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So I posted the profile and background I wrote in the The Outer Worlds: Stories (Spoiler Warning!) subforum, as I thought the "stories" part of the forum's title was suitable. But then I realized that might have been a mistake since there are not any spoilers in it, and posting it in a forum in which there are posts with spoilers might mean that not a lot of people see it. I'd love to get critique and thoughts on my character, so I'm reposting it here, which I hope is okay. Let me know if it's not okay, or if I need to delete the other one. Anyway, I'd love some comments! Basic information Name: Sarah Eleana Yardeen. Nom de guerre: Brightfall. Aliases: Sarah Brightfall, Captain Alex Hawthorne. Birthplace: London, England. Birth date: 2270. Age: 15. Spoken languages: English, Arabic, Hebrew, Dutch. Religion: None. Favourite poem: Invictus. Family: Ashraf Medad Yardeen (father, deceased), Liesbeth Saskia Yardeen (mother, née Kroes, deceased), Patrick Aalbrecht Yardeen (older brother, in hibernation on the Hope), Yasmin Miriam Yardeen (older sister, deceased). Moral alignment: Neutral Good. Current weapons Dead-Eye Assault Rifle Mk III with Whisper Quiet Muzzler, Mag-Num magazine and Exact-O-Sight. Bolter Pistol 3.0 with FunTimes Barrel, Gyro Sight and Mag-Num magazine. Officer's Spine Titanium with Mr. Power plasma damage modification and SpeedGrip handle wrap. Security Blade with telescoping handle. Background Sarah was born in London, England to a Palestinian father and a Dutch mother. As a young child growing up, Sarah had often looked up at the starlit night sky. She had always dreamed of visiting them, of travelling to distant star systems and boldly setting foot on unfamiliar worlds. Her parents, who were both scientists, had often told their children that the stars in the sky were indeed beautiful but that none could match the brightness of Sarah and her siblings. They said their children were as if the greatest stars had fallen to Earth and become human. Sarah took it to heart. When she was eight years old, tragedy struck. One of the major corporations had decided to “volunteer” Sarah’s parents for indentured service, as they desired their scientific talent for their projects. When the corporation’s requisitions team arrived to collect, Sarah’s older sister Yasmin attempted to resist and was shot dead on the spot by the corporate soldiers without a second thought. Yasmin bought time for Sarah to escape, but her parents and brother were taken. Now alone in the world, confused and filled with hate towards the corporations and rage at the injustice that had happened, Sarah felt lost. After a year on the streets, she had just about given up on life when she was approached by a woman who claimed to represent a group dedicated to ending the corporate tyranny. The gaping hole in Sarah’s childish heart was filled with tales of honor and justice. Assurances of vengeance. It sounded like a new chance at life…one with purpose. Sarah soon found out that the group was far more organized and well-funded than she had initially believed. They functioned like an elite military special forces battalion, one that was vehemently anti-corporate. The battalion was led by a man who called himself Jack Harper, though this was likely an alias; all that anyone knew is that he was an illusive man. The rebel group had no qualms about using children, and Sarah began training immediately. She had inherited her parents prodigal intellect, and her heightened but still growing mental faculties began the process of being forged for purposes of disciplined violence. Her training progressed quickly, in body and mind. Her intelligence, her reflexes, her muscles, her physical senses; sight, smell, hearing - every fibre of her being, everything within her that could have been directed towards brighter endeavours - was corrupted and fine-tuned towards one purpose: killing. After five years of this training, at the age of fourteen, she was slated to join the rebel group’s elite assassination unit after completing one final mission. The mission was assigned to her by the woman who had recruited her, and it was to assassinate two of the leading scientists of a very specific corporation; the corporation whose actions