Chippy

The latest Jimquisition deals with -Jennifer Hepler I think?- resigning because someone threatened her kids. Just something to consider, I'm not making excuses for anyone, is that games have the potential to reach everyone on the planet and there are certain groups of people who only have a limited range of communication - anger management courses sometimes refer to the inarticulate person who has either 'silence or anger' - and in expressing anger, all they've got is "I'll kill you, your kids, etc" because it's all they've got - current high risk inner city gang members are a good example, it's rare that they make less than permanent threats; "I'm going to key your car and knife your tyres" isn't the kind of threat you'd get. The other thing I don't think people bring up much is addiction. Some of these reactions to developers changing a persons game is like what you'd get if you took a serious drug addicts gear away from them. Doesn't change how disgusting it all is though.

Apologies for not using you or Obsidian as an example as I think it would be beyond patronising, but it's really about a persons independent ability (or type of advice given them) to formatively assess their situation and then make a summative assessment on progress made which then reflects/evaluates on further formative progress. If you'll permit me to say, I think you did that by achieving that final grade. Using measurability for crafting or items as an example though: BG1 did it by making it clear that non magical weapons were easy to come by, but broke every once in a while. Elminster wrote in the manual that magical weapons were needed for certain creatures, but the player could see the expense of that venom dagger and still had access to some basic +1 stuff early on, and -because it's either magical or not- damage is measured by character stats and consistant weapon stats. So the player has now been given this subtle timebound target to equip their party with magical weapons, but not too much pressure to buy those expensive items early on, and can do the mines as an early quest that solves the brittle weapon problem. If they didn't read the manual, went off the beaten path, they could always run away from that magical critter irrispective of equipment & spells. Skyrim failed at both a measurable and timebound smithing target though as "You can get to master smithing straight away". So one player might assess that skill loading bar, the numbers towards 100 and reach the conclusion to get to 100 by crafting loads of daggers at the sacrifice of several hours playtime. Unfortunately, you level up, and the game gives you access to all the higher tier ingots - completely invalidating a players measurable increase in skill/iron dagger damage output by allowing you to craft a better tier dagger. Another player might assume that the game assesses the player's abilities/equipment and is laid out to provide gradual increase in smithing. But it doesn't as enemy scaling will kill you quick, and there's an article somewhere where a Bethesda dev 'assumes the player will have this equipment at this level'. They assume the player is able to independently measure this stuff as the game scales. Timeboud would have been either limiting access to higher tier ingots, only allowing access to craft certain types of weapon armor at higher skill levels (maybe accessible through training), implementing schematics like in Arcanum or seperating sharpening so that it was only allowable through sharpening stone use that is rare to come by - real life knowlege/example like quality sharpening stones being rare as quarries are shut down due to lack of military demand and introduction of man-made substitutes. Then the player could level up in smithing, the enemies and items would scale with them and they could still roleplay by crafting better equipment because it could be measurably better than what they found. So in BG1's example I think limiting and providing sensible targets aided roleplaying, whereas in Skyrim's example I think 'shooting for the stars' hamstrung it. I find SMART is just a handy acronym to streamlines my thoughts. Although this is without a doubt one of the most self important posts about a subject area I only know as a client I've ever made.

I'd hate to think that the devs of PE are running themselves into the groung researching too much into various other walks of life. There's a really patronising acornym that I use in my industry; SMART - Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timebound. When you look at the community reactions to things (like crafting and durability) it can be a bit out of proportion to what is achievable in a kickstarter - and I say that in full ignorance and confidence because we haven't seen one of this scope yet. It's all good. I expect Obsidian know where to lay their resources. Maybe you guy's could do what InXile did and hire some boffins to inform the developers - or grab some teachers (they get crap money in any part of the world), pay 'em for a few hours or in expensive coffee to conduct an interactive professional devlopment session. Don't blame me if you get a boring one though.

