Harry Easter

I don't know, after the ceremony with the leaden key it didn't feel really relevant. I did a few things here a few things there, but I didn't get a feeling that I thwarted the plans of my arch-enemy and just did ... things. In Twin Elms the story became more personl to me and the quests from the gods felt relevant to the plot. It gave us a good idea how the gods worked and how they influence the world, while in Defiance Bay we did just a few quests and then the plot moved on.

Both of you are right. The story is better than BG's, but it stops in the middle, only to get interesting again at the end. But before that you don't feel involved.

Thaos is willing to commit genocide and even worse things just to keep his religion only religion in world, by preventing people questioning Which isn't pro....He wants to use use his Artificial Intelligences to control.... He believes that those machines are gods, or at least close to god than anything can come and they are only things that keep world running as it is. For him they are center of religion, center of everything that he believes in. So I would argue that he is clearly pro religion. Close to gods isn't believing in gods. Believing they have immense power, isn't believing they're gods. He knows they're simply products of his science. Well, but he BELIEVES that they are necessary. You also shouldn't forget how they were created: not through thousands of unwilling slaves, but through the souls of willing BELIEVERS. I don't think you would do this as an atheist, since your view of the world is centered on the here and now. But as a religious person giving youself up for creating a good order? That should be the greatest sacrifice, even the greatest sign of fate anybody could show. I know this is very christianlike, but since the pantheon has a very christianlike god of light and redemption (Eothas) this interpretation isn't as farfetched.

Well, you are right that love isn't rational in RL. But in fiction, especially in video games. It's all about the numbers and the choices to get the numbers high. Buuut, you are also right, that the illusion of passing time is a very important factor for video games. Dragon Age 2 solved this quite good, with skipping the story whole years ahead. That was good, but it shows that CRPG have kind of an pacing problem. The better I get, the faster I'm through, so instead of winning BG 2 in a year in-game, I solved everything plus Throne of Bhaal in 100 days and me and Aerie swear eternal to each other (btw Aerie is still the best romance in all Biowaregames ). I was to good for the story to unfold. Divinity: Original Sin solved this also good. Of course the relationship between the characters stays stable, but you don't know what comes AFTER the game. Will they fall in love or hate it each other. In my case, they become lovers in both playthroughs. Yay . But the question "will they, won't they?" is still a effective storytelling-trope. And I can understand your points, about romance in Pillars, but come on, what would romantic dialogue read like in the game? Pallegina: I heard you screaming last night and my heart broke a little. You know, you can always cuddle with me if you feel anxious. Watcher: Uh, thanks Pallegina. Pallegina: I also think that you look kinda hot when you awake and look so disoriented, rawrrrrr. Watcher: THANKS PALLEGINA, BUT I AM NOT INTERESTED! Pallegina: Oh, because you like them elvish, what? Don't you think I don't see how Aloth looks at you! Watcher: Aloth? Aloth (wiggles with his eyebrows): She is right, you know. Pain suits you, rawrrrrrr. Watcher: *Sigh* It would be like a nurse falling in love with her patient . Well, violence can you make powerful and there is still distance between you and your enemy. Sex makes you feeling very vulnerable and uncomfortable, since you get very intimate with someone, you may think you like but you maybe don't really know etcetc. As for Morrigan: Good point, but I think it is less about her wanting power, but more about her trust-issues. Her love-story is interesting, because for me it never felt like a romance between two adults, but more some kind of puppy-love a young girl in the body of a grown-up woman feels for the first person, that was ever nice to her. That's why this romance was always doomed ... until you could get your Happy-End in the DLC Witch Hunt.

And as deadly, as the Warhammer RPG? Hmm, why not? Could be a fine survival-rpg^^. Hmm, I would still differentiate between those two. SM in W40k are also good Meele-Fighters, in Starcraft we only have our gun and a thick armor. And killing one protoss-templar could be a small a bossfight.

