Preview Pillars of Eternity played by Josh Sawyer, live on Twitch!

[Sensuki]

Probably the same, I think. Oh but I think Rangers got another look between v392 and now, so they might be a bit better in the next patch. No more shared health, thankfully.

 

[Kalin]

Something I really enjoy in Planetskype: The Tournaments is that most every NPC in areas like the Hive has some rewarding dialogue. There are plenty of unique characters who can tell you about the setting and drop some hints about quests. The rat vendor is a personal favourite, really swell chap who tells you about the cranium rat tail bounty. Collecting them and getting the special quest is hardly game-changing, but those little things help flesh out a city. You can also ask filler characters like commoners, harlots and collectors about the areas you visit, the city in general and things related to your main quest. Sometimes these folks point you in the right direction as well or have special banter with some of your party members.

The responses from these filler characters also vary depending on their sub-type and area. Not every dude walking the streets is the same, and it goes a long way to make the areas seem more alive. Angry commoners can even be intimidated to answer questions against their will, or engaged in full flaming Ironyuri "u wot m8" fights for the hell of it. Even the Giths, horse-men and Abishai can be talked to, and the "silent" filler characters like the Dabus or shoppers at the markets have a couple of sentences in the dialogue window describing why they won't converse with you. Might sound like a small thing, but it adds a lot more to the atmosphere than some guy standing around in the middle of town with a line hovering over his head, or just playing a generic sound when you click on him.

Now of course, this isn't the Torment: Tides of Numiwhatever kickstarter, but it's still a shame to see them half-assedly copy the low points of Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale when they could do so much better.

As the wise man said:

A BRO SHGOULD BE ABLE TO KILL OR TALK TO ANY MOTHERFUCKER

THE WORLD SHOULD SEEM LIKE A REAL WORLD BROS THEY COULD DOP THIS SHIT IN THE 80S

 

[AN4RCHID]

Man, some of those character models really blend in with the background.

 

[Starwars]

Adam Brennecke posted that ambient maps and lighting are still being tweaked for areas so that will hopefully get a bit better at least.

 

[DawnrazorDCLXVI]

It looks too cliche to me. Is it just me, or is everyone getting tired of the same old settings, set to the same fantasy tropes? Gimme Planescape, anyday.

 

[Abu Antar]

It looks too cliche to me. Is it just me, or is everyone getting tired of the same old settings, set to the same fantasy tropes? Gimme Planescape, anyday.

I sort of am in general, but this is what they pitched.

What I would like to see is some fucked up world that is freaky and makes no sense. Go wild and do whatever you feel like. I want to think to myself while exploring "What the fuck is going on?"

 

[J_C]

It looks too cliche to me. Is it just me, or is everyone getting tired of the same old settings, set to the same fantasy tropes? Gimme Planescape, anyday.

Meh, I always liked the Forgotten Realms setting, so i won't complain if I get something similar. And this is supposed to be more interesting, after we see the whole picture.

 

[Roguey]

Is it just me, or is everyone getting tired of the same old settings, set to the same fantasy tropes?

It's just you and a few others. Paraphrasing Josh, for every person who complains about generic fantasy, there are many more who eat it up.

 

[Zed]

I fucking love generic fantasy

almost to the point where I think pillars of eternity is too exotic

 

[*-*/\--/\~]

I dig the BG style... if they used TOEE mechanics/ruleset, I'd probably buy like 4 copies. :D

 

[Shevek]

