Ink Blot

Update from last night: Question: Oh, and something that came up on the forums earlier... people were asking whether the boxed copy of the game would be DRM-free or Steam-only? Feargus: For the box, we are either going to give someone the option or it will be DRM free. Question: Will there be intoxication effects in PE? Feargus: Not sure. I'll put it on the list. Question: Feargus: any chance we could get a glossy paper map at the 65 box? Really want a map, but don't want to go to 140 for the cloth map Feargus: Talking to Adam more about rewards and add-ons, I will put that on the list. Question: Are there any detailed plans for the economy system in PE yet? Will it be very simple (just buy and sell) or more sophisticated with things like volatile prices and proposals, external shocks, limited merchant budgets, specialized merchants,bargaining merchants and so on? Feargus: The plan right now is for a fairly standard economy. However, we do include in our stores (normally) specific, to the store and controlled by variables being set externally, mark-ups and mark-downs. So, we can simulate some things changing or being different in stores. I don't think we will write an algorithmic based economy though - more state based. Question: will there be bikini armor for the barbarian class? Feargus: Josh has a lot of opinions about armor that makes sense and doesn't. Question: Will there be pickpocketing in game? And I don't mean only from player's side Feargus: We have not talked about you getting pickpocketed. Question: What are the special behind the scenes things going to entail in the book? Will they be substantial? I originally was confused and didn't know what exactly was meant for the $35 tier. Feargus: We are going to put some info in there about the development of the game. Some pictures of us doing our thing, what our crazy whiteboards look like and the myriad of hats that Rob and Avellone buy and then walk around in. Question: I think people would up their pledges if you promised to sign the CE boxes along with the rest of the team. What's carpal tunnel syndrome when you're getting closer to 2.5 million in funding? Feargus: I'm going to sign the boxes as well. My name isn't in there because we were worried all the rewards were getting way too long. Kind of silly looking back at it now. Question: How's the paypal side of the drive going? Feargus: It's at $22K - so that means - $2.4M is done folks! Question: Do you know the dimensions , size, pages of the book ? Feargus: Sorry, we don't yet. It will be cool though. Question: Then it all will be old-school - player-thief and not a single pickpocket around it. Cool. But at least NPCs in game will be angry when you taking their possessions when they can see it? Oh, but don't overdo it. I'm just got tired from the way in Oblivion stolen things seemed to have @STOLEN@ written on them - because I couldn't explain how "law enforcers" can identify stolen silver fork among two others Feargus: From my perspective as a game maker (nothing I've ever talked with Bethesda or Todd about), they did that for balancing reasons and to make being a thief cool (getting access to more places you can sell stolen things). For balance reasons if everything can just be taken then you could just rip off a whole town and immediately sell it. Less of a big deal later in the game, could maybe hurt the early game a bit. Maybe. Question: Any ETA on when you'll have the next (and probably last) set of stretch goals for us? I wanna know when I can stare longingly at the goals we might not be getting to. Feargus: Soon.... Question: about a possible add-on: a picture of you, josh, chris, tim and whoever else is in the top level of the development of you guys just goofing off or something, and signed by each of you. seems like a fairly minor thing that could possibly drum up a decent amount of add ons. Feargus: That would be a pretty minor thing. We are looking at some other Physical Goods that we can put up as add-ons that could also be stuff to sign. I'll talk with the guys about it tomorrow (Sunday). Question: oh yes, a signed cloth map would be amazing. Feargus: I'll definitely talk to the guys tomorrow about signed stuff. TBH - I hadn't thought of that aspect of adding things. Question: Feargus, anyone mentioned about featuring a "pet" that is really functions as your "live journal"? Essentially you get a soul / conscience that follow you around that you can talk to, to have her (or him if you so choose) repeat what was last said by which npc, follow up on your quests and give hints as to where to head to next if needed, and participate in banter with you and your companions. She is however a non combatant, and doesn't take up a companion slot. Kinda like Morte form PST. It would have cool to have a journal to be like that, to be "alive" but ah well. Feargus: Definitely a cool idea. Question: I just really hope you don't have spell casting done using a "Latin Incantation" system. I have always hated that sort of thing, I mean, Latin was not the first spoken language and if the "Spirits" are even halfway intelligent they would know modern languages. If you have vocal spellcasting, especially since it is Soul Power based, please just let it be a sort of personalized "Focusing Ritual" for people to put their concentration into form, and let the words used for the casting be modern laguages. I know if I was a Wizard I'd rather chant, "Let my anger be as cold as the arctic! Ice Javelin!" or "Let the fickle goddess guide me to a better end! Blessing of Fortune!" than "Bastardized-ium Latin-is!" It would also be more interesting to see "focusing rituals" for different cultures than have a single archaic language for all spells. Know what I mean? Feargus: Josh is the guy designing that aspect and I'm sure he will come up with something that makes actual sense and not just a standard fall back. In college he studied history and all of that is very important to him. Things making sense, not the use of Latin just because it is "historic". Question: Have you guys considered writing a PnP system for playing in the Eternity world as a backer reward? Feargus: We've talked about it a lot. Nothing definitive yet

Okay, got some more stuff: Question: About the pet. 
Would you consider instead, to add in a non-combative companion, a spite/spirit /soul/whatever (fairy sized) that essentially follows you around and acts as a live journal? Talking to her, you can check on your quest status, or even get hints or prompt as to where to go next. The thing is, even for a cosmetic pet, I would like to see them make their presence felt and have a reason to have them around. Even if only to carry on in a banter with our companions. Feargus: We will talk about that a bit more. Everyone will get pets, but the special KS pet is for the $50+. Question: Regarding the pet, what kind of size are talking about here? I'd like a red fox, or something similar if there are no foxes in the world of Project Eternity. Feargus: It will be something small, but not tiny. Question: Will we be getting more information about the $50+ KS pet before this is over? And don't you dare says it's a cosmetic paladin pet. Feargus: Artists are working like crazy on stuff ( the ones not working on South Park ), so we will see what we can do. Question: the player's house right now is just a place for your characters to be picked from and maybe rest at safely and free of charge but has no quests or developments such as BG2 and the stronghold does? Feargus: The house currently is a light stronghold, so a bit more than a straight house - but not a full stronghold. Question: Feargus; If I pledge $50 but am not at the $50 tier (maybe $25 dollar tier + $25 for beta access) do I still get the pet? Feargus: That is a good question. Let me talk it over with Adam. Question: "Everyone will get pets, but the special KS pet is for the $50+." You know that completionists won't care about that but about the fact that some content is forbidden to them (not enough pledge or coming after the Kickstarter). I'm quite sure that you know that it's impossible to please everybody. And quite sure that you know that the KS pet will be modded for "commoner use". Maybe "KS of 50+ get a exclusive pet unlocked by default, the rest must complete the game at leastonce"? Being vanity, I don't care about pets being exclusive but at the same time I can understand people like WIzard Ham (and also been burt by the stupidity of preorder bonuses) Feargus: Not a bad idea. Putting on the list. Question: Will we be able to hire npc guards etc to protect our stronghold, and maybe even have a battle or 2 defending it....... Feargus: If there was a Stronghold at a certain stretch level then that might be something we were considering. Question: Any ETA on the update for today? Feargus: I'm your update for the day. I'll be on every other hour or two until about 1AM PST. The Friday and Tim update got put into one update and we put up at midnight PST. Ink Blot Notes: Feargus, you're killing me trying to keep up with these Q&A sessions! Question: I'm pretty sure you won't give this question a straight answer, and you've probably heard it before, but ... ... Have you guys discussed the possibility of having George Ziets onboard? Maybe as a stretchgoal? (like WL2 did with Avellone) Feargus: Yes we have talked about it. Question: I'm glad people keep mentioning George Ziets, means i'm not the only one who thinks he'd be brilliant for this project Feargus: We think he is brilliant as well. Question: Have you considered doing a reddit AMA (Ask me anything)? That has helped alot of other kickstarter projects get their viral load up to critical mass in the past. Feargus: Planning one for next week. Either Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. Question: Is the mega Dungeon designed to be just hack and slash to the bottom? Or do you play to create a story that ties the dungeon to the main quest? The reason I ask is that unlike an MMO or Diablo type game where the main focus is loot, I would like to have an important story driven reason for wanting to complete the Mega Dungeon in PE Feargus: There will be lore and story behind the dungeon. It will probably be a little more action focused then the more story areas - but we always work to put story and meaning in every part of our games. Question: I heard there was an internal screenshot. Will you guys consider releasing a screenshot towards the homestretch to get more folks to pledge? Feargus: We are working on it. Hoping it is at the level we want for the game by next week. Question: Screenshots are really advanced stages, you need to have an engine, background, characters, whatnot to freeze a frame. Feargus: PE is a bit different when it comes to screens, since the backgrounds are pre-rendered. Question: so you have finalized characters and backgrounds inside of an envrionment that will look like the one we'll play in when the game publishes? Feargus: Hopefully a finalized background. Not characters yet. Question: Will we be able to make our pet(s?) stay at the player house if we don't want it to follow us? Feargus: We hadn't talked about that - so I'll put it on the list. Question: In one of the interview articles there was this awesome artwork of a mage character... don't remember his name. Something starting with A? Anyway, could we get a full version of that artwork with the next update maybe? That would be cool. Feargus: We will be releasing the high resolution mage artwork early next week Question: I'm not sure if this has been answered yet, but will there be regenerating health in this game? Feargus: Yes and no. Josh has some cool ideas for that. Question: Hi guys, you are speaking a lot about game mechanics, classes, etc. But what about the life in the world ? Will the NPC have something to do or will they stand there waiting for someone to speak ? Will we get across some others adventurers' groups that may be helpfull (ie: we have to go in the same dungeon but have different objectives) or will try to kill us ("hay lads ... nice stuff ya got thar") ? Will animals/creatures interact with each other in random/procedural events (ie: wolf hunting for food or a Horde of orcs ambushing a merchant's caravan) I think it would be a really cool addition to the background, you will not be THE Aventurer but a group in a world that could live without you Feargus: We are working on a system that has the NPCs do more than stand around along with reacting to you and reacting to the state of the world and the story. Question: will you use a karma system like the one in fallout? I thought it worked better than alignment Feargus: Something very much like that, but you'll have various kinds of karma/reputation that better simulates your actions locally, globally and with specific groups. Question: Does WotC have the rights to the Lim-Lim pet seen in the Planescape: Torment, or was it an original creation? Something really odd like that would be a great pet. Feargus: If it's in Torment it is either owned by WotC or Interplay. Forgot about the Lim-Lim! Question: Yes, i have read it and let's say it made me very curious. I am digging those ideas about non-combat. I think the question I have, is how much can be done to avoid repetition of solutions to avoid combat. Let's say, finding a secret passage to espace a combat is fun and very rewarding but not so if that solution is repeated many time. Do not take this as a critic, I am just wondering as personaly I have no clue on how to do it. Feargus: Our goal with the non-combat skills is to have them keep you engaged. Question: I have one more question before bedtime... Do you think you'll release a screenshot before the KS ends? Feargus: Possibly. It needs to be amazing, so that is what will make it happen or not. Question: Might i suggest getting Chris, Josh and everyone at Obsidian with twitter to tweet about facebook? Feargus: That's a very cool idea. I'll get the word out. Question: Any idea on what platform will be used for the beta? I think Steam would be more convenient for pushing the updates, although not everyone will like the idea. But since the beta is separate from the actual game, people could play the beta through Steam and still get their DRM-free game on launch day. Feargus: We have not settled on anything, but you are correct Steam would be a great way to do it - and we've done that before with Beta testing.

