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Dev Stream on Thursday 7/12/18 at 11 AM PDT with Alex Scokel!


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I kind of agree, it feels a bit cheap and railroady. It's like the overall narrative is putting the gun to the player's head and asks to comply with the story or else.

Given that this is deliberately a Q&A section, I might as well turn in into an official question - if I may.

Mr Scokel - what in your opinion is a good way to organically motivate the player to follow the narrative you prepared for them, so that it doesn't feel like railroading? ("I have to do this story bit" vs "I want to do this story bit"). What sort of narrative difficulties you face provided that unlike in tabletop, the story in cRPG needs to be pretty much universal, and cannot be changed "on the fly" - yet the player character can be virtually anyone?

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I kind of agree if feels a bit cheap and railroady. It's like the overall narrative is putting the gun to the player's head and asks to comply with the story or else.

Given that this is deliberately a Q&A section, I might as well turn in into an official question - if I may.

Mr Scokel - what in your opinion is a good way to organically motivate the player to follow the narrative you prepared for them, so that it doesn't feel like railroading? What sort of narrative difficulties you face provided that unlike in tabletop, the story in cRPG needs to be pretty much universal, and cannot be changed "on the fly" - yet the player character can be virtually anyone?

They bought the game, presumably, knowing that it wasn't a full on theme park "do whatever" type game; that should be reason enough to start the story. Finishing it is entirely up to the player, which is tangentially related to how well written the story is. Most narratives in cRPGs are railroaded by the content available for the player, if they don't advance the story, they don't get content. It's different in the ever popular ThemePark "RPG's" of certain developers because the story isn't the main feature, it's just tacked on for the people that care, and it shows.

 

The narrative changes are related to disposition, which while great, is not an entirely perfect system since people are rarely always

One/a couple of Cruel, Aggresive, Benevolent, Diplomatic, Clever, Passionate, Rational, or Stoic; but a mix of any of them depending on the situation. It is entirely possible for a player to end up with a smattering of dispositions which end up creating reactivity that the player does not agree with for the character. Paladins are exempt since they essentially have to be their approved dispositions.

 

But what do I know, I'm just some rambling recluse on the internet.

 

As for the questions:

 

Will we ever receive new portraits for our created characters?

 

If not, will more customization options be added that matches the portraits we do have?

 

Obsessive Compulsive minds would like to know.

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This is touching on what someone said earlier :

 

What happens to the souls when luminous adra is mined? Are they dispersed? Are they destroyed when mined or when the adra is used? I got the vibe that the soul's energy is being used.

 

What happens if

 

Xoti releases her souls to the animancers at the Sacred Stair? When they are testing theories and whatnot, are those souls destroyed? If not, what happens to them?

 

 

My apologies if this has been answered in the games! I might have missed or forgotten something.

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Thank you guys for the dev stream! I've never seen a developer do one of those before, it was cool to listen to.

 

Also, Serafen is a fantastic character for a ton of reasons and I love the whole conversation and moment he gives you the spiffy captain hat.

 

Also, the bit about Dragon Age : Origins : "I could write that. Sorry Bioware." Ha

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I kind of agree, it feels a bit cheap and railroady. It's like the overall narrative is putting the gun to the player's head and asks to comply with the story or else.

Given that this is deliberately a Q&A section, I might as well turn in into an official question - if I may.

Mr Scokel - what in your opinion is a good way to organically motivate the player to follow the narrative you prepared for them, so that it doesn't feel like railroading? ("I have to do this story bit" vs "I want to do this story bit"). What sort of narrative difficulties you face provided that unlike in tabletop, the story in cRPG needs to be pretty much universal, and cannot be changed "on the fly" - yet the player character can be virtually anyone?

people complained that PoE1 wasn't railroady enough, so this is what you get

 

 

EDIT: Missed the party, but have a question just in case the devs are still reading this thread: will the DLC adventure add ending slides to the main game like White March did in PoE1? This may have been answered in the stream, but I can't watch for a couple of hours

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I kind of agree, it feels a bit cheap and railroady. It's like the overall narrative is putting the gun to the player's head and asks to comply with the story or else.

Given that this is deliberately a Q&A section, I might as well turn in into an official question - if I may.

Mr Scokel - what in your opinion is a good way to organically motivate the player to follow the narrative you prepared for them, so that it doesn't feel like railroading? ("I have to do this story bit" vs "I want to do this story bit"). What sort of narrative difficulties you face provided that unlike in tabletop, the story in cRPG needs to be pretty much universal, and cannot be changed "on the fly" - yet the player character can be virtually anyone?

people complained that PoE1 wasn't railroady enough, so this is what you get

 

 

EDIT: Missed the party, but have a question just in case the devs are still reading this thread: will the DLC adventure add ending slides to the main game like White March did in PoE1? This may have been answered in the stream, but I can't watch for a couple of hours

I can help with this!

Going off memory, but they did mention the DLC would add new ending slides. Also, as of now, there will be no changes to the main story's ending choices.

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Could someone tell here what important things Alex said without spoil the story?

 

My english level is low and I can't understand the majority of phrases.

 

Thanks in advance.

The stream was aggressively spoiler free until the end, which was where they showed the DLC.

 

I can help try to list points if someone doesn't soon - I can't right now because I'm on the phone and it would be painful.

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Did somebody write down their talk?

I am not a native english speaker, there are no subtitles and the gaming in the background distracts me from listening.

If I have time, I'll make a transcript. I don't know of anyone else making one.

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Mr Scokel - what in your opinion is a good way to organically motivate the player to follow the narrative you prepared for them, so that it doesn't feel like railroading? ("I have to do this story bit" vs "I want to do this story bit"). What sort of narrative difficulties you face provided that unlike in tabletop, the story in cRPG needs to be pretty much universal, and cannot be changed "on the fly" - yet the player character can be virtually anyone?

 

 

I can't speak to why the reasons to structure base game the way it was structured were made - they were before my time. 

 

As for the quoted bit, this is the million dollar question, right? Though, for one, the player character can't be virtually anyone - we can't support that. The player of PoE and Deadfire always takes on the role of the Watcher. That character can be a lot of different things, but they are ultimately always a Watcher, they always have arrived in the Dyrwood from a foreign land, and they always claim Caed Nua, to name a few things.

 

(It's worth noting that I put limitations on tabletop characters, too. (And my guess is that most DMs do, whether it's in the races the characters can be from, the classes they can take, or where they can come from in the world.) My most successful tabletop games have had pretty tight restrictions on character creation. A Mage game that I ran for five years required all of the players be college students who were friends at the same school in Chicago, for example. Providing that tight guidance helps the player understand the type of game they're getting into and the kinds of challenges they can expect to experience.)

 

So the question is, how do you make that character's journey and goals as compelling as possible to as many people as possible? (Because pleasing everyone is somewhere between incredibly difficult and impossible.) I'd argue that you should present goals that are specific enough to inspire investment while universal enough to apply to as many people as possible. That's why hooking things on family can be problematic - the quest to save your child may not resonate strongly with people who don't have children or don't want them.