What is Shevek's opinion on this

Just started watched part of the Twitch stream. My reactions (up to the 1 hour and 2 minute mark; cant finish it at the moment):
- Stronghold looks good. Huge improvement over BG2. I LOVE that the stronghold is sitting on top of the mega dungeon - great idea, gives you more opportunities to take advantage of stronghold rest bonuses.
- I like that Kana acts as a bit of a tour guide for you; makes sense for the class. Well done.
- First combat looked good. He handled that well for running with a 5 man party. It would have been much easier for him with 6. He used stealth well, chose his targets and was able to succeed without pausing constantly (several actions taken in the moment).
- The fight where Durance goes down is great. He had to react to a situation and use positioning to use an AoE effectively. He was able to make up for a poor early decision and still win.
- Tiny White Wyrm Pet = cool
- Encounter design seems significantly improved over beta. I love that they made stealth useful in approaching combat. I wouldnt say it was necessary but every character in my party will have some points in stealth.
- I love the trap placement. Trap damage seems punishing but fair.
- Loot looks good.
- Aloth interjection --> very IE like. Good VO.
- At the 30 minute mark, good use of buffs/skills. That combat looked good.
- 33 minute mark, very little pausing needed. Love it. Sure, he could have been "more efficient" but its nice that he can show that isnt needed
- I like that guys can go down and thats ok. Its not a reload. They get knocked out and you have to deal with it buts not an insta reload. Awesome. The Head Priest battle was intense. Casters in the beta were chumps. Its nice to see they have some beefy casters that you go up against.
- Overall, that level of the mega dungeon they showed was fucking fantastic.
- Sagani join/interjection dialogues were cool.
- Defiance Bay looks great. I love how random npc groups are chatting it up as you walk by. Similarly, I like that random NPC party you run into.

Frankly, game looks absolutely fantastic. I can't wait for the next beta patch next week. I think I will do another playthrough series with it.

 

[Gurkog]

My expectations for this game are equal to BG1. A simple design that is more a basic framework than a fleshed out experience. The expansion will probably add a bit of concentrated story, lore, and tighter design. The sequel will take the basic design and pile on everything that seemed lacking or missing from the first.

EDIT: Expecting BG2 is just setting your self up for extreme disappointment.

 

[Infinitron]

Actually, Shevek, I meant your opinion on the Ranger class when using a bow

 

[Shevek]

The ranger using the bow? I dont like rangers much. Fighter using a bow seems better thanks to confident aim and weapon spec. In my tests, they are way way better. Also, the shared health thing with the pet just ruins the ranger for me. Have they gotten rid of that yet?

 

[eremita]

The ranger using the bow? I dont like rangers much. Fighter using a bow seems better thanks to confident aim and weapon spec. In my tests, they are way way better. Also, the shared health thing with the pet just ruins the ranger for me. Have they gotten rid of that yet?

That is sad to hear. I hope they fix it, classes should be one of their top priority.

In what way is the Ranger broken? Can they solve it by just tweak the numbers or is it neccessary to go back to drawing board? When they introduced the classes, Rogue and Ranger were meant to be the "heavy hitters".

Also, shared HP was fucking dumb right from the start. Who came up with that?

 

[Duraframe300]

It looks too cliche to me. Is it just me, or is everyone getting tired of the same old settings, set to the same fantasy tropes? Gimme Planescape, anyday.

Nope.

Depends all on execution in my case. Which is why for me there are actually vast differences between Eternity and Forgotten Realms.

There are settings I'm less interested in, but thats inherently so. Also I do like more *out there* settings, but they have to be executed well too.

Pretentious *Originality for Originality's sake* holds no appeal to me.

Shevek Yeah, they did get rid of it recently.

 

[Shevek]

That is sad to hear. I hope they fix it, classes should be one of their top priority.

In what way is the Ranger broken? Can they solve it by just tweak the numbers or is it neccessary to go back to drawing board? When they introduced the classes, Rogue and Ranger were meant to be the "heavy hitters".

Also, shared HP was fucking dumb right from the start. Who came up with that?

Well, they removed the shared health apparently. That is huge and should make them much better. The pet was basically a liability before that change. I might still prefer a fighter at range though due to superior hp while still putting out very respectable dmg. Theres other issues too but I will try them next patch to see how they play.

