kanisatha

I am not convinced of this at all. Even a recent poll done by a major gaming website in the aftermath of BG3 being announced as TB, shows support for TB v. RTwP at 53% to 47%. Polls on the Larian BG3 subforum themselves also are similar. What I find is that TB fans are about 51-55% but make 90% of the noise, and that's what people (and cRPG developers) are reacting to.

100% agree. If you can't directly control them, they are just frustrating and aggravating to have with you and only serve to get in your way.

These are things I also agree are very frustrating in P:Km (though not nearly enough for me to quit the game; I just play on low difficulty). But I feel these are things that result from a game design and development team that is (a) passionate but completely inexperienced, and (b) very small in number. If they had had a bigger team that also included some experienced devs, someone in the team would've said something the moment they noticed these kinds of situations in the game. You can tell this was the case because when these types of issues were brought up in their forum or elsewhere, the devs were genuinely surprised. The good news is that instead of digging in their heels and insisting they were right and knew what they were doing, they immediately acted to try and fix as many of these issues as possible. But there were just too many of them in the game for the devs to fix them all, and there can be no substitute to not designing a game this way in the first place. So I am (cautiously) optimistic things will be different in the next game because their development team is now both more experienced and a whole lot bigger.

I think the need for that video, as minimal in details as it was, is because so much has been written in recent months and years about how Bioware has lost its way and that even if they make a new DA game it will end up being a completely different game than the first three and be filled with microtransactions and "active" elements and so on. So the video's purpose was to reassure hardcore DA fans like you and me, saying in effect: "Don't fear. Don't listen to the doomsayers. This game will have those RPG elements from the previous games that you love so much and expect in a DA game, only if anything even more iterated and better." And it certainly had that effect on me, and I am now hyped for this game. I'm right there with you.

You are absolutely correct here, but at least for me (yes, I'm a huge DA franchise fan) it was valuable as a calming and reassuring video.

If they do this, they may as well try to pitch NwN3 to WotC. After all, we know they pitched their idea of BG3 to WotC.

Indeed, this is my recurring dilemma as well. For me, this was D:OS1. Hated the game, but by having bought it I contributed to its sales success. So I chose not to even try D:OS2, specifically so that I would not be contributing to its sales (yes, I know, I am just one person, but my one "vote" matters to me even if it has no meaningful impact on the greater scheme of things). And this is now my same dilemma with BG3.

This is nothing. I am 100% certain we will have genetically manipulated humans and human clones within just a few decades from now. Other types of life-forms much sooner.

I'm also torn on crafting. As someone who loves "management" games, I like the idea of collecting crafting materials, and even recipes/blueprints, and then making your own things. But I also agree with the view that the PC can craft a superior-quality weapon just like that is highly unrealistic. I think crafting should be limited to consumables, and items should only be upgradable. As for PC homesteads, I definitely love this in games. Two specific things I like is having all my companions in one place, and having a place to safely store your stuff. Relating to Skyrim, I thought the idea of being able to put on display special items or treasures or trophies was brilliant and awesome.

My standard party is my fighter/ranger/paladin PC, Valerie, Amiri, Linzi, and two rotating slots for Octavia, Jubilost, Harrim or Tristian depending on what kind of additional spellcasting I felt I'd need. I've never used Ekun or Nok Nok that much even though I'm aware of their damage potential. And yes, Blind-fight is one of the most valuable feats available. After my first playthrough when I learned of its value, I've added it to every single character and companion in all subsequent playthroughs.

I agree about Linzi's value. Generally I found the female companions to be both more useful and more to my personal liking as party mates than the male companions. Only Jubilost was someone I liked having in my party among the males.

Yeah that's how I play it too. Though I would say it's not the combat mechanics or system that's the problem but rather how encounters and enemies are balanced.

I agree, at least to some extent, with your critique as well as your frustration. My take, though, is that this is merely an artifact of the game having been made by a very small team (so far less opportunity for someone to check another person's work) that also lacked experience making a complex cRPG. As their team gets bigger, and that team gains experience making this type of game, these kinds of issues I feel will go away. I expect this will be the case with WotR.

