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Gumbercules

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  1. Gumbercules
    The blue list consists of the names of gods. I can place Berath, Magran, and Eothas on the list. Seems too short to be the full list, so maybe there's a second column or maybe these are just the gods whose blessings are available if you choose a godlike character.
  2. Gumbercules
    All of the art looks great! I really like how the aumaua have ended up looking. The sharp teeth and head ridge do a good job of distinguishing them from humans. Are the yellow lines paint or tattoos, or are those part of their natural coloration? Since this one is bald, is it correct to assume that what the previous aumaua had on their heads was dreadlocked hair and not some kind of tentacles? Is that picture the entirety of the inn, or is there more? What's shown looks very nice, but it seems like there should be some kind of kitchen or prep area, maybe a cellar, and probably some more rooms. The stag form looks even better than the cat form, although it would have been nice to have some non-mammalian options. Oh well, those can always be added in expansions or sequels. Do wizards still have familiars? They weren't mentioned in this update, and indeed I don't recall them being mentioned at all since the initial "core four" update.
  3. Gumbercules
    Thought of another question. Has work started yet on any of the Kickstarter rewards that aren't part of the actual game? For example the campaign almanac or the novella. Will those be released with the game or before/after?
  4. Gumbercules
    Thanks for answering questions. Does Unity have underlying problems that make large, open areas difficult to do or is it just a design issue for the RPGs that seem to be having trouble with this recently? I've been noticing a lot of funneling paths in Wasteland 2 for example. If it is a technical problem, PoE's pre-rendered backgrounds should eliminate the issue, so I'm wondering if you'll have plenty of areas with more than just a few obvious routes to move in?
  5. Gumbercules
    BTW, still waiting for that video of Feargus fighting a puff adder.
  6. Gumbercules
    Good first update, Eric! It was funny while still being informative. The "translation" of jokes into actual info was a nice touch. I like how the corporeal undead have been arranged into a continuum. I do have a question about the fampyr however. I take it they are supposed to be PoE's version of vampires, in a sense? I'm wondering if they have any of the powers often associated with vampires, or even just an increase in power over a regular living person in general? From the description it seems like they don't, but then again just the fact that they're sticking around for much longer than normal people could mean that they have the chance to develop their existing powers more than normal. That could actually be more interesting than typical vampire-specific powers.
  7. Gumbercules
    Well they're not really different races so much as different species. "Races" is just the continued use of an archaic term, I guess to evoke ye oldene tymes. Why shouldn't the big semi-aquatic species have different strengths than the small furry species? Call me crazy, but I think the genetic/spiritual influence of a godly bloodline is likely going to dominate the relevant influence of a mortal parent. If gods were equal to "mortals" there would be no differentiation, would there? Yeah, I have no problem with the godly influence being dominant. It just feels weird for an aumaua godlike to be exactly the same as an orlan godlike. Some Talents may be like that, but Josh has also mentioned class-specific Talents that allow you to customize a class in a particular direction. So there could be race-specific Talents as well.
  8. Gumbercules
    Good topic. I was mildly disappointed to see that godlikes' parent race wouldn't be reflected in their starting stats. The reasoning behind it is probably to make things easier to balance while still allowing players to mostly choose their own starting attributes, but I wish there was a way to achieve that while still providing some more variety and lore integration. As for why heads will be the main/only thing that is significantly changed on godlike models, that's pretty easy and reasonable to explain. From a zoomed-out isometric perspective, the head will be the most visible part of the body, making it the easiest part to differentiate. It's much easier to tell small models apart from their heads than from squinting at their hands or feet. Much like there won't be separate bodies for younger, older, or fatter NPCs, we have to accept that some visual aspects of the godlike will be simplified and abstracted. Maybe they can develop some optional, godlike-specific Talents that players can take. There would be a level of balance automatically built in, since presumably you can only take so many Talents even if your character qualifies for more, so you would have to weigh the godlike-specific Talents against others.
  9. Gumbercules
    Budget pls.
  10. Gumbercules
    So seriously, what's the intended reaction to the Death Godlike? Should I be having the sort of reaction some people get when they see lotus seed pods? Because there really is something gross about them and I'm wondering if it's intentional or if the effect was supposed to be more subtle.
  11. Gumbercules
    The Infinity Engine games didn't have much official modding support, yet they survived long-term just fine. From what has been said, it seems like PoE will still be better for modding than those games. Given the relatively meager budget, I would rather that they focus on making the game itself as good and successful as they can. If it really does turn out to be a hit, and if it seems like a modding community is forming anyway, maybe they can retroactively add better support, or design the sequel to be highly moddable right from the start. The developers of Shadowrun Returns spent a lot of time on modding support, and the result was both an anemic game and anemic modding community. Now, all of this assumes that providing comprehensive modding tools would take a lot of time and effort that would be better spent elsewhere. If it's in fact really easy to provide, then sure, better to provide it! But I think they would already be doing so if that were the case.
