Ink Blot

Awesome! Give us a heads up when it's available.

I missed this when it was first posted. It's cool to listen to it now, knowing that they hit 4.1 million.

In an interview here, Merceror asks: Is there an ETA on when approximately you'll be sending out the item templates for the $1000 tier donors? How much info are we going to get alongside, since it's hard to design any item without the knowledge of the game mechanics? And Adam responds: It will probably be around the time when we really get a good basis for the rules system. Before then it will be hard to know exactly what sorts of features these items will be able to have. So it’s going to be at least several months. We’ll let everyone know when we’re getting closer to that point.

Wasn't he one of the three Busketeers?

Haven't had time to go through it all yet, but at a quick glance this looks great. Did you go through the 'Known Information' sticky here (I assume so, but never hurts to check), as well as the Reddit AMA summary and the Q&A summary? Anyway, good stuff and kudos for taking this on. I know it was a lot of work just doing the Q&A summaries, so I can imagine this one was a behemoth at first.

"That's why we have Canada." LOL

Makes perfect sense to me. And while I enjoy the newer 'RPGs' (I think it's because I've long since come to accept they're not going to be what many of us really want them to be, so I just judge them on what they are instead of what they're not), I'm very excited to see a return of the old style CRPGs in games like PE and Wasteland 2.

I generally don't like this type of thing in my fantasy settings, but as Josh has noted (more than once) it's not like they're going to be overpowered automatic 'I Win' weapons. The more I consider it, the more I see some very cool possibilities with them in the game. As an example, I can imagine kegs of black powder as treasure, which can be used for firearms, but perhaps also even used to make bombs/traps. Would be cool to have this as an option to give to your smiths/engineers in your stronghold.

I'm firmly in the camp of 'they know what they're doing'. I wouldn't have thrown several hundred dollars at the kickstarter if I didn't think that. As others have noted, they don't have to create their own engine, they don't have a publisher breathing down their necks, they already have their own tools ready to use (such as their own convo editor etc.), and I also believe they had a lot of the world, lore, possible story arcs etc. fleshed out even before the kickstarter began. It wouldn't surprise or dismay me if they turned out to need a couple extra months, but I highly doubt it would be much longer a delay than that.

Indeed, I believe you're referring to gog.com, where you can pick up Planescape:Torment, the Baldur's Gate games, and the Icewind Dale games. I'm pretty sure Obsidian won't mind us pointing people to the site, especially since they'll be carrying Project Eternity when it's released as well. As for me, I've been here since the start of the Kickstarter run*. Been quite a ride so far. I can't believe a man my age is as excited about a computer game as I am. Feels great though. Oh, and there are a couple threads for new people to check out if they're up for some reading and hungry for info on the project: There's the pinned What we know so far thread, the Summary of the Q&A thread (all the Q&A from the Comments section on the Kickstarter project compiled in one thread), and the Reddit Q&A. Lots to read there, even though siome is redundant and some is now out of date. Still plenty of info to keep you occupied/amused/excited. *Actually, I signed up on the Obsidian boards a long while back (during the NWN2 days, I believe) under a different handle, but couldn't recall the name I used or the password, so just made a new account.

Some ideas: Baldur's Gate 1 (you can use mods to run it in the BG2 engine so it will look better) Icewind Dale 1 or 2 (both are moddable to widescreen resolutions) Planescape:Torment (moddable as above) Drakensang The Fallouts Alpha Protocol Neverwinter Nights 1 and 2 (lots of community made modules and extras for both games available) Divine Divinity Nox Eschalon Book 1 and 2 Inquisitor Risen The Witcher 1 and 2 Temple of Elemntal Evil (with the Co8 mod pack) Note: some of these games aren't going to look great from a graphics perspective, and some are a bit far from the isometric IE gameplay, but they're all worth having a look at.

Hey, I can get behind this. Maybe an exit at level 5, one at level 10 and one at the bottom. That's fine by me. I'm not thinking there's a need for an exit every level or every other level. I got the impression the OP wants only the entrance at the top and maybe one at the bottom though, which I do not agree with.

Which is a good reason to have some exits at various levels. Because trudging up and down through level after level you've already cleared is the pinnacle of fun gaming. Amirite?

