Yeah, thanks for the heads up... I was pretty annoyed the personal records was suddenly "reset"... but decided that it doesn't matter (much) ... As long as it is fixed in the patch.
By the way: I made it to Twin Elms finally, and then I lost interest... I was (role)playing this rogue who is not really very into praying and religion. Twin Elms is a beautiful area, but also a religious place, all the quests were strange, and then I got forced into... well hope I did not spoil too much (... If you got this far, you can actually guess now where I'm stuck ...)
Still enjoying the game, just need a little break (169 hours, just had to check Steam) ...
Unfortunately I didn't have much time to play PoE... Well, I don't much time to play in general... T^T So far I reached Defiance Bay and I'm doing some of the huge amount of subquests there; I enjoyed the Infinite Path but as soon as I reached floor -8 I noticed I was unable to set off traps, so I said: "let's get some xp out of here!" and my party have seen sunlight again!
I encountered several bugs so far, nothing really gamebreaking, but the one that really annoyed me was the one where Sagani spoils the bad guy name, which was patched with v. 1.0.4 but even if I read the patch log I took her in the party, forgetting that bug, then that dialog popped up before I was able to patch the game, so I said a long "FUUUUUUUUUU...". The good news is that when I'll meet that guy I'll forgot what happened. I also reported some translation typos.
I keep feeling like the game is fun but the main plot just doesn't hold my attention. It doesn't seem as urgent or pressing as the BG story for me. I actually started a new BG run last night instead of continuing my pillars run.
The pillars world also strikes me as a theater with set-piece NPC's waiting around to give you quests rather than a working world. I'm not sure what it is. The beginning of the game was great but it kind of drags in act 2 for me. I am surprised since the story is one thing that Obs was praised for doing really well in other games.
I keep feeling like the game is fun but the main plot just doesn't hold my attention. It doesn't seem as urgent or pressing as the BG story for me. I actually started a new BG run last night instead of continuing my pillars run.
That's interesting. I've been alternating between PoE and (for the first time in fifteen years or so) BG1 and the story in PoE is just much more compelling to me. Maybe because I already know the story in BG, but I'm finding the story in PoE way more interesting.
I do think, though, that PoE bogs down a little bit once you get to Twin Elms.
I keep feeling like the game is fun but the main plot just doesn't hold my attention. It doesn't seem as urgent or pressing as the BG story for me. I actually started a new BG run last night instead of continuing my pillars run.
That's interesting. I've been alternating between PoE and (for the first time in fifteen years or so) BG1 and the story in PoE is just much more compelling to me. Maybe because I already know the story in BG, but I'm finding the story in PoE way more interesting.
I do think, though, that PoE bogs down a little bit once you get to Twin Elms.
I can't speak for @Qbert but I would suspect that they were more referring to BG2. The BG1 story isn't that urgent so much as 'Stomp around and find stuff to kill' at least until you get to the city proper. BG2 actually has a more structured story line that leads you along.
I was referring to the entire BG saga actually. The urgency in BG2 is obvious, but during my first play through of BG1 from the beginning of the game I experienced:
-Assassins trying to kill me beginning right in my supposedly safe home for reasons i don't understand and i never knew the next time one would show up and try to stick a knife in my back -The tragic death of my father by a scary looking armored dude who wanted to kill me immediately upon a hurried escape for unknown reasons from my lifelong home -Bandits roaming everywhere, i never knew when they would surprise me on the road and pepper me with arrows -My weapons breaking at often critical moments due to the for some reason brittle iron -Strange companions I perhaps coincidentally meet on the roads who may have nefarious intentions -An enigmatic wizard taking interest in me for some reason and offering cryptic warnings about the road ahead -Dreams that seem to indicate some evil presence inside me trying to battle for control
I went from the FAI straight to Nashkel to try and solve the iron crisis since it seemed the best route to try and find who was trying to kill me and prevent my weapons from continually breaking.
Maybe it was only me but I felt pushed by mysterious forces to try and find out what was going on right out of the gate. I admit it did slow down after Tranzig b/c i stopped to do sidequests, but I was hooked by that point. In subsequent play throughs I agree it wasn't the same urgency but my first experience i felt excited and rushed for the first part of the game, and that feeling really brought the story to life for me.
In Pillars i felt that way in the very beginning, but it faded much more quickly and I haven't felt as personally threatened or gripped by the story as much.
