Obsidian's Pillars of Eternity [BETA RELEASED, GO TO THE NEW THREAD]

[Morality Games]

I told you how it works. - I never take Keldorn because the character is an imbecile. But Minsc and Boo are quite indispensable, especially with Vicy and Edwin = great banter.

But Carsomyr+5.

 

[Murk]

And his dispel is OP.

Tho I just make my own chars and save-copy my folder over cuz fuckkkkk those npcs.

 

[hiver]

But Carsomyr+5.

Carsomyr the faggot sword? Stays in the sewers, safely lodged in Keldorns ass. Me and my friend Lilarcor agree. At least for that part of the game at start.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Why should someone have to fail and restart at basic character creation a bunch of times because they weren't familiar with the system ahead of time? Wouldn't it be better if they learned the complexities of the systems in the game by playing characters that are designed to be at least viable, even if created by someone with no prior experience, though certainly not all equally good? Then they can play the game and learn and develop their characters as they level with newfound understanding of the systems, instead of having to start over or have an extremely difficult experience their first time playing.

Sure, agreed. Except, where exactly does it happen that you HAVE to restart completely because you can't complete the game? I keep hearing about this and yet nobody gives any examples, which leads me think that this is some mythical "what if" or there are people who think a game in unbeatable with a certain build if they have to reload more than 2 times for a combat. You know, the save and load buttons are not lava.

I guess you could, at least theoretically, have an unwinnable build in games that offer a lot of non-combat skills, like Fallout. Like if you start with, I don't know, gamble, science and repair. But even then, what you choose right at chargen is not the end. The start is easy enough that you can get a couple of levels to increase your combat skills too. And since the game pretty much beats you over the head that you kinda need at least a combat skill then maybe you should increase them. It is part of learning the game and developing your character accordingly. On the other hand, if you keep pumping up the same skills while you're getting set on fire by the enemies, well, maybe you're just too dumb to play the game.
Sure, you also have utter ignorant imbeciles like Roguey who think that a build is "failed" because you spent a couple of points on a skill where you didn't need quite as many points. And yet, such a "failed" build is still not unwinnable.

So, such a "every build viable" concept is just a myth and is unattainable for any reasonably complex game. The more options there are the less balanced it will be. I'd rather have a lot of options than worry about people who might choose a combination that doesn't work quite that well.
And even in extremely balanced games like D2 or POE you can screw up your build. You'd pretty much have to slam your face into the keyboard at level up to do that, but hey, it can be done. That is for Normal difficulty of course. After that, you actually have to think your builds. Maybe that necro-fighter is not such a good idea, but you can try it. And you might even make it, if you know how to play it.

 

[eremita]

I told you how it works. - I never take Keldorn because the character is an imbecile. But Minsc and Boo are quite indispensable, especially with Vicy and Edwin = great banter.

Ok, I'll take your word for it. I really hope that dumb hamster lover won't decide to kill my precious Edwin among Mindflayers. That would be most unfortunate. I also might take Valygar for backstabbing and Mazzy as an archer... Never played with party consisted of mixed alignments before.

 

[hiver]

To tell you the truth i never played with Valygar, except for the ... that quest he opens, whatever its called... mage sphere?
Didnt like the fuck either. But i always played with Minsc and Edwin. Whole game.

- Unfinished business mod brings back many parts that were left on the cutting floor originally. Is good.

 

[Aeschylus]

eremita All i remember is i had all the spell levels and all the spells. Less then Edwin ofcourse but he is a walking cheat anyway.
You can take any party without them killing eachother, with that ring of charisma.

Yeah, I wanna hit the cap with mage...

Wut? They don't fight each other with party leader having high charisma? Never heard about it before and all I could find now were just speculations. Is it written down in detail somewhere (how much char i need to prevent/ lower the chance)? I really can't find anything specific about it. I'll keep digging.

Not a lot of the NPCs will actually kill each other, but I don't think it has anything to do with your charisma. Keldorn at least will always try to kill Viconia eventually regardless of your CHA. The only way to avoid it is by using the tweak pack.

 

[hiver]

Or showing Carsomyr up his ass and having a good maniacal laugh with Lilarcor. As i already said.
Charisma functions only as a way to stop them from fighting each other. Thats was the only use for it i know about. (therefore a nicely placed 18 CH ring in one of the first quests you do, after escaping Irenicus dungeon, in the signature style of Bioware of inventing shit but immediately providing ways to nullify it and allow player to have it all - which they didnt achieve in entirety of BG games - but which they worked very hard to correct in future projects)

 

[Outlander]

 

[Abelian]

He looks so sinister, especially with the black lower lip...

