Search the Community

Hello all, After playing few hours of beta I find out that weapons doesnt add to deflection rating. It seems strange as for sure one defend himself much better with weapon than with bare hands. I think that Obs should think about adding deflection rating to weapons as well. I think that best deflection should have swords, then reach weapons and on other end should be axes and maces. Of course it should not affect damage threshold Good idea? Bad Idea? discuss

I'm suggesting the developers implement a 'deadzone' where the formation orientation wheel doesn't show up until you've held right click and moved it outside this threshold. As-well as a slight delay when clicking so it doesn't accidentally show up unintended. Currently there's almost no delay (if any) and it makes it an uncomfortable experience when clicking just to move. In practice these mechanics pretty much work the same as what everyone's used to in IE games but a much better look and feel. Please see this video for a working example and description of how I think it should be in Pillars of Eternity. (ignore that it's an RTS, it's the mechanics that are important) Bonus: The 'cancel' command should double as a 'hold position' command (or a new hotkey altogether in the controls menu) so you can tell your guys to stand still even with enemies nearby, keeping formation with a tap of the button. I assume the ability to queue movement is coming? Ideally we should be able to shift-queue movement *and* orientation along with actions/abilities (Cancel command too). It's imperative to your tactics when playing the game real-time. Scenario 1: Telling a Wizard in an open area to move wide on an enemies flank and cast a ranged spell while assaulting the front with your fighters. Scenario 2: Casting an ability, and retreating to cast another ability automatically. Scenario 3: Making enemies chase summons around while you shoot them from range. This is possible in Baldur's Gate so i'd hope we'll be able to do it in PoE. Thanks for your consideration.

Would be awesom to be able to click in the enemy names in the combat log to target or select them. This way, if you read in the combat log that an enemy is performing a special attack against some squisy character, you can click in that enemy name and focus that specific enemy. This is useful in combats with several enemies with same name. Sometimes you don't know which one is the reported enemy in the combat log and I think that the new engine is capable enough to do this and more.

I have couple of suggestion on top of my head as I just started to play the game. First when you select a character ingame, you should highlight or change the colour of the portrait so you know which one is active. Second you should also hightlight the portrait of either who is chosen character in current formation of the party so you know who is line the front. third you inventory is sort of a bad solution when you want to filter. If I want to filter on weapon it should be those I see in my inventory and not just graying out the other items in the bag so you have to scroll up/down to weapon. As it is now it doesn't make sense.

As the number of beta backers jumping into the game grows, those General Threads are going to explode. It will become harder to find specific posts and ideas. But we still need some way of taming the fire-hose nature of excited gamers' brains. I propose multiple forums a la my "other PoE", Path of Exile. Note the categorized Feedback forums. I think the intent of the General Threads matches up well with these. In practice, though, we can't just sticky all of them because it uses too much screen real-estate. So the threads just kind of float around, hoping someone clicks on the General Link at the top and then into the correct sub-thread. Possible sub-forums: Beta Feedback - First Impressions Beta Feedback - Classes, Builds, and Balance Beta Feedback - User Interface (Non-Combat) Beta Feedback - Combat Beta Feedback - Story and Dialog Beta Feedback - Graphics and Animation Beta Feedback - Music and Audio Beta Feedback - Other These sub-forums would provide: More discoverability--currently there are plenty of posts outside of a General Thread that belong in one, because not everyone (myself included admittedly) noticed the General Threads sticky. So currently the devs probably need to look both at the forum and these super-threads. Links on the main beta forums page would nicely funnel the feedback. Better granularity of discussion--users having feedback around the spellbook UI, for example, won't need to "threadbomb" users in the same thread already discussing the Inventory UI. More readability--keeping up with sub-threads is not much easier than refreshing the main screen only to find the post you were just looking at just went to page 2, due to the sheer volume of posts (due people not using the General Threads for reasons explained above). More fun--a player especially interested in the UI could "hang out" in an area separate from the storytelling feedback, for example. Better for devs--as a programmer, if I were focused on the UI, I'd love to have a separate feedback forum targeting my area of the codebase. Please consider doing this, I think it will make our beta testing, reviewing, and discussing much easier! PS--super excited for the next build.

