Pillars of Eternity - Retrospective Panel Discussion

[Myrthos]

Watch Adam Brennecke, Josh Sawyer and Brandon Adler talk about the development process of Pillars of Eternity for an hour.

More information.

 

[forgottenlor]

Some interesting stuff with a lot of not so interesting stuff.

For me what was interesting:

*Linux was not worth programming for. 1.5% of POE owners play on Linux, but debugging Linux was very time consuming.
* Though they could port the game to tablet or console, they're not planning to invest the time to do so, because going away from a mouse driven system would be very time consuming.
*The Temple of Skaen (IMO the worst dungeon in the game) was one of the first areas they did. They did it Deerwood Village first because it had little to do with the main quest. Josh Sawyer says in the rule areas designed first tend to be the worst in a game (largely because they're in the process of implementing a lot the first time). They realize in retrospect that the dungeon was probably too large.
*One concession to Paradox was the ghost pig, because Paradox wanted a preorder item. The initial idea was a space hamster (a joke), but it would have been to small to see.

 

[azarhal]

*One concession to Paradox was the ghost pig, because Paradox wanted a preorder item. The initial idea was a space hamster (a joke), but it would have been to small to see.

It could have been a giant space hamster!!!!

 

[figment]

*Linux was not worth programming for. 1.5% of POE owners play on Linux, but debugging Linux was very time consuming.

I've been making this point from day one for every kickstarter that adds it as a goal. It is very much discounted as simple. The linux crowd is very vocal as any humble bundle can attest. There is too much diversity in the ecosystem and most developers are not experts in all major platforms. I use both Windows and Linux at work and can quickly isolate and resolve any Windows system problem but Linux is a black box and the system debug tools are much less friendly.

It will be interesting how Steam does or does not change this in the future. One day Unity might be compile once and run everywhere but its not there yet and I honestly dont believe it ever will be.

 

[Drithius]

"if you play The White March, there might be a floating skull you can get - as a pet… It's very hard."

Woo… reason to play again hehe

 

[JDR13]

From what I've read, the floating skull is going to be in the second part of the expansion.

- Adam's original idea for pre-order items was a space hamster and a floating skull. The former was changed to a pig because Obsidian had a pig model handy, and the latter was nixed by Eric Fenstermaker for lore reasons, although it's apparently coming back for The White March Part 2

 

[CelticFrost]

For those that haven't played it yet, I am not sure if this is a good or a bad thing but the new patch has seems to have changed how hard the combat is.

I played it last time mostly on easy after I found the combat a struggle at times. This play through I am about 7 hours in and find the combat much easier and I am playing it on hard.

 

[JDR13]

For those that haven't played it yet, I am not sure if this is a good or a bad thing but the new patch has seems to have changed how hard the combat is.

I played it last time mostly on easy after I found the combat a struggle at times. This play through I am about 7 hours in and find the combat much easier and I am playing it on hard.

Considering most people seem to agree that PoE was already too easy after a certain point, I'd say that's not a good thing.

Are you sure it's not simply because you're more familiar with the mechanics now after having played it before?

 

[CelticFrost]

Considering most people seem to agree that PoE was already too easy after a certain point, I'd say that's not a good thing.

Are you sure it's not simply because you're more familiar with the mechanics now after having played it before?

Well I wouldn't say I was 100% sure but 95% sure. I am sure that helps a bit that I completed it before. Here is an example though, there is a cave when you first traveling to first town.

There is a bear and a cub there which I had to level up a couple of times before beating. This time I was able to do it first time only being up to level two. There have been a few other fights as well with only one person in my party that have been much easier.

This could because of the balancing or because your characters seem to do what you command them to do.

 

[azarhal]

There is a bear and a cub there which I had to level up a couple of times before beating. This time I was able to do it first time only being up to level two.

What's your class? I soloed that bear at level 2 at release on normal.

 

[crpgnut]

Me too, as a druid.