Eternity Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire Pre-Release Thread [BETA RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[TT1]

So, no new language?

 

[Prime Junta]

Finns are weirdos and Uralic languages come from Mars.

Finnish is Finno-Ugric, not Uralic you peon

 

[AwesomeButton]

As I guess everyone around here has surmised, "Príncipi sen Patrena" is Vailian "Princes without a homeland", though it seems kind of strange that "Patrena" is capitalized.

Sounds almost too similar to "Second Sons" from GoT/ASOIAF.

So, I guess this update reveals three factions that the player can side with. I'm glad there are imperialist/colonialist and anti-colonialist options present. I guess the fourth faction - the pirates - will be the equivalent of Mr. House, or the "anarchy"/neutral option?

 

[Fever]

New Game+ with bonus/malus is quite interesting. Also, it doesn't seem that hard or expensive to implement; it's another wise, low-cost SG.

I'm a bit worried about the island chain, but I doubt it will go out of control this time.

 

[AN4RCHID]

We're so excited to bring the Deadfire setting to our fans, is comprised and it's my pleasure to offer some details to whet your appetite for lore.

The Deadfire Archipelago spans thousands of islands comprised of hundreds of islands ...

Deadfire writing team folks

 

[Ziggy]

what is this roguelite bullshit

 

[AwesomeButton]

special bonuses when they start a new game, based on achievements that have been completed in previous gameplay.

I guess this must mean there will be ingame achievements, independent of Steam achievements, otherwise Berath's Blessing wouldn't work for people playing the GOG version?

Also - Hey look, we have Eora's totally-not-Yan-ti! I think they are cute though, I always liked the way they've adapted DnD tropes. Non-kobolds, non-illithids, etc.

 

[fobia]

Naga is a way cooler name than Yuan-Ti though.

I'd love to see some underwater/cave-action with some Non-Sahuagins/Kuo-toa.

 

[Parabalus]

Finally some ambition .

 

[Fairfax]

So much for "grounded stretch goals".

As I guess everyone around here has surmised, "Príncipi sen Patrena" is Vailian "Princes without a homeland", though it seems kind of strange that "Patrena" is capitalized.

Sounds almost too similar to "Second Sons" from GoT/ASOIAF.

Sounds a lot more similar to the Golden Company.

Naga is a way cooler name than Yuan-Ti though.

It's not an original name or concept, though.

 

[Prime Junta]

Gonna be a hell of an island chain if they hit 70,000 backers like P1

 

[Fry]

Finns are weirdos and Uralic languages come from Mars.

Finnish is Finno-Ugric, not Uralic you peon

Finno-Ugric is a subgroup of Uralic. Git gud scrub. :D

 

[Prime Junta]

Shockingly, countries with native languages closely related to English manage to learn pretty good English.

Finns, for example.

Finnish rally enklish is pest enklish.

 

[Rev]

Another megadungeon-style stretch goal.

Mega-island chain sounds retarded. Edit: additonal island every 1,500 backers doesn't sound so bad . There's no way it will get as insanely huge as Cad Nua did.

Their version of New Game+ I really like though. If I can make it easier or more difficult depending on my preferences, that sounds just about perfect.

They could end up with 6-7 islands easily. Not 15 levels like the megadungeon, but it could still be too much. Also, having some dungeon levels filled with basically nothing but trash mobs is more acceptable (although still bad) than having small/empty islands devoid of any good content.

 

[Abu Antar]

Princes without a homeland

I see that the Assyrians are represented in this game. I guess I know which faction to join.

 

[Jezal_k23]

Maybe they should have a limit, like every 1.5k backers up to 15k backers maximum, to avoid having promised to make 20 fucking islands by the end of the campaign.

 

[Fry]

Finnish drivers are raised in a barn...



Last derail post. Sorry.

 

[Mazisky]

I really hope that the big main city is a proper city and not a big tribal village.

 

[Quillon]

Maybe they should have a limit, like every 1.5k backers up to 15k backers maximum, to avoid having promised to make 20 fucking islands by the end of the campaign.

20 fucking islands mean 30k additional backers and that means at least $5M at the end of this campaign... however "U" this will be I don't see it getting that much moneh.

 

[Turjan]

They could end up with 6-7 islands easily. Not 15 levels like the megadungeon, but it could still be too much.

Meh. Maybe, it's just a chain of bad island jokes.

 

[Sizzle]

 

[Frusciante]

Four main factions it seems:

Huana (local tribes)
Vailian Trading Company
Royal Deadfire Company (Rauatai navy)
Príncipi sen Patrena (pirates)

I dont like the premise of the game with the revival of Eothas and forced way to get you back to lvl 1. But the world seems interesting with potential for interesting faction conflicts.

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.pcgamer.com/pillars-of-eternity-2-features-a-new-world-revamped-combat-and-an-angry-god/

Pillars of Eternity 2 features a new archipelago, revamped combat, and an angry god
How Obsidian is taking its classic RPG revival to new frontiers.

Pillars of Eternity was an outstanding return to the golden age of cRPGs—so good that we gave it a score of 92 in our review. We have high hopes for the sequel, not least because this is the first time Obsidian Entertainment has ever been able to revisit a world for a second time. Judging by the fact that its Fig crowdfunding campaign has already raised double the initial goal, it's a world many players are excited to revisit. "I always thought it would be awesome to have our own world to tell stories in," Obsidian Entertainment CEO Feargus Urquhart tells me. "Now we can finally do that."

For the full reveal on everything Deadfire, you'll need to pick up next month's issue of PC Gamer. For now, let's take a look at some of the biggest changes shaking up the world of Eora.