 

It may actually be more important to avoid alienating people than to net as many as possible. Generally players come to the table wanting to play.

 

And ultimately mileage varies. I love New Vegas, but the initial critical path (find Benny) didn't really grip me. I was just excited to explore and learn about the characters. But by the time that game's ultimate showdown came around, I was invested in the region itself, and the communities I'd impacted along the way. 

 

I do think that it's also worthwhile to provide multiple motivations. Give the player several reasons to want to do something, and you're more likely to hook them than if you only provide one.

 

 

As for the questions:

 

Will we ever receive new portraits for our created characters?

 

If not, will more customization options be added that matches the portraits we do have?

 

Obsessive Compulsive minds would like to know.

 

 

It wouldn't surprise me if new portraits crop up down the road, but I'm not the person to ask. I do think that there are a lot of options for portraits out there in the world, from fan-made portrait packs to commissions.

 

I don't think, however, that the goal of the concept artists (and I'm not one, so take this with a big old saltlick of salt) is to reflect only those traits available in the character creator.

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Question related to Lore and Narrative Design: after the game was released, many questions sprung up regarding the nature of the Wheel. Josh publicly responded that some exposition was cut for feel, and while none of the internal testers missed it, many of the players felt that it left a gap. Is there a plan to reintroduce some of what was cut via DLC or in a sequel? If not, could someone fill us in?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

Can you give me more specific questions re: the Wheel?

 

I can't say we definitely won't reintroduce what was cut, but I don't think it's our highest priority, either.

 

Lore question:

 

When we reach Ukaizo we see 11 alcoves which supposedly contain the gods’ physical bodies. 3 are missing and we assume Abydon’s one of them since we saw his skeleton in White March. Who are the other two missing bodies?

 

 

Other question: How many chances for a Modwyr banter pack free DLC? It would be great for the sword to banter with companions and perhaps interject in some conversations like companions do.

 

I answered your spoiler question on stream, kind of, which was basically "we did it for a reason."

 

As for Modwyr, I'd say greater than zero but far from certain. It would be pretty expensive. (Banters are pretty expensive.)

 

My two lore questions (hope it's not too greedy))):

 

2. You gave us the opportunity to romance some characters from first game, but not all. That means, that our relations can really transform and go further. Will we be able to develop our relations with other old charaters in future (may be in POE 3))?

 

Never say never.

 

I imagine that if characters return, we'll want to allow for a development of the player's relationship with them (not that that necessarily means a romantic relationship). But we're also not going to bring back old characters solely to advance the player character's relationships with them.

 

While we're at, and I really hope you could answer this: Is Eric Fenstermaker going to write Edér for the DLCs too? If not, who's writing him?

 

Eric's not currently working on the DLCs. Beast of Winter Eder is a combined effort of Paul and Josh. Josh wrote a bit of Eder in Deadfire, too, so he's no stranger to the character.

 

Okay, I have a few questions:

 

2. If you were planning to do a third game, then would the relationships with possibly returning companions be continued in it?

4. Is there a possibility that a (possible) new companion from story dlc will have a spot for a deeper (romantic) relationship with our Watcher?

 

2. If companions returned, probably.

 

I know that's a foggy answer, but there's a lot of maybes in game dev. Certainly that's something I'd be interested in.

 

4. Never say never.

 

But there are a lot of challenges to making that kind of content, especially in a tightly-focused DLC experience.

 

three question for companion and main quest

 

2.  Will there more active dialogue and personal quest for non-dlc companion in DLC ? For example,I can continue search the answer about why Woden(Eder's brother) join St. Waidwen, since there is many readceran in Deadfire, so maybe there is someone know about him.

 

 

There will be no new companion quests, but there will be further companion content. Eder, in particular, is well worth taking along for Beast of Winter.

 

As is a certain pale elf.

 

Will we ever see an in-game representation of a map of Eora? (For example, one made by Vailians or something, with all its inaccuracies). Also could you confirm if the map seen on a hazatoha table represents Eora or a smaller region?

 

I'm willing to confirm that the map on the board game table is of part of Eora. Or is at least a traditional Rauataian understanding of that portion of Eora.

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Did somebody write down their talk?

I am not a native english speaker, there are no subtitles and the gaming in the background distracts me from listening.

 

 

Sorry for the crazy delay, I don't know if you still even want this. :p  Making a transcript was way more work and time than I would have ever expected.

 

I tried to bold the questions and write down what I heard accurately, while minimizing the speech fillers ("um", "like") and parts where someone would cut off a thought to go to some other one.  

 

 

 

(starting at 10:29)
Aarik: Welcome ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Obsidian Entertainment Twitch stream.  My name is Aarik Dorbela, I am the community manager here at Obsidian.  And I am seated with Alex Scokel -
 
Alex: That is my name.
 
Aarik: - Narrative Designer, for Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire.  Welcome everyone, hoping you’re all having a fantastic morning, afternoon, or evening. But first, we did have a surprise for you guys.  So we are going to show that to you guys, and we’ll be right back, so enjoy.
 
(Best of Winter Teaser.  11:10-11:15 ish)
 
Aarik: There you have it, Beast of Winter, August 2nd! Our first premium DLC, heading straight to you guys.
 
Alex: It’s very metal.
 
Aarik: It is metal. That’s good, I like it. And today we have Andy, who’s going to be driving for us. We’re gonna get a deep dive and talk about narrative design and lore in Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire.  Well, I’m going to have a few questions for Alex:
 
First, Alex, what got you in the game industry?
 
Alex: So I started writing for tabletop games, many many years ago, on White Wolf’s properties. So I started in that space and the tabletop roleplaying space. And eventually, when the recession hit, I hid in grad school, and got my own (phd?) in writing and then came out of that and decided I wanted to get into games.  So I started in Q.A. in video games and worked on some titles that you may or may not have heard of, including BioShock Infinite and Tyranny, which is possibly one of the best games ever made.
 
Aarik: I think I heard about those games.
 
Alex: Tyranny?
 
Aarik: Yeah, maybe.
 
Alex: And then transitioned into narrative design for the Tyranny DLCs and have been doing that since. 
 
Aarik: Excellent. And:
 
Have you always wanted to do narrative design, and what inspired you to get there?
Alex: No, is the answer - the short answer to your question. Like I’ve always wanted to write, I’ve always been writing since I was like, six or something.  And, I didn’t know what form that would take in a professional sense. Like,  I didn’t know if I was going to - like for a while I thought I was going to be in academia, for a while I thought I knew I wanted to write, just, standard prose fiction, for a while I wanted to be a playwright, for a while I wanted to do all those things at the same time. It was probably actually, like I always really liked games that were narratively heavy.  Some of my favorite games from my relative childhood were the - like I think owned almost every JRPG that came out for the Playstation 1.  
 
Aarik: Nice, of course.
 
