Josh Sawyer's tweets and teasers

[Enoch]

Eric Neigher, whose Twitter bio lists his avocation as "Assistant Waste Disposal Coordinator for Obsidian Entertainment," but who appears to actually do marketing stuff, posts the following on Reddit, with regard to Deadfire's release date:

 

"We may have some news on this very soon. Stay tuned to Obsidian's channels."

[smjjames]

Cool. Josh Sawyer did give a personal goal of March 2018 way back when and it seems like we're on track for that (assuming the government doesn't do some **** like not do the debt ceiling limit which is also in March, no idea how that'd affect Obsidian though). It was just a tentative personal goal which is probably useful in setting a goalpost, but otherwise wasn't official or anything.

 

If they have to delay it further, I don't mind, and they SHOULD delay it further if they feel like it's not ready.

[Boeroer]

I have few doubts that the game as a whole will be good. It already looks amazing, the characters will be well written and so on. I just believe it can be made better by improving the combat experience - at least for the "hardcore players" of PoE. May not be no. 1 priority though...

Edited January 20, 2018 by Boeroer

[Sedrefilos]

I have few doubts that the game as a whole will be good. It already looks amazing, the characters will be well written and so on. I just believe it can be made better by improving the combat experience - at least for the "hardcore players" of PoE. May not be no. 1 priority though...

Well, I'm more optimistic: I have no doubt. Just as you, though, I'd prefer they just improved upon the original than doing questionable drastic changes. Even though I'm not a "hardcore" player (meaning I'll probably just play the game once in normal difficulty) I do care about mechanics and combat as they add a lot to the experience.

[MaxQuest]

I am very optimistic about the state of Deadfire by the time v3.0+ will come around

 

But share the doubts about combat experience by the time of release.

 

P.S. Interesting, I've never played more than 2 playthroughs for the story (in any rpg). All of subsequent runs are for power-building alone, which is the main replayability factor for me. And that's why I find it very important when there is a variety between optimized builds.

[Boeroer]

Same for me. Sometimes followed by one "last" RP-playthrough for the story again after a lot of powergaming.

[theBalthazar]

Date of release should be 31 march 2018 ? It is not february because it would have been already announced.

 

If it is true : perhaps again 2 versions of the beta maximum ?

 

So the next version of the beta should give us a better idea of ​​what the final product will be.

Edited January 20, 2018 by theBalthazar

[JerekKruger]

I'm confident that the story and the environments will be very good; I am a little less confident that the mechanics will be to my taste given what we've seen in the beta so far, but hopefully they'll improve between now and release (and, as MaxQuest says, between release and the final version). The final state of the mechanics will determine whether Deadfire ends up being a game I replay multiple times like Pillars, or one I simply play through once for the story.

[Aramintai]

Um, doesn't spring technically last until the end of May? Or did devs say it will release in early spring?

[theBalthazar]

January - February - March - April

 

= Q1

 

31 april 2018 is the maximum release date, except if there is an adjournement.

Edited January 20, 2018 by theBalthazar

[Wormerine]

I have few doubts that the game as a whole will be good. It already looks amazing, the characters will be well written and so on. I just believe it can be made better by improving the combat experience - at least for the "hardcore players" of PoE. May not be no. 1 priority though...

I am getting less and less confident how mechanics could be improved by “patching” existing system. Fixing issues PoE1 had opened space for new issues, which didn’t exist in a first place. Even if they manage to address current complaints I am sure new ones will pop out as a result.

 

Maybe the good thing would be to take couple things from PoE, which people liked and identified the game with, and create a new system for PoE3?

 

While I liked it while playing PoE, after reading all the discussions I am liking less and less percentage based design. It muddies things up, and forces players to rely a lot on info from UI, making decisionmaking and planning convoluted.

[DexGames]

Q = Quarter. So :

 

Q1 = January - February - March

Q2 = April - May - June

Q3 = July - August - September

Q4 = October - November - December

 

EDIT : Like Wasteland 3's window release is set to Q4.

Edited January 20, 2018 by DexGames

[SonicMage117]

I am not as optimistic as the rest.

 

I won't be satisfied by word of mouth or gajeplay videos and simple tweets. It will not be til I play the game in which my mind will be put to rest of it's quality, ad that is all.

