Pillars of Eternity - Interview & Previews

Well seems the embargo on information from E3 has been lifted for Pillars of Eternity. So lets get started as I have a new video interview from RPGamer with Josh Sawyer.



Next I have a list of previews that I will just list the links as I'm too lazy to copy descriptions for each one. So enjoy and debate in the comment section below.

• Polygon
• Joystiq
• Kotaku
• PC Gamer
• The Escapist
• GameCrate
• PCWorld
• Gaming Illustrated
• SevenCut

More information.

Wow I was wondering what happened to Dave Chappelle. Weird interviewer.

I also found a trailer on RPGFan that they call new, but I swear I seen it before.



Update: Seems it's the old video from a few months back.

Thanks Couch - I had not seen that one myself. Brought back so many nostalgic memories of the BG games. Going to be very curious how much I will get into it when I actually play. Look great here.

Thanks for the trailer, Couch. Looks great!

Their solution to cut scenes and QTE sounds great. This looks better and better.

I read a couple of reviews and I haven't been this excited for a game in years. Can't wait!

This will have the real-time pause combat, like Dragon Age, right? Is anyone a big fan of that?

It seems to be the worst of all worlds to me. It is not visceral enough like real-time action RPG (say Diablo 3), and it is too hectic and abstracted for the turn based aspect.

In a turn-based game you know exactly what you are doing, it flows right. In these, and it may be that I just suck at them, the default actions are like sim-combat; whereas queueing actions feels too removed and like forecasting the weather. It is the tortured middle ground of action and strategy, I wish it would pick a fence.

Originally Posted by Burress
This will have the real-time pause combat, like Baldur's Gate, right? Is anyone a big fan of that?

Fixed it for you and there is a lot of people who are fan of BG combat.

Pillars of Eternity is designed to replicate the gameplay style of the old Infinity Engine games with BG and BG2 in mind mostly.

A great combat system isn't dependent the choice of rtwp, turn based, etc. Other factors are way more important.

I also like twitch based rpg's a lot, there I said it. Sorry can't come up with a lot of them though

Originally Posted by Burress
This will have the real-time pause combat, like Dragon Age, right? Is anyone a big fan of that?

I am. I find that when something is real time, but then switches to turn based for combat, it really takes me out of the immersion. I like RTwP because its continuous, but if I need to pause it to set up a spell or focus all my characters on one enemy or whatever, I can do that, then get going 'real time' again. Its by far my favorite combat system.

Originally Posted by Burress
This will have the real-time pause combat, like Dragon Age, right? Is anyone a big fan of that?

Yep, it's my favorite style of rpg gameplay -- one of the biggest reasons I was excited about the Infinity Engine style kickstarters.

Yeah, the more I hear about this the most excited I get too.

It's a massive shame it doesn't also feature the same multiplayer system as Baldurs Gate or Icewind Dale. I had a blast playing those with friends!

I hate that I know we'll all be playing it at launch singleplayer when we could be having an adventure like a tabletop campaign. :~(

Originally Posted by Burress
This will have the real-time pause combat, like Dragon Age, right? Is anyone a big fan of that?

Aye I really enjoy this combat style a lot. I like being able to pause the game and queue up actions then let it go. Pretty much one of my favorite styles.

I am waiting on THE GAME that simulates real life more but while in a turn based system.What I mean is turn based where every single character on both sides acts on every turn.Combat starts and you click on all your NPC's under your control and give them each an order to execute while the PC gives the enemies their actions and then these actions are all carried out simultaneously.I get turned off by games that have characters running up to an enemy,getting a hit and then moving back away from the enemy.

So say your fighter and the Orc that is next to it both attack with their sword/mace etc.The fighter and Orc both roll to see who hits first and this attack roll is added with their skill with the attacking weapon to determine who hits first.The higher attack roll causes damage and very important,for the next few turns this character is in attack mode,meaning a bonus to hit.

The defender now should play defensively where the next round they do not attack but instead they block.The attackers roll+attackers weapon skill+the "attack" bonus now go against the defenders defense roll+defenders defense skill+armor rating.If the defender manages to roll equal or higher then the attacker the attack switches sides and the defender now becomes the attacker.

As you adventure in the world and your crew gets higher skill levels the enemies next moves become more evident.So say a mage somewhere else on the map highlights.You hover mouse over the mage and see that he is readying a spell that you intuitively know from experience…aka the individual levels of your team mates with bonuses to those that are not in direct combat.

Just a simplified example but something I would like to see fleshed out somehow.I think it would be fun to quickly give out moves for next turn for a bunch of characters and then press execute and see this play out with the enemies countering with swords etc at same time.Plus as you level up your fighters they get more and more attacks per round and this would look amazing with the defenders animations blocking the attacks or the animations showing the hits that get threw the defenses.

wolfen:

Excellent idea. But, say a 4 vs. 6 turn round would be a LOT to take in all in one turn. Very interesting though.

Couch, that vid is probably one year old now. I wonder if there are any vids of the 20 min demo they showed? I'm a backer, and would like to see something more than just the quick teases they have been showing…

Originally Posted by spiraling69
Couch, that vid is probably one year old now. I wonder if there are any vids of the 20 min demo they showed? I'm a backer, and would like to see something more than just the quick teases they have been showing…

Well I wrote the video seemed familiar, but RPG Fan called it new. I also can't find any demo footage from E3 either as no one was able to film it secretly like DA:I.

All I found was a few new images and a list of backer DLC.

Originally Posted by Burress
This will have the real-time pause combat, like Dragon Age, right? Is anyone a big fan of that?

It seems to be the worst of all worlds to me. It is not visceral enough like real-time action RPG (say Diablo 3), and it is too hectic and abstracted for the turn based aspect.

In a turn-based game you know exactly what you are doing, it flows right. In these, and it may be that I just suck at them, the default actions are like sim-combat; whereas queueing actions feels too removed and like forecasting the weather. It is the tortured middle ground of action and strategy, I wish it would pick a fence.

I gather from your reply that you probably never played any of the Infinity Engine games. I'd say just give Pillars a chance. This game is a product of the IE games, so I can see how some of the younger gamers might not "get it" if they didn't experience Baldur's Gate the way we did when it first came out.

I am another fan of RTWP. In fact when I first played BG I thought it would make turn based obsolete