Everyone who's waiting for the game release can spend some time reading a PAX East 2015 interview with Obsidian. http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=9818 The interview is rather huge and here I would like to quote the parts I found to be quite interesting and telling - we, new players, shouldn't be afraid to make a gimped character:
Josh: So somebody asked on the Codex forum for you to ask me about why Might would affect things like crossbows and things like that or why everyone can engage and it’s actually for consistency and to help with the player’s learning curve because I think that can trip up people a lot in D&D is that there’s a lot of hidden like… that affects a lot of this stuff but not that. Like a subset of characters can do this stuff but not all characters can. I think that, especially when a player is building a character for the first time they don’t know any of that stuff. That's all very hard to communicate quickly and I think the negatives of finding out “Oh, by the way Might affects crossbow damage” I think those negatives are far less than finding out “Oh, I built a high Might character but it doesn’t affect bow damage”. This is something that happens in D&D where if you built your character wrong, you can’t go back and fix it. So screw you. It's not realistic and I admit it’s not realistic but it’s done so that a person can build their character and feel confident that what they invested in is actually going to pay off in the game. That’s my hope anyway.
Adam: Yeah!
mindx2: Well then I have one more question for you then [to Josh], what do you think in Pillars of Eternity is the “funnest” part?
Josh: Um, I think it’s really trying to build… finding all the different ways to build your character and parties. That’s something that… well, that runs through a lot of stuff. To be honest a lot of what people say is this isn’t realistic or they don’t like some aspect of it like weapons for example. Like why do daggers do so much damage or a hatchet do so much damage or whatever. It’s done that way so that if you have an idea for a character that’s kind of an oddball or something that character might actually suck or be terrible in D&D but I think it’s important for it to be pretty good in our game. And if people want to make this really oddball collection of characters there’s going to be some things that are hard for them but I think it’s important for players to feel like they have that freedom to develop it. There are going to be trade-offs for it but as much as possible I want them…
mindx2: So that’s where the balance thing comes into play?
Josh: Yeah.
mindx2: And do you think everything needs that balance? I mean what’s wrong with having a crappy build?
Josh: I think if it’s a non-viable build then that’s garbage, like it just doesn’t feel good. I think that if you want to build a sub-par character that’s ok but I think it’s about a certain gulf like… for example, if you build an 18 Charisma fighter in Baldur’s Gate you just built a shitty fighter. That’s just a bad fighter…
Chris: Especially in the first five minutes of the game and you find that 18 Charisma ring and you go…
[laughter]
Josh: Yeah, if you build an 18 Resolve fighter in PoE that’s a very defensively oriented character that won’t get interrupted very much. Is that the same as an 18 Might character? No, but it’s not about perfect balance, it’s about relative balance and finding a way to play to that character's strengths. So it’s never been about absolute perfect balance.
Chris: The worst role-playing game - PnP one - I’ve ever been in was when I actually made a character that I really wanted to role-play and the GM just goes, “I’m sorry but your character is just not going to survive. It’s just not going to work in our group.” But I just wanted to role-play and I think Josh has been very cognizant about that for which I greatly appreciate that.
mindx2: With Unity now going free what does that do as far as opening the game up to modding/modders?
Adam: I have no idea as it just went free this week? We haven’t really thought about that. I haven’t really looked into it a lot.
Josh: But that’s really cool.
Adam: Yeah, that is pretty cool. I don’t think it changes a whole lot but the biggest obstacle for modders are going to be making the backgrounds. It’s just rough. We’ll be pretty open on how the process goes but it’s pretty complicated.
mindx2: Well talking about those backgrounds… how many areas were you able to give a paint-over?
Brandon: I’m not sure, we hit most of the main areas but there are a ton of side areas that we either thought were good as they were and didn’t need a paint-over or we just didn’t have time towards the end. But like a lot of our major scenes that the player will see got a lot of paint-overs. One good example is one area that we painted in all the water damage on the docks and things like that. So areas you’re going to visit all the time got the treatment.
Does anyone know the measurements, depth and format for custom PoE portraits? I plan on collecting some before the game launches, but I have no idea how large they need to be.
@Kamigoroshi I'll just quote from a post in the Backer Beta PoE subforum
Each portrait is 210 x 330 pixels. The smaller in game UI portraits are 76 x 96 pixels.
"You have to have two separate files for a custom portrait. You can name them anything you want but they must end in either a _ or plain old space then the letters lg (for large pic) or sm (for the small one). The primary file name must also obviously be the same so they match together. So Bob_lg and Bob_sm will work together but if you name them Bob_lg and Bobby_sm you will have issues.
