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Interview Josh Sawyer E3 Interview at Gamereactor

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Tags: J.E. Sawyer; Obsidian Entertainment; Pillars of Eternity

The folks at Gamereactor waited until today to post their Pillars of Eternity E3 material. Their representative had an interview with Josh Sawyer near the end of the event, that focused on the game's setting and how it differs from that seen in contemporary fantasy titles. Here's the video and a summary from their site:



We got a first glimpse of the game at E3, and we caught up with director Josh Swayer directly after to discuss how the team has defined the game's look and kept the work distinct from the majority of titles set in similar fantasy worlds.

"We went back to the late 90s and the style of art that was being developed in that era," he explained. "Which doesn't seem that long ago, but if you go back and look at a lot of that art, it doesn't look like the art that is developed for fantasy now.

"The style of weapons and armour was much more dressed down and practical; even the lines they used to construct the shapes of the armour were very different. The characters themselves seem less exaggerated, more subdued. The colour palettes are a little more muted, less super colourful and intense. So we went back, looked at all that, and a lot of that informed our colour palettes, silhouettes of characters, and the shape and materials used on their outfits. We tried to make something that looked more old fashioned and simple."

We then asked what came first: the heroes or their world? Turns out if you're building a new world from scratch, schooling helps.

"I have a degree in history and I approach it from the concept of ‘what is the past? What is the past that has caused the current situation to exist?' And I think of how cultures move through areas, how language is developed, what wars were fought, what treaties were signed, how people have formed their beliefs about the gods... life and death, things like that. Those thoughts help inform an idea of a place where a variety of stories can take place.

The fantasy trope often is that we have elves that are their own society, Dwarves are Scottish for some reason... and we broke that a little bit. We're going more with the idea that different races have commingled for quite a while so they have more a cultural or national identity than a racial one. So over time what was previously distinct is moulded or unified."

The game imagines its story choices not as cinematic cutscenes but as lines of text coupled with beautiful inked sketches of the situation, recalling the older 'choose your own adventure' novels. Seems that's the inspiration that Josh and the team are trying to invoke from players.

"It's just cool," he laughs when asked about the design choice. "One of my favourite RPGs is one from 1992 called Darklands. And Darklands had these illustrated sequences with these paths you could choose and they'd illustrate how they play through. because we rely very heavily on writing and our dialogue, not a lot of little cutscenes, we felt it was more appropriate to allow the player to use their own imagination in those sequences. This game is being developed for people we feel want to read, they want to use their imagination, who want to fill in the blanks. And we give them a lot of material to do that with. it felt like a fitting storytelling element."
There have also been a few new written previews today, at Shacknews and Nerd Reactor, but there's nothing much interesting there.
 

groke

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Sawyer said:
One of my favourite RPGs is one from 1992 called Darklands.

inb4 2-episode abortive J.E. Sawyer LP of Darklands in which he chooses the default party and spends an hour trying to figure out combat before giving up.
 

Arkeus

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Sawyer said:
One of my favourite RPGs is one from 1992 called Darklands.

inb4 2-episode abortive J.E. Sawyer LP of Darklands in which he chooses the default party and spends an hour trying to figure out combat before giving up.
Here is Joshua "Ropekid" Sawyer's Official Guide To Darklands said:
:


here's how to play darklands according to me

*~ Darklands Starting Tips 'n Trickz ~*

dl_box.jpg

Darklands Fan Site - http://www.darklands.net/

I won't focus on metagamey stuff like making 80 year-old alchemists for their sweet potion stashes and then ditching them at the Gasthaus in the first 5 minutes. I'll just focus on a "good" party and normal game flow.

Party Composition

castle_battle.gif


Your party should probably consist of people between 30 and 40 years old (maybe 35-45 if you want to push certain skills). This produces a good range of skills without suffering excessive END and STR degradation. You will likely want two folks who are heavier fighters, then someone with a high Virtue(!!!)/Heal(!!!)/Religion ("cleric") and someone else with a high Alchemy/Speak Latin/Speak Common. If you want to make a thiefy- or rangery-type character, you can stack up one of your front-line dudes on Woodwise, Streetwise, Artifice, and related skills, but it isn't vital.

emot-siren.gif
Virtue and Heal are skills that are relatively hard to raise and very important. Heal, specifically, only increases benefit in coarsely granular chunks. If your dudes only regain 1 STR a day, your Heal sucks and the game will be very hard. Get your Heal high enough to heal 2 STR a day, if not 3 (though that may only be possible with a 45 year-old character).
emot-siren.gif


Stats

astrologer.gif


STR and END are important for EVERYONE. They are obviously most important for front line fighters, but practically speaking, everyone winds up in melee, so don't skimp on the STR/END for a gimmick mystic of affective piety build. STR and END should also be fairly close to each other. With armor on, END will typically get chewed up much more quickly than STR, but if max STR is significantly lower than END, guys will die instead of being knocked out (this is bad).

