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

Lacrymas

Arcane
Joined
Sep 23, 2015
Messages
17,948
Pathfinder: Wrath
I kinda like not being able to multiclass the companions however we wish, it gives them more "concreteness" as characters and also makes hired adventurers not pointless.
 

Quillon

Arcane
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Dec 15, 2016
Messages
5,214
It sounded more like technical/UI limitation(for now) rather than design decision tho if there won't be much opposition Sawyer would happily let it stay as it is.
 

Prime Junta

Guest
It sounded more like technical/UI limitation(for now) rather than design decision tho if there won't be much opposition Sawyer would happily let it stay as it is.

If you're referring to multiclassing, then that is a design decision. Originally he wanted to allow multiclassing at any time as well as taking lopsided class combos, but that turned out to have too many unintended side effects that he went with this simpler solution instead. Multiclass characters have a quite a bit of flexibility about which talents to pick and are able to skew their builds in one direction or another that way though and by the sound of it that works fine too.
 

Quillon

Arcane
Joined
Dec 15, 2016
Messages
5,214
It sounded more like technical/UI limitation(for now) rather than design decision tho if there won't be much opposition Sawyer would happily let it stay as it is.

If you're referring to multiclassing, then that is a design decision. Originally he wanted to allow multiclassing at any time as well as taking lopsided class combos, but that turned out to have too many unintended side effects that he went with this simpler solution instead. Multiclass characters have a quite a bit of flexibility about which talents to pick and are able to skew their builds in one direction or another that way though and by the sound of it that works fine too.

Nah, talking about companion multi-classing options. Before, to my understanding it was like f.i. Eder could have been Rogue + any class or Fighter + any class, now it is limited to Rogue + Fighter as only combination for him.
 

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,228
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Transcript! https://www.reddit.com/r/projectete...lars_of_eternity_ii_deadfire_qa_7_transcript/

The world map?

JS: The world map has changed quite a lot. We heard a lot of feedback from folks that really didn't like the art style that we initially went with, and to be honest, it didn't really turn out the way that we expected it to, either. So we had Kaz Aruga, who's our lead artist, devote a lot of time and attention to improving the art in the world map and we're much, much happier with where it is now.

There are still a lot of other elements we want to add to the world map to make it feel more dynamic, but the base art is a big improvement. We're also adding things like more unique icons on the maps and things like that. It's coming along.

How big is the world map and can we get a preview of it?

JS: The overall world map for Deadfire is really big. It takes a very long time to sail across the world. Also, it's very dangerous unless your ship and crew and party are really equipped for it. Assuming you could just sail straight across it, it would take you quite a long time, but, like I said, it's pretty difficult to do that; if you don't get attacked and killed by monsters, you'll probably be attacked and killed by pirate ships or something like that. So, yeah, it's possible; it's very large.

In the Backer Beta it's not very large because we want you to more experiment with the mechanics overall rather than, you know, sail all over the world.

How many new portraits will be available in Pillars 2?

JS: How many new portraits? That's a good question. I know we have a bunch of new Backer portraits. We have a number of new portraits that we just made because we had gaps in our lineup. I don't know if we have a specific number...I'm going to guess, this is a pure guess, but I would guess between Backers and just brand new portraits, probably between a dozen and twenty? I really doubt it would be higher than that. It might be like eight to fifteen or something like that. It's more than a couple, but not a zillion.

I'm sorry, that's very vague. That's just based off what I've seen being produced at the studio.

Will level scaling be included in the Backer Beta for the purposes of testing higher level mechanics/gameplay?

JS: Yes. Level scaling as an option — so, when you hit New Game in the Backer Beta(and this is the plan for the main game as well), one of the options that will come up is level scaling, and you can have it be level scaling for everything or level scaling just for the critical path. For our purposes there's one quest that is considered the critical path in the beta.

So, yeah, it's in there, and we'll see how it works or doesn't work and get your feedback on that.

Are any of the characters from the previous game in the new game?

JS: Yes. I guess that depends on exactly what you mean, though. There are three companions who are returning: Edér, Aloth and Pallegina are returning. We have a bunch of new companions and new sidekicks. And then there are a number of characters that, depending on your choices in the first game, may appear here—if it makes sense. And, of course, we stretch plausibility just a little bit just so that you have some cameo appearances and returns of characters from quests in the original game...Yeah, I don't really want to spoil any of that stuff. We've really tried to make sure that the choices you made in Pillars of Eternity 1 show up at various points throughout the game.

What stage in development are we currently in?

JS: I guess we're in alpha right now. Yeah, overall we're in alpha development. We're systematically sort of closing down areas in alpha, we just closed down the beginning of the game a couple of weeks ago—two weeks ago, three weeks ago?—and now we're working on the second big chunk of gameplay that happens after the prologue and the intro.

We're trucking along. The game's pretty big so it's a lot of people working a lot of hours to try to get all this stuff wrapped up, because it is a big ol' long game.

