Streamlock

Just to interject for a second-didn't one of the devs, or more then one comment in one of the initial videos/interviews how being restricted to the D&D mechanics made making PS:T and some other titles a real pain the arse and limited what they thought they could accomplish gameplay wise? Them ditching the system was surely to be expected. And not neccessarily for the worse. I'm not into going full cooldown (In the voice of Robert Downey Jr. "You never go full cooldown") unless Obsidian has something fancy up thier sleave with it....But I'm not going to hold them over the fire for going a different direction when they said straight up that was a goal from the start......So long as it's not some damnable wanna-be console, watered down, MMO immatating, button mashfest cooldown system at least. Oh I'm sorry, wanna-be console, watered down, MMO immatating, button mashfest with formations. I was actually hoping for something a little creative and original, designed for the PC crowed from the start and maybe entertwined with the whole soul mechanicl thing. Meh.

Whine on the codex and /v/? Don't you say?! I wanna see a good argument as why level scaling and cooldowns are a bad thing, so far I've only seen pure hatred lol.The way Sawyer was explaining the magic system sounded pretty reasonable to me, still, what do I know... Both of those can be hard to quantify in any kind of specific way-without referencing particular games/situations. Of which I just don't have the patience to do. In general though, straight-cooldowns turns combat into a some thinly veiled whack-a-mole game. It works well in something like an action combat game, but "TAB 3,2,4-TAB 1,2,4 TAB TARGET 3,1" over and over and over again does not make for a cerebral 'tactical' (using tactical- the devs own words) experience. I'm not saying that the game would be bad for it, but it certianly would not be the better for it either. A small selection of active spells/abilites with cooldowns is better suited for platforms with limited imput options (like a dual analog stick) then a game purpose built for a mouse/keyboard/whatever. I don't believe the Van. system ever made the transition to cRPG's without some serious issues either, and quite frankly I don't have a solution to it-but there it is. Level scalling. A lot of that is just knee jerk reaction. You need some kind of level scalling to keep mid/late game interesting-expecially in a non-linear experience. On the other hand, it's pretty awesome to go back to that town that did not allow you entry because your character is a half-goat and poisen them all with hulicination inducing poisen tip arrows or some-such. Or read a forum post about some poor idiot that decided to scale the dragon's peak at level 2 or something and bitching about it (or vice versa, the super stategist that actually pulled it off). Level scalling can be OK, as long as it is used in a minimilistic manner. Of course, of you limit level scaling to much, you start to have to implement gating enounters to...dissuade people from content best enjoyed after a certain area has been completed 1st. And people go all stupid about gating encounters. (edit; BTW-I loved the fact that in BG (2?) that I had to come back 3 or 4 times before I could actually beat that stupid gold lich thing in the city. Pretty funny the 1st couple times I tried. That would not have been possible if it just 'scaled' to my level)

I don't know what I can add to the discussion, other then to chime in that every game that has went with a straight cooldown system has been worse for it in the long haul. That is not to say that a creative director/disigner could not find someway to make in interesting, challanging, and rewarding in what is supposed to be a tactical experience. Perhaps there is one out there, and I just have not experienced it. I have no problem with cooldown/recharge abilities being in the mix. Or having low level ones become cooldown, or some of the other ideas that have been brought up. I just really don't want another game were I'm either playing wack-a-mole with my/my parties abilites as they come up, or balancing my checkbook while I wait for long cooldowns just for something to do. It is always one extreme or the other, or seemingly so.

I had brought up the Brazilian market in another thread. I used to see more then a fair share of Brazilian players in competitive online type games (Brood War, Counter Strike-and yes, my gaming habits go beyond hard core RPG's ). Are they into RPG's, cRPG's, jRPG's (beyond whatever passes for one on a SEGA Master System). Anybody know? Anybody know WTF is there obsession with the SEGA Master System? lol.

I don't know about unique. Ring of save game, epic cartography (I don't have to draw my own maps on scratch paper), the "can perform normal activities like jumping up and down or over a small ditch without rolling a damn skill check you anally retentive DM!" feat. Stuff like that.

