Where should the world of Eora Go From Here? - Please drop in and share your thoughts

[manageri]

With so many things in the world being directly linked to souls, I wonder what they have planned for the next main char if not being another watcher. I mean it was really nice from a story PoV to have that aspect of the character so directly affect everything, especially for a first game in this world, as it helped us understand its workings. I guess the thing I really want most from the sequel is more stuff like the ending of the game, which shed a lot of light on the history of the world, and raised some interesting philosophical questions. White March part 2 was also a really nice lore bomb.

 

Maybe I just want more to do with the working of souls, and the moral questions of dealing with them. I feel like PoE1 explored the whole god angle adequately (not that I'm opposed to more stuff about them), but many questions remain for more analysis, such as should a soul be judged for its past? Should a soul's creation/destruction be considered in largely the same terms as that of a life's? Is it right to inflict some kind of harm on a soul now, for the supposed crimes of it's owner, knowing it will later be a different person and thus, presumably(?), innocent of said crimes. How large an impact does a soul have on its owner's personality? How did souls originate and what exactly happens between death and rebirth? What lies in the heart of the world? What are the adra veins and how exactly do they interact with souls. What is the difference between human and animal souls (intrinsic or developed)?

 

So, if not a watcher, who/what will help us explore the world in an equally illuminating manner?

[WorstUsernameEver]

That's the same presentation that included a line that went something like "Ideological purity doesn't necessarily make players happy." In other words, for the entire presentation Sawyer advocated the need to compromise between the players' desires and preferences and the designers' ideas.

And if you aren't convinced enough, here's what Josh actually SAID at the presentation, as reported by fellow game designer Soren Johnson, who attended the presentation and livetweeted the salient points: 
 
"If it were up to me, we wouldn't even have classes, but we were making Pillars for our audience."

[Marceror]

Yeah, his direct statement that he would not do "whatever" again (attributes, classes, fill in the blank) is rather confusing given that he didn't seem to mean it, given other circumstantial details. It probably made more sense in the moment when Josh could contextualize his slides.

[JerekKruger]

To answer the OP the thing I'd really like to see in a PoE2 would be some more alien environments. PoE mostly stuck to fairly classic fantasy staples of temperate countryside, reasonably European looking towns and cities and classic fantasy ruins dungeons. Nothing wrong with that, I like it even, but in much the same was as BG2 moved to weirder environments from BG I'd like a sequel to do the same for PoE.

 

I like the idea that some people have floated of having it nautically themed. My idea would be to have it begin in the Vailian Republics (fingers crossed for a Venice style city) and have the first act be fairly standard but end with you getting your stronghold which would be a ship. You'd then be able to move said stronghold to other locations (Old Vailia, Ruatai etc.) and see more of what Eora has to offer (Ruatai as described by Kana sounds like an awesome location). Ideally the actual sailing would be abstracted away, as in my experience these sorts of systems tend to be pretty bad if implemented in a realistic way, though the odd boarding battle out at sea would be cool.

 

The Living Lands sounds like an interesting place for a campaign too. Not sure if it has sea access but then there are no maps so Obisidian could give it sea access.

 

Apart from the above, I'd like Obsidian to take advantage of the fact that Pillars of Eternity runs on their own ruleset and not feel obliged to port everything over to a sequel. Feel free to change class abilities, spells etc. (though keeping some continuity would be nice), even feel free to change the rules altogether. Related to this, I'd prefer not to have the game be a direct sequel insofar as importing the Watcher over etc. as I feel that the rules in PoE have reached their limit in power level terms and going any higher would feel silly. Instead start a new character, perhaps with a few levels of experience to start, and redesign the level curve to accommodate more power. I would like to see a sequel go at least as high level as White March II though, if not higher. Epic levels are fun, though I still quite like the (fairly) early level experience.

 

Given the previous paragraph, how is it a sequel? Well the plot could still relate to the events of PoE in some way, let's just let the Watcher enjoy his retirement in Caed Nua. I also wouldn't be opposed to seeing some of the companions return. Some of them are obviously tied to the Dyrwood and wouldn't leave but characters like Kana and Devil I could certainly see returning. 

[juanval]

Seeing on twitter that Sawyer's location is Revua (Vailian Republics), I guess he is working on PoE2, and the plot will be placed In Vailian Republics.

[Sokatos]

A sequel where a ship, or rather a fleet, serves as your stronghold equivalent, and a much more central mechanic, with composition of ship types and acquisition of said ships varies things up.

This would simultaneously provide a money sink mechanic that would allow the misers in the development team to do away with the god aweful turn mechanic of the stronghold, as a fleet of ships would need constantupkeep with which any regular monetary gains can be balanced against. Or maybe a need to go on regular enterprises/raids to flsuh money into your pocket which is then trickled away by the passing of time, giving an opportunity for randomly generated "vocational quests".

