Fluffle

Okay, I can inquire that next. The references would have to be subtle enough I think to not cause any IP issues. I think an example or two would be nice to help me understand what exactly you have in mind, how you envision this.

So I did ask Aarik about if the developers would like to model the pirates after themselves. The answer was that they'd probably not be keen on it. And he was fairly certain that especially Josh and Feargus wouldn't be thrilled by that idea at all. Personally I understand that. Aarik didn't give any reasons, I don't think he has to. Let us just respect their wishes on this matter and move on

Updated the poll: the 3rd question has a new option: "The ship can be stolen by the player"

Hey @CottonWolf thank you for your contribution And @TheisEjsing @Kennyrules That sounds great that you guys are going to join our cause. Thank you!

So my dear salty bastards, we have breached $1,000 At this point a huge, huge thank you to everyone for participating in this, and a very special thank you to the donators! Among our supporters there have been VERY generous donators, some of which have donated about $100 and one even supported us with $333. A huge thank you to you too! I know, not everyone can afford to donate such an amount. And every dollar counts. So I thank ALL of you who donated to our cause, no matter the amount. Still the big donations do deserve to be mentioned, in my opinion! We have still a long way to go, no doubt, but we are one step closer to our goal. Thank you all of you! You are awesome! Arrr! (Credits for the font used on the image go to Raymond Larabie: http://www.1001fonts.com/vinque-font.html#license Credits for the image go to: https://de.fotolia.com/p/205428757 )

Obsidian has already mentioned and promoted us in one of their streams, in fact Aarik did. The design of the Black Isle is completely up to Obsidian. They gave us the island for free but in return they have full control of designing the island, and they should have anyway. Therefore I cannot say what the Black Isle will be like. About our pirate crew, we are merely collecting suggestions here. Obsidian will be free to design the Black Isle Bastards as they think that they best fit into the game. We will just make suggestions. That is what the polls are for. And we do let Obsidian make the decisions and designs so that the pirate crew fits seamlessly into the game, and so that we do not argue over every little detail. Which in fact we are not, we are simply collecting suggestions here, but we don't make definite decisions. At the moment, personally, I see no way of raising 10k. People are aware of this. This thread is soon going to have 10,000 views. And we have 146 votes. And we spammed about this in the Fig comment section so much in fact that people got annoyed at us. People know about this. We have been heard. People are aware of us. But of the 146 voters, only 30 decided to donate. They could simply have run out of money due to the actual main campaign on Fig or this project here simply doesn't appeal to them. Also sadly many confuse this with the BIB badge. I like the idea that the Black Isle Bastards in the game would be modeled after the developers themselves, but the developers would have to like and want this. The implications would be that they are called "bastards". If they take that lightheartedly and they can joke about that, then it's okay. But it's their decision alone. There is a lot of fun things we could do. We have a Black Isle. And if we managed to make this pirate crew happen and then work with other backers we could accomplish quite something. But at the moment only a few individuals are excited by this idea. Not the masses. And for funding this we would need either the masses or a few very generous and rich donators who are excited by this project.

I think this misunderstanding should be referenced in some funny way when you meet the Black Isle Bastards It's so stupid xD I mean this situation I see that it is confusing. It would confuse me too if I didn't know better. It wasn't planned. It's the result of circumstances. And as I said I hope one day we can laugh about this xD Yes, buying the BIB badge does NOT count for this crowd funding. I put in the title now

It means that we are still on track Because Obsidian said that even if that happened they would still make our pirate crew if we manage to collect the $5000. Yep, that's how awesome they are. Just as they gave us an island for free DESPITE the fact that all island slots had been sold out already. Not to mention that normally we would have had to raise $5000 for an island. They really want us to succeed.

Well first off, this crowd funding does not end with the Fig campaign. It will go on after that. Some have speculated and some have already confirmed that they are going to pledge in March with their next wages incoming. Other than that, it may be that we cannot fund this by the masses but that we need few very dedicated people, who would be ready to spend a fortune on this. I would be one of them, but I'd need help of others as well. I already spoke to some. What I would really dislike is to bend and twist this idea to appeal the masses and in the end it's not what the initial donors of this campaign had in mind. I don't want to sell the "soul" of this idea, just to get it funded, because then it wouldn't be what we wanted in the first place. So what is that "soul"? That "soul" is that we trust Obsidian to make an awesome Black Isle Bastards pirate crew in the game. We leave the designs and the decisions to them but we do hand in suggestions. However, they are not bound to them. So what I will be doing next is to await March and see if we will have a surge in funds then. If not, I will try to find those few very dedicated people.

