Nakia

I have been playing computer games since the 90s and did the same thing as Amentep, bought a CD, installed game, looked for patch, installed patch if needed. Some of those very early games did have bugs that were not fixed but we lived with them. We were not as sophisticated or demanding as modern players. It was a new genre and we were thrilled to have it. I do think publishers and consoles have had a very definite affect on when and in what condition games are published. There is also a lot more competition these days which will also affect the releasing of a game. As for PoE as far as I can find out with a Google search one major bug was reported after release. Article date Mar. 31 http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/03/31/the-emperors-borked-clothes-pillars-of-eternity-uberbug/ I disagree strongly that PoE was a broken, unfinished game.

I am finding this discussion very confusing. What does the fact that generally speaking men have greater upper body strength than women have to do with fantasy game warriors? The party members whether pre-made or hired adventurers are unique characters. This is a role playing game and it is up to the player how he or she wants to play the game and build their characters. In this game we are not playing a sport we are fighting to the death which is a totally different thing. The goal is to win, to survive and I will use any means at hand to do so. My rogues fight dirty if needed, My barbarian uses what ever skills he/she has. As Sagani says my arrows are faster than you can run. My party members are enhanced via rings, cloaks, enchanted weapons and armour. At the moment my current party is all male but I will shortly switch the GM in not because she is female but because I want her special talents. I am playing a game but my characters are not.

Just for clarification: we'd never ask anybody to not talk about another game. Maybe you meant the OP in this thread? Sorry, I could have misunderstood. I'm not perfect and am occasionally wrong.

I agree with abaris to a great extent but not completely. Conflicts can and do arise but those are not bugs. The game program works as intended by the programmer except when it comes in conflict with another program. These can be at times very weird. I know a moderator has asked not to refer to other games but I would like to give this example of a very weird conflict I had. I had a game I had played with problems for some time. One day I started it up and it crashed, would not play. After some search I found in the game documentary the reason. It seems the game conflicted for some unknown reason with a printer driver. I had purchased that printer and installed the driver and the only way I could play the game was by disabling the printer driver. Fortunately for me that conflict was known and rec ordered. It was not a bug in the game or in the driver but a conflict. Those of us that play with modded games know this problem well and can report numerous examples. Sometimes the game or mod can be fixed and sometimes it can't. Because we are dealing with complex machinery and complex programming we can expect problems and I consider it unfair to simply bash a game because I have problems with it. It is also possible for there to be a bug that does not affect all individuals. IE: I was not affected by the double click to equip bug because I do not double click to equip, I drag and drop. As arabis says it is impossible for a developer to test every configuration possible to find conflicts or bugs and so it is up to the player to report problems specifically and with their machines stats in a courteous manner. Combat in particular seems to be the biggest problem partly because of individual likes and dislikes, partly because of complexity. It is my opinion that anyone seeking the perfect game is going to be disappointed.

A bug is when a program does not work the way the programmer intended. Not everything reported is a bug. Often it is a design feature that the player does not like. Improper balancing may or may NOT be a bug. We should also remember that in a business time is money. Employees like to be paid. Players have different opinions and have a right to express those opinions in a polite manner but posting an opinion gives others the right to disagree. I did not and do not find any thing that breaks the game and makes it unplayable. I have had no CTDs at all. Even when I participated in the Backer Beta I had no CTDs although there were some real bugs which where fixed before release. Some one may disagree with what I have just posted and that is his or her right.

Just a quick comment in regard to sword fighting. In doing some research I ran across a man that specialists in sword fighting and training people. One thing he said was that strength was not the most important thing in sword fighting. Training and experience was what was important along with dexterity. I really doubt that most modern men could survive in a fight with an experienced medieval warrior, male or female. There are historical and archaeological records of women warriors.

I started playing the game on Steam as soon as it was available. I had no major problems with it and only a few minor ones. I was very happy with the game. The game was finished as far as I was concerned although it didn't surprise me that there were patches and some re-balancing. I was also aware due to the backer bonus that an expansion was in the works. I think Early Access would have been a mistake. Prolonging the development of the game would have been unfair to those who pre-purchased it and only have hurt sales. As a backer I did encourage them to take their time. The game is quite playable and alot of fun just as it is. Each play I find something new or different than in a previous play. I am happy.

Except he does not control her. We just want more situations where she takes over. I disagree most of the time he does control her it is only in times of stress or danger that he losses control. What he hasn't learned is how to be comfortable with her, how to accept her. In fact I think the devs did a brilliant job of anticipating those who want her to take control and express herself. Eder, Durance and Kana all represent this in their comments. I haven't played with the druid (can't spell his name) enough to know his reaction. She does manifest during fights. She is the one doing much of the fighting. I think the devs did a good job with the companions giving us eight unique characters ranging from the very stable Sagani to the nut job Durance. Sure we would like more but that in itself is a compliment to the devs. I would love to have more companion interaction with each other and with the PC. Maybe some campfire chats with different companions chiming in. I break the discussions with Durance up and one time Aloth walked by and made a comment I like that. PoE is a teaser simply because the devs did a good job. It is like having two bites of Haggan Das dark chocolate ice cream.

With all that water in Dyrwood my party is very clean but they do not floss. They're more worried about keeping their armour dry.

What people want and what Aloth wants are two distinct things and it is Aloth's body and mind that has to deal with the problem. If anything the reaction of the other companions I think would only reinforce his desire to keep Iselymr hidden.

I play on Expert Mode so I get no hints as to which is the best answer to give to get a certain rep. I have found that a high intellect combined with lore gives me the choices I prefer. I am currently playing with a PC that has a high intellect but the lore is still low and I find his choices not as good as the ones for my prior PC. Resolve is beneficial in certain circumstances and for an aggressive character might.

