[The loss of Vancian casting?!]

I just imagine raining lightning bolts and meteors down on something, and the thing still being alive, would be a fairly bad situation is all. Especially if it has a big club and likes to smoosh mages.

[Can we play PoE2 via Steam?]

 

Huh, didn't notice the little Linux icon earlier. Cute. Oh and the microsoft store! I know everyone is just so eager to jump on the universal windows app wagon.

[The loss of Vancian casting?!]

Nothing worse than raining meteors and lightning bolts down on the field, only for the enemy to be barely grazed eh?

[I would love to back this game . . .]

Not something I'd consider particularly cheery news at the moment. Oh well, maybe he can ask fig.co to make friends with paypal.

[Content Stretch Goals]

I can't say I'm a huge random encounter fan. I'm much more interested in specific planned out encounters. Trash mobs aren't something I've ever found particularly engaging.

 

I guess, given we've already achieved the stretch goals I might have mentioned otherwise, my only real want now is to hit the expanded voice acting stretch goal. I don't think voiced characters are necessary, I've certainly played and enjoyed many text heavy games over the years, but it is nice to have.

 

Turn based combat and use of the environment in the manner D:OS did would be nice, given combat like that married to the kinds of Story and Characters Obsidian delivers would be a dream of mine. I suppose that's just not something sensible to hope for, however. I'll admit, I'm not a huge RTWP fan. It's not a bad thing, just, I prefer to go full action RPG or full turn based RPG. the current combat hasn't kept me from enjoying Pillars 1m Tyranny or any other RTWP game though, so I suppose it's a moot point.

 

-

 

Maybe extended visual character customization would be a nice stretch goal. I do enjoy making a character visually just so, just as I enjoy dialogue and character interaction allowing me to paint my character's personality just so. Yes, I suppose all else granted, that'd be my major pick. Full range of skin colors from pasty pale to very dark, a full range of hair colors from the lightest to the darkest, eye colors, a variety of facial features and customization for each Human racial group, height options, lots of hair styles. It's not something you'd really get to see much of, however, so, I guess that seems perfect for an unnecessary thing that's just a stretch goal. A nicety, quality of life, but ultimately less important than other aspects.

[The loss of Vancian casting?!]

I'm not going to pretend it's the end all be all of combat systems, but I enjoyed the magic system in Tyranny well enough. I certainly would have preferred more variety in it, a grander scope, but the basics in combat seemed to work out. Cooldowns, some per fight abilities here and there, neat little combo abilities with party members. I realize it's meant to be a different game, in some aspects, but I think Tyranny provided some valuable lessons. Though, arguably, it's most wondrous aspect was the dialogue system - a massive improvement on any dialogue system I've seen in any CRPG, yet the change seems so simply on the surface that it's hard to believe someone didn't think of it back in the IE days.

 

I prefer magic classes in RPGs almost exclusively, so I'm quite invested in seeing the magic system further progress and improve. I won't pretend to know what they have planned, but between Wizards and Cyphers I have high hopes. I like the idea of spells you can use consistently, counter balanced by big game changing spells with drawbacks or limited uses in tune with the power of the given spells.

 

I'm not married to the, uh, "Vancian" system . . . but I do enjoy a good game of chess. Big moves. Big sacrifices. The big turn around. The game changing moment. I suppose in my head that's what casters are, your warrior maintains consistency, your priest keeps people going, your thief keeps everyone safe from traps and opens up paths and chests you couldn't otherwise . . . and the spell caster makes that one game changing move. It's not always needed, so they have utility, but they also have that spell that can just turn things around at the right moment.

 

I realize it's hard to turn something a player "feels" in those moments into actual gameplay, but I feel I'd be amiss in some form if I didn't describe what brings me to magic users across many different games and settings. Also, magic is just cool.

