Carados

Understanding the evil Avellone. Where does it say that he lacks accounting and financial qualifications? Chris repeatedly mentioned that curtain, which I interpret as he doesn't know much at all about that. Should I link Feargus' Linkdin profile (which he did himself) or you can find it yourself? He doesn't list any education regarding financies or accounting. Formal accounting skills alone for instance don't make great CEOs. In particular in a field such video games development. A CEO of such company should be be aware of the medium and understand more than just finance or accounting. He is leading the company and can always hire experts for accounting purposes. What he can't hire are experts to say where the company should take direction. I think in his critical function Urghart has more or less proved himself. Remember that he has been doing this since Black Isle days. I'd like to think that he has picked quite many skills and learned quite a lot during 20 + years as he has lead independent studio focused on rpgs.

To be honest, my thoughts are mixed. Perhaps Obsidian leadership should take a hard look at the mirror and reflect this, since they obviously didn't handle this well, but at the same I can't say that I approve Avellone's actions. I just think his behaviour isn't professonal. First he keeps throwing mud at Obsdian with snarky myriad comments for months etc, then he fires the full salty load right before the launch of PoE 2. But maybe it all tells a lot about hurt feelings. In any case as a fan, I can't say this or that since i'm not privy to all the details. I just hope that Chris realizes that he is not coming clean out of this mess either.

I should have probably not even replied in this thread since we're just outsiders debating about a very personal subject. At the end of day this is all speculation. But since I'm already here, I will just add that In general the reason for someone leaving a company can be a better offer, a personal reason of some kind, wanting to try something new or any number of other perfectly valid causes. As for Katrina (or any other developer who decides to leave Obsidian), we aren't privy of her personal life or even work life other than what she wants to share on social media. I get why you desire to wonder deeper since you care, but I think you're seeing smoke where there isn't. Secondly I think that there is nothing inherently improper or dirty in wanting to advance in one's career. When a long project ends, it is natural to begin thinking of one's options and place in life. Remaining in one place and in the same position many many years doesn't seem very beneficial to me. When your professional skills grow and you gain more experience, it is sensible to look for more senior level positions and even better salary. And by doing that, your expertise grows even further and you make room for someone else who wants to get his or her foot in the business. It is not showing lack of integrity for a person wanting to advance.

Hmm that is an intresting question indeed. I quess there is not one specific answer for me. It is many number of things that contribute this choise. Lets say that I'm playing the game first time. How do I choose a specific class? From the pure gameplay perspective: I've always liked mixing magic with melee. I've enjoyed playing classes like battlemages, warlocks, fightermages, jedis and such. Then again I've also liked stealthty warrior types such as fighter-thieves, assasins, rangers etc. So these preferences guide me naturally to some extent. However more strongly I put emphasis on my idea of the main character. I try to visualise and imagine some part of my own persona to the game character. Like for example: I'm not a religious person and I tend to value intellect and reason over faith and strong convictions. That all being said, I have certain principles too like acting lawfully, defending weak against bullies, being mercifull and reasonable etc. I tend to build a character I can enjoy playing "naturally". Ofcourse I can play evil characters or zealot type characters if I put the effort, but it never feels as enjoyable to me. And I do detest "goody two shoes" type characters as well. I'm not any kind of saint in real life (although I try to become a better person every day like most humans) and I can't imagine my character ever being one. I like character flaws both in character persona and in statistical sense as well. Then I also try to imagine some kind of intresting backstory for this character which fits to the gameworld, the character class and race. Backrounds in PoE were really terrific as those helped my imaginations fly better. So my first character in PoE was an human cipher hailing from ixamitl plains. His backround was scholar. First of all the class concept of Cipher spoke to me very well. The concept felt so intriguing right from the begining of the orginal kickstarter campaign. I loved the idea of mixing psionic powers with swords. That was just cool as hell. Something truly unique and fresh. And it only helped when I learned that it also seemed like a perfect fit story wise. In addition since I'm one kind of a scholar in real life, I revered the description of that cultural backround which I quote here: "The Ixamitl culture is one of the oldest in the world, though one of the least imperialistic, having spread out little over the past several thousand years. Ixamitl society places a strong emphasis on learning and scholarship and honors their philosophers and literati." It fitted so perfectly to my character idea and it seems like a such an inspiring place to spend early years of one's life. Yet for several reasons my character left the safety of his home and joined that caravan. Maybe he wanted to discover the lost history of ancient cultures and maybe my character wanted to better understand the nature of these mental powers and understand the visions he was experienceing in his dreams... Ah, but sorry rambling this much. I'm afraid I cannot offer you one specific answer!

