Stretch Goals

[Rostere]

Well, at least they don't have any translations of the game planned! That would truly be a waste of money. I'm very saddened to see that they've settled for a class-based character creation system and multi-platform support however :'(

[LadySpace]

Not sure how I feel about the stretch goals. Ideally, stretch goals should be new mechanics, artistic enhancements, or expansions of backstory and gameworld. Things like lava planets and an orchestral score in Planetary Annihilation or the qualitative "make the world and story even richer!" additions on Wasteland 2. I generally support the inclusion of all of the elements listed, and I love having Mac/Linux porting folded in there, but as stretch goals go, the classes and races and companions... This just sounds like we're Kickstarting DLC.

Edited September 16, 2012 by LadySpace

[LadyCrimson]

Well, I'm going to think big here and go on the notion that these are enough to bring it to that 2.2 million mark, and then all these other things people want (more worldspace/quests, translations, etc) can be for the even higher stretch goals.

 

eg, I'm hoping by the end of 32 days it'll be 4-5 million, with all kinds of things added along the way. Including that toolset.

[Humanoid]

Yeah, I'd have to echo the sentiment that the middling goals aren't particularly inspiring, but they are at regularly spaced intervals such that hitting them is hardly going to be a big endeavour. Hopefully the new races and classes won't be something they've just bolted on and are at least previously-established designs that may have originally been planned to be non-playable ones.

 

The worst case would be a case of adding a new exotic race with minimal context and making the corresponding companion at that goal level a token character which ends up the only member of that race you see in the world. As in "Hey, you can now play as a Tiger-man! Tiger-men are a race from the very distant south and are never seen in these lands. Oh, except for this cool new Tiger-man NPC we've added to show you how cool they are!" Yeah, that's extreme hyperbole and I don't expect it'll be anywhere near that jarring (unless Bethesda are contracted to implement it), but something vaguely like this is a real concern for me.

[J.E. Sawyer]

I generally support the inclusion of all of the elements listed, and I love having Mac/Linux porting folded in there, but as stretch goals go, the classes and races and companions... This just sounds like we're Kickstarting DLC.

As a practical matter, races and companions are some of the most expensive things, development-wise, to add. They require a huge amount of work.

[WorstUsernameEver]

I think actually having solid info on the baseline game and what would be provided by the stretch goals (we know that there are going to be new classes and races, but now what they will provide that the baseline doesn't.. nor what the baseline provides in the first place) would go a long way in making them more enticing.

 

I'm surprised that stuff like a toolkit wasn't mentioned, but I suppose that might be a higher stretch goal still.

[Rezin]

I am glad to see they've put support for native clients other than windows on the goal list. A toolkit would be good too for the more creative people out there, I tried some modding with halflife2 way back but I was never any good at it. Also, maybe support for a few languages other than English, not a crazy number of languages but a few of the more populated EU countries maybe?

[Hurlshort]

Their stretch goals only go up to 2 million, they are going to hit that in a couple days.

 

I'm interested to see what 4-5 million will get us. I think they will coast into that number.

 

edit: I love the house idea by the way. Don't hate on my interior decorator desires

Edited September 16, 2012 by Hurlshot

[Zoraptor]

I'm surprised that stuff like a toolkit wasn't mentioned, but I suppose that might be a higher stretch goal still.

I wouldn't put money (ohoho) on there necessarily being an option to include a toolkit, or at least anything approaching a fully featured one. Non tiled 2d levels are potentially problematic and there may be 3rd party plug ins involved that would require $$$ or permission to redistribute.

 

Be nice is it does happen, of course.

[LadySpace]

I generally support the inclusion of all of the elements listed, and I love having Mac/Linux porting folded in there, but as stretch goals go, the classes and races and companions... This just sounds like we're Kickstarting DLC.

As a practical matter, races and companions are some of the most expensive things, development-wise, to add. They require a huge amount of work.

 

Well, obviously I can't argue with that, as I haven't got a lick of experience in the matter.

[Odarbi]

Not sure if this has been mentioned in here yet, because I surely havn't read all 5 pages in the topic... but a Multiplayer mode would be a nice inclusion. As much as I love sitting down and playing games like these by myself, having the ability to play it with other people is always a fun time.

[Darth Trethon]

I would like to see the game go multiplatform to reach the maximum possible audience so it can have the most possible sales and the most success and awards possible.

[Yarazin]

May have already been suggested, but a great strech goal, or priority goal I feel, is to add a turned based option. Love BG, but never liked RTwP.

[Avantenor]

Well, at least they don't have any translations of the game planned! That would truly be a waste of money.

That might be true for 10 million swedish people, but there a 329 million spanish native speakers (actually that's more than english natives), 144 million russian native speakers, 100 millions speak german (+ Josh Sawyer) and 68 millions french. These people are used to have translations or it simply does not exist. Of course there is always a anglophile minority telling the opposite, and it's not hard to find them in a purely english-speaking forum. But RPGs often don't use common tongue and have special terms, so it is hard for quite some people to understand. Today no one is still willing to have the dictionary for medieval english besides the monitor just like during the ultima times.

