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  1. This is based on my current character a male, moon godlike ranger with bear companion. Just my idea about how things might start out in the hoped for sequel. The Long Journey It is over and I am left with more questions than answers. My companions have departed each to find their own answers and their own own futures. The whispers, memories dreams are gone which leaves me feeling a bit empty. We mortals are never happy give us what we want and we want something more, something different. Maybe we do need gods or something, someone more powerful than ourselves. Now what? I should check on the Stronghold. I have that link with the Steward but it wouldn't hurt to see what is going on in person. Think I will stop in Dyrford Village. It is on my way back. I reach over and give Bruno my bear a good scratch and he leans against me almost pushing me over. I pick up my stuff and start for the door Bruno gives a snort and walks over to the bed sniffing. Blast I forgot about that Orlan baby. What can I do with it. Take with me I suppose and maybe my Orlan shopkeeper will care for it. I swaddle it up to carry on my back and give it something to suck on. I stop off at Dyrford Village and see it has already perked up. There is a merchants carvan from Twin Elms stopped there and things are looking much better. I stop at the inn and get some really good news Eder has taken up residence and is getting things organized. He has taken up residence in one of the empty house. I hurry over there and am lucky to fin him home. We have a warm union. We have nice long chat. He tells me he has some of the locals organized into patrols to keep the bandits at bay making it safe both for the locals and for travelers. Newcomers have already started to arrive to take over some of the empty farms. With Eder watching out for it Dyrford Village should do well maybe even become a busting town. A couple of days later I arrive at my Stronghold. Things are in good order. We have a cook and a few servants to tend things. I feel restless though can't settle down. The wander lust in my blood. Always has bee which is why I become a hunter. I will continue to hunt and the hunt will be in the hope of answers. I talked to the Throne Steward and left her in charge. If she needs me she can always find me no matter where I am. I have hired a mortal steward to look after our guests. They need that little touch it makes them feel safer and more cared about. Korgrak is in charge of defences. I think that was the smartest decision I made in all my travels. He is one smart ogre and scares anyone who even thinks about causing trouble. I got the Orlan shopkeeper to take the baby and also asked her to keep the ogre's blood out of sight. It seems to bother Korgrak. I also arranged with the Throne Steward to build him a place of his own in the woods between Brighthollow and the Keep. He can get into the main hall of the Keep but really needs a place of his own. All is in order and I will be on my way tomorrow. I wonder what lies ahead> ******* Editor's note: I hope I spelled everything correctly and didn't make any glaring errors. Thank you for reading.
  2. I was surprised not to find a huge thread containing the backstory of every Watcher you've created, so I'm starting it. I mean, yes, you used to be a raider from Deadfire Archipelago but why did you become one? Why did you leave your old life? Why are you traveling? Did you have any friends? A love, maybe? Who are you really and what made you the person you are today? It would be nice if you included an image of your character as well as their initial stats. Since this isn't related to character building but more to story telling I decided to post it here. If the mods think this is the wrong place, please move it to an appropriate one.
  3. You set your character background at character creation, but there's also the first conversation with Callisca. What you say ends up in your biography. Some people in the game will react to this - I'm not going to list those in this thread. Some backgrounds hide professions you wouldn't expect there. Now you can choose something you like the most without restarting. Maybe I should update the wiki. Aristocrat (all except The Living Lands) Artist (Old Valia) Clergyman (Aedyr) Colonist (Aedyr, Old Valia, The Living Lands) Dissident (Aedyr, Ixamitl Plains, Old Valia, Rauatai) Drifter (All) Explorer (Deadfire Archipelago, The Living Lands, The White That Wends) Hunter (All) Laborer (All) Mercenary (all but The White That Wends) Merchant (All) Mystic (The White That Wends) Philosopher (Ixamitl Plains) Raider (Deadfire Archipelago) Scholar (Ixamitl Plains, Rauatai) Scientist (The Living Lands) Slave (Aedyr, Deadfire Archipelago, Old Valia, Rauatai)
  4. Throughout the game I have options to tell people how I think the watcher thing is a curse, even though I don’t choose that option, some times it is forced upon me. It breaks my immersion every time, I created a wizard and though "hey put lore to max and this guy will be obsessed with knowledge" so being a watcher sounds awesome looking into souls learning the past and I am bossed with knowledge so the risk seems worth it. Every time my character starts a rant about how he hates the curse I am like "why??????" (I just alt+tab after this happened for the 12th time). Why can’t we have an option to like being a watcher, besides maerwald we don’t see any other evidence of people going too crazy. Anyone else felt that hate of being a watcher was a bit forced?
