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Pillars of Eternity Beta - Torment: Tides of the Beetles

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Does the enemy ai ever get hit by attacks of opportunity while trying to move away from engagement? It seems like it's mostly a rule aimed at the player.
 
Does the enemy ai ever get hit by attacks of opportunity while trying to move away from engagement? It seems like it's mostly a rule aimed at the player.

I would think certain status effects like Terror/Fear and what not would setup some chance of them fleeing. But yeah I can't recall ever seeing any enemies flee or just move and get hit with attacks of opportunity in the vids I've watched.

Though I do remember an early BB video where someone was able to exploit by attacking a group of enemies with their fighter who was upgraded to allow for a lot of engagements and then have that fighter flee through and beyond the rest of the player party and all the enemies went after him and as they passed the party they got decimated by attacks of opportunity, but that was clearly someone exploiting the mechanics, and something I'm not sure is even possible in the game now.
 
FYI Scott Lufkin has finished up his short, but pretty decent and informative, video demos of all 11 classes. They're all a good 10+ minutes going over the first few level-up options and then a few combat demos that don't spoil anything. I found them to be the most informative across all the classes. So it's probably good resource for anyone still undecided on what class they'll go with or just want a better idea of what each class is capable of in practice.

https://www.youtube.com/user/sdlufkin/videos

Thank you for this! I was pretty much undecided, but I think I will go with a Cipher my first time through...

So is anyone else conflicted whether to play this or Bloodborne first? Surely I'm not alone here. They both look so good!

No conflict at all for me... Not only don't I have a PS4, but...

I never finish a Souls game. Not because they're too hard, it's just because there aren't too RPG-ish for me, very limited narrative bored me to tears. I love texts and dialogue in my RPGs.

^ this is basically my thought on the Souls series. I figure Bloodborne is going to be more of the same...
 
I would think certain status effects like Terror/Fear and what not would setup some chance of them fleeing. But yeah I can't recall ever seeing any enemies flee or just move and get hit with attacks of opportunity in the vids I've watched.

Though I do remember an early BB video where someone was able to exploit by attacking a group of enemies with their fighter who was upgraded to allow for a lot of engagements and then have that fighter flee through and beyond the rest of the player party and all the enemies went after him and as they passed the party they got decimated by attacks of opportunity, but that was clearly someone exploiting the mechanics, and something I'm not sure is even possible in the game now.

yeah i think a mechanic like this would work excellently if the enemy AI was smart enough to prioritize things like "oh shit i have to defend my caster im outta here" and take a penalty for that kind of move. if it works as just a means to keep combatants in place and discourage the player from wanting to move about freely then it sounds kinda half baked.

but i hope you are right about frightening someone into running away from engagement and getting ganked cuz that sounds rad.
 
It is. The Backgrounds are all 2D derived from a high quality 3D render, then touched up by artists.

The Characters are 3D, thank goodness!

Actually, they aren't.

Recently Obsidian admitted that they were not able to paint over very many of the areas at all due to restrictions of their 3D lighting system and not enough 2D art time on the project.

Of the areas we've seen so far, some of them only have very minor hand painted tweaks.
 
This breaks my brain. If it's pre-rendered, how do they add dynamic lights in. Are the lights baked in? Ahh, I don't get it.

Also, I just got to Spellhold in BG2. I have serious doubts I'll manage to finish it before Eternity, and even then, I still haven't touched Wasteland 2, though that seems due for a bunch more patches.

Here's hopin Eternity comes out mostly bug free. It's the first time Obsidians got extra time in the oven in ages, so hopefully Im not stuck in a Wasteland 2 situation where every time I go to play, there's a gigantic progression blocker fix on the horizon that doesn't work with old saves.
 
Here's hopin Eternity comes out mostly bug free. It's the first time Obsidians got extra time in the oven in ages, so hopefully Im not stuck in a Wasteland 2 situation where every time I go to play, there's a gigantic progression blocker fix on the horizon that doesn't work with old saves.

This is my biggest hope. Thankfully their last two games were relatively bug free, Dungeon Siege 3 and South Park, so I hope that means they've cast off that particular bad habit. Though PoE is in another league as those games scale wise. There's always going to be bugs and issues with a game this large and complex, but if we're lucky none of them well be major issues that break or ruin anything.
 