My main problem with romances is me. Or to be more precise: my character. I don't buy that my companions fall in love with him. Not just lusting after him, but falling deeply, madly in love. Like "love of my life" and all that. My question is: what do they see in me, what I can't? It's not my strong personality, for sure. Maybe they get horny when they see me killing everything. What I mean is, my character has technically no personality to fall in love with, while everybody acts like I am the most special person on the planet. That puts me out of the game and let the companions look like very desperate people, since they put way more effort in the relationship than me. Obsidian got it right in Alpha Protocol with Mike and Mina. You could feel the chemistry, because they had something for each other: for Mike it was somebody to trust and for Mina it was the excitement Mike represents. It may take time until it develops in real "love", but at least you could understand why they lusted and cared for each other. It helped that Mike was a real character. Most of the time he was kind of a bastard, but it suited him. As for Pillars: This is one story, where I couldn't imagine how to start a romance. I mean, I'm on the run and have nightmares, I want to be left alone, I have no time for flirting! If we implement a romance in the game, it should be part of the mainstory, not just a side-quest. Because good romance needs time and ressources, love has not only ups but a lot of downs.

Just came to my mind: - make my Watcher-skills more relevant: most of the time the skills were used for exposition and we could use the more interesting things (awakening a soul) when it fitted the story. It would be cool, if we could use those skills more often, maybe with some kind of limited ressources like the soul-eating in Mask of the Betrayer?

I actually had a similar idea postet at the beginning of the thread, but yours is good too! It would give the player an easier oppurtunity for involvement and wouldn't even be as far-fetched. And the White Flame would be an good additioon, for an even more complex plot. Good job! The only problem I see is, that Eothas would be wasted everywhere, besides Readceras, because this is the nation where he is praised the most and its concepts about order over everything else is the best fit for him, compared to the more intrigue-driven Republics. There isn't much about Durance in House of Wael. He is mentioned once and he seems to have become something of a inspiration for heretics. There may be even more than one Durance now, if the novel is considered canon. That's all there is to Durance. Pallegina would be awesome. And it could fit, since even her ending with the Kind Wayfarers is open enough for a return.

I reread some suggestions and wrote down a few further thoughts. What is the setting? The Vailian Republics, one of the big City State What's the story about? Discovering some secrets about the gods, which could be possible in a society full of rich people and intrigues as Vailia. Maybe some rich collector got his fingers on an ancient engwithan scroll, which describes the creation of an all-powerful soul ( a god)? Or we dive further in the schemes of Leaden Key, while the remaining members of the organisation try to kill each other off. And while we fight for our lives, Ondra, Wael and Skaen try their best, to achieve their own goals. What are the biggest stakes? Ondra drowning the city at the end of the game. We know, that she isn't afraid of making her hands dirty and it is fair to say, that she will kill every inhabitant of the city, if it means to keep her dirty secret. Stopping this should be epic and satisfying enough. What are the big themes of the story? Secrets. How do keep them, to spread them and use them to your advantage. And truths and lies. At first, you could consider Wael as an ally, but he likes to spread halfrumors and lies, so can we really believe what the god says? Could it be worth a thought to help Skaen, since he is the god of rebellion after all? And will there be any chance of survival, if Ondra finds out what you took away from her? Could you meet old companions? After reading House of Wael ( thank you, Nonek) we could meet Durance or another Durance. And if we consider Aloth splitting from the Leaden Key canon, I could imagine him being back in the group. If he wants to fight the Leaden Key, he could start in the Republics. Given a few years, we also had an explanation why he lost all the cool stuff, you gave him in PoE 1.

If this is your first game, start with a fighter and look if you can get a few boni on might or constitution. A fighter is easy to play: give him a good armour and a big sword and you should have no problems at first. Even if you are unsure with the mechanics at first, a good fighter can deal with your enemies for a while.

The question is: do more companions increase the replay-value? Maybe it's just me, but most of the time I get stucked with the same group on every playthrough, because I like those characters the most and consider the others kind of as work. But I get the idea, that with more companions the chances are higher, that you like at least one person.

