Lephys

Is that anything like taking 2 right turns and ending up going back in the direction from whence you came?

Aww, man, CRISP'D is wayyyy better. Props to you, (I honestly didn't even think about it, even though it's just switching the D around).

Nothing is wrong with artificial restrictions, in general. Which is why this thread isn't entitled "Artificial Restrictions and the Problems with Wanting Them." No, we're talking about specific restrictions, and the folly of those specific restrictions. If the game creators didn't want you killing civilians, and therefore deactivated the attack function in any sort of town/populated area... well, now you've got the unintended consequence of "now you can't fight any actually hostile, non-civilian people in town!", which is in no way desired. There's absolutely no reason for that to exist. Then, to top THAT off in the example, the whole "we're going to discourage save scumming" thing would be akin to allowing you to tediously run your character into a civilian, slowly pushing their "sprite" across the town, until you eventually push them out of the town 30 minutes later, then attack and kill them. So, you're preventing the game's design from incorporating the perfectly reasonable possibility of hostile ANYTHNG inside a populated area, AND you're not actually preventing anyone from doing anything they really want to do. Unless you force everyone to play IronMan Mode, you're not going to prevent them from reloading from that last checkpoint and redoing any amount of gameplay to chance some outcome from just a few seconds ago. If you make the checkpoints an hour apart, the people who adamantly want to change that outcome are simply going to curse you all the more for "making" them waste all that time, instead of just letting them save anytime, anywhere. So, goal: unaccomplished. Unwanted detriment: accomplished. Sounds objectively like fruitlessness, to me.

I'm very glad people who initially missed out can get their boxed copies. ^_^ I cheer for you guys, as someone who pledged for a physical tier, but would've definitely been interested in getting a boxed copy now if I had been a little late to the party. Surely Obsidian must have access to some kind of quantum field generator, since we so well established earlier in this thread just how impossible it is that they could ever take orders for physical goods anytime after the Kickstarter ended, because reasons.

Since all we know of the main story is that you "witness" (aka "see") a supernatural event, I had a suspicion that "the Watcher" might refer to your main character. That's pretty cool that there was a little nugget in the source code. Kudos on digging that out! ^_^

Really the only thing constructively negative I could say about it is that it wasn't the best type of music for a montage trailer, I don't think. If it had been a coherent, story intro/prologue-style trailer (maybe a cinematic? I only say that because that's a commonly seen thing, and not because I'm trying to say "PoE needs cinematics! 8D!"), it would've "fit" better with the visuals, if that makes any sense. But, in isolation, it was pretty incredible. It wasn't your typical "latin choir singing about epic/holy struggles" music, but it still sparked a strong sense of eventfulness, almost like a "something is coming/happening/changing" feeling. Which was pretty apt for the first big teaser trailer reveal. So... that's me reaching for not-purely-positive feedback. On top of purely positive feedback.

By all means, have away. Fun, that is. You might've made your point very well (after all, it's just opinion versus opinion, so there's no way to objectively assess that, right?), but I honestly am not comprehending what your point actually is. Unless by "made my point," you were actually just arbitrarily stating an opinion. Which, there's nothing wrong with that. But, there's opinion, and then there's not-opinion, and the two are separate things. For example, if you said "Those trolls are too big, because they take up the entire screenshot!", I would say you're wrong. And that wouldn't be my opinion, because they measurably do not take up the entire screenshot. If you happened to feel that they should be smaller, then awesome. That's an opinion. If you felt like they should be smaller BECAUSE THEY COVER THE ENTIRE ENVIRONMENT! Well, then that's just nonsensical. You're claiming a factual basis for your opinion, one that isn't true. So, to re-iterate one more time, simply: To not like the troll design is fine. You're entitled to your opinion. To say that the reason you don't like the troll design is that it strays from any established troll lore whatsoever is not fine, because your opinion does not get to supercede fact, which is that trolls bear a very broad spectrum of descriptions. Therefore, there's no objective basis for their design in PoE to be flawed. Unliked? Sure. Objectively flawed? No. And, for the record, you can't argue that you just don't like it, AND argue that there's a factual reason you don't like it, at the same time. That doesn't make any sense. "Upon objective evaluation, no troll lore allows for such a troll design, but when you tell me that's not true, I'm going to point out that we're just having an opinion battle..." People are entitled to their opinions, and yet that doesn't change the facts. They're not even the same thing. Admitting that it's an objectively sound troll design doesn't prevent you from holding the opinion that the trolls look bad, or that you'd rather they were designed differently. Nor does it make that opinon the wrong one to have. In other words, it doesn't have to be wrong because you don't like it, NOR do you have to not-like it just because it's wrong. If the troll design was a magical 3-headed kitten with sausages for wings, you could still like that design, and that would be your opinion of that design. Meanwhile, it would have nothing to do with any prior troll establishments. Two separate things. Just as you've done, I feel that I've made my point quite clearly, and you may do as you please with it. But, I don't think I can make it any more clearly, or cause you to believe that I honestly didn't understand the point you were trying to make before. So, it is what it is. *shrug*

