beerflavour

Didn't have much time to play the beta, but the "rollout" and stuff seems pretty straightforward and smooth. When the downloads are finished then it's: "Onward to adventure!"

All infinity engine games have their own strengths and weaknesses. You have to remember that back then there wasn't that much choice regarding RPGs where you controlled a whole party. SSI has stopped making RPGs a few years earlier. Their last meaningful tries were the Ravenloft/menzoberranzan games (Eye of the Beholder style), Dark Sun games (round based tactical combat) and the World of Aden games. Dunno. But at the time Baldur's Gate was released I've been literally starved for a D&D game. The aspects I liked (and still like) most are: 1) low level cap 2) adventuring is more dangerous due to low levels 3) wilderness areas 4) the big city with all its sights and sounds But still not everything was as rosy. Sometimes you had to find an NPC in a house and it was hard to identify the houses in Baldur's Gate. Finding a decent shop in that town was difficult at first.

Concerning the pathfinding doors are a challenge. Will NPCs / Opponents be able to open/close doors? But this is not only a challenge to the pathfinding. There are a few strange situations that happened in existing games (Advantageous to the player) Opening a door to just enter a room with hostile opponents --> combat encounter. Retreat from that same room and closing the door --> opponents remain hostile, but don't follow beyond the door --> combat pause to regroup and heal up. (Detrimental to the player) Opening a door to enter a room / hallway with hostile opponents --> combat encounter. Retreat from that same room and closing the door --> opponents remain hostile, but use an alternate path to reach the party and additionally arousing all other opponents which are encountered on the way --> players are surprised at the following stampede of opponents. There are surely more repercussions and side effects to such a little feature.

MMORPGs are in general inferior to CRPGs. The storytelling and how your actions affect the game world are tackled differently. Just take SWTOR for example. The story is great. But reality is harsh. You'll soon find yourself spacebarring through dialogues. The difficulty level varies a lot. In a game like PE you control a whole party and the devs can balance the difficulty along this line. In an MMO you'll have to comtemplate solo, small group and raid groups. Let's be honest. Most solo content lacks anything remotely challenging. I could go on an on. What matters most in an MMO is the gameplay. Customizing your build. Customizing your gear. The question is: Will the game mechanics of PE be fit for adaptation or will a great overhaul be required. Besides there is currently so much competition on the MMO market. Do we really need yet another f2p? With this in mind it's safer to not make it an MMO.

Dunno, but NWN2 had some annoying features. The party member's (if set to autpilot) were rather stupid. If some party members died just pull the opponents to another room. Your unconscious party members would then stand up again. Teleporting of your main character if a dialog started. And some other little details (e.g. no hitpoint rolling) were missing.

Contemporary English would be most appropriate. Most players would understand it. Let's face it, I am reading Shakespeare plays from time to time. Without an appendix/explanations/dictionary you don't get all the meanings of words. Some words had a different meaning then. You don't get certain jokes (references to other classical works). Certain catch phrases from that time are not common knowledge nowadays. Medieval English and earlier "versions" would be only understandable if you had a degree in literature/culture/mythology of that time. Trying to mix contemporary English with certain old words simply feels like a superfluous exercise. You can see the same effect in arts. A painter imagining a scene from a past event. Since the painter doesn't have the knowledge of the fashion during those periods he ends up painting something he completely made up with influences of his/her own time (e.g. a painting of alexander the great --> This just ends up like http://www.wga.hu/art/c/crayer/alexande.jpg). It simply feels odd. If I'm not mistaken they utilized some modified English Coc.kney dialect in Planescape Torment. Dialects could be used to distinguish NPCs. As long as non-native speakers can understand it, it should be OK.

Why do you need equipment slots at all? Except for weapons equipment won't get changed that much. Configuration slots for readied weapons (main hand + off hand) are useful of course (and to allow quick weapon switches). Do you really need to break down armour into 5 or more seperate slots? Wouldn't just armour/helmet/boots suffice for example? Besides if a 20 year old CRPG can do without item slots why can't today's games? Drag the equipment to the appropriate position on the paper doll et voila. And to remove the item? Just drag it from the paper doll into the inventory. With today's standardized GUI programming techniques you can have context menus consider where the mouse pointer is positioned and show different menu options (including a more detailed item description). All without hassle.

