[Physical Goods: I haven't received mine yet - when are they coming?]

Hi,

 

This says that physical copies would start shipping out when I patch 1.04 is published. I see that patch 1.04 has been published so has shipping started for the $65 tier  yet?

 

In my Orders tab it still says "Shipping Soon".

 

Thanks

[If Obsidian + Kickstarter = ?]

Hi,

 

Planescape: Torment is probably my favourite game of all time so I'd obviously love something set in that universe, I understand though that such a game would go with licensing fees and to a degree may restrict creativity.

 

Aspects of the PS: T formula that I would love to see in an RPG though are the integration of the role playing and the story. I loved the fact that I had certain dialogue options because a certain statistic was at the right level and that I could develop the Nameless One in such a way that it would enable him to further develop his relationship with his companion characters, which would in turn improve them. This forms a lovely feedback loop that I'd love to see more often in RPGs.

 

Regardless of what game systems you have, they should not feel separate from the story. I don't want combat sections with its own systems and then dialogue sections with their own fixed systems so that the game ends up feeling like a collection of different games that are strung together to appeal to different audiences. An example of combat-story integration would be a sci-fi game where one of your squad members has an emotional break-down in the midst of a heavy firefight so that you have to get them to snap out of it in order to regain control of the fight.

 

With regard to combat, I would like to see a reduced focus in combat since in many ways a combat focus degrades storytelling. Solving character conflict by having one character beat the other to death is a writing cop-out that has unfortunately become the mainstay of story-telling in games. If you do include combat, there should be proper story motivation and a fight should be charged with the same fear, rage, and desperation of a real fight. With the absence of emotion, combat (even if tactically interesting) becomes repetitive from a story-telling perspective.

 

In the same way, characters should properly react to the shock of combat. One could never take a character seriously that slaughters hundreds of enemies and then has a quiet chat with a merchant over the price of potions. Until games solve these types of pacing problems, they will never reach the level of story-telling in other media.

 

The final point that I'd like to note, is that one should never discount the wonder of discovery when encouraging player attachment to a game. Magical items should feel magical and special. Modern gaming has engendered such a sense of entitlement in players that every gets everything for doing what is expected and in the end nothing feels special. You should reward a player that pokes at the walls of the game world, either by exploring or interacting with the systems in creative ways. I remember many items in PS:T that were integrated with the story or could be manipulated in some way to improve them in a way that is not tied to some abstract upgrade or crafting mechanic. A cursed ring that attaches to the Nameless One's finger comes to mind as being a particularly fun sequence in this vein.

 

And that's a few small things that I can think of now. All of these are just small things, but from the other posts that I've seen and the creative strengths of your team, an isometric RPG with a strong storyline would be the right way to go for a smaller, fan-focused project.