anameforobsidian

Project Eternity had 73k backers. That's 12% of what Grimrock sold. I don't know about the Witcher. People are oddly fanatical about it. Also, while we're being mathematical, $1m would take far more than 20k sales, it would take a little over $28k at Obsidian's portal, but since most people won't use that the equation looks like this $1m = .75 (percent of game sales on steam) * .7 (steam ta.kes 30%)*35*X(total sales) + .25 *.9 (HIB takes 10%)*$35X. So, before taxes that's $1m = $26.25x = 38k sales. Taxes will take a lot, but the game will sell far more than 38k if it is halfway decent.

They've already said previously that you only get experience for accomplishing objectives, not for all fights (however, some fights are objectives).

Companions are one of the last things they implement, so there's still plenty of room in the development cycle. There's a rogue, a wizard, a ranger, a priest, a cipher, a monk, and two others planned right now. They don't have the money, but would like to add companions for the rest of the classes. They would like to add three more, so there's one companion from every class. These companions could possibly be: a fighter, a chanter (bard), a barbarian, a druid, and a paladin. I don't think they could do it in this game, the scope is from low to mid-tier, like the first Baldur's Gate. I do look forward to seeing spells and skills scale up through the expansion and sequel though. Considering that more characters have abilities, I wouldn't be surprised if it did eventually have more abilities.

I would love a weird companion. Just no Grobnars. I hated that little ****er in NWN2.

Steam doesn't require them, where did you get that idea? I have dozens of games on steam with no achievements.

Some achievements, like use such and such weapon, encourage players to step outside their comfort zone. I had a blast with explosives in F:NV because I was trying to get the explosive achievement. Stacking's in game goals were great, they encouraged lateral thinking, as you tried to figure out every solution to the puzzles, not just your own. Just Cause 2's achievements are really fun (wrecking ball kills), and encourage diverse gameplay. Eversion even gets you to hack the game. Bastion's are mostly play the game, except the optional battles. They're difficult.

Some people love them, some people hate them. I count myself among the former, because they sometimes push me to try new gameplay modes and different challenges. They can also extend the life of a game, or just be a pointless grind. I'd favor them, but wouldn't be howling at the sky in frustration if they weren't in.

There's nothing wrong with collecting statistics. Just give an opt-out. From what I recall from his formspring, JE Sawyer used them when considering F:NV.

This conversation made me think of the perfect analogy: The Princess Bride. Andre the giant is the perfect thug character, but he's outdamaged/loses all stamina in a fight of strength / wrestling match.

I really liked the vampires in Sunshine. Even the good vampire drinks the heroin's tears as a palliative when he has no access to blood, and there's a significant risk of him going into a blood frenzy when he fights. Very strange, and you get the impression of something thats an enemy on multiple modes of existence. I just cleared out a nest of eye-eating spiders in Fallen London, and they seem to regard eyes with magical/religious significance. I imagine these or something like the Skinners in Balder's Gate II would be a great addition; enemies thar collect body parts are just cool. I agree with the OP. Middletier enemies are really hard to make, and frequently play as reskinned early tier enemies, or just trash mobs. I think the best way to make mid-tier enemies frightening is to require a hard counter, but make that counter available to everyone. Trolls were very effective in BG II because of their hard acid/fire rule. I think if there was a way to coat your sword in acid, but enemies respawned on exit from an optional area, that would make a pretty good encounter. I'm not too worried though. Cazadores were one of the most effective midtier enemies in years, and it shows that Obsidian understands the importance of status effects. I personally think the Skuldr (though not undead) and Wichts sound pretty creepy.

No game requires cheating... That is just plain stupid. The original Gothic and several others I have tried required no-clip when a trigger didn't go off and a plot critical gate or door didn't open. DA2 is vastly improved by anything that makes combat quicker.

Balance updates are fine. Sometimes certain weapons aren't as viable without them, or even worse, frequently the actual mechanics don't match the tooltip. It doesn't need dota style updates, but it should reach an area where the devs are happy. Je Sawyers mod of FNV was better than the base experience, and then he applied balance updates to that. And don't forget, once the game is released devs have access to a wealth of playtest information that they did not have before, so they're making more informed decisions. This is whe the 4e mm3 is so much better than the mm1 with its pushover dragons and murderous swarms.

I don't remember where I saw it, but I believe JE Sawyer said thar the vast majority of loot would be hand placed.

Well, now I just want a romanceable squirrel, or maybe a squirrel dating sim.

Godlike cypher.

