[Updated] Summary of the Q&A in the Kickstarter Comments page

[Monte Carlo]

That means there will be romances. They caved in. Oh well.

[Ink Blot]

That means there will be romances. They caved in. Oh well.

 

Here's hoping it's nothing cheesy and it's so completely optional that it's never thrown in your face.

[Ieo]

That means there will be romances. They caved in. Oh well.

 

Here's hoping it's nothing cheesy and it's so completely optional that it's never thrown in your face.

 

Minimal hooks into the main plot; epilogues are fine. Written by psych relationship counselors. I don't want to get this thread locked, though, so I'll just

 

ಠ_ಠ

[DocDoomII]

I don't remember the exact quote or where it was said (may be one of the interview linked in the kickstarter page) but regarding romance I read that

"there will be various kind of mature relationships (note: i don't think he means only romances) to pursue in the game and you will be able to choose to which degree to pursue them"

 

again, that's not the exact quote, so don't take it as it is.

 

If someone feels like it, look for it.

[Ieo]

I don't remember the exact quote or where it was said (may be one of the interview linked in the kickstarter page) but regarding romance I read that

"there will be various kind of mature relationships (note: i don't think he means only romances) to pursue in the game and you will be able to choose to which degree to pursue them"

 

again, that's not the exact quote, so don't take it as it is.

 

If someone feels like it, look for it.

 

Yeah, Ink Blot quoted it above (thanks, man!). If that does heavily imply that there will be strong camaraderie relationships some steps shy of "romance," I'm all for that. That's the stuff that's tricky to develop in an entertainment venue these days.

 

Anyway, how about them cooldowns?

[DocDoomII]

 

Yeah, Ink Blot quoted it above (thanks, man!).

He's alway a step further.

[Ink Blot]

Update time again:

 

Apologies on the late update, we had a lot of stuff to talk about - and the list of all the reward tiers is crazy long to make it's correct. When the update comes along - please share across your Facebook groups. That really helps get the word out and it gets us Facebook likes, which mean more dungeon love.

 

Question: I have a follow-up to a question I had earlier about how unique the rewards are for Kickstarter. Are any of the benefits/rewards unique to the time window of the kickstarter project (next 6 days), whether ks or paypal? Like, you can only get such and such if you donate before the kickstarter ends?

Feargus: Yeah, we need to call those out. I know the one unique thing is the price at $20/$25.

 

Question: a curiosity, Obsidian never thinked with the idea of creating a horror RPG?

Feargus: We have talked a lot about a horror RPG. We were within inches of doing a RPG with White Wolf and then CCP came in and purchased them.

 

Question: Not many days left, it is a bit like the quiet before the storm at the moment, is the team primed for the last few day rush )

Feargus: We feel the rush is going to start hitting tomorrow or Friday and we are "girding our loins".

 

Question: i heard that you were only doing two handed spears ATM. have you considered having two types of spears, longer two handed ones (or regular spears), and what amounts to a short spear or javelin? you didn't throw longer spears really as they were more of a reach weapon, but javelins/short spears were used very much as a weapon that could be both thrown and used with a shield for melee fighting. if you could figure out a way to implement the difference, it would be kind of cool.

Feargus: My thought on that, was that the two handed variety is our priority. As we move down the priority list, we will see if we can get to what you are suggesting.

 

Question: You mean the price for the base game will go up after the kickstarter ends?

Feargus: It will at some point, but we haven't settled on when or the price yet.

 

Question: Can you give us a hint on what you plan to get the penny-pinching 37.600 low-level backers to up their pledge? And yes, I'm still still one of them - shame on me.

 

Will there perhaps be another $30-60 all digital tier ... maybe including the first expansion pack?

Feargus: We have at least one thing to announce today that might help. Then more stuff (hopefully) tomorrow and Friday.

 

Question: what would you have done if the initial pace had continued and you'd ended up with 24 million dollars?

Feargus: We would have scoped the game to that amount. We can be pretty ingenious when it comes to coming up with ways of getting fun content into a game with a minimum of $'s.

 

Oh, you meant $24 million, not $2.4 million. Oh, I don't now that would have been pretty crazy. Maybe we would have funded two games then rather than try to squeeze $24M into this one game. Totally not sure.

 

Question: Are you planning on adding anything else to the add-ons lists? Or new Tiers? Or are we sticking with what we have with perhaps a few additions to the tiers?

Feargus: More add-ons and more tiers. More add-ons than tiers. We might only be adding one more tier at this point.

 

Question: Do you think you will add a further add on involving the first expansion? For example adding 30 dollars to the current pledge to gain access to the expansion?

Feargus: Should be some info in the update today about how we are handling that.

 

Question: last that was posted you'd be adding 35k from paypal, so it'd be about 5k til the next stretch goal.

Feargus: Or there might be $41K in the PayPal account.

[DCParry]

That means there will be romances. They caved in. Oh well.

 

Or, you know, they were always planned and part of the design philosophy for the game.

[Ieo]

That means there will be romances. They caved in. Oh well.

 

Or, you know, they were always planned and part of the design philosophy for the game.