had set Sarah down this path. She leapt at the chance to finally enact a measure of the vengeance that had been promised. Strangely, she was given no names; only a general physical description of her targets and their exact and when they would be there. Sarah knew this to be unusual, but she was so consumed by vengeful purpose that she never questioned who her targets were. Not even when she was right upon them and realized there was something strongly familiar about them. She still did not hesitate. It was only when their blood covered her hands and she looked upon their faces for the first time that Sarah recognized them. Her parents. She slumped down onto the floor. Her body was still, her face and eyes frozen in a contorted visage of pain and horror of indescribable magnitude. The rebel group had known exactly who her targets were, and they had intentionally kept it from her. They were always meticulous with gathering information; during training, Sarah had been assigned to gather information about other targets herself. Slowly but surely, the brainwashing and mental conditioning that had been instilled in her by the rebel group began to crumble and lose its hold. She remained on the floor when the corporate security team arrived, and she did not even look up when the grunts raised their weapons to put her out of her misery. The only reason she lived to see another day was because the corporate commander ordered them to capture her alive for interrogation. Sarah didn’t respond to any of their questions for weeks. It was only when they told her that her older brother was still alive and that he had been granted a place on the Hope colony ship that she began to speak, asking to see her brother before he left, but the only response was that he refused to see her due to what she had done to their parents. In solemn acceptance of this, she began to cooperate anyway and provided information on the rebel group to the corporation. She had two other, final requests. The first was that she would be granted a place on the Hope colony ship alongside her brother. The second request was that they let her join them in taking down the rebel group. When they stormed the facility where Sarah had grown up and trained, she personally cornered the woman who had recruited her, trained her and assigned her the mission to unknowingly kill her parents. The screams heard from that room reportedly caused visible unease in the corporate troopers, their faces going pale as winter snow. After the screams stopped, there were a few moments of silence before Sarah opened the door and walked out covered in blood that was not hers. Those possessed of weak stomachs threw up in their helmets at the sight inside. Some passed out. The illusive man known as Jack Harper was never caught. To Sarah’s surprise, the corporation granted her first request as well and granted her a place on the Hope. But the silent look in their eyes or the fact that they all consistently avoided looking into her own told her that they simply wanted her gone, but were too afraid to try to kill her. As Sarah stepped into the hibernation pod aboard the colony ship known as UDL-002 the Hope and closed her eyes, her final thoughts before everything went dark was of her family. Not how they had been torn apart by the corporations or Sarah herself, but the memories she had of them from when she was a child, before everything had happened. She remembered how her parents had loved her and her siblings. She remembered how she, together with her family, had looked up at the stars and wondered what it would be like to go there. Now, despite everything that had happened, she was going to find out. Name etymology Yardeen: Sarah’s family name. Derived from the Hebrew word Yarden ( ירדן ) meaning “one who descends”. Combined with Eleana, it forms the basis of Brightfall, Sarah’s nom de guerre. It is also a reference to Yalena “Dutch” Yardeen of Killjoys. Eleana: ( Arabic: إليانا ) Sarah’s middle name. According to Wikipedia, the name is translated in Arabic as “the Bright”. Ashraf: ( Arabic: أشرف‎ ) The name of Sarah’s father. Means "most honorable one" or "very noble". Medad: Ashraf’s middle name. Hebrew word with the meaning of friendship and love. It’s also a pun/dad joke. Me, dad. Image gallery

