What I hope for next Obsidian game

[Hoo]

After playing POEII, I've felt that Icewind Dale style RPG, which is focused on dungeon crawling and battles, would be very fit with your team. 

 

- The romance was not good

- The interactions between companions were not good

- The navy-related contents were not good

- The main story and quests were bad

 

Now what you've been doing mainly, is balancing items, skills, and classes, with adding much more challenges; combat systems. those things are very important for the IWD style RPG. Your team is doing fine for those. Such dungeon crawling game doesn't need,

 

- Interactions between companions, because all party members are created by players

- Full voice acting

- The other sub-systems like the navy-related

 

You don't need to make an effort for what you barely do well. You can focus on what you do well. 

[Manveru123]

Yes, all we need is a bland IWD-style game where 90% of the content is combat and your group is just a bunch of random nobodies with 0 personality!

 

No.

[Yosharian]

The problem I see is twofold, first of all if Obsidian were to change their design philosophy as you suggest, audiences might get confused. They might go into games expecting one thing, and be angry when they get something else.

 

This also works the other way, where people who this design philosophy might appeal to, might not know that Obsidian had switched to it.

 

Just how does a developer communicate such a radical departure to existing fans, and new ones, easily, and without backlash?

 

Secondly, the studio is undoubtedly set up for the current design philosophy, which is to say plenty of emphasis on story and companions. If they ditched that, they suddenly have a lot of talent which they have no use for, or maybe they have to repurpose for quite different roles.

 

Not an impossible task by any means, but not trivial either.

 

So it's not as simple as it might seem, and that's even assuming that they happen to agree with your assessment.

 

I think your point has some merit, because I also don't think much of Deadfire's companions or main story, but expecting Obsidian to just change into a different developer overnight seems overly optimistic.

[Hoo]

Well, sometimes 0 personality is better than these kinds of unfinished or poor quality, because all those things are strongly related to money and time.

Edited September 16, 2018 by Hoo

[Hoo]

The problem I see is twofold, first of all if Obsidian were to change their design philosophy as you suggest, audiences might get confused. They might go into games expecting one thing, and be angry when they get something else.

 

This also works the other way, where people who this design philosophy might appeal to, might not know that Obsidian had switched to it.

 

Just how does a developer communicate such a radical departure to existing fans, and new ones, easily, and without backlash?

 

Secondly, the studio is undoubtedly set up for the current design philosophy, which is to say plenty of emphasis on story and companions. If they ditched that, they suddenly have a lot of talent which they have no use for, or maybe they have to repurpose for quite different roles.

 

Not an impossible task by any means, but not trivial either.

 

So it's not as simple as it might seem, and that's even assuming that they happen to agree with your assessment.

 

I think your point has some merit, because I also don't think much of Deadfire's companions or main story, but expecting Obsidian to just change into a different developer overnight seems overly optimistic.

POEIII can be as it is. They just need to produce new series, as they did on Tyranny.

[misterjimmy]

They should avoid some boring and unnecessary management, like boat or stronghold. Combat system just need more improvement.It doesn't need rewrite anything. They can expand new subclass, ability or maybe epic level. And also hiring some better writer making good storyline.

[Verde]

POE1 was clunky af with a great main story and atmosphere. POE2 plays smooth with a lame main story and unoriginal atmosphere.

 

POE3 hopefully takes the best of both games and dumps this numerical disposition system which is one of the worst additions imho.

 

The jury is still out on their writing tho. It was first heavy exposition and now it feels written by college students minus a few dialogue snippets.

Edited September 16, 2018 by Verde

[Manveru123]

Well, sometimes 0 personality is better than these kinds of unfinished or poor quality, because all those things are strongly related to money and time.

In a game like this? Never. I struggled to finish both IWD games because I was getting very bored of combat alll the daaamn tiimmmeeeee! They took Baldur's Gate, removed 75% of the dialogues and sold it as a new game. I never want to see **** like this again.

[Wormerine]

- The romance was not good

- The interactions between companions were not good

- The navy-related contents were not good

- The main story and quests were bad

Eh few thoughts:

1) romance is meh. I dont hate it as much now as the disposition gain is fixed and my companions don't automatically hit on my PC. Still i feel "a romance path" isn't enough to convert relationship, and I would rather has one romancable.companion with multitude of outcomes, or no romances at all. Overall, just not my thing. And I am not a fan that I have to constantly tell me companions that I am not interested in them. Quite awkward.

 

2) interactions weren't good? How so? Personally I really liked them. Having them have a say during conversations and respond to each other is really neat.

