eimatshya

It was an amazing day. You guys must have been so stoked watching that surge of donations come pouring in. Anyway, thank you for taking the time to talk with us about P:E's music. It means a lot that you go to the trouble to do so. I can't wait to see what you (or whoever ends up scoring the music) will come up with!

Yeah, I get more of a Phoenician vibe than an Egyptian vibe from the Vailians (neither of these pictures are all that great, but you would not believe how hard it is to find images representing the Phonecians/Carthaginians where they aren't depicted, incorrectly, as being white). Or, how about some Barbary Corsairs? They fit the time period better than the ancient Egyptians and Phoenecians. Really, though, since Josh described them as "black Italians", they may look more like Sub-Saharan Africans, rather than near-Eastern/North African (so not like the Phoenicians or Berbers). Moving on, when I lived in the Spanish Basque Country, I could see this weird looking mountain from the window of my apartment. It's called Aiako Harria in Basque (lit. the Rock of Aia) and las Peñas de Aya in Spanish (i.e. the crags of Aya). Aiako Harria: I always thought that it was a very evocative part of the landscape, and I could see it being part of a fantasy setting (although P:E's isometric perspective might make it difficult to view mountains from afar).

I think during the live stream today they mentioned that the giant statue might have been more of an artistic choice for that particular image than an actual planned element of the dungeon (I'm not sure if they actually have anything planned for it yet). Still, maybe they'll run with it. It would be pretty cool to actually have that thing down there.

Yeah, great job everyone! I can't believe how much money we raised. I'm really excited to see what Obsidian does with it (once they've sobered up, of course).

Josh said that the program was from Roll20.net And I think the map was from http://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/

Yes but grappled does not equal prone. Lots of grappling occurs while standing, which would probably be the most commonly used variant since it would be a bad idea to take the fight to ground when there are other combatants around. Also, you would need an animation for the initiator of the grapple, unless you just have him standing inert over the prone person (or lying on top of him, which would probably look even more awkward). I don't see how this would be an improvement over the option where both participants in the grapple stand there with a grappled icon.

Feargus already said in an interview (back at the beginning of the Kickstarter) that the more stretch goals they get, the longer it will take them to make the game. So I'm pretty sure they're planning to push back the release date as a result. EDIT: But no, I'm not worried that the game will turn out like KotOR II or AP; those are two of my favorite games of all time. I imagine that without developer constraints, Obsidian will not be pressured to release a buggy game, but even if they do, buggy games don't bother me. Almost all of my favorite games had buggy launches. Bugs can be patched. Great design supersedes buggyness.

The art style in Arcanum didn't bother me at all. But then I like cartoons. I do agree with OP's criticism of the combat and companions, though. While there were a lot of really cool things about Arcanum, out of the ones OP mentions, I think the backgrounds are the one I would most like to see brought into P:E. In some games, you have a character with a preset background (e.g. KotOR II), and that usually works. In games where you don't, and it sounds like P:E is one of the those games, it's nice to be able to have some sort of background. The plethora of backgrounds available in Arcanum allowed you to be less of a blank slate, while still giving you a ton of freedom to create whatever kind of character you wished. Character creation was easily my favorite part of the game. One thing that I don't think OP mentioned that I really liked about the game was the ability to climb through windows and break/blast open doors and windows. It might be neat to have similar possibilities in P:E.

One of the updates with Tim Cain talks about level scaling. He says that they won't be using it in general, but it may be used in a limited way in certain story encounters. There's also a Q&A tomorrow on Reddit at 10am PDT (i.e. GMT-8 ). You might be able to get your inventory question answered there. Edit: Never mind about the inventory thing then, looks like Bobby just gave you their answer.

Judging from the internet, I seem to be one of the few people who actually liked NWN 2, although I admit that MotB is the more memorable of the two (and definitely the most epic). Anyway, I'm not technically playing any Obsidian games at the moment, but I am in the process of replaying Icewind Dale (which is more-or-less Obsidian). It was never one of my favorite IE games back in the day, but P:E inspired me to give it another try. So far I've been liking it a lot better this time through.

I'm not sure I quite understand what you're asking. Are you asking if money donated through systems other than Kickstarter (i.e. Paypal) will count towards the stretch goals? I believe that money donated through Paypal will be counted towards the stretch goals. So, if we raise $3,420,000 through Kickstarter and $80,000 through Paypal the total would be 3.5 million, and we'd get the second big city.

Interesting. One of the things that I like about the Monk concept art is that to me he doesn't look "traditional fantasy." He has certain elements of the traditional D&D monk, such as the flip-flops and the style of his pants, but in the concept image he has this bedraggled quality that I find refreshing (although this isn't the case in the group wallpaper, where he looks much more like a stereotypical D&D monk). In contrast, the monk from the Diablo III pictures that someone posted earlier looks like a normal, eastern-inspired, warrior monk. He looks pretty cool, but he doesn't look unique. Forton with his ragged, tired appearance (at least in the concept art) looks unique.