 

Possible.

 

Man, there's a lot of chatter about the KS tiers in this last Q&A, and Obs is still going to add/change things...

 

The last KS day will be interesting to watch.

[Ink Blot]

Tonight's Q&A:

 

Feargus: We have been having some problems with the updates and using Amazon for storage. When we edit an update it does something strange and deletes but then adds the image again. Amazon thinks it is deleted and then scheduled it to be deleted. So, we are going to start storing everything on our own stuff.

 

Question: Hi feargusaurus, give us stronghold and Chinese translation please!

Feargus: I'm not so sure about the Chinese translation. We will see what we can do though, we have been contacted by a couple of Chinese companies.

 

Question: You've done a great job of fielding questions and many topics have been exhausted or told to hold off questioning for later. So, what information do you want to share with us that we just don't know to ask for at the moment?

Feargus: Good question. I asked a lot about the documentary last night. So, I'll ask something much different tonight. What do you all think is the most important aspect of an RPG?

 

Question: The most important part is a compelling story

Feargus: What makes a story compelling to you?

 

Would you all say that for the most part, what really separates an RPG from most other genres is choice? I can choose to develop my character this way or that way. I can choose to participate in the story this way or that way. I can choose to go explore over here or go on a quest over there. I can choose to follow the main story line or go off somewhere else. I must choose how I want to deal with a situation, because he game will react based upon my decision.

 

Question: Yes thats sure bring it to a point. But for me as soon the Character development shrinks down to much I see it more like Genere X with RPG elements.

Feargus: I agree. I can be a real min-maxer and when I feel the system is just not giving me any return for my time thinking about it - I get a little frustrated.

 

Question: Personally I've had so many discussions about that subject that I've finally come to the conclusion that what makes a great rpg isn't any one system, but the way all the systems (story, graphics, combat engine/other gameplay) all come together to make an experience... or perhaps a "world to live in" would be a better phrase. So, my answer would be: There is no one most important part.

Feargus: Good point.

 

Question: Choice is subjective. What i would Like to see os That of if i offened someone alot, That That person isnt going to be happy the rest of the game . Or Like in skyrim That after 10 hours people still dont recognise me.

Feargus: That reactivity is cool as long as it doesn't have the game degenerate too much.

 

Question: Choice can be in games that are clearly not RPGs. Just like story can. While so many will complain that BioWare has damaged RPGs with cinematics and romances... I really feel that if they did any damage to RPGs it was by helping convince people that a good story and many choices (some pretty false, but that's a different issue) makes a game an RPG.

Feargus: How about what it is all about is really "meaningful choice".

 

Question: and I mean character and story choices, not just like which weapons to use or such.

Feargus: Gotcha.

 

Question: I would like to add to your list the freedom to choose how to solve a given problem. For example, to get an item you may bribe it's guard, sneak behind him to steal, or to kill him. Well, an RPG is all about developing your character and to have fun, and that's usually a freedom of choice (much more in Pen and Paper).

Feargus: Tim Cain and Chris Taylor were very behind that concept on Fallout - I'm not sure if it was that game that really started that or something later. But, they made it a point that many parts of the game you needed to be able to Fight, Steal or Talk your way through them. If I remember right it was Stealth Boy, Charisma Boy or Action Boy - maybe that was Combat Boy. Been a long time.

 

Question: Let me try this. The most important aspect of a role-playing game is the control the player has over his character's development, interactions, and choices in the game. The game story can be simple, or linear, or offer none of the branching choices we've come to expect from most RPG's. The character can be pre-defined for us, or let us only tweak around the edges. The interactions can be very limited. But as long as the player feels like he is making decisions for the character, as long as the game give the player the agency to be able to inhabit the persona of said character and feel like the player can make decisions for the character based on said character's make-up, and the game reacts to and acknowledges the decisions and choices the player made... I think then it is a role-playing gme.

Feargus: Good way of saying it. In the end it is about the perception of what you can do and the impact.

 

Question: so what's the schedule look like for tomorrow

Feargus: Update will be at 10AM PST - really this time, we talked about it a lot tonight and most of the stuff we need to do for it is already done.

 

Question: Are you planning on having non-obvious, non-combat usage of spells and other skills for problem solving? For (a bad) example, casting fire to burn off an otherwise unreachable rope. More generally, will combat skills be combat only and non-combat skills non-combat only? I love when you have to think about ways to utilize your abilities like that, both in and out of combat, in an almost adventure game way, but I can also see if it doesn't fit the scope of the game.

Feargus: That is a really good question. I know that we want to include puzzle elements in the levels (fun ones), some of those could involve using spells from time to time. However, we also don't want to have you try to figure out the one time you use this one spell in the whole game - unless we lead you up to it right. So, if we do have spells used in puzzles, we will want to make sure that they are all used often enough (not every four minutes to make it tedious) that it occurs to everyone to use them.

 

Question: It may be too early in development to answer this, but are there plans for creatures analogous to demons and angels?

Feargus: Josh likes to include themes like that, and the gods, so I there is probably a good chance of things like that.