What do an archipelago and a 600-foot-tall god have in common?
The punchline to that joke isn't yet clear, but what we do know that Pillars of Eternity 2 starts off with a bang. You treat with actual gods in the first game, I was curious how Deadfire could ever expand the scope of the story. Note: story spoilers for the very start of Pillars 2 follow.

When director Josh Sawyer told me the "stakes definitely get higher," I didn't think he meant literally. But then he tells me that Pillars of Eternity 2 opens with a 600-foot-tall statue obliterating your fortress in Caed Nua. See, it turns out the dead god Eothas isn't so dead after all, and the massive statue hiding under Caed Nua happens to be the perfect vessel. "He animates it," Sawyer explains, "destroying your entire castle and killing almost everyone in it. You are left on the brink of death and discover that your fate is tied to Eothas. You need to pursue him and find out what he's up to as he marches off into the sea toward the Deadfire Archipelago."

"To save your soul, you must track down the wayward god and demand answers—answers which could throw mortals and the gods themselves into chaos."

Leaving the temperate forests of the Dyrwood behind, players sail to the Deadfire—a land unlike anything seen in Pillars of Eternity. "People know of it as an untamed land that is filled with pirates, sea monsters, and storms," Sawyer says. "When we made Pillars of Eternity, we were trying to make something that felt like the Sword Coast or the Dalelands [locations from the Forgotten Realms]. Something that felt very traditional—Mediterranean or central European. But we wanted to go in a different direction for Pillars 2."

While Sawyer was hesitant to give specifics, he did say that Pillars of Eternity 2 is "roughly the size" of Pillars of Eternity.

You can carry over your character from the first game
Being in such a foreign land as the Deadfire, I imagine it'll be a small comfort to be able to play your familiar character once again. While Sawyer tells me not every decision from Pillars of Eternity will have an influence, some of the bigger decisions will have consequences that reach beyond the sea. Most importantly is that a few party members like Edér will return for a second round of adventuring—that is if you didn't kill them back in the Dyrwood. "If you did, you have to live with it," Sawyer laughs. Fortunately, you will be able to alter decisions with a new save, letting you experiment and see how consequences from Pillars of Eternity carry over.

The party size will be reduced to five, combat is overhauled
For long-time fans of Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale, dropping the party size down a member might seem like heresy. But Sawyer and Urquhart aren't going to let tradition get in the way of making a better game. "We had talked about it going all the way back to Pillars of Eternity," Sawyer confesses. "But doing that to a spiritual successor of games that almost always had six party members didn't seem like a good idea."

But Pillars of Eternity 2 isn't just content to bow to tradition for tradition's sake. "[Having five party members] makes a significant difference in how easily you can process what's going on on-screen," Sawyer says. "As the party size grows, the number of combatants also grows. So with five party members, it feels just a little bit easier to manage."

That dramatic change is part of a larger overhaul to the combat that includes entirely revamped classes, slower pacing, fewer encounters, and a less-overwhelming status affliction system. Obsidian is also working to make party AI smarter, so that players who don't favor micromanaging can trust them not to do something stupid in combat.

Dynamic weather systems create more reactive environments
One of the biggest changes to Pillars of Eternity 2 is also one of the more subtle. Further blurring the line between 3D characters and 2D backdrops, a dynamic weather system will bring the Deadfire to life in all its tumultuous fury. "The Deadfire Archipelago is this tempestuous wild land of violent storms, it seemed kind of weird to not have systems to maximize that influence," Sawyer says.

Violent winds will bend trees, ruffle clothing, and stir up objects in the environment while heavy rains soak the land. Dynamic water will push boats and debris around and waves will crash against the shore. Even gunshots impact the environment with bursts of air that will billow cloaks or disturb nearby objects. Sawyer says this will help make each scene feel more organic and less like a screenshot—a common criticism from the first game.

Characters will have schedules governed by a day/night system
Nothing breaks that storytelling immersion quite like characters who stand in a single spot hour after hour waiting to be spoken to. Sawyer tells me Pillars of Eternity 2 will have an NPC scheduling system that changes depending on the time of day. But this isn't just about making the Deadfire feel more alive, it's about making it more interesting. "It gives us opportunities to make quests resolve in different ways based on how and when you approach them," Sawyer says. "It's more than people going to work and coming home. Guards might switch to other routines at a certain time which gives you an opportunity to do something in a way that you couldn't do normally."

It is coming in March of 2018 after a beta
Like the return to crowdfunding, Obsidian will also push Pillars of Eternity 2 through a beta program to help gather feedback and test the game before it launches in March of 2018. While Obsidian is confident that Pillars of Eternity 2 won't need as many post-launch fixes as the first game did, the feedback from beta is just too valuable to skip. "Sometimes people can be really harsh, but it's better to hear it when it's in a beta phase than when it comes out."

"We never underestimate our own ability to screw up," Urquhart chuckles.

That's all we know for now, but I'm eager to find out what Eothas hopes to find in the Deadfire Archipelago and why he needs a 600-foot statue to find it. For more details, be sure to check out the full interview in next month's edition of the magazine.

 

[Maculo]

Four main factions it seems:

Huana (local tribes)
Vailian Trading Company
Royal Deadfire Company (Rauatai navy)
Príncipi sen Patrena (pirates)

I dont like the premise of the game with the revival of Eothas and forced way to get you back to lvl 1. But the world seems interesting with potential for interesting faction conflicts.

Aedyr (whatever it is called) is noticeably absent. I thought that was one of the major players in the world.

Edit: I wonder if there will be a "quadruple crown" achievement for triple crown plus increased difficulty from Berath's Blessing.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

I wonder if Fulvano's guide to the archipelago will be as good as Moiras Wasteland Survival Guide in Fallout3?