The 'Sidian Tyranny thread

[mindswayer]

I worked on this one so I'm obviously biased, but I think people here might be interested in GameBanshee's interview with game director Brian Heins.

Hey finally someone asks relevant questions, like the engine its based on.

Glad to hear it's Unity 5.

 

Also in a party-based class-less RPG it would be neat if we could add suffixes to the characters in the party to properly identify them quicker without having to look at the skills/abilities he has to know what role I specced him into.

 

There is level scaling in the game. 

lmao

dropped

 

Enemies will scale within a level range, and their level becomes fixed when they are revealed by fog of war. So if you see an enemy and they are level 5, then leave the area, gain several levels and come back, they won’t suddenly increase in level. They’ll still be at level 5. On a different playthrough, if you went to that same area for the first time at level 8, the enemies would be a higher level.

No but seriously, sounds okay. Although I've read plenty of "okay-sounding" level scaling systems that, when put in practice, were garbage/easily exploitable. But we'll see I guess. Also depends on how easily accessible areas are in the early game. It would be pretty funny if a player could access end-game areas from early on and effectively limit every encounter to level 1 then stomp the entire game.

 

edit: wait, enemies have a min. level. Alright. Should probably not read interviews while watching The International. I think Skyrim had a similar system though. Didn't do that game any good.

Edited August 13, 2016 by mindswayer

[Nonek]

One thing I always wonder about these games set in faux medieval/ancient times is what exactly the common man thinks of the events transpiring:

 

Given that the majority of people will be lower classed, probably indentured agrarian workers, what will they think of the evil overlord Kyros and his rise to power?

What were their former masters like, and how were they treated under them?

What are the tax structures, and how harshly were they applied?

What of law and order, was it applied universally or at the whim of their former masters, could Kyros' rule be a significant improvement for them in this respect bringing stability, justice for all, new markets and peace?

How would life change under Kyros' rule for the average working man, is he and his just another set of masters to pull the forelock at and carry on regardless?

Will the Fatebinder deal with such low concerns or are his responsibilities more focused on the middle to higher classes which he is raised from?

Will their be any representative or representation of the average working man, rathe than soldiery, rulers and outsiders such as the Scarlet Chorus?

How did the previous rulers rule their lands, were they as ruthless or more so than Kyros?

Is there any institution in the world which could be clarified as good when compared to Kyros' empire, that is propogating some manner of morale society, or is Kyros simply a more successful version of the rulers who proliferate at this time, a man made for his age and its morality?

 

I'd really like to see a game explore these issues, rather than having a middle to higher class character serving the usual functions of RPGs. Then again I suppose at least in Arcanum one could explore what it was like to sit on the bottom rung of the societal ladder if one wished, by playing as a Half Orc or Ogre.

[Rostere]

One thing I always wonder about these games set in faux medieval/ancient times is what exactly the common man thinks of the events transpiring:

 

Given that the majority of people will be lower classed, probably indentured agrarian workers, what will they think of the evil overlord Kyros and his rise to power?

What were their former masters like, and how were they treated under them?

What are the tax structures, and how harshly were they applied?

What of law and order, was it applied universally or at the whim of their former masters, could Kyros' rule be a significant improvement for them in this respect bringing stability, justice for all, new markets and peace?

How would life change under Kyros' rule for the average working man, is he and his just another set of masters to pull the forelock at and carry on regardless?

Will the Fatebinder deal with such low concerns or are his responsibilities more focused on the middle to higher classes which he is raised from?

Will their be any representative or representation of the average working man, rathe than soldiery, rulers and outsiders such as the Scarlet Chorus?

How did the previous rulers rule their lands, were they as ruthless or more so than Kyros?

Is there any institution in the world which could be clarified as good when compared to Kyros' empire, that is propogating some manner of morale society, or is Kyros simply a more successful version of the rulers who proliferate at this time, a man made for his age and its morality?

 

I'd really like to see a game explore these issues, rather than having a middle to higher class character serving the usual functions of RPGs. Then again I suppose at least in Arcanum one could explore what it was like to sit on the bottom rung of the societal ladder if one wished, by playing as a Half Orc or Ogre.

 

I second this.

[MidiOgre]

Some comments after seeing the gog page and reading the dev diary:

 

- I wish there was friendly fire. At least in the higher difficulty settings or you have the option to turn it on/off. Combat in a RPG can hardly be called tactical without it.

