rjshae

Sure, they'd be like the hunting rifles in Fallout 3, except they take many rounds to load (under ideal conditions) and have trouble hitting the broad side of a barn at 100 paces. Meanwhile the guy with the clearly inferior sword has lopped off your arms and spilt your guts.

Meh, I'll wait.

It sound's like Neal Stephenson's Kickstarter project CLANG is an ambitious project to embody many of the combat maneuvers into a framework that can then be incorporated into a gaming system. I'm not sure how well such a system would integrate into a party-style CRPG like PE, but it certainly will be interesting to see how it works out. I could just picture a game with CLANG-style melee tactics, Su Generis combat physics display, and PE group tactics and world setting. It'd be impossible to control a group in fine detail, of course, so probably the combat details would be handled by the AI.

'E's a chatty fellow.

Getting the boxed edition was what sold me on that contribution level.

Here's an interesting article on Gamasutra: Art of War: Animating Realistic Sword Combat What do you think? Is it good advice for the PE combat animators?

I'm wondering what role cannon will play in the game? Perhaps as a siege weapon with the PC's stronghold? It seems like too powerful of a weapon to use in a typical encounter, so perhaps the effects will only have an indirect impact? Will the developers opt for fortifications that take the cannon into account? (I.e. such as the use of ditches and ramparts.)

Call me ignorant if you will, but I'm curious to learn if there is any trend toward playing "live" D&D (or other PnP RPG systems) using Skype sessions? I know there was some rumblings about playing D&D online, but I haven't heard much since then. Thanks.

Here. Meh. A handful whiners doesn't equal "a lot". On the internet you can find anonymous posters to grumble about virtually any position. I think it's reasonable that Josh Sawyer has a philosophy of game design and is is willing to post his views. I'm not sure I completely agree with him on everything, but I'm pretty comfortable with most of his concepts. Time will tell whether he's right or not.

Perhaps a simple approach would be to give each weapon a Strength requirement, then apply a, say, -5 Strength penalty to the off-hand weapon. That way, if you are physically strong enough, you can whip around a pair of Katana quite readily. However, the Strength penalty will still reduce the effectiveness of the off-hand weapon in terms of pure damage.

Where are you getting that "Sawyer hate" impression from? I think it's incorrect. Most of the grumbling is coming from a few squeaky wheels. As to your other points, I'll just be happy if there isn't an "ideal" build from a power-gaming perspective. I should be able to stumble my way through much of the game even if I have a crud PC; it would just take longer and be more challenging to finish.

The gods were watching...

Any word on when the fulfillment site will be coming online? Thanks.

^^^^ Good to know. Thank you! Zdzislaw Beksinski -- man, that guy's artwork is bleak!

By the time games are sold as used, they're usually available in the bargain bin and the developer ain't getting much anyway.

I'm wondering if they will draw upon the experiences of the BGEE iOS port for a future release of PE to that platform, since that now seems eminently do-able?

Hi Dimitri. First I wanted to say thank you for taking the time to tell us about yourself. It's appreciated. The questions I have is about the models that are going to appear in the inventory panels. Based upon last week's art update, it looks like those representations will be somewhat detailed at around 4,000 polys. Are you able at this time to tell us how much control the players will have over the appearance of those figures? Will it be comparable to the NWN2 system with multiple heads, hair styles, and tinting control? Or will there perhaps something more detailed? Also, I'm curious to know if those models will be emotive? I.e. will they perform animations as in DA2 and possibly behave in a manner that communicates their physical and emotional condition? Perhaps that is more detail than is really necessary, but I was just wondering. Thanks again!

I did enjoy playing the Bard class in Oblivion, if only because of the character flexibility in a single-character game. One element I liked was the specialization in Illusion magic. That seems to make sense, since Bards have an affinity with sensory experiences. A viable bardic illusionist (Chanter) class would be an interesting twist and perhaps make the character more playable as a party member. Their combat skills could rely on deception and misdirection, with moves taking longer to play out but being all the more devastating when they succeed.

Some day I wouldn't mind seeing a cRPG that uses some architectural themes from historical India and southeast asia. I don't think that has been explored much, and I suspect most westerners would find it exotic. Perhaps an intermix of romanesque and ancient Indian architecture would make for an unusual setting, while still being plausible? Shrug.

I think the short answer is: we don't know how much customization will be allowed. The developers may not know yet either. But since this was a stretch goal, I'd be a little surprised if there wasn't at least a decent amount of customization allowed.

Yeah, I'm not sure that making everything imaginative or weird is necessarily the right way to go for a serious-themed RPG. Having a mundane setting with everyday architecture, albeit exotic, adds to the gritty feel of a setting. A bunch of peasants or even merchants are not going to be able to afford fancy construction; they are going to live in plain stone, wood, or plaster dwellings with, perhaps, an appealing facade. The fancy stuff is best left for the wealthy, the temples, or for the races that live for thousands of years and can afford to spend time working on such things. But I'm sure these guys know this already.

I'd rather not have the FoW easily removed, even if you bought a map. But I could live with a clairvoyance spell.

Well I hope they are decently good at taking care of the pack animals. Because that's where I'll be leaving them. I really need to be sold on the idea that a chanter(bard) contributes their weight to a party. If bards are merely a buffing character, and they are taking the place of a useful back line character like a wizard or a psion, then they better be improving the capabilities of all the other five party members by more than 20%. Otherwise they're ineffective baggage. Beyond that, anything a chanter(bard) can do, some other class can usually do at least as well, if not better. I guess they could write poems and sell them.

Okay, so if PE, say, ends up not having a general speech skill, what about a more tactical communication skill: the artful lie? That seems like a type of conversation option where you can't avoid having a binary branch; either the listener will believe the lie or they will not. Is that just based on a Charisma check? Or does the smooth speaker have an opportunity to employ their highly refined bluffing ability? Likewise, can an attentive person learn to sense when somebody is lying (like an experienced interrogator)? The nice thing about the lie skill (for a RPG) is that the listener doesn't have to make it immediately clear they perceived a lie or not; it can continue for several branches, making it unclear whether the skill check was successful or not. The listener in turn may lie to cover up their perception of the untruth, while turning the situation to their advantage.

Perhaps lizard-like rats?