Pillars of Eternity

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Scorchy: Jul 15, 2006; Smug Statement: Elementary, my dear meatbag.

Releases March 26, 2015 :siren:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKoDTzea79Y

quote:

"Project Eternity is going to play and feel like an Infinity Engine game."

Press demo video of first area of the game: http://ca.ign.com/articles/2014/07/24/pillars-of-eternity-seems-to-push-all-the-right-rpg-buttons Beware spoilers!

Pillars of Eternity (formerly Project Eternity) is an isometric viewpoint, party-based RPG developed by Obsidian Entertainment. Players will quest through a original fantasy world where magic and power is determined by the quality of a person's soul, based on roughly 16th century medieval technology levels. The story will explore themes like the souls, technology and reincarnation. There will be elves and dwarves, drug trafficking, psychic detectives, magic missiles, trickster gods and anti-mage firearms.

It's being built on the Unity engine and slated to come to PC, Mac, and Linux in Q1 2015. There are no plans to port it to consoles.

The game will be available DRM free and there will probably be mods.

Further reading: Basic World Setup | Souls and Technology | Why use the Unity engine | Supported Resolutions | :siren:

Eternity Dev Tracker :siren:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUleDEFkUtE

The stated goal is to create an experience reminiscent of classic Infinity Engine franchises, such as Icewind Dale, Planescape: Torment, and Baldur's Gate. That means a 6 player party, with adjustable formations, and interesting companions to talk to. It is isometric view, with Real-time-with-Pause combat, on hand-painted 2D backgrounds. Voice-acting is be limited to important characters and only the first few lines. There'll be lots of dungeons, puzzles, loot and crafting.

The ruleset won't be D&D, instead it will be a brand new system built in-house by Obsidian. Endurance will be the tactical resource, expended and recovered quickly. If a character loses all Endurance during a fight, they are knocked out for the duration. Health is the long term strategic resource. Heal effects or spells are rare or non-existent, generally recoverable only by resting, so health has to be carefully managed over many fights. The attributes are currently as follows:

Might - Damage and Healing, Fortitude saves
Constitution - Endurance and Health, Fortitude saves
Dexterity - Attack Speed, Reflex saves
Intellect - AoE size and Spell Duration, Will saves
Perception - Interrupt Chance, Deflection, Reflex saves
Resolve - Concentration Chance, Deflection, Will saves

There are talents, equivalent to D&D feats, that you gain at even levels. They'll be where you can specialize your character into a particular role.

There will also be non-combat skills, which will be leveled up separately from combat skills. These abilities govern the ability to gain new items, companion interaction, world travel, and learning new things. Many encounters have alternate solutions that let you avoid combat, without losing on experience gains.

Stealth - Sneak around easier
Athletics - Lower fatigue over time
Lore - Learn about enemy stats faster
Mechanics - Disarm traps and open locks
Survival - Increase duration of food and potions

Some spells will require memorization and resting. Resting's done with finite camping supplies, inns or at your stronghold, the latter two granting additional bonuses to your party.

Further reading: Combat System Overview | Non-combat abilities | Inventory System | Damage vs. Armour Mechanics & Math | Crafting and Repairing

You'll be able to pick from 6 main races (further divided into cultures and backgrounds):

Humans - Boring old humans. Might +1, Resolve +1
Elves - Long ears and very fancy. Dexterity +1, Perception +1
Dwarves - Beards. Might +2, Dexterity -1, Constitution +1
Godlike - Weird descendents of the deities in the world. Dexterity +1, Intellect +1
Orlans - Small, big-eared people who mostly live in the woods. Might -1, Perception +2, Resolve +1
Aumaua - Huge and tall and tattooed. Might +2

quote:

We are still developing the races of Project Eternity, but we are creating a range that encompasses the recognizable (e.g. humans, elves, dwarves), the out-of-the-ordinary (e.g. the so-called "godlike"), and the truly odd (?!). Races and subraces differ from each other culturally, but the races also have different physiological factors that can contribute to friction and confusion between them.

quote:

If you want to create a wizard who wears plate armor and hacks away with a broadsword from behind a heavily-enhanced arcane veil, we want to let you do that. If your idea of the perfect fighter is one who wears light armor and uses a variety of dazzling rapier attacks in rapid succession, we want to help you make that character. So it's good to think of Project Eternity's classes as being purpose-ready but not purpose-limited.

