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

[ZagorTeNej]

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.

Yeah, but shouldn't you be throwing a fit that they're not balanced? As far as I understood, Ranger was supposed to be a ranged powerhouse, kinda bad that Fighters and Rogues are outclassing him in what's supposed to be his thing.

 

[Infinitron]

Yeah, but shouldn't you be throwing a fit that they're not balanced? As far as I understood, Ranger was supposed to be a ranged powerhouse, kinda bad that Fighters and Rogues are outclassing him in what's supposed to be his thing.

Maybe. Additional data is required(tm) now that the shared health mechanic has been removed.

I'm sure the game's balance won't be optimal on release, though. It's nothing to throw a fit over.

 

[ZagorTeNej]

Maybe. Additional data is required(tm) now that the shared health mechanic has been removed.

I'm sure the game's balance won't be optimal on release, though. It's nothing to throw a fit over.

A lot can change still before the release in regards to class balance (it's playing with numbers basically), as long as ranger's powerful enough to beat the game I don't really care all that much personally. What's important is that he is different enough compared to other non-caster (Figher, Barbarian etc.) classes and OE managed to accomplish that from what I've seen.

 

[Shevek]

Ranger pets do pretty crappy damage. I doubt they will be op with the removal of shared health.

Edit: Its too late for a major ranger rework but it would have been nice if they focused more on coordinated attacks with the pet to make it feel more different from other martial classes. Lets hope they work that into the expansion or sequel.

 

[Space Satan]

After watching this, I can't imagine how game would fare should Obsidian decide to keep their disgusting durability mechanic.

 

[Prime Junta]

Re the ranger, I ran through the BB with one a couple of times and compared it to a ranged rogue and ranged fighter. In BB392, the ranger just sucks balls, simple as that. I played through more or less the same quests more or less the same way with each of these, using each of them in the same role (full-time archer). Then I looked at damage output. Dedicated ranged rogue and dedicated ranged fighter were about equal (and far and away the best damage-dealers in the party), dedicated bow ranger was faaaaar behind and also extremely fiddly to play because I had to baby the pet all the time or risk getting knocked out because of the shared health pool.

To add insult to injury, I made one more run with a dedicated bow ranger with a high-quality war bow plus BB Rogue with a regular war bow, using both as full-time archers, and BB Rogue beat him again in damage by a wide margin, despite the handicaps. (Not close to dedicated ranged builds though.)

The class just doesn't work. It's supposed to be the ranged damage-dealer, and it's no good at dealing ranged damage. If you want an archer, you're better off with a fighter or rogue, both of which will also not suck at their "core" role even if you picked all the talents that support archery. Also the shared health pool feels contrived and wrong; it looks like they've dropped it though as it wasn't present in the Twitch stream. Some others have experimented with a melee ranger, and apparently that's actually a lot better -- only most of the class talents go to waste.

Fortunately I don't think it's hard to make it at least mechanically viable: drop the shared health pool, perhaps add some penalty if the pet gets knocked out, and beef up the numbers in the ranged talents. Basically make it a fighter with a pet. Not particularly exciting, but not so bad you'd kick Sagani out of the party because of her class. On top of that, add some dual-wieldy type things and I think the DnD nostalgics will be pretty happy even if it's functionally not that different from a rogue or fighter.

 

[Kem0sabe]

None of which will happen pre or post release. They are basically feature locked at this point for release in a couple of months. And knowing Obsidian's support track record, i very much doubt they will do much beyond fixing obvious bugs post launch.

 

[Infinitron]

None of which will happen pre or post release. They are basically feature locked at this point for release in a couple of months. And knowing Obsidian's support track record, i very much doubt they will do much beyond fixing obvious bugs post launch.

Uh, some of that has already happened. They removed the shared health pool. And "feature locking" doesn't include changing numbers.

 

[Tigranes]

None of which will happen pre or post release. They are basically feature locked at this point for release in a couple of months. And knowing Obsidian's support track record, i very much doubt they will do much beyond fixing obvious bugs post launch.

Remember when you could talk to people assuming they'd realise that publishers authorise, or alternatively forbid you from, releasing patches? Good times.

 

[Kem0sabe]

From the responses we have had lately from obsidian, in regards to changing or adding features, it usually goes like this "not at release".

