Countdown to Eternity!

[Mikey Dowling]

Hey all! The time is fast approaching. By next Monday we will be a month away from the launch of Pillars of Eternity! We're as excited for you to play it as we are sure you are excited to see the world of Eora. Since this is a project that couldn't have happened without you, we want to give you a chance to help with our final push toward releasing this game.

 

But Mikey, what exactly does that mean? Thank the gods I'm here to tell you!

 

The Pillars team wants to know what information we haven't released to you guys that you are dying to know? Pretty simple. Is there something about the world that we haven't told you? Is there something about a class that you want more information on? Anything and everything can be suggested.

 

We'll then curate that feedback and come up with a plan to give you the information you want to have without spoiling the experience of Pillars of Eternity for you.

 

So to our incredibly awesome fans and backers, use this thread as your thought dumping ground. But you don't have much time (we do need to have time to get that information out to you after all). By mid-day Wednesday February 25th, this thread will be locked and all suggestions that make it in by then will be considered.

 

Give us your world of wildest dreams so we can help prepare you to give you our world of Eternity.

[Sensuki]

I want to know if the scene files for areas will be externalized so that they can be accessed by modders - to add characters, items, monsters etc to scenes.

[Nonek]

I want to know what love is.

 

My deepest apologies, few too many glasses of a fine Spanish red.

[irinotecan]

I want to know if the scene files for areas will be externalized so that they can be accessed by modders - to add characters, items, monsters etc to scenes.

They said that the game would be moddable, I think it might have even been one of the stretch goals.  They also pubically announced that NexusMods.com was going to be the official repository supported for mods.  They haven't announced any details yet as to exactly what will be moddable, some more details on that would be nice.

[Sensuki]

I have been involved in making mods for the game so far. We know that currently it is possible to edit the code, and it's possible to edit items, abilities, talents, spells and a few other things via the externalization of those files as .unity3d files, which can be loaded into Unity Pro with a custom editor.

Since they moved to Unity 4.6.1p2, a new custom editor will have to be written, as the one that was written for 4.5 no longer works.
 

Currently it's impossible to edit scenes in this way, because there are no external scene files in unity3d format. I just want to know whether they are going to include them like that for the game, like inXile did for Wasteland 2. There is a .assetbundle file for the scenes, but as far as I know it only contains the tiles of the maps, not the scene data.

Edited February 20, 2015 by Sensuki

[IndiraLightfoot]

Life expectancy for each of the races we get to pick in the game.

[Devard]

I would like to see all the available portraits in a gallery page or something. I'd also like to listen to some more BGM samples (or full tracks if you are so inclined).

 

By mid-day Wednesday March 25th, this thread will be locked and all suggestions that make it in by then will be considered.

 

Wait, you mean February 25th, right?

[IndiraLightfoot]

And some general in-world explanation as to why a druid's shapeshifter ability is so brief.

[Sensuki]

@Mikey Dowling - is the title "Community Support Manager" a new thing?

[Leferd]

Will you be streaming a release party starring a drunk Avellone?

[Gairnulf]

Will you be streaming a release party starring a drunk Avellone?

If not, please do.

[MasterPrudent]

Life expectancy for each of the races we get to pick in the game.

http://jesawyer.tumblr.com/post/76137431236/what-are-the-average-life-spans-of-the-races-in#notes

[Labadal]

I'd like to know what the most popular class is when you guys have played the game.

 

How are Kickstarter backer NPCs handled? Are they just there for filler and you can click and read their bios or can you actually interact with the through dialog.

 

What would you guys say went well in developing the game and what can improve?

[ShadySands]

I would like to see all the available portraits in a gallery page or something. I'd also like to listen to some more BGM samples (or full tracks if you are so inclined).

 

By mid-day Wednesday March 25th, this thread will be locked and all suggestions that make it in by then will be considered.

 

Wait, you mean February 25th, right?

I hope so

[Sensuki]

Currently in-game, Kickstarter NPCs are just filler NPCs that cannot be interacted with. There is a soul description that was written by the backers and edited/re-written by an Obsidian dev (I think Liam Esler did a lot of that) however they're not very well integrated into the world.

Previously Backer NPCs had an icon that popped up when you moused over them or held TAB which was very immersion breaking and annoying - that has since been removed.

It would be nice if all Backer NPCs were at least given a line of ambient dialogue or something, just to make them fit better into the world when interacted with. Currently when you try and select them, your character can't interact with them.

 

Another thing they could do is make the soul descriptions appear through the dialogue system when you talk to the NPC - although nothing like that has been implemented yet.

Edited February 21, 2015 by Sensuki

[Mikey Dowling]

 

I would like to see all the available portraits in a gallery page or something. I'd also like to listen to some more BGM samples (or full tracks if you are so inclined).

 

By mid-day Wednesday March 25th, this thread will be locked and all suggestions that make it in by then will be considered.

