FlintlockJazz

I like the change to more of a 2nd-edition style D&D multiclassing. I was never a big fan of 3rd edition multiclassing anyway so maybe that is why? Regardless, this feels more suited to the classes in Pillars and a lot less confusing.

Yeah, that's what I thought you were referencing, and have no idea wtf they were doing... Crazy punks.

By this point, Josh probably knows where Gromnir is from, too. I've still never seen Josh Sawyer and Gromnir in the same room together.

I'm with Torm, I never got the issue. It was a 'designed for computers' version of Attacks of Opportunity in D&D 3rd ed.

There was that girl in her cipher class. She was more into philosophy and arts than animancy but she seemed to understand her in a way. They used to go to Morgroks Pizza Place after school and talked about lots of things. Like soulmates. Soon Ydwen noticed that something was going on, something more than just friendship. So one day, after they were doing something awesome together that strengthened their bond, she tried to kiss her. But that girl didn't react as expected. She just wanted to be best friends, but that event destroyed everything. So Ydwin once more had alienated a person that was really important in her life. Later the girl died. But not before she killed her dog, who Ydwin also loved.

Which Paladin Order were you thinking of taking?

In my playthrough Ydwin and Bonteru will assasinate Tekehu. How do you like them apples? I don't like that sound of them apples..... what am I gonna do?! *hands pamphlet* Accept Dwarfism into your life. Join us in the fight to bring about the glory of Dwarfs/Dwarves into every game!

Amongst the sidekicks, yes. Do you feel they are trying to over compensate for the rogue shortage in Pillars?

I must say, am I the only one who didn't walk away from the game thinking it put animancers in a bad light? Sure, it shows them doing bad stuff but it also was clear that they could do good stuff I thought, and that it was a double-edged sword like any tech. I actually thought they were pushing the "animancy is good!" a bit too hard at some points, and that you were being corralled into being pro-animancer as the good option! Was I playing a different game to the rest of you? Did I mistake a cardboard box for my PC again?

Nope, but the whole series was terrible, so who cares. That was Voyager, wasn't it? Yep, Voyager. By then I felt Star Trek had ceased to be relevant anyway, they seemed stuck with outdated notions of sci-fi while actively crushing anything new that tried to come out. Kinda destroyed everything it had built up and left us with a dearth of space adventure on TV for quite some time, though I could just be being all melodramatic about it.

There was that creature in one of the 90s star trek spin offs that looked like a little girl and had a relationship with the cook. That was creepy. Oh, Kes and Neelix! WTF was that about? I mean seriously, I know it was the other way around actually (Kes' race aged faster than normal instead, she looked 20 or so but was actually 6 years old or something), but did no one in development think how creepy it all was? Especially since they emphasised Kes' immaturity? Then again, Neelix was like the most hated and despised character anyway who deserved to die for just being a horrible, horrible character that made Jar Jar seem like a decent character. Or was that just me who thought that?

She was described in enough detail to give people an impression on what kind of character she was but left vague enough for people to fill in the blanks however they want while her picture made her look 'cute'. If she had been fully fleshed out companion you probably would have seen a lot less support for her as she ceased to be whatever people wanted her to be. It's the 'potential' for her to be what people want that they like I feel, not necessarily what she would have been.

I figured it was more or less implicitly confirmed, but I also thought it wasn't the Cainarsky project and wasn't necessarily Obsidian helming it. If Obsidian is doing Vampire, doesn't that mean they have 5 games in the works? Seems like a lot. I guess Tyranny and Pillars' tech teams overlap. Tyranny DLC is probably almost done. Pathfinder is more or less done, and is just getting content support. So maybe they can handle Deadfire, Cainarsky, and Vampire... I'm speculating too much, I'll wait for it to come out in the wash. Damn, should have realised that if I was right then someone else would have connected the dots long before now. Thanks for the info guys, guess its time to go back to the theory board!

Wednesday is when it comes out huh? Handy for me, as I am off to a field on Thursday till Monday, so got something to watch before I go.

Agreed, and then you got the question of what does get carried over if you keep any of the companions from the main questline, or if it will specifically avoid having any of the base game companions at all (like Mask of the Betrayer).