 

Question: I wanted to ask if there will be "natural" affinity for magic in some races. Like elves is some roleplaying systems are natural magicians, and some other races can't use magic at all, but also very resistant to it?

Feargus: Josh is working a lot on the races right now and I heard Tim and him talking about them just the other day. I know we want them to all feel different not just based upon how they look, but how their race both effects their starting statistics and statistics as they grow. Having said that, we want to be careful about having a race have too much of an affinity for a certain class. If we do that, then we really create the situation where everyone builds the same characters.

 

Question: did You have time to Check my question via email ?

Feargus: The mercenaries that you create and hire from the Adventurer's Hall will have the normal NPC voice set - charging in to combat, getting hurt badly, scoring a really good hit, etc... But, they won't involve themselves in the story - I don't think.

 

Question: Soooo... close.... Someone was musing earlier today that there might be an inverse correlation between interest in old school rpgs and facebook @Feargus Do you think the facebook likes contributed to the huge funding upswing we've seen since the weekend?

Feargus: We are just trying to do everything we can to get the word out - and the Facebook likes, I think, are totally helping that. Chris did about six or seven interviews over the last couple of days at the Austin GDC - those should all hit over the next day or two, which should help as well.

 

Question: Just a minor concern I've been reading elsewhere some comments about the introduction of Paladins as a potential class for PE. Some people are worried that Obsidian have compromised their vision by offering this as an option and they are worried that you guys feel in someway beholden to vocal elements of the fan base and are shoehorning in elements that you don't really want to include at their behest. Rest assured they are coming from a caring place and just want to feel that Obsidian is make the game that they want to make. This worried me a little because having been outspoken I'd hate to feel that we were affecting your companies vision. How do you feel about this?

Feargus: I like to play Paladins.

 

Question: With all the big rewards for this project are you guys making any money for the game? I'm asking this because I remember that for DFA the rewards took a considerable portion of the money. On the other hand they were 11.5k for the collector's box so that would have been pretty expensive to fulfill.

Feargus: We are watching all the numbers very carefully and when all is said and done, we are confident we will end up with a good amount of money to make the game.

 

Question: Do you think the success of the Kickstarter will make publishers take you guys more seriously at future pitch meetings?

Feargus: We continue to talk to publishers all the time (well not much the last couple of weeks). The best way of looking at PE is, agreeing with Telix here, it's just not their business. Will they listen more - I think so, but I don't know if it will be enough more to make them want to make PE like games.

 

 

Feargus: Almost at 16K on Facebook - nice! Share'em if you got'em. $41K and 960 people in Paypal.

[Ink Blot]

Okay, PE fans, here's the latest Q&A:

 

Question: 1) is george zeits going to be involved with the expansion as well, or is he just going to be in the main game? and by extension, is it going to be the same team working on that, or just like chris and tim, or josh and tim? or even just one of them?

2) you have a PM from me on the forums concerning something that probably can't really be talked about here. when/if you get the time to look at it.

3) any word from darren about adding to donations through paypal post kickstarter?

4) and i think i've asked this one... but with paypal you can still add to your pledge, if you used paypal in the first place?

Feargus: For the expansion - I don't know if George will be involved. It's a long way off for right now. As for Tim, Josh and Chris. I would expect them all to be on it for a bit and then at least one of them to be on it for the duration. Like most developers, what we would be doing while we are making the expansion is starting the planning on the sequel - so I would expect, after the expansion is on the right trajectory, that two of them would move to that. Just guessing based upon how we and most developers handle that sort of time in development. 2) I'll take a look. 3) He's looking at it. Want to finish getting the other language pages up first. Taking a little longer than expected. 4) Let me ask Darren about how you add money to your PayPal pledge - sorry forgot to take care of that.

 

Question: I Guess $20 is also a promotionnal price for the expansion.

Feargus: It is.

 

Question: No love for 16:10 people? I'll stick with my The Banner Saga background anyway but just saying. ;p

Feargus: There is plenty of love for 16:10 here. We'll make sure that stuff will be both aspect ratios in future.

 

Question: is the Almanac different from the "Digital Collector's Book" already in the $50 tier?

Feargus: It is - it is an entire book written just to go over a ton of information in the world and history of the game world.

 

Question: "Also, if you've already pledged $50 or more, you get it for free!" Does this include add-ons? So if I grabbed the $20 expansion and $7 strategy guide, then upped my pledge from early bird $20 to the default $25 to get the total up to $52 instead of €47, would I get the almanac?

Feargus: We need to change that language - you have to select a tier at $50 or higher. Apologies for that not being clear.

 

Question: Do you guys realize you have released the perfect update? Future kickstarters will speak of this time in hushed tones.

Feargus: We just try to talk about stuff that you all ask to talk about. However, we have gotten some criticism for spamming and being too corporate.

 

Question: will the exclusive in game kickstarter pet become a "add-on" for something like $10-15 dollars? I can imagine that being popular.

Feargus: We need to figure that out. We want to reward our backers, but not make it feel like someone can't have the complete game. Still scratching our head on that one a bit.

