Osvir

Skimmed, failed to notice this being brought up but... I've brought this up before, me thinks, but... Crafting usually involves having a ton of components, put them together and you create an item. What is the first component to be considered? In my opinion, it is the Crafter him- or herself. Who is crafting the item? In this case it'd be two: The Smith/Alchemist/Enchanter etc. etc. a Merchant-type Crafting: - Find tons of items - Give them to Merchant-type - Item crafted (- Could be put on orders "I'd like you to build this for me. Takes X days") The Class, the Party itself: - A Fighter can maintain armor and weapons, good with repairs - A Barbarian can sniff herbs and good with a hammer - A Paladin can enchant and distribute orders - A Druid can mend natural components, extract certain poisons and oils from plants - A Wizard can mend magical components, extract the essence of the soul of fire and insert into another component etc. etc. Then, combining the Classes together, a Fighter & Wizard could create temporary or permanent Crafts together. Not having a Fighter in your party but a Ranger instead could give the Player a different type of "Craft". I find this interesting because it makes crafting party-based. "What kind of party do you have and what can your party do?". This also tickles my replayability-genes, because it'd mean that one game I might craft certain items that will aid my playthrough, and another game where I'll craft entirely different items. Footnote: Could a "Class" in itself be a component?

I didn't want to play the Larian shill too much, but that was what I was thinking about when I mentioned games designed for co-op. Imho turn based combat works a lot better for this than a bunch of people fighting to pause the game. The multiplayer in BG was awesome, in my opinion. Technically it had a lot of issues, sure. It didn't entirely feel like a finished feature. Like, I told my friend "Go and talk to some people and I'll go and shop some gear" but that didn't work out too well into practice (Whilst I was in the shop screen, if he went and talked to someone it'd close the shop screen and take me to the dialogue screen. Force paused~). Me and my friend had a lot of fun playing Baldur's Gate together regardless. True, we fought over the pausing a bit as we started, and he also struggled a lot with gameplay mechanics (that he didn't understand, as he hadn't researched or played the games much before). After a while we managed to find a rhythm that accommodated to our playstyle and we paused in different sequences. It took some hard work, some patience and some good ol' communication but eventually we got it right as how we wanted it. Now, we were only playing 2 people, not 6 people. I can imagine it getting chaotic if you are playing 6 people 1 character each. Footnote; I am not advocating for Obsidian to spend resources on LAN, Multiplayer or Co-op, I am simply arguing that I thought that the IE games was more fun playing with a friend (and overcoming the adversaries together) than playing it alone, in my opinion. I had more trouble getting "into" the games by myself, and it was easier to immerse myself together with someone. Well, all except PS:T which didn't have any multiplayer support (though, if a friend could've joined into the game and taken control of Morte and be apart of the journey I wouldn't have minded it).

Great update! As for features... what types of merchants are there? (e.g. armorsmith, weaponsmith, hybridsmith, doctor, innkeeper, botanic, magician etc. etc.) How's the economy in P:E?

Great post Lephys! But this mostly, because this is pretty much what I mean when I said "failed quest" in an earlier post. "Change" is good. "Fail" is bad. Sort of... "evolution". The quest "develops" different traits. An example: The one who goes straight through Moria doesn't run out of there (perhaps sneaks out of there) with little stress. The one who stops on the way to rest gets ambushed and has to flee from a Balrog. The quest is still well underway in both scenarios, it just changed some parameters.

What about Doctor-type merchants in Cities and Doctor-Skills for the Player? I think it could be a nice addition to a resting mechanic. Doctor Skills on the Field: - Cures minor injuries - Cures minor diseases - Minor healing (1-5 HP) Doctor Skills at Camp: - Cures medium injuries - Cures medium diseases - Additional healing when resting ^Skill investments. Could cost resources as well and could require a certain level of [Alchemy Craft] for certain diseases~ (potions required and the like) Doctor Skills at Merchant (costs coin): - Cures all injuries - Cures all diseases - Skill trainer Resting Outdoors, generally: - Heals most HP+Stamina - Some areas are safe, some areas not? - [suggestion] Resting too much outdoors gets "Stamina Burn" or some sort of [Outdoor Fatigue]/[stamina Sickness] (depletes Stamina faster). Resting at an Inn resets "Limit" (If you have 10/10 Outdoor Rests, get to 0/10 = Stamina Sickness, go to an Inn, get 10/10 again). - [Armchair Suggestion] Dungeon Rest Checkpoint, not safe (random encounter possibilities). Obscured (a space behind a waterfall inside a dungeon, the room in Moria etc. etc.) - Can not rest in the middle of a hallway, corridor etc. etc. Resting Indoors, generally: - Heals most/all HP+Stamina - Removes any Stamina effects/sickness - Always safe (except when [Plot Assassin] or similar)

I'm recalling some developer saying something like (something I read here/a link/someone referenced it) "The sooner I can get my Players into the game the better". Bugfixing, direction, feedback, suggestion etc. etc. All I'm saying is "As soon as it's beneficial for Obsidian to give access" that's when I think they should give access. It's not about "I got into the game derp!" it's about "Let's help make the best game evah derp!".