I don't get all this conspiracy nonsense. Gamebiz is like this: Projects end, some people remain while other people move on and start new chapters in their lives. If you get a good offer, you take it. That is how you build your carreer. That is perfectly normal behaviour in any business. I just want to say big thanks to Katrina Garsten for helping PoE2 to become such a sucess. As a loyal Obsidian fan and their long time consumer, I think her input on PoE2 campaign was awesome. Putting a shipped game like PoE2 in a resume should be a great achievement.

Forcing player to buff constantly is kind of chore. It's one aspect of baldur's gates which I find a bit taxing. Sure it brings some strategy, but near TOB campaign, things went to the extreme. Or those dragon fights which were won by using perfect protections. Then again PoE went to the other extreme by allowing almost no pre-buffing at all which I found a bit artificial at times. I knew I was about to face bunch of enemies, but I could not cast protective spells before the fight. I don't have a perfect solution, but one thing I'd do is limit the ammount of positive buffs / protections player can cast on each character... Lets say that you can cast: -only 1 elemental protection per character or 1 elemental damage buff, -only 1 physical protection per character or 1 physical damage buff -only 1 mental/magic protection per character or 1 mental/magic damage buff So 3 protection/buff spells max per character. If you tried casting more, the spells would start cancelling eachother.

Edit: never mind.

Its nice to notice that almost all of those points have been fullfilled. Encounters during sea voages? check, although not random, but designed encounters. Naval warfare and capturing enemy ships? check Extra maps? check (uncharted islands) More potential companions? check Hiring ship crew? (check if we get 4,5 million and with slacker backers we likely will., so check) Gambling, drinking and side activities? Didn't they say that they are going to have some side activities? And there is that fishing scretch goal, so... ps. damn typos, been drinking here as well

To improve rogue and to make him more intresting class to play, they need to improve the stealth mechanics. Rogue should be the assassin who dissapears during the heat of battle and pops behind the next enemy to slice his troath. He should be the party scout who sneaks behind enemy lines and takes out the enemy leader even before the battle starts with few precise strikes. And he is the guy who disables and criples the enemy tanks with ease and dances to the safety underneath their blades. I quess I'm saying, make rogue awesome again. In pillars he was really lackluster class. Rogue should be the stealth expert who deals massive damage with grace and skill. He should be able to put bombs in enemy enemy pockets, place the most crippling traps and deploy the deadliest poisons.

Top three? wow thats a tough ask. Well I'll try. 1. Baldur's gate saga aka Bg1 + TosC + Bg 2 + TOB. Can't separate these games anymore. I just love the whole saga. I happen to do a yearly replay and nowdays with the brand new EE editions. Heck I may have to actually add the siege of dragonspear dlc to that list so its actually: bg1+tosc -> SoD -> Bg2 -> Tob. Hundreds of hours of party based d&d content with RtwP combat can't get any better... Yes i am a baldur's gate nut. 2. Witcher trilogy. The saga gets just better by each game. Witcher 3 itself may be the best rpg i've played in 10 years or so, but previous games are 5/5 for me as well. Great setting, wonderfull main character, awesome storyline... 3. Morrowind + bloodmoon + Tribunal. Its just one of those games I never get bored of. Its so rich and complex in every possible way. One of the most epic rpgs I've played. Larger than life. And the mods just take it to the next level. If I had more slots... 4. Both kotor games. I'm an huge star wars fan, so I do think they're both almost equally wonderfull. The first one is a more traditional star wars tale with a big story twist. However the sequel gives a whole new spin to star wars universe which is why it is actually quite brilliant. Maybe even better than the orginal game. Just be sure to download the the restoration patch for kotor 2. 5. Planescape Torment. You just have to play this game to understand why it is loved. Best storytelling i've seen in rpgs. A very text heavy game though, but the narrative is so well crafted and its quite well writen. I don't think it is a game which people replay often, but it really blows your mind when you play it first time. I have great expectations for the spiritual sequel, Numenera. 6. Gothic saga aka gothic 1 + gothic 2 gold. First two gothics are definite classics which everyone should play atleast once in their lifetime. Gothic 3 is quite different as it is an openworld game and definitely not same quality, but even it has become quite enjoyable with the community patch 1.75. Besides gothic 3 gameworld is an explorer's dream. 7. Dragon Age orgins (+dlcs). I don't really care that much about the sequels (I haven't yet played the inquisition though, so who knows how much I like it), but the first dragon age game was just awesome. The writing was top notch. In particular those great characters such as Alistar, Morrigan, leliana, wynne, oghren, Sten... And the gameplay is just darn well designed. Fun combat, good level design, wonderfull music score and awesome setting. I can't fault this game. And there is tons of mods available as well. 8. Skyrim + dlcs. I have just logged hunderds of hours for Skyrim. I know rpg purists tend to laugh at skyrim, but I just enjoy it. And the modding just takes it to the next level. So well crafted setting and gameworld. Fun gameplay. Open world exploration can't get any better. 9. Deus ex 1. I've replayed this game dozen times though. It is bloody amazing how reactive the gameworld is even if the main story remains quite linear. I recommand downloading the revision mod which fixes many bugs and updates the visuals, enchants the level design etc without changing the gameplay much. 10. Pillars of the eternity is nodoubt a great game. It gave me same kind of joy when I'm playing baldur's gates. I just can't wait to import my character to the sequel. I have great expectations Obsdian!

