Tyranny + Bastard's Wound Expansion Thread

[HeatEXTEND]

Tranny would be the best Obsidian game if they had good writers and decent game designers working on it, imagine the people behind MotB working on this project... Great ideas that die because of terrible execution. Obsidian really, REALLY needs a decent creative director and an editor to cut all this crap they call writing.

It is by far the game with most choice and consequence Obsidian made but a living proof that all this doesn't matter if the quality of execution isn't up to par. Imagine a Ziets and Avellone fleshing out those empty cardboard factions and empty cardboard NPCs and we would have a hell of a game. Really funny that when Obsidian gets the chance to make RPGs that aren't of popamole quality, they lose their best personnel. Not feeling impressed at all by the quality of the replacements.

Totally agree, Tyranny could have been a great game if it wasn't so shit, like AoD could have been shit if it wasn't so great.
Point being a game can be more or less then the sum of it's parts, and in the land of ideas, execution is king. Sadly Obsidian has been failing at this for a while now.

 

[Ezrite]

Totally agree, Tyranny could have been a great game if it wasn't so shit, like AoD could have been shit if it wasn't so great.
Point being a game can be more or less then the sum of it's parts, and in the land of ideas, execution is king. Sadly Obsidian has been failing at this for a while now.

Tyranny is a bit like Sweden, would been great with good leadership behind the reins.

 

[Pirata Alma Negra]

Beyond M&B, was Paradox ever able to third-party publish something vaguely successful? Incredible how everything they touch seems to die (PoE was another deal all together, before some hater implies).

 

[Infinitron]

Beyond M&B, was Paradox ever able to third-party publish something vaguely successful? Incredible how everything they touch seems to die (PoE was another deal all together, before some hater implies).

Cities: Skylines, Magicka.

 

[Ezrite]

Beyond M&B, was Paradox ever able to third-party publish something vaguely successful? Incredible how everything they touch seems to die (PoE was another deal all together, before some hater implies).

They are an oddly successful company to be fair.

 

[DeepOcean]

Paradox has a spotty history as a publisher but recently they struck some gold like City Skylines.

 

[Ezrite]

Paradox has a spotty history as a publisher but recently they struck some gold like City Skylines.

I played their games since Svea Rike and EU1/2. Today they are like a Nordic EA but holy shit their fans are loyal buying a horde of DLC for their games.

 

[DeepOcean]

Paradox has a spotty history as a publisher but recently they struck some gold like City Skylines.

I played their games since Svea Rike and EU1/2. Today they are like a Nordic EA but holy shit their fans are loyal buying a horde of DLC for their games.

If they were a Nordic EA, City Skylines would be an always online abomination full of microtransactions, EA is a much worse evil that Paradox is even with the DLC, maybe in the future as a long time ago EA published some good games too.

 

[Rostere]

EA and Paradox has huge differences in consumer base. The thing with Paradox is that they have a pretty significant base of "hardcore" fans. Ordinary CK2 players get butthurt about all the DLC, but the hardcore fans will eagerly slurp up every new piece of DLC, which the ordinary players only buy at Steam sales. This has proven to be profitable, which is why the practice continues.

The DLC of EA is just more content for bored teens who have stolen their parents credit card, not stuff making the core game more detailed for complete nerd addicts. The difference is that in the case of Paradox, their demand is driven by people who embody incline. The complainers are just butthurt that they are too poor to afford all the cool stuff.

 

[Nihiliste]

This game is god awful. I tried to fire it up again, but the mechanics, dialogue, story are so banal shit boring that I would rather do pretty much anything else. That's money I wish I could get back.

Whoever commented above about how this game could have been great if they had some of their old creative talents back in the fold is absolutely right. The new writers seem more Bioware or even Beamdog level rather than KOTOR2, MOTB, FNV level.

 

[Ezrite]

If they were a Nordic EA, City Skylines would be an always online abomination full of microtransactions, EA is a much worse evil that Paradox is even with the DLC, maybe in the future as a long time ago EA published some good games too.

Honestly? I would say Paradox is even worse than EA In some parts, EA got Origin Access....I mean it is somethign even if I do not want to use that shit. Paradox released Stellaris and Heart of Iron 4 as Early Access games, without saying so, with not enough content and been known to lock patch mechanic updates behind DLC/Expansions. Nor do they have season pass which their games desperately need! That would say a thing or two when a game NEEDS a season pass not to be overprice.