[Ercarret]

Yeah, I'm with Aventenor on this one. Translating the game for different audiences who don't speak or read English very well could make the game a lot more attractive to a lot of more people. Granted, I don't know how much money it would cost to translate the game. This is partly because I don't have a clue regarding how big the game is planned to be, and partly because I'm guessing most games are translated by the publisher and I don't know how Obsidian would handle it without one. However, as long as it doesn't drain too much money, I think the money spent would come back eventually - either as pledges from Europeans or as purchases down the line.

[Kai]

Well my major concern for the game was a mac version as I don't have a PC currently, so I'm pretty happy it'll most likely be reached. As for other stretch goals after 2.2 mil, I'd love a toolkit, crpg's just needs to be modded because it's so fun. That and your very own personal miniature giant space hamster.

[The Sharmat]

Did people miss the part where one of the mid level goals added a new faction and new "major storyline"? They aren't just adding compartmentalized NPC companions with each stretch goal.

[Tigranes]

I've added this in the info thread, but I think this is worth a read for everyone:

 

Josh Sawyer on the Player House stretch goal

Source: Formspring

To answer your question, we believe player houses serve a basic utilitarian purpose in RPGs. We like using them and would like to have them in PE. They require work to implement, but the $ of the goal is not meant to indicate $ spent on that feature [...] We have learned that a small interior with containers thrown in it (e.g. Novac hotel room, Pres. Suite [Tigranes: reference to Fallout: New Vegas]) is too minimal when it comes to auto-organization functionality. And again, KS is a fundraising platform, not a means of making a literal budget. [...] The problem inherent with this is that we're still very early in development. Designing systems takes time. I would rather be general and risk some frustration than be specific at this stage in the process.

[Ercarret]

Oh, some own thoughts on the stretch goals:

 

The focus seem to be on expanding on the stuff already there rather than adding other stuff, which is fine by me. They could write the tier descriptions as just "more", "even more" and "EVEN MORE OF THE GOOD STUFF!" and I'd be quite happy with that. A player house would be cool, though. I really liked the Keep in NWN2. Two million, here we come!

 

Mod tools would be cool, but unless they really raise a lot of money, I'd rather they spent it on the game itself. I think that CDP Red handles it good, with shipping Witcher 2 first, supporting it second, and then adding mod tools third. That seems like the right way to go.

 

What I was a little, well, not disappointed with (that would be too harsh a term), but something that I did not 100% agree with in regards to the stretch goals, was the promises of a new companion in several of the tiers. I generally prefer games with a small(ish) group of companions that are really well developed, rather than expanding the number of available companions too much.

 

Eight can certainly work - Planescape: Torment is an excellent example of that, with seven of the best companions in gaming history - but I really hope that more are not added as part of future stretch goals. Just focus on those you already have and just dig and dig and dig into them. I loved Mask of the Betrayer for a lot of reasons, one of the foremost being that it served as a prime example of the benefits with a smaller and more developed cast. Contrariwise, I think that both NWN 2 (original campaign) and KOTOR 2 suffered a bit from having too many companions.

 

Still, it's Obsidian. The only developer in the world to whom I would confess to being an absolute fanboy. Just thinking about their companions invokes pretty much the same reaction in me as thinking of donuts does for Homer Simpson. I have faith.

Edited September 16, 2012 by Ercarret

[mindx2]

Stretch goals are supposed to generate an uptick in pledges. These rather lame stretch goals have done the opposite by slowing down pledges. Reminds me when Fargo suggested a "social" aspect in W2 and pledges went down significantly. Just a bad move on Obsidian's part whether they were unprepared for the initial goal being met or they really thought those stretch goals would help.

[The Sharmat]

They were unprepared for the speed at which the initial goal was met, but I doubt the slow down in pledges was because of the stretch goals. A slowdown after the initial burst seems to be pretty standard of any kickstarter program. They also tend to have another nice burst in the final days.

[Auxilius]

I wouldn't say it slowed down. Every kickstarter's first day is always the best day and according to kicktraq, the pledges are still quite huge. it's not like it suddenly dropped, despite what angry nerds could tell you. As I can see it, when you compare it to Wasteland 2's kickstarter, there is a big difference. Of course, Obsidian got a way bigger fanbase but still.

I think it's not impossible for Obs to beat Double Fine. They got a lot of fans willing to throw their money up their pledges for more content as long as it's them behind the game, running wild with ideas and concepts. They crafted quite a number of AAA titles distributed worldwide after all.

But I agree when people say Obs need to be clearer on the matter and shove content almost every day. It has the potential to reach really great numbers. What they only need is a good PR guy who knows his stuff.

I hope they read this.

[mindx2]

@Auxilius- I guess that's more my point. Obsidian has a gold mine here but their very first stretch goals seem rather limp in comparision to the initial rush of pledges just based on their pedigree. The stretch goals just appear very weak and doesn't seem to have generated a new "excitement."

[Audiocide]

But I agree when people say Obs need to be clearer on the matter and shove content almost every day. It has the potential to reach really great numbers. What they only need is a good PR guy who knows his stuff.

I hope they read this.

 

While new content every day might not be realistic, I agree about the need to be clearer on the mechanics of the game. They may be waiting for more suggestions, but I wonder what they're going to do about all the wildly different ideas. It feels like they might not have anything concrete yet.

Edited September 16, 2012 by Audiocide

[ShadySands]

Weekends tended to be a bit slow for the other Kickstarters that I've been a part of as well and that's not even taking into account the drop off after the initial surge.