MoldyCheese

I haven't personally tried the rift yet, so I really cant say for sure. But having a dedicated screen for each eye seems like it would make for the best 3d that you could get(imo). At least better then polarized or active shudder lenses(which I have tried). Since, I haven't personally tried it though, it's just optimism on my part. After looking for a link for the 4k development article, I found another stating that the founder was misquoted in those articles. So, you are correct, there is currently no 4k rift in development. And, yeah, I kinda described the advancement issue wrong. As you've stated, it's not so much the chip makers fault as it is the API's and software limitations. But, I do feel that software hasn't been pushing the hardware to make larger leaps and bounds as much as it could be due to the consoles. Luckily, games like Star Citizen are (hopefully) helping to change that.

but that's exactly what it means in this case. whichever axonometric projection P:E will be using (and IE and any other '2D' top-down games have used) can be imagined as looking at objects infinitely far away; there is no difference in the angle that each of Your eyes are looking at the scene, so there is no difference in picture that each of Your eyes see, so there is nothing to create the illusion of depth. Yeah, that makes sense. I was thinking that if they can make Civ 5 display in 3D, that it would work here too. But the way everything is rendered is quite different as you've pointed out. They'd have to have a second background rendered at a slightly different angle. Of course, that'd be cool too.

a) VR offers some of the best 3d available, that's why I'm using it for this discussion. Also, specifically for the possibility of having a 4k screen per eye, which is supposedly something that OculusVR has been working on. b) If something really takes off (eg. tablets and smartphones). It doesn't take long for everyone to get one. Especially, if they're cheap. They said they wanted to have it released (base version) for about $300. I am referring to the norm for gamers and not all PC users of course. And, of course, this is pure speculation. c) I have upgraded GPU's and went to a SSD in the past 7ish years, but that's it. And I can still run everything(that I've played) fine at 1080p at ultra settings. I haven't played the latest Crysis, but did play Bioshock Infinite lately, no problems. I haven't run benches or anything, cause I didn't visually notice any frame rate drops. And, I was just suggesting that the leaps haven't been nearly as big recently as they were years ago when Moore's law still applied. And, that I mainly blame that on games with multiplatform support holding back the PC. Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 @3.0 GHz 8 GB RAM @ 800 MHz EVGA 780i 3x SLI mobo Might be a little over 6 years, but its been a long time. And, that stuff was pretty cutting edge when it came out.

I get that it's a 2d game, but that doesn't mean that displaying it in 3d wouldn't at least add some depth to the image. Not so much for being able to look around in the environment or anything. Think of what Avatar did in 3D in theatres. It wasn't about things popping out at you so much as it was about the depth of the image(imo). And, I wouldn't be so sure about VR not becoming the norm in just a few short years. Look at how fast smartphones and tablets took off. I think that VR and 4k are good reason to get Intel, Nvidia and AMD to really start pushing tech again. Thanks to all of the multiplatform support in games in the past 7+ years, it's been hard to find a reason to upgrade our systems like the old days. Hell, I think I've had my CPU/motherboard/RAM for almost 7 years now, which is crazy for me. But when you can play everything at max settings still, why upgrade?

I've already paid for the expansion, as have many others. So they should have at least some funds available for it right now. Regardless, it's good to see where they are at with it.

Thanks for the reply. This is all I was looking for.

Playable, has the major features in. Still getting the majority of the "smaller" assets in. Hopefully that works for you. The game may not be in a complete state, but it's at least partially playable. I had no idea that you were so personally involved with PE's development though, so I'll just take everything you say as a gospel. I guess I missed that big green "Developer" tag under your name. My bad.

They've had a lot of job postings lately for MMO's. So I wonder if it's just them trying to diversify in case of a flop. It makes a lot of sense to have multiple projects on the go to cover their asses. Doesn't mean I'm going to play them. Though I'm kind of on the same page as the OP. I'd love a steady stream of badass RPG's like we had for a few years with Black Isle/Interplay. It has really seemed to have stalled though. Especially, now that Bioware has gone to crap. Thanks again EA! Hell, the only reason I'm even posting on these boards right now is that I'm bored as hell, and cant think of anything good to play that I haven't played recently. Wait for Wasteland 2 to get released, I guess.

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/65115-update-72-death-godlike-and-expected-ship-date/?hl=alpha As linked, they said in update 72 that they were rapidly approaching alpha. A lot of people have speculated that it will be in alpha by the end of the month(March). Hence the question. Just wondering where dev resources are at. Not that I expect that you specifically would know. Are they going onto the expansion next, or the fantasy MMO, or the tank mmo?

I can see why people are stressing this when looking back at the old games that we all love stuck at 640x480, etc. Especially when looking at the tech coming out this year. Especially, when looking at VR. There is still talk about Oculus Rift having 4k screens for each eye. Which is ridiculous, but could honestly be the new standard in just a couple of years. So, now you think about having to render 2x4k screens(potentially one for each eye) for the 3d aspect. I think this will all be incredibly cool, and it will be a shame that we likely wont be able to play these classic games in this way.

I don't know if you've seen what unity is capable of, or not. But, it can make pretty much any type of game you want. Be it 1st person, 3rd person, or even a cheap side scroller cell phone game. I'm just saying that there shouldn't be an issue as to what the team can do with it. There should be no reason to alter the plot because of the engine. I get what you're saying as far as "we have to change this plot element because it just isn't working". I'm just saying that not all of the developers will stay on the project from beginning to end. That just isn't how it works. It's the same reason that devs that had worked on Southpark were working on PE over a year before Southpark even came out(I hope that made sense to everyone). A lot of the people that are there for the beginning of the project aren't necessary later on in the project, so they move onto the next. So, I'm asking if PE is at that stage yet. Where some of the devs are moving onto either the expansion, or another project.

