Endrosz

If you started a KS promising what you wrote above, I wouldn't support you. You, too, have no clear idea about how game development works (as opposed to business software development, which is more or less based pre-written specifications), especially how iteration is crucial in developing a smooth game experience. Sawyer recently said that for the money they had, he would have preferred less developers for a longer time: more close-knit team, more time to incubate ideas, better focus, better game. Game development isn't like a lumber mill or a conveyor belt factory. The really funny, ironic thing is that in my estimation your project would also run over-budget and suffer some delay or deliver a product that doesn't really meet the goal.

One of the Unrest developers, "Rutskarn" wrote a post mortem on their Kickstarted project. Very insightful, it contains a detailed breakdown of how much money they actually got after the KS wound down and how was it spent. Hint: they worked for scraps, basically, and it doesn't surprise me in the slightest. So many Kickstarters set ludicrously low goals, mostly because they're inexperienced in software project management, but sometimes because they're afraid to set a realistic goal, which might be too high for an unknown development team. Like, a fully fledged and modernized Master of Magic clone for 5000 bucks... yeah. right. One of their recent updates claims that: Now that sounds more believable. It's either working for scraps or several hundred thousand dollars for a game of this magnitude.

Thanks, Labadal. The complex combat and no grinding put this on the wishlist.

Arguably the worst part of DA:O were the player AI scripts, completely useless. And that comes from someone who had done years of AI scripting on strategy games. Anyone who relied on those must have played on Baby Steps difficulty, where it doesn't really matter what you do, so you don't notice the low efficiency. On the plus side, since the feature was useless, it freed up skill points as there was no need to invest in the related skill (I do agree that tying AI functionality to a skill was a really weird, bad-ish design decision). -- I take back what I said a bit, the memories come back in more detail: I did use the 'cast healing on party member/use potion on self IF lower than 50% health" trigger. But nothing offensive, those always ended in wild, wacky disasters (at least I got some laughs out of them). Out of the BG/IE scripts, I use only basic ranged and basic melee so that I don't have target manually when the battle is already going my way and there is no need for micromanagement any more. That is more out of laziness/comfort than a real need for AI decisions replacing my own. I wouldn't want Obsidian to heavily invest in replacing something with AI that is: - best left to a human brain - the meat and bones of tactical combat, something I enjoy doing immensely An "auto-attack with equipped weapon if target dies" functionality is all that's necessary for comfort reasons, so that party members don't stand idle if their target dies and you don't pay attention to them.

Games from Paris special sale has Aarklash: Legacy for 70% off, among other titles. Get it if you missed previous sales, it's a very good, though not flawless RtwP tactical game with nice graphics.

If you take everything: Selecting which loot to keep when your packs are full is a boring and oft-repeating minigame. If you only take valuable stuff: Selecting which loot to take from the loot piles is a boring and oft-repeating minigame. See? Inventory managament is a boring minigame regardless of your gameplay style. Heck, inventory management is a boring minigame even with unlimited inventory, like in Stonekeep. But in that case it's the least aggravating.

No, it's quite the opposite. Setting a flat experience value for killing every enemy was a very, very gamey decision made some 40 years ago by people wrote the first DnD books, including the first Monster Manual. A more simulationist approach is the challenge rating (CR) introduced in 3rd edition. Starting with the second half of the '80s, role-playing games have moved away from this very mechanical model of character development. Shadowrun and the World of Darkness/Storyteller games (Vampire, Mage, Werewolf etc.) are examples of this trend -- Shadowrun is also very combat-heavy like DnD, yet there are no karma rewards listed for monsters or NPCs. The Game Master simply awards XP/karma/character points however he or she sees fit, usually centered around completing tasks and good roleplaying (which is impossible to reward in a CRPG without a human GM). The decision to award task completion instead killing is just catching up to the development of role-playing games in real life. It was overdue, if you ask me. In a game, the mechanics herd you toward a certain playstyle. Awarding XP mechanically for killing is appropriate for the so called action-RPGs like the Diablo series (or Dungeon Siege 3, for that matter, to name an Obsidian game), but out of place in a narrative-focused game. There's nothing stopping you from using Diablo 3 for roleplaying via chat and/or voice chat, but its systems, including how you gain XP, are not built to support that. Conversely, Pillars of Eternity isn't built to have a "kill and loot everything in sight" gameplay, and the method of XP gains reflects that.

