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Game News Pillars of Eternity II Fig Update #14: City of Neketaka, Sidekicks Stretch Goal, Tyranny Discount

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut 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
Tags: Bobby Null; Obsidian Entertainment; Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire; Tyranny

The Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire Fig campaign took in a big chunk of investment money today, putting it over the $2.8M mark and unlocking the orchestra, level cap and subclasses stretch goal. As I anticipated, Obsidian were ready with a new update introducing Neketaka, Deadfire's major city, but also an unexpected stretch goal. When the campaign reaches $3.25M of funding, the game will receive four "sidekicks" - basically simpler, BG1-like companions that don't have sidequests and aren't integrated into the relationship system. But I'll let you read about those in the update. Onward to Neketaka, with a video and introduction by lead designer Bobby Null:



The one and only metropolis in the Deadfire is Neketaka. You may ask yourself, why only one big city this time around? While having two big cities in the first game was an awesome experience, looking back, the team felt splitting them into two made neither one as amazing as it could have been. This time around we wanted to make a bigger city than Defiance Bay or Twin Elms, but smaller than the two combined. Coupled with some awesome new features and overall direction, Neketaka should feel like the fantasy city you’ve always wanted to explore. Below I’ll list some goals we had and how we plan on achieving them.

Goal: Build a city that feels different from anything in Pillars I and/or other Infinity Engine games, while not being so different as to feel alien.

Solution(s):
  • Build a city vertically. The district structure you expect in this type of game still exists, but some of these districts are organized vertically as shown in the video.
  • Add parallax features. To really sell the idea of a mountainous island, we’ve added multiple parallax layers to the art scenes for some spectacular views.
  • Architecture varies based on the cultures that dominate the districts. Vailian buildings and locations are distinct from Huana and Rautai locations.
Goal: Create a city that feels more alive than our previous work. Retain and reinforce the “fantasy scale” of a massive city.

Solution(s):
  • The new city map and encounters– This map shows the size of a truly impressive city without the need to model every home, alley and citizen. We’re creating interstitial content when traversing districts on the map. These take the form of special combat and narrative encounters, as well as randomized events. Meet a strange fortune teller that may reveal cryptic prophecies about your future. Cross paths with a drunken noble with a large coin purse lost in the dangerous back-alleys of Neketaka. These encounters take place in scripted interactions as well as on all-new, city street scenes. It is important to note that many of these encounters still include choice & consequence and none are of the “fight x generic enemies” variety.
  • The time of day matters. Ambient NPCs use schedules to live their lives in Neketaka, but so do many of the quest NPCs. This allows us to add creative, and sometimes hidden, ways for players to solve problems/quests. Wait for an NPC to go outside and take a smoke break before picking his pocket for that key you need. Follow an NPC to the bathhouse and eavesdrop on a conversation to gain some juicy information. Infiltrate a location in the dead of night to avoid any unwanted civilian casualties.

The update also announces another leg of Fulvano's Voyage (they've already reached another one since it went up), the opening of a new $65 "Ultimate Digital Edition" tier with additional digital goodies (no in-game stuff, though), and perhaps most interestingly, the addition of a Tyranny Steam discount coupon as a reward for all backers. Backers at the $29 tier will get a 33% discount, and $45 and above get a 50% discount. That's a pretty decent perk.
 

hilfazer

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Tyranny on Steam = 42 EURO
Tyranny on Steam - 33% = 28.14 EURO
Tyranny on GOG = 35.47 UDS
Tyranny on GOG with 15% discount = 30.14 USD
Tyranny on Steam in USD = 29.83 USD

1/3 $ for ability to choose previous version and lack of DRM? I'll take it.
 

Visbhume

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The time of day matters. Ambient NPCs use schedules to live their lives in Neketaka, but so do many of the quest NPCs. This allows us to add creative, and sometimes hidden, ways for players to solve problems/quests.

This is potentially awesome, as long as they give the means to easily wait until a certain time.
 

Quillon

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The time of day matters. Ambient NPCs use schedules to live their lives in Neketaka, but so do many of the quest NPCs. This allows us to add creative, and sometimes hidden, ways for players to solve problems/quests.

This is potentially awesome, as long as they give the means to easily wait until a certain time.

Josh said there'll be a waiting feature outside of [8 hours]resting.
 

Nazrim Eldrak

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I got a good impression while watching the video. Obsidian seems improving its game engine quite much. The only thing I am still sceptical of is the battle mechanics.
As some people here know the battle mechanics is/was one of the weaknesses of PoE I. Ask Sensuki if you don´t believe me.
Nevertheless my intuition for PoE II final verdict is positive at the moment.
 

i.Razor

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Biodoc's BG2:SoA was a great improvement over BG1, it would be great if PoE2 could do the same to PoE1.
 

Jedi Exile

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Project: Eternity Shadorwun: Hong Kong
PoE still lacks the charm of BG1, where you could roam freely after Candlekeep and fight gibberlings and wolves in the wilderness, ignoring the main quest altogether and discovering little side quests along the road. I wonder if PoE2 will lack the complexity of BG2 as well: the improved combat, the big city with multiple factions, class-based quests and strongholds for warriors, thieves, mages etc.
 
Self-Ejected

Sacred82

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I wonder if PoE2 will lack the complexity of BG2 as well: the improved combat, the big city with multiple factions, class-based quests and strongholds for warriors, thieves, mages etc.

They could get rid of the stronghold altogether and no one would care.
 

Turok

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Tyranny on Steam = 42 EURO
Tyranny on Steam - 33% = 28.14 EURO
Tyranny on GOG = 35.47 UDS
Tyranny on GOG with 15% discount = 30.14 USD
Tyranny on Steam in USD = 29.83 USD

1/3 $ for ability to choose previous version and lack of DRM? I'll take it.

The discount is only for STEAM.
 

Pentagon

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Neketaka looks nice. A little fantastical, but I mean, there's magic so I guess that makes sense. Nice to see they sectioned off some farmland, but obviously a city of 150,000 would rely on food imports. That's been the case for island trade cities since at least 2,000 B.C. though. I know Josh Sawyer has a pretty good historical knowledge base, I wonder if he'll bring in stuff like how those cities needed to control sea lanes to preserve grain flow. Could make for a good background plot device like the iron shortage in BG1.

Here's an excerpt from A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World by William J. Bernstein, page 26:
The excavation of Dilmin provides a tantalizing, and often highly personal, window on what the Sumerian trade in grain and copper in the Persian Gulf might have looked like. The town sat on an island and was supplied with a generous spring issuing what the ancients called "sweet," or fresh, water. By 2000 BC, the city walls enclosed an area almost the size of the biggest Mesopotamian city, Ur. In its center sat a municipal square, one end of which opened on the sea gate; at the other end stood a building filled with seals and scales, almost certainly a customs house. Piled high around the square would have been huge baskets of barely and dates from the banks of the Tigris; the more precious cargo—Mesopotamian cloth as well as ivory and ingots of copper bound for Ur—stood just outside the customs house, guarded by nervous sailors while their officers argued with, bribed, and cajoled with the officials inside.
 
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