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

[IDtenT]

Wait, wait. They've already announced an expansion?

They've also added extra vaporware by including Wasteland 2?

 

[Endemic]

Wait, wait. They've already announced an expansion?

The original funding goal was $1.1 million, so why is that so surprising?

 

[Volrath]

We didn't have resources to build a

Thanks god(s) for that.

Fuck off!

I want to be a GOD!

 

[FeelTheRads]

Wait, wait. They've already announced an expansion?

The original funding goal was $1.1 million, so why is that so surprising?

Yes, well, selling an expansion for an unreleased game...
What happens if the game flops majestically?

 

[Infinitron]

The announcement of the expansion pack at such an early stage is odd, no question about it, but the extra funds it has brought in to the Kickstarter were well worth it. Immediate +20 pledge upgrade from thousands (tens of thousands?) of pledgers.

 

[evdk]

Wait, wait. They've already announced an expansion?

The original funding goal was $1.1 million, so why is that so surprising?

Yes, well, selling an expansion for an unreleased game...
What happens if the game flops majestically?

You'll get jack for your $20.

EDIT: More precisely you'll get a better base game and a warm feeling of being able to contribute

 

[Endemic]

Yes, well, selling an expansion for an unreleased game...
What happens if the game flops majestically?

It's certainly a gamble to be doing it this early, but if people want to fund one...

 

[IronicNeurotic]

The announcement of the expansion pack at such an early stage is odd, no question about it, but the extra funds it has brought in to the Kickstarter were well worth it. Immediate +20 pledge upgrade from thousands (tens of thousands?) of pledgers.

It was mentioned before, but if you want to do an expansion RIGHT you have to at least plan for it a little in the initial design phase of the main game. Otherwise you're creating problems, if you're not completly disconnecting the expansion from the main game.

For example, narrative choices that affect the expansion, gameplay concerns, hooks. You better plan for it as early as possible if you want to do it.

 

[villain of the story]

You've already made up your mind on PE though so there's no point in me wasting time with further arguments.

Looks like you have already made up your mind about me allegedly making up my mind on PE but unlike you, I'm not a dogmatic subhuman scum who settles with the first thing to swing by his direction and content with the first buzz of near-thought cerebral activity so I'll ask anyway: tell me what is my verdict of PE? I'm most curious myself.

Running away from combat with stimpack-abuse is not "avoiding" combat.

You can avoid combat in NV as much as you can in 1 and 2.

Hmm, I haven't tried a pacifist character but FNV is a really good game. I wouldn't be surprised if that is possible.

 

[Roguey]

Keep fighting the good fight, Roguey I clearly misjudged you before you developed a crush on Josh Sawyer.

But hey, whatever works!

I'm pretty sure I already said I've been following him around for years. Him I partially-trust based on his tastes and previously stated opinions about gameplay, not so much the other shady characters at Obsidian Entertainment.

 

[Infinitron]

Kickstarter ended up making more yesterday than it did the day before, already at 40k today:

Should hit 2.9 million soon, with a chance of reaching 3 million today if it keeps up at this rate.

 

[Roguey]

Caring is sharing or was it the other way round?

Tell us what you like about his gameplay opinions!

I think he is a well intentioned.. person. He is tired of all the problems with IE games such as rest-spamming but his solutions will end up creating new ones.

Tells me what I want to hear.
http://www.formspring.me/JESawyer/q/660034169
http://www.formspring.me/JESawyer/q/1781222250
http://www.formspring.me/JESawyer/q/219173045271562659
http://www.formspring.me/JESawyer/q/229487270162338509
http://www.formspring.me/JESawyer/q/235421846139320996
http://www.formspring.me/JESawyer/q/235975522612416302
http://www.formspring.me/JESawyer/q/236875962627660322
http://www.formspring.me/JESawyer/q/251387678707157226
http://www.formspring.me/JESawyer/q/266614622633592520

Paragraph from an ITS interview I thought worth saving

However, I am strongly against awarding experience points for "ways and means". I.e. killing monsters, picking locks, scribing scrolls, etc. Not only is it extraordinarily hard to balance for designers and QA staff, but it inevitably leads to nasty metagaming that, in my opinion, runs counter to some of the guiding principles of many RPGs. Unless combat is the sole focus of the game, we need to keep the player's focus on achieving a goal in whatever manner he or she sees fit. The accomplishment of the goal, not the method itself, should net the main reward. The reward for "ways and means" is usually self-contained. E.g. monsters drop monster bits, opening locked rooms gives access to otherwise unavailable equipment, hacking a computer gives some interesting data that can tie in with another game system. And really, the biggest reward has already been granted to the player: you allowed him or her to play the game in the manner he or she wanted. There's an idea I don't subscribe to -- that players need to be given tiny rewards for everything they do. If your gameplay is actually fun, you shouldn't need to bribe them! When gameplay simply becomes drudgery motivated by a desire to gain a bonus that makes the gameplay easier, I feel that we have failed as designers.

