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ET3D
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Posts posted by ET3D
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I haven't read all the response here and on the Kickstarter, but I want to say one important thing:
A Steam game can be DRM free.
There's a list of such games on a GOG forum thread. These games can run without Steam being active. Some of them can be moved to another disk or PC by just copying the folder and would run correctly, even without Steam installed. That doesn't preclude Steam features, either. Some keep track of achievements and update them when the game connects to Steam.
I would love if Obsidian went that way. It's probably more work to implement things this way, but it would be the perfect combination of Steam and DRM free.
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Wasteland did an interesting thing recently. It brought back the Kickstarter tiers, with the low end ones costing significantly more than they did on the Kickstarter, and the high end ones ($1000 or $500 and up, don't remember) being the same. I don't know if it's the best solution, but at least for me it feels okay. That said, I'm not a high end backer.
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Definitely more than $1.5M.
I think it's a little early to tell, but I'd say $3-4M based on the comparison with Wasteland 2 and Double Fine. I'd say it has the potential to go over $4M, but that would depend on how strongly it continues. The stretch goals so far give a good incentive to push forward, IMO.
Nice that they did pass $4M.
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In fact, in Baldur's Gate, 9 out of 10 battle's my Mage was always sitting it out in some corner while my 5 other Heroes slaughtered the mobs of foes. Because either I could do some quick burst damage that wouldn't last even ONE fight, or I could save it for a boss fight. I am quite against the Resting -> Nuking procedure.
I remember this from my D&D 2nd Ed gaming and PC games. The Wizard is often the one who does pretty much nothing as the fighters (and clerics, and thieves), who can make a damaging attack every round, do all the work. Low level wizards were just not at all fun to play (IMO).
J. Sawyer's talk about 'going in blind' being a negative, being forced to reload, etc, as a strike against memorising spells, seems slightly wrongheaded. I think someone mentioned earlier the idea of giving the player signals about what lay ahead, but it doesn't even have to be that explicit. The D & D player party wanders into an ancient temple filled with many-eyed statues. 'Aha,' thinks the player who's both engaged in the world and actively planning ahead, 'I should prepare for beholders. Let's head back to that old gypsy caravan and pick up some scrolls/open up my mage's spellbook and figure out how to counter them/maybe try and recruit that mad old wizard back at the inn so I have some scope'. Perhaps a local villager has the head of one of the local monsters on their wall; perhaps the local library contains scribblings about viable tactics against such beasts. If your party's about to face a central villain, presumably they've heard a little or seen a little about the spells and defences they're likely to use. There's absolutely no reason, in short, why memorised spells should lead to save-scumming or blind guesswork, so long as the encounter and dungeon design is good, and as long as the world is communicating with the player. That's not an inherent problem with the system.
And then, as described by Osvir, the party fights all the non-beholder enemies, and the wizard does nothing during all these encounters because he's waiting for the beholder encounter. And then the beholder is dead and the party wants to go down lower in the dungeon, or further in the world, but the wizard is without any spells, or what spells he has left are pretty specific, and then the party has to rest and go back to a generic spell makeup, or something like that. In short, you got to pick something strategic, but it was only momentary and pretty much ruined the use of the wizard for anything else, and the party was forced to delay because of that particular class.
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What I liked about Torment was that you could choose between choices which were no game choices. You could say the exact same thing but choose if it was true and one was a lie. I'd love to see more of that.
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Tablets and consoles are different, but the problem is that the tablet OSes stated in OP are still different OSes that require porting work, even ignoring the different hardware architecture (not talking about computing power). Thus, people really can't say "tablet" without specifying the specific OS in relation to the architecture---a Windows 7 tablet is vastly different from an iPad on so many levels. And of course add to that specific HID requirements on top of hardware architecture, computing power, memory, and required storage space.
Tablet OS's are as different as desktop OS's, but that's what's great about Unity: it supports Android and iOS the same way it supports Linux, Mac OS and Windows. I don't think that Windows RT is really relevant right now, but if it becomes popular Unity will likely support it. While there are some differences between Unity for desktop and mobile OS's, the difference between Unity for iOS and Android are minimal, and I think that for the purposes of this project the differences between Unity for desktop and mobile are minimal, since it's unlikely that the project will use advanced features of Unity which aren't supported on mobile.
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How simple do you think the game is going to be, if you think you will be able to play it on a touch screen?
I think it'd be about as simple as Baldur's Gate, a game which will soon be available on tablets.