[Romance]

i have noting against romance in games as long as it isn't simply tacked on as some kind of plot placeholder. it actually needs depth & solid progression (and not a standalone minigame either)... so, not anything like skyrim. (though for skyrim it actually kind of works... don't ask me why)  

 

I suppose I agree with this to the extent that romances are something I can take or leave readily. If they're there, they should be fully fleshed out, if they aren't there, that's fine too. I can't speak to the Skyrim thing, I enjoyed the game, but never gave romance a go. Too busy adventuring, and modding my character and the game just so. Removing fast travel, requiring my character bundle up to not freeze to death, portable sleeping bags, the ability to make camp, the need to eat, drink, be careful of disease, massive visual updates to characters and environments, giving the magic College a large student body with complete schedules and classes, and all that, more my speed than romances I suppose.

 

Which I guess makes me a bad measure of what a good romance is. So I guess take it or leave it should be the extent of my input.

[Care to guess the names of the other multiclasses?]

This thread could be a while since there are 55 combinations and only three are known.  I went through and made a list, here are my favorites so far:

 

Cipher

Cipher + Paladin = Inquisitor

Cipher + Priest = Oracle

Cipher + Rogue = Illusionist

Cipher + Ranger = Mind Hunter (Lore Reference!)

Cipher + Wizard = Animancer,

 

I read Inquisitor as Inquirer and was briefly excited beyond all reason before coming down from such happy heights.

 

On the note of animancer, does it make much sense given animancy is an actual thing of its own?  Animancers and animancy are quite well explained, they aren't simply a combination of Cipher or Wizard. Indeed you could be, in theory, an animancer in addition to one, the other, both or neither, or at least that's the impressions Pillars itself left me with. Correct if wrong. I often am.

[I would love to back this game . . .]

They are working on a PayPal option. They have said that multiple times. I believe they plan on trying it in to the backer portal. I'd wait until the end of the campaign before I'd give up.

 

Fair enough.

[I would love to back this game . . .]

I backed Pillars of Eternity, I enjoyed it, I'd like to back Pillars 2, but on top of fig.co not playing nicely with my credit union (which isn't rare), they also won't take paypal, which is my usual way around anything that doesn't play nicely with my credit union. It can't be helped, after the 2000s and what happened with many normal banks, myself, my entire family, and our friends all dropped normal banks. We all use credit unions now, and, for a number of reasons, we run into this trouble now and then. Paypal has long been a way around that, for situations like this, but, apparently, that just won't happen this time.

 

I am sorry. I really would love to back this game, but fig.co unlike Kickstarter (which I backed you on) just refuses on every level to let me back a developer I've enjoyed games from for years, and would gladly back again, and again and again. You've delivered consistently. I'll gladly buy the game when it comes out, as Steam, GOG, and other distribution platforms, are perfectly happy to take my money, much like Kickstarter was perfectly happy to accept my money and let me fund PoE without trouble.

 

This is less a complaint and more a statement of support, I can't support you now, but I will once the game comes out. Best of luck.

 

P.S., please never use fig.co again, I'd actually like to be able to back your games in the future.

[It's been a journey, almost there . . .]

I just activated my Kickstarter Hero edition, it's installing as I type this.

 

This is the only Kickstarter game I've ever backed. Since I backed Pillars of Eternity, Project Eternity then, a lot has happened. Kickstarter games have come and gone, some successful, some not, some delivered on their promises, others did not - and some still have yet to be realized at all or have gone entirely silent. Seeing all this, I'll admit, I had moments of doubt or worry that what I backed with, and people have backed PoE with far more than I by far, might have been a mistake. Actually seeing the game come out is a relief, but more than that, it's nice to know the worry was for nothing. It's nice to know there are still people that make good on their word.

 

I have nothing but respect for Obsidian games, and that's not a blind fanboy speaking, your games have had flaws, bugs and all manner of issues. I don't enjoy your games and respect your work blindly, I know there's always room for improvement, and I backed this project knowing that full well. I backed the game because I've seen the people associated with Obsidian now do great work in the past, delivering some of my favorite characters (Atton and Kreia come instantly to mind, but many more), engaging dialogues, choices and stories, and I believed that they could provide such experiences again, whatever the style of game.

