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

[Jim the Dinosaur]

If that's the representation of Obsidian's audience, now I fear for the game.

Not all. He is sertainly one of the worst. He genuinly likes modern RPGs more than the old ones. I just don't understand why did he bothered with P:E in the first place and didn't wait for DA:I.

Seems like they're now busy discussing whether or not this game is the paragon of rpg-design.

 

[tuluse]

Is there any evidence that he actually contributed to the game or is he just trying to force his desires on others?

 

[Sensuki]

He showed up after the campaign I think

 

[Duraframe300]

If that's the representation of Obsidian's audience, now I fear for the game.

Not all. He is sertainly one of the worst. He genuinly likes modern RPGs more than the old ones. I just don't understand why did he bothered with P:E in the first place and didn't wait for DA:I.

Seems like they're now busy discussing whether or not this game is the paragon of rpg-design.

That discussion reassured my hatred of ExtraCredits.

 

[Rostere]

If that's the representation of Obsidian's audience, now I fear for the game.

He's not that representative, he's essentially one of the worst trolls in the PE subforum...

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.formspring.me/JESawyer/q/468894358070905795

Blaine Sound good?

 

[Sensuki]

 

[Roguey]

He gave that same answer months ago. Though doing it from the top-down is nice to hear.

 

[Rake]

 

[Syl]

This could be the start of a beautiful meme. Is there a web generator for this?

I used superlame.com. First one I tried and it did the job.

 

[Blaine]

Infinitron
Heard it months ago, doesn't jibe with "we don't want traps to be frustrating."

Still, that's only one talking point. It's good that they're designing normal difficulty first, then subsequently ramping it down to casual difficulty for the babbies and BioDrones.

 

[Grunker]

Heard it months ago, doesn't jibe with "we don't want traps to be frustrating."

Dude, I think you're putting way too much into this because you've heard AAA developers using 'frustrating' in a way that means "kiddie difficulty." What he means judging by what he's said on the issue is that the difficulty, also regarding traps, must be harsh but fair.

Incidentally, that's how I like my difficulty levels. Brutal, but never unfair. That way I know I only have myself to blame when I get assraped.

It's like the word "streamlining." Streamlining is actually a very good concept for video game systems - it basically means focusing the system on their end goals, making sure they're documented and that they don't have superflous elements or artifacts of older iterations. The only reason it is used as a negative on the Codex is that we're so used to hearing developers use it as an excuse for removing central elements of depth from systems, and that's not streamlining, that's dumbing down.

 

[Blaine]

Dude, I think you're putting way too much into this because you've heard AAA developers using 'frustrating' in a way that means "kiddie difficulty." What he means judging by what he's said on the issue is that the difficulty, also regarding traps, must be harsh but fair.

"Hard but fair" is certainly my gold standard for game difficulty, but just because the consequences are fair doesn't mean they won't be frustrating.

What do you think would be both a harsh and fair penalty for blundering into a trap? Categorically, "killed or maimed" would be a reasonable response. It's a trap, they aren't set to tickle their victims. All I'm saying is that I'll be somewhat miffed if the average trap in P:E ends up being a slight inconvenience when blundered into, shaving a bit off of Health and taking a fairly easily-recovered chunk off of Stamina. That'd be less punishing than the pushover traps in the old IE games. I'd like to at least see a nice chunk off the health bar.

 

[Grunker]

That'd be less punishing than the pushover traps in the old IE games.

Now I KNOW you've misunderstood something. In old IE games I just pressed my rest button after tanking any traps in my way. Fuck thieves man. Taking an actual chunk of an difficult-to-recover-resource that I can't just rest out of seems a much more impactful concept.

 

[Blaine]

Well, I viewed the rest option as a crutch and preferred to use it infrequently as possible, in the same manner one might avoid save-scumming. I'm starting to discover that a lot of people did use it as a crutch, judging by all the "you could just rest" responses.

 

[Infinitron]

Well, I viewed the rest option as a crutch and preferred to use it infrequently as possible, in the same manner one might avoid save-scumming. I'm starting to discover that a lot of people did use it as a crutch, judging by all the "you could just rest" responses.

But see, even if you did use it as infrequently as possible, you were still always able to use it to save your ass.

Stuck in the middle of a dungeon with no spells left and slivers of HP on all your characters? Phew, thank god for resting!

Just because you don't abuse a feature by using it all the time, doesn't mean that feature doesn't consistently save you from "frustration" during the most critical moments in the game. And those are the moments that really matter.

 

[Rake]

^ That. I used rest rarely, but even with this approach when it matters you use it. You always hear people say " i rested only when i had too". It's exactly not being able to rest when you "had to" that will push you to try a different tactic.

 

[Blaine]

Infinitron
That's completely beside the point here. Trap difficulty is the context. My point is that I wouldn't just plow through traps and then rest up, nor rest constantly in lieu of using up spells and consumables in order to stay topped up for every single fight (or in case I ran into traps, etc.).

 

[~RAGING BONER~]

i recall swarms of monsters attacking me anytime i rested in a dungeon.

i don't know what IE games you guys are playing...

 

[Blaine]

i recall swarms of monsters attacking me anytime i rested in a dungeon.

i don't know what IE games you guys are playing...

I don't either. I seem to recall that I tried not to rest at all in dungeons, and that I preferred to hoof it back to town instead if things were getting really hairy.

I GUESS I should install something and play through it again. It's been a long while....

 

[Infinitron]

Infinitron
That's completely beside the point here. Trap difficulty is the context. My point is that I wouldn't just plow through traps and then rest up, nor rest constantly in lieu of using up spells and consumables in order to stay topped up for every single fight (or in case I ran into traps, etc.).

As far as traps go I don't think it really matters since like I said they were such a trivial filler obstacle anyway.

I'm just saying, resting-at-will was a feature calculated to remove "frustration" - in this case, the frustration of being stuck halfway through a dungeon without enough health and resources to progress.

It looks like PE at least will force you to retreat to a rest area when this happens. I'm hoping they implement limited "rest resources" so you can't even do that as much as you want.

i recall swarms of monsters attacking me anytime i rested in a dungeon.

i don't know what IE games you guys are playing...

It would be great if that was 100% guaranteed to happen every single time you rested, but unfortunately it wasn't.

 

[Roguey]

i recall swarms of monsters attacking me anytime i rested in a dungeon.

i don't know what IE games you guys are playing...

It would be great if that was 100% guaranteed to happen every single time you rested, but unfortunately it wasn't.

It doesn't matter because you can always just backtrack to a safe area to rest.

Throne of Bhaal gave you a convenient pocket plane dimension for you to do so.

 

[DraQ]

That'd be less punishing than the pushover traps in the old IE games.

Now I KNOW you've misunderstood something. In old IE games I just pressed my rest button after tanking any traps in my way.

That's just bullshit.

I distinctly recall dualing Imoen somewhere around Candlekeep dungeons and discovering that my second thief isn't sufficiently good at trap removal and it ended up a nasty clusterfuck - you can't really tank resetting lightning bolt traps in narrow corridor. Sure you can globe your caster but most of your party will still end up as charred corpses.
And then HD failure nom'd my save .

 

[Infinitron]

It doesn't matter because you can always just backtrack to a safe area to rest.

Sure, but how is PE addressing this?

 

[Roguey]

It doesn't matter because you can always just backtrack to a safe area to rest.

Sure, but how is PE addressing this?

Beats me. Josh said he isn't going to lock you in because of the negative reaction he saw when Knights of the Chalice did it in several places.