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

[tuluse]

I always wished there was an arcane version of rangers in dnd. Someone who can wear medium armor, solid at fighting, and gets a few arcane spells, and maybe some interesting feats relating to whatever the class is called.

Is that too much to ask for?

 

[SwiftCrack]

I am going to post some huge essays I posted here on Obsidian forums. Let's see what happens.

My prediction: The educated Biodrones will swarm towards your post en masse and will come up with well-thought-out retorts and responses that will change Project Eternity for the better.

 

[asper]

2. If shit like Skyrim & Diablo III sells quite good there's no reason why PE wouldn't sell nicely.

Uh, that is precisely the reason not only P:E will sell much less, but why it's not even possible to produce such games anymore. Skyrim and D3 are radically different games.

The world has changed since the BG games, RPG's are not mainstream anymore. This is a one-time chance to make a mid-budget RPG made possible only by Kickstarter. I don't expect this to appeal to the mainstream at all.

 

[Captain Shrek]

I am going to post some huge essays I posted here on Obsidian forums. Let's see what happens.

My prediction: The educated Biodrones will swarm towards your post en masse and will come up with well-thought-out retorts and responses that will change Project Eternity for the better.

It is not oriented towards Biodrones, to put it mildly.

 

[SwiftCrack]

2. If shit like Skyrim & Diablo III sells quite good there's no reason why PE wouldn't sell nicely.

Uh, that is precisely the reason not only P:E will sell much less, but why it's not even possible to produce such games anymore. Skyrim and D3 are radically different games.

The world has changed since the BG games, RPG's are not mainstream anymore. This is a one-time chance to make a mid-budget RPG made possible only by Kickstarter. I don't expect this to appeal to the mainstream at all.

Can't wait to see how Baldur's Gate: EE will sell. It'll probably be a gigantic train wreck but it's an indicator for the market nonetheless.

I am going to post some huge essays I posted here on Obsidian forums. Let's see what happens.

My prediction: The educated Biodrones will swarm towards your post en masse and will come up with well-thought-out retorts and responses that will change Project Eternity for the better.

It is not oriented towards Biodrones, to put it mildly.

I know. You know. They don't know.

 

[asper]

I don't see how BG:EE is an indicator of the market at all. 99% of classic RPG fans already played through BG with mods and laugh at that "Enhanced Edition", and those are the people Eternity is aimed at.

If anything, the sales of the first Dragon Age would me much more indicative, I think, as that was also sold as "the new Baldur's Gate". It made enough to spawn a sequel...

 

[Infinitron]

The biggest enemy of BG:EE isn't "classic RPG fans". It's GOG.com and the copies of Baldur's Gate: Original Edition that it sells like hotcakes.

 

[SwiftCrack]

I don't see how BG:EE is an indicator of the market at all. 99% of classic RPG fans already played through BG with mods and laugh at that "Enhanced Edition", and those are the people Eternity is aimed at.

Meaning that most sales will be 'new' players. If it booms it can give a good impulse to the genre.

Sadly the chances of this happening are well, zero.

 

[asper]

The biggest enemy of BG:EE isn't "classic RPG fans". It's GOG.com and the copies of Baldur's Gate: Original Edition that it sells like hotcakes.

Let's be clear that the biggest enemy of BG:EE is BG:EE itself, since it is a completely redundant and useless project. It rehashes things mods already do and they have the temerity to ask money for it.

 

[Murk]

I always wished there was an arcane version of rangers in dnd. Someone who can wear medium armor, solid at fighting, and gets a few arcane spells, and maybe some interesting feats relating to whatever the class is called.

Is that too much to ask for?

They come in variations, ranging from Bard to prestige classes like Spellsword or Eldritch Knight (if you can make some high end mithril armor with additional enchantments to relieve arcane-casting penalties). Bards can sport medium mithril armor easily enough, or any medium armor with an enchantment or modification to make it "light".

http://www.iourn.com/dnd/classes/prestigeclasses/spellsword.htm

and scans of the actual book: http://www.scribd.com/doc/54984169/68/Spellsword

Also, in that tome, is the Bladesinger PrC.

You could also just... make your own class? Take the ranger class and replace it with power/level equivalent arcane or bard spells and feats. Just... careful that you don't make something OP as fuck. "He imbues attacks per round with spells by consuming one spell slot, and has full BAB + extra attacks from feats and haste, so he casts 7 fireballs per level by only using one fireball spell slot", also, he's an archer.