 

I've been playing games since I was little, not Obsidian, nor even Black Isle or Bioware, games were my first. Far from it. One of the first games I remember was a very old pixelated version of Rampage that ran on DOS, where three people could squish themselves together in front of a keyboard and play at once. It was not ideal. My parents got me into old Adventure games, complete with text parsers, Roberta Williams, Lori and Corey Cole and others were some of the first names I came to know in the industry, that were behind the games I enjoyed early on.

 

These games often had puzzles, but all were story and character driven, Space Quest, King's Quest, the laura Bow mysteries and others involved stories, characters and puzzles, even choices. The Laura Bow mysteries, like The Colonel's Bequest intrigued me because you could get it wrong, and the story would end differently, rather than just being a game over earlier in the game. It was the Quest for Glory series (an Adventure game and an RPG? Madness! Brilliant Madness! QfG is still one of my favorite series in existence!), and the Wizardry series, that actually brought me to the RPG space, and eventually to games like Thunderscape: World fo Aden and others, and eventually to the Black Isle (Fallout 2, Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale, Heart of Winter, Trials of the Luremaster and Icewind Dale II), Obsidian and Troika games (Arcanum, Temple of Elemental Evil and my beloved Vampire:the Masquerade - Bloodlines), and, of course, Obsidian.

 

Obsidian brought me my favorite Star Wars RPG. They gave me wonderful experiences with Neverwinter Nights 2, Mask of the Betrayer and my favorite Storm of Zehir. They brought me to a setting I never thought I'd see from Obsidian with Alpha Protocol, and I was happily surprised. Obsidian Obsidian brought me back to Fallout with New Vegas. Obsidian brought me back to a very different Dungeon Siege, happily so. I even picked up the South Park RPG, not knowing what to expect, and it may not be to my partiular taste, but despite that, I can't help but recognize just how solid a game it is.

 

I haven't tried Wasteland 2, which Obsidian is partially credited, I notice, and obviously I have yet to try Pillars of Eternity. Armored Warfare looms somewhere on a distant horizon.

 

I don't know if I'll enjoy Pillars of Eternity. I do know I've been playing games for a silly amount of time, and have truly enjoyed those Obsidian has provided me. I don't know what the future holds for me, or for Obsidian, but I wish you all the best and thank you for delivering your product. Maybe thanks shouldn't be required, it's only sensible to expect to get what one pays for, but in an industry where Kickstarters, Indies and even AAA developers haven't bene delivering . . .  to an absurd extent, just . . . thank you for being amongst those that, those that keep trying. Thank you for all the stories, not just those that worked on PoE, but those past and present that have worked on all the games I've adored. Thank you. Just for existing. Just for trying.

 

Thank you, so very much.

[Narration mixed with dialogue]

Narration and Dialogue go hand in hand as anyone that reads a book might tell you, but even in games this works quite well. For instance Quest for Glory IV had a narrator, but also had speaking characters with dialogue. The game seamlessly went from the narrator to the speaking dialogue and back, and it offered the game a lasting auditory flavor. Like most things, however, such an approach is all about how it's handled, so whether PoE has handled it in an awkward manner, an average manner or an exceptional manner is not something I'd know yet.

 

I only know it is not something that automatically results in bad or awkward, as I've seen it done well.

[What will be your first player character?]

My first character?

 

Well, the race will be Human.

