Pillars of Eternity - J.E. Sawyer About the Delay

[Couchpotato]

Gamebanshee posted information about two new forum posts from J.E. Sawyer about the delay of Pillars of Eternity, and he talks about what features are being worked on.

Project director J.E. Sawyer has taken some time on the Obsidian forums to explain the reasons and the timing of the announcement of Pillars of Eternity's delay to 2015, and also took the opportunity to explain what the team is currently working on, which includes, among other things, a restructuring of the ability and talent advancement for all classes, a revision of the current XP rewards system, a review of the game's narrative and some visual polishing of character models and animations.

More information.

 

[Thrasher]

Thanks for the info CP. Sounds like this addresses some of the concerns. Nothing on the attribute system though.

 

[Maylander]

Sounds good. My main concern so far has been the look and feel of combat, where very little seems to stand out or have an impact, and I assume it's being covered by "Animation feedback and general aesthetics".

 

[Archangel]

Thanks for the info CP. Sounds like this addresses some of the concerns. Nothing on the attribute system though.

Attribute system was already changed and they seem to be satisfied for now.

 

[azarhal]

Sounds good. My main concern so far has been the look and feel of combat, where very little seems to stand out or have an impact, and I assume it's being covered by "Animation feedback and general aesthetics".

Yup, one of the main problem of combat feedback is that hits just go through model has if nothing happened and that group of changes is exactly what this is about.

 

[ChienAboyeur]

Lobbying pays.

 

[joxer]

Poor Josh, instead of directing the project he switched into PR.

Said in another thread, for me Eternity being delayed was great news because I can't find enough time for all games that are already released and am not sure for those that will be out in a next few months.
But even if I had enough time, I'd want a polished product. Fixed date release that makes players struggling with bugs instead of enjoying the game is something I just can't understand. Probably because I don't work for JoWood.

 

[you]

Did they comment on how they will change exp; are they going to give exp for combat ? Also their biggest mistake was saying that there was no possibility of a delay and then having a delay. To be honest I think they took on too much with regards to mechanic changes from the basic formulae. While D&D sucks and due to license issue they can't use it anyways I'm not sure the new system makes good intuitive sense without reading mounds and mounds of text.

 

[Maylander]

Did they comment on how they will change exp; are they going to give exp for combat ? Also their biggest mistake was saying that there was no possibility of a delay and then having a delay. To be honest I think they took on too much with regards to mechanic changes from the basic formulae. While D&D sucks and due to license issue they can't use it anyways I'm not sure the new system makes good intuitive sense without reading mounds and mounds of text.

Here's what he said about XP:

Adding in minor bestiary, exploration, lock, and trap XP rewards to increase the regularity of XP rewards across the game.

Doesn't sound like they're considering combat XP.

 

[azarhal]

The bestiary XP would be what replace combat XP. You need to kill stuff to unlock content in the bestiary.

 

[Archangel]

Did they comment on how they will change exp; are they going to give exp for combat ? Also their biggest mistake was saying that there was no possibility of a delay and then having a delay. To be honest I think they took on too much with regards to mechanic changes from the basic formulae. While D&D sucks and due to license issue they can't use it anyways I'm not sure the new system makes good intuitive sense without reading mounds and mounds of text.

Their engine is good, I just wish someone paid them to use it and made a D&D 5 cRPG with it.

 

[Voqar]

Their engine is good, I just wish someone paid them to use it and made a D&D 5 cRPG with it.

No thanks. D&D games were good to a point but I think they stifle developers since whatever entity owns D&D always exerts some degree of control and absorbs a great deal of money for the use of the D&D name.

I would rather see talented developers and designers do their own thing, have full creative freedom, and have the ability to delay a release if they think the game isn't up to snuff and take the time to make it better, which is what's happening here.

I also don't like the evolution of D&D (ie, prefer older versions) but that's a personal thing.

If this was days of old when the D&D games were made this thing would've got rammed out the door and you wouldn't have heard about the devs being unhappy with the product until after it had a poor release.

 

[Archangel]

No thanks. D&D games were good to a point but I think they stifle developers since whatever entity owns D&D always exerts some degree of control and absorbs a great deal of money for the use of the D&D name.

I would rather see talented developers and designers do their own thing, have full creative freedom, and have the ability to delay a release if they think the game isn't up to snuff and take the time to make it better, which is what's happening here.

I also don't like the evolution of D&D (ie, prefer older versions) but that's a personal thing.

If this was days of old when the D&D games were made this thing would've got rammed out the door and you wouldn't have heard about the devs being unhappy with the product until after it had a poor release.