I was fiddling around with intelligence and how it affects AoE size, and I came up with some suggestions that would make them generally better. 1 - Spell casting range All spells - AoE included - have a casting range, but that range is never displayed in the game world when casting. It would be beneficial to have a visual indicator if you can cast a spell from where you currently are, or of where you will have to move to cast a spell on a location. 2 - Adjustable AoE One of the benefits of intelligence is increased area of effect. It turns out that this can be a rather big problem at higher levels. Here's an image: This is a 20 Int wizard casting Dazzling Lights. The wizard is at his maximum casting range for the spell, which just so happens to be in the area of effect of the spell. Casting this spell will cause the wizard to dazzle himself. Needless to say, this is rather undesirable. On top of this, the huge AoE of some spells at high intelligence will tend to make them difficult to use in constrained spaces without, say, torching your buddies. As long as friendly fire is enabled (and it should stay enabled, personally), the player needs a way to have high intelligence without it ending up being detrimental. Making the AoE spells have a reducible range would help quite a bit. If this would unbalance spells from a tactical standpoint, then it might be enough to allow the player to cast spells at an effectively reduced intelligence (i,e., keep AoE and duration coupled).

I would really love to have an option to toggle volume for all kinds of voice-acting in the game. Combat shouts and the "affirmative" type of deal when you move characters around kinda get really old after a while so an option to mute them would be very welcome!

I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir with you guys, but it needs to be said: The superb voice acting made the Baldur's Gate 2 characters really come to life. Jon Irenicus, Minsc, Aerie, Jaheira...I remember that dialog to this day. Please don't make your voice talent an afterthought. I suspect you already intend to make it awesome, but just in case you weren't? Don't make Pillars of Eternity sound like Divinity: Original Sin. That is all.

It's one of those things that's not really a big deal, but one expects a double-click to select an item and perform the default action on it. This is true of Windows list boxes for example. So it seemed a little weird that when I went to load a game I couldn't just double-click the game to load it. PS Beta is awesome.

Just a little suggestion for a feature I kinda expected from the GUI: when you get a pop-up about a new quest in the upper left corner of the screen, it would be convenient to be able to click on it to bring up the journal. At least, that's what I did immediately upon seeing the pop-up for the first time (I mean, I clicked on it). The journal should of course open on the newly received/updated quest, so the player can review whatever notes are made about it.

So with my achievement grinding it got me thinking... Enemies scale with your level in The Stick of Truth, I noticed this when battling different monsters on two different level characters. There are certain key points in the story. How would you feel if they added a chapter selection option? You could go back and play your favorite parts or get your missing Chinpokomon, etc. by selecting the chapter you want to play with your character that's completed the game. More importantly... Is this something Obsidian would consider doing?

I request that [continue] choices in dialogues (i.e. when there are no 1, 2, 3 choices) be hotkeyed by pressing 1 rather than enter, or some other key closer to the horizontal numericals. Using 1-2-3-4 etc in dialogue feels like smooth sailing. But then all of a sudden there's that [continue]-dialogue and you must either move your mouse and click the button, or move your hand all the way across the keyboard to press enter.

