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

[Excidium]

The impression I had is that the area PE is set was supposed to be the wild, unexplored new world or something like that.

So, Brazil is small then?

Uh I don't know what you mean. Is that area supposed to be about as big as Brazil? The map scale sure as hell doesn't indicate that.

 

[Infinitron]

The impression I had is that the area PE is set was supposed to be the wild, unexplored new world or something like that.

So, Brazil is small then?

Uh I don't know what you mean. Is that area supposed to be about as big as Brazil? The map scale sure as hell doesn't indicate that.

No, but you're implying that a "wild, unexplored new world" is somehow small by definition. Brazil was part of the RL "wild, unexplored new world".

 

[Surf Solar]

High resolution version of the map+ Interview

http://anonofholland.wordpress.com/2013/06/30/chris-avellone-interview/

Nice, thanks! Love looking at such maps, even though it looks a bit generic I like it. Wonder what's up with those islands in north west

 

[circ]

High resolution version of the map+ Interview

http://anonofholland.wordpress.com/2013/06/30/chris-avellone-interview/

Umh... It looks like Faerun.

 

[Arkeus]

Uh I don't know what you mean. Is that area supposed to be about as big as Brazil? The map scale sure as hell doesn't indicate that.

It's really hard to know the scale. It could be anything like a few hundreds miles to Europe-sized...

 

[Excidium]

The impression I had is that the area PE is set was supposed to be the wild, unexplored new world or something like that.

So, Brazil is small then?

Uh I don't know what you mean. Is that area supposed to be about as big as Brazil? The map scale sure as hell doesn't indicate that.

No, but you're implying that a "wild, unexplored new world" is somehow small by definition. Brazil was part of the RL "wild, unexplored new world".

I meant that it is really settled for its size. From the descriptions I expected something more wild, with mostly coastal towns that depend on overseas commerce and some incursions into the dangerous jungles full of savage demihumans on ancient elven ruins and shit. From the looks of it it seems every dungeon or deep jungle is just a few hours journey from a town.

 

[tuluse]

The impression I had is that the area PE is set was supposed to be the wild, unexplored new world or something like that.

So, Brazil is small then?

Uh I don't know what you mean. Is that area supposed to be about as big as Brazil? The map scale sure as hell doesn't indicate that.

No, but you're implying that a "wild, unexplored new world" is somehow small by definition. Brazil was part of the RL "wild, unexplored new world".

I meant that it is really settled for its size. From the descriptions I expected something more wild, with mostly coastal towns that depend on overseas commerce and some incursions into the dangerous jungles full of savage demihumans on ancient elven ruins and shit. From the looks of it it seems every dungeon or deep jungle is just a few hours journey from a town.

I think it's supposed to a continent, or most of a continent.

 

[Infinitron]

I meant that it is really settled for its size. From the descriptions I expected something more wild, with mostly coastal towns that depend on overseas commerce and some incursions into the dangerous jungles full of savage demihumans on ancient elven ruins and shit. From the looks of it it seems every dungeon or deep jungle is just a few hours journey from a town.

It's more "Age of Colonialism" than "Age of Exploration". The land has been settled, but the natives are still out there.

 

[coffeetable]

I meant that it is really settled for its size. From the descriptions I expected something more wild, with mostly coastal towns that depend on overseas commerce and some incursions into the dangerous jungles full of savage demihumans on ancient elven ruins and shit. From the looks of it it seems every dungeon or deep jungle is just a few hours journey from a town.

So when the low-res map showed up in the Rezzed talk, I asked on SA what the scale was meant to be. Apparently Road's End to Coldflow Lake (the lake just peeking in on the east) is ~roughly~ the width of the Iberian Peninsula. That's about 750km, so each grid square works out to be ~110km or 75 miles wide.

For a sense of distance: 75 miles (one square) is about 25 hours brisk walk on flat terrain. On wooded, uneven ground it's probably more like 40 hours, and through dense brush it's much, much higher. Horseback messengers could make about 150 miles (2 squares) along a road in two days, and caravels could make 0-3 squares/day depending on wind.

The Eir Glanfath forest is ~50,000 square miles, which is about the size of England. It's not the Wild West, but unless all those settlements are cities then it's not densely populated either.

 

[DraQ]

snip

That's pretty accurate description, however:

-there is this mod CK mentioned.
-even without it, you can still use journal to avoid searching all over the map by hand.

Then, after I know where to seek objective I go there and since my compass is modded out, I need to rely on natural orientation to minimize or eliminate switching between game and menus. It doesn't seem like much, but even such a minor inconvenience works wonders.

And then, modding out compass means you don't psychically know of every dungeon and place of interest within half mile radius.

I'm sure you can guess which camp I fall into.

My guess would be camp stupid, since you seem to assume that every player is a psychic who can read your mind to learn how hard or easy is each of the difficulty settings you've made and make perfect choice without any foreknowledge.

