Pillars of Eternity Expansion/Sequel Wishlist

[JFSOCC]

better animations, (better looking movement, combat, and interactions)

a tropical setting

more ways to cause interrupts, ways to increase interrupt duration.

strongholds that have diverging upgrade paths to fit with your playstyle.

Edited June 22, 2015 by JFSOCC

[rjshae]

More realistic beards.

[kensu]

Two things:

Map Markers: why didn't they add these? The IE games had them. User-defined only, please, I don't need a guided tour.

Lock door/Hold Portal: The IE games DIDN'T have this, which pissed me off because the enemies had this ability. You should be able to have your rogue lock a door, or use a Hold Portal spell to make it unopenable. This is a very useful tool for dividing the enemy horde to make them more manageable. Ultima 5 had it 30 years ago, for cripes sake!

[Faerunner]

This is probably petty, but more in-game acknowledgement of our chosen race and subrace (DAO has really raised the bar), and companions of a similar race, culture, background, and/or nationality to give more acknowledgment of us being like them (like Aloth toward an elven or Aedyr PC, Eder toward a fellow Eothas worshiper, Durance toward a worshiper of Magran or Eothas, Hivarias toward another orlan and/or druid, Pallegina toward a godlike, etc.)

 

I know it's cheaper and easier to have the PC be "The Player Character" (i.e. white male human) and have everyone regard you accordingly, but given that the dialogue is mostly text-based rather than mostly cutscenes or audio files (which are much more time- and resource-intensive and take up much more space), I don't think it would be too time- or resource-consuming to sprinkle in more text-based lines acknowledging our CC choices so they feel more immersive than cosmetic.

 

I also wouldn't mind exploring new regions beyond Dyrwood. =)

[Crucis]

This is probably petty, but more in-game acknowledgement of our chosen race and subrace (DAO has really raised the bar), and companions of a similar race, culture, background, and/or nationality to give more acknowledgment of us being like them (like Aloth toward an elven or Aedyr PC, Eder toward a fellow Eothas worshiper, Durance toward a worshiper of Magran or Eothas, Hivarias toward another orlan and/or druid, Pallegina toward a godlike, etc.)

 

I know it's cheaper and easier to have the PC be "The Player Character" (i.e. white male human) and have everyone regard you accordingly, but given that the dialogue is mostly text-based rather than mostly cutscenes or audio files (which are much more time- and resource-intensive and take up much more space), I don't think it would be too time- or resource-consuming to sprinkle in more text-based lines acknowledging our CC choices so they feel more immersive than cosmetic.

 

I also wouldn't mind exploring new regions beyond Dyrwood. =)

 

In all the stuff I've read about Eora and its cultures and people, I seem to recall that they say that there's plenty of tension between peoples of different cultures, races, nations, etc.  And yet, very little of this seems to show up in the game.  Oh, there's talk of some Purge in the recent past.  And IIRC there's one of the Crucible Knights who has something bad to say about Orlans.  But that's about all I can recall.

 

For such a supposedly adult content game, you'd think that there'd be more dialog content that showed this tension more clearly and more often.  For example, I thought that god-likes were supposed to be hated and feared.  Shouldn't there be dialogs where a GL PC has to deal with that hatred and fear from people he talks to?    I mean, if your PC is a Death GL or a Fire GL, shouldn't that kid in Copperlane, Gordy, I think, be afraid of you on sight?  Or maybe there should be a town, or a district in Defiance Bay that was a ghetto for GL's.

 

Or on the flip side, maybe the devs should just walk back all the background material saying that this tension existed and say that people get along generally well (at least sorta-kinda).

 

Either way, it seems like the background material is at odds with the way that things are shown in-game regarding relations between people of different races, religions, nations, etc.

[Fardragon]

Gnomes

Orlans.

[Gromnir]

we got loads o' suggestions for a sequel, which we will share later.  as for an expansion, our impact at this late date need necessarily be limited, or benefitting from mr. peabody's time machine.  to whit, we have two requests for the expansion:

 

1) cassowary animal companion for the ranger.

 

while such a request is resource heavy, sherman already set the way-back machine to 2014, and earlier.  had positive developer feedback at the time.  am hopeful we see a vicious and dumb bird companion for rangers in the expansion.

 

 

2) a talent or ability option that buffs a companion paladin's faith and convictions bonuses.

