Search the Community

Hello all, I know this has been asked before but I haven't been able to find a solution yet. I tried fixing it myself by removing the ability (soul_whip) from the character and adding it again through console commands, I tried tweaking my graphics card settings and the game graphic options but it didn't work. The one time I managed to make it work was by removing the "Assembly-CSharp.dll" file from the managed folder on the installation directory and replacing my save files, it took a little longer to load up the game but the purple glow worked, I reloaded the same saved game file and my soul whip vfx was gone. So, has anyone been able to fix it? I don't mind tweaking the game everytime I load up my save file or anything, I know it's just a cosmetic problem, but I feel like the purple lash on the cipher weapon means a lot to the roleplaying aspect of being a Cipher, I know some people don't like it, but maybe someone with more knowledge and experience solving bugs could help me out

finding his 'soul', specifically. During his Gamescom presentation Josh mentioned a common complaint of players who were disappointed with PoE because they found its 'soul' to be missing. Josh also comments that 'soul is elusive'. Implying, of course, that players don't actually have a clue of what it is they're missing. So let's help him. For people to be disappointed, there must have been certain expectations. We can assume that these expectations had something to do with the Infinity Engine games. All of these were D&D games, and most were set in the Forgotten Realms. I believe this is already the heart of the matter. As Josh mentioned elsewhere, D&D has always been an uneven rules system, torn between simulationism and gamism. And the Forgotten Realms are a notorious setting; they have been called silly, which they often are, but most of all they strive to be fantastical. Or, as I put it, wacky™. In high fantasy, wacky things always happen. One of the tenets of fantasy is simply to boggle the mind, or at least surprise the recipient. Beings and items show unexpected behaviour or unnatural properties all the time. In his quest to balance the rules and avoid degenerate player behaviour - which is often just making use of these special properties - pretty much everything in the game was streamlined. If you compare e.g. Baldur's Gate 2 with PoE, BG's wackiness is apparent. Its quirky spells, for example, have far more to offer than PoE's samey buff/ debuff/ damage spells. No hard counters means less impressive abilities on enemies. And magical items hardly ever did anything exciting - not even mentioning the fact that you always knew what they did right away. The second blow to the traditional fantasy elements that could have been came from the game's tone; it's clearly trying to be serious. I say trying, because serious fantasy is boring and a dichotomy. My argument here rests on two assumptions: 1) fantasy is always escapist and 2) escapism is not serious business. ​Now, PoE clearly wanted to be darker in tone than the IE games, but dark =/= serious. In many cases, there's nothing sillier than a grimdark setting. So I'd say this in itself wasn't problematic - PoE could have been a dark, but still fantastical game, like its predecessors. What's really problematic is that it takes itself too seriously - and serious and wacky are on opposite sides of the spectrum. As such, this approach was unsuited to a successor of the IE games, or even fantasy RPG's at large. Sentient items, level draining, or raising the dead are more than just mechanics. They reinforce suspension of disbelief by being tied to the numbers. And I don't care if these are old, tired examples - Obs' job would it have been to make it better, not to simply avoid all this stuff.

So, some thoughts on mortality. I've never played DnD but I've read some stuff and played some stuff. Some slight research and understanding, got some friends who has played it too. -10 That would be a really cool feature. Life is ticking away, you've been maimed. But instead of the Mortality being what is "going away", it could be the "Soul". When it hits 0, it obviously kills the character, and during this time you could heal your character. What I understand this is kind of a "Death" Counter, starting with 10 then, -9, -8, -7, -6 etc. etc. Doesn't necessarily have to be 10, could be lesser. Maybe... -5? -4 It could be part of difficulty, you get "less" or more "counters" depending on difficulty, giving you lesser time to "stabilize" the character. At "Stabilized" the character shouldn't be able to fight (maimed, starts at 0 stamina). -3 Could you use some unique "Soul" abilities in this state at the cost of 1 death counter or more? -2 Not anything powerful, of course, and no "Second Wind" abilities either (Like Borderlands) but more "chilled" (Maybe the soul of a maimed character can "heal stamina" at some weak rate or distract enemies somehow. -1 *stabilizes* Sorry "To Stabilize", what would be required? A shot of some powerful stuff, a potion? A hard beating on the chest to not stop the heart? Bandage? Magic? What would be required to become de-stabilized? Thoughts?

