Elerond

Fair enough, and maybe seeing the approach in-game will convert me. I'm not sure if I understand the reputation approach though. It seems to me like a more convoluted application of The Witcher 2's dialogue abilities system *, and makes even less sense: why does a reputation as a diplomat help me solve situation diplomatically? If anything, I'd expect people to scrutinize me more. If you are known to be reasonable person who wants to find solutions that work for every one it often gives you some authority in negotions and people more easier start negotiations with you. Of course some people will see you as compromising person who will not drive their intrests or you are weak because of that or etc.. So as always certain reputation has it strong points and weaknesess. In my opinion it is more intriguing approach that you never can please every faction, but need too tradeoff depending on which type character you play, contrast to approach where you can win every one on your side by winning all conversation puzzles (via instant win options or other means).

lol, if there's little to gain, why have resting at all? You can't have your cake and eat it too. Are saying that game should not have any features that players can't abuse? In my opinion it's not any worse way to add feature game that gives player little benefit, but player is forced to use it sometimes than add feature that give so much benefits that players will abuse it, if it is not very restricted. In my opinion game should be balanced so that any of it's features don't take dominant role. As I see it, less player gains benefits from one feature more s/he tries other features to find "best way" to play game and so better features are balanced more players try different feature mixs to find that "best way" to play.

Which is good example how you can reduce of ammount of resting by modifying gameplay system so that benefits from resting are reduced. As you see they didn't go way of restricting resting there, but make it not so worthwhile thing to do. And it is the desgning philosophy that I would like their use in future too. I think you misunderstand. The point isn't to reduce the amount of resting. The point is to make the game flexible enough that you can restrict resting without making the game too punishing, because if you don't restrict it, people will abuse it no matter what. My point was that if you make gameplay such that there is little to gain from resting then there is no iniative to abuse it and therefore there is then no need to restrict it.

Which is good example how you can reduce of ammount of resting by modifying gameplay system so that benefits from resting are reduced. As you see they didn't go way of restricting resting there, but make it not so worthwhile thing to do. And it is the desgning philosophy that I would like their use in future too.

Im in favor of resting, just not having to hump back to some "safe spot" to rest. Thats unfun for the sake of replacing a mechanic that works fine. In prior IE games you could rest (almost) anywhere you wanted. I am fan of free resting also and I have impression that resting freedom in PE would be similar as in IE games and safe resting spots are only areas where there is no possibilty for random encounters. That would make no sense. Why make a convoluted dual health/stamina system if you can just rest anywhere? The game obviously won't let you rest anywhere. Why make game with rest restricted spells, if you can sleep anywhere? Location of resting should be resticted only if there is no other negative effects in resting, like possibility to launch a random encounter, time restricted quest etc.. Of course resting restriction don't mater if resting don't give major bonuses (like getting spells and abilities back to use, heal to full, etc.) So there is just one factor which we should watch to decide how resticted resting should be. At the end restrictions should be applied that game's balance gives fun but still challenching gameplay. Things like rest spamming, should be not removed via rest spamming, but removing mechanics or bonuses that encourage player to use such "cheats". In my opinion it don't make game better if mechanics and bonuses encourage to rest spam, but to rest player must make runs to rest places, this kind approach don't remove problem but causes players bore more.

Im in favor of resting, just not having to hump back to some "safe spot" to rest. Thats unfun for the sake of replacing a mechanic that works fine. In prior IE games you could rest (almost) anywhere you wanted. I am fan of free resting also and I have impression that resting freedom in PE would be similar as in IE games and safe resting spots are only areas where there is no possibilty for random encounters.

In IE games you were in same situation if you run out of healing spells and potions. Of course in the end game you could buy so much healing potions that there was no such risk or you rest so much that you never run out of healing spells, but in start you didn't have any other choice than go rest or risk dying from one hit (what was risk for some characters even in full health). So one could see that health bar in PE replace healing spells and potions as strategic resource that you can only replenish via rest or with money from shop keepers (for example doctors could work as health sellers ).