 

am not needing maxed faith and convictions for our adventurer's hall tank paladin, but a talent that would buff faith and convictions based on loyalty to the player character has an internal logic and would go far towards making joinable paladins less gimped compared to pc paladins.  a talent/ability is not a minor price to pay for a more robust faith and convictions for companion paladins. even got a nifty name for the talent/ability: Honor Untarnished. eh?

 

thanks.

 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited June 23, 2015 by Gromnir

[magritte]

I'd like to see quests with more possible solutions, perhaps stealth or diplomacy.  This is something Obsidian has shown they can do well (e.g. Fallout: New Vegas) but wasn't really on display of Pillars of eternity.

 

I would generally like to see the game be more responsive to your characters behavior.  I like the disposition points much better as a reputation system than alignment or that awful paragon/renegade system of Mass Effect, and I'd like to see it have more impact on the game.

 

And as many others have agreed, more party banter, and generally greater interactivity of the companion characters.

[Tuckey]

Okay I consider Pillars a goodish game but these suggestions might come across as harsh.

 

For a sequel

=========

1) To be honest I'm not looking forward to a sequel because many of the things that I didn't like in this game were deliberate design decisions. Things like no buffing, largely pointless traps, bad stealth mechanics, poor encounter design and diversity, little tactics required (to make the game less intimidating), crafting is bland and itemisation is bland  

 

2) Thats leaves me suggesting things like better ambiance ie city bustle etc, better cities (rather than towns), less written exposition, more companions, better stronghold mechanics, better response to your character choice and choices (ie godlike people getting comments on there eyes), more world reactivity, more companions, more and better music (one or two tracks were good the rest are forgettable sadly)

 

Even if I got all of 2 it would still be a bland game for me but at least fleshed out a lot more. I mostly enjoyed the combat in the Icewind Dales and Baldurs Gate and the companion interaction of bg2. We shall see but I don't expect the core game design to change between games.

Edited June 24, 2015 by Tuckey

[Justinian]

Better visibility and readability in combat.

 

Dramatic performance optimisations.

 

Difficulty balance at higher levels.

[magritte]

Oh yes, we could definitely use better visibility in combat.  Even just highlighting the selected character in a clearly different color (blue or purple?) would be helpful--I often find it difficult to tell where the character I've selected is.

[Gromnir]

one more request for the expansion: reset companion attributes to the release date versions.  

 

were kinda quirky that companion attributes were initial far more perception heavy. one suspects that the companion attributes were set before obsidian purged the perception accuracy bonus during the beta.  with 2.0, perception will once again be universal important, if not vital.  as such, the original attribute spreads for companions (aloth and grieving mother in particular) appear better than do the current attribute allocations.

 

so, reset companion attributes to the way they was on day 1 o' release.

 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited June 30, 2015 by Gromnir

[DexGames]

Well, 1st of all, I loved that game so much.

what I would like to see is :

 

1 : More Raedric Keep type of dungeon. I feel like it was the only great Story-based/Epic Dungeon of the game. Infinite path of Caed Nua was cool too but... More Epic dungeon like Raedric's Keep.

 

2 : Crafting 2.0. I want recipes for those Unique Enchantments that some Weapons/Armors have, so I can put/replace them on the one I like.

Weapons/Armor/Helmet/Cape/Boots/Gauntlets/etc Craft System would be awesome too. I think they mention a "White Forge" in the trailer so... It's time to do this.

 

No 3rd because I know they'll do great on every other aspects of the expansion. So please Josh/Adam & Team... I beg you

 

[Lord_Mord]

 

I want recipes for those Unique Enchantments that some Weapons/Armors have

 

unique: existing as the only one or as the sole example; single; solitary in type or characteristics.

[Gromnir]

Well, 1st of all, I loved that game so much.

what I would like to see is :

 

1 : More Raedric Keep type of dungeon. I feel like it was the only great Story-based/Epic Dungeon of the game. Infinite path of Caed Nua was cool too but... More Epic dungeon like Raedric's Keep.

 

 

somebody cue "sympathy for the devil."

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBecM3CQVD8

 

following totsc, fans on the Co8 boards demanded less mowing o' wilderness maps or entering o' every house in bg city to find mini-quests.  what folks wanted were more durlag's.  

 

following bg2, folks complained that the pendulum had swung too far.  fans wanted more "exploration."

