Obsidian's Pillars of Eternity [BETA RELEASED, GO TO THE NEW THREAD]

[Jaesun]

Was the Soul thing part of The Black Hound?

 

[Sensuki]

but has anything been said about the implementation of the Mega Dungeon?

It's 15 levels. The archaeology is linked from one level to another. There is content in the above ground levels (like Durlag's Tower). The player will visit the Megadungeon on the Critical Path of the game but is only required to enter the first level. The rest of the dungeon is entirely optional and has an overarching quest for the player to solve as well as a bunch of side quests.

The challenge level of each floor dramatically ramps up so that the player will most likely have to leave and then revisit the dungeon once they are more powerful. The devs have said it *might* be possible to finish all in one go with some very smart play/avoidance of unnecessary combat encounters, but they have not tried. The game's Producer Brandon Adler designed one of the levels. They worked on it all in one go as one big milestone in late 2013. Not all of the levels are huge in size. Some are larger, some are smaller.

 

[Rake]

but has anything been said about the implementation of the Mega Dungeon?

It's 15 levels. The archaeology is linked from one level to another. There is content in the above ground levels (like Durlag's Tower). The player will visit the Megadungeon on the Critical Path of the game but is only required to enter the first level. The rest of the dungeon is entirely optional and has an overarching quest for the player to solve as well as a bunch of side quests.

The challenge level of each floor dramatically ramps up so that the player will most likely have to leave and then revisit the dungeon once they are more powerful. The devs have said it *might* be possible to finish all in one go with some very smart play/avoidance of unnecessary combat encounters, but they have not tried. The game's Producer Brandon Adler designed one of the levels. They worked on it all in one go as one big milestone in late 2013. Not all of the levels are huge in size. Some are larger, some are smaller.

As long as all levels have something interesting in them (no filler levels), the size isn't an issue.

 

[tuluse]

There are a few seconds-long cooldowns but they're not powers related. Like if a mage switches grimoires or a character switches weapons there'll be cooldowns before you can do it again.

And of course attacks themselves have a cooldown.

This is a gross misrepresentation of cooldowns, at least how it the term is used around here.

It means that particular ability cools down while you can use other ones. If you can't do anything (ie the animation is still playing), it's not a cool down, it's just attack speed.

I suppose the real IE way where you could run around for 5 seconds between attacks is kind of a gray area.

 

[Mangoose]

There are a few seconds-long cooldowns but they're not powers related. Like if a mage switches grimoires or a character switches weapons there'll be cooldowns before you can do it again.

And of course attacks themselves have a cooldown.

This is a gross misrepresentation of cooldowns, at least how it the term is used around here.

It means that particular ability cools down while you can use other ones. If you can't do anything (ie the animation is still playing), it's not a cool down, it's just attack speed.

I suppose the real IE way where you could run around for 5 seconds between attacks is kind of a gray area.

Whoosh.

 

[Sensuki]

It is a cooldown. The attack speed system uses a combination of attack cooldowns (recovery) before moving into faster animation frames. The IE games had "number of attacks", but the space between attacks is still a cooldown.

No cooldowns is where once your attack animation is finished, a new attack animation begins.

 

[Infinitron]

Actually, what Codexers really mean when they say "cooldowns" is a hotbar full of abilities with timers counting down the seconds until you can click them again.

 

[Athelas]

Pretty sure Roguey is trolling you guys, since she knows how much everyone hates cooldowns.

While I wouldn't describe the IE games' round-related quirks as cooldowns, it was something that was very easy to exploit.

 

[Mangoose]

Actually, what Codexers really mean when they say "cooldowns" is a hotbar full of abilities with timers counting down the seconds until you can click them again.

Really?

 

[tuluse]

It is a cooldown. The attack speed system uses a combination of attack cooldowns (recovery) before moving into faster animation frames. The IE games had "number of attacks", but the space between attacks is still a cooldown.

No cooldowns is where once your attack animation is finished, a new attack animation begins.

It's not a cooldown unless you can do something else.

 

[Sensuki]

It's still a cooldown, but it's a cooldown for every action you can take, rather than a specific action.

 

[tuluse]

It's still a cooldown, but it's a cooldown for every action you can take, rather than a specific action.

Something no one has complained about ever, so shoehorning it into the same definition is pointless and confusing.

