• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Pillars of Eternity Beta - Torment: Tides of the Beetles

Status
Not open for further replies.
Sensuki said:
http://youtu.be/JVhbWTDAbR4

Here is my incredibly verbose guide to the Pillars of Eternity Character Creation. It contains pretty much everything you would want to know about making a character for Pillars of Eternity with an interest in mechanics (although I also touch on what exactly is reacted to in the game for RP purposes).

The guide is fully chaptered. The guide is for everyone from completely new players to RPGs to Infinity Engine veterans who may not have the beta. There are many beta backers here that have already played the game, but there might be some information in there worth listening to.

This will be part one of a three part guide. The second part will focus on basic controls, options menu, mechanics and combat. The third will showcase a few encounters with each of the classes and showcase how to play them.

This guide will also be spoiler free if you have already seen the E3 Press Demo from 2014.

I hope you like it, and I hope it helps ease you into the game.

Part 2 and 3 will be available over the next few days.
Click to expand...

Thanks! Will watch part one during lunch today :)
 
Patryn said:
Sadly, I think we're at the point that they'll probably sell more copies via exposure by LPers than they will reviews/coverage by the press.
Click to expand...

Well then if you clearly don't care about content of your game being out there early you should probably serve your backers. Double Fine gave me my key early as well and they asked people to not stream it.
 
Xater said:
Well then if you clearly don't care about content of your game being out there early you should probably serve your backers. Double Fine gave me my key early as well and they asked people to not stream it.
Click to expand...

They do care about the content of their game, that's why they're only allowing streamers to show early parts of the game and not beyond.

As for Double Fine, that decision backfired on them because everyone streamed the game despite being asked not to and they let out all the details of the story and caused reviewers to rush their reviews to get ahead of the information flood. It hurt the game.

Selective early access to Streamers and embargoes on what they can show and when reviews go out allows Obsidian to give the game much needed exposure but ensure, as much as they can, that only specific details get out and give reviewers time to play the game thoroughly and write up a proper review without fear of being beaten to the market.

It's 3 days. It's not a big deal for something that could contribute a great deal to the success of the game.
 
I can't believe streamers can play the game already when I preordered it a week ago. This is outrageous. As a Royal Edition owner I demand satisfaction.
you saw this coming: /s
 
I see you guys all being prepared and well informed to make your main character , if I have played all of the Infinity Engine games and had no problem with stats and class creation will I be okay with PoE ?

I'd like to avoid restarting a new game because I screw up something .
 
I honestly find the kerfuffle over streamers and reviewers getting the game "early" kinda boring. Backing a game does not entitle you to its every iteration. The release date is the release date. If marketing activities like this potentially help more of these games get made, that's far more important than three days' wait.

ys45 said:
I see you guys all being prepared and well informed to make your main character , if I have played all of the Infinity Engine games and had no problem with stats and class creation will I be okay with PoE ?

I'd like to avoid restarting a new game because I screw up something .
Click to expand...
You'll be fine. PoE is designed in such a way that it's hard to screw up your build. Sawyer tried to avoid there being dump attributes or trap skills. If anything, people have complained that the game is too lenient on the player when it comes to level-up choices.
 
Shake Appeal said:
I honestly find the kerfuffle over streamers and reviewers getting the game "early" kinda boring. Backing a game does not entitle you to its every iteration. The release date is the release date. If marketing activities like this potentially help more of these games get made, that's far more important than three days' wait.


You'll be fine. PoE is designed in such a way that it's hard to screw up your build. Sawyer tried to avoid there being dump attributes or trap skills. If anything, people have complained that the game is too lenient on the player when it comes to level-up choices.
Click to expand...

At least for me, when I heard streamers and LPers had it early I was annoyed because I thought that whole game playthroughs would be available pre-release.

If they're really restricting streaming to only the first act, then that's fine.
 
ys45 said:
I see you guys all being prepared and well informed to make your main character , if I have played all of the Infinity Engine games and had no problem with stats and class creation will I be okay with PoE ?

I'd like to avoid restarting a new game because I screw up something .
Click to expand...

You should be more than fine. The system and classes are pretty well explained and it's designed in such a way that you would have to really go out of your way to make a shit build.

Go with what sounds good and interests you the most. Then put points into what you think makes sense for how you want to play. I would also say to not be too afraid to dump certain stats if you really want to go crazy and make yourself a beast in certain attributes. The game seems to have a lot of ways to temporarily or semi-permanently bump up stats with potions, foods, resting bonuses, enchantments and both passive and active buffs from spells and abilities. There's a lot of leeway.

There's more than a few vids out there of Paladin, Monk or Fighter Tank builds where people completely dumped their Constitution and focused on stuff like Might and Resolve and selecting certain class abilities made them absolute beasts that could just sit there and take on a bunch of enemies like it was nothing.
 
ys45 said:
I see you guys all being prepared and well informed to make your main character , if I have played all of the Infinity Engine games and had no problem with stats and class creation will I be okay with PoE ?

