Osvir

Yes we know. The point isn't about accessibility of the items, but the nature of it being "unlimited" that I can hoard 1'000 items or more in an unlimited scenario, so that when I do go "home" I can sell all those for more wealth. If the stash instead was limited, I wouldn't be able to sell all those items when I do go "home". It boils down to a question of economy, and depending on how that's handled the unlimitedness might not matter whatsoever on Expert Mode (imo everything should be more expensive on Expert Mode, and sell for way less, regardless if there's a limited option or not). Yes, I did exactly that too. I do the same thing in Skyrim as well. But there's a limit in those games where you simply can't carry more, encumbrance or whatnot. If I can pick up everything, everything, without that encumbrance, without having to go back and forth, I can safely pick up everything and when I do return, I sell all items I found. It becomes very very accessible. There is no penalty whatsoever in the Pillars of Eternity stash system. In Baldur's Gate I would explore an area in like 30 minutes, I would only pick up rare items or items that I found interesting or items I saw gold value in. In Pillars of Eternity I will be able to pick up every single item on the ground, all of those bandit leathers, longswords, axes and all those common items throughout the entire game. And if in Baldur's Gate I earned maybe 1000 gold during those 30 minutes (when I return "home") I would earn maybe 1500-2000 gold during those 30 minutes under the same economic circumstances.

But it doesn't have to be a discussion about "saving time" if you just don't pick up every single item laying on the ground. In an "Infinite Stash" game, from point A to B, it takes 30 minutes. You can loot everything on the way if you want to. In a "Limited Stash" game, from point A to B, it takes 30 minutes. You can't loot everything on the way, however, you can carry stuff back and forth if you choose to do so. If doing so you would add another 45 minutes to your game time. This is why I am suggesting that a "Limited Stash" would fit better in an Expert Mode (where it justifiable to say "Hey, the world is dangerous, go back-and-forth at your own risk"), a Difficulty Option with a descriptive "Tooltip": "Traveling the world is dangerous in X Mode, choosing this difficulty option means there is a risk if one travels too much". Something insinuating the risk of traveling or random encounters being difficult as is due to the difficulty mode. Maybe even being a sub-difficulty of Permadeath: "Must have Permadeath on". Or maybe not, potential Roleplaying purposes on softcore *shrug*

There is a difference between difficult and tedious. I would compare walking back and forth to pumping opponents HP on higher difficulties in some games. It doesn't increase difficulty it increases time I spend killing mobs. And spending more time on the same task is not difficult it's tedious. But would you risk going back and forth if you pick Expert Mode, Ironman, Permanent Death? I mean, if you would pick those options you'd know the enemies would be difficult and one bad random encounter could mean "Game over". Would you risk it? Personally, I'd try to trek forward and pick up what I need rather than picking up everything (in a "limited stash" hypothetical scenario). What makes a "limited stash" more difficult isn't exactly the "limited stash" per say, but it is the factors within the nature of Expert Mode/Hardcore. With a limited stash you'd either go back-and-forth several times and probably face way more difficult encounters (because it is Expert Mode) than the one who conserves their inventory and stash in a more strategical and tactical manner of what they find on the way. Scenario 1: Forward - Limited Stash, I choose to not go back-and-forth but instead pick up what I feel is critical to the path ahead. I get 10 encounters. Due to the fact that I can't pick everything up to sell later and accumulate some form of wealth my gear and general set-up is going to be lower than if I did. Thus, progression becomes more difficult. Scenario 2: Back-and-forth - Limited Stash, I choose to go back-and-forth everytime my stash and inventory is full. Because I want to minmax that wealth yo! I get 100 encounters. Both of these examples are considering a higher difficulty. Now, to the question: Would I survive in "Scenario 2"? Maybe? If I play super careful maybe my entire party survives as well, but I believe that there'd be consequences where I lose a party member or two, if not "Game Over". The point I am trying to make is that it won't (hopefully) be a breeze to travel around the world on Expert Mode, and that's why a limited stash (on Expert Mode) would make the game more difficult no matter how you look at it: Back-and-forth = Means more traveling the world means more random Expert encounters means more risk of "Game Over". Forward only = Means less crap to sell means less wealth means lesser gear means harder encounters means more risk of "Game Over".