I would say that horror works fine in isometric games. If you want example, you need only look first or newest Xcom games (strategy&tactical versions). Those games create nice feel of horror (good way) in player.

How can they take more punishment? Stamina and health are tied together in a fixed ratio (4:1) and health only goes down. You can be at full stamina and still die to a returning frost dart. I would think that system would be such that you take only quarter of health damage what you take in BG, so for example if Gibbering does you 4 damage, in BG you would lose 4 health points, but in PE you lose 4 stamina points and only 1 health points. So in this scenario your character can take four times more damage before dying than in BG.

Man this sounds terrible. Dying from couple blows when character's health is very low? No, having no way to replenish your health without schlepping back to some defined "rest spot". No magic, no potions, just some annoying mechanic designed to reinvent the wheel and cater to Internet Tough Guys ™. Doesnt it sound weird that magic can do everything but heal? Thats a mechanic being forced. I think it's better that magic can't heal , than it can but still world has people dying in diseases and wounds. So it's better that player characters need less healing, as they can take more punishment. And I like that this better damage resistance is balanced by adding another resource that works like health in IE games, so you lose it fast, but you can regenerate it fast by spells and abilities. In my opinion this system gives same tactical and strategic things than IE system, but it also don't cause inconsistencies to world and it don't force player have healer characters in his or her party to survive the game. And if system is balanced correctly it don't add or lower game's difficult level. You could think that situation where you have very low health in game, but full stamina is same situation as you had in BG when you run out of healing spells and potion and have very low health, so your characters are fully ready to combat, but going in combat would be dangerous without going to rest first. So essentially system is same as in IE games, but healing magic is changed to resource bar, which actually simplicates resource usage (so Internet Tough Guys™ are against this change) , but it also changes sytems to such it don't complicate lore of the world (as there is no need to explain why people don't cure plagues and etc. with magic).

This is not the important question, which is how you continue your life when Project Eternity success to be best game that you have ever played and you just can't stop playing it?

Man this sounds terrible. Dying from couple blows when character's health is very low?

I know that one should always take critical view to design ideas, but it so hard when you agree every sentence in the proposal.

So many pretty pictures and they aren't even finnished yet, so I think that final game will look awesome. Update also tells why it's always risk to take sabbaticals, some always changes tools in work when you take one and they never tell you about it

I remember a revenge quest in the City Elf origin, where a human noble claims jus primae noctis and kidnaps you or your soon-to-be wife. But you rode in and saved the day before anything even happened. And you didn't have time to get to know the would-be-victims before the quest. I don't remember anything about a rape in the Brecilian Forest. Did it happen before you even got there? Didn't happen to your or one of your companions, anyway, so it's not the same thing. Graphical rape doesn't have to pornographic. It could just be a short cutscene that fades to black before anything really happens. Yes, implied rape is pretty common, but it's rarely used to move the plot forward. Usually it's just there to showcase how dark and gritty the setting is, and that's exactly what I don't want. And there are plenty of good examples of rape in literature. I don't see how it's any less imaginative than murder is. In city elf orgin quest your cousin gets raped, or that implication I get when I read those dialogs. Brecillian forest quest if you look through all lore hints, you find out that elf leader has cursed human population which members raiped his daughter to werewolves and he don't want curse removed even hundred years later because I his opinion towns people are not punished enough. In Leliana's Song add-on it is implied that Leliana is raped by castle guards and she goes to revenge mission. My opinion is that there is no need for graphical rape in games or even for graphical sex scenes. I think that implied ones are much better than grapical scenes that usually only rise shared sense of shame in me than anything other. And such scenes make even less sense in PE style game were is camera is fixed far from characters and where text is used usually instead of cut scenes. Revenging murder of loved one or family member is not any better character motivation than revenging rape. Revenge is in my opinion very poor character motivation device and should be used only very rare occasions and even then one should try invent some twists to that. I haven't seen any good examples of rape in literature, best they are decend ones, but usually when rape is used as plot device it just causes storys level to drop (again my opinion).

In my opinion first is only sub group of the second. I haven't seen any revenge rape quests in any media, they are usually just trying to be dark and edgy and rape don't actually add anything else than easy dark start to story, These kind of cheap motivations and quest should be avoided if there isn't very good reason add them. The reason is to make you feel. To make you crave revenge because you care for the victim. Or at least want to help him/her through it (if your character doesn't believe in revenge). In most games, they do that by killing off the character's parents or something like that. People you don't know and have probably never even met. It's nowhere near as poignant, and it's been done to death. Why is it cheap? It's a pretty common plot in literature, both classical and contemporary. And in films. But for some reason, it seems to be taboo in games. Sure, sometimes a character will hint at the fact that s/he was raped in the past, or a character is about to get raped when the hero rides in and saves him/her. But to actually have it happen during the game...? Apart from Phantasmagoria, I can't think of a single game in which a character is raped (that isn't some stupid hentai game). It's common plot device in literature because it is easy way to motivate character and don't need any imagination from writer. And it is common in games too, for example in dragon age there is several rapes and even plot for revenge for rape (dispute between werewolfs and elves). And dragon age is not only one. Graphical rape is not so common, but some games have even that. But graphical rape is just explanation which should be avoided in all serious works (my opinion), because it really don't add anything to game/s.

In my opinion first is only sub group of the second. I haven't seen any revenge rape quests in any media, they are usually just trying to be dark and edgy and rape don't actually add anything else than easy dark start to story, These kind of cheap motivations and quest should be avoided if there isn't very good reason add them.

And by kickstarters rules and agreements pledgers would have right to demand their money back in case which Obsidian (or any other project creator in kickstarter) don't deliver rewards which they have promised. So taking DRM free version in this point of the table would probably be more damaging than what pirates could ever do. As some people would see that orginal offer for drm free version was only marketing ploy to get more backers for the project and they would probably cause bad press for the project and Obsidian itself, which could cause monetary lose even in the far future. Greed company digma is easy to get, but much harder to get rid off.

I still have horror pictures about starforce (3 and 3.5 i think) as it caused that I could not play several games that I had bought as it's virtual drive worked badly in windows xp and it didn't and still not work in windows vista or newer windows. Additionally newer version of starforce virtual drive didn't support games using older version. And so I would say that copy protection that needs you to crack it that you can play games that you have bought legally is not way to go even if it is difficult to crack.

Not all steam games are DRM. DRM isn't necessarily the answer. All games in your steam account have some sort drm as you can't install them without steam and you can't sell your licence forward if steam don't allow it and even then you must follow steam's rules not laws of your country.

DRM solutions that really can stop or significantly slow piracy cost nearly as much as PE's whole budget is. DRM's like steamworks are more to invented to stop selling of used licences than to stop piracy. But if game in kickstarter would say that it will have more complex drm than what steam offers, I would not give money for it and this is because I don't want fund some unknow drm making company, but game makers themselves and kickstarter projects are mostly risk free for gamemaker's as they get funding for their games before they are done, and so piracy isn't similar economic risk for kickstarted games as it is for publisher funded games, usually.

well... the weakness of that armor should be clear to anyone with an intelligence score above 3. everything is covered i steel but your genitels get red velvet? Reason for no genital protection is that it is cavalry armour and men on horse back is very hard to hit on their genital area. But of course if horse dies under its wearer, then it becomes as weakness.

Nice metal lamellar armour

This has strangely fancy look in it Another fancy plate And then a red head in plate armour

That is most certainly not made of metal chain. It's sequined fabric. Besides, you might as well propose a chainmail hobble-skirt. It is acctually made from real metal if I am understanding correctly fashion blogs that speak about it. But your are correct it has very bad design to work as an armour.