Update #51: Prototype 2 Update

[Sensuki]

They imported their Conversation/Dialogue Tool and a String Editor IIRC.

 

Quest system is completely different as it's being used for experience gain, but it will link into dialogue at times.

[Sedrefilos]

Super great! I'd love to see a complete playthrough the 2nd protype when it's finished. Well, you may show little of the big dungeon since it'll be aspoiler

Edited April 25, 2013 by Sedrefilos

[Sensuki]

You will see the first gameplay footage at Rezzed Indie expo in June.

 

http://www.vg247.com/2013/03/18/rezzed-2013-announced-chris-avellone-to-debut-project-eternity-at-show/

 

Not to say backers won't get a sneak peek beforehand but the first extensive footage will be in June.

Edited April 25, 2013 by Sensuki

[Elerond]

Any quesses will it be prototype 3 or 4 or even 5

[Sensuki]

Vertical Slice one would assume, perhaps even some of the actual game ?

 

Produce a Final “Slice” of Gameplay. We also try to develop a ‘final slice’ of gameplay. It’s generally a short, maybe 5-15 minute demo that demonstrates all of the core pillars of the game, as well as taken to what we’re aiming for at a final quality level in terms of visuals, audio, and presentation. During our Prototype we try to make stuff look great, but it’s secondary to form and feel.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/obsidian/project-eternity/posts/426779

Edited April 25, 2013 by Sensuki

[Sacred_Path]

 

Just got an idea about Skuldr. So they have ability to see soul,rigth? Adventures know this, some analogs of scientist knows that, thieves, locals...so what about guard patroling city or roads etc with those beasts on a chains? And what if those things can feel a "quality" of souls? Might be interesting.

 

Neat idea! I don't know if they could be domesticated enough for a regular city or village, but maybe for a weirder or more dangerous type of place.

 

given that with domesticated Skuldr all over the place in the Dyrwood stealth-heavy party would be given the boot, I doubt it. The relatively lame explanation ("it can see your soul") already make the Skuldr seem designed specifically to address certain fears among the community that you could "ghost" everywhere/ -thing. Or IOW, I don't think JES came up with this monster.

[hideo kuze]

The village looks pretty cool.

 

 

 

My only request is to make it as plausible as possible.

What I mean is it needs to have farmers (or instead each house has a small patch of land), a blacksmith, a healer/shaman/druid person, enough population, etc

I really enjoyed the Hommlet village in ToEE (although not in terms of quests ). It felt organic and representative of a real community.

[Archmage Silver]

Nice update - hoping to see more art and graphics related info in the future.

[Gumbercules]

given that with domesticated Skuldr all over the place in the Dyrwood stealth-heavy party would be given the boot, I doubt it. The relatively lame explanation ("it can see your soul") already make the Skuldr seem designed specifically to address certain fears among the community that you could "ghost" everywhere/ -thing. Or IOW, I don't think JES came up with this monster.

 

Right, if they were all over the place it could put stealthy players at a disadvantage depending on how the soul-seeing ability works, but what if they were just in their natural lairs in the wild plus some fortress, laboratory, or organization headquarters that keeps them chained up to detect intruders? Maybe they can't truly be domesticated, and most people want as little to do with them as possible, but then one particular group is reckless or paranoid enough to take the risk of keeping them around.

 

Even if Obsidian doesn't do something like this, I hope that stealth will involve more risk and planning than just "ghosting" around. So IMO, enemies that make stealth more challenging are a good idea, as long as there's still a way to get past them that's different than it would be for a combat-focused party. Basically, if the presence of a skuldr = stealth is impossible, that's bad. If a skuldr =  stealth is trickier, that's good.

[Lephys]

The relatively lame explanation ("it can see your soul") already make the Skuldr seem designed specifically to address certain fears among the community that you could "ghost" everywhere/ -thing. Or IOW, I don't think JES came up with this monster.

