Stretch Goals and Backer Rewards - What do you think?

[Hypevosa]

custom spell creation

Co-op multiplayer like in BG2

 

those are all I really can think of specifically that aren't listed

 

Oh - a custom adventure creation system, or a kind of multiplayer where it's like a pen and paper game but in engine.

[JeremyR]

1) Big Goal: Turn based combat mode like Temple of Elemental Evil.

 

2) Backer Rewards: I don't think the Megadungeon is that great an incentive, because I don't think a lot of people play these games for the terrible real time combat, but for the story. If you want to expand the user base, you need to expand the gameplay so it's more appealing. Turn based combat is one way, since many hate real time clickfests. Additional languages are another thing - RPGs and PC games are big in East Europe, I think Russian and Polish translations should strongly be considered.

 

3) Other Stretch/Backer Feedback: Don't get too crazy with the stretch goals. But you might considering additional (short) scenarios/quest lines done by famous people in the RPG Industry. WL2 for instance, brought in Chris Avellone from you guys as a stretch goal. Surely there is someone famous you could grab.

Edited October 2, 2012 by JeremyR

[Valorian]

I disagree - I think it's great. I really love the idea of a seemingly endless, epic dungeon you can get lost in... rather than having tons of glorified caves you can breeze through. The more levels the better.

 

I'd rather have a small crypt or cave with an interesting encounter, a strange scroll and a weird feel about it.. than a myriad of dungeon levels that are built just because more people backed the project, and not because it makes sense.

[ilhdr]

The Ultra-hardcore players should stoping pretending that combat-graphics isn't important for the vast majority of us.

[edrst10]

 

1) Big Goals: A number of folks have suggested adding "big ass goals": Things like 3 or 4M stretch goals, but bigger in terms of scope. What kinds of things would you want to see that you think would motivate the community to invest more, and/or find more backers to get involved? (Besides mod tools or multiplayer)

 

2) Backer Rewards: With respect to backer rewards (basically when we hit certain thresholds of backer counts), do you like the ever expanding mega dungeon as an incentive, and if not, do you have suggestions for things you think would encourage folks to reach out to their friends to get involved?

 

3) Other Stretch/Backer Feedback? Have any other feedback you think would help this be better?

 

Thanks everyone!

 

-TG

 

1. Big Stretch Goals are good but I would advise caution so as not to let them divert from your vision, or be overly ambitious in terms of cost. Personally I have upped my pledge 3 times since this drive started and it has had to do more with the constant updates with information than the stretch goals. But stretch goals are good. I would prefer depth of content as opposed to quantity of content. I know this is a hard sell for stretch goals, but I personally think that more detailed lore in quests, complex quest structure (meaning quests that are not simply fetch and kill quests) and more complexity in companion and npc interaction is better than more areas and quests that may by the necessity of volume have to be a bit more shallow. So instead of a new city, I would prefer more fleshed out existing planned cities with faction mechanics within them that make them interesting and layered to player character choices. For example rival families and political factions to choose from at the exclusion of others that lead to divergent ways to continue main quest goals or side quests and have you experience the city in a different way. Or an existing city with an interesting underworld to be explored by thief character types, and others with more noble pursuits for Paladin archetype players, and other cities that open up opportunities for magic characters, etc. (depending on the archetypes you develop of course).

 

2. I love the inclusion of a Mega-dungeon to bring in more backers, I just hope that connecting it to backers as opposed to money goals doesn't affect the cost and quality of it. I also hope that we get more backers to have it be of a robust size (10 to 12 sounds about good). I wouldn't encourage other backer dependant goals that may cost money, unless it's digitally distributed rewards added to the tiers that may be low cost but are still cool to have.

 

3. I would just reiterate what I mentioned before, keep the updates coming. Every new piece of art, or information about your thoughts on the design of the game really ramp up my excitement for this game and I think it is the same for others. I think seeing some new concept art, or little tid bits of interesting lore (like the one added to the mega-dungeon reveal) makes more people excited and perhaps gets gaming journalism sites more prone to keep featuring Project Eternity in new stories.

 

Lastly, keep up the good work!

[edrst10]

The Ultra-hardcore players should stoping pretending that combat-graphics isn't important for the vast majority of us.

 

I am of the opinion that graphics are not the most important part of an rpg. However, good graphics certainly don't hurt, so although I prefer depth of content as oppossed to more, I wouldn't be completely opposed to money being used to make the game more visually appealing, as long as it doesn't compromise the core gameplay and depth of the initial concept.

[Metabot]

I much prefer instrumentals to any singing in video game music.

Well, as any other topic, it's a matter of preference.

I wanted to post this as link but the forum insists on media, so I'll have to post this as text: www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVbPnDf3TIw

 

[Hypevosa]

The Ultra-hardcore players should stoping pretending that combat-graphics isn't important for the vast majority of us.

 

I would hope if you're here you aren't going to care if the graphics are state of the art or not.

[Metabot]

I disagree - I think it's great. I really love the idea of a seemingly endless, epic dungeon you can get lost in... rather than having tons of glorified caves you can breeze through. The more levels the better.

 

I'd rather have a small crypt or cave with an interesting encounter, a strange scroll and a weird feel about it.. than a myriad of dungeon levels that are built just because more people backed the project, and not because it makes sense.

 

Who cares if it makes complete sense. It is a game after all. This is probably going to be entirely optional. There will probably be plenty of smaller areas, etc., but a small cave as a stretch goal isn't really all that interesting now is it?

[LordCrash]

1) Big Goal: Turn based combat mode like Temple of Elemental Evil.

That will NEVER happen. RTwP is one of the core mechanics of the game which are already clearly stated. So, why still claiming turn based combat???

