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 Music: Main Theme Pillars of Eternity (henceforth referred to as Pillars, as 'PoE' just brings up half a dozen other more popular video games) is a “real time with pause” party-based isometric fantasy rpg created by Obsidian Entertainment for the PC. It was originally kickstarted in 2012 as a spiritual successor to the old Infinity Engine games such as, and especially, Baldur's Gate. How much it succeeds at this is debatable, but reception was mostly positive and was successful enough to continue Obsidian's existence as a company, as they were about five minutes away from shutting down before the Kickstarter. It also received two DLC packs, The White March - Part 1 and The White March - Part 2 which as you may have guessed make up one large expansion pack between them. I like the game enough to think starting an LP of a game and its expansion that's a million hours long is a sensible idea. And with the sequel round the corner and the definite edition out it's unlikely to get any more updates likely to change anything drastically, so here we are. What's the hook? The player is a traveller to a land called the Dyrwood, in a world named Eora; Eora is very much a Dungeons & Dragons-inspired setting with the gimmick of magic working via souls. Superhuman physical feats and summoning fireballs can all be powered by a user's soul so long as he or she knows how to do it. Eora's technology is roughly in line with that of the early renaissance, meaning guns are very much a thing and the era of colonisation is in full swing. The Dyrwood was one of those colonies until it fought for its independence, and has something of a frontier spirit; in other words a lot of wildlife problems for someone and their five companions to engage in real-time tactical combat with. I'm sure nothing will go wrong. So how is this gonna work? This will be a screenshot LP; I'm not sure anyone wants to watch me or anyone else drone over 100 hours of a game, 50 of which will probably be loading screens. I'm by no means an expert at this game but I've at least beaten it on the highest normal difficulty and I'll be highlighting as much of it as I can, and explaining the mechanics as we come to them. I'll be asking for reader participation on certain choices in the game but not all of them as a) there's far too many and b) I might sometimes want to show something specific off. Spoilers Policy? Don't. Preferably not even in tags. Especially not of the 'man you guys wait until you see what happens next' variety. Feel free to talk about the game's backstory and the Dyrwood's recent history but use your discretion. Talking about the results of choices we didn't make is fine, but only if we've progressed past the point in the game where they'd have mattered.  Part 1: Character Creation Part 2: Encampment Part 3: Trespassers Part 4: Shelter from the Storm Interlude: Voight-Kampff Test Part 5: Valewood Part 6: Hanging Around Part 7: Purges and Bears Part 8: Fulvano's Travels Part 9: The Temple of Eothas Part 10: The Lord of a Barren Land Part 11: Lord Raedric VII Part 12: The Watcher of Caed Nua Part 13: The Road to the Wolf's Lair  Part 14: The Trials of Durance Part 15: Never Far From The Queen Part 16: The Temple of Woedica AnEndcat fucked around with this message at 15:34 on Mar 27, 2018 |
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Nov 20, 2017 00:59
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Reserved just in case.
AnEndcat fucked around with this message at 03:09 on Nov 24, 2017 |
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Nov 20, 2017 01:00
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Part 1: Character Creation This is the current title screen, showing off a landscape from the expansion DLC. A bit of a look into the future, but if you can derive anything much from this other than 'some place is very cold' you're a more observant person than me. Let's just start a new game.  First thing is first; choosing a difficulty setting. Pillars is a little unusual in that Easy, Normal and Hard don't change the statistics of enemies, but the actual composition of what you fight. On easy you might fight a wizard, for example, while on normal he's going to be backed up by some skeletons friends with clubs and on hard there's maybe a couple less skeleton friends but they're all shooting lightning. This does mean you get less crafting materials on the lower difficulty settings, and makes area of effect abilities disproportionately stronger on higher settings, but otherwise I generally like it. It also affects how much camping supplies you can take and how often you can meaningfully rest before heading back to a town; a lot of abilities are refreshed by rest so this is important. Story mode and Path of the Damned do change the actual stats of the game however; Story Mode is Normal (for whatever reason) with the statistics biased in the player's favour. Best for someone who isn't in this for the combat as such. POTD, on the other hand, boosts enemy attributes as well as having every single enemy from Easy, Normal and Hard- so you're fighting the wizard, the skeletons with clubs, the skeletons shooting lightning, and they are all more accurate and harder to hit. I've beaten POTD before and it's a lot of fun when you know how the game functions, but for the purposes of this LP I'll be picking Hard; it's also what I'd recommend for someone who knows this type of game but hasn't specifically played Pillars before. The two options on the bottom can be toggled on separately of the difficulty. The one on the left is Expert Mode, and turns off a bunch of UI elements like spell area markers to make the game more like how the Infinity Engine games did it. We won't be turning it on. The one on the right is Trial of Iron- no reloading. Again; not happening for an LP. I'd be mpressed if anyone did LP something like this with one save file, never mind the never dying part. Music: Upwards  With that, the title screen morphs into… the old, pre-DLC title screen. Not the most elegant of transitions, but there we go. And there's the name of the studio, in case you forgot already.  