You need more far reaching and visionary stretch goals!

[Potemkin]

The problem with this campaign as I see it is the lack of far reaching and visionary stretch goals. The 2.2 million stretch goal is slowly coming about and then there is one at 2.3 million but what happens after that? To increase the amount of backers I think you need to have some more daring stretch goals at higher amounts of money to appeal to us to give more.

 

Look at how Wasteland 2 did it. They had some stretch goals pretty far away (right from the begining) that they finally reached. For exemple, "if we make 3 million dollars the game world will be bigger than Wasteland 1". And if we make more than [insert huge amount here] we will include mod support on release. That was promises that really triggered people.

 

Those goals made me dubbel my pledge. As it is now you get the feeling that all the goals are fullfilled or almost fullfilled and that there is no reason to increse your pledge or to nag on your buddies to also pledge. But if there was a bigger goal more far off for exemple, "if we reach 3 million we will make the gameworld bigger than Baldurs Gate 2", that is something that would really get people excited and increase their pledge.

I know how a backer thinks. With Wasteland 2 I started with a pledge at 15$ but kept increasing it all the time because InExile kept adding cool and far away stretch goals so that I saw the necessity of me pledging more. I ended up pleding a hell of lot more than 15$ and I think that is something that could happen with this campaign as well if you start to talk about how the game could be if you reched 3 million, or 3,5 million or whatever.

But as it is now when the highest stretchgoal is always just 100k away which gives you the impression that the game as you want it is almost fully financed and that there is now reason to pledge more.

 

So please, be visionary and talk about what you wanna do with Project Eternity if you reach 3 million dollars or more!

 

I have some suggestions for future stretch goals that would help getting people excited and to increase their pledges:

 

*If we reach so and so you will be able to choose between turn based and real time combat

*If we reach so and so the game will include more dialog than PlanescapeTorment

*If we reach so and so we will add modsupport etc.

Edited September 30, 2012 by Potemkin

[Hiro Protagonist II]

I agree. There should be some stretch goals at the 3 and 4 million mark now. There needs to be some stretch goals where it may be possible to reach but likely won't be able to. Even if Obsidian doesn't reach 4 million, it's something we can see. I wouldn't mind seeing a stretch goal for a future expansion pack at 5 million and the expansion pack can be released 8 months later. At least show us something with some distant stretch goals instead of a couple hundred thousand instead.

[Infinitron]

Right now, they need more stretch goals, period. Visionary or not.

 

It's likely that as the sum gets higher, they will become more and more far-reaching.

Edited September 30, 2012 by Infinitron

[agewisdom]

I think the main problem is that Obsidian has a very good idea of the size and scope of the game given the estimated date of release they have planned from the start.

 

In order to substantially increase the stretch goals to USD3-4million, they need to revise this initial assumption, which I think they're hesitant to do. Still, I think the OP is right, they need some visionary and cool goals if they want to hit a larger amount of funding. But to do that, they might need to revise their estimated date of release.

[Rabain]

I think there is a risk attached to stretch goals too though. They have enough money to make the game they initially planned on, the more they get the better the content within those boundaries can be. The further they stretch goals and the bigger they make those goals the bigger the risk becomes of not meeting them or affecting quality or development time.

 

Personally I'd be happy stopping at the 2.2million goal, new region, new faction means bigger world. At that point I don't want some fantastical goals added that will just slow down development.

[Karranthain]

I must agree that the stretch goals so far have been mostly fairly disappointing (aside from maybe the game modes, but even that, I think, wasn't exciting enough).

 

Here's an example of just how much an enticing stretch goal can help : http://forums.obsidi...20#entry1208409

[Potemkin]

I wouldn't mind seeing a stretch goal for a future expansion pack at 5 million and the expansion pack can be released 8 months later.

Maybe that's the perfect idea to adress the problems brought up in agewisdoms post! If they wanna keep their initial release date then maybe they should include everthing else that is achieved by this kickstarter campaign in an expension pack. So that all stretch goals after 2,3 million have their content intended for the expension.

[Karranthain]

I think there is a risk attached to stretch goals too though. They have enough money to make the game they initially planned on, the more they get the better the content within those boundaries can be. The further they stretch goals and the bigger they make those goals the bigger the risk becomes of not meeting them or affecting quality or development time.

