Darkpriest

One thing I find acceptable to be shared is the amount of money that is envisioned for the actual game development. Indeed the Kickstarter+Paypal amount might be misleading, because: 1) Actual cash inflow vs amount pledged 2) Share cut by the KS/Amazon?Paypal 3) Cost estimation of all the physical tier rewards/SWAGs 4) Advertising and product placement in internet media (although I am fairly sure that gaming sites will be doing enough noise around it as it is) <- this however I would expect to be taken from a global marketing budget, and not a project budget... The resulting amount will be probably roughly divided for different stages of development and within the stages of development for particular content types. (the last part is definitely out of the question - no point in sharing that). Different stages of development make sense, because for each stage you need to have some kind of emergency buffer in case of some delay/unexpected obstacle. Once a stage is signed off against the plan, you can move the funds to next stages and simply have more of a buffer, if lucky you will be able to use all the remaining budget for extra polish at the end of the development. I am fairly sure that all the money go into the project development alone, because I can't imagine a situation where it would be used for paying their electricity bills and so on. For that, they need to have other cash flows.

Tough. Fine weapons and armor being priced out of reach of a peasant character is realistic. So is having to scavenge for some extra cash. What, do you want everything handed to you on a plate? Sheesh, suck it up. Realistically speaking a full plate armor should cost you a small fortune, equivalent of a good estate... now imagine a magical full plate

Sooo... how is the plan for the instrumentals and Live Musicians? Any first thoughts on the success of the funding it?

Exploration - definitely middle ground, although I wold not mind some low density places. Cities - Athkatla 2.0 and subterranean Athkatla 2.0 (if there is a subterranean world)

I take this as follows: It was only a morning in America :D We EU guys were already well past noon

Well, Josh's face told everything... "I went to a logistics meeting and then went OH CRAP! - we have to deliver so much" :D I assume that it will require a lot of drinking to saturate creative minds for the story and a lot of lashing for the art guys to complete all those big cities and dungeon to be unique and aesthetically appealing

Simply put - no for detailed spreadsheets. We know that it is the money going for development. Such info is usually classified even within the company, and for a good reason. The one thing I would like to see is how the financing is structured on a global picture (pre-production budget, core production, QA, post production - fine tuning, marketing and travel&lodging associated to marketing). The best I could do to is to offer Adam my expertise as The Finance guy between now and my next contract, but that would require going into an NDA agreement with Obs. Since I have little to no experience in the gaming industry I doubt I could contribute to the project more than my pledge Generally if you do not know company/business specifics, the figures will tell you little (if anything without the proper education). You might also misinterpret and misunderstand them easily. As they say: "Curiosity killed the cat" - it is sometimes better to not know back office finance stuff, than to talk about things from the perspective of your home budget knowledge or limited understanding of the finance in the business and its environment. I am not sure if they even publish the annual FS for their business (can't find it via easy search nor on their website)

*Second creative thing. UncleBourbon came up with this one eleven pages ago: I would not mind this as an easter egg

I call my factorial against any fraction...

Does this mean I get an extra bludgeoning weapon? only when it is not in a state of a whip... Well if everyone is always naked it shouldn't be that difficult... Honestly, it makes me feel a bit badly that this line of discussion about phallus bludgeoning is almost (or is) as constructive as the actual topic. Hey, at least it is something creative compared to the topic that's been hammered to death and beyond more than enough...

Does this mean I get an extra bludgeoning weapon? only when it is not in a state of a whip...

Nothing wrong in people suggesting Youtube celebrities to hire for music. People are expressing their tastes, and the possible talent pool in Youtube is nothing to shake a stick at. It allows artists with lower than workable budgets to expose themselves to the world, in hopes of getting recognized. While I'm not a fan, I can freely admit that Justin Bieber's Youtube efforts served him quite well. Perhaps I should have phrased it a bit better.... "Just leave the effin youtube one off celebrities, who do not have their own record of creative music other than a simple cover" - In other words, there is a ton of musicians that can do exactly that, but there are very few, who can actually be creative and set their own pieces. If I can have the same quality, why would I be paying more for the same? I'd rather get some more anonymous, but equally if not more skilled musician than a youtube celebrity.

