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

frajaq

Erudite
Joined
Oct 5, 2017
Messages
2,380
Location
Brazil
Maia looks straight but this is nu-Obsidian so who the fuck knows
 

Azarkon

Arcane
Joined
Oct 7, 2005
Messages
2,989
I would agree that Bg's plot is weirdly handled, in that it's pretty obvious from the get go that the iron crisis is linked to sarevok.
I think I remember the narrator, at beginning of chapter 1, clearly saying something along the lines of "how is your situation linked to the region's trouble, you do not know yet" which gives it away and is actually a pretty poor formulation.

What I would reproach to the watcher business however, is that it's actually secondary. The PC being a watcher is just there for "special one" purposes. The actual plot is that your soul is awakened, and the only way to put it to rest is tracking down Thaos, which is only revealed at the very end. It's still not clear if being a watcher has anything to do with the awakening threatening your life. That's what Maerwald's situation suspects, but then again there's this Aloth fellow who suffers the same problem, and fears for his life the same way.

Overall, I think BG handles this double plot better. Albeit, because it doesn't make a big deal out of it. Or maybe because the revelation of sarevok's plans is much more impactful than the one concerning Thaos. I mean, about the latter, it's really your soul's business but not yours. I don't like feeling like the passenger of my own story, and that's how poe felt.
Implementing a way to converse with your awakened past life would have been one way to make it feel more personal, and get the player more concerned imo. Needless to add, it would also give more relevance to being a watcher.

Neither game handles the character's motivations all that well, in my opinion. In Baldur's Gate, the logical motivation after the attack was to seek protection, not investigate the murder and its connections with regional events. After all, Sarevok's target was you, not Gorion. What reason did you have, under these circumstances, to go around solving people's problems and make yourself famous throughout the region? That just makes you an even easier target.

The plot up to finding Jaheira and Khalid was fine. But what Jaheira and Khalid should have done, after hearing about Gorion's death, is escort you into the care of the Harpers, where you'll hide until they can figure out what's going on. Then, in order to make you an actual player, the organization could've had you help with the investigation under a different name. This would have made the narrative more cohesive and properly motivated the later events of the game, and all it'd have taken is one extra area and a few more characters representing the Harpers, who you could always choose to betray later, in case you're evil. Or they could've had Xzar and Montaron play the same role for evil characters but have them lead you to the Zhentarim, instead of the Harpers.

I feel like many of the older games had the idea that they had to give the player the freedom to do whatever they wanted, regardless of whether it made sense. Thus, the player meeting Jaheira and Khalid could not be assumed; the player seeking protection under the Harpers could not be assumed; the player wanting to go after Sarevok could not be assumed, and so on. But you have to assume plausible motivations in order for narratives to work. Otherwise why didn't the player just hide in a hole until the events of the game are over? Why didn't the player just sail to a different continent? Shouldn't you allow for all those possibilities too? As a game designer, you can't possibly support all player motivations, so you have to limit yourself to a set that makes sense for the story you're trying to tell.
 
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Iskramor

Dumbfuck!
Dumbfuck
Joined
Jul 8, 2017
Messages
910
Location
Bosnia and Herzegovina
You know they're going to have black elves in Amazon's new Lord of the Rings. This is just a taste.
Who cares?! Won't watch it,after this retardation,i have no interest in anything lotr.
119980.gif

Also elf and dwarf fucking,yeah they can fuck off.
You should stop after original triology . Gandalf and boys rushing with cavalry into formation of spearman was degenerate bs lol. Peter 2 digit IQ jackson at his best. P.S. Fuck normies free kekistan
 
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santino27

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Oct 1, 2008
Messages
2,678
My team has the sexiest and deadliest waifus you can recruit.
I doubt that we'd get a substantial update 20 days before release. Still would appreciate one so this discussion could come to an end. :D
Definitely won't get a beta update imo, but we do know there's a fig update coming tha should hopefully give us more to talk about than who is gay and who is not.
 

frajaq

Erudite
Joined
Oct 5, 2017
Messages
2,380
Location
Brazil
"Due to extra workload necessary to implement all the new exclusive Critical Role™ voice acting in the game, Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire™ has been delayed to June."
 
