Update #9: The power of MODES and Godlike Races: Our $2.3M Stretch Goal

[Theomen712]

I love the ideas of all the expert modes and hope to play through them all myself. But the idea of the opposite a "story mode" scares me because doesn't this lead to game design where no gameplay could be present in the story and vice versa?

To be clear: we're making a game in which story, setting (i.e. exploration of the setting), and tactical combat are emphasized in more-or-less equal measure. The options we're talking about are present so you can tune your particular flavor of gameplay elements, but we're not making a game for people who inherently dislike these gameplay elements.

 

E.g. I enjoy some RTS games (especially historical ones). I am not particularly good at them. I really like the gameplay, but I have never been able to reach the level of being even moderately skilled at any of them. I like it when devs give me more forgiving gameplay options so my low-APM brain can complete the scenarios in a way that is still enjoyable and challenging for my skill level. I wouldn't understand the point in giving me options to skip or avoid the scenarios; I'm playing an RTS because I actually enjoy the mechanics.

 

Sometimes i cant believe this guy is real. He speaks directly from my soul XD Go Mr.Sawyer Go!

[Auxilius]

Now than I think of it, I absolutely want my first run to be a pacifist run.

And now, I'll have to activate Trial of Iron on my first playthrough because it gives even more meaning to this way of playing. It would also be satisfying as hell.

But somehow, I can already feel the burning hatred I'll have for Obs once my character dies 5 hours before the boss after 50/100 hours of gameplay.

Can't we have a Trial of Iron light mode? Where the game saves automatically every ten hours?

[LordCrash]

I love the ideas of all the expert modes and hope to play through them all myself. But the idea of the opposite a "story mode" scares me because doesn't this lead to game design where no gameplay could be present in the story and vice versa?

To be clear: we're making a game in which story, setting (i.e. exploration of the setting), and tactical combat are emphasized in more-or-less equal measure. The options we're talking about are present so you can tune your particular flavor of gameplay elements, but we're not making a game for people who inherently dislike these gameplay elements.

 

E.g. I enjoy some RTS games (especially historical ones). I am not particularly good at them. I really like the gameplay, but I have never been able to reach the level of being even moderately skilled at any of them. I like it when devs give me more forgiving gameplay options so my low-APM brain can complete the scenarios in a way that is still enjoyable and challenging for my skill level. I wouldn't understand the point in giving me options to skip or avoid the scenarios; I'm playing an RTS because I actually enjoy the mechanics.

 

Sometimes i cant believe this guy is real. He speaks directly from my soul XD Go Mr.Sawyer Go!

That's the satisfying result when real RPG fans develop RPGs and not some hired guns.

 

CRPG games from CRPG gamers for CRPG gamers!

[Auxilius]

Well, this whole "story mode" affair with Mass Effect 3 was a complete debacle. Why are you playing video games if you don't enjoy video games? I know some people just want to follow the story but frankly, why did you even try this medium if you weren't interested by its core basics to begin with?

This story mode was basically a movie mode anyway. To spend 50 bucks for a movie badly filmed since it wasn't thought that way is a stupid idea. Besides, the difference between liking a story and loving a story (in video games at least) is to struggle with the hero, to know what he feels. The story is then the reward.

[dlux]

Awesome update! The replayability has just been tripled!

 

And I love Tieflings too! They were some of the most interesting and favorite enemies of mine in other cRPGs (Liches are still my #1 though!) :D

[Lucas]

[Superdeluxe]

Very nice updates. So when is the Ziets stretch?

[LordCrash]

Awesome update! The replayability has just been tripled!

 

And I love Tieflings too! They were some of the most interesting and favorite enemies of mine in other cRPGs (Liches are still my #1 though!) :D

+ 1 for beholders and mind flayers.....

[JWestfall]

To be clear: we're making a game in which story, setting (i.e. exploration of the setting), and tactical combat are emphasized in more-or-less equal measure. The options we're talking about are present so you can tune your particular flavor of gameplay elements, but we're not making a game for people who inherently dislike these gameplay elements.

