Djole

oh man... My laptop has Intel hd 3000. How do I put this? It's a horrible piece of ****. My girlfriend bought herself a cheap Samsung laptop with AMD processor and graphics and she can run everything, while I can't run anything. Intel integrated graphics are horrible. I hope your HD 4000 is much faster than this one I got.

There is an issue of arcane spell failure in D&D. Namely, wizards have to be meticulous in casting spells with somatic components that are hindered by heavy armors. It just boils down to game design really.

I am more inclined to determinism and don't really care about preconceptions of 'good' and 'evil'. Choices and consequences are all that matter, not a painted scale of player's past actions.

Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines worked great with XP rewarded for quests only. Leveling up through grinding, crafting and other activities would lead to player exploitation of the system and introduce breaking of game difficulty and challenge. If the XP for other activities should be rewarded, it should be in small portions not to break the game. Crafting is a reward for its own sake, etc.

I'd sooner talk to this guy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6gLmcS3-NI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpFk5F-S_hI

I understand why Obsidian is reluctant to reveal any names. I just hope projects like this will allow them the luxury of revealing such information.

A game is late until it's released. A bad game is forever.

I voted no, but honestly I don't care. We don't need to nitpick every design decision.

No. In party based RPGs things like that just add micromangement that is tedious.

Good RPGs benefit from guys like Jason Anderson, Brian Mitsoda, Leonard Boyarsky, George Ziets... Do you truly wish to have romances taken in "wildly different directions, from the virginal girl next door to let's have it on the go right here"?

Let Obsidian make a good game on the PC first, then if possible we'll discuss things like these.

Multi-language support only drains funds and adds nothing to the game quality.

I agree that some reward tiers need to be updated with extra stuff so that the backers will have a greater incentive of supporting the project. Wasteland 2 had better organized tiers in my opinion. $5 - add wallpapers, it's something $65 - this one is the most problematic in my opinion, and the low number of backers proves it. New game in store costs around 60 bucks and when you add 15 more for shipping that's 80 dollars for a boxed version. The way this could be rectified is adding a $45 dollar early bird tier with 20.000 backers max for these rewards. Also, add beta access for this tier (but not an early bird $45 that I proposed) and above. You get your fans weeding out the bugs for an early sneak peek of the game. Add more stuff, like a cool poster, they're cheap and people love posters. Hell, add two posters and a bunch of guitar and computer stickers. Stuff like that. Maybe a mini version of an art book would be nice. Concept art book, I dunno, instruction manual if it's not the size of encyclopedia. Make an early bird tier for $35 pledge at $30. 20.000 max, watch the pledges skyrocket. Make a $750 tier. Same as $500 but with more digital copies. Also, every tier above should have an abundance of digital copies for people to brag around. Never underestimate how much people love to give gifts to others, especially to those who don't like a particular genre of games. That's all. Love you guys @Obsidian.

I love you guys. Whatever it is, I'm excited.

Even though I'm capable of filling your inbox and blog responses with my ideas and preferences with hundreds of messages, I believe that whatever choice YOU guys at Obsidian make would be the right one. We have faith in you, otherwise we wouldn't be posting here and everywhere on the internet. Now, get this **** kickstarted!

From the interviews I read, the opposite is true. He even mentioned he would be interested in doing something in that medium...As another note, I have no idea what people see in Alpha Protocol 2. Sure, part 1 might have been a solid game in some respects, but a masterpiece? Really? That sounds intriguing. Just imagine a dialogue with the Weaver. An RPG based on, or inspired by Bas-Lag series would be incredible.

For me, the most important thing is what you want, Mr. Avellone. Watching you guys at Obsidian run wild with all that ridiculous amounts of talent is awe inspiring, and I really enjoy beingpleasantly surprised while playing your games. But I'll take this opportunity to share a piece of mind with you. Now, about the things that would be great to have in a game, for me the starting point would be the world. What made Planescape have its cult following all these years was the unique universe. For your game it doesn't have to be exactly that, but having something new and refreshing would be nice. In all honesty, I think players are getting tired of all the dwarves-beer-drinking-fights-starting high fantasy that is just Tolkien rehashed. Think of all the wondrous things you could create in a completely new steampunk or cyberpunk setting, with races that have not yet been imagined by the game designers worldwide. Races with so alien physique and mentality that game interaction would change when communicating with, let's say, a small group of insect-like workers in the hive stationed near a city landfill of a large Metropolis of the undisclosed future. Make that world a place of mystery and lost history, for the purpose of easier introduction to the game lore for players and the sense of accomplishment whenever the intricate workings of a society are being presented throughout the story. Don't pull the amnesia card. It worked for PST because it was pivotal for the story of the main character. Instead let the players build their own character and his/hers story through the desire to explore the world. The way I would do that is quite simple. The main character of the game could be a product of artificial design and/or breeding, being one of the many in a society heavily reliant on technology/magic to produce its inhabitants. And just one more thing from the top of my head - don't force the player to start the game with conflict. Because, if you empower the player to cut his way through the game from the early start, it just kills the mystery of building a new IP. Don't give the main character some disabillity like eternal soul hunger in Mask of the Betrayer. It worked there because of great setting and a love story. But it can get tiresome to chase for spirits. More solipsism, please. Make the combat turn based, it has historically proven itself to be the most reliable way of controlling the battlefield in multi- party members based RPGs. Don't be shy to introduce a new mechanic to it, mind. Like having a mechanic where the party/player could threaten the NPC with weapons and violence and effectively intimidate him to do their bidding, because it would add a level of humanity to the game. No one starts attacking his foe while having a gun pointed point blank to the head. Well, unless he got something really special. Also, make that mechanic a two way street. Have the main characters lose their heads when they're being ****y in a high risk situation. For me, character building in RPGs have always been a process of rewards only, but let's introduce some punishment to it. Make the players regret some decisions, by making the game and quests harder, by twisting and turning the story from predictable to undesirable, make the broken hearted companions the source of treachery. And implement the mechanic of choices and consequences into the game the way that would make save/load game options useless. You could even make a special game difficulty for it. I have no doubts that the writing and characters in your game will be superb, just make them a strange bunch of companions, even if that makes them unrelatable. If more things come to mind, I'll make another post. I'll just stop here before this turns into quite a wall of text.