dukeofyork

I am interested in why you feel your order should get any recognition above anyone else who has contributed financially towards PE? I am not being funny, I am genuinely curious. There are many people who are not part of your order that have paid good money towards KS Are ardent fans and believe in PE Promote the game on all forums they can So what makes you guys special? Exactly how does the order broadly being recognized in game effect anyone that has donated? It is not specifically mentioning those who donated names (unless the idea, which I believe to be a bad one, of recognizing a specific member as the op suggests is adopted). It is no more than a fun easter egg/ shout out to a group of fans who banded together to support the game, a large group of fans at that. Self entitlement sucks. It is not rewarding specific individuals more than others, it is a general shout out to fans of the game, honoring them in general. As long as they keep it subtle and make it fit in with the rest of the lore, there is nothing but good that will come from the recognition. I fail to see your point in all of this, as long as individuals are not mentioned. Collectively the order has donated well over $1,000 in additional pledges, which is the point where you get a say in lore. There is nothing disproportional about this, nor would there be even if that not the case, as again with no specific names given it would be nothing more than a fun easter egg benefiting no one in particular.

I couldn't care less about this one way or the other. The idea of replacing one of the best elements of rpg's (party interaction) and from the sounds of the developer posts, a significant part or this game, with lifeless emotionless companions just because you like to create characters seems silly. I guess I might want to hire a mercenary if a companion of a certain class I need for my party is UNBARABLE, but I doubt hiring a single mercenary will break the bank no matter how they do it. That being said, since obviously there are many people who disagree with me and wish to craft their entire party, and since this feature was made specifically for them, why not make it free after a certain point in the game? If such an easy compromise can be reached without upsetting anyone I really don't see any problem with making people happy. Though making the players happy does seem like a dangerous precedent (or so EA would have us believe)

On the one hand the talk about this reward and that reward "being an outrage" or "going too far" is absolutely and completely A. Ridiculous and B. Entitled If a stretch goal doesn't benefit you "This game sucks I am withdrawing my support." If a reward doesn't apply to your tier "They are excluding me! I am withdrawing my support!" They try to market the game to a wider audience through the use of reddit or facebook "This is not old school! They are selling out with their vision! I am withdrawing my support" A meaningless aesthetic "pet" is added "I will only pay for the game if I get ALL of the content." Does that even qualify as content? It all is just so obsurd at first glance and on a certain level it angers me. HOWEVER, taking a step back we all must remember. Publishers have done nothing but screw gamers over the past 5 or 6 years. Games have increasingly all converged towards a single look, style, and common denominator of gamers that we all feel betrayed and used. In addition the deceptive and sometimes almost criminal miss marketing of games has caused such a degree of distrust among gamers that it is difficult to believe the industry has not completely collapsed under its own weight. On this level I understand the impulse to jump to irrational conclusions at the slightest hint of this type of thing. The idea that they might actually fund an expansion with their own money, after the fact just seems code for DLC cut from the game. The completely arbitrary "pet" is far too similar to the dog, or extra oped equipment from any of the recent shamelessly marketed bioware games. I get it, I really do. Just take a deep breath and think for a second as if you have not been ripped off 20 times over the past 5-8 years already. Does anything they have said honestly look like what the big publishers have done to us? No, no it does not. Calm down and try to remember Obsidian is not a publisher, but instead a poor developer that has very good, and not sinister, reasons for doing everything they have done so far. Innocent until proven guilty.

Fine Sirs and Ladies; I have finally gathered up my funds for my desired tier and added an extra $8 on top of this. I would very much like to become the Obsidian Order's Master Librarian if that title is available.

If the codex itself was so powerful I would have thought they could have raised $5,000 by now. As I said previously I think the article brings up some valuable points. Unfortunately they are made in an inflammatory and insulting way that alienates almost everyone on this forum, including those of us that lean towards the traditional.

On a certain level it is silly. Obviously 90% of the people supporting the game do not fall nicely into one of those two categories. However, those two categories DO seem to fairly accurately represent the two extremes of the spectrum on this site and most do seem to at least partially lean one way or the other. What is instructive about this topic is, monetarily speaking the op has hit on some interesting points (however much he may misrepresent the community). Firstly I do think that the more traditionalist the backer, the more likely they will be to donate the larger tiers, for many of the reasons above, but also and more importantly: Traditionalists are far more likely to be older than the posters somewhat insultingly named "biowareians" and thus have much larger fixed incomes and the ability to invest more money into the endeavor. However, obviously modern games do have far more backers (thus why a game like this is so hard to get publisher funding) and there are more likely to be more of them backing this game overall. That creates an interesting dichotomy between a select few high paying backers who have a very specific game in mind and a larger set of low paying backers who are kinda just in for the ride. But, again as people say we should only take this idea so far because the people supporting this game are far more diverse than simply "codexians" and "biowarians" and most of us, both high end backers and low end probably fit somewhere in the middle. th However, the point remains Obsidian set out to make a game where they did not have to compromise for the publishers. However, monetarily speaking the backers of this game have them between a rock and a hard place. The game is going to sell a hell of a lot more copies (and allow them to make a self financed sequel) if it is atleast somewhat "modern," however a large percentage of the startup cash is coming from people who want the exact opposite of this. I am not saying any of this will matter in the end, but it is an interesting point that there are several forces at work here in the community all trying to draw obsidian in a different direction and all presenting different financial benefits and pit falls. I just hope obsidian is able to ignore all of them and make the game they envisioned themselves making from the beginning.