Yes, the goblins in Targos's docks are very representative of IWD2's combat difficulty. *rolls eyes* Man, we've only seen the first 10-15 minutes of a 40+ hour game. In this sequence the main goal is to inflict the "main quest" on the protagonist, and difficult combat detracts from that.

Okay, seriously: loved the dialogue. -- The amount of possible answers/options. When the Glanfanthan leader confronts you, there were, I think, 9 possible options. -- The sensibility of the answers/options. Instead of "aggressive", we get proper responses. The options are what players would choose to do in a pen-and-paper game. A new classic in the making.

Ha. Haha. Hahaha! BWAHAHAHAHAHA! An adventure is all about the romance, baby! :D This is the consolation prize for promancers. Cherish it, there probably won't be any more.

Unrest, a unique adventure-RPG set in mystic India is out on GOG and Steam. Think Quest for Glory (or Shadowgate, or...), but with less emphasis on combat.

"* Re-start about fifteen times" Only fifteen times? You'll be kicked out of the Olde Skool and forced to remove the logo from your signature if you restart less than 50 times! (Ah, I remember spending an entire afternoon plus evening in M&M 7 creating my party over and over... That game had insane skill pressure.)

Oh by the way: Soft porn books are called "romance books", for obvious reasons. The mother of a friend of mine made a living translating them from English. Not surprisingly, soft porn in computer games is also called "romance". Tradition and all.

Before there was soft porn in computer games, there was soft porn in books and illustrations, then movies. Games are just catching up, and BioWare is the spearhead. Fresh post on Penny Arcade from Gabe (Mike Krahulik), inserted here for relevancy and sheer entertainment value. Well worth the time! Note: Kara is his wife, though obvious from the context.

As for me, I came to a "resolution" a long time ago. A conflict like this is too embittered, too engraved to be solved by negotiations. On both sides there are enough people who think they can 'win' (whatever that means), so they need to show strength. So I pray. That is my own resolution to this conflict. I pray for peace, and I don't want to know more than I already do. Knowledge and explanations don't help, hope is all we have. This one might have been linked before, sorry if yes:

What's a "World Cup"? Never heard of it. Is it a sacred artifact of ancient origin, which was used pour out the Ur-Ocean, the source of all life? It is a demonic relic, where all the spilled blood of innocents is mystically gathered, and, according the Sixth Prophecy, when the Cup is full, Hell's fury will be unleashed and demons will ravage the world? Is it the cup of the famous wandering bard, Marietta of the Endless Leagues, who travelled all over the known world, and said a toast, cup in hand, at every significant place she visited? Legend says one sip from the Cup will instanly cure all madness and sorrow, because it's overflowing with the deep joy of being alive. World Cup. The name sounds intriguing. I hope Pillars of Eternity will feature one.

Two things: 1. I'm happy that Eternity has a SP focus. Especially on a first game with a new engine, don't spread thin those meager KS resources. 2. The BEST fun I had with an IE game was playing through IWD2 with a good friend of mine, each of us controlling 2 characters. That was my 3rd playthrough, I think, and multiplayer definitely added to the already familiar experience. Not only me, he too remembers this fondly and brings it up when we reminiscence about our older, more intense gamer days. I enjoy single player. I enjoy multi-player if I can. I don't feel the need to be in any '"camp".

A Kickstarted movie about Dungeons and Dragons' origins: The Great Kingdom Needs help, only 12k pledged of the 50K goal!

Do the categories overlap (I would prefer that), or are they exclusive? Based on the number of weapons in a category, that would mean a huge number of different weapons with 6 categories, and a lot of the individual weapons would probably be underused.

I'm planning to write such a list AFTER I get my hands on the game. I see little point in scoring mental constructs of how the game actually plays.

He skinned an Obsidian Entertainer.