 

[LivingOne]

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/65020-upload-character-portraits/
http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/65020-upload-character-portraits/

you got specs? bmp, png, dimensions, etc

I want to spend 8 months preparing the perfect portrait

I don't know what the final image format will be, but the dimensions are 210x330.

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/65188-shapeshifting-request/page-2

Quadrone, on 01 Mar 2014 - 12:16 AM, said:

Hmm, unfortunate.

Is there a flat power progression between these Spirit-Shapes or is there merrit in keep using an older one over the newest?

I ask since for some reason I think bears are really lame animals and would rather keep using any other Were- form. Well, except those ugly Wereboars, there is no Spirit-Boar Form in PE right?

The forms will scale in power as you level. The reason for choosing one form over another will be for the special ability each one inherently comes with.

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/65334-a-few-world-lore-questions-item-submission-help/

Using specialized tools, animancers can detect if a soul has suffered serious damage during previous reincarnation cycles. Most souls fragment slightly from one life to the next, but others can break more dramatically.



Marriage is largely similar to "real world" in the Dyrwood and Vailian Republics. There are a few notable exceptions. In the Aedyr Empire, it's not uncommon for humans and elves to take elves or humans, respectively, as secondary spouses for economic or political reasons. These arrangements are called haemnegs and society considers them perfectly acceptable as long as both parties are married to same-race partners and producing children (the imperial family has been doing it for centuries so it has to be okay, right?). It is less common in the Dyrwood, but still happens.



In the Vailian Republics, godlike are legally considered to be without sex or gender (because they cannot reproduce) regardless of how they appear or self-identify. Legal constructs that explicitly name (favorably or unfavorably) sexes or genders can cause problems for them. Marriage is a tricky area for godlike in many areas because most societies consider marriage to exist for the purpose of raising children. This also causes problems for mixed-"race" (in the fantasy sense) marriages for the same reason.



The item appearance field is to help us describe it. We may use part, none, or all of your text in the final description.



Sure, I don't see a problem with there being a connection between the memorial and item.

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/65...u-guys-want-to-see-in-dialogue-options/page-2

When we increment reputations, we use a weighting based on how big of a deal that specific interaction/action is. If you save the king from being assassinated, that would count as the highest weighting of rep bump. If you save Joe Dirtfarmer from the wolves in the middle of nowhere, it will a) probably be small and b) if it's a regional rep, will likely be only for that region.

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/64747-issues-with-npcitem-surveys/page-7

Ffordesoon, on 28 Feb 2014 - 04:11 AM, said:

After much consideration, I think I'm going to go with another idea, the daughter of an Aedyran servant and a Vaillian aristocrat who escaped slavery at an early age. I'm still giving this new character the last name Gullspark, though, just because I like it.

Which begs a few questions that only an Obsidian employee may be able to answer, unless I've missed the reveal of this information:

1. What are the conditions for being a "Vaillian aristocrat?"

2. Who do the Vaillians enslave? Is it another culture I'm thinking of that enslaves people?

3. How does slavery work in the Republics? Is it like ancient Greece's system? Rome's? Egypt's? Wholly original?

EDIT: Also, are sabres in PoE?

1. Being rich and successful. Vailian Republics place a high value on success and don't care much about what your family did two generations+ ago.



2. They don't really discriminate whom they enslave, but they are more involved in trafficking than actually running slaving operations.



3. Can you narrow your question? What specific aspect are you interested in?




4. Yes, there are sabres in PoE.

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/65240-combat-demonstration/

Interrupts don't queue and an Interrupt always has a fixed (tiny) duration. If someone actually gets hit by six attacks concurrently, they probably have to worry more about their Stamina than being interrupted.

 

[Answermancer]

I guess you could, at least theoretically, have an unwinnable build in games that offer a lot of non-combat skills, like Fallout. Like if you start with, I don't know, gamble, science and repair. But even then, what you choose right at chargen is not the end. The start is easy enough that you can get a couple of levels to increase your combat skills too.

Well in the case of a DnD game, making a Fighter with 8 Strength would be pretty terrible and you couldn't really fix it later in the game since you rarely/never (depending on edition) increase your base attributes and Strength is so closely tied with accuracy and damage.

