Zephyr Falcon

It will take some time for kickstarter/amazon to process the credit card data etc. right now Obsidian hasn't gotten any money yet and no e-mail contacts either. Given the large amount of money and backers (once again HORRRAY!) it might take up to two weeks. The Reaper Miniatures Bones Kickstarter also broke the 3 Million $ bar and it took something like two weeks for them to get the money.

Voice Acting at key points and when introducing important characters. Simply hearing the tone of someones voice can tell so much about a person. I really want to see lots of variations when it comes to the activation and reaction sounds of the party members, since those are the sounds I'm going to hear constantly throughout the game. So a constant repetition of "It's me, Imoen" can wear you down like water wears down a stone. And in a game with less VA content-based modding can be far easier and better integrated. I'm reminded of some very good DA:O or Skyrim mods that are hampered by poor (or rather non-professonal) voice work. Compare that to the massive banter mod for BG1.

Having wall carvings on each level detailing the events during its construction might be a compromise. Maybe a mix of things. An object found that needs to be deciphered, wall carvings that depicts events, and journals that explain things that happened and why it was dug this deep. Many ways to intermix the way the story lore unfolds. I would like to see a ghost appear to tell us the story of the dungeon. And he would say something like "Trust me, I'm a reliable narrator". That alone would turn my paranoia up to eleven, doubting very thing he says, mistrusting even the most obvious advice.

:D (I think you mean Obsidian) Yes, of course - that's just me being stupid. Speaking of me being stupid I've no idea how to edit my post (

Alchemy that kills you slowly, poisons you, with potion that have widely different results? Cute, but there's a problem - no one is going to use it! A widely random system is always less preferred to a relaiable one. Simple logic - another case of historic accuracy not equal to good game design.

It's a game not a simulation. Games are about being fun and entertaining, not depicting an intricate economic system. Look it up under "reality isn't fun". So no, you simply can't have it all. I can see that there is the possiblity of a fantasy cRPG fully simulating a complete fantasy world, but it's not this game. Think of a mixture of The Sims, Minecraft, Syrim, Mount&Blade and Transport Tycoon. It could work, but it couldn't be a story driven game. And it's not a game Oblivion would make. In fact economics are a very low priority in a game like PE, as it should be. Many features requested (barter only merchants, limited funds, gold weight, different currencies) would just make the game more tedious, waste the players time and not give anything meaning full back. Oh, and don't feel bad for the cRPG merchants, they always buy things at half their selling price - that's 100% profit per transaction.

On the whole wizards in full armour issue the Dark Eye (aka DasSchwarze Auge) Pen'n'Paper RPG found the besst in-setting solution: Iron and Steel hampers magic! Now a belt buckle won't prevent you from casting spells, but a breastplate or chainmail - no more spellcasting for you! The great thing is that wizards are hampered, but not prevented from being melee fighters. In fact many like to wear leather gear as simple and light protection. This also makes armours made from less traditional materials viable: felt, bone, paper, wood, etc.

The codename "Eternity" is a refrence to the old Infinity Engine used in BG, IWD, PS:T. There - I've just blown your mind. Or possibly stated the bleedingly obvious. - You are welcome either way.

Even as I personaly only play games in English the translations delight me because my German friends have been apprehensive of backing the project without a German translation. And I can't fault them for it. The game is going to be big and story driven with many, many pages of dialoges. If reading the language takes you twice as long and you missunderstand some things the gaming expericence will be far less enjoyable. There are games where the translation doesn't matter much - those are multiplayer-games with a mostly English speaking community and few in-game texts, like Team Fortress 2 or LoL. But this is a story-driven RPG - if you can't get the story there's no point in playing at all. Now please add a pay-pal (or something similar) option for those parts of the world that dislike credit cards (I'm talking about Germany). Just do it and watch the pledges rolling in.

A poll about polls? I'm in let me poll now!

Skyrim is the only game with a day/night cycle that bothers me. Mainly because very time I went into a town to sell stuff it was midnight and the game forced me to press T and wait 8 hours and then watch the NPCs slowly walk to their market stalls. Plus Skyrim didn't offer a benefit from adventuring at night other than sneaking being slightly easier (which didn't matter in dungeons anyway). The illusion of day and night in DA:O worked quite well for me.

Witch hunts aren't interesting in most games because they have a very clear bad side (ignorant bigots) and a good side (misunderstud wise woman or what have you). That quite frankly makes them terrible boring and predicatable. Ans I'm bloody sick of them. If they go for a choose-your-side scenario I don't want to be faced with a bland good vs. evil - I want grey vs grey. Skyrim (for all the things it defenetly got wrong) made both sides of the civil war seem legit. Even if the the Stormcloaks seem racist at some points. But then again the Empire seemed like it was the dominions lapdog just as often. New Vegas didn't do it as good - the NCR was clearly the good side and Legion as evil as could be. Simply put I don't want to hunt down magic users as they are fun to play and absolutly useful, even vitaly important.

I think it should be a personal item rather than weapon. No reason why a ring or cloak shoudn't be the artifact directly connected to your soul. But regarding the idea of a personal item - I'm all in favour of that.

I want a Spell Blade! A sword in one hand, a spell in the other. He uses his sword to channel magic in a very direct and painfull way. Magic is also used to distract opponents and gain advantages in the battles. On the other hand he's far squishier than other frontline fighters, not at least because of the restriction to the lighter armours. This class may or may not be based on awesome visuals in my head

Early in IWD2 you found the "Clenched Fist Mace" a minor magical item that gave you one gold piece per day thanks to it opening its fist shaped end. Maybe a similar item could be created with the ability to wear a magical ring and get its benefit as well...

