nikolokolus

I just need to say something, FIFE? Seriously?

I guess I could go for something like this ... just as long as it didn't overlap too much with Bioware's take on magic and mages in Dragon Age.

Couldn't care less. Sometimes they are implemented correctly, some of the time they're awful and mostly I tend to ignore them in games, but I don't care if they're present in the game ... unless that game is DA:2 and it practically bludgeons you over the head with them.

If you clean out a fortified area, it only stands to reason that somebody eventually is going to stumble on to the now desolate place, realize it's empty and then move in. I don't think areas should respawn with exactly the same kind of creature(s) that preceded it, but it's certainly reasonable that after a certain amount of time passes (say 2 to 6 months of game time?) that new residents will be present.

LOL.

That would be true if they were being paid to develop a high profile, big budget game, but that's not what this is. A "success" can be measured in a number of ways, raw sales figures isn't probably the best way for a small niche game, Return on investment by percentage on the other hand ...

It seems pretty tough to come up with something unique that hasn't already been done somewhere in fantasy or science fiction before. So I don't expect their races to be ground-breaking or anything. All I can ask for is no fricking halflings ... I'm not sure I can handle any more of that. Centaur would be kind of cool, since you don't see them too often in as playable race in games, or maybe druid/ent-ish, plant-based biped would work (resistant to poison, but highly susceptible to fire)? I don't know, I trust the Devs to come up with something cool.

For really getting a feel for what your character looks like, I think inventory paperdolls are a great way to accomplish this, but it might be kind of tough to pair this with character portraits, unless the two match. Maybe this is a way for the developers to really show off their artistic skills?

I kind of like the idea of racially sized armor and even some racism and bigotry in the game world can be a good thing, but given what will probably be a tight budget, this kind of thing is probably going to be tough to put into the game.

Amongst other *ahem* things

That's really awesome of you. I wish I had that kind of scratch to throw around (without my wife literally killing me) but how fun is that, getting to make an adventuring group of baddies?! Hopefully they work with you a little bit so you don't just operate blind.

Just no.

It doesn't have to be super low magic or even have a hardcore economy with tons of money sinks -- and I know plenty of people who don't find those kinds of games fun -- but if they can make magic items feel special and if the economy is tight enough that you have to make hard choices then that should be enough.

Special circumstances or special by nature, either way there has to be some kind of hook that makes the character the central focus of the story and presumably they must have enough innate ability/luck/intelligence to actually be able to overcome the main conflict in the story.

Ah, I didn't realize that. well that's kind of a relief. If P:E works out maybe Obsidian can shift to a different development paradigm? Essentially becoming a sort of hybrid, AAA/Indie developer, focusing their efforts on smaller niche type games, but spending less capital on them. Less market penetration, but less risk overall and maybe a more sustainable business in the long run?

And you know this how? I believe it, based on the costs of game development. Take a look at: http://www.notenough...fall-of-gaming/ P:E isn't Max Payne 3, but neither is it a little Indie game being coded by one guy ... it's very serious money. The Kickstarter money is really what they thought they could get to kick-start development; by the time you factor in marketing, this is going to be an expensive game to develop, so don't think that the guys are Obsidian are thinking that it's game over and they've already won. The thing is, it sounds like Obsidian truly intends to make the game they raise the capital for and nothing else. It's not like they have huge cash reserves and if South Park fails they could really be screwed. Odds are that this will be a very modestly marketed game, relying heavily on social media and word of mouth. If they sell 100-300K copies at a $25-30 pricepoint it will be a nice success based on it's cost to develop, but it won't come anywhere close to being a mass market game.

Needs the option for "don't care"

The full team probably be about 20-30 strong, their marketing budget will likely be much smaller as a percentage of their budget than most big studio/publisher games and 2.5 million (or whatever the final amount ends up at) is more than enough to make a 50-60 hour RPG in the time they are going to make it.

I'm gonna kick it old school, my vote goes for "Hand of Vecna" and "Eye of Vecna" Nothing like having to gouge out your own eye and cut off your hand to graft an evil artifact in its place.

Final Fantasy ... eh ... erm ... Nah, I really don't want to say anything else. To each their own I guess.

A villain should absolutely have motives and motivation but I disagree with villains suck at being bad just for the sake of being bad. Kefka was bad because he wanted to be god. He was insane, but it worked because he made it personal. I don't know who Kefka is, but doesn't your description of insanity dovetail with my inclusion of madness as a personality trait? The trick is that a villain usually doesn't see themselves as evil, the best ones usually think they are serving some greater good by serving their own ends -- i.e. saving the world from itself, purging some hated enemy from the land, etc.

Maybe that's because games have been dumbed down a helluva lot in recent years? You barely even need oppose-able thumbs to figure out the mechanics of most games nowadays.

The villain above all else must possess personality traits and motives that at least make them seem like a person; their flaw(s) might be selfishness, cruelty, insecurity, hunger for power or just simple madness -- they need to be marginally relatable on some level -- but what makes a villain suck is being "bad" just for the sake of being bad. Shades of grey are important.

Mounts in an isometric game? What does that really add to gameplay? Not much in my opinion. Conversely, it adds a slew of problems because it adds a whole other set of animations/models that have to be created, it would need balancing and play testing. Mounts pretty much sucked in PnP and aside from Mount and Blade -- a game centered on mounted combat -- I've yet to see this implemented well even in a first person/OTS game (like Skyrim and Oblivion). Given their limited resources, I'd rather have more story, more NPCs, more areas to explore and just plain more of the core game before I'd tack this kind of thing on to it.

LOL. that would be hilarious. "Hello intrepid game developer, we've recently noticed you have started a kickstarter campaign. We are excited to see what you can do and would like to share our loss with you. Please make checks payable to Feargus Urquhart, et. al. Thank you and good luck."