Osvir

You are a: Right-Leaning Pro-Government Multilateralist Bleeding-Heart Progressive Collectivism score: -33% Authoritarianism score: 33% Internationalism score: 50% Tribalism score: -100% Liberalism score: 50% EDIT: I view myself as a "Globalist Pro-One World Government" though~ a one world government could be a multilateralistic government too I suppose *shrug* oh, and not particularly Right-Winged or Left-Winged either. Or... whatever's best for Equality (Right-Wing doesn't tend to be aiming for that, according to history).

I was not talking about immersion through story, I was talking about immersion through combat. Oh, okay? Well, to me, it doesn't matter. I've been playing a lot of Dead State recently (Turn Based) and the animations are very basic, simple and dull (as they often are in Turn Based), and I've caught myself several times imagining the movements of the characters being way more extensive, vivid, interesting and way cooler. Like I said, you don't always get captured by a story (or even combat), some times you have to capture the story (or combat) yourself. When I played Baldur's Gate with a friend, multiplayer, we paused the game after combat and had a bit of a DM moment and I narrated what happened in the combat more vividly and way more descriptive than what the game itself could present to us. It was awesome. All of you have a fantastical mind, use it like, in the same way when you read a book, images appear in the foggy parts of the brain to often translate the words into the magic :D I personally love the pause feature in Pillars of Eternity! But... something about combat speed+pausing is... hm, I can't quite put my finger on it. It doesn't feel 100% calibrated in the Beta, something with Animation speed/play/frames combined with the Combat Log. I'll investigate further in the Beta what it is I'm frowning about though. @OP: Get Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition on Steam, I think I saw it for like 9,49 (Euro) the other day. There's Auto-Pause options giving you a Psuedo-Turn-Based Mode (if that's what you're more into), also, one of the most important aspects of the Infinity Engine games is the Roleplaying aspect in my opion. You kind of have to overcome a bit of a Mechanics Wall/Obstacle and then immerse yourself into the plot. Best way to do this is to work out a character concept, write a background story for your character, give them a purpose and make them enjoyable for yourself. "Who are they? Where did they come from? What do they want out of life in this world?" etc. Hm, comparing: - In the Diablo series I feel I am, as the Player, being told a story. - In the Infinity Engine series I feel my character is a huge part in telling the story.

Broken Link Fix: - My BB Screenshot Folder

(1) Look at ze optionz @Starwars. I dunno which one, but I made a Path of the Damned/Expert/Trial of Iron game, and the "hand-holding" was gone. Dunno if it was difficulty or if it was something in the options (I clicked/removed everything that were related to UI+Helper tools). (2) Instead of having the (Door Icon) on top of a door, make the entire door into an (Icon), and when you hover your mouse-pointer over it, it'd have a "slightly open state", or it'd get an "slightly open state" when you click it @Obsidian.

Posting here too: Great stuff :D most playable build as of yet (first time managing to play through the thing without any issues!). Lovin' it I think it is important to not play Beta Inspector ALL the time too, this time I let myself immerse into the game, and whenever there was a bug I took a screenshot and then pretended that it never happened and continued to experience the feelz, story, and my character/party concept/build (and even wrote down some Roleplaying notes every day in the Journal). So..................................... try to actually PLAY the GAME instead of TESTING the BETA. Just a tip. EDIT: Did you... check the options menu?

I like "What You See Is What You Get" but... come on, "realism" argument? When my Aumaua takes down an Orlan, yep, like, do I even have to explain why my Aumaua shouldn't be capable of wearing anything that Orlan wears? I think they should drop crafting materials instead, leather straps, plate pieces, stuff that represents what they are wearing, if you killed an enemy with a Fireball spell, maybe you get some ashes too, or you could create some unique enchanted materials (Magically Touched Leather Straps, that the soul of the spell fused with the guy you obliterated). All of these crafting material would then be used to upgrade your already worn and well-fitted armor. Now, that is realism. "What You See Is What You Re-Purpose" I have an extensive novell I made a loooong time ago explaining why I think it'd be amazing (Added with lots of other stuff in there as well, unrelated to looting). I think only a few read it or cringed reading it though, I dunno, not much response and probably ignored haha *shrug* Armor on armor on armor.

