Eternity Avowed - Obsidian's first person action-RPG in the Pillars of Eternity setting - coming Fall 2024

[jackofshadows]

Also don't forget that Grimrock literally caused a mini resurgence of RT blobbers, meanwhile this will cause nothing

Dude are you really think so? Don't be deluded.

Edit: nevermind, though this was BG3 thread so you're probably right.

 

[agris]

Exploration in BG3? The first map had everything piled practically on top of each other

I know its meant to be a condensed version of a larger area, but it feels so weird that the goblins cant locate the hidden grove which is practically across the street from the selune temple

You both should check out Archaelund. Good blobber exploration, iso tb combat, full party creation and a meaty ruleset

edit: also zero current year bullshit

 

[thesecret1]

Imagine, being litigious over something as generic and boring as Forgotten Realms/Toril/Faerun/whatever.

That's where you're wrong too. FR isn't just generic and boring, it is actively shit and ruining whatever it touches. A generic boring fantasy would have you fight Big Bad Evil Guy and his evil minions. FR will spin you a tale about how NOT ALL MINIONS are evil, and the mustache-twirling cartoon villain will make a pass on the player prior to the bossfight.

I dont entirely disagree, but that's more on the writers/management than the setting.

We are not very far at all from the times when all [x] are evil and should be destroyed.

The weirdest thing they did was applying modern culture war topics to literal fantasy monsters.

this is your daily reminder that they retconned drow to be mostly good, and the evil ones are a minority

FR treats fantasy monsters as human reskins, at which point one has to ask why not just literally make them humans. Same thought processes, same general values, only some cultural differences – what point is there to even have them, then? A fantasy race should be incredibly alien not just in terms of culture, but also in the way their minds work – drow should be evil because THEY don't see anything wrong with their behavior (and indeed, their evilness should be perfectly reasonable if one were to look at the world through their eyes).

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

people bought the game because it made them look cool

There was a good explanation back then, but it sums up to:
People wanted to play old bloobers like Eye of the Beholder and Dungeon Master because crpg fans tend to praise those games but they DON'T want to play old games themselves (it's also how we still see people asking for remaster/remake of old games so they can ~finally~ play it). They want to play modern version of those games and when Grimrock was released, there came their chance and they bought the game (which is why Grimrock 1 sold quite well), but then they learned that they don't like the genre and so most of them didn't finish the game and had no interest in Grimrock 2 (which sold badly compared to 1).

A lot of the people praising LoG and even including it in the GOTY lists didn't even mention EOTB or DM. They literally didn't knew of it, and were most likely fooled by the graphics. The rest is kinda true though, because even Shadowrun Returns got more traction than what LOG ever got.

 

[NaturallyCarnivorousSheep]

-looks at Avowed and Eora-

I will say that at least they oscillate around a little bit more interesting time period - FR is like 1350-1450 and I base it solely from relative rarity of firearms while Eora is 1500-1550 - again, based of the present firearm types and the fact that crossbows aren't completely replaced by them.
One more thing about Avowed - the instant weapon swap thing is kind of weird, because big part of PoE(both 1 and 2) was that you could switch weapons and it was often a good idea to do so, but had to suffer some recovery time penalty. This made it so you could realistically open a fight from having your melee dudes do a salvo from dual pistols or blunderbusses, but didn't make it the obvious choice while here it's obvious that no matter what's the reload time on these, any fight you start you fire away before entering melee. Somehow it seems like they skimped on weapon change animations.

Also as for LoG I think the first game sold well because it was graphic bait, back then people weren't used to these that much. Doesn't meant it wasn't a good game by itself, it's just that a lot of the sales they've got were equivalent of people buying asset flip. They should've understood LoG2 isn't going to repeat this success but alas. Also the "revival" of RT blobbers was short lived from what I've seen. There were many of these that started being developed after LoG succeeded but they all ended up selling low 10's of thousands of units and that was it. Kinda shame because some were going somewhere(The Fall of the Dungeon Guardians for instance).

