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Frisk

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Everything posted by Frisk

  1. Uh...I think everyone assumes they will be spread all over - why on earth would they not be?
  2. I'm not a big fan of "epic" items, in the sense of items that give massive combat bonuses. What I really love are items with a lot of lore attached to them, items that give you non-combat advantages, or items that allow you to solve difficult problems in other ways than just attacking everything that moves.
  3. I consider the whole concept of multi-classing and prestige classes to be nothing more than an indication of what is fundamentally wrong with character generation on D&D-like games - the plain classes are too limited, so this is an attempt to fix the problem. Personally I think the whole system is wrong. I prefer role-playing games which have no classes as such, but a "point-buy" system of some sort, so you can evolve your character in any direction you like, and gain any skills you want - however, that may be too complicated to implement properly in a computer game.
  4. Obsidian has promised that the game will be moddable - a smart move if they can do that with limited extra effort, as it will probably extend the lifespan of the game quite a lot. However, they have not said anything about just what can (or cannot) be changed or added, so I am offering some speculations, based on a few assumptions. The assumptions are the following: Obsidian is not going to do anything to specifically prevent modding or make it unnecessarily difficult to access or modify the various assets of the game, like encrypting the assets. Obsidian is going to implement a significant chunk of the game through scripts, instead of hardcoding. Obsidian will make examples, documentation and some file format information available to modders. However, Obsidian is not going to release anything resembling a full-blown toolkit. Obsidian's workflow will use professional tools that only a minority of modders may have access to. Obsidian might release utilities or plugins for converting original assets to whatever form the game uses, but those plugins might be only for the professional tools mentioned above. Obsidian will not write utilities for converting assets from their "in-game" format back to the original versions. Based on experience with past games, I think those are realistic expectations, so what does this mean for the various categories of game "stuff"? Below is my list of various categories - an updated and revised version of a list I had posted elsewhere. SCRIPTS I am going to assume the scripts will be like in several older games - they can be triggered when you enter/exit an area, when you interact with objects, or when certain dialogue options are chosen (and so on). Anyone wanting to add/or modify quests, companions, (or the ever-popular "romances", to name a few examples) will need to be able to modify the existing scripts. Depending on how things are implemented, it might even be possible to add new classes or modify the existing classes significantly. The big question here is if the scripts will be stored in source format or as some sort of compiled bytecode. In the first case, things are much easy - it should be trivial to extract/replace/add/modify them as needed - If we get tools from Obsidian, fine - otherwise we'll write them. In the second case, we have a bit of a problem - the community might have to write a decompiler, or Obsidian would have to release the script source separately for it to be possible to modify the game behaviour. Another issue is which script language will be used. If it is Obsidian's own language, we would appreciate a language reference document, but perhaps they will just use one of the languages already supported by Unity3D (personally I think it would by kind-of appropriate if the used "Boo", but perhaps that's just my warped sense of humour). DIALOGUE I am going to assume we will have support for extensive dialogue trees, with conditions that can enable/disable certain branches. I expect the dialogue will be separate from the scripts (but you will be able to execute scripts as a result of dialogue selections). Obsidian will presumably have some kind of a dialogue editor - I think there is a fairly good chance they will make it available. If not, the community can write one. if we receive (or reverse-engineer) the file format. ITEMS/LOOT It should be very easy to add new items using existing models, but having special abilities, lore or stats. As for adding items with new models, see below.... MODELS Compared to games like NWN2 and DA:O there will presumably be relatively few models included with the game - most of the models created for the game will have been "baked" into the bitmap backgrounds. It is possible that Obsidian might release some of those models, but I would not bet on it. What we will have in-game will be models for items (armours, weapons and such), characters and monsters. Perhaps Obsidian will provide information on the file format - if not, it can be reverse-engineered with minimal effort. Now, Obsidian will