The party limit is 6 - your player, plus 5 NPCs. There will be around 8 fully written NPC companions to fill out your party; if you want more you can create your own NPCs from scratch at the Adventurer's Hall, ala Icewind Dale, but they will be personality-free.

Further Reading: Class overview | Four Core Classes | Non-Core Classes

Higher than expected Kickstarter funding has increased the scope of the game, so now we can now expect two big, big cities in the game: Defiance Bay and Twin Elms. The comparison has been made to Baldur's Gate or Athkatla in Baldur's Gate.

There will be a massive mega-dungeon in the game called the Endless Paths of Od Nua. Expect monsters and traps and puzzles. It's been designed to ramp up in difficulty faster than it hands out experience, so expect to leave and come back to it several times. The size and scope was determined by the number of backers of the campaign, and in the end it came out to 15 levels.

Player housing is in. There will be a place to rest up, store your items in chests and swap out companions in your party. A player stronghold is also included. Crossroads Keep from Neverwinter Nights 2 will be a good idea of what to expect. There will be fights and quests, and light strategic castle management elements. You'll be able to spend money and upgrade parts of the castle for various benefits.

Further reading: Strongholds

There's three separate game modes that can be turned on for increased difficulty:

Expert Mode - Similar to Fallout New Vegas' Hardcore Mode. You can turn on/off ease-of-use features like showing reputation gains, skill checks, and gameplay elements.

Trial of Iron - Ironman/Hardcore mode. You get one save. Once you die, the save gets deleted. Do you have the stones?

Path of the Damned - Spiritual successor to Icewind Dale's Heart of Fury mode. All enemies across all difficulties spawn on encounters, and combat difficulty is amplified.

quote:

The first question you may have is, "Can I enable multiple challenge modes at once?" Yep, you sure can. They have to be selected at the beginning of the game, but if you want to play with two or all three at the same time, you can certainly can do so. If you're not quite sure you want all of the elements that come along with a given mode, this funding level will also cover implementing the ability to enable and disable the individual sub-features.

ReV VAdAUL posted:

Can anyone complete their order yet? I keep getting bounced back to the address stage.

That's happening to me as well.

# ? Dec 10, 2013 23:07

FuriousGeorge: Jan 23, 2006; Ah, the simple joys of a monkey knife-fight.; Grimey Drawer

I'm diggin' the reading-out-of-spellbook animation for spellcasting @ 1:07 in the gameplay teaser. Have they released any character bios or info yet? I wanna know all about smug, blonde Russell Crowe.

# ? Dec 10, 2013 23:07

Hakkesshu: Nov 4, 2009

I think the game looks super good, but that was kind of a bad trailer! The assets look great enough on their own in full resolution, why zoom in like that and make them look so grungy? That seems like a weird decision.

Edit: Huh, I must've been watching the 480p version because I just went through it again and it looked much sharper. My mistake!

Hakkesshu fucked around with this message at 23:12 on Dec 10, 2013

# ? Dec 10, 2013 23:10

coffeetable: Feb 5, 2006; TELL ME AGAIN HOW GREAT BRITAIN WOULD BE IF IT WAS RULED BY THE MERCILESS JACKBOOT OF PRINCE CHARLES

YES I DO TALK TO PLANTS ACTUALLY

Was kinda disappointed with how short the video was, especially after the 20 min one Wasteland 2 did, but fortunately there's about ten thousand words worth of detail in the various interviews :v:

# ? Dec 10, 2013 23:12

CottonWolf: Jul 20, 2012; Good ideas generator

Kurtofan posted:

That's happening to me as well.

Me too. I've also spotted that the campaign almanac doesn't seem to be listed as included in (at least) the $140 tier, when it should be in every tier above $50. I could see that causing problems considering they're also selling it as an add-on.

Edit: I suppose I should probably contact them about that.

# ? Dec 10, 2013 23:13

Line Feed: Sep 7, 2012; Seeds taste better with friends.

The Pillars of Eternity logo looks really nice. Props to the artists.

# ? Dec 10, 2013 23:14

Cross-Section: Mar 18, 2009

Kurtofan posted:

Crossposting from the old thread:

ReV VAdAUL posted:
Can anyone complete their order yet? I keep getting bounced back to the address stage.

That's happening to me as well.

Getting this on my end, too.

# ? Dec 10, 2013 23:14

Sleep of Bronze: Feb 9, 2013; If I could only somewhere find Aias, master of the warcry, then we could go forth and again ignite our battle-lust, even in the face of the gods themselves.

Kurtofan posted:

Crossposting from the old thread:

That's happening to me as well.

