Fulfilment site?

[Lephys]

Anyway, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a bit of information.

It is a little bit, really, since we don't even have the means of determining the factors that decide when/whether-or-not that information should even be available.

 

Impatience doesn't equal fault on Obsidian's part, I'm sorry to say. Granted, impatience is a natural human trait. We don't want to wait on things. But, in this case, there's nothing dictating that we shouldn't be waiting at this particular moment, for particular pieces of information.

[Carlo]

Hopefully the plots and other NPC conversations aren't all set before I get to design my NPC.  The whole point for me contributing at that level was to have that character be interactive and integral (even in a minor way) to what is going on around them, with perhaps some ideas for the designers to build off of.  I definitely did not contribute to get a cardboard cutout with a generic conversation that I then get the privilege of naming.

[DCParry]

 

 

 

 but like I say moving very 300 miles away very soon.

 

 

Do not worry, the internet is not a fixed geographic phenomenon.

 

 

But the tubes might not reach!

[Lythe Vodaine]

So... I plegded only a smaller amount in the Kickstarter campagne but after that I donated additional funds: will my additional donations be added to my initial pledge? Just curious.

 

Cheers, Lythe

 

P.S.: I really do hope they finish the fulfillment site soon.

[Galomtala]

But how does Obsidian know how much of the Kickstarter money have to spend on the physical Tiers / shipping without the fulfillment site? 

 

 

 

So... I plegded only a smaller amount in the Kickstarter campagne but after that I donated additional funds: will my additional donations be added to my initial pledge? Just curious.

 

Darren  said:

 

Our backer portal will have records of your pledges (either here and/or on PayPal) and then you'll be able to reconfirm the choices you wanted. So let's say you donated $100 here, and then $20 on PayPal. When the backer portal goes up, you'll be able to tie your pledges together, and then choose $120 worth of rewards or addons. Hope that makes sense!

 

Thanks,
Darren

 

[jethro]

Hopefully the plots and other NPC conversations aren't all set before I get to design my NPC.  The whole point for me contributing at that level was to have that character be interactive and integral (even in a minor way) to what is going on around them, with perhaps some ideas for the designers to build off of.  I definitely did not contribute to get a cardboard cutout with a generic conversation that I then get the privilege of naming.

 

I don't know how they will manage it, but I could imagine that they give you details of a quest or part of a quest and a character that is part of it. You get to design his name and appearance, background/class/race (whatever isn't fixed by the quest plot) and his dialog.

 

Maybe you even can select one out of a list of characters. I don't think you will get to design a plot. That would really need too much background knowledge.

[Voodoo]

Any updates on the fulfillment site maybe?

[teknoman2]

 

 

 

 but like I say moving very 300 miles away very soon.

 

 

Do not worry, the internet is not a fixed geographic phenomenon.

 

indeed. even if you are on the moon, you can have access... if you dont mind an average of 879ms latency.

[Messier-31]

Spare information for a newb? Can anyone explain why a fullfilment site is so important? More work on the game itself means the game should be better, why waste time and resources for this "fool-feel-ment sight" everybody is yappin' about? Thank you in advance

Edited September 8, 2013 by Messier-31

[Osvir]

Spare information for a newb? Can anyone explain why a fullfilment site is so important? More work on the game itself means the game should be better, why waste time and resources for this "fool-feel-ment sight" everybody is yappin' about? Thank you in advance

People want to pledge more money and get to a higher tier I think. Which is why it is, personally, surprising it isn't up already. More money = More PE. I don't know if you can get a higher tier by simply giving more via the Slacker Backer pledge. Can you?

 

Regardless, thinking about it a lil bit.... because the fulfillment site has gotten a little bit of "hype" somewhat, it'd probably be excellent to release it at the same time as the "First Look" video comes out. People might go "I didn't just get a First Look treat!? I got the fulfillment site treat too!!! Yaaay!". Kind of the same reaction as Kingdom Hearts 3 got after they revealed more about Final Fantasy XV. But at a lesser level (of course).

 

Otherwise, they could work on a proper fulfillment site until they decide to do a PE2 Kickstarter (if they choose to do that model again) and start off the PE2 campaign with a proper site right off the bat. There's most traffic (I think) during the Kickstarter campaign period after all, and that's where the big bucks are. More people would be inclined to heighten their tiers after a week or two (what with salary and all). But I dunno if people would appreciate that too much~

 

I don't care too much about the fulfillment site to be honest, but it seems like it could be a nice thing to have. I'd probably up my pledge a lil bit. There should be an option "Do you want rewards or not?" in my opinion, because I kind of just want to up my pledge to Beta Tier but I don't care much about the physical rewards.

Edited September 8, 2013 by Osvir

[Labadal]

Fulfillment site will go live once they can let higher tier backers get enough world/lore info to fill in info about their NPCs/Items/Inns.

