PoE expansion: The White March part 1

[Rosveen]

didn't they say the Expansion is planned for 6 months after release, so that should be this year, before X-Mas for sure.

 

They also promised the expansion would be a full expansion and not some DLC, it would be like Baldursgate's and baldursgate 2 expansions were, like Throne of Bhaal and Talkes of the sword coast. These added either a whole new campaign, or like added 20 hours

I thought they said 6 months is a long time to wait and that's why they divided it in two parts.

[Messier-31]

So how is this two-parter gonna be solved?

 

You reach a huge closed door in the middle of the main-expansion quest that'll open only after installing part 2...?

[Elerond]

 

didn't they say the Expansion is planned for 6 months after release, so that should be this year, before X-Mas for sure.

 

They also promised the expansion would be a full expansion and not some DLC, it would be like Baldursgate's and baldursgate 2 expansions were, like Throne of Bhaal and Talkes of the sword coast. These added either a whole new campaign, or like added 20 hours

I thought they said 6 months is a long time to wait and that's why they divided it in two parts.

 

 

They said that expansions that we remember from IE games take 6 months to make and that is long time which why the decided to divide it in two parts so that people get to play it sooner. Although they didn't say when they started to work on it and is that 6 months just production time or do it also include preproduction and post production. And they also didn't actually specified was that 6 months also time they have scheduled for this expansion pack.

[Elerond]

So how is this two-parter gonna be solved?

 

You reach a huge closed door in the middle of the main-expansion quest that'll open only after installing part 2...?

 

I would probably guess first part will conclude chapter one, so to speak, for the expansion and second part will provide chapter two, so to speak, for the expansion. Meaning that you probably will reach your objective at least partially in first part and then there happens something that gives you new objective that makes you to move new areas or go to back old areas in part 2.

[Gunnar.Maluf]

My concern with the expansion is that it becomes a second stronghold (15 levels of hack and slash). That's not a proper expansion.

I want the story expanded or a new major side quest, not some errand quest. 

[Gromnir]

My concern with the expansion is that it becomes a second stronghold (15 levels of hack and slash). That's not a proper expansion.

I want the story expanded or a new major side quest, not some errand quest. 

is kinda a no-win for the obsinaties.  for every person that wants a dungeon crawl and thinks such is the epitome o' ie gaming, other folks want less wave after wave o' beetles, trolls and undead... which is iwd dragon's eye... or is it endless paths?  and am not sure how folks distinguish errand quest and a new major side quest.  take the one ring to mount doom to be destroyed is an errand quest.  find the grail? 

 

*shrug*

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Gunnar.Maluf]

 

My concern with the expansion is that it becomes a second stronghold (15 levels of hack and slash). That's not a proper expansion.

I want the story expanded or a new major side quest, not some errand quest. 

is kinda a no-win for the obsinaties.  for every person that wants a dungeon crawl and thinks such is the epitome o' ie gaming, other folks want less wave after wave o' beetles, trolls and undead... which is iwd dragon's eye... or is it endless paths?  and am not sure how folks distinguish errand quest and a new major side quest.  take the one ring to mount doom to be destroyed is an errand quest.  find the grail? 

 

*shrug*

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

That's true. What I meant as "major side quest" was that I would like to see more open areas with varied types of quests instead of levels and levels of dungeons just for the purpose of gaining experience to level up.

 

But you are right...it's impossible to make everyone happy.

 

Maybe they will go with the "cake recepy" and make it half dungeon crawl and half open area making everyone happy

[Gromnir]

 

 

My concern with the expansion is that it becomes a second stronghold (15 levels of hack and slash). That's not a proper expansion.

I want the story expanded or a new major side quest, not some errand quest. 

is kinda a no-win for the obsinaties.  for every person that wants a dungeon crawl and thinks such is the epitome o' ie gaming, other folks want less wave after wave o' beetles, trolls and undead... which is iwd dragon's eye... or is it endless paths?  and am not sure how folks distinguish errand quest and a new major side quest.  take the one ring to mount doom to be destroyed is an errand quest.  find the grail? 

 

*shrug*

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

That's true. What I meant as "major side quest" was that I would like to see more open areas with varied types of quests instead of levels and levels of dungeons just for the purpose of gaining experience to level up.

 

But you are right...it's impossible to make everyone happy.