What about a volunteer mid/late-alpha-early-early-beta-QA-community-thingy? Kinda like this forum but more in-depth & more physical.

Chaotic Good Half-Elf Sorcerer (4th Level) Ability Scores: Strength- 11 Dexterity- 16 Constitution- 12 Intelligence- 13 Wisdom- 13 Charisma- 12

I think it is perfectly fine to go back to town when I'm finished with a dungeon, which is what I kind of have to do anyways in all of the IE games (if I want to~ it's a choice, I'm not forced to do it, neither am I not forced not to do it. Play like you want to play TrashMan). The only thing I can think of why I had to go back to town was because my inventory was full. There was nothing that was "fun" about it and there was nothing "RP" about going back to town and selling things, with no new quests or anything. Practically I was a manual Torchlight dog, into town -> sell stuff -> turn around -> into dungeon. Regardless. Already brought up in the post IIRC: Something that could "force" (note: quotation marks) a Player to go back to town. Injuries. Doctors. Specific NPC's that heals injuries. Not just "I go to the Inn and my broken bones are healed" but a merchant-type that specifically heals injuries. Perhaps even the Player can learn some Doctor skills that they can use at Rest Locations and heal injuries themselves.

I responded briefly on the Formspring, I think something should happen if you rest too much. The question is what? And how? 1. What type of location is it? (Historical, Dungeon, Cave, Fortress, Temple, Ruins etc. etc.) 2. Is it a contestable area? I.E. does Faction A and Faction B fight over it? (~"Those ruins would give a favorable position to us for this war") [*]3. Is time, generally, something that progresses in the world of Project: Eternity? [x]4. How would one be warned that you are resting too much and soon the area will "change" if you rest more? ([x]4) To answer the last question first myself. Let's say I've rested 44 (exaggerated number) times, I enter the dungeon, fight some baddies and later I backtrack out to rest for the 45th time. When I exit there's: A, another adventuring band sharing mead and food between each other by the campfire at the resting location, they are about to enter the second I use that resting location so I can either beat them up, talk them out of it or rest and when I wake up there'll be less to do in the dungeon. Maybe even a virtual dice roll is rolled and perhaps they even die in the dungeon (and you could loot their bodies or whatnot). That's just a matter of spawning "body type A" etc. etc. in other words, it should be fairly easy to implement something like this. B, Spawn a soldier or a group of soldiers from Faction A or B, indicating that this area will soon be overtaken by one of the Factions. Same thing here, fight them off, talk them out of it "We just need a little more time" or "Let us clean this place out for you then you can grab it" etc. etc. or rest and when you wake up the Faction has taken the area. This too should be fairly simple to implement, a simple "Spawn Soldier at location" instead of the regular mobs that are spawned. Spawn a generic Captain level Soldier instead of the Boss that was there before. Same thing with bandits or any other type of creature taking over the area. Both of these could be a "Darklands" visualization of sorts. You rest, and a window pops up: "Whilst you rest, a group of soldiers appear. You wake up as you can hear them mumble, they seem to group up and look at the location. You figure out that they are taking this location for their own. Do you... 1. Attack them! 2. Talk them out of it, you are not finished here. 3. Rest anyways, knowingly that when you wake up the dungeon will be fortified with soldiers" The other would be "Whilst you rest, a group of adventurers appear"~ C, You took out so many of the bandits/goblins/sentient monsters that they are shaking their boots. They are ready to leave NOW. When you exit the dungeon to rest, nothing really can indicate this except some sort of "Darklands" visualization: "Whilst you rest, you hear quick feet and echoes from the entrance of the [location] that disturbs your rest. Do you: 1. Look what it is (Reveals the [creature] leaving the area) - prompts a fight outside the dungeon 2. Go back to sleep (Dungeon will be empty and/or overtaken by a new entity/faction)" For C, demons could be spawned like this. Something scared all the monsters/bandits away, apart from yourself. NPC's could spawn. A historian/scholar type character, tourists, adventurers or whatnot could be found inside the dungeon scurrying about etc. etc. Random or Wild events! The underline here, I think, if something should happen if you rest too much, the Player needs to be made aware. If something would happen simply by resting too much, it'd just be frustrating = I go outside and rest like I've done several times already, suddenly when I wake up it's entirely different. As for "Rest Mobs". Like Frenetic Pony says, they just take time, they are in the way and I'll just rest a second time if the first time wasn't successful. I think they are annoying and there should be better methods to do it. That isn't to say "Exclude them all!" but they too should be more interesting (A thug thief who hangs out around these parts is stealing some of your gear/gold when you are sleeping, an Evil Cipher sends you into a nightmare world, you wake up as a mad Wizard has emprisoned 2 of your guys, a slaver has kidnapped some of your guys and you are going to have to go to the World Map and intercept to save them etc. etc. Assassins, Bounty Hunters. Not excluding friendlies, waking up with people around you who are kind and/or simply travelers/messengers). If you've read all this to this point, scroll up to "3" ([*]3). Time: What happens in the rest of the world? Do I have more than 1 quest? What happens to the other locations? What happens to the quest itself I am on?* Let's say I have 2 quests, one quest where I am at right now, I have to return within 40 hours from this point, or else I fail it or something happens to the quest itself. The second quest I am on has 80 hours to finish. So I have to finish this dungeon I am in within 40 hours (4 rests+travel time), then I have to high-tail it to the second location to finish that second quest. Time+Consequence is the way to go (in my opinion) because with "Time Matters" I will be more careful during battles, I will conserve how many times I can rest and I will conserve my party in battle as well. I would want to rest as little as possible so that I have as much time as possible for the second quest. If I can finish the first quest with simply 1 rest I'd suddenly have 60-70 in-game hours to finish the second quest. In other words, I benefit A LOT by finishing a quest as quickly as possible and resting as little as possible. The following question is, what would happen if the quest fails? Time runs out. Perhaps for another thread, I'm spent. EDIT: * What happens between Factions? Do they conquer lands? Does something change between them? Do they become friendlier and/or more enemies? Does the Player Stronghold get assaulted? If the Player can have a business, do you get money from that whilst you rest? Would that be something you could abuse? What should the disadvantages be? Do you have to maintain the business? (In essence: If you leave it for too long you might lose it and/or the Blacksmith you are paying disowns himself from your business or whatnot "I thought you died in one of those dungeons you run around in so I took over the business, sorry man, that's life" or whatever ).