Self-Ejected

CptMace

Self-Ejected
Joined
Jun 17, 2015
Messages
1,278
Location
Die große Nation
You think you're kidding, but I wouldn't be surprised they'd delay the game again at this point.
Not like they're not having trouble releasing a fig update.
 

Elex

Arbiter
Joined
Oct 17, 2017
Messages
2,043
The kind of person who says, "Hi Reddit" could be some fifteen-year-old kid who lacks self-awareness and is only now coming of age. He could be on the start of a beautiful journey.
well apparently people on reddit and here belive that someone that watch a series about voice actors playing dungeon and dragon have no idea how spellcaster work.
 

frajaq

Erudite
Joined
Oct 5, 2017
Messages
2,380
Location
Brazil
"creatively exhausted"

and right now he's giving a talk about crunch time on Reboot Develop

Sawyer deserves a rest after this honestly
 

Thonius

Arcane
Joined
Sep 18, 2014
Messages
6,495
Location
Pro-Tip Corporation.
As I said before it's either Sawyer or some beamdog tier obsidian noname.
Although there is a chance that Obsidian want to you know train new staff, hence someone else developing DLC.
 

2house2fly

Magister
Joined
Apr 10, 2013
Messages
1,877
The interesting part is Badler is the GD for DLCs, wasn't he the only producer on PoE1? Is he a designer too? And he wasn't even involved with Deadfire(base game) AFAIK...

Pillars of Eternity 2 - Systems Designer
Pillars of Eternity - Lead Producer

According to his LinkedIn

I think badler has moonlighted in all sorts of projects over the past few years.

So Brandon, tell us more about these DLCs...and what Josh is going to do instead of working on them.

Can't talk about the DLCs much right now. For those that have asked:
  • Do I like D&D?
    • Yes. I grew up on D&D and still play it fairly often. Right now I'm in a campaign being run by Justin Britch (PoE2 Lead Producer).
  • What work have I done on the PoE franchise?
    • I was the Lead Producer on PoE1 and have worked as a Systems Designer on PoE 2 at various times.
  • What have I been doing lately?
    • Between stints on PoE I have worked on Tyranny (Systems Designer) and Pathfinder (Lead Designer). In both of those cases, I was coming kind of late into the process to take over the work of others. Most recently, before moving back onto PoE2, I was focused on creating pitches for the company. I can't tell you if any of the pitches were successful, but I thought some of them were really cool.
  • Why am I working as the Game Director on PoE2 DLC?
    • Well, the biggest reason is because I feel I can do a great job with it. I asked for the opportunity and explained what I wanted to do with the DLC. I was lucky enough to be given a shot. I'm very familiar with PoE, D&D, and the IE games. I've also been discussing the possibility of jumping into a Game Director role with Obsidian for a while now. In addition, Josh had mentioned he wanted to hand off direction of the DLC to work on other things, so it was a good time for me to jump in.
  • Why not Bobby/Adam/Another Dev?
    • It just as easily could have been someone else, but the timing worked out well for me to do it and the company has confidence in my ability to create cool DLC for them. For those wondering why Bobby or Adam didn't do it, keep in mind that they're knee deep in closing a game down. They are in important roles and can't be easily moved.
Anyway, I don't mind answering any questions that I can, but I probably can't talk about anything DLC specific for a little while.
 

Kyl Von Kull

The Night Tripper
Patron
Joined
Jun 15, 2017
Messages
3,152
Location
Jamrock District
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
The man needs time to recharge. after Troika shut down it took like ten years for Cain and Boyarsky to direct another major project. And Josh has been in a more challenging position because he directed these games as a middle manager, not an owner.

Feargus: hey Josh, you’re responsible for every single aspect of this franchise... if it blows up, it’s on you.
Feargus: also, you need to obey me without question.
Sawyer: bikes, bikes, fancy cheese, I want to die, please put me out of my misery.
Feargus: how about I give you a stable of foxy female writers?
Sawyer: I do like to seduce my subordinates, but will they protect me from Tina Parker’s roaming hands?
Feargus: no, you’ll just have to get used to that like the rest of us.
Sawyer: that’s it, I’m starting a union.
 

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