  5. I tag this thread with Possible Spoilers, not because there is intended to be any, but because there'll possibly be a few, probably minor ones, but possibly major, so if you are sensitive, stay out. Now, anyway, there was this other thread, where I found myself running away with a concept, and realized that we needed a thread for suggesting CNPC:s! Woo. As I have harped on numerous times, the number of CNPC:s in the game is abysmal, and leave very little options in regard to choice, and it's exceedingly hard to push them away. Also, their reactivity leaves a lot to be desired. And during the course of the "Lack of Evil Companions"-thread, I started drawing the outlines for a suggested CNPC, and realized I wanted a thread like this. In it, we will both broad-stroke suggestions for various companions as well as flesh them out as much as we desire, albeit not write them. It's mostly meant to be food for thought and little more. Now, from my own perspective here, I'm going to be assuming balanced Attributes, as well as more diverse and different weapon focus groups. I hated how the existing CNPC:s got compromised and actually changed because of the Attribute system resulting in them getting "bad" Attributes, so if I suggest "bad" Attribute spreads for anything, it's because I operate under the assumption that they're not bad, and Attribute spreads are more about characterization and playstyle (beyond Tank vs. DPS), rather than lopsided and simple min/max. I suggest everyone else does the same. I will also assume a CNPC Level of 2, meaning 1 Ability, 1 Talent. This is purely because that's what I think CNPC:s should be limited to in terms of auto-leveling, in order for them to be a bit fleshed out, but still have ample room to move. It is by no means a rule; feel free to post full progressions suggestions in the same way CNPC:s in the game already has. And without further ado, a "proper" post of my original idea that made me want this thread, below. I will put it in a separate post.
  6. This will be a short impression. To start with I should mention I haven't played any IE games, I tried to play them several times but never could get a hang of them. I don't read every single piece of lore in an RPG; I read all the gameplay dialogues and much less of codex entries. I'm not a fan of "IE style" nor 2D backgrounds, I was neutral on that topic and I think I'm an open-minded player so I got on board with Pillars and I don't regret it one bit. I played 5 of Obsidian's games before Pillars which are Kotor 2, NWN2, Alpha Protocol, Dungeon Siege 3 and New Vegas. I loved all of them except DS3; guess it wasn't buggy enough :D I don't remember much of DS3 but I remember ıt wasn't interesting enough to continue playing. So in Pillars, everything's bland from story to companions to items. I don't have any complaints for combat and I don't much care about the items&equipment to complain about them. Stronghold and companions could have been better but my main issue is with the story; not the main story but all of it and not what it is but how I experienced it. It's strange that before Pillars I could doubt every feature in an upcoming Obsidian game but the story. I can't think of many things to base my point on except for everything I did felt bland. It felt like devs tried too hard to avoid everything which had been done before: like there were no long quest chains in different acts(most quests were too quick to reach conclusions), no duel situations with spectators, no big trial/evidence gathering etc. Yeah there were no NWN2 stuff :D but instead of things like these there were no new interesting things either. So why make it this way? To kickstart a fantasy universe in the cleanest way possible so you can branch it and make it interesting later on? DAO started a new fantasy universe(which went down the **** in later games) but it never felt bland in that game. Yeah it didn't feel as original as Pillars and there was the biggest cliche of all that the evil army threatening to destroy the world. But quests in DAO felt more connected and were not so eager to reach an end. Companions were more involved in story and side content(*they also could talk directly to the NPC you were talking to and get a response much more often than in Pillars*). And romances may have helped with DAO but I never felt the lack of romances in Pillars so that was not it for me. Don't get me wrong. I liked the more mature theme and realistic approach to most things(I wouldn't have minded if the universe was magic-free :D no, I'd have been overjoyed if that was the case); the hollowborn situation and how gods are displayed. But the game generally lacked flavor. Maybe it's because(it's a big game but) current events take place in and effect such a small part of the world we don't know much about. Maybe it's cos of the safe/controlled approach to a new IP or something else. Anyway, had to get it out of my chest. Thanks for reading and sorry for my grammar.
  7. I found that I had a hard time to become invested in the story initially. I found the motivations to pursue Thaos and find out more about what was happening to me to be weak at best. For me the main story became about the Hollowborn. To solve that mystery was first and foremost on my mind. And the story progressed everything fell more in to place though, especially since the two things melded together, and I really loved the story up to and including the ending. Certainly there are things that didn't work as well as others so I'll do a short list of what I found less good: Iovara and the entire Old Soul thing of the Watcher was introduced too late and/or not given enough screen time for me to really become invested. Same thing for Thaos, his motivations should perhaps have been introduced a bit earlier to give us time to think more about it. There was a great opportunity to have us conflicted at the end about some choices. Same thing for the Gods and the choice of what to do with the souls. I felt that they should have tried to convince us harder. Perhaps through companions loyal to their respective deities. The entire thing with Waidwen and the invasion from Readceras felt unfinished at the end. I really hope this is where one of the expansions will focus. Edér, Durance and the Gods involved demand it! Things I liked: The aspects of the Gods. I especially liked the ones who were philosophically right wing / traditionalist (in a way), since this is seldom done in RPGs/fantasy. I'm thinking of Galawain (Struggle), Magran (Transformation/Trial) and to some extent Berath (Cycles) and Woedica (Order / Hierarchy). They also handled this without the usual heavy handedness and explored these themes from more than one angle. Very well done and I would have enjoyed seeing more of this. Companions. Edér and Durance followed by Hiravias were favourites. I especially liked the voice acting of both E and D as well as how they were written The idea of the gods being constructs. Especially since we right now are closing in on creating AI:s. Looking forward to expansions / sequels exploring in more depth what constitutes a god. When playing, the classic quote from Arthur C. Clarke: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." came to mind. Is it not so that gods in a fantasy setting is the absolute peak of magic in a way? If not, and if their origin must be other than that of a lower creator, how would we define divinity? Must they have had a part in creating the universe? I think not, considering that we have several examples in actual polytheistic religions where this is not the case. Must they in that case have descended from even higher beings/being? Perhaps. Or is the mystery of them part of their essence? Wael would love that at least. Oh well. Loved the game, these were just thoughts and not really huge criticisms.