Rogue Aumaua hmm... A thug in a sense, a seafarer, webbed fingers... coastal and ocean... Pirate?

@Sensuki: What's that saying... "evidence beyond reasonable doubt"? Yes, anyways, I don't have that yet and neither does it look like Obsidian has provided with enough evidence. I agree that it looks like this character (note: not "companion") is likely to be the Orlan we are looking for to fill the slot. But he has no name and neither does he have much emphasis on the wiki or in Obsidians official word. "We are developing a character", and "This is an Orlan". As if it as an example of the race itself. There hasn't really been a word about "This is a companion character", yet.

Just for reference for more speculation: 1. Human Fighter Edair 2. Human Priest Cadegund 3. Human Monk Forton 4. Elf Wizard Aloth 5. Dwarf Ranger Sagani Speculation time! And I am way more interested in possible character outcomes (dialogue/personality/profession/way of life etc. etc.) from the class rather than functionality: 6. Orlan... - If Barbarian, possibly obnoxious pipsqueak battlemongrel :/ - If Cipher, then it is probably the detective - If Chanter, hmm (mildly interesting) - If Druid, Wild Orlan Sage? :D - If Paladin, HMM! (interesting) - If Rogue, cliché 7. Aumaua... - If Barbarian, cliché - If Cipher, HMM! (interesting) - If Chanter "Wraaaah! Drums! Battlecry! Wraah!" - If Druid, Voodoo Child - If Paladin, "To arms my battle brothers!"~Leader - If Rogue, hmm (mildly interesting) 8. Godlike... intentional context (please read the whole thing), regarding how the world reacts to Godlikes: "Many times, the reaction is overwhelmingly not" - If Barbarian, hmm (mildly interesting) - If Cipher, possibly evil~morally questioning "I get what I want and I take what I want. BRAIN ZAP!" - If Chanter, hmm (mildly interesting) - If Druid, escapist from society - If Paladin, intimidating for enemies and allies alike - If Rogue, possible Tiefling from NWN2 rehash I removed the "Cipher" Orlan from the list of confirmed because of three things: A: It is not "Official" on the Project: Eternity wiki yet. B: If you click the "Orlan" link there is a picture, underneath the picture the detective Orlan has been given the description "An Orlan". Analytical little me views that as if this Orlan is possibly trivial to the Companion/Party setup right now. C: Update #40 dditionally, I was asking "Is Edair really a recruitable companion?". I wish to revoke those thoughts because of the Wiki. All of the five companions on the Wiki do have "Potential Companion". The Orlan is yet to be listed.

