Preview Pillars of Eternity Gameplay Video, Previews and Interviews

[ZagorTeNej]

Is the final game gonna be more gory? I liked gibbing people in IE games.

 

[FuelBlooded]

more gameplay with PCGamer, starts at 26:16

 

[crawlkill]

It's a game, it's got gamey stuff in it, 's not the end of the world.

I'm pointing out flaw, not slitting my wrists here, buddy. Again, see my reference to is it a "Mario game or a cRPG?" because cRPGs have to take into account suspension of disbelief.

Yeah, all those Baldur's Gate paladins with 18 wisdom and charisma and 3 intelligence, the Fallout characters with 1 Endurance and 10 Strength, the suddenly alchemy-related epiphanies scored by killing 500 goblins, the abrupt mastery of computer science by paging through a book for an hour, the sudden deepened understanding of toaster repair because of a radio conversation--

Suspension of disbelief is exactly what's required for stat-based game systems.

 

[Roguey]

So, you want a game that's like the D&D cRPG Baldur's Gate, huh? Well, ok!
Let's see, remove the D&D system and lore, come up with a new stat system that doesn't even try to be like D&D and there you go: a game just like the D&D cRPG Baldur's Gate...except without anything resembling the D&D...or Baldur's Gate.

What I saw in the video resembled BG too much if anything.

 

[roshan]

I dare you to say that IWD Heart of Winter or Icewind Dale 2 was easy, you little piece of shit.

You bloody moron, IWD2 was quite easy. I usually play it on max difficulty, with the tactics mod installed, and without using any potions or consumables, as well as with a no resurrection policy (so I have to play every battle such that all characters survive), it's the only way I can get a satisfying level of challenge out of it. But of course with those settings/mods/restrictions, it was easily more challenging than the other IE games.

Of course, I will not be able to play with such restrictions in Pillars of Eternity, which implements forced auto-healing and auto-resurrection? Correct me if I am wrong on this as I am not clear on the latest details?

Of course, none of the IE games had battles that you could auto-win without doing anything, this is something unique to Obsidiot games. I remember playing NWN2 with my old, busted graphics card, during a battle with a dragon and a horde of giants. Right after engaging the dragon, the game basically froze, and after a minute or so, it unfroze, and to my utter surprise, my party had slaughtered all the enemies. Unbelievable, the extremes of dumbing down, that parties can actually autokill dragons and giants.

 

[Roguey]

Of course, none of the IE games had battles that you could auto-win without doing anything,

pfffffffffffffffffffffffftahahahahaha

Assuming you're telling the truth about your IWD2 experience, your level of skill is far greater than the average player. No, most games aren't going to be tuned to your level of skill because it would brickwall the vast majority of their potential playerbase.

 

[roshan]

It's a game, it's got gamey stuff in it, 's not the end of the world.

I'm pointing out flaw, not slitting my wrists here, buddy. Again, see my reference to is it a "Mario game or a cRPG?" because cRPGs have to take into account suspension of disbelief.

Yeah, all those Baldur's Gate paladins with 18 wisdom and charisma and 3 intelligence, the Fallout characters with 1 Endurance and 10 Strength, the suddenly alchemy-related epiphanies scored by killing 500 goblins, the abrupt mastery of computer science by paging through a book for an hour, the sudden deepened understanding of toaster repair because of a radio conversation--

Suspension of disbelief is exactly what's required for stat-based game systems.

The problem with PoE is that at this point, it's simply gamism for the sake of gamism - not for the sake of making a more interesting game. There is no longer any fucking point to the arbitrary, retarded shit that they are cooking up, they're just doing it for the heck of it. This is what happens when whorish fans keep fellating celebrity developers.

 

[Bleed the Man]

It's a game, it's got gamey stuff in it, 's not the end of the world.

I'm pointing out flaw, not slitting my wrists here, buddy. Again, see my reference to is it a "Mario game or a cRPG?" because cRPGs have to take into account suspension of disbelief.

Yeah, all those Baldur's Gate paladins with 18 wisdom and charisma and 3 intelligence, the Fallout characters with 1 Endurance and 10 Strength, the suddenly alchemy-related epiphanies scored by killing 500 goblins, the abrupt mastery of computer science by paging through a book for an hour, the sudden deepened understanding of toaster repair because of a radio conversation--

Suspension of disbelief is exactly what's required for stat-based game systems.

The problem with PoE is that at this point, it's simply gamism for the sake of gamism - not for the sake of making a more interesting game. There is no longer any fucking point to the arbitrary, retarded shit that they are cooking up, they're just doing it for the heck of it. This is what happens when whorish fans keep fellating celebrity developers.

