Preview Pillars of Eternity Presentation at PAX East 2015

[Deleted member 7219]

I am not really in the loop for this game so this might be a silly question but .. the "You must gather your party.." thingy that got a bunch of laughs, was that just a joke for the presentation or will that actually be in the final game?

I think it was in the backer beta so it'll be in the full game. A nod to IE it seems. Of course, I think IE was a load of shit, and Torment would have been better without it, so seeing IE stuff in PoE doesn't do much for me.

 

[SausageInYourFace]

Alright. I recognized it was a homage, I just wasn't sure if that was only in for the presentation since the audience apparently saw it for the first time.

 

[bussinrounds]

I suppose you spent half of the game rest spamming too, because spells are per-rest. Apparently there are many people out there that beat some of the IE games by abusing cloudkill/web and rest spam combos and then complained about the combat ... lol.

I don't know what you consider "rest-spamming", but obviously I did use the resting mechanic that the game provides.

I'm sure you were rest spamming then, cause the game 'provides' an extremely abusable system that should be used with self restraint. If you're gonna rest after every other battle, it makes the game too easy and you might as well just have fucking KOOLdowns then.

One 8 hour rest period per day.

 

[Stinger]

If they didn't want me to do it, why did they put in it in the game?

 

[A user named cat]

 

[CyberWhale]

Left side is a more handsome version of the right one.

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

If they didn't want me to do it, why did they put in it in the game?

Because most of this stuff is a compromise, they have to also accomodate newbies who might get themselves into a seemingly impossible position which would require restarting and ragequit. It's pretty easy for an experienced player to challenge themselves and limit rests to one or two in each BG2 dungeon (game is much more fun this way imo, instead of just spamming the best spells in every battle and not worrying about getting hit), but if rests were enforced at this level a new/weak player might get raped in the first few battles, use their rest really early and end up having to restart later in the dungeon. Saving faces similar issues. I'm sure if it were up to most of us rest spamming would be prevented but devs have a larger audience to consider - even PoE has the option of going back to town if you're out of camping supplies.

Obviously everyone is free to exploit their own game as much as they want, I do find it strange though when experienced players abuse resting and saving and also complain about a lack of challenge.

 

[Sensuki]

I do find it strange though when experienced players abuse resting and sleeping and also complain about a lack of challenge.

This.

 

[J_C]

If there is something strange, in your game balance,
who you gonna call? Josh Sawyer!

I apologize for this. Please don't hurt me.

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

Dude on the right looks more relaxed and easygoing, probably more fun at parties.

 

[MicoSelva]

That was an enjoyable watch. I especially liked Tim Cain's explanation of Stronghold mechanics, which look more interesting than I expected them to be.

Combat is still too visually rich, I wish they toned down the effects a bit, but I am not really expecting this to happen, so I will just have to get used to it, I guess. Seems like I will be the first candidate to check that 'slow down automatically when combat starts' box just to better see what is going on. Although I probably will still spam pause, because that is how I am used to playing IE games.

 

[Ramireza]

That was an enjoyable watch. I especially liked Tim Cain's explanation of Stronghold mechanics, which look more interesting than I expected them to be.

Combat is still too visually rich, I wish they toned down the effects a bit, but I am not really expecting this to happen, so I will just have to get used to it, I guess. Seems like I will be the first candidate to check that 'slow down automatically when combat starts' box just to better see what is going on. Although I probably will still spam pause, because that is how I am used to playing IE games.

I liked the presentation of the stronghold too, but i am a litte concerned that the upgrades mostly just things that raises your stats. For example : If i buy the library upgrade can realy read some books there? Can i store books i found in it? Or is this just "intellect + 1"?

There are several upgrades that indicate that they are just stat raiser.

 

[Roguey]

One 8 hour rest period per day.

This system can be gamed just by backtracking to rest in a new location, since traveling takes hours.

In BG I find myself needing to rest not because I'm out of spells or low on health, but because all the traveling keeps wearing out my characters.

 

[Infinitron]

My system was basically "Whenever you get utterly fucked up by some battle in a dungeon and are out of heals, go back to Nashkel or Beregost, rest there, and travel back. Look ma, no rest spamming!".

But usually that wouldn't happen before I'd managed to fill up on some loot from the dungeon that I could sell in the town, which would make the trip worthwhile and more "narratively plausible".

 

[MicoSelva]

In BG I find myself needing to rest not because I'm out of spells or low on health, but because all the traveling keeps wearing out my characters.

That only gives -1 to all rolls and can be pretty much ignored, especially with high character stats. I usually play BG1/BG2 with my party perpetually tired, because the party members' complaining makes for some of the best VA lines in the game.

 

[Roguey]

That only gives -1 to all rolls and can be pretty much ignored, especially with high character stats. I usually play BG1/BG2 with my party perpetually tired, because the party members' complaining makes for some of the best VA lines in the game.

It gets worse every 4 in-game hours.