Concept 2, "zoomed out": Could be pretty annoying though.

*clicks link, clicks CTRL+F, types in "hate", 0 of 0 found* EDIT: Quote was faulty~ someone else's words got caught into it.

I understand perfectly that we won't have aesthetically-represented traits as small as eye shape and such, but it got me all curious... Will we be able to pick notable features like that, such as facial scars or distinctive ear shapes (just a decent little variety, since it's not going to be visually represented anyway) that can be noticed and cause reactions in the world around us? You know, "Hey, you're that elf with purple eyes that everyone's been talking about!", or "I recognized you by your burned left ear." I know it's not necessary, but it would be pretty interesting. Although, I can't, at the moment, think of any functional difference between that and simply "You were recognized, regardless of how your face looks." The only function with things like that I could think of would come from race/ethnicity. Certain people might know one Dwarf from another just from their subtle differences in physiology and such, whereas other people wouldn't know anything beyond the fact that a Dwarf is a Dwarf. *shrug* Like I said, that comment just made me think, "Would there be any value in having customizable features functionally represented in the game, even though they're too small to be visually represented?" Here's something I don't think has been done before: Text based appearance "sliders" (scroll bar). In games like Skyrim, DA2 (the dress up RPG's, you know which ones), instead of sliders changing the physical appearance, what about the narrative appearance? Instead of choosing between "Scar 1" or "Scar 2" (and seeing it on your character), what about choosing between "You have a scar diagonally across your face" or "You have a scar on your lip" (and imagining it on yor character). My examples sound pretty lame but I hope it gets the concept across anyways. Similarly, external artpieces (tattoo's, scars, accessories) could be placed on top of the portrait? (in essence: A different layer~). Perhaps even allow the Player to drag-n-drop. No functionality in-game, but...... girl games xD or they could be text-based as well with a scroll bar, and there doesn't have to be a visual representation of it at all. Hm, in the same way a face could just be a blank face (portrait) and the player could be allowed to put different "eyes", "noses", "ears" etc. etc. on the face. Buuut probably not. Text-based appearance would be cool. More likely just a different region of the same world. I don't recall reading anything about planar travel/gates/portals. Yeah, I think so too I'm just analytical ^^

I missed this tidbit! How? I don't know, I've read this update like 3 times xD science of animancy really drew me in. Anyways, the point I am underlining. Am I just putting things into context here or does the main character come from "another world"? (Another reality/universe/planet or whatnot) not space travel astronaut in any way, I'm playing with fantasy thoughts here (another magical realm or whatnot). Being teleported/sucked into a vacuum/black hole etc. etc. or is the main character from the same world and I'm just reading into it too much?

First of all, welcome Going to read through your OP thoroughly in a bit. Just want to add one of my ideas to this (old idea from old threads): Stealth ability: "Hide in Shadows" would be done only in shadows, in shadows the character can be in "stealth" permanently (unless "spotted"). When moving out of the shadow, the character can only be in "stealth" temporarily. Basically having a "Coat of Shadows" or "Veil of Shadows"; "Shadow Embrace" or something. This way a stealthy character requires some micro-management. "Move from one shadow to the next shadow" during some infiltration quests. EDIT: Furthering the idea/stretching. An upgrade to an ability like this: Teleport from shadow to shadow :D @Rjshae: Rogue's with flash bombs? Lighting up an area for a little bit? Throwing torches? Shooting arrows on fire? The first arrow could be mainly to gain vision of an area. However, that would require Rangers or Bow-wielders to have some sort of "directed" targeting mechanic ("Attack Ground" type utility seen by siege weapons in RTS games). @[Vision]; Thoughts: Party vision, who controls the vision? The leader or.. all characters selected? I remember in Baldur's Gate that if I control the entire team, and I have someone with "Infravision" and it's night, everything gets this weird color. Imo I think the character with "Infravision" should only show "Infravision" in the area if individually selected or if that character is the leader. Party Vision - Select All, shows a generalized vision around the party and their positions. Perhaps based on the "center point" of the party. Individual Vision - Detailed, the guy in the back can see further than if I have everyone selected. Concept:

I want to elaborate. Basically, there might come a situation where I have to pretty much carry a team member back to a safe resting spot a la "Hang in there man! Just a little bit more! Almost there!". If that happens I don't want to spend all that time to get to the resting spot just to fail, unless it is part of a narrative quest, done in a good way (with the design intent of making the Player cry T-T). The reason to why I'm expressing this is because I've encountered similar things in some RPG's (I can't recall exactly which ones, it might be just one. But I have it somewhere in my memory bank from some time long long ago) where I've given a "health boost" to a character, but when the effects are gone, the character falls to the ground, dead. This has usually resulted in a "Load game" sequence.

