New Gamebanshee interview with Josh.

[Karranthain]

Apologies if this has been already posted (couldn't find it) : http://www.gamebanshee.com/interviews/109792-project-eternity-interview.html

 

Some interesting information on the open-ended nature of the game, healing magic (resurrection included), Ciphers, Barbarians, the UI and more.

 

Enjoy!

[Sensuki]

I really enjoyed this interview as well it was one of the better ones done. The guy actually asked some good questions rather than just the piecemeal standard questions every interviewer asks.

 

It was linked in the KS Q&A thread earlier.

Edited October 15, 2012 by Sensuki

[norolim]

It has been posted on the main PE Kickstarter page, but I'm glad you reposted it here because I think it's a great interview. My smile was bigger with every page of it. I especially liked the Health/Stamina system Josh described. I think all the Prophets of Doom, claiming PE will be streamlined and easy should have a look:

 

As for regeneration, I'd like to experiment with handling health in a manner somewhat similar to the 1992 RPG Darklands. Characters have two health resources: Stamina and Health. Proportionally, the character takes much more Stamina damage from an attack than Health damage. Stamina recovers relatively quickly on its own (and with the aid of magic) but Health damage requires rest. If a character hits 0 Stamina, he or she will go unconscious. If a character hits 0 Health, he or she dies.

 

This sort of a system provides a buffer for characters so they can be temporarily defeated in combat without being brought to the verge of death every time. Similarly, allowing a character to recover to full Stamina over a short period of time does nothing to help his or her Health, so walking around with full Stamina and low Health would be extremely dangerous.

 

As far as resurrection goes, Project Eternity will not have any form of in-game resurrection. Healing magic of any sort is extraordinarily rare in this world and resurrection would pull at the fabric of the mortal reincarnation cycle. However, we may include an option to turn off permanent character death. Naturally, this would be disabled in Expert Mode.

 

This, if realised well, may be an excellent system. I hope we soon learn more about what else we'll be able to do when resting.

Edited October 15, 2012 by norolim

[Karranthain]

I really enjoyed this interview as well it was one of the better ones done. The guy actually asked some good questions rather than just the piecemeal standard questions every interviewer asks.

 

Indeed, the interviewer has actually done some research.

 

It was linked in the KS Q&A thread earlier.

 

I knew I missed something But I guess this topic could be used to discuss the interview's contents.

[Karranthain]

It has been posted on the main PE Kickstarter page, but I'm glad you reposted it here because I think it's a great interview. My smile was bigger with every page of it. I especially liked the Health/Stamina system Josh described. I think all the Prophets of Doom, claiming PE will be streamlined and easy should have a look:

 

As for regeneration, I'd like to experiment with handling health in a manner somewhat similar to the 1992 RPG Darklands. Characters have two health resources: Stamina and Health. Proportionally, the character takes much more Stamina damage from an attack than Health damage. Stamina recovers relatively quickly on its own (and with the aid of magic) but Health damage requires rest. If a character hits 0 Stamina, he or she will go unconscious. If a character hits 0 Health, he or she dies.

 

This sort of a system provides a buffer for characters so they can be temporarily defeated in combat without being brought to the verge of death every time. Similarly, allowing a character to recover to full Stamina over a short period of time does nothing to help his or her Health, so walking around with full Stamina and low Health would be extremely dangerous.

 

As far as resurrection goes, Project Eternity will not have any form of in-game resurrection. Healing magic of any sort is extraordinarily rare in this world and resurrection would pull at the fabric of the mortal reincarnation cycle. However, we may include an option to turn off permanent character death. Naturally, this would be disabled in Expert Mode.

 

This, if realised well, may be an excellent system. I hope we soon learn more about what else we'll be able to do when resting.

 

Darklands is an excellent source of inspiration.

Edited October 15, 2012 by Karranthain

[Sensuki]

These are the bits that I was glad to hear

• Fallout-level of linearity
  
• Interesting Health System (companions knocked unconscious like KOTOR but can also be killed like BG)
  Brings up an interesting combat mechanic, do enemies have stamina as well, if you subdue them in combat, do you kill them or let them go ?
  
• Perma-death
  (I think they read my Fair and 'Guiling Copesmate Death thread)
  
• Non-combat skills sound good so far
  
• Interesting UI concepts
  
• Letting the area designers do their thing
  
• Seperate Inventory screen for crafting materials
  
• Firearms concept sounds good
  
• Expansion
  

These are the bits I'll reserve judgement for

• The proposed spell-casting system - it sounds good, but it could have some issues
  
• Classes sound like they'll play different, let's hope the theory works on paper
  
• Skeptical about Crafting & Enchanting but on the forums I've heard they liked how it worked in BG2, the KotOR system was ok too
  
• Gonna wait and see what the damage system is like
  
• Currency - I don't really care for complex currency systems or different types of coins, but we'll see what they do
  
• Beta - Hopefully it doesn't ruin too much of the early game story. I have a feeling players will just get to play like the first chapter or whatever.
  

