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Carlo

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Everything posted by Carlo

  1. I think Gromnir's suggestion is moot, since those will already be included in the base game. More seriously, I took the survey and thought it was reasonably well constructed to see how excited people are about particular types of "extras" (not whether they want them for free, of course they do). The survey however wasn't constructed to be able to offer negative feedback on highly desired items for PoE1 (e.g. the cloth map - I love maps and the poor quality, washed-out one included showed zero quality control and was highly disappointing from my perspective as a backer).
  2. Thanks so much. Am a backer who has put off playing the campaign until the right time, given other distractions and waiting for the right bugfixes. Now I feel I can do it legitimately and live the experience to its fullest.
  3. Cover art can actually take quite a while to execute properly, so it depends on when it was first sent to the artist. Of course the novella doesn't exactly seem like a priority, but one would hope that, as a promised Kickstarter benefit, in the end it will in fact surface. Perhaps in time for a PoE2 announcement...?
  4. Regarding the BG comparison made at the beginning of the topic, I think it's apt, although perhaps not as originally intended. At least on my first playthrough, I maxed out the possible levels before the final fight with Sarevok, and was not trying to be a completist. The TotSC expansion pack welcome level expansion extras / xp cap relief (which I expect will also be the case for PoE). BG2 started the party at the mid-levels and therefore had much more content/scaling flexibility from the beginning. In the context of putting out the first installment of a new epic world/game series, believe the XP gain / scaling issues raised above are both valid and, unfortunately, more or less inevitable given different playstyles and balance issues. The best fix would be to simply have the extra content available at start, but this is not really viable from a commercial perspective. It would also require that much more dev time, which people don't have the patience for either. I haven't started PoE yet and at this point I'm tempted to defer gaming gratification until the release of the expansion pack, for the fully enhanced experience. We'll see. There seems to be plenty of replayability, both in terms of content and difficulty level, so people of differing styles (or those who like to change them up) can still have a good experience.
  5. If people can't figure out what the "M" rating means, then surely they will be offended by *something* in the game. Also, reading optional content is optional.
  6. KOTOR 2 with the Sith Lords Restored Content Mod. Since the main game came out on GoG and the mod team just released an updated version, I figured it was time to try it; I gave it a skip the first time around due to the buggy reputation and too-early release. The modded version has not disappointed, especially on the story and roleplaying aspects.
  7. Since patching/updating is an ongoing process and any physical product will go out of date (usually sooner rather than later), I'm happy getting game version 1.0 in a physical delivery - that's barely done at all these days anyway, so I consider it a bonus. If I need to reinstall later or move computers, that'll help save the dl'ing time. Last time I remember seeing something with a separate physical patch version, it was a 3.5" floppy one included in the box I got for "Blood Bowl" (the original computer version).
  8. Conceptually I don't believe the idea of modding for PE has changed much since this past topic, which is still relevant: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/59988-modding/
  9. Outstanding update on the state of the project. As a content backer I was particularly happy to see Josh Sawyer's subsequent posted confirmation that most of the backer contributions have already made it in. Will be very interested to see what the PE version of my NPC, who has appeared from time to time in my weekly NWN campaign, turns out like in-game. As a late adopter type I'll cheer on the beta stage, but still plan to savor the complete flavor during my virgin run-through of the final release.
  10. Nice idea (and picture) for the tavern banter. In the BG series, party chat triggers as I recall were fairly evenly spread, with some in taverns as well. In multiplayer games it's always a great place to share camaraderie and gripes or just see what's going on in the area. Along similar lines, for flavor purposes in the Neverwinter Nights campaign I run, automated NPCs in various cities have random speech based on current local events and rumors, including some that reflect party actions. It's very simple to set up - all that's necessary is to have each NPC roll a virtual d20 against a selected text list when speech is triggered - but adds a lot of flavor to the game world and lets the party know what's trending via word of mouth.
  11. The main point of a "Mature" rating is that the designers and those who create the dialog and action don't have to censor themselves for the industry ratings agencies, therefore giving them more creative freedom. Nasty people can do nasty things both on-camera and off-camera, there may be a range of sex and drugs available in the world (who knew), etc. Doesn't mean your character has to participate or that these themes completely dominate, just that it won't be a Disney-esque world. See for reference the Fallout series, among others.
  12. I gave up on Arcanum about a dozen hours into it because of the combat system (and a non-optimized for combat character). I don't blame him.
  13. As one of the backers with an NPC to create, I've eagerly awaited this announcement and was happily surprised for the holidays. Although the site wasn't completely functional on launch, today all of the NPC survey elements were in place and I was very happy to be able to complete my submission; for anyone else with the same issue, things are now working. As a more general comment, I also thought the gameplay video showed Eternity to be everything that I'm looking for out of this CRPG, with the look and feel giving me goosebumps from Baldur's Gate - but not just a knockoff version, something that reflects the epic fantasy genre but is its own entity. I'm in it for the story and roleplay elements - if my main concern was bleeding edge visuals I'd go somewhere else - and I think what was shown will bring the world to life quite well in its final version. Thank you Obsidian for delivering.