I know that's a pretty dumb thing to do, but if a system like what they are proposing works, and you could dump Strength and still be pretty viable, but in a completely different way than if you'd raised it, that sounds pretty good to me. Especially since other classes are not as intuitive as Fighter = "Strength Good." Even if you do it because you're dumb or you made a mistake, you can still have a pretty interesting character as long as you do what I was saying in my previous post and learn the mechanics as you play. The question of course is whether they can make it work and if making it work doesn't dilute the feel of the game too much, but I think it has potential.

 

[Dreaad]

Well in the case of a DnD game, making a Fighter with 8 Strength would be pretty terrible and you couldn't really fix it later in the game since you rarely/never (depending on edition) increase your base attributes and Strength is so closely tied with accuracy and damage.

I know that's a pretty dumb thing to do, but if a system like what they are proposing works, and you could dump Strength and still be pretty viable, but in a completely different way than if you'd raised it, that sounds pretty good to me. Especially since other classes are not as intuitive as Fighter = "Strength Good." Even if you do it because you're dumb or you made a mistake, you can still have a pretty interesting character as long as you do what I was saying in my previous post and learn the mechanics as you play. The question of course is whether they can make it work and if making it work doesn't dilute the feel of the game too much, but I think it has potential.

Lol wtf is this shit. Or you know you could just assume your target audience knows how to read.... in which case when they pick a class it fucking outlines in detail the most important stats for your class. The IE games even had pre-built characters that you could at least take a look at before generating your own. I guess if you are making a game for 5 year olds, the mentally disabled or vidiya gheymers then what you say is right on the money, great PR speak and all that.
If a someone in a primary school can play the game your excuses that it's too complicated, just don't work.

 

[Answermancer]

Lol wtf is this shit. Or you know you could just assume your target audience knows how to read.... in which case when they pick a class it fucking outlines in detail the most important stats for your class. The IE games even had pre-built characters that you could at least take a look at before generating your own. I guess if you are making a game for 5 year olds, the mentally disabled or vidiya gheymers then what you say is right on the money, great PR speak and all that.
If a someone in a primary school can play the game your excuses that it's too complicated, just don't work.

I never claimed it was too complicated.

But why is being able to make a completely terrible character at the start of the game, before you know anything about how the mechanics actually work in practice, necessary? If you can design a system where someone won't get stuck with a useless character from the very start but still needs to learn the mechanics over the course of the game in order to succeed and build a great character, why wouldn't you?

 

[Dreaad]

^ Because failing and learning is not a bad experience to begin with. What you are talking about makes no sense, if you provide a human being with the relevant information to make a character that is playable.... that should be enough, making right and wrong choices gives FAR more satisfaction then having someone hold your hand to make sure you can't possibly make a mistake.

 

[Answermancer]

^ Because failing and learning is not a bad experience to begin with. What you are talking about makes no sense, if you provide a human being with the relevant information to make a character that is playable.... that should be enough, making right and wrong choices gives FAR more satisfaction then having someone hold your hand to make sure you can't possibly make a mistake.

You can still make plenty of mistakes along the way, all the stat system mitigates is making a huge mistake before you know how the game systems work in practice, and in the process enables more variety of character types (that is, a viable low-strength high-resolve fighter and whatever other combinations you want). I don't see how making the right choice as in "I didn't dump the wrong stat" is particularly satisfying in any way other than feeling superior to people who made the wrong choice. I'd think making the kind of character that sounds interesting to you and then making that work with the choices you make in the game would be more satisfying.

You'll still be making mistakes and learning from them as you play the game, but personally I think it's preferable that you can actually play the game, learn from it, and adapt for the future as opposed to having a huge advantage or disadvantage right off the bat based on how much meta information you know about the game.

 

[Dreaad]

The way you talk... I can't quite put my finger on it, it's like you're dancing around in a circle refusing to actually say anything real. Firstly I've already said it should be impossible to make a "huge mistake" as you put it if a developer provides you with the information during char creation. It's that simple. There is nothing more to say here, why keep bringing it up? Secondly I never said anything at all about dumping stats... I don't need to min max to have a good time. Why do you?

