Backer Beta: Coming August 18th

[IndiraLightfoot]

 

I was not expecting it to be on my birthday.

 

But now I'm just so happy.

 

 

Happy birthday in advance, Bryy!

 

 

I really don't know if I should play the beta. On the one hand, I really want to help iron out any issues PoE might still have, provide feedback in case there are things I really don't like (or do), and get a bit of experience building characters.

On the other hand, I don't want to get spoiled too much, or become too familiar with a game ending that "new and exciting" feel that games have when you first play them.

 

I feel that if I want to debate about topics coming up, having some hands-on experience puts me in a better position to argue, but I wonder if that's needed.

Advice?

I really feel the same. For the Divinity: Original Sin, I did very minor character creation and start-up area runs, and nothing more.

 

 

 

 

 

For people who are concerned about spoilers, the Backer Beta will feature a number of areas near the middle of the game that do not have strong connections (if any) to the critical path.  In addition to the characters you create, we are also likely to feature a roster of pre-made characters who are not companions.  We don't have any interest in using the Backer Beta to give out story info.  We'd much rather have people play it and throttle the mechanics, UI, etc. so we can make fixes and adjustments.

 

Perfect! Thank you.

 

 

 

 

Will we be able to play around with character creation and level up to the appropriate level of the demo or is your party made up of these pre-made characters exclusively? Will these characters be interactable like companions, or will they be like adventure hall party members?

 

You will be able to go through character creation for your main character and any character you choose to make through the adventurer creator.  They will all act as adventurers, not companions (meaning they don't have story content).

 

Sweetest beta perfection....

[Bryy]

Thank you, Indira.

Edited July 18, 2014 by Bryy

[DickNervous]

This is very cool news! Now I just need to finish the other games I am playing.

[nipsen]

Hooray for beta.

Please let it be a proper beta and not yet another one thrown up on Steam Early access *spit*

...a real beta, where all the participants have paid for access, and also paid for the final game. And where the ruleset, and the game in general is more or less finalized. Mm..

 

What about recruiting people who didn't want to play the game, but who could be convinced to try it a little bit if prodded?

 

At least it would be an idea to state on beforehand what parts of the game they can tweak or change. Or, for example, what parts of the gameplay they might want to hear feedback on. Are designers interested in hearing about shadow artefacts in corners and rocks. Does shader artefacts turn up on lower detail settings that may not have been exhaustively tested earlier. Can you launch multithread/single-thread builds, where are the logs, what parts of the feedback can Obsidian use, how do they want it categorized. You know.. That's what a beta is if you want to get some useful feedback.

 

Else it's just a demo, that you pay extra for. And where suggestive references to... classical English literature.... will be censored by popular internet forum vote. To protect impressionable young children from all kinds of inappropriate and unbiblical things, as they heroically wade through seas of blood and corpses, in the otherwise approved family-friendly messiah-adventure.

[Sensuki]

It depends whether or not the backer beta areas have received paint overs or not. I think that they most likely will have, and they will probably have geometry issues ironed out the environment art issues during their alpha phase.

 

Shadow artifacting is obviously a bug which you would report.

 

Unity has a multi-threaded and single-threaded renderer. The multi-threaded renderer currently has a bug in it that causes audio stuttering. I reported this on the forums (as I have experienced this problem in Expeditions: Conquistador and Shadowrun Returns) and I think they've gone with a single-threaded renderer. Roby Atadero stated on the forums that the game does use multiple threads. Extra threading is used for the Fog Map.

 

Unity has a built in log (output_log.txt) which I hope they will expose. I used it in Shadowrun Returns to report some bugs, but it's not exposed in Expeditions: Conquistador or Wasteland 2.

 

Hopefully all the stuff you addressed will be included in the Beta Details page. inXile were pretty good with WL2 about how they wanted stuff reported on their CentreCode website. I wouldn't be surprised if Obsidian also use CentreCode for their bug reporting ... although perhaps they have an in-game or proprietary system for it.

