What PoE would look like if it only reached the $1.1 mil goal.

[Veynn]

Man, the horror.

 

So the game that we're playing now costs $4 million. Maybe a little less. But imagine PoE without the following:

 

- No stronghold

- No Cipher, Barbarian, Paladin, Chanter

- Minus 2 class, 3 race, 2 npc companion (no monk and ranger? - no Amaua, Orlan, Godlike? - no Grieving Mother and Kana?)

- No Twin Elms

- Only 3-5 levels of Endless Paths

- No Full Party Creation 

- No PotD, Expert, Ironman

- No Brighthollow

- No Crafting and Enchanting

- No Mac and Linux ports

- No new region (Eir Glanfath?)

- No new faction (minus 1 Defiance Bay faction?)

- No whatever George Zeits has contributed

- No live instrumentation for ost.

 

 

Would you still play Pillars of Eternity?

Edited April 29, 2015 by Veynn

[IndiraLightfoot]

I certainly would, but without the cipher and Ziets' contributions, it would feel a bit crippled. I don't care much at all for crafting or the stronghold. Also, I loved Act I and II, so one faction less wouldn't make much of a difference. Od Nua is not necessary, in my last playthrough, I skipped it entirely.

Edited April 29, 2015 by IndiraLightfoot

[luzarius]

POE cost 4 million dollars to make?

 

Good god, it did.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pillars_of_Eternity

Edited April 29, 2015 by luzarius

[PrimeJunta]

More than that. Obsidian put a quite a bit of their own money into it as well. The figure of $6M has been floated but not confirmed.

[luzarius]

More than that. Obsidian put a quite a bit of their own money into it as well. The figure of $6M has been floated but not confirmed.

 

I hope they made enough money from sales.

[Nakia]

I made my initial pledge on the first day of the Kickstarter so yes I would be playing the game whatever it contained.

[gkathellar]

NO CIPHER?

 

/faint

[Awathorn]

Some of that stuff missing would actually be a good thing. Brighthollow LOL. 

 

Anyway, I hope they will have like 10M for the next one. With already established world and engine, it should produce much better end result. 

[mazeltov]

I think many of the items in that list could have been left out without hurting the game. To the extent they drained development energy which could have been used to strengthen core gameplay, they may have actually made the game worse.

 

No Twin Elms, for example. I felt the story was primed to end by the climax of Act II. A few key NPCs, encounters and zones from TE could have been integrated into the greater Dyrwood area, maybe using some of that dead space in the northeast of the overland map.

[FlintlockJazz]

Thing to consider:  Not all of that money over 1.1 million went purely to stretch goals, hell most of it probably went on rest of the game and by the looks of how things like the stronghold were implemented they just put the token effort in for them meaning they had to spend most of the rest on the other features of the game.  What I'm trying to say is that not only would you not have had those features but the rest of the game would probably have been seriously underdeveloped too, I just can't imagine the rest of the game being anywhere near as developed with such a small budget.  We may have ended up with just a village and a couple of dungeons!

[Elerond]

Man, the horror.

 

So the game that we're playing now costs $4 million. Maybe a little less. But imagine PoE without the following:

 

- No stronghold

- No Cipher, Barbarian, Paladin, Chanter

- Minus 2 class, 3 race, 2 npc companion (no monk and ranger? - no Amaua, Orlan, Godlike? - no Grieving Mother and Kana?)

- No Twin Elms

- Only 3-5 levels of Endless Paths

- No Full Party Creation 

- No PotD, Expert, Ironman

- No Brighthollow

- No Crafting and Enchanting

- No Mac and Linux ports

- No new region (Eir Glanfath?)

- No new faction (minus 1 Defiance Bay faction?)

- No whatever George Zeits has contributed

- No live instrumentation for ost.

 

 

Would you still play Pillars of Eternity?

 

Ziets did quite lot initial lore work

"First I came up with a bunch of deities, which made good sense to me as an initial step. (It seems like a society would use gods to represent things that are important to them, so defining the deities was a good way to get to know the people of the Dyrwood and their neighbors.) Then I wrote a lot of lore about cities, dungeons, prominent people, organizations, and important places in the region, including a detailed breakdown of Defiance Bay. I think the team has expanded the city a lot since I worked on it, but some of my neighborhoods are still present (e.g., Brackenbury, Ondra’s Gift), and it sounds like they’ve retained some of the other lore too."

http://grimuar.pl/interview/george-ziets

 

Endless Path was not part of original vision it was added when PoE reached 50k backers.

Original three races where Human, Elf and Dwarf.

Original Classes were in my understanding Fighter, Rogue, Wizard, Priest and Druid

Originally there was only 5 companions.

There would had been lot less loot and unique items and items with histories

There wouldn't had been enemy war bands or bounty missions.

Game would had been released only English

 

But I was first day backer so I would had played game still, but I don't think it would had been as enjoyable as it is now.

[IndiraLightfoot]

Elerond: Thx for that info on what Ziets has been part of writing. As a huge fan of NWN2: MotB, I can certainly tell that Ziets' spirit permeates some of the religious systems and pantheons, not to mention places and cool people and background stories.

[jackjack]

Well, I certainly wouldn't have missed the stronghold.

[majestic]

Sometimes I wonder if the stretch goal structure of the Kickstarter campaign is the reason that both the Stronghold and Twin Elms feel a little "tucked on" (to put it mildly). They were among the last few strech goals that didn't include world building or "improving the whole game" as it were and unlike the ever growing Endless Paths they were supposed to be a larger part of the world but kind of weren't.

 

Not really, anyway.

[Dadalama]

Man, the horror.

