Interview Josh Sawyer interviewed at Ragequit.gr and Darkstation

[Tigranes]

I just reached the stronghold in the game. It has been getting more fun the more I play. Should I continue playing or wait for the White Marches 2 expansion that is supposed to improve stronghold management?

Whatever you want. The stronghold really doesn't eat up a lot of your time, if you want to ignore it you can basically ignore it, and even if you want to develop it it's just a couple clicks every now and then.

 

[Maculo]

I just reached the stronghold in the game. It has been getting more fun the more I play. Should I continue playing or wait for the White Marches 2 expansion that is supposed to improve stronghold management?

I had the same feeling, but I ended up continuing a new playthrough. I do not think the stronghold improvements by itself is worth waiting on.

 

[Fairfax]

Pallegina was the perfect character. A dumb niggarete fast-tracked into a position which she didn't have enough skill to handle and later chimping out and needing the player to solve her problems.

Perfect.

 

[Eadan]

Backer content was dogshit because I didn't know it was irrelevant. Everything I saw was well written but I completely wasted my time trying to remember all of them, I didn't even learn those npcs were backer content until after I quit playing. It was just a terrible implementation of backer content. I loved what Wasteland 2 did.

Are those the NPC s whose memories you read when you "reach out"? If so I read quite a few irrelevant stories myself.

 

[GuiltyofBeingTrite]

Backer content was dogshit because I didn't know it was irrelevant. Everything I saw was well written but I completely wasted my time trying to remember all of them, I didn't even learn those npcs were backer content until after I quit playing. It was just a terrible implementation of backer content. I loved what Wasteland 2 did.

Are those the NPC s whose memories you read when you "reach out"? If so I read quite a few irrelevant stories myself.

Yes! all of them! Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Thonius]

Yep, including some gay stuff.

 

[ROARRR]

I like Pallegina. I kept her till to the end.
Stronghold is similar like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbNxfq0-uaE#t=7m25sec

 

[Crescent Hawk]

Well I did finish POE, its a great game and an excellent work by Obsidian. But its like eating a great pizza with no ingredients, somehow the game feels fearful of its audience. I dont know whose fault it was, the dumb writers or Sawyer, because the setting, tries to hard be good high fantasy, and it has potential, there is some good lore to expand there, the living lands, the white that wends...., nigger renaissance Italians aside.


PoE suffers from truly high expectations, I hope DivOS2 is the game people ( and I ) are expecting, but I just think we will get another stupid story like the first.



As for Fallout 4, I have more fun in the Mad Max game.

 

[Kev Inkline]

Tags: J.E. Sawyer; Obsidian Entertainment; Pillars of Eternity

Not all of the companions were tightly connected to the storyline. The companion I wrote, Pallegina, is one of the most disconnected. I think their connection to the central plot could have been stronger and there could have been better reactivity among them to both your choices and each other's' actions.​

​

I am only somewhere around Defiance Bay/Dyrford in terms of progress, but the reactivity of the world or lack thereof has been bothering me ever since the beginning. I chose Vailian dissident as the background (I did not know about this complexion thingy, I guess my character would have felft at home on Mexico '68 podium), and afaicr not once I have been offered different dialogue choices because of my geographical background but solely for being a dissident. I mean, how can npcs tell my attitude towards authority, but can't say where I come from, even the Vailian diplomats seem to be totally ignorant of this?

 

[Xeon]

Yea, I like the system they made for this but its seems a little shallow or something, not used all that often, kinda pointless since it doesn't affect the game much, mostly a flavor dialogue and origins/classes have random number of uses.

Post by Bubbles, a spoiler.

