Pillars of Eternity Expansion/Sequel Wishlist

[Tuckey]

In terms of engine ~ optimise it like crazy

 

Start again in terms of gameplay systems

 

polish systems and do 'unnecessary' work on them.

[Guest 4ward]

 

for PoE2 (in relation to BG2 as a compromise) :

 

- sequencer ability to choose from over other abilities if you want to store few spells/abilities and cast/use it on start of encounter only instead of per-encounter combat-only usage; spells that are not in that ability fully replenishing only after rest

- short duration protections/immunity as an added tactical consideration in battle in addition to the more strategical armour/no-armour defense

- lock-up ability to choose from over other abilities for melee classes instead of automatic engagement system;

- camping on designated places, no camping supplies at all, rather introducing trade-offs (possibility of respawning enemies and/or placing the campsites so that the way back to them is a little bit tedious/annoying); eventually introducing e.g. 'guard' talent for stressfree resting

- option/toggle for enable/disable descriptive text and show only dialogue

- no penalty on recovery time while moving (if i have the dexterity to kick a disengaging opponent in his butt while at the same time holding my own defense over another engaged one i should also not have a penalty when i move)

 

i wish Obsidian a stressfree and fun time developping PoE2; hopefully it's not a kickstarter and they can rely on their own funds to develop it. I hope the design descisions/philosopy from BG2 were fun for Obs as well and that the guys can find a way to satisfy both playstyles.

[Lord_Mord]

- Again: Better enemy AI!

- Crafting as a skill, like Edwin described it: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/64048-update-58-crafting-with-tim-cain/page-32

- Tons of tiny sidequest (Help me creating a butter golem, Could you please rescue my beaver, Would you mind killing my husband, ...)

- Spells should be useful out of combat. (E.g. for enchanting a guard to let you through)

- Pickpocketing

- In general, I want non-combat-solutions for almost everything. I want to lure enemies away from their spots, steal things that I need (That f***ing armour from that paladin f***er), enchant merchants for better prices ...

[Quantics]

I wish for larger maps, with slightly smaller enemy density.

 

Essentially have less combat encounters, but more memorable ones. 

 

This is really straightforward thing to do (since there's no combat xp), but will go a LONG way to improving the game world.

 

 

TL;DR less trash mobs, larger maps 

 

 

EDIT: oh, and better f****g pathfinding ! 

Edited September 1, 2015 by Quantics

[globalCooldown]

Oh hey, a sequel suggestion thread. Let me throw my two pand up here:

 

• Move out of Dyrwood for the sequel. We'll get to see new areas of the world! Besides, if the sequel was in Dyrwood, you've got to write around aaaaaaall the possible things the Watcher did, and while that would be cool to see all our choices carry over like that, it would also be a huuuuuge undertaking.
• Respec system--but don't make it free and unlimited. Make there be a hefty in-game price tag on it, at least. That way, people who hate respeccing can still feel like their decision to stay clean carries weight (in the form of a full coinpurse), while those who totally gimped their character trying to learn the system aren't up a certain unfavorable creek without a paddle.
• Personally, I'd be interested in romance, but it would have to make sense for the character--you're not going to woo someone who isn't interested in your gender, or someone who's happily married. It should also be romance you work for. Party members aren't going to fall for you if they're watching paint dry back at your keep all day (looking at you, Bioware).
• Speaking of the Keep: there should be some story incentive to take care of it, not just mechanical. Open up new (non-bounty) quest lines after we get a town going! Or have us defend it! Endless Paths were fun, but my main story drive to go down there was to protect my keep!
• And speaking of the Endless Paths: I'd like more dungeon crawling. The crawls you DO have are really interesting, and the PoE team does a great job of telling a story with the environment! More environment-storytelling, please!
• Fix elf eyebrows. Maybe I'm the only one who's noticed this, but the 3D models for elf characters have eyebrows that look like they're sticking out to the sides of their head at certain angles. Aloth has a lovely portrait, but his model looks like his eyebrows (and only his eyebrows) are permanently wolf-spiritshifted.
• People in other parts of the forums have complained about weird and wacky stat arrays for the companions. Either give companions better stats, or find a way to make it clearer that the stats are supposed to be that way (ex. character joins with a particular build that works well, story significance of attributes, etc)
• Another thing that may just be me: I make extensive use of the Notes tab of PoE's journal. If we're really going over the top with this wish list, make the Notes a bit easier to use (new lines without creating entirely new dated entries, editing or inserting text without backspacing furiously to one particular part)
• A Wait function. In the White March, I can't do one particular quest because every time I pull into town, it's the wrong time of day.
• MODDING SUPPORT. There is a small, but vocal, group of players who want to make the game feel even more like Baldur's Gate/Icewind Dale, and while those games are great, they're not Pillars of Eternity. There's also a lot of people who'd undoubtedly love to tell their own stories within the setting. Modding tools are always fun, and they can keep a game alive for an impressive amount of time.
• More ladies. The current companion roster is a sausage-fest.
• I would personally like more writing for a smaller group of companions. In most games, I pick a dedicated party and stick with it throughout the game; in Pillars of Eternity, I mixed up my party frequently, just to learn more about my companions! Which means, in turn, experimenting with how to run those characters, which leads to a great sense of accomplishment when I'm mopping up with two Chanters belting out buffing songs and no Cleric in sight. I'd draw the line at one companion per class, max, and leave it at that.