Just adding this to a separate post. Feargus posted this on the Comments page a while ago Bolded sections are mine, not Feargus': I think it may be important for people to know if they use Facebook at all. Note: this is on Obisidan's Facebook page, not the PE Facebook page (which isn't their creation). Had another idea for a stretch - see if you all think is too strange / wierd. We really want to get the word out to people that haven't heard of PE, so we thought if we could get to something like 20K likes for Obsidian on Facebook we would add another level to the dungeon. That is less than half of the people who have pledged. Ok idea? Feargus has also talked about setting something up on tumblr as well as possibly getting some Twitter action going).

Another Q&A with Feargus. Sorry this one's a bit late. I was out when it occurred. I also should point out there was a lot of controversy at first about the pet, and I tried to avoid the superfluous back and forth about it. So if some pet related comments/answers don't seem to quite make sense or go together, this is likely why. Anyway, here it is: Question: Just what were you thinking? This pet, because it is cosmetic, and has no real value should not even be in a tiered pledge. Give it to all, or make it a pledge goal and make it worth pledging for. Feargus: We were working on giving something a little extra to the people who have pledged a little higher in appreciation for that. We looked at a lot of games and how for the CE versions of the games, they would offer a special pet that you got with that. The pet goes to everyone who has pledged $50 or more. We will get all the tiers updated. Question: Haha, I forgot about mods. Mods do solve everything. I predict non-combat scripted pets (by script I mean they occasionally chip in dialogue at various parts of the story or in response to certain events like your hp getting low) within a month of release. Probably actually less if a modder gets their hands on a beta copy and starts modding early. Feargus: We spent a ton of time talking about supporting mods, there were a lot of concerns - but in the end it really is just fun to see all the stuff everyone can do with our games when we open access to them Question: As a sidenote, you guys should totally add actual ingame pets you can get that don't count towards party size that have script involvement (but are probably non-combat). Ranger pets, pixies, whatever. Feargus: Absolutely - those might be called Animal Companions, but I didn't just say that. Question: I know most of you don't agree with me, but I just believe everyone should get the same game. I realize that it's just a pet and that it will have little or no impact on game play, but I feel that even those who pledge less than I should benefit from the exact same experience. After the pet, what's next? Additional skins for the $110 tier? A new class at the $250 tier? A new region for the $500 tier? Where do we draw the line? I associate this type of practice with the big publisher tactics we're trying to get away from and it's definitely disappointing to me. That is all I have to say on the matter. Feargus: The line was already drawn. We talked before this all started and told ourselves we would not offer any game affecting content that only some people would get. Actually, that is not true. We have talked about giving the higher level tiers - $250+ free copies of the expansion pack (full adventure like Sword Coast). Haven't decided on that one. An expansion pack that would come out months after the game Question: Ahh, in which case would those who pledged the highest digital only tier also possibly get the planned expansion? As in 2 digital expansion copies? Feargus: We are still toying with a higher digital tier. If it had something like the expansion and another digital item worth as much as the game - what amount do you think makes sense? Question: About the update graphic- the one for the MegaDungeon in Update #16 was wonderful. Please put something like that on the main page, drawing each level as it's added :D. Feargus: Thanks! Adam and I are going to be working on the main page a lot today in preparation for the next week - where I don't think he and I will be sleeping much. Question: Sorry for bugging you, but I guess you missed my question. The problem: As of now, there are 25k backers at $20. This is the single largest group, and thus the most important one to encourage to raise their pledges.Some campaigns I've taken part in had a really neat way to encourage early backers to up their pledges. The question: would you consider sending an email to us at $20 and offering us to get higher levels at an $5 discount, not by switching pledge level but by adding the amount to our present pledge (eg adding $25 to get to the $50 level)? That way... a) people at $20 don't have to pay relatively more to get to a higher level than those at $25 = rewarding early backers AND encouraging the single largest group to up their pledges b) you don't loose out, since as the system stands, most vacant $20s are probably taken by those at $25 Feargus: hat's really good idea. The tough thing is how Kickstarter works. The only way we can do that is by offering more tiers that would get gobbled up before you guys could get them. Hmm.... We could offer something that was worth $5 for you guys, but I don't know if Kickstarter keeps a record. If we offered something else that was worth $5 to everyone at $35 and above? Just thinking here, trying to work through how the system works. Question: Roughly what would the scale of each level of the Mega Dungeon be? Feargus: A good size? If you played IWD, the levels of Dragon's Eye or thereabouts is what we are thinking. Maybe a bit more as well. Question: I haven't yet played IWD. I'm a young gamer(the age at which I started gaming, not my actual age. .), and I just picked up the D&D collection on GOG a few weeks back.. Playing BG right now.. Others are queued up.. :D Feargus: Ok, I can give an example. The largest map in BG is an 8x8 map, with each square being a 640x480 screen. Each level in our dungeon will be, most likely, between a 6x6 and 8x8 BG dungeon level. Question: Another question. Would it be possible to add $ 140 to my pledge to get a second collectors edition? I'm thinking about gifting one to my brother but I don't want to pay additional $ 30 for international shipping. Feargus: Let me get that on the list, I'm not sure just yet. Question: Hi there, regarding the $1k tier, any chance we can get more info regarding the level to which our items/NPCs can be customized, what the process will be, etc? Feargus: Shoot. That was what I was going to do this week. I'll be in the office in a few hours talking with Adam and we will make sure to talk about getting info out on that. Sorry for the delay. Question: Are you counting the donors on Paypal towards the dungeon level? How many donors do we have via pay pal now? Feargus: We are internally and are going to get the art updated today with all the PayPal info. Question: Will the loot improve the deeper you go into the dungeon? Will there be mini bosses or even an end boss? Feargus: Better items as you go deeper - definitely. Mini-Bosses - yep, we often call those Lieutenants. Big Boss at the end - why spoil the surprise? Question: Yeah..Saves question: for instance you make char A.. you see saves A-Z.. then you select char B and you see save A-H specific for that character.. I personally find that you see character a-Z's saves all in one list is very annoying. Feargus: Gotcha - I agree and on the list. High up. Question: When possible, can you give us some information regarding the differences you anticipate between high-end items we help design prior to release compared to the player-created items WHEN that stretch goal is met? Obviously there will be backstory for static items that ship with the game, but will one be "more powerful" than the other? Feargus: Very qood question. Let me check with Adam to see what he was thinking. We don't want to restrict data, but the items you guys create will be powerful in the game and matter. One thought is that we want to associate the designed items with quests. Question: can you elaborate more about the mod support? we're obviously not talking about a game editor a la nwn here so what? forum support? guides? download sites? (add anything else you want here) Feargus: We are going to work on releasing as much as we can. I don't mean for that to sound ambiguous, we are still early in working with Unity and figuring out what can be released with it (taking into account what the different versions of Unity allow people to do) Question: I have three questions for you: 1. you mentioned briefly in the initial video for this project that you wanted to add things to the game that you were never able to add before because of the publisher. What sort of things do you mean? 2. do you plan to have the ability to have your own character bio, similar to that of BG and BG2? 3. where do you plan to release this game, outside of Kickstarter? (GameStop, Best Buy, etc.) Feargus: (1) I don't have specifics other than the game in general is one that is a very hard proposition with publishers at this point. (2) Yes, we are going to have a place where you can put your character bio in. (3) Not sure yet. We are going to talk to distributors about that and see if we can get it into stores as well. However, that might not happen - which means the boxes that from the reward tiers in KS might be the only ones. Question: I know you've decided against full voice acting - does that apply to the companions as well? Or will it be as in NWN2 where the companions were fully voice acted (which I personlly think is great)? Thanks ) Feargus: I think the companions will have more voice compared to other NPCs in the game, but I don't think we will be voicing every line. We want to give the writers the ability to "go nuts" and not worry about bleeding into another voice session (300 lines = $3K to $5K with SAG, director, studio, etc...). Question: wow thats mighty expensive.. someone asked this allready once.. but do you know the budgets BG and BG2 had? Feargus: I do. That was when I was at Interplay and there are these pesky confidentiality agreements. Sorry. Question: Will the encounters in the mega dungeon be scaled according to which floor of the dungeon you are on (e.g. instead of 5 ghouls you encounter 5 ghouls and a lich on a lower level)? Or will each dungeon level have a fixed level (e.g. the first floor has level 5 monsters, the second floor has level 8 monsters, and so on)? Or a combination of both? Feargus: It will get harder as you go down into the dungeon with each level. The one thing we have been talking about is if different dungeon tiers (every two or three levels) are a bunch harder than the last tier, so you have to come back after you have gone up levels. Not sure yet. Question: on the progress chart you see a castle ontop of the dungeon.. will that be there? so x layers + a castle ruin layer? Feargus: You know it might - I'll have to go back and look. The castle is ummm... artistic license... Rob liked putting it up there to give context to the dungeon. However, castle ruins would be cool. He might just have created more work for himself. Question: My question was about the possiblitiy of wearing capes above armor.... Feargus: Honestly, I don't know. I would say we would want to make sure we had plenty of armor / clothing variations for classes, races and NPCs - after we have a good number of those, we would look into doing stuff with capes. Question: So you can only get the game right now if you pledge? As of now, it is up in the air whether it will be released outside of Kickstarter? Feargus: Yes, we need to figure out if we can find a distributor who will want to take the game to retail. Question: people wondered earlier today whether the dungeon, if deep enough, would become like an underdark or ultima underworld with it's own cultures and subquests, ones unseen on the surface Feargus: We had talked once about adding a stretch goal ( really high one ) to add in the "under-dark" equivalent for the game as a while, not just the dungeon, can't remember where that idea went. Question: Capes are hard to do. In ToEE, they had alot of clipping but they were flowy. In games where there is no clipping, they too stiff and look bad. Best just not to show them. Feargus: We got them to work in KOTOR2, because your "armor" under them didn't change much, so we could use 3D Studio MAX to render out the animation for every single frame of every single animation. Ugh... It took months. If we had lots of armor variations it wouldn't have worked or every time you changed armor we would have had to load all 300 to 400 animations again. Question: How functional and customization is the Player house going to be? Will there be shops, storage, etc? Feargus: t will have elements of those, but it will still be a house. When we get to a stretch goal that turns the house into a Stronghold the size of Crossroad's Keep, then it will have multiple versions of all that stuff. Wait, what did I say? Question: Will I get pet to my add on copies of the game or is it limited only to those copies which come with my CE edition? Feargus: Good question, let me see how that would work. Question: Why was the Project Eternity logo changed? Feargus: Rob worked on another logo and we stated to like the direction it was going. Question: 1.would all the stuff we are wearing change the look of the character doll in the inventory scene and would that propagate to the game play character doll? 2.would armor look unique on the character doll or would it it be like in BG were all of them looks like the generic base armor with different color like plate mail, chain mail etc.? Feargus: (1) Changing your armor will change the look of your character. (2) We are going to mostly have armor that everyone can wear, since we want to create as many sets as we an. We will, most likely, create some armor that is special / unique to a character, companion or class. Question: Since DaBlue has just given your artist some extra work for the dungeon, I have a suggestion to give a story in the game lore for the Castle and it's dungeon. Keep some journal pages or parchments on the Castle Ruins, which tell a part of the castle's story.As you descend, you find more pages which flesh out the story... The Boss has the final page, of course.. :D Feargus: Cool idea!