Here's more explanatory messy stuff: - https://www.dropbox.com/s/p7uzum9ae3ny35u/engagey.jpg?dl=0 - https://www.dropbox.com/s/tm4pvdmrooo1mlv/engagey2.jpg?dl=0 (Facing "3" = Disengagement from "1" = Now Flanked) - https://www.dropbox.com/s/xmh8kz8mjvx6k6g/engagey3.jpg?dl=0 Essentially, a sort of vision radius/cone-thing and importance of directional facing. Perhaps a Disengagement "Attack" isn't necessary, because "Flank" is a thing... getting attacked and flanked might be a bit overboard *shrug* "Flanked" gives a penalty in itself (no?), both tactically and strategically, so maybe the "Disengagement Attack" isn't that important hm, but I dunno, I'm just reflecting/brainstorming. More visual mess stuff examples about "Facing": - https://www.dropbox.com/s/mx4s96hptp733ev/facing.jpg?dl=0 - https://www.dropbox.com/s/6gj5f0yb0o9sgfg/facing2.jpg?dl=0

@The Engagement Discussion on page 1/@Hormalakh: - If Sensuki would release his "No Engagement Mod" then use that, there you have one solution. "You don't like the Engagement Mechanic? Turn it off", there isn't much more to say about it. Obsidian could use it as well, make it an On/Off Switch in the Options. Allow Players to choose whether they want Engagement or not. The solution could be as easy as choosing between "Easy" or "Hard". But I don't think Obsidian should spend time and resources on it, if they think it's a waste of time. I like the Engagement mechanic, but I think the Disengagement mechanic needs some improvements. So, disengagement: Personally, I think Disengagement should only trigger if you high-tail it 180 degrees and run away, or even running 120-180 degrees away. Adjacent targets should be engaged and switching between two adjacent targets should not prompt a disengagement attack, and "Hold the Line" should allow the Character to Engage 1 more creature and switch targets without getting a Disengage attack. Anything within 0-90, or 0-120 degrees, should not prompt a disengage attack, and anything above should call for a Disengagement Check, with a failure state and a success state. In Dead State, if you move 1 tile away from the target, your character is still facing the target, this is something I also think would benefit the Engagement Mechanic. If you are engaged with 1 target, and then pressing behind you, you don't turn around and run away, but rather walk backwards still facing your opponent (and not disengage or get attacked for it). Dead State doesn't have a "disengagement" system though, but still, you continue to face your opponent even when moving away from it. In Pillars of Eternity you turn around 180 degrees and get whacked for it. I dunno if this makes any sense but: https://www.dropbox.com/s/cdvw3cij7d4xkdg/Namnl%C3%B6s.jpg?dl=0 © = Character 1, 2, 3 = Monsters EDIT: The blue/Engaged circle = "Facing Direction" /EDIT 1 and 2 are engaged and won't prompt a disengagement attack, but turning around to fight #3 would cause a disengagement attack. If there was a 4th monster next to 2 or 1, the Character would get a disengagement attack from the target that gets bumped outside of the engagement radius. Hold the Line could extend the radius/degrees. Monsters/Enemies would also have the same thing, so they could switch between adjacent targets. If the Character and monsters have some sort of "Facing" value, then you should also be able to do minor movements near the target(s) you are engaged with. Sensuki mentions that "moving one pixel creates disengagement attacks", and that's a bit poor in my opinion as well, and perhaps it could be improved upon so that the Character can move within the engagement circle (with "Facing") a bit. "Two swordsmen, circling each other, staring each other down" samurai style. This could prompt some interesting plays as well, if you have 2 characters targeting 1 enemy from the front, one of them could begin circling the opponent (within the engagement radius) and flank them (without getting a disengage attack on them). And the AI could employ this strategy as well. - Artifical Intelligence: This is something that's optimized at the very last/latest stage of development, isn't it? Probably good to talk about and give out pointers about it at any point in time, but chances are that it won't be much improved until 1 month-ish before release. The IE strategy/AI Mod was released long after the games were released, why? Because it's easiest to adjust these values when the product is as stable and feature complete as possible. I don't really have much to say at this point about it though. - Combat Animations: Should have more "omphf" in it in my opinion. The BB Priest with her 2-handed mace, swings it like a toothpick. There's no build up, no acceleration, no "way of the blade" (or "way of the mace") in it. It looks wonky. Characters should lift their weapons, before swinging, and then it should accelerate as they swing their weapon (juxtapose it, go grab a stick and swing it in mid-air a bit). Right now it looks as if combat is on amphetamine, or adrenaline, and that it should lay off the heavy stuff and go to a rehab. Currently it looks as if the animation plays from 90% to 100% of the recovery time, naturally, this makes the animation speed play quite fast as it has a very short window to play. If the build-up of a spell cast or attack animation begins instead at 50%, or 75% (starts to lift a sword/mace/axe w/e) and then begins to accelerate at 90%-95% (downwards swing, horizontal swing), it'd look better I think, and the pacing wouldn't be as hectic as it can feel at the moment.

