Lephys

I'm just hoping (and decently confident) that it'll be actual use you're making of them on these little stronghold/character-centric "missions"/tasks you set them on, and not Assassin's Creed-style missions, a la "A bunch of made up text, blah blah blah, this apprentice assassin will be gone for this amount of time, and they'll get this much XP and gold after the time's up, and nothing else functionally affects anything, except for the further unlocking of even higher XP/time/money missions that you can then send them on." The little ship minigame was mildly better, in AC4, as at least it was active. But, your ships didn't even improve in that one. And it was friggin' turn-based, even though there were absolutely no choices to make whatsoever. The ships had different attacks, but arbitrarily/randomly chose when to use which one. All you got to choose was your target, and when to drop fire barrels (manually). *shrug*. Annnnnywho. As far as "here's what's going on with your cohorts in the meantime" content goes, I'm very much hoping for something substantial for the party NPCs who don't come with you on your immediate adventures. I also hope that that content can serve to spur/progress at least SOME of their personal backstory/arc, without you having to slap them into your party and run about with them before they ever talk about anything in their own lives or encounter anything pertinent to their histories, etc.

I gotta say, it's your decision to make, LordCrash, but basing your decision of whether-or-not to fund a developer's projects in the future, and/or how much to fund them, on the simple fact that they actually partook in E3 just like everyone else and we didn't get our hands in a particular candy dish first is quite petty. Granted, I'm not telling you you should, specifically, gratuitously fund them. I'm just saying, whether you do or don't, or how much, should be based on much better factors. You're funding the game's production, not the game's revolution around you. Even at the $10,000 tier, there was nothing in there that says "comes with additional guarantee of entitlement." They just got to design some cool content and whatnot. They don't get to alter Obsidian's decisions of what to show to whom, and when. And I bet none of them are like "Awww, man... if I had known the press would get to see some unknown footage that I'll still get to see but just not right this moment, I would've only backed at the $50 level." Maybe they need to put a disclaimer on the next Kickstarter: "Assumptions are not included in reward tiers."

MMOs as essential repetitions of the same formula are a dying breed. The ones that people are too afraid to actually make aren't, though. A lot of the recent ones keep having really good ideas behind them, but they're basically just dipping their toes in the pool, then claiming they totally jumped in. "OH REVOLUTIONARY NEW QUEST SYSTEM, INTRODUCES THE TINIEST OF CHANGES THAT'S ONE OF THE GREATEST THINGS EVER CONCEIVED, BUT IT'S PRESENTED IN SUCH A SMALL SAMPLE THAT IT GETS DROWNED OUT BY THE SAME-OLD-SAME-OLD! 8D!" I honestly think they could take a lesson from Roguelikes, for one thing. And make better use of full-time GMs, for another. Annnnnywho. I digress...

I'd also like to point out that I've just noticed that XCOM: Enemy Unknown actually has pretty effective music. It does that "you don't really notice me repeating or anything" effect, and pretty much just sets the mood for whatever's going on. Sure, it's a little "intense military combat mission"-y, which isn't really the right style for PoE, but, I figured there might be some technical/structural value in it, if you haven't already played that game/heard the music in it. Also, it does pretty decent transitions, I think. I mean, they're abrupt -- once there are no longer any "engaged" aliens in your squad's sight range, the music's more subtle/sneaky tension, and when your squad becomes aware of an alien, it kind of strikes up the "tactical tug-of-war" music. But, when it goes back to "non-combat" mode, it sounds like a legitimate transition. It doesn't just fade out, or outright stop. At least I'm pretty sure it doesn't. My memory folder in my brain likes to randomly lock and unlock subfolders and specific files. 8P

See? All that "what if" and worry, for nothing. Unless you just plain don't trust Obsidian at all. In which case, I dare say there's not much to be done about that. If you want to know why they did something, just ask. As is evident from Brandon's response, they will answer. Just because it's not within 10 seconds doesn't mean they're ignoring your question. They're busy folk. ESPECIALLY this/last week. It's one thing to simply wish to know what their reason is for doing something. It's another to just go ahead and say "Oh my crap! It's so terrible of them to do this! They don't care about us, and have no good reason for doing it!" Not-knowing something is not a good reason to slander anyone. Or is it libel...? I can never remember which is written and which is spoken. Besides, who's to say they didn't show at E3 stuff we've pretty much already seen (minus spoiler content). And who's to say the stuff they finally DO show to us won't be shown to US first, while everyone else has to wait? If you don't know stuff, find it out, or leave it alone until you do.

