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

[habbey]

Maybe it's been mentioned and maybe it's already planned, but wanted to chime in to say that the game should be balanced for 6 party members, where experience gained would be split between the six. This mechanic added a lot of replayability to the older games, where I would play through with full parties for the variety of tactical and story elements, but also where I would play solo for the challange (at first) but eventually building an obscene powerhouse of a character.

 

I have a lot of faith you guys will do right by this project and will remember the little (and big) things that made your previous games such huge successes (For example, don't skimp on your audio and music, put thought into it like before. So many games nowdays do this as an afterthought). The stretch goals you guys put up were quite underwhelming but I'm sure part of it you guys being overwhelmed by the support.

 

I agree this adds so much replayability to games like BG1/2 and I'd hope its a forgone conclusion that this is how it'd work.

[Nivenus]

I'm liking this information overall.

 

It's good to hear that companions will be important and consequential, while also remaining completely optional. Don't get me wrong - I love companions and will likely try to recruit as many as I can, but it's good to have that option. On that note, it's interesting that difficulty won't scale to party size. Hopefully a fully stacked party won't end up being too easy or solo play too hard as a result.

 

I'm not altogether surprised about the races (a mix of old and new); it seems that's the best way to go with a new IP that's explicitly aiming to please fans of the old IE games - give traditionalists the races they love and know but also give more novelty-seeking players something fresh. I'll be interested to see more details as to what the new races are or how subrace plays into the game (I wasn't expecting that, actually).

 

I'm also very happy to hear that the races won't be uniform cultures, but rather a diverse set of ethnic groups collectively unified by mutual ancestry. It'll be interesting to see how that all plays out.

 

Altogether excited so far, looking forward to more information as it is released.

[Tsumoro]

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

 

It will most likley be in the way the prior games did it (BG, IWD and PS:T). By that, in case you haven't played is that you get experience depending on your actions, quests completed, kills etc. however, the more party members you have the more the experience is shared. So playing it alone will level you up to be powerful enough to handle a scenario, having six players will have each one under leveled, but the group dynamic and synergy comes into play.

 

So no matter if you play on your own, or with others you get the 'right' level of difficulty to the adversity you face.

 

I am, of course assuming this is how they will do it for this one.

[Jaesun]

Thank you for the info SOUND AWESOME! Upping my pledge. <3

[Lythimus]

I'm not as excited as some people might think about customizing the aesthetics my characters. If Project Eternity is a create-your-own-adventures style, like Neverwinter Nights, then I can understand the importance. But for something similar to Planescape Torment or Baldur's Gate, I feel like the looks of a character is tied to the story. Ah well, just sharing my thoughts.

[Cantousent]

I think one of the most common beefs with PS:T is the lack of freedom in terms of the PC. Two things from my perspective: First of all, I'm willing to forgo a novel character if others feel so strongly about it and, second of all, having thrown in the towel on the first issue, being able to customize my character to the nitty gritty would be quite nice.

[Executus]

BRING IT ON

[generic.hybridity]

Sounds excellent. Some people seem disappointed in the use of dwarves and elves, personally I love them especially when they are remixed. I'm really hanging out to hear about the technological state of the world. Also, 6 person party sounds GREAT. (Though it does make me think a couple of extra companions wouldn't go astray to increase party variability on multiple playthroughs. Hopefully we hit even more stretch goals then the ones listed and therefore get extra companions).

 

Hopefully the pledges keep on pouring in!

[Mezentine]

I don't think I'm alone in being slightly disappointed that this setting is going to include "elves" and "dwarves", is there any chance of that changing?

 

This is something I don't get about some people here. Firstly, more choices means you can customize your own experience by choosing what race you want to be. Secondly, you may not like them but what about others who do want them?

Its not about player race choice, its about what it means for world building. Why are elves and dwarves so universal across fantasy worlds? Why is it wrong to feel like using elements from other fantasy worlds makes this one feel less original? Unless this game is explicitly set in the D&D cosmology then the idea doesn't appeal to me

Edited September 18, 2012 by Mezentine

[Stuka_Ju87]

I hope one of the other races is something more intresting something like/similar to an Illithlid,beholder,gnoll,troll,ogre or frost giant. A race that is usually hostile in crpgs and not PC often, if at all. Could offer very intresting diaglog choices and experiecnes with npcs.

Edited September 18, 2012 by Stuka_Ju87

[Ieo]

I don't think I'm alone in being slightly disappointed that this setting is going to include "elves" and "dwarves", is there any chance of that changing?

 

This is something I don't get about some people here. Firstly, more choices means you can customize your own experience by choosing what race you want to be. Secondly, you may not like them but what about others who do want them?

Its not about player race choice, its about what it means for world building. Why are elves and dwarves so universal across fantasy worlds? Why is it wrong to feel like using elements from other fantasy worlds makes this one feel less original? Unless this game is explicitly set in the D&D cosmology then the idea doesn't appeal to me

 

No, look farther into history. Tolkien with influence from Norse mythology, etc. Elves and Dwarves are not purely D&D things.

 

I hope one of the other races is something more intresting something like/similar to an Illithlid,beholder,gnoll,troll,ogre or frost giant. A race that is usually hostile in crpgs and not PC often, if at all. Could offer very intresting diaglog choices and experiecnes with npcs.

 

And of course, it's best to avoid copying other things that are either pure D&D or mostly D&D with myth influence. At least Elves and Dwarves (perhaps in different name) exist in some form or another in many places outside D&D.

[Grayman]

Different subraces and cultures seems like a great way to cover a lot of ground. Elves and Dwarfs may be boring but several areas of the world having different types of the common and uncommon races can tell some cool stories. Different areas of the game map can be along different areas of "societies advancement" and multiculturalism.

