Justinian

Bugginess was one of my (only) initial concerns when the project was announced. Then Feargus on the NWN podcast reassured everyone that polish was one of the key focuses going in. With no publisher pressure and the wide beta testing, I could see this following on from DS3 as being another polished Obsidian game. I just hope they actually allocate that extra time at the end to QA aggressively. I'm sure most of us wouldn't mind at all if they took an extra 6 months just to make sure the finished game was the best they could make.

On second thought, I like the idea of some animals tapping into their souls to perform fantastical feats. It would need to be rare though, and limited to the most intelligent or powerful of beasts. Nevertheless, I think true "monster" status should be reserved for creatures which have had their souls corrupted in some way, and perhaps these toxic souls propagate like a cancer through local populations? It would be cool if the concept of impure souls could be incorporated into the ecology of the world somehow.

I would hope elves don't see humans as that insignificant...

Yea, rifts are pretty cliche, but I like the idea of a world having indigenous monsters that are either lesser races or part of the ecosystem, and more fantastical creatures that are alien in some way. Also, I always found it a bit silly in RPGs that you would wander outside any regular town and there would be tons of vicious monsters or magical creatures who are immediately hostile to your party. I would like to think if a regular wilderness was that dangerous, that it would be because of something plot related or unusual.

While it would be nice, can you imagine the work needed to do this with 3D models for all the different enemy types in combination with all the different death effects? I remember Tim said in one of the Q&A updates they wouldn't be doing a grapple ability because they would have to create a custom animation for each enemy. But now with the extra people they can bring on, who knows? I would still rather the resources directed to more varied animations for the different enemies to bring more character to them while they are alive personally.

I like looting individual corpses. Like someone else said, it's nice knowing which enemy carried what. I think there's definitely ways to help reduce tedium though: - Instead of needing a character to walk up to each corpse, allow the loot window to be opened within a certain radius of the party member. - Better indication of what a corpse contains. In the Infinite engine games, there was a seperate sprite for the loot which was nice because you could roughly see what the pile contained. the downside was having to mouse over to find those little piles, especially if they were hidden under sprites (this would be even worse with 3D corpses). To avoid confusion, the corpse itself should have some kind of indicator of what type or quality of the loot contained within - different toned or coloured sparkles for example.

Definitely hand-drawn graphic novel style cinematics - cheaper, more stylish, and gives some opportunity for the player to fill in the blanks with their imagination. Even Blizzard took this approach for the minor "story" beats for Diablo 3 (though in this case there was no story). Baldur's Gate Enchanced will also remake all the cutscenes in a hand-drawn graphical style which is a good choice IMO. Those rendered cutscenes look downright hideous by today's standards.

Only a couple of days in and looks like a really passionate project by two guys - check it out:

Yep, I left out those natural beasties and focused more on rarer "monsters" that might have some significance tied to the setting. Obsidian have chosen a very interesting theme of souls and I thought it was fun to come up with different potential ways the world brought about monsters. I'd love to see some of the usual staples you'd expect, but I'm more excited about the more unique monsters that might arise from this new setting. Since Obsidian is including familiar races like elves and dwarves, I'm pretty sure they're also going to include a good number of familiar monsters.

I think this is one of the biggest challenges in game design, and I'm sure something that all devs strive towards to some extent. It's been done quite effectively in mostly simpler games with mechanics tied very closely to the story or premise, but I think there is a limit to how much these consistencies can be maintained in such a complex and multilayered RPG like Project Eternity. There will always be gameplay considerations pushing back against logic and consistency of the setting, and being a game, it's often the former that wins out at the end of the day. That said, this being a completely new setting, with rules and laws of nature being defined by Obsidian themselves, I would hope that at least the core mechanics are woven into the fabric of the world and story better than the old infinite engine games for example. Let the gameplay serve the story and setting and let that drive the gameplay in turn.

I've been thinking about the kinds of creatures and monsters which might inhabit the world of Project Eternity while adhering to the themes and the nature of the world. Here's a few main "types" I've come up with: 1. Soul-Swapped These are wildlife or people that have accidentally been assigned or possessed by other souls. Perhaps a person's soul was accidentally transfered to an animal, and both the physical animal and soul within become changed and twisted over time. This should allow an interesting menagerie of were-creatures - some good, some aggressive, while still adhering to the "natural" order in which the world works. 2. Corrupted Creatures or people who have had malevolent souls forced into them by necromancy or dark magic. There will be distinctive physical manifestations in many instances which would create an interesting assortment of twisted monsters. Evil mages may use these possessed creatures for protection or weapons. 3. Disembodied Souls These disembodied souls fail to complete the great cycle or have lost the ability to atune to living creatures, and thus become trapped in the physical realm for eons. They become either extremely wise as they observe the passage of time over many cycles, or become bitter and weary, as they are never allowed to die and be reborn. They often grow jealous of mortal beings, and this twists them into malevolent spirits. They either possess the area they were forcefully disembodied, or may wander aimlessly. Sometimes, they construct false bodies for themselves as a substitute for a real body. They can "possess" and animate a wide range of inanimate objects or forms - sometimes cobbled together haphazardly, sometimes fashioned meticulously over eons. To get even closer to their ultimate desire of inhabiting a living body, they often possess the dead. In combat, they can sometimes leave their physical form and attempt to wrestle with the souls of party members. Those with lesser powers may incapacitate the party member temporarily as they struggle, or sometimes very powerful souls may possess the party member and turn them against their friends temporarily. Only magic is capable of harming or destroying these souls. 4. The Godforged and the Abandoned. These entities are the results of attempt at creation by the gods. They either were forged to coexist with their makers in the god realm, or are abandoned creations which were never "born" into the physical realm. They are forged using soul energy, but do not possess souls as those on the physical realm do. These entities often reflect the nature of the god they are created by, and may be beautiful majestic creations or vile, ugly monstrosities. Because of their godly nature, they are rarely seen in the physical realm, but there exist certain phenomena which can open rifts between the two realms... What do you guys think? Are these ideas still too "conventional fantasy"? I suppose I've simply "justified" some conventional ideas for creatures/monsters by linking them with the idea of souls. Should Obsidian go for something more unique? How do you justify fantastical creatures in a fairly low fantasy and realistic setting? What are some of your ideas? It's definitely fun making this stuff up!

I'm pretty sure Tim confirmed cross class combos were planned.

I think an interesting way to frame same-sex relationships (or any relationships) in the game would be to factor in the cultures and influences of the game world. Make it part of the story and setting as well as about the characters themselves. What impact would certain beliefs and external cultural influences have? What hardships and trials of acceptance would need to be overcome? Conversly, what openess and sexual freedoms may there be? How does the worldview and reality of souls affect all this? And I totally agree with this: It really isn't hard to argue why such a significant part of our humanity and our interaction with others should be explored in a story driven, party based RPG.

Sorry, I was kidding there

I would like them to bring more personality to the violence than simply exploding gibs and sterile ragdoll physics. I think violence is very much a mature theme, but only if done tastefully and with impact. Go have a look at how the PS3 game "Last of Us" depicts violence. They don't accentuate over the top blood sprays or glorify it in a gamey way but rather make each act of violence have impact through the reactions of the victims. How does this have anything to do with how violence should be depicted in project eternity? They could start by focusing more on occasional situational animations for deaths or critical hits. Make the player flinch a bit more with the violence to give it the gravity it deserves.

Let the resources needed to update the picture go toward the game!

I'm not sure I like the idea of "unlocking" companions on a new game+ run. It's too gamey to me and seems like an artificial way to ration out content. I think it's better that everyone has the potential to access all companions on their first playthrough, but perhaps one or two are ruled out or inaccesible due to the player's actions in some way. This can create an interesting dynamic as it may be completely different sets of companions that any given player may see on their particular playthrough because of the way they have influenced the story.

I guess depth is what Obsidian are going for. The fewer companions, the more reactive and complex they can be. Now they have both Avellone and Zeits on this project, I absolutely have faith these companions will be amazing. That said, I certainly feel that the initial baseline of 5 companion would have been too few, since you would always have all of them in your party.

Just realised we've reached 15 levels! I was quite happy with 13... has a nice ominous feel to it.

I think a large part of what made recent Bioware romances so tacky was the cinematic approach it took. It was all just a way to reach a climactic "scene". That combined with a lack of dialogue options and subtlety went a long way to turning people against romance in RPGs I believe. I hope Obsidian includes a range of romances in this game and more importantly, they do it justice. After all, character relationships are important in a party based, story driven RPG, and romances are a very significant aspect of that.

I would like to think that the vast majority of backers will be understanding that the game may take more time than the "expected delivery date". It's simply to be expected with significantly expanded content and the extra polish that will require. Hate to quote Blizzard but: "No one will remember if the game is late, only if it's great".

During the last few minutes when we were so close to $4 million I was tempted to up my pledge of $298 but resisted... shame on me.

Just want to add a bit more to the final rush! Upped my pledge from $280 to $298 for the playing cards and my title: Justinian, Judicious Dropbear of the Obsidian Order

Shouldn't this be make a wish for 4 million? The final day rush has the potential to be absolutely huge and look at where we are already...

Originally went for the early $20 special, then upgraded to $35. In the end I didn't want to miss out on all the physical goodies so upgraded to $250+$30 shipping