[Update #12: Reddit Q&A with Tim Cain]

2) The one thing that Tim discussed about wanting to control the entire party's actions and such seems to support the concept of creating a mode where you can make more than one party member in your party ala Icewind Dale. Another request is to please allow this, even if you could only make up to 4/6 party members yourself. It would give you that control you want to feel while still allowing for story. Heck even if you could only make 3/6 characters yourself that would be awesome.

 

The drawback of build-your-own party is that you can't build sophisticated interactions based upon character background. That's one of the elements I really missed in the IWD releases.

 

OTOH, it might be a nice option to start the game with a sidekick that you've known since early childhood, and for which you have some customization choices. (Like a limited selection of classes that complement your own.) The game could always kill off the sidekick later if he is getting in the way of the story.

 

But is it really that hard to implement both things? Detailed companions and the possibility of creating five extra characters, as someone said in another thread, just loop the character creation screen and make the chars occupy their own slot, if you make 3 extra characters you can only two of the Obsidian-made companions.

 

Also, Tim answered my question, YAYZ! Cannot wait to see how much detail they are going to put in that race trait stuff :D

[Achievements]

If you are going to include them, PLEASE, put them in the DRM-free version too, not only in the Steam one.

[I'm almost afraid to ask but...climbing?]

It would be pretty disappointing for me if they didn't include multiple height-levels, being isometric isn't an excuse, giving players more options should be top-priority, and this seems to be a great way to do it, it shouldn't be that hard either, even black-screen transitions like in New Vegas would be ok for me.

[Stats and race should matter]

I would say such things are quite likely, being Obsidian and all.

 

In Neverwinter Nights 2 and Mask of the Betrayer your race hardly had any consequences of importance aside from stats and some special traits/skills (*please, if you are going to tell me that there ARE in MOTB, please do it with spoiler tags! I don't mind about the original game though, don't wanna play that thing again*), so it's a pretty valid doubt, and AFAIK, there are no Obsidian games with the "stupid" mode from Fallout1&2/Arcanum/VtmB.

[Update #10: Characteriztion with Chris Avellone]

 

I agree on all your points except for ego-stroking the player. I'd strongly argue that your party members always fawning over you is a horribly boring idea mostly used by most crappy RPGs Characters who you have to earn their respect and friendship or characters that can lie, manipulate, or hold information from you are far more interesting; it makes them more like real characters with their own motivations and desires instead of just being wish-fulfillment mindless sycophants that follow you around for little reason. For example, one of the best twists of Planescape: Torment was that Morte and Dak'kon were both lying to you the entire time. Also Ignus and Vhailor were interesting in part because to keep them in your team you have to pretty much lie to them because they utterly hate you but don't recognize who you are. Games need to betray or twist player trust like that more often because due to the interactivity of the medium it's more of an emotional gut punch to have a character that you believed to be a trusted ally turn out to have been using you the entire time. Bioshock is also another great example to this, so much so that it wouldn't work nearly as well in any other medium. I'm hoping you guys steer way from such pandering pap because you've all proven that you make characters far better than that.

 

I would like to see the devs answering to this one comment, you make a very good point there!

[Update #10: Characteriztion with Chris Avellone]

Happy Birthday MCA! <3

 

 

<333333333333333333333

 

Yeah, happy birthday Chris, keep filling our lives with happiness and great characters!

[[Merged] George Ziets as as the 2.8 million stretch goal]

Had Mask of the Betrayer been a "full" game, it would have been my favorite RPG ever, without a doubt, so yeah, I want George Ziets in the project! :D

[Should gold have weight?]

As long as there are different types of coins I am all for it, it feels somewhat weird to have only one type of coin, I would love to be able to get 100 silver and go to the bank to change them for a gold coin, maybe you could even have different currencies for the different regions of the game to make it even more interesting!

[PA Report about Eternity and Brennecke - new concept art]

I liked the design, save for, of course, the boobplate, I really really hope they don't appear in the game, please Obsidian, don't dissapoint me!

[Ask Tim Cain questions on reddit...]

I made my question about the influence of race selection, but it doesn't seem to get much attention, but thankfully the most voted ones are pretty cool questions that I would like to see answered!

[Update #9: The power of MODES and Godlike Races: Our $2.3M Stretch Goal]

Oh boy oh boy oh boy! So that makes 6 races if we make it to 2.3 millions, rite? Amazing, now if we could only get to 8 like in Arcanum, with even more reactivity and variety... Whoah!

 

Also, the modes, THE MODES.

[New Game + vs Once and Done]

I prefer no shallow NG+ modes, really, just give me lots of replayability!

[Update #8: New Digital Tier, Novella by Chris Avellone, and Translations at $2.2M]

Could anyone upload the artwork to another server for me? The one they used for it doesn't seem to work with my browser Thanks in advance!

 

Better?

• 
  

 

Nope, weird, but anyway, I downloaded another browser and the image worked fine, good piece of art, oh yes sir, cannot wait to see some of the "non-traditional options"!

[Update #8: New Digital Tier, Novella by Chris Avellone, and Translations at $2.2M]

Could anyone upload the artwork to another server for me? The one they used for it doesn't seem to work with my browser Thanks in advance!

[Rarity of magic items?]

Rare, of course, even though as of today I don't like Baldur's Gate 1 as much as when I played it, I still love the manner in which getting a +2 or +3 sword was something worthy of celebration, and oh boy, let's not get into these moments where you get enchanted stuff!

 

But then you play games like Neverwinter Nights 2 and expansion... Gah, being able to buy +5 enchanted armors in the first store you run across in Mulsantir was pretty annoying and made those little stories the items had very uninteresting, so yeah, first option for me, without a doubt.

[How old is everyone?]

16, Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer (only MOTB, hated the original game, urgh), Fallout1/2, Arcanum, Deus Ex and Planescape: Torment, Baldur's Gate 2, VtmB and New Vegas are great also.

[Where is everyone from]

Colombia, South America, glad to see there are other latin bros over here! :D

[Character generation processes should be fun.]

I hated rolling dices in games like Baldur's Gate, I prefer to have a fixed pool of stat/skill-points and a complex system that makes you think a lot about how to use them, Arcanum is a good example of this, before getting past Shrouded Hills I rolled almost ten different characters thanks to how many possibilities I had during char creation.

[Dialogue Poll]

I HATE skill markers in dialogue, they make me feel out of the game and feel unnecessary, but I do like skill checks.

 

Also, descriptions a la Planescape: Torment would be fantastic, please do include them!

[Dialogues, should they be tied to your stats?]

Tied to stats AND skills, I would prefer stats to be something "constant", as in the original Fallout games or The Age of Decadence, and having to use skill points to improve talents like persuasion, bluff, intimidation, repair, lore and all that stuff.

[Do we want elves and dwarves?]

I would prefer not having them in the game, I want some original stuff, who doesn't? Give me some non-humanoid races, too, variety should be priority!

[Female character designs - let's have variety.]

I agree, I am tired of being treated like a horny teenager that only plays videogames for a chance to do "you know what" looking at some virtual boobz, please, make designs that are realistic, having women with bikini chainmail or armor cleavage is plain STUPID.

 

Also, try to make the female's heavy armors similar to men's ones, it would be pretty dumb to make armors with room for the breasts, as breasts aren't completely solid and they can fit without too much problem inside a breastplate that would be used by a man of the same height, and it would be worse for the user if they used didn't one like that, as the space between the breasts could guide the incoming attacks directly to the throat, owch.