Your work is much appreciated

[oneda]

Greetings to all fans and the Obsidian team,

 

I write here today because i want to express just how happy I am that such a project was greeted with so much support and enthusiasm. And since it is very late here in Germany and I cannot sleep for some weird reason I will write a few lines. Bear with me if you are bored too or jump to the heading "What I hope to see and not to see in Project Eternity", where I will briefly outline what I want for this title and what I do not like about so many of the other rpgs out there or the mindset with which they were created.

 

It is fantastic that, in my humble opinion, the spirit of the best role playing games ever created (Baldur's Gate 2 + Tob, Icewind dale I +II, Planescape) is used as a guide to tell a new epic story.

 

Most people here will probably share my love for those games, so it is not necessary to underline just how much I like those games.

 

Only this:

 

Up until about 2010 I had never played any of the Infinity Engine games, smply because I was apparently preoccupied with a lot of other games in the past and had never "stumbled" over one of them.

 

That those gems finally crossed my path is my brothers doing because he gave me a netbook as a gift prior to my study abroad program. He himself had never tried any of those games and didn't know they existed and after I told him he still wasn't and isn't interested (How is that possible when I repeatedly and most emphatically explained how great they are???)

 

I was about to embark to Jamaica to study there and had only a few days left. The gifted netbook was supposed to ensure that I could skype with my family and friends.

 

So shortly before my trip started I took a few hours to understand what my netbook is capable of and if it would run any games. This particular netbook was absolutely not designed to play any modern game. So, as you can imagine, I started to look for older games....and then even older games, as my netbook just refused to run any game I knew and liked apart from snes emulated games (haha).

 

Finally, in some forum about netbooks, I stumbled over a thread mentioning infinity engine games that run on netbooks. Why not I thought and got Baldur's Gate II, installed it, saw that it actually ran and left to Jamaica.

 

It took another 2 months before I sat down in my tiny room and loaded the game because there was too much great stuff to do and I completly forgot about the game. At some point though there was a absolutley nasty storm that raged on for days. More and stronger rain than I had ever experienced in Germany poured down and it was impossible to set foot outside wtihout getting drenched in seconds. So I finally remembered the game.

 

It ran pretty good when there wasn't much action on the screen. Battles were another matter. If there were a lot of monsters and spells, then the game would slow down considerably to a point where it was almost unplayable. But...

 

I realized that I started to get completly hooked to the fantastically told story, the plot, the characters, the gigantic world, the monsters, spells and the brillant atmosphere.

 

After I returned to Germany (and people the Carribean is simply great, my stay there was amazing but that's another story but I recommend to anybody to travel to those islands) I reinstalled the game on my desktop pc which was a whole new level of playing that game in all its beauty. On a big screen with no slowing down. When I was done I "devoured"  Icewind dale one and two and later Planescape Torment.

 

Prior to those experiences my favorit rpgs were: Kotor, Gothic 2 and later, after it was released, Dragon Age. I hadnt played a lot of other rpgs.

 

AND BAM.

 

I was in love. Really in love with those games.

 

My personal favorits are Baldur's Gate 2 ToB and Icewind dale 2, but the other 2 games were really awesome too.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

What I hope to see and not to see in Project Eternity:

 

-Basically what was said by the developers, a party based (big party of 6), class based, isometric vew, oldschool rpg, with a massivley entertaining story that is told by an awesome voice and even better characters in the game. Don't get me wrong, not everything has to be voiced over. I think in Baldur's Gate 2 and Icewind dale 2 there was a perfect balance of voiced parts and simply written dialogue. But that's just my opinion because I fear that too much resources could be spend on voices and actors which probably won't work with a game on the scale of Project Eternity anyway.

 

-Deep and complex character creation just like in the old games

 

-Many different classes that you have to balance to build a strong group and if you fail to allocate the proper stats and abilities then your party would simply be too weak. Though in Project Eternity you "gather" your party and only build your main char. I loved the way classes like e.g. figther, wizard, thief, cleric, paladin, druid complemented each other so well, each providing unique abilities that the entire party profited from. Great just great. This is what I want again. Nothing less.

 

-And I want to distance myself as far away as humanly possible from any "dumbing down" or "easily accessible". Those phrases and what they mean are the bane of players like me. There has been way too much dumbing down. By now even dogs can easily play any game because they have been dumbed down to the ground, to explode there, create a deep ugly crater and drill all the way to the deep hells of badly cursed IQ planes to mess up things there. I say "When in doubt go back to the roots of awesomness and build from there". Exactly what Obsidian does. God I love you guys for this

 

-100  awesome spells that have to be used intelligently to master tough battles.  Basically just give me battles like in Baldur's Gate II ToB and Icewind dale II. Those were great and I loved everything from trying the right buff combination prior to battles up to the choice of offensive and defensive spells you decide to have at the ready. I spent so many hours figuring out which spells I could use in what situation, only to realize I have to use a whole set of other spells to defeat certain foes.

 

-And, most importantly, give me a real story. All I ever read about modern rpgs is: Open/dynamic world, open world, open world, open world, open world and bla bla bla. To hell with any open world is what I say. Being able to travel the entire world when and how I want is simply, and pardon my french, ****. Why is that so important to everybody? I dont get it. 

 

-When I compare the "grand" open worlds of games like Oblivion or Skyrim to the sheer power of the story of Baldur's Gate 2 and Planescape Torment and especially how epic they are told, than those goddamn open worlds are not even worth mentioning. Think about it. Any good story be it in a book or movie needs purpose and reason. People dont just wander all over the damn world just because they want to wander all over the place. There is a reason why the cool heroes go to certain places or seek out individuals or groups. Yes, maybe they have to look in some areas but nobody ever just wanders all over the globe. At least I believe that this whole open world business is utter nonsense. To pour resources into a big and totally open world is a waste of time and effort that should have gone into what makes a fantasy fun. An epic story told in an epic way.

 

-Irenicus chain bombards open worlds with his sheer awesomenss and dominates all of them. A cool story, a really bad villain (how cool is Irenicus and that he wants to rid himself of a curse by abusing other bhaal spawn, or Melissan who tries to gather the essence of all the bhal spawn to become a god), is what I want 1000000 times over any bloody open world. I curse any open world.

 

-Take as long as you need, dear Obsidian developers, graphics are of secondary importance. Really. Those old games, I still play them and they are well over 10 years old. If somebody told me "Hey, dood, there is another game like those old games. It's just been released and it is as great as any of them but uses the very same old graphics." Damn, I'd probably run around waving my hands and dancing on a table. And apart from that, the artwork and designs in those old games are, to me, wonderful and perfectly adequate. Yeah, of course I like nice graphics too but they are, just like open worlds a feature that isn't the deciding factor when it comes to how great a game is. Not by a long shot. Take your good time and tell a great story about mad wizards, gods, hordes of monsters that want to devour the world and so on. THAT is what makes games like those mentioned here so good and unforgettable.

 

-Well, I just repeat what has already been mentioned over and over again here by everybody else, but I have to express my utter support for such a project because this endeavor deserves every support it can get. And I simply love that you guys are now independent of any publisher that wants to dumb anything down or make it more accessible. You guys are free to do all of this or at least a good portion of what I define as elements that make those games so great.

 

-Ok, that's it. If any hero made it through this crazily long text then maybe that person can answer me one question that just popped into my mind. And yeah I realize the information is probably somewhere in the forum but i only read one or two threads before I wrote this.

 

What ruleset will be used in Project Eternity?

 

 

 

Peace everybody and greetings from Hanover, the weather is **** here by the way