 

*sigh*

 

by necessity, more exploration in a game with finite resources requires that you get less durlag's and unseeing eye. the obsidians, as with so much o' poe, tried to makes everybody happy.  balance exploration with the raedric's keep and endless paths, yes?  

 

is a no-win for developers.  is tough for us to genuine feel bad for the developers, but we... sympathize.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Kogorn733]

(1) More reactivity to your character's chosen race, class, background, etc. Even if it's just flavor (although preferably broader than that), it would really enhance the feeling of the game

(2) As someone previously stated, more Raedric-style dungeons

(3) More figurines/ways to summon other than through spells

(4) more crafting options

(5) weapons with more unique effects not otherwise attainable by the player. Loot is significantly more boring to get when you can just make the thing yourself

(6) More wilderness areas off the beaten path, there purely for exploration/sidequests

(7) More unique additions to companions (so far, apart from equipment, the only unique feature seems to be Pellagaena's godlike race)

( More unique quests associated with the stronghold

(9) buffs to spirit shifting

(10) greater variety of wizard spells. Where are the spells that do stuff other than damage/cc? I.e., summon magic weapon, goodberry, etc.

(11) Familiars for wizards

(12) Better enemy/party member AI (at least the latter seems to be incoming)

(13) buffed/retweaked paladins, rangers, and wizards

(14) Class-related quests (i.e. wizard class to acquire a staff; paladin quest to acquire a sword, etc.)

(15) anything else that would make playthroughs more unique based on character, class, etc. I find stupid the expectation that any player should be able to experience ALL the content on one playthrough.

[Zwiebelchen]

 

somebody cue "sympathy for the devil."

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBecM3CQVD8

 

following totsc, fans on the Co8 boards demanded less mowing o' wilderness maps or entering o' every house in bg city to find mini-quests.  what folks wanted were more durlag's.  

 

following bg2, folks complained that the pendulum had swung too far.  fans wanted more "exploration."

 

*sigh*

 

by necessity, more exploration in a game with finite resources requires that you get less durlag's and unseeing eye. the obsidians, as with so much o' poe, tried to makes everybody happy.  balance exploration with the raedric's keep and endless paths, yes?  

 

is a no-win for developers.  is tough for us to genuine feel bad for the developers, but we... sympathize.

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

 

Actually, I think that PoE hit the sweet spot between dungeoning and exploration. Most complaints weren't about the one-sidedness in design here, but about the overall quality of the content:

Most wilderness areas had very little to discover actually, especially since they mostly contained copy & paste encounters.

Most dungeons lacked a destinct design idea, be it story elements or puzzles.

 

I am actually in the crowd that considers PoE as being too long. I always felt like the developers should have cut the content by at least one third and instead concentrate the resources on improving the remaining content.

 

Let's take some BG2 examples here, as I felt this game did this best.

- Irenicus dungeon was littered with non-intrusive story exposition; it had a clear purpose of combining a tutorial area with getting to know the characters, while still providing some optional content for exploration; you fight mephits, dwarves, goblins, golems, a cambion, etc. ... all in the tutorial area! And it does all that with a surprisingly low amount of text (compared to PoE that is)!

- The Unseeing Eye quest: you fight spiders, shadows, salamanders, beholders, undead, solve riddles, have an epic optional battle (lich), multiple optional battles that provide awesome loot and strong visual variation in area design - and a couple of optional sidequests in the sewer part.

- Planar sphere: you fight golems, incredibly strong demons, dwarves, strong halfling parties, elemental-themed rooms, powerful mages and a beholder, you solve many puzzles, find unique treasure and on top of that, have another zone with very destinct visual variation

- Shadowlord dungeon: mostly fighting shadows and undead, but again multiple puzzles to solve and possibly the most famous floor-tile puzzle of gaming history. And a mother****ing dragon (that is actually super-powerful in a non-cheating way). You also find a companion here, have some traceback missions like Yoshimo's redemption and a "think outside the box"-encounter (using the mirror to kill the shadows at the entrance) and the most satisfying dungeon reward ever: liberating a zone from it's eternal darkness, which ultimately makes you smile when a grimdark zone turns into a beautiful peaceful forest due to your actions.

 

I can go on and on about how BG2 and even ToB had a phenomenal area and dungeon design. Compared to that, PoE feels like bland repetition of a mathematic formulaes. Endless filler-content, multiple samey-looking dungeon levels and no memorable quests and optional content inside these dungeons.

