Pillars of Eternity

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rope kid: Feb 3, 2001; Warte nur! Balde
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Drifter posted:

I get that you have to make money, and if you want to do new content stretch goals for the DLC stuff without delaying the current game any longer, that might be cool, but just a blanket statement of "hey do you want more stuff in this game" seems kinda iffy.

It's for two very specific things:

quote:

We've always taken your pledges seriously and we remain committed to giving our backers every stretch goal you reached during the Kickstarter campaign. Budgeting a game of this size can be daunting, but we always remember the cornerstones of our pitch and the features you funded. Even so, there are two things we know a lot of you have asked for: more wilderness areas and more companions. Both of these are very time-consuming, but we understand why so many people want them. Because we've seen these requests more than a few times, we would like to ask the community if you would be interested in new stretch goals to fund additional development. If not, no worries: we're still going to deliver on everything you've backed. Please let us know your thoughts in this thread on our forums.

# ¿ Dec 10, 2013 23:52

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 08:44

rope kid: Feb 3, 2001; Warte nur! Balde
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chiefnewo posted:

I've already sent Obsidian a message via the pledge website, but I want to whinge about it here too. I donated extra money during the Kickstarter for international shipping and an addon. The addon is $5 cheaper on the pledge website, so when I get to the checkout it mentions that I have money remaining. The balance shown on the checkout sheet correctly shows that international shipping will be taken out and there is $5 remaining. When I select to donate the $5 as additional funding it also takes the $30 for international shipping, then wants to charge me another $30 on top for the shipping I've already paid for!

I figure this is just an oversight and will be corrected quickly, but it's a bit of an oops that the system doesn't correctly take into account international shipping.

I forwarded this to Darren and they're looking into it.

# ¿ Dec 10, 2013 23:56

rope kid: Feb 3, 2001; Warte nur! Balde
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Airfoil posted:

Is the music in the trailer original? If so, I'm curious if the chorus is actually singing in a PoE conlang.

It was composed by Justin Bell (who wrote the Kickstarter pitch music). The intro choir lyrics were written by me (in Glanfathan) and performed by a small choir of Obsidian employees.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2013 00:05

rope kid: Feb 3, 2001; Warte nur! Balde
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Drifter posted:

So will adding additional content make the game take longer to get released?

Probably a bit, mostly for companions rather than wilderness environments. Additional content does take additional time to make, but not dramatically, not at the scale we're thinking about.

E: Personally, I think more wilderness areas would feel really cool and I believe players would enjoy them. I also would like for players to have every character class represented by a companion. Right now we're 3 short. We don't want to go buckwild on this stuff, but we do think it would feel better with those additions. If we thought it would fundamentally make the game worse, we wouldn't even be asking.

rope kid fucked around with this message at 00:11 on Dec 11, 2013

# ¿ Dec 11, 2013 00:08

rope kid: Feb 3, 2001; Warte nur! Balde
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CottonWolf posted:

Would adding companions at this 'late stage' not limit the degree to which they'd be able to be tied into the story? There's no point doing it if they were going to be obviously subpar versus the initial envisaged ones.

No, actually. While we do design our companions relatively early in development, we don't write them until we get closer to the end (e.g. I just started writing the first companion literally this morning). We ignore them completely as far as the crit path design of the game is concerned because they are all optional. Developing them later allows us to be much more reactive to the final designs of quests and areas.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2013 00:17

rope kid: Feb 3, 2001; Warte nur! Balde
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Scorchy posted:

I just have bad memories of NWN2 where they did the 'one-of-each-class' thing and it ended up really suffering as a result.

That's why they would have to be backed to be done at all. MotB and PS:T were not games that emphasized tactical combat. PE is, which is why I think there's a more compelling motivation to actually have all classes represented. While the difference between 8 and 11 companions is not trivial, it's nothing like the 26 in BG or 17 in BG2.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2013 01:46

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Mymla posted:

Adding characters also add exponentially to the workload if you want things like banter between the different NPCs. Which you probably do want.

That only creates exponential growth to party banter, which is a small set of a character's dialogue nodes.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2013 01:52

rope kid: Feb 3, 2001; Warte nur! Balde
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Perception.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2013 02:04

rope kid: Feb 3, 2001; Warte nur! Balde
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coffeetable posted:

If only there was the possibility of some additional pot of resources that could be used to pay for the additional workload.

You're creating a false dichotomy here. Do you think the OEI devs would be so eager to add new companions if they thought they'd compromise the quality of the first eight?

