The next Baldurs Gate....

[Seharvepernfan]

Is this! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKoDTzea79Y)

It *looks* good, so far. Here's (http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/12/10/mega-impressions-obsidians-pillars-of-eternity/) some info.

[Morty]

They announce a game that's "the next Baldur's Gate" every couple of years. This one doesn't look different than the others.

[Avilan the Grey]

Droooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool


They announce a game that's "the next Baldur's Gate" every couple of years. This one doesn't look different than the others.

Be a naysayer if you will, but this is the closest thing I have seen to Baldur's Gate since well, Baldur's Gate II.

FINALLY a proper RPG.
(IMHO of course)

[Aotrs Commander]

I was part of the kickstarter (yes, yes, so you may thank me...), so I've been following this since it was Project Eternity.

It has consistently looked very hopeful. I like the lore - they pretty much had me at this:

Anni Iroccio - Year of Iroccio. This is the commonly-used calendar in and around the Dyrwood. It is only 150 years old and Vailian in origin, but has been adopted by the residents of Dyrwood and much of the surrounding area due to the hopeless inaccuracy of the Aedyre calendar. Though the Iroccian calendar replaced earlier Vailian calendars, the inventor, Iroccio, started from the same time as his predecessors. It is currently 2823 AI.

Because how many freaking game worlds - hell, fantasy worlds PERIOD - have replaced the calender system in their history? Not just had two dating systems, the difference of which is just bigger numbers (e.g. Elven calendar/human calendar), but outright chucked out the old calendar system and replaced it with a new one - because the old one was wrong! It's a little detail of realism I find extremely compelling.

Some things of note:

They are sort of more going towards the PS:T heights, rather than BGII (though if they hit BGII, I don't think we'll mind...!)

You will have companions ala the traditional Infinity Engine (et al) games, but you will also be able to create your own party members (once you reach the appropriate point in the game) via an adventuer's guild. (So if that one vital [class] companion annoys the crap out of you, you can always make your own!)

The general concensus on armour and weapons the last time I checked was to be realistic, but not historical. (I.e. relatively sane and not featuring virtually nothing but bracers and what not...) They were also thinking very hard about how to classify armour so as to avoid the problem in 3.x and older versions of D&D in that there is basically only four (five if druid) armour types (none, leather, chain shirt, breastplate (hide if Druid) and full plate).

About half of the old Black Isle team is working on this - pretty much the other half is working on Torment: Tides of Numenara1 (which is trying even harder to be Torment II).

With it being crowd-funded, it also means Obsidian is actually going to be allowed to publish it when it's finished, not when some publishers demand it, so they can polish it up and we won't have another KotR 2 incident...



Needless to say, I've had a over a year now to get over-excited about this.



1That also looks good. The latter is also going to be turn-based after asking us crowd funders whether we wanted turn-based of realt-time-with-pause (like Pillars and the old IE games). And yes, both sides are doing some sharing of resources (and talent), so I have high hopes for both. (T:ToN is still some way off though, it's a good few months behind.)

[Kish]

They announce a game that's "the next Baldur's Gate" every couple of years. This one doesn't look different than the others.
Game companies will be claiming to make "the next Baldur's Gate" long after everyone who actually played the original Baldur's Gate is dead and gone.

[Closet_Skeleton]

Because how many freaking game worlds - hell, fantasy worlds PERIOD - have replaced the calender system in their history? It's a little detail of realism I find extremely compelling.

They better have a history for that 'free palatinate of Dyrwood' on that map because otherwise that's a really stupid name for a political entity.

[Aotrs Commander]

They better have a history for that 'free palatinate of Dyrwood' on that map because otherwise that's a really stupid name for a political entity.

Said lore as of same update...


Dyrwood, Free Palatinate of - The independent nation that was formerly a colony and later a large, remote duchy of the Aedyr Empire. Led by their duke, Admeth Hadret, the people successfully fought for their independence over an excessively burdensome campaign to colonize the dangerous ruins of Eír Glanfath. Despite the fact that they are no longer, properly speaking, a palatinate (nor a duchy), the people of Dyrwood continue to refer to their home as a "Free Palatinate" out of pride. Most residents of the Dyrwood are Aedyr humans, elves, and dwarves, but many are also culturally integrated orlans or children of Glanfathan elves. Despite having fought a war with the Aedyr Empire in the past, they are now trading partners and have maintained few grudges. Their one continued point of contention is exploration and colonization of Eír Glanfath, which Aedyr continues to push through official and unofficial means.

Aedyr is pretty cool in that it's formed from elves and humans about four hundred years before and that it's pretty much an integrated society, with "no significant cultural divide" between the two, which is a nice change of pace, I think.

[Morty]

Snarking aside, it does look like it might be a reasonably interesting old-school RPG. Setting the action at the cusp of the formation of the Glorious Empire is something of an innovation, even if it looks like it still has the Human/Elf/Dwarf trinity.