Osvir

Valid points Hiro

http://peacemakergame.com/ About: "PeaceMaker challenges you to succeed as a leader where others have failed. Experience the joy of bringing peace to the Middle East or the agony of plunging the region into disaster. PeaceMaker will test your skills, assumptions and prior knowledge. Play it and you will never read the news the same way again." I am currently downloading it so I can't review it yet. There is a different agenda with this game.

Of course Hiro. My suggestion applies to a sub-forum idea. I just think it should be exclusive, private, closed. A) A "Template Format" for Beta backers allows us to provide feedback in a way that Obsidian wants it in the best way. This way we can make the best kinds of first posts in a New Thread to give the best kinds of feedback. It'll make it easier for Obsidian to organize the feedback. B) An exclusive Beta backer forum is good as to avoid non-Beta backers to take up space/volume, by making irrelevant threads and/or obstructing the Beta process by commenting on Bug Threads with negative attitude. If I post a bug, and then 10-20 non-Beta backers comment on it "That's a thing? F**k you Obsidian for ruining the game!" or whatever, that just takes away from productivity for Obsidian. People who aren't part of the Beta, shouldn't be a part of the Beta. It sounds more harsh than I mean it, but I don't know how to formulate it in any better way.

I'm hoping for "Beta test instructions" of some kind. Are we getting an update today or are we getting one next week? That's what I'm speculating about... an update on the 13th regarding the Beta, pre-buffing us for the Beta, seems both more realistic and more "actual" in time to the Beta on the 18th. Will Obsidian create a private forum under the "Pillars of Eternity" category for Beta testers? (private and exclusive as to avoid any "clog" or "spoilers" for non-beta testers). "If you're not part of the Beta test, you have no purpose in this place"-place kind of deal. Will we get any instructions in how to submit bugs, feedback and suggestion in the best possible way? How can I aid you, Obsidian, in the best possible way when the Beta begins? What sort of format should I use when I report? Will you provide a "template" bug reporting format? Will there be a bug reporting tool available? (a program or application, drag-n-drop save-file, screenshot, write a short and direct description) Will we be able to write and send bug files in-game to Obsidian? Will there be a chat function in-game like D:OS? Will I be able to report bugs on the fly from some online in-game bug reporting diagnostics tool? Can the In-Game Journal become tweaked to become an In-Game Beta Journal and could it be possible to attach save files and screenshots to a Journal entry? These are things I would like to know

HAHAHAHAHA! Yes!! This made my day thank you. EDIT: and to contribute... Haha this gives me an idea for an NPC for the game regardless of "Big Head Mode: ON" or "OFF" xD

It looks amazing

So everytime you talk with someone you'd take the helmet off and afterwards put the helmet on again... animated? Even if not animated, "popping" the helmet off and "popping" it on would look silly too. @Topic: In the IE games I used to remove a helmet on some characters just because I thought it looked better~ it's more "natural" as well as someone else stated. Though, it is convenient in games having the option to "Hide Helmet" and still getting bonuses for it, but it is more immersive/realistic that "taking helmet off = no bonus" and "having helmet on = bonus".

Monster [Hostile]: Dust Drake - Dust Drakes seem to be a natural phenoma in the environment, but in fact are dangerous sentient ethereal large beings. They are creatures in limbo, between this world and the other world. Luckily for most travelers, they are a rare species, isolated in the deepest of deserts. Hence the name, "Dust" Drake, for dust and sand blow up like whirlwinds wherever they move. Some speculate they are the souls of some of the oldest and wisest of dragons.

I haven't read a single review of Divinity per say, just interviews... well... I saw a Reviewsical (wordplay~ Review+Musical = Reviewsical) of a guy singing about Divinity: Original Sin and what you can do in the game. The guy who did the review obviously thought it was so good that it made him sing out loud Any reviewer who reviews an Early Access game as a final product is living under a rock. Early Access has been out long enough now for people to know what it is and will correct any "this game is buggy" behavior (during Early Access). Divinity had loads of bugs during its Early Access, but I haven't seen any interviews talking about "bugs" as a problem. In the interviews with Swen he has only said how good the bugtesting process has been thanks to Early Access. It has sounds more or less like Early Access is a great, swift, and effective bugtesting solution. Larian thanks Early Access and states it is something very good because they get instant feedback from their fans. So if Pillars of Eternity is buggy during Early Access, it's probably going to be less buggy after it. Divinity: OS had a global chat during Early Access that they have removed now due to profanity that escalated, but that too was a great tool during their Early Access to weed out bugs and communicate directly to their fans and players.

