Pillars of Eternity Beta Discussion [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[aeonsim]

So the late arrival of full Plate makes sense to me, if you read a bit about armour it seems brigandine armour while offering a similar but slightly lesser degree of protection to Full plate was simpler to make and considerably cheaper. It appears it could be made by many smiths and due to it's nature could be maintained by it's owner with out requiring specialist care. Full plate however seems to have been a lot more expensive, often custom built and if damaged you had to get a specialist to repair it, so only the richest professional soldiers or nobles could afford it. As such it seems logical that you won't find it until later in the game, once you get out of the country side and start mixing with the nobility and Knights who can afford to have it made for them.

Secondly if you can only find normal full plate while all other armours are fine, then just enchant it your self, the enchanting system is designed to allow that.

With regards to enchanting I think that Fine increases all DR's by the same amount, so Fine gives +2 DR to all elemental and normal damage types. You can then boost the DR for a single specific damage type by using one of the Proofing enchantments (Burn proof, Slash proof, Shock proof, ... ).

I asked last week if we could get a bunch of gems and enchantment components added to the BB char's inventory, so we could experiment with enchantment abit more in the beta and JS responded positively so there is a reasonable chance we'll be able to test this out more in the near future.

From Twitter:

aeonsim ‏@eonsim Jan 22
@jesawyer In 1 of the PoE Beta builds can u add enchantment materials into one of the BB chars inventories? Want 2 test it @Obsidian

Josh Sawyer ‏@jesawyer Jan 22
@eonsim @Obsidian i will see what i can do. that shouldn't be difficult.

 

[Sensuki]

Well if you use the IE mod you can summon any item you like, which is what I intend to do when I test Crafting and Enchanting before release.

 

[aeonsim]

Well if you use the IE mod you can summon any item you like, which is what I intend to do when I test Crafting and Enchanting before release.

Yeah that works as well, once you've worked out the names for all the components you should stick them in a google doc's spread sheet and post the link so others can have a go as well.

 

[ushas]

Attack yourself with some damage types to see which is the correct number.

Tried two damage types, crushing and slashing. According to the combat log, it's:

Normal Padder Armor: Crush 5.0 DR, Slash 4.0 DR
Fine Padder Armor: Crush 7.0 DR, Slash 6.0 DR
Exceptional Padder Armor: Crush 9.0 DR, Slash 8.0 DR

So If we believe the combat log, the character screen info is the right one. Against the crushing weapon, the crush DR subtype of the armor is applied. And against the slashing one, it's the general DR moddifier.

Am I correct to assume that the general DR is applied to all damages types, except to the special subtypes listed in the armor description, which are used instead (in that special case)?

System is going to upgrade right now. So I don't know when will be possible to check other stuff, if needed. Although so far, It runs fine on linux under the current version of wine.

On a side note: All this decimal numbers, thinking whether we can mod hats to give 0.1DR protection.

 

[Athelas]

Helmets should reduce the crit range while giving a penalty to accuracy.

 

[Starwars]

BAdler mentioned on the official forums that the next BB will come next week.

 

[Zanzoken]

I think the armor mechanics in PE are pretty damn clever -- creating a trade off between action speed and protection increases strategic depth and makes all types of armor viable, which IMO are very good things.

So I guess I'm not sure why they would choose to withhold plate until later in the game or balance it separately from the other armor types. Why is it not enough for plate to offer the most defense at the cost of the most speed? Why does it need additional drawbacks like cost and rarity?

 

[Starwars]

Few posts from Josh on SA:

If you want to dive into the lower levels of Od Nua with a 3rd level party to grab a suit of unique armor, be my guest, but it will probably be rough going.

We don't use leveled lists.

On finding exceptional armor in the backer beta:

Those dudes should never have been equipped with Exceptional gear and have been re-equipped. You can get to Dyrford at 4th level (which is appropriate for both Fine armor and standard plate), but you may get there much later/at a higher level.

On cookbook and computer specs:

Tim finished his recipes a long time ago, I wrote lore for each recipe about a month or two later, but the whole thing has been wrapped up for a while.

Min/rec specs should be coming soonish. We're doing a lot of heavy optimization (mostly memory) right now.

On clothing:

I also recently added the armor component to standard clothing, which has 0 DR and no Recovery penalty, so if you want to enchant an Ixamitl/Dyrwoodan/Vailian outfit with Fine/Exceptional/Superb, the various Proofing mods, or Attribute bonuses, you can.

 

[Grunker]

We don't use leveled lists.

 

[tuluse]

I think the armor mechanics in PE are pretty damn clever -- creating a trade off between action speed and protection increases strategic depth and makes all types of armor viable, which IMO are very good things.

So I guess I'm not sure why they would choose to withhold plate until later in the game or balance it separately from the other armor types. Why is it not enough for plate to offer the most defense at the cost of the most speed? Why does it need additional drawbacks like cost and rarity?

Think of it this way. There is no tier one plate armor. It starts at tier 2.

Which I think should almost mean it's highest tier is higher than the other armor's highest. Sometimes it's nice to have a straight upgrade.

 

[Hormalakh]

Full closed plate suits should render the player immune to shock as they act as a Farraday's cage.

I brought this up with Sawyer many many months ago when I first learned about plate armor. He brushed it off.