Paladin + fighter = Cavalier Paladin + priest = Templar Paladin + chanter = Seeker Paladin + druid = Liberator Paladin + cipher = Inquisitor Paladin + ranger = Protector Paladin + Wizzard = Crusader Paladin + monk = Champion Paladin + rogue = Justiciar Paladin + barbarian = Berseker

Random encounters! More potential companions for the party roster. Naval warfare and even capturing enemy ships like true pirates! Arrrrr! Hireing crew for your ship (perhaps even former companions). Extra maps like dungeons, villages and wilderness areas is always welcomed. Gambling, drinking and all kinds of sideactivities.

Thanks for the info guys. Hopefully they upload the twitch stream soon. All that sounds really intresting. However I wonder how does it work thematically. Something like a druid-paladin or a monk-barbarian feels slightly weird. Weird can be good ofcourse and it will certainly allow us to create all kinds of crazy builds and write somewhat exotic backstories for our characters...

Can we multiclass every character? Like can the multiclasses be any combination of the possible eleven base classes? Can kits (subclasses) be multiclassed?

Well six is the magic number. Very unfortunate to hear that they have decided to decrease party size. I wasn't expecting that. To even have so called balanced classic party you're forced to have atleast a tank, a dps class, an healer and an offensive caster which leaves you only 1 extra slot. With six people party you have more room to experiment than with five people party. Its just basic mathematics. Also with six person party, you get to experience more party content at the same time. So having larger party seems like a no-brainer to me. Lastly six people party forces devs to design these big massive enemy encounters and I love that stuff. With five person parties encounters tend to become smaller... So I think they obviously did this to make development easier and maybe to cater newer players. I can understand the rationale, but it still feels somewhat dissapointing. Kind of weakens the classic baldur's gate feeling... All being said, obviously it is a choise which is pretty much set in stone at this point, so not much point complaining anymore I quess. The game seems really cool otherwise though. ps. Would be nice if they allowed modders to increase the party size.

I recently watched Josh's presentation about stats in d&d and PoE. You can watch it here: http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1023481/Gods-and-Dumps-Attribute-Tuning It gives you a good insight to the current system and the process Obsdian went through developping it. Maybe much of this is already known to many here, but it is a neat summary which explains why we ended up with the current system. And it explains the problems Josh had with D&D stats. I admire all the work he has put on designing this whole new system of rules. In my opinion making sure that every build is a viable one is certainly a noble goal, but maybe if it is taken to extreme, it can remove a bit of the excitement from the whole character building process.When I began playing rpgs back in the 90s, I certainly made some mistakes, but those mistakes actually helped me to understand the rules of game better. I did not mind doing some trial & error. That being said Poe is a very rewarding game to play because you can create all kinds of cool character such as the intelligent fighter and be succesfull. Now that i'm replaying the entire baldur's gate saga (with the new expansion), i'm kind of enjoying how important high stats are and how rewarding it felt to roll a 95 fighter-mage. Then again I instantly noticed how little certain stats effect on my game. Like wisdom has very little importance to mages (aside the wish spell). Charisma is kind of dump stat as well. Intelligence only effects on my ability to learn spells and so forth. Ofcourse later d&d editions made things more balanced. NWN games are just so fun, because you can build all kinds of crazy character builds and really optimize them. The sp campaigns can be completed with less optimal builds ofcourse easily, but omg its fun how crazy powerfull certain builds can get! At the end of day however I find myself nodding to much what Josh is saying in that video. After playing PoE, its kind of difficult to get back in d&d and accept the idea of a dump stat.