Problem: - Space-pressing is way more frequent than in the IE games, a bit chaotic in a way, almost as if I press it too much in short intervalls. I think this has to do with combat animation speed across the board. And I feel animation should be slowed down a bit. I do like the Engagement mechanic though Solution: - Lower the attack speed animation. If the character starts swinging at 90% recovery in the BB, maybe they should start swinging at 70%-75%, and complete the animation at 100%. This might need a lot of testing and experimenting, but I believe should be fairly simple to manipulate, but might not be a priority at this development stage (I presume, bugs are more important to weed out). A potential ally of this problem is the Combat Log, which is non-functional at this stage (at least for me) so I can only rely on the very well explained GUI. It suffices, but with a proper Combat Log that gives information at a fairly calm pace, I think it'd be easier to understand "X Player Attacks Y Target". "Aloth begins to cast Fireball" etc. etc. and it'd give a better idea what's happening too. Right now the Combat Log is frustrating, it auto-scrolls to the very top, so I need to scroll it down every time, so I can't get a sense of the pace it's going at, but it looks like it's showing millions of numbers (exaggerated ofc) in a short spurt of time. I suppose if it was simplified, with more basic numbers and basic actions, it could be easier to follow what's going on as well. Example #1: "X Player Attacks Y Target" And then you could expand that to see that specific action in detail, being played out in realtime. The combat log could even stretch as far as have your characters names, with sub-groups that refreshes each combat. So if you want to know what one specific character is doing right now and have been doing up til this time, you'd expand that information by clicking on the name, and you'd see list you could scroll through whilst paused. Example #2: "Aloth" - [Time]: Aloth attacks Dude - [Time]: Dude took X damage - [Time]: Dude attacks Aloth - [CurrentTime]: Aloth took Y damage "Edér" - [Time]: Edér attacks Dude - [CurrentTime]: Edér grazed Dude for Z damage *shrug* Problem #2: - Characters are running everywhere, but when entering combat, they show that they have a walk animation at some times when it gets wonky. This affects the pace of the transition between out of combat and in combat a lot. You can sneak, and you can run, but you can't walk. In the IE games you were walking everywhere, in PoE you run everywhere. It affects the pace, and thus affects how you engage. You literally run into battle when you Engage, and anywhere else for that matter (except when in cutscene). Solution: - Use the walk animation out of combat (IE feel), which already exists but only used in cutscenes, and either transist into running when entering combat, going for an enemy far away, or when trying to "run away" from Engagement (jRPG feel "Run Away"). Or Boots of Movement that activates "running in battle" but not out of battle (to not mess with pathfinding, and/or someone reaching the destination before everyone else). Or outright have a run-button that has some sort of penalty (Fatigue faster? Get "No-Rest-In-A-While" penalties faster? Engage battle with less Endurance? Etc.) I think Pillars of Eternity would benefit a lot from having the walk animation instead of the run animation to use when traveling, personally, both out of combat, in combat and the transition between out of combat and in-combat would be better. Try it Obsidian, in some build or whatnot, with a "Run or Walk" switch somewhere (console command/options) and see how the players react and which is most preferable, as a study of what is most played with and what the players enjoys the most, I suppose. What is immersion? What is convenience?