  8. The story suggests us several ideas about the soul : if it cannot leave the cycle it returns to a new body on birth or to a weak body controlled by a weak mind the soul itself is a mixture of many souls the soul itself continues over many centuries of cycles and has the feeling of a new life only because it lost all the memories of its past lifes THE AWAKENING The explosion, biawac, machine and Thaos seem to have awoken a long forgotten memory that was inside your soul. As death seems to take you, you find life rekindled inside of you - life that has a different purpose and demands answers to a long forgotten question. It is at this point that you have the same vision that you will see at the end of the game - it suggests us that you were murdered after confronting Thaos that day; leaving you restless with no closure. ALOTH The same analogy seems to be true for Aloth himself - in his story we find out that he was beaten to darkness by his father only to be saved by either a memory within his soul or another smaller soul that took over to save him. His awakening was traumatic as well, and as we find out his life changed dramatically - the major difference between your 2 awakenings is that yours demands closure to a rekindled memory, while his simply embodies fire of a certain kind - willpower and decision making. Yours also enables you to become a Watcher - suggesting that indeed you roamed around a long time ago, and many cycles so far - you recognize other souls and their patterns and the more you come to understand the way they work the more this power grows - essentially, this memory becomes a completely new identity - contrary to what others make you believe - that you are here on a limited time, as a memory eventually ends its story. THE ENDLESS PATH OF BUILDERS We learn from the endless path that the Builders, the greatest civilization to walk amongst the other races, were highly advanced and developed. Other, lesser races, thought of them as gods and the term Builders tells us that they were Creators of many things. As chaotic events of life would have it, the King's son dies. We learn that there was conflict between them - the son was not intelligent, clever or strong enough to become the future King - a struggle for the father. Their conflict eventually made the son run away and die in doing so. The King then uses all available geniuses and technologies of his people to find the source of life and return his son. He tells us that it doesn't matter if he wasn't able to impress him, all that he wishes is to see him live. A noble quest began - the search for life itself; the quest of souls. Alas, time became their biggest enemy; something that the King promised they would be victorious against if their mission were to succeed. As their research grew and people joined up, time would grow its seeds as well. Conspiracies, conflicts, whispers. The closer they were the more mad the situation became. It would be at the very end that his people would betray him - knowledge of the soul was gained, but the end was not be achieved at this place anymore. An enemy arose in the last layer beneath them and the King would not recognize the trouble. His people split, taking the knowledge while abandoning him. He was no longer King, no longer a guidance, no longer a beacon of their people. They realized that the knowledge they found was gained through his will; by his power; by his guidance. But, how can a mortal preserve these characteristics? When does the mind begin to decline? When does the flesh become a rotten burden? Surely, they could come up with a better solution, now that they knew how to control souls. THE TRUE GODS They spent years coming up with systems and projects that would ensure this guidance. Their people were slowly becoming history themselves. The race became not important anymore, the knew they conquered that quest - it was winning the cycle and life itself that seemed to be the only true purpose. The other races were growing stronger - not so much in knowledge, but in numbers and dedication through their false gods, created by imagination and will of the few. They would not be able to survive this onslaught, but perhaps they would be able to guide them, give them sense and meaning and thus continue their own research and work through them? They finally agreed upon merging their souls into one entity that was able to leave the cycle, the shroud, yet remain above it in seemingly control over it. These entities would become their true gods. They would become gods themselves. Each body represented certain values and philosophies of life and seemed limited in its way and purpose. The pantheon would work in collaboration ensuring guidance and a sensible path for the races. However, one part of the Builders recognized that this division would not lead anywhere - it was a King, one person, that enabled them to grow. One purpose, One will. This division could only cause chaos, the very thing they wanted to evade. Thus, Woudica was born - however, she left behind a prophet whose mission was to collect souls for her to grow; to grow to such a degree where she would be able to control all other entities and thus make sure that the people of the world had proper guidance with one true purpose and will. A King that would never die or go mad. THAOS THE MESSENGER OF THE ONE TRUE GOD The prophet Thaos had to make sure that these souls were pure in their will - in terms of giving themselves for this purpose. A religion had to be created, an organized faith to delude people and to make them abandon life willingly so that the soul could be easier harvested in its purest form. Another source of such easily harvested and pure souls were newborn