Tikigod

Whilst true that the inconsistencies extend beyond Eder and Vela, the latest beta build notes mention new changes made to a broader range of values that were not being applied correctly. Most (likely all) of the value will only correctly set on a completely new start. Existing campaigns will already have the improper values assigned (Not sure Obsidian will ever be able to correct existing campaigns as that poses a huge headache). So are the inconsistencies you're seeing with Wael and such coming after using the latest beta build and starting a completely new campaign and import?

In all honesty I do not mind that all the pre-orders gets it, even if as kickstarter backer we gave life to this reality. But I absolutely wants to know if I get the content or not from some official source. You definitely 100% get the space piglet and ring that all pre-orders get as part of the backers package. Yes. The only question left unanswered to my knowledge is the contents of the backer-exclusive item and achievement.

A Wizard did it.

Debit cards work perfectly fine with Steam. I've been using mine with Steam for years. Don't take mention of 'Credit card' in any payment system in the literal sense. It's just used as a general name to mean both Credit and Debit cards. In a lot of countries, debit cards are what your average person uses rather than credit cards. It's not exclusive to Germany.

Checking: https://steamdb.info/app/291650/subs/ It doesn't seem that Steam has any means of actually distinguishing between the "Kickstarter editions" that Obsidian advertise and "Standard pre-order editions" that everyone gets. When I redeemed by backer key on Steam, it definitely only returned the standard Hero edition pre-order. So however the backer exclusive items and achievements are going to be tracked, it definitely doesn't seem to be tied to our game keys in any shape or form. Maybe it will be additional DLC codes that haven't yet be implemented. Getting the feeling that Obsidian may have done a slight plan change at some point and made the backer items apply to all pre-orders, then forgot to correct existing information and descriptions of what the 'Kickstarter editions' actually include to reflect the change in plan.... or maybe they forgot and are being quiet because they're trying to find out who to point the finger at and flog over the weekend.

Was curious about this as well. Kind of getting mixed messages from different sources, some mention the space piglet and ring are the 'backer rewards' yet they're standard pre-order bonuses and in no way backer exclusive in-game rewards like is mentioned to exist. Not all that bothered about backer-exclusive rewards in-game itself. But would be nice to know what to expect when firing up the game in 10 hours or so given that it's still stated that the 'kickstarter edition' variants of standard packages offer special game content.

Yes, you will be able to play. In theory you could find game in your steam directory and create a direct shortcut to the exe file to start the game without running Steam. I'm pretty sure this isn't the case. There's a reason it's called DRM. It varies from game to game and is in part based on the choice of the developer. Some games on Steam really can just be launched locally without ever touching on Steams optional API utilisation. So you can download the game through Steam, then just launch the game directly and never have it really touch Steam again. Other developers opt to use the available services to have Steam act as a more standard form of DRM, but still allowing offline play. Whilst others design it so that it really doesn't play well with offline mode and requires at least a initial online connection. It really is down to the individual title and the developers. Valve provide the API tools, developers decide the extent they want to utilise them. Some standard Steam behaviour however seems to be that if Steam knows/thinks there is a update for a game pending, offline mode for that game generally won't work as it will keep trying to update prior to allowing you to start up the game. This can be worked around in various ways however.

It's normal for 3D artists to make a detailed model first, and then simplify them. I've personally found it's the complete opposite. (For game assets, rather than static designs which are to be honest a entirely different process) The concept artists may make detailed designs, either as drawings or as an actual 3D asset in Blender/3DS/Maya/Z-brush, and the style and details are reiterated until it's deemed acceptable. Then the actual game assets are constructed first as low poly outlines based on the concept, and then detail is added onto a duplicate and used for baking normal/height maps (Even specular I suppose). Removing detail from meshes is significantly harder than adding details, which is why I asked in a previous post in this thread if it would be possible to get some insight in the near future into why their 3D artist(s) are making high detailed designs in Z-brush and then making the low poly off of the high detail, as unless it's to compensate for lack of concept artist being free to work on race designs and instead concept designs and game asset creation is being combined into the same process.... it strikes me as rather irregular and a more time consuming process in the long run*, so it would be VERY interesting to get some insight into the mind of the artist(s) who came up with this process. * That is unless Obsidian make development history by not having a single unexpected change arise in their designs , that isn't just a case of noticing the rise of a need to make changes and ignoring it because the existing process established is too clunky to allow the needed changes within any existing time constraints.

