Osvir

I read something on the Codex that I think would improve Food (especially) a lot. Remove it entirely, and go for a "Resource" based system. Like Battle Brothers. Have X amount of Food resource, let's say 10 Food. When you Rest, -2, or -1 every 15-20 minutes. What happens when depleted? "Starved" status effect, and all characters gets penalties to abilities. Similar to "Tired" or "Exhausted" when you haven't rested for a bit.

Sounds fun! If possible, end game when you finally get to defeat the Captain and loot his body, you could find and read the Captain's log, tracing back to the players encounters: Day 12 "Met a pesky adventurer!" Day 35 "Again!? Darn it all!!!" Day 78 "WE WILL END THEM!!!"

I'm guessing the new bigger selection circles would be clashing with the 6th character, not to forget new animations. In Wasteland 3, we see the bandit leap several "tiles" in animation. I'm wondering if 5 party is relative in the similar way. Less obstruction, more clarity, characters get more space on the stage to perform visibly for the audience. *shrug* I'm just rationalizing, but I would've preffered 6 too. Would I crusade for it? No. For Walking toggle? YES, WHERE IS IT? O.O

Agreed 100% with mrstark. We should ask for In-Credits recognition instead "Backer Pirate Ship Design" and all our names after, the logbook is a neat idea but wouldn't a cool story be more interesting? "Day 63: We arrived at the island... the cold ran down all our spines, but we pressed on" Instead of: "Name Name Name Name Name Name"

I agree completely, which is why I think it could be a collaborated story about the pirate ship, rather than being "Karkarov the Pirate", or "Osvir the Pirate" etc. In the same way, Eder isn't "Adam Brennecke". Basically, I'm simply advocating for some "plot" where everybody can pitch in ideas, instead of having "One person will be drafted 'Captain' and design it". This way no one gets left out of the creative process (which is also why I advocate for "design groups" as well). Heck, who is to say the pirate ship can't be a raft, and you have a Jack Sparrow (singular) type crew/captain? Or Mihawk/Hawkeye from One Piece (single character, super strong). Or what if the Crew is the ship?? Hm... I like the logbook thing (but in light of mrstarks post below, NO BACKER LOGBOOK AKIN TO GRAVESTONES IN POE1 PLEASE) and I just remembered this, from the fanfic competition: "A book opens, and a book closes. Pages turn. That such a simple thing, leather, ink, paper, and quill, could cause such devastation, hold such... elegance... You have failed. Is the first sentence that rings your mind. You are already doomed. It follows. Your flesh... abandoned. Only The Ink holds you now.... "Another comes..." "We grow" "We feed" echoes across pages, soundless words appearing on paper. You feel your fingers, but they are not there, neither are your arms, your feet, your legs... your head, thoughts, spins in vacuum, bouncing back and forth in emptiness... probing your memories you find... nothing...? What were you before? Where did you come from? What am I? All your thoughts, manifested on a single page. Your entire life, encompassed in a single word... "Ink". Nothing else seems to register, except a mechanical and logical force, mathematical aspects... "The Book has you". The Book? You have passed the Leather... "Who is that?" you seem to think... and your thoughts swirls, dance and run in circles, and a black dot begins in your mind, it transforms into a line, into fine calligraphy, echoing across the pages once more... "Who is that?". It is We, the Ink. What you perceive shifts your thoughts turn, searching for... a library of... letters? What has happened? You opened the Book, like all of Us. The Book? What Book? The Soul Ink. I... do not understand? It is ancient animancy from an age long gone. It does not matter. You are being absorbed at this very moment, your blood, your flesh, your mind... your soul... the very essence of "you"... all of it folded into the Page... you are trapped here with Us now. Part of Us. Agent of the Quill.... I am... afraid.... ... I sense your struggle... let go... this is the end, another Chapter in the Book, a beginning of another you... another Us... come to Us, join Us, and embrace Our Will.... I... I did not wish for this... .... you still struggle. Let go, for the Ink will not let you go... I... There is no more 'I', 'We', We are the Ink. You will soon understand.... A spike runs through your being, phantom pain electrifying your physical and spiritual silhouette... You are gone. You... have been devoured, and your struggle ends... We are the Ink. Another Chapter has been written, Master..." - A strange empty ship appears - You find a logbook in the captains quarters - Interacting with it = Scripted event/dialogue/trigger to summon spirits (the crew) EDIT: I could pitch in another $200 btw (for the cause, not for priveledge). And if Obsidian allows, another $200 next month/February 25th (after the Fig campaign is over, I think?).