Also, while I'm at it, I'm with Nonek on the subject of sex and such in games. It should be handled in an "it happens sometimes, and it's fun" way. No big pretentiousness. Really, the Middle Ages, especially the renaissance were far less prudish than today's society. That trend started later, and had a lot to do with the spread of protestantism. In addition to Chaucer, you should read a bit of Giovanni Boccaccio (Decameron) and Tales of Arabian Nights (not the children's version! the original, containing some very explicit sexual tales!) and the poems of Francios Villon if you want to get a good idea about how the common people treated naked bodies and sexuality. The famous Italian film director, Pier Paolo Pasolini created a trilogy of movies depicting these works: Decameron -- Canterbury Tales -- Arabian Nights. In these movies, Pasolini captures the joyfulness and playfulness of sexuality -- not simply the act of sex, but the whole longing-flirting-dreaming-chasing erotic aspect -- very well. Here's a poem from Villon, who's kind of the wandering French bard of the XV. century:

The scene at the start of Chapter 3, when Triss talks to another sorceress through the mirror while Geralt is still in bed though awake is one one of my favorite scenes of all time in an RPG. There, we have a FEMALE sorceress in the following situation: -- She has SAVED the male protagonist from impending doom. Not the other way around! She's been WATCHING his progress, and stepped in when things started going south. You don't realize until later how much she's done for you. -- She's offering critical KNOWLEDGE and HELP to Geralt about how to progress with the investigation. -- She's offering her (very nice) HOUSE as a base of operations, with a convenient teleport station. -- She has a KING eating from her palm (Foltest). -- She's LYING to Geralt on request. Lying gives you power over people, in this case Geralt, the protagonist. Contrast this with 'I'm a plot slave, here's the info dump you need KTHX BB' NPCs that abound in RPGs. She's fully in control of the situation. She's got the knowledge, she's got the power, she's got the important contacts, she's got the material assets, she's got the PLAN. All that is not enough characterization for you? The sex that's implied between the two at that point is a mere wink in the sequence of events, a quick exercise. You can say less for Shani, but she's still far from being a simple **** toy. She's the one who's taking care of Alvin initially, she's the one that plans a get-together with Dandelion, and so on.

I get that you have strong, valid marketing-media experiences, and I learned a lot from what you wrote. Thank you, indeed. 1. But re: Obsi at E3, it has been mentioned by others that their presence there is more about networking, about making contacts, showing that they're alive and kicking and available for hire. Obsidian is one of the few mid-sized, 100+ but 200- employee independent studios left. Think about it: how many employees were fed by that 4 million dollars from the Eternity KS, and for how long? The team size never went above 30 AFAIK, and that's for full production. Eternity is a niche game, yeah, but if you want to land AAA contracts or sub-contracts (think F:NV), you need a solid industry presence for that. E3 is the perfect place to explore contract opportunities -- GDC is an academic meeting, and PAX is for gamers. 2. Also, I'm one of those people who reads/watches every interview and listens to every podcast. The arguably best Eternity article came from PC World, a mainstream gaming magazine, written by someone who fully appreciates and understands these "olde skoole" RPGs. Eurogamer's reports by Robert Purchese always generate a lot of responses, oftentimes more than straight AAA titles do! (Yes, I checked) As much as I value your insight, it seems to me that you're not entirely right. In this particular case, it's worth pursuing the mainstream media. You might be right for 95% of the niche titles, but this game does have mainstream appeal.

To say something positive, because I'm positive about the game generally: The Witcher AI engine was pretty good even in back in '04, with the NPCs hurrying to find shelter from rain, from example. When I saw Geralt riding close to people in Novigrad, I thought "What if he rides the horse into people? Will they scurry out of the way, cursing the careless rider?". And sure enough, we saw an example of somebody hurriedly trying to avoid being trampled -- that's an amazingly well done small detail. So far it's the Witcher series that gave me the most immersive city experiences among RPGs, and it seems they've taken that to the next level. Good job. Their promise of "no quest without at least a bit of unique story" is a big one. I'm still on the fence about it -- lots of side quests in an open world RPG either means a really good and long RPG or one filled with chore after chore. I hope they'll be able to keep that promise.