rjshae

How much for just the lens flare? Very nice, but... show me a high quality ocean surf simulation and then I'll be impressed.

From reading through this, I am wondering whether Strength impacts the type of weapons you can use? If a high Strength is required to wield a massive weapon with ease, then that would be an indirect benefit to the damage. Having a high Strength with a small weapon like a dagger shouldn't be as beneficial as it is implemented in D&D.

I'm not following your logic. If you, say, use Kickstarter to finance games that then sells like hot cakes and makes a profit, how is that a problem sustaining a business model? Magazines use subscriptions (and advertisements) to fund their publications and, as a business model, it worked fine for many decades.

A comparison that actually demonstrates nothing since Ivan Drago is highly skilled in the art of boxing whereas Einstein was not.

Have a great holiday and thanks for all the cool updates and presentations!!!

Thus far I've backed PoE, Wasteland 2, T:ToN, and D:OS--all (more-or-less) party-based CRPGs. I like a lot of what I've read in their updates, but then I'm not an overly critical person. (My biggest disappointment by far was that the Wasteland 2 developers decided not to use hexes for combat. ) I would have backed Shadowrun Returns if I'd got in on time. However, now that it's out I'm waiting until it has sufficient content to enjoy for an extended period of play (and is well patched).

Yup. Also, from update 36: Wizard 1st Level Wizard Spells - Wizards can access all 1st level wizard spells immediately. Unlike other wizard spell levels, the wizard does not need to find scrolls or grimoires to use any 1st level spells. Wizards can cast a fixed number of 1st level spells before they must rest to recover their uses. They can cast any combination of different spells up to the per-rest limit. As wizards gain levels, their 1st level spells will eventually become per-encounter resources. Blast - When wizards use any implement (i.e. a wand, rod, or scepter), they generate a Blast on the target. The Blast does a modest amount of damage to all enemies in a Small area around the target (excluding the target). Thus they will always have the Blast capability even if all their spells are consumed.

Your assertion is invalid. Turn-based is essential when a game allows you to directly control a large number of units. There's a transition range in which turn-based and real time represent different tradeoffs, with real time being the most optimal for controlling a single figure. But turn based is not archaic and it will always have a place in gaming.

Clang failed rather badly, I believe. It was a half million dollar project.

The overland map in SoZ felt open world-like without being anywhere near as detailed as Skyrim, and it was all from a fixed perspective. I would enjoy seeing an overland map used for a multi-world sci-fi setting, with the already mentioned isometric approach employed in tactical areas. That could be pretty novel.

I seem to recall they are including elevation data for the area maps, so it seems like implementing height advantages should be possible--particularly for ranged attacks. I have managed to implement D&D-style scripted terrain effect triggers in another game system (NWN2), so it's definitely do-able given the availability of a suitable function library. Not sure how useful those would be though unless combat occurs in wilderness areas with lots of vegetation or swampy ground. The main one I'd like to see implemented is lighting effects on targeting.

It's difficult to take the thread vote seriously since it didn't include Fantasy or Horror as options. I suspect that Fantasy would blow Sci-Fi out of the water as a preference. Not that I'm against Sci-Fi...

Companions usually come with extra baggage. Now we have to jump through additional hoops in order to acquire that baggage? Who would bother unless we know in advance that the companion is worth the effort?

Mmm... pointless red herrings are annoying. They need to be there for a reason, whether it be to lead the party into an ambush or distract them long enough to accomplish an illicit task. In the latter case, the party should have the opportunity to ferret out the reason before-hand through a thoughtful investigation.

There's a lot of details that party-based CRPGs often leave out: food, water, guard schedules for camp, bed rolls, travel supplies, shaving kits, &c. Some things are just better off being abstracted for game purposes. If you want to simulate material components, then only allow spells to be cast off scrolls and make it easy to make more... at a spell component shop.

There was an old style of wargames that involved turn based combat in which the actions were plotted out in advance, then performed simultaneously. I'd argue that RtwP is just such a turn-based combat system that uses an AI helper function. It can run in real time because the AI is making most of the decisions for you. I almost think I'd like to have RtwP in combination with the ability to plot out specific movements for selected characters. If you want a character to circle around the battlefield, say, then you should be able to do so with a single pause, rather than having to micromanage every step. Then, when the movement is complete, I want the action to pause again so I can issue more orders.

I think that pre rendered 3D allow you to craft "screens" that look much more... "deep" (?) than if it was actually just made with a photoshop-like soft. I feel it works very well in this preview trailer. Images are somewhat deep, with foreground, background and all the stuff. I think the only difference between 2D and pre rendered 3D is just that. 3D helps you rendering some perspective mechanics and animations with the soft 3D engine that is really hard to animate or render with just a pen. But a the end, it's just kind of a "photo" taken in the 3D soft layout renderer and then applied on a plain 2D surface. But still, like i said, there are some things i can't understand. And all i said is just theory because i didn't any 3D work since 10 years. And i'm really curious about the stuff they made that can't be done with the method i spoke about below... Don't know if i was of some help for you, and if i understood your meanings well let me know so that i can improve my english further. EDIT: yeah Faster than light dude :D I think one potential benefit is that they don't need to worry about the poly count for the area models, which would be a concern for a FPS-style game. Thus they can make the non-animated models as detailed as they want and not have to decimate the mesh (unless it's an issue for render time).

Hopefully this hasn't already been posted... On Dec. 13, PC Gamer published an interview with Josh Sawyer on the subject of combat, character building, and companions in Pillars of Eternity. Also discussed was combat animation, NPC reactions, hiring companions, and the possibility (or not) of a pacifist run-through. The posted images are really quite beautiful, I think.

I would like to see some mods with decent VO work for the non-party conversations. Perhaps even some animated and fully rendered first-person videos, if somebody is feeling particularly adventurous. But the developers have enough on their plate with the current work-load.

There's no way they can satisfy everybody (including, apparently, you), but I think they've been innovative enough. It's a trade-off between supplying what people expect in terms of an IE-like nostalgic experience while implementing more state-of-the art gaming functionality. It isn't necessary to re-invent the gaming experience in order to provide an enjoyable game, so I find it odd that people are always grousing about it. Many artists that follow the innovation road aren't always well received (in their lifetime), and in the end people aren't as receptive to creativity as we'd like to believe.

So... safe to say you wouldn't want a Star Wars CRPG?

There's a selection bias here because the people voting are the ones who are already showing a strong interest in the game. But there's enough of a margin that they're probably fairly safe looking into the concept.

Here's a pledge reward idea that I think won't drain too much from the coffers: a sticker that can be applied to the lid of a laptop...

A completely mod-able UI would be a nice feature. That way, those who can't just enjoy whatever the developers come up with will have recourse to modify the look and feel to their satisfaction.

Picturing a Litter being carried by soul-trapped animated vessels that will take you to the surface and back....