[cycloverid]

1.) In a sequel or a patch, please make it more clear which mods from items are being suppressed and which are not. TOOLTIPS! I know you can look in the character screen to find this, but that's quite a bit of digging to find it. Or.... you can just remove the restriction altogether! It feels weirdly arbitrary and limiting... 

 

2.) Please add repeatable (read infinite) combat areas, even if it is a simple/silly area like a training area in your stronghold.

[globalCooldown]

1.) In a sequel or a patch, please make it more clear which mods from items are being suppressed and which are not. TOOLTIPS! I know you can look in the character screen to find this, but that's quite a bit of digging to find it. Or.... you can just remove the restriction altogether! It feels weirdly arbitrary and limiting... 

 

2.) Please add repeatable (read infinite) combat areas, even if it is a simple/silly area like a training area in your stronghold.

Actually, I second the "repeatable combat areas" thing. PoE doesn't give exp for merely killing monsters, so you have no worries about grinding. Besides, it'll let us try out tactics! I just gave Aloth the Rhymer's Summon for sh*ts and giggles. I want to take him, Kana, and my chanter PC and start a skeleton war.

Edited September 2, 2015 by globalCooldown

[danielkx]

 

1.) In a sequel or a patch, please make it more clear which mods from items are being suppressed and which are not. TOOLTIPS! I know you can look in the character screen to find this, but that's quite a bit of digging to find it. Or.... you can just remove the restriction altogether! It feels weirdly arbitrary and limiting... 

 

2.) Please add repeatable (read infinite) combat areas, even if it is a simple/silly area like a training area in your stronghold.

Actually, I second the "repeatable combat areas" thing. PoE doesn't give exp for merely killing monsters, so you have no worries about grinding. Besides, it'll let us try out tactics! I just gave Aloth the Rhymer's Summon for sh*ts and giggles. I want to take him, Kana, and my chanter PC and start a skeleton war.

 

 

Assuming they do not implement this, you could always save a game in certain areas that you know have combat you want to play again for training purposes. Just reload those saves when you feel you want to train and once you feel like you got it, load your most current save that you want to progress with.

[Failion]

I have to go with larger maps. The large maps in white march were great. Wilderness exploration could be improved. Factions if implemented again, do them better. Add more fluff to the game so its more then a dungeon delver hack and slash isometric type game. These means make the stronghold feature more interesting. Maybe player make decisions that can change appearance of wilderness areas, what enemies spawn, more world interaction.

 

Also better motivation for the player. The elusive villain that doesn't give a fudge about you. Why should I care about pursuing him? Read the steam negative reviews and work from there ;P

[wtfishedoing]

I am looking forward to shorter loading times and integrated smaller areas, that do not require loading at all, like small caves, houses, inns etc.

I don't know if its technically feasible, but I would love to see huge areas on one map, like the entirety of gilded vale for example. I guess for this to be possible, you would have to restrict player's ability to jump around the map though. I would'nt mind more bland forest/pasture style areas in between important and special locations. These could be used to give us the feel of a more realistic world and make it less likely to stumble across all kinds of quest relevant interactions, when one is only searching for one specific thing. Strew in bandids (and random events later when fast traveling is used, maybe this could be optional), more wild animals and other wild creatures and some hidden optional small stuff together with more scripted interactions that test survival and athletics and the like (I really enjoyed the added variety of these in TWM).

 

I really like the feel of an interactive world. (Small spoiler ahead) For this reason, one of my favourite moments in TWM was the burning house scene. People reacting to the fire, talking about it and trying to put it out, together with the scripted interaction was just awesome. Sadly my expectation, that the wall would be repaired after some days and the house a bit later, was not fulfilled. Maybe this will happen in the second part though. Needless to say, that i would like to see much more of this stuff in the sequel. It would be even better, if some of our more important choices would lead to this kind of physical impact in the world.

 

Some Companions should be a little bit more difficult to handle. They could for example threaten to leave the party, if our reputation with some factions is too good or bad or if we want to take on a quest, they do not like at all. They should react to dialog options and criticize us for them or instill doubts in us. I acknowledge that an immediate impact in the dialog would maybe be too much work, but they could engage us after the interaction and comment more extensively this way. One could differentiate, when it comes to companions dependece on us, such that some will remain with the group even if they actually hate us.

