Starwars

Male for the first playthrough probably, then female on the replay. Usually like to switch back and forth but first playthrough is usually male.

Looking forward to the t-shirt also. And it's nice cause I actually need a new t-shirt. Among the goodies, I have to say I'm really looking forward to Tim Cain's recipes also, that should be good.

Thanks for the heads up Brandon! Looking forward to seeing the improvements!

I think, given the nature of "live-shows", it'd be pretty difficult to fully showcase the tactical side of things. I know I would just not be able to focus on my playing when there's a big audience watching right in front of me. Maybe the devs are hardened though.

Chris Avellone! As long it isn't in a wolf-infested area.

Maybe a quest or part of a quest? It'd be good if you chose a quest that had very different outcomes and consequences. Finish it one way, then maybe reload and finish it another way and talk a bit about what would change, which other ways one could go about it etc. I dunno how to show off a game like PoE for a live-crowd like in PAX. The skeleton army was obviously well-received so I dunno, maybe show off some funny "oooh yeah!" stuff like that. Or just go somewhere and kill everyone (or try to) in a regular area. For the future, I think it'd be great to have a few more streams with Josh like the one a while back. Or someone who is good at the game and just have him play a bit. Maybe explain a bit more about reputations and stuff like that while playing. I like that it was relaxed and you get a good view of how the game might play when just... well, sitting down and playing it. Really enjoyed that.

Maybe on paper it sounds great, but Obsidian has done the mind-exploration-thing before (Mask of the betrayer... the sleeper's prison, and Anya's dream) and it wasn't all that. It was a neat concept I suppose, but I wouldn't prefer it over a well designed good old fashioned dungeon experience. Yeah, I think many people tend to fall over themselves when Chris talks about his designs (and I do love a lot of his writing and "mindset" a lot of times myself) but sometimes there are... good cuts as well. Maybe there were better uses of those resources and workhours. Just my immediate gut feeling upon reading is that it may fit better into something like Torment. From my point of view, a lot of Avellone's ideas seem to fit better into the "crazier" settings. Who knows. That said, I do hope that they won't shy away from having those companions be really "bad people" so to speak. It'd be great to have some evil-ish companions that are really well written and have interesting motivations.

Great game!

Yeeeeah, new week and all that...

Going with an Orlan myself, probably a Cipher but not 100% sure on that. I have no problems playing halfling, gnomes etc.

I would like to see some form of penalty also. I'd like that Health takes a hit or some form of injury system (which would need a special resource to heal). I liked the "health ticking down" mechanic in Storm of Zehir. But I'm not sure how I would like it in a game where there is, after all, no resurrection. It would have to be a pretty slow tick to feel good then I think. But yes, I would certainly welcome some form of penalty there. I doubt we'll see a change like this this late in development though.

This is simply untrue, especially when we're talking about the guys who make up Obsidian. I was *there* on the Black Isle/Interplay forums when they were developing Icewind Dale 2. I was *part* of the community that begged Josh & Co. to implement Deity-based Cleric domains (which they ended up putting in at the last minute thanks to our forum feedback, for example). There's very little that's truly new here, and NOTHING has changed in Chris Avellone's public communication.... except maybe he's communicating even LESS now. I'm happy for you. That was also 15 or so years ago (I think?) under a different developer/publisher. I'm not saying that fan interactions are new, I'm not saying that all community feedback in the past has been useless (there were good interactions during NWN2 as well where they ended up integrating a mod into the actual game amongst other things). But opening up the dev process from day one and taking into account feedback from day one is new for them. Taking forum feedback and discussing it internally in the dev-team and deciding whether to change, or not change, something without getting an OK from the publisher is new. THAT'S the difference. THEY, the developer, make the final call on what feedback to absorb into the game and what to not absorb. And that's what I think Avellone is referring to. I'm definitely not saying that every publisher in the world will put strict chains on the developer, there are in fact *good* publishers also. Interplay was, at least before Herve took over. By gamers, for gamers, felt pretty true. I'm sorry man, but nothing about the kickstarter requires devs to post here. Forum interaction was never a thing on the kickstarter project, getting Chris Avellone here to talk about romances was never a thing, opening up the dev process however, was. And Avellone is one of the most prolific devs there are. Going to conventions, writing for various projects (and writing novellas for them to boot), he answers e-mails and twitter questions, he's in a million different interviews and I think he's the creative lead on an unannounced project now if I understand things correctly, he's creative director and one of the owners for Obsidian entertainment. Yet he just doesn't do enough for you, no, he should damn well get on this forum and post here as well.

