Nonek

With the knowledge of their own immortal souls and access to powers such as Ciphers and Wizards etcetera weild, our characters are allready supernaturally potent are they not? Then again I never mind a well implemented otherworldly mechanic such as the Soul Devourer of Mask, or the Exiles strange charisma.

Gods need worship and followers to remain potent, even if their metaphysical strength is not derived from belief, the strength and wealth of their church and the number of followers who uphold their dogma is a key aspect of faith, if they are to remain a force to be reckoned with in the world. There might well be wildly varying orders, but even they will hold that turning an unbeliever to the true faith is a divine duty, never to be overlooked. Thus there are even more willing souls to do the deities bidding in his sphere of influence, and their god is proven to be paramount and true. Political and secular power can also not be forgotten, one assumes that faith is an intrinsic part of government and everyday life in Eternity, rather than being carefully segregated from statecraft by law as in most western democracies. Indeed Saint Waidwen seems to have weilded almost a nations strength from the descriptions, and the fallout from his death is bound to have real consequences for the faith. The weakest gods cause is strong if the whole world follows him and his doctrine.

Considering the very real benefits of rising to the zenith of the clergy, sainthood and immortality like Waidwen, one can only speculate on how byzantine the power games, pretense and politics being played out in the quiet cloistered halls of the church might become. I picture something reminiscent of the Name of the Rose, with a prize that is worth achieving through any means necessary.

They're connected but not in an intrusive sense, it stands alone as its own game with a few nods to the previous ones that are not too jarring.

In my own pen and paper games my Clerics had one purpose, to spread the word of their god, and thus Charisma was their all important stat and was used for little miracles and strengthening their smiting arm. On the flip side evil Priests were usually demon summoners, using their charm and charisma to make infernal bargains with malefic beings. Spreading the faith is something i'd hope to see more of from a roleplaying standpoint, as it's so often overlooked for the Cleric, and how else would one rise up in the heirachy of their church.

You can do exactly this with Ceasar in New Vegas, and they've allready said that faction reputation will be their main method of an alignment like system so I don't get what changes you want to what they've allready announced. The opinions of most dialogue members will still be decided by actions, whatever your words.

But dialogue proves nothing until acted upon surely? You can wrap King Leonidas round your finger with the right words of brotherhood, alliance and honour but if you fail to follow up with deeds then your words are empty, and discarded. Advice can change minds and the deeds of others, but you woukld have to prove yourself through actions before they'll listen to you. I suppose persuasion and intimidation can yield results, though I can't see any effect from the lowest forms of wit such as sarcasm. But these dialogue options are present in fairly much all of the Obsidian games, and yield various results.

But there were multiple routes, solutions, choices and factions that you could choose through conversation and far more importantly actions in New Vegas, such that you could have entirely different ending slides and Mojaves. For instance I saved Goodsprings, proved myself to the NCR, aided the ghouls attain their ascension, and a number of other significant changes to the Mojave before i'd even gotten to New Vegas, not to mention the fantastic dlc. Isn't that exactly what you're asking for? Oh I believe there'll be no alignment in Eternity by the way.

Personally I thought the vastly different choices and consequences of dialogue in both Alpha Protocol and New Vegas was fantastic, one of the high points for me was the conversation with Dean in Dead Money, where you could reveal your own ruthlessness and thus upset his view of the world as a place full of victims ripe for the picking, one of many such responses. This doesn't seem to be a problem for Obsidian, they've consistently championed this aspect of gameplay, to the point of shaming most of the competition. I understand your dislike for the different question same answer system that we recieve so often in for instance Biowares games, even when the responses are upper, middle and lower right or less, but Obsidian doesn't usually do this.

Ziets and Avellone.

Ah thank you. Sorry for the derail.

Erm if I may ask what exactly is British English, as an Englishman from England i've never heard of it, is it perhaps a group terminology for dialects of English being used in the British Isles like Scots?

Perhaps you're spot on the money with your assessment AGX, i'm spoiled by the choice that the rpg genre offers, and have a dislike for the more cinematic experiences offered by developers such as Irrational and Bioware. I prefer being posed the questions than told the answers, the former speaks of interactivity and inquisitiveness, while the latter to my mind is more preaching and pontificating. Still a good game mind, and to even raise such subjects in its chosen field of delivery is rather rare.

If I may ask Mr Sawyer, how advanced do you envisage banking and economies to be in Eternity, Templar letters of credit, italian merchant houses, or something completely different? I ask because I wondered if we might have such letters of credit, and whether minted currencies will entail national pride like they so often do in our world, maybe even create colloquialisms such as the english, "sound as a pound."