Anyone else thinks that the lack of XP for defeated enemies means that the game somehow promotes playing on higher difficulty? I mean you will be basically encouraged to avoid combat and achieve your goals some other way :)
I still wonder how this philosophy will affect the whole experience.
 
I don't think it encourages avoiding combat, it just doesn't discourage non-combat options.

At least seeking out the non-combat option and then killing everyone anyway won't be the most efficient method to play, this is a bit of an issue in some RPGs.
 
Players already have plenty of reasons to fight. There's loot, for one thing. It may also be the most efficient method of resolving any number of quests. More importantly, the game and its character advancement systems are designed largely around combat. Eternity may have more robust non-combat interactions than the average game, but it seems to me that, as with its D&D forerunners, players are going to be picking an awful lot of combat-oriented talents, spells, etc. at each level-up. I expect they will want to use them. Even on a higher difficulty setting.
 
At least seeking out the non-combat option and then killing everyone anyway won't be the most efficient method to play, this is a bit of an issue in some RPGs.
Couldn't you react to that by making everyone think your hero is a psychotic mass murderer and put a ludicrously high bounty on your head?
What a good DM in P&P would do. Action & Reaction.
 
Couldn't you react to that by making everyone think your hero is a psychotic mass murderer and put a ludicrously high bounty on your head?
What a good DM in P&P would do. Action & Reaction.

Doesn't that just reward the player with more people to kill?
 
Players already have plenty of reasons to fight. There's loot, for one thing. It may also be the most efficient method of resolving any number of quests. More importantly, the game and its character advancement systems are designed largely around combat. Eternity may have more robust non-combat interactions than the average game, but it seems to me that, as with its D&D forerunners, players are going to be picking an awful lot of combat-oriented talents, spells, etc. at each level-up. I expect they will want to use them. Even on a higher difficulty setting.

There's also the bestiary; filling it out does grant XP, and I think you can only do that by fighting.
 
Do we know if companions will start at level 1 when they join the party? If I can't build them from the ground-up, I will be tempted to make my own party at the Adventurers' Hall.

There's also the bestiary; filling it out does grant XP, and I think you can only do that by fighting.

Yep. That too.
 
Anyone else thinks that the lack of XP for defeated enemies means that the game somehow promotes playing on higher difficulty? I mean you will be basically encouraged to avoid combat and achieve your goals some other way :)
I still wonder how this philosophy will affect the whole experience.

I thought they changed this and added back in some XP for killing.
 
Couldn't you react to that by making everyone think your hero is a psychotic mass murderer and put a ludicrously high bounty on your head?
What a good DM in P&P would do. Action & Reaction.

Doesn't that just reward the player with more people to kill?

Depends on how powerful the bounty hunters are. There's always a bigger fish.

zbt5iEy.jpg
 
FYI Scott Lufkin has finished up his short, but pretty decent and informative, video demos of all 11 classes. They're all a good 10+ minutes going over the first few level-up options and then a few combat demos that don't spoil anything. I found them to be the most informative across all the classes. So it's probably good resource for anyone still undecided on what class they'll go with or just want a better idea of what each class is capable of in practice.

https://www.youtube.com/user/sdlufkin/videos

I liked the druid one. Owned those dudes as a thunder casting BEAR.
 
Do we know if companions will start at level 1 when they join the party? If I can't build them from the ground-up, I will be tempted to make my own party at the Adventurers' Hall.

I would hope that companions are scaled to our experience points when we acquire them but are level one allowing us to level them up as we desire. So if we have 12345 experience points and the previous level up was at 12000 exp then your new companion would come in with that exp amount allowing you to level them up accordingly. They could also have minimum exp amounts so if you are under leveled and a new companion is supposed to be strong at that point in the game they will have the appropriate exp amount to reflect that.

I have no desire using Adventurers in pace of real companions, but I also like to build them up as much as I can to my own liking.
 
I would hope that companions are scaled to our experience points when we acquire them but are level one allowing us to level them up as we desire. So if we have 12345 experience points and the previous level up was at 12000 exp then your new companion would come in with that exp amount allowing you to level them up accordingly. They could also have minimum exp amounts so if you are under leveled and a new companion is supposed to be strong at that point in the game they will have the appropriate exp amount to reflect that.

If they aren't that respec console command will be there. If that isn't a thing a respec mod will there day one along with the
weapon durability mod
.
 
