[The final marketing drive - looking for a mainstream audience? Target the MOBA crowd]

We have another expert here ladies and gentleman. He played mobas once so now he know everything there is to know about them. The most popular LoL streamer and once professional player is a huge fan of the CIv games, in fact he plays them on his stream on the near highest difficulty. Most top tier players have a history with Star Craft and Warcraft games before they played LoL. I am a huge Civ, PoE, ME, DA fan too, and I like to play Mobas too (not to mention that my experience in the latter far outstrips yours), so what now?

 

It's incredible that you can spout so much ignorance without even flinching and worst of all you state your opinions as facts.

 

As for will moba players like PoE or not, well there are over 30 million LoL players, so I bet a percentage of them will like and play the game.

 

 

First of all, you don't know what his experience level is or if your's outstrips it. Second, he stated his beliefs as you have, you need to stop taking them as personally directed epithets. Third, you seem much more concerned at this point cheerleading MOBAs(and your man hours invested) than speaking about the most readily available pool of bodies for PoE.

[To Devs how much content can we expect in Beta?]

 

But not enough to spend 25 (more) dollar on when you're not very wealthy.

Geez, thank you for reminding me of that

 

Seriously, I'm bit in denial about whether I regret my decision to get the key before I learned size of beta or not xP

 

 

 

You'll find out. No point regretting it now anyway.

 

Also, Mr. Sawyer did say that there is a dungeon underneath the town itself, so it's possible it's in the beta.

[Armour & weapon designs (part V).]

Looks like the guy is wearing a Hershey's kiss on his head.

Onion domes are the best thing ever, especially on helmets.

[Armour & weapon designs (part V).]

Very cool, I'm glad to hear it!

[Armour & weapon designs (part V).]

 

The first picture I posted above is of a Byzantine soldier, and his gear would be current up through ~1450, practically the rough timespace PoE is gunning for(and I love that helmet) .

If you are talking about that picture, I'm pretty sure its Russian.

There's a lot of overlap in Byzantine and Russian gear, considering they were Christianized, recruited into the military(it was full of Norse Russians) , traded with, etc by the Byzantines. That's where Cyrillic comes from(St. Cyril was a Byzantine), and why Moscow is known in Orthodox Christanity as the 'third Rome' after the loss of Constantinople.

 

So yeah, the above is an accurate depiction of a Byzantine soldier, or a Russian one.

[The final marketing drive - looking for a mainstream audience? Target the MOBA crowd]

They should distribute the backer beta to notable let's players and vodcasters like Totalbiscuit, Northernlion, Quill18, and so on.

 

I would absolutely watch Northernlion play the beta(and the game in general) . I think it's up his alley.

[Thoughts on Gamescon Stream]

The real world has redwoods, camphors, oaks, sequoias, baobabs, and other big dang trees. I can deal with the wheel.  And Europe is full of bridges with very, very large paving stones. That thing was built to last, and probably NOT by the peasants in that village. We see the same thing with Roman aqueducts/roads.

 

And older buildings can often have very large doors. The front door a farmhouse I lived in in Belgium, for example, was giant. That's a mill, where workingmen will be carrying big stuff in/out all day, so it needs a big door.

 

All quips aside, after looking quickly through the village in the stream I don't think you could make the same complaint about any of the other doors in town. The door to the inn is low enough that the godlike paladin was scraping his head as he walked up to it. So I think talking about up-sizing all characters is a pretty silly overreaction to the size of some paving stones and a door. It's also probably impossible.

[Thoughts on Gamescon Stream]

Anyone know where I can catch the gameplay mentioned in Sawyer's druid tweet? Or maybe that's just on the gamescom floor?

[VA cast]

Not complete VO? Why with the money they raised they should hire A+ celebrities to do all the voice acting..

 

I KEED I KEED.

 

 

I want Tom Cruise ingame, thx.

[Thoughts on Gamescon Stream]

 

 

Yes, Divinity: Original Sin's consisted of only the 900k they raised during their Kickstarter campaign. You know, the same Kickstarter campaign that showed off an already fully functioning game.

 

Also D:OS was budget 4million dollar (of their own money and 900k of backer money) so yeah.....

4 million Euro, just to get it right.