With the way multiclassing works, will we be able to multiclass all companions? Will it be more limited than was originally planned?

JS: What we are currently supporting—and this might change—is that when you get a character in your party you will have the option of taking them as — it depends on the character. There will be three options depending on the character. If you get Edér it'll say: "Hey, do you want to be a Fighter, a Rogue or a Swashbuckler?" There are other characters, like Aloth, where it will be a Wizard or a Wizard mixed with another class(that we'll define), or a third option which is a Wizard mixed with yet another class. That's what we're currently supporting. Depending on how testing of that goes we may open that up to support more than that. It just turned out to be more technically complicated, in terms of UI and progression, than we had expected. But, yeah, the currently plan is that every companion that you get will have those three options and you specify it right there, and then they advance as that class or combination of classes.

Will the level range in the new Backer Beta be comparable to the level range in the first Pillars beta?

JS: I can't remember what that was, but I think so. In this Backer Beta I think it spans...it's either 6-8, or to 6-9. Is it 6-9, Anthony? 6-9.

So, when you start you will be at 6th level and then you can advance, theoretically, all the way up to level 9. I just finished almost all the content in the Backer Beta right before I came here...I wonder if I can hit 9th level? Yeah, I think you can barely hit 9th level toward the end of the Backer Beta.

<they talk about the new resting system>

Pirate setting...where are the primitive grenades?

JS: You have grenades on some of those characters, don't you? Yeah, there you go. There are grenades. Let's watch this grenade go.

There are actually quite a few explosives in the game. Previously we had a skill called Alchemy that affected use of explosives. A lot of people thought that was weird; also, the range of application was kind of narrow. So, the skill that was previously Herbalism is now Alchemy, and we have a skill that is called Explosives and that's just for handling explosives. You can use that in combat; you can also use that in a variety of scripted interactions. I mean, not a ton, because it's a pretty nice skill for just hurling bombs and stuff like that.

Is running out of food and water in the middle of nowhere a thing?

JS: Running out of food is more of a thing for your crew. It's pretty unlikely. Yes, if you, the party, are in the middle of nowhere and you have literally no food no water no hardtack, nothing, then you will not be able to remove injuries on characters who are injured. So far, Andy, have you ever seen that happen? Andy has never seen that happen. You have a pretty good supply of that stuff. What is more likely is that your crew can run out food and water, and then they become grumpy and will either die or mutiny against you. Which is great, but... <laughs> We'll deal with the mechanics of that in a later update.

I never played Pillars 1. Do the sales of Pillars 1 still support Obsidian?

JS: Yes, definitely. Buying Pillars 1 does support us.

When does the Backer Beta begin in terms of the place of the narrative?

JS: Important things to note about the Backer Beta: 1) It's a side area, just like in Pillars 1 Dyrford was a side area. We try to avoid a lot of plot critical stuff. You are still in the role of the Watcher. There is a sequence—actually, a few sequences, especially on the main quest in this area, where you do get to use Watcher powers. But we don't have spoilers about the main story, and because it's a side area we kind of skirt around a lot of the critical path story moments.

But because 1) We got a lot of stuff to do, and 2) We assume that most of the people playing the Backer Beta are pretty aggressive and are going to dig into the rules, we kinda just dump you in there. We kinda just drop you into the Backer Beta and say go to it.

Obviously, though, if there are things that are unclear we want to know so that we can make them clearer or tutorialize them in a way that is going to help people.

Is the world map movement only possible by ship, or do you move across the world map in a similar way to old school JRPGs?

JS: You can move around on islands by foot, or you can sail around on your ship. There are certain areas that are so shallow that your ship can't actually pass through. When you can land on an island there will be a little anchor icon, then you can just sail your ship up and hop off, and then your character can walk around. And as you walk around you can see things on land that you couldn't see from sea, and then get encounters or loot old treasure chests and stuff like that. So, you have both modes of travel.

When you're traveling by foot it's pretty much just your party; when you're traveling by ship it's your party plus your crew and all that stuff.

Are we allowed to stream the Backer Beta?

JS: Yeah, you can stream it, you can post screenshots. The point of the Backer Beta is to get your feedback on stuff. I think there are a number of people who have made great commentary videos in the past for the original game. Some of them were very critical, but that's good, though; usually when we get those really critical analyses of our game, like in a Youtube video or Twitch stream or something like that, that can give a lot of really good feedback. And we see a lot of good discussion often. I mean, sometimes the discussion's not so good. But there's a lot of good conversation to show how players are feeling and thinking about things. So, yeah, stream all that stuff.

Does the ship and crew consume resources as time passes? If yes, how serious of a resource sink is it? Is there a game over condition associated with this system, for example, mutiny?

