Nakia

First the OP has the right to voice his opinion and he has the right to withdraw his pledge for any reason what so ever. However, the title of the thread is provocative at best and in my opinion untrue. I see no where that Obsidian lied to us. The game itself is in the very early stages of development. The planning stage and they are asking for suggestions and ideas from us. Four or five years ago I read that it took somewhere around 5 mil to develop a game. Devs need salaries to live on, feed, cloth, house themselves and their familys. Equipment costs money. My computer, the tower, alone cost around 1,000 USD. Their is sound to be considered. Someone needs to compose the music. That person will wish to be paid. Clerical staff, bookkeepers, secretaries, accountants, lawyers. I honestly don't think Obsidian expected the initial response they got. So they tried to come up with one they felt was an obtainable amount and geared their initial thinking to that amount. "If we can get 1.1 mil we can do this much" Well they got that in less than two days. Don't hassle them. They need to east, sleep and do other things just like the rest of us. They get headaches, virus and like to watch a TV show just as we do. They are creative people and creative people need time to relax and have fun. Creative people need to toss wild ideas around and laugh. Creative people need space. Once that is done then the work begins. We can help with that creative process but be reasonable. I am not going to get every thing I want. You are not going to get every thing you want. The Devs are not going to be able to do every thing they would like to do. Four pages of arguing over something that is still in embryonic stage is ridiculous. Lets move on to more productive things. Such as, can we please have some innovative monsters" Quests other than "Go fetch the Tablet of Exmora/" Fun companions. Eight possible fun companions is enough for me. Better that then thirty or forty blah companions. Magic and skill perks? Chances are I won't be happy with anything, not completely.

I too hope for a modding toolkit. Modders can add a great deal to a game. It is important that the toolkit be bug-free and reasonably easy to learn how to use. If even experienced modders have problems with a toolkit what hope is there for the novice modder. Obsidians's priority should be to have a good stable, bug-free, interesting game. So let us be patient and hope a toolkit comes out when the game is known to be in good shape. Conflicts between a toolkit and a game can drive a modder crazy.

I hope there will be a DRM free copy available. I have several Steam games including Fallout NV. There are advantages and disadvantages. Many of my friends do not like Steam.

My favorite party in BG/ToB was when I played smart evil. Edwin, the Dwarf Krogan, Sarevok, Jan Jensen. I like characters with a twist to their nature. The mysterious old lady appeals to me since that is what I am or would like to think I am. :D

Yes it is important as it makes the world seem more real. It can give back ground to NPCs making them more interesting. It can also be just fun things not really lore. On the subject of lore if the lore whether story related or not becomes so dominant that people start arguing, not discussing, but arguing than I don't like it. Common sense needs to be used when dealing with lore. Lore can be fact, fiction, myth, someones biased interpretation or even a misunderstanding. Game lore is what Obsidian says it is not what I say it is.

Agreed Sound takes up memory, a lot. It can cause problems for lower level computers. Skyrim is fully voice acted. It can be very annoying. There are times when I find myself screaming at my computer "shut up!" Stopping myself from having my character kill the speaker. I love good voice acting and it adds a lot to the game for me but it is tricky. As an amateur voice actor I know that it is not a simple matter of picking up a mic and recording. There is a lot more to it than that. You would need professional equipment. How much time and effort would it take for Obsidian to adapt the many different types of sound they would get from people using various types of equipment and sound editors? Assuming the opened voice acting up to people around the world. Just listening to thousands of auditions would take time and money. Sure a lot of us would love to have our voice in the game but I certainly do not have available to me the equipment needed. Being a drama student does not automatically make one a good voice actor. I would like the main characters fully voice acted. Casual background conversation in Taverns does add to the atmosphere. No matter what Obsidian does someone is going to complain. This is a USA company. I really am not interested in hearing hundreds of lines spoken in "standard American English" or obviously fake accents. I like variety. Give me good legible text over crappy voice acting.

As for stronghold vs house I was not aware that Obsidian initially promised us a stronghold. So I see no broken promises there. In fact I see no false advertising or broken promises. Before I made my pledge I watched the video read about what they aware planning. Having played quite a few of the games made by Obsidian I have faith in them. In fact I date back to Black Isle Studios. You want hype and broken promises? Go to DA:O and DA2, go to Skyrim. We are backers and backers take a gamble. No game is perfect because you can't make everyone happy. We each have different likes and dislikes. At least this game is being made for PC players. Too bad if the console players get left out but I am very happy that I will get a game made for the machine I use and prefer. At the moment I have no idea how they will handle the class system. As for magic I have yet to play one I really like. Skill perks? Again I have not been that happy with any I have played. The main things I want in the game are: A good story, fun quests, interesting companions with good dialogue who interact with each other, challenging battles and puzzles. I don't want my hand held, I don't want to be treated like a numskull, I want to need to think, to use strategy. I want to have fun and be entertained. If Obsidian could make a game like Planescape/Torment I have trust in them. I also enjoyed Fallout NV. IWD I & II, Arcanum. Probably left something out. Also, if someone decides to withdraw their pledge that is their right but please this is a fan site, official fan site, We are free to speculate, to make suggestions, to discuss. Bashing the game before it is off the drawing boards is bad manners. It is counterproductive.

