Preview Tyranny Previews - Gameplay Footage and Conquest Mode Details

[Bruma Hobo]

One thing you certainly don't need to worry about is modern crpg writers letting you figure out anything by yourself.

Deactivate all quest-markers and compasses in a modern game and try to figure shit out without wasting your time wandering aimlessly.

 

[Morality Games]

Excidium II

Not sure what you expect. From what I can tell, this game was made specifically to aggressively do stuff with Factions and pretty much nothing else. Saying that it will probably have good Factions/C&C is like saying the sky is blue or roads are usually made of concrete. Almost a truism.

Which makes complete sense in context, since doing clever things with Factions is

(a) what the Black Isle crew was more interested in but never managed to quite pull off before they had to start working on the RP-lite Icewind Dale franchise. This priority was inherited by Obsidian.

(b) what they 'nailed' in Fallout: New Vegas, their most famous game that they definitely hang their hat on. This was a popular feature that played a key role in their game being celebrated as superior to Fallout 3 by the gaming masses

(c) what they utterly failed to do well in Pillars of Eternity

(d) what they probably want to do well in Pillars of Eternity 2

 

[Excidium II]

(e) All those writers and designers are gone from Obsidian and there's only mmo devs now

 

[Infinitron]

One thing you certainly don't need to worry about is modern crpg writers letting you figure out anything by yourself.

Deactivate all quest-markers and compasses in a modern game and try to figure shit out without wasting your time wandering aimlessly.

The difference between those two things is that quest markers and compasses allow RPG devs to write less and do less work, whereas tooltips are something they actually have to work to create. So there's not as much to gain.

 

[Morality Games]

(e) All those writers and designers are gone from Obsidian and there's only mmo devs now

Here's a picture of some chimps passing on culture that will be inherited by future generations of chimp.

Culture also doesn't need contact between human beings to be passed on, it can be passed on strictly through contact with units of culture (such as a video game). Culture is a bit like a virus that can be passed on indirectly like through contact with door knobs or surfaces that have been touched by sick people.

 

[Excidium II]

my face reading your optimism

 

[Tigranes]

Even speaking as someone who moderately liked large chunks of POE writing (no, not as good as MCA, and no, quality wasn't consistent either), the new Obsidian writers still have it all to prove, in Tyranny and POE2. Having taken 10 years to finally work on their own IPs, it would be bitter irony if Obsidian of today proved no longer able to make full use of it for memorable dialogues and situations. Haven't really checked the dialogue in the video yet, and the companion previews have been terribad. Tyranny once released will go a long way to showing whether we can even hope for the old Obsidian standards to live on, or what the new Obsidian style is looking like.

I doubt it'll be MOTB good, but I could hope for FNV.

 

[Morality Games]

my face reading your optimism

'Optimism' is a strong word. There's a lot of inter-company politics in this game. It was made to serve as a variety of different ends.

The two major ones are as follows:

The first is that while Obsidian would benefit from a publisher for the Pillars of Eternity franchise, there isn't a whole lot of motivation for a decently sized company like Paradox to get involved in that business. Obsidian decided to let them finance Tyranny and give them the profit so they would have a motive to stick with the overarching business relationship. Because of the nature of Tyranny's streamlined mechanics (which will probably ensure a console release in the not so distant future), it competes far less with the PC-centric Pillars of Eternity and far more with Dragon Age. However, because console gamers are less accepting of Unity graphics plus other reasons, there's an element of risk involved here for Paradox. Risk that Obsidain doesn't have to face directly.

Meanwhile, it gives Obsidian the resources to iterate on elements of Pillars of Eternity (factions, writing, C&C) that were pretty limp in the first game.

