anek
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Posts posted by anek
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Note that the animated environments from Torment were created at the same time as the Eternity one, using the same engine, with the same people working together. InXile are cooperating with Obsidian, they didn't have to do any of the pre-production, they're simply leveraging the work that Obsidian has already done.(Note that unlike Obsidian's waterfall screenshot, these were not created through months of pre-production, they were created more or less spontaneously in only a few days near the end of the kickstarter campaign. So keep that in mind when comparing the quality.)
Because of this, both games are going to have pretty much exactly the same graphical quality (it's down to the artists of either team when creating the areas, since they are using the same tools).
I don't think they're cooperating that closely. At least not yet.
If I remember correctly, Brian Fargo said at the end of the kickstarter that his artists/interns experimented on their own over the weekend to find a way to produce those animated scenes in Unity.
Also, I think they said that they were produced without assistance from programmers, and that once programmers will come in (during pre-production) and improve the dynamic lighting it will be more realistic.
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shadows don't move with "sun" during daylight-changes
I don't like this either.
Well in the actual game you won't see the day/night cycle fast-forward like that, so it will be much less noticeable what changes and what doesn't.
While having the shadows change would be nice attention to detail, it's not really necessary.
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There are still some animations they could implement even with static art, such as slow motion panning and zooming.
The BG2 intro combined 2D drawings with some blending/panning animation quite effectively:
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How I organized and moved my characters [...] very much captured the feeling of the Infinity Engine games
I hope that with regards to moving the party through confined spaces, it didn't capture the IE feeling too closely...
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They are already 83% there (2.89 mil / 3.5 mil)...
Well, inXile claims that this will not interfere with Avellone's work on Project Eternity.
Let's hold them accountable to that!
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Since you guys are wrapping up the prototype phase, I wonder who your tech folks are? The reason I ask is initially you all mentioned trying to create the game at a specific resolution larger than 1080p would take up a lot of space, many blu ray drives worth, I believe you stated. Well as of the end of Jan, there was a breakthrough in technology that now allows you to stream data up to 8k resolution over the internet and is roughly 60% less bandwidth as the current industry standard of H.264. It's called HEVC or H.265 and will be the new standard allowing you to push the envelop much more than previously anticipated. Developers are already designing for it, and it should be 100% functional before this game ships. I leave this article for your staff to consider. Smart phones will be able to start using it this month. http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/news/ntt-docomo-hevc-4ktv-201302262701.htm
What does a new video streaming codec have to do with Project Eternity's data size?
PE's data will consist of pre-rendered background images, 3D models and textures for characters, etc. All of that will presumably be compressed using appropriate image/texture/data compression technology.
Video streaming is something else entirely.
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George Ziets has also been successfully added to the Torment: ToN via the most recently reached stretch goal....how will that affect Project Eternity. You guys are about to start production as inXile will soon start pre-production.....will George just up and quit Project Eternity when production starts? My understanding is that the heavy writing happens in pre-production...but still, you are looking at potentially have a writer just up and leave when you may still need him.
George answers this concern on Formspring: http://www.formspring.me/GZiets/q/434424012253185870
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While the Concept art of the underground area isn't my favourite art style - a bit colorful and cartoonish looking ...
Doesn't the fact that it's concept art imply that it does not show the final style?
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se·quel [see-kwuh l]
noun1. a literary work, movie, etc., that is complete in itself but continues the narrative of a preceding work.
se·quel
1: consequence, result
2a : subsequent development
b : the next installment (as of a speech or story); especially : a literary, cinematic, or televised work continuing the course of a story begun in a preceding one
Yet we know the setting won't be the same (that part I don't fault them), the story certainly won't be the same, none of the characters would be there. Absolutely no link besides the word Torment! Even DA:O's marketing wasn't that bad.
This is not a damn sequel.
Did Fargo or his team claim that it is, somewhere?
In the interview linked by the OP, only the intro text added by the magazine calls the game a sequel, not Fargo himself.
On the game's official website, the About page introduces it as:
"Torment: Tides of Numenera™ continues the thematic legacy of the critically acclaimed Planescape: Torment™."
This is not fundamentally different from how Project Eternity is introduced on its own website:
"Miss classic cRPGs like Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, and Planescape: Torment? So do we! Introducing Obsidian's PROJECT ETERNITY."
Both play on the nostalgia of existing fan bases. So what?
