KickStarter Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pre-Release Thread [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

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Dev Diary #1 - Meet The Companions
In our first retrospective update we're giving you the opportunity to get a closer look at ten of the companions, who will join you on your quest to conquer the Stolen Lands. They are:
Valerie, the Brevic fighter
Ekundayo, the grim ranger
Jubilost Narthropple, a humble servant to no one
Octavia, the gleeful half-elf with a talent for magic and sleight of hand
Regongar, the meanest magus on this side of the Inner Sea
Amiri, the iconic barbarian
Harrim, the brooding cleric of Groetus
Tristian, favorite of the Everlight
Linzi, your personal chronicler
Nok-Nok, the goblin companion, who started out as a stretchgoal

Insanely unappealing companions. Congratulations.

Duh. Guess I'll be soloing the game, as this sounds like a bunch of angsty teenagers.

 

[Bocian]

-Custom Companions (like in Pillars of Eternity) are being implemented. They will be introduced by a Pathfinder Society Venture Captain.

Does it mean those recruitable companions you can create yourself?

 

[aweigh]

i drink gamer gurl pee ery day

 

[SophosTheWise]

I fucking love that the devs are apparently going full PC/SJW. It's definitely along my lines of ideology plus I love to see you virgin nazis pissed off because of strong "females". For that reason alone I'm not pissed that the game got pushed back a bit. If it fucks alt-righters up, I'm all for it. Huzzah. Revolution!

 

[Sykar]

i drink gamer gurl pee ery day

 

[jungl]

Yeah, and it was actually the wrong one

http://www.dlsite.com/ecchi-eng/work/=/product_id/RE211777.html

this is much closer to what he was talking about

Spoiler

I do very unsavory things for a living this is nothing to me

Im thinking more of game where you manage a band of lovable retards. Not straight up hentai maybe something like bastard bonds. Could have a plenty of sexual themes but they not exactly swinging straight or gay instead bestial and barbaric. The loyal gnoll scout of the group is obsessed and you have to fight off his sexual advances. There would be lot of infighting all the time since everyone is evil and of low intelligence. Game would be mostly comedic and poke fun of C&C stuff in CRPGS. Where you have to make the moral choice of allowing your giant bros throw rocks at someone or cook them slowly alive in a goblins stew. The goblin in your group will have way more dialogue options with joke wisdom checks granting xp and good aligment shifts why its good to cook them then stone them. This would be a jab at players that always look for the best and good guy solution options in rpgs.

 

[jf8350143]

Hey, I just noticed the game's "Imperial Edition" includes a season pass for three DLCs.



Copying Obsidian here too?

In the Kickstarter comments, BerserkerKitten says:

"Imperial Edition" includes a season pass for “ first three packages of post-release downloadable content"

So if there is a fourth one you have to pay some extra for that. Tricky bastard.

 

[Tigranes]

Completely ignoring any and all DLC / season passes, and just playing the base game, is always the best way. The more you care about possibly missing out on a sliver of content elsewhere, the more unhappy you become.

Anyway, I forgot about this one. Exciting! On companions, whatever, when's the last time we had an RPG with a cast of well written companions? MOTB?

 

[Shilandra]

Completely ignoring any and all DLC / season passes, and just playing the base game, is always the best way. The more you care about possibly missing out on a sliver of content elsewhere, the more unhappy you become.

Anyway, I forgot about this one. Exciting! On companions, whatever, when's the last time we had an RPG with a cast of well written companions? MOTB?

Plus why look forward to DLCs for these types of games when epic level campaigns are a thing of the past? There's really no point to even playing them if they dont let you get to level 30 and start slinging lightning bolts of divine judgement.

 

[Shadenuat]

On companions, whatever, when's the last time we had an RPG with a cast of well written companions? MOTB?

Seriously though it's not even about good or bad writing, it's about the worse sin there is: companions just look BOOOOORIIINH

 

[Cael]

Hmmm the grim ranger will be the first one to enjoy a hammer to the head. The ork and the barbarian look like ignorable. The knight chick looks fuckable,would ignore her drivel as long as she opens her legs and let me drill that ass of hers.

It has 100% to do with the characters shown on the last page. There are some twats trying to conflate it with every female character ever made, but the main gripe is about how retarded the characters are and you aren't really given a choice in whether you get to keep them in the party or not, especially when the only mage it seems you are getting is a gimped ork with the stereotypical "woe is me, I have such a terrible childhood, feel my angst at a 1000 paces!"

Oh, and the other one is the "woe is me! I am so beautiful that men combust but it is suuuuuch a BURDEN! No one takes me seriously because I am toooooo beautiful! Woe! Woe! Woe! Feel MY angst at 10,000 paces!"