You'll still be making mistakes and learning from them as you play the game, but personally I think it's preferable that you can actually play the game, learn from it, and adapt for the future as opposed to having a huge advantage or disadvantage right off the bat based on how much meta information you know about the game

This last bit is just PR speak for everyone wins. You said absolutely nothing. How does this stat system let you "adapt for the future" any better that NWN? What "advantage/disadvantage" are you talking about? If you mean the difficulty of the game might be different based on your stat choices.... well I sure as hell hope that PoE also changes in difficulty based on what stat choices you make at least from encounter to encounter, surely you don't mean to say that all challenges can be met with equal ease by any character with any stat distribution, because that completely negates the point of making someone choose their stats to begin with.

 

[Answermancer]

This last bit is just PR speak for everyone wins. You said absolutely nothing. How does this stat system let you "adapt for the future" any better that NWN? What "advantage/disadvantage" are you talking about?

By advantage or disadvantage I meant that it's possible to create an overpowered or useless character in chargen based on prior knowledge of the game. An exaggerated example would be if every enemy in a game would 1-shot you unless you have 14 constitution, someone who played the game 10 times will know that, whereas someone unfamiliar with the systems and the game will have no idea and will create a shitty character without knowing until it bites him in the ass later. A more realistic example is something like letting Ranger choose "Goblin" as their favored enemy and then having no goblins in the game.

I didn't say this stat system in particular lets you adapt for the future, I just meant that I like the idea of building your character's strengths and weaknesses over the course of the game as you learn how things actually work in it. Every good game has that, I was just saying that this stat system wouldn't break that.

If you mean the difficulty of the game might be different based on your stat choices.... well I sure as hell hope that PoE also changes in difficulty based on what stat choices you make at least from encounter to encounter, surely you don't mean to say that all challenges can be met with equal ease by any character with any stat distribution, because that completely negates the point of making someone choose their stats to begin with.

Yeah, I think difficulty should vary between encounters based on your stats, but more importantly I think your strategy should vary between encounters depending on your stats. So a character with really high Strength would have to approach an encounter differently from one with very high Resolve, and would have a very hard time if they tried to treat every encounter the same way or if they tried to play a low-Strength character the same way as a high-Strength one in any specific encounter.

 

[eremita]

I guess you could, at least theoretically, have an unwinnable build in games that offer a lot of non-combat skills, like Fallout. Like if you start with, I don't know, gamble, science and repair. But even then, what you choose right at chargen is not the end. The start is easy enough that you can get a couple of levels to increase your combat skills too.

Well in the case of a DnD game, making a Fighter with 8 Strength would be pretty terrible and you couldn't really fix it later in the game since you rarely/never (depending on edition) increase your base attributes and Strength is so closely tied with accuracy and damage.

I know that's a pretty dumb thing to do, but if a system like what they are proposing works, and you could dump Strength and still be pretty viable, but in a completely different way than if you'd raised it, that sounds pretty good to me. Especially since other classes are not as intuitive as Fighter = "Strength Good." Even if you do it because you're dumb or you made a mistake, you can still have a pretty interesting character as long as you do what I was saying in my previous post and learn the mechanics as you play. The question of course is whether they can make it work and if making it work doesn't dilute the feel of the game too much, but I think it has potential.

This might be true for first few levels and even then it's questionable. In case of 2nd edition, there is no difference between strength 8-15. Fighter's main concern is THAC0, HP, AC and number of attacks. AC is based on (regarding stats) dexterity, HP on Constitution, number of attacks is based on level + weapon proficiency. THAC0, although modified by strength, is much more dependent on level and to lesser extent on weapon proficiency. If you rolled fighter with strength 10 and dexterity + constitution 16, it's still ok. On level 10, your THAC0 would be 8 (base 11 + 5 points in weapon proficiency). Another fighter, let's say with strength 18/70 (pretty fucking good) would only have bonus +2 to THAC0 and you're rolling d20. That's not that bad. It's far from "useless".

 

[Copper]

Hence why fighters evolved into meatshields instead of primary damage dealers.

 

[Duraframe300]

Uhm so. The Lead Animator of Pillars of Eternity, Mark Bremerkamp, apparently left Obsidian.

 

[Rake]

Uhm so. The Lead Animator of Pillars of Eternity, Mark Bremerkamp, apparently left Obsidian.

Did he go to another company?

 

[Duraframe300]

Uhm so. The Lead Animator of Pillars of Eternity, Mark Bremerkamp, apparently left Obsidian.

Did he go to another company?

Nope

Not yet.

 

[Zed]

I'm sure they have a spare producer to fill his role :D

 

[Duraframe300]

I'm sure they have a spare producer to fill his role :D

?

Unless said producer had animation experience why would he fill his role. Is this a joke I'm not getting?