Greetings, I'm a long time lurker but a first time poster on this forum (or any other forum for that matter xD). Anyway indroductions aside the reason I'm making this post is I wish to discuss equipment and souls in PE. Since in this game souls will have a strong connection with the world I was thinking that it could be for equipment as well. That got me thinking in what other fantasy universe other the IE games have i seen souls connected with equipment and 2 universes poped into my mind. The first is an Anime called Bleach and the second is the King's Bounty games. This is a copy paste from a wiki regarding the weapons in question from the anime: The Zanpakutō of low-ranking Shinigami are called Asauchi and don't have names, but the Zanpakutō of Shinigami of rank have names. In its sealed state, a Zanpakutō has the form of a Japanese sword. Such weapons are unique swords generated from their owners souls. Its shape differs depending on its owner. Zanpakutō are the trademark weapons of the Shinigami. Capable of cutting spiritual bodies, they are amongst the few weapons which can be used to combat Hollows. Each Shinigami carries a Zanpakutō, and each Zanpakutō is unique: as the swords are both reflections of a Shinigami's soul and power, and sentient beings unto themselves. The Zanpakutō's name is also the name of the living spirit that empowers the sword and lends its strength to the Shinigami who wields it. These beings can vary greatly in appearance and have their own distinct personalities which match their owner's. A Zanpakutō's shape and abilities are based on their Shinigami's soul. Once a Shinigami learns his/her sword's name, they are able to communicate with one another and grow stronger together. Zanpakutō are born with their Shinigami and they die along with their Shinigami. Shinigami use them in battle as a reflection of their heart. When released, they can display a vibrant power. They are one with the Shinigami, and they share a Shinigami's conviction. Inside each Zanpakuto is an incarnation that manifests itself upon the Zanpakuto's transformation. The first step is to acquaint oneself with this incarnation. Normally, the Zanpakutō spirit can only be seen by its wielder. Otherwise, they dwell in their own "inner world", created within the minds of the Shinigami who wield them. As such, each Shinigami's inner world is drastically different from another Shinigami's and is unique to themselves. A Zanpakutō's spirit can bring its wielder into its inner world, though Shinigami can voluntarily achieve this simply by meditation. And in the second one you as a character pick up various gear in the game and some of them have the ability to be upgraded by fighting the keepers of the weapon, which takes you and your army in a pocket dimension which exists within the weapon. After a successful battle the weapon becomes stronger but the weapons also have morale not just these but other powerful weapons and have an allegiance to a certain race and if you keep killing that specific race the weapon will rebel and you will be forced to subdue it with force. That got me thinking into some game mechanics in rpg that are just tedious a boring for me personally and that is having to go to the city, village, trade outpost to sell your junk loot. So I was thinking instead of every enemy dropping the same axe, sword, shield, armor etc.. only a few items will be dropped and those will be magical items which react to the soul of the user. So for example you fight a group of 5 bandits instead of getting the loot of the likes 3 bows, 3 quivers, 3 leather armors, 2 long swords, 2 plate mails and gold you would get a sword hilt, bow string and gold. Now you’re asking yourself what use is a sword hilt and bowstring to you, well what if those 2 items are attuned to react to someone with a strong soul and materializes into a full weapon when held by such character (could also be an explanation why you can carry more then a few items and not be encumbered). My idea is that the main character, your companions, powerful allies and powerful enemies would all have some sort entity which resides inside them as a manifestation of their soul and each would have something special about their abilities. Now for enemies or allies it will serve mostly to give them unique flavor but for your party it could mean much more. For example you could have a special leveling for your character and for your manifestation and leveling it as in you would have to face certain trials within your own soul that could vary from puzzles, deep philosophical debates or just plain old hack and slash and this could be completed alone or maybe in special circumstances with another party member. Now this could just be a mechanic for the main character and it would be done in the background for your other companions or it could be fully fleshed for them as well since I think I would make a great way to tell their story. Also to provide an explanation why enemies don’t drop more gear it could be said that normal materials can’t withstand the force of souls based weapons/powers and are destroyed in combat. Now on top of all that we could also add in normal intelligent weapons which would be an individual’s soul trapped in a weapon. This could also make a great story mechanic in which the weapon argues with your manifestation over various things and drives you insane or maybe he doesn’t like you killing those gnomes and goes berserk on you and you have to pacify it xD Also by adopting this mechanic it would be possible for players to use weapons or armor which they like and not just what has the best stats or in some cases you just can’t find that spear, katana, bastard sword you specialized in because you can’t find any or they are only low level weapons and unusable due to combat difficulty on higher levels. To prevent wielding the same weapon and armor the entire game limits could be put on weapons on how much of your soul the items can withstand and would need be either upgraded or replaced with a better version of said weapon, armor etc.. from the latest baddie you killed. So that’s it I hope I didn’t wall of text you too much. Would love to hear some input on the subject maybe some different ideas or something similar you liked somewhere else and would like to see in some way or form in this game xD

