One one hand, I never could get into PST. On the other, I'll probably end up buying it anyway to support Beamdog. Who knows, maybe the EE will click with me and I'll actually enjoy a new game.
I'll be buying a copy. I last played PST with the widescreen patch and it's fun. I didn't really have a problem with crashes like people have reported. As a modder, I tried to be able to incorporate the modron cube (and maze and the NPC) into BG2 but I couldn't do it. Maybe the creatures and areas will be more compatible from the EE version.
If it is PSTEE, there's one thing i'm curious about. Do they still have the old art assets for the game, or were they unfortunately lost like the BG and ID series.
Not sure if I will buy a copy. PST is one of the best games ever but after two replays I was done. Time for the fork done. I'll read the comments (not the reviews) and decide.
If Beamdog had a Large, Medium and Small project in the works -- which one is this? Asking you @TrentOster I'm hoping this is medium and that a new 5th ed game is being written by @David_Gaider
Although I was hoping for an IWD2EE, I'll probably buy it. It is the only I.E. game I didn't finish so I guess now is the time.
I wonder if they were able to get the art assets for this. Based on the previous 3 I'm guessing not. It would be nice to get upgraded art. I also wonder if this is going to be like IWDEE which added no new content or like the 2 BGEE's with new areas/characters.
If Beamdog had a Large, Medium and Small project in the works -- which one is this? Asking you @TrentOster I'm hoping this is medium and that a new 5th ed game is being written by @David_Gaider
I think we can all be confident that the 'large' project is an entirely new D&D IP being written by Gaider. Otherwise what would be the point of hiring Gaider and other new talent? Also, I do believe it's been unoficially confirmed the new game will be set in the FR setting, so Planescape setting fans will have to wait a while more.
If it is PSTEE, there's one thing i'm curious about. Do they still have the old art assets for the game, or were they unfortunately lost like the BG and ID series.
I remember the devs hinting at having at least some of the original assets for PST (see page one of this thread or: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/44388/#Comment_44388), so this might be a proper HD re-render. Although that source code might be for the game engine and not the original art.
I for one am really looking forward to PSTEE, I started playing PST for the first time right before BG:EE came out but never finished it. After playing the EEs I could not bring myself to fight with the (really bad) PST's UI, I got too used to middle-click-and-drag to move the screen, the ability to zoom, and the ability to increase the font size.
Super duper pooper excited about this. Haters gonna hate, that's okay. Meantime we'll get PSTEE in an updated engine with updated UI (!!) on updated hardware (iPad!).
What's really intriguing is that, depending on how integrated this is with the SoD engine, it could open up a ton of modding possibilities. That was not really explored much in the original; there was Widescreen, some UB-style things, some fixes, etc. But if modding this is as easy as modding BGEE 2.0, maybe it will get more modding attention than the original did. Heck, maybe it could lead to more mods for BGEE/BG2EE as well... "PST-in-EET," anyone?
Here's the hook, when CHARNAME dies, you don't get the usual "disintegrating hand" animation following by game over... you wake up in the Mortuary in PST.
New modding tools is cool, and all, but what we really need is a new generation of Modders. SHS & G3 both been slowly dying with only just a few users just keeping things up (Unless most modders like to hide in the shadows when I'm not looking).
And without knowing anything, RPGCodex is already preparing their shit-storm campaign... So sad
They have good reason to be wary, given PST's status as the Citizen Kane of RPGs. With Beamdog's lousy track record when it comes to writing narratives, their fear of Beamdog defiling PST is very understandable.
As long as PSTEE's release works out like IWDEE's did, I don't foresee any troubles besides the usual grumbling about how the originals are still fine (which they are, but I cannot deny the amount of quality-of-life improvements Beamdog has made to the IE games).
Big Project : PST:EE Medium Project: The nifty new launcher Small Project: Patch(?)
The why hire Gaider? I'd say: Small: Launcher Medium: PSTEE Big: New game
Not to busrt people's bubble, but signs point to this being the big project.
Trent has already said there is going to be a new update to at least SoD. He has also counted patches as "projects" in the past, including the post he mentioned the 3.
