PoE II at E3 2017.

[blotter]

 

 

Yeah, that, seems rather dumb, and possibly overspecialized to a multiclass combo.

 

I'm pretty sure it doesn't require you to be a multiclass paladin/priest. Soulbound weapons in Pillars 1 had classes listed the same way (https://img.fireden.net/v/image/1457/62/1457621166462.jpg) and they obviously didn't require multiclass users.

 

I'll grant that a dagger seems like a pretty unlikely weapon of choice for any paladin (who doesn't multiclass into rogue or something), but it suits priests of Skaen, Wael, and possibly Berath well enough thematically even if none of their gods actually favor the weapon type (which is a moot point bonus-wise for soulbound weapons anyway).

[rjshae]

 

 

I didn't see any character get injured during that demo. The party seemed to walk away from each battle unscathed.

Watch again. Plenty of characters got damaged. You get to *watch* health *regenerate*.

 

Which, new fact: regenerating health, bros.

 

 

I think he might have meant wounds as in no wound icons or damage to the long term health bar which you need to rest in order to regenerate, at least none that are obvious. I do see that one character comes VERY close to knockout, and theres some icons that come up after the battle or during, but again, it's not clear to us that they are wound icons.

 

edit: Actually, no, the icons I saw were there earlier.

 

I know they were changing something about the health/endurance system from PoE1, but not sure what they were doing.

 

Exactly. They're taking what looks like Endurance hits, but after combat there's no long term impact. I.e. no injuries. Characters used to at least take some Health damage, but now there's nothing.

[Sedrefilos]

New health system is Dragon Age Origins style from what I can make. Good news for me because is the only health system I really like (since health/stamina is out). Pretty sure players got no injuries because noone fell in combat.

In Dragon Age the idea was to survive the encounter or game over and if anyone fell during it, they got an injury.

My guess is this is the case in Deadfire. If players pile up many injuries they cannot progress further because they'll keep dying easily (from severe penalties) so you either have the supplies to rest and mend them or forfeit the dungeon and come back later.

[injurai]

Wait so injuries occur when your endurance reaches 0. So it's basically don't reach 0 too many times otherwise you need to rest?

[Sedrefilos]

Wait so injuries occur when your endurance reaches 0. So it's basically don't reach 0 too many times otherwise you need to rest?

Yeah, thats' my take.

Say you reach 0 once, you get the broken rib debuff (action speed -35%). Then you fall at 0 again and you stack up the broken arm debuff (can't use 2-handed weapons, accuracy -50%) and so on. At some point the characters cannot progress any further because they are inefficient in combat having stacked all those debuffs up. So you know next time all will fall and it's game over. You need to rest, spent your supplies and remove some debuffs so you won't be wiped next fight. If you don't have enough supplies you need to withdraw.

That is speculation of course. This is how DA:O worked more or less. Of course there's big chance I am wrong and thay have a very different mechanic.

But from what I saw (characters refilling life after combat), I say they'll go DA:O.

[injurai]

Hmm I guess that's not so bad if that's the case. Health in PoE is this sort of weird second reserve that goes down in fights but also isn't as critical as endurance. The thing I like about PoE is that it did have these two layers. In general I like that. Such as in Halo, you have a shield but also health. It's nice starting battles somewhat consistently refreshed but also can be chipped away at.

 

I think the problem with PoE is because it was a gradient system. It was hard to gauge how low health was effecting you. Injuries seem to make that more clear. The thing I didn't understand was when injuries were incurred. I thought they would be happening intermittently during a fight, not just when your endurance reaches 0. Personally I don't like the idea of incurring injuries at chance from crits, which is I think I was interpreting it early. Maybe that still is the case, but I think I can warm up to the system that you describe.

[dukeisaac]

 

Wait so injuries occur when your endurance reaches 0. So it's basically don't reach 0 too many times otherwise you need to rest?

Yeah, thats' my take.

Say you reach 0 once, you get the broken rib debuff (action speed -35%). Then you fall at 0 again and you stack up the broken arm debuff (can't use 2-handed weapons, accuracy -50%) and so on. At some point the characters cannot progress any further because they are inefficient in combat having stacked all those debuffs up. So you know next time all will fall and it's game over. You need to rest, spent your supplies and remove some debuffs so you won't be wiped next fight. If you don't have enough supplies you need to withdraw.

That is speculation of course. This is how DA:O worked more or less. Of course there's big chance I am wrong and thay have a very different mechanic.