Every game have unlikeable characters to different people,for all we know they could be well written. I do believe that people are over sensitive this days,don't get me wrong i will be first to throw shit at a sjw retardation,but here we are talking about some basic descriptions. Some of them could be well written and interesting.

As for the fuckable woman,well what do you expect it is a woman?! Do you want her to have man's character or something? Women do like to bitch about trivial things.

The problem is not that we have women swinging swords, as the fucktard SJW shitheads here would want us to think. It is the fact they are all angst ridden.

I don't think anyone would have a problem with a barbarian woman who was trained in swinging axes like the rest of her tribe and has a loving family but who decided to go out into the world to earn fame and fortune. Or a half-orc like Daelen Red Tiger, who had problems growing up, but is out there trying to earn respect, honour and fame without rancour and in fact is bit of a mommy's boy (even though his mother is dead).

What people have problems with are the obvious Mary Sues, the angsty "woe is me" shits that keep cropping up in modern RPGs thanks to the millenial shits believing that crap. It is an extension of the millenial mentality that they are owed everything and when things don't turn out the way they want, they spit the dummy and go on a raging rampage of "revenge". That is what annoys the hell out of well-adjusted, mature individuals who happen to like CRPG as a form of entertainment, not as a commentary on millenial "I wants".

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

well-adjusted, mature individuals who happen to like CRPG as a form of entertainment".

I harbor strong doubts about the existence of such a creature.

 

[Cael]

well-adjusted, mature individuals who happen to like CRPG as a form of entertainment".

I harbor strong doubts about the existence of such a creature.

Then you doubt well-adjusted, mature people like to watch movies, which is also story-driven entertainment. Or read books. Or a myriad of activities that engender escapism.

 

[jf8350143]

Writers(not even game writers, TV show and movie as well) and tons of people considering "angst" as "deep", that's why people tend to write these kind of characters.

 

[Cael]

Writers(not even game writers, TV show and movie as well) and tons of people considering "angst" as "deep", that's why people tend to write these kind of characters.

There is nothing "deep" about one-dimension characters who as defined by their homosexuality, their race or the like. That is just offense taking taken to an absurd level.

For once, I'd like to see a well-adjusted half-orc character who has definite goals, able to work with people amicably, and not hiding behind racism as an excuse for his sociopathy. Oh wait. I just described Dealan Red Tiger, didn't I?

How about a lesbian mage who only shows her homosexuality when she comes to the party with a girl on her arm and make all the boys envious when they dance? No preaching about tolerance and how oppressed she is. Oh wait... Willow and Tara.

Damn... It is as if modern writers are too fucking inept to follow what has come and been established before. Well, I guess they are cheap. Pay peanuts, get monkeys.

 

[santino27]

Writers(not even game writers, TV show and movie as well) and tons of people considering "angst" as "deep", that's why people tend to write these kind of characters.

There is nothing "deep" about one-dimension characters who as defined by their homosexuality, their race or the like. That is just offense taking taken to an absurd level.

For once, I'd like to see a well-adjusted half-orc character who has definite goals, able to work with people amicably, and not hiding behind racism as an excuse for his sociopathy. Oh wait. I just described Dealan Red Tiger, didn't I?

How about a lesbian mage who only shows her homosexuality when she comes to the party with a girl on her arm and make all the boys envious when they dance? No preaching about tolerance and how oppressed she is. Oh wait... Willow and Tara.

Damn... It is as if modern writers are too fucking inept to follow what has come and been established before. Well, I guess they are cheap. Pay peanuts, get monkeys.

I actually mostly agree with you (on this, if not the warrior women debate), but if you want a well-adjusted, non-angsty, adult companion, you might get someone like Sagani from POE... who many people on the Codex thought was dull. Meanwhile, "bitch whore of a god" Durance and "oh god I killed them babies" Grieving Mother are cited as amazing. A lot of people, even Codexians, like angst. Couple that with writers incapable of writing angst as anything but eternal man-children and woman-children with daddy issues, and you get the typical NPC offerings.

 

[HoboForEternity]

I always think sagani is great. A pretty good female companion with alot of mundane personality, yet realistic logically and in the context of her world and future.

She is very relatable, and her life most of the time mundane, and tasked to do an extraordinary thing for her people and mainly her family.

 

[Reapa]

seriously? another PoE?

 

[Trashos]

My rule of thumb is that whenever there is no female healer, the writers are all gay immediately suspect. Can be the sexy nurse, can be motherly care, can be whatever, what normal man doesn't like a woman treating his wounds?