In most CRPGs, the weapons are too fantastic and don't have any real life counterpart, or they are very common types of weapons and mostly derived from Medieval - Renaissance European weapons. In this thread I would recommend posting some suggestions regarding exotic weapons from real life which can be included in the game. My first suggestion would be the "Yatagan" sword. It is a short sabre which was extensively used in the Ottoman Empire territory between 16th - 19th centuries. It was the trademark sword of Jannissaries. The originality of this sword comes from the fact that it is curved towards the front and has no hand guards at the hilt. It was ideal for carrying as a side arm next to the musket, due to its small size and strong slashing momentum because of having its center of weight towards the tip. Some Yatagans: The yatagan was worn on the waist inside the sash, slightly similar how the samurai used to wear the wakizashi. (On this photo M. Kemal Ataturk posing as a Janissary) While scimitars and sabres have found much place in the games, they are usually depicted as having rather broad blades. I believe this may be a slight exageration while the real turkish "Kilic" (sword in Turkish) is like this: Indonesia and the region surrounding have very peculiar looking weapons indeed. They definitely look as if they are from a fantasy role playing game. For instance the "Kris", a type of dagger, which is distinguished by its wavy pattern. Kris can be worn in different ways: Another very original weapon from Indonesia is the "Kujang" which is a sickle shaped short weapon. The "Kampilan" sword from the Phillipines also looks as if it was created in a fantasy setting, but it is real. It is around 100 cm long and is mainly used with two hands. I am sure the developers are going to do a fantastic game, but it would still be cool to see some of these suggestions included in the game Let's keep posting your suggestions!

Now that you released the first video of the game, it's obviously to everyone's joy that the lighting effects are so brilliant. Since that wisp like character moved around and showed off the lighting it really got me thinking : How cool would it be to create caves or certain areas where there is literally no static lighting effects and it requires certain members to equip torches or use light spells? That would be so much fun if you can do something like that!

