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

[oldmanpaco]

Infinitron, evdk, Digital Monocle

Wait, what? WTF? I haven't even donated, why do I have the race traitor tag?

93. villain of the story (courtesy of oldmanpaco)

Very funny. I am not accepting this, please hoard the money towards server upgrades.

Out of curiosity, how much did you donate for me, oldmanpaco? There is a whole lot of people below my name.

Darn that was supposed to be an anonymous donation. I must not have specified that. Oh well, money well spent.

 

[Jarpie]

jarpie 12 points 17 minutes ago

If you are going to put social skills such as speech, diplomacy, persuasion, intimidate or something similar to those, would they be tied to the classes like in D&D 3E/3,5E or free for all classes?

And MCA's answer:

We are tying responses to attributes, but what we want to avoid in the mechanics is using attributes as "insta-win" buttons (for example, often in previous RPG titles, using the Skill option often is the instant win for quest solutions). What we'd rather do is have attributes and skills open up a range of new information that allows you to make a more informed decision about a choice rather than gate you to a solution.
This may sound complicated, but it's like the Empathy skill in Fallout 1 and 2 - it would only tell you if the person you were talking to would react positively or negatively to your dialogue option, but that didn't mean it was the right option to choose in every situation, and sometimes you wanted to make someone mad to achieve your goal.
Hope that makes sense.

Sounds like a very intersting system.

 

[Digital Monocle]

Darn that was supposed to be an anonymous donation. I must not have specified that. Oh well, money well spent.

Definitely worth every penny, a true bro All we need is a Volly race traitor too

 

[evdk]

Darn that was supposed to be an anonymous donation. I must not have specified that. Oh well, money well spent.

If you wanted the donation to be anonymous maybe you should've restrained yourself from mentioning that you have donated a sizable amount to procure a custom title for a fellow poster.

 

[Captain Shrek]

jarpie 12 points 17 minutes ago

If you are going to put social skills such as speech, diplomacy, persuasion, intimidate or something similar to those, would they be tied to the classes like in D&D 3E/3,5E or free for all classes?

And MCA's answer:

We are tying responses to attributes, but what we want to avoid in the mechanics is using attributes as "insta-win" buttons (for example, often in previous RPG titles, using the Skill option often is the instant win for quest solutions). What we'd rather do is have attributes and skills open up a range of new information that allows you to make a more informed decision about a choice rather than gate you to a solution.
This may sound complicated, but it's like the Empathy skill in Fallout 1 and 2 - it would only tell you if the person you were talking to would react positively or negatively to your dialogue option, but that didn't mean it was the right option to choose in every situation, and sometimes you wanted to make someone mad to achieve your goal.
Hope that makes sense.

Sounds like a very intersting system.

They did try it in Alpha Protocol. But it failed or was not correctly implemented. Your AP boss tells you at the very beginning that certain responses even if antagonistic can serve useful purpose. The only meaningful places I remember them being used was to kill the older version of thronton and forcing the AP analogue team to try and kill you. Sorry for got names.

 

[oldmanpaco]

Darn that was supposed to be an anonymous donation. I must not have specified that. Oh well, money well spent.

If you wanted the donation to be anonymous maybe you should've restrained yourself from mentioning that you have donated a sizable amount to procure a custom title for a fellow poster.

er what? DU listed me on the donation page. I didn't anounce anything.

 

[evdk]

No, but in a different thread you were talking about donating money for somebody else, so he could get a shiny new title. It does not take an ace detective to make the connection between that and VotS suddenly acquiring the Race Traitor tag, it's just that DU was indiscreet so no detective work has been required.

 

[J_C]

Some interesting tidbits:

Are you hiring George Ziets full-time, or will he collaborate on the game like Chris Avellone does on Wasteland 2?

George will be on contract. We'd love to hire George back full time, though, we all loved working with him.

A lot has been talked about regarding combat, and some of the mechanics. Can you describe how the lore, or mythos will effect the abilities or spells available within the game. EG In Dungeons and Dragons a cleric may worship a specific god, and be granted specific abilities due to this. Will there be any mechanic akin to this, and if so, will it be limited only to a 'cleric' like entity? I find that this is an often under-used mechanic that can really enhance the 'getting into the world' factor.

