Kyecthus

I could see your character being a selectable companion in subsequent playthroughs, but I'd rather not have a true new game plus. As much fun as exporting your character at the end was.

Personally I could go either way on 2d or 3d portraits, what I would like to see is the portrait act as a status monitor. Much easier to glance at a picture to see when I'm close to death, or poisoned, etc. That would probably be easier to achieve with a 3d portrait rather than artist rendered.

Which raises the concern of what happens if that period comes to a close and the game needs to be delayed. The Kickstarter crowd almost certainly wants a finished game rather than an early release, but where do they get the funds to finance extra work, if its needed? Well that's what I was saying. Is that at a bare minimum, they'll have the 18 months of production, but most likely they have 2-2.5 years when you factor in what Regen brought up. And yeah I realize that they don't get the 4.1m. After kickstarter and amazon, they would have had almost 3.7m. Technically its an investment, so whatever taxes Obsidian needs to pay on that, then you've got the rewards to finance and create. Either way, I'm confident that if they go beyond the 18 month window, they'll still be in ok shape and if they really need to, they'd probably open up pre-orders for the game to get extra financing for those who didn't get in on the kickstarter.

You would have to account for payroll taxes, benefits, tools, licensing fees, and other operational expenses to get a rough idea. An extreamly rough estimate would be at least $35k per person. With these very rough assumptions, you are looking at being able to support a 20 person team for a year and a half to two years without tapping into other funds. True. Really comes down to the breakdown of the team and the different roles as well. I mean a graphic artist or QA could be down near 50k. That's even if the full team is salaried or wholly dedicated to the one project. Most of the QA group probably overlaps with the South Park development. 35k a person seems a bit high of an estimate as well. I'd argue benefits average 15k. Unity is what, like 1500 a license? Either way, 4m is enough for an 18 month production period.

Easy enough to break down potential expenses too. I imagine marketing will primarily be taken care of through trade publications, word of mouth, and obviously us as backers. Guessing that all the assets are either currently owned by Obsidian or produced by them, meaning a minimal amount of money needs to be spent acquiring outside assets. Voice overs for interchapter movies, ending, and intro (if they're even doing that) won't run that high. Probably can even use in-house talent. Average programmer salary is maybe 70k just as a benchmark. Team consists of 20 people, so you're looking at roughly 1000 days of possible development. Given the fact they have toolsets, an engine, and an established development core, I think 18 months isn't that absurd of a goal, and even if they do go past that time, they have the extra capital. 70000\365*20 = $3835 dollars per day.

The issue with making it a main part of the storyline is for people who wouldn't want to utilize a stronghold roleplay wise for their character. Sure if you're trying to play along the lines of some urban-dwelling powermonger, the big shiny castle could be nice, but what happens when you set yourself up as a nature-dwelling ranger or the aloof hedge mage. It needs to be both investable but not game breaking, unless like the NWN2 stronghold, it becomes the basis for an entire section of the game that you really can't refuse the stewardship of.

Personally I’d like to see several options that you’d need to choose from when you are establishing the original stronghold either by conquest or reward or however Obsidian wants to do it. You’d get three options that represent different specialties: Industrial, Commercial, or Military. These three specialties would rely on different locations to set their tone. Industrial in a mountainous area, Commercial in the plains or a river area, and the military building could be situated along key road ways. Each of these stronghold types would have a series of add-ons you could build or repair to give various boons to either the stronghold production or your party. Industrial Headquarters: Guild Hall (can upgrade to improve security, goods quality) Primary Building: Foundry (produces high-quality metals used in other structures or trade) Primary Building: Ore Mine (generates ore used for the foundry) Secondary Building: Smithy (grants an equipment boon to your party, either a flat bonus or special equipment) Secondary Building: Metalworks (produces metal-based trade goods to generate wealth) Wealth Building: Mint (generates money by using precious ores) Protection Building: Militia Barracks (equipped miners and craftsman) Populace Housing: Row Houses (spartan living quarters in close proximity to eachother) Commercial Headquarters: Town Hall (improve to increase security, higher tax income) Primary Building: Town Market (generates wealth, random chance at unique merchants\items) Primary Building: Textile Mill (utilizes flax (or other crops) to produce trade goods or special gear) Secondary Building: Library (research, in-game information repository, bonus to casters) Secondary Building: Dockyard (allows for greater trade range, boosts wealth production) Wealth Building: Tax Office (collects taxes from the merchants and farmers) Protection Building: Town Watch (semi-professional guards) Populace Housing: Farms and Cottages (generates tax income and supplies the mill) Military Headquarters: Motte and Bailey (improve to add stockades for security, more troops) Primary Building: Armory (better equipment for the party and troops) Primary Building: Archery Range and Fletcher (allows for professional archers in your troops, bonus to ranged equipment for the party) Secondary Building: Stable and Road Patrol (increased security, faster travel from the stronghold for the party) Secondary Building: Training Yard (Bonus stamina to party and troops) Wealth Building: Toll Booth (generates wealth from collected tolls, better secured roads = more travelers = more tolls) Protection Building: Army Barracks (professional soldiers) Populace Housing: Fort Quarters All three would additionally be able to house a religious structure or two depending on the value of the stronghold. Obviously the more built up the town, the more followers that could exist to a faith. All of these buildings could have 1-3 tiers to allow for continued investment. Possible quests could involve stopping bandit raids on your farms, cleaning out parts of the mines of monsters as mentioned above, assaulting a river-based pirate ship, etc. All the headquarters would be able to facilitate communication with your companions, a seneschal who helps run the community, and associated NPCs that you could recruit to your town. When you don't have companions with you, they'd provide bonuses to various aspects of the town based on their current skills or class. The stronghold's primary job should be giving your party boons and wealth, without requiring constant contact. It is an element of the game that can be utilized as much or as little as the player wants. It could utilized basic supply and demand to determine income levels, and just have some simulated events that occur while you're adventuring to add and subtract to the value of the stronghold. There should be no best option for how you go about creating the town, and there could be an investment cap into the place so that it is impossible to upgrade all the building types to their maximum level. If you were confident of your ability to fund the town through adventuring, then you could focus mainly on the party boosts and not the economics.