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

[Shadenuat]

The bestiary is awesome btw. Anyone who managed clear the maps of any wildlife check it out, it's in Journal menu. Dem black&white ink illustrations.

For skills, the most used second skill probably would be Stealth, unless they either nerf scout mode or give us XPs for mobs.

 

[felipepepe]

I didn't say JUST Pick Locks.

Bro, just admit that you didn't recall the point system in the Thieves skills, it's more dignifying than this.

 

[tuluse]

Backstabbing

If we're counting this then rogues have tons of skills in PoE.

 

[J_C]

There is one thing nobody talked about yet, and I'm interested in it. Is there a day/night cycle? I don't mean NPC behaviour, but does it get dark eventually and the sun rises after that? Like in the IE games. I liked the night ambiance of Baldur's Gate a lot.

 

[Infinitron]

I didn't say JUST Pick Locks.

Bro, just admit that you didn't recall the point system in the Thieves skills, it's more dignifying than this.

I recall it just fine. You needed a Thief with points in Pick Locks and Detect/Disarm Traps. If you wanted to mix it up a bit with backstabs, Stealth also. In the end, opening chests was still a level gate - the number of skills you were invested in only affected how early you reached that gate (which was always pretty early IIRC).

There is one thing nobody talked about yet, and I'm interested in it. Is there a day/night cycle? I don't mean NPC behaviour, but does it get dark eventually and the sun rises after that? Like in the IE games. I liked the night ambiance of Baldur's Gate a lot.

Of course it does. The only major Kickstarter RPG with one.

 

[Shadenuat]

There is one thing nobody talked about yet, and I'm interested in it. Is there a day/night cycle? I don't mean NPC behaviour, but does it get dark eventually and the sun rises after that? Like in the IE games. I liked the night ambiance of Baldur's Gate a lot.

Yeah and it looks great.

 

[J_C]

Thanks. That's great.

 

[msxyz]

A signed by Sawyer boxed copy of He-Man RPG for every grognard that actually understands the "dialed to 11" reference.

I'm not a native english speaker but the expression "up to eleven" is pretty famous, especially for people dealing with music, hard/metal in particular: some guitars amplifiers have an eleventh 'overdrive' setting for maximum, distorted volume. Unless it is a reference to some obsure RPG that escapes me...

 

[Once more unto the Codex]

A signed by Sawyer boxed copy of He-Man RPG for every grognard that actually understands the "dialed to 11" reference.

I'm not a native english speaker but the expression "up to eleven" is pretty famous, especially for people dealing with music, hard/metal in particular: some guitars amplifiers have an eleventh 'overdrive' setting for maximum, distorted volume. Unless it is a reference to some obsure RPG that escapes me...

Soooo close. Spinal Tap.

 

[Zep Zepo]

These go to 11 -Spinal Tap




Zep--

 

[Ulminati]

A signed by Sawyer boxed copy of He-Man RPG for every grognard that actually understands the "dialed to 11" reference.

I'm not a native english speaker but the expression "up to eleven" is pretty famous, especially for people dealing with music, hard/metal in particular: some guitars amplifiers have an eleventh 'overdrive' setting for maximum, distorted volume. Unless it is a reference to some obsure RPG that escapes me...

[edit]

Lol.... double-ninjaed.

 

[felipepepe]

In the end, opening chests was still a level gate - the number of skills you were invested in only affected how early you reached that gate (which was always pretty early IIRC).

You don't understand the concept of "level-gated", do you?

As you just said, in BG the way you distributed your Thieves skills affected how early you could open some doors/chests. A Thief with many points in lockpick could get a lot of money early in the game, but would suffer against traps and would suck at stealing. Thus, how you assigned your points was what defined your pace, not your level.

My whole point is that in PoE there's no solid reason for not making a Mechanics guy and always caping his Mechanic skill. So everyone will open chests/doors and progress at the same pace. They could as well make a "you can only pass after Lv 3" door.

 

[Athelas]

There is one thing nobody talked about yet, and I'm interested in it. Is there a day/night cycle? I don't mean NPC behaviour, but does it get dark eventually and the sun rises after that? Like in the IE games. I liked the night ambiance of Baldur's Gate a lot.

There's also some very basic NPC schedules - the guards in the Dyrford Village walk back and forth to interrogate the villagers about a missing girl (part of a quest). I was pleasantly surprised by it.

And the dynamic lighting is beautiful (particularly the golden-brown shade of sunrise/sunset).

 

[Bubbles]

My whole point is that in PoE there's no solid reason for not making a Mechanics guy and always caping his Mechanic skill. So everyone will open chests/doors and progress at the same rate. They could as well make a "you can only pass after Lv 3" door.

Well, the devs expect most players to use their pre-made companions, which will presumably have pre-allocated non-optimal stats (gonna go ahead and say the Rogue will have both mechanics and sneak). There might still be a decision between going full mechanics on the PC (which means missing out on lots of dialogue checks) or rolling up a custom party and missing out on NPC content.