 

Too often people think of Humans as boring, but I look around our world, and what we've accomplished, and know that Humans aren't just massively accomplished and varied beyond any scope captured in a video game, I also know that we are, indeed, very interesting. Many non-Human races in games just come off as "Humans" with "Human inspired Cultures" and "Human inspired mannerisms" and "Just generally Human stuff" packed under a skin that's varying degrees of Human-like. Very rarely do i come across something that actually feels different, worth itself. So I always start with a Human at a base, and play them off against the world they're in, the supposed 'boring normal' nature of a Human in fantasy is easily one of the concepts easily proven quite wrong unless a writer has just done everything possible to make them bland and boring, and even that can be played in interesting ways.

 

The class? I'm torn between three:

 

The Cipher, the Soul seems such an important part of Pillars of Eternity that a Class that deals with them in the manner presented by the Cipher could result in some very neat situations. The Chanter, because it seems like an interesting twist on that "entertainer" brand of class that pops up in many RPGs. The Wizard, because, well, I love magic users in RPGs, and especially in the style presented with the Wizard here.

 

In the end I'll have played each, given multiple play throughs, but at the beginning? I might start with the Cipher, in a world where the soul matters so much the Cipher seems an almost obvious choose for my tastes and playstyle.

[Why I like games like Pillars]

I'm going through BG1 and BG2 enhanced editions at the moment and planning to pick up the Enhanced Edition of Icewind Dale at some point. I have my old copies sitting on the shelves, but being able to play these enhanced edition on my modern PC is really nice. I think the thing I like most about Pillars of Eternity is that it seems to be a game in a style I like, made with more modern tech that I won't have to worry about not getting along with my current PC.

 

I have so many games that refuse to work, or are very wonky, on modern PC hardware, it's a little frustrating to not be able to go back to some of my old gems. New projects like Pillars, and places like GoG, are making great strides to help me out in those respects. Pillars was worth supporting as a concept before it came this far, to me, because it supported something I wanted, but it wasn't just supporting this game, but games like it. I hope that if Pillars turns out to be even a modest success that it, and other projects like it, will inspire a whole world of new and great RPGs.

[So . . . I was looking at the pre-order stuff]

I guess I missed that, thanks for pointing it out, I appreciate it.

[whips n chains n wizzies]

 

...yeah, feels like it'd be tough to animate in way that looked realistic/nice.

 

I remember the flexible whip and chain type weapons in DAoC. They weren't the best animated things in the world, but people liked them anyways. I certainly mained a Heretic and loved my flexible weapon skill line. Sometimes the style in which you convey a thing is more important than it's realism, good presentation, or representation, of a thing is more likely to result in acceptance than realism when realism may be too hard to achieve. Even really high end budget games that attempt for realism over style, that have all the resources supposedly needed, still mess up realistic representations of things sometimes.

 

It's sort of an uncanny valley thing, only instead of making something look Human, it's a slightly different matter. We know how things move, so the more wonky a thing looks when it's trying to look real causes more notice, but, in contrast, going for a very stylized representation of how something moves, like a weapon, may end up looking less odd.

[So . . . I was looking at the pre-order stuff]

On Steam and GoG. I supported the game on Kickstarter, enough to get a version of the game when it comes out. When we eventually get out key for Steam or GoG or whatever, do we get the pre-order stuff for supporting the kickstarter or do we just get the base game? It's not really important, pre-order stuff doesn't make or break a game (unless someone did something weird), I'm just curious about whether pre-order bonuses apply to Kickstarter people that won't need to pre-order through GoG or Steam.

[What character/attributes to choose for role-playing?]

Uh well all characters are heavy role playing characters.  Role playing isn't about having high charisma and being a political dynamo, it is about making a character then making decisions and taking actions based on how that character would handle those situations.  Your character can be a mentally stunted dumb oaf who wears a trash bag for clothes and still be a "role play" character.

 

In role-playing games the numbers are a part of the process. They are what you use to define what your character is, what they are capable of. They're the limiter that says, "Your character is this" and not, "Whatever I want it to be at any given time." A Charisma score exists in lower, moderate or high portions to define certain forms of social capability, while a Strength or Constitution score can enhance such concepts. You may be a big brute, but that's pure intimidation, but a charismatic, well toned (Str) and healthy (Con) character is going to have visual aspects to back up their social abilities. Not that one needs such things, you can be a smooth talker, but otherwise overweight and wimpy.