I think that's a bit of a reach. There are snakes and other animals in reality that essentially have thermal "vision." I don't think that means they were specifically designed by evolution to prevent people from sneaking through the wilderness.

 

The lameness of the skuldr soul-sight ability is dependent purely upon their implementation, rather than the mere existence and nature of their sensing ability. If they're forcibly tossed into the scene every time you get to sneak, then yeah. It would be no different from putting wolves everywhere there was a sneaking opportunity, so you couldn't get past their amazing scent-detection (even though wolves don't have any remotely inherently "lame," ficticious abilities).

[J.E. Sawyer]

Skuldr are more difficult to sneak around, not impossible to sneak around.

[NerdBoner]

Skuldr are more difficult to sneak around, not impossible to sneak around.

Please don't forget about Rogues this time sir

 

I still remember looking around for the 'set snare' abilities in IWD2 only to have the wind taken out of my sails...

[Woldan]

Ah, the town artwork looks so....IE! When I first saw the picture it immediately reminded me of Beregost even though the layout and size is different. 

 

What I'd like to see in future updates? Hmm, what about some more weapons and armor artwork?

Edited April 26, 2013 by Woldan

[Falkon Swiftblade]

As far as future updates, I'd like one on systems design and whats being used from the old IWD games versus what's being changed or enhanced.

[Faerunner]

Well, it doesn't directly answer any of your questions, but there's this:

 

Kinda curious about the ranger animal companion now. I never really liked the impersonal "here, have a wolf that you can summon in or not whatever" style of animal/druid companion. I'd love to see something that actually hangs around and that you can interact with rather than just being one more summon spell.

Conceptually, the ranger's animal companion is more-or-less a lifelong partner in that violent death of one causes the death of the other (they share Stamina and Health pools).  Mechanically, they are much more integral to how the ranger class works than they are in A/D&D.

 

Now, like I said, that doesn't really address what you asked, but you can infer from that that any potential animal companion will have more to it than those in D&D-based RPGs in terms of out-of-combat interaction. At least, that's what I think/hope.

 

 

Hey, it's a start. Thank you for trying to answer. =)

 

To be honest, just knowing the animal companions is meant to have more roleplay and combat significance than usual is good news. 

[Sacred_Path]

 

The relatively lame explanation ("it can see your soul") already make the Skuldr seem designed specifically to address certain fears among the community that you could "ghost" everywhere/ -thing. Or IOW, I don't think JES came up with this monster.

I think that's a bit of a reach. There are snakes and other animals in reality that essentially have thermal "vision." I don't think that means they were specifically designed by evolution to prevent people from sneaking through the wilderness.

 

I don't see the link between real animals with real abilities and a fictitious monster with a fictitious ability, but since we've learned that Skuldr only force you to up your game when you're playing stealthy, I'm retracting my claim that they were designed to prevent stealth.

[WorstUsernameEver]

I don't see the link between real animals with real abilities and a fictitious monster with a fictitious ability,

You don't see the obvious bat inspiration there? Right down to describing this monster ability in the same way + "souls"? Seriously?

[Sacred_Path]

 

I don't see the link between real animals with real abilities and a fictitious monster with a fictitious ability,

You don't see the obvious bat inspiration there? Right down to describing this monster ability in the same way + "souls"? Seriously?

 

 

what I said was that the Skuldr was designed to prevent stealth (which isn't exactly true, it makes stealth harder). Lephys was all "you don't know that! It could just be something that comes naturally with their natural habitat!". To which I didn't know what to say.

[WorstUsernameEver]

what I said was that the Skuldr was designed to prevent stealth (which isn't exactly true, it makes stealth harder). Lephys was all "you don't know that! It could just be something that comes naturally with their natural habitat!". To which I didn't know what to say.

I was referring to this point:

 

The relatively lame explanation ("it can see your soul") already make the Skuldr seem designed specifically to address certain fears among the community that you could "ghost" everywhere/ -thing. Or IOW, I don't think JES came up with this monster.