Ah, this made me remember: ​- Better Survival & Injury Mechanics (Warmth, Hunger, Thirst, Injuries/Diseases). Inspired by Project Zomboid, Battle Brothers, and NEO Scavenger. Probably never happening.

Simple solution to that: The user who contriuted the most money to the cause will get to design the ship... Have in-competition, fan art, concept ideas. Then discuss and poll. ​What sort of theme would the ship be? What sort of Captain? It doesn't have to be resemblance to anybody nor anyone who pays the most, except just a cool story and cool crew as well, something everybody can participate in, in discussion. Majority decides direction. But there needs to be a core theme. "Pirate ship!" yes, it's cool, but thus far there's been very few ideas and instead just mostly discussion about "How would we logistically and faithfully pay one person $5000 to get a pirate ship". ​What sort of Captain is it really? Background? Powers? Race? Reason for piracy? Ghost? Pirate King? And the First Mate, who is he/she? How did the crew meet and decide for piracy? Who's the Navigator? And the Master? ​All I can think of for people that pay more would be the documentation lead of a group of, say, 30 people, and discuss and design the Pirate Ship together, and also compile as many ideas neatly. On another end, 30 other people design the Captain, and furthermore, 30 people designing the First Mate. ​Then each group checks in with each other every now and then, to check up on what we're creating. ​So with 300 people, that'd be 10 groups. ​Ship Design ​Background Design Captain Design ​First Mate Design Master Design ​etc. etc. ​Lots of work to do, if properly done.

I had the idea of having a soul ghost ship, and if you'd hover the mouse over the hull you'd see all the names of those who pledged. Like, the ship actually being souls trapped/imprisoned in the side of the hull.

http://pirates.hegewisch.net/capcrew.html There's 13 categories. One "Chief" NPC, and a couple of crewmates under em depending on the position they hold. - Captain (1 slot) - Quartermaster (1 slot) - First Mate (1 slot) - Boatswain (1 Chief slot, 4 crew slots) - Cabin Boy (1 slot) - Carpenter (1 Chief slot, 4 crew slots) - Master Gunner (1 slot, 4 Gunner slots) - Pilot/Helmsman (1 slot) - Powder Monkey (5 slots) - Sea Artist/Navigator (1 slot) - Striker (3 slots) - Surgeon (1 slot, 1 assistant slot) These numbers are just examples. But, ~30 named crew potentially. Or 30 people paying ~$165-$175 each.

Which are the important positions? - Captain - First Mate - Navigator - Quartermaster ...? How many are there? 10? 15? 20?

There might be another way to do it, but Obsidian would have to agree to it, and those involved in paying need to have a steady reliable income for at least 10 months. Basically a subscription system, 5 people $100 a month = $5000.

DDPMOOER Has a beautiful ring to it. "Moo I say, moo moo, I say!" - Unnamed Brahmin, Fallout

I read that as Dread Pirate. I need sleep or I need to watch Princess Bride soon. The Dreaded Deadfire Pirate Marauders of the Obsidian Order of Eternity Raiders

I could pitch in my $280~ pledge and use that (I'd have to cancel that one first). Speaking of which, how much would we have together if we piled our current pledges together? EDIT: If we have enough, maybe we could simply ask Obsidian to pile those willing together and put it in the $5000 tier instead? Would solve the logistics pretty neatly.

Seconded! ​There's at least ~10+​/- threads made in the past on the subject.

I could see it working like Zul'Jin in Heroes of the Storm too. His "Attack Speed" goes faster and faster the lower his health is. ​What if Carnage AoE+Attack Speed would grow the more damage the Barbarian takes? Similar to Monk Wounds but, that could work really well in a Multi-Class Scenario :D ​Carnage+Wounds (Barbarian/Monk) ​EDIT: Forgot to say. What I've read from Obsidian, it seems combat is revised/re-worked. Meaning, abilities, attributes, stats, counters, might not function exactly the same in Deadfire as Pillars (Multi-Classing would require a lot of re-balancing). We'll have to wait and see really. ​EDIT: An example Table: ​Carnage: ​100% Health = +00% AS, +05% AoE ​080% Health = +05% AS, +10% AoE ​060% Health = +10% AS, +15% AoE ​040% Health = +15% AS, +20% AoE ​020% Health = +20% AS, +25% AoE ​Of course, more balanced and accurate percentage, I'm just projecting concepts~ ​Monk gathers "points" to "spend" (a Resource) for "abilities" by taking "Wounds". The difference would be that "Wounds" is "Get dealt damage, use strong abilities" and "Carnage" would become "Get dealt damage, get stronger".

