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

[imweasel]

They gathered over $4 million, over 400% of what they originally proposed. Delays are to be expected because of the additional features they are implementing into the game. I personally don't expect the game to be released until Q3/Q4 2014.

Anyway, they are probably working on a gameplay demo and probably won't show it until it is nearly perfect in order build up some hype. Which is smart, avoiding the wrath of the extremely finical codex is generally also a good idea.

 

[SophosTheWise]

They gathered over $4 million, over 400% of what they originally proposed. Delays are to be expected because of the additional features they are implementing into the game. I personally don't expect the game to be released until Q3/Q4 2014.

I think so too. Also they are barely done with the prototype after a year. How are they going to build a huge world with two major cities in just half a year?

 

[J_C]

They gathered over $4 million, over 400% of what they originally proposed. Delays are to be expected because of the additional features they are implementing into the game. I personally don't expect the game to be released until Q3/Q4 2014.

I think so too. Also they are barely done with the prototype after a year. How are they going to build a huge world with two major cities in just half a year?

As I see it, building a prototybe with all the mechanics is the most time consuming to do. You have to make and program the ruleset, modify the engine for your own needs, after that, making content is the "easier" and faster part of development.

I think they will finish it around Q3 next year.

 

[Arkeus]

I also believe they have already begun making maps a long time ago, as that's another of those "very time consuming" things.

 

[coffeetable]

wasteland 2 is (afaik) still on schedule for a 2013 release, which would give it a <20 month development cycle, up from an original 18 month cycle. if pe has slipped/expanded in the same way, it'll be out july 2014, which lines up with the "summer 2014" that's been bandied about

 

[Ramireza]

wasteland 2 is (afaik) still on schedule for a 2013 release, which would give it a <20 month development cycle, up from an original 18 month cycle. if pe has slipped/expanded in the same way, it'll be out july 2014, which lines up with the "summer 2014" that's been bandied about

Wasteland 2 will not be released this year, you can count on this. I think W2 will be on our Harddisks about april/may 2014.

 

[Infinitron]

wasteland 2 is (afaik) still on schedule for a 2013 release, which would give it a <20 month development cycle, up from an original 18 month cycle. if pe has slipped/expanded in the same way, it'll be out july 2014, which lines up with the "summer 2014" that's been bandied about

This is the source of "Summer 2014": http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...rviewed-about-project-eternity-by-vgbr.83793/

 

[Dorateen]

How are they going to build a huge world with two major cities in just half a year?

Cut story and companion development content and make this a full-on Icewind Dale dungeon crawler.

 

[coffeetable]

They gathered over $4 million, over 400% of what they originally proposed. Delays are to be expected because of the additional features they are implementing into the game. I personally don't expect the game to be released until Q3/Q4 2014.

I think so too. Also they are barely done with the prototype after a year. How are they going to build a huge world with two major cities in just half a year?

the prototypes and vertical slice are very serial processes. iterate, evaluate, repeat. once you've established the pipelines and framework though, you can massively expand your team and do everything else in parallel

 

[Arkeus]

More recent comment on the date:
https://twitter.com/Obsidian/status/376099799386161152

More recent still

It is worth remembering for all KS projects that KS campaigns cannot change their projected ship date on the KS page once the campaign launches, no matter how stretch goals and increased funding may change the actual scope.

 

[SophosTheWise]

How are they going to build a huge world with two major cities in just half a year?

Cut story and companion development content and make this a full-on Icewind Dale dungeon crawler.

I sincerely hope they don't do that.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

How are they going to build a huge world with two major cities in just half a year?

Cut story and companion development content and make this a full-on Icewind Dale dungeon crawler.

I sincerely hope they don't do that.

Same.

Obsidian's best games have been their story focused ones - KOTOR 2, MotB, Fallout: New Vegas. Games with strong stories and character interaction with the game world are what I want to play. The IWD games were pretty but boring.

 

[Rake]

How are they going to build a huge world with two major cities in just half a year?

Cut story and companion development content and make this a full-on Icewind Dale dungeon crawler.

I sincerely hope they don't do that.

Same.

Obsidian's best games have been their story focused ones - KOTOR 2, MotB, Fallout: New Vegas. Games with strong stories and character interaction with the game world are what I want to play. The IWD games were pretty but boring.

I wouldn't say boring, but i agrre with that. Obsidian should focus on narrative.
I know some of you guys are starved for a Gold-Box like game, but do you seriously consider Obsidian the best fit for that role?

 

[Infinitron]

You're replying to Dorateen, guys.

 

[Rake]

You're replying to Dorateen, guys.

I know. I was just curious. Do these "oldschool" dungeon crawler fans even like Obsidian's games and would they want a game of that style from them? In my mind they should be the most critical of Obsidian in general.

