Theobeau

There was another thread on this topic a while back but no official news since then. I'm sure there are many of us out there who are interested to see what version of party spokesman they take; the PC only; inter-changeable (which would mean more dialogue options and game build time) or some mixture where NPCs play a role such as interjection, adding or remove conversation options or have their non-combat skills add (or subtract) from conversation skill checks. The latter two options would make a change from the tendency of newer cRPGs to have the PC the party spokesman. The PC also seems always to have a gender non-specific surname or a title/rank that is the only name he/she is referred to the entire game!

@Starwars So not so much dislike but that he never got around to playing it? Strange then it was put in as one of the final stretch goals though by then the OBS team had probably been hitting the sauce rather hard! Thanks for the additional comment; it probably isn't worth the forum's time spending any more energy on this question as we can probably put it to MCA during his live stream via twitter account and all.

I liked many of the early BW games, especially the BG series. ToB was a great ending to the Child of Bhaal story and still stands out in my mind all these years later. However, regarding sentiment towards BW, you have to look at their wider catalogue. Of the ME series, the first two games had great strengths of the last one the less said of that terrible ending the better. A similar sentiment applies to DA0 and DA2. Perhaps it is the experience of these latter games that (arguably very rightfully) leads to an opinion of Bioware that its performance has been less than stellar. They made great games in the past but their latter stuff hasn't reached the same standards of excellence that they originally set for themselves.

Thanks CheeseGraterSuicide for the update about MCA's mysterious dislike of Arcanum! Chris did an interview with Gamestar.ru where he said this: "Lack of balance is the great destroyer, and while it's been in a number of recent titles, it's not a recent development. Lack of combat balance and any need for tactics - so much so that the combats are so easy that you don't have to do much to win or vary your combat style - is pretty crippling. One RPG in the past I've never played because I'm aware there's one low-level spell that makes the critical choice with your character progression in the game meaningless because that spell is overpowered." After I read that, I wondered if he meant Arcanum (magic in the game is generally considered overpowered). But who knows? Anyway, I hope he does stream it, and I also hope he at least tries out playing a low intelligence character. I tried playing as a simple-minded half-orc once, and the dialogue is hilarious. People actually treat you like an idiot and take advantage of you, and your character doesn't know any better. Best dumb dialogue ever.

Thank you Obsidian for keeping us all update about the progress of Project Eternity. I was a little surprised and more than delighted that official news came through so quickly after the end of a spectacular Kickstarter campaign. Surely most of you still hanging from trees, called partners for bail money from police lock ups and sheepishly explaining to love ones how all ones clothes got trashed and replaced by a pink fairy outfit!

Thank you to Obsidian for taking the plunge into the unknown of crowd based fund-raising, Thank you as well for designing a game that will be spiritual successor to the BG/IWD series and my favourite game Planescape Torment. As importantly, thank you to the fan base for continuing to power on ahead, right to the death of the campaign. As an early backer, I watched in amazement as the pledge total kept on ticking up and up like a reverse New Years countdown ball right up to just below $4M! Well done everyone! Aside: The outpouring of support towards OBS, marked by the amazing total really shows the gaming industry that there is an big appetite for cRPGs designed solely for computers that well designed and character and narrative focused. Hopefully unamed gaming companies (who were themselves the former leaders of this genre) will sit up and take notice before they their IP get overwhelmed by the tentacles of corporate overloads who demand in their games support across all console platforms, Day 1 DLC, compulsory multi-player options and a game story line aimed for adolescent boys. Here's hoping they were paying attention.

MCA vs. Arcanum still a bit of a mystery? Once they put up the you tube footage (fingers crossed for that), he'll talk about about his perceptions of Arcanum and answer the question as to why it took $4M to convince him to play the game !

C2b; You are welcome! Aside: OBS campaign was masterful; frequent updates, engagement with their backers, principals making themselves readily available to all forms of gaming and social media. Well done Obsidian! However, it OBS' campaign becomes a template for other KS projects (as it surely will do), let's hope other creators are at least half as as organised and competent as OBS rather than being used by people seeing KS as some sort of easy way of obtaining funding for vapour-like projects. That sounded sour-er than expected but maybe that's the hangover kicking in!

Someone else asked this question as well, is it established why MCA dislikes Arcanum and what are the reasons? I wonder whether they relate to the design of the game or to the proto steampunk setting; (way, way before it become popular) ?