Seriously. They could've at least waited 'til like Steve day or something. Maybe Jim day.

You know what? Just to be unique, I'm going to say that I ONLY want extra stretch goals if they're going to delay the game. My only goal is to delay the game for the sake of delaying the game. If it gets a bit better as a side effect, then so be it. /jest

*Finally gets to watch trailer* Such graphic! So music! Much awesome! I will say like many others that some of the stuff could use a bit of tweak and polish, but, as that is already planned, I just say WOW! Keep up the good work! ^_^ That's right, I'm so astonished, all I can think of to say is World of Warcraft. It's now an exclamation, via the acronym thievery of the word "wow."

An aye for an aye! 8D

I hope you don't have to arrest anyone on behalf of the PE backers, because that person has the right to ask to see your badge.

Again, I was mainly referencing early-on stuff. For a couple of levels there, for example, you only get one level-2 spell (at least, the way BG did it, you did). Also, while I get what you mean by it being easier to just say "this process takes 1 hour," that particular point is then questioned by the fact that it can take as little as 15 minutes, or as long as 1 hour. So, I'm basically left wondering "if you just wanted to simplify it, how's about it takes 1 hour, always, no matter what?" OR, actually have the range of times it could take be more proportionate to the amount of stuff being done. If you have 40 spells, preparing 1 single Light-A-Candle spell takes 15 minutes, but then preparing all 40 possible spell slots (filled with all manner of complex, higher level spells, as well) only takes an hour. In cooking terms, that'd be a bit like saying "Well, even if you just want to roast a marshmallow and eat it, that's going to take 15 minutes. But, if you want to cook an entire 7-course meal, that'll only take an hour, 8D!" *shrug* Maybe I'm just weird, but I'd've done it differently. It comes down to the effects on gameplay. Which is why I keep referencing the early-on levels, when your Wizard, even WITH all their spells (in the typical D&D setup) can barely do anything, quantity-wise (compared to other classes). I understand that in PnP roleplaying, an awful lot can be done with LvL 1 D&D spells. But, in a cRPG, significantly less can be done with them. Anywho, with PoE's spell system, spells are more recharged, I think, than "prepared." And you already start getting them back either infinitely or on a per-encounter basis as you advance (the lowliest-level ones, relative to your given advancement), so the system already supports a separation: Some of your spells you're going to have prepared even without any resting, much less a certain amount. So, resting system potential is there, is all I'm saying. With variable resting, included. The ONLY thing standing in the way is the arbitrary 8-hour requirement from D&D rules, which PoE isn't even using. I've stated my case, and people can feel free to disagree on that. Otherwise, I think further discussion of Wizards' requirements in D&D rules is straying a bit from the topic at hand. More on topic, there's definitely plenty of potential for many a choice to affect HOW you move about the map. Especially with the scripted interactions. Instead of just having map travel, then a chance of either random battles or successful arrival at your destination, you could have any number of things. Maybe you run into some fresh tracks, and can either decide to continue in that direction, or change course? Maybe having a Ranger in your group, (or at least someone with high Survival/Wilderness skill) affects how much of a delay that incurs, and/or whether or not you get lost if you veer off into the woods, etc. If you take the roads, as has been mentioned, you'd probably get somewhere quicker/more easily, but you'd be more of a target for bandits and such. And you're more likely to be seen, even by innocent people who think nothing of answering a simple "Have you seen people matching the following description come through here lately?", etc. I definitely think that a "select a destination" world map can still allow for exciting and interesting travel.

Honestly? We might just need to wait for a cursory rundown of the intended design of the crafting system in PoE, then go from there with suggestions/tweaks. Otherwise, I'm going to keep perpetuating our getting sidetracked by the most minute of minutia and crafting system possibilities, forever. 8P *shrug*

Well, when the enemy starts getting insider info fed to them, we'll know exactly who (or what) to blame, I suppose.

