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

[J_C]

Roby Atadero on Unity

While Unreal and Cryengine have cheaper short term subscription plans, they come with added stipulations including a royalty rate for Unreal. Cryengine's cheap plan also only supports Windows as of right now. Unity seemed to have everything we needed all in one package (a good toolset, no need for external third party software for animation/audio/ui/etc, and support for Win/Mac/Linux).

That all being said, the work and time required to port the existing code base to one of those engines would be more trouble than it is worth. We've learned a lot about Unity and developing with it over the project so any new project going forward would have a lot less headaches to have to figure out in the technical department which usually end up slowing down development.

Any sequel would mean the existing engine would not only get a some new features but, a lot of existing systems would be improved to allow better workflow and for more/better content to exist since they don't have to be rebuilt from scratch.

As for the character art, like Adam said, there are a lot of models and pieces that needed to be generated for all of the item/armor pieces you can wear. Character creation and Inventory paper dolls were not added until around the middle of the project either so it was not known early on how detailed character art would need to be since the majority of the time is spent looking that them from a far away top down camera.

It's safe to say any sequel would use Unity again.

This. ^ I don't get the whining about Unity from a lot of people. That is just an engine, you can make very nice things it if you have the time and resources. I don't mind if they stick to Unity and improve it.

 

[Zed]

Character creation and Inventory paper dolls were not added until around the middle of the project either so it was not known early on how detailed character art would need to be since the majority of the time is spent looking that them from a far away top down camera.

whoever made that call has no aesthetic sensibilities.

This. ^ I don't get the whining about Unity from a lot of people. That is just an engine, you can make very nice things it if you have the time and resources. I don't mind if they stick to Unity and improve it.

It's an inefficient resource hog.

 

[J_C]

It's an inefficient resource hog.

Well according to Rob Atadero, it is still a better option than others.

 

[Zed]

It's an inefficient resource hog.

Well according to Rob Atadero, it is still a better option than others.

For Obsidian – no doubt. It's relatively very cheap, and it obviously supports the kind of game they're making.

For creating the best game possible – no.

 

[Grotesque]

I've made an old school solid UI mock-up for PoE after being inspired by the other mock-up shown here.

Uh, there are only 6 spots for spell/ability icons here. Some classes in this game will have faceless to 60+ spells at a time. How are you all going to fit them there?

I thought the wizard will have the "busiest" spell/ability UO of all clases because of the grimoire/spells need to be shown so I chose this class to depict in the mockup.
I admit I forgot about the quick item slots. There are 6 quick item slots in the inventory interface but 2 "are greyed out" Why is that?

How many spells wizard will have available for each tier at maximum level? I thought wizard has just 4 slots for each tier from I to VIII.

"There are a wide array of Abilities in Pillars of Eternity, and no character will be able to choose them all."

How many abilities/talents (not spells) a character can have that show in the UI?

I like the overall look of the UI, but there are too much wasted space there. I'd make the side and buttom bars slicker.

Before I'll attempt a redesign to increase the view area I want to know how many slots (spell/talent etc) a maximum leveled character would have in use in the interface.
But I know near to nothing regarding game mechanics

 

[J_C]

Sensuki Do you see the possibility to mod a UI like this into the game?

 

[Roguey]

That developer was Jeff Husges

This, along with the game balance Dead State shipped with, is all the proof I need that Brian Mitsoda was in fact the guy who didn't know how to pre-buff in Icewind Dale.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

Sensuki Do you see the possibility to mod a UI like this into the game?

It's doable right and wouldn't take more than a few hours.

The problem with this particular UI is that it's
1) space inefficient (makes me think of really old Grimoire-like games where you've got a small rendering window and it's like looking through a peephole)
2) doesn't take into account the fact that casters can have much more spells and they wouldn't fit the predefined frame
3) the log would look ridiculous if resized vertically to accommodate a curious player

If somebody made a decent UI, I would've probably implemented it just for fun when I was still very active with the modding. Nobody did, though. There was a thread on obsidian forum where a few people made photoshop mockups of solid UI and then congratulated each other, patting each other on the back and whatnot, but all their UIs were just as bad and unusable as this one.

If somebody comes up with a cool UI, I might take some time off my own shit and just mod it in anyway. But I'm not counting on it.

 

[Grotesque]

 

[Sensuki]

Lament Cadegund.

