[The strong hold and its function]

Personally I didn't consider the keep a money sink, mainly because I was sitting on like 200k+ at the end of the game and still had plenty to sell.. and that was after I'd practically bought all the unique items and a lot spent on gems to do enchanting.

However, I think there could have been more life to the keep itself.

I did kinda hope there'd be more decisions related to how you rule your lands etc, kinda like what happened in BG2 if you happened to own a stronghold.
It would have been fun to be able to make calls on how the subjects are being treated etc. I also kinda expected there to be more life to place, because there was a lot of work that had to be done to rebuild it. Would have been nice to see the keep slowly come to life, attract more people to work and live there, perhaps even act as a some sort of resting place for travelers etc.

Can't have everything though and to me it wasn't a huge loss, the endless paths kept me busy enough :D

I don't know, maybe expansions could add stuff?

[Just finished the game, phew.]

Yeah, finally done. I installed the game during the day of release and started playing but I left it waiting due to patches and other games coming out.
Couple days ago I started playing it again and finally finished it. Clocked a total of 84 hours according to Steam, I do believe I covered majority of the quests the game provided and finished the Endless Paths as well..

I gotta say, when I first started the game the setting felt odd, quirky, hard to get into because it felt.. well.. almost too different from the fantasy games I'm more used to.
The more I played, the more I learned about the world, the more I started to like it. There was that familiarity, yet it also introduced less used or new themes into the fantasy field as well.
Made me think of how difficult it is to make games like this, gotta give something for the players to hold onto and pull them in without drowning them in the information overflow.. Don't want to be too much of a cliche either, need to have something of your own to make the setting stand out.
Now that I'm finally done, I gotta say it's quite an interesting setting, the world, the nations, the people, the religions and everything.

 

As a Kickstarter backer I'm satisfied with the game, Obsidian delivered what I hoped for. The games finale even gave me some of those Torment vibes, when everything was finally revealed. I like a game that can make me pause and think about stuff, the big questions and all. The antagonist was an Irenicus level of a bad guy, if you ask me.(Though having a David Warner level of a voice actor tends to make them more memorable )
Obviously I would have loved to see more of everything.. but considering the limitations of the development, it was quite a package.

Not sure if I can bring myself to start a new game anytime soon, but I'm definitely looking forward to the expansion... and hopefully a sequel as well.

So, thanks to everyone involved in creating this game, and thanks to all the fellow backers for making it happen. Phew!

[1.05 Patch is Live]

 

Apologies to anyone that has had to redownload the game. One thing to try if you get the error and you have the EmptySteamDepot folder might be to try and rename the EmptySteamDepot folder to PillarsofEternity_Data. It may work for you.

 

I had the "There should be 'PillarsOfEternity_Data' folder next to the executable" error and I tried this fix and it worked fine.

 

​This happens if your steamgmes folder is not in it's default location.

 

Yeah, shame I didn't think of trying it first. Ah well!

 

Also, default location? My Steam is not installed on drive C:(with OS and the usual stuff, I installed it on my game drive right from the start so I suppose -that- might be causing it?)

Still, weird, I've never encountered installation or patching issues prior to this.. I figured what Badler was asking before this meant that I had steam at one drive and some games on another.. but that's not the case either. Hmhm.

[1.05 Patch is Live]

 

How much space is the game supposed to take from the HD? 14gb? Mine is currently 27gb.

 

And there is this folder called EmptySteamDepot that's basically a copy of PillarsofEternity_Data by the looks of it. Same files, same size, explains the sudden extra 13gb of HD claimed.

 

I assume this is related to the problem we were having, since the actual folder was missing for some reason?

 

Do you happen to have Pillars installed in a strange location? We were able to see the error, but only after we manually moved the PIllars folder into another location.

 

The EmptySteamDepot folder is really strange and shouldn't be there. Is that folder in the root of the game directory?

 

No, I have Pillars of Eternity installed on my game drive like all the other games through Steam. So nothing unusual about the location.

