Game News Pillars of Eternity Kickstarter Update #81: The Front Line: Fighters and Barbarians

[Shadenuat]

If all chars get back on their feet after combat except highest difficulty all pain token/near death abilities can be spammed, actually. But players who accept character deaths/high difficulty are kinda screwed.

 

[Infinitron]

If all chars get back on their feet after combat except highest difficulty all pain token/near death abilities can be spammed, actually. But players who accept character deaths/high difficulty are kinda screwed.

The difficulty doesn't work like that anymore. Permadeath is always on, except that the first time you get "killed" you're just maimed. Be killed again while maimed and you're gone for good.

 

[Shadenuat]

That means you'll spam these abilities before getting maimed then. But permadeath is good news

 

[Dr Schultz]

If all chars get back on their feet after combat except highest difficulty all pain token/near death abilities can be spammed, actually. But players who accept character deaths/high difficulty are kinda screwed.

Health reduction it's not related to these abilities (stamina is), and when a character's health reaches 0, he/her is dead /maimed no matter what. Being maimed is not like being dead, of course, but it's like being useless untill you don't get some rest. So, no, you can't abuse "low stamina abilities" without consequences.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

I remember IE games having non-kamakazie NPCs. I think I remember that they would flee or change tactics if they were getting beat down.

Perkel, I don't think ambush situations where the party is surrounded is a fair assessment of front line mechanics. In an ambush there is no front line, there is disadvantage and chaos.

If anyone can pull off good RTwP it will be Obsidian. I haven't typically preferred RTwP but I am open to seeing it done really well and I hope PE is the game that does it. The team seems circumspect and experienced.

 

[Infinitron]

That means you'll spam these abilities before getting maimed then. But permadeath is good news

I ought to add that even before permadeath was extended to all difficulty levels, losing all of your health still resulted in you being in a permanently (until rest) maimed state where you were useless in combat. Again, this is not Dragon Age - stamina regenerates between battles, but health does not. If you don't have any health left, you will die in one hit, no matter how much stamina you have left. So risk-free "spamming" was never supported.

(The reason Josh made permadeath universal is that he didn't want maimed characters being used as "sacrificial lambs" to absorb the first volley of an enemy attack, or traps, or whatever)

 

[Cowboy Moment]

Perkel, front lines work perfectly well in Total War, and in a multitude of RTS games in general. You don't need anything special to make them work, aside from good collision radii.

 

[tuluse]

Perkel, front lines work perfectly well in Total War, and in a multitude of RTS games in general. You don't need anything special to make them work, aside from good collision radii.

Total war actually has a similar engagement system to PoE. When two companies are engaged with each other, they can't simply run away/through/around.

 

[MicoSelva]

a lot of the demo footage was filled with spoilers and we would like to show off portions that are less critical to the story. Look for a video that shows some non-spoiler, polished gameplay sometime in the next couple of months.

I appreciate them not wanting to release story spoilers. I feel like I already know way too much about other upcoming games (like D:OS, Wasteland 2 or even Witcher 3), which makes me much less excited to play them. I actually stopped following previews, and such, to leave more surprises for the actual playthrough.

 

[Perkel]

Perkel, front lines work perfectly well in Total War, and in a multitude of RTS games in general. You don't need anything special to make them work, aside from good collision radii.

Well RTS games have simply numbers to make front line. Having 2-3 fighters =/= whole army at your disposal. In case of Total War units are bundled in packs imitating single units like in RPG.
Engagement system does work in Total War because it completely bonds two units fighting each other.

I hope Josh go into detail with this "stop" system he spoke. Imo this is just simple AI command to stop near fighter and trying to give new order for AI (often losing its primary target for fighter).

Can't fucking wait for PoE. 2015 can't come soon enough.

 

[thesheeep]

cause his companions are blind and can't see how many swords are sticking out of him. Makes for kinda useless ability since it's not very strategic, I liked Minsc's Rage better - at least you could heal him or put an otiluke sphere on him if he was dying.
And on high difficulties that actually means you're killing your barb without knowing it - on lower he'd just rest for a while on a floor when his stamina runs out, but on higher chars can die in combat and don't come back, right?

Pretty much means you can only use frenzy at the beginning of a fight when your barbarian is still at full health.
Or you have to be extremely careful about it, for example only attacking opponents that are engaged with other people or those with low health themselves.
It basically makes barbarians in frenzy mode become a glass cannon axe build, and should be used like one.

I don't think this is bad, I actually like the idea, but have to see how it turns out in the end.

 

[roshan]

The selections are designed to cover a variety of damage types, to include one- and two-handed options, and to always feature at least one ranged weapon.

