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Pillars of Eternity Beta - Torment: Tides of the Beetles

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Bioware's the gatekeeper to the RPG genre now; they set the rules, for good or ill. By virtue of this, yes, romances are a big deal.

Bioware is funded by EA. They have a budget that allows them to do that.


This is a Kickstarter project, $4 Million+ and people expect EVERYTHING. Sheesh. Give Obsidian a flippin' break. Romances are one of the most complex narratives to implement in THIS TYPE OF GAME (cRPG). This is a big ass game with a limited budget.
 
There we are.

EA09C19C98B466FDA0F2E74B49152AA4A8CDE26A
Can't move my Greatsword Fighter either
 
Of this caliber and of this kind? Where? 'cause I'm in!

Seriously, this is a hell of bargain, in contrast you're willing to spend $60 for Bloodborne?

He thinks Pillars of Eternity is a low-brow random "steam rpg" when in reality this is THE RPG...I'd happily pay $60 worth 100+ hours of content that will expanded by expansions and passionate devs and modders. $45 is a FUCKING STEAL!

Sorry for the rant, but I want to smack people when they say $45 is too much for this game!
 
Bioware is funded by EA. They have a budget that allows them to do that.


This is a Kickstarter project, $4 Million+ and people expect EVERYTHING. Sheesh. Give Obsidian a flippin' break. Romances are one of the most complex narratives to implement in THIS TYPE OF GAME (cRPG). This is a big ass game with a limited budget.

Ehh, if it was a priority it would easily have been doable on this budget. Romances generally consist of a series of dialogue trees triggered at various points. The Bioware model of romances is to have characters you talk to in their "natural habitat" (your home base thing), with options to be flirty. Then, after various points of the game are passed, a flag is checked and you can do the next dialogue in the romance tree. Eventually you get rewarded with a makeout / dry humping cutscene.

Old BWare RPGs like BG2 had numerous romances, arguably better implemented (in the sense that they were more organic and involved conversations in the field) than their later, high budget entries. I don't give a shit if they're in this game, but I would never say that they are highly complex things to implement on the grand scale of things.
 
You guys think you got a deal. I got it for 20$. Cause i Kickstarted it like a champ and single-handildly saved Obsidian. Thats right.
 
hm, I don't remember how much the game copy + expansion tier was but it looks like it was good bargain, and all I had to do was to wait a couple few years
 
Can't the modders just add romance in the future?
Just like BG2 romance mods.

Why would anyone who likes writing ever want that? Pretty much all modders are terrible writers, which is why Skyrim is still terrible even with a wonderful mod suite.

I've played with some of the BG2 mod characters. Nope.
 
I just want a good game (don't we all?) so I don't care if it has romance or not... I'm happy to have supported Obsidian with the kickstarter.

Can't the modders just add romance in the future?
Just like BG2 romance mods.

Can they? Probably.

Will it match anything that Obsidian could create? Highly doubt that...

I remember a BG2 mod that allowed you to romance Imoen... I still can't forget about it...
 
imo, based on what I've seen so far on the companions, I feel like adding romance options would definitely devalue some of them story wise. I love Pallegina and the Grieving Mother but the idea of romancing them seems, I don't know how to put it, counter intuitive?

Options to romance Aloth I wouldn't mind, as long as its played for comedic effect :P

Why would anyone who likes writing ever want that? Pretty much all modders are terrible writers, which is why Skyrim is still terrible even with a wonderful mod suite.

I've played with some of the BG2 mod characters. Nope.
Tbf, Good romance is hard to write in general in video games. Majority comes across as goal oriented and methodically PUA technique, which is creepy and gross.
 
Ehh, if it was a priority it would easily have been doable on this budget. Romances generally consist of a series of dialogue trees triggered at various points. The Bioware model of romances is to have characters you talk to in their "natural habitat" (your home base thing), with options to be flirty. Then, after various points of the game are passed, a flag is checked and you can do the next dialogue in the romance tree. Eventually you get rewarded with a makeout / dry humping cutscene.

Old BWare RPGs like BG2 had numerous romances, arguably better implemented (in the sense that they were more organic and involved conversations in the field) than their later, high budget entries. I don't give a shit if they're in this game, but I would never say that they are highly complex things to implement on the grand scale of things.

Or do it like Skyrim and have a romance y/n? medallion which resulted in the NPC spouting flirty lines at you. Even easier!

Well it's certainly unlikely to be one of those creepy unrequited romance things like this guy



Obsidian's attempts usually aren't the uh, conventional type.

Best romance.
 
You guys think you got a deal. I got it for 20$. Cause i Kickstarted it like a champ and single-handildly saved Obsidian. Thats right.

Screw getting a good deal... I got to be a part in giving Chris a hand cramp with all that signing he had to do. You can't put a price on something like that!