 

[Infinitron]

You're replying to Dorateen, guys.

I know. I was just curious. Do these "oldschool" dungeon crawler fans even like Obsidian's games and would they want a game of that style from them? In my mind they should be the most critical of Obsidian in general.

Well, Obsidian showed they still care about the dungeon crawler crowd when they made Storm of Zehir. And of course the lead designer of PE is Mr. Icewind Dale himself.

 

[tuluse]

Same.

Obsidian's best games have been their story focused ones - KOTOR 2, MotB, Fallout: New Vegas. Games with strong stories and character interaction with the game world are what I want to play. The IWD games were pretty but boring.

All of Obsidian's games are story focused. I would say New Vegas is less story focused that almost all of Obsidian's other games. Only SOZ is less so.

 

[Delterius]

Well, Dungeon siege is not exactly what I call story focused. Neither is NWN2 OC "Story focused" unless this term has some bizarre definition.

In Obsidianite, 'story focused' may just mean 'the story is what might redeem it'. Though I suppose that actually applies to redeemable games, like MoTB.

 

[tuluse]

Well, Dungeon siege is not exactly what I call story focused. Neither is NWN2 OC "Story focused" unless this term has some bizarre definition.

Linear games where you can't do anything but follow along with the story. Seems like it's a "focus" of the games to me.

 

[Grunker]

You're replying to Dorateen, guys.

I know. I was just curious. Do these "oldschool" dungeon crawler fans even like Obsidian's games

If you haven't noticed, the Codex "thing" as of late is lamenting that so few dogs are cats. I.e. a bunch of people want every game to cater to them specifically, and if a game doesn't fit their subjective preferences the game "sucks."

This is strong above all with the dungeon crawl crowd. Mondblut once told me you couldn't debate objective quality at all, i.e. relativism at its most extreme, i.e. "I want cats not dogs" is the only topic of debate one can ever have.

 

[Delterius]

I.e. a bunch of people want every game to cater to them specifically

As of late?

Though the combatfags, the storyfags and many other fags were once united against a vaguely defined Decline; The power structure has now shifted. The Eternal Battle for what is an RPG is now fought with many others and, though apparently very optmistic about the future, Codexia may now face a new kind of Civil War. One were every participant accuses each other of being Biodrone refugees.

 

[Roguey]

I know some of you guys are starved for a Gold-Box like game, but do you seriously consider Obsidian the best fit for that role?

Josh Sawyer is the best fit for that role.

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/50362-isnt-it-ironic/page-3#entry876211

Honestly, I think it's really sad that RPGs essentially get a pass on having fundamentally junk core gameplay. And yes, I do consider combat to be a core gameplay element of most RPGs. Even in Fallout, combat was one of the core elements.

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/53034-fonv/page-8#entry970284

That is the logical conclusion: give the players fun things to do for as long as they are fun. When an ordinarily enjoyable mechanic becomes an irritating rote exercise in endurance simply because the leveling system was designed with grinding in mind, that's pretty bad game design. It's intolerable in "non-RPGs" but somehow accepted in RPGs because RPG gamers have an amazing tolerance for terrible mechanics.

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/50814-long-rant-on-rpgs-and-comments-on-obsidian/#entry890293

As a company, I believe our biggest weaknesses have been the following:

* Games that are not fundamentally fun. That is, their core mechanics are not quickly enjoyable or do not have lasting value at a variety of difficulty levels.
* Characters that are not visually appealing. This doesn't mean characters that are attractive, but certainly that's part of it.
* Poor overall production values, polish, and stability. Not much to say here.

 

[Infinitron]

RPG gamers

For shame, Josh.

 

[SophosTheWise]

It's intolerable in "non-RPGs" but somehow accepted in RPGs because RPG gamers have an amazing tolerance for terrible mechanics.

That is incredibly true. Maybe because somehow RPGs are the most difficult genre to create, the hardest discipline to master. In German we call that Kür, I have no idea how to translate that. But somehow a good RPG is almost impossible, or at least it's almost impossible for any developer to excel at it.

That's what made me hopeful when Obsidian announced PE. Engaging combat like in IE, a sense of grand adventure like in BG and an involving and well-written story like in PS:T. But I guess that chance is out of the window. So it still stays impossible imo.

Besides, I think good fantasy storys are probably the rarest thing in existence. I basically hate almost every piece of fantasy "literature".

 

[imweasel]

I know some of you guys are starved for a Gold-Box like game, but do you seriously consider Obsidian the best fit for that role?

Josh Sawyer is the best fit for that role.

Well, in your world Sawyer can do anything and everything perfectly.