*blinks* .... ... *shrug...sss...!..?.!? Hugs!!* ... ;D @OP: Hi Matt! Pillars of Eternity is awesome! I managed to finish it for the first time (on Easy Mode), without crashing, save/loading issues, major unplayable lag, etc. etc. this time it went smooth, although, there were a couple of things I will try to reproduce on my next playthrough (I took some screenshots in Steam). So, yes, major changes to playability, and I think it is great. If this is what Pillars of Eternity does from v333 to v364, imagine what v450-v600 is going to be like :D (or uhm... is final always called v1000 or equivalent?). There's still some wonkyness I feel, primarily the animation attack speed, and the skill system feels a bit more clarified as well, and what is going on in combat as well thanks to a super clarified GUI it looks like it could be a joke, many of us said "we don't know what is going on in combat!?", but, it does school me good and really helps me understand what the heck is going on... it takes a lot of attention though. I might try turning it off if there's a button for it after one or more playthroughs. Maybe the GUI is the tutorial? xD Anyways, short version: I could complete everything in the BB without issues (on Easy). Made a character and could actually play the game without game breaking bugs or crashes, graphics looks.. cleaner, better, the code feels much more stable and not as shaky. Major changes, in my opinion. For the better. Also: - I am unsure if what I say is GUI (Graphical User Interface): The same thing as the green and red rings and arrows *shrug* that's what I mean anyways.

@Sheikh: If a story or setting captures you, then it doesn't matter whether it is TB or RT. If it doesn't capture you, then you are either not immersing yourself, or you're just not into the story. Sometimes you have to capture yourself in a story, rather than trying to let the story capture you. But... I like RT more because there's more to consider and it flows better. It'd be interesting to see a TB-RT implementation in some RPG in the future. Turn-Based Animations, so a Fighter would end his slash mid-turn, and next turn goes to the Rogue, who can then react to the animation (naturally, the Rogue would have faster animation speed, and could perhaps duck and start a leg trip, which the Fighter then reacts to, but fails dice roll, trips, and ends turn mid-air *stunned* and Rogue gets another turn). Realtime, chopped up in turns. That'd be awesome. Probably takes a lot of time and budget though.

This build is great :D good job

Yo! Long time no see. Or... well, I've been lurking a bit from time to time~ :D Just going to note down some thoughts here instead of making a new thread. Just played and finished all of the content for the very first time. This was very difficult to do previously, either because of horrendous sudden mega lag, or because of bugs breaking the beta. The game looks better, flows better, feels better. The main issue I have currently is animation speed when attacking (in combat), and perhaps the animation+recoveryt+hit could be timed, so that a polearm wielder might begin his/her swing mid-way of the recovery bar, and hit at the end of. Not to mention "acceleration" of swinging a weapon. For instance, a wielder of the polearm begins to "charge" or lifting a great sword slow above their head, and then with upper body motion slash downwards, horizontally, or whatever, much faster. I didn't pay too much attention when I picked skills (not in the way of min-maxing in any way), but rather what I felt fitted best with the character build concepts I had, and it worked really well. I played on Easy because I wanted to run through the content (for once, without issues) and left all default options as is (except for the map scroll *thumbs up* much needed). Will try out harder difficulties. I also "roleplayed" my character this time, "immersed" into it rather than look at the product objectively, and I can't wait to play the full product! (Also, seeing Jesse Cox play the game was hilarious, and also insightful) Some bugs still linger, but seeing this build (and Jesse Cox playing part of the real thing) makes me see how amazing it will be at the end of the tunnel :D GGWD (Good Game, Well Developed) EDIT: LOL! Wrong thread! Had a tab on "First Impressions" up. This post belongs there.

Unless the Grandpa is a master-level Gamer and the grandson is an innitiate, and the grandpa simply responded with "That's nice", but really meant "Yeah sure! Bring it on noob!" when they got home and play CoD.

Off-topic, @JadedWolf & Kickstarter discussion: That is... pretty darn intelligent. A Kickstarter for a Kickstarter Tier? Hm... would one have to ask for permission from a studio/company first? e.g. what I want to get at: Pillars of Eternity fans banding together and asking Obsidian if they are allowed to make a Kickstarter for an Expansion (post-release), and Obsidian would be willing to make it if fans can reach a sum required? If if if. Kickstarter does allow for that, theoretically. X game fans banding together asking Y studio/company if they'd make Z game if X fans reach a sum of $.