1. I think that points 1 & 2 above contradict each other. Usually the best way to explore imaginary cultures is to show their living situations. Kirkwall did that well with the Qunari, but not well with everyone else. Multiple locations are solely a matter of the resources used to develop them. Stalwart and Dyrford as towns had way more content per area/person, so they worked better than Defiance Bay. However, I do see the benefit of having all your exploring centered around one very large hub, as you get to understand that hub better. BG2 did this twice in Amn and Ust Natha. There were other places (gnome village, trademeet), but no place eclipsed the local hub. I can see that working better than the kind of strange railroad PE offered. 2. I definitely want to see more Vithrack, but I honestly think the game could be improved by adding more content to the weird maps they have. Environmental storytelling is nice, as well as npcs who bark a few lines before giving a small quest or fighting you. Searing falls has these incredibly rare volcanic hotsprings (that don't make sense on the worldmap, lern2geography), and there's nothing leading to it or no one there. I have never seen a similar environment in any other game and it fel barren. Seriously, adding a half eaten lagufeth after White March came out would say something. Or observing a xaurip tribe dragging something back while drakes harass them. Or having a con man who sold mineral springs water as a cure-all. Black Meadow and Esternwood are two examples of relatively unique maps that are not commented on at all. There's a ton of dead dragons in Black Meadow and no one thinks that's odd or says anything about it and the map is empty. Esternwood is a particularly missed opportunity; there's a location full of incredibly violent diseased children. No one in Gilded vale talks about it, and more importantly there's no one to talk to you in Easternwood. Finding a bundle of food with a love letter, or a spouse who asks you to find their partner, or a family dropping a kid off would have done an immense job to contextualize it. Seriously, if I knew how to mod in people, I would add extremely minor characters everywhere just because it can use it. There needs to be a minor writer / designer who goes through and adds minor pieces of storytelling here and there because it makes an area so much better. Russetwood had it, most PE maps did not. 3. NWN 2 had more companions in the base game than Pillars had, and then added more in the expansion than Pillars added. Companions were not equal; Grobnar, Cassovir, and Construct weren't as well written as Sand or the Jerros. This is just a matter of time and resources, not a small or high number being better. BG2 had a lot of awesome characters. Planescape had a few awesome characters. Lionheart Legacy of the Crusader had characters. 1. Fair point. I could have differentiate it more. With one big city I mean one big hub, where all the major events take place. I PoE 1 we had two big cities. I felt more at home in the second one, but when we arrived there, the plot moved so far, that we couldn't get to know it better. I have nothing to add to the rest. 2. Good ideas! 3. I see your point, but I think less companions could strengthen the bond even further, because you get so used to them and rely on their help, that it hits harder, if they die or betray you. It would also be easier to implement them more in the mainquest, so that they aren't just a few guys you pick up on the road.

I like the idea, so let's raise this thread from the dead. My Death Godlike hails from Old Vailia. His name is Dhalvaro, his parents were dwarves and he wasn't well liked in his community. He abandoned his home when he reached puberty and joined a group of mercenaries. There he believed to have found his calling, but when war came, only he survived. He looked around on the battlefield and it became clear for him, that he truly was touched by Death. But never again would he allow such a enormous loss of life. Never again would people die, because he couldn't protect them or the life of a scavenger was the easier way out. This oath gave him the strength and the faith to join the Kind Wayfarers and now he is travelling around the world as a paladin to do the right thing. Out of duty and out of guild. I played the game twice with this character build and was very pleased how fitting the background was in direct context with the mainquest.

Hmm, I liked them well enough, but what I meant, that they reacted more to your actions and you could talk with them about it. It formed the outlook they had at the end of the game. That's always fun.

