Update #87: Internal Play Testing, VO, Performance Optimization, Mac Build, and More

[BAdler]

Update by Josh Sawyer, Project Director

 

Hello, all. The Pillars of Eternity team has been putting a lot of time into playing and fixing the game. In addition to the feedback that beta testers have given on our boards, we also conducted an internal play week so the developers could get a good feeling for how the game felt from start to finish (or at least as far as they could get).

 

We learned a lot from the play week. Most notably:

 

• Pillars of Eternity is a big game. Only two of our developers managed to finish. One was a designer who developed a lot of the crit path and sprinted straight for the end. The other found an early ending and decided to wrap his story up there. About half of the developers had not yet made it to Defiance Bay (the first big city).
• Most of the devs had a lot of fun playing the game. The players ranged from hardened IE veterans to fresh newcomers. There was enough challenge for the old guard but none of the new players were so overwhelmed that they couldn't learn as they went along.
• Even so, tutorial tips and the Glossary can go a long way. While some of the players picked things up quickly, most found the learning curve to be difficult. We're addressing the major points with tutorial messages, clearer and more descriptive Glossary entries, and refinements to the UI.
• Despite our bug fixes to animation and Recovery times, combat was still too fast. We increased the Recovery of most creatures and tuned the global Recovery factor to slow down combat overall. Movement speed was also tuned down for a large number of creatures (specifically, spiders, beetles, many spirits, and other creatures).
• Melee Engagement needs to be communicated more clearly. The arrows we currently use are really a secondary piece of information, who is Engaging whom. We will be modifying the selection circle itself when someone is Engaged to make the state very obvious at a glance. Additionally, we still need a visual effect to indicate when a Disengagement Attack is occurring.
• We also found that the standard casting and Recovery times were too long. People felt that they could not respond to threats quickly enough. The standard casting time was adjusted down to make casting feel less sluggish.
• Hiring adventurers, buying items, crafting, and enchanting were all much too expensive. These have all been made more affordable, especially crafting and enchanting.
• All classes need a per encounter ability to use at 1st level. Early in the game, it's easy to run completely out of per rest abilities and you may have few or no companions. Per encounter abilities ensure that every class has something to do other than auto-attack at low levels.

 

In addition to all of this testing and bugfixing, we've also been recording and integrating all of our voice overs for dialogue and character voice sets. The recording process is complete and we're now hooking them all up into the game. The audio folks have also been hard at work creating more varied combat sounds to better communicate what's going on in battle. Here's a sample of some of our companion VO:

 

• Companion voice over sample.

 

Performance optimizations are ongoing, but we've already made great progress in the past few weeks. Adam and Roby were able to reduce memory overhead and loads times by a huge margin. Many of these optimizations were achieved by how data is packaged in our builds and loaded in when the game loads. Today, backers who are in the Backer Beta will notice that we have a Mac build available for download and testing. We are continuing work on the Linux build, but are still trying to resolve some resource management issues.

 

There are a lot of items in Pillars of Eternity and the artists have been working their way through the list. Here is a sampling of the new icons that have been going in for various treasure and quest items:

 

 

We also have some new portraits for Ocean Folk and Pale Elf characters. More are still coming!

 

 

That's all for this week. Let us know your thoughts on our forums. As always, thank you for your continued support.

[InsaneCommander]

Very nice portraits. Please add as many as possible.

Edited November 26, 2014 by InsaneCommander

[Elzarath]

New portraits! New icons! Looking the goods guys, keep up the hard work

[Nonek]

Update by Josh Sawyer, Project Director

 

There are a lot of items in Pillars of Eternity and the artists have been working their way through the list. Here is a sampling of the new icons that have been going in for various treasure and quest items:

 

 

 

Fourth along on the top row, is...can it be a broach of purest Green? No in all seriousness these are splendid and remind one of the fantastic illustrations for Betrayal at Krondor, but obviously more detailed, intriguing and pleasant. Personally I somewhat loathe nondescript loot and items, it is nice to see such a small detail handled with such care.

 

The portraits are fine, but could we possibly have a few ugly ones by any chance, lived in and weathered etcetera?

[Lephys]

Woot! I feel kinda like a frat bro, watching another frat bro make incredible progress at imbibing, and shouting "CHUG, CHUG, CHUG" in maximumly encouraging fashion. Only, instead, I'm shouting "DEVELOP! DEVELOP! DEVELOP!"

 

You guys are just plowing through this stuff! Applause and thanks, and keep up the good work! After the well-earned holiday, of course, u_u

Edited November 27, 2014 by Lephys

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Update by Josh Sawyer, Project Director

 

There are a lot of items in Pillars of Eternity and the artists have been working their way through the list. Here is a sampling of the new icons that have been going in for various treasure and quest items:

 

 

 

 

Inventory baby confirmed.

[Lephys]

Inventory baby confirmed.

Just toss it in there with those bare axes, daggers, and swords. 8D!

[Silent Winter]

Like the portraits

Update sounds good too.

