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

[Jasede]

Also yes souls give combat classes superpowers.

Though it may not look like it to see them in battle next to wizards and priests, fighters are just as able to tap into the power of their souls to devastating effect: accelerating their attacks to a superhuman speed, striking foes with such power that nearby opponents are knocked off their feet, and maintaining a phenomenal endurance that allows them to rapidly bounce back from even terrible wounds.
...
their affinity for skullduggery allows some talented rogues to tap into their souls to perform amazing stunts: fading from view in plain sight, briefly cloaking their allies in a veil of shadow, imbuing their weapons with a soul-eating venom, or even becoming so insubstantial that blades barely hurt them.

Somehow it made me think of DA2, gigantic swords and other jrpgish stuff.

PE is gonna be awesome.

Sounds like skills you can learn as you level up. Like, I don't know, Knockdown or Use Poison. It's fairly obvious that souls = XP to some extent. You know how fond MCA is of making gameplay mechanics part of the narrative. KOTOR 2 anyone?

 

[J_C]

Good lord. I'm away from the Codex for 8 hours, and I have to read through 4 pages of shit where Cynic and Co. crying about the cooldown system to reach some intelligent debate. Codex never changes.

 

[Volrath]

Why don't you link to your video in here Matt?

 

[Captain Shrek]

Who or what is the rope kid and what's his relevance?

 

[Infinitron]

Who or what is the rope kid and what's his relevance?

rope kid is Josh Sawyer.

 

[Zed]

Who or what is the rope kid and what's his relevance?

rope kid is Sawyer.

fuck you infinitron get a life

 

[Infinitron]

Project Eternity spellcasting:

 

[Volrath]

Who or what is the rope kid and what's his relevance?

Have you been reading this thread at all?

 

[Cynic]

Good lord. I'm away from the Codex for 8 hours, and I have to read through 4 pages of shit where Cynic and Co. crying about the cooldown system to reach some intelligent debate. Codex never changes.

All I've ever said is that while the game might turn out alright, Tim and Josh have so far backed themselves into corners consistently when it comes to the combat system. First it was "there's no publisher so why is it RTwP?" the answer was "It's an IE style game" oh ok...then you're going to use a Vancian system right as those games used that "No we don't like rest spamming, we prefer that there are cool downs" oh...but...there are so many ways to improve the Vancian system..."Oh don't worry it'll be awesome guys trust us"

Riiiight

Now don't get me wrong. I LIKE Obsidian games! FFS I even liked Dungeon Siege 3! But trusting them to innovate in terms of gameplay is fucking risky considering their track record. Writing and dialogue? Sure they are very good at this. I just think that it would have been FAR safer for them to go with a tried and tested system and simply work hard to get encounters right. Fucking hell ToEE has some of the best combat in an RPG. Just re do the system and make the encounter better!!! It's less work, requires less money and it will be fucking awesome guaranteed. Then you can focus on the things you are known to be good at.

I just would have been far happier this way and much more optimistic. At this point it sounds like they are giving themselves a shit stained canvas and trying to make a masterpiece out of it. It's just not very encouraging.

However let me repeat: IT MAY VERY WELL BE A GOOD GAME. I'm just disappointed by a lot of stuff I've heard from them.

 

[1eyedking]

Project Eternity beta combat leak:



Phosphorescent auras, glowing expanding and receding circles on characters, explosions of colorful puff, neon sword trails, de-synchronized combat animations, electrified-fence effect on weapons, massive swords of impossible momentum, unencumbered armored movements, even more random glowing stuff!!!!

Seriously, I can't tell what the fuck is going on.

Obsidian's art department is fucking disastrous. Nothing of good taste will ever come out of that shitty studio.

 

[Serious_Business]

Obsidian's art department is fucking disastrous. Nothing of good taste will ever come out of that shitty studio.

You know I don't really care that much about this project but I have something to retort to your affirmation :

 

[J_C]

Good lord. I'm away from the Codex for 8 hours, and I have to read through 4 pages of shit where Cynic and Co. crying about the cooldown system to reach some intelligent debate. Codex never changes.