Well, I got about 50 hours in, went through about 7 or 8 levels of Od Nua, did the quests around Act 2 mostly, and I've stopped just after reaching Dyrford (I am very methodical and completionist if you're wondering about my progress compared to real-life hours). I really enjoy the stronghold interactions, but I admit I haven't played in a week or so... partly due to real life time commitments. I guess I've hit a slow point in my desire to progress the story, but I'll come back to it. Part of my conundrum is wanting to use all of the companions at once and not being able to, which leaves me waffling a bit.
I will say this: I felt the most pleased when I was doing the quest "Lord of a Barren Land." No spoilers, just wanted to say that it felt amazingly cool and satisfying. By comparison, some of the other quests are... less engaging. I guess they can't all be up to that level, of course.
Don't get me wrong! I really like the game, I just reached a "pause" point. Even Baldur's Gate has those moments for me. ^_~
I've only played 4-5 hours so far, but I know I love this game already. It's got a really strong BG-feeling, while being totally different at the same time. I can't wait to see where the story takes me.
Also, I appreciate the fact that Odsidian thinks about addressing the concerns people have about things like the late-game being too easy (from the interview @procco linked).
Good to hear that they're addressing the late game difficulty issue.
OR ... They use the Forton guy... Think he was a monk? Or perhaps they will use both .... : ) Personally I am hoping for a rogue too (even godlike?) ...
There were TWO beta patches yesterday... 64 and 65.... Someone mentioned the patch will go live today. I'm not sure though?? But a heads up: There are many changes in 1.05 and some of them are really really nice .... No spoilers : p
Feargus Urquhart, a CEO of Obsidian, has given an interview.
"I had the privilege of making D&D games from 1996 until 2008… Fantasy is also something we love – I loved working on the Baldur’s Gates with Bioware. So part of it is that we’re making Pillars because that’s probably the best place we can be as a business. But look, hey, [we also said:] 'It feels like there’s an opportunity here, to make something we love and we want to make'. So luckily, we were able to line both those up with Pillars."
"The way I look at it is, it’s not wrong for people to want that sort of high fantasy – it’s comfortable. I can more quickly immerse myself in this world because I understand orcs and elves and dragons and zombies and liches, and that’s what we do."
“But there needs to be different stuff as well. We’ve done different styles of fantasy games: go back to Black Isle and you’ve got Icewind Dale, which had a very different focus, and Planescape Torment, which a different focus on top of that. That’s how we look at it, you know, ‘do we always want to make a high fantasy game?’ No. But it’s fun to do.”
"There’s definitely a group of people – a minority – who will pick something like a Chanter [a new class unique to Pillars of Eternity], put it on the highest difficulty, and put on Iron Man mode. And they will do that for their first playthrough. But that’s their enjoyment! They love that aspect of playing through the game multiple times and seeing how the game reacts."
“A lot of what we have to do is make that balance. Some of our fans will always make a combination of class and race that no-one’s ever seen before. And then other people will say, ‘well, you’ll have to pry my dwarves and elves from my dead hands!’ Because that’s fantasy to them. So a lot of what we’re doing is trying to create that world where it’s not a compromise. It’s more like, let’s make this world work for people who love fantasy in general, and give something new to the people that play a lot of these things.”
“In general more people play through the first time as good. It’s probably somewhere between three-to-one and four-to-one [ratio of first-time good players to evil ones]. But there’s still a pretty significant group of people who go through and stab everyone in the neck. I think even 15 years ago we were doing a pretty good job of making games where you could choose evil choices, but it wasn’t psychopathically evil. Yes, there were those choices, but it was more self-interest – more the ends justifying the means mentality."
“Pillars is hard because it would be very difficult for anyone to create more levels,” says Urquhart. “They can mod the interface, they can mod that kind of stuff, and because it’s developed with Unity they can get pretty much direct access to it already."
“But you know how, if you eat sausage you don’t want to see the sausage factory? You have to look at the tool itself as a product. You make it more usable than you probably would internally... You have to take your build process and turn it into this clean thing that everyone can share. You have to expose that part of the sausage factory."
“A lot of the time it’s just that we’re working so hard just to get the game out, that to ship the tool alongside it is just tiring to think about. It’s not that we don’t want people to have it! It’s just in the end it’s the human side; it’s taking 110% of what we have just to get the game out.”
PoE's lack of romance makes me pretty uninterested in continuing to play. I have tried to get into it, but I find the companions flat. What can I say...I like romance options in my rpgs
Maybe they'll add romances in future titles, in the end this adventure has a low level cap, like BGI, so if they'll make a sequel there will be romances, like in BGII. Personally I would prefer romances in a PoEII, where the main character is more mature, I think that in the situation the protagonist is in PoE, he is so taken by his own problems (being a Watcher is not as easy as one could think, also I'm sure the fear to end like this Maerwald, in complete madness, would take a huge place in his mind) that there's no space for a romance.