This game is god awful. I tried to fire it up again, but the mechanics, dialogue, story are so banal shit boring that I would rather do pretty much anything else. That's money I wish I could get back.

Whoever commented above about how this game could have been great if they had some of their old creative talents back in the fold is absolutely right. The new writers seem more Bioware or even Beamdog level rather than KOTOR2, MOTB, FNV level.

What happended to their old writers? And I heard it was the C team writing, is this not true? The writing is...not that good. But then I barely seen half of it cause I got stuck at that never ending storms fort, either underlvl, poorly built or just plain stupid of me not managing the boring combat system when PoE went perfectly fine, I 2 shot the end boss on my ranger but here im lost. I really wanted to like the game cause under all the shit is a interesting concept.

 

[Flou]

What happended to their old writers? And I heard it was the C team writing, is this not true? The writing is...not that good. But then I barely seen half of it cause I got stuck at that never ending storms fort, either underlvl, poorly built or just plain stupid of me not managing the boring combat system when PoE went perfectly fine, I 2 shot the end boss on my ranger but here im lost. I really wanted to like the game cause under all the shit is a interesting concept.

I'll make a list for you what happened:

Eric Fenstermaker - Had a baby, is a father at home currently
Chris Avellone - Had a bad break-up with Feargus and now writes for pretty much everyone else except Obsidian.
John Gonzales - Got a Lead Writer position at Guerrilla Games. His newest game Horizon: Zero Dawn just came out.
Travis Stout - Got a Writing job at Ubisoft. I believe he is the lead writer on some of the Assassin's Creed games.
George Ziets - Was fired when Project North Carolina was cancelled, they later hired him to work on Pillars of Etenity and then Fargo stole him.

I'm not counting Mitsoda, Saunders (did he even write?), Anthony Evans or Ferrett to this list.
From their "older" writer core, Matt MacLean is still there. He actually worked on Tyranny as Narrative Lead and is not part of the Pillars 2 team. I only counted people who were listed as Lead Writer/Writer on Mobygames.com on that list.

It's hard to say if it was their A/B/C team when most of them haven't worked on many titles. Matt MacLean and Josh Sawyer are veterans. Olivia Veras (on Pillars 1&2), Paul Kirsch (on Tyranny and Pillars 2), Carrie Patel (on Pillars 1&2), Robert Land (Pillars 1 and Tyranny), Matt Perez (Tyranny) and Megan Starks (Tyranny and Pillars 2) have very limited experience when it comes to narrative design in games. They are looking for a Senior Narrative Designer (probably the post Fenstermaker left behind) though.

 

[Ezrite]

I'll make a list for you what happened:

Eric Fenstermaker - Had a baby, is a father at home currently
Chris Avellone - Had a bad break-up with Feargus and now writes for pretty much everyone else except Obsidian.
John Gonzales - Got a Lead Writer position at Guerrilla Games. His newest game Horizon: Zero Dawn just came out.
Travis Stout - Got a Writing job at Ubisoft. I believe he is the lead writer on some of the Assassin's Creed games.
George Ziets - Was fired when Project North Carolina was cancelled, they later hired him to work on Pillars of Etenity and then Fargo stole him.

I'm not counting Mitsoda, Saunders (did he even write?), Anthony Evans or Ferrett to this list.
From their "older" writer core, Matt MacLean is still there. He actually worked on Tyranny as Narrative Lead and is not part of the Pillars 2 team. I only counted people who were listed as Lead Writer/Writer on Mobygames.com on that list.

It's hard to say if it was their A/B/C team when most of them haven't worked on many titles. Matt MacLean and Josh Sawyer are veterans. Olivia Veras (on Pillars 1&2), Paul Kirsch (on Tyranny and Pillars 2), Carrie Patel (on Pillars 1&2), Robert Land (Pillars 1 and Tyranny), Matt Perez (Tyranny) and Megan Starks (Tyranny and Pillars 2) have very limited experience when it comes to narrative design in games. They are looking for a Senior Narrative Designer (probably the post Fenstermaker left behind) though.

Ohh that explains it. BUt it sounds horrible.

 

[Flou]

Ohh that explains it. BUt it sounds horrible.