But from what I saw (characters refilling life after combat), I say they'll go DA:O.

 

At first, I was really against the idea of changing the health/endurance mechanic, as I felt it was an elegant solution to pacing and damage. If it's as you say, I'm less worried... I guess we'll have to see in the beta.

 

As for a general take on the videos from E3 : good stuff.

 

- I really dig the emphasis on exploration (I hope you can change your figurine on the screen when exploring on land)

- I think the slowing down of combat is a positive step, combat is generally much cleaner and easier to follow.

- setting, level design and graphics look AMAZING

- pickpocketing seems cool, but I hope its actually hard to do and requires tradeoffs (the example in the video seemed a bit too easy, then again, Maia is a ranger, so she's probably proficient in stealth and such)

- Looking forward to learn more about the different skills (active and passive) and how they affect gameplay. One of my major gripes from POE1

- not too fond of pallegina's portrait. It looks weird the straight angle...

- I'd rather the watercolour portraits appear on each side of the dialogue box, instead of on top of each other... its more... balanced

- Also not fond of the ability bar... seemed cleaner in POE1 (I know, pre-alpha...)

 

For now that's it. So, as a first cursory evaluation, Obsidian gets a respectable 83% on their mid-term. If they keep it up, they should finish in the top 5 % of the class

Edited June 16, 2017 by dukeisaac

[rogue7259]

I like the IGN interview for the gameplay:

 

But liked the interview best with PCGamesN:

 

But damn, bring on 2018!! This game is look'n amazing!!

[Lamppost in Winter]

Can't find the post now, but I believe in the new system, if a character gets three injuries (i.e., gets knocked out three times without resting), they die. Prefer Health/Endurance system for the granularity, so I hope they come back to that.

[smjjames]

Wierd that the IGN video shows a still of the Ondra monastery from WM when you load the page, I was confused for a second by that because it seems like an odd thing to do.

[rjshae]

Coverage Roundup:

http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/119124-pillars-of-eternity-ii-deadfire-e3-2017-coverage-roundup.html

 

Wasn't sure if this had been posted...

[injurai]

The preview screen for the IGN Gameplay Walkthrough, that was never show was it? I don't recall and stepping through it again I can't find it... hmmm...

[smjjames]

Coverage Roundup:

http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/119124-pillars-of-eternity-ii-deadfire-e3-2017-coverage-roundup.html

 

Wasn't sure if this had been posted...

 

Not from that particular website, no.

 

 

The preview screen for the IGN Gameplay Walkthrough, that was never show was it? I don't recall and stepping through it again I can't find it... hmmm...

 

No idea, there was that multicolored block thingy that they had during the livestream that they used for inbetween sections. But still, why use a screenshot from a completely different expansion?

 

Also, in the write up, the devs and artists apparently went and put a heck of a lot of work into researching ships, nautical terms, etc.

Edited June 16, 2017 by smjjames

[smjjames]

(double post because I wanna).

 

BTW, the 'pirate ship' in San Diego (as a San Diegan, I take a little bit of offense at that, it was never a pirate ship for one) mentioned in the write up is most likely the venerable Star of India, while it was built over a hundred years after the age of piracy and at the tail end of the Age of Sail, it IS the oldest ship still in regular use. So, apart from replicas and restored ships, if Obsidian wants to experience sailing on the real thing that would be used, it's perfect.

Edited June 16, 2017 by smjjames

[MortyTheGobbo]

I really like seeing the per-encounter spells in the video. It'll be so nice to be able to actually use the spells I want as a wizard, without worrying that I might need them later.

[smjjames]

I really like seeing the per-encounter spells in the video. It'll be so nice to be able to actually use the spells I want as a wizard, without worrying that I might need them later.

 

Agreed, I found the per-rest thing to be rather annoying, especially early on when you don't have all that many to begin with.

[injurai]

Agreed, I found the per-rest thing to be rather annoying, especially early on when you don't have all that many to begin with.

 

You pretty quickly meet Aloth and Eder. But that first map after the intro, non-melee casters really get screwed. It's a pretty fun 20 minutes of gameplay where you are scarred to push into the fog of war. That bear encounter... makes you sweat bullets. But even still the per rest mechanic makes you abuse camps far too often early game.

[LuccA]

New health system is Dragon Age Origins style from what I can make. Good news for me because is the only health system I really like (since health/stamina is out). Pretty sure players got no injuries because noone fell in combat.

In Dragon Age the idea was to survive the encounter or game over and if anyone fell during it, they got an injury.