 

Perfect.

 

That is all.

[hideo kuze]

Thank you for this update

 

So much better than the house

[TimB99]

Is there a stretchgoal planned in which we can donate via paypal?

 

(no seriously, any idea when I can finally donate? )

Edited September 26, 2012 by TimB99

[Elerond]

Is there a stretchgoal planned in which we can donate via paypal?

 

(no seriously, any idea when I can finally donate? )

 

Can I use PayPal?

 

Yes! We will have a PayPal account set up on October 3rd. We want to make sure we have offered all the tiers and add-ons asked for by the Kickstarter community before offering Paypal, since modifying your pledge with Paypal is more difficult than with Kickstarter. Thank you for your patience.

Last updated: Tuesday Sep 25, 8:56am EEST

 

From kickstarter homepage updated indromation about paypal

[ravenshrike]

TBH I'm not really enthused about this latest news. As a story driven player, I'm not too fussed about hardcore modes and the like, and I know for a fact that I will not be using any of the features included in the stretch goal except for the new race, possibly. Hopefully the next one will include further content or mechanics that I find useful (e.g. UI features, in-game refinements) instead.

 

This. I was hoping for a mod kit confirmation. Or a well loved voice actor volunteering to voice a companion at 2.3 or something but that one is pure wishing.

Mod kit will almost certainly be one of the final 3-day rush stretch goals if they do it at all. Be stupid from a funding standpoint not to position it that way. Not to mention they're still probably deciding all the stretch goals they want to complete BEFORE the mod kit stretch goal.

[LordCrash]

Is there a stretchgoal planned in which we can donate via paypal?

 

(no seriously, any idea when I can finally donate? )

Paypal is planned for 10/03.

[Archon]

Since the update has talked about modes: What are the chances of having a mode where quests will have a certain time frame in the game world to be completed?

 

eg: The idea of having 7 game days to rescue a hostage before they are killed.

 

This reminds me of Fallout and its 150 days limit.

Having a mix of "Take your time" quests and "Tic tac tic tac" quests would be great in Project Eternity, but I'm not sure a dedicated mode would be much praised. Maybe Obsidian will use "the restless forces that follow and haunt [us] wherever [we] go" to create a similar dynamic without setting a specific countdown.

 

Anyway, the time frame mention makes me wonder if there will be a particular time management in Project Eternity or if the good old 24hours / 7days / 12months / 4seasons will still be used as graduations...

Edited September 26, 2012 by Archon

[Aargh]

If you are turning on Expert Mode at the beginning of the game, you're permanently (for that game) setting all dials to 11. You don't need to do that, though. If you start a normal game, you can manually turn on/off the options of Expert Mode that you enjoy at any point in the game. If you want combat to be standard but you prefer having companion influence messages turned off, you can just select that feature (and/or other story/dialogue-based elements).

Very cool. I was hoping for something like this, and actually came her to ask about that. Nice to see my question already answered.

 

I have another question though. It might be a bit of an obvious one, but I like to believe there are no stupid questions so I'll ask it anyway just to be sure: When talking about the inclusion of "godlike" races, that's pretty much just fluff, right? They won't actually be godlike in terms of ingame abilities, and be some kind of unbalanced power gamers' choice?

[Bill Gates' Son]

Honestly, I have no interest in this update, because I never cared about those harder difficulty modes (although I did like the realism mode in New Vegas). However, I'm glad to hear there is an easier mode and other toggles available for people like me who cares more about the story and exploration aspect than the battles.

Edited September 27, 2012 by Bill Gates' Son

[Xantomas]

Hardcore mode in New Vegas was absolutely fantastic and I'd love to see something similar in a fantasy RPG.

 

I don't see why an Ironman mode needs to be coded though, players can easily self enforce a single savegame. And as was mentioned before, savegame corruption is common in RPG's and alot of us are trained to cycle multiple save slots to avoid this unholy terror. Having only a single save seems dangerous and potentially super disappointing to me. Not to mention most players can tell when they are fighting a a losing battle and will just re-load their single savegame as soon as the party cleric dies. Or at the very least when they are down to a single survivor and know the fight is hopeless. If a player is disciplined enough to avoid cheesing the reload they are disciplined enough to only make 1 savegame if they want to play Ironman, without an extra game mode to make them.

