RockPaperShotgun Interview with Avellone + New Companion Concept Aloth

[Merlkir]

I hate to be that guy and it's probably just the sepia-coloring, but i feel like these concept arts epitomize generic fantasy in the negative, unimaginative way. The pictures just feel bland. But like i said, i probably feel like that because of the lack of color. These aren't finished ideas yet anyway as far as i understand what concept art means. It would just be sad if the characters had great depth but lacked personality in appearance.

 

i would even go further to say that the concept art of PE so far plain sucks.

look at these from wasteland 2 then look back at PE pieces:

 

http://www.sghi.info...dree.Wallin.jpg

http://images2.wikia...concept_art.jpg

https://inxile-waste...ers-concept.jpg

 

The PE concept art is quite lovely. Please, understand that the point of concept art is not to please the player, it is to provide a design for modelers and texturers. Sure, it's often used for player viewing pleasure on websites and in manuals, or on loading screens, but that's not its primary purpose.

 

Also, character art is very different to this kind of moody atmospheric art you posted. Either those are made to convey the feeling of a location, or to give an idea of the game as a whole. Or - most likely in the case of the last one - as promotional images.

 

Which is more the role of the recently released PE wallpaper. Which is fantastic. (Kieran Yanner is very accomplished and here he proved why that is the case)

 

I'm quite pleasantly surprised by the nature of concepts revealed so far. Fewer spikes on armour, giant pauldrons and massive hammers than I'd expect from a fantasy RPG.

[Monte Carlo]

^ Thanks for that. I tend to view art from, perhaps, a less nuanced perspective.

[Monte Carlo]

As my awesome sig illustrates *guffaw*

[metiman]

Is it off topic to say that Czech girls are hot?

[Monte Carlo]

^ No, I don't think so.

[JediMB]

I very much welcome dialogue adapted to the character's intelligence. Hopefully charisma will also play a part, if that attribute exists in the game.

 

I think I need to go back and play the original Fallouts again. But I already have a bunch of RPGs queued up for my enjoyment...

[TCJ]

Excellent! Dialogue that's affected by intelligence! That was hilarious in Fallout and I'm ecstatic that they're going to include that stuff in Project: Eternity.

[Jandor]

Yeah yeah yeah numbers...

 

I quite liked the interview, asked some good questions that are relevant to us and also to people outside this very specific niche we occupy. Anyway, if it had been me doing the interview, it would have simply have been me telling Chris Avellone how awesome I think he is for however long he could put up with me being a creepy fanboy.

[Wombat]

As for low-INT dialogues:

 

I've gotten an impression that INT/WIS requirement for decent story-developments were quite high. Also, it didn't work with the D&D combat: If the players choose fighter class, they have a huge penalty in conversations. In VtMB, the players should have a good idea when choosing Malkavian (Even in this case, some players who expected more physiological twists were let-down). However, for example, letting their character have 8/18 INT in this game (D&D-ish stats is just a placeholder), do the players have a clear idea about the consequences - means, they chose "comedy/parody" story mode?

 

Avellone is very good at C&C to expect the players intension and I don't understand why I feel he is stepping on my toe in a rather clumsy manner when it comes to the game-play? Outside of this, I'd like to see stats-based conversations if the designers aren't "burnt out" by writing dialogues like in the case of TBH aka Jefferson.

[ogrezilla]

I very much welcome dialogue adapted to the character's intelligence. Hopefully charisma will also play a part, if that attribute exists in the game.

 

I think I need to go back and play the original Fallouts again. But I already have a bunch of RPGs queued up for my enjoyment...

I like it, but I hope it isn't tied to a stat that favors any specific class. I hate when intelligence is a dialogue stat and a mage stat. I get it, mages are smart. But it annoys me that mages don't have to sacrifice a combat stat for conversation options while every other class does.

[Sistergoldring]

I very much welcome dialogue adapted to the character's intelligence. Hopefully charisma will also play a part, if that attribute exists in the game.

 

This was the part that got me really excited too. I'm trying to work out just how stupid I can make my character to get all the 'you're a moron' responses and still be able to tie my own shoelaces before battle? I absolutely love additional stat/skill/class based reactivity in games, it makes me feel my character is so much more alive and each playthrough gives me a new perspective. Anyway, I'm delighted to read that this is the direction they are going in.

[Wombat]

The (stats) sim factor sometimes or often gets in role-playing one (C&C in a narrow sense) in dialogues. At times, the players only have narrowed down choices as a penalty of not spending "enough" points o mental stats. PST, while the content was remarkable, was quite notorious for this. I'd like Obsidian to come up with a good implementation of these factors in dialogues since, I know their writing team is top-notch - so why should they diminish their strength by putting efforts on the other factor?