Alex: But I didn’t think of writing for games as something that was kind of a viable career path, until I - probably until I played Dragon Age: Origins, I think, was the one I was like, “You know, somebody wrote this. I could have written this.” Sorry Bioware. But that’s I think what started me down that path. And when I was in QA, I was actually, like I think I was pretty good at it.  It was something that I enjoyed a lot.  And I think that the things that make a good test person - which are like curiosity, and attention to detail, and a critical eye - like all those things are also what make a person a good writer.  And obviously, narrative design isn’t just writing, it’s got a lot of scripting and making sure that stuff is reactive appropriately, and so there’s a pretty heavy technical end to it.  But if you have run a lot of tabletop games or have experience in tabletop games, that’s just fantastic training for narrative design.
 
Aarik:  DnD.  Helping you write.  So: 
 
As someone who didn’t originally think about getting into narrative design, and then later did, what kind of advice do you have for people who wish to get into narrative design?
 
Alex: Write constantly.  So writing’s a skill, and you’ll improve upon it with like everything you write.  Like if you write long-form stuff, such as a game or a book, you’ll find that by the time you’ve finished, you have improved to a point that you kind of hate stuff that you wrote at the beginning.  You’re already like, “Why did I write that that way?” So if you want to get better at writing, write all the time. And in our current Internet savvy culture, there are a ton of tools that help you practice reactive writing, interactive fiction.  Like get on (clein? klein?), make a (clein? klein?) game. And if you’re trying to get into the industry, having made stuff is one of the foremost things that people look at.  
 
Aarik: Yeah, if you guys turn in your portfolios and resumes with stuff you’ve actually created, you’ll definitely have higher attention than someone who has nothing to show. 
 
Alright, well, let’s see, we’ve got some questions here from the forums, while Andy goes around, and looks like he’s going to steal everything.
 
Alex: Andy what are you - why are you stealing all that stuff?
(Andy says something in the background)
 
Aarik: From Andrea Columbo:
 
Is the Valian process of refining luminous adra effectively destroying the souls therein? If not, is it preventing those souls from passing onto the Beyond and being reincarnated?
 
Alex: Starting with an easy one, then?
 
Aarik: I just - I went to the first page.
 
Alex: I think - that is literally the second page, it says “Page 2/2”.
 
Aarik: Well, page one is just a big graphic -
 
Alex: It’s the last page.
 
Aarik: - It’s just a big graphic of the form I post.
 
Alex: So, to answer that question, is that soul essence lost?  I don’t know.  Certainly there is soul essence in luminous adra, certainly it is being consumed.  Whether that destroys the essence or not, I don’t know for sure.  I think that there is - like that would be a Josh question, not a me question.  
 
Aarik:  Ok.
 
Alex: I think that there is an argument to be made that there would be people that were very unhappy with this being done.  Certainly, like, I don’t think that the VTC’s mining and production of luminous adra was in any shape, form or fashion framed as a positive thing for Eora’s natural cycles.
 
Aarik:  Do you want to answer this next one?  Cause you put a checkmark next to it.
 
Alex: Yeah
 
Aarik: Satnik asks: 
 
What is the origin of the sentient races of Pillars of Eternity? Do they emerge independently or are they some kind of mutations of a previous species?
 
Alex: So, we’re not gonna answer the origin of all life question here, but I do think it’s a really interesting question, and one that I would love to explore in the future.  And one of the things that really intrigues me about the setting is the dubious line between kith and wilder.  The easy answer to that question is, “Well, kith can speak and wilder can’t,” but then you have ogres. What makes an ogre a wilder and not a kith?  So that’s something I would like to look at in future games, or talk about in future games.
 
Aarik: Ok.  Let’s see here.  That one’s a spoilery question.
 
Alex: Which one? Oh yeah, we should probably skip that one.
 
Aarik: Yeah, let’s skip that one.  Sorry Andrea Columbo
 
Alex: But I will say that we might talk about it later.  It may come up in future games. We did it for a reason.
 
Aarik: Ok.  Maleus asks:
 
Is it lore okay to change races or birthplaces between games if you transfer your save?  Can it be explained somehow by some mystery miracle?
 
Alex: Sure! 
 
Aarik: I guess at the end of the day it’s a video game, and if you want to change your character because we introduced multi-classing, I think that’s why we did it.  So you didn’t have to pigeonholed to your first character from Pillars 1, we just wanted to have the option for players to change it up.
 
Alex: We don’t necessitate you to play the same race or the same anything as your character from the first game, even if you’re importing a save.  And you can choose - like we don’t call a lot of attention to it? We don’t call any attention to it, I think, in game.  But if you want to say that, hey, you were killed and your body destroyed, but Berath has put you in this other body, or… The culture one is a little harder to explain but, do you what you want, it’s your character.
 
Aarik: WHW asks:
 
Are there any druids, both individuals and groups, that defy the traditional approach of druids, ergo nature gets special treatment, should be worshipped, or what about druids that study natural energies as a form of science and hoping to understand it and exploit it for the kith?
 
Alex: Sure.  What makes a druid a druid is they are animistic, they’re interfacing with the world in a way that assumes that all things have soul energy within them and that their spells are interface with that soul energy of things in the world.  There’s no reason I can see that a character couldn’t be exploitive in their approach to that?  I think they’d be more aware of what the result of that would be.  I think part of animism is the understanding that all of your - or the belief that all your actions have impact on the world.  And if you’re callous enough to believe that it doesn’t matter what you’re doing.  If you’re like, “I’m going to break this tree down, and it’s gonna have an impact, and I know that, but I’m going to do it anyways,” then that’s the person you are.  And there’s no reason you can’t apply the scientific method to that - in as much as the scientific method functions in a world with magic.
 
Aarik: Oh, and chigen, thank you for that resub.  Again guys, or not again, if you don’t know:  If you subscribe to the Obsidian twitch channel, not only do you get all those sweet emotes, and Josh’s face emote -
 
Alex: The most important one.
 
Aarik:  We don’t keep the money that goes to subscriptions, we actually donate that to the children’s hospital of Orange County.  So if you subbed, you’re helping out the chids.
 
Alex: We do it for the chids.
 
Aarik: Ax Rogel asks:
 
With the Beast of Winter DLC quickly approaching, would you be able to give a few tidbits on the culture and society of pale elves?  How technologically advanced are they? I always found it interesting that you could play a noble from the White that Wends, and how that works lore wise.  Do they have organized society?  Is it something like -
 
- wow, this is a lot of things
 
Alex: I will say - I’m not going to go too deep into this, because we look at the pale elves quite closely in Beasts of Winter.  If you’re curious about what the pale elves are like, then this is definitely the DLC for you.  It examines them quite closely.  The White that Wends is a very large continent, so there’s a lot of different kinds of people there doing different kinds of things.  And by different kinds of people I mean different approaches to the world, most of them are still pale elves.  Though you get other kith species to the north along the coast.  But get Beast of Winter and check it out.  You get to learn more about Rymgand, the way that they follow Rymgand, the way that they organize themselves as cultures, the kind of tensions that exist within their cultures.If you have someone in your party that happens to be a pale elf, she might have ideas or thoughts about it.  
 