If they aren't that respec console command will be there. If that isn't a thing a respec mod will there day one along with the
weapon durability mod
.

True, but it's always nicer to have that stuff built into the game instead.
 
I'm willing to do some in-depth class videos and explain some of my own opinions of different builds etc. This will be my first attempt at even making videos. So anyone have tips of recording software? I don't have a lot of HDD space since i'm using an SSD so there's that.

I'll be going in-depth of all the skills for each class, and taking a look at the mechanics, explaining the more complicated parts of the combat system and taking a look at items.

I've been part of the Backer Beta since day 1 so I know quite a bit. I know that dude Scott L. (sorry I forgot your last name) has class videos but they are a bit introductory in my opinion.

If anyone is interested, I'll get on it right away. Looking to pump out some videos for you guys as fast as I can. This is the only game I've had the sheer interest to even make videos out because there is so much for me to talk about!
 
I'm willing to do some in-depth class videos and explain some of my own opinions of different builds etc. This will be my first attempt at even making videos. So anyone have tips of recording software? I don't have a lot of HDD space since i'm using an SSD so there's that.

I'll be going in-depth of all the skills for each class, and taking a look at the mechanics, explaining the more complicated parts of the combat system and taking a look at items.

I've been part of the Backer Beta since day 1 so I know quite a bit. I know that dude Scott L. (sorry I forgot your last name) has class videos but they are a bit introductory in my opinion.

If anyone is interested, I'll get on it right away. Looking to pump out some videos for you guys as fast as I can. This is the only game I've had the sheer interest to even make videos out because there is so much for me to talk about!

Would love this!

If you have an Nvidia (600,700,900) card you have everything you need. Make sure you have the latest drivers instlaled, and they should've come with the "GeForce experience". Shadowplay is a component of that software and it lets you record your games at 60 FPS 1080p or higher resolution at 30 FPS without any impact in game performance.

If you don't have a compatible Nvidia card, you can use the built in video recorder that comes with MSI Afterburner for free. Great quality, but it uses your CPU (I believe), so it'll impace game performance. However, that probably won't be an issue with this game ;)
 
"I'm willing to do some in-depth class videos and explain some of my own opinions of different builds etc. This will be my first attempt at even making videos. So anyone have tips of recording software? I don't have a lot of HDD space since i'm using an SSD so there's that.

I'll be going in-depth of all the skills for each class, and taking a look at the mechanics, explaining the more complicated parts of the combat system and taking a look at items.

I've been part of the Backer Beta since day 1 so I know quite a bit. I know that dude Scott L. (sorry I forgot your last name) has class videos but they are a bit introductory in my opinion.

If anyone is interested, I'll get on it right away. Looking to pump out some videos for you guys as fast as I can. This is the only game I've had the sheer interest to even make videos out because there is so much for me to talk about!"

Yes please.
 
I'm willing to do some in-depth class videos and explain some of my own opinions of different builds etc. This will be my first attempt at even making videos. So anyone have tips of recording software? I don't have a lot of HDD space since i'm using an SSD so there's that.

I'll be going in-depth of all the skills for each class, and taking a look at the mechanics, explaining the more complicated parts of the combat system and taking a look at items.

I've been part of the Backer Beta since day 1 so I know quite a bit. I know that dude Scott L. (sorry I forgot your last name) has class videos but they are a bit introductory in my opinion.

If anyone is interested, I'll get on it right away. Looking to pump out some videos for you guys as fast as I can. This is the only game I've had the sheer interest to even make videos out because there is so much for me to talk about!

Do Monk first!
 
Would love this!

If you have an Nvidia (600,700,900) card you have everything you need. Make sure you have the latest drivers instlaled, and they should've come with the "GeForce experience". Shadowplay is a component of that software and it lets you record your games at 60 FPS 1080p or higher resolution at 30 FPS without any impact in game performance.

If you don't have a compatible Nvidia card, you can use the built in video recorder that comes with MSI Afterburner for free. Great quality, but it uses your CPU (I believe), so it'll impace game performance. However, that probably won't be an issue with this game ;)

Thanks for your interest!

Here are my PC specs:

i5-3570k
GTX 480 1.5GB
 
I'm willing to do some in-depth class videos and explain some of my own opinions of different builds etc. This will be my first attempt at even making videos. So anyone have tips of recording software? I don't have a lot of HDD space since i'm using an SSD so there's that.

