Darkpriest

To be honest I like the idea of crafted items, but only to a medium range of power... If you want to get item of artifact or legendary level, which in many cases exist like one in the world (gods' craft), you should go out and find them... I do not want to see crafted items being a complete substitute for "collected" items. They should have like 1-2 properties, maybe 3 if it is some super extra master craft with unique recipe (where the said recipe is consumed). Legendary and artifact level loot should be unique in power and probably posses abilities not found on any lower tier items and self made crafts. TLDR. No self made craft should rival legendary artifacts

If it would have a Turn based combat, I would definitely like to see different combat animations, sparring animations and finishing moves. As it is a RTWP, sync kills would have to be really short if done at all, like in Dawn of Wars. I'd prefer though to have smooth combat animations and not spend too much time on getting resources into combat for eye candy. Resources placed here are not spend elsewhere, like map design, etc.

I'm all for exotic swords and armor. Japanese, Chinese, and Middle Eastern swords come to mind. And a barbarian might as well rush into combat with a couple of animal hides stitched together, foregoing protection in favor of mobility. But Conan is a little much. As much as I've loved the movies when I was a kid, I don't think it prudent to go into a swordfight in your underwear. I could go with a class or kit that is specially trained to fight very effectively with no armor, but would still suffer heavy penalties. Well then you certainly should check out some older cultures like German tribes, Gauls, even Celts... Some of them were running into battle naked... I am not saying that majority was doing that, but some were. The idea of an almost naked barbarian is not that far fetched as you may think.

Not exactly a music for the in game elements - more of a trailer type, but still some elements, themes and tunes from these pieces could be inspirational. And besides this type of music is just great, because so much different from what we hear on daily basis http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liEnxzM4fvs&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-jrFcobLQM&feature=related

bring back cursed items... if only for some funny stories on them :D

on the magic items... you should have added some middle option, cause this one is a bit biased...

Yeah absolutely. One of the great things about Kickstarter is that we get to be more open and forthcoming about whatever we want. It'll take some getting used to though! When working on games, especially when a publisher is involved, you have to be pretty careful about what you say because publishers typically like to control how and when information is disseminated. Honestly though, it's their prerogative to expect that. I am quite sure that it will be difficult to work again on a publisher funded project after the Kickstarter experience

And you know this how? I believe it, based on the costs of game development. Take a look at: http://www.notenough...fall-of-gaming/ P:E isn't Max Payne 3, but neither is it a little Indie game being coded by one guy ... it's very serious money. The Kickstarter money is really what they thought they could get to kick-start development; by the time you factor in marketing, this is going to be an expensive game to develop, so don't think that the guys are Obsidian are thinking that it's game over and they've already won. To be honest the financial drive in the gaming industry is one of the mysteries to me. I worked in other industries and one of the big question marks for me was "how the hell are they going to cover the operating costs, especially marketing costs... That's just insane... " The "photo realism" in 3d titles requires a lot time. Ok so if the game gets bigger and with better graphics, the production costs will get bigger. Now the thing is... do you get to increase the staff and try for faster releases, but you risk landing on a hard red, or to you sustain smaller production teams and expand production cycles for each title and add a few lower budget titles in the mix for more niche markets... from my perspective the second options would seem more cost efficient... I'd really like to get once into the management meeting of the gaming company and listen the reasoning behind some decisions... In the industry where I worked with management it was always about quantification of bottom line return on each action. If you want to get to that nice big conference, tell me what's the financial benefit. Are there no cheaper channels of building a product recognition and brand, etc. You are telling me that you will generate sales of "x" amount, I ask you "how do you want to achieve that?", not visions, but concrete actions, which can be measured and put into financial figures... Gaming is an entertainment business, with a lot of creative and passionate people... But creativity and passion does not pay the bills.. you need some tangible plans that you ruthlessly execute with little to no deviations... Bah... /rant

I think you misunderstand the concept... They will not share with the gathered money, but once the game is produced and in distribution - somewhere in 2014 - then they will share with a percentage (5%) of their profits (revenues minus production costs and direct overhead expenses) from the game. Don't need to be worry about the current kickstarter funds.

I suspect that Justin Bell will be working on music and ambients other than that.. I do not know Obsidian staff that well

Europe FTW

I say, go with Kicking it forward, once you have your franchise secured... like three games or so within the same setting. I'd rather make them to use earnings for enhancement of future products, but first things first. This game and Wasteland 2 are like the most wanted games on my list... but for now I will enjoy things like X-COM: EU, CoH 2 and DotA 2, for other genres, while digging into BG enhanced edition once it will come out for the RPG goodiness.

