Update #55: Vertical Slice Update

[Jajo]

Nice purple numenera you have there, in the center.

[Addon]

Very cool update and dung screen. Can't wait to see beta!

[Jajo]

You've nailed IE feel perfectly.

I hope you'll divide as much attention to various architecture styles, as you seem to do with inhabitants (I'm not complaining, I'm in awe). If you do, P:E is likely to be one of the most visually memorable RPGs. Make Icewind Dale proud!

[wasted_46]

That dungeon is sooo BG2 I love it!

[ORDUCKMANIAC]

PLEASE READ!!! THANK YOU!!! )

 

I have been keeping an eye on this game for a while now. I believe I have read all the updates. I don't really post that much, because when things are in this stage critiquing is really not as important as it is right about now. ) Great Job so far! I love the lay out I love the art and what the world is shaping up to be. Here is what I would like to add just my two cents:

1. The last update had a picture where it showed you a choice of what you wanted to do with the egg you found at the top of a cliff. THIS IS A GREAT IDEA!!! What do I mean? CHOICE!!! So many choices in video games today are limited and scripted to make you chose what they ultimately want you to choose. Make A LOT of these choices and screens pop up and you will have a shout out from this gamer.

2. Make sure and don't forget that a pretty game without substence is a below par game. I can list many different games that were beautiful, but the story and content didn't intrigue me and because of that I gave it a 4/10. People underestimate how important story is... Especially in a new world. So, don't forget to make the story deep, intriguing and above all else our own. tidbit: Don't forget the romance. I am a male gamer and I think most gamers even if they won't admit it love to have a romance story in there or multiple. Be careful though, make the romance complex extraordinary... Like you can be with the beautiful girl but you won't be able to touch her because of an allergy she has to human's touch or if you go for the ugly witch she then transforms into the most beautiful creature because she wanted someone to love her for her not for her beauty.

3. Animations: Loved the old Baldur's Gate Animations, but remember everyone has seen all those before. We are also in a much more complex gaming society. People who loved Baldur's Gate and Ice Windale etc. Loved it at that time when there weren't the beautiful graphics of Dragon age and Skyrim. However, the sense of familiarity will help with this game, but make sure and add complexities to it that they couldn't add to BG and IWD. Such as... If you are a killed with a spell you die differently than if you are killed with an axe. Make wounds more visible if you life is down. Make quest that matter so for example you attack a dragon and you defeat him, but in the process you have a big scar across your eye from that battle. (Now, a mage can remove that scar for a hefty price, but for gamers that love immersion this would be awesome!) When fighting a dragon if He blows his wings make your clothes blow in that hefty wind and instead of just being blown back and flying like a lifeless doll... Make it look like your character can resist only to eventually be blown back.

4. Make the side quest valuable: In most games the side quests are exactly what their title would suggest. Something you do on the side just for kicks or extra content. Make Side quests matter! Make some like your regular side quest which just gives you gold or whatever, but make others a real quest and a real reward at the end of the quest. For example: you talk to a knight on the side of the road you help him back to health and all the sudden he turns into this intriguing godlike creature that sends you to a different demention and says I will make you pay for showing kindness! ) You then have to go through a series of choices you have to make in this demention and if you break then he lets you out and gives you a reward. However, if you remain honorable you have to go through many a choices and get burned everytime. Finally in the end He asks you Why? All these people hurt you but you still help them... Why do you do this? Then, you can make a series of answers the honorable one being. Because I live the way I Believe is right and that doesn't change no matter what people or creatures do. He then says in all my days I have always been able to break the human heart but yours is different chose an artifact of your choice. He then says we will meet again. (Later he helps you in a big boss battle and gives you an even better artifact.)

5. Lastly, Make the main quest Huge! Something that really made this important was when I played a game that didn't do this. Dragon Age II. I honestly loved the gameplay enjoyed most of the side quests, but at the end of the day the quest just didn't compare to the previous title. I came away thinking wooo whooo I saved a town? Big whoop! I want to save the world or at least squander a threat that would have destroyed the world. I don't want may whole purpose to be save a town! Now, in the beginning sure, but my hero is better and mean't for greater purposes.

 

There you go Obsidian my two cents; do with this info what you will... ) Thank you for reading and taking time to just brainstorm with me. Appreciate you all!
 

[Quadrone]

Ungh, that dungeon screenshot is like sex for my eyes!

 

Fantastic, it has all the charm of the IE games but looks even better.

[Lysen]

The dungeon reminds me more of IWD (Valley of Shadows tombs) than BG or especially PST.

 

PLEASE have the Orlan Detective be a character in the game. Preferably with associated fantasy-film-noir quest.

 

I think it was already confirmed, no?

[Jajo]

You sure are late to the party, ORDUCKMANIAC.

