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

[Grunker]

"Portfolios" for gods is huge derp and sickens me.

The actual concept of the deity was quite alright though, and less generic than I expected.

 

[Infinitron]

The "meat" of a six-member party-game is combat involving six party members. If I'm only playing that for 75% of the time, the first 25% feels completely like an expanded tutorial. I can't begin to describe how much I detest running around with half party-size waiting for the actual game to start.

I'd say that having 2-3 party members might feel like a tutorial, but 4-5 is okay, even though it's not the full six.

 

[Harg Harfardarssen]

In DnDesque games, sometimes I prefer the 4 member party. It raises the stakes on each slot - you can have one of each character archetype or you can mix it up, but choose which role you want to skimp on. With a 6 member party, it basically becomes a question of which spellcasting role(s) you double up on.

 

[tuluse]

Well soul magic will probably help with that.

 

[roshan]

Besides making the game easier to learn

That gives me the time to learn what each party member is best at and how they play without feeling overwhelmed at suddenly having to control 5-6 members at the same time.

I think this might be the real reason they're taking this approach, they know that modern RPG gamers aren't used to controlling whole parties (When was the last time we got full control? I think it might have been TOEE) and have therefore taken steps to dumb down the game, so that newbies are slowly eased into it.

 

[Rake]

But all the realworld pantheistic deities(that i know of) had portfolios. How you make a pantheon where the deities have no such thing?

 

[Roguey]

Well, you could gather up the full six man party in BG fairly quickly. Imoen, Xzar and Monty, Khalid and Jaheira at the Friendly Arm, and there you go.

I don't think it'll be quite as quick in Eternity.

This might be so but I doubt it'll take nearly as long as Torment did considering the much bigger focus on combat.

 

[roshan]

But all the realworld pantheistic deities(that i know of) had portfolios. How you make a pantheon where the deities have no such thing?

In a "pantheistic" system, all the gods are manifestations of one main deity, and the universe is also viewed as a manifestation of this deity. Hence, there are no "portfolios". Each god simply represents certain aspects or qualities of the universe that have been deified.

Polytheism is different though since the deities are separate entities (and it seems that Eternity will have a polytheistic pantheon, like DnD) but I don't know whether polytheist deities were stealing and claiming "portfolios" from each other???

 

[almondblight]

In Baldur's Gate the a party consisting of some variation of Imoen, Minsc, Dynaheir, Jaheira, Khalid, Xan or Montaron is with you inside of half an hour or so.

The "meat" of a six-member party-game is combat involving six party members. If I'm only playing that for 75% of the time, the first 25% feels completely like an expanded tutorial. I can't begin to describe how much I detest running around with half party-size waiting for the actual game to start.

I feel the same way about player abilities, but you usually don't get a full range of those until the last ~20% of the game or so.

 

[waywardOne]

"Portfolios" for gods is huge derp and sickens me.

Why?

Because it awkwardly and unnecessarily separates the person from the persona and turns being a god from a natural privelege into a fucking job. Ares wasn't a/the god of war because that's what his resume said; he was the god of war because that's what he fucking was. He was a god who liked combat, encouraged conflict, and was a martial badass. That some mortal could come along with similar characteristics and actually depose him and take his portfolio ("DEY TUUK ER JEBZ") is fucking ludicrous. Congratulations to Ed Greenwood for drawing a map, but that entire world and the systems he devised for it are sheer fucking stupidity.

 

[Cosmo]

That's really beside the point here : in FR PCs could become gods. In PE gods are conundrums, half beings, half symbols, whose motives seem impossible to grasp, and whose existence IS their so-called "portfolio" (call it what you will).

 

[Jaesun]

Yeah. I kind of want a bit more clarification on Gods in PE. I would *assume* George is avoiding the pitfalls in the D&D Portfolio system.

 

[Jaesun]

http://www.formspring.me/GZiets/q/4...ce=twitter&utm_campaign=shareanswer&_sg=&_sk=

anek5
Will there be a proper in-world explanation for why gods take on specific portfolios like being "the god of death"? How are such titles granted, and how do gods benefit from holding them? Why don't they simply do whatever they please with their power?