 

Question: Is there talk about releasing mini-stretch goals from 3.0 - 3.5 but releasing those through the daily updates? To help build excitement and buzz?

Feargus: We are going to stick with the stretch goals we have right now - we think. The 3.5M one was something we talked about a lot and to do a city like that right - it takes a lot of resources.

 

Question: How much of the environment we see in that screenshot will be moving? The water? Anything else?

Feargus: We will be using effects to show off things like the crashing of the waterfall into the water.

 

Couldn't find the question associated with this response - Ink Blot

Feargus: When all is said in done with the campaign, and we are into pre-production we are going to look at how many companions we can support and still make sure the game of the whole is full of life. While it's not exactly a trade - a small village can be an equal amount of work as a complex companion. Sounds strange, but I've seen the sweat on Avellone's brow when he's trying to wrangle a companion.

 

Question: What can we expect from the expansion pack? Will it be connected to the original story and use the same character? New cities, races and classes? I'm curious as to what we can expect given that it's going to cost the same as the original game for early backers.

Feargus: That is how we approach expansion packs. It will plug into the game, but towards the end, so that it is a challenge for people who have played the game. It will also add features that are then fun to bring back into the core areas of the game and give you reason to play the whole game again - like a class and/or a race.

 

Question: I think the screen looks beautiful, however, am I correct in thinking this is a in game shot, and not concept art?? Only the game is meant to be isometric correct? It kind of looks as if it could be first person, looking at that temple entrance. though I have no idea how big the entrance really is. It might look more natural with the character sprites in I guess, but it doesnt look isometric enough if that makes sense. Either way, thanks for your time, and the shot looks beautiful non the less.

Feargus: That is a game shot.

 

Question: How married are we to the April 2014 release date? Are you going to release "when its done?"

Feargus: Our goal is April 2014, but we will not release unless it is done, solid and awesome.

 

Question: Will Chris Avellone be doing an update telling us about the narrative approach?

Many updates seem to adress the BG fans but I am somewhat missing the PS:T side of things.

Feargus: Chris has been at Austin GDC this week and doing a lot of interviews there - some of them have already been posted. We should be doing an AMA on Monday as well over on reddit and he is going up there to answer questions. I'm not sure if we will do a pure story update at this point, because we wanted to get one more Josh lore update in before the end. However, we will absolutely be updating after the campaign and going into that in detail.

 

Question: Hmmm... I remember BG 2 - player houses were different depending on the class. While new locations might not be necessary, maybe furniture, quests, etc. in your stronghold would be different depending on player-class?

Feargus: We haven't talked about that to be honest. I am guessing that we will want to focus all our resources into a single Stronghold, however it will have things you can do in it that will be based upon your choices. I'll ask about whether we will also do race and class differences as well within it.

 

Question: Will high DPI displays (specifically the rMBP in mind at 2880x1800, but anything else >200dpi would apply) be supported with some sort of scaling, so that assets are rendered 1:1 but text at 2x or 1.5x?

Feargus: We are going to be supporting up to 2560x1440 - you are wondering if we will then render the text even higher than that if you are on a higher resolution screen?

 

Question: Whats your aim for the printed collectors book? will it be a nice and thick one?

Feargus: That is the plan.

 

Question: please offer a physical almanac. Either for high tiers like 500 . Or as an add on.

I don't mind paying $30 more for one.

Feargus: I will ask about that. It might be something we offer later though. Trying to be careful about getting ahead of ourselves with more expensive physical goods. Oh were you thinking soft cover or hard cover?

 

Question: 1)This may have been asked before, but I would like to know if you guys are considering doing your own Pen and Paper game for your system and world? 2) This may potentially get a backer on board from my D&D group. Is there evil elephants?

Feargus: 1) We have talked about it, but nothing definite yet. Our thought is the Almanac is the first step in that direction. 2) I would love to say yes, but I'll be honest - I don't think so.

 

Question: Although I don't know much about game funding I've gotten the impression that this game is quite ambitious given the level of Kickstarter funding available. As OE are intending to fund the expansion completely from their own coffers, is PE being additionally funded by you with the Kickstarter providing that little extra in order for OE to get the resources to acquire its own IP and establish your own specific direction and fanbase?

Feargus: We are pretty familiar with making these type of games and are confident we can make the game with the funding we are getting. For the expansion, we are going to fund ourselves and then "repay" ourselves with the eventual sales of the main game and the expansion.

 

Question: Will we be able to design items which can be interacted with outside of combat ($1000 level)? Thinking more like a weapon that isn't just purely a weapon. E.g. spellbook which can be examined for hidden secrets, or be used in special ways in/out of combat to change its stats or behaviour. Or like Dak'kon's circle of zerthimon, which unlocks/alters something for a player/companion.

Feargus: We will probably have to figure out how to dole things like that out in a way that is fair. What we will do is talk with everyone at that tier after the campaign and see what everyone wants as a whole. It may work out that everyone wants items from enough different types that it will just work out. If everyone wants dagger for some reason, then we will have to figure out how to divy things up a little more.

 

Question: Conserning the screenshot, can we expect some birds, butterflies, fish in the stream? Just to spice the surroundings...