I'll be going in-depth of all the skills for each class, and taking a look at the mechanics, explaining the more complicated parts of the combat system and taking a look at items.

I've been part of the Backer Beta since day 1 so I know quite a bit. I know that dude Scott L. (sorry I forgot your last name) has class videos but they are a bit introductory in my opinion.

If anyone is interested, I'll get on it right away. Looking to pump out some videos for you guys as fast as I can. This is the only game I've had the sheer interest to even make videos out because there is so much for me to talk about!
Would you mind doing something indepth on the races too? The wiki is inconsistent, like on one page saying godlike get +Res and on the other +1 Dex. Happens with some of the racial abilities too.
 
Thanks for your interest!

Here are my PC specs:

i5-3570k
GTX 480 1.5GB

Well, no shadowplay for you. :(

But as I said, MSI afterburner is free. You can get it here:

http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/download.htm

Once installed double click on it on your tray and click the gear button in the middle. Then go to the video capture tab. Set a key for manual recording. You're going to press that key to start/stop recording.

Set video format to mjpeg, container avi, Frame size to full, framerate to 60, and change the output folder to whatever you want. Make sure that your audio capture option is set to auto or whatever specific device your microphone is plugged into.

That's it. Start up the game and hit your recodring key.

Because it's mjpeg the file will be pretty big, but Youtube should be happy to receive it, just might take some time to upload.
 
I wanna know what all you bb owners think of the cipher so far

I'm haven't played the bb enough to know for sure how his abilities stack up, but they seem pretty useful. He's all about controlling the enemy minds. Usually confusing them or forcing them to help you. They seem to be pretty frail though, I'd probably have them use ranged weapons.

They made a pretty huge difference in terms of the main quest in the bb. I think conversaiton options with their abilities are likely to play a big part in the game proper.
 
Well, no shadowplay for you. :(

But as I said, MSI afterburner is free. You can get it here:

http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/download.htm

Once installed double click on it on your tray and click the gear button in the middle. Then go to the video capture tab. Set a key for manual recording. You're going to press that key to start/stop recording.

Set video format to mjpeg, container avi, Frame size to full, framerate to 60, and change the output folder to whatever you want. Make sure that your audio capture option is set to auto or whatever specific device your microphone is plugged into.

That's it. Start up the game and hit your recodring key.

Because it's mjpeg the file will be pretty big, but Youtube should be happy to receive it, just might take some time to upload.

It says on their website it's only free for MSI cards?
 
Well, no shadowplay for you. :(

But as I said, MSI afterburner is free. You can get it here:

http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/download.htm

Once installed double click on it on your tray and click the gear button in the middle. Then go to the video capture tab. Set a key for manual recording. You're going to press that key to start/stop recording.

Set video format to mjpeg, container avi, Frame size to full, framerate to 60, and change the output folder to whatever you want. Make sure that your audio capture option is set to auto or whatever specific device your microphone is plugged into.

That's it. Start up the game and hit your recodring key.

Because it's mjpeg the file will be pretty big, but Youtube should be happy to receive it, just might take some time to upload.

Great, got it to work perfectly.
 
You know, I haven't really played the beta yet. This is the game I'm most looking forward to playing this year (well, that and MGS5) but I don't really feel like playing the beta. I look forward to immersing myself in the story and the world, but the combat itself is not a selling point for me. I hope I'm not out of my depth when the game comes out at the end of the month.
 
Is there any kind of physical collector's edition for people who didn't back the game?

I think it was a backer only thing. Or atleast I' haven't found any anywhere. Another poster a few pages back did show a physical copy with some goodies, but it appears to be a Polish release. I think by law they have to publish digital goods physically as well there.

Sad :( I missed out on it too. Probably going to pick up the guide book (not the strategy guide that's also available though) for all the world lore and art I can lose myself in.
 
You know, I haven't really played the beta yet. This is the game I'm most looking forward to playing this year (well, that and MGS5) but I don't really feel like playing the beta. I look forward to immersing myself in the story and the world, but the combat itself is not a selling point for me. I hope I'm not out of my depth when the game comes out at the end of the month.

There's always easy difficulty, and plenty of non combat options as well.
 
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