Sheikh

I think it is important to ask the question, what makes level scaling necessary at all? 1. If it is hard or impossible to avoid certain conflicts while progressing in the game; this would also mean the game is more linear 2. If there is a bigger rather than a smaller difference between being low and high level I think the 1. should be avoided whereas the 2. is debatable whether it is good or bad. I made a thread about 2. much time ago

Ragdoll physics is somewhat strange, but also better than nothing in my opinion. On the other hand I would not find them necessary in a game like this.

Lots of opinion in here. What i have learnt is that this kind of thing boils down to opinion mostly. So that is clear. But can you may be have the best of both worlds at the same time, hypothetically. What about IWD2 story? Obviously a simple story as it is, but it was believable. It was also high fantasy at the same time. If you just made it more complex and grander, would you end up with something good? I dont fully understand what you BG fans see missing in IWD2 story so did I get it right? What would you change in it to make it a better story? Not impossible, but very unlikely. If it did happen, it wouldnt be something important from the PC's viewpoint, which would mean you wouldnt have it mentioned or have Imeon as a character in game, much less an important and ever present character. As for the rest, I think if you had better understanding of psychology you would find it less believable as well. I mean the PC would absolutely definitely be troubled at least somewhat on the inside, but it might not actually interfere with his life. That would depend on his character, environment and other circumstances. But making no mention of it in any way is what makes it less believable for me. So that is superficial. So again whether that is a problem or not is down to opinion I suppose.

Sarex, our views differ mostly on the base that I never think of real life as gritty. Ever. It cant be gritty if its real. Thats why I want to find it in fantasy. Anyway, respect. Sensuki, I agree with you also. There have been more than a fair few in D2.

Since the thread title makes the thread have to do with humbleness. Lets talk about the story. Humbleness in the story makes it believable. I have not finished BG, but the beginning of the story is: Imoen and you are childhood friends and have grown up under the tutelage of their guardian Gorion. Is that it? If thats it, then it sounds like a fairytale. The reality would be that the PC would not hold close ties throughout their childhood with some certain friend, especially if they were of the opposite sex. It just wouldnt ever happen in real life. Also the PC would be troubled very much by whom were their real parents, especially as they grew up. This is just an intuitive understanding of humanity. And since the people involved are still humans, this beginning of the story is either partial or just not believable. Also there are questions as to who is Gorion ("guardian?") to the PC and why is the PC under his care. How does candlekeep function? And thats just the VERY beginning. I dont get any vibe of a fairytale when reading A song of fire and ice. And I dont think a good game can afford to have a fairytale for a story either. Opinions?

Yes exactly. I dont know how planescape was developed nor have I played it. I know however that thief 1 was developed mostly from the gameplay perspective and came through as the best game experience I have had. Based on this and mostly my intuition, I believe developing from a gameplay perspective is much more sound. The more you let the frame of the game shape the story for you, the better its going to turn out because thats what forces you to use your inspiration to fill in the gaps, as a game developer. Thats how it works I believe.

Alright safe. So to make this clear - when I say IWD2 has strong gameplay thats what I mean - the combat gameplay is so strong that the gameplay is good overall. It is an action RPG and the RPG elements of gameplay are not that strong. That is true. So I was mostly talking about the combat gameplay, but you wouldnt expect much of that from a game like IWD2. Now, you would from PoE. But all of what I said in the first post applies to all other gameplay aspects as well. I suppose my main point is, it would be good if the devs let their inspiration manifest it in full and not over refine the game. "Playability" as such can come at the cost of depth and thats not a good bargain in my opinion. And yes I was also amazed thst they made it in 10 months. In fact thats what got me thinking about this.

I recently watched sir Josh Sawyers retrospect on the development of IWD2: I feel many things Sawyer would have done differently would not have benefited the game. I could be wrong on many of them because I do not fully know the intentions they had when developing IWD2, but thats what my gut feeling tells me. I also know that IWD2 had the best gameplay of all of the infinity engine games. I do not agree with the philosophy of Todd Howard whatsoever, which is: designing a game is like designing an experience. A game is not a preset story like a book. What makes a game a game is the sandbox part of it. Thats the special thing about a game and I think it needs to be the stressed part of every game. In other words, gameplay over any other aspect. When you try to design an experience you are fundamentally stomping down the gameplay part. Because good gameplay is deep gameplay and deep gameplay provides the player with many, many open ended options. Now I dont know if Sir Sawyer actually has this view on designing games, but I slightly get that vibe from the video above. Taking too much control over the way the whole game functions could be detrimental. Just implement all the good ideas and let the player play them out. Use balance as a controlling mechanism at the most. Make questionable aspects of gameplay optional, dont cut them out. That would be my advice/idea of how to do it. So in conclusion, philosophically a game needn't be a fancily designed experience, but rather a conglomeration of fancy elements that interact with each other in fancy ways. I would be pleased to hear sir Sawyers actual viewpoint on this matter and other's thoughts.