[[Possible Spoilers] Pillars of Eternity will be livestreamed at Gamescom]

Well, I wouldn't call them an Obstacle when Adam had to actively search for some of them. lol

They were pretty in the way considering they were ON the road up north and all along the east side, but you could still get past without wiping out 2/3rds of the local ecosystem. Sounds like a pretty decent balance between "kill kill kill" and...not. At the end of the day it places the emphasis where it belongs, on the quest and journey as a while, not some dang wildlife.

[[Possible Spoilers] Pillars of Eternity will be livestreamed at Gamescom]

 

You're prevented from getting from one area to the next until you somehow get past the creatures.

This is false and confirmed as such in the video.

 

You're only prevented from *resting* when hostiles are around. But you can still leave the area, or enter the dungeon within the area, while hostiles are still around. Adam clicked on the entrance of one of the ruins and got the scripted event. The option to pick the lock was there but he chose not to do it. he then walked away and.... engaged in more combat.

Jeez dude, I'm saying they're an OBSTACLE, not that you literally can't leave one area for the next while 'in combat'. Stop thinking in such gamey terms.

[[Possible Spoilers] Pillars of Eternity will be livestreamed at Gamescom]

 

Your reward for overcoming the beetles (in this case) threat is that you can access those otherwise inaccessible areas.

(See also: Delayed XP)

I'll ask again. Where are you getting this from? Is that dungeon inaccessible until the beetles are slain? Are you prevented from accessing ANY Area transition on the entire map until you've dealt with the beetle threat?

 

As for delayed XP....will the rewards be less if you run away from the beetles and just make a bee-line to the Ogre den?

You're prevented from getting from one area to the next until you somehow get past the creatures.

 

KILLING the beetles is not the objective, overcoming them is. Maybe you sneak past, maybe you kill them, maybe both, maybe you take the long way. But rewarding you with XP for the whole quest as you see fit rather than inherently rewarding mindless killing machines and farming is the way I go. You get some neat stuff from killing them maybe, and they simply must be fought o get to, say, a treasure stash in the back end of the spider cave. But the stash is the reward, NOT the simple act that you killed the beetles/spiders/whatever.

 

The real challenge here is the conflict between the villagers and the ogre, and the journey to his cave. The beetles are a component.

[[Possible Spoilers] Pillars of Eternity will be livestreamed at Gamescom]

Here's a question for the Obsidianites: The beetle fights seem like just random wilderness encounters not tied to any quest. Do you get any xp for them at all or wasting resources on them is just wasteful?  This is where 'battle xp' (or soemthing similiar) would be useful and why 'quest xp only' falls short.

 

 

They're wild animals, a legit part of the ecosystem. Should they give you xp for killing deer too? Unless some frontiersman comes to you and asks you to kill the beetle colony that's in the middle of his trade route or whatever, I don't see why you should be rewarded for, what, tossing a grenade down a gopher hole.

 

You get the assumably valuable materials from the dead animal and open up areas that might have dungeons, treasure or quests. That's good enough.

[Armour & weapon designs (part V).]

 

I successfully hunt white-tailed deer, wild turkey, and ruffed grouse.  As such, I know a fair bit about moving about unheard and unseen while engaged in Still Hunting. Go 'way! 

And are you a fictional fantasy race?

 

I'm just saying... just because that armor would present obvious problems for you doesn't mean it wouldn't prove inconsequential to elves.

 

 

 

That might fly in, say, the LOTR films(not in the books though, as Tolkien's vision for his world was certainly NOT filled with elves in metal bodysuits) . But the brand of fantasy seen in PoE generally applies RL logic and basic physics rules to EVERYBODY, and doesn't give a pass to the magic woods people who can just HAPPEN to wear a bodysuit of metal scales adorned with metre long spikes without making any noise or being encumbered. And I think the gravity and believability of the world benefits from it. There are plenty of exotic, adorned armors that can be pulled from reality, maybe with a little embellishment here and there if appropriate.

 

Look at the Boreal Dwarf art that's been shown around for PoE. The hunter has a standard old bow and is wearing standard old fur clothing. Not a metre-thick fatsuit of fur that makes her look like a giant, no spikes, nothing. Just a hunter out in the forest. Like you could see in the Taiga of Russia or the wilds of Canada. It ties it into the real world and gives it meaning and place.