I kind of feel sorry for the poor bastard. After signing all the WL2 rewards, he barely gets a break before having to sign an even larger stack for PoE.
 
Why would anyone who likes writing ever want that? Pretty much all modders are terrible writers, which is why Skyrim is still terrible even with a wonderful mod suite.

I've played with some of the BG2 mod characters. Nope.

I just want a good game (don't we all?) so I don't care if it has romance or not... I'm happy to have supported Obsidian with the kickstarter.



Can they? Probably.

Will it match anything that Obsidian could create? Highly doubt that...

I remember a BG2 mod that allowed you to romance Imoen... I still can't forget about it...

Haha indeed. The writing could be somewhat off compared to the original writing.
I've only played a single romance mod in BG2 back then, it was decent.
 
Ehh, if it was a priority it would easily have been doable on this budget. Romances generally consist of a series of dialogue trees triggered at various points. The Bioware model of romances is to have characters you talk to in their "natural habitat" (your home base thing), with options to be flirty. Then, after various points of the game are passed, a flag is checked and you can do the next dialogue in the romance tree. Eventually you get rewarded with a makeout / dry humping cutscene.

That's definitely modern BioWare's formula for romances, specifically Mass Effect, which I find really boring. But even Dragon Age with Morrigan or Alistair's romance plots were a bit more involved where whether you romanced them could impact the main plot with Alistair and with Morrigan the actual romance dialogue is really only after your character had sex with her, by design.

Old BWare RPGs like BG2 had numerous romances, arguably better implemented (in the sense that they were more organic and involved conversations in the field) than their later, high budget entries. I don't give a shit if they're in this game, but I would never say that they are highly complex things to implement on the grand scale of things.

BG2's romances were good opportunities for added character development with the companions which is why I liked them and still enjoy some of BioWare's romance plots. With the limited voice acting and no real cutscenes, I imagine its a whole lot easier to do romances in a game like Pillars than a modern BioWare game. Even then, I still recall how horribly buggy Jaheira's romance could wind up in BG2 and how often I'd have to resort to console commands to get it to progress.

So I'd actually look forward to romances in a future PoE game. They offer a nice way to add some character development that feels a bit more unique and exclusive.
 
The changelog is up

Fixed Issues:

  • Pathfinding should be improved. The characters will clip briefly if their path is blocked and they are not in combat. This should reduce congestion in tight areas.
  • Many armors, weapons, and character heads have been polished.
  • Many spell and ability fixes.
  • Ranger companions should follow the party much better and get stuck less.
  • Vanity pets now follow the party correctly.
  • Many save and load issues relating to items have been resolved.
  • Lots of new portraits have been added. We have also cleaned up some of the previous ones. These aren't all of the portraits that you will get to choose from at launch, but a fair amount.
  • AoE Spells/Abilities no longer resolve if the caster becomes Paralyzed or knocked Prone.
  • No cultures gave Constitution or Perception as a bonus. Now Rauatai gives Con and The White that Wends gives Per.
  • Summoned creatures do now display VFX when they despawn.
  • Green highlight effect used for active abilities and modals on action bar now fade VFX when paused.
  • Level-up spell/ability/talent descriptions now adjust AoE range based on Intellect.
  • Lights in character creation and inventory screens no longer cause bloom and unnatural glare on paperdolls.
  • Queueing an ability/spell with shift+click no longer sets Shift as a hotkey shortcut for the ability.
  • Spider Queen in Ogre Cave now follows nearby spiders into combat.
  • Auto-pause on low Health or Endurance no longer pauses every time damage is taken after falling below 25%.
  • It is now possible to replace items on Quick Items tab in inventory.
  • Enemies affected by Charm Beast now change team when they are charmed.
  • Firebrand sword fire effect is no longer lost quickly.
  • Difficulty no longer persists between character save files.
  • Class specific talents are now mentioning accuracy bonuses to weapons.
  • It is now easier to resize the combat log diagonally from the corner.
  • Player can no longer dual-wield pistols, wands, rods, and scepters.
  • Talents that modify abilities should now all function properly.
  • Two handed style description was modified to make it easier to understand.
  • Wizard's grimoire should no longer appear in character's offhand while some types of weapons are equipped.
  • Feral Druids are now dropping all their inventory.
  • Enabling Fast mode now disables Slow mode (if active) and vice versa.
  • Wizard's Essential Phantom now works properly.
  • Now able to inspect spells that are greyed out in a grimoire.
  • Selection circles and cones can no longer be occluded by particles and 3D objects.
  • Portrait UI is no longer overlapping in 1920 x 1200 resolution.
  • The Bloody Slaughter talent now has a description in the Level Up screen.
  • Passive text in the Combat Log is no longer showing decimal numbers as zero.
  • Save/Load Menu are now organized by date created, not alphabetical.
 
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