Heijoushin Posted March 29, 2015 Posted March 29, 2015 So er... all the people who you can't talk to, but can look into their soul... what's the deal with them? Where they written by the backers by any chance?
Heijoushin Posted March 29, 2015 Author Posted March 29, 2015 Thought so... they feel a little strange. I can't believe people were complaining that the grave stones were immersion breaking when you have all those backer NPCs walking around;) 1
Miquel93 Posted March 29, 2015 Posted March 29, 2015 Thought so... they feel a little strange. I can't believe people were complaining that the grave stones were immersion breaking when you have all those backer NPCs walking around;) I think they are well integrated tematically, considering how jarring this stuff usually is. In any case, they're highlighted in yellow, so they're easy to identify and ignore like all the common villager/citizen/peasant... no-name NPC.
NorthernSquirrel Posted March 29, 2015 Posted March 29, 2015 Would not mind if someone made a mod that removes kickstarter stuff from the game.
TheGoatMan Posted March 29, 2015 Posted March 29, 2015 I thought they where by backers some of their names just seemed off to me. They are pretty interesting though Break beneath the endless tide - monk
dorkboy Posted March 29, 2015 Posted March 29, 2015 (edited) Would not mind if someone made a mod that removes kickstarter stuff from the game. Supposedly the IE mod does/will change the backer names into "proper" fantasy ones (among other wondrous things). Haven't tried the IE mod myself, though. Edited March 29, 2015 by dorkboy This statement is false.
danielkx Posted March 29, 2015 Posted March 29, 2015 That is one of the things I turned on with IE mod...in fact I had that on since the beginning so I never saw the silly names. 2
Androoh Posted March 30, 2015 Posted March 30, 2015 (edited) This too also slightly grinds on my nerves. 80% of the writing is good on these, but a few factors irritate me. A disproportionate amount of them seem to be godlike. I am at Twin Elms and I don't think I have seen any Orlan or Aumaua characters with soul stories to click on. It figures these are kick starter submitted npc's because most people want fancy and gimmicky looking avatars to represent their contribution and what's more obvious than a godlike? So I see all these godlike soul story npc's standing about and I'm significantly less amazed by their presence in the game world. But maybe they're not meant to be rare? I am very finnicky though... Some of those godlike soul stories don't even go so far to reference the person having godlike features. The ones that do - I am happy with these. Some of the names irritate me and severely ruin my immersion (along with those monuments) e.g. 'Zloxx the Ursurper'... If you want to credit the backers, can that be done outside of the game please - in the credits only?Perhaps a bit of additional writing could have been added to show that the soul story npc's have caught you giving them your weird watcher stare too? Edited March 30, 2015 by Androoh 1
RedSocialKnight Posted March 30, 2015 Posted March 30, 2015 The backers themselves wrote the stories for their characters? That's surprising, since they seem to have a pretty consisent style. DID YOU KNOW: *Missing String*
Miquel93 Posted March 30, 2015 Posted March 30, 2015 The backers themselves wrote the stories for their characters? That's surprising, since they seem to have a pretty consisent style. Most likely they've been re-written by someone at Obsidian, retaining the story the backer wanted to have.
Elerond Posted March 30, 2015 Posted March 30, 2015 The backers themselves wrote the stories for their characters? That's surprising, since they seem to have a pretty consisent style. They had editorial and writing help from Obsidian. But if you read all of them you will find that style and composition of those stories changes constantly.
WDeranged Posted March 30, 2015 Posted March 30, 2015 When I realised what they were it bugged me for a while. Since then I've read some really good stories and I don't mind them as much but I agree with the comment on the number of godlikes, if I see a godlike I just know it's a backer NPC 1
Nosmirc Posted March 30, 2015 Posted March 30, 2015 As someone who didn't follow the KS campaign at all, and only bought the game when it was released, this confused the hell out of me. Thought I was missing something, that there was something special that happens with those NPCs. Now I know: just optional reading.
demeisen Posted March 31, 2015 Posted March 31, 2015 Most likely they've been re-written by someone at Obsidian, retaining the story the backer wanted to have. That's what I was thinking must have happened, too, if only because any given random sampling of a few hundred people from the internet won't write that consistently well. I agree with someone up above: 80%+ of them are well written, and I only saw one minor typo in the dozens I've read so far. I kind of like them. It's an interesting thing to do between bouts of fighting and doing quests. I can't say I'm a fan of the memorials though, which are a bit immersion breaking, so I've learned not to click on those.
