Update #20: Lore Tidbits, Campaign Almanac, Big Ol' Stretch Goals, and... Environment Screenshot!

[Cantousent]

Let's get this straight: Cadegund is a gun-toting, firearms-obsessed combat priestess. She worships a goddess who encourages the use of very large bombs to cleanse the world of heretics. She's also not too uneasy on the eye.

 

Maybe I'm changing my mind on the whole romance thing*.

 

*This is of course a joke.

Aw, you'd jump her bones in an instant and you know it!

[Monte Carlo]

^ "Jumping Her Bones" = Romance. Cant, you old smoothie.

[Badmojo]

Ok, I won't repeat the praise going around, I do feel it also. However, I got to pull back and give it a little critique to balance it out.

 

I do want to say the screen shot is fantastic, although I wish we could see a NPC or PC character to get an idea of what it will look like all together. Still, love the style.

 

A few thoughts/ *minor* issues.

 

The lore, a lot of people are praising it, but it seemed kind of thin on meat. It is good, but not really great. I did not see anything that is making me go OMG that is amazing! it felt like stuff I had seen before, which is NOT bad. However, it just depends on what the meat is, any outline will look done before really until you actually see the nitty gritty details and that is when the OMG moment comes out. So cautiously optomistic.

 

The Gods - just from the outline, it seems we are going norse myth/greek where the gods seem to be humanoid incarnations. I could be way off, but goddess of war, god of light. :/ Since they are breeding with other races, I guess they are leaning with basically super powerful humanoid. That is a bit sad since I was hoping for more alien personality gods that defy mortal understanding. It might still lean that way, not enough info.

 

Ok, slaves - sorry, got to gripe. I am not joking, when we were discussing slaves and slavers early in PE start, in the back of my mind, I said to myself. I hope they do not try to create political correct slavers and try to avoid controversy by making the slavers dark skined...nah, obsidian would not do that....

The federation is widely known for its access to most major commodities in the world, including slaves, and for its habit of impressing (abducting) foreigners into service on their naval vessels. Ethnic Vailians (humans and a small number of dwarves) have dark brown skin and tightly spiraled, dark brown hair.

So the leading group that are slavers is the one group that will most likely NOT be slaves. *sigh* I am not surprised considering how quick they caved to the boobarmour. Well, lets see if my other political correctness worry shows up, my other worry is the one group of sexism in the game is women be dominant in an area and looks down on men in the game. Well, at least they did not make some race the token race that everybody hates like I mentioned in other threads..oh..wait ...

orlan - A race of people found mostly in northern, temperate climates but also as far south as the Dyrwood. Physically, they are notable for their small stature, two-toned skin, and exceptionally large, hair-covered ears. Due to their size, orlans have been victimized and marginalized by most of the cultures with whom they have come into contact.

OK, that is the biggest issue I have. Just a few more minor ones. Ah, one other thing, the name Vailians looks too much like villains to me. subconscious Freudian slip?

 

Elven names, yea, a little too much elven names around, don't humans and the other races get to name anything?

 

Speaking of races, what about the other races? So far all I see really is human elves, would like to get info about the other races and a bit of lore since we only have a few days left.

 

svef - glad they got drugs, but hope there is more than just this one and each has different effects.

 

3 mil goal and 3.5 mil goal. Ok, that is a LOT of monies, I hope we get the 3 mil, really want to get the fortress, but 3.5 is too much in my mind. Will be surprised if we get it. Now, there is a lot of space in between the 3 mil and 3.5, how about some minor stretch goals between them? something that will be nice, but will not take too much extra work. So even if we do not get the big ones, at least we will get something along the way.

 

 

Ok, this might look worse than intended (really late here and brain is addled), I am glad at what I have seen, but I do have some worries as mentioned. Hope to see more info soon.

[Monte Carlo]

^ You think making dark-skinned characters slavers is politically-correct?

 

It really isn't. Remember a certain Hollywood movie, based on a historically accurate book, having to leave indigenous West African slavers out of the movie because of the uproar from the left?

 

Maybe you can see it both ways, which is clever, but making a dark-skinned race slavers is quite radical and / or subversive.

 

The fact of the matter is that over the course of human history many cultures used slavery. Take a look where the word "slave" comes from (Slav, as in white slaves from the Baltic who went on to serve as high level administrators in the Almohad empire. The Almohads, of course, were North African Muslims).

 

Because our most recent memory of slavery comes from the African-American experience, naturally we look at the subject heavily from that PoV. But it isn't the whole sorry story.

[Sensuki]

Let's get this straight: Cadegund is a gun-toting, firearms-obsessed combat priestess. She worships a goddess who encourages the use of very large bombs to cleanse the world of heretics. She's also not too uneasy on the eye.

 

Maybe I'm changing my mind on the whole romance thing*.

 

*This is of course a joke.

Aw, you'd jump her bones in an instant and you know it!

 

Haha, It would be cool if you could try and romance her and you get close, but her devotion to her deity is just too strong and you get rejected.

[Monte Carlo]

^ Or she blows you up.

