Pillars of Eternity Beta Discussion [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Sensuki]

D
Say what you will about Wasteland 2, but inXile more-or-less nailed movement and "kinaesthetics" from day one.

Turn-based.

I think the auto-attack bug creeping in between the E3 demo and now is extremely UL, as it's essentially wasting precious feedback time. Hopefully that shit gets patched in ASAP.

 

[Rake]

It seems that Obsidian were too quick to pick a release date. The best solution is to have Early Access in December (by then the game sould be quite polished/ the most glaring issues been fixed) and use the additional money on polishing kinaesthetics and have Kaz make more 2D art.

 

[Athelas]

It won't be long before the inevitable announcement that Obsidian gave up ownership of the Pillars IP to Paradox in exchange for additional funds.

 

[Sensuki]

I'm retiring for the evening, night gents:

 

[Duraframe300]

I'm retiring for the evening, night gents:

Night

In waiting for a Pillars update I have randomly decided to replay Flight of the Amazon Queen. Afterwards I will hit it too.

 

[SuicideBunny]

Should we use spoiler tags for any quest stuff in this thread? Oh well, I will for now:

Spoiler

I'm doing a playthrough where I pretty much avoid all talking and just go out and fight shit, so this is the only "quest" (it doesn't go in the log, but it pretty much is a quest I suppose) I tried. In the dungeon in the western wilderness, you kill a spider-minderflayer-thing (or you can, letting him go seemed the reasonable option here) and he drops a gem that you use in a puzzle involving floor tiles. I did that and got the dialogue that said I can now loot the urn. When I click it though, no loot box appears. Did anyone get what was in there (I inferred it was a weapon, that changes based on how you answer the questions. I really want my EPIC sword )

you're supposed to enhance an adra core weapon with it (i got a spear with one from the room with the psi spider thing, but it doesn't seem to work at all atm). also read the fucking texts. there is a description of what the thing does right in front of it on the floor, ffs.

 

[imweasel]

It won't be long before the inevitable announcement that Obsidian gave up ownership of the Pillars IP to Paradox in exchange for additional funds.

Don't forget about early access.

 

[coffeetable]

iirc in some RPS interview Feargus said they'd sold >30k copies since the kickstarter campaign, so they've definitely got the cash to go on a while longer if needs be

edit: Urquhart: I think, obviously, it's money; they're not doing it out of the goodness of their hearts. They also get to involve themselves with a little product that's high profile. I mean, it's not Titanfall, but it's a game a lot of people are really looking forward to. We've got 100,000, or 120,000 backers now. They get to be involved in this, and that's cool for them. And, if they do a great job, they do financially too.

 

[coffeetable]

honestly though i think you'll all be surprised at the rate things get fixed when the programmers switch from feature development to bug stomping.

 

[imweasel]

I think it will still take them at least 6 months to iron everything out.

 

[Ulminati]

Kotaku is impressed

That isn't praise. That's a punchline.

 

[Infinitron]

I think it will still take them at least 6 months to iron everything out.

Kotaku is impressed

That isn't praise. That's a punchline.

OT, but aren't you two upset about your shared portrait

 

[Cyberarmy]

I'm quite thankful that I have access to enemy information!

Somebody is taking Information Age a bit seriously...

 

[imweasel]

I think it will still take them at least 6 months to iron everything out.

Kotaku is impressed

That isn't praise. That's a punchline.

OT, but aren't you two upset about your shared portrait

I was Manny first. I think.

But no, I don't care.

