Fluffle

There is one thing I would like to note. As you can see the poll options are very vague in the sense that they only contain the general categories of possible items. In case you have missed it I proposed a very specific sword to Aarik but in the case of weapons I got the reply that the developers are not going to create a new weapon. Instead we would have to choose from a pre-selected set of weapons. So I fear that the developers are not going to design a completely new item for us from scratch. At least I can verify that that is true for weapons. I wouldn't be surprised if that holds true for other kinds of categories of items as well - in worst case even for all of them. Very probably we will only get to know what items we can actually have - AFTER we buy the "create an item" tier. It's more or less the same problem we face with our "build a pirate party" tier. For example we don't know to which extend we can make choices about our ship, i.e. it's design. That's a huge drawback to this crowdfunding approach in general. You don't know what a certain tier offers you concretely BEFORE you buy it. You don't know the extent of your choices within a tier BEFOREHAND. Just as an example, I like the idea of a tricorn as a pirate hat. But I fear that, if there aren't already tricorns in the game then the devs are not going to design a new item for us from scratch. And that is my general assumption. Very probably they are not going to design any item from scratch. I fear they're just going to modify an already existing item. And let's be honest for a backer $750 is a lot of money. For a video game developer that's almost nothing. I fear that designing an entire new item from scratch would be much much more expensive. Keep in mind though, that most of this post is speculation on my part without official confirmation! Keep your ideas coming, but I have the feeling the more general and easy-to-implement and the less sophisticated your ideas are, the higher the chance they can be realized. TL;DR - It may be that the "create an item" tier is more like a "modify an already existing item" tier. I have no official confirmation on that but I have a feeling that that might be the case.

Please keep in mind that all things relating to our ship are already covered in the tier "Build a pirate party". If we pay additional $750 for something that is already part of our "build a pirate party" tier then we would actually waste those $750. So if we are allowed to make custom choices about our ship to that extend it will be as part of our "Build a pirate party" tier and NOT as part of the "Create an Item" tier. This thread and poll assumes a piece of equipment for a character.

Ingame Recognition for our backers, how it will work: The Black Isle Bastards keep records of their most curious victims. The victims might be especially wealthy, or just have an odd appearance or some special kind of loot or something else notably. This ingame recognition is about text only. It will not add any item other than probably a book/list with the records itself to the game. Prerequisite: You donated at least 10$ to our cause (if you donated less, you can still hand in your submission, but don't get your hopes up too high, sorry). The Black Isle Bastards badge does not count for this because it never had to do anything with our campaign. We are restricted to 50 records of victims. If more than 50 of our backers submit then Obsidian will choose the ones they like best. So, you can describe one of the victims of the Black Isle Bastards. The victim may be based on you but does not have to be. You can pick two of the following four categories: - description of robbed individual - specific lore friendly name of robbed individual - robbed individual's fate - taken possessions Please make ONE coherent record entry that describes a victim of the Black Isle Bastards. You don't make separate entries for 2 of the 4 categories, but rather ONE complete entry that contains information on 2 of the 4 categories. Your overall message must NOT exceed 80 characters. Also note: Obsidian is free to alter/change your submission as they see fit. There will be absolutely no guarantee that: 1.) Your submission will make it into the records 2.) Your submission will make it into the records unchanged The submissions should fit into the game. Therefore Obsidian is free to reject or alter them. Please send your submission to BlackIsleBastards@gmail.com with the SAME email-address with which you donated to our campaign (otherwise I will not accept it unless we find another way of identification). Also you are free to make teams with other backers. The Black Isle Bastards do not only rob individuals but also groups of people of course. So if you'd like to be in a group, that got robbed by the Black Isle Bastards, with another backer that is possible. The character limit will add up. And you can use the combined length of the character limit to describe your group (you are then not necessarily bound anymore to choosing two of the 4 categories above). This will require some additional administration effort for me, so I'd say if you're interested in making a group with someone, let us know in this thread, or message me per PM. Let me know, if anything has been left unclear. Cheers The deadline for handing in the submissions is: 17th July 23:59 PM (GMT+2) IMPORTANT: After you have sent your submission you WILL get a confirmation email from me. If you don't receive a confirmation email from me, then contact me ASAP here on the forum, or try to send your submission to my web.de address instead.

