Auxilius

From day 1, I told you dawgs it was going to happen. Well, now to find a last stretch goal for the final run...

140$ + 20$ for international shipping. I would have prefered to give 20 bucks for the expansion but 160$ is an already big enough sum to spend at once for me.

3.6m: Buy a limo for George Ziets Seriously? Pets. For the house and the stronghold (Even if I wodner if the house will be made then). They could be add some good atmosphere, appeal to pets lovers, bring on some stats and even be trained as party companions if the player wish so.

Well, looks like we gave zest to George Ziets. ... I can't believe this horrible pun came true. Go George! I guess we can aim for that stronghold now. But the best stretch goal now done, I can leave peacefully.

It probably will. According to kicktraq, the game with get 3.2m, but it's not counting the pledges' peak popular projects tend to get during the final day. Also, like you said, I certainly hope for a Tarante/Caladon feel between them, especially if we get a stronghold who could be a war asset for both of them. How great it would be to play politics between these two cities. I want a peace treaty signed at my stronghold after horribly tense negotiations, only made possible by a masterful PC (I told you this writer class was a good idea dogs, but nobody cared ).

Yes and yes. P:T was nice but it was much cooler to explore a continent than a city.

Hello people. I heard the news about paladins and bards. It made me wonder, if Obs was willing to add a final class, what would it be? Obviously, we got people at the magical spectrum, with wizards, bards, druids or ciphers. Then, there are physical classes too: paladins, warriors, barbarians, etc. But the sneaky class, rogue, is awfully alone. Then, I thought about this idea: Writers. You see, I dig Pacifist runs. Whenever the game has been developed with this end in mind, I do it. Sadly, only Planescape, Alpha Protocol and the Deus Ex trilogy really gave me this possibility. I know about games like Thief but I wasn't in this kind of games when it was published and now, it's too old for me. I don't have the time anymore. Anyway. A writer sounded like something amazing, as a new class and for new ways of playing. Something akin to the bard, but with more possibilities in dialogues, reputations and politics. He could shape the news as he see fit, manipulate the factions as he wants, publish articles, be versed in all ways of talking and manipulating, scan minions, find philanthropists to fund his adventure ala Albert Londres/Jack London, etc. Of course, he would be a terrible warrior, but hey, that's not the point. If a writer class would become a reality, it would be the way to present how alive the world is. Its epicenter. Besides, with what the game is going to be, with his development revolving around its writing, a writer class would bring a face to the developers' ideas and values. Maybe that's a terrible idea, but it's nice to think about it. After, all, Most Writers Are Writers, and a Writer Class would be incredibly developed and close to reality.

Ooo yeah. Upped my pledge to 160$. Drat your marketing, Obs, you nailed this stretch goal.

Gentlemen, I like Arcanum. Gentlemen, I love Arcanum. And why do I still love it, 10 years after it came out? World-building. Whenever you went, you had a small story that was tying the world you walked in with your journey. It could have been a man trying to seal a magic portal or a city in ruins overrun by barbarians, the world had always something to tell you. But those things weren't related to the world map only. There were books, architecture, art and culture that were finely crafted to create a breathing, living world that sucked you in because you weren't just playing a hero in this world, you were in this world. A lot of quests involved investigations and reflexions. The most magistral quest I ever played was uniting Tarante and Caladon. To reach this quest, you had to do a lot of efforts. And when you got there, there was a big dossier to study to make sure you reached your goals. Bypass that part and you could be sure you failed, which would be a horrible end after all you went through to reach that point. And that's was great about that quest: it didn't came quickly, just because you met the right person at the right corner. You had to discover the world, walk in the streets of these cities, meet his people and get your own opinion on the politics that were going on in Arcanum before you could see the end of that quest. Arcanum is the only game (With Skies of Arcadia, hey) I played three times. And I know I could replay it a fourth time as well. Because I always miss something. I never discover the gnome conspiracy for example. Damn gnomes. This love letter for Arcanum has a point though. Please Obs, take your time and make sure your world is not a world to be played, but a world to explore, to discover, to know and to love.

