Eternity Pillars of Eternity + The White March Expansion Thread

[Roguey]

People who like PoE1 as a whole should play more and better RPGs. PoE is bottom tier.

I've played tons. Some people just have different tastes, preferences.

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

PoE 1 has a lot of redeeming qualities, least of which is its sublime atmosphere. You can dislike it for whatever reason you want, but calling it bottom tier is going to be really hard to justify.

 

[Max Damage]

Codex's initial kneejerk reaction to Pillars was pretty embarrassing.

PoE 1.0 was its own level of decline, if people didn't give it enough shit we'd end up with even worse game and sequel as result. I'm not saying PoE ended up being good in the end, but holy fuck it was disgusting to put so much faith and anticipation into Obsidian finally getting their own release "without those damn big studios holding them back", and then it comes out and is just as dumbed down as contemporary slop, if not more.

 

[Nano]

Ah, I see. Oooooookay.

The gif you wanted to post:

 

[NJClaw]

This PoE1 revisionism is concerning.

People unironically praise NWN on this site and THIS is what concerns you?!

Lmao people recommend Realms of Arkania HD on this site and you're getting all worked up about Nwn

Realms of what? Never heard of it.

 

[luj1]

People who like PoE1 as a whole should play more and better RPGs. PoE is bottom tier.

I've played tons. Some people just have different tastes, preferences.

You rate Arcanum below Pillars, so opinion worthless...

The guy is 1000% right

 

[luj1]

PoE 1 has a lot of redeeming qualities, least of which is its sublime atmosphere.

sublime means unparalleled, excellent... so let's see

In a wretched land where soulless babies are born and my kind killed at birth (I played a Death godlike), everyone was treating me with a generic "How may I be of assistance Sir?"

sorry that is a bunch of bullshit...

Want good atmosphere? Morrowind, Arcanum, Fallout and so on...

when you hear YOU N'WAH or We are watching you SCUM, you know you are isolated on a xenophobic volcanic island.... that's how you do atmosphere proper JarlFrank

You can dislike it for whatever reason you want, but calling it bottom tier is going to be really hard to justify.

there are *fundamental* reasons why Pillars is bottom tier - poor writing, bizarre ruleset and copy-pasted worldbuilding... it's quite easy to justify

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Isn't Pillars the one where they removed backer content because it was a limerick making fun of ladyboys?

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

it's quite easy to justify

I don't know what constitutes as atmosphere to you, but I was referring to it in the literal sense. I like the dark and hopeless atmosphere and the prevailing sense of evil that permeates everything. I'm not going to go into story and gameplay, but this game has some of my favorite evil moments in any CRPG, namely feeding a little girl to a zombie as a quest solution, and sacrificing companions at a dark god's altar for stat gains. If you can recommend a better game that captures some of those elements, i'd be happy to give it a try.

And yeah I have played Morrowind, Fallout, Arcanum, etc. etc. Those are great games. I didn't say PoE is better than any of them.

 

[chuft]

No one ever mentions Tyranny. Thought it used the same system and was ideal for people who liked playing evil characters.

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

No one ever mentions Tyranny. Thought it used the same system and was ideal for people who liked playing evil characters.

I am of the controversial opinion that PoE is a lot more evil than Tyranny. I found Tyranny really wacky and in some cases cartoonishly evil.

 

[mediocrepoet]

This PoE1 revisionism is concerning.

People unironically praise NWN on this site and THIS is what concerns you?!

NWN is a great game with a passionate fanbase. PoE1 is mediocre in the best of times and outright bad otherwise.

You think NWN is better than POE and they allow you to walk the streets freely?

Lmao people recommend Realms of Arkania HD on this site and you're getting all worked up about Nwn

I think there's a real argument that RoA HD is superior to NWN OC.

 

[mediocrepoet]

No one ever mentions Tyranny. Thought it used the same system and was ideal for people who liked playing evil characters.

People forget that it exists.

 

[Lacrymas]

You think NWN is better than POE and they allow you to walk the streets freely?

It depends on what you mean by this. Do I think NWN OC is better than PoE? No. Do I think other content, especially user-made campaigns, is better than PoE? Yes, definitely, no contest.

 

[mediocrepoet]

It depends on what you mean by this. Do I think NWN OC is better than PoE? No. Do I think other content, especially user-made campaigns, is better than PoE? Yes, definitely, no contest.

That's fair. I'd suggest that's not actually NWN, but that's a totally separate argument and certainly something that isn't obvious one way or another.

 

[BlackAdderBG]

No one ever mentions Tyranny. Thought it used the same system and was ideal for people who liked playing evil characters.

You thought wrong, it doesn't.

 

[Lacrymas]

Tyranny's writing has nuclear levels of cringe and I've never been able to play a lot of it because of that.

 

[Lhynn]

sublime atmosphere.

What the fuck? Which atmosphere?
Atmosphere of what? I am still having trouble determining what that world is even about.