I just like games. Old school, new style, it's all good to me. I love the IE games - which is why I"m funding this project. I love RPGs. I like other game genres. Turn-based, RTwP, real time, it can all be fun. Now I find out that because I don't have a burning hatred for all things BioWare and anything that doesn't fit into the 'traditionalist' viewpoint that I'm not one of the cool kids? Wow, what a disappointing revelation. My life - it no longer has meaning!

The last bit from last night (Feargus stayed up too late for me): Question: have you some plan to keep in touch with the backers which are not accessing the forums after the 17th ? (the forums are classified as gaming category and thus blocked in corporate environment) Also there was a question about what could be added in the pledge levels to get people investing more. Have you thougt about a messenger bag? I would like to have that. For now, I am aiming digital only due to shipping, but I would surely tempt me. Feargus: (1) I think we can still be up here and responding to comments - I think, so we will be doing that. (2) Still working on ideas for the pledge levels and will have some news on that both tomorrow and on Monday. Question: Could you clarify what is your general stance for regional locks on content ? Will Obsidian do what it can to make sure that we (backers from other parts of the world - Poland/Russia) have unrestricted access to English-only versions of (possible) further content (DLC/expansions etc.) at least ? Feargus: On the subject of regional locks - I don't think we plan on doing that unless there is some law that would require us to do so. Question: will you continue to accept donations towards the game after the kickstarter has ended? I've been following Double Fine's kickstarter project lately and they are still taking Paypal donations and giving some of the rewards still for donating and calling them Slacker Backers. Feargus: We will continue to take donations for a while after the Kickstarter campaign. We are working on our own storefront that will take donations and also let everyone buy the latest in Obsidian wear. Question: any news on vo work yet? I understood that you guys planned on doing it like it was done in BG1 and BG2.. but do you have any names for us to sneak peek? (even if you only have them on your short list) Feargus: I was hoping we would have some names that we could talk about, but our VO Producer went and got married and has been on his honeymoon. I think they are back early next week, so we might be able to get some info out then. Question: My one question is how visible the soul abilities are going to be on martial characters? If they use their soul to make their blade keener or whatever, will it be enveloped in a magical light or will it just be an invisible change? From a design point of view I guess it’s nice to have visual cues to tell what the characters are doing but I kind of prefer it when the martial classes don’t look outright magical even if they are. Casting healing spells is one thing but flashy lights kind of take the fun out of down and dirty swordplay. Feargus: Our general stance on the use of effects is they should be cool, but reinforce what is really going on with the character based upon what type of class they are. So, having lots of crazy lights for a martial character wouldn't be something we would do in PE, except of abilities that it applied to - more magical ones. Question: Are there classes/ combinations where you can weild two 2handers? one in left hand one in right.. i could see classes like barbarians fit that role. Feargus: I'm going to go with a maybe on that one, with an answer that might be forthcoming soon based upon us talking about another one of the races Question: Feargus what about transportation in PE. Some teleports? Ships? Horses? Feargus: No horses. Once you have been told where a place is then you will be able to go there. Also, you can use the map to get from place to place. However, you will need to explore on the areas that you do get to. Question: Are dwarves and humans going to wear the same sized armour or are there going to be different sizes Arcanum style? Feargus: I'm pretty sure that we are going with armor of the same styles for Humans and Dwarves, but we will be modifying the models so that they fit well. We tend to move away from making unique armors for races, since then it means we can make fewer armor types per race. Question: Do you have any information which OS gog.com will anounce for future support on Oct 18th? But even if you know it you are probably not allowed to tell us yet.... Feargus: I know what it is, but must keep quiet or suffer the wrath of the Poles. Question: Have you already decided about who's handling the translations? Based on my personal opinion I think Roland Austinat did a good job for the german translations of Skyrim and New Vegas. Feargus: We have not, but we learned our lesson on BG when the company did the VO with the accent that I can't remember the name of right now. Wow, I'm tired. Bavarian, that's it - I think.