Panning up, we see the title of the game again, followed by a little introductory spiel. Music: A Caravan, a Traveller, and Ruins  The caravan carries travelers bound for the frontier hamlet of Gilded Vale, you among them, where a local lord has offered land and wealth to settlers from abroad looking for a fresh start. You have taken suddenly ill, sweating and shivering, and one of the other travelers signals for the caravan master to stop on your behalf. He pulls up just in time to avoid plowing into the trunk of a fallen tree that bars the way ahead. You will go no further tonight. We haven't reached character creation and we're already dying. This bodes well. I suppose while we're here… Music: A Hero To Be Made  Character Creation! The above theme is ten minutes long. A pretty good sign we're going to be here for a while. The first choice is gender. This probably doesn't need too much much explanation; your gender can lead to different dialogue choices once in a blue moon but otherwise doesn't impact the game in any meaningful manner. Next up is Race; you choose a main race as well as a 'subrace', basically major ethnic groups within that race. This gives a minor stat boost that is honestly pretty ignorable, a special ability that usually depends on the subrace, and changes your dialogue options. Pillars can be… charitably said to be a little inconsistent to how much certain choices turn up in conversation, however. -Humans; you're probably one of these. They technically have 'subraces' like the others but there is no mechanical difference because ahahaha holy poo poo if there was. All humans come with Fighting Spirit; once per fight, when reduced below half their Endurance (think hit points for now) they gain a bonus to damage and accuracy.  -Aumaua; the closest thing to a half-orc in the setting, though only insomuch as they are very large. Have slightly webbed feet and hands and tend to live around oceans, though aren't actually amphibians. Come in Coastal (green or blue skin) and Island (brown and yellow skin) flavours; Coastal Aumaua get a defence against being knocked over or stunned, while their island cousins get an extra weapon set they can switch to during combat.  -Dwarves; you probably know what these guys are. Mountain Dwarves are your usual small mountain dwellers, while Boreal Dwarves prefer tundra and look similar to very short and stocky Inuit. The former gets resistances against poisons and diseases, while the latter gets a bonus in accuracy against animate plant creatures and so-called 'wilders', sentient races that aren't regarded as civilised by the races on this list. The wilders may vehemently disagree, but they aren't players. Such is life.  -Elves; you also probably know what these guys are. Wood Elves are your typical fantasy archetype other than they're shorter than humans and can't grow beards; Pale Elves are… pale, and actually have to shave. Wood Elves gain a bonus to some defences and accuracy against targets who aren't directly in their face, while Pale Elves are resistant against burn and freeze damage.  -Orlans; hobbits, basically. Only more hairy. The Hearth Orlans are like thinner dwarves with large and pointed furry ears, while the 'Wild' Orlans look like the world's tiniest Wookie cosplayers. Orlans are one of the biggest victims of prejudice in the Dyrwood, mostly because they're not very big and don't live in giant fortified bunkers like dwarves. The Hearth type comes with the ability to automatically convert 10% of the normal hits they get into critical hits, while the Wild ones get a hefty temporary bonus to all defences if targeted by a mental-themed attack.  -Godlike; they're not really a race, as such, but one of the above five races touched by the influence of one of the gods. Think tieflings or the aasimar if you're into Dungeons & Dragons. Depending on the type of Godlike they're also subject to prejudice, as your average person is somewhat put aback by someone's head being on fire or covered in thorns. Death Godlike have their eyes covered with strange growths and get a bonus in damage to enemies who are close to death; Nature Godlike tend to have plant aspects and get a bonus to some stats when below 50% Endurance; Fire Godlike have fire bursting out between cracks in their skin and are more resistant to damage below 50% Endurance, as well as hurting enemies who attack them because they are on goddamn fire; Moon Godlike have moon-shaped poo poo poking out of their head and the first time they drop below 75%, 50% and 25% Endurance during a fight shoot out healing waves to their allies. All Godlike can't use helms either because their heads are just too weird. Equipment is otherwise usually race agnostic, and will fit the smallest orlan or the biggest aumaua. Perhaps they're all very stretchy and helmets are racist against Godlikes, or perhaps it's best not to think too hard about video game mechanics.  Onwards to classes. There's not much in the way of multi-classing in Pillars 1; whatever we pick we're stuck with. A quick rundown: -Barbarians, Druids, Fighters, Monks, Paladins, Priests, Rangers, Rogues and Wizards work pretty much how you'd expect them to from their name and similar games. Fighters fight, Rangers range and Wizards do whatever they god-drat want but need quick naps to regain their power. There's definitely some twists (Monks are powered by getting hurt, for example) but we'll get to them in the game proper. -Chanter! They're close to bards. They provide passive buffs called phrases, and when enough phrases have been chanted they can spend the points on Invocations which are more one and done spells. A lot of their Invocations are summoning based and one of the classes to go to if you want to fill the screen with pocket monsters. --Cipher! The closest analogue would be psionics from other games. They work by directly manipulating their target's souls and thus all their abilities, helpful or harmful, have to have a specific creature as a central target as opposed to just placing stuff on the ground. They build up a pool called Focus by hitting things, and spend that Focus to cast their spells. In addition, Paladins and Priests have to pick an order and deity respectively; their choice powers up some of their abilities as long as you're picking dialogue choices that match the choices' ethos. For Paladin, you have: The Shieldbearers of St. Elcga, your traditional noble knights. The Bleak Walkers, mercenaries who have the goal of ending all warfare with hilariously over the top brutality to the point where they will not stop even if their client asks them to. The Kind Wayfarers, who protect travellers and are as poor as hell compared to the others orders. The Goldpact Knights, who turn getting paid into a religious order. And finally The Darcozzi Paladini; Paladins who act as ambassadors