Update #3: Game Basics - Your Party, Your Characters, and Races

[dlux]

Sounds fantastic! Thanks for the info.

 

oh yeah, dwarves & elves: Check! ^^

[Cantousent]

Something I think would be kind of nice is if the player can put someone other than the PC in the 'party spokesman' role. I think that might be useful in a couple of different ways. For example, the most obvious is that the npc has a higher social/leadership attribute than the PC. For example, my mage, with a charisma of eight, lacks people skills while my cleric, with a charisma of seventeen is used to dealing with people much more often. Another siuation is dealing with particular groups. For example, my Paladin, while only a charisma of fifteen, has a nobility trait and therefore deals with nobles with exhuberant felicity. Finally, at least of things that spring to mind immediately, my elvish mage, while quite dour, might deal with other dour-assed elves better that my friendly priest.

[JadedDM]

There is nothing here that I didn't find intriguing on some level. I can't wait!

 

Also, I love that dwarf ranger picture. I want to create that character right now in one of my D&D games.

[AdaMusic]

Oh yea, the dwarven ranger looks way better than the earlier concept art of muskets and arabian Disney armor.

[Naked Ninja]

Appreciate the update on the premise and setting! Thanks for listening!

[Thelionheart]

I'm hoping for a lot more character protraits this time around. Every infinity engine game had a really small amount of portraits and it was usually about picking the one you hated the least, instead of picking the one you liked the most.

[Daggerfallftw]

I was really hoping there weren't going to be any dwarves in this, but I must say, the image isn't all that bad.

 

I think this style of dwarf might begin to...

 

 

grow on me.

[GhostofAnakin]

Josh posted this at 6:47 pm EST. Surely Obsidian has new information for us since then!

[General_Disarray]

Thank you for fleshing things out! Loving how deep the cultures/sub-cultures appear to run on paper, hope it works out how I imagine it to be!

[LadyCrimson]

*reads update*

 

Awesome, especially re: formations, companions, party, and "nature of you." My "pumped up-ness" is already mega-high from anticipating today's BL2's release, and getting a PE update puts me in the stratosphere. And I love the picture. As always, eagerly waiting all future updates!

[metiman]

The setup sounds very intriguing. Hopefully it can be used to build suspense and mystery about what really happened and/or is still happening to both yourself and possibly others. I'm particularly excited about this. It indicates that you understand the importance of a central mystery to build intrigue when telling a story.

 

I'm glad to hear of some novel races to add to the more traditional ones. I hope that the ability to venture out with a party of 6 of your own rolled characters can be added in the future. It helps tremendously with replay value once you've played through with all of the companions.

 

I also like the possibility of god-like characters or creatures. I liked references to The Lady of Pain in PS:T and liked how she actually interfered with mortal affairs from time to time and was considered a very real danger by the culture. That could probably have been developed a lot further than it was, but even so the presence of actual gods/deities in the story is exciting.

[Apatia]

Sounds fine, just fine. Can't wait.

 

Oh, don't forget to add this update to the Kickstarter page.

[Kaldurenik]

By the way should this not be posted on the kickstarter page =)?

[novander]

Okay, if I hadn't already pledged money, I would be pledging money right now. This is a hint to anyone not backing yet. (2 mil., c'mon I want that house)

[BruceP]

Thanks very much for the update. Is it going to be posted on the Kickstarter?

[SnideCipher]

Can someone please tell me the next word up from awesome?

 

Sounds awesome v2! On the topic of playing however you want, it would be awesome v3 if the game wasn't skewed towards being good. Balance in all things, especially when opening a path for the maniacally evil

[morhilane]

Oh yea, the dwarven ranger looks way better than the earlier concept art of muskets and arabian Disney armor.

 

The art-style is quite Icewind Dale-ish to me. I guess this mean that "ranger" is a class (playable?) as well.

 

Also, some of the pre-update 3 info gave me Dragonlance-ish feelings, but this "The player witnesses an extraordinary and horrific supernatural event that thrusts them into a unique and difficult circumstance." just increased them. Not that I mind and I don't expect PE to feel like Dragonlance either in the end.

[Astanas]

Something I think would be kind of nice is if the player can put someone other than the PC in the 'party spokesman' role. I think that might be useful in a couple of different ways. For example, the most obvious is that the npc has a higher social/leadership attribute than the PC. For example, my mage, with a charisma of eight, lacks people skills while my cleric, with a charisma of seventeen is used to dealing with people much more often. Another siuation is dealing with particular groups. For example, my Paladin, while only a charisma of fifteen, has a nobility trait and therefore deals with nobles with exhuberant felicity. Finally, at least of things that spring to mind immediately, my elvish mage, while quite dour, might deal with other dour-assed elves better that my friendly priest.

Even though DA2 was a major disappointment, I've got to admit that it was nice how you could let Varric do the talking at certain points in the game.

I think such a thing should be fairly easy to implement. Your PC would usually initiate all dialogue, but at certain points an option would open up that would read something like "[Let your companion XYZ talk to this NPC]".

[Seagloom]

Awesome stuff here. I must admit some of those details exceed my expectations. Looking forward to seeing how subraces play out. As someone that generally sticks to human, it'll be neat to stick to them and still have options.

[Darji]

Wow all of this sounds fantastic especially the premise and also the customization you can do in the beginning ^^

Now only give me some sort of romance in the main story and I am totally set and want to be frozen till 2014 XD

[Hoverdog]

(...)That's all for today's update.

 

[lord of flies]

The Set-Up

The player witnesses an extraordinary and horrific supernatural event that thrusts them into a unique and difficult circumstance. Burdened with the consequences of this event, the player has to investigate what has happened in order to free themselves from the restless forces that follow and haunt them wherever they go.

It's funny how this sounds like one of those "generic plot starters" from that "every Bioware game has the same plot" thing. I don't mean to imply that Obsidian redoes the same thing over and over, it's just this is so generic sounding, like it could describe a bunch of different games. I mean, it's not like they've done this hook before - wait a second, that's the plot to Mask of the Betrayer! And KotOR 2! And Fallout: New Vegas! Obsidian you hacks! Edited September 17, 2012 by lord of flies

[J.E. Sawyer]

Thanks very much for the update. Is it going to be posted on the Kickstarter?

Yes. It is uploading presently with a rambling video from yours truly!(!!!)

[golgepapaz]

Thanks very much for the update. Is it going to be posted on the Kickstarter?

Yes. It is uploading presently with a rambling video from yours truly!(!!!)

Let the money flow..

[Shadenuat]

Does the difficulty scale with the number of people in your party?