Another quick Q&A session with Feargus (he says he's coming back on for a short time but I may have to hit the hay before that... getting old. I'll try to update the rest tomorrow if I can): Question: Romance options. Yea or Nay? Feargus: I'll poke Josh and Chris about that. Question: It’s maybe too early, but I want ask about environment. Like how character can interact with things that surrounds he or she? 1) For example, can I destroy some things? Can I smash door or chest to get to some good stuff or I always must lockpick? 2) Weather or environment can affect on you? Like maybe swamp slow down your combat speed or you get illness under rain? Maybe some surroundings have bad affect on some companions? Feargus: There wil be parts of the environment that you can interact with and there will be some destructables, but it will not be like in a game such as Skyrim where you can touch and throw almost anything. I have to admit that I am not sure what Josh and Tim are planning for chests right now. Question: did you even remotely expect to get this many backers or this much money at the start of this? much less have it look like you're going to edge towards three million if trends for these things hold? Feargus: I would say that we were hoping, but not thinking it was just going to happen. It is certainly nice to see! Question: Btw, love the wallpaper you released with the update. Great stuff! Will you be using a similar art style in the ingame portraits and what not? Feargus: Thanks again! And yes, that's the style we are going for in general. Want to harken back to that fun fantasy style. Question: are you guys thinking about doing a live stream at the end of this? just outta curiosity. also... someone started a rumor on the forums the other day about a 1000+ backers only forum being put up. any truth to that that you're aware of? Feargus: Yes, we are going to do the Live Stream. And, we are giong to get a $1000+ backer forum up, so that we can talk with everyone about their designing - it's not for info just for them. Question: Any chance of adding a BG-style Co-op option to the game? I'd really love to play this with my GF! Feargus: Sorry, we are focusing on Single Player for this one, so that we can put all the $'s to the right into that. Question: what do you think about possibility of using The Witcher 2 engine for cutscenes in Project Eternity? I think that you'll ultimately need to make at least small number of cutscenes in some way. And making them with a game engine such as The Witcher 2 engine would be much cheaper than as conventional CG. Feargus: As for cutscenes, with the budget we are working with - we really want to spend the time on as much gameplay content and assets as possible. Cutscenes even within that engine would mean we would have an animator and a character artist making things for that instead of more creatures, characters and animation for the game. Question: do you and/or any on your team have a love for old 2nd Ed Oriental Adventures? I rarely played using any of that specific source material but I LOVED the OA handbook and I always thought it was an excellent hook into a more eastern style D&D experience. Maybe something like that might make an appearance in PE down the road? Feargus: I think I read the 1st Edition one and the 2nd Edition one. There is this wierd gap in my D&D playing that happened between AD&D and 3rd Edition. I played some 2nd Edition, and Zeb worked for me for about four years, but I mostly played the other editions. Josh really likes to explore other cultures, so I bet in the future we might get to other areas of the world with new cultures. Question: Could you please ask Justin Bell to take a look at how music was implemented in the first Witcher game? I think that it was a brilliant example of combining "mystical", "ancient" and "emotive". Feargus: I'll send you comment to him right now. Question: where was my update 16? i am guessing a big update tomorrow? Feargus: Yep. We decided to not do one on Thursday, since we did one the first three days of the week. There is a fine line between the right amount and too much information. Question: Will we have a page such as this in the near future so we can see the paypal backers and backing? http://revolution.co.uk/kickstarter/paypal Feargus: Darren is looking at that very page to see what we can do. We are also working on international pages that mimic the main KS site so we can translate into other languages. Question: How unique are the classes you mentioned in the update? can we say that every class has different mechanics and game play ? Fighter vs barbarian - is it more then just less armor and resistance, or druid vs wizard ? Feargus: I would say yes to that. As example, in D&D - I feel that playing a Fighter vs. a Barbarian is different due to how you focus their use. Question: A class idea I've been thinking of, Alchemist. Uses its soul to isolate and refine element properties such as toxicity and explosiveness. Then uses these to create useful items such as bombs and traps which have a variety of effects and usages, for example using his soul to ignite a specially designed remote detonated bomb. Primarily used for theatre control and support but also capable of inflicting damage. Perhaps there's a few ideas there you can use. Ohad and I were debating about it before you arrived if you want to know more. Feargus: I'll send over to Josh.

Okay, more Q&A with Feargus: Question: Any change you guys will do a livestream during the last 2-hour countdown? A number of big campaigns have done that and it's pretty fun to share it all together.. Feargus: Absolutely, that's the plan. Should be a lot of fun! Question: By my personal reckoning, the Kickstarter will get at least 3 million in pledges unless there is a very unexpected turn. With this in mind are you still looking at the Whiteboard Of Prospective Content and picking things on it going from one isolated Stretch Goal to the next, or are you looking at it with the eye of, "Hmmm. Let's choose the next 4 goals towards 3 mil that we definitely want to see in the game" ? And it's always great when you join the Channel. I totally hope you continue to comment with us even after the Kickstarter has completed. Like maybe a once a week thing? Feargus: (1) We are looking at the things we want to definitely do. A lot of them are already in the goals we've posted. We are talking about throwing out a farther one as well - but not sure yet. (2) One of the things we want to do is setup a PE site that works really well for talking with everyone. So, while we might not do it here. We will do it somewhere. And I'll be absolutely dropping in. Question: We're 20 days into your Kickstarter, and I'm curious, is Obsidian as excited about this process as fans are? I know Obsidian's been putting in extra time due to the fan reaction, and I curious if you guys are as obsessively checking the kickstarter page as some of us are? Feargus: We are having a lot of fun with this Kickstarter. It makes me want to do more of them. Almost too bad that we can't do another game one before PE comes out. Or, do we have some ideas for something else? Hmmm..... Question: Will the classes be extremely close to the old DnD style or are they going to have their own unique flavor? Feargus: They will have the DnD feeling but with some fun twists. In other words, not that there will be Paladins, , but if there were to be Paladins - they will feel like them but be tied into how magic and the gods work in the world of PE. Question: Will the game have a 64bit executable? I likes using my RAMs. Feargus: We are fairly sure that Unity will support 64bit fully by the time we come out. So, most likely. Question: I have some questions regarding the mapping and loading. Will everything be more open world like Arcanum or split into sections more like Baldur's Gate II (or neither)? Also within each city map for example will it just be one seamless whole without any transitions between outside and inside, and between different levels? Feargus: The game will be more like BG in that regard, including with cities. For cities that means that the interior areas will be considered children of the parent area (developer speak here). What that means, is that the children area continue to run even when you are running around the parent area. That let's NPCs transition between the parent and child areas and also reduces load times between them. We don't unload everything about the parent area when you go into a child. Question: Hey, got a concern for you from the Russians from last night. Apparently 1C/Cenega have exclusive distribution deals with Bethesda. The folks over in Eastern Europe paid full price on Steam for various games, FO:NV, Skyrim, RAGE, etc. and got locked into the localized version only. The localized version was not compatible with any of the downloaded content and was lacking in other ways. They are VERY concerned about maintaining access to the original version of Project Eternity and not being locked into -just- the Russian version. To sum up, Arteziya asks: "So I repeat - please, could you answer - would backers from Russia (and Poland, though I don't know details of their situation, but doubt that their distributors behave themselves better then ours) would have an access to original version, or do you lock us to our regional?" Feargus: We will make sure that the people we team up with do a good job. And, we've heard a lot of things about 1C now that will make us really ask them a lot of questions and require a lot from them - if we were to work with them. Not saying that we are working with them. Question: probably something you don't even want to think about because of other... games that will be unmentioned ATM, but are there going to be planes in PE? not necessarily that we'd be able to go to, but in the lore/history of the game. like are the gods on the same plane, but just really far away, or maybe on a mount olympus type thing? or are they literally on a different plane of existence? something that i think might be cool is if it were all one plane and you could get to the gods, if you were able to fly or something like that. or if they brought you managed to gain their notice and be brought there. always thought it would be interesting to have direct interactions with the gods, and either have the option of ultimately being in awe of them or realizing how... utterly insane/petty they really are. dependent on the god and what they represent and all. Feargus: I think the guys are still talking a lot about things like gods and planes (if they are there at all). So, sorry nothing to talk about on this yet. Question: Will there be spears and staffs in Project Eternity, and will they finally have different attack animations? (That always bugged me in the IE games) Feargus: Sorry, don't know on that one - I'll add it to the list. Question: Hmm, were we due an update today? Just curious given the getting to the next goal and all. Feargus: We had not planned to do an update today. There will be one tomorrow from Adam (I think) and then one from Tim over the weekend. Question: PE will have a "save anytime, save anywhere" system like the IE games? Feargus: Yes, save anywhere you want. Question: Any idea of when we get spoiled with information of the other classes? Do druids shapeshift? Do they tend to the souls of the trees, plants and animals? And names of the other companions? Feargus: That all rests within the great mind of Josh Sawyer. Question: Do you know if the boxed copy of PE will be steam or gog? Feargus: I believe we will be giving people the option. Question: is it possible that we will get an update like today's including information on the other three classes? I'm especially interested in the Drya... Druids. What kind of magic they're using... and their connection to the souls. Feargus: A certain number of the updates really tie into what we are also announcing, so if we do something else that has to do with classes then we will probably talk more about them. Question: So just to clarify. The world is split into different chunks known as parent areas and travelling between them will lead to loading screens and the unloading of the previous area. The inside of each parent area is considered to be one contiguous area for the purposes of the AI and the game world but transitioning between the parent area and a child area leads to a loading screen and limits direct interaction between them at any one time even as events can shift between them. What are the child areas? Are we talking every building or only special areas such as palaces or catacombs? Feargus: All correct. Child areas though would be things like houses and shops within a village or city. Question: And when we will know more about the already know races? Feargus: We might be talking about another race next week. Question: I wonder about the casters: have they to memorize a certain set of spell à la D&D or it'll be a totally different mechanic? Feargus: I think Josh has talked a bit about that on our forums, but, to be honest, we have not completely determined the system yet. When we do have it solid, we are going to talk with everyone about it. Question: Question related to companion behavior. Would they sound out if you commit acts that are against their view ir will they just willy nilly do anything you tell them to even if "wrong". An example would be in NVN2 where my thief with Neeshka and Casavir (paladin) went around breaking into the nobles houses. At one point I was given a chance to spare some servants, I chose nit to, (no witnesses) however Casavir (paladin) happily helped me murder them. So, if we are to have companions (and pc) playing these classes, could thete at least be limitations to what they will do or when witnessing what you the PC do, react accordingly. If the PC is Playing a Paladin, tgen acts if murder should land him into deep water with his god too, no? Feargus: I don't think Chris and Josh have talked about how we are handling that yet. What I do know is that we would have them react to things they are doing. The level of the reaction is what we still need to talk about. Question: Recently, Rock-Paper-Shotgun has made an article about "The perils of Nostalgia." In it they talk about how Kickstarter is bringing back the games and genras that had been abandoned by the games industry and that this is perhaps a devolution of the trend that video games had been taking since their inception; better graphics, more voice work, more detailed environments, lifelike animations, etc. That by having all the known names in the industry going back to the roots that games of today have been founded on, it will lead to a trend towards cashing in on nostalgia instead of heading towards innovation. I personally see this "Bringing back the past" trend in Kickstarter as the Veteran developers going back to the projects they loved but had to abandon because of the march of time, and finally see their exiled children raised to adults and released into the world. But Project Eternity seems to be dedicated to not only bringing back the past, but innovating it in a new direction, with the inclusion of mixed 2D and 3D environments, as well as the creation of a brand new IP for the funds that have been donated. Me, as a fan and a person who has interacted with you through text, I would love to see you have a chat with John Walker of RPS and talk about your views as a developer towards the opportunity of being able to chose between conventional Producers and Kickstarter backing, and the idea of combining Nostalgia with Innovation. I feel that such a conversation would be truly enlightening, and I would love to read it. Feargus: Sounds like a great idea - I'll throw that over there and see if we can't have that discussion. Question: Will the battles have ques? Can we give a character more then one order at a time? Feargus: Yep, we are doing queues. Question: Regarding [the] question about companions behavior, we will see companions fighting because of different ideologies or enemy factions or even leaving forever the party? Feargus: The magnitude of their response is what we will be talking about. While we want them to react correctly to things that they like and dislike, what they do beyond reacting is still on the table. Question: So there's not going to be "You moved a fork, now the entire town wants to murder you" situations? Feargus: Not totally saying that - I was more talking about the reaction of companions to your actions. Question: I remember when I was younger I was curious as to why similar looking games such as Fallout and Baldur's Gate had a different way of treating areas even though they looked almost identical (ie. loading transition for all buildings in BG but only for larger areas in FO). What was the reasoning behind adopting the BG system in OE? Does it have certain technical, design or game-play advantages? Feargus: That's a good question and I don't have a good answer exactly. The parent / child thing does exist in other game engines, but it is also something that is genre specific. For instance, you don't need that in linear FPS (in general) because the player is always moving forward and is not going in and out of things like shops in a village. The other reason for the transitional load screens is really due whether multiple areas can be loaded at one time (making switching between them not require a load) or if the load is going to be so small then you don't need the screen.

