Bobby Null

Klaatu Verata Nikto! Seriously though, these were pretty cool. *Jots down some notes*

I brought up this topic with Chris Avellone a few weeks back. He's worked with similar player-created content in Wasteland 2 recently. Apparently it has not been a problem and implementing the player ideas has been pretty fun for the devs. I wouldn't worry about it.

While I don't have the current Paypal numbers in front of me, I can say with confidence, we have unlocked another Mega Dungeon level. We had around 250 transactions on Paypal (over 8 hours ago). Since the current pledges on Kickstarter are at 52,276... The Endless Paths continue on. See everyone, I can do maths. Congrats, and thanks for the support!

My last email update had us less than 250 backers away from the next level of our Mega Dungeon. This was early this morning. We should be really close! Stay tuned.

I'll talk to Adam about it shortly. He's been in a few meetings this morning and it's lunch around here right now. Hopefully we can get you guys some updated numbers in a few hours.

No larpers here as far as I know. I was thinking about spending it on table top games about drugs and hookers though. To be honest I was just reading email updates from the team about the paypal numbers and we're figuring out how we want to display the total sum of backers and dollars.

It is pronounced Deerwood.

Good evening all, I'd like to take a few minutes to discuss a few things. The goal/vision of this project is to capture the magic (old school feeling) of the Infinity Engine games. Many of the long time folks at Obsidian are just as big of fans of old school RPGs as you are. We are not interested in "capturing the biggest market" or making a game that "caters to everyone" for this title. We just want to make the best possible PC RPG we can, that lives up to the vision I stated above. Those games did very well for the publishers of their day, and since we don't need to deal with a publisher and are going direct, we are more than happy to ship this game to a smaller fan base, i.e. you. This bears repeating. We want to capture the OLD SCHOOL feeling of the Infinity Engine games. We know the lack of cinematic dialogue or using an isometric camera is not enough to accomplish this. This obviously doesn't mean we are making a BG or IWD clone, however. We want it to feel like those games... with improvements. Not to stream-line it or dumb it down, just to make it better. I'd like to share a good example of this philosophy from the 3rd edition D&D rules. In the olden days, classes in D&D leveled at different rates. Rogues leveled faster than everyone else and wizards were the slowest, others fell somewhere in the middle. This was built into the system and each class had different xp requirements for each level. Without getting into why the old systems did this, most people hated it. Of course there was a die-hard fan base that thought it was great. When WoTC released 3rd edition they got rid of it... or did they? I'm using a pen and paper example here because not all of the CRPGs that used the system implemented this. If you played a rogue and disarmed a trap (without anyone aiding you), you got extra xp. Looking at the rules as written (RAW) in the DMG, that character overcame a CR challenge alone. Doing so gains quite a bit of XP and if the DM allowed this, caused a rogue to level much faster than any other class. Conversely, the Wizard received the Scribe Scroll feat for free at 1st level. If you wanted to be ready for any situation, you crafted scrolls and memorized your core spells. Crafting scrolls (and any other magic item) cost XP, sometimes A LOT of it. Result: every wizard I ever played, played with, or DMed, leveled slower than everyone else. This was now a player choice to level slowly and he was rewarded for it. IMO, this is MUCH better design that accomplished the same thing in most cases as the old system. These are the types of designs we are striving to implement into PE. We want this game to feel like the games you loved, while not implementing clearly poor design choices. Much like our community, many of us on the team are passionate about certain aspects of RPG design. I tend to fall into the hardcore, old school, group. Part of my job is to be the voice for that community (I've championed turn-based combat on multiple occasions). I know what you guys don't want. Josh and I have discussed this on multiple occasions and I have every confidence in his vision. Lastly, nothing is currently set it stone. Game development doesn't typically work that way. This will be an evolving process to get us to the goal of making a great strategy system, that feels "real" if that makes sense. Josh's vision of combat will get input from a lot of folks that have a lot of experience in playing and making RPGs. We'll get it right.

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.

