[POE Conclusion...]

I laughed when that scared villager in Twin Elms told me Raedrich had to be killed -- again! I loved that! It's a bit nostalgic, going back full kitted out with all my Soulbound weapons to wipe him off Eora once and for all. The dialogue responses when confirming the quest were pretty amusing too. You could just imagine your PC groaning and saying, "Okay, fine."

 

Iovara... not really a quest, but to me, the heart of this game. Otherwise it's just a bunch of babbling about souls. She lent a bit of humanity to the entire thing.

 

Skaen Temple, because evil cults that hide in plain sight are awesome.

 

Stumbling on the thief house with (easy) party battle in Defiance Bay gave me the best BG2 vibe. It's the little things. Honestly, you could fill every house with a group of adventurers trying to kill me and I wouldn't complain.

 

Od Nua. Particularly the top levels. I liked finding the journals from the failed expeditions. Nice touch.

[Grieving Mother might be the best written NPC character I've seen in an RPG game]

I thought Iovara was also well written. Despite her lack of scenes I thought she made a huge impact. Maybe it was because she had less throwaway lines than someone like, I dunno... Maerwald! lol

 

I haven't played through Grieving Mother's story yet, so I can't comment on that. Her introduction is certainly interesting.

[Ondrite Monks (WTF)]

I loved these guys. Don't think I'd ever gotten so utterly wrecked. Made you stop and think for once. (And scream a bit.) "NO! I am the hero! You die! Stop punching me across the room!!!"

 

I am still at a loss for how to handle them best. Their defences are insane. I got through those fights, but it wasn't pretty. Every enemy has some trick to get around, but these guys just shrug off everything.

 

I believe they also have that ability which makes them tougher as they take damage and gain wounds, so you often find yourself with three bad ass monks, near death, but unkillable. lol

[GAME OF THE YEAR]

 

I am very impresed and entertained by bethesdas work and i can only hope obsidian gets do do another Fallout.

 

 

A few years ago I would have said yes, but now it would just mean it's time taken away from Pillars development.

 

Also Bethesda is mad at Obsidian because of how much better they did at creating a Fallout game. Todd Howard wouldn't come out of his room for weeks because of how depressed he was. He could be heard crying out, "How do they do words so good!?"

 

In turn, to improve Todd's mood, Bethesda had to spend Obsidian's promised bonus on paying reviewers to keep the scores below 85. Understandable that they just don't want to go through that nightmare again.

 

Disclaimer: Despite talking ****, I actually liked Oblivion. I think it was the setting. That first cave is good too, where you step out of that dungeon, and bam.. staring you right in the face, an adventure! That's good game design. Then it just snowballs from there, and 20 hours, 30 dungeons, 10 quests, and half a continent later, you're like... what was I doing again?

[White March Part 2 Reviews]

To be fair, those monk's are downright fiesty bastards. I will say I got MUCH better at the game after clearing the Abbey. Haha.

 

"OMG stop punching my lights out and die to the same tactics I've been using for the last 20 hours!"

 

I can't wait to go back in there.

[Too much text ......]

Maerwald would have been cool if instead of going through his identities through dialogue, you went through them in combat, where his first form would be more barbarian, then you get him to a certain point, and he starts casting spells. This would illustrate his madness through game play. Or perhaps a combination of the two, but more heavy focus on displaying through game play, which we all love.

 

Generally, I think WM made improvements. PoE just suffers because there are several instances at the start of the game where you're just going from talking head to talking head. I can deal with a long conversation so long as it's well spaced out.

 

My favorite time to have those is always after a long dungeon, lots of exploring, quests, a big battle. I recall that MotB had a few downright massive conversations, but by the time you got there, you were exhausted and ready to do some talking. And talking to and arguing with a god is always a plus.

 

Take heart, Obsidian. You're still nowhere as bad as Hideo Kojima's narrative... style. Not by a country mile. Haha.

[GAME OF THE YEAR]

I hope they make at least another 12 of these.

[PoE2 game engine? How about Divinity Original Sins engine?]

Not a 3D engine but definitely something more optimized. Hopefully Unity 5 helps with that.

[Too much text ......]

I agree with Tigranes. The issue is more with story telling than the actual writing itself. They just have to find a more exciting way to get info to the player. (And a bit quicker wouldn't hurt.)

 

I hate Maerwald. I always dread going to see him. I have a hard time skipping dialogues in my RPGs, so it's a drawn out torture. Just about any old man voiced dialogue is excruciating. Haha.

 

Though I do prefer more concise writing as seen in writers like George Orwell, and just about all modern writers alive today. I think Pillar's writing is more in line with what your overly-dramatic DM might tell you when trying to set the mood, but I'm not sure that translates well when it's consumed in reams of text.

[Reduce the Loading Times...]

10-15 second load times on a 6gb SSD with A6 processor and 8gb RAM.

