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

[Sensuki]

Haha @ this on badgame

pillars of eternity 2015: 4 tables
baldurs gate 1 1998: 17 tables


talk about devolution

and patrons sitting at them

 

[Sensuki]

Sean Dunny on Twitter

Let me tell you, @Carrie_Patel can write a description of a god like nobody's business

 

[Grotesque]

the Almanac will be digital only and everybody will have access to it?

 

[Sensuki]

Nah you needed like the $35 tier or up IIRC.

 

[Abu Antar]

Nah you needed like the $35 tier or up IIRC.

Our buy it as an add-on, I think.

 

[Sensuki]

Disengagement attacks do actually get an accuracy bonus

They currently get an Accuracy bonus and that's about it. If you disable the party movement stop in the options, they're generally more forgiving than AoOs in 3E/3.5.

Nick triggered Disengagement Attacks in most of the demos we did at PDXCon this week and it was not cripplingly bad -- just something you need to be careful about.

 

[Infinitron]

Disengagement attacks do actually get an accuracy bonus

They currently get an Accuracy bonus and that's about it. If you disable the party movement stop in the options, they're generally more forgiving than AoOs in 3E/3.5.

Nick triggered Disengagement Attacks in most of the demos we did at PDXCon this week and it was not cripplingly bad -- just something you need to be careful about.

Ask him how smart the enemy AI is about running a cost-benefit analysis of whether to take a disengagement attack or not, when selecting targets.

 

[Sensuki]

There is none. Engagement overrides any targeting, and then there are some instances where some other event will override that, and the target will just move to attack the target and suffer the disengagement attack anyway.

 

[Infinitron]

There is none.

Are you saying this because you've looked at the source code or is that just your hunch from playing the game?

Well just ask him anyway

 

[Abu Antar]

Pillars of Eternity rated M for Muriccah, fuck yeah!:kwafuckyeah::patriot::kwanzania:

Pillars of Eternity

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Platform: Macintosh, Linux, Windows PC

Rating Category:


Content Descriptors: Blood, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Violence

Rating Summary: This is a role-playing game in which players assume the roles of heroes exploring a fantasy world. From a ¾-overhead perspective, players traverse dungeons/crypts, interact with different characters, and engage in various quests. Players use swords, axes, and magic spells to kill human enemies and fantastical creatures (e.g., dragons, trolls, ogres). Battles are accompanied by slashing impact sounds and frequent blood-splatter effects. Some levels depict chamber floors covered in large pools of blood. During the course of the game, players can interact and purchase services from a prostitute—no sexual act is ever depicted. The dialogue can also reference sexual material (e.g., “The prostitute holds her hips, thrusting her chest forward as you come near her” and “But if he spreads a rumor that her lover has just visited a brothel and acquired a pox on his loins, she'll end it on her own.'). The word “f**k” appears in dialogue.

 

[Sensuki]

I have looked at the source code (but I don't have a full understanding of what I read in the AIController, but a general idea).

You can on tumblr if you want. When it comes to things like this - what Josh says and what happens in the game can often be two different things. At least you can find out what is supposed to happen though.

AFAIK they only had one programmer that worked on AI during the project and that was not his only role as a programmer - Steve Weatherly. I also believe he has been peeled off the project. I think when they got extra time, it was extra time with reduced staff numbers. Several leads have been peeled off onto other projects. In the leads meeting video from January - Rob Nesler (Art Director), Hector Espinoza (Lead Environment Artist) and Shon Stewart (Lead Animator) were all not present, and Kaz, Sean Dunny and Seth McCaughey were bumped up to lead roles instead. I also think that Steve Weatherly has been peeled off onto another project, as Dave Szymczyk has been doing AI/Gameplay related stuff instead.

Other games often have more than that, so the AI in Pillars of Eternity is fairly rudimentary.

 

[Abu Antar]

Wasn't Mark Bremerkamp the lead programmer before he moved to another city? I think that didn't exactly help the game, either.

Nvm, he was lead animator, I think.

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

a pox on his loins

Has a certain ring to it. Would make a good title for an expansion.

 

[Zed]

Looking forward to Absurdian making the same mistake inXile did by giving reviewers early copies for day-one reviews.

At least Feargus isn't the type of person to publicly rant about getting docked points for bugs.

List of things Feargus talks about:

• Star Wars

• ???

 

[tuluse]

I have looked at the source code (but I don't have a full understanding of what I read in the AIController, but a general idea).

You can on tumblr if you want. When it comes to things like this - what Josh says and what happens in the game can often be two different things. At least you can find out what is supposed to happen though.

AFAIK they only had one programmer that worked on AI during the project and that was not his only role as a programmer - Steve Weatherly. I also believe he has been peeled off the project. I think when they got extra time, it was extra time with reduced staff numbers. Several leads have been peeled off onto other projects. In the leads meeting video from January - Rob Nesler (Art Director), Hector Espinoza (Lead Environment Artist) and Shon Stewart (Lead Animator) were all not present, and Kaz, Sean Dunny and Seth McCaughey were bumped up to lead roles instead. I also think that Steve Weatherly has been peeled off onto another project, as Dave Szymczyk has been doing AI/Gameplay related stuff instead.

