IndiraLightfoot

Shouldn't it be the other way round, though? Also, there is a topic on this already, sweetest mieu!

Oh, this is tough! I mean, I played the heck out of them Gold Box games, over and over, for thousands of hours. Mostly, though, because I loved rolling various parties in the D&D setting. Seven Dragon Saga is not D&D, and I'm not sure this type of game is relevant today. They speak of story, which certainly was part of it, but not very much, I'm afraid. I don't even recall those stories today (one exception - the first Dark Sun), not even the Dragonlance ones in those three CRPGs way back when. However, if I think back on Baldur's Gate, or even NWN1, I most certainly do. Heh, I even recall the tiny bits of story from old Might & Magic games. All I do remember is that it was fun and slightly mind-numbing to play with your own party for hours and hours on end. In some bizarre way, those games were like D3 today for me, but D&D-themed. Another thing: The turn-based fights shown, as well as those few races and abilities, those didn't exactly impress. I have played Fallen Enchantress:LH a lot, a 4X game, and I'm pretty sure I get better combat out of it, not to mention a huge variation and loot and exploration. It doesn't bode well for a game like this. Perhaps I'll back it just to support these great guys who made them classics, but I'm very wary about the game prospect we've been shown so far.

And info on which backers get it (from Update #48 - the doc was announced by Feargus in update #23): "How do I get it? If you already backed at the $20/$25 tier level (and Slacker Backers via PayPal thus far) and above you will be able to stream it. At the $35 tier level and above you will be able to download it, and at the $140 tier level (and physical tiers above) we will include a DVD / Blu-ray. You can still get access to the documentary stream if you donate to the project today via the Slacker Backer pledge at the Eternity website."

Aren't they using strictly percentages via code? So, I hope that Adam & Co generate random integers of 100 aplenty from here on in.

A huge kudos to Adam and Josh (and others) for thinking big in those desperate times! I mean, it's almost crazy if you think about it: "We're drowning here." *Ponder, ponder, ponder for weeks, then meeting* "How about making an IE-style CRPG, just as big and complex?" "But we don't have any licenses for that?" Josh: "No worries. I'll invent an RPG from scratch. It'll take a while, but I'll do it. Trust me." *Feargus thinks this over for at least fifteen seconds* "Of course you will, Josh. Go ahead, anything to be able to make those games we love again." Adam: "Told ya!" *to Josh*

Your anticipation level almost matches my own. Welcome, Robby!

Thrilling and very humbling stuff! Great. I'm glad that I get to watch this at my pledge tier. Thanks for making it so interesting and such a high-quality product from what I can tell so far.

Gfted1: You forgot all that sweet, sweet XP, for all baddies no less, along with fumbles and many other D&D staples. As for that tileset: It will surely be handy when you play multiplayer with others and stuff.

Adam's Twitter-comment doesn't bode well for the beta. Perhaps 435 was the last one, after all. No way things will come down now - Falkon is absolutely right.

Nice to hear that hearing crickets will come at a locust from now on!

Move that bus! Move that bus!! Move that bus!!!

A final dive into the beta would feel quite good right now. Here's hoping it'll drop soon.

Finally, I took the plunge as well, and those murky waters were darn deep, Deluxe-deep.

Yeah! Justin has outdone himself, it seems. Fantastic pieces of music.

Another thing confirmed on their fourms (by one of their UI artists, no less): All those EQUIP, DROP and other UI invo stuff are all placeholders, the same goes for some of the DM UI functions.

Well, the game looks and sounds excellent! Nice presentation as well. The only thing that stuck out to me as bad in any way was that robot army party movement, but I'm sure it will be fixed, since it shouldn't be very hard to do. Since I don't care about the stronghold, I have no input there really, list or no list.

Pieces of news from mmorpg.com: "In our demo, we were told that the adventure creator will be very accessible and easy to use, giving you the ability to create encounters in minutes. You can create adventures and put them out there for others to play, or DM in real-time, and there will be a rating system so that you can find a DM that matches your playstyle. There definitely seems to be a lot of potential here for your weekly gaming group that just doesn’t seem to be able to get it together to create a fresh new adventure experience every time, as well as an opportunity to find like-minded players on the internets. Furthermore, Sword Coast Legends will support full-fledged campaigns, which the devs will be discussing in the near future." "In our GDC 2015 preview, we first got to look at a small portion of the single-player campaign and a dungeon delve through the sewers beneath Luskan, which showed off the game’s rich use of Forgotten Realms lore and tactical combat. Like the single-player RPGs before it, Sword Coast Legends allows you to pause the action to micromanage your party as much as you’d like. The demo also showed off a very prettily realized aboveground Luskan, with classic landmarks that Forgotten Realms buffs will recognize, such as the Cutlass inn."

"What the fudge!? Inflated HP? Cooldowns? No Vancian magic? Spell tiers?"

Here you see the game lobby, there's even a DM slot! Nice character models.

