Osvir

(1) Funny thing, because a Shieldbearer Paladin has an ability that makes your character practically immune to Disengagement Attacks. That fight could've went all the other way with some better preparation, better build and reading skills/abilities. I often feel you want to have at least 2 characters that can help others get out of a tight spot (I.E. Fighter+Paladin, a Fighter has Knockdown, a Paladin has the Shackles thing~ anti-disengagement). There are other skills/spells/abilities too on other classes that can help against disengagement. I get the feeling that if you go into that fight again you'll be better prepared. (2) And yet, in (vanilla) Baldur's Gate there may be like 15 Gnolls standing next to each other, and by only "touching" 1 of them with the vision radius, you'll draw that single one to you whilst the rest of the 14 stand back. It is bad, in my opinion. I don't agree with you, I like it that there is a "hive mind" and that enemies react together or in a "chain command" even. Though, I do think that in some instances undetected stealth kills could be a thing (without alerting anybody else), but maybe more against humanoid creatures than insectoids or animals.

This brings to mind an idea I had whilst playing Baldur's Gate a long time ago... 1-Handed weapons held in 2 hands (A Katana for instance, instead of holding it in 1-Hand, holding it in 2 hands with Two-Handed Mastery). Same thing with Bastard Sword, me thinks, or another sword... I recall there being a weapon in Baldur's Gate which had the description "Can be held in one or two hands" but statistically/mechanically it is only a one-handed. I.E. the idea was to be able to cycle "Two-Handed" and "One-Handed". Are Nodachi type swords in Pillars of Eternity? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%8Cdachi

If a "light" source could be attached to the middle of a fireball VFX, it could show dynamic shadows cast by the Party or Enemies alike. Or have it tied to the explosion itself. A Fireball is a big ball of fire and light, after all. Could help with clarity? Otherwise, its effect is short and explosive, I don't think it is obtrusive.

Don't know if this is relatable but I went through something with that I have no idea what it was. Might've been Party Manager, or Adventurer's Hall companions. I got a Black Screen at the end of it. 1-Load save (Dracogen Inn) 2-Un-Equip All Gear on the BB Characters (Put in Stash or pile on 2-3 characters, sell the items to afford companions. But keep rings, belts, capes, helmets) 3-Kick two BB Characters //I kicked BB Fighter & BB Priest 4-Recruit 2 Level 3 AH Companions (I made 1 Aumaua Fighter & 1 Dwarf Ranger) 5-Kick the last 2 BB Characters 6-Recruit the last AH Companions //I made, in order, an Orlan Wizard, Human Nature Godlike Chanter, Barbarian Orlan 7-When the Barbarian was finished, the game didn't crash, but became a "Black Screen". I could move around the mouse pointer during the "Black Screen", could get icons for "Talk", "Move" and I think "Interact" (hand) but everything was black except "Journal" which showed "Glossary, Notes, Journal, Quests" etc. at the top (only the words) with a black background. I could press "Escape" and hear the sound of the buttons, but when pressing any of them nothing could be done (but I'm pretty sure I was in a menu). Here's the output_log. My Steam is acting up so I can't get any screenshots. Note: I tried reproducing it using that save, but maybe one needs to start from the beginning. In that case (on PotD with Trial and Expert) 1-Talk to Medreth (Aggressive) 2-Talk to Bridge Troll Guard (Aggressive) 3-Talk to Rumbald (Aggressive) 4-Start recruiting/removing companions as explained above. Might have something to do with it?

You only get 1 point to spend on Talents at level up and... it got me thinking. What are the incentives to pick a Non-Class Talent? Currently it feels as if the Offensive/Defensive/Utility Talents are more or less "If you want to break the mold" or "If you want to build specifically towards something". Class Only Talents feel more attractive. I want to propose, or flirt with the idea of getting 1 more point to spend at Level Up on Talents. Either that or separating the Talents as seen below. Bulletpoint/On Level Up (And applicable): - 1 Talent Point for Class-Only Talents (Can only be spent on Class) - 1 Talent Point for Non-Class Talents (Can only be spent on Offensive/Defensive/Utility) or - 2 Talent Points on Level Up (Spend freely) Granted, I don't know how many Talent points you get (in total from Level 1-12, Level Up Talent Points Only. Talents acquired through Quests/Objectives/Achievements excluded, if there are any of those). EDIT: According to "Talent" (official Wiki) you gain 1 Talent point every even level so... you get 6 Talent points in total? (still excluding the reward Talets) Thoughts?

