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

[Roguey]

If Sawyer wants to accurately portray mental illness he should interview me~

Lesi too, I'm pretty sure she is as well. That would be a really fun and useful exchange of ideas.

 

[Infinitron]

If Sawyer wants to accurately portray mental illness he should interview me~

Lesi too, I'm pretty sure she is as well. That would be a really fun and useful exchange of bodily fluids.

 

[suejak]

Should we be looking for masturbatory entertainment in all aspects of our video games?

 

[Excidium]

His post was edited by a mod? Some nazi shit.

 

[Grunker]

Lancehead, you posted a pic without the rant

 

[Lancehead]

Well then I got nothing.

 

[Jaesun]

Please feel free to post retarded GD shit in GD. This is the cRPG forum.

 

[Captain Shrek]

If Sawyer wants to accurately portray mental illness he should interview me~

Lesi too, I'm pretty sure she is as well. That would be a really fun and useful exchange of bodily fluids.

Whoa Nellie!

10K +??

You seriously outstripped me there dude.

 

[Roguey]

Please feel free to post retarded RPG Watch shit in RPG Watch. This is the cRPG forum.

This was intentional, right?

 

[Hormalakh]

Seems like only one area to me.

Yeah, I hated that in New Vegas already, mainly on some stuff with Ceasars Legion

The map shown isn't all the places that P:E will explore. From what I understand the scale on that map is that the area shown is the same size as the country of Spain. I believe Dyrwood is one of the big big cities being explored in the game. But I'm not sure...

I actually like having realistic scenarios and making a believable world. That makes for good stories and worthwhile discussion. I hate over-the-top fantasy.

 

[tuluse]

I think the entire green section in the middle of the map is the Dyrwood.

 

[Hormalakh]

I thought it was the top left part? Nobody lives in the ruins as there are scary monsters and old temples there left from generations ago when elves lived there.

 

[tuluse]

The top left is the the "Free Palatinate of". I think that implies that it is not the entire Dyrwood.

 

[Hormalakh]

Aedyr - People from the expansive Aedyr Empire and its former colonies, Dyrwood and Readceras. Aedyr literally translates as "Many Deer", but means "People of the Deer", referring to a 2,500 year-old tribe that became a kingdom 600 years ago. It merged with the elven kingdom of Kulklin in 2399 AI. Among the Aedyr, there is no significant cultural divide between humans and elves. Because of their close contact and integration in spite of physiological differences (such as longer elven lifespans), their culture and legal system have developed a variety of unique concepts such as the haemneg, or ceremonial marriage. Ethnic Aedyr (mostly humans and elves) have fair skin and a variety of hair and eye colors, with blue and green being common. Among other cultures, Aedyr clothing is known for being relatively simple in construction and often using large, colorful striped or checkered patterns for accents.


Dyrwood - Strictly speaking, the forest northwest of the Bael River.

Dyrwood, Free Palatinate of - The independent nation that was formerly a colony and later a large, remote duchy of the Aedyr Empire. Led by their duke, Admeth Hadret, the people successfully fought for their independence over an excessively burdensome campaign to colonize the dangerous ruins of Eír Glanfath. Despite the fact that they are no longer, properly speaking, a palatinate (nor a duchy), the people of Dyrwood continue to refer to their home as a "Free Palatinate" out of pride. Most residents of the Dyrwood are Aedyr humans, elves, and dwarves, but many are also culturally integrated orlans or children of Glanfathan elves. Despite having fought a war with the Aedyr Empire in the past, they are now trading partners and have maintained few grudges. Their one continued point of contention is exploration and colonization of Eír Glanfath, which Aedyr continues to push through official and unofficial means.

So I think you're right. The green area is all Dyrwood.

 

[Jaesun]

Project Eternity Update #36: Off to our elfhomes, but first...

Hello, friends. The elves have been hard at work on Project Eternity, and we would like to show you our fine goods. This is a long update, but we wanted to give you more information than usual since it's the end of the year and we will be in our elfhomes for the next few weeks. First, I'd like to talk about what we've been doing with the engine and second, I'd like to talk about some of the design work we've been doing.

Resolution and Scaling - We want to run the game at various resolutions and scale properly. We've been talking about our target resolutions and looking at the best way to implement scaling. If you've played any of the Infinity Engine games lately, you may have noticed that running at high resolutions can make the game look like an RTS. Though it's nice to be able to scale up and see more of the environment, at a certain point dungeons start looking like ant farms. That's what happens when you take a game designed for 640x480 and run it at more than double the resolution. It is now the year 2012, so we're looking at supporting a range of resolutions that runs from modest laptops to Macs with crazy Retina displays.

