Starwars

You know, if it hadn't been for Athkatla in BG2, I would have had pretty much zero interest in the game. I didn't care enormously for the story, there weren't many interesting choices to make. But Ahtkatla. Exploring Athkatla was enormously fun. And it showcased that, maybe, just maybe, an isometric game that "abstracts" a lot of its world is the best way to bring a city to life in an RPG. It had character (it almost *was* a character), it was atmospheric, it was dense, it was occasionally dangerous. The same goes for Sigil in Planescape: Torment of course. How exciting it was to explore just what lies in the city's various districts. How awesome was it to leave the slummier and dirtier Hive Wards and Lower Wards behind and find out that, yes... There is another goddamn district waiting to be explored in the Clerk's Ward, this one with a completely different flavor. Basically, Athkatla and Sigil were a really big part of BG2 and Torment. A lot of the games revolved around those locations, and it didn't feel like the games sold the idea of a big city short. They felt big and lively. Now, including such big areas in a game is obviously not an idea to be taken lightly. Would you like for there to be a big city in the game which "dominates" much of the gameplay? Would you rather have more, medium-sized settlements (that may differ more culturally speaking) to explore? I wouldn't be disappointed if we got smaller settlements. But I *would* definitely love a big city that you can really dive into.

Making my way through a replay of NWN2. It's... pretty much as I remembered it. There's a fair amount of bad, a fair amount of mediocre, and small amount of good. Some individual parts are pretty cool but as a whole, it's a mess of a campaign I think. And made worse of certain design-decisions that just doesn't seem to fit the campaign at all (like having companions that you are forced to take with you). Mainly looking forward to get through it so I can start up MotB. One thing that can be said for the NWN2 main campaign is that I think it makes MotB an even stronger campaign since you have a long history as a character which makes roleplaying a bit more interesting.

I agree with one of the above posts that the most evocative piece of music in the kickstarter video was the piece with the harp arpeggio. That really made the video come alive in a way. I didn't care enormously for the "epic", loud parts with the chorus and that. Would love for a more subdued vibe for Project Eternity, and hold back the fantasy fanfares a bit. I also really loved the soundscape at the end of the video with the tolling of the bells. Nice job on that.

I think it would be fair to say that one should not blame either publisher or developer completely in these cases. I believe KOTOR2 was kinda rushed out by the publisher if I recall correctly. Other games seem to be a bit of a mix. NWN2 was straight up buggy at release (and still feels pretty janky). Alpha Protocol seemed to have some pretty heavy bumps in the road in the development. New Vegas suffered mostly from bugs inherent in the engine itself, and I don't think Obsidian had the development time to delve fixing things in the engine itself. Dungeon Siege 3 was smooth as butter though and it used their own engine. As far as cut content goes, I don't think OEI has a big problem with it (all games have cut content). It's just that it's gotten so highlighted with KOTOR2 and the restored content mods. So as soon people find something cut in the game files, it gets blown out of proportion a bit. With PE, I don't think there will be a lot of problems honestly. I think it will be easier for them with their own QA department. Plus, if there is something they really want to include or if they feel the game needs polish, they can move the release date around and decide how much time they would need. Unity also seems stable enough.

I've played them and have different views on them. Torment is one of my all time favorites. The Icewind Dales are fun games, as is Baldur's Gate 2, but I'm not that big a fan of them. Baldur's Gate 1 is not a game I particularly enjoy. The reason I pledged doesn't have much to do with the IE games themselves, but more with the fact that I want Obsidian to make an old-school game with some similarities to the design of the IE games. I hope that it will still feel like its own thing more than an IE "rehash" so to speak. I would love for more Fallout/Arcanum, and even some Darklands/Realms of Arkania mixed in there as well, coupled with things from Obsidian's later games.

