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

[Tigranes]

I think we're already in the post-infodump let's-talk-about-completely-obscure-things-or-the-same-exact-thing-we-talked-about-last-week syndrome. Hopefully they'll get regular updates running after a while.

 

[Diablo169]

I think we're already in the post-infodump let's-talk-about-completely-obscure-things-or-the-same-exact-thing-we-talked-about-last-week syndrome. Hopefully they'll get regular updates running after a while.

I really hope so, Fargo went quiet for ages post Kickstarter.

 

[Keshik]

I think we're already in the post-infodump let's-talk-about-completely-obscure-things-or-the-same-exact-thing-we-talked-about-last-week syndrome. Hopefully they'll get regular updates running after a while.

Hope so, but I doubt that subforum will improve much.

 

[Hobz]

Looks like I missed out on details about the stamina / health system. Obviously for people to call it an energy shield Obsidian must have announced that :

• Stamina will recharge very fast after a few seconds without being hit
• Stamina needs to be depleted before health is hit.
• Depleting stamina will not knock you down.
• If you play well, you'll never take but stamina damage.

Can someone provide me a link to those statements ?

I don't know why you can't scan the last pages for the relevant quote which has been copy and pasted at the very least five times. Because I am in a good mood - a fancy 200$ dinner, a lovely evening at the ACT theater, a delicious dessert at the Seattle center along with a double espresso, I will briefly summarize it for your benefit, or rather, answer your bullet points.

Also I do look dashing tonight, let me tell you!

[*]Stamina will recharge very fast after a few seconds without being hit
It has been said stamina will regenerate very quickly out of combat and can be restored in combat through class-specific abilities. No statement has been as to whether casting spells or using combat abilities or attacking depletes stamina.
[*]Stamina needs to be depleted before health is hit.
FALSE. Health will always be damaged. Stamina acts as a damage shield that will absorb a certain fraction of damage but some will always bleed through into health, from what we can make out from Sawyer's example.
[*]Depleting stamina will not knock you down.
FALSE. Depleting stamina will cause unconsciousness, but not death. You will get up after a fight and regenerate stamina. Your health stays the same and if your health reaches zero you die for good or become maimed on easier settings..
[*]If you play well, you'll never take but stamina damage.
FALSE. If you get hit you always take a certain amount of health damage from what we can make out from Sawyer's example.

Woooosh

Glad to ear about your gorgeousness though. I wish my mom did not drink so much when she was pregnant...

 

[DalekFlay]

The funny part is these kickstarter numbers speak for themselves yet we still feel an endless need to defend our tastes.

 

[Volourn]

What do these prove? That around 80kish people want an IE type game? L0L

That proves shit.

A professional game developer cna't live of 80k customers or 4mil. Obsidian has 100 employees. No way does that support them as a dev house. FFS

 

[Blaine]

No, but twenty-odd developers certainly can. 80,000 backers donating $2 million/year or so allows for an average annual salary of $60,000-$80,000 per developer, depending upon operating expenses. Also, that "80k customers" figure includes backers only. Once the game is released, if it reviews well it will sell hundreds of thousands more copies (a conservative estimate) — pure profit.

Developing old-school games is a sustainable and profitable venture, just not with humongous teams of 100+ developers at a price point of $60 plus DLC. Four coders, three writers, three level designers, three artists, two animators, two sound designers, and a handful of senior staff (producer, lead designer, whomever) who also contribute their development talents to the project should be enough; if not, there's wiggle room for a few more. Obsidian already has a QA department, and playtesting can be done fairly cheaply.

There have been some very successful/admirable games developed by a handful of people, or even just one guy. They won't have full voice acting, a six-hour-long orchestral soundtrack, and millions upon millions of dollars of art and animation assets, but they don't need all that shit anyway.

 

[Captain Shrek]

No, but twenty-odd developers certainly can. 80,000 backers donating $2 million/year or so allows for an average annual salary of $60,000-$80,000 per developer, depending upon operating expenses. Also, that "80k customers" figure includes backers only. Once the game is released, if it reviews well it will sell hundreds of thousands more copies (a conservative estimate) — pure profit.

Developing old-school games is a sustainable and profitable venture, just not with humongous teams of 100+ developers at a price point of $60 plus DLC. Four coders, three writers, three level designers, three artists, two animators, two sound designers, and a handful of senior staff (producer, lead designer, whomever) who also contribute their development talents to the project should be enough; if not, there's wiggle room for a few more. Obsidian already has a QA department, and playtesting can be done fairly cheaply.

There have been some very successful/admirable games developed by a handful of people, or even just one guy. They won't have full voice acting, a six-hour-long orchestral soundtrack, and millions upon millions of dollars of art and animation assets, but they don't need all that shit anyway.

I think you are overestimating the sales post release. I am not saying it won't happen, but you need to understand the niche-ness of the genre.

