Osvir

Some other interesting topics/companies. Behaviour Interactive: http://mk02jm307.mapyourshow.com/6_0/exhibitor/exhibitor-details.cfm?ExhID=beh9914 Immersion: http://mk02jm307.mapyourshow.com/6_0/exhibitor/exhibitor-details.cfm?ExhID=imm8739 Merge VR: http://mk02jm307.mapyourshow.com/6_0/exhibitor/exhibitor-details.cfm?ExhID=mer7342

I wish! Will watch it digitally. Live if I can. Philosophy/Innovation/Culture/Crowdfunding/Industry/Digital Distrubition etc: Obsidian at E3? I mean, I hope they would have lots of great things to say and teach, from this Kickstarter experience. E3 Panels. And other Kickstarter entrepreneurs as well. It is a technological and electronical and relevant discussion to E3, about digital distrubition, industry, entertainment, and a lot of what E3 is about. Innovation. That'd be pretty cool to see, some of the Kickstarter successes at E3 :D (would bump viewership quite a lot as well, I think, from the PC Community) I wonder if any interviewer will ask about "paid mods" though, because I think a lot of developers can answer this question better than some internet intellectual debatteur, who don't want to pay for hard work. Though, depends on what's on E3 journo's agenda, drama, or technology. Software: I want to see Kingdom Hearts 3 (but I don't think there'll be more in a while, no Disney at E3), and more on Final Fantasy XV. That's pretty much it. Fallout 4 might be interesting (maybe). DirectX 12 will be jaw-dropping. Oh, and Artificial/Augmented Reality software would be pretty cool. Blizzard is supposedly going to be at E3 as well, that's pretty exciting as well :D Hardware: I want to see HoloLens (Business Insider: Google Glass interview) and Intel RealSense as well! (Artificial Reality) Will probably see more with the Occulus Rift (w/ maybe potential Virtual/Digital Reality debate/panel?). Maybe even Emotiv is there, which I think gaming and computer programmers should take a long look at, because I think they also realize which lengths we could go to if more time and resources is invested into that technology.

All I could persuade with would be percentage (of sales) and about 3-4 hours of free time of my day(+weekends), unfortunately. Stick to your job It is more of a hobbyist side-project at this point anyways, no income from it until the first base product is on the market

Some more backseat design concepts & ideas, although I'm looking more at "what can be improved?" rather than "what would I have done?": A) The Statue lady says there is another way around, narratively ("Takes more time..." future Expansion content, perhaps?). In-game, mechanically, you can't take that other way around (Unless I completely missed it). You have to "activate" the Stronghold by fixing the Eastern Barbican. This made me raise my eyebrow, seeing as how Obsidian talked about how the Stronghold would be "totally" optional (this is a nitpick, but this tiny bit makes the Stronghold a "must activate"). B) I would make a Level 3 or Level 4 of the Dungeon allow the Player to get out on a different map, to progress towards Defiance Bay without even activating it (somewhat inspired by Diablo 2 design, where you go through a mountain tunnel to get to the ancient tree, which gets you the scroll with the code to teleport to Tristram). This could be resolved in an Expansion ("Create secret passage"). C) Or by finishing Raedric's Hold and thus opening a "bridge" or something over the river to the East from it (somewhat inspired by Final Fantasy design, the first one, where the first quest is to defeat Garland and save the princess, and then a bridge is opened north of the starting city). This could be resolved in an Expansion ("Create Bridge, and Wilderness Areas, East of Raedric's Hold") D) Then allow another faction to cleanse and/or take the Stronghold and make it part of their faction. It could be a contested area. I would make it much more contested, seeing as it is a very valuable position for trading routes and giving a massive control of the region (credit for this insight goes to someone I don't remember, but someone else brought it up that Caed Nua is very central, geopolitically). E) Enemies would come/spawn in waves from the Western and Eastern Barbican, instead of spawning in the "Main Hall". Manual Resolve would have 2 states: State 1 - Your adventuring party is out, far away. Manual Resolve would let you control your units stationed at the Stronghold to defend (rather than having to backtrack all the way to the Stronghold to defend). State 2 - Your adventuring party is in, at the Stronghold. Manual Resolve would let you control all units at the Stronghold. F) I would make more commands for the Stronghold (Expansions can solve some of it), such as: - Patrols. Pay your Mercenaries to patrol the surrounding areas for X duration of Global Turns. Will lower the chance of getting attacked, and reputation from nearby settlements raised (Gilded Vale, Dyrford Village). - Adventurer's with specific backgrounds (Laborer, Aristocrat, Mercenary, Raider, etc.) having some special Stronghold commands. A Laborer could make you construct faster, and repair structures after attacks. - Durability on Structures (HP) rather than binary "Constructed" or "Destroyed". - Trade. Trade with various factions for Resources. Both factions on the map (e.g. Twin Elms and Defiance Bay) and factions outside the map (e.g. Rautaui and Vailian). To fully realize it though, I think the World Map would have to get bigger, because these ideas are more or less levitating towards 4X mechanics... see "H)" G) If another Faction has taken the Stronghold, you could contest it and attack it, whilst the Faction would defend it (like Raedric's Hold). H) .................. After buying Crusader Kings II on Sale, I dearly want Paradox and Obsidian to merge their heads together... and make Eora Kings... or Eora Universalis. Or maybe even.... Anni Iroccio :D