Yeah, even in PnP circles, the franchise is somewhat niche. It's not a RPG behemoth like D&D or Vampire (even though both seem past their prime). Also, PS:T taught us that quirky settings doesn't exactly bring mass appeal. I'm also not sure how big of a selling point an editor really is. For me personally it may just as well not exist, and while I know there are some who think having it is awesome I fear a majority are like me. Why is that? A game should stand on it's own merits, regardless of how it was funded. As for the universal support from RPG gamers, personally I don't think the game was good enough to gather that kind of support. It was fun and , for me, worth it's price. But it's not without it's issues and the game has problem that would be off-putting to some. A common summary in each review is "is it worth £15". The way I see it is someone might have purchased it for $15 as a backer and have the Berlin DLC (now stated as long as this one), so thats about 24 hours of quality content for 2/3 the price of an expansion pack (like Skyrim's Dawnguard) with the potential for TES scope in community expansion. So reviewed on a price vs content basis and compared to Skyrim (which I purchased for £55 in total) - I spent 14 hours on it's main campaign, 6 on Dawnguard and 8 on that other DLC. So 28 hrs for £55 of software compared to £15/$15 for 24hrs. My game timing anyway. If they released both campaigns at once I expect even more positive reviews, but I don't mind waiting and thinking a bit ahead as backer money invested in 2 campaigns and summarize the product accordingly - it's a campaign worth replaying aswell. whereas Skyrim...wasn't...

It seems odd to me that Microsoft would take a portion of the Kickstarter funds. I would think they would either get an upfront fee or something on the backend or both. Maybe they are counting each copy promised in the Kickstarter as a sale or something and had to give a portion of that. Still seems weird to me but I think that I'm still skeptical of their business dealings since the whole DRM thing I'm not aware of the costs of running a company of their size, but find it believable if HBS said they made no money from the Kickstarter. Any money they make will be now from the sales. It's interesting that RPG fans haven't universally supported them; I'd even go so far as to say that reviewers should be reviewing Kickstarter titles differently from traditional £25 titles. But I'm going off topic now.

It's just a shame that a game like Shadowrun Returns saw 35% of money raised go to "tax" http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/197132/Qamp_A_Learning_from_Shadowrun_Returns_Kickstarter_success.php Then you get fans saying they'll only buy it in the Steam sale bundled with DLC (although I heard somewhere that Steam pays the difference to original price?). So nostalgia seems to be expensive - and if publishers are getting the royalties I'm sceptical of them seeing the need to add to the game financially. I hope the IP developed by the the developers stays with them. I donated to Shadowrun and loved every minute of it, but it will be interesting to see what other developers come up with with different budgets and time.

I haven't given this much thought - but was wondering if it's better to donate to a kickstarter after it has finished through Paypal? Assuming it hits it's goal, then wouldn't they get more money from paypal as the percentage wouldn't be taken from the total via Amazon/Kickstarter (or whatever else expense) is taked on?.

I was always prepared for these Kickstarter titles to lag a bit behind whatever the latest AAA pretty title was. Dumbstruck and very glad to be wrong on that.

Allow (maybe toggle?) game to continue while in inventory screen. Sometimes handy if character is regenerating or just to be more efficient while on the move and want to walk and take stock. There's a joke in there somewhere.

There isn't enough advertising for some of these Kickstarters - I only happened across this because of the latest Numenera update, and even when I backed it just got a few recommended games from Kickstarter (some that I've backed already). It's a shame that some games can be missed especially by the hardcore fan that visits RPG sites, but games like this fall outside of that genre. If games can still be classified as belonging totally to a genre. I just look at the Kicking it Forward page every once in a while, but still miss some great stuff.

Hope this isn't aganist forum rules, but the original team that created Syndicate and it's sequel have started a Kickstarter (with only 5 days to go). http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/5livesstudios/satellite-reign Syndicate was the game that made me a PC fan, and although a strategy game, it had - and looks like this title will aswell - as much RPG elements as the latest so-called RPG's. Just without the dialogue, you could essentially build cyborgs and were responsible for your own resource management in obtaining personel (like scientists to add to your R&D department) to research better implants and weapons. It also had a great story, with politics, science and social engineering all factoring into the potential freedom that is lost when corporations govern it all. I can still remember scenarios from these game's playing out that were as complex as any RPG in terms of game mechanics and variety - where else can you don a clone shield, sneak into a heavily fortified base, mind control your target and usher her into a hover car while your team mates have created a diversion by blowing open the front gates and storming in guns blazing...then as you try to make your getaway, the local poilice force get alerted and you speed back to the train station in both cars firing at the police in pursuit. On the same level: an enemy syndicate had tried to secure the train station (the getaway point) but ran into the turrets and traps I left, I destroyed a bank to gather funds and fought off the police response, I raided a enemy cult's base to aquire technology (using one of my disguised cyborg's to get close, then self detonate - I had already aquired his replacement by mind controlling an enemy syndicate's agent) , and aquired the passcode to the aforementioned base by trailing a ceo and mind controling him so that he could accompany me into the target area. I replayed Syndicate Wars a year ago and it had more atmosphere (from a game made in 1996) than many modern titles. If they can remake a successor then - well I'm personally never getting married.