JS: The only way really stuff can end is if you die. There are scenarios right now—we're trying to sort of figure out the best way to proceed from this—but you can wind up in scenarios where your crew gets super screwed up, or dies, or mutinies against you. You can still sail around, but if you get into any sort of ship-based combat, you're almost assuredly going to be sunk. So, you can wind up in some pretty difficult situations.

Only the crew really needs that food and drink from a maintenance perspective; for the player and the party members it's just there to provide bonuses when you rest. If you choose to ghost ship it and it's just your party and you and no crew members, you don't consume any food or drink and you just sail around and are...at great risk of being attacked by a pirate vessel and destroyed.

is it possible to make enemies only scale up?

JS: Yes, that is an option we're adding. It's not in the Backer Beta, but it is an option we're adding. You can say I only want things to scale up, I don't want things to scale down.

Will multiclass casters be able to get the most powerful spells?

JS: Nope. Multiclass anything will not be able to get the highest level abilities for either of their classes.

Do you have a favorite character, Josh?

JS: Like, a favorite companion or a favorite character character? I really like Pallegina and Edér a lot. Actually, I like all the companions, but I will say that it feels weird not having Edér in my party. One, mechanically, he's always really solid and reliable, so having Edér at the front of the party always feels really good. There was a stretch when I was playtesting The White March where I went more with — I had like an off-tank, and everyone else was some sort of crowd control or striker. And they were pretty effective, but it just felt weird not having Edér in the party.

So, I don't think I would say he's necessarily my favorite, but he's the character I have to have in my party. <laughs>

When can I buy it on Steam and where can I get the Backer Beta?

JS: Well, that beats me. I don't know that. <laughs>

Aarik Dorobiala: If you pledged for the game on Fig or on the Obsidian Backer Portal you could purchase to gain access for the Backer Beta. If you go to https://eternity.obsidian.net/backer I do believe you can still purchase to gain access to the Backer Beta.

Are those top level abilities going to be able to compete with the benefits of multiclassing?

JS: Well, I think that's kind of subjective. It depends. We always want the high level abilities to feel really good and strong and powerful. Something to keep in mind, though, that I think a lot of people overlook when they're "theorycrafting" about how to progress characters, is that they forget about all the levels between max and min.

A multiclass character gets access to each level of abilities later than a single class. You don't get access to 2nd level abilities as a multiclass character until 4th level, which might seem like a minor thing, but that's consistent. As you advance you're always behind: you have more abilities overall, and you're drawing from two resource pools, but you're accumulating that stuff more slowly than a single class character. The goal is to make it feel cool if you're playing a single class character and if you're playing a multiclass character. I think it will come down to the kind of preferences you want. I think a lot of people are probably going to steer towards multiclassing because it's just a cool kind of thing, cool idea. But the pure characters are pretty strong. They're pretty good. It feels good to be able to get access to that higher level stuff earlier.

What is your favorite multiclass combo? Or what did you play when you finished before you came to the stream?

JS: I was just playing a Ranger today. I played a Ghost Heart Ranger today, and that actually felt pretty good. Ghost Heart Rangers, their animal companion died but their soul stuck around to stay with the Ranger, and so you don't have to steer the animal companion around outside of combat, and you only have to summon it in combat if you want it. It's a little less micro intensive. It actually feels pretty darn good. The animal companions are still pretty tough, and Ranger, man, Wounding Shot is like—I think it might be too good.

As far as favorite multiclass combo, I really like the Streetfighter/Berserker, or just a straight Barbarian with Streetfighter, that also is a very good combo. I think I tried Fighter/Conjurer and that was kind of nice because I have the Summoned Weapons for it. I'm trying to think of other stuff I've tried that's just goofy. There are some Monk/Rogue ones that are pretty good.

Oh, and then Devoted/Assassin. <makes a sound to emphasize it's really good> Devoted/Assassin is like, as long as you can actually Penetrate with your initial attack, then you'll just be really, really crazy.

There are some neat combos. I'm sure, I'm absolutely positive, that as soon as this Backer Beta goes alive we're going to see some insane stuff from all of you.

Where is the meat of the content in the Backer Beta? Is there going to be story, spoilers?

JS: No, there's not going to be spoilers. Like, there are only spoilers for this side content. So, there's some background lore that's going to get spoiled but it's not critical to understanding anything. It's not going to ruin the story for you. That's why we picked this area, because it doesn't have a lot of that stuff.

It's taking place in Tikawara. That's in the eastern part of the archipelago. It's a little out of the way; it's an island with a village on it and a few other locations you can go and explore, and a sort of like mini-dungeon, if you want to call it that, a mini-exterior you can explore. There are a few more islands around that you can explore but only one of them currently has more dungeon content on it which is Pokokahara(sp?), and that is where Andy is exploring right now.

There are no companions in Backer Beta, just to be very clear. Companions are not part of the Backer Beta because we don't want to spoil that stuff. Also, we have to record all their lines. <laughs> We have to cast some people, there's a bunch of stuff we have to do. The Backer Beta you start with this very standard party, you get to make whatever you want and then you can just go wild.