I would be. I think a question regarding that was asked on one of the stream and the answer was no - it would take a lot of work to rework existing material and sidekick to reach companion level - better to spent resources on a new companion with new content. As far as monster and finishing - it looks like a feature that could be added on a later date, for example with an expansion. I don't recall seeing that question asked, but I'm not sure how much reworking would be needed, so much as expanding on the base that is provided by the vanilla game. I'm not saying that it *will* happen, mind, just that it seems perfectly plausible. Each additional companion they added increased the work needed for ALL companions by 50%. So for instance, we started off having 5 companions during the campaign, when they added the 6th then the work required for those pre-existing 5 companions increased by 50% as well. Thats why they had Ydwin so high up I believe, due to the increased workload they wanted to make sure they got tons of money for it. Why does it increase the cost of each pre-existing character so much? Because Obsidian are not doing them as separate discrete blocks, but in an interconnected webway of relationships. You add Ydwin, you need to work out what traits are being tracked by each of the other companions in order to determine how they feel about her, and vise versa, and the actions that may result from them. If you don't quite get that then imagine this: each character is a point with a line, or connection, going to every single other point. When there are just two points, you only have one line. Add a third, and each point will have two lines coming from it, for a total of 3 lines. Add a fourth, and each point will have 3 lines coming from each of them for a total of SIX! See how the number of lines escalate? Now imagine that each line is made up of mini-lines that make up that line, each one representing a different trait such as "Likes animals" (Eder's one) that defines what form that line will take. That is why certain writers in Obsidian probably blew a sigh of relief when they saw that Ydwin goal hadn't been met. Now, I'm sure the response is that they have added characters before in expansions, but these have not been built this way before, rather they were built in the old silo style where they ignore each other and only have eyes for their Lord and Saviour PC, which is probably the extent we'll get from Sidekicks like Ydwin (if we're lucky, they are using the term sidekicks for characters that they are not promising equalised content like with the companion, making them more uneven like with the Baldur's Gate 2 companions).

WIld Mind Cipher sounds interesting...

OH **** **** I FORGOT IT WAS PARADOX WHO BOUGHT WHITE WOLF!!!! Vampire game definitely confirmed then!

Indeed, Paradox is pretty much paying for these walkabouts and such, they wouldn't do that if there wasn't some long-term plan in place.

Alpha Protocol rocks. Anyone else wondering why Paradox Interactive paid for this guy's trip to Obsidian to talk about Alpha Protocol and Stormlands (posted in the other thread)? I'm kinda wondering if the secret project of Obsidian's is Alpha Storm Protocol Lands published by Paradox.

Who?

This.

With the release of season 2 of The Expanse over here in the UK on Netflix, I would like to add I would love Obsidian to do a game based on this. It's like my perfect sci-fi!

Pillars of Eternity is definitely better in this regard in that a Rogue isn't absolutely necessary for it, they just get a bonus that no other character can get (which is pretty big if developing that skill but isn't gamebreaking). However, if we can make it even better then why not? As the Rogue in Pillars is intended to include shock troops and street duelists, why does it get such a big Mechanics bonus? If I was to play a musketeer or duelist type I would want to go Rogue but I wouldn't care about picking locks or disarming traps, so why should those types be lumped with bonuses to those skills? Rangers have more excuse to have trap skills as they are the ones most likely to set up snares and the like. In fact, why do Rangers NOT get trap skills? Sure, they are designed for nature environments but those too have traps in them, and its the scout who you usually want dealing with them! As to why bother having locks and traps, no one is asking for all characters to be able to do it all the time, just that it isn't tied down to one class.

Not but Druids can. So can Chanters and Ciphers. So you are not forced to just take Wizards. Outside of Pillars of Eternity you have Sorcerers and Bards. Options. In D&D 3.5, if you wanted to find and disarm traps you HAD to take at least a level of Rogue (messing up race combos while it was at it) in order to be able to have Trapfinding. The Rogue was like some spoiled little brat sat there hoarding all these things going "Noo! You can't have that! It's mine!! MINE!" Apparently Sneak Attack (which often seemed like something anyone should be able to do, as it was just really a called shot at vitals) wasn't enough for the snotty piece of crap, he had to ring fence off traps and locks too. Oh and Stealth in the early editions of D&D! Stealth is a basic adventuring skill, wtf?? I wanted to bring along a Bard instead in many cases, but nooooope! Not good enough, you need Rogue, sorry, for no reason other than to give the Rogue-class a reason to exist. And that's the most annoying thing: its obvious in D&D and other games with this problem that the things you need a rogue for are only there to justify having a rogue! If I had my way I would gut the class (with a spoon in the whiney rogue's guts) and spread its features out amongst the others but I'm sure I would get hate for that. And as Gromnir pointed out the Rogue does have magic powers, especially if you look at 2nd ed D&D versions, where the Rogue's stealth could make him disappear and move quieter than a Monk using actual magic abilities to move silently. The rogue is a holdover from earlier times when RPGs consisted of a series of rooms with battles in with monsters in one room not noticing what was happening in the next room over, not actual adventurers sneaking into enemy encampments or strongholds where if they made too much noise the entire place would light up. I always thought several scenes in Conan the Barbarian were good RPG adventurers entering the DM's dungeon moments, like the buildup to the orgy chamber attack.