Tamerlane

How about colour coding stats so it's apparent when something is good, mediocre or bad, or even excellent.That way, even if you don't care about figuring out the stats, you can see at a glance on your character sheet what your strengths and weaknesses are. That would be idiot proof, maybe. I liked the str explanations in 2nd edition (hill giant etc) and the stat descriptions in planescape, they help me put my character in context. - Related to that; I was reading the Forbes review of BG:EE during which the reviewer hated bears that appear and 1 shot you (I didn't get that). So I asked my 4 year old nephew whether I should shoot a bear from a distance or run up to it and bash it in melee, he replied: "You should run away really fast, because bears have claws and teeth and stuff and if they hit you you might die because they're really stwong". At that point I had to wonder who was the more capable gamer (between nephew and Forbes reviewer) assuming the latter appreciated HP, low level characters, etc. So maybe that reviewer would actually need a big red sign floating above the bear stating: I'm dangerous and you should really think about your options before resorting to melee. Side-matter that has nothing to do with the topic at hand: It always bugged me how god damn slow the bears in BG were. Bears are really ****ing fast. Like, way faster than you or me. And I don't know where the myth that they can't run downhill came from, because they can. I've basically got a stick up my ass about how wolves and bears are portrayed in videogames, really. Resume regular conversation.

I don't understand where people get the notion that having a character that isn't super powerful or even god like is equal to him being weak or average. Its right there in the poll choice you selected: But I just want my character to be the physical manifestation of the second week of February?

I think they've said that the campaign should end with you at roughly the same power as in the first BG? I think? Suits me just fine. There's a certain charm to throwing on power armour and going crazy with a gatling laser, but I think for most people, the fondest memories come from barely scraping by, living from stim to stim, holy****thatguydroppeda gun I'm saved! Anyway, I favour everyone in the party being roughly equal in power but not necessarily in the same situations.

Or it was a worldbuilding thing where they didn't like that injury, sickness, and death were such minor incoveniences in a lot of other major fantasy games and they wanted to get away from that. The lack of a healer archetype would just be a side-effect of that. Though it's more likely that they factored both those things into the decision.

There's a whole industry devoted to teaching people exactly how to gain skill in persuasion its called PickUp, Sales, Politics, and the Psychology of Influence. Conversation go along patterns of communication, practice and experimentation can discover the likest reaction to ones actions and practice can build confidence. Also "inner game" aka ones internal thinking and effect external communication through body language and tone. Here's how I'd handle attributes. Charisma- Body Language and Ton, low Charisma you don't look people in the eyes, you slouch, whisper meekly, and lean in projecting subsevance, high Charisma you stand tall, look people in the eye, and talk proudly, plus your instincts for connecting with people is strong. To me Charisma=Confidence and Certainty and that allow can influence the uncertain. Intellence- You know just what to say, your witty, remember cool facts, and project expertise. Combine with Charisma for perfect comic timing. Wisdom- Observation, you look, listen, and pay attention. You influence people through pacing and leading, aka you mirror thier actions in a sublty way for a while till repore is created and then start to lead by making small changes to your body language and tone watch as they adapt them too. Also you can use your observations to making shaping compliments that encourage behavioral changes you like, although you need only pretext the desired attribute need not be there. Strength: Raw physical sex appeal, trim fit, impressive, but muscles and displaying ones strength and can be intimidating too, especially when used to imply a threat of violence. Dexterity- Good with your hands, a nice hand shake, pat on the shoulders, back rub, and so on. Endurence-Perfect for long conversations amoung other things. ... or we can say that trying to force very broad physical and mental attributes into specific traits is silly. Unless you think Of Mice and Men's Lennie is the scariest thing around, VtM's Nosferatu are sex gods, and the average nerd always knows what to say, is witty, and projects expertise. That said, the idea of a high-constitution character giving Castro-esque speeches amuses me.

The resting mechanic in the IE games was anti-good. Every time you hit the "rest" button in one of those games, something innocent and pure withers.

Of course, I'm not expecting an actual answer on that so early in to the game's development. Just A Thing to consider.

Hm. Something I'm wondering about the 4:1 (or whatever ratio they end up using)... If I take three stamina damage, do I take no health damage?

While I preferred BG2's system, my understanding is that crafting in PE will draw more from New Vegas than any other game.

Worked poorly for "Shaker"...