I think for Euro markets simply promoting some of the translations for the non-english speakers and getting some face time on the euro emags combined with a couple online interviews would be sufficient, and not break the marketing bank. As far as Eastern Europe goes, I don't know of any market beyond Russia that would pay dividends. Asia? Hmm, get on a Korean eMag or two-that might help. China? No go, if your lucky they will just pirate the game; most likely they will change the title screen and sell it as home grown. Japan? lolololol. Well....I guess you could drink yourself stupid on saki then puke on a storyboard. Cut scraps from the story board and fold them in half and use that for some early art renderings. Market that right and it will go gangbusters. Hailed as a triumph in game developement. Might even be the harold in the 1st wave of PC gaming in Japan.......( I kid, I'm only half serious-still half mind you) I don't know if this is still the case, but there used to be a boat load of Brazilians playing online games-don't know how much they are into cRPG's though.

Gah-this convo always pops it's ugly little head up in every computer RPG with physical in game currency. Everybody is right, and everybody is wrong-as always. It either adds to your enjoyment and immersion of the gaming experience, or the opposite. It's akin to fast travel systems. The only solution is-budget permitting to have the ability to enable/disable it apon character creation. Nuff said.

I guess I've been consuming different kinds of fiction for long enough that your comment/question could be directed at just about any setting. How many are there really? Tolkien/High Fant. Steampunk Various Historical (Medievel, Bronze Age, Pre-industrial/Industrial, WWI, WWII, Dark Ages, Disco Era, Whatever) Modern and/or alt history Near Future Earth Far Future Sci-Fi (Earth or Space based, post apocolyptic, what have you) Cyberpunk Cybermancy Then possibly add the following to those settings-Zombie Apocolypse,Vampires,Werewolves, Grimm tales, time travel, polytheism, magic, psychics. At some point, your going off reservation with the setting for the sake of just being different with no particular benifit to the product. I mean yeah, sure nobody has really done (that I'm aware of) a deep RPG set in the stone ages, but do you really want to role play Clan of the Cave Bear or some nonsense? That being said, I don't want a carbon copy of Tokien or Forgotten Realms, but I don't see a reason to boo-hoo about a fant. setting so long as it's done well and made fresh and interesting on some level.

I like the idea of a balls hard difficulty level, not really the one save thing. At least not in something I might drop 150+ hours into one gameplay. I do understand that people that like that level of hardcore are an underserved market, and koodos for Obsidian in servicing them, I do think it is somewhat of a niche of a niche though. That being said, playing around with that FTL indie game, I forgot just how rewarding and fun not having a ring of save game can be. Though at most I'm losing what, an hour of gameplay?

After lurking over a few KS projects, and even funding a couple, I had the bizzare idea that KS, at least in media centric projects (books,film,audiobook,video games/games) should have the option of splitting a project, or having individual goals. For instance- Project A hits it's initial goals. You have individual and seperate stand-alone stretch goals. This would work well for multi-language support. Pulling a number out of the air....70-90k for translation. Have 3-5 seperate goal areas....If the players want it in a language native to high piracy regions....erm Chzech or something-they can fund it upfront. ....Maybe something like that-people would probably just pull primary funding for specific funding. I'm sure you could structure it to avoid that kind of activity.

I'm not asking for 11 classes or 20 companions. That's the part I don't care about. What I care about is if the game becomes way too simplified, just like any other recent RPG. It doesn't have to be a 120+ hour game, but I want a deep, immersive game. Fallout 1 had a budget of $3M, I recall Brian Fargo saying. That game was a bit short, but extremely satisfying and replayable. That amount would translate to a bit more today, but Project Eternity is very likely to reach that sort of funding in 30 more days. Can't disagree with you there. Still need to go back and play Fallout 1. Think I saw it on GOG when I was picking up FTL.....Don't know if it will run on Win7 64 bit though. Oh well, off topic.

When I mention Werewolf/vampire I do not mean having it be a little thing you can "catch" (a la The elder scrolls) but actually being a full fledged type of race, you start as, that is part of that world and not treated as a "disease" or something like it usually is. Well, I just don't see it working, or at least doing it justice without building half the game around it. Then your just making something like Vampire Masquerade in a fantasy setting. (Never did finish that damn game-to damn buggy). Not that I think it isn't a cool concept, just not really sure that is what they are shooting for, or even what I had in mind reading the (very vague) product dispcription on the KS launch. This conversation does lead to a somwhat tangential discussion about having your species choice mean more then just some different sprite with tweaked stats, and the choice having deep and major consequences on how the game world reacts to that choice, and how your allowed to interact with it. I'm not sure if thats going to far off topic or not. It may be the reason they have such a limited # of build choices they announced.