Aarik:  
 
Will the DLC expand and improve the main quest, just like Tyranny’s Bastard Wound?
 
Alex: The short answer to that question is no.  We don’t have additional endings the way Bastard’s Wound did.  Bastard’s Wound was kind of responding to a lot of criticism of the ending, and criticism that we agreed with.  So we were trying to make it a stronger experience. So then we don’t necessarily have the same situation with Deadfire?  But there is stuff in the main game that responds to certain decisions within Bastard’s - *laughs* “within Bastard’s Wound” - within Beasts of Winter.  Those are both BW, I just realized that.
 
Aarik: Mmhm, yeah. Interesting.
 
Alex: You know what? All of our DLCs from now on are going to be titled BW.
 
Aarik: Bdubs.  Bdubs 2, Bdubs 3.
 
Alex: They all involved Buffalos and Wings.
 
Aarik: Electric boogaloo.
 
Alex: There is some new content at the very end of the base game that only exists if you do certain things in Beasts of Winter, but I’m going to leave that for all of you to discover.
 
Aarik: Nawazin - you’ll find out later.  Mr Jimmy, oh we just answered yours from Mr Jimmy.  (To Alex) Oh, you want to do that one? Alright Nawazin, Alex wants to ask - or answer your question:
 
Do all deities have their special descendents - godlikes - from their domain?  Mainly interested in Waels or Abydon.
 
Alex: Yes, every deity has godlikes.  We haven’t had any of Abydon’s or Wael’s yet, and I don’t know if we have plans to in the near future.  Godlikes are kind of weird because, the way they’re presented in game is very much a reflection of the limitations of game-making. So there’s not like there is this genasai subrace type thing of nature godlikes.  There are godlikes that are touched by Galawain and they take a bunch of different forms. And they’re pretty rare individuals, so I think Pallegina is the only Hylea godlike we’ve ever seen in the game.  And that’s pretty standard to the number of godlikes that there are in the world, floating about.
 
Aarik: And she is beautiful.
 
Alex: She is wonderful.
 
Aarik: (Responding to Twitch chat, Wintermist:”You do have plans to add more. *Jedi Mind-trick handwave*)
 
I’m having a hard time to resist Wintermist’s jedi mind trick.  You almost got me, Wintermist!
 
Alex: What was the mind trick?
 
Aarik: You know, to add more stuff. Oh, Nawa’s right there in chat! There you go.
 
Alex: Like more godlikes?
 
Aarik: I think so.
 
Alex: I mean we do.
 
Aarik: Yeah.
 
Alex: There will be godlikes.
 
Aarik: It worked! You did it Winter.
 
Alex: My eyes kind of glazed over.
 
Aarik:  Sailor Magran - I love it, must be a member of the church of Durrance. Asks an excellent question:
 
What does the general pipeline for Obsidian's narrative design team look like?  How are stories first conceived of, sketched, populated, and kept tonally consistent between many different writers?
 
Alex: So areas aren’t generally passed along between writers? It’s a bit complicated process, as you would guess for a big complicated game.  A lot of the early design of a space is handled by area, and with the narrative’s input.  And then usually one writer is more or less responsible for any given area.  So for example, Megan Starks did almost all of the writing in Fort Deadlight, except for characters that were specifically related to other quests.  Like I wrote Ciri for example, because she’s all bound up in Serafen’s stuff. But we also worked together and most of us are in the same office a lot of the time, so it’s very easy for us to chat with each other and be like, “Hey, does this work for this situation?” 
 
That was a cool ring.
 
Aarik: That was a sweet ring.
 
Anything that ended up on the cutting room floor that you really liked?
 
Alex: Yes. Always.  So, in Deadfire I did Serafen and I did a rewrite of Serafen, and then I did the random encounters on the world map.  Most of the encounters on the world map.  And one of those is a storm, and originally the storm was like, way too long.  It was three times I think, as many words as what ended up in the game.  And so a lot of the weirder aspects of the storms ended up getting cut, and I really liked some of them, but - womp womp.
Aarik: Sailor Magran coming in again:
 
Any interesting lore that you contributed to the setting?
 
 
Alex: No, I am very boring.  Right Andy?
 
(Andy: No.)
 
Alex: Aw, thanks! 
 
Aarik: Andy disagrees. 
 
Alex:  So I didn’t do a lot of the lore in Deadfire, I was still working on Tyranny when a lot of that groundwork was being laid.  There are little lore tidbits that float around in the world map encounters that I am responsible for, but nothing ground shattering I don’t think.  But, Beasts of Winter has lots of stuff that I drove, but you’ll have to discover it for yourself when you play it.
 
Aarik: And:
 
Which country in Eora do you find the most interesting?
 
Alex: That’s tough. There’s lots of neat ones.  I think the Valian Republics are really cool.  I think Ixamitl? I really am interested in Ixamitl, I’m really interested in exploring Rauatai.  I don’t know when we’ll get to those things, but they are cool little countries.
 
Aarik: (Responding to something in Twitch chat?)  Yes,  I will - Could you go into the options, Andy, and bump up the master volume a little bit?
 
(Andy: Sure)
 
Aarik: Just a little smidge, maybe like five percent. As soon as this sweet cutscene finishes.
 
Alex: Am I too loud? Am I drowning out the...
 
Aarik: No.  
 
(Andy says something in the background)
 
Aarik: Yeah, we’ll see how that works.  Let us know in chat, guys, if that’s enough game audio for you guys.  Alright well that’s all the questions we have from the forums, let’s open up to chat.  Fire away, guys.
 
Alex: You want me to talk about how long BoW is?
 
Aarik: You can give a rough estimate.
 
Alex: I mean, people go through content at wildly different speeds.  Andy goes through really quickly, I go through really slowly.
 
Aarik: That’s because Andy’s a beast.
 
Alex: He is a beast.
 
Aarik: Just like the Beast of Winter.
 
Alex: He’s like the beast of spring.
 
Aarik: He’s a child of summer.
 
Alex: I would say in terms of content, that it is - I think it’s larger? It’s larger than Bastard’s Wound, but not as large as The White March?  If that gives you a sense of how long it would take you to play.
 
Aarik: Any chance of a detective background in future? Well, that sounds pretty rad.  So, maybe. It’s always a possibility.
 
Alex: I think, my suspicion is that we’ll eventually have protagonists who aren’t the watcher, and it’s most likely allow for different backgrounds when that happens, because it’s simpler to keep - like that’s a better spot to change that consistency.
 
Aarik: (Fuve?) races Andy, the Beast of Summer Night.
 
Let’s see:
 
Any plans for tie in novels?  I think that would be rad, if we could have Pillars novels.
 
Alex: I don’t think we have any planned, but we do have plans for other prose-fictiony things that are in the works.  So it’s not like we will not have prose fiction exploration of our setting in the near future.
 