Yeah, that's not as flawless as you think. Plenty of stuff, even if it does get removed, remains up for several days, if not a week. It's not instant. There's no global purge of selected video content. Also, they still have to manually send them a correspondence, telling them what they want taken down, etc. Then, the sites have to actually screen for that. They can't just take down ALL videos that are in any way affiliated with PoE. They've got to only take down the labeled footage. Then, what if people post videos entitled "My dog Flurfles!" that's really PoE content? And edit in some random dog footage every 10 seconds? You act like it's somehow absolute. Like it's all just one big simple thing. Like the internet magically prevents stuff people don't want to be leaked from being leaked. 8P

Unless they have automated detection measures that automatically send a letter to Twitch, I'd say it's only partially automated. Wouldn't you agree?

Deitymon is evolving! What if... the gods are REAPERS?! *WHHHEEHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!* Just kidding. I'm with you, Mor. I suspect the fiber of the gods' being has something to do with the soul cycle.

Well, since we're never going to get any video footage, I guess many people will just never care about this game. I know if I don't see some video footage soon, I'm going to go ahead and pre-order every other game in existence that has shown video footage, then never even install PoE or play it. u_u It's not like I go home the night of updates and tell my girlfriend (who's barely a gamer) all about how cool the game looks because of some class mechanics or spiffy graphics engine technicalities they've presented. I need video... WITH EXPLOSIONS! Also, we should probably always just worry about what irrational people do, then cater to that. That'll make the world a better place, in the long run. Heaven forbid the majority of people stop caring about a game until they're shown video of a human sacrifice or something. "Better get some spare people in here... don't wanna fall behind in random people's eyes!"

Aye. Well-said, indeed, Miyagi. Now let's get some Neosporin on that jib cut.

Haha. I don't fault the people their sentiments. In the moment, thinking about the fact that a room full of press people is sitting around viewing an elaborate presentation of God-only-knows-what information regarding the game (imagination runs wild with gameplay footage and the like) makes me go "Darnit!" It's not a pleasant thing. Pleasant would be my getting to see that stuff right now. However, I do point out that further consideration is what separates us from animals, who merely react impulsively and never do anything beyond that, and I do fault people for being aware of this fact and simply choosing to ignore it, arbitrarily stick to their impulses, and continue acting as though they've somehow objectively been wronged by Obsidian. I mean, do people think Obsidian was just sitting around, thinking "Hmmm... we've got a bunch of new footage... we could show it to a closed room full of press, OR to our backers, first. Who should we show it to? Let's just flip a coin!" No. There are reasons for things. And calling them out based on a bunch of examples of things other companies have done is kind of pointless, too, since blindly assuming Obsidian is just like the worst example of game company you can possibly think of (in your mind) AND voluntarily giving them free money to make their game (up front, before they've even made any of the game yet) are somewhat contradictory actions. *shrug*