 

The numbers are an intricate part of role-playing, they are your character - they're a portion of what makes that character, 'them' and not 'you' . . .you are capable of all manner of things, but, in a role-playing game, you're trying to apply what you know within the limitations of who your character is and what they're capable of. Hence the numbers helping define who they are, and what they're capable of. Sure, you can write up a background, but if the numbers don't support that background it's faulty - the numbers, in this sense, matter more than what you imagine, because they're giving you context for what is possible to imagine, keeping the game fair and assisting in the endevour that keeps characters from devolving into, "I'm an immortal and invulnderable half demon, half angel, half vampire, half werewolf pirate ninja demon slayer king paladin blackguard!"

[PC Gamer Full Demo Video]

I think it would also be nice to be able to see the portrait while customizing the character model/appearance (iirc, the portrait appears at the top after customization is complete).

 

I can understand why you'd want to see that.

[Save scumming]

As someone that has a life, and responsibilities that can, and will, interrupt my hobby I prefer a save anytime 'except in combat' feature that allows me to save, and load, the game as required. I want to make as many saved as I want, load them as required, and not have to worry that something will call me away, and leave me having to run through something I've already done due to something silly like a check point system. I also rather dislike systems that you can exit out of at will, saving character states but not world states (Open world games like Red Dead are an unfortunate example of this).

 

I want a save system very much like ICW or BG. Save anytime, load anytime. I'd make the one exception that there should be no saving in combat.

[Can't ever get addons in the future?]

Indeed, ask my pay day is at the end of every month, the middle of the month is not the best time to make such decisions. I'd thought I could just come back later, and add on more, which I intended to do at some point if information on the expansion were added, helping in my decision on that. I might have even added on the 8usd or one of the others. I can't think of a case in which cutting out customers giving you more money, at a later date, would be a good idea, so my assumption is there must be a way to pledge further, at a later time.

 

I'd hate to be cut out of potentially pledging more simply because, when I discovered the need to confirm myself as a backer, I'd been far away from my end of month payday.

[More Info On The Expansion Pack]

I saw this too. I too would like more information on what, exactly, I'd be putting my money into, as far as an expansion went, before I pledge on it. I pledged to Project Eternity on faith due ot Obsidian, Blade Isle and the experience they were referencing with P:E being things I had a grasp on an truly enjoyed. However, for an expansion, I'm unsure of what to expect because P:E itself I've not yet experienced. Having some grounds on which to lay the basis of my decision would be intrumental in the result of my choice of whether to back it or not.

 

Information is always key.

[Release on steam/gog/other for backers?]

I'm curious about this as well. I appreciate both Steam and GOG.com for their own perks. I like the Steam community, and I like having my games in one place. On the other hand, I like the freedom of GOG even if it's not quite as cozy, and my games feel more scattered because they're just in the GOG folder on my PC, rather than a part of a library set up. GOG's bookshelf library of my games, on its site, only really represents my library in the sense of what I can download. Not what I can just click on and play, as GOG.com's downloads act more like a traditional PC game install and play once they're downloaded.

 

Still, I don't see either as a negative, but a clear cut choice would be nice. I'm almost certain the original pledge I made suggested I could choose, but I understand if that's simply not available yet. It would just be nice to have confirmation that the choice is coming.

[Backer site is too hard to navigate]

I just got done confirming myself as a backer, and I made the original pledge quite a long time ago. I didn't even know about the site to present myself as a backer until recently. Having just gone through the process, I think the only thing remotely confusing was that, at first, the layout made me think it was asking me to spend money as if I hadn't made a pledge before. This turned out not to be the case, but I can see how, maybe, it could be more clear on what it was asking me to do.