Thoughts on Gamescon Stream

[MReed]

 

Characters should say something about all the bones in the Orge's Cave.  The battle with the Orge's, the Club should knock Characters Flat and Stun them, Knock them in the air and stun them, break bones(since you have this in there) 

Even your reflex shouldn't prevent all of that from happening in battle.

 

Character's don't say anything because all the party member's in the backer beta are "hired henchmen", created in the Adventurer's Hall.  Therefore, they have no dialog.

 

The Ogre can indeed knock characters flat, stun them, and knock them back.  The more complex animations that you are talking would clearly be out of scope for this game.

[Stun]

There are way to many details that need to added before this game is released.  I can not believe it will make it by Dec for a ful release?

I agree but I'm not worried. 3-4 months is plenty of time to polish up a playable beta. And judging by Josh's language in this morning's pod-cast thing, he seems to think so too.

[IRMA]

Graphics:

 

Will the outdoors shown in the vid be polished or is this the final version?

I kinda like how there are flying leafs outdoors, but it seems a little flat as could't find any more animations going on in the background except for those leafs, for example I have the feeling that the grass isn't moving at all:

 

 

At least moving grass would help a lot.

But I have seen moving grass in your other videos so I guess this is just before polish will be done on this

[NWN_babaYaga]

Not sure how they will create moving grass with a 2D background except the grass is a 3d model layered over the image or you use an animated background but that could be an engine killer with such a high res image. 

 

About the encounter with the spiders i agree. I love spiders and one of the cave corridors could be used as some sort of a nest for them where they retreat, feed blah. Give them a little nasty place of spider comfort. But they look great, the wet look of the big ones legs are very cool. And the attack animation could be more menacing. Right now it looks as if she is trying to test out the enemy and bite with their claws but the distance is to far away. So either she jumps forward a little bit over the player and then use her bite or attacks brutaly with her 2 front legs like they did in the infinity games. The animations there were very great and i loved them too. And a web attack I hope will be in.... that it always a scare factor being webbed and attacked!

 

And i forgot to mention that when the spider dies... she realy jumps a bit to high.

Edited August 14, 2014 by NWN_babaYaga

[IRMA]

Not sure how they will create moving grass with a 2D background except the grass is a 3d model layered over the image or you use an animated background but that could be an engine killer with such a high res image. 

Nope.

It clearly moves in this vid: 

As well as the trees.

Plus water moves here so I do believe this is possible within this engine. 

[Flow]

Grass moved by wind or by characters passing through it?

 

I'm guessing the former is much easier than the latter.

[Linkamus]

Only Baldur's Gate 2. And the combat was my least favourite part of that game, too.

 

But the important thing is that if even the developers get brutalised on Easy, I can't help but suspect the difficulty might be too high.

 

If you want to just be able to faceroll everthing, then this game might not be for you. These kind of games are meant to be difficult. No one should be saying 'the difficulty might be too high'. I've been playing games that are WAY TOO EASY for over ten years now. It's time to make new games that test your limits. I'm all for making PoE as reasonably difficult as possible.

Edited August 14, 2014 by Linkamus

[Lephys]

I would like to point out that, juts because someone's on a team to develop RPGs doesn't mean they're automatically a pro at playing them. And I think that's fine.

 

That, and difficulty discrepancies are something commonly found/tweaked during the beta testing period.

 

But, the game isn't really obligated to offer Effortlessness Mode. Even on Easy, it's still supposed to be challenging. Just less so. Besides, it's a completely new IP and ruleset. I'm sure we're all going to get a little face-rolled before we settle in to a comfort zone with the game and its mechanics. I think that's just called "learning."

[JDizzle420]

I just wanted to make sure that you all got a chance to see the third demo. I didn't see anyone post it yet.

 

http://www.twitch.tv/paradoxinteractive/b/558125934

[beardedbrian]

when the commentator asked about the age of the world (1:43) the presenter mentions that this is about half way through the game.. really level 5 is half way through the game? and the beta is about 3-6 hours long? so how long is the game? i was anticipating a 60+ hour game..

 

and the character creation looks like crap.

Edited August 14, 2014 by beardedbrian

[averagedog]

to be fair, Divinity Original Sin is artificially long by virtue of the combat system and the action lag between moves of the characters and the enemies.  Unlike Divinity Original sin, we are actually going to have that mega dungeon to explore, among all the other side quests needed for our stronghold. I think  Pillars will have the same amount, if not more actual content than Divinity original sin. But This game looks like it will have a lot less animated eyecandy.

[Leferd]

when the commentator asked about the age of the world (1:43) the presenter mentions that this is about half way through the game.. really level 5 is half way through the game? and the beta is about 3-6 hours long? so how long is the game? i was anticipating a 60+ hour game..

 

and the character creation looks like crap.