I wonder if all classes permit pacifists runs. I've been a fan of druids since Nox and my first character in every fantasy game has always been a druid. NWN 1&2, Baldur's Gate, Divinity 2, Titan Quest... Druids don't look very pacifist though. I'll start a rogue or cipher gladly if I have to but it brings up a good question: should every class have possibilities to avoid fights, according to their skills? A warrior can intimidate, a druid can charm animals, a priest can call the faith of their enemies... Personally, I'm in. It's not hard to code and it brings depth to the skill trees. And by the way, nice McCoy shirt, M. Josh Sawyer.

Frankly, I like achievements, it's a nice bonus. Everyone want an old-school RPG here but because we want to go back to our roots doesn't mean we should discard every thing remotely new.

I didn't have to follow a guide, I just had insane reputation, over 2000 or something. Everyone stayed with me once I got my own kingdom. Then, endless battles between Boyard Sir 5 0 and Jarl Sir 4 1 happened and I gave up. Damn bugs.

I prefer classless systems because it gives a lot of freedom to the way I build up my PC, without going over thirty screens to check if multiclassing my druid with a rogue or a barbarian will be worth the loss of spells I'll go through. I've nothing against class systems but I found myself less interested and always go for a full-on unique class. No, if classes permit to get unique answers and dialogues and build up quests, I'm all in. It would be fun to get roped in quests because the PC is a dreaded engineer wandering on wood dwarf territory. Not the most imaginative example though.

I'm kinda disappointed my question on world-building didn't get through. It would have been very interesteing to know if the world map is going for an Arcanum or Baldur's Gate approach for example. NoxNoctum: Well, it proves several things. 1) If the Q&A was made on 4chan, Tim would have definitely been asked how does it fill to be jizzed inside. I then don't see the point to do a Q&A there. 2) The game is considered as interesting by this community, meaning you better get used to the hate since they're known to bitch over insignificant things. 3) Internet wars are horribly smelling of failure and nerdiness. "My website is better than yours" is not a good reason to flame a video.

We don't want an edgy vault basement dweller asking how many **** Tim sucked today.

But I want a Bikini Chain Mail, with a crafty description made by George Zeits! Well, it does help to dodge...

reddit feels so clunky. Damn you Tim for making me create an account on this website. And "Auxilius" was already taken!

Crap. Seriously. Crap. I loved newspapers, Tim. I loved reading books and dossiers as well. Crap.

Well, this whole "story mode" affair with Mass Effect 3 was a complete debacle. Why are you playing video games if you don't enjoy video games? I know some people just want to follow the story but frankly, why did you even try this medium if you weren't interested by its core basics to begin with? This story mode was basically a movie mode anyway. To spend 50 bucks for a movie badly filmed since it wasn't thought that way is a stupid idea. Besides, the difference between liking a story and loving a story (in video games at least) is to struggle with the hero, to know what he feels. The story is then the reward.

Now than I think of it, I absolutely want my first run to be a pacifist run. And now, I'll have to activate Trial of Iron on my first playthrough because it gives even more meaning to this way of playing. It would also be satisfying as hell. But somehow, I can already feel the burning hatred I'll have for Obs once my character dies 5 hours before the boss after 50/100 hours of gameplay. Can't we have a Trial of Iron light mode? Where the game saves automatically every ten hours?

I'm not a fan of the Expert Mode. I guess it helps to have a better feel of the game and help you to roleplay but to cut access to info looks frustrating. I like to metagame after all. Maybe I understood it the wrong way though. Trial of Iron and Path of the Damned sound cool. But boy, do you need balls of steel to activate them together and/or on your first run. It comes for a roguelike fan but such things for a story-driven game, a RPG to boot... To replay the story the exact same way because I want the character I want to play to reach the ending...

And because you did, everyone must? Everyone can? Don't you know basic logic or are you so egocentric, you can't understand why people are not working like you?

That's being selfish, caricatural and stupid. There is no world beyond glorious anglosphere. Nobody deserves this games beyong glorious english speakers. Obsidian doesn't need dirty strangers' money. Geez, sorry for being a not-native speaker.

About translating names. Arcanum's names were translated in french and it gave a great Jules Verne's feeling to it. I'm cool with translating names since then.

People keep talking about shades of grey and that's fine but I still want to have the possibility to act good or evil. That's only logical. There is no shade of grey if there is no black nor white to define it. Just don't tell me what I should believe as good or evil.