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The Torment:ToN video showed off a movement/animation system using irregular speed and inertia. ("improved on PoE technology, or something like that) Maybe not for combat, but for just moving around, I would really love to see that being traded back to PoE. PoE's animations are fine, they do the job, but they look robotic and especially compared to Torment's movement, they just hurts the eyes a bit. I understand in RtWP combat these would change the mechanics too much, but for out of combat movement, they'd be wonderful to have. It's super late in development, I realize that. But, perhaps it could be applied as a patch after release. Thoughts?

If it was a fact that hell existed and it is 100% for sure that evil people go to hell - wouldn't you try to be good? One thing which really bothers me is that in a lot of fantasy settings the people of those realms *know* for sure that gods and the associated powers exist. Also, it is a fact that there is a hell and heaven (or multiple hells, heavens etc.) as in Forgotten Realms or Planescape settings. For instance, in Planescape Torment, every person living in Sigil knows there exists multiple planes of hell/heaven, and you end up at hell if you are an evil person. Hell is not a nice place and a sane person would certainly not want to spend an eternity there among demons and such. Therefore, regarding the evil characters in these fantasy settings (apart from the crazy ones), isn't there a very strong motivation for them to actually try to be good? For example in real life, since it is not 100% for sure after-life exists, the only factors restraining people from committing *evil actions* (yes, very subjective in some cases) are things such as the laws, their conscience and beliefs. I am sure people would think a second time before committing crimes etc. if it was a common fact that after-life existed and you would be punished in hell for sure (even if you were able to get away with it in real life). I think you get the point. Sorry, if this philosophical aspect had already been covered on the forums, but this has been one of the questions which started bothering me especially while I was playing PS:T. It certainly decreases the realism of any setting IMHO and lawful evil (smart evil) characters don't seem to make much sense in such settings. (Only if they pursue immortality to avoid their fate or try to redeem themselves in order to go to the neutral or good heavens)

Just a call to action for any Project Eternity backers who also backed Torment. You better go checkout Torment: Tides of Numenera's Kickstarter page so that you can vote down the hordes of ToEE and Fallout fans who are trying to vote the game into being turn based instead of RTWP. I know I wouldn't have backed it if I'd thought there were the remotest chance in hell of it being a turn-based game and I suspect a lot of Infinity Engine game lovers will feel the same way. So I just thought I'd bring it up here on the off chance it helps turn out the vote a bit more. And needless to say, if you actually would want a turn-based system, DON'T VOTE. (Please?)

Update by Darren Monahan, Operations Guy Fulfillment In this week’s update, we go over a lot of different little things going on here at Obsidian. Here’s a quick teaser: I’ll be covering a brief update on fulfillment; we have another three videos of Mr. Avellone’s Let’s Play series in Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, we’ve got some really great news for fans of Planescape: Torment (along with some sexy fan artwork to share!) and lastly, a project we backed recently that we think is pretty cool that you might too. OK, so on to fulfillment! Let’s do this FAQ style. Q: So, what’s happening with the backer portal? A: I’m personally busy putting together a whole new Project Eternity website, which includes our backer portal, RSS feeds (popular request!), as well as including information and artwork about the universe of Eternity. What we know about classes, races, the gods, and more, and this site will continue to evolve as more and more is designed and released. It is a big job though for just little ol’ me, so it’s still going to be a few weeks as I work everything out, but we’ll keep you in the know. Oh, and backer badges come with this system as well. The backer portal will also be a great resource for those of you in the upper tiers who are submitting item, character, or location designs. Speaking of which...! Q: When will I be able to start submitting my item, character, or location designs? A: The guys have been talking quite a bit about this recently and have already started designing out the forms. Our current plan is to have those of you with those tiers be able to input them directly in our backer portal, and you can revise them at any time up to a certain point down the road (which we’ll let you all know – this point is when we would send out your text for translation, and it becomes expensive from this point to make edits.) But until then, start thinking about the concept for the thing you’d like to add! Adam will have an update on that in the coming weeks with more detail. We’d like to make sure there’s enough backstory and content available for you to draw connections from, and our new website will be the place for that. Let's Play Arcanum: Season 0 , Chris’s playthrough of Arcanum continues, taking your comments to heart with higher resolution, less chair creaking, profanity, Virgil sass, and wolves, wolves, wolves! Part I Part II Part III InXile Announces Torment: Tides of Numenera! If you missed Monday’s announcement by the good folks at InXile, Brian Fargo and crew announced their new Kickstarter project opening tomorrow called Torment: Tides of Numenera. That name may sound oddly familiar, yes! They are making a spiritual successor to the beloved Planescape: Torment. We seriously couldn’t control ourselves here guys, and had to make sure all of you knew about it too as fans of the genre! We encourage you to check out their website and check in tomorrow to see their new video. ...and that’s not all in Torment news. Incredible artist John Crowcroft sent us some beautiful fanart canvases that we had to share with all of you. Egads! OK, so I’m not entirely sure how "egads" fits into this update exactly other than to fill the "E" slot in this update title’s FATE acronym, but I digress. One last quick item we wanted to tell you about was a project we "Kicked it Forward" on that we think looks fun and interesting for those of you who like table top dice games. It’s called Dungeon Roll – A Dicey Dungeon Delve. Check it out! Until next week, -Darren, seeker of Kerfluffleupogus.