@Infinitron: Well... there's that too of course a valid point.

@Helz: This is pretty much what I said: "I have an idea! Maybe this could work? Oh, wait... it doesn't get rid of the problem". Sorry, the whole "but wow"-thing bothers me, it reeks of ignorance. These are thoughts/ideas/analyzing for a harder difficulty tier. Expert Mode or beyond that. In a previous post I stated that I don't mind an unlimited stash at all, but I would like to see it being handled differently on a harder difficulty.. or have options to make it harder on a harder difficulty. Why? An unlimited stash is a benefit, it makes it easier to accumulate riches. And with riches you get better gear, items and general stuff. Bribe your way through difficult encounters and so on. There is no real catch with having an unlimited stash from a gameplay perspective. You don't have to run back and forth, you can hoard everything you find without any problems and keep it for yourself or do whatever you want with it. However, an unlimited stash does make everything easier for you. Which means there is potential to make a hard difficulty even harder by making the stash limited instead. Unlimited = Makes life easier Limited = Makes life harder Makes sense? I want a limited stash not because I want to go back-and-forth, but because I want a harder experience on the hardest difficulty.

That might be an option for Expert mode. I think it would only add to the difficulty if the loot you don't add to the stash were to disappear over time. Otherwise it boils down to whether you want to make a bunch of extra trips back and forth to collect the remaining loot. Interesting!! Timed loot in the stash. One could reason that bandits comes and steals your loot, or some greedy soul demons. This might be more difficult to modify in though, as I believe the code would first and foremost need to support it. What would happen? - You stash up 10 items, let's say that's the max amount on Expert as well. You can only carry 5 of those items (apart from the gear and items you are already carrying). In an attempt to do the whole back-and-forth selling remaining loot, the 5 items left in the stash disappears. So basically you wouldn't be able to do a back-and-forth thing. Or the loot could be timed in another fashion, you can drop items into the Stash, as many as you want in fact, but the next time you go to the Stash, everything but the things you pick up disappears. Example: 1. I get some loot that I won't need right now, or stuff I want to pawn. 5 items that I stash. 2a. I adventure some more, return, stash some items. If I don't choose to pick any of the 5 items up, they disappear. 2b. I adventure some more, return, stash some items. I pick up 2 items and the 3 others disappear. The newly stashed items get the same treatment (next time I return). I don't know how it would actually work in practice though, but it sounds as if it would add a new layer of strategy (albeit, stash strategy). The apparent issue then is that I could exploit it by disregarding the stash entirely and do millions of back-and-forth deals everytime my inventory is full~ but people who would do that probably suffers from hardcore OCD. Which brings up another question... does dropped items on the ground stay there even if I leave it there and return 5 hours later?

I don't mind the bottomlessness of the stash. But some thoughts: I'd like to either be able to modify (custom-make) a mode which creates a limited stash, or, have a limited stash in the harder difficulty tiers.

I just felt like saying... Wrong. Again, Skywind and Black Mesa are two fan-made projects that have great voice acting and it's made by fans. Wrong. Sure, you need to train before voice acting, before going up to the microphone, but you don't need to be a fully trained, experienced, or educated voice actor to be good at it. What you need is a good voice, a good microphone and some self-awareness, self-confidence, and self-insight about your own capabilities. You need to believe in yourself and reach for perfection in your acting (just like any other creative work, be it dancing, writing, drawing, music or whatever), check out some tips and tricks on the internet, listen to what others have to say about voice acting. We have google today, anyone can pick up whatever they want if they are devoted for it. And if you really have no clue what it takes to be a voice actor (bad or good), don't open your mouth at all. This thread is filled with misconceptions and comments that make me wonder if people have any idea whatsoever. Why is Bioware asking their fans to voice act in their game? 2 things I can think of: A) It is probably cheaper than hiring some expensive famous actor. B) Fans will spread it mouth-by-mouth (or through the internet "Check it out! They are letting us join if we provide good enough quality!!! Awesome!"). Widening their player-base. It is a Marketing Stunt, a big company like Bioware wouldn't do this unless they believe they get something in return for doing it. If Obsidian would do something similar, that's something they could save some money on. And if they won't get any good material from their fans, then I believe they'd widen their player-base at least somewhat. This is only if they'd create some sort of "competition" like Bioware is doing and it surfaces on Kotaku or other game journalist sites.