They said they'd keep the Paypal system open for a while after the KS finished. Not sure how you can raise the KS pledge through Paypal though (or if it's even possible).

Just going to post this for posterity. Likely the last update from the Q&A sessions (why does it feel like the end of an era?) Obsidian (Darren): Hi everyone! I'm basically the last one in the office at this point - everyone's headed over the our local watering hole. On behalf of all of us, thank you. I've met some new friends here, and have seen some old, and we look forward to getting going. We'll be in touch soon with another update on how the survey will work, etc. BTW, PayPal is still open so if you just missed the KS, you can still hit that up. Not sure when that's coming down yet though (in place of pre-ordering). ANYWAYS - Thank you all, and it's time for a beer!

*sigh* I caved and raised my pledge at the last hour. So $508. $500 tier + $8 for the Order. *looks furtively over his shoulder* The wife must never find out...

Okay, up to date Q&A as of this posting. It's a mix of the rest of last night's and this morning's: Question: Romances in PE? Obsidian: Don't have a definitive answer yet on romances for PE. It's definitely on our list of discussion points though! Question: I'm getting aware of the importance of level designers as more as I delve into the world of game development. they don't only do games Obsidian: Yep. To be more specific, Bobby's a level designer. Level designers at Obsidian do all of the level placement (things like loot, encounters, NPC's) and they'll also work on quests and some dialogues for their areas. Our designers participate in a lot of the overall design of the game. Even though Bobby may have the role of level designer, he'll undoubtedly give feedback on our game systems, and even come up with ideas that would get incorporated. Pretty fun honestly. Question: The reason I ask regarding the house and stronghold is, generally, it's easier to obtain a house, while a stronghold isn't called a stronghold for nothing since it's bigger, meaner, and harder to obtain (I would imagine so, at least). It would be a good idea to have a "basic" house people can have, or a house that's large enough to be adequate, quaint, and homie, but have a stronghold for the folks who really want to dish out the time and effort. Obsidian: that's my current understanding (a separate house, and then a meaty stronghold). But as a general disclaimer, I'm a programming/back-office type, and designers give me the willies... Question: So can someone tell me if I have this right? If I add $20 under manage pledge but don't change my reward tier then I get to choose what I want to spend that $20 on? (ie. me wanting to add on the expansion) Obsidian: Yep! I wish there was an easier way with KS to do addons, but Bruce P is spot on. We'll be sending a survey a few weeks after the KS to make sure everyone's getting the right stuff and settle any size issues, shipping addresses, etc. Thanks! Question: Any update on if the physical tier cd/dvd will be for all platforms, or we have to choose between the one? Obsidian: Don't know but I'm hopeful it'll be all plats. I personally prefer a key agnostic of platform, but I'll need to talk to the other wizards about how that will work. It's on our "FAQ Items to Figure Out List" though. Wish I could be more definitive! Question: Would it be possible to get the Chris Avellone novella in the .mobi(kindle) format instead of pdf? Pdfs render horribly on kindles. Obsidian: We're going to produce other formats besides PDF: ePub and Mobi. I'm all about those other formats and will make sure we get those. Question: I'm contemplating adding a Strategy Guide because knowledge is awesome and the more pdf's the better, but I don't want to if it is just a walkthrough. So, Strategy Guide, what is it? Obsidian: It should be similar to a guide you'd get from say Prima. It'll have the walkthrough stuff, but also inner details about stats, classes, critters, bosses, and more. Hope that helps! Question: It does, thanks! So then, is it fairly close to the printed game manual you get in the boxed set? Or are they two totally different animals? Obsidian: Mmm, I would expect the strat guide to have more detailed information. Like having designers comment on the stats, classes, and critters (with more internal details about them) versus just flat information if that makes any sense. Like the manual would explain the spell list and basic stats about them, but the strat guide would go into more detail about each item, perhaps explaining it's under-the-hood effects, etc. Question: question about the screenshot. Is that going to be the angle at which we play the game? If so, why is it at a lower angle than what most of the isometric style games seem to be at? Obsidian: Not necessarily. That'll be played with quite a bit over the coming months. That was one of the first things I mentioned when I saw it too. Question: you know of any word about giving us the GDD? Obsidian: No, although not sure that we'd do that. Our game design documentation is usually spread out over lots of different documents and filed in wiki-type pages generally, but who knows! Question: So Darren, what is your job title? I am unfamiliar with a lot of the staff and it's a little weird/creepy but I like to know a little about the people making this game. Feargus' name was so unique to me when I first heard it many years ago, that as soon as I heard his name, I came to see what game he was making. I'd like to know about what you do. Obsidian: No problem! I'm one of the co-owners of Obsidian. My official job title is "CIO / Vice President of Operations" but it's stuffyness intended only for business cards and non-game company communication. My actual job is managing the non-development aspects of the company (so the admin folks like HR, IT, etc.) and I also involve myself on our game projects in 'special' capacities. I do a lot of different things, typically involving programming of business info systems and stuff. Sounds incredibly boring, but I love it. I was also the producer of NWN2 and Dungeon Siege III, but I do less production stuff now. ..oh and at Black Isle Studios, I have 'additional programming' credits on Fallout 1, 2 and Torment, and I was a producer on Icewind Dale 1, the producer of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance and Icewind 2. Question: I agree with walkir. You should use any more money for better quality assurance. More stretch goals would be nice, but what we really want is an almost bug free and polished game. Obsidian: Truth be told, that's what I want too. The producery-type in me wants more solid polish and QA time, but that would be a HORRIBLE stretch goal to announce!!! Question: so if you're using unity, is stuff done in Boo or is it all C# and javascript? Obsidian: The guys all use C#. No Boo usage currently. Question: I have to admit, I'd love to have multiplayer as a stretch goal, but I have no idea how costly adding it would be. I'd be content with additional players just being unimportant sidekicks of the main player that can't advance the story by themselves. Obsidian: Sadly it's a lot to make sure it's done right. It has a lot of implications both on the game's design (moving away from a 'party leader' who moves the group vs. six independent