[Donating Two Memorial Stones to the Community]

It's very likely that we aren't going to require a ring to view the stones. I would rather we spend the time that would be required for a decoder ring system on our other systems.

[Adam at Work]

I'm a bit concerned with how much work there is still do and only about 8 months to do it in. Pre-Alpha > Alpha > Beta > Full game shipped. Novella, Almanac, Physical Tier rewards, printing Books, etc. It seems like a short time to do all this. Have you been sourcing suppliers for the physical tier rewards as well? eg. looking into what InXile is doing?

 

Kickstarter Rewards: A plan is in place and we are speaking with a few companies about creating the rewards. We are also currently doing the basic layouts for the books. In fact, today I had a talk with Rose about this very subject.

 

Game: It's a lot of stuff, no doubt, but I am confident that we will be able to wrap everything up in time. This game is pretty far along at this point. Even the portions of the crit path that aren't finished yet aren't more than a few weeks from being in and working.

[No update this week (03/11/2014)]

We are not going to be doing an update this week. They will resume next week as normal.

[Update #73: Narrative Design: A Day in the Life, Companion Goals, and the Undead]

Update by Eric Fenstermaker, Lead Narrative Designer

 

Undead abound in Heritage Hill.

 

Hey everybody. I'm Eric Fenstermaker and I'm the lead narrative designer on Pillars of Eternity. Before this I held the same position on South Park: The Stick of Truth, so if the dialogue in Eternity ends up being a long string of obscenities and fart jokes, you know who to blame. You can direct all hate mail to my work email account, brandon.adler@obsidian.net.

 

I know we suggested last week that I was going to give you a lore update, but I thought, this is a crowdfunded project. Why not completely fail to deliver on what was promised and instead give our backers something no one asked for?

 

I have three things for you today - the first is a look at what my daily experience is like, then I'm going to talk a bit about some high-level goals we have for writing our companion characters, and finally I might just have some lore about Eternity's undead.

 

On the next episode of Pillars of Eternity: Josh Sawyer writes a class update about wizards and druids, and Adam meets a wacky goblin neighbor only he can see!

 

But what to talk about first? Being a narcissist, the answer is obvious.

 

What It Is Like to Be Me

 

Today has been busy and varied. I thought it might be interesting to take you through a typical day as a narrative lead person. I will tell it in second person so it feels like virtual reality. Most of this is somewhat based on real events - at least as much as American Hustle.

 

10:05 AM

 

You arrive at work. Take serpentine route to your desk to avoid being seen by anyone who would frown upon your five minutes' tardiness. End up accidentally passing all of them in the hallway anyway. Pass subordinate in hallway too. Shake your head at him to note disapproval of his tardiness.

 

10:10 AM - 10:25 AM

 

Watch internet video of intro to Japanese wrestling match featuring life-sized animatronic raptor. Dream of making it big as a game designer and having a raptor of your own. Someday...

 

10:25 AM

 

Deny your subordinate's purchase request for an ergonomic keyboard to help with her carpal tunnel. That is what stem cells are for. Back to work, slave.

 

10:30 AM- 11:30 AM

 

Brainstorming meeting: What kind of monsters can we reasonably use in an urban docks district along the shoreline that somehow have not worked the surrounding populace into a panic? Proposals: invisible giant crabs, giants with poor height genes from both parents, low-key mummies.

 

11:30 AM

 

Reminded for seventh time about backer update, which you knew about but have been deliberately putting off. Chastise producer for not reminding you enough.

 

11:50 AM - 12:00 AM

 

Called in to review cutscene animatic. Despite the storyboard being delivered exactly as asked for, you berate the storyboard artist to consolidate power. This is garbage, GARBAGE!

 

12:00 PM

 

Lunch alone at office desk, like every day.

 

So alone.

 

12:10 PM - 1:00 PM

 

Spend the rest of lunch on Facebook and Twitter making it look like you have the perfect life and everybody loves you.

 

1:00 PM - ??

 

Intermittent raptor daydreams.

 

1:30 PM - 2:30 PM

 

Work with narrative designer on the design for a new companion centered exclusively on maximizing companion's potential to be spun off into a line of toys. Huge adorable eyes, soft plush fur, impressive physique, ability to transform into racecar, check, check, check and check.

 

2:30 PM - 4:30 PM

 

Passing off subordinates' ideas as your own. Crushing their spirit.

 

4:30 PM - 5:00 PM

 

Brainstorm barbarian clan names.

 

• The Large and in Charge Clan
• Clan Pizzaface
• The One-Man Clan
• The Passive-Aggressors
• The Doughmen

 

5:00 PM -7:00 PM

 

Annoy backers.

 

In Summary

I may have taken a few liberties, but some of that is really a snapshot as to what my role is.

