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288 to 1018. I was concerned about the character sheet, too, but couldn't resist the last minute rush

I guess designing the dungeon (with a compelling story and progression) would be easier if they have the number when they start work on it. If they are willing to include a post-kickstarter level, my guess woud be they would give another month or two but probably not more. Great idea! If some people would go only for a good deal, anybody who goes up a tier would bring not only $5 from temselves but $15-$20 more from another upgading/new backer! Go Big City 2! And a big thanks from me to everyone who overcame their dislike for Facebook in order to support Obsidian. Let's keep it going!

Three million! Great! As for Monday surprise.. some lore on that second big city would be very welcome. Make us see what we'd be missing out on and go for it. As for other stretch goals, I was thinking the same but I guess they better point all the attention and excitement to that 3.5 million. One solid target, no distractions. Adding more stuff to the 3.5 million goal could be good, though.

For $25. Looks like you know what you want to do. As for bugs - a kickstarter community project with thousands willing beta testers and open file formats.. I'd say bugs will be taken care of.

3.5 will happen. I'm trying to think of three more people that I could give the game as a present. Very soon, at least +$60 from me. And no, we haven't passed $3,000,000 yet. $2,987,146 and nothing else counts for now.

I know game goes on under the UI, I've used the "H" key a lot:). What I meant was that in BG it did not feel like there was some really useful screen space that the UI was obstructing, UI felt like it was around the useful space. In NWN, DA, most newer games, the whole screen is useful space and the semi transparent and cut-out elemets are obstructing the view of that useful space. In BG UI is beautiful and around the game; in NWN, DA, the UI elements are getting in the way. Very true about the portraits, I hope they are decent size and rectangular, just as you say they add a lot to the feeling. A strip on the right with all the portraits and there you have it, a third of a BG-like interface is already in place:) Oh, and we definately need the "H" functionality.

I liked BG2 UI best as it made a beautiful frame in which the game was played. It didn't feel like it was taking space from the game, it just surrounded it. In my opinion, transparent menus, character icons and moveable windows just get in the way because they cover "useable" screen space.They let you see partly what is behind but you cannot see it properly. For me the cut-out and transparent elements feel way more in-your-eyes than solid large blocky UI like BG or IWD.

I was quite happy with the walking speed in BG 1/2. It made sense for the characters to walk rather than run. Armor and weapons and backpacks full of gold. Then boots of speed made them super-quick, as magic should. Although, back then I was in still in school and had tons of time. Now I'd be lucky to get a couple of hours in a stretch. I guess the option of speeding up everything would be quite useful. I remember using it in Fallout 2, where it was available.

I have a yahoo email account which I haven't used in years. It's probably gone by now. Same will happen with my facebook account at some point. Right now it is useful. Do not care about people spending 6 hours on Facebook, or companies pouring millions in ads. Do care about more backers Facebook can bring to Obsidian. And more dungeon levels. Great! As for creating an account - typing a long-ish post in this forum takes 3 minutes, the same time needed to create a facebook account, Like Obsidian's page, delete the account in a week/month. Not too much to ask in order to bring more support for the game. I am sad because it is only 20,000. Yes, the campaign has been a genius. But the support it got has been far less than it deserved.

I searched this section of the for "Facebook" but must have missed it. I can see what you mean, but Facebook is not just a random goal - it gives revenue as well. It leverages Obsidian as a company, gives them a platform to advertise their games, PE as well as any expansions and sequels. Also true that it's up to us to get them facebook Likes. I do not understand though why supporters wouldn't Like the page. It takes a just a little bit of time and it's free. If people don't like facebook, they can make an account Like the project, spread the word, then close the account in a week. You don't need to like Facebook, you need to Like Obsidian and this we all do. I would be disappointed if less than 60,000 people do that. After all, this is the least any supporter could do.

That's why it's as big as it is. I'm not a Facebook fan but if it brings 4-5 more dungeon levels and the second big city.. I'm not a Facebook fan and yet I'm there. As is everyone. When that is the best way to spread the word, why not use it?

I look at Obsidian's facebook page and get sad. 60,000 backers and barely 20,000 Likes? And no thread about it? I just convinced two people to Like the page (one hadn't head of any Infinity Engine game), which means about 200 more people will at least have a glance of Obsidian in their walls. This is from me, somebody with very few facebook friends who, in turn, keep relatively tight contacts on FB. If 40,000 more like it, extrapolating from me, about 4,000,000 (+/- say, 2,000,000) people will hear about it. Who knows how many of them had a good time with either BG1/2, Fallouts, IWD, PS:T, Arcanum or NWN but haven't heard of the Obsidian kickstarter. A few more of them will like it, some will even contribute, numbers both in Facebook and Kickstarter will get way bigger. If PE is something you like as much I think you do, make sure you "Like" it! Then pester a few more people to Like it, too. You will be a slight annoyance to somebody, but it will actually help. Did you manage to get somebody to back the project? Then getting them to Like it will be way easier, it's free! Don't have a facebook account? Make one! It takes a few minutes, then about half an hour to find pretty much everybody you can think from your real life friends on it. Then tell them about it. Tell them how amazing this project is! People like excitement! If you like this "strange thing" that much, people will like it just for the hell of it, just to make you happy. And their friends will see, numbers will grow! In three days we won't just get 40,000 likes, we can get 400,000!

My contribution's in. May I sign up as Timekeeper of the Obsidian Order?

Collecting many things, especially for quests would probably be quite boring. But say the option to have a Weapon's room, where you get a display one item for every type of weapon in the game could be good. Same goes for armour - one set of full plate on display, one set of this, one of that. And changing the displayed item when you find a better one, thus building a display collection could be interesting.

I'd be happy with small character models both in game and in any inventory / character screens. This removes the need to have a detailed model. A customisable picture (where you import a jpg) would be just as good as a very high polygon model, just way cheaper to implement. Would be great to have good models though, even not too detailed. The ones in Panzar are quite bad.

Having location markers and no quest markers makes sense and hopefully they would only switched on when the character/s have been close enough to it on the map. This way you don't run towards a marker but explore and just have it as a reminder once you've found it. Also, being able to put your own markers like in BG2 is great.

When I meant hidden initials I meant it . For example, in this Michael Whelan's picture you could read "KI" in the formation of the rocks: Or in this one for example, you could read "BOD" in the lower left corner of the cape (while the artist's signature in the rocks is way too obvious). These are not very good examples as I just had a look of these two pictures and looked for possible places to hide the initials. But you get the idea. About a more prominent but very well hidden Initials: the second picture is a great example for "HT" or "TH" - the shapes formed by the trees and sword for one letter, and the sword and character figure for the second. Somehow restrictive but still very doable, especially if elements comprising the letters are smaller. As for the entry amount.. twenty, at least for me, borders to the amount that I'd consider to be maybe a bit too much. Would have to think about whether I want to give as much (although, I'm pretty sure I would). With 13, I wouldn't even think about it, just get both right away. Three all for and three all against so far.. are they really that bad? To me these seemed like a really good way to add funding..

Hi everyone, I was pondering on a way to help the kickstarter campaign a little bit and wanted to ask for opinions on a couple of ideas for add-ons. (1) Dwelling add-on: The first one is organising a draw the buy-in for which is $13 (multiple entries allowed) and is separate from any of the tiers, the reward – getting the chance to win something (very) unique. The reasoning for it being $13 – since luck plays big part of it 13 seems like a very good fit (also, it’s not high enough not to pay it but is much better than 10). As for the reward: this could be the chance for those of us who cannot afford to pay for designing items / npcs to get lucky. I was thinking of the winner being given the choice to help design a small location of a family home or lodging place with up to 6 npcs and a small quest tied to them. It should be something not too involved in the game and with not too many resources spent on it, as not to overshadow the rewards of $1,000 tiers and up. The main reason for offering a dwelling place and several people as a reward is that this would let anybody put a fantasy take of their real family or group of friends in the game… and would give them a really good reason (and chances for success) to ask for support friends and family members who otherwise do not care much about rpgs. What a present that would be! A rich family that keeps to themselves in merchant’s quarter, shack with a family of beggars, house of loonies, gallery house of artists, house of awkward and misunderstood geniuses, whatever that one lucky person feels like portraying his closest people as (that fits in the game, of course). This should get a lot of support and would help get some otherwise inaccessible funds. (2) Initials add-on: There is another flavour of this idea which could be implemented together with the first one: a draw with the same entry fee or a bit less (again multiple entries welcome) with the reward being inclusion of the winners initials in the box cover art in a hidden way (shape of buildings in the distance, cloud formation, dents on a shield, etc). I’m sure obsidian’s artists can find a way to do that in any image. This is more personal, it is unobtrusive in any way but would mean a lot to us, supporters. Could even make it very well hidden (but more prominent) and announce the result to the public much later? Another idea is about an (3) in-game artifact. I’ve always been fascinated with the popular representation of eternity as an amount of time that would allow, without a shade of a doubt, for some monkeys pressing random keys on typewriters to come up with the complete works of Shakespeare. I’ve always imagined it with just a few monkeys, taking maybe several billion years to come with one of Shakespeare's plays but with a mistake or two in it. Then, taking a maybe several billion times the previous stretch of time to get that one play without mistakes. Then taking (meaningless number here) times the previous amount of time to come up with all his works with just a few mistakes. And finally taking (another meaningless number here) times the previous amount of time to come up with his complete works with no mistakes. You get the idea of eternity when you realise that, if you have eternity this WILL undoubtedly happen. Um, sorry, got a bit sidetracked here . So, about the artifact: It would give an-game random message when used. And these messages are what Project Eternity can get funding from. For a support token of $2 or $3 each, a kickstarter supporter could send messages to be included in a database that the artifact would use (after being checked and ok’d by devs/moderators). There could be a specific chance for it to spit out a supporter message, much smaller chance to include messages from the devs or useful secret lore (about treasure and whatnot). As a side note, this could give raise to a whole community (what message you got, what does it mean, etc.) As for the messages, they should probably be short (say up to 128 characters) and include a phrase plus the initials of the supporter (as some phrases may repeat). So where does all the monkey business come in? It just gives one possible description of the artifact. “This stone, after being slightly brushed, slightly warms up and then faintly glows with an inscription that seems to change every time. It is said that it gives an extra-planar connection to the wisdom of the gods. It is also said that it gives an extra-planar connection to hordes of monkeys that bang their fingers in strange clicking apparatus. Which of the two is correct seems very difficult to judge.” What do you guys think? Do you like these? Do they seem technically feasible?