I use Dropbox and I quite like it, haven't tried Github but from what I've seen of of it from collaborators I've worked with (they used it) and I didn't quite like the interface on the receiving end and I've gotten comfortable with Dropbox already. My main problem is scheduling and keeping the schedule I try to write and/or the to-do lists I make... is there any good program that gives you an electric shock or a pinch if you don't follow the schedule? xD

A question the OP might've forgot to ask or didn't think about but... for future translators: Where are the dialogue/tooltip/description etc. files, and what is required to change/modify/translate the text?

In my experience from many games I've played, Pillars of Eternity has a fun and enjoyable combat. But it could always be improved upon, in clarity, in tactical elements, AI, strategy, visual and in "immersion". Much like all games can be improved, so can Pillars of Eternity also be improved. Some of the "solutions" ("improvements" rather) I believe would make combat better: 1) Remove "Running" from combat and replace it with the "Scout Mode" stance. The characters look way more "readied" holding up their weapons and the stance looks generally better when moving than "Running" anim. 2) Add a "Sprint" ability for ALL characters (Enemies & Allies). - Abstracted comparison #1: In Turn-Based games, some classes or characters sometimes have the ability to walk 2 tiles instead of 1 tile during a turn. This is to allow them to get in a favorable position in time. In Chess, the Pawn can take 2 steps on their starting position if you choose to do so. - Abstracted comparison #2: In FPS games you can "sprint" for a little bit until your character gets exhausted, or sprint infinitely forever. This adds another level of tactical play in FPS games. - In some Realtime RPG's and/or Action games (Such as Diablo series or MOBA's) there are characters/classes that have abilities to give them a short burst of speed, dodging, or items that give the ability to "Blink" and/or "Rush". It greatly adds tons of tactical play. My conclusion? It would add more tactical play to considerably lower the movespeed of all Actors on the board and add a "Sprint" move command in Pillars of Eternity (1/1 per encounter and faster Combat Fatigue with Talents to upgrade "Less Combat Fatigue" Talent and perhaps a "2/2" Talent). 3) Better AI that also uses "Sprint" move commands to circle around you, flank you, avoiding Engagement, Targeting Priorities, Retreating backwards into a room and using choke points against you etc. These 3 points, I believe, would make Combat levitate much more towards even more Tactical play. Items that boost Movespeed would become much more valuable as well. I admit these are more rethorical points aimed towards a Pillars of Eternity sequel or in the future, because the first one is already set in stone. It could be a bit devastating if they choose to change the feeling of combat at this point, and a lot of threads would pop up with people probably saying "What the hell did you do with the combat!?" *shrug* Seeing the "Making of" Documentary I noticed that they had went with "Running" from the very beginning. Sigh! Oh well this is my main complaint (and I admit that it is quite minor) about Pillars of Eternity, other than the "Running" animation, I think it's pretty stellar :D P.S. Powerwalking FTW! Can't quite comment on which one I think has better combat of DA:O and PoE. It's such a long time since I played DA:O.