Hmm, besides less loading times I would like to see: - A better paced story: The beginning in Gilded Vale was excellent, but when we arrived in Defiance Bay, the story stopped a bit until we got in the last third. At this point it became really good. Still I would like to see a mainquest, that maybe is shorter but builds up to an good climax with a lot of endings. The White March was good at this in my opinion. - Make factions more integral to the plot: Alpha Protocol and Fallout: New Vegas come to my mind. I think it could help make the player to feel more at home, if they have at least one faction they sympathise with or hate. Combine this with different philosophies in each faction (maybe there are some thieves that want to rule open while others want to be more shadowy in their dealings) and we have a good base base for different endings and motivations for repeated playthroughs. - Only one big city: I think one big city with a lot of quests could deepen the setting enourmously. Say what you want about Kirkwall in Dragon Age 2, but in the end you know the dark corners of this city and its history. It also deepens the place, if you can combine the ruins in its sewers with the history of the place. - Less but more exotic locations and encounters: I would like to see more of the Vithracks and the Lizardfolk from White March and interacte with their culture. It could be really interesting, since they are so different from the player and could Obsidian give some room to experiment with new concepts of morale or the ideas of souls. I would also like to see more ruins where I can use the technology of the engwithans or something like a city of Adraghosts. The setting has enough potential for those kind of ideas. - The gods should be even more integral to the story: Without spoiling to much, some people posted really good ideas how to integrate Ondra or Wael in the story. Combined with Skaen, you could get a good story about secrets and intrigues just around those three guys alone. - Less but deeper conpanions: I like almost all of the companions, but maybe you could build them up even more. Instead of eleven we could use six, but they all have more than one quest and the decisions of the player could influence them more than once, like for example in NWN 2 or Divinity: Original Sin as as newer example. - Individualise combat more: As much as people praise BG2 for its combat, most of the time it was about using the correct order of wizard spells. I would like to see an even more balanced approach between melee,spells and fighting with pistols if this even possible.

Hmm, I know this thread was brought back just for fun, but I like the idea, so let's post ! RPG's are at their core about mechanics and you use them to get more powerful or play out your dreams of freedom. Diablo (at least in the first two games), gives you the feeling of power through repetition. Master this one thing and you become the most feared person in all of Sanctuary. GTA: San Andreas had this also in spades, with the upgrade system and all that. But it also gives you the freedom to do whatever you want. You play a real role in GTA IV and V and you decide how do get some things done. So yeah, you could consider GTA an RPG and when you master the driving and the shooting, you also got a hold of its mechanics. But there is no real feeling of progression in GTA, while you actually become more powerful in Diablo (better loot, once strong enemies get killed with one hand) and at least you have to work to kill the bosses, while in GTA cutsecenes often do that for you. I may be not as free in exploring the world in Diablo as in GTA, but Diablo rewards you more for playing the game, so it would say that the Diablo-series is more of an RPG, while GTA became more and more about the experience of living in a simulated world.

I read it yesterday and found it to be an awesome read. Avellone told an, at least at it's core, simple story, but used it for an deep discussion about the themes of the game. It shows that he isn't an one-trick-pony and now I want to read more stories by him. Hey Chris, when do you publish your first novel ?

I played the game recently and thought about it's ending for a while. On it's own, the twist doesn't work, if Iovara really says "there are no gods", since we saw them working. But I guess it works better, if you don't consider them as gods, but as very powerful souls (which they are). I always understood it as "they exist, but they aren't all powerful" which is true, since Abydon was destroyed and Woedica dethroned. White March added a few aspects to this idea and creates a more rounded experience. Some people also already wrote, that the game doesn't deny the idea, that there aren't real gods, but it is unlikely, since every loving thing seems to be bound to the wheel of souls. I think the game attacks more the idea of an eternal order, which the gods represent, as seen in the decision you took through the game and with whom you shaped all of Dyrwood. It's about control and how limited it in the end really is, Thaos is the best example. He did his schemes for over thousand years, but he couldn't stop the changes forever, as much as he tried. So, yeah, I would put it also in a more atheistic corner, but it's really more about the needs of the individual and the society and control versus freedom, than "religious people are idiots".