Yeah, as much as I'd love to see a separate Bard class, I'll be completely happy if I can play one of the other classes and have enough options to build it out as a Bardish type character.

I really enjoyed the Bard in IWD, but I freaking loved them in the NWN series, where I could build them with a splash of Fighter levels and thus use them as a warrior. My absolute favorite class in the NWN games. I always pictured them as more of a skald with warrior training who would participate in the battles, then immortalize the fallen in verse and entertain the survivors with tales of blood, glory, and great deeds. Badass. My instrument is my blade and it will inflict songs of pain and woe upon my foe! None of this 'stand in the background in my tights and whistle a jaunty tune' crap.

Fie! A pox on you and your scions, you addlepated ninnyhammer!

Okay, folks, Feargus was on again for a short tie, so some more Q&A: Question: I love the new stretch goals! Feargus: Fhew.... We talked a ton about them and tried to take a lot of the feedback that people had about our previous ones into account. Question: do you have plans how you will distribute non-steam (aka drm-free) version of game for linux/mac? Feargus: Not sure yet. Our hope that is that GOG will be supporting all of that by then. I don't know that they will or anything - but we are hoping. If not, we will figure something else out. Maybe ourselves. Question: are you going to be showing us how much money/many backers you're getting from paypal so we're aware of what goals have been reached, and what's left to get to them? would be kind of useful for people who aren't sure what level they're going to go for, or how much they want to push others to get in on it. if they see we're like 100 backers away from a new dungeon level when adding in the paypal numbers, i can see people going to try to get people to just pledge even a dollar to get there. Feargus: Yes, we are going to do that. I am not sure how often we are going to do it, since it is a little more manual. We are talking about it more tomorrow and we will then have a better answer. Question: You may want to look at the Humble Store for multi-platform distribution. They support multi-platform, DRM free, and can even work with you to offer Steam and/or Desura keys. Legend of Grimrock and Trine 2 use them, and it works great for me. Feargus: We will absolutely check that out. Question: Courtesans are mentioned in the back story of rogues. Does this imply that there will be any adult based thieving skills, sexual appeal checks, or something similar? Feargus: I need to get Josh on to cover stuff like that. Which means, I'm not sure on that one. Sorry. Question: I like the typical fantasy tropes as much as the next guy, but will there be any love for the bizarre in PE, maybe in some side quests? I'm talking David Lynch levels of weird here. I love me some mind-bending surreality. Feargus: I don't know about Twin Peaks weird, but one of our goals/pillars with the project is to have that part of it be different. We can have the traditional with a twist, new that really ties into the world and then a bit that is weird/different Question: Will character classes have specific base character models for them? Or will you be able to create a character that will look the same (physical appearance) no matter what class he is? Feargus: We are still talking about that. I think there will be a certain amount of sharing though - the reason is that if we go with lots of unique models then we can make less things for each model. So, we want to make sure there are a ton of options for each model that we do create. Question: So... kits? Feargus: Josh question. Question: Are there any ideas on how combat skills will be learned? Are you thinking of doing skill trees or something like that? I don't recall reading on that aspect of things yet, though there was that nice writeup on non-combat skills. How many white boards have you guys gone through? Feargus: We are definitely due for some more of them - they are looking a little ragged. As for learning the skills, Josh has put a system together - but he'd like to wait to talk about the details on it. Question: Are we going to see things like spells that teleport, read minds, create stuff, view far locations and other interesting things powerful people can do outside combat? Feargus: We haven't really talked about spells of that magnitude yet. I would expect that we will work on a limited number of some really cool big spells though. Question: on skills in general... have you thought about having some of them be taught by NPCs? like some special skills that aren't necessarily class specific, but are learned in a more natural way of master teaching apprentice? just something that occurred to me all of a sudden, and i think that would be really cool. Feargus: I'll throw that over to Josh in e-mail right now and see if wants to cover that in an update. Question: How long do you estimate pre-production might be for PE if you have any estimates at all in that department? Sorry if that seems a silly question. Just curious. I know this has been brought up several times, but are we likely to see any far reaching goals much farther off than the current ones? I love what we have so far though. Are there any chances of seeing a goals featuring more classes or is 9 going to be the cap on classes so it doesn't get too bloated? I do love the idea of a possible documentary on the making of the game. I love hearing from all of you on the work that goes into it all and how things are progressing. Feargus: Pre-Production Time - We generally do 1/3, 1/3, 1/3. So with a project that is 18 months, that means 6 months in pre-production, 6 months in production and 6 months in post-production. We have a leg up with the Unity engine and already have basic movement and formations working, so it might be more like 5 , 7, 6 for PE. Longer Stretch Goals - There is one up on the whiteboard right now. We talked about it a lot last night, an bit tonight and agreed that we would decide tomorrow about it. Documentary - We actually met with a group about that. Trying to figure out if the cost is something that should go into it or the game. Question: Will the people who pledge via PayPal be counted towards the 2,500 new backer per level goal? Feargus: Yes they will be. We are trying to figure out when to do those updates. Question: Hey I was thinking about the nature of the soul as it was represented in D+D, and came across something you guys might like (if you haven't considered it already). Elementals and creatures of the Outer Planes had souls that were inseperable from their bodies, meaning that if their body perished then so would their soul... Would there be creatures like this in P:E? Perhaps mortals would be special in that their souls would "live on" whereas other creatures would not be so fortunate? Feargus: Let me send over to Josh on the souls question. That is all him. You'll find that with class, some combat, some skills and soul questions - I like to defer to him. He's the man on that stuff.

I don't want to get into a debate about this, as I'm pretty sure this will lead into territory best avoided on these forums. But suffice to say I disagree with you on this. Your reference to being able to challenge/defeat/kill the gods may not actually apply to this world. Perhaps they actually are gods in this setting and cannot be challenged or defeated by mere mortals. Given a setting in which gods are indisputably real beings, I cannot sea an atheist priest being a viable option. An anti-theist priest? Maybe, but what power would he have? What you describe about the character seems to me more like the Wizard class - even closer, a Sorcerer. Not a priest.

I go with direwood.

Aye, but often the 'other' weapons don't get as much love when it comes to enhancements/bonuses. It's tough to stick to your beloved halberd when the longswords are getting all the good magic boosts. On a side note, I'm hoping the game will take into account weapon reach, thus making them more attractive for some characters.

Great update! I was never a fan of psionics, but this cipher class sounds pretty cool. Kind of gives me a Sorcerer vibe in a way. Very intriguing. As you might guess form my avatar (assuming you recognize it), I'd be down with this in a heartbeat! I bought a bunch of the 4.0 books, and what struck me when reading the description of the Fighter class was how it sounded quite reminiscent of the 4.0 mechanics. I'm not saying that's a bad thing - I'm pretty excited about this update as well - but that's what occurred to me right away when I read that section. Why? As noted, in this setting, the gods are very real and it wouldn't make sense for there to even be atheists in the game world. And especially not atheists that have any kind of divine-related power/abilities.