This has nothing to do with what we're discussing. There's no publisher on earth that would have stopped Chris Avellone from coming on here to discuss dialogue mechanics, or NPC interaction depth (for example). The shackles here are, and have always been, self imposed. So it's disingenuous for him to peddle the notion that this 'freedom' to engage the fans is anything new, or unique thanks to the kickstarter model. I'd say that, for Obsidian (who've only worked with publishers in the past), it's quite new to open up their dev process to the fans like they have done, and implement actual changes in the game based on feedback from the fans. That's an openess with the fans they have not done before and in fact would've been impossible before I don't think he means that posting on forums is some new-found freedom. The marketing director guy even says so.

That's no different than how things are in any traditional Publisher-funded model. So no. And we haven't had a single story/narrative based update anyway (ie. stuff that Chris would logically discuss), so make that a double NO. For God sakes, even friggin BIOWARE's writers did monthly NPC profile threads for DA:I on the BSN. But apparently we peons here on the Obsidian forums aren't even worth that much time from Obsidian's writing staff. Of course it's different. A publisher can dictate what they want to see and OEI has to follow. The community cannot. A publisher can dictate what the devs show *us*. We cannot dictate what OEI shows *us*. OEI is in *charge* of their project, not a publisher and most definitely not us. The difference is that now OEI can read the fan-discussions on forums (and partake if they wish) and change things in their game depending on *our* feedback and not the publishers, if they choose. It's not an investment on our part, it's donating towards a game that will hopefully please us. We partake in a gamble when we donate to kickstarter. There are no contracts. The deal is not to have discussions with the devs, to be armchair developers or that everything is open and that your favorite developer will discuss every single thing with some random dude on the internet. You're not entitled to any of these things. OEI have posted a truckload of updates (more than most kickstarters I might add), have changed things in the actual game based on feedback from these forums (some fairly big things to, like the removal of the durability system), based on feedback from the backer beta (again, not exactly par for the course when dealing with a publisher) etc etc. But no, they are the devil because Josh doesn't post here (much) and Chris doesn't really post anywhere afaik.

Or perhaps it's interaction on the development team's terms, not simply "tea-time with the Obsidian forums"? They post an update, post screenshots, post info, post a new Backer Beta, post whatever, and the community responds to that? And then OEI decides whether to change or not to change something based on the feedback they see? Dun dun dun!