Been kind of wondering this too, but it was never really the reason to back this game. Just something extra on top of extra. That being said, it would be ofcourse nice to read it at some point. Imo otherwise Obsdian has done outstanding work crafting all these extra materials, like the documentary, Campaign almanach, Collector's book, PoE soundtrack and Tim Cain's cookbook etc.

As much as I respect CA as a game designer, its silly to jump into a conclusion that his story concept would have been better than the one obsidian dev team chose. Unless he explains it better, we can't say this or that about his ideas. Plus designing a videogame is always a team effort, so its kind of unfair to say that CA alone would have changed everything. As for companions... First of all it would have been certainly nice to adventure with prologue companions, but both of them dieing happened for a reason. You were cut from your old life. You were a survior and a foreigner in a strange land. Familiar faces perishing so suddenly was really unexpected and a kick in the gut, but the game's opening would have not had same impact if there was no real loss. As for the orginal eight: Durance: He was the most intresting one of the bunch. At first he seemed utterly repulsive, but more you spoke him, more you began to understand him and his madness. And his quest was elegantly linked to main storyline and the whole world state. Eder: I knew right from the begining when I ran into Eder that he was a really stand up guy who I could rely on in a tight spot. A really down to earth guy whose story made sense. His sidequest sort of ended in a weird way though. Just when I was getting to know the guy, his content was basicly over. An other great thing about Eder was how his personal history helped me to understand more about the land and culture I was exploring. Kana: An other permanent member in my party. It was a good thing that Kana's quest was linked to stronghold as it gave it more purpose. As a person, Kana was just a great guy to adventure with. It was just downright amusing how he always got so excited of new things and people. Plus he was always on a good mood and often had something intresting to say about the places we were exploring. Lots of fun banter too! Pallegina: I've always liked paladins in rpgs and she was no expection. I really enjoyed her cut the nonsense attitude. Her being in my party also made me realize how foreign the whole Dyrwood was to people from other cultures. Just like Kana and Me, she was also an adventurer without home. I wish her personal quest was longer though. Hirivias: I thought he was well writen. Him being an orlan druid was ofcourse intresting, so speaking to him gave me a better perspective about the orlan culture and so forth. In addition Hirivias had a rather intriguiing personal story which explained much about how gods influence the world. It was really fun to solve his dual-deity conflict. You could push him to either way. Aloth: I liked having Aloth in party. His sarcastic smartass comments were always a joy. I just think that Obsdian didn't explore his character enough. Aloth's side content felt kind of incomplete. Like they were going somewhere with it, but at the last second decided to cut rest of it for some reason. Sagani: I think there was a lot of potential and I found her side quest intresting, but as a person she was bland and boring. Its really difficult to pinpoint the exact reason for this, but I have this idea that someone who wanted to write a ranger character had an objective of breaking each ranger cliche, but while doing so, he or she forgot to give Sagani a real personality... On paper her concept seems rock solid, but its lacking something. she just doesn't seem bold enough and to be honest seems kind of "dumb". I quess i'm used to more colourfull rangers and she was an huge letdown in that sense. Grieving mother: Just like Durance, you had to talk to her to understand her and to unlock her grim tragedy. She really had the saddest backstory, no question about that. It just happens quite linearly. You just click "next" basicly. I think Avellone's idea about a mind labyrint would have definitely made her more memorable. However imo the original concept of the Cipher companion being a part of Dunryd Row sounds much more intresting. Why didn't they run with it?

I think some backer npcs had quite intresting stories. For me they added more flavour to the gameworld which is always a nice thing. Think them as random adventurers, citizens etc. I think it would have been even cooler if there was a side quest or two tied into them. Or maybe you discovered some cool new items by talking to them? Or maybe you could invite / hire them to your stronghold...

So the quest against fun continues eh? Well let me say that Cipher has been my favourite class ever since they started talking about classes during kickstarter campaign. I thought the concept was really cool and I knew right then that my character would be a cipher. I'm happy that i finished the game in last spring as a cipher. It was a blast. Sadly I notice that the good old days seem to be over. Lets make room for the ultimate balance, because thats what fun is all about. I'm not honestly sure what is the Obsdian's objective here... This is a singleplayer game after all. I agree that ciphers were pretty op during release, but they were pretty darn fun too. Some kind of balance patch was needed ofcourse, but when you go this far, you change how the entire class behaves. Whats the point of playing cipher if you are constantly out of focus or if your powers are so weak that you cannot dominate enemies with them? Maybe if Cipher's powers are too powerfull, they could make him a better close combat fighter instead? Heh, but this is the same old debate. There will be always op strategies and builds. If you eliminate one, there will be an other. Its a never ending cycle.