Probably on Obsidians radar, but still a good read: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/220463/Divinity_Original_Sin_is_the_game_Larian_Studios_waited_15_years_to_make.php

These updates always tend to make me a bit speechless for a bit. Getting more hype In conjunction with the updates Josh usually gets a couple of questions, and I feel those are a little bit part of the update experience as well, from time to time. I can see them as individual bonus updates as well~ Will PoE have a ready stance? Sexism in PoE? It is always intruiging to see tidbits of progression at a time. Forming my sort of own general idea of how many % the game has gone through towards completion. Looking forward to August 18 I am also curious if this is a closed Backer Beta deal or if it will be a public Steam Early Access. Both has their merits, and I am also curious if there is some way to combine the two (Release public Steam Early Access+Closed Backer Beta Feedback Forum?). The latter could function as a "focus area" where Obsidian can convey the best way for us to give feedback, set up templates and perhaps even rules for posting feedback. Basically giving Obsidian quality QA on Backer Beta forums~

I think lots of people find Joe's videos through google as well. People who aren't subscribed and aren't looking at all of his content, but more or less just searches for what they want to see and then they find a video and then they move on. Many people still probably don't know what Pillars of Eternity is so they probably don't search for it in google or similar.

*cracks whip* Soldier! ... Nah That was a bit of a "heat of the moment" whilst writing the post. I remember laughing. It's a joke. As far as I am concerned you have your own free will and choices I still would like to see the video hit 1 million views just to see what would happen.

"One day you'll reach 1 million views video... one day" I know it's a bit of a shameless necro and final bump here, but one last glance it'll still be in my signature... my bump has a reason though: Close thread?

I thought it interesting to check Divinity's numbers a bit more, or rather, it is kind of intruiging to see how it develops analysis/information that could potentially benefit Obsidian+Pillars of Eternity? D:OS' player base has been growing exponentially and I think there's a very simple and obvious reason for this. Peak avg. Players*: July 1st - Tuesday - 13'523 July 2nd - Wedday - 13'598 July 3rd - Thurday - 14'300 July 4th - Friddday - 15'400 July 5th - Saturday - 18'144 July 6th - Sundday - 21'946 It is definately growing fast, and I think that graphically and statistically it might be smart strategically to release on a Monday. You'll be able to show a steady growth in the player base (less people play games during the weekdays, but people will discover/buy Pillars of Eternity during the week and play it on the weekend, thus when the weekend hits the statistics spike exponentially and will be useful in any kind of meeting in the future "See this beautiful upwards trend?" ). * Intentional misspelling of weekdays just to get some sort of "format" (for your eye's pleasure~)

Hasn't Beamdog been pretty open about wanting to do Baldur's Gate 3 and almost hinting at it as something they might do? I remember reading something about it~ "When we are done with Baldur's Gate 2: Enhanced Edition" or something like that... or were they going to IWD:EE and PST:EE as well??

I guess this is an update to my previous post (The Steam Charts for Divinity have rocketed as well in comparison to previously). Divinity: Original Sin is selling really well: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-07-03-divinity-original-sin-larian-studios-fastest-selling-game-ever They are also still on the #1 spot on Best Selling game on Steam.

I speculate whether or not animancy/soul magic is used in different industries, in a sort of avatar the last airbender type of way-ish-esque. Farmers who move water to sprinkle on the fields, a night patrol who lights lanterns with a flick of a finger. Like, if you have an ability to manipulate souls, then you can put that on your resumé and get a better job in the world of Eora. These are, of course, just speculation. Nothing too common but there could be some cases where people use magic for their day-to-day tasks, you don't need to only shoot lazer beams and rain chaos in combat~ This is also partially wishful thinking and to see some basic home-usage-magic. Maybe some builders are well versed in animancy and can build buildings by using it.

An idea, something I'd like to see in a MOBA. Something like League of Legends/DOTA or any other top-down MOBA out there, competetive gaming. But the key difference between all of those is that this wouldn't be a Champion or Role specific MOBA, instead it would be based on Items. Depending on what you buy you fulfill a role. Item-Based Classes. You'd also have a Character Creation, where you can build your character height, weight, eye color and so on. The bigger the character the more health but slower attack speed. The Character could be editted between games, like Masteries/Runes, for different types of plays between games. This way you'd play with your own Character that you've made and build it to become the class you enjoy to play through items. World: - Different competetive maps, with more level designs similar to Counter-Strike, Battlefield and similar instead of having just 3 lanes like in League of Legends or DOTA. More variants for maps. - 5v5, soldiers vs soldiers. - Minion waves are army robots~ - Jungle minions could be beasts and aliens, as well as some robotic technological stuff General Idea and Difference: - You start off as a standard infantryman and build your character through items. - A bot support could grab an early game drone that heals. - An adc gets a pistol, some ammo and a knife - A mid character might start with a rocket launcher, and then eventually build a one-man tank - A top or jungle player could get some trapping nets and some melee weapons/armor and/or muscle stims Items: - Everytime you level up, your items you have equipped also levels up. So you become better and gain abilities with equipped items. - Ammo is limited, which means that you will have to conserve your ammonution for last hits and What do you think? Do you know anything like it? In Dota and LoL and most MOBA's I know you pick a champion that has a couple of abilities already, but what if you got to create a character yourself and fight with that character on the battlefield? I've thrown around a similar idea for Diablo 3, and I think that Diablo 3 would benefit a lot from a MOBA-like PvP mode, where it could be Hell vs Heaven and you control your own hero.