So with Update 16, the question arises if we can combine that somehow with our crowd funding here: "You can customize, upgrade, and add personal touches to the Defiant. This includes changing your sails, painting your hull, and flying flags to show your personal colors/faction allegiance. You can also improve the performance of your cannons, sails, and hull, beyond just their cosmetic appearance. For example, Dwarven cannons add extra firepower in naval battles, or while upgraded sails give you an extra bit of speed to outmaneuver your opponent. If we hit our $3.5 million stretch goal,we'll add even more new and amazing, unlockable upgrades for your ships. And if we hit our $4 million stretch goal, we will add other ships that you can find, purchase, or even steal during your adventure - to make them your own." The interaction with the Black Isle Bastards could lead to a cosmetic upgrade of the player's ship or even an upgrade that is more than just cosmetic. Do you like the idea of flying the Black Isle Bastards' flag? Maybe they'll also show you a trick or two how to enhance your cannons. Or you just steal their superior cannons from them. Or the encounter with the Black Isle Bastards can lead to a different upgrade to the player's ship altogether. Share your thoughts and ideas! The player could even steal the Black Isle Bastards' ship... :D

I guess there are several reasons at play here: 1.) PoE 1 was crowd funded when there was a HUGE hype on crowdfunding in general. People were throwing money at everything that was crowd funded back then (may be a tiny bit exaggerated ). Since the crowd funding hype though there have been some huge disappointments in crowd funding projects. 2.) I think Fig is far less known. Never heard of it before Pillars 2, did you? It may also be less popular than Kickstarter. 3.) While I share your interpretation of Pillars of Eternity as a spiritual successor to the IE games I know of MANY people who don't. I know of many people who feel like this is exactly the promise that Obsidian broke. I do not feel that way. For me Pillars of Eternity was exactly what they promised and I love it. It is not flawless of course, I would never say that, but so weren't the IE games. Now, take a look here. Look at how "many" (i.e. few) people have actually managed to get the achievement "Won the Game!!!"

Okay, okay HOLD ON everyone on Fig. No more comments in the comment section there. We don't want to spam the comments there. For the moment let's drop it. Thanks to everyone though for your efforts. We have been heard, we can be sure of that. So we should stop now.

Yes, I painfully admit that, lol. It's all because this was very spontaneous and unplanned. As I said originally we wanted to fund an island and we wanted to found an order on this forum. Then Obsidian gave us the island for free, and offered the badge for our order for sale. So buying the badge was saying "thank you" to Obsidian for the free island. Then Obsidian encouraged us to try to crowd fund an actual pirate crew named the Black Isle Bastards. So now we have a Black Isle that was given to us for free. We have a Black Isle Bastards forum badge that is meant as a "thank you" to Obsidian for giving us the "Black Isle". And we now actually try to fund the Black Isle Bastards which has nothing to do with the Black Isle Bastards forum badge. LOL At this point my apologies for the confusion. Let us hope that this will turn into a funny anecdote one day

I agree with translating names of locations. Another example for me is "King's Landing" in Game of Thrones. It's translated to Königsmund in German... OUCH MY EYES AND EARS! I generally hate it when names are translated. It feels and sounds so wrong somehow. The translation can even be literally correct, or maybe it is a more free translation but it seems never to capture that feeling and meaning that the name has in the original language. That said I usually play in English anyway, because translation can never beat original for me.

That is a good question actually. I cannot associate your names on PayPal with your nicknames here. However I do have your email addresses in PayPal. So in case we decide on the kind of donor recognition in the game and on the minimum donation required for that recognition, then I can send out emails and ask everyone to submit their input. That was the plan. Good plan, bad plan? Let me know

Well, I have been already called out for spamming about the Black Isle Bastards on the comment section of the FIG campaign. So... It's time other people spam there (within reason!), not just me xD

Yes, this question keeps coming up. I just explained it on discord and I just added this question to the F.A.Q. I admit that it may be confusing. Originally we had planned on crowd funding an island. We would have needed to raise $5000. And there was another problem: both island tiers had been taken already! But we had a very strong support for a "Black Isle" on this forum and eventually Obsidian decided to give us the "Black Isle" for free, as a gift. We didn't have to raise money for it AND they agreed on making the Black Isle DESPITE all island tiers already taken. So the Black Isle Bastards forum badge serves as a token of appreciation and a thank you to Obsidian for giving us a whole island for free. You may think it should have been a "Black Isle Badge" then - But we were going to found an order on this forum similar to the Obsidian Order of Eternity. And our order here is called the "Black Isle Bastards". Obsidian has given the "Black Isle Bastards" an actual "Black Isle" and buying the BIB forum badge is a thank you to them for the island and NOT for donating here. We are discussing other ways of recognition in the game for donating here. Feel free to share your ideas on that anytime.