Also, while "technically" this is true, it doesn't necessarily have to be true. Google it.

 

[aeonsim]

Full closed plate suits should render the player immune to shock as they act as a Farraday's cage.

I brought this up with Sawyer many many months ago when I first learned about plate armor. He brushed it off.

Also, while "technically" this is true, it doesn't necessarily have to be true. Google it.

Doesn't that depend on how it's grounded and secondly how the current jumps from piece to piece and the quality of the metal in armour. If the current doesn't flow cleanly and evenly over/through the armour you could get some rather nasty effects (like blowing a fuse). Not to mention resistance heating and possible spot welds between different parts of the armour.

I suspect if the armour manages to carry the current away from the body the person wearing it would still end up with some nasty burns, possible spot wields where different parts of the armour touch or rub against each other as well as significant damage to the armour from the heat and spot wields.

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

I suspect if the armour manages to carry the current away from the body the person wearing it would still end up with some nasty burns, possible spot wields where different parts of the armour touch or rub against each other as well as significant damage to the armour from the heat and spot wields.

How about a layer of adra for insulation? Sure, it would grow over time, but a distinguished knight would have servants to keep it well tended.

 

[Sensuki]

Yeah that works as well, once you've worked out the names for all the components you should stick them in a google doc's spread sheet and post the link so others can have a go as well.

No need, they have externalized item files, so all of them are in the game folder.

So If we believe the combat log, the character screen info is the right one..

Yeah I'd believe the combat log. If the item descriptions are off - those are bugs, I'd report them if I were you.

 

[Sensuki]

As a QA, you'd think he'd be one of the main guys who'd routinely go through full playthroughs, no? Or have they not been doing that at all?

This question was answered on the Obsidian forums today

We just started running our full progression playthroughs, which we completed our first one successfully a few days ago.

Internally, each QA tester will be doing full progression runs. Personally, I'm too busy to be able to section off time to sit down and do a full progression. I've ran the quests and done the Crit Path, but not all at once.

Also new update next week apparently

Hey, everyone. No update this week.

We have been in the middle of doing some build deliveries to Paradox so our team focus was on delivering those builds. I spoke with Adam and we both agreed that we want to get a beta out (on all three platforms) early next week.

On the plus side, we have been doing lots of optimizations over this past week. Memory usage should be significantly lower when we give the beta to you guys.

 

[leferd]

As a QA, you'd think he'd be one of the main guys who'd routinely go through full playthroughs, no? Or have they not been doing that at all?

This question was answered on the Obsidian forums today

We just started running our full progression playthroughs, which we completed our first one successfully a few days ago.

Internally, each QA tester will be doing full progression runs. Personally, I'm too busy to be able to section off time to sit down and do a full progression. I've ran the quests and done the Crit Path, but not all at once.

Wonder how much additional QA support Paradox is providing. Obsidian has only what, 3 or 4 testers + Matt Sheets, right? At this point they'll need to open up the playthroughs with more warm bodies.

 

[Sensuki]

I think Paradox QA is handling localization QA.

 

[Kem0sabe]

I think Paradox QA is handling localization QA.

Knowing Paradox, they are already working on the DLC Q&A.

 

[accismus]

Doesn't that depend on how it's grounded and secondly how the current jumps from piece to piece and the quality of the metal in armour. If the current doesn't flow cleanly and evenly over/through the armour you could get some rather nasty effects (like blowing a fuse). Not to mention resistance heating and possible spot welds between different parts of the armour.

I suspect if the armour manages to carry the current away from the body the person wearing it would still end up with some nasty burns, possible spot wields where different parts of the armour touch or rub against each other as well as significant damage to the armour from the heat and spot wields.

As Hormalakh said, this was discussed on the Obsidian forums ages ago. I mentioned the burns and arcing across joints, but even if it doesn't act as a perfect Faraday cage, it should reduce damage taken (burns vs electrocution) and not increase it. But Josh Sawyer cannot into Physics and plate is weak to shock instead.

edit: I guess the improved accuracy produced by casting a shock spell at a lightning rod should offset the damage resistance, but making it weak? That's lazy.

 

[Sensuki]

We can mod it to be different

 

[accismus]

We can mod it to be different

We'll leave the maths to you then. I'm lazy too

 

[Jim the Dinosaur]

These rules don't just apply to yourself tho. Making all metal armors weak against shock tells the player that it's smart to use shock attacks against metal wearing (or metalic) enemies. Asking the player to do a double take with each enemy whether or not the metal functions as a faraday cage and thus negates the weakness is just plain silly.

 

[Roguey]

As Hormalakh said, this was discussed on the Obsidian forums ages ago. I mentioned the burns and arcing across joints, but even if it doesn't act as a perfect Faraday cage, it should reduce damage taken (burns vs electrocution) and not increase it. But Josh Sawyer cannot into Physics and plate is weak to shock instead.

edit: I guess the improved accuracy produced by casting a shock spell at a lightning rod should offset the damage resistance, but making it weak? That's lazy.

Josh is perfectly willing to sacrifice realism for the sake of fun/balance, this is nothing new.

 

[Ellef]

I think any reasonable developer should sacrifice simulation for playability outside of..well simulation games.

 

[Athelas]

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