people wanting to do their own things [entering buildings while others are outside], etc.) and also on testing (cross platform connectivity expectations, low latency testing, etc.) If we did MP, we would want to improve on how BG/IWD worked, but that would be a lot more expensive to do. Question: Any word on the XP for kills? Obsidian: The XP for kills thing is still an ongoing discussion here. Our goal is to make this a game that is reminiscent of the IE games and in my mind that does mean XP for kills. We just need to balance with other systems. Question: I hope you have a plan for the next stretchgoal, even if it's a "dedicated buffers for Q&A testing" or some such! No losing momentum! Obsidian: We have an update planned. Adam should be here soon and then we will get it up and explained. We have talked a ton about it, and it might be a lot of what you are talking about. Question: [some people really dislike] stamina/health ... not that you've even written 1 line of code yet [thoughts]? Obsidian: I was on the fence about the Stamina / Health thing as well. My thought on it right now is that it is worth implementing (not a ton of work) and then we can see how it feels. If it doesn't feel good, then we will change or pull it. Question: The loot bag US only is really a bad move. Really disappointed, there isn't only USA people that are backing this project. Obsidian: We can't ship the processors internationally. We are very sorry about that. AMD donated the 30 processors and we are not allowed, legally, to ship them out of the US. It is not because we love the US more than the rest of the world. We are pushing hard to support even more languages and seeing how far we can get PE across the world. Question: Then don't propose it ! It feel incredibly unfair for the others ! Obsidian: AMD was nice enough to donate the processors, so it felt like we should give them out. I guess we could have just kept them, although that feels sort of strange. Question: Why not full symphonic, orchestral music as a new stretchgoal ? Music is half the experience in a game or movie... and we still don't know what the castle is since you keep putting the current pledge on the map as if it were to reach it. :/ Obsidian: We are talking about that. We wanted to have Josh here for that conversation, but the was delayed this morning. Question: Tbh I am a bit dissapointed that the 200k surplus money isnt being used to put there where its needed. Right now it sounds like its only used for Quality Control. Which it wouldnt have cost if they "only" got 1.1mill as projected on day 1. I rather would have seen some new features, maybe a new companion. With more then 7 hours to go well get as least 300k (incl . paypall) over the 3.5 of City 2. PErsonal prefference ofc. Obsidian: It is not for Quality Control, it is for making the whole game better. We were worried that just adding stuff at this point would make the game feel like it was getting out of control. Question: Still think there should be a new stretch goal that can be done with the xtra bucks over and above the 3.5, just stick a 4mil one in and see how it goes, what can you lose its a win win, spesh with an xtra 500k + paypal Obsidian: We are going to talk more about it and are trying to come up with something that puts a capper on this amazing month. Now, the complete lack of sleep is hampering us a bit. Question: I would have loved to have seen a live Orchestra for the last stretch goal. Obsidian: That is a big thing we are still talking about. Josh feels very strongly about how the music should be handled, so we didn't want to decided without him. He unfortunately was delayed this morning. Question: Will the physical shipment be declared as gift with the production values on it? I really don't intend to pay lots of taxes/customs on a pledge. Obsidian: We will declare the cost of making the goods, not the pledge amount. Question: ive learned to believe what i read and what i hear from developers. "Making it better" is simply not clear. you can put a value on it.. but you dont know either. Thats the simple truth. Be open what you do with money.. 200-300k is alot money to just say.. "well use it to make it better" . All my personal oppinion ofc. Obsidian: We will do things like the following - add quests, variations on attack animations, unique spell effects, unique animation rigs with less rig sharing, art time spend on unique item art, more portraits. I guess that is "more" stuff, but it is to make the game more dense than broadening the borders. It will mean more game time and more replayability as well. response to a later comment related to this - Ink Blot And yes, we will have some more resources to put more work into the mod tools. Question: Can I make a suggestion unrelated to the processor drama? How about releasing some of the digital stuff over the next year and a half gradually so folks don't lose interest, similar to what's been done here. A little bit of map now, a little bit of fluff next week and so on. Maybe even give us the Campaign Almanac, map and some of the music beforehand? You guys probably already have stuff like this planned but i'm just throwing it out there in case you're as exhausted by these last few days as I think you are and haven't given it any thought yet. Obsidian: Absolutely what we are planning, we want to keep on talking with everyone and keep on releasing info. We will have some of the documentary to release as the months go by, web blogs, updates and maybe even some of the design documents. Question: Personally I would like to see more companions, only 8 isn't really a lot of choice, I know we can make our own but I and many overs prefer the ones who chat to us and have interesting quests etc. So how about an extra companion for every 100k or 150k or even just 2 extra companions if we hit 4m? :-D Obsidian: We are going to talk about more companions, but we did not want to promise it. It is a ton of time and there are not alot of writers that can do as indepth ones as we are planning. Our hope is to do more, but, in case we don't end up being comfortable with it - we didn't want to promise. Question: As an aside, how about an extra level to the mega-dungeon for every 100k over 3.5mil? I mean, people are already crazy about it. Why not make it the truly /endless/ depths? Obsidian: Not a bad idea. I will talk with Adam about that. Question: Do use some of the extra funding for the documentary (if needed) so it really becomes a big one and not just a camera in a certain meeting or viewing an art guy for X minutes. Could be a small stretchgoal for a little of the "extra" funding. Obsidian: We said we would fund the documentary ourselves, so I would worry that would feel disingenuous Question: How much do you figure making that documentary will cost? Obsidian: We have a couple of bids right now, but we aren't sure which way we are going to go just yet. We do know the guys, so we are getting a really good deal as well. So here's what sounds like the top wants: - A character like Boo - Town built outside of stronghold - Bard class (we have chanters though, but maybe people want the instrument part?) - Another class - New game + (but we have the three [stackable too!] difficulty modes?) - Sea travel (I liked this one) What else that wouldn't be a ton of new work? -Darren $125K in PayPal

