GhoulishVisage

Intentional or not, the only race of black people in the game are a bunch of muscular warriors with a racial modifier that lowers intelligence. That's a rather unfortunate set of attributes and lore they have there. I don't think there were any malicious feelings or ill-will behind that. Likely they just wanted the Redguards to be good with weapons and bad with magic. However, even five seconds of critical thinking on the part of someone at Bethesda should have made them think "Hey, this isn't our intention, but it really could imply the wrong things." Regardless, I'm not someone to get offended at stuff. In fact I found it rather amusing, and the likely innocent explanation behind it doubly so. I just posted it in this thread because it seemed appropriate to the subject at hand.

In the Elder Scrolls Redguards got -10 Intelligence and -10 Willpower as a starting modifier. Yeah. Awkward.

So, since it may very well be a licensed game that Obsidian are Kickstarting I was thinking of some stuff they might consider for a crpg. It wouldn't be too big of a property, so no Star Wars, DnD, LotR etc, but it might be something slightly smaller, like inXile getting Numenera for Torment. Then I remembered that Chris Avellone and George Zeits both wrote a sourcebook for a little PnP game that got Kickstarted called Accursed. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1231173913/accursed-rpg Here's the post confirming they'd be writing the sourcebook: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1231173913/accursed-rpg/posts/628028 This is Avellone's first PnP thing he's written in over fifteen years. Zeits had this to say: https://twitter.com/gziets/status/388848492065472512 To which Accursed responded: Now I know that Zeits is no longer a part of Obsidian, as I understand he's full-time with inXile these days, but it's possible that he and Avellone opened a dialogue with the Accursed people about the possibility of a crpg whilst they were interacting. If you looks at the description of the gameworld on the Kickstarter page it describes it thusly: This is somewhat similar to a pitch Avellone made for a game quite a while back that he called Defiance at the time, and it might be another reason he'd be drawn to such a project. Anyhow, that's my thought on which license they might use if they go that route. It might be tenuous, but it's the best I could think of.

Yes, of course they can, but the Star Wars license is in EA's hands and so is, I believe, Dune's license (it hasn't been used by EA for a while, so I'm not certain about that). EA has no business doing anything with Kickstarter. (They could do a Kickstarter yes, but that would be absolutely scummy.) Kickstarting a game for the Star Wars universe, one of the biggest and most lucrative properties on the planet, would be wretched. And I know that licenses have been used with KS before, such as with Numanera. That IP however wasn't in the hands of some large publisher that could easily fund a game themselves, which are the sorts of licenses I was more specifically thinking of, and that come up in this thread quite a bit. I am aware of Feargus saying that he was thinking of doing a game with an established IP, but it sounded a bit up-in-the-air: If they do decide to go that route I'll be slightly disappointed, but I've enjoyed their takes on established properties before and I hope they choose a good property to work on. I personally think that brand-new IPs that Obsidian is free to do with as they wish is the best way to go.

See the problem with saying they should use specific settings is that they cannot do Kickstarters with them. They can do games with settings inspired by or similar to certain IPs, but they can't just go and make a Dune game or a Star Wars game. Them making their own IPs to work with holds many more benefits than just borrowing one for a single game anyways. -They can do whatever they want with the setting with no restrictions -They keep all of the profits from the game -They can make a sequel whenever they feel like it, no need to go and abase oneself before any publishers -We need more good original IPs in the world

If they aren't going to make a game in a modern-horror setting I could go for a game inspired by Dark Sun.

Indeed. I'm sick of vaginas. Everyone likes to harp on about how great they are, but I don't see what all the fuss is about. My one experience with one left much to be desired. It was far too asymmetrical, and it's poison-spurs left me in the hospital for several weeks. That's of course only after I managed to catch the damned thing in the first place. I was by that river for ages before I managed to see one. So yes, I'd prefer it if they stayed as far away from video-games as possible. Except maybe as a ranger's animal-companion. Picture of the vagina that so greviously wounded me. Truly hideous.

I'd like a game set in the modern period, with a horror theme and a secret world of monsters that pull the strings of humanity from the shadows. Something along those lines would do nicely. It could be great from an isometric view as well.

Equally, what would we gain? I don't think "classic" is the right word. "Derivative" maybe. It's a bit late to start adding races. The lore is already written and the beta is just around the corner. Shoehorning in major stuff at the last minute just makes for a sloppy experience.