GZiets 7m
We’ve thought a lot about the nature and origins of the gods, but we don't plan to reveal their secrets for a while. You may discover some hints in the first game, though.

 

[Jasede]

I don't mind portfolios.

 

[Zeriel]

All the D&D speak in a game that isn't D&D kind of makes me despair. Oh well.

 

[Jasede]

Everyone knows D&D and tons of the people working at Obsidian (or any nerdy company or forum) grew up on it. It's something we're all intimately familiar with and for all its flaws it is something we can all relate to and instantly understand effortlessly.

Also say what you want, AD&D and 3.0/5 had some cool gods and lore books, especially on the Underdark races. The Underdark really saves Forgotten Realms.

Think of it this way:
Yeah, Latin is a better language than English. But English is more widely spoken so people use English terms for a lot of things and make their games in English, not Latin- because of how easily it can be distributed that way because almost everyone will understand the language of your game.

Similarly, everyone "understands" D&D.

 

[Zeriel]

Everyone knows D&D and tons of the people working at Obsidian (or any nerdy company or forum) grew up on it. It's something we're all intimately familiar with and for all its flaws it is something we can all relate to and instantly understand effortlessly.

Also say what you want, AD&D and 3.0/5 had some cool gods and lore books, especially on the Underdark races. The Underdark really saves Forgotten Realms.

Yes, but much of the love for D&D is built-up tolerance or nostalgia. Creating a completely new setting/ruleset, then using the exact same names of things from another strikes me as... cheesey? Annoying? I don't know, just not something I'm a fan of. Also, it kind of infringes on this whole line they're trying to sell that PE has a really unique setting, then they talk interchangeably about portfolios of gods as if we're going to find Woedica shitting a brick in the Abyss.

 

[Harold]

This might just be me doing wishful thinking, but from what they've revealed so far about meddling gods scheming against each other, I get the feeling they'll work in a similar way to the ones from Lord of Light, which is something that I think would please most codexers.

 

[Jasede]

You've a good point there, Zeriel. While I think I explained or speculate pretty well about why they do what they do I don't really like it either. If you're gonna make up a whole new setting and ruleset you might as well make up some unique terms, or work outside the box.

 

[Harold]

You two do realise that such terms as 'portfolio' , 'paladins' and 'protection from petrification' aren't native to d&d, right? Besides, they've said from day one that the game will be a mix of the familiar with a twist, the slightly unfamiliar and the completely bizzare. How else do you want Ferg to get his hands on those sweet Bioware-audience wallets?

 

[suejak]

Man, you guys think a lot harder about fantasy gods than I ever have. Be that as it may, I agree that they should have fleshed-out ideas for why the various gods do what they do, and why they're gods of their respective spheres.

Is this stuff thought through in D&D? I have no idea. Can somebody provide a good link or resource?

 

[Blaine]

Can somebody provide a good link or resource?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Dungeons_&_Dragons_deities

 

[suejak]

Can somebody provide a good link or resource?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Dungeons_&_Dragons_deities

That doesn't seem to provide any broad explanation for why the gods are partitioned out into different spheres. St Cuthbert knows I'm not gonna read all that shit.

 

[Blaine]

Divine spheres are thematic, and each sphere grants access to a selection of divine spells that fit its theme. The Healing sphere grants access to healing-related spells, as you'd expect, while the Sun sphere grants access to spells such as Sunlight and Sunbeam, useful versus undead. Spheres are apportioned to gods in a thematically appropriate manner—for example, the good sun god Pelor is associated with spheres such as Healing, Sun, Protection, and Light. Spheres aren't exclusive to any one god.

Priests must pray for their spells daily, and they may only choose divine spells from within their god's spheres (along with some "general purpose" divine spells, I believe; I haven't played D&D in over a decade).

 

[Grunker]

All the D&D speak in a game that isn't D&D kind of makes me despair. Oh well.

What baffles me is why they're not just using D&D when they copy almost all the functionality and all the terms from it.