Games like DA:O and DA2 sold million+ because of certain reasons, none of which had to do anything with IE games. Oh yes, probably there is a definite share for DA:O as a BG spiritual sequel, but the major reason was the new shit and bioware's reputation. Obsidian does have its own army of Obsidrones, most of which think that Obsidian is Bioware mark 2 if the romance threads are any indication. These people are going to be terribly disappointed with the presentation. They will also hate it if it turns out that PE is even slightly difficult than farmville. Which means the future will again be bleak.

 

[Blaine]

You may be right in that I'm overestimating post-development sales. We'll just have to wait and see.

Which means the future will again be bleak.

The future is rather bleak anyway. In another twenty years, many of these industry veterans will be retired, and most others will have permanently moved on to different careers. They're an aging bunch, and developing computer games is a very demanding profession. By 2030, the era of old-school cRPGs will have drawn to a permanent close. I suspect much of the player base will have moved on along with the developers.

In my opinion, 2011-2020 will be the last hurrah for developers like them and for players like us. We've got this round of projects (Wasteland 2, PE, Star Citizen, etc.) to look forward to, then perhaps another round or two to come, and after that our little hobby will seem as old-fashioned and outdated to the gaming industry as crooners seem to Generation X.

I wish it could last forever. When games like IWD, Torment, Fallout, Wizardry, adventure games, space sims (remember Radio Shacks filled with computer joysticks?) and so on were still big sellers, I was in Heaven and I thought I'd be playing games like that for decades to come. But we lost almost a whole decade.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

No, but twenty-odd developers certainly can. 80,000 backers donating $2 million/year or so allows for an average annual salary of $60,000-$80,000 per developer, depending upon operating expenses. Also, that "80k customers" figure includes backers only. Once the game is released, if it reviews well it will sell hundreds of thousands more copies (a conservative estimate) — pure profit.

Developing old-school games is a sustainable and profitable venture, just not with humongous teams of 100+ developers at a price point of $60 plus DLC. Four coders, three writers, three level designers, three artists, two animators, two sound designers, and a handful of senior staff (producer, lead designer, whomever) who also contribute their development talents to the project should be enough; if not, there's wiggle room for a few more. Obsidian already has a QA department, and playtesting can be done fairly cheaply.

There have been some very successful/admirable games developed by a handful of people, or even just one guy. They won't have full voice acting, a six-hour-long orchestral soundtrack, and millions upon millions of dollars of art and animation assets, but they don't need all that shit anyway.

I think you are overestimating the sales post release. I am not saying it won't happen, but you need to understand the niche-ness of the genre.

Games like DA:O and DA2 sold million+ because of certain reasons, none of which had to do anything with IE games. Oh yes, probably there is a definite share for DA:O as a BG spiritual sequel, but the major reason was the new shit and bioware's reputation. Obsidian does have its own army of Obsidrones, most of which think that Obsidian is Bioware mark 2 if the romance threads are any indication. These people are going to be terribly disappointed with the presentation. They will also hate it if it turns out that PE is even slightly difficult than farmville. Which means the future will again be bleak.

I dunno, my brother. Grimrock, which was way more niche than PE, and only really advertised through word of mouth, sold 17k copies on GoG alone - that's at least 50k with Steam included, which is a very modest estimate. BG2 sold like 3 million altogether. I don't think it's unrealistic to expect PE to sell in the ballpark of 500k; as an estimate, for 20$ per copy and Valve taking its 30% Steam Jew-toll, that's 7 million of profit, easily enough to fund a sequel.

I understand it's better to be pessimistic about these things, but these kinds of sales numbers aren't unheard of. Frictional Games are still selling over 10k copies of Amnesia every month. As long as Obsidian actually release a good game without tons of bugs (the biggest danger here, imo), they should be absolutely fine.

 

[Infinitron]

Project Eternity will sell just fine - all of the disappointed Bioware fans will buy it just to check it out, even if it ends up being too hard for them.

 

[evdk]

ME2 might have been (alright was) a worse RPG but it was a far more entertaining game that DA2 could ever hope to be.

Apart from that I too am afraid that PE will crush and burn when released.

 

[kris]

No, but twenty-odd developers certainly can. 80,000 backers donating $2 million/year or so allows for an average annual salary of $60,000-$80,000 per developer, depending upon operating expenses. Also, that "80k customers" figure includes backers only. Once the game is released, if it reviews well it will sell hundreds of thousands more copies (a conservative estimate) — pure profit.

Developing old-school games is a sustainable and profitable venture, just not with humongous teams of 100+ developers at a price point of $60 plus DLC. Four coders, three writers, three level designers, three artists, two animators, two sound designers, and a handful of senior staff (producer, lead designer, whomever) who also contribute their development talents to the project should be enough; if not, there's wiggle room for a few more. Obsidian already has a QA department, and playtesting can be done fairly cheaply.

There have been some very successful/admirable games developed by a handful of people, or even just one guy. They won't have full voice acting, a six-hour-long orchestral soundtrack, and millions upon millions of dollars of art and animation assets, but they don't need all that shit anyway.

I think you are overestimating the sales post release. I am not saying it won't happen, but you need to understand the niche-ness of the genre.