Okay, Feargus was just on again for a few minutes. Update: Question: I've been honestly considering redacting my pledge based on what I've seen in the past week or so... the stretch goals feel so vapid and uninspired and it just seems like pandering to continually make updates that give the impression 'more' will be put into the game. Feargus I'm sorry to hear that, we are working to add things into the game that will be fun and give people who love RPG a lot of options. When we look at what we are adding, we first look at what we all like in the RPGs that we play. Question: I for one am thankful that the stretch goals haven't been outlandish, it helps reinforce my belief that you guys know what you're actually doing and aren't just trying to build hype or do fan service. Feargus: Thanks. However, we have heard that everyone would like a bit more detail - so the ones that we might be talking about today, if we were to talk about more today, will have bit more detail as to what they are. Question: Would you consider a stretch goal of making a graphic novel based on the PE world? Feargus: Would you think that people might see that as their money going toward something that is not the game instead of to the game? Question: Would it also be possible to release the novella in epub format? I'd like to read it on my e-reader, and PDF doesn't always convert in the best way. Feargus: I'll put that on the list. I'm guessing that should be pretty easy when we have the source of the novella. Question: Any ETA on an update today? Feargus: Might be a bit later than normal - maybe around 1PM PST. Had a long meeting last night about everything and then needed to do some refinement this morning as well. I think it will be a pretty cool one though! Question: The old Infinity games had some nifty auto-pause options such as when an enemy was spotted or a trap detected. Will you implement those in Eternity too (please)? Feargus: Yes, we are doing those. Josh might have already talked about that? Not totally sure. Question: When will you choose the composer? Personally i wouldn't mind if Justin would get the job. Will we see further stretch goals for a full orchestral score Feargus: We have been talking about the full orchestra score, not sure yet. Oh, and thanks for the thoughts on Justin - he does great stuff. Question: Have there been any ideas about including an Obsidian Order in the game? Perhaps a cult of deranged dragon worshipers or something? Feargus: Absolutely! The Obsidian Order is in the game! Question: Any chance for a stretchgoal covering improved/orchestral soundtrack, general sound and enhanced (as in more, Englsh anyway) voiceovers? And promish not to do Dutch subs. Feargus: We have talked about an orchestra, but I need to follow up with Josh about his thoughts on it. Question: When the paypal will be active, the number of the PayPal's backers will be added to the "add-a-level-to-the-mega-dungeon" counter? :D Feargus: We just talked about the PayPal stuff and we will update our numbers with what we get through PayPal. Question: Are you looking to do any interviews with the bigger websites to bring PE back to the top of the news wave? I'm noticing a disturbing lack of mummer outside of the established support community. Feargus: We are going to start a big, bug push starting early next week and have looked at getting some outside help for it as well. Question: Will you directly or via stretch goal implement critical strike gory death animations? Feargus: Sorry, no idea on that one. Question: How open will you be about the combat mechanics and underlying system? I have fond memories of all the PNP-adaptations me and my friends used to make years ago and it would be nice if we could relive those times Feargus: We are pretty open guys, so I think we will be happy to go into the details once the combat system has been really put through it's paces.

Really like those tracks, especially 'dirge'. Tasty.

More info, as Feargus jumped back on the KS Comments page for a couple hours: Q: Does the in-game KS item apply only to the backer or also to any extra copies of the game that may be gifted? A: If the question was about all the copies getting the KS item - they will. Q: had an idea related to pledges. what if pretty much everything could be done as an add-on? i'm not talking like the make an NPC type thing, but like adding a boxed set of the game, a collectors edition, just the cloth map, etc. i know a lot of people want some of those things, but they don't want to move off the tier they're currently on, or don't want to lose the early bird spot. basically make it possible for them to make a custom tier using add-ons. that way people that wanted more than one of something on the tier their on could do that as well. for me personally (on the 250 tier), i'd love if i could upgrade the collectors book to hardcover and get the autographs moved to that instead of the collectors box. i don't know how possible that is, but i know things like that being available (or customizable since so many people love that word in the comments) would help drum up some more pledge money. and i'd think that the more of a specific thing you were printing/getting made, the more costs for said thing would go down. at least that's how i understand things like that to work most of the time. also, things like signatures on boxes and making characters and things of that nature would only be on those particular tiers, because really, that's what makes those tiers special. thoughts? A: We are looking at making the book at the $250 level a hardback. Should update on that soon. As for other physical add-ons we are having the already getting physical goods or not, international or not problem. We might open up our own store that can figure that stuff out more automatically. Darren and I have been talking about it. [Darren - co-founder of Obsidian and forum/web/IT guy] Q: Hi Fergus. Will the mega dungeon some kind of random generated dungeon that is differnt each time you visit it? The "But the courses of Od Nua's madness run far below the surface" kind of sounds like it. A: We are thinking right now that it will be a custom dungeon that we create by hand. Partly, so that it fits in with the rest of the game from a balancing and content perspective. We have talked about a random dungeon, but as something we would release (potentially) after the game comes out. Q: So Chris Avellone is working on Wasteland 2 as well as P:E? Is there one he is focusing more on? A: Chris is wraping up his work on Wasteland 2 in the next few weeks. He's put in a ton of time on it over the last four or five months. He will still be checking in on Wasteland 2 and helping out a bit here and there, but he'll be primarily on PE. Q: You might look to the Numenera campaign, and Monte Cook, for book shipping stuff. He had a lot of physical rewards, especially books, that needed pledges increased for shipping. A: Good idea. We know Monte from our D&D days and also backed Nuenera (under my personal account). For some reason, didn't think about talking to him. We also know the White Wolf guys really well - they haven't been making a lot of books - but probalby still worth a conversation. Q: ooo... hardback! *drools* would there be anyway i could get the signatures from the collectors box shifted to the book though? i'd really rather have them on something a bit more sturdy than a game box. A: That's a thought. Maybe both. I'll sent that along. Q: I was wondering if the Player House would include the crafting and enchanting. Will we be able to do those things there? That'd be really in keeping with it being our house :D A: That's the plan, but we want to make sure you don't just have to be there to do it. Q: Are your prepared to sign off on everyone's medical leave after they develop severe tendonitis from signing all that stuff? A: LOL, but we are totally living in denial right now about the number of copies that will have to be signed. Although notice how my name isn't on there? But.... I will be signing all of them as well. Curse you parents for giving me 15 letter in my name!! Q: I wanted to say how good the new stretch goal and mega dungeon are :D. I like a LOT you've come up with a tangible and fun thing that more backers will produce (the dungeon :D). And I think of crafting and enchanting as essential; they're more or less a game in themselves; one I'd like very much to play A: Thanks! We have been looking all over the other Kickstarter campaigns and also really trying to listen to everyone. What would really help is that everyone could get the word out that just new backers gets us to new goals. Q: Will you do the level/power of the creatures scaled? Im really worried about that, I'm playing a new "RPG" (aka hack and slash adventure game) and I hate how the NPCs are harder everytime. Same guys, just more power. I mean, Im a kind of demigod or something, then, the vulgar thief of the town spank me. Thats annoying! Please, say "no level scaling!" A: We are going to use a number of different systems. Some creatures will be fixed based upon where they are in the world. Some will scale and then be fixed based upon where you go in the world first. Why we do it that way is so we can have the world be non-linear in places. For instance, if you can goto three adventure areas in any order you want, we have to scale them to make sure that they all remain challenging when you get to the second and third ones. Q: I don't think this has beem asked yet, but do areas re-populate its "mobiles" after a time or do they renain cleared and empty after the adventuring party has cleared it? It would be nice if it remains empty but will respawn after say 12-24hours real time. Also, will the Mega Dungeon respawn eventually, or remains cleared where our heroes have passed through? A: That is something that we are still talking about. There are people on both sides of the debate - ones who think we should re-spawn and others that areas should remain cleared. What I can say is