rjshae

Tears of a Machine -- mecha anime-style RPG with teenage pilots; currently at $5,056/$7,000 with 69 hours to go. Might still make it... Ponies for Pathfinder -- a... ahh... pony-based setting, currently at $2,509/$3,850 with 25 days to go. Shades of Bunnies & Burrows. The Arcanum 30th Anniversary Edition -- An updated release of the Arcanum Role-Playing System, currently succeeding at $2,340. N.R.G. System Core Rulebook -- sword-and-sorcery setting based on d20, combined with an "Energy" system; currently succeeding at $2,161 with 17 days to go.

I suspect they're just busy actually building the game.

Fallout: Floaters and Sinkers

A lot of people rank on ego as a personality problem. What doesn't get mentioned as often is that ego is a terrific motivator.

Adam Antium

The 8 pre-made companions will have personalities written by Obsidian. The 8 hired adventurers will be soulless automatons that players roll up in the Adventurers Hall. Make that soulless automatons with souls... I hope Obsidian does something with these guys like was done in WIzardry 8. For those of you who have not played that game, the pc created heroes not only had specific voices (like in Icewind Dale) but each voice was tied to a personality (labeled aggressive, laid back, friendly, brawny, loner, chaotic, eccentric etc.) and occasionally the character would comment on in game happenings based on their personality. While this isn't like a companion with his own quests, background, etc. It would add a little more personality to the characters than the Icewind Dale characters had. I had a thought along those lines -- each hireling description could correspond to a secret agenda that encodes specific faction preferences. Hence, a description corresponds to favoring certain factions to varying degrees while having an equally variable dislike for others. It's up to the player to read between the lines and figure out who likes what. At best this approach would only produce a quasi-personality, but it could provide at least some degree of depth and (I'd guess) should be relatively easy to implement: it's just a linear equation of weights based upon the PC's faction standing. The question then is what impact would it have on the game? Would your faction alignments control the hirelings morale, thereby determining their behavior under stressful conditions? Would the hireling leave when their morale falls too low? Would they refuse to fight a faction that they strongly favor? Do they ignore your commands and immediately engage a faction they dislike?

The 8 pre-made companions will have personalities written by Obsidian. The 8 hired adventurers will be soulless automatons that players roll up in the Adventurers Hall. Make that soulless automatons with souls...

Seriously? Another romance thread?

Somewhere in the game I'd like to find an actual dungeon construction project, complete with a strong economic rationale, engineers to design the traps and structures, plus the use of magic and summoned worker-creatures to perform the labor. It should include a source of energy, food, and water, with some means of preventing flooding, maintaining the lighting, supporting the monstrous life forms, and keeping fresh air circulating...

^^^^ ...people glance at the action then walk by... must be Brooklyn.

Thank you for the update; your illustrations reminded me of the old Wizardry I manual so it was a nice retro throwback there. I look forward to seeing what you put together in terms of a character mix and their interactions. My one suggestion would be to consider giving one of them a non-fatal handicap of some kind. Seeing how a character deals with their liabilities, as well as how they compensate using their capabilities, makes for a deeper experience. Thanks. Note that I never received an e-mail notice, so I'm not sure if you are still sending those out.

Hmm, scam seems to be your favorite word. Having Professor Freeman Dyson back his idea is pretty significant cred. I just wouldn't want to be living anywhere near the thing when projectiles start shooting off at mach 20.

It's what we do... it's who we are...

Is the choice between Adventurer's Hall characters having mild depth and a small number of major NPC companions being designed exactly like they were in BG really a mutually exclusive choice? I'd find both a decent amount of general personality/reactivity from Adventurer's Hall peeps AND significantly-improved-compared-to-the-way-BG-did-it main companions to be quite preferable to just one or the other. Personally. Any interaction they implement with the characters from the Adventurer's Hall would probably be pretty limited: there's just too many possible variations race/class/background that would need to be taken into account. It wouldn't be cost effective to put a lot of work into variations that wouldn't get used much.

I think the key word there is "bonuses". How many spells will get a damage bonus from an attribute? Presumably then the bonus comes from physically hurling the magic at the target, like a rock that you summon into being and project toward a foe. A Fireball may not get any damage bonus, or even an accuracy bonus.

Well, senior level managers are more likely to be psychopaths...

I'm looking forward to seeing the water animated. To me, a good rendering of properly flowing water can add a lot to an environment's look and feel. Some of the most enjoyable examples of water animation I've seen were in Drakensang and RoT: the stream with the swirling leaves in Avestrue and the frothy water in Nadoret. Of course, those were 3D rendered environments, but still...

Fair enough. The lighting in the left side of the tavern didn't quite look right, which was a give-away. Looks decent overall though.

I remember once about reading a quote from L. Ron Hubbard that said, in effect, if you want to become a millionaire then start your own religion. Which he proceeded to do. (At the time, being a millionaire actually meant something.) What's interesting (to me) about the history of early Scientology is how at least part of the science fiction writer community seemed to rally around the concept. John Campbell, a notable editor of Analog, was an early proponent of Dianetics.

A big part of the player experience this time around will be the option to grow a vegetable garden, found in the "Agriculture" skill tree after reaching a certain level. As long as my man-servant Baldric can grow a turnip that looks just like a thingie, it will be a realm...

Just an old forum thread... http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/60018-free-concept-art-and-model-previews-to-wish-you-luck

Aren't those concept art? They look more hand drawn than rendered.

Mr. Wobbly is disappointed...