 

[Infinitron]

Funny thing is that when these classes were introduced some people accused Josh of pigeonholing them into "MMO roles" - specifically, removing all incentive to use ranged fighters and melee rangers. Well, what do you know.

 

[Copper]

It's just you and a few others. Paraphrasing Josh, for every person who complains about generic fantasy, there are many more who eat it up.

I'm always a bit dubious about this statement - go into a bookshop, look at the fantasy section, and tell me how many orcs and elves books/settings there are. Fantasy has more problems with shitty cliches and plotting aiming for 'epic' than it does with everyone trotting out the same lame settings. (Ironically, PoE breaks with one of the big no-nos that's more or less present in most fantasy fiction, which is firearms being present.)

This project is sold on nostalgia, so fair enough, but to just be 'lol, only trad high-fantasy sells to our market' is just as bad as saying 'well, the grogs want to keep these sacred features, so let's throw them a few bones'. Sure, it's true for someone who's a FR nut or whose idea of fantasy is WoW, but it's like the female protagonists don't sell thing. Nothing sells if you don't market it properly.

Admittedly, hitting the spot between 'no dwarf, no sale' and 'lol, isn't fantasy for nerds' is probably tricky, but fuck, the Longest Journey sold 450,000 copies by 2002, and I doubt they had an excellent marketing campaign (demo is shit, for one thing). And yes, they were conservative there too in a lot of the fantasy stuff, but mostly in the same way modern fantasy is, ie cliche and epic (+dragons).

 

[eremita]

Funny thing is that when these classes were introduced some people accused Josh of pigeonholing them into "MMO roles" - specifically, removing all incentive to use ranged fighters and melee rangers. Well, what do you know.

That is still a relevant compaint. But I get Sawyer's intentions. The thing is, IE games allowed you to make a ranged Fighter/melee Ranger, therefore, it's justified to demand it in a "spiritual succesor to IE games". Countering with: But that's why there are Rogues/Fighters if you wanna play a melee stealth/armored warrior class, is not actually a counterargument at all. It's just a look on the matter from different angle (why have classes at all, when there are build possibilities which basically make the classes undistinguishable?), but doesn't deal with the problem (it's a smart-ass answer to fans really and it's only gonna upset them). Countering would be something like: "Spiritual succesor" doesn't neccessarily mean copy/paste all the features... Sawyer recognized this and therefore reacted in only reasonable way, which is considering how much important (defining) options in choosing your own weapon, resp. combat style were in IE games, especially BG. (It's the only reasonable way because if you're gonna make a spiritual successor, you should ask yourself about features which were really substantial in the original game.) That's why Sawyer said something like (i'm not gonna search for quote, are you you fucking kidding me?!): It seems melee Rangers are important for a lot of people (so it seems it might have been an substantial feature) so we're going to try figure out some melee stuff for Rangers. The fact they in the end didn't is another matter.

 

[34scell]

 

[*-*/\--/\~]

I'm always a bit dubious about this statement - go into a bookshop, look at the fantasy section, and tell me how many orcs and elves books/settings there are. Fantasy has more problems with shitty cliches and plotting aiming for 'epic' than it does with everyone trotting out the same lame settings. (Ironically, PoE breaks with one of the big no-nos that's more or less present in most fantasy fiction, which is firearms being present.)

Fantasy has problems with lots of it being shit in general - every other guy thinks he can just slap some orcs/elves/dwarves/dragons in his lame fanfic thinking this somehow makes it good fantasy.

 

[cfisher2833]

I thought it was looking pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good, but my god does Obsidian need to learn how to fucking stream. I had my volume cranked up like crazy and I could barely hear what the fuck Sawyer was ever saying, and couldn't hear just about anything happening in the game. Get a professional mic and shit, and put it at 1080p!

 

[Crescent Hawk]

Damn they actually improved the animations. I am really glad. Its looking solid even for rtwp.

 

[Copper]

Looks pretty good, having watched the start, bunch of basic design disasters in the typography that'll hopefully get tweaked though.