Infinitron Posted November 16, 2015 Posted November 16, 2015 http://gamasutra.com/view/pressreleases/259460/SECOND_PILLARS_OF_ETERNITY_EXPANSION_TO_RELEASE_THISWINTER.php IRVINE, CA (November 16, 2016): Obsidian Entertainment and Paradox Interactive announced today that The White March – Part 2, the second expansion to Pillars of Eternity, will be released late January 2016, bringing players back to the snowy borderlands of The Eastern Reach. The White March – Part 2 adds new content to the Pillars of Eternity universe, including new quests, new abilities, and a new companion: Meneha, the Barbarian. The expansion also offers players a higher level cap, and the new “Story Time” mode, letting players experience the incredible narrative of Pillars of Eternity at a faster pace. Directed by Josh Sawyer, Game Director of Fallout: New Vegas and Pillars of Eternity, The White March - Part 2 features an expertly crafted story from Eric Fenstermaker, lead writer of Pillars of Eternity and the co-writer of South Park: The Stick of Truth, and Carrie Patel, author of the Recoletta series and writer on the original Pillars of Eternity. Pillars of Eternity, created by role-playing game (RPG) veterans also known for Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords and South Park: The Stick of Truth, is a RPG inspired by classic titles such as Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale, and Planescape: Torment. Created thanks to over 75,000 crowdfunding backers, Pillars of Eternity has sold over 600,000 units, was released to critical acclaim in March 2015, and is #6 on Metacritic’s 15 Best PC Games of 2015. The White March - Part 2 completes the story began in the first expansion, The White March – Part 1, bringing the first epic chapter in the Pillars of Eternity universe to a close . For more information on Pillars of Eternity, visit http://pillarsofeternity.com/. 4
Sannom Posted November 16, 2015 Posted November 16, 2015 Anti-Biowarian will have a heart attack when reading the Story Time thing. I wonder what it enthuses? Less trash mob? I will say, it won't be as satisfying to resolve the first leg of Sagani's quest without fighting if the map isn't crawling with critters! 1
FlintlockJazz Posted November 16, 2015 Posted November 16, 2015 Story mode? Colour me worried. Does sound very Biowarian, almost expect a 'press button to skip battles' option. "That rabbit's dynamite!" - King Arthur, Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail "Space is big, really big." - Douglas Adams
rheingold Posted November 16, 2015 Posted November 16, 2015 (edited) Awesome thanks for the update. Looking forward to it. Story time? Dunno, maybe they mean a really easy mode? As I understand it, currently the difference in difficulty is mainly in how many and what type of critters appear. Perhaps they are editing the actual stats of the creatures to make it easier? Edited November 16, 2015 by rheingold "Those who look upon gods then say, without even knowing their names, 'He is Fire. She is Dance. He is Destruction. She is Love.' So, to reply to your statement, they do not call themselves gods. Everyone else does, though, everyone who beholds them.""So they play that on their fascist banjos, eh?""You choose the wrong adjective.""You've already used up all the others.” Lord of Light
Teioh_White Posted November 16, 2015 Posted November 16, 2015 I don't mind story mode, it's a solid addition to games these days. There's a suprising (to me, anyways) demand for games with no or minimal, well, gameplay, these days. It's easy enough to feed that demand in a game even with a gameplay focus to get extra sales. What'd I'd like though, would be a no-story mode. Something for doing replays, that just puts the player from action to action, with only the bare minmal story to push progress in the same lines it'd go with the full story on. 1
Sedrefilos Posted November 16, 2015 Posted November 16, 2015 What's wrong with an option of story mode? It's optional no? Besides, there are so many people complaining about combat being tough and complicated, so there's something for them. I wouldn't use it though, but I wouldn't use trial of iron mode either. So there's super difficult and super easy. What's to worry about? 4
jsaving Posted November 16, 2015 Posted November 16, 2015 The enhanced edition of Icewind Dale had a story mode in which party members were nearly invulnerable and nearly always hit their targets. It was advertised as a way to experience the game's story without needing to reload. While the exact parameters of PoE's upcoming story mode haven't been released, it would presumably be similar to this, and geared toward the non-RPG gamer who finds battles tedious but enjoys strolling around the game's maps and watching the plot unfold.
