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

[Volrath]

It will be Dragon Age - with fixed camera and better writing. And probably some mechanics considered too controversial for the mainstream (think spirit eater). That's why Biodrones are all over it. That's why it got funded so quickly.

It's delusional to expect anything more.

Dragon Age is the last thing that pops into my head when somebody mentions Torment, BG and ID too me. I doubt it's any different for the folks at Obsidian.

The story faggotry will be abundant, but that's ok. Because I'm a storyfag

But considering Obsidian other strengths like world building, quest design, creating believable and consistent npc's and the talent that's working on it, I'm not too worried. They still have over a month to jew the biodrones and bethtards out of as much money as they possibly can.

 

[Volrath]

I WANT TO BE A VOICE ACTOR http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/60051-voice-acting-suggestion/

OK that does it, pledge withdrawn. It's fucking BioDrone Central

Eh, most of the folks in that thread are disagreeing with the OP. Sure they can't call him a dumbfuck like we loveable folks here at the Codex can, but that doesn't mean they're not thinking it.

 

[Crooked Bee]

I felt Dragon Age was extremely boring in everything from its writing to its gameplay. If there's one thing I'm expecting from an Avellone-Sawyer-Cain game (and the reason I've pledged $35 -- not that much, really), it's for it not to be boring, at least as far as writing/quest design is concerned.

So I guess "a (much) better written Dragon Age" is the minumum I'm expecting to get, and I'd be fine to get it for my $35. Naturally, if that would be all I got, I'd be seriously disappointed at the same time, because I really want Sawyer and Cain to design an interesting role-playing system to go along with Obsidian's usual strengths. But the low number of classes and races, and the fear of a small party size, keep me from increasing my pledge at the moment. So far I'm not seeing anything that'd suggest it will be something more than my expected minimum.

 

[IDtenT]

These stretch goals don't really tell me much unless I know what's there already.

1.1 million, Base Goal – Achieved!
Base game includes three races, five classes, and five companions. We have ideas for these, but we want to hear your opinions on what you'd like to see. Stay tuned to Kickstarter, our website, and our forums to join in on the conversation.

???

Anyhow, it seems to have slowed down quite a bit.

 

[IDtenT]

Since I specifically referred to RTwP DnD implementations as a horrible clusterfuck, I have crossed out the turn based ones, leaving us with the infinity engine games.
I would favour Arcanum's turn based combat over that any day of the week!

As for the Infinity Engine games as a whole, the only one I've ever finished was Planescape Torment, and I think we can all agree that the game is balanced in your favour to the extent that combat is largely irrelevant.
For the others, for this I mean BG1, BG2 and IWD2 (haven't attempted the first), I have tried to make my way through them many, many times over the last 10 years and every single time I just abandon my playthrough midway through chapter 1 or early chapter 2; I just cannot tolerate it any more, for me it completely ruins the game, far more so than Arcanum's TB/RT combination ever did.

In a nutshell, the infinity engine games are why I side with those who consider RTwP an abomination, a ill-conceived compromise between TB and RT that satisfies neither faction and completely ruins the game if combat is a prominent factor.
But, Eternity isn't DnD shoehorned into RTwP, but their own system based around RTwP.
I'm disappointed all the same, but I'm at least somewhat optimistic that a system explicitly designed around RTwP will result in something that's at least enjoyable.

Can't brofist this enough. You cannot expect a good RTwP system if you're using DnD. It's not designed for that. A system designed for RTwP, like the one implemented in Dragon Age, does work far better.

 

[Darth Roxor]

People who say that 'any tb, even arcanum's' would be better than any RTWP are out of their fucking minds, period.

 

[octavius]

You cannot expect a good RTwP system if you're using DnD.

I didn't except it either, but then I played Baldur's Gate 2 and Icewind Dale.

 

[IDtenT]

It will be Dragon Age - with fixed camera and better writing. And probably some mechanics considered too controversial for the mainstream (think spirit eater). That's why Biodrones are all over it. That's why it got funded so quickly.

It's delusional to expect anything more.

So, dragon age with better writing, mechanics, and camera.

This is bad somehow?

Many people don't like it, but Dragon Age was the continuation of BG Bioware in a new graphical era. Yes, they fucked up a lot of shit, but if done right I'd jump on that shit like a tranny whore. Think of this as the evolution of Dragon Age the same way PS:T was the evolution of Infinity Engine.

You cannot expect a good RTwP system if you're using DnD.

I didn't except it either, but then I played Baldur's Gate 2 and Icewind Dale.

We'll agree to disagree then. I thought RTwP implementation of DnD was absolutely shockingly retartedly horrid.

Edit: I do have to say that shoe-horning a companion for every class isn't exactly the idea behind an evolving and organic narrative and I am slightly disappointed with that. However, as someone who likes to order stuff, the idea of having one companion of each has always appealed to me, but doesn't make for great narrative.

 

[Infinitron]

Infinitron how long did it take for the Wasteland forums to settle down?

