Codex Interview: Josh Sawyer

[Rev]

I don't remember every question that was posted here, so if some of mine were already asked feel free to ignore them. Well, let's begin:

- What should we expect from PoE2? Will it continue the Watcher's story or revolves around new characters? Will we be able to import our saves and continue with level 16 chars? Will there be major changes in the game systems?

- Raedric's Hold was largely well received and is considered by many the best designed dungeon in the base game as opposed to the Skaen's Temple for example. Can we expect more of the former and less of the latter in PoE2?

- TWM carried a lot of improvements over combat, area design and even over the CYOA scripted sections. Will they be carried over the sequel or will you try something new?

- PoE ended up on a quite epic scale, with the player defeating dragons and a millenia-old entity who shaped the history of the world multiple times. Then, the expansion featured another dragon, two archmages, a kraken and a god's assistants. Where are we heading in PoE2?

- Given your stated preference toward classless systems, how do you feel about designing a game such as PoE?

- In his interview with RPG Codex, Fenstermaker said he would prefer to make somewhat shorter games and focus more on C&C, replayability and branching storylines. Do you agree with him? What's your stance on that?

- Where do you see Obsidian in the future? Would you like to go back working on multiplatform AAA games such as New Vegas or do you think it would be better to focus on mid-low budget RPGs like PoE?

- Feargus often said how he want to make a more Skyrim-like game in the Pillars franchise. Do you think that's the right approach with the Eternity brand?

- What should we expect from your historical RPG in terms of systems, design and lore? Will magic be somewhat limited or (hopefully not) will it be another fantasy game that just happens to be set in the real world, for a change?

- What kind of historical accuracy do you aim for in your Darklands-inspired RPG?

- What are your setting prefences for your historical RPG? Medieval Europe? Crusades? Roman Republic/Empre/Fall of Roman Empire? WW2? Etc.

- Do you think RPG need to have dungeons filled with monsters/enemies, a lot of items (mostly trash), magic or other fantastic elements, trash combat encounters, an evil foe who threatens the land and so on to be successful and meet up players' expectations? Could a game succeed even without many if not all those elements?

- Obsidian worked on a lot of different settings in the past, but now seem focused on waves of fantasy games. Will that change? Can we expect other modern-times RPGs or even more unusual settings in the next years?

- Would you like to work on a sci-fi game in the future?

 

[agris]

I found it hard to tell at a glance what was happening during battle in PoE. Creature palettes were too similar to the backgrounds and spell effects were more abstract and excessive compared to IE games. I had to spend a while paused slowly checking every character to tell what was going on often times. Are there any plans to improve visual feedback in PoE2?

This is a huge one. The spell visual effects, color palette, everything. The IE games did it much better, with only the most ridiculous mage battles in BG2 approaching the level of visual disorientation that an average multi-mob fight in PoE has.

 

[AwesomeButton]

I found it hard to tell at a glance what was happening during battle in PoE. Creature palettes were too similar to the backgrounds and spell effects were more abstract and excessive compared to IE games. I had to spend a while paused slowly checking every character to tell what was going on often times. Are there any plans to improve visual feedback in PoE2?

This is a huge one. The spell visual effects, color palette, everything. The IE games did it much better, with only the most ridiculous mage battles in BG2 approaching the level of visual disorientation that an average multi-mob fight in PoE has.

the perspective of PoE also has to do with it. IE is more top-down. This was mentioned during the beta, but Obsidian ignored the comments.

 

[Bohrain]

When designing the stat system, why was it such a high priority to punish stat dumping, instead of giving the players a good reason to max different skills? I understand it's obviously a design flaw if there are no brainer dump stats (such as Charisma in New Vegas), but Obsidian's trademark dialogue skill checks are all about maxing something specific and Pillars had a huge disparity between Intellect and Constitution checks.

 

[Infinitron]

Last day before Josh's GDC Europe talk. Make sure you get your questions in.

 

[Sensuki]

My conclusion is based on the fact that I've seen multiple complaints about the Skaen Temple given directly to Josh and he's chosen not to touch it even after the "trash mob removal" pass (which some say went too far in at least one wilderness area).

I believe the main reason is because of the way they prioritize content, that temple is just a side area that you don't have to enter at all, whereas I think you do have to pass through those other places they trimmed down. In the beta I reported an issue with the ambient map or something in the Ogre Cave and they said because it's a small optional side area they probably won't bother to adjust it.