To do this, we're going to render the game out at a target high resolution and a target low resolution. Currently, we're looking at a base resolution of 1280x720. A large number of laptops run at this resolution or its slightly bigger brother, 1366x768. It's not quite twice the resolution of the original games (640x480) due to the 16:9 aspect ratio, but pretty close. We believe that this base resolution will scale well up to 1920x1080, which would be roughly equivalent to going from 640x480 to 1024x768. In the old IE games, this gave you a slightly larger view of the world, but didn't get too crazy.

For our higher resolution, we are likely going to render out to a ~2560x1440 screen size, as we did with our environment during the Kickstarter campaign.

We will likely downsample these to run at 1920x1080. With resolutions above "mere" Retina displays, we will zoom out, which should allow the backgrounds to scale into outer space (close enough, anyway).

Movement and Combat Feel - We've been working on implementing all of the basics of party selection, movement, and combat. This includes working on personal space, ally and enemy pathing, friendly "bumping" during movement, ranges of melee attacks, attack timing and delays, target selection, and response time. A lot of work goes into making these elements feel good and feel "IE-ish" (while excluding the IE-ish things we didn't like).

We’ve also been building block-in weapon meshes and putting them in the game to see how they look in terms of scale. This has gone well, but we're still working on proportions. Some thin weapons, like stilettos, rapiers, and estocs, can be very difficult to discern, especially at lower resolutions. Their thicker cousins, daggers, swords, and greatswords, need to be "beefed up" a small amount to help distinguish them. Even though we need to make a few slight adjustments, our overall approach of making weapons with realistic... ish proportions is working well and feels similar to the characters and weapons found in Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale.

Along with implementing the visuals of the weapons, we're experimenting with weapon statistics and mechanics. Weapons are currently classified as slashing, piercing, or crushing, which is a pretty common division of types. We're not currently using damage types vs. armor types in Project Eternity, but the damage types all have properties that suggest a certain type of usage.

Slashing weapons do the most damage when compared to their counterparts from other categories. E.g., if you compare a greatsword to an estoc to a maul, the greatsword does the most damage. When targets have little to no armor, slashing weapons are the ideal choice. Piercing weapons negate a fixed amount of Damage Threshold, which is the primary way in which armor reduces damage. Though they don't do as much damage as slashing or crushing weapons, their ability to ignore even moderately heavy armor means that it is superior to other weapons in those circumstances. While armor can negate a large amount of damage, there's always a small amount that gets through. Crushing weapons do much more through armor, which makes them the best choice when dealing with very heavily armored targets.

So far, this works well on paper, scales well, and seems to hold up in the game, but it is very "mathy" and not necessarily intuitive because you can't always guess a target's Damage Threshold simply by looking at them (as opposed to armor types, which are usually visually apparent). We will continue to experiment with this to see how it feels in the long run. Our goals are to provide tactical challenges to the player and give them to feedback and tools to adapt and overcome when they're in a difficult spot.

UI Design - Tim and I have been talking about our user interfaces recently. We want to make sure that we improve the functionality of the original designs without completely losing the feeling of those interfaces. One thing we want to avoid is making the UI too "minimalist". We don't want it to feel bloated, of course, but we also recognize that the IE games had "solid" interfaces. They looked like they were made of materials -- wood, stone, and metal -- and had substance to them. When you look at the interfaces for the IE games, they help immerse you in each setting. We'd like to do the same for Project Eternity.

Functionally, we're using Icewind Dale II as our starting point. We've been looking at inventory recently. Tim and I have designed a system that uses three types of gear storage: equipment, top of pack (this name may change!), and stash. Equipment is what your characters are currently using and have ready to use. This includes weapon sets that you can swap between during combat. "Top of pack" is a finite amount of gear that you can access outside of combat for a variety of purposes: replenishing consumables, checking out a shiny new sword you picked up a while back, etc. The top of pack cannot be accessed during combat, but is present as a strategic pool of items that you can access while exploring. The stash is where all of the "other stuff" goes: things you aren't using, items you want to sell, and various doo-dads you'll be looking at later.

When you find gear, you have the option of placing it wherever you'd like as long as there's room for it. You can use it immediately, put it in your top of pack, or just chuck it in the stash. Once an object is in the stash, you can access it at camps, your home, and similar locations. We've created this division of inventory space to add strategy to your gear loadout decisions instead of having a weight limit, while also allowing flexibility for backup equipment. Most importantly, it doesn't prevent you from doing what adventurers love to do most: loot everything they find that isn't bolted down.