 

[Rivmusique]

Should we use spoiler tags for any quest stuff in this thread? Oh well, I will for now:

Spoiler

I'm doing a playthrough where I pretty much avoid all talking and just go out and fight shit, so this is the only "quest" (it doesn't go in the log, but it pretty much is a quest I suppose) I tried. In the dungeon in the western wilderness, you kill a spider-minderflayer-thing (or you can, letting him go seemed the reasonable option here) and he drops a gem that you use in a puzzle involving floor tiles. I did that and got the dialogue that said I can now loot the urn. When I click it though, no loot box appears. Did anyone get what was in there (I inferred it was a weapon, that changes based on how you answer the questions. I really want my EPIC sword )

you're supposed to enhance an adra core weapon with it (i got a spear with one from the room with the psi spider thing, but it doesn't seem to work at all atm). also read the fucking texts. there is a description of what the thing does right in front of it on the floor, ffs.

I did get that, it's just after you do the "ritual" the urn that the thing on the floor is referring to gets a blue outline (like lootable objects), I figured it meant you were supposed to get something out of there. Did not notice the spear get enhanced.

 

[SuicideBunny]

a blue outline (like lootable objects), I figured it meant you were supposed to get something out of there. Did not notice the spear get enhanced.

dood. there are three things in the very same room that all have blue outlines and are not lootable containers. blue outline just means it's an object you can interact with. and you didn't notive the spear get enhanced because as far as i can tell it didn't. as i said, it doesn't seem to be working atm.

 

[Ulminati]

One thing's for certain—if I ever play this, I'll be turning the music off. I've been watching streams of it for a bit, and the music does nothing but annoy me. Especially that repetetive-as-fuck violin piece during combat.

I think it will still take them at least 6 months to iron everything out.

Kotaku is impressed

That isn't praise. That's a punchline.

OT, but aren't you two upset about your shared portrait

I was Manny first. I think.

But no, I don't care.

I was manny in 2010. But when the 2013 newfag signed up, I was using the Solium Infernum portrait that noone seemed to bother adding to non-staff users. I don't paticularly mind imweasel sharing my awesome taste in adventure games. If SI portraits are added and I can have my monocled devil back, I'll swap to save you the confusion no problem.

I'm retiring for the evening, night gents:

You're doing the Lords work, Sensuki. Keep it up and maybe the final game will be playable after all. Quandoque bonus dormitat Sawyerus.

 

[Zeronet]

Playing on easy, all the humanoid enemies dropped the armour they were wearing and their weapons. This made me pretty rich and reminded me of my time in baldurs gate selling plate armor for much loots. I bought some nice zealot trainers, i mean boots which had a lovely written description and tale about the previous owner.

Maybe the difficultly level affects the loot drops?

Sadly, i can't get into the game atm, due to the save bug.

 

[Crispy]

Question for anyone in the know, por favor: If I do the $35.00 backer then add in the $25.00 for beta access, will that guarantee me full game access at retail release as well as instantaneous beta access via Steam key?

 

[Infinitron]

Question for anyone in the know, por favor: If I do the $35.00 backer then add in the $25.00 for beta access, will that guarantee me full game access at retail release as well as instantaneous beta access via Steam key?

I'm not sure if the beta key will show up literally instantaneously, but yeah

 

[SuicideBunny]

is there any way to get chars unstuck? my two handmade doods just stopped moving

Question for anyone in the know, por favor: If I do the $35.00 backer then add in the $25.00 for beta access, will that guarantee me full game access at retail release as well as instantaneous beta access via Steam key?

it's not really worth it, though. better spend 20 bucks on the expansion add on and save 5 bucks for coffee.

 

[Crispy]

BUT I MUST TRY THIS

 

[Infinitron]

Eric Fenstermaker speaks! http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/66862-dialogue-options-dont-really-do-anything/?p=1484144

I wanted to give a couple notes on some of the choices we've made for the dialogue system here, so it's easier for everybody to distinguish between what's intended and what's not.