I found it hard to tell at a glance what was happening during battle in PoE. Creature palettes were too similar to the backgrounds and spell effects were more abstract and excessive compared to IE games. I had to spend a while paused slowly checking every character to tell what was going on often times. Are there any plans to improve visual feedback in PoE2?

This is a huge one. The spell visual effects, color palette, everything. The IE games did it much better, with only the most ridiculous mage battles in BG2 approaching the level of visual disorientation that an average multi-mob fight in PoE has.

I asked questions about the spell FX twice in the lead up to Pillars coming from the angle that the IE games had good spell visibility and the question was deflected / the wrong part of the question was focused on. From memory he has said that they are going to adjust or alter the method they use to render the spell FX - if that question is asked, that's probably the answer you'll get. Once again I think they either just don't care or don't see the issue that a lot of us have with the visual design.

 

[Parabalus]

-Are you happy with the balance in the latest patch? Do you think frequent balance fine tuning is cherished by the players?

-Were you happy with the ability of debuffs to glance and crit, considering TWM changed the priest Prayers to outright immunity?

-Stat dumping now has real weakness in basic gameplay and provides interesting choices in chargen, however, because there are no minimum stat checks, for dialogue purposes there is no point in having (below) average stats and dumping them opens more gated content. Will this remain the case (I like it) and what are your thoughts?

-Will the PoE2 have FF and the excellent intellect no-FF AoE bonus, considering Tyranny is scrapping FF?

-Do you think the negative sides of the Watcher condition could have been presented better? Why were there so few interactions with other Watchers?

-Do you like how the streamlined numbers/mechanics (integer accuracy, percentages instead of pluses, no dices, etc.) were recieved compared to the more "obfuscated" DnD in the IEs?

-Money is often too abundant after a certain point, but this is a common feature in the genre. PoE had a distinct lack of expensive toys to buy in the later acts, the first ones were good with the stronghold as an added moneysking, is this acknowledged and improved upon?

-Were you happy with how level scaling areas with the expansions worked out?

-The final TWM2 version of the stronghold is a grand and integral part of the game, but the base 1.0 stronghold felt a bit bare and empty, especially in comparison. Do you regret inclunding it in such a state and not focusing on other parts?

-Do you think you lived up to the challenge of making a spiritual successor to the IE games?

 

[Infinitron]

-Will the PoE2 have FF and the excellent intellect no-FF AoE bonus, considering Tyranny is scrapping FF?

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/pillars-of-eternity-2.108836/page-8#post-4623155

 

[Lhynn]

That area is literally not meant to be fun in any way to punish you for being inattentive, making it fun would be against their goals.

One could say that this is a pretty grognardy principle.

On the contrary. Whatever grognardy may mean, it does not mean pushing something boring on the player. Something unfair yes, but always in the spirit of fun.

That they thought anything in the game should be boring to punish players reveals incompetence of the highest order. Tho i very much doubt that was the case, it was probably just regular obsidian incompetence.

Also "Making PoE fun would be against their goals" sounds about right.

I fell for it, didnt i?

 

[Fairfax]

Roguey Why did he call himself Bishop in the Black Isle days?

 

[tuluse]

I found it hard to tell at a glance what was happening during battle in PoE. Creature palettes were too similar to the backgrounds and spell effects were more abstract and excessive compared to IE games. I had to spend a while paused slowly checking every character to tell what was going on often times. Are there any plans to improve visual feedback in PoE2?

This is a huge one. The spell visual effects, color palette, everything. The IE games did it much better, with only the most ridiculous mage battles in BG2 approaching the level of visual disorientation that an average multi-mob fight in PoE has.

I asked questions about the spell FX twice in the lead up to Pillars coming from the angle that the IE games had good spell visibility and the question was deflected / the wrong part of the question was focused on. From memory he has said that they are going to adjust or alter the method they use to render the spell FX - if that question is asked, that's probably the answer you'll get. Once again I think they either just don't care or don't see the issue that a lot of us have with the visual design.

Well given the opportunity, I'm going to speak truth to power bitch and complain in the hopes it might change.

 

[Bubbles]

Could potentially be the most momentous talk in our lifetimes.