The main difference is that for Torment they're actually adopting a part of the original name, but I don't see why that's such a big deal. It's not called "Planescape: Torment II", it's called "Torment: Tides of Numenera". This, I think, makes it pretty clear that there are strong thematic ties to PST, but it is not a sequel but rather a separate game in a different setting.
Here's the thing, Obsidian:
What's this got to do with Obsidian?
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It sounds fun as described and I'm definitely interested but it seems like they're just springboarding off the built-in fanbase for PST in order to sell a completely different and original game.
Well, if they actually manage to make a game that feels a lot like PST and appeals to the same fanbase, that's not a bad thing right?
I think it's too early to pass judgment on this game, either way.
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The inherent problem with static background is the blocking of player characters, items, bodies by certain objects (most noticeably buildings) that could occur dynamically (eg. a scripted NPC may approach the party and it happens that the party is traversing half way that was blocked by a building. This can only be rectified by making part of the building transparent or even removing it.
Have of ever played one of the Infinity Engine games?
Blocking wasn't a problem there.
First of all it didn't occur all that often, as the maps were intelligently designed for the static isometric usecase from the ground up.
And when characters did get (partially) obscured behind objects, the blocked parts would shine through using semi-transparency / dithering / silhouette-highlighting.
You'd get used to it pretty quickly. I, for one, didn't feel like it reduced the fun of playing those games in any way.
What *would* have killed the fun, though, would be having to rotate the camera all the time to play the game. This happens in all games that support camera rotation - the engine and map designers take this feature into account and stop worrying about blocking - so for the users, constantly managing the camera becomes a mandatory chore. It takes attention away from the actual combat and world exploration, messes with your sense of direction, etc.
All this just because it's more "modern"? No thanks.
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Hello All,
I got a related question on the topic of Melee Characters, even it not exactly related to the Melee Engagement Mechanic.
In most, if not all, CRPGs you end up with a strange power divide between the Melee Classes and the Mage Classes where the power starts in favour of the Melee Classes and then gradually shifts to the Mage Classes. Some of this might have to do with the fact that a lot of CRPGs are influenced by the DnD and other d20 games. Another part might simply be that most CRPGs try to keep it somewhat realistic and that in turn makes it easier to come up with jaw-dropping spells that would be cool to have but to compensate the mages need to be "hard to master" -- or simply hard pressed to survive long enough to learn the spells.
I was wondering what's Obsidian's oppinion on this for Project Eternity.
Are we going to see the classic power evolution where a mage starts out as relativly weak and then becomes powerfull were as the fighter goes the other way around?
Or are we going to see some mechanics put in place so that both classes evolve throughout the game without much, if any, power gap between them?
Sorry if this has been asked before -- but it hasn't been adressed in the QnA's and at least not in this thread so I figured I should go ahead and post it.
Thanks for the updates, always fun to check out how the game is progressing!
-TSD
Sawyer answered here: http://www.formspring.me/JESawyer/q/432792143375920971
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I'm surprised you're actually using 4E as an example of something you want to emulate in PE. I would have hoped you'd say "don't worry, 4E is a rules heavy, turn based game which many people consider very slow, and we don't want our engagement mechanic to produce that kind of game".
Don't forget that PE will be a computer game, not pen & paper.
Things that might have been too "rules heavy" and "slow" for P&P, might very well work great when the computer takes care of evaluating all the rules for a particular action in a fraction of a second.
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Would the on-screen indicator for the radius of the engagement area be... the Engagement Ring?
I really hope they won't include any artificial convenience indicators for area effects - neither in this case, nor in the case of AoE spell placement etc.
This is an RPG, not an RTS game or a CAD program.
For example, in the IE games I always found it a lot of fun to try to place Fireballs in such a way that they would hit all visible melee enemies at once, but not hit my own front-line melee fighters. It wouldn't always work out, so there was a risk involved - but when it did work as intended, it felt really satisfying. A circle indicating the exact area that would be affected on release of the spell, would have negated much of the risk and fun and immersion (and sense of achievement for becoming better over time at placing the spells).
I think the same would be true if a circle would show where exactly your characters can move without being engaged or disengaged.
Combat isn't something sterile and precise comparable to placing objects in a CAD program, it is messy and bloody and often unpredictable.
An RPG should reflect that.
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I'm still likely to play an Aumaua for my first character because the Orc-o-philie in me compels me to play whatever is the closest race available to Orc, but I'm really tempted by the Godlike. Damn you Obsidian Entertainment for making all these races look and sound so awesome!
/shakes fist at Obsidian
You know you can have up to six party members, right?
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The next time Obsidian does a kickstarter, I know what one of the stretch goals is going to be:
$ 10,000,000
Chris Avellone will dress up as an elf, pointy ears and silly costume and all, and sing one of those high-pitched elvish songs from the LotR soundtrack.
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Just FYI, that is a good level of zoom/character model size ( I don't mean the size of the viewable square). That + 1920x1080 (or what have you) worth of background would look sweet
I wonder why the blue circle is so big though, it feels weird to me.
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Best update yet.
I vote for more Adam Brennecke updates.
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Historically, there was also an element of social and legal conformity associated with worship of the gods. Even to the point of being put to death for the crime of blasphemy or apostasy.
In some countries of the world, unfortunately not so historically.
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Above a certain (fairly low) level, potions were not going to get your front-line characters back up to peak condition unless you were dumping gallons of potions down their throats.
In BG2, there were so many rings and ioun stones etc. which gave slow but continuous health regeneration, that beyond a certain point in the game I never had to rest due to low health, only due to running out of memorized spells (and to get rid of that annoying "fatigue" icon on the character's portraits...
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BTW, I don't know much about internet board software but, if there is someone capable of this, could you implement developer post search function
You can get a search page for the most recent posts by a specific developer (or any other forum user) like this:
- Click the developer's name above one of his posts, to get to his profile page
- Click "Find Content" near the top-right
- Click "Only posts" near the bottom-left
Then you can bookmark that page, or "App Tab" it, or whatever.
Here are a few examples:
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[searchInKey]=&userMode=content"]Adam Brennecke (executive producer and programmer)
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[searchInKey]=&userMode=content"]J.E. Sawyer (project lead and game designer)
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[searchInKey]=&userMode=content"]Rob Nesler (art director)
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[searchInKey]=&userMode=content"]Steve Weatherly (programmer)
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[searchInKey]=&userMode=content"]Bobby Null (programmer)
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[searchInKey]=&userMode=content"]Justin Bell (composer)
Their profiles show that all of them are either in the the "Developers" or "Developers+" forum user groups, but I haven't found a way to list all groups members or search for posts from all group members in one go.
- Click the developer's name above one of his posts, to get to his profile page
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The model in the scene is the same model in the image above (with different textures and a different weapon, obviously). We want the level of detail in the game models to be high enough that we can use the same model for the inventory screen "paper dolls" with a slightly magnified view.
With character models this detailed, faces will be clearly discernible (unlike, say, in the Infinity Engine games).
What will this mean for the protagonist? Since, according to earlier kickstarter updates, the player is supposed to be able to freely conceive pretty much everything about the protagonist they want to play as, from personal background to career to age to alignment/beliefs, this should be reflected in his or her appearance, and especially the face.
In the Infinity Engine games this was easy - character models were so small and pixelated that not much could be discerned anyways, so a character's look was pretty much defined by their portrait - which was just a 2D image that players could easily customize.
How will Project Eternity solve this?
Will the character creation screen give users so many customization options for the protagonist's 3D character model, that one could, say, create a 50 year old fighter with a rough and scarred face and steely glance? Or a 19 year old mage with a soft, tri-angular face, narrow eyes, and an appeal of playfulness and irresponsibility?
Or will we simply get a few fixed 3D models to choose from?
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Even without an explicit queuing system, one way to improve interaction would be to at least optimize the order in which the steps of a single command are executed.
If I remember correctly, in the Infinity Engine games, if you selected a party member who was currently in hide-in-shadows mode, and click an enemy, what happened as a result of that click was:
- the party member becomes visible
- the party member walks towards the enemy
- the party member attacks the enemy
I would have found it much more convenient if the order of 1 and 2 had been reversed.
- the party member becomes visible
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AFAIK, this particular effect is impossible to achieve in PE because we'll have a free roaming camera
It wouldn't be impossible to achieve, but it would be annoying to use.
).
Update #49
in Pillars of Eternity: Characters Builds, Strategies & the Unity Engine (Spoiler Warning!)
Posted
Then couldn't they also use that to adjust the character's position while walking over uneven terrain?
Right now, the character crossing the stream looks like he's walking on an invisible, flat bridge.