Obsidian General Discussion Thread

[Infinitron]

A more-of-the-same slam dunk TOW 2 would probably bomb, I agree. But they've got money now, if they invest into making the sequel bigger and better and do lots of marketing it could exceed its humble origins.

 

[Roguey]

I was actually confused by that statement and I still cannot believe it's true.
I don't see 2+ million people asking for a sequel, this game is rarely talked about. People are rather pining for New Vegas 2, I'd say be careful what you wish for.

I expect it will blow up in their faces if they don't make the necessary course corrections, but it's also possible they'll do exactly that and deliver a better space RPG, a New Vegas-ing of The Outer Worlds.

 

[Testownia]

I was actually confused by that statement and I still cannot believe it's true.
I don't see 2+ million people asking for a sequel, this game is rarely talked about. People are rather pining for New Vegas 2, I'd say be careful what you wish for.

I expect it will blow up in their faces if they don't make the necessary course corrections, but it's also possible they'll do exactly that and deliver a better space RPG, a New Vegas-ing of The Outer Worlds.

Just buy Tyranny from Paradox and make a proper sequel, if you have the cash. Nobody, literally nobody, wants a sequel to The Outer Worlds. It's the video game equivalent of gruel.

 

[santino27]

I was actually confused by that statement and I still cannot believe it's true.
I don't see 2+ million people asking for a sequel, this game is rarely talked about. People are rather pining for New Vegas 2, I'd say be careful what you wish for.

I expect it will blow up in their faces if they don't make the necessary course corrections, but it's also possible they'll do exactly that and deliver a better space RPG, a New Vegas-ing of The Outer Worlds.

I don't think they have the talent left to New Vegas anything.

 

[SpaceWizardz]

They should stop with the Bethesda derivatives and try to do another Alpha Protocol or something like Bloodlines, try and recapture some of the subversiveness that made them stand out in the first place.

 

[TheDiceMustRoll]

I don't get why they are making The Outer Worlds 2. The game was held exclusively hostage for a year, the reception was lukewarm at best and the game itself was disappointing.

It sold millions and they believe an improved sequel will sell more millions. They already laid the groundwork, might as well try.

"Groundwork"

Groundwork is a two line sequel tease that Earth went dark (nuked itself) so they can just do more Fallout shit

 

[Cael]

Here's where Jorge Selgado says he's the lead area designer on an unnanounced project: https://youtu.be/SUQ0p9FWznE?t=45 Duraframe300

Please God, there are only three Fallout games in total (AND NO MORE), so a fourth one would be welcome.

Yeah. FO, FO2 and FOT.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

A more-of-the-same slam dunk TOW 2 would probably bomb, I agree. But they've got money now, if they invest into making the sequel bigger and better and do lots of marketing it could exceed its humble origins.

It took nusidian nearly as long to make a single piece of ~6 hour DLC for Outer Worlds as it took oldsidian to make the entirety of FNV.
To really put it into context: The first piece of Outer Worlds DLC released 321 days after the game's release. Lonesome Road released 336 days after the release of New Vegas.

Nusidian is well and truly fucked.

 

[Spacer's Nugget]

TOW > F:NV

 

[Roguey]

t took nusidian nearly as long to make a single piece of ~6 hour DLC for Outer Worlds as it took oldsidian to make the entirety of FNV.
To really put it into context: The first piece of Outer Worlds DLC released 321 days after the game's release. Lonesome Road released 336 days after the release of New Vegas.

Nusidian is well and truly fucked.

It's a 15 hour DLC if you do everything. There are also unsubstantiated claims that the first director sent it spiraling into dev-hell, hence why Patel had to take over as director in November 2019 even though an artist accidentally gave away that they had been working on it as early as June. It's also probably harder to make an RPG in UE4 than Bethbryo with their user friendly tools.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

t took nusidian nearly as long to make a single piece of ~6 hour DLC for Outer Worlds as it took oldsidian to make the entirety of FNV.
To really put it into context: The first piece of Outer Worlds DLC released 321 days after the game's release. Lonesome Road released 336 days after the release of New Vegas.

Nusidian is well and truly fucked.

It's a 15 hour DLC if you do everything. There are also unsubstantiated claims that the first director sent it spiraling into dev-hell, hence why Patel had to take over as director in November 2019 even though an artist accidentally gave away that they had been working on it as early as June. It's also probably harder to make an RPG in UE4 than Bethbryo with their user friendly tools.

Murder on Eridanos has been in development for nearly as long.
https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2020/07/30/the-outer-worlds-peril-on-gorgon-expansion/

Jul 30, 2020 @ 6:00am

Now, I’d absolutely love to tell you about our second expansion, Murder on Eridanos, but the Board has kindly* asked** me to focus on Peril on Gorgon for now.

 

[Infinitron]

In one of the new interviews, Megan Starks reveals that development on Murder on Eridanos began shortly before the covid lockdowns began, ie a long time ago. But she and Tim Cain also say its development went pretty smoothly.

While there may have been some kind of development hell situation here, I suspect that these were just low priority projects, possibly worked on part-time with outsourced level design etc.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

In one of the new interviews, Megan Starks reveals that development on Murder on Eridanos began shortly before the covid lockdowns began, ie a long time ago. But she and Tim Cain also say its development went pretty smoothly.

