Ieo

Exactly this. It's amazing how actual information and decisions from the devs themselves are parroted and yet some people refuse to accept that reality and actually question Obsidian's developer competence and business sense on the matter, which far surpass anyone here. It's not a matter of other players being "just afraid" on the level of paranoia when the devs themselves talk about limitations and such. These requests are basically on the level of continually asking for console ports despite Obsidian's publicised opinions and decision about that. It comes off as very whiny and childish: If you're desperate for only that feature, then remove your backing and go. I certainly would do so if Obsidian went in a different direction from my own priorities. The issue is really closed.

The only bit I remember is from the Known Information thread in PE/General: Sawyer confirmed somewhere that the graphics will be like ToEE--pre-rendered 3D hand-touched like 2D with 3D sprites and some objects.

If the dialogue UI can't support something like this, it is automatically crap:

Gods, I hope so.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qpKf_b5SDI

I really like it. The spikies remind me a little of my avatar () or an ancient sun emblem. The snake-like pattern in the ring still reminds me of the ouroboros (uh, and something else), but is more of a Celtic knot feel, which is pretty classic too.

One other thing occurred to me concerning DT vs. pretty much all other dungeons---there was no simple good/evil in the backstory narrative, and I think of historical events that are tragic due to inevitability. It was quite layered, that is. That's quite something to pull off for a typical dungeon with bosses, I think...

Close to BG2/IWD. If it wasn't clear enough already... OP's beef and string of thinly veiled tirades across the forum started, I believe, upon the announcement of the keyword "cooldown." He's basically a Vancian purist (although my friends explained where "Vancian" actually came from, and D&D didn't do it right, so whatever). I'm not convinced that merely the addition of cooldowns will somehow pull PE away from IWD/BG2-style gameplay. There are so many creative ways it could be implemented, and I think the OP is just being narrow-minded in this respect. Anyway, because this thread is basically pointless.... I'll add something to the little side discussion about Dragon Age. I do think DA:O was fine on its own--but it was targeting partly the wrong audience. My hatred for DA:O is quite personal. It was just too different from BG--I might've appreciated certain elements, sure, but it just wasn't what I was expecting. Worst part? DA:O was sold mainly for being tied to Bioware, and I thought "Baldur's Gate? Bioware? So it must be good, right?"

See, that's what I HATED about Durlag's. I never got any further than the 2nd dungeon level because all the "walk into each room one step at a time and wait for the red outline to appear" makes those maps so incredibly tedious. Making the player nervous is fine. Making the player bored is unforgiveable. The traps in Durlag's did the latter. For you, yes, and other players loved that sort of thing in DT too. There were very distinct differences between the implementation of Durlag's Tower and Watcher's Keep: DT: Multiple external quest hooks to send players to the dungeon Cohesive backstory with consistent application across levels, requiring memory of narrative information Enemy attacks were monster-in-wait but also tightly integrated with the actual storytelling element Access puzzles and riddles (well, not exactly riddles I guess, more like quizzes, and related to the narrative) Soooo many traps. And puzzle traps. The boss... was related to the dungeon in a different way. The narrative actually related to the main storyline of BG1. Optional, but added quite a bit of flavor for me. WK: No external hooks to the dungeon Backstory is relevant only at the beginning, a couple parts in the middle (e.g. the elf), and the end Enemy attacks were more varied and tactical than DT's but didn't have much to do with the narrative--i.e. enemies were just stuck there. Not many puzzles, but the few were interesting, a few very interesting riddles, but totally unrelated to narrative. Some traps. Definitely not as many as DT's. Pretty normal boss in the narrative sense. The narrative was very tangentially related to the BG2 storyline--"Everyone is out to get you!" Personally, I much prefer DT's implementation, maybe with more puzzle traps instead of thief/rogue traps, and with more tactical variety in the way of WK.

I think the key in terms of balance is to ensure the additional class powers don't make external content too trivial and players don't feel they must complete the dungeon to handle other content. But yeah, basically there must be good rewards at the end. I think in terms of combat, people are pretty much expecting the same category of difficulty for a mega dungeon. But the narrative is the part that gets me hooked to even go inside--mere loot isn't enough for me.

My only request in relation to planned sequels and expansions is that the base game must be able to stand alone on its own legs per narrative, like BG1 did. I think this is less a problem with expansions than with planned sequels/trilogies/franchises in general, though.

I really like outside world quests leading to a dungeon--still optional, but feels more natural. There were at least three ways to get into Durlag's Tower, I think, not including just waltzing in the front door. Watcher's Keep was rather isolated and felt tacked on, but that may not matter to some people anyway. I'd like some depth to the enemies in relation to backstory, although this depends heavily on what's intended for the narrative, of course (e.g. the despairing monster in DT from whom you learned stuff). I'm hesitant on this only from the balancing perspective; these "special powers" would have to be pretty special to traverse a mega dungeon for acquisition, but at the same time they can't make such a big difference as to out-power regular skills you acquire out in the world. I'd rather stick with the traditional loot in that case, but I suppose if these powers only make a difference at the optional difficulty levels for boss fights...

I was wondering if that had any relation to the emblem on Cadegund's chestpiece--something to do with soul channeling or something. Sweeeet.

I'd just like a large, cohesive, interactive story that requires narrative memory like Durlag's Tower. (I want to be treated intelligently not only in combat but in other ways. Riddles or puzzles are fine with me, though I know they're not everyone's cup of tea.)