to the fantasy Italy their order is from of and are inclined to be as sarcastic as possible, even when it would backfire. For priests: Eothas is the god of renewal and light and is also apparently dead in the backstory of the game, though that thankfully doesn't stop you casting spells. Magran is the goddess of war and fire. Berath is the god of the cycle of life and death as well as doors and cycles in general. Wael is the god/goddess of enigmas and revelations and is prone to random acts of  Next up we have the attributes screen. Attributes are your primary statistics, and like Dungeons & Dragons (called DnD from now because I am typing this way too often) there's six of them. Unlike DnD, they're designed to be useful for every class; the designers don't 100% succeed at this but they all do something. If you're dumping a stat to low values it's usually a conscious choice that you don't need it for the specific character build you're doing. Might, for example, increases all damage plus healing, so it's not something to ignore on spellcasters unless you really don't care about how hard they hit (which is a possible build choice). Alright, a lot of words so far. We're almost there though! Culture is where your character is from; it gives a minor bonus to an attribute as well as changing your starting equipment slightly- not the biggest deal in the world. The bigger impact is on dialogue, though certain cultures get brought up a lot more than others. I'll let the game explain these.  The Aedyr Empire is currently the largest and most powerful force in this part of the world. It is centered around the Equator and has a tropical climate. Though the empire has colonies in numerous areas of the world, Greater Aedyr is at its heart and houses the majority of its human and elven nations.  Consisting of the nation of Naasitaq, dozens of aumaua settlements, and hundreds of lawless, pirate-infested islands that stretch along the southern sea, Deadfire is home to boreal dwarves, aumaua, and a mixed variety of other races. Deadfire Archipelago is the "last stop" for anyone headed east - a multitude of monstrous sea creatures infest the ocean beyond, making travel virtually impossible.  Located to the northeast of Eir Glanfath, the Ixamitl Plains are a large expanse of fertile savannas that are extensively farmed by human and orlan residents. The Ixamitl culture is one of the oldest in the world, though one of the least imperialistic, having spread out little over the past several thousand years.  Once the crown jewel of the southern seas, Old Vailia is now the crumbled remnants of an empire of warring merchant nations. Counting many humans and dwarves among their ranks, the Old Vailian countries are still forces to be reckoned with and are proud of their rich cultural heritage.  Dominated by the aumaua nation of Rauatai, the gulf itself is host to a number of nations, most of them aumaua, orlan, and dwarven. Though these countries are relatively young, they are some of the most advanced colonial settlements in the east. The gulf is a land of riches and resources for those who can take them, though the entire coast is often pummeled by violent storms.  The Living Lands is the mountainous region of a large northern island renowned for its diversity of plant and animal life. Its weather is unpredictable and its ecosystems vary dramatically from valley to valley. The Living Lands are home to an assortment of races in a variety of colonial and independent settlements.  A large, cracked southern expanse of polar ice, the White that Wends is home to pale elves and small colonies of daring explorers, outcasts, and adventurers. While virtually no plant life grows in the White, it is home to many hardy species of dangerous animals that forage from the sea or prey upon each other to survive. Wizards or Monks from Aedyr or Ixamitl do get clothes that I don't think can be found anywhere else, but they're mechanically no different from your generic robe.  Background! Seriously, this is the last thing before voice and appearance customisation. This is what career you had before leaving for the Dyrwood- it gives a minor bonus to 'skills', statistics used to represent your learned knowledge. Some of these depend on your culture choice. They're all pretty self-explanatory and the bonus they give is minor it in the grand scheme of things, but again they can matter for dialogue.  And we're done, apart from appearance. Whew. And voice, which ah, is probably not going to make much of an impact in a screenshot LP. So after a long time, that's character creation. This'll get a little less dense eventually, I promise. Right then. Reader interaction time:What I'm going to ask of you is what Gender, Race (including subrace for non-humans), Class, and Culture is our player character going to be? If you're picking a Priest or Paladin, remember to choose the order/deity as well. I'll do the rest; I'm not even sure how to leave attributes to a vote AnEndcat fucked around with this message at 20:42 on Nov 20, 2017 |
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Nov 20, 2017 01:01
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Male Pale Elf Bleak Walker Paladin, from the Living Lands because dunking on fools with Remember Rakhan Field is a fun thing to do.
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Nov 20, 2017 02:05
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Male Wood Elf Wizard Deadfire Archipelago Mercenary.
Junpei fucked around with this message at 02:28 on Nov 20, 2017 |
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Nov 20, 2017 02:24
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I vote for cipher, because as I understand it there are certain things that only ciphers can do, plotwise.
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Nov 20, 2017 03:57
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Looking forward to this LP. My vote is a Mountain dwarf cipher who is female from Deadfire with a non dwarf name.
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Nov 20, 2017 04:36
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Is there anything with a particularly high comedy value? If so, pick that.
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Nov 20, 2017 04:49
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Female Orlan Goldpact Knight Paladin from Aedyr I haven't tried this game yet, but for some reason I feel it should be experienced through the eyes of a 4-foot tall capitalist knight.