Ships would also allow for travels around much of the world we only read about, connecting varied biomes to explore.

 

Personally, I would hope of a return of the watcher aspect, because the game sometimes shows that this ability can be much more perfidious than it would seem most of the time, ****ing up peoples souls and past lives for your own perverse amusement or selfish gain. Not to mention that the way you can deal with maerwald suggests some kind of soul-absorbing aspect for power, which is always awesome, or at least the option to choose between doing the decent thing or being a powerhungry prick and many steps in between.

 

Another idea would be to form companions not in the party into a secondary/tertiary party of, say, 4, which is tasked with all the side activities the stronghold provides, and making the composition more important based on background and character, for instance: having the task of trekking through the wild to meet with glanfathan tribes and parley would be a task for hiravias as a glanfathan, sagani as a ranger and kana for his general tact and sagacity, as opposed to pallegina who is city folk and durance who is repugnant.

This would give a reason to change party composition regulary and also make every companion well equipped, not just the A-team.

Coupled with the more unexplored but hinted at aspects of soul-****ery you could control these parties through soul projection or the like after they arrived at their destination, making the alright "parchment-adventures" culminate in the usual gameplay. reading about how a companion descends donw a well to face a colony of wichts is okay, taking control of said companion with own little party would be much more interesting, even if just for a single dungeon.

[Lord Rumfish]

So, in regards to the original post, I have two main ideas regarding the general direction of the sequels (yes, plural!) to PoE.  First off, I think it would be neat if they happen Elder Scrolls style where each game visits a new region of the world setting.  (To be clear: I want to stick to 2d isometric view and tactical combat, or even possibly a grid-mapped turn-based strategy spin-off; the Elder Scrolls reference in no way implies any desire for a 3d first person game.)  If PoE2 visits the Vailian Republics / Old Vailia, then perhaps PoE3 would visit Rauatai or the Living Lands, etc.  I suspect they will want to start over from level 1 in telling such stories, and this may be wise to smooth over any lingering issues with game balance, the XP curve or the lack of high-level spells.

 

However, I have a neat idea: so, for starters, PoE2 is a game which happens concurrently in the timeline with PoE but in a different location.  Then, when we get to PoE3, you can import your character from either PoE or from PoE2...

 

...or both.

 

Seriously, how cool would it be for the Lord or Lady of Caed Nua to meet up with someone who has been through a different group of world-shaping events from another region in order to meet a new threat from another part of the world (perhaps Readceras)?  They could balance the power of having 2 "charnames" in your party by causing both characters to lose all of their money and access to their original-game stash (if you only play one or the other, they get the benefit of access to their past wealth; and if you make a brand-new character, perhaps there is some other benefit to offset your loss of not importing a "charname," such as giving a new character some unique items based on a past history you whip up during character creation).

 

Well, just a thought.  There would be some benefits to waiting one game for a BG2/Throne of Bhaal-style game, such as having extra time to smooth out any remaining problems, flesh out their setting further, create more spells to populate the class spell lists with, and in general feel extra-ready to tackle the fun and problems that come with "epic levels."  I think they must intend to visit level 20 someday, based on the clues in the spell progression table, and I wouldn't be surprised if we see a game that takes us higher, say to level 24 or 26.  Personally, I don't mind if we keep getting reset to level 1 with each new game, but I wouldn't mind if the level cap were more of a practical limit based on how much XP exists in the game world rather than a hard number (like one of the previous posters mentioned, I enjoy a game more when I feel my character is still advancing and still improving rather than becoming largely static in abilities and power).  People like me who are completionist would get a slight edge that way, but it shouldn't be necessary to enjoy and beat the game.

[Lychnidos]

The previously talked about presentation is now available to view here.

[Hebruixe]

I'm probably alone on this but I would love to see the sequel take place 1000+ years into the future, at a time when technology is as sophisticated as magic, and the fantasy setting is mixed with heavy sci fi elements. 

[Labadal]

They could do whatever they want.

 

I'd love to see a turn based strategy rpg where classes are an important part of how you develop your characters. Political plot.

[Teioh_White]

I, too, wish more FFT/TO in my life. Inject some of that Sawyer 'balance into it would just be sublime.

 

Valia though would be pretty interesting; I'd rather Pallegina been a wiki for that place than Sagani's wiki for Inuit-land. At least the republic sounds interesting, and has an impact throughtout the game.

[Arsene Lupin]

Yeah, I definitely want to see the Vaillian Republics. And having the stronghold be a ship that sails are the republics and archipelago? So cool. And that setting could have some nice interaction with the Old Eora powers.

 

Of course, I also think Tyranny will take place in Eora as that makes a great deal of sense from development *and* business perspectives, and if that's the case we may find ourselves in Old Eora sooner, rather than later.

[Labadal]

Tyranny takes place in its own world as far as I know.