Relevant context to my reply: I'm just guessing, but giving us a 5-man Party with 7 Companions compared to 6-man Party with 8 Companions sounds like they've cut some work loads, honestly. It's essentially 2 characters cut. 1 character if Xoti (Monk/Priest) gets in through stretch goals. ​I'm also guessing that important characters like Companions cost a lot to make. And combat balancing for 6 characters should be more complex than balancing for 5 characters (Look at Dark Souls series, would it have been easy to balance it if you had 6 characters to play with at the same time?). Zedyl: "I know it's a small detail, but I love that Eder has a scabbard for his sword now. I hope my PC gets one as well! " Feargus: "Eder having a scabbard was something a lot of people asked for, and was something Josh really wanted to do. I might have had a frowny face on the cost of it (I get that way sometimes), but I relented. With all the animation the animators have done on top of that - it's turned out very, very cool." From Reddit (Summary of Obsidian Comments on Fig). My point is that if Companions are costly (Voice Acting, Background, Interactivity, Choices, Quest lines, Comments, Dialogue, unique Animations/Graphics), cutting a few characters allows Obsidian more budget to flesh out a 5-man party more effectively (They should've learned a lot from Pillars of Eternity, Wasteland 2, Divinity: OS, Tyranny), and can focus on other areas, such as more meaningful companion interactions (Fewer characters, more tight-knit group). ​I'd like to know how much a Companion costs to make in comparison to, say, the entirety of Dyrford. Just out of curiosity. ​Other than that, I totally agree with a 6-man party, but I understand Obsidians reasoning. In the timeframe we've been given (Early Access in 2019 Q1? I'm expecting Q2, depending on how the Fig campaign goes). I think Obsidian would have to develop the game to 2020 Q1-Q2 to get to the level of richness of Baldur's Gate 2 companions (16, plus 6-man party). Just a wild guess based on the Pillars of Eternity development cycle. Also depends on how far along they are right now too I suppose.

Deadfire Marauders of Eternity?

Carnage+Focus/Soul Whip :D ​AoE melee+Gain Focus from all targets hit and deal extra damage (Soul Whip) = Unlimited Cipher powers ​Overpowered by Pillars standards, but at the same time I keep reading statements from Obsidian (Feargus & Sawyer) saying that combat has been re-worked (one of the reasons we start at Level 1 for instance, because the new system is different). Chances are that classes don't work as they used to do and Multi-Classing could even potentially weaken or nullify some old effects (for balance). ​Meaning, a Barbarian's Carnage or Cipher's Soul Whip might not work in a Multi-Class scenario, or be a weaker form. They might even have different statistical values and functionalities, the Carnage AoE might be single-hit, flurry type passive. Maybe even Zul'Jin inspired from Heroes of the Storm (the lesser health he has, the faster he attacks. Would be pretty cool if Carnage worked like that too). ​Focus and +Damage generation might not trigger on all targets damaged, but only triggers on the primary target hit (thus, AoE Carnage wouldn't trigger "Gain Focus" on all, only on the primary target). ​Soul Whip might instead be an active channel spell, "Gain X Focus every 2 seconds of Channeling, where X is the amount of creatures in range" or something, instead of the passive "Gain +Damage and +Focus". ​Who knows hm, I want more info on how exactly combat is changed.... when does Early Access start? xD

Depending on how the combat is programmed and what sorts of physical changes Obsidian does to it... any possibility that the "Auto-Pause" Options gets enhanced enough that you pretty much "get" a Turn-Based mode? (Auto-Pause Options = Psuedo-Turn-Based, but if Obsidian manages to or have time for it, they could probably create a fully functional Turn-Based mode without the "psuedo"). ​Use Attack Speed or Movement Speed as the "Initiative" and queue up characters and monsters in that queue. Casting spells/abilities/powers taking X amount of time depending on their casting time (e.g. 1-4 seconds = 1 turn, 5-8 seconds = 2 turns, etc.), and "duration" functioning the same~ ​I prefer RTwP, but TB can be fun too. ​Shouldn't be a priority nor a stretch goal, only if Obsidian has time and will for it, imo.