Seriously, gamism for the sake of gamism? Did you miss the thousands times, from the very beginning of the kickstarter and still on going, that Sawyer didn't want any dump stats, and all be equally useful one way or the other for all classes? The reason why atributes work this -gamist- way is in order to achieve this goal. It's gamism for the sake of gameplay.

 

[norolim]

I dare you to say that IWD Heart of Winter or Icewind Dale 2 was easy, you little piece of shit.

Difficulty is a very subjective matter. It really depends on your skill and on how much you know about the mechanics. I'm currently re-playing IWD2 and I'd say it's rather easy (still in Chapter 1). The only challenging encounter I had so far, was in Shaengarne River, where I accidentally triggered two bands of orcs, that were probably meant to be fought separately. As a result, my party had to face something like 15 enemies with 2 Orc Shamans. Still, I wouldn't say it was very hard.

But, as I said before, it's very subjective. I know D&D quite well, because I used to DM a lot. I also know the IE games pretty well, as I played all of them at least once before.

 

[Tigranes]

Almost every RPG loses its difficulty when players know the system inside out - so if you're using D&D it's pretty hard for the game to be Very Challenging.

I remember when BG2 was my first exposure to any kind of D&D rules, I read the manual several times but it was still initially hard.

 

[Irenaeus]

(I'm getting that from the references to him talking about not "picking the wrong stats" at char creation and "people who may be new" etc). It's the very definition of and from a kickstarter game at that.

But it's not just that: http://www.pcgamer.com/2014/04/18/p...rld-building-magic-psychic-warriors-and-more/

Josh Sawyer: I just try to avoid doing things that I don’t personally like. For example, the class balance stuff was done because I’ve made a bunch of these games, and I’ve been playing D&D for most of my life, and I keep seeing very strong trends towards behaviour that I don’t think makes players happier. It doesn’t give them as much choice as the systems claim to give them, and I think we can do a better job. If someone wants to make a brilliant, weakling fighter, that is a build that is viable in our game, and it’s rewarded within the conversations and the fiction of the world. That’s not something that’s really true of playing Dungeons & Dragons.

If you want to make a muscle wizard, who is mighty and powerful and a stupid idiot, you can do that. Mechanically what happens is that you’ll do a lot of damage, but their durations and areas of effects will be very small. Then in conversation they’re total idiots. [laughs] You can bully people and you can pick them up off the ground and slap them around. It’s not like I’m setting out to subvert stuff. I play tabletop games with a lot of people who have really great ideas for characters, but mechanically they’re shitty characters. So when I try to fix that stuff, it’s not because I think it’s inherently better, but that it gives more opportunities to players to create more diverse characters, and feel rewarded for doing so.

What a retarded quote.

 

[Onholyservicebound]

It's not about picking the wrong stats, it's about realizing that having "the wrong stats" is retarded to begin with.
I think Sawyer's got the right idea, my only concern is that if you go full gamist then you're not really opening up more character builds, because people don't really feel like they're playing the character they envisioned. for me, personally, I think int works, it may not be logical in explanation, but it sounds like it will be logical for my build, which is what I care about. Playing an intelligent barbarian, compared to a mighty one, means you play strategically, utilizing abilities with status effects and crowd control, it sounds like you'll generally have more control of the battle then the traditional Barbarian who simply focuses on bashing people's heads.

I like that, it works for me, can't really explain why intellect increases AoE, but I don't really care I guess, as long as I feel like my build is being realized. Of course the roleplay options will cement that even further, which is nice.

 

[J_C]

Right after engaging the dragon, the game basically froze, and after a minute or so, it unfroze, and to my utter surprise, my party had slaughtered all the enemies. Unbelievable, the extremes of dumbing down, that parties can actually autokill dragons and giants.

And do you think I would believe this bullshit?

 

[Volourn]

Yeah, Roshan is a known bullshitter. L0L "I beat the games without ever have to click anything." STFU

 

[roshan]

Seriously, gamism for the sake of gamism? Did you miss the thousands times, from the very beginning of the kickstarter and still on going, that Sawyer didn't want any dump stats, and all be equally useful one way or the other for all classes? The reason why atributes work this -gamist- way is in order to achieve this goal. It's gamism for the sake of gameplay.

No, you are wrong. There is absolutely no reason for strength to affect spell damage and for intelligence to govern berserking. They could have made all the stats useful to all classes in a much more reasonable way. The only thing that makes sense is that this is their version of a power trip, they're doing it for the ego boost.

 

[roshan]

And do you think I would believe this bullshit?

Why wouldn't you?

I built a character that was earth genasi, boosted strength a lot, used two handed weapons, I think a scythe for 4x critical, I don't remember the details but I combined warrior, frenzied berserker (this did something like make power attacks do more damage), and I think blademaster or something (there was a class with large boosts to critical threat range). The result was a character that did insane power attacks, and about maybe 35% of his attacks were 4x criticals.