Is the world map just a piece of the Deadfire, or the whole archipelago?

JS: In the full game it's almost the entire archipelago; in the Backer Beta it's just a very small part of it.

How do the Illusion spells work?

JS: Illusion spells are things like Llengrath's Displacement, Wizard's Double, Dazzling Lights — they're oriented towards Confusion, DIstraction, Defense and things like that. At least for Wizards, that's what it encompasses.

If I've never played the first Pillars game, will I still be able to make a new Watcher?

JS: Yep. You can come right in, you don't have to of played Pillars 1. It does help with the context of a lot of things, but it's not necessary.

Will you be able to use the save state from Pillars 1 into the Backer Beta?

JS: Yes. If you have finished Pillars of Eternity and you still have your save game — so, you might think that you don't have a save game, but there is actually one that we hide from you so that you don't psychotically delete it. Which is, I think, called "complete.savegame". You can just import that directly and it will use all your save game states.

Actually, I'm sorry, there are three options: You can pick from a number of presets that we build; we'll have like one "Goody Two Shoes" ending where you try to do all of the nicest, kindest things possible, or "Just Mess Me Up" where everyone's dead and you just screwed everything up. The third option is, much like [Dragon Age Keep], you'll get to define all your save game states, and you'll be able to do that within Pillars 2.

Will the changes to how the bonuses from items work, headgear will presumably be a bit more important to characters. Do you plan on rejiggering races with this in mind?

JS: Yes. Almost all of the racial passives have been changed. Usually made more powerful. For the Godlike they all have two bonuses instead of just one. That is to make up for the fact that they can't wear headgear, and headgear, not that you find a ton of it, but when you do find it it tends to be pretty good.

What difficulty modes will we have for the Backer Beta?

JS: For the Backer Beta you will pretty much have access to everything that was in post-Pillars 3.0. So that's Story, the standard middle three difficulties, and then Path of the Damned. We have renamed the three middle levels of difficulties; we'll see how they feel to you.Mostly so that people who really should be playing on a lower level of difficulty don't feel stigmatized about playing it. It's Relaxed, Classic and Veteran.

Will there be unique dialogue for specific multiclass combinations?

JS: Not for specific multiclass combinations. We usually focus on getting unique responses for individual classes and subclasses. If you are playing a multiclass character, if you have either of the classes you will qualify for the dialogue option. So, for example, if there's an option for Wizards; if you're playing a Barbarian/Wizard, or a Fighter/Wizard, or a Rogue/Wizard, all those characters would qualify for that option.

Are Watcher abilities per encounter rather than per rest now as well? And do they progress via a chosen class power level advancement or by some other means?

JS: Currently everything is pretty much per encounter. The exception to that are your Empower resources which each character has a very small number of per day. That is the only thing currently that is a per rest resource, and it's also only usable once per encounter, so you can't just spam a bunch of those per fight. You can use Empower either to juice up an individual active ability or, if your resources are getting low either as a caster or martial character, you can use it on yourself and it will refill your resources. In a lot of these longer fights you will run out of all of your class resource. Whether it's a Wizard like "I'm all out of spells", or a Rogue and you're like "I used up my stuff too quickly" or "This fight went on a little longer than I expected", then you can use Empower on yourself and then you'll get a small amount of your power pool back. But you can only do that once per encounter.

Will custom portraits from Pillars of Eternity work with Deadfire?

JS: Yeah, they should; I believe that our format is exactly the same.

AB: Andy gave us a thumbs up, so absolutely.

Will we have an update video on the changes you made to multiclass?

JS: We already did, didn't we? Yeah, we already had one of those. Was that Update 40?

When the beta comes out you'll see exactly how it works, and that will be more informative than me talking about it, probably.

What platforms will the beta be on?

AB: I believe it just Windows right now.

JS: Yes, just Windows for the time being.

Can we buy new ships?

JS: In the Backer Beta we are only going to have the one ship; that'll be the starter ship, the Defiant. In the full game, yes, you will be able to get other ships through other means.

Were you able to get to add a boss fight that you had designed in your head for years, but were unable to incorporate into the game until now?

JS: No. But I will say that I think our encounters overall are really pretty well designed. We have more than zero full time system designers on Deadfire which helps a lot. In the Backer Beta I think that pretty much every fight has had a system design pass. They should feel much more unique.

In Pillars 1, in our Backer Beta, there was a lot of like, hey, it's more beetles. Stuff like that. It really didn't seem like there was a new challenge from fight to fight. These fights, I think, should feel better balanced. Like I said, they are very challenging, but each one presents some slightly different things to think about.

I believe the encounter design is a big step up personally, but it's more important <laughs> to hear what you guys think about it.

Has there been any significant improvements to the AI behavior?