The dilemma at the start of the game concerning calisca and heodan is actually really cool. To see that your choice can get a companion killed pretty quickly was great. A little bit of this throughout the game would be nice. I see that this kind of stuff can quickly spiral out of control and become an annoyance more than anything. It should be used in small doses no doubt, but I would like to have it as a constant threat, so that I have to pay close attention all the time. More banter and more reactions to the world would also be appreciated. Maybe some casual situational comments like in The Last of Us would work well if properly adapted to this kind of game.

 

I would also welcome more music/sound effects. Combat should have a wider variety of music. Inns should sound differently to some extent (how come there is always this one guy laughing out loud in every inn? ^^). Cities should feel more alive. The music at durgans battery was really good for example. It made clear that this is a special and dangerous area. It scared me quite a bit and made me more cautious.

 

TLDR

 

bigger areas, no loading times when entering buildings etc. maybe even huge areas on one "map" with contiguous wilderness areas in between.

 

more interactive world coupled with scripted interactions

 

more companion interaction/comments and conflict within the group.

 

more music/sound effects for better atmosphere

[the_dog_days]

I want bombs as a gaming implement. The existence of gunpowder has already been established in Eora, so I think it would be cool to have a bomber class or simply use them like scrolls or traps.

 

Also, I might be the lone man with this opinion, but I do not want to see romances added to the game. Too often certain game designers *cough bioware cough* get so caught up in romance options that either don't create more intriguing characters (like Grieving Mother or Durance) because no one would select them as partners, or make the oddball character with the option of being romanced but it plays out really awkward (ironbull).

Edited September 3, 2015 by the_dog_days

[MunoValente]

I want the description of every modal to list every other modal it is exclusive to and for less modals to be exclusive to others in general.

[FacesOfMu]

I'd love to see a new version of this thread now that TWM is out. And a new one for expansion and major patch.

 

Here's my two-cents:

- More class reactivity, as many people have said. I have enjoyed the higher rate of class responses in TWM as well as the higher rate of class solutions to problems (the burning house, the injured wolf, and the frozen lake swim being excellent examples of this). More class solutions makes the game immersive and brings out the in-world meaning and uniqueness of our biggest game choice - that is, choosing how we want to play the game.

- More UI improvements, such as easier to distinguish item qualities (fine, exceptional, suburb, other; currently they're all blue), highlighting of selected character, seeing what actions each party member is performing (less idlers in combat), move the spell bar inline with the spell-tier button (not flush to the left of the screen), see queued abilities on screen (ideally without selecting the character).

- Give traps more usabilty such as more placable traps per mechanics skills, craft throwable bombs, craft "booby traps" (equipped on person to trigger on receiving crit), or be a required ingredient in enchanting along with scrolls.

- More functionality and immersiveness of the stronghold (see pretty much every suggestion to improve it)

- Improve Wizard spell casting mechanics

- Include companion abilities in scripted events (more "who should you send?" type options to solve problems).

- Include attitude options for declining certain quests (in addition to regular decline, have a benevolent option to decline when beingvasked to kill someone, or a cruel option to leave people in their misery, etc)

- A better meal system, such as equipping meals to slots per character that buff them until fully consumed, and having this slot get taken up by Inn Room buffs. Currently I rarely use food except the high level stuff to win scripted events.

 

Edit:

-NEVER have enemies be just standing afield when you encounter them. Always give them apparent, rational activity or context to their being there and then. Even most NPCs should go by this rule, too!

Game reviewers should give out awards just for this element!

- More Game Designer backstory where possible, and in a way where we won't be forced to miss it because of combat or combat pausing.

- More puzzles!

- More great and mature storytelling! Examples so far:

- all the pieces regarding parenting, children, and birth which are just not covered in games sadly. Notably plots like the Hollowborn, Sagani's background, Grieving Mother and the bell, and even that one curious quest on whether to give a child a sword. The biggest event of this game that I've wanted to tell others about was Grieving Mother's storyline. It was breathtaking!

- kickstarter stories that showed interesting moments in everyday lives of a PoE world. The best ones were the least dramatic, Mary Sue, and proud.

- ethical issues such as what went on at the sanitarium, what good and bad animancy does, rights to power (Defiance Bay's multiple conflicts), the meaning of respect for culture (Twin Elms and Ruins, the cross-boarder looters, and the war paint), the possible outcomes of the last level of the Endless Paths, the ruins in the gorge (the sword and the soul), and the twin elms vision quests (the vision content plus the multiple pathways).

- some quests that could have been written better were the merchant by the bridge, most of Twin Elms dungeons (I felt like a slaughterer by the time I was done there), the conclusion of Dyrford village (no-one cared?), the boy in the water in Defiance Bay, and the conclusion to Heritage Hill.