The retardness in the Obsidian forums is ridiculous.

I think a couple of months after the end of the Kickstarter? Might take more for this, as it has more mainstream appeal than turn-based, full party creation Wasteland 2.

 

[pocahaunted]

Ugh, these stretch goals have really put things into perspective, I'm not liking the vibe I'm getting. I feel that housing in SP RPGs is a really badly implemented mechanic that serves little to no role whatsoever. As pointed, a stronghold could at least be involved more seamlessly with the rest of the game.

Asking for player input? For fuck's skae, unless it's something minor, stay the fuck away from that. I didn't pledge to have a random agglomeration of neckbeards design the fucking game.

 

[Excidium]

As pointed, a stronghold could at least be involved more seamlessly with the rest of the game.

People keep saying this and I keep seeing no difference. It's still a waste of resources if it exists just to be "your place"

 

[Infinitron]

Meanwhile, on Something Awful...
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3506352&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=48

Scorchy posted:

Wow the rpgcodex thread for this is a seething cauldron of hate, racism and homophobia. It's like the comment section for a Fox News article in there.​

I went other there to check it out and ummm, yeah. Wow.

Not only are they declaring the game dead in the water for trying to have inclusive elements, they have lovely stuff like this all over their site:

Keeping it classy over at rpgcodex.

I'm looking forward to what the design vision for itemization and difficulty curve is in the future, hopefully this game doesn't make the mistake I hate most and inundate the player with inventory garbage as the game goes on.

Of course those enlightened goons are focusing their attention on more important concerns, such as

Just because a game has decent writers doesn't make it okay for every female character to be wearing nothing but a few straps and strings. Seriously look at the art in the in-game journal, it's crazy how shitty the female designs are. The succubus is the only one even moderately dressed and that's kind of the point with her, but I'm guessing the writers behind her had to plead with Mense and the other creepers on the art team to let her wear a dress.

 

[pocahaunted]

Inclusive? Oh wow, that's some extreme PC.

 

[IDtenT]

They're certainly not obliged to go DRM-free. I think people underestimate how scary piracy is, even moreso for a project like this. Piracy pretty much killed Arcanum, IIRC.

You do realise that Steam DRM is overridden with I think a file or two that's general to all Steam games? Patching might become more difficult, but specialised trackers always have repacks at the ready. I don't see how Steam (as DRM, not store - as that's a wholly different thing and is indeed winning the fight against piracy) is going to help there much at all.

 

[IDtenT]

I WANT TO BE A VOICE ACTOR http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/60051-voice-acting-suggestion/

Make the new 5k tier a "Voice your own NPC" tier, with an asterisk saying that you need to be available at their recording studio and have an okay voice. Could work.

 

[Zed]

???

Anyhow, it seems to have slowed down quite a bit.

Oh yeah.
But for instance, how big is the already existing "region"? Is it like the sword coast or something?

 

[Randtopia]

Jesus fucking christ the pc crowd at somethingawful is worse than usual. Anyways they pointed me to this place so it's not all bad.

I'm not that worried about josh sawyer making an ass of himself in that thread with the pc crap. It's all to grab some more of that delicious jew gold. At least that's what I'm telling myself. Perhaps the sheer craziness of that thread will even make him re-think his personal view points?

But the reason I'm feeling quite optimistic is the fact that Obsidian does not have a lot of money to begin with, so why should they risk losing sales by including disgusting hermaphrodites/trannies (is there a difference?) and other degenerate perversions? No one in their right mind is buying a game like that. I mean, I guess they could include it by making it a plague or something, and the new separate quest line in their stretch goals is a quest to eradicate it. And then we can all be happy!

 

[IDtenT]

BN, but it is our money. Without us donating, Project Eternity wouldn't become reality. In the classic publishing paradigm, there is the risk for the developer/publisher of not breaking even, and that may be because piracy or because something else and piracy being used as an excuse. In the Kickstarter paradigm, there is no chance of them not breaking even because they get the funding they need BEFORE they create the game. The fact that we, as donors, don't get a part of the profits, as it would happen if we were investors instead of donors, makes it even more advantageous for the developers. All this being said, the developers using DRM under these circumstances is just a big "fuck you" directed at us. In this case, they can count on a lot of people donating based on their reputation alone, with not enough people paying attention to the DRM aspect. However, you have to take into account that a lot of people donated and sent them questions about DRM-free versions in the hope that there will be such a thing announced at a later date. If they don't come to their senses, maybe these people will withdraw their pledges towards the end. Let's see how they like them DRM apples then.

I agree somewhat. I'm not sure how this whole kickstarter thing is supposed to work, in terms of what the designer of the thing thought, but it seems to me as a channel for commissions - not donations. This whole thing of still profiting from the commission after the fact leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth, but I'm willing to let that slide as it does happen that painters still sell prints of their painting if the one who commissioned it said it was okay. However not respecting your commissioners and treating them like the would be pirates is the worst fucking thing you could do.