 

Day-to-day, I spend a fair amount of time coordinating the efforts of narrative designers with level designers, so for example I really did have a meeting this morning to figure out how on Earth we could have a quest with some monster combat in a populated, more-or-less oblivious urban district without the monsters there feeling absurdly out of place. The game needs to be fun, first and foremost, with or without a story. It's ultimately my responsibility to make sure that the fun things our designers come up with have a cohesive narrative wrapped around them. Sometimes it's an easy fit, sometimes it's a puzzle to be solved. Fortunately I am backed up by some very talented designers whose ideas I can steal liberally - that part was all true, too.

 

It's also on me to try and make sure the story is being told properly in-game, so there was in fact a meeting with a storyboard artist to look through one of our game's introductory cutscenes. Our concept artists' stick figures look better than the most realistic human portrait I could ever draw.

 

And I have to curate lore, though that's a responsibility I share with Josh Sawyer, our project lead. In general I prefer this to be a decentralized process where designers come up with things that make their quests and areas and subplots cool, and then we find ways together to work them into the overall scheme. But there was also a good amount of up-front central planning, dating back to before I was on the project. In this case, today I did have a long conversation with a couple of our level guys about the names and personalities of a set of barbarian-ish tribes.

 

Skeletons...

 

What's missing from the above is that on some days, when I am fortunate, I get to do some writing for the project, which is really fun. If you are a narrative lead you get to claim all the choicest dialogues for yourself. It's a great privilege, which is one reason why so many narrative leads are murdered by the narrative designer who is next-in-line.

 

So Alone

 

Companions may be my favorite things about RPGs. Long after you've finished the game, looking back, if they're done well, they feel like old friends. Lately we have been ramping up our companion writing. (We really did have a discussion about one of those designs today, and did some iteration on it.) As such, I've been giving a lot of thought of late as to what our goals should be in creating the companions for Pillars of Eternity, and I thought they'd be worth sharing with the people we're designing them for. These are a few of the benchmarks I want us to try to hit:

 

Interactively Dynamic

 

It's common in most types of fiction for major characters (or the protagonist at the very least) to follow an arc, in which their character begins a certain way and ends up being changed by the events of the story, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. But for a video game, that's not really taking advantage of the medium. This is a story about the player's character, told by the player's actions. It stands to reason that the ways in which a companion would change should be dependent on what the player does.

 

So we have an arc for each of our companions, but each arc has multiple potential endpoints, in just the same way that the plot has multiple endings. Which endpoint the arc ends up at will be, in one way or another, determined by what the player does - whether it's something they say or an action they take or some other choice they make. This was an approach we last took in Fallout: New Vegas and I thought it was something to definitely keep.

 

Unique, Varied, Relatable Ambassadors

 

Chris Avellone touched on this in a previous update, and it remains a core goal for us. Pillars of Eternity takes place in a brand new setting. Most players won't know their boreal dwarf chanters from their hearth orlan ciphers. Getting to know companions that run the gamut of races, classes, and cultures will help the setting come alive and hopefully become a place players will find themselves wanting to stay awhile. Each companion, in a sense, becomes an ambassador for his or her race, culture, and class.

 

And we only have so many companions. So they can't all be snarky elves (or can they?) - they need different characterizations, different voices, different struggles. As a designer, you never know what's going to strike a nerve with a given player. Rarely for our games is there a universal favorite companion - almost always there seems to be an even distribution for how many players like each character. In some ways that's maddening, because how do you adjust for that, but it's also one of the best things about writing companions - as long as you write a character that is authentic in its humanity, somewhere, somebody is going to identify with it, and that will be the character they enjoyed spending time with the most. By varying widely the particulars of each companion's persona and struggles, the hope is that while not everybody will necessarily love every companion, most will find at least one that means something to them.

 

Lanterns to the Themes

"Why should the player care?" is a question we try to ask ourselves for all aspects of the narrative. When it comes to plot, the question is answered by its themes - they make the plot about something more than a physical struggle.

 

But again, our narrative is interactive. The themes shouldn't be predetermined morals. There should be many facets to them, and it should fall to the player, not the designer, to decide what his or her perspective winds up being on the theme. To take a well-worn example, if the theme is about the struggle of good vs. evil (don't worry, it's not), the ending shouldn't simply assert that good always triumphs over evil. It should ask the player what he or she believes, given everything they've learned on their journey. Maybe they even surprise themselves with their choice.

 

That's where companions come in. If we're designing them well, their struggles should tie into the themes on some level. And the resolution they come to, which, because of the interactive dynamism discussed above, is influenced by the player, gives them a distinct perspective on the theme. The goal is that in the process of helping the companions resolve their conflicts, we give the player something to think about for what that might mean in the context of his or her own character, and in the long run, that gives the themes personal meaning when it comes time to resolve them for the player character.

