J.E. Sawyer

I enjoy narration and illustration a great deal and loved what Justin Sweet did for us in the IWD and IWD2 intros. I am also fond of the Darklands style of special interactions where even one loose, static illustration with text helps pull the viewer/reader into a more "imaginary" mode of thought.

Only in the a general, high-level sense. The world of PE is a new world of our own creation, but its development is still influenced by the work we've done in the past. Experience with previous IE games pointed me toward certain ways of approaching the story setup and style of character interaction in a fantasy world (e.g. a supernatural event that puts you in a difficult circumstance).

This is how they worked in Darklands, for the most part. You could have someone with a Brass Handgun continue to fire during combat, but typically you used them immediately as party/volley fire to mangle the most heavily armored target. The guns simply took too long to reload to use continuously, so party members would usually switch to melee immediately after.

To build on what Bobby wrote, even when we are already confident in our direction, seeing how people discuss a topic helps us frame our own discussions properly. Races are a good example. We already knew we wanted "altered traditional" + "kinda odd" + "huh". Seeing the discussions made me realize that not only did I need to explain it in that way all at once, but that we needed to show you one of our altered traditional character concepts at the same time.

This is important to me and I will do my best to pursue it. To me, the realistic purpose/function of a weapon in the real world (assuming it exists) is the foundation for determining its place among peers, but realism should not dictate a weapon's overall value. I don't believe in designing "junk" weapons just for the sake of having them. I like the idea of having types of weapons with distinct strengths and weaknesses that the player can analyze for tactical application. If a player looks at a type of weapon and instantly realizes it will never have a place in his or her arsenal, I feel that's a failure on my part. This also applies to weapon upgrades within "type". A longsword +2 is universally superior to a longsword +1. I think things get more interesting when an upgraded weapon is slightly inferior to its antecedent in one way. The more the player stops and makes a consideration of the pros and cons of using one weapon or another, the more he or she is problem solving and engaged in what's going on. If choices ever become no-brainers, they aren't really choices, and I think that can detract from the enjoyment of the game.

Thanks, everyone! An update will be coming tomorrow from Feargus. I've never released a game (out of the gates) for a Mac platform, so I'm really glad we hit this stretch goal.

Boreal climates are not always below freezing. Many boreal climates have peak summer temperatures above 60 degrees Fahrenheit. A month ago I went cycling around Crater Lake in southern Oregon. At night the temperature dropped to the mid-40s, but during the day it was in the high-60s in the mid-afternoon. I was wearing a short-sleeved cycling jersey and cycling shorts and was quite warm despite the fact that there were huge snowdrifts still present around the crater.

They are the sort of firearms found in 16th century Europe: uncommon and nothing more advanced than single-shot wheellocks. E: As a side-note, firearms of this sort were part of the Forgotten Realms following the Time of Troubles (smokepowder was introduced by Gond).

We will be doing an update on the technology of P:E, but in brief, the firearms of this world are relatively recent inventions and equivalent to the single-shot wheellock weapons found in 16th century Europe. Their use is uncommon and for specific purposes.

In the video, you can see even more of those sketches. The variety in the video does not even show all of the sketches that our artist did. She tried out a variety of styles and levels of dress. It's a high-level, low-detail pass on character ideas.

Yes. It is uploading presently with a rambling video from yours truly!(!!!)

