Chrononaut

One man's "discomfort" or "annoyance" is another's challenge. You shouldn't presume that other people dislike survival simulation mechanics simply because you don't. Except that it doesn't matter. IE games hadn't survival simulation mechanics at all. Many people think that they were better for it, others who like survival simulation would be alright to have it in every game. My opinion is when a matter divides the community in half, do it like it was in the IE games. After all that's what we paid for and not Arcanum 2 Most of the combat mechanics and character systems already revealed are nothing like IE AD&D systems, so I don't see your point.

One man's "discomfort" or "annoyance" is another's challenge. You shouldn't presume that other people dislike survival simulation mechanics simply because you don't.

Don't argue guys. Tim Cain finally has his chance to do Arcanum crafting right and you are complaining. Don't disturb genius's at work.

Again I think it's a matter of the type of cRPG players they appealed to, who are very much against any new types of mechanics perceived to be inspired to "new" genres. They ran a KS campaign based very much on pure nostalgia, but when it was over didn't take long to start moving away from that, which I find dishonest. For example Bard's Tale (1985) itself was not an AD&D game, but it's ruleset was designed to emulate D&D-like mechanics so that the players would feel familiar with the gameplay from the tabletop game. I don't see how it's an unreasonable request for the gameplay of PE to be reminiscent of D&D IE-games. I don't really care about graphics even if they do look like those games it's still a cosmetic part, I'm just concerned that this PE will end up unrecognizable as the IE games we know and love. Anyway, I won't get off-topic any longer, we won't know anything till it's out. But everything I read about the game's mechanics is very disillusioning.

You would be hard-pressed to find a bigger D&D fan than me, and needless to say, I loved the IE games back in the day. However, I'm also mature enough to admit that playing them now, as I have done for the past six months, is a different experience. Games and game design have evolved. The UI is severely lacking, the pacing is pretty bad and many encounters turn out to be ill-conceived slugfests. Having said, I still enjoy them immensely. Why? Because the character generation systems and the fantasy stories are so bloody good (for the most part). I'm sorry if you are truly disappointed in this regard (hopefully, you aren't just trolling us), but let's backtrack and quote some stuff from Obsidian's KS, straight off the pages there: "Project Eternity is an isometric, party-based computer RPG set in a new fantasy world developed by Obsidian Entertainment." "Project Eternity (working title) pays homage to the great Infinity Engine games of years past: Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale, and Planescape: Torment. Project Eternity aims to recapture the magic, imagination, depth, and nostalgia of classic RPG's that we enjoyed making - and playing." Alright, so they are making a new fantasy world that pays homage to the great IE games of the past, but nowhere does it say, they'll reuse the mechanics of those games, and especially not down to every little detail. "Combat uses a tactical real-time with pause system - positioning your party and coordinating attacks and abilities is one of the keys to success." Funny that you mention RTS. I'm playing COH2 right now, I am loving it (while being new to the genre), and this above quote tells me that they are actually going to make combat less swish-swoosh, and more about positions, coordination and timing - well, let's call this tactics and strategy - and I am all for this kind of change. It sounds fresh and exciting, to say the least. Obsidian also seems to share my excitement in this: "We are excited at this chance to create something new, yet reminiscent of those great games and we want you to be a part of it as well." It will be different, no doubt, but it will hopefully be darn good too. That's semantics, really. And quoting that stuff given much BG/IWD/PST were namedropped when they needed fans' help... is very disingenuous. It's like saying "Oh wait you didn't read the fine-print". But on the topic of RTS-like tactics, I'll agree on ideas such as positioning. But I think when dealing with an RPG, RTS-like gameplay would be quite boring, tight ranges for damage and saving throws + very little randomness would boil down most fights to puzzles which are determined before the fight even begins. Indeed whether you liked it or not, one of the more memorable things about IE combat were seeing goblins get a lucky attack roll and take out one of your characters, or an enemy missing an attack when you had 1 hitpoint left, allowing you to win the fight. Those kind of situations probably will not exist in this game... simply because missing attacks, even ranged attacks, will not occur (afaik). Again what exactly is "reminiscent" of IE-games? Prerendered overhead graphics? Being able to control a party with classes? That's it? Nothing about AD&D at all? As for the UI, I loved the IE UI systems, how they were molded into the game's lore and looked great. Even worse seeing so many people on this very board wanting minimalist UI's which are more reminiscent of modern action-orientated games.

Pretty disappointing imho. You can claim it doesn't matter because "health" doesn't regen, but stamina regen (especially in combat for Fighters) will have a huge impact on how the game plays. Even in Baldur's Gate 20CON Fighters essentially make fighting trash mobs nothing but boring grinding. It's disappointing on a matter of general principle too. Obsidian (and L.Designer Sawyer) essentially appealed to Kickstarter based entirely on Infinity Engine AD&D, and then when they got the money wasted no time at all (well, mostly Sawyer) making nothing but incessant criticisms of the Infinity Engine games and how they played. Resting is bad, daily spells are bad, cooldowns aren't bad, class-based restrictions are bad, round-based combat is bad, dice-roll randomness is bad in combat, wizards being powerful is bad, everything must be super balanced. So Infinity Engine games were awesome on Kickstarter, but now they suck, apparently, and OE want to make a completely different game. Seems to me like this game will play more like an RTS and less like an AD&D IE game, even though fans were led to believe it would be an IE-like game. I don't think prerendered isometric graphics make it IE-like except from a completely cosmetic angle, the gameplay is shaping up to be nothing like IE gameplay.

I have nothing to add, other than to say that I hope he uses the unofficial patch, cause mother of God Arcanum is near unplayable without it