agewisdom

Hi Umberlin, another Laura Quest adventure game lover, I see. I don't think any first time player, save for the most astute or Sherlock Holmes type can solve the game on the first try. From my own experience, I was just fooling around and exploring everything and asking a lot of questions. I didn't really try to jot down notes on my observations nor did I try to correlate things like the clues, who was where at what time. Like you, I was really shocked at the end when I was asked a series of questions to determine who was the culprit. Phew... I was That just made me want to go back and replay the whole game again... If PE implements a mini-quest, there should be an option to fail the quest. Perhaps something nasty might happen or the Orlan Cipher Detective may decide to blow you off when you ask him to join you... It would be nice to have some detective side-quests from time to time...

I like the way you think! That's more or less how I would like to be introduced to the Orlan Cipher detective... "It's elementary my dear Watson..."

I am pretty sure Obsidian has something along those planned. They're very good at stories and making sure they jive with the world and lore. The Cipher class combined with a detective profession sounds extremely intriguing. I just want to make sure that the cipher's abilities are used to their full potential i.e. in non-combat situations such as investigations. This makes things more interesting. Otherwise, the Cipher class will just seem like a wizard sub-class.

Exactly, it would break up the monotony of just fighting or going dungeon spelunking all of the time. Perhaps it could be in a very specific scenario such as a murder of a prominent NPC in a manor. The manor is under lock-down, and the PC and his Orlan companion has a limited time to solve the mystery and name the culprit. I think it would make for an interesting side quest. It could be also an excellent way to introduce the abilities of the Cipher class.

Hi Bro Pain, Ooohh... yah, I forgot all about the chase scene... only remember sliding out of that dinosaur's head and the taxing investigation scene... Phew! You really had to pay attention to the game and jot down all the clues to make the correct guess as to the real culprit.

I love this. I believe something along these lines were planned for the original Neverwinter Nights but somehow that fantastic idea got thrashed by the Publishers...

Yes, maybe you could be assisting the Orlan detective on a side quest. If you're successful in that side quest, he might join you immediately. Failure may result in another side-quest or paying him to join you on your quest. Something along those lines...

Hearing the Orlan Cipher companion which is a detective just gave me some chills. Hopefully, it means we will have some detective quests in PE. If we do have some detective quests, I was wondering whether any of you played the Laura Bow adventure games. The final sequence where you were required to piece together the clues in the investigation was very exciting. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dagger_of_Amon_Ra I am hoping that PE could have a scaled down version of these type of detective quests. I personally find these type of quests very fun and exciting.

YES! However, if we're going to have these type of quest, I hope Obsidian can implement something creative when challenging the PC to find loopholes in the contract. Whilst I love these type of quest, I don't like how easy it was to find the loophole in the contract. Since the options of poking loopholes in the contract was all there, all I had to do was click, click, click. One way to do this quest would be: *** 1. Have the contract laid out and have some options of which type of clauses you want included. All clauses should be numbered. 2. When you're challenging the infernal contract, make it a parser based... e.g. You wish to challenge the contract? Ok, TYPE IN the no. of the specific clause you which challenged... 3. What is the reason for challenging: (a) ... (b) ... 4. Objection noted. Any other clauses you would like to challenge. KEY IN the clause no... 5. What is the reason for challenging: *** Something like this would avoid giving away too many clues via a multiple answer where it's just click, click, click and discover the answer via trial and error. Hope I make sense...

Dragon Age 2's gameplay was AWFUL, and Dragon Age 2 would be painful to play no matter what narrative window dressing they draped over that massive turd. They didn't "focus on gameplay", they focused on making the game as close to Mass Effect but with Magic Because Mass Effect Made More Money. I fully agree with you that DA2 gameplay was awful but over at the BSN forum, you'd see a lot of people having the opposite opinion. In fact, they feel that it was much better gameplay than the boring gameplay of DA:O.

I disagree. Obsidian sets itself apart with its systems and how those systems are interwoven into the narrative. Take KOTOR II. They didn't just take KOTOR and tack a new story on it. They: -Added an Influence system, which tied into the narrative in a lot of ways -Made many companions play differently(Kreia's Jedi buff bond with the PC, Hanharr's rage mechanic, T3's moving meditation) -Added Lightsaber and Force Forms -Made the PC a Jedi from the start -Added Prestige classes -Added a far greater range of skill checks -Gave incentives to play differently(melee sparring with Handmaiden/Mandalorians, increase weakest skill) -Greatly enhanced the usefulness of skills -Removed the level cap -Added a penalty for forcing a lock -Included an easy switch between two sets of weapons(ranged/melee) -Added an indicator when a storage container was empty -Improved the balance of Pazaak And probably several others I'm forgetting. Obsidian doesn't make a game and go "Mechanics? Systems? PFFFT. Those just exist to serve my GLORIOUS STORY!" I'm not saying Obsidian should ignore gameplay altogether. All I'm saying in response to the OP is that I would prefer a well crafted gripping story as a priority first. Great gameplay is equally good... but I'm hoping for a good story that can help immerse me into the world and its' lore, first. I don't want a situation like Dragon Age 2 where the plot was basically a disappointment and the focus was on putting flashy combos' and pressing the "awesome" button with huge swords and flashy battles.

