Update #69: Pillars of Eternity

[Metabot]

I think they look great and any improvement is welcome.

[Lephys]

Well, the kind of funny thing is, the act of judging something at all is only as valuable as what it's claiming/aiming to be.

 

In other words, if you want a good wedding cake for your wedding, you taste a completed wedding cake (even if it's just a little piece). You don't wait 'til they've got some eggs and flour in a bowl, and drink that, and say "OMG, this cake is AWFUL!" Because it's not even a cake yet. But, that could be the absolute best eggs'n'flour mixture EVER, but that mixture, no matter how top-notch it is, is not designed to satiate your taste buds. It's not even claiming to.

 

So, just as you wouldn't look at a wireframe model with a flat grey placeholder texture and say "I don't like the character textures!", with most of this, there's just really no point in judging it unless you're judging it for what it is.

 

The character reaction animations are an excellent example. It's great to say "Hey, in case you were planning on them not having reaction animations, they look silly without reaction animations." But, judging the "current" (aka non-existent) reaction animations as bad quality animations is silly. Obviously they haven't even put anything in yet. It's not like they've spent hours and hours of effort polishing the hit-reaction animations just to get them to the point of the character just standing there idly as if nothing's happening. No, they don't even really EXIST yet.

 

Anywho, like a cake, judge it all you want. But don't judge its taste until it's supposed to taste good. They're showing us all this stuff so we can see what they've got so far. This isn't your typical "we're a publisher, so we can ONLY show you stuff that looks in no way flawed or lacking in anything, because then we'll lose .00837% in hype/sales!" (exaggeration of a publisher). Obsidian isn't saying "every tiny detail you see is totally us saying 'we think this aspect of this screenshot is AWESOME and complete, and we'll only improve upon something from here if enough people tell us we did a crappy job with it!"

 

My point is simply to keep that stuff in mind. I'm not pointing at anyone in particular, or suggesting that someone specifically judged the reaction animations in a ridiculous manner or something. It was just an example of something that, when you think about it, really doesn't make sense to actually judge. Consider what it is they're actually showing off, and what it is that just happens to be in the scene, before judging it. Even if it's to say something's bad.

 

It doesn't do them any good to tell them something's bad until it's something they actually need evaluated. Sticking with the reaction-animation example, when you see footage of characters reacting to hits, but reacting like idiots, THEN say "Hey, I probably shouldn't do backflips and moonwalk-dance whenever I get hit. You should probably work on that." Saying "Incomplete game is incomplete!" doesn't do much for anyone, really, even if you say it politely.

Edited January 6, 2014 by Lephys

[StrangeCat]

Everything you have seen for this game is Alpha there is a long long way to go for development.

You cannot judge anything yet.

[Lephys]

You cannot judge anything yet.

That's a bit of an overkill reaction (to the opposite extreme). It's not that we can't judge anything. We can judge plenty. But, mainly:

 

1) Certain things are pointless to judge (such as stuff that hasn't even made its way into the game build yet)

2) Judging things using "what this should do/be when the game is complete" is pretty pointless.

 

That's all I'm saying. Don't judge a half-painted wall by saying "Man, the rest of that wall is TOTALLY still unpainted! That's a TERRIBLE design!" And don't judge things until you can actually see them. "I'm waiting for dessert, but it's not even on the table yet to taste, so... this absence of dessert in my mouth right now doesn't taste like I think dessert should, so I'm gonna say the dessert is TERRIBLE!"

[StrangeCat]

 

You cannot judge anything yet.

That's a bit of an overkill reaction (to the opposite extreme). It's not that we can't judge anything. We can judge plenty. But, mainly:

 

1) Certain things are pointless to judge (such as stuff that hasn't even made its way into the game build yet)

2) Judging things using "what this should do/be when the game is complete" is pretty pointless.