If you take a closer look at D&D then you'll notice that the authors of the various rule books and campaign settings have been inspired by myths from all over the world. A few examples: Rakshasa (india, south east asia) Mummy (ancient egypt and other cultures known to use mummification practices) Minotaur (ancient greece, minoic culture) Ifrit (islamic, arabia) Gargoyle (medieval europe, gothic architecture) If you dig deep enough you'll even find references to the pre-conquest americas (north america/mesoamerica/south america), ancient persia, africa, east asia, etc. If it fits the campaign setting or can be integrated with a plausible explanation/lore background then there is no obstacle in taking inspiration from various real world myths.

My general approach to CRPGs is that players should have at least more than one way of facing an encounter. The most boring thing (at least for me) is if the player has only one option: namely fight what he/she encounters. An "unbeatable encounter" in the sense that the player cannot beat it by combat means isn't that much of an issue. A player should expect several warnings of the imminent danger (e.g. by speaking with NPCs, by seeing the remains of some intrepid adventurers, etc.). Even if the player ignores such signs of warning there should be a chance to retreat. If there should be some "unbeatable encounters" then some alternative way (e.g. stealth, cunning, diplomacy, etc.) could be an option. Maybe the party or some NPCs are supposed to be a decoy while some other goal is fulfilled (e.g. steal the monster's hoard, steal some important quest item, the invincible opponent is only a guardian for another opponent, buy some time for allied NPCs to flee, lure the invincible opponent along a certain path where it will cause havoc and chaos which will benefit the party on some other quest, etc.). There should be a reason (lorewise) for such an opponent to exist in the game. If you look at older CRPGs (e.g. BG & BG2) then you'll notice that some important NPCs were made invincible to avoid people killing them and be unable to continue with the story. One way or another you'll have invincible NPCs. The main reason why I like such an idea is to remind players that they cannot wander around the game world and kill everything for the loot.

If Obsidian got the time and resources they could add this terrible rodent from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail". You know that dangerous but fluffy white rabbit. *just kidding*

I'm curious about which resolutions will be supported (e.g. I have some widescreen notebook with some weird resolution, 1,366 x 768). Regarding the UI, will it be similar to the early infinity engine games (BG, BG2, IWD) or rather like (IWD2)? Or similar to MMORPGs where you have one or more action action bars with a certain number of slots and each slot can be associated with any specific action (e.g. switch weapon, attack, use consumable, use skill/spell, etc.). The action bars being be freely adjustable/movable along the screen. With the latter option the displayed bars and actions should probably be tied to the selected party member.

Before I start with the actual post let me express my thanks to Obsidian for waging such a project. As I understand it the actual work hasn't yet started (correct me if I'm wrong). They are still busy doing the conception while the Kickstarter funding phase hasn't even ended yet. I'm aware that Kickstarter isn't a traditional investment vehicle, where the investors get to have more influence and where the investors expect more than a "physical reward" (or digital reward). My question is regarding to how Obsidian intends to keep donors informed about the project's progress. They are probably keeping us informed through their forum/web sites and Kickstarter notifications. But that isn't what I'm getting at. The medium by which we, the donors, are going to be informed is clear. The question is more about the how, the degree of details. Will it be like it's been done in the Gaming Industry? Through Interviews, forum posts, trailers? What I'd expect, at some point after the funding phase has ended, is to see some elaborate description of Obsidian's idea of the game and the conception (campaign setting, game mechanics, etc.). It would be great if that information were not scattered over dozens (or even hundreds?) of forum posts/announcements. Since it is work in progress I expect some Informations to be released later (like UI design, etc.). You can't expect that all features and ideas stand the test of time and that they may be changed or even scrapped later. Another aspect is the timetable. I remember reading somewhere that the project might be finished at some time during 2014. The question will be, are donors going to be informed about certain risks during the realization of Project Eternity? I'm especially eager to see the Linux version of the game. On the other hand there might be some obstacles during implementation (as in every software project when it comes to implementation details). In which way do the stretch goals affect the timetable? I'm not opposed to changes of the timetable if there is a reasonable explanation. But then I can only speak for myself. Since we're no traditional investors and this Kickstarter thing is quite new for me I wonder how all this will affect the developer/producer and customer/donor relation. Especially what can you reasonably expect?

Dynamic events would be interesting as long as they don't implement the quest resetting mechanic from MMOs as well.

The kickstarter hasn't yet finished. Let's best wait until that is over and Obsidian provides some more details about the conception and stuff.