 

 

Basicly, to sum up the popular complaint about PoE - which is definitely not that the game is too explore-y or dungeon-y - it has too much content. It mistakes quantity for quality.

 

Don't get me wrong, PoE nails several aspects of a good RPG experience, like transparency of combat mechanics or meaningful multiple-choice with reactivity options, but it still has a long way to go in terms of dungeon, quest and encounter design.

Edited July 1, 2015 by Zwiebelchen

[EdwinP]

 

Actually, I think that PoE hit the sweet spot between dungeoning and exploration. Most complaints weren't about the one-sidedness in design here, but about the overall quality of the content:

Most wilderness areas had very little to discover actually, especially since they mostly contained copy & paste encounters.

Most dungeons lacked a destinct design idea, be it story elements or puzzles.......

 

I am actually in the crowd that considers PoE as being too long. I always felt like the developers should have cut the content by at least one third and instead concentrate the resources on improving the remaining content........

 

I can go on and on about how BG2 and even ToB had a phenomenal area and dungeon design. Compared to that, PoE feels like bland repetition of a mathematic formulaes. Endless filler-content, multiple samey-looking dungeon levels and no memorable quests and optional content inside these dungeons......... Basicly, to sum up the popular complaint about PoE - which is definitely not that the game is too explore-y or dungeon-y - it has too much content. It mistakes quantity for quality.

 

 

 

I agree. I would have liked to see the developers invest more time on quality content. The existing game is good, but it could be so much better.

 

Take the wilderness encounter maps for example. I would have liked to see random encounters on the road. Perhaps you encounter a caravan or travelers, are ambushed by bandits or encounter a patrol of knights looking for bandits. As the posted above mentions, the wilderness encounters had very little to discover. Finding paths to new areas would have opened up the game to a greater variety of encounters and quests. Perhaps your survival skill reveals a path from in the wilderness area  to a swamp or a dark forest inhabited by spiders (Hobbit Movies) and  a wizard's tower (or abode) (now that's a reason to invest in survival - to spot the wilderness paths overlooked by the unskilled). Perhaps you find the location of a tribal village of those lizard like creatures or a isolated village besieged by creatures and slowly dying unless help arrives.

[macadam]

To be fair some areas do have inaccessible locations that require a skill check to unlock (fade out to vignettes of doing a, b or c). Animations of, say a path being revealed are difficult to do right on the hand-drawn maps Pillars has. I could see the loading times quickly becoming a problem if random encounters between two big maps were added.

[Arsene Lupin]

Obsidian just Tweeted that TWM2 will be the last bit of content for Pillars of Eterntiy--next comes the sequel. Which, I believe, is the first confirmation that there will, in fact, be a Pillars of Eternity 2.

 

Which, presumably, at least one or two folks over at Obsidian are already working on.

 

Which seems as grand a reason as any to bump this old thing.

[Namutree]

"PoE has too many white male party members"

 

*massive eye roll*

 

 

Variety is the spice of life. Why not have more of it?

[Namutree]

 

Let's take some BG2 examples here, as I felt this game did this best.

- Irenicus dungeon was littered with non-intrusive story exposition; it had a clear purpose of combining a tutorial area with getting to know the characters, while still providing some optional content for exploration; you fight mephits, dwarves, goblins, golems, a cambion, etc. ... all in the tutorial area! And it does all that with a surprisingly low amount of text (compared to PoE that is)!

 

Irenicus's dungeon was a terrible dungeon and the worst starting area I've ever had the misfortune of playing. Love BG2; hate that dungeon.

[anameforobsidian]

Actually, I think that PoE hit the sweet spot between dungeoning and exploration. Most complaints weren't about the one-sidedness in design here, but about the overall quality of the content:

Most wilderness areas had very little to discover actually, especially since they mostly contained copy & paste encounters.

Most dungeons lacked a destinct design idea, be it story elements or puzzles.

 

I am actually in the crowd that considers PoE as being too long. I always felt like the developers should have cut the content by at least one third and instead concentrate the resources on improving the remaining content.

 

I do agree that PE tended to make its dungeons too large and wilderness areas too sparse.  Obsidian could have shrunk its wilderness areas, or in a perfect world with no money spent another six months adding content.  Weirdly enough, I think the critical path content was generally worse than the optional content.  I don't think that should detract from the fact that when they got it right, they did a pretty good job.

