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Delayed to early 2015


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Yes they should have done a quick backer update.I myself don't use twitter or fb. For my games.found out through this post.How ever most games are doing this these days.If you follow star citizen at all they do every thing.Info comes from all over including sandis. Fb page.. Just saying it's the times an what devi are doing these days

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D&D is a half-baked mess that usually doesn't know what it's trying to do with itself, Next no less than any of its predecessors.

I think it is partially because it is assumed that you play the game with a DM who can make judgement calls and tailor the adventures to the characters present.

 

It is supposed to only be half-baked, with the players shaping it as they see fit and then finishing the baking process.

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Can we hear from developers, with what Obsidian is not satisfied and what will be changed within the game?

 

Major things we are working on right now:

 

* Restructuring class advancement to allow more options, both within the selection of core class Abilities and through the (many) Talents that we implemented based on backer feedback.

 

* Modifying some class features to be more transparent or just fundamentally work better.  Monk wounds (and many of their abilities) were very confusing previously.  We've revised them to make what's happening much clearer and easier to use.

 

* Save/load and other persistence issues.  This has been more troublesome than we initially expected and it has caused problems over a much longer period of time than we expected.  Save/load issues can be infuriating, so we really need to spend the necessary time on it.

 

* Memory overhead.  Dan Spitzley has already made good progress on this by looking at audio memory issues and inefficient texture use/atlasing.

 

* Adding in minor bestiary, exploration, lock, and trap XP rewards to increase the regularity of XP rewards across the game.

 

* Revising how time/turns in the Stronghold work.  The turn system (which elapses based on quest progress) solved some problems with time-based stronghold systems in other games (including ones we've made) but it causes some confusion. We're separating "turn"-based resource generation from the random event system, which will be based on the passage of world time.

 

* Pathfinding.  If we could have simply salvaged our previous system, we would have, but that did not appear possible, so we had to fundamentally rebuild it.  There are still problems with log-jams between characters attempting to move through the same space.

 

* Writing/narrative review.  On most projects, it's rare to never that we get time to actually review our own writing and consider how major plot moments and information are conveyed in the story.  This is also includes Karma Police reviews, where we ensure that the various choices players make have consistent feedback throughout the game.

 

* Animation feedback and general aesthetics.  We just added blended flinches for all hits (ones that don't Interrupt, that is -- Interrupts already have their own animation), which was something we weren't able to do at the beginning of the project.  They can be played while a character is in the middle of a reload, attack, spellcast, or even while prone, which helps a lot with feedback.

 

* Character model/texture quality.  It's difficult to balance the needs of a distant camera with the camera views you have in character creation, level up, and inventory, but Dimitri is making his way through the more glaring issues.

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D&D is a half-baked mess that usually doesn't know what it's trying to do with itself, Next no less than any of its predecessors.

I think it is partially because it is assumed that you play the game with a DM who can make judgement calls and tailor the adventures to the characters present.

 

It is supposed to only be half-baked, with the players shaping it as they see fit and then finishing the baking process.

 

 

Don't need three+ $30-$40 books for pancake batter.

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jcod0.png

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I'm of course torn on hearing of a delay. I'm very glad that the game will have the level of quality it needs to be a true successor to some of my favorite games ever made. I'm also very sad that the wait will be that much longer. However, I have other things I need to do and have already waited quite a long time. Most people that kickstart projects must have a good sense of time and a strong well of patience to draw on. Looking forward to more progress, polish, and pillars of eternity! :)

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I don't want to sound jaded, but I never trust release dates that aren't imminent anyway.  However, and I figure this one will go out to the ether :wry grin: but are you focusing more on just squashing bugs, reworking combat mechanics, or including more content at this point?  ...Or is the answer "yes?"

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I don't want to sound jaded, but I never trust release dates that aren't imminent anyway.  However, and I figure this one will go out to the ether :wry grin: but are you focusing more on just squashing bugs, reworking combat mechanics, or including more content at this point?  ...Or is the answer "yes?"

Check out Sawyer's post on page 9 to get an answer to this. Edited by archangel979
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And all these things are a surprise? These seems to be a rather extensive list of additions/changes at a state where we were told the game was feature locked quite a bit ago. 

 

EDIT - Just read Josh's addendum. I am still quite surprised at the level of change for which you are aiming. I understand, but I am not particularly encouraged at this point. Hopefully I am wrong. 

Edited by DCParry
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* Pathfinding.  If we could have simply salvaged our previous system, we would have, but that did not appear possible, so we had to fundamentally rebuild it.  There are still problems with log-jams between characters attempting to move through the same space.

I've suggested it elsewhere but there's a great free library for multi-agent collision avoidance called RVO2, it's well optimised and it's been used successfully in commercial games (although you might need to contact the authors for that). It's available both in C++ and C#. It doesn't solve pathfinding (which is easy enough), but it solves the much tougher problem of multi-agent cooperation in tight spaces. Just something to look at if you haven't.

 

Edited by Zeckul
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Called it.

 

PrimeJunta owes me... Ew. A testicle? Never mind. :p

 

Seriously, this is good news.