I'd be interested to hear, what do all of you think? Not so much specific characterizations, but more, what are the abstract qualities that make you enjoy and remember a companion? (e.g. They made you laugh, they seemed like a real person, their quest was engrossing, etc.)

 

Here, Have Some Lore

Compensation for being subjected to the rest of this update.

 

All my best ideas are stolen. This one I ripped off from our lead level designer, Bobby Null. It is about the undead.

 

Male and female darguls.

 

One of the strengths of the Eternity setting, in my opinion, is its ability to put a new spin on the familiar. Let's be honest, you've seen undead before in a video game or two. I bet you've had a virtual conflict with a skeleton or perhaps even a zombie. But no matter how many times we see them, they're fantasy RPG staples - it'd be weird not to have them, and many people would really miss them were they omitted.

 

So we did some thinking as to how we could have undead but have them be our own special brand of undead that makes sense in this world.

 

This is How Undead Work

Let's say you are a wealthy noble who would like to cheat death. There are a variety of options at your disposal, but this offer from a shady animancer sounds the most painless. All he is going to do is bind your soul to your body, so that way when you die, your soul stays put and you still retain all your motor control.

 

Sign me up, you say. Suck on this, death! The animancer sets up some bizarre tools and machines, has you hold onto some copper wires, and before you know it the whole thing is over. He leaves and takes his fee. A few years later you die in a horrific skiing accident. Not to worry! Your soul isn't going anywhere. You are living large, my friend. But here's the thing. Your soul isn't going anywhere, but your body is. It starts to decompose. Slowly at first. A maggot here, a maggot there. And you are starting to get weird cravings, kind of like a pregnant woman, but instead of peanut butter and mayonnaise sandwiches, you could really go for some human flesh.

 

So you eat some guys. And lo and behold, the decomposition stops! You're cured! Except that after a while, you start to rot again. Over time, you find that eating folks and absorbing the essence from their flesh is the only way to stop decomposition. But after a while you run out of neighbor kids and it gets harder and harder to track down a meal. Flesh is dropping off in chunks. And it feels like your IQ has fallen a few points, like that time you used to live next to that industrial solvent factory. In time, your mind goes as well as your body. You become feral, then near-vegetative, then purely mechanical - your body nothing more than a fleshless marionette.

 

Revenant bestiary concepts.

 

What you have just done is experienced the full continuum of undeath. Corporeal undead in this world all suffer from the same malady, and are merely in different stages of decomposition. How do you get this condition? It's usually something that you would get by commissioning an unscrupulous animancer to help you live forever, or by volunteering for a "harmless clinical trial." These ladies and gentlemen have been studying a certain banned piece of literature known as the Theorems of Padgram and are trying to develop a true path to immortality. But there are supposedly other ways - certain alchemical tinctures, ancient architecturally-embedded machinery, self-pleasure (according to some disapproving Dyrwoodan moms), etc.

 

• You start as a fampyr. (And these names are not different-for-the-sake-of-different - they're just following location-appropriate linguistic rules.) By appearances, you're basically a normal person who is going through a bit of a cannibal phase.
• Allow yourself to decompose for a while, and you start to lose control of your urges, and your memory begins to slip away. Your self-consciousness is flimsy. You are now what's called a dargul.
• Much more decomposition, and you become bestial. Your hair is gone (if it wasn't already), the flesh sags on your bones, and you live only to feed your hunger. You are a gul, but you don't give it much thought at this point. You just think you are hungry.
• Then your mind gets really pretty thoroughly rotted, like what happens if you play a lot of FPSes, and you're only running at the basest level of instinct. You have no memory. You, my friend, are a revenant, and you are not very fun at parties.
• After the last bit of flesh falls away, and the last mildly complicated neural synaptic path fires for the final time, you're running on pure reflex. You're not even hungry anymore (no stomach!). Your body is a murderous automaton. You are a skeleton, and your next step is dust.

 

Lastly

 

It's a fun time for the project. Amazing new level art and some of what I think are our best quests yet are being added every day, and I'm very excited for what's ahead. I personally want to express my appreciation for the thing all of you made happen by backing us, and I want to do everything I can to make sure you guys are suitably rewarded for your efforts.

 

Thanks for reading and don't forget to fill out your backer surveys. Those of you who have surveys will find them on your account page on the backer portal under the Surveys tab. You have until March 31st before they become as worthless as that Myspace page I had in college with all the animated gifs on it, so get those suckers in. Huge thanks to those who've filled theirs out - the team is already putting that content into the game and it's coming out pretty slick.

 

Last Lastly... reddit /r/Games AMA

 

Hey, everyone. This is Brandon. One last note, the Eternity team will be taking part in a reddit AMA in /r/Games. This is scheduled for today at 5:30 PM PST, so be on the lookout.