Equipment

chest_arms.gif


Use gear that your characters are best at using! Check your weapon skills and equip accordingly. Early on, javelins can be a good thing for (especially) alchemist characters to use. It will raise your Throwing skill, which will become important on that distant day when you have more than two potion bottles rattling around in your pouches. Darklands has a learn-by-doing system that slows naturally with skill gain, so even characters who are horribly incompetent quickly become "okay" with a weapon if they stick with it. Early on, everyone/things' armor is terrible, so you can practically use whatever weapon you're skilled with that does good damage. You will eventually want characters who are good with hammers or polearms to deal with heavily armored enemies (e.g. Raubritters, Templars, Gargoyles). Dress everyone in the heaviest armor you can afford. Alchemists in Nürnberg plate ASAP.

Doin' Thangs
bandits_dead.gif


What do you do in Darklands? Well, it's an open world, but extraordinarily punishing to the unwary. Here's the basics: First you get the thieves, then you get the Rep, then you get the missions. Stay in your opening town for a while. Every night, go to the "Gabled roofs of the crafts district". Keep going in and out of this area until you encounter thieves. Beat the hell out of them over and over and over again. As long as you don't do dumb poo poo like try to break into businesses or skulk around the cathedrals, you shouldn't encounter the city watch (breaking curfew is bad). During the day, go back to the inn. Have your characters Regain Strength (this is why the Heal skill is very important) and have anyone who is not injured Earn Money. Every once in a while, sleep in the wooded area inside the city for a night or two to avoid having your rep drop by staying at the inn excessively long.

Sweet Medici Cash

medici.gif


When you have slaughtered enough thieves, your local Reputation will start creeping into the teens. This is good. Since you are unloading a shitload of gear from this endless army of thieves, you will be visiting merchants all the time. Whenever you go to the Markt, visit every merchant, even if you don't need to. Fuggers, Medici -- everyone. Eventually, when you leave a merchant's shop, you will get a business proposition. Accept it, whatever the hell it is. Remember to write poo poo down. This game was made in 1992, for Christ's sake. These missions vary, but usually involve one of the following things: getting a Tarnhelm, getting an old book, or killing a Raubritter (robber knight). Sometimes, these missions will send you way, way, way across the Holy Roman Empire. Even if you can't do them immediately, keep them in a list to do later. Of the three, Raubritters are the most likely to be proximal to your current city. They are also, by far, the most immediately dangerous to undertake. When you get your first Raubritter mission, do not go on it immediately. You may try the others if the destination is not hundreds of miles away.

Raubritter Scams

rau_charge.gif


So, when do you pursue your first Raubritter? Well, here's a good strategy. Once a city's merchants have told you to pursue a Raubritter, they will give you a location. Don't go there, but go to other cities near the Raubritter's castle. Do the same thief-killing, Rep-building activities in these cities that you did in your first city. Eventually, you will gain bounties on the same Raubritter from up to three cities. As these bounties can often be many Florins, this is extremely lucrative. By the time your characters are universally rolling with 25q+ gear, scale armor, two upgrades of weapons, and at least four Essence of Grace potions, you can probably safely pursue a Raubritter. I won't tell you how to defeat a Raubritter, as there are many ways, and it is enjoyable to figure them all out. When you defeat one, you will get some nice armor and weapons (usually), and can go back to all of your clients to collect sweet, sweet Florins.

Killing a Raubritter is a gateway to killing more Raubritter, which is also a gateway to exploring more of the world and completing those obnoxious early "get a Tarnhelm" quests that directed you from Ulm to Hamburg.

