Based on what I read here, delaying seems to be a good choice. But delaying also costs money and they don't have much for spare (personal guess). I don't think they can afford to ship it "out only when it's ready", I think they have a limit.
In fact, they don't.
Feargus Urquhart, CEO Obsidian: "Since the very beginning of this project we promised our fans and ourselves that we would release this game only when we knew it would be absolutely ready for the best experience possible. We're very close to that point, but not quite there yet. The feedback we have received through our playtest process has been invaluable to us. We are coming into the home stretch but are pushing the release out just a bit to make sure we honor that promise we made originally. Thanks for your patience and support, it will be worth the wait."
As a side note, the announcement has already recieved 75 likes (!) on their forum - these figures say people, in general, support this decision.
And it's quite understandable, just check this list complied by Sensuki, one of the most active forumite...
Areas that need an improvement:
Performance Pathfinding - nuff said AI - nuff said Fog of War Persistence / Save Load Combat Feedback - is a mess / lacking Melee Engagement - is a mess User Interface Screens (most of them, excluding dialogue and scripted interaction) UI Options (things need to be toggleable, extra granularity, sliders implemented) More & Better Animations Spell FX - too flashy most of the time Attribute System (design/balancing) Recovery Time - needs a look Combat Speed & Pacing - too much pausing at the moment Health System - need to get adventuring day right in relation to game difficulty Movement Speed - too fast Weapon Balance - low dmg weapons suck unless you're a rogue Weapon Style balance - shields are bad on most classes, two weapon fighting is broken Ability & Spell Balance - some abilities and spells are garbage, some are OP Class Balance Creature Balance Area Navmesh issues - Dyrford Crossing has several navmesh issues Player Race Character Art - proportions, quality, visual recognition needs work Player Race Armor & Proportions - no uniformity yet Player Race Heads - a lot of them are unfinished Character Portraits - need more Sound Design - missing a lot of sounds Area Design (Mostly related to Dyrford Crossing, I have not spent time in Stormwall Gorge yet - one at a time) Controls - control schemes need work, functions need addition / splitting Graphical Issues - occlusion and sorting are big problems at the moment Environment and Character Colors - too washed out Talent System Character Creation / Leveling Up - need more stuff, change UI, change order Looting - not all characters drop their gear
bengoshi , that is what a game is. Just a tl;dr , "they need to start over".
Imitating is unhealthy if you are producing something. There is still BG , IWD , ... I really felt restless when I knew they were going to recreate that environments. Why ? Where is uniqueness ? What happened to " I have this scenario , this game , and I don't care about adjusting it to what I "think" people will like " ??
I really don't want to buy the game if it comes out like they are telling it to be. I don't want to spend money on something I know I can do better IF I had the money to produce it. I want a game , a story that I haven't thought of it , or I can say that I couldn't have thought of it , so I'll rest easy , I don't want to waste my time upon fury and dreaming , that when I play I will be haunted by "I could've done better , I could've done better...." It is confusing you know ? Is this game going to be fun like it's supposed to be , or just a mothery motivation attempt that we should earn more money so we could do better ?
I really would love to see some thoughts about this. I couldn't be the only one that feel like it.
Well, if you analyse the recent development of PoE (after their decision to postpone the release) more closely, you'll see that Obsidian are working their socks off.
They're constantly trying to improve the build, they are listening to the support and to the critique, they are changing small things and sometimes not even small.
From what I see they're doing well. Even if it won't be BG or IWD, it's going to become quite an RPG! I like what I see and what I hear. I like the progress. I like the desire to improve.
@bengoshi well I followed the forums a little much ago , true , and I have to admit I was checking it quite often along with Kung Fury. I lost the interest to it when I saw it looked like IE games much.
But , positivity , why not ? Let's see what they're going to do after finishing. I bought the last Divinity "after" I looked to the reviews. Because the second one was just too sloppy. Same could be done here. I'm not going to look to the forums now. At least reserving some factor of surprise. I really like that.
For improvement , however , I really don't like to participate. Because for me , a reformat is necessary. Mixing Diablo , IE , Dungeon Siege , Two Worlds all in a bunch is not that interesting for me.
I the choose your own adventure selection screens they made, with the nice little pencil sketch drawing to go along with the situation, and the slew of choices you can make.
"A crack runs along the wall from floor to ceiling. A light gust of air passes through it."
1. [Push on the wall.] 2. [Use a hammer and chisel to weaken the wall.] 3. "[NPC_NAME], do you think you could move this?" 4. [Leave.]
"A viscous slick of something dark and tar-like runs down this wall. The shapes and bulges in the ooze suggest that something lies beneath it, but you can't tell."
1. [Use your waterskin to clear off the ooze.] 2. [Bottle the ooze for later study.] 3. [Attempt to ignite the ooze with a torch.] 4. [Leave.]
Or even just the conversation options made available, which is far from the good, neutral, dumb evil responses seen in the IE games.
"Lay down your arms, trespasser. Do not forfeit this man's life for a fight you will lose."
