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

[imweasel]

The game is too buggy, I can't finish the demo. No. Fun. At. All. I had more fun playing Wasteland 2 last december.

The stupid fucks in my party are getting stuck behind pebbles, having spontaneous gang bangs while in battle, they're dropping items into oblivion with their butterfingers, engaging in close combat with missle weapons, falling into some kind endless combat mode trance, numerous UI issues...
My wizard never even had his grimoire, because he lost it immediatly after the game started, so I gave him a gun. I then realised guns are much better than shitty fireballs. Technological advancement FTW. You can also just give everyone a gun and then go beetle hunting. Select all -> Attack. The suckers don't stand a chance.

The game is very beautiful and the writing is good. What bothers me about the dialogue is that very many options have a description in brackets describing the tone of that response, sort of like in Dragon Age 2, just with text instead of icons... Anyway, if I say to some dude "Gimme all yo copper, or I kill ya mu'fukka" then I know god damn well I am being a aggressive asshole. The game doesn't have to tell me that. I could also pretty much care less about the reputation points I receive, because I roleplay in a specific way anyway.

I had rolled a paladin, then maxed out 4 attributes and dumped intellect and perception. I dumped those attributes because they appear to be pretty useless. Roguey promised me a much better attribute system. I very disappoint.
I haven't had a real good look at the attribute system (lack of interest), but it might be wise to expand upon that partnership with Paizo....... if you know what I mean.

Spoiler

 

[roshan]

No item weight? No bashing? No missing attacks? No penalties for stats? Multiple dump stats? Auto resurrection meter? Health regeneration? HP and numbers bloat? No multiclassing? STR affecting gun and spell damage? No combat, thieving, magery or exploration XP? Magic stash? Only 5 skills? Classes function like MMOG's where you have tanks, healers and DPS? No tactical positioning due to running in combat? Generic "pretty" fantasy? Stats affect dialogue options but in ultimately pointless ways because no character should be able to "win" through dialogue? Boring combat? OP weapons that invalidate class choice?

The game is a Frankenstinian monstrosity. At least there's BALANCE!!! The fantards sucked Sawyer's dick, now they will choke on it.

 

[RK47]

 

[Sensuki]

Also, did anyone PM Sensuki about reducing the white of the character's eyes to make them look less weird?

Not yet. I had a scan of the female humans last night and reported some clipping arms through armor, one knee lower than the other and calves being super thick at the top

Looks like Steve has finished his rewrite of the pathfinding system. Looking forward to the update.

Source?

I have a question to whom it may concern. While undoubtedly the characters stand out less than they did in IE games (256 color pallet on top of full color will do this), is the problem that they don't stand or that the selection circles aren't very good? They seem to disappear behind stuff a lot.

99.99% sure there's a bug with occlusion and a bug with character sorting in relation to grass and stuff.

 

[roshan]

I'm not going to claim I have an unbiased opinion, and it would likely be wiser of me to stay completely out of this discussion, but my sense of fairness compels me to say this: I've only played PoE a little, but the things I've encountered thus far that degrade the combat experience do not strike me as fundamental, intractable problems. Rather, they are the types of issues that can be sorted out fairly quickly through iteration. (I realize that some are probably sick of hearing about how game development is an iterative process but, well, it generally is.) Or, if you'd like to be more cynical (a long shot here, I know), then I'll phrase it this way: the current complaints people have are the type that make it hard to realize how truly, truly awful and dreadful (amazing and satisfying) the combat in the final game will be.

The point I want to make is that the despair that some are expressing regarding PoE's combat is probably premature. Good, critical feedback will help Obsidian iron things out and improve the combat experience. Unless Josh/PoE has spoken specifically to <insert the target of your loathing here> being the way they intend it to be, I think there is reason to be optimistic. (Those who dislike, say, the attribute design part might have less solace.)

P.S. I backed PoE at the $250 level before I even had any clue I'd be returning to entertainment games. So I have an interest in, and hope for, PoE's success just as some/many others here do.

P.P.S. The constructive feedback by many has been greatly helpful to the PoE team, I'm sure. I suspect those folks will ultimately feel vindicated. (Many developers really, really do appreciate constructive feedback; when it's ignored, it's due to lack of time or competing priorities or other considerations, generally to one's regret.)

Hi Kevin, I hope that you guys at the T:ToN team are going to deliver on your promises for that game. With PoE, fans gave money to fund a spiritual successor to the IE games and what they instead got was health regeneration, auto resurrection, MMOG class specializations, no bad builds, no penalties, no XP unless you do exactly what Obsidian wants in the exact sequence that Obsidian wants, magic stash and no item weight, MMOG HP and numbers bloat, running around in combat and KEWL ANIMESHUNS instead of an abstract tactical system.