Yeah, it's our game... AND theirs. Sharing is caring. I already said why we don't get to see it. Besides, we do get to see it. Just not yet. They don't get to control the industry and host their own E3, so they have to play by the industry's rules. E3 is a huge part of the industry's inner-workings, so they're dealing with it accordingly. It's the same reason they're not giving out a bunch of story details. If you're going to demand that they don't decide how/when to show off game presentations, then you might as well go ahead and demand that they hold nothing back from us, ever. They should live-stream their entire development process, or they're horrible people. I want to see EVERY line the artists draw, dammit! Even though no one promised us that. But I demand it! Lighten up, would you? For realsies. It seems to me you guys (the ones in an uproar about this) are more drawn to the idea that you're calling a company out on some wrongdoing than you are to having an actual problem with what it is they're actually doing. Like it or not, they get to decide how and when to present their game, and what parts of it to present. The press is in competition, too. They deal in news (even some of them like to deal in faux-news). If it's not neatly packaged, new information, it's not very valuable to them. "Hey guys, we're just presenting a bunch of stuff everyone else already knows about! 8D!" Great. That'll keep their web-zines going. Thus, you present it to them. Why? Because it can reach a lot more people. A ton of people shine a spotlight on E3, both consumers/gamers and industry professionals alike. So, just telling them "Oh, you can always go check out some videos on our website" isn't a very good idea. It's an annual event. So, you show the stuff there, in a controlled manner, so that it's presented neatly to the people whose jobs it is to find out about it. You get to make sure they don't get a bunch of info out-of-context, or mix in a bunch of unofficial information with their reviews/articles, etc. Then, they have the means to reach a lot more people than just your forums and self-marketing can. Just look at the comments and tweets people have posted. And the comments on the youtube videos, etc. There are STILL people saying "How did I miss this? I love the idea of this game, but didn't know it existed!" It's just good business. Showing it off online all casually just makes it less valuable to the press, and muddies up the information they receive. Again, we don't own the game. We didn't purchase the rights to the game. Nor have we hand-crafted any of it. We made it possible to make, by voluntarily agreeing to front the money. We didn't commission the game. They're already delivering us "our" game. Doesn't mean we get to make petty demands, like "How DARE you show a formal presentation to the press in an organized fashion, so that that information can THEN be spread to pretty much everyone with any connection to any form of media? I WANT A GOLDEN GOOSE EGG AND I WANT IT NOW!". That's just silly. "You should just not-care about E3 and the future success of your game with the demographic of people who didn't already back this on Kickstarter, and you should ONLY care about us, with something as silly as just who gets to see something first!" Yeah... real grown-up of us.

^ Piggy-backing on that excellent suggestion, I think that extraordinary forms of vision (night vision, thermal vision, etc.) should function appropriately. I'm fine with the otherwise-hidden foe showing up no matter who you have selected, but people without the vision should definitely suffer a penalty to their attack and defense, since they're having to rely on verbal direction like "Look out, there!" to actually locate/be aware of the foes' locations. Seems like in some games, low-light vision and the like are just free "You get to see everyone like normal now," even if only one person in your group has it.

Oooh! Oooh! On a similar note, race-specific status effects! Like... if you go to a desert region, maybe your Aumaua gets quickly dehydrated. Purely for example... Or, some type of pollen, etc., that only affects Orlans.

Regarding the whole "Why does the press get to see it and we don't?!" thing... It's not as if they can just prevent the press from ever seeing it. The gaming press reports on games, whether it's from a proper presentation at E3, or from a bunch of heresay and random, out-of-context crap spread all over the internet by disgruntled, entitled backers who don't know how to properly critique an unfinished product. Thus, I dare say they're simply doing what's intelligent. Organizing their presentation of their game in a proper manner. We can see it after they already make sure it's presented to the general public in not a disconnected, irate fashion by random people whose first priority in life is judging the crap out of whatever they see because it makes them feel better about life. To be clear, I'm not calling anyone in particular an entitled person who'd ruin the presentation of information. I'm simply pointing out that they exist, and in numbers. It's fantastic that we were the ones who collectively fronted the money to make this game possible in this form of full-control (by Obsidian) development. However, that doesn't give us the right to have free reign to trample all over their presentation of the game to the rest of the populous to maximize (reasonably) sales and product awareness. We made it possible, and we get a bunch of goodies and extras for that. Doesn't mean it's not still their game, and their studio isn't still a business.

*raises hand*... I read forums for a reason. Ohhhh...