that we want to make sure that players don't feel like they have to clear areas again just to get from A to B (can get annoying). Q: Maybe it would be good if you post at the Update 13 comments also that the Mega Dungeon is handcrafted to have a bether visibility for this answear A: E-mailed Adam to see how he wants to update the update. Q: I think it would really help the drive to have about six more stretch goals to reach. Then people can see where the drive is'going' (even if the goals are being invented as they are met!), and decide if they really want to plough in or not. I believe that had a lot to do with Planetary Annihilation's success on Kickstarter I mean of course six *above where the project is at any given time* A: You have just dived into one of the big debates. We have gotten a lot of advice with the stretch goals. Not sure yet what we are going to do. Q: Since you had to leave earlier, would you now share your thoughts on my two primary concerns with cool-downs, and whether they would apply to your system? My concerns: 1) Skills need to be balanced, of course, in order to encourage players to use many of them. Cool-downs are a very artificial way to balance skills, that just tell the player "I know this skill is the best, but you can only use it once a minute", which waters down the decision making, imo. I usually find I want to use the "big ones" as soon as they are ready, because often their only disadvantage is the cool-down. 2) Cool-downs are very meta. Why would one skill have a "reload time" of a minute, while another one has one of 10 seconds, with no interference between the two? It's very detached from anything that tries to model an actual world with real rules. A shared resource such as mana makes more sense since it could represent the mage's stamina pool, for example, from which *all spells* are drawn. A: I totally understand your point. The thought on cool down is that it allows for less powerful and more powerful abilities/spells. Going back to the spell memorization system, the balance and tactics were created by only being able to memorize so many fireballs, while a lot more magic missiles. Q: It might have other drawbacks, but I think having short stretches (100K or 200K at the most) for several future stretch goals (like quicktooth suggests) will drive current backers to up their pledges, since you're always close to the next level. Plus it feels like a lot is happening, which generates interest. That might be more suitable for the last week of the campaign though. A: We are going with the $100K levels right now,and for instance we will probably release the next stretch goal when we get over $2.25M. Also, having the backer goals should help a bit as well. Particularly when Rob gets the graphic done. Q: I wanted to ask you whether you can elaborate more about the contents of the strategy guide. Funny thought. is it only now that you'll add it to each order or whether each person who joined the Obisidian order basically added himself one? A: At the end of the campaign, you'll get the survey and can say how you would like to spend that extra $8. Oh, and the strategy guide will be a real strategy guide. Not one of those 8 or 10 page ones that get thrown in with a game. Q: Since this is a homage to IE games, which one of the weakest element is the animation on the characters during fights and everything else. My question is what are your plans to remedy this with the amount of budget that you got so far. A: The challenge with animation in the IE games was that the characters were sprite based (2D) so every frame was a piece of artwork and could only be rendered at so many angles (eight I think). For PE, we are using 3D charactes so we can have much smoother animations, not just the eight angles and lots more animation variations. Q: I'm very happy for the spanish traslation But 25 $ for the Beta access, it's very expensive for me A: We tried to follow the Planetary Anhilation model for figuring out the BETA/Early Access key amount. Q: would there be anyway to make the cooldowns influence each other? like with what you're doing making the character more tired. like if you spam a bunch of cheaper actions, it'll eventually make everything else take longer because you're wearing the character out? A: Interesting idea, I'm wondering if it gets to a point where we are trying to model too many things. For instance, another way to do that would just to make sure the original cost made it so you couldn't spam. Just a thought. Q: but then you lose the feeling that you're actually effecting your characters. which is really the point of it. do i want to use all these little spells, and possibly make it so i can't use the big one when i need it, or hold off on them and use them at judicious moments, and possibly just use the bigger spells to maximum effect. it adds to the tactics/thinking about the situation a whole lot more, and is really fairly simple/intuitive to understand. everyone gets tired from doing something. think like the way harry gets tired in the dresden files. sure, he can still do more, but it's less effective because he's literally worn himself out. A: True and gotcha. Need to think about how many different systems though - however, you are right there are systems that use a pool (like mana) plus cooldown. Q: Hey Feargus, have you guys talked at all about adding a scrolling combat/text log like in Fallout or more preferably Baldur's Gate? A: We haven't, but getting added to the list right now. Q: I know strategy guides as explanations of mechanics and revealing every spot in the game. will yours be just that or fill a whole different purpose? like being an encyclopedia for the game lore. A: The strat guide will be a walkthrough of the game and then information the mechanics and the items as well. Q: I'm latin, but there are a lot of comments about a Russian translation. I guess you could make something like "if Russia gets 5000 backers, Russian translation!" Even Japanese could be there if there are enough people of Japan interested. That would attract some target people and will encourage the actual backers to find more friends and bring them here. A: That's true. It's hard to get from people where they are from though. However, we should have something cool to announce on Russian and Polish really soon. Q: I would say a memorization system has two advantages: 1) less restrictive, you can burn your spells whenever you want, not tied down to a frequence, and 2) you might have a reason to save spells for an upcoming battle. You need to plan ahead. A: True. Some of that does get handled by a cool down system - not everything and not suggesting that. I'll e-mail the guys and say that this might be something good to talk about in more detail soon. Q: maybe kind of how skyrim does the respawn might work? it's like every thirty days (in game), and you actually have to sleep in a bed instead of just rest. personally i really liked that because it means if you want things to respawn you can make them, but if you don't then you just don't sleep in a bed. also, it ties into a bigger question. how do you want to set the max experience, because if things respawn then you can basically grind things if you really feel like it and then make other things easier. in some ways it can be game breaking, but if you limit it the way i said it can work out decently. or maybe, depending on how time is going to go in the game, have it be every few months that things respawn. that would be a lot more organic i think. like bandits think the spot really was good, don't know what cleared it last time and move back in. same for animals and things like that. A: Gotcha on the re-spawn comment. I'll put it on the list of stuff for the guys to read. Q: Any lessons learned while developing Stick of Truth that you could see being used in PE? A: Hmmm.. That's a good question. Almost all the systems are very different. This is totally a tools thing, but we did change our conversation system a bit. We created a new conversation file that handles all of the branching upon entering the dialog that then branches to individual conversation paths. That helped structure them a little cleaner. Q: With cool downs, Standing-Still spamming could be worse than rest spamming. With this mega-dungeon, after completing one level you will just Stand-Still spam on every level and never run out of spells, before going down to the next level. In the IE games, the only way to get the spells back is take the chance of sleeping in the dungeon and possibly get attacked. I hope the dev's take this into consideration. A: Copied a lot of the thoughts on cool-down directly into an e-mail to Josh, Tim and Chris. Q: cool. but above all, we're just making suggestions, giving suggestions, and trusting you guys to make a great game. i don't think any of us would be here if we didn't trust you guys. A: Appreciate it, and I really am happy to talk about this stuff. Believe me we have many, many debates about our games at Obsidian. Q: We got the 2.2mil stretch goal. It adds a "new faction, with its region". So.... What exactly is a "faction" in this game? A: A good example would be a faction from Fallout: New Vegas like the NCR or Caesar's Legion. They have a very big impact on the game and whole areas that they are found in. Q: my brother's here, and i just asked him what the one thing he disliked the most about IWD2, and he said it was how you ALWAYS used the same weapons through the game. like how you'd use the widow maker throughout the entire game, no matter what you found. and it was something you could get at the very beginning of the game. it just made things kind of boring. and this is a guy who played heart of fury with level one characters, survived and made it nearly to the end of the game doing this. A: That sounds really odd about the Widow Maker - I'm wondering if that was a bug. We are generally pretty good about making sure you can't get items that are that powerful very early. Thanks for pointing out.

