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

[Dexter]

No they don't, the idea of souls is there, but it is also said that in PE setting, gods spread lies about souls and keep people in the dark, so we don't know that.

I'm not really interested in discussing the previous topic any more but I wanted to pick up on some of what you said, let's start with this, since there's an interview that states "souls" are pretty much the main theme of the game so far: http://penny-arcade.com/report/edit...bsidian-entertainment-on-project-eternity-and-

Brennecke told the Penny Arcade Report there isn’t even a story yet, just an abstract collection of topics the team would like to discuss and lore into which they’d like to dig. Brennecke said that at its core, Project Eternity is about the soul and the state of life vs. the state of death.
...
Brennecke talked about Project Eternity exploring mature themes, though the studio’s definition of “mature” doesn’t necessarily mean sex and gore. Brennecke’s example was racism. Reading through the Kickstarter updates, there’s some hints of how that could play out on reincarnated souls. “...souls are subject to “fracturing” over generations, transforming in myriad ways, and not quite… working right. Some cultures and individuals place a high value on “strong” souls, souls with a “pure” lineage, “awakened” souls that remember past lives, “traveled” souls that have drifted through the divine realms, or those that co-exist with other souls in one body. However, the opposite is also true, resulting in negative discrimination and sometimes outright violence.”

http://www.forbes.com/sites/danieln...roject-eternity-chris-avellone-kickstarter/2/

The concept of souls, for example, is not treated lightly in this world. They persist from person to person, some fracturing, some maintaining their integrity over time, and they are a source of power in the world that players can draw upon – and their enemies can as well. We want to examine how such a fundamental world mechanic can change the shape of a people, a culture, a nation, and a world… as well as the individual. What would such a world be like with this kind of underlying mechanic? That’s one of the many questions that interest us, and they’re the ones we want to explore.

They basically and practically have every possibility to follow their imagination

Imagination draws from real world. The reason while Planescape is cool is not because it was made out of nothing. It did't just pop out with it's philosophy and amazing environments. It has factions which mimic real philosophical schools. It has worlds in which greek gods are effortlessly fit into D&D alighment system and exist with elves. It has Hercules as a cleric-proxy of his father, and Dante's Nine Hells.
Real, living myth reborn by author in his own fashion - this is what resonates within the audience.

That might be true, only in the rarest instances would someone think of something completely new and unknown to our culture, although I would say that Planescape does have quite a few "fresh" concepts and factions, but if not something completely fresh and exciting there are at least ways of combining the old in new and creative ways instead of trying to recreate it over and over again. Anyway, with other visual mediums like film we are usually bound by what can be filmed and displayed at one time and nowadays special effects, but people are usually expecting humans to run around the screen and talk to each other, while videogames are pretty much just bound by imagination in what they can be or what they can be about, there was an interesting point being made here: http://poisonedsponge.wordpress.com/2011/02/22/impossible-architecture/

One thing that’s so often frustrating with games is the refusal to play up to the strengths of the medium. We’re bogged down with trying to replicate reality down to the smallest, infinitesimal detail that we forget that we have this huge power to play with. We can create anything, and yet, for the most part, this is ignored. It’s all about getting the grime of an assault rifle right, or making sure that that burned out chassis of a car is rusted in the right parts. That has its place, but it seems that things have gone too far, that there isn’t enough people really pushing things. Look at that image above; it’s concept art, sure, but look at not only the size of that castle, but the complex nature of it. Imagine that in a game. Imagine having to scale its towers, explore the vast halls, its gargantuan throne rooms. Exciting, yeah?

And obviously there seem to be people with quite a bit more imagination than others, for instance: http://nnm.ru/blogs/flimmern/daniel_dociu/
That's also why I like me some Anime every now and then and at least dabble in some Asiatic games, been watching some more Studio Ghibli animations lately. They in general don't seem so afraid to explore and show outlandish concepts and magical worlds where not every law of physics is fact and the most important thing on peoples minds is to get that armor or gun model *just right* looking to be "realistic" to people.

 

[Shadenuat]

been watching some more Studio Ghibli animations lately. They in general don't seem so afraid to explore and show outlandish concepts and magical worlds where not every law of physics

Actually, Ghibli is as much "realistic" as possible, they draw from Japanese culture and myths (Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away), sharply portray weapons and armor (Mononoke, Porco Rosso), history (Grave of Fireflies, Kokuriko), paint japanese countryside and landscapes in general very close to life (Totoro) and use things like Miyazaki's knowledge of aeronautics (Nausicaa, Porco Rosso, Laputa). They are *very* consistent, very european, to the point that probably most of the models, planes and vehicles you see in them would work in real life or have real prototype. Basically, while they may dabble into magical worlds in larger scale, when it comes to small scale, Ghibli rarely makes any mistakes. That's what makes their movies stand out and that's what makes any fantasy good - attention to details and it's internal logic.

Probably the only exception would be Ponyo. That was completely mad old Miyazaki's imagination ride.

 

[Stokowski]

I think it's possible to set up "suites" of spells that the player can switch between with a lesser penalty/greater frequency than reload/rest. I.e. the system does not need to be strictly Vancian to allow for meaningful prep and consequences.

I *really* need to read some Jack Vance books at some point.

 

[jewboy]

At any rate, it doesn't matter because the details of PE have already been decided. KOOL-downs with no rounds. Twitch fest shit. You're a moran if you go into this expecting tactical depth beyond the MMO crap.

I think this is the first time I have ever agreed with you. +1.

 

[Semper]

...

kool down.

 

[Volourn]

'Vancian' system is the best magic system.

