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

[tuluse]

Sheryl is the main writer for Isabela in Dragon Age II

incline eternity

 

[Jarpie]

..Anddd the numbers are going up again.

 

[Infinitron]

Watch this space:

 

[TheEntitledOne]

Well, the numbers are always going up. This will be a nice experiment to see how much good updates improve Kickstarter performance.

http://ruinedkingdoms.com/project-eternity/

More than 10.000$ in the last hour, and that hour only includes a fraction of the time since the announcement was done.

 

[oldmanpaco]

Good. Vancian magic doesn't work for the amount of filler encounters that a computer RPG has to fluff itself with to get to XX hours.

Without vancian magic you end up with a bunch of underpowered sorcerers. It takes all strategic planning out of a magic system and turns it into a purely tactical one. Some people like it but I always thought it was lazy design. It also leads to crappy spell progression where you upgrade your spells as opposed to getting new spells. And hello mana pool! I suppose this was expected when they talked about the soul thing.

Of course I’m just speculating as nothing official has been announced.

Anyway I'm just bitter because I really like IE magic combat but I know many people don't.

 

[evdk]

Ok, beta here I come. Now excuse me as I go to find some bowl suitable for begging.

 

[Jaesun]

Yeah I'm already in at the BETA access pledge level. Looking forward to playing this. <3

 

[suejak]

Sheryl is the main writer for Isabela in Dragon Age II

incline eternity

lol, i didn't realize how invasive and pervasive those romance things are. Kinda overpowering.

 

[J_C]

Am I correct in assuming that the beta will be on Steam only?

Well Double Fine said that they will do their beta through Steam, so that's a possibility.

 

[FeelTheRads]

I'm not sure if a memorization system will be a focus.

Jeez fuck, Feargus probably has PR talk in his blood now. What the fuck does it mean that it's not a focus? It's either in or not. Not a focus... typical PR bullshit meant to keep the sheeple confused.

 

[maverick]

And now with beta acccess, obsidian gets a free Q&A/Testing department

 

[J_C]

Anyway I'm just bitter because I really like IE magic combat but I know many people don't.

I also liked it very much. (No homo)

 

[evdk]

And now with beta acccess, obsidian gets a free Q&A/Testing department

Yes, the Codex will be marvelous in that regard.

"I would like to notify you of a bug - there seem to be gay people in your game"

 

[Jarpie]

Sheryl is the main writer for Isabela in Dragon Age II

incline eternity

My brain is melting! My brain is melting!

 

[udm]

DRM Free Option

You asked and we are delivering. In conjunction with GOG, we are going to offer a DRM free version of the game for our Kickstarter Backers. When the campaign ends, you will be able to choose whether you would like a key from GOG or Steam. For our Mac friends, we are still working on a DRM free option, since GOG does not currently support the Mac. Oh, and the great guys at GOG are having a special right now on all of the great Infinity Engine games, so check that out as well.

New for our Collector's Edition Box Level ($140)

Lastly we want to announce that we are going to give our backers at the Collector’s Edition Box Level ($140) a little extra today and that is Beta access to the game! That’s just a little taste of what we will be adding into tiers in the coming days and weeks through stretch goals and the occasional random act.

My pledge just jumped by $120.

 

[Weierstraß]

Why would you want a more detailed world when you can have more romances? Obsidian's on a limited budget here, they have to prioritize.

 

[Weierstraß]

I'm not sure if a memorization system will be a focus.

Jeez fuck, Feargus probably has PR talk in his blood now. What the fuck does it mean that it's not a focus? It's either in or not. Not a focus... typical PR bullshit meant to keep the sheeple confused.

Well, you could create some kind of hybrid system where it's in, but not the focus. They won't, probably, but it's not an impossible thing to do.

 

[TheEntitledOne]

Slavery...

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/60359-slavery/

Let me play as a serial rapist and give me a pink haired slave: I will pledge 10000 $.

 

[tuluse]

I'm not sure if a memorization system will be a focus.

Jeez fuck, Feargus probably has PR talk in his blood now. What the fuck does it mean that it's not a focus? It's either in or not. Not a focus... typical PR bullshit meant to keep the sheeple confused.

Well, you could create some kind of hybrid system where it's in, but not the focus. They won't, probably, but it's not an impossible thing to do.

I think it would actually be pretty cool if with lower level spells, eventually you go to the point where they were easy as breathing and you could spam magic missile all day if you wanted to.

 

[Infinitron]

Josh Sawyer reiterates that he is in favor of respeccing: http://forums.somethingawful.com/sh...erid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=87#post407710157

 

[Jasede]

There's good reasons for why D&D used to handle it this way. Paradoxically to what you may expect, infinite uses of low level spells would be down-right brokenly powerful in those systems. Level 1-2 tend to have extremely useful spells that scale amazingly or have other useful properties. If you had infinite Chromatic Orb you could spam it until someone rolls a 1. If you had infinite Magic Missile you have a simple way to bypass almost all forms of DR. With infinite Mirror Image you'd never die. And then there's all the brokenly useful utility spells- infinite Grease would mean nobody ever escapes or gets close to you, for instance.

Anyway, if it's not Vancian my excitement is considerably less.
And respecs are the devil in a game like this. Why play it again when I can do everything in one go? Where's the "roleplaying" in "I'm a Fighter! Herp, I'm an awesome mage now! A locked door? Better go to the respec trainer and move my bluff skills into open lock."

And yeah I know about PS:T.

 

[tuluse]

That's a good point about DnD spells, but they are creating a new system from scratch and could avoid these problems. They could balance it so that unlimited numbers of low levels spells are not a problem. Maybe a hybrid mana-pool/memorization system. Like you can set so many spells that use the mana pool, and so many that don't, but you only get one casting of them. The high level spells would have prohibative mana costs (maybe even more than the your entire mana pool), so you would not want to put them in the mana pool slots.

I'm just spit balling here, but I think with enough thought, one could get such a system to work.

As for your problem with infinite magic missiles, I don't see that as a problem. Once you're a high enough level, you should have multiple ways to bypass damage reduction anyways.

 

[J_C]

And yeah I know about PS:T.

Then why so butthurt? PST showed that respeccing can be implemented well. And what do I care if a poor soul buys a respec book? I won't, that's what matters.

But Josh talked about companion respecs in that link. Now THAT is fucked up. Respeccing your character is acceptable for me (even though I never do it), but your companions, ha a backstory, they have a class. You just don't change that.

 

[Gozma]

He wasn't specifically talking about the PC, he was talking about making the follower people into whatever class skill tree spec etc which I personally usually mod in with games that don't do it by default.

Also Vancian is less stupid than mana bars and/or cooldowns, but it is still kinda stupid. But this is one of those things that I don't ever really love any implementation of to be honest, magic is hard to mechanize for some strange reason ???

 

[Jaesun]

The sheer thought of re-specing MAKES MY BLOOD BOIL IN PURE FUCKING RAGE! But... if there are limits (say you can only re-spec the last level you gained) or something similar I's be OK with that. But if it is OMG palyed a figher LOL now gonna play a mage LOL type of re-specing that would be fucking retarded. Even Sawyer is not that stupid.

So I'll wait and see a clarification of this. Also being in favor of something does NOT mean it is currently in the design doc.