All Eothas would have needed to do was destroy the Engwithan machines. The gods certainly knew where they were.
Maybe easier said than done? I guess he could have been marching his army into the Dyrwood for that very purpose.
I'm more inclined to think he was ensnared in some plot by Magran who is trying to bump off the other gods though.
So far as I can tell, Thanos didn't start using the machines until after Eothas was destroyed, presumably because he thought the number of gods had fallen too low.
That plan was in the works since Woedica was depowered by the other gods.
So did you guys actually understand the lore? I never even understood if there were any real gods or not. To me, the writing was so unclear about that, that in the end I stopped even bothering trying to understand. The whole "there weren't any gods so we created them" thing was interresting in a way, but the gods that were created, were they strong and powerful as actual gods or just placebos?
The way I understood it, they are "false" because they are a construct created by magic. They are certainly very powerful, but primordial creators of existence they are not.
Yikes... how on earth can you release something without proper re-read and re-write?! Hell, I re-read and write every single email I send at least once, but not seldom more, before sending. Man, those publisher deadlines must be a killer to work under.
All Eothas would have needed to do was destroy the Engwithan machines. The gods certainly knew where they were.
Maybe easier said than done? I guess he could have been marching his army into the Dyrwood for that very purpose.
I'm more inclined to think he was ensnared in some plot by Magran who is trying to bump off the other gods though.
So far as I can tell, Thanos didn't start using the machines until after Eothas was destroyed, presumably because he thought the number of gods had fallen too low.
That plan was in the works since Woedica was depowered by the other gods.
Whilst that seems likely, it was only put into practice after Eothas was blown up. Which does suggest that he may have been blocking it in some way. The problem arises with the role of Magran. She was a prime mover in the depowerment of Woedica, so she wouldn't want her back, but she was also a prime mover in the destruction of Eothas.
All Eothas would have needed to do was destroy the Engwithan machines. The gods certainly knew where they were.
Maybe easier said than done? I guess he could have been marching his army into the Dyrwood for that very purpose.
I'm more inclined to think he was ensnared in some plot by Magran who is trying to bump off the other gods though.
So far as I can tell, Thanos didn't start using the machines until after Eothas was destroyed, presumably because he thought the number of gods had fallen too low.
That plan was in the works since Woedica was depowered by the other gods.
So did you guys actually understand the lore? I never even understood if there were any real gods or not. To me, the writing was so unclear about that, that in the end I stopped even bothering trying to understand. The whole "there weren't any gods so we created them" thing was interresting in a way, but the gods that were created, were they strong and powerful as actual gods or just placebos?
The gods are "real" in that they exist, which is more than can be said for some other gods I can think of. But they are basically just super-constructs. Very powerful, but not responsible for actually creating the universe, making the Sun come up, judging the souls of the dead, or anything else gods are usually credited with.
It's a Chis Avallone allegory, suggesting that real world gods are also human creations.
All Eothas would have needed to do was destroy the Engwithan machines. The gods certainly knew where they were.
Maybe easier said than done? I guess he could have been marching his army into the Dyrwood for that very purpose.
I'm more inclined to think he was ensnared in some plot by Magran who is trying to bump off the other gods though.
So far as I can tell, Thanos didn't start using the machines until after Eothas was destroyed, presumably because he thought the number of gods had fallen too low.
That plan was in the works since Woedica was depowered by the other gods.
Whilst that seems likely, it was only put into practice after Eothas was blown up. Which does suggest that he may have been blocking it in some way. The problem arises with the role of Magran. She was a prime mover in the depowerment of Woedica, so she wouldn't want her back, but she was also a prime mover in the destruction of Eothas.
We don't know that for sure. Thaos was Woedica's favored after she was depowered, presumably the soul siphoning was the long term goal all along. Pretty sure Magran was playing both sides as well. She killed her priests that worked on the hammer to specifically hide her involement.
Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire just hit $1.8M and got its coolest update yet, with Xoti, the priest/monk joining the adventure, and we can't wait for everyone to get to know her in their playthroughs. Thank you so much to our fans and backers for helping us bring Xoti into the game. We're far from done though! We have plenty more to talk about in our newly revealed stretch goal at $2.2 million, which includes three separate additions to Pillars II: watercolor NPC portraits, UI customization, and Italian language localization. Plus, there is an update from Carrie Patel coming today (Jan 31) about our returning companions, and a design update coming from Josh Sawyer on Thursday.