[The Case for Romance.]

lol

 

double fine shared their budget in one of the early documentaries. labour was budgeted at $10-15k per developer month.

That isn't an uncommon blended rate for a man-month. Those aren't the actual costs to the project, but that is the rate you use when determining the budget when trying to get funding.

[The Case for Romance.]

Also, writing in a traditional form is very different than game writing - especially when you take into account branching dialogues. There are lots of constraints placed on our narrative designers.

[The Case for Romance.]

All they have to do is hire a person experienced at writing romance who has a talent for it.  Also doing that costs far less both in time and money than say..... developing an interior for a blacksmith shop.  Funny thing, there won't be one player romance in game, but I bet you there will be 4-5 different blacksmith shop interiors.

 

I won't get into the debate about whether romances in these type of CRPGs are inherently good or bad, but I will speak towards costs.

 

You are incorrect if you think that creating a good romance is less of a cost than a blacksmith interior. It would cost more in time and money - by quite a bit. Writing a good romance is not as simple as you think. Also, you are overestimating the ease of hiring a narrative designer that is a great writer, understands RPGs, and is technical enough to use the tools and scripting that is required.

[Update #72: Death Godlike and Expected Ship Date]

Update by Rose Gomez, Jr. Producer

Hello everyone! My name is Rose Gomez - I'm the newest Producer on Pillars of Eternity. I'll be handling a lot of the Kickstarter related duties for the game from here on out. I've been working at Obsidian Entertainment for a little over three years now. My previous titles include South Park: The Stick of Truth and the Fallout: New Vegas DLCs. I'm thrilled to be able to work on Pillars of Eternity and can't wait to interact more with all of you in the coming months.

 

For this update, we've got some awesome new character, area, and concept art that we're excited to show. However, before we get to the art, we wanted to officially update everyone that we are looking good to release Eternity by Winter 2014. So, look forward to getting your hands on Pillars of Eternity later this year.

 

Our next update will be all about Pillars of Eternity lore by Eric Fenstermaker.

 

Stretch Goals
After much discussion and consideration of the poll on our forums we have decided not to pursue any additional stretch goals. Rest assured that the team is working hard on completing the game and including our current stretch goals.

 

Surveys
Our designers are working hard to implement the designs that our higher tiered backers have come up with. If you have a survey that needs to be filled out, please do so by March 31st. It's important that you get your surveys completed by the deadline because we are closing in on Alpha quickly. The team needs ample time to get your content into the game. We can't guarantee your in-game contribution will make it into the game if you are late. This includes inn/tavern designs, adventurer party designs, portraits, NPCs, and items/weapons, so make sure you get your idea in before the deadline! You can fill out your surveys on our Backer Portal after you've finished managing your pledge. They can be found on your account page under the Surveys tab.

 

Worried that your design won't fit into Pillars of Eternity lore? Not sure if you want that innkeeper to be an Orlan or an Aumaua? Take a peek at the Pillars of Eternity Wiki to get some inspiration or clarification on the world.

 

Characters
With all that news out of the way, let's get to the art. To kick things off this week, we'd like to show you all some of the awesome new Godlike variants Dimitri has finished up - the Death Godlike. As we've mentioned before in previous updates, the Godlike are people that were "blessed" before birth by one or more of the deities of the world. Godlike manifest their divine heritage in a variety of ways, and in the case of the Death Godlike that heritage can be seen through their wicked looking horns and the misting darkness that shrouds their visage.

 

Death Godlike.

 

Another type, the Earth Godlike, can be seen below in some new portrait variants that Polina whipped up. These are just a few of the combinations that will be available to use for your character during the game.

 

Earth Godlike portrait variants.

Areas
The environment artists are flying through their various scenes and churning out awesome looking pieces week by week. Below you can see a cool new interior from a Blacksmith's shop by Holly Prado.
 

Blacksmith interior.

Up next we have a really awesome piece by April Giron from an area called Ondra's Gift. This area is still a work in progress but we thought you all would enjoy taking a look at what we've got so far.
 

Ondra's Gift interior.

Both of these areas have a lot of cool detail in them so make sure you view them at full resolution.

Creatures
In Pillars of Eternity, Druid characters will be able to shift into a few different spirit forms. Druids start with specific spirit forms and can find additional spirit forms in the world. One of these forms is the Cat, shown here in a concept drawing by Polina.
 

Druid Cat Form concept.

Below you can see what the Cat form looks like when modeled and textured, rendered out of our engine.
 

Druid Cat form in engine.

That's all for this week. Don't forget! If you need to fill out a survey for any Pillars of Eternity pledges please do so on our Backer Portal by the March 31st deadline. In the meantime, keep managing those pledges and commenting on our forums.

[In the Obsidian D&D Game...]