 

Wait, you mean February 25th, right?

I hope so

 

Yes! Great catch. We're clearly really excited about March.

 

@Sensuki, yessir it is!

[Flow]

Should we take your avatar to mean there will be a Valian character modeled after Prince?

[Endrosz]

Did the Aedyr Empire and Old Vailia have contact with each other before the colonization of the Eastern Reaches? If yes, what kind of contact: explorer's stories and rumors only -- private trade -- state-level trade -- political contact with ambassadors -- all-out war -- skirmishes over islands -- proxy war through vassals between them, etc? How far are the two empires from each other, a) geographically and b) in seafaring days?

[Lephys]

I want to know what love is.

Do you also request that your baby no longer hurt you, all whilst bobbing your head to a driving beat? 6_u

 

And, lucky you, you get a second joke: *cups hand beside mouth* BRUUUUUUUUUUUUUCEVC! You're needed!

 

 

Serious mode: initiated. Hmmm... ooh! I know! Do the gods actually have their own physical forms, or do they need to use hosts/avatars in order to be corporeal?

[Lord Wafflebum]

Sweet, having a community manager is important. Some of us go too long without naps and get mean toward BAdler. It's good they have someone to filter out the silliness.

 

I'm curious to know how responsive companions are going to be. I'm not looking for spoilers, but if companions are going to be pretty responsive to me, each other, NPC's, events, etc I'm not going to want to make any custom characters so I don't miss out on that content.

 

Edit: Oh, almost forgot- Are there going to be a lot of horses in this game? A strong breed and color variation? Will we be able to interact with any horses?

Edited February 21, 2015 by Lord Wafflebum

[Labadal]

Currently in-game, Kickstarter NPCs are just filler NPCs that cannot be interacted with. There is a soul description that was written by the backers and edited/re-written by an Obsidian dev (I think Liam Esler did a lot of that) however they're not very well integrated into the world.

 

Previously Backer NPCs had an icon that popped up when you moused over them or held TAB which was very immersion breaking and annoying - that has since been removed.

 

It would be nice if all Backer NPCs were at least given a line of ambient dialogue or something, just to make them fit better into the world when interacted with. Currently when you try and select them, your character can't interact with them.

 

Another thing they could do is make the soul descriptions appear through the dialogue system when you talk to the NPC - although nothing like that has been implemented yet.

That's a bit of a shame. I donated at the tier that lets you create an NPC. I wasn't expecting anything major, but to interact with him was one thing I thought/hoped would be implemented.

 

For a future KS game, I hope they just remove stuff like this if it can't be easily implemented.

Edited February 21, 2015 by Labadal

[Sensuki]

Yes, I'm glad I didn't back your tier is all I can say. I think you would have been better off doing an item

That said - the NPCs are in the game, so it's possible that they could improve them in the future.

 

edit: For clarification, in an earlier build you could interact with the NPC - but you had to mouse over them and then their whole character model was obscured by this circular eye icon which you clicked on and it brought up an item description page with your character background. 

I'm glad that was removed because it wasn't a very good implementation.

 

I'm not sure what their plans are for it - but that's something they could answer in this thread!

Edited February 21, 2015 by Sensuki

[Labadal]

Yes, I'm glad I didn't back your tier is all I can say. I think you would have been better off doing an item

 

That said - the NPCs are in the game, so it's possible that they could improve them in the future.

There's an old post somewhere describing why I backed at that tier, but I am a lazy fart that can't be bothered to look for it. I'm lucky that the NPC wasn't the only reason for backing the project with such a large sum. For those that specifically went for this tier only for the NPC, I can see why they could be disappointed. In the end, I have also thought to muyself that I should maybe have gone with an item.

[Sensuki]

I'd like to know a bit more about the plans for the expansion. In the PC World interview from today:

 

 

 

It's something connected to the main game but its own separate storyline, and you take your normal characters into it. We're in the very early stages of planning it.

 

That makes it sound more like Heart of Winter. It would be nice to know if it takes place after the end of the main story, and how you will "access it". The "speak to an NPC to go here" style of Heart of Winter was a bit primitive, so it would be nice if the campaign could be accessed from the main menu.

[Silent Winter]

^

from the PC world interview with Josh:
 

"We are making an automated save for you, it's actually called the Point of No Return Save. So if you complete the whole game and you're like "Oh %#&^, the expansion came out," great. Load that save, you can go straight into it, it's fine. It's something connected to the main game but its own separate storyline, and you take your normal characters into it. We're in the very early stages of planning it.

We have to see exactly how it integrates in terms of location and how it shows up on the map, or whether it's its own separate world map."

 

 

So it sounds more like either HOW or TOTSC.  (I'd prefer TOTSC - if it's going to be separate world-map, then why not after the endgame? (unless that runs onto the sequel "and your characters were buried in a cave-in")