I'm not sure where to write my grounded idea sketches. Do I get an answer as to whether it is right here? Thank you so much for the great game and all the imagination you leave us! The File "Ideenskizzen_Grounded.docx" (35 kb) is in german, should I translate it with google translator, or would you do it yourself? I would appreciate a short message about the receipt of the file. Ideenskizzen_Grounded.docx

I found the background skills for some of the backgrounds a little bit odd in terms of logic and rp. So I changed them. Dissident : History => Streetwise Hunter : Alchemy => Stealth Laborer : add Streetwise Scientist : Arcana => Mechanics Philosopher : Insight now (1), add Metaphysics (2) (Seriously, if there is one skill that screams "PHILOSOPHY", then it's metaphysics. ) Clergy : add History Raider : Stealth => Explosives Apprentice : add History Farmer : made Survival/Religion/Streetwise Gentry : add History and Bluff Marksman : add Alchemy Midwife : Explosives => Insight Trapper : add Alchemy Here is the link https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/204/ Unpack it into the override folder as all the other mods. Here is also a list of skill IDs, if someone want the backgrounds different. Alchemy = "SkillID":"1b26af87-fd19-4dc6-9380-4f5cec7aefd5" Arcana = "SkillID":"e5f33551-ec5c-4cc8-b5f2-1eb03d210374" Athletics = "SkillID":"fefc4d3d-250d-4c32-85e0-62a851240e62" Bluff = "SkillID":"6fa62ec8-6695-4a1d-8553-7486b0ac20c4" Diplomacy = "SkillID":"c7e22ee0-bdd6-4ca8-99f0-a46f3dd66606" Explosives = "SkillID":"e67f20e3-5bf9-4d87-9bda-211405107362" History = "SkillID":"c6b6f87a-0381-4219-93eb-77ae2b64f0af" Insight = "SkillID":"f5d2c2bf-1ffd-4741-b6d8-31ae01985d4b" Intimidate = "SkillID":"3ad9194b-4f41-480e-aa75-1c82df43be84" Mechanics = "SkillID":"3affbb70-86bd-41f3-82c6-325326d40796" Metaphysics = "SkillID":"98051b85-d7e5-4746-a66c-260e2fcd2d4b" Religion = "SkillID":"98cc5a0d-1387-42e3-9202-417bc42b53ad" Sleight Of Hand = "SkillID":"3b073ebf-0a4a-48a3-947d-ad38bef10b36" Stealth = "SkillID":"8cc41e27-e62f-4e75-9f7d-ae47986895d2" Streetwise = "SkillID":"eb8da173-4a3e-4910-94e8-dd0c1436ca40" Survival = "SkillID":"9c7962b8-bf69-4670-ba67-acc86a09fca8"

Hello hello! I'm loving this game (despite running into a few bugs!) but one bug seems to have stuck over the last day or so and I fear it's too late to revert back to an earlier save (if one exists at all!). Basically I can hear a constant noise in the background on every map I'm on apart from when I'm sailing It sounds like the footsteps of a giant and it's constant, literally repeating every second, it's driving me mad! Weirdly the noise gets more pronounced when I scroll to the bottom right of the map and quieter when I'm at the top left of the map Turning down the volume of Effects Volume in the settings removes it, but ya know... not an ideal solution! Any ideas what it is / what I can do if there's anything I can do. Also - on another note Would be amazing if you added black space around the maps... sometimes it can get a little claustrophobic when fighting in a corner of a map and not being able to centre your party in the centre of your screen - especially when you're fighting in a top left corner of a map and the effects drop down menu for each enemy covers the entire combat! Cheers!

Hey, I just stared a new game in Pillars of Eternity 3.0. Of course I have noticed that there is a new title screen. Sadly the animation that plays whenever you start a new game doesn't fit with it at all with the new background. Can we please have an option to use the pre-3.0 title screen again? Best, ShadowOwl

