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Eternity Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire Pre-Release Thread [BETA RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

Doma

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naga_by_elaidaandjaylee-d6bcxu3.jpg


Deadfire cosplay :)

Looks like Heroes of Might and Magic 3
 

Lacrymas

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Pathfinder: Wrath
Meh, I'd take the old X-Coms over the new ones any day, no matter how many big titted snake-ladies they throw at me, lol.
 

Kayerts

Arcane
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Jan 28, 2011
Messages
883
Every RPG has giant spiders, but Pillars added in super-intelligent big-brained humanoid spiders with telekinetic powers. You have to admit that is pretty cool and also terrifying. Has any other IP done something similar to that?

The robed, subterranean, superintelligent, psionicists with a repulsive animal's features in PoE kind of resemble the robed, subterranean, superintelligent, psionicists with a repulsive animal's features in DnD. They also did the miner-mind flayer plot from Dark Sun: Wake of the Ravager, so there's that.

e: I dunno, maybe I missed some sarcasm?
 
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Lacrymas

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I thought that Vithrack = Illithid was obvious? Just replace octopus head with spider head. Just how you simply rename kobolds to xaurips ;d
 

AwesomeButton

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I play PoE for its originality. :lol: Duh, I don't understand people bitching about ripoffs of DnD monsters.
 

Chris Avelltwo

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I thought that Vithrack = Illithid was obvious? Just replace octopus head with spider head. Just how you simply rename kobolds to xaurips ;d

The Illithid are a Cthulhuesque ripoff. At least the Vithrack - while similar in a general sense to the Illithi - are unique in the sense of being humanoid spiders. What other IP has scary humanoid spiders? Many people fear spiders, but fear of Octopi is far less common, so this makes for a more terrifying creature, and it is also not a direct ripoff of Cthulhu. To be honest, between the Illithid and Vithrack, I think the Vithrack are both more interesting and more terrifying. Whoever shoved Illithid into the DnD franchise in the first place was just being lazy and uninspired. Anyway, yeah, in Pillars there are some obvious nods to DnD, as a spiritual successor should have, but they are trying to change things to some extent to be original and not be accused of plagiarism. It required a bit of balance between originality and familiarity. Fortunately, Obsidian had the right man on the case when it comes to finding that perfect balance.

:balance:
 

Lacrymas

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but they are trying to change things to some extent to be original and not be accused of plagiarism.

:what: PoE is literally DnD with some names changed around. Sometimes not even that. And even then it's somehow worse than DnD. Yeah, sure, spiders instead of octopi, woo. It's differentiated literally as little as possible from DnD in order to avoid a copyright infringement lawsuit from WotC.
 
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Chris Avelltwo

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PoE is literally DnD with some names changed around. Sometimes not even that. And even then it's somehow worse than DnD. Yeah, sure, spiders instead of octopi, woo. It's differentiated literally as little as possible from DnD in order to avoid a copyright infringement lawsuit from WotC.

DnD is literally LOTR/Cthulhu/Germanic Folklore, with some names changed around. You can't sue someone for "copyright infringement" if 90% of your material comes from other sources itself. Exactly how much of the DnD franchise is original? I wager not much. Probably about as much as Pillars.

Also, it needs to be said that Pillars is still a new IP. Over time you'll see its originality increase. Unless Deadfire is a catastrophic flop (which I seriously doubt) there will be more titles in the franchise. Not just mainline isometric games, but probably some console friendly "popamole" shooters for the kiddies as well. Feargus is on record saying that he wants to turn Pillars into something like Skyrim, and I interpret that to mean a console "whackamole" openworld thing might be in the long term plans for the future. Hopefully that doesn't mean they will stop making the isometric mainline titles, but its good to have something for the kiddy table as well, so those people don't get left out.

The point is, the older the franchise becomes and the more games it gets under its belt, the more originality its going to have. But with that originality its probably going to run into the sorts of problem any long established franchise has of canonical incompatibilities, and people bitching about trivial things they don't like, for whatever reason. Hopefully Obsidian can do a better job of avoiding that shit than most, but I fear its inevitable when a franchise starts to get long in the tooth. Pillars is far from that now, but I mean years from now you might see that happening.

Chris Avelltwo Shouldn't your username be Josh Hearder or Josh Hammerer something like that

It wouldn't be as funny. I'm a fan of both developers and I hope that one day they can reconcile their differences and reunite to make great RPGs again. I've said before T:ToN would have been a better game - or at the very least, more of a game, and less just a glorified visual novel - if Josh Sawyer had directed it. Chris Avellone is a great writer, and Erritis is a fun and interesting character. I lament the fact Deadfire will be lacking his input, and there won't be a return of Durance, but what can you do? The man is like a bee that flits around from flower to flower and doesn't stay grounded to a project the way Josh Sawyer does. That's why they are great as a team, because the counter-balance each other's strengths and weaknesses quite well, imho.
 

Sentinel

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Wow, what a great indicator. I guess he also hates Carrie Patel, Anthony Davis, Adam Brennecke, Brian Heins, Matt MacLean, Brian Adler and Justin Bell, as well as the other 100 people at Obsidian.
 
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When MCA answers any questions adressed on twitter to both him and Sawyer, he studiously removes '@jesawer' from all his answers. And even when questions directly involve Josh, Chris carefully avoids any mentions of him both in the interviews and in the social networks. It is not the same with Carrie, Anthony and others.

I do not think that MCA really left Obsidian because of Sawyer. But it is kinda obvious that MCA does not want to have anything to do with Josh.
 

oldmanpaco

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Wow, what a great indicator. I guess he also hates Carrie Patel, Anthony Davis, Adam Brennecke, Brian Heins, Matt MacLean, Brian Adler and Justin Bell, as well as the other 100 people at Obsidian.

Well all those people are dicks. Not like the great and holy MCA.
 

AwesomeButton

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PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath
PoE is literally DnD with some names changed around.
You are being ridiculous.

If we are talking about just the monsters, read some monster compendium from AD&D 2 for example, and then come back here to discuss what has been ripping off where. Hint: early DnD is a mashup of pretty much everything you can think of. Even further back, in the original D&D set they were even straight up using the word hobbits for what became the Halflings race, which they were later required to change, due to legal issues. (I read that in Wikipedia some time ago, not that I've been a contemporary of the events.)

It's down to personal preference, but I think all PoE monsters who remind you of one or another monster which has become popular via DnD, are adapted/inspired by DnD with enough difference to be different and enough similarity so that people can understand the influence. If they actually didn't want to demonstrate the influence, nothing stops Obsidian from changing their creatures' design as much as they want.
 

Lacrymas

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I know exactly what DnD is, that doesn't mean PoE isn't what I said. It's not something else (like LotR) because it was their explicit mission to be that, much to my chagrin.
 

AwesomeButton

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PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath
You do not know what you are talking about. I told you: 1st read; 2nd come and discuss.
 

Lacrymas

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You don't have an argument, like at all. What do I have to read? What are YOU talking about?
 

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