I think your hate of producers is clouding your judgement and you are mixing up apples and oranges.
How did IE games come to be if D&D games are doomed to fail?! Or NWN1, or NWN2, or Kotor games (based on d20). OK, Kotor 2 is not a good example but its problem was not the system it used.

Company that is going to use D&D 5 in Obsidians engine is obviously not going to be making a high profile game for 30 mil $ that makes producers go nuts about delivery times and simplifying the game for the masses

 

[HiddenX]

Seems Desslock has some critique, too.

Tweets (23. August 2014) in response to Josh E. Sawyers article on balancing RPGs and after playing the beta of PoE.

If balance an overriding goal, specialization and diversity usually pared back or abilities conflated/mirrored sacrificing uniqueness.

[Balance] ]Not needed in single player game - I want misfits and juggernauts - they make roleplaying richer. Balance challenges to ensure all can overcome

Players should feel the "sting of character weakness and satisfaction of character strengths over the course of" an RPG - -perfect.

Too many developers seem afraid to deliver any "sting",even though it's crucial to make choices consequential.Choices should be tough

That doesn't mean creating frustrating roadblocks,but roleplaying requires differentiation between characters to ensure a personalized story

Fallout is such an interesting RPG to discuss in terms of balance. It has trash skill options,it has unspoken "easy mode"development options

But it has so many viable options for roleplaying truly different, personalized characters that it's a superlative RPG. And imbalanced.

Some of that imbalance is bad(trash options-science skill),but there are no dead ends & most punitive choices self-evident (non-violence)

Fallout's great strength is you can play non-speaking brutes or non-violent diplomat-much harder characters to play than typical gunslinger

Which cycles back to tweets earlier in week-balance challenges so all characters are viable and rewarding. Misfits & juggernauts can enhance

I agree 100%.

 

[you]

I never liked DnD because it didn't scale well; I just find some of their choices difficult to form an obvious association. Anyways we shall see; woudln't surprise me if it takes a few cycles to get the 'fun' into it.
-
btw i agree with some of the above comments i the tweet. Too much balance is boring.

 

[Sacred_Path]

Seems Desslock has some critique, too.

Tweets (23. August 2014) in response to Josh E. Sawyers article on balancing RPGs and after playing the beta of PoE.

I agree 100%.

That some characters are harder to play (gimped) doesn't increase Fallout's replayability (or that of any other game). Besides, there will be difficulty options in P:E. If you want your hiney kicked you can play without reloads on a higher difficulty which, they have promised, will do more than HP bloat.

I'm pretty excited that they chose to go by their own rules, literally. Even if it leads to the paradoxical situation of them making a traditional fantasy RPG which makes players from other genres go "oh, nice, someone is still making these" and fans of traditional fantasy RPG's go "y u no imuhtate mah DnD?!".

About the delay itself idc tbh

 

[HiddenX]

That some characters are harder to play (gimped) doesn't increase Fallout's replayability (or that of any other game).

Why are Fallout 1 & 2 my games with the most playthroughs then - right after JA 2 closely followed only by Wizardry 8 and Gothic 2 NotR?

You can play very different characters in the Fallouts, some are easier some are harder to play - all are fun.

 

[Sacred_Path]

Why are Fallout 1 & 2 my games with the most playthroughs then - right after JA 2 closely followed only by Wizardry 8 and Gothic 2 NotR?

Games don't get more replayability from bad character builds. You may play through a game several times despite that, of course. A game where all character builds offer some challenge is certainly more inviting in terms of playthroughs. Fallout clearly wasn't built for a character with all skillpoints dumped into Outdoorsman - and the enjoyment you get from playing such a character will be very limited as a consequence. Also, in a game with no way to change overall difficulty, it might have an ok side effect. PoE doesn't need that as it will have customizable levels of difficulty.

 

[HiddenX]

Try to play Fallout 2 with
a) very high speech skills and bad combat skills - try to play peacefully
b) very low speech skills and good combat skills
c) to play with HtH combat

then we talk again

 

[Sacred_Path]

Try to play Fallout 2 with
a) very high speech skills and bad combat skills - try to play peacefully
b) very low speech skills and good combat skills
c) to play with HtH combat

then we talk again

I've never played pacifist runs and never will - where's the fun in that? The other two options I've played. And trying to kick/ hit floaters with a hammer certainly wasn't much fun (not even mentioning you don't even have the same loot gathering joy with a pure melee character). How does that prove your point that unbalanced characters are fun?