Bonecrusher

This is really a great news. I am very happy for this development and can even say this is the best thing in gaming since Kickstarting of a new Torment game. Yay! For me, best three cRPGs are: Torment, Kotor 2 and Bloodlines. And of course, my favorite P&P settings is WOD (especially Werewolf The Apocalypse). That's why I am crazy right now. Please create new VTM Bloodlines game. It may not be called as Bloodlines 2, but it should have similar city atmosphere, gameplay, theatrical NPCs, intelligent dialog options and deep varied stories like the Bloodlines. The game should be made by Jason D. Anderson, Leonard Boyarsky, Tim Cain, Kevin D. Saunders, George Ziets, Chris Avellone all together. Bloodlines was a buggy game, but I am sure each player who played that game loved it. It really deserves a unified development between Paradox, Obsidian and inXile. Source Engine 2.0 would be sweet, like the original Bloodlines did, however I don't expect Valve will give us any new Source Engine, but Unreal Engine 4 probably may work too. And I think Obsidian has a big role for making such a dream game come true. Please please please please, pretty please?

First picture reminds me Justin Sweet's artworks from IWD game.

I love achievements, they can be funny in humorous games like Portal 2, and a "targeting point for players" in some multiplayer FPS games. But a story driven game like Project Eternity, must not have an achivement system. I hate achivements in games like Journey or Bastion, so we should stay away in this game too. I don't want to see achievement in Steam version too. I don't want people playing this game just to complete achievement. It is really silly to see "kill 15 orcs, collect 25 golds" and similar things in a game like Project eternity. And neither players should play this game for achieve "sell 100 items" pop-ups. So my answer is, "kill it with fire".

All dollars in the stretch goal will not go directly to Chris. He will be there just as a "designer". Everything he designed will need to have backed with programmers, artists and similar workers, and this means extra work and cost. Its not that murky. Chris is in a leading position in Project Eternity, and in a designer position in the new Torment game. Same person can work in different job categories in different games. It is better this way. If inXile and Obsidian were unified under a same name (e.g. Black Isle), they had to focus one game each time. Some people only heard Chris's name and don't know other people, however there are great leaders and designers in both team. Seperation of teams means more games by the companies.

I think I prefer courage wolf take Elminster as an example:

I remember LOTRO had an interesting system. There were three types of creatures (I am not sure if the official names were exactly like this) 1- Passive, the creatures which not attack you if you don't attack them, 2- Aggressive, these creatures will attack you on sight, 3- Territorial, these will not attack you on sight, but if you stay near them too much and provoke them, they will attack. Most of the RPGs/MMORPGs seperate the enemies into two groups, Passive (like birds, deers, sheep) and Agressive (every creature, character, animal in the world) But I liked LOTRO's approach better. Think about this, If you walk around in a group with your high tier gear (full metal armor or high class mage robe) at the level 15, the level 2 street mugger will prefer to stay away from you (passive enemy) If you encounter a satiated wolf, or an alone wolf while you are in a crowded group, that wolf will prefer to stay away from you, unless you come closer to become a threat (territorial enemy) If you encounter a hungry predator, an evil demon, an orc raider or a character from enemy faction, it will attack you on sight (aggressive enemy)

He is talking about the gameplay of the spell, and you are only thinking the mechanics of the spell. Yes, it is a very unbalanced spell. Even without ripping hearts or heads, ripping someone's hand can make him die or suffer terribly. In reality, if you rip someone's hand, it will cause huge pain that can faint the person. Even then, his wrist will start to bleed, and it can kill the person quickly. The spell tries to combine these two issues with "6d6" but of course it is not enough. Even worse, the hand becomes as powerful as a Wight and start attacking the person. And this is a level 4 spell. Inbalanced, indeed. But forget the power, forget the mechanics, he is trying to explain that he wants more than "fireball, lightning bolt, icebolt, firewall" type of spells, more alternative style magics. Of course, I am happy with spamming fire spells

Sacred_Path has an interesting obsession in this topic. He approached this game like a sandbox rpg, directly converted from D&D core rulebooks into computer software. So, in his eyes, everything must be done by the book. If other characters can wear armor, so we should too. If we can wear tattoo, so other people should too. Think about a standart D&D PnP session. You open the players handbook, and follow the formulas strictly to create your character. You push the system just to make your character as strong as possible. During game session, you questionize DM's choices with the written rules on the corebooks. DM must follow the books without error, because your optimal playtrough is depend on those rules. You can not expect same thing in Planescape Torment. The answer is simple, you are The Nameless One. You are out of bounds from rules, you are a fixed point in the universe. This is the main concept of Planescape Torment. As a player, you may think this as unorthodox or a bad design choice. But these tiny things are the reason why we love Planescape Torment that much. The game is not made to simulate an "ordinary D&D game session", but to narrate an extraordinary story. If you want to play a traditional D&D session, you can always play NWN. You don't wear armor, because you have your tattoos to replace that. Not everybody can wear tattoos, because they don't have the power you have. Yes, you want to wear both tattoos and armors to maximize your character, but this is not a heavily combat focused game, you have other tools to use in battles. Game designers wanted to be this way, and because of these design choices, Planescape Torment is less based on hack&slash and more based on storytelling. By the way, PrimeJunta became my one of the most favorite internet users Especially when he mentioned Blade Runner (my most favorite movie)

