Rorschach

I'm sorry, [charname], I'm afraid I can't let you do that.

Ondra's Oyster as the name of the ship. Credit to whoever said it in one of the multiple posts. And I have voted for the elegant brigantine.

Sidekicks are an "extra". They are not here to replace the companions. They're something between mercenary and companions. Feargus already said that writing a full companions is expensive. I'd love more companions as much as the next guy and I hope they make a stretch goal we reach and we get at least one more but I understand the decision they made and I hope it works out good, meaning very in-depth companions. Also, I'm not really excited by them but is not like you've got to mind them, just like the mercenaries in POE1. This is not scraping companions and replacing them with sidekicks. This is intended to allow more flexibility but having a bit of personality unlike the mercenaries.

Although I agree with you, romance guides are inevitable as long as the game is deterministic. They could add a random variable for it but I don't think that's too good for narrative. As I said, I agree 100% with the rest of the post.

Tho her portrait scares me. I swear I was looking for this. And remember you can't even see her teeth.

Updated my pledge.

I hope it isn't announced. For his sake, too. And only as long as you're a thin, sexy human or elf, not a short, fugly gnome, dwarf, or husky half-orc. Physcal appearence plays a big role in romantic relationships, whether you want to accept it or not. I don't see anything bad with the companions having preferences. It's better than they just liking you for almost anything like in ME. Oh, and all of them were elfs or humans.

Sounds great. The rest is also not bad, but in my opinion this is the perfect premise. In my opinion, is not that the rest is bad but that it's too detailed, but I really like it (Gromnir proposed some good ones, too). I rather give the team a general idea, something that can be written in a single line, leaving the rest to them so we they can work their way.

I enjoyed more the Bishops' romances.Sleeping with the daughter (if you didn't, she would call the guards on you), then with the mother, she asking me if I had use protection with her daughter, realizing after that that I actually could buy profilactics... If that ain't love I don't know what is.

He's a diehard fan of pnp D&D. I think he has written modules and the prologue of 5ed or something like that. You have some info on the real wiki, and here you have him playing with Matt Mercer. I don't know if he's interested, but it would be awesome if he could promote the game.

It's not that I wanted something crazy but more VO is something I just don't care. I'll enjoy it but I'm not thrilled by it. I would like to see a new companion (nothing crazy since we already had one of that), expanded systems (like subclasses) that could be things like improving the stronghold, orchestral soundtrack (if they aren't doing that already) etc. I liked the rest of the SG even if they are "minor" improvements more than this.

Well, well, did someone just spoiled the next stretch goal? Not that I don't believe you, but it sounds a little strange to me. I mean, wouldn't that mean rebalancing the whole late game, every class, subclass...? Anyway, it's a nice round number, I can get behind that.

Although I like to have some voiceover, I'm not thrilled by the idea of spending money on more of it. To me it was enough with what PoE had. Too much VO can be annoying on the long run. Well, I hope the next one is better.

Vote for Black Isle, ye bastards.

Black Isle Bastards, and I would hate myself if I didn't vote for Ondra's Oyster.

My personal favorites are beautiful, bloody and benighted.

That's why it's so great. Allow me to insist on Black Isle, although it might be too long. Could we get a title, too? I missed the Obsidian Order and now I'm jelaous...

Don't quote me on this, but I think the camorra is the mafia from Napoles or something along those lines.

About that; I think the last stream isn't uploaded, could you check it? I think there are three on YT and one more on twitch.

Yes, I did. Sorry, my fault on the confusion. What I meant with "this" is the studio having to talk about romance as a core mechanic of the game that they have to put there in the best way possible and not something that can be a consequence of the writing They even talk about that a romance doesn't have to be a longer relationship than any other and other things I mentioned, but looking at their career they are guilty of purpousfully almost everything they now say it can be done better. To be clear, I agree with many things they say in that article, but what I don't buy is the way they shove romance anywhere they can. If I recall correctly, they had romance in every game they made since BG2, and there has been little to non evolution in that. Only thing they changed is now they cater more people. What bothers me is how unavoidable it seems. There are more romances in each game, no matter what my choices are (unless I'm mean to them, they don't really care if I commit genocide, they'll only dislike you if you do something bad but close to them). I if want to have a romance in a BW game it feels like I just have to pick one and doesn't really feel like I have to even try, they'll just fall for me because, you know, I'm the main character or something. We know that's something that is still happening even if they add other kind of relationships. I know I'm now in muddy waters since here comes into play my prejudice and skepticism towards anything they say, so maybe it's better to ignore me than to try to understand me As an example, to pretend I'm not a hater, I'll name KOTOR, where even if the quality of the overall dialogues can be argued, I think the romance with Bastila was well integrated on the story and was not just out of the blue as most others.

I guess I'll be just repeating what I said earlier and therefore what others said before me, but anyway. This is exactly what I would want to avoid. The whole focus on who will we be able to romance, how, etc. Just think about it with another prespective: does anyone ask: "Will I be able to be friends with this character?". I don't think people really want believable relationships. I think they want an idealized version of them, and that's what BW do, only now they say they want to offer a wider spectrum. Also, it seems that most characters with romance end up being defined by it. Last but not least, making six or more characters potential romances for the player character feels like cheap fanservice, making it more like choosing between brands at the supermarket than having an emotional relationship with a sentient being. Exactly.

I agree with that about Dak'kon. I don't know, I felt that the writting on PoE was lacking in some ways (see Tigranes comment). What I meant was that while PoE characters may had a higher starting empathy factor, the overal empathy was much higher, to me, towards Torment characters. Sagani's story was more like hearing a tragedy in the news and Dak'kon's or Morte's was like hearing somethinf from a close friend. With Durance, even with his narrative issues, I felt more connected. Maybe because it was an ongoing issue opposed to the past with Sagani.

What about something with "Black Isle" on it? Like "Black Isle Marauders" (since marauders seems to be the most popular) or something along those lines, so it's both thematically fitting and a bit different than th Obsidian order. And it would be a nice homage, too, IMHO.

Don't ask me, I can only (poorly) draw Bravais lattices. As it was mentioned in the SA post, usually custom protraits don't have the same style as the rest, of the game to begin with, and that's a reason enough for some of us to stick to the originals. It may be a pain as you say. The only thing I can think of is stealing other character's protrait that resembles your own. Or, well, pay $1750 and get Obsidian to draw it for you.

I guess it's the same case than BG with different size portraits. I gues you'll be able to change both your portraits since they are different files.