Karkarov

I still find it funny no one seems to think there is a middle ground. I almost always play a character who "follows no diety" in these types of games yet my character never "hates" religions, bashes the gods, actively works against them (unless they have to), or has some idiotic concept that they are "not worthy" of being worshiped. You can understand and respect something, understand why someone else follows it or worships it, but simply choose not to do so yourself. It doesn't always have to be some inane man vs god nonsense. In other words, if the devs can't swing not worshiping a deity being left to player interpretation with enough open ground to take it in any direction you want.... then they shouldn't implement it in the first place. Not worshiping a deity should not auto equate to being a fanatic who hates the gods.

Here is your problem, this is how Apple handles it. Apple also says to the consumer "this is your hardware and it isn't negotiable". Their solutions simply don't work outside of their own hardware. There could be people who want to play this game on 5 year old (maybe older) pc's with who knows what kind of monitor, people who will play it on multiple monitors, people like me who use a 40+ inch HDTV as my "monitor", some people may even run their pc through a high end projector for all we know. It is not as simple as you are trying to make it sound. Forget about considerations like OS compatibility (people still use XP, yeah I know), graphics solutions, and everything else. Myself for example... until online video streaming reaches a point where we can go beyond 1080p (this isn't happening ANY time soon) there is literally no point to go to a retina monitor, higher resolution monitor, or anything else. You have to realize that as of right now even video capture devices save insanely expensive top end professional grade hardware can't even capture 1080p at 60 frames yet to begin with.

More npc's even if they just have canned dialog add a bit of believability to the world and the cities. So sure, do it. But they shouldn't go out of their way to spend time on something like this, though I expect it wouldn't be that hard of a thing to get done.

You should have preset equipment but it should be based on a number of factors. First off class, if they go with "multiple question" backstory stuff that should factor in, and lastly as others have said if there are weapon specific skills that should matter too. That said that doesn't mean you should just "have" it all. Take NWN2 for example where the game technically started with a tutorial, or Dark Souls where you started with your armor but you found your weapon and shield as you progressed through the Undead Asylum. You don't have to hand it all to us outright in other words and some gameplay or story segment could explain how we get it.

The murder mystery assassin quest in Oblivion is still one of the best quests that the ES ever had, would be great to see something similar but different in PE.

If they have been adventuring with me that long they already have a cut of the loot via the gear on their back and the levels they earned. Yes they should get to keep whatever they have in their inventory or on their person as gear. Yes systems should be in place that prevent you from "stripping" a companion, like you can't change their gear unless it is by equipping them with a new item of same or higher "level". They made it work so companions wouldn't put on lower level gear in fallout 3 and NV they can do it here. Just take it a step further. And if you don't like it there is always the "Khalid" approach. Bears have to eat too you know.

Oh course it is linear, the objective is get in the stronghold. You can't complete the objective without actually entering the stronghold and by definition that forces you to go inside. If that is too linear for you I suggest you stop playing RPG's entirely. Nor does anything you say have any bearing on my point. All routes lead to the "objective" being completed but had different rewards or penalties based on what you did. Just the EXP was the same. Want to make combat not an option? Ok, what's your point? So you can't "fight your way in" you had to do something else. You should still get the same exp regardless of what path you choose. Whatever options are left still have different benefits and penalties. So stop taking everything to the inth ultra literal degree and instead focus on the actual point. Exp is just one way of rewarding the player and all these different playstyle options already have enough separating them in method, "cost", efficiency, and result that making exp different too is just not necessary. Also for all these people going on about power gaming, all rewarding one method more than another does is.... encourage power gaming. Something they already said they don't want to do. Making one option give more exp than another option in a RPG based on objective based exp rewards is not a good idea.

No thanks, I don't need the option to steal the blacksmiths candlesticks or firewood like in ES games. All three of your options are bad. You should have just had option 4, "Like every Infinity Engine RPG did it".

Why shouldn't it? Objective, break into an enemy stronghold. You can stealth your way in, fast talk or bribe some guards, maybe even get through based on character affiliation with a specific faction or just overall fame, lastly maybe you just kill everyone who tries to stop you. No matter what you did you broke into the enemy stronghold, same objective, same exp reward. The difference comes in the path you used. Fast talking might have required a bribe, so it was simple, easy, and quick but cost you money. Stealth may have been time consuming and "tough" but you got inside without losing anything and maybe start off in a better location to proceed with your goals. Faction rank or fame had to be achieved, likely you earned a lot of money or privileges in the process which are their own rewards, and you probably had to spend more time playing up to that point on side content. Combat probably makes the whole process tough going once you get inside and may see you wounded or in a bad starting position for future goals in the stronghold, however you got yourself some loot off those dead guys didn't you? Each path already has plenty of risk/reward mixed in to result in very different situations and overall player status without exp ever entering the equation.

I am always amazed by how people consider not worshiping to equal not respecting. If you are going to include an option not to worship any specific deity then you need to leave it open enough that the player can swing it how they want. Not respecting a force that you know exists and is capable of killing you on a whim seems downright... stupid.

Reasonable realistic looking armor and weapons is fine, basing it on real world historical groups or figures isn't. This isn't medieval Germany, it is PE and they need to go with their own design concepts. It would be nice not to see a sword bigger than the person holding it in one hand though.

What kind of nonsense did you just type? The kind that implies the thread is sort of stupid. Someone made them a one sided deal, they said no, it happens.

Wow this thread is so monumentally dumb I don't know what to say. Either way regardless of who the Publisher that made the offer was it is unlikely and known Developer would have accepted the deal.

Fair enough but the point stands. In fact backgrounds are by far the most intense of the things this thread asks for. It is fairly simple to do this for a one off avatar pic or ui elements. In fact they have to do it for ui elements anyway so they will accurately scale at the multiple resolutions we will have today. Anyway it is a fine idea and more power to Obsidian to try, but they should focus on making the game good today first before worrying about how it will look on a new monitor in 10 years.

Yeah, having a hide-able UI would be really nice and truthfully shouldn't be all that hard to implement.

Well are we even sure any race gets actual racial bonuses yet? If races are getting them then yes they should give humans some type of bonus too.

How can I say this.... No. This isn't an mmo, we don't need to bring mmo conventions into it.

Uh have you ever actually played Deus Ex? It is the grandaddy of alternate approach games. Or are you one of the people who pretended none of that was in the last game because a few boss fights were forced combat? Either way there are plenty of RPG elements in Deus Ex and it follows basically the same EXP model as PE so makes for a fine comparison. Also I think you missed the entire point of the post. I am simply stating that, no, the power gaming "paradigm" has not moved away from combat. I went on to say that even in a objectives based reward scheme like PE many players will still choose to resolve things through combat and not stealth or other means of bypassing encounters. Many players actually prefer combat regardless of EXP rewards presence or lack there of. I am all for their objectives based system and coincidentally am totally opposed to anything that would give one method of "resolution" more exp than the other. Like I said, you should be rewarded for how well you play and what style you use to accomplish your goals. You should not be rewarded based on whether or not you used one preferred method of beating an encounter. All playstyles should have the same reward at least from an exp perspective.

Finally breaking free of publishers only to immediately sign with the devil afterwards? Sounds like a worst-case-scenario to me... A publisher getting involved is a clear sign that the game was a big financial success, so big it can't be ignored. That is a good sign for the genre and it's long term viability, not to mention Obsidian's fiscal future. Them coming back to kickstarter is not. Self publishing is more expensive and time consuming than what many posters seem to think it is.

If your definition of "triple A" is cutting edge graphics, huge multiplayer focus, tons of licensed music, and a boat load of voice acting then... no 4 million isn't anywhere near enough for a "triple A" experience. If your idea of "triple A" is a great game people love to play and still talk about today years after it came out like Fallout 1-2 well I think Fallout 2 only cost around 3.5 million or so.

In a well made and balanced there will always be a level cap because you will simply run out of ways to gain exp. If they ultimately plan to make a PE:2 and have you carry over characters than a PE:1 level cap would be a good idea. If they don't then I see no reason to insert a cap beyond only having so much exp out there to get.

No you tend to disagree on the idea that this game is a real combat simulator. Real combat doesn't involve fireballs, elves, dragons, swords that emit lightning, or magic armor. There are plenty of real combat simulators out there such as the Mount and Blade games. Uber realistic combat doesn't work well in a fantasy rpg, because nothing about the setting is uber realistic nor is hyper realism the point of the game or the combat. Over half of this threads suggestions are just needlessly complex and make the simple act of stabbing a dude with a sword considerably more complex than it needs to be for Project Eternity.

Both are fine but for this games purposes and based on what the previous info released of the project suggests... I think the baldur's gate method will work better.

I think you are throwing some people off because you are being needlessly technical. To make a long story short what you are saying is make the actual maps much much larger than they actually "need" to be for current resolutions and simply downscale them to fit. That way in 10 years when people want to play this game on the theoretical monitor of the day they can just play it at the resolution the games maps was created at without having to upscale them which results in a blurry image. That said as any graphics artist can tell you it is always easier to create an image at a very large size them down scale it for the size you actually need. So odds are they are doing this anyway. The question is whether it will be viable to include these images at their original resolutions. Personally I think they should do whatever is easier and will fit on the physical discs. Modders playing the game at a theoretical uber resolution 10 years from now are not the people who will decide if the game is profitable or not. It will be the people playing it in 2014 on the very real resolutions of 1080+.

I hope they stay away from it period. It always baffled me that the Infinity Engine games had it in the first place. It was a single player RPG from the ground up and the multiplayer really didn't add anything to the game and never really worked well anyway. If you want the fun of playing with a buddy there are tons of games that are actually designed for that out there, every game doesn't need multiplayer. I know I am having a blast playing co-op Borderlands 2 with a friend right now, but I would never even consider inviting him to play Baldur's Gate 2 with me in co-op.