 

[luj1]

Also don't forget that Grimrock literally caused a mini resurgence of RT blobbers, meanwhile this will cause nothing

Dude are you really think so? Don't be deluded.

Edit: nevermind, though this was BG3 thread so you're probably right.

LoG did cause a small wave of imitators, but none of them looked interesting except maybe Aeon of Sands

 

[Major_Blackhart]

So is this any good?

 

[Cryomancer]

At 2:50 of this gameplay https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62PPhIArKAM

You see people impaled by spears BUT spears seems unable to be used in the game. Why? There is any type of weapon more hated in "fantasy" than spears?

At 5:48 -: Liked the spell animation but will it have forced third person?

6:08 -: Creating a mini black hole. Interesting

In general, I would say that the unique thing that I'm liking in this game is the spell effects.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

Lessons developers should learn from Baldur's Gate 3:

• Tactical, turn-based combat sells
• An RPG should have at least a semblance of exploration
• A considerable amount of interactivity with the world can be accomplished, even in a game with turn-based combat
• Quests can have various Choices & Consequences associated with them, and there can also be consequences for player actions outside quests
• RPGs can have a fairly non-linear structure

It's almost a miracle that a game in 2023 had these characteristic, even if nobody noticed...

 

[AwesomeButton]

Lessons developers will learn from Baldur's Gate 3:

• Sex sells, especially with viral marketing
• Aside from a single player-generated character, the party members should be pre-generated and have ludicrously convoluted backstories
• Vast amounts of money should be spent on voice-acting and motion-capture, especially for those pre-generated companions
• Embrace the worst fantasy setting possible
• Players don't care about basing your game on a poor ruleset, such as "D&D 5th edition"

You included this just for the lulz, you don't seriously think developers can tell a good ruleset from a poor one.

 

[Mebrilia the Viera Queen]

I have to say that seeing characters move so fluidly while a dragon, furious swings its paws around causing ruckus with the flapping of its wings actually causing the grass to shake, and also see your character dodging organically to jump on the dragon's neck for a good stab is amazing.

Not to mention the spells, the animations of the attacks on the reactive enemies, and the scale of the world which looks like it was created with proper care and polish.

Oh sorry wrong game. I was talking about Dragon Dogma 2.

Awoved looks absolutely trash.

 

[Non-Edgy Gamer]

You see people impaled by spears BUT spears seems unable to be used in the game. Why? There is any type of weapon more hated in "fantasy" than spears?

Lizards use em. But yeah, lame.

6:08 -: Creating a mini black hole. Interesting

No, it's not interesting. It's just another Mass Effect gravity spell.

 

[Wesp5]

6:08 -: Creating a mini black hole. Interesting

No, it's not interesting. It's just another Mass Effect gravity spell.

The first time I saw this effect was in Unreal 2, years before Mass Effect.

 

[Jenkem]

RPG CODEX GOTY 2024

 

[Kaidanovsky]

I'm actually still pretty optimistic about Avowed. It reminds me of 2001 when Torn was announced. Initially, everything about it seemed generic and dull. The more they revealed, the more bored I became. However, after several amazing titles in a row, I couldn't help but trust BIS.

In the end, it turns out I had no reason to worry.

 

[Modron]

Read the rest of this Kaidanovsky guy's posts, he's a decent troll.

 

[Kaidanovsky]

Read the rest of this Kaidanovsky guy's posts, he's a decent troll.

Just trying to reach 5 posts in order to gain access to GD. No access yet, but I have a feeling I'm getting close.

 

[Spukrian]

Just trying to reach 5 posts in order to gain access to GD. No access yet, but I have a feeling I'm getting close.

I think you also need to have been a member for a year...

 

[AwesomeButton]

Just trying to reach 5 posts in order to gain access to GD. No access yet, but I have a feeling I'm getting close.

I think you also need to have been a member for a year...

Or become a patron to earn the privilige of being allowed to share your profound views on contemporary politics with all the other luminaries of GD.

 

[Kaidanovsky]

Just trying to reach 5 posts in order to gain access to GD. No access yet, but I have a feeling I'm getting close.

