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

Diversity in both singleplayer and multiplayer for me. Balance in a rich and intricate system is impossible. What you do instead, is provide enough options for the players - so they'll be overwhelmed. By doing that, you provide them with "top builds" and "top counter builds" for years.

The so-called cookie cutter builds are for sheep. They're almost never ideal, they're just popular.

Obviously, you put as much thought into your system as you can - and you do what you can to provide a balanced approach, and plenty of utility and flavor on top of sheer power.

But don't be a control-freak about it, and don't tell yourself that players would be happy with your balance no matter what you do. They won't.

Good players will always find a way to defeat bad players - and bad players will always complain about balance - whether it's there or not.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
Now can anyone playing the Pillars of Eternity beta tell me if the latest patch improved it. I usually don't bother playing Betas cause it ruins the game for me.

I'm willing to make an exception this time just to see what all the fuss is about.

It didn't change anything at all for me, but I never had any issues with attributes, skills or balancing. Whether it's called Might or Strength or affects this or that is something I will simply adjust to.

My main concern is the look and feel of combat. It's okayish, but it seems too bland. The feedback and visual effects are really lacking.

Imbalance is what it is about when they talk about hard choices. You can go through a game for 20-50 hours and you can talk, but not fight. Or you can heal, but not steal. You can fight, but you can't cast spells. You can cast spells, but you have a steel allergy.

It basically is a way to put cool things in the game and tell you you can only have some of them. Then you must replay the game, with the rather arrogant assumption that the same game can support that. Most games are like this.

Thankfully, we live in the Cheat Engine age. We can correct the arrogance of developers who think we need to invest 40-50 hours in to a separate speech character playthrough. So, balance or imbalance isn't such a big deal anymore. You can fix it yourself.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
Now can anyone playing the Pillars of Eternity beta tell me if the latest patch improved it. I usually don't bother playing Betas cause it ruins the game for me.

I'm willing to make an exception this time just to see what all the fuss is about.

The latest patch had revisions to attributes, combat feedback, stealth and enemy AI. It was an improvement in general, but this caused other (old/new) issues to popup, it's not suddenly perfect. It still have a way to go.

Unless you like playing unpolished games, I really don't suggest you try the beta.

Originally Posted by azarhal
The latest patch had revisions to attributes, combat feedback, stealth and enemy AI. It was an improvement in general, but this caused other (old/new) issues to popup, it's not suddenly perfect. It still have a way to go.

Unless you like playing unpolished games, I really don't suggest you try the beta.

Thanks azarhal I'll hold off from playing the Beta then.

Originally Posted by Burress
Imbalance is what it is about when they talk about hard choices. You can go through a game for 20-50 hours and you can talk, but not fight. Or you can heal, but not steal. You can fight, but you can't cast spells. You can cast spells, but you have a steel allergy.

Umm, were any of those supposed to be bad things??? Because I like all of them.

If I can see all/be all like in TES I never have to make any choices. I like to make choices, especially when there's a party and I can have diversity anyway. If all my party members can do everything, why the hell do I need a party???

Originally Posted by tomasp3n
Umm, were any of those supposed to be bad things??? Because I like all of them.

If I can see all/be all like in TES I never have to make any choices. I like to make choices, especially when there's a party and I can have diversity anyway. If all my part members can do everything, why the hell do I need a party???

I have no idea why posts like these are in a PoE thread. Party members can't do everything in the game. Hell, backers are currently complaining that some classes are not flexible enough.

Originally Posted by azarhal
I have no idea why posts like these are in a PoE thread. Party members can't do everything in the game. Hell, backers are currently complaining that some classes are not flexible enough.

No, and they shouldn't be able to in my opinion. I don't know if you were refering to my post or Burress, but I'm just saying I want my classes to be somewhat limited (different builds are of course great), and I want to make hard choices in my character builds. If that's the way PoE is then great, i was just replying to what Burress posted. And I'm not even sure if he was being sarcastic or genuine…

Originally Posted by tomasp3n
No, and they shouldn't be able to in my opinion. I don't know if you were refering to my post or Burress, but I'm just saying I want my classes to be somewhat limited (different builds are of course great), and I want to make hard choices in my character builds. If that's the way PoE is then great, i was just replying to what Burress posted. And I'm not even sure if he was being sarcastic or genuine…

Not replying to anyone in particular, your post was just the last one on the topic of "I don't want balance because it means every class is going to be the same".