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

[GarfunkeL]

It doesn't even matter if you can spam Stamina since combat will reduce your health as well and that you can't get easily back. Think of it this way: stamina is old HP, health is the number of healing spells you had in IE games.

 

[Jedi Exile]

Tim and I would rather not give XP for general killin' because it leads to a lot of weird/degenerate scenarios, but I have no problem with having quests oriented specifically around killing and receiving XP for achieving sub-objectives/the main goal.

Goal-based XP awards confirmed? (Bloodlines style)

This is not simple incline, this is MASSIVE

I can't believe my eyes, because it seemed like a Baldur's Gate clone in the beginning, but now it certainly more on Arcanum/Fallout/Bloodlines level.

This is just so priceless, I haven't had this fun reading the forums in a while;
Sawyer says:

Tim and I would rather not give XP for general killin' because it leads to a lot of weird/degenerate scenarios, but I have no problem with having quests oriented specifically around killing and receiving XP for achieving sub-objectives/the main goal.

Monte Carlo:

Sorry, I don't understand the answer. Are you telling me that every single encounter in this game has an objective? What's the "degenerate" bit all about?

Srsly, this is a big deal to me and possibly others. The XP mechanic genuinely makes me wonder.

And then Sawyer responds to that with:

Gameplay degeneration occurs when a player engages in gameplay not because they enjoy that gameplay but because the game's mechanics put the player at a disadvantage for not taking advantage of it. Rest spamming is one example. Wholesale slaughter/genocide is another. Quests that involve a peaceful option to resolve that get turned around after completion when the player murders the saved parties is a familiar expression of this sort of degeneration. If XP is linked to quests and objectives within quests, the player has much more freedom to resolve those quests in whatever way he or she wants, whether that means talking through it, fighting, sneaking around, or using some mixture of skills/scripted environment objects to reach the goal.

Love the direction they are taking the whole EXP system.

 

[piydek]

That's a little worrying. The whole point of a stamina system is that you have a small amount of HPs. It doesn't make sense to have 10x as many HP at the end of the game as the start. A system where you take damage from every 'hit' means HP will probably increase throughout the game. Of course it it's like 1 HP per level that is not too bad although I would prefer it locked at the start.

Well it's unknown what the ratio of stamina/health drain will be. But I'd guess that hits won't take shitloads of health. It's almost certain that Obsidian themselves don't know it yet. If i remember correctly, Sawyer said in that same gamebanshee interview he needs to "play around" with that.

 

[kris]

You get experience for completing quests, not killing everything.

 

[Jasede]

It doesn't even matter if you can spam Stamina since combat will reduce your health as well and that you can't get easily back. Think of it this way: stamina is old HP, health is the number of healing spells you had in IE games.

If you phrase it like that it's almost Vancian healing. Oh, you used up your five healing spells? Time to backtrack to a safe spot. It's exactly like, I hate to bring this up again, Dark Souls.

 

[Jarpie]

Then don't give experience for a 'peasant's head'.

For me, it takes the fun out of exploring and randomly encountering an interesting foe. I don't see why it can't be both - experience for objectives/goals and smaller experience for killing foes in the example I gave.

Edit: I'm willing to compromise, but this doesn't seem like a compromise. This is completely eliminating XP for killing foes.

Buh-bye!

 

[Infinitron]

Holy fucking shit, I go away to eat a late dinner for a measly half hour and Captain Shrek has spawned three pages of MASSIVE butthurt and another three in the news thread.

 

[Hobz]

We don't know. Judging from the update only I'd say every damage done also damages Health to a small extent to maintain attrition but the way it was phrased it was ambiguous and may well not be the case. We'll have to wait and see.

That's the way I understood it also. Spells and abilities will most likely be able to mitigate health damage to some extent. I can see something like "Take half health damage for X attacks/seconds at the cost of double stamina loss" Risk/Reward all the way !

 

[serch]

I like the idea of stamina/health. It does not make sense for a person to go from 10 HP to 150 HP over the course of a game. It does make sense to go from 10 Stamina to 150 Stamina but to remain at 10 HP.

Hopefully health will be damaged by things like critical hits, certain spells or if some damage threshold for a hit is made.

edit: And of course for running out of stamina.

Sawyer said in an interview for gamebanshee that all hits will drain health as well, not just critical ones. But they'll drain health relatively slow copared to their draining stamina. And health does not regenrate.

That's a little worrying. The whole point of a stamina system is that you have a small amount of HPs. It doesn't make sense to have 10x as many HP at the end of the game as the start. A system where you take damage from every 'hit' means HP will probably increase throughout the game. Of course it it's like 1 HP per level that is not too bad although I would prefer it locked at the start.

Take into account that even warriors are going to be powered in their martial exploits by the soul system to more than human levels. It would make sense if health increase with experience, a little at least.

 

[Volrath]

Holy fucking shit, I go away to eat a late dinner for a measly half hour and Captain Shrek has spawned three pages of MASSIVE butthurt and another three in the news thread.

He's elevating trolling into an artform in this thread.

 

[Hobz]

Wow, it seems that if the last rush is big enough, we can reach 3.7 million at the end with paypal.

We need another stretch goal !

On a side note the health/stamina is looking really great, I'm genuinely curious to know what is wrong with such a system for people complaining about it.