Additionally on format.... yes, PNG files work, and the in game default pics are in fact in PNG format. I have only tried using 72 ppi images so I don't know if that is restricted feel free to experiment but that is really plenty. Also yes, custom portraits already work even in the beta."
Adam Brennecke: We are looking at doing an expansion that's about the same size (area wise) of Tales of the Sword Coast. I won't reveal much about it since it's early in development, but we've already have a small team working on areas and environments while the rest of the team focus on shipping the game. We will announcing more things about it over the next few months.
So, an add-on is already in the works.
Josh Sawyer: There will always be efficiency trade-offs where you can show how there's a margin of superiority with a certain build, but overall I think our weapons feel pretty well-balanced. In my recent Hard playthrough, my monk switched between using her bare fists and a spear/hatchet combo. My fighter switched from using sabre and large shield to hammer and medium shield, then dual-wielding hammers, and occasionally changing over to a pike for making attacks from behind allies. My paladin used a greatsword (occasionally a pistol), but in the late game she switched to dual-wielding a sword/dagger combo and opening with an arquebus. The base weapons all have some nice trade-offs to them and with the unique gear that's available, I think you can develop some really cool characters and strategies.
Josh Sawyer: I don't think that the early game is quite as dangerous as it is in BG1. From the beginning until you reach Gilded Vale, it's pretty safe. However, once you start doing quests within and around Gilded Vale, you can get your face stomped pretty quickly, especially on higher difficulty levels. I'm just about finished with a Hard playthrough and even with 12th level characters and a lot of unique, upgraded gear, there are still challenging fights out there for me. On the flipside, there's no level scaling, so when I go through an area that I'm over-leveled and over-geared for, blasting everything to bits with ease is pretty fun.
Adam Brennecke: Only if you have recent experience playing the IE games and want a challenge I would recommend hard difficulty. I really, really do not recommend Path of the Damned or Trial of Iron for your first play through unless you are really sadistic. The "Triple Crown" is Path of the Damned, Trial of Iron, and Solo (meaning not taking or creating any companions). The team is looking forward to watching a Let's Play of that. No one on the QA team has been able to accomplish it yet...
that said not really. reason just a lot of small things combined with the bs marketing they've been using
How they sell it doesn't really effect whether I'm going to like the game or not, I have a strong feeling that I'm going to love it, but I'm going to be incredibly disappointed if it's basically an exact clone when it comes to spells and stuff like that. While things like Magic Missile and such are kind of what's been in a lot of RPG's, it gets old how it's constantly used and I already don't like how it's one of the first spells you use in Pillars of Eternity. Come up with something new, already, I mean, come on. It's been 17 years since the first Baldur's Gate installment. You've had 17 years to come up with a spell more imaginative than things like Magic Missile, Color Spray and Fire Storm. I understand they're classic spells, but cmon.
One thing I have to say, browsing through the PoE forum has made me really appreciate this forum so much more. I'm afraid to post anything over there for fear of getting dogpiled
So basically it means the game is ready to be downloaded, hehehe. But because new bug reports are still coming, we can expect a 1.1 patch for the game in the very first days after the release date:) Let's just hope we won't need quick fixes for situations when the game cannot be installed or other performance issues.
So basically it means the game is ready to be downloaded, hehehe. But because new bug reports are still coming, we can expect a 1.1 patch for the game in the very first days after the release date:) Let's just hope we won't need quick fixes for situations when the game cannot be installed or other performance issues.
I don't think we will see major game-breaking bugs. The BB 480 is running smooth : )
So basically it means the game is ready to be downloaded, hehehe. But because new bug reports are still coming, we can expect a 1.1 patch for the game in the very first days after the release date:) Let's just hope we won't need quick fixes for situations when the game cannot be installed or other performance issues.
I don't think we will see major game-breaking bugs. The BB 480 is running smooth : )
I hope too. But...
The beta covers only 1 percent of the game in terms of locations and NPCs. We don't even know if the areas located in the beta are really in the game. This is why there's a big chance actual game locations/dialogues/quests will have bugs. And of course there's a chance some of them will be major.
Yes to all of bengoshi's points, and i have the additional worries that come with trying to run it on a mac. I have a sinking feeling that i won't have an enjoyable experience for some time after release. Fingers crossed for the joy of being wrong in this instance!