Okay, going to toss this bit up now. It's from last night with Feargus. More incoming as I sift through the 100 or so pages of the Comments: Question: So, how crazy is it that PE is now #1 in everything except number of backers? Did you have any hope we'd get this far? Feargus: Hoped we would do well, but this is ca-razy! Question: any chance you could confirm whether each item will get it's own little lore write-up, a la BG/IWD? Feargus: I think all important items will have lore written up about them. Standard items will have information, but not a ton of lore. Question: you dreaming up a crazy last minute 3500000+ stretch goal? Feargus: Well, we have a list of things and have one in mind - we are debating about making sure it sounds cool and not crazy, since announcing something as big as another Big, Big City wouldn't make sense. Kind of a conundrum Question: Do you have some idea of the size of the game map in general at this point? Are we taking twice as big as BG? ten times as big? Feargus: No specific size just yet. When this all finishes up and we tally everything (including fulfilling all the physical good), we figure out how to make the game as huge as we can within the funding that we have. Goal = Make Big (but polished and dense). Question: can you make sure that quests don't get cut off if we're already in the middle of them? what i mean by that is this: when you change chapters in NWN2 you can have quests gone, just because the chapter change. and my brother is playing it right now and finds it REALLY annoying to have that happen. just a suggestion to cut down on potential annoyances. Feargus: Understood and not our goal, although it is possible that, under certain conditions, some quests just won't be valid anymore as the story moves forward. I don't want to hold us to 100% of quests always completeable based upon the story state, since that makes us compromise other things. Fair enough? Question: Ok, so I'd like a physical copy of the almanac. Any chance of this being an add-on? Feargus: We are talking about doing that after Kickstarter. We felt we needed to research that more, before adding it on. We were concerned about the double impact of large hard cover and weight for shipping. Question: One thing I really like in my RPG's is a roomy level cap. Is the plan currently to leave some headroom for us to really stretch out our gaming experience? Feargus: We usually design our systems so you don't hit caps. All the way back to the original Fallouts, we worked to have there be something to stretch towards. Question: Can you confirm if you will release documentary in episodic format throughout dev or post launch? Feargus: We will be releasing the documentary in some stages, but probably not every month. We will be doing a lot in the way of sharing with web blogs and other materials on top of the documentary more frequently. Question: No chance of a poster? Feargus: No poster at this point, but something we are looking at for the store. Question: Can you give me some more info about the memorial stone, how does it work/look, how many words can be written. Can there be chosen how it looks? (maybe a husband and wife in arms?) or gravestone ingame? Feargus: Sorry - there will, most likely, be some options to how it looks. We are expecting that when you hover just look at it you will get a short description. If you examine it you will then get a box with a much longer piece of text. Question: I'm in a digital only tier but would really like one of the physical add-ons. Any way to get a physical add-on and pay for shipping? Feargus: We are looking at putting up a store after KS at some point. That will let people order just what they want and then pay shipping that applies to where it is going.

