Pillars of Eternity Beta Discussion [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[tuluse]

The game is a month and a half away, and there's still fundamental untested changes to basic attributes going on.

Attributes aren't the core of the character system. They're more like secondary modifiers. While that alone will make some people mad, it's less concerning they're still tuning them.

 

[Ellef]

Attributes aren't the core of the character system. They're more like secondary modifiers. While that alone will make some people mad, it's less concerning they're still tuning them.

With the exception of interrupt, although it seems they might have a clearer idea how that will end up in the upcoming hot-fix.

 

[Sensuki]

Nice, so clarify this:
- On a weapon there will be no more the "Interrupt" number, but an "Interrupt Strength" (0.35, 1.0,...), if I take it.
- What about the abilities, are there fast (low IS) or hard (high IS) abilities as well?

Most abilities have 40 Base Interrupt (Average), so they will probably have the standard value of interrupt strength in the next version

- Would be interesting to see whether and how the interrupt strength correlate with the speed of weapons, weapon setups and Dex bonus.

Yes, although that was the case before too.

- High accuracy build with base (10) or higher Per, dealing overall more criticals, may be a good interruptor of the party. But if the Concentration of enemies is often the base one or not 20 or something, he may not be interested to boost Per too much compare to the income from other attributes...

Interrupt has always been dependent on Accuracy.

- Will low accuracy characters want to boost Per? (a distant spellcaster targeting wiil/reflex defences)

Probably not.

After the patch I'm going to try something with 20 Per & 20 Dex (Julio Scoundrél a dashing swordsman).

Per has been 'balanced' so it's more viable across different weapons, but it's not inherently better than before, I don't think.

I'd still probably couple it with +1 Accuracy maybe, but we'll see.

 

[roshan]

I just watched Sensuki's video of combat with engagement disabled, and it still looks completely fucked up. It resolves too quickly, as if one was playing a Diablo game, is too hectic with everyone running around and there are too many effects and colors. It actually seems a lot worse than I thought it would be. It actually looks like NWN2 with a fixed camera and a speed mod installed.

 

[Apexeon]

I just watched Sensuki's video of combat with engagement disabled, and it still looks completely fucked up. It resolves too quickly, as if one was playing a Diablo game, is too hectic with everyone running around and there are too many effects and colors. It actually seems a lot worse than I thought it would be. It actually looks like NWN2 with a fixed camera and a speed mod installed.

Josh strikes again.

 

[Sensuki]

Bobby Null visits the forums again

Crafting and upgrading the Stronghold are optional. Just because these elements are optional doesn't mean our QA department doesn't have to test them, have no fear. We have crafting and enchanting. Crafting generally deals with consumable items, many of which don't drop in the world. The ingredients for the recipes however drop and some of them can be a challenge to find. Enchanting lets you enchant basic items to your liking, provided you have the money and proper components, or is allows you to upgrade existing items (weapons, armor, etc.) you've found throughout your time in the game.

I hope they look into changing how scene transitions work in either the expansion or PE:2 so you can split your party between houses and the exterior map

This is something I wanted for this title but time and budget restrictions would not allow for it. If we do a sequel, it will be one of my priorities to push for. I'd rather get streaming working for a sequel as opposed to loading multiple scenes/maps simultaneously as was done in the IE games and both Neverwinter titles. This generally led to pretty long load times. We tend to forget how long those loads were on our old machines. Playing those older games on newer, faster machines alleviates the load times quite a bit.

 

[Ellef]

When they say crafting to upgrade existing items, is that for non-magical items only? TBH I hate blacksmithing simulator crafting systems and would rather avoid it almost entirely if I'm not gimping myself, unless it's just giving a few items to an NPC like BG2.

 

[J_C]

Bobby Null visits the forums again

Crafting and upgrading the Stronghold are optional. Just because these elements are optional doesn't mean our QA department doesn't have to test them, have no fear. We have crafting and enchanting. Crafting generally deals with consumable items, many of which don't drop in the world. The ingredients for the recipes however drop and some of them can be a challenge to find. Enchanting lets you enchant basic items to your liking, provided you have the money and proper components, or is allows you to upgrade existing items (weapons, armor, etc.) you've found throughout your time in the game.

Me like what I hear.

 

[Sensuki]

When they say crafting to upgrade existing items, is that for non-magical items only?

No, any item that has available room for enchantments (there's some restrictions, but they're not explained in the game at all)

and the reason for not as many houses in cities as the BG games is because of the scene transition restriction

Yeah, sounds good man.

