soulburner

Any plans regarding performance on PC? The game is quite demanding and while pretty (most of the time) its performance leaves a bit to be desired. Perhaps you could work on a DX12 renderer to solve some bottlenecks? I understand it might be a big undertaking, though, but it I think it would solve the problem in a substantial way. Also, adding more options in the graphics settings would be welcome - a separate setting for chromatic aberration, a separate one for screen space reflections quality, etc. The currently implemented sliders offer too little (if any!) explanation on what each of them do. Anyhow, I love this game. It's not perfect, but I have a huge feeling of a mix of New Vegas and Firefly and it's been the best game I played in years. I hope to see more releases in this universe and that now under Microsoft's wings many more (with such amount of dialog, choice and consequences, etc) will come.

I'm not so sure about this idea. I believe a 'skip prologue' option would be best. But even better would be a prologue/tutorial that's so tightly integrated with the game you won't even want to skip it, even while being at a 500th playthrough. Skippable cutscenes? Hell yes, I hate it when some games do that. Sometimes the cutscenes are so long (and sometimes boring) I quit the game before they are over :D And while we're at it, I want a skippable "Obsidian" logo animation at start-up. It will be a nice thing to see when starting the game (like being more aware of the fact we are starting something so anticipated and most likely brilliant ) but not for the 500-th time.

I have to say I love the dynamic range on the Dyrford track.

I think the announcement will be Obsidian developing Fallout 4 for Bethesda, while Bethesda is making The Elder Scrolls VI

The only thing that can be said about a "windows convention" is no saving files in the application folder, only in the user directories. Unfortunately, that didn't decrease the amount of files and folders created by different games in different locations. Painful to monitor and backup.

A triple-A graphics engine doesn't make a game good or pretty or interesting. You can make an ugly and unplayable mess on CryEngine 3 but you can also create something beautiful and with wonderful gameplay using the Quake engine. By the way, I would love an Obsidian fantasy action RPG, too. Something like The Elder Scrools: Skyrim - New Vegas :D

By the way, I'm bad at using the search function so maybe someone could answer it for me here (and I apologize if it's a well known fact and I missed it somehow): are there any additional perks when becoming a slacker backer other than the "retail game key on Steam or GOG, and an exclusive backer badge (coming soon)"?

I understand why you would like to keep all game related data in the game folder. Giving gamers an option to choose where user files are stored wouldn't be a bad thing and I'd probably prefer not to use any files on C: drive either. By default, however, the game will have to use the C: drive due to how Windows works since Vista and samm wrote about it in the first posts in this thread (yes, there is a technical reason why files are created in %appdata% or Documents). The problem now is how to tell the game to look for user data elsewhere? An ini file on the C: drive? Anyway, I don't think such an option will be available. Users who install their games on other partitions or disks are usually proficient with computers enough to use hard links to suppress any access by selected applications to their overgrown C: drives.

Nothing constructive or original to say: great update and would like to see more of this kind.

Yep, games creating their own folders in the Documents directory causes a terrible mess. I believe games should either use C:\[username]\Saved Games location or My Games subfolder inside Documents. It would finally allow the Documents library to be useful for documents without adding an additional location to it. I don't think adding an option to choose where the game saves it's user data would be useful but I would like if the files would be kept in one of the aforementioned locations (for example, c:\[username]\Saved Games\Project Eternity) and not in, for example, Documents\Obsidian Entertainment.

I didn't read the whole thread, but I'll add my opinion. When Project Eternity was first teased I was hoping that after Fallout: New Vegas the next Obsidian game would also be a first/third person game. At that time I did not ever play an isometric RPG before and when the project was finally announced on Kickstarter I wasn't impressed. I thought it was going to be yet another game that's probably cool but simply not for me. I was sad that Obsidian decided to make this game isometric. But being a huge fan of Fallout: New Vegas I felt bad not knowing the originals, Fallout 1 & 2. So I tried playing FO1 and was slaughtered by the rats in the cave outside of Vault 13. Some time later I tried again and the same thing happened. I hated isometric games even more! Being hungry for more Fallout I started reading tutorials and walkthroughs... including the original manual for the game I found out there's a pistol and some ammo at the starting location. I found out I don't have to fight the rats at all and can avoid them even in the turn based combat mode. After I reached the first city... I wasn't the same person anymore I found myself sitting in front of the computer playing Fallout 1 & 2 for 6+ hours daily. It was addictive and I even had dreams about the game - just like I had dreams about Duke Nukem 3D and Quake in 1997 after I played them on my first own PC :D After finishing both Fallouts and having a few days off from gaming I thought about Baldur's Gate and Planescape Torment. It was also a horror at first - memorizing spells, resting, controlling a full party, managing the party during real time combat, trying to comprehend THAC0 and AC - it was very hard. But once I understood the basics I enjoyed these games so much I'm even considering getting into pen & paper "analogue" RPGs... and I used to laugh at people who play these! So today I am a huge fan of isometric RPGs and not only isometric - RPGs in general. I am very happy to see so many new oldschool games like Project Eternity, Wasteland 2, Torment, etc. and I'm monitoring the web searching for information about other great games of this kind. Old, recent and upcoming titles. I played KOTOR, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights, Divinity series and I'm still looking for more. I also enjoyed Skyrim and Dragon Age There's a lot to do before Project Eternity is ready! So, yeah, that's my story. Thank you for wasting your time reading it

I like short names. How about Soul?

I don't think I'm going to add anything new to the discussion but I love the choice of a serif font. I find it the easiest to read. I loved the font in Planescape Torment and I think the closer it is to Times New Roman the better. I would love to see an option to scale the font size, too - it's often either too small or too big and having some control over it would be very welcome. Oh, and thank you for the update - very informative and can't wait for more

The screenshot looks great and even a little too close to the concept art The 3D characters stand out a little bit but the effect is far less noticeable than I feared and it will be even less noticeable in motion. I like how the models react to lighting, too. I wonder if we can talk our way out of combat in the situation shown on this screenshot

Thanks for the link, great information there, makes me very happy and even more anxious to play P:E

This is some great news from Justin Bell regarding dynamic range. Over-compressed dynamics are a huge problem not only in music, but also in games and movies. I can't stand it how recent films have a car explosion softer than dialogues, ricochets louder than gunshots, etc. Similarly in video games - for example, Metro 2033 has too soft weapon sounds, which almost totally ruins the game for me. I bet all audio engineers are fully aware of all this, but somehow not all of them decide to do anything about it. Who decides to make the pistol sound softer than a finger snap in, for example, Die Hard 5 (yeah, I know the movie is bad anyway, but the sound makes it even worse)? I can't imagine compressing the dynamics of the street gun fight in Heat - the loudness of that whole scene is 50% of what makes it so good. I won't even start complaining about the loudness war in music Thank you for making the dynamic range an important part of the sound design process. It makes me want to play P:E even more

I'm a fan of good sounding audio. However, I do not think lossless audio in the game would be beneficial in any way. It would just make the game files bigger and longer to download and possibly consume more RAM. A good sound will sound good, no matter if it's an mp3, ogg, flac or vinyl (unless you purposefully hinder any of them). An additional soundtrack in FLAC format as an optional download - sure, why not. The only thing "high quality" I would like about the sound of Project Eternity is... dynamics. I hope the game sounds and music is not dynamically over-compressed. Loudness war is bad.

There is a chance Obsidian will make a "Fallout: Some City" after Bethesda releases Fallout 4, so not all is lost.