 

3) looking forward to naval combat patch if one is indeed in the making. I doubt we will see it again.

 

4) main plot isn't quite engaging. But deadfire, faction and quest design is rather excellent. Really well implemented lore.

[KDubya]

 

- The romance was not good

- The interactions between companions were not good

- The navy-related contents were not good

- The main story and quests were bad

-snip-

 

3) looking forward to naval combat patch if one is indeed in the making. I doubt we will see it again.

 

4) main plot isn't quite engaging. But deadfire, faction and quest design is rather excellent. Really well implemented lore.

 

 

Naval combat needs a complete rework. Make it 2D not that funky compass thing which takes into account closing speed, wind direction and allow spells. If I have a Wizard let me cast a wind spell to move my ship faster or against the wind, let me cast fireballs in addition to the cannon fire and so on.

 

Concerning the factions: I found it implausible in that I could be the ship hunter for all factions at the same time with no negatives. I hunt Principi and they still hire me to hunt Rauitai who hire me to hunt Valians. No one remarks that I'm the guy who just sank their fleet while being paid to sink someone else's fleet. Until the final ending their is no need to make a choice and commit to one side or another. At least force me to wear a disguise or fly a different flag or something.

[Wormerine]

Concerning the factions: I found it implausible in that I could be the ship hunter for all factions at the same time with no negatives. I hunt Principi and they still hire me to hunt Rauitai who hire me to hunt Valians. No one remarks that I'm the guy who just sank their fleet while being paid to sink someone else's fleet. Until the final ending their is no need to make a choice and commit to one side or another. At least force me to wear a disguise or fly a different flag or something.

Agree. While tying bounties to factions is a neat idea, not having any influence on relations with said factions feels off. Overall, I think the fact that factions use you for a while and ignore certain offences until certain point works fine. But faction system lacks a payoff. Using a narrative analogy: there is a lot of set up, some remainders, but all the payoff we get is the Ukaizo encounter and ending slides. I feel it’s not enough. If there only was a major post-main campaign expansion, which would deliver reactivity and needed closure.

[Manveru123]

 

Naval combat needs a complete rework. Make it 2D not that funky compass thing which takes into account closing speed, wind direction and allow spells. If I have a Wizard let me cast a wind spell to move my ship faster or against the wind, let me cast fireballs in addition to the cannon fire and so on.

 

This would take a ton of resources, I highly doubt it will happen. But you raise one good point. Why can't my Wizard just blast their ship with a Fireball? That's really hard to understand.

[KDubya]

 

 

Naval combat needs a complete rework. Make it 2D not that funky compass thing which takes into account closing speed, wind direction and allow spells. If I have a Wizard let me cast a wind spell to move my ship faster or against the wind, let me cast fireballs in addition to the cannon fire and so on.

 

This would take a ton of resources, I highly doubt it will happen. But you raise one good point. Why can't my Wizard just blast their ship with a Fireball? That's really hard to understand.

 

 

I agree that the chance of it happening is slim to none but then why include the crappy ship combat that they did? 

 

If ships, ship combat and pirates are a big part of your game then do them up right, don't half ass it.

[house2fly]

Having wizards shooting fireballs and druids summoning storms and chanters summoning dragons and ciphers picking off your crew with arquebuses and using the focus to paralyse you and stop you giving orders for 5 turns would be cool, but would also add a ton of stuff you'd have to have on your mind at all times- I'd better make sure to take all my casters out with me so they all get plenty of XP, have to spec fire damage on everyone because the ships are all made of wood but also have to spec ice to counter incoming fire damage...

 

In the setting, most spells seem to have a very limited range. What's a fireball, 10 metres? Ships rarely get that close unless they're closing to board

[InsaneCommander]

Just how does a developer communicate such a radical departure to existing fans, and new ones, easily, and without backlash?

 

By announcing two games at the same time, an IWD-style set in the Living Lands and PoE3 in the Aedyr Empire or whatever location won that poll a few weeks ago.

 

PoE3 could come later, but people would still know that it would come.

 

This, of course assuming that it was what they wanted to do.

[Yosharian]

 

Just how does a developer communicate such a radical departure to existing fans, and new ones, easily, and without backlash?

 

By announcing two games at the same time, an IWD-style set in the Living Lands and PoE3 in the Aedyr Empire or whatever location won that poll a few weeks ago.

 

PoE3 could come later, but people would still know that it would come.

 

This, of course assuming that it was what they wanted to do.

 

 

Perhaps.  Expensive to produce two games at once, though.

