Suggestions on the important "must haves" for Project Eternity to be awesome/successful

[pl1982]

Hi Obsidian,

 

Firstly...this is awesome, I am so glad this is happening. About damn time!

 

As a backer I want to mention again (already did so in the comments section at KS) that I am very glad about the DRM-Free version; thank you for listening to fans and going with GOG (they are awesome). Perhaps put the DRM-Free feature more prominently on the main page of Kickstarter for people who are concerned about it. This is post is just to clarify what I (and I would think most others contributing to this project) want and what would make PE taste like awesome-sauce:

 

1. beautiful hand painted/handcrafted 2D isometric backgrounds (characters can be in 3D, I don't have a problem with that).

2. touching music (I must admit that after listening to the background music of the pitch video...I like it allot, so give my appreciation to the composer/sound guy; if you use him I am sure the soundtrack will be good though bringing in Mark Morgan for some assistance would be awesome as well).

3. deep characters (quality over quantity please, about 10-12 possible party characters are enough imho).

4. detailed plot with an "unconventional villain" (ala Torment).

5. tactical combat (RTWP is perfectly fine for me).

6. well written mature thought provoking dialogue.

7. traditional fantasy and some "new" wacked out races/cultures (but still "grounded" and believable in the context of the world ala Planescape setting).

8. rewarding and flexible character progression system with cool loot.

9. lore tome and detailed NPC, faction and epic item flavour text (see second last paragraph below for details).

 

The D&D progression system is an excellent template to build from for sure, but I echo the comments of some others on KS that something a bit more modern is needed; limiting spell casting per day for example is a bit outdated today. Perhaps a system where the amount and strength of your spellcasting or skills is linked to your "soul power"? I must confess, this link that you guys are exploring between "the nature of the soul" and "the nature of magic/ability/skill itself" is brilliant, I love it; making that an integral part of the theme of the game already makes me incredibly excited and intrigued.

 

Most of the "awesomeness" expressed by the suggestions above has been covered by you guys though. I am just reminding you . I just want to place special emphasis on the painted 2D backdrops; please go this route and don't use a 3D engine; as much as I love Wasteland 2 (contributed heavily to that awesome project as well) and understand their usage of the 3D engine...something is lost in that and that something (that "magic feel") will be even more lost in a fantasy setting trying to hearken back to the "good old days" of infinity engine games.

 

One final thing I want to add that is not often mentioned is this: unique/epic item flavour text. PLEASE do this again; I absolutely loved that from Icewind Dale, Torment and BG; I will never forget the awesome emotional response I got from reading through the text of "Pale Justice" from Icewind Dale...such an amazingly beautiful story behind the sword (brought tears to my eyes…). Please do that again, it adds tremendously to the world and allows you to flesh out your fantasy world even more through tying history to actual tools the player uses. Also please do Torment-like journal where as you explore the world your journal gets updated with new information on the lore of the world, so it becomes akin to a lore tome and not merely a quest-tracker. I loved that about Torment's journal with all the text descriptions of the factions and NPCs, please do that for PE. It's very cool feeling that you are "levelling your tome" and can perhaps even add another layer of character progression and reward for exploration.

 

Well that’s my truckload of text; it just shows how passionate I am about this. Thanks for reading this. So happy this is happening...

 

-pl1982

[Moonlight Butterfly]

I agree with your numbered points.

 

I really want hand painted backgrounds. Great artwork always makes me love games more, like Rayman Origins, Broken Sword and Bastion. It's nice to have something outside 3D graphics all of the time.

 

I want a game system that allows and encourages theory crafting but doesn't show the maths heavily on the surface. Maths does not equal magic to me .

[eimatshya]

Ultimately, this is Obsidian's game, and they know their craft much better than I, so I trust them to make a game up to their usual standards. Still, here are some of my preferences. Some of these will probably be non-issues judging from the developers' past work, but just to weigh in, here's what I would like to see/not see (in no particular order):

 

1. A setting without a simplistic black and white system of morality. This is not to say that there can't be characters that view the world in such a way, or that the player him/herself can't view the world as such. It means that the game doesn't give the player two solutions to every problem: one clearly "good" and one clearly "evil." Present the issues with more complexity and nuance and give players a variety of responses so that we can make our own decisions on what's right (shouldn't be an issue since Obsidian is usually good at this sort of thing).

 

2. A mature setting with complex characters doesn't mean that the characters should all be an unlikeable jerks who are emotionally unequipped to deal with the trials of whatever demanding situation they find themselves in (I've never noticed this problem in Obsidian games before, but it's fairly common in things that bill themselves as dark and mature).

 

3. Fun, tactical combat where your party members actually carry out your orders when you give them, rather than ten seconds later or never.

 

4. Don't dictate how my character feels about situations. Give me several options. Don't assume that I will be upset about an event in the plot. Give me the option to be upset or traumatized, but don't make that the only response; different people respond to things in different ways.

 

5. Don't have enemies deal us humiliating defeats in cutscenes fights where we have no choice but to be spectators to our own characters. If the narrative demands that we lose a fight, let us actually fight the adversary and lose in-game. Once we've lost, you can give us a cutscene of the villain getting away with whatever, but at least give us the illusion of agency in the encounter. There are few things more annoying to me when I'm playing a game than having control yanked away from me so that something bad can happen.

 

6. Multiple solutions to problems: diplomatic, martial, sneaky, etc.

 

7. The ability to argue with the villain (e.g. Fallout, PS:T, Alpha Protocol). It's fun to prove that he's wrong and you're right.

 

8. The ability not to argue with the villain. Sometimes I just want to let my fists do the talking. This generally comes up when a lot of tension and urgency has been built up prior to an encounter and then (probably after wading through an army of minions) I finally get to the boss, and the game makes me chat with him even though the story has been telling me that time is of the essence, and I'm all amped up for a fight. I like that the game gives me the option to try to be diplomatic, but I would also like the option right from the get-go to say, "no talking; let's do this" instead of making me go through a long dialogue if I've already decided that this will only end in violence.

 

9. Have cultural and linguistic variety within each race. All elves everywhere in the world shouldn't speak "Elvish" and share a single pan-global culture (although from Josh's posts, it sounds like this isn't going to be a problem).

 

10. Don't try to create a medieval feel by throwing in elements of Elizabethan English (no "thees" and "thous").

 

11. Make it possible to flee from combat like in Baldur's Gate or Fallout. Don't lock us in an area until all threats have been neutralized.

 

12. Magic should have applications outside of combat (such as in dialogues).

 

13. Choices should matter. Don't have all choices lead to the same outcome (obviously you can't have every choice lead to divergent outcomes, but at least with the big ones, don't make the choice purely cosmetic).

 

14. Try to minimize the disconnect between story and gameplay. If the game tells me something is urgent, don't let me dawdle without consequences.

 

15. I'm on the fence about romances. I think that attraction forming between people who spend a lot of time together makes sense, but I don't need it to turn into a full-fledged romantic relationship (although I'm not opposed to such a thing either). The kinds of unconsumated, and at times unrequited, romances that we had in PS:T or KotOR II would be enough to satisfy me in this area. That said, if romances of any kind are beyond the scope of this project, or if the devs just don't feel like doing them, I won't be upset. If they're in, great. It will probably add a new dimension to the characters and our interactions with them. If not, then I'm sure the effort that would have gone into them will be spent on some other form of character development.