All I've ever said is that while the game might turn out alright, Tim and Josh have so far backed themselves into corners consistently when it comes to the combat system. First it was "there's no publisher so why is it RTwP?" the answer was "It's an IE style game" oh ok...then you're going to use a Vancian system right as those games used that "No we don't like rest spamming, we prefer that there are cool downs" oh...but...there are so many ways to improve the Vancian system..."Oh don't worry it'll be awesome guys trust us"

Riiiight

Now don't get me wrong. I LIKE Obsidian games! FFS I even liked Dungeon Siege 3! But trusting them to innovate in terms of gameplay is fucking risky considering their track record. Writing and dialogue? Sure they are very good at this. I just think that it would have been FAR safer for them to go with a tried and tested system and simply work hard to get encounters right. Fucking hell ToEE has some of the best combat in an RPG. Just re do the system and make the encounter better!!! It's less work, requires less money and it will be fucking awesome guaranteed. Then you can focus on the things you are known to be good at.

I just would have been far happier this way and much more optimistic. At this point it sounds like they are giving themselves a shit stained canvas and trying to make a masterpiece out of it. It's just not very encouraging.

However let me repeat: IT MAY VERY WELL BE A GOOD GAME. I'm just disappointed by a lot of stuff I've heard from them.

I would have also loved a ToEE style combat, but since we won't get that, I'm being optimistic about this type. I know that Obsidian's strength is not the combat mechanics, but I give them the benefit of the doubt, since as far as cooldown systems go, this sounds like the most promising.

On a different note, the KS is doing good in compared to others. We took a slight lead:

Project Eternity beta combat leak:

media

Phosphorescent auras, glowing expanding and receding circles on characters, explosions of colorful puff, neon sword trails, de-synchronized combat animations, electrified-fence effect on weapons, massive swords of impossible momentum, unencumbered armored movements, even more random glowing stuff!!!!

Seriously, I can't tell what the fuck is going on.

Obsidian's art department is fucking disastrous. Nothing of good taste will ever come out of that shitty studio.

I could tell what's going on. And what does this video have to do with PE at all? Different game, different engine, different perspective.

 

[ravenshrike]

That's not cooldowns. They said you could use the powers on cooldowns in the same fight.

In particularly long fights. They have to quantify the amount of time "long" is. I personally hope "long" doesn't happen too often.

It also depends on whether the cooldowns shorten for the lower levels as you level up or if they just get longer and longer. So the first set of spells with cooldowns you get has a 30 second cooldown, second set 40 etc... Top level spells might have a 10 minute cooldown. In any case it almost certainly will not be hardcoded, especially with the file structure they're trying for. Which means that everyone bitching about it can just set the cooldowns to as long as they want, thus making their perfect Vanican system.

The company who most people know is responsible for some of the shittest programming releasing bug ridden games constantly?

Ad hom, scripting and programming errors don't have anything to do with design.

Not to mention that the people in charge(read publishers) of QA and dev time are more responsible for bugs unless they give the devs the opportunity to correct the bugs

 

[Esquilax]

You know I don't really care that much about this project but I have something to retort to your affirmation :

Fascinating rebuttal, bro, but I bet you can't tell me why Witcher is an intelligent game, now can you?

 

[IronicNeurotic]

Feargus is on twitter again, spouting one or two answers that make Sawyer sad.

@feargus: will you use a karma system like the one in fallout? I thought it worked better than alignment

@Ohad Something very much like that, but you'll have various kinds of karma/reputation that better simulates your actions locally, globally and with specific groups.

That said, this is vague enough to just be a case of different perspective.

 

[Jaesun]

I never really liked the alignment system either. A better designed karma/rep system like Fallout's would be great.

 

[J_C]

I imagine Josh, Tim and Chris banging their heads at the wall when Feargus goes on a twitter rampage and tells something stupid. And then they have to make damage control over it.

 

[Grunker]

Nothing is wrong with a reputation system a la Baldur's Gate.