JS: Yes, there's been a lot of improvements to the AI behavior. I will say that we did find, just before we were starting our builds here, that there were some weird bugs. So, you might see some weird bugs in the Backer Beta until we patch that stuff. But the AI is a lot smarter, and in terms of player AI you can choose from presets, and will eventually in the Backer Beta be including the AI customization interface. It looks, and is, pretty screwed up at the moment, so we're going to have to wait a little bit before we include that.

The AI system was actually completely rewritten from the ground up for Deadfire. We wanted to make sure that both our enemy AI was pretty good, and also that players had the ability to really customize their own party AI as much as they wanted to.

I hear a lot of in-game battle shouts in the background video. Will there be a way to tone that down?

JS: Yes. One thing I can say is that we just—we have a new chatter system, and so we just got a bunch of the old voice sets in. So you will notice a lot of weird behavior with the voice sets. That is something that we are going to be looking at 1) Fixing the bugs of, and 2) How to tune the frequency of responses. Right now, a lot of the combat chatter is playing at the wrong time, or it's playing the wrong line at the wrong time, and then the frequency can get kind of grating. So those are known issues that we're going to be looking at.

AB: And if you just saw briefly, Andy showed up on the UI that there is a slider under the game menu where you can control the Voice Frequency. Also, in Sound, there is a Voice Volume which is also separate.

For kith enemies, does your capability to detect stealth characters increase with level and/or Perception?

JS: Our primary determining factor for detection rate with Stealth is level. And I believe within kith I don't think we make any distinction between different types of kith. If we did it would probably be a very minuscule adjustment. When we start to change those rates based on multiple different axes of stuff it starts getting really soupy and weird. It doesn't feel good. I understand that it totally makes sense, but in terms of scaling and progression, we find that usually it works better to use the level of the creature. And then if certain creatures are extremely perceptive, for example, skuldrs — skuldrs are very perceptive, so they're just hard to sneak up on. They're just inherently difficult to sneak up on. We found that that consistency tends to feel better.

Also, another thing we found, and you'll see a little bit of a graphical bug with this, but there are certain creatures like Blights that kind of see in all directions, and so sneaking up on them is very difficult because they don't have a vision "cone" — their vision cone is just all around them all the time. It's not super deep, but you just can't sneak up behind them. You have to have someone that's sneaky enough to get by them.

Are the sidekicks going to have similar multiclass restrictions to the companions, or do they have full range of build options?

JS: They will be similar. Ultimately, if you just want to build whatever, then you always have the Adventurer system. You can always go to an inn and say I want people, and you can have any combination of characters that you want.

Are the different Paladin orders and Priest gods more different from one another than the first game? Also, if I might ask, what did you do with the Bleak Walker? One of my favorites.

JS: Yes, they are a little more distinguished from each other. The Priests are more distinguished from each other than they were in base Pillars. Priest gods, they get bonus spells based on their deity; they also have some spell restrictions based on their deity. The Paladin orders, they have special abilities and, I don't know if we were done building them up, but we were trying to give them a couple of special abilities so it didn't just feel like one choice and that was it.

One of the problems, though, is that because there is an established big number of [gods], it's like, "Why can't I be a priest of any deity?"; well, because that's eleven subclasses potentially, so that's a lot of work. Same thing with Paladins and having more than three subclasses; makes it difficult to add content for all that stuff.

Bleak Walkers are similar in flavor to Pillars 1. I haven't played one in awhile so I can't remember exactly the goodies that they get off the top of my head.

Andy Antz: Their Flames of Devotion does Corrode damage and Sickens. The tradeoff is that all of their heals are 50% effectiveness.

JS: That's right. Bleak Walkers, their heals are worse and I believe they receive less healing too, so they're just scorched earth, scorched Eora.

Can we expect evil choices like in the first game?

JS: Yes. Depending on the context, there are plenty of things that you can do that are cruel or evil or just self-interested. We don't try to force evil options in when it doesn't really feel like a natural fit, but if it's something like, yeah, this makes sense that a player could reasonably think this was either entertaining or for their own benefit, then we try to put those options in.

I remember in an older stream you mentioned that you didn't need Scouting Mode to detect traps, but it looks like the current player is using it anyways.

AA: Old habit.

Will the console command be available in the Backer Beta for the purposes of leveling and spawning equipment etc.?

JS: I believe so. By the way, we're stripping out stuff that's not in there, because we don't want to receive bugs on stuff that we haven't specifically included. Those console commands are going to be available, but we specifically exclude a lot of stuff from the build, both because we don't want the size of it to be huge, but more importantly if we haven't had time to properly prepare it, whether it's an ability or an item or something like that, we don't want it to be introduced into the Backer Beta in a way that's going to mess things up.

Also, some of that stuff is spoilery. We would rather not let you know every single itwem that's going to be in the game months and months before the game comes out.

Should we expect new music from Justin Bell in the Backer Beta?

JS: There's a little bit of new music from Justin in the Backer Beta. Not a ton: the combat music is new, I'm trying to think...there are a few new pieces. At the moment it's pretty limited. There's not a ton of new music in it.