 

[Sensuki]

I'm just saying that mechanically it is a cooldown and so is swapping weapons or swapping grimoires in PE. But because they're not ability/spell related - people are fine with them, and they even make sense.

I'm not wholly against ability cooldowns myself, but there's many more interesting strategical mechanical alternatives to use in RPGs such as Mana and Resting among other things.

The monk and Cipher design sound quite fun in particular.

 

[Mangoose]

It's still a cooldown, but it's a cooldown for every action you can take, rather than a specific action.

Something no one has complained about ever, so shoehorning it into the same definition is pointless and confusing.

I'm so confused lah

 

[tuluse]

I'm just saying that mechanically it is a cooldown and so is swapping weapons or swapping grimoires. But because they're not ability/spell related - people are fine with them, and they even make sense.

I'm not wholly against ability cooldowns myself, but there's many more interesting strategical mechanical alternatives to use in RPGs such as Mana and Resting among other things.

No people are fine with them because it's not locking out one thing while letting you do others. That's where the shittiness of cooldowns lie.

 

[Sensuki]

That's what I was referring to.

I really like how Starcraft handled unit abilities. Each "caster" unit had a resource and their abilities cost different amounts of points from that resource (*kind of* like a Mana pool), however there was no way to make that resource come back any faster, so you had to be wise in how to spend it.

 

[tuluse]

That's what I was referring to.

It has nothing to be with being spell or ability related. That's just arbitrary naming.

 

[Mangoose]

That and abilities that are on short cooldowns are annoying in real time party games because I don't want to go tab-click-tab-click-tab-click-tab-click umpteen times in one combat.

 

[Sensuki]

It has nothing to be with being spell or ability related. That's just arbitrary naming.

It does for Pillars of Eternity. I'm talking about Pillars of Eternity, you're talking in general.

 

[Infinitron]

Something no one has complained about ever, so shoehorning it into the same definition is pointless and confusing.

Haven't they? Global cooldowns can be just as artificial as per-ability ones. It really depends on the context. For example, two completely unrelated abilities that for some reason prevent each other from being used.

 

[Sensuki]

Opening a door in the Stasis demo

 

[tuluse]

Haven't they? Global cooldowns can be just as artificial as per-ability ones. It really depends on the context. For example, two completely unrelated abilities that for some reason prevent each other from being used.

I've never complained about arbitrariness.

The problem with single ability cooldowns is that it's banal shit boring. You find the 2-3 best abilities and spam them over and over with their cooldown being the only reason you don't just use a single one. If abilities have universal warm ups or cool downs it adds a layer of strategy, do I want to use fireball knowing I have to not do anything for the next 4 seconds, or do I want to use icebolt since I can cast it twice in the same amount of time?

 

[Mangoose]

If abilities have universal warm ups or cool downs it adds a layer of strategy, do I want to use fireball knowing I have to not do anything for the next 4 seconds, or do I want to use icebolt since I can cast it twice in the same amount of time?

That's still annoying if you control more than 1 character in a real time game. This is why DA:O was an annoying as fuck game. Tab fireball tab fireball tab fireball tab fireball every 4 seconds.

 

[Sensuki]

Haven't they? Global cooldowns can be just as artificial as per-ability ones. It really depends on the context. For example, two completely unrelated abilities that for some reason prevent each other from being used.

I've never complained about arbitrariness.

The problem with single ability cooldowns is that it's banal shit boring. You find the 2-3 best abilities and spam them over and over with their cooldown being the only reason you don't just use a single one.

Only because every RPG with a cooldown has shitty design.

 

[Sensuki]

Sawyer answers a couple tumbles:

nomahaatman said: Is there going to be some sort of animation or trigger that makes the user know that an effect like "Wild Sprint" is active or not?

There will almost always be a visual effect or animation of some kind. For abilities/spells that are connected to speed of movement or attack — or quick reactions (e.g. Thrust of Tattered Veils) the animation will be very short or it will be a visual effect only.

silkvalley said: Is there any incentive to wear armor parts from the same "weight category" in PoE, other than style? The drawback of heavier armor (body slot) is slower action speed, but what about helmets, boots and gloves? Leather armor + plate boots and gloves + barbute vs fully leather; any systemic differences?

PoE uses a D&D-style “body only” armor system. Items equipped in the hand/feet/head slots can be magic items, but do not contribute directly to Damage Threshold like armor does.