 

Too long for me. Waiting for patch.

[Good writing is good]

As someone who does a fair bit of reading, I find the descriptions to be just OK. But the effort is appreciated, and it adds enough to the game, despite not being quite on par with some of the better published writers out there. (Or much worse, depending on which writer we're talking about. )

[Your Custom Party]

A party of wizard's dual wielding katanas. Kensai all day.

 

This better work, Sawyer! You said I could be anything!

[Steam vs GoG redemption ?]

I hate that Steam broadcasts how many hours you've played to everyone you know, so I always choose GOG if I have the option.

[New build feedback]

Any screenshots of the new beta? Has it changed enough to warrant it? The characters fading into the scenery was a particularly big issue.

[Backer beta: Developer Impressions]

 

 

Regarding quest only xp, one thing that I'm not totally comfortable with is the fact that one of the key outcomes of xp/leveling up, is you become a more potent combatant. How does one become a more potent combatant if they never engage in combat?

 

How does one become better at lockpicking by stabbing beetles?

 

You mean how does one become better at mechanics by killing beetles? I can think of a few ways.

 

 

The beetles drop How To books.

["No Bad Builds" a failure in practice?]

What a train wreck...

 

Alright. Longknife never mentioned FO3. Giubba just has a severe reading deficiency and for some reason read FO3, when Longknife wrote FO:NV. I don't know how this is possible, perhaps a severe head injury at some point.

 

But I'll give you all credit where it's due, and say this is some good trolling. But it's also derailing the topic in a major way.

[will they get the mystery right ?]

Whatever you're smoking, you better share.

[Have some faith people PE will be great]

Just coffee for me.

[Why I hate combat in RPGs.]

Actually, this did happen once in BG2, (or maybe twice) and yeah, it was pretty inconsequential/annoying. It's important the game illustrate that your in a rough part of town, but I'd rather that be done with more context. Though in BG2's case, I think the fight revealed some other plot or quest, but I can't be sure. But yeah, exploring random houses and stumbling across some bandit hide out is much more to my liking for handling bandits, or surprise encounters.

 

IWD2 had enemies "popping up", but that was Hook Horrors dropping from the ceiling, though you couldn't tell that due to engine limitations, and also the Snivblrferndkjl coming from out of the shadows, same for Drow fight.

 

What you're really talking about is bad, lazy encounter design, (sort of) as opposed to collecting all the parts of an amulet, going to the grave yard in Kuldahar and summoning a bad ass group of warriors to face off with to claim the Holy Avenger. If Obsidian does their job, they won't screw you over with forced combat scenarios, or ones that feel "cheap".

[What would you do if the game begins like this? :D]

When the game begins you just left your ship, looking forward to start a new life far away from home. It's up to you where you go and what you do.

 

Ah, Morrowind, one of the best RPG intros. Just great.

[Evil - how far should PE go?]

I don't think that's fair to Sawyer, since in every instance where there is rape, it's to demonstrate the depravity of the character. He might go to that well too often, but it's a very effective way of letting the player know via a giant neon sign, that this character is a terrible person.

 

I'm a little confused about the scope asked for in this thread, though. Is it about subjects that can be shown in the game, or about actions that the player can engage in? Because the measuring sticks tend to be different for both.

 

I feel the same.

[Are we getting the PE we were led to believe was on the horizon during the KS?]

I have no concerns in the slightest.

[Project Eternity's longevity will be determined by its modability]

Sure mods can offer new experiences for players, but rarely are they ever as good as the base product. I've played BG2/IWD/FO several times over the years simply because they offer an incredibly satisfying experience, and for me, that's more than enough. It's like comfort food. Your mom's best meal isn't going to be improved by your friend coming over and dousing it in ketchup. That's how I view mods, I guess.

 

If P:E is a game that is incredibly fun and well made, and I like it enough to play through it two or three times and then never touch it again, I'm completely fine with that. Though I might pick it up again a few years down the road.

[Which games have the best companions. What makes them good?]

Icewind Dale because I created them.

 

Out of that list I'd only say Baldur's Gate 2 for Minsc. And Jaheira I guess. Just too bad she was forced to romance the main character. FO for how good it was, really didn't have much in the way of character development, not that it hurt the game at all. lol Neverwinter Nights.

[About hate-mail and other online abuse.]

 

Someone on Twitter told Jonathan Blow that you can just ignore these messages.

“This is false,” he replied. “We can't choose to ignore it. As soon as the words are read, they have already hit emotionally.”

You simply can't not take it to heart. 

 

 

After dozens or hundreds of instances, it honestly doesn't have any effect.

 

 

Haha. Challenge accepted!

 

(The many instances he's probably referring to likely involve the RPG Codex. lol)

 

Also thought of this blog from Josh when I read this thread: http://twofoldsilence.diogenes-lamp.info/2012/07/art-and-appreciation_19.html