They're worried about two things:
1) You could just sit around and let Stamina regenerate, thus reducing challenge
2) You could spam Stamina regenerating abilities, thus reducing challenge

This could be circumvented through a bunch of encounter design choices or some mechanical changes. On the other hand, Obsidian hasn't yet proven they can design good combat encounters. With all that said I think they're really going to try this time. It's their chance to shine, so they'll either shine brightly or fail spectacularly. And I feel it'd be in our best interest if the outcome were to be the former.

Thx for the answer. The way I see it both problems are circumvented by health damage and the lack of healing spells.

 

[bminorkey]

First off: I want to thank you guys so much for this. I'm in for $250 - this is basically my ideal kickstarter project and I cannot overstate how happy I am to see it succeed. Old-school RPGs are my favorite genre and always have been (BG2 remains my all-time favorite game). The talent you have on board really feels like the Dream Team as far as RPGs go.
So, along those lines:

1. How long are you all interested in making this genre of game? Obviously you're doing Project Eternity, an expansion, and hopefully sequels, but would there ever be a point where you feel like "eh, we've done everything we want to do"? Hopefully the answer is no, but I'm curious.
2. Do you think the success of Project Eternity will bring others back to developing old-school RPGs, or bring some new people to working in the genre? I'd love if this were the case, but I'm somewhat skeptical - I think a lot of the success here has to do with your pedigree, games-wise. But I'd love a perspective on this from inside the industry.

And finally, on a different note:

1. Are you guys going to be doing any cool events around launch in LA that people can come to? Or do you not have any idea yet?
2. If I could figure out who to talk to about it in the office, any chance we could get some of you to give a talk at the Google office in LA? I know for sure I'm not the only Google guy who's really excited about this.

1m$ check plz googl

god i suck at quoting

 

[evdk]

Posts: 7000 +

Dude I agree its comparable to mine but I have created 3 pages TODAY. You create I don't know how many each day.

Posts: cca 6000. Glass houses?

 

[Jasede]

You know, if they did give a talk there's a good chance Google would give them a decent boost.

 

[Arkeus]

Man this feels good.

 

[Captain Shrek]

Posts: 7000 +

Dude I agree its comparable to mine but I have created 3 pages TODAY. You create I don't know how many each day.

Posts: cca 6000. Glass houses?

Illiterate.

 

[Captain Shrek]

Man this feels good.

We will probably get 10 levels too.

 

[evdk]

Posts: 7000 +

Dude I agree its comparable to mine but I have created 3 pages TODAY. You create I don't know how many each day.

Posts: cca 6000. Glass houses?

Illiterate.

Well, more like just tired. But I apologize.

 

[IDtenT]

I wonder if (hope that) companions will have personality algorithms, as in Arcanum.

Personality algorithms? This is really in Arcanum? Could someone tell me in a few sentences what this is?

I was over-stating myself. It was just some level up algorithms you could assign to your companions or yourself (unless my mind has truly deteriorated). It would have been better if that in itself included some divergent personality, etcetera, (although I do believe there was some specific cases of divergence (hate/love, evil/good)) but at the moment that's too much to wish for. Ideally for me all the companions you meet would have randomish stats and those stats are levelled through a randomish algorithm and the character personality is randomishly effected by it, giving each play-through its own personality, without you having to be actively involved to shape it.

Which brings me to another point, are there any RPGs that can generate your party for you (again in a randomish way) or levels up your party for you but again not in an "optimal" way, but in a randomish way.

* Randomish being a (very) biased RNG. Biased in such a way as to give characters personality within the world, but personality that also makes sense within the world; i.e. it makes sense for the character to have levelled up in such a way.

 

[General Maxson]

to J_C and Jarpie for making my balls tingle with joy day.

Retards - your money was good, now - good fucking riddance!

Nigro: He sure has good taste. :D

 

[TheEntitledOne]

Last info on paypal was around 85K right? Now we only need 5000$/hour to reach 3.5M.

 

[Jarpie]

SqueakyCat in Obsidian forums:

I just don't get the point. It's a single player game. If someone wants to run around killing everything, become overpowered, and essentially ruin their game (from my perspective), what difference does it make? Who is it hurting if that's how they like to play?

I prefer to explore everywhere and get experience as I make my way through the story and quests.

To each his own. Why is this so terrible? Why do we need to be forced to only have one option?

I dislike becoming overpowered too early on, but how is that hurting anyone else's gaming experience?

and Monte Carlo then:

Srsly, why is this so difficult to understand?

The butthurt, it's so delicious!

 

[Jasede]

Another fucking romance thread:

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/61515-romance-and-friendship/

For me personally, an RPG without romance simply isn't one

Disgraceful.

 

[bminorkey]

SqueakyCat in Obsidian forums:

I just don't get the point. It's a single player game. If someone wants to run around killing everything, become overpowered, and essentially ruin their game (from my perspective), what difference does it make? Who is it hurting if that's how they like to play?

I prefer to explore everywhere and get experience as I make my way through the story and quests.

To each his own. Why is this so terrible? Why do we need to be forced to only have one option?

I dislike becoming overpowered too early on, but how is that hurting anyone else's gaming experience?

Jesus christ fuck them.

 

[Infinitron]

Yes, I'm reading that now. What the fuck is their problem? Is there an electrode wired to their brain's pleasure center that triggers whenever they pop a mole for 150 xps?