[thupes]

 

 

Naval combat needs a complete rework. Make it 2D not that funky compass thing which takes into account closing speed, wind direction and allow spells. If I have a Wizard let me cast a wind spell to move my ship faster or against the wind, let me cast fireballs in addition to the cannon fire and so on.

 

Concerning the factions: I found it implausible in that I could be the ship hunter for all factions at the same time with no negatives. I hunt Principi and they still hire me to hunt Rauitai who hire me to hunt Valians. No one remarks that I'm the guy who just sank their fleet while being paid to sink someone else's fleet. Until the final ending their is no need to make a choice and commit to one side or another. At least force me to wear a disguise or fly a different flag or something.

 

 

I just wish that doing poorly in naval combat would still result in a boarding fight, just maybe at a disadvantage. Giving out a TPK is too harsh, especially on hardcore, it feels like your run was stolen from you.

[Heijoushin]

Yes, all we need is a bland IWD-style game where 90% of the content is combat and your group is just a bunch of random nobodies with 0 personality!

 

No.

 

Hey... I really like Icewind Dale   Just because it appeals to a different type of audience doesn't make it bland...

Edited September 17, 2018 by Heijoushin

[Tigranes]

Icewind Dale was fantastic, and it would be amazing to see a focused, combat-oriented spinoff of POE. People who hate the concept can stick with the main franchise.

 

Sadly, I can no longer rely on Obsidian to provide entertaining and memorable writing like they used to with pretty much every game. Now it ranges between pretty OK and pretty bleh. I'd be more than happy to see a spinoff title that doesn't have to try and do everything in the book.

[aksrasjel]

What I would like to see is the return to stronger act-based story structure of IE games and, ironically enough, more focus on characters and their story arcs. Personally, I'm a bit tired of putting open worlds everywhere and would like to see a story-driven game with more classical 3/5 act structure. Fallout 1/2-style open world narrative is fine, but the story and companions get muddled as a result. And in the end Deadfire felt quite conflicted about what it wants to be - at least for me.

Plus, open world games are notoriously expensive. 

 

----

And as a *very* personal preference, I am not a fan of the continual "Engwithan Gods" storyline - I think it's seriously starting to outstay it's welcome. I wouldn't mind seeing a different, lower stakes story - there is a lot you can do in this universe that doesn't continously involve gods. Maybe with a different protagonist - I don't think the fact that the player is a Watcher was being capitalized upon very well in Deadfire.

 

But, given how PoE 2 ends, I think we are stuck with dealing with Engwithan Gods for at least one sequel.

[daven]

Yeah I'd rather have a character who is just an adventurer. No ties to the gods or any of the malarkey. Having them Skype chats with the gods all the time cheapens them, there is absolutely no mystery left.

[misterjimmy]

And as a *very* personal preference, I am not a fan of the continual "Engwithan Gods" storyline - I think it's seriously starting to outstay it's welcome. I wouldn't mind seeing a different, lower stakes story - there is a lot you can do in this universe that doesn't continously involve gods. Maybe with a different protagonist - I don't think the fact that the player is a Watcher was being capitalized upon very well in Deadfire.

 

But, given how PoE 2 ends, I think we are stuck with dealing with Engwithan Gods for at least one sequel.

Pillars of Eternity III: Time of Troubles

 

Let The Watcher kill those gods and become the new god.

Edited September 17, 2018 by misterjimmy

[bugarup]

Somebody needs to make a template for this kind of posts already. Here, lemme lend a hand to you people:

 

Obsidian!

 

These are bad things:

 

†

 

These are good things:

 

‡

 

Next time cater to MY tastes! 

 

 

 

Voila, time saved. 

Edited September 17, 2018 by bugarup

[Manveru123]

 

Yes, all we need is a bland IWD-style game where 90% of the content is combat and your group is just a bunch of random nobodies with 0 personality!

 

No.

 

Hey... I really like Icewind Dale   Just because it appeals to a different type of audience doesn't make it bland...

 

I don't hate it. It's fine as a spinoff. But I hope it stays that way. Occasional IWD-type game would be okay as long as it doesn't mean we get no more BG clones.

[Heijoushin]

Somebody needs to make a template for this kind of posts already. Here, lemme lend a hand to you people:

...

 

While I agree that OP's complaints were pretty vague this time (--> The main story and quests were bad), isn't the whole point of being on this forum to discuss our tastes?

 

I agree with others hoping for a more-structured, lower stakes story. Unfortunately, PoE2 ended on a note that demands a 3rd God-centric sequel. 

Edited September 17, 2018 by Heijoushin