Metabot

Lol so a sandbox game automatically doesn't have a strong plot and if a game does have a strong plot it necessarily isn't a sandbox game? Ideally, a sandbox game should have multiple interesting plots that the player can get involved in in some way. This us where skyrim fails entirely. I'm pretty sure the likes of Oblivion and Skyrim are open world games, not sandbox. Minecraft is sandbox. I've seen them referred to as sandbox games multiple times.

Lol. Just wow.

Having a bunch of crafting facilities is pretty lackluster and can be handled by a simple player home. A stronghold implies other, more interesting ganeplay possibilities.

Although the IE games didn't have this, the Elder Scrolls ceirtanly didn't start it. Ultima 7 from 1991 had a living world, where people slept at night and did chores at day. I am sure there are others, just using it as an example. Having people not loitering at the same spot day and night would benefit the game, and I am sure it can't be that hard to code(?) And to moridin84: Ultima 7 was not a sandbox game, though you could move freely in the world, there was a strong plot and story. Lol so a sandbox game automatically doesn't have a strong plot and if a game does have a strong plot it necessarily isn't a sandbox game? Ideally, a sandbox game should have multiple interesting plots that the player can get involved in in some way. This us where skyrim fails entirely.

Yea I'm not sure what would be wrong with adding this stuff in. It could add to wuests as well because you might have to find out where npcs are at certain periods of time. That is, if there is no quest compass and markers. The argumebt that IE games didnt do certain things isn't always the best argument. I don't think PE is meant to be like the IE games in every single aspect.

This seems a bit nonsensical to me in that it separates the self or the individual from his or her soul. To me the notion of the self, the part that thinks and reasons and chooses is the soul. The soul is that which animates an otherwise useless object. I can get behind the idea of reincarnation which leaves the issue of the memory wipe to contend with but still...that part is reasonable. How is it nonsensical in the context of fantasy? I mean this whole discussion is really pointless and nonsensical if you ask me.

harr harr They said it will some rts aspects to it.

""YOU CAN TRAIN AN ARMY SO THAT YOU CAN LAY SIEGE TO OTHER STRONGHOLDS, AND YOUR STRONGHOLD AFFECTS THE WORLDS ECONOMY AND YOU CAN EXPORT ORE TO OTHER PLACES AND SEE THOSE PLACES BECOME WEALTHY OFF OF YOUR ORE AND YOU CAN ALSO PERSONALLY GO INTO THE QUARRY TO MINE ORE AND YOU CAN MAKE YOUR MILITIA GO INTO DIFFERENT FORMATIONS AND AND AND"" Why have a stronghold with no army and no sieges...?

Sometimes hard decisions have to be made quickly. Furthermore, this would make choices more interesting. The Witcher 2 has timed decisions like this at times. I don't think every single dialog choice has to be timed or anything, but pivotal moments can be timed sometimes I think.

Good Lord....The door is over there ----->

This, too. After the games start getting released and people start (hopefully) realising that "holy s**t, these games are awesome!", then crowdfunding will really be in bloom. Yea, its fair to say that PE, DFA, and WL2 all have a lot riding on them in terms of maintaining faith in crowdfunding.

Brian Fargo has said multiple times that fallout took about 3 million dollars. BGII probably took a lot more to make. One thing people have to remember is that a game like BGII was pretty state of the art at the time. Now it isn't. Many of the techniques they are using will be cheaper now than they used to be, etc.

It's not meant to be a triple a game, that's the whole point. However, I do worry with how much will be taken out in kickstarter and amazon fees as well as failed transactions and physical merchandise. The point those analysts are making, I think is that you can't really fund a triple a game this way, but it can work for games that are not aiming to be that.

Why not from "thin air"?

This is exactly what I was thinking. I'm hoping that after a few levels or two, the architecture and feel of each level will be completely different because it belonged to a different culture.

Yeah but remember that they had everything pretty much handed over to them from Bethesda with regards to the model they were building NV on. I would think that the beta will be an effective method of determining if in fact OE will need more time to iron out whatever is needed when the time comes. I still at this stage have complete faith in OE to release the game when they state they will in early 2014. They have some immense expierence at their disposal In the end if we have to wait longer for the game to come out I am in no hurry. What do you mean everything? What're you talking about?

If it brings nothing to gameplay, and/or doesn't feed and inform the narrative, then I would be inclined to fill it in the cheap exoticism folder myself. To each his own I guess. Hmm if you say so. It builds the world. That adds a lot to gameplay in the sense of making it more believable and interesting. Yes, inventing a language is cheap exoticism.

It doesn't have to be about gameplay or decoding little messages. It's just about building a world that's different from our own, that in all probability would have a different language, or obviously languages, than our own.

"One of those elements is the character’s Culture, which is where he or she was raised. In our setting, race and culture are not intrinsically linked, so you can have people of various races growing up all over the place. " Very cool

I think you're making a serious caricature of the differences between those four classes. Maybe you should actually read the updates and descriptions. "Chanters can be found in almost any culture, but are most often seen in communities with a strong oral tradition. They are repositories of folk knowledge and common wisdom, tellers of tall tales and hallowed legends. Though chanters have a bit of minor talent in traditional arts of combat and soul-based magic, their true power lies in their chants. Chanters construct chants from individual iconic phrases and rhyming couplets they have memorized from hundreds of stories and poems, creating a chain of magical effects that plays out over time. "

You have to have limits in games. While I'm sure that everyone would love to see a balls-to-the-wall series where every minute choice you make has far-reaching consequences three or four games down the line, you need a lot of funding (all that additional content takes time to create, animate and write, and it's not a given that all of the player base will see it) and/or you need to be absolutely sure what you're going to do across the whole franchise. TWD was never going to have Carley/Doug stay with you for the entire series, not only because a majority of players picked one over the other (rendering the other a virtual non-entity and a waste in terms of budget), but that was development time going to two separate characters with their own unique dialogue and mission options. I doubt they could keep that up indefinitely, given the relatively short development time and budget. They've done well with giving the player just enough flexibility (cosmetic changes, moral decisions) to make them feel like they've made an impact on other characters. ME3 is a different case. While ME2 handled importing well (the game notably changed, most in text updates and extra snippets of alternate dialogue), the designers either lost their scripting maps or just didn't want to bother with creating all that extra content with a limited development time, because it homogenized every choice in 3 into the same outcome (and same ending), regardless of what you did throughout the series. There is little benefit to a person who played the entire trilogy (vs. a new player) besides an extra outcome in the Geth vs. Quarians plotline. If Obsidian is going to handle the concept of choice, they should (as others have mentioned) make it so that future installments run on a standardized set of choices (a la BG or Deus Ex), or in the event that they're planning alternate content and extra material for different choices, relegate to a handful of major instances that pay off down the road, without going into too many variables. Every choice you make in a strategy game has far reaching consequences. It just needs to be incorporated into rpgs.

The problem comes from too heavy of an emphasis on narrative rather than systems.

You people are dumb as rocks. As for the facebook likes thing, isn't it a good thing? It's extra content based on something that is free rather than more pledge money.

Oh god shut up.

Rogues are usually my class of choice. They aren't as boring as warriors or paladins and they're not as ridiculous as mages and sorcerers. The cipher might become my next favorite class.