Pillars of Eternity II - Paypal and Next Stretch Goal

Now that the Fig campaign has been closed For Pillars of Eternity II, the raising of funds continues by means of Paypal pledges. Next to that also a new stretch goal at $4.75M is announced.

We have a few special things to share with you as our campaign comes to an end. First we have a special message in video format made by Adam Brennecke, the executive producer of Deadfire - with some fun behind the scenes footage of the game. We also have a new stretch goal for $4.75 million - Sea Monsters and Fishing! We blew by the last stretch goal of $4.25 million and we will now add a Talking Intelligent Weapon to the game, and are on our way to the $4.5 million stretch goal which will add the Ship Crew feature! Amazing!

And here is a thank you video.




More information.

Interesting effects in that video. Some of the fade outs could have been less abrupt, but overall I like what they're showing.

Command your own ship, ship types, pirates, customizable ships, uncharted islands, sea monsters, fishing, ship crew, naval battles etc. - is this Sid Meier's Pirates?

Originally Posted by luj1
Command your own ship, ship types, pirates, customizable ships, uncharted islands, sea monsters, fishing, ship crew, naval battles etc. - is this Sid Meier's Pirates?

I was hoping this ship stuff would just be some small option distractions but it sounds like it's shaping up to be much more.

If I have to manage a crew, have ship battles, upgrade my ship so I'm able to get past content gates, etc. then I'll definitely be skipping.

I'm sure I'll take grief for this but none of this stuff intrests me in the least so why would I buy and play it.

Anyway I'll wait for reviews I guess.

Originally Posted by sakichop
I was hoping this ship stuff would just be some small option distractions but it sounds like it's shaping up to be much more.

If I have to manage a crew, have ship battles, upgrade my ship so I'm able to get past content gates, etc. then I'll definitely be skipping.

I'm sure I'll take grief for this but none of this stuff intrests me in the least so why would I buy and play it.

Anyway I'll wait for reviews I guess.

Did you read update 16?

Originally Posted by sakichop
I was hoping this ship stuff would just be some small option distractions but it sounds like it's shaping up to be much more.

If I have to manage a crew, have ship battles, upgrade my ship so I'm able to get past content gates, etc. then I'll definitely be skipping.

I'm sure I'll take grief for this but none of this stuff intrests me in the least so why would I buy and play it.

Anyway I'll wait for reviews I guess.

Agree 100%

Hm. What's the issue with ships? I imagine its gonna be like a stronghold. Why is a ship a deal-breaker?

Originally Posted by Ovenall
Hm. What's the issue with ships? I imagine its gonna be like a stronghold. Why is a ship a deal-breaker?

Different strokes for different folks, I guess. Ship ownership in RPGs has been around since at least the old AD&D days. For me it'll be a nice change of pace.

I will play the game but it's obviously not just the ship.

We've come from housing, to customizing the color of sails (?) and managing the ship's crew. With every new update and stretch goal they're straying off course (the irony) and this is becoming more akin to Sea Dogs. It has been marketed as a RPG primarily so all this filler nonsense like ship types or ship customization is merely garbage standing in the way.

Originally Posted by Ovenall
Hm. What's the issue with ships? I imagine its gonna be like a stronghold. Why is a ship a deal-breaker?

The short answer? Because it detracts from adding traditional content, doing polish and improving writing. Things like that were pretty mediocre in PoE for the same reasons. It would have been enough that you can just buy a ship and explore with it, like in Avernum.

Originally Posted by luj1
The short answer? Because it detracts from adding traditional content, doing polish and improving writing.

Pardon me, but what a load of bollocks. The notion of writing quality exists independently of whether ships are to be included or not. Put simply adding them doesn't equate to a loss of writing quality, nor polish for that matter, which is more obviously connected to QA.

I envisage ship travel as possibly enhancing game-play much the same as it did in Ultima IV-VII, it deepens exploration and the sense of adventure. I can also see some possible connections to the overland map found in early gold-box games and even Storm of Zehir, so there's also the additional nostalgia factor in this idea.

Originally Posted by Pessimeister
Pardon me, but what a load of bollocks. The notion of writing quality exists independently of whether ships are to be included or not.

Excuse me, but we are past the point of "only a ship". Which would have been just fine.