Seriously, this. I am sick of Latin being used as a fantasy language. Latin is extremely recognizable, both in it's base form and through our exposure to its daughter languages like Spanish and French. As someone who majored in Linguistics, I remember thinking that it was so cool when Bioware announced that they had hired a linguist to create the languages for Dragon Age. But then when we actually saw an example, the vocabulary was all modified Latin. That totally broke the "fantasy" feel for me. Having studied Latin and French and being fairly fluent in Spanish, Latinate words jump out at me. If they were to re purpose existing languages to use in P:E (I mean more than they've already done with "hylspeak and "dyrwood"), I would want them to use something fewer people will recognize. When I'm GMing, I usually base my fantasy languages off of Arabic and Basque when I need to come up with some in-game language on the spot (I have studied both and know that no one in my gaming group is familiar with them, so they are easy to use for this purpose). When I have more time to prepare, I try to be make up lexicons and morphemes that aren't based on real world languages, but the point is, I don't use things that everyone will recognize when it's supposed to be a fantasy language. Anyway, I don't have any objections to Obsidian coming up with basic rules and vocabulary for P:E's languages, but I don't really feel it's necessary. Plenty of fantasy worlds don't have any such consistency in their languages, and while this never strikes me as ideal, it also doesn't strike me as being any worse than what we see in Jade Empire and the Dragon Age games, whose languages were actually designed by someone with linguistics training. So, since the conlangs from the only CRPG that I know of to employ a linguist in their design didn't immerse me in the game world any more than the randomly created fantasy words seen in most CRPGs, I don't really feel the need for Obsidian to spend money on hiring a linguist for this game. Since their approach to P:E's languages seems to be similar to DA's (that is, using words/names derived from real-world languages to create the feel of those cultures), I don't think they need a linguist. If they want to do something more unique, then sure, a linguist would probably be an asset. But to just capture the feel of certain cultures, I don't think a linguist is necessary. I mean what they have now seems to be on par with Dragon Age without the help of a linguist (compare "Dyrwood" with "Val Royeaux").

I'm not sure if your positive appraisal of the amnesia trope holds up over multiple playthroughs. I agree that the first time you play the game, being in the more-or-less the same situation as your character makes your ignorance of the setting less of an issue, but once you have beaten the game once, you will no longer share your character's ignorance on your next playthrough. There will again be a disconnect between what your character wants and what you, the gamer, want. And to be honest, I think there is a level of dissonance even the first time playing an amnesiac. His goal may be to find out who he is, what happened to his memory, and to learn about the world around him, but the player's primary goal is to be entertained. The entertainment may come from learning the same things the character wants to learn, but the motivations behind this common goal are different. For the player, learning about the world and the character is secondary. It's what leads to being entertained, and as such, it is subsumed under the overarching goal of "I want to have fun." For the character, learning about the world and who he is, is primary. It is his central purpose and all other concerns are secondary. Personally, I generally don't mind this kind of dissonance. I find it very easy to ignore (usually), as I am aware that my situation is different from his and can roleplay things from his perspective. Admittedly, if we aren't both ignorant of our surroundings, knowing what exactly his perspective is may take some time, but I usually figure it out fairly quickly. Furthermore, since I usually play through my games many times each, after the first playthrough this is even less of an issue. The kind of dissonance that I find to be endlessly frustrating is when the character's actions don't align with what I want his actions to be. This is usually caused by cutscenes. Whenever a cutscene takes control of my character, he ceases to be my character. He is no longer my avatar for interacting with the game world. He has suddenly become the writer's avatar, and I have no choice but to sit there and watch impotently as he does things that I often consider to be completely out of character until the cutscene ends, and he reverts back to being my character again. This, to me, is the primary source of dissonance in games. As such, I feel it would be better to focus on eliminating cutscenes involving the main character or at least to be much more cautious with their design and implementation.