Instead of getting what they paid for, the fans got a particular designer's ego trip and modern day, dumbed down systems instead of classic ones. Please do not repeat these mistakes with T:ToN.

 

[Jaesun]

Hi Kevin, I hope that you guys at the T:ToN team are going to deliver on your promises for that game. With PoE, fans gave money to fund a spiritual successor to the IE games and what they instead got was health regeneration, auto resurrection, MMOG class specializations, no bad builds, no penalties, no XP unless you do exactly what Obsidian wants in the exact sequence that Obsidian wants, magic stash and no item weight, MMOG HP and numbers bloat, running around in combat and KEWL ANIMESHUNS instead of an abstract tactical system.

Instead of getting what they paid for, the fans got a particular designer's ego trip and modern day, dumbed down systems instead of classic ones. Please do not repeat these mistakes with T:ToN.

So basically you have not played the Beta?

 

[roshan]

Hi Kevin, I hope that you guys at the T:ToN team are going to deliver on your promises for that game. With PoE, fans gave money to fund a spiritual successor to the IE games and what they instead got was health regeneration, auto resurrection, MMOG class specializations, no bad builds, no penalties, no XP unless you do exactly what Obsidian wants in the exact sequence that Obsidian wants, magic stash and no item weight, MMOG HP and numbers bloat, running around in combat and KEWL ANIMESHUNS instead of an abstract tactical system.

Instead of getting what they paid for, the fans got a particular designer's ego trip and modern day, dumbed down systems instead of classic ones. Please do not repeat these mistakes with T:ToN.

So basically you have not played the Beta?

I most certainly have not played the beta

 

[Onholyservicebound]

v

 

[Jezal_k23]

Hi Kevin, I hope that you guys at the T:ToN team are going to deliver on your promises for that game. With PoE, fans gave money to fund a spiritual successor to the IE games and what they instead got was health regeneration, auto resurrection, MMOG class specializations, no bad builds, no penalties, no XP unless you do exactly what Obsidian wants in the exact sequence that Obsidian wants, magic stash and no item weight, MMOG HP and numbers bloat, running around in combat and KEWL ANIMESHUNS instead of an abstract tactical system.

Instead of getting what they paid for, the fans got a particular designer's ego trip and modern day, dumbed down systems instead of classic ones. Please do not repeat these mistakes with T:ToN.

I can generally agree that the PoE beta as it stands does deserve to be criticized for some things. That said I think this post is sensationalized as fuck.

 

[Jaesun]

I most certainly have not played the beta

That's what I thought.

 

[Deakul]

I'm not going to claim I have an unbiased opinion, and it would likely be wiser of me to stay completely out of this discussion, but my sense of fairness compels me to say this: I've only played PoE a little, but the things I've encountered thus far that degrade the combat experience do not strike me as fundamental, intractable problems. Rather, they are the types of issues that can be sorted out fairly quickly through iteration. (I realize that some are probably sick of hearing about how game development is an iterative process but, well, it generally is.) Or, if you'd like to be more cynical (a long shot here, I know), then I'll phrase it this way: the current complaints people have are the type that make it hard to realize how truly, truly awful and dreadful (amazing and satisfying) the combat in the final game will be.

The point I want to make is that the despair that some are expressing regarding PoE's combat is probably premature. Good, critical feedback will help Obsidian iron things out and improve the combat experience. Unless Josh/PoE has spoken specifically to <insert the target of your loathing here> being the way they intend it to be, I think there is reason to be optimistic. (Those who dislike, say, the attribute design part might have less solace.)

P.S. I backed PoE at the $250 level before I even had any clue I'd be returning to entertainment games. So I have an interest in, and hope for, PoE's success just as some/many others here do.

P.P.S. The constructive feedback by many has been greatly helpful to the PoE team, I'm sure. I suspect those folks will ultimately feel vindicated. (Many developers really, really do appreciate constructive feedback; when it's ignored, it's due to lack of time or competing priorities or other considerations, generally to one's regret.)

Hi Kevin, I hope that you guys at the T:ToN team are going to deliver on your promises for that game. With PoE, fans gave money to fund a spiritual successor to the IE games and what they instead got was health regeneration, auto resurrection, MMOG class specializations, no bad builds, no penalties, no XP unless you do exactly what Obsidian wants in the exact sequence that Obsidian wants, magic stash and no item weight, MMOG HP and numbers bloat, running around in combat and KEWL ANIMESHUNS instead of an abstract tactical system.