 

[Bubbles]

I have 94 questions from this thread now. Might need to trim those a bit.

 

[IncendiaryDevice]

Last day before Josh's GDC Europe talk. Make sure you get your questions in.

 

[SausageInYourFace]

I have 94 questions from this thread now. Might need to trim those a bit.

Get as many about his historical RPG in as possible, I am tired of reading about PoE. You might even catch him off guard and get some interesting answers that were not already mentally pre-pepared then.

 

[Sannom]

The historical RPG is just a pipe-dream of his right now, I'm not sure how many questions they can put in about that subject.

 

[Roguey]

I believe the main reason is because of the way they prioritize content, that temple is just a side area that you don't have to enter at all, whereas I think you do have to pass through those other places they trimmed down. In the beta I reported an issue with the ambient map or something in the Ogre Cave and they said because it's a small optional side area they probably won't bother to adjust it.

Counterpoint: The latter levels of Od Nua went through a pass and hardly anyone goes through those (Steam achievement: 12.8%)

On the contrary. Whatever grognardy may mean, it does not mean pushing something boring on the player. Something unfair yes, but always in the spirit of fun.

I get the impression many rpg designers from the 80s (both c and p&p) didn't give a damn whether you were having fun or not. There's a Josh quote that used to be in my sig where he agrees with this assessment. Going through the Skaen temple the wrong way is a non-lethal player punch (as opposed to the lethal player punches that he does hate)

Roguey Why did he call himself Bishop in the Black Isle days?

I imagine it has something to do with this http://torment.sorcerers.net/fhop/bishop.shtml

Favorite Book: Bible, NRSV

 

[agris]

I have 94 questions from this thread now. Might need to trim those a bit.

Actually push him on the visual clarity during combat issue, please. If he says "I've watched a lot of people play PoE, and they don't have any problems with it", remind him of how easy story mode and the vanilla 'normal' difficulty levels are and say that "a lot of people have mentioned visual acuity becoming an issue when NPC/mob actions are actually important". Like when the game's difficulty system is tuned to a demanding level. I like JES's logical approach to a lot of things, but I think he relies waaay too much on anecdotal evidence to support design decisions he's personally fond of or lacks the will/desire to change. Just fessing up and saying "we've designed it this way and it makes some people happy" is a much more forthwright way of discussing development decisions than leaning on some unnamed focus groups that we're to believe represents a statistically meaningful sampling of players.

 

[santino27]

It's a bit late, but...

The POE expansions were set mid-game (like TotSC) rather than post-conclusion (ToB). Was that because you felt like POE had already finished its story and there was no logical direction to take the character for the expansion? Given the problems inherent in shoehorning new content into the middle of a game your backers have likely already finished, do you regret that decision? The content seemed fairly well received but there's no question that a number of people never went back and played the expansion. With future games, do you have any ideas on how to better integrate expansions and/or DLC (sigh) to try and ensure a greater percentage of players of the primary game feel motivated to play the expansion content as well? Or are you instead now leaning away from expansions in general?

Also, how much Sensuki is too much Sensuki? There's no question that his dedication to early testing helped the end product, but it also seemed to lead to burnout and dissatisfaction once it became clear his desired game diverged from what Obsidian was intent on delivering. Is there a way to keep fans highly invested throughout an open development process without risking this sort of eventual backlash?

 

[Sensuki]

Counterpoint: The latter levels of Od Nua went through a pass and hardly anyone goes through those (Steam achievement: 12.8%)

Od Nua isn't a backer beta level though.

 

[Lhynn]

I get the impression many rpg designers from the 80s (both c and p&p) didn't give a damn whether you were having fun or not.

Takes all kinds. The good ones did.

Going through the Skaen temple the wrong way is a non-lethal player punch (as opposed to the lethal player punches that he does hate)

Fuck that stupid shit. No matter how you try to reason it, its wrong.

 

[Roguey]

Takes all kinds. The good ones did.

Gary Gygax designed Tomb of Horrors, the ultimate player puncher.

 

[Bubbles]

It's 6 minutes to the talk and submissions are now closed. Sawyer looks calm.

 

[Modron]

It's 6 minutes to the talk and submissions are now closed. Sawyer looks calm.

Should have said balanced.

 

[HoboForEternity]

how long till codex blabber out "classified" information and get blacklisted too? XD