Endrosz

Nah, an additional "stash all" button is what's missing to actually make the stash perform its intended function, the reduction of time spent on rote item nudging. You hand-pick what you need for the current adventure, then press "stash all" and move on.

Are you for real? Sure, on the surface it looks like another Tolkienesque sword-and-sorcery RPG. Planescape Torment looked like another IE game with planar creatures instead of orks and goblins (BG2: ToB already had some god-planar stuff, so it wasn't even that new). KotoR 2 looked like another Star Wars game with Jedis, Siths, light sabers, blasters, and all the usual trappings of the universe. Mask of the Betrayer looked like more of the uninspired, yawn-inducing NWN2 campaign, except with epic numbers. Fallout: New Vegas looked like another dosage of Bethesda's 3D brown dirt simulator. It's your loss, man.

So you want a lot of empty areas added to maps, is that correct? Areas that will be completely ignored on second and subsequent playthroughs, because, you know, why go there if you know there's nothing there? Maps like this, or this, or this? Suppose you get what you want, then the other guys will start to complain that the maps contain too much empty space, pointless walking, and the game wasted precious 2D art on nothing. And I would rather agree with them than with you, since 2D art time is -- this is well known to those who followed the updates and discussions -- one of the choke points in the dev pipeline. Maps should be used to their fullest, that follows from the budget they have. If they had more 2D art time, I would like to have better/more portraits, not empty areas. I agree that placement is a bit too tight in Eternity based on the current information, and I do wish they had somewhat bigger maps and/or lesser density. But I disagree with using BG1 as a model for map density.

Yes. It also hurts replayability for people like me, who like to try and discover and play overpowered and underpowered builds for both role-play purposes and experimental purposes. The options are never "as good as the next one". A completely level playing field as a design goal is unachievable in an RPG with a dozen interlocked systems. Then why bother with it? -- In DnD-based games, the worst options make the game unplayable on high level, the best options make most of the game trivial. -- In Pillars of Eternity, hopefully neither of the above will be true. The goal here is that the game should be playable, but challenging on Normal to the very end with all builds. Muscle wizards, fighters with bows, barbarians with arquebuses shooting poisoned bullets, chanters with low Perception, elves with high Constitution, and so on and so on. Different builds WILL offer a different experience, because the same challenge will be easy for one and hard for the other. One can inflict a lot of status effects, the other has strong defenses and stamina regen, the third has a quick damage burst to take down one opponent fast. I've said it before, I'll say it again: You, and everyone else who tinkers with builds a lot, including me, WILL discover overpowered and underpowered stuff in the game. Don't you worry about that.

Welcome to the club.

Whoever did this: THANK YOU. I was thinking about asking for one, either the Obsi board admins or the crowd... and lo and behold, there is already one!

AI War: Collection, one of the best RTSs ever created, offering co-op multiplayer, really long and complex sessions, containing probably the best AI in the entire computer game industry, is now on GOG! The release promo offers a 60% discount, now is a really good time to get the whole package for just 6.79 bucks!

It isn't an endless dungeon, it's NAME is "The Endless Paths of Od Nua". It is in the game and completed. There was even some detailed discussion about it in PC World and RPS, possibly others I won't bother googling for. A few facts: -- Od Nua is designed so that the dungeon "out-levels" the XP gains, forcing you to leave and return later, several times until you reach the final level. Kind of a long, multi-part adventure that runs parallel to the main game. -- The upper level(s) have some crit path content, but the vast majority of the content is optional. Dungeon crawling, ahoy!

Vengeful Grognard, in loving memory of this forum's discussions.

It's a "you win some, you lose some" situation. Wastaland 2 does have dump-ish stats, but there, skills matter more than stats, so it's not a big deal, and you can have your "lost" character concepts there. Eternity went its own way: it gives player big-impact stats like DnD (a nostalgia box checked), but following up on that Sawyer favored a no-dump approach, and it's a valid route. Eternity's builds will be more varied, but less "real".