I don't want to give a false impression: certainly we debate (and continue to debate) the idea of adding more companions. They really can't be done at all without additional funding, which is the bottom line. The question isn't "Would you like more companions at the cost of the quality of current companions?" The question is, "Would you like more companions at the cost of $$$$$$ which would be necessary to make them good companions?"

# ¿ Dec 11, 2013 02:07

rope kid: Feb 3, 2001; Warte nur! Balde
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chiefnewo posted:

I've already sent Obsidian a message via the pledge website, but I want to whinge about it here too. I donated extra money during the Kickstarter for international shipping and an addon. The addon is $5 cheaper on the pledge website, so when I get to the checkout it mentions that I have money remaining. The balance shown on the checkout sheet correctly shows that international shipping will be taken out and there is $5 remaining. When I select to donate the $5 as additional funding it also takes the $30 for international shipping, then wants to charge me another $30 on top for the shipping I've already paid for!

I figure this is just an oversight and will be corrected quickly, but it's a bit of an oops that the system doesn't correctly take into account international shipping.

This has been fixed.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2013 02:49

rope kid: Feb 3, 2001; Warte nur! Balde
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SoggyBobcat posted:

No Charisma stat? Good.

Resolve is the closest thing to Charisma, kind of like Presence or Power in systems like Ars Magica and Call of Cthulhu/Stormbringer, respectively.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2013 02:56

rope kid: Feb 3, 2001; Warte nur! Balde
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What we do when a publisher isn't breathing down our neck is make a game where a release date is not the primary motivating factor for saying we're done.

I get what you're saying, but I know too well that falling short can be as damaging as being spread too thin. The first expansion I worked on was Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter. It was a modest expansion with a small number of areas and a small number of quests. It was pretty stable when it was released, but it felt short, and cramped, and not fitting with the precedent established by Baldur's Gate, Tales of the Sword Coast, and Icewind Dale.

We've never talked internally about just "adding stuff". It's always been about two things: wilderness areas and companions (and no more than 3). If we were just making "a game", I wouldn't suggest adding these things, but we're not making "a game", we're making something we proposed as an heir to established traditions. I think adding a modest number of wilderness areas and companions would make the game feel more Baldur's Gate-y (in a good way), and that's worth discussing.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2013 03:55

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jammu posted:

Wasn't this map fixed during the kickstarter? I remember we having discussion about impossible dividing rivers VS natural combining rivers.

It was! We will be replacing it with the version you see in the teaser soon.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2013 04:24

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fermun posted:

No way, it was totally inspired by the Dalelands just flipped.

This is the correct answer.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2013 07:14

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Slime Bro Helpdesk posted:

Rope Kid tell me why fighters won't suck I need this to sleep well!

Fighters can knock dudes on their asses, both individually and, at higher levels, in groups. Also they can act like big sheets of burly flypaper and catch scrubs who try to rush by them. Their disengagement attacks are gnarly, they constantly regenerate Stamina, they convert a percentage of Grazes to Hits (this was modified from their earlier Confident Aim ability), they can shield nearby allies, and they get weapon specialization. The specialization damage bonus isn't as flashy as using a paladin's Flames of Devotion, but they gain the damage benefit with every hit forever. They're designed to be reliable, efficient, and nigh-indestructible. They're not the guys you pick to have a single shining moment in the sun before they explode and collapse, but I think they are great characters. Then again, I loved playing a warden in 4E, so I'm biased toward "slow burn" defender types.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2013 08:14

rope kid: Feb 3, 2001; Warte nur! Balde
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Well, I've seen more than a few people expressing dissatisfaction over fighters being slow-and-steady defender types. If you want to be a melee character who hops around and breaks engagement and ganks someone for a boatload of damage before getting smacked hard and falling down, play a rogue. Rogues in PE aren't "Oi Govna" street urchins who pick pockets as their main profession. They're skirmishers and opportunistic killers (whether soldiers or actual thugs/assassins) in the vein of Bronn.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2013 18:07

rope kid: Feb 3, 2001; Warte nur! Balde
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Slime Bro Helpdesk posted:

edit- I think the important thing is having some ability to manage groups of enemies, since in my experience with ISO RPGs the fighter's real weakness is more how they don't contribute to fights with large numbers of enemies sometimes. Namaste

Fighters' basic Defender mode increases their number of Melee Engagement targets by two (to a total of three). It makes a big difference. One fighter in Defender can stop forward enemy motion as well as three other melee characters. For really chopping into groups of enemies, that's what barbarians (and their Carnage ability) are for.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2013 18:22

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Fintilgin posted:

I'm perfectly fine with it, bit maybe you should just "manage expectations" and change the names of the classes from fighter/rogue to something where people have less inbuilt D&D preconceptions?