... is quite encouraging in that regard. After having watched some of these very same Obsidian devs play the old classics like Icewind Dale 2 (Adam) and Arcanum (Avellone), and get their asses kicked in easy encounters. this statement from Sawyer does not have quite the awe inspiring impact it he probably meant it to have. Besides, Gamers have always been 10000 times better at Games than the devs who created them. We're the ones who discover loopholes, exploits and cheese tactics. Not only loopholes, exploits or cheese tactics. Gamers have more time on their hands to become skillful at a game. A developer might know that this or that is a great tactic and they know that it can be utilized, but a gamer "perfects" it to do it faster, stronger and better. A developer will probably know that "This attack can be dodged, but it is difficult even for me" whilst a gamer will know that "I can dodge this attack, it is easy because I trained for this". Gamers train to become great at playing games, developers train to become great at creating games.

Does Chaos Wars make all fan/amateur voice acting bad? EDIT: How many did the voice acting for Chaos Wars, like... 5-6 people out of millions of potential good voice actors out there? Oh, and a little bit of digging: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_Wars http://www.gamegrep.com/news/10646-theres_a_reason_chaos_wars_voiceacting_sucks_so_badly/ Is it even fan translated?

I think it's just 'learn' (temporarily) or 'fail to learn' the spell - then if you learn it you can use it (once?) in that combat session. Trap spell sounds cool - though I'd question the wisdom of only having trap spells in your grimoire - perhaps if you could 'trap' any spell (at a cost in materials/gold/spell slots for the day/encounter) then it'd be useful. You could cast the spell but if it were stolen, the enemy would get a backfire. Edit: I misread - I see that's what you meant by 'Enchant a grimoire with a trap' I think it's 'single-target only' spells, so not ones that affect an area in-between. Eg M's Missiles works with it but not 'Fire-beam' (I forget the spell names). Arr, but what if those Missiles backfired and instead of firing back at the enemy they fire at your own characters? I can think of 3 states State 1: Success! Cast the spell back at the opponent! State 2: Failure... you failed to cast the spell. State 3: Backfire. Whooopsiiie, your Wizard just hit your main character in the back of his head with a couple of Missiles. Onto another note that I noticed in the video or I think I read it in the update: The battle is over, your opponent is dead. You pick up the enemy grimoire to learn a new spell, there is a resource cost of copper. I'm wondering if copper is an ingredient or a "medium" that you use, a component to be able to pull out the spell out of the grimoire. Alchemy, kind of. Which makes me wonder if there's going to be a Wizard boss or just an NPC Wizard (Quest guy or VIP character in the world) who stashes up on lots of copper. Or if a Wizard can be stronger in a cave where there are lots of copper veins or something. Is there some "kryptonite" equivalent in the world? If copper is used to pull spells out of a grimoire, can I boost a spell by using more copper?

The Wizard being able to steal a spell from the enemy in combat (from their grimoire), is that a dice rolled gamble type of thing? Example: - I begin to cast the spell to steal a spell from the enemy grimoire - Dice rolls - I fail, and instead of throwing a fireball from their spell it blows up in my face. Furthermore, being able to attribute certain spells with additional properties.. for instance, "Trap Spell" in the grimoire. So when I try to cast a spell from the enemy grimoire, it is actually a spell that has been placed there specifically to be a "trap"... or could I attribute a grimoire entirely with a "trap enchantment" so that all spells that are pulled from the grimoire backfires if anyone else tries to use it? The reflection shield spell, if I have 2 wizards, can a spell bounce between them and hit anything in-between? (of course, it is a bit of a radical tactic as it will eventually blow up in one of my wizards faces, but until that point... would anything in-between be damaged?). Loving the update :D

Here's another for ya! http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2014/02/25/bioware-offering-the-chance-for-your-voice-to-appear-in-dragon-age-inquisition.aspx Now, many people here don't hold Bioware in high regards, but whatever really... Bioware acknowledges that fans with the right devotion and voice can achieve the same high-quality voice acting that paid actors achieve. Not to forget to mention that it is cheaper. This whole misconception that "An unpaid unknown amateur person can't voice act because he's not paid for it nor known for it" is so much BS on so many levels. Again, take a look at Skywind, take a look at Black Mesa. If you're too lazy to scroll or look for it on page 5, here's a link to the post. Saying "fans can't voice act ffs" is untrue. Sure there are bad examples where it doesn't work, but there are great examples where it totally works.