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Just looked at it, and for some reason it underlined the last line (probably because I copy-pasted his name). That wasn't intended at all. Unfortunately it looks like the editing option disappears after a while.
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Who's going to control it? The developers. You might be a cynic and not trust them (in which case, why are you paying them?) but that doesn't make the idea pointless.
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It's important to remember that the 5% is from profits. It's not from Kickstarter funds, it's not from revenue. If the Kickstarter money wasn't enough and the project went over budget, Obsidian won't have to pay a thing until it made enough to offset that.
As for taking away money from future projects, that's true, but it's not what's going to make or break these projects. Besides, the point is doing something that's not selfish. It's easy to keep the money to yourself, but giving away to charity or supporting someone is what makes the world a better place. The cases where giving away a little part of what you have will have catastrophic results are rare.
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Good night, Cantousent.
I don't really mind. I couldn't care less about how much XP I get. Make a reasonable character progressions, if you tack some form of visible XP on it, that's okay, and it might as well be thousands of XP. Hell, make a slider of it, allowing people to get billions in XP if they wish.
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My Kickstarter funds are too limited to go up enough to get that novella. I'll have to make do with the one he will write for Wasteland 2.
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You're right about performance, Waywocket. No game requires a Core i5. None. Even the heaviest FPS games can work well with a Core i3, a Pentium even. A game using the same model as games which were released in the Pentium 3 era? Sure lack of optimisation will likely require a little more hardware, but the mobile CPU's in tablets are multi-core, and I'd bet they win in processing power against PC's from 10 years ago.
As for that quote, yes, that's certainly the problem I have with it. And not only that, but as I mentioned the Wii U would probably be a very straightforward port, UI wise, since it has the combination of touch and keys. I don't expect any conversion to the Xbox or PS3, I agree these controls won't make sense, but Feargus Urquhart's response really just makes him sound clueless.
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Since the topic keeps coming up in the Kickstarter, and things get lost in the comments there very easily, I decided to post my thoughts here.
I see two objections to a tablet version. One is that the interface will have to be different and if that's taken into consideration up front, it might negatively affect the PC based interface. The other is that it would take time and money which could be used for other purposes. (There's a third objection which says that tablets are not powerful enough, but I don't think that a game that's 2D with 3D characters will require power that these couldn't provide -- especially in 2014.)
One solution is to port to tablets only after release. This guarantees that the game is designed for the PC and all Kickstarter funds are used for the PC (/Mac/Linux) version. If Obsidian agrees even to this, I'm sure it will satisfy those who want tablet versions. It probably won't satisfy all anti-tablet people who would still feel that this takes away money from future projects or expansions, but I'll get to that point later on.
Now for a little more about the issues themselves.
First the interface. I admit that I haven't played the games in a while, but I dug out my Baldur's Gate and Planescape: Torment manuals and looked at the interface section. It's pretty clear from reading this that the interface is mainly mouse based and mostly uses the left click, although there are several things which use a right click. Shift and Ctrl (and Alt in Torment) are used as modifiers, but other than this it looks like keyboard is pretty much optional (and it's probably possible to live without these, either).
I have no idea how GemRB, the Infinity Engine emulator for Android, implements all the controls, and the YouTube clips I saw of it were rather limited (
). Unfortunately I only have an Android phone with a small screen, nor a MicroSD card with enough space to install one of the games, so I probably won't be able to experience this first hand any time soon.The Wii U and Ouya (which I don't yet consider a real target, but still...) look to me like ideal candidates for the game, in terms of user interface. Both have a controller which has both touch and keys, which means that it can easily emulate a mouse plus multiple clicks and modifiers, and even keyboard shortcuts.
Tablets are limited to touch, so there will be a real need to adapt the controls, but it shouldn't be a huge problem to include on-screen modifiers and simulate right click and other (less important) features that way. Such an interface will be less optimal than a PC one, and "power gamers" who like the keyboard shortcuts will likely prefer to stay with the PC, but it should be completely playable.
Display size is another area which might be of concern, but I'm not sure how much. That remains to be seen, and since PC's span a large range of display sizes, it might not end up a serious problem.
As for the concern regarding spending money on this, it's no different than spending money on any other feature. Take Mac and Linux, for example. They will likely require hiring people who are familiar with these platforms, paying testers for these platforms, solving bugs specific to these platforms. Take features like languages support (translating the game's text) or multiplayer -- they're outside the core features, and they will still cost.