[Badmojo]

Interesting interview, just a couple of things

 

The type of races and concept art that’s been revealed for Eternity we hope display our commitment to showcasing seemingly-traditional races with unusual gear and traits – including the fact our women characters wear… appropriate armor.

 

Sorry, not going to say you caved to pressure to make some PC in the game...but....yea, you caved to PC pressure. I just hope this isn't a sign that they are going to avoid controversal topics and make the game PC. That would suck, really, really suck.

 

Just a point, if you show pictures of characters and it takes more than a few seconds to tell if its male or famale, you are doing it wrong.

 

This is intersting when you consider what was said here indierpg's

 

Third and fourth: I remember reading through the Planescape Vision Statement after it was made public. It was interesting, since it presented the game as much less thoughtful than it actually turned out to be. In particularly, I was deeply surprised to see these two bullet points in there: (1) “‘Babes,’ as in ‘Truckloads Of’” and (2) “And More Babes”. Was this something you felt you needed to have to motivate the design team? Or was this actually part of the original vision?

There was a lot of marketing hype and speak in it, and that worked for the audience at the time, which wasn’t solely the team. The goal was to get the project into production, and there were elements about it that were part of the vision, yes – as an example, Morte’s outlook didn’t change from the vision doc, and yes, it was important to me that both Annah and Fall-From-Grace be extremely good-looking in their own way even if the player character wasn’t. Sue me.

 

And there is nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with making women/men attractive and showing it off. However, its pointless having females in armour if all the armoured characters look the same are unisex and ugly.

 

Ok, got that off my chest.

 

again, on indirpg

 

You recently mentioned that you were tempted to crowd-fund a spiritual successor to Planescape: Torment. It wasn’t long thereafter that Obsidian launched Project Eternity on Kickstarter. Is this the aforementioned spiritual successor?

No, Project: Eternity is something different. We had considered doing a Planescape: Torment successor, and that seemed like a waste considering the powerhouses we already had in the studio – why not have them come together and collaborate on something? In my opinion, that would actually be more interesting to the public than a Planescape title, and that seems to have proved itself out.

 

Are you OUT OF YOUR MIND?!?! What is the number one game everybody brings up? PST! What is the number one game everybody has been requesting/referincing what the game to be like? PST! What is the number one game that has a unique setting and doesn't feel like a rehash of ideas? PST!!!!! You really think PST successor would not get as good as PE? I would say it would probably get even more. If I had to choose between PE and PST spiritual successor, it is a no brainer, I would have gone PSTSS in a heartbeat. I do think PE will be a great game, but I am saddened that it sacrificed a PSTSS to do it.

[obyknven]

Is it off topic to say that Czech girls are hot?

Where girls? o_0

[Wombat]

Well, people don't mind dwarfs and elves arguing but, as for politics related with man/woman, some people tend to take them way too personal. If the things are so problematic to some people's eyes, then, I'd rather the designers to focus on boiling down a fantasy setting which has something common in our lives in deeper sense, or surrealistically (according to Cain's description). Personally, I'm just interested in possible experiments in various formats. If role-playing games, books and movies are my escapism, it would be because they, well, some of them at least, can offer views which can look into things in different ways. There are too many people who try to politically influence others but not so many people can give interesting insights on things around us, or they tend to be buried in the sound and the fury.

[C2B]

Are you OUT OF YOUR MIND?!?! What is the number one game everybody brings up? PST! What is the number one game everybody has been requesting/referincing what the game to be like? PST! What is the number one game that has a unique setting and doesn't feel like a rehash of ideas? PST!!!!! You really think PST successor would not get as good as PE? I would say it would probably get even more. If I had to choose between PE and PST spiritual successor, it is a no brainer, I would have gone PSTSS in a heartbeat. I do think PE will be a great game, but I am saddened that it sacrificed a PSTSS to do it.

 

While I don't agree with him too (well, not in that manner) Making Eternity first and AFTER that a plane-jumping thing makes kinda more sense.

[DocDoomII]

I'd like a Planescape successor too, but it would have a different protagonist and most probably different companion and that makes me a sad panda.

[FlintlockJazz]

I very much welcome dialogue adapted to the character's intelligence. Hopefully charisma will also play a part, if that attribute exists in the game.

 

I think I need to go back and play the original Fallouts again. But I already have a bunch of RPGs queued up for my enjoyment...

I like it, but I hope it isn't tied to a stat that favors any specific class. I hate when intelligence is a dialogue stat and a mage stat. I get it, mages are smart. But it annoys me that mages don't have to sacrifice a combat stat for conversation options while every other class does.