One choice we made is that a skill check is not necessarily a "win button" for a given encounter. This is a departure from many recent RPGs, and more in keeping with traditional pen and paper, where, sure, you can do a diplomacy check on an ogre, but he might just read that as you being soft and take it as a reason to rip your legs off. Skill checks in PoE open new paths to take in dialogue, some of them beneficial, some of them inconsequential, and some of them ineffectual. On balance they tend to help more than harm, I'd say. But we didn't want players to turn their brains off and just click the option that had a skill check associated with it, knowing it would lead to the best outcome. We want that element of the unexpected that makes the experience more engaging. To that end, we've also tried to include a number of dialogues where the "optimal" outcome is primarily related to the player paying attention to the character he or she is talking to, and choosing to treat that NPC in a way that the NPC is able to relate to on some level.

Another thing you'll see, and you'll see it all over the place in the beta, are personality reputation options. These are things like "aggressive," "benevolent," "cruel," etc. These generally do not lead to a drastically different course in a given dialogue, but over time the game keeps track of what kind of character you're roleplaying as, and there will be reactivity to it - a shady character might prefer to employ someone he knows has a reputation for deceit, for instance. Or a particularly honest player might be able to later use that reputation for honesty as a means of convincing people of his argument. (Personally I think it's cooler when we don't display that a given choice is cruel/benevolent/etc., and there is an option to hide them for a more organic experience.)

So for purposes of the beta, it's true, these personality reputation options will seem to do little to nothing. Over the course of the game, we are hoping it helps contribute to a feeling that the specific way you've chosen to roleplay your character in dialogue - not just the big decisions you've made - makes a difference to the way the world relates to you.

** minor beta spoilers**

The posters in this thread are correct that in the beta, skill checks can get you new information about the missing noble girl - the bartender, for example, can be persuaded to cough up a useful lead. (And actually two of the ways to convince him require a certain level of personality reputation, either benevolent or honest, which means they're probably not attainable in the beta.) The potion seller gives you the same lead without need of a skill check, but a skill check does enhance your understanding of what's really going on. In either case there should hopefully be a journal addendum once the currier Trygil's name comes up.

** end spoilers **

Really appreciate the feedback, btw. And if you find that you're experiencing bugs that are causing journal entries not to show up or whatever, please make sure to report them and I'll make sure they get taken care of. Thanks!

I'm worried this sort of takes away from the idea of character skill being important, more important than player skill even.

Totally valid concern. A few things to know about this:

- Paying close attention is important sometimes, but for a lot of our "optimal"-feeling options, a skill check will also be involved. So good for you figuring out that some character is susceptible to flattery, but if your Resolve is too low, you won't be able to flatter in a way that doesn't seem hollow.

- It's often not the kind of logic that would require a high perception - just common sense in many cases. If you take the Perception option to tell the currier that no woman would ever lay with someone who smells as bad as he does, yeah he probably won't be as forthcoming with you. So maybe you want to think twice about choosing it in the first place even though it says [Perception] in front of it. Looking for some level of thought, not necessarily brilliant levels of deduction. Anything that requires a brilliant deduction will generally be gated behind an appropriate skill check.

- I would urge any player to really roleplay his or her character. It's not something I can enforce on my end so much as encourage, but I would want players to choose options based on how they think and what they would say. There are a number of other systems choices we've made here (personality rep and background come to mind, as well as our companion interactions) to try to help the player to develop a character over the course of the story rather than to just play some empty, static avatar. Hopefully it gives a little more meaning to the overall experience.

- I have to be careful with my use of "optimal" in reference to quest outcomes. What I generally mean is an outcome that avoids conflict, not necessarily the outcome with the most favorable end result. The idea being, if you're going to skip a fight, we want it to feel like it's a reward for both player and character ingenuity. Otherwise you've just missed out on gameplay. (Which I'll grant you some people prefer.)

All that said, if you find that some interaction really forces you to metagame to get the option you want, and requires you to act out-of-character, that's a serious narrative issue, so go ahead and report that as a bug.

 

[SuicideBunny]

BUT I MUST TRY THIS

/slap
SNAP OUT OF IT, MAN!

 

[Ulminati]

BUT I MUST TRY THIS

/slap
SNAP OUT OF IT, MAN!

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