Feargus: Yes, we will be using the effects system to overlay things like that onto the screen.

 

Question: Feargus: you haven't clearly detailed in the recent updates just how addons work. You should stick "Add +$20 to your pledge beyond the reward level to get the expansion, and we'll send you a survey later" or similar in huge bold letters at the start of the next update.

Feargus: Working on the text in Update 4 to give more and more detail on that. Thanks for pointing out though, we need to make it clearer. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/obsidian/project-eternity/posts/311594

 

Question: How long can the memorial stone message be? Can it be a page long?

Feargus: We are going to work with you on it. Since it is text, I think we will be able to have a text pop-up that can contain a fair number of words.

 

Question: I know you're using effects for things like water splashing on rocks, but can I assume the waterfall itself, and the river below will also have animated flowing water? How far will you take it? Animated grass from the wind? Swaying trees? Too early to say?

Feargus: We are going to try to get as much as we can animating - at some point it will start causing memory and performance issues, so we will work to have the stuff that should really, really animate moving first and then work our way down from there.

 

Question: are you considering a preset system which configure commands like "if life < 20% uses potion"?

Feargus: A scripting system for the party?

 

Question: please please put a reference to codpieces in the game.

Feargus: Uh........

 

Question: that aside, you rock, your company rocks and P:E is going to be spectacular. If you get time (lol) consider a quick post about your daydreams where P:E sells the 2 million copies BG/BG2/NWN did and Obsidian gets to self-finance every crazy project its staff has ever dreamed off.

Feargus: I don't know if the world is ready for all of our crazy ideas.

 

Question: Are you looking at adjusting the tiers any further? It's just you've only got .25 of the pledges at the 500 level that you have at the 250. Now to my mind the 250 is a very strong tier but surely some of those backers could be enticed to jump up a rank.

Feargus: We are still talking about it - pretty obsessively. But, we want to be careful and not cause too much confusion.

 

 

PayPal is at $46K. 995 backers (or right around there)

[Ieo]

Question: Do you guys realize you have released the perfect update? Future kickstarters will speak of this time in hushed tones.

 

Feargus: We just try to talk about stuff that you all ask to talk about. However, we have gotten some criticism for spamming and being too corporate.

 

This is a sign that the likes of Gmail are doing too good a job---people don't even know what proper email spam is anymore. Unless they're complaining of pewpewpew. And too corporate? /slap

 

 

Question: please please put a reference to codpieces in the game.

Feargus: Uh........

 

BWAHAHA.

 

 

Thanks, Ink Blot.

Edited October 11, 2012 by Ieo

[Ink Blot]

BWAHAHA.

 

 

Thanks, Ink Blot.

 

Yeah, I had a good chuckle at that as well.

[Ink Blot]

Tonight's Q&A:

 

Question: If the 2nd big city comes within reach, would you guys consider to open a few more $5000 "Design a Tavern" slots?

Feargus: That's a good question. I'll ask the guys.

 

Question: is there going to be weapon sheathing so you dont walk around at the ready at all times?

Feargus: That would probably be a B priority thing I think. It would be cool to have, but we would focus on making sure we had enough animation variety before introducing that - however, I'll ask the animators and see what they are thinking.

 

Question: That screenshot has many of us salivating. I know it's early but when do you think we'll be able to see something like this Wastelans 2 demo (http://www.youtube.com/watch…) for PE? It'd be great if you could manage the impossible and have something like that on the final day to see nerdgasms turn to big pledges.

Feargus: That I have to admit is not going to happen during the campaign. We are working toward that right now along with betting some machines that can help render these crazy scenes.

 

Question: Brendan suggested you guys have a livestream (that is password protected to be just for kickstarter backers) when you play whatever game(s) it is you play with the high-level backers. What do you think of that idea? I think that would be great, and lots of fun.

Feargus: Hmmm... Being on stage when playing D&D - that would be a new one.

 

Question: Have you guys considered prestige classes for higher levels, like D+D 3rd Edition or like what we saw in the NWN series? Or do you think the base classes will allow for enough specialization so that prestige classes aren't necessary?

Feargus: I believe that our goal is to have enough specialization within classes and not go with a Prestige Class system. If you get a chance to stop by the reddit on Monday - Josh will be there and he can give a more specific answer.

 

Question: some people on the BG:EE forum are wondering how you can ever finish Project Eternity, when you leave Paypal donations open after the kickstarter has ended. Their point is: If you get more money during the developing-process, you have to use that money to add additional things ingame - which will prompt people to donate more, which will make you add even more stuff. So you will never be able to finish Project Eternity. In brief: If you let Paypal donations open after kickstarter has closed - How are you going to use those additional donations?

Feargus: That is a good question. I think we would continue to use the funds to make the game better. However, that would be on things that are low risk - content that is fun, but can be easily scoped up and down. There is a point where we shouldn't add anymore to the game and if we haven't taken the PayPal pledges down by then - that is when we would definitely do it.

 

Question: thought about an inbetween stretch station between 3 mil and 3.5. Last night (my time) alot of people seemed to notice that perhaps people would pledge even harder then, if they get a quicker fix so to speak. Even more a feel of accomplishment.

