Obsidian's "Pillars of Eternity"

[Bunk]

Ok, so I backed these guys really early on, and I don't regret it. If the game even comes out, it should be worth the $20 I paid.

So I just went in to "verify my pledge" as they requested. Holy fucking money grab attempt Batman!

In addition to offering me a chance to upgrade to the various higher kickstarter levels - most of which just included art downloads and other silly fluff - they offered me:

$25 beta access key (more than I'm paying for the game)
$8 Order of Obsidian!!! (an $8 forum title)

I'm just hoping this isn't a sign that they're running out of money.

[Yegolev]

You can never be too rich or too good looking.

[Sky]

The forum title is because people went nuts in the KS comments with that stuff. Same thing happened with Garriot's KS comments.

I don't understand why you'd want to play the beta of this game, really. Seems like it would spoil the release.

[Lucas]

I've just dug up a post on rpgcodex (dated 19th October 2013) which mentioned an official post by Adam Brennecke (Project Director) regarding the beta spoilers issue :

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/obsidians-pillars-of-eternity-formerly-known-as-project-eternity.75947/page-886#post-2918194

2.) The backer beta will not contain story spoilers. We are still discussing exactly what we want to do for it.

[Malakili]

 

[Sky]

wat

[HaemishM]

That's not a good sign. 

Gameplay video looked good though.

[Lucas]

I don't know, hmm....Maybe a standalone module, or a series of small modules, using all the existing features they have for the main campaign, so that we can test and provide feedback on the mechanics alone?  Among other things, the problem is that, from what I know, the dev team is pretty small.

[Yegolev]

Pretty sure that means the storyline is DLC.

[Teleku]

Doesn't seem too weird to me.  Point of Beta is mainly to test for bugs and optimize the game.  They don't need the main plot for that.  Just slap together a small random town with a big dungeon entrance on one end for people to smash their way through.  No plot, just lots of monsters and gobs of random quests events to test triggers and balance combat.  Maybe even increase the leveling speed or something.  Similar to how Blizzards beta for Diablo 3 was just playing the first 20 minutes of the game.  They should be able to get everything they need from a mass beta this way.  Their own internal testers should be able to then find any glaring bugs or glitches in the main quest campaign.

[Yegolev]

Obsidian's internal testers?

[Sky]

April 1st comes earlier every year.

[Teleku]

Ok, true, I forgot this is obsidian.  

But the main point is that you don't need to have people play the actual game in order to test the engine out and make sure most things works.

[HaemishM]

But the main point is that you don't need to have people play the actual game in order to test the engine out and make sure most things works.

But you do if you want to test whether encounters are buggy, whether quests are balanced or even work, etc.

[lamaros]

I'm assuming they just mean 'main story arc' spoilers, not all text...

[Yegolev]

But the main point is that you don't need to have people play the actual game in order to test the engine out and make sure most things works.

Have you played Skyrim?

[Ingmar]

Skyrim has a story?

[Tannhauser]

It's the story of a bitter ex-adventurer forced to become a city guard due to an unfortunate injury.

[Lucas]

Oh, by the way: maybe you didn't know this but today, through the second part of an interview on "Rock, Paper, Shotgun", Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart (thank you, copy&paste!) will reveal another KS that his company will launch soon (nope, not Eternity 2).

Speculation?

[Teleku]

KoToR 3!!!!11!   

[Yegolev]

The name of the KS should be Speculation.

[Lucas]

The name of the KS should be Speculation.

Or either a "spiritual successor" (hate this wording) to Vampire: Bloodlines with Tim Cain as Project Director 

Anyway, RPS trolled us yesterday, no interview, so maybe we'll see something today.

[Bunk]

Or either a "spiritual successor" (hate this wording) to Vampire: Bloodlines with Tim Cain as Project Director 

Stop it, don't even make jokes about that. I've come to grips with the fact that that world is dead and gone. Putting hints of false hope in to my mind is just cruel.

[Fabricated]

I'd be happy with a Bloodline remake that just consisted of rebuilding the game in the current source engine and updating all the graphical assets; even if they left the rest of the game exactly as it is and reused all of the voice assets.