You are of course right in that a company workforce is divided into sectors, some more independent than others. Artists and writers, for one, are the most universal category. What I want to say is, and let's take writers for an example, is that someone had to write a description for each ship type, for every ship upgrade, a some sort of bio or whatever for every crew member, every naval encounter (you can have scripted encounters on land too! - something which has been presented as a core goal in PoE 1, yet unfortunately wasn't exploited enough) and so on. And that's only the writers, the same can be said in regard to artists.

Now that same work could easily amount to a new town, a new quest arc, a new faction, adding more NPCs, improving existing NPCs, companions, adding detail to locations, adding more depth to whatever etc. In PoE 1 we've had the same problem - player housing, adventurer's hall, stronghold, stronghold upgrades and macro-economy, endless dungeon and so on - all unnecessary things which detracted from traditional RPG content and polish.

Without knowledge of the original development plan that's pure speculation.

A new town didn't work that well in PoE. That was a stretch goal, btw.

Yes, I seem to recall that some of those larger stretch goals from PoE actually came out of discussions on the Obsidian forums. Or at least that's where I saw them mentioned beforehand; perhaps those were polling threads to check the response? To me those goals seemed to be overly ambitious, particularly the Stronghold. This time it looks they kept the goals more manageable… if a bit vague at times. For example, "Double the V.O.!". Double what?

For the first crowdfunding, Obsidian had no plan for stretch goals at all. They did not even have a game concept besides "doing something similar to the infinity games". Most concepts developed during the kickstarter. They were totally surprised by the response and hastily looked for things to feed the crowd and to keep up with the success of their campaign. They also didn't expect, that the Endless Paths would really be that Endless. This time, Fulvano's voyage seemed to have a limit. I also think they did a list of "Could be" before they went public.

And even if they didn't have spent the money for the stretch goals they promised: It's pure speculation if OEI really had the same priorities how to spend the rest of the money. I'm also pretty sure that there have been several other games that underwent such development changes in a later stage of production and succeeded. If these stretch goals fell short in PoE1, it wasn't definitely because of timing during production or stretching the concept. There was no detailed concept.

Originally Posted by rjshae
For example, "Double the V.O.!". Double what?

Double the V.O. budget, it was the same for the first game before that stretch goal was achieved. It was mentioned in the FIG comment.

Doubling voice overs likewise adds no meaningful substance to a RPG.

Also, I never liked stretch goals or any other form of commercial blackmail. When you don't have a clear conception of what you're doing it's easy to mismanage stretch-goals and get completely lost - in which case traditional elements like writing or depth will suffer.

So, unlike most people, I wont care about 20 cute mini-games if the core RPG is mediocre.

Im not a fan of stretch goals either. Nothing like pledging and then 2 weeks later seeing stretch goals you don't want or care about. Even worse is pledging and then before release they drop a stretch goal you really wanted. Then there's the extra development time added.

Started playing POE last night though and 2 stretch goals I wouldn't mind but will never happen would be full 3D environment so I can rotate the camera, I've been playing D:OS and have gotten quite used to it. Not to mention I got attack last night behind some trees and couldn't see anything that was going on. I changed the settings so I could see my guys through the trees but then they just kind of glowed and it was still hard to see.

2nd, fix my monk. A monk that I need to throw in front of an enemies blade so she can collect wounds and have access to her skills just seems wrong.

I'm still having fun though and definitely get the BG vibe so I'm sure I'll break down and get the 2nd one ships and all.

If they must have pirates I hope the make them more like Somali pirates and not like the singing, yohoho and a bottle of rum, aaarrrggghh me matey, talk to my parrot before ye walk the plank stereotypical pirates.

Originally Posted by sakichop
If they must have pirates I hope the make them more like Somali pirates and not like the singing, yohoho and a bottle of rum, aaarrrggghh me matey, talk to my parrot before ye walk the plank stereotypical pirates.

Agreed. Pirates are serious business and the game should let me know that.

Originally Posted by luj1
The short answer? Because it detracts from adding traditional content, doing polish and improving writing. Things like that were pretty mediocre in PoE for the same reasons.

Totally agree. I would rather they use their resources to improve core game elements - like a better combat system, better lore, better companions, and so on - than to use this money to implement unnecessary stuff, like talking weapons (seriously obsidian?). Of course, this is speculation, nonetheless, it sounds like PoE's stronghold, which was pretty crappy.

Don't blame Obsidian: intelligent weapons have been around since AD&D. There was an intelligent weapon in Baldur's Gate 2, and in NWN. Many players like them because they provide color, additional interaction, and possibly some lore. If you don't like it, suck it up and don't use it.