OK, OK, about the angst thing, there are 3 things here. One is what each companion is about, second is the execution on the ideas, and third is how all the companion themes work together. The execution is up in the air (and who doubts the possibility that MCA can blow out minds with any character he writes?), but the rest of it sounds like they drank a big fat cup of Tumblr.

 

[ArchAngel]

I am also afraid these companions are going to be NWN1/2 level of boring.
I only care for bg type companions or motb/kotor2 ones, everything in between is bad.

 

[Infinitron]

So if there is a fourth one you have to pay some extra for that. Tricky bastard.

They're copying PoE2 with that too: http://www.rpgcodex.net/article.php?id=10818

But as with PoE2, it seems very unlikely that there will be more than three DLCs.

 

[Urthor]

The release date is absolutely awful for the game financially. They hsould delay the game to January or later, the AAA orgasm in the second half of the year is going to steal all of the sales.

 

[Shadenuat]

What people have problems with are the obvious Mary Sues, the angsty "woe is me" shits that keep cropping up in modern RPGs thanks to the millenial shits believing that crap. It is an extension of the millenial mentality that they are owed everything and when things don't turn out the way they want, they spit the dummy and go on a raging rampage of "revenge".

Millenials have little to do with it, or may have nothing to do with it

Let me explain.

When I was DMing in teh internetz, including forum games and chat games, I had to go through hundreds of player biographies. And I can easily tell you that this:

Due to her flawless, almost supernatural beauty, Valerie has been at the center of everyone's attention, even when she was still a child. Born into a noble Brevic family, the young girl soon became a shining star of high society. She quickly had to learn to resist the unwanted advances of her admirers, using cold arrogance and impeccable, distant manners as an impenetrable shield

sort of thing I had to turn down every day. She has flawless, supernatural beauty, she was a star of society, but she used her impeccable manners to distant herself from that terrible fate,

until she just said fuck it and went adventuring even.

or

Regongar had a rough start in life. A childhood and youth spent in the Technic League’s captivity has left a permanent mark, forever changing the half-orc. But while Octavia believes that his suffering has destroyed almost everything good in Regongar, he thinks otherwise. In the crucible of servitude the magus* steeled himself for future challenges, forged his iron will and deadly proficiencies which made the free Regongar a living nightmare for the Technic League and its agents.

He is a suffering person who suffered much but turned so badass.

Do you see where something is wrong here?
Because I can tell you what is wrong here.

This has nothing to do with millenials, or your tumblr, or anita sarkesian. As I said, I had to turn down these sort of characters or ask players to rework them to add some, you know,
FLAWS
into their personalities. And believe me, 13 year olds are not the only who roll characters like this. Far from it.

It's just well, a very "meh" roleplaying ability. Some players change and become better and roleplaying and their characters become more interesting. While some can forever write biographies with SAME TYPOS FOR TEN YEARS "раса" пишется с одной "с" сукаблд and even have fun characters. And some players just write, you now.... like examples above. And don't even change.

Add to this the obvious fact that game developers quote themselves instead quoting anything better and we have an extra layer of problems which already pile up over our beloved recycling bin of fantasy genre.

Of course characters might end up ok in the game, I don't know that (although honestly I don't believe that many of them would, because my gut tells me this and through experience it usually ends up correct); I am just reacting to what we get for now, nothing more.

 

[ArchAngel]

Well my experience with p&p is such that most DMs don't want to bother with complicated stories or player characters so players learn to not make those.
I had plenty of more complicated characters rejected by DMs and then asked to make one of these common ones.

 

[Shadenuat]

Were you one of those who written half drow half werewolf half vampire girls with white hair with black stripes who were also bisexual and had 6 pages of biography? cause we need to have a talk.


btw, race is one of another interesting things about making characters. Naturally you can battle half drow werewolves by simply introducing a set amount of races to pick from (at which point, everyone would pick half elves by the way, because they are like humans, but elves but have no flaws and are HALF, and HALF everything is awesome and playing an elf is too difficult and nobody wants to like actually think about how you play a 100 yo elf (plus they're OLD) ).
But someone would always bitch that he/she can't make a character with such harsh restrictions. Eventually he/she will pick a half elf of course anyway.... but a point is,

the problem of basing character on a gimmick like a race has same roots as basing whole character around say sexuality. It's an inherently primitive character building (but which exists everywhere as any primitive roleplaying) so when they try to sell you character on a fact that hesomgsogay, know that 40 yo lonely woman making him probably has same writing qualities as that player who made a half vampire half drow. People in general, most of them, are not GRRMartins and simply have no skill to create a lasting impression on character in just a few sentences, so they go for what easily stands out and looks memorable to them.