Instead of getting what they paid for, the fans got a particular designer's ego trip and modern day, dumbed down systems instead of classic ones. Please do not repeat these mistakes with T:ToN.

gr8 b8 m8

 

[imweasel]

Hi Kevin, I hope that you guys at the T:ToN team are going to deliver on your promises for that game. With PoE, fans gave money to fund a spiritual successor to the IE games and what they instead got was health regeneration, auto resurrection, MMOG class specializations, no bad builds, no penalties, no XP unless you do exactly what Obsidian wants in the exact sequence that Obsidian wants, magic stash and no item weight, MMOG HP and numbers bloat, running around in combat and KEWL ANIMESHUNS instead of an abstract tactical system.

Instead of getting what they paid for, the fans got a particular designer's ego trip and modern day, dumbed down systems instead of classic ones. Please do not repeat these mistakes with T:ToN.

So basically you have not played the Beta?

I most certainly have not played the beta

Good, don't waste your time. The game is a complete fucking mess.

It is going to take months to make this clusterfuck playable and even longer than that until we have a good game. I just hope Sawyer's ego doesn't get in the way, because the attribute system needs a complete and thorough overhaul too. Oh and the game also needs to reward the player with XP for doing stuff.

 

[roshan]

I most certainly have not played the beta

That's what I thought.

Just going by reports on this thread, and previous announcements.

I now learn that spells don't increase in power with character level, so at every spell level you just get more powerful copies of the same spells? Pointless spells that will increase a certain semi-irrelevant statistic by 8%? No non combat spells at all? Talk about utterly shitty and lazy design.

 

[Jaesun]

Just going by reports on this thread

How long have you been here?

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

So as it is now (from bonescraapers example on pg.35) Intellect for wizard could legitimately be used as a dump stat.....

There is just something so very wrong about that. Call me 'old school' or stuck in the pat, but intelligence should be the most important stat for a wizard IMO. I guess that is just not hipster enough though. I get the feeling somebody was really butt hurt 30 years ago when they initially encountered 1st addition AD&D and is now taking it out on us...

 

[Jaesun]

Call me 'old school' or stuck in the pat, but intelligence should be the most important stat for a wizard IMO.

Why should it?

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

"A system in which everything is equally viable is indistinguishable from a system in which everything is shit."

it means every choice is in fact meaningless...its all just flavor

 

[Malaphusis]

This thread is depressing...makes me wish Chaos Chronicles could get revived through crowdfunding or something.

 

[Sensuki]

I need to have a break I think.

 

[felipepepe]

No item weight? No bashing? No missing attacks? No penalties for stats? Multiple dump stats? Auto resurrection meter? Health regeneration? HP and numbers bloat? No multiclassing? STR affecting gun and spell damage? No combat, thieving, magery or exploration XP? Magic stash? Only 5 skills? Classes function like MMOG's where you have tanks, healers and DPS? No tactical positioning due to running in combat? Generic "pretty" fantasy? Stats affect dialogue options but in ultimately pointless ways because no character should be able to "win" through dialogue? Boring combat? OP weapons that invalidate class choice?

You forgot no stat requirement, weightless combat, arbitrary UI, useless combat log, Diablo-like itemization, not a single non-combat/utility spell, and Avatar-race as "original content, do not steal".

Still looking forward to it, as illogical as that sounds. :3

 

[Jezal_k23]

I need to have a break I think.

But then who is gonna fix it?

 

[xemous]

i bought this game on ps4 (great game)

 

[tuluse]

I need to have a break I think.

You can sleep when you die. Keep testing!

 

[Shevek]

Im loving the beta. I do think combat is a bit difficult to navigate. It should be easier to select crap in the middle of a melee. It might also be nice if it was easier to tell what would be hit by aoe's and the like. Also, guns seem too good. Other than that, loving it.

Been playing a moon godlike barb. I like that melee characters get some nice actives. I like the amount of thought I'm putting into even minor combat. I tended to get bored with the IE method of pre-buffing, stomping through crap and then rest spamming. This is much better.

With some minor balancing and major bug fixing, this game will be good to go.

 

[Volourn]

"I like the amount of thought I'm putting into even minor combat. I tended to get bored with the IE method of pre-buffing, stomping through crap and then rest spamming. This is much better."

Yeah, I much prefer not to have to pre buff to stomp past enemies. Like this game and their one dimensional mages 9which likely won't change int eh full game).