@Sensuki: Difficulty? Settings (Options/Resolution/Auto-Pause etc. etc.)? Which areas? Party comp? What were you doing? Many things happening at once? Abilities cast? etc. EDIT: I only fought Medreth, but I had no slowdowns whatsoever (Nothing in character creation, nothing in running around, nothing in the inn or leveling up). Hopping in again. My resolution is 1366x768 btw.

Sorry, couldn't help it xD first song I thought of seeing the title.

Voice sets can be choppy, they start playing and then abruptly ends.

First run: It runs really smooth and stable! More to come. Going to go through the "Needs verification" list.

OMFG! What a surprise! :D In the BB at the moment and got to say when I got to the Talents screen (Level up) I said "Ooooh" out loud without thinking. I like it!

To take your own words, this is all it is nothing more, nothing less. If it helps? *shrug* If it doesn't? *shrug* it's just ideas! Pillars of Eternity will most likely be "promoted"/"marketed" by itself regardless if we discuss here or not, one way or another. You might find yourself talking about it with friends (word-by-mouth) or on another forum, or on an article, or a YouTube comment etc. others might do it more actively, others more passively. We don't know. EDIT: Quote is taken out of context because I wanted to put further emphasis.

So, basically you want them to blatantly lie? Why not just pay the reviewers? I'm being analytically objective, "What would help promote Pillars of Eternity & what can common folk do?". In the same vein as the topic title suggests ideas for promoting PoE. Doesn't mean you have to do it, nor do I, it's just one method of promoting it. Except, TB doesn't do reviews and he doesn't do "WTF is..." on RPG's either.

That's what happens now yes, but we don't know how it will act later. A Wizard might be using magic like that "teleportation", Rogue's you face using escape, Fighters using knockdown (which they already do). An enemy Priest casting a Seal, or a Barbarian Wild Sprinting into you. There's tons of abilities in the game, and currently, I've mostly seen the AI use "Auto-Attack" (the majority, unique monsters do more stuff). Each ability is a trigger and can be scriptable to be done by various situations. Dragon Age: Origins have "Tactics", and Final Fantasy XII have "Gambit" (IIRC). These are scripts the Player can use and play with for their party and characters they aren't actively controling, but I believe similar tactical scripts are used for the enemies in both DA:O and FFXII. I don't know if we'll get that sort of control of our units in-game in Pillars of Eternity, maybe in active console commands, or out of the game when editing or modifying. Point is, there's tons of resources that the basic AI we see isn't using... yet.

6) Making Best of X (10, 5, 3 etc. etc.) RPG videos/lists/threads also helps promote. "Best Isometric PC RPG's", "Best cRPG's", "Best Kickstarter RPG's" and so on and forth, one can make a best of list about anything and get Pillars of Eternity in there I believe.