 

Agreed.

What's the point if you can mindlessly chuck fire storms or disintegrates left and right not having to look out for friendlies, that's incredibly stupid.

Pillars' optional helper features do an excellent job communicating if and when friendlies stand in the line of fire so why not just use these in Tyranny as well?

At least having the option can't hurt, now can it? Leave it off by default so that the filthy casuals still can have their mindless "fun", problem solved.

 

- If I understand this correctly, your health recovers automatically after combat and all abilities use a cooldown. So you don´t have to rest unless you get injuries. I don´t really like this, maybe I am too old school.

 

I could probably live with that if there's plenty of injuries and the chance of getting injured increases with overall difficulty, meaning that it's VERY likely/almost certain to always get injured during combat on Path of the Damned.

[Madscientist]

The more I read about it, I get the feeling that the setting is more "realistic" or "historical" than evil.

 

When I look at real life history, I think of ancient china and the roman empire.

In china several kingdoms were fighting each other until one of them defeated all others and created an empire. The first emperor created a centralized administration and enforced the same laws in the entire empire. This empire lasted over 2000 years. Even though many people died because of his actions, I fail to see how he was more evil than any other leader at that time. The movie "hero" may be interesting in this regard (if he was evil or if he did it for a "greater good")

The roman empire conquered large parts of the known world, many people have been executed by them and economy was based on slavery. The empire lasted for centuries and it was rather peaceful within the empire most of the time. Many people in the conquered areas adapted to the new situation fast because the empire brought large improvements in life quality and lots of trading. You can see "Life of Brian" where they discuss what did the romans ever do for us.

 

The best example that shows an evil empire (and is close to this game) may be the movie "Apocalypto". A group of raiders attacks a village, kills many people and enslave the survivors. They sell the woman as slaves and the man as human sacrifices. When the sacrificing stops, they try to kill the remaining slaves as some kind of sport. While this group seems close to the scarlet chorus and the movie is based a bit on maya and aztec culture, the movie is mostly fictional after all.

 

When I look for an "evil empire" I would look more to the modern times, like nazi germany or the areas controlled by the IS. This is not because things were much better in ancient times. It is because now we have "good" examples that exist in the same time as the evil ones (like states without torture and death penalty).

[Infinitron]

[Infinitron]

[Gorth]

I see Matt MacLeans beard is back... (was it ever gone?)

[mindswayer]

Really cool stuff. 4 major story-lines according to Brian Heins. I'm hoping for something akin to Alpha Protocol's reactivity/branching in a cRPG form. Both games seem to be about 20 hours long.

 

Tyranny ain't looking so bad after all, if what they say is true.

[Nonek]

So Kills in Shadows (Cowardly Lion) is the Beast companion then?

[HoonDing]

Karsa Orlong will make Malazan Empire great again

[mindswayer]

Wait, Kyros is referred here as a "she". What? Is this a mistake? I've always seen Kyros referred to as a "he" in every single interview before this video.

[the_dog_days]

Karsa Orlong will make Malazan Empire great again

Thanks for the Book of Malazan reference.

[Sannom]

Wait, Kyros is referred here as a "she". What? Is this a mistake? I've always seen Kyros referred to as a "he" in every single interview before this video.

I don't think it's a mistake, no. I've checked the most recent interviews and dev diaries that were published before Gamescom, and although the developers never correct the interviewer whenever they refer to Kyros as "he", they never actually use a gendered pronoun for her in their answers either.

 

So yeah, I believe it was meant to be a low-key "Samus is a girl" moment for Gamescom.

[mindswayer]

 

Wait, Kyros is referred here as a "she". What? Is this a mistake? I've always seen Kyros referred to as a "he" in every single interview before this video.

I don't think it's a mistake, no. I've checked the most recent interviews and dev diaries that were published before Gamescom, and although the developers never correct the interviewer whenever they refer to Kyros as "he", they never actually use a gendered pronoun for her in their answers either.

 

So yeah, I believe it was meant to be a low-key "Samus is a girl" moment for Gamescom.

 

What about this then?

 

 

 

Also this

While the Fatebinder may choose their own path when it comes to doing their job, and that can even involve going against Kyros’ rules, the enigmatic overlord is actually surprisingly pragmatic. Certainly his actions can be deemed cruel, but Obsidian is trying to avoid binary morality. 