The position posted was for a lead writer. Gaider was interested in moving on from Bioware and saw the posting and when he ran into Trent at the gym, he pitched his proposal. Trent obviously jumped at the opportunity to hire one of the industry's best and did, changing Gaider's title in the process. That didn't mean he had a brand new game in the works then, just the need for a lead writer.
And I do think there might be new writing involved, (hopefully as an extended DLC) as Phil said on twitter he and Dave had a question about the blood wars. (Can't find the link though)
That isn't to say, with the launcher already up, and this project nearing its completion, after being delayed they haven't added a new project to the table. A bigger bigger project. Remember, that small, medium, large project post was back in August. Especially with the new lead artist position going up, mentioning Unreal Engine 4. Back in May, they mentioned about getting some high powered help for future developments. I personally assume that high powered help is Unreal Engine 4, but before starting on the project, they needed to acquire it's licence first, which could take months, after some financial juggling.
Does this mean Gaider might fix up the storyline a bit in SoD? I know it was not too well received from what I could tell back then. Also I can see why he wanted to focus on the Blood Wars due to "certain events you have to piece together".
I don't know if they're still looking for a answer on what the blood wars were, but this post from 2002 in the Ironworks forum sums it up:
The Blood War is a savage quest for annihilation that ravages the Lower Planes. At its essence it is a ideological battle of evil against evil, with the lawful, organized devils fighting the countless hordes of demons, but the way evil turns upon itself, demon-against-demon and devil-against-devil battles often happen. Working for either, and often both, sides, are the neutral evil yugoloths of Gehenna and Hades, playing one side off the other and making jink in the process.
On the Nine Hells' side, the Dark Eight are the generals of the Blood War operation - they are right at the top of the tree in the military structure of the Hells. These eight mighty pit fiends are: Baalzephon, Corin, Dagos, Furcas, Pearza, Zapan, Zaebos, and Zimmimar. They are inferior only to the Lords of the Nine (the nine arch-devils that each rule a layer of Hell) and all answer to Asmodeus, the Dark Lord of Nessus and King of Hell. The Lords of the Nine don't get involved in the Blood War that much - they tend to involve themselves in more domestic schemes against each other. The main troops that are involved in the Blood War are mainly abishai, barbazu and hamatulas, with elite companies being composed of cornugons. Gelugons are mainly held in reserve on the eighth layer of Hell, Cania, to defend the gate into Nessus, the lowest level, against a demonic attack should it penetrate that far.
The demons are much less organized. They just fight, using their infinite numbers and their savagery. Much of the responsibility for planning Blood War offensives rest with the balors and mariliths that act as generals and tacticians - not that this happens often. The main troops are comprised of bar-igura and babau demons, with elite troops being composed of vrock demons, commanded by glabrezu.
Occasionally celestials will enter the Blood War when they are directly affected - companies of agathinon, astral devas and planetars will raid Blood War battlefields on Avernus (the first layer of the Nine Hells), the Plain of Infinite Portals (the first layer of the Abyss), or Oinos (the first gloom of Hades), slaying demon and devil alike. But by and large the aasimon, archons, eladrin and guardinals of the Upper Planes are satisfied to sit back and watch evil fight evil - as long as the fiends stay out of Elysium, Mount Celestia, Arborea and the rest of the Upper Planes and confine themselves to slaughtering each other in their own hellholes.
Nobody even knows what the exact goals of the war are. Genocide's the best guess - the tanar'ri and baatezu'll fight each other until there's none left. Nobody knows for sure how the war started, and nobody cares, really. As long as there are fiends, they'll fight each other in a contest in which no quarter is given or asked. On those planes and layers most directly affected that I mentioned above, great seige engines rumble across the battle-plains like mobile mountains, attended by a surging sea of fiends and mercenaries. When two armies clash under hellish suns, the very landscape is split with the terrible energies of war unleashed. The surface of the Gray Waste of Hades is a gigantic wasteland due to millenia of heavy fighting.
So to summarize, if the Blood War doesn't involve you, it's best to stay out of it.