So will there actually end up being some form of easy mode then, that's separate from regular mode? To reiterate my earlier post, I think a lot of gamers shy away from bumping up the difficulty, not necessarily because they want a casual experience, but because they view default as the optimal or intended form of the game. With that in mind I think it's important not to make the default difficulty experience too accessible or "dumbed down". It should really be a happy medium without the hand-holding of an "easy mode", or the hardcore brutality of the difficult modes. I totally agree. The default mode should, and will be, a challenge for the average RPG player. I've not spoken to Josh about specifics for an "easy mode". This will either be a mode in and of itself, or we'll have a few options to lower specific gameplay features to more casual levels. Again, the goal will never be to trivialize the default difficulty settings.

Some of us in the office have echoed your opinion. "No rest for the Watcher Avallone."

Hey all, Whenever I see polarizing topics about CRPGs, I typically look back to the true inspiration of these CRPGs for the answer, table top RPGs. The honest truth is, there is no right answer. Some table top groups like to hack and slash their way godhood, while other groups are happy to chat with each other in a tavern for hours on end. Some minmax their characters to ridiculous levels, while others play severely underpowered characters they find interesting. Who is right? They all are!!! As a long-time Dungeon Master, I've learned there is only one rule that is important. Is the group having fun? Making games is very similar, except we need to please a much larger audience. Instead of making 5 or 6 people happy, we are trying to make millions (hopefully) of people happy. Of course we can't please everyone in the gaming world, but what we will try to do, is please every role-player. IMO, the best RPGs use story elements to reinforce the game play. That game play may be combat, choice mechanics, skill use, etc. This does not mean the game play should be unplayable for "casual" players. At Obsidian we value narrative and game play equally. Whatever the "easy" mode ends up being, it will be very manageable for that type of player. We've already announced manageable stretch goals to include some WICKED options for you hardcore types (believe me, you are gonna get punished ). The folks that want an easier time of it, will have that option as well. As long as making the game accessible does not influence or "dumb down" the difficult settings (which it won't), everyone wins. After all, we are making this game together. We want you ALL to enjoy it.

Owon de Toaster has earned 500xp for posting Dragonlance pics . Mmmm, love me some Dragonlance. Was a sad day when Sovereign Press lost the license to make more 3.5 Dragonlance books.

I agree with you on all points. I'll make sure to take the spongy Mjolnir I have in my office and smite any artist who dares create unwieldy-looking weapons or crazy, S&M, cosplay outfits . In all seriousness, I have a sneaking suspicion you'll be quite pleased with the art direction and thematic flavor of the gear in Project Eternity.

The one thing I can guarantee, is this game will have deep companions and that will be the default way you fill the party ranks. I worked on Storm of Zehir and I remember the #1 complaint about the title. Cohorts felt lifeless. Now, this doesn't mean I don't support the idea of being able to make your own party. What's important in an RPG to someone, is not always the same. That's what makes RPGs great. For the record, I'm totally in favor of allowing players to create their own parties. It does create pacing issues early in the game though. In an ideal world (with a large budget), I would probably solve this with a recruitment system. In the most generic of terms, think Adventurer's Guild. Recruiting (creating) new party members would probably have a monetary cost associated with it depending on the level of the character recruited (created). Creating additional characters would happen during the course of your adventures, not all at once before the game begins. This would solve quite a few issues including companion death, something I liked in BG2. I still remember Anomen loosing it and killing Aerie after listening to her whine for days on end. From a mechanics standpoint, it hurt. She was one of my healers and I liked her role in the group. If I could have hit the Adventurer's Guild and created a similar replacement, I would have. Like any other feature, we are looking at everything closely and weighing the costs. That is the development process, and you never get all the features you want on any given title. With a smaller budget, the choice to include a feature is magnified greatly. Bottom line - the more funds we can raise, the more cool features we can get in. My advice, if this is something you guys really want... make some noise.

I can't say this topic hasn't come up in meetings. Why don't you guys turn this into a user poll and see if there is serious interest in a mega-dungeon. The things I would be curious about are... 1. How mega is your idea of a mega dungeon? 5 levels?10 levels? 20? More? 2. How important do you think story is in said mega dungeon? 3. Would you still support a mega dungeon if it diverted resources from the main plot/game? My guess is no, but I had to ask. 4. Is this something you would like to see as a high end stretch goal or set of stretch goals?