Additionally and some analytical pondering~: Spiritual successor = It has the soul/spirit, concept, the idea, the nostalgia, a tribute, honoring of what it is successing. Sawyer has said that he is getting that "nostalgic feel" from the builds he has played. Heck, looking at the pictures and the updates we've seen (specially #49 showing off some player movement, lighting and such), it looks and I am getting nostalgic the same feel I get when I look at Baldur's Gate and other isometric RPG's. A good example I can think of would be Legends of Grimrock, a modern game that is using the dungeon crawler mechanics of old. Probably a "spiritual successor" to Dungeon Master. LoG is still its own IP. Physical successor = Mass Effect 2, following up on Mass Effect 1. It's the same story, it is a follow-up. Project: Eternity has never been said to be, in any way, "Baldur's Gate 3" or "Icewind Dale 2" or "Planescape 2" or "Temple of Elemental Evil 2" etc. etc. that has been people who have mislead themselves or given in to their own desires. Calling something a "spiritual successor" isn't wrong or misleading by itself, but it can cause people to confuse themselves or give in to "hope" and "expectation". I do think that people might (perhaps maybe lol) look at it like this: spiritual successor Same thing happens when there's big news in the media, lots of people zoom in on the context and only listen to what they want to hear and everything else (the "truth") is just "annoying buzzing noise".

Yes, I pretty much did a copy+paste on Edair from the wiki (that's what it says "integral to the story"). But does that mean he will still be a recruitable companion (permanent party member), or does it mean he is just important to the story?

Great update <3 I am very excited about the not-yet-revealed Aumaua companion as well as the Godlike one (I'm pretty sure that the 2 will be those races~). Animancy! I want to see more! :D how do they draw on the power, where do they draw the power from? (Environment/from within?) Are there gadgets that simulate spirit magic? (alchemists/physicians/scientists who try to imitate~). Visual examples, spell concepts. Elements. Cipher, Wizard, Chanter, Priest magic. War Magic? (Barbarian/Fighter). Shadow Magic? (Rogue) What has a soul and can every soul be manipulated? Does shadows have "spirit"? As seen on the wiki, about ethnicity: 1. Forton is savannah. 2. Sagani is boreal. 3. Cadegund, Aedyr (coming from the North). I base this on her faith in Magran. Okay okay, it is speculation but I'm reasoning that it's "probable" Speculation: 4. Detective Orlan, Hearth or Wild (Is this character named yet?). I suspect Hearth. 5. Altoh, I'm guessing Pale (The picture on the Wiki seems to be down... is Aloth artwork being reworked?) 6. Edair. Meadow? Furthermore, are all the revealed characters to date Companions or are some of them "V.I.P"? In essence: Integral for the story, not necessarily part of the "Recruitable Crew". Just curious, I remember some discussion about it in the past but I don't think anything was "set in stone". I mean, it is an on-going project so... nothing is perhaps necessarily "set in stone". I'm just curious. In fact, I'm super curious about everything x.x

On greataxes+two-handed in general: Cleaving, Sweaping, Reach.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K91Lkz4XXFI

Animal brutality (Chains & Whips), Cruel Beastmasters: http://www.antivision.ru/gallery/albums/personal/artworks/beast_master.jpg http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2011/022/d/5/the_beastmaster_by_venishi-d37tu3y.jpg http://douglasdraco.deviantart.com/art/Beastmaster-28359561 http://sandara.deviantart.com/art/Beastmaster-66213010 Rexxar & Mischa: http://th09.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/i/2011/256/5/0/rexxar_by_tamplierpainter-d49q2su.jpg Cats: http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2012/145/0/f/beastmaster_by_magicwax-d51361q.jpg http://www.wizards.com/mtg/images/daily/sf/sf57_bb5ydo54ik.jpg Familar-ish, Shadowy/Summoning: http://th05.deviantart.net/fs44/PRE/f/2009/162/c/7/__beastmaster___by_exellero.jpg Crocodiles! http://trevorsmithart.deviantart.com/art/The-Beastmaster-338798445 Owl Druid: http://fdiskart.deviantart.com/art/CHOW-252-Beastmaster-237523900