The Nine Hells is pretty easy to understand, but the Abyss has infinite numbered layers which would take weeks to study for a D&D setting.
And without knowing anything, RPGCodex is already preparing their shit-storm campaign... So sad
They have good reason to be wary, given PST's status as the Citizen Kane of RPGs. With Beamdog's lousy track record when it comes to writing narratives, their fear of Beamdog defiling PST is very understandable.
As long as PSTEE's release works out like IWDEE's did, I don't foresee any troubles besides the usual grumbling about how the originals are still fine (which they are, but I cannot deny the amount of quality-of-life improvements Beamdog has made to the IE games).
I just don't think negative opinions stated on RPGCodex, at least from what I could gather, were about that. It was mostly jokes about the whole SJW thing.
Being worried about the quality of the writing of possible extra content on PSTEE is actually a legitime concern, even though I think that saying the Beamdog track record at writing is lousy is debatable. But, these worries are legitimate, and I would say, if kept on that angle, they could actually be positive criticism. Not everybody here love the Beamdog specific content in BG1&2, but that doesn't mean that all these people are bashing the company for everything they do.
That's just not what people at RPGCodex are going for, at least from what I could gather. They reinforce the binary of "us" against "them", which means they will attack Beamdog even if they create quality products. That's actually nonsense, and that's, to me, the biggest problem I have with what I read on that site.
I'll personnaly buy PSTEE (if that's what they are indeed doing) if only to play it on modern hardware.
But I don't want to derail the thread by talking excessively about RPGCodex people's position, so that will be my final post on the matter.
P.S. : Just to make sure, I'm not saying that I think Beamdog would do bad writing on PSTEE, because I don't : I personnaly like what they do. However, talking and raising questions about that matter is legitimate, like any positive criticism can be.
This time around, let us all remember to resist the compulsion to feed the troll with replies trying to present the other side of things that they'll never listen to, and just click the little flag button and report their aggro trolling.
Comments
Just saying...
If Beamdog had a Large, Medium and Small project in the works -- which one is this? Asking you @TrentOster I'm hoping this is medium and that a new 5th ed game is being written by @David_Gaider
I wonder if they were able to get the art assets for this. Based on the previous 3 I'm guessing not. It would be nice to get upgraded art. I also wonder if this is going to be like IWDEE which added no new content or like the 2 BGEE's with new areas/characters.
Big Project : PST:EE
Medium Project: The nifty new launcher
Small Project: Patch(?)
Small: Launcher
Medium: PSTEE
Big: New game
I for one am really looking forward to PSTEE, I started playing PST for the first time right before BG:EE came out but never finished it. After playing the EEs I could not bring myself to fight with the (really bad) PST's UI, I got too used to middle-click-and-drag to move the screen, the ability to zoom, and the ability to increase the font size.
As long as PSTEE's release works out like IWDEE's did, I don't foresee any troubles besides the usual grumbling about how the originals are still fine (which they are, but I cannot deny the amount of quality-of-life improvements Beamdog has made to the IE games).
Trent has already said there is going to be a new update to at least SoD. He has also counted patches as "projects" in the past, including the post he mentioned the 3.
The position posted was for a lead writer. Gaider was interested in moving on from Bioware and saw the posting and when he ran into Trent at the gym, he pitched his proposal. Trent obviously jumped at the opportunity to hire one of the industry's best and did, changing Gaider's title in the process. That didn't mean he had a brand new game in the works then, just the need for a lead writer.
And I do think there might be new writing involved, (hopefully as an extended DLC) as Phil said on twitter he and Dave had a question about the blood wars. (Can't find the link though)
That isn't to say, with the launcher already up, and this project nearing its completion, after being delayed they haven't added a new project to the table. A bigger bigger project. Remember, that small, medium, large project post was back in August.
Especially with the new lead artist position going up, mentioning Unreal Engine 4. Back in May, they mentioned about getting some high powered help for future developments. I personally assume that high powered help is Unreal Engine 4, but before starting on the project, they needed to acquire it's licence first, which could take months, after some financial juggling.
I could be wrong though, have before.