I didn't put it as a "counter-argument", but if you want, so be it. I just criticized games' approach on animal behaviors.

Actually you can mix magic with science - Arcanum, Shadowrun, World Of Darkness... However spellcasters are not scientists, so they will not care chemistry and hydrogen fusion reactions. They are much like philosophers - they will ask the questions instead of searching for the reasons.

This is the feeling I get each time I play BG right after Planescape Torment, dull moments. And this is the feeling I get each time I play Planescape Torment, amazement. BG2 is an improvement compared to the first game. At least it has got more interesting atmosphere, and Irenicus cinematics are awesome. I love especially the intro scene ("Aaah, the child of Bhaal has awoken") and the scene when you got outside of the dungeon (when that beautiful music come during the dialogs, it gives a combined feeling of both 1- being free, escaped to the surface at last, smelling the air of the city and 2- seeing that you still have much to do and encountering the dangerous side of the city). (spoiler if you didn't play: ) IWD game has very fascinating visuals. Yes, both PT and BG2 had well designed backgrounds, but cold, dark and foggy style of IWD, combined with the songs, gives the player a very different feeling and atmosphere. It has the artworks of Justin Sweet (I love his arts) and music of Jeremy Soule (example: and ).

earth represents - solid, water - liquid, air - gas, fire - plasma (from wiki: The flame is the visible portion of the fire. If hot enough, the gases may become ionized to produce plasma. ) air represents - spring, fire - summer, earth - autumn, water - winter Some people also assign different things to the elements (directions like north/south/east/west) these elements are not just "magical attributes", more than that. They are view of composition of world's itself, the elements also have spiritual meanings. and they are not just a simple classicifation for "fireball - icebolt - lightning bolt" spells... (as in Fireball = Fire element, lightning bolt = Air element, etc...) by the way you tell Greeks, but Greeks use Earth, Water, Air, Fire, and Aether system (Japanese use similar system too: earth, water, wind, fire, void) but the classic elements we generally use are based on Aristotle's system, and it's a bit different than Greek elements. (there is no spirit, void, or aether)

Actually they have logical thought up to a point, of course not the same as humans. In games, we see every animal as mindless beast which attacks player as soon as sees him. In reality, every animal has different level of intelligence and habit. Some animals tend to stay away from groups, some animals hunt grouped animals with their packs, some animals stay away from bigger animals, some animals don't care the size...

I don't want wizards to turn into fighter/mages, they should stay as pure wizards. Fighter/mages should be a seperate class, like a psychic warrior (fighter/psion - Psylocke? love her) for example. Yes, psychic warrior, great.

It has in game bestiary, but you need to encounter that monster first to get an entry. That's the good part.

I hope a knocking system implemented. Knocking a door or chest will cause sound, and can prevent stealth. For stealthy approach, you need to lockpick them. Knocking a door will also break the lock, and you can not relock the door if you want to stop enemy to enter your room (or exit a room). Knocking a chest will break some items, of course gold pieces, swords, armor will not break that easy.

solid liquid gas plasma?

Class system of D&D (or similar systems) ties players' hands. It is easy to say "don't overspecialize your mage, give combat skills", but especially D&D 2e (e.g. Baldur's Gate) forces players to overspecialize. Think about BG2, if you want to use high powered spells at the end game, you need to overspecialize your mage and go magic all the way. Some people use kensai/mage, but even for it, you need to follow a specific formula. Also, dual class supresses your previous class. Dual class system's other handicap is, you get a 10/10 (two weak classes) instead of 20 (one strong class) level of character. Skill based systems like Elder Scrolls, Ultima (Online), World Of Darkness, help the mages (or magi, if you prefer) to get some combat skills. For example, if the system allows you to maximize 5 skills, select 3-4 magic skills and 1-2 combat skills. I like to play fire mage / shaman who can also fight like a warrior (Natsu from Fairy Tail, Hitsugaya from Bleach, etc...). But in class systems, if you select more than one class, you can not maximize your skills in desired tree/path. What I mean is, in D&D 3e, If you make a 15th lvl Sorcerer / 5th lvl Fighter, you will not know/cast 8th and 9th level spells like a 20th lvl Sorcerer, and you will not fight like a 20th lvl Fighter (your base attack bonus will be +12/+2 instead of +20/+15/+10/+5) However, in Skyrim, you can combine pure mage ( Alteration, Conjuration, Destruction, Restoration, Enchanting) with pure warrior (Archery, Block, Heavy Armor, One Handed, Smithing) and get a warrior/mage (One Handed, Heavy Armor, Destruction, Conjuration, Restoration) who can max both Destruction (like a pure mage) and One Handed (like a pure warrior) skills.