To restate what some above have said, having a tight well developed and fleshed out companion group can be much more rewarding and deep then lets say 20 different companions. For instance I would rather have a few more fleshd out companions then 20 fairly shallow ones like Skyrim. The class thing is dependant. If they have the ability to mix/match classes, that can become pretty big pretty fast. Something like Titan's Quest (I know, not an RPG per se', just and example) where you combine a melee class and a cleric/healer class to create a palidan build. Not sure they are going to go that route, but the potential builds grow expenentially at that point. Just to little to go on right now to say for sure. Lastly, I am not sure what people were expecting from a 'deep' RPG with a shoestring budget of 1.1 mil. What were the budgets for PS:T, BGII, Fallout 2 etc.??? Have to have some realistic expectations.

I can see where the OP is coming from to some extent. I know it's boring, but I would still like to see a 'human' option-being human and all. (A bit off topic, but I would also like to see humans with a greater variety of phenotypes/builds/hights what have you i.e. greater representation of our race beyond sex/skin tone) Beyond that though, I think the whole vampire/lycan thing has been overdone. Option further into the game? Sure, but not during character creation. Unless the whole game is going to rovolve around that-I don't think it can be done right. Don't mind seeing them in the game, just not taking up the 3-5 player choice race/species type. I'm also generally against the whole feline/kanine thing. But that is a personal pet peave of mine after inadvertantly stunbling in on some kind of....I guess 'furry' gathering drunk one night in the French Quarter. Scarred me for life........ Anyway, I would like to see some more creativity in player chosen race/species without falling to deep into familiar tropes or dropping into something overly obscure. Don't know about specifics though.

Firstly, is there going to be higher tier options that forgo physical goods? I usually like having a physical copy if it's possible, but for some reason with something prefunded like this project I want all my money going toward development of the game, or health benifits to some poor overworked intern (or whatever) and not trinkets and dvd's that will collect dust. Strange I know, but there it is. Also, what is the art style going to be? I know I'm in a bit of a minority as far as cRPG fans go, and I'll just come out and say it. I simply will not suffer funding a styalized, 1960's Hanna Barbara in 1080p, magna wanna-be bull-hockey that has decended like a plauge on modern gaming. (I know some folks are all googly over that type of visual interpretation, we will just have to agree to disagree) Just asking before I drop a bill or whatever into funding what is looking might possibly be the cRPG of the decade. -Thanks

I believe its hidden in the journal or quest screen somewhere. Btw, you can delete your other thread. Go to "moderating options" in the bottom left corner of your thread and select "delete topic". <{POST_SNAPBACK}> OK, thanx.

I kind of screwd up during my first play through KOTORII. I went to Nar Shaddaa last and really did'nt have a chance to flesh out the story of the characters you gain there. So I'm thinking of another run through of the game. It seems the makers of the game expected you to go to Nar Shadaa first or second considering the number of NPC party members you gain there. My question is about the force powers that are supposed to give defensive bonuses or what have you not modifying what is shown on the character screen. I've read several posts on the subject, and I have read that you can prove that the devensive bonuses are not active by some mode where you can actually see the dice rolls and bonuses and opposed rolls much like in NWN. I have enabled/disabled every option the game has to offer and have found no such feedback. The only feed back is damage dealt/damage recieved, missed messages, experience, vitality points healed/regained, light/dark side points gained, and influence gained or loss. I can see no way, at least without some kind of code, so you can see the kind of feedback needed to prove/disprove if these bonuses are actually working the way they are supposed to. I've noticed some other inconsistancies and wish to test them out. Can some one tell me how to enable the feedback so I can see the rolls? I'm interested in finding out if some of the modifiers are really working but simply do not display on the character screen, or are really broke. Most of the posts I can find are mindless flames with nothing to disprove or prove the functionality of these issues. I don't want to waste force powers on something that is useless for my second character build can some one help?