I doubt you'll have the power to somehow influence the entire world's views of your entire race, singlehandedly. But, I'm fairly certain there will be characters in the game world who express prejudice against other races. It's almost a given, for believable characters. Especially in that, in a fantasy world like this, there are actually different races (species, even), instead of merely ethnicities. You can safely bet those Death Godlike are going to have a rough go of things. 8P

Video games Humans. Fixed it.

AKA, the "hillding" area.

2500, and not an adjective less.

It also shows their facebook page, and kerflufflesmarshmallows.com, haha. Various other links abound.

We'll get you situated, uberman.

"Attacking" with a ranged weapon does sound pretty dumb. I'm really talking more something that wouldn't exactly be an offensive maneuver. You wouldn't be actively like "Yeah, I'm totally intentionally choosing THIS weapon, at my leisure, to swing with!" It's more of an "I'm aiming my bolt at some foe, and OH MY GOD, A WOLF IS COMING AT ME FROM THE SIDE! I DIDN'T SEE THAT GUY! *stock butt to the wolf's head in an in-the-moment attempt to not get mauled by wolf*" type situation I'm thinking of. You wouldn't casually place your crossbow on your back, then draw your sword, swing it once at the wolf (which is probably ripping your throat out already by now), THEN go "Yay! I successfully melee attacked with the optimal weapon!", then re-sheathe your sword, make a hasty retreat, then re-draw your crossbow, reload it, and resume shooting at things until the wolf got near you again. If you deemed it feasible to delay something's pursuit just long enough to get another shot off, as opposed to just saying "Eff it" and switching to melee combat (not just one, defensive attack), then you could, feasibly try to strike something with the butt of your sturdy ranged weapon's stock. I wouldn't recommend smashing your longbow against something. But, oodles of RPGs have some form of lethal AND non-lethal damage distinctions. So, maybe, if the thing you're hitting doesn't have a helmet or some other form of protection where you're striking it, the butt of a gun/crossbow stock could produce non-lethal damage. Again, not ideal, but better than nothing if attacking before swapping weapons would potentially stave off the oncoming strike you hope to avoid. *shrug* It was a really simple thought, really. So, Valorian, to answer your question, no. I don't really want everything to have some special disengagement attack. I'm assuming there are ways to safely disengage without using something specifically designed TO safely disengage you from a foe. Like stunning them and/or otherwise incapacitating them, then simply leaving their engagement radius while they can't do anything about it. And, as I already said, it would be rather arbitrary for an attempted strike with a crossbow/gun butt to ALWAYS result in a definite incapacitation. But, functionally, it could result in that. And/or an interrupt. *shrug* I was really just curious. Stocks are easily jabbable with-able. They are on crossbows and guns. Maybe they could be used to jab things in the game, in whatever capacity. Thus, I asked. Should I write a 1,000 word essay about the matter, submitted for your approval, before asking a simple question?

Heh... it's kinda like how films and such always have super stealthy people magically walking silently through a forest whose floor is comprised of nothing but dead leaves and sticks. I get learning how and where to step so as to not give yourself away in a regular forest. But, I don't care if you're wearing pillows for boots. Unless you can make yourself not heavy enough to crush dried leaves and twigs, if you're walking on a carpet of them, you're going to crush them. 8P Part of being stealthy is knowing when to not do something or take a certain approach because it makes noise. Not just magically knowing how to nullify noise. @Suburban-Fox: Ahh, thanks for the infos! Yeah, I knew that at some point early on, they actually did have those little "bombs" that cartoons are modeled after. I just didn't know when, historically, that was possible and such. I know it took a while to "perfect" the use of explosives, but I figure that it wasn't too hard -- once it was discovered you could fill a metal shell with explosive powder -- to make something you could light, chuck, and just hope it chaotically threw jagged pieces of metal at a high velocity into random people's armor/bodies. Seems like early on, they'd be pretty okay with such an imprecise implement.

O_O... I didn't even think of that! 8D! "We built some stuff here, but now these trees are about 700 feet taller... it's not safe to enter those ruins." They're all precariously held together via growing branches/vines, etc. EXCITE I has!