 

Maybe they will go with the "cake recepy" and make it half dungeon crawl and half open area making everyone happy

 

make everybody happy is exceeding difficult if not impossible. what tends to happen when trying to make everybody happy is that instead you gots all people mildly dissatisfied.  and expansions? well, those is even harder to get right as even if the developers do 'em well, some folks will necessarily be displeased that they didn't get more.  tob, which were a large expansion compared to most any crpg expansion we might mention, were hated by more than a few folks. bioware added the optional watcher's keep, high-level abilities and finished their bhaalspawn story with an extreme variety o' locales.  more than a few folks were still disappointed with tob size and scope.  

 

am getting the feeling that people is expecting tob, and when they get totsc or how, they is gonna be mighty angry... particularly as they is gonna get 1/2 o' totsc with this initial poe expansion.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Rosveen]

I'd be fine with TotSC. It added new locales and an excellent dungeon (well, tower) to explore; if White March has all that, but tied together with one story, it should be fun. Although personally I'd prefer to skip the dungeon because the base game already has one. I'm firmly in the "interesting quests, less hack'n'slash" camp.

[Sedrefilos]

 

So I can't continue after I've finished; must strat over...

Damn. Guess I must wait for part 2 and play from the start with both expansions.

 

Where did you get that? The game makes save just before you enter the point of no return. You can use that save and take your party to the new exp areas.

 

Damn, you're right

[Namutree]

I'm more excited about the new talents than anything else. Hopefully the new content is good, but even if it's not; the cross class talents make this expansion worth getting in my humble opinion.

[Eisenheinrich]

Oh, I just dig IWD-like Settings. With Sawyers work on IWD II, I doubt that there will be any disappointments setting-wise. The beginning reminds me of the city under siege in the beginning of BG II: ToB. For the different parts, I expect the first one to be mostly adventures in the wilderness around Durgans Battery, and the second half to be a dungeon crawl to the White Fortress. 

Fingers crossed!

[Enoch]

As somebody who has occasion to drive through White Marsh, MD, from time to time, this title feels very unnatural. 

[AndreaColombo]

Previews are popping up with additional details that emerged from the closed-door presentation at E3.

 

Not an exceeding amount of new details, but some are very tasty. For example...

 

... wait for it...

 

 

Individual stealth. Confirmed in all three previews linked underneath.

 

 

Other things we gather from the previews (including screenshots):

 

• The Devil of Caroc is a known murderer.
• The monk NPC is a drug addict.
• New loot includes a kick-ass golden scale mail armor, a grey robe, and a light-blue plate.
• One of the new monk talents is called "Dichotomous Soul" and enables the monk to split their essence in twain, a fire and an ice part, who fight independently.
• Soulbound weapons increase in power as you accomplish things (they sort of level up) and are tailored to the class of the character whose soul they are bound to. They come with "gorgeous" FX.
• Many new scripted interactions that check against more than just skills (I take it also talents or spells are checked?)

 

They also hint at enemies being a little wiser, so hopefully enemy AI will be improved upon too.

 

I want a black plate armor, though, goddammit! :D

 

Links:

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/1029/feature/9807/Pillars-of-Eternity-E3-2015-The-White-March-Part-One-Preview.html

 

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/games/release-hit/impressions/preview/features/stealth/ai/devil-cleric/zowa/party-members/story/ogre/durgen/with-pillars-of-eternity-the-white-march-part-i-obsidian-paradox-interactive-are-doing-more-than-just-expanding-the-hit-rpg/23880

 

http://www.shacknews.com/article/90162/e3-2015-exploring-the-snowy-tundra-of-pillars-of-eternity-the-white-march

Edited June 23, 2015 by AndreaColombo

[TT1]

One more here: http://www.polygon.com/2015/6/23/8824667/pillars-eternity-white-march-part-1-expansion-impressions-e3-2015

 

Level cap from 12 to 14

Edited June 24, 2015 by TT1

[Namutree]

I wonder if the endgame content will be made more challenging to compensate for the new levels. 

 

 

 

• The Devil of Caroc is a known murderer.

Yay! An evil character.

 

 

 

 

Individual stealth. Confirmed in all three previews linked underneath.

 

 

Good.

[Gromnir]

I wonder if the endgame content will be made more challenging to compensate for the new levels. 

 

 

 

• The Devil of Caroc is a known murderer.

Yay! An evil character.

given what we saw from the poe companions as a whole, we suspect you will be disappointed.  anticipate moral ambiguity.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Namutree]

 

I wonder if the endgame content will be made more challenging to compensate for the new levels. 

