The Sharmat

Loki was also a furry. He suited up as a female horse. That's how Sleipnir was born. Truly, the ancient norse were the most progressive of all cultures.

Jennifer Hale and possibly Steven Jay Blum will be in it. They're in everything. It's a physical law on par with the speed of light or Avagadro's Number.

You forgot Mira in KOTOR 2. Ok, not a rogue, but bounty hunter is pretty close.

Brilliant idea. Andrzej Sapkowski explores this subject in his Witcher septalogy. It'd be interesting for a questline to rely on researching and tracking down stuff by looking for information and weeding out the chaff from racial-centric accounts. And then get hit with a more or less honest text from the day. I bring up Morrowind all the time, but this is something that made its lore great. There were at least three versions of one of the major historical incidents that influenced the main quest, and even once you'd finished it you weren't really sure which was the accurate account.

Are we counting replays in terms of game length? a 20-30 hour main game can turn into 100+ if multiple playthroughs are rewarded by a branching plot.

They did fumble, but it's because they had no conception that the game would be funded so quickly.

Obsidian has the experience and contacts to get just the right voices for all their characters. Don't think we have to worry there. EDIT: Jennifer Hale is practically guaranteed. She's in everything. And that's not a bad thing.

Yeah I'm pretty skeptical that a change of diet and culture would cause the physical gap between genders to shift. I'm no expert, but as far as I can tell, if anything the modern western diet would already be closing the gap if that were the case, since the foods stereotypically associated with women would tend to dely the ossification of the long bones, thus resulting in larger women; while males are eating junkfood that speeds up the process.

Considering that a lot of the same people are involved, and are breaking from the standard model of game development just to make a game of this type...I doubt you'll be disappointed in that regard.

5 Companions + 1 PC= 6 man party.

Reluctant monster, I guess? But yeah, you can't just take these skeletons and call them characters. Don't we all?

I could see a plot/subplot of someone trying to retain their knowledge after death. But this is pretty far off speculation at this point, and I'm in danger of turning the plot into Planescape: Torment now. Good, I welcome you. And bring Wraithguard. I have need of it.

KOTOR 2 at least was buggy because of an unreasonably truncated development time. Can't speak for their other products.

Where's the horrifying construct? Is there a trope for that? I'm talking HK-47/One-of-Many type guys.

The chainmail is probably going to be heavier than the plate and leather combo, actually. D&D isn't the best soruce for ancient military tech.

Eight actually seems like a pretty good number of companions to me by modern standards. Especially if they're going to be deeply fleshed out. Mass Effect 2 had a ton of cool characters, but for the most part they just amounted to...well, a cool character concept. They didn't really get to explore any of them that much. I'd rather have eight high quality party members than twelve cool concepts.

This is inevitably going to lead to a "please no stereotypes, Obsidian" thing. So I'm just going to go ahead and assume these are the most barebones foundations of characters were talking about here. Because everything can eventually be reduced to a trope.

I think this actually depends entirely on what you want out of your armor. Chain is heavier, less comfortable, and more expensive, but distributes force more efficiently than plate, so is better against piercing weapons and arrows. Of course nothing will save you from a couched lance to the chest delivered at full tilt. I could also be a jerk and point out you could wear plate and mail at once, but...yeah I'm doing that. And what's wrong with lammellar armor? It's like a bunch of little plates. Flexible and sturdy.

I'm sorry your disappointed. A kickstarter pledge naturally presupposes a bit of faith in the project. Not sure why you pledged in the first place if you had so little of it, but whatever. Looking at the stretch goals though, wouldn't you be more likely to have these grievances satisfied by keeping your pledge? Since we can get like 3 more companions if it hits a bunch of milestones. Which seems likely given there's 30 days left. EDIT: Bioware is NOT Obsidian. This is kind of important and needs to be kept in mind.

Longknife: Guess it just amounts to different personalities. I can get attached to fictional characters in all the ways I could be attached to a real person...just to a lesser degree. Emotion-lite. Diet-attachment. Whatever. So I like seeing the full range of emotions and relationships. But if you don't, then that's fine and you naturally have no reason to want it as a feature. Different strokes.

And if this is the case, what would people think of that? I rather like having memories myself, thank you. Not that the denizens of that world necessarily know the nature of their afterlife.

Good voice acting adds a ton to a game, and both Bioware and Obsidian have excellent records on that count. But it's EXPENSIVE, and quite time consuming. The hybrid way would be best for the game you guys seem to be aiming for. Introductions for major characters voiced, as well as the really important dramatic scenes, but the rest pure text. I actually LIKED that Mass Effect was fully voiced, for the record. The developers were going for a very cinematic, hollywood blockbuster sort of feel. And there's nothing wrong with that. But it's not what a game like Torment or KOTOR 2 are about.

This is actually a pet peeve of mine. But I'm sure you can wear helmets in game. They're just posing or something. Yeah short hair is objectively better than long hair for combat. But it can say something about the character. Perhaps they aren't really professional soldiers, or they are and they maintain it out of vanity? That's only if you're really good at the game. Most players will die of starvation or dysentery first.

I'd really rather that not be the standard we hold female characters to. Moonlight Butterfly: See, you get it. Those are beautiful women wearing practical armor. No reason we can't have our cake and eat it too. (Again, I must point out I'm not against titillation or even bikini armor per se. I just want it kept in its place)

And god, please no monocultures. Humans have tons of different social norms and religions and philosophies. Why shouldn't elves?