Wombat

@Cantousent You actually replied to Visceris. While he could be very annoying at times, he wasn't malicious to my eyes. So, simply, I have never reacted to him. Well, even Sawyer tended to react to the worst posts in threads (I guess he was trying too hard to convince every single person, which cannot be a winning battle). As of me, during the course of "consolization", I was worried if Obsidian is going down the same way as BIS and Troika. However, after the Kickstarter project started, suddenly, I find myself releaved (My brains keep telling me it's still in early stage, though). If it goes well, Obsidian is going to have a nice way of continuing their business. A sad thing is that Obsidian needed to lay off some young talents but, well, at least, some of them may come back.

To be fair, I have never gotten even a single warning form Bioware (well, or any other boards) and designers were open to my criticism (Some of them even replied to me). However, I haven't been to their boards for a long time. The last time I visited there, there was no DA or ME. Simply, their works have gone out of my interest.

Cain worked on MMO, before joining Obsidian, and, according to what he told at Eurogamer, he appears to be trying to make full use of his experiences. From Lots more Project Eternity information and a tentative spring 2014 release date

Unlikely to happen - Sawyer has written a lot about how not to make his game "reload to win." I think Obsidian guys, especially Sawyer is good enough to make the game hard for hardcore fans while keeping it reasonably bearable for possible new players with difficulty-related options, especially when they are building up from the rule sets. Cain and Sawyer seem to be already taking of Ironman mode, too. That said, some nuisances around interfaces may be avoided for any type of the players. By nuisances, of course, I don't mean resource-management game-play. I have never been asked to choose hardcore mode in FONV in each start-over.

In that case, I shouldn't expect myself to be able to get into your imagination. Just forget about it. Well, these typical abortion argument seems to be quite modern chirstian argument to me, and, of couse, such thing can be utlized as political tact. However, I don't think these people has ever imagined how these things can appear to other cultures.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUspLVStPbk

Abortion in the Medieval Age? Actually, it's more likely to be deserting new born babies considering medical technologies at that time. That said, while some people seem to think their own views are universal but ethical views can be different depending on time and place. One of the fantasy setting's strengths is that, it enables us to explore what humanity through different settings/perspectives. I know a certain rules which consciously try to achieve this in the past but, generally speaking, D&D settings are just for escapism. Then again, Obsidian seem to be trying to make a difference in such tradition.

A possible problem with such "begot" character is that, while he may be good at one-off occasion as a non-companion NPC, for a companion, he doesn't have a room for character development. If such character is going to be a companion, a possible example would be Boone in FONV. His attitude towards Caesar's Legion doesn't change from the start to the end, but, at least, eventually, the players is to know why he is so hostile against them. Considering his own deeds in Bitter Springs, it doesn't seem to be atrocities which he was against about the Legion, either. At least, I found the moderate feel of isolation even with a party companion was suitable for Fallout setting. Oh, BTW, I'm neutral to Boone - it's not about personal likes or dislikes about NPCs but about a possible implementation.

It depends on how it is going to be implemented. IIRC, Sawyer talked of the possibility of implementing primitive guns in fantasy settings. Sadly though, I cannot remember the details.

Divine races can be fun as long as there are many types of (conflicting) religions/beliefs (Oh, in that case, creatures with druidic powers can be called "divine" races...). Of course, I've been a sucker for Gloranthan setting, who have been trying to make a certain influence on those designers who mainly played D&D, but something like MotB is, I find, a reasonable compromise.

As a non-specialist, I didn't know the exact cost of Onyx engine but I knew it had been always tied to expensive projects no matter how game-play looks ("2D" or "3D"). I've gotten quite sure that it is not going to be a wining battle for a company like Obsidian. Personally, I'm O.K. with IE-level graphics. One of my concerns, at the moment, is that they may not be accustomed to the engine they are going to use.

Ummm...most of the info is within the range of my guesses. What about the soul magic system? Well, of course I can wait...why not, for it's been many years now? Thanks for the update, anyway.

Yeah, I must confess that Unity has been in my head but this non-spcecialist can be toatlly wrong.

As for time-related restrictions, I'd prefer something like Spirit Eater system in MotB, which gradually decreases as the time passes. Sawyer may be going to use something like that in the "soul system." I wonder if it requires sacrifices related with moralistic/ethical aspect but, thinking of it now. For PST has quite many occasions whether the players to choose sacrifice NPCs. Speaking of which, Avellone wrote of time-limit in his blog. Although I'm against rigid time restrictions, I believe optional* resource management layer can add interesting aspect like hardcore mode. *Remember the spirit eater system was quite unpopular to some reviewers who appeared to be too accustomed to NWN format.

Again, although I'm not a specilist but the possibility was always in my head. What's in the name? As long as they are going to assure classic style of gaming, I don't mind. Rather, they should use tools which they think fit what they are doing.