I'd rather go out fighting than surrendering to the supposed inevitable, I find such pre-destination distasteful if not morally repugnant. Only a personal opinion however.

Nice solid game, the whirling about on the skyrails was exciting but to be honest I really disliked the message/morality of the ending, and the entire premise truth told. The quite obvious twist I saw from virtually the beginning, and I disliked the lack of choice.

Personally if horses are implemented in the game I would be fine with them being treated just like the car in Fallout 2, fast travel points with saddlebag space for storage.

This is possibly the stupidest thing i've ever heard, reminds me of Dustin Hoffman in the Marathon Man telling Laurence Olivier that he hadn't slept for three days to prepare for the "Is it Safe" scene, Olivier simply replied. "Why not try acting?" I'll avoid this like the plague.

A well trained infantryman could often outpace the cavalry during protracted marches, and certainly when the terrain becomes rough and broken. The upkeep cost of horses was very high as well, with the need for shoeing and farriers, massive amounts of feed (grain ideally,) and the exorbitant cost and maintenance of tack and harness. In a lot of ways the horse would be too time consuming and unsuitable for an adventurers life, better a hardy breed of pony such as those utilised by the old norse, or even better a hardy mule used as a beast of burden. One would theorise that strange magics, cattle, labourers, and maybe even Druid trained animals such as Goats would replace the horse if they were non existent in Eternity, there would also be a massive amount of societal changes inherent in such exclusion, as the horse became synonymous with the nobility and warrior class. Warfare might not have developed among the paths we see either, maybe the phalanx is still a valuable aspect of battle, or the disciplined and heavily armed and armoured legionaire. It's an intriguing notion.

The problem I have with a simplified single coinage system is that of scale, say you can buy a meat pie or a pint for a gold piece, then that +12 hammer of swank iron of infamous potency should cost an exhorbitant amount of coinage, so much in fact that no human purse could carry so great an amount. It renders gold or whatever substance you deem precious in your setting as common and worthless, defeating the thrill of accomplishment when you come upon a hoard of legendary proportions (because you've got more in your hip pocket.) Now i'm not saying that Dragon Age got it right, the decimal system is horribly inorganic and far too clean for emergent nations, the coinage badly needed some individualisation instead of being just plain old copper, silver and gold, and one was never rewarded with enough to discourage the dreadful reliance on cheap indentikit loot trawling. The great thing about complicated monetary systems in crpg's is that one can rely on the computer to do the donkey work, and ensure that they add the necessary flavour and verisimillitude to the world without become a hassle to manage and manipulate. One thing that I would like to have acknowledged however is the status that vast wealth affords, the doors it opens, the company it attracts, and the jealousy that it fosters among those who desire an easy payday. Exclusive gentleman and ladies clubs, where the finest of society mingle and network, seeking advantage and angles amongst their peers, all served up in opulent luxury that is frankly sickening when contrasted to the slums, suddenly their doors are open to you. The powerful and prestigious inviting you to private dinners where they impress their need for coinage and support from your good person, the subtle threats they weave and the nebulous rewards they promise, requests that become all the more difficult to refuse the higher the askers status in society. Blackmailers, beggars, thieves intent on making off with what is yours and maybe even trusted friends who are tempted by the wealth that is so close and so easy to procure, just this one time and never again. It would be interesting to have the purse strings of a potentate or two in your hand, and to play them like a puppet, under the auspices of gullible generosity and honest friendship. Or to be the financial crutch upon which an embattled government leans as it tries to fend off multiple threats and catastrophes, though maybe both of these situations are too high level for the initial outing of Eternity.

Dungeon Siege 3 though linear allowed a lot of such decisions and differing consequences, as reflected in the widely varying ending slides, and though small for me they were quite satisfying. Alpha Protocol could be runthrough as totally different Michael Thorntons, with widely varying choices and consequences that defined not only your alliances but who your agent Thornton became stat wise. New Vegas I don't really need to speak about, though there were a few bottlenecks in the plot, there were a thousand different ways to approach them, making each courier a vastly different individual. Even the Sith Lords, bound by the absurd binary morality of the Star Wars universe offered plenty of choice, so in this area I don't think you have any need to worry too much Ristora, though it's always worth championing the better aspects of rpg's in the modern age of streamlining and cinematic experiences.

Wolves! Thousands of 'em.

The animation on what one assumes is the cold, calculating Jack looks very lifelike, quite impressed with that little tech demo. Is that just smoke or some kind of shadow swooping in at the bottom of the screen towards the end.

Is that a xenomorph above the candle lit pool?

Finished Infinite, saw the twist coming from almost the beginning, but still a solid game. Definitely wouldn't say that it was anyway near 10/10, more 7-8 or so.