I am fairly sure that we will see some more companions with an expansion.

Pfff... you guys are forgetting how creative the guys at Obsidian are (if I recall correctly the voices are actually done by Obsidian employees) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QL7i9yOZea8 Just leave the effin youtube one off celebrities out of this title... please... either go with pro-musicians/celebrities (like that Garret type) or leave them out of this project and let Obsidian use their creative assets

@Ieo You mean you do not want to see Diablo 2 like 99 levels of power? R U MAD? But joking aside... The guys at Obs need to decide with the first game, whether they want to go with the Franchise in a similar direction as BG progression, or they want to go with it like IWD / Fallout... Both have strong and weak points. The problem with any game is that to progress the franchise it is best to: a) either limit the ending branches in the first games b) enforce canon endings The more freedom you give to players with the endings in the first part, the more work will have to go into future games if you want to have all decisions to carry over one way or another. BG had basically 1 ending, but BG2 - last in the series - gave much more to it... Fallout gave you different possibilities, but the action of Fallout 2 was separated by some good time and put in a slightly different area, with only a few things overlapping and on top of that using a canon ending (Shady Sands into NCR comes to mind) IWD 2 had some loose references to IWD, and it was also plausible... The worst that can happen is to pump expectations like Bioware did with DA and ME and then fail to deliver a full package... Once you have this settled, then you can think of power level and possible cap in a game. Then you also build items around that.

Seriously... 19 pages.... just wow... *signing off*

Shush....nobody is a more pro musician than that woman. You're the one thinking of redtube here, not me. I am merely thinking of what's best for PE. Seriously, unless I will hear something of similar quality of own interpretation of the classical music at at least this kind of level as the video below, the youtube celebrities should stay as far away from this title as possible...

I agree... good items should make things easier, but with high level party you should be able to get through the game even with fairly mundane items. Unless the plot requires a story specific item to be wielded (for example NWN2)

That's because they are not so special. They are just good looking girls who covered some game music, which then made nerds go crazy about them. OMG GAMERRR GURRLLZZZ!! There are much more talented people out there who have something more to show for themselves than 100,000 YouTube subscribers. Lindsey doesn't need to do gaming covers to be awesome. Most of her stuff isn't gaming covers actually. For example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sf6LD2B_kDQ That's a very wet gorgeous woman who knows how to play violin really well while moving all over the place (yes, I've seen her do it live in front of a crowd). You're argument is invalid. :-P THIS!!! PE needs A LOT of this right here. If you want very wet gorgeous woman go to REDTUBE... Leave the music to musicians, who are pro at that and have their own track record of really good pieces...

Hmm I recall that someone posted a link to a guy, who described that meeting a dragon in the open was basically "You lose!" if you tried to fight it... Being a dragon would mean, being one of the most OP races in any universe :D Meeting a dragon... sure Befriending a dragon... sure Fighting a dragon... not so sure... at least it should be something more complex than go to dragon's lair and fight it... Becoming a student/disciple of said dragon and getting some new powers and plot line through becoming a disciple (Super ultra high charisma/diplomacy skills)... could be cool

I take it you didn't visit Skyrim General at Bethsoft forums in that dreadful time when 8 new threads about Malukah were created every day? What is Skyrim?

I'd rather have Fallout/NWN2:SoZ style of map, because that gives a larger world perspective, although BG has also its appeal

There is only so many quests that are not killing or fetching... I mean I do not recall any game where there would be "no fetching". If you get other people involved it revolves around bring/take care of. It is how they are implemented and what story is build around these tasks... You can have completely brain dead quests, like ME3 has, or you can have fetch quests like PS:T, BG, Fallout...

That Beagle Warrior HAS TO BE a companion/pet choice :D

No Fallout? Sad panda...