EDIT:

Obviously this is speculative and I'm not privy to direct details about whatever contract exists between Paradox and Obsidian, however:

“In Obsidian, we’ve identified a partner whose development and design ideals are a perfect match for our own,” said Fredrik Wester, CEO of Paradox Interactive. “We’ve been involved with Tyranny from the ground up, and are proud to be working with the Obsidian team on the creation of this unique world. This will mark a bold step for Paradox into the RPG genre, and we can’t think of a better partner to have for the journey.”

https://www.paradoxplaza.com/news/Tyranny-Announcement/

vs.

Paradox CEO Fredrik Wester stated that, “It’s great fun. Hadn’t Cities: Skylines already broken all our records, then Pillars of Eternity certainly would have. One can certainly say this has been a crazy March. For us the deal with Obsidian is about a long-term commitment. It’s a prestigious assignment with a studio we’ve long wanted to work with.

“And I think we’ve shown that we’ve coped with the task well. I do profit off of this, but it obviously isn’t anywhere near the earnings we’ve gotten from Cities: Skylines. On the other hand, profit was never the main point: this shows that we have the competence to publish really big game titles in the genres we work with.”


Read more at http://gamingbolt.com/pillars-of-et...-5-million-in-three-weeks#cGLmDSWMptUAru4o.99

http://gamingbolt.com/pillars-of-eternity-cities-skylines-earn-18-5-million-in-three-weeks

The shift of tone between these two statements suggests that Paradox has more invested in Tyranny.

 

[Fry]

Eh. I'd actually be pretty surprised if this ever makes it to console. Paradox seems quite happy being a PC-focused publisher and Obsidian people have always been rather uninterested in the idea of porting the PoE engine.

 

[Morality Games]

Eh. I'd actually be pretty surprised if this ever makes it to console. Paradox seems quite happy being a PC-focused publisher and Obsidian people have always been rather uninterested in the idea of porting the PoE engine.

It will definitely go to consoles, preferably (for Paradox) after it has built up some kind of PC legacy but even it doesn't (in order to make some money).

Nobody is content being a PC-focused publisher. They are PC-focused because the genres they are focused on are European (who never developed a console market to rival Japan or North America in size and who have generally used PCs) centric genres.

 

[Fry]

And you're basing this on... what?

 

[Infinitron]

And you're basing this on... what?

lol you're talking to Mr "Four party members means it's not a true RPG!" here.

Paradox have expressed an interest in consoles now that they're a public company, though, so maybe this could be their first one?

EDIT: Oh wait, I think Magicka 2 is already there

 

[Excidium II]

The best Obsidian games were on consoles. The worst Obsidian games are PC exclusive. maximum

 

[Fry]

PC-focused doesn't mean PC exclusive. They have a few console games in their lineup... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Paradox_Interactive_games

What I mean is, they understand the PC market and likely have a very reasonable revenue estimate for this game. They're not so desperate for KonsoleBux that they're going to jump through hoops to force a game like Tyranny onto consoles.

But, sure. Anything's possible.

 

[Black]

The best Obsidian games were on consoles. The worst Obsidian games are PC exclusive. maximum

Like Motb, you fucking chromosome hoarder??

 

[Morality Games]

PC-focused doesn't mean PC exclusive. They have a few console games in their lineup... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Paradox_Interactive_games

What I mean is, they understand the PC market and likely have a very reasonable revenue estimate for this game. They're not so desperate for KonsoleBux that they're going to jump through hoops to force a game like Tyranny onto consoles.

But, sure. Anything's possible.

Tyranny is a game with Dragon Age levels of mechanical sophistication that easily translates to today's controllers. While there are logical reasons to suppose why Pillars of Eternity's six party micro-intensive combat isn't going to go to consoles, these reasons don't apply to Tyranny.

 

[Excidium II]

The best Obsidian games were on consoles. The worst Obsidian games are PC exclusive. maximum

Like Motb, you fucking chromosome hoarder??

awful game.

 

[Fry]

It's still quite a bit of work to port the code to consoles and come up with a controller interface that isn't utter shit. Maybe if it sells unusually well on PC they'll get crazy and try it.

