Pillars of Eternity: The White March announced (two part expansion)

Obsidian, why would you split an expansion into two parts? That's sorta missing the whole point of them. (Starcraft 2 comes to mind.)

Anyways, I'm curious to see how this new content will slot into the game. As it is currently balanced & set, there's very little room for additional content or post-game content of any kind. And, during the campaign, they'd have a heck of a time justifying such a diversion. I guess I'll have to wait and see...

Impress me, Obsidian.

They've explained their reasoning before:

Speaking of expansions, can you give us any details on what might be coming in the future?

CEO Feargus Urquhart: Sure. So, with the Kickstarter we announced that we were going to do an expansion, and so how we're approaching that is to actually do the expansion in two parts, and have one part out sooner than the other part. The idea being that people are really enjoying Pillars right now and they're going to get finished their first or second playthrough within in the next two weeks, a month, something like that. And so, we definitely want there to be content for them to enjoy and I think we're going to be talking about that pretty soon. I don't think we've released anything specifically, but it really ends up being this concept of this story that expands parts of what you would see in those sort of old school expansions we made for Icewind Dale and Baldur's Gate. So not just these three, four hour downloadable DLCs, but definitely big chunks of a story and a new hub to go to and things like that.

So that's kind of how we're really approaching it, like we've done with Eternity throughout is this idea of, these games kind of went away but not for a reason they should have. The industry shifted to so much console with this idea that PC wasn't so much of a gaming platform, which I know no one thinks that anymore. So, back then when you got an expansion you got this meaty thing with hours and hours of gameplay. And that's really what we're trying to do. So, while we're splitting it in two, it is like one continual story that people get to play.

I'm interested in seeing how splitting the expansion into two parts pans out.
 
Obsidian, why would you split an expansion into two parts? That's sorta missing the whole point of them. (Starcraft 2 comes to mind.)

Anyways, I'm curious to see how this new content will slot into the game. As it is currently balanced & set, there's very little room for additional content or post-game content of any kind. And, during the campaign, they'd have a heck of a time justifying such a diversion. I guess I'll have to wait and see...

Impress me, Obsidian.

I think it's an episodic content model.
 
Their demo seemed pretty good. Also a new level scaling (don't shoot me just yet) mechanic where you can choose whether the enemies in an area scale to your level if you are way overleveled.
 
Welp, I gotta finish the base game first! I was loving it, but other matters (and Witcher 3) took my focus away...
 
They've explained their reasoning before:



I'm interested in seeing how splitting the expansion into two parts pans out.

Oh, shoot, I think I read that very quote before and just forgot about it. So, thanks for refreshing my memory!

To be honest, I still don't really get their drive to split it, aside from "oh god give them more content NOW while they're still interested!!!" as if no one would want to return to it when the full expansion is proper and ready.
 
Artwork of the new companions!

These two, a rogue and a monk, came from the card game Kickstarter (they also hinted at a third, presumably a barbarian):

tumblr_nq46ewTZzb1qe27noo1_500.jpg
tumblr_nq46ewTZzb1qe27noo2_500.jpg

And this one was from the main Pillars of Eternity website:

 
So was there a gameplay demo? I can't find this archived anywhere.
New companions look so amazing, ohmahgawd.
 
Artwork of the new companions!

These two, a rogue and a monk, came from the card game Kickstarter (they also hinted at a third, presumably a barbarian):

And this one was from the main Pillars of Eternity website:

A rogue and a monk, as expected.
But finally!
 
Just finished the Sanitarium quest in act 2 and turned level 8. About how far into the game am I? Finally getting back to it after taking a break due to work.
 
So far this expansion is hitting the right spots. I hope there are more quests throughout the game and not just the new areas.
 
PoE is my GOTY so far (haven't played TW3 yet) for sure. While not perfect, I think it's a fantastic basis on which to build upon. Hopefully the expansion takes care of most of the minor annoyances and delivers a good story. And then ... PoE2, the BG2 killer. :P
 
Still haven't finished PoE but I will get back to it someday :)

PoE got a lot of problems but I still think its a pretty good game and am looking forward to this.
 
Don't get your hopes up. BG2 will be very very hard to match, let alone "kill". PoE has too many flaws.

I find the combat in PoE to be more enjoyable than the one in BG2, and that's without the party AI, which I understand they're adding. In any case, combat, while obviously a huge part of the experience, isn't what pushed BG2 on the very top of my favourite rpgs list. Whatever other flaws PoE may have are things that can and hopefully will be improved with iteration and, well, better writing / story. Of course, I don't actually expect PoE2 to 'beat' BG2. You can't beat nostalgia.
 
Artwork of the new companions!

These two, a rogue and a monk, came from the card game Kickstarter (they also hinted at a third, presumably a barbarian):



And this one was from the main Pillars of Eternity website:

Now thats a companion design I can get behind. I hope the barbarian looks atypical.
 
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