If I wanted to I could argue that it might have, just as easily, started just as a bat-inspired monster and that the "soul echolocation/stealth dampening ability" was born naturally out of that, but frankly I don't like to blindly guess the designers' intent.

[Sacred_Path]

If I wanted to I could argue that it might have, just as easily, started just as a bat-inspired monster and that the "soul echolocation/stealth dampening ability" was born naturally out of that, but frankly I don't like to blindly guess the designers' intent.

the latter I find a lot more unlikely, but yes, this is a stab in the dark from both sides. If the monster really came before the mechanics, you could make up any number of reasons for this ability (like a species of "watchdogs" bred to detect intelligent, living intruders rather than mindless undead or construcs). Maybe Lephys' point is that it's not really as lame as I said it was, but I must say, if you want someone to disrupt the party's stealth there are more creative ways (rigging their lairs with traps, or routinely spraying the pathways of the lair with some AoE attack).

[mstark]

Concerning the speed reduction from wearing armour, does this affect actual movement speed or simply the speed of actions (eg. attacks or spells)? If it affects movement, would it be possible to make this penalty only appear during combat, so that I don't constantly have to wait for my heavily armoured fighters to catch up with my nimble rouges?
 

 

It's less a clash of cultures and more of the intermingling of them.  Places settled by Aedyrans in the Dyrwood tend to have Eld Aedyran or regular Aedyran (i.e. plain English) names.  The common names for some creatures are Glanfathan but others are Eld Aedyran or (rarely) Vailian.  The cultures borrow terms from each other, too.  The title of duc (ducs bels and ducs panits) is used in the Vailian Republics for the sovereign ruler of a city-state, but the Dyrwoodans borrowed it when they rebelled against the Aedyran Empire.  Admeth Hadret was originally an erl palatine (palatine/palatinate also being borrowed from the Vailians), but he styled himself as a duc of the "free palatinate" during the rebellion.

 

Got a rush of excitement reading this. All the hints of a new and unexplored world, and not too far from now I will visit it!

[Falkon Swiftblade]

Concerning the speed reduction from wearing armour, does this affect actual movement speed or simply the speed of actions (eg. attacks or spells)? If it affects movement, would it be possible to make this penalty only appear during combat, so that I don't constantly have to wait for my heavily armoured fighters to catch up with my nimble rouges?

 

I completely agree. My biggest pet peeve in any game is not letting me move because of some arbitrary design flaw such as bad camera angle or in this case being so over encumbered we can't walk, or if we do, we'd fail at the turtle Olympics. I'd much rather prefer we had a pack mule who followed us around that we could load our stuff on, except a handful of items as we progress. In fact It might be more work initially, but I'd rather have something like a pack mule or whatever creature you want to use as the inventory component, rather than having 270 items on your person or limiting just because someone uses magic they're too weak to hold a big weapon or have bulkier armor. Maybe I want to be a magic user who uses my magic as a big opener or finisher, but prefer swinging giant axes in the meantime...  

[mstark]

^I believe they've already confirmed we will have virtually unlimited carrying capacity while adventuring, with "top of pack" and "stowed away" options for items.

 

Basically, items in "top of pack" will take up space & potentially encumber you (not confirmed), but will be accessible to you at all times. Stowed away items won't take up weight or space, but will only be accessible while at a campsite, or similar "resting" area.

 

That way we can pick up all the loot we could ever dream of, but what resources are actually available to us at any given time still requires strategic management.

 

Anyway, I agree, don't let movement hinder us too badly, whatever the cause!

[Sensuki]

Pretty sure it just slows down action speed. I think the real question is: Does it slow the animations themselves, or the wait time between animations (or both) ?

 

My preference would be:

 

Armor slows down wait time between animations

 

Effects slow down/speed up the animation as well

Edited April 26, 2013 by Sensuki

[mstark]

I bet you fighters will have access to passive talents like ignore *insert armour type here* penalties :D.

Edited April 26, 2013 by mstark