Divinity Original Sin was already supposed to come out. Larian used the Kickstarter to get a bigger budget to make more content. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/larianstudios/divinity-original-sin check their Kickstarter pitch video again for reference. Sure, D:OS had a smaller Kickstarter budget, but they also already had a budget for the game before the Kickstarter.

OEKPCEWBPOE Obsidian Entertainments Kickstarted Project Called Eternity Which Became Pillars Of Eternity

And of course, how could I forget as appropriate to the thread: I am speaking about adjusting the level cap. To be able to modify the value and end up with a level 20 level cap. A bit of a repetition but: If the original game has 12 levels worth of content, then modifying the level cap to 20, you'd need 8 levels more worth of content. Where would it make most sense to be able to insert more content if you could go to level 20? Post-ending in my opinion. There are other variations to it as well, you could insert lots of content during the game and make your character go to level 20, and simply modify the last boss to scale better against a level 20 party and such. The simplest method though, is (I think) to allow modders to "unlock" an end-game post-ending where content could be inserted.. this is all level cap thoughts~

I agree, I don't expect the game to continue after "it ended". What I am speaking about is fan-content, quests, NPCs, items, you name it. In the context of custom content, post-ending could be a good place to put it. What I'm asking about is whether or not Obsidian will allow us to unlock an open ending in the game files/scripts or whatnot. There could be some [end game now] code that could be overrided. Here's some examples:~ concepts~ 1. Original game content ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| - Ending 2. Modding - Overriding Ending ~continued custom Story (made by fans/ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| 3. Baldur's Gate Modded: |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Of course, 2 & 3 could be combined. Furthermore, #2 is a longer game but #3 is simply a fatter game.

My internet is down at home and I'm visiting a friend, so I briefed through this thread pretty quickly. Prolly not going to be online too much @Josh: Will Level Cap be something that can be adjusted in a ruleset somehow? Could we make it go to... I dunno, 20? 30? 40? etc. etc. originally you could only go to level 10 on your heroes in WarCraft 3, but Blizzard allowed modders to raise the level cap. The MOBA scene wouldn't have existed at this point without it. Which brings me to a next question regarding content creation and mod-making. Because being able to raise the level cap would require more content. - Being able to mod the ending to be an "Open World Ending". Kind of like how GTA works, even if you finish the game you can still run around and complete bonus objectives or just roam around or whatnot. The game doesn't end, the scripted story kind of ends, and another (Player made) story begins. I do not want the game you are making to have an open ending, but I'd much appreciate if there was some sort of "switch" that allows the game to continue, as per "not-designed-ending". - Content creation. Being able to add NPC's and write dialogues, Quest tables and place loot in the world and create some more fan-made "End-Game" content. Monsters, enemies, rewards. I think a game like this can benefit a lot by doing something like this. A sort of "the game doesn't end"-mode which could be a good area for modders to put their additions. I'd also love to have it reverse, being able to create a prologue or whatnot, before the actual game begins, to be able to possibly create some homebrew origins for different race/class combos. - No environment modification would have to be done. Not to a start at least. - If I finish the game on level 12, and I manage to raise the level cap to 20 (by modding) it'd make sense to have mostly post-ending homebrew content. - Spell effects/description/sfx(?), I know a lot of people who could get very creative with that. Adding abilities as a character levels up post-designed level cap. - Monster variants~ more levels would have to have new and rougher challenges. Short question: Will we be able to raise the level cap by modding?

I have no words for this update :D hyped!

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2071423/deep-dive-with-pillars-of-eternity-project-lead-josh-sawyer-the-full-interview.html?page=3 Bottom of the page. If it is possible to make new quest lines (which means you'd be able to mess around with dialogues and such) it might be possible to fix new spawn-points as well. Maybe be able to make new "cinematics" as well (I know there are some new in BG:EE). In Baldur's Gate you could write new dialogue and you could re-write what NPC's were saying and you could add choices to it as well. Also making a mod taking place 100-200 years ago doesn't necessarily have to change the areas or shrink them or whatnot. It'd be more immersive if it was possible, but if you are good enough at expressing the idea that it takes place 100-200 years ago it wouldn't matter. As long as you get the content, what you want to express, within the mod right.