 

I like the idea of a plane-touched or aasimar type race, but I think Godlike is a bad name for it, heh Hopefully that can be a placeholder and possibly changed in the final game?

[hideo kuze]

I have no interest in this update

 

I'm glad to hear there is an easier mode and other toggles available for people like me

 

 

mmmh

[Odarbi]

Since the update has talked about modes: What are the chances of having a mode where quests will have a certain time frame in the game world to be completed?

 

eg: The idea of having 7 game days to rescue a hostage before they are killed.

 

This reminds me of Fallout and its 150 days limit.

Having a mix of "Take your time" quests and "Tic tac tic tac" quests would be great in Project Eternity, but I'm not sure a dedicated mode would be much praised. Maybe Obsidian will use "the restless forces that follow and haunt [us] wherever [we] go" to create a similar dynamic without setting a specific countdown.

 

Anyway, the time frame mention makes me wonder if there will be a particular time management in Project Eternity or if the good old 24hours / 7days / 12months / 4seasons will still be used as graduations...

 

Every attempt so far to suggest timed quests has been met with myriads of players shooting the idea down simply because they don't want to "race the clock", and "they want to take their time and explore the world", as if the inclusion of timed quests will somehow make them complete unable to do so... So adding a timed mode would probably be the best way to implement such a thing, if it's even going to be implemented, entirely because those people who don't want to "race the clock" don't have to because it's an optional thing. That being said though, I'd much prefer they just put them in the game as a whole instead of making a mode for it. I think such a thing is important to add to the immersion of the game world, after all.

[Gibbscape_Torment]

Good to hear. I'm relieved to hear that you're providing difficulty tweaking, as i thought you may have gone down the path Dark Souls did; but with an even harder difficulty.

[Gatt9]

In this era of removing features and dilluting games, this is perhaps the best piece of gaming news this year!

 

I really like where you're going with this Obsidian, I've only heard one thing I wasn't 100% thrilled with.

[Darth Trethon]

The most pertinent question at the moment is: are there going to be any further stretch goals past 2.3 mil? I certainly hope so because I love seeing the game grow and do a little dance every time I see new features added. Given how the money are flowing I'd say that the 2.3 mil mark is just about a certainty at the moment.

[Wolar]

Kudos for Obsidian for the new modes! Like others, I hope to see more stretch goals soon. So much time left and so much opportunities to make this an even greater game..

[slopesandsam]

Can we get the opposite?

 

For example, Mass Effect 3 had "Story Mode," which allowed players to skip through the monotony of random fighting and "strategic play," in order to appreciate the story, world, and characters without having to tredge through the parts they wouldn't enjoy.

 

I don't particularly like some of the responses I've seen to this, and similar sentiments. There hasn't been any abuse or vitriol, which is great, but there is definitely a certain amount of disdain.

 

I'm a story-driven gamer. In my particular case, I also really enjoy the gameplay elements of RPGs, and I foresee myself trying out some of these increased difficulty modes (although I'll be doing that after I've done a complete playthrough). For me, unlocking the story as a reward for completing gameplay challenges really works.

 

However, I don't see a reason why someone shouldn't be allowed to play a game purely to experience the story, or why they should be disparaged for it. Saying something like "go read a book or watch a movie" isn't helpful - or even cogent. Experiencing a story interactively - even stripped of its combat elements - is another experience entirely. That's something I think a majority of RPG fans can agree on. It might also be that the story told by a particular game is not one you can experience anywhere else.

 

So I think asking for a mode that removes combat, or (more likely to be implementable) one that makes combat vanishingly easy is a perfectly valid request. Real time with no pause necessary. Real time with no action on the player's part necessary. It's not the option I would choose, but I'm certainly not going to belittle someone who does want to play the game that way, or fault the developers for including that option, as well as their more difficult modes, in the game.