Each such feature is meant to expand the appeal of the game to a larger audience. The idea is that in the end such expenditure of time and money will pay for itself by bringing in more buyers. Tablet conversion is no different. Creating a tablet version would open up a new market for the game, and therefore should be seen, like other features, as a way to bring more money for Obsidian, which will therefore help future development. Looking at this as a detriment to game development is simply wrong.
That's why I see no reason why a tablet version shouldn't be added as a stretch goal. If we get to a point where features outside the core game start competing for attention, a tablet version has as much of a right to compete as the other things I mentioned.
The cost shouldn't be great. Unity supports Android and iOS (and the Wii U and Ouya). I think it would be a mistake to completely ignore these platforms, which is where a lot of gamers will be. I'm pretty sure that by 2014 I will play a lot of games on a tablet, because other Kickstarters do offer the option (Shadowrun Returns, for example).
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I agree with Kai and Darth Trethon that Kicking it Forward could establish a whole new ecosystem for independent creators, and I think it would be good if successful studios will contribute towards the success of projects they like from smaller teams.
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I agree with Zephyr Falcon, having all the details in the game will be great. I'd love to have details of the world unlock as I play, to allow me to read more or keep track of what I've already discovered. All the data an illustrations can appear in game, in a way which is more easily accessible.
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Why make "over 25" the highest category? I'm way over that. My favourite is Planscape: Torment. I actually didn't finish it when it was released. I played a large part of it but stopped (don't remember why; I'm just not that good at finishing games). Years later I returned to it and finished it.
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I'm voting: "I hope Obsidian sticks to its vision and doesn't listen to what's posted on the forum." Obsidian has done well in the past, IMO, and I don't want it to stray from that path.
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Guns would make perfect sense in a fantasy setting and I have no idea why they're not a standard feature there. Why create an elaborate damage spell when you can use much smaller magic to apply a small kinetic force, some air pressure, a small explosion or a small fire (coupled with gunpowder) to move a pellet inside a tube? Especially in a world where people have differing levels of magic, I'm sure those with lesser levels would think of ways to compensate for that, and guns which are triggered magically look like a perfectly natural development to me.
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I want the depth of story that Torment had. I don't want extreme difficulty and micro-management. I want most of my choices for skills etc. to result in a non-crippled character, and I'd love it if there was an auto-save before a battle so if I lose I can replay it or avoid it. Purely optional of course, so hardcores won't complain too much. I don't mind hoarding healing potions or having to manage my battles, and I certainly don't want mobs to scale with my level. Realtime battles with pause sound okay to me, I'd hate it if they were click fests, but might like them better as turn based.
Still, I don't want extreme difficulty. I want a challenge that a casual but smart player can overcome.
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Frankly I want a fantasy RPG to evoke a feeling of wonder. I play a game to escape reality, not to get another dose of it. I want to play someone larger than life who solves larger than life problems, not someone who waddles in the dirt of endless conflicts and mundane chores. The OP had some good themes, because they can help create a good story, but when this degenerates to something like rape, no I don't want that in a game. Background, okay, put it in front and I'll just say thank you and goodbye.
One mature subject I find unhappily little broached by RPGs is the subject of childbearing. So seldom do we encounter directly the rearing of children as yet in their swaddling clothes. So seldom does a woman give birth.
It's perhaps simply a subject particularly alien to the thinking of the 15-19 male demographic which has predominated, in RPGing of days past. An unweened child evokes such radically different emotions in persons of different life experiences. But it is one of the focal realities of human life. We bear children. We rear our young. And we ought do so in our RPG stories.
Speaking as a father, why would I want that in a game? Child rearing is a difficult and thankless job, and the good thing about it is that it's your children and you love them. Why would I want to rear some NPC brat? Want to raise someone, play The Sims.
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Definitely more than $1.5M.
I think it's a little early to tell, but I'd say $3-4M based on the comparison with Wasteland 2 and Double Fine. I'd say it has the potential to go over $4M, but that would depend on how strongly it continues. The stretch goals so far give a good incentive to push forward, IMO.
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Psionics is basically magic with a different way of making it happen and different side effects. Given that magic in Project Eternity is soul based and not D&D-like, I think that the distinction might not be necessary.
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Food and drink are small problems. Smell, now that's another thing. When I'm taking these characters on an adventure they never take a shower, and quickly start to stink. At least include deodorants as part of the game.
Obsidian DLC Survey
in Obsidian General
Posted
I didn't answer the survey because I hardly play games these days, so figured my voice shouldn't count. But I agree with Achilles, in the 'good old days' we had a game and then expansions where we could take our character to another level (or start with another one) in a new story. That was a good model. I have no problem with a DLC when it's an expansion.