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

[villain of the story]

You really can't associate that sign with anything? How old young are you?

 

[Outlander]

If you had to remake a classic RPG made by another studio, which one would you remake and why?

SSI Wizard’s Crown or Eternal Dagger because I loved the way they showcased the dungeons and allowed you to develop your character. Pool of Radiance would also be fun (the 1st Goldbox one) as would Dark Sun’s Shattered Lands (which I loved).

 

[suejak]

Project Eternity is making me feel like....

Listen, nub, that is American Sign Language for I Luv U.

 

[~RAGING BONER~]

.

And I have absolutely no inclination to support shit like that. I've had enough Crap Time with Pause and fucking elves to last several fucking lives, even if it is otherwise a brilliant game.

so first day pirate then?

 

[Gurkog]

Listen, nub, that is American Sign Language for I Luv U.

I guess that is his sex face then?

 

[CrustyBot]

 

[wormix]

What, no GIF?

 

[Gurkog]

Thanks CrustyBot! Now the image is much better.

 

[oldmanpaco]

So they added some talent and classes. Now a total of 5 races (and implied sub-races/mixed races), 11 classes (if they get to 2.7 million which seems pretty likely) and 8 companions. I wonder what the 3 million goal will be. You have to figure they have something big planned to try to drive the donations in the last two to three days.

The classes and races seem pretty much played out. Perhaps a gadgeteer type class or another race but the number now seems OK. But how many people were on the sidelines saying 'No Paladins, no donation'?

A few more companions would be nice but it seems like they want some in-depth interactions and in that case less is more (see MotB). There were lots of NPCs in BG1 but who remembers them? And with 8 you can dump your 3 least favorite or just make your own in the AH. In BG I like to make 2-3 companions and use 2-3 in-game ones for some flavor. I mean Edwin needs to roll with me.

They could announce a bigger world but that is hardly inspiring at this point and honestly how do we even know what that even means? I'm pretty sure they can make the game as large as they want right now.

On the talent side they have MCA and Ziets to do the writing. Is there anyone else out there to bring in? They could go for more talent on the art side but that is not going to get the donations going. Most of the plebains have no idea who artists are anyway.

So... Tool-Kit?

 

[Arkeus]

Things they could announce, though i guess some of those wouldn't be liked:

*SoZ-style Overland-map.
*A second big city (two Akathla-style city in the game).
*Adding a 'Branching' chapter, Witcher 2-style.

 

[Gurkog]

So they added some talent and classes. Now a total of 5 races (and implied sub-races/mixed races), 11 classes (if they get to 2.7 million which seems pretty likely) and 8 companions. I wonder what the 3 million goal will be. You have to figure they have something big planned to try to drive the donations in the last two to three days.

The classes and races seem pretty much played out. Perhaps a gadgeteer type class or another race but the number now seems OK. But how many people were on the sidelines saying 'No Paladins, no donation'?

A few more companions would be nice but it seems like they want some in-depth interactions and in that case less is more (see MotB). There were lots of NPCs in BG1 but who remembers them? And with 8 you can dump your 3 least favorite or just make your own in the AH. In BG I like to make 2-3 companions and use 2-3 in-game ones for some flavor. I mean Edwin needs to roll with me.

They could announce a bigger world but that is hardly inspiring at this point and honestly how do we even know what that even means? I'm pretty sure they can make the game as large as they want right now.

On the talent side they have MCA and Ziets to do the writing. Is there anyone else out there to bring in? They could go for more talent on the art side but that is not going to get the donations going. Most of the plebains have no idea who artists are anyway.

So... Tool-Kit?

Perhaps a kit to create modules. That would definitely make at least some people joygasm.

I know some biodrones would probably freak if they added a tier for flying dragon mount that can be romanced.

 

[Digital Monocle]

So... Tool-Kit?

Nah, They got to do what Old School did and offer 2 games for one.

 

[Grunker]

If what they mean by "stringing together magical effects for prolonged periods" means something along the lines of "prepare spell-chains in advance and unleash them" that could lead to seriously interesting gameplay as you attempt to anticipate the needs of the coming encounter and shit goes badly when you chain 3x Ice Blast against the White Dragon diving at you!

Would be cool to see something like that.

That would be about the most fucking cool thing to do with magic in any CRPG.

And that is why it won't happen. Obsidian doesn't seem to be into tactical preparations like that, what with Sawyer wanting to turn mages into spammers of spells.

That's actually exactly what Sawyer means.

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/61...ladins-add-ons-rewards-and-more/page__st__100

Yes, that is essentially what we mean.

Genuinely surprised here.

Seriously? They are doing that?

Chanter, welcome to my party. Can't wait to try it. There's a couple of reasons it might suck, but at least it's a fairly novel concept. I can't wait to play around with it :D

I do not believe the chanter will be a sequencer expert of mage spells.

If so, Sawyer is a lier. And J_C and Jaesun told me Sawyer wasn't a lier

They're not spells, they're chants. We don't know how they will work.

FUS ♬ ROH ♪ DAH ♫

*SoZ-style Overland-map.