The vancian system was simply a resource management system for wizards in D&D to make them feel powerful, but vulnerable. Blow all your good spells in one combat and you were done for the day. Scrolls and wands were a great way to keep the Wizard useful, while saving his big hitters for when they were needed most. I agree it made low level wizards painful to play, while high level wizards were godly. To be frank, I think that is one of the reasons people loved them. You run the gauntlet of suck for 5 levels while most the other classes outshine you, but if you lived through it, you were heavily rewarded. This works pretty well in a Pen and Paper setting, even if the narrative explanation is a bit weak. The rest of your party could care less if an over-anxious wizard needs to rest after every encounter. They have a quest to finish and the clock is ticking. It creates a unique problem in a CRPG when there is not a group of cheetoe-eaters harassing you for noob casting. Any wizard that ended up living past level 5 had almost certainly learned to manage his spell list, If you didn't, you died. I've played, and DMed, a lot of table top D&D over a lot of years. I loved the Wizard until 4th edition. But I must admit, the 4th edition model is much friendlier to CRPG design. Like most the systems in PE, the magic system is still in its very early stages. I have some ideas on how we can keep the resource management (and spells in general) feeling special, without resorting to memorization or a mana bar. Ultimately, Josh will make the call on how magic is used in Eternity, but there will be tons of feedback from the other team members. We'll get it right!

I like that Justin is getting some love in this poll. I've worked with him for a while now, and not only is he very talented, but he is also very easy to work with. The audio on this project is in very good hands.

Theft mechanics never truly feel "realistic". Even titles that spend a ton of resources over the course of many titles (Morrowind/Oblivion/Skyrim or the GTA series) creating systems for this, still feel a little gamey. Crime is typically a difficult concept to make realistic. No one wants the game to end when the thief gets his hands cut off or tossed in prison for years. The trick is to make it fun. I agree with this. Failing a pickpocket attempt in a game like Skyrim or Fallout usually just results in a reload (or a bloodbath). I have some ideas for Eternity that I'll talk to Josh about as the project moves further along. We did discuss thieving mechanics briefly last week. Keep the ideas coming folks, you never know when a comment you make on these forums becomes the inspiration for a feature.

I didn't play much DDO, but what you describe sounds like this is a symptom of MMO design and not necessarily the 3.5 D&D system. There are many creatures in D&D that have resistances/immunities to certain things, and even the core rules can create some imbalanced combat scenarios. Typically this can be easily offset with the presence of a live Dungeon Master to make certain weapon/damage types available for the players as needed. It's a little tougher to predict when creating a CRPG, but good level design can usually account for such things. I think it's a safe bet to assume Project Eternity will have damage types of some kind. Once you include damage types, resistances and immunities become a powerful design tool. In my mind, a singular "damage is damage" approach is better served in pure action games. While PE will be real time (with pause), the goal is to make a tactical combat experience. The specifics of said systems are still a matter of discussion for the designers of the project, but rest assured, Project Eternity will not have a damage system that requires you to have 15 swords in your inventory at any given time.

ngggh I know I'm going to somehow regret this and I really didn't want to say anything as I love Mr Sawyer's work BUT my only complaint about F:NV is that it's way to easy even with his mod : Make it harder....hehe. How hard are we talking here? Temple of Elemental Evil "Iron Man" mode?

Collecting books? Surely you wouldn't want to carry them everywhere, would you? If only you have a place to store your collection. It would be even cooler if that collection had a tangible benefit for you. I remember old pen and paper D&D sessions where my wizard built a stronghold and had his own library (among other things). It was cool to get circumstance bonuses on lore checks while in my library. Hmmm... /jots down a few notes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnmUAx_pbZI&feature=related

As most of us folks working on this title are pretty "old school", I'd say it's a safe bet you old-timers will feel right at home. That being said, just because it was in a game 15+ years ago, doesn't always mean it is great design. We'll be looking at our system designs very carefully to ensure we satisfy you sadistic types that enjoy the pain, while giving options to the folks that are not as hardcore. Josh did a great job with this in New Vegas.

I'd like to thank you guys as well. I usually design levels in my dark little office and avoid making appearances, but your amazing support has summoned me from the gloom of my dungeon for some meet and greet. I'll be on the boards regularly to chat it up, give opinions, and maybe even rant a bit. More than anything, I want you to know that while we value your support, we also value your thoughts and ideas.