Continued:
The story of White March Part 2 is based on something new that happens "meanwhile" during your actions in Part 1, and as a consequence of them. You'll learn more about the mysteries of the White March area.
Raising the level cap, new features, spells, abilities. It's going to be designed as the "capstone" of the entire Pillars of Eternity experience.
A bit of talk about the new short stories. "Blood Register" isn't based on a character from the game, unlike the other ones.
Some talk about the Lords of the Eastern Reach card game as well. Josh has also provided some feedback on that, both on balance and on lore. He's even written some lore for it.
Some talk about the future of Pillars of Eternity and how great it is that they own the IP so they can do whatever they want. "Some people might want a super-hardcore turn-based tactical game in the setting, we can do that".
"A lot of fans have criticized us about stuff, and you know, they're right. We can't fix it all in the base game, but maybe in the sequel."
Obsidian has close to 200 employees. up from a recent low of 70-75. Happy to be stable and independent for once.
Talking about the "Bugsidian" rep. Josh doesn't feel
too bad about this, because big complex game with lots of choices will always have lots of bugs. He's proud of Dungeon Siege 3 for being solid and bug-free, and thinks that team deserves more credit.
Josh views Pillars of Eternity as an "ongoing product", same as Armored Warfare. He brings up his New Vegas mod as a similar thing. Sorry
IHaveHugeNick, the balance stops for nobody. Improvements and fixes will transfer onto the sequel.
"A lot of my fans know I find balance very important".
Now some personal questions:
Favorite videogame protagonist - Ben from Full Throttle. Even though there were a lot of things he didn't like about the game itself. He liked his subtle, low-key characterization (of course!)
Favorite antagonist - the Master from Fallout. It's important to him that antagonists be internally consistent even if he doesn't agree with them. Also the Master looks cool. Some love for Obsidian's Brian Menze who made the Fallout sprites that way, and also for Mark Morgan for the music.
Things that he'd like to see more of - Transparent mechanics. Stories with themes that are applicable to real life. He's not a fan of videogames as pure escapism. The choice and consequence available in videogames makes real life themes more powerful, as opposed to being told as a moral at the end of a book or a film.
Lots of love for Alpha Protocol's C&C. He mentions Chris Avellone by name, as well as Travis Stout, saying they did a great job. He wants to see more games like that.
Things that he'd like to see less of - Zombies. "It's 2015, man!"
What you'd be doing if you weren't a game developer - making bicycle frames. Interviewer: "That is probably the weirdest answer I've ever gotten."
Lots of talk about his bike riding and bicycle frame craftsmanship hobby.
What game would you play again for the first time - the original Fallout or Hitman: Blood Money. He likes experimenting and cheesing with the AI in Blood Money.
What would you like to hear at the gates of heaven after dying - "Not too bad, man."
He occasionally comes across inconsistencies in released lore material due to this shift.