On another note, Chaos Chronicles will be awesome for so many reasons!

 

[Semper]

So... Tool-Kit?

they already stated that a toolset ain't one of their goals for the kickstarter campaign. they'll fully support modding and will release documentation about their file structure. with this the community should be able to create their own tools. perhaps there'll be an official one after release if the sales numbers justify the effort.

Things they could announce, though i guess some of those wouldn't be liked:
*SoZ-style Overland-map.

it was already stated that they're aiming for a traditional world map similar to bg1, unknown if there'll be skill usage or other worthwhile stuff to spice it up.

in regard to further stretch goals you just have to follow the kickstarter comments, as they seem to have big influence on feargus' decisions. a documentary and upgrading the player house to a stronghold are talked about.

 

[Murk]

Wants to be an anthropomorphic rabbit in a videogame, likes choices & consequences and doesn't like overuse of voice-acting because it reduces the amount of dialogue in a game.

Come on, who of you is Ziets? Don't be shy.

Anthropomorphic rabbit... c&c... rpg...

...Chefe. It's Chefe.

 

[DalekFlay]

So much fucking butt-hurt and questions about this game could have been solved by reading the day one description. "More Baldur's Gate by Obsidian." Boom. Done.

Part of me was like "awww, darn" but I was still fucking excited.

 

[Commissar Draco]

So much fucking butt-hurt and questions about this game could have been solved by reading the day one description. "More Baldur's Gate by Obsidian." Boom. Done.

Part of me was like "awww, darn" but I was still fucking excited.

DAO by Obsidian moar like, and yes since I would pirate this anyway donated some Jewgold via Codex. All Games by Obsidian were atleast good for what they're even those Snubed by Codex like Alpha Protocole.

 

[Arkeus]

DAO had enough departure from BG/etc that i wouldn't consider it infinity-engine style, really.

We'll see how it goes, but so far i have seen nothing but good stuff about this game. Hopefully the screenshot won't be horrible, and they won't mess up the class balancing too much.

 

[Gurkog]

Alpha Popamole was pretty good for an action game. At least, I liked it a lot more than Mass Erect: Alien Romance Simulator. I only paid $2 during a Steam sale for AP... so I have no reason to complain even if it did suck.

The Od Nua dungeon should have at least 10 levels by the end of the campaign. I hope the design is truly mad with lots of puzzles.

At least the Paladins won't be lawful stupid, just stupid. I think they might turn out fun to play.

 

[Grunker]

Alpha Popamole was pretty good for an action game. At least, I liked it a lot more than Mass Erect: Alien Romance Simulator. I only paid $2 during a Steam sale for AP... so I have no reason to complain even if it did suck.

The Od Nua dungeon should have at least 10 levels by the end of the campaign. I hope the design is truly mad with lots of puzzles.

At least the Paladins won't be lawful stupid, just stupid. I think they might turn out fun to play.

The design of it and what they've said reminds me of Watcher's Keep. And that is definetely a good thing.

 

[Arkeus]

Urgh, hopefully it will be more Watcher's Keep and less Tower of Druargh or whatever the name was.

 

[CrustyBot]

What, no GIF?

Stretch goal for when I get enough brofists.



Nice thread on gathering intelligence.

 

[Roguey]

When you have the entire Obsidian Design Team working together on a project that is a type of game they LOVE to make, an entire universe they themselves are making with no limitation but their own, do I want Mr. Ziets thrown into that mix? Are you fucking kidding me? HELL YES.

http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/index.php/topic,2280.msg73996.html#msg73996

Tim is one of my favorite people in the game industry. That said, I'm not sure why people automatically assume throwing a bunch of big names together will create a better product. I know it works sometimes, but I've heard of other "dream team" projects that were nothing but constant personality conflicts.

As an example, think of your five favorite movie directors. Now imagine they were all hired to co-direct the same film. Is that movie going to be five times as awesome? Odds are that it is not. Just trying to illustrate the reality of creative development

Note: Brian was likely still buttdevastated over Chris introducing his Alpha Protocol script to the paper shredder.

Having an arbitrarily novel setting doesn't make it good -- just look at some of the ridiculous shit Mieville coughs up in his Bas-Lag books. In that case, I'll talk grumpy dwarves and art-majoring elves over breast-having cactus men and beetle headed brown ladies any day of the week.

If you say so pleb. Mieville>Tolkien.

 

[Minttunator]

If you say so pleb. Mieville>Tolkien.

You're probably right, but that's not saying much. If influencing an entire genre is not taken into account, then purely in literary merit several modern fantasy authors > Tolkien.

 

[DraQ]

I'm all for hoping this'll be great but let's be honest, they could have gone with a billion more interesting worlds than high fantasy with the freedom they had. How about an IE-style game in...

* hard sci-fi setting
* steam/diesel/cyberpunk
* Japanese spirit world (think Spirited Away)
* low-magic real-world middle-ages with fantastic liberties, think Darklands

* new weird - like something along the lines of Bas-Lag
* any non-generic fantasy setting