Like Dishonored where you can't even complete a quest if you don't turn the quest markers on for a second to see where the fuck is the specific spot on the map that you are supposed to dump a body at.

Wut.

There's an easy solution even to 'sperging though: You set these things before the game starts, and then they're locked in. That was actually my original suggestion, but I'm glad you gave me a laugh anyway.

How about making an additional lock setting - when activated would prevent toggling difficulty options in a game in progress.

 

[Hormalakh]

I sort of agree with excidium here. its a weird looking map.

Part of the problem is that the icons used for settlement, city, big city, village, etc are all these huge house looking icons and that throws me off. The castles are big castles I guess? I'm not sure. Then there's the black and white colored icons. Not sure what that means too.

 

[Zed]

Nice, thanks! Love looking at such maps, even though it looks a bit generic I like it. Wonder what's up with those islands in north west

DLC adventure locations?

BG had a couple of islands outside the coast for the expansion. Balduran's Isle (or whatever) and the frozen wizard isle.

 

[Arkeus]

Snip Scale

Interesting Scale. So it's actually pretty damn big. If that's the case, some of the labels are a bit weird- the Lake of drowned tombs, for example, should rightfully be a Sea. Likewise, a lot of the 'tags' denote really small stuff, stuff that should not really be in that big a map.

 

[coffeetable]

Snip Scale

Interesting Scale. So it's actually pretty damn big. If that's the case, some of the labels are a bit weird- the Lake of drowned tombs, for example, should rightfully be a Sea. Likewise, a lot of the 'tags' denote really small stuff, stuff that should not really be in that big a map.

I dunno. Drowned Tombs is about 1200 square miles, which is a fraction of any of these. As to the scale of the settlements - what appears on a map is what's important to the user (in this case an adventurer!). If Maiden Falls is the only settlement in fifty miles, it should be on the ma even if it's only ten people and a cow. I do agree though that it'd be nice if there were different icons for settlements of different size.

For people worried it's not "empty" enough, here's a map of all the fortified towns in medieval England (which, again, is ~roughly~the size of the forest):

(in fact a map square on this thing is roughly the same as a map square on the PE map, as they're both about ~1 degree of lat/long on an Earthlike planet)

 

[Excidium]

stuff

I see. That map's scale is really warped then.

 

[Flacracker]

You know what I think about the map? I don't. Stop giving fucks about it.

 

[Delterius]

You know what I think about the map? I don't. Stop giving fucks about it.

Welcome to page 749 of a pre-production game.

 

[coffeetable]

You know what I think about the map? I don't. Stop giving fucks about it.

yeah guys don't discuss $game in $game's thread

 

[Aeschylus]

You know what I think about the map? I don't. Stop giving fucks about it.

Then why are you posting on a forum specifically about giving fucks about the minutiae of RPGs?

 

[coffeetable]

stuff

I see. That map's scale is really warped then.

I think the problem is that we see forest and our minds jump to the temperate environments where humans thrive. Thing is, in fantasy realms, forest isn't a friendly environment. The ubiquitous monsters mean it's more like a desert or a tundra, where converting the terrain to farmland is a massive fucking pain and wondering too far from a settlement will get you killed.

Mentally substitute the terrain in the map for say North Africa and the settlement distribution seems a lot more reasonable: well-inhabited along the coast, couple of lil' places at various oasises, and a couple of strongholds holding out against the odds.

 

[Arkeus]

Mentally substitute the terrain in the map for say North Africa and the settlement distribution seems a lot more reasonable: well-inhabited along the coast, couple of lil' places at various oasises, and a couple of strongholds holding out against the odds.

Brazil might have been an adequate comparison too.

 

[coffeetable]

Mentally substitute the terrain in the map for say North Africa and the settlement distribution seems a lot more reasonable: well-inhabited along the coast, couple of lil' places at various oasises, and a couple of strongholds holding out against the odds.

Brazil might have been an adequate comparison too.

Good point, yeah that's better.

 

[AN4RCHID]

I sort of agree with excidium here. its a weird looking map.

Part of the problem is that the icons used for settlement, city, big city, village, etc are all these huge house looking icons and that throws me off. The castles are big castles I guess? I'm not sure. Then there's the black and white colored icons. Not sure what that means too.

I speculated in the news thread that the 'filled in' icons are discovered/visited areas. What's wrong with the house icons? I assume the castle are military forts and/or big, fortified cities.

 

[~RAGING BONER~]

I like the map, wish they'd give us a key though...those houses and towers and castles are kind of confusing. Defiance bay is one of the 2 huge cities we'll be able to visit in the game yet it is represented by a small house?

 

[Hormalakh]

what ~RAGING BONER~ said. the icons are confusing and it's missing a legend. i kind of liked the style of the first map they had shown us. this one looks like the map dora the explorer would use.

one more thing. the forests of england during the middle ages weren't much safer either. animals and all sorts of dangers could kill those settlers too. they also didn't have the ~power of souls and magic~ to help them either. just mundane RL injury, sickness, and death.