Steam says something about Bitdefender~ if you look at one of the links I posted in one of my previous posts in this thread. They got all the info. But it is odd that is only PoE and nothing else is affected. Probably some unknown new asset file in Pillars of Eternity that Bitdefender is all "I DON'T KNOW WHAT THIS IS IT MUST BE DANGEROUS!?!?!? QUARANTIIIIIIINE!!" *squueeeel* (for some reason, that's how Bitdefender has come to sound to me xD). I had to delete everything Pillars of Eternity (remove local content and delete all left over files manually) and re-download it when v333 released, it works fine now - If you have any trouble with Pillars of Eternity (can't run), try "Remove Local Content" and Delete files manually in SteamApps/Downloaded and in SteamApps/Common - Re-download/Re-install - In Bitdefender, "Show" it and click "Quarantined files" (IIRC) and click "Exclude" on pillarsofeternity.exe

O.O how awesome are you Obsidian? (Oh, and you Bester as well!) These things look great! I'm going to not explore this venue though, because I want to finish the game at least once or twice before looking into this (too much spoilers). Shouldn't this thread be in Widgets and/or have a

I'm kind of on the same level as the OP. With Kickstarter the developers can again develop things based on feeling, inspiration, motivation and be as creative as they choose or want to be. Making the games they want to make. In Publisher/Business men-relationships I get the feeling that the games are less about what they want to do, but more about what they simply have to do. It becomes more technical and less about "feeling". I tend to compare this with guitar playing, there's many great guitar players out there, and singers and musicians. But many are just "technical" artists with no "feeling" (que, Justin Beiber). He's a great singer, but where is his feeling? It's just an illusion. Kickstarter, and the revolution of it, allows developers to get in touch with that "feeling" again, I suppose. But it also invites the crowd, the fans, the audience, to also "feel" and influence with their "feeling" I also believe that Kickstarter and Early Access affects the big publishers and rubs them in a good way, motivating and inspiring AAA companies to get in touch with their "feeling" again. Publishers giving the developers (the creative people) more room to breath and do their thing... well, at least I hope they do.

I don't think I had any idea what those things did back then, and I still have no idea what those things do xD it was mostly joystick gaming. Also, cassette tapes

.. was that "Jet Pack" where you had to assemble the broken ship and then.. umm.. never managed that far actually. But awesome laser weapon effects. Yes! (you assemble the ship, then you grab fuel, then you start flying but you crash and have to do the same thing again) I managed to get as far as level 3-4 I remember, it was a difficult game. Never finished it... hmm... I'm realizing that it would make a great modern roguelite (with pickups and stuff to advance your weaponry), if someone would pick it up and remake it. Also had an amazing game called "Cauldron" (It says Phantomas 2 there so I'm guessing that's Cauldron 2, appearantly there were 2 of em). My dad did a gigantic pen & paper map out of it. Permadeath, Castlevania-ish game, you always had to start from the very beginning if you died xD so he mapped it out. Also, the Hobbit (which was extremely difficult for a child, I never got past the very first room, yep, that screenshot there. Explosive chocolate box of doom T-T), Rambo. After that I got a NES machine, played SNES and Sega Genesis at friends, then PSX, PS2/Dreamcast, PS3/PSP, PC. I'll probably get a PS4 at some point too (Kingdom Hearts 3 and Final Fantasy XV <3). I also had a Mac at some point that was a horrible gaming machine (I remember playing and finishing WarCraft 3 and TFT on it. Imagine 300 ping and 5-10 fps in a multiplayer game, pretty much constant lag xD). For some reason the CGI was running perfect, but the gameplay itself was barely holding together. Correction from my previous post: VHS, not VCR xD EDIT: (I'm looking through old-school games from the ZX on the internets ^^) - Dizzy was an amazing game that we had as well, kind of like Cauldron too. - Dan Dare as well. That's all I can remember, but I did find something I had no idea about until now xD (never played back then) - Space Crusade (WH40k, rip-off, most likely) - Space Hulk pretty much

I was 3-4 years old when I started gaming, on this machine: And this was my very first game my dad liked to run around with a video camera when we were kids so I got a VCR tape of it laying around somewhere xD 23 years ago. Time fllies