And why should you be motivated to kill all beetles you encounter? Is it written somewhere in the RPG Bible that you need to kill all beetles you encounter? Think of the ecosystem, man! You kill all the wolves (apex predators), and the rivers will suffer! My prediction: The combination of tough combat (with some guaranteed long-term damage) and no kill XP will mean that a lot of players will actively avoid unnecessary combat (we've already seen this in the latest demos, straight walk to the ogre). FINALLY, we're going to see some reason in the so-called adventurers' behavior, because nobody in her right mind would want to risk her life constantly without a good reason. And "those beetles were standing there in the woods, so let's kill them" is not a good reason. In pen-and-paper gaming, adventurers avoid unnecessary combat because: 1. There is no "Load game" option, the risks are unavoidable. 2. The GM can throw all kinds of **** at the party at any time, in any encounter, you don't have the meta knowledge of "there are only 3 beetles here, nothing more". So if you have the option to engage or not, you gauge the perceived risks versus the possible rewards. These changes will force a similar risk-reward assessing attitude in Eternity, which is, again, very welcome by me.

Stun is right, that is a graphical glitch or something. The party members are blurred because of movement, but the NPC standing near the door clearly demonstrates that the problem only exists on the screenshot that Justinian linked.

Adam: *shown rubbing his hands* Josh: "... because this area is teeming with dangerous critters like giant beetles."

The pet slot was a nice surprise! In GW1, my fav minipet was the mini warthog, which I used alongside with a normal-sized ranger pet warthog, they looked so cool together. For a change, something fun comes from MMO-land to single-player games! Maybe the pets are affected by big head mode, too?

I got an invite to the ArcheAge 3rd Closed Beta, will be playing from Aug 14-18 (Thursday-Monday) whenever I can and posting pics and commentaries here. The game is installed, I'm waiting for the server opening. It's got a strong sandbox foundation, with a player-driven economy including building ships and non-instanced (!) houses and castles, bringing a strong Ultima/EVE Online vibe. It has flying (gliders), which is awesome on its own, and the build-your-own class system from Titan Quest/Grim Dawn. I'm really curious about it, this is the first time I'm excited about an MMO beta since GW2. Finally something to challenge the theme park crowd. More info: Classes and Crafting, Housing and Farms, Traversing the World (staggering amount of travel options, it deserves an article of its own!)

Magnificent! *weeps* Now that I've seen a larger scale battle, I do agree about the "lack of (idle) animation" thing that Sensuki and others been rapping about. I haven't noticed it before. The battle does feel static, with skill effects and hits suddenly "erupting". Everything else was fine by me.

A number of Obsi game designers are big fans of Pathfinder, just for the record. The main reason is what Feargus says repeatedly in interviews -- they're always on the lookout for contract jobs, and they work with whomever's willing. It seems Paizo was willing. If there is a PF game in the works at Obsidian, that doesn't hinder the development of the Eternity franchise in any way, in fact more employees are fed using the very same non-licensed (!) engine. That's big savings and nice future propects, right there.

Someone asked whether there is already a PF game -- there is an MMO in development, although it's nowhere near completion. It would make sense to adapt the rules from there, as that one is already not D20 and real-time, which fits neatly into Eternity's engine.

There is an interview out, made at SDCC, with Doug C ockle, voice of Geralt. For me, the interesting part is when Doug is asked about where he gets the inspiration for Geralt's voice/personality. He relates that during the audition process, Boris, a guy in charge of the audition on CDPR's part, told him to base it on Clint Eastwood's unfazed, hardened, low-emotion style, especially Dirty Harry. Now thank I think about it, that inspiration certainly comes through!

Precisely what I wanted to say in a long post yesterday. I canceled it, because it was becoming a long essay that no one would've read. The races, the plot, the Reapers themselves (War of the Worlds again?), all lack imagination. Stanislaw Lem wrote better stuff 40 years ago.

I recently replayed BG1, leisurely, taking my time to talk to every NPC everywhere, even stock NPCs. The humor is ubiquitous, there are many funny lines. Here's one from TotSC: ...dog kickers! The scum of earth, they are! I expect to see many similar embedded pieces of humor in Eternity. Obsidian's previous work is proof that they're no less adept at juicing up text than BioWare.

