Piccolo

I don't think they should steer away from the IE games too much. The goal should really be to create the ultimate IE-style game, taking the best aspects from all of them and improving upon some of the flaws. It's also pleasing to see them take some inspiration from other oldschool RPGs though, like Darklands. The main thing I really don't want to see are any modern RPG trends like excessive streamlining, hand-holding, cinematics, etc.

They could go for another I guess. I'm not sure what though. I think a better approach though might be to just let the Kickstarter run it's course now, and if the end result is significantly above 3.5m (which it will be), announce some extra content in the end of kickstarter announcement.

That seems like a big waste of time and resources to me. We already have memorial stones for those who wish to leave a small mark on the game.

This was always going to happen. I'm surprised so many people doubted we'd reach 3.5m.

Yes, but why is the journey (as indicated by quantum of donations) stopping just shy of the castle? If we follow your line of reasoning, then the journey to the castle should end at 3.5m. I'm not saying they're not planning to go beyond 3.5m - perhaps even adding one final stretch goal - I just don't think the castle was intended at all to reflect ideas for an additional in-game feature.

I think people are reading into the castle too much. Do you see a big city where the 3.5m goal is? Or a statue of George Ziets at 2.8? No, because the artwork isn't intended to reflect the goals.

Call me boring, but I really want a big old medieval city with half-timbered buildings. For the second city, perhaps something more unusual like some of the settlements in Morrowind, if Morrowind were an isometric game.

I would prefer it if they just put any additional funds they receive after the Kickstarter towards more general stuff, like upping the scale of everything (gameworld, quests, dialogue, lore), rather than feel pressured to come up with new and exciting features every week as stretch goals.

For, however I do like this idea for a slight compromise:

I hope they stick to their guns too... but welcome to the downside of kickstarters - a very vocal minority can have a huge negative impact on the game because the devs feel overly obliged to listen to the fans.

I think this is a good compromise.

Nice update. I really like how health/death is being handled.

Any chance someone on Reddit could ask whether we'll be seeing any more artwork like the dwarf ranger before the Kickstarter comes to an end? Also, a name of the artist would be nice, as I haven't seen this mentioned yet. There's a lot of discussion going on at the moment about various portrait artists... but I really don't think we've seen enough from whoever did that piece.

YES!

Thanks for posting these, Loranc. I can't tolerate Reddit.

3.6 million - Another race I'm completely satisfied with the number of companions and classes.

With the difficulty modes they added, along with the Adventurer's Hall, I expect replay value to be fairly high... so whatever the length of the game, i'm optimistic about getting 100hrs+ enjoyment from it.

Well level scaling breaks my immersion even more. Paying more money for a more experienced companion is far more logical than only ever being able to recruit companions that are roughly equal to your character's level.

If the choice is between a money sink and having companions in the Adventurer's Hall somehow scaled to your level, I think i'd much rather have a money sink. Also, I disagree that having a location called the Adventurer's Hall sounds too artificial. In a world of fantasy and adventure, I think it's perfectly plausible.

I share most of the OP's concerns. Crafting in particular is something I kind of wished they would have left out. It's always something fans are going to ask for just because it seems like a cool feature, but honestly, I think it's a waste of time that often detracts from an RPG experience more than it adds to it. I hope such signs are going to be very subtle, and not always present. Certainly nothing that detracts from the believablity of the gameworld or holds the player's hand too much. I actually like it in RPGs when I can occasionally encounter enemies far beyond my character's own abilities by chance - not necessarily because i've deliberately ignored warnings and ran off into a dangerous area. That might seem punitive or harsh by modern game standards, but I really don't feel as though I need to win every single encounter. Sometimes, running away should be the best option, especially at lower levels. Of course, escape shouldn't always be possible and a character's movement and evasive skills should be a factor, not just how quickly the player can react. That's one of reasons why I prefer turn-based combat to real-time. Fleeing feels like a more natural and viable option with less interference from player skill/reactions and lock-on AI.

I think the humour should be subtle and quite uncommon. Also, no modern humour. All humour should be appropriate / relevant for the setting.

I would imagine lot of the standard dialogue options will be fairly intelligent sounding anyway, so there's probably not much need for them to go to the trouble to make special options, as is the case with low intelligence. Unless of course you wish to roleplay a pretentious character who deliberately uses as many big words as possible in a sentence to seem intelligent.

I quite like the visual style of the UI in King's Bounty: The Legend. It's fairly solid looking, but not as intrusive or ugly as something like BG: The portraits would obviously be a little less cartoony, and of course, PE is a very different kind of game, so in terms of functionality it would need to be different with a lot more options. But just in terms of visual style...

I don't get why everyone loves the DA:O UI so much. It really reminds me of World of Warcraft, only with less things to click. Practicality aside, I think it's the wrong look for this game. Something more oldschool would work better.

Feargus in a little lamb outfit asking for people to "baaaaah-ck us"