Filler Combat: I understand this can be a bit difficult with balancing (and also that people probably have pretty different views on filler combat as well). But just... No endless dungeon sections where you just wail on enemy after enemy until your brain dribbles out your ear. I'd much rather take a much shorter game if it meant cutting down on the bullcrap combat encounters. Quest Compass: I'm all for journal updating, markers being put on your map when you find something out or whatever... But please, no shining arrows or breadcrumb trails that lead us to our quest destination. Final Battle enemy rush: This is related to the filler combat one a bit. But no humongous, several hours long enemy rush at the end where you have to fight a million minions to get the final encounter.

I like this one better than the bearded guy one posted before. The boob-plate here is not nearly to the point where I find it overtly stupid and I really like the look of the armor overall. She looks pretty bad-ass overall. I think the main thing I don't care for in these art-pieces is the color-scheme. It just looks rather drab to look at. Also, she has a big gun and a shield on her back as well, interesting.

Agreed, would also welcome that.

Darn, there goes my ultra-original idea of, wait for it... a Thieves Guild that uses a sewer system as a hideout. Guess it's time to come up with a new idea. Wait- whaaa... Oh I see what you did there. Anyways, not a huge fan of swamps myself but eh... If there is a place for them, bring them in. Sewers are... In a way there is something appealing about having a huge sewer network to explore in *addition* to a big town that's over it. Just... please don't make it a dungeon full of dangerous hostile monsters. Make it have some sort of substance to it.

There is nothing inherent in the Infinity Engine that makes me want to see it again. The thing about the IE was that it was good at the time, and it (now) represents an era of a certain type of games. But there is nothing about the engine specifically that would make me excited to see it return. There are better engines and there is nothing stopping you from bringing back a similar feel on more modern and updated engines.

I didn't really like the way it was implemented in the IE games or Fallout but it's an idea that could be developed a bit. I'm not sure how though. Maybe there could be an X-Com like panic system that affected the way enemies acted. Not flat-out starting to whail on allies or anything like that, but maybe doing some stupid things AI-wise. Would probably be pretty complex to code and test though I assume.

While it holds true that I think Bioware romances are generally horrible and pandering messes, the problem is a much deeper one for me. Basically that, if you're gonna sell a romance for me then it needs to be done realistically. It needs to be paced right. The writing needs to be spot-on. There needs to be branches even *within* the romance itself. It needs to not just cut off character development for players who choose *not* to follow the romance. Basically, it would take a pretty damn tremendous writing/testing effort if it were to work well. And that effort is quite frankly something that I would much rather be put into something else. That is to say, at least if we are talking about "classic" romances. Where you have someone in the party that you develop an on-going romance with. I am not opposed to love, relationships, sex and all that be apart of the actual game-world like with New Vegas for example. Where it's treated as one-off trysts (for the player I mean). It was like this in Alpha Protocol as well (though slightly more developed). It's when you get into the real trials and tribulations of being in an actual on-going relationship in a game, that the problems and development resource-hogging will just pile on and on. It's already a challenge to write characters that are believable in themselves, that provides reactivity to the player and the game world, that will possibly delve into different "branches" depending on whether he/she agrees or disagrees with the player.

Not really a fan of this idea. Prefer it if equipment has their set looks.

Congrats to Obsidian on 2 million bucks. Pretty damn amazing!

Don't care too much either way. I liked some of the shorter ones in Dragon Age, that didn't really take away control from your character, or at least not more than a second or whatever. But I *hated* the longer ones, like the one that triggered when killing Ogres. That left you with no control of your character for a long period of time which is a big no-no. But yeah, not really worth the effort I'd say unless the animatiors are really bored I suppose. Just no retarded Baldurs Gate gibbing either... that looked so goddamn stupid. If you're gonna do gore, then do animations like Fallout's. But really, it is of very little consequence for me.

It's one railroaded tutorial and then one very simple mission after that. Basically, if you have followed the game thus far (seen some gameplay, read some interview, maybe watcher a dev walkthrough) then it's pretty unnecessary to download the demo.

As cool as they can be to watch, I'd have to say no as well. I hope something Project Eternity will do is to have as little interruptions to the gameplay as possible. No cutscenes or other things that constantly takes away control from the player.