@ Zwiebelchen, I agree with you. We should remember that the gods can be deceitful, can betray their followers, cause wars and all kinds of dissension. This is why I distrust a lot of what is said in the game. If the devs stay true to their motif this should become clear in an expansion or sequel. The gods lie, the Engwaithians created them according so the tale goes to bring law and order and high morals to the world. So why did they create such flawed and amoral gods? Can we believe anything, anyone in this game. Peoples belief are based on a lie. I find conversations with Durance interesting because he seems to be the one person who recognizes this.

True but somehow I don't think very many women would find Durance fun either.

I agree 100% with Faerunner who I think has described Aloth and his problems beautifully. Aloth is an abused child. How many people who were abused as children go around telling people about it? I have been in a position to have discussion with both men and women who were abused. There is a great deal of repressed conflict there, a sense of guilt, a feeling that the abused was some how their fault and a duality of personality where they try to keep the angry, hostile side of their personalities hidden. I agree that all the companions could have been developed further but I also understand that time an budget enter into how things where developed in the game.

Very nice report on the game. As far as replaying it remember that using a different character and making different choices does change the game.

I thought it was 50 years, rather than 15? Just how old is Aloth anyway? I'm a bit confused now. Aloth is an elf I have no idea how old he is by Iseymer(sp?) didn't appear until he was grown or nearly grown I think. Aloth has said she has been present fifteen years. I pretty sure of that. Could be wrong of course.

My current character does not trust the gods. Is a skeptic and takes all with a grain of salt. I am looking forward to how the games turn out. It isn't that he does not believe they exist but he sees flaws and contradictions. He believes in himself after all he is a godlike himself although a good looking one still it sets him a part right from the start.

Poor Aloth the men do seem to be attracted to her. Durance even likes her and Aloth told him that he, Aloth, would not responsible if Durance called her a ,,,sentence not completed.

They did make things up as they went along and as backers asked for things. I think we did surprise them, that they may have known there was a market out there but not how hungry we were. Many of those backers were in their teens and early twenties when they played the old IE games. In Sept of 2012 they were wage earners and so were able to contribute.

@ Falkon Swiftblade, you did not make clear that you meant per dev. The top 10% of USA programmers do make over 120K a year. Why 1.1 Mil instead of 1 mil to start. Because they were gambling and felt that they could make a game for that amount. They did say they hoped for more. The game would be smaller, less complicated but the important thing was to survive past D day, get back in action, lift morale and get a feel for what market there was. We came through for them. I saw a video right after they achieved their goal and I believe they were honestly shocked about how quickly they did achieve the start goal. The 1.1 mil goal was realistic. A 4 mil goal might have backfired. I have many Online friends who cut their game teeth on IE games so we were sure we could back a 1.1 mil goal. That success I think drew others in and the word kept spreading. I do not think that mainstream game makers or journalists realized how hungry we were for IE type games and those started in their teens and twenties with the IE games were now money earners themselves and could afford to lay out some cash for what they wanted. I have a friend whose family business involves table top games and they did a Kickstarter that raised 1 mil. You need a base market and they had that. They did offer bonuses so you have to figure those into your budget. Those also take time to prepare and ship if physical. I am proud that I backed this game, backed Obsidian, very proud.

Aloth has lived with her for 15 years and has learned to some extent to keep her hidden. He strikes me as a person who exercises a great deal of self control which is why she manifested in the first place. Eventually with out her I think he would have ended up dead or mad. He may not like her but he needs her and deep inside I think he realizes that. He just needs to come to terms with her.

10K = 10,000 USD per month how are you going to pay a team of 10 to 15 experienced technicians on that amour? Weekly maybe but not monthly. I was in accounting and also handled payroll for years. We aren't talking about clerical staff but people with years of experience and with degrees. Then there are all the odds and ends of running a business which add up. Taxes would be payroll taxes, SS and insurance. As I understand it they made no profit off the Kickstarter, all money went to developing the game and they actually went over budget so had to come up with money else where. I also know for a fact that Amazon took 5% of my pledge as a fee for handling the transfer. During the Kickstarter I kept an eye on the number of pledges. I doubt that Josh was buying mink for his wife. Why do people insist on saying or implying that Obsidian somehow ripped us off? They made a great game on a very low budget. Check the amounts that the AAA companies are spending on games that I do not think are half as good.

I haven't seen anything that says if the PoE/AI hours are the same as ours but the day is I believe 27 hours long, the week is 5 days long, the month is 4 weeks long, the year is 16 months long. There are some extra days that don't count towards months that are days of celebration.

I am late to the discussion but a 10K monthly figure is low. The average programmer in the USA makes roughly 6,000 a month. That is one employee and not the top ranking one either. Even if we go for low figures and have only 10 employees the monthly figure would probably be at least 40,000 monthly just for salaries. That does not include taxes, health benefits or other employee costs. Add in rent and other expenses of doing business and my guess would be a monthly cost of over 50,000 and probably higher. Maybe Fergus, Josh etc were willing and able to forgo salary but I am sure they had to pay some of the staff they had left. Around $10k/month for developer (salary, equipment, taxes...). You must also count the kickstarter/amazon/paypal fees, taxes, and backers rewards fulfilling. Highlite mine. I know that Amazon took 5% of my pledge.

Just discovered a merchant I have missed in prior plays. In Ordra's Gift near where you enter from First Fires Is sosmeone named Curnd. You need a pass phrase to get him to sell to you but he sells those hard to find gems. Good times.