Edited October 15, 2012 by Sensuki

[ImRhoven]

Nice, that health system sounds really interesting.

[ImRhoven]

Beta - Hopefully it doesn't ruin too much of the early game story. I have a feeling players will just get to play like the first chapter or whatever.

 

I sincerely hope not. It should be a proper beta of the full game. It's not a demo or a teaser, it's an integral part of development. If you don't want to be spoiled, then don't participate in the beta.

[Wirdjos]

I had an early idea that firearms would be interesting in a setting where warfare included dealing with enormous beasts and magic, meaning that their single-shot potency at range was not as much of a "game changer" in mass combat as it was in Earth's history.

 

This kind of stuff makes me happy. I enjoy logical health systems and the like as well, but this sort of logical historical reasoning is the kind of thing that gets me up in the morning. Everytime Sawyer talks about this world, he seems to mention something like this. It sounds like we're going to get a game that isn't necessarily historically accurate, but has very strong internal logic. Which is just awesome.

[Sensuki]

Beta - Hopefully it doesn't ruin too much of the early game story. I have a feeling players will just get to play like the first chapter or whatever.

 

I sincerely hope not. It should be a proper beta of the full game. It's not a demo or a teaser, it's an integral part of development. If you don't want to be spoiled, then don't participate in the beta.

 

They mentioned they'd be limiting the content somewhere I think. It's kind of funny actually, of all the betas I participated in I preferred the beta to the full version haha.

[Karranthain]

These are the bits that I was glad to hear

• Fallout-level of linearity
  
• Interesting Health System (companions knocked unconscious like KOTOR but can also be killed like BG)
  Brings up an interesting combat mechanic, do enemies have stamina as well, if you subdue them in combat, do you kill them or let them go ?
  
• Perma-death
  (I think they read my Fair and 'Guiling Copesmate Death thread)
  
• Non-combat skills sound good so far
  
• Interesting UI concepts
  
• Letting the area designers do their thing
  
• Seperate Inventory screen for crafting materials
  
• Firearms concept sounds good
  
• Expansion
  

These are the bits I'll reserve judgement for

• The proposed spell-casting system - it sounds good, but it could have some issues
  
• Classes sound like they'll play different, let's hope the theory works on paper
  
• Skeptical about Crafting & Enchanting but on the forums I've heard they liked how it worked in BG2, the KotOR system was ok too
  
• Gonna wait and see what the damage system is like
  
• Currency - I don't really care for complex currency systems or different types of coins, but we'll see what they do
  
• Beta - Hopefully it doesn't ruin too much of the early game story. I have a feeling players will just get to play like the first chapter or whatever.
  

 

That's a good list. I'm sceptical about Crafting & Enchanting as well - Ideally it should be something that is, if not mandatory, then highly recommended. For an instance, I never felt the need to craft anything in FNV, even on hardcore mode (addressed in this topic : http://forums.obsidi...rafting-system/).

 

I like the Currency system, it's a small thing, but bring a lot of flavour and credibility to the setting.

[Sensuki]

I'm hoping for something a bit more like Star Wars KotOR perhaps, like what you did with your lightsaber ?

 

I haven't played New Vegas. I do not like the Bethesda engine games (Morrowind, Oblivion etc)

Edited October 15, 2012 by Sensuki

[Krios]

It caught my attention they are getting their readers to donate to the project. And it is good for Obsidian to give out tokens of appreciation for those who do donate from there.

[curryinahurry]

The dual damage system sounds promising. It worked quite well in Darklands and you could still have a full party wipe if everybody dropped from fatigue in a fight. I also like the rarity of healing potions; I'm assuming that stamina can be replenished in a few different ways but that health will be only through rest or the occasional potion or possibly kits. I'll be curious how this system handles things like bleeding damage from spells and weapons and also if max stamina reduces gradually between rests as it did in Darklands.

[Kilroy_Was_Here]

I got a little nervous when he talked about the TOEE UI. For the life of me I could never make heads or tails of that interface. I guess I could read through the manual again, but should that really be necessary? That could make sense for an 'old-school' game, but that was one of the things I was glad to see go.

[Rabain]

I think assuming Joshs words on resurrection to mean the same as perma-death is making a bit of a leap.