Priests and possibly paladins will have altered access to lists of spells and abilities based on their chosen deity or cause. It's not about the god/cause limiting it, but the person limiting their access themselves since their power is internally-derived.

also: Will it be possible to talk my way out of (almost) every encounter in P:E using my social skills?

Chris Avellone socially says:
You'll have the opportunities to resolve encounters/hostile encounters through social skills and stealth, definitely.

How are you going to handle reactions from the world on actions of the Player (like thievery, violence and murder) or events in the world itself? Will there be some kind of legal system? Will NPC remember how you treated them and will there be ways to get on a good branch with them again? Will NPCs be reflective of what's going on in the world and have dialogue about it?

We haven't discussed reactions to criminal acts, but we'd like there to be good reactivity to those events. For reputation, we will be using a modified version of the system found in F:NV, which allowed for a broad spectrum of reactions that could shift over time. Not having to worry about full voice acting means we can have even more reactions to player actions from NPCs throughout the world. Overall, this is pretty important to us so we will support it as much as we can.

Will I be able to pick locks if I play as a barbarian? In other words, will skills in PE be class-specific?

JESawyer: Skills will not be class-specific, though classes may have inherent bonuses with certain skills. If you want to blast up Mechanics with your barbarian, you can do that. You probably won't be as good as a Rogue who is dedicated to Mechanics, but you won't be restricted from putting points into those skills.

what aspects of Darklands can we expect to see in Project Eternity?

The aspect of Darklands I'm most interested in trying out in Project Eternity is the manner in which certain non-combat sequences/conversations are presented with an illustrated scene accompanied by text. Performing a ritual, talking with an important character at a specific time/place, or even figuring out how to cross a broken bridge -- those are all things that I could see taking place in such a format.

What were your predictions on amount of money from Kickstarter before it started?

Chris Avellone puts on Rasputin hat:
Only our Art Director, Rob Nesler, felt super confident about us hitting our goal and hitting it so quickly. The rest of us felt it was more of a gamble, and we were afraid because of the amount we were asking - but we didn't feel it would be responsible of us to ask for less. Brian Fargo was the same way with WL2 - never ask for less than you need to make the game, be responsible budget-wise and be practical. If you don't get funded as a result, then you don't get funded, but it means you're not letting anyone down on both sides of the Kickstarter.

Could we get clarification on the exp system you
guys are thinking about? It implies you won’t give
experience for kills how does this work with things
like the mega dungeon? I like using non-combat skills
to glean an advantage or get something extra out of a
situation not to necessarily solve everything. I feel
like if i know I’m going to get the same reward for not fighting if there is a situation where i can avoid
combat i probably will and it’s not because combat
isn't my preferred play style but because fighting in
that instance would feel kind of pointless.

We plan to grant XP for exploration-based quests and objectives, so if there's something like the mega-dungeon that's focused on moving from level to level toward a goal, we will award portions of XP for achieving those goals. Most players will likely use combat to get to that point, but that doesn't need to be the only solution.

And to wrap things up I’ve seen a lot of scary suggestions on what PE should be, people wanting story modes, for it to be turned based, to put focus on MP and console support people scared of tech levels, people wanting flat out a thinly veiled PST2 etc. And i understand you want to accommodate some of these requests (no one wants to be the first to fuck up a kickstarted project.) and i understand everyone's personal fervor of what is beholden to them seeing how we don’t get to play these kind of games anymore but above all else make sure i get the game you promised me. "Project Eternity will take the central hero, memorable companions and the epic exploration of Baldur’s Gate, add in the fun, intense combat and dungeon diving of Icewind Dale, and tie it all together with the emotional writing and mature thematic exploration of Planescape: Torment." that game thank you.

understood. People have a lot of opinions on what they would like. We listen to all of them, but we have a pretty clear vision of where we are going with the project.

Personally, my first experience with you guys was Knights of the Old Republic 2, and I loved that game. However, it does get a lot of criticism (especially from fans who prefer the first game). A lot of people blame this on a rushed schedule. Do you think the game was rushed, and if you could change anything about the game, what would you change?