Such wit! Anyways, a bit disappointing, but not unexpected, that it's basically the tutorial stuff. Still, gives a good view of how it controls and all that. It feels slightly clunky to me, especially some of the movement (is there a free camera, or just the locked camera angles with Q and E?). But it's also a pretty involved game so I think one will grow into the controls quite quickly. Still... I must say that I had higher expectations on the PC stuff. It doesn't feel completely intuitive to me. Main disappointment so far for me was actually the music which I feel is... well, too close to Deus Ex Human Revolution really. I don't think it feels particularly fitting for X-Com. But I have to say that I'm almost 100% sure that this game will provide a lot of entertainment for me.

I would definitely enjoy this, at least for the more mystical and powerful artifacts we might run across. But please... No identifying an item to find out it's an exciting Longsword +1, for the love of god.

Still... With the setup for the game being what it is, witnessing the supernatural event and... figuring out what happened, and what happened to yourself, I am really hoping that it won't be a "villain story". We obviously don't know a lot yet but I'd love it if you simply had to choose sides to find out what happened, to find allies to help you in your "quest". I talked about this in some other thread but again, something like in New Vegas where there are reputation checks with factions instead. You may end up facing Legate Lanius at the end... Or, you may end up facing General Oliver... Or, possibly both. I think villains can be well written, certainly. But at this point, after playing a million different RPGs, my god does the thought of going up against yet another classic antagonist bores me... At least if it really ends up being a straight up antagonist. Let us choose who to support and who to fight! It's so much more interesting that way. Have it be as open-ended as possible. Also, about Loghain... I was pretty impressed that Bioware (of all companies) actually gave you a choice to recruit him near the end. That was really nice. But where they in my opinion failed with him was in making him likeable at *all*. Even in the first hours of the game, there are all kinds of not-so-subtle hints that he will end up screwing someone over (his overall look being the first hint, and then ominous camera-angles and what have you). Furthermore, his reasons about Orlais and all that are just so far back in the game-lore and so completely not at the forefront that it's very hard to sympathize with him. Why would I give a crap about Orlais when it's nearly a non-existence in the actual game, whereas you encounter the darkspawn left and right. EDIT: Also, I think as far as story-heavy RPGs go, I think Mask of the Betrayer might be the most interestingI've played in that... yes, it does have a very, very involved story. But does it have a villain really? It's not until the very end where you find out who you're really going to be fighting... And even then, you can fight in order to "save him" (Akachi). I guess Myrkul could be viewed as the villain, and maybe the Founder as well. But those were not the final conflict of the game at all. It was quite cleverly constructed.

Only very small amounts, except for the very difficult fights. The absolue majority of exp should come from completing objectives/quests. It shouldn't be possible to "grind" out XPs by killing enemies.

Would enjoy it if there was no villain and you simply choose your sides in the game instead. But if there has to be a villain, make him/her understandable, get his/her points across in a good way and have the option to join/sympathize with him/her in some ways.

I don't think it's particularly necessary for a game of this kind to have elaborate schedules for the NPCs. I think it would be nice to have a difference between daytime and nighttime though. Certain NPCs goes to bed, certain NPCs may come out at night only.

I'm not 100% sold on splitting the combat and non-combat skills into different "pools" so to speak. I've just always enjoyed, purely roleplaying-wise, that I could create a character in Fallout that could not fight at all. It's fun and still pretty different and rare in RPGs. Then again, Project Eternity *is* class-based so it's not a fair comparison. I'm definitely willing to see how it plays out. The best news is that there *will* be support for many ways to overcome obstacles, and that XP rewards will depend on completing objectives rather than killing stuff. Exciting stuff overall!

Very cool. I think Dead Money had some really succesful moments in the sound design, like the Begin Again (with the filters on it, sounds so far-away, nostalgic and yet creepy). And hearing the thumping from the Auto-doc was one of the most effective "horror" moments in the game overall, really liked that.