 

For example he talks of characters going unconscious if their stamina reaches zero. Consider a character being attacked who goes unconscious what does the enemy do? Keep hitting the prone character until he dies? That would seem logical but I can see that being a very irritating mechanic for players to live with. They continue fighting with their remaining characters while the enemy beats the unconscious to death. If I was a bad guy and the guy I was fighting was knocked down and out I wouldn't just run off to fight someone else, I would kick him in the face and stick my sword in his head AND THEN run off to fight someone else. In this scenario going unconscious would always equal death for the character.

 

If it is like DAO were a character goes "unconcious" when reaching zero health and the enemy retargets someone else until combat ends it might be accepted by more players though to me it is less realistic. A simplistic way to avoid permadeath.

 

What would the point be of going unconscious unless enemies ignore unconscious characters? So you have a limited amount of time to save the prone character? Surely realistically a prone character would take a lot more health damage than a character defending themselves, so death would occur much faster while prone?

 

Personally I wouldn't take that system as being set in stone, it will probably go through several changes before arriving at something that works smoothly.

 

I would much rather have some form of resurrection in the game than come up with some cumbersome system involving enemies ignoring unconscious characters or having to play super carefully to avoid absolutely anyone dying and being permadead. Imagine the consequences for a romance if the character dies 80% of the way through a romance, frustrating to say the least and probably lead to excessive use of the savegame reload. Also seems like an annoying system for things like boss encounters were we are probably expected to die several times before we get it right. Should we expect a system where every single party member must survive every single encounter or needs to be replaced? Doesn't sound good to me.

 

Even without magic people can be brought back from death, it happens every day here in the real world with CPR. Are souls not strong enough to hang around the body for the 10 minutes it takes for your body to completely die? Surely someone with knowledge of their own souls existence and some magical ability could have something to hold a soul near its body until healed? Cultures that believe in reincarnation don't always ignore every type of medical aid that can keep people alive just because they believe in reincarnation.

[lychee26]

Well he did say that could end up being optional, except in expert mode, so I don't think they're going to punish everyone if they happen to make a mistake. Plus on the note of resurrection, they did say that most people can't influence the souls of other people, except for ciphers, and they're supposed to be rare and feared individuals, who probably aren't exactly healers, so if your souls goes, it goes I guess.

[curryinahurry]

I wouldn't mind if enemies continued to pound on the fallen in combat doing more health damage. Falling from fatigue shouldn't be something that happens more than dropping to 0 hit points in an IE game,. It should be punitive and dangerous otherwise it only serves as an inconvenience. Plus enemy behavior can be tied to difficulty setting so that at default or easy levels enemies move to another target when a character drops.

[Jojobobo]

I think assuming Joshs words on resurrection to mean the same as perma-death is making a bit of a leap.

 

For example he talks of characters going unconscious if their stamina reaches zero. Consider a character being attacked who goes unconscious what does the enemy do? Keep hitting the prone character until he dies? That would seem logical but I can see that being a very irritating mechanic for players to live with. They continue fighting with their remaining characters while the enemy beats the unconscious to death. If I was a bad guy and the guy I was fighting was knocked down and out I wouldn't just run off to fight someone else, I would kick him in the face and stick my sword in his head AND THEN run off to fight someone else. In this scenario going unconscious would always equal death for the character.

I think the opposite is true, I think an intelligent enemy would target someone who is actively trying to kill them if they already have knocked one of the PCs out as opposed to killing a knocked out character regardless. People - in general - remain unconscious for a little while when they are knocked out so I think most monsters wouldn't interpret leaving such a character as hedging their bets as by rights they should be able to leave them for a little while.

 

I guess the optimal situation for me would be a priority targeting system - an enemy would kill a knocked out character if they were far enough away from other hostile characters, however if a hostile character was close by he attack that person as the unconscious character is relatively much less of a threat. I think in a life or death situation that's what the majority of people would do if they were thinking clearly. If they did have a priority system for targeting, maybe some enemy types would defy it anyway as a trait (a particularly brutal species of monster would always go in for the kill regardless).

[norolim]

I think assuming Joshs words on resurrection to mean the same as perma-death is making a bit of a leap.

Well, I think there are no leaps to be made. Josh clearly stated that, if a character hits 0 Health he/she dies and that there is no resurrection in PE. That's the current plan. It's plain. No reading between the lines.

 

I would kick him in the face and stick my sword in his head

Hmm. We all have our fetishes

 

 

AND THEN run off to fight someone else. In this scenario going unconscious would always equal death for the character.

