Dwarfare

I am having issues upgrading the Magistrate's Cudgel to it's top level. I first had it on Rekke (Fighter/Monk, bonded as Monk), brought him to the Oathbinder's Sanctum, went to the deepest level with the massive statue of Woedica and the altar, rested, and the cudgel leveled up just fine, fully upgraded, fantastic. However, I got Mirke (Full monk, bonded as monk (obviously)) later from that free DLC, and I decided that if I'mma have a monk, I'm gonna have a monk that's combating sobriety with her every waking breath. So, I sever the binding from Rekke, switch the cudgel to her, level it up in two fights to the final stage, go to Oathbinder's like I did last time. I rest, wake up and... ... ...nothing. Doesn't upgrade, still says I should rest at Oathbinder's. I try putting it in a different slot, I try resting at different places in the room, I try restarting the game and giving it another go, resting with food, without, nothing seems to work. Any ideas?

A game with an expansive, intuitive toolset for people to create their own unique worlds, placables, items, classes, models, etc. to create online communities around to enjoy together. However, developers seem to have little interest in that these days, likely due to the amount of work it takes to do it properly compared to the minimal earnings from drawing people in with player worlds.

Blarg. Ditto.

Very much enjoyed it! Very nice for an early trailer and getting a look at the game. Only things that sort of caught my eye in a negative way was the lack of character hit reactions during the spell battles and something about the four person party movement seemed a bit too perfectly in a formation to have a natural look to it. Fantastic stuff, and I'm definitely looking forward to upgrading a tier or two, provided we see some additional stretch goals in the near future!

I'm a big fan of long quest lines. I particularly like, though this instance is exceedingly rare in games today, when say, a quest I get in Act 1 of the game is expanded in Act 2, takes a surprising direction and finally comes to a head in Act 3 or 4, and most importantly, that this is NOT THE MAIN STORYLINE. If that quest line has multiple endings depending on how you acted, good lord, that'd be fantastic. I get tired of the numerous bite-size quests that tend to have little substance to them, and don't make one think. The "Oh, I can't find Timmy. Can you find him? I'm so worried" -> "Hm, the boy's trail seems to denote that Timmy fell into the well." -> "Well, it seems the well... Hah, forgive the pun, but it seems as if it leads to a basilisk den. I can't tell which of these rocks Gorbek fell on is your boy, but here you are and I wish you well of i-Hah, I said well again. But seriously, you should block off that well." And that's the whole 15 minute quest line. In short, I think it best when you have a series of long-running quests that is in some way relevant or at least meaningful to your character (perhaps class-based and alliance based and then some just out in the world to be discovered) in which seems to hit dead ends, run cold, take unexpected turns and suddenly burst forth into the light once more as you progress through the game, with different endings depending on how you interacted with it. Perhaps let it weave in and out of the main quest line, or just be a long-running and compelling side journey. Edit: My "in short" was my longest paragraph. Oops.

Very nicely done. I do like the look of it, hopefully will get some animation shots before long! One thing I would very much like to see is that the quality of the characters remains sharp and detailed even when zooming on on a parituclar area (assuming we are giving the option of altering the view distance, as I do usually like to zoom in on combat and watch the skirmishes take place while not having to frantically click on tiny figures mid-fight).

While getting specialized "classes" might be nice or interesting, I feel like it tries to deviate from the original class more than necessary. Personally I'd rather have kit abilities that could be unlocked via training with masters of the combat form you find in your travels/special quests which challenge your character in new ways (forcing your character to alter his technique and perhaps discover a new one in order to meet a new form of challenge), should you meet the prerequisites. Tack on bits here and there to your preference, special skills that can be learned afield or passive bonuses from various other characters in the game, but only have your character have so many extra bonus slots with which to customize such abilities. Such abilities should feel worthwhile and unique, helping to further define your characters skills. Basically find various events in the world that allow you to dip out useful techniques that would have been mainstays of various "prestige" classes, with varied skills, a number of different sources, and call it whatever the hell you like. Your character takes what he finds useful to customize his combat to his own desires rather than locking himself into special kits, and it's more your own.

