JFSOCC

it would be cool if the lower levels of the dungeon appear to be in a different world. (seeing an alien landscape far below)

Quality Assurance is absolutely essential. It makes the difference between "could have been" and "is"

I think your problem is not so much that you know the statistics of a weapon, as it is that you can directly compare it to any other item and determine whether it is better or not (and indeed who should use it) I think that can be solved by giving unique weapons unique features that have strange effects other than slightly better stats, and thus play uniquely. this makes those weapons more interesting and tactical to use as well. For instance a sword that teleports the target 5 spaces away on hit (x% chance)(keep sending that Melee fighter out of combat) Or a ranged weapon that actually pulls an enemy in (chain!) (why position yourself when you can position your enemies?) A weak weapon that gets better with every kill (temporary) (better for large mobs) stuff like that. If each special weapon has unique gameplay, they'll feel much cooler, despite you knowing their stats. would that work?

Like many others, the announcement of Project Eternity made me go back down nostalgia avenue, and I decided maybe I should play some of the games that I hadn't played yet. There was immediately something that stood out to me. Some of these games are very dark. And I mean that in a strictly aesthetic way. Now maybe it's just me, I suffer from seasonal depression and I don't like darkness so much because of it. (despite my love for the thief games and the first few splinter cell games) So I was wondering if I was the only one who desired that while bleak and dark places certainly should make up part of the game, at least a significant part is brighter and colourful. (I'm not suggesting it should all be sparkly and wonderful, or that it shouldn't fit the art style of the game) After a few hours in a dungeon, I get sick and tired off it (one of the reasons why long dungeons fail to attract me. it is such a commitment to stay in there so long) Especially games with a birds-eye view of the world, where you can't see the sky can quickly feel constraining to me. Anyone else have this?

There is no good or evil because they are man-made concepts. There are motivations, no-one will do what they consider to be evil, for evils sake alone. (not in real life anyway) When people do things we consider to be bad, or evil, it's often for motivations that while we disagree with those, we can understand.

R.A. Salvatore is literally the worst ****ing author in the history of fantasy. Cliché ridden plot driven drivel. NO ****ing NO.No Salvatore, No Grubb, NO Donaldson, No Feist, No Goodkind and No Martin. Good fantasy artists include Brent Weeks, Patrick Rothfuss, Trudi Cannavan, Robin Hobb. I've read from all of these including those I don't like, and I think I can tell the difference between good and bad quality fantasy, you honestly can't bring up Salvatore as a postive.

Let's say an ancient Egyptian man made it to India, where he comes across the Indian burial ritual of building a pyre and burning a recently deceased. He is horrified. they just denied someone access to the afterlife! how dare they! Let's say an ancient Indian made it to Egypt, wherehe comes across the Egyptian burial ritual of mummification for the recently deceased. He is horrified. They are denying someone access to the cycle of rebirth! how dare they! This has been my argument against alignments. Good and evil are highly subjective. even things that we consider basic, like holding life sacred, has opposite viewpoints within our own world. Death worship like in feudal Japan. Where a good death was the best you could wish for. the Dharmic religions which believe that ending the cycle of rebirth and achieving oblivion is the ultimate goal. If we cannot agree about the most fundamental things, then you can't say one is good and the other evil. However, I'm sure that gleeful misanthropy is very cathartic, and I'm all for it being possible in the game. I just hope (and feel confident) that it is done more nuanced dialogue, and not good or evil dialogue.

you could blow up megaton and still talk to the npc's there, as ghosts.

and yet, that didn't come across during the entire game. I was off doing something else and the darkspawn were nothing but an annoying inconvenience as a random encounter during map travel. I had all these anti-darkspawn runes at the end of the game, that I hadn't used because I didn't even come across them that often. they completely failed as antagonist. I didn't care. we weren't removing them, we were stemming the flow, at best (in what I assume was a half-hearted attempt at grimdark) so the whole heroic notion fell flat as well.

relentless rats, get +1+1 for each other creature named relentless rats ingame. (and then have it so that after every 30 seconds, another one of them appears for each one still alive, doesn't seem like much as a challenge at first...)

this brings back memories The only time music broke immersion completely in that game. though the whole running on a treadmill was ridiculous enough But I wanted my stamina at 500. I do think the QFG games had it right on many levels. what little magic there was mattered, and no ability was useless, since you could often use multiple routes to the solution. but more on-topic, yes, their health and stamina system was pretty good, except that you could stock up on so many health potions so cheaply that it didn't matter anyway.

An oasis city, surrounded by desert, on this desert magical sand ships sail too and fro with trade goods from lands even further beyond. Legend speaks that once this land was lush and fertile, what has happened since? could life spring up once more? meh, I need to be more creative.

It's a portal to another world.

I too, am totally hyped. I spent last night watching a DnD campaign till 5am in the morning. the last time I was looking forward to something so much must have been over a decade ago. and it's true, everything I hear from Obsidian is only making me more confident they are the right people for the job. I say this without any hint of doubt or trace of irony.