 

Personally I'd be happy stopping at the 2.2million goal, new region, new faction means bigger world. At that point I don't want some fantastical goals added that will just slow down development.

 

We've all been waiting a very long time for this; I, for one, would be fine with waiting just a bit longer

[Potemkin]

I think there is a risk attached to stretch goals too though. They have enough money to make the game they initially planned on, the more they get the better the content within those boundaries can be. The further they stretch goals and the bigger they make those goals the bigger the risk becomes of not meeting them or affecting quality or development time.

 

Personally I'd be happy stopping at the 2.2million goal, new region, new faction means bigger world. At that point I don't want some fantastical goals added that will just slow down development.

 

We've all been waiting a very long time for this; I, for one, would be fine with waiting just a bit longer

Yeah! Who wouldn't?! I for one thought that a spring 2014 release was a bit to soon.

[agewisdom]

Well, I think we all have more or less the same grouses. Obsidian needs to tackle things head on, if they want to hit higher funding. I think they have all the funding they need based on the current scope of the game. The only way to get more funding (if that's what they want) is:

 

1. Have a big stretch goal that is non-related to the game. This could be in the form of a documentary such as Double Fine Adventure which could raising additional funding. Unfortunately, I don't know how this would add to the game; OR

 

2. Incorporate a major Expansion Pack that they're planning to release subsequent to the Initial Project Eternity release. They might have to delay the release date to 2015, but that's fine so long as they hit the major funding requirement say, USD4mil? Why not go for broke?

Edited September 30, 2012 by agewisdom

[sparklecat]

On the one hand, having a major new stretch goal that requires delaying release to expand the game seems a bad idea because having a proven success is probably a really good way to get funding for future installments. On the other, I want them to take all the time they think is appropriate to do it right. Personally, it won't make any difference to my pledge since I've already given all that I can afford at present.

 

What I'd like is for them to keep accepting and tracking donations and making new goals, possibly even ones you can choose between for your donation, on their own site after the kickstarter drive is finished. Because as a poor, starving student I may have no more money now, but I'm graduating next June and (hopefully) joining the ranks of the employed! I'd be happy to give more money after this initial month is done to support such an awesome game, especially if it's specifically earmarked for features I care about.

 

 

I'm not actually all that fond of some huge goal, either; I like the little "another 100k and we can write in a new companion" model. Only problem is that it seems somewhat limited in how much they can do so, to me; the amount of work needed to add someone new, a new race, whatever, is going to increase every time they do it. So yeah, at some point they need to either stop, or move over to a type of stretch goal that can be added in without affecting everything else in the game. The player house and difficulty modes were a good way to go, I thought.

[Bendu]

Stretch goals were all fine to me. If Obsidian wants to make an expansion pack, then they should do another Kickstarter. I will give them my money again. There are only two more stretch goals I'm interested in: origin stories for all classes and bringing Mr. Ziets back to this project.

[Revan91]

I think Obsidian should add some other stretch goals in order to get more money... I'm ok with the stretch goals so far but they should add something more, possibly something that can actually bring more people to raise their pledge or new people to back the project, like the announcement of Chris Avellone helping InXile for Wasteland 2, as Karranthain said.

 

By the way, I prefer quality over quantity, so I'd rather not have a hundred of compaions and races and classes while I'd prefer just ten companions (or five-six races, classes) and have each one of them with many unique dialogues, banters, features and so on.

Anyhow I think Obsidian knows what to do with the game and I trust them.

Oh, by the way I think adding new translations (Italian, Russian, Polish, ...) would be a good stretch goal and would bring more easy money in the game, but of course there should be other more tied with the game-mechanics stretch goals.

[sparklecat]

Stretch goals were all fine to me. If Obsidian wants to make an expansion pack, then they should do another Kickstarter. I will give them my money again. There are only two more stretch goals I'm interested in: origin stories for all classes and bringing Mr. Ziets back to this project.

 

Origin stories? You mean like Arcanum, or like Dragon Age?

[Revan91]

Stretch goals were all fine to me. If Obsidian wants to make an expansion pack, then they should do another Kickstarter. I will give them my money again. There are only two more stretch goals I'm interested in: origin stories for all classes and bringing Mr. Ziets back to this project.