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Nov 20, 2017 08:29
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Looking forward to the LP. Hope you'll manage to explain character builds and combat strategies. I floundered despite being a longtime RPG fan, and the lack of online guides killed my playthrough. Repeated howls of "do whatever, you'll be fine" certainly didn't help.
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Nov 20, 2017 09:24
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Male Death Godlike Kind Wayfarer from Vailia, with the big horned portrait, because I like the thought of a kind, well-spoken Sauron 
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Nov 20, 2017 10:52
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Female moon godlike bleak walker because as the history shows, the best way to end war is to make it too horrific to wage, right?
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Nov 20, 2017 13:53
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Female Death Godlike Cipher from the Ixamitl plains. Cipher seems unique to this game so lets do that. And I'm a sucker for any game that lets me have mesoamerican culture options.
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Nov 20, 2017 15:45
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Cipher from Ixamitl, plus maximum comedy value. Because that cannot end badly.
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Nov 20, 2017 16:14
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Female hearth orlan cipher, dreadfire merchant.
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Nov 20, 2017 16:42
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Comrade Koba posted:Female Orlan Goldpact Knight Paladin from Aedyr This is a pretty good idea. I'm all for a knight of the 
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Nov 20, 2017 16:42
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I should probably mention that I'm going to be taking the winner in each category, barring some sudden consensus on an idea, in case that changes anything for anyone; at the moment they would be, by my count… Gender: Female 6, Male 3 Race: Godlike 3 (Death 2, Moon 1), Orlan 3 (Hearth 1), Elf 2 (Pale 1, Wood 1), Dwarf 1 (Mountain 1) Class: Paladin 5 (Goldpact 2, Bleak Walker 2, Kind Wayfarer 1), Cipher 4, Wizard 1 Culture: Deadfire/Aedyr/Ixamitl 2, Vailia 1, Living Lands 1 Plus two votes for 'comedy option', which I'll use as a tiebreaker. There's also two votes for backgrounds I didn't technically ask for in the post but which I'll use if a Culture that can take one of them wins. There's two clear leaders each for Race and Class, but still plenty of time; going to give the vote till 24 hours after the first update was posted. So, basically midnight GMT. . Xander77 posted:Looking forward to the LP. Hope you'll manage to explain character builds and combat strategies. I floundered despite being a longtime RPG fan, and the lack of online guides killed my playthrough. Repeated howls of "do whatever, you'll be fine" certainly didn't help. I'll be explaining as much as I can, though I'll be trying not to overload the first few updates; an LP of a game like this can easily descend into maths babbling if I let it. I look forward to being corrected by the people who solo'd this game on iron-man Path of the Damned mode, though, as I'm nowhere near that level (I'd probably get nine characters murdered by wolves like the world's worst Planet Earth re-enactment). AnEndcat fucked around with this message at 20:37 on Nov 20, 2017 |
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Nov 20, 2017 20:32
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Voting for Female Moon Godlike Chanter. Not voting for a culture because I can't be bothered to read that tiny text in the screenshots.
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Nov 20, 2017 20:34
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serefin99 posted:Voting for Female Moon Godlike Chanter. Not voting for a culture because I can't be bothered to read that tiny text in the screenshots. There's a font size option, but for whatever reason it doesn't affect the character creation menus. I've added the text below the images as a short-term solution, I'll use use more zoomed-in shots if it comes up again. AnEndcat fucked around with this message at 00:56 on Nov 21, 2017 |
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Nov 20, 2017 20:44
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Voting for an Orlan Paladin (Goldpact) from Aedyr because I seem to remember that there were neat looking hats.
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Nov 20, 2017 21:01
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use the EvilLore picture lmao
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Nov 20, 2017 21:04
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Voting for a Female Human Paladin (The Bleak Walkers) from Aedyr. Looking forward to seeing how this will end up. 
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Nov 20, 2017 22:12
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Orlan Bleak Walker. Murder in a pint-sized package.
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Nov 20, 2017 23:10
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Female Pale Elf Chanter Bards Rock:  As for the rest, up to you.
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Nov 20, 2017 23:35
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Alright, voting done; looks like if I'm counting correctly (fingers crossed I don't gently caress up the maths before the game even really starts) we got a Female Hearth Orlan Bleak Walker Paladin from Aedyr. Expect an update tomorrow.