Core Four Class Design and Advancement - We want our classes to feel familiar but flexible, so we've designed our "core four" (fighter, priest, rogue, wizard) to reflect traditional D&D roles and allow you to build outside of them. In our current design, each of the classes starts with two active use or modal abilities and one passive bonus.

Fighter

• Defender (Mode) - In the Defender mode, fighters' melee attack rates decrease while their melee defenses increase. This is a particularly useful mode to enter when a fighter is blocking a route of attack to protect other party members.
• Surge - This active ability allows fighters to rapidly regenerate Stamina for a short period of time.
• Melee Accuracy - Fighters have inherent skill with melee weapons that is reflected by a small accuracy bonus.

Priest

• 1st Level Priest Spells - Priests gain access to all 1st level priest spells. Priests can cast a fixed number of 1st level spells before they must rest to recover their uses. They can cast any combination of different spells up to the per-rest limit. As priests gain levels, their 1st level spells will eventually become per-encounter resources.
• Recovery - The Recovery ability regenerates a modest amount of Stamina for allies (including the priest, if in range) in a Medium-sized area at Short range.
• Sacred Circle - All allies standing within a Small area around the priest gain Accuracy bonus. This bonus does not include the priest unless there are no conscious allies in range, in which case it applies to the priest.

Rogue

• Escape - The rogue may hop a short distance away and all hostiles lose him or her as a direct target for 3 seconds. After the 3 seconds are up, enemies can target the rogue normally.
• Reversal - Reversal prepares the rogue for the next melee attack against him or her. When it hits, the rogue takes reduced damage and instantly rolls to the opposite side of the target and executes a powerful melee attack. This will even allow rogues to move past enemies that are fully blocking a path.
• Sneak Attack - This damage bonus applies whenever the rogue "flanks" an enemy or when the rogue is hidden from an enemy. Flanking means that the rogue is within a short distance of the target and on the "opposite" side of that enemy from an adjacent ally.

Wizard

• 1st Level Wizard Spells - Wizards can access all 1st level wizard spells immediately. Unlike other wizard spell levels, the wizard does not need to find scrolls or grimoires to use any 1st level spells. Wizards can cast a fixed number of 1st level spells before they must rest to recover their uses. They can cast any combination of different spells up to the per-rest limit. As wizards gain levels, their 1st level spells will eventually become per-encounter resources.
• Blast - When wizards use any implement (i.e. a wand, rod, or scepter), they generate a Blast on the target. The Blast does a modest amount of damage to all enemies in a Small area around the target (excluding the target).
• Familiar - All wizards can summon and dismiss familiars. Familiars are mobile "totems" for the wizard, providing defensive bonuses to allies near them and inflicting defensive penalties to enemies near them. Players can also access the master's spell list through the familiar, though casting a spell through the familiar still requires the master to physically cast it; it's simply targeted from the familiar. Familiars are weak and fragile. If a familiar is killed, the wizard takes damage and is unable to summon his or her familiar until he or she rests again.

As players advance their characters, they have the ability to choose class-specific abilities and more class-neutral talents (more like perks or feats) to customize their character capabilities. If you want to keep your fighters very low maintenance, there are a large number of passive fighter abilities and combat-oriented talents that you can buy. If you'd like to make a fighter that's much more "active-use" (more like a 4E fighter), you can choose to buy more modal and active abilities. Similarly, while all wizards gain additional spells, you can use talents to boost a wizard's damage with implement weapons and Blasts, making them more useful when you're not having them chain-cast a series of limited-use spells.

The same also applies to skills, which are used for a variety of non-combat purposes. All classes start out with bonuses in the skills that their classes most commonly use, but players can choose to reinforce or play against that top. If you want to make a paladin who delights in picking locks, you can do that and get a lot of utility out of the skill -- though the character will never be quite as good as a rogue who specializes in it.

We hope that these approaches use the strengths of a "role-ready" class system while allowing players a large amount of helpful flexibility in how they develop characters over a (hopefully) long and fruitful adventuring career.

That's all for this week, and this year! We'll be back in January with more details on what we're up to and where we're going in the months to come. Thanks for reading!

 

[Lancehead]

I'd have liked to know more about skills - how much overlap there is between skills available to different classes, or if all classes have access to the same set of skills. I wouldn't prefer the latter case considering the party size can be 6.

 

[felipepepe]

I always get the feel that he is talking about making a single PC game, not a 6 person party game...