How about this...I'll give you a 12 month window for the console announcement. If it happens, I'll declare you the great Codex prognosticator and kiss your hairy ass.

Save this post.

 

[Bester]

Here's a picture of some chimps passing on culture that will be inherited by future generations of chimp.

That's harsh man, saying that Obsidian writers are stupider than chimps even.

 

[Morality Games]

It's still quite a bit of work to port the code to consoles and come up with a controller interface that isn't utter shit. Maybe if it sells unusually well on PC they'll get crazy and try it.

How about this...I'll give you a 12 month window for the console announcement. If it happens, I'll declare you the great Codex prognosticator and kiss your hairy ass.

Save this post.

Saved. I suppose it is more innocent than my plan to start a gambling pool.

Here's a picture of some chimps passing on culture that will be inherited by future generations of chimp.

That's harsh man, saying that Obsidian writers are stupider than chimps even.

I think they are at least as smart, so the odds of Factions/C&C being heavily empathized in Tyranny is good.

 

[Turok]

I hate time limit quests...


By the way, anyone can confirm if this game show the same problem with load times like POE?

 

[Roguey]

Writers will get lazy and make us read the pop-ups to be able to understand what's going on. Just like quest-markers, avoiding them will not be an option. Decline I say.

A lot of people liked Witcher 3's writing.

 

[Invictus]

This on paper sounds good to me, you might read all the information on your first playthrough and the skip on others, maybe just check in case you need a reminder of who is what
It sounds like it can do more good than harm on the long run anyway

 

[LizardWizard]

However, because console gamers are less accepting of Unity graphics plus other reasons, there's an element of risk involved here for Paradox. Risk that Obsidain doesn't have to face directly.

Paradox has funded literal crazy people (see: Ubik) for years of development while seeing zero return in investment. Getting in bed with Obsidian is a pretty safebet considering they have developed well-reviewed RPGS that have sold millions of copies. Obsidian would also be the natural choice to tap for their recently acquired White Wolf IP.

Paradox have expressed an interest in consoles now that they're a public company, though, so maybe this could be their first one?

EDIT: Oh wait, I think Magicka 2 is already there

Runemaster was being developed for PS4 I believe before being canned.

 

[Doktor Best]

I dig the lore tooltips, its a good way to bring people on the same page lorewise without binding it into the dialogue all the time. But fucking codex's gonna showcase its edginess i suppose...

It's interesting how Tolkien managed to present Middle-Earth to the world without long-winded, boring exposition dumps or appendices attached to his books which explained things. Sure, he is description-heavy and that somewhat bogs down the pacing (it also being a book is a factor), but he was creating a new world for arguably the first time in history, so that can be excused. NPCs spending paragraphs upon paragraphs explaining common in-universe knowledge, which is not only pace-stiffening and boring, breaks the much lauded "suspension of disbelief" that Coleridge was talking about all those years ago. You have to be able to weave that information into the narrative in such a way as to present it to the audience and not confuse them on the way there. I remember Kingdom of Amalur's intro going on and on about "See-lie fey" (or however it was spelled) and courts of winter and summer having some kind of conflict which wasn't explained and it could not be explained because we didn't even know what those fey things are. Kinda like going "The Smarghansks are in a terrible war with the Murskonkiks over ideological differences in their Trerkrantsk Lertravik and only the Furskalresrim and their Movtreronik Teqsum made headway in the decisive battle of Rezormerik during the Neskalpic Vetrerum." Literally nothing was said there and none of this matters to anyone, let alone being understood. Now imagine having to click on every one of those words to get whole new paragraphs upon paragraphs of explanations.

Anyway, better world presentation, please.

Are you actually shitting me right now? Tolkien is the king of loredump. You say its excusable because he was the first to create a fantasy world, and i would even agree to that, but that doesnt make his enormous piles of loredump that go on for dozens of sites nonexistant.