Fluffle

I have a lore question about this. Are bastards treated the same way in Eora as we think they are treated? Are they treated differently in different places of Eora? Does "Bastard" actually have the same historical meaning in the game as in our world? Has the actual term "Bastard" been established in the game world so far?

Ideas, so far. They're not necessarily mutually exclusive. A) How the player can interact with the pirates: 1.) The BIB are a VERY TOUGH optional fight, obviously with some nice treasure as reward 2.) The BIB are some kind of merchants with who you can trade 3.) You can become an honorific member of the BIB in the game 4.) You help the BIB to deal with some kind of problem 5.) No interaction possible with them in any way, just observing them B) Background story of the pirates 1.) The BIB are retired pirates who run an inn in their old ship on Black Isle 2.) The BIB are some kind of failed "wanna-be" pirates 3.) The BIB are retired corporate raiders who used their wealth to buy an island 4.) The BIB are mutineers 5.) The BIB are former slaves 6.) The BIB are privateers of the Free Palatinate of Dyrwood tasked with raiding Aedyr ships 7.) The BIB are nobles who fight for the cause of common people If I missed any idea, feel free to remind me

So I assume if they are stranded, their is ship is broken in some way? Because the Fig tier does also include a ship.

Well concerning the idea that the Black Isle Bastards are a part of the Obsidian Order: Personally, I would like to put the Obsidian Order to rest at this point. The idea that the pirates are part of the order has been proposed several times. Especially when we voted on the name of our pirate crew, see here. But in the end the majority decided against a name that contained the Obsidian Order. As always it's just my personal opinion. I think the Obsidian Order was a very great, awesome thing BACK THEN. As you can see on my forum title I did participate and I loved it back then. But at some point it is time to put something to rest and move on. Because you may overuse an idea and then it can become stale. So to my mind, our pirate crew should have nothing to do with the Obsidian Order. And I do not think that you actually want the Obsidian Order so much to come back but more the spirit of the community that founded that order - I may be wrong though. So instead I would like the Black Isle Bastards to be built upon this spirit of a community working together for a greater goal.

Yes, that is our current approach. So when someone writes very concrete ideas I try to abstract from them, and extract a general idea out of it. As I said above this approach does have some advantages: 1.) We do not have to decide on and discuss every little detail. And this could easily blow up on the forum I can imagine. Next thing we know is we will have votes on individuals' hair colors 2.) I think people will less likely feel like "losers". In a project like this you would want to avoid to make someone feel like winner and someone feel like loser. This is not what it's about. So instead of presenting very concrete, detailed information on individual pirates, if we present only a broad, rough sketch of our crew and leave the rest to Obsidian it is rather less likely someone feels ignored. So instead of thinking in terms of winners and losers I would like that everyone gets the feeling that they contributed in some way to this cause. Concrete detailed ideas can be easily rejected. It is easier to agree on general ideas. 3.) The main point of criticism of backer made content has always been that it does not fit the game world and that it breaks immersion. By leaving the details to Obsidian we ensure that that does not happen. 4.) The goal of this project is that our community pirate crew, the "Black Isle Bastards" are in some way - I daresay in ANY way (within reason) - represented in the game. And for that goal the details are actually less important that the actual fact that our crew is in some way in the game. As always note, this is just my opinion to which you can agree or disagree.

@NegativeEdge It's not exactly to my liking, but what I do take out of your contribution is that the "Black Isle Bastards" would be - maybe contrary to expectations - some kind of failed pirates, or "wanna-be" pirates That certainly is an idea. As I said I would not favor it, but maybe others will. So I would add it to the themes: 6.) The BIB are some kind of failed "wanna-be" pirates If I got your idea wrong, feel free to correct me!

So a few very rough first options, feel free to like or dislike them or propose new options anytime! The options are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Black Isle Pirates = BIB 1.) The BIB are a VERY TOUGH optional fight, obviously with some nice treasure as reward 2.) The BIB are some kind of merchants 3.) You can become an honorific member of the BIB in the game 4.) The BIB are retired pirates who run an inn in their old ship on Black Isle 5.) You help the BIB to deal with some kind of problem X.) The BIB are arch nemeses of another pirate crew and you can choose which side you support. Or you can fight both... Problem: We would need another pirate crew for that

I think you can submit your ideas in this very thread.