I am quite sure that his help will result in some great NPC in Wasteland 2 as well, but PE is his baby, so to speak I'm getting both, so... damn why so much wait for them

This made me laugh... seriously... :D

Amen. I once classified RPGs into four tiers of "lootiness": A) Games that have minimal inventory and by extension, minimal loot (Mass Effect 2, Jade Empire) B) Games that have inventory, but not much loot to find - mostly standard stuff plus a few goodies to find (Ultima, Baldur's Gate) C) Games that have tons of loot in the world, but you don't really need to take it once you've settled on a stable character build (Morrowind) D) Games that have tons of loot in the world, and you need to examine every bit of it and constantly change your equipment loadout, because of scaling (Mass Effect 1, Dragon Age 2) Tier B is the best. and where would you classify Fallout or KotOR 2?

1) I don't see how. It was never said that hte setting is swimming in magic 2) Why would it be bland? Plenty of games feature exactly that. I hate the notion that CRPG are becoming so loot-centric. I guess it's the MMO/Diablo influence. That mastercrafted sword I had made by the master smith in town? It served me trough the game faithfully. Why should it be "bland"? A weapon that served your from beginning to end..that fact alone makes it legendary. Even better if you can customize such weapons (apperance) or simply because you wielded it for so long, you get a bonus to it because you're so familiar with it (easily done by tracking number of kills/strikes for a specific weapon) Ad. 1) I never said it's swimming, but the magic is visibly present... - it was mentioned a few times by devs. Ad. 2) Well if you will get different qualities of weapons (rusted, copper, iron, steel, hardened steel, mastercraft, enchanted, magical, legendary artifact) then I can see your point of having a mastercraft being a good weapon to end up a game with on some of characters. If you get simple, mastercraft, magical of various types, then you need to work out very well on the world, so that it will be respecting that... for example a full plate will equal a price that most of warriors in the world could not afford it - reference to medieval times, where such an armor was worth quite a piece of land... There is a lot of mechanics to think of and world design to be done. Sure you can work out such a world, but then again it all matters what kind of setting it is.

I'd like to be able to equip all of my toons with magic items in each slot by the end game. Just the number of powerful items should be scarce and acquiring a first item for each slot should be rather expensive/difficult compared to most of the recent RPGs where you can get a magic sword right of the bat. The problem with very rare magic items is that they would not go too well with the setting, which definitely is not a rare/low magic setting. The other is that you would have to implement some sort of different tiers of non-magic items. Because it will be rather bland if my first shield will be also the one with which I will end up a game... BG had it done right. You could have had magic items on each of your party members on each slot, but there was only a handful of really strong items in your possession, even if you've cleared up every area and every dungeon. There was a difference though, between my first playthrough, where I was fumbling in the dark in BG and where my end game was really difficult, to what I experienced once I did every quest possible and explored every hidden hole in the game... Then it was significantly easier, still not a walk in a park...

I would say, magic items should be obtainable, but costly. Great magical items should be rare and not so easily obtainable. If in shops, they should have serious price tags on them. Legendary items... well there is a reason why they are called legendary... Many people heard of them, but no one seen them - like those 300mln $ wins on lottery Quest only and not easy quest on top of that. (skill dependent quests too - so some would be in dungeons, some would be rewards by gods if strong faith, etc. so you would not be able to collect all of them in one playthrough) They should also meld with a story of the place where they were found, like, there was a legend a guy went of to fight a dragon, and you find the item in the dragon's tomb 500 years old. Oh... and give me cursed items too even if only for some funny stories

@Justin Thanks for being so open with us I'm quite sure that you will do a very good job on this one. Just do not let our ears starve you know get some new background music for the next announcement video :D *cracks his whip* (kidding of course, creative minds should not be rushed - that much )

If you haven't played KotOR2 go and buy it now on steam! :D

Just to name one of the best NPCs ever - Chris wrote Kreia from KotOR2 (as far as I know at least)

Sorry, did not see that one :D

What are your thoughts?

The full budget for The Witcher 2 was less than 10mln USD... That's not that much more, when you consider the amount of work done... Full 3D, full voiceover, development of a completely new engine for the purpose of the game, etc... To be fair, it was made in Poland. In my experience North American costs of production are much higher (for whatever reason) than production costs in most other countries. Red Cliff, for example, is the most expensive film ever to be filmed in China and cost $80 million. Compare that with $220 million for The Avengers, which while on the high end, is hardly extraordinary for an American blockbuster. The only production costs that are higher in US are the salaries... those are 3-5 times higher than in Poland. Equipment costs less. Licenses for software cost approximately the same.

The full budget for The Witcher 2 was less than 10mln USD... That's not that much more, when you consider the amount of work done... Full 3D, full voiceover, development of a completely new engine for the purpose of the game, etc...