Agreed about the elves in Arcanum are portrayed. In fact from a general design perspective the way all the races are portrayed in the game has always impressed me including the smaller level of details such as how when making a new character the background text and names are adjusted in some examples based on race/gender, and text is also adapted. Given the nature of the game, starting and getting established playing as a elf certainly isn't 'powerful' as such unless you're hell bent on more aligning with magic in which case you may perhaps get a bit of a boost trying to get established early on in magical areas, but playing as a tech or neutral aligned elf is rather restricting. But that's the entire design of the racial system in Arcanum IMO, there are races that are the counterpart to elves as well in the game so the pointy eared buggers certainly aren't given any special treatment in that regard. There is just a more 'focused' race for a whole range of things, whilst ensuring there is an actual focus compared to the empty shallow options in some other RPGs just really don't have any real implication and the options are purely cosmetic. (+1 dexterity, when you can then remove that point and put it into anything else, is the kind of shallow system I mean. Also just having dialogue sections change to go "Well <name>, I've always <liked/hated> you <race>", is bare bones and doesn't cut it!) As for Chris, you could be right, though I did notice he also doesn't notice when he is and isn't in combat mode using turn based combat even though the action point aspect of the interface is rather prominent and central to your screen especially when playing the game entirely native without any higher resolution hacks, but that could also be due to nerves and feeling somewhat rushed to be active for the sake of people watching.... in which case, just relax, sit back and enjoy it Chris and don't feel you have to rush for the sake of people watching!

Regarding the video, I am some what surprised that Chris Avellone didn't really seem to pick up on some rather clear things such as how you can't lower your stats below default figures, whilst in the video he's clicking various stats talking about lowering them to be able to improve things to get the character more toward his desired focus, yet he's changing nothing what so ever. Don't take this the wrong way, but for the love of bob the mighty deity of the internet, don't let that chap give feedback on first impressions for new players in Project Eternity!!! Of course, if the lack of care and ability to notice when something is actually doing nothing at all, yet repeatedly doing it successively and convinced something is happening and actually claiming to like the end result of nothing changing over the original state before nothing changed is all part of some elaborate message to show he really doesn't want to be playing Arcanum in the first place.... never mind.

Violated? You don't know what violated is until you've spent a night with Flashheart! WOOF!

Now that's an interesting thought, but seems rather over the top depending on what you define as an 'NPC' in terms of what elements it needs to consist of to be an 'NPC' rather than just a 'Intractable game object that has extra behaviour associated'. Wouldn't mind knowing what you had in mind to warrant considering making doors much broader objects than say just permitting it to be attackable object of a type that has some variables like sturdiness/lock strength/connection nodes. Really peaked my interest personally in what you may be thinking of. Sentient magical doors you can engage in conversation?

Few things come to mind from reading this update: #1 I find it rather interesting that your pipeline involves making the high poly designs in Zbrush to use in baking texture maps first, and THEN make the low poly models based on the high poly. Would be interesting to hear why you've opted for this over what I feel is the more traditional 'low poly -> duplicate -> subdivide -> add details -> bake'. Are the high poly creations also serving as a aspect of concept design to fully flesh out the look and feel of races before making the actual game assets for example? Or perhaps your artists just find it much quicker to churn work by using a sculpting focused tool like Zbrush to make high poly designs compared to making low poly meshes from the ground up, and instead are opting for making the low poly by essentially masking it over the high poly topology (minus the extra detail geometry)? #2 You mention that you are aiming to have one armor mesh serve across all races, and then have the proportions scale accordingly (by being married to either the mesh itself or the armature?). But you don't mention what your plans are for textures for armors, with these kind of distortions to a mesh what exactly are your plans to approach texturing the different variations from the same mesh design to avoid things such as textures being stretched, and details visible and sharp in one proportion, becoming either too stretched and blurry on larger races or too insignificant and lost for smaller races? Especially when you're dealing with proportions that don't relative on all 3 axis equally! (E.G. Dwarves being short and plump, but elves being tall and slender) Is it really your intent to have one armor mesh per design used for all races and body form variation, and then UV unwrap each variation one by one and texture them all individually to varying UV layouts adjusting to proportions as needed? As that sounds like a serious amount of work for your texture artists not to mention creating a lot of extra processing work for the modelers ... So any details on your plans for the texturing process to go along with the outline for the armor pipeline would be extremely interesting (at least to me anyway! lol).