cycles - souls that were caught while trying to inhabit newborn babies. The prophet also had to make sure that the now developing races were never to achieve this same level of understanding of the soul or technology - for the path of the Builders required many thousands of years to accomplish their understanding of life. Many sacrifices... the death of a whole people. He knew that even though their actions looked ambitious, it would take them thousands of years to get to the level he was - something that could backfire and ruin everything he stood for. On the other hand, it could threaten the mission of his own people - a never ending research of life itself from a position of godlike entities who had a ever-lasting memory. A scientists dream. Essentially, you end this mission and purpose of the Builders, depending on your choices at the very end. However, the god entities still exist - but it would seem that they themselves will lack guidance and thus the Builders are dead; leaving behind them a set of gods, each operating within their own field and limits. And perhaps that is better so, one wonders? Perhaps the Builders are just one of many layers of god entities which are meant to ultimately guide a certain generation of people unto the real path. But, life seems to play strange games as we see that even these god entities created certain alliances - perhaps, one day, they would find real purpose behind their knowledge - something what Thaos and his goddess wanted to ensure. HE DIDN'T LIE! Thaos said - he never lied - the gods existed! And he told the truth. You never asked him who or what created the gods, even though he hints to you that the gods were required to exist in order to have order. STORY REFERENCES The references we see in Pillars of Eternity can actually be found in real life and probably exist as such in a certain way - certain degree - or perhaps are the absolute truth : Daoism - The endless path. Od Nua, The Builders - Anu, god of Annunaki; Bloodline masons are often refered to as the builders - perhaps prophets of such old knowledge themselves The Cube - Kabba Pantheon - Paganism Order out of Chaos, Adra, Soul and its harvesting - Transhumanism, Illumination, Archons Thaos - Theos in greek for God
  9. Hello everyone! I wanted to share my fanfiction in PoE world. I wrote six chapters, but seventh (the last) is being written now and should be finished in 2015 (purpose is until PoE hits). Despite English isn't my native language, I decided to translate my story (it's always better than Google Translator ), but I would be grateful for correction by somebody, who likes removing grammar errors, etc. (PM me then). Still I hope that general meaning of the story is clear, it was hard work, but I had fun too. I used game lore, naturally for story, so there may be some "spoilers" (but I don't know it is a good word). I would say that there is nothing new what you can see on wiki and in beta. However there are some my "inventions", but I tried to be so close to the lore as possible. Action takes place in Readceras. Main character is a Godlike, who was raised in temple of Eothas. One day he is offered joining to paladin order (Fellows of St. Waidwen Martyr). Soon after that he gets involved in Eothasian-Magranic conflict with enigmatic animancy in the background, when he sees series of mysterious abuctions... I warn about some "strong moments" in the story (vulgar language, sexual themes, etc.) OK, here is link. I hope you will enjoy it and maybe be inspired to write your own story. Nice reading! Between light & fire
  10. I'm sure there's been topics about this but I figured we could use another one. A huge part of the forums is about discussing the mechanics (understandably so), so let's have this one for the other stuff. Overall, I'm very pleased with this part of the beta. I quite like the ratio of conversations for one thing. I like the "flow" of the town if that makes sense. I also like that you can "shortcut" your way into the Skaenite dungeon if you're persistant, I hope there's a lot of stuff like that in the full game. The Blood Ties quest is the best quest as is. Excellent writing overall which doesn't really feel "forced grimdark" even though it is very grim indeed. I've only played through the quest twice but it feels like there's a good amount of options there. I guess I would always like an "Attack option" from *all* nodes in the Skaenite conversation in the dungeon, though you can manually attack him outside of the convo. The quest with the Orlan in hiding is nice but it also feels really short. Hopefully there'll be some sort of follow-up in the full game, it doesn't really feel like you can "dive in" enough in the details of it. The pig quest has a boring premise but it's made interesting by the Ogre. Again, it's great that we can actually talk with it and come to an understanding if we wish. And I love that it kinda ties in with the Blood Ties quest (well, the currier tries to make it that way at least). The dragon egg quest is the most boring one I think, it's just not very exciting. I like the adventuring band near the cliff. I like that there's a scriped interaction there also, but I'm not quite sure what is needed to bring the egg down safely? Athletics and something else, or Survival? I managed it once but I don't remember what skills I had (or what character I used if I used a different one). I like that there's a Bard in the Inn to tell some lore, but it feels weird in that it's her *only* purpose. You can't ask her at all about the other stuff going on in town which I found pretty weird. Her conversation also feels odd in that it doesn't have much (if any?) descriptive text compared to other conversations.