presumably have some utility for converting models from whatever 3D modeling tool they use to the in-game format - something like a 3DS Max plugin, for example, and if there are no legal/licensing issues, they might well release that tool. What Obsidian will not have, however, will be any tools for converting game models back into something that can be edited in a 3D modelling tool. The community will have to develop that. It should be relatively trivial to make the tools for reskinning existing models, but (as always), handling animations might be complicated and take time. In other words, it should be very easy to reskin armour and weapon models. and possible to to add new ones. MODEL ANIMATIONS Animated models have been more of a hassle than static ones, and if Obsidian uses some of the more advanced Unity features, like Mecanim (which is a part of the soon-to-be-released Unity 4), things might get even more complicated for modders. It should be relatively easy to reskin existing monsters, though - to get the "pink giant spiders of doom", or make minor changes like converting horses into unicorns. Right now, I really don't know how difficult it will be to add new animated creatures, or modify the animations of the existing ones. I expect we will hear something about this when Obsidian starts talking to people interested in the modding aspect. I do not expect it will be feasible at all to implement reactive animations (characters dodging enemy blows and such). Forget about that! TEXTURES Textures for the in-game models should be relatively straight-forward, but again, as the models will be relatively few in number, so will the textures. I expect the textures to be of pretty high resolution, so I see limited need for a high-res mod. AREAS This is the big one. Making the game moddable requires us to be able to modify existing areas - for example to add new interactive objects, or to add new exits. For this we need file format information - we can reverse-engineer the files, but getting the information from Obsidian would save a lot of time. We also need to be able to make new areas. Now, perhaps we will be able to use the free version of Unity for that - but keep in mind that the free version has some limitations compared to the pro version - for example regarding shadows. Initially, however, I expect people might be recycling existing areas, but replacing creatures and NPCs. Also, Obsidian uses professional tools for the rendering, with artists applying "touch-up"s afterwards. That may not be feasible for individual modders, which is one reason why I expect to see most of the larger mods to be released by groups. It is very easy create things like trigger zones and walkmeshes in the Unity scene editor, but (and that is a pretty big "but") I have no idea how easy it will be to convert such scenes into a working game area - I can only hope that Obsidian will provide any necessary conversion tools or file format information. AUDIO This should be a relatively problem-free area. I expect Obsidian to use some standard file format (mp3/wav/ogg) and to provide information on how to add new sound effects, music and such. CUTSCENES I have a big question mark here. We have no idea how important cutscenes will be in the game or what tools will be used to make them - so anything I might say would be utter speculation.
  5. The key issue for modders will be how much of the game is hardcoded, and impossible to modify. Consider for example something simple like moving around. I am going to assume there will be something like a walkmesh. We may be able to modify that, add new exits on the map and so on. What we would not be able to modify are things like you only being able to walk on the walkmesh - I do not think it would be feasible to add the ability to fly around, for example. Consider also something like companions. I think it should be possible to add new companions - after all, they are just like any other NPCs - just have a much larger dialogue and more complicated scripts. What you might not be able to modify, however, are things like the maximum # of companions you can have - that might be hardcoded into the game (if only to make sure the GUI handles them properly.
  6. So, how important is combat to you, relative to the story itself?
  7. Look again at this, for example the campsite to the left, and estimate the size of the characters on the screen. With the small characters, you you simply would not be able to see sufficient details for this to be worth the effort.
  8. There will probably be more forums added in the future. 1) Obsidian had said that once the pledges got sorted out, they would set up a (closed) forum for those in the $1000+ tiers. 2) When the beta is released, I would not be surprised to see a special forum for discussing the beta - probably limited to those with beta access. 3) Once modding becomes a possibility, I would expect to see a special modding forum. 4) When the game is actually released, I would expect to see a number of new forums for support, strategy discussions and a number of other things. Right now, however....meh...I don't think there is any need to change anything.