Project Eternity is still early in development and we are still working on many of the cultures, factions, and ethnic groups of the world and debating many of the system concepts. However, there are certain fundamental things we want to let you know about the game and the setting for Project Eternity. Your Party The maximum party size is the player's main character (PC) and up to five companions for a total of six characters. This does not preclude the addition of temporary characters in special circumstances. Companions are never forced on the player. Players can explore the entire world and its story on their own if they so choose. We feel companions are excellent sounding boards for the player's (and other companions') actions, but the story is ultimately about the player's personal conflict among the larger social and political complexities of the world. Formations A key element of the classic party-based tactical combat that we are developing is the use of party formations. As in the good ol' games, you can arrange your party in a large number of set formations. You can also construct your own formations if you want to get fancy. When moving companions, you have the ability to rotate formations for more precise positioning. Character Creation At a minimum, players will be able to specify their main character's name, sex, class, race (including subrace), culture, traits, ability scores, portrait, and the fundamental starting options of his or her class (gear, skills, and talents). We have not worked out customization details of character avatars, but we believe those are important and will be updating on these specifics in the future. Companions In Project Eternity, companions exist for both narrative and mechanical purposes. Companions are designed to have a driving interest in the player's central conflict. Their personalities and motivations open plot branches and generate conflicts for players to resolve over the course of the story. They are highly reactive to the player's actions and to the world around them. Additionally, companions exist to give players strategic management options in party composition that expand the party's capabilities in exploration, combat, and quest resolution. It is no coincidence that there are at least as many companions as there are classes. As stated above, companions are not required to play through Project Eternity's story, but we feel that they can add greatly to the experience. The Set-Up The player witnesses an extraordinary and horrific supernatural event that thrusts them into a unique and difficult circumstance. Burdened with the consequences of this event, the player has to investigate what has happened in order to free themselves from the restless forces that follow and haunt them wherever they go. The Nature of You Your character is not required to be of any particular race, cultural background, sex, class, moral outlook, personality, organization, etc. The premise is that you are a victim of circumstance. How you choose to deal with your situation is up to you. You can bear it with stoicism and restraint or fly off in a rage at anyone who gets in your way. The world will react to your choices, but the game is designed to give you the freedom to play your character the way you want to. Races We are still developing the races of Project Eternity, but we are creating a range that encompasses the recognizable (e.g. humans, elves, dwarves), the out-of-the-ordinary (e.g. the so-called "godlike"), and the truly odd (?!). Races and subraces differ from each other culturally, but the races also have different physiological factors that can contribute to friction and confusion between them. Within even the recognizable races (including humans), we are creating a variety of ethnic subtypes and nationalities. This world's races did not all spring forth from the same place, and millennia of independent development have resulted in distinctive and unconnected groups. For example, the dwarf ranger below is originally from a southern boreal region that is quite different from the temperate homes of her distant kin to the north. Additionally, Project Eternity's world contains some isolated races and ethnicities, but transoceanic exploration and cultural cohabitation have heavily mixed many racial and ethnic groups over time. This mixing is not always... peaceful. At times it has degenerated into genocide and long-standing prejudices are ingrained in many cultures. *** That's all for today's update. We'll have more information on the world and systems in the near future. Please give us your feedback and thank you for all of the ideas and support you've given so far!

.45 Long Colt, .45 ACP, or .45-70 Gov't?

I really liked Safiya's design in MotB for this reason.

Guys, Visceris goes back to some of my earliest days as the webmaster for Black Isle. No donation is required for a tribute in the game. And don't worry. I won't spare the rod in his representation.

Hi. We're working on creating new digital only tiers. Without getting into too many specifics as far as the art style, it should be in the same general vein as the games we cited in the pitch video: Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, and Planescape: Torment.

I think Dark Souls handles it in a neat way. Most of those swords are too heavy to swing effectively with one hand unless you have an extremely high strength. When you swing those swords one-handed you do it very slowly and awkwardly until you hit the strength requirement.

I'm going to fix those. Sorry.

I'm very interested in this subject because I always felt it was a weak point in IWD and IWD II. Thanks for your comments.

In my mind, a player "house" is something like The Sink. A player stronghold would be something like Crossroad Keep, with much more in-depth strategic gameplay.

As a practical matter, races and companions are some of the most expensive things, development-wise, to add. They require a huge amount of work.

Good ideas are good ideas, no matter where they come from. There are certain things we feel passionate about pursuing and there are other things that we are more neutral on. Often fan input into those more neutral areas (e.g. fantasy "flavor", types of races/classes, etc.) is actually very useful.

I really love this stuff, personally.

I think Triss and Geralt in Witcher 2 were fine. When Triss was out and about, she dressed practically (and still looked really attractive, IMO). When Triss and Geralt had sex, surprise, they didn't wear clothing. It's not unreasonable to expect prostitutes or anyone engaged in sexual activities to wear sexualized (or no) clothing. When people who are engaged in mortal combat dress like sex workers as a rule, that's when the characters become hard to take seriously. This should apply to both male and female characters. EDIT: There are also conventions you can establish for certain types of characters that still remain egalitarian. E.g. in 3E/3.5, sorcerers were sort of presented as wild "sexytyme" spellcasters who lost their shirts. The iconic sorcerer was a dude in a strap corset. This even carried over to Seoni, the iconic Pathfinder sorceress (in fact, many Pathfinder female characters dress in heavy armor). Barbarians, male or female, generally just don't wear a lot of clothes, in any setting. That's where you get a lot of the "classic" Frazetta/Vallejo look. I think having a good range is important. If male plate armor for heavy fighters looks like Maximilian plate out of the Holy Roman Empire and the female equivalent looks like a bikini, that's some serious male gazin'.

If the range of unpredictability is relatively mild, it shouldn't degenerate into reload fodder. I think it was somewhere around Dragon Mag 148 that introduced a baby Deck of Many Things with lesser effects. I've also seen a number of player attempts to make "lesser" or "minor" DoMTs, even for tabletop play. A Wand of Wonder is (IMO) arguably better than a DoMT because a WoW has mostly combat applications, so players are less likely to reload based on the outcome of that single element.