIDIAN!!!!111

tl;dr: Tyranny sucked and is probably the worst game Obs has ever made (yes, worse than NWN2), but I am one of the few people here who legit LOVES PoE's implementation of RTwP.

I truly hope PoE 2 does NOT take ANYTHING from Tyranny's design docs and instead simply doubles down on the excellent itemization, and combat from PoE 1... and that they hire a competent lead writer so that the game isn't painfully embarassing to read.

 

[Prime Junta]

I truly hope PoE 2 does NOT take ANYTHING from Tyranny's design docs

I'm pretty confident there's no danger of that.

(1) JES wasn't involved with Tyranny and while for obvious reasons he hasn't said anything bad about it, he has made it very clear that this is the case, and at times his lack of enthusiasm for it has been fairly apparent.
(2) Pillars 2 and Tyranny were being worked on in parallel, not in sequence. I.e. while I'm sure some people have been working on both (QA, artists, animators, composers, VA etc.), each game has separate designers.

 

[aweigh]

you never know Prima. Without Avellone's manly muscles to keep the dweebs like Sawyer in check who knows what the fuck might happen...

I bet if MCA was still around for Tyranny he would've busted inside that game's office and seen the absolute shit-kebab that Obs was planning on inflicting on us poor souls and given every single person involved with the game a wedgie so atomic the game's data files would've deleted themselves.

 

[Flou]

About fucking time!

 

[Infinitron]

Tyranny features that PoE2 might adopt:

1) More restricted interrupt system
2) Wiki-links in dialogue

 

[Prime Junta]

1) More restricted interrupt system

2) Wiki-links in dialogue

 

[aweigh]

I like the wiki-links in dialog. Best thing about Tyranny.

however creating bad ass interrupt builds and having them be viable without cheesey is one of the many layers that contribute to the above-average party-building / class-building that makes char-gen (and thus combat)in PoE fun.

restricting interrupts for whatever reason = dumb, and if you don't believe me... play Tyranny. They might as well just replace interrupts with a completely new mechanic instead.

PoE example: 2-handed sword has a very high amount of startup frames (i.e. it is "slow"), however it hits the enemy hard and has a higher chance to both bypass enemy damage reduction and also a higher chance to interrupt.

Other weapons do not, and instead feature completely different benefits and consequences to their usage.

Is what I just wrote an example of omg awesome design? absolutely not... but it's COMPETENT. it's easy to understand, and it allows for varied "builds" as the weapon choice complements the class and the class is complemented by the race.

Tyranny's weapons all function exactly the same. The mediocre "complexity" I described above is completely absent in Tyranny.

anyway, yeah, the wiki-dialog is good.

 

[Roguey]

while I'm sure some people have been working on both (QA, artists, animators, composers, VA etc.), each game has separate designers.

Dini McMurry, Liz Fiacco, Jeff Husges, and Ryan Torres provided level design for both.

Looking at the commentaries, McMurry worked on Black Meadow, the bridge district, the Hall of Revealed Mysteries, a bunch of inns, the lighthouse, Madhmar Bridge, Pearlwood Bluff, and Woodend Plains. Husges worked on Copperlane and Ondra's Gift exteriors, Brackenbury, and Heritage Hill. Torres worked on Od Nua levels 2-9. Fiacco didn't make any commentaries but she was nice enough to list her work on her site

Madhmr Bridge

• Blockout
• Area Design Document
• First pass writing for "Ferry Flotsam"
• Quest & game object implementation
• Placed encounter spawns

Woodend Plains

• Blockout
• Area Design Document
• Quest & game object implementation
• Placed encounter spawns

Lighthouse

• Area Design Document for re-purposed area
• First pass writing for "The Wailing Banshee" & associated flavor text
• Quest & game object implementation
• Placed encounter spawns & scripted spawn behavior
• Set up quest reacitivity

Elmshore

• Area Design Document for existing area
• First pass writing for "The Sealed Missive"
• Quest & game object implementation
• Placed encounter spawns

Charred Barrel Inn

• Blockout
• Area Design Document (within Kickstarter constraints)

Given that a lot of that doubles what McMurry worked on, pretty difficult to assign credit/blame on any one individual for any given area.

 

[Drowed]

This time, let's go for 20 reviews.

 

[Prime Junta]

Okay I'll give you possible level design influences. (Some of Tyranny's levels were pretty good actually, it's just the dungeons, especially the Oldwalls which sucked.) I was thinking about systems. Tyranny's were all-around no-good, except for the bits they didn't change from Pillars.

 

[aweigh]

Black Meadow = nice area, lots of stuff happens there.

bridge district = completely disposable area, only notable for getting that cool looking red armor which renders the entire quest tied to the area moot, since there isn't a player alive that won't side with the Vailans in order to get the armor.

the actual fight itself was well-designed though, and stands out, since the enemy party features casters and rouges that backstab you.