  9. The chances of getting that from Obsidian are close to zero. Obsidian is not going to write a toolset just for the community. Although they have said they will make the game moddable, and provide some information to the modding community, they will probably be relying on 3rd party tools too much to be able to release everything required to build the game. Let's look at various categories, and what we need and might expect to get from Obsidian, and what the community will (presumably) have to build. To start with, the use of Unity 3D probably means that anyone wanting to get a head start in creating content for PE should get the free version of Unity and start playing with it. It does not have all the features of the Pro version, but it is a VERY nice tool - (and "Knowledge of Unity 3D" is always good to have on a resume) So, a few categories: SCRIPTS The big question with the scripts is if they will be stored in source format or as some sort of compiled bytecode. In the second case, the community would have to write a decompiler, or Obsidian would have to release the script source separately for it to be possible to modify the game behaviour. If the scripts are stored in source form, things are much easier -it should be trivial to extract/replace/add/modify them as needed - If we get tools from Obsidian, fine - otherwise we'll write them. Another issue is which script language will be used. If it is Obsidian's own language, we would appreciate a language reference document, but perhaps they will just use one of the languages already supported by Unity3D (and personally I think it would by kind-of appropriate if the used "Boo", but perhaps that's just my warped sense of humour). DIALOGUE I am assuming the dialogue will be separate from the scripts (but you will be able to execute scripts as a result of dialogue selections). Obsidian will presumably have some kind of a dialogue editor - I think there is a fairly good chance they will make it available. If not, the community can write one. MODELS Compared to games like NWN2 and DA:O there will presumably be relatively few models included with the game - most of the models created for the game will have been "baked" into the bitmap backgrounds. It is possible that Obsidian might release some of those models, but I would not bet on it. What we will have in-game will be models for items (armours, weapons and such), characters and monsters. Perhaps Obsidian will provide information on the file format - if not, it can be reverse-engineered with minimal effort. Now, Obsidian will presumably have some utility for converting models from whatever 3D modeling tool they use to the in-game format - something like a 3DS Max plugin, for example, and if there are no legal/licensing issues, they might well release that tool, which would be a great help for people wanting to create new animated models (monsters). Unfortunately there might well be legal issues, in particular if Obsidian uses some 3rd party middleware (like Granny was used in NWN2). What Obsidian will not have, however, will be any tools for converting game models back into something that can be edited in a 3D modelling tool. The community will have to develop that. It should be relatively trivial to make the tools for reskinning existing models, but (as always), handling animations might be complicated and take time. TEXTURES Textures for the in-game models should be relatively straight-forward, but again, as the models will be relatively few in number, so will the textures. AREAS This is the big one. Making the game moddable requires us to be able to modify existing areas - for example to add new interactive objects, or to add new exits. For this we need file format information - we can reverse-engineer the files, but getting the information from Obsidian would save a lot of time. We also need to be able to make new areas. Now, perhaps we will be able to use the free version of Unity for that - but keep in mind that the free version has some limitations compared to the pro version - for example regarding shadows. It is very easy create things like trigger zones and walkmeshes in the Unity scene editor, but (and that is a pretty big "but") I have no idea how easy it will be to convert such scenes into a working game area - I can only hope that Obsidian will provide any necessary conversion tools or file format information. AUDIO This should be a relatively problem-free area. I expect Obsidian to use some standard file format (mp3/wav/ogg) and to provide information on how to add new sound effects, music and such. CUTSCENES I have a big question mark here. We have no idea how important cutscenes will be in the game or what tools will be used to make them - so anything I might say would be utter speculation.
  10. A few weeks ago there was a world-wide poll, where people were asked who they would vote for if they were allowed to vote in the US presidential election. Romney got the majority of votes in one or two countries, but everywhere else the majority would have voted for Obama - sometimes with a surprisingly large margin. In my country, the results were Obama: 98%, Romney: 2%, but the rest of Europe was not quite that extreme. This did, however, remind many people that on a number of issues the US is completely out of sync with a large part of the world.
  11. This would be nice, *but* we don't yet know how hard it will be to make new areas at all. However, we will (presumably) have some art assets in reusable form - item, character and monster models and textures in partucular, but possibly some animated objects and effects (trees/water/whatever) Also, keep in mind that some of the art assets might be incomplete - for example, they might have a building model with an unfinished/untextured backside - they might not need it as the back side would never be seen. So, even if you got the model for use in creating your own scene, you might be limited to a particula viewpoint (I really don't think this will be the case, as the artists developing the model might not know exactly how it is supposed to be facing, but it's a possibility - "We neeed the front and right side of a large temple") Another issue might be the ownership of the art assets (models, incl. animations and textures) - we don't know if they are all created in-house, or if Obsidian will be licensing some of them for specific use, but without the rights to redistribute them in original format. There might be another way to get some nice-looking models to play with, though - take the NWN2 models, maybe retexture them with higher-resolution textures, and you would have a pretty nice selection of buildings to use.
  12. Would it make sense to have a single "party" inventory for loot? It can be a bit tiresome to go into a dungeon, and fill up all the inventory slots of all the characters, and then have to go through each character when visiting a store to sell the loot. The "party" inventory would automatically get all the items you pick up - no need to worry about who actually carries which item, unless it gets assigned to a particular character. Then we would have a "personal" inventory that would be much smaller - limited to wielded/worn items, and a (very limited) number of items that would actually be accessible in combat. Just an idea ... nothing more.