You are forgetting one thing: that it is a battle/skirmish scenario you are talking about...not a duel. You are trying to rationalise, so let's imagine a real skirmish. And these tend to be fast and chaotic. When you kill an opponent, do you think his friends will just watch you lean over him drill a hole in his skull with your sword? No, as I see it, during a battle a participant that incapacitates an enemy will immediately look around and try to engage a standing opponent, because a standing opponent is much more deadly than an unconscious one. Because at any moment that standing foe can deal that decisive blow that will end your life. In a real skirmish you fight for your life, not XP. This is how it works, if you want to keep it real.

 

Personally I wouldn't take that system as being set in stone

What system? It's a set of general ideas. We have no idea how exactly the final system will work. All we know is that, right now, the plan is to base it on the principles Josh mentioned.

 

I would much rather have some form of resurrection in the game than come up with some cumbersome system involving enemies ignoring unconscious characters or having to play super carefully to avoid absolutely anyone dying and being permadead. Imagine the consequences for a romance if the character dies 80% of the way through a romance, frustrating to say the least and probably lead to excessive use of the savegame reload. Also seems like an annoying system for things like boss encounters were we are probably expected to die several times before we get it right.

As mentioned above, the devs don't want to make the game too difficult for those who don't wan't it. You will be able to switch dying off. Though I don't like the idea.

 

Should we expect a system where every single party member must survive every single encounter or needs to be replaced? Doesn't sound good to me.

Hmmmm...yes. That's how it works. Unlike in most modern RPGs, you must win a battle to win it. And winning a battle means killing your foes while staying alive. Every battle.

 

Even without magic people can be brought back from death, it happens every day here in the real world with CPR.

Yes, when they choke or faint. Not when the're quartered.

Edited October 15, 2012 by norolim

[rjshae]

I pretty much liked everything I read during the interview, especially regarding the possible Health/Stamina split. The one area I am curious about is whether they will include hit locations as in Fallout 3 and Drakensang, as that should allow for more diverse armor configurations.

[Lysen]

Buck: I know that Obsidian Entertainment owns the Icewind Dale franchise assets and that you've approached publishers in the past about the prospect of pursuing Icewind Dale III. Given the success of your Project Eternity Kickstarter, what are the odds that we may yet see an ID3 in the near future, crowd-funded or not? Hypothetically, what direction would you take a third entry in the series?

 

Feargus: You are correct, we approached Atari a number of times about doing Icewind Dale 3. We hope that with the success of Project Eternity that it might be possible to talk to Hasbro / Wizards of the Coast about those games again. However, our focus right now is Project Eternity. We would not want to start working on something like IWD3 soon, since we don’t want anything to compromise Project Eternity at all. If we were to do IWD3, I think we would continue the focus of what the IWD series was all about – a great dungeon crawling counterpoint to Baldur’s Gate and Torment

 

Icewind Dale 3? No, not interested

 

Otherwise, it was a good read.

Edited October 15, 2012 by Lysen

[phimseto]

If their donation thing doesn't succeed (it looks like it has 10k goal), does it not fund? I put in $50 bucks, but would like to put that to the Kickstarter if it doesn't make it.

[dlux]

As for regeneration, I'd like to experiment with handling health in a manner somewhat similar to the 1992 RPG Darklands. Characters have two health resources: Stamina and Health. Proportionally, the character takes much more Stamina damage from an attack than Health damage. Stamina recovers relatively quickly on its own (and with the aid of magic) but Health damage requires rest. If a character hits 0 Stamina, he or she will go unconscious. If a character hits 0 Health, he or she dies.

 

This sounds a bit strange to me... Why would I lose Stamina from getting hit (and not from attacking)? I know it is just a mechanic, but it should at least make sense.

[kenup]

As for regeneration, I'd like to experiment with handling health in a manner somewhat similar to the 1992 RPG Darklands. Characters have two health resources: Stamina and Health. Proportionally, the character takes much more Stamina damage from an attack than Health damage. Stamina recovers relatively quickly on its own (and with the aid of magic) but Health damage requires rest. If a character hits 0 Stamina, he or she will go unconscious. If a character hits 0 Health, he or she dies.

 

This sounds a bit strange to me... Why would I lose Stamina from getting hit (and not from attacking)? I know it is just a mechanic, but it should at least make sense.

Because if we take things literally, a successful hit from a sword should be lethal, damn near lethal, or at least very painful. On the other hand if it hits the shield, or can't penetrate the armour, it won't start a bleeding but the power behind it will still tire the body. Similarly the evasion will drain a bit of stamina. Extra points if it manages a scratch.

Edited October 15, 2012 by kenup