[PrimeJunta]

@ORDUCKMANIAC... no. Just... no.

 

(I dig the update though, even if the take-home message is just that everything is going smoothly and everyone's having a good time with it.)

[Chilloutman]

While I like BG feel from concept what I dont like is how 'magic power' starting to be represented by purple/pink color. I hated it on D3 and I hate in in every game which does it. I know magic missile was pink in BG as well but I think in these days everything except elemental magic is 'Arcane pink'. It looks like some source of energy, why its not blue/white electric? yellow/white source of power like heat? black hole? I notice it on mage artwork with snakes - purple. Why?. I dont mind it for some spells but I cant play caster which every second spell is purple (looking at you GW2) I may be alone in this, but I still have to get it out

 

On other note good job Obs, doing fantastic work, hope we will see few seconds from gameplay soon.

 

peace

[PrimeJunta]

Good thinking, @Chilloutman. Why not make magical light do stuff normal light can't do? For example, it could desaturate everything it lights (=drain it of color), saturate it (=make colors brighter), decrease or increase contrast, cast no shadows (=illuminate everything evenly), etc. All of these would be dead simple in a computer game and would make magical lights look genuinely unnatural and, well, magical.

[Frenetic Pony]

Looks nice, very Infinity Engine like, and I should remember, replaying Baldur's Gate 2 right at the moment (Big World Setup is back in working order, woot!).

 

Not much else to say I guess. Good work.

[IndiraLightfoot]

Agreed, enough with this 1980s neon light tackiness for magic light. There simply must be heaps of ways to represent magic graphically (and often there's no need to do it at all - perhaps just cool- and strange-looking items will suffice).

[Solviulnir the Soulbinder]

Do you map any kind of texture on the dungeon mesh? Or did Polina just literally paint every detail over a basic, shaded 3d model?
If the latter is true, then chapeau bas to to the artist.

Looks awesome. Conveys the IE feel very well. Makes me want to explore that place. With ambient SFX, music and animations this should be pure win. Approved!

[Morgulon the Wise]

Sounds pretty cool. I would also like to see your UI (mine is worked over now ^^).

Didn't find your E3 room yet.

 

@Orduckmaniac: It also interests me storywise how this new world is an old world...

[Sensuki]

Is that a rendered dungeon screenshot painted over by Polina or an actual drawing? Either way that is absolutely on the money. Looks very BG2 to me.

 

Glad to see that got some good insight and ideas from the UI discussions.

 

Can't wait for the Gameplay footage at Rezzed

 

[Aedelric]

The image look fantastic,if all the other areas of the game look that good then Project Eternity will be a very beautiful game.

 

Thanks for the run down on what the team is working on, very interesting stuff!

[Greensleeve]

That dungeon looked fantastic. Keep this up and we'll be exhausted when the game itself actually comes out. 

[Sensuki]

Oh yeah will the Vertical slice contain any Voice-over work ?

[Fashion Mage]

Now this is an update.

 

Spells and Ability Audit

This morning Josh emailed me a list of working class abilities and spells. I'm excited to say that we have 54 abilities and 51 functioning spells as of today! Most of the spells are at the alpha stage, meaning another pass will be done at a later date to add visual effects and sound effects.

 

Mmm, I sure would love to see that list. ;o

[Theobeau]

Great update with the pic of the dungeon very IE/BG2 in feel.

[Eiphel]

Now this is an update.

 

Spells and Ability Audit

This morning Josh emailed me a list of working class abilities and spells. I'm excited to say that we have 54 abilities and 51 functioning spells as of today! Most of the spells are at the alpha stage, meaning another pass will be done at a later date to add visual effects and sound effects.

 

Mmm, I sure would love to see that list. ;o

On that note, I would have expect the balance of spells to abilities to be far less equal. There are more classes with abilities than spells, after all. One of my pet peeves with games is when the magic users get five or six times more abilities to choose from because the devs come up with swathes of spells but didn't put the same work into the abilities.

[Rahelron]

Two requests ofr your dungeon designers:

 

1- Please design multiple-paths maps. I hate linear dungeons. Let us explore.

2- Please design believable dungeons. Give a function to every room and put all the needed rooms in every dungeon. If I go into a mage tower I want to see the kitchen, the food storage room, the bedroom etc, not just the laboratory. And please connect all those rooms in a plausible way. Noone would ever put a storage on the 4th floor for example.

[Nixl]

It is great to see that the spell/ability list is coming along.  I am eager to see how the team will approach visual display of spells and abilities.

 

I always loved the spell animations of PST's spells, especially the upper level spells (Torment, Meteor, etc).  Although, I am certain many people thought they were over the top or paused the flow of combat. 

Edited June 5, 2013 by Nixl

[Sacred_Path]

54 abilities? I'm cautiously optimistic.