My personal preference is a bit of both. If you do a light run or turn down a lot of rewards/fail quests, you'll have to be pretty strict with your coin and purchase only that which is most efficient to be well equipped. If you do a heavy run, you'll likely have all the coin you need to buy most everything. Though if you're hitting pretty much everything, coin will likely be less necessary from gear found/earned as well, so you'll probably end up filthy rich that way. I don't like the feeling that gold is meaningless in the game due to the excess, but I also don't want to feel like I need to scrounge every broken arrow and bit of scrap metal to afford anything.

I'd like to see more iconic weapons that aren't large swords. Some of the less standard fair of weaponry being better represented would be fantastic, I think.

Rather than having another run-through of the campaign with slightly higher numbers popping up, I'd rather they expand on the original experience and put in so many paths and so much content that starting a new fresh run is the best way to experience more of the game rather than the same thing you just did but with a bit larger numbers.

A masochistic, unencumbered reaver that pushes the natural limits of the body to return the punishment in a variety of increasingly potent ways? Good god, yes!

Hm, what should a female's breastplate look like? In my opinion, it should look like a breastplate. Armor is fairly unisex (aside from the totally necessary requirement of massive codpieces, of course!), though historically it's been mostly males wearing it, of course. With the focus not so much on complimenting the figure of the one wearing it (though more expensive armors were decently tailored/smithed to proper proportions with some embellishments (which detracted from their actual functional purpose of turning aside blades rather than helping them catch and pierce)), the real practical focus of the armor was to keep you from catching a mild case of death upon the battlefield. Of course in a fantasy RPG, developers will want to pretty it up (and rightly so, as I see it), but function should take precedence over form. Unless you're ridiculously busty, normal armor ought to work well enough. At least, I think we're past the days when female armor was inversely proportional in protection offered compared to amount of material used (though this still holds true in some MMOs). In that scenario, the most impervious, unbelievably effective and magnificent armor gifted from on high, levitating down to the land on a beam of light would be two rings about about a hand's span apart and connected by a bit of red string to tie about the chest.

Dunno about you guys, but for me, when I look at Ranger, I don't think "Forest Protector" or "Hunter of Men, Beasts and Monsters", I think "A forest protector that is a hunter of men, beasts and monsters," and even I think that's pigeon-holing the class a bit in terms of breadth and depth (as not all rangers are hunter/protectors or dwell in forests, particularly. Desert rangers, mountain rangers, underdark/under-dwelling rangers, etc). It's a multi-faceted class that has aspects of both, at least in D&D. You're focusing too much on one or the other, it seems to be, when as I see it, it's both of them at the same time. Class roles tend to be a bit more flexible than that, though this is of course Project Eternity, and while it's borrowing from staples of the genre, it can still choose to smudge the classical definitions a bit. As far as changing the name in my opinion, I'm more in favor of keeping it as it is. In borrowing the class title and theme from an established source, the name Ranger is more laden with meaning for gamers in this genre as compared to hunters. Not a bad idea, but I have to admit that I do have some preference for sticking with the familiar as I'm more in touch with it's various nuances and whatnot.

Indeed, I personally very much prefer an ending in which it seems like the sum of the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, and there's not just a quick hashed out "This is dead and now this happens, the end!" but something with some substance. An endgame ought to hit you from all sides with the decisions that you've made and come at you from unexpected angles, and likely more dialogue and decision heavy than it might be action oriented. What I would especially like to see is an epilogue that is not only extensive in it's depth, but playable as well, to a reasonable extent. Let the player reap the rewards of his efforts rather than a "You win!" screen once the final boss's health hits zero (or whatever might serve as the game's climax) like a couple others. And after that, set us up for the next chapter in the story, maybe! A man can dream, eh? (Damn, pretty high hopes for a game which is still in the pre-alpha phase under a working title)

"Well fought, men! It was a fine battle, but despite all odds, we conq-What's that noise? Anyone else hear tha-Oh god, worms! They're huge! They're stealing the corpses! Close call, glad they didn't grab the lot of u-OH GOD, THE LOOT! DAMNIT! NO! SOMEONE GRAB THEM! NO NO NO! Shovels! Now! We need shovels, fast! Move, you idiots, move!"