I also had my mage npc set to aggressive AI and had lots of evocation spells. So what probably happened is my PC butchered the dragon, and the mage nuked the giants.

 

[Onholyservicebound]

The only thing that makes sense is that this is their version of a power trip, they're doing it for the ego boost.

 

[Bleed the Man]

Seriously, gamism for the sake of gamism? Did you miss the thousands times, from the very beginning of the kickstarter and still on going, that Sawyer didn't want any dump stats, and all be equally useful one way or the other for all classes? The reason why atributes work this -gamist- way is in order to achieve this goal. It's gamism for the sake of gameplay.

No, you are wrong. There is absolutely no reason for strength to affect spell damage and for intelligence to govern berserking. They could have made all the stats useful to all classes in a much more reasonable way. The only thing that makes sense is that this is their version of a power trip, they're doing it for the ego boost.

Well, take it as you like, but I'm pretty much convinced that what I said is much closer to the thruth.
I mean, Sawyer talked about this a lot. Yeah, you might be right that there could be a different, more reasonable way to do all stats important, but until knowing exactly how the systems go, there's nothing to defend what you're saying.

 

[Roguey]

No, you are wrong. There is absolutely no reason for strength to affect spell damage and for intelligence to govern berserking. They could have made all the stats useful to all classes in a much more reasonable way. The only thing that makes sense is that this is their version of a power trip, they're doing it for the ego boost.

It's an easy-to-understand unified ruleset that avoids ad hoc nonsense like "this class needs to take these stats, and this class needs to take these stats"

For someone great at RPGs you sure are thick.

 

[J_C]

I also had my mage npc set to aggressive AI and had lots of evocation spells. So what probably happened is my PC butchered the dragon, and the mage nuked the giants.

Well that's just prove that Obsidian made great AI sets. If you set up right, it can play itself.

Anyway, I never use AI sets in any RPGs, and micromanage everything for myself, so I don't know how effective your AI commanded NPCs were, but even if you are so awesome, the average RPG players are not on that skill level. If Obsidian makes a game that is very challenging even for you, Oh master of RPGs, than 99% of the players will give up the game because of frustration.

 

[Infinitron]

"Realistic" solutions to the dump stat problem typically revolve around creation of in-game content. For example, to offset the weakness of a low Strength/high Intelligence fighter, proponents of this approach would suggest that you implement numerous scripted Intelligence checks within the game that could provide said Fighter with various powerups.

But that's a messy solution that's much harder to balance, especially when you're operating under a limited budget and can't afford to iterate much. It means that you're relying on your dialogue writers and level designers to make sure characters are viable and at the right power level.

An indie game with a small team and a long development cycle, or alternatively a game with procedurally generated content, could probably pursue this strategy more effectively.

 

[Sensuki]

I think a scythe for 4x critical

There were no scythes in IWD2 (any of the IE games for that matter) and Scythes in 3E don't give a 4x critical.

 

[Sensuki]

"Realistic" solutions to the dump stat problem typically revolve around creation of in-game content. For example, to offset the weakness of a low Strength/high Intelligence fighter, proponents of this approach would suggest that you implement numerous scripted Intelligence checks within the game that could provide said Fighter with various powerups.

But that's a messy solution that's much harder to balance, especially when you're operating under a limited budget and can't afford to iterate much. It means that you're relying on your dialogue writers and level designers to make sure characters are viable and at the right power level.

An indie game with a small team and a long development cycle, or alternatively a game with procedurally generated content, could probably pursue this strategy more effectively.

I don't think Josh's current stat system is too far off his goal. I think during testing it will be important to tweak the amount of bonuses that each attribute gets rather than just have all +2% or whatever.

One of the perhaps accidental benefits of linking the defenses to ALL of the attributes is that dumping any attribute will hurt the defense that it is tied to unless you have the other attribute connected to it severely bumped.

 

[tuluse]

I get what the idea was, but the implementation of said idea doesn't make much sense. Make INT modify crit damage or give a bonus to chance to crit. The idea being that due to greater intellect, the barbarian knows where to hit his opponent to cause the most damage. That at least would be plausible vs what, "due to the power of his mind he can make his arms longer and have more endurance"? Seriously, what's the explanation for this?

Intellect lets you unlock your soul power in a specific way.

What "specific way" would that be, hmm? That the official line? Pretty weak. It takes more than "because magic" to make a proper explanation.

The way that increases the size of the effect (either time length or range) that a characters gets from using their soul power.

 

[tuluse]

I watched the IGN video and yeah that was better, especially when Josh was all "Yeah it's important to wild sprint though those guys and kill that ranger before he really messes us up" and "We need the barbarian to frenzy here to take this guy out asap." Fuck the Giant Bomb presentation..

How did you not take the opportunity to gloat that the woman host did better?