Sound takes up a lot of memory. However the Infinity Engine games did have voice acting as said it was for the main characters and it does add immersion to the game. Modern games are using it more and more. The recording would be done towards the end of development. Eliminating voice acting would be going backwards and not forwards. I am sure the developers will come up with an acceptable balance. The most important thing is to have a stable, bug free game which will not overload computers.

Women play these games too. More and more women are playing them. Treating female characters as sex objects and eye candy is demeaning. Wearing bikini armour is just plain unrealistic. I play male characters sometimes and other times I play female. If you guys just have to have your sex candy keep it to the inns or shop keeper or just a simple peasant woman. If a character is a warrior or a mage or sorcerer he or she should dress like one. I like muscles on the men but I wouldn't expect a warrior to walk around in an outfit that wouldn't protect them from a pen knife.

As for voice acting I love it if it is well done. I turn off sub titles and dialogue text and really feel that I am part of what is going on. If the voice acting is poor then it ruins the game for me. I would like more voice acting as a stretch goal. You do not need to hire expensive movie and TV stars there are plenty of aspiring voice actors of all ages.

I would like something like Monte Carlo suggests. I don't care for fast travel. Prefer a transport system of some kind although I do get bored back tracking through dungeons, caves, ruins that have been cleared out. Arcanum had that exit spell, either scrolls or a mage spell that took you to the exit of the area. That would be nice to have.

Which reminds me I do not want to be able to do everything first go. I want choices and consequences. I want to think about what I am doing. I want to be challenged.

I like the stronghold and think it should be up gradable/customizable. It should be earned via a quest. I voted #1 but maybe a stretch goal would be better.

Are you a modder by any chance, fan? The game is still in the very earliest stages and won't be released for at least a year and a half. I do hope it will be moddable. Mods are not only good for the players but they add rep to the game itself. They prolong the life of the game and actually get people interested in buying the next game in the series or just looking for games by the same developer. Other games by Obsidian have been moddable so this one probably will be too. Hopefully easier than FNV.

I agree we need new monsters. I hope the Devs have good imaginations. Also a little dialogue other than, Ugh, Now you die might add to the game.If we have to have vampires at least give them some intelligence and the stats that vampires are supposed to have. Sorry folks, I recently finished playing Skyrim and am just plain bored at the idea of fighting mindless beasts.

YOU ARE BEING RACIST TO NUDISTS CHECK YOUR PRIVELAGE CIS SCUM If nudists want to wander around fighting rats, bandits and those blasted wolves while dealing with bushes, stickers, ticks, rocks, tree branches and weeds depositing itchy pollen on their private parts that is fine with me. My party keeps it clothes on.

One I don't see mention and that really annoys me is wolves. Why does every fantasy RPG have zillions of wolves. Many of them running around alone and attacking armoured adults for no reason. Wolves run in packs normally. Wolves do not go out of their way to attack people. Sheep yes and maybe a stray child but a party of adults? Please Obsidian some more interesting monsters than wolves. I am sick of them.

Just when will we being walking around nude? If the males get nude women then the females get nude men. But why? There was an Oblivion mod that provided me with a marvelous castle which I filled up with companions and some of those companions got skimpy clothing via another mod. In real life we do not wander around nude. There is a time and place for nudity but walking the highways and byways of a game don't strike me as a place you would want to be nude. I am adamant that I want appropriate garb for my character and my NPCs. No bikini armour, no wandering around in the brush nude. That simply is not safe or comfortable. As for idealized bodies it is a male idealization. A female adventurer would be strong, have muscles and not look like a pampered great lady or something else I won't mention. This is ridiculous. As someone said a modder will come along and give you nudity if you want it.

Arcanum had smash able crates, kegs, doors, windows but you could also cause them to jam and not be able to unlock them. I don't remember if they reset after a period of time. I think they di. I loved smashing things. However a bunch of crates or barrels with three red apples in them is not my idea of fun. crates that explode, creatures that mimic crates, crates with something worth while in them in small numbers are fine. Why does the food in crates and barrels in the TES games never go moldy? There should be moldy food in some of those crates, kegs, barrels.

11 PM EDT and the pledges are over 674,000. Wonderful.

Hokay, here goes with an older female opinion. 1) Armour, if the men want females dressed in skimpy bikini armour ofr outfits that no self respecting warrior would wear that is fine by me as long as they are optional. If I play a female I want a proper outfit. Most likely I will opt for my fighter/rogue character but I want decent outfits for my party members. I don't mind a little sexy male casual outfits either. Women like to look too. Just play fair. More and more women are playing games. 2) romances, again play fair give us females some decent choices. No wimpy, whining males that I want to slaughter rather than romance. Make the romances slow and optional. Keep the sex private. 3) Dragons? I liked the dragons in Baldurs Gate II. Some were good, some were bad and some were interesting. Skyrim type dragons are boring. None of those please. Don't make them the center of the story just incidental.

Thank You, this is exciting. I hope it is alright for me to use my avatar from IWD II. I love this character and have been using her name for nine years now. I wish I could use her image everywhere. I have played so many of games. When I heard the news I rushed over and made a pledge. Need someone with a shall we say mature voice for voice acting? Strictly an amateur I am afraid.