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Nov 21, 2017 01:26
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Part 2: Encampment So, democracy has semi-spoken and we've ended up with a female Hearth Orlan Bleak Walker Paladin from Aedyr. Paladins are pretty close to how you'd expect them to be; they're warriors with a bit of magic on the side for smiting enemies and supporting party members. Faith and Conviction is their starting passive ability, and as the screen says it buffs our defences. The Reputations mentioned (called Dispositions in the game outside of that one text box) are a track of certain personality choices we make over the game. The behaviours preferred by the Bleak Walkers are being Cruel and Aggressive, and we get penalties for being too Diplomatic or Benevolent. There's nothing really stopping us doing 'good' deeds as a Bleak Walker, but we do have to be total arses about it and we'll expect to get rewarded. And we certainly won't be giving much in the way of mercy. Paladin gives us some bonuses to skills that I'll go over when they come up in the game. Accuracy's accuracy, while Deflection is our defence against normal attacks like swords and arrows. If you know DnD, think Armour Class. Health and Endurance need a little explanation- Endurance is our hit points during actual combat. Hit zero, we fall unconscious. It refills between combat. Health is a more long term resource, which goes down at the same rate as Endurance. If Health hits zero, the first time the character get a horrible injury and it's set back to one, and the second time that character dies. No resurrection. Don't let it hit zero. Paladins are traditionally armoured frontliners, and you can certainly build them that way in Pillars to the point where they are one of the best 'tank' classes in the game- the frontline of the frontline, designed to take the most enemy fire. That's not what we're going for today, though, because Bleak Walker. Bleak Walkers have a choice of couple of things while levelling up, and one of which is a straight damage buff and the other of which only works if the Bleak Walker herself kills things. At level 1, we also have a choice between Lay on Hands and Flames of Devotion as our starting Paladin ability. Lay on Hands is single target a heal on an allied target. It's nice, especially early on but again: we're going for murder here. Flames of Devotion is an attack we can use twice per battle that does 50% extra damage as fire damage, and uses both weapons if we happen to be dual wielding; it's also got a hefty accuracy bonus. That's much more useful for general killing.  For her attributes, we've not made the most optimised character in the world but Pillars doesn't really need it so that's okay. Might (MIG) as mentioned controls our damage and healing, so we're maxing that as much as we can with the minor Orlan penalty. We'll lower our Constitution (CON) a bit below the neutral value of 10 (blame DnD); it controls our Health and Endurance, so it's not perfect for a melee character but we'll live. Dexterity (DEX) controls our action speed, but DEX is unintuitively more useful on slower weapons than duel wielding so we'll leave it at default. Intelligence (INT) raises the duration and area of effect of our abilities. As it's single target no matter how much we have Flames of Devotion won't hit more than one person, but INT'll be useful long term so we'll take a bunch of it. Perception (PER) affects interrupting (the chance your attacks will cancel enemy spells and actions and the like) and more importantly gives a bonus to Accuracy so we want this pretty high. And lastly Resolve (RES) raises Concentration (our defence against being interrupted) and our Deflection. It's not particularly necessary on most characters who aren't trying to get the enemy's focus but we get some access to some dialogue options this way.  We're going to name our little mercenary Mathilda  So with that finally out the way, we finally start the game. The camera zooms down to focus on some travellers around a campfire.  Music: Easy Cures for a Mild Sickness Alright. During narration and dialogue I'll be using italics for my own interjections, as is pretty standard. If it's not italics, it's the game talking. The caravan master finishes addressing the group, his bushy red mustache and sagging jowls quivering as if for emphasis.  : “Everybody stays close to the wagons, got it? Stay outta the woods, and Beasts take you if you were planning a stroll through those ruins up there.” He nods toward a looming black mass on the hillside. “Whole area's crawling with hut-dwelling types who'd be happy to stick an axe in you for trespassing. So mind that you don't track mud on their sacred blazing rocks. Tonight everybody stays put and in the morning we'll get the path cleared. Gilded Vale's less than a day out. Understood?”At last, the caravan master turns to you, frowning as he looks you over. : “Touch of the Rumbling Rot, could be. There's a stinging beetle 'round here, carries it. You'll be fine once it passes your innards. 'Less you don't drink water, course, which case you'll be dead in a day.: “There's a berry grows in these parts, small and pink. Called a springberry. 'Bout the size of a fingernail. Give you cramps if you eat it, but the frontiersmen make a tea from it, calms the insides. Should get you through the night. You might check around, see if you can find some. Meanwhile I'll see if we can scare you up some water.” Odema looks over his shoulder at his assistant, a lanky, intense man named Sparfel, who carries an old sun-bleached bow.  : “Where would I find these berries?”: “They grow on a bush that's common 'round here. Kinda funny looking. You'll know it when you see it. Doubt you'd have to go far off the road to find one.”: “What are those ruins?”: “Nothing you won't see on half the hills of Eir Glanfath. Money to be made selling their knickknacks in Defiance Bay, if you don't mind getting stuck with Glanfathan arrows now and again. They didn't build 'em but I'll be the Effigy if they don't watch 'em like a mother bear.”Odema is trying to see how many setting terms he can fit into one dialogue box. Eir Glanfath and Defiance Bay are places we'll be hearing more about soon soon enough. The Effigy is another name for the god Skaen; he's not the devil but for a lot of people he may as well be. : “Course all the ones 'round here been ransacked ten times over, got nothing left worth half a pand.” He adds, with a wink, “So I hear.”That's not a typo, it is actually pand. I like Pillars but Christ does it fall into the genre fiction trap of taking normal words and altering like, two letters. : “Who DID build the ruins?": Odema shrugs. “Got different names for 'em. Settlers call 'em Engwithans. Nobody that liked them enough to stop them becoming ruins, tell you that much.”: “Is it dangerous out here?”: “Not if you hurry about your business. And not if the weather holds up." There is concern in his tone, but he does not