  11. As excited as I am for PoE, one thing really has me worried: western RPGs have a problem with endings. Anyone remember the Mass Effect 3 debacle? Everybody got mad about ME3's ending, and they were right to be, it was crap. But to be honest, it was probably the best ending Bioware had ever done - not because it was particularly good, not because it was head-and-shoulders above the rest, but because it was perhaps the only ending they had ever done. Think back. How did BG1 end? BG2? Jade Empire, KotOR? NWN? Each game reaches its climax, final challenges are overcome, and then, they just sort of ... stop. An authority figure tells you about the rest of your life. Maybe you get a 30-second cinematic. A scene where assorted peasants cheer meaninglessly for you. Paragraph-length written epilogues for your party members. This isn't strictly a Bioware problem, although they certainly exemplify it. It's an issue with the entire genre of RPGs in the west1, including everything from older, pure-action games like Diablo and newer turn-based games like Divinity: Original Sin with the familiar abrupt cutoff, to sandboxes which don't have any ending at all until you inevitably get bored. It's a trend that Black Isle/Obsidian has sometimes ducked partially - in having protagonists that are more complex and involved with the narrative than just "HELLO MY NAME IS PLAYER SURROGATE," games like PS:T and TSL are slightly better than most. In other cases, like Stick of Truth or MotB, they've dodged the bullet entirely and delivered a really genuine wrap-up that left me with a feeling of being finished. But then on the other hand we have games like the IWD series, or the NWN2 OC (light spoilers) ... Maybe this isn't as important for most people as it is for me, but since I'm here for the narrative, I want things to wrap up in a way that's satisfying. I want a proper denouement, and an ending more emotionally substantial than just watching something explode while someone narrates ominously. That doesn't necessarily mean wrapping everything up, or answering all of my questions in life, or giving me 15 minutes of Hobbits getting patted on the head in different locations. But it does mean that I want a story to end like a story, not like a game of Connect Four. All of this leads back to my greatest worry about PoE: that, like so many of these otherwise excellent games, it will fail to deliver an effective ending, or even a closing act. It's not that I don't have confidence in Obsidian's ability to write an ending - as I've mentioned, it's one of the very few developers that definitely has the know-how to write and direct solid endings. But it is something I hope they give active thought to avoiding, because this is such a plague on Western RPGs. So much time is devoted to giving players things to do that core narratives lose emotional significance, and become little more than an arbitrary - and often extremely sudden - stopping point. I hope that, as a spiritual successor to the IE games, PoE can surpass them in giving real emotional satisfaction to its ending. (Sorry if my thought process here is a bit disorganized - this is the kind of thing I have an essay's worth of thoughts about, but no desire to write a paper on, so I'm trying to sum it up.) tl;dr - In developing PoE's story, I encourage Obsidian to carefully consider the historical flaws in the endings of IE games and other CRPGS, and how to avoid them. Japanese RPGs are by no means necessarily better, but in my experience it's a less persistent issue for them, in part because JRPGs often duck the biggest underlying causes of No Ending Syndrome.
  12. So after playing the beta over and over I want to give my impression on the dialogues/story thus far. Thinking on how to distribute the things I want to comment I was not so sure of how to put it structured so I divided it on things I liked and things I disliked, so here I go: LIKE - Dialogue UI is familiar and intuitive. - Liked some of the moral choices you had to do, decide to help a thief to get rid of her followers, decide what to do with an ogre who is terrorizing a village, etc. - Loved interconections between quests, like the daughter quest with the ogre quest and the potion girl quest, that was nice! I like the idea than when in a bigger picture some quests outcomes might have changed if you did a quest earlier and viceversa (so the way you get to know things affect the result of others). - Bards explain history, nice! DISLIKE - Story was obvious. I knew the ogre was not a bad guy. I knew the chasers were mobsters. Everything was too obvious. Make things a bit harder to get and fool your players. For instance, in the cat and mouse quest you could have make some villagers say: "Did ya hear about dat murderer?" and stuff like that, in a bigger picture it could exist a quest to find the murderer, the trap is set, and some people will fall to it and some people don't. One of the moments I enjoyed more when playing Dragon Age 2 (and I did not like that game overall) was when the mother of the main character was murdered by a guy who I let live trusting he was not the city serial killer. Bad outcomes are a good experience (imo) and affect your gameplay after it (I did not trust anyone during the game after that) - Attributes as far as I've seen they make no difference. Make attributes to be valuable for dialogs. Not only for add up choices but also to remove and add information to dialogs. For instance, if someone tries to intimidate you and he succeeds because your might is low, remove ona dialog option (like trying to respond to the intimidation or starting a fight, you just ****ted on your pants!!), same for intelligence when there is a wit contest, etc. Also add information to what npc says on attribute checks: If you fail you just get: "It has always been like that" he says On a perception success: "It has always been like that" he says nerviously. On an intelligence or lore success: "I has always been like that" he lies I think you can get the idea, don't know how much effort it would take though (probably too much). - Dialogue outcome being too much black or white. Maybe it is because it is a beta and quests are really limited, but I expect that dialogues are more than get into a fight or avoid it. I also expect that quest decissions affect world around you and to have multiple effects. For instance, on the ogre quest, if you decide to let it live and you tell the truth (or fail lying) to the farmer I would appreciate that the armor seller stopped selling me because he is a really good friend of the farmer, and my reputation within the city drops. Also I would like that the outcome of not killing the ogre could vary between: the farmer attacks and I kill him, the farmer attacks me and I just reduce him, farmer decides to go kill the ogre himself, farmer lets it go. Probably I don't need that much interactions in every petty quest, but I would like that even some small quests can change things on the game. A comment apart of like and dislike, I don't know how are you going to build reputation system, but I would appreciate that it is build per npc, so within a city the blacksmith npc can love you and the major/ruler may hate you. Obviously some quests may affect the reputation on different group of npc differently. Example: you get rid of a thief who was stealing on the market surroundings: All market npcs +reputation, all rogue community -reputation. I think that is it.
