Infinitron

Is there going to be a Kickstarter update about this? Maybe with a summary of the most important changes?

http://forums.obsidian.net/index.php?app=forums&module=extras&section=boardrules http://www.tsi-games.com/forum-guidelines/ I wonder if they got permission for this.

UPDATED VERSION:

Seriously, find some majestic Grace Jones-esque black lady who can do an Italian accent. It'll be awesome.

A fighter who can't really attack or cause damage, but is a huge piece of meat who can't be killed doesn't sound like an entirely useless build. We'll have to wait and see how the redesigned Perception and Resolve change things, though. And as PrimeJunta states, equipment can compensate to some extent for his weaknesses. For certain, it'll be an "extreme" build, but I'm sure most people dumping two or more stats realize that. The first-time player's instinct isn't to dump - it's to put an average score in everything.

Et tu, Obsidian? It can't be that expensive to get proper voice actors. Heck, inXile got Duke Nukem to voice General Vargas, and he has a hell of a lot more lines too.

Because this isn't a casual game. No, it hasn't.

Why? All the stats are still helpful to all classes, by design. Might still increases the damage of both melee and magic. Intelligence still increases the duration of both magic spells and physical special abilities. The sheer numerical impact of the attributes' effects has nothing to do with what makes them a viable choice for all classes and characters.

By "gives you the freedom to be critical", I take it you mean that it gives you the freedom to be banned.

Citation needed. http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/67761-dps-vs-accuracy-deflection-heres-the-maths-enjoy/page-4?do=findComment&comment=1493485

By the way, "rest resources" are hardly a novel, never-before-heard-of feature. For instance, JRPGs from the 90s had "Tents" that you could use to rest at save spots. And it was okay.

That spam-rest is a non-issue that didn't affect anyone but the ones who wanted to abuse it, therefore didn't need any fixing whatsoever. That's my point And the current fix doesn't solve anything, it doesn't solve the "stuck bug with the rock". It just makes the distance between mobs and the rock bigger, hoping that dragging mobs all the way back (or going to the inn to rest) is so boring and frustrating that nobody will do it. You're describing a false dichotomy between knowingly devious "exploiters" and righteous "non-exploiters". In reality, there are many players who just want to play by the rules of the game and don't really think of themselves "exploiters" for clicking that rest button. Those players deserve to be treated more honestly.

Hmm, what's the role of a tank is not to be the one to get ****ed up instead of others?I mean you might not agree with the need for a tank (which I have no problem with), but once you allow that path to be taken, then that's pretty much their role? I mean, fighters have nothing but talents dedicated to do just that, soaking up damage and get ****ed up constantly. The more you use resources to "CC" and "prevent damage", the more useless they become at their one and only role in the game... ...so it's not a failure or a fault if your tank gets ****ed up really, according to the game design, at least some of it, it's actually a success if the tank is getting hit constantly, because that's what everything in the class is designed for...except the Health system... Depends how define tanking. If you define "tanking" as "the character that stops enemies in their tracks and takes most of the hits", then the health system is irrelevant and the fighter is doing his job just fine. But if you define "tanking" as "the character that absorbs most of the party's total health resources", then yeah, Pillars of Eternity makes that impossible, because the only health/healing resource available to a character is his own health bar. So there's a tradeoff between tanking and having to worry about long-term/strategic damage spread across your entire party, unlike the Infinity Engine games where you could "healbot" your tank until you ran out of healing spells, and he was 100% effective until that time. I don't think this is necessarily a downside. In fact, it makes me laugh. A lot of people on this forum complained that "Pillars of Eternity pigeonholes us into MMO-style 'combat roles'!" Yet here is a mechanic that diminishes those roles and forces you to mix it up more...and now people are complaining about that.

To answer the OP's question, I believe it's because the designers think it's not desirable to have classes, characters, or abilities that you NEED to have to lengthen your "adventuring day". The length of the adventuring day is something that's important to the game's overall pacing - so important that they'd prefer to maintain more control over it. Or in other words, they don't think "you can clear out two dungeons before having to rest if you have a priest, but only one dungeon if you don't" is a particularly interesting choice to make. Of course, the entire system requires balancing now, including better enemy AI to make damage spread more equally across the party. On the other hand, if you're letting your one tank get f*cked up constantly, that's kind of your fault.

Ironically, this is also true in low-level D&D. Replace "muscle wizard" with fighter/wizard multiclass. Who says Josh doesn't respect the old games?

I'd be surprised if we ever get something as official as a beta blog. What Obsidian could do though is hire some "producers" to watch the forums and communicate more frequently with the fans, inXile-style. (hi Brother None and sea!) These producers would have access to the game's latest builds and changelogs, and would be empowered to answer questions about the game's current state and direction at all times. Obsidian hasn't had to do this up until now because they released Kickstarter updates quite frequently (more frequently than many other Kickstarter games), and Josh was usually around to talk about them. But it doesn't seem like that routine is going to continue now that they're crunching on the beta. But I guess we'll see what happens after the beta is updated.

"Planetscape"? I'm not attacking you. Just saying the definition of "beta" varies. You've probably heard of the Steam Early Access program. Obsidian seemed unwilling to put this beta up for sale there, and at the time we didn't understand exactly what they were so afraid of. Well, now we know - it's clear that their definition of "beta" is something that isn't really suitable for a mass audience. At least, not at the beginning.

OP: Which games have you playtested? Were they triple-A games with "open betas"? Cuz you know - not the same thing.

This seems like a case of throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Here's what needs to be done first: 1) Improve the presentation of the Stash. Integrate it with the main window instead of making it a tiny pathetic separate window thingie like the Bags of Holding in NWN. 2) Make the per-character inventories larger if necessary. Or at least redesign them so that they're not obviously smaller than what was originally intended, which makes people feel like they're being ripped off. Then, after you've tried that, decide if any further streamlining is necessary.

So, it turns out you agree with that?...

That crowd is now unhappy about the fact that a petrified person can be poisoned.

Personally, I don't believe that Might is overpowered, but I do think Dexterity could be improved a bit more. The difference between 10 and 20 Dex is 10 points of Accuracy, which is only equivalent (sort of -- not exactly due to how Grazes/Crits work) to +2 in D&D terms. What about the inverse issue? That is, that a character with 3 Might does too much damage? And ditto for the other stats and their respective effects.

Wat

I don't understand how you could think them not having an impact is unrelated to the "quantitative aspect".

See that word that starts with "B" in this board's title? The one that isn't "Backer". That means something.