Osvir

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

Great post & visualization. Keep it up Some thoughts: Defense Mode (Fighter ability) would, by this concept, allow the Fighter to get 3 enemies with no penalties, the 4th one would still cause penalties. Additionally, perhaps activating "Defense Mode" by itself could be "Walk Mode". Having it inactivated = Run Mode. @Insights/Question-to-ask: Defense Mode: Could you target enemies that you'd get "No Penalties" from (Active), or is it completely passive?

^Ooh indeed! Cloudy days. Additionally, let's not forget: Flying monster~: "Not-Pretty" Clouds: "Not Pretty" Basic concept: Cam = Camera Mons = Monster Cloud = Cloud Horizontal Line = Rendered Map

It would be awesome if P:E had several different days (Like "The Elder Scrolls"), and different nights could have different moons I could probably stretch it as far as I'd be okay if some Quests could only be accessed during some nights. Replayability and a sense of surprise (One game I get to a certain area on Day 5, another game I get there on Day 3, and there's a quest there on Day 3). For the Community as well, I miss the quest entirely on my first playthrough, and someone else finds it and tells about it making me "Oh! Got to check that out hoho!". It could possibly also allow Obsidian to insert some more content without having to make more areas/landscapes.. Maybe some spells could only work on certain nights! (high-level stuff) Okay I'm immersing myself too much in this idea *documented* Just seeing so much that could be done with it

Indeed! Furthermore, one area where an oily shadowy darkness psuedo-Fog of War enemy (an enemy that is imitating "Fog of War") is ever-closing in on you, so you have to use a torch/light source or else the darkness will engulf you, and at the same time there's monsters/enemies that are attracted to light, so what do you do? EDIT: There could be some creative solutions to it as well (except the most obvious one "Bring out light source and fight everything that comes close enough"), Flash bombs and other light sources that attracts the enemies elsewhere, blind spells. Perhaps the enemies can only physically see light?

No curative spells but placebo spells & similar wording. This, to me, sounds that there will be spells that can give you a temporary health boost (mechanically). Not "Cure Light Wounds" in any way, but a potion or a spell that "heightens" the life-force for a little while and gives you perhaps +10 Health points for a set amount duration. Example scenario/Speculation very much: 1. I have 2 HP left on one of my Characters, mid-battle, so I put a temporary "health boost" on the character in b4 more HP damage (and I'm playing on Expert and I don't want my character to die). Now 12 HP. 2. The Character takes 3 HP damage, now on 9 HP. I win the battle. 3. Now the battle is over, and I've got time ticking against me. I gun for a "Safe Resting Spot". 4. Keeping the character alive with Potions and other temporary spells on the way, so that I don't find myself with a "-1 HP" (which would mean the death of the character). 5. I get to the safe spot and I click the resting spot. 6. Character died anyways!! What I am warning for here, is that the "Rest" function could remove all the effects on the character before the "Rest code" is run. Don't. Just throwing out some foresight. One of those "Just in case!!".

Ubisoft+Obsidian are working together atm with South Park, no? Assassin's Creed in isometric perspective with party-based combat & assassin customization (equipment, levels, appearance) would be awesome. RTwP.

1. World. The World needs to be believable, authentic, fun, entertaining and grand. 2. World Plot. A World Plot is the "Grand Scheme" or the "Grand Device", something that gets possibly fulfilled after several installments. 3. Character Plot/Content. What can I, as the Player, experience & do in this world? Can I pave my own path through the world, find my own "plot"? Can I create my own Faction and dominate the world? Create an utopia? "Create your own story within a story" type thing. There is only one game I can think of (from the top of my head) that truly fulfills this and has all the potential to fulfill this: EVE Online. As for a Single Player game, Darklands seems to have it as well (I wouldn't honestly know). I managed to create a party, venture out into the world briefly, found a tower, got into it, fought some guards, won, ventured out into the wilds, died. In many games & stories I think it looks like this (Not necessarily a bad way to make a great RPG, it's just "most games/stories" does this): 1. World. 2. Character Plot is World Plot. It's the same thing. "The Chosen One" stories. "Player has to go from point A to B to finish the story".

If it wouldn't be too much work, customizing the color (Specifically talking about the Color Palette underneath the [Right-Ring Slot] and to the right of the [shield Slot]) which allows you to change "Major Color" and "Minor Color" at any point in the game really helps telling the characters apart. Looking at Update #49, that^ might not be necessary (it looks like you'll be able to tell characters apart pretty easily as it is).