Maximum level is 12.

 

In terms of scope, Eternity falls in between BG and and BG2.

[Tsuga C]

Also, one thing to keep in mind about difficulty...

And this, sir, is a feature, not a bug. No pun intended as I leave those to Lephys.

[Quadrone]

There are way to many details that need to added before this game is released.  I can not believe it will make it by Dec for a ful release?

 

As a beta it looks really good and this is the first beta.   But it needs tons and tons of details to impress.  

 

Just that Battle with the spiders or Orge Guy shows how much is missing.  

 

Also your characters look really blury and out of place in the town, your models?  They don't look defined at all.   The Dungeons look way to happy and bright is this game for teens?  Is this... what do they call it, High Fantasy?

 

The Fonts color doesn't blend in on the screen well as it is.

 

The UI I am sure you are already working on really needs help.

 

It needs more atmosphere.  Cut the lights a bit get out a torch to add more atmosphere in Dungeons and caves.

 

Spiders should have webs and get up on there legs when they attack using the body to knock you down as well as attacking webs, poison etc.  When they die they should have blood.

 

When you walk into a Cave you should trigger Spiders attacking by touching a web on the floor or making sound.   There shouldn't just be some Random spider hanging out that's silly.  Spiders are cunning Hunters.

 

Characters should say something about all the bones in the Orge's Cave.  The battle with the Orge's, the Club should knock Characters Flat and Stun them, Knock them in the air and stun them, break bones(since you have this in there) 

Even your reflex shouldn't prevent all of that from happening in battle.

 

If you have a windmill running and looking beautfiul with the water then why can't you have some signs move in the wind, or some Grass, or some tress, then have leaves fall.  It looks like your trying to add as much in the wild?  But I think some more animated nature would work wonders for your world.

 

I could write a ton more.  Over all it looks like what everyone was hoping for .

 

Me I hope you can make it better.   Way Way better.   Details Gents.

 

Look forward to Seeing People Playing your Beta on youtube.

 

Great Job so far.

 

You started out somewhat reasonable and then went full retard.

How many people do you think work on this game, how much time and money do they have?

Getting so tired of all these backseat developers...

[Elerond]

when the commentator asked about the age of the world (1:43) the presenter mentions that this is about half way through the game.. really level 5 is half way through the game? and the beta is about 3-6 hours long? so how long is the game? i was anticipating a 60+ hour game..

 

and the character creation looks like crap.

Areas in beta are optional side content for the game which you get access about half way of main story. There is plenty other side content areas, which means that game will with high probability take 60+ hours to finish if you do most of the side content.

 

Max level in game is 12, as mentioned previously and it is said that you can't reach that level if you don't do side content areas.

 

You probably should specify why character creation looks crap, so that there is at least some chance that Obsidian will make changes on it to make it less crap looking for you.

[StrangeCat]

 

There are way to many details that need to added before this game is released.  I can not believe it will make it by Dec for a ful release?

 

As a beta it looks really good and this is the first beta.   But it needs tons and tons of details to impress.  

 

Just that Battle with the spiders or Orge Guy shows how much is missing.  

 

Also your characters look really blury and out of place in the town, your models?  They don't look defined at all.   The Dungeons look way to happy and bright is this game for teens?  Is this... what do they call it, High Fantasy?

 

The Fonts color doesn't blend in on the screen well as it is.

 

The UI I am sure you are already working on really needs help.

 

It needs more atmosphere.  Cut the lights a bit get out a torch to add more atmosphere in Dungeons and caves.

 

Spiders should have webs and get up on there legs when they attack using the body to knock you down as well as attacking webs, poison etc.  When they die they should have blood.

 

When you walk into a Cave you should trigger Spiders attacking by touching a web on the floor or making sound.   There shouldn't just be some Random spider hanging out that's silly.  Spiders are cunning Hunters.

 

Characters should say something about all the bones in the Orge's Cave.  The battle with the Orge's, the Club should knock Characters Flat and Stun them, Knock them in the air and stun them, break bones(since you have this in there) 

Even your reflex shouldn't prevent all of that from happening in battle.

 

If you have a windmill running and looking beautfiul with the water then why can't you have some signs move in the wind, or some Grass, or some tress, then have leaves fall.  It looks like your trying to add as much in the wild?  But I think some more animated nature would work wonders for your world.

 

I could write a ton more.  Over all it looks like what everyone was hoping for .

 

Me I hope you can make it better.   Way Way better.   Details Gents.

 

Look forward to Seeing People Playing your Beta on youtube.

 

Great Job so far.

 

You started out somewhat reasonable and then went full retard.

How many people do you think work on this game, how much time and money do they have?

Getting so tired of all these backseat developers...