Black Mesa on Steam (Early Access) :D - http://www.pcgamer.com/black-mesa-released-to-steam-early-access/ - http://store.steampowered.com/app/362890/ Devs website - http://www.blackmesasource.com/ Also, I just realized something funny and semi-related... DirectX 12. 1+2 = 3 #HalfLife3Confirmed xD

Just want to say that, it's not TB rambling. He's having a conversation and... I guess... interviewing the owner of the Nexus and the modder behind SMIM (Static Mesh Improvement Mod). So, it is pretty relevant if you want to hear their side and what they think: A) The owner of probably the internets most "popular" (well-known) source for TES mods. B) A prominent modder who's been modding for about a decade, and he's worked for SMIM (for Skyrim) for about 2 and a half years. *shrug* do as you will. It is hardly the representatives of ALL mods of course, but these two guys were pretty sensible, logical, rational and discussed many topics (troll mods, lack of curating on Steam etc. "What is a good mod?" and "What is a bad mod?" and even "What is good Bethesda Official DLC? And can modders live up to that?").

(emphasis mine) See, this whole debate is rooted on statements and assumptions that at first sound good, but don't really hold up to scrutiny. Let's talk about "work". Should people get paid for their work? Well, yeah. I'm a worker, and I sure like getting paid. Problem is when some marketing or finance genius (read: good-for-nothing parasite) comes up with a great idea to turn random **** into a commercial transaction. For instance, I like trying new recipes, and I treat my friends when they come over. Should I start charging* them because "I deserve to get paid for my work"? I also offer free advice to clueless newbies at the gym now that I no longer work as a PT. Should I charge for each and every pointer, every spotted exercise? Because, you know, "I deserve to get paid for my work". I also like to open doors for old ladies and even help them with their bags sometimes. I guess I should charge for that too, because I should get paid yadda yadda. And don't anyone dare say it's not work. I just do that **** because I enjoy doing it, I believe I should do it, or simply because I ****ing feel like doing it, not because I hope to receive monetary compensation. I like the LoL simile, and I'm going to extend it to sports in general. Imagine if everyone who trains in a sport but isn't good enough to make a living from it started demanding to "get paid for their work". A majority of amateur sports events are free to attend. Much like mods, some of that is barely worth the time spent watching it, let alone actual money. Unlike gamers, however, sports talent scouts will demand to see a demonstration before committing a fiver and will simply not fund/sponsor/hire anyone who doesn't meet the standards for pro sports, regardless of how hard and how long they train. It's those standards that justify the price of admission for sports events. With this ****, standards are kicked to the curb and your money suddenly buys less, because when devs start getting a cut from mod sales, the "Day One DLC" effect is going to be amplified with devs putting the absolute minimum effort into build a platform that is suitable to build mods on. Because anything else isn't cost-effective and cost-effectiveness is the difference between staying in business and foreclosure, buyout by EA, asset stripping etc. Peeps want to charge for their mods? They can step up their game and offer the same dollar-to-content ratio you'd expect from a professional studio, work with the devs and publishers to get their product certified under the same QA standards and get it distributed the same way DLC is, with the same guarantees, lackluster as they may be. That will encourage more and better mods. That "work" I'm willing to pay for. Regrettably, it also requires an investment from the industry which means putting a dent on profits, so **** that **** and let's just scrap standards instead. With this ****ing bull**** consumerist market pandemonium we live and breathe, it's not at all about what you "deserve" to get paid for, it's what you can get away with charging for (and how much). People have sadly lost the ability to distinguish between the two, and anyone arguing the opposite will be downvoted to hell and branded a commie, a freeloader, an entitled man-child or what have you by the hordes of loyal thralls. *of course, they would argue that I should pay them, and that is kind of the ****ing point. With mods it's all good because it's just harmless fun, right? Wrong, Gaben dixit. The LoL simile was... no Noob or Amateur LoL player gets paid. I'm just here to clarify I guess.... you misunderstood it. What I was saying/meaning was that: A) The Pro's get paid, maybe even hired (Look at the "eSports"/competetive gaming scene, a lot of ex-pro players are casters at matches and a lot of them are in the scene still, but they might not play the game much anymore at a professional level, but they're part of the industry). B) Amateurs don't get paid. "Pro" Modders make great stuff. Lots of worthless and bad Amateur or distasteful modders don't. Guess who I think deserve a reward and I don't see anything wrong with it? I'm not debating, I'm just expressing an opinion and I'm not going to try and sway yours or anyone elses. The video Nonek is posted is 2 hours long, sure, but I think it's great stuff, and anyone seemingly frustrated and emotional about all of this should see it for better insight and understanding. Thanks Nonek (I did see it on TB's twitter, but just thanks for sharing it still).