That makes me think they won't change much beyond polish and bug crunching to release.

In regards to post release support, I figure obsidian will play it safe and much more traditionally than inxile or larian.

 

[Abu Antar]

From the responses we have had lately from obsidian, in regards to changing or adding features, it usually goes like this "not at release".

That makes me think they won't change much beyond polish and bug crunching to release.

In regards to post release support, I figure obsidian will play it safe and much more traditionally than inxile or larian.

I hope not. I don't mind them fixing the game in whatever way the deem necessary after release.

 

[Athelas]

They've already announced an expansion, which inevitably comes with changes to the existing game mechanics and systems of the base game. Or even the content of the base game, if it's an expansion like Tales of the Sword Coast.

 

[Infinitron]

Two words: JESawyer mod.

Only this time it'll be official.

 

[Tigranes]

From the responses we have had lately from obsidian, in regards to changing or adding features, it usually goes like this "not at release".

That makes me think they won't change much beyond polish and bug crunching to release.

In regards to post release support, I figure obsidian will play it safe and much more traditionally than inxile or larian.

Well, the first part of your post is separate from the second part of your post, and the second part of your post doesn't feature any reasoning or justification. So I guess you just repeated your 'gut feeling', which, according to your previous post, is based on holding Obsidian responsible for patches that publishers greenlight or not.

If they have any modicum of intelligence and POE doesn't sell, like, 3 copies, they'd do extensive post-release support. Maybe not as crazy as Larian, but it would be silly not to.

 

[Prime Junta]

They are currently doing massive tuning. JES said so right in the Twitch stream. New talents may (or may not) be out, but the shared health pool is gone, and numbers will be adjusted.

They even revamped the attribute system (again) between BB392 and Josh's Twitch.

If P:E does well I'm quite sure the post-release support will be more NWN2 than FO:NV. That kept receiving patches for a looong time, many backported from the extensions. They do have an extension already worked on, you know, and have said on multiple occasions they want to do sequels. The character system is designed to scale up to level 50 which would put it into or even past ToB level of derp/epic.

 

[Excommunicator]

Two words: JESawyer mod.

Only this time it'll be official.

What does it say about the state of the industry when a game designer has to mod his own game to make it the way he wants.

What a disgrace.

 

[Stelcio]

What does it say about the state of the industry when a game designer has to mod his own game to make it the way he wants.

What a disgrace.

He is just one dev in a whole team. It's obvious that the game won't end up exactly like HE wants it to be.

 

[made]

They removed the shared health pool.

Why was there a shared health pool to begin with? Who would ever th- nah never mind, best to remain ignorant to the whole beta madness and wait for the "finished" product.

Game looks amazing - and utterly boring when played by someone else. Won't let Sawyer spoil my fun.

 

[Zetor]

Maybe rangers are weaker than others because they come with a permanent extra target / meatshield for enemy AI to waste their attacks on?

 

[Prime Junta]

Why was there a shared health pool to begin with? Who would ever th- nah never mind, best to remain ignorant to the whole beta madness and wait for the "finished" product..

Can't just give a free meat shield with a class. It would not be

 

[Infinitron]

Here's a YouTube version of the stream:

 

[Rake]

Two words: JESawyer mod.

Only this time it'll be official.

Bester&Sensuki mod will be better.

 

[Gondolin]

Bester&Sensuki mod will be better.

In before Ascension mod for PoE, by the same author.

 

[Kem0sabe]

Well, the first part of your post is separate from the second part of your post, and the second part of your post doesn't feature any reasoning or justification. So I guess you just repeated your 'gut feeling', which, according to your previous post, is based on holding Obsidian responsible for patches that publishers greenlight or not.

All we do here is conjecture.

If they have any modicum of intelligence and POE doesn't sell, like, 3 copies, they'd do extensive post-release support. Maybe not as crazy as Larian, but it would be silly not to.

Why? Obsidian is not exactly a small indie studio

Spoiler

If it's not financially viable to keep supporting PoE with added content, outside of paid expansions, they wont and move unto their next projects to make more money.

I'm not seeing them releasing large post release "remastered version" like Larian and inxile are planning for their games (i said planning, not doing, thats still to be seen).

 

[Infinitron]

CD Projekt is also not a small indie studio

Why do you try so hard