My guess is this is the case in Deadfire. If players pile up many injuries they cannot progress further because they'll keep dying easily (from severe penalties) so you either have the supplies to rest and mend them or forfeit the dungeon and come back later.

 

Hummm, isn't that how PoE1 works already? The knock-out injuries were toggable, but I believe they're set 'on' by default.

[algroth]

Have to agree with the comments made on the portraits so far, I also feel they seem a step down from those in the first game. Also I do find the dialogue interface a little weird (maybe the character portrait can be made smaller or removed?) That aside though, liking how it's looking so far!

[injurai]

Have to agree with the comments made on the portraits so far, I also feel they seem a step down from those in the first game. Also I do find the dialogue interface a little weird (maybe the character portrait can be made smaller or removed?) That aside though, liking how it's looking so far!

 

Yeah, functionally I like the new chat. But it is a bit too vertical. Not sure if there is a better way to organize it or not. But While I'm reading text its not like I'm looking at much else, so It's not really a huge deal to me.

[Quillon]

Kotaku podcast:

 

http://kotaku.com/e3-day-five-podcast-the-director-of-south-park-the-fr-1796149686

 

Last comes Adam Brennecke (35:26), executive producer and lead programmer on Pillars of Eternity 2, for an in-depth chat about how they’re designing that game and how much work it takes to make a good RPG quest.

 

• Have to upgrade ship for deep seas. - RTS like.
• Multiple options for level scaling; crit path only, side content only, both & none.
• Enemy level is shown when hovered over.
• Surprisingly smooth production, 2 more months of prod then post prod starts in August.
• Similar map count; less wilderness areas more world map exploration(?).
• No crunch at all. More smooth development talk, bigger team.
• Importing save game; even small conversation options(Calisha convo) in PoE1 can have reactivity in Deadfire.

Wonder if these small options will only be integrated with a save game(?).

 

• Some BG2 discussion, comparisons.
• Pathfinding, characters, background, engine upgrade, improved loading time, npc scheduling talk.
• Who are the writers?
• Returning & new companions talk.
• BG2 quest design comparisons, improvements in WMs noted.
• Pre-prod started before WMP2, serious pre-prod started after WMP2, prod started in September.
• They would have made the game regardless of the fig, fig made it bigger & better but they were confident fig campaign was gonna succeed.
• Since the fig campaign they focused on the ship; integrating it, making it not pain in the ass for players. Crew recruitment. Other ships, captains, ship to ship combat.
• Ghost-heart ranger talk.
• Cool beginning.

[draego]

Kotaku podcast:

 

http://kotaku.com/e3-day-five-podcast-the-director-of-south-park-the-fr-1796149686

 

 

ramming speed 

 

I appreciate your ranger work Adam keep it up.

Edited June 17, 2017 by draego

[smjjames]

Podcasts.... they suck for the hard of hearing, wish those had captions or a transcript at least.....

 

Thanks for the rough summary though Quillon.

 

 

 

Kotaku podcast:

 

http://kotaku.com/e3-day-five-podcast-the-director-of-south-park-the-fr-1796149686

 

Last comes Adam Brennecke (35:26), executive producer and lead programmer on Pillars of Eternity 2, for an in-depth chat about how they’re designing that game and how much work it takes to make a good RPG quest.

 

• Have to upgrade ship for deep seas. - RTS like

 

If we need to upgrade the ship for deep seas, then how did we get to Deadfire archipelago? isn't there an entire ocean to cross?

 

 

 

Kotaku podcast:

 

http://kotaku.com/e3-day-five-podcast-the-director-of-south-park-the-fr-1796149686

 

Last comes Adam Brennecke (35:26), executive producer and lead programmer on Pillars of Eternity 2, for an in-depth chat about how they’re designing that game and how much work it takes to make a good RPG quest.

 

• Importing save game; even small conversation options(Calisha convo) in PoE1 can have reactivity in Deadfire.

 

*raises eyebrows* Interesting. We knew there would be some consequences from PoE1 transferring to Deadfire, but that's some deep connections. Also, who's Calisha? I don't recall an NPC by that name....

 

Edit: Oh CALISCA, meaning that the background building conversation will have a consequence, not surprised there.

Edited June 17, 2017 by smjjames

[Quillon]

If we need to upgrade the ship for deep seas, then how did we get to Deadfire archipelago? isn't there an entire ocean to cross?

Good question. Maybe Deadfire has deeper seas

[injurai]

The deepest seas.