Absolutely this. I do think there's something to the idea of dexterity as twitch muscles and strength as longer term muscles, but the current d&d system (that people expect) is a mess. So there's dexterity, which is flexibility, kinesthesia, reactions, and twitch muscles. Then there's constitution, which is general health, but some how otherwise unrelated. And all of these are unrelated to strength, which is a general catchall for burliness. Charisma, which is both attractiveness, force of will (for casting spells), and persuasive ability, is somehow unrelated to the physical shape of the individual or their intelligence. Then Intelligence and Wisdom are separate dumps of various parts of intellectual capacity, despite their obvious relationship. The fact that it's possible to have a wise adviser who's retarded should say quite a bit about those flaws. Of all these, Charisma is the worst, but they all reflect some very messy divisions. This has gotten worse in later of editions of D&D where people grow stronger and more intelligent over time. I'm not saying I know the answer to these problems, but I don't think the attraction to the old system of attributes is all that great. My effort to improve it would be a system with fewer primary stats that were mostly static, with derived stats from that the player could level up. The derived stats would leak around the circle, with a bonus to one giving a smaller bonus to its neighbors that diminished with each link. That's not great for pnp games, because it uses a lot of calculation, but could be presented pretty easily to crpgs.

An amoral Dr. Frankenstein-like cipher that's trying to make a soul. An Orlan druid with a poison theme. Poison's wells, drives animals insane, makes evil thorn-bushes, etc. An animat that keeps falling apart. He allows you to open more conversation options with mechanics. A vithrak jailer who works for you. An Aumua bandit who attacks from the marsh and drowns his victims. A vithrak merchant who will give you an item that allows you to capture souls from people you kill and sell them. An amoral arms merchant that will pay you to escort them to conflicts. A talking bog. It has to be convinced to stop eating children or killed. A soulless dragon. A druid that's way too into bees. Constantly talks about bees and delivers huge blocks of text about bees. Villagers tolerate him because their crops are pollinated. A druid that starts fires to maintain a savannah ecosystem, settlers are a bit unhappy about this. A power-hungry chanter that thinks that if you learn all the words of power you will become a god.

I don't think episodic content means failure, but I also don't think it's a great way to make an RPG. Episodic means linear or fairly unsatisfying exploration. I think the format would diminish one of Obsidian's great strengths, which is their amazing world-building ability. Furthermore, usually the slow-trickle of information from episodic games leaves me vaguely unsatisified until I've completed the series.

Vailia is much closer to Italy. I've gotten the impression that fanatical Recedras is far closer to the pious and fanatical Spain. Naasitaq is like Iceland. Check out this article on the wiki. http://eternity.gamepedia.com/World

They really are for a lot of people. I had scrimp for a couple weeks to back PE at a basic tier (that was back when we would end each month with $30 in our bank account if we were lucky). I hate when people say "get all the consoles," because even now a new console is still a month's insurance payment or food.

The MTV generation is in their 40s now. On another note, I slightly prefer RTwP because it forces tactical decisions for movement as well as positions. However, I find this whole argument tedious at best. Turn-based fanatics love to talk about how smart they are how dumb RT games are, even though I'd hardly call something like Supreme Commander or Dawn of War stupid and lacking tactics. RTwP players love to talk about how boring turn-based games are, and how they make trash mobs unbearable even though that's not true. Occasionally turn-based people will counter with the existence of auto-resolve and quick animation systems solving all the cumbersome time problems; but if you're skipping combat, then that's an indicator of a far greater problem. You can't laud something as a strength and then defend it by saying it can be skipped. You can like Fallout and you can like BG. One has its technical heritage in board games the other has its technical heritage in RTS (Infinity was originally an RTS engine). Neither are particularly dumb nor lacking in engagement.

I love RPS to bits and pieces, but Nathan Grayson just isn't up to par with the rest of them. He's been improving for a while now, but he ocassionally still tries stupid/ distracting formatting. His puns are subpar. His articles aren't as clever as Alec's or honest as John's (or even as enthusiastic as Kara's). I think he'll eventually get there, but he's still got a long way to go. On the plus side, Graham Smith is probably the best newcomer I've seen in a while.

Your sentiment is in the right place, but technically untrue. The game, if it releases within budget will be a commercial success. That's the amazing thing about kickstarter it doesn't guarantee that non-commercial success will get made, it guarantees that games a market wants will be made. If they release on budget and sell a single copy after they release, they've actually made a profit, something that million-sellers can't even do for some publishers. Sure that profit may be minuscule compared to what publishers want, but that's the power of the idea. Theoretically, in a competitive market eventually long-term profits should fall to very small levels and everyone's . Publishers and stockholders are uncomfortable with that idea, so they've been distorting the games market to try to manufacture unrealizable gains.

They've said multiple times that the playstyle just won't support controllers. I imagine a clever user could put xpadder in, but what's the point.

Well, JE Sawyer worked on Dragon's Eye, but not on Watcher's Keep.