And here's a cosy pic, with horses, NPC grooming one of them, and just a nice atmosphere:

New screenie from GDC: How about a wizard and with surprisingly high hps to beat (not that I care. I wouldn't miss out on this game for the world):

News tidbits: First, GDC-article, by Steve Burke: "What is Sword Coast Legends?Sword Coast Legends is a party-based role-playing game that uses the 5th Edition D&D ruleset, licensed by Wizards of the Coast, and takes place within the Forgotten Realms universe. Gamers may be indirectly familiar with Forgotten Realms via R. A. Salvatore, the prolific fantasy author who worked on Kingdoms of Amalur. As the name would indicate, our time as players will be spent along the very well-developed Sword Coast, the home to Amn, Baldur's Gate, and other well-known fantasy locations. The game, developed by n-Space, puts players in control of a party of four adventurers, focusing on story-driven gameplay and tactical combat. Combat can be thought of as vaguely similar to Bioware titles, namely in that it uses pausing and single action queuing for more strategic gameplay. Introducing the Dungeon MasterDM mode is unique. Sword Coast Legends' DM mode allows a Dungeon Master -- the role assumed by a tabletop RPG's organizer and overseer -- to build the player's experience by way of direct "hand of god" interaction with the world. For those unfamiliar with tabletop RPGs, we feel it's important to point-out that the DM (or GM) is not competing against the player; rather, it is the DM's job to fascilitate a fun, intriguing adventure by carefully building campaigns (stories) and encounters. In Sword Coast Legends, the DM uses her "threat level" to place monsters, lock doors, set traps, or otherwise manipulate the dungeon. Threat is effectively the currency for the DM, and can only be regained by building a rewarding scenario for the player. If the DM is responsible for a "TPK" (Total Party Kill) as a result of an unrealistically challenging encounter, the DM will actually lose threat level as a reminder of her role. Bringing parties to the brink of death -- without wiping the party -- is rewarded with more threat. Tabletop players know that DMs often "fudge" die rolls to ensure a party isn't over- or underwhelmed with combat and encoutners. To this end, Sword Coast Legends grants DMs the ability to promote and demote monsters, dynamically remove or add monsters from play, and directly assist or hinder the player's party in combat. The DM can also conceal doorways to create secret treasure rooms, awarding parties that actively search, or plan ambushes at the height of tension. The DM is represented as a wisp on the screen, so whenever the DM is near, the player knows that the wisp represents the cursor location. Campaign ModeAlthough not much could be discussed at the meeting, Sword Coast Legends will feature a "campaign mode" that allows DMs to author, map, plan, and execute a custom D&D campaign in-game. We don't have any details beyond this at the moment, but it's a critical item of note. As in the video interview above, we were told that campaigns can extend effectively forever, as in the tabletop game. ImpressionsSword Coast Legends is among the most promising video game releases we've seen for the RPG space in recent years. The game is a true return-to-roots for D&D cRPG fans and, if delivered properly, offers a unique gameplay mechanic that greatly extends longevity of the title. The graphics and aesthetics are befitting of a D&D RPG and, while not employing thrilling visual effects technology, are appropriate and not overbearing. For a game like this, we much prefer the clean, unified aesthetic with simpler graphics technology to a game that over-invests in visuals. Gameplay looked natural and enjoyable for the player controlling the party, with pause-and-play combat advancing as one would expect for a title like this. Forgotten Realms' Sword Coast is a living setting with significant fantasy depth, affording Sword Coast Legends effectively endless avenues for exploration of story. We're genuinely excited about Sword Coast Legends and greatly look forward to its development. Bear in mind, as always, that this was a press demo and the game is still under full development." And from a Twitter account: SCL has posted something nice on their Twitter account: "This looks like the game's main menu. Pretty nice if you ask me . Also apparently they're getting ready to speak to the press. Next train stop - hypestation. EDIT: So SCL has responded to my tweet with: "It may in fact be the #GDC2015 demo menu.. it's animated BTW and looks gorgeous." Animated - confirmed Gorgeous - confirmed Demo during GDC - confirmed :3" *Drool*

Perhaps Obsidian will do something similar to what InXile did? inXile released their juicy manual for free a few dways before WL2 was released - that was great, since it allowed us to dream away and plan our characters ahead. Obviously, it would be so sweet if OE let us backers get our lore books earlier, just because they're awesome.

Indeed, this is brain-wringing stuff. I know of a few rare games on Steam, which had global midnight releases, and they went with the Australian timezone midnight, so they were released very early. Let's hope for something similar this time. Normally, though, Steam is obsessed with releases at 19:00 hrs or slightly later CET.

OK... This is odd, but over here it clearly states 22 days, 9 hrs, 7 min, 13 sec until release. Paradox is based in Sweden, so perhaps we get it six hours earlier. EDIT: So, it would be nice to know if it's a confirmed Thu-Fri midnight release on Steam etc.