The fate of Darren's character... http://instagram.com/p/kFyR2sJxy4/

[Update #71: The Heavy Hitters: Rogues and Rangers]

Update by Josh Sawyer, Project Director

 

 

Welcome! First things first: if you have backed Pillars of Eternity but not yet completed your order on our website, please do so as soon as possible. Even if you have an all-digital order, we need information from you to make sure you get everything you are supposed to. If your backer tier includes an NPC, item, portrait, or other custom piece of content, an early response will make it easier for us to work with you on your designs and preferences. As always, we appreciate that our backers have made Pillars of Eternity possible and we want to ensure that you get your money's worth.

 

Broken Age

 

 

As most of you know, our friends at Double Fine have their new adventure game, Broken Age, coming out today. Double Fine and their Kickstarter adventure game paved the way for all of the games that came after - including Pillars of Eternity.

If you are fans of the adventure game genre (or just fans of good games from indie studios), show them some love.

You can find more about it on their website.

 

Update

 

Engwithan ruins sitting atop some cliffs.

 

Things are going well at Obsidian on the Pillars of Eternity team. The artists are putting the finishing touches on the second of our two big cities, Twin Elms, and the environments look fantastic. Our designers are busy implementing narrative and quest content, in some cases returning to earlier areas to fill in cracks and flesh elements out more. The character artists are almost done taking all of our highest-priority creatures to alpha level and are starting to look at the second string of creatures and variants. Animation is right behind them, creating rigs and alpha animations as new creatures come online, and we're finally returning to our main character animations for a second pass. Programming continues to chug away at user interfaces, AI, and zany spells and many other items on our long list of features. In short, we're well past "the hump" and the game is looking and feeling better every day.

 

Heavy Hitters

 

In most RPG parties, there's a character type that focuses on dealing death to VIPs in the enemy roster. They are the heavy hitters, the characters who cut enemies down one-by-one with precise, overpowering attacks. We've previously talked about one of our heavy hitters, the cipher. Ciphers alternate between powerful mental attacks and the physical strikes used to power them. They are the only "caster" class that focuses heavily on individual enemies, in large part because their abilities all require an external concentration of soul energy to serve as a power source.

 

In contrast to the cipher, the rogue and the ranger are more traditional, but just as deadly. Rogues rely on the vulnerability of their enemies to inflict devastating attacks in close quarters. Rangers coordinate their strikes with the help of animal companions, creatures with whom rangers form lifelong bonds. Outside of direct combat, rogues and rangers share a skill emphasis in Stealth and are commonly the sneakiest party members. But while rogues also have a specialization in Mechanics (most often to lay traps and deal with ones placed by their enemies), rangers focus on Survival, which improves the duration of many consumable items. Though the three "heavy hitter" classes have different styles of play with different strengths, they all excel at taking enemies down in the shortest amount of time possible.

 

In Pillars of Eternity, the designation of a character as a "rogue" signifies their vicious, brutal style of fighting, not a propensity for theft or deception. More than any other class, rogues exemplify the adage that the best defense is a good offense. If fighters are the disciplined, reliable, well-trained units that hold the line, rogues are the shock troops that attempt to break through that line to take out vulnerable units before they can effectively retaliate. When pinned down, rogues can suffer from their weak defenses, but ideally they carry their momentum from one target to the next in short order.

 

All rogues start with three abilities that allow them to immediately dive into heavy-hitting: Finishing Blow, Reckless Assault, and Dirty Fighting.

 

• Finishing Blow (Active) - Full Attack. This ability gains power the more damaged the target is. When the rogue uses a Finishing Blow, he or she makes a full attack at the enemy with his or her current weapons. The attack is made with an Accuracy bonus and does +50% damage if it hits. For every 1% under 50% Max Stamina the target has, the attack does an additional +3% damage. 3/rest.
• Reckless Assault (Modal) - In this mode, a rogue's Deflection is lowered but he or she gains a bonus to Accuracy and damage with all weapons.
• Dirty Fighting - 10% of the rogue's Hits with any melee or ranged weapon are turned into Crits. This occurs after the initial attack roll is resolved. The resulting shift is displayed in the combat log.

 

As rogues advance, they gain access to abilities that allow them to maximize the damage and afflictions they can dish out to their targets. They can also learn a variety of tricks to help them get out of trouble when the going gets tough.