Despite your hyperbole, and contrary to how things might seem in your eyes, the fanbase here is not the enemy. Nor does the decision to not post here have ANYTHING to do with anyone's posting style. Chris Avellone is Obsidian's creative director. A discussion with him would NOT be about game mechanics anyway. It would be about... writing. And maybe even quest design. As it happens, there hasn't been a single day since the kickstarter pitch where a Romance thread (for example) hasn't been an active topic on these forums. One would think that Avellone, of all people, would have words to say on the subject, or stance to argue on such matters, or even an alternative to peddle to those who are disappointed in Obsidian's decision to not have them in PoE. But... nada. He's simply not present in this particular community. Of course it's not the enemy. But why would anyone want to put themselves out in the way of the rudeness that occurs on a pretty general basis around here? They have absolutely zero obligation to do so, even for a kickstarter project. In any creative endeavour such as this, why would one want to subject oneself to actually engage in discussions with people who are downright rude and who at times speak very ill of the project you're putting your heart into? Again, this is not about constructive criticism which is all fine and good. It's pretty damn clear to me that the devs read what's being discussed and take it into account. Yes, Chris Avellone is creative director. He's one of the owners of Obsidian. I would hope, and think, he has a lot of other things in the fire rather than come on to a forum and discuss romances with the esteemed forum-folk. Unless you want to him to do it in his off-hours? If you want his view on things, maybe you could try e-mailing him or send a twitter message. I e-mailed him once and he responded very nicely though it took him a few workdays to get around to it. While Obsidian does not come here to discuss all the various things that are brought up, I think they've done a pretty good job of justifying why and why not they've put in the things they have done in the game (including romances). Whether it's here, in the kickstarter updates, on somethingawful, on the Codex, on twitter, on Josh's tumblr or wherever. Or just through answering private PMs. I don't think the communication has been 100% good mind you, I think a lot regarding the backer beta especially could've been a lot better communicated regarding bugs and just what is happening. But that devs should come here and discuss all kinds of things in the forum when they have a fricking job to do that actually bring in their paycheck, no, just no. I would *much* rather have the devs working on the game and actually getting things accomplished instead of going around in circles in discussions here. Because that's what it would be, it would end up as defending their designs against the people who do not want that kind of design.

Then why did he talk about fan interaction at all? Disingenuous of him in either case. Though there is always the possibility that he is here talking and discussing as one of us...hmmm...which one would he be... To tell the truth, I think the fanbase and devs really view this differently. The fanbase wants the devs to be here, in the thick of things, actually actively discussing. When, in truth, this would likely be a fair waste of time. Not only does it take hours out of the work day but it's also... People here are interested in wrangling answers, and pushing their agenda. The devs have their vision of things, and are out to make a game. Reading the discussions, then discussing that with their co-workers is a much more productive scenario. And it happens, like how they reversed the skill-point changes for example. Don't get me wrong, I love it when the devs are active and posting on the forums. But in terms of productivity, there are way better ways to handle things than to jump into discussions. The discussions and back and forth are already happening after all, they're there for the devs to read. Oh, and of course, it also means that won't have to directly deal with the abundance of demanding posts, rude remarks and so forth. For example, the post just above mine implies that the devs didn't think very hard. That's rude and disrespectful and I know I would personally not want to talk to people who say things like that were I a developer.

On another note, it's pretty cool that Obsidian has Russel Crowe as Marketing director.

Yes, I truly wonder why he doesn't post here anymore.

While I'm still not a fan of combat music in general (whine whine), I liked that track a good deal better than the other one we've heard (in the BB).

I know I personally would really like for an option to simply destroy an item.

I also prefer the new system actually. The mechanic of dragging a corpse (well, it's not that either, it's just the character mysteriously enters the Twilight Zone until he's resurrected again) to a priest to get it resurrected is not something that is particularly interesting in my opinion and at times actually dull enough that it would make me reach for the re-load button. If there were additional mechanics tied to this it may have been interesting but what it usually meant was loss of some gold and gain of boring playtime. I can miss the flavor of it, the fact that it can feel extra dangeros and deadly so to speak but I don't think the pay-off is worth it. I'm not sure whether PoE will hit a good balance but I'm extremely glad they're trying to for a new system. And I'm *extremely* glad that resurrection is done away with, that stuff always retardifies a lot of aspects within the setting.

I asked a dev about it and he said that, from what he can recall, there's about 1 hour of music performed by an orchestra (the tracks they felt were the most important).

Yep. That's confirmed, actually. In other words, no choice. PoE will still maintain the same type of "but thou must kill" gameplay that defines the IE games, while at the same time, eliminating the rewards for doing so. Wonderful game design. Just because there is unavoidable combat in the game doesn't mean that PoE won't give you a lot more freedom to actually *do* solve a lot of things without violence. Jesus Christ man... Clearly it's either BLACK OR WHITE!

Another thing to consider is that we also know that there is at least one "early ending" in the game, though I'm not sure whether that will count towards these achievements.