Hall of Revealed Mysteries = i don't even remember this area and I put in like 3 playthroughs of poe (in order to access the motherfucking WM content, ARGH). is this the temple where a disposable info-dump NPC talks about the flame, and the only point of the entire area is to unlock +1 confidence point w/ Durance? If so... shit area.

bunch of inns = not a single fucking inn in the ENTIRE GAME is worth talking about. I honestly do not remember anything aside from the very first inn, because you can kill the npc adventurer party in the 2nd floor for sweet, early game l00t.

the lighthouse = BEST DESGINED "dungeon" IN THE ENTIRE GAME. Also features the best flavor text, AND also features the best enemy fight. Whoever did this one should be put in charge of ALL OF THE SEQUEL'S ENTIRE WORLD.

Madhmar Bridge = what? no idea what this bridge is. Is this the shit bridge where a xyrup attacks you immediately upon entering it, and if playing on trial of Iron + PotD will probably stunlock you immediately into a party wipe if you're not expecting it? The area where you make the incredible moral choice of killing some dudes looting a shipwreck for loot, or not killing them for nothing? (since they never appear again).

Pearlwood Bluff = complete shit area filled to the brim with trash-fights, mostly dumb dragons. nothing interesting here whatsoever except a cave you can climb down to where... there is nothing of interest except more trash fight.

Woodend Plains = what fucking area was this again? I have no clue.

Copperlane = absolutely atrociously designed city area. SHAMEFULLY bad in design.

Ondra's Gift exteriors = complete contrast to Copperlane. fantastic design of the actual area/layout, and LOTS of interesting stuff here to do, and interesting choices to make, and people to talk to, and some great fights. Considering this area also houses the LIGHTHOUSE, again I repeat: put the people who made them in charge.

Brackenbury = NWN2-tier in its badness. Worse than Blacklake district. Ugh.

Heritage Hil = above-average "psuedo-dungeon" area. Falls apart when you enter the Tower though, as it poses nothing of interest for you to fight or to do. Excellent area "graphics", what with the mist and stuff, and the NPCs you interact with inside are incredibly memorable.

too bad they never appear again nor have any impact whatsoever on the actual game itself. But still, genuinely well designed little spooky area, with nice encounters.

Od Nua levels 2-9 = Excellent dungeon levels. No complaints here.

 

[Marten Broadcloak]

Is it likely that it will be in turn-based? Is it unlikely? Please, I need hope.

 

[Decado]

Sweet, let me write one of the 19 reviews the Codex will post.

 

[TigerKnee]

Can't wait for 20 more reviews and more arguments about BALANCE and muscle wizards.

The second coming of Fun being successfully ended.

 

[thesheeep]

I'm interested to see if they improve the character & spell system so that anything might have some kind of impact beyond 5% here and there.

Play better.

Are you for real? PoE?
There is no need to play good in that game.
I played through it when released and just recently (because of the expansion). Played on the 2nd highest difficulty.
There was little difference between the two versions - most noticeable was the change to how melee characters were locked in position.

There are two challenging fights in that game. And one of them is the boss of an optional area (which is nice).
The other ones are the ghosts in the starting area that completely mess up typical positioning by teleporting around. Those I actually found too challenging for a starting area. That must've really pissed off new players.
Other than that, it simply doesn't matter what kind of abilities or stats you pick. Seriously, you could randomize your stats and your character would still work just fine. You cannot screw up builds in this game and that is simply a sign of

Maybe those minuscule differences do make a difference on the very highest difficulty, but I really don't give a shit. Game mechanics have to work and be noticeable and a certain (increasing) degree of mastering them should be required on every difficulty.
And I'm not talking about common sense stuff like not trying to knock down a giant or fire blast a dragon.

The spells and abilities pack a massive wallop if you use them right. They'll only feel ineffective if you're trying to fireball a dragon.

Damaging spells, yes, but those are about the only useful ones.
Other than slinging fire at fire based enemies, you can do pretty much throw any damage type at any enemy and it will still suffice. The difference an optimal spell would make against the weakest defense is simply not required.

But even if it was different, what would that lead to?
The need to have your party first use some abilities to lower a certain defense and then attack just that defense? How is that fun or challenging in any way?

The system completely lacks any kind of game changer mechanics like the IE & NWN games have in droves.
Enemies that are suddenly immune to magic weapons? Nope.
An ability that completely changes how your damage/attack is calculated? Nope.
A stun that is not automatically over after ignorable amounts of time? Nope.
A clear stat influence that actually makes a difference instead of "everything is related to everything else so each change can only make mini differences"? Nope.
The need to prepare for an encounter sometimes? Nope.
The ability to beat an enemy clearly above your level by figuring out some brillant or cheesy strategy? Nope.
Nope, nope, nope, nope...
I could go on like this forever. No matter what kind of interesting mechanic you are looking for, PoE won't have it.
Given, some of this is more due to encounter design than the system it is all based on, but it really feels like both support each others insignificance here.

I did like the fatigue/resting mechanics, though. At least sometimes it made you go on instead of sleeping 80% of your character's life.