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Interview Chris Avellone Interviews at RPS and Ripten

Crooked Bee

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Codex 2013 Codex 2014 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire MCA Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
Tags: Chris Avellone; Obsidian Entertainment; Project Eternity

Two new Project Eternity-related interviews have appeared, both with Chris Avellone. First, RockPaperShotgun asks the kind of questions they always do:

Kickstarter seems to be ruled by nostalgia these days, and I feel like Obsidian’s a perfect example of why it could be a problem. On one hand, you’re making a very intriguing game. On the other, Obsidian’s created some truly innovative and forward-thinking features in games like Alpha Protocol. Does this trend put progress on hold? Is it dangerous for everyone to be indulging in nostalgia like this?

Avellone: Innovative concepts don’t need to be tied to modern blockbusters or to nostalgia. While RPGs have lost some mechanics over the years in their transition phases from PC to console, there’s plenty of innovative elements you can do in old school nostalgia games – for example, low intelligence options were pioneered in Fallout, and that didn’t require any special tech whatsoever. It just required the Fallout team to think it up and put it into practice.

Fallout really opened my design eyes to the possibilities of a mechanics-driven dialogue system that reacted to your attributes, skills, gear, and more. We’d like to continue that tradition, and it’s easier to do when everything’s not voice-acted and super expensive for every line you have to fight for.

Old-school RPGs weren’t perfect. Animations weren’t great, controls were clunky, menus required a billion clicks, numbers were everywhere, etc. How much are you modernizing the old-school template vs reproducing it?

Avellone: You should expect to see changes across all those departments – with added technology, recreating the old-school experience can be beautiful, as Legend of Grimrock proved from the look of dungeons to the look of the monsters.

What sort of progression system will Project Eternity have? Will it be pretty standard leveling up, talent trees, and gear collection? Or will there be other elements – for instance, involving souls?

Avellone: We’ll have traditional levels and advancement options. It’s also important for us to tie the setting and mechanics together. We feel that worked well for New Vegas, for Torment, and Mask of the Betrayer. We’re exploring how we can allow the player to use soul-based advancement elements specifically tied to their character and his/her personality/background – outside of class-based soul abilities.​

And then there's this interview at Ripten:

The Soul system/philosophy seems to underpin everything about what we know of Project Eternity (setting, society, etc). Can you talk a bit about how that will be woven throughout the combat and non-combat experience? In other words, how will souls link the narrative with the interactive aspects?

Chris Avellone: We don’t want to give too much away on the story and narration at this point. That said, the idea of souls persisting from being to being, and being reborn and finding homes in people is a concept that not only gives more strength to the world and connections between individuals, but the purest (unfragmented) souls are able to allow individuals to create tremendous displays of power… and even souls that have fractured and shattered over time are capable of magic as well, although in different respects. This directly fuels our combat and ability system, and it is the source of the player’s and companions’ power, for example.

Also, equally important, it factors into the cultures and theology of the world. The soul doesn’t die, there is proof it persists over time, and that in itself does a great deal to change people’s outlook and behavior… as well as those of factions, nations, and their rulers.​

The RPS interview also contains a new piece of concept art, depicting a character by the name of "Aloth." Go have a look.
 

Jaesun

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Old-school RPGs weren’t perfect. Animations weren’t great, controls were clunky, menus required a billion clicks, numbers were everywhere, etc. How much are you modernizing the old-school template vs reproducing it?
Retards gonna retard.
 

Shannow

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Kickstarter seems to be ruled by nostalgia these days, and I feel like Obsidian’s a perfect example of why it could be a problem. On one hand, you’re making a very intriguing game. On the other, Obsidian’s created some truly innovative and forward-thinking features in games like Alpha Protocol. Does this trend put progress on hold? Is it dangerous for everyone to be indulging in nostalgia like this?
Old-school RPGs weren’t perfect. Animations weren’t great, controls were clunky, menus required a billion clicks, numbers were everywhere, etc. How much are you modernizing the old-school template vs reproducing it?
Retards gonna retard.
Aye.