[TrueMenace]

Hopefully someone can answer this. I tried to skim this thread for an answer but no luck.

 

Will there be Steam Early Access for the beta? I have not pledged on Kickstarter, but I REALLY want to get in on the beta and start helping the devs out.

 

Look at Larian Studios' Divinity Original Sin which had backer beta AND Steam Early Access. 

 

Will Obsidian give us the option to get in on the backer beta through Steam Early Access?

[talharbash]

Hopefully someone can answer this. I tried to skim this thread for an answer but no luck.

 

Will there be Steam Early Access for the beta? I have not pledged on Kickstarter, but I REALLY want to get in on the beta and start helping the devs out.

 

Look at Larian Studios' Divinity Original Sin which had backer beta AND Steam Early Access. 

 

Will Obsidian give us the option to get in on the backer beta through Steam Early Access?

 

I've seen both a "no" to Early Access because they do not want to get bad impressions for an early version, and I've seen articles discussing Early Access with Obsidian where it seemed they were planning on it.

 

It's not known at this time if an EA with Steam will be released alongside the beta like Inxile did. From what I recall, there was a lot of confusion when Inxile did that and some backers resented it. I'm not taking sides on what happened (I didn't care either way), but it didn't go through without some controversy.

[MasterPrudent]

Hopefully someone can answer this. I tried to skim this thread for an answer but no luck.

 

Will there be Steam Early Access for the beta? I have not pledged on Kickstarter, but I REALLY want to get in on the beta and start helping the devs out.

 

Look at Larian Studios' Divinity Original Sin which had backer beta AND Steam Early Access. 

 

Will Obsidian give us the option to get in on the backer beta through Steam Early Access?

In the event that they don't offer the beta through steam early access you still have to option of pledging now (https://eternity.obsidian.net/buy) and getting beta access as an add-on. From memory the whole package adds up to something like $60.

[Sensuki]

http://www.guy****er.com/2014/07/20/episode-38-obsidian-entertainment/

 

In this interview that went up yesterday, it sounds like the pre-order option for the beta is being taken down before the beta goes live (which also indicates probably no early access). I'm sure we'll hear about this in the next update, but yeah just a forewarning if that does turn out to be true.

[Spike Spiegel 28]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So no beta for anyone who didnt pledge over 110$ correct?

 

Beta key was also add-on option to every tier that contained copy of the game

 

 

No, If you pledge 110€ you got it

 

Yes, it was.

 

However it was like 25 euro or something, almost the full game. So I said 'no thanks'...

 

 

If you go to the pledge manager you can check it... Starting 110$ you have it!

inform yourselves!

 

 

Beta key was part of reward in in $110 and above tiers, but there was also option to pay $25 extra on your tier and get beta key as add on. You can go check yourself in https://eternity.obsidian.net/backer/addons 

 

 

404, I already finalized my 20$ pledge so i dont think i can add it

 

 

Some reason there is "space" - character  in end of link that should not be there

here link without it https://eternity.obsidian.net/backer/addons

 

You can contact their support if you want to add beta in your pledge or go towards higher pledge. As that is way how you can currently change your finalized pledges in my understanding. 

 

I tried it via the support and they said I should wait till the portal functionality gets updated to be able to upgrade your tiers and addons. That was early Februrary. I am really hoping they going to add it cause I really had my eyes said on that sexy printed collectors book from the signed collectors copy.

Edited July 21, 2014 by Spike Spiegel 28

[kimbyungmo]

gj

[Jordan Joestar]

Very good new!!! 

[talharbash]

http://www.guy****er.com/2014/07/20/episode-38-obsidian-entertainment/

 

In this interview that went up yesterday, it sounds like the pre-order option for the beta is being taken down before the beta goes live (which also indicates probably no early access). I'm sure we'll hear about this in the next update, but yeah just a forewarning if that does turn out to be true.

 

Interesting. The beta comes out right after Gamescom where the game will be available to play for everyone.

 

Heh. I can see some people getting pissed about this.

