Obsidian's "Pillars of Eternity"

[Lucas]

you tell them!! 

Meanwhile, here's the last KS update before launch:

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/71670-update-92-reward-redemption/

Excerpt:

Update by Josh Sawyer, Project Director and Brandon Adler, Lead Producer
 
Hey, everyone. After two and a half years, we're happy that you're finally going be able to get your hands on Pillars of Eternity. It's been a great pleasure to work on a traditional PC RPG again and it wouldn't have been possible without your interest, support, and feedback. We hope that playing Pillars of Eternity gives you the same feelings you had when you played the Infinity Engine games. Many of you have told us how much these games have meant to you over the years. It's always been our goal to recapture that experience as well as we can. We've worked hard to provide you with a beautiful world to explore, flexible systems that allow you to build all the characters and parties you can dream up, and a rich story that responds to the choices you make. Nothing can replace the Infinity Engine games, but we hope Pillars of Eternity is a worthy successor to that heritage.
 
Thank you again for all you have done.
 
-Josh Sawyer

Simple and straight to the point.
----

I can't find the post now, but yesterday I think I read something about a possible Day 1 patch (not sure, though).

[lamaros]

The manual is not filling me with confidence.

[Ceryse]

There is going to be a day one patch (last minute changes and fixes, I believe).

Should be a good game. More companions would be my biggest request -- and improved modding support, of course -- for DLC/expansions/sequels (I have no doubt it will sell well enough to merit such). It won't be as good as the games it is emulating, but, really, BG2, Torment and such are pretty high bars.

[Sky]

Also, this is basically an indie project given the funding levels. I imagine if it does well there might be a better sequel, a BG2 kind of more sprawling game.

[Lucas]

350 portraits, plus 59 more:

http://imgur.com/a/eOhqV (350)

http://imgur.com/a/1bQAJ  (59)

[Lucas]

Reviews are coming in; for what is worth, PC Gamer gave it 92 (IGN Russia 10/10  ) :

http://www.pcgamer.com/pillars-of-eternity-review/

[lesion]

Hm. Rogue solo playthrough?

[Malakili]

I'm going to wait for a sale, but looks good.

[Xilren's Twin]

Hm. Rogue solo playthrough?

My understanding is in this game Rogues are more assassins, where trap detection and disarm is the Mechanics skill which anyone can learn...

BTW, day 1 patch and im guessing the server is getting hammered b/c it's a slow download.

[MrHat]

There are so many delicious numbers.

[calapine]

Does anyone know what this:



exactly does? A quick google search didn't reveal anything more detailed...

[Father mike]

My take was that Expert mode disabled the little scrolls that appear in the upper right corner explaining game mechanics.  More specifically, explaining game mechanics that differ from Infinity engine/AD&D rules.

[drogg]

i believe it also gets rid of options in dialogue/encounters that you don't qualify for, and hides the changes to reputation caused by your actions, and other mechanical obfuscations in the same vein.

[Ingmar]

Expert mode is this (a bunch of these are individual things you can turn on or off but Expert Mode just does all of them):

Combat Options[5]
Perma Death, characters whose health reduced to 0 will permanently die, instead of becoming Maimed.
Hide Highlighting from area of effect spells and abilities.
Hide Defense and Accuracy tool-tips.
Brief vs. Verbose system feedback
Non-Combat Options[5]
Hide unqualified conversation options.
Hide Attributes and Skills checks thresholds for conversation options.
Hide the earned reputation and disposition effect of an option.
Hide the disposition values in the character sheet.[6]
Hide companion influence messages.[7]
Hide explicit quest objectives in Journal i.e. show just the journal text of the quest, without explicit objectives saying what to do.

[Lucas]

From RPG Codex:
http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/what-modes-will-you-play-1st-playthrough.97893/#post-3812598

Expert mode OFF:

Expert mode ON:

Quite useless, IMO; just hand pick those options to suit your playstyle (toggle might come handy if you REALLY want to get an achievement, if it exists, about beating the game with that mode turned on)

[calapine]

Thanks drogg, Ingmar, Lucas.

And I'll agree, I prefer fine-tune those options. achievements...bleh who cares.

Minor quibble: I am pretty sure quite a few of the character portraits looks are not actually achievable by using the character appearance settings. Missing hairstyles, etc.

Oh well, I guess that's life....

[Merusk]

Who actually looks at your character beyond the portrait anyway? Viconia always had a helmet on as did Minsk. They look like their portraits to me.

[Lucas]

by the way, looks like Steam  has yet to include the Day 1 patch (GOG download already comes with it).

Regarding the manual, like I said yesterday, be sure to read the "errata" on the official game website:

http://eternity.obsidian.net/game/manual-errata

[calapine]

Who actually looks at your character beyond the portrait anyway? Viconia always had a helmet on as did Minsk. They look like their portraits to me.

