Pillars of Eternity Thread [Pre-Expansion]

[ArchAngel]

roshan: I don't know what you are smoking but the PoE picture looks way better.

How could it possibly look better when it can't even be seen? You have a wall lit by gigantic torches the height of a human being but it looks as if it's a collection of mini black holes.

I see it. Maybe you need glasses? Or raise Gamma on your monitor?

 

[Wizfall]

I agree everything looks like it's been blended together and that's a bit disturbing unfortunately.
Otherwise graphics are great.

The engagement mechanic was needed to increase the strategic aspect of IE combat.
I'm just at the very beginning though and it seems to work quite well, i can imagine the mechanic becoming a bit boring latter but it is a strategic improvement.
I considered the absence of such mechanics a big issue of the IE games (could not protect your wizard, formation had no importance) but maybe it made the game more fun in the end.

I like the writing even if i agree to some critics here.

 

[Kingston]

roshan: I don't know what you are smoking but the PoE picture looks way better.

It's fair to say that the PoE pic's lighting doesn't really make sense. Whether it looks better that way is another matter (I don't think it does).

 

[Mastermind]

I started BG2 fights from invisibility 9 times out of 10 so enemies rarely went for my squishies.

 

[eric__s]

Did anyone see this? I thought this was pretty cool, did RPGCodex ask Obsidian to include this or did they do this on their own? It's in Woodend Plains for anyone who wants to see it in the game.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Did anyone see this? I thought this was pretty cool, did RPGCodex ask Obsidian to include this or did they do this on their own?

We asked them to, yeah. It was really cool of them to include it on such a short notice.

 

[Zombra]

Regarding traps, is there a hidden mechanic? The level one traps in the first ruins, even with mechanics three I cant disable them all, but I can try again and again. I did this for a while, trying the same trap again and again, doesnt help the character cant disable it. So is this the case for all traps and the first try decides? Or do I have just enormously v bad luck (tried it for about ten minutes).

You're not supposed to be able to disable them all.

 

[curry]

Combat is so clumsy and tedious. I'm in the first town and I don't know if I wanna keep playing this game.

 

[imweasel]

character system is shit

Yep, it is pretty awful. It feels like it came straight out of the blender. It is probably the worst character system I have ever seen. I already miss D:OS.

At least the rest is ok. I am pushing ever forward...

 

[Diablo169]

So whats the general consensus on side quests? I have a party of three at the moment including the PC, I'm wondering if I should save side quests till I get a full party. I'm not sure how much of that is gated with the main quest though?

If this were Balder's Gate I'd pop around the map grabbing NPC's

 

[Bubbles]

So whats the general consensus on side quests? I have a party of three at the moment including the PC, I'm wondering if I should save side quests till I get a full party. I'm not sure how much of that is gated with the main quest though?

If this were Balder's Gate I'd pop around the map grabbing NPC's

Supposedly you hit the level cap after about 75% of the game if you do all the side quests. You can be overleveled for 90% the content without any min-maxing shenanigans.

 

[Kattze]

character system is shit

Yep, it is pretty awful. It feels like it came straight out of the blender. It is probably the worst character system I have ever seen. I already miss D:OS.

At least the rest is ok. I am pushing ever forward...

Comparing D:OS combat to this is valid, being turnbased it's no surprise D:OS had superior combat. But you can't compare the character systems of both; D: OS was open ended skill based, while PoE is class based. And sure I would have preferred they used D&D 5e or Pathfinder, but this is not bad at all. In some ways it is refreshing to have a brand new system to play with.

 

[roshan]

I see it. Maybe you need glasses? Or raise Gamma on your monitor?

It's even worse with the fog of war.

I mean for fuck's sake, the fog of war is supposed to indicate areas out of your character's line of sight, but you should still be able to make out details so that you can direct your character's movements or survey where you have been. But in this screenshot you can't make out anything at all. The guys at Obsidian seem to have no talent for usability and practicality.

Compare this to a fogged BG2 dungeon:

 

[Bubbles]

I see it. Maybe you need glasses? Or raise Gamma on your monitor?

It looks like those upwards-facing braziers are casting their light upwards. Disgusting.

 

[uaciaut]

roshan: I don't know what you are smoking but the PoE picture looks way better.

It's fair to say that the PoE pic's lighting doesn't really make sense. Whether it looks better that way is another matter (I don't think it does).

Lighting in that PoE pic isn't really well done. but saying the game overall looks worse than bg1/2 P:T or ToEE based on that single pic is a pretty dumb statement, especially since the BG pic he posted has p shitty lighting as well and i've seen a lot of footage where PoE has really fucking good lighting.

From the little that i've played and what i've seen on streams and such PoE really looks like a well-polished gem.
It's not perfect but even AAA games with huge budgets have plenty of graphical flaws, and pretty much all of them gamble hard on the graphical aspect, so nit-picking on some poorly lighted maps, especially given that the game was made on a 4 mil budget seems exaggerated. To each his own though.


As for the other issue, comparing some symbolic line you hear at some point of the game that you gain clearer context of as you continue playing/replaying to a random piece of dialogue from the beginning of the other game and saying the writing is bad based on that is pretty fucking autistic, but it's not the first thing of the sort i've seen itt nor do i expect it to be the last.