 

[Copper]

How are the scripted interactions, by the way? I thought the press demo ones were overwrought, and the images were a lower quality (more pencil sketch than woodcut) than the waterfall / dragon egg images used in updates, which I can understand if they only have Kaz on 2D art team + UI.

 

[felipepepe]

Well, the devs expect most players to use their pre-made companions, which will presumably have pre-allocated non-optimal stats (gonna go ahead and say the Rogue will have both mechanics and sneak). There might still be a decision between going full mechanics on the PC (which means missing out on lots of dialogue checks) or rolling up a custom party and missing out on NPC content.

That would be a half-assed workaround, but I don't know, I expect to have at least one or two companions at Lv 1, maybe Lv2 the latest...

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

There was 6 skills, Crafting as a skill was cut.

Then, 6 skills- 6 party members
Now, 5 skills- 6 party members

So now the game is more balanced or less balanced?

 

[Lhynn]

Dude's trying his best to make a game reminiscent of the IE games.

That's notable even if he's failing left and right.

I wouldnt say failing left and right, a lot of things ive seen are p. awesome. The writing, the ingame world and the npcs all seem to be pretty solid.
While i dont think the lore is anything interesting, and most of the systems are fucked and need to be either revised, scrapped or replaced.

 

[felipepepe]

Why do you think the beta only has 5 party members? They removed one, to balance it with the skills.

 

[Osvir]

It's not like there was ever any real question about lugging around a Thief with you in BG, so it was pretty much a "level gate" there too.

Yeah, except that Thieves had seven skills:

Find/Disarm traps
Hide in Shadow/Move Silently
Pick Locks
Pick Pockets
Set Traps
Detect Illusion
Backstabbing

Not all of them had the same relevance, but at the very least you would split your points between Pick Lock and Find/Disarm Trap, so your Thief build did matter a lot.

Now, if all of these were general skills for every class in Pillars of Eternity (+Weapon Proficiency)... that'd be something. Like in Icewind Dale 1 & 2 where you can level up lots of skills. That's really cool imo.

 

[Once more unto the Codex]

Why do you think the beta only has 5 party members? They removed one, to balance it with the skills.

I'm pretty sure this was done in order to incentivize/allow you to hire an adventurer.

 

[Harold]

he provides very informed and objective content. Mostly.

lol no u

I think we need a TB fanboy tag

I'm a fan of his content. yes, but not the dude himself John Bain the dude is just a dude that says stupid shit on twitter from time to time, and some times cool shit. His content is very informed, well researched. Sometimes I disagree. One of TB's favorite games are Giants: Citizen Kabuto btw. Not to forget to mention his GoG Top Rated Strategy games that got many of the classics in it. Mostly Strategy though... hm.. and this is.. RPG Codex... kk.

Just like Pillars of Eternity, "Sawyerism" wtf? The dude is a regular dude, Sensuki is a regular dude, I'm a regular dude. You're probably a regular dude too Harold. Volo is a pretty princess. I'm a fan of the community and the entire project

Fair enough, though I was objecting more to the objective part than to the very informed part. To me, in order to be objective you first have to not be horribly bad at the game/understand its systems, and, at least in the, admittedly few, videos of his I watched TB sucked big time. Then again, maybe I didn't watch the right ones and he is indeed a pro when it comes to strategy, as you say.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

Why do you think the beta only has 5 party members? They removed one, to balance it with the skills.

Obsidian in 2 months:
We are all sad too announce we had to cut the 6th party member. We hope this decision will improve a balance and overall enjoyment from the game. Who needs 6 party members anyway? We do things differently here.

 

[Osvir]

Who was it that said that you didn't have to play the Beta to understand it? I never said he was a pro strategy player, but his content and discussion, video game industry insights (Blizzard, and the journalistic world) is what I find most interesting. His mandatory options screen can be "zzzz" when you've seen it 100 times you pretty much know all the functions to any options menu in any game and why it often determines the quality or the effort put into the game. He has a Games Channel and a StrarCraft channel, I don't care much for the latter.

EDIT: But off-topicness~ sorry for:

 

[Zombra]

Racial and Cultural attribute bonuses almost meaningless Yes it's mostly flavor as it should be. There are some people who like the ROLEPLAYING aspect of rpg's and are not just there for the mechnics

Mechanics are how roleplaying is expressed in an video game.

Late to the conversation on this tidbit, but I agree with Fruschy here. Small cultural mechanical bonuses are fine, but I don't want major ones. I want to pick my Rogue's culture because I like the Persian influence on the armor and its oligarchic political structure sounds like a fascinating backdrop for my country of origin. I don't want to "have to" pick some other culture because I'll get +5 on backstabs and backstabs rule.