I just wanted to give this insight to the development team and to the other forumers because based on my previous reading here you do not seem to know this. YOU CAN BALANCE EVERYTHING. Even stuff that sounds OP. In fact thats a good place to start if you want variety in your game. Come up with a great idea? Good. implement it. Balance will never be an issue. The result can be really bizarre, for example, spells. Thats fine by me at least. What do you think? For example. An instant kill spell at level 1. The catch? Can only be used on monsters with very small hit dice. If you want it ridiculous, not even goblins. Even lower hit dice (Giant rats? Dogs?). Depending on the context of the game, this spell MAY OR MAY NOT be useful. Even if its useless, its still fun. Why? Because designers are pulling you. Or it may be an extremely niche spell. But it doesnt necessarily have to be. It might be a balanced and useful spell as well. Since we dont know the context of the game yet, we can not say something is OP.

I personally think prebuffing was abysmal so I am glad to see it go. Thats the biggest reason I hated picking a cleric. When playing without reloading it isnt so bad, but still not very pleasant.

Yes! Wheres the poll?

Yeah customization of difficulty is easily the most reasonable way to solve this problem. The important thing is, that hopefully it will be there and will be well customizable. I like some kind of midcore myself.

Yes and yes. Also, please speak for yourself as per courtesy. where did Gromnir speak for you? we posed questions. though we will admit that courtesy has nothing to do with why we choose not to speak for you. diablo 2? *snort* HA! Good Fun! Is the we some kind of forum roleplaying thing for you? 5/10 Okay. Diablo 2. One of the deepest RPG games ever made that contains practically no actual roleplaying since it is an ARPG. Atmosphere was also great all round and story was elegantly told, but not complicated I guess. Ive been through some very thorough discussions on this topic on another forum before and this is not gonna happen again.

Yes and yes. Also, please speak for yourself as per courtesy.

I think to be realistic, this issue of what is better described as accessibility at the cost of a certain type of DEPTH that has alot to do with metagaming is best taken for what it is. It has nothing per se to do with old school vs new school and we ought to break it out of that cage. How hardcore do you want this game to be? Thats the question. Sounds like mediocrely hardcore, which is fine. Hell, at times I did appreciate the convenience provided by Oblivion over Morrowind - for example. But after that, now having played with both with and without such convenience, I started to prefer the lesser convenience and a more hardcore gaming experience not a further more softcore gaming experience perhaps provided by Skyrim (havent played it). So I would like to see oppurtunities for hardcore gaming in Poe like something similar to hof mode and a save and exit mode. Just optionally. Softcoreness is not always ONLY a bad thing and sometimes (rarely) is only a good thing. Though I think the latter is not the case with what has to do with those gotcha moments. On the other hand, maybe I'll enjoy not getting ****ed over by doing something wrong and not reading the manual on my first playthrough. But the hardcore aspects are what bring the replay value up for real. Thats why they are great as optional things when possible to implement them as such.

I just realised the best storytelling in a game is done with a method where the story is told indirectly from the perspective of an auxiliary NPC. This is the case with Diablo 2 and IWD2. I love this type of storytelling. Do you agree? Would you like to have this type of storytelling in PE? Not that the devs would change their developments by now, but Im just wondering what others think of this. And what else would you like the story and its application to be like in PE?

It definitely sets the mood. I am well into the melancholy but its not very memorable. What could change that in my opinion is to alternate the pacing of the music a little more. Meaning have the pace go a little faster for a while and then slowww. And make these alternations vary alot. I probably dont know what Im talking about, but I hope you get my point. Thats just my theory of what would make it better for my taste. Btw I humbly request that harp be used in some of your compositions. Its too good of an instrument to leave out imo . As long as it can go along with the theme you are building overall, I hope it can be used.

Old school - new school is a misnomer. Its purely less casual - more casual. Guess which one Id prefer.

Its worth mentioning that indeed, Bethesdas and perhaps more precisely Todd Howard's attitude in my opinion serves as exactly the attitude NOT to have when making an RPG.

Estonia, in Yurop

I dont play any "AAA" games at all and its nothing of the like that I expect from PE. I expect an "oldschool" game, though games like IWD2 and BG are very alive in my book. I still play them from time to time. If PE can be like one of those games Im already happy because its something new of the kind I like.

I agree. Theres already plenty of multiplayer games out there where you can compete with others, speak to your teammates through voice communication and do teamwork, accumulate e-**** points all at the same time. Theyre all there - World of tanks is my favorite. Single player games are needed also, sometimes you just want to chill out from all of that stuff that comes with multiplayer games. Gaming started out single player, then the crazy went with multiplayer and now its maybe coming slowly back as well.

On one hand I have all the time I need and I wouldnt waste it on ****ty RPGs and ****ty other games just because Im better off spending my time listening to music and doing nothing much. So Im really looking forward to Pillars of Eternity to get a good time out of it. On the other hand even if I am going to really enjoy PE, I would never take it overly seriously.

I was doubting you guys were gonna show the UI this early but Im delighted you did. The part just below the portrait looks alpha to me the rest is all good already. Also the gods, awesome. I actually never knew anything about dnd gods so hopefully in this game I can know the gods and actually declare each of my character to follow one. Looking forward to that. Perhaps the strong blue glow is odd about the banshee. I personally would prefer it to look more conservative.

I recently discovered the beautiful sound of the instrument called a harp. I think it fits well into any medieval style RPG. So do you think its likely it will make a showing? Any other harp fans out there?