1. "Why have you done this?" 2. "The ruin has not been sullied by our hands, men of Eir Glanfath." [Diplomatic - Minor] 3. "We have not trespassed. We merely wish to pass through." [Honest - Minor] 4. "I am Sylvus Moonbow! Hear me roar!" [Intimidate - Major] 5. "I don't know what they did but I didn't have anything to do with it." [Diplomatic - Minor] 6. "Murderers! You will pay for each life." [Passionate - Minor] 7. "You will try to kill us all either way. Why make it easy?" [Rational - Minor]
There is a lot going for the game even if it is very similar to the IE isometric 2D design. I've no beef with that myself.
Yes the scripted interactions are awesome. The story is very interesting. I have a deep respect for Obsidians work. My only gripe right now is combat, but I am certain it will be improved (as I am not the only one)...
as much as I want to love this game i'm going to leave it for a sale I think, i've seen so much over the last few months that has completely rained on the parade for me. Think ill grab witcher and dragon age instead and leave this abit. Feel free to laugh at me when invariably come back saying how great it is
mm. The forums are a bit of a dogpile. I went there, threw down my opinions, then kinda saw everything get swept up and didn't follow. They definitely have a lot more people there. (Obsidian's made more games.)
Although I bet if Beamdog ever did a kickstarter game, lots of donators would be here clambering to make sure the devs did everything they wanted.
Yes. I tried to get involved in those forums but it seemed like most of the thread where either already well-worn 20+ pages and there was no point in commenting or they just didn't matter. The forums are also (I found) more convoluted and difficult to navigate. Also a lot of the threads seemed to be about other games and not PoE, but maybe that was the obsidian forums instead of the PoE forums. It was a while ago.
Oh and the Elves still look too sad and miserable.... But I gave it another try. I have spend like 10 hours in the beta, so I'm not an expert. I was really enjoying the atmosphere. The dialogues. Actually I like EVERYTHING, except... Yes, the COMBAT. The combat feels more like DA:O or some MMO, than the IE feel-- What a shame ... I still got my hopes up, that they will improve it somehow, but how? (getting rid of engagement is not gonna happen)
Seems like they are starting to ramp up promotion on both GOG and Steam at this point, wouldn't be surprised to see this within 3 or 4 months. Regardless of what is being said about the combat, I'm gonna support this game when it comes out. For one thing it seems like the system requirements are pretty lax (as I can't support "Divinity: Original Sin" on my laptop). For another, I feel like the spirit of the game and the developers is in the right place. It really does seem like a combination of all the Infinity Engine games put into a blender.
Lastly, even if the combat isn't as good, I'll get over it. I bought "Inquisitor" over the weekend and the combat is pretty much atrocious (not as bad as most have said but still awful) yet the game's atmosphere and ambition impressed me. In reality, really solid fluid gameplay is hard as hell to accomplish. Blizzard is a master of it, whatever you think of their games. The Infinity Engine games had it. But for whatever reason it is just very hard to accomplish without a world-class team. I bought a myriad of classic RPGs on GOG this weekend and very few of them have really solid gameplay mechanics. It's just a very rare imo.
^well about the system requirements @jjstraka34 : They said the game can run on an average machine. Now I know it's the beta, and the game will be polished and optimized, but it's really lagging, load times are very very tiresome. I'll admit my pc isn't state of the art, but it was brand-new when I bought PoE So I really hope that they will do something about that. Someone said that optimizations are the last thing to do. I have my fingers crossed...
Yeah, some big game got it's release moved to May. So I hope April... By the way, I switched my monitor to a smaller one, now there is less lag. It is beyond my comprehension really, but I'll have to get a new computer soon I guess....
So, I was looking forward to the next build, but ... Obsidians Brandon Adler said :
"Sorry to be the bearer of bad news everyone. We can't push the build out. We are noticing that some NPCs are not being killed.
Unfortunately, next week is pretty dodgy since many people will be on break in and around Christmas. I wouldn't expect that a new backer beta build will come out until the week after Christmas.
Apologies, guys. I know how excited you are for a new build, but I want to make sure that we don't put out a backer beta with a major bug if we can avoid it. "
And then a little later: "We will still try to get something out on Monday or Tuesday, but it may not be doable."
I'm really hoping for Monday
Edit, can't get the quotes to show. I changed the color in stead- Sorry.
Important Changes *You will notice quite a few combat balance changes in this build. Be on the lookout and let us know what you think. *You will notice many UI polish changes. Some screens may even be entirely new (loot screen, I'm looking at you). *Most of the icons are now in the game. There are still a few that are missing, but those should be few and far between. *Some final VO is in the game. You will also notice sound sets are in and hooked up. *Skill system has changed back to a point-buy system. *Talents are now organized during level up.
Comments
I really don't want to buy the game if it comes out like they are telling it to be. I don't want to spend money on something I know I can do better IF I had the money to produce it. I want a game , a story that I haven't thought of it , or I can say that I couldn't have thought of it , so I'll rest easy , I don't want to waste my time upon fury and dreaming , that when I play I will be haunted by "I could've done better , I could've done better...." It is confusing you know ? Is this game going to be fun like it's supposed to be , or just a mothery motivation attempt that we should earn more money so we could do better ?