How will multiclassing work with base stats like Accuracy, Deflection and Fortitude?

JS: They're averaged. The differences between the two classes are averaged, that's it. I think maybe...it's a 100 point, so we might round up in cases where it's landing a .5 or something like that, but they're just averaged. If you play a Fighter/Wizard, then your base defenses and things like that are going to be the average of those two classes.

Will you add small weather effects to the world map while traveling on the ship to indicate what weather is like in different areas?

JS: Yes. That's something we're working on right now. It's actually more difficult than you might think. It's cool to see weather on the map; it is not cool to have everything obscured by weather on the map. <laughs> One of the plot points of the Backer Beta is about a storm that is brewing over the dungeon Pokokahara. We're trying to get the storm to look right over that area and not be intrusive; to look cool but not really interfere with what you need to do. We're going to be experimenting with that, and then there are other storms that are either part of the story or just natural events that we want to show on the screen as well.

Like I said, our main focus recently for the world map was to try to just get the base art looking better, but our next steps are going to be to try to make the world map feel more dynamic and alive and reactive to weather and stuff like that.

How is the pen and paper coming along?

JS: Gotta admit, the pen and paper is paused for right now. We've been crunching really hard on the digital game. I have about, I wanna say like 30 some pages, maybe, of rules, which is pretty close to what I was technically supposed to have but I wanna do even more than that. I did get a group together and we met to talk about various ideas for characters and where they wanted to play and things like that. There are so many character options that it's taking me awhile to design through all that stuff. The biggest problem right now though is just time. It's just everyone's working a lot and it's very difficult to find the time to carve out to design adventures, design mechanics and then play in tabletop.

Were there any changes to how attributes work?

JS: Not really. Actually, I will say, so one thing that is a significant change from Pillars 1 is Interrupt and Concentration. I believe that is the only change that we've made to how stats work. So instead of interrupting Concentration being these things that kind of like happen by chance, based off of your Perception, Interrupt ratings on weapons, instead of that, attacks either Interrupt or they don't, and a character either has Concentration or they don't. By default, characters do not have Concentration on, but certain abilities can grant Concentration, spells can grant Concentration, and Concentration is used to resist Interrupt. But if a character gets interrupted, then whatever they were doing is lost. And that applies to enemies as well, so if an enemy is in the middle of using some ability and you Interrupt them, that thing is gone and whatever resource they had towards using it is gone. So Interrupt and Concentration are no longer derived from your base stats, they're just properties of like, an attack either has Interrupt or doesn't, and a character either has Concentration or they don't, and usually the default is not. So if you get hit by an attack that interrupts you're gonna get knocked out of whatever you're doing.

You mentioned in a previous Q&A that a Priest and Paladin of Woedica will potentially be in the game. Have you come to a decision on this? You mentioned previously that you were going to check the design notes

JS: Unfortunately, no. I wouldn't say that we would not add that in the future, but when we looked at all the stuff that was necessary to go into implementing those Woedican classes, and all the work that we had to do for the rest of the stuff, we just said like, you know what, we have more than enough work, let's just settle down for now and focus on the other stuff. It does make sense, though, like having a Priest of Woedica or a Steel Garrote Paladin as a player character class is something that makes sense, it seems like a cool inclusion, but there's so much stuff to do that we had to pass on it.

Is there a way to get out of encounters via dialogue or diplomacy rather than combat?

<they show off an example of using dialogue to resolve an encounter Andy happened to be at>

JS: So yeah, depending on the quest, sometimes you can talk your way out of the encounter, or sneak around an encounter. One of the things, by the way, that I like doing in that southern encounter is waiting for that delemgan to walk away and then you can actually loot that unique hatchet out of the chest. So yeah, sneaking is sometimes a possibility, talking is sometimes a possibility, it depends on the quest though.

Can we expect something like Endless Paths of Od Nua in Deadfire?

JS: No. The Endless Paths were a cool idea and obviously they resulted in sort of the idea behind the big Maros Nua statue that eventually emerged from the ground. But those were really expensive areas to make, and they're kind of draining to make because there were fifteen of them and it was really hard to continue coming up with fresh ideas for each level. So that was the reason why we had the Fulvano’s Journey sort of thing during the campaign, where it's a number of islands, it allows us a lot more flexibility in where those islands go and what content we make for them. but the sort of like super mega dungeon is like a cool concept, I think we did some neat stuff with it, but...no.

Why do you color code unique items with yellow?

JS: It's just an arbitrary choice. Magic items, anything with a mod that's magical is blue, and then unique items are yellow just so you can tell them apart. The icons are relatively small and we always try to have those things be unique so that you can tell them apart, but sometimes those differences are relatively subtle. So we use the yellow border just so that you go like, "Oh that's a unique, I should pay attention a little more attention to it."

Are there any Unarmed modals or weapons to help improve Unarmed combat for Monks?