Feargus: On the subject of goals between 3.0 and 3.5 - Josh feels really strongly about wanting to do the Big Big City 2. That is something that will take a lot of resources. It feels like we would be compromising that if we try to offer much at all between the two numbers.

 

Question: Anyone know if any responses have been given to the questions about moving water and/or animated waterfalls?

Feargus: As there were big animations in Torment, we will have large animations on screen as well. And the spray of water would be using the graphical effects system.

 

Question: will the almanach be printed in the collector's book at the $250 tier?

Thanks.

Feargus: We are not currently planning to do that, since we might want to print the Almanac separately.

 

Question: How long did the level/area used for the screenshot take to render out?

Feargus: We have built out a good amount of space around it, however we really tuned and rendered just that part of the scene. Rendering just that screen took about 30 minutes - trying to remember the processor in the box - maybe a i7 970 or a i7 2700 - can't remember.

 

Question: any paypal news to report? not numbers, but function. such as adding to pledges for paypal peeps, or post kickstarter pledge upping?

Feargus: Sorry, not other PayPal news. I will try to talk to Darren about it today. After getting the update out and doing some other meetings on the game, I needed to leave early (yeah, I know - bad Feargus) to get home to then get an early dinner than then the show [with the family.]

 

Question: I did the math, and if we get to 3.5 mil, we'll also have enough backers for 13 floors of the megadungeon, which you stated was your goal for how deep you wanted to go. Is that a coincidence?

Feargus: That is pretty funny and I'd like to say it was planned, but I'm just not that smart.

 

Question: will it be at all possible to make the books (Collector's Book, Almanac, Novella) as physical add-ons? Because I would dearly love a physical Almanac. I'd even bump up to a physical tier to do it (currently sitting on a digital).

Feargus: We'll talk about it tomorrow. We were surprised by how many people have requested the Almanac to be printed.

 

Question: [asked by Bobby Null] Can we get a stretch goal for a third city?

Feargus: It's Bobby Null everyone. Take a bow Mr. Null! So everyone, Bobby Null is one of the designers at Obsidian. He's currently working on South Park, but we will hopefully be able to steal him for Project Eternity sooner rather than later.

 

Question: You guys at Obsidian have covered almost all of the now traditional settings for RPGs (Fantasy, Pos-apocaliptic and sci-fi) and other non-traditional like you did with Alpha Protocol and now with South Park. Are there settings that haven't been explored yet or as much that you @ Obsidian have brainstormed with?

Feargus: I'd love to do a Harry Dresden like world RPG / Tales from the Nightside by Greene.

 

Question: I think B. Null was probably the brain behind the Adventure Hall from what I read on the forums. Awesome man, great work!

Bobby Null: It was strange. Yeah, I had the idea and I pitched it to Adam. He loved it and wanted me to talk to Josh about it. The pitch with Josh took about 30 seconds as he was having similar thoughts. We then talked about the Adventurer's Guild in Pool of Radiance for about 5 minutes and ended the conversation with, "let's make this happen".

 

Mega Dungeon was me too.... /pats himself on the back.

 

Question: Have you talked to Penny Arcade or any other notable groups about getting in on the game to help publicize it as PA did with Dreadball?

Feargus: PA did interview Adam a couple of weeks ago and we got some pretty positive response from the article. I don't think they have done anything other than that.

 

Question: Have there been anything that you've had to either not do or scale back in the past due to technical or other limitations that you are able to do now?

Feargus: I would say a lot of stuff. All the way back on Fallout, I had created this SWAT team of guards that will kill any QA guy who dared to steal even one thing from the Hub. However, computers at the time couldn't handle that many of them, so I had to scale back and the grubby QA guys found ways to rip off my store keepers. [Note: I was a grubby QA guy]. More, seriously - we often have to scale back. The area that I think we have to it the most is with NPCs that wander around in towns. They are really expensive in memory and processing and so, we are always having to optimize and figure out how to make towns feel full even when we may only be able render 10 people at one time. PE will be a bit different, since we are on the PC and are not having to also render the background (at run-time).

 

Question: I know Rob is going to get upset, but the new dungeon level picture still says 'next level @ 57,500 backers'...

Feargus: BAD ROB!!! BAD ROB!!! I'll get it fixed up in the morning.

 

Question: One question about de mega dungeon: will the part of the architecture displayed on the progress illustration correspond to the actual final product, or is the illustration just for "fun". I ask because I already like the atmosphere coming from that picture, especially the giant statue carved from inside de dungeon!

Feargus: It is mostly for fun, but we are all really digging it as well - which usually means it pushes us in that direction.

 

 

 

Feargus: Paypal is at 1,050 backers and $48K.

[Monte Carlo]

Ink Blot you deserve some sort of reward for these, I really appreciate them man.

[Ink Blot]

Ink Blot you deserve some sort of reward for these, I really appreciate them man.

 

Thanks, but I've got time on my hands right now. Not working due to health issues, so I spend a lot of time in front of the screen. Figured I may as well perform a public service while I'm cruising the boards... and finalizing my plans for world domination.