Aye, me too. But that's further than I could get before, so I'm happy with some progress being made.

# ? Dec 10, 2013 23:15

Sober: Nov 19, 2011; First touch: Life.
Second touch: Dead again. Forever.

Wow everything about the reveal is loving awesome. Good thing I put in like 300$ for this.

I have actually not played any Infinity Engine games yet, I need to correct this

# ? Dec 10, 2013 23:15

Jerusalem: May 20, 2004; Would you be my new best friends?

I had no problem completing my pledge but I'm getting zero physical rewards/add-ons, so I guess it's a problem only for those who are?

# ? Dec 10, 2013 23:16

Scorchy: Jul 15, 2006; Smug Statement: Elementary, my dear meatbag.

Update post is live as well, unfortunately the web server is dying but here's a mirror: http://pedevtracker.azurewebsites.net/Post/View/8198

Gonna point out a couple of things with the new site, the price point for new backers is now 35$ (up from $29, suspect it'll end up around $40 at release) and the estimated release date is now Winter 2014.

# ? Dec 10, 2013 23:17

mutantmell: Oct 14, 2012

Kurtofan posted:

Cross-Section posted:
That's happening to me as well.

Getting this on my end, too.

I managed to get all the way through without incident, but as soon as I was finished the site lagged out for me, so maybe I was just really lucky :v:

mutantmell fucked around with this message at 23:19 on Dec 10, 2013

# ? Dec 10, 2013 23:17

Prokhor Zakharov: Dec 31, 2008; This is me as I make another great post

Good luck with your depression!

Gameplay footage looks great, can't wait for more.

# ? Dec 10, 2013 23:18

CottonWolf: Jul 20, 2012; Good ideas generator

Mine's gone through now. Guess they're just getting hit pretty hard.

# ? Dec 10, 2013 23:19

Sleep of Bronze: Feb 9, 2013; If I could only somewhere find Aias, master of the warcry, then we could go forth and again ignite our battle-lust, even in the face of the gods themselves.

Yeah, went through when I tried again. And I threw an extra �20 at them for the expansion and the Almanac whilst I was at it.

# ? Dec 10, 2013 23:21

Sulphagnist: Oct 10, 2006; WARNING! INTRUDERS DETECTED

That's actually something I've been wondering, I donated enough for the game and the expansion pack but I don't think any of the emails have included anything on order fulfillment i.e. getting to actually pick the expansion pack for my "extra" contribution over the $20. Have I missed something?

Edit: Never mind I'm blind it's right on the website! :downs:

# ? Dec 10, 2013 23:21

The Crotch: Oct 16, 2012; by Nyc_Tattoo

Sounds like I was lucky to get my pledge management through nice and quick.

Now to dive into the ten billion god drat interviews...

# ? Dec 10, 2013 23:22

Archonic: Oct 11, 2003; bury me with it

Clicking on the gem on the backer's site ~~takes you~~ took me here:

http://www.nosleepforthewatcher.com/

In the page source is the following:

quote:

This world wants to drag us down, it does. It made you a Watcher. No one asks for that. And the weight, that guilt they want to hang around my neck, you don't have to carry it one more step. You think they won't let you rest, but it's not up to them. It never was.

Archonic fucked around with this message at 23:31 on Dec 10, 2013

# ? Dec 10, 2013 23:23

1stGear: Jan 16, 2010; Here's to the new us.

The trailer feels 90s as hell, so they got that part down.

# ? Dec 10, 2013 23:27

Scorchy: Jul 15, 2006; Smug Statement: Elementary, my dear meatbag.

Archonic posted:

Clicking on the gem on the backer's site takes you here:

It's a random link script I think. It alternately took me to the Obsidian order thread and also the Kerfluffles marshmallows store page (which were delicious).

# ? Dec 10, 2013 23:27

Phlegmish: Jul 2, 2011

What's this about an expansion? Anyway, I think I'm going to hold off on buying that until I've played and liked the base game. God bless Steam.

# ? Dec 10, 2013 23:29

Daeren: Aug 18, 2009; YER MUSTACHE IS CROOKED

I like how the RPS interview wasn't just slobbering all over Obsidian with constant, unchecked praise. It had actual journalistic criticism in it.

And Sawyer mentions muscle wizards and disses elves in the PCWorld interview :allears:

# ? Dec 10, 2013 23:31

Insurrectionist: May 21, 2007

Everything except the floaty party movement looked great. Definitely looking forward to more previews in the (hopefully near) future!