I understand your concern and to some extent, I share it. But, they never said they wanted to make the game exactly like the old IE games. And there's always room for improvement, so I think they need to take some leeway to experiment with some systems to see if what they envision is actually going to improve the game experience.

The Health/Stamina mechanic itself I'm neutral on. I don't feel it's that radical a difference from just straight HPs. All it means is that you hvae a couple of HP pools to watch with Stamina being the most important in the short term. What I don't understand is how they think it will prevent rest-spamming. If people are obsessed with having full health, they'll just rest to regain it after a battle anyway, regardless of whether it's a single HP pool or a combined Health/Stamina pool. Anyway, as an aside for those discussing the Xp for kills mechanic that prompted dlux's departure, here's what Feargus said about it this morning: The XP for kills thing is still an ongoing discussion here. Our goal is to make this a game that is reminiscent of the IE games and in my mind that does mean XP for kills. We just need to balance with other systems. I'm currently trying to sift through the pages and pages of Q&A on the KS Comments section, so I hope to have a full Q&A update soon. Oh, and I just noticed Feargus says this about the Health/Stamina: I was on the fence about the Stamina / Health thing as well. My thought on it right now is that it is worth implementing (not a ton of work) and then we can see how it feels. If it doesn't feel good, then we will change or pull it.

Wait: what happened to dlux?