I'd like to avoid restarting a new game because I screw up something .
Click to expand...
The whole idea of some of the more controversial design decisions in PoE was to prevent exactly that, so if you were fine in the IE games but need to restart PoE Sawyer failed horrendously :P
 
LurkerPrime said:
I can't believe streamers can play the game already when I preordered it a week ago. This is outrageous. As a Royal Edition owner I demand satisfaction.
you saw this coming: /s
Click to expand...

Pfffff, I preordered it like a year ago

NIN90 said:
I want to click on one of those streams soooo bad.
Click to expand...

Really? As much as I love cRPGs I can't think of many genres that are more boring to watch if you don't play yourself. Maybe turn based strategy games.
 
Fantastapotamus said:
Pfffff, I preordered it like a year ago



Really? As much as I love cRPGs I can't think of many genres that are more boring to watch if you don't play yourself. Maybe turn based strategy games.
Click to expand...

City Builders

It's more fun to watch when someone takes the roleplaying somewhat seriously and has defined character in mind. But I'm still not watching these, not even going on Twitch.
 
Thanks guys for clarifying this ! I really did my best not to check anything on the game until release date (and it's been particularly hard since a week to do that) but I did not want to get penalized for doing so .

This is going to be a long 3 days .....
 
ys45 said:
This is going to be a long 3 days .....
Click to expand...
tumblr_nf80gd4CCX1rw7qvpo1_500.png
 
Not really interested in peeking in one of those streams. I mean, the main thing I like about these kind of games is the reactivity of it all, so no point in watching someone else do it. Much less if it includes spoirlers.

LurkerPrime said:
tumblr_nf80gd4CCX1rw7qvpo1_500.png
Click to expand...

Well, in that game I can speed up time. Can I? No? Okay.
 
ys45 said:
Thanks guys for clarifying this ! I really did my best not to check anything on the game until release date (and it's been particularly hard since a week to do that) but I did not want to get penalized for doing so .

This is going to be a long 3 days .....
Click to expand...

I need to figure out a way to download this game. I have limited download capacity were I live but unlimited WIFI at my university. But I don't have a laptop. I have a tablet but I can't download steam games on that thing, only normal files.

I asume there is no site that uhh...allows me to download steam backup files right? Then I could download them at my uni, bring them back home and install the game. The worst part is that I basically have nothing to do next week. A free week, a big RPG and I CAN'T DOWNLOAD IT.
 
Fantastapotamus said:
I need to figure out a way to download this game. I have limited download capacity were I live but unlimited WIFI at my university. But I don't have a laptop. I have a tablet but I can't download steam games on that thing, only normal files.

I asume there is no site that uhh...allows me to download steam backup files right? Then I could download them at my uni, bring them back home and install the game. The worst part is that I basically have nothing to do next week. A free week, a big RPG and I CAN'T DOWNLOAD IT.
Click to expand...
Get a flashdrive with steam on it and use a public library to download the game?
 
Is there any way to buy a digital version (eBooks, PDF) of the Guidebook? I wanna soak up as much lore as I can before I start playing.
 
Fantastapotamus said:
Really? As much as I love cRPGs I can't think of many genres that are more boring to watch if you don't play yourself. Maybe turn based strategy games.
Click to expand...
I dunno, sometimes I enjoy watching people play turn based strategy games as an educational tool. I find it really helps me to initially get into a game, because the wealth of choice and information you're presented with in a big TBS game can be really staggering, to the point of not having any idea where to start. That really only works if they're starting a new game and going over the basics, though.
 
Fantastapotamus said:
I need to figure out a way to download this game. I have limited download capacity were I live but unlimited WIFI at my university. But I don't have a laptop. I have a tablet but I can't download steam games on that thing, only normal files.

I asume there is no site that uhh...allows me to download steam backup files right? Then I could download them at my uni, bring them back home and install the game. The worst part is that I basically have nothing to do next week. A free week, a big RPG and I CAN'T DOWNLOAD IT.
Click to expand...
I've never tried this, but I imagine it would work:

  • Download the game on Steam at your Uni
  • Copy the whole Steamapps folder to an SD card or something and bring it home
  • Begin downloading PoE at home and immediately pause it
  • Move the copied Steamapps folder to its rightful place in your home computer
  • Verify integrity or continue download or whatever. Steam works out when files are moved over pretty well.
  • Voila you download should be nearly complete.

Dennis said:
Are we there yet?
Click to expand...
Are you a streamer? Because, if so, have good news for you.
 
Patryn said:
At least for me, when I heard streamers and LPers had it early I was annoyed because I thought that whole game playthroughs would be available pre-release.

If they're really restricting streaming to only the first act, then that's fine.
Click to expand...

I wonder if this means it works like BG did, where you've got plenty of freedom to fuck around and do stuff, but still a very definitive goal that's largely, if not entirely, the same in every playthrough and lets you move on to the next chapter.
 
LurkerPrime said:
I've never tried this, but I imagine it would work:

  • Download the game on Steam at your Uni
  • Copy the whole Steamapps folder to an SD card or something and bring it home
  • Begin downloading PoE at home and immediately pause it
  • Move the copied Steamapps folder to its rightful place in your home computer
  • Verify integrity or continue download or whatever. Steam works out when files are moved over pretty well.
  • Voila you download should be nearly complete.
Click to expand...