For the stat-list acronym, I'm voting for DCRISP. 8P

On mine, there was a Survey, with a field specifically for "How would you like your name to appear in the credits?". So, I'm not sure if it shows that in the "consumer information" field or not (in my case, they were the same name, so I can't really tell which field is displaying exactly which info), but make sure you take any surveys that are available, if you haven't already. I think the "consumer information" area is just transactional/account-related information. Hence the survey that lets you type something in instead of just taking your name from the existing info, for the credits. *shrug*. Just my best guess.

I see what you did there... Yeah, really though, most games just use one resource: hitpoints (aka "health"). You get hit, you take damage. You don't get hit, you don't take damage. It gets too low, you die. Of course, that health usually has to be balanced in two different ways, simultaneously: 1) You want to make sure it's not too high, so that reaching 0 health is actually a possible threat in a given combat encounter. 2) You want to make sure it's not too low, because, if it is, then you'll NEVER come out of any kind of tough combat situation with the ability to continue on without first healing. Enter oodles of healing potions that you're supposed to use every minute, and/or mana-based healing spells, etc, and/or rest-spamming. So, the idea is, how about 2 different resources? So you can worry about not-"dying" during a bout of combat, but, making it through that, not feel the immediate need to heal up or be at some severe disadvantage. Imagine BG. You're Level 2, and instead of 10 hitpoints, you have 10 Stamina, and 40 Health (I realize the ratios in P:E are actually 1:1, but I'd rather make a simpler example with whole numbers instead of resorting to taking fractional damage, since that didn't happen in BG.) So, if you take 9 damage in one combat, then achieve victory, you've still got 31 health. And your Stamina comes back up to 10, for free. No management necessary. So, if you do that too many times, you'll die or need to go find a place to rest, etc. But, otherwise, you're good to go, and there's still a need to be cautious. Just like actual BG, you still have to worry about not-taking 10-or-more damage in one bout of combat. AND, you still can only recover so much until you need to go rest somewhere. But you get more leeway now. It's deceptively simple, yet elegant.

In their defense, it's more of a ninja drop-down menu than a simple one. If you fill out forms by starting at the first field, typing its contents, then tabbing to the next, and so on until you're done with the form, then you could easily tab to "Country," type "United States" (for example), then tab to the next field, all without ANY evidence that you were supposed to select anything from a drop-down list as opposed to simply typing the name. Most such drop-down selection fields either don't let you type into them (selection only, with a default "select a country" value) OR let you type into them AND accept the typed input as a selection (so long as it matches a valid drop-down selection from the list). So, the site's drop-down fields seem to be anything but simple in that respect.

My god... the problem has become self-aware! O_O Glad it worked for you. I suspect the huge surge of initial traffic to that site is causing the majority of issues, and that they're mostly just temporary, delay-type issues rather than permanent "something is actually wrong here and won't work until extensive work is done to fix it" issues. Hopefully.

Pretty sure it's #1, there. We're iffy on the "more time" part, though. I mean, if you spend money to hire twice as many artists, then you could feasibly produce twice* as much art in the same amount of time. * for example's sake...

@actionjezus6: Did you see my post about Country and State/Province being drop-down menus in disguise? Hopefully that helps. Basically, you wouldn't know they were drop-down menus unless you typed your Country/Province slowly enough to see the menu options pop up (like search-engine auto-completion). And I don't think it counts anything you've typed in that field as an actual selection, so you have to click on a selection from the results that pop up. They should change that to "role"-playing cards. "Ohhh, you have low-INT this game, so my 7 resists your Jack of clubs!"

Hehe. No problem. For once, my androidish attention to detail was actually useful, instead of just being annoying and resulting in 700% more words in a post. Self-appointed Unpaid Intern Lephys, here. AT YOUR SERVICE!

Hopefully that was a bottle-beer and not a can-beer, because it might be confusing, thanking people for stuff, then immediately opening up a can on them.

I think that's actually a drop-down menu, such that what you type into it isn't actually a selection, even if it's the "same" string of characters as a valid selection. There's nothing visually denoting that as a drop-down menu, as opposed to a simple text-entry field, which is confusing. Same with State. Someone might want to slap a little down-arrow button onto those two bits. Anywhoz... try typing PART of your country name, wait for the list to pop up, then click on your country name to select it from the list. I bet it'll work then.