  13. Considering the pre-rendered background and relatively small size of character models on the screen, frame rates are not going to be an issue - even on machines that are not top-of-the-line today (or when the game will be released). It would be nice to get a better view of the models on the inventory screen, but that would mean making one of the following three choices: 1) Have different LOD models for game and inventory screen (drawback: extra work) 2) Use only high-LOD models (drawback: unnecessary heavy in real-time) 3) Use only lower-LOD models (drawback: Inventory screen might look "ugly")
  14. Dragons are overrated and overused in RPGs - I hope to get a dragonfree game for once.
  15. I suspect the megadungeon will be tied into the cites - quests that start in the city and require you to fetch something from the dungeon (or vice versa), but I don't know if I want to see it as a part of the main quest - assuming there is a single *main* quest to begin with....personally I'm homing for a complicated, intertwined ste of primary quests....that would really increase replayability for me.
  16. The demand for nudity mods will probably be lower than in many other games, as the isometric view (possibly with limited zoom) means that means that players will not really be...uhm...enjoying the view up close anyhow.
  17. They have already said it will be possible to mod the game. Some things will be easier than others....but if the game mechanisms are scripted, it would be possible to change/add spells and new classes. It should also be possible to change dialogue and add quests and such in existing areas. It should also be possible to add new items or modify existing ones. I expect it will be rather hard (but nt impossible) to add new areas. I am not sure if it will be possible to add new monsters or to add animations to existing ones. Now, some of the necessary tools might be provided by Obsidian, but in other cases they might just provide file format info and let the community develop its own tools - something which has been dona successfully for other games in the past. Just wait and see...I expect we will hear something from Obsidian regarding this in a year or so.
  18. We might see some new quests set in the two cities, but involving existing (or new) NPCs. There is also the matter of the nearly 200 people who paid for the opportunity to add new NPCs or items to the game - I would not be too surprised if some of them decided to write a quest involving "their" NPC, even if it does not involve adding a new area. Anyhow, we don't know yet how hard it will be to add new stuff....we should have a better idea in a year or so.
  19. On Obsidian's front page is a "Which game do you hope Project Eternity is most like?" poll. Now, Obsidian presumably put it there to confirm what their fans and supporters are really looking for, and the results are interesting, but not unexpected. 46% say BG or BG2 and 38% say PS:T. The other games get a far, far lower percentage. Now, this does not surprise me, but what does it really tell us...what do BG and PS:T have in common? One key feature of those two games are the companions - interactive companions with a story, motivations and a personality - and yes - interactions with each other. Compare that to IWD where the player-created characters are, well..flat, like cardboard pieces. The second key feature is the story. BG had a good story, and PS:T was really all about the story. The story in the other games was quite a bit weaker. Now, considering what Obsidian has said about Project Eternity, it sounds to me that they will really be giving the majority of their fans and supporters what they are hoping for.
  20. If (as I hope) the game does not offer any kind of respeccing, those who want this feature probably do not have to worry too much - I am pretty sure someone will write a character editor or a save game editor that will allow people to shift abilities and stats around, change their gear, or start the game wiith 4294967295 coins in their pockets.
  21. Hove about having to live with the results of your mistakes, and find ways to bypass them or turn them into strengths? You know, like in *gasp* real life? Also, keep in mind that some attribute changes might not be the result of a simple selection, but rather the result of the player's actions. For example, you might solve a particular quest, and be rewarded with a permanent bonus to some stat or skill. Allowing the player to "respec" that somehow would be outright silly. I have not yet heard of a single good reason to allow players to "respec" in a game like this - although I can understand the demand for such a feature in MMOs, where reloading from an older save file is not an option. I really hope there will not be any "respec" option, unless there is something that makes sense, story-wise.
  22. I'm pretty much in the "the game ends when the story ends" camp, but there is one thing to consider - if the end of the story involves some world-changing actions (kill the evil overlord or whatever), it may make sense to allow people to go back, say to some specific location to see what effect their actions really had. Sometimes that will not work - for example, in Wizardry 8 the world-changing decisions at the end were simply too great for that to make sense - a short cutscene showing the effects of your actions would do the job much better.
  23. I was able to think of one scenario where respeccing would make perfect sense in a RPG - if you have a sci-fi or cyberpunk themed game where people can "upload" skills to their brains or have a brain-interface where they could insert a "skill chip". PE is not one of those games, so....
  24. Personally I don't like the Adventurer's guild at all. I by far prefer fleshed-out companions with a backstory, independent motivations and so on, even if they are not "optimized" like a player-created party would be. This is because of the interaction, the dialogue and all the other details that made PS:T and BG a great game from my point of view, while games like IWD were just something I played through once and then put on the shelf.
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