The Scholar: Whilst the Scholar is in no way a fighter, and is best to keep far back in the band of heroes (or villains). The Scholar specializes in History, Philosophy, a sharp wise tongue that is easy to get caught up with. Of course, a Scholar is also seen as a ravaging madman by many, this is due to some Scholars getting lost in the Soul of History, and are assumed to gain scrying abilities far far far into the future, these Scholars are called "Doomsday Scholars" and their minds lost in multiple dimensions. Their eyes and mind seeing a most distant apocalypse in a parallell continuation of the universe. A potential outcome. A Scholar's magic is mystical, and as mentioned above, is called "Soul of History". A Scholar can remember past lives, and also future lives. But it is a dangerous path to take, and many fine Scholars have lost themselves in the "Labyrinth of Time". Time is a constant and confusing thing, as there are infinite amount of instances where life goes in different ways and paths, and only the Scholars who can maintain their minds in one timeline achieve masterhood. Concept Abilities - A Scholar is in a way a Time Mage who can warp time and space. Their signature style is called "Weave of Time". - A Scholar does not have any abilities or spells that deals damage, but are more a support role and town-heavy characters. - A Scholar can give boosts to the Party when camping, raising "morale" by telling stories or educating the other party members of the world. - A Scholar can fast travel on his/her own between cities, it makes the party smaller (5 party members) during travel, but you'll always have the best merchant and best Charisma character when you are in towns. - A Scholar and a Doomsayer Scholar are both great distractors of guards. For instance, if a Doomsayer Scholar starts crying out the end of the world near well guarded treasure door, the guards will investigate and potentially arrest the Doomsayer Scholar (which you then can rescue later). Or a regular Scholar can go up to the guards and use a distraction ability a la "Stay a while and listen"~ e.g. "Did you know this building was built in bla di bla isn't it fascinating?" etc. etc. and meanwhile your Rogue can sneak by and take all the treasure. - A Scholar can identify all items, and also gives identified items a permanent bonus. This can be seen as the Scholar identifying the blade and telling it's history to the Fighter, which in turn gives the Fighter more respect for the blade and more confidence wielding it. This goes for any character wielding the blade. E.g. Samurai-styled "Way of the Blade" honor-stuff. - A Scholar is also wise in the ways of herbs and plants, making him a light medic. - A Scholar is a very wise man or woman, and is very often a low-priority target in combat and on the world map. Lowers random encounters and is almost never targeted in combat. - The Scholar is a Teacher, whenever the Scholar levels up every other character in the party gains extra Skill Points (If Pillars of Eternity uses a similar skill system like F:NV). The Architect: I don't know what this class could do. But I like the title as a class. I'm thinking a Wizard of some kind that can create constructs perhaps. Different types of walls (Thorn Wall, Ice Wall, Fire Wall etc.) perhaps, could be fitting. Uses a different type of technique of animancy, "Hold Person" stuff. A lockdown Wizard. Soul Gambler/Vampiric Wizard/Fampyr Mage A Vampiric Wizard or perhaps even a Fampyr Mage who feeds on other characters life force to cast magic. Both party members life force and enemy life force. But it's a double-edged sword, other peoples/foreign life force is unstable and not so cooperative and can backfire, but the most powerful magic/damage-wise. Using your own life force is harmful to yourself but most stable. A Wild Mage variant~ Likewise, the Gambler could be a Fampyr, one who has been given immortality by a mad animancer, and the only way to stay sane and living is to drain others of their life force through magic (instead of eating flesh, the Fampyr Mage drinks soul essence). If not maintained the Fampyr Mage eventually becomes a Dargul, and could potentially even become a boney skeletons. However, those who are very strong in their Souls (I almost wrote "strong in the Force" lol) retain their mind in spirit-form, and becomes what people call a "Lich". A strong Fampyr Mage = Does not lose their sanity/memory/mind by becoming a skeleton, instead they become an immortal being. The drawback is that if a Fampyr Mage becomes a Lich and they are defeated, their Souls then become trapped in the place they died, and shakes in limbo in a constant nightmare of pulsating between the living universe and the dead universe which is why it is most important to kill a Lich in a place that is easily buried, for if a lingering Lich Soul is engaged by a witless wanderer, there is a high probability he will become possessed. A great signifier that a dead Lich is close by is that the environment becomes much colder and trees and plants are rotten and dead. There is a story of one Lich who died in a once beautiful forest, but after a band of adventurers had slain the evil being, the entire forest became corrupted and blighted by massive evil of all of the Lich's Souls that he/she had consumed under its 1000 year lifespan. Gunslinger/Gun Mage Albeit the guns in Eora does not reload fast, there are those who have found solutions. A Gunslinger has practiced this new type of weapons in the world day and night to either become a historical figure (like "Billy the Kid" conceptually) by being the first Gun Master in the world, or by becoming a part of some Gun Squad in some army. To become a soldier. The solution the Gunslinger uses to become the fastest shot in time is using several guns. - A Gunslinger can carry up to 6 small guns, and reloads faster than any other class can. - A Gunslinger can also modify their guns and has different ammo-types as abilities. - A Gunslinger has a branching build path called "Gun Mage", which allows the Gunslinger to shoot elemental bullets that has different effects (Ice = Slow, Fire = Burning, Water = Poison, Earth = Stunning)