 

PE had four decent dungeons. 

-I found the Endless paths an entertaining game by itself, and started skipping story content to delve deeper.  They mix it up level by level and only one or two levels are too large (2nd with xaurips could have lost a room or two, same with Fampyr levels).  The Spider Queen, Kobold pit fight, the ogres, the drake, the blights, the fampyr conversation (level was too long), the Vithrack, the weird wall of thorns, Od Nua, and of course the Ardra dragon are memorable from the Endless Paths.  Honestly, if they had broken up each level and instead placed them around the world, the game would feel a lot more full.

-The first dungeon (and wilderness area for that matter) clearly had more detail put into it than most other areas.  It had multiple means of solving problems, was short, had unique monsters, and was generally a good introduction. 

-Raedric's keep is a bit too large, especially given how small the surrounding towns that support it are.  Also, the undead fights probably could have been cut in half.  I think Raedric's keep could do with some more sign posting that no, you're not supposed to fight your way through, and the game is actually more fun if you don't.  But it does a great job telling a story; providing difficult yet varied combat; and having multiple means of approach.

-Sun in Shadow is well focused, atmospheric, tells a story, and has some fun fights. 

 

And PE had four decent wilderness areas.

-  The area outside of Dyrford.  If the rest of the game had wilderness areas like this, it would make a decent run for BGII's money.  It was full of content and variety, and wasn't afraid to kick player's butts if they got complacent.

-  The sea shore.  Even though it was relatively small, the different xaurip groups provide some different fights, and the witch and her xaurip helper were pretty cool.

-  The first wilderness after the first dungeon.  Could have done with maybe one less encounter, but it had a lot to offer and a lot to discover.

-  The map north of Twin Elms.  It had the hunter's quest, and the smugglers, birds, Persitaaq, and the entrance to the temple of Hylea.  I was quite fond of that little area, even if I had been level capped for hours by the time I reached it.

 

Namutree, on 30 Aug 2015 - 12:56 AM, said:

Irenicus's dungeon was a terrible dungeon and the worst starting area I've ever had the misfortune of playing. Love BG2; hate that dungeon.

I liked it quite a bit the first time I played.  It was only in later games that it felt like a drag.  Many people feel the way you do though, people have made mods to skip it.

BGII had its less good filler dungeons too, like the Sahaguin City, Spellhold, Bodhi's Lair x2, and the elven city.  But yes, the general dungeon quality was higher, with more content.  But it did have some absolutely amazing ones like De'Arnise Keep and Firekraag's lair, and in general they had more variety than PE.

[Arsene Lupin]

After digging into the expansion, I can say that The White March handles area density and diversity MUCH better than vanilla PoE. The wilderness areas have more secrets and more encounters and more more sidequests/tasks, and the town has more NPCs and quests and little events. I can only hope that bodes well for the sequel.

 

(Although, admittedly, that description does NOT apply to the Cragholdt area).

[Lord_Mord]

I still want better enemy AI! The enemies aren't that stupid anymore, but stupid enough. Kiting is still possible and happens often unwanted. I just try to keep some distance and the enemies start to walk a few steps towards me, then turn around, then they try to attack me again and so forth... It would be very cool, if they would actually react to my "kiting attempt". Lets say, I try to lure an ogre out of his cave. Maybe he notices it and next time he is standing directly behind the doorway and attacks me, when I try to get in.

 

Then, why is every enemy now trying to attack my casters? Are spiders really clever enough to know that they are a threat? Since the AI-Improvements, I expected the enemies to have more diverse tactics. I thought, maybe ghosts and kith are clever enough to attack my backranks, but spiders are simple creatures and should attack just the characters that stand nearby. But they still act all the same. They are just a bit harder to defeat, but every fight is similar.

 

In my opinion, the point isn't just to make the AI more intelligent in general. It is about new challenges for every fight, so I have the need to change my tactics accordingly. The different enemy groups maybe should have specific "goals" for the combat. Humans and Kith in general want to defeat the group. So they would act tactical. Trying to get rid of casters and guys with bows. Wolf and lions want to eat, so they could try to attack the weakest group members, like they would do in real life. Maybe spiders like orlan meat, so they always attack orlans first. That kind of stuff.