I would be perfectly happy if after the game is complete they spend the extra money on candy and just keep streaming live DnD campaigns. was fun to watch.

When I learned about the AMA I actually planned out 2 questions straight there. I'd seen reddit AMA's before and most of the time only the first few questions would be answered (as opposed to what happened, which is really cool. I Immediately posted after constantly pressing f5 waiting for the AMA to load, my question was the second post in the topic. and it was conspicuously absent in the list above. I think it's relevant because it discusses fan-input, like ours. [–]JFSOCC You have invited feedback from fans, on here, on your own forums and elsewhere. No doubt you get quite a bit of E-mails with unsolicited suggestions as well. Have you ever copied an idea or suggestion from a fan directly? Or do you use feedback more as a means of inspiration to develop your own ideas off of? Second question, Funding by fans, using kickstarter, having no publisher oversight, Do you feel like you're free to take more risks on this project, or do you feel an obligation to the fans to stay as true to their nostalgia and perhaps being more conservative? (or anything in between)? [–]Obsidian_Ent[ Chris Avellone ponders: Never copied an idea from a fan directly, although we have collaborated with fans that we feel did a much better system than we did - I believe we collaborated with one fan's AI scripting system for Neverwinter 2 and credited them. That's another reason we love mods, because there's plenty of fans out there with waaaaay better ideas than we do. We tend to use it as feedback. As mentioned in another comment, we noticed that for New Vegas, people were making a lot of homebase mods, so we examined those to see what things people were looking for from a base along with some elements we knew we should fix (one-load access, means of dumping gear, little happy appliances that gave boosts). SECOND QUESTION: Definitely feel freer to develop ideas for this project, yes. I don't feel constrained, I feel like I know what we're doing from the outset, personally, mostly because we've all played or developed this style of game before and we know what goes into it. JESawyer: No, I don't think we've (I've) ever copied anything directly. Often fans come up with a lot of ideas at the same time or in a similar vein. Fan opinions can influence the flavor or direction of a particular feature though, definitely. 2nd part: I think we can take certain risks when we believe it will genuinely improve the gameplay, but we did promise people a certain type of experience. We can't account for every individual detail that a person may consider sacred in those experiences, but we try to stay within the same feeling/realm as the IE games.

I'm happy. I think there were so terrible problems with xp for killing enemies, such as it not being a smart option to use stealth or social options, because it would yield less reward. By making it based on the end-result (goal achievement) they've given the player free choice on how they will deal with their problems without being penalized for choosing one over the other. Players can keep to the playstyle they prefer this way.

I'm really impressed by how many questions they've answered, even from latecomers. That is most unusual, especially since it can be a bit of a chore to go through the avalanche of questions coming down on them. I'm especially impressed with Chris Avellone, who goes out of his way to answer all the questions he can.

Unfortunately, sometimes, yes.but smaller subreddits have more likeminded peolpe, and niche subreddits might be better in quality.

I'm trying to avoid the 'really' stupid ones. Thanks. what is it that makes you the judge of what is a good and bad question? I'd say any question answered by the team was clearly good enough to warrant an answer.

this is a sub-page of a bigger site. the concept of reddit is as a news site where everyone can comment on whatever article is posted. All articles also can be up or downvoted. the general idea is that the best/most popular news items or comments make it to the top.

On the right sidebar there's a button where you can register (only takes a few seconds, doesn't even need an e-mail). After that you can post, or up/downvote questions you like or dislike. just please learn reddiquette. the downvote button is not for what you disagree with, but rather that which does not add to the discussion.

Yes, those console loving dirty casuals

random options that come to mind: Thief "gather information" challenges Short range teleport (higher level, allows you to manoeuvre better) faster walking and running speeds (optional) to balance for being less of a fighter. (becomes more of a force multiplier character, get in, manoeuvre behind picked target, gank till stamina is about to run out, dart out to safety while recharging stamina. This would also make them more useful as scouts since you don't have to wait an hour before they get back to the team. silent takedown, risky option that can remove a patrolling lower challenge guard without the alarm immediately being sounded. comes in lethal and non-lethal variants. mission results that note that no evidence was left on some of the more intricate quests. planting evidence or (I was especially pleased to see you could do this in fallout 3) planting a grenade. (well maybe not a grenade, but something harmful. switching a famous scepter with a fake one. (so I guess some class specific quest content?) at higher levels: beguiling: letting enemies think you pose no threat, or even are supposed to be there. Imagine a few antagonist being utterly surprised as it turns out you were working for their opponents all along. Why did they bring you? who are you? You could use this creatively, for instance allowing you to lure smaller groups into traps. "I need help! Follow me!"

My problem with companions is that I like them really fast, or even if I don't I just don't want to let go of them. it feels like a betrayal to someone who's shed blood with you to leave them hanging while I replace them with some guy I just picked up in the copper coronet. So I end up doing the game with the party that first joined me. Not always a good idea, especially when some characters don't seem to enjoy each others company. When I say goodbye to a companion for a new one, I want to feel safe in the knowledge that it is "goodbye for now" not, "fare thee well"