Spoiler

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/77162-which-class-has-most-unique-dialogues/page-2#entry1665622

Barbarian: 3
Chanter: 2
Cipher: 17
Druid: 1
Fighter: 5
Monk: 2
Paladin: 1 + Order
Priest: 6 (3 unique - without equivalent "Clergyman" background check) + Deity
Ranger: 3
Rogue: 3
Wizard: 4

Kind Wayfarers: 7
Bleak Walkers: 6
Shieldbearers: 3
Goldpact: 2
Darcozzi: 3

Berath: 3
Skaen: 7
Magran: 6
Wael: 5
Eothas: 7

Aristocrat: 8
Artist: 4
Clergyman: 7 (4 unique)
Colonist: 9
Dissident: 6
Drifter: 4
Explorer: 9
Hunter: 10
Laborer: 8
Mercenary: 8
Merchant: 11
Mystic: 5
Philosopher: 11
Raider: 11
Scholar: 13
Scientist: 6
Slave: 7

Aedyr: 12 (5 of them with Aloth)
Deadfire: 9
Ixamitl Plains: 1
Old Vailia: 4
Rauatai: 0
The Living Lands: 9
White That Wends: 14

Aumaua: 7
Coastal Aumaua: 1

Dwarf: 0
Boreal Dwarf: 1

Elf: 1
Snow Elf: 7 (3 with Glaswal)

Godlike: 10
Fire Godlike: 4
Nature Godlike: 2
Moon Godlike: 2
Death Godlike: 3

Human: 1

Orlan: 14 (5 with Captain Aldmar)
Hearth Orlan: 1
Wild Orlan: 1

Male: 7
Female: 12

 

[Severian Silk]

Everyone wants it, except Feargus.

Well it would still be crap with current combat system. That shit needs to be reworked. However, they first need to admit the problem, that system built around "you are a special snow flake" concept is beyond redemption.

That didn't stop D:OS which was even more dumb IMO.

 

[Nines]

Pillars of Eternity's area sizes and input systems don't translate well to non-PC formats, but I think a turn-based game could be very cool.

I would love to see a turn-based game from Obsidian, but I don't believe it's something that will sell well on consoles (not that it's needed). XCOM was an extremely consolized game, exactly what an ordinary peasant would probably want. And guess what? It was a flop. Now XCOM 2 is a PC exclusive (at least for the time being). And on a side note, it's funny how Firaxis is slowly accepting the certain decisions, which made Ufo Defense so successful back in the days, and which they foolishly rejected in XCOM.

Then we have D:OS and Wasteland 2, which (I heard) do not sell well on consoles either (while the Shadowrun series was rejected by phones and tablets).

And if we go deep down to the roots, we would find out that even the JRPG genre, which was the thing on consoles for years (featuring turn-based combat, mostly) is almost extinct, ran away on handheld consoles, PC and Wii / WiiU.

In other words, just... just stop. No one cares about turn-based games (especially - tactical) on consoles nowadays. It's all about the 24fps cinematic experience.

 

[Shadenuat]

I am only somewhere around Defiance Bay/Dyrford in terms of progress, but the reactivity of the world or lack thereof has been bothering me ever since the beginning.

The amount of reactivity characters get in PoE is very unbalanced. Some classes only get 1 unique dialogue line, while others 12.
Obsi began with too many backgrounds and classes to make them viable. Instead of 5-8(?) backgrounds they should have used no more than 4 or even 3.
You better forget about that and focus on shaping character via reputations (kind/smart/honest etc.)

 

[Fairfax]

Yea, I like the system they made for this but its seems a little shallow or something, not used all that often, kinda pointless since it doesn't affect the game much, mostly a flavor dialogue and origins/classes have random number of uses.

Post by Bubbles, a spoiler.

Spoiler

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/77162-which-class-has-most-unique-dialogues/page-2#entry1665622

Barbarian: 3
Chanter: 2
Cipher: 17
Druid: 1
Fighter: 5
Monk: 2
Paladin: 1 + Order
Priest: 6 (3 unique - without equivalent "Clergyman" background check) + Deity
Ranger: 3
Rogue: 3
Wizard: 4

