Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

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

Sensuki

Arcane
Joined
Oct 26, 2012
Messages
9,878
Location
New North Korea
Codex 2014 Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong A Beautifully Desolate Campaign
I agree that many of the UI/UX decisions made in this game have been not great. The stuff that is good is the stuff they kept the same as the Infinity Engine games. There have been some minor improvements to controls, but generally most other things have been handled fairly poorly.

Kaz had to design the UI, and Kaz is an Artist, not a UI/UX Designer. He had to do both UI/UX design, Concept Art, All UI art, portraits ... all sorts of shit.

A lot of the design shortfalls are also likely because of time restraints - Josh does all design (I think Tim just helps work out how to handle stuff), but he also writes a companion, manages the project and he's the main media person for the game. I also believe he contributed to the music side (lyrics, perhaps singing?).

So while there certainly have been some poor decisions or things not given enough thought, there are reasonable explanations as to why.
 

Athelas

Arcane
Joined
Jun 24, 2013
Messages
4,502
EDIT: By the way, we were discussing the interface on a whole and how the two games compare. You provided the comparison pictures where one actually shows a bit of interface (BG2) and the other does not (PoE). I never made any arguments against PoE armor or any such thing.
Since apparently you can't remember what you posted a few hours ago:
Also a lot of the assets are laughable. Character models, armors, interface icons, etc. This is probably what will be re-used if anything. "Hooray."
Anyway, since you have completely missed the point of my initial comment, let me recap this discussion:

You: 'PoE 2 will be shit because of the shitty character models.'
Me: 'How so? BG 2 hardly sucked because of its paperdolls.'
You: 'Nah, BG2's paperdolls are great. You have shit taste.' *spends the rest of the discussion avoiding any actual debate about BG2's paperdolls*

This time, let me be the inquisitive one. What are some of the things you think it does well (that no other RPG do)?
You will probably disagree but here's an example: try disabling a trap or picking a lock in PoE with the entire party selected and compare the process to any other RPG (with the entire party selected).
 

Sensuki

Arcane
Joined
Oct 26, 2012
Messages
9,878
Location
New North Korea
Codex 2014 Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong A Beautifully Desolate Campaign
On the contrary I think the armor modelling is very good. Not every model, sure - but lots of them look waaaaaaaaaaay better than I expected. A lot of the female armor proportions still need work though imo ;)
 

Lord Andre

Arcane
Joined
Apr 11, 2011
Messages
3,716
Location
Gypsystan
For those in the know: When you transition from main outside map to small interior and then back, will the game load each one every time and as separate levels like Aurora did ? Or will it be like BG2 where small interiors don't count as separate levels and transitioning in and out of one happens instantly ?
 

ushas

Savant
Joined
Jan 5, 2015
Messages
550
I think it's every time. But the loading of smaller interior is faster then the exterior area.
 
Joined
Nov 19, 2009
Messages
3,144
Which I guess means that baddies won't follow you into houses/different floors like they did in the BG's, right? I always loved that and really missed it in the Fallouts, at least in terms of floors (even though there different floors aren't different maps either; shame devs didn't take the time to implement chasing enemies).
 
Last edited:

Athelas

Arcane
Joined
Jun 24, 2013
Messages
4,502
They can open doors though.

In the context of variety, of course, which was what I was writing about. Variety of character models.
PoE's non-NPC player character models look just as varied as BG2's, if not more so. That doesn't necessarily mean they look good.

"I cannot comment on armor variety in PoE as I have not played the full game."
Semantics. You can't conclude something is 'laughably bad' if you have only seen a small portion of the whole.

When I mentioned armor in my first posts, I did so as a criticism for assets to be re-used. By that, I mean the fidelity and art style of PoE armor not being impressive. (If you want an example, I think chainmail looks like someone chromed a fishnet).
Like I said before, art style is subjective (although it's near-unanimous that BG2 was a step down from BG1 in that respect), fidelity isn't, and PoE is clearly superior in that regard. Out of curiosity, what 3d games do you think have good armor design?

Discuss points and quote me directly.
I did for about half a dozen posts. I can't help it you continuously change the subject or shrug off any argument presented to you.

Does every character attempt the action?
The character with the highest skill automatically performs the action. It saves quite a few clicks.
 
Last edited:

ushas

Savant
Joined
Jan 5, 2015
Messages
550
In BBv392 i went outside after being attacked by guys in Trygil's curriery and when coming back, they were friendly again. Definitely didn't follow. Now in BBv435, I think, you cannot change area during combat...
 

ushas

Savant
Joined
Jan 5, 2015
Messages
550
Some chasing can be still done as part of the story. And you can put them into the cellar;)
 

Athelas

Arcane
Joined
Jun 24, 2013
Messages
4,502
You can't, I'm talking about the doors within an area (i.e. rooms of an inn) that don't have to load a new area.
 