Thanks for the info

[Falkon Swiftblade]

very nice, those portraits are very handsome. The dark haired lass is kind on the eyes too. 

[Hormalakh]

The voice-overs sound great. I like the portraits and the item graphics. Your graphics artists are undoubtedly talented and it shows. 

 

I'm glad that the conclusions you reached via your internal play-test was similar to the beta players concerns. Let's see some good come out of it now. 

 

I will hold my comments on the beta backer until I have played it and will comment in threads as appropriate. 

 

As always, all the best to your team - it's difficult making everyone happy and I've had my share of frustrations with the beta, but here's to a strong finish and a good game. 

 

All the best and happy thanksgiving.

[SKull]

 

Update by Josh Sawyer, Project Director

 

There are a lot of items in Pillars of Eternity and the artists have been working their way through the list. Here is a sampling of the new icons that have been going in for various treasure and quest items:

 

 

 

Fourth along on the top row, is...can it be a broach of purest Green? No in all seriousness these are splendid and remind one of the fantastic illustrations for Betrayal at Krondor, but obviously more detailed, intriguing and pleasant. Personally I somewhat loathe nondescript loot and items, it is nice to see such a small detail handled with such care.

 

The portraits are fine, but could we possibly have a few ugly ones by any chance, lived in and weathered etcetera?

 

 

It`s more of a splat.

Edited November 27, 2014 by SKull

[Azmodiuz]

Over a month no updates, and this is all you can give us ? Why did we even bother funding this crap? I seriously have a feeling this game is going to suck, and not be a spiritual successor to any black Isle game or-like game ever. I mean, come on, this is Obsidian, any time they they very little work in an extended period of time, its usually really shoddy and becomes nothing worth mentioning in the long run. 

 

The lack of revealed direction or content thus far, is very off-putting.

[Valmy]

Over a month no updates, and this is all you can give us ? Why did we even bother funding this crap? I seriously have a feeling this game is going to suck, and not be a spiritual successor to any black Isle game or-like game ever. I mean, come on, this is Obsidian, any time they they very little work in an extended period of time, its usually really shoddy and becomes nothing worth mentioning in the long run. 

 

The lack of revealed direction or content thus far, is very off-putting.

 

Lack of revealed content?  You do realize we have been testing a playable demo for months now right?

[InsaneCommander]

 

Update by Josh Sawyer, Project Director

 

There are a lot of items in Pillars of Eternity and the artists have been working their way through the list. Here is a sampling of the new icons that have been going in for various treasure and quest items:

 

 

 

Inventory baby confirmed.

 

So, is this the reason we can't drop items on the ground?

[ManifestedISO]

Someone's puppy just died, I guess. 

[SunBroSolaire]

Voice over sounds like Infinity Engine 

 

Nice portraits too.

[Rostere]

 

Update by Josh Sawyer, Project Director

 

There are a lot of items in Pillars of Eternity and the artists have been working their way through the list. Here is a sampling of the new icons that have been going in for various treasure and quest items:

 

 

 

Fourth along on the top row, is...can it be a broach of purest Green?

 

Can it be? Could it be true.. that I hold in my mortal hands, a nugget of pure Green?

[Tuckey]

Percy confirmed for Pillars of Eternity?

 

I like the ocean folk portraits most, the pale elf could use some personality. Is the lower left corner icon a picture of some encrusted old swords, interesting.

 

 

"Look deeply into my eyes"

You want a blackadder cameo...You want a blackadder cameo...You want a blackadder cameo...You want a blackadder cameo...

[SnakeX]

The newest batch of character portraits are fantastic as always, and the voice acting sounds great so far. Can't wait to hear more. 

 

And I gotta say, reading that the game is so huge that the majority of the devs playing through it haven't even come close to finishing it, let alone get to the first major city, fills me with excitement; so much content! So much to explore, discover, and experience! 

[Nakia]

Voice Overs sound good.  Things seem to shaping up well.  Happy Thanksgiving to the developers we all have a lot to be grateful for.  Thank you Obsidian.

[ManifestedISO]

Forgot to say something meaningful. You guys, thanks for working so hard, skipping traffic and pumpkin lattes to make this game just for me personally, I appreciate it. 

[Bryy]

That was classic, MISO.

[Demovitron]

Good day,

 

Since I'm not part of any testing and didn't have a chance to play the game yet, I can't say much to your improvements and adjustments. It sounds great that there seems to be a lot of conent available and that it's fun. The pictures/icons look alright.

 

Take your time to deliver a finished game and I'm sure people are going to love it. So far I'm very optimistic from what I have seen and heard. Happy thanksgiving etc.

[Jajo]

Pillars of Eternity is a big game. Only two of our developers managed to finish. One was a designer who developed a lot of the crit path and sprinted straight for the end. The other found an early ending and decided to wrap his story up there. About half of the developers had not yet made it to Defiance Bay (the first big city).

 

I love you all.

[Sensuki]

UI improvements to Engagement do not address the problem with Engagement. More wasting of valuable development time IMO.

Edited November 27, 2014 by Sensuki