I agree with you here. It was a very good thing crowdfunding was available as an option when Obsidian badly needed it to save both themselves and this niche genre. But where crowdfunding is not needed or is no longer needed, best to stay away from it for all the reasons others have cited.

But that's the point. He'd take a backseat, not go away completely. He'd still be the overseer, the big-picture person, the visionary. But imo Sawyer tends to overthink the details and go overboard constantly tinkering with those details. He is excellent in setting down the vision and the path forward, but should let others handle the details. Personally, I just hope Feargus is grooming Sawyer to replace him as studio boss someday.

Yes, the DLCs in both games were excellent, so I can see whoever was the lead on those being a very good choice for project lead on a PoE3. And frankly, Josh taking a backseat on such a project may be a good thing for that IP going forward.

I just read a gamesindustry.biz article on Grounded in which Brennecke says his group is 14 people, though he also says those people are all senior people. Yeah, a super-impressive game building model to be sure. A similarly small team of (senior) people with a solid budget and, most importantly, a good concept for the game, could create a fantastic PoE3. Oh, and totally agree: no crowdfunding (the single biggest weakness of both PoE games).

Yeah as I said in another thread here, my guess is that the market for classic, iso cRPGs is a max of about 2 million. That's still enough potential buyers to make such a game financially viable (see D:OS2). But a studio, and especially a mid to large sized studio like Obsidian, needs more than that from a financial standpoint. So this is why I have said I am actually very happy about the MS buyout of Obsidian, because with MS's money, and with the specific needs of Game Pass, so long as Obsidian is able to make big audience games like TOW and Avowed, they will now also be able to (and have need to, for Game Pass) make those niche games that they otherwise may not have been able to continue to make. So even the odds of us seeing a PoE3 in the future have improved, imo, because of MS and Game Pass.

Same here. Street kid just doesn't fit my personality. Nomad is what feels most right, and corpo would be okay too. The beta seems to be proceeding well. And relatedly, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous and Black Geyser are both also going through their respective beta testing right now. So all these games appear to be on track.

Found these recent articles about the intersection of MS, Game Pass, Xbox, and the studios MS has recently bought (including of course Obsidian). Very interesting reads, including in the context of recent comments by Sawyer re. the prospects for a PoE3: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-07-09-how-minecraft-and-mojang-taught-xbox-how-to-buy-studios https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-07-09-developing-for-xbox-game-pass-i-could-never-pitch-these-ideas-to-a-publisher https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-07-10-are-xbox-series-x-developers-being-held-back-by-xbox-one

Yeah same here. Playing only on a PC, I've made a few runs through the game and have had no bugs that are even memorable to me. I have successfully completed every single side quest or task. I've never had game-related crashes (only crashes due to certain things specific to my machine), and loading times are quite reasonable to me.

Exactly! And if not, I absolutely don't see the point of all that detailed customization and it's all a complete waste of development resources.

I have a very good feeling we will see TP included as a default option in this game. I think some of you guys are way overstating the prospects of this game being exclusively FP. When TOW was announced as only FP and a bunch of people griped about it on that forum, Obsidian devs themselves posted to say they were limited to only using FP because of their budget (pre-MS), implying that if not for budget restrictions they would've included the TP option. Now, Grounded has TP option built into the game as default, which says to me that even on a small project like Grounded Obsidian is willing to spend money on adding in a feature that will prove inclusive to a lot of fans. So if they are willing and able to include a TP mode in Grounded, I just don't see any valid reason or buy any argument for why they would not also do so in Avowed.

Well, for me, if you have to keep running forward and backward again and again as the way to handle melee combat, that is horrible game design.

Yes It's the lack of full peripheral vision and also lack of depth perception at close range that's a big part of the problem. Plus, like many of you have noted, using a weapon for which some form of targeting mechanism is provided (bows, crossbows, guns, energy weapons) also works okay, as does spellcasting. But trying to *target* an opponent with a sword up close and personal just ends up being very frustrating for me (and noting that I only play with mouse and keyboard). I just feel like I'm flailing about without any control, just mashing the "hit" button on my keyboard and hoping something hits.