Leferd

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/66060-update-76-music-in-pillars-of-eternity/?p=1440289 The BG main theme was quite bombastic and martial. Lead designer James Ohlen is a huge Conan fan and it wouldn't be surprising if he didn't direct Hoenig to go after Basil Poledouris's aesthetics.

Cool. The Justin Sweet and Jason Manley portraits from IWD/IWD2 are my favorite from the IE games. I like their painterly approach a little more than the BG series portraits from Mike Sass. Some of the portraits we've seen so far for Eternity are pretty good too.

To expect the beta to be anything other than a buggy mess is delusional.

Damn straight. IBM Model M Brother from another mother!

While the Berlin campaign was better than the first SRR release, and was an overall nice Kickstarter appetizer for the higher profile projects; I don't have much desire to replay the campaign again -even with the new bells and whistles. I may be willing to pay for a new campaign though. Wonder why they didn't go that route?

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/67410-oe-communication-plans/?p=1486184

Sounds to me like it's flagged as an A or A+ priority issue that is at or very near the top of the debug list. It'll get fixed. In the meantime, it's a good opportunity to playtest Heart of Iron mode and never save.

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/67598-disappearing-items/?do=findComment&comment=1488698 Fix should be in place for the next update.

Mechanical buckling spring keyboards are to be treasured. It's the equivalent of a +2 longsword in an iron crisis setting. Model M?

Troll. Lols.

Isometric turn based tactical party cRPG.

Not all of the art and sound assets have been implemented yet. And even then, lots are still just placeholders.

Having both a turn based and RtwP and switch between the two will most likely end up as a disaster. Arcanum was a prime example.

Yeah. They're playing their worst stretch of baseball right now. Starting a series with the Angels on Friday. Key series for both teams.

Marceror, there is a reason so many people are using that word around you. You may not think it and it may not necessarily be true, but that's the impression you are giving off and the reputation you are developing based solely on how you are coming across in your posts. Just consider that.

Random encounters and exploration is a good thing and they should be rewarded. Never argued against it. The player should be rewarded for uncovering something new or finding a hidden path that leads to some type of discovery. Or yes, for impaling the wild boar. But as a specific objective or achievement. Bring the carcass back to the innkeeper and get XP, silver, and a full belly. This debate has been going on ad nauseum for years and I'm not going to rehash the same (but what about stealth and diplomacy etc) points and counterpoints all over again. ...but I will say this: I do hope Obsidian creates random encounters and exploration DONE RIGHT.

Still not clear what point you're trying to make as I'm not going out of my way to kill lions, beetles, or spiders. Would you care to make it more explicit rather than trying to be clever with your sarcasm? I'm not being sarcastic. You wrote that you need a discentive to prevent yourself from partaking in "degenerate gameplay" like going on murder sprees for every last drop of XP and items. Just wanted to say that you won't take a reputation or alignment hit for killing the extremely hostile spiders, beetles or lions in PoE, so there is no discentive to prevent you from relentlessy killing all of those critters for their bits... other than the fact that it is pointless, but as you wrote, that didn't stop you from killing everything in BG either. Ok. That's a bit clearer. I was hoping you weren't trying to make a play on the Socratic method gone bad. For PoE the disincentive for me to not specifically go random critter hunting is that I won't be rewarded with XP for it. As terrible as they are, FedEx scenarios are still quests. I should be rewarded for completing quests/missions/objectives. To be honest, it would be poor level design if I face a random dangerous creature in the wild that is not associated with a quest. That's the fault of the designer. You can make the argument that no one is for forcing you to kill, but it's poor design rewarding players to go grinding for XP (without consequence) by going on a random mass killing spree. If there was a bounty system at play for fur/scales/hides or craftable bits, then atleast there is in-game justification to do so, and that's fine. ,

Still not clear what point you're trying to make as I'm not going out of my way to kill lions, beetles, or spiders. Would you care to make it more explicit rather than trying to be clever with your sarcasm?

"You are the ones who believe that a player should get no xp for defeating a dragon in combat but believes a player should xp for helping a little girl find her dolly just ebcause she asked you to. L0LZ" Replace dragon for an xvart. The dragon example is preposterous. Yes I should not get XP for randomly killing an xvart in the wild. Random FedEx quest. Thank goodness we've seen a drop off in the amount of these quests, but yes, we should get XP for retrieving Hull's sword.

"Really? That is sad that you couldn't figure out that it is pointless." I'm not sure what you're getting at. "So what about items? Will you kill everything for item drops so that you can sell it for cash? Or do you only go on killing sprees for XP?" Loot is secondary to XP. I don't like to go on killing sprees but I'm participating in degenerate behavior because I get rewarded for doing so without consequence. If there is a disincentive for me to not do so, then I won't. Killing critters, monsters, or non-humanoids in the wild in BG was essentially easy XP to farm without taking any reputation or alignment hit. "(BTW don't call it an objective based XP system, because it isn't. PoE uses a quest XP only system.)" Ok. Quest based system then. My bad.

What's horrible design was that I was rewarded for going on a mass killing spree without any repercussions for such behavior. But in an objective based system, I'm not going to murder someone unless I receive a gameplay incentive for doing so - usually in a form of a quest. And in other RPG's I'm usually quested to go dragonslaying, so I will get my XP and loot for doing so.

Then why did you kill the Xvarts even though it was completely optional and infringed upon your roleplaying idealism? Did you kill all of peaceful peasants too because the game rewards you with XP for doing so? Yes. The game encouraged me to slaughter the entire village because I have this incentive to farm XP so I can level up and go ankheg hunting and get their XP I turn. Vicious never ending cycle. Kills my role play buzz. In an objective based XP system, I'm not dangled with consequence-less meatbags to go XP farming. There's no incentive to do so.

You know, may be on to something here. It's too late for Obsidian to make this change (which would go back on this being an IE "feels" game) but a lot of the issues with combat pacing, feedback, and pathfinding could be reduced, if not outright eliminated with a turn based system. I do think however, that the team will get the combat feel right for the final release with enough tuning.

So I've been thinking. Should the Pathfinder cRPG get the green light, how are they going to differentiate this from Eternity? I wouldn't be going out on a limb to state that a significant portion of Obsidian's core audience are specifically cRPG enthusiasts (with emphasis on the C) with an affinity to the isometric perspective and party based tactical combat. So how to make a game in the same vein as Eternity yet differentiate between the two? Make it turn based. We're staring to see a resurgence with turn based gaming. X-COM was excellent. Divinity is getting great feedback. In-Xile is concentrating on it. Marceror in another thread brought up that having played the Eternity beta, a lot of the issues for combat could be eliminated if they went with a turn based system. I agree. Pacing and feedback are the primary problems and both could be reduced if Obsidian went the turn based route instead. That said, I am optimistic that Josh and the team will get things right eventually.