[Mezentine]

I don't think I'm alone in being slightly disappointed that this setting is going to include "elves" and "dwarves", is there any chance of that changing?

 

This is something I don't get about some people here. Firstly, more choices means you can customize your own experience by choosing what race you want to be. Secondly, you may not like them but what about others who do want them?

Its not about player race choice, its about what it means for world building. Why are elves and dwarves so universal across fantasy worlds? Why is it wrong to feel like using elements from other fantasy worlds makes this one feel less original? Unless this game is explicitly set in the D&D cosmology then the idea doesn't appeal to me

 

No, look farther into history. Tolkien with influence from Norse mythology, etc. Elves and Dwarves are not purely D&D things.

 

I hope one of the other races is something more intresting something like/similar to an Illithlid,beholder,gnoll,troll,ogre or frost giant. A race that is usually hostile in crpgs and not PC often, if at all. Could offer very intresting diaglog choices and experiecnes with npcs.

 

And of course, it's best to avoid copying other things that are either pure D&D or mostly D&D with myth influence. At least Elves and Dwarves (perhaps in different name) exist in some form or another in many places outside D&D.

The words "elf" and "dwarf"? of course those go way back. The concepts of elves and dwarves as depicted in basically every fantasy RPG ever, including the Witcher games? Those are descended pretty clearly from D&D, which in turn borrowed them from Tolkien. If Obsidian says "there will be elves and dwarves" I'm assuming they're playing on our knowledge of what that basically always means in RPGs, and not saying "there will be races based on European mythology from the 800s". I don't expect elves to be mischievous forest sprites or to be literally tree spirits made of wood. Elves and dwarves bring certain associations with them these days.

Edited September 18, 2012 by Mezentine

[Cantousent]

If they've already decided to include the more or less standard fantasy races, they should continue that design. If they're just pulling our legs about it, it's a misguided and stupid ploy. We should be more or less secure in what we read unless it's clearly a joke. ...And even then, when it's probably worth it, there will still be people who take it seriously and will complain.

 

It won't matter to a good story whether Obsidz includes elves and dwarves or were-rats and wraiths as player characters. I, for one, am glad to have elves and dwarves as a part of a robust world full of exotic species, races, cultures, and customs.

[Kraidy117]

This update just made me more excited.

[Jackablade]

I don't mind racial archetypes. It saves from spending a lot of dialogue and flavour text on introducing what an Elf is. Save that for introducing the enigmatic Cabbage People of the Slippery Steppes.

 

I don't suppose it's really worth mentioning now, but for conversation sake, one thing I was hoping for was for the protagonist to be locked down to a single, specific character as it is in Torment. I know people like the option to pick from a elven ranger or Cabbage druid, but I think it allows for much more specific and thereby stronger writing if the respective writer always knows more or less who it is that they're writing about. When that isn't the case, dialogue with NPCs needs to be far more generic to encompass whatever race and gender a player happens to have chosen. Sure different bits and pieces of dialogue can be slotted in and out where appropriate, but that very seldom winds up being as natural and personal speech as might have been possible if the it was *known* that the protagonist was, for example, a big,ugly, tattooed man.

[Tauron]

So far so good. They are about to hit 1.6 mill so another update is on the way. Hope to see some more concept art.

[Monte Carlo]

Save that for introducing the enigmatic Cabbage People of the Slippery Steppes.

 

I don't know, you could be onto something there.

 

I find divine races a bit meh personally, but the Planescape fans should be pretty cool with it. I want to see a Lizardman / Saurian playable race personally. With druidic powaz.

[Semper]

thx josh for keeping us up to date! this all sounds amazing.

and hell yes, return of the spirital successor of the black hound

[Lord of Lost Socks]

Personally, I'm thrilled to see dwarves. Never cared much about elves, but I have yet to see a game/book/movie where there were dwarves but no elves.

 

Dwarves are cool. And seriously. The races don't matter if done in an interesting way. This update made me extremely happy.

[Wombat]

I find divine races a bit meh personally, but the Planescape fans should be pretty cool with it. I want to see a Lizardman / Saurian playable race personally. With druidic powaz.

Divine races can be fun as long as there are many types of (conflicting) religions/beliefs (Oh, in that case, creatures with druidic powers can be called "divine" races...). Of course, I've been a sucker for Gloranthan setting, who have been trying to make a certain influence on those designers who mainly played D&D, but something like MotB is, I find, a reasonable compromise.

[aVENGER]

I instantly thought of the Black Hound myself.

 

Same here.

 

It would be great if Obsidian could utilize at least a portion of the story, similar to what they did with Fallout: New Vegas and Van Buren.

Edited September 18, 2012 by aVENGER

[Milten]

Thanks fot the info, now I have some idea about the setting.

Right now I want to ask about two things.

Non-humanoid sentient companion. naga, insectoid, anything. I don't care about backstory and character, since you are better at it than anyone else here.

Make player's class matter outside battlefield. Few specific quests and dialog options would be nice. Situations when mage protagonist has nothing to say in magic discussion always bugged me. Come on dude, you are more powerfull than they are and yet you are the dummy who needs explanations.

[CrazedWeevil]

Formations! Sweet, sweet formations!

 

Thank God for that...party based games really suffer without some control over who stands where and make protecting the squishy members a lot easier...I really missed formations in Dragon Age, especially if you were one of the squishy classes

[Paul D]

Formations! Sweet, sweet formations!

 

Thank God for that...party based games really suffer without some control over who stands where and make protecting the squishy members a lot easier...I really missed formations in Dragon Age, especially if you were one of the squishy classes

 

LOL Squishy Classes ... love it ... sums up mages\rogues\assassins\rangers nicely - stay at the back lest thee be squished