Aarik: 
 
Will the Deadfire DLC’s have ending slides that are presented in the moment you finish it, like the content in New Vegas or Pillars 1?
 
Alex:  Currently, the end slides that are specific to the DLC from Beasts of Winter play among the end slides for the base game.  That may not always be the case, but it’s certainl ywhat fit for this game, or this DLC.
 
(Responding to Gnael: Are there any cultures that dual-wield shields, or were they deemed too cool and powerful for the setting?)
 
*laughs* Dual-wield shields?
 
Aarik: Dual-wield shields.  It is the dream.  I remember in one of my DnD campaigns - not mine, one I partook in - my friend made a dual-wielding tower shield fighter.  It was, quite interesting.  He wasn’t very - he didn’t do much.
 
Alex: You turtle.
 
Aarik: Yeah, I mean, you know.
 
Alex: But no, dual-wielding shields is far too powerful.
 
Aarik: Too strong.
 
Alex: Eora would break beneath the badassness of it.
 
Aarik: The world would shatter.
 
Alex: Wasn’t there a question floating around somewhere in there about writing for DLC versus writing for base games?
 
Aarik: If you did ask that, please mention it again, because I do not have a mouse to scroll.
 
Alex: I think it was in the forums somewhere.
 
Aarik: Was it in the forums?
 
Alex: How many pages in the forums did you miss, Aarik?
 
Aarik: I don’t know!  I printed them out yesterday, so if you had questions today, I apologize.
 
Alex:  So the question is:
 
How is writing for DLC different from writing for base game?
 
Aarik: Oh yeah that one was in there, you’re right.
 
Alex:  Is it on that page??
 
Aarik: No it’s not this page, but I do recall reading that.  Apologies.
 
Alex: Basically the same way that any development is different for DLC versus base game, which is that the hard work of setting stuff up and making sure everything more or less functions is all done.  So we don’t have to do things like making sure every weapon has an animation for ever kith size, for every action that you can take with it, because all of that hard work has been handled by base game.  So we’re able to be a little more - we get to do more exploration, we get to do more, kind of weird things, edgy things.  Like edge case-y type things, rather than edgy like edge lords.  So you’ll see in Beast of Winter for example, a lot of stuff that doesn’t look like the kind of items we have throughout base game and areas that don’t look like areas that we have in base game.  And, I feel like there was something else I wanted to - but that’s basically your answer.  
 
Oh, because everything in Deadfire is ultimately in service of Deadfire - in service of that setting, in service of that story.  In the DLC, we’re able to pull back from that a bit and explore other  stuff and explore other things. 
 
Aarik:  Here’s another good one:
 
 Who is your favorite companion, excluding the ones you wrote, and why?
 
 
Alex:  So I wrote Ydwin and Serafen. So I’ll exclude them, *whispers* even though they’re the best. 
 
Aarik: Who are both in this party.
 
Alex: Yeah, that’s why they’re both in this party.  Why else - we should talk a little about why else we have certain people in the party.
 
Aarik: Oh! Well we have Grog in the party from Critical Role, and we also have Vex, also from Critical Role. And the main protagonist, Ronin, is their newborn baby!  So congratulations, Travis and Laura, for the little one that you’ve brought into the world. We wanted to honor them by putting them in the party.
 
Alex: Congrats, guys.
 
Aarik: (Responding to yerboykizzle in Twitch chat:) “I love Serafen so muuuch!”
 
Alex: That is correct.
 
Aarik: (Responding to keightdee in Twitch chat:) “Yeah Alex who!?”
 
Alex: And I promise that I did not just write that.
 
Aarik:  Who is your favorite companion that are not yours? Keight wants to know.
 
Alex: So, that’s real hard.  So I’m going to cheat - a lot.  First, I’m going to cheat by splitting it into original companions versus new Deadfire companions and say that I really love  Pallegina, I think she’s an awesome character.  I think Josh did a fantastic job of creating this person who has, many foibles as a result of her deep and zealous beliefs in what she does.  Among the new characters, there are aspects that I like of all of them - if I had to pick a favorite, it would probably be, Xotiiiiii?  I really like Xoti’s duality and the way the player can impact her outlook on her deity, on her faith.  But I also really like Tekehu’s innuendos, and I really love - who is the other character?
 
(Andy says something in the background)
 
Aarik: Yeah, there’s one other.
 
(Andy: Maia?)
 
Alex: Maia. Yeah I really like Maia’s - bird.  I really enjoy her moral complexity, I’ll call it.
 
Aarik: Oh, we’re going to test Andy’s mettle right now.  He said “oh no” secretly, under a silent whisper.
 
Alex: Is that Fergus?  
 
(Andy: It’s Fergus yeah.)
 
Alex: Uh oh.
 
Aarik: It’s the Black Isle Bastards!
 
Alex: Did you just run away?
 
(Andy: No, I closed to board. I’m not running away)
 
Alex: Oh.
 
Aarik: Alright, Andy’s deciding to take on the Black Isle Bastards.
 
Alex: What difficulty level are you on, Andy?
 
(Andy: I donnn’t remember. I think normal?)
 
Aarik: You’re on normal? That is unlike you, Andy.
 
That is a lot of people.
 
Alex: You’re already dead.
 
(Andy says something in the background)
 
Aarik: Well, Vex is going down.
 
(Andy: She’s fine.)
 
Alex: Trink is doing strong.  
 
Aarik:  How is it decided what will be canon and what will be up to the player in the story, especially now with the reactivity in Deadfire?
 
Alex: I don’t know if I fully understand that question.  Do you mean like - ? So we currently don’t have anything that’s just like “This absolutely happened,” we don’t have a canon history, beyond like, if you picked a world ending option - we’re not going to support that going forward, because it’s essentially impossible.  But if you want to have that world ending option and never play one of our games again - I don’t recommend it.  I think you’ll be missing out on some good content, but...
 
Aarik: I mean, the story is yours to create, so everyone is going to play the game differently and create their own story.  So, you can just say everything is canon in your playthrough.
 
Alex: Or there is no canon, essentially, beyond the stuff that is established at the beginning of any game.
 
Aarik: I mean there’s cannons on the ships, but..
 
Alex: That’s a different cannon.
 
Aarik: I know, I was trying to be witty and failed miserably.
 
Alex: That’s okay.
 
Aarik: I know.
 
Alex: We love you anyways.
 
Aarik: Thank you.
 
Yeah it was all a dream, you just woke up.  You’re still in Caed Nua.
 
Alex: You wake up, and you look over, and Eder’s in the next bed.  Durrance at the end of your bed, just staring at you, with his little glowy staff.  That’s a nightmare, that’s what it is.
 
Aarik: Waking up, seeing Durance right at the end of your bed?
 
Alex: I think that’s what every David Lynch movie is.
 
*Coughs*
 
Sorry for coughing into my microphone.
 
Aarik: (In response to neighneighparfait: “How often does writing guide gameplay?”)  Not sure what you mean Neigh, if you could rephrase that?
 