With optimized art pipelines, do you think there'll be more of a chance to include more village/city interiors in the future too? (such as minor houses etc)

The BGs for instance re-used the same base maps for interiors to really good effect.

We have some minor houses in both of the cities and in a few other areas as well. With the "load each scene" restriction we had on this title, I didn't want to go overboard with too many generic houses with sparse content in them, but they do exist. Since we have a much larger scene/map pool to draw from now, it will be easier on subsequent titles to get mileage from existing assets. Move a few props, rotate and light and you have a whole new interior. We did get a decent amount of reuse on this project, but most of our scenes are unique in some way.

And just a bit on the leveling rate

As mentioned the level cap is 12. Don't worry about this game being short, it is far from it. But much like the Infinity Engine games that inspired it, leveling in Pillars of Eternity is a little slower than some of the newer RPGs on the market. When you are leveling 6 party members and the choices upon leveling are numerous, the extra time between levels is actually a good thing IMHO. It also gives a stronger sense of achievement when a character does level, at least that is our goal.

 

[Ellef]

When they say crafting to upgrade existing items, is that for non-magical items only?

No, any item that has available room for enchantments (there's some restrictions, but they're not explained in the game at all)

Shiiieeet. Hopefully it isn't too laborious or time consuming.

 

[Sensuki]

What do you mean by that?

To enchant an item, you open the item description, click enchant, select the enchantment you want and if you have the ingredients and the gold, you click Enchant - done.

 

[Ellef]

I mean the gathering of items, tool and or recipes from vendors/monsters/nodes. Do you automatically know all enchantments at the beginning then?

 

[Infinitron]

LF_Incline I'm sure it won't be too horrible for you if you don't craft.

 

[Ellef]

Hopefully not, but knowing that my drops can all be upgraded will bug me. It's the hunting around for recipes and gathering 100 moose droppings from respawning nodes or enemies that annoys me.

 

[Sensuki]

Do you automatically know all enchantments at the beginning then?

As far as I know, I think you do.

Crafting and Enchanting is optional. There's no respawning mobs afaik and for instance - enchanting an item with the Superb Quality requires an eye of a Sky Dragon. I'm going to guess that you may only ever find one of those in the game and only if you do a certain quest a certain way.

 

[Apexeon]

Sorry to gate crash the fan boys buts it late, I am drunk and I can't help myself.

All those millions and all they needed was wine.

 

[J_C]

Sorry to gate crash the fan boys buts it late, I am drunk and I can't help myself.

All those millions and all they needed was wine.

I wouldn't put a Silkworm screenshot next to Eternity, because it is easier to see that Silkwork looks like shit.

 

[Apexeon]

Sorry to gate crash the fan boys buts it late, I am drunk and I can't help myself.

All those millions and all they needed was wine.

I wouldn't put a Silkworm screenshot next to Eternity, because it is easier to see that Silkwork looks like shit.

Its Silkworm and it does kind of look like a giant toilet in the sky.
Bonus points to you sir.

 

[Athelas]

Did you seriously create that in response to the PoE screenshot?

That's not the final version, by the way. It looks rather different in-game.

 

[Apexeon]

Did you seriously create that in response to the PoE screenshot?

That's not the final version, by the way. It looks rather different in-game.

Nope I had this design for the top of the Xcom/Fantasy fortress in the my game design. Way back in my spam of maps in 2012-13 one poped up. It was crap and this is the next step up from crap.

 

[Sensuki]

Made a bug report about auto-attack here: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/70365-435-auto-attack-when-it-should-and-should-not-occur/

Feel free to drop by and support the removal of these stupid auto-attack clauses

 

[Athelas]

It should be a toggle, since I can imagine there will be encounters where you'll want to go on auto-pilot. With engagement disabled, it should be much less of a problem.

 

[Sensuki]

They won't commit any time to more toggle options, so I'd prefer that shit be fucking removed and have a toggle in for the qq'ers later down the road.

To go on auto-pilot, all you have to do is issue an attack move. The auto-attack AI currently overrides your actions and attacks when you haven't even done anything.

 

[Athelas]

My predictions about the increased value of Deflection turned out to be correct. Made an Orlan with 20/20 Perception and Resolve, gave him a +20 deflection shield and the cautious attack modal, and most of the enemies' physical attacks simply miss me - even the Adra Beetle's. What's more - any class can use this build, since it doesn't require any class-specific abilities or talents (apart from some of the classes having a higher natural deflection).

The high interrupt rate and concentration also helps me out on the front line. My character just took out a group of 3 lions on hard mode single-handedly without needing any stamina healing or assistance from party members.

 

[Sensuki]

Doesn't work against Medreth, you get pummeled.