Where's the Story, Bru?

village.gif


When you decide that you want to follow "the story" in Darklands, there are a lot of places to begin. It all starts with visiting tiny villages. Do this until you find one that is full of Satanists. Defeat them and they will say something like, "We will have our revenge <direction> of <city_name> on <next_solstice_equinox_day>." Write this poo poo down this game was made in 1992. Did you already forget?! Go to that place at that time. There is no leeway, so don't think you can show up a day late and still check it out. If you do, you will have to repeat the earlier steps. When you get there at the right time, you will see a witches' sabbath. These own bones. "Deal with" them and you will be pointed toward the next steps (or receive a dream that does -- I can't remember. Just keep following the leads and you will go on a grand adventure.

Other Things to Remember

saint_lawgiver.gif


Your party leader always speaks for you, so set your high Speak Common or Speak Latin character as the party leader before chatting with people when that stuff matters (e.g. cathedrals, universities). Get as many saints as possible for your high Virtue character. These are super important, especially as the game goes on. If you have a second character with moderately high Virtue, there are plenty of low-Virtue saints you can call on. Just check the required Virtue before learning their mysteries. Virtue can be raised during the game, but very slowly compared to other skills. Write down where you find various alchemical ingredients or just use an online guide. Alchemy is really important in the long game. If you don't put effort into tracking down the ingredients, it's just a headache.
He does look like he knows the game.
 

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He's so desperate to be Darkland he is gonna fail. POE will never be Darklands. FAIL.


"This game is being developed for people we feel want to read, they want to use their imagination, who want to fill in the blanks. And we give them a lot of material to do that with. it felt like a fitting storytelling element."

Why does he lie? People who want to read read fukkin' books. People who play games want to play games. FFS
 

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Plus PoE does not even have the budget of Darklands without accounting for inflation IIRC.
 

Roguey

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Someone's copy/pasting from SA without an account. :M
 

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How can you even compare the budget of a game from 1992 to one from 2014

I was adding support to Volourn's statement that PoE will never be Darklands by saying while even if they have the talent they do not have the time to deliver as complex a game as PoE has a smaller budget than the 1992 game. According to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I30dzwiNxLk Darklands cost 3 million to make. People have some outlandish expectations of PoE specially in light of it's miniscule budget. Not saying it won't be a great game just not the second coming and all that.
 
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How can you even compare the budget of a game from 1992 to one from 2014

I was adding support to Volourn's statement that PoE will never be Darklands by saying while even if they have the talent they do not have the time to deliver as complex a game as PoE has a smaller budget than the 1992 game. According to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I30dzwiNxLk Darklands cost 3 million to make. People have some outlandish expectations of PoE specially in light of it's miniscule budget. Not saying it won't be a great game just not the second coming and all that.
The enviroment was completely different
 

nikolokolus

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The decision to use those Darklands inspired interstitials is full of fucking win. I don't know if Sawyer is just getting lucky here or if he's brilliant, but more power to him.
 

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How can you even compare the budget of a game from 1992 to one from 2014

I was adding support to Volourn's statement that PoE will never be Darklands by saying while even if they have the talent they do not have the time to deliver as complex a game as PoE has a smaller budget than the 1992 game. According to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I30dzwiNxLk Darklands cost 3 million to make. People have some outlandish expectations of PoE specially in light of it's miniscule budget. Not saying it won't be a great game just not the second coming and all that.
The enviroment was completely different

If that's true, 3 million was a pretty large budget for 1992. Enormous, even. In comparison, Wing Commander 3 which came out two years later and was possibly the biggest AAAstravaganza on PC ever cost 5 million.

I wonder if that figure includes marketing, publishing and distribution costs.
 
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Darklands was always one of my top 5 favourite RPG despite its atrocious RTWP system. I don't see why POE couldn't be one of my new favourites, despite its atrocious RTWP system.

The best part of Darklands though was the compulsory manual read. That's what dragged me into the game world (immershun!!!). Not sure Sawyer could pull this kind of trick.
 

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I was adding support to Volourn's statement that PoE will never be Darklands by saying while even if they have the talent they do not have the time to deliver as complex a game as PoE has a smaller budget than the 1992 game. According to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I30dzwiNxLk Darklands cost 3 million to make. People have some outlandish expectations of PoE specially in light of it's miniscule budget. Not saying it won't be a great game just not the second coming and all that.
Technology's advanced a lot too.

Plus Darklands's combat and interface were pretty bad and its content was extremely repetitive, while PoE's looking good on all those fronts.

Additionally, we have no idea how efficiently that budget was used. PoE hit the ground running with a clear vision and very few inefficiencies that we know about.
 

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