Ahoy everyone, We did it. WE DID IT! Not only will Obsidian give us a Black Isle for free but we also managed to fund raise the Black Isle Bastards pirate group. This was quite a ride and I would like to thank everyone who has pledged to our cause. Thank you very, very much! Meanwhile word about the nefarious Black Isle Bastards has spread throughout Deadfire Archipelago and beyond. Even Pallegina, Edér and Aloth have heard rumors about them. So now that we have our island and our pirate group you may wonder what is left to do? The icing on top of the cake, that’s what’s missing! And therefore we would like to equip the Black Isle Bastards with a unique item in the game. So once more I ask for your support. Let us give them a treasure worthy of an infamous pirate group! In order to decide on what kind of special item we could give to the Black Isle Bastards that is what this poll is for. Please note, that the vote is not anonymous because I might consider the votes of members who actually pledged for this cause to be more important than the votes of those who do not support this cause. Disclaimer: I am the sole person who is collecting the funds and who is responsible for the donations. Obsidian Entertainment is not involved in these donations in any way, however they are fully supportive of this project. Donating here will NOT give you a copy of the game (exceptions may apply as specified in the F.A.Q.). (This artwork was commissioned from TariToons also known as Buttercheese on this forum.) F.A.Q.: 1.) What exactly would I be pledging for? A: You would be helping us to crowd fund a special item for our pirate crew who call themselves the “Black Isle Bastards” for Pillars of Eternity 2. Donating here will NOT give you a copy of the game (exceptions may apply as seen under question 8, 9 and 10). 2.) How do you make sure that your backer made content fits into the game world and does not break immersion? A: We are going to give Obsidian only a rough idea on our pirate crew. We will let Obsidian Entertainment then work out the details themselves to ensure that our pirate crew fits seamlessly into the game and its lore. Similarly, Obsidian will make sure that our special piece of equipment is going to fit seamlessly into the game. 3.) Will there be a Black Isle in the game? A: Yes, that has already been confirmed. 4.) How large in size is the Black Isle going to be? A: It is going to be a tiny island. And it would only be able to support one structure on it at most. A ship does count as a structure in this context. 5.) I saw that there is an option to pledge an additional 8$ to get a "Black Isle Bastards" forum badge. Is that money used to crowd fund the pirate crew in the game or the special piece of equipment for the Black Isle Bastards? A: No, it is not used that way. The "Black Isle Bastards" forum badge is funded independently from the "Black Isle Bastards" pirate crew and the item. 6.) Why do the $8 for the BIB forum badge not count for the crowd funding of the Black Isle Bastards or the item? Originally we had planned on crowd funding an island. We would have had to raise $5000 for the "Black Isle" but then Obsidian decided to give us, their community, the "Black Isle" for free, as a gift. The BIB forum badge serves as a token of appreciation and a thank you to Obsidian for giving us an island for free. 7.) How much money have you raised to incorporate the “Black Isle Bastards” into the game? A: 5000$! Thank you everyone who contributed for this! The Black Isle Bastards have been funded! 8.) What are you collecting money for now? A: We are going to try to fund an item for the Black Isle Bastards for which we need to raise additional $750. If we don't manage to collect these $750, then we will use the surplus money to buy additional game copies and put them into a lottery for our donators. 9.) What happens with the other rewards (other than the pirate crew and the ship) on the tier "Build a Pirate Party" on the Fig campaign? A: By default we will pass up on them. Only if there is a very generous donor to our cause who has donated considerably more to our overall collected money than any others then he or she will get all the additional rewards. 10.) What happens with the other rewards on the tier "Create an Item" on the Fig campaign? The additional rewards from that tier go to the donator with the second highest amount of our overall collected money. If there are multiple donators who are close to be the second highest donator they can share the additional rewards but only if they can peacefully reach a agreement on who gets what. 11.) Is Obsidian Entertainment bound to the results of this poll? No, they are not. The results of this poll serve as suggestions. However, Obsidian Entertainment can deviate from them if they think that that would be to the overall advantage of their game. 12.) How can I pledge for this? You can't anymore. WE ARE FUNDED!!! 13.) Is there a deadline for when you need to have raised $5750 ? A: Yes, the deadline is 25th April 2017 23:59 PM (GMT+2) 14.) What does Obsidian Entertainment think about your project? A: See for yourself: 15.) How much money have you raised so far for your cause? Base goal: $5000 / $5000 (100% funded) Stretchgoal ("Create an Item"): $750 / $750 (100% funded) overall: $5846.06 / $5750 66 backers biggest donation: $1998 donation on average: $88.58 16.) Will there be any ingame recognition for the donors of this project? Currently, that is up for discussion. We are looking for creative, easy to implement ways, to give our donors recognition in the game while that must in no way break the fourth wall/immersion. Feel free to share your ideas on this! 17.) How are you going to contact the donors of this project? For cases, that I need to reach donors specifically, I would send an email to the email address the donors provided on PayPal. If you have donated please make sure to always check that email address until this whole campaign has ended!

Hmm so, just out of curiosity I dug a bit deeper into the usage of obsidian by native Mesoamerican cultures. First thing I found out was that the language of the word "Macuauitl" is called "Nahuatl". I know, the Macuauitl is off tables, but I wanted to see if those cultures had different usage of obsidian as well. By the way the Nahuatl word for "obsidian" is "itztli". Apparently there was also a God named "Itztli", the God of stone and sacrifice. You can read more on the different uses of obsidian here. I find that pretty interesting. Oh yeah by the way, another interesting fact: "English words of Nahuatl origin include "avocado", "chayote", "chili", "chocolate", "atlatl", "coyote", "peyote", "axolotl" and "tomato"."

Got news from Aarik, the Macuauitl is off the tables. The team will not be able to create that weapon for us. We will have to choose from a set of pre-selected weapons. I do not even know if that set includes bastard swords. However, Aarik said we can have a weapon with an obsidian blade, that'd be okay. As long as we don't know which weapons we will be able to choose from I don't see a point in setting up a poll about weapons to be honest.

