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Karkarov

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Everything posted by Karkarov

  1. Karkarov
    I imagine they will just give us a pre set party in a "side" region where no actual main story missions take place.
  2. Karkarov
    Pre Order and Early Access are not even close to the same thing though. That said, yes I agree they should offer it for Pre Order.
  3. Karkarov
    The BG1 Paperdolls are miles above BG2. You can however use the 1PP mod to get those back for BG2. The character models in BG1 have more detail and are just a lot better. It's really hard to spot the difference in a google screenshot but if you compare the look of the same race/class combination unarmored and armored in BG1 and BG2 the BG1 version is way better. Don't take this the wrong way or anything... but if the character designs don't make BG1-BG2 look like a joke then Obsidian dropped the ball in a way that is almost inconceivable. Those character models were fine for then, they are not fine for 2014.
  4. Karkarov
    Yeah to be honest the male portraits in BG1-2 sucked. I used custom portraits because it was either that or be forced to stare at a portrait I just plain didn't like the whole game.
  5. Karkarov
    Almost all of the high profile oldschool RPGs of the "RPG revival" to be released since 2012 took advantage of Early Access. The two that have been released, Might & Magic X and Blackguards, turned out pretty nicely. One that didn't use Early Access was Shadowrun Returns. Ahem ahem, correlation does not imply causation, but yeah. My point is, it's almost become an expectation that these games have a stint through Early Access before their final release. It's like the new way of making games. If Obsidian aren't going to go that route, it'd be interesting to know exactly why. It is funny you say that because Shadowrun Returns is a better game that stayed closer to it's promises and has long term delivered a solid product. Also it isn't the new way of making games. It is the same crap different day, it is a money grab move to get easy funding. Any real business person will tell you there is no such thing as "easy money". Early Access is a very abused fad that is quickly losing it's welcome with most gamers. No you were right the first time, they are discussing something disgusting and vile.
  6. Karkarov
    Eternity is not some half arsed over budget mismanaged hack job being made by Double Fine. It does not need Early Access and frankly the additional "profit" from it is mediocre when compared to the potential bad press, buyer backlash, and less impressive hit on actual launch. Early Access is a sign of a weak game that is running out of money, or one that will never leave development anyway, and I am not the only person that feels that way. Obsidian needs to focus on making a great game, not trying to jump on some flash in the pan fad to make a quick buck.
  7. Karkarov
    If they just "have" to use art panels this is exactly what they should do. Saves them the time and money of making new pictures and gets more use out of the already very nice looking concept art.
  8. Karkarov
    Uh I am pretty sure Obsidian goes to E3 most years. They have more on the table than just Eternity and E3 is the biggest consumer electronics show in the world. You want the games media to see your game and maybe give it some coverage.... you go to E3. Yes they are getting some coverage on some sites already, but I am pretty sure they would like to get some big interview or positive buzz on like a Gamespot, IGN, or maybe.... *cringe* even Kotaku. It is an industry show, hardly a vacation, and certainly not a waste of time.
  9. Karkarov
    This is the modern age, you don't want to spend too much time on loading screen artwork. Most people won't even look at them all that long. For example in the already mentioned Dark Souls on PC I clear the loading screen in roughly 10 seconds normally. Eternity is going to be much less graphically intensive so I don't anticipate staring very long at load screens. Just go the shadowrun returns route and have stock images maybe of a major landmark for the area you are loading and include a tiny bit of flavor text. Basically don't make a bunch of fancy custom art for screens most players will only see for 5-10 seconds once every 30 minutes or longer most of the time.
  10. Karkarov
    Any jagged edges or pixelization you are seeing in the video is purely because it is a video. There is always quality loss when you put something on youtube no matter what quality you film it at and cut the final video to. That said nice update! It is fun to see those effects and I particularly liked the day/night blend picture. Gives you a good idea of the range of shading and colors we can see in game. Also it is nice to hear from the chainmail cat dude once in awhile
  11. Karkarov
    The newly released Transistor does it pretty well. You don't get "weaknesses" but you get optional mods you can run that simply buff the enemies or give them new powers. In exchange you gain extra EXP. I think in general it is best that if you are giving your character an outright weakness it needs to either be a sort of "RP" thing like your character is addicted to chocolate or it has to come with an equally powerful bonus. Such as you take double damage from fire element attacks but only half damage from ice.
  12. Karkarov
    I suspect Bryy is correct. There will be a presence but it will probably just be a new trailer showing off some new stuff and more combat. Maybe a few demo booths where you can play a small area with multiple combat encounters in it using a set party.
  13. Karkarov
    Icewind Dale 2 was developed using a pre-existing engine. It also had a limited scope compared to the Baldur's Gate games, being more focused on combat. RPG's take a lot more time to develop than other genres (Dragon Age Origins was apparently revealed at E3 2004 and didn't come out until 2009). Are you saying Unity isn't a pre-existing engine? I am aware of the scope downgrade and the fact that they were familiar with Infinity Engine and not Unity. That's why I said December is enough time, again, that is a near two year dev cycle. Two years is plenty of time for a team of their size with their experience level. They aren't indy devs making a game for the first time or working in a genre they have never touched and unlike Dragon Age: Origins they aren't trying to make a AAA budget game with motion actors and all dialog spoken etc etc. For as big a scope difference Icewind Dale 2 has to Eternity, Dragon Age: Origins has the same scope difference as well.
  14. Karkarov
    Well I didn't really touch on schedule in my earlier post (which seems be be a big focus for some) but I will be very very disappointed if it misses it's release goal. It has been over a year, it will be near two years by December. These are the same people who put out Icewind Dale 2 in 10 months. They can meet their release goal, and I will extend that to say on the games where they failed to meet their release goal.... Reception was mixed at best. More time does not always mean better product. December 2014 is what a team of this size should reasonably need for this kind of game.
  15. Karkarov
    Steam Early Access is also a near scam and very abusive of the gaming public. You could throw up any old near unplayable piece of crap on Steam Early Access and charge 60 bucks for it. It can also result in a large amount of negative press for your game, like the initial Steam Early access did for Wasteland 2. All I heard about that game for months after the early access started was some variation on "it is bad". To the point where I wish I hadn't backed it. Obsidian if you want to ride the money/trend train and do Steam Early access.... at least wait until actual Beta is ready. Don't release a 2-3 hour buggy chip of game and charge people 60 dollars for it, it will just bite you in the ass. Even if long term the game is great people don't see Steam Early Access as "alpha" they see it as a game release and expect it to be good RIGHT NOW. While releasing Early Access may get you money today, it may also lose you a customer tomorrow.
  16. Karkarov
    You know maybe I remember wrong but I could swear they have long since said the main story missions scale to the party/player and only the side mission stuff is static.
  17. Karkarov
    Yeah we are going to agree to disagree on your opinion of publishers. That said they are wrong. I couldn't tell you the name of even one inn from BG2, or BG at all other than the Friendly Arm. I do remember the adventuring party spoof/mini events clear as yesterday though.
  18. Karkarov
    That's a great idea. Their party name could have been the "Goon Squad" and they would be world renown for only fighting on the side of reviled dictators and tyrants. In battle they would constantly fling insults as well and when one of them died they would say "I am suspending my belief!"
  19. Karkarov
    That's better than what I would have done with it. Mine would read. "He was kicked in the head... until he was dead.... Nyahahahahahahahahaha"
  20. Karkarov
    Nope. I think the reason every bit of news / new topic on this form gets chewed though so hard is simply because people want something Eternity related to talk about... and we have basically talked about everything eternity related to death. Maybe some people think a community manager will just end up getting them more reveals or have some "official" pipeline to Obsidian so they can carry on some kind of dialog. That isn't really how it works though in practice and Obsidian is too small to really need one. We are okay as we are, all of us are just antsy for a beta or gameplay video. Something we can actually sink our teeth in so to speak.
  21. Karkarov
    Just give him a few hours prep time and it is all over for those two jobbers.
  22. Karkarov
    Okay I agree with you up until you started talking about comics. DC is clearly better. And we all know why don't we? Yes. We do.
  23. Karkarov
    I can see this thread has retained it's discussion value. Meanwhile.... I will take a New York Style pizza. Stuff crust? Vomit.... VOMIT!!!!
  24. Karkarov
    Just to throw this out there but I love this post Sarex because you just unintentionally proved my point. You soloed the game this way due to an unintended exploit resulting from a design flaw in how the game works. Not because it was designed to be soloable, but because the dev's didn't catch this bug and or didn't bother fixing it.
  25. Karkarov
    Quality should always trump quantity. Let's take Junta's example of Vampire: The Masquerade. I know lot's of people on this forum love that game. I have played it myself, beaten it, etc. But does playing as a different clan (again we are talking default game) "really" change that much? No, not really. I will never play it again anyway. Don't get me wrong there was stuff you could do differently, but it doesn't really change much long term. The main story points are still the same and play out 80% the same no matter what. That and the mechanics are pretty borked, so it was fun to play for the story but the game play was ... par at best. Would that game have been better if you were stuck with a set clan and all the effort put into making the slight changes per play through due to clan had instead been put into polishing the gameplay and maybe making a couple more side quests/another main quest arc instead? Yeah, I think it would have been.
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