RPS: "People used to not shit on their food before eating it. Do you think it's nostalgia that some people do not want their food shat upon? Is that a threat to all the wonderful innovative and forward thinking shitting on food we've done in the recent past? Was Hitler right? Should we gas everybody who donates for a kickstarter project because obviously their tastes are degenerate and I feel threatened by their difference?"
MCA: "Don't worry. Obsidian is perfectly capable of sprinkling shit on oldschool food."





Anybody who finds hyperbole in this post can keep it :codexisfor:
 

DalekFlay

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RPS is so confusing... to like or not to like, years into it I still have no idea. For every piece of idiocy like this, their Valve blowjobs and the New Vegas review they do something awesome like rip open Diablo III's ass or take publishers to task for stupid DRM.

Be consistent!
 

Jaesun

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Yes.

EDIT: I should have more correctly said it was KNOWN that Gann was to originally be Bisexual. That was all that was said. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out WHY it was not put in the game. THIS particular statement is the first time it is confirmed WotC/HASBRO told them no.
 

skuphundaku

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Codex 2012 Codex 2013 MCA Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Divinity: Original Sin 2 My team has the sexiest and deadliest waifus you can recruit.
RPS is so confusing... to like or not to like, years into it I still have no idea. For every piece of idiocy like this, their Valve blowjobs and the New Vegas review they do something awesome like rip open Diablo III's ass or take publishers to task for stupid DRM.

Be consistent!
That's because they have some good writers (John Walker most of the time although he has his moments of :retarded:from time to time , Jim Rossignol and Alec Meer are pretty good overall too) and some shit writers (Quintin Smith - the retard that wrote the New Vegas review and who didn't last long, and Nathan Grayson - the kwan newfag who doesn't fit at all with the rest of the Brit crew in any way, his writing, compared to the rest of the RPS staff, being like that of a baboon that sneaked into Shakespeare's room at night and flung some shit at the pages he was going to write his next show on. Worse than that is that he's a motherfucking prolific flinger, nowadays being the one writing the most articles published on RPS.).
 

Crooked Bee

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Codex 2013 Codex 2014 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire MCA Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire

Are you familiar with any of the work being done on RPGs in the indie space? Have you seen anything there that interests you?

Mostly the more prominent titles (Grimrock, Age of Decadence, Bastion, and more). All of them have interested me, and I don’t confine the indie research to just to RPGs (example: I like some games that tell a story rather than a play experience, like Dear Esther). I love all the Chinese Room games and am eagerly awaiting Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs.​

Oooh, Age of Decadence is a prominent title alongside Grimrock and Bastion!
 

catfood

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Actually his complaints that some of the older games had shit interfaces is quite valid. Not that your average ported-from-fagbox-to-pc ARPGs are any better in this regard, mind you. Everything else in that sentence is beyond the call of derpdom, yeah.
 

ghostdog

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The IE games had great UI, so his complaints in conjuction to Obsidian making a IE-like game are not valid.


On the other hand the UI in Obsidian's NWN2 was ugly, convoluted crap. So...

:hmmm:
 

tuluse

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Serpent in the Staglands Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Yeah BG1/2 had better GUIs than any game Obsidian has made.

Does he have an example of a modern game with a better interface?
 
Self-Ejected

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BG1/BG2 UI was good but far from great, a lot of important information was cramped on that little scrolling space next to the portrait
 

catfood

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Actually his complaints that some of the older games had shit interfaces is quite valid. Not that your average ported-from-fagbox-to-pc ARPGs are any better in this regard, mind you. Everything else in that sentence is beyond the call of derpdom, yeah.
 

Pike

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I liked it better when Brian Fargo was interviewed and had the balls not to agree with the interviewer's bullshit loaded questions.
 

Twinkle

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Old-school RPGs weren’t perfect. Animations weren’t great, controls were clunky, menus required a billion clicks, numbers were everywhere, etc. How much are you modernizing the old-school template vs reproducing it?

What does this retard mean by "old-school" RPG? Morrowind? :lol:
 

Vault Dweller

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The numbers! They are everywhere!
 

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