cdx

Nonek, yes, it's something like that. British English is what *you* speak (as an Englishman from England) for a person who is not native English speaker but is ok enough with it to notice differences between your speech and that of an American. People whose first language is not English see UK and US speak British English and American English, rather than "English" and American English. That's a tad too much of "English" for two sentences, sorry about that:)

Armour looks great and so does the hat. Can’t wait to make fun of some NPC wearing it:) New approach to interior environments? Is that less tile-based and more modelling straight from concept? The storytelling images look amazing! They would feel great for chapter transitions and special occasions but I’m afraid they would get too “standard” and less interesting if they appear too often, like in skill checks, decision taking, etc. I’d much rather see 15-20 of these in the game rather than a hundred. They look way too nice to be a commodity. Great update, looking forward to the results of the next prototype! (And an Arcanum session where Chris has actually read the manual and plays the game rather than the interface:)

Detailed combat moves (and moves in general) are great but I see them as low priority. I'm hoping PE will have extremely rich story first and foremost, then general gameplay that matches IE games. Combat animations are just one detail. Yes they could be great and they could make a noticeable difference but I wouldn't be bothered one bit if they use just very basic ones. For example, one light sidestep animation for every possible dodge is fine by me. In general I'd much rather see PE's limited resources spent on tactical battle development (choices, different spells, skills) rather than on realistic physical representation of these. Also, I'd rather have the animators spend their time improving the environments or creating more and fancier item icons/models (assuming they double as modellers/artists). But then again, these are details, too, so I guess it's up to personal preference.

I guess this is the right time to mention item size scaling since there's work going on character, environment and object scales. In Temple of Elemental Evil I remember a huge scimitar-like sword (lava red and yellow, with thick blade) that my fighter was wielding. Looked very impressive. Then I thought "Hey let's see how funny the halfling will look with this sword, it's as big as her." Then she equips it and the sword is suddenly half its previous size, matching the size of the character holding it. Um, ok.. It was very immersion-breaking. Items don't go from huge to tiny to fit a smaller hand. It would be great if we can avoid such scaling in PE. I'm not sure if it was actually a bug in ToEE but to me it seemed intentional and a very bad choice. Or does it make sense development-wise and it doesn't bother others as much as me?

I remember reading this thread a while back and it seemed quite possible the OP was right. After seeing this pile of incompetence and arrogance there's no room for any doubt: http://www.blackisle.com/

I like the new sketches a lot. Especially the wizard looks great for humanoid with water environment influence. Fish tend to have a gradient of colour on their bodies (usually from very light grey to quite dark grey/(brown/blue) rather than just one shade (e.g. human) and the face of the wizard captures that very well. His face also looks quite rigid which fits my understanding that skin of water creatures should be a bit harder. I would expect in general that race to show very little emotion due to very low facial flexiblity. The barbarian deviates from this but it could make sense with parts of the face that are more rigid and others that are softer (such as on a carp). Also, fish tend to get body colour patterns depending on the type of water basin they live in (I mean fish of the same species). Ones that live in lakes with sandy bottoms would have more consistent colour of more or less one shade, while ones that live in places with lots of algae would have patterns. Which explains why it would make a lot of sense to have many different skin patterns for this race. E.g. the barbarian's skin spots look a bit like the bits of fur she is wearing. As for the previous concept art: the character sketches were done during the kickstarter. Back then things were being done quickly and it should be normal to have just a very basic sketch that kinda captures the essence of the character. Those sketches more than fulfilled their purpose. Sagani's colour art was amazing, I'd be more than happy to have all game portraits in this art style. Detailed but not excessively so, should not take too long to do and it looks great. Fits the needs of the project perfectly.

Like what I see! Except for the language.. that's bad:) House is nice, like the style. Very close to historical, looks great and will be a good base for differentiation to any other non-traditional styles that appear in the game. Models are great, I especially like the silhouette of the smaller figure. It finds a great balance of weight, avoiding thin-thin limbs like in the Wasteland 2 screenshot and the tree trunk legs / hands of most modern games. New concept images are great, too, it's so nice that they are much more dynamic now. I guess it's not very helpful to the 3d modellers but they are real eye candy:) As for the +3 medicine ball.. I strongly believe it should be in the game! .. as a ceiling pendant.

Piracy is a problem but DRM is not an answer to it (for a single player game). DRM only makes the pirated copy of a game better than the original as DRM is removed/bypassed. Any DRM that is unobtrusive will be cracked pretty much on release day, at least from what I've seen. Result: no effect on piracy whatsoever, just an offence and a middle finger towards the paying customers. Any obtrusive DRM will be cracked within a few days - absolutely minimal effect on piracy, major "**** you" towards paying gamers. People cannot be stopped from pirating a game if they want to. Only thing that can be done is convince people to pay for it, too. Something that could help, in a way a new model to work on the issue: 1. A splash or loading screen that appears for, say, 10 seconds first time a game is loaded and for 2 seconds every time a game is started (not skippable). Just a few words like "We are not publishers, at Obsidian we are the people who developed this game and we need your support. The only way to make another game like this is to have people buy it. If you like the game but you have not paid for it, please support us by buying a licence key." This should be reduced (almost removed) by an original licence key, to a 1 time only, not skppable 5 second appearance. This way people with original keys will not be bothered by it and people with pirated game who enter a good licence key will still see it. 2. Same as above, but after the end of the game. Should be unobtrusive so it doesn't piss people off in any way. 3. Somehow appeal to release groups to not include a licence key that bypasses 1. and 2. No idea if this will work but it is possible, as I think they want the game available to everyone but people who can afford it to buy it (seems to be the last instruction in each crack release - If you like the game, buy it). More likely to work if these support screens are not annoying in length. 4. (The "what!?" one) The game should work with any key (read: any character string the player decides to type in) but remove the support screens with an original licence key. This way everyone who pirates the game will get these screens. If the game does not work without an original licence key, one will be supplied with the torrent (or a keygen) and the screens will not reach their intended audience. This will not stop people to pirate the game. Nothing will. This can make a pirated copy of the game a licenced one. And that's the whole idea, right?

First time I played a crpg was a demo of BG2. It had the first level of Irenicus dungeon. I loved it as it opened the whole DnD world to me. Can't remember how many times I played through it before I got the whole game. It was great though, as I managed to learn how spells work, about different classes, kits, formations, mechanics, etc. First time I went through the whole game was great, as I already knew how the game works. I could turn my full attention to enjoying the story and encounters. The new character made the whole story fresh and it was playing for the first time again, just better. I'm pretty sure I'll get the beta and play it at least once, to get pumped up for things I like and get used to things I don't. For me it will only improve the experience of the full game. Hopefully will help a bit with sorting bugs out, too.

Having locations where food is scarce and fat not only improves social standing but also beauty and attractiveness, would be cool (as well as culturally realistic). Would be great to go to some place and have everyone ogles a character that is usually ignored the most. That said, there should also be some isolated communities where the only abundantly available type of food makes everyone fat and everyone is crazy about thin people (would be very culturally realistic, too )

Upper post sums up quite well most of the good points in the thread so far. Less gold is better than many sinks. Some sinks that make sense are good though. Just one other thing, also mentioned several times before: copper, silver, gold tiers would be great (just please no platinum!). Would allow for every random critter to drop suitable amount of treasure without flooding the player economy (e.g. a shoddy goblin 2-20 copper, an average mercenary 2-3 gold, a very tough mercenary 20 gold). As for the item degradation: it could work well if there are two or three tiers. Say, first tier of wear is "good condition" (max weapon damage/protection), next is "slightly worn" (3/4 dmg/pr), then "worn" (1/2 dmg/pr) and finally "heavily worn" (1/3 damage/pr (not 1/4)). Items generally should never completely or permanently break. Sword as worn as it could be, would not likely snap and could still kill people no matter how blunt. Also, wear should be very slow but quite expensive to fix (depending on item quality). This way it adds realism (and a sink) without being a major pain in the ass.

With the stamina / health system running could be a good option - say run for a minute and your stamina is wasted (average con / str type character). Would save some time backtracking, would include interesting mechanic - run all the time and when you get an encounter you'd be tired and less capable to fight. Would introduce balancing issues though - see a tough slow monster - run away safely of just hit-and-run with ranged wapons / weak spells. About the poll - I enjoyed BG games greatly with just walking. In fallout I liked running and it was always on. So I'd vote "I don't mind", which should probably on the poll answer list. Would give an idea of how many people would be fine with either as opposed to having a strong preference.

I can see the OP point. Attacking Dragons, Beholders, Liches, Animated Skeletons, Demons, etc with a two handed sword that is too long for classic swordplay feels a bit unrealistic.

Great to see you guys already tackling tough planning issues (and keeping up the spirits after the scope of the job has sunk in ), can't wait to see the next update!

Maybe it is a bank system that has gotten active due to a suspicious payment? I got a phone call which I missed from my bank concerning the kickstarter payment as it was relatively big and overseas. I hat to call back an automated system to confirm that I was aware of the payment and it should be allowed. The initial Kickstarter payment failed, as did my first attempt to pay with the same card after the security system confirmation. The second time I tried it went through though. Maybe you should check with the bank then try paying again a couple of times if it is a similar issue?

Just put that in a similart thread about races.. The beginning of the game should be very well crafted and tie with the plot of the story (e.g. you start in the mortuary as Nameless One, or being in Irenicus' prison cage). If there is one beginning it can be greatly fine tuned and lay out the foundations of the game. In my opinion different starting points could add a lot of replayability but would probably reduce overall game quality. As for results from quests affecting each other - it should be doable as long as quests are tied in that way in groups of up to 2 or 3 and there are not too many of these groups. This way it shouldn't consume too many development time but it would allow for some very interesting outcomes.

I hope there is at least one, but it is between very similar characters so it would not mess up a playthrough (two fighter types or two casters). Something like this happening is great from immersion / role-playing point of view but it shouldn't hurt your game choices, having so few NPCs.

I would like the beginning to be very well though-out and memorable. To be used as a starting point for the story (e.g. waking up with no memroies as the Nameless One to sort out your identity, or in a cell and then spend the game chasing the guy who put you there). Different beginnings would make them unique but wouldn't necessarily make them good. Different backgrounds seems like a better option.

Can't think of any real pro's, doing the exactly same quest a second time is already a con. I'd rather have 20 good non-repeatable quests than 20 repeatable ones. And btw, 10000 quests

Something cool for inspiration could be the Cube movie - a leftover of such experiment where you discover the story. Or hypercube, where you meet several Od Nua at different ages and every time he is obsessed with a different topic. Another one is the world of the snake people in the Wheel of Time, where you find unexplained creatures who grant wishes in a messed-up way. I'd be amazed to see a huuge cave level, with only two doors on one side of it, which is all empty.. except for a table in the middle.. and some rain every now and then. As a general feeling of exploration, I too would be happy if it feels like Dulrag's Tower.

Because of the scale of figures gory deaths need to be way over the top in order to be visually interesting. It was so funny to shoot somebody in the eye in Fallout 2 with the Red Ryder bb gun and make a huge hole in their chest . It was very exciting though, as well as the exploding in BG2. But we definately need a slider. I'd go all the way up but as TCJ said, for some of us high violence makes the game worse, not better.

First time I'd go with a human male, high intelligence and charisma, to explore the story in a way I tend to find most interesting. Probably a wizard or a paladin. Rogues are great, but I'd rather take one as a companion than play it.

I hope they take some more time for the game than April 2014. This is the estimate for 1.1m game, not the one that they are going to make now. It's true that they can hire more people for certain tasks, but what we all like about Obsidian is their design / writing and this needs to be done by the core team (plus George Ziets). They have a large new section of the game to make with the addition of the second big city and the extra companions. I hope that they go through the timetable for the project and update us with a later delivery date sometime soon. Right now they have a good reason to say that, due to the funding available, the game will be much bigger and awesome than expected at the start of KS and in order not to let down their backers they will need more time to meet our high expectations. If they try to go for 18 months and fail, then in a year or more announce they'll need more time, they'll immediately get a name for delays and bad project management in the absence of a publisher. I completely trust them to know what they are doing, I just hope they are not afraid to immediately announce a longer development time (if they need it) in order "not to disappoint" us.

Edit: Double post.. 4 mil! Woooooooohoooooooooo!

Hell yeah! Congratulations guys and gals, I'm so happy for you! Take it easy tomorrow, today is party time! You deserve it, for bringing us what we've been dreaming about for years on end!