So, we define the theme of the Black Isle Bastards in the game, but we would leave the details to Obsidian?

No I think I did understand you. And I wasn't going to talk you out of it. That's not my place anyway. I wanted to hear more from you. Keep in mind, that I was just brain storming some ideas before, nothing more. So if I understand you correctly, you would like Obsidian Entertainment to interpret us as a pirate crew for the game? The immediate advantage to that would be in my opinion that we would avoid A LOT of really lengthy discussions and decisions. Also this would guarantee that the Black Isle Bastards would fit into the game seamlessly. So I do see the appeal. Did I understand you correctly?

Yes, absolutely and if we manage to do that I would support this too. But first we need to know what the general spirit of the Bastards is.

Before we submit individual crew member biographies I think it's also important - like you already mentioned before - to decide on a theme for the pirate crew. Is the pirate crew going to be a friendly pirate crew (At least non-hostile to the player)? Or are they marauding bastards that attack the player on sight? Or maybe are they former pirates who have turned their ship into an inn? Or what else would you have in mind for our pirate crew? And when we finally do some work on biographies, let's not forget that we deal with a crew here. So it should make sense that they are a crew. And they should have relationships to each other. One idea is that we say our crew has 6 members, so the backers with the 6 largest donations can create one crew member each. Additional backers could be mentioned through other means in the game. These are all just brainstorming ideas. Feel free to submit your own! If no one minds, I would register a PayPal account and make it ready for donations.

This is truly amazing! Thank you so much Aarik and the entire team!!!

So, we now have our community pirate order "Black Isle Bastards". And a "Black Isle" has been confirmed for the game. Now we are talking... Who would like to see our community pirate crew in the game? On the Black Isle or associated with it in some way?

Oh noes, we dropped below 90% again on the "yes" votes

@Karkarov Yes, I agree and I appreciate that you write that here, because I fear otherwise there could be some HUGE misunderstandings. As I said above I am very well aware of the limitations but I fear just like you that many people may not be aware of them. Should this island thing happen then I would make sure to stress this again.

Yeah, well... someone else please nag the developers about this. Because I have been nagging them about the backer island so often lately that I have started to really feel bad about it. And I do not wish to keep doing that. So I really do not want to ask them. Please someone else do it

@Bobby Null It would even be better, I think, if Obsidian themselves made a PayPal account where we can transfer the money for the island to. Because this way there would be more trust I think and more people would be willing to donate to an account that was held by Obsidian directly, than by some stranger on the Internet. I do understand, however, that this would be an additional effort for Obsidian. So I understand if you do not have the resources to spare for that.

