Update #12: Reddit Q&A with Tim Cain

[NoxNoctum]

What's up with the comments on the youtube video? It's completely infested with hate spewing.

 

I don't keep up with Reddit or 4chan but it looks like they're using the video for some kind of flame war :/

 

Obsidian should just disable the comments.

 

Anyways, I don't understand the animosity, but I for one appreciated Tim doing this. I never use Reddit but I registered just to ask a question/vote up others.

Edited September 29, 2012 by NoxNoctum

[Auxilius]

I'm kinda disappointed my question on world-building didn't get through. It would have been very interesteing to know if the world map is going for an Arcanum or Baldur's Gate approach for example.

 

NoxNoctum: Well, it proves several things.

1) If the Q&A was made on 4chan, Tim would have definitely been asked how does it fill to be jizzed inside. I then don't see the point to do a Q&A there.

2) The game is considered as interesting by this community, meaning you better get used to the hate since they're known to bitch over insignificant things.

3) Internet wars are horribly smelling of failure and nerdiness. "My website is better than yours" is not a good reason to flame a video.

Edited September 29, 2012 by Auxilius

[Oner]

I'm more perplexed by the morons who think doing a Q&A with Reddit somehow influnces the design of the game.

[rjshae]

I'm more perplexed by the morons who think doing a Q&A with Reddit somehow influnces the design of the game.

 

Listening to your customers is usually a good business practice. I'm not sure if that is entirely true in the video gaming business, but it's probably at least good for generating buzz and looking for prominent areas of interest.

[Oner]

I'm more perplexed by the morons who think doing a Q&A with Reddit somehow influnces the design of the game.

 

Listening to your customers is usually a good business practice. I'm not sure if that is entirely true in the video gaming business, but it's probably at least good for generating buzz and looking for prominent areas of interest.

But they just asked questions. They didn't supply design docs Obs has to follow or anything. They asked questions! o_O

[Blu3Fr0G]

Q&A are interesting, but why don´t you ask your fans here, on Kickstarter, or on forums? Why only Reddit users? I, for one, didn´t even knew you were doing such an event :/

 

Nonetheless, I like the answers. My only question is: why it a problem to do Unity moddable game? No tools available? You´d have to create TDK yourselves?

[Gorth]

I'm more perplexed by the morons who think doing a Q&A with Reddit somehow influnces the design of the game.

 

Listening to your customers is usually a good business practice. I'm not sure if that is entirely true in the video gaming business, but it's probably at least good for generating buzz and looking for prominent areas of interest.

But they just asked questions. They didn't supply design docs Obs has to follow or anything. They asked questions! o_O

They may have been loaded questions, sneakily manipulating Tim to change his mind accordingly

[509dave16]

Update 12 was a pleasant surprise. I just wish I would have watched the video instead of reading the text. I would definitely enjoy seeing more of these Q&A updates as they reveal more about the game and I get to see the developers(if there are going to be more videos that is). I also wanted to mention that of all of Obsidian's games I've only played KOTOR: II and Fallout: New Vegas both of which I enjoyed immensely, seeing as I already enjoyed previous to them KOTOR: I and Fallout 3. However, I've never played an isometric cRPG. I tried playing Baldurs Gate but it was to much to manage. I hope that there will be a companion Gambit System so that I don't have to micro manage my allies during every fight. But when I do want to micro manage during a pause or on the fly, switching between companions and selecting actions and targets for them should be easy. And by easy I mean the amount of time it takes to select an action and a target, and how many prompts or layers I have to go through to make that selection happen. Personally, I hope that the target and action selection will liken to that of KOTOR or Dragon Age which are both fairly easy to use(or something better ). I also know you guys are good at stories and I'm glad that the narrative and the companion interactions are going to be at the forefront of the game's development. I enjoy reading books of the fantasy genre such as The Sword of Truth Series, Wheel of Time Series, Raven King Trilogy, The First Law Trilogy, The Merlin Trilogy, Drizz't Do Urden, and others. So whatever Project: Eternity's story/adventure is going to be about, I'm sure it will good. Keep up the good work!!!!