Aarik: When writing an NPC, do you keep in mind the sidekick options, or is it already on the board from creation?
 
Alex: I think that there is a combination of that?  I think that some of our sidekicks were created as sidekicks, as characters that you could bring into the party, but I think other ones were characters that were in the world that the writers thought would be interesting to let join your party.  Fassina, for example, I believe was already a quest giver and already written and then May decided to allow her to join your party. Mirke was certainly a character that I just enjoyed a lot and was like, “We should let her join the party when you’re done with that (other?) stuff,” and that’s what led to her being in the free pack.  
 
Aarik: Man, Andy took out the Black Isle Bastards and is now hoisting their flag.  Look at that.
 
Alex: That’s dark.  That’s a good hat, by the way.
 
(Andy says something in the background)
 
Aarik: That is a nice hat.
 
(Andy: Should I go to DLC now?)
 
Alex: Is it DLC time?
 
Aarik: Yeah, we can.  Someone mentioned they wanted to see something new, you got it.  We’re going to head over to the Beast Of Winter area now.
 
Alex: Somebody says, “Good job, Andy.”
 
(Andy: Hey thanks, man)
 
Aarik: You did do a good job, Andy.
 
Alex: (In response to KawajiriKira in Twitch chat: “Would love to go fishing with Eder.”) You say you would love to go fishing with Eder, but...  
 
Aarik: Do you?
 
Alex: You’ve clearly never hunted whales with him.
 
(Andy gets into an encounter with another ship)
 
Aarik: Op, never mind Andy.
 
Alex: Annnndy!
 
Aarik: This is what happens when you hoist pirate flags!
 
(Andy: It’s fine!)
 
Aarik: Ok, Andy decided to just run away.
 
(Andy says something in the background, later says “I forgot where the DLC is…”)
 
Aarik: You were practicing yesterday for this!
 
Alex: Woah, what’s that?
 
--EARLY DLC SPOILERS ABOUT TO START HERE (43: 14)--
 
(Andy: The Dead Floe)
 
Aarik: The Dead….Floe, well hello! What is this little island here? Harbinger’s Watch!
 
Alex: This is actually the first time I’ve seen that island on the map.  Like last time I looked, it was all very temp.
 
Aarik: We all know Beast of Winter includes a new area and content, does it include other features, i.e. new class abilities, etc?  And does that impact the main game?
 
Alex: We certainly have a new subclass, that is for our new character who can join the party.  Who I believe we will be meeting in a bit.  So, Vatnir has his own subclass that is not one we’ve had before, we made it for the DLC.  And you can bring Vatnir into the base game content and he does react to it, on occasion, in the ways that he does, without spoiling it. 
 
Aarik: So tell us about the Harbinger’s Watch?
 
Alex: So Harbinger’s Watch is a kind of temporary settlement that has cropped up in the last couple of decades, at The Dead Floe - The Dead Floe is an iceberg in the southern corner of the Deadfire, where there probably shouldn’t be an iceberg.  Which is one of the reasons you’re there.
 
Aarik: Damn global warming.
 
Alex: To find out why the iceberg is there, and why it’s growing.  But there are some pale elves there, and they are very into the idea of this ice covering the whole of the world and freezing it into a big old ice cube.  And they have set up as their base of operations, this little settlement.  Which one of the things I liked a lot about this settlement is that the build- so they arrived on boats, and all of the structures are very clearly made out of parts of those boats.
 
Aarik: (In response to oei_jcotto in Twitch chat) Can we boost the game audio a little bit?  Per request of Jon Cotto.
 
Alex: Hey Jon Cotto, listen better!
 
Aarik: Sorry Jon.
 
Alex: I’m not sorry at all.  So there’s Harbinger’s Watch.
 
Aarik: I like how he’s trying to catch up with the camera, he’s like “Noooo, I can’t do it!”
 
Alex: I thought we decided that we weren’t going to do that for him? (Turning up the volume)
 
(Andy: Well, Jon Cotto is a nice man.)
 
Aarik: Andy says Jon is a nice man, and he did it just for him.
 
Do the pale elves have anything to do at all with the ones you met in the first Pillars?
 
Alex: I will say that there’s definitely some crossover between what’s going on here and what is going on in Twin Elms, in the first game.
 
Aarik: Look at that sweet walk toggle.
 
Alex: Dude look at that sweet statue.
 
Aarik: DanDizz with that twenty one month resub! My dude! Thank you so much, DanDizz for supporting action life, and the children’s hospital of Orange County.
 
Alex: For the chids.
 
Aarik: For the chiids!~
 
Alex: Oh, Trinket’s real cute.
 
Aarik: Yeah, look at Trinket. Trying to walk like a human.  Or a kith.
 
He wants a hug! Isn’t that what all creatures seek? Is comfort in hugging?
 
Alex: I certainly do.  It’s why we keep Andy here, actually, for the hugs.
 
Aarik: (In response to EnialusM in Twitch chat: “Welp...looks like I need to start another playthrough with a Pale Elf in POE1”) Well you don’t have to play Pillars 1 again, unless you want to, you can just use the history editor when you start up Pillars 2.
 
Alex: Or make your character a pale elf at the beginning of Pillars 2, as we were discussing earlier.  There’s definitely no small amount of reactivity to pale elf watchers and white that wends watchers.
 
Aarik: (In response to Gnael in Twitch chat: “Can we romance the statue?”) You can absolutely romance the statue, but..The relationship is going to be very one-sided.
 
Alex: And also tragic.
 
Aarik: Yes.  As all the pale elves look at you and laugh.
 
Audio is still super low? Ok.
 
Alex: Andy, turn up the volume!! Crank it! Drown us out.  Give the people what they want.
 
Aarik: Give the people the amp!
 
Alex: Yes.
 
Aarik: Yeah, 74 should be alright.
 
(Andy: 74(?))
 
Aarik: Yeah.  
 
Cold just like the statue.
 
 Alex: The statue is a completely, well almost all the stuff is completely new.  I don’t think that crate’s completely new, but the boat beside it is.
 
Aarik: Are you going to find other kith here on Harbinger’s Watch, other than pale elves?
 
Alex: Mostly, they are pale elves.  That tall man, who was talking about the statue, is an aumua. 
 
That’s one of our new consumables, Ekeveit(sp?).  Ydwin mentions it in base game, it’s a liquor, a corguel.  
 
Aarik: That thing is sweet.
 
Alex: It is literally sweet.  It is fermented from berries.
 
Aarik: It gives you a bunch of defensive stats.  
 
(Quoting The_TBoyce in Twitch chat): “By the way, big thanks to the writers for the companions in Deadfire, Eder, Xoti, Aloth, Serafen, Maia, and Tekehu, they are all really fun and interesting.”
 
Alex: Thank you!
 
Aarik: Thank you!  The_TBoyce.
 
Will any of the other? - I guess we can’t really talk about that. 
 
Alex: Hm?
 
Aarik: Ninefirecats.  Will we introduce any new factions to side with for the final push?  For the main game.
 