I like it, scroll-list, it may have to be improved upon in terms of a bit of clarity though, or showing more skills at a time in the scroll-list. That's the main downside I see with it, is that there is a limited amount of skills, visually in-screen/border, so looking through all of them gives me the impression of taking too much time. I wonder if it would be possible to expand the skill window or decrease the font size and include more skills to click through at a time checking them all out, scrolling up and down and comparing different skills between each other. I guess that's what I find most infuriating with it, it's not "easy" to compare the Skills with each other. I absolutely love the clarity in the attributes screen, what attributes are best for the class, it makes it easier to comprehend what the class is good at, and then I can choose to build a character according to the "recommended" attributes or choose to build something else. The below goes semi-off-topic (relatable to the Skill list as well as character creation altogether) Attachments: chargen1.png illustrates how the Skill system is currently working (very simplistic) chargen2.png illustrates how the system could work (very simplistic) The idea is simple, whenever you "click" on a button, the description window would appear in the middle. I.E. Highlighting the choice and explaining it. Not just hovering the mouse-pointer over as that could be too much "tooltip" and "floaty" annoyance. Click -> Description Box On -> Modify values -> Click -> Description Box Off or Modify values (won't prompt a description box) If Obsidian would do this, they could also combine various elements in the Character Creator (such as the appearance screens, they could become 1 single screen where you can pick Portrait, Colors and potentially Voice). The weakest part of the Character Creator at the moment is the amount of clicking back and forth you have to do, in my opinion, ESPECIALLY in the Portrait and Color section (if you want the character to resemble the portrait whatsoever). This is unnecessary back and forth clicking. Combining the different screens to the best extent I believe would make the whole of the Character Creation much easier to manage, and easier to go through it (In Wasteland 2 there's only 2 screens, in Pillars of Eternity there's like... 6 or 7 screens).

**** the drama. Go diversity. http://diversi.nu/petition/

http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/segment/gamergate-and-women-in-video-game-culture/543c686878c90a71ff000157 EDIT: One could call this Part 2 to Huffington Post's coverage of GamerGate.

Another suggestion: - Open World like Skyrim, TES, GTA or similar (Even like Civilisation, Crusader Kings etc.) - First Person and Top Down Elements - Dynamic Progression (Procedurally Generated Areas, Random Loot) - Single Player High-Fantasy, Steampunk, Cyberpunk, Modern (doesn't really matter what sub-genre) Background: I restarted Skyrim, and decided to play entirely different. Instead of becoming the Dragonborn I went straight to the college and became the Arch-Mage. Looking at the game from that perspective made it extremely much more interesting and soon I had forgotten the Main Quest line and instead I was just the Arch-Mage of Skyrim. Eventually, when there was nothing more I could do on this quest, I stopped playing. An idea spawned, and I tried my outmost with mods to reach this level of detail but alas, I couldn't get it to work nor did I find exactly what I wanted. Narrative Concept: Imagine that you are a God in Skyrim, and that all of the NPC's are already in place. There is no Character Creation, but instead you pick one of the NPC's anywhere in the world and you "possess" them. As you do this, other NPC's would react to this depending on their status in the world. If you go down in an Anti-God town, your character might be hunted with torches almost instantly, in another town the NPC's might praise your coming and kneel down before you. Progression Concept: After you have possessed someone, you can go anywhere and depending on your actions you'll affect regions. The game is layered in 2 states. Layer 1: The Character Perspective Very much standard in Skyrim, for instance, you control a character and you move them in the world (Exploration, Combat, Quests etc. etc.) Layer 2: Strategy World Midst playing in FPS as your character, a Crusader Kings AI (a Faction AI) on top. Factions will wage war against each other, whilst you are traveling the world, diplomatic envoys, caravans, trading. But you could also aim to take control of one of the factions, and steer them in your ambition. So if we were to look at Skyrim, becoming the Arch-Mage wouldn't simply mean becoming the Arch-Mage cosmetically, but you'd also gain some power in politics. Gather soldiers, take over cities, order soldiers and slowly take over the world or do what you want to do. You could also decide to play the game like Skyrim, be an adventurer, a mercenary, or perhaps something as simple as being a Captain in an Army or similar. In essence #1: A game where you start as an Adventurer, and having open ended options to either become a Hero/Villain, or becoming a Political Leader. In essence #2: Imagine if World of Warcraft factions actually were controlled like an RTS by Players, and battling other factions whilst Character Players were running around in the world. EVE Online and DUST 514 mentality, in a single player game.