Jarmo

I'm not sure they'd like to be known as "anti-bioware" or anti-anything. But yeah, get them folks on front of the camera and do some promoting. Don't just trust the funding end spike will come, make it happen. If there's no more concept art or stuff ready to show, just tell everybody what you like in rpg's and what you'd like to do, it'll resonate.

Voted for 1, assuming this will be a pretty much standard rpg. But if you, say, have no XP points and improve your hit chance by hitting lots of enemies, then it's all for themselves. It's not a major point anyway, probably. In Bioware games, you'll only have a few people of a big party alongside for any given mission. But here, you'll probably have everybody all the time ie, no "active party". So option 4 would be fine as well, or anything in between.

Seems like a no brainer to me. The trailer music was plenty great, there's clearly talent in house. If he wants the job, let him have it! If not, Soule, Morgan or Zur would be my favourites, but there's really no need to go spend more money than necessary.

Ok, I'm sick and tired of them myself. Mostly because they're everywhere, there seems to be at least a zombie version/mod of every damn game. Seems such a cheap and obvious way of doing things. I'd like to, for once, see a graveyard where dead are laying nicely in the coffins.* 1:st level "can you clear my cellar of rats, they're pretty big uns around here" 5:th level "oh dear, the local tomb seems to be filled with undead again, could you clear it up thank you". But it seems I'm in a very minor minority, so better just tackle them as they come and not wail in fake martyrdom. -- and the example is pretty well exaggerated, not suggesting that's what people wanting undead actually want. *well ok, there were graveyards like that in BGs and Fallouts

Not counters as such, but I'd like to see mages being able to "shield" the party of magic effects. The kind of stuff you *always* see if there's magic in movies or comics or books, but *never* see in games. Shielding would consume energy and leave you drained, especially if the strong opponent just breaks through. All depending on how magic works in Eternity and if it's at all commonplace and whatever.

The clothing was easily visible in Temple of Elemental Evil. And I chose some items (plate gloves over regular) just for the looks.

I'd like to hear opinions. But not reveal my own right away.

I don't care for in game or out of game books giving out background. I don't mind them, but don't read them either. Well fleshed out game world is important though, and if the history comes up during the play, all for the better.

I principle I'd very much like if different kinds of weapons did different kinds of damage. Historically slashing weapons were very effective against lightly- or unarmored opponents, with crushing weapons being more effective against armor. But with a full party, dunno. It's kind of a hassle to have everybody carry 3 sets of weapons and equipment.

Silly as it is, I agree. In me, the need to powergame and minmax clashes badly with "... so the Boots of Speed were totally powerful, but they were, like, lime green."

One thing about factions I've always disliked is the Magical Knowledge of Things everybody in the faction possesses. I meet a group of Dwarves from Hippy HIlls somewhere in the woods, there's an argument and I end up killing them. Leaving no survivors or witnesses. I race a very fast horse to the nearest village, only to be greeted by "oh, the butcherer, we don't serve your kind here". Or in the chambers of the head priest, I promise to help the Paladins of Pure Skins, and suddenly everybody everywhere knows that. There goes the infiltration plan when everybody is all "you're a bit too.... radiant for my tastes".

Was going to mention this. Temple of e evil as well (until you hit the level cap, or used co8 to remove it). Standard AD&D rules, it's almost always easier the fewer characters you have, with solo character getting 6x experience. IWD1, you could get about 3 levels just by doing the noncombat town quests. There's also the factor of dividing loot. When you don't have to get 6 pairs, you can get hella good equipment right away. And then you're at full plate by level 3 and at +2 magic equipment by level 5.

Well maybe it should, but then there should be other coins beside gold and a hassle of exchanging them somewhere. And, what I've not seen in any game, 100 pounds of gold should be, like, an enormous, gigantic, amount of wealth. An ale shouldn't cost 1GP and wine 3GP, rather that 50 grams of gold should be good for a years worth of boozing! Lot's of games start with copper, silver.. blah, blah and in the later game someone will give you 1500GP for getting her cat from the tree.

Well.. say.. if the, say 5000 pledge actually included the original, I'd assume there'd be pledges.

And forced conversations to begin with. It's always such a drag to approach some opponent and just know he'll explode into speech, walk next to you, buff up and then attack! And when you'll finally start winning, he'll have another monologue and escape during the cutscene. One of the things Oblivion and Skyrim did right. Very, very satisfying to sneak up to a vampire lord you are hunting, and then put a longbow arrow through his head without him ever noticing you were there. Fallout 3 and NV as well. Just decide when you're done listening and then pull that shotgun.

- The whole thief backstab multiplier system is a bit silly. I can see why it was introduced, without it thieves wouldn't have much to say in combat, but still. Hard to imagine how someone can do a lot more damage with a dagger than a lot stronger guy with a battleaxe, just by virtue of hitting from behind. - Don't always reward with money. "Thanks for helping the orphanage, now the children wont starve, here's 5000 GP" - Make altruism costly. Usually there's about 3 poor people in the world, needing a total of 50 GP, out of your million. And if you say you don't need a reward, then don't "well here's your reward anyway, and some extra XP as well."