Xavori Posted March 31, 2015 Posted March 31, 2015 They're useful sources of loot if you find them in a place where there are no witnesses 2
Mungri Posted March 31, 2015 Posted March 31, 2015 Ok now Ima gonna kill as many of them as I can. Can they drop magic items though?
Lohi Posted March 31, 2015 Posted March 31, 2015 80% of the writing is good on these, but a few factors irritate me. I never really liked fan-fic. And I've known people who write it and I sort of have to keep my feelings hidden. But I can often spot them a mile away, just from the style. The extraneous descriptions of things, heavy on metaphors and adjectives. Ie, nothing is ever just a rock, the rock has to be described in some way before it gets thrown. Though not universal, there's the tragic backstory which many of these feel like excerpts from. To be fair, I don't know how much game world and lore was given out by the time the backers wrote the stories. Some things were known from the updates but other stuff wasn't so clear. Some of the stories so far felt like the writer didn't know much at all about the PoE background, whereas some of them did seem to at least have good knowledge of what was in the updates. I suspect a lot of handwringing at Obsidian, keep the backers happy versus exercising more editorial control. I could sort of predict this in a way: 367 memorial stone messages; 114 backers getting to design their own NPC; 49 get to design their own high level epic item; 7 with a custom portrait in game; 5 name an inn or tavern. But these helped fund the game, so hurray for them!
LadyCrimson Posted March 31, 2015 Posted March 31, 2015 They're useful sources of loot if you find them in a place where there are no witnesses I killed a couple in G. Vale that were in a house all by their lonesome. It still dropped my Vale rep a tiny tiny bit, according to the log. This isn't the case everywhere? “Things are as they are. Looking out into the universe at night, we make no comparisons between right and wrong stars, nor between well and badly arranged constellations.” – Alan Watts
TheUsernamelessOne Posted March 31, 2015 Posted March 31, 2015 They're useful sources of loot if you find them in a place where there are no witnesses I killed a couple in G. Vale that were in a house all by their lonesome. It still dropped my Vale rep a tiny tiny bit, according to the log. This isn't the case everywhere? The two ladies in the unmarked house, right? That's odd, I killed them once because I failed to understand how personal property works and I don't remember taking a rep hit. At the time I just assumed they were a lesbian couple and the people of their town are prejudiced jerks. I felt kind of bad after I came to that conclusion. 1
LadyCrimson Posted March 31, 2015 Posted March 31, 2015 Oh...I remember what it was now. I was testing the stealing so I clicked on one of their "things" and they attacked. So rep hit was probably for that, not the killing. “Things are as they are. Looking out into the universe at night, we make no comparisons between right and wrong stars, nor between well and badly arranged constellations.” – Alan Watts
Vasid Posted March 31, 2015 Posted March 31, 2015 I think, in the future, maybe people should only put NPCs in the game if they're ALREADY GOOD AT WRITING AND HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY, instead of just self insert fan fiction. Due to the horribly bad Backer NPCs I won't ever know if there are any good ones because I avoid them all like the plague.
TheUsernamelessOne Posted March 31, 2015 Posted March 31, 2015 Oh...I remember what it was now. I was testing the stealing so I clicked on one of their "things" and they attacked. So rep hit was probably for that, not the killing. How dare you inflict your larcenous activities upon our quaint town, you ruffian! The double homicide of the people just trying to protect their home is totally kosher though, don't sweat it. Maybe the inhabitants of the world of Pillars have as low an opinion of the Backer NPCs as the players do. 1
willdunz Posted March 31, 2015 Posted March 31, 2015 (edited) I wish there's a mod that turns them into non-interactable generic npcs Edited March 31, 2015 by willdunz
Vasid Posted March 31, 2015 Posted March 31, 2015 (edited) Derp, wrong thread, sorry. Edited March 31, 2015 by Vasid
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