 

[MicoSelva]

That only gives -1 to all rolls and can be pretty much ignored, especially with high character stats. I usually play BG1/BG2 with my party perpetually tired, because the party members' complaining makes for some of the best VA lines in the game.

It gets worse every 4 in-game hours.

Does it really? I never noticed that.

FAKE EDIT: The wiki claims so, but if that was the case, I would never have been able to fight effectively in BG1 (which is where I played with fatigued party the most; BG2 less so because I needed to replenish my spell more often), so I remain skeptical. Maybe it was bugged in vanilla, or something?

 

[Roguey]

Does it really? I never noticed that.

FAKE EDIT: The wiki claims so, but if that was the case, I would never have been able to fight effectively in BG1 (which is where I played with fatigued party the most; BG2 less so because I needed to replenish my spell more often), so I remain skeptical. Maybe it was bugged in vanilla, or something?

I've had characters with -2, I never let it go further than that. Manual says

Fatigue: A character can continue to operate at peak
efficiency for 24 hours game time (2 hours real time). After that
the characters will start to complain, and the characters’ attributes
begin to go down. For every 4 hours beyond this 24-hour mark
the player will receive a -1 luck penalty (-1 to all of his rolls).

 

[Kalin]

It's funny how a game centered around souls manages to come off as completely soulless. Dull areas full of trash encounters and a stronghold that sits on top of the fricking mega-dungeon and functions through strategy screens with banal shit boring upgrades and numerical effects spelled out for you. Can't have players interact with actual characters and figure things out for themselves, no sir! 100% true to Caesar Sawyer.

Someone needs to rescue St. Timothy from those hacks and charlatans, he looks just like King Théoden under the evil spell of decline. Barely there anymore, lost in his pure dreams of Arcanum 2.

(You could actually see him wake up briefly when that greasy ape from Paradox started spouting his SJW corp-speak, but then he quickly faded into the trance-like state again. Still, this is proof that one day, Timothy may awaken in full and throw off the yoke of Sawyerism!)

 

[Athelas]

It's funny how a game centered around souls manages to come off as completely soulless. Dull areas full of trash encounters and a stronghold that sits on top of the fricking mega-dungeon and functions through strategy screens with banal shit boring upgrades and numerical effects spelled out for you. Can't have players interact with actual characters and figure things out for themselves, no sir! 100% true to Caesar Sawyer.

Someone needs to rescue St. Timothy from those hacks and charlatans, he looks just like King Théoden under the evil spell of decline. Barely there anymore, lost in his pure dreams of Arcanum 2.

Tim Cain designed the stronghold.

 

[Turok]

It's funny how a game centered around souls manages to come off as completely soulless. Dull areas full of trash encounters and a stronghold that sits on top of the fricking mega-dungeon and functions through strategy screens with banal shit boring upgrades and numerical effects spelled out for you. Can't have players interact with actual characters and figure things out for themselves, no sir! 100% true to Caesar Sawyer.

Someone needs to rescue St. Timothy from those hacks and charlatans, he looks just like King Théoden under the evil spell of decline. Barely there anymore, lost in his pure dreams of Arcanum 2.

(You could actually see him wake up briefly when that greasy ape from Paradox started spouting his SJW corp-speak, but then he quickly faded into the trance-like state again. Still, this is proof that one day, Timothy may awaken in full and throw off the yoke of Sawyerism!)

It's awesome how anti-rpg people infiltrate the rpgcodex.

Just saw the gameplay video, the game looks awesome.

 

[Kalin]

Tim Cain designed the stronghold.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insanity_defense

 

[Athelas]

You'll be singing a different tune when you upgrade your stronghold to have a dungeon that you can send captured NPC's to.

 

[hiver]

I do find it strange though when experienced players abuse resting and sleeping and also complain about a lack of challenge.

This.

The ultimate conformist non-logic.

Its not abuse if its allowed to happen by the game itself. Its just use of what game gives you. The game mechanics and rules should never require the player to constrain himself. Allowing free sleeping anywhere is a blatant condensation to the casual crowd, the same ones that keep making questions about the game as if they fallen off the tree yesterday, completely clueless about any of it.
Hopefully there can be some harder mode that disables that and makes it work as it was originally planned.

The game looks gorgeous, stronghold seems like improved version of those in BG2, with plenty to do. Sure some of the things are merely numerical but many others are not.
Text adventures are superb, for all except that they dont kill anyone from the party... as far as ive seen. There should be some where you get shafted. Mod material too if nothing else.

I suppose combat will feel better playing it since then youll worry about mechanics and stats, rather then just looking at it like now but... the thing is it could have been much better. And each chance like this is a missed opportunity if its not taken.

However, i think they used a OP party again with very high levels, to please the same crowd they did last time. Fast and flashy.
Why dont you go and make first person shooters if you want to be fucking fast and flashy for fuck sake?
Fuck, fuck, fuckety, fuck.

dang it.

 

[Dorateen]

Someone needs to rescue St. Timothy from those hacks and charlatans, he looks just like King Théoden under the evil spell of decline.

I will draw you, Sawyer, as poison is drawn from a wound.