PoE's lack of romance makes me pretty uninterested in continuing to play. I have tried to get into it, but I find the companions flat. What can I say...I like romance options in my rpgs
I actually don't like romances very much. When I'm trying to save the world I am far to busy to chase girls.
PoE's lack of romance makes me pretty uninterested in continuing to play. I have tried to get into it, but I find the companions flat. What can I say...I like romance options in my rpgs
I actually don't like romances very much. When I'm trying to save the world I am far to busy to chase girls.
Guess that's a point we won't be agreeing on, lol. Romances make up a huge part of RPGs for me. And they are optional after all, so if one doesn't like them, they don't need to pursue them. Having the choice is nice though. Adds a lot for me in an RPG....in a crisis I tend to cling to people, and so do my characters, haha. I really hope PoE gets romance options in the future, or an expansion etc. I would happily pay for that. Having Dorn added as a romance option for me in BGEE and BG2EE was awesome, so awesome I bought the game on multiple platforms to show support xD
Comments
By the way: I made it to Twin Elms finally, and then I lost interest... I was (role)playing this rogue who is not really very into praying and religion. Twin Elms is a beautiful area, but also a religious place, all the quests were strange, and then I got forced into... well hope I did not spoil too much (... If you got this far, you can actually guess now where I'm stuck ...)
Still enjoying the game, just need a little break (169 hours, just had to check Steam) ...
So far I reached Defiance Bay and I'm doing some of the huge amount of subquests there; I enjoyed the Infinite Path but as soon as I reached floor -8 I noticed I was unable to set off traps, so I said: "let's get some xp out of here!" and my party have seen sunlight again!
I encountered several bugs so far, nothing really gamebreaking, but the one that really annoyed me was the one where Sagani spoils the bad guy name, which was patched with v. 1.0.4 but even if I read the patch log I took her in the party, forgetting that bug, then that dialog popped up before I was able to patch the game, so I said a long "FUUUUUUUUUU...".
The good news is that when I'll meet that guy I'll forgot what happened.
I also reported some translation typos.
The pillars world also strikes me as a theater with set-piece NPC's waiting around to give you quests rather than a working world. I'm not sure what it is. The beginning of the game was great but it kind of drags in act 2 for me. I am surprised since the story is one thing that Obs was praised for doing really well in other games.
I do think, though, that PoE bogs down a little bit once you get to Twin Elms.
-Assassins trying to kill me beginning right in my supposedly safe home for reasons i don't understand and i never knew the next time one would show up and try to stick a knife in my back
-The tragic death of my father by a scary looking armored dude who wanted to kill me immediately upon a hurried escape for unknown reasons from my lifelong home
-Bandits roaming everywhere, i never knew when they would surprise me on the road and pepper me with arrows
-My weapons breaking at often critical moments due to the for some reason brittle iron
-Strange companions I perhaps coincidentally meet on the roads who may have nefarious intentions
-An enigmatic wizard taking interest in me for some reason and offering cryptic warnings about the road ahead
-Dreams that seem to indicate some evil presence inside me trying to battle for control
I went from the FAI straight to Nashkel to try and solve the iron crisis since it seemed the best route to try and find who was trying to kill me and prevent my weapons from continually breaking.
Maybe it was only me but I felt pushed by mysterious forces to try and find out what was going on right out of the gate. I admit it did slow down after Tranzig b/c i stopped to do sidequests, but I was hooked by that point. In subsequent play throughs I agree it wasn't the same urgency but my first experience i felt excited and rushed for the first part of the game, and that feeling really brought the story to life for me.
In Pillars i felt that way in the very beginning, but it faded much more quickly and I haven't felt as personally threatened or gripped by the story as much.
I will say this: I felt the most pleased when I was doing the quest "Lord of a Barren Land." No spoilers, just wanted to say that it felt amazingly cool and satisfying. By comparison, some of the other quests are... less engaging. I guess they can't all be up to that level, of course.
Don't get me wrong! I really like the game, I just reached a "pause" point. Even Baldur's Gate has those moments for me. ^_~
http://gamasutra.com/view/news/241669/Novelty_out_of_nostalgia_Josh_Sawyer_on_Pillars_of_Eternity.php
Also, I appreciate the fact that Odsidian thinks about addressing the concerns people have about things like the late-game being too easy (from the interview @procco linked).
Good to hear that they're addressing the late game difficulty issue.
