Pillars of Eternity - Interview & New Patch Notes

BrianOConnell said:

So those who paid for the expansion essentially now have an expansion pass

Click to expand...

What a shady scam.

Okay, more seriously: with the growing prevalence of Agile development and digital distribution, we'll see more and more instances like this two-part expansion and CDPR's two-part TW3 expansion. Folks who see this as equivalent to throwaway DLC will likely have much to irritate them in the future, even from devs - like Obsidian, CDPR, and Larian - who formerly filled the "nice" list.

Well, I'm quite happy with Obsidian. They have played entirely fair, as far as I can see, and are working on patches in a very timely way. Expansions are coming as promised, and all in all this a great example of what I want from a Kickstarter.

Moriendor said:

I fully expected to receive both parts of the expansion for free though. It's their problem if they decide to split up the release, not mine. Cheating backers out of the full free expansion by splitting it in two and making us pay for the second part by saying "hey we only promised you the first expansion for free and technically this is it" would have been an incredibly lame cash grab. Glad to receive confirmation that they are above such scams.

Click to expand...

Yeah, that would have been a real dick move and I doubt they would destroy their good name in such a way. It would cost them more money in the end.

What I'd like to know is if normal buyers get both parts of the expansion for the cost of the first part or if they split it up. If the first part costs 20€ I expect to get the second part for free. If each part is 10€ it would be fine by me, too.

It is really pleasant to hear the term "expansion" once again, instead of crummy dlc. I think this time, however, I'll wait for patches to hit the expansion before I jump back in with my killer dragon-slaying rogue!

I am seriously loving this game and am so glad they are committed to patching and improving the game.

I just hope the expansion adds to the story, or continues main story threads somehow. I remember the Tales of the Sword Coast for BG1 - was such a grind to the end, and for whatever reason, after beating the base game, I forced myself to finish the expansion which added nothing to the story, just grindy sidequests. I suppose the expansion in tandem with the main game would have been better for those who waited (I think that was possible) but I played in order. By comparison I never completed BG2.

mbuddha said:

I just hope the expansion adds to the story, or continues main story threads somehow. I remember the Tales of the Sword Coast for BG1 - was such a grind to the end, and for whatever reason, after beating the base game, I forced myself to finish the expansion which added nothing to the story, just grindy sidequests. I suppose the expansion in tandem with the main game would have been better for those who waited (I think that was possible) but I played in order. By comparison I never completed BG2.

Click to expand...

To be fair, I think they were trying to figure out what a D&D game should look like for the "modern" era. TotSC was quite honestly marketed as a "module", not as a continuation of BG's Bhaalspawn story, and I thought at the time that it worked quite nicely from that perspective. Something like that never would've worked for BG2, with the Bhaalspawn storyline and the conventions of "a BG game" much more firmly established. On the other hand, Trials of the Luremaster was somewhat similar (albeit smaller-scale) to TotSC, and fit pretty well with IWD.

Given PoE's approach to storytelling, I could see a shorter narrative working really well if tied into the overall history (especially the Eothas or Glanfathan stuff) or the politics of the Dyrwood's neighbors. I don't think I'd be bothered if Obsidian released something that didn't directly continue or tie into the main Pillars story, as long as it continued to develop the gameworld. Ulgoth's Beard, in contrast, didn't accomplish anything like that; it really felt like something inconsequential, happening on the margins.

Couchpotato said:

Nobody is dreaming.

I was was just curious as my gifted copy gets the expansion for free thanks to a generous backer who also got extra copies when he pledged to the kickstarter.

Click to expand...

That's a very good question, and one that I had asked over a year ago on the forums, but never received an answer. If I had to guess, I'd say it's not included since it was the basic "Hero Edition" code.

Instead of an expansion I would rather a full game. All the ground work is done with the engine all the balancing is fixed now or close to being fixed. Less efforts put into the visions and graves which had really nothing to do with the game quest put towards the story.

Just would like to get into a new story then a few needless side quest.