I honestly think it's a fair deal. Anyone who puts in a lot of effort into their work deserves to get paid, imo. As long as it is worthwhile for the Players, the Customers. Some of the mods for Skyrim is merely cosmetics, some simple fixes. Should that cost $5 or $3? Nah, I don't think so, in my honest opinion. But there are a couple of mods that deserve to be nearly called DLC. Lots of the modders started when they were younger, now they're older and the reality of the world faces them. Many of them probably wondering if they're ever going to get a job in game development or getting hired by a game company/studio. Modders put down an immense amount of work (at least on those big mods). I think that if Mods would be paid, then they would get better quality, and better compability and better responsibility. Lots of modders would also drop off because they wouldn't be able to handle the pressure (a lot more pressure), but some stars would shine and probably manage and handle it better than most, and then there'd be an "Elite" Modder group that lives off of it, and an "Amateur" Modder group below it doing it for hobby or whatever. Kind of League of Legends. More people wanting to reach the top, because that's where the money is, but at the same time way more people in the bottom. Meaning: Way more mods, incoming, soon. There's tons of people out there, and I'm sure that many see the change happening and probably working on something quality and high-standard at this very point. Opportunists. *shrug* I think we'll see in the following months what will happen.

I like it.

So there can't be an oldschool FPS? Without knowing the context much, I just felt like replying to this: Ziggurat manages to capture Hexen/Heretic feels across the board although, it is rogue-like/light, it does deliver nostalgic "feelz". I'm hoping Milkstone Studios manages to make it into a franchise with open-world (or why not mission-based like the old FPS games?).

The "3D Revolution" happened all over the entire gaming industry at the time, so it's kind of understandable. Now we're in the "Retrospective Revolution", where we look back and see where we went wrong

Wow, more peeps picked Hylea than I thought. It was quite a cruel option in a big way, and a very tragic one as seen in the end-game credits. For instance. Imagine being ressurected into a hollowborn wicht, suddenly waking up, your biological structure completely different and a hissing uncanny voice. It's horrible and furthermore, all the parents in sorrow and regret. It's the most tragic ending you could've chosen, I believe. But still, there is some beauty in it even though it is extremely tragic... and that is the flourishing of creativity. No doubt the souls will travel through Hylea's "adra" vein or whatever, and be influenced to creativity, to love and to war and to everything that "creates" something. Hylea is probably the most "creationist" God of them all, in a way. I want to do a Wael ending too, because it's the most deceptive of them all (in a broad sense, and from my perspective). Sling the souls into chaos, and no one will know where they may end up or what may happen. It's the RNG God. And I found it in many ways the most interesting God (due to the mysterious nature of "it" or "him"). It's probably my favorite God, yet I didn't really play by his rules with my character (My character was way more of a Rymrgrand or Berath devil, almost guided by the Usher or the Pale Lady as he cleared out and killed everything cleansing the land of everything that moved). I'm also curious what happens if you would decide to go on a massive killing spree and take out every NPC that you can see in the game. Will that affect the story in any way? I know that you break the Caravan if you defeat them (you can't progress at all if you do that), so I'm expecting a similar outcome if you do that in Twin Elms or Defiance Bay or something. But still...! Would be interesting if there's an "All out slaughtering" ending where you just... obliterate everyone just because! Cleanse the lands! *insert evil laughter of your choice*