[Spell queue]

I think a lot of people here (Arkeus in particular) don't quite understand what the shift+click RTS-esque queue is - if you want to issue two/multiple commands instead of one, you hold shift+issue those commands - you do not cancel single items in a queue, you either execute the whole queue or cancel the whole queue by issuing a new command. I don't see how this is going to make the game unbalanced in any way. Either you use this feature for something stupid like chain fireball-ing and make the game harder for yourself, or use it for something more useful like moving units around enemies in a queue of short steps to avoid engagement/disengagement. Not an essential feature by any means, but it isn't game breaking either.

 

So, what, a mechanism for kiting? Engagement/disengagement are given weight for important reasons. Why make it easier to circumvent and go back to the good ol' days of shooting Sarevok to bits while he chases your hasted fighter?

[What is map exploration like? BG1 or BG2?]

I agree absolutely, that was a very disappointing change from BG1 to BG2. The fact that you could(and had to the first time through an area) walk the entire way from one town to the next and actually experience the journey yourself rather than warp from focal point to focal point really gave travel a certain something.

And when I walked up to the bridge to Baldur's Gate and was told the city was sealed due to the war scare, it made that feel real in a way that could only come from seeing it myself. I certainly wasn't annoyed that it was cut off at the moment, how could I be? It made total sense in context. It just made me more interested and invested in the main quest and the region.

I suppose the BG2 method was more economical from a resource standpoint, stuffing every area with a massive concentration of stuff and cutting out the middle man, but sometimes I just want my walk in the hills to be a Little less 'epic'(or frenetic).

On point though, I'd bet Sensuki is right on the money with this.

[Spell queue]

 

No action queues please. That would ruin the IE feel of the combat.

 

All that's needed is an auto-attack, currently party members have 0 AI.

 

And the fact that there's currently no AI for the party is going to make people cry about micromanagement.

 

NO ACTION QUEUES - DIS NOT A CONSOLE GAME.

 

Don't like it - don't use it. Simple as that.

 

 

That's not the mindset that this game sprouts from. They're determined to keep a tight grip on any mechanics that could be 'switched off' to make the game less challenging. The same seems to be true of mechanics they feel conflict with the spirit in which the game is being made.

 

I believe the action queue would encourage an RTS, WoW-esque type of gameplay that is simply not how the game is meant to be played. And there is no way that a system like that could be added and NOT affect how the game plays and is meant to be played. It has to be balanced for, and on and on. It's up to the developers to decide how they feel about it. But the reality is that this game is not made to make compromises to any serious degree, so it REALLY is their call.

[Spell queue]

 

I know its a little early to criticizes, especially before the beta but....

 

I notice that in old IE games and in recent gamescom video,.. it benefit from modern technology, I'm talking about spell queue.

 

After a character cast a spell, the character just stops. Make it so you can queue some spells/action/abilties, that way the player don't have to wait until the animation finishes. Like for example; healing spell is a drag in old IE games. It would be nice for the priest to heal x character and then a different  character right after that one finishes. Imagine what you can do with offensive spell. I'm sure the hardcore gamer will find a way to time everything perfectly.

I think part of this is the apparent lack of Party AI in the game right now.  Either it wasn't set up for the gamescom showing or it just isn't included in the beta yet.  I am not sure a literal spell queue will be needed unless all spells turn out to be basically instant cast, which many of them seem to be so far.

 

 

 

The low level ones essentially seem to be, but the higher level ones have a pretty lengthy casting time, like fireball in today's stream.

 

I'm sure there's IE-appropriate AI(auto attack) coming with the game, but either they believed it would interfere with the 'narrative' of the demo or it simply isn't ready, kind of how the pathfinding they're re-working is in a bit of a rough place.

 

And I agree that an action queue would detract from the IE tradition of the game in a negative way.

[[Possible Spoilers] Pillars of Eternity will be livestreamed at Gamescom]

Another stream should be on in 30 minutes, I think.

 

Yeah, that's right. I reckon the best place to see it is on the same twitch channel as last time, given that the program times are all laid out and PoE is on the list.

[[Possible Spoilers] Pillars of Eternity will be livestreamed at Gamescom]

Adam got the Lead Spitter for all the trouble, nice! He played so well this time, everything, he timed it perfectly

 

Huh? When was this? Link?