The expectation to manage is that fighters will absorb and deal high damage in equal parts and that rogues are a combat benchwarmer skill class. I don't think it's in anyone's interest to preserve that expectation because I believe it has traditionally been one of the worst aspects of pre-4E class design.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2013 18:44

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Furism posted:

My main character was always a Dwarven Defender in NWN so thank you and screw them. However I think some people have a point when they associate certain class names to certain D&D archetypes, especially since PoE is a spiritual children to all those D&D games but not realy.

Certainly, and when those expectations can be accommodated without negatively impacting something else in the game, we should do so. E.g., people wanted paladins to have an equivalent to Smite. They're not damage-dealing characters in our design, but that doesn't mean they can't have a limited-use "pow" ability, so we added Flames of Devotion, which has limited uses per rest.

When talking about fighters and rogues, specifically, some people have the expectation that fighters should get both the defensive abilities and the high damage output and that rogues should -- at best -- get some form of sneak attack but ultimately be skill characters. That's not something I think we should support at all.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2013 19:05

rope kid: Feb 3, 2001; Warte nur! Balde
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Fintilgin posted:

Right, and it might be easier to do that by not using the same class names that are tied to years and years of D&D preconceptions. VV

It would be easier, but on this specific issue, I think it's more important for people to lose those preconceptions.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2013 19:12

rope kid: Feb 3, 2001; Warte nur! Balde
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4E already made those changes to fighters/rogues and it was the right thing to do.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2013 19:21

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Sensuki posted:

Is there gonna be non-hit reaction, hit reactions?

Since hit reactions are limited to Disengagement attacks, will there be a "blood" animation + "Ow" sound or something, when someone gets hit ? I liked the IE hit reactions.

We will likely blend hit reactions that aren't actual stuns/knockdowns. There will always be blood or fire/ice/electricity/acid burn particles.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2013 19:49

rope kid: Feb 3, 2001; Warte nur! Balde
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Combat tuning is literally never finished.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2013 19:57

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DatonKallandor posted:

They're doing a real-time take on Opportunity attacks. Fighters (all melee characters?) project a zone of control as long as the reach of their weapon and anyone moving through is subject to a free attack which roots if it hits. At least that's what I remember.
It's all very 4E, which is great.

Close. All characters who are not moving and have melee weapons equipped project a small Melee Engagement radius around them. If an enemy enters that radius, they are instantly Engaged and stop moving. They can start moving again immediately, but they will be subject to a free Disengagement Attack. Disengagement Attacks hit hard and call a long hit reaction, so if you just try to walk away from someone, it can be costly.

Most characters can only engage one enemy at a time. If they don't have a target, it's the first enemy who enters the radius. If they do have a target, it's them. For fighters in Defender mode, it's the first three, one of which is typically someone they are attacking.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2013 22:22

rope kid: Feb 3, 2001; Warte nur! Balde
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TooManyUzukis posted:

Will there be visual UI elements that depict this engagement radius?

Probably not, but it's a constant. It's pretty rare (never?) that I wind up thinking, "Oh that should/shouldn't have triggered Engagement."

# ¿ Dec 11, 2013 22:39

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Scorchy posted:

An RPS interview appears: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/12/11/obsidian-on-dungeoniest-dungeon-ever-eternitys-length/

BTW, the timeline of the Saint's War is much closer to "present day" in the game than it was previously. It happened about 10-15 years ago.

# ¿ Dec 12, 2013 00:27

rope kid: Feb 3, 2001; Warte nur! Balde
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New map btw:

https://eternity.obsidian.net/img/media/artwork/pe-pillarsofeternitymap-1750x1426.jpg

# ¿ Dec 12, 2013 02:01

rope kid: Feb 3, 2001; Warte nur! Balde
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What I don't want to do is force characters to attack or drop attack against someone else. Our system is symmetrical for classed/leveled characters, so that would mean party members could be affected by it, too. For core class abilities, I don't think that feels right for this sort of game (Charm/Domination are a different beast).

# ¿ Dec 12, 2013 03:52

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kujeger posted:

Since we have Hel's Gate Citadel are you doing actual Norse gods or is it one of those ~~cosmic coincidence~~ things

if it's just because the word Hell comes from it, I vote you also use Odin's day instead of wednesday ingame

Hel is the Eld Aedyran word for The Beyond/The Veiled, i.e. the afterlife, which people associate with going down into the world.

All of the day names in the Dyrwood are Eld Aedyran (e.g. Godansdag, Rytlingsdag). All of the month names are Vailian (e.g. Majprima).