 

[Volourn]

"Certainly. But I do feel that uber-level wizards should have the ability to be a "walking fireball factory". That's how they are described in the lore, as nigh-invincible masters of the elements.

But when you look at the mechanics of a Vancian system they seem rather mundane."

O RLY? have you seen a high level vancian mage in action? They are anything but mundane and *are* near nigh invincible. FFS A mage doesn't need to be spamming fireballs, hastes, magic missles, and other spells to be that.


This idea of Obsidian's is retarted and those defending it as described are even more retarted.

 

[IronicNeurotic]

I never really liked the alignment system either. A better designed karma/rep system like Fallout's would be great.

Well, yeah. But according to Sawyer there's most likely not going to be a karma/moral meter at all (like in Fallout especially where he critizized it)

That's the *Makes Josh sad* part.

 

[Grunker]

But wasn't one of the first things they said publicly that there will be complex reputation mechanics? That's probably what Feargus is talking about.

 

[Cynic]

I have laid out my opinions and thoughts in full for all to see, MANY times.

Yeah, I've seen what you've had to say and you're not convincing. The Dark Souls approach doesn't solve the problems Sawyer wants and will add tedium if anything.

Not convincing? I got a shit load more support than any of the crap you've said in this thread so who really is more convincing?

There are plenty of sites out there that will hug you and tell you everything is alright because the game will have a switch to turn of friendly fire (ho ho ho will the encounter design take this into account?)

Knowing Sawyer, they'll balance everything for Expert mode (meaning friendly-fire) and turning it off will simply make it much easier for people who want that.

Oh, OK.

The company who most people know is responsible for some of the shittest programming releasing bug ridden games constantly?

Ad hom, scripting and programming errors don't have anything to do with design.

This is the same fucking argument that was used to defend Mike Laidlaw over DA2. You design something and it's a success you get the credit for it, not the fucking QA testers, do you see QA Tester number 23 being praised on the Codex? No it's fucking Tim Cain/Avellone/Sawyer who ever the designer/programmer is. Likewise, if your product is a bug infested PoS, you suffer the consequences. I can't believe I am seeing this EXTREMELY BSN style argument being peddled here.

Don't get me wrong I think they are a great company but innovators they most certainly are not.

I'd argue they have made certain innovations, just ones usually not worth caring about.

So you'd argue that they have made useless innovations. Got it.

 

[Cynic]

"Certainly. But I do feel that uber-level wizards should have the ability to be a "walking fireball factory". That's how they are described in the lore, as nigh-invincible masters of the elements.

But when you look at the mechanics of a Vancian system they seem rather mundane."

O RLY? have you seen a high level vancian mage in action? They are anything but mundane and *are* near nigh invincible. FFS A mage doesn't need to be spamming fireballs, hastes, magic missles, and other spells to be that.


This idea of Obsidian's is retarted and those defending it as described are even more retarted.

There comes a moment in every Codexer's life that you have to step back, look at the situation and just think, what the fuck. That moment is when you brofist Volourn.

 

[tuluse]

Feargus is on twitter again, spouting one or two answers that make Sawyer sad.

@feargus: will you use a karma system like the one in fallout? I thought it worked better than alignment

@Ohad Something very much like that, but you'll have various kinds of karma/reputation that better simulates your actions locally, globally and with specific groups.

That said, this is vague enough to just be a case of different perspective.

That sounds a lot like faction meters parsed through PR speak.

"It's just like a karma meter, only specific to groups!"

 

[Shadenuat]

I'm really not sure what that system of theirs is supposed to solve. People will get through dungeons spamming spells from replenishable levels, wait for boss and unload dailies on him. People who could't still would run back to town and rest to get dailies back. We mostly did the same in every Vancian game out there. The only difference is that mages won't need to think about managing low level spells now. It's like trying to teach us fools how to spend our resources. Why can't fighters and thieves have their own moments in gameplay, and mages - theirs? Why everyone must perform equally in sense of number of actions per combat? o_O