Infinitron

I post news
Patron
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
100,283
Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is. Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
They can open doors though.

Now in BBv435, I think, you cannot change area during combat...

Huh, which of these is true?

Athelas probably means internal doorways, not doorways that exit areas.

Personally I doubt the ability to exit areas during combat will return. Expect to see a lot of these last minute corner cuttings in Kickstarter games. Too many bugs, not enough time or return on investment for fixing them.

Maybe in the expansion pack/sequel!
 

Athelas

Arcane
Joined
Jun 24, 2013
Messages
4,502
You'd be amazed at how many games there are in which the simple ability to open a door is beyond the enemy's capability.
 
Joined
Nov 19, 2009
Messages
3,144
Personally I doubt the ability to exit areas during combat will return. Expect to see a lot of these last minute corner cuttings in Kickstarter games. Too many bugs, not enough time or return on investment for fixing them.

Maybe in the expansion pack/sequel!

Weren't people saying that this was an inherent flaw of the Unity engine? I mean, I guess they could let you leave the area while remembering hostile flags, but that'd lead to exploits where you duck into a house to heal up, doubt Sawyer would like that ;)
 
Vatnik
Joined
Sep 28, 2014
Messages
12,473
Location
USSR
Yesterday while telling a friend of mine how PoE turned out, I ended up having this idea of how Obsidians should've made the kickstarter pitch video that would've been way better than theirs.

The camera fades in from back as we see Sawyer repairing a bike, he goes: "Hello everyone and welcome to Pillars of Eternity Kickstarter. I hated the shit out of Baldur's Gates because it had no balance and the mages were OP, and generally speaking all IE gamas had it wrong and I'm the genius that will fix all the problems that made BG a shitty game. So I'm really well suited to make an IE spiritual successor game, guys, let's do this..!"

Anthony Davis enters the room: "Hey backers, I never really liked Baldur's Gate cause it had some animation that confused me and the game rules were too difficult to understand, so yeah, that game sucked :D I'm really looking forward to working on Pillars, the spiritual successor to IE games!"

Then we get a whole Obsidian office shot from the ceiling and there are guys yelling "HELLO KICKSTARTER :D WE NEVER PLAYED ANY OF THE IE GAMES, OR ANY PRE-2008 GAMES, SO WE CAN REALLY MAKE THIS HAPPEN, TRUST US ;) *THUMBS UP*"

Then comes in Feargus: "Hello Kickstarter. We have a shitload of games in production, so we'll be pulling people from the Pillars team to other games where we'd be fined by the publisher if we didn't meet the deadlines, so POE will probably come out bugged as fuck, but yeah, that's how we manage things around here! We really appreciate all your support, backers!"

Tim Cain: "Nobody's listening to my ideas, they all go down the drain. I'll explore mature themes and I'll invent mechanics in my head, but they'll never make it into the game. Back us!"

Justin Bell: "Nobody liked BG2 music anyway, so I'll compose some low key melodies for you guys. This truly will be an IE successor!"

Yeah, I'd instant-back this project.
 
Vatnik
Joined
Sep 28, 2014
Messages
12,473
Location
USSR
So what if he's not. Still makes a really good impression as an obsidian employee, shows us what kind of people work in there.

And I've got nothing against Avellone, and why would I.
 
Vatnik
Joined
Sep 28, 2014
Messages
12,473
Location
USSR
It does seem that way a little. Used to be that Blizzard and Bioware were the companies where good old devs went to die retire, just hang out there and do nothing. Now it's Obsidian as well, it seems.
 

Rivmusique

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Mar 14, 2011
Messages
3,489
Location
Kangarooland
Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
aeonsim If you are ever playing an IE again, remember that you can switch between inventories using the 1-6 keys while you have an item "held" (ie. dragging it around with the mouse). If you do it this way you can also swap the item you are "holding" for whatever was in the space you drop it in. So Minsc with the inventory full of potions wants the brand new plate the wizard identified? Drag it, press x (Minsc party position), drop it on a potion, press 1-6 till you see spare space, drop the potion. Using this you could save yourself some trouble, as it dodges the annoying "INVENTORY FULL" errors and the subsequent excessive mouse movement (re-finding the item, perhaps trying to dump it on another party member, another error! Would be tedious).

Don't think this makes the inventory better than PoE or anything, but from your posts it seems you're just using the mouse, so it could be a small quality of life improvement if you play again.
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom