rjshae

With a 4 minute Superbowl ad, of course. They will have to spend all that Kickstrter funding somewhere...

Well that narrows it down...

And we have a bite. Will it be reeled in or escape the hook?

It's wasn't so much about the experience being newer but the alternatives being no better. As for RPGs - for me they started rolling downhill when the gameplay and mechanics design got 'refined'. No developer wants takes risks anymore and I fell that for the last decade I have been playing the same three games with slightly different skins. Yes, well I can't really blame them for not wanting to bet the company with a $100 million AAA title by "taking a chance" on something radically different that may not find an audience. Those niche products are better left for indie companies and Kickstarted games to explore. That's why I wouldn't mind seeing developer companies like Obsidian or InXile returning to Kickstarter to fund a more risky title. Personally I think we should be encouraging that behavior, rather than disparaging them for returning to the well.

Nostalgia is always used as the default rebuttal by people who don't understand what made a genre/game popular or loved by the people discussing it in the first place. The fact is that many RPG fans have been disillusioned by how modern (AAA) RPG's have placed an ever-increasing emphasis on action to increase marketability, reduced dialogue/gameplay choices because of the constraints of voice-acting,/graphics, ect... stripped away depth, challenge and complexity because it doesn't "appeal to a mainstream audience". No it's not a default argument, it's a valid psychological process. I've played numerous RPGs, both old and new. Many older games left a favorable impression on my mind, but in going back and replaying them I found they weren't quite as enjoyable as I once found them. You say that modern games place an every increasing emphasis on action, yet many RPGs of old were almost entirely oriented around action. The stories were threadbare at best, with only a handful having a solid, enjoyable, well-developed plot and interesting interactions that rose above the constant stream of repetitive combat encounters.

BS. Played it recently and it was awesome. Well good for you then. Have a cookie.

Nostalgia has a tendency to enhance and glorify older experiences, which may create the illusion that things are getting worse. However, many of the older RPGs were also boring experiences with stupid repetitive mechanics, lousy stories, pitiful character interactions, and, of course, limited graphics and sounds. It's just that we were willing to put up with them back then because all we had were less capable computing systems and the experience was all so much newer.

He seems to be mulling over the idea of an isometric Star Wars game with 2D backgrounds ala the Infinity Engine games, which would be substantially cheaper to produce than something with kotor's production values. It would also be easier to make as they already have the tools to make it with the tools they've created during the production of Pillars of Eternity. It doesn't have to be Star Wars, per se. They could, for example, do a reboot of Star Frontiers. That would give them a space opera setting that they could adapt to the PoE engine.

Really? The existence of supernatural magic spells doesn't seem strange to you, and yet this does? Hmm...

This game was funded by RPG grognards. Sorry, mate. You are barking up against the wrong tree. Perhaps even Yggdrasil?

Yes, that was my thinking too--use a tree structure for the skills (with the current set serving as the base) and allow specializing in the various branches. That way your rogue can specialize in burglarizing, investigating, or scouting. This skills tree approach would probably be the easiest to implement, given the current code development, and I think it possesses a certain elegance too.

Well I wouldn't classify myself as an endophine junkie, but I know that mountain hikes do stick with me, memory-wise. Enough so that I want to keep going back. Perhaps it's a combination of the clean snappy air, beautiful views, and strenuous activity?

Does this world have a printing press? I don't believe so. Have they mastered surveying techniques? Probably not. You're talking hand drawn maps created by a scholar collecting various traveler's tales and adding various creative embellishments. You'll be lucky if a map is even close to accurate. The best maps will probably be of coastlines; not of interior trails and dirt roads.

The base AC for chain mail is 5, while banded mail is 4--hence the reason the AC is the same for the magic chain.

That's the creepiest picture I've seen all year...

It may just be that they don't have a volunteer Portuguese translator yet. The initial release was planned to have English, French, German, Spanish, Russian, and Polish translations. I suspect that other languages will follow once they have made arrangements.

Yes, that would be as good place as any to start honing your game-making creativity and put out a product. For example: the top five RPG Maker Games and RPGMaker games on STEAM.

A thought occurred: allow NPC summoners to be recruited to your stronghold and employ them in creating a binding scroll that can summon powerful critters at a time of great need. You may assist them in this goal by retrieving ancient lore and potent artifacts. You might even assume some risk in taking this path, as the summoners may fail to control the critters, who run amuck in your stronghold, requiring you to return and clean up the mess.

There were stronghold options in BG2, but they had virtually no impact on the ending. It was essentially a side quest, but an interesting one.

To me it seems more suitable for an NPC class. Requiring 2-3 party members devoted to casting a lengthy ritual means that the remainder of the party spend their time trying to prevent the event from being disrupted. Presumably the summoned creature will be more powerful than the 2-3 party members combined could be, so this is mostly useful against boss monsters. Thus you have 3-4 party members devoted to holding off the strongest encounters for a significant period, when normally you'd need all six. What's with all the off-topic religious discussion? It belongs in another thread.

I like the general way you're heading with this. But a more significant way to differentiate summoning is by the amount of control the summoner exercises over the summoned creature. A chanter's ability to string together sequences should provide an innate means of summoning and controlling a creature. Likewise, a druid's link with nature should make the summoned creature a natural ally. However, in the case of a wizard, the summoned creature should begin with no control--all of the soul-based energy is being used just to drawn the creature hither. Instead, the wizard needs to find a means, whether by another spell or through a talent, to exert control. Otherwise, the summoned creature should just do whatever it would normally be inclined to do. Note that this can still be useful since the creature could be summoned behind the enemy ranks; it just wouldn't be inclined to serve as a meat shield.

From what I've seen thus far (at least in terms of the skills system), there's a lot riding on the selection of Talents in ToE as a means to differentiate your characters. It's unfortunate that we don't get to see the full set of talents until release. Hopefully the Talents will allow for a variety of different tactical combinations in combat, and will provide some unique abilities out of combat. I agree it's not the best design. I mean, why be creative with your tactics when a few high level fireballs will win 90% of your battles? It's more enjoyable in the long term to use the flexible combined arms approach of having each class be more beneficial in certain ranges of situations, and to combine the different advantages in creative ways.

The reverse--skills-based talents--would be more interesting, I think.