elaborate. Elaborate, dammit. : “What kind of weather do they get out here?”: “This time of year? Rain, mostly... and wind. But there's a different kind of wind out here, time to time. Locals call it a bîaŵac. Born outta the ether - the spirits' path. Never seen it myself, never care to.”I didn't have a strange fit halfway through transcribing that, that's just what word happens when you expose a fantasy writer to Welsh. We'll find out exactly what kind of wind a bee-a-whack is soon enough, I'm sure. : "What are these huge rocks coming up out of the ground?": Odema frowns. "They don't got adra where you come from? Well, it just grows up outta the ground like this. Goes deep, like tree roots. Some of it all the way to the heart of the world, you believe the stories. It's more like a shell than a proper rock. Easier to work, if you're a mason.: "Got all kinds of strange properties. Seems to have some kind of life of its own. Dies if it gets dug up. Loses its luster. Folks think it probably grew at one point or another, but not these days.: "The soul butchers in Defiance Bay use it for different things. I've heard tell it can hold a man's soul, but I don't care to see it. Got enough to worry about without seeing something like that.": “I'll go see about those berries, then.”: “Hold on. Take someone with you. I know you're not some helpless tenderfoot - not like most of this lot. But you drop dead I don't wanna be looking for the body. Got a schedule to keep.” He scans over the travelers, resting his eyes at length on a sturdy, armor-clad woman who has spent the journey's nights sleeping on uneven ground without blanket or pillow: “Calisca. Calisca!”The woman looks up on her own time. : “She needs to find some springberries. Watch that she doesn't drop dead." : “What kind of a guide says something like that?" : “Kind you can afford.”: Odema chuckles and shakes his head. He looks at you. “Don't listen to her. You're in good hands.": He casts a sidelong glance at her. “And I pay too well if anything.”: Odema's small grin recedes beneath his moustache, and he is stern once more. “Off with you. Heodan should have supplies. See that you're equipped before you head out. We're in harsh country. Get your berries and hurry back. And if you get so much as a tickle of wind, you drop everything and you run. Something in the air tonight. If it's a bîaŵac, we'll shelter in the ruins, hut-dwellers be damned.” We can move around! Hooray. We will of course proceed to ignore Calisca's comment and instead rob the camp blind. She follows us around anyway, and doesn't seem to mind us filling our pockets. Pressing Tab gives interactables a blue highlight as well as filling our screen with nameplates; all these guys are just called 'Caravanners'. I'm not fancying their chances at a future role in the plot. We also run into that Heodan guy Odema was talking about.   ...Why is young Kevin Sorbo in this game.  : He shakes his head and laughs when he notices you. “Brought a whole wagon full of goods to sell but not enough shirts for the road." He scratches one cheek with his knuckles. It's covered with uneven stubble, as if he hasn't quite gotten used to shaving on the road. : “Who are you?”: “I'm a trader. Originally from the Aedyr Empire, but I've been trying to establish new business out here.” He looks at his wagon and grins ruefully. "Life on the road has brought some unexpected challenges, to be sure. And I'm sure you've noticed how prickly the locals can be. But we're here to make the most of things, right?" The dialogue UI will helpfully list what Reputation a dialogue can give you, unless you turn it off. Which means it's time to be a dick. : “How incredibly naive. I'm surprised you lasted this long.”: He folds his arms and surveys the wagon. “Then I suppose I should be counting my blessings.”: “Tell me about the Aedyr Empire.”Pillars is… incredibly inconsistent, especially in the tutorial, with dialogue changes. We should be able to just straight up say we're a countrywoman. So it goes. : “It's not as big as it used to be, but it's still big. The mainland is a continent northwest of here, but the colonies used to include Readceras and the Dyrwood. About one hundred fifty years ago, Dyrwood won its independence from the empire, a fact our companions are quick to remind me of.” He gives you a lopsided grin and nods at the other scattered caravanners: “Why'd you move all the way out here?”: “Because it seemed friendlier than Readceras?" He laughs. "My brothers took over the family mercantile business a few years ago, and there wasn't enough for me to do back home. I moved out to try and expand." : “Seems like you got the short end of the stick.”: "I don't see it that way." Heodan begins re-stacking the crates in his wagon. "My brothers and I are all working together for the sake of the family enterprise."Speaking of the family enterprise...  Heodan runs a shop. It's mostly basic weapons and armour if you decide you don't like your starting equipment, but he sells some potions and lockpicks which can be quite helpful. Also he buys everything you sell him for something like three times as much as the merchants outside the starting area. Heodan is terrible at his job. We started out wielding an ordinary sword and a medium-sized shield, while Calisca is dual-wielding a battle axe and a torch (presumably because it's night and not because she thinks it's a particularly hot club). We won't be using either setup long term but it's honestly not worth spending gold on replacing them at this point.   Before we head out of the camp and into the wilderness, a quick look at our companion Calisca. We'll leave delving into the gritty of what fighters do after we're out of what's basically the tutorial, but the important thing is that she has high Might and decent Constitution. She wants to be in the front if we charge into battle. Those symbols under Defenses are for Deflection, Fortitude, Reflex, and Will respectively; most normal attacks will hit Deflection, but spells and other special abilities will change things up. Fortitude depends on MIG and CON, Reflex on DEX and INT and Will on PER and RES. Her most important starting ability is Knock Down- an attack she can use twice per battle. It does a little extra damage and more importantly knocks enemies prone for a few seconds if you beat their Fortitude defence. Being prone, they get a penalty to a couple of defences and can't do anything until they get up. Handy, and the only real status affliction we have access to at the moment.  About what must be less than 20 metres south from the camp we find some dead bodies. How Odema didn't smell anything when he decided for us to stop here for the night is a mystery best left to the imagination. The little magnifying glass means we can take a closer look for some more information. The corpse is cold to the touch and a ripe smell wafts from it in putrid waves. A dark, crusted bloodstain besmirches its simple linen clothing. Well, that's… nice. At least one of the bodies has some more lockpicks we can pilfer.  