Remember that this is Bugsidian, though. I'm a pretty hueg obsidian fan but I'm still expecting a bumpy ride - that's just their track record. Better to expect the game to be buggy or even broken for the first period of time and know what one is getting into than being disappointed one isn't able to play it smoothly.
Yeah of course it will be a bumpy ride. BUT WHAT A RIDE!
I believe that Obsidian have learned from their previous mistakes. The game will have bugs, but I'm optimistic, I saw how fast everything changed in the beta.
Ohh ... Someone already got their guidebook. Looks cool...
Another reason not to worry too much about us making "safer" choices is that many members of the Pillars team, myself included, came straight off of working on South Park: The Stick of Truth, so whatever taboos or sacred cows any of us had going into that project were long gone by the time it was finished.
All this talk about bugs is reminding me of when BGEE was released and people complained about bugs and all of us in the beta team could see how fast and how hard the Devs worked to solve them but could say nothing due to NDA...
"Question: How many active cats are in the game? Josh Sawyer: If you don't include stelgaer and druids in spirtshift form, there are four pet cats you can get. However, for me there is only one choice: The Cutest Cat. "
Comments
Josh: So somebody asked on the Codex forum for you to ask me about why Might would affect things like crossbows and things like that or why everyone can engage and it’s actually for consistency and to help with the player’s learning curve because I think that can trip up people a lot in D&D is that there’s a lot of hidden like… that affects a lot of this stuff but not that. Like a subset of characters can do this stuff but not all characters can. I think that, especially when a player is building a character for the first time they don’t know any of that stuff. That's all very hard to communicate quickly and I think the negatives of finding out “Oh, by the way Might affects crossbow damage” I think those negatives are far less than finding out “Oh, I built a high Might character but it doesn’t affect bow damage”. This is something that happens in D&D where if you built your character wrong, you can’t go back and fix it. So screw you. It's not realistic and I admit it’s not realistic but it’s done so that a person can build their character and feel confident that what they invested in is actually going to pay off in the game. That’s my hope anyway.
Adam: Yeah!
mindx2: Well then I have one more question for you then [to Josh], what do you think in Pillars of Eternity is the “funnest” part?
Josh: Um, I think it’s really trying to build… finding all the different ways to build your character and parties. That’s something that… well, that runs through a lot of stuff. To be honest a lot of what people say is this isn’t realistic or they don’t like some aspect of it like weapons for example. Like why do daggers do so much damage or a hatchet do so much damage or whatever. It’s done that way so that if you have an idea for a character that’s kind of an oddball or something that character might actually suck or be terrible in D&D but I think it’s important for it to be pretty good in our game. And if people want to make this really oddball collection of characters there’s going to be some things that are hard for them but I think it’s important for players to feel like they have that freedom to develop it. There are going to be trade-offs for it but as much as possible I want them…
mindx2: So that’s where the balance thing comes into play?
Josh: Yeah.
mindx2: And do you think everything needs that balance? I mean what’s wrong with having a crappy build?
Josh: I think if it’s a non-viable build then that’s garbage, like it just doesn’t feel good. I think that if you want to build a sub-par character that’s ok but I think it’s about a certain gulf like… for example, if you build an 18 Charisma fighter in Baldur’s Gate you just built a shitty fighter. That’s just a bad fighter…
Chris: Especially in the first five minutes of the game and you find that 18 Charisma ring and you go…
[laughter]
Josh: Yeah, if you build an 18 Resolve fighter in PoE that’s a very defensively oriented character that won’t get interrupted very much. Is that the same as an 18 Might character? No, but it’s not about perfect balance, it’s about relative balance and finding a way to play to that character's strengths. So it’s never been about absolute perfect balance.
Chris: The worst role-playing game - PnP one - I’ve ever been in was when I actually made a character that I really wanted to role-play and the GM just goes, “I’m sorry but your character is just not going to survive. It’s just not going to work in our group.” But I just wanted to role-play and I think Josh has been very cognizant about that for which I greatly appreciate that.
mindx2: With Unity now going free what does that do as far as opening the game up to modding/modders?
Adam: I have no idea as it just went free this week? We haven’t really thought about that. I haven’t really looked into it a lot.
Josh: But that’s really cool.
Adam: Yeah, that is pretty cool. I don’t think it changes a whole lot but the biggest obstacle for modders are going to be making the backgrounds. It’s just rough. We’ll be pretty open on how the process goes but it’s pretty complicated.
mindx2: Well talking about those backgrounds… how many areas were you able to give a paint-over?