And when I said "Great" I meant AWESOME Aarik, thank you very very much :D

Great then I will hurry to allow refunds if we fail. Because I don't want newcomers to this to be turned off by the "No refund" rule which has no grounds anymore anyway because it was based on a wrong assumption about PayPal. So big announcement: If we fail to raise the $5000 by the time that the deadline - which is yet to be announced - has arrived, then all donations will be fully refunded!

Yes, for the first time you need to register with an email address and a password. And you will use those in future to login And thank you very much

If you look one or two pages back we actually were discussing just that. It is not weird that people want something for their money, that is very much humane. The badge will not be connected to this. It should have been. As I said, I wanted that, but it was not my decision. But we may find another way to give our donors a little token of recognition.

But they could always use the backer portal that is going to be set up after the Fig campaign if they wished to support Obsidian further. So right now I tend to favor a fully automatic refund for everyone if we fail. I'll wait for more opinions on this first though. And keeping track of who would like a refund and who would not could easily end up being a hassle.

Yes, I feared that actually. That's a vicious circle. I have a friend and he pledged $5 on this and he said he was ready to donate more but only if we were going to reach our goal. So naturally we would need more people to donate, but if everyone thinks like my friend, that's going to be a problem. People don't donate because people are not donating. Which is why I am even more grateful to the people who have actually donated despite this vicious circle. We have managed to raise about $700 after all. So there are people who do donate despite this circle. The main reason that I didn't allow refunds was that I thought that I had to pay the transaction fee then. Turned out that I was wrong, PayPal would refund me the transaction fee. I didn't know that. I just found out. Btw, PayPal only refunds the transaction fee if the refund happens within 180 days after the transaction. But that should be a long enough period! So in order to lift this vicious circle, shall we agree on that I allow refunds if we fail to reach the goal of $5000?

This campaign will go on after the Fig campaign that is correct. And I agree that the $8 dollars for the BIB badge may be confusing with this campaign. It was not my decision to separate these two things. I actually did want to combine them. Once again, please, do not misunderstand me. I do not intend to complain. It is your money and you should know best where and when and how to spend it. And I am very grateful to anyone who decides to spend their money on this! I am merely curious by this ration of 122 voters on the poll and 26 backers. So it's about 21% of the voters who also decided to donate. Okay so I gather from your replies that you are waiting for March and I understand that. Thank you for letting me know

Okay, so, let's make an observation: This thread is soon going to have 7000 views. 122 people voted on the poll of this thread. But only 26 people actually donated. I have been spending much more time on this already than I intended. My actual idea was to fund a Black Isle, therefore several weeks ago I put up this poll: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/91401-backing-a-black-isle-for-the-deadfire-archipelago/ 105 people voted that they would join crowd funding a Black Isle. Then the developers decided to give us a Black Isle for free but at the same time encouraged us to try to fund a pirate crew. My naive assumption was the Black Isle Bastards would get the same support as the Black Isle. I am beginning to realize that that is not the case. From 122 people who voted on this poll, it seems that roughly about 100 people would not even spend $1 on this. I do not judge you for that and this should not come off as a complaint (it's your money after all!), but as an observation. I am not a fund raiser, and I don't want to have my own little crowd funding campaign here where I need to sweet talk people into donating their money. Either the support is there based on the opening post or it is not. I am very unsure what to do next, how to go on. I think the most realistic approach is to go for the item tier at $750. At this point a huge thank you once again for the people who did donate on this. But for the moment I would actually like to know what is keeping people from donating. This was originally supposed to be a community project. You were to meet the Black Isle Bastards in the game and people would say "Hey, the Black Isle Bastards, those are from the Obsidian Community! How cool! Awesome!" or something like that. Let me know what you think. But spending so much time and effort on this was not what I initially signed up for.