Chris Avellone looks back:
The issues with K2 are my fault, and no one else's. Looking back, I would have taken more care to focus on the elements of the game that mattered the most: the story and characters, and removed the mini-games, for example (those were a waste of time) and also cast away many of the cut scenes (they cost too much time to do technically, despite how much we liked them).
I also would have downscoped the cast and done what we've done on titles after that - made a smaller, more reactive cast and kept the central character pillars (Kreia, Atton, Mira, Visas Marr). I would have kept T3-M4, regardless.

As to my question, I love what you guys have said so far in regards to the project including creating a great party system with full control and distinct classes. Along with the gameplay-related features, I'm extremely curious as to how personally developed the party characters will be. How well can you get to know them and will there be quests/extensive dialogue that helps develop them? To me, personal relationships with party members adds so much in many of the RPGs that have it, and I was wondering what the focus on that would be in Project Eternity.

JESawyer: The companion characters will be very well-developed. It's something we love doing and we feel that companion reactivity can provide a lot of information about the world and a continual criticism (or praising) of the character's actions. Companions will have their own quest lines that you can not only complete, but determine the outcome of. Player choice will be important throughout the game and your interactions with companions will be no different in that regard.

How do you feel about Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition?

Chris Avellone respectfully bows:
I'm really glad Trent (Oster) is bringing it back, and it can't have been easy to make it happen. Looking forward to playing it.

Re: Powder guns. I backed this project because the promise of making BG-type of game was something from a dream. But your plan to include powder guns into the game is taking me down little bit. Can you please explain more in detail how common the guns will be?

JESawyer: Guns are not particularly common and are universally single-shot black powder weapons. They are powerful (especially against wizards using an arcane veil for defense), but they are so inaccurate and slow to reload that most people would rather use a bow or crossbow, especially at long range.
Side note: similar firearms were actually in the Forgotten Realms following the Time of Troubles. It's just rare to see any character using them.

How much overlap is there in the people working on Wasteland 2 and P.E?

Chris Avellone's multiple design personalities give their voices:
There's only me working on Wasteland 2 (I feel so alone snfff snfff), and I'm working on wrapping up the area designs now. It's been a blast, and I'm really enoying working with Brian again - I usually am there 2 days out of the week at the inXile offices and attending design meetings, kicking around WL2 thoughts, etc.

Do you feel like you're free to take more risks on this project,
or do you feel an obligation to the fans to stay as true to their nostalgia and perhaps being more conservative?
(or anything in between)?

I think we can take certain risks when we believe it will genuinely improve the gameplay, but we did promise people a certain type of experience. We can't account for every individual detail that a person may consider sacred in those experiences, but we try to stay within the same feeling/realm as the IE games.

 

[Crooked Bee]

[–]Enforcer84 3 points 27 minutes ago
Are you the same Chris Avellone who used to do Stick Figure Theater in Champions books? If so, hi!
If not, sorry bout that, but Hi!

[–]Obsidian_Ent 2 points 41 seconds ago
Chris Avellone has a nostalgia attack:
Yes, and if you want to see more, they're on Twitter (@chrisavellone), too. I doodle on everything when I get restless. Or I'm on the phone. Or having beers and I've brought my sketchbook. I believe I did all the RPG Codex stick figure style trolls while intoxicated.
Um, I mean SOBER. Yes, SOBER. And professional.

 

[Captain Shrek]

Patrolling the Mojave makes me wish for nuclear winter.

 

[Infinitron]

[–]Enforcer84 3 points 27 minutes ago
Are you the same Chris Avellone who used to do Stick Figure Theater in Champions books? If so, hi!
If not, sorry bout that, but Hi!

[–]Obsidian_Ent 2 points 41 seconds ago
Chris Avellone has a nostalgia attack:
Yes, and if you want to see more, they're on Twitter (@chrisavellone), too. I doodle on everything when I get restless. Or I'm on the phone. Or having beers and I've brought my sketchbook. I believe I did all the RPG Codex stick figure style trolls while intoxicated.
Um, I mean SOBER. Yes, SOBER. And professional.