If they picked an engine that can't support an IE style games plot, then Obsidian should be bludgeoned to death for their incompetence. Same goes with them re-writing the central plot at this stage in the game. It's supposed to be released by the end of the year. I've only been playing games and watching their development for 25 years or so...but I'm pretty sure that's not how this works. Writers are always the first to leave the project and move on to other projects. I just wanna know if that project is the expansion, or tanks... Granted, the leads (Josh included) are in a bit of a different situation, given that they are managing the project and helping with the implementation by the programmers, etc. But they have already said that they had writers under them for the sub-quests and didn't write the whole thing or all of the dialogue themselves.

So you figure that they have plenty of writing to do once the game has hit alpha....? They have to have had the writing done pre-alpha, at the very least, the plot. It only makes sense that they would have carried on to the expansion. Unless they're busier with other things. Like...tanks... This is what I'm hoping as well. And, I'm really curious as to what the timeframe will be like between the initial games release and the expansions release. 6 months? a year? Just wondering.

Since the game is pretty much at an alpha state, I was wondering if any of the dev assets had started working on the expansion yet? Or, is it being developed at the same time as the main game? Just curious if the expansions development will immediately follow the main game or if devs are being moved to other projects(unrevealed/recently revealed) with a break in between. For those of you thinking that this may be a bit premature, it's not like the writers have nearly as much to do once the game hits an alpha state. Which is why I ask. Also, creature and class designers and concept artists may start running out of work at these stages. Really enjoying all of the content that you guys have shown so far.

Horses. Wagons. And why we never get to play with them? Touche

Exactly. It's not necessary to have a large time/money consuming element added to the game this way. It'd just be one of the cool scenario's that would play out during the story.

I'm pretty sure that at least one of the big cities are going to be on water. 2 if we're lucky and hit the last stretch goal. After all, pretty much any really big city has access to the sea. And the map of the continent that they released is surrounded by water. Sure, it's not an island chain. But it still seems like a pretty obvious aspect of gameplay to exploit. Shipping/merchant travel between cities and towns would be tempting targets for pirate attack. I'd really like to see what they could do with a giant sea monster attack too. Tentacles crawling over the ship. Melee characters hacking them off with mages cauterizing the wounds. We see this stuff a ton in movies. Not so much in games nowadays.

I am really just talking about one good ship battle. I'm not really asking for multiple ones of the Monkey Island sort (Not that I wouldn't like to see another game like that). It seems like such an obvious setting for combat in an rpg. And, come on! Who wouldn't want to take on a sea monster like that?! The whole thing screams RPG. We just never really see it.

I was thinking of integrating it kind of like the siege mechanics of NWN2. You would view everything the same way as the rest of the game. You'd be on the ship deck, perhaps taking orders from a captain. He could tell you to fire cannons, heave on ropes and fire at targets with spells. Have lots of interactable objects on the deck to turn the tides in your favor. If someone tries to board you'r ship, you kill them. And you could send your own characters over to the other ship via ropes/grappling hooks. It would be cool to have various classes fit into diffent roles as well. Where your ranged characters could directly engage the other ship with spells/arrows etc. And, your melee characters fire cannons and take care of boarding actions.

Most western rpg's seem to avoid them as far as gameplay goes. However, they are used all the time in the lore as well as the npc's. We always see them in ports and cities but we rarely interact with them in anyway other then a location transition. I think that it's about time that changed.

I'd really like to see something done with ships in a fantasy game for once. We often see them or board them to get to the next destination, but we never really get to do anything on them. You have a big quest to book passage on one, and it ends up being a loadscreen or chapter transition. I'd love to see you get into a ship battle for once. Waves crashing over the hull, cannons firing, and boarding other ships. Magic makes it even more interesting. What does ship combat look like when wizards are involved? It would be great to have characters interacting with components of the ship too. Be it, firing cannons, raising sails, or trying to make critical repairs in the heat of battle. I think this type of thing would be a blast. What do you guys think?

I thought that Crossroad Keep was awesome if not a bit lacking when it came down to the siege. I loved the idea of a player stronghold that you could build up and fortify. I'm pretty sure Josh did too, considering it was planned for Van Buren. I would love to see an enhanced/more interactive version of Crossroad Keep in game.

At least, i am not wasting my time in a Forum game that i am not interested. You're absolutely right. What's the point in arguing with a bunch of blind fanboys? You've brought me back to reality. People are idiots, and will believe whatever they want to believe. No matter the evidince that slaps them in the face repeatedly. Go ahead, punish yourself and waste your time. I'm outta here.

Never mind the fact that the majority of the reviews we've seen (the European ones) have all given it around an 85. READ the reviews... It's a broken mess. The western reviews have actually put down a decent analysis of the game. If you want to waste your money on it, have fun.

I think it's boiling down to a broken and disfunctional game at it's core. The only positive that has been mentioned is that your choices affect the story throughout. Yet, the story is being called bland. The basic gameplay is horrid or broken on almost all accounts. 1/3 minigames are tolerable to most of the reviewers. Oh, and the visuals are subpar. I've read every review posted in this thread, and this game is lucky to be getting 5+/10. This is simply due to the fact that most sites will never have review below a 5. Anything below a 7.5 is typically a crap game. I mean, have you guys(the ones saying the reviews aren't bad...) even READ the reviews? Or, are you just going by the score at the end? Cause, there is very little praise going AP's way. I was really hoping that this would hold me over for a couple of months...but I can't justify spending $60 on a sub-par game. *Edit: Just read the RPGamer review which for some reason ignores all of the issues presented by the other sites...It stands as one of the few actually positive written rewviews that have been released thus far.