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

[Copper]

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.

Sure, it's a great source of motivators for conflict, and it would be false for the game not to include it, especially since it's not chained to an alignment system yoke. I'm not confident it won't result in an Icewind Dale 2 situation though, given the game's rather limited budget and strong dungeon-crawl vibe, where you're going 'Yeah, sad story man, now stay still while I murder your mildly sympathetic ass' not because you choose to be a dick, but because there simply isn't anything else to do.

 

[Sensuki]

I'm happy with that UI solution.

BTW I finally heard back from Carrie Patel regarding the interview. Now I've just gotta email this to one of the moderators here at RPGCodex and we'll have our interview.

Swoit. Get on that shit mods.

 

[Zed]

BTW I finally heard back from Carrie Patel regarding the interview. Now I've just gotta email this to one of the moderators here at RPGCodex and we'll have our interview.

actually you'll need to take it up with Crooked Bee who is our EIC.
she'll probably want to see what questions you are planning to ask Carrie as well.
this is, of course, only if you want to do it on behalf of the codex and have it published as codex content.

edit: ah, nevermind, I see CB already contacted you. I'll leave this post as it is anyway, in case anybody else wants to go do something productive.

 

[Roguey]

I'm not confident it won't result in an Icewind Dale 2 situation though, given the game's rather limited budget and strong dungeon-crawl vibe, where you're going 'Yeah, sad story man, now stay still while I murder your mildly sympathetic ass' not because you choose to be a dick, but because there simply isn't anything else to do.

They've revealed enough information to indicate that PoE won't be a linear dungeon crawl. It'll have more role-playing than any BG.

 

[Abu Antar]

I'm still not fond of the UI, but will wait with comments until I try out the beta. I think they will get sufficient feedback to know if players are satisfied with the UI or not. Reading what Josh said on the Obsidian forum said, it doesn't sound that bad. Selecting a character will make their abilities and spells show up. It was kind of what I was thinking was the case, but it needs to look right. It's good to know they will have a solid background for the UI in the lower screen. It will make it look better.

 

[Harg Harfardarssen]

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.

Sure, it's a great source of motivators for conflict, and it would be false for the game not to include it, especially since it's not chained to an alignment system yoke. I'm not confident it won't result in an Icewind Dale 2 situation though, given the game's rather limited budget and strong dungeon-crawl vibe, where you're going 'Yeah, sad story man, now stay still while I murder your mildly sympathetic ass' not because you choose to be a dick, but because there simply isn't anything else to do.

I think it could be an interesting topic if it were handled well, but I don't think I've ever seen it done well. Even where more C&C is put into it than in IW2, it seems like it ends up like the Elves in DA:O, as a really heavy handed allegory that tells us nothing except that elf-rape is surprisingly boring. Or its some stupid shit like, "Oh, I guess Orcs are people too, maybe I can find a way for them to cooperate with the townsfolk so that everything can be perfect forever". I don't think this is a RPG or even game specific failure though. I mean To Kill A Mockingbird is a classic novel and film that basically makes white people feel good about a white man's stand against injustice. (FWIW I think its a great novel, but not a great novel about race).

 

[DalekFlay]

I think it could be an interesting topic if it were handled well, but I don't think I've ever seen it done well. Even where more C&C is put into it than in IW2, it seems like it ends up like the Elves in DA:O, as a really heavy handed allegory that tells us nothing except that elf-rape is surprisingly boring. Or its some stupid shit like, "Oh, I guess Orcs are people too, maybe I can find a way for them to cooperate with the townsfolk so that everything can be perfect forever". I don't think this is a RPG or even game specific failure though. I mean To Kill A Mockingbird is a classic novel and film that basically makes white people feel good about a white man's stand against injustice. (FWIW I think its a great novel, but not a great novel about race).

The elves in Dragon Age might be too heavy-handed, but it was still pretty fun to play a female elf scorned on her wedding day and who hated humans. It added some good context and dialog choices, even if it was a bit obvious. Same with the class warfare in the Dwarf stuff.

It's hard to take obvious moral points and turn them into subtle context, I imagine.

 

[Roguey]

Josh Sawyer isn't interested in only having fantastic allegories. He loved how Honest Hearts finally gave him a chance to write about a real religion. There'll be oppression for all in PoE.

 

[Dorateen]

Obligatory

 

[Ninjerk]

So much funnier now that I'm old enough to understand it.

 

[Hormalakh]

Monty Python is always relevant.

 

[Sensuki]

There will likely never be anything like that again either.

 

[Grotesque]

Is there a way to sort only the posts with images in this thread?

 

[Hormalakh]

Yeah, here you go.

Spoiler

The codex doesn't scale to your level.

 

[Abelian]

Is there a way to sort only the posts with images in this thread?

You can use the search for the "img" tag in the search box and check the "Search this thread only" box, but it will only return the 100 most recent posts and it will include emoticons. You can also filter for people who post many news/updates, such as Infinitron.

 

[Harg Harfardarssen]

Is there a way to sort only the posts with images in this thread?

You can also filter for people who post many news/updates, such as Infinitron.

True fact. Just recently I was trying to find a video Infinitron posted a while ago, but had no idea what the name was. Infinitron + youtube got me to it in like 5 minutes.

 

[The Fish]

lollin @ that guy who thinks racism is an American-only thing.

Eh, i was saying it had a distinctly American flavor in dragon age and mass effect, which was jarring. There's a long political divide in America defined by race, it's a different animal to the extreme far right fascist stuff you see in most places now or what we've seen historically. It's inclusion was off-key and boring. I'm not saying racism as a whole is peculiar to Americans.


Remember the noble savage pseudo-native Americans in dragon age? the alien/human interest groups in mass effect?

 

[Copper]

Well, it does seem that the theme is discrimination/oppression, rather than racism, since pretty much anyone can be from the Dyrwood, and Josh has been carefully avoiding the idea that the Vallian's are all 'meadow folk' or whatever. (Incidentally, it strikes me as odd and a bit racist itself to be fixated on labeling racial sub-types, rather than just allowing the player to combine features as they wish, but I'm sure there's some lore justification for it.) That's a bit more interesting than Mass Effect's trite 'white human's burden', so I'll be positive for now. My main gripe with Eternity remains the fact that they're hyping having 'really thought about the implications of the setting' but a lot of the fragments they've released don't really substantiate that for me.

 

[Grotesque]

Yeah, here you go.

Spoiler

The codex doesn't scale to your level.

Here.
Take a cookie for your effort.

 

[Sensuki]

Any guesses as to what this art update will contain?

I'm interested in seeing what Gilded Vale looks like, or perhaps a cap from the Megadungeon.

 

[Hormalakh]

I hope it's not like the last "art" update where they showed 2 shitty wilderness images, 3 concept pieces, and a bunch of trolls. There really was very little to sink my teeth into during that update.

I want screen caps with multiple elements, a peek into mechanics through the UI, more enemy designs, some more armor designs, etc. Not bare-bones single elements with boring backdrops.

 

[Sensuki]

That wasn't really an art update that was more a filler update, as a couple of us asked about the outsourcing. There hasn't been a proper art update since the start of the year?

 

[Abu Antar]

I'd like to see some companion art. Maybe sneak in a minor antagonist or two. Why not some defiance bay art? Whatever it is, I hope it is more significant than previous art updates.

 

[Perkel]

I just hope they won't go into Neverwinter Nights 2 UI way of mmo bar shitfest.

As for tightness... It must be simply practical, good looking and easy to use.

BG2 UI was slick and they should that way.

 

[Duraframe300]

Doesn't seem like there is an update today.