 

[LeStryfe79]

 

[Mrowak]

Copy-pasted my question, but I guess it's too long to answer.

 

[Crooked Bee]

JESawyer: Yes, I would definitely work on a direct sequel/reboot/whatever to Darklands. I would probably want to restructure some of the skills in the system (or adjust the game's content) so players got more use out of the neglected skills like Streetwise, Ride, or Speak Latin. Also I'd like to offer alternatives to being a virtuous Catholic in the game, which was pretty much "the way" to play. Overall, though, I still think it holds up very well.

The aspect of Darklands I'm most interested in trying out in Project Eternity is the manner in which certain non-combat sequences/conversations are presented with an illustrated scene accompanied by text. Performing a ritual, talking with an important character at a specific time/place, or even figuring out how to cross a broken bridge -- those are all things that I could see taking place in such a format.​

CYOA confirmed.

 

[Jaesun]

We need to give Obsidian some beer, as in IIRC MCA LOVES beer. Don't know how to do that though...

 

[Infinitron]

OBSIDIAN's PROJECT ETERNITY:​

Real-CRAP with Pause & KOOLaids-downs w/ level-scaling in FUCKED-UP angles and WEEABOO VISUAL NOVEL CYOA​

 

[zerotol]

Infinitron, evdk, Digital Monocle

Wait, what? WTF? I haven't even donated, why do I have the race traitor tag?

93. villain of the story (courtesy of oldmanpaco)

Very funny. I am not accepting this, please hoard the money towards server upgrades.

Out of curiosity, how much did you donate for me, oldmanpaco? There is a whole lot of people below my name.

Darn that was supposed to be an anonymous donation. I must not have specified that. Oh well, money well spent.

Yes well spend indeed, looks like the codex got lobotomized real fast

 

[Semper]

@CYOA:

 

[Digital Monocle]

OBSIDIAN's PROJECT ETERNITY:​

Real-CRAP with Pause & KOOLaids-downs w/ level-scaling in FUCKED-UP angles and WEEABOO VISUAL NOVEL CYOA​

Skyway will be proud.

 

[J_C]

Next batch:

Chris Avellone adds:
Josh is right (I almost wrote "write" there). It's often the VO budget, not the will of the designers that limits the amount of reactivity text between NPCs in an area. As an example, the reactivity text in Fallout 2 I felt was far more true to an RPG than other games I've worked on because it was much easier pipeline-wise to implement it and while it wasn't free, it was definitely FAR less expensive than if someone had had to voice it. Also, it was easier to edit.

Chris Avellone pontificates:
I feel creating a world (and slang and culture) often is just as time-consuming as researching someone else's franchise (for example, Star Wars required a lot of research into the expanded universe, not just to become familiar with it, but to understand what stories and elements had already been told). As such, we only had 5-6 comments on our story from LucasArts over the whole course of the project because we'd done our due diligence.
And we don't work on franchises because we don't have our own ideas, it's just the way things have shaken out. I feel we've had opportunities to examine those franchises in new ways that players appreciate (K2 and Mask of the Betrayer).

With the release of the screenshot, the fans got a glimpse at what 10 years of rendering technology can add to the Infinity Engine. Can you tell us what, if any improvements, that can/will be made to Character/character animations as Project Eternity moves forward?

The animators are looking at Unity 4's Mecanim system and what it can allow us to do. One of the big differences is that working with 3D characters instead of sprites means that we have a lot more flexibility for equipment/armor/weapon combos on characters. Also we can do much better blending and animation scaling since adjustments and interpolation can be done in real-time. It's nice that Mecanim apparently makes certain things (like retargeting animations) much easier. Having to port animations across all of the different race/sex combinations is typically a pain. Mecanim handles retargeting pretty easily.

With level growth planning to be slower in PE, will there be leveling mechanics to make each level more meaningful? Eg: feats/perks/talents/skill points/gold stars per level instead of every two or three levels.