[Piccolo]

I disagree - I think it's great. I really love the idea of a seemingly endless, epic dungeon you can get lost in... rather than having tons of glorified caves you can breeze through. The more levels the better.

 

I'd rather have a small crypt or cave with an interesting encounter, a strange scroll and a weird feel about it.. than a myriad of dungeon levels that are built just because more people backed the project, and not because it makes sense.

I don't see it as them just adding more and more levels because more people back the project.

 

They want to do a mega dungeon with many levels, if funds will allow it. The extra level per 2.5k backers thing is just a fun way of involving the community to get more funds. They could just as easily have added a mega dungeon as a stretch goal.

Edited October 2, 2012 by Piccolo

[Superdeluxe]

Would be nice to have backer/dungeon graphic

[ogrezilla]

The Ultra-hardcore players should stoping pretending that combat-graphics isn't important for the vast majority of us.

 

I would hope if you're here you aren't going to care if the graphics are state of the art or not.

Around the level of Temple of Elemental Evil graphics is what I am expecting. Anything better is bonus. Anything worse will be disappointing.

[nikolokolus]

 

They want to do a mega dungeon with many levels, if funds will allow it. The extra level per 2.5k backers thing is just a fun way of involving the community to get more funds. They could just as easily have added a mega dungeon as a stretch goal.

 

Yeah its pretty easy to extrapolate what kind money 2500 backers equals (~$100,000 at current avg pledging levels).

[ImRhoven]

Just more stuff! A bigger and better game with more story and npc's and stuff to do. Extra quests not directly involved with the main story line. Extra locations to explore. And natural pauses built into the main story line that allow for making use of those, without making you feel you're neglecting the fate of the world to go out on a stroll or save some farmer's stolen chickens.

 

And maybe, and I'm saying this with nothing but good intentions, make a stretch goal were the money goes towards extra time that the game spends in QA, because really. If there's one point were OE's previous games have failed it's there. It would be real shame to destroy all the goodwill you're generating by releasing a buggy game.

[Chunkyman]

Here's my ideas.

 

 

3 million dollar stretchgoal:

 

Adds spell creation

 

New companion, NPCs, region, etc.

 

 

3.5 million dollar stretchgoal:

 

 

Hire great orchestra and composer to make the game's music

 

Add a (manageable) city that you can become the ruler of.

 

 

4 Million dollar stretchgoal:

 

A giant collection of in-game books readable by the player. I'm talking Morrowind level of books here.

 

New NPCs, region, etc.

 

 

5 million dollar stretch goal:

 

Add a whole bunch of new skills, abilities, classes, etc.

 

New NPCs, region, companion, etc.

 

Add a whole bunch of gambling minigames.

[Metabot]

I'd also love to see Obsidian making the crafting system more interesting in later stretch goals by adding quests for lore based recipes/ingredients. Also, adding hard to find recipes and/or making some "discoverable" through player combinations.

[rjshae]

Retracting my comments.

Edited October 2, 2012 by rjshae

[Spess Merhenn]

3 million dollar stretch goal make it a First Person Shooter pay to play MMO.

[Kopi]

Mega dungeon sounds kinda lame, especially if you add levels for no other reason than it beeing a mega dungeon. The way it is presented in kickstarter, it comes across as a cheap dungeon hackfest. No thank you.

[Archmage Silver]

I'm not entirely sure which stretch goal they should be in for, but I'd like to see two separate side-quests/stories: an adventure at sea (think Sahuagin City and its prelude in Shadows of Amn), and a fallen dwarven hold/city (think Dorn's Deep in Icewind Dale).

 

Reduced pricing for a PE sequel would be great too (and I'm not just saying this because I put so much money into this game, oh no).

[Piccolo]

Mega dungeon sounds kinda lame, especially if you add levels for no other reason than it beeing a mega dungeon. The way it is presented in kickstarter, it comes across as a cheap dungeon hackfest. No thank you.

The only lame thing about it is perhaps the name "mega dungeon". The actual idea of having an enormous and complex dungeon with multiple levels is great.

 

I don't see why it should have to be a simple hackfest either. Aside from combat, a large dungeon can offer a ton of exploration value, interesting lore, and maybe even some problem solving. If anything, it's the small caves that are more likely to turn into simple hackfests. Huge dungeons can really tell their own story and offer a lot more than just 'kill the horde, beat the boss, get the loot'.

Edited October 2, 2012 by Piccolo

[Archmage Silver]

Mega dungeon sounds kinda lame, especially if you add levels for no other reason than it beeing a mega dungeon. The way it is presented in kickstarter, it comes across as a cheap dungeon hackfest. No thank you.

The only lame thing about it is perhaps the name "mega dungeon". The actual idea of having an enormous and complex dungeon with multiple levels is great.

 

I don't see why it should have to be a simple hackfest either. Aside from combat, a large dungeon can offer a ton of exploration value, interesting lore, and maybe even some problem solving. If anything, it's the small caves that are more likely to turn into simple hackfests. Huge dungeons can really tell their own story and offer a lot more than just 'kill the horde, beat the boss, get the loot'.

Plus there's the great feeling you get once you reach the end of the dungeon and emerge into the daylight.

[ilhdr]

The Ultra-hardcore players should stoping pretending that combat-graphics isn't important for the vast majority of us.

 

I am of the opinion that graphics are not the most important part of an rpg. However, good graphics certainly don't hurt, so although I prefer depth of content as oppossed to more, I wouldn't be completely opposed to money being used to make the game more visually appealing, as long as it doesn't compromise the core gameplay and depth of the initial concept.

 

The problem is that there isn't such a relation. Bad graphics would just bring less money to the franchise

[curryinahurry]

New Game Plus if no one has mentioned it

 

Adventuring option after main quest resolution

 

Class specific strongholds; each with their own quests

 

I'll add more as I think of them