 

Let me show you the reality of the game industry.  So that you may understand which you do not.

http://www.polygon.com/2014/7/31/5949433/the-cost-of-a-game-studio

 

Now a beta should be used to try and break the game, find bugs, and give advise on how to improve something.    There is probably a list that Obsidian has of things they wish were in the game but won't be when it's released, but might be after it is released.  Patch number....adds such and such fixes such and such.

 

Josh said this is a dark and gritty game so I gave some advice which they probably already know about, "the dungeons and creatures and such. "

 

The idea it to try and make it as detailed and realstic as possible by adding in as much detail as possible in there time frame before release.

 

I am not a game developer I am composer and I have no wish at this time to be part of the game industry. 

 

I would litterly stand in front of the Conductor, stop the Orchestra, and Scream you guys aren't playing with enough passion!   That's a slur over those phrases I want you string players to feel till it hurts!!!  But I am not in the industry right now so it's all cool.

 

Edited August 15, 2014 by StrangeCat

[TreverJohansen]

I just thought id bring this up here, and keep in mind I will be  playing this but after playing Divine Divinity Original sin and seeing what they did with only 900k and seeing the 4 million spent on this and backed I hope the content is alot longer then Divine Divinity. After seeing the graphics and hearing the Sound track in that game along with the environmental combat say if you casted rain, all the mobs would have wet status and same with your party but you could freeze the mobs alot easier with wet status and ect. If you guys get the chance play Divine divinity original sin if you haven't.

 

ps i love obsidian and the idea bringing back the old BG games but I still have some questions. 

Edited August 15, 2014 by TreverJohansen

[Freshock]

I really can't understand some people that comment that the graphics looks bad, it might a different kind of style maybe - seems to me like it's a scenery paintings mixed with digital graphics and not just the latter - almost seem like people get confused by it and that's kinda sad. Also the character creation "look" was something I found really impressive, really liked that part of the game, and I'm not trying to be a fan boy when I'm saying it. There's definetly things that can be improved in the game, which is not strange when it's beta, but can't really understand the graphics complaints from some people.

[Flow]

I just thought id bring this up here, and keep in mind I will be  playing this but after playing Divine Divinity Original sin and seeing what they did with only 900k and seeing the 4 million spend on this and backed I hope the content is alot longer then Divine Divinity. After seeing the graphics and hearing the Sound track in that game along with the environmental combat say if you casted rain, all the mobs would have wet status and same with your party but you could freeze the mobs alot easier with wet status and ect. If you guys get the chance play Divine divinity original sin if you haven't.

 

ps i love obsidian and the idea bringing back the old BG games but I still have some questions. 

 

D:OS had several million in funding before the Kickstarter.

[Lephys]

I just thought id bring this up here, and keep in mind I will be  playing this but after playing Divine Divinity Original sin and seeing what they did with only 900k and seeing the 4 million spend on this and backed I hope the content is alot longer then Divine Divinity.

*sigh*. They had a lot more funds than that. That's just all they raised in their Kickstarter campaign. Their budget for Divinity: OS is comparable to PoE's, so I wouldn't go expecting 4 times the game, if I were you. That, and Divinity was using Larian's own, already-established, in-house engine. Obsidian had to start with Unity, familiarize themselves with it, and build everything off of that.

 

EDIT: Sorry, Flow. You beat me to it, 8P. I type too slowly.

Edited August 15, 2014 by Lephys

[Stun]

It needs more atmosphere.  Cut the lights a bit get out a torch to add more atmosphere in Dungeons and caves.

As a dungeon connoisseur, I both agree and disagree with this.

 

Atmosphere is, of course, the most important thing to nail in dungeon design. But that does not mean that "dark" is the rule. And we haven't seen nearly enough of the caves and dungeons in this game to make any sort of judgment call on the matter anyway.

[TreverJohansen]

if it had more funds my from elsewhere then I am mistaken and i can admit that, Note I'll still be playing the **** out of this game for sure. I thought their could of been a LITTLE more room for tweaks not a complete over haul with the graphics,because when you think about it your character will be clad in a **** ton of armor probs and it still looked good from the camera view. Keep in mind I am def not hating on the game and thank you for the info about Larrian studio's I did not know about that.

Edited August 15, 2014 by TreverJohansen

[Sensuki]

I'm pretty sure moving grass and trees was dropped, but I could be wrong though.

[Elzarath]

What's that weird seam between the beetle area and the statue feet/scripted interaction area?

.

This really stood out in an obvious way and was very off putting. Hopefully it's a minor graphical thing and not present on other maps / areas

[averagedog]

is that level 12 for the overall game or is that level 12 for the beta? If it is level 12 for the overall game, that is quite interesting. it would put much more emphasis on every level and how the choices you make affect your character. But at the same time, it does make you wonder just how much vertical content is available. Does anyone remember what levels were actually attainable in BG1, BG2, and IWD2?