 

[Infinitron]

The biggest enemy of BG:EE isn't "classic RPG fans". It's GOG.com and the copies of Baldur's Gate: Original Edition that it sells like hotcakes.

Let's be clear that the biggest enemy of BG:EE is BG:EE itself, since it is a completely redundant and useless project. It rehashes things mods already do and they have the temerity to ask money for it.

Naturally, but my point is, there's a much smaller market for remakes these days, what with GOG.com around pushing out fully compatible and easy-to-install versions of the oldies.

 

[SwiftCrack]

The biggest enemy of BG:EE isn't "classic RPG fans". It's GOG.com and the copies of Baldur's Gate: Original Edition that it sells like hotcakes.

Let's be clear that the biggest enemy of BG:EE is BG:EE itself, since it is a completely redundant and useless project. It rehashes things mods already do and they have the temerity to ask money for it.

It gives the iPeople and Droidbeards a chance to play a real (butchered) game though.

 

[tuluse]

I believe BG2 sold like 200k in the 90s. That's pretty small time for publisher.

However:

• There is a good chance the internet has made it easier to market games and actually get customers to know about them.
• The video game market has grown a lot since the 90s, so the same market penetration should lead to many more sales
• Digital distribution and bypassing middlemen means the developer should make much more money per sale

So I think if some of these kickstarters are really good (looking mainly at Wasteland 2, P:E, and Shadowrun Returns), they could sell 400k copies, but make money like they're selling 1 million. Which should lead to glorious incline.

This is all of course a very optimistic view.

 

[Captain Shrek]

I always wished there was an arcane version of rangers in dnd. Someone who can wear medium armor, solid at fighting, and gets a few arcane spells, and maybe some interesting feats relating to whatever the class is called.

Is that too much to ask for?

Arcane Archer?

 

[Infinitron]

I believe BG2 sold like 200k in the 90s.

No way. BG1 sold like half a million copies almost immediately after release. I'm fairly certain BG2 at least matched it.

EDIT: Actually, BG2 wasn't even released until the 2000's. o_O

 

[tuluse]

I always wished there was an arcane version of rangers in dnd. Someone who can wear medium armor, solid at fighting, and gets a few arcane spells, and maybe some interesting feats relating to whatever the class is called.

Is that too much to ask for?

They come in variations, ranging from Bard to prestige classes like Spellsword or Eldritch Knight (if you can make some high end mithril armor with additional enchantments to relieve arcane-casting penalties). Bards can sport medium mithril armor easily enough, or any medium armor with an enchantment or modification to make it "light".

http://www.iourn.com/dnd/classes/prestigeclasses/spellsword.htm

and scans of the actual book: http://www.scribd.com/doc/54984169/68/Spellsword

You could also just... make your own class? Take the ranger class and replace it with power/level equivalent arcane or bard spells and feats. Just... careful that you don't make something OP as fuck. "He imbues attacks per round with spells by consuming one spell slot, and has full BAB + extra attacks from feats and haste, so he casts 7 fireballs per level by only using one fireball spell slot", also, he's an archer.

Bards aren't the same. I don't want all those skill points, and I don't want the songs either. Just a solid fighter who can cast some magic now and then, but arcane instead of divine.

Also, when I play pnp we usually stick to low level and only a few rulebooks, which generally rules out prestige classes.

I realize most of these problems are of my own making (or my friends).

Spellsword looks something like what I'm looking for.

 

[SwiftCrack]

Baldur's Gate was the first game in the Baldur's Gate series, which spawned three more software titles before the series ended. It was immediately followed by the expansion pack Tales of the Sword Coast (1999), then the sequel Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn (2000) and its expansion pack Throne of Bhaal (2001). As of 2006, total sales for all releases in the series was almost five million copies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldur's_Gate#Legacy

It has a PDF-reference at the bottom for the sales figures.

 

[tuluse]

I believe BG2 sold like 200k in the 90s.

No way. BG1 sold like half a million copies almost immediately after release. I'm fairly certain BG2 at least matched it.

EDIT: Actually, BG2 wasn't even released until the 2000's. o_O

Yeah, I'm totally off. According to Wikipedia it's sold 5 million copies all together.