This is the steam chart for Divinity: Original Sin, it got a full release yesterday (June 30th) http://steamcharts.com/app/230230 It is also the best seller on Steam currently.

Premade stories is something we're getting in Pillars of Eternity (as it seems from reading the preview articles): The whole NPC Banter early game that defines who your character is sounds like premade stories that you puzzle together to shape something. It sounds really great and I believe it will be a great mechanic. We'll have to wait and see. Perhaps the NPC Background Banter uses some key words only that you can't Edit (due to them being important to the story of the character later on, or can be used in dialogue later on), but maybe there are other sections of the background that are open-ended and can be played around with. This was originally an idea I got for Wasteland 2, where this idea fits much better, but I thought that I could throw it in here as well because one idea isn't entirely exclusive to one specific game. "Hugs" are in Wasteland 2 for instance

If you have a quote for this, please share. I got a very different impression and would love to be wrong. I don't have a quote but my impression is that classes will be flexible within their class roles (though, not necessarily different from their class roles). A Wizard in robes versus a Wizard in heavy plate armor for instance. You could probably specialize your Wizard to become a swordsman even, but it's not going to be the best kind of swordsman. Both are Wizards, but they are just different kinds of Wizards with different specializations. A Dual-Wielding Fighter in Medium Armor might be a great single-target DPS killer, whilst a Sword & Shield Fighter is a crowd-control tank. Both are Fighters, but just different types of Fighters. This is mostly my impression of what Obsidian has said, but there's also a hint of wishful thinking.

Hiro & Bruce: There's a private message section where you two love birds can engage more intimately with one another. Or with me if you feel this post of mine offensive I like to immerse myself in video games but LARPing while playing video games may be going a little too far for me. I put on my robe and wizard hat.... jokes aside, "LARPing" is a bit of a stretch, a poor choice of words I suppose. What I meant was not "act your character out" live in reality whilst playing the game (that would be silly and possibly entertaining to watch... maybe...) what I meant was more like "act your character in your mind", virtually~ I guess.

I guess it is a couple of things: 1) LARPing: You like to roleplay? You like to immerse yourself? Then a character biography is a great tool and help to achieve this. 2) It's fun to write your own character, or use a character you've played with in another game and then insert them into this new world. 3) Gives a sense of purpose to the character. Why is this specific character in this world and who is he/she? 4) It gives the Player "control" over their own character (most modern games use "vanity" as a way to give the player control over their characters. Appearance, name, clothes etc.) Yes, I remember this too. The question is... is it something that will be refered to later or is it just for flavor? Having the option to write your own custom backstory is something good I believe. @Thread: Additional idea that popped up~ - Apart from having a descriptive box during character creation giving the player a very brief idea of the world they are going into, it would be cool to have a minimized world map that you can enlarge/minimize to also get your bearing of the world. For instance, you read the descriptive box and read about the lands to the east, then you can parallely look up the world map (close at hand) to also get an idea where your character comes from. 1) Descriptive text of the world = Aid to understand the world so you can place your character in there 2) World Map = Aid to understand where your character comes from Of course, at the same time this is nothing that would need to be implemented whatsoever because any player can just alt+tab out of the game or research the plot before playing the game. It's just not as accessible nor very incentive... Obsidian could, of course, maybe do something even simpler and give the Player an incentive to research the world, maybe by referring to a Manual Page in the Character Creation or something.