This will be a large entry so bear with me. I've done a lot of thinking about this because if I'm to send a letter to someone who may choose to run with this, it needs to be a solid concept. I've been a Fallout fan for years, and I recently did another playthrough of New Vegas. Still enjoyable, still stunned at how entertained I was, and still wanting more. A lot of times, especially with the Fallout games, the developers like to let the lore tell the story about what happened later; the fallout of your decisions, so to speak. You'll hear about the Chosen One or the Lone Wanderer in future games no matter how sparse the rumors. In this regard Obsidian was very clever in opting only for hints at what had been occurring on the east coast since Fallout 3. With the closing of New Vegas the story indeed felt complete... or at least so I thought. However, after some pondering and due consideration I have come to the conclusion that that is not a necessity. Both Obsidiean and Bethesda LOVE to experiment. Granted, Bethesda seems to have opted a bit more for universal acceptance of their work, with the advent of Skyrim and all the appeal to previously untapped markets of gamers who fancy other genres perhaps but not intentionally at the expense of their core consumers. Either way, the game was new, diverged a bit from it's origins, and it was still a wonderful experience. We all know and hope that Bethesda continues to bring Obsidian into the fold. There's been a lot of suggestions and hopes from both sides of the fence that Betheda continue developing their East Coast dystopia while allowing Obsidian to further develope the West Coast so well established by past Fallout titles. It is a good balance, especially if the teams consult one another and play the titles/take notes regarding what occurred in their counterpart's games so that they can properly interweave the two with perhaps a few slight references and nods; acknowledging the shared universe. With that said, perhaps Obsidean should consider a strange yet new direction that no Fallout has really taken before. Not something that establishes a pattern for future titles, but something that can really give themselves and their fans something new and intriguing to try: the "file transfer" or "contigent continuity" cencept. Mass Effect utilized the idea quite well. The idea that your character would become something more, and that your previous decisions carried weight in future games. Bioware, however, were not the first to dream up this ingenious aspect of gaming. The Suffering, a 2004 survival-horror game, did the same. Although theirs was a more straightforward way of handling the idea, Midway/Surreal did something interesting for gaming by making decisions matter. The Suffering read your save game data and loaded the outcomes from one of three possibilities based on decisions made within the games like saving someone or killing them. Long before that, Psycho Mantis of Metal Gear Solid would comment on the type of person you are based on the information the game extracted from your memory card regarding which games you played. This idea is time-tested as being extremely satisfying to gamers because unlike the "ulitmate end" they experience with most games, there is a feeling of genuine accomplishment regarding everything you did. And despite its media, is that not what many video games strive for? A closer and closer reflection of the person wielding the controller or keyboard? There are MANY ways to handle this, all of which would work with varying degrees of difficulty for the developer and any of which should be HIGHLY satisfying for consumers thus ensuring good sales figures for the game, though in all honesty, I can't think of a main-series Fallout that didn't sell well. I will lay out these ideas by number for organization. 1. The TRUE continuance. In this scenario, YOU ARE THE COURIER. You pick up where you left off, whether years later, or simply right after the battle at Hoover Dam. Methods of character extraction - Since unlike Mass Effect, Obsidian likely did not plan on such a direct sequel and has such would not have "flagged" outcomes in the file beyond what can be read by the game itself for the ending, there would be two easy ways to handle this. -First way: Release a patch for the original New Vegas that would both set markers for reputation outcomes and end came scenarios. Since the original gmae had you load a save prior to the completion of the battle at Hoover Dam after completing it, this way might be difficult but surely not impossible. I also know that the games use character-gen codes for appearence, so that would be an easy way to import the character design, though that's largely unimportant. -Second way: A storied menu at the start of the game where a narrator tells about the story of the Courier and you determine the outcome of the decisions and reputations in the first game. -Alternatively: Just request the outcome of New Vegas with regard to who holds control, excluding the various faction and town based outcomes. This way is a bit less substantial, but it would relieve a LOT of stress on Obsidean's part for developing a game given how many different outcomes there are for each settlement and faction especially when you include the outcomes of DLC like Old World Blues. With this first way, it would be interesting to continue on with your character. Features could be added that allow you to make economical and militaristic decisions given you chose an independant Vegas in the first game like choosing how to manage New Vegas with regard to security which could increase or decrease monthly earnings. Letting everyone in would increase earnings but run a higher risk of raiders and the like trying to take New Vegas and scaring people away. Alternatively, letting too few factrions into New Vegas would result in a low income which would not only provide the player with less benefits but remove features of New Vegas if enough time passes since there is not enough money flowing in to fund them. Same thing could go for the casinos, you could decide to lower your cut or squeeze them, affecting how well they do and whether or not the club stays open. This same feature could work with ANY of the four outcomes given Obsidian goes the route of letting your character take control. For example, Caesar or Colonel Moore could put the Courier in charge of managing Vegas. Same thing could go for House. In this way, the choice you made to align with a faction STILL allows Obsidian the leniency of pre-progamming the inevitability that your character runs New Vegas without comprimising the faction you chose. Gamers too often complain that they are not given a choice that results in diversity without realizing the enormity of programming a game that widely diverges based on decisions. To do this, it would likely take a developer far too many years to put the game out on the same console, let alone enough resources and funding that would likely outweigh the cost-benefit of even making the game in the first place. As much as I understand the disappointment of ME3's ending, there is a large following of people that understand that EA put them on a timeline and budget, which was not their choice. Working with Bethesda would allow Obsidean some room to manuever since Bethesda technically owns Zenimax, meaning the developer runs their own producer, which is a HIUGE advantage that allows them time and funding to complete games as they see fit. This is why we saw a 5 year gap between Oblivion and Skyrim, and why we are seeing such a huge gap between Fallout 3 and Fallout 4. The rumors for Fallout 4 are only just NOW circulating, so that should give you an idea. I feel this idea would be more fan-based than it would dev-based given how much time and effort it would take to complete such a game. 2. The comprimise. You are NOT the Courier. You exist in or around the Mojave Wasteland. You are a character relevant to the Courier's story. You now opertate in a Vegas controlled by the previous protagonist, and as such his/her decisions weigh on the setting and lifestyle you lead. There will be a lot less explanation on this one than the previous entry because I've covered a lot of possibilities with that one that can apply to this and the following one. In this scenario, perhaps you are a character that does the Courier's bidding, or are trying to take him/her down. Or perhaps the Courier is an entity beyond what you can hope to work with. Either way, the decisions you made in New Vegas can still affect the landscape, the atmosphere, and many elements in the Mojave. Within this scenario, less choices need to be made regarding what you did in the previous game, and perhaps we could even have a voiced Courier where you choose at the beginning whether your Courier was male or female, and what faction they allied with. 3. The reasonable. In this instance, New Vegas is DLC. This game takes place in a nearby land, or at least near enough for your character to visit New Vegas. At the beginning of this DLC, you choose a few details regarding your previous character like who you sided with, whether the characer was male or female, etc. Obsidean could build an interesting plot for a DLC that involves the previous Courier and allows you to explore a new more fully developed New Vegas shaped by the decisions made in the previous game. That ends the scenarios that I have been able to come up with. I'm sure there are more possibilites, but I believe I've given the most basic and probable ones. Thing is, places like Kickstarter have managed to revive games like Wasteland, and even produce consoles like OUYA. If a site where you can donate money can do something like that, then you can imagine what fans can do when they ALREADY love a series that has solid funding. A series where fans can promise their interest and their intent to purchase. I don't know whether or not Bethesda plans to give Obsidian further chances to expand the franchise, but I can tell you a lot of people loved New Vegas and I'm quite sure many of you would be more than willing to shell out a few sheckles for something like this. I will end with this, and am more than open to further propositions and comments. Just please, be eloquent. Gamers made Wasteland 2 happen, gamers made Bioware create the Extended Cut for Mass Effect 3. YOUR VOICES MATTER! All I can hope for is that Obsidean listens to its fans. All I can hope for is that Bethesda does the same. Even if it never happens, the fact that the desire was acknowledged matters. I assume that Obsidean isn't working on a future Fallout because I assume that they would alternate with Bethesda, and since Bethesda has only recently begun its work on Fallout 4, it's a fair assumption. What does this mean? It means TIME. It means Obsidian has the time to propose the idea to Bethesda. It means they have the time to work on it with the new Creative engine, which I assume Bethesda will use, it means they have time to listen to fans, to develop the game, to hear our battlecries! P.S. I can't go back to a Fallout that doesn't include gambling. I really can't. That's a simple fact. My friend and I were so engrossed in the atmosphere of it that we are ordering custom cards and poker chips that are factory distressed to look like cards and chips that appear in New Vegas. Both display the logo of The Tops Casino. We are even building a Blackjack table that matches ones seen in The Tops, and several of our friends have committed to weekly blackjack games. Nerdy? We don't think so. The environment in New Vegas was something else. The old world music combined with the decrepit casinos and the fun of gambling attracted us to something we'd otherwise not cared about beyond perhaps the occasional fantasy football league.