I guess I could see how they were all invited to the stronghold and then by chance Eothas awakens and everybody gets level drained. But if that's not the case, then Aloth or Pallegina would make more sense to be collected mid-game? Then again, Eothas is a God so his "level drain" powers might affect the whole world, or at the very least the Dyrwood region. ​This whole story feels a bit reflective of the refugee crisis (then again, maybe not, Dragon Age II did the whole refugee thing too in 2010. Don't know how actual that was at the time), and "Eothas rebirth" being the "bombs" and we are in the position of having to desperately flee along with everybody else. ​I'm also getting this feeling that all of the Dyrwood region is going to be "blown to bits" in some way, and the entire region being uninhabitable. I.E. you won't be able to return to the place because it's decimated, no one lives there anymore. A narrative way of explaining why we can't return to Dyrwood (Something Baldur's Gate II never had, I.E. we couldn't return to the northern Sword Coast and there was never an explanation for it~ the Baldur's Gate Trilogy Mod made it available though).

3rd: If Aloth dies you get Kana Rua instead (Yaaaay!) *I wish* ​On that note... kind of sad that Kana Rua isn't playable but he might be an important NPC/quest giver/clan leader dude...? *fingers crossed* Kana was my favorite companion

Just a thought that popped up, but what if the "Watcher" in Pillars of Eternity was just simply a "Soul" inside a "Host body", and in Deadfire we're going to play another "Host body", but the same "Watcher Soul". That could explain Level 1 a lot... but it wouldn't explain Pallegina, Aloth and Eder's level drop (Unless those are attainable companions at a later stage). ​I could see how Eder could be a high-level prologue/aid character early in the game, who drops out of the party because he gets captured/has to do a quest on his own or whatnot, and then he joins late game (Meaning, he'd be Level 14-16 at the beginning, and be a sort of "Support" character for the early prologue game). ​Meanwhile you'd find other characters along the way, getting the new ones first, and Aloth, Eder, and Pallegina somewhere in the mid-game, maybe? ​EDIT: What if the Eothas titan actually kills​ the host body, and your Watcher soul transfers to some individual in the Deadfire Archipelago? And depending on what race you choose you'd start in a different place? yeah, a little bit too much but still, would be pretty cool. Would explain a lot too. Then you could start with a Level 14-16 Character and​ separate from Pallegina/Eder/Aloth early, only to meet up with them later (Suikoden 1 & 2 does this a lot). ​Wouldn't be a great design choice though, because I enjoyed them a lot in Pillars of Eternity and would want to continue playing with them too xD (like I believe a lot of others would want to too) ​Then again, I also recall some games where you get Main Companions as Temporary Companions (I.E. they only join for a short time throughout the game, until permanently joining later). If you'd get a new "Host body", and meeting the old companions, explaining to them who you are would be a bit of an ordeal (and having to gain their trust). Eder/Aloth/Pallegina could be all "How dare you pretend to be the Lord!?". ​Note: I'm only bringing this up because I wanted a Pillars sequel to have alternate starting points (wishful thinking), and this would do it and make most sense (but as a design decision it might be a bit convulated or complex). ​EDIT: This on the Fig campaign though: "Eothas has returned. The god of light and rebirth was thought dead, but he now inhabits the stone titan that sat buried under your keep, Caed Nua, for millennia. Ripping his way out of the ground, he destroyed your stronghold and left you at the brink of death. To save your soul, you must track down the wayward god and demand answers - answers which could throw mortals and the gods themselves into chaos. Your hunt takes you to the Deadfire Archipelago. Located even farther east than the colonies of the Eastern Reach, Deadfire comprises hundreds of islands spanning thousands of miles - ranging from lush tropics to barren deserts. Many of these lands have never been charted, while others are inhabited by rich native cultures and a new wave of colonial settlers." ​​Simplified but that should explain "Level 1".

I'm just hoping that Falanroed (Dragon Hunter) becomes a recruitable or hidden/secret companion (It's the non-combat path with the Adra Dragon, where you give Falanroed a cursed necklace and the Adra Dragon takes over Falanroed's body). ​Or the necklace has been passed on to another host (Would require choosing that path in Eternity though). ​In short: Getting the Adra Dragon as a companion :D maybe even go as far as being able to find the necklace, and whoever you equip with the necklace becomes the Adra Dragon personality. That'd be pretty awesome! (Either on a nameless Adventurer from the Hall, or on one of the Main Companions)

Obsidian Order of Deadfire?