Wait, there was existential horror in Vampire: the Masquerade? Or are you referring to Redemption or something? I was talking about the PnP game by White Wolf. The the central theme of the setting is the exploration of what it would mean to be a soulless undead monster. The introduction to the game includes the following passage: "This game provides a way to experience a horror of an all too immediate nature, for you experience the terror from the other side of the mirror. The horror of Vampire is the legacy of being half a beast, trapped in a world of no absolutes, where morality is chosen, not ordained. The horror of Vampire is the evil within, and the all-consuming lust for warm blood." Whether or not a V:TM campaign actually uses that as its central theme depends on the GM and the players, but it's what the creators of the setting had in mind. I love history i'll have to check that out. It's an interesting read, although it's essentially a really long speech by Cellini about how great he is (for instance, the way he paints the story, he basically single handedly repelled an invading army intent on sacking Rome). Supposedly just about every one of his claims that can be verified historically have turned out to be true, which indicates that he was a very remarkable, if not particularly humble, individual. Anyway, it's set during a time when Italy was divided into a bunch of city states, and Cellini keeps getting in trouble and having to flee to a different city. It paints an enthralling picture of what life was like in such a society (at least from the perspective of a talented but rather "unrestrained" person).

I liked the P. Schuyler and Sons family of necromantic jewlers in Arcanum. That was a nice twist on things. The existential horror of being a vampire can be kind of interesting, and it's basically the whole point of Vampire: the Masquerade, but it's not really an area that I'm overly concerned with. If vampires show up as evil bad dudes who we kill indiscriminately, that's fine with me. Having them as something more nuanced can be fun, but it can also get annoying (e.g. Louis' constant whining in the movie Interview With a Vampire). As a bit of a tangent, the Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini (written in the 16th century, making it almost contemporary with the time period that P:E is more-or-less based on) has kind of a bizarre segment where a necromancer purportedly summons demons in the ruins of the Coloseum. It's worth a read (actually the whole book is a pretty good read, especially if you are interested in first-hand accounts of what life was like in the Renaissance).

I think they were trying to make his pants look like he'd stitched them together from a bunch of rags. Like, maybe from the surviving pieces of older clothes that had been torn up in fights. Anyway, his appearance doesn't bother me. I think the haggard, disheveled look works for a drug-addicted ascetic. It kind of reminds me of Toshiro Mifune's character in Sanjuro (he was more of a rogue than a monk, but the general idea is there). It's sort of an interesting departure from the usual monk who is very fastidious. I agree about the stance, though. It seems very awkward. All his weight is shifted over one leg. That seems like a recipe for disaster in a fight. Still, it's just concept art, so I don't really feel the need to nit-pick. I like the general feel that they seem to be going for with the piece, and that's enough for me (at least with respect to concept art).

Yeah, from looking at comments on Obsidian's Facebook page and on these forums, I think the screenshot may have pulled in a lot of new backers and got others to donated more. Whatever the reason, I hope the surge keeps up. From looking at the kicktraq graphs from Wasteland 2, Shadowrun Returns, and Dead State, it looks like there's usually a good sized uptick in donations in the final days of the campaign, so I think it's reasonable to assume it will continue for P:E.

I've never had a problem with the static camera in IE games. I'd rather have them put their energies into other things than creating each area from four angles.

I usually don't like bards much, but somehow the lore behind the Chanter class makes me want to play one. As such, I'm pretty stoked to see that we've reached, and surpassed, the 2.7 million mark. Onwards and upwards!

I'd assume it's in the box since that's how it always worked in the old days. That's just a guess, though.

Gandalf fights primarily with a sword, so he'd be more like a multi-class fighter/mage. Although, since he isn't actually a member of a playable race (the Wizards, or Istari, are all Maiar, that is, minor deities (or angels depending on how you want to view Tolkien's cosmology)), it would be more accurate to name him Istari class; available to Maiar only. Anyway, pedantic nerdery out of the way, I agree that OPs suggestion doesn't really have to be a unique class. It would be easier to just allow players to buy feats focused on charisma or cunning. I played an Iron Heroes campaign in which one of the other players used feats and starting traits to build a charisma-based Man-at-Arms. He was very effective in some situations, but in others he was somewhat gimped because many fantasy monsters aren't really aware of things like charisma. His charisma based powers didn't work to well against flesh-oozes (although since the use magic device skill is, for some reason, charisma based, he did save us when we got swarmed by hell-wasps by activating this magic staff that we had found in some dungeon that shot out area effect cold bursts).

Yeah, the promise of being able to choose different cultural backgrounds is one of the things that sold me on P:E. It's nice to hear a little more about it.

Hmm... I'd guess combat and dialogue are probably not in yet, so maybe just a screenshot of some adventurer's in some location? I guess we'll find out later today (today relative to GMT-8:00, that is). Should be neat to see the visual look they're going with, though.

Upgradeable stronghold like Crossroad Keep is the one I'd like to see as a stretch goal. Beyond that... maybe additional races? More funding for music would be nice too, I suppose. So, something like: 2.9 - Additional race 3.0 - Enhanced musical score 3.1 - Crossroad Keep/Suikoden style stronghold Overall, I just want more C&C, but they've said that each stretch goal nets a general expansion to all elements of the game, so I guess greater reactivity is tacitly included with each stretch goal.