[DocDoomII]

Question: please please put a reference to codpieces in the game.

Feargus: Uh........

BWAHAHA.

 

Thanks, Ink Blot.

 

It's hard to find a good codpiece nowadays!

[Ink Blot]

This morning's Q&A:: Oh, and of note, if you haven't seen the thread on the forum, Adam's live streaming from his office today. Currently showing us his lunch... http://www.ustream.tv/channel/project-eternity-live-stream

 

Okay, here's the Q&A:

 

Question: Have you dragged George into the OE office, yet, and chained him to his desk?

Feargus: Not yet, bet we are getting the chains ready.

 

Question: Have you foreseen quest that will have a visible impact on the environment. Like a quest that at the end add a temple somewhere or burn a part of the city or... ?

Feargus: We like to do those as much as we can. With the rendered backgrounds, that is a little more difficult - but still very possible - as they were done in the IE games.

 

Question: Now that we have George Ziets, is the plan to have him rejoin Obsidian or contribute to PE on an independent basis?

Feargus: George, for now, is going to be contributing on an independent basis. We will see what the future holds.

 

Question: i think we would all love a video update with George Ziets before the end of this campaign , i hope you can make it true !

Feargus: I'll let Adam and the guys know about wanting a video update with George.

 

Question: a friend wants to know if the PE's world had some type of nordic/viking people if we will able to see them in the game

Feargus: I'm not sure. Josh likes that region of the actual world, so it wouldn't surprise me if we did see something like that in Project Eternity.

 

Question: If we get to 12 levels in the megadungeon which is not connected to actual money pledged, and it's a huge project, will you be lenient to the guy who proposed the idea?

Feargus: Nope, Bobby Null is going to be drawn and quartered if we make it to 16 levels of the Mega Dungeon for suggesting it.

 

Question: question.. will the cloth map.. say "the world" .. why not put the name of the PE world there? how is the world of PE called anyhow?

Feargus: We haven't named it specifically yet. We want to get to a name that feels right and has legs - something that still sounds cool in 20 years.

 

Question: the 1UP interview with Chric has some Concept Art attributed to PE. Is that concept art legit? And if it is, why isn't that concept art added to the Kickstarter page? Just thinking that all available assets revealed help convince people to pledge or upgrade.

 

http://www.1up.com/features/interview-chris-avellone-project-eternity

Feargus: No, that is actually a cover piece that we made for PC Gamer for NWN2 - the wizard picture. The other concept piece is from PE.

 

Question: Here is an idea that you could use, but I hope you won't need to use it. If we make it pass the 3.0m goal, but fall short of the 3.5m goal, and have not reached the 13 levels of the dungeon, you could use that extra money to fund finishing the dungeon.

Feargus: True.... What we will probably do is see what we have and add things in based upon that amount - potentially all over the game world.

 

Question: feargus did you see this? http://i.imgur.com/uXdxc.gif

Feargus: I had not seen that animated GIF - very cool!

 

Question: hey. last time I tried asking about the approx. number of pages in the almanac and would each page be illustrated

Feargus: The almanac will be illustrated and we are not sure on the page count just yet. Assume something in the 50 to 100 range. Might be a bit more, it won't be less.

 

Question: Has there been any talk of adding alternate planes of existence to the game world (a la Planescape)? Thanks.

Feargus: We have not talked about other planes yet. Josh likes to explore the religion and god/goddess aspects of games, so we will probably get there at some point - maybe not for the first PE game though.

 

Question: 1. Do you have a $4.0M stretch goal? Just in case, you know 2. Do you have plans to sell physical copies of the expansion when it is ready (in 2014)? I would gladly add such to the digital one.

Feargus: 1. We have some ideas - but nothing super solid right now. It would be incredibly cool to get there though. 2. We really don't know right now. PC Games at retail can be a hard proposition to start and then having a box version of an expansion makes it harder.

 

Question: Ink blot and I really want to read the game design document. any chance of that happening?

Feargus: Design document release is upon the white board for us to talk about. Nothing definite yet.

 

Could not find the question or comment that prompted the following response - Ink Blot

Feargus: A little bit, but that was almost completely Reflexive. Chris Parker (Obsidian founder/external Producer on Baldur's Gate series) was the external producer on it. I wrote some of the early game system design.

 

Question: Any comments about Black Isle's Torn? Will you ever retry to do a project like that? Or is this what you had hoped Torn would become? Just curious.

Feargus: Torn had some cool stuff about it, but I think that game has gone off the game graveyard. I don't think we will be pulling anything from it into PE.

 

Question: Are other big updates like yesterday planned? New screenshots (video?:D) would really boost the campaign in its last days.

Feargus: We are working on all the stuff we are going to announce and making sure all the tiers stay cool and seem fair. Takes a lot of balancing at this point. We still have some tricks up our sleeves.

 

Question: You are getting really great at dodging questions I had ask if that Rob would happen to be Rob Land.