Kind Wayfarers: 7
Bleak Walkers: 6
Shieldbearers: 3
Goldpact: 2
Darcozzi: 3

Berath: 3
Skaen: 7
Magran: 6
Wael: 5
Eothas: 7

Aristocrat: 8
Artist: 4
Clergyman: 7 (4 unique)
Colonist: 9
Dissident: 6
Drifter: 4
Explorer: 9
Hunter: 10
Laborer: 8
Mercenary: 8
Merchant: 11
Mystic: 5
Philosopher: 11
Raider: 11
Scholar: 13
Scientist: 6
Slave: 7

Aedyr: 12 (5 of them with Aloth)
Deadfire: 9
Ixamitl Plains: 1
Old Vailia: 4
Rauatai: 0
The Living Lands: 9
White That Wends: 14

Aumaua: 7
Coastal Aumaua: 1

Dwarf: 0
Boreal Dwarf: 1

Elf: 1
Snow Elf: 7 (3 with Glaswal)

Godlike: 10
Fire Godlike: 4
Nature Godlike: 2
Moon Godlike: 2
Death Godlike: 3

Human: 1

Orlan: 14 (5 with Captain Aldmar)
Hearth Orlan: 1
Wild Orlan: 1

Male: 7
Female: 12

So a Male Drifter Druid Mountain Dwarf from Rauatai gets 12 unique lines, of which 7 are because he is male.
A Female Scholar Cipher Orlan from the White That Wends gets 71.

Sounds balanced.

 

[Irenaeus II]

Legion

 

[Blaine]

Nope. Quit in Act 3 back in April, and uninstalled. Haven't touched it since.

Surprisingly, I actually finished the game. I'm not sure what kept me going.

 

[Irenaeus II]

The game being very good.

 

[Thonius]

The game is cool. Without kickstarter everybody would praise the shit out of it. But kicky-thing forced mob to make unrealistic expectation.

 

[Cosmo]

The game is cool. Without kickstarter everybody would praise the shit out of it. But kicky-thing forced mob to make unrealistic expectation.

True about PoE being good (just not very good), and also about unrealistic expectations towards a game that only cost 4 millions.
That said i also can see quite an amount of blunders and/or questionable choices in the writing department, all the more worrying since it's supposed to be Obsidian's one unquestionable strenght...

 

[Sensuki]

Game's story and shit (or at least the original story draft) was written design by committee originally [Using ideas from Eric Fenstermaker, George Ziets and Josh Sawyer with a few tidbits from other designers] and then the theme of the story was changed at a later date by Eric Fenstermaker. That's probably where a lot of the problem lies.

 

[Irenaeus II]

Most people who dislike PoE are better suited playing Fallout 4. Some, I assume, are good people.

Game story and themes are great, Fenstermaker a talented writer.

 

[Cosmo]

Game's story and shit (or at least the original story draft) was written design by committee originally [Using ideas from Eric Fenstermaker, George Ziets and Josh Sawyer with a few tidbits from other designers] and then the theme of the story was changed at a later date by Eric Fenstermaker. That's probably where a lot of the problem lies.

As i already said here, problem is not with the story in itself, but with the minutiae of storytelling and the misguided principles that seem to support it.

 

[Sensuki]

As i already said here, problem is not with the story in itself, but with the minutiae of storytelling and the misguided principles that seem to support it.

Can't find that post in your post history. Got a link?

 

[Cosmo]

...

...

Here you are.
In short, crux of the problem is that the writing often considers the player like a spectator, not an agent, and thus fails to be engaging.

 

[Fairfax]

Some of the themes are good, but the story and plot were terrible, even though they were alright until Act 3. Overall, I felt it was uninspired and I never really cared about it.
Act 4 is when it turns to shit. The antagonist is working for the conservative (fake) goddess, who defends "law, justice, oaths and promises, (rightful) rulership, hierarchies, memory, and vengeance". They also oppose animancy, which the game goes out of its way to portray as something evil and stupid (actually, I think they wanted it to be ambiguous or something, but I don't see how someone reasonable can support it).
Except for some reason, and contrary to what Woedica is supposed to represent, the conservative villains are sacrificing babies and using their souls to fuck the other gods over and achieve world domination. Give me a break.