Tim Cain: Yes. Our intention is that you will level more slowly than many modern games, but each level will feel significant in terms of power level and new abilities. If you play like me, you will already be planning where to spend your points when you level up, so when that "ding" happens, you will upgrade your character and immediately look for someone new to fight/talk to/sneak past, just to try out the new abilities.

How are the languages of PE's world being made? We've gotten quite a bit of lore in the 20th update and the names there were a bit of a mixed bag. Some sound vaguely Earthly (especially the elven ones remind me of Gaelic or something like that), others are quite alien.
Do you guys have a linguist on the team, or are the writers "just winging it"?

JESawyer: I'm developing most of the language conventions. I start with a base language's grammar and vocabulary and tweak it, then (try) to keep records of those rules. Aedyran is English with a base of Old English. Vailian is based on Italian (except it's cased). Glanfathan is based on Irish but I've introduced different grammatical case rules. Generally, I try to avoid using real words directly, altering them slightly in the process of adapting them for the game. My goal is for the feeling to be present, but not the words directly.

JESawyer: We don't want to spoil the story, especially since we're still in pre-production! The story will be a big focus for us, especially allowing players to choose their own way through the story that makes sense for the characters they want to play. When you've finished the story, we want you to feel like you had to make a lot of difficult choices and that the world changed because of it -- both in major and minor ways.

This one piece of art from Project Eternity had me intrigued since it gives of a Lovecraftian vibe. So I might as well ask, will there be quests, story elements and the like that have Lovecraftian influences? Because the idea of exploring PE's world and running into some cosmic horror (or something similar) shit makes me excited.

JESawyer: I don't think we're necessarily going FULL LOVECRAFT, but I do want the dark and scary places of Project Eternity to feel appropriately terror-inducing, even from an isometric perspective. Eír Glanfath's ruins are supposed to contain some scary stuff, so we don't want the player to yawn when they kick open the door and face Skeleton #242.

Tim Cain: we have been contacted by several fans already about the possibility of translating the game into their native language, and we will talk to them about the seriousness and breadth of their offer (it's a big deal to make the translations correct and complete).
As for mods, we like modding and want to support it as much as we can. We are looking into how to make data formats available, along with tools, if we can.

 

[hoverdog]

JESawyer: Yes, I would definitely work on a direct sequel/reboot/whatever to Darklands. I would probably want to restructure some of the skills in the system (or adjust the game's content) so players got more use out of the neglected skills like Streetwise, Ride, or Speak Latin. Also I'd like to offer alternatives to being a virtuous Catholic in the game, which was pretty much "the way" to play. Overall, though, I still think it holds up very well.​

The aspect of Darklands I'm most interested in trying out in Project Eternity is the manner in which certain non-combat sequences/conversations are presented with an illustrated scene accompanied by text. Performing a ritual, talking with an important character at a specific time/place, or even figuring out how to cross a broken bridge -- those are all things that I could see taking place in such a format.​

CYOA confirmed.

Project Eternal Decadence

 

[Darth Roxor]

Also I'd like to offer alternatives to being a virtuous Catholic in the game, which was pretty much "the way" to play.

Goddammit, Sawyer, that was "the way" to live in those times, which was in tune with all that Darklands was about - recreating the timeframe as it was seen by its contemporaries

 

[GarfunkeL]

[–]Lurchiba 5 points 34 minutes ago

Will there be romance options (Both gay/lesbian and straight) in the game?

 

[Semper]

What are your plans concerning the loot system of the game? Personally, I loved the Baldur's Gate approach of items beeing set in one specific location of the game/ with certain characters. It motivates to explore every corner of the game and once you figured everything out gave you the experience of really knowing the world. Random loot should be very limited imho.

JESawyer: We will rely more on placed loot than randomized loot. The IWD games had a huge amount of unique items and most of those were hand-placed (e.g. Pale Justice). I like writing the unique histories of those items, anyway.
There might be a tiny amount of randomization, but that will likely happen at that the individual gear level. E.g. 5 bandits are placed on a map. When the map loads, each will randomly be given a pair of shortswords, a longsword and shield, or a bigass mace.

 

[Infinitron]

Fuck randomization! I'm so glad to hear that.