When, many years ago, I first played Baldur's Gate the +1, +2, etc. weapons really bugged me. Even more so since they had named items. So I'm saying give as many magic items as the devs can make up stories for them

Reclaimed Dungeon! In my mind it's something like Durlag's Tower from BG1. A big and imposing structure, completely run down and infested with monsters. You could attempt to clear it out very early in the game, but the monsters are more than a match for seasoned adventurers. So one it's free of monsters a second quest is triggered, that of gaining legal ownership of it. After you've become the rightful owner you can start investing money in it to make it actually livable space. But what do you want to do with it? Maybe rebuild it into the stronghold it once was. Or rebuild that main tower, add a few levels and make the other wizards green with envy. Or, as a druid, let nature reclaim it on the outside. Or turn it into an inn and call it "The Friendly Arm Inn". Or perhaps your order would like to have a presence in the region? ... (now make up your own) It also should be modular, so with plenty of different choices - some of them mutually exclusive. That would be a very nice and believable money sink to postpone the "I have more money than a kingdom" point. And it should also open up new ways to solve quests in the world. A shopkeeper complains about the horribly high rent he has to pay the crime lords? Now you don't need to hunt them down, just let him and his family set up shop in your castle. You freed some slaves that are far from their homelands. Now you still could negotiate with a captain to bring them back home, but why not let them start a new life in your keep? And once you got your nice, cozy, expanded and populated Grand Palace the dwarven engineer you hired digs and digs until he finally digs to deep ...

For all the love I personally have for the big, meaty Game Manuals let me say this: Ideally a well designed game doesn't need a manual, let alone a 2 pound tome. A good game can be played right out of the box. The game rules are learned ingame, not before. In the olden days game size was such a limitation that putting descriptions of monsters in the handbook was the only way of having them at all. Now I want it in game - maybe a codex, perhaps linked to the knowledge skills. And accessible during loading screens, that would be nice.

First buy PS:T from gog.com and you can play it on your modern PC. When it comes to overused, unpleasant, boring, poor taste, etc. tropes - good writing is your salvation. In that respect I've fullest confidence in the writing being engaging, interesting, mature and not offensive. The "Damsel in Distress" is such an overused trope that even it's reversal has become a cliche in itself - Monty Python's Holy Grail and Shrek are prominent examples. Also in all my time playing BG, PS:T or IWD I never saw anything as sexist or offensive. Does your experience differ?

Something else to consider is that PE wont have to pay for any sort of IP. I think the cost of licencing an IP is almost always paid by the publisher, but it's still a cost factor in the final development cost. Also no one mentioned that the net profit per sold game unit will be far better for the developer: A 60$ console game is typicaly* split like this: Console Maker: 20% or 12$ Publisher: 30% or 18$ Marketing: 15% or 9$ Retailer: 20% or 12$ Developer: 15% or 9$ If OE sells the game for a discount price of 40$ and pay 30% to retailers etc. (I'm not sure about steams cut, but et's say it's 30%) then every copy sold would give OE three times as much as a copy of Fallout: New Vegas sold. *I read that on the internet. I guess it makes sense, but it might not be universal truth.

And another German here...

I'd also like to see choices in what to craft with the rareties you find. So you could either weave the black spider silk into a cloak or some other clothing, but not both. And sets of items somehow hidden throughout the game world. I like collecting sets )

I see your point. And I do agree, being the most powerfull person in the world get very boring very quickly. Here's the problem game designers have to face: Being weak and helpless isn't fun. Killing rats isn't fun. People might loose interest if there are no big, cool monsters to fight at the start. (I'm sure about the truth of that statement). You also can't give a player an impossible challenge - that would just be the end of the game. In this regard people always have that safety net of only getting a level appropriate challenge. And even with a quicksave/quickload botton it's bad to constantly kill the player and force a reload - it just leads to more rage quits. That's why the problem exsists, now for some solutions: - Like OP said meeting powerful NPCs - the difficulty is to prove to the player that those NPCs are truly powerfull, Elminster and Drizzit relied on reputation alone. - Cool low-level challenges: This one mainly comes down to design (monsters have to look cool, unique, challenging), diversity (not just rats or zombies) and imaginative scenarios fighting them (not just the good ol'dungeon) - Showing things the PCs might be able to do later - much later. Like stopping time, teleporting, mind-controlling a giant monster, etc. Those work best if they aren't the big baddies special tricks, but rather something that can be attained in-game at a high level.

Ohhhh nostalgia flashback to IWD and IWD2 Now I want more of that! Always preferred the fullbody pictures to the headshots BG gave us.

I agree the trope has been in every cRPG - at least to some extent. The TES games Oblivion and Skyrim may be the worst of them, since you are the only instigator for change in all the universe. The best ways to reduce that problem would be: 1.) Start small, stay small - no super quick power gain. No starting as an uber-hero. No scaled down big monsters for sake of giving us a big monster. Slowly fight your way up the food chain. That made BG a great series of games. 2.) Opportunities for defeats. Let me try to attack that castle/dragon/etc. and fail miserably. That motivates us to comeback after many adventures to try again. But don't do the badass paradox (forcing a defat on the player in a cutscene) 3.) Competent NPC decisions. No stupid Bond villian deathtraps. No unlocked or unguarded backdoors. No exploding barrels.