While work and time zones prevent me from following the countdown closely, I can't believe that we may hit $4M from KS alone. Go Project Eternity! Also Kudos to Lornac for keeping this thread so active and updated.

For. However the suggestions listed in the previous pages of of a variant system that has the majority of XP given for goals/objectives; reduced but tiered to player and enemy level XP for defeating enemies and importantly XP gain for the use of non-combat skills sounds like a fair compromise.

Thanks Loranc!

A big yah to OBS and to the fan base for kicking past the Doublefine record! "Yah!"

As an aside, have the clever forum members who've been carefully tracking the pledge rates + PP amounts + projections (like the up to date OP of this thread) got an semi-accurate projection for the final pledge total for Kickstarter and KS + PP? I'd be interested to see how close to $4M it is.

Ships, I want C1500s European caravels, Levantine dhows and galleys and Imperial Chinese style mega-junks. Plus with wooden ships, you get honest to god pirates who say "aaarhh" and "matey"! Seriously, who wouldn't like travelling the shores of the world of Eternity in an old-fashioned three masted boat?

Did I just miss the campaign reaching $3.5M?! Holy s**t, the fan base is really pulling out all stops for the final push. Even though I pledged far more than I expected to and in doing so, have had to sacrifice some of the finer things in life for a month, those playing cards are looking mighty tempting. Another $10 isn't going to break the bank is it?!

@ Rahkir! Like yourself, I spent many hours in the company of IE games and when the opportunity came to help support the making of their spiritual successor, I jumped at the chance. Glad to see that you jumped in as well!

Are we really going to hit $3.5M and overtake Doublefine as the game that was Kickstarted the most?! This fan base is amazing!

Started with the $140 physical goods tier as nothing says an Infinity Engine game as discs, cardboard boxes, cloth maps and (here's hoping) a cardboard box. Held out for a long time to see if OBS would put in a physical goods tier ~$200 but the drive meet the George Ziets stretch goal pushed me to go for the $250 tier. - Loved MoTB as it was the game that redeemed what was otherwise the weak NWN2. Kick in non-US shipping ($20 for the 140 tier, upped by $10 for the $250 tier) and $8 for the excellent Obsidian Order, I'm looking at close to $US300 for a game that won't ship to 2014. I've put in that much for a piece of software before. While my rational side says WTF! sometimes you have to listen to the heart. That part still remembers with fondness all the enjoyment and fun playing BI's classic series of IE cRPGs, experiencing KoTR2 and MoTB and more recently (once final patches installed) the hours poured into the polished, in-depth, replay-able and immersive Fallout New Vegas.

The playing cards mentioned in today's update look pretty impressive. Still, I was a little surprised that the high end physical stuff tiers don't get the cards but still have to add on. I know if I had pledged $500, which is meant to be the tier which gets all the physical goodies, (which is much more loose change than I can afford) I'd be a little miffed. Still as a means of incentivising current pledgers to increase their amounts by means of new physical and digital goodies, has piqued my interest. Also means the physical almanac, mentioned in a recent thread stands some chance of getting distributed.

With the PP pledges over $3M with more than 2 days to go. It will be a very close run thing to see if we reach the $3.5M Big City target. Wonder what OBS will pull out to drive that final 48hrs?

Loranc's very detailed post summarises why many people here have confidence in Obsidian to deliver a fine, fine product quite well. Read the updates on the KS page, consider the Infinity Engine games; think about whether your interested in playing a game of that build and make a decision about whether you want to pledge to the KS game. While pledging to the Kickstarter campaign does that little bit to help meet the fund raising stretch goals, aside I think that the developers plan to keep the PayPal pledge option open past the closure of the KS campaign and it is likely that they will allow digital pre-orders (one of htel links from Update 22 I think). Enjoying getting up to speed with the fundraising campaign.

Great thread and it looks like the $3.5M is really doable....amazing! I'd like to help but tapped out pledging extra to achieve the Ziets stretch goal. Go everyone else!

A physical version could be quite popular and even if you have it as an extra for the $500 pledges, you'd expect that if priced at priced at a $20-30 range it would generate quite a addition sales in itself. If you consider that printing costs and retail price would be reduced with a soft cover version (though the book's aesthetic appeal would be sacrificed somewhat) it is probably do-able. As someone pledging below the $500 range, I'd certainly consider chosing it as an add-on. Here's hoping!