Got news from Aarik, the Macuauitl is off the tables. The team will not be able to create that weapon for us. We will have to choose from a set of pre-selected weapons. I do not even know if that set includes bastard swords. However, Aarik said we can have a weapon with an obsidian blade, that'd be okay. As long as we don't know which weapons we will be able to choose from I don't see a point in setting up a poll about weapons to be honest.

Welcome, welcome on board!

At the moment I am in favor of the Macuahuitl. You can see pictures and videos of this "sword" on this thread starting on page three (scroll down a bit). The basic idea is a "wooden sword with razor sharp obsidian blades". But mind you, actually obsidian blades are even sharper than any normal razor blades. That said, I do not decide it. We will collect ideas in that thread, that I linked to. And once we have enough proposals, I'll set up a poll. However, as with every poll, Obsidian is not bound to the results. Keep that in mind. As you said, Obsidian has the final say.

Oh guys, this may be a bit off topic, but for old times' sake I'll post it. This whole talk of obsidian reminded me of an old video game I used to play and like a lot. It's called "Broken Sword 2: The Smoking Mirror". Maybe some of you know it. Just for old times' sake I'd like to share this: The objective of the game to find three stones made of... *drummroll* obsidian in order to trap Tezcatlipoca once and for all.

An interesting fact about obsidian blades: "Well-crafted obsidian blades, as with any glass knife, can have a cutting edge many times sharper than high-quality steel surgical scalpels, the cutting edge of the blade being only about 3 nanometers thick.[39] Even the sharpest metal knife has a jagged, irregular blade when viewed under a strong enough microscope; when examined even under an electron microscope an obsidian blade is still smooth and even." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsidian#Current_use

Obsidian blades are allegedly THE sharpest blades of all (at least in our world). So you could definitely think of a bonus based on that. However I dont know if there is going to be a "bleeding" status effect. Is there one in PoE1? (It's been a while since I last played^^)

Hmm from the above picture I can see the crushing damage type. So actually it could be slash/crush. Well, I would not put it that drastically but at least I see where this comes from. When i first stumbled upon the Macuahuitl I didn't think it was so beautiful either. But since then it has grown on me. No, not necessarily for its beauty. But I think it's a pretty cool, exotic weapon. And I like that its not your everyday standard weapon. And I was surprised just what that sword can actually too. Yes many sword or sword-like weapons can slash meat and a watermelon and a chicken in half. But I wouldn't have expected that from the Macuahuitl. So, I'm pretty impressed by it. Also keep in mind we haven't seen all different designs yet. For example this one: I'm wondering, wouldn't that one actually cause piercing damage, lol?

Want to see something cool? Macuahuitl vs. Leiomano I really really like this video, take your time to watch it completely. Also he made a video where he shows how he manufactured those weapons by himself.

Is it really slash/crush ? Slash is clear but I've been wondering about "crush". If you try to crush some hard material with it the obsidian blades would break. So you would have to use the long, flat sides of the sword. If you use it like that then it'd become a paddle effectively. The question is how effective can a paddle actually be? So I'm not too sure about the effectiveness of using a "Mutchupitchulatlprattl" as a crushing weapon. You can only use the thin sides of the sword with the obsidian blades as a crushing weapon when you attack soft materials. Like that chicken for example. I've asked Aarik about the macuahuitl, answer is still pending.

Wanna see a macuahuitl in action? Careful, video may be considered gross

I had no idea what a codpiece revolver could possibly be so I googled it... http://dusktilldawn.wikia.com/wiki/Codpiece_Revolver Omg, lol!

Okay, short sword seems to work: https://www.artofishi.com/shop/flint-knapped-stone-knives-for-sale/obsidian-roman-short-sword/

I have that feeling, that an actual sword of obsidian might break actually if you tried to use it like a sword made of metal. But I don't know. I would need someone with knowledge on this. Anyone?

Okay interesting, I found this wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macuahuitl

Heh, yes I was waiting for someone to say "magic" It's okay, sometimes I tend to be picky when it comes to realism. One thing though I would really like to know if in reality you could make a good, usable sword out of obsidian. Independently from whether we go for an obsidian sword or not. I would like to know if it would be possible in our world.

There's one little thing that I find problematic. Would an actual bastard sword made of obsidian actual work in reality? I know that obsidian daggers exist in our world: https://www.pinterest.com/explore/obsidian-knife/ http://imgur.com/gallery/jQe6o And boy I really LOVE this one, hold your breath! http://therionarms.com/reenact/therionarms_c1363.html But would an obsidian sword really work in contrast to a dagger in reality?

At the moment I would imagine the item to be a piece of equipment for a character. I think that is what that tier is about. Anything concerning the ship is already in our funded "Build a pirate party" tier. Though I do not know to which extend we can influence the design of and the items on the ship. But let's not mix these two things

Well personally I would like a weapon made of obsidian... But yeah keep the ideas coming then we can set up a poll.

The tier "create an item" says it's a piece of equipment. So I think it's for a character. The flag should actually be part of our already funded "create a pirate party" tier. Because that includes the pirate party AND the ship.