 

Yeah, the EmtpySteamDepot is at the root and it was there when I first patched the game. The PillarsofEternity_Data was missing, or I assume it was because that's what the error was about. The EmptySteamDepot is exactly the same size and seems to hold the same files as well.

 

Based on the dates however, it seems that the EmptySteamDepot file holds some of originally installed files as they have dates that go back to March 26th.

 

Soooo.. the old data folder was.... renamed? I don't know.

 

Is it safe to delete now though? It does eat  quite a bit of space.

 

[1.05 Patch is Live]

How much space is the game supposed to take from the HD? 14gb? Mine is currently 27gb.

And there is this folder called EmptySteamDepot that's basically a copy of PillarsofEternity_Data by the looks of it. Same files, same size, explains the sudden extra 13gb of HD claimed.

I assume this is related to the problem we were having, since the actual folder was missing for some reason?

[1.05 Patch is Live]

 

 

 

Patch downloaded automatically on Steam, tried to start the game and it fails. Said something about "there should be a data file next to the executable".

 

Did verification of files, now re-downloading 5,6gb worth of files. Good times

 

Hey, Foksuh. What OS are you on?

 

Windows 7.

 

Edit: Based on Steam forums it seems to happening to other people too.

 

 

We have been unable to reproduce this problem internally. Not sure what would cause it. Please let me know if after a build verification it works correctly.

 

Yeah, took me longer than expected to verify the files due to connection issues but it seems to be working now. Launched fine after the download and loaded up saves and such as well and the build version is correct.

 

Feel free to PM me if there's any questions related to the problem.

[1.05 Patch is Live]

 

Patch downloaded automatically on Steam, tried to start the game and it fails. Said something about "there should be a data file next to the executable".

 

Did verification of files, now re-downloading 5,6gb worth of files. Good times

 

Hey, Foksuh. What OS are you on?

 

Windows 7.

 

Edit: Based on Steam forums it seems to happening to other people too.

[Change in Steam Depots]

I patched the game through Steam normally, then tried to start the game. It said something about a missing data file that should be next to the executable and refused to launch.

I ran verify game files and I'm now redownloading 5,6gb worth of files. Siiiigh.

[1.05 Patch is Live]

Patch downloaded automatically on Steam, tried to start the game and it fails. Said something about "there should be a data file next to the executable".

Did verification of files, now re-downloading 5,6gb worth of files. Good times

[How much in terms of Lore/Story/Content will I lose by not recruiting Companions?]

I've liked each of them, though I've spent the least time with GM so far.. You wont miss out anything essential obviously but I do think they all sort of help to flesh out the world.. and I do like the fact that the companions have a lot to say and comment on a lot of things. I was surprised by the amount of comments and conversations the companions provided, it's a really nice touch.

[Keys ? When ?]

That's how it was when they made the Kickstarter and couldn't keep up with the money flowing in.. and here we are, few years later, doing the very same thing while waiting for the results

[Are graphics features set?]

Graphics are an interesting problem in game development. We got this incredible need to push for some sort of realism and latest tech. AAA titles are always competing on that and it's a huge resource hog and I'm sure it's an issue always when you're working with big publishers.

Game can still be beautiful even if it's not pushing for the ultra detail and realistic effects. It's a nice touch of course.. but if the style in itself works, then that's all that matters.
The big picture, the whole style, matters more than all the latest effects/detail and such.. and if the game is entertaining, graphics matter even less.
I'm happy that we're starting to open up to that idea again, that it's the actual content that counts more than what the game looks like.

Look at something like TF2. It's got a style that works. It's not the prettiest game out there but the style, the gameplay, it all works together.
Look at a lot of indie games, same thing. Style counts more than graphical glory if the rest of the game is solid.

I'm sure some people will be disappointed with the way PoE ends up looking like. It'd always be nicer to look at a more beautiful game, but I'm there for other stuff.. it's a crpg after all. Storytelling, writing, characters, replayability, that's the important stuff.