Anyway, here's what I've seen in the video of "the making of":
The list of the companions.
It includes 2 people we haven't seen in the official game:
God Gnawed Priest
Devil of Caroc
God Gnawed Priest is presumably Durance, but "Devil of Caroc" is... in fact, it seems it will be an NPC for an expansion.
This name first appeared as a companion in the Update 70 PE UI:
Also, there's a possibility that Devil of Caroc is companion_barbarian.unity3d in the game files.
So, probably an NPC in the expansion will be called Devil of Caroc and he may be a barbarian.
Personally I am hoping for a rogue too (even godlike?) ...
Someone mentioned the patch will go live today. I'm not sure though?? But a heads up: There are many changes in 1.05 and some of them are really really nice .... No spoilers : p
"I had the privilege of making D&D games from 1996 until 2008… Fantasy is also something we love – I loved working on the Baldur’s Gates with Bioware. So part of it is that we’re making Pillars because that’s probably the best place we can be as a business. But look, hey, [we also said:] 'It feels like there’s an opportunity here, to make something we love and we want to make'. So luckily, we were able to line both those up with Pillars."
"The way I look at it is, it’s not wrong for people to want that sort of high fantasy – it’s comfortable. I can more quickly immerse myself in this world because I understand orcs and elves and dragons and zombies and liches, and that’s what we do."
“But there needs to be different stuff as well. We’ve done different styles of fantasy games: go back to Black Isle and you’ve got Icewind Dale, which had a very different focus, and Planescape Torment, which a different focus on top of that. That’s how we look at it, you know, ‘do we always want to make a high fantasy game?’ No. But it’s fun to do.”
"There’s definitely a group of people – a minority – who will pick something like a Chanter [a new class unique to Pillars of Eternity], put it on the highest difficulty, and put on Iron Man mode. And they will do that for their first playthrough. But that’s their enjoyment! They love that aspect of playing through the game multiple times and seeing how the game reacts."
“A lot of what we have to do is make that balance. Some of our fans will always make a combination of class and race that no-one’s ever seen before. And then other people will say, ‘well, you’ll have to pry my dwarves and elves from my dead hands!’ Because that’s fantasy to them. So a lot of what we’re doing is trying to create that world where it’s not a compromise. It’s more like, let’s make this world work for people who love fantasy in general, and give something new to the people that play a lot of these things.”
“In general more people play through the first time as good. It’s probably somewhere between three-to-one and four-to-one [ratio of first-time good players to evil ones]. But there’s still a pretty significant group of people who go through and stab everyone in the neck. I think even 15 years ago we were doing a pretty good job of making games where you could choose evil choices, but it wasn’t psychopathically evil. Yes, there were those choices, but it was more self-interest – more the ends justifying the means mentality."
“Pillars is hard because it would be very difficult for anyone to create more levels,” says Urquhart. “They can mod the interface, they can mod that kind of stuff, and because it’s developed with Unity they can get pretty much direct access to it already."
“But you know how, if you eat sausage you don’t want to see the sausage factory? You have to look at the tool itself as a product. You make it more usable than you probably would internally... You have to take your build process and turn it into this clean thing that everyone can share. You have to expose that part of the sausage factory."
“A lot of the time it’s just that we’re working so hard just to get the game out, that to ship the tool alongside it is just tiring to think about. It’s not that we don’t want people to have it! It’s just in the end it’s the human side; it’s taking 110% of what we have just to get the game out.”
The rest of the interview, that includes a part about paid mods, is here: http://www.redbull.com/en/games/stories/1331721253309/pillars-of-eternity-what-next-for-obsidian
There seems to be a common patching issue on Steam after this patch:
ERROR Data Folder Not found
There should be 'PillarsOfEternity_Data'
folder next to the executable
Attempting to verify the integrity of the game cache would trigger a redownload of all the game files, amounting to some 5.6 gigabytes or so.
But there's a much easier solution:
1) navigate to your steam installation directory for PoE; for most people, this will be \Steam\steamapps\common\Pillars of Eternity
2) you should notice a folder named EmptySteamDepot, change it to PillarsOfEternity_Data
The game will launch without any issues after an integrity verification.
Personally I would prefer romances in a PoEII, where the main character is more mature, I think that in the situation the protagonist is in PoE, he is so taken by his own problems (being a Watcher is not as easy as one could think, also I'm sure the fear to end like this Maerwald, in complete madness, would take a huge place in his mind) that there's no space for a romance.
I only have a "Watch" option, which basically just loads an embed on an Eternity page.