 

[J_C]

At any rate, it doesn't matter because the details of PE have already been decided. KOOL-downs with no rounds. Twitch fest shit. You're a moran if you go into this expecting tactical depth beyond the MMO crap.

No, we don't know it yet. It is just in your twisted mind.

 

[jewboy]

Huh? I thought you liked Dragon Age?

 

[Spectacle]

Why would anyone want strict rounds in a RTwP game anyway? It's like arguing that every soldier having an individual action point count in the old Xcom games is popamole compared to the 1 Move+1 attack mechanic in the new XCOM game.

 

[RK47]

so much

 

[DraQ]

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/60823-drows-in-this-game/

Fucking drows...I Fucking hate dork elfs, even more than regular ones.

Apart from the Dunmer. I mean I hate them too, but not as part of the setting.

 

[Infinitron]

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/60372-vancian-magic-system/page__st__240__p__1217140#entry1217140

So...Dragon Age combat then. Well that's it. I was trying to decide between the $140 and $250 tiers. Now I won't be contributing at all. An old school game with cooldowns. Nice. Unless MCA or Tim Cain can convince Sawyer of the wrongness of them. I'll wait to see if cooldowns are officially ruled out until the end of the kickstarter, but this game is dead to me now. Enjoy your Biowarian twitch-based popamole kiddies. I'll go back to replaying BG2 and anticipating Wasteland 2.

Okay, who's metiman?

 

[Volourn]

"Huh? I thought you liked Dragon Age"

And? What does that have to do with what fukkin' magic system I prefer? FFS

You can like a game and not think it's perfect.

And, for someone who ASSumes to beleive he knows what I like or dislike and preusmably have read my posts you are apparantly extremely ignorant. I LOATHE mana magic systems - espicially those that involve auto regen - which is what DA uses. FFS

 

[Infinitron]

This hearkens back to the "Inventory Manager 2012" discussion we had a while back http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/60835-proposed-inventory-system/

 

[Nigro]

Man I think we most likely will have some LGBT rights stuff into the game, I was reading up Sawyer posts on something awful and he said his favorite philosopher is Foucault, and Foucault is gay...
http://queerhistory.blogspot.com.br/2010/10/michel-foucault.html oh man this doesnt sound too good...just did a 5minute google research
“It’s not enough to affirm that we are gay, but we must also create a gay life.”
I think I'm gonna puke

 

[Data4]

Avengers, assemble! http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/60844-romance-companions/

 

[Infinitron]

 

[wormix]

At the risk of going over covered ground.
I don't see why in any CRPG that already has items that have individual weights, why they also limit the amount of items you can carry based on arbitrary tetris blocks, and not just copy the weight limit system into a volume limit system.
Sure in the past design limitations made it easier to implement fixed size data characters, but that should be behind us now, especially since this is a PC game with no multi-player.
An inventory should just be a list of all the items you're carrying. If you want to implement some 'volume' limit on the amount of crap you can lug around with you, I don't think Diablo inventory is the way to go.

That system with different slot types in different bag types just seems like overly convoluted nonsense. Either you can't put a scroll into a normal bag after you've filled its 'flat' slots, or you have some king of dynamic slot system at which point how is it any different from a numeric volume limit.

For those that hate inventory capacity limitations, something similar to Wizardry 8's (not sure about other, I haven't played them) pooled party items but still with individual limits would work well with some tweaking.

Avengers, assemble! http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/60844-romance-companions/

I'll be surprised if this makes it through the night.

 

[Infinitron]

An inventory should just be a list of all the items you're carrying.

U consoletard, bro?

 

[wormix]

An inventory should just be a list of all the items you're carrying.

U consoletard, bro?

I mean the interface there. In every roguelike I've played, your inventory is a list of items. Your inventory capacity is based on your stats, not an arbitrary number of blocks like NWN or BG2.

Edit: Daggerfall, Morrowind and Fallout all had list inventories with carrying capacity, each with differing interfaces. Skyrim's inventory is bad because of the terrible interface, not because it's a list inventory.

 

[Infinitron]

I mean the interface there. In every roguelike I've played, your inventory is a list of items. Your inventory capacity is based on your stats, not an arbitrary number of blocks like NWN or BG2.

Yes, and it's a horrible interface for a graphical game with mouse input. See every console RPG released in the last decade. Compare Skyrim with Morrowind.

 

[wormix]

Maybe I misused the word 'list' in explaining what I meant. Morrowind's inventory is a list inventory to me because its size grows as you pick up items, rather than being a fixed limit of slots you can put items into (BG2).It has a 'grid' interface, but it's still a list (at least that's how I'd describe it).

 

[Infinitron]

Maybe I misused the word 'list' in explaining what I meant. Morrowind's inventory is a list inventory to me because its size grows as you pick up items, rather than being a fixed limit of items you can put items into (BG2).It has a 'grid' interface, but it's still a list (at least that's how I'd describe it).

Ah, I see what you mean. "Unbounded grid" is probably a better term to use.

Yeah, that would be fine. But I would note that NWN2's theoretically limited inventory was so large that it was rare to fill it up before reaching your weight encumbrance limit first.

 

[Johannes]

I prefer the Knights of the Chalice way personally. I don't know if there is a specific name for it. It's where you have all the spells available to you in your spell book, but a limited number of charges for each level of spells you have.

That's not really a good way to do it, it's just D&D spell levels without the memorization. When you think it through, why not just use a mana system with a limit on the most powerful spell being lower than your full mana? It's potentially the exact same thing except you're more free to vary between spell levels. And it's easier to add extra elements to that.

 

[TwinkieGorilla]

extremely ignorant.

beleive

preusmably

apparantly

espicially