This is a place where one gives inspiration, and another takes from it. Feel free to either inspire others with your own Watcher ideas, or to become inspired by them. ^^ You can type down as much, or as little information as you want. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Hylea's Blessed (ARTIST watcher, commoner - play as Rogue maybe.) AGE IN PoE1: 21 RACE: Heart Orlan CULTURE: Old Vaillia PERSONALITY: Benevolent, Passionate, Clever. TRAITS: Friendly, Good natured, 'Weak', Romantic, semi-funny in a good natured way. IQ (LOGICAL): Average IQ (EMOTIONAL): High Above Average ORIENTATION: Heterosexual BACKGROUND CHOICE: Artist, traditional lost inspiration. BACKGROUND IN DETAIL: * watcher was born to two middle class loving parents. * mother saw watcher's gift and passion for art, and encouraged them to continue * mother became gravely ill when the watcher was 17 * the watcher continued doing art, and always showed it to mother *mother died when the watcher was 20 *watcher losses inspiration after their mother's death *watcher ventures away, but isn't sure where and for what purpouse COMPANION FATES: Just be friendly and always encourage faith. IF ORLAN BABY KEPT (VELLA): Raises her with love and care, like a parent should. PAST LIFE TRAITS: Fanatic, Betrayed Iovara because she questioned her faith. PAST LIFE IOVARA RELATION: Sister. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Galawain's Rebel (RAIDER watcher, Druid/Barbarian.) -------MY PERSONAL FAVOURITE! <3 AGE IN PoE1: 23 RACE: Wood Elf CULTURE: Deadfire Archipelegio PERSONALITY: Aggressive, Honest, Cruel. TRAITS: Brave, chaotic, strong, dumb (especially with emotions), brutally honest, believes the strong have every right to take from the weak (possession and lives included.) IQ (LOGICAL): Below Average IQ (EMOTIONAL):High Below Average (Impaired.) ORIENTATION: Homosexual BACKGROUND CHOICE: Raider, highwayman/woman, brought down by an army. BACKGROUND IN DETAIL: * Watcher's father unknown (Possibly ran before birth.) *Watcher born into a poor family * Mother married a Meadow Folk * He was highly abusive * Mother ran away as well to start a new life, leaving the watcher with his/her stepfather * Watcher finds comfort in nature * Observing nature, Watcher sees what they think is a sign from Galawain himself ; A weak small rabbit, teared apart by a much bigger, stronger bear. * Watcher gets angry and picks up the first weapon they could find, killing their stepfather with it * Watcher skips town, and bands together with similar brutes, becomes a raider * Wacther 'falls in love', or rather, into an obsession with a woman/man who doesn't feel the same way. Watcher can't take a hint though. * After they had to disband, the watcher journeys to Gilded Vail, where she/he plans to make a fortune. (As they were always poor, and the watcher craves money, besides blood.) COMPANION FATES: Diminished their fate in gods, make them chose their own paths, and believe in their own strength. IF ORLAN BABY KEPT (VELLA): Raises her to be a brutal warrior, strong and skilled, all while being protective of her and caring in her own (impaired lol) way. PAST LIFE TRAITS: Massive coward and liar. Betrays Iovara because he/she was scared of what the Grand Inquisitor may do to him or her. PAST LIFE IOVARA RELATION: Iovara loved the Watcher, and the Watcher loved her back. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Chained Mind Hunter (SLAVE watcher, Cipher.) AGE IN PoE1:25 RACE: Wood Elf CULTURE: Aydir PERSONALITY: Rational, Stoic, Diplomatic TRAITS: Thinks before he or she speaks, is as submissive as a slave would be (at the begging anyway), mysterious and has a thirst for freedom, and fear of going back into chains. IQ (LOGICAL): Average IQ (EMOTIONAL): Genius ORIENTATION: Heterosexual -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Skean's Faithful (SCHOOLAR watcher, Priest of Skean/Wizard) AGE IN PoE1: 18 RACE: Pale Elf CULTURE: Aedyr PERSONALITY: Diplomatic, Deceptive, Cruel. TRAITS: Secret hatred (especially of those who were and are far more well of then her), acts nice enough (diplomatic), when given the chance to sacrifice a companion for her own gain (without anyone knowing about it), she'd always accept. IQ (LOGICAL): Above Average IQ (EMOTIONAL):Average ORIENTATION: Heterosexual Other: Was expelled from arcane school for breaking rules. Has Cruel at at least (3) and sides with Skean at the end. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5 Unfaithful Teacher (PHILOSOPHER watcher, Chanter.) AGE IN PoE1: 28 RACE: Ocean Folk CULTURE: Ixamitl Plains PERSONALITY: Passionate, Diplomatic, Deceptive IQ (LOGICAL): Above Average IQ (EMOTIONAL): Above Average ORIENTATION: Bisexual Other: Was a teacher who cheated on her/his wife or husband. For the second time that she (or he) was caught wise of. This was the last time the Watcher's spouse would deal with it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. Con Artist (DRIFTER watcher, Cipher) AGE IN PoE1: 22 RACE: Moon Goodlike CULTURE: Old Vaillia PERSONALITY: Deceptive, Diplomatic, Clever TRAITS: he/she lies so much they don't even know when they themselves are telling the truth. Also, 'trust no one' is this watcher's mentality. IQ (LOGICAL): High Above Average IQ (EMOTIONAL): High Above Average ORIENTATION: Bisexual Other: A swindler who goes to one place to the next, selling plain rocks coloured in blue and white calling them 'moon rocks', makes people believe they bring good luck, as does the moon godlike him/herself. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7. Orphan Hero (DRIFTER watcher, Rogue.) AGE IN PoE1:18 RACE: Meadow Folk PERSONALITY: Benevolent, Stoic, Clever. TRAITS:Kinda shy to speak up at first, a coward at first, becomes a true hero by the end. (good kind) IQ (LOGICAL): Average IQ (EMOTIONAL): Above Average ORIENTATION: Homosexual BACKGROUND CHOICE: Drifter, orphan, who never found a place to call home. PAST LIFE IOVARA RELATION: Lover who never loved back. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8. Brawler (Dissident watcher, Monk/Fighter.) AGE IN PoE1: 23 RACE: Boreal Dwarf PERSONALITY: Aggressive, Clever, Passionate. IQ (LOGICAL): Below Average IQ (EMOTIONAL): Below Average ORIENTATION: Heterosexual Other: He (or she) served jail time for killing a man in a drunken bar fight. This watcher loves to pick fights, never shying away from a good brawl. He or she has a vulgar sense of humour. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Let's pretend for a while that we aren't grown-a** adults, and play a 'who would you be in a fantasy world' like game. Make the stats reflect you, add or remove as many as you'd like! 10 always means you're 'average' however. And 20 is the highest score! Choice of stats; Might: How strong you are, physically. Constitution: How endured you when something hits you + how long you last (I mean...stamina....yeah...) Dexterity: Balance, Reflex and quickness. Perception: How well you notice things, how quick you catch someone in a lie etc. The good stuff! Intelligence: Logical IQ pretty much. While perception is more of an emotional IQ. Reasoning, logical thing etc. Resolve: Bravery, emotional intensity etc. Besides the stats, also chose which race fits you most, which background/job (it doesn't have to be in the game) you have or had (you can twist it into a more fantasy setting like work though, if your job doesn't fit in. If you want!!) and also, chose your Deadfire bonuses; Diplomacy, Intimidate, Religion (lore) History (lore) etc. As well as your personality which fits into PoE word; Clever, Honest, Deceptive, Stoic etc. Here's mine; NAME: Tanja RACE: Wood Elf CLASS: Chipher STATS: MIGHT: 8 CONSTITUTION: 6 DEXTERITY: 10 PERCEPTION: 20 INTELLIGENCE: 12 RESOLVE: 15 BACKGROUND: Artist/Writer BONUSES: +3 insight (Check list here: https://pillarsofeternity2.wiki.fextralife.com/Skills)and add which one/s apply to you most! (Also, kinda makes more sense for a Chipher if I may comment, LOL.) PERSONALITY/DISPOSITION: (5 is the highest you can go...0 means...well...0!) Clever: 5 (As in...witty and funny and irrelevant xDDD) Passionate: 4 Honest: 3 Benevolent: 2 Aggressive: 1 Deceptive: 1 Diplomatic: 1 Stoic: 0-1 (Very rare for me) Cruel: 0-1 Rational: 0-1 (Lol) .....What about you? xDDD