In some games, I do enjoy achievements, but not when they're totally meaningless. "Hey, you made it to the next act of the story!" is not all that worthy of any form of praise. Finishing the game? Sure, I'd take an achievement for that. Completing all possible character arcs for a companion? Sure. Completing particularly difficult puzzles or story pieces, designed in such a way that they actually require thought and legitimate skill to beat? Yeah, I'd be down for some kind of minor achievement for that sort of thing. However, I really don't much care about achievements in RPGs, and them popping up would be an immersion-breaking annoyance. They would be, however, useful for tracking completion of certain bits, like the companion arcs that you could choose from. That sort of thing can be a bit difficult to track when you're doing multiple playthroughs, and an achievement system could be helpful for completionists to have a catalog of what they've done and what they haven't. What I'd say is "Achievements? Absolutely! However, let there be a toggle to avoid having them pop up for players who don't care for that sort of thing, or just want them out of the way until they are looking for them"

As an avid dwarf fan which likely will go completely unnoticed due to my name, I must say that I am in support of not having ladybeards. During intense dwarven makeout sessions, sometimes there can be a tangle, which can take hours to properly extricate without, god forbid, having to prune anything. I saw three Developer posts today. It has been a good day.

HRDC:))ERROR &nbspcode43!_(.)_*: This powerful mace was forged atop the highest peaks of the Siefenhuld Mountains, and imbued with great and terrible power. A council of nine mages worked the forbidden magics upon it for seven days, and only two left the peaks alive when all had settled, mad though they were and mad they died not long after. The weapon passed from hand to hand for centuries. Kings wielded it in defense of their realms, conquerors left fields of death in their wake with this mighty instrument in their hands, but now, located in the 13th level of the most feared dungeon of the realms, it has finally passed into your hands. With such awesome power in your hands, will it once more give protection to those deserving, or bring ruin to all that stands before it? Special Property: On Hit: Freeze Game, delete contents of owner's hard drive, give priority place on International Terror Watch List.

Not that I'm making any, but the types of weapons I always very much enjoyed in the old IE games were the non-standard sort. Examples being Lilarcor, the talking sword, those melee weapons that could be changed to returning throwing weapons at whim, the axe Balance that would allow you to swap damage for attack bonus and vice versa, _______ of ______ slaying with heavy bonuses if not a chance of outright death against certain creatures and less effective against others, ranged weapons with a chance to ricochet and roll an attack against a second opponent (like a Warsling Sniper), pretty much just anything with unique properties apart from the norm of "Wowee, my last sword did 8 damage, and this one does 9!"

Yes, but that kind of corruption requires special ointments rather than soul searching. Or both!

It seems to me that just because there's no built-in morality monitoring system does not in any way mean that there is no morality in the game, nothing but a gray quagmire. I don't think that's how it'll turn out to be, personally. They've just left deciding what is good, evil, neither or both up to the player (and hopefully providing excellent responses to the choices the player makes to have some impact both on the player as well as the world around). That in no way means that "corruption" fails to be a term that will have any relation to the game's characters or story or whatnot. Just because there isn't a system saying "Alignment changed (5) points toward evil, Alignment changes (10) points toward lawful" doesn't mean that something akin to that doesn't happen. For me, I'd definitely vote to have some corruptable companions, as well as some incorruptible companions. Some people are more maleable, or willing to listen and consider another positions and alter their own as they see fit, however this new understanding came to be. Some are entirely devoted to their ways, and try as you might, you will not change them. Perhaps your attempting to change them doesn't mean that they simply stand their ground, or come to your side, but instead pull away and follow another course to oppose you. You tried to show him the light, where before he was ambivalent, but in the end the light only opened his mind and make him more aware of all the darkness, and it beckoned him more strongly than you ever could. Had you simply left well enough alone, who knows... Having influence over your companions, or having it shown exactly how little influence you have over someone? Hell yeah, I'll take that, especially if one of those tricky bastards feigns following your way to capitalize on the deception somehow later.