They are part of the same YouTube network (Polaris). Some viewers who come across Jesse, will also come across TB. Some catch on to Jesse, subscribe, see podcasts and are exposed to Dodger & TB + featuring guest. It would be really interesting to have Developers on the Co-Optional Podcast to be honest, like a Matt Chat interview, but more casual and talking about games moreso than what the particular Developer is developing. Could be great PR too. But the podcast is mostly YouTubers, unfortunately (TB, Dodger & Jesse). Jesse's video was also promotional, not part of his usual schedule or usual content. Many who are subscribed to Jesse watch on his channel, lots of viewers I think want "the usual stuff" from whatever they watch, and for whatever reason they watch. It's like flavors, say you are buying chocolate for the chocolate flavor, then you want it to taste like chocolate, and not vanilla. Also, if I am not mistaken, it was Paradox/Obsidian that uploaded the videos to their YouTube channel. I am getting the feeling that Jesse might be doing a Let's Play of Pillars of Eternity when it's out though, and that'll grant more exposure too. It'd be awesome if TB did an impression video of Pillars of Eternity, but it's an RPG and he's known to not cover RPG's (they take a lot of time & energy to get a good understanding, and are riddled with spoilers in video content, and are very differing depending on who plays it). @OP: 1) The contest could be community driven too, no? A reward will draw more attention, of course, and if Obsidian would be willing to compromise a "You get a deluxe version+a copy for your friend!", and/or if they get a box/physical reward one too many they could use that as a reward too. What I wanted to say was, Obsidian doesn't need to put any time into it if someone would make or attempt to make a contest seriously, and having asked for permission too of course. I think also that stuff like Mod competitions can be included in this. "Competitions" in general can be entirely community driven without the company involved in spending time, but it is important that the competition gets Company Approval regardless, as that will promote the competition itself. 2) Don't particularly like. 3) YouTube, Let's Play, Impression, News Articles, Comments, Forums, Industry, there's tons of places that Pillars of Eternity will be discussed. Of course, we can boost this exposure ourselves by creating a thread on a different forum, discussing Pillars of Eternity. We can make YouTube videos, blogs, even mail other Companies saying "We like this type of games a lot!" etc. 4) Google Search & Tracking, Twitter, Social Media. Simply searching in www.google.com for "Pillars of Eternity" you'll add +1 in the search tracker. "1 more search". Refreshing (F5) or searching for it again adds +1 on the search tracker, but it'll know your IP. Might presumably boost exposure regardless. Twitter # is also exposure, and sharing on Facebook, Vine, Google Circle, Tumblr or whatever social media you use, 5) Metacritic & Steam Reviews: Controversial but giving the game a good/high User score in purpose of promoting a title will expose it a lot. We've seen some titles get demoted from Metacritic by having bad history (Fez, Depression Quest, Garry's Day One Incident, WarZ, The Slaughtering Grounds*). What I mean is that the community has "power" to influence scores and what others first impression will be in the future. Lots of reviews = lots of impressions = lots of exposure, no matter what. I think it might be helpful even with lots of reviews in total as well, as it'll simply mean that a lot of people are talking about it and sharing their thoughts about it so reviews on Steam (and Metacritic) regardless of their score, the more there are the more exposure. * All of these games had some sort of industry mishap/scandal of some form and the gaming community went after these products and gave them bad reviews in both Steam, Metacritic, in gaming forums and generally negative attitude versus these titles.

I don't think that's doable. I don't think anyone did that in the IE games, where the equivalent is: no reloads, insane diff (2x damage from enemies), solo. And those games were much more solo-friendly than PoE is. Two out of three, yes. All three, no. But I would be kind of happy to be proven wrong. I've had moments in the BB where it has felt doable but... I haven't succeeded. Close calls, on Hard (not on PotD with Expert or Trial of Iron). Had a Solo Wizard and on another one a Solo Barbarian. Barbarian stood no chance, but the Wizard had potential. What I'm saying is that, I think it can be doable if you count the math right, sneak past the right enemies, complete quests, compare stats with opponents, and determine already before you begin the battle if you will win or lose. If a group of enemies have a total of 200 HP and you only have damage for 150 HP, then you can determine that "Well, I've lost" before even jumping in. EDIT: It also depends on how docile NPC's react to fighting I think, like in Friendly Arm's Inn you can get some backup from the guards there when fighting Mr. T (don't remember his name, but I remember it started with a "T", Tannosh, Tan---... Tar---? ... *shrug*). Point is, if, say, Lord Harond's Guard would help out in the fight if you bait Medreth's group into the village... such things would make a Solo play more doable too.

Did you read the post...? It's not where I think elves could go, but rather what I think could make elves "different" than what is commonly/traditionally perceived (a.k.a. Tolkien Elves). And it is actually from Final Fantasy IV, and it is the Dark Elf that has stolen the Earth Crystal that you have to go after

I think that was completely unfair and unprofessional coverage of IGN. Their wording makes it sound as if it is some sort of hardware issue, and if you look down in the comments of that video you'll see people reacting just like that. I did too before checking the comments. [Software] does Not Equal to [Hardware]

This would be the most... differing take on the Elf as a race in any game I think. Perhaps not a "good way" to depict the Elf, but it'd be a new take on a Player chosen race I think. The concept I have in my mind is inspired by this. Still human-like, and human-sized or shorter (or even taller), long thin arms. Sharp teeth and longer ears. I'm thinking of something like the Elvaan from Final Fantasy XI, but more sinister looking (One could combine the picture/head+nails+slenderness of the Dark Elf from FFIV above with the Elvaan body). A Slenderman Elf EDIT: This post is a bit flirting with the question(s) "What hasn't been done before?" or "How can you innovate something that has been done before?" a la "Keep the core, but represent it differently".