 

It wouldn't make much sense if it took place in the PoE world.

[Infinitron]

Yeah, I definitely want to see the Vaillian Republics. And having the stronghold be a ship that sails are the republics and archipelago? So cool. And that setting could have some nice interaction with the Old Eora powers.

 

Of course, I also think Tyranny will take place in Eora as that makes a great deal of sense from development *and* business perspectives, and if that's the case we may find ourselves in Old Eora sooner, rather than later.

 

Tyranny is set in world called Terratus. That wouldn't make business sense at all because Paradox owns the Tyranny IP.

[tls5669]

Unfortunately I dont think there will be a POE2. Like most companies that have a successful title, OE has fallen into the "biting off more than they can chew" syndrome.  Too many titles cause companies to spread their resources too thin, all games under that company suffer, most dont survive.

[C2B]

Unfortunately I dont think there will be a POE2. Like most companies that have a successful title, OE has fallen into the "biting off more than they can chew" syndrome.  Too many titles cause companies to spread their resources too thin, all games under that company suffer, most dont survive.

 

Obsidian has not been working on multiple titles since yesterday. They've done this pretty much since the beginning, with fewer people.

[Batbro]

I'd like to see a future game in Eora explore the nature of the Godlike in more detail.  An interesting and unique race created for this world, and yet we never really got any answers regarding them, despite Pallegina's best efforts.  Why do the gods "bless" them, or are they some sort of unintentional side-effect of the Engwithans' animancy?

 

RPG protagonists are often defined by some sort of unifying feature that makes them uniquely equipped to tackle the game's plot (Watcher, Inquisitor, Courier, etc.)  Perhaps in PoE2 that feature could be "Godlike."  Hopefully we'd have more than 4 customization choices, though.  Include ALL the various gods' domains.  Golden glowing godlike of Eothas and eye-covered godlike of Wael and hairy beastly godlike of Galawain...

[Lychnidos]

The Godlikes could just be souls that chipped away from the gods, not actual blessings.

[Batbro]

The Godlikes could just be souls that chipped away from the gods, not actual blessings.

That's as valid a theory as any other.  They could be ANY NUMBER of things, all of which could make for fascinating material to explore.  At least as interesting as this game's big question of "Who's stealing all the baby souls?"

[house2fly]

It would be cool if they let you transfer your character and in the second game you'd become a godlike reflecting your choice at the end of PoE.

[Batbro]

It would be cool if they let you transfer your character and in the second game you'd become a godlike reflecting your choice at the end of PoE.

While that's a pretty clever and neat idea, I have to ask, have Obsidian EVER made a game sequel that allowed for character transfer?  Or even SAVE FILE transfer?

[Elerond]

 

It would be cool if they let you transfer your character and in the second game you'd become a godlike reflecting your choice at the end of PoE.

While that's a pretty clever and neat idea, I have to ask, have Obsidian EVER made a game sequel that allowed for character transfer?  Or even SAVE FILE transfer?

 

 

Obsidian hasn't yet to made a game that is sequel to their own game.

 

EDIT: And Kotor2, NWN2 and DS3 all were franchise sequels that didn't continue stories from previous tittles in those series. MotB campaign let people use their characters from original NWN2 campaign, but it was expansion not sequel.

Edited April 17, 2016 by Elerond

[Batbro]

 

 

It would be cool if they let you transfer your character and in the second game you'd become a godlike reflecting your choice at the end of PoE.

While that's a pretty clever and neat idea, I have to ask, have Obsidian EVER made a game sequel that allowed for character transfer?  Or even SAVE FILE transfer?

 

 

Obsidian has yet to make game that is sequel to their own game.

 

Even if we count Black Isle stuff, did any of those have either?  I know Fallout didn't.

[Elerond]

 

 

 

It would be cool if they let you transfer your character and in the second game you'd become a godlike reflecting your choice at the end of PoE.

While that's a pretty clever and neat idea, I have to ask, have Obsidian EVER made a game sequel that allowed for character transfer?  Or even SAVE FILE transfer?

 

 

Obsidian has yet to make game that is sequel to their own game.

 

Even if we count Black Isle stuff, did any of those have either?  I know Fallout didn't.

 

 

Fallout 2 and Icewind Dale 2 both were also franchise sequels, they didn't use characters from previous games so there was no reason for transferring characters or save games.   

[Batbro]

 

<snip>

 

 

Fallout 2 and Icewind Dale 2 both were also franchise sequels, they didn't use characters from previous games so there was no reason for transferring characters or save games.   

 

 

I mean, there's no REASON they couldn't have carried characters or world states over in the sequels if that's what they WANTED to do.  I brought this up precisely because lots of people have talked about save file transfer for PoE2, despite Obsidian having no precedent of implementing such things.

 

Personally, I think I generally prefer making new characters with new games.  Character creation is one of my absolute favorite parts of any RPG.