I'd love to see the general style of Temple of Elemental Evil, the 2D backdrops were probably already as good as it's going to get (it's basically drawing, and you can't draw much better no matter how many cores you have in the workstation). Even the 3D characters are pretty neat even by todays standards, and there the added horsepower can really come out to play.

I'd expect slight variations, like. Berserker Shaman Healer Hunter Mystic Scout Or whatever, something that's not of the usual name but still fills the usual slot.

Of the first 500 voters, 136 (or 27%) don't want any romances. The percentage was a bit higher earlier on, but probably still fluctuates quite a bit. I could say that out of 30 000 backers, 136 are the minority not wanting romance options or sex in the game, but that'd just be silly. What I can say though, is by conventional wisdom (assuming the people here are reasonably representative sample of potential customers) the poll results now have an error margin of about 5%, or slightly less. 500 is big enough sample to make accurate estimates from. To be on the safe side, it can be assumed 2/3 of potential Eternity purchasers rather want, and 1/3 don't want romances in the game.

Oh, I first thought this would be about, like, if your 20th level warrior can be killed by a single dagger in the back, or an arrow to the throat. Instead of the typical RPG "I'll let you hit me with your axe a couple a times cause I'm such a good sport"! Or die of infection later. Because that would require some serious new thinking, but could be totally awesome. More Runequest than D&D. But as for this, anything that fits the bill and suits the game. No need going crazy dark just because.

Nah. I don't want: - impossibly hard boss fights that'd crush your soul even after you'd find everything else a walk in the park. - to remember or write down instructions, I want the important bits automatically in my journal (or whatever) - no team members dying (that just meant a reload, even back then) - some stupid baldurs gate/nwn2 inventory system with 100 slots of 5x5 pixel images you can't even see - to spend 30 minutes after a fight applying ointments and minor cure spells to get the party back to speed ...or any of the other old crap, I just what the good stuff. But as far as difficulty goes, please include a "crazy masochist exteme hardcore ironman" setting where you'll only have 1 hitpoint, will die of a whisper and your computer will reformat if you do. Because even then someone will complain it's too crazy easy.

Actually I don't hate it with as much passion as I might think, and scaling could be implemented in some *clever* way that's not all in your face. KotOR was just about fine, as was The Sith Lords. After the beginning run, you'd have the choice of traveling to one of... was it 3 planets or so? It would actually have been pretty silly if only 1 of those was the right one you could actually solve at the level you were. So the mobs would be slightly altered depending on the order you'd visit the planets, the scripted boss fight would happen at the last planet you'd visit and stuff like that. Oblivion was a complete disaster and Fallout 3 (and even New Vegas) were almost as bad. You do just fine with a hunting rifle, until *pling* you reach the level where the wasteland is suddenly filled with twice as hard monsters. Meaning sticking at level 1 is suddenly the best way to beat the game. Ooh, I do hate that kind of scaling with as much passion as the next passionist.

Currently at early bird $20. If there's an announcement the boxed version will be DRM free (no activations, no steam, just the game) I'll get that instead. Probably a collectors version, $100 or $140, don't know for sure yet.

I seem to see two sides to this. And wouldn't say one side is totally free of opinion pushing. I'd call that an opinion, and deliberately uneducated one at that. Despite seeing the majority of expressed opinions and poll results say one thing, you still go and say your opinion is the opinion of majority. My gut feeling, and it's only that (even if backed by more posts and poll results), says most people would choose in game romance rather than one more questline (of similar length). While the anti-romance majority stayed quiet because they had no knowledge of what the devs are attempting with this game either? The "flame war" is fought by one side, and one side only? No. A big part of the greatness of Baldurs gate was because of the companions. Compared to other games done before, the companions felt real, they had a mind of their own, they had feelings and opinions, they also loved (although not the player at that point). It became immediate obvious the gamers liked and connected with this. The companions were vastly expanded in BG2, being able to romance them being a part of this. I'm willing to say, most people would have not liked BG2 as much if there had been no romance subplots, but it had had another dungeon to explore instead. Now, 10 yrs later, the kind of character depth in BG series is no longer unique, if not commonplace either and hardly ever surpassed. I'd say it'd be a high time, but that's my opinion and this might not be the game to do it.

Let me extract some quotes from there: Referring to one of your earlier posts about 'either no romance or more romance in rpg's' (correct me if I'm wrong, but that roughly summarize it?) and that they have been getting worse and worse lately; is the solution really to exclude them entirely? J.E. Sawyer: No. But most of us gamers really only want character depths, great dialogs and if possible, romances that are IN TUNE with the character's personality. J.E. Sawyer: And I am one of those people. I wouldn't go using statements like this to prove Obsidian hates game romances and doesn't want them in games. Maybe they'll add romances and maybe not, their choice. I'm sure the game will be great either way. Edit. But it does sound like the game wont be a steamy pile of greasy fapping material, which is a shame.