 

That's all I'm saying. Don't judge a half-painted wall by saying "Man, the rest of that wall is TOTALLY still unpainted! That's a TERRIBLE design!" And don't judge things until you can actually see them. "I'm waiting for dessert, but it's not even on the table yet to taste, so... this absence of dessert in my mouth right now doesn't taste like I think dessert should, so I'm gonna say the dessert is TERRIBLE!"

 

 

I don't think anything you say is going to change the development in anyway these are professionals that know what they are doing and have everything set up to go exactly as they need to to make there budget and time line. 

  Your Judgemnet on the development isn't going to change there pipeline.  Say what you like if that satisfies you.

This after all is all about letting people see the development process.

your wall metaphor is horrible along with your desert. 

 

[Zzealot]

Hey Obsidian, do you plan to add PoE assembly behavior scenarios, something like it was in Dragon Age: Origins?

That would be great.

 

Sorry for bad english - google translate

[Lephys]

I don't think anything you say is going to change the development in anyway these are professionals that know what they are doing and have everything set up to go exactly as they need to to make there budget and time line. 

  Your Judgemnet on the development isn't going to change there pipeline.  Say what you like if that satisfies you.

This after all is all about letting people see the development process.

your wall metaphor is horrible along with your desert.

My my... Someone's a little ray of sunshine today, aren't they?

 

Obsidian has told us on multiple occasions that they openly welcome and value our feedback. So, if you think they're liars, then you think they're liars. I don't see what that has to do with what I say or don't say.

 

Frankly, I couldn't care less whether or not you agree with anything I've said. I'm not here to enforce people's beliefs. I'm simply sharing my insight. Value it or don't, but insulting my metaphors and trying to make things personal doesn't accomplish anything.

 

There's simply a reasonable way of offering feedback, resulting in objectively valuable "judgement," and an unreasonable way of doing so. No matter how perfectly fine it is for everyone to have whatever opinion they want, it doesn't change the fact that some of them are objectively useful when it comes to making game design decisions, and some of them aren't.

 

I had no hand in the creation of reason, so it really doesn't do any good to complain about what is and isn't reasonable to me. As if my suddenly changing my mind would have any effect on the truth.

 

Also, food for thought: If it doesn't make any difference whether we provide feedback or not, then what's the point in convincing me or anyone else of that? What difference is it going to make, according to your belief, whether I read your post just now, or didn't? Whether I changed my mind, or just kept believing what I believe, true or otherwise?

[Metabot]

Update today?

[Falkon Swiftblade]

Update today?

 

from my experience I usually see it post ~ 11:30pm ET on days where there's an update. The nice thing about these updates is they get more interesting each time as everything starts to come together! I hope it's not a tiny one since the last was a big one. It'd been a month, so hopefully its a goody!

[Lephys]

I would bet next Tuesday, at the earliest. They didn't even get back from holidays 'til sometime last week, so they've barely had a whole week back at work (if that long). I'd set your sights on this coming Tuesday, if I had to guess.

[PhantomEidolon]

I have a question too. The name in "consumer information" is what is going to be used in credits, etc, right? And the real important name is just the one in the shipping details, yes?

I too would like to know about this. I have read through the entire thread and didn't seem to find any real confirmation if this was the case or not.

[Magnus Navarre]

A superb update, watching the teaser and the thought of playing the game brings back sweet childhood memories.

[zebrotavr]

I have a question considering pledge management. 

Does the option "I want to buy addons and/or join the Obsidian Order of Eternity" means "Digital Download of Expansion Pack +$20 (included in tiers $165 and above)" or something else? because i donated 20 more bucks for this option...

Edited January 16, 2014 by zebrotavr

[Mechos]

Forgive me for dredging this up from the depths, but I'm afraid I'm having a small bit of trouble updating my pledge (I know, I know, I was a bit slow on getting around to it).

 

Namely, I have my pledge, the guide, and the expansion in my cart, but when I go to payment method, the only options available are PayPal and Stripe. Is this really all that is available, and I can't simply pay through Amazon or through my credit card directly? Or am I missing something?