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

[Sensuki]

Social Racism and Institutional Racism is a topic of many other forms of media - movies, tv series in particular. Where "The Wire" studies institutions of an American City, PoE may do the same for the Dyrwood and it's Factions.

Each Chapter takes us to a different area - Dyrford, Defiance Bay, Gilded Vale/whatever, Twin Elms etc

 

[DalekFlay]

I'm unclear why looking at socialized racism would be bad for an RPG of this nature. Sounds like a great well to mine faction gameplay from.

 

[Abu Antar]

They also still know how to write, unlike BioWare.

 

[Ninjerk]

I'm unclear why looking at socialized racism would be bad for an RPG of this nature. Sounds like a great well to mine faction gameplay from.

I think people are expecting the Spike Lee treatment.

 

[LivingOne]

I'm unclear why looking at socialized racism would be bad for an RPG of this nature. Sounds like a great well to mine faction gameplay from.

Not saying it's bad but a lot of RPGs have it as one of their themes(main one or not),so I wouldn't mind something quite different for once.But eh,doesn't matter,I'll live with it.

 

[Sensuki]

Little to no Wizard Utility Spells

Q: So what kind of utility spells do wizards have? Will we have anything like Tenser's Floating Disk or Mordenkainen's Mystic Mansion?

Virtually none. They were never really a focus of the IE games and they weren't for us either.

 

[Infinitron]

Well, he's right about that type of "utility spell".

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3593502&pagenumber=117#post428739314

Does the game have any mechanics similar to 4e rituals?

Which is like "wizard bullshit" except more useful and minus the wizard

Not exactly, but our scripted interactions allow for more unusual types of interactions via attributes and skills (climbing walls, swimming around, deciphering arcane markings). For long-term minor bonuses, we have food items and inn/stronghold bonuses. Resting out in the wild doesn't grant any special bonuses. If you rest at an inn or at your stronghold, you can select from different types of long-term bonuses based on the room (in an inn) or the stronghold upgrades you've purchased.

 

[Sensuki]

And another one on consumables:

The base food items are very straightforward (e.g. cheese, cocoa, egg, fruits, meat, etc.). The recipe foods (that you typically have to craft) have more specific names and give more/longer bonuses.

 

[Duraframe300]

 

[Abu Antar]

Where is spell/skill selection in that UI?

 

[Abelian]

And another one on consumables:

The base food items are very straightforward (e.g. cheese, cocoa, egg, fruits, meat, etc.). The recipe foods (that you typically have to craft) have more specific names and give more/longer bonuses.

Other than the bonuses, does food have any other role, such as a hunger mechanic, or a prerequisite for gaining HP when resting, like in MMX? I'm guessing they'll probably go with the TES route and use the ingredients just for crafting.

 

[Hormalakh]

Ugh I really hope racism doesn't play a primary role in the game. I don't mind sub-plots dealing with it, but I'd want something different than racism. It seems like anything fantasy plays off racism these days. Don't we have other issues to talk about?

At least I hope if they were going to do a "racism" plot, it should be quite nuanced. Not the blatant crap which makes it so easy to understand what's right/wrong. I'm skeptical of a nuanced plot if it's racism, and I don't think that's any different than what loads of other games have done. They sold this as a "we're -for the first time ever- mature because publishers haven't ever let us be mature" and they're going to rehash the same old crap again? Some slaves learn to love their chains, afterall.

Socialized/institutionalized racism has been explored quite often before. But roots and seeds might not have been. I see what's going in Greece with the immigrants and Golden Dawn and I see that as a good theme to explore.

 

[coffeetable]

Where is spell/skill selection in that UI?

Seeing as the previous UI screenshot had six columns and this one has seven, guessin the LH of the central bar is the hotkeys and you click on em to expand them.

 

[deuxhero]

I'd be interested to hear the reasoning for the Godlike (of whatever parent species) to all have the same attribute bonuses, and why they have those bonuses, assuming there's a reason.

One racial group cannot practically double both the assets and gameplay abilities/modifiers of all other races in the game, combined. Godlike are already easily the most expensive racial group for us to model and implement. Even if there were only human-based versions of them, they would still be the most expensive because all of their variants require significant differences in head mesh modeling. In addition to that, each godlike type has its own starting passive ability. They could probably have their own attribute bonuses, but exploding this out into 4 godlike types * 5 base races = 20 different types of attribute bonuses and different racial abilities that progress and unlock as the characters level is untenable. There's no way we could implement and adequately test all of that.

