Incline Josh Sawyer appreciation station

[Kruno]

I mean I agree the guy worked on a lot of games I like,

Name three.

IWD 1, IWD 2, and IWD Heart of Winter!

 

[Nano]

You're not Roguey

You're not Excidium

You're not Crispy

You're not Matt Barton.

You're not ksaun.

 

[gurugeorge]

Why is there so much hate for Sawyer? It honestly puzzles me.

 

[Thac0]

Why is there so much hate for Sawyer? It honestly puzzles me.

His design philosophy is that beneath the absolute highest difficulty level there should not be a single build that is unable to beat literally all content in a game.
That leads to a combat design where choices do not feel like they matter, since the power gap between a well built character and a shitty novelty build is very small. It makes for quite frankly boring combat.
Also the opposite from what is preferred on this site, as the Codex tends to rate choices that matter really highly.

 

[TemplarGR]

His design philosophy is that beneath the absolute highest difficulty level there should not be a single build that is unable to beat literally all content in a game.
That leads to a combat design where choices do not feel like they matter, since the power gap between a well built character and a shitty novelty build is very small. It makes for quite frankly boring combat.
Also the opposite from what is preferred on this site, as the Codex tends to rate choices that matter really highly.

This proves codexers are retards. Making balanced classes does not mean choices don't matter. This is beyond retarded, it is definitely possible to make shitty builds in PoE games. It is just that well done builds are equally powerful no matter the class, which is what makes the game balanced. Anyone who takes issue with that is a certified retard.

 

[gurugeorge]

Why is there so much hate for Sawyer? It honestly puzzles me.

His design philosophy is that beneath the absolute highest difficulty level there should not be a single build that is unable to beat literally all content in a game.
That leads to a combat design where choices do not feel like they matter, since the power gap between a well built character and a shitty novelty build is very small. It makes for quite frankly boring combat.
Also the opposite from what is preferred on this site, as the Codex tends to rate choices that matter really highly.

So what's the opposite design philosophy - a magic button? I mean, to me either is viable, they're just different types of games. I don't see why either should be shat on.

 

[TT1]

 

[Thac0]

Why is there so much hate for Sawyer? It honestly puzzles me.

His design philosophy is that beneath the absolute highest difficulty level there should not be a single build that is unable to beat literally all content in a game.
That leads to a combat design where choices do not feel like they matter, since the power gap between a well built character and a shitty novelty build is very small. It makes for quite frankly boring combat.
Also the opposite from what is preferred on this site, as the Codex tends to rate choices that matter really highly.

So what's the opposite design philosophy - a magic button? I mean, to me either is viable, they're just different types of games. I don't see why either should be shat on.

Made in a different context, but those are the three major ways to balance a game.
Left is the DnD 2nd edition balance, some class are godlike, others are shit. The dynamic changes at different levels.
Middle is imo the best way to balance an rpg, also the rarest. Give each class something stupidly overpowered to do. For all its faults I think Age of Decadence is pretty good at this, no matter which combat playstile you pick, there is something really stupid you can do with it.
Right is Sawjerism, when everything has very little impact it is not that hard to balance a game properly, but you miss the Thrill. You are never gonna oneshot an entire encounter in Pillars with a meteor swarm, but you are also never gonna get oneshottes yourself.

It is a matter of taste, and I think Sawjerism has its place, as an example tacticool games and multiplayer games really need a tight balance, so Sawjerism works decently fine there.
But rpgs are much more fun when the ruleset is a bit more loose.

 

[Chippy]

Don't know how much work he put into IWD1, but it's an awesome game. I only played IWD2 once because stealth was broken, or purposefully nerfed. New Vegas was a great game. I was a gold backer for POE and only played a few hours. Didn't buy POE2. Assuming it's shit.

Josh Sawyer: 2/4.

If he was being rated by Ofsted, I believe that score would get him a "room for improvement" rating.

On a seperate note (I don't expect anything for free, but I would have done this if I was Obsidian) anyone who didn't buy POE2 and backed POE1 for more that £500 should have been contacted and given a free copy of POE2. I expect there weren't many of them, and personally I wouldn't have played it because I expect it was shit. But it says a lot that about the mentality of the place that they went from asking backers suggestions for making the first game, but wrote the ones off (and their feedback) who no longer threw money at them after the first one was released.

Yes, I'm butthurt. They lied. And Sawyer is a bean counter.

 

[Kleptocratic debt serf]

Plus he is not an alcoholic sexual predator, so he is immune to #me2.

But that has more to do with him being a low-T slack-jawed faggot and not a sexual Tyrannosaurus... He deserves no credit.

 

[Atlantico]

Sawyer has ideas, and doesn't make decisions by a committee. I respect that.

The problem with Pillows of Eternity isn't the combat or balance, it's fine and serviceable - the problem is it's that the plot and story are really boring.

That combat system in a better written game would have been fine.

Sawyer is a nerd's nerd and definitely a fringe aspie.

 

[Chippy]

Hey Lagi and anyone else who thinks I'm retarded for being butthurt over POE: how much did you each back it for? 'Cause I laid out $1000 for a piece of shit that they led me to believe would be a corroborative effort on the part of 'the old band getting back together'. What did I get instead? Fucking millenial uni graduates and unknown writers I'd never heard of before.