I think you also need to have been a member for a year...

Or become a patron to earn the privilige of being allowed to share your profound views on contemporary politics with all the other luminaries of GD.

Judging by how proud members seem to be of the outcome of the GOTY poll, I'm expecting some real appreciation for the democratic process. I'll consider it.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Is there any realistic possibility this isn't going to be shit?

I don't know much about Obsidian this days, but i do remember a lot of key people aren't there anymore and the last game of theirs i looked at seemed total shit.

 

[Perkel]

Is there any realistic possibility this isn't going to be shit?

No. Everything i have seen so far looks like B tier game that is placed in place which specifically has barely any npcs to talk with.

Now that wouldn't be a bad thing if Obsidian could make good real time gameplay but what they have shown so far looks like C tier action combat.

IMHO Obsidian is stuck in this weird place where they can't scale down and do those POE like projects anymore and they can't scale up which means they can't do those Skyrim like RPGs.

Another issue is that they simply don't have technology to deliver complex gameplay mechanics. Creating PnP rules is fairly straightforward but creating action gameplay that interacts with physics, animations has side effects etc. is entirely different ball that requires a lot of experience that Obsidian simply doesn't have.

The only game they managed to do it was FNV but that was build on Betsheda engine and their vast amount of experience with creating open worlds, animations etc.

 

[Nikanuur]

No. Everything i have seen so far looks like B tier game that is placed in place which specifically has barely any npcs to talk with.

Now that wouldn't be a bad thing if Obsidian could make good real time gameplay but what they have shown so far looks like C tier action combat.

IMHO Obsidian is stuck in this weird place where they can't scale down and do those POE like projects anymore and they can't scale up which means they can't do those Skyrim like RPGs.

Another issue is that they simply don't have technology to deliver complex gameplay mechanics. Creating PnP rules is fairly straightforward but creating action gameplay that interacts with physics, animations has side effects etc. is entirely different ball that requires a lot of experience that Obsidian simply doesn't have.

The only game they managed to do it was FNV but that was build on Betsheda engine and their vast amount of experience with creating open worlds, animations etc.

There's seldom something worse and more stereotyped in gaming development than stuff like AAA-tier graphics but E-tier environment traversing. Cminus-tier gameplay, but almost a B-tier kind of story. D-tier mash-button combat, much less exploration, etc.
I mean, we all gladly play AA, B, or even C-tier games if they know their place; all their aspects, price included, middling around their respective, clearly communicated 'mark'.
But, hey, what else is new since the 2000s.

 

[Perkel]

There's seldom something worse and more stereotyped in gaming development than stuff like AAA-tier graphics but E-tier environment traversing. Cminus-tier gameplay, but almost a B-tier kind of story. D-tier mash-button combat, much less exploration, etc.
I mean, we all gladly play AA, B, or even C-tier games if they know their place; all their aspects, price included, middling around their respective, clearly communicated 'mark'.
But, hey, what else is new since the 2000s.

Can i expect from Obsidian for Avowed to be Skyrim/The Witcher 3 size ? To include 100s of spells ? 20 weapon types with 100s of weapons to pick ? 100 monster types ? 1000 npcs with their own day schedule ? Any avenue where they can say. Yep we are the best !?

You know what ? Let's forget about chasing AAA.

Do you think Avowed will be the size of at least Kingdom Come Deliverence aka kickstarter game made on shoestring budget by some czech madlads ? Because i think it won't be even half of KCD.

So when I say B-tier i fully expect Awoved to be small game with very limited gameplay and interaction. Much like Other Worlds.

Obsidian reported in 2019, 200 employees so now maybe they are at 300. That includes everyone not just developers. And they work on multiple projects at the same time. So out of those maybe 250 people who are real developers, take half that works on Avowed. That's barely 125 people. That's nothing now even for A or AA games let alone AAAs.

Now it would not be a problem if they would sit down on those POE like projects. Small ambitious projects that don't require much developers.

But no, they want to make those big games. Without people, technology or experience.

 

[Child of Malkav]

It will be Tow in the past. With reptiles.