Kal Adan

I was thinking about making my second playthrough in Pillars of Eternity with hirelings as well. The reason why I am uncertain doing this in my first playthrough is that it would feel like a waste for me to get engaged and lose a companion at some point, without uncovering all they have to offer story-wise. I will consider this - especially since the game is supposed to play differently than Baldur's Gate II, with camping and higher difficulty levels - but it's something I will have to give some thought before making a commitment like this.

I am not saying you're wrong in what you're saying. I simply try to point out how Kickstarter is not supposed to be for profit. If money from Kickstarter go into development, then this is the money that didn't went directly into profit, which is what Kickstarter is all about. You can make a niche game that won't get you a profit and with Kickstarter you still can make it, because money from there is supposed to go into development (thus you don't profit from it), to provide game for the backers. Eventual profit from the game (or the overall profit, as you point out) is entirely another matter. Game might sell well or not. From the point of Kickstarter it doesn't really matter, because Kickstarter is only concerned about reaching the stated goals and not about developers making profit from their creation.

The dreams were very interesting. Partially so, because some weird stuff could happen there and you didn't know what to expect.

Horses were good for covering large distances without using fast travel.

I am not a big fan of ambushes. I don't think they would become something more than annoyance after some time. On the other hand I can understand that the possibility of being attacked could be important for players in making decisions when and where to go.

Ressurection basically nullified death, so why have death as a mechanic at all? I think system they came up in exchange is very promising and makes more sense (as fas as video games go).

If all Kickstarter funds went into the project, then there is no profit from Kickstarter. It's as simple as that.

I do like your approach to combat, because it underlines the importance of all aspects that are outside of combat and that's something worth consideration in an RPG. I think you don't need to be afraid of it though. Even if you're more of a thinker than action player there is active pause in place to stop game and make all important tactical decisions before unpausing. This alone should help you a great deal (it surely helps me, as I am a bit more on thinking side myself).

As an RPG Icewind Dale I was terrible for me. Icewind Dale II was much better in this regard. Baldur's Gate II was the best in terms of creating RPG feel while not forsaking combat (like Torment did. Torment had superior role-play aspect though, so it was something for something), although role-play aspects in Baldur's Gate [iI] were often fairly superficial, much like Bioware games are now. That's one of many reasons why I turned to Obisdian over Bioware lately as far as RPG genre is concerned. Of course, it's only my personal view. Everyone has to answer "what makes an RPG?" on their own.

Pillars of Eternity is to be released on the PC and while GTA is not same genre it's going to compete for attention on the same platform. Builds in RPGs are done to let you role play your character in game. Can you role play in Souls? No. Because Souls are action games with some RPG elements in them that are there to help you customize your playstyle. Nothing more. People are free to think that RPG "is number crunching, min maxing, and perfecting your build", but this only shows they don't really understand the purpose of creating a character. Builds are only means to an end.

There are ways to solve "critical path versus additional content" issue. You can make it so that unlocking additional content costs you a lot of money and you need to brave the dangers in order to get loot of that area. By loot I mean mostly unique items, not mountains gold. Or you have no "critical path" but a lot of alternate paths instead. Or use difficulty scalling so that all encounters are challenging. But there is only one way to not make you overly rich: gold needs to be spent. Maintenance is usually the best way to do it. Only problem is running out of gold, preventing you from gaining gold. Being able to take a loan could help here, with enemies attacking you in your journey to "encourage" you to give money back to not let you forget about paying off that debt.

I don't disagree, but it might be one of those things that just comes up to whether you're a gamer or a consoler. Since the titles are mutually exclusive, I can see how the console crowd is going all "PoE who?" just as much as we're going "Bloodbourne what?" You're not wrong, but by interest I meant emotional load accompanying Pillars of Eternity. It's the most founded project on Kickstarter and a spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate series that was supposed to be extinct in gaming due to lack of interest of players. It's bound to generate more interest in mixed media than Bloodborne, because Pillars of Eternity is more than a game at this point. It's a proof of concept.

Bloodborne (not Bloodbourne) is target for a different audience. Different platforms, different ways of playing. It's not a direct competition. Additionally Pillars of Eternity is game known and expected enough to get a lot of publicity when release will be very close and when it happens (reviews). I will hazard a guess that people are waiting for Pillars of Eternity more than they're waiting for Bloodborne.

The point of not drowning in gold is making gold a valuable resource. With limited coin you introduce meaningful choices across the board. Someone want to bribe you? Sure, my team could use extra money. They want me to do this? I am not sure... but the pay is good, so I might to consider this proposition. Do I buy this or that? Do I try to bribe a guard or save money and do something else? And so on, and so forth.

Given the kind of universe - for the lack of better term - in which Planescape: Torment takes place I don't find it that much significant as you do. Since you're the one bringing up Planescape: Torment and relationships I will leave this here: click. Make of this what you will.

