Update #72: Death Godlike and Expected Ship Date

[StrangeCat]

Wow I love the attention to detail you guys are putting into the game.  What will be alive?  Will Candels cast shadows and be moving as they flicker in a dark room?  What will move in your pictures?

Looks fantastic!

Now I think I will do a tribute music piece since you have more pics.

[Valorian]

Hi,

 

This is my very first post ever, not just to this forum but to any forum (though I've been carefully reading all of your posts here right from the beginning). But as a passionate fan of the IE games and as a backer of PoE, I just had to finally make my first post in response to update #72 because of my deep disappointment that we won't be getting more wilderness exploration areas. For me, dungeon exploration is a painful chore, cities are ok/fine, wilderness areas are awesome. That is why for me it is BG1 (not BG2) that is the greatest crpg of all time. And this is supposed to be a spiritual successor to all the IE games and not just to BG2. Having lots of wilderness exploration in the game should not even be thought of as an "added stretch goal." It should be part of the original game concept - a given, not a special addon.

 

Anyway, what I hope for now is that exploration of areas will not be linear so that I can save what wilderness areas there are available for exploation to the end of the game. I would hate to have to finish all the wilderness areas early in the game and then only have cities, and especially dungeons left for the rest of the game. That would really kill my excitement.

 

I agree with you and I'll add that one of the stretch goals, the 2.2 million one, was "new Region"(.."the world of Project Eternity grows in a major way with the inclusion of a whole new faction and the territory it holds").

 

So there's a "base" region and a new region that was unlocked with a stretch goal. They didn't specify the number of areas or levels like they did with the megadungeon, but I guess the base region could be a game on its own (hopefully including a decent number of wilderness areas), then maybe with the new region goal achieved the number of wilderness and other areas increased to represent this new territory.

 

Cities and dungeons (mega or not) can't be substitutes for wilderness areas, especially if you're allowed to explore the wilderness non-linearly, like in BG1.

[rjshae]

 

Obvious troll is obvious.

*sudden idea for a PoE monster*

Huge, bright-red troll that likes to try and hide behind small, green bushes before jumping out and saying "boo."

 

Hide check... failed.

[Reever]

No stretch-goals? That surprised me a bit, but you guys must know what you're doing! The game coming out in Winter 2014 is great, though!!

 

Also, what about adding add-ons to our current pledges? I'd really like to have that expansion, already :D

[Lephys]

Hide check... failed.

... I see what you did there. "Hide" check... 'Cause his skin is conspicuously bright red!

 

HAH!  

Edited February 17, 2014 by Lephys

[Wicelo]

The interiors furnitures look good even in the screenshots from the previous updates, however please try not to make interiors exagerately big compared to the character size or it may impair realism and immersion. I don't mind narrow interiors where a 6 members group can't deploy to its usual formation as long as the path finding doesn't make  characters movement too buggy like in BG2. In fact it may be interesting to design interiors as narrow since some group members will have to stay/fight in the hallway, in the stairs or between doors and such things are good for immersion and tactical fighting.

 

To me both the blacksmith and the Odra's gift look too wide relatively to the entrance/stairs size. If you want to keep it that way maybe you should add some supportive pillars or walls to make it more consistent with an architecture point of view.

Edited February 18, 2014 by Wicelo

[Alfiriel]

portraits look really good )

[ronjs666]

I'm not keen on the big flappy ears for the earth godlike. Maybe I'll get used to it after a while. I do like the death ones though.

I'm not a floppy ear person either.  But I love the artwork.  

[rjshae]

 

Hide check... failed.

... I see what you did there. "Hide" check... 'Cause his skin is conspicuously bright red!

 

HAH!  

 

Yes indeed, the red coloration would be a dead giveaway.

 

[Agremont]

 

 I know of Aloth, Cadegund, Eder, Sagani, Pallegina, Forton, and the Orlan Cypher (Don't know if we have a name). I haven't heard of the last companion, but may have missed it or forgotten it. I am assuming it is a Amaua character seeing as that is the only race not represented by the current list.

I actually like half the names. Normally, I just roll my eyes at fantasy names because they try too hard.

 

 

While agree with the bolded, the names in PoE doesn't do it for me, with the possible exception being Sagani.

[lavizh]

Great update, thanks.

[forgottenlor]

Hi,

 

This is my very first post ever, not just to this forum but to any forum (though I've been carefully reading all of your posts here right from the beginning). But as a passionate fan of the IE games and as a backer of PoE, I just had to finally make my first post in response to update #72 because of my deep disappointment that we won't be getting more wilderness exploration areas. For me, dungeon exploration is a painful chore, cities are ok/fine, wilderness areas are awesome. That is why for me it is BG1 (not BG2) that is the greatest crpg of all time. And this is supposed to be a spiritual successor to all the IE games and not just to BG2. Having lots of wilderness exploration in the game should not even be thought of as an "added stretch goal." It should be part of the original game concept - a given, not a special addon.

 

Anyway, what I hope for now is that exploration of areas will not be linear so that I can save what wilderness areas there are available for exploation to the end of the game. I would hate to have to finish all the wilderness areas early in the game and then only have cities, and especially dungeons left for the rest of the game. That would really kill my excitement.

