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

[Lord Andre]

Excellence implies something either perfect or ground-breaking. They merely promised a BG2 clone. If they manage not to fuck that up, they're golden.

 

[Jestai]

Well, consider "excellence" means "a clone of BG2 level" then, which is something (a party based epic RPG-adventure) that no one has been able to do correctly for 13 years.
By the way, I'm pretty sure many backers are delusional about what BG2 is because they played it in their teens, 10years+ ago and it was great at the time. The comparison to the idealized model could be hard to handle.
Then again, they have everything in their hands to do it right. Let's have faith.

 

[groke]

We don't know whether they even plan to do such a thing until Project Eternity is released. Unlike inXile, Obsidian can find other tasks for its designers after pre-production is complete.

I would say that it might depend on the reception of Wasteland 2. If the game is a big hit, that would be motivation for Obsidian to hop on the Kickstarter bandwagon again.

Of course, I mean after the release of PE; I don't expect Obsidian to enter Fargo-mode any time soon. And, of course, we don't have any idea whether Kickstarter is going to succeed as a vehicle for game development at the moment (as an aside, does anyone know how FTL has sold since it's launch?).

HOWEVER! I've thrown aside my threadbare cowl of cynicism in light of this past year. After so many years of barely-tolerable trite shit (the only game I've been able to stomach to play more than halfway since 2003 is Knights of the Chalice. A goddamn decade of living on shit!) I can't bear to be anything but blindly optimistic about the whole thing.

It's like my entire childhood was spent being conditioned to link dopeamine release with words like "Krondor" or "Space Quest" or "Tim Cain" or "Ron Gilbert" and now my neural architecture is trying to murder me.

Excellence implies something either perfect or ground-breaking. They merely promised a BG2 clone. If they manage not to fuck that up, they're golden.

Ah, but it's a BG2 clone that's not being made by Bioware, which was really the biggest thing wrong with BG2.

 

[Dhralei]

Wonder what other game that Obisidan is working on that brought about this job listing since the wording doesn't sound like it's for P:E:

Obsidian Entertainment is looking for a talented and experienced UI artist to design the user experience for a next generation game.

http://www.obsidian.net/jobs/open-positions/art/629-ui-userexperience-art

 

[Zed]

PE is next-generation in spirit. ~~gamedesign, wooo~~

 

[DragoFireheart]

Where is my Fighter/Mage hybrid class?

 

[tuluse]

Where is my Fighter/Mage hybrid class?

Sawyer wants each class customizable, so the normal wizard class can use heavy armor and big swords if you invest in that.

 

[DragoFireheart]

Where is my Fighter/Mage hybrid class?

Sawyer wants each class customizable, so the normal wizard class can use heavy armor and big swords if you invest in that.

Good. I don't play aRPGs or cRPGs without ma Magic Knight class.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MagicKnight

 

[tuluse]

You mean like.... in D&D!!!

If you mean 3E, wizards couldn't cast spells in armor before that.

Also I don't think any special penalties to casting.

 

[Infinitron]

Your penalty to casting when wearing armor will be that casting is slower, just like all other actions.

 

[tuluse]

There are no "penalties" to casting in 3E with armour as well. Just a spell failure chance.

Why do you have to be like this Shrek?

 

[Lord Andre]

Now, now, core D&D has always made it almost impossible to pull off a true magic knight of the "arcane" variety. But the jews wanted to sell new add-on books after the core releases and to do that successfully they kept adding more and more broken stuff as incentive. This is why anything in the Tome of... series pisses over the core classes. And that's just the beginning.

 

[DragoFireheart]

Your penalty to casting when wearing armor will be that casting is slower, just like all other actions.

Then I'll compensate by casting only faster spells and leave the more time-consuming spells to my Wizard.

 

[Sensuki]

I don't think the next update will be about the Prototype. They might talk about it a few weeks from now. I think when the video was ready, we had a weeks's silence and then the update when they came back they said "we're going to be showing this in two weeks".

 

[AN4RCHID]

After PE, Obsidian has already comitted to making a full expansion not supported through Kickstarter funds. They are also calling it the "first" expansion, so I'm guessing they'll be cranking out a few in the year after PE's release. By that point they shouldn't really need Kickstarter funding to continue the series, as long as it isn't a flop. Of course that doesn't mean they won't still do it. I think it's safe to assume they won't pull an inXile and ask for more half way through PE's production, though.

 

[Blaine]

I think it's safe to assume they won't pull an inXile and ask for more half way through PE's production, though.

When did inXile do that?

 

[Rake]

I think it's safe to assume they won't pull an inXile and ask for more half way through PE's production, though.

When did inXile do that?

He meant pitching a game before the first one is shipped.

 

[Blaine]

He meant pitching a game before the first one is shipped.

That's my guess, too, but I'm waiting for him to confirm that that's what he's referring to before I write him off as a Captain Shrek-caliber imbecile.

Comparing the funding and development of a completely different game to the development of post-release expansions for a single game is disingenuous and stupid. Assigning negative connotations ("pull an inXile"; "ask for more") to T:ToN's crowdfunding campaign is equally stupid. T:ToN cannot be developed without a separate fund, and it's clear that inXile made the right decision starting the crowdfunding campaign when they did. T:ToN garnered more funding than any other crowdfunded game in history, with the exception of Star Citizen.

 

[Arkeus]

it's clear that inXile made the right decision starting the crowdfunding campaign when they did. T:ToN garnered more funding than any other crowdfunded game in history, with the exception of Star Citizen.

I mean, just think what would have happened if they had waited for people to judge what kind of work they are capable of. Clearly, they know better than to let the public get ahold of that information.

 

[Jestai]

Well, the public is paying anyway, so it's obviously a good move. Maybe people are gullible or whatever, but that's besides the point. It might be possible to argue about the ethics of this move but clearly not about its pertinence.

 

[Irenaeus]

If they at InXile do a kickstarter for another game next month with a pitch similar to W2 and TTON, I'll put again more than $100.

 

[Blaine]

I mean, just think what would have happened if they had waited for people to judge what kind of work they are capable of. Clearly, they know better than to let the public get ahold of that information.

This argument presupposes that Wasteland 2 will be a bad game and that inXile are aware that it will be a bad game, in which case even their first crowdfunding campaign could be viewed as fraudulent. Furthermore, any as yet unfinished computer game crowdfunding project could be accused of such malfeasance, no second game required. Your "argument" is little more than baseless, biased, intellectually lazy slander.

 

[Jaesun]

inXile wants to avoid doing Published games, and is doing so via Kickstarter. Obsidian is continuing to do Published games, and I would bet the PE was just them testing the waters on how viable that would be.

I don't think we will see another KS project from Obsidian for a while (or at all).

 

[tuluse]

inXile wants to avoid doing Published games, and is doing so via Kickstarter. Obsidian is continuing to do Published games, and I would bet the PE was just them testing the waters on how viable that would be.

I don't think we will see another KS project from Obsidian for a while (or at all).

Why not? I think always having a small "art" project on the side would be a nice selling point for hiring people.

Also money -10% is by far the most efficient way Obsidian will get money from their customers.

 

[Arkeus]

This argument presupposes that Wasteland 2 will be a bad game and that inXile are aware that it will be a bad game, in which case even their first crowdfunding campaign could be viewed as fraudulent.

Not Fraudulent, no. But fargo has been basing his marketing strength on Dreams. He is very good at selling those with telling only the minimum about his games and making a minimum numbers of updates on them. That's how he like to convince people, and he is GOOD at it.

It will be much harder for him to 'play to his strength', so to speak, once we have a game to judge him on.