Now, it wouldn't be a proper update if we didn't give you info about our newest stretch goal. In addition to Italian language localization, this one has two features. First, we would like to create unique portraits for every quest-giving NPC across the entire game. Portraits are a wordless way to tell a story about a character and this is something we wished we could have done more with in the first game. Our talented 2D artist, Matt Hansen, has developed a watercolor-style portrait for conversations that could allow us to add many, many more portraits to the game.
Second, we would like to add a highly requested feature, UI Customization. Inspired by the mod community from Pillars of Eternity, we would like to add in the option to customize the position of UI elements, toggle pieces of the UI on and off, adjust HUD transparency, and much more.
With the help of our backers, we've already added so much to Pillars II, now we can add in two more really cool features that we know our fans and players will love. As always, we want to thank you so much for your support!"
Here to answer all of your backer needs! So, in the Physical Box tier, you will get a physical disc of the game, however, it is actually a Steam installer. There will be no disc version of the game this time around. Though you will be able to choose between a Steam key or a GOG key. So for your DRM-free needs, you can go with GOG.
For the Early Access Tier, you can do both. You can gain Early Access key for Steam, and then you can also choose to have a GOG key for the full game. So you can have your cake and eat it too! "
So the physical disc does not contain the game, but a Steam Installer.
That is VERY disappointing for me.
That's ridiculous. I guess they could go one more step and just put a piece of paper with a Steam code on it in the box...
At least the "physical box" version will be upgradeable, since it's really just pretty cardboard and a Steam download (unlike the unfortunate Deep Silver purchasers here).
This is a big reason why I play so many old games. I hate the road that modern gaming is going down.
I don't mind the change in distribution format. Modern laptops often eschew removable media drives, just as the once got rid of the 3.5" floppy. So, a DVD would actually be useless to a number of users today. But the idea of buying a "physical box" with a download code inside is just absurd (or a DVD that only contains an installer to download the game from the internet).
That's ridiculous. I guess they could go one more step and just put a piece of paper with a Steam code on it in the box...
This is what EA is going to do with Mass Effect: Andromeda. Inside the physical boxes of ME:A you will find a download code (not Steam though) and no discs whatsoever.
I don't understand, what's the compelling need for the physical product? Even if it's not the reason, Mother Nature will thank anyone who refuse to create unnecessary physical products, especially plastic ones. I say, to hell with all physical copies and only allow digital sales in countries where internet access is prevalent.
I don't understand, what's the compelling need for the physical product? Even if it's not the reason, Mother Nature will thank anyone who refuse to create unnecessary physical products, especially plastic ones. I say, to hell with all physical copies and only allow digital sales in countries where internet access is prevalent.
You do know high or even moderate speed internet isn't everywhere even in first world counties? In Ireland we have HUGE problems with the internet. So much so that businesses can't set up in rural towns because of poor signal and very limited speeds. I live near the biggest city in the country and a 6GB download could take a few days for me.
Its just sheer laziness and pushes away a portion of actual paying customers.
JS: Well, in terms of story and setting things, we do want to have continuity with the first game. So, for example, cultures like the Vailian Republic or Rauatai are still present here but they’re present as colonial powers. Something we tried to introduce in Pillars of Eternity was – instead of making it be set during a quasi-medieval period its set in a early renaissance period.
So we’re getting into the age of exploration and colonization and the expansion of imperialist powers. The Dyrwood has already been colonized and that was the setting for Pillars I, but Deadfire is currently being colonized and sort of imperialist forces are moving in and either trying to set up their own colonies or set up their own deals with the native cultures for you know wether its shipping rights or access to resources or various things. So we’re trying to highlight social conflicts that you don’t always necessarily see in most fantasy settings. At least, that’s from a sort of story and setting perspective.
JS: I think that, what people notice right away looking at the game is how much better it looks than Pillars of Eternity I.
With Pillars I we were trying to get back to a style of game visually that we had not needed in a long time and that most people weren’t making games of that style – which is environments that are 2D rendered out with 3D characters on top of it. Most games these days are either purely 2D or more often they’re just completely 3D.
And we loved working with 2D backgrounds back at Black Isle because I worked on the original Icewind Dale and Icewind Dale II and you can get a really high level of quality in those 2D renders and we also loved painting over those backgrounds to bring out a lot of cool, little, tiny details that you normally just can’t get from a 3D environment.
So we’ve improved the lighting a great deal, we’ve improved the quality of our character models, we’ve introduced a lot of dynamic elements including dynamic weather and dynamic foliage. They really make the levels feel much more alive. We got a lot of feedback from players that, they thought the levels were very pretty but that they were very static. So we’re hoping that a lot of these new features really make those levels feel much more beautiful and much more contemporary.