  14. Many thanks for the backer site info - looks like it'll be everything we'd want - and especially the nod to those of us who are looking forward to contributing in a small way with a design element. Stronghold also a bonus.
  15. Outstanding stronghold implementation as described in the update. I have not seen so many varied and well-thought-out options and features before, in any similar game. The stronghold sounds like it will initially be a money sink that promises something of a reward on your investment (eventually), rather than a magic money maker. Thanks for putting so much effort and thought into the events and design. /tips hat
  16. JFSOCC - it's evident you haven't run across Gromnir before on the NWN community boards. His heyday was in the pre-NWN release ALFA project, so that's over 10 years ago. (Dates me as well). Anyone who remembers those early days of the project might get a kick out of the comic satire download on this page, courtesy originally of Anon. Back on topic, top-class world/universe builders like Poul Anderson, Jack Vance and Roger Zelazny indeed wrote what they knew, with very different styles and areas of expertise. I would say their knowledge of topics ranging from psychology to genetics to fencing enhanced their abilities to describe and create fantastic (in the full sense of the word) and sometimes literally mind-blowing works.
  17. Great update on something that everyone cares about. Especially appreciate the thinking behind companion introduction and interaction, including the issue of overlapping functions. Touches like the more distinctive companion visual profiles are also very welcome and of course more doable now with greater screen resolutions than in the IE days. It sounds like there will be something for everyone, from the backstory and personal quest junkies (like myself) to the shut-up-and-adventure types. And please no more romance topics. Thank you.
  18. The most detailed modding topic is here: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/59988-modding/ This is not going to be Neverwinter Nights or Shadowrun Returns in terms of ease of modding, but I'm hoping a reasonably user-friendly editor will be released.
  19. Hopefully the plots and other NPC conversations aren't all set before I get to design my NPC. The whole point for me contributing at that level was to have that character be interactive and integral (even in a minor way) to what is going on around them, with perhaps some ideas for the designers to build off of. I definitely did not contribute to get a cardboard cutout with a generic conversation that I then get the privilege of naming.
  20. Excellent point by JFSOCC. Actions should have consequences in an RPG and protagonists don't always win everything. Those players who want to reload always can, but it adds greatly to the immersion factor when your decisions or actions don't always turn out 100% fabulous, but that's not a game-wrecker. A variation of this in-game is having to make decisions that are complex and have both positive and negative repercussions. The Witcher I thought did a particularly good job of this, for example. But that type of decision-making play I don't think should be a substitution for not allowing failure in side quests or related NPC interactions (e.g. someone becomes your enemy or refuses to give you what you want). Another variation on this is the death of companions. In BG2 (both my run-throughs) I did my damnedest but just couldn't keep Aerie alive for the distance; she was perma-killed in dragon battles both times. Having a companion die is certainly a failure and will result in failing any of their related quests (per the original topic), but again I felt it added to rather than detracted from my overall BG2 experience. Salute the fallen, accept the loss, move on.
  21. The first game I bought on GoG.com was Fallout, since I'd missed it when it was first released and the pre-GoG editions weren't updated properly to work with newer PCs. Simply put, it was awesome. Strong story that grabbed you from the beginning and combat mechanics that made sense and were appropriately challenging. A little buggy occasionally, but nothing game-wrecking. Graphics were good enough to hang your imagination on. I'm now playing through the Geneforge series, which was recently on sale at GoG. Old school Ultima-style game with combat kind of like Fallout. Simple, effective design with a simple yet effective and deep storyline, with meaningful choices and intelligent text descriptions and dialog. Graphics are basic but again, enough to hang my imagination on. A lot of things can attract or repulse about particular games, I think an attractive (or at least not unattractive) art style and the overall design feeling is actually more important than pure graphics quality - at least for cRPGs. Also, why replay old games so much? Why not play new (old) games? If you like replaying games, great. If it's grown stale, maybe it's not the game's fault, maybe the experience is just worn out. The sense of exploration, adventure and newness is a large part of why I play cRPGs to begin with.
  22. GOG in fact does have separate patch downloads available on your product pages, at least for some games (FTL for example).
  23. *cough* No monster-XP *cough* (which only makes you an idiot if you try to farm them. Well I guess you can for gold and potential items though) Exactly. If respawning mobs provide anything valuable and are not too tough to defeat, they can be farmed forever, whether it's for XP or loot. And someone is guaranteed to do it. Back closer to the main topic, things like Fallout's caravan guard experience (I wouldn't really call it a "quest") seemed well-balanced. You can also have a quest not be infinitely repeatable, which sometimes is a nice way of splitting the difference - succeed a few times at patrolling an area for monsters and they don't ever come back.
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