 

• Sneak Attack - Sneak Attack applies bonus damage to the rogue's ranged and melee weapon attacks when the target has any of the following statuses: Blinded, Flanked, Hobbled, Paralyzed, Petrified, Prone, Stuck, Stunned, or Weakened. It also applies to any target the rogue strikes with a weapon within the first 2 seconds of combat starting.
• Escape (Active) - Escape allows the rogue to break Engagement and safely move away from their current location. The ability must be targeted on open ground to which the rogue has a clear path. When activated, the rogue immediately breaks Engagement and swiftly moves to that location. 1/encounter.
• Crippling Strike (Active) - Full Attack. Inflicts extra damage and the Hobbled condition. 2/encounter.
• Coordinated Positioning (Active) - You are able to instantly switch positions with one target within 1m. If this is an ally, the switch is automatic. If it is an enemy, the maneuver is an attack against its Reflexes (only succeeds on a Hit or Crit). The switch is immediate and cancels Engagement (if any) on the rogue. 2/encounter.
• Adept Evasion - 50% of all Grazes against a rogue's Reflexes are converted to Misses.
• Blinding Strike (Active) - Full Attack. Inflicts extra damage and the Blinded condition. 2/rest.
• Deathblows - Against any target that is afflicted by two or more of the conditions that can allow Sneak Attack, rogues do additional Sneak Attack damage.

 

Resident heavy-hitting rogue, Edér.

 

Rangers are expert sharpshooters with any ranged weapon. Though they traditionally rely on bows and crossbows, some use firearms or even magical implements. Regardless of their choice of armament, even novice rangers can strike swiftly and leave severe wounds that quickly wear down an enemy's stamina and movement. They are assisted in their efforts by their animal companions, incredibly tough and loyal creatures who share their lives (literally) with their masters. All rangers start with the following three abilities:

 

• Animal Companion - The ranger begins the game with (and can name) an animal companion that fights at his or her direction. This companion shares Health and Stamina with the ranger, i.e. if either one is damaged, the same pool is reduced. Both the ranger and the animal companion die if their Health is reduced to zero. Animal companions have high inherent Damage Thresholds that allow them to run interference for their masters.
• Wounding Shot (Active) - Only usable when ranged weapons are equipped. The ranger's shot inflicts a continuous damage effect and Hobbles the target. 3/rest.
• Swift Aim (Modal) - This mode increases the ranger's rate of fire and reload with ranged weapons at the cost of an Accuracy penalty.

 

At higher levels, rangers gain abilities that increase the effectiveness of their attacks and the coordinated use of their companions. By tactically applying the synergistic benefits of the ranger and his or her companion, players can lock down and quickly overwhelm powerful enemies.

 

• Defensive Bond - When both the ranger and his or her animal companion are subjected to an area effect attack, they gain +15 to the targeted defenses.
• Marked Prey (Active) - The ranger can designate a single target as his or her marked prey. He or she and his or her animal companion have a damage bonus against that target until combat ends. Once designated, the target cannot be switched. 1/encounter.
• Predator's Sense - The ranger's animal companion gains a damage bonus on any creature suffering from a continuous damage effect, including those caused by Wounding Shots.
• Stalkers' Link - When a ranger's animal companion Engages a target, the target is automatically Flanked if the ranger has a ranged weapon equipped and is opposite the target.
• Takedown (Active) - The ranger's animal companion will knock the target Prone with a Fortitude attack. 2/encounter.
• Defensive Shooting - When using ranged weapons against any target that is Engaging the ranger, the ranger's Accuracy is increased by 20 and his or her Interrupt rating is improved by one category.
• Master's Call (Active) - When the ranger issues Master's Call, his or her animal companion will immediately move back to him or her at increased speed, gaining a +20 bonus to Concentration and defenses against Disengagement Attacks. Any enemy it comes within 1m of is automatically attacked (Fortitude) and knocked Prone if the attack succeeds. 2/rest.

 

In addition to the abilities listed here, ciphers, rogues, and rangers can gain access to additional class-specific abilities as well as Talents. Some Talents can be taken by any character, but many are class-oriented and can be used to distinguish or emphasize one character from another. One cipher's Talents may emphasize his or her physical attacks while another's makes his or her Focus use more efficient. One rogue may maximize his or her advantage against a specific type of affliction; another may improve the frequency with which his or her offensive abilities can be used. And while rangers can always benefit from improving their marksmanship and special attacks, investing in the durability and abilities of their animal companions can safeguard the ranger against disaster.

 

Pillars of Eternity's heavy hitters all differ in how they bring the pain to enemies, but we hope you enjoy the concepts and mechanics we've presented here. As always, these are our current designs and implementations, but will be adjusting them in the months to come. We will be doing three more class pair updates in the future: The Leaders of the Band (chanters and priests), The Front Line (fighters and barbarians), and The Mob Rulers (wizards and druids). Let us know what you think of today's update and please vote on which of the three class pairs you'd like to see covered next. As always, thanks for reading and for your continued support.

[Jeff Husges dungeon designer]

Jeff is on the project working on area design. Currently, he is going through Defiance Bay and helping flesh out the design.