# ¿ Dec 12, 2013 16:56

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shovelbum posted:

So I've seen a lot of 4E talk coming from Rope Kid, is this game basically going to be a love letter to 4E combat? I never really got into it, the classes felt very samey with the hyperstandardized mechanics, they felt like each class or set of classes was an overly-focused part of the skillset of a more complete character. "I use my power" "Oh, miniboss, I use my bigger power" "Oh, boss, time to blow all our dailies"

Our class and ability designs are a blend of 3.5 and 4E-style elements with new stuff of our own. Combat uses unified defenses (like 4E) but differs in a lot of other ways.

# ¿ Dec 12, 2013 18:19

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kujeger posted:

Might have been answered elsewhere, but do you plan on putting up a dictionary/translation for Eld Aedyran?

(God's day? Rider's day?)

Yeah, it will probably be included somewhere. I try to keep a running glossary for all of the terms and stems that we use.

Godansdag and Rytlingsdag are "Gods' Day" and "Children's Day".

# ¿ Dec 12, 2013 19:16

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Otto Skorzeny posted:

So Eld Aedyran is faux-Middle Frisian?

Yeah, most of the vocabulary is based on early middle ages West Germanic languages like Old Frisian and Old English.

# ¿ Dec 12, 2013 19:43

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Quantumfate posted:

That palatinate comes from rome's palatine.

The specific place "Palatium" became a Latin common noun with derived adjectives that were used to refer to palaces and imperial power. A palatinate is not necessarily the Holy Roman Palatinate or Roman Palatine Hill even on our world. Counties palatine existed in England going back to William the Conquerer. It's the Norman-English use of the term that I was trying to evoke: a territory where the vassal ruler was given close-to-sovereign powers. There isn't an Anglo-Saxon-rooted equivalent to that term because the concept was introduced to England via Normans.

In all places where Aedyrans use Romance-based words, I've tried to specify in the design docs that they took the idea from Vailians.

rope kid fucked around with this message at 18:16 on Dec 13, 2013

# ¿ Dec 13, 2013 18:12

rope kid: Feb 3, 2001; Warte nur! Balde
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Barbarians have great group-fighting abilities (both melee offense and personal defense).

Rangers and rogues both lack crowd control capabilities, but rangers have the edge defensively due to range and the interference their animal companions can run. Animal companions share Stamina and Health with the ranger, but they are very durable, DT-wise.

Rogues have the highest single-hit damage potential and they have a lot of ways to qualify for Sneak Attacks. There are no creature type restrictions on Sneak Attack and it's automatically triggered by a lot of different conditions on the target. Additionally, rogues gain more and more ways to cause those conditions!

Paladins have modal auras, powerful single-target support abilities, high defenses, and a Smite analogue in Flames of Devotion.

Priests have better support abilities, worse defenses, and some crowd control abilities that paladins completely lack. Also a few single-target strike spells.

# ¿ Dec 14, 2013 00:20

rope kid: Feb 3, 2001; Warte nur! Balde
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Druids are crowd control kings and their beast modes give them nice single-target strikes + various special powers.

# ¿ Dec 14, 2013 00:46

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coffeetable posted:

Offensive AOE kings, iirc

The have cycling lists of low power, high AoE passive buffs and debuffs and they can periodically use invocations, which are pretty powerful spells.

# ¿ Dec 14, 2013 01:09

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Drakyn posted:

Weren't those called Roars last time we heard about them? They're a great concept no matter what they're called, but that was pretty cool. You're walking around chanting random gibberish and you periodically break into huge screams, that sounds like a class I want to play.

They were, but invocations seemed more appropriate and allow us to do more, conceptually, with their effects. Roars were conceived of as almost entirely offensive blasts. Invocations are powerful spells of many types, but the intervals between using them are long -- and they can never be used at the start of a fight.

# ¿ Dec 14, 2013 03:55

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Evil Sagan posted:

As it is with all games like this, I spend a lot of time thinking about which class I'm going to play. Is there any chance I could play a Cipher like a psychic detective, or is it simply going change how my character contributes to combat encounters?

Ciphers can occasionally in conversation sense things about a person's soul, but there will not be frequent (or detailed) mind-reading escapades.

# ¿ Dec 16, 2013 21:53

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Kurtofan posted:

Do all classes have special conversations like that or is it just for a few classes?

All classes will, though class-gated dialogue will be uncommon overall.

# ¿ Dec 16, 2013 22:53

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 08:44

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Otto Skorzeny posted:

Is it only available to the PC, or if a party member would qualify for the gated dialogue can they butt in?

Those checks are only made on the PC. Individual companions are specifically scripted to butt in when it makes sense for their character.

# ¿ Dec 16, 2013 23:25

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