http://jesawyer.tumblr.com/post/105504146956/whats-the-scoop-on-the-dr-and-dt-changes-in#notes "A few changes should be in the update tomorrow, but there are many more coming." Does this mean today (18th)... or tomorrow? (19th) Twitter says: 21:57 - 17 dec 2014 But Tumblr says 18th.... are you a time traveler Josh o.o *hyped*

Or have dialogue not pause the game, and characters in the background moving depending on your C&C in dialogue. If the NPCs can move and the PCs cannot (during dialog), then that's not fair -- and, in fact, this happens all the time. We call it a cutscene... It is certainly possible to have a UI that supports movement of both NPCs and players during dialog (for example, NWN 1&2), but using that functionality to setup an encounter will (as you pointed out) result in players hurrying through the conversation / aborting the conversation / ignoring the conversation, all of which are bad. Hm yeah, point noted. Hypothetically speaking (not intended for this iteration of Pillars of Eternity, but musings for a future RPG/combat system, Obsidian or not): What about a HOMM (Heroes of Might & Magic) or even Blood Bowl, or a jap-SRPG (think Disgaea) combined with an Infinity Engine combat system? Namely, the "Tactical" stage, the point where you get to deploy and position your units before the Combat Turns begins. I've never seen that in a real-time game, it could make combat pretty interesting but could ruin a lot of immersion: - If combat is about to start = Pause the game - Tactical Stage: The Player is allowed to position their units within a circle/radius, the enemy units will do the same. - Ready/Done = Start Real time Combat phase. Thinking about it some more whilst brainstorming this post (and thus contradicting my previous statement above), Blood Bowl actually does this, in its real-time mode (and it works really well). But it is confined to a single and differently colored "chess board". How would such a thing function in more open spaces and open scenarios such as bigger world RPG's?

I view it as, no matter how much you pledged, you made this happen Fans who wanted to see a game like this happen, made it happen. The nature of Kickstarter and Crowdfunding. I'm a slacker backer (something that popped up post-Kickstarter, after the campaign), but I was around since the KS started (which is why I think I have a K on my profile). Due to this fact, I can't say that I made the Kickstarter campaign succeed, technically. So it's all thanks to you guys, massive kudos! :D without you, I wouldn't even have been able to "slack a back". I don't think it matters whether one pledged $10 or another pledged $20, and another pledged $500. In the end, fundamentally, we came, we saw, we conquered

Or have dialogue not pause the game, and characters in the background moving depending on your C&C in dialogue. But I think it would require some (lots really) of even more dialogue writing a la: *Medreth looks to one of his followers, nods, as if signaling a command. He then looks back to you, smile gone, and readying his blade* And whilst reading that you could see the followers position themselves in real time, but combat "state" won't start until you click "Done/Finished/Close". So if you'd click fast you could abstract it as "reacting quickly & counter-attacking", which I think many would do naturally (out of sheer fear of getting attacked whilst the dialogue window is up, until learning that combat never starts until pressing "X", in such a situation). I think it would require tons of work though. I can already see bugs where the party is in dialogue window and getting attacked by some external source and you can't react to it. As in, having fixed positioning, and drawing to set "Player is closing in" positionings? It could get wonky too, "I am 5 squares away, now I'm 4 squares away, now I'm 5 squares away" and snickering and giggling about how Medreth's followers are walking back and forth, confused and seemingly delirious from my character's presence (if you know how "Regions/Triggers" in map development/editing are in Editors like WarCraft 3's WarEdit, you'll understand what I mean).

This brings to mind a creature idea I made but never published! Aumermen :D (Aumaua mermen/mermaid's, or non-evolved Aumaua... Sahagin, in essence) As for the topic... I have seen this topic, but I think they are distinct, different. Humans are larger, elves are smaller. Though, in the game-space, on-screen, I suppose they do look kinda similar *shrug* not much to do. One thing though, Pale Elves, they look silvery and really cool (what I assume is a pale elf). Will a similar color scheme/palette be introduced? Maybe that could be one thing to vary Humans and Elf's. Color schemes... maybe? Or even pointier ears.