That could work, problem is my uni is very strict about the use of the public pcs. Eh, I'll find a way, maybe I can borrow a laptop from a friend.
 
Shake Appeal said:
Are we still getting our digital assets today, or was that just a dirty rumor? I want the sourcebook or whatever it's called. I want it now.
Click to expand...

If we get Steam/GoG Keys we should in theory get Backer Rewards as well. That's what a dev has said. Though they weren't super specific about the timing, the hope was today or tomorrow. So it's only 9:37 in Caliland hopefully we'll get some more info soon on this.
 
So about difficulty, If I want a challenge but still being able to play the game my way without overthinking and nitpicking about stats too much, should I pick Normal or Hard? I'm more of a RP than a stat/minmaxer kind of guy.

Also thinking about rolling a damage focused Fighter, is that possible or are Fighters destined to tank?
 
Lord Phol said:
So about difficulty, If I want a challenge but still being able to play the game my way without overthinking and nitpicking about stats too much, should I pick Normal or Hard? I'm more of a RP than a stat/minmaxer kind of guy.

Also thinking about rolling a damage focused Fighter, is that possible or is Fighter destined to tank?
Click to expand...

Min/maxing is reserved for Path of the Damned. RP all you want on Hard, but be familiar with the mechanics though.

Fighters can be built to be DPS oriented, Tank Oriented, or a mix and they can be built more active based or more passive based. They are very flexible.
 
Serra said:
How many tanks do you need? Just 1?

Can a monk be a effective tank?

Assuming Hard difficulty.
Click to expand...

I'd say at least 2 real tanks since some encounters can involved an ass load of enemies. Monks can definitely be made into one and still be an effective Damage dealer from some of the build vids I've seen.
 
TrueMenace said:
Min/maxing is reserved for Path of the Damned. RP all you want on Hard, but be familiar with the mechanics though.

Fighters can be built to be DPS oriented, Tank Oriented, or a mix and they can be built more active based or more passive based. They are very flexible.
Click to expand...

Sweet, will try Hard first and see how that goes :D.
Good to know there are options! Still not sure about Fighter, all classes are looking fun :o. Pretty sure I wanna roll some kind of melee dps though. I'm a sucker for big magical swords and loot in general :d.
 
Enduin said:
I'd say at least 2 real tanks since some encounters can involved an ass load of enemies. Monks can definitely be made into one and still be an effective Damage dealer from some of the build vids I've seen.
Click to expand...

Cool. Currently thinking of Paladin, Monk as pretty much pure tanks with reach weapon barbarian right behind for the frontline. Backline of druid, priest and rogue.
 
It would have been neat if you could build your character in the backer beta and export it to the final game directly. Would cut at least that hour off of the main play time ;)
 
Durante said:
With each of those videos I'm more happy that PoE is still the one KS game I contributed most to.

Also, I don't work for Obsidian, but I still F5'd the KS page every 10 minutes for the first day of the campaign, so I can certainly see where they are coming from.
Click to expand...

PoE is the one game I really regret not having the money at the time to back at all, would have loved some of the physical rewards.
 
I know it's not rational, and I don't regret backing it whatsoever, but the fact that I donated more than 300 bucks to the KS and everybody else seems to be playing this already makes me feel some kind of way. Suddenly, I'm 10 years old again wondering why some kids get Jordan's and I got third year Horace Grant's velcro editions.
 
WanderingWind said:
I know it's not rational, and I don't regret backing it whatsoever, but the fact that I donated more than 300 bucks to the KS and everybody else seems to be playing this already makes me feel some kind of way. Suddenly, I'm 10 years old again wondering why some kids get Jordan's and I got third year Horace Grant's velcro editions.
Click to expand...
I'm too proud of my rationality to admit to any such feeling to any extent :P
 
WanderingWind said:
I know it's not rational, and I don't regret backing it whatsoever, but the fact that I donated more than 300 bucks to the KS and everybody else seems to be playing this already makes me feel some kind of way. Suddenly, I'm 10 years old again wondering why some kids get Jordan's and I got third year Horace Grant's velcro editions.
Click to expand...

I'm not a backer, but I felt the same way for people who did back. Their reasons for doing so are solid, though. Plus any streamer who wanted to take a crack at the full game for streaming reasons had to sign an NDA and agree to restrictions.

Probably a lot harder to manage that with 70k+ backers.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

Pillars of Eternity – Turn-Based Mode Beta Announcement Trailer
2
59
896
Mister Wolf replied
Tides of Annihilation | Mirror Combat Trailer
Trailer  2
77
1K
LordOfChaos replied
Obsidian's Pillars of Eternity is getting a turn-based mode
2
58
4K
Soodanim replied
Halls of Torment - Now on Gamepass, Xbox, PS5
Trailer Platform Indie 
9
377
Pasta la Vista replied
Tides of Tomorrow - Release Date Trailer
21
1K
drotahorror replied
Top Bottom