[Update #70: New Year Project Update]

Beautiful. I think the attributes are finally getting somewhere. Look forward to playing with these mechanics. Keep up the great work. Upping my pledge to collector's edition soon.

 

Speaking of which, would like to hear what you guys decided about the stretch goals.

 

We are still discussing the stretch goals and the poll internally. Nothing to report yet.

[Update #70: New Year Project Update]

Brandon you just broke the backer site.

Yeah, it is getting slammed right now. Darren is on the case and it should be back up shortly.

[Update #70: New Year Project Update]

Splendidful update! 8D!

 

If we didn't feast enough over the holidays, we can surely meet our fill quota with this update.

 

Excellent progress! I really like the character sheet. I realize it's still alpha stuff and subject to changes, but, I'm just curious... I noticed the stat effects are different there than in the prototype list Josh recently posted in the Attribute Theory thread. Is that screenshot more up-to-date (what you're actually working with at the moment), or was that an older iteration of the stat mechanics?

I will let Josh comment on all of the systems and where they are at, but I will say that the UI screenshot is fairly new.

[Update #70: New Year Project Update]

Update by Brandon Adler, Producer
 

Hello, everyone.  Like everyone here at Obsidian, I hope you had a great holiday season and were able to gorge on lots of treats and good food. This week I am going to go over a bit about the new Backer Portal (please log in if you haven't already), give a general update about where we are in our production, and show off some of the cool things that are happening in the game. In our next update we will be taking a more detailed look at some of the classes in Eternity.

 

Backer Info
Just a reminder to all of our backers, if you have not done so already, please head to the Backer Portal and complete your order. All backers need to go through the process so they can receive their rewards - even those that only have digital goods.

 

To start the process, click on "Manage My Pledge Now" and click on the "Select Reward" button on the pledge management screen. From here, you may select the tier you backed (or upgrade to a new tier), select additional add-ons, fill out any shipping information, and file your surveys.

 

Also, please make sure you fill out your surveys as soon as you can. If you have an NPC, item, inn, or portrait the sooner you get the information to us, the sooner we can make sure it gets into the game.

 

If you are having any issues, e-mail us at support@obsidian.net and we'll help you out quickly.

 

Areas
As most of you know, we finished up Od Nua (our mega-dungeon) in our last milestone. I have to say, I think it looks pretty amazing. Currently, the area team is working on our second big city, Twin Elms, and it is looking just as good. Here, take a look for yourself.
 

Ancient Engwithan ruins near Twin Elms.

 

Without getting into too much detail, the Area Designers are fleshing out the end of the game right now and everything is really coming together. The area in the screenshot above looks like the perfect place for a big fight, huh?

 

Characters
Our character team has been cranking out new creatures and equipment.

 

We are almost completely through all of our A priority creatures. Soon we will be working on our B priority creatures and lots of equipment variations.

One of the creatures that was just finished to Alpha quality is the Cean Gŵla. These banshee-like undead are the spirits of women who died under particularly tragic or traumatic circumstances.

 

Take a look at the comparison images below.
 

In-engine and concept comparison of the Cean Gŵla.

 

UI
Most of our UI has either been implemented or mocked up to an Alpha level. The interface that we would like to show you today is the character sheet, which shows character and party information. You can find lots of useful info on the sheet including various party statistics, your reputations with Eternity factions, and character stats.
 

The character sheet has many useful player and party statistics.

 

Features
Features have been going into the game pretty regularly.

 

We just recently moved to Unity 4.3 and, while this might not seem like a big deal, 4.3 has ushered in some long awaited features. Animation annotations, for example, were added to Unity. We can now call sound effects based on specific frames of animation. This makes things like footsteps possible.

 

A majority of our spells and abilities are in-game and usable. Josh has started auditing them and requesting changes for gameplay balance purposes. Tim has been quite busy with all of the small edits.

 

Strangely, one of our more minor features has gotten me the most excited. Just recently we have gotten the ability to set custom party formations and I am having a blast testing it out.

 

Concepts
Have you been wondering what some of the Pillars of Eternity gods look like? Wonder no more.
 

Representations of the gods Galawain and Woedica.

 

Above you will see the representations of Galawain and Woedica, gods in the Eternity pantheon.

 

Woedica is known by many names including "The Exiled Queen," "The Burned Queen," "Oathbinder," and "The Strangler." Her domains include law, justice, oaths and promises, (rightful) rulership, hierarchies, memory, and vengeance.

 

Priestesses of the Exiled Queen serve as lawyers and judges in towns and urban centers, and the most prominent among them are advisers to kings and lords. They are of particular importance in the Empire of Aedyr, where by tradition, business contracts always require their endorsement. Her devotees are typically found in the upper classes, but any conservative person who longs for a vanished past will find a place in her faith. “When Woedica takes back her throne” is a common saying amongst her followers, signifying a utopian future when society will be properly ordered once again, and she will take her rightful place as ruler of the gods.