Not sure it's all that horrible. They are new, but so were Ziets, Stout and Fenstermaker back in the day as well and that's why I think it's really too soon to tell if they will turn out as good those before them. Not sure how much writing Cain and Broyarsky do on their game, but they have experience on that field as well, especially Leonard.

While I don't think everything in Tyranny was great, it did have a lot of good writing in it as well. Though I have to say, it's hard to stand out with exceptionally rememberable companions when both Tyranny and Pillars have been sorta traditional fantasy setting with quite safe choice in companions. There's no Morte, Annah, Kaelyn, Okku or One of Many in the midst.
Tyranny did move more towards non-traditional fantasy, but not enough for anyone to stand out. The choices & consequences seemed to be very well done in that game though, and that for me is promising. I did find Tunon's character very well written, not sure who wrote it though.

I also think it says a lot about Obsidian as a company that their writers are working on big ass AAA games as Lead Writers after their stint at Obsidian.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

What happended to their old writers? And I heard it was the C team writing, is this not true? The writing is...not that good. But then I barely seen half of it cause I got stuck at that never ending storms fort, either underlvl, poorly built or just plain stupid of me not managing the boring combat system when PoE went perfectly fine, I 2 shot the end boss on my ranger but here im lost. I really wanted to like the game cause under all the shit is a interesting concept.

I'll make a list for you what happened:

Eric Fenstermaker - Had a baby, is a father at home currently
Chris Avellone - Had a bad break-up with Feargus and now writes for pretty much everyone else except Obsidian.
John Gonzales - Got a Lead Writer position at Guerrilla Games. His newest game Horizon: Zero Dawn just came out.
Travis Stout - Got a Writing job at Ubisoft. I believe he is the lead writer on some of the Assassin's Creed games.
George Ziets - Was fired when Project North Carolina was cancelled, they later hired him to work on Pillars of Etenity and then Fargo stole him.

I'm not counting Mitsoda, Saunders (did he even write?), Anthony Evans or Ferrett to this list.
From their "older" writer core, Matt MacLean is still there. He actually worked on Tyranny as Narrative Lead and is not part of the Pillars 2 team. I only counted people who were listed as Lead Writer/Writer on Mobygames.com on that list.

It's hard to say if it was their A/B/C team when most of them haven't worked on many titles. Matt MacLean and Josh Sawyer are veterans. Olivia Veras (on Pillars 1&2), Paul Kirsch (on Tyranny and Pillars 2), Carrie Patel (on Pillars 1&2), Robert Land (Pillars 1 and Tyranny), Matt Perez (Tyranny) and Megan Starks (Tyranny and Pillars 2) have very limited experience when it comes to narrative design in games. They are looking for a Senior Narrative Designer (probably the post Fenstermaker left behind) though.

Tony Evans is a lovely fella. He worked on Torment: Tides of Numenera and might still be with inXile.

 

[Infinitron]

He isn't, and as far as I can tell the only thing he ended up doing is writing a novella.

 

[Sannom]

I thought Tony Evans was working at Bioware? Or am I confusing him with someone else?

 

[Infinitron]

That was a long time ago: https://www.linkedin.com/in/flightevans

 

[Pirata Alma Negra]

George Ziets - Was fired when Project North Carolina was cancelled, they later hired him to work on Pillars of Etenity and then Fargo stole him.

Ziets wasn't hired for PoE, he was one of those "writer of two lines" stretch goals . Kinda of MCA fulltime job right now.

 

[Ezrite]

What was this Project North Carolina? An Fallout game?

 

[Roguey]

What was this Project North Carolina? An Fallout game?

Stormlands, another iteration of the "what if Sauron won" idea, in xbox one exclusive action rpg form.

 

[The Avatar]

I didn't mind the writing or the companion characters. It's different in that they were going for a more gritty feel. Maybe it's not for everyone. It's clear that the team spent most of their effort on the joinable companions because most of the character's in the game were forgettable. The narrative was interesting at first(I played Scarlet Chorus path), but I found that it got boring after I became accustomed to the setting. The ending was a let-down.

 

[Ezrite]

Is it worth playing this? I Bought it but haven't started yet. Tyranny was not bad, not good, just felt empty.

 

[Ivan]

you're drunk

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

I played their games since Svea Rike and EU1/2. Today they are like a Nordic EA but holy shit their fans are loyal buying a horde of DLC for their games.

It's ironic that Paradox the publisher in 2017 has become everything that was hated by Paradox the developer in 2000.