 

[polo]

While i love the 'punch' in BG:SoA main theme, i really dig the PoE one. Different styles, both really good, i've just listened to it at work with my headphones and i gave me a really good feel, relaxing but kind of epic nonetheless.

SoA was more like, "OK WHOS NEXT BITCHES!?"

 

[polo]

Sensuki Do you see the possibility to mod a UI like this into the game?

It's doable right and wouldn't take more than a few hours.

The problem with this particular UI is that it's
1) space inefficient (makes me think of really old Grimoire-like games where you've got a small rendering window and it's like looking through a peephole)
2) doesn't take into account the fact that casters can have much more spells and they wouldn't fit the predefined frame
3) the log would look ridiculous if resized vertically to accommodate a curious player

If somebody made a decent UI, I would've probably implemented it just for fun when I was still very active with the modding. Nobody did, though. There was a thread on obsidian forum where a few people made photoshop mockups of solid UI and then congratulated each other, patting each other on the back and whatnot, but all their UIs were just as bad and unusable as this one.

If somebody comes up with a cool UI, I might take some time off my own shit and just mod it in anyway. But I'm not counting on it.

Have some faith bro!
Altho i actually don't care about the PoE UI, i dig the IE ones.

 

[Zed]

2012?

 

[veevoir]

Spoiler

Is it "remember all the awesome promised party members they've cut day" already?

Cadegund wasn't even cut, she just went LGBTBBQ and became some kind of deranged homeless man.

 

[Infinitron]

That image was fan art FYI

 

[veevoir]

The original (tm) KS pitch Cadegund wasn't fanart though.

 

[Athelas]

Why are people still butthurt over Cadegund? Incidentally, that fan art looks more like a Joan of Arc ripoff than anything else.

I thought the wizard will have the "busiest" spell/ability UO of all clases because of the grimoire/spells need to be shown so I chose this class to depict in the mockup.
I admit I forgot about the quick item slots. There are 6 quick item slots in the inventory interface but 2 "are greyed out" Why is that?

How many spells wizard will have available for each tier at maximum level? I thought wizard has just 4 slots for each tier from I to VIII.

The druid and cleric have access to their spells at all times (like a sorcerer), which is like a dozen...per spell level. The current UI works by making those spells appear when you hover over the number of the spell level (I, II, etc.).

Character creation and Inventory paper dolls were not added until around the middle of the project either so it was not known early on how detailed character art would need to be since the majority of the time is spent looking that them from a far away top down camera.

whoever made that call has no aesthetic sensibilities.

You have no idea of how game development actually works, do you?

 

[Bleed the Man]

Fuck Cadegund, Durance is way sexier, and he doesn't need boob plate armor to seduce me:

That deranged look is pure love

 

[Rostere]

What fits better in a gang of murder hobos than an actual murder hobo?

 

[Sensuki]

Obsidian might be doing a hotfix for the Attribute bugs, according to Adam Brennecke via PM (I asked if I could put the changes into a mod, he said nah they're gonna patch it).

 

[Hiisi]

The problem with the theme isn't the lack of "epic" or loudness, in my dumb opinion, as much as it is that the music has no recognizable theme or even soundscape. It just fiddles around and goes nowhere, and the arrangement isn't as rich as the Infinity games either. It's like fantasy music for the sake of having fantasy music rather than expressing an idea through it (which is kind of how the whole of Eternity looks to me). By comparison, Torment in particular had a wonderful, distinctive leitmotif thing running throughout it that contributed a lot to the mood and even the characterization.

Still, the song from the teaser with the Obsidian choir had a more colourful arrangement, so maybe the main theme is a bit austere on purpose and some of the soundtrack will be livelier.

 

[Sensuki]

Justin Bell doesn't seem to like driving forward melodies or Percussion. One of the things that the IE game music includes in most tracks is a strong foreground melody.

 

[Infinitron]

rather than expressing an idea through it (which is kind of how the whole of Eternity looks to me)

Yeeeeeeees, the final frontier of anti-PoE angst is here: people who will think Baldur's Gate had better writing as well.

 

[Hiisi]

Yeeeeeeees, the final frontier of anti-PoE angst is here: people who will think Baldur's Gate had better writing as well.

Yeah, we haven't seen much of the villain or the main conflict or anything yet so it's pretty unfair to compare that.

 

[Sensuki]

I have