Dear Bobby, thank you for your post. The following answer consists of my thoughts only and does not necessarily reflect people's opinions who have voted with "yes" on this poll. If you did decide to do that, please consider to reserve that island slot for us. If you just open another slot on the Fig campaign it may happen that just somebody else snatches that slot away from us. So if you do decide to add another island slot, then please find some way to reserve that island slot for this community. I am fine with that, too. The most important thing about backer content is, that it fits SEAMLESSLY into the game world and does not break immersion in any way. My idea of this island is as followed: It should be a "Black Isle" reference and maybe a reference to Obsidian Entertainment. The island is supposed to be an homage to Faergus and you guys. And I think you do know best how to do that. Therefore I actually only want to give you very little information on the island. I am in favor of the name "Black Isle", however you can adjust that to a different name if that would fit better into the game world. The name should still be a "Black Isle" reference though in some way. Personally I imagine a volcano island - this is just a proposal though.The island could consist of volcanic rock, making it black. And the shore of the island could for example consist of obsidian. Where there is a volcano island, obsidian is not far away Also I am in favor of the shape of the island as you can see it on the map in the opening post. Because that shape resembles the actual Black Isle in Scotland. Concerning the weather, I would prefer a stormy weather on the island, as you can see in the video in the opening post. These are all just suggestions. If you disagree with all or some of them, then the absolute minimum is this: Make an island that is a "Black Isle" reference. I would absolutely let you do your thing. No, I understand that we do not pay the 5000$ to play designer as one of the other developers (I think it was Aarik) said. But, if possible, I would let other backer made content be placed on the island. If you agreed to that. And if you thought that that other content would fit the island. That is your decision. For example if this community also backed a pirate crew, could that pirate crew then be placed upon our island? Or could the pirate crew use our island as their base of operations? Or if a backer made an item. Could it be placed on our island? Or if someone decided they wanted to place their inn on our island, would that be possible? Or if someone would like to place their NPC on our island, etc etc... I am just asking if in theory that was possible. You will be the ones who decide if other backer content will be placed on our island. And if it fits the island in the first place. There is one matter still, which is the matter of payment. Would it be possible to pay for the island via PayPal? Because I, or someone else, would collect the crowd funding on PayPal, I assume. And it would be nice if it was possible to directly then pay for the island from PayPal. Other than that, for me it sounds all good. I think I am quite aware of the limitations. All I would like to see is an island that is a nice "Black Isle" reference . I do have some ideas about it. I bet, many others do so too. But ultimately as I said, you should know best how to make a homage to Black Isle and maybe to Obsidian Entertainment. So I would like to proceed, but first I would like to read what other people think about this, and especially if they understand the limitations. So everyone, once again, please keep in mind that my map in the opening post was just for fun and will not reflect the actual island if it comes to that, except maybe for the shape and maybe for a volcano (I hope so ) and maybe for the name (hopefully).

Really? Wouldn't you think the names would depend on the dominant culture in the islands. For example, if this were a French archipelago I would expect l'Île Noire rather than Black Island. And do you think we or the developers would let that happen? Let's say just for arguments sake, that all the names of the islands were French indeed. Do you really think we or the developers would then name one island the "Black Isle"? If you really fear that, then I would like to assure you that I would talk to the developers how to adjust the name "Black Isle" to best fit in the game world of Deadfire.

I think the island wouldn't even have to be called "Black Isle" (although I would like that). It could be a name that is very reminiscent of "Black Isle" or maybe "Black Isle" translated to one of the ingame languages. I think there would be many ways to make an island that is a reference to "Black Isle" without naming the island exactly that way. So in short, I am not set on the name. And I agree that the most important point of backer made content is consistency with the lore of the game world.

So, Aarik D, if you read this, or any other developer, a question to you: Would the name "Black Isle" fit into your current plans for the Deadfire Archipelago? Does the name fit the lore of the game?

Well, we already have a developer's word that our "Black Isle" would be the only one. I think if the name did not fit then Bobby Null would not have written that. But to take your concern into account, yes, just to be sure, we should make sure that the name "Black Isle" or "Black Island" (I prefer "Black Isle") would fit into the Deadfire Archipelago. You would be correct. However, we designers scrap ideas almost as fast as we think them up. I would be more than happy to do so if the community wants to back a "Black Isle". You have my word that your Black Isle, will be the only Black Isle. -B

Well as I have previously said I would support other community crowd funded content. I would just not be in charge of it. There has been such an amazing support of this idea here, 93 "yes" votes already, that I feel like I want to give something back in return. So you can count on me if you pursue other community backed content in the game.

Personally I think that is rather unlikely. NeoGAF owns an inn in Pillars of Eternity 1. And the name is a reference to NeoGAF themselves: "Q. Will NeoGAF be mentioned in any way in the game directly? A. We will make sure that all shout-outs are subtle as to not take you out of the lure (A lot of folks didn’t even know “Goose and Fox” was a nod to GAF. Mission accomplished!). However, there will be a Gold-Tier In-Game Credits to “NeoGAF Community”." (taken from: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1338752) I expect that NeoGAF will name their island with a similar subtle reference to themselves.