 

The tweet, means nothing to me until I play the game for myself but not giing to get my hopes high and hype up any possible failure.

[Sedrefilos]

My optimism doesen't come out of fanboyinsm or blind faith but from my experience of the original game and its expansions. Seeing how the White March improved upon the base game and what the team has elaborated on the features of Deadfire I find it extremely difficult for them to screw the entire experience up.

[injurai]

The release is Spring, no longer Q1. So I'm expecting mid to late April.

[SonicMage117]

I am a huge Obsidian fanboy, but it wouldn't be honest for me to say that Obsidian has had the best record. Sure I love their games, they will always remain on top of my list but they hadn't always made the best decisions in the past and that was the reason for them almost shutting down at one point.

 

For me, I would never base an upcoming game/sequel on it's predecessor. I don't think just because the last game was good, the next one will be because they are two completely different projects with totally different variables. So I would expect different results.

 

In case anyone is thinking "Why did you pledge then? You surely don't seem hopeful by coming here saying that you are not optimistic." My answer will be: Being optimistic is no better reason to pledge as the next, I pledged simply to be a part of the fund-raiser. As I said before, I'm a huge Obsidian fanboy but I've become kinda an impulse backer, if a game interest me, I'll back it but this one particular - I like Obsidian as a company more than their games. The crew is made of fun people who propel their fans, that was enough for me.

[smjjames]

The March 2018 thing was just a personal goal of Josh's, which is totally fine, so I don't take it as a solid official thing.

 

That said, a release date of mid-spring somewhere does seem more likely.

Edited January 20, 2018 by smjjames

[HooAmEye]

I'm pretty worried about the writing. That was by far the biggest weakness in the original game, and wasn't that much better in the White March.

[Boeroer]

It was certainly good enough for me when I did my first and also second playthrough (edit: after that I didn't care much about writing of course since it all was powergamer's greatest hits ). What was so weak about it?

Edited January 20, 2018 by Boeroer

[IndiraLightfoot]

In good CRPGs with plenty of companions, it usually works like this for me:

-The first playthrough is the atmospheric, magical one. I try to make a decent main character, but I take along companions, and try to see if I like them or not.

-The second is either another story-playthrough, but with new companions and a few of my favourites, or a first attempt at a power-gaming party (if I can roll all characters myself)

-The third or the fourth run may be for some crazy shenaningans, a solo run, for instance, or a lop-sided party with nothing but my favourite builds

-Heh, but if I'm crazy about a CRPG, like NWN2, which I have played through, MotB included, over 20 times, I end up doing absurd things. I have actually done an entire playthrough of NWN2 OC+MotB with a weird van Helsing crossbow-wielding arcane archer/ranger/wizard/rogue build, which was somewhat gimped, but it looked like classic van Helsing and was quite a challenge.

Edited January 21, 2018 by IndiraLightfoot

[HooAmEye]

Excessive lore dumps, lack of character motivation, weird pacing, player-character disconnect, and so on

[algroth]

Excessive lore dumps, lack of character motivation, weird pacing, player-character disconnect, and so on

 

The only I can agree with from these in the first Pillars is the lore dumps, and that is mostly when the exposition was delivered in a manner that was too dry or obvious, sort of spelling the themes out instead of allowing the player to deduce what was being spoken of. But by and large I thought the writing was excellent, and in my own review of the game I in fact praised their approach to character motivation, structure and pacing.

 

 

 