 

Galawain is patron of the hunt in all its forms, and he is honored by those whose occupations are concerned with pursuit and discovery. His faithful include frontiersmen, constables, treasure-seekers, explorers, and even scholars, many of whom wear his carved symbol – a dog’s head – around their wrist or neck. He is also protector of wild places and untamed wilderness, where the hunt manifests in its purest form as a daily struggle for survival.

 

That's it for this update. Make sure you head over to our forums to let us know what you think of anything you see here.

[One month without news]

I just wanted to inform everyone that we are going back to our normal update schedule starting tomorrow. The update is already written and is going through the revision process. No need to fear.

[Increased Character Count For Item Descriptions]

Hello, everyone. I just wanted to post to let you know that we have increased the character count for some fields in the item survey. Item Appearance has been increased from 375 characters to 500 characters and Item History has been increased from 500 characters to 1,300 characters.

 

If you have already submitted your survey but want to change your Item Appearance or Item History, please let us know by emailing support@obsidian.net. We would be happy to change it for you.

 

 

[What to have in this RPG game]

 

So did I miss an announcement that multiplayer is in?

 

Hmmm?  I remember it being mentioned back in the kickstarter and basically the idea was "if BG had it this game would have it too".  It isn't a big deal to me either way.  That said the reason multiplayer sucked in BG is because 1: It was LAN only.  2: The implemented it like crap.  MP could work, they just have to actually design it correctly.  With BG they didn't take the effort.

No multiplayer in PoE. It will be a single-player experience.

[Update #69: Pillars of Eternity]

I think one potential benefit is that they don't need to worry about the poly count for the area models, which would be a concern for a FPS-style game. Thus they can make the non-animated models as detailed as they want and not have to decimate the mesh (unless it's an issue for render time).

 

 

It can be an issue for render times, but is definitely less of a concern than it normally would be.

[Update #69: Pillars of Eternity]

What exactly is the difference between just-plain-2D, and pre-rendered 3D? I mean, I know the plane of the ground exists in a 3D world, and the models and such are on top of that, in actual 3D gamespace. But, the environments are like 99.9% just one big 2D ground image, correct? So, does "pre-rendered 3D" just mean they actually created 3D trees and such, then flattened them into a 2D "snapshot" (for lack of a better word)? I mean, the result is actually still just a 2D image, right? In that video, Josh rotated the scene in Unity, and it was just a painted "ground" plane, and that's it. Except for a couple of other planes, like the waterfall, etc. (still 2D, just on a separate plane from the ground).

 

I'm genuinely just asking, in case it sounds like I'm pulling a "I'm judging the fact that people are calling it that, because they shouldn't be" here. I'm just sincerely curious as to the details.

Functionally, there is no difference. Both of those instances are 2D.

 

Our artists are creating these areas with 3D assets in Maya. We render out a screen of those areas (and the various passes of those areas) and use that. Some objects (pretty much anything that would need to move) are 3D objects laid on top of the scene.

 

[Update #69: Pillars of Eternity]

Any plans for a RSS feed in the news section of the Backer Portal? (Yes, some of us still use this archaic web technology)

Not currently. It isn't a bad idea, though.

[Update #69: Pillars of Eternity]

Short question so will I still be able to change my pledge/rewards once I did place my order at the end. What I mean is, lets say I change my mind and wanna upgrade my boxed copy to the 140 $ collectors edtion but I already did place my order. Will I be able to upgrade it by just donating the money that is needed for the upgrade?

You will have to contact Obsidian customer support directly so they can change your order.

[Holiday Break - Limited Support from Dec 21 - Jan 1]

Although it is nice to see that Obsidian closes down for the holidays for its workers, I have to say I am a little disapointed that you all are not chained in the office working.

Something we can agree on, Shadowless

[Update #69: Pillars of Eternity]

 

I am now at the Backer Portal. Will I be able to go back to make changes after I have finalized my pledge?

 

+1.

 

Also, for how long will we be able to upgrade our pledges?

 

Once you have finalized your pledge you will be unable to change it. We don't have an official date for locking down the pledges, but when we come up with one, we will send out an update about it.

[Update #69: Pillars of Eternity]

So the part on the backer's site that says "Pledges" -> "No pledges associated" doesn't refer to orders that have gone through?  Just pre-pledges that were to be managed?

 

Edit: and Q from another thread -> can we pay for add-ons to a tier later or only when we order that tier?

(Can't see a way to go back in and give another $8 for the Obs-Order or $20 for the expansion - only seems to be available when paying for a full tier)

The only time you can add an add-on is when you are managing a pledge. At some point in the future we may try to sell the add-ons separately, but we haven't seriously discussed a timeline for something like that.