# ? Dec 10, 2013 23:32

Delusibeta: Aug 7, 2013; Let's ride together.

Yeah, my pledge remains unconfirmed. Oh well, try again tomorrow.

# ? Dec 10, 2013 23:33

CottonWolf: Jul 20, 2012; Good ideas generator

Archonic posted:

Clicking on the gem on the backer's site ~~takes you~~ took me here:

http://www.nosleepforthewatcher.com/

In the page source is the following:

quote:
This world wants to drag us down, it does. It made you a Watcher. No one asks for that. And the weight, that guilt they want to hang around my neck, you don't have to carry it one more step. You think they won't let you rest, but it's not up to them. It never was.

That was the text that was used in the initial build-up for the kickstarter. As well as something about the difference between someone and the sea being that the sea doesn't stop.

# ? Dec 10, 2013 23:35

Phlegmish: Jul 2, 2011

Daeren posted:

I like how the RPS interview wasn't just slobbering all over Obsidian with constant, unchecked praise. It had actual journalistic criticism in it.

And Sawyer mentions muscle wizards and disses elves in the PCWorld interview

RPS is generally pretty decent as far as games journalism goes. They did a piece on Divinity: Original Sin yesterday:

quote:

For example, to find a way into one suspect�s house, me and my partner found that we could pick the lock, teleport inside using arcane magicks, talk somebody into giving us the key, or murder the person carrying the key. Everyone in the game can be killed and Larian have ensured that every quest can be completed using alternate means if an essential NPC dies. Many of these backup solutions are intentionally obscure and/or challenging, but that they exist at all shows Larian�s strength of commitment to this particular brand of sandbox/open world.

...

That�s the brilliance of the game though. It was a daft thing to do and it took ages, but it was memorable in a way that only that sort of deviance from the �correct� path can be. Original Sin is a heavily scripted game, with thousands of lines of dialogue, hundreds of quests and characters, and carefully constructed tactical encounters � but everything is built on flexible systems, starting with those flowerpots, and that means almost anything is possible within the very broad rules of the world.

Betweens Pillars of Eternity and D:OS, 2014 is shaping up to be a good year for the PC gaming master race.

# ? Dec 10, 2013 23:36

Sleep of Bronze: Feb 9, 2013; If I could only somewhere find Aias, master of the warcry, then we could go forth and again ignite our battle-lust, even in the face of the gods themselves.

Scorchy posted:

It's a random link script I think. It alternately took me to the Obsidian order thread and also the Kerfluffles marshmallows store page (which were delicious).

Their error page talked about an invasion by Kerfufflopagus or something. The marshmallows have their, er ... appendages? ... everwhere! :tinfoil:

Edit: Yep this is happening.
KERFLUFFLEUPOGUS DEMANDS PALADINS.

Phlegmish posted:

What's this about an expansion? Anyway, I think I'm going to hold off on buying that until I've played and liked the base game. God bless Steam.

You saw SAGA in the trailer? That's fantasy game dev code for "we want to make this a franchise".

Sleep of Bronze fucked around with this message at 23:40 on Dec 10, 2013

# ? Dec 10, 2013 23:37

Ihmemies: Oct 6, 2012

Ropekid: IF you introduce more stretch goals, please consider finishing the base game as promised with the original kickstarter features, and implemenr the additional goals as DLC, director's cut or something.

I don't want to wait for an eternity for some game with ever expanding feature creep.

# ? Dec 10, 2013 23:37

Un-l337-Pork: Sep 9, 2001; Oooh yeah...

Gameplay video looked great. I actually think that I prefer more of the 2.5D look to full 3D for RPGs, but that's probably because I'm an old loving nerd. The water looks really nice in motion -- adds a lot of life to the environment vs. BG2 style water.

# ? Dec 10, 2013 23:39

A Tartan Tory: Mar 26, 2010; You call that a shotgun?!

This still looks so loving good.

# ? Dec 10, 2013 23:41

Airfoil: Sep 10, 2013; I'm a rocket man

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

Sounds vaguely Latin, so it may just be that.

# ? Dec 10, 2013 23:45

Phobophilia: Apr 26, 2008; by Hand Knit

Huh, wasn't this game originally set in a sort of magi-technological future built on successive layers of an ancient ruined civilization? Guess that's changed from something Planescapey to more Baldursgatey.

# ? Dec 10, 2013 23:48

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# ? Apr 19, 2024 03:09

chiefnewo: May 21, 2007

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.

# ? Dec 10, 2013 23:49

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