 

[Jaesun]

Josh really loves Damage Threshhold. So we will have Slashing (good for unarmored) Piercing (for lightly armored) and Crushing (for heavy armored). Which makes me wonder, will we then have to have our fighters make sure they can use all 3 different types? Not sure what the fuck to make of this.

As wizards gain levels, their 1st level spells will eventually become per-encounter resources.

This I am OK with. It seems they are doing a kind of a balance between the spell memorization system (fuck I forget the name) and then it eventually becoming like cantrips where you can repeatedly cast them (and it is ONLY the level 1 spells). Thankfully it's not the retarded PEW PEW!! I SHOOTAN MAGIC! IMMA MAGE! Dragon Turd shit (at least initially).

Also the TYRANNY OF CHOICES in 3ed made me lul. I just wonder HOW far they will scale it back....

Still so far.... this seems to be progressing well and interesting. Also Josh seems to be getting a lot of grey in his hair...

 

[tuluse]

Ignoring 16:10

Wizards are actually sorcerers

DnD 3E had too many choices

No encounter-based spells at level 1

Doing something a little more interesting with weapon types

 

[felipepepe]

Which makes me wonder, will we then have to have our fighters make sure they can use all 3 different types? Not sure what the fuck to make of this.

Well, Josh just said there won't be weapon specializations... it seems like every fighter can just swap weapons for each encounter and that's it. Bad move IMHO, dumbs down the game, reduces the value of a well-biult party and makes metagaming more powerfull.

 

[Hormalakh]

where did he say weapon specialization is out? you got source?

 

[Jaesun]

Which makes me wonder, will we then have to have our fighters make sure they can use all 3 different types? Not sure what the fuck to make of this.

Well, Josh just said there won't be weapon specializations... it seems like every fighter can just swap weapons for each encounter and that's it. Bad move IMHO, dumbs down the game, reduces the value of a well-biult party and makes metagaming more powerfull.

Yeah because there were several instance (but not many) where you may have a few +1 magic longswords , but only one (or two) person specialized in it. But you might have a few more of them on hand (for emergencies, like say the Vampiric Wolves or the Flesh Golems in the High Hedge) but all the other fighter classes not specialized in them could use them but at a disadvantage. Though granted, finding magic weapons in BG was not too much of a problem (in case you needed one of a specific type others were specialized in or could use). BioWare threw them everywhere. r00fles!

Not sure what to think about this. I still need to know more and an example of a specific encounter. It *seems* to take a bit of the challenge aspect out, but I need to hear more.

 

[Captain Shrek]

Hmm.

I am a bit cautious.

This is a better report since there is NO mention of cooldowns, still per encounter is in x-( (except proabably Blast which reads as if on cooldown) . But sounds OK I guess.

The constant referral to DnD is jarring, it's as if having Tim Cain on board is just for show or something. Also, I hope it's not turning into MMO mechanics with Fighters as Tanks, Priests as Healer/support and Wizards/Rogues as nukers.

 

[Hormalakh]

Frankly, I feel like the systems already have a lot of Tim Cain in it: the mechanics are starting to look less like DnD and more like a home-grown. Obviously, still too early to tell.

 

[mediocrepoet]

The constant referral to DnD is jarring, it's as if having Tim Cain on board is just for show or something.

A whole lot of the fanbase for this sort of game are no doubt very familiar with D&D. For people who aren't familiar, Sawyer tried to give quick examples about the differences between the editions and then used those editions to quickly try and convey what their goals are for various targets. In this case, character build complexity. They're not just trying to slap D&D into their game without buying a license (and then find themselves getting sued), he's just trying to explain what they're aiming at in a way that is intelligible to the majority of the fans.

What would you rather he say to convey information about things that aren't developed enough for anyone to see yet still showing that they're working on it and starting to solidify the game's concepts?

Maybe: "We're working on a system that is going to have classes and levels like Phantasie, but it'll have modular build complexity. So you could make characters that don't need active management like a footsoldier in Warcraft 2 or you could make them as complex by having multiple active abilities like you can see high level Starcraft players using when they micro their units. Nothing will approach the complexity of my previous game Icewind Dale 2 which I did not want to mention here as I understand that many of you hate or are otherwise concerned about D&D which is why you are following and probably pledged for a game that is to emulate games that were based on either 2nd or 3rd edition (A)D&D. If you have not played the computer games I've mentioned - just understand that you can build a character to require moderate levels of clicking and choices or no clicking or deviation from the baseline class template."