Frisk

IWD/IWD II are actually my least favourites among the classic games - probably because I prefer companiosh with history, personality and interaction (BG, PS:T) to a player-generated party, but ah, well...I'll watch might be fun.

read the modding thread http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/59988-modding/ - it should answer the questions

I just noticed that Project Eternity is currently at the #1 position on the Kicktraq hotlist: http://www.kicktraq.com/hotlist/

By all means keep it open for longer. I personally went for a fairly high tier, but if the PayPal fundraising stays open longer it is in no way going to reduce the value of what I get - quite the contarary - I am going to get a bigger, better game as a result. This applies in particular if it means the difference between getting a second big city or not (the 3.5M one).

Youngsters! My first computer in ('80 or '81) was an Atari 800 with 16K memory....but eventually upgraded to a massive 48K. Had a 1.79 MHz 6502 processor.

But is there any better alternative? Say for example, that at some point you have two semi-independent goals - you need to complete both A and B to proceed towards your primary goal, but it does not matter in what order you do them. Let's assume A and B are "equally" hard. Say you do A first ... spend a lot of time on it - it is pretty hard and time-consuming, but your party gains quite a bit of XP, levels and gear. Then you do B, but if it does not scale, it will be ... well, very, very easy compared to A, because of everything you have gained while doing A - and if it is not a real challenge, it will be a disappointment to some. I would prefer to have some limited scaling in situations like that. Too much scaling is even worse, however. If I reach a high level and return to a typical starting area - say, a rat-infested basement, I don't want to see duraluminum-plated, fire-breathing rats. Likewise, if I wander into a dragon lair at the beginning I should get killed, not have to fight a tiny, wimpy dragon whelp. The right level of scaling to me means to have major NPCs, their spells, skills, pets, henchmen, gear and treasure scale a bit .. within a limited range - in D&D terms something like "NPC X will be set to level 13-17 depending on average party level when you first encounter him". To me, that is reasonable, and keeps the game challenging, without making the scaling silly.

I know there are many people like myself - programmers who really look forward to the game, and have the skill and time required to make modding tools. We don't really need Obsidian to make the tools - all we need is for them to make it possible in principle to make the tools....and then the mods will follow. I think it is well established by now that modding support estends the "lifespan" of any game - people will play it for longer, recommend it to more friends and will be more likely to buy any expansions or sequels. Besides, by having the community develop the tools, Obsidian can condentrate on the game itself - a much better use of their resources. So, that's my primary mod-related request - make it possible to add community created content (new areas, enounters, spells, items, quests...) and make it possible for us to create any necessary tools to create that content. I would for example suggest that a few months before the game is released, Obsidian should release some sample files and file format info - possibly only under NDA and possibly only to selected people. This would give the community a bit of a head start, and might mean that some tools might be ready when the game is released.

I'm more of a mod tool maker than a modder - responsible for some oddball tools like a model viewer for KotOR, but it's been a few years since I got a game that I felt was interesting enough for me to spend time on writing tools for it. I expect that will change now.....

When will you be revealing how much money has been pledged through Paypal? Paypal contributions don't show up yet, but they will count towards the stretch goals, right? So, will the Kickstarter+Paypal total be revealed right after KS closes, or...?

To me, the most valuable addition would be anything that increases replayability value. If I play the game through twice, with different companions, will my experience be sufficiently different the second time? I would like to see companion/class/race/gender-specific side-quests, encounters and areas. I would also like to see interactions between my companions and any other "small" details that will make it worthwhile to re-play the game.