This is an unbelievably stupid idea. If every specialization gives a fighter an access to a pool of weapons all of which can do the same things as any other pool of weapons then the difference is simply cosmetic. It doesn't matter whether you choose knight or peasant, it's just like choosing a different haircut at character creation. It really does sound like the designers are going out of their way to make this game retard-proof.

 

[roshan]

Even so, they are designed to burn brightly and expire brilliantly in the unfortunate event that a battle drags on

Yes, burn brightly, expire brilliantly..... and then autoresurrect after the battle!!! Obsidian's take on the old Interplay slogan should be "By idiots, for idiots."

 

[Dr Schultz]

The selections are designed to cover a variety of damage types, to include one- and two-handed options, and to always feature at least one ranged weapon.

This is an unbelievably stupid idea. If every specialization gives a fighter an access to a pool of weapons all of which can do the same things as any other pool of weapons then the difference is simply cosmetic. It doesn't matter whether you choose knight or peasant, it's just like choosing a different haircut at character creation. It really does sound like the designers are going out of their way to make this game retard-proof.

It's an unbelievably stupid idea doing the opposite, considering how important is the whole armor vs weopon thing in this system. Getting stuck with a useless weapon category against a certain type of enemy is simply irritating. Also, weapons with the same damage type/number of hands required have still different damage/attack speed, so weapons category aren't cosmetic, unless you consider cosmetic the choice between a bow, a crossbow and an arquebus.

Even so, they are designed to burn brightly and expire brilliantly in the unfortunate event that a battle drags on

Yes, burn brightly, expire brilliantly..... and then autoresurrect after the battle!!! Obsidian's take on the old Interplay slogan should be "By idiots, for idiots."

http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Maimed

Is it really that hard to get how the stamina/health thing works?

 

[Sensuki]

The selections are designed to cover a variety of damage types, to include one- and two-handed options, and to always feature at least one ranged weapon.

This is an unbelievably stupid idea. If every specialization gives a fighter an access to a pool of weapons all of which can do the same things as any other pool of weapons then the difference is simply cosmetic. It doesn't matter whether you choose knight or peasant, it's just like choosing a different haircut at character creation. It really does sound like the designers are going out of their way to make this game retard-proof.

WS gives +damage only (probably PE equivalent to 3E's WS +2 damage), and there are strengths and weaknesses of all the pools. The peasant list doesn't have anything that's very good vs. heavy armor. The Knight list doesn't have any fast weapons. The soldier list is mostly two handed and has no fast weapons.

I really don't see anything wrong with it.

 

[Excidium]

Doesn't your class limits access to weapon groups too?

 

[Sensuki]

That's Weapon Specialization, which is a Fighter ability. No other class gets access to it.

There's no weapon or armor restrictions, or attribute requirements for gear. Wizard in Plate mail with a Blunderbuss? No problem.

 

[Excidium]

That's Weapon Specialization, which is a Fighter ability. No other class gets access to it.

There's no weapon or armor restrictions, or attribute requirements for gear. Wizard in Plate mail with a Blunderbuss? No problem.

Yes but is that out of char gen or do people have to invest feats?

 

[Sensuki]

Excidium

noep

No proficiencies or anything, everyone can automatically use anything

There's a couple of class specific items (such as the Wizard's Grimoire) but no class-specific weapons.

Some classes are better than others with weapon attacks (starting accuracy bonuses and such). I think offensive spells have an accuracy bonus to make up the gap eg. a Wizard has a pretty poor starting accuracy, so their weapon attacks aren't as accurate as say a Rogue's, but they get an accuracy bonus to spells to make up for that.

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

let's see if that "front line" thinking will work with RTwP and AI controlled enemies.

I bet 4$ that as soon as battle starts AI will simply rush at closest target and AI won't be looking for "front line" at all proving that front line and Real time can't exist together.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/obsidian/project-eternity/posts/415136

 

[SCO]

:incloosive:

 

[Infinitron]

Problem?

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

Problem?

no I like it, can't wait for the game, it looks awesome.

I was just commenting on JS antics in the video, maybe he is always like that, don't watch the videos usually. Nothing wrong with it either, I thought it was funny... he is much more comfortable with himself than I would be on a video that's for sure.

 

[circ]

That means you'll spam these abilities before getting maimed then. But permadeath is good news

Strangeways Savescumming here we come. Great design there.

 

[Athelas]

That means you'll spam these abilities before getting maimed then. But permadeath is good news

You can disable 'maimed mode', in which case the character will immediately die if their health runs out completely, without being maimed first.