AndreaColombo Posted November 16, 2015 Posted November 16, 2015 I'm honestly baffled they'd spend time and resources implementing a story mode, if nothing else because the game's already so incredibly easy. Appreciate that not everyone's able to steamroll Hard and PotD, but the game already comes packed with an Easy mode that should be practically impossible to eff-up. With that said, January 2016 is much earlier than I expected. I'm glad we'll get to play it so soon, although I hope the shorter development time vs. part I won't affect the overall quality. I also hope they'll keep rolling out patches for a relatively long time after pt. II is released. 1 "Time is not your enemy. Forever is." — Fall-From-Grace, Planescape: Torment "It's the questions we can't answer that teach us the most. They teach us how to think. If you give a man an answer, all he gains is a little fact. But give him a question, and he'll look for his own answers." — Kvothe, The Wise Man's Fears My Deadfire mods: Brilliant Mod | Faster Deadfire | Deadfire Unnerfed | Helwalker Rekke | Permanent Per-Rest Bonuses | PoE Items for Deadfire | No Recyled Icons | Soul Charged Nautilus
Starwars Posted November 16, 2015 Posted November 16, 2015 Can't say that "Story time" fills me with much excitement. Whatever happened to just playing the goddamn game? There are already, what, 5 difficulties with all kinds of additional customization options. I hope it didn't took to much effort to implement, it'd be a damn shame if it did as that effort could've gone elsewhere. But yeah, good to see a release soon. Hopefully all the other new stuff will be worth it. Listen to my home-made recordings (some original songs, some not): http://www.youtube.c...low=grid&view=0
Nosey and Opinionated Posted November 16, 2015 Posted November 16, 2015 Awesome thanks for the update. Looking forward to it. Story time? Dunno, maybe they mean a really easy mode? As I understand it, currently the difference in difficulty is mainly in how many and what type of critters appear. Perhaps they are editing the actual stats of the creatures to make it easier? I think you have it right. I read it as being a really easy difficulty option. Probably not directed at the hardcore set. It was a tough game for new players, though, and the AI's gotten tougher over time. There probably are a good number of players that wouldn't mind an easier time with the combat.
Abbzug Posted November 16, 2015 Posted November 16, 2015 Don't really know what story mode is supposed to be, so hard to judge it. I really hope they find a way to not make the barbie companion show up super late. Kind of hoping they just backport him into Act 1 or right after Caed Nua. 1
Bill Gates' Son Posted November 16, 2015 Posted November 16, 2015 We have a lot of people complaining about how horrible the combat in PoE is, so this story mode will be perfect for them.
Zenbane Posted November 16, 2015 Posted November 16, 2015 Yes but now those same people will complain about Story Mode lol Some people just live to complain, and online forums are perfect for that. The developers are doing well with this update and are smart to ignore the forums 1
Sedrefilos Posted November 16, 2015 Posted November 16, 2015 One could also complain about the trial of iron mode. "Those devs make games only for a few hardcore fans. blah blah blah". Why is everybody so upset about a game mode? Like it's forced upon us? wtf? The game is supposed to be played in normal. Everything else are options to modify difficulty to one's needs. It had super hard mode, now it'll have super easy mode. I don't see any problem here. 3
rheingold Posted November 16, 2015 Posted November 16, 2015 Just to confirm, I really have no problem with story mode. If it makes money for the developers - awesome, that'll mean POE2 I'm just interested in how they will do it. Regarding the game being easy as is... It actually isn't, believe it or not there is a fair learning curve especially if you haven't played the older games, and don't have a grounding in good old fashioned d&d or systems modeled on it. "Those who look upon gods then say, without even knowing their names, 'He is Fire. She is Dance. He is Destruction. She is Love.' So, to reply to your statement, they do not call themselves gods. Everyone else does, though, everyone who beholds them.""So they play that on their fascist banjos, eh?""You choose the wrong adjective.""You've already used up all the others.” Lord of Light
Zenbane Posted November 16, 2015 Posted November 16, 2015 Just to confirm, I really have no problem with story mode. If it makes money for the developers - awesome, that'll mean POE2 I'm just interested in how they will do it. Regarding the game being easy as is... It actually isn't, believe it or not there is a fair learning curve especially if you haven't played the older games, and don't have a grounding in good old fashioned d&d or systems modeled on it. You are not in the majority with that assessment. The people in Sensuki's corner, for example, complain that by simply abusing rest spam and finding a few basic combo's, combat in PoE is repetitive; essentially claiming that the path to victory is redundant and easy to execute but unfulfilling. And then there's what you said...