Fuck Sawyer, fuck Obsidian, and fuck all of you.

Spoiler

In all honesty, I've put it down to a valuable life lesson and am pretty ambivalent to it all. It's obvious that even if they wanted to, they couldn't make another Fallout or BG in 2020

 

[Lagi]

Hey Lagi and anyone else who thinks I'm retarded for being butthurt over POE: how much did you each back it for? 'Cause I laid out $1000 for a piece of shit that they led me to believe would be a corroborative effort on the part of 'the old band getting back together'. What did I get instead? Fucking millenial uni graduates and unknown writers I'd never heard of before.

Fuck Sawyer, fuck Obsidian, and fuck you.

Spoiler

In all honesty, I've put it down to a valuable life lesson and am pretty ambivalent to it all. It's obvious that even if they wanted to, they couldn't make another Fallout or BG in 2020

I paid or backed 0 of any currency for PoE (I buy multiple times IWD & IWD2 if that's matter).
I give you participation award, because I think this is what you want for your money. No hard feelings man. I think you are smart.

Now Im curious how bad PoE really is, compare to IWD.

 

[Horvatii]

Its good that Soy has no children. May his gene pool rot.

anyone else who thinks I'm retarded for being butthurt over POE: how much did you each back it for? 'Cause I laid out $1000

Why are you admitting to be more retarded than assumed? Thats just bad form...

 

[Chippy]

Lagi I wasn't butthurt, that's what the Codex troll was for. If you buy POE, just get in in a GOG sale. I abandoned it after a few hours in much the same way I did Dragon Age 2. For me it was just one of the few games you could tell straight away that the bad experience you would get from it outweighed the experience of the game. I got the impression that I was better of leaving it where it was because it would sour my experience with the IE classics when I replayed them.

It would be like if the original gang had made Siege Of Dragonspear, and I forced myself to play through that every time I replayed BG.

But I fully appreciate how temporarily retarded I was to have gold-backed POE. And Wasteland 2. And Numenera. I actually thought that the money would be used to reposition all of the people that were in the positions they were in when they made the Fallout games, and the BG/IWD titles, and they'd create another series of games I'd be replaying for another 5-10 years or so.

Instead we got Sawyer and his rulz. Brian Fargo even hired that guy: Patton Oswalt. What the fuck was that?. I might even have been able to put up with Sawyer's rulz if MCA, Tim Cain, Jason Anderson, Leonard Boyarsky, George Ziets, James Ohlen, or Lucas Kristjansen were involved in the writing. In fact, I wouldn't really have cared how bad the combat was, as long as any of those guys were involved.

But we got Sawyer. And those other people. Maybe the Codex should create a tag for those retarded enough to have backed POE for more than £100. A mark of shame. So that it's never forgotten. I volunteer to bear the mark first.

 

[Lagi]

looks like PoE is walls of text or "story driven". White March is a combat feast like IWD?

 

[Butter]

looks like PoE is walls of text or "story driven". White March is a combat feast like IWD?

White March is better than PoE, but the setting is the most it resembles IWD. They mostly just cut out a lot of the purple prose.

 

[Cat Dude]

Poe led the Kickstarter/crpg revival we are in now.

That credit goes to Double Fine, actually.

Spoiler

Double Fine doesn't make rpg

 

[Cat Dude]

I mean I agree the guy worked on a lot of games I like,

Name three.

IWD 1, IWD 2, and IWD Heart of Winter!

Beast of Winter
White March

He loves making winter season theme DLC

 

[Dodo1610]

Kinda sad that Swayer will never make a CRPG again because Deafire worked really well with his design. Now all that's left is Swen who has no I idea what balance even is and Owlcat Games who make the exact opposite of Swayer's design. I will definitely their games but I still would have wanted a POE3. But I guess it was inevitable when you make a throwback title with a design philosophy that's utterly contradictory to the games you want to imitate.

 

[santino27]

Poe led the Kickstarter/crpg revival we are in now.

That credit goes to Double Fine, actually.

Spoiler

Double Fine doesn't make rpg

No, but they were the start of the high-money kickstarter game craze, which is (I assume) m_so's point.

 

[Cat Dude]

Kinda sad that Swayer will never make a CRPG again because Deafire worked really well with his design. Now all that's left is Swen who has no I idea what balance even is and Owlcat Games who make the exact opposite of Swayer's design. I will definitely their games but I still would have wanted a POE3. But I guess it was inevitable when you make a throwback title with a design philosophy that's utterly contradictory to the games you want to imitate.

Miscosoft would ask them to develop a popamole RPG for POE sequel like The Witcher franchise.

 

[Apostle Hand]

josh sawyer had his heart at good place in attempt to recreate that BG feel with POE but somehow things didn't turn out that well

 

[Butter]

josh sawyer had his heart at good place in attempt to recreate that BG feel with POE but somehow things didn't turn out that well

Project Eternity will take the central hero, memorable companions and the epic exploration of Baldur’s Gate, add in the fun, intense combat and dungeon diving of Icewind Dale, and tie it all together with the emotional writing and mature thematic exploration of Planescape: Torment.

They could've made something great if they hadn't tried to stick all the IE games in a blender. Obsidian didn't and don't have the writing talent to produce another PST, but they could've made a fun OGL adventure if they'd been content with modest, serviceable writing.

 

[Sigourn]