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/65144-godlike-mechanics-and-starting-attributes/page-2

I can understand not going for the complexity the guy he was replying to suggested, but is giving them +2s to different stats by all that hard? Wind has Dex and Perception, Earth has Con and Resolve ect.

 

[Sensuki]

Well then it does actually look like the are going to use that piece of shit design for the UI.

My guess is that the action bar "pops up" in combat. "Keeping the screen mostly free of unnecessary UI elements while exploring" - something JES said back in 2012.

That is fucking terrible because it will make the UI look uneven, with gaps everywhere - it would either be centered or left aligned I guess. Above the portraits.

Poor man's "I can't solve the resolution scaling issues" with a bottom bar.

My guess is they will unveil it in the next art update perhaps?

Assholes prepare to be ripped. Though truthfully it wouldn't look as bad with the portraits encased in something, rather than wireframe.

 

[Rake]

Well then it does actually look like the are going to use that piece of shit design for the UI.

My guess is that the action bar "pops up" in combat. "Keeping the screen mostly free of unnecessary UI elements while exploring" - something JES said back in 2012.

That is fucking terrible because it will make the UI look uneven, with gaps everywhere - it would either be centered or left aligned I guess. Above the portraits.

Poor man's "I can't solve the resolution scaling issues" with a bottom bar.

My guess is they will unveil it in the next art update perhaps?

Assholes prepare to be ripped. Though truthfully it wouldn't look as bad with the portraits encased in something, rather than wireframe.

Well, i quess modders will fix it. But i hoped Obsidian would do a good job by itself after all Sawyer's promishes about "solid" UI at the IE style.
And it will be a bitch to wait until a good UI mod comes out to play the game.
First inXile and now this? Why is it so difficult for game companies to design a good UI?

 

[FeelTheRads]

but is giving them +2s to different stats by all that hard?

Yes, it would be too much work to "balance" it and Sawyer's head would explode if there was something that allowed you to play the game the wrong way. Don't play games the wrong way, k?

Simplification for the sake of "balance"... TOTALLY doesn't happen.

 

[Infinitron]

I actually kind of like the UI - it's very elegant. I've found that when non-"solid" UIs have sufficiently small gaps between each element, it's basically the same as if they were solid. So you just need to make that text window larger and voila.

 

[Sensuki]

It would look "neat" if the portraits were encased. But it doesn't. It screams "we cannot solve certain UI issues with having a solid casing around the portraits".

It's not elegant because an elegant solution would be to be able to fit the action bar in the UI. They haven't been able to do that so they've opted for the approach where it takes up more of the screen some of the time, rather than all of the time.

The ONLY thing about it that is better is that the portraits are larger, which is what many people wanted.

 

[Infinitron]

It's not elegant because an elegant solution would be to be able to fit the action bar in the UI. They haven't been able to do that so they've opted for the approach where it takes up more of the screen some of the time, rather than all of the time.

I'm not sure exactly what you're talking about here.

I'm just saying it looks nice and skeuomorphic (despite not being "solid"). The uneven gaps (small one between portraits and action bar, larger between action bar and text window) are the only thing that really bothers me.

Also, we haven't seen the UI up close yet, so it's possible the portraits have some sort of thin skeuomorphic frame around them.

 

[Sensuki]

That's what I mean, the appearance is "neat", but functionality and feedback-wise it is lacking.

The portraits do have a thin frame/border. So did the Dragon Age Origins ones.

 

[deuxhero]

Do we even known when this was filmed? Could be super outdated.

 

[Sensuki]

It's recent. The Steve Weatherly shot was from the beginning of the month.

 

[Hormalakh]

Fuck that. I want a solid block of adra that's been chipped away to make a nice fucking UI. Ugh Sawyer don't disappoint man. Put up a competition if your lackeys suck at doing this: get this shit done right.

Make the UI out of adra, and then put nice animations on the opening/closing of L or U type UI. Like the adra growing upward on the left or right right before it's filled in with whatever else.

Functionality is important yes, but this is a slow-paced RPG, people will be pausing. You don't need everything to be "tight" when playing with mouse. Pro-players will be using the keyboard to make commands. So make your hot keys versatile and tight, and make the mouse for players who wish to take their sweet time.

 

[Athelas]

But the magical properties of adra causes it to form into unusual structures, like a UI with holes in it.