Alex: I will say Beasts of Winter does not. That doesn’t mean that none of them will.  It is a  dangerous thing to do though, to mess with big moments in base game to that extent.  Or in other words, we would just make our testers very miserable.
 
Aarik: (Quoting EthxGradient in Twitcht chat): “Do pale elves brew pale ales?”
 
Alex: Yes! Yes they do.
 
Aarik: Good one, Ethx.  And you were right!
 
Alex: I think they’re talking about one right now.
 
Aarik: Ooh, checking out some glacial Ysae.
 
Alex: Glacial Ysae is...
 
Aarik: They’re tasty.
 
Alex: They’re kind of like our haddig(sp?) like fish.  Coldwater fish.
 
Aarik: That’s right, Vex and Grog are in the party, and Ronin. They’re newborn child.  Who’s not newborn in the game.
 
Alex: And not an orlan in the real world.
 
Aarik: Also true.
 
Alex: Probably. 
 
Aarik: “You can’t prove that,” says Andy.
 
(Responding to xenosin in Twitch chat:) When is fishing being added to the game? I don’t know, kino! You tell me!
 
Alex: Is that really kino’s question?
 
Aarik: Yes, that is kino’s question.
 
Alex: (groans)
 
Aarik: I do love me some fishing mini games, though.
 
(Responding to TT1twitch: “Josh is alive?”) Josh is alive and well.
 
Alex: That is true.
 
Aarik: And still rides his bicycle to pick up bagels every Wednesday.
 
Alex: I had lunch with him yesterday.
 
Aarik: See? Proof from Alex that Josh is alive.
 
Alex: We ate all manners of vegetables. And talked about meat and dairy substitutes together.  Because those are the kinds of interesting conversations we have together.
 
Aarik: (Responding to c69manifold: “josh sawyer sidekick dlc when?”) Two weeks. I’m just kidding, it’s not happening.  
(Responding to The_Tyboyce: “Bagel Wednesday is a fabulous idea.”) Bagel Wednesday is awesome!  Josh rides his bicycle to get bagels for the whole company.
 
Alex: You know, I would not be opposed to making a Josh Sawyer sidekick.
 
Aarik: We should do it.
 
Alex: It would require character art to tat up his arms.
 
Aarik: I don’t think that would be a problem.
 
Alex: I don’t think so either. Dmitri could do it.
 
(Andy says something in the background)
 
Aarik: See, Ian (random?).  You hear that Ian?
 
Alex: Andy just tasked you, it’s going to (Jera?)
 
(Andy: He’s right here)
 
Alex: Yeah, so, that portrait for Nievader(sp?) is our character artist on the DLC, Ian(?) Randall(sp?)
 
Aarik: Very handsome.
 
Alex: Hey, go into Nievader’s(sp?) store, Andy.
 
(Andy: I already bought all of the stuff.)
 
Aarik: You bought everything
 
Alex: You bought all of his stuff?
 
(Andy: Well not the new stuff)
 
Aarik: Well show us the new stuff.
 
Alex: Yeah, let’s look at the Rymsjodda.  So that is your pale elf’s pale ale.
 
Aarik: Your (pea pa?)
 
Alex: *whispers* It’s actually a lager.
 
Aarik: Oh.
 
Alex: I’m cheating.
 
Aarik: Sweet. What else do we got here?
 
Alex: There’s also a new recipe that combines beer and fish into some manner of beer-fish combo.
 
Aarik: That does not sound appealing.
 
Alex: That’s because you’re wrong.
 
Aarik: I haven’t tried it, so I guess I won’t know until I try.  Fish ale.
 
Alex: It’s more like ale-y fish.
 
Aarik: Does Beast of Winter rise the level cap?
 
Alex: No, it does not.
 
Aarik: There is a new unique weapon.  That Andy wants to show. Man, that is freaking awesome.
 
(Andy shows the Twin Eels sword)
 
The twin eels.  (Responding to Twitch chat:) Fish ale, fail.  Yeah, that’s right.
 
Alex: Yeah it says, it’s a long sword based off of the Huana concept of Berath as a pair of eels that consume one another in the infinite dance of life and death.
 
Aarik:
What is the release date for the DLC?
 
It is August 2nd.  The pricing is $9.99, or you can get the season pass, which will include all the premium DLC’s to come.  The next two.
 
Alex: We’re also dropping a free DLC on the 2nd.
 
Aarik: Yes! The deck of many things.
 
Alex: Did you just attack those people?
 
(Andy: Calm down)
 
Alex: What’s wrong with you?
 
(Andy says something in the background)
 
Aarik: The new outfit?  Well (Samshinn?) did say that he needed to see something die.   That was all a ship battle for you, Sam.
 
Alex: Well now I’m just sad. I felt for those characters.
 
(Andy puts a creepy hood, and other clothes?, on Ronin (player character))
 
Aarik: Oh..Well now Ronin looks awesome.  Blending in so well.  
 
Andy’s getting fancy with the colors now.  That is a creepy hood.  I mean you gotta stay cool when you’re living on the iceberg.
 
(Andy puts the cloak? And hood on Grog)
 
Alex: I don’t think we set out to make these characters look out like movie slashers, but...they kind of do...
 
(Andy: It’s very good.)
 
Aarik: Your evil executioner.
 
(Andy: Hold up, might have to reload.)
 
Alex: Well, we can blame Sam, right?
 
(Andy says something in the background)
 
Alex: Is that a bug, Andy?
 
(Andy says something in the background)
 
Aarik: Alright, we have a few more minutes left, guys, here with the stream with Alex.  So if you have any more lore or narrative questions, or just how pipeline stuff works, just fire away.
 
Alex: You’re going to go into the retreat, right Andy?
 
(Andy: Yeah.)
 
Alex:  I’m sorry, I’m sorry for rushing ya.
 
Aa (In response to Infinitron on Twitch chat: “uh wtf there’s a typo in your stream update (...)”) Thanks Infinitron, we’ll get on that and fix it.
 
Al (In response to TT1twitch: “what is the name of the new ryrmgand godlike companion?”): The new Ryrmgand godlike companion’s name is Vatnir.  
 
Aa (quoting KawajiriKira in TwitchChat): “Just talk Ydwin to me!”
 
Alex: I mean I could, but she’s kind of a cold jerk, so…
 
Aarik: I mean..
 
Alex: I think if you went to Ydwin and said, “Talk Ydwin to me,” she would just sigh.
 
Aarik: You want to talk about Vatnir?
 
Alex: Vatnir is the leader of this group of the Harbingers.  You meet him because he has invited you here, to a feast in your honor.  And these cultists recognize the disruptive influence that the Watcher has on the world, and celebrate the Watcher as a harbinger of chaos.  So they want to toast you, because they think you’re helping to usher in the end times.
 
Aarik: RoyalGoldenKnight asks:
Do you have a voice in mind when you write characters?
 
