Gumbercules

To prevent save-scumming rest ambushes, could they maybe make it so that the game saves the outcome of the die roll and applies it to all future reloads if you rest in that area unless you either: 1) Get wiped out fighting off the ambush or 2) Defeat the attackers. At that point you are free to reload that particular save and get a new die roll, at which point the process repeats itself.

@Doppelschwert, the way you're describing influencing the stamina/health damage ratio sounds really interesting and makes me wonder what the disadvantage to such an approach might be, since it seems like maybe PE will be using fixed ratios.

Hmm, I guess I imagined it more like the artists drawing a bunch of detailed possible directions and then just picking one once the backstory is nailed down. I'm mostly basing this on the behind the scenes stuff from the Lord of the Rings movies, where they pretty much drew every possible interpretation of the characters and creatures early on before finally settling on something. But they did have a much larger art team and budget, so that might be unrealistic. Oh, they look organic and believable to me too, but in a dorky, awkward way. I think that should certainly be the case for individual characters, but not for entire races. And maybe it won't be in the end (after all, we only have a sample size of two at the moment). But humans can be ugly too (and PE should strive for a variety of attractiveness levels in all races if possible), but that doesn't make them unique. I don't have a problem with making judgements early on, as long as we're not rude or histrionic. We can always revise our opinions with more data, and I'll be happy to say, "Great job with the art, Obsidian!" in the future. I actually don't like Khajit-type humans-with-animal-heads races much either, unless there's a strong mythological basis to it. But there's a big difference between just slapping an animal head on a human body and calling it a day, and incorporating a variety of bestial features in a humanoid design.

I guess then that one of the problems I have is the original descriptions that Obsidian gave for the races, back during the Kickstarter. They said we'd have the standard humans, elves, and dwarves, then godlike races who are similar to tieflings, genasi, etc. but with a twist, and then two unique, out-there races. To make the final two races so similar feels like a bit of a bait and switch. If Tolkien can create races that are as different from humans as orcs are, why shouldn't Obsidian give it a shot? Or alternatively, I guess I would be satisfied (but less so) if they kept them approximately how they are now and just revised the crap out of them until they look better.

Ha! I can't help it, gotta urr! Believe me, I'm aware that it's a work in progress, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to influence its direction. Ok, If the thread ends up generating some good discussion I might go back and add a poll for each piece of art. I'm not necessarily arguing for a less mature, or more cartoonish setting and art direction. I just want Obsidian to convey more with each design. Good designs should tell a story all by themselves, regardless of whether or not they are intended for a mature audience. The reason I want the Aumaua to look more distinct is to avoid the Uncanny Valley-like effect they're currently producing. If they look like their own species then there's less of a temptation to compare them to humans. They could also be made to look more like humans, I guess, but that would be boring, especially since elves and dwarves have that covered already.

Yeah, sorry. I originally typed the post in notepad and pasted it over, which messed up the formatting.

I'm trying to think of options for a poll besides just a Good/Bad vote, and I think it might just be better for people to suggest improvements in their own words. I'm not necessarily against Aumaua having hair if they decide to take them in an aquatic mammal direction, but it probably would look weird if they made them more fish-like or frog-like.

Well, Josh Sawyer mentioned in one of his lore updates that Readceras had undergone a peasants' revolt due to poverty, so it's not like everything is sunshine and daisies for everybody. Also, while providing a perfect simulation of a working medieval world is not necessary, including slums, hovels, farms, and the peasants who inhabit them is a good way of providing some variety for the game. I thought the Witcher games did a good job of showing rich and poor, idylic and depressing, shady and safe areas of civilization in an interesting way, and I hope Project Eternity attempts to do the same (although it doesn't need to be quite as dark and nihilistic).