[The Official Romance Thread]

I have no problem with people calling me a jerk... not thinking about what their own motivation is why they need romances? tell me.... why do you want to get the whole dating romance experience in a game? There are no experience points to gain... am i a material guy like madonna once did a song about? maybe????

 

lol realy. Think about your own motivation what´s the point of romance when you cant do real character creation for your own. Tell me one NPC you would date in reallife if you have no portrait of and try to imagine his fantasy background into our modern world.

Not quite sure if I understood you completely, but I already mentioned that personally I think the romance options can be used to flesh out characters in a way that might not be easy to write in otherwise. People tend to open up about certain things only to very specific people, which is why well written romances can be great tools to flesh out characters and storylines. This applies to the player character too, even though you're always limited to the lines that the writers put in the game.

 

Why do we play RPG's in the first place? Stories, dialogue, personalities to like and dislike, all of that has some sort of a meaning to us players, right? Despite all the limitations that RPG's on computers have.

["evil" choices, immersion, what (not?) to learn from IWD2]

I think it  comes down to the definition of good and evil, and naturally the limitations of storytelling/writing/resources. You often can't afford writing in a ton of different pathways.

IWD2 was actually one of the games that back in the day made me think about the whole thing myself, having been playing the game with an evil group.. and back then I realized that the evil guy could still be viewed as a hero.
Evil guy might have a horrible personality and motivations, but in certain situations they can still turn out to be heroes. IWD's might not have had that sort of deeply written roleplaying aspects to it but I think the story in itself still worked, whether you played the good or the bad guys. Banite priest was acting agent for Bane, getting rid of those who had fallen out of Banes favour etc.

It's all about the motivations/or other powers that drive the characters and how others perceive things too. A good deed for one might be bad to another. A career criminal is "evil" in eyes of the society but that same career criminal might be a loving parent and a loyal friend.

I think one of the problems, at least in my opinion, is that in games the evil is often portrayed more as some sort of "universal" evil type of thing. You're not just a bad guy, you're made into the sort of blood drinking maniac who wants to set the world on fire. What if I want to play a diplomatic guy, a real smooth talking bastard, rather than the sort that lops off every head that doesn't agree with me?

The second common issue is probably the fact that a lot of RPG's tend to go for the "save the world" type of stuff which kinda supports the universal good or evil approach.. though I think something like Mass Effect did pretty good job at it, despite the grand scale of thing. You could just play a really efficient, no bs type of soldier, blunt and to the point but not a total psycho. Same goes for Witchers, I think. It's nicer to see those shades of grey being added to the games nowdays.

This is why I'm interested to see about these personality things that are being worked into PoE.

[BIG HEAD mode is in]

Okay, now I'm curious about other interestingly quirky features that might have been added.. xD

[The Official Romance Thread]

Well, this is gonna be a great thread by the looks of it. Someone has already drawn interesting conclusions about people who like seeing a romance in a game. Very, very interesting ones.. but I suppose everyone is entitled to their opinions.

Personally I think romances in games can be good, though obviously not a necessity. Well written romantical options can enhance the story a great deal though, help out fleshing out the characters themselves, including player character and even add some depth to more critical decisions that can be made in a game.. There's always potential in those "Make a decision between a loved one or x" type of choices for example.

[Beta Access Purchase]

I've looked at my backing options also, I was thinking about adding to my original pledge but it seems it's not possible, unless I totally missed out on something.

[Voice Acting?]

Old thread necroed but.. yeah.. It's weird to think of how many great voice actors there have been in games, yet the ones I remember better are usually from games which only had few spoken lines, not fully voiced dialogue.

Full voice is obviously a hinderance for RPG's(unless you got crazy budget but those don't happen), the dialogue just suffers along with the storytelling.
It's the few well voiced roles, the few important lines they get to speak that I stick with me better.. and when you got a well picked voice actor, they flesh out those key characters in amazing ways.

The likes of Irenicus from BG2 are memorable for a reason. David Warner might not have had many lines but the delivery was amazing.. and same goes probably for all the works of Tony Jay. Peter Stormare as Isair from IWD2 was also a voice that I loved even though it was just a few lines.