At the end of MotB, you married your romance partner if you had one (I think you had to confirm that you really want him/her as a stable partner before the slides started rolling, but it was just a single line) . But otherwise what Namutree suggests is actually a pretty nice idea, I might even join a team to develop such a mod. We could have -- a la King's Bounty -- different spouse personalities: Family Woman: "I heard from Maria that in the Darkverydark Forest, where you were wandering around lately, fampyrs prey upon travelers. Oh dear, I hope it's just a rumor! You shouldn't put yourself in so much danger, darling. Little Peter's birthday is next month, you shouldn't miss that! He's always talking about his big hero daddy who cleaves dragons in half with a single sweep, and the best gift would be seeing you in person." Demanding Wife: "The last time you dragged your worthless hide back home from adventuring you only had 2000 gold and a small pouch of gems. I CAN'T RUN A PROPER LADY'S HOUSEHOLD WITH THAT LITTLE MONEY! START TAKING ON MORE LUCRATIVE QUESTS OR ELSE!!!!!!!!! " Mad Inventor Husband: "I hope you don't mind that I invested the money you left in the stronghold funds into exploring a very interesting theory of animancy. Due to some unfortunate mishaps, which were totally unexpected and accidental, your favorite dog succumbed to death. She was getting old anyway." The Unfaithful: "I plan to embark on a journey to visit faraway Lisistra. I've heard so many stories of its red-domed temples and lush green parks and exotic citizens that I must see it for myself. You're almost always away on some grand adventure, it's time I had some on my own. Without you, it's so boring and unhealthy here in the cold, dark, dank keep ." Yeah, there's so much uncharted territory in the realm of video game romances.

I wrote 2 emails to support in March after having the same problem, a week between them. I got an answer to the second, acknowledging it and promising to do the reset. Nothing happened since, and I gave up on it. I hope the pledge management site gets upgraded before the beta starts (as promised), and we can do this for ourselves instead of eating up precious human resources and doing this slow email dance.

Don't confuse the posters in this thread with Obsidian. Their decision was based on available resources (time/money) and their high standards for writing anything, not excluding romances. Sawyer stated several times that he has nothing against romances, but they are a cost-heavy feature that was dropped from this release. I reckon that PoE 2 or 3 will feature romances, which will flip out a lot of people here. Again, they don't represent Obsidian.

In a sense, we've been already playing objective XP RPGs in the last decade, thanks to the rising dominance of quest XP. In DnD 3 games, this is enhanced by the challenge rating (CR) kill XP modification. In BG1, looking for high level mobs and managing to kill them would net you early level gains, like killing the sylph-whatevers on the coast for 2000 XP apiece. However, PS:T started a trend where kill XP, while nice, was secondary to engaging what Sigil's residents had to offer. In NWN 2 (both the OC and MotB), I made a comparison between a "kill all" playthrough and a "conservative" (crit path only) playthrough. The difference was about a level. It's not something that really matters. The CR mechanic means that a "conservative" player, being lower level, gains more XP from crit path kills than a "kill all" player, which evens out kill XP gains, and quest XP is the major factor anyway. The Witcher games are also built around quest XP. Yes, you can grind ****atrices in TW1 Chapter 3 to reach level 50, but it's rather pointless: the game is very much finishable without grinding even of Hard difficulty with the ~36-37 levels you get from a straight playthrough. In TW2, for example, the nekker tunnels quest gives you unlimited nekkers to fight, but it's not really worth it: kill XP is so low that you just better blow those tunnels for a large quest XP gain and move on. And so on and so on, I could elaborate on more examples. So the people who argue for kill XP make it like there are two separate worlds, which is not the case. You might not have noticed it, because the change has been gradual, but objective XP already dominates RPGs*, kill XP is mostly there to fulfill the psychological effect which was discussed in this topic ("I want fighting rewarded!"). I understand that taking away this reward feels like a punishment without good reason for such players, but number-wise, the difference is already diminished compared to the early days. * Obviously, I do not include action RPGs, hack-and-slash games in this, or any other game where RPG only means there is a level-up mechanic.