Varana

Not sure yet. I do get a physical and a digital copy, though, so I'll already have a DRM-free copy. Therefore, I'll probably get the digital copy on Steam - not the least because I want people to see that I play PE. :D

There hasn't been any statement regarding that issue, so we don't know yet whether they had thought of that or have a solution in mind. It may well be that the involvement of Paradox means that European backers will be getting their shipments from within Europe, but that's only an assumption. And it doesn't really help backers from outside the U.S. and Europe.

IE area maps had a greyscale BMP file with rudimentary height information that went with the area map, which basically faked height: This is for the Thieves' Guild hideout from BG2 (and it's not scaled down, the auxiliary map files were very low-res).

Wood Elves in the Elder Scrolls, by 10% in Morrowind and Oblivion (in Skyrim, only very slightly). --- First playthrough will be with a male Paladin called Galahad. While it wouldn't be my first choice of character today (and certainly not the name), it's kind of a tradition - I did the first run of BG, BG2, IWD, IWD2, and NWN1 with him. So I have to stick to it. :D

If it would be possible in any way, I'd very much prefer an opt-in/opt-out version. Apart from that, #2. Getting a map early on is all nice and stuff, but additional customs fees for some people are real money.

Thanks for the nice update. And thank you for choosing a more ambient track for demonstration, and not some show-off bombastic action sequence. :D It's a nice thing ybout these updates that we get a glimpse into some aspects which aren't usually shown during development, as they may not induce that much excitement as an epic fight against dragons, or whatever.

Great update. What I really despise in companion writing: When all the issues and problems of all your companions are solved solely by you, and travelling with them or talking to them feels like playing a psychiatrist's office simulation - dialogue about a companion's character becomes a therapy session, and it culminates in you sorting out the companion's longstanding psychological issues with basic advice from a self-help book (with something to kill thrown in, because it's a video game), or something like that. "Personal quests" and especially romances tend to fall into that trap. It may be appropriate in each case for itself, but with all party members combined, it's usually too much. Character flaws are necessary for giving the companion a personality, but they don't have to be "solved" or overcome, and not necessarily by the player character. Aerie may have to get over losing her wings at some point, but it doesn't have to be you who cures her of her problems. In a general sense, the point of that probably is that I like companions who don't follow you because they depend on you or need you, but who want to travel with you because they like you or have the same goals, or things like that.

Though maps aren't the only use for modding tools - by far. BG (esp. BG2) has a large and active modding community, but new maps are somewhat rare. It's much more about quests, companions, and dialogue. That has a much larger pool of people able to do it, than 3D modeling. More important is a good documentation and accessibility of game files. When their structure and use is clear, editors will be written. And it'd be good if game data could be changed or overridden in a precise manner - i.e. you can change the value of an item or a specific dialogue response, without having to override the whole item data or dialogue tree. That's for compatibility - one mod does X to the item, another does Y, and I'd like to have them both. Or one mod adds a skill check to a dialogue response, another one uses the same response to add a companion line there, and such things. Having dedicated creation tools would be very nice, but you can lessen the need for them by structuring your game files and data in a mod friendly manner, and telling people what they do.

If the game is successful enough and happens to have fans who can do these things, modding tools will be made, even if Obsidian doesn't make them. For BG&Co., the community had to figure out these things on its own, but it eventually happened. For PE, there's much more contact to the developers, so information like the IESDP can be gathered quicker and more reliable. Nonetheless, depending on how it's implemented, modding some things can get complicated even with the tools available. The area creation tools for BG were not really good (at least a few years back; haven't checked for a while), but the whole process was tedious. And the main issue was finding people who could do graphics or photomanipulation good enough to create area graphics that were of similar quality to the original game art. Sometimes it's not that the developers want to make it hard, some things just aren't that easy all by themselves.

Some random video game definitely is the wrong place to do that. And to believe that just looking at spiders* long enough will surely improve your arachnophobia*, only proves the point: Leave that to people who know what they're doing. * Fill in your applicable phobia here.

Why is everyone putting everything at the bottom bar there? Vertical space is much more precious than horizontal one. Even more in today's age of widescreen monitors, but even BG had its portraits at the side. Having all UI elements at the bottom reduces the visible area to a low but very wide strip. This is not only impractical, it also has gameplay implications: you want to approach potentially dangerous things in a way that you're coming from the side, so you can spot earlier what's going on; you'll probably have the issue that you can shoot your bow or fireball horizontally quite fine, but have to scroll to do it vertically across the screen. Both effects should be avoided as much as possible, imho. If there's a "heavy" UI, and even in more minimalistic designs, at least some elements should be aligned vertically at the sides. It's where we have more than enough space for them.

I would disagree with the sentiment that the main quest should take absolute precedence. A decent main quest is important, but imho equally important are unconnected things to do along the way. They breathe life into the world; it doesn't only revolve around the PC but could be imagined to exist outside of the game, the illusion that it's not only a vehicle for a specific game - basically, that there's a world that is worth saving. A main quest that sets you on a continuous path from start to finish, without pauses to just explore and do unrelated stuff, should imho be avoided in an RPG like PE. Discovering what else the world has to offer (and using it to level up ), is a good incentive to play the game.

Also, if translating is taken seriously, "Dirty Harry" just doesn't do the job. That's capitulation. In English, "dirty" carries a certain meaning and implications. If you leave it as "Dirty Harry", this meaning is completely lost, from a German reader's perspective - except he has a working knowledge of English that is good enough to understand the phrase in the first place. In the example of A Song of Ice and Fire: Yes, "Königsmund" doesn't really bring across what is meant with "King's Landing". Just leaving it at the English word, doesn't bring across anything except "random foreign word, most probably English". It's not that keeping the original would be better, it's just that "Königsmund" is not a very good translation. The same with Snow - for a reader speaking English, the connections between Snow, Stone etc. are obvious. It's the point of these names that they're just common things in their respective country. In German, that connection is inexistent. A translation is done for people who don't know the original language. It's a special case with English, as many people today know at least some English, so they recognize some of the original meanings. But that's not what a translation is about. OTOH, names also transport a certain resemblance to their respective real world or historical model. If we get to a fantasy region where people are called Viona della Tegalliani or Silvana Cerastelli, we immediately bring up something remotely Italian. In this case, it is of absolutely no interest if these names have an actual meaning in actual Italian, because the writer didn't know or care and just used them because they sounded Italian. The translation issue mainly concerns names native to the language of the book/game/whatever.