Osvir

@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.

@constantine: Maybe I should've clarified... most quests are "Return Quests" - Quest Giver - Go and Fetch the Objectives of [insert Quest] - Return to Quest Giver For instance: - Talk to Medreth (Quest Giver) - Kill Nyfre/Aid Nyfre (Fetch/Gain Info/Intel) - Return to Medreth (Return) Or... - Talk to - Do - Return to I was simply expressing the basic structure of most (if not all) quests (and not necessarily Baldur's Gate or Infinity Engine, most "Quest Structure" in any game is very simple, in its most basic form). Maybe my usage of "Fetch Quest" was wrong. But what I wanted to express with this post is... - Talk to (or even ignore) - Do stuff - Stuff happens - Do more stuff - Stuff - Do - Ignore - Do this - Then that - Or maybe in the other way - Then do - Return - Or don't return

Oh! I like that smoke bomb scenario! :D Another thought popped up... 1st: You encounter Medreth and his followers like they are, gain the quest. 2nd: When you do the transition into an area, Medreth's group could become "smaller" or re-positioned. 3rd: When you return to Medreth to tell him how it went with Nyfre, you could see less dudes standing around him, or they have placed themselves elsewhere. One might be leaning over the southern stone wall, on the bridge, overlooking the river, just chilling. One might be leaning towards a tree near the Temple. This would/could simulate that Medreth doesn't quite trust you, and is unsure whether you will perform the task for him or not, and when you return his repositioning of his dudes is to allow for better flanking or attack opportunities, if you would choose to betray him. If the group would be smaller, it could be abstracted as some of the cowled followers are in hiding nearby, and when the fight begins they spawn in a favorable positioning.

@OP/Thread Title/Topic: I'm playing Wizardry 6-8, 40 hours in on Wizardry 6, near finished with the Pyramids (I've got a Lizard-Fighter, Human-Samurai, Felpurr-Ninja, Dwarf-Valkyrie, Mook-Psionic and a Elf-Bishop). I've been drawn to old-school RPG's more and more ever since I started venturing to these boards, well, it was a thing that started to happen to me before Project Eternity as well. Next-Gen stuff hasn't really excited me, but the older gems do. Why? It's hard to put my finger on it but... abstraction & imagination. Your own level of capability to "imagine" stuff, the level of your own vivid and childish fantasy. Wizardry manages to unlock this, Baldur's Gate, Fallout, many of the old-school games places me in the story, in the narrative, and my fantasy and imagination goes wild. Much like reading a book, and imagining the interactions, environments and characters in the book, in your mind. Combat becomes vivid, for the brief moments that it occurs. My static portraits and the clunky sound doesn't do much, but in my mind's eye I see my environment, the enemies ahead of me, my heroes looking at each other nervously, or confidently. An example: "The fight begins, and the Samurai leaps forward, swinging his nodachi like a true sword master. The enemy didn't know what hit them. Still surprised, another one goes down, as from the shadows, Keera, a master assassin appears to backstab another one, acrobaticly she flips, slices another of the Amazulu's throats. Meanwhile, Ferrul has invaded the mind of one of the Amazulu's, she's writhing in pain, rolling on the floor. When only she is left, Larz moves up casually and thrusts his sword through her, ending her mental pain. The party moves on. /End of example I guess, a bit of an attempt of a new term here, one could call old-school roleplaying games "Role Reading". The gameplay isn't fantastic in Wizardry (most of the time, in combat, I'm simply holding down "Return" because it's pretty damn easy with my party), but it's the world, the lore, the interaction with it that's great, exploring, mapping, writing down notes, talking with NPC's. But also, as seen above in my "Combat example", is that You become a bit of the "author" in the plot, in what goes down, how your characters move, how they interact, how things are perceived. Wizardry 6 is a blocky, 2D FPS dungeoncrawl, the graphics aren't the prettiest of prettiest, but it's just simple, good, and extremely well abstracted. When entering the Pyramids I get a message, telling me that there's ornaments and paintings and statues along the walls. But all I see, visually, is mostly grey stone walls (taken from google, not my party, for some reason my Steam screenshots didn't work). In my minds eye, I do see all of the stuff though, I imagine that "golden" "sandy" color of the pyramid... much like how it is when I read a book. What Next-Gen RPG's do "wrong", I believe, is the "too much handholding". There's too much arrows, pointers, GUI and HUD elements that guides the Player through the game, whilst in Wizardry I am guiding myself through the game. I am exploring the game, I am inside the Zoo. Whilst in Next-Gen RPG's I feel as if I am on a Tour, a passenger on a railroad trolley, and I'm looking into the Zoo through a window, with a Guide stating "To the left we have a great outdoors environ, and to the right you can see the Dragon in the sky". And Demon Souls, Dark Souls, prove to us that Players create communities around games that aren't handholding you every corner, they explore it and a base of an enormous amount of fans gather around the table to join in on the discussion of "How to beat this or that". It proves to us that these games do work, yet most AAA developers seem afraid, scared of developing anything that the Players might explore themselves. It's like overprotective parents, afraid they will lose their children if they are too strict, so they turn to become softcore and more accessible. That's my cents. P.S. If you want a really really good RP game? Project Zomboid. Get it. It's amazing. For best effect: Find an RP server, or create an RP server with your friends. You can also play it locally, multiplayer co-op.

Of course! But I think it requires a lot of attention, and now we're only talking about kiting as a thing, lots of stuff follows. How should they react to you kiting? How do you react to the enemy kiting? Guerilla tactics, hiding behind stuff, taking cover, flanking, ambushing, circling around. One enemy attacks, another one runs further away, attacks, and then they take turns, cycling each others attacks in sync. 1 attack, 2 run away, 2 attack, 1 run away etc.etc.. If the AI notices you are starting to kite, maybe they could react by circling, or disappearing away from you, only to appear later behind you. Or an enemy seemingly fleeing, but appearing on 2-3 maps later trying to ambush you, and have stalked you, or even gotten more friends to attack you. Having enemies flee combat, and disappear out of the map (e.g. despawn) doesn't have to mean they are "gone", it could mean backup, more incoming enemies, a bandit camp is abstracted as being close by. Maybe Medreth has a large caravan close by, and he's only part of the scouting group. An enemy that runs out at location X, Y (let's say, directly west from the Church/Temple of Berath door/entrance), could be programmed to "run" out of the map, circling the trees to the south of the Temple, and then re-appearing directly South of the Party spawn point in the Backer Beta, thus appearing behind you to flank you. AI could walk out of map, but the Player could not. This would give AI much more versatility, I think. EDIT: Returning to a question I placed on the board earlier: How would you play against the Adventuring Party if you were Medreth's group? What would you do to attempt to defeat the Party?

Off-topic curiosity: Isn't a troll codependent on codependency?