 

While I agree all things being equal, new wilderness areas would be cool, I'd actually like to point out none of the other IE games had wilderness areas like the original Baldur's Gate. Both Icewind Dales were pretty much limited to dungeon exploration, with outdoor areas much more akin to dungeons than to Baldur's Gate wilderness. Baldur's Gate II and Planescape both had a huge explorable city. I definately agree that the wilderness areas were the high point of the original Baldur's Gate. It does sound like Pillars of Eternity will have some great cities to explore. Also the Wilderness areas we have seen seem to be large from the prototypes. For this reason I hope the game offers rewarding exploration both in cities and outside.

Those people who were against the stretch goals feared a significantly later release date and that quantity would come before quality (that new outside areas might not necessarily entail joy of exploration.) Since the vast majority supported the stretch goals, I wonder if the points brought up by the minority might have been valid enough to prevent Obsidian from pursuing them.

Edited February 18, 2014 by forgottenlor

[Hassat Hunter]

Since the vast majority supported the stretch goals, I wonder if the points brought up by the minority might have been valid enough to prevent Obsidian from pursuing them.

I'm gonna say it again...

 

The monetary point.

[Leferd]

 

 

 

 

I know of Aloth, Cadegund, Eder, Sagani, Pallegina, Forton, and the Orlan Cypher (Don't know if we have a name). I haven't heard of the last companion, but may have missed it or forgotten it. I am assuming it is a Amaua character seeing as that is the only race not represented by the current list.

I actually like half the names. Normally, I just roll my eyes at fantasy names because they try too hard.

While agree with the bolded, the names in PoE doesn't do it for me, with the possible exception being Sagani.

I'm partial to The Devil of Caroc. That sounds like a name Sawyer would have come up with.

[forgottenlor]

 

Since the vast majority supported the stretch goals, I wonder if the points brought up by the minority might have been valid enough to prevent Obsidian from pursuing them.

I'm gonna say it again...

 

The monetary point.

 

 

If these things are stretch goals, then don't they only happen if we as a community pledge enough money? As I understand it money would not be the main issue, because if there is not enough, then those goals won't come to fruition anyways. I think its more a matter of time and being able to assign qualified and experienced developers to complete the stretch goals.

[rjshae]

Here's a nice illustration along the same lines as the cat form: the "human Deer".

[Bryy]

 

 

Since the vast majority supported the stretch goals, I wonder if the points brought up by the minority might have been valid enough to prevent Obsidian from pursuing them.

I'm gonna say it again...

 

The monetary point.

 

 

If these things are stretch goals, then don't they only happen if we as a community pledge enough money? As I understand it money would not be the main issue, because if there is not enough, then those goals won't come to fruition anyways. I think its more a matter of time and being able to assign qualified and experienced developers to complete the stretch goals.

 

If they don't have the money, they can't assign people to work.

 

That's how employment works.

Edited February 21, 2014 by Bryy

[martix]

Yay for art updates.

[tinderbox]

Pleased with the end-2014 ship date (it'll be summer here tho) -- gives me time to finish my mammoth, neverending BGII EE play-through. I'm really hoping the length is similar too as I'm keen for a new RPG that is meaty and one can engage with for a long time.

 

(Long-time lurker, first-time poster)

[Cantousent]

I didn't know where else to ask this and I didn't want to bug Fionavar:  I see that Wasteland is early access on STEAM.  How will we receive our copies of it, for those of us who bought in at that particular tier?  I neither expect nor desire early access.  I'm just curious how it will work.

[Lephys]

I didn't know where else to ask this and I didn't want to bug Fionavar:  I see that Wasteland is early access on STEAM.  How will we receive our copies of it, for those of us who bought in at that particular tier?  I neither expect nor desire early access.  I'm just curious how it will work.

There's actually a thread about that from back in mid-December. Hope that helps.

[Bryy]

I didn't know where else to ask this and I didn't want to bug Fionavar:  I see that Wasteland is early access on STEAM.  How will we receive our copies of it, for those of us who bought in at that particular tier?  I neither expect nor desire early access.  I'm just curious how it will work.

Either the thread about WL2 or the WL2 forums.

[ma_peche]

It's very disappointing to get an update e-mail with the subject line, "Expected ship date" and then get something vague like, "Winter 2014." Winter ends in a few days, and the end of 2014 only has 11 days of winter, so I'm guessing that's the time frame, but we already had announcement of expected completion "forth quarter 2014" and "by the end of 2014" so this isn't really news or update worthy (especially as it sounds as tentative as the rest). It would be nice if the update says there's an expected ship date, to provide a date, Winter is not a date (even if you narrow it down to a specific year). </rant>

 

Other than that, it's looking really good. I really appreciate the detailed updates, I funded the Torment kickstarter, but they've gone to ground and are very sparse with their updates. 

[LadyCrimson]

Typically "Winter (year)" means from the start of winter that year, not the end of winter. At least in the US. But would agree that it's not much different than saying "end of 2014" or whatever.

[Hassat Hunter]

Well, you know how development is (or if not, read the updates!!!)... so giving a hard date is only shooting themselves in the foot. That's why things like "winter" or "end" are set, to give leniecy...