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AndreaColombo

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Everything posted by AndreaColombo

  1. Hello. I would only like to chime in to ask the developers to please, please, please not use italics inappropriately—and using them for descriptive text counts as (highly) inappropriate. I understand and appreciate people's desire to separate descriptive/action text from spoken lines, but italics are not the way. As explained in this book (among others; this is the first example that came to my mind), italics are a punctuation mark that serves the purpose to emphasize text; but if everything is emphasized within a given text, nothing is. It ensues that the (ab)use of italics for descriptive/action text is gratuitously ungrammatical, and it makes the text itself harder to read. It's like the loudness war of written text (well, not really: Written text never experienced anything similar to the loudness war, but the results are the same—something that is harder for our brain to process). In light of the above, I reinstate my request to look into alternatives to italics if you want to separate descriptive/action text from spoken lines.
  2. Pipyui — You're no hypocrit. We're entitled to enjoy whatever genre regardless of how good the mastering is. I myself like a lot of bands whose albums are overcompressed, but I certainly do not condone their partaking the Loudness War. In fact, I spread the word whenever I can, pester bands about it on their FB pages, and partake Dynamic Range Day every year (you can find it either on FB, on Twitter, or on Ian Shepherd's "Production Advice" website). Here is a link where to find out whether an album has been compressed, and to what extent: http://www.dr.loudness-war.info/ You may also upload your own measurements for albums that don't appear in the list yet. Sorry for the OT, everyone—I just have strong feelings toward overcompression.
  3. Pipyui - Just a quick link for you to peruse, which explains exactly what is wrong with music nowadays: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war Justin Bell - Thank you very much for chiming in on this discussion! I'm very glad to learn that our opinions are perfectly aligned, and I'm looking forward to P:E all the more! If lossless audio cannot be implemented in the game as-is, a separate high-quality audio pack download would indeed be an awesome idea (provided, of course, that the game could be made to support FLAC and easily swap between it and whatever format you guys eventually go for).
  4. I complain now. I bought Baldur's Gate again from GoG.com solely because installing it from 6 CDs everytime I wanted to play it was downright appalling
  5. I agree with the OP whole-heartedly. People calling this thread useless clearly have no understanding of how upscaling works, or of what it is altogether. What the OP is suggesting makes perfect sense, and he has explained it in every possible way (even with graphical examples). There really is no reason to not make P:E future-proof, and account for higher DPI screens.
  6. I would like to chime in for, as an inveterate audiophile, the quality of audio in Project: Eternity is one of the first things I have thought of. I agree with the OP that environmental audio is key to creating an immersive atmosphere in the game. The design of good environmental audio is far from banal: Overdone environmental audio is as fastidious and bothersome as the absence thereof, so it needs to achieve a proper balance. On top of good environmental—and of course positional—audio, there are two things that really matter to me: Avoid excessive compression. The Loudness War is bad enough in music without it spoiling games' soundtracks as well. There is absolutely no good reason for overcompression to be used, ever, under any circumstances. If you want things to sound good, you must leave their full dynamic range untouched. Let the music explode in our face in the most epic moments, and fighters' blows to sound different in intensity from one another (a person would never strike with the exact same intensity twice in a fight). Spell effects would benefit from great dynamics even more. Avoid mp3 as though it was pest (which it is). Mp3 sounds bad and it can't be helped: Its compression algorithm just isn't good. If Project: Eternity's audio needs be lossy for space-saving purposes (which aren't urgent as they used to be in the past, anyway), by all means go with OGG Vorbis. It is free (contrary to mp3) and sounds significantly better. Q10 OGG Vorbis would already be a treat compared to what most games currently offer. However, if you wanted to bring the game's audio to the next level and make it really shine, go FLAC all the way. It is free, and it is lossless. Pure aural bliss.
  7. I emailed them yesterday but hadn't quite come up with something like that yet. Depending on their answer, I may mention this in my reply.
  8. I've been trying to upload .BMPs and .JPGs, but that would always result in some sort of error message and no avatar was actually uploaded.
  9. Hello. I know this is probably going to vie as the stupidest question on the forum for the year 2012 (possibly a candidate for 2013 as well), but I couldn't find the answer anywhere else. What are the accepted file formats and sizes for forum avatars? Thanks.
  10. Why do I systematically like everything I read about Project: Eternity? It must have something to do with the game oozing pure win ...
  11. As I side note: I really don't mind getting the game later than Kickstarter backers if that means I can get the $250 tier. Need more time to have the goods ready to ship? No problem. I'm no publisher, and I won't rush anyone's feet off As far as I'm concerned, the devs may and should take all the time they need to fulfill whatever (be it content design, feature implementation, physical tiers fulfillment, etc.). All I care is for this game to express the full potential of its spiritual ancestors without repeating their (albeit few and venial) mistakes or incurring in the same limitations; in other words, to be awesome.
  12. Hi SqueakyCat. Indeed, they did not disclose for how long the tiers will be up — they just said it would be a "very limited time". That's why I'm fretting about my ability to get the $140 tier, and I'm positively skeptic about my ability to later upgrade it to the $250 tier. Unfortunately, pledging $250 right away is something I just cannot afford; otherwise, I totally would. However, unless both Project: Eternity's website and its Kickstarter campaign webpage are mistaken (which they might, if the developers made an announcement that superseedes what I see written there), the $250 tier does include a collectors' boxed set signed by the devs. Yes, I imagined that (though thanks for confirming my suspicions; I still have a lot of catch-up reading to do about Project: Eternity). I figured it would have already been an add-on, if the devs had planned for it to be one. I guess that's one more reason for me to fret about getting the $250 tier.
  13. I have just noticed this post, and I "Liked" it right away. I couldn't back the game while the Kickstarter campaign was up because I was out of job, and I must wait until I get my first salary next week to afford the $140 tier plus a few goodies (namely, the soundtrack on CD, the expansion pack and maybe the playing cards). I'm itching to pull the trigger because I have no idea for how long I'll be able to, and that's a bummer because the timing of my purchase does not depend on me — if I had had the money, I would have already backed Project: Eternity. Moreover, I would really, really like to later upgrade to the $250 tier to have my collector's box signed by the devs and get ahold of the collectors' hardcover book, but with my Hungarian salary it's already a lot if I can get the $140 tier for now; the upgrade must wait till a later date. If the devs kept the tiers up and running for a longer time (in my specific case, let's say until January), I'm sure they'd get more pledges. Either that, or give those who pledged for a tier the option to purchase add-ons indefinitely, and add the collectors' hardcover book to the list of possible add-ons Besides, I find it would be unfair to "discriminate" (quotation marks for lack of a better word) those who would have wanted to back the game but couldn't for reasons not depending on them.
  14. Multiple. First and foremost, Baldur's Gate and Planescape: Torment. Secondarily, Icewind Dale and Temple of Elemental Evil.
  15. My most hearfelt congratulations to the Obsidian crew for the overwhelmingly successful Kickstarter campaign, and my sincere thanks for coming up with the idea of Project: Eternity and funding it via Kickstarter: This goes a long way toward showing the whole gaming industry just how much isometric, party-based RPGs are still on demand! There's a reason why games like BG, IWD and Ps:T are still being played after 10–12 years from their release, and are still the touchstones against which all new RPGs are compared and judged. Besides, I totally like the idea of you guys not having a publisher to rush your feet off: Just take all the time you need to make Project: Eterny awesome, grand, perfect. I'm really sorry I couldn't back it up while the Kickstarter campaign was still up and running, but I've just started working. Just wait until next week and you'll be getting some support from me as well
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