I would say monk and musket lady are two separate variations of the priest class, which I think is simply brilliant. And I completely agree I am giddy with excitement over this wallpaper and update.

Based on the wallpaper and the caption it looks like the female dwarf ranger will be your companion. Between this and that first concept art with the description of tundra dwarfs or whatever, this has me super excited. I also really like the looks of the crazy monk, and while I wasn't thrilled with the human woman in her first concept art, I love her in this wallpaper. I'd be pretty pumped if all of these turned out to be companions (minus generic elf wizard). What say you all if the wallpaper turns out to be the first 5 real companions? Edited with link: http://media.obsidian.net/eternity/media/wallpapers/wallpaper001/wallpaper001-1650x1050.jpg

That was so awesome Armand! The names didn't seem forced in at all either, I am very impressed. This is probably tied for my second favorite with the sea monster song just a hair behind the stealer of souls. But yeah, loved it. Also thanks for the shout out at the end! Keep up the great work!

Armand, if you could put all of that together in one glorious 2 minute song game titles and all, you would then truly become a master bard if that was not evident already.

I know many were very enamored with that first piece of concept art of the dwarven ranger, you could sing about how the arrows could not puncture the evil mages veil and his partner Edair the fighter used a pistol at close range to puncture the veil so an arrow could fly true or something? Don't know how you could maybe factor the whip into that too... Just thought that kinda combines the party dynamics with the concept art and veil ideas. Just a thought. I love your songs so far though (especially your last one) so I am sure whatever you decide to sing about will come out great!

Got nothing to do with xenophobia, Its just a waste of resources that could be spend on making the game bigger and/or better. Ofcourse incase it doesnt take alot of money to translate it, its not a problem. But considering the amount of people affected by the translations compared to the people who would be affected by more content, would be better to spend the money in that direction. Its a waste of resources to YOU. 1. text translations do not cost that much. 2. to anyone who does not have great English text translations are HUGE. 3. rpg's have atleast as large a fanbase in europe as in the US if not more. yeah plenty of people speak english, but I am sure (based on cries for them on this very board) there are plenty of people that need them that still wish to play the game. Just because something does not appeal to you does not make it a waste of time.

Very happy to see localization. I only speak English and I know I can get away with that in most countries. For this very reason however, I do not begrudge anyone who does not want to experience EVERYTHING in the English language. Accessibility is great, and I know I would be so pissed if a game as awesome as this one was only available in a language I could not speak very well (say spanish, which I have only an intermediate understanding of). I really don't see why anyone should have a problem with this. Also, as much as I would like to see more from the more exotic races/classes I assumed they would be saving those for much later to build excitement. However, as far as the good old human fighter can be anything other than expected I was pleasantly surprised to see how solidly awesome he looked (I love the look of the armor).

If done right durability can be something that adds another layer of realism and depth to a game. However, there are two problems I have with this. 1. if implemented magic items should not have "charges" in addition to durability, maybe make it harder to find a smith who can repair it, but having 2 levels of durability is tedious and punishments for having superior items just doesn't make sense to me. 2. Durability is a concept, to me, that works best in an open world setting (one where not only is a story being told but you are making your own and essentially living the life of your hero from day to day). The realism added is a nice touch, but due to the open world nature of the game it never becomes a truly annoying gameplay feature its always fairly easy to get to a blacksmith in times of need. However picture a game like mass effect (bad example given that this is a fantasy crpg and not a third person shooter with a few rpg mechanics and a tired story, but I am tired and cant be bothered to think harder) where once you start a "dungeon" you are basically locked in until completion. Unless there are "blacksmiths" within the dungeon this hardly seems like an ideal situation. You could break all of your equipment and then be stuck with no options in the middle of enemies with no way to fight them. This would turn the mechanics tedious. So for me it all depends on how Obsidian approaches eternity. If the game becomes extremely open world, without a great deal of urgency, yeah a durability system is fine. However, if the game is only nominally open world (like most crpgs imo) and focused mainly upon telling a single cohesive story with a great deal of urgency involved then durability is going to become one of those mechanics that will only cause misery. Personally I hope Eternity is more like the second (though god help us all, not anything story or otherwise like mass effect) and thus I say no to durability.