While it's becoming clear that souls will play a major part of the plot. It makes sense to make some research how our view of souls have shifted through the early stages of philosophy. i found this great link about the ancient theories of soul . To see our perception shifting through some trade-off between life and dead to the three aspect view from Plato was quite interesting.

I hope that our soul is not just a mere plotdevice and that it has a significant impact on gameplay mechanics. I think it has potential to offer a complete unique gaming experince. The perspective our devs have i hope is more on line with P:T and MotB. My thoughts about a "Soul" progression starts with "Soul Aspects" and a "Soul Map" Like this there could be beacons to show you on which path your soul is wandering. Imagine this, You start at the center of the "Journey" your soul takes Your actions, how you treat, talk to other NPC's in regard of those aspects will move your soul in the related areas. How near your soul moves to those aspects will grant your character bonuses even extra attributes. (Each aspect should reward you in some way) The NPC's would probably react to your "soul" some positive , some negative . It would depend on the NPC's character The downside is, this kind of a system renders alignment selection obselete, since you are determining who you are through your actions. Is this kind of a system a good idea? Would you like to see something like this? If yes, what Aspects and bonuses would you like to see?

Thinking about the unanswered question we've been pitched as important to the early lore, the nature of the soul, I run into a conundrum. There are gods. These gods occasionally intervene\fere with mortal affairs according to the devs. Religions and cultures have their own ideas about the cycle of souls and, presumably, worship their own god(s). Why can't a god just tell them how it is? Obviously they're going to want to spin it their way or maybe even outright lie, but wouldn't the cosmic being that came out with "the truth" be the most popular? I can think of lots of ways to write around that, but in brain storming I came up with one particularly appealing idea. Re-wind from the Age of Sail P:E is geared up to be in, take us to the days where men and mer were in loincloths and bludgeoned to death what they ate. As they transition from this to agricultural river valley societies, gods are developed without concrete "proof" of existence like we find in many fantasy RPGs for the same sociological reasons they appeared on Earth (the exacts of which are up for debate and I don't want to light that fire here, not the point). They worship, build altars\temples/mazes, and perhaps even sacrifice for them. When these followers die, their souls enter this soul cycle and their soul is a reflection of their beliefs. Everyone who worshiped that same god in life's soul conglomerates and melds, some to a great metaphysical degree and some only tangentially, and then that's when the fantasy RPG gods come in-- they remember to a degree where their living selves had been, and the god is connected to those places and more highly aware and powerful in them. But souls don't stay out of bodies forever in P:E; they come back. Eventually, parts of the god will fall away and return to the cycle-- perhaps as their own worshipers if they have some control over the process or perhaps not. New souls will come in, and the old ones may leave residue or splinters of themselves behind that bolster the power of the god a slight bit and leave a reminder of that worshiper who was greatly attached to this meta-god. Here having worshipers whose souls stay out of the living realm is an advantage, but may also be disadvantageous. The god might be able to send out Godlike races with a powerful soul of one of the devote (now de-individuated as part of the god and re-individuated when born into a body) as prophets to spread their religion where ever they are born, creating the stereotype of Godlike as prophets or holy peoples. But over time, souls will filter in and out and the people worshiping will change with the ebb and flow of ideas through generations: one example could be a fertility goddess. The fertility goddess starts out in the early days as someone invoked for crops to grow and children and mothers to survive child birth in a dangerous time. This goddess is a protective, agricultural figure and her representation and worship would reflect this. Perhaps live stock are sacrificed to her. Could be animal or have animal traits. Hundreds of years pass, and leaders become concerned with producing copious competent issue, perhaps of a particular gender. Here the fertility goddess becomes less about the good of an entire society and more about the good of a ruler. They'd still be invoked for childbirth and harvests, certainly, but gradually their focus would broaden or shift greatly towards this other idea. The souls that die and go to join the meta-god hold these concepts in their consciousnesses and it becomes an element of the celestial being more and more over time. Perhaps the goddess is even perceived as or obtains a male persona, a figure whose seed insures strong children. Probably more human than the original