But they 'did' have Ciphers and magic in the medieval era, so... Pick an era to help the player get their feet under them, yes, but don't use that era to limit the enjoyment of the player or the expansiveness of your setting. Anyhow, I hardly find it difficult to believe that people in this sort of era would lack the sort of warriors who would like to prove their worth to the adulation of hundreds of fans, and crowds that have a taste for bloodsport. People of great talent and ability often want recognition, and how better to achieve that than showing off to a crowd of tens of thousands chanting your name? Hell, even today we've got professional sports, fencing, boxing, martial arts, etc. In ye olden times, they very likely had tournaments of martial prowess, jousting, melee's, archery, that sort of thing. Just speaking for myself, I very much enjoy arenas as a combat challenge, but not lifeless arenas and are just "Fight enemy X. Alright, is he dead? Okay. Fight enemy Y." and then repeat until bored. Put some story to it, some reaction from the crowds, unexpected challenges, underhanded tactics, that sort of thing. Spice it up!

I very much enjoy the Good vs Evil bit, but not as starkly alone as some people put it. I enjoy having starkly good choices, and starkly evil ones (so long as they make sense and it's not like "Welp, here's a village. Best start slitting all the children's throats, as due to the size of this place, it's going to take a while to get to all of them, and I want my beauty sleep!"). That said, those choices aren't as enjoyable without a myriad of shades of grey to ensure that there are more involved choices. Choices are everything, but having nothing but completely polarized options tends to ruin it. You have good, bad, and the guy with the gun. I certainly support the idea. While Project Eternity will not have a good/evil alignment system, that does not in any way mean that good and evil and all that is in between will not play an important role in who your character is, immersion, and the storyline. Though I really think that it's not so much a good/evil reward so much as rewarding choices (taking a hand as opposed to bypassing it entirely) and in logical ways as well as surprising ways, and simply letting the choices be what they are, providing reasoning as much as morality, no mindlessly good or mindlessly evil.

Forgive me if it's already been posted, but I did a search and didn't find anything quite what I was looking for. Here's something that I've always wanted to see in a game, but rarely saw executed to any real extent in an RPG, and I think Project Eternity certainly has both the team and the means to get it done, though the desire, the economy or the value of the idea is certainly arguable for either side. Anywho, here it is. Let the player be evil. Now now, I don't mean "But I selected Neutral Evil at character creation for my prestige class later" or "He just sucker punched an orphan, of course he's evil". I mean as a component of the main storyline. All too often if there's a good path and an evil path, with the good guy having clear reasoning for doing what he's doing but the evil player character merely seems to be doing the good guy's job because it happens to pay the bills and he had nothing else to do at the moment. The story typically is only ever designed with a good character in mind, and the evil character tossed in merely as an optional afterthought. The good guy may be trying to fight the evil to save the people, the neutral guy may be doing it for revenge, or to restore balance or something, any of them with a myriad of possible reasons, by why is the evil character fighting them instead of lending them a hand? Because he doesn't like them? No! To supplant them as the rising malevolent force in the lands. All that killing is just the murder-training he needs to both remove the competition and secure power and prestige for himself, reaping the lucrative rewards (Strength, money, influence) of being devious, murderous and cruel. Let everyone see the beginnings of a power-hungry tyrant already gathering his forces, a small but highly skilled band of killers and underhanded manipulators rather than a crusading group of heroic friends. I would like the option of doing horrendous things not because those things are bad and you're a bad man and this is how you go about proving it, but because from a perspective of a villainous power-monger, it simply makes sense when you're thrown morals out the window after covering it in lantern oil and setting it on fire. I would like to see uncertainty in characters you deal with when they enlist your aid to attempt to save themselves, wondering if the cure might not be worse than the disease (Well, I'm assuming you're about to take out some great menace to the realms, but seeing as the project is in such an early stage that we don't even have an actual name for the game yet much less a credible idea of the storyline...), and from those that are evil that they might recognize one of their own ilk and tempt you with offers of power. I would like to see an evil character with dialogue and event options that elicit reactions from other characters, not along the lines of "Oh, what a complete bastard. He extorted me for extra reward and he's a terrible person." but into the realm of "No... No! He's gone too far this time! I don't care if how much he's done to our enemy, this cannot stand and he has to be stopped!" (Okay, that one may be a little hard to swing story-wise when you have important story characters trying to end you as in that case it'd give the writers so much more work to do as its basically requiring a secondary storyline for the rest of the game after you impale the mouthy fool on a barbed spear and parade his corpse about as a lesson to any others who don't much care for your methods). That's what I'd like to see, anyhow. It'd be a game in which by the end of it, by the unforgivable things you did to gain power, your vicious culling of the opposition by blade and by manipulation as well as having shown a clear desire to gain control by any means necessary, you are as bad or worse than that which you were sent to destroy, to the horror of those who helped put your feet upon the path. To end the game with the feeling of, if not the actual act, rather than "Ah, I've finally done it, my cherished people are finally safe", it's more a feeling of "And now it's my turn..." as you turn the fall of the enemy to your own advantage. One major reason I'd like to see this is because I think it'd do wonders for replayability, which with most games with an evil option that I play, when I do my first good run, I'm thinking "Woo, I'm saving the world!" but as I play my second, evil run, all I'm left with is "Woo, I'm saving the world, but I'm being slightly less nice about it this time!" Yeah, I'd like to have something a little more involved with the other side of the coin this go 'round. Also, I just feel a game would feel so much more complete if rather than killing some fellow or being involved with some plot and having the guards come after me like "Ahaha, look at me, I'm playing against the system now!" and then reloading your save prior to said dastardly act, it seems as if the game was purposely designed with route in mind and as a result doesn't just say "You are bad. Guards will chase you now" but instead gives the player options, has them confronted with someone other than the guards, and reveals an entirely new path that you could take, which I think would throw a curve ball to a lot of gamers, though it might just be one which they would be quite happy to receive. Of course, I think the major difficulties would be first of all that it would require a 'very' flexible storyline, which in turn would require a 'lot' more options, which then would lead to a great deal more writing, which would possibly lead to an overall less cohesive experience due to how many different parts had to be included but too much to properly polish, by the time it's all said and done with might've been time better spent refining some other aspect of the game. There might not be a lot of draw for a player looking for that sort of option in the story and thus might not be seen as an effective use of time and money, which is entirely reasonable from my standpoint. I'm sure there's more, but I'm honestly too tired to think them all up right now, and I figured I'd let you fine, wonderful individuals come up with all the reasons that this is a terrible idea and I'm a terrible person for having thought it up and spent time writing it as well as purposely trying to come up with evil stuff and should be taken out back and shot for the number of run-on sentences in this wall of text if nothing else!

I do like a backstory, especially if it is relevant to the main story in general. That's one problem that I have with a number of games. There tends to be a disconnect. Why is my guy putting his life on the line to combat these guys? All too often the answer is "Because they're there" or "They tried to kill him!" or "But they're the bad guys! Shut up and start swinging." Well yes, all of those would give you a reason to fight, but that's you and just about every single other person they've ever crossed paths with. Are we playing just one random dude from the masses, or does he has special reason to risk everything embarking on this journey of certain death along with his companions? Having a backstory that's relevant to the main plotline in some way always tends to draw me in than games that don't have any such device. Even if the answer to that initial question is just "Because that's who this guy is, he just won't stand for this murderous injustice" or "He is strongly driven by a lust for power", a properly done backstory helps define not only how the character might've ended up where his is now, but also the aspects that make him who he is.