 

[Jaesun]

Baldur's Gate was the first game in the Baldur's Gate series, which spawned three more software titles before the series ended. It was immediately followed by the expansion pack Tales of the Sword Coast (1999), then the sequel Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn (2000) and its expansion pack Throne of Bhaal (2001). As of 2006, total sales for all releases in the series was almost five million copies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldur's_Gate#Legacy

It has a PDF-reference at the bottom for the sales figures.

Is that actual sales data?

 

[TheEntitledOne]

By what definition of "priest" is an advocate of socialism a priest?

Think of them as a priest/preacher multiclass. Priest because they were members of an organized structure (commie party in this case) and preachers because they would go around and, well... preach (just imagine that scene from Life of Brian and you'll understand what I'm talking about).

That's not a priest, just a political activist or propagandist.

The only difference there is the creed.

This is a dumb discussion. A priest is an adherent of a religion. A political ideology is only a religion in hyperbolic figurative language. It also turns out that atheist priests are extremely common in the real world, so I don't find any of this especially interesting.

Meh, depending of the setting it could work. *Believing* in a particular philosophy could work in Planescape iirc.
In before priest of technology.

Edit: I mean priest in the sense of drawing power from the divine, or something similar, like an idea.

 

[SwiftCrack]

Baldur's Gate was the first game in the Baldur's Gate series, which spawned three more software titles before the series ended. It was immediately followed by the expansion pack Tales of the Sword Coast (1999), then the sequel Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn (2000) and its expansion pack Throne of Bhaal (2001). As of 2006, total sales for all releases in the series was almost five million copies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldur's_Gate#Legacy

It has a PDF-reference at the bottom for the sales figures.

Is that actual sales data?

It's Plunkett's Entertainment and Media Industry Almanac 2009. Judging by the fact that this company is still in business (http://www.plunkettresearch.com) I guess that's a number of at least some merit.

EDIT: And that's without any digital sales of the IP, I think.

 

[Murk]

The spellsword is a nice compliment, IMO, if you want to make a pseudo casting meleeist -- something like self-buffing and going into the fray.

A part of me thinks that since Clerics are so goddamn OP anyway you should just be able to say "fuck it, arcane with armor" and be done with it, but eh.

Well, you can make a core-class off of a prestige-class by adopting some rules so that it still functions in low level gameplay. Something like a spell-sword that gets gimped wizard spells at half the rate of a wizard and sacrifices all extra feats that fighters get and has gimped saving throws (only good fortitude), a smaller HD (d6 or d8 like a ranger), and whatever.

I mean... being a level 10 full bab 8hd char with 3 or 4 feats (depending on race) and access to level 3 wizard spells aint that big a deal.

You could adversely make some kind of sphere-oriented warrior class who perhaps picks a sphere and gains access to spells from it with set casts per days. They wouldn't be actual spells but rather spell-like-abilities but would function just as well.

Hahahah here's a workaround for ya ---

Introduce a feat like:

What Does This Button Do?: You gain a bonus to your Use Magic Device skill equal to your character level times two.
Prerequisites: Int of 15, successful use of an arcane spell scroll or wand through UMD.
Benefit: You have advanced ability to use magical items that are otherwise not available to your class(s) and seem to constantly be getting better at it. You gain a bonus of your class level times two to you UMD skill and can choose to take 10 on your roll. All emulation checks are automatically successful as long as you could succeed at your current state (including temporary modifiers).
Special: Makes Use Magic Device a class skill regardless of class.

 

[Infinitron]

Re: Baldur's Gate sales figure

That includes all the myriad compilations and re-releases that were released over the years.

I think the original games each sold like 500k-1000k copies on release.

But remember, Baldur's Gate profits were divided between Bioware, Interplay, WotC and retailers. Eternity profits will go to Obsidian and Gaben/GOG only.

 

[Alex]

The original ranger got 1st and 2nd level magic user spells. Those were pretty damn useful too.

 

[SwiftCrack]

Re: Baldur's Gate sales figure

That includes all the myriad compilations and re-releases that were released over the years.

I'm think the original games each sold like 500k-1000k copies on release.

But remember, Baldur's Gate profits were divided between Bioware, Interplay, WotC and retailers. Eternity profits will go to Obsidian and Gaben/GOG only.

Yeah, all the trilogy/fully boxed/re-released/DVD Reboot sales up to 2009 are included I guess.

But I'd be very surprised if the total sale of re-releases is higher than the originals.