-David

Edited September 30, 2012 by 509dave16

[justaleaf]

Are you going for the more modern approach of having "hubs" where all joined companions await for party choice on a particular quest? Or the approach the "IE" games took where you basically chose a party and stuck with it, often (unless modded) permanantly losing choice on some companions because you said no at one point?

 

I assumed (and I'm hoping) it's the latter I don't think you should be "stuck" with a party though. I would hope that you could ask members to join and leave and even rejoin later if you wanted to (as long as you didn't upset them in some way). Personally I prefer building one party and leveling them all up at the same time, only asking a member to leave if I find someone with better skills for what I need in the party.

 

Maybe it's less obvious than I think. But, deduction would indicate that we have an answer to this, potentially, by the inclusion of player housing. It could work somewhat like the campsite or normandy, from DO:O and ME respectively.

[Ieo]

However, I've never played an isometric cRPG. I tried playing Baldurs Gate but it was to much to manage. I hope that there will be a companion Gambit System so that I don't have to micro manage my allies during every fight. But when I do want to micro manage during a pause or on the fly, switching between companions and selecting actions and targets for them should be easy. And by easy I mean the amount of time it takes to select an action and a target, and how many prompts or layers I have to go through to make that selection happen.

 

Did you try playing BG on the easy setting and using all or most of the available combat autopause features? There are also special AI scripts, although I can't remember them off the top of my head at the moment (like attack caster first, I think). I'll be honest; given that PE is supposed to pay homage to the IE gameplay styles, I recommend you try again--the isometric party tactical combat style is a major part of the marketing, and with a party of 6, I expect players used to the newfangled 3-4 party 3D cinematic auto-do-everything-for-you games will have trouble at first, but pause is the key power that the player has.

 

PE will have an "easy" difficulty level somewhere, but they haven't determined exactly where that will be; I rather expect it to be similar to the IE games' "easy" difficulty.

 

Planescape:Torment has the same basic combat structure but the UI is different and the game can be played almost entirely without combat (like 4 required combat areas last I read). From what we know about PE so far, the devs do intend to allow players to skip at least some combat using dialogue and depending on other factors.

 

Personally, I hope that the target and action selection will liken to that of KOTOR or Dragon Age which are both fairly easy to use(or something better ).

 

In the old IE games, you just click a party member, click an action you want him/her to do (e.g. a spell) and then click the target you want the member to do it on (if the action requires a target). It doesn't get easier than that.

 

If you're a reader and you haven't played PS:T yet, I highly recommend it.

[JeremyR]

Wasteland 2 is using Unity and mod tools were one of the stretch goals (last one reached, IIRC). So it should be possible

[Ieo]

Wasteland 2 is using Unity and mod tools were one of the stretch goals (last one reached, IIRC). So it should be possible

 

The predicament then is--present a stretch goal within the next couple weeks and thus introduce the expectation for mod tools, or stick with the original plan of waiting for another year or so to see where development goes with the risk of somehow not having enough resources for the player tools (additional licensing? I dunno).

 

I understand Obsidian has thought about this a little but is placing it on the back burner to give priority to the main vanilla game, which is all well and good--I think the vast majority of players appreciate a clear, high-quality goal... But given that players know the engine being used and its capabilities for player tools, I wonder if Obsidian needs to seriously consider moving the priority forward for future planning purposes.

[rjshae]

Wasteland 2 is using Unity and mod tools were one of the stretch goals (last one reached, IIRC). So it should be possible

 

The predicament then is--present a stretch goal within the next couple weeks and thus introduce the expectation for mod tools, or stick with the original plan of waiting for another year or so to see where development goes with the risk of somehow not having enough resources for the player tools (additional licensing? I dunno).

 

I understand Obsidian has thought about this a little but is placing it on the back burner to give priority to the main vanilla game, which is all well and good--I think the vast majority of players appreciate a clear, high-quality goal... But given that players know the engine being used and its capabilities for player tools, I wonder if Obsidian needs to seriously consider moving the priority forward for future planning purposes.