JS: Well there are plenty of abilities for Monks. I will say, in Pillars of Eternity 1, I played through the game as a Monk and even — okay, this is something that I needed to tell you about because I see people running into this problem all the time. They're like, "Oh my God, I encountered something that's immune to Crush. My Monk can't do anything." Wrong!

JS: You can do a lot of things. You can use melee weapons and you can use Monk abilities with pretty much all of your other melee weapons. So in Pillars 1, I went around with a Monk that had fists, and then his other set was a hatchet and a spear I think.

AB: I went dual sabres.

JS: You can do that too! Like, you can, I know that's not like class, but you can do that. But Monks have tons of abilities without looking at them. I can't say for certain, but the last time I played a Monk they felt pretty darned powerful. What do you think Andy?

AA: They're pretty good. Especially with Shattered Pillar now.

JS: Shattered Pillar is an interesting class, and we'll be interested to see feedback on that. Because one thing that some people don't like about the Monk is that the design of the Monk requires them to take damage. And so the Shattered Pillar is an offensively oriented Monk, and they gain Wounds by dealing damage, which might seem like "Oh wow, I got it made!" but they also have a lower max Wound cap. So that can cause some problems for you, 'cause you can't hit as high of a Wound limit as regular Monks.

AA: Have you tried the Drug Monk yet?

JS: I have not tried the Drug Monk yet, how is it?

AA: It's crazy.

JS: Apparently it's crazy according to Andy. Are there enough drugs in the Backer Beta for Monks?

AA: Yeah, you start with three and then you can buy like fifteen, I think. So there's enough.

Are there tutorials in the game to help new players understand the advanced mechanics in the game?

JS: There will be, but there aren't now. Part of that is because tutorials tend to be written later, because we wind up changing a lot of mechanics. So, for example, let's say we already wrote all the tutorials and we put 'em all in and we have all this time and effort into them. And then you play it and you go like, "You know what, these mechanics are terrible and we want to change them.”(assuming that there's time to change them); well, then we also have to go back and rewrite the tutorial text, as well. So we tend to put those off until later in development and until we have feedback and stuff like that. In the Backer Beta there are glossary entries that define a lot of this stuff. The glossary entries in some cases haven't been edited very well so they might be overly verbose. We can get feedback on that, but there are not currently tutorials. In the normal gameplay through, those tutorials are paced out over a long period of time because there's a lot of mechanics in the game.

What about Drunken Monks?

JS: Well, Drunken Monks are not a thing that is known of in this part of the world yet. The sort of Drug Monk, the Nalpazca, is the order that Zahua was from. Anything that is considered a drug, which is a pretty wide range of items, counts for them. Because they—I can't remember, they basically gain Wounds more quickly when they're under the effects of drugs. And then I think their recovery is lower as well, isn't it?

AA: They gain a Wound every three seconds while under drugs, even if they're not taking damage. It's pretty strong.

JS: It's pretty wild, but sometimes drugs have some gnarly side effects.

<laughs>

Is there any tips or anything you want to let our good fans and backers know?

JS: As always, thanks to everyone for supporting us, especially the critics. Because without the criticism it's very hard for us to make something that's going to be fun for people. And I will say that we've tried to keep a lot of the core stuff from Pillars there that we felt worked really well in place. So pay special attention the new mechanics like whether it's pickpocketing, our new stealth system, penetration—which some people get very easily, other people find it very confusing—and especially the multiclassing stuff. We want the multiclassing and the subclasses to feel very fun. Hopefully that process of making those characters and leveling those characters up and playing those characters feels good. Let us know where it's not quite making the cut. And we're going to be adding more features and things like that over time. There's more than enough stuff in the Backer Beta that needs attention and fixing, but as we start kind of rolling that stuff along, we're gonna be adding new stuff really soon.

Are priests overly restricted?

JS: We'll see in practice how restricted they really feel. Keep in mind that Priests have a fair number of spells that they can pick from. They are restricted from some spells based on deity. Let us know how they feel. I know the idea of them sounds overly restrictive and harsh. Let us know how they actually feel in play, if they feel like you really don't have enough options, then we can address that.

AB: And for those asking when will the Backer Beta be available, it will be available tomorrow. Those who have access to the Backer Beta can experience the game as Andy is experienced or in your own way. And again you're more than welcome to stream the game on Mixer or Twitch, YouTube or Facebook, whatever you guys stream on. Go ahead and feel free to do so.

How are you pooling enemies while you're walking around in stealth?

AA: If you place a trap, they'll come investigate it.

JS: Yeah, that's actually a nice little trick that I use to murder people. Or start a fight — put down a trap and it makes a little bit of noise and then they get pulled over, and then you just kind of descend on them. It works best if it's a trap than can put them in some super vulnerable position.

Will dispositions return?