The best money sink IMO in any game was NWN2's stronghold. It was financially believable, incorperated played choice and consequence (I was pretty shocked when I actually ran out of money becasue I'd bought almost even shiny thing in the game, and the state of the keep could potentially effet the story) and most importantly fed back into crafting as a playstyle;- I decided not to buy any magical items on a second playthrough and rely on crafting to survive - this left me enough money to renovate the stonghld quickly. If that could be replicated, but also allow for surrounding economy in the town to go up, and for that to have an impact on crafting (e.g. the smith can now make refined carbon steel saws and planes for the miller/carpenter to work on harder wood > this allows for a stonger drawbridge and greater traffic) and from this "upgrade" the player learns a new recipe for a weapon enhancement. I thought it worked well in NWN2 and SOZ.

Enemy taunting and insulting the player verbally or physically has always given me a buzz. Example: Goblins in Severance Blade of Darkness knew they had no chance of defeating you, yet insisted on thrusting their shoulders out and making all kinds of sounds that facial animations from a decade ago would not allow. Just makes firing an arrow into the face, or chopping bits off while they die a blood spurting, gurlgling death all the more satisfying.

Took me a while to get around to this... no, interestingly it isn't. The DVD drive is now in my XP PC and can read normal CD's, I've checked all IDE channel's and they're each reporting DMA mode. So I can't say for certain that Securom is responsible because the exact conditions most experience are not being met, I'm going to lean towards it though as I first started having trouble after the video card change, and with the Securom 'no disc in drive' warning. As mentioned - it would have to be a pretty amazing coincidence. I suppose the way to go is to have all games backed up on CD/DVD, and the library of games permanently on a large enough hard/secondary drive. In the event of hardware failure, I think I'll format > reinstall, and repeat. Thanks for input though, learned alot there. List of Securom on Games: http://www.reclaimyourgame.com/content.php/19-SecuROM-7-List

Thanks for the replies folks, the link from syn2083 was informative to the point where I might have sussed it - least likely at top: DVD drive died in between all the crap I'm about to detail. Above server theory (really doubt that). Securom detected that I installed Jade Empire from an external hard drive and then tried to play with the disc inserted, and didn't like it. Most likely: I've been playing KOTOR1+2, sometimes I'd close the game and hear the DVD drive running at high speed; this sounds like what is detailed in Message 0 in the above link, I say that as my DVD drive has since died completley and will not read anything - I even formatted WIN7 again with another DVD drive as primary boot and the effected drive last, in the hopes that a newly configured windows would take it out of PIO mode or fix it in some way. But here it lies, dead. So that's the theory I'm going with - KOTOR2 is 4 or 5 discs to install, easier to just direct the installation to the external hard drive, Securom was already present from KOTOR1 and decided I was a pirate. I thought I was safe with Steam games, but the meatbags are sticking Securom on those titles aswell. It's taken me about a day to sort this all out because I couldn't believe a piece of software could destroy a piece of hardware like this. Lesson learned though. Edit: Using Windows 7 updated fully, Kapersky (it wasn't that) and the DVD drive is a Super Writemaster Speed Plus. Also external drive was 1TB Western Digital with all games backed up ... hope I'm wrong about this theory now because it'll reall f**** that up...

Need some advice if possible folks, I changed a video card on my PC recently and continued War For Cybertron, Securom then disabled my DVD drive. So I formatted the harddrive on another PC, re-installed it physically in the original PC and formatted again with a fresh installation of WIN7. Everything fine - DVD now working with all types of DVD. So I have two systems - an XP one not connected to the internet and also a WIN7 system that is. I then decided to play Jade Empire on the WIN7 PC (the one Securom initially targetted) and it gave me the 'no disc detected' crap again. Conclusion: (Yes I would like to hire HK-47 for a certain metbag company) Securom is also on Jade Empire, and their servers stored data from a playthrough a few months ago, and decided this installation was illegal because of the video card change on the WIN7 PC. Query: Do I install Jade Empire on the XP PC (no internet) and hope for the best, or frizby it onto the "sell it oneday on Ebay" shelf?.