I think Josh has said that he doesn't like doing it that way, because then people don't even realize that they have different options. Interesting. Source? I just hope that in Expert Mode the visible stats are disabled. And i don't think that if people don't even realize that they have different options is true. If they read carefully the dialog they should understand their options. What exactly seeing that your charisma enabled you to use that option offers you? I do remember him saying that, but I don't know if he ever said it on these forums. Those quotes come from before they settled on their "Expert Mode" stretch goal, I guesst. I can link you to the source if you want, but I think it's behind a paywall, anyway. ... Totally not stalking you, Josh Sawyer.

: Bloodlines

Fair enough, and maybe seeing the approach in-game will convert me. I'm not sure if I understand the reputation approach though. It seems to me like a more convoluted application of The Witcher 2's dialogue abilities system *, and makes even less sense: why does a reputation as a diplomat help me solve situation diplomatically? If anything, I'd expect people to scrutinize me more. Who's to say that won't happen? I vaguely recall some Alpha Protocol characters being on guard against "charming" lines if you relied heavily on "suave" options in the past.

Priest, probably. Maaaaaybe fighter. **** doing damage. Just cover me in metal and put a shield in each hand.

Not true. There's also "Redemption" and "Revelations".

My understanding is that the tiger's facial expression is the result of him trying to keep water out of his nose. ... Looks ****in' awesome though, eh?

Also, the game will be real-time-with-pause, like Baldur's Gate, not turn-based like TOEE.

Truth: I vow to help the Anarchist cause. Lie: I vow to help the Anarchist cause. which one is lawful and which one is chaotic oh god help no stop hpelp He's supposed to be a Rashemi berserker, but since there was no Barbarian or Berserker class in BG1 they made him a Ranger instead (closest class available) and gave him a negative Wisdom score so that he couldn't cast any spells. They added the Barbarian class, the Berserker specialization, and the Rage ability in BG2. Instead of changing his class and risking to piss off the fans they decided to keep him a Ranger and just give him the Rage ability instead. The reason he uses a greatsword and has a Chaotic alignment is to make it more obvious that he is indeed a Rashemi berserker and not just some Ranger. All Rashemi berserkers are sworn to serve and obey the hathrans (Rashemi witches), despite the fact that most of them are Chaotic and NONE of them are Lawful. It's all part of FR lore. Great post, but it seems like something is... missing. From the end, specifically. I think it could use a little bit more...

The most famous IE titles, the ones that most backers have been very vocal about wanting to see followed in spirit with PE (Baldur's Gate 1&2) had very little in the way of skill checks in dialogue, and had very rudimentary reputation mechanics. BTW, I'm not a fan of Sawyer's proposed solutions. If a solution isn't better than the original mechanic, then I don't see the point of it, and I think Project Eternity overall would benefit from having at least attribute checks/unlocked options with dialogue, rather than reputation-based options and dialogue puzzles. Not having skills for speech doesn't necessarily rule out skills and attributes contributing to dialogue.

But... that's because they're mammals. All mammals have hair. "Aquatic" does not equate to fish or amphibian: whales, dolphins, manatees, polar bears, beavers, etc. are all varying degrees of hairy, water-loving mammals. Me, I look at the barbarian picture and I can totally see something like this going down: EDIT:

Yeah exactly my feeling. If they are fish people they should be less humanoid, no boobs, cold-blooded, fins instead of skin, no groin? alien faces etc... here is one example (just for inspiration, not completly same) http://gw2bydc.files.../2011/07/q2.jpg http://i382.photobuc...Moon/krait2.png but I agree that these are little bit too bestial There are plenty water-loving mammals, too...

As always, I recommend looking to RTS games in general and Starcraft in particular. I'd love to be able to mine-drag or run from a scarab to make it dud or throw down a disruption web.

Don't discriminate against short elves.

Fantastic interview. I'd gleaned a lot of this from kickstarter updates, formspring answers, etc., but it's great to have things more... solidified. The answer to number nine is new to me, though, and that's my absolute favourite. "I'm great at talking but terrible at lying" always felt silly to me, so the more they can move away from "you have a lot of points in this conversation skill so you can use this conversation option" and go towards "here are a bunch of dialogue choices, follow the one that best fits your character", the better. So long as "gain a reputation as a diplomat" doesn't follow along the lines of Mass Effect's terrible Paragon/Renegade systems, of course. But I trust Obsidian wouldn't do that. Because that was terrible.

Haha. I'm not the only one replaying Neverwinter Nights 2 right now. ****ing warehouses, man. Miniature god damn modron cubes.