Today's Q&A: Question: Great update 24 as usual Josh and crew. Just one thing, please add some dwarven (I really love dwarves) and more "exotic" companions as well (ala Torment), some more "out there" characters. I would really appreciate that. The characters so far seem very intriguing, but I would sorely miss not having a dwarf (female even) companion or even a more exotic race or two companions (instead of just humans and elves). Feargus: She is actually a dwarf - we should probably have sized her that way on the image. Question: Welcome back. I love the fact the women are A. Built like real women who are out adventuring and B. Wearing practical looking armor. THANK YOU. Feargus: I'll pass that onto Josh. He really pushes for that. Question: Any chance to reveal who will handle distribution of Polish/Russian version? Is there a 1C/Cenega (no!) or maybe someone else (CD Projekt - hell yeah beybe:)). Please please, do tell:) Feargus: We are talking to multiple companies right now, since we want to make sure the translations are good. We've heard that some of the companies have not done a great job. Feargus: Hey everyone - a few people have asked about us opening up a couple more design a Tavern slots if we hit the $3.5M mark. Does that sound cool? Could not find the question or comment associated with this response - Ink Blot Feargus: Yes, we are going to include the Obsidian Order in the game. Not sure in the details, but they will not be the Obsidian Order of Street Sweepers. Question: You should include an OO roster somewhere as an easter egg. Feargus: Absolutely. Might want to use the total number of members as a special number in the game as well. Question: The word "Eternity", will it be in the game in some big way or was it just a name for the project to go with Infinity? Feargus: Not totally sure, but I think we will want to incorporate it. Question: since you just stated that their will be something special about the obsidian order in the game, does that mean its members get something special? If so you should put that up i am sure you would get many more people doling out the 8 bucks Feargus: We didn't organize the OO, and we like it that you guys do everything yourselves. So, while we are going to do something for the order in the game - we don't think it make sense to publicize. Maybe sounds like a strange distinction, but it feels better to just let it be something separate from actual Obsidian. Question: Looking back over the kickstarter project. Are there things you would have done differently if you woere to do another kickstarter. Feargus: That's a good question. I think we know more about how much work it is and how much time it takes to put together good updates. The biggest thing is probably the amount of artwork we need to have daily to keep things interesting. Rob probably wouldn't have drawn the guy in the dungeon image. But, that turned out really cool. Question: People have been asking about the possibility of the Endless Paths image becoming a poster once the final level totals are calculated. Any chance? Feargus: I think Rob would really like to do that. On the list as an offer in the Obsidian store that we will hopefully have up in the near-ish future. Question: i am still waiting for an add on for the in game companion or for a $50 tier that would be the game + expansion + in-game companion Feargus: Understood. I don't think we are going to create that level at this point. Our concern is that it could really confuse the tiers at this point. Question: Feargus, is there any chance of the final hours of the kickstarter being recorded? I've been trying to catch a cold all day so I can stay at home on Wednesday...not sure it's gonna work out though Feargus: We are absolutely going to try to do that. Will talk to Adam in just a bit to make sure that we are going to record the final hours. Question: Can you give me some more info about the memorial stone, how does it look, how many words can be written. Is it like a statue (maybe a husband and wife in arms?) or gravestone ingame? Feargus: We don't have a specific look for it just yet - but we will be sharing in the weeks and months to come. Our idea for the memorial is that we will have a pop up text that can be fairly long. Question: Any ETA on figuring out how long you will keep rewards up for PayPal? Feargus: We are really playing that by ear right now. A lot of people have asked to have it kept open until at least Friday for pay day. I think we will do that at least. Not sure how much longer than that. Question: So if I give my significant other the spare key in the 2-copy tiers, will their account also get all of the digital bonuses too? Feargus: Yes the extra copies at your reward tier all come with the in-game extras. Question: what about the possibility of show that screenshot with at least a basic animation? Guess many people is curious to see the water flowing Feargus: We are working on something for the screenshot, but I don't think we will show any animation just yet. The animators are doing some cool character stuff in Unity 4 though. They say the character animation tools in it are better than Unreal or CryEngine now. Question: I don't think many of us ever have put this much money down before. @Feargus how much was IWD to make? Feargus: Sorry, I usually just let that question slide by. I'm still under non-disclosure with Interplay. Don't mean to give a lame answer like that - but it's the case. Question: Would you know about how much Baldur's Gate II took to make? Or is that also non-disclosure? Feargus: Same non-disclosure and probably tied into non-disclosures that are now handled by EA as well now. Question: Would it be violating the NDA to answer "If we were making an IE game with the budget we currently have in and the technology/personnel costs of the early 2000s, how would the scope of that game likely compare to the IE games of that time?" Feargus: Flirting with it, so I'm just going to stay silent. Question:Would you feel confident that with the current budget you have now, you'd have the funds necessary to make a game as good or better than BG2 or IWD2? Feargus: I am confident that we can make an awesome RPG for what we have. Question: In case you missed my comment earlier today. Please make sure your dungeon artist is prepared for any last minute level additions. We need to have that dungeon image on the home page accurate before it's locked. Oh, could we also get a high resolution image of the final dungeon drawing? Feargus: Absolutely. Question: Who is the lucky person organising Obsidian's project close celebrations? Feargus: And, we need to get that all figured out tonight! Going to be a long one. Hopefully Josh will kill them all off soon. Feargus on becoming the highest funded Kickstarter game title ever: And there we have it. You all rock! Feargus: Paypal is at $99,266.33.

