rjshae

It's a different world, so different rules apply. The Greeks had martial arts -- pankration -- as early as 648 BC. Legend has it the art was practiced by Greek soldiers. There's no reason that couldn't have later developed into a creed of religious aestheticism during a dark age; particularly one in which peasants were not allowed to carry weapons used by a knight. Hence it is feasible for use with a Western-type fantasy setting. But some name changes, for both monkish weapons and powers, would perhaps be fitting.

Hurray, I'm in!

Right there with you pal... alas.

As long as armor and weapons have realistic weight effects and assuming that strength is not a priority for Wizards, I think things will work themselves out. Especially if they make the Wizard haul around that humongous tome as well.

Nice update! I'm just wondering if they will be using D&D-style NPC classes like commoner or expert?

Autoheal mixed with an injury system works decently enough. I particularly enjoyed the wound system in Drakensang that worked to debilitate the combatant. You could take up to four wounds before you dropped to the ground, with each wound causing cumulative damage.

It can actually be a pleasure to play a game where you are not having to constantly fiddle with the camera to get the best view.

Hello Guildmaster, Here's a few random notions on possible rewards: - A limited edition PE contributor's T-shirt would make a nice conversation point. - An insider CD video of designer comments following the release. - Collectable playing cards illustrated with concept art. - Custom table-top gaming miniature based on an in-game character or creature. The current trend of stretch goals seems fine to me. As was noted above, overreaching might not be beneficial.

I'd say that in-universe humor is welcome, as per the occasional example in the Lord of the Rings movies; humor that breaks the suspension of disbelief is better left for more whimsical games. But I'd fully expect that, in cities, there would be a market for magical trickery and practical jokes, for example, which could even take a nasty turn. Magical curses could be unintentionally humorous, such as a wealthy and obnoxious baron accidentally being turned into a flatulent pig.

Is that something I can hold on to, then trade in the bits later? Seems like a bit of a misnomer.

It's a nit, but the idea of spells "recharging" is an odd one. In reality it's your connection to the magical ability that's recharging. Perhaps a spell represents some type of arrangement of connections that somehow gets unfolded when you cast the spell. The connection then needs to return to its original form before it can be tapped again. Higher level spells are more complicated connections and, consequently, take longer to fold up again. Mayhap, when your mind is in a quiescent state, the folding can proceed more readily. That would suggest spells are restored more rapidly outside of combat than in. It would also suggest spells are more difficult to restore when the mind is dulled by fatigue, or by toxins or poison.

In traditional folklore I've seen elves described as "supernatural" creatures. I've also read interpretations that they have "spirits" rather than "souls", whatever that means. Hence I wonder if they will somehow be differentiated in terms of "souls" within the game? Perhaps the nature of their supernatural selves is the reason they are a more magical race? One notion I had is that, rather than having separate souls, the elves share a "common soul" with nature. Hence it is never shattered at the individual level, although it may become so at a higher level. This shared soul is the reason why elves have a very different view of the world, and are seen to behave strangely. Indeed, they may have more in common with nature spirits than with mankind.

That's a funny thing about fantasy games. People are okay with true-to-life historical fiction games, but give them a fantasy game and it's got to be "different". I don't think there's anything intrinsically wrong with using stock fantasy tropes; it's what you do with them that matters.

Aye that Interesting. The mystery remains, however. What do the guys at Obsidian want with 2D artists? If Project X is not an IE game, could it be a sequel to one of the IE games running on the Onyx Engine and so, therefore, more 2D artists will be needed? Also, the words on the main page lead me to believe that this is going to be a fantasy title rather than Fallout or Alpha Protocol. It's not a mystery. They've already stated they will be using 2D images, presumably mapped onto the 3D representation in the isometric perspective. to be fair, I don't think that was the case on september 12th when this thread was made Aye that's true. My bad.

I'm actually hoping they don't do this for the initial release because it would bleed off already scarce resources. It may be better to wait and see if this is a commercial success, then look at the modding option as a way to maintain long-term fan interest. I'd rather them build a game engine that is readily extensible so they can back-port any added features to the first release.

That system works fine as long as you don't think of hit points as the ability to withstand purely physical damage (which they aren't). Maybe they should call it "Combat effectiveness" instead? I would like to see a separate wounds system.

If they do ability scores, I really hope they avoid the type of system that encourages extreme disparities in the scales (by providing increases at every level). It's okay for systems like Dungeon Siege 2 or Divine Divinity, but for a more detailed CRPG like DA2 or Ego Draconis I think that approach is hard to take seriously. (Although it did work okay in Oblivion because that system strongly encourages the development of multiple ability scores.)

Yes, but for that to matter they would need to implement mounts (for NPCs). I'm not sure that will happen given the resource constraints.

If a withdraw-rest-return system is implemented, then you should still run a not insignificant risk of a random encounter at some point during the cycle. Otherwise it means that time doesn't matter. Even if you don't need sleep for spell recovery, fatigue is still a factor in any game that takes the art of role-playing seriously.

Yes, those are decent. You might do a little work on the jaw-line though; some of the males are perhaps a tad too feminine with their small jaws.

Perhaps others have a different view of lore books, but I've never seen a lot of value in having detailed, in-game book entries. I'd almost prefer to see a book review style description with specific entries pointed out. It would be nice to see a few illustrated books though, including maps, sketches of once fine glories, images of historical figures, and so forth. But I know those would take up more disk space.

Perhaps they could implement a simple phonetic system that gets re-arranged based on the spell? But even a murmored buildup to the spell release would be good.

50 minutes does seem very short. A stretch goal of the sort you mentioned would be fantastic. Does it? I'm not sure really. Hopefully there will be long pauses between replays where we can experience the ambient and localized sounds of the environment in their entirety.

Interesting. The mystery remains, however. What do the guys at Obsidian want with 2D artists? If Project X is not an IE game, could it be a sequel to one of the IE games running on the Onyx Engine and so, therefore, more 2D artists will be needed? Also, the words on the main page lead me to believe that this is going to be a fantasy title rather than Fallout or Alpha Protocol. It's not a mystery. They've already stated they will be using 2D images, presumably mapped onto the 3D representation in the isometric perspective.

I like more detail in the armor system than is typical for D&D. The inventory system for Drakensang would be ideal, although I'd like more categories.