His five hard lessons http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/36637/GDC_Europe_Obsidians_Five_Hard_Lessons_Of_RPG_Design.php

As well as his self-criticism:
http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=24

I wound up working on the original Icewind Dale. I wasn't particularly thrilled with how my work on it came out but hey -- one step closer to Fallout 3, man. I then did some work on Heart of Winter, and that managed to actually be worse than my Icewind Dale stuff. Icewind Dale II came out better than I expected, but still, not exactly awe-inspiring.

I read all that and think "There's someone who really wants to make fun games and has the sense to make one."

 

[hoverdog]

:kwanzania:2,900,000 :kwanzania:

 

[Endemic]

I'm not a dogmatic subhuman scum who settles with the first thing to swing by his direction and content with the first buzz of near-thought cerebral activity so I'll ask anyway: tell me what is my verdict of PE? I'm most curious myself.

Okay, I'll indulge you for one post:

"Real-CRAP with Pause & KOOLaids-downs w/ level-scaling in FUCKED-UP angles"

I was referring to your signature.

Seems I was right not to bother since you prefer to throw a tantrum like a 12 year old when someone disagrees. So much for intelligent debate eh? By the way I also backed Wasteland 2, and I have nothing against turn-based or old school games, I started out with a CPC64 in the 1980s.

 

[IronicNeurotic]

Anthony Davis namedrop

What happened?

In his recent livestream Adam Brennecke said he reads RPG Codex pretty much every day, and also mentioned that his friend Anthony Davis posts here regularly.

Hahaha, yeah this place is a guilty pleasure for many Obsidianites.

Jabby and I started at Obsidian within two weeks of each other. He graduated from Digipen and is an amazing engineer. His game ideas are pretty Amazing too and he has one in particular that I hope they make soon.

Guilty pleasure as "LOL RPGCodex guys are so hilarious!" or "RPGCodex guys are bros!"? :D

Little column A, little column B.

Much of the time there is just head shaking when some of the more ... Aggressive members here argue just to create noise, but as we always say, there are many gems of wisdom here.

How excited are you for Eternity from a scale of 1 to 10?

 

[ravenshrike]

Yes, well, selling an expansion for an unreleased game...
What happens if the game flops majestically?

Unless it sells less than 50,000 copies, then assuming a 30.00 price point and 1/3 of that going to GoG/Steam, you're looking at a minimum of a million dollars. Given the lion's share of the work will be done, you would only need additional art assets and story/dialogue. Probably very few additional mechanics. More than enough to fund a single expansion. And it will probably sell at least 100,000 copies. Especially since it's on Steam and GoG. Well, unless the world economy has collapsed by that point, but if that has occurred we'll have more on our mind than a P:E expansion.

 

[Infinitron]

And it will probably sell at least 100,000 copies.

Consider this - even Obsidian's greatest commercial failure, Alpha Protocol, sold several hundred thousand copies.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Adam Brennecke is now broadcasting: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/project-eternity-live-stream

He's going to be playing IWD2 today.

 

[Aeschylus]

And it will probably sell at least 100,000 copies.

Consider this - even Obsidian's greatest commercial failure, Alpha Protocol, sold several hundred thousand copies.

With the weight of an actual marketing budget behind it. Project Eternity will have only what this newfangled 'social media' thing can provide. I do think it's likely to still sell at least 500k copies or so though, as it's generating a fair amount of buzz.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Adam Brennecke is now broadcasting: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/project-eternity-live-stream

He's going to be playing IWD2 today.

 

[Crooked Bee]

60,000 backers! That means the mega dungeon is now at eight levels!

 

[Aeschylus]

Sweet. I expect it to get to 10 levels by the end. Dreaming big!

 

[Raygun_elf]

Far out he sounds so burnt out, what have we done

 

[Infinitron]

Adam is preparing an update at this very moment.

EDIT: ...and he just randomly namedropped Anthony Davis again. Not sure why

 

[Jarpie]

He looks like a zombie. Poor guy should get some lot of sleep.