I don't know if they're still looking for a answer on what the blood wars were, but this post from 2002 in the Ironworks forum sums it up:
The Blood War is a savage quest for annihilation that ravages the Lower Planes. At its essence it is a ideological battle of evil against evil, with the lawful, organized devils fighting the countless hordes of demons, but the way evil turns upon itself, demon-against-demon and devil-against-devil battles often happen. Working for either, and often both, sides, are the neutral evil yugoloths of Gehenna and Hades, playing one side off the other and making jink in the process.
On the Nine Hells' side, the Dark Eight are the generals of the Blood War operation - they are right at the top of the tree in the military structure of the Hells. These eight mighty pit fiends are: Baalzephon, Corin, Dagos, Furcas, Pearza, Zapan, Zaebos, and Zimmimar. They are inferior only to the Lords of the Nine (the nine arch-devils that each rule a layer of Hell) and all answer to Asmodeus, the Dark Lord of Nessus and King of Hell. The Lords of the Nine don't get involved in the Blood War that much - they tend to involve themselves in more domestic schemes against each other. The main troops that are involved in the Blood War are mainly abishai, barbazu and hamatulas, with elite companies being composed of cornugons. Gelugons are mainly held in reserve on the eighth layer of Hell, Cania, to defend the gate into Nessus, the lowest level, against a demonic attack should it penetrate that far.
The demons are much less organized. They just fight, using their infinite numbers and their savagery. Much of the responsibility for planning Blood War offensives rest with the balors and mariliths that act as generals and tacticians - not that this happens often. The main troops are comprised of bar-igura and babau demons, with elite troops being composed of vrock demons, commanded by glabrezu.
Occasionally celestials will enter the Blood War when they are directly affected - companies of agathinon, astral devas and planetars will raid Blood War battlefields on Avernus (the first layer of the Nine Hells), the Plain of Infinite Portals (the first layer of the Abyss), or Oinos (the first gloom of Hades), slaying demon and devil alike. But by and large the aasimon, archons, eladrin and guardinals of the Upper Planes are satisfied to sit back and watch evil fight evil - as long as the fiends stay out of Elysium, Mount Celestia, Arborea and the rest of the Upper Planes and confine themselves to slaughtering each other in their own hellholes.
Nobody even knows what the exact goals of the war are. Genocide's the best guess - the tanar'ri and baatezu'll fight each other until there's none left. Nobody knows for sure how the war started, and nobody cares, really. As long as there are fiends, they'll fight each other in a contest in which no quarter is given or asked. On those planes and layers most directly affected that I mentioned above, great seige engines rumble across the battle-plains like mobile mountains, attended by a surging sea of fiends and mercenaries. When two armies clash under hellish suns, the very landscape is split with the terrible energies of war unleashed. The surface of the Gray Waste of Hades is a gigantic wasteland due to millenia of heavy fighting.
So to summarize, if the Blood War doesn't involve you, it's best to stay out of it.
The Nine Hells is pretty easy to understand, but the Abyss has infinite numbered layers which would take weeks to study for a D&D setting.
Being worried about the quality of the writing of possible extra content on PSTEE is actually a legitime concern, even though I think that saying the Beamdog track record at writing is lousy is debatable. But, these worries are legitimate, and I would say, if kept on that angle, they could actually be positive criticism. Not everybody here love the Beamdog specific content in BG1&2, but that doesn't mean that all these people are bashing the company for everything they do.
That's just not what people at RPGCodex are going for, at least from what I could gather. They reinforce the binary of "us" against "them", which means they will attack Beamdog even if they create quality products. That's actually nonsense, and that's, to me, the biggest problem I have with what I read on that site.
I'll personnaly buy PSTEE (if that's what they are indeed doing) if only to play it on modern hardware.
But I don't want to derail the thread by talking excessively about RPGCodex people's position, so that will be my final post on the matter.
P.S. : Just to make sure, I'm not saying that I think Beamdog would do bad writing on PSTEE, because I don't : I personnaly like what they do. However, talking and raising questions about that matter is legitimate, like any positive criticism can be.