I voted yes, but honestly I don't have a strong opinion on this one. However, ANYTHING that gets me some more polls about polls or even a poll about the relevancy of this poll on polls would be most appreciated. I cant explain why I am enjoying this so much, but I am

I would like to second Merin's point. Once my next paycheck comes in I am planning on donating $250, not because of the signatures I get on top of the $140 investment, but because I whole heartedly want this project to succeed and I want to be a part of that success. It is an investment in this game worlds future. I sincerely hope the $250 I am giving them goes much further than a defacto loan. I want this project to succeed so that when they are done the proceeds can go to a bigger and better follow up, and this great developer can ween themselves off of dependence to publishers and just make games like this all the time. I hope the game breaks 20 hours. But if it doesn't if it is more 10-15 hours of gameplay I will not cry. We are simply helping Obsidian to build a foundation so that they can make this fantasy world and its gameplay systems a reality. One that can span many games into the future, without the hassle of a publisher and hopefully without having for us to kickstart each one.

why is romance in RPGs so hated when It is a fact of life? It plays a part in almost all deep human examinations and in EVERYONES life. Whether tragic happy or hopeless love happens to pretty much everyone. An RPG without any, almost does not make sense (especially one that takes place over a matter of years and the characters in questions are adults). Yeah sure it would not be appropriate for EVERY GAME to have it, say something that may take place over a matter of days or an fps or puzzle game, yeah no romance is necessary obviously. But a game taking place in a mature world that is attempting to tackle tough life questions? Kinda difficult to ignore love there. Something like Torment where the romance plots are subtle and inherently tragic is ok too, but to say you want no romance whatsoever in a game, because it is not manly, or games don't do it right usually, or because you are a prude or whatever the reason is just makes no sense to me if you want a truly deep gaming experience that has the grand scope and asks the human questions that great RPG's do. Most romances are completely juvenile, oversexualized, and shallow in video games just as they are in the life of a highschooler (where many video gamers and designers seem to perpetually exist long afterwards). I am not asking for that. Nor am I demanding that they be obligatory in all games, or for every playthrough of a game. But to insist games not have them, especially an RPG which is such a story driven experience where you are supposed to get invested in a world that seems real also seams odd to me. I sincerely hope Project Eternity features romantic entanglements/choices/betrayals and tragedy explored in a mature and realistic way, whether that be going down the muted but effecting path of Torment or the more front and center and exploratory choices featured in Mass Effect, Origins, or Neverwinter Night 2 (though again better executed, not necessarily dependent on sex, and more mature). Obviously just my opinion, but it really does confuse me when people are so anti romance in a story based rpg game...

2. Yes, but Doublefine was also the first video game company to have that sort of success. They didn't anticipate that they were going to get 10 times the amount they asked for. I think Obsidian could have learned from Doublefine and anticipated coming up with the stretch goals ahead of time. 3. I am not necessarily complaining about issues like multilanguage and Paypal support and stretch goals as things that haven't been resolved. I am using them more as examples on why I have reservations on the level of organization. These are all issues that have arisen BEFORE in other Kickstarter Projects and it surprised me that Obsidian didn't anticipate and address them AHEAD of time. There's a general set of questions that everyone usually asks for these Kickstarter video games: multiplatform support, multiplayer support, game distribution (Ie. Steam). It's like going to an interview and not thinking about your questions and answers ahead of time. 2. You miss the point; these are not things, no matter how likely, a company can just assume. Obsidian does not automatically know that the project will be funded in the first day just because another developers was. In fact with the recent influx of game projects like these on Kickstarter it is a very valid position for Obsidian to have wondered if the kickstarter users might have already been tapped out for the time being on that sort of project. Even more importantly and this also answers your points on 3. You simply cannot spend money that you do not have. It is one thing for them to have their story mapped out and an idea of stretch goals, but to have anything worthy of showing to the player without funding would have meant they would be tapping into their own financial reserves to begin development of a game on the coattails of several failed publisher projects that cost them quite a bit of cash without any guarantee this one would not be a failed venture as well. I think that is asking a bit much. On the same line, things like platform support, distribution method, multiplayer, modding ability, and even the engine cannot be accurately determined without knowing the games budget, which they did not know, and still do not. Within a day of release we were made aware of platform support once they knew what budget they could expect, distribution method and multiplayer take considerably more time to hammer down, not just internally but through negotiations with third parties (ie gog). All of the game details come back down to requiring budget knowledge they simply did not have on friday, and even now have a very hazy idea of. Unless you want them to make guesses that they may not be able to uphold in the end game we all just have to give them time and our faith. More details will be released before the 30 days are up but to expect that within 1 day + a weekend is absurd.