From my POV it would have depended on what worn actually meant though, it might have been blunt, hardened, bent, etc, which usually happens with poor materials (which I expect to have at the start of the game) - so yeah, throw it away (like handheld razor blades) or in the interest of saving money try the repair. But here it gets interesting - as how complicated does it get - do we assume the low quality stuff is like aluminium that continues to bend until broken, or do we start talking about types of steel that have a stress point that spring back unless the bending/striking force exceeds that point... and then I can see where Obsidian might start to get annoyed, as then we have to consider giants with aluminium warhammers striking gnomes wielding adamantine shields... and that's not even taking into account the higher level functions of crafting like tempering and case hardening with what I assume will include progressively rarer and more exotic materials - which would require as much quality in the tools that craft them. So yeah, it seems to get more complicated and involved with every other mechanic in the game for something that everyone might not enjoy. One thing that did spring to mind though-we always assume a low starting age for our adventurers, buy I always appreciated the PS:T and KOTOR2 approach, with an older more experienced protagonist with a wealth of life experience behind them - so what if we had a starting career choice similiar to Arcanum and could pick a type of smith? Equal opportunities and inclusivity in mind, I can't see why starting my adventuring career at 50 or over should be an issue.

I'm uncomfortably astride the fence on this as there was no way of knowing how durability tied into the game mechanics, and we don't know how complicated crafting will be. There are multiple examples and methods of how it can all tie together at both the workbench and in the field, and I was looking forward to that start game feeling of scrabbling around for every resource possible, and assumed durability would marry well with that. At the same time I assumed that as game/character progress I wouldn't have been facing Corsomyr blunting on the hide of a dragon, or having that moment before the battle of having to break out the sharpening stone. I trust Obsidian though, so am sure it isn't just about the specifics of a single thing, but the game as a whole.

Great update, I always get a warm fuzzy feeling when reading updates from PE, W2, etc that reminds me that the best CRPG developers are finally being released into their roles to make games however they like. I'm firmly in the camp of 'let em get on with it, they've already proven themselves' so will provide a comment on this update regarding people being concerned about trekking about to and from forges: there are methods that can be used in the field that lessen wear on weapons and armor, I'm confident Obsidian know what they are (waterstones and case hardening with materials containing carbon come to mind) but this crafting system seems more complex than past examples, so I'm pretty glad this stretch goal was reached.

Toggle the blur effect for character or anything else off if the player wants and if its in the game. Because there isn't a single example of that effect that ever did my eyes any good.

Wasn't there an episode of Scrubs where they made a joke about the emotions evoked from a persons shirt colour? Pink has a calming effect I think, while purple/red draws aggression. Maybe I could go back and play DA:O as a pink mage and not draw aggro while firing off spells?. From a visual POV though I relate pink to IE magic missile and my warlock's puny eldritch blast - both of these bring back strong nostalgic memories of past games - mostly that feeling of slapping roses in the face of a charging bull, so it would be a shame if these colours were excluded.

Shogun: Total War games did that. The Creative Assembley reasoned that the player could always beat the ai. Which I think is really stupid. I love that developer though and am willing to forgive that ...really stupid and frustrating... point of view.

Excellent video, the person who made it should be happily eating a box of chocolates and wrapping themselves in silk warm fuzzy feeling blankets of contentment after creating it. One game that sprang to mind: Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast. All Lucasarts Star Wars games had a habit of being hard - maybe because "THIS IS STAR WARS!" but that game insulted me on a personal level. It's pretty much the only game (apart from Green Beret on the ZX Spectrum, and Ninja Gaiden on the NES) that I felt like: I. Beat. You. When I completed it. Every moment of that game (and some really stood out) was like an assessment on a course that had no curriculum - just constant random testing all the time with no structure except the ability to reload/retake each test. Ugh.

Very true. They removed your potions quaffed before the battle aswell - although if you went to the stone buffing Aard and had prepared that line of sign, it was as you stated, pretty much over for the boss. My first playthrough was a realization that it was less about role playing and more about the secret handshake beating rock, paper, scissors. Classic example of developers changing the rules (especially on a game where you played as a Witcher). It's that lack of rule consistancy that really brings up the flaws of instant death for either the player or their enemies, as from that moment on I was not just being concerned about the rules being a source of death, but bad development aswell.

Using specifically BG1 as an example (because I played it almost constantly when it came out before any other IE game) and using a -1/level THACO class, I really appreciated the added chance to hit. I noticed it. Perhaps it was the low level enemies, and my brain tends to track the average in stuff like that. Getting a +1 or 2 weapon was significant, and the added star in each prof was noticeable. Again, maybe it was the type of enemies encountered and the layout of the game, but I've yet to see that sense of gradual fighter progression duplicated. TOEE did a great job, but as with other games it was hard to tell becasue one minute you were fighting skeletons, and possible a few hours later much higher AC enemies - which was also great, but not specific to this reply.