 

So the game that we're playing now costs $4 million. Maybe a little less. But imagine PoE without the following:

 

- No stronghold

- No Cipher, Barbarian, Paladin, Chanter

- Minus 2 class, 3 race, 2 npc companion (no monk and ranger? - no Amaua, Orlan, Godlike? - no Grieving Mother and Kana?)

- No Twin Elms

- Only 3-5 levels of Endless Paths

- No Full Party Creation 

- No PotD, Expert, Ironman

- No Brighthollow

- No Crafting and Enchanting

- No Mac and Linux ports

- No new region (Eir Glanfath?)

- No new faction (minus 1 Defiance Bay faction?)

- No whatever George Zeits has contributed

- No live instrumentation for ost.

 

 

Would you still play Pillars of Eternity?

Well being a Linux user, yeah I probably still would play it, though I'd be hunting through wine versions to do so I assume.

[Cronstintein]

From what I can tell, stretch-goal game design is a horrible way to plan a project.  They were basically throwing things at a wall and seeing if it stuck then feeling obligated to put it in.  Rather than using an iterative process that is as much about removing as it is about adding. If they kickstart the sequel I hope they don't fall into that trap again.

[Geofferic]

Man, the horror.

 

So the game that we're playing now costs $4 million. Maybe a little less. But imagine PoE without the following:

 

- No stronghold

- No Cipher, Barbarian, Paladin, Chanter

- Minus 2 class, 3 race, 2 npc companion (no monk and ranger? - no Amaua, Orlan, Godlike? - no Grieving Mother and Kana?)

- No Twin Elms

- Only 3-5 levels of Endless Paths

- No Full Party Creation 

- No PotD, Expert, Ironman

- No Brighthollow

- No Crafting and Enchanting

- No Mac and Linux ports

- No new region (Eir Glanfath?)

- No new faction (minus 1 Defiance Bay faction?)

- No whatever George Zeits has contributed

- No live instrumentation for ost.

 

 

Would you still play Pillars of Eternity?

The stronghold is poorly implemented and a pain to deal with.  They should either fix it up, scrap it, or give that portion of the money to the better writers to fix half the awful side quests.  ^.^

 

I must be doing something wrong, because to me the Cipher is useless.  Fighters are better barbarians in every way.  Paladins are virtually useless.  Chanters feel half baked, but a cool idea.

 

The Godlike are just ... dumb.  Like some writer phoned that crap in form vacation.  The Orlan are a terrible ripoff of Kinder/Hobbits.  

 

Endless Paths is basically grindfest garbage.

 

Ironman isn't even a feature.  You don't need that option in the game to play that way.  

 

Brighthollow is part of the stronghold ...

 

Crafting and Enchanting in this game, especially crafting, are some of the weakest examples I've ever seen.

 

The rest I'd be sad about, probably.

[Dadalama]

From what I can tell, stretch-goal game design is a horrible way to plan a project.  They were basically throwing things at a wall and seeing if it stuck then feeling obligated to put it in.  Rather than using an iterative process that is as much about removing as it is about adding. If they kickstart the sequel I hope they don't fall into that trap again.

Yeah, I wouldn't even use stretch goals myself. Just have a little reminder that every bit over helps and these things are things we are thinking about adding.

Edited April 29, 2015 by Dadalama

[VahnXIII]

I actually like a lot of the items on that list and would miss them if they weren't in the game. I'm thankful Obsidian accumulated the funds they did to provide the content and I'm very much looking forward to anything they release in the world of Eora.

[skaffen]

Definetely not - pure mac user

[Mr. Magniloquent]

Outside of the music (one of PoEs best points), it would be better off for it. Next to none of these things were worth-while. The core of the game would have been greatly strengthened without these distractions.

[Elerond]

 

Brighthollow is part of the stronghold ...

 

 

It is now, because player house, which was earlier stretch goal was upgraded to stronghold. Brighthollow anyhow plays role of player's hose were companions can relax or something.

[Elerond]

Outside of the music (one of PoEs best points), it would be better off for it. Next to none of these things were worth-while. The core of the game would have been greatly strengthened without these distractions.

 

Only if you assume that they would got as much money without offering them. Because those feature didn't eat all the money they brought not even close.

[Mr. Magniloquent]

Outside of the music (one of PoEs best points), it would be better off for it. Next to none of these things were worth-while. The core of the game would have been greatly strengthened without these distractions.

 

Only if you assume that they would got as much money without offering them. Because those feature didn't eat all the money they brought not even close.

 

I made no such assumption. Obsidian would have had to focus on their core. It would have been a much smaller and simpler game, but the core of their system would have been better honed as a result. A more modest game would have had lower ambitions and less expectations, which would have (I believe), led to less questionable design choices and a better experience.

[Elerond]

 

Outside of the music (one of PoEs best points), it would be better off for it. Next to none of these things were worth-while. The core of the game would have been greatly strengthened without these distractions.

 

Only if you assume that they would got as much money without offering them. Because those feature didn't eat all the money they brought not even close.

 

I made no such assumption. Obsidian would have had to focus on their core. It would have been a much smaller and simpler game, but the core of their system would have been better honed as a result. A more modest game would have had lower ambitions and less expectations, which would have (I believe), led to less questionable design choices and a better experience.

 

 

I would say that you hypothesis is wrong. Only thing sure is that PoE would had been much smaller game with much less content, but I would say that it would had been much less honed, because they couldn't had afforded to do as much polishing, animations, gameplay and QA testing, etc. Design could probably been more balances because less things to balance, but I am not sure it that would had produced more better end result when factored how enjoyable game is to play.