 

“Kyros cares about the law and everyone conforming to the laws and rules he’s established. Each person has a certain level of autonomy. As long as they don’t try to rebel against Kyros or try to flout the law in any way… Kyros doesn’t really all that much about whether people individually are happy or sad, it’s more about the collective world being improved by Kyros’ law."

from http://www.pcgamesn.com/tyranny/tyranny-and-the-nature-of-evil-everyone-s-the-hero-of-their-own-story

Edited August 18, 2016 by mindswayer

[Sannom]

Good catch with the first, especially since it came after the reveal. It's probably a typo, and thus a bug.

 

As for the second, I said "recent", I didn't check four months old interviews.

 

But "she" and "her" were used in the recent livestream and the video diary, so I'm going to go with that right now. Who knows, maybe ambiguity will be the result and the Overlord's gender is a mystery even in game.

[mindswayer]

Good catch with the first, especially since it came after the reveal. It's probably a typo, and thus a bug.

 

As for the second, I said "recent", I didn't check four months old interviews.

 

But "she" and "her" were used in the recent livestream and the video diary, so I'm going to go with that right now. Who knows, maybe ambiguity will be the result and the Overlord's gender is a mystery even in game.

What recent livestream? You mean the character creation one posted in the previous page, or did I miss something?

If so, was it something said by Brian or was it text in a particular part of the character creation? I watched that vid two times and don't remember anything referring to Kyro's sex.

It'd also be odd to be a "bug". I mean this is the first time I've seen anyone refer to Kyros as a female, and it wasn't Brian doing it, so maybe it was a mistake? I don't know.

Maybe it depends on the player character's gender? No idea. But I am confused.

[Madscientist]

After watching the videos, I think this game has one of the best character creations I have ever seen. You do not have the class restrictions like DnD or PoE, but you will not be a master of everything in the end like in the elder scrolls. I guess after the part shown in the video comes the part where you chose what you did during the war which determines how the world looks and what faction likes you. This looks really great, even better than Age of Decadence.

 

Next thing I would like to know is character progression. Your skills go up by using them. Do levels still exist and do your attributes change? Or are your base stats set in stone and the only way to improve things like accurancy, damage and defenses is to improve skills. Without levels, your hit points would be constant for the entire game (like AoD) and the only way to survive longer is to get better armor/dodge/parry and to do more damage (you kill enemies before they can kill you).

 

About Kyros: In his/her centuries of being a godlike overlord, he/she has trancended above such primitive concepts like gender

[WorstUsernameEver]

Next thing I would like to know is character progression. Your skills go up by using them. Do levels still exist and do your attributes change? Or are your base stats set in stone and the only way to improve things like accurancy, damage and defenses is to improve skills. Without levels, your hit points would be constant for the entire game (like AoD) and the only way to survive longer is to get better armor/dodge/parry and to do more damage (you kill enemies before they can kill you).

 

They have a dev diary on that stuff but the short answer is: levels are still in.

 

Long answer:

With the decision to increase skills by use, I needed skill gains to contribute towards character level. Otherwise you could theoretically have a character with a hundred ranks in a skill, but still technically considered ‘level 1’. So, in Tyranny as you use skills they gain experience. When they gain enough experience, they increase their skill rank. When a skill increases in rank, your character gains experience towards their next level.

A benefit of this is that it makes even optional combat encounters rewarding for the player. This change could have made conversations less rewarding, as players would need to fight in order to level up their characters. To resolve this, we added functionality to allow players to level up their skills in conversations. Player choices that are gated by skill requirements will add experience to those skills when they are used. Additionally, if you use a skill to intimidate an encounter into fleeing, we grant skill experience to the party equivalent to what you would gain if you fought them. It can’t be exact, as there are too many decisions that players can make during combat to replicate it exactly.

[Madscientist]

Thanks.

 

So leveling up is similar to skyrim.

[Infinitron]

https://www.twitch.tv/twitch/v/84450939?t=09h07m00s

 

[Nonek]

So the last character is called Eb then, a nod to Dungeon Siege perhaps?

[Infinitron]

I think her name was already visible in the first gameplay footage we saw, the fortress assault.

[Infinitron]

[MidiOgre]

Dude has a point:

 

Well, looks like priorities on what can be activated or deactivated in Tyranny are certainly misplaced:



An option to hide the helmet, really?
How very Bioware'ian.

 

Optional friendly fire is a big No-No, but there absolutely has to be an option to hide the helmet.