  13. Hello, and welcome to the Eternity Showcase Character Enrichment Thread. Perhaps one day you were walking on the street or doing whoever knows what, and thinking of the standard thing (Pillars of Eternity, of course!), and you got a really cool idea for your main character. This is the thread where you try to delve back into your memories and bring out the amazingness you dreamt up on a whim. Furthermore, if you need ideas or just want people to see the glory you have invented, then this is the place! Indeed, the Eternity Showcase Character Enrichment Thread is just that! A thread where you showcase your character to enrich them. Some of you may ask "But random guy who just made his second post, isn't PE just too young for us to start? We just don't know enough about the world!", or perhaps, the primeval, "Your thread sucks!" this may be true, but remember that the way a character is made (I.E. At the beginning of the game) no one technically knows anything about the story anyway, so any such casus belli is futile. This thread isn't only for those who have made a full character complete with a genealogy and biography to boot, but also those who just have an interesting character concept that they want to share, or perhaps a rough-around the edges character they've been using since pen and paper. Anything goes here, so long as your character isn't uber haxor l33t and all that nonsense. Nobody likes a 'perfect' character. I'm looking at you Godlike players. (I kid, I kid) So, where do we all start? I'm sure you all got your thinking caps on and your keyboards ready to be mashed with all the keyboard warrior skills you have acquired on this forum. Well, the only place TO start is to sneak off to another forum filled with PnP enthusiasts trying their hand at a virtual approach to their madness, and requisition a character template for you guys to use. It is important to reiterate that this template is entirely optional, and only serves to help you guys organize a befuddled mind in need. Some of these options aren't even available to use yet, for instance, a complete list of deities or languages is simply not present. That's fine, we'll get that as-we-go, we can do without until those are a thing. Hopefully this thread will last until PE releases, and maybe longer. Well, that's all there is to it. Let's hope we see some awesome characters and such.
  14. Hello everybody, I'm from Germany and I'm looking forward to the game! (Sorry for possible mistakes in grammar or expression.) I would like to emphasize one point, which is very important to me, concerning the relation between the level of story integration and freedom of action in the game. What i really like, and at some point for me is determining for fascinating rpgs (like PE for me seems to become), is when you as a player get at the same time two things: - a wide range of side quests and side events in addition to the main story (feeling of freedom of action) - but also the feeling, that these happenings (actually all actions) are somehow connected to the main story, or at least advantageous for getting ahead in the game (for instance required experience) The combination of these two things, is what i really like in games like BG II: for instance when you entered the open world of Amn, you had your first major goal: To find Imoen. The next step was to collect a certain amount of money to get some information from an obscure person. All the variing sidequests (were you can gain the required money) now that came to the player, maintained their connection to the main goal, also they had their own little stories. They kept their sense/meaning in relation to the main story, albeit not in a linear way. This is what I miss in games like Elder Scrolls: The game advertises with it's large level of freedom of action, but at the same time the completion of all the (side) quests feels like totally meaningless in terms of a superior story. The story never gained momentum. There were no greater background story, no greater relations of all your actions and so there was nothing like a worsening of the story. The negative counter-example would be strictly linear stories like you have in games like Neverwinter Nights II or maybe The Witcher II. Almost every event represents a strict (between) stage of the main story. Maybe that sounds like high expactations I have, but I think it is not too difficult to implement, as we can see in the example from BG II above. What are you saying? Best wishes Sanjuro
  15. Every time we start a story of any kinda be it a book or a game it need a hook to keep the audience intrested. When it comes to CRPGs the most commen hook is: "you need to save the world from X",however there are more down to earth kinda of hooks that actully push me to pursue the plot rather then saving the world for the sake of saving the world,such as:family,friends,lovers,patriotism,revange,greed and such. What is your hook that keeps you following the story? And what kind of hooks you would like to see?
  16. Hi! Got this thought in another thread, first of all, what is "Second Wind"? -----------A------------- In Borderlands and Guild Wars 2 this is a feature you can use to "get back in the field", basically it is you fighting with your dying breathe to get back into the game. It makes no sense really because: A, I lost all of my health, yet I can still fight B, When I kill an enemy in this mode, I get "Second Wind" and can return to the battlefield (with a portion of health returned) C, If you fail to kill enemy during the time period you get "Game Over"/"Respawn". D, It is super fun and great design (in other words, it doesn't matter in these action games if it makes sense or not) -----------B------------- As P:E isn't action based like GW2 or Borderlands, and with 6 party members, a "Second Wind" feature gets difficult to "implement". Instead, P:E would benefit from what I like to call a "Narrative Second Wind". What does this mean? A, You entire party got knocked out unconscious by a group of Ogres B, You wake up in another screen, you are in a pot and you are about to get cooked C, Charm your way out of it to escape, or you get "Game Over". D, In a game like P:E, with more depth attached to it, sense would have to play its part more than in an action game. E, With a Narrative approach there are more ways to play with it, sent to Jail, stripped off all of your gear, you become a slave on a boat/camp/mansion, there's no end to the possibilities to what kind of "consequences" failing a Fight could get you thanks to being "Narrative". Perhaps you wake up on the shores of Dyrwood, with a narrative texts saying "You woke up at the bottom of the ocean". Etc. etc. ------------------------ Personally I would like the B approach, but for some encounters (not every single encounter) but in some fights there is some sort of "Second Wind", an ability to win a fight after loosing the fight. Which is pretty much what the concept of Borderlands and Guild Wars 2 is going for (You won the fight whilst going down, never surrender! Which can be pretty epic). Thoughs?