 

 

 

• The Devil of Caroc is a known murderer.

Yay! An evil character.

given what we saw from the poe companions as a whole, we suspect you will be disappointed.  anticipate moral ambiguity.

 

HA! Good Fun!

Dang...

[Fardragon]

 

I wonder if the endgame content will be made more challenging to compensate for the new levels. 

 

 

 

• The Devil of Caroc is a known murderer.

Yay! An evil character.

given what we saw from the poe companions as a whole, we suspect you will be disappointed.  anticipate moral ambiguity.

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

Quite. No moral absolutism in Obsidian games. Only the Sith* deal in absolutes.

 

 

*AKA Bioware

[Nakia]

Since The Devil of Caroc is a construct does she have a conscience or is she in some way just programmed to do what she does?  What powers her?  Does she have a soul?  Is here the possibility that she can and will turn on you?  Will Eder be attracted to her?  She isn't I assume soft and furry so maybe not.

[FlintlockJazz]

Since The Devil of Caroc is a construct does she have a conscience or is she in some way just programmed to do what she does?  What powers her?  Does she have a soul?  Is here the possibility that she can and will turn on you?  Will Eder be attracted to her?  She isn't I assume soft and furry so maybe not.

Assuming she is an animat, then she would need to have a soul, which would be the source of her power.  The previous animats seem to do what they are told but we know that some people have moved their souls into objects before to achieve immortality and the animats do seem to have some rudimentary awareness so maybe she's a more advanced version or is one that has regained her mind.  Complete theorycraft on my behalf, don't hold me to it unless I'm right in which case obviously I knew what I was talking about all along...

[rheingold]

Since The Devil of Caroc is a construct does she have a conscience or is she in some way just programmed to do what she does?  What powers her?  Does she have a soul?  Is here the possibility that she can and will turn on you?  Will Eder be attracted to her?  She isn't I assume soft and furry so maybe not.

Well, it all depends on how they play the soul angle? She could end up like Shale for instance - though presumably more evil. I'm hoping that there is no moral absolutism. I hate it, it tends to be be way too simplistic to subscribe to human motivations . So hopefully she isn't "alignment stupid" as in lawful/chaotic evil.

[rheingold]

BTW is there any news regarding the release date? I'd like to start a new playthrough soon with the expansion. So far all I've heard is "soon" which is a tad on the vague side...

[Namutree]

 

Since The Devil of Caroc is a construct does she have a conscience or is she in some way just programmed to do what she does?  What powers her?  Does she have a soul?  Is here the possibility that she can and will turn on you?  Will Eder be attracted to her?  She isn't I assume soft and furry so maybe not.

Well, it all depends on how they play the soul angle? She could end up like Shale for instance - though presumably more evil. I'm hoping that there is no moral absolutism. I hate it, it tends to be be way too simplistic to subscribe to human motivations . So hopefully she isn't "alignment stupid" as in lawful/chaotic evil.

 

There's already plenty of morally ambiguous companions and not everyone's motivations are (or should be) complicated. At least one simple minded companion with no moral ambiguity would be refreshing. It's not like you have to use her. If Obsidian is just gonna make all the new companions basically the same as the old ones; why even bother adding them?

Edited June 24, 2015 by Namutree

[rheingold]

 

 

Since The Devil of Caroc is a construct does she have a conscience or is she in some way just programmed to do what she does?  What powers her?  Does she have a soul?  Is here the possibility that she can and will turn on you?  Will Eder be attracted to her?  She isn't I assume soft and furry so maybe not.

Well, it all depends on how they play the soul angle? She could end up like Shale for instance - though presumably more evil. I'm hoping that there is no moral absolutism. I hate it, it tends to be be way too simplistic to subscribe to human motivations . So hopefully she isn't "alignment stupid" as in lawful/chaotic evil.

 

There's already plenty of morally ambiguous companions and not everyone's motivations are complicated. At least one simple minded people companion with no moral ambiguity would be refreshing. It's not like you have to use her. If Obsidian is just gonna make all the new companions basically the same as the old ones; why even bother adding them?

 

It's not so much complicated motivations - it's more the way previous games have forced the evil alignments into behaving in an incredibly stupid manner. An example is NW2, right at the beggining where your village is being attached and yet - as an evil person you are supposed to kill someone who potentially can help defend the village - just because you're evil. So it's more being evil for evil's sake I have an issue with.