Deadfire DLCs Revealed

[CottonWolf]

Interesting news in the details:

 

FIG Backers that backed at the Collector’s Edition tier or above or included the Season Pass as part of their backer pledge will also receive the Season Pass.

 

 

I wonder how many other CE+ backers picked up a copy of the DLC not knowing it was going to be bundled in later.

 

Depending on whether they make any more DLC after this, it still might be different. The DLC add-on during the campaign was for all future DLC. This implies it's just these three DLCs. In all likelihood, this'll be all there is, so this is a moot point, but...

 

Priest of Rymrgand?!

 

We can dream.

[Guest]

 

Burning Question: in which of these do we get round 2 with the Pargrunen?

Huh? Was there actually anything left unresolved with the Pargrunen?

They made a big deal of the Pargrunen being bad-ass explorers and telling us repeatedly that they had spent time in the Deadfire and Living Lands.

 

Seems like an awful lot of set up for something that won’t be revisited.

 

My $0.02

[Skazz]

Someone pointed this out earlier in the thread, probably multiple times, too, but anyway:

 

The smaller size doesn't have to be a bad thing. Considering the setting of Deadfire, they have a pretty unique opportunity to seamlessly weave any number of DLC into the base game. In my case, as long as it's done organically, without obvious transitions/gateway mechanics that painfully let me know that YOU'RE ENTERING THE BEAST OF WINTER CONTENT, I probably won't mind the reduced length at all.

Edited April 24, 2018 by Skazz

[Skazz]

 

 

Burning Question: in which of these do we get round 2 with the Pargrunen?

Huh? Was there actually anything left unresolved with the Pargrunen?

They made a big deal of the Pargrunen being bad-ass explorers and telling us repeatedly that they had spent time in the Deadfire and Living Lands.

 

Seems like an awful lot of set up for something that won’t be revisited.

 

My $0.02

 

 

I guess that may very well be the case. To me, the Deadfire/Living Lands thing was fodder for the globe puzzle more than anything else, especially given Josh's stance on PoE lore (i.e. don't set up too much in advance to avoid it getting in the way for other writers in the future), but as a dorf fan, I wouldn't mind being wrong on that.

Edited April 24, 2018 by Skazz

[BAdler]

Hey, everyone. Glad to see you are all excited. Unfortunately, I can't answer your questions right now, but I'll be able to after Deadfire launches. So, keep 'em coming and I'm sure we'll put together a Q&A for everyone in a few weeks.

[Ethics Gradient]

All of them who picked the DLC and CE+, which is probably most of those backers. There was no mention of it being bundled (it wasn't for POE1) and I think some people asked the question during the campaign.

 

So quite a few people are now somewhere in-between "yeah, free stuff added" vs "I wasted $20".

 

They're looking into it.  The actual details of the DLC announcement appear to be very recent developments.  

Yeah, we're looking into this now. This situation was a little unexpected for us, too! We'll have a statement on it as soon as we can circle up with Versus Evil and Fig.

We're getting tons of questions, so we are compiling them and will make a FAQ

[Guest]

 

 

 

Burning Question: in which of these do we get round 2 with the Pargrunen?

Huh? Was there actually anything left unresolved with the Pargrunen?

They made a big deal of the Pargrunen being bad-ass explorers and telling us repeatedly that they had spent time in the Deadfire and Living Lands.

 

Seems like an awful lot of set up for something that won’t be revisited.

 

My $0.02

I guess that may very well be the case. To me, the Deadfire/Living Lands thing was fodder for the globe puzzle more than anything else, especially given Josh's stance on PoE lore (i.e. don't set up too much in advance to avoid it getting in the way for other writers in the future), but as a dorf fan, I wouldn't mind being wrong on that.

Emphasis on “too much”. If I recall that discussion correctly, he used examples like specific geographic locations, land mass, climate, etc. We are aware that both of these places exist and with current information we know that we will be visiting one of them soon. Doesn’t seem like much of a violation, especially considering that it’s the revealed lore itself which is telling us that they were there.

[Wormerine]

I would be most excited for a $40 expansion in a year or so after release, but I will take what I can get. Shame that WM didn’t work out, as it was an excellent addition.

[Flouride]

wow the DLCs seems road-mapped pretty soon.. all during this year and the latest one on Nov 2018. color me negative, they are not cut content and put them onto DLCs? wondering how long are the content. are they meaty one or are just small size where each adding few hours of content?

 

also it seems no new companions? that's very disappointing for me.

 

It's not cut content, they've been working on it quite a long time while putting finishing touches on Deadfire. They can start creating levels and art way before the release date of Deadfire due to the content being locked for the game and thus artists, level designers etc. need something to do.

Either they get shipped to work on an another game or they create DLCs, or they are out of a job...

 

Adding companions so "late" into the game is kinda pointless though, so I can see their reasoning if there are no new companions.

