CENIC

The ship related stretch goals look great, especially the ship customization, menagerie, and being able to acquire different styles of ships through gameplay. The Steward had better be the figurehead of our new ship. Knowing that the teased 8th companion was one of the sidekicks fleshed out makes me not care as much about hitting $5m. I was thinking it was a brand new character that hadn't been mentioned yet.

This is what I forsee happening too. I don't think Obsidian can turn people's expectations back in time. Modern audiences expect depth from companions, especially when Pillars 1, which was supposed to be a straight-up love letter to the 90's, set a precedent for it. Some players will reference Baldur's Gate and excuse it. I hope there are enough of them to drown out the inevitable disappointment.

I know how you feel, but for me, relationships or romance in a game that only exist to pander to the player or for wish fulfillment are unsatisfying. I thought Dragon Age Inquisition's approach to companion romance was a huge improvement over Dragon Age 2 where all the love interests were conveniently playersexual. Allowing companions to have romantic and sexual preferences and gating players from experiencing every type of relationship with every companion makes them feel more like real people... for better or worse, depending on how the real world treats you I guess. I'm nervous about getting my hopes up about a romance with Aloth myself. Better to stay cynical and wait and see.

The city is beautiful, and I'm looking forward to the scripted interactions encountered during city travel. But the sidekicks... I understand what they were going for - BG2 had like, what, 17 companions? Pretty hard to replicate that with modern game dev budgets. I thought the "adventurers" you could create yourself filled that niche well enough. I never used them, personally, but they were positively received. Sidekicks are a weird halfway between adventurers and companions, and I don't see what need they are satisfying that the other two can't. Plus this means we are probably not going to make it to the 8th companion stretch goal... so disappointing.

I can't see Obsidian going in that direction. They said that the ways in which you choose to influence companions will affect how the relationship develops - which I read as "love" will only be possible for specific companions and even then only under very specific circumstances. For Aloth, perhaps that means "only if you told him to sublimate Islmyr." It would avoid the threesome implications and everything that goes with it, anyway.

I agree that Eder is probably a given, because EVERYONE loves Eder. I'm hoping for Aloth, because I roleplayed my elf rogue Watcher having a soft spot for him in Pillars 1. It would be interesting to see how Islmyr affects a potential romance plot... my Watcher told Aloth to harmonize with her, but that means they would be having a threeway...

Yeah, and I don't fault them for spending that time/resources elsewhere. Doesn't change the fact that seeing an actual orlan nature godlike or a dwarf fire godlike design would be rad.

I remember bringing up the question of whether or not your godlike character could be a different base race than human. When the original Kickstarter launched, I think the plan was for godlike to be human only (at least, for the player character) If the new companion IS an aumaua godlike I'm super excited. In Pillars 1, you could change your godlike character's body model, but none of the heads or portraits had any characteristics that would point towards being any base race other than human, which was disappointing. This new companion is clearly an aumaua, but he has enough godlike traits to make people wonder. This is the type of design I wanted for godlike.

I support romance, and I'm not talking about a contrived fade-to-black scene. One of my favorite implementations of a romance sub-plot in a RPG is Bishop in NWN2... and ironically, this is a romance plot that was scrapped during development (but not entirely scrubbed out of the files) There was some enjoyable flirty banter, some subtle suggestions that there were feelings involved. No awkwardly animated sex scenes. My character's interactions with Bishop, even though they were a small thing, made the later parts of the game, and the ending, more poignant to me, and something that has stuck with me over the years. Just because there wasn't a "happy ending" (double entendre absolutely intended) didn't mean I enjoyed it any less. So I absolutely think it's possible to implement it in a way that isn't cringy. That being said, I do think it would be best for PiIIars to make it a high-tier stretch goal or DLC planned for post-release, because it does take a lot of time and effort to do it well.

Into the Fray is supposed to be an active skill with two uses per encounter. It was working for me for a while, but now the icon is grayed out both in and out of combat with the red text "already activated"

Can anyone point out good sites to find fantasy portrait art? I know pinterest has a wide selection.

I'd like to mess around with the Adventurer's Hall at the Dracogen Inn to try different party combinations, but I can't figure out how to dismiss a companion so I can hire a different one! Please help!

I'm a bit disappointed there are only four types of godlike (unless that's only for the beta?) Reading about them initially it sounded like there were about as many types as there are gods, so I was excited about having a wide variety to choose from.

Elf Godlike Rogue. I'm hoping for a Godlike type that looks similar to the classic Tiefling...

I'd add more money to my current pledge for the extra 3 companions alone... having a plot-integrated companion for every class is a must for me.

Just curious if we'll have the option of selecting the base race of a godlike character. The official description states godlike are "usually human" or something to that effect (I don't have it in front of me right now) but I'd like to be able to create an elf or orlan godlike.