Other games often have more than that, so the AI in Pillars of Eternity is fairly rudimentary.

One person programming the AI isn't surprising or unusual.

At Firaxis, it is typical the project lead's responsibility to do the AI programming according to Soren Johnson.

It also makes sense that while needing time to do bug fixing and gameplay tweaking they wouldn't need as many artists.

 

[Roguey]

Since it's already an option to remove stop-on-disengagement, I wonder how it would feel if disengagement attacks did 0 damage and it was pretty much just a sticky-thing. Of course the Tamerlanes of the world would be disappointed at the lack of punishment, but they could hypothetically be appeased with an optional talent that would allow disengagement attacks to deal damage; certain enemies could also have this talent as long as it was consistently telegraphed e.g. everyone equipped with a pike or pollaxe.

Likely too late for all this now of course.

 

[Sensuki]

Since it's already an option to remove stop-on-disengagement, I wonder how it would feel if disengagement attacks did 0 damage and it was pretty much just a sticky-thing. Of course the Tamerlanes of the world would be disappointed at the lack of punishment, but they could hypothetically be appeased with an optional talent that would allow disengagement attacks to deal damage; certain enemies could also have this talent as long as it was consistently telegraphed e.g. everyone equipped with a pike or pollaxe.

Likely too late for all this now of course.

Already one step ahead of you Roguey. That's how the No Engagement mod works in this version.



The answer is - quite good.

 

[Sensuki]

Bobby Null on portraits

I mentioned in another thread, the Wild Orlan portraits are coming and they look sweet. There are also quite a few more Ocean Folk and Savannah Folk being worked on.

Adam Brennecke on Steam Preload

We plan on letting the game preload on Steam.

 

[Sensuki]

 

[veevoir]

Hah so indeed it works! This will be my first build to try, no question about that.

Any reason to use Blunderbusses instead of arquebuses? Attack animation speed?

 

[Ellef]

I thought rogues were currently one of the weaker classes? They look crazy good here, are some classes even more insane?

 

[Infinitron]

 

[veevoir]

I thought rogues were currently one of the weaker classes? They look crazy good here, are some classes even more insane?

They are really squishy from what the beta testers say. But at the end of the day - I guess the multigun trick can be done with any fighting class (or even the whole party, because why the hell not).

The musketeer seems more like a question of a carefully making a build and following through. Note though that all those builds are lvl 8, you have to survive til lvl 8..
EDIT: also note that build relies on pimped equipment

 

[Sensuki]

Yes both of those builds are based around good weapons. The Estoc character is level 6, because at that stage of the beta when you find the Estoc, you'd probably be level 6.

That said, you can make that character in the beta. You can find that weapon. You have the crafting materials for those enchantments etc

Better weapons make a BIG difference.

in v392, Rogues were actually the best damage dealing class because of the way damage multiplier stacks worked. Now, they are still very good but you have to build them a certain way to take advantage of their damage stacking. I also could have applied more CC in that fight to get more status effects and thus sneak attacks in both of those videos.

They're not a bad class, some might say they're a bit boring, and some of their abilities are horrible/don't work properly.

IMO atm I think the Ranger is *easily* the shittest class. They've nerfed the fuck out of the Paladin too, so now they're pretty mediocre. Athelas super deflection build seemed to be okay for solo though.

Chanters, Monks, Ciphers and Druids are probably the best classes, but the Druid Shapeshift ability is fucking terrible. Priests are good. There's never been an issue with them. Wizards are useful, but they're pretty one dimensional compared to BG2 Wizards.

Fighters ... they're pretty good? I think like in D&D, they'll get eclipsed by most other classes by the end of the game. I need to make some more, but they're not really great at anything. In earlier builds their Defender Mode was critical in keeping enemies on you, but now it's not, really. The best thing about them is probably Knockdown now, actually. Make sure you have a good accuracy and land those knock downs.

Barbarians are also pretty good. I discovered a nice Intellect/Perception/fast attacks interrupt build this patch but we'll have to see how it goes in the next one.

Any reason to use Blunderbusses instead of arquebuses? Attack animation speed?

Yes, absolutely. Blunderbusses fire 8 projectiles. As a Rogue with Sneak Attack, you get a Sneak Attack on every one of those 8 shots, and Vulnerable Attack also gives 5 DR bypass for EACH shot.

You can do very good damage with an Arquebus doing that build as well though, but you'd need to enchant the item for it to be as effective as the Lead Spitter Blunderbuss. Blunderbusses also have a faster reload than an Arquebus.

 

[Sensuki]

I tell you what, two Fighters with 3 Knockdowns per encounter each is amazing lol.