 

[Infinitron]

We're entering 1eyedking territory here men

 

[Haba]

Such great and subtle writing.

Spoiler

Since we're at misogynist Codex, let's see how you react to your lover being killed, shall we?

Spoiler

I guess it wasn't that deep love after all.

Yup. Stealing a book aggroes both of them and causes me to lose reputation. Killing lets me loot their corpses and loot their stuff with no rep loss. I'm tempted to do this to all the tacky Kickstarter NPCs. Who thought it was a good idea to stick ALL of them in the same town?

 

[Xenich]

It's intended to prevent metagaming where you see a skill check, save, assign your points to pass it, check out the reward, and reload. Easy fix is to just have one level-up saved up every time you get to a major settlement.

I never understood this mentality in design. I mean, its a single player PC game, if someone wants to exploit the game, it is a hex edit away. That is, they can't stop me from doing whatever I want with their game, so why bother? I understand the need to keep people from accidentally exploiting, but this need to force people to such is silly. /shrug

So the fact that hackers can mod video games to remove limitations means that no limitations should ever be designed into video games. Got it.

No, putting in anti-cheat limitations to a single player PC game in order to avoid someone cheating it is a waste of development time. In the case of that limitation I commented on, the player has to specifically intend to cheat a given system in the game (ie withhold points to save scumm) and a person who is willing to do such can easily cheat the game through other means (hex edit, opening up the editor, running someones save editor, using a console command, etc...). The fact is, even the below average intellect can cheat the game regardless of them putting in such a game limitation. So what purpose does it serve? It is silly.

Let me say that I see nothing wrong with putting in limitations to avoid someone "accidentally" exploiting the game. Those are reasonable implementations, but trying to stop someone who intends to cheat the system is pointless.

 

[Merlkir]

My monitor is actually set to darker than usual, (so that it mimics printing values of images) and I can still see stuff. Maybe you need a new monitor, or turning the gamma up a bit?

 

[Bubbles]

Such great and subtle writing.

Spoiler

Since we're at misogynist Codex, let's see how you react to your lover being killed, shall we?

Spoiler

I guess it wasn't that deep love after all.

Yup. Stealing a book aggroes both of them and causes me to lose reputation. Killing lets me loot their corpses and loot their stuff with no rep loss. I'm tempted to do this to all the tacky Kickstarter NPCs. Who thought it was a good idea to stick ALL of them in the same town?

Dude, these two NPCs are not the couple from the story, and Obsidian did not design them.

$1,000 reward
114 backers Limited (86 left of 200)

NAME AND DESIGN AN NPC (Non-Player Character). Help us design PROJECT ETERNITY! We will send you a PROJECT ETERNITY NPC character sheet for you to fill out for our design team. We will turn your personalized character design, with your name, class, and race into an NPC in the shipped game (within reason of course). You will also receive The Complete Kickstarter Obsidian Pack ($500 reward tier) + 5 EXTRA DIGITAL DOWNLOADABLE COPIES OF PROJECT ETERNITY to gift your friends and family.

 

[uaciaut]

It looks like those upwards-facing braziers are casting their light upwards. Disgusting.

They shouldn't cast light only in one direction, that pic really doesn't have the best lighting/shadows, but it's nowhere near as big a deal as the whiner is making it out to be nor does the whole game have poor lighting.

I mean for fuck's sake, the fog of war is supposed to indicate areas out of your character's line of sight, but you should still be able to make out details so that you can direct your character's movements or survey where you have been. But in this screenshot you can't make out anything at all. The guys at Obsidian seem to have no talent for usability and practicality.

I actually think it makes more sense for what's in the fog of war to actually be darker instead of slightly tinted. Just because BG2 did it that way and you seem to have got used to it/liked it doesn't mean it's an absolute best choice all around and any variation is bad.

edit: Also the PoE fog of war pic is still distinguishable.

 

[ZagorTeNej]

How do I quicksave?

 

[roshan]

I see it. Maybe you need glasses? Or raise Gamma on your monitor?

It looks like those upwards-facing braziers are casting their light upwards. Disgusting.

Here's a little kiddie experiment for you: turn off the lights in your room, light a candle, and see if the candle exclusively directs it's light at the ceiling.

 

[Abelian]

Better check your PC, man. It may be dying on you.

I've had no problems recently other than a rare CK2 crash (but it only happens after an hour or so of playing). My PC meets all the recommended settings, except for the graphics card, which is still well above the minimum requirements.

Anyway, it looks like it may be a common issue, so hopefully I'll be able to find a fix in the next few days.
http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/71813-game-crash/page-4
http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/71985-crashes-to-desktop-immediately-after-character-cretion/
http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/72006-shuts-down-computer/
http://steamcommunity.com/app/291650/discussions/0/618457398961092964/#c618457398962513394

 

[Xenich]

It looks like those upwards-facing braziers are casting their light upwards. Disgusting.

Here's a little kiddie experiment for you: turn off the lights in your room, light a candle, and see if the candle exclusively directs it's light at the ceiling.

You sir owe me a new monitor and keyboard! lol