[StarlaBlaise]

Sounds like DLCs will be revolved around Rymrgand, Magran and Wael respectively. 

[IndiraLightfoot]

I would be most excited for a $40 expansion in a year or so after release, but I will take what I can get. Shame that WM didn’t work out, as it was an excellent addition.

Heck, I can wait two and dish out $50, as long as it's Mask of the Betrayer stuff!

[Merany]

Looks like smaller DLC indeed...

And if I remember right, when they did that poll, that's not what players that bought The White March preferred... Wonder what's the point in doing those polls then?

 

I'm skeptical it can be as good as WM2 on a shorter format but I hope they can prove me wrong...

[Skazz]

 

I would be most excited for a $40 expansion in a year or so after release, but I will take what I can get. Shame that WM didn’t work out, as it was an excellent addition.

Heck, I can wait two and dish out $50, as long as it's Mask of the Betrayer stuff!

“Feedback received, Eder is now a bear”

 

-Obsidian, probably

Edited April 24, 2018 by Skazz

[z_liquid]

Would be cool if the DLC could offer alterative routes to go through the game. That'd improve replayability and they'd mesh into the main story better. Then Obsidian wouldn't have to worry about scaling and iffy integration problems as in White March 1&2

[molotov.]

The first dlc sounds underwhelming, but that will depend on the sort of doomsday cult we are talking about. And I'm a little disappointed I was expecting new companions or at least the development of our sidekicks.

 

The second dlc sounds satisfactory, always good to have a combat-focused dlc on any RPG.

 

The third dlc sounds promising but with a grain of salt, I only say that because I don't know if I'll like the new companions.

[Ethics Gradient]

Looks like smaller DLC indeed...

And if I remember right, when they did that poll, that's not what players that bought The White March preferred... 

 

A different way of looking at the survey might have been to better assess the demographics that didn't buy WM1+2 and figure out what can be done to bring them onboard the DLC train.

 

The White March was great and everything, but not a lot of people bought it at the time.  And if you didn't get WM1, you surely weren't getting WM2.

 

The FNV-style DLC packs widen the variety of content you can offer, fit in well with an island-based world map, and won't penalize or discourage the player if they are uninterested in a specific DLC offering.  Appealing to the greatest number of players can still be a winning formula.

 

^{_{Edit: spellin'}}

Edited April 24, 2018 by Ethics Gradient

[DexGames]

FIG Backers that backed at the Collector’s Edition tier or above or included the Season Pass as part of their backer pledge will also receive the Season Pass.

 

Yeah, I'm curious to know what's their plan for those who backed above the Collector's Edition AND added the Season Pass. [i'm one of them]

All those "OR" sounds strange to me, I'm an "AND". 

& I'm certainly not the only one.

 

I already talked about the DLC Poll's results, where 90%+ of people answered that they want, quote :

• A Big, Meaty, True Expansion.

So these DLCs are announced, they sound cool & everything.

But I wouldn't be surprised that a true expansion is still in the book for Obsidian. [i do hope so]

 

For the White March, Feargus said that the mistake was to "Split them into two", not that it was a mistake to do a true expansion.

 

Ok, maybe the entire White March Expansion didn't sold that well, I don't know the numbers. But we all know it was well recieved, and critically acclaimed by those who took it. The whole White March package is a great expansion, we know it, they know it, we answered their poll, they saw it, and we've already paid extra money for what was supposed to be the "Deadfire's Expansion". [Just like we did on Kickstarter for Pillars I]

 

Speculations but :

• Maybe these smaller DLCs are just an Extension of what was originally in the plan for Deadfire.

They can make these happen with a relatively small team, while the rest of the effort is spent on a big true expansion.

That would give them an extended period of developpement time, so that they don't have to split it into two parts.

 

Just my guess... Wait & See.

 

Edit : Typos.

Edited April 24, 2018 by DexGames

[anameforobsidian]

Old World Blues was probably my favorite expansion of all time.  There's nothing wrong with shorter expansions.  They can tell really neat stories if they're focused. 

 

That said, WM gave the team an excuse to really fix mechanics and encounter design.  It's also the game base Pillars should have been.  I guess it depends on how complete the game is to begin with.

[DozingDragon]

My guess is that Obsidian will not be doing a full size expansion after doing this round of DLC.  Even if Deadfire's sales are phenomenal, the time that would be spent on a large expansion could instead be used on: (1) getting a sequel out faster, (2) a same engine spin-off in the spirit of Icewind Dale, and/or (3) porting Pillars 1 to the Deadfire engine.  And that is assuming Obsidian does not need to use members from the Deadfire team for Tim Cain's unannounced project or some other project.  

Edited April 24, 2018 by DozingDragon

[AlphaShard]

Interesting news in the details:

 

FIG Backers that backed at the Collector’s Edition tier or above or included the Season Pass as part of their backer pledge will also receive the Season Pass.

