Pillars of Eternity - Majority of Content Optional

[DArtagnan]

Some people feel entitled to a free game because other players helped fund it. It's socialist pinko commie parasitic nonsense…

As for most of the content being optional, I think that will make it feel more open and less linear. To me it's a good thing.

It's an irrational position.

The game was funded by investors. Whether you call those people suits or the crowd, really is irrelevant.

 

[Sacred_Path]

Anyone who want to get challenged in Pillars of Eternity just need to work toward the Triple Crown Solo achievement…without cheating or using exploit. That achievement is finishing the entire game solo on Path of the Damned with Trial of Iron on.

The dev consider it impossible and none of the internal QA testers achieved it.

Arbitrary limitarions to make the game harder AREN'T what anyone wanted with this game. That's exactly what difficulty modes are for. Of course I can play with only one character, or naked characters, or one hand tied behind my back, but that's not the same as a well balanced challenge.

 

[joxer]

Anyone who want to get challenged in Pillars of Eternity just need to work toward the Triple Crown Solo achievement…without cheating or using exploit. That achievement is finishing the entire game solo on Path of the Damned with Trial of Iron on.

The dev consider it impossible and none of the internal QA testers achieved it.

Achievements:
- kill 673457843257832847 mobs
- combine 73568734658365834 combinations
- finish the game on some specific difficulty setting
Ain't that a garbage ported from consoles to PC because games there suck so much the only way to make people play them are those grinding trophies?

How about a challenge in a form of an achievement: "finish all possible sidequests in one playthrough". Oh, yeah, now that'd be too hard for mainstream audience to achieve.

 

[azarhal]

Arbitrary limitarions to make the game harder AREN'T what anyone wanted with this game. That's exactly what difficulty modes are for. Of course I can play with only one character, or naked characters, or one hand tied behind my back, but that's not the same as a well balanced challenge.

Challenging is different for each and every player. You are responsible of how challenging the game is by how much you are powergaming, metagaming and exploiting the game.

You'll probably be happy to learn that Josh hate power and meta gamers and each time something sounded overpowered in the BB he nerfed the hell out of it though.

Achievements:
- kill 673457843257832847 mobs
- combine 73568734658365834 combinations
- finish the game on some specific difficulty setting
Ain't that a garbage ported from consoles to PC because games there suck so much the only way to make people play them are those grinding trophies?

How about a challenge in a form of an achievement: "finish all possible sidequests in one playthrough". Oh, yeah, now that'd be too hard for mainstream audience to achieve.

That is actually Steam achievements, joxer. I don't know the full list, Balder just mentioned that one in a "challenge" thread on the official forums...and I personally don't care about achievements. I much prefer the in-game stats information.

 

[Drithius]

Majority of content being optional screams mindless Skyrim wanderings to me. But I doubt it'll be that bad since Avellone still needs some sort of narrative to intertwine heavy handed morally-grey drama.

In any case, 2 1/2 weeks! Or now if I want to spoil myself with a beta. Come to think of it , 2 1/2 weeks if I want to spoil myself with a beta as well. Hmm.

2 months to go!

 

[Moriendor]

The beta is spoiler-free. They specifically picked a location that would not spoil any of the main game plot. And the content that you can do in the beta is very unexciting side quest stuff (like really way out there to the side... completely peripheral).
On the other hand, this close to the "final" release (and hopefully a much improved version over the -IMHO- very mediocre beta) you might as well wait.