Brandon: I’m not sure, we hit most of the main areas but there are a ton of side areas that we either thought were good as they were and didn’t need a paint-over or we just didn’t have time towards the end. But like a lot of our major scenes that the player will see got a lot of paint-overs. One good example is one area that we painted in all the water damage on the docks and things like that. So areas you’re going to visit all the time got the treatment.
Each portrait is 210 x 330 pixels. The smaller in game UI portraits are 76 x 96 pixels.
"You have to have two separate files for a custom portrait. You can name them anything you want but they must end in either a _ or plain old space then the letters lg (for large pic) or sm (for the small one). The primary file name must also obviously be the same so they match together. So Bob_lg and Bob_sm will work together but if you name them Bob_lg and Bobby_sm you will have issues.
Additionally on format.... yes, PNG files work, and the in game default pics are in fact in PNG format. I have only tried using 72 ppi images so I don't know if that is restricted feel free to experiment but that is really plenty. Also yes, custom portraits already work even in the beta."
http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/66894-how-to-make-custom-portraits/
Just like Beamdog did some time ago, Obisidian has given answers to peoples' questions (although not to as many as Beamdog usually does:)
http://www.reddit.com/r/projecteternity/comments/2zanll/obsidian_entertainment_ama_answers_are_here/
some major answers:
Adam Brennecke:
We are looking at doing an expansion that's about the same size (area wise) of Tales of the Sword Coast. I won't reveal much about it since it's early in development, but we've already have a small team working on areas and environments while the rest of the team focus on shipping the game. We will announcing more things about it over the next few months.
So, an add-on is already in the works.
Josh Sawyer:
There will always be efficiency trade-offs where you can show how there's a margin of superiority with a certain build, but overall I think our weapons feel pretty well-balanced. In my recent Hard playthrough, my monk switched between using her bare fists and a spear/hatchet combo. My fighter switched from using sabre and large shield to hammer and medium shield, then dual-wielding hammers, and occasionally changing over to a pike for making attacks from behind allies. My paladin used a greatsword (occasionally a pistol), but in the late game she switched to dual-wielding a sword/dagger combo and opening with an arquebus.
The base weapons all have some nice trade-offs to them and with the unique gear that's available, I think you can develop some really cool characters and strategies.
Josh Sawyer:
I don't think that the early game is quite as dangerous as it is in BG1. From the beginning until you reach Gilded Vale, it's pretty safe. However, once you start doing quests within and around Gilded Vale, you can get your face stomped pretty quickly, especially on higher difficulty levels. I'm just about finished with a Hard playthrough and even with 12th level characters and a lot of unique, upgraded gear, there are still challenging fights out there for me. On the flipside, there's no level scaling, so when I go through an area that I'm over-leveled and over-geared for, blasting everything to bits with ease is pretty fun.
Adam Brennecke:
Only if you have recent experience playing the IE games and want a challenge I would recommend hard difficulty. I really, really do not recommend Path of the Damned or Trial of Iron for your first play through unless you are really sadistic. The "Triple Crown" is Path of the Damned, Trial of Iron, and Solo (meaning not taking or creating any companions). The team is looking forward to watching a Let's Play of that. No one on the QA team has been able to accomplish it yet...
So,
http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/71035-new-screenshots-the-engwithan-empire-part-2/
Awesome : )
*Begin Disussion
that said not really. reason just a lot of small things combined with the bs marketing they've been using
...I don't go there anymore.
https://www.paradoxplaza.com/news/Pillars-of-Eternity-Has-Gone-Gold/
The beta covers only 1 percent of the game in terms of locations and NPCs. We don't even know if the areas located in the beta are really in the game. This is why there's a big chance actual game locations/dialogues/quests will have bugs. And of course there's a chance some of them will be major.
Let's hope these fears won't come real.
I believe that Obsidian have learned from their previous mistakes. The game will have bugs, but I'm optimistic, I saw how fast everything changed in the beta.
Ohh ... Someone already got their guidebook. Looks cool...
https://www.darkhorse.com/Books/28-219/Pillars-of-Eternity-Guidebook-Volume-One-HC
I was a bit disappointed by some of the other stuff too, but in general, I really can't wait to play this ...
Or silly??
http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/71252-new-screenshots-things-are-going-to-get-a-little-awesome/#entry1587024
"Question: How many active cats are in the game?
Josh Sawyer: If you don't include stelgaer and druids in spirtshift form, there are four pet cats you can
get. However, for me there is only one choice: The Cutest Cat. "