I mentioned before that I feel Pillars of Eternity echoes Mask of the Betrayer over the actual Infinity Engine games, and to me the parallels start with the above: as we’re introduced to the world and our part in the story we’re about to play through, we first understand the conflict on a scale that is much more personal and involved with ourselves: whereas in Mask of the Betrayer we soon learn we’ve been possessed by a soul-eating affliction that obliges us to feed on others’ spirits lest we are consumed by that hunger ourselves, here we are awoken to memories of a past life and are thus forced to face the threat of insanity. These matters are directly pertinent to our characters and they define above all else why they, and by extension we, should care about the journey we are to face. In the meantime the conflict that affects the world on a grander scale first makes itself aware to us as part of the background or context our characters inhabit, and it is not until later in the story, when we slowly piece together more of these issues and contexts and how we come to play inside them, that we realize they are not just mere colour for the overall journey but in fact the hearts of the conflicts to each story: in Mask of the Betrayer we learn that our affliction is all that remains of the “Betrayer” Akachi and we are to take over his part in the Crusade to bring down the Wall of the Faithless, and likewise in Pillars of Eternity the reasons to the Hollowborn plague are intrinsically tied to the answers and the 'truth' that disturbed us from our awakened past. Whether a deliberate choice on behalf of the authors, a byproduct of their instinct for a satisfying narrative pace, or simply a similarity and observation that is only curious to me, this confluent narrative structure is something I find immediately satisfying: it is not uncommon in games of this genre and scope that the grander ambitions neglect the reason to why we on a personal level should care so much about resolving them; on the other hand, by framing them first as personal conflicts that then slowly tie into a grander, more impersonal arc, we have a much stronger reason to why our character should be involved in this overall arc beyond carrying or being the McGuffin. It also helps to ease the player into very lore-heavy conflicts, allowing one to absorb the information pertaining to the history driving to a certain issue at a gentler pace, and so that by the time one is forced to take action in it one is reasonably aware of how things came to be. We are thus spared of any immediate information dumps in the form of an overlong and cumbersome introductory narration, if some characters later in the game are nevertheless a tad too expositional. A common complaint I have heard across several reviews is that the story is 'weak'. I cannot agree with this remark myself but I can understand what may lead to such an impression, given that a structure like this can take its time to reveal the exact ultimate goal; it is not something I mind however, and I am willing to embrace the mystery and see where it leads me.

 

(Rest of the review here: http://bcb-board.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=133899#p3836416 )

 

The very last caveat sounds like it won't be much of an issue with this game, considering that the conflict in this new game is spelled right from the get-go by a soul-sucking 15-stories-high reincarnation of a seemingly vindictive dead god. Though yet again I suppose the actual meat of the conflict will involve the colonizing of the Deadfire and so on.

Edited January 20, 2018 by algroth

[Boeroer]

Excessive lore dumps, lack of character motivation, weird pacing, player-character disconnect, and so on

Well, it's not like Marcel Proust is writing a novel there. It's a rpg that introduced a completely new setting and had a small budget compared to other rpgs out there. I think they did a pretty good job with the writing. The only thing I did not like were those texts you could read when clicking on the golden plated backer npcs. Not that all the individual stories were bad or so - it just felt completely out of place.

[Blades of Vanatar]

 

Excessive lore dumps, lack of character motivation, weird pacing, player-character disconnect, and so on

Well, it's not like Marcel Proust is writing a novel there. It's a rpg that introduced a completely new setting and had a small budget compared to other rpgs out there. I think they did a pretty good job with the writing. The only thing I did not like were those texts you could read when clicking on the golden plated backer npcs. Not that all the individual stories were bad or so - it just felt completely out of place.

I agree. But how often did you get a character in game? I was part of the Sorcerer’s Place group who got some stuff in game. Taluntain’s Staff.... quite nostalgic, at least it was for me. When people ask me about PoE, it’s the first thing I mention in conversation.

[algroth]

 

 

Excessive lore dumps, lack of character motivation, weird pacing, player-character disconnect, and so on

Well, it's not like Marcel Proust is writing a novel there. It's a rpg that introduced a completely new setting and had a small budget compared to other rpgs out there. I think they did a pretty good job with the writing. The only thing I did not like were those texts you could read when clicking on the golden plated backer npcs. Not that all the individual stories were bad or so - it just felt completely out of place.

I agree. But how often did you get a character in game? I was part of the Sorcerer’s Place group who got some stuff in game. Taluntain’s Staff.... quite nostalgic, at least it was for me. When people ask me about PoE, it’s the first thing I mention in conversation.

 

 

Though I don't have any assurances about the content making it into the game, I know I for one am very excited to seeing my own personal contribution to the Black Isle Bastards making it into the game. It's a single line for some log/journal that most won't even read, but if it makes it in I'll be extremely pleased not least because I know I had a part in that. Generally speaking I have to agree that the backer characters were perhaps too intrusive an addition to the world, though - but I can imagine it must have been quite special for those who designed them.

Edited January 21, 2018 by algroth