Edited September 4, 2015 by FacesOfMu

[FacesOfMu]

I would like Durgan's Battery added to an expansion. The monsters and equipment (Durgan Steel) you could find in a Dwarven fortificationwould be worth it. Would need to be a high level if the stuff in there killed an army of dwarfs. Aimed at level 11+ parties i think would be a good challenge and different to what i have seen so far.

Kudos to you for this one, sl_andy! Tip of the hat to you.

[Lord_Mord]

Improve Wizard spell casting mechanics

 

I'm curious: What exactly do you mean?

[BicycleRepairMan]

 

 

• More party diversity (with so many awesome races to choose from, PoE has too many white male party members).

-

...So what do you want to see added to the next game?

 

 

More white male party members would be nice so that we have more suggestions like this one

 

 

Seriously u are one sick puppy

[farleybear]

I'd like to see how Obsidian can improve on the animations, particularly in melee combat. I've yet to find a game where melee combat looks like anything but a couple of toons swiping swords at each other. I'd be great if the melee animations would connect, block and hit realistically. It'd look awesome.  

[FacesOfMu]

 

Improve Wizard spell casting mechanics

 

I'm curious: What exactly do you mean?

 

This here:

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/81222-wizard-grimoires-why/

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/81221-wizard-grimoires-why/

 

It's not a perfect idea, and there's good ideas further down. Wizard Grimoire's are just severely underdeveloped.

[Grimo88]

Ok, I'll give this a crack:

 

Gameplay-wise: 

 

- More re activity with party members, and the return of party politics. More from the companions in general. Anonen-style quests where you could change their disposition entirely. 

 

- More challenging AI and encounter diversity. 

 

- More soulbound weapons, but far more difficult to gain and less ludicrously powerful, but still highly coveted. 

 

- One big city, instead of two, but with more emphasis on creating a living, deep city ala Athkatla. More factions to join, more life in the streets, multiple dungeons, a connected underworld of sewers, more secrets. I wasn't very impressed by Defiance Bay 

 

- No mega-dungeon, just more dungeon diversity. I feel like Cad Nua was gimmicky, and the resources might have been better spent on multiple dungeons with their own style and stories. 

 

Lorewise

 

- More info. on the aspects and names of the gods that aren't Aedyran, like Cirono is Berath for the Vailians. 

 

- Fight a god or their avatar! 

 

- More aumaua lore. They are so cool, but seem to be rare in the Dyrwood. 

 

- No backer NPCs, or if there are, strictly enforced lore parametres, and no goddamn godlikes. 

 

- A mountain dwarf NPC. Not enough dwarves! 

 

- More on wizards - how are they different to animancers? What is their place in society? 

[Agemaki]

I respect the decision to not implement romance in poe1 since it is easy to do romance badly. But I think that what makes a romance good is complex, well-written characters and in my opinion the characters of poe1 are very well-written and interesting. I hope that this is something that poe2 implements. There are some very good romance mods for bg2 that illustrate what you can do with text-based romantic interactions.  

 

I think that a good romance allows for deeper character development as you get to see a side of a companion that you otherwise might not. Though it is generally better when romances are integrated into the rest of the game so that romances feels less like tacked-on mini games. That really breaks immersion in my opinion. Also, over-dramatizing the sex and making it only happen before the final battle is kind of cheesy. I think a good romance takes a more mature approach to exploring the elements of a relationship--including love, lust, and companionship. Also, please no fade-to-black scenes to indicate sex.      

[anameforobsidian]

 I think a good romance takes a more mature approach to exploring the elements of a relationship--including love, lust, and companionship. Also, please no fade-to-black scenes to indicate sex.      

Rendering sex is a waste of resources.  There are plenty of waifu games without Obsidian making one.

[Darkpriest]

 

 I think a good romance takes a more mature approach to exploring the elements of a relationship--including love, lust, and companionship. Also, please no fade-to-black scenes to indicate sex.      

Rendering sex is a waste of resources.  There are plenty of waifu games without Obsidian making one.

 

 

Especially on the models scale being used in these games...

[Lord_Mord]

 

There are some very good romance mods

 

I disagree. There is not a single good romance mod for BG1 or BG2. I tried it many times. and in my opinion, there is nothing more pointless and depressing, than listening to Xan talking about chocolate cookies and the mystical elven kingdom of Arvandor.

 

I think that the opinions about how a good game romance should be differ in a way that makes it impossible to satisfy everyone. Im convinced that I would hate what you call a good romance and that you would hate what I would consider a good romance either (Did you know that Amaua have sharp hooks on their penises?).

 

And in general I don't want to know about the sex life of those tiny game characters. It is ridiculous and in my opinion (as you would say) immersion breaking.