I like reading words - my most favorite game is Planescape Torment, and it contains lots of words. However I also agree with the book issue. Putting everything into books is a lazy business. What makes the Torment as a good game, is feeling, exploring, experiencing, interacting, talking, discussing, fighting, hearing, seeing. You taste everything first hand. I want to learn the lore from people, discuss the issues with them, not grinding books to learn a simple fact.

people play games like simcity, warcraft, halo on consoles. games like fps, strategy, simulation are smoother with mouse+keyboard. but if they want, then that's their choice.

How about "school of magic", then? I don't think elemental system is an issue. You can have both magic schools and elemental system at the same time. Some people think only magic cast is fire/water/air/earth based, however you already have other types of spells, thanks to the school of magic systems - D&D, Elder Scrolls, World Of Darkness, etc... OP said Fire, water, ice, earth, lightning but this is not a common type of element order. Usually Fire/Air/Earh/Water are the "primary" elements and Lightning/Ice/Wood/Lava are the "combined" elements.

You don't have to be a fan of SP. If you watched some episodes and loved them or at least liked them, you will also like the game too. At least according to the trailers.

no problem for me.

restricting the player's possibilities too much, leads to rest-spamming after every encounter. Of course, similar to you, I don't want rest system completely gone, too. I don't want insta-heal regeneration, too. However you can easily balance the rest-spamming with regeneration. How? Three ways I can think of: 1- Out of combat regeneration and no in-combat regeneration. The out of combat regeneration will be slow. Think about %10 heal per minute, so if you stay on one location and don't enter combat, you will regenerate your health slowly. This is not a "resting" system, but think this as "relaxing" system. Instead of rest-spam after every combat, you can relax, let your hp back to %50-60 and continue to the next fight. you don't necessarily fully recover in this system. If you want recover your health faster, you can just Rest. So, resting system will be still here, but just softened. 2- Slow in-combat regeneration and quick out of combat regeneration. After each fight, you will just wait one minute and your health will fill up (I am not talking about insta-heal, this will still take some time). However, during fights, you will get many stat damages. You need to rest to recover these stat damages, these stats can't be recovered by hp regeneration system. What this mean is, you will not need rest-spam after each combat, but you will still need to rest time to time because combats will have affects on your character. 3- Seperating hp with stamina. Each time you get soakable (dodged, blocked, reducted) damage or blunt force trauma, they will reduced from your stamina. Each time you get wounds, burns, injuries, they will reduced from hp. Stamina will be regenerated slowly, during out of combat. If you want to recover stamina during combat, your character may have some specific skills to do that (battle rage, for example). If you want to recover your stamina quickly, you need to use rest system. However, resting will not recover your HP. In order to recover your HP, you'll need to use bandages, healing potions, healing salves, medical treatments or healing spells. Each of these three system have their advantages and disadvantages. And can really change according to game's own playstyle.

I want to talk a bit for this. During Doom/Quake/Unreal Tournament times, you had to collect weapons, ammo, health packs and armors while running around the map. If your ammo get low, or you lose hp, you runaway from the fight, fall back, and collect items again. In modern shooters this kind of tactic can not be implemented. Because you "earn" and choose your guns and armors between games. You don't collect those weapons while playing a map. When you respawn, you will have your weapon, full ammo and full armor. There are no items on the map. So, you need to "regain hp" with a method? There are no collectable health packs in the map. So, what can be the method? They select "regeneration" system. Similar to Quake games, if you can escape from a dire situation, you can fall back, and "regain health". You don't regenerate instantly. If your opponent can catch you before you regain health (similar before you reach the health packs in old school FPS games), he can kill you easily. Is this a good system or not? I don't know, but I don't think it is a bad system. It is a design choice. However, some console games can really cheapen the regeneration system for players. Even if you get critical wound, whenever you cover, you suddenly instaheal. Ease of such health regain, also makes your character weaker. It is almost like you play these games with half of HP compared to older games.