I really would love to see some thoughts about this. I couldn't be the only one that feel like it.
They're constantly trying to improve the build, they are listening to the support and to the critique, they are changing small things and sometimes not even small.
From what I see they're doing well. Even if it won't be BG or IWD, it's going to become quite an RPG! I like what I see and what I hear. I like the progress. I like the desire to improve.
But , positivity , why not ? Let's see what they're going to do after finishing. I bought the last Divinity "after" I looked to the reviews. Because the second one was just too sloppy. Same could be done here. I'm not going to look to the forums now. At least reserving some factor of surprise. I really like that.
For improvement , however , I really don't like to participate. Because for me , a reformat is necessary. Mixing Diablo , IE , Dungeon Siege , Two Worlds all in a bunch is not that interesting for me.
"A crack runs along the wall from floor to ceiling. A light gust of air passes through it."
1. [Push on the wall.]
2. [Use a hammer and chisel to weaken the wall.]
3. "[NPC_NAME], do you think you could move this?"
4. [Leave.]
"A viscous slick of something dark and tar-like runs down this wall. The shapes and bulges in the ooze suggest that something lies beneath it, but you can't tell."
1. [Use your waterskin to clear off the ooze.]
2. [Bottle the ooze for later study.]
3. [Attempt to ignite the ooze with a torch.]
4. [Leave.]
Or even just the conversation options made available, which is far from the good, neutral, dumb evil responses seen in the IE games.
"Lay down your arms, trespasser. Do not forfeit this man's life for a fight you will lose."
1. "Why have you done this?"
2. "The ruin has not been sullied by our hands, men of Eir Glanfath." [Diplomatic - Minor]
3. "We have not trespassed. We merely wish to pass through." [Honest - Minor]
4. "I am Sylvus Moonbow! Hear me roar!" [Intimidate - Major]
5. "I don't know what they did but I didn't have anything to do with it." [Diplomatic - Minor]
6. "Murderers! You will pay for each life." [Passionate - Minor]
7. "You will try to kill us all either way. Why make it easy?" [Rational - Minor]
There is a lot going for the game even if it is very similar to the IE isometric 2D design. I've no beef with that myself.
Maybe it's just me being used to these forums or temporarily forgetting that yes I'm still on the internet...
Also a lot of the threads seemed to be about other games and not PoE, but maybe that was the obsidian forums instead of the PoE forums. It was a while ago.
But I gave it another try. I have spend like 10 hours in the beta, so I'm not an expert. I was really enjoying the atmosphere. The dialogues. Actually I like EVERYTHING, except... Yes, the COMBAT. The combat feels more like DA:O or some MMO, than the IE feel-- What a shame ... I still got my hopes up, that they will improve it somehow, but how? (getting rid of engagement is not gonna happen)
Lastly, even if the combat isn't as good, I'll get over it. I bought "Inquisitor" over the weekend and the combat is pretty much atrocious (not as bad as most have said but still awful) yet the game's atmosphere and ambition impressed me. In reality, really solid fluid gameplay is hard as hell to accomplish. Blizzard is a master of it, whatever you think of their games. The Infinity Engine games had it. But for whatever reason it is just very hard to accomplish without a world-class team. I bought a myriad of classic RPGs on GOG this weekend and very few of them have really solid gameplay mechanics. It's just a very rare imo.
So I really hope that they will do something about that. Someone said that optimizations are the last thing to do. I have my fingers crossed...
According to the game Developer, it's "early next year". http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/68878-pillars-of-eternity-early-2015-beta-feedback-and-game-polish/
There's no more accurate date yet.
Well hopefully them mean real damn early 2015
By the way, I switched my monitor to a smaller one, now there is less lag. It is beyond my comprehension really, but I'll have to get a new computer soon I guess....
Obsidians Brandon Adler said :
"Sorry to be the bearer of bad news everyone. We can't push the build out. We are noticing that some NPCs are not being killed.
Unfortunately, next week is pretty dodgy since many people will be on break in and around Christmas. I wouldn't expect that a new backer beta build will come out until the week after Christmas.
Apologies, guys. I know how excited you are for a new build, but I want to make sure that we don't put out a backer beta with a major bug if we can avoid it. "
And then a little later: "We will still try to get something out on Monday or Tuesday, but it may not be doable."
I'm really hoping for Monday
Edit, can't get the quotes to show. I changed the color in stead- Sorry.
Beta v 392 is LIVE
No patch notes as of yet - Will update : )
Important Changes
*You will notice quite a few combat balance changes in this build. Be on the lookout and let us know what you think.
*You will notice many UI polish changes. Some screens may even be entirely new (loot screen, I'm looking at you).
*Most of the icons are now in the game. There are still a few that are missing, but those should be few and far between.
*Some final VO is in the game. You will also notice sound sets are in and hooked up.
*Skill system has changed back to a point-buy system.
*Talents are now organized during level up.