The latest Aumaua concept art in Update #34 provoked a strong reaction in me and finally convinced me to register on the forum and voice my opinion. I've had a problem with most of the concept art shown so far, so I wanted to write up a big post with comprehensive, hopefully constructive feedback instead of freaking out (like NeoGAF is doing lol). And yeah, I'm aware that this is early art that will be revised and improved, but here's some criticism anyway: First, the Aumaua. The first thing that came to mind when looking at the Aumaua wizard was the scene from The Venture Bros. where Henchman 21 is LARPing. In other words, it brings to mind a fat, ugly human trying and failing to look badass. I think this is due to two things: costume and race design. The costume looks slightly goofy and mismatched, but not enough to imply a character who was deliberately designed to indicate he doesn't pay the least bit of attention to looking good. The costume needs to either be sloppier, in a characterful and memorable way, or more flattering. The racial design of the Aumaua is also problematic, mainly because they don't look distinctive and unique enough. I originally thought the wizard was an ugly human because he looks too human; in an Uncanny Valley sort of way it makes me notice all the subtle differences and chalk it up to the character getting beaten with an ugly stick. It may just be me, but I've always found most Star Trek aliens to be gross looking because they're clearly humans with disfiguring makeup plastered on their faces. Whereas, say, Jabba the Hutt from Star Wars is deliberately supposed to come across as disgusting, but he's so removed from humans that it's less unsettling. For all we know he's a gorgeous specimen of a Hutt and there's no need to apply human standards of beauty to him. Play up the amphibious nature of the Aumaua. As it stands, they look like web-fingered half-orcs at best, weird humans at worst. Maybe make their heads and torsos shorter and fatter and their legs longer and thinner, like frogs. I realize this might cause problems with animation as well as clothing/armor creation, since you would have to do everything seperately for the Aumaua instead of just recycling the other races' stuff. If that's a problem, there are still other ways to make them unique. Give them more/fewer fingers and toes. Make their eyes larger with frog-like irises and pupils. Maybe instead of hair, they can have hair- like spines, crests, or tentacles. You haven't shown the Orlans yet, but I hope they're less human-like to begin with. It was mentioned that they have two-toned skin. Maybe they could have short, fine, two-toned fur instead? Give them claws instead of fingernails and slitted pupils instead of round ones. Hopefully they're not just halflings with the barest minimum of changes. I wanted to give some feedback on the earlier concept art too while I'm at it. I really liked the original Sagani painting. The design was aesthetically pleasing while not being "hot" or pandering, the proportions clearly indicated a separate race rather than just a short human, and the costume gave a lot of information about a believable culture that isn't usually associated with dwarfs. I've been less thrilled with the other designs, including Sagani's later art. Edair's main problem is that he looks rather bland and directionless. I remember someone from Obsidian saying that this was deliberate since he's a character who wants to avoid drawing attention, but simply making the design bland is one of the worst ways to accomplish this. His design needs to be the visual equivalent of a stage whisper; implying that he's trying to stay out of the spotlight while still telling the player, "Pay attention! This is an interesting, important character." I'm not entirely sure how to accomplish this, but then again I'm not very good at doing a real stage whisper either. Aloth looks pretty good/interesting. His design isn't perfect, but I'm not really sure why (perhaps too many clashing directions for his character? I dunno) and I'm reasonably satisfied with him. I don't like Forton's art much, but this is the one design that plenty of people have already complained about, so I don't really need to expand on it. I will say that I like the idea that some people suggested of adding more elements of European flagellants to Project Eternity monks in addition to the Shaolin monk inspiration. Cadegund is a character whose design is close to being good/great, but it's not quite there yet. It certainly helps that a female battle priest with heavy armor and a gun isn't something that you see every day in western RPGs. But her armor as it currently stands is too bland once again. It doesn't tell us enough about her. Is she someone who does a lot of fighting and adventuring, often far away from the help of her religious organization? If so, her armor could maybe be more scuffed and dented, or even show makeshift repairs. On the other hand, is she someone who enjoys the full and near-constant support of a powerful religion? In that case, maybe her armor should be more ornate. Or even combine the two ideas so that her church gives her beautiful, expensive equipment which she inevitably ruins from all the fighting and adventuring she gets into! Well that was a lot of criticism. Hopefully it was useful and constructive. Thank you Obsidian for making this game and thank you for the frequent updates, warts and all. I'm sure everything will turn out great in the end. Edit: Fixed the formatting.