To the east is the tree that's blocking our path. No leaving the area before we're done here.  To the west, across a river we find a hopefully abandoned campfire. There's a little secret, though. If we press Alt or the button with the man with the black mask, we enter Scouting Mode- basically a button for sneaking that also helps us notice hidden extras. Calisca has discovered something...  The tent has some hidden treasure. See that highlight around the pistol? That means it's our first, unique, magic weapon. What could it b  oh So, yeah. It's not lying. This weapon is a piece of poo poo! Judging from its item code, it's an example of Kickstarter backer content; someone paid actual money to put this useless garbage in a video game. It's probably still the best backer-made thing in the game. Most of the weapon's stats are the same as a normal pistol's but the Disappointer has one unique enchantment near the bottom; Terrible. It's a hefty penalty to the two of the most important stats on a weapon. Just sell the drat thing to Heodan. At least we got a nice hat out of the deal; it's got a feather in it and everything, even if I forget to actually put it on this update.  That Sparfel guy is up in the north, being a lazy poo poo. It's fine, mate, take your time. We'll just be busy dying over here. Incidentally, the game's actually given us a status affliction for our sickness:  This wasn't always in the game; at launch, despite everyone talking about an illness the player character could fight with no issue. It's a -3 penalty to Concentration and Fortitude so it's not really impacting us now either, but it's nice they bothered to add it anyway.  Nothing physically stopping us going north back the way we can really, but the game doesn't care. Guess we'll check out the northwest area for this jump cherry or whatever. : “Let's check by those outcroppings.” Music: For the Tanvii ora Toha Calisca that is not a fruit of any kind At least we get to actually fight something; a couple of wolves, WRPG's favourite tutorial animal after rats became a punchline. You can set up when the game pauses in the options based on various triggers, and if you're playing yourself I definitely recommend setting it to go off when combat starts like here There's also a slow mode and fast mode you can turn on as well; fast mode is generally used outside of combat to speed up running around, while slow mode is useful if you need time to think but don't want to bog things down too much. We send Calisca in first to draw their attention…  While Mathilda moves around to the back of one of the wolves. Flanking an enemy like this gives them a -10 penalty to Deflection; giving Calisca the opportunity to use one of her Knock Downs, which in turn gives Mathilda a better chance of scoring a Flames of Devotion. I might be stating the obvious here a little, but that's basically how Pillars functions; layer on status afflictions until the enemy can't do anything or is dead (and thus, uh, can't do anything).  The battle log is in the bottom right screen, and is handy to check what's going wrong if enemies aren't dying or you're dying. For the normal attack roll, you take away the target's relevant defence for the attack from your accuracy, then add a random number between 1 and 100. Depending on the result, we either get amiss, Graze (your attack does half damage, and half the duration of any afflictions it does), Hit or Critical (50% extra damage and duration on your attack). Crits need a 100+ on the final result so you can't crit unless your accuracy is beating whatever defence they have in the first place. Accuracy's important! In any case, we crit the wolf out of existence.  We repeat the process with his friend.  Calisca may not have been entirely off base, at least. We go to grab the shining white plant past the lovely carcass and dead wolves. Our fighter babysitter decides it's time to be sociable.  Oh, hey, character creation reactivity. : “I was a blade for hire.” I mean, Bleak Walkers don't have the most sparkling of reputations sure, but that's not a bug, it's a feature. : "I've never been much good at anything else, but I need to go where there's work that pays.": "You do what you can to survive. What else can someone be expected to do?" Lord Raedric's the noble of Gilded Vale, the place the caravan's heading to. The Dyrwood may have broken off from an empire but it's in no hurry to completely finish off the feudal system. : "No, I'm just passing through.”: “You burn down one building to end a bar brawl and villagers tend to get antsy.”  : “Somewhere I can make some money.”: "Ah, a woman after my own heart. May your luck be better than mine." : “Why are you here?”: Calisca sighs unevenly. Her eyes search the ground at her feet. "My sister moved out here, sometime back. She sent me a letter. She seemed... worried. But that's how she always is.”: "This time, though, she asked me to come out. And that's got ME a little worried.": "I haven't seen her in ages - been doing guide work in Ixamitl. But I'd do anything for her, she's- well she's a much better woman than me. So I'm here and we'll see.": "Tell me about yourself.": “I've got simple needs. I like open skies and far horizons. I find work that lets me live that way. My family wanders, too. We started in Dyrwood, but my parents ended up in the Living Lands. I've got a brother in Rauatai and another in Aedyr. My sister in Gilded Vale, she's the only real homebody.”:"What can you tell me about Dyrwood?": I'm not much for history, but from what I know, it used to be part of the Aedyr Empire. Broke off after a war some years back. The locals here are feisty and that's how they like it.": "I've been out of touch, but I've been hearing weird kinds of things about it lately. People having trouble giving birth, I guess. A lot of them. Been going on for years, now. But somehow it's getting worse." With an uneasy tremor in her voice, she adds, "I'll have to ask my sister more about it."Explains why they suddenly need the people. Not our problem, though. Unless we're going to be adventuring with a mid-wife, babies aren't really big on Mathilda's priorities right now. : "All right, let's get back to camp." Even the game agrees Sparfel's useless. Back to the south of the area.  He's not even carrying the drat thing with him! Or, judging from the fact that's an entire pack, anything. Let's just do this before Mathilda vomits up her lungs. We go to grab it-  Music: Stinger 1  : “Sparfel? Are you alright?” yeah he's fine  Music: Stinger 2 The camera pans to the south, where a woman dressed in furs rushes out of the southern treeline, stopping near Sparfel's corpse. : “Ambush!” ...Well then. Next update, time to get stabbed by angry natives. AnEndcat fucked around with this message at 16:11 on Nov 29, 2017 |
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Nov 22, 2017 02:41
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We have not murdered nearly enough people yet.