Sawyer seems to be interested in camping options. I wonder how they are going to differentiate what the players can do in various zones - from totally safe place (player house), relatively safe wilderness to dangerous dungeons. Also, we don't need hanger system to make the resting important. For example, in D&D's case, it uses spell-slot system which require resting at times. Spirit Eater system in MotB didn't affect much on my game-play, since I hate resting each time after battles, but the aim was quite clear. It tried to recover the resource management aspect of D&D. If Eternity's magic system is spell-slot system in it, then, stronger spells need to have longer preparation time. Wonder if it is going to be presented as cool-down timer (from seconds, minutes to even hours and days) or not. Hours of preparation time can almost inevitably require resting or safer place, at least. Alternatively, in easier mode, the designers can speed up the recovery time or vice versa. Another aspect for resource management is items which can be damaged. in Fallout: New Vegas, crafting skills increase their importance in hardcore mode. The skills are, too, nicely divided into various areas of crafting. These skills, of course, can be found in different classes in Eternity.

Well, this is one of the reasons why I'm pondering on the engine. While back, although a designer called Nahaniel Chapman was writing about the possiblity of building old style games for tablet devices. However, he is working for a different company.

One of the major differences between Obsidian's writing team and Bioware's is that, Obsidian allows the players to build their own stories through PC-NPC interactions. There is not so many surprise factors while the players can enjoy more personalized feel to the story. BTW, as for tactical ambushes...well, I don't mind these ambushes like in IWD series. Related with this, IIRC ranger character in The Black Hound allowed the party to ambush/avoid enemies and even to prepare formation before initiating the fight. This is just one of the ideas of Sawyer to blush up wilderness adventures.

Not sure about iOS devices...there are some old titles are going to be released, including Baldur's Gate EE, too.

Whether it is about the presentation of a female NPC or not, I liked cultural varieties represented in MtB in general. I suspect (hope?) Eternity is going to parallel/contrast in-party NPC relationships with other (group/faction) NPC ones.

Can someone please translate? He kept saying negative things even when BIS didsn't seem to be all right...guess it got Avellone's nerve at that time. [Edit]Ty, Tale. I shrugged off because it's from Visceris but...well, at the same time, I cannot blame Avellone.

Oh, it's nice of them...IRCC, even Avellone has gone mad to post something like - you don't care people losing jobs just for a game??? - on him. But you know, we are talking of Visceris... Well, I'm just a mere semi-regular, though.

Yeah, if you come from PnP RPG, you feel it's too mechanical - there are many times that GMs let the players talk, omitting dice rolls. And good players even can role-play stats. I'd like to see the story unfolded through PC-NPC interactions. I find stat-based conversations often one-off - Maybe good for refreshing but that's just about it. I've kept an eye on reputation system Sawyer was planning since The Black Hound and, if it is going to be unified with deeper conversations like Torment, it can be my dream game. I don't know if the system is going to have mental ability scores and/or dialogue skills but, in either case, I'd like to see more focus on actual role-playing factors than simple and mechanical stat simulations. Bit different note, but, as pointed out, I think Deus Ex: Human Revolutions' conversation system, based on NPC personalities, was an interesting twist. At least, it made the players to think before choosing dialogue lines. Of course, there can be a better implementations but it's a welcome attempt.

Proximities would be NWN2's stronghold, KotORII's starship, Alpha Protocol's hideout, and FONV's presidential suite. Possible functions are item storage, (additional) PC-NPC interaction, crafting/shopping interfaces... To be honest, I've gotten an impression that these functions can be integrated into interface screen for resource management game-play, the designers simply need to block access to the interface screen while party's are not in a safe place or specific place(s). Also, these houses are not well designed as "interfaces," either. [edit] Oops. Same timing with Sawyer post. I'm yet to play all the DLCs - due to my time and my tendency to start over the game each time. And yet, I don't think the Sink's function can be totally different from the ones I listed above except some humors and (possible) addtional functions.

Morrowind is my most favorite in the Elder Scroll series. Even the main story, which I personaly found an intetresting twist to the chosen one cliche, lets the player go through different image of heroes in different cultures in multicultural Morrowind, reminding me of the Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Cambell. Rolston has worked on some of Rune Quest suppliments, from which, I believe, he got that in-word writing styles. They were designed to inspire the imagination of the GMs and the players as well as offering possible scenarios without restricting too much.

We are still in the dark but the soul system may add something to in-depth PC-NPC relationships. Letting the players build their customized stories through PC-NPC interactions was an interesting part of PS:T. I wished TNO had been allowed to have more variety of past incarnation personalities and their stories like ones written in his own tomb than the three major personalities represented by the morality slider, though. Then again, to be fair, probably the story must have worked well just with good/evil representations since the strongest story theme is about redemption, despite its well-intended pretence. [Entering speculation mode] I wonder if Eternity's soul system allows the protagonist to have access to the souls of the dead and their stories as well as living ones, making the chains of stories of the past and the present. Additionally, it may be interesting if materials can be influenced by the desires and thoughts of their owners. In fact, some items in PST played important roles in the course of the story. Also, Holy Avenger in IWD was just a plain sword enhanced by pure faith. Through items or not, letting the players interweave stories rooted in the imaginary world into their own stories would be nice.