No one sane. I am a bit 'special'  (And I did say it's a minor quibble!)

To actually contribute something: This is a game where quickly skimming over the manual, while not required, actually provides some info.

Accessible via the right-hand links in the Steam library.

[calapine]

by the way, looks like Steam  has yet to include the Day 1 patch (GOG download already comes with it).

To expand on this, I just compared versions with Lucas. GOG (who claims on their forum to have the Day 0 patch) and steam versions are on the same number.

My interpretation from this and some more googling here is that both downloads have the Day 0 patch and that there is a Day 1 patch that is yet to come.

[Merusk]

Or Steam preloaded the Day1 patch while GoG has a different process.

[Lucas]

Still have to fire the game up beyond character creation  . Busy reading the Almanac and the (excellent) Collector's book 

[Lucas]

Final clarification about the Day 1 patch (in short, yeah, "Day 1" patch is the build we're currently playing) by Darren Monahan:
http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/71798-day-one-patch/?p=1600729

This is indeed the "day one" patch. There is no new patch coming today (unless there's a crazy hotfix issue.) We are working on 1.03, but that's not locking down until next week. We'd like to collect issues reported here and elsewhere to make sure any immediate stuff gets resolved.
 
Generally, that number at the end (508) is the daily build number. We don't fire off lots and lots of builds - it would take way too much time too do that. They usually only occur once daily, sometimes 2-3 times a day depending on the situation.

[Fabricated]

This is really cool and basically Baldur's Gate 3.0.

I'm kinda bummed I can't make a talky rogue without kinda gimping the character though.

[Tannhauser]

I'm pretty impressed so far.  I've been in four zones, done a few quests and even crafted a spell and a potion.  Nice.  Little touches abound, like it's easy for a certain character to loot a body, then click on another character to loot any other items on the same body.  Also, a lot of area loot, so you don't have to pixel hunt for every corpse.  Looks like they swiped some ideas from DND 4e as well, with encounter powers and 'rest' (daily) powers.  The classes seem pretty good so far, except for the Monk, who has to suffer Wounds to power his abilities.  Plus he's a paper tiger and quickly goes down.  Blech.  Also, there are multiple windows for Talents, so don't do what I did and only use the first window. 

I could go on, but it's a fun, throwback rpg without any bugs so far.  There is a lot of polish to this game, hey I even 'hired' an adventurer (and created him with the character system), and I'm liking what I see.  Look forward to many hours of playing this weekend.

[Threash]

Done the intro five times already because i can't decide on a character.

[Strazos]

Some of the portraits are not exactly "original," but I like the look and feel nonetheless:

[Merusk]

I can't advise playing a ranger as pets appear to be broken. Mine never fights and now he's disappeared after the first mini-dungeon.  As a result I can't leave the map. Reloading has done nothing.

Also, I've got a bug with sound. The "closing scroll" sound just plays the first 1/4 second on repeat. Endlessly.  I had to turn off sounds to avoid the "Thap thap thap thap thap thap thap"

Fun other than that.

[Ceryse]

I can't advise playing a ranger as pets appear to be broken. Mine never fights and now he's disappeared after the first mini-dungeon.  As a result I can't leave the map. Reloading has done nothing.

Also, I've got a bug with sound. The "closing scroll" sound just plays the first 1/4 second on repeat. Endlessly.  I had to turn off sounds to avoid the "Thap thap thap thap thap thap thap"

Fun other than that.

Ranger pet thing is a known bug. I believe the work-around is to load a save in a different area, then go back to your current save. Sometimes works... sometimes doesn't. I haven't had any issues with the created Adventurer of mine who's a Ranger.. but I've only had her for an hour or so.

The scroll sound bug I've only heard of in conjunction with some Cheat Engine stuff, so no idea how to fix it or what.

[lamaros]

Liking character options! Death godlike Monk with the aquaman body is my first go. Huge!

Hard Trial of Iron here we come...

[Tebonas]

It really feels like a polished Baldurs Gate in a good way. And thank god they implemented the Stash feature, with is a godsend for a pack rat like me. Played it for over 4 hours, no bugs yet, and plenty of fun.

Edit: Also, those "Choose your own adventure" bits, I want those in more of my RPGs.

[Ard]

Yeah, I'm only a bit into it, at the first town.  Liking this a ridiculous amount so far.  Almost feels more like torment or mask of the betrayer right now than baldur's gate to me, but I'm not very far in.

[Ingmar]

Excellent game is excellent.

[lamaros]

Liking character options! Death godlike Monk with the aquaman body is my first go. Huge!

Hard Trial of Iron here we come...

Ran into a bear. Trial of Iron off for second playthrough...

Game is excellent so far (not very far in).

Party ability auto-pause doesn't seem to work, though.

[apocrypha]

Totally forgot I'd backed this about a million years ago.

Liking what I'm hearing, will wait a while before playing, mostly because I'm still playing another game