Sorry, Tale. Should I have tossed you a PM with this info instead of making a new thread?

Yeah, I was reading through it on the KS page and said to myself "There's some really tasty info here that should be spread around asap", so decided to get copying. Posted this on the GOG forums as well.

Did a massive copy/pasta to gather all this info up re the Q&A with Feargus after Update #13. Anything that seems really out of whack is likely my copy/paste error: Q: What does early access beta entail? How early are we talking? A: We are still working out all the details, however it will be early access to the game. Q: Hey Feargus! Any chance we'll see a t-shirt add-on? (hint hint) I'd gladly up my pledge by $25 for a t-shirt. A: We are talking about it. The thing we are not sure how to handle is International Shipping which means we need to explain a price that is US if you already are getting sent something, US if you are not, International if you are and International if you aren't. Working to figure that all out. Q: howdy. i really love the dungeon thing. how many levels are you hoping to hit with that? also, would you consider releasing more stretch goals before we hit the 2.3 million one? or did the really big one that you were thinking about not pan out in the meetings? A: We are really hoping to get that dungeon up to about 15 levels. We are working hard this week to get the word out on Project Eternity even farther. Q: As a new member of the 1000 tier how much of our NPC will we be able to help you design? Look, mannerisms, backstory, location, ect. A: We want to give people some fun stuff they can do on the design. Has to be reasonable to a point though! We are going to get everyone at that level a way to get a hold of us to ask questions right after the end of the campaign. Q: Feargus what about a catfolk race? And about the mega-dungeon, it will have a direct access to surface every X levels like Watcher's Keep in BG2? A: We want people to be able to have fun in the dungeon and also get out when they need to - so there will be ways that make sense to get back up to the surface and then back down again quickly. As for a cat like race - I leave the race stuff up to Josh, Tim and Chris to figure out - they have some fun ideas already Q: I like the crafting approach in BG 2 with craftable legendary items made of unique ingredients (like Carsomyr = paladin sword and Eye of Tyr). Can we expect something like that for PE? A: I think we did a fairly good job in NWN2 with the crafting system that we released after the full game - the one in either Mask of the Betrayer or Storm of Zehir. So, we have experience with the systems. Goal is to have it be fun and not load down your inventory. I was just playing Dragon's Dogma and the crafting in there is pretty good and not just inventory filling. Q: Hi Feargus, did you thought about showing us the screenshot that amazed Adam? That could increase the pledges dramatically... A: Still working on the screenshot, really hope to show it off soon. Q: Will it be possible to play as both male and female as all races? A: If appropriate, you will be able to play as a male or female for each of the races. Q: Will the PE ranger have animal companions like the D&D one? And one of the classes will be ranged-focused (I love archers)? A: We are talking about summons / animal companions - figuring out the right level of them so that you don't end up with a party of 12 (crazy time). There will be a class that is ranged focused. Q: Will any of the melee classes be able to dual wield weapons? Will the player house be on water front property? A: (1) Waterfront property.... we haven't worked it out to that level just yet, cool idea though. (2) I would expect that dual wielding is doing to sneak it's way in there. Q: I'd love to see a dedicated spiritual successor to Planescape. This sounds more like a spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate and IWD. A: While this is not specifically a Torment sequel, I think you will see shades of it - particularly because of Chris Avellone's heavy involvement. Not trying to change your mind or anything, just wanted to point that out. Q: With regards to crafting, it'd be great to see a crafting system like in the BG series, where ancient pieces of legendary weapons could be found throughout the course of a game and reforged, like The Equaliser, The Wave, Flail of Ages etc etc. I absolutely loved that feature, as it gave the whole crafting process a feeling of archaeological discovery, and a sense of purpose, rather than just 'I'm making this because I want a better beat-stick' A: Yep, that was a cool system in BG2. I think we are going to have two systems - the building of things like that, which are almost quest based in a way and then the more systems based crafting as well. Q: It may be too late but it may have been good to have a $180-200 tier. There's a lot of people on $140.00 but less than half of that on the $250.00 tier. A: Looking for a way to create that tier - having a hard time with what else we can add. Q: Thinking of big ticket stretch goal items, I was thinking some sort of portrait customisation options might be appealing to backers. I don't know if it could work but some sort of layering to change hair colour, add tattoos and you know...stuff. Is that something that could be achievable? A: I'll get that on the list. And, cool idea! Q: Are guys are going for a deus ex like feel to quests where every problem (or a lot of them) has 3-4 ways of approaching a problem or avoiding it altogether. Like Bandits are holding someone hostage and you can a) kill the bandits, b) poison their food stealthily, c) bribe someone to release the hostage when everyone is asleep, d) sneak into the camp disguised as a bandit and get the hostage out, e) shoot the hostage, blame the bandits, and start a war between the town and the bandits (lol). A: We've designed many of our quests that way all the way back to the original Fallout. Tim Cain (on Project Eternity) was one of the three miain guys behind Fallout and he's a big proponent of having different ways of solving problems. Having said that, not every quest in the game would have every single way of solving it - but we try to do as many as we can, as often as we can. Q: Do a facebook contest (get people to like your page, reward random person with bump up tier). Also a twitter contest to name an NPC or an item, pick a winner and give them a tier bump. A: We talked about that and we need to talk to Kickstarter about how that could work. They generally frown on contests, however we may be able to run that over on Facebook instead. Q: I thought up the following things to add to a $200 tier: - Playing Cards (Similar to the IWD2 Adventure Pack but more cards and with NPCs - and their stats) - Small Color Prints of NPCs similar to the BG2 collectors edition - Making of / Bonus DVD with Trailers, interviews, etc - Small plastic figure of an NPC or end boss? Or even BOTH! - Even though there's a cloth map, Perhaps a Poster of the World Map could be included. Those are off the top of my head A: Thanks for the ideas. Copied onto the list. We did talk with a filming company about putting a documentary together. If the budget works, that might be something we add in for everyone at either the $35 or $50 tier and above. Q: any word on if the digital strategy guide add-on will have detailed walkthroughs for the quests? A: Yes it will have detailed a walk through of the game including quests. Think of it as a detailed strat guide, not one of the ten page ones that get thrown in with a game. Q: I've been following the updates and (correct me if I'm wrong) it seems like there will be only one companion for each class. While I understand why that would be the case, I would very much like to see more than that. Take Baldur's Gate for example: There were at least 3 companions for each class (eg. Good fighter, neutral fighter, evil fighter). I found that this plethora of companion really helped add immersion as it felt like the world was more realistically populated and the game could be played through several times each with a different party. Following on from that, I would like to see the acquisition of companions handled more like BG than Dragon Age/ Jade Empire, where heaps of characters that you would never use would always be following you around, waiting at a campfire somewhere. I know this comment was convoluted and didn't actually pose any questions directly, but I would greatly appreciate a reply. A: We should be talking soon about something that creates a good way for you to be able to do something like that in Project Eternity. Q: a question I was wondering since the kickstarter announcement: is the PE "small" budget, and I assume "small" developing team, enough to bring back the old Infinity Engine games spirit in terms of lenght and content (given that the big lenght, and not only the game mechanics, had a crucial role creating the memories that brought most of us here)? A: The original IE teams were not that large and they needed to create a whole new engine with BG. Since we are starting with Unity, our own internal tools (four years of development on our conversation editor) - we feel pretty good about creating a very indepth game for the budget that we end up with on PE Q: was wondering about the drops system. will it be randomized at all? completely static? some combination of the two? like you always get lore items period, but if there's say gold to be included it could be in the form of a gem or necklace of equal value, and the armor stats change a bit? A: The drops system will be semi-random. What I mean by that is there will be specific loot drop lists for things and that loot with be more made loot and not randomly created items. The loot dropped is then picked from the list. Using loot lists, lets us balance the loot that is dropping in specific parts of the game and with specific encounters without having to bring up every single monster and change their specific loot. Although we can still do that for unique things. Q: can we have a dungeon/backer graphic? A: Your wish is my command. Talking about it with Adam/Rob in just a bit. Q: Any plans for a tier in between $140 and $250? A: Sorry to be a broken record here, we are still talking about it and figuring out what to put there. Q: Something else I would like to ask about: Will changing the difficultly setting alter the amount of experience points (assuming that the game uses XP) acquired? I found this to be an issue in previous RPGs where, if the difficulty was raised, you levelled up faster and so the harder difficulty settings weren't as much of a challenge as they could have been. A: We generally try to use XP tables that are your "power" vs. the "power" of the things you are defeating. That usually works better than giving extra XP if things are harder. I expect that hard quests will still get more XP, but it will be the same XP no matter what difficultly level you are on. Q: Any hope that the Character Creation Tool idea will become a reality? A: Sorry, don't know right now. Once we figure out where we are going to be with funding, we are going to get all the ideas on the list and start prioritizing. But, I just made sure that is on the list. Q: In the last Tim Cain update, something he said could be interpreted as that there will be per-ability cool-downs a la WoW. Could you confirm/deny this? I personally feel they are bad design, and just a cheap way to nerf overpowered skills. A: What we are moving forward with right now is a system that does not require a pure round system. In the IE games, each person was running their own six second round and spells were based on whether they were memorzied. How we look at it, rather than going with a memorization system for spells, in particular, we can use a cool down system. It's a similar balancing system without requireing the whole resting for spells. As for ablities being on that timer, D&D also had certain abilities that could only be used a certain number of times per day - again we want to mimic that with a cool down system. Q: regarding the quest-based crafting, Drakensang had some powerfull items craftable-only, but one ingredient necessary is always a unique trophy (like the best longbow which uses a part of a dragon) and sometimes this unique item can be used in more then one recipe, which forces a choice by the player. What about this besides the reforging weapons from BG2? A: That's pretty cool and I'd forgotten about that system in Darkensang. I'll put it down as another option. Q: any Idea on how customizable the player housing will be? A: Our first goal with the housing is to have a good number of quests and NPCs surrounding it to make getting it and upgrading it fun. After that point, we are still working out the level of customization. Q: any word on if italian, russian and polish translations will be up for a stretch goal? i know a ton of people have been asking about that, and it'd be nice to have some info for them if you have anything. A: Might have some announcements on that very soon..... Q: Have you already decided if there will be a big city (or more than one) in the game (like Athkatla in BG 2)? A: We have not determined that yet. Personally, I like having a big city in our games like BG, Neverwinter, Athkatla, the Hub, Sigil, etc... Q: An idea for you guys. If you can queue actions (use this skill, then this skill, then go here, then attack this guy), you could do tactical combat pause style, but then unpause and watch the action unfold for a bit. A: Absolutely, we are going to have a queue system so that when you un-pause your party will follow a certain number of them. Not sure on the number exactly yet, probably around three though. Q: as a possible stretch goal, or part of one: maybe including exotic weaponry like whips and such? i think that could be an interesting add-on. A: Added the Exotic Weaponary idea to the list/e-mail I'm putting together here to Adam and the team. Q: Cool-downs are not real disadvantages that you take into account when deciding what to do next. They are artificial limitations. Each ability should come with real disadvantages (long execution time while you're locked in place, huge mana cost, etc). A: Gotcha. Personally, I think that cool downs can be used for both good and evil. We would try to stay on the path of good. Q: Question for us $65 tier pledgers. Is the box version going to be cardboard or plastic? Will there be a box release after launch? A: It will, most likely, but something similar to a double DVD case - like you see most games in now-a-days. As for after the KS for a box copy, not sure, but we don't have any plans right now to do another run of them. Q: I guess my next question is about dialogue. Any chance for Visual Novel style dialogue where the characters talking have potraits appear on the screen that have emotions that can change and stuff while the conversation is happening? It's a fairly cheap but powerful way to show the viewer what is going on without too much cost I think. A: Cool idea, I'll put on the list. Q: one last question, more artistic themed, I guess. There was a difference between Tormen and BG II (the most story focused games of the IE), maybe a slight deatil for lots of people, but something I felt very important: the narrative direction. In Torment the narrative was literary, with rich and detailed written descriptions. BG was far more "prosaic", almost a dull movie script. What narrative approach can we hope in PE, more Torment like or more BG like? Wich do you prefer? A: Best way to answer is that Torment and Fallout designers are working on Project Eternity. More: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/60874-updated-summary-of-the-qa-in-the-kickstarter-comments-page/#entry1218696

lol.

Yeah, I'd rather they not play off the adolescent male hormone stimulus and just go with... sensible? practical? armor designs.

+1 on this. Especially the documentary, soundtrack, and hiring of staff. Make it epic, polish this sucker like no other game before it, and make it the best damned game of this type in existence.