While there may have been some kind of development hell situation on Peril on Gorgon, I suspect that these were just low priority projects, possibly worked on part-time with outsourced level design etc.

An entire year for a short DLC.

I'm sure they thought it would be a brilliant idea to make their new franchise's DLC a low priority project using outsourced labor. Couldn't imagine why Outer Worlds is a cheap imitation product.

 

[ekrolo2]

Please God, there are only three Fallout games in total (AND NO MORE), so a fourth one would be welcome.

Yeah, but from Bethesda, not from Obsidian. They have infinite possibilities to make something new.

A "New Vegas 2" would garner them so much positive press it would be ridiculous.

And then piss everyone off when it inevitably doesn't hold a candle to NV1. Even if you somehow magically got the Obsidian of the NV era to do a proper sequel, it'd still be very hard for that team to meet such expectations. The new Obsidian doesn't have a fucking prayer.

 

[Roguey]

Murder on Eridanos has been in development for nearly as long.

Starks was also made director in November 2019, yes. However I'm assuming, possibly incorrectly, that the project was bottlenecked because of Peril on Gorgon.

In one of the new interviews, Megan Starks reveals that development on Murder on Eridanos began shortly before the covid lockdowns began, ie a long time ago. But she and Tim Cain also say its development went pretty smoothly.

While there may have been some kind of development hell situation here, I suspect that these were just low priority projects, possibly worked on part-time with outsourced level design etc.

I misunderstood rusty, Peril is the alleged DLC that began in dev hell.

 

[Wunderbar]

TOW > F:NV

Infinitron someone wants to steal your obsidian shill job.

 

[Ging_Sama]

Salgado on his Linkedin said he work on Avowed

 

[DeepOcean]

Right now any unannounced AAA game from Obsidian is likely to be The Outer Worlds 2.

I hope they really go back and revamp it from the scratch because, in lots of youtube videos, the highest rated comments tend to be how boring the game was and they might get a repeat of the PoE 2 situation. The only reason Outer Worlds wasnt instantly ignored was for ignorant youtubers promoting it with undeserved hype because of the Fallout 76 debacle.

 

[Infinitron]

Digital GDC thing: https://showcase.gdconf.com/session...h-obsidian-entertainments-carrie-patel/879253

Ask Me Anything: Q&A with Obsidian Entertainment's Carrie Patel
Carrie Patel (Game Director, Obsidian Entertainment)

Date: Tuesday, March 16
Time: 12:25pm - 12:55pm
Track: Design
Format: Live Session

In this live GDC Showcase AMA session, Obsidian Entertainment game director and senior narrative designer Carrie Patel will be answering your questions about her experience working on ‘The Outer Worlds’ and ‘Pillars of Eternity’ including the ‘White March’ expansion, 'Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire’, and the first expansion for ‘The Outer Worlds’, ‘Peril on Gorgon’. As a game industry veteran, she can also provide insight into game direction and narrative design in general.

Show up, tune in, and ask away via the chat messaging feature during the AMA's scheduled broadcast.

Bryant Francis of Gamasutra will be joining this session as a moderator.

https://showcase.gdconf.com/speaker/patel-carrie/47703

She is currently directing an upcoming title at Obsidian.

This is today:

 

[Infinitron]

Last year's talk: https://rpgcodex.net/article.php?id=11399

 

[Savecummer]

No one cares about the opinion of someone who DESIGNED Pillars of Eternity 1 - he is a moron.

No one actually cares about dmg mitigation in games - its a reactionary stat. It grows out of the designed offense, like in real life. Damage dealing is the actual interesting part.

Here, my 10 second TED dmg mitigation talk:
threshold
%resist
soaking
avoidance
dmg types

There, saved you 2 hours of time.

Now in good games, armor is not only about dmg mitigation - there is a push pull effect on secondary stats. Of which in Pillars 1 there is 1 - recovery time. Trash game, trash system.
Strategy games in late 80s had better armor systems.

 

[Cael]

No one cares about the opinion of someone who DESIGNED Pillars of Eternity 1 - he is a moron.

No one actually cares about dmg mitigation in games - its a reactionary stat. It grows out of the designed offense, like in real life. Damage dealing is the actual interesting part.

Here, my 10 second TED dmg mitigation talk:
threshold
%resist
soaking
avoidance
dmg types

There, saved you 2 hours of time.

Now in good games, armor is not only about dmg mitigation - there is a push pull effect on secondary stats. Of which in Pillars 1 there is 1 - recovery time. Trash game, trash system.
Strategy games in late 80s had better armor systems.

You basically described the Fallout system of armour.

 

[Savecummer]

If only Sawyer had heard about Fallout...

 

[Roguey]

Fallout's armor system is really lousy. Ultimately D&D's armor class Just Works.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Fallout's armor system is really lousy. Ultimately D&D's armor class Just Works.

There's no reason to use a system designed for simplicity in a cRPG. D&D's AC system is simple because it speeds up combat and you don't waste time doing math at the table.
It makes no distinction between someone wearing heavy armor and someone who is simply agile. Nearly all D&D editions include no rules for blocking or parrying. There are no rules for per-damage type AC(however, there is for DR). Damage reduction is simply flat, again, because nobody wants to crunch out percentages at the table. Making all DR flat unfairly punishes characters that attack faster rather than heavier, D&D designers are even aware of this which is why it's so rare in core materials.

cRPGs can do much better than a system designed for tabletop play.