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Nov 22, 2017 05:57
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Dex being more useful (compared to might) on strong, but slow, weapons is not paradoxical. It's exactly what happens if you make dexterity increase the attack speed of every weapon equally and have a subtractive defense system. That's the way it will work out mathematically. I suspect you intend to explain this in more detail, but I just don't find it paradoxical in the first place. If a game isn't coded so that a stat has a bigger effect on some weapons than others (or, as is more common, make some weapons affected by one stat, but not the other and and vice versa for other weapons), then there's no reason to assume the stats will work out the way you find it intuitive. Heck, there's also the thing that the barbarian class in the melee fighter with the most use of intelligence simple because they have the most frequent use of area of effect.
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Nov 22, 2017 18:35
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TheGreatEvilKing posted:We have not murdered nearly enough people yet. Crystalgate posted:Dex being more useful (compared to might) on strong, but slow, weapons is not paradoxical. It's exactly what happens if you make dexterity increase the attack speed of every weapon equally and have a subtractive defense system. That's the way it will work out mathematically. I suspect you intend to explain this in more detail, but I just don't find it paradoxical in the first place. If a game isn't coded so that a stat has a bigger effect on some weapons than others (or, as is more common, make some weapons affected by one stat, but not the other and and vice versa for other weapons), then there's no reason to assume the stats will work out the way you find it intuitive. Heck, there's also the thing that the barbarian class in the melee fighter with the most use of intelligence simple because they have the most frequent use of area of effect.
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Nov 22, 2017 19:23
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I've tried to play this game three or four times but have struggled. I'm looking forward to seeing how this goes and hopefully learning enough to have a better go of it on my next playthrough.
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Nov 22, 2017 22:18
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Soylent Pudding posted:I've tried to play this game three or four times but have struggled. I'm looking forward to seeing how this goes and hopefully learning enough to have a better go of it on my next playthrough. Same.
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Nov 23, 2017 07:43
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Oh Pillars! I keep waiting for it and its DLCs to go on sale so I can scoop all of them up. I'm sad that I wasn't paying attention when we were voting in character. Another f***ing female elf? I mean, I love the Bleak Walker class, but I really hate elves. There's another one in the Shadowrun thread, and that makes me so mad I can't see straight.
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Nov 23, 2017 07:55
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Soylent Pudding posted:I've tried to play this game three or four times but have struggled. I'm looking forward to seeing how this goes and hopefully learning enough to have a better go of it on my next playthrough. Same. I keep getting to the Keep or first city and losing interest.
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Nov 23, 2017 08:10
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Not an elf, a hobbit.
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Nov 23, 2017 08:11
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Furry hobbit.
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Nov 23, 2017 08:27
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Avalerion posted:Furry hobbit. Really? Those are massively pointy ears. Oh well then. Carry on.
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Nov 23, 2017 09:01
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quote:Orlans; hobbits, basically. Only more hairy. The Hearth Orlans are like thinner dwarves with large and pointed furry ears,
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Nov 23, 2017 09:09
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painedforever posted:Really? Those are massively pointy ears. Probably better an elf then a godlike at least, for reasons soon to become obvious.
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Nov 23, 2017 14:47
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A little late to vote, but as a Bleak Walker whose sacred duty it is to make war as brutal and vicious as possible, we should invest in firearms. Also, good to see someone taking a spin at the game. Its neat, but in my opinion, suffers from a number of bad decisions and unfocused development. Eager to see how the LP turns out!
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Nov 23, 2017 15:27
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I always thought the nice thing about the Disappointer is it's relatively easy to give it even a basic enchantment and turn it into an early upgraded pistol (because even the weakest upgrade enchant overwrites the Terrible enchantment). Granted you can get plenty like it later that don't need to be fixed, but it's the earliest if you go that route. Though if Heodan buys things for thrice what other merchants do, that could be a pretty nice cash infusion early on. marshmallow creep fucked around with this message at 17:26 on Nov 23, 2017 |
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Nov 23, 2017 16:44
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