I wouldn't say to much about this so far. Truth is that they had a very good press coverage this far and will continue to have. Sure they will miss the big ads and TV commercials, but I still think it is very possible they can sell a few 100k. And since they have no publisher that money will go almost straight to their pocket. I remember when Paradox was asked how much more they will make on selling their games directly, the answer was "Many times as much".

 

[Captain Shrek]

Project Eternity will sell just fine - all of the disappointed Bioware fans will buy it just to check it out, even if it ends up being too hard for them.

 

[Captain Shrek]

I wouldn't say to much about this so far. Truth is that they had a very good press coverage this far and will continue to have. Sure they will miss the big ads and TV commercials, but I still think it is very possible they can sell a few 100k. And since they have no publisher that money will go almost straight to their pocket. I remember when Paradox was asked how much more they will make on selling their games directly, the answer was "Many times as much".

PE will not be a loss. That much is captain obvious.

Whether it will make a serious profit to warrant another such game without kickstarter, I don't know. BUt in the world of digital distribution probably you are right. Let's see.

 

[Infinitron]

Stupid poll, but the results might be interesting from an anthropological perspective: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/61810-gameplay-or-story/

The future is rather bleak anyway. In another twenty years, many of these industry veterans will be retired, and most others will have permanently moved on to different careers. They're an aging bunch, and developing computer games is a very demanding profession. By 2030, the era of old-school cRPGs will have drawn to a permanent close. I suspect much of the player base will have moved on along with the developers.

In my opinion, 2011-2020 will be the last hurrah for developers like them and for players like us. We've got this round of projects (Wasteland 2, PE, Star Citizen, etc.) to look forward to, then perhaps another round or two to come, and after that our little hobby will seem as old-fashioned and outdated to the gaming industry as crooners seem to Generation X.

I wish it could last forever. When games like IWD, Torment, Fallout, Wizardry, adventure games, space sims (remember Radio Shacks filled with computer joysticks?) and so on were still big sellers, I was in Heaven and I thought I'd be playing games like that for decades to come. But we lost almost a whole decade.

 

[Jedi Exile]

The future is rather bleak anyway. In another twenty years, many of these industry veterans will be retired, and most others will have permanently moved on to different careers. They're an aging bunch, and developing computer games is a very demanding profession. By 2030, the era of old-school cRPGs will have drawn to a permanent close. I suspect much of the player base will have moved on along with the developers.

I think there are some younger developers who like oldschool games and even trying to make new ones. Take Underrail, for example. With a bit of luck, guys like Underrail's developer will become more influential in the future and they will make games that we might enjoy playing.

 

[catfood]

Stupid poll, but the results might be interesting from an anthropological perspective: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/61810-gameplay-or-story/

Story for me.
I have yet to play a RPG were I liked the gameplay.

P. much sums up what's wrong with gaming today.

EDIT: admitedly if his RPG experience consists of Fag Age and Ass Effect he does have a point about their gameplay being shit.

 

[Captain Shrek]

With further sabotaging good gameplay right here, what do you expect?

 

[catfood]

I mean FFS at least if the writing was any good I would understand, but most games have, shit stories, shit characters spouting shit lines, what the fuck is there to like about them? Hell, most of them are worse than the worst summer block buster C movie or any dime-in-a-dozen-wrote-on-command-based-off-of-an-already-existing-franchise fantasy novel. This is 5th grade level (at most) writing we are talking about here.

 

[FeelTheRads]

I mean FFS at least if the writing was any good I would understand, but most games have, shit stories, shit characters spouting shit lines, what the fuck is there to like about them? Hell, most of them are worse than the worst summer block buster C movie or any dime-in-a-dozen-wrote-on-command-based-off-of-an-already-existing-franchise fantasy novel. This is 5th grade level (at most) writing we are talking about here.

It's like POV porn, imo. Fucking retarded, but some people need to be immersed, I guess.

 

[bminorkey]

Stupid poll, but the results might be interesting from an anthropological perspective: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/61810-gameplay-or-story/

Story for me.
I have yet to play a RPG were I liked the gameplay.

P. much sums up what's wrong with gaming today.

EDIT: admitedly if his RPG experience consists of Fag Age and Ass Effect he does have a point about their gameplay being shit.

There really aren't many RPGs with actually good gameplay. I can't name many at all off the top of my head. Most people who play RPGs are those who enjoy them exclusively for the cinematic experience, C&C romance etc. because there really isn't much for the gameplay crowd.

(This could be an interesting thread to open here, RPGs you play for gameplay).

 

[Jarpie]

I tried to search but couldn't find...does anyone know how many pledges failed for DFA and Wasteland 2?

 

[bminorkey]

BTW

RPGs with great gameplay (cRPGs and a jRPG):

• Mass Effect 2
• Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
• Final Fantasy: Tactics
• BioShock
• Deus Ex: Human Revolution
• Mount and Blade: Warband
• Fable II

 

[Jarpie]

Gonna try to argue probably one last time with that biodrone in romance thread but arguing with them is like this: