Solviulnir the Soulbinder

These drawings, man. They bring back the memory of the day I first saw hand drawn concept art from BG. Been a long time. I hope that Obsidian will use them as in-game assets to cank up the atmosphere even more - i'd love to see them as illustrations placed in the in-game books, like bestiaries. I'm not sure whether PE will immitate the estethics of the inventory system found in BG games (with hand drawn images of the equipment) but surely you could utilise all the conceptual artwork that is being made at the prototyping phase and include it in the game. Thanks.

...To paraphrase one of my favourite characters: "There's no school like the old school and Obisidian are the f* headmasters". Pure win. Especially with the dynamic shadows. One thing though - will this walk animation speed be retained? Imho its a tad too slow, and I mean just the animation and not how fast the character moves across the river.

mstark raises some excellent points about fonts and readability (or rather legibility) of the in-game text. I think it's quite an important issue - e.g. the "ability check" screens are an amazing concept, but the current font (despite being beautiful) is rather hard to read. Garamond, as mstark suggested, would be one of better choices imho. The screens would still retain their original character while being definitely more legible with a somewhat less calligraphic font. Thanks very much for another informative update! You are my heroes.

Thank you for another, very informative update! This project is gonna be the best thing that happened in the entertainment industry since 1990's

NPCs in any game are representing (or should represent) a cross-section of the whole society in a given fictional world. To make the whole game world a believable place NPC need to be just like real people (with necessary stat adjustments for their preferred class). They should have their strengths and weaknesses. Having said that they also need to have diverse personalities, something that makes those few memorable. Be it an outspoken and cheerful druid who excels in saving your party with healing spells when the s*** gets thick or a bipolar mage, suicidal but having access to unique and powerful spells. Not to take it to the extreme but imho in every fictional world there should be place for diversity. Anyhow a *useful* NPC is a good NPC (that's basically why the player would try to recruit such person to his party in the first place). Be it thanks to the stats, class, weapon specialization, or overall harmonious build. Problem appears when a character fails at being useful to the party in any way. Imho this flaw in NPC design can be, to a certain degree, mitigated by giving them an exceptional personality, be it good or bad... or something that will intrigue the player in some way (space hamsters ftw). A flaw is a flaw however, a poorly designed character, a character designed without heart, without something which in some way makes him or her a hero, should just not qualify to the (limited) party of six. Mind you that I'm talking mainly about NP characters that you can recruit to your party, not the NPCs that provide you with quests, chit-chat, steel or lemons. Although the above extends to a certain degree to the former as well.

Didn't mean to imply sprite based animations are crappy. Agreed there.

Not being able to miss sounds kind of hmmm, nonelastic. BGs were a bit over the top in this regard... but really? Are the new mechanics so freaking restrictive that they can't actually allow for any misses whatsoever? What about an old feeble halfling mage with a heavy longbow? Will he always hit his target (with minimal damage, but still)? No matter the distance? Or enemy's armor? I'd like to play a stealthy character. I'm guessing it will be half as much fun now (compared to IE) to see my char attempting to assassinate an opponent. Also, how come suddenly the all or nothing logic is a gamebreaker? I fail to see the point here.

Every time I hear the opinion that handmade key-frame animations are crappy I like to remind people of the original Splinter Cell. No mo-cap or physics in that game, yet the animations were jaw droppingly hyperrealistic :D Still, though, I agree that the Obsidian team should take advantage of physics engine in P:E. /edit/ Also, about integrating PhysX with pre-rendered backgrounds - it's really quite simple I think, you only need to retain a simplified collision mesh of (polygon decimated) 3d models that you later use to render backgrounds from. The collision mesh is there just for the GPU/CPU so it's "invisible" to the player and can be added after the background art is already rendered. Basically something like the "no-walk" areas used for pathfinding... just in 3d. That's for rigid body simulation like crates, barrels, debris etc. Flowing capes (cloth simulation) are a bit different matter. But since only the backgrounds will be pre-rendered with the characters being animated 3d models that's not a problem.

Both Backstab and Sneak Attack as well as Crippling Attack are good concepts for Rogues/Thieves/Assassins and I think they should be available (maybe as feats that you can choose after reaching a certain level). On that note, it would be cool if Obsidian could implement the Field of View (or maybe even hearing range) mechanic for the opponents, so even if you can't hide in shadows that well, you could still take advantage of the silent approach (Move Silently?) to some degree. Unless the enemy has eyes on the back of his head, that is. Also, I wish there was a possibility for assassin like character to have a Kill Strike ability. It would be possible only with compact piercing weapons like stiletto, misericorde or even a crossbow bolt held in hand. Such attack could one hit kill any humanoid creature no matter what level it has or what kind of armor it uses (eye stab maybe, head attack in general). The traits/abilities essential to perform such strike would be, for example, Stealth and Weapon Mastery. To counter such attack the opponent would have to roll a saving throw using something like Perception modifier (Perception being higher the less armored the head is). Now if the Perception roll was successful and the attack failed, the assassin would lose initiative for a couple of turns, modifying his "to hit" chance and number of attacks per turn, second or whichever unit of time is relevant (so it would be advisable to have a ranged NPC nearby)... Just an idea.

Thanks as always for a very informative update Mr Sawyer. Speaking of the menus and their organic feel - I think that an important part of this (which I really came to love about IE games) were the beautiful hand drawn depictions of the in-game items. I believe they were and are a hallmark of all the IE games. I do, however, realize how much work and effort had been put in drawing all the pieces of armour, swords, maces, shields, halberds, bows, crossbows, etc. My question therefore is this one: would it be possible to somehow implement this kind of artwork (even if partially) into the Project Eternity? What I'm worried about is that the omnipresent 3d could potentially overshadow this unique feel that IE games' interfaces have. Anyway, I'm sure PE is going to rock Have a great holiday!

Thanks very much for your response Dimitri! I just love this kind of gamer-developer interaction.

Hey, nice work on lips and nose, hair shading looks pretty cool as well. You could try to add more definition and texture to the armour though, try varying the values and tones more. Or bump up the contrast in photoshop. Nice drawing anyway, keep it up.

@ Dimitri Berman - It would be cool if the art department could sneak some of Beksiński's ideas into the game Or Giger's for that matter. Anyways, have fun creating worlds for us, sir! @ Keyrock - Polish vodka isn't bad (there are many different brands, some better than others) but we didn't invent it - as opposed to blue lasers, holography and delta wing aircraft. Finnish and Russian brands are pretty good as well. /edit/ Also, that Cintiq looks mighty awesome. Always wanted one of those

Yeah, I guess you're right - that's precisely the difference between genius and amateur!

Prosper, sir, I really like you. You seem like a nice person. I admire your effort and dedication. Recently I played a bit with Sculptris too, it was fun! Anyway here's my contribution to your thread: 1 & 2 All free, if you want the meshes, just pm me

Rooftop gardens sound nice. Maybe not that unusual, but still: Castle Lichtenstein Mehrangarh Keep Angkor Wat ruins also: bogs, marshes, swamps etc.

@Azure79: maybe it's because graphics on their own no matter how good they are tend to get repetitive and boring after a couple of levels. Well maybe except for a game where all the rooms and corridors are textured with Bouguereau's paintings heheh. Whereas a story well told, a complex one, with skilfully defined and likeable or "hateable" characters has you simply intrigued and interested in 'what happens next'? What will be this or the other characters fate? Can I change it? If yes, then how? Who is the villain and what are his/her motives? Are they believable and convincing? And It's not only about rpg's. Check out first Splinter Cell... Or the Walking Dead adventure game. Today we're all about visual experience, the more tex resolution, polygons/triangles, mipmaps, anisotropic filtering and antyaliasing the better. Hell even all the advanced physics and smoke/fluid simulations are nothing else but an improvement to the visual side of things... That can't be helped and it's all well and good - the more immersion we get from (good) games the better - but let's not forget that what's as important as the image itself is the story behind it.

Softimage is not really that uncommon in game development world. Though I think it's UI is way more complicated than any of the Autodesk's apps. I believe it has very good and complex cloth/fluid/particle simulation components. Character rigging for animation (from what I remember from older versions) was also quite intuitive, editing envelopes and painting weightmaps used to be a pain in the ass with Max. Don't know why they switched but I hope that the learning curve will not be too steep - they're pr0s after all. Maybe it has to do with compatibility issues with Unity engine as Ocelot said. Anyways, the wip 3d assets look awesome! Thanks for the informative and funny update.

Just my 2 cents. Imho that whole "slow walking" thing seems to be related to "modern gaming experience". Nowadays some of the players (majority?) feel bored to death when there are no new fascinating and colourful things popping out of the screen every 5 or 6 seconds. While I can understand that, to me (and that's just my personal opinion) this "slow" walking paradoxically adds some flavour and atmosphere to the game. It's just what it says on the tin can - long journey. Naturally I'm not a masochist and I don't get more excited the slower my party walks. But that element of the game mechanic, in my view, quite accurately gave the impression of... well, being on the road. Yeah you had your party walking all the way across a barren land and typically what you could do was to look at the scenery, enjoying the work of Bioware's Art Department, listen to the ambient sounds (which were very good) and - from time to time - watch the weather change from a sunny morning into a rainy afternoon while Khalid was all like: "Sunny or not, tis' nice to enjoy the out-of-doors." I don't think those (rare) moments are something Obsidian should throw away and replace them all with trendy (and yeah to some degree convenient) teleporting. An option maybe? /edit/ @Osvir: that change may be related to BG:EE's improved pathfinding algorithm.