I hope it is tied to a stat that favours classes, but that's because I hope all the stats influence conversation choices, which is why I want to avoid the stat inflation of games like DAO. So the mage gets Int that ties into his class and for the smart dialogue options? That's fine, because your burly warrior might not get those but he will get the Strength-related dialogue choices, and the priest will get the wisdom ones etc.

 

Charisma as a straight stat I'm not so sure on, I mean what is charisma? The ability to get friendly with someone? Surely a wise character would be able to work out what to say to appease someone too? I mean, isn't charisma more of a combination of other stats and qualities in a way? I'd prefer charisma to either be a leadership stat that influences the other stats to some degree in dialogue, providing a bonus where it applies to the another stat that is used, or a skill you can develop called Charm along with others like Manipulation.

[DocDoomII]

@FlintlockJazz In charisma you can count looks too. Looks, presence, personality...

[Mabster]

That interviewer bothered me a bit for some reason. Stupid questions, and too much bias showing through them.

You don't think the devs believe in their product enough to be able to justify it's existence? Asking questions that have the devs explain their decisions and stand by them is a good thing. I'm not seeing the stupid in there either, the interviewer knows his stuff and his questions were pretty spot-on.

[Theobeau]

Thanks for pointing the interview out.

 

Avellone makes interesting comments about different dialogue options for hi and low attributes being written into the game (will increase re playability) and the use of a hidden mortality and reputation index a la FNV. The latter managed to track reputation and quest effects across 6 (?7 ?8 groups) quite well without being intrusive or too obvious.

 

Aside:

OBS are really working the gaming sites hard aren't they? Into the final 10 days and one huge push for pledges etc....

[ogrezilla]

I very much welcome dialogue adapted to the character's intelligence. Hopefully charisma will also play a part, if that attribute exists in the game.

 

I think I need to go back and play the original Fallouts again. But I already have a bunch of RPGs queued up for my enjoyment...

I like it, but I hope it isn't tied to a stat that favors any specific class. I hate when intelligence is a dialogue stat and a mage stat. I get it, mages are smart. But it annoys me that mages don't have to sacrifice a combat stat for conversation options while every other class does.

I hope it is tied to a stat that favours classes, but that's because I hope all the stats influence conversation choices, which is why I want to avoid the stat inflation of games like DAO. So the mage gets Int that ties into his class and for the smart dialogue options? That's fine, because your burly warrior might not get those but he will get the Strength-related dialogue choices, and the priest will get the wisdom ones etc.

 

Charisma as a straight stat I'm not so sure on, I mean what is charisma? The ability to get friendly with someone? Surely a wise character would be able to work out what to say to appease someone too? I mean, isn't charisma more of a combination of other stats and qualities in a way? I'd prefer charisma to either be a leadership stat that influences the other stats to some degree in dialogue, providing a bonus where it applies to the another stat that is used, or a skill you can develop called Charm along with others like Manipulation.

I don't really like the first part. I mean sure, there should be times when you can use strength for conversation options. But I think that is just leading each class to have an almost pre-set personality that comes with its main combat stat. You get to decide how to use it, but I dunno I just don't like it. Its better than only having Int that doubles up with combat and conversation though.

 

The last part of that I do like. Having separate skills like Charm and Manipulation instead of an all-encompassing charisma. But then again, it could shoehorn your character into making the same types of choices the entire game if you have to specialize too much. But done right I think it would be cool.

Edited October 6, 2012 by ogrezilla

[dlux]

I very much welcome dialogue adapted to the character's intelligence. Hopefully charisma will also play a part, if that attribute exists in the game.

 

This was the part that got me really excited too. I'm trying to work out just how stupid I can make my character to get all the 'you're a moron' responses and still be able to tie my own shoelaces before battle? I absolutely love additional stat/skill/class based reactivity in games, it makes me feel my character is so much more alive and each playthrough gives me a new perspective. Anyway, I'm delighted to read that this is the direction they are going in.

 

Yeah, it was awesome in New Vegas. This video is full of LOL ^^

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWZwfJoZ2oE

Edited October 6, 2012 by dlux

[diablo169]

I very much welcome dialogue adapted to the character's intelligence. Hopefully charisma will also play a part, if that attribute exists in the game.

 

This was the part that got me really excited too. I'm trying to work out just how stupid I can make my character to get all the 'you're a moron' responses and still be able to tie my own shoelaces before battle? I absolutely love additional stat/skill/class based reactivity in games, it makes me feel my character is so much more alive and each playthrough gives me a new perspective. Anyway, I'm delighted to read that this is the direction they are going in.

 

Yeah, it was awesome in New Vegas. This video is full of LOL ^^

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWZwfJoZ2oE

 

It's better when the NPC actually reacts to you being stupid.

[DocDoomII]

That would have required too much voice over, probably.