 

[Stinger]

Ah, I didn't realise you posted that here Infinitron. I posted it on BTE as well. I'll just copy paste something I wrote there:

For the record I'm still really regretful I gave into peer pressure and made that shitty jewgoldz troll. The original one was great, if I say so myself, and the stupid beard was not only distasteful but tried way too hard and ruined a perfectly fine troll. Just wanted to get that off my chest cause I'm still a little pissed it's an official emoticon.

EDIT:

Fuck it, here's my 2 (hundred) cents.

If any of these goons even bothered to read what we'd said instead of just covering it all in a blanket of "MISOGYNY, HOMOPHOBIA, RACISM" they'd realise that we were just pissed off at their bullshit.

Why? Because when Obsidian, fucking Obsidian who has a proven track record of diversity without being tacky and heavy handed as seen with FNV is finally making a cRPG with complete creative control their first thought is to go into a terrible rant about how everything should be PC and we should have representations of all members of LGBT and how the game should have a fair representation of autism and so on.

The funny thing is, there is a rule on their forums about this that says it better than I can:

Attention all of you posters that think you claim the moral high ground by attempting to start little circlejerks in random threads about how bad a female video game character has it because she starts off with some kind of skimpy mammoth wool chest piece or some other shit that shows a tit. This shit is now a bannable offense.

Games, and more importantly, MMO HMO, are not D&D. The fact that you try to come in and make it D&D bothers me to my fat fucking core. There's an absolutely fantastic feminism thread in E/N right now that you can post in and feel better about yourself if you want to, but I'm going to guess that you avoid that thread because it's actually full of people that know what they're talking about and you don't want to get into discussions with those types of people because you don't really want to have a real conversation about the subject matter.

I mean it's completely pointless and the discussion drags on in this irritating little circlejerk that does nothing to demand actual gameplay features. It's not enough to just say "please don't fall into typical fantasy pitfalls and ugly stereotypes" but instead they just go on and on. And like that quote above says it's pretty much from a bunch of hacks who clearly have no idea what they're actually on about but just parrot the same bullshit over and over again even when others on that thread keep telling them to let it go.

So yes, I'm going to be pissed when this is the type of discussion going on there because it is pointless and reductive to any reasonable discussion about cRPG gameplay and storytelling. And no, disliking the constant derailing for faux feminist bullshit tirades with no substance whatsoever other than to harp on about how PC you are for KKK (because really this is the SA equivalent of being edgy) does not make me any of the things labelled earlier.

Sawyer already said he'd make sure to not have problematic tropes and stereotypes in the game so for crying out loud SHUT THE FUCK UP!

....why did I even bother with all that?

 

[canakin]

For fucks sake people are asking for that cunt Felicia Day.

 

[IDtenT]

Of course those enlightened goons are focusing their attention on more important concerns, such as

Just because a game has decent writers doesn't make it okay for every female character to be wearing nothing but a few straps and strings. Seriously look at the art in the in-game journal, it's crazy how shitty the female designs are. The succubus is the only one even moderately dressed and that's kind of the point with her, but I'm guessing the writers behind her had to plead with Mense and the other creepers on the art team to let her wear a dress.

I agree, but only if they are willing to let them portray women as women; either you have the bimbo that can do all the manly things, or you get an appropriately dressed woman that can do womanly things. You can't have your cake and eat it.

 

[Curious_Tongue]

For fucks sake people are asking for that cunt Felicia Day.

She was fine in NV

What do you want? For the game to be a complete sausage fest?

 

[Lumpy]

Really I don't get you guys. Now you're complaining that there's only 5 companions? For fuck's sake mates, it really sounds like you expected Project X to be Wasteland 2 redux - an old school tactical TB RPG.

It isn't. It's a BIS/Obsidian/Troika game. Which means, first and foremost:
- Focus on storyfaggotry, which will be pretty sweet, and not on combat, which is liable to end up a steaming turd (really, think about it, this never had anything to do with publisher intervention - Obsidian and Troika suck at combat systems, with the notable exception of TOEE)

- Companions as central pieces of the story, developed a whole lot more than any other NPC, with probably 20% of all dialogues being with one of the party members. That's really so fundamental I don't even. Given that, would you srsly expect there to be 20 available party members to fill 4 slots? Really?

Now if you're cool with these things, then great, you'll probably enjoy the game. If you don't like them, then you're not really an Obsidian/BIS fan anyway, so why the heck are you reading this thread in the first place? Did you also spam the Double Fine thread about how you hate point&click adventures?

 

[Infinitron]

Petition to include tea-parties with player housing!


http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/60087-petition-to-include-tea-parties-with-player-housing/

 

[IDtenT]

Petition to include tea-parties with player housing!


http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/60087-petition-to-include-tea-parties-with-player-housing/

Good trolling, but maybe they will roll with the lulz and implement it in a lulzy way. Potential for inside jokes, etcetera.