Love getting some lore on the creatures of the world. Especially love the Vithrak due to my fondness of Mindflayers. I personally think that it would have been cool for them to live in a matriarchal society with one or two large, bloated queens that preside over the other Vithrak. This would provide a nice parallel to real-life spiders, where the female is often far larger than the male. But that was just my imaginings since they were first announced. And because I know y'all share my views on awesome spiders are here's a bonus mommy spider with babies: Your group are nervous. This is the first time the Vithrak have agreed to meet with representatives of the civilized races in many years. You have entered the court of the Matriach. She presides in her deep hall sitting on a throne spun from bones and silk, and her long flowing robes of midnight blue cover the dais her seat rests upon. Even seated she is taller than the Aumaua standing to your left. Her many eyes shine like orbs of obsidian as she surveys your party. Their alien gaze impenetrable. You've been led here by four of their most powerful psionics, and the wide floor is host to a dozen of their ruling party. They seem to form a council. Advisers, maybe? Chittering begins. A high sound that sets the hairs on the back of your neck on end. The twelve figures seated before the dais seem trepidatious of your arrival. The chittering is not how they communicate, as they have no need for vocalization. It seems to be a way of expressing emotion. This is an unusual event for them. The Matriarch stands silently and the chittering dies. She looms over everything in the cavernous room. Is this it? Will she now address your group as ambassadors? She raises her arms to her chest and she opens her robe to reveal a swarming mass of spiderlings. That sounds like a memorable NPC to me. Onto a different subject I'm a bit disappointed that we haven't had any updates on the Aumaua yet. I remember there being murmurings about some Aumaua info "soon" in a lore update back in Update 74. Still looking forward to that one.

We Are The Dwarves Looks like a pretty interesting concept so far. Sorta Lost Vikings-ey. Pity how this seems to be limping whilst that damned cat simulator thing is doing pretty well.

Here's something I'd like to see: The ability to name savegames. It should be a standard on all pc games, but I thought I'd just throw it out there.

Thanks for letting us know in advance so I won't wait up for a nonexistent update. Also you changing the schedule to a morning update may mean that I get updates at a more reasonable time. I hope it sticks. Does this update contain some info on the Aumaua? I do recall you saying about two updates ago that you'd ask around about putting some Aumaua lore into one of the future updates.

Yeah, this does pretty much seem the opposite of what they said they were doing. Hrm. After looking at Obsidian's Pillars site I thought they might be changing to an ornamental oxidized copper look for the UI instead of the wood look we got in the early mockups. I think it's a very beautiful look myself. And it's fit in neatly with the animancy related lore of the game. Alas, evidently not.

Is that the first full-colour Aumaua picture I see? Fantastic. I'd like to get a bit of an update on them sometime in the future. They've remained a mystery for quite a while. That inn and that druid-form looks wonderful as well. I assume that your relationship with Paradox is similar to the one inXile has with Deep Silver?

I just say PE. I've already been doing it for months anyway and there's less confusion with Path of Exile when talking to people.

Do you honestly expect them not to? That they'll just throw in a companion for the hell of it and give him no personality or back-story? The examples I gave, Morte, One of Many and Okku were all intrinsically linked to the plot and PC in PS:T and MotB. They all had interesting personalities and dialogue and were fantastic to converse with. Those are the sort of companions I was thinking of.

So, since it's pretty likely that we're getting some more stretch-goals that will involve two more companions being added to the roster I thought I'd throw out my hopes for what one of them might be. Everybody loved these guys: These companions are not the sort of creatures or people you would normally find it in your party. They are downright strange. Every single announced companion has either been an elf, human or one of the usual suspects. There might be an unusual companion already planned and not announced, but I'll just put the idea and hope out there for one of the stretch-goal companions to come in a surprising form if one isn't already in. Hey, maybe we could get one of these guys as a companion: Illithids are cool. Spiders are cool. Spider Illithids should be double-cool.

Well, that was disappointing. Basically none of it was anything I would be interested in. Urgh. Argh. Why? Why not have a property that you're free to do whatever you want with, and that you wholly own? All in all not something I'm immediately inclined to give money to.

Now THAT is something to be worried about. How was this all not raised in security-checks? And here I was getting my soap-boxing on.

I agree. Children are far too noisy in movies and restaurants and they're unhygienic. Also they constantly watch that horrible live-action Disney stuff. Nothing good can come of that. I say we do away with the entire business of creating children, which probably involves all sorts of dark magicks and ritual sacrifices. Not the sort of thing any upstanding citizen would involve themselves in.

Yes, thank you Amentep. I had to leave on short notice this morning or I would have elaborated. Schizophrenia and schizophrenics are often misrepresented as violent and dangerous to those around them, liable to lash out at any time, but dangerous schizophrenics are in fact a minority, roughly equal in percentage to dangerous people in the general population. Mental health is poorly understood by the populace today despite the fact that there's an abundance of information out there. Here's a short article on some schizophrenia myths. Sorry Bruce, didn't mean to come off as snappish, I was just in a bit of a hurry. Back on topic, I thought this was amusing: Anyhow, sorry about the soap-boxing.

As someone related to a schizophrenic I have to say your post is extremely ill-educated.

Are we going to get any more Arcanum playthrough with the next update? It's really been a while.

It entirely depends on how comfortable you are with implementing them, especially as you're already into development. You already have two big cities and a fifteen level megadungeon to think about.