Haha! Fantastic 3-6 MIG = Enemies will laugh at you (If they are of the intimidating Might type, having between 15-18 Might), loving the idea of them helping you hold the sword too xD 3-6 CON = Quick and nimble enemies might start combat by tripping you (You start in Prone, they have 15-18 Dexterity) 3-6 DEX = Your fingers are like rubber, so you have a risk of dropping a weapon right before combat begins (Enemies will laugh at you) 3-6 PER = You're BLIND! Or, well, almost... that's why you won't see the ambush (More enemies after dialogue) 3-6 INT = You don't know anything, about anything, enemies/characters/NPC's will outwit YOU in dialogue and trick you to pay more than you have to. 3-6 RES = You're a coward, you'll run away before the action even has a chance to begin, with enemies behind awkwardly behind your tail. Although, perhaps it should be "If NPC/Enemy/XTarget has +5 [Attribute] they will do a Turnover"

Luckily for the poor mage, his friends may come to his aid! I've used Knockdown (w/ Fighter) several times and then re-positioned my Wizard. Or other abilities, buffs or Class specifics to strengthen the Wizard so that he can move away (Or getting my Chanter in a more favorable position, or my Priest etc.). Push-backs, Grimoire Slam and so on. Did what I felt was epic, and that was a Grimoire Slam on a Spectre in Caed Nua, into the Pushback Invocation from Kana Rua. That felt extremely satisfying :D Because there's TONS of abilities, spells and talents that your adventuring party can use to aid anyone stuck in a bad position. Here's a little list I compiled some time ago of abilities you can use if you get in a bad position: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/71271-slowed-recovery-while-moving-no-thanks/?p=1588520 (You won't have to Rest as often if you take care of your units and make sure that they have proper gear and do their jobs) EDIT: But! I also think that the AI could be more interesting, and I've said it before... how would you act if you were a band of bandits attacking an adventuring party? How would you act if you were a group of ghosts, spectre's and floating wisps? The AI in Pillars of Eternity feels quite "robotic", in that it is predictable. Most enemies act the same, eventually, even though some pose a different type of challenge. I still think Running is the bad guy, and I don't know whether I should repeat my sentiment or look for the post and just copy+paste it. Gah! Well, it only took a minute https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/72327-walking-toggle-please/?p=1621437 And an elaboration: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/72327-walking-toggle-please/page-5?do=findComment&comment=1622154 Simplified, and in summary: There's just so much more that the AI could react to, and move to, if there'd been a different "movement" mechanic in combat/engagement.