  17. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qto3oORvRf4&feature=youtu.be Today's update isn't about lore as much as it is about the focus and process of developing our central plot. I'm not going to spoil any details of the story, but I do want to share what we're working on. When we develop stories at Obsidian, we often ask ourselves (and each other), "What's the conflict and why do I care about it?" and, "What is my range of roles in resolving the conflict?" "RPG" means a lot of different things to different people. For us, it's important to let the player decide who he or she is in the story. That means when you set aside class, race, magic missiles, and all of the other goodies, the player needs to be able to define his or her own motivations, attitudes toward others, and ways of resolving problems in the story. Finding the right level of player freedom and clarity of purpose can be difficult. It's tricky to develop scenarios that can convincingly motivate characters of many races and classes, many backgrounds, and many moral and ethical stances. A conflict that is too "hands-off" or impersonal (e.g. a political conflict that doesn't directly involve the player) can make it difficult for players to connect to it. A conflict that is extremely personal may rub players the wrong way if it assumes too much about their character or if it feels like their choices don't have a large enough impact on the world around them. Because this is the first story your characters will shape in this world, we want to start with something small that grows into something larger. As we have hinted before, the story opens with the player's character witnessing a supernatural event that puts him or her in a difficult situation. The full ramifications of what you become a part of are not immediately apparent, but you quickly become aware that you have... new problems. Dealing with these problems makes you realize that resolving your situation is inexorably linked to the fates of many others. In some cases, these "others" are individuals. In others, they are much larger groups of people. You will get to interact with them all in various ways over the course of the story. If we do a good job in developing these groups and characters, the decisions you make in the course of resolving your problems will be interesting and difficult to make. That's what we're aiming for, but that doesn't necessarily tell you what we've been doing. On this project, the process started with a rough idea for a story and a theme that went along with it. The story itself wasn't that important; it was just an idea to get us moving. What followed were critiques of the story's premise, the unfolding of the plot, the player's motivation and involvement, and the scope of the conflicts the player faces from the beginning through the end. For the past few weeks, we've been exchanging various small ideas, big ideas, minor tweaks, radical overhauls, and brand new storylines. Through it all, we regularly return to the questions I posed up above: "What's the conflict and why do I care about it?" and, "What is my range of roles in resolving the conflict?" We can (and do) write about all sorts of character and location ideas, subplots and interesting takes on themes, but until we answer those questions in a way we believe will be compelling to your characters and all that they may be, we still have work to do. We like to develop fun ideas we come up with and every once in a while we delight at some clever character or situation we think of, but for us, it's more important for you to feel clever, for you to feel like you can take control of a situation -- by whatever means you see fit. Until we believe we have a few gems on our hands, we'll keep the Story Gnomes digging in the mines on your behalf. Thanks for reading. Update by Josh Sawyer PS: Chris says he will start playing Arcanum mid-January.
  18. http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/62190-martyr-like-paladinsaint/ Now, this sparked a thought.. how does Aumaua talk? Are there chances for Race specific Speech techniques? Could it be a racial benefit if your Orlan knows a language you do not (for diplomatic purposes, or maybe even for that ancient deciphering of that ancient book)? Would it or could it solve some balancing issues we've discussed in other "Speech Skill" related topics? Could Persuasion be specific to the Orlan's because they are born with the language of "Telepathy" or whatever?
  19. It's been made known that PE will explore MADSHURE themes. We're still left to guess as to how that pans out. I think that today, that inevitably means romances. I just hope that they will be written in such a mature manner and with such relevance for gameplay that they are more than the usual nuisance. Just as inevitable are comments about social issues like racism, sexism or class struggles. What is nice about these is that they can be injected into dialogue without much effort and give it a hint of maturity and relevance. I'd also expect some light philosophical dialogues as in PS:T. I'm not sure wether that's a good thing yet. What I'd personally like to see is more internal consistency of the world, like a somewhat believable economy. What do you expect to see, and what makes you feel like you're not playing a game that was made for kids?
  20. "Refusal of the call" They don't deserve it you know Those heroes all. They whine "Why me!?" As if some horror has befallen them. I admit I resent them for it What do you mean? "Why me?" It's something you must embrace! You are the fortunate one you get to be special and unique and you have the nerve to throw it in my face?! "Why me?" If you don't want it, let it pass to me! ME! I say to me! Yes I'll gladly take your place and stoutly face the brass I'll be the chosen one I'll learn the ways I'll slay the beast and leave everything behind Such Opportunity! Yes! let it fall to me! But never does it happen and I get relegated to the "arrow in the knee" A wise lesson to the kid, dumb farmboy he And while he fails the test to accept the quest, it wasn't even offered to me. And while the hero hears wise words he fails to pay them heed and never know, I loathe him so for getting to do the deed. A damsel to be freed in her hour of dire need the man to take the lead to sink the mighty fleet while thinking on his feet. and indeed it might be greed but while I dream and plead for just a chance to bleed more heroes I will meet. Maybe one, one day, will see my gaze the longing in my face the fire bright, my eyes alight and heart ablaze and be humbled by the rage and as we part our ways when I set him on his path better do me proud, his fate embrace or else incur my wrath.