[Hiro Protagonist II]

Josh has confirmed in another thread that Obsidian will be using a separate product. So it appears no Steam early access. 

 

You will not be locked into Steam because of the Backer Beta.  We're using a separate SKU/product for the Backer Beta for a number of reasons.

 

 

[anameforobsidian]

http://www.guy****er.com/2014/07/20/episode-38-obsidian-entertainment/

 

In this interview that went up yesterday, it sounds like the pre-order option for the beta is being taken down before the beta goes live (which also indicates probably no early access). I'm sure we'll hear about this in the next update, but yeah just a forewarning if that does turn out to be true.

 

By the way, was anyone else slightly miffed by Brendan Adler's obvious disrespect of the consumer?  It's not worth raising a huge fuss over, but it was good to see Josh rebuke his "eh, it sells" with "crack sells."

[J.E. Sawyer]

As a forewarning, there will not be a lot of Talents in the Backer Beta, so class advancement will feel fairly static in that regard.  Feedback on core class abilities will help us revise them, re-organize them, and flesh out Talents accordingly.

[Sarex]

Will there be different difficulty levels in the beta? I imagine that would be something that opinions could be given on too.

[Labadal]

Talents in Pillars of Eternity are like perks in Fallout or feats in the Neverwinter Nights games, yes?

 

I guess not including them in the beta isn't the biggest of deals. Could you list a couple of talents that you have in the game?

 

If they work like the above mentioned games, they seem like an important part of building the characters you want to roll with.

 

If I understand this correctly, we'll play without them and depending on our feedback, you will not only re-organize or flesh them out but also balance them or even cut some?

 

Sorry for rambling but one more question, will some talents be tied to race and stats?

[J.E. Sawyer]

All of the levels of difficulty (including Path of the Damned) will be present in the BB.

 

Talents are things that are not core to classes but can be used to flesh them out in different ways.  Some Talents are class-specific and some are more-or-less class-neutral.  An example of a class-neutral Talent would be Weapon Focus, which increases Accuracy with a group of weapons, or Hold the Line, which increases the character's Engagement Limit by 1.  Examples of class-specific Talents include Powerful Sprint, which increases the speed of a barbarian's Wild Sprint, Critical Focus, which grants allies affected by a paladin's Zealous Focus a 5% Hit to Crit conversion rate, and Penetrating Blast, which grants DT penetration to a wizard's Blast ability.

 

The BB will feature about two class-specific Talents per class (~20+) and a small handful of class-neutral Talents.

[J.E. Sawyer]

And in case anyone is wondering, yes, Grimoire Slam is still in for wizards and it's cool IMO.

[lolaldanee]

please Josh, make sure there are as many non class specific talents in the game as you possibly can squeeze in in the time you obsidians have left to finish the game, this is sooo very much important to build interesting chracters

[Lephys]

No worries, Josh. We'll bombard you with a plethora of feedback.

 

Exactly what kind of feedback will you be looking for, and will there be an organized system for submitting it (and for receiving testing "assignments" -- like what you're looking for the most, what's actually subject to change based on feedback, etc.?)

 

I've been in several betas and not really known what was useful and what wasn't. It just kinda sucks to submit 37 bits of feedback, only to later find out "Yeah, we're not really interested in changing any of that at all, unfortunately, and we haven't been this whole time." I don't mind not loving certain things that just aren't going to get tweaked, but I'd like to know how best to productively provide feedback.

 

And, I mean, if you guys just want to hear whatever we have to say about anything in the whole beta build, then that's fine, too. It's just nice to know which is the case.

[Sensuki]

Gameplay footage coming this Thursday br0s.

 

GiantBomb preview with developer commentary.

Edited July 23, 2014 by Sensuki

[gamerdude130]

Gameplay footage coming this Thursday br0s.

 

GiantBomb preview with developer commentary

Ohh yeah

Edited July 23, 2014 by gamerdude130

[Flow]

Gameplay footage coming this Thursday br0s.

 

GiantBomb preview with developer commentary.

 

Will this be what was shown at E3?