I think Living Worlds should be implemented even in the outside environment. Gothic 1 and 2 were especially good at these. You could see different creatures being very territorial. Sometimes, they would fight each other. At other times, luring creatures like wolves into a village would result in the NPCs fighting off these creatures. Like norolim above, I don't see why we should equate a living world = sandbox games ala Skyrim.

I think a gripping story is definitely more important than gameplay, anytime. If we want fantastic gameplay, it would be better to look for games like Dark Souls, Demon Souls, Diablo or Torchlight series. It's the story that sets apart Obsidian games from other types of RPGs. They should definitely get the story right first.

It would be nice to have Armand as an in-game NPC chanter plying his trade as a bard. For those that played Divinity 2: DKS, there was an NPC in your stronghold who would play some songs for you whenever you wanted to chillax. I think Armand would fit the same role quite nicely. Whenever we're busy crafting or sorting out inventory, having a bard play a nice selection of songs would be quite soothing, methinks.

Eight companions would be more than enough. However, I really hope that there is some proper banter between the companions as well as allowing the PC to interject in some of these conversations. I don't really remember how BG handled this.... What I do remember is that the banter between the different companions in Dragon Age: Origins was quite well done and made it interesting. Taking different companions always resulted in interesting conversations between them. Unfortunately, there was no way to get the PC involved in the banter, which was a minus. Having these companion banters in PE would keep things fresh even if you were using one or two companions from an earlier play-through.

The greatest fault that I can find with Obsidian is that they didn't invest enough into the Kickstarter project upfront. Before I get flamed, let me just explain my views first. It was clear that even though Obsidian generally had a good idea of the type of game they wanted to make, they didn't really put this all into paper and trash it out upfront. In short, they didn't crystallize this into an actual demo or at the bare minimum, have 5-10 detailed screenshots. Basically, the PE Kickstarter was a resounding success mainly because of the faith and goodwill generated over their previous games. I mean, look at the initial Kickstarter video. Apart from a few concept character pictures, there was basically no other information available. If Obsidian had allocated more people to the project or spent an additional month on PE before launching the Kickstarter, I think the updates could have come more speedily and heighten the hype. What I feel was Obsidian trying to scramble to keep with the updates once the funding was met on Day 1. If it was managed better, I don't think 5mil would be impossible. Having said that, I'm really glad the PE Kickstarter was still a resounding success.

I thought Baldur's Gate 2 had the most fantastic ending. You had a great epilogue with detailed description of what happened to all your companions. If PE can use that and add-on with the Fallout New Vegas type of ending showing what happened to all the communities around you due to your actions, that would be PERFECT!

The disaster will happen if one of the flagships (say top10) Kickstarter fails. What would be the recourse for the donors? Does Kickstarter have any safeguards for this? A lot of donation in Kickstarter is based on faith and trust. Once this is violated, yeah... things might turn ugly real fast

You're right. This project will be the flagship product for the type of RPGs that we all love. Not only is Obsidian staking their entire hard-earned reputation on this, but it's the final life line for deeper in-depth non-streamlined RPGs in general. If it's not a reasonable success, then it is probably the death-knell for the old-school RPGs. I really hope Obsidian makes PE a resounding success so that we can see a revival of these RPGs... The only other high-profile project along these lines is the new upcoming Divinity: Original Sin by Larian studios.

I think both PE and Wasteland 2 will be very interesting once it's available for sales. Given the pent-up demand, the amount of sales achieved should give a pretty objective indicator as to the size of the market available for old school style of cRPGs. Given that DAO sold about 400k units (http://www.vgchartz.com/game/33504/dragon-age-origins/), I guess it's possible that PE might have sales of around 300k?

What's all this about green shirt girl? Did I miss something interesting? I didn't watch the closing party stream, so does this have something to do with it?

No news yet?

Lucky no. 13... that's what I'm hoping for....

Guess it'll be in the final update.

Since this will be the one of the flagship product of the 'new' old school cRPGs, I'd prefer it to be as bug-free as possible. A great game with minimal bugs can only help to boost sales. It might even mark a revival of these type of games that we've all been clamoring for.