I know you had tribes led by women, I know there are guns that go through magic, I know the gods are "artificial gods" if such a thing exists, and im not sure why anyone would give a flying fuck about that. I know there are niggers everywhere, but they act like white people.

What the fuck is the atmosphere?

 

[chuft]

There is some hilariously bad dialog with the assassins after you come out of Lle a Rhemen. Some choice nuggets of PoE writing. The theme here seems to be lips, chins, mouths, and teeth, along with fingers.


She draws a smile, pale and full, that droops below her recessed chin. (I keep trying to grasp what this could actually mean.)

"You've got a noble heart." The woman wets her lips.

The complacent smile on the woman's lips vanishes.

A corpulent man, muscled beneath rolls of fat, snaps his head in the woman's direction. "I've heard it too! Kills without thinking twice, this one." The jowls under his chin quiver as he spits the words out.

"Shut up!" The command whistles through her clenched teeth.

A cowled man, cleaning his fingernails with the point of a long stiletto, doesn't let the silence last "I told you he had too big a mouth... boss."

She stares at the ground, her lips hanging down like ripe fruits.

The fighter hammers his fat finger against his temple. "I remember. I do!"

"Not much guarantee, I see." She plucks at her pale lower lip, flushing it red, and shakes her head.



The writing did make an impression but not in a good way.

 

[La vie sexuelle]

There are two schools of bad writing. The first one is simplification and basing on image descriptions. The second is poetic metaphors and the search for metaphysics where there is none. PoE definitely took the second path. There are a lot of strange associations in this language, such as "an arrow sticking out of the back like a flag" and unnecessary facial expressions in the dialogues. They focus so much on those lips because the characters do nothing but talk. So why describe anything other than a statement at all?

I think that the style that Elmore Leonard adopted for his crime stories would be completely satisfactory in this type of games.

 

[Dark Souls II]

No one ever mentions Tyranny. Thought it used the same system and was ideal for people who liked playing evil characters.

1. The most broken itemization of any isometric RPG ever, none of the gear you collect matters because you eventually get quests for legendary gear, that are a part of the main quest, and the main quest gear shits on anything you've collected. This means every character will use the same shit
2. You will fight the same 3 opponents throughout the entire game. Blue faction human enemies, red faction human enemies, and the boring spectre things. There is zero encounter variety.
3. No build variety whatsoever, my dude ended up being a 2h greatsword fighter who can also tank, buff and heal the entire party and nuke the enemies with powerful AOE magic... gay

 

[Axel_am]

I was actually involved with Pillars production as an external contractor and it was a great adventure. I considered the final product to be decent enough to purchase my own copy afterwards. It's not a milestone gaming achievement like Baldur's Gate or something but it was decent enough and I might replay it again someday.

Fun fact: Pillars used to have a bunch of geese, but they were removed after a few attempts at fixing their animations.

Talk about getting fulfilment out of your 9 to 5. I would love to work on a project like Pillars or anything similar to that.
I take it you were the guy working on geese? Was there any chance of a Tony Soprano cameo?

 

[Axel_am]

The few snippets of memorable ideas in PoE1 are not enough to offset the remaining 98% of the base game. Everything in terms of content in base game is as basic as possible and goes nowhere fast. That's because they bloated the game too much with the Kickstarter goals, so everything is undercooked and just thrown in there.

Have to disagree here. The memorable ideas are really in Pillars but they lack the execution in some cases. If anything those ideas were pushed to the wrong side in Pillars 2, or not fully developed in Pillars 1. But again, I've had memorable times in Pillars by just clearing the earlier levels of the Endless Paths. I kept pushing my party to go further and further without having to rest which resulted in Durance getting sniped by some slimy oozes. I even have tons of screenshots from that session.

My idea is that the playground for you to have fun in Pillars is there.

 

[Axel_am]

PoE is a mediocre game all in all.

It's a great game up until Caed Nua but afterwards it all just falls apart, especially because of the home-cooked combat system and the lack of storyline progression. White March is fantastic though.

Don't people here describe The Witcher 3 in a similar way? The base game is shit but the expansions slap?

 

[Sergio]

I was actually involved with Pillars production as an external contractor and it was a great adventure. I considered the final product to be decent enough to purchase my own copy afterwards. It's not a milestone gaming achievement like Baldur's Gate or something but it was decent enough and I might replay it again someday.

Fun fact: Pillars used to have a bunch of geese, but they were removed after a few attempts at fixing their animations.

Talk about getting fulfilment out of your 9 to 5. I would love to work on a project like Pillars or anything similar to that.
I take it you were the guy working on geese? Was there any chance of a Tony Soprano cameo?

I was a part of external QA for the whole project. Also the first person ever to complete TCS (which caused a bunch of nerfs to stuff like figurines). The geese kept getting fixed and broken for months until the devs finally gave up. And yes, despite the fact that I was barely earning a living wage, working on a cRPG was the most fun I ever had in work.

I don't remember anything about Tony Soprano.