  12. Gumbercules
    I'm quite surprised that you won't be pursuing additional stretch goals! It seemed like the voting and discussion was overwhelmingly in favor of them. Maybe it's because even a lot of the people supporting the idea qualified their support with, "As long as it doesn't delay the game much..." etc. The Earth Godlike and environments look really good. I like that there will apparently be small variants for every portrait. The druid shapeshift is also pretty good, although at the moment it seems to lose something in the transition from concept art to model. I'm curious to know what abilities the cat form provides. The Death Godlike...yikes! Wasn't expecting something like that at all. They look really disturbing and over-the-top. That's not necessarily a bad thing, if it's what you were aiming for, but it really needs to be reflected in the writing and presentation. I can't imagine someone like that fitting into most societies.
  13. Gumbercules
    Thinking about this some more, setting up a three-way battle may be too tricky to balance to be viable as the main/expected outcome of any in-game situation. Instead, it should be an alternative path to increase C&C. If this were part of the main storyline (assuming there are at least two opposing main antagonists), the expected outcome would have to be something like capture and imprisonment or the sacrifice of a character or important item. Clever players, with some hinting from the game but nothing overt or obvious, could instead bypass the expected outcome by setting the opposing enemies against each other. If it were separate from the main storyline, for example involving two factions that hate each other but don't necessarily hate the player unless you antagonize them, then the optional nature of the conflict means that the game doesn't need to provide other ways of continuing the story. The enemies can simply wipe out the party unless you think to instigate a three-way battle.
  14. Gumbercules
    It might be nice to have a Talent that allows rangers to trade the animal companion for increased durability and damage output, and another one that makes them better in close combat. Then again, taking a closer look at the rogue's abilities, it could be that if you want a ranged heavy-hitter without a pet, the best way to do that is to just give your rogue a bow or gun. It may be too early for this yet, but I think a good idea for a future update would be to take two player character ideas, one that's very traditional and one that's unusual, and go through all or most of the character-building process for each idea. So you would start with the general feeling that you want that PC to evoke in and out of combat, pick which class is the best fit, then show how Attributes, Abilities, Equipment, Talents, and Skills help develop that idea. The problem with these types of updates at the moment, as interesting as they are, is that the various pieces still feel very isolated and it's hard to tell if some character ideas are unfeasible or if they just have to be achieved a different way.
  15. Gumbercules
    This is a nice idea. The Alley of Dangerous Angles worked like this in PS:T. You could fight one or both groups, pay them to let you walk there or lead one faction into the other and let them kill each other (and maybe there were other solutions?). I had forgotten about that! You're right that it's similar, although I think that there's room for improvement. In PS:T, you are expected to be able to defeat either of the gangs on your own if you're good enough or advanced enough and seeing them fight each other is more of a nice bonus. By making the enemies too powerful to defeat outright, you can introduce elements of fear, helplessness, and underdog status to occasionally puncture the standard RPG power fantasy.
  16. Gumbercules
    Too bad you didn't give examples of possible ranger animal companions and how they differ, but good update otherwise. I want to know more about chanters, priests, barbarians, and druids, so it's a tough choice but I guess I'll vote for The Leaders of the Band.
  17. Gumbercules
    Your example seems like the type of thing that would resolve off-screen, right? Which is great too, and perhaps an easier way to provide additional reactivity. I was thinking of a scenario in which you directly see and get to participate in the battle. I think you're thinking of something else. You're still expected to beat what's-his-face at the end of NWN2. This is about enemies that are impossible or extremely difficult to beat normally, that you would have to work around instead.
  18. Gumbercules
    I recently binge-watched a show in which the protagonists discover that what seemed to be a single mysterious enemy organization was actually two diametrically opposed factions. When trapped by one faction, they were able to draw in the other one and escape in the ensuing chaos. It's an idea that's not actually uncommon in non-interactive media, and RTS games will also sometimes have 3+ sided battles, but I think it could work for RPGs as well. There was a thread recently about keeping the enemies in the first Pillars of Eternity game low-level. This approach is probably the most sensible for the majority of combat situations, where the party encounters an enemy or group of enemies, has a hopefully challenging fight, but ultimately proves stronger and defeats the foe. In order to save some power progression for sequels, you have to limit the power level of the player party, which in turn means limiting the power of the enemies. But what if, occasionally, you encountered enemies that you weren't ever expected to beat outright? These could be powerful beings or monsters such as dragons, or antagonistic adventuring parties at a significantly higher level and with better equipment, or small armies of powerful soldiers, or some combination of all three. If there is only one such group in an area, the objective could be to hold out against them just long enough to accomplish some task before escaping (or before being captured and having to escape later). If there are multiple groups from different factions that hate each other, an option could be to lure on group to blunder into a rival group, setting up a big messy scrum where everybody's attacking everybody. This way, you can still have a game story that includes powerful, dangerous enemies while still ensuring that the player party don't have to become gods right from the start. Additionally, the same types of enemies could show up as beatable foes in sequels, demonstrating how the party has progressed.