This is quite unfortunate for Obsidian, but I'm sure they will survive. And chris will land on a great job as well. Speculating about this leads to nowhere, but since its quite fun, i'll throw my 2 cents. Any number of reasons could be the cause for his departure. 1. Maybe he had some kind of disagreement with the oweners about the direction of company. 2. Maybe he was getting tired of cancelled projects and cut work, but then again Avellone is an industry veteran, I'm sure he has gotten used the cuts and cancelation already. 3. Maybe he was unhappy about not being in a project lead position for a very long time. 4. Any number of personal reasons 5. Simply wanting a change. Its not that uncommon. 6. Getting a job offer you could not refuse. Being the creative director in obsidian is a freaking cool job, its not the only dream job for a guy like CHA. And so forth. I doubt however its about Sawyer or any other Obsidian employee though. Both guys are just too professional to act like bunch of little girls who couldn't settle their creative differences. And please that cut limerick stuff is just stupid. Who even cares about it being removed. A big storm in a tiny glass.

Here is how i'd do it 1. Mechanics: quite like it is now, but increasing mechanics skills should allow player to set more traps. And every time player disarms a new trap, he learns how to craft it. 2. Athletics. In addtion to what the skills does now, i'd revamp the armor system. In my opinion wearing heavy or medium armors should cause more fatigue than wearing light armor, robes or clothes. So it would make sense for a warrior to really increase his althletics since otherwise he would be tired pretty soon. In fact now every class would find some use for athletics. 3. Survival: In addition to increasing the time for consumables, I think survial skil should determine what kind of random encounters party would face while resting or travelling in the wild. Now I think maxing survival with one character should not be enough to avoid hostile encounters entirely. Rather it would be the average of every party member's survival skill. 4. In addition to scrolls, the lore skill could also allow player to uncover hidden infromation and knowledge from books / magical objects. Maybe some extra exp or new crafting recipes or even magical spells and such. Also lore should have some kind of effect on enchanting and crafting. Higher lore - better gear / potions / scrolls you can craft. 5. Maybe increasing sneaking skil could give some minor bonuses on critcal chance or something combat related.

I don't get op. All he is doing is making his own gaming time misserable. Just play it and enjoy the story and don't worry about these silly balance fixes. You do not need perfect build to enjoy this game. I did perfectly fine even if i did not lower any stat below 10 like all these silly " optimal character guides" seem to suggest. I did not solo or play on PotD though, but i figured that i'd save those experiences for a rainy day. And I'm quite happy that I managed to play the game first time before the major nerfs to experience gains and so forth. Had tons of fun and no regrets!

One thing i have never understood is why some players insist of fighting a dragon "fairly". Is the dragon going to fight fairly? Hell no. Same thing witth baldur's gate dragons. If you don't "cheese", you stand no chance against them. And then there is eternal debate about how can cheese be definied... Anyhow back to topic... So I'm playing on hard first time and I think the dungeon was fairly challenging at times. My level 11-12 party had few tough battles and I was quite surpised to find a freaking dragon underneath there. I had played this whole mega dungeon with one go so..so no resting outside. Thankfully there was always 1 camping supply available somewhere, so i was able to rest before facing the beast. First time it simply killed my party in 30 seconds. After reloading I decided to send Eder first. He stood against dragon's opening attacks fairly well and drank a potion or two. While the dragon was busy I used all my summons and sent them against dragon's hirelings. Next durance and aloth used one of those spells which lowered the beasts resistances and then my cipher used mind plague which caused A TOTAL CHAOS among enemy ranks. Even the andra dragon itself went borderline insane for a short moment. Then Kana used few of those most powefull storm scrolls on hirelings while rest of my part attacked dragon without mercy. I belive Aloth used a petrify spell which made the beast utterly helpless. Then it was only a matter of time. I think one of the ogres Kana had summoned actually did the final killing blow. Hehe I think its kind of ironic how the dragon used to controll ogres on level 4 and now it met it's end like that: a sturdy hit from the ogre's massive club After that we just cleaned the room from remaining enemies and looted the place. I really enjoyed the maga dungeon! Great adventure and a really fun boss battle. Intresting to see whether I can beat the dungeon on path of the damned next time in similar way.

How about a radical idea... Everytime a druid levels up, he would have to make a choise whether to improve his connection to the elements & nature (learning new spells) or improve his connection to his animal side (improve spiritshif form and melee abilities). So you could focus on becoming a traditional druid caster or some kind of spirit shifter fighter type or something in between?