Play it. Come to your own conclusion. Sometimes people will make out bugs to be more than they are (and add emotional value to it as well), or you might read into it as much more than it is, in context, and make-believe it as something more than it is. Seeing it first-hand is going to give you more valuable insight, and it will also tell you whether it is "MASSIVE!" or "passable but should be fixed". I've encountered a couple of bugs, but nothing "game breaking" and no "OH MY GOD THIS IS HORRIBLE!" (I haven't had to restart the game, neither have I encountered any CTD's of any kind). The biggest issue for me was the doors, but they fixed that with a hotfix. I thought it was quite stable, to be frank. Some pathfinding issues and pathfinding abuse where if you engaged an enemy group from an angle, you'd only engage one, whilst the rest are running back and forth behind the single one (because they aren't circling around the first one and trying to go in a straight line, so they get stuck because there's an "Obstacle" in the way, that obstacle happens to be their ally ). Although, I'll have to take another gander at it and try to see if it is still possible in this build. I've already finished the game from start to finish, and I've restarted a couple of times with other characters (Made it pretty far with a solo character on Path of the Damned before I got stumped on what to do next. Couldn't get access to an item that I needed from one source, and the other source is crawling with enemies I can't deal with on Solo). I would say that the safest assessment you can make, is play the game a bit (rather than base your assumptions on other people's experiences and personal "ticks" or "triggers"), and if you encounter anything that you feel is "OH MY GOD THIS IS HORRIBLE!" then just stop playing, and (hopefully) even report it if you so desire. That's probably going to help Obsidian more than sitting on the fence and letting others do the talking for you. If you own the game, I don't really see a reason to wait. Then again, I've played this since it was in Beta and I've seen so much improvements since then. For a fresh pair of eyes, what I deem to be an improvement, others might still deem to be a bug Regardless of what you choose to do: My honest tip would be to avoid forums and community altogether whilst and when you are playing the game, so that you can get a fresh and unaffected or unspoiled experience. Giving yourself the time to go through it without distractions and if you find something that badly hurts your experience, just go to the forums, make a comment, and then lay it off for a bit until it gets fixed or continue playing if you see room to look past it. There's LOTS of awesomeness waiting for you. Also, you can sign up for Patch Beta, but I'd suggest you play on the original branch before playing on Beta branch, imho. http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/76849-patch-betas-on-steam/

I think it sounds cool (resource bases? Mercenaries? Is this an action RPG+strategy game hybrid? Is it going for 4X elements? If that's the case... wooooo!!), but no chance am I considering that link in the OP a credible source... yet! I know too little about the source.

I like the characters having their own "growth plans", it gives them an "untouched" behavior. If you leave them alone, and they grow on their own, but taking them as fast as possible, allows you some control of their growth. I think it makes sense. But from a gameplay perspective and from a Player perspective I get what you're saying in this thread. I still appreciate the former more than the latter. But... then again, we do encounter the companions at different parts in the game, where we will be at different or various levels. - Only Aloth, Eder, Durance, and Kana Rua are in the range of being picked up at or around Level 2 (at the very least). - Hiravias, Pallegina, Sagani and Grieving Mother at Level 3 (although, then you're really going to be going straight for them, and pick up as little experience as possible). There's also the argument that you have Adventurers to hire, that you can control as you please.

I think the entire prologue area could do well with... 1) Skip Prologue. You start off at the Scripted Event of Cilant Lis with Thaos and the machine. Maybe answer some quick "Who are you?" background questions that Calisca asks~ 2) Scripted Events of the Prologue. A Visual Novell, "Choose your own Adventure" type introduction to your character, and then you start off at Cilant Lis. The prologue does get repetitive and tedious, and it feels like a bottleneck into the game that you have to go through to experience the meat of the game. To me, the game begins at Cilant Lis, and it'd be faster to re-roll and to explore the world directly from Cilant Lis, instead of having to redo the caravan thing over and over again.

Eeeh eeeh... really? Maybe later.. working on other projects

I would say it is more of a taunting face

Here lies Humanity Never to be Singularity Only cosmetics and Vanity Labels to separate into Insanity

Yes, already figured that out. Specially since I lost everything I had already made T-T What I need mostly, I feel, is someone to talk with about the project. May be just simple back and forth discussion of ideas, but someone to talk with and someone that review my stuff and someone I can feel comfortable talking with about the extensiveness of the idea, the art, the system and so on. It gives "tangible" responsibilities, makes me more disciplined, and gives me more of a "sense of purpose". Doesn't need to do any work, just someone to talk with. At leisure, no-attachments required, "Creative Feedback" position & 'partner' will get credit, of course.