WotanAnubis Posted November 16, 2015 Posted November 16, 2015 Just to confirm, I really have no problem with story mode. If it makes money for the developers - awesome, that'll mean POE2 I'm just interested in how they will do it. Regarding the game being easy as is... It actually isn't, believe it or not there is a fair learning curve especially if you haven't played the older games, and don't have a grounding in good old fashioned d&d or systems modeled on it. You are not in the majority with that assessment. The people in Sensuki's corner, for example, complain that by simply abusing rest spam and finding a few basic combo's, combat in PoE is repetitive; essentially claiming that the path to victory is redundant and easy to execute but unfulfilling. And then there's what you said... Hey, if Story Time removes magical friendly fire, a lot of spells suddenly work quite differently. Fireballs for everyone! (Instead of the magic missile-equivalents that are much safer to spam.) 1
Fenixp Posted November 16, 2015 Posted November 16, 2015 Can't say that "Story time" fills me with much excitement. Whatever happened to just playing the goddamn game? There are already, what, 5 difficulties with all kinds of additional customization options. I hope it didn't took to much effort to implement, it'd be a damn shame if it did as that effort could've gone elsewhere. (Damage Reveived)/4 (Damage Done)*4 That's all the effort you really need to spend, altho I'm sure Obsidian has done a bit more work than that. As for "Effort that could have gone elsewhere", I found out about the news 30 minutes ago and already sold the game to at least one person on this alone (if it actually gets implemented anyway) 2
Infinitron Posted November 16, 2015 Author Posted November 16, 2015 I'm honestly baffled they'd spend time and resources implementing a story mode, if nothing else because the game's already so incredibly easy. Appreciate that not everyone's able to steamroll Hard and PotD, but the game already comes packed with an Easy mode that should be practically impossible to eff-up. With that said, January 2016 is much earlier than I expected. I'm glad we'll get to play it so soon, although I hope the shorter development time vs. part I won't affect the overall quality. I also hope they'll keep rolling out patches for a relatively long time after pt. II is released. It is the same development time as Part 1.
Mazisky Posted November 16, 2015 Posted November 16, 2015 (edited) I won't complain about the story mode feature because it's optional, but it's quite embarassing that people find the game hard when me, an average player, steamrolled the game on hard mode. If you want no-gameplay and follow the story only i guess it is better to switch on books I hope they balanced the difficulty so i can restart a full playtrough when part 2 will be released Edited November 16, 2015 by Mazisky 1
Zenbane Posted November 16, 2015 Posted November 16, 2015 I'm honestly baffled they'd spend time and resources implementing a story mode, if nothing else because the game's already so incredibly easy. Appreciate that not everyone's able to steamroll Hard and PotD, but the game already comes packed with an Easy mode that should be practically impossible to eff-up. With that said, January 2016 is much earlier than I expected. I'm glad we'll get to play it so soon, although I hope the shorter development time vs. part I won't affect the overall quality. I also hope they'll keep rolling out patches for a relatively long time after pt. II is released. It is the same development time as Part 1. I think time stopped a bit for Andrea cause of that crit-to-hit bug: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/83013-twm-202-crit-to-hit-conversion-doesnt-work-quite-well/?p=1746284
Sedrefilos Posted November 16, 2015 Posted November 16, 2015 I think we should stop talking about how difficult the game "objectively" is. It is annoying and might sound insulting to some. Each person has their own way of playing games. Just because you felt it was easy it doesen't mean it was. It was easy just to you. Others might find it difficult. I, myself, found it just about fine on normal. Thats why there are options and difficulty levels. More options is always good for any game. 6
Fenixp Posted November 16, 2015 Posted November 16, 2015 Pretty much what Sedrefilos said. There's also the small issue of not everybody enjoying the combat, so pretty much giving an option to skip all combat is a great addition. As for "You should rather read a book", even if we kicked all combat out of the game, it would provide a significantly different experience to reading a book. Don't forget, making story-based decisions and predicting outcomes is also a form of gameplay. 2
AndreaColombo Posted November 16, 2015 Posted November 16, 2015 It is the same development time as Part 1. My math needs help (as though I really needed more reminders.) I think time stopped a bit for Andrea cause of that crit-to-hit bug: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/83013-twm-202-crit-to-hit-conversion-doesnt-work-quite-well/?p=1746284 It was fixed in 2.03. Regardless, what does that have to do with the price of butter? "Time is not your enemy. Forever is." — Fall-From-Grace, Planescape: Torment "It's the questions we can't answer that teach us the most. They teach us how to think. If you give a man an answer, all he gains is a little fact. But give him a question, and he'll look for his own answers." — Kvothe, The Wise Man's Fears My Deadfire mods: Brilliant Mod | Faster Deadfire | Deadfire Unnerfed | Helwalker Rekke | Permanent Per-Rest Bonuses | PoE Items for Deadfire | No Recyled Icons | Soul Charged Nautilus
Zenbane Posted November 16, 2015 Posted November 16, 2015 Sorry, that was my wanna-be-clever way of trying to explain why you didn't catch the similarity on Development time
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