Update by Josh Sawyer, Project Director We've got a lot of things in progress on Project Eternity right now. As Darren wrote in the last update, we're winding down our first prototype. We just did an audit of the work that remains from the first prototype and where we will be going with the next prototype. Our first prototype allowed us to prove a lot of the basics of movement, character design, stealth, combat controls, inventory, resting, quests, scripted skill interactions, dialogue, status effects, and the ability and spell systems. There's still a lot of work to do on all of those elements, but by the end of the prototype, it really did have "that IE feel". How I organized and moved my characters, how I used them differently in combat, how I explored areas very much captured the feeling of the Infinity Engine games in gorgeous high-res environments. So where do we go from here? First, we're going to try another approach to building interior environments to make sure we can capture as much of the organic feeling of the classic levels as we can. Second, we're going to continue to build up the dynamic elements of environment to make them feel more alive. We already have dynamic water, but we have more work to do on with elements like trees, grass, ambient visual effects, and our day/night cycle. We'll be showing you the results of those experiments in two weeks. Third, we're going to continue to develop more advanced gameplay features like fog of war, character voice sets, crafting, stores, AI patrols, and the melee engagement system. In case you're wondering about the story, we've been working on both a lot lately as well. We really want Project Eternity to strike the right balance of elements: to introduce you to this new setting, to make you feel personally invested in your choices, to engage you with the personalities and factions involved in the conflict, and to give you all of the freedom you've come to expect from an Obsidian RPG. It's a long process, but we're feeling very positive and excited about where we're going, which is always a good thing. Thanks for reading and, as always, thanks for your continued support. I'll be back in two weeks to show you our exterior environment running with all the bells and whistles in place! Planescape: Torment Retrospective Article by Darren Monahan, the Named One Back before Obsidian was a company, many of us worked at Black Isle Studios, the RPG arm of Interplay Entertainment. One of the games a number of us helped create was Planescape: Torment, an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons based RPG set in the Planescape campaign setting. As many of you already know, the guys at InXile recently launched the Torment: Tides of Numenera Kickstarter. They’re getting a lot of the “old band back together” to work on this thematic successor. One cool thing they’re generously offering to all Project Eternity backers (whether or not you back Torment) is a Planescape: Torment Retrospective featuring developer diaries and blogs from many of the original developers, including quite a few former and current Obsidian devs. They’ve got nine days left, so if you haven’t checked it out yet, we encourage you to do so quickly! Please join me in thanking Brian, Kevin, and everyone at InXile! Kickin’ it Forward: Dwarven Forge’s Game Tiles Article by Darren Monahan, level 1 rogue/level 1 swashbuckler So, several of us on the Project Eternity and South Park teams are playing a D&D 3.5E campaign at lunch a few days each week. While they’re short sessions, this is no small production - we’re using a bunch of miniatures and tilesets for the campaign, many of which our DM (and Eternity designer), Bobby Null, has acquired over the years from Dwarven Forge. He came into work Monday incredibly geeked up because the folks at Dwarven Forge launched a new Kickstarter, which we got right into and backed. If you’re in to playing D&D and really want to get immersed, they make some incredible tilesets. Here’s a few samples from our game! (Note, these aren’t the exact tiles they kickstarted, but rather just some cool examples of their prior work.) Go check it out here! Thanks, and we'll see you next week!

In the spirit of Chris' crazy video, I think all of us making pledges should snap a photo giving a silly thumbs up for the project.

I always wondered why there was never another game based on the Planescape setting, not even close as far as I know. It allowed for such a broader range of potential, weird characters, and fantastic situations than the traditional 'elves, dwarves, mages and humans-with-swords' fantasy setting. I realize PE isn't going to be in this setting, but any chance of adding a dash of it to the game? Maybe an NPC who is a Modron or some berk from Sigil, or even a quick side quest to one of the planes? There are such colorful and trippy possibilities.

Wasn't sure where to ask this, but would anyone at Obsidian happen to have Ye Olde resources for Planescape: Torment? Such as models, textures, render scenes, design documents, or... dare I ask, the source code for the engine? Trying to dig out the individual projectile & spell sequence code in the engine with OllyDbg is like trying to do the samba through a ten-foot high bramble patch with nothin' but yer skivvies on. Sure, I mean, I've *located* the parts of the .exe that parse and process the spell sequences, but ugh - it's just such an enormous hassle and there's no promise of success... and even without hacking, there is only so much DLTCEP can do. I would consider remaking PS:T in NWN2, but 3D engines (Aurora, and beyond) just do not have the same, marvelous storybook quality that the old Infinity Engine has... and that's something I *sorely* miss in today's rpgs.