Hm, yes, what about live instruments? Hire some local talent? Particularly---inns, taverns, major cities--we might see little groups of performer sprites here and there. The sound of a "living" acoustic cello is significantly different from an electric cello, at least to my ears. With enough "instruments" in a score, that becomes less noticeable, but there could be some good flavor and color there. I'm not sure how that would work as part of a stretch goal, though.

No. It's just weird to ask for super high frame rates for a game that's basically an upgrade of ToEEE's graphic system. I only think of FPS for MMO play and any of the other 3D zooming fully mobile camera games with lots of talking heads and cinematics. I mean, Project Eternity is neither a First Person Shooter nor "action" CRPG.

(1) Be duly disappointed since it's official. See sig. There's still time to remove your backing. (2) Not all of them. Not the best one. *cough* Sig poll. P.S.: To everyone saying that there's no point to a single-player game---it's okay to take your ball and leave. PE won't be worse off for it. PE is not for you.

Point of clarification: Title really should say "in-game console commands" because "CONSOLE" will probably make people think you're asking for a port. (Although that may be a good way to drum up more views and discussion, I suppose.) In general, I like the idea of an accessible command console... On the other hand, I would really hope that major bugs like being stuck in an area or an NPC not triggering will be ironed out in the beta--a huge beta due to Kickstarter access. Per mods, while I would like them available, there are too many factors that only Obsidian knows about, which is why we have Update 12 and the projection that they won't be able to consider them until some time into development. So I have to remain neutral on that.

What? I don't remember the IE games ever having anything like that. Aren't frame rates necessary for things like, I dunno, 3D animations and big cinematics and whatever?

Yes, I was using your post mainly as a hook to make my point, since I'm sure others reading the thread and who voted may or may not have experience with it and may not even know what the terms really mean.

The MMO threat mechanic... I didn't see it explained in full, so briefly--the idea is that whoever has the highest threat in a party combat situation, that person's toon will receive aggro from the enemy in question (aggro is binary, threat is cumulative from damage done, healing, and other action sources). This won't work in PE because the threat mechanic, besides basically providing some measure protection for the glass cannons, is the essence* of cohesive and coordinated group play involving 2-24 individuals (typically). In an MMO. Adding a dynamic threat component to PE would be ridiculous work and would radically increase micromanagement unnecessarily--because the proper threat calculus relies on different values for every offensive damage skill, every spell tossed, every heal amount! No. A taunt is a temporary and artificial increase in threat. In practice, it works but doesn't make sense and then wouldn't work in PE for the same reasons as above. But there have been some other ideas in this thread that can work--I think that at least some of the classes should have the ability to try to protect someone (sure makes sense from an RP POV too), and this would require some interaction with the enemy AI at a skill usage level. Illusion, misdirection... Zeful mentioned movement modifiers like shield bash or something to "get in the way," which could work (perhaps activating the skill will allow the sprite to move very quickly to the target for application, like a charge or tackle)--it makes sense in a combat situation that if you're going after the priest and a warrior gets in your way and starts smacking you, you're forced to deal with the warrior first before you can get to the priest. This sort of skill shouldn't be available all the time, of course. What if some classes could cast a 'semi invisibility' spell on someone else? What if soul is involved in some creative way? The very basic premise should be addressed, but the threat+aggro mechanics aren't the way to do it, IMO. Edit: And another thing. The reason why threat/aggro works in MMOs is because it's hard enough coordinating a bunch of individual players--the combined mechanic requires a crappy enemy AI (with typically scripted fights). On the other hand, a single-player game should have the flexibility and power to offer some more impressive AI. *I'm speaking from the bias of a former raiding main tank.

Couldn't and elf be a human? Couldn't a human be a dwarf? Yes, yes and yes. Have you never role played an elf who is actually a human (race reassignment surgery) but thinks that he is dwarf? What measure is human? What can change the nature of a man? (Sorry, couldn't resist.) Also, given what Feargus said about there not being 'paladins' in PE, I'd expect there won't be "bards" but you will be able to specialize close to it somewhere--I just don't know where, since I never played a bard in BG/IWD.

It wasn't only Russian, it's same situation for other Eastern European countries. I really hope Obsidian does not dismiss this issue and there is some clarification on who is doing translations and/or if we'll have content available through other channels than them. My only assumption is if there's already some kind of agreement in place just by virtue of announcing in Kickstarter, judging by the wording: "And, for our Polish- and Russian-speaking fans - we are very happy to announce that distributors in Poland and Russia will be handling localization for these two languages, so we will be able to provide them without requiring a stretch goal!" ---so even if they'd like to change, they probably wouldn't be able to... That is possible. It's why I'd prefer to know for sure. If it's part of an exclusive deal with 1C/Cenega, akin to what Bethesda did with FO:NV/Skyrim (=region lock on Steam, likely to affect any content down the road), I'd rather know. This would enable me to make an informed decision as to keeping/adjusting my own pledge and a recommendation to those friends who are likely to wait for a localised, boxed version. Dodgy answer from Feargus on today's Kickstarter Q&A, courtesy of Ink Blot:

Answer about paladins from Feargus, today's Kickstarter Q&A brought to you by Ink Blot: I much prefer this approach with "paladin"--the word is just way too loaded with underlying expectation of alignment and everything else.

Actually, I thought that was a "manifestation of the soul" of some kind. If you look around the group, the same glow is around their feet, from the wizard's hand, emanating from Cadegund's chestpiece symbol. I think it's more of an artistic stylization at this point since we don't know the exact soul mechanics.