@Sabotin: What I kind of envision with my question is a sort of... well... hmm it gets difficult to explain but okay: You meet up with Minsc in Nashkel right? What if you could start as Minsc and Dynaheir somewhere else within the reaches of the Sword Coast, before meeting the Bhaalspawn. You go through the "main quest line" and eventually Dynaheir gets captured and you end up in Nashkel looking for help. By a chance the Bhaalspawn passes through and you accept the help, and then, as the Player, gets to decide whether to follow the Bhaalspawn or do some other quest. Maybe you even skip Nashkel and go for Dynaheir with Minsc alone. That's kind of a campaign I'd like to do, but with one of the companions from PoE. Or an entirely new character who has an entirely different story within the world. Perhaps a sub-character that traverses the lands at the same time as the main hero (or villain) from PoE, but from a different perspective. I guess a good way to look at it could be Half-Life: Opposing Force and Half-Life. In Half-Life you are Freeman jumping into the portal, but in Opposing Force you are Shepard seeing Freeman jump in. That's kind of what I'm envisioning. It's the same environments/areas used, they just have a different perspective and dialogue/text. Blue Shift and Half-Life also share this "different perspectives" in the opening train scene. That's what I'm curious about, if it will be possible. Or perhaps being able to create a short story 100 to 200 years before the "event" even happens, maybe you find an interesting lore book in PoE and it tells a great story that took place within some of the areas that Obsidian creates for PoE, what if you could then create the author of the story and re-imagine it? Or maybe a short story that takes place afterwards, with lore books re-telling what you chose to do as the main character in PoE.

Hi! As we know, the IE games were moddable, you could add in Quests, mess around with the rules a bit, add NPC's, and various other things. But whatever you did, you were still starting off as the Bhaalspawn. It was always the same campaign. So what I am wondering is, will it be possible to "change" story? To be able to write one of your own, change the starting location (still the same world of course and the same areas). But be another character traversing the lands, having a different agenda and goal. Being able to make new quest-trees and rules. In Neverwinter Nights (1 & 2) these were called something but I don't remember, "modules"? Ah, I forgot. But there is a bit of a charm to be able to do this, to build a new campaign. Not new environments or any of the like, simply put: a new story (new text, new background, new starting location, same world and locations). @Devs: Will this be possible in PoE? @Forum: What do you think? Did you ever feel you wanted to break off from the Bhaalspawn story and play or even create a different campaign?

I'm chiming in with Silent Winter. No killing or no combat? No killing, non-PC-combat & non-lethal: A pacifist explorer or adventurer could be a fun little adventure I guess, not involving him or herself in combat or in the killing, but must get escorts, sneak around places and generally find others to help him/her with many tasks forward. Perhaps being able to subdue and paralyze some opposers on the way in a non-lethal way. Combat would mostly take place around the Player, without the Player being directly involved in it, it'd still be a threat (but the Player wouldn't be able to fight back, only run away). Little PC-combat, little PC-killing: Another way would be to be, as in the movie "Lord of War", the supplier or the leader of a pack, but never engages in combat him or herself but instead orders henchmen or soldiers around to complete objectives for you. The Player wouldn't be in control of the combat, so there wouldn't be any combat, but there would probably be killing involved. Of course, some times combat could be a "thing" (duels against other lords, assassins in the night). Someone who mostly let's others do the fighting for him or her. *shrug*

If I am getting this paragraph right.... this is more of a norm in Turn-Based Strategy games (Xenonauts, old XCOM, Disgaea, to name a few at the top of my head). Nothing (I hope) we'll see in PoE. Though, I think it could be very interesting for an IE-esque type of game. It'd require a lot of balancing. But what I wanted to say is that it isn't against the player's will in those systems where it is implemented, but it requires the game to be built in that system from ground up (it has to be part of the ruleset/mechanics and the Player must be aware of it). Nothing we'll see in PoE, but in my opinion it's not a bad mechanic.

This is a direct response to Bryy, it's spoiler free but I'm putting a spoiler tag anyways~