 

I'm not sure it would be a good idea for Obsidian to promise a Mod tool as a stretch goal, given that they are not certain how much they can commit to it. Another consideration is that the stretch goals are what draw in the additional contributions; how many of those would want modding tools? There are plenty of other things they can add with the money that would add value to the game and interest uncommitted investors. Maybe add a skilled voice narrator, include compute-intensive cut-scene graphics, allow characters to purchase and use horses (mounted cavalry charge?), wagons and a ship, build more spell sets, publishing a campaign setting for table-top gamers, &c.

Edited September 30, 2012 by rjshae

[Krios]

Loved the interview. More please

[Wombat]

I like the flexibility of skill system and it is often convincing in a detailed world setting, reflecting various aspect of character backgrounds. I'm not convinced by Cain's explanation of character archetypes, either, since they could make a certain skill-sets and name it under class archetypes for those who are not accustomed to skill systems. Just my opinon, though.

 

As for RTwP, yes, as long as there are tactical choices available, I don't mind RTwP or TB. TB requires the player input every single turn even when there are not important choices for a certain characters but RTwP, with auto-pause options, the players let the computer pause the game when their inputs are needed.

 

About the race specific weapons, I wonder there is an interesting setting like an elf bow in Glorantha setting. Faction specific equipments such as signature weapons would be interesting, too. I wonder if I mentioned this but the players like to have personalized equipment, whether through their story choices, crafting, classes or factions.

 

Anyway, thanks for the update.

[dlux]

Another awesome video from the legendary Tim Cain! :D

 

Oh, and that pencil is awesome Tim. :3

[Potemkin]

Regarding RTwP vs. TB. Why don't you just add a stretch goal with the purpose of allowing the player to choose between RTwP and TB? So that each player can have his/her prefered game gameplay style.

[aVENGER]

Regarding RTwP vs. TB. Why don't you just add a stretch goal with the purpose of allowing the player to choose between RTwP and TB? So that each player can have his/her prefered game gameplay style.

 

Because that way, you'd create two equally flawed systems (see Arcanum) instead of focusing on a single system and making it good.

 

And that's coming from someone who actually prefers turn-based combat.

[Dermi]

Because it worked so well in Arcanum. Oh, wait...

Going with both systems will end up with gimping one or another (or both), because of different paradigms of design for both systems. They already decided on RTwP (not that I'm ecstatic about it, but I can live with it), so let them focus on making it as best as they can.

[mieu]

Just tried on a pair of Pixie boots, they did not fit spookily

[Sensuki]

I'm a bit concerned about the mentioning of roles, something I found incredibly annoying in MMOs, Dragon Age and D&D 4th edition.

Edited September 30, 2012 by Sensuki

[drain]

I'm a bit concerned about the mentioning of roles, something I found incredibly annoying in MMOs, Dragon Age and D&D 4th edition.

I think he just meant that different classes have some inherent strengths and weaknesses, fit different roles better in combat. Not the MMO version of roles where you would need one tank, one healer and one dpser and probably some CC. Every set of classes should be playable as a party but need to be played differently, taking their strengths and weaknesses into account.

[Sensuki]

Hopefully, yes.

[norolim]

My hope with the real time combat is that the game will not only have pause (like in DA: O), but also auto pause (like in BG) with specific conditions that you can set for it. Great update anyways.

Edited September 30, 2012 by norolim

[Ashram]

I like this process of being able to ask questions and having the top 5 answered. Kudos devs on that.

 

Overall, I was pretty satisfied with the answers. Especially with regards to the racial backgrounds and traits. Great stuff.

 

Two things that I would like to offer:

 

1) Please push forward with a system that allows for multiclassing. It opens up so much more variety. Every system has had this in some form or another.

 

2) The one thing that Tim discussed about wanting to control the entire party's actions and such seems to support the concept of creating a mode where you can make more than one party member in your party ala Icewind Dale. Another request is to please allow this, even if you could only make up to 4/6 party members yourself. It would give you that control you want to feel while still allowing for story. Heck even if you could only make 3/6 characters yourself that would be awesome.

 

Thanks again for the updates!