They don’t look like higher res versions of the maps that we made 15 years ago. And then in terms of new features, since the game is funded we are now committing to doing multi-classing. Which is a big deal. In Pillars I you could just, whatever your character class was, that’s what you would advance as. In Pillars II, you have the option of taking an additional class and advancing that in parallel, or separately – you can go back and forth – it opens up a lot of new character build opportunities which I think is very, very cool. I’m trying to think of other major things to sort of think about for a second.
Oh, subclasses. Oh yeah, that’s another big thing. So, in Baldur’s Gate II a thing that they introduced was – they didn’t obviously want to expand on the base class list a great deal so they had kits, and kits were things like “the berserker” or “the inquisitor” or “the assassin,” things like that which are a specialization or a focus of an individual class.
So, we hit our funding goal for subclasses meaning we’re going to be introducing two subclasses for each base class. And those are another way that players can kind of focus on a particular aspect of a character class. And a lot of people really like the idea of specializing and having that very specific type of character in mind. So subclasses will hopefully allow people to get more of that in their character, more of a specialist.
Comments
It's a Chis Avallone allegory, suggesting that real world gods are also human creations.
Yay! Italy rulez!
It can almost be called a talent. Seeing of how many times Obsidian shoots itself in the foot.
That's ridiculous. I guess they could go one more step and just put a piece of paper with a Steam code on it in the box...
At least the "physical box" version will be upgradeable, since it's really just pretty cardboard and a Steam download (unlike the unfortunate Deep Silver purchasers here).
Its just sheer laziness and pushes away a portion of actual paying customers.
JS: Well, in terms of story and setting things, we do want to have continuity with the first game. So, for example, cultures like the Vailian Republic or Rauatai are still present here but they’re present as colonial powers. Something we tried to introduce in Pillars of Eternity was – instead of making it be set during a quasi-medieval period its set in a early renaissance period.
So we’re getting into the age of exploration and colonization and the expansion of imperialist powers. The Dyrwood has already been colonized and that was the setting for Pillars I, but Deadfire is currently being colonized and sort of imperialist forces are moving in and either trying to set up their own colonies or set up their own deals with the native cultures for you know wether its shipping rights or access to resources or various things. So we’re trying to highlight social conflicts that you don’t always necessarily see in most fantasy settings. At least, that’s from a sort of story and setting perspective.
JS: I think that, what people notice right away looking at the game is how much better it looks than Pillars of Eternity I.
With Pillars I we were trying to get back to a style of game visually that we had not needed in a long time and that most people weren’t making games of that style – which is environments that are 2D rendered out with 3D characters on top of it. Most games these days are either purely 2D or more often they’re just completely 3D.
And we loved working with 2D backgrounds back at Black Isle because I worked on the original Icewind Dale and Icewind Dale II and you can get a really high level of quality in those 2D renders and we also loved painting over those backgrounds to bring out a lot of cool, little, tiny details that you normally just can’t get from a 3D environment.
So we’ve improved the lighting a great deal, we’ve improved the quality of our character models, we’ve introduced a lot of dynamic elements including dynamic weather and dynamic foliage. They really make the levels feel much more alive. We got a lot of feedback from players that, they thought the levels were very pretty but that they were very static. So we’re hoping that a lot of these new features really make those levels feel much more beautiful and much more contemporary.
They don’t look like higher res versions of the maps that we made 15 years ago. And then in terms of new features, since the game is funded we are now committing to doing multi-classing. Which is a big deal. In Pillars I you could just, whatever your character class was, that’s what you would advance as. In Pillars II, you have the option of taking an additional class and advancing that in parallel, or separately – you can go back and forth – it opens up a lot of new character build opportunities which I think is very, very cool. I’m trying to think of other major things to sort of think about for a second.
Oh, subclasses. Oh yeah, that’s another big thing. So, in Baldur’s Gate II a thing that they introduced was – they didn’t obviously want to expand on the base class list a great deal so they had kits, and kits were things like “the berserker” or “the inquisitor” or “the assassin,” things like that which are a specialization or a focus of an individual class.
So, we hit our funding goal for subclasses meaning we’re going to be introducing two subclasses for each base class. And those are another way that players can kind of focus on a particular aspect of a character class. And a lot of people really like the idea of specializing and having that very specific type of character in mind. So subclasses will hopefully allow people to get more of that in their character, more of a specialist.
More of it in the interview.