 

I do confess to being a bit confused when people were shocked and horrified that a beta of an Obsidian game had showstopping bugs, though. Made me wonder how many people here have bought and played Obsidian games on release. I was pleasantly surprised at how stable and together the game already feels, to be honest with you.

 

But then, I was never expecting it to release in 2014, so.

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Good list of fixes, hopefully different character stances for recovery time and combat idle are high on the list as well.

 

Lock XP is a bad idea though. If you're going to do that you should give XP for other options too, especially in scripted interactions and cancel out the XP for the other option once the first one has been completed.

 

eg. Pick lock 25 XP, Push stone out of the way 25XP .. etc

 

Looks like I'm going to have to make a feature wishlist video tonight.

Edited by Sensuki
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eg. Pick lock 25 XP, Push stone out of the way 25XP .. etc

 

 

That would be cool.

"Good thing I don't heal my characters or they'd be really hurt." Is not something I should ever be thinking.

 

I use blue text when I'm being sarcastic.

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Can we hear from developers, with what Obsidian is not satisfied and what will be changed within the game?

 

Major things we are working on right now:

 

* Restructuring class advancement to allow more options, both within the selection of core class Abilities and through the (many) Talents that we implemented based on backer feedback.

 

* Modifying some class features to be more transparent or just fundamentally work better.  Monk wounds (and many of their abilities) were very confusing previously.  We've revised them to make what's happening much clearer and easier to use.

 

* Save/load and other persistence issues.  This has been more troublesome than we initially expected and it has caused problems over a much longer period of time than we expected.  Save/load issues can be infuriating, so we really need to spend the necessary time on it.

 

* Memory overhead.  Dan Spitzley has already made good progress on this by looking at audio memory issues and inefficient texture use/atlasing.

 

* Adding in minor bestiary, exploration, lock, and trap XP rewards to increase the regularity of XP rewards across the game.

 

* Revising how time/turns in the Stronghold work.  The turn system (which elapses based on quest progress) solved some problems with time-based stronghold systems in other games (including ones we've made) but it causes some confusion. We're separating "turn"-based resource generation from the random event system, which will be based on the passage of world time.

 

* Pathfinding.  If we could have simply salvaged our previous system, we would have, but that did not appear possible, so we had to fundamentally rebuild it.  There are still problems with log-jams between characters attempting to move through the same space.

 

* Writing/narrative review.  On most projects, it's rare to never that we get time to actually review our own writing and consider how major plot moments and information are conveyed in the story.  This is also includes Karma Police reviews, where we ensure that the various choices players make have consistent feedback throughout the game.

 

* Animation feedback and general aesthetics.  We just added blended flinches for all hits (ones that don't Interrupt, that is -- Interrupts already have their own animation), which was something we weren't able to do at the beginning of the project.  They can be played while a character is in the middle of a reload, attack, spellcast, or even while prone, which helps a lot with feedback.

 

* Character model/texture quality.  It's difficult to balance the needs of a distant camera with the camera views you have in character creation, level up, and inventory, but Dimitri is making his way through the more glaring issues.

 

Thanks for your reply Josh. It is now much clearer why the game is postponed and I'm happy for all these corrections and adjustments.

 

Perhaps just one more little thing..... fight xp rewarding.....  maybe? :)

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Don't need three+ $30-$40 books for pancake batter.

Can't re-use pancake batter for years on end either, though.

 

 

 

And ouch, save system still buggy? Yeah, you really don't want to release an cRPG with that.

 

Also, the most infuriating part of BG2 for me right now is the pathfinding. At least one character tries to go and circle the entire map to get through a doorway directly in front of them every single time.

Edited by Azrael Ultima
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* Character model/texture quality.  It's difficult to balance the needs of a distant camera with the camera views you have in character creation, level up, and inventory, but Dimitri is making his way through the more glaring issues.

 

Removing the pure whites in characters eyes would go a long way to improve faces in character creation screen.

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* Adding lock, and trap XP rewards 

 

You should only award XP for opening locked chests and disarming traps on trapped chests. I probably don't need to explain why - those are the things that every player is going to want to do in every playthrough.

 

For locked/trapped doors, there might be another way around them, and when there are trapped floors, it's a common tactic to just detect the trap and walk around it, rather than disarm it.

Edited by Infinitron
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* Adding lock, and trap XP rewards 

 

You should only award XP for opening locked chests and disarming traps on trapped chests. I probably don't need to explain why - those are the things that every player is going to want to do in every playthrough.

 

For locked/trapped doors, there might be another way around them, and when there are trapped floors, it's a common tactic to just detect the trap and walk around it, rather than disarm it.

 

 

I agree.

 

The point of removing many of the old sources of XP was to discourage people from "degenerative gameplay", so adding new opportunities for this would not be a good idea.

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Yeah no reason to go back on that. If you're going to have XP for locked doors then you need to create an "obstacle XP" system of some sort, where you can only get one reward for completing the objective, and the others are then cancelled out.

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Well trap/lock XP is still better then nothing. It worked well in IE games because other classes also had way to "disable" traps and open locks but only rogue got XP for it. It was a good system. But now, with everyone being able to take Mechanics with rogue having no advantage and no Open Lock spells, the same system cannot just be c/p from IE.

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