Random encounters will just be a giant annoyance if there's no XP award for them. Unless, of course, they're considered an objective and you're rewarded XP for overcoming it. I don't think there's an easy solution, since it's easy to just grind out battle after battle with every critter on the map and gain a ton of XP that way, and thus being overpowered from a design standpoint for some of the encounters. But on the other hand if XP aren't awarded for kills, it tends to take some of the enjoyment out of battles. Having said that, I'm pretty confident that Obz will come up with a good solution to it that will be satisfying for most players.

I have to agree with Tale. As an example, I didn't have trouble with Skyrim in that regard and it was the first Elder Scrolls game I played. Besides, if the player pays attention to the in-game events and info as well as checking out the lore and the journal, there should be little cause for confusion.

Aaaand, some Q&A with Feargus this morning: Question: I have three related questions for you. 1) In the box version, will the disk be in a CD jewel case, a DVD case, or a paper envelope? 2) Has any decision been made about the soundtrack being on CD for physical tiers? 3) Will the expansion be available on disk when it's released? I would love if everything came in CD jewel cases, so they would fit right next to all my other related games. No big deal though Feargus: (1) Our hope is a CD case, however we need to do costing out once everything is settled to see the break down (2) No. But one is being made very, very shortly. (3) It is possible, but we think it is unlikely. (4) Gotcha, and totally understand. Question: Also any confirmation on a physical almanac? Feargus: I don't think we will be adding the physical almanac at this point as an add-on. We want to do some work in figuring out the cost in both production and shipping first. Question: do you have further strechgoals planned? I would hate to see the campaign just stop at 3.5 if more is possible.. Feargus: Our big conversation for this morning will be further stretch goal(s), we have a short list on the whiteboard and need to talk through it. Question: With the success of this KS project, do you think you will consider publishing through the fans again in the future? I know we can't muster 40 mil for game development, but I like dealing directly with you way more than some corporate middleman. I mean, I still buy plenty of games that way. Its just this feels more like you are custom making a present just for me. Feargus: We absolutely would like to fund through our fans. The one thing we have talked about internally is when we can fund another game. It feels like we really should get PE done before asking for more (for another game). Question: Any word on that physical soundtrack? Feargus: Talking about it this morning - still before 9AM PST here, so it's still very, very early in the normal game developer day. Question: Regarding the documentary, will everyone above the $20/25 mark be able to stream, everyone above $35 be able to download? I'm assuming so, but thought I'd ask. Feargus: Yes, everyone inherits the lower tier features of the Documentary Question: Random Question: I have seen on the forums the discussions about the cost of voice acting and I have even seen people volunteer to voice act for you. Have you guys ever thought of doing online auditions or casting of fans? I am sure everyone here would love to gift some dialogue. Feargus: We have talked about it. After the campaign, our voice over producer, Mikey Dowling, is going to start working on plans and when we would want to do things like auditions. Question: Will we be able to register the Physical copy on Steam? Feargus: I know you will be able to add it to your game library (like you can with other games). Question: just wanted to say thanks for teaming with NEXUS as the mod site ... I have great respect for them and have used way way too much of their bandwidth Feargus: Thanks - I use Nexus all the time for Skyrim and Fallout stuff. Question: Around/between wat time(s) will that Tuesday morning tier be announced? If it is something cool I'd like to be able to consider it and not be asleep cause I'm not American. Feargus: We are hoping to announce that pretty early - trying for 9AM or 10AM PST. Question: So if we beat 3.5 million with time to spare would you add another stretch? Feargus: We are going to be working on that today Question: Anybody know the typical percentage of delinquent pledges for a Kickstarter campaign? It would be rather disappointing to finish around 3.55M total only to loose the second super city to fraudulent pledges. Feargus: The percentage is pretty small. We have numbers from both Wasteland 2 and PA. Feargus: PayPal is at $92.5K.