Origin stories were a very interesting feature of DAO and I'd love to see them return in some future game, since it's sadly obvious they won't be coming back in the next BioWare games.

It would be even better if they had more influence on the progression of the game, a bit more than what was done for DAO, although I understands that, in order to do it, that would require a lot of work from the devs, but it could work for me as a high-level stretch goal (3.2 millions perhaps).

[agewisdom]

I love the Origins stories too, but it's really quite difficult to pull off, convincingly. All the different vignettes still needs to be funneled into a single path later on to make things manageable i.e. such as the Battle of Ostagar for DA:O. After that, gameplay remains largely the same except for some differences here and there.

 

Instead, perhaps we could have class specific quests ala BG2 which is also just as interesting?

[Karranthain]

I'm still hoping for Justin Sweet's involvement

(http://forums.obsidi...ost__p__1188511)

 

I'm fairly sure we'd see a sharp increase of pledges should both George Ziets' and Sweet's involvement be announced.

[BSoda]

I wouldn't mind seeing a stretch goal for a future expansion pack at 5 million and the expansion pack can be released 8 months later.

Maybe that's the perfect idea to adress the problems brought up in agewisdoms post! If they wanna keep their initial release date then maybe they should include everthing else that is achieved by this kickstarter campaign in an expension pack. So that all stretch goals after 2,3 million have their content intended for the expension.

I don't think an expansion pack as stretch goal for PE is a good idea. That's almost like adding the sequel to PE as stretch goal for PE itself...and though I have every faith in Obsidian, they first need to establish PE as a brand. PE needs to turn out to be a great game -than we can talk expansion pack and sequels.

[hideo kuze]

Mentioning an expansion pack is at the very least silly. It just passes around the wrong image.

The funding should go into this game, making it bigger if that is the case.

 

 

4 million - BG2 sized world

5 million - mod toolkit and pure TB mode

6 million - co-op/multiplayer and lots of romances

 

 

I don't really care for the 6 million goal, but the idea would be to attract backers while cashing in (ie: you ask for a million but it costs 500k to implement).

 

In any case I already put as much money as I could afford on this one, 280$.

[Bendu]

Stretch goals were all fine to me. If Obsidian wants to make an expansion pack, then they should do another Kickstarter. I will give them my money again. There are only two more stretch goals I'm interested in: origin stories for all classes and bringing Mr. Ziets back to this project.

 

Origin stories? You mean like Arcanum, or like Dragon Age?

 

Dragon Age.

 

I love the Origins stories too, but it's really quite difficult to pull off, convincingly. All the different vignettes still needs to be funneled into a single path later on to make things manageable i.e. such as the Battle of Ostagar for DA:O. After that, gameplay remains largely the same except for some differences here and there.

 

Instead, perhaps we could have class specific quests ala BG2 which is also just as interesting?

I could be a flashback and instead of gaining XP and loot you would determine some unique perks/traits.

[Gorgon]

4 million and all Obsidian employees get fur coats.

 

A lot of these stretch goals seemed kinda pointless and uninteresting. More actual game content on the other hand, this is what it's all about.

[sparklecat]

Origin stories of that type are cool in general, but I think they're too restrictive for this. IMO, one of Bioware's biggest problems recently is that they're moving more and more towards having you play their characters rather than making your own - and while that's fun too sometimes, it's not really the sort of RPG I'm looking for here. Hence why I would take money away from my pledge if it helped stop a voiced PC. Anything that feels like I'm discovering something about my character rather than determining it, anything that leaves me feeling like I'm just watching a story play out and occasionally taking the driver's seat for a brief period... no thanks.

[Metabot]

I don't think your recollection of wastelands kickstarter is accurate. Obsidian has had more updates at this point than wasteland did and a lot of the later stretch goals didn't come about until later, such as the mod tools.

Edited September 30, 2012 by Metabot

[novander]

"4 million and we use that last million to buy the IP rights for all the PS:T NPCs"

 

I'd up my donation for that.

[draft1983]

i'd be fien with another kickstarter for expansion too, just no DLC please. i'm sure though that the devs want the initial kickstarter and game sales to be good enough so they don't have to do another kickstarter and they can self finance additional expansions and sequals