Pillars of Eternity is not that kind of a product that can get to many people for a price of 1$ in number enough to let Obisidian stand on their own two feet. I will go as far as to say that Kickstarter could be an option - in my opinion - if they won't raise enough capital through selling Pillars of Eternity for their another project. Selling Pillars of Eternity in a lot of copies for a reasonable price (not 1$) is ultimately beneficial to all involved.

Your attempts to ridicule romance mean nothing. Romance has it own shelf full of books, but for purposes of other media it's accepted to shorten romance to "emotional attraction towards another person" and all it implies. How that goes in terms of story-telling, reactions of other people, etc. is entirely another matter. Having said this much I doubt it's reasonable to say anything more. Especially to a person who behaves like a troll, so I will say nothing else to you.

@Osvir You put down some very interesting thoughts. I find it logical that an NPC will be attracted to player who displays certain attitude during questing. Interactions between NPC and player is another logical step in a relationship (plus how player decides to deal with quests, but from what I saw it also determines attitude of your character, so there is no problem with that). It should provide better base for writting down character interactions that make sense. Besides captivation (which can happen, but I don't know how one could model it in game. A roll based on charisma versus... what? Randomly generated number?).

Your call. I don't really mind as long as there is English language available.

People cringe at Twillight - at least publicly - and it was still successful enough book to develop into three parts and get movie versions of the books. Fifty Shades of Grey is (was?) tabu and now it's out in the open. They even made a movie and more books. Look at this very forums even now: people are asking if it's true that romances are not in game. It says a lot about the popular demand for romances, even in video games. If you don't think that a video game can invoke feelings (or that such feelings are stupid), then you simply didn't play good video games. Same goes for books or movies. I am not a big fan of anime or manga (I hate the art style), but they were made well enough to create emotional response. That's something. If it's possible for movies and comics, then it's possible for games. It only requires correct approach.

I am saying that IE games are playable as something other than simple dungeon crawls, because - in my experience - they were. It's as simple as that. It's not just me, either. The two the most fondly remembered games - by me and others - are Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn and Planescape: Torment. Icewind Dale series do have their place in people's memory (the first game has great story), but aren't prime choices, because that spot is already occupied. You can try break down the IE games, but they were more than simply the sum of their parts. Of course, your mileage may vary. Role Playing Game as a concept focuses more on player(s) as a character(s) and what said character(s) do. You can treat it like a dungeon crawler. It's absolutely possible. But the days of RPGs being used as synonim for dungeon crawler are long since past. In fact, I wouldn't be as much interested in the genre otherwise, because there are a lot of games with interesting combat mechanics. If I am here it's largely because RPGs offer me - or at least try - something more than that. I will enjoy tactical combat too, but for me it's a bonus to being able to role play a character through the course of the game. I don't think this is about cultural barrier. There is nothing to stand in a way of a romance, because romance is not viewed upon with scorn by our culture. Think about Tristane and Isolde or Romeo and Juliet. The dangerous tabu content lies past the romance's waters. In my opinion it's either lack of will to create really good romance (because there are more important aspects of production to be taken care of) OR inexperience with handling romance as a separate theme. It's hard to get right and where it's tackled the poor handling gets embedded into what people think true romance is, creating a vicious circle.

I want to use his spells, but I don't want to have to use them needlessly and if character will need them during each encounter - forcing me to rest more often that I'd like - then ideed such character design is pointless. Melee fighters are a failsafe I will go back to when my concepts prove useless, but from an RPG I expect to be able to create characters that are useful regardless of not being model for their chosen class (like warrior-wizzards).

In truth I was thinking about a frontline wizzard, but the videos I watched showed him quickly falling down when attacked by some enemies and if I have to use spells to make wizzard at least competent in combat, then it's fewer spells used for something else just to make that wizzard competent. Unless spells you mention are per encounter, not per rest I am not sure if that's a good choice for what I am trying to accomplish. Chanter sounds like he'd suffer the most from wearing heavy armor due to increased casting times, because he has to "cast" his chants and they work best when they overlap and "stack". That's why I was thinking about priest - someone who cast spells when needed, but don't have to do it quickly or "stack" them and is proficient in combat enough to fight on his own. Paladin is somewhat obvious choice here, but I was trying to think a little "out of the box" with some other possibilities. I am not trying to power game here, but at the same time I don't want to handicap myself too much.

That's even better than I imagined. Thank you kindly for this information.

I played SWTOR MMO for some time. It had an excellent option to hide what inclination to which Side of the Force your answer was leaning your character to. I saw that Pillars of Eternity have red choices where your character do not have enough point in one attribute or skill. I have to say I'd like to see these "warnings" gone. I'd rather be [positively] surprised that I have unlocked some new options playing the game again, with different character and doing something in a different way, leading to different results. Just a thought.