JS: Dispositions are in the game. The only real—we haven't really made a huge change, there are some interface changes for displaying your Dispositions. In terms of overall mechanics, Deceptive is now called Shady, which is a little more general. We've tried to make sure that if there's something you do that's deceptive but nobody would really know about it, it doesn't contribute to your reputation. Because then that seems weird, it's like, "Well I'm deceptive, so if I'm successfully deceptive then how can anyone know about it?" But if you're doing things that kind of screw people over and that you'd be found out later anyway, then that contributes to Shady, generally untrustworthy.
 

Prime Junta

Guest
- "We can only pick swashbuckler...?"
- "Yes..."

Only at the start, not only swashbuckler. The question was about multiclassing later or only at CC.

Edit: ah-ha, looks like it was in the transcript, so you're right:

There will be three options depending on the character. If you get Edér it'll say: "Hey, do you want to be a Fighter, a Rogue or a Swashbuckler?"

Edit edit: still doesn't rule out giving him subclasses though, subclass combinations don't have dedicated names as there would be over a thousand
 

Infinitron

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With the way multiclassing works, will we be able to multiclass all companions? Will it be more limited than was originally planned?

JS: What we are currently supporting—and this might change—is that when you get a character in your party you will have the option of taking them as — it depends on the character. There will be three options depending on the character. If you get Edér it'll say: "Hey, do you want to be a Fighter, a Rogue or a Swashbuckler?" There are other characters, like Aloth, where it will be a Wizard or a Wizard mixed with another class(that we'll define), or a third option which is a Wizard mixed with yet another class. That's what we're currently supporting. Depending on how testing of that goes we may open that up to support more than that. It just turned out to be more technically complicated, in terms of UI and progression, than we had expected. But, yeah, the currently plan is that every companion that you get will have those three options and you specify it right there, and then they advance as that class or combination of classes.
 

Quillon

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With the way multiclassing works, will we be able to multiclass all companions? Will it be more limited than was originally planned?

JS: What we are currently supporting—and this might change—is that when you get a character in your party you will have the option of taking them as — it depends on the character. There will be three options depending on the character. If you get Edér it'll say: "Hey, do you want to be a Fighter, a Rogue or a Swashbuckler?" There are other characters, like Aloth, where it will be a Wizard or a Wizard mixed with another class(that we'll define), or a third option which is a Wizard mixed with yet another class. That's what we're currently supporting. Depending on how testing of that goes we may open that up to support more than that. It just turned out to be more technically complicated, in terms of UI and progression, than we had expected. But, yeah, the currently plan is that every companion that you get will have those three options and you specify it right there, and then they advance as that class or combination of classes.

Heh. Aloth example could have been a lot clearer, I mixed things up with Eder. Just cos UI doesn't support it somehow, they'll define the multiclassing options :D I don't care much either way but seems they want to define them.
 

Ulfhednar

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"So how many possible character classes are there?"
JES: There are 11 classes and 55 possible multiclass combinations!
"Awesome, so if I play with Eder, who must be a fighter or a rogue, then that's still like 20+ options with multiclassing, right?"
JES: Actually...

Silent toons again.
 

fobia

Guest
Yeah if there is a Codexer who pledged enough to get beta access, I'd love to read some comments on the changes of racial passives etc.
Also infos on the classes und subclasses of course!

Poor me will probably start a new game of PoE later on, to see what kind of new stuff I can find. Maybe create a savegame for the second part.
 

Prime Junta

Guest
Beta will drop tomorrow.

I have access and will certainly post my impressions of it here. If I can be arsed/there's something I feel strongly enough about, will also be giving feedback on the beta forums on the Obsidian site.
 

Prime Junta

Guest
Beta will drop tomorrow.

It was tomorrow yesterday, no?

It was tomorrow today for me.

eIbqRs1.png


Time zones are confusing.
 

Fry

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Messages
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They'll probably want time in the work day to fix any immediate customer service problems, so likely keys drop before noon (PST).
 

Lacrymas

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Pathfinder: Wrath
There's no need for every companion to have 3 combinations. It has to make sense for them, Aloth can't be anything else than a Wizard, he doesn't have the training or background. Unless you find him in some oonga-boonga village and he's training to be a Barbarian or something.
 

santino27

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My team has the sexiest and deadliest waifus you can recruit.
Beta will drop tomorrow.

It was tomorrow yesterday, no?

Should be today (11/15 on west coast USA). I assume it'll be sometime noon or later, given normal work schedules.


There's no need for every companion to have 3 combinations. It has to make sense for them, Aloth can't be anything else than a Wizard, he doesn't have the training or background. Unless you find him in some oonga-boonga village and he's training to be a Barbarian or something.

His answer in the actual stream was a little unclear... he started and said 3 combinations, and then he said up to 3, and then he ended up saying 3 again. I think it's going to depend on the companion.

(That said, I don't think any companions are going to be restricted to one choice, so presumably Aloth is going to be able to have a splash of something else.)
 

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