Hmm, define "old". I could convice him, to set Antidas as the Emperor on paper, but it turned Teron in a headquarter for the guard and Antidas being a puppet with the crown. After that, I became a member of the Guard, but I want to continue as a praetor and him a real emperor (but a weak one, because tbh he IS a idiot). Did they add this option? Agreed. And a combination of skills often isn't very useful. They coulöd have give you an skillcheck, but still add three dialogueoptions, so they conversation still stays a challenge (for example giving mali or boni for the correct "streetwise" option). No, this is alright. That I can get behind. It's about having not enough content, to support the vision and scope the developers had with this game. You would need way more quests and oppurtinities for decisions, to give the game the treatment it deserves. Teron was perfect in that case. A lot of quests and decissions and everything was well-connected. And I wouldn't write so much about AoD, if I didn't like it. It just could have been so much more, with a bigger budget.

A shooter in the Starcraft-Universe. Killing Protoss and the big Zerg as a lowly Space Marine (Cowboy) could actually be fun and challenging. An Action RPG in the Universe of Dragon Age, like Dark Souls, Gothic or Venetica, would also be fun and more fitting for the kind of storytelling we experience in those games (Pillars of Eternity is a book, Dragon Age a high-budget fantasy movie like Lord of the Rings). And last but not least: another big roleplaying game in the Forgotten Realms. With cutsecenes and big monsters and a naive but charming adventurestory, about a charming group of adventurers killing thousands of drow to rescue Faerun from an arch-demon-god-planetar-shadow-drow-orc-devil-fallen angel-thingy. I don't think this will be possible with Atari as the rightholder and Dragon Age as the competition. Not in the budget I imagine.

I started playing Alpha Protocol again. I loved it since it's release six years ago and my love is as powerfuil, as before. It's so sad, that there will be no sequel. Well at least the story answered all important questions in-game, although I had always ideas for the sequel .

Again, it is not about the game being difficult. I finished it four times. I know which quest to do and which one to avoid. I brought down the other two houses and most of the time there were oppurtunities to strengthen the position of my house. But not when it matters. Not, because I didn't had any ideas, but because the game didn't let me. For example: when I am talking with my superiors in Teron, my character suggests an alliance with the Imperial Guard. But I can't do this, because I can't travel to the legionaires headquarters, because this content wasn't implemented. But it would fit the narrative, after all the terrible things I did for my house and it would also fit, since it was possible to bring the other houses, although I was an outsider. So I disallow the idea, that I am used to getting my way in other RPG's. I wouldn't say a word, if the game wouldn't allow me such big actions in the first place. If it was just about me as a plaything of bigger powers, okay I could live with that, but I became one of those big players over the course of the game and then it kind of ended for no real reasons. This is what I mean: Age of Decadence rewards a clever use of your skills and chosing the right dialoge-options, but it stops you at the wrong places and then gives you an artificial difficulty-curve, that seems to be very uneven. I mean, it is harder to convince a simple bandit and a lunatic prophet with persuasion, than the lords of TWO houses, who shouldn't trust me right from the begin with. @Wrath of Dragon Thank you, I may look into it .

I hope so, since I started a new game and it still has the same problems. i don't have anything against a difficult playthrough, but this isn't difficult, this is just unbalanced. You are not living in a harsh world, you living in a beta where some new tests would be appreciated. Compare this with Fallout: Resuerrection. It's a mod, but it has the length of game. It is difficult, but you get enough XP to achieve your goals and you can always change enough for another ending. Age of Decadence doesn't give you this opportunities, while giving you more options on other occassions. It is just uneven. Eh. I hope for the next game. Maadoran also didn't help. Most of the time it wasn't even worth the time. Especially in the battles.

Not a bad idea, thank you. I will think about it for next time.

Hmm, not bad at all. Put Skaen into the mix and you could create a game around the themes "secrets and intrigue" with Ondra, Skaen and Wael fighting for secrets. Ondra wants to keep them, Wael wants to spread them just for fun and Skaen wants to use them for his nefarious schemes (for example getting rid of Woedica and then getting his Revenge on, well, every one. New God of Revenge and all that). I like that.