  21. I noticed something. There are lots of stories in which the player character is somehow special, chosen by destiny, aided by the gods. All this mostly because he/she was at the right place at the right time or simply just because it's the player character. How many times did we experience that the main driving force behind the story was that the player character was the "chosen one"? How many times did we stop the evil forces from doing something really bad, just because it's something really bad and we are "meant" to stop it from happening? This type of story carries the message that those people who are not "chosen" by fate cannot achieve anything. I really hate that, because it's a false message. What would you say to the idea to flip over the coin this time? Let's play a character who is shunned by the gods, struck by a cursed fate, branded with an inescapable death at the hands of greater forces. As the story progresses we could see how this character escapes certain death again and again, against all odds, just by the sheer power of his / her will alone. He / she would not do the quests in order to stop some ancient evil, but only for the reason that he / she wants to live. Stopping a calamity could be just something that follows from the actions of the pc and the character may be entirely indifferent about it! I would like to play a story where the main goal would be something humanely impossible, yet, at the end of it the character could achieve it! Like, in order to end a curse that brands you as the target of undead spirits every night, you have to kill a (demi)god! Or take Baldurs Gate 2 for an example. I *really* hated that despite all my efforts i could not save Viconia, no matter what choices i made. What i wanted was the crazy option to go after Lolth, even if slaying her would have turned out impossible at the end! My character would have tried it! This type of story carries the message that no matter what happens, even if the most powerful being in the universe strikes you down it is in the human nature to stand up and fight again! Even if it seems futile at first! You do not have to be favored by fate to do great things! Humans are not the playthings of greater powers! (at least, involuntarily, that is) There is no need for the aid of gods, you can achieve your goals from your own power (with the help of your companions)! Edit: i see that i posted this in the wrong section, i don't know how that happened, sorry about that It would be great to see a game, where the player character is not "forced" or "conditioned" to play the "good" guy by appropriate feedback from the game itself! If my pc doesn't really wants to help that old lady, then that's it, the old lady might be screwed for all i care! And why would my pc help that old lady anyway? Just to stay true to his "lawful good" alignment i have to fight some rather dangerous trolls to get some stupid old book back? Or spend some valuable coin on something utterly meaningless? Bleh! :D I can just kill the old hag, take the coin that was meant for the reward and be done with it! Perhaps i will even go after that old book afterwards! Of course, this would not mean that my actions would have no consequence at all, i just wouldn't see it immediately in a change of alignment for example! My character might even think that he is actually lawful good, when in reality, considering the *long term* consequences of his actions, he tends to be chaotic evil! And what does "good", "evil" mean anyway? All that should matter are the consequences of your actions and whether you are favored by some group or shunned by other! For example, the habit of killing old ladies makes the player character indifferent about killing (seemigly unimportant or weak) npc's and this could lead to very dangerous consequences in *later parts* of the game! (so the player is tempted not to load his / her *much earlier* save when facing the crisis that came from his / her earlier questionable actions)
  22. Ok, so I was curious about what kind of plot, scenes, choices, characters you would like to see from the story in this game? Do you have a creative idea that you wish you could put in this game?
  23. Imagine, travelling through highland (possibly rocky montane area) around the rocky corner of the road you hear some not so distant sound of blast and rockfall on the way ahead (possibly down the pass or on the other side of linn/combe/ravine). Later you see that way (road) was blocked by rockfall you've heard and, when approached the site, you see dead bodies in white torn robes and body parts scattered among the rocks all around the place. Searching around you discover one laying male person that moving his limbs like still alive. Man, middle aged, wear white bloody robe above strange suit, with blood on his face flowing from empty orbits, presumably suffering from internal bleeding and damage or fractures, apparently in state of delirium with symptoms of terminal state. Man raving some words on unknown language and then losing his conscious. you and companions managed to heal him a bit and he's still alive; but not for long, and you need to decide: whether to take a stranger to nearby village by sending one of companions (who will try to keep man alive up to transferring this man to local medicaster) and possibly save man's life, or (considering weak chances for man's survival and assuming apparent uselessness of that man to campaign) to leave him and continue quest with so needed companion. All words you managed to catch, before man fall unconscious - "parallel dimension", "black hole", "collapse", "earth destroyed" - you failed to understand. Patch on man's robe pictured two circles and hieroglyphs formed "CERN" pattern.
  24. Hey kid, we have different stories about it. What do you think about building storyline mechanics with respect to different difficulty options? I mean that gameplay would vary not only in difficulty, but in storyline or amount of quests that player receive. It may look like developer have to build handful unique stories and will demand double of money and HR. My idea is to build one complete main plot and set of side stories/quests, and until certain difficulty modes (suppose those 3 special most difficult goals) player wont get all side quests (developers may even randomize offered set) and may be restricted to go through some predefined shortcuts of main story. Another possibility (along with hiding some secondary quests) will just end main plot and propose to continue (or even restart) on full difficulty to see extension of story. P.S.: I know that this may require additional funds, however perhaps not as many compared to the interest shown by players. Many games struggle to attend audience more than once. Such feature may add motivation, and different gaming experience. Instead of single pass, players will become interested to go through the game again. And of course, adding more arbitrariness of gameplay will reduce significance of pass-through "manuals" which will inevitably rise over the internet with time.
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