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.

1. Developers, can you share information on the backgrounds and cultures that will be in the Pillars of Eternity 2? We can assume that all the variants from the first part will remain ... But will there be new options? 2. I would also like to touch on the backgrounds of the companions. When will you reveal this terrible secret? Eder - Farmer; Aloth - Gentry; Pallegina - Soldier; Maia Rua - ?!? Xoti - ?!? (Farmer?) Serafen - ?!? (Raider, Slave or Pirate?) ? ? ? ? ?

Hi, first of all thanks for this amazing game to the developers My problem is that all the backgrounds in scenario are now in complete darkness. I was previously gaming in non-connected mode and all worked perfectly, but I finally buyed the Valeros pack to enjoy this fantastic game. My smartphone is a Huawei Mate 9, Android 7.0 mali GPU Images:

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)

The FoW interferes so much with the background art. The difference is night and day...almost literally: WITH FOG NO FOG Yes, there's that unsatisfactory "nofog" command, which also clears the unexplored fog, needs to be re-entered all the time and also disables steam achievements...

I am curious if the 2D backgrounds will be finalised (pre-rendered + touched + post-processed) in a single high resolution and then downscaled either by the engine or come pre-downscaled by Obsidian for lower resolutions OR, finalised in several for a range of resolutions. Surely, this being 2012 and the limitations of IE games being apparent now (namely the resolution inflexibility), I thought perhaps they would opt for a more compatible and maybe even future-proof method than locking the scenes to a single resolution for everyone, regardless of their choice of (or their monitors') resolutions, kind of as though the game were entirely 3D. It would only be common sense at this age. For those wondering, some of the theoretical differences between various methods would be: (0) 2D backgrounds or scenes are made in 3D and then pre-rendered to 2D with best lighting and other effects, then the 2D image is shopped and likely post-processed (in-game effects) for the best result. This is how the backgrounds in all Infinity Engine games were made. They are not 2D artworks as in hand-painted but 3D scenes pre-rendered to 2D images and processed. (1) 2D scenes finalised in a single high resolution and then downscaled by the engine for lower resolutions. + Least amount of work for Obsidian + Smaller file size to download / to ship in discs - High resolution images potential (and very likely) memory hogs, especially for older or low end systems - Quality of downscaling dependent on a number of things (system configuration, drivers) - Loss of detail due to downscaling (2) 2D scenes finalised in a single high resolution and then downscaled by Obsidian for a range of resolutions. + Still reasonably low amount of work for Obsidian + Consistent image quality per resolution across systems + Theoretically the best performance per resolution - Much larger file size to download / to ship in discs - Loss of detail due to downscaling (3) 2D scenes finalised for a range of resolutions + Best image quality per resolution possible + Theoretically the best performance per resolution - Much larger file size to download / to ship in discs - More work for Obsidian (though I'm not certain just how much more: it might be as simple as using presets to do all the adjustments, except several times per resolution, or maybe not) I would just like to know what Obsidian has planned regarding this. And onto my second related subject: I was wondering how feasible it would be for Obsidian to give us an option to rotate the scenes by 90°, essentially meaning that every scene or location would have to be pre-rendered and post-processed four times to get four 2D images of it which we could then quickly switch between to get the best view to our liking. Apart from the budget/time cost of the procedure itself, I believe that the actual scene data itself would be pretty easy to adapt because essentially, they will already be creating 3D scenes (Unity 3D Engine + 3D models for characters) with just the 2D backgrounds and the necessary graphical features to blend the two aesthetically. So basically, I'm just asking: is this something you at Obsidian have ever considered or are still considering? It would only enhance the game, you know, freeing you of the limitations of locked-view and after all, anyone who has played any IE game has to have, at some point, bitched about obstructions. They did this in Commandos 2 & 3 (both 2D games) to great effect. See it in practice: More: As for the toll it would take on Obsidian; take everything I said above about resolutions and multiply it by four. But it would be swell if they did this.

There's been some discussion of how some players prefer a game where it is possible to make bad character design decisions. Given that the game is being designed to avoid bad builds, would it make sense to add optional background picks that deliberately create an unbalanced character? For example, a background pick that starts with the PC receiving an initially negative reception from some key factions, but the pick is partly rewarded by gaining a specific bonus talent.

I don't actually make it a habit to playing games through multiple times, but like many of you when I do so I try some things differently the second time around. However, the issue I often run into is that there is a latency period at the beginning of the game before my character has had the chance to make any choices, or at least before those choices have had a chance to affect the gameplay experience. Even if later on in the game's trajectory a lot of differences do come into play, the beginning of successive playthroughs always seems to feel the most repetitive part and skipping through the same exposition cutscenes becomes a chore. Thus I wonder whether people could see the main character's backstory being customizable in the manner described in this thread, or if it's something that people feel is out of PE's scope or is undesirable regardless. Given the amount of effort being put into PE's setting, and the fact that it features multiple races, I thought it would be cool if certain elements of your character's background could even affect your character's starting location. The first objective could still be "report to large city X" or whatever it is, but this would definitely add a lot more variety in the game, as long as we were willing to part with a bit of linearity. I realize that this may interfere slightly if most locations are designed around relevance to specific quests that you're not supposed to reach until later in the game, but one would hope that there are at least enough self-justifying locations that a handful of them could be used as starting locations.