 

 

I wonder how many other CE+ backers picked up a copy of the DLC not knowing it was going to be bundled in later.

 

Wait... what? Oh dear I didn't realize that at all, I thought it wasn't included. 

[Skazz]

My guess is that Obsidian will not be doing a full size expansion after doing this round of DLC.  Even if Deadfire's sales are phenomenal, the time that would be spent on a large expansion could instead be used on: (1) getting a sequel out faster, (2) a same engine spin-off in the spirit of Icewind Dale, and/or (3) porting Pillars 1 to the Deadfire engine.  And that is assuming Obsidian does not need to use members from the Deadfire team for Tim Cain's unannounced project or some other project.  

 

Honest question: why do you assume that they would port PoE 1 to PoE 2's engine? What would be the point of that? I can't help but think it'd be a considerable waste of time with zero return.

[Dr. Hieronymous Alloy]

 

My guess is that Obsidian will not be doing a full size expansion after doing this round of DLC.  Even if Deadfire's sales are phenomenal, the time that would be spent on a large expansion could instead be used on: (1) getting a sequel out faster, (2) a same engine spin-off in the spirit of Icewind Dale, and/or (3) porting Pillars 1 to the Deadfire engine.  And that is assuming Obsidian does not need to use members from the Deadfire team for Tim Cain's unannounced project or some other project.  

 

Honest question: why do you assume that they would port PoE 1 to PoE 2's engine? What would be the point of that? I can't help but think it'd be a considerable waste of time with zero return.

 

 

Sawyer mentioned it in one of the streams as a one-day-be-nice type thing. It seems to be something fans of the genre expect now given the EE editions of Baldur's Gate franchise, forgetting there was a fourteen-year delay in between.

 

If there's a PoE 3 and then ten years from now there's an EE version with the PoE 2/3 mechanics for PoE 1 . .sure, it'd be fun to try multiclassing my way through Dyrwood one day in the future. 

[Dr. Hieronymous Alloy]

My guess is that Obsidian will not be doing a full size expansion after doing this round of DLC.  Even if Deadfire's sales are phenomenal, the time that would be spent on a large expansion could instead be used on: (1) getting a sequel out faster, (2) a same engine spin-off in the spirit of Icewind Dale, and/or (3) porting Pillars 1 to the Deadfire engine.  And that is assuming Obsidian does not need to use members from the Deadfire team for Tim Cain's unannounced project or some other project.  

 

That's all valid, but I could see a lot of DLC's just because the game's structure (islands and ships) is so particularly suited to endless DLC's. Just another island on the map . . . 

[Frog Man]

My guess is that Obsidian will not be doing a full size expansion after doing this round of DLC. Even if Deadfire's sales are phenomenal, the time that would be spent on a large expansion could instead be used on: (1) getting a sequel out faster, (2) a same engine spin-off in the spirit of Icewind Dale, and/or (3) porting Pillars 1 to the Deadfire engine. And that is assuming Obsidian does not need to use members from the Deadfire team for Tim Cain's unannounced project or some other project.

Ooooooooooh, please do that Icewind Dale option. I will kickstart the BLEEP outta that.

 

Sorry sorry. First things first, beat Deadfire roughly 65 times.

[DozingDragon]

 

 

My guess is that Obsidian will not be doing a full size expansion after doing this round of DLC.  Even if Deadfire's sales are phenomenal, the time that would be spent on a large expansion could instead be used on: (1) getting a sequel out faster, (2) a same engine spin-off in the spirit of Icewind Dale, and/or (3) porting Pillars 1 to the Deadfire engine.  And that is assuming Obsidian does not need to use members from the Deadfire team for Tim Cain's unannounced project or some other project.  

 

Honest question: why do you assume that they would port PoE 1 to PoE 2's engine? What would be the point of that? I can't help but think it'd be a considerable waste of time with zero return.

 

 

Sawyer mentioned it in one of the streams as a one-day-be-nice type thing. It seems to be something fans of the genre expect now given the EE editions of Baldur's Gate franchise, forgetting there was a fourteen-year delay in between.

 

If there's a PoE 3 and then ten years from now there's an EE version with the PoE 2/3 mechanics for PoE 1 . .sure, it'd be fun to try multiclassing my way through Dyrwood one day in the future. 

 

I am fairly certain some other devs have mentioned porting PoE 1 to the Deadfire engine as well.  Personally, I would prefer if Obsidian focused on new projects. 

 

With that said, I can see the potential appeal in porting PoE 1 from a business perspective.  While I am sure a port would require a substantial amount of work, it would not exactly require a full team of writers or designers.  Throw in some budget to get every line voiced, and maybe Obsidian turns a profit on the remaster and also gives PoE 1 better "long tail" sales.  

Edited April 25, 2018 by DozingDragon