I can live with and without a combat log. To be honest some feed back is appreciated (e.g. D&D/BG and weapon immunities), so you can adjust your tactics on the fly (e.g. switch weapons or retreat & reform). This kind of feedback can be in human readable form (like in the infinity engine games). Anyway when you play a game you'll get a feeling for the game mechanics (e.g. you can approximately guess opponents HP after a few encounters of the same kind and by that time you can easily decide on target priorities). Most of the time I don't look at the combat log. Sure, in the beginning it's helpful but then you learn the ropes. And to be sincere I doubt that the game mechanics are going to change as frequently as in MMORPGs. Despite that a customizable combat log would be OK. So I can reduce the verbosity and others might increase verbosity.

What I didn't like in most modern CRPGs (especially MMOs) where those Fed-Ex style quests. Collect X amount of Y and deliver it to Z. Or kill X of Y and report to Z. My all time favourite is faction favour where you repeat certain activities to increase your faction score........ Besides if there should be some highlighting mechanic for quest givers (e.g. floating exclamation mark or similar) then it would be really nice if you could turn it off in the options panel.

I liked the Dark Sun games way way back during the early 90s and some other of the later SSI games (the Dreamforge ones).

I pledged to Project Eternity (enough for the equivalent of a CE box). Despite that I'm not opposed to seeing Boxed Versions (this includes simple DVD case versions as well) offered after release. Provided it's not too costly to go that distribution path and if Obsidian is willing to offer that option to potential future customers.

I only remember a 20 year old game where they had barter trade and no money, But then it was a strategy game set in a post-apocalyptic world. My choice is "both", since you can't exclude barter trade if you travel an "uncivilised" region. But then currencies don't always come as metal coins or coloured paper. Cigarettes, shells, stone discs, etc. come to mind.

I'm not much a fan of achievements. But this one is really funny. I wouldn't mind it as some kind of easter egg ("the nekkid runner in circles"). ,)

I remember some older CRPG (Ravenloft) having a gypsy laying out cards on a table. This method of character generation was simply fitting the theme of the game. The Infinity Engine character generation was OK too. You were led step by step through the creation screen and determined your character.

I'm a bit torn on this issue. My personal preferences come down to something D&Dish (vancian). If the rules end up being too similar to D&D then some legal issues might arise. On the other hand I don't know exactly what the devs have in mind and how their system will turn out. I guess I'll give Obsidian the benefit of the doubt.

My first thought was that too much realism might not be suited for a game. Then I was reminded of some older CRPGs. "Dungeon Hack" had you exploring some random dungeon and you had to take care to not run out of food. Of course you did find food within the dungeon, but resting too often or wasting too much time had you run the risk of starving (-> loosing health and dying). Additionally the food took up valuable inventory space. So the player was forced to make a decision on what to carry along and what not. That's similar to "Eye of the Beholder", "Ultima Underworld", "Questron 2", etc. . "Ravenloft the Stone Prophet" had the player explore a desert area resembling ancient egypt. Here it was important to not run out of water supplies (which matched the theme of the campaign setting). If you ran out of water the characters in the party gradually lost hit points until they died. Of course there were wells and priests could summon water. If players were forced to take along food & water it might lead to constantly making decisions which affect the game. Should I take the loot or better leave the loot and take the food? Combined with the need to carry ammunition for ranged weapons and the need to carry some more basic equipment (e.g. 2-3 weapons per character and ordinary clothes and one set of armor per character) this would limit the freely available inventory slots. Quest items might reduce this even further. Like other people already mentioned the older Infinity engine games had a mechanism where characters would get exhausted if they went longer than a day without rest. Exhausted characters were pslightly enalized until they had rested. The first aspect introduces an element of planning. You have to plan ahead and buy enough rations for your party. You have to make trade offs. What will you need in the future? What can you leave behind? The second aspect makes you think about how to travel and explore. If you go too far without resting then you need to rest. But if you are in a dangerous area you might need to travel back to a safe haven. You might be ambushed on the way back, though. There are some interesting points about this (especially the need to plan ahead). The question is whether todays players could accept this.

The city sites in those old games were really interesting. I just wish there would have been more signs so you do not accidentally stumble into private homes.

First I hope Obsidian to keep sane levels in regard to itemization. Something more in tune with BG/NWN/IWD/PST. MMOs have really gone whacko on this issue. Concerning armour & looks I rather prefer it the realistic way where you have to chose. Prefer the ordinary clothes? OK, but these won't protect you like some real armor if there should be a fight. What I would tolerate would be having a tabard that will partly cover the armor. Maybe you want to carry a cloak or robe over all this? Changing colors of cloth garments (including tabards, cloaks and robes) and shields would be OK as well. What I didn't like with BG/IWD was that the paper doll's look was tied to the class.