The way it was done in BG is imho a good compromise between the extremes of full VA and no VA at all. As in those games NPC didn't have any portraits assigned to them the voiced initial lines of dialogue often helped to get the feel of the NPC's character. I'm all for this kind of solution. Come to think of it, even something as simple as: "Wait, I think I know you!" Can be voice acted in so many different ways... to express a pleasant surprise to see an old companion, or to express suspicion of a wealthy man, who lost his purse recently.

Glen Cook - As much as i'd love entire P:E to be dark fantasy I'm sure many people wouldn't like it to be that way. So I can only hope for Obsidian to include some hints of the motifs present in the Black Company. It always reminded me of the Myth games for the PC. Especially the first one. And yeah, I agree with Domigorgon - Erikson and his Malazan Book of the Fallen is an excellent series with many original ideas (especially regarding gods and their interaction with humans).

Ahm the Forgotten - an ancient deity, evil but fair - once (allegedly) very powerful, now almost completely forgotten. A very mysterious one at that. It is said that as long as he/she/it (gender unknown) has at least one devoted believer, one that remembers the true name of this god - the greatness of Ahm will not be forgotten and the deity may decide to grant its blessing upon its followers, imbuing them with "powers unimaginable". There are rumours - some troubled adventurers swear it's true - that one can stumble upon a strange old female monk mumbling about mirrors, somewhere in the remote areas of Eír Glanfath ruins, south of Midwood. Although her whereabouts are unclear and her precise location is yet to be (re)discovered, two or three that had a chance to meet her describe a peculiar tattoo that covers the old woman's shaved head, just above the eyebrows and ears. It's said to be to very intricate, depicting what seems to be a strange lettering... The tattoo, of a beautiful deep scarlet colour, flows all the way around her skull and is said to be highly resemblant of "n'tuuk" - an aureola. The letters (107 in total) are examples of exquisite calligraphy and they seem to be arranged in a long sentence - or a word maybe - it's hard to tell as there are no apparent punctuation marks. The monk allegedly allows some of the people she considers right to try and decipher the text promising a reward. The task is nearly impossible as some of the characters do not belong to any known alphabet. Deep creases, wrinkles and half a dozen of battle scars on the skin of the old woman's head make the text even more illegible... Most peculiar thing about the encounter with the said monk however, as those who met her report, is the "hug". People who, despite many attempts, failed to decode the tattoo (or those who lost their faith in success to decode it?) are usually told by the monk to leave and not disturb her further. But just prior to letting them go the woman, smiling, gives them some kind of a hug... After leaving the monk's camp, and a long trek back to Midwood, Solace Vale or even Twin Elms, the adventurers reportedly feel as if they're total strangers. Weird, since they're back home, in a city or town in which they grew up and where they know very well every person and every corner. Suddenly - nobody seems to recall their faces or even names. Even their families. Even they themselves, begin to have trouble remembering who they are... Although none of them have ever heard this name before, they "unisono" claim, that they were touched by Ahm. Heh, sorry for my English.

Taking into consideration the fact that guns in PE will be of the wheellock type I wonder if it will be possible for the gunpowder to become damp in the rainy weather rendering the firearm useless. Or whether certain magic spells (like fireball or lightning) would have a random chance of igniting said gunpowder, making the guns discharge accidentally. That would give mages another means of defence (albeit not 100% effective) against firearms aside from their body armour. Arcane Veil spell, from what I gather, is not very effective against fast moving projectiles. Just a thought. I'm not sure though whether this types of guns where loaded just prior to the shooting or were they carried loaded and ready to fire.

@ Archmage Silver: Oh, yes, I'm sure I do miss the point. And I have no excuse for that indeed. But my oppinion is that if darkness scares you, you simply turn on the lights. And let's just say that I'm as ignorant as you are a moraliser. I do hope that spiders, in some form or shape, will make it to the PE, they were one of my fave enemies in BG1. And I'm sure that the community (if not the developers) will come up with a solution for all those affected by phobias.

@Archmage Silver: people like you are clearly too uptight to comprehend what others are saying. I did mention that I would be afraid to touch a spider, I'm not a robot and I do feel for people with extreme cases of phobia. I know some people that are terrified of bees or hornets and I do not make fun of that, but they are afraid of *real* things. You do need to go out once in a while, to get some fresh air or food etc. and there is no way you can avoid contact with different insects and bugs irl, so everyday life can be very hard when you're terrified of them. I understand and respect that. But a game is just a game, you don't need to play it, nobody forces you to look at virtual spiders and be scared. So don't enforce that kind of thinking on other people and let your mentality limit their experience. I'm fine with a mod for all those who hate spiders, I might even make one, as it will not affect my or any others preferences. But initial post of the OP didn't even mention a mod, just getting rid of this kind of opponents all together "because fantasy doesn't need them". PCs suck so hard nowadays it's not even funny. I'm literally terrified of monsters in SCP games... so I just don't play these games. Even though I'd like to, were it not for the darkness. But I'm not asking developers to switch from ghosts and gloomy staircases to bunnies and chocolate castles. Imho this thread doesn't need self proclaimed moralisers like you, dude.