[Armour & weapon designs (part V).]

I'm actually not a fan of the 100 Years War period of armour. It looks... well, boring. Compare to earlier crusader-style heavy mailles with those kick-ass surcoats, or later full-plates that are just gorgeous. Maximillian armour, or the Milanese style, for example. The stuff shown above, which looks maybe early 1400s style is... just not as interesting. 

 

On the flip side, there's not enough exposure or inspiration in fantasy from Arab and Indian armour. That **** looks fantastic. 

 

Edit: Also, I really don't like pig-faced bascinets. Think they are ugly as all hell. 

 

The first picture I posted above is of a Byzantine soldier, and his gear would be current up through ~1450, practically the rough timespace PoE is gunning for(and I love that helmet) . I personally prefer the crusades-era stuff, like this beautiful stuff:

 

But that's not the time period we're dealing with in the game. As to indians and arabs, all I can say is that the cultures in the game aren't inspired by arab or indian culture as far as I can tell, so it would be weird to have them wear the costumes. There's a reason that the Vailians dress like Venetians and Genovans. I would LOVE to see some real Byzantine armor in a game for once though, so I do sympathize.

 

Regardless, my real point is that I'd rather see an elf dressed like any of the guys I've posted and have him be a serious SOB rather than wearing 5000 year old adamantine dragon plate scale armor that just magically doesn't weigh about 500 kilos. When you get your face kicked in by a guy wearing a scale shirt, things start to feel a bit more serious business.

[Armour & weapon designs (part V).]

 

 

Seems to me reality has plenty exotic armor and weapons to choose from. People have little enough exposure to real armor and are so saturated with "fantasy armor" that I'd bet they get a more alien feeling from the real stuff.

[[Possible Spoilers] Pillars of Eternity will be livestreamed at Gamescom]

It is important to be able to distinguish both race and gender IMO.

 

One of the nice things that the IE games also did was have different "looks" for different character subtypes. There was a Fighter, Thief, Cleric and Wizard male and female model. This made it very easy to distinguish all of the characters you made in the party.

 

There was some overlapping with Dwarf and Gnome models (and only the 1PP mod makes female dwarves different from male), but it was one of the fantastic things about the IE art style.

 

Some of this will be lost in translation for PE due to budgetary reasons, but I just think that with the plate armor, the female version looks silly, in comparison to what the female model looks like with chain mail on, and what the male plate armor looks like.

 

Don't lay that liberal junk on me, I'm just grateful the females in PoE don't all seem to be strippers that got lost on the way to "Sexcon 1410" like they usually are. If that means they have virtually no "feminine" features like protruding boobs, hips or butts while in armor and no cleavage while in casual dress I will be happy as a clam. The fantasy genre has as bad a track record with women as it does with religion, which burns me just as bad.

You saw the word boobs once and jumped on what I said, without reading my reasonings. I think I raise a very valid concern, but you have a right not to care about it.

 

 

 

I absolutely read your reasoning of wanting to be able to easily differentiate between classes, races and genders readily. But I care more about having respectable, realistic female armor than I do about that. So we're just on different pages, it seems.

 

As to the difference between the female chain and plate armor, I can only say that one hangs off the chest ,the other does not. I look bigger in a muscle T-shirt than I do in modern ceramic armor.

[[Possible Spoilers] Pillars of Eternity will be livestreamed at Gamescom]

 

Yeah, and the female models for pretty much EVERY class in all the BG's and IWD's had gigantic boobs (2/3rd's exposed boobs and exposed thighs if you weren't wearing heavy armor) and the whole deal.

Edited my post to show the contrast between the two models.

 

Actually read my post next time before coming charging in with your social justice warrior hat on.

 

 

 

Don't lay that liberal junk on me, I'm just grateful the females in PoE don't all seem to be strippers that got lost on the way to "Sexcon 1410" like they usually are. If that means they have virtually no "feminine" features like protruding boobs, hips or butts while in armor and no cleavage while in casual dress I will be happy as a clam. The fantasy genre has as bad a track record with women as it does with religion, which burns me just as bad.

 

EDIT: In the side by side comparison you posted a couple posts above this, I'd be fine with either. But you do realize that men who are physically fit have larger/wider chests than women, right? We're a lot bigger framed regardless, even.