Feargus: Sorry, I totally missed that question about Rob Land. I read "Land" as "land". Actually it is Rob Nesler. We have worked on an off together for almost twenty years. He was the very first artist in the industry that I annoyed.

 

Question: Will it be possible for backer to up their pledge and buy add-ons after kickstarter finishes, like it's with Wasteland2?

Feargus: We are working on that system and will have something up soon. We wanted to finish the translated sites and are getting there (took a long time). We have Español a d Polski up: http://eternity.obsidian.net/pl/ http://eternity.obsidian.net/es/

 

Question: Congratulations on hitting 2.8 mil. Watching the PE kickstarter slowing down over the past one or two weeks I was getting worried that it would fizzle out towards the end. Now I see that you guys had everything planned. I wanted to say great job on how you've conducted the campaign so far, and I'm looking forward to seeing it surpass all expectations.

Feargus: Thanks, a KS campaign is really a marathon with periods of sprinting.

 

Question: I was reading Gamasutra's "Anatomy of BG2" thing today, and was just wondering: there's a lot of stuff like

 

"We found that we needed a better way to document the changes that were made to a game level during development. We had tried to keep our word documents as up to date as possible, but with the amount of people involved, and the enormity of the game, it was nearly impossible to keep these documents completely accurate."

 

in there, and while I think it's safe to assume you've moved on from using Microsoft Word as version control, I was wondering - just how much more efficient is a game production pipeline nowadays? Had Obsidian been contracted to make BG2 in 2012, how much faster would it have been done?

Feargus: I don't know how much more efficient we are compared to those days, but I think we are much better at communicating and we have a lot more experience about what works and what doesn't. How we do share things is through SharePoint. All our documents, tasks, concepts and lists are up there. People on the team also blog a couple times a week to keep the whole team in the loop. If it is anything that makes us more efficient it is the sharing of information.

 

Question: Do you intend on drawing out all the levels on the The Endless Paths image? IE, if we get to 12 levels, that image will have all 12 accounted for? Seems a bit crazy, however, either way it has been one of my favourite things about the KS so far. It kind of symbolizes in a way one of the most exciting things about RPGs. So much character and mystery in that image. I hope we can get a hi-res version of it someday. It is going on my wall!!

Feargus: I'll let Rob know - he's been having fun making the image of the Endless Paths and he'll really appreciate hearing that you all like it as well.

 

Question: I have pledged for the $80 tier with two digital copies of the game, my question is, if I pledge an extra $20 does that apply to one or both keys? also someone else asked for the $165 tier that also includes two copies of the game, does the expansion apply to one or both keys? I would like an answer to the first question, but I guess the second question would interest anyone who has pledged to the $165 tier

Feargus: At $165 we include one copy of the expansion. Like each additional add-on of the game costing $25. Each additional add-on of the expansion is $20.

 

Question: will you guys be accepting post KS pledge increases for those of us waiting on Payday?

Feargus: We are going to get that system working. Darren has been looking at it and will start working on it very soon.

 

Question: How about you give us one level for every 2500 backers instead of a level for every 2500 above 50k? I'm just imagining how insanely large a 23 level dungeon would be.... and how amazing it would feel to delve into it. Like FFT's deep dungeon... only more massive.

Feargus: Exactly why it is every level after 50K.

 

Question: have you guys given any more thought on offering a poster? talked to Fargo and he said no way you would allow them to one up you.

Feargus: We have talked about it. We have gotten a lot of advice about being careful about the international shipping of physical goods and a poster would require a whole second package. So we are leery of it.

 

 

 

Feargus: $55K in PayPal, not sure on users I'm going to guess 1250

[Tale]

Calling Ammon Jerro a wizard. FOR SHAME URQUHART

[Ink Blot]

Adam just noted that Paypal pledges are at almost 60k. With the total on the KS page, it's very close to 2.9 million. I see strongholds.

[Ieo]

Adam just noted that Paypal pledges are at almost 60k. With the total on the KS page, it's very close to 2.9 million. I see strongholds.

 

I wanna see another populated metropolis. FFFFFFFFFFFFFF------

 

I'm glad I can catch the last hour of the Kickstart on Tuesday, at least.

[Ink Blot]

Just a quick bump to note the Facebook page has surpassed 20,000 'likes', so another level on the mega dungeon has been achieved.

[Ieo]

What, did no one ask about multiclassing in these Q&As?

 

I really don't see it happening at this point (class update descriptions, supreme flexibility), but a solid word either way would be nice. Someone go ask! I never seem to catch those Q&As, and the thing goes too fast for my old eyes to keep up.

[Lord Kelric]

Good catch...would like to get a yay/nay on multiclassing.

 

Ink Blot - Thanks for compiling all this! Makes it great for a forum newbie to get caught up!

[Tale]

What, did no one ask about multiclassing in these Q&As?

 

I really don't see it happening at this point (class update descriptions, supreme flexibility), but a solid word either way would be nice. Someone go ask! I never seem to catch those Q&As, and the thing goes too fast for my old eyes to keep up.

I asked about it in Cain's first Q&A.

 

They'll consider it, but it's not a priority. They'll see if it works with what they're going for with the classes.