[Ingmar]

That license has gone to Iceland to die though.

[Lucas]

Ok, a few updates:

- With Update #71 (written by Josh Sawyer), things are starting to get more detailed:
http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/65025-update-71-the-heavy-hitters-rogues-and-rangers/

They go much more in-depth when it comes to the combat mechanics of Rogue and Rangers, at least the early level ones

- Update #72 (written by Jr. Producer Rose Gomez):
http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/65115-update-72-death-godlike-and-expected-ship-date/

* New release window: Winter 2014

* Among other things, a couple lovely screenshots:

Such atmosphere 
---

- Interview with Josh Sawyer on Eurogamer: no romances in Pillars of Eternity! (more in the interview...I mean, not more romances, just more stuff to read :P) 
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-02-10-pillars-of-eternity-interview-off-cuts

Some drama unfolding about this on the official forums, by Bioware aficionados 

- How much areas will PoE have compared to the IE games?
http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/65110-how-big-is-game-map/

Sawyer answers:

We don't have a final area count but it's pretty high, comfortably in the IE game range.

Which I suppose is quite good, quantity wise: of course we'll see how dense of things to do those areas will be.

Please don't suck 

[Tannhauser]

This game needs to come out.  Now.

[rk47]

They need to start selling horses.

[Ceryse]

- Interview with Josh Sawyer on Eurogamer: no romances in Pillars of Eternity! (more in the interview...I mean, not more romances, just more stuff to read :P) 
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-02-10-pillars-of-eternity-interview-off-cuts

I've liked the vast, vast majority of what I've seen from this game. Channels the nostalgia for the Baldur's Gate series very well. That said, I see the lack of romances as an issue, albeit a minor one, simply because of how good the romances in the BG series were (especially when compared to the very low bar of more recent games). I mean, the romances happened over time, were gradual, involved actual character development, and actually varied from character to character (Jaheira's romance progressed in a vastly different manner than that of Viconia's). Hell, with Aerie you had a kid -- that you had to tote around in your inventory like your own, less-epic, Boo. As someone who mainly does romance options in-games for the sake of seeing how bad they are.. BG romances were actually interesting -- especially since you could fuck things up instead of just constant yes/no options.

So seeing them say they're not doing romances is a bit disappointing. Likely the right choice, but disappointing.

Still, only a minor issue and hardly something I'll give a shit about when the game comes out.

[MournelitheCalix]

Obsidian's internal testers?

Yeah judging by KOTOR 2 and NWN2 those guys need to be immediately fired.

[Lucas]

So, here's a 25 minutes gameplay preview with Project Director Josh Sawyer:

http://www.giantbomb.com/videos/quick-look-ex-pillars-of-eternity/2300-9224/

I'm only 5 minutes in, but I'm already drowning in nostalgia  . Obsidian surely played it safe; maybe too safe? We'll see (probably not, looking at D:OS success and how PE might take advantage of that). Story needs to be good.


Backer's beta lands on August 18th (a KS update about it should be forthcoming).

[Ingmar]

Welp guess I'm replaying BG2 again.

[Merusk]

Oh sweet, I had stopped following so I didn't realize it was hitting beta finally. I only pledged enough to get myself a copy when it finally releases.

[Lucas]

Regarding spoilers in the above mentioned video (and others popping up around the Net showing the same demo); yeah, dialogues, in-game cutscenes are present (not voiced anyway), but just take your eyes off the screen while they're on and listen to the commentary.

I especially like how the 3D characters blend into the scenery (and how smooth their movement is): a few months ago this was quite an issue during a brief clip they published. Combat doesn't look particularly exciting, but hey...Lv1 chars vs wolves and similar stuff, with a D&D-like approach.

Sorry rk47, no barrel orgy for ya!!  

[rk47]

Click. Swing. Swing. Swing. Swing. Swing. Enemy down. Collect EXP.
Fighting Ooze. Swing above its model.
Story development is too hard to animate in game, CGI is expensive.
Let's give multiple choice over static image.
Gotta love RPGs. *brings out hamster and two hander*