incarnation, but whatever the goddess was before is still a part of him\her now-- those shards of souls left behind are still there, melded together, although slowly over thousands of years they may blend with the others not exactly the same but similar to them. Hundreds of more years pass, and the time's a bit more Elizabethan or perhaps Victorian. The fertility goddess has become a sex symbol in an increasingly radical and free thinking society; concepts of having strong young and marriage, while still present and unmoving parts of society, are not as fervently felt as lust and desire. Agriculture is an after thought or perhaps gone from the mortal perception of the goddess while still a part of her repertoire and to some degree under her power. People now implore her for virility and stamina in less-than-living room appropriate ways, and prayers that they might seduce or be seduced become more commonplace (although to say they had not always existed and been a part of some of the souls going to the goddess would be silly). By the period P:E starts, the goddess would have become a sex symbol to some degree but still associated with children having/rearing-- which could create different sects or separate places of worship to celebrate the different "aspects" of this god, who could have two personas or fill her own pantheon depending on which way the society trended. This goddess would likely co-exist in a society with others, so the souls going just to her in the aforementioned period would likely be very interested in the sexual side of things. Rites of the flesh and acts of sodomy could be used to revere her in cults that members of the upper echelon discretely participate in while hymns and donations to hospitals might be the public, more popular and cross-class form of celebrating this deity. Conversing and interacting with this goddess would be something else entirely-- a composite being of all these ideas and desires, who perhaps the PC themselves was once a part of, with many interlaced agendas and worshipers spread throughout their decision making process on what to tell the PC and what to ask of them. One interesting idea could be a quest to gain an audience with a high ranking member of this goddess's following. One route could be just making their way into the temple through sneaking, breaking-and-entering, or teleportation magic-- but each of these would be icky and they're not likely to remember a PC who did this fondly or offer them much in the way of help. Another route would be gaining favor with the goddess. There could be three routes: helping discreetly deliver an "enhancement" to a ruler to help them impregnate (or be impregnated by) their spouse, either of which is a devotee of the goddess. Another would be aiding the priest/esses of the goddess in a way not necessarily related to the goddess but which would help further the goal of spreading the faith or maintaining the faithful's position in society. Lastly, you could gain entrance by some means into the secluded soirees of the rich and influential persons who are devoted to the goddess. I'm not saying get yourself involved in an orgy, but perhaps deliver the "enhancement" to them instead of the ruler to win you the affection of some of her most carnal worshipers rather than an under-performing ruler. Also: that horrible supernatural event? What about the PC witnessing the death of a god? Imagine in ethereal cries of pain as a hundred thousand souls implode and then rip outwards with the very fabric of their celestial being dismembered and scattered across the world and possibly various planes. Seems to me like a Watcher might be someone who a god/council of gods deputized, who'd seen this and was privy to their nature, to safeguard that knowledge and chase after the Godkiller or Godkilling utility-- knowledge, weapon, rite, whatever. In conclusion, I think interweaving the concept of gods and souls should be very important regardless of religion's role in the game ((which I think should be significant but isn't absolutely necessary for this idea to be present, it just seems like something that's worth persuing)). [so please don't merge this thread, it's different]. If this were how they did it, how do you think the particulars with souls/splinting c\should work out? Should the player ever really know, should there be context clues that they can extrapolate arguments from but which in the end leave the argument largely in the air?

Any RPG has its fair share of quests. Themes include: . Progresing the main story line; . Increasing your status in a guild; . Helping an NPC find something they've lost; . Killing on contract; . etc What sort of quests are you looking for in Project Eternity? Would you like to play soul quests, ones that take place in the ethereal realm with your soul and a projection of your physical self, or a projection of whatever was occupying your PC's mind? Personally I prefer quests that make me think. Ones that put my character in a position where the choice I make changes the evolution of the story. Soul quests also intrigue me because in the ethereal realm physical strength is less relevant. Soul quests may provide an opporunity to engage with the god-like (or gods even) in Project Eternity.