[Cantousent]

Moreover, slavery exists today. Slavery is a long standing institution in the world. I despise it, of course, and not for politically correct reasons but because I believe every human being should be free. In fact, my reasons are, in my country, quite contrary to politically correct arguments. However, slavery has been a scourge on the earth since before recorded history. ...and, before someone brings up the Romans and talks about how they treated their slaves differently, I'll answer that straight away. Nonsense. yes, some slaves in some places were treated differently than others. However, that was true in colonial and early Republic America also. Slaves could aspire to find some easy servitude, but an awful lot of them ended up in salt mines or the like. Slavery has been an ugly experience for humans of every color, stripe, and ethinicity imposed by people of every color, stripe, and region.

 

Now, what they do with slavery and how they have the NPCs defend the practice, or if they even feel the need to have folks defend it, is another matter. howver, I will point out that agitation against slavery is as ancient as the practice itself

 

EDIT: SOrry, missed a few posts after a few glasses.

Edited October 12, 2012 by Cantousent

[Sensuki]

^ Or she blows you up.

 

Not entirely impossible either.

 

There's a reason I'm not wearing boob-plate you dolt, to discourage boneheads like you from thinking about having a grope. But that obviously wasn't enough was it? You've crossed the line.

 

Oh Magran, hear me ..... BOOOOM!

[ComradeGoby]

^ You think making dark-skinned characters slavers is politically-correct?

 

It really isn't. Remember a certain Hollywood movie, based on a historically accurate book, having to leave indigenous West African slavers out of the movie because of the uproar from the left?

 

Maybe you can see it both ways, which is clever, but making a dark-skinned race slavers is quite radical and / or subversive.

 

The fact of the matter is that over the course of human history many cultures used slavery. Take a look where the word "slave" comes from (Slav, as in white slaves from the Baltic who went on to serve as high level administrators in the Almohad empire. The Almohads, of course, were North African Muslims).

 

Because our most recent memory of slavery comes from the African-American experience, naturally we look at the subject heavily from that PoV. But it isn't the whole sorry story.

 

Not to mention most african slaves became slaves becasue they were sold by their own people.

[MattH]

Ok ,you can rightly show off with this. I think this looks better than anybody expected.

[Bos_hybrid]

Fantastic update.

 

Love the screenshot, and the lore was an interesting read.

[Cantousent]

I love new Vegas. I was particularly impressed by Honest Hearts. I've spent over 250 hours playing New Vegas and it's the primary reason I'm supporting this project. I urge you all to do the same.

 

EDIT: Cleared up some of my rambling. Must. not. post. after. midnight.

Edited October 12, 2012 by Cantousent

[Monte Carlo]

I have. They say you only know when you're giving enough to something you support when it *hurts*

 

Man, my wallet has taken a critical hit.

[Sensuki]

North Africans were bloody slavers, especially in this period.

 

Nigerian pirates and whatnot used to sail all the way up to the coasts of England and Ireland and abduct people, particularly women.

 

Sounds pretty historically correct to me, just not history that everybody knows I guess.

 

edit: Wikipedia quote

between 1 million and 1.25 million Europeans were captured by Barbary corsairs and sold as slaves in North Africa and the Ottoman Empire between the 16th and 19th centuries

Edited October 12, 2012 by Sensuki

[Uomoz]

So, skin color -> slave practice. I don't see the link.

[Bloody Hypocrite]

Oh man, great update! Thanks for providing the expansion as an add on. $3.5m seems like a stretch, but I hope we can make it.

[Sensuki]

One of the above posters was suggesting that it was a politically correct move. Whereas I think it's more an exploration of something from history that hasn't been explored in a game very much or at all before.

[Uomoz]

I love the fact that Vailians city-states have Italian-like names. I fell represented in PE world xD.

[Gibbscape_Torment]

Does anyone else agree that this screenshot looks a lot like the Elven Baths from The Witcher 2? I immediately thought of Flotsam Forest upon seeing this screenshot.

[Sannom]

Reminder to Obsidian : you were supposed to update the topic of update #19 with any new swag added to each bid level, and so far the Almanach isn't in there.

 

Other than that : great update!

[Hornet85]

4 more days to raise about 700k

 

I wish I was rich and I could dump in 100k or 200k

[Monte Carlo]

This is why we need to cast the high-level spell :: Summon Vin Diesel ::

 

He's a hardcore gamer and a very nice guy to boot.

 

I would like to see a Vin cameo in this game if he pledges. Riddick the Barbarian! How do we contact him, he's not on Twitter.

[Uomoz]

"Hi, Shhhhhhhhhhhhuuuuuushhhhhh Boy-oh-Boy.."

 

Man I love Sawyer.

[Humanoid]

Nitpick: that "back us" banner at the centre-top of the forum really needs a transparency channel.

[Parallax]

This is why we need to cast the high-level spell :: Summon Vin Diesel ::

 

He's a hardcore gamer and a very nice guy to boot.

 

I would like to see a Vin cameo in this game if he pledges. Riddick the Barbarian! How do we contact him, he's not on Twitter.

 

As I recall, an interviewer once asked if Vin Diesel was more Sith or Jedi and he answered "Chaotic Neutral".

 

So not only is he a big gamer, chances are he's more than a bit into RPGs too. I back this plan entirely.