  19. Gumbercules
    You're completely avoiding the fact that both things (brute strength and magical/mental potency) are still represented in the game, in the form of physical punches/weapon swings as opposed to magical spell energies/forces. Thus, I'd say define "necessary." You can be a mighty Wizard or a mighty Barbarian, and they're basically the same thing, with the exception of class. Or, to put it another way, any time you make a brutishly powerful Barbarian, you're ALSO making the most magically/non-physically powerful Barbarian there is. And any time you make a magically phenomenal Wizard, you're ALSO making the most physically powerful/damaging Wizard there is. You cannot make a Wizard who is less damaging with spells, but more damaging with a sword (like a battle-mage hybrid), or vice versa. Furthermore, if the Barbarian simply can't use any non-physical/magical attacks, because of his class, then the whole thing's kind of lopsided unless the Wizard also can't use physical attacks (which we know isn't true). It could be said that "well, because of his class, the Wizard's always going to be less capable/deadly with a physical weapon than other classes, anyway." But then, what's the point in allowing the versatility of allowing your Wizard to be more focused on physical arms and armor, or more focused on magic, in the first place? It's... a little strange, really. It's like an unwanted side effect, because I'm pretty sure the main purpose of having a single stat affect damage is not to marry together physical and magical capabilities. I'm very much in agreement with Valorian's proposal: It's not even changing the stats to do different things for different classes. They simply affect attack types in different ways. Basically, you're always dealing with the same set of stat effects, and all the stats are useful in some way to every character type, and yet the distinction between physical and magical capabilities is maintained, instead of your 20 Might Wizard hitting like a Mack truck with a mace WHILE hurling Thor-quality lightning at everyone around. Keep in mind that the distinction between magical and non-magical is less absolute in PoE than in many RPGs. Every class uses soul powers, and although some may be more traditionally "magical" than others, everyone will be doing larger than life things that wouldn't necessarily feel right if you tried to classify them as purely mundane. With that kind of granularity, a binary magical/non-magical only system would feel at least as artificial as lumping everything together, plus it would be a pain to sort and balance.
  20. Gumbercules
    Wow, everything looks terrific! The art, both in-game and concept, looks beautiful. The stats seem at first glance to make more intuitive sense and it looks like they might have better tradeoffs too (although I can't know without having played the game). So, things gleamed from the character sheet besides the stat changes: Aloth and Sagani are still companions, so if any of the originals were dropped it wasn't these two. Pallegina and The Devil of Caroc are new companions, and the latter is probably encountered first. Hylea is the name of an additional goddess. The Knights of the Crucible and The Dozens are two factions in the game.
  21. Gumbercules
    I don't have the design-an-item tier but thought of a question that might be relevant to those that do: Does creating an item with magical effects always involve using souls or soul fragments? If so, is the process always unpleasant and morally questionable or are there consensual, soul-friendly ways to enchant an item? This could affect the backstory for some items.
  22. Gumbercules
    Was going to answer the questionnaire questions individually, but realized that my answer to each is "don't care / depends." I'm not good at theorycrafting and none of the questions bring up concerns that I feel strongly about. As far as I'm concerned Josh can deviate from D&D attribute conventions as much as he wants as long as the end result is intuitive and promotes meaningful tradeoffs.
  23. Gumbercules
    I like this, at least at first glance. It's simpler and has fewer inputs/outputs than some of the other proposed alternatives, but feels more appropriate (though not necessarily more balanced) than Josh's original post. Although I'm not sure if Constitution should affect Health or if it should affect Stamina. Whichever ends up being more important in practice. That said, as time goes by and I think on it and read people's arguments for and against the original system, I'm growing to like it more and more. It definitely has flaws, but it also has an elegance that any fix seems to diminish. And to me Might and Power have similar connotations as Strength, so renaming that stat but keeping the same function wouldn't really do anything except maybe signal the break from D&D tradition more clearly.
  24. Gumbercules
    Valorian's suggestion isn't perfect but it does suggest a way towards a system that can represent more build ideas. It's missing an attribute that increases inventory size, and I think I liked it better when Health and Stamina were governed by different attributes. Keeping them separate makes for more interesting choices since depending on the class or general playstyle it might be advantageous to emphasize one or the other, or to emphasize both and ignore the other attributes. Then again, I've seen people claiming either Strength or Constitution might be a dump stat under Sawyer's system, although I'm not sure about that. Seems to me that FIghters would want to emphasize either Strength or both Strength and Constitution, Barbarians would typically prefer Constitution over Strength, and for the other classes it would depend situationally.
  25. Gumbercules
    Fair enough. I am more excited about what the system means for build variety than I am put off by what it means for verisimilitude. Yeah, Strength and Intellect were the two that were tripping me up the most. I do wonder, with this system, what does someone or something that inflicts damage through pure brawn look like? For example, that ogre from the teaser video. What do its stats look like?
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