In Update #5, the devs have informed us that the major powers of the setting are largely possessed of late medieval/early Renaissance technology, including early firearms. Please, please, please, please do my history-major self a favor and include cannons in that. A brief history: Gunpowder's first use after its invention in China was in fireworks, because why not. Someone got the bright idea to point fireworks at enemy soldiers, which, while frightening, isn't terribly good at maiming or killing. Then, someone got the idea of strapping a gunpowder bomb to a castle wall or door, and that was effective, though rather dangerous. So the first reliable, safe use of gunpowder in warfare was the cannon. The larger barrels of cannons allowed them to handle greater stresses than something that could be carried by a person, which make their manufacture somewhat easier. They also fulfilled a valuable niche: Blasting down increasingly large and rugged castle walls. For this reason, cannons were being used in European warfare as eary as the 13th century--a good two or three centuries before handguns became prolific. Their rate of fire was slower than other siege weapons, but against a wall, who cares? They hit a lot harder, and were scary to boot. Translating this to a fantasy world, the logic holds. The physics are (probably) the same, so cannons are still easier to make. They're still good at smashing down stone walls (even if those stone walls are magically reinforced, given the precedent of firearms being able to puncture such barriers). A lucky shot means they could likely pulverize a lot of large monsters, especially slow ones or ones made from stone. There are logistical difficulties in transporting cannons, of course, and they require more specialized resources than, say, trebuchets, but a wealthy kingdom will very likely find them worthwhile. Obviously, cannons don't need to feature in your average dungeon crawl. I'm just thinking that if we see a siege at some point, or read an account of one happening now or in the recent past, they should be a thing that exists. It's starting to bug me how many high-medieval settings don't have any sign of them, y'know? Thanks, and I'm looking forward to the game. )