Alex:  Yesss?  I think that what you’re asking is, do we have a voice actor type voice in mind?  And that’s less, at least for me that’s less the case than just like, than having a strong sense of the way that they speak and the kinds of things that they say - like I have a doc somewhere that’s like, “This is how Serafen talks.” Both so that I can look at it on occasion to refresh myself and also so that, if something were to happen to me, then other people could pick it up and keep a consistency.  Serafen ended up sounding almost exactly like he sounded in my head, because Liam’s amazing.  But, yeah, it’s not like, I generally have an exact sense of how a character’s gonna sound like.  And this is all collaborative.  Everything in game making is collaborative, and the actor’s part of that collaboration, so they’re always bringing things that we didn’t expect for the characters.
 
Aarik: That food buff is so good!
 
Alex: It’s the beer fish.
 
Aarik: Ok.  I’m sold then, I like beer fish.
 
Al (In response to Nanawatzin: “Yeah can you who’s Vatnir’s VA?”): Vatnir’s voice actor is Atly Gunarsun (sp?), I believe.
 
Aarik: (??)
 
Alex: Was that the permafrost shard?
 
Aarik: Yeah.
 
Alex: I didn’t realize it was so easily accessible.
 
Aarik: I mean you had to climb the rafters and stuff.
 
Alex: 22 perception!?  Beerfish.
 
Vatnir is a priest. He can multi-class into..Do you know Andy?
 
(Andy: Chanter)
 
Alex: I know chanter, but is it also wizard, or something else?
 
Aarik: Yes, cakeordeath, this is the new content.
 
(Andy says something in the background)
 
Aarik: We are in the Beast of Winter DLC right now.
 
Rogue and Chanter. Thank you Alec.
 
Alex: Thanks Alec!
 
(Andy: He’s smarter than me.)
 
Al (responding to Infinitron in Twitch chat: “And he counts as a sidekick, right?”): Yes Infinintron, he does not have a companion quest.   Although he is essential to the content of the DLC.
 
What’s in that box?
 
Aarik: What’s in the box?
 
(Andy says something in the background)
 
Alex: Oh, that icon is so good.  It’s the first time I’ve seen that icon.
 
Aarik: Alright we have time for one more question.
 
Put the bunny back in the box.
 
Alex: Yes, the Beast of Winter is a bunny.
 
Aarik: A ferocious one.
 
Alex: It’s got big pointy teeth.
 
Aarik: Look at the bones!
 
Al (Responding to Tinicus: “will there be any major balances coming before or after the DLC like 1.1 or 1.2?”):   I do know that Josh is working on - well, all our systems guys are working on balance changes.  Some of those have already gone in, and some of them are incoming.
 
Aa (Quoting/Responding to ChaosKats in Twitch chat): “I don’t have a question, I just wanted to say thank you all so much for all your hard work on this series.  It’s been great fun and I’m excited to see DLC.”  Well thank you so much! That’s kind of you to say.  Unfortunately I’m in dark mode and cannot read your name.
 
Well hello Vatnir!
 
Alex: He’s a real icky boy.
 
(Responding to the in-game conversation with Vatnir (roughly 01:02:00))
 
 Aarik: He’s a very passionate…
 
Alex: I wonder if that’s a reference to vegetables.
 
Aarik:  And we’re going to end it with that! Thank you guys so much for hanging out with us tonight. We’ll be back in two weeks for another dev stream.  Thank you Andy and Alex so much for joining us today.
 
Alex: Thank you for watching guys.
 
Aarik: You guys have a fantastic morning, afternoon, or evening, wherever you are, and we’re going to show you that Beast of Winter teaser one more time.  You guys have a great day.

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Could someone tell here what important things Alex said without spoil the story?

 

My english level is low and I can't understand the majority of phrases.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

I've pretty much lost my mind listening to this and writing it down, but I'll try to write down the points I remember- you can check the transcript I posted above, if it helps to read it (instead of listening).  I've found it's a lot easier to read German (which I've been casually learning for over a year or two) than listen to it, as a native English speaker.

 

I'm also just going to talk about things related to the game directly - let me know if you want me to touch on all of the questions and answers.

 

  • They showed the Beast of Winter teaser a couple of times. One at the beginning (roughly ten minutes in) and the very end.
  • Beast of Winter is out August 2nd, 2018, price at $9.99
  • Beast of Winter will touch a lot on the culture(s) of pale elves, and Ryrmgand, and how they follow Ryrmgand.  There should be some reactivity to Watchers that are pale elves or from the White that Wends. Most, but not all the kith in the new area(s) will be pale elves.
  • Beast of Winter DLC will not change the possible endings for the base game, but there will be some content at the very end of the game (ending slides?) that you will only get with the Beast of Winter DLC.
  • Beast of Winter has a new companion/sidekick? that does react to some of the base game content and is essential to the DLC content.
  • Ydwin will have some thoughts and reactions to the pale elf society(societies?) in Beast of Winter.
  • The pale elves and what they're doing in this DLC have some kind of crossover with the pale elves and what they were doing in Twin Elms, in Pillars of Eternity 1.
  • There is not a new faction to side with for the end of base game (Deadfire).  There may or may not be in future DLC's (though I would personally assume no, right now).
  • All deities have godlikes, which can have very varied forms (e.g. Galawain godlikes can appear/show up very differently).  
  • There are no tie-in novels planned right now, but there will be some kind of tie-in fiction for the games in the near(ish?) future.  (I would guess short stories).

 

A lot of the dev stream was Alex talking about his opinions, thoughts, experience on development for the base game - which was very cool, but I left  itout in case that wasn't what you were looking for.

Edited by Tick
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No problem! Happy to help! :)

 

It's not a guarantee, but it sounded like that kind of stuff might get added back in eventually. Going off a Josh post.

 

 

Question related to Lore and Narrative Design: after the game was released, many questions sprung up regarding the nature of the Wheel. Josh publicly responded that some exposition was cut for feel, and while none of the internal testers missed it, many of the players felt that it left a gap. Is there a plan to reintroduce some of what was cut via DLC or in a sequel? If not, could someone fill us in?

 

Thanks in advance!

Can you give me more specific questions re: the Wheel?

 

I can't say we definitely won't reintroduce what was cut, but I don't think it's our highest priority, either.

(...)

Just a side note, but thank you for taking the time to answer some of the other questions even after the stream! It's much appreciated. Edited by Tick
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Just a side note, but thank you for taking the time to answer some of the other questions even after the stream! It's much appreciated.

 

 

No worries!

 

Unfortuanatly no new info about the wheel, what was before the creation of gods and what happens after Eothas smashes it.

 

 

Reincarnation existed prior to the gods. It was a natural process. The Engwithans made a device to manage that process. Eothas smashed it.

 

 

 

The smashing of the device does NOT however, necessarily result in the natural process resuming as it did previously.

 

 

 

For example (and it's only an example - not a direct allegory for how the Wheel functions), let's say someone dams a river, creating a lake, but regulates that lake by allowing some of the water through the dam (for, say, hydroelectric power). Someone breaking the machinery that allows that regulation would not undam the river.

 

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