[Ieo]

Spare information for a newb? Can anyone explain why a fullfilment site is so important? More work on the game itself means the game should be better, why waste time and resources for this "fool-feel-ment sight" everybody is yappin' about? Thank you in advance

I believe Kickstarter projects normally release survey/fulfillment information shortly after the Kickstarter ends. At least the ones I've backed sent surveys the week after. It is confirmation of a noncontractual agreement ("You pay this, you get that.... fine print") and a finalization of choices if you had add-ons and the like. This is important: Fulfillment surveys for physical items are critical in determining exactly how much of each item to produce because Kickstarter's add-on structure doesn't allow specification.

 

If this was a pure digital product with nothing physical, Obsidian could just email the info to the backer registered email addresses and the Paypal addresses. In relation to that, probably the only reason why Obsidian hasn't used Kickstarter's built-in survey tool is due to many slacker-backers who ran through Paypal.

 

The only other good reason why Obsidian hasn't put up a fulfillment website or sent fulfillment surveys is that a lot can happen into 2014--specifically, many backers may have moved to new addresses, and rather than dealing with a bunch of corrections since late 2012, it's probably cleaner to do the final survey closer to product release. I expect Obsidian won't take fulfillment seriously until they need to figure out the physical item production, and that seems to be coming much later in the development side of things.

Edited September 8, 2013 by Ieo

[teknoman2]

a kickstarter project has 1 survey only, and that means if they get the mails out, the backing management will be over. so they want to make a site for the management of pledges before they use the survey, in order to keep things running smoothly once the kickstarter locks the results

[GrayAngel]

This is Obsidian not EAware have some faith they will do the site when they can.

[SophosTheWise]

This is Obsidian not EAware have some faith they will do the site when they can.

 

Of course they will, but people would like to know when. A little bit of information on that subject is common courtesy in my opinion. I mean, the backers have made it possible to have Project Eternity, so that's that.

[Ieo]

 

This is Obsidian not EAware have some faith they will do the site when they can.

 

Of course they will, but people would like to know when. A little bit of information on that subject is common courtesy in my opinion. I mean, the backers have made it possible to have Project Eternity, so that's that.

 

I have to agree.

 

An official announcement with brief explanation--like my assumed explanations above--would go a very long way. The last official information we ever got, however, was merely "soon!" But that's really not good enough from the public relations standpoint; I've heard that excuse far, far too often in the gaming industry to take it seriously and to be convinced of proper resolution. Even if it was just a "we plan on building the fulfillment backend in early 2014," that's infinitely better than "soon." "Soon" means nothing. "Soon" was an excuse used by devs of a particular game I played when it became clear they couldn't deliver certain game content on schedule in any meaningful fashion; and you know, I was fine with that because I'd rather push back content release than deal with bugs. But a fulfillment website should be infinitely easier to design and program than the game itself. If Obsidian decides to hire a 3rd party like the people of Wasteland 2 did to handle fulfillment, fine--tell us or at least let us know you're thinking about it (with over 70k backers not including Paypal contributors, you might end up doing that).

 

ANY official commentary about this can only be a good thing right now. 

 

Edit to add: I'm not clear on this since I didn't back Wasteland 2, but have fulfillment surveys even gone out for that project yet? 

Edited September 9, 2013 by Ieo

[Sensuki]

I think we're getting a lot more than a simple Fulfillment website like the inXile Ranger Center, they're redoing the entire P:E site or something, I assume it's launch will be a big deal.

[Dormin]

 

 

This is Obsidian not EAware have some faith they will do the site when they can.

 

Of course they will, but people would like to know when. A little bit of information on that subject is common courtesy in my opinion. I mean, the backers have made it possible to have Project Eternity, so that's that.

 

I have to agree.

 

An official announcement with brief explanation--like my assumed explanations above--would go a very long way. The last official information we ever got, however, was merely "soon!" But that's really not good enough from the public relations standpoint; I've heard that excuse far, far too often in the gaming industry to take it seriously and to be convinced of proper resolution. Even if it was just a "we plan on building the fulfillment backend in early 2014," that's infinitely better than "soon." "Soon" means nothing. "Soon" was an excuse used by devs of a particular game I played when it became clear they couldn't deliver certain game content on schedule in any meaningful fashion; and you know, I was fine with that because I'd rather push back content release than deal with bugs. But a fulfillment website should be infinitely easier to design and program than the game itself. If Obsidian decides to hire a 3rd party like the people of Wasteland 2 did to handle fulfillment, fine--tell us or at least let us know you're thinking about it (with over 70k backers not including Paypal contributors, you might end up doing that).

 

ANY official commentary about this can only be a good thing right now. 

 

Edit to add: I'm not clear on this since I didn't back Wasteland 2, but have fulfillment surveys even gone out for that project yet? 

 

 

Yes, I totally agree with you

Edited September 10, 2013 by Dormin

[mrmud]

I think the delayed fullfillment site is slightly worrying because at least to me it creates doubt of the PE project management.

Remember when they said it would be done well before the end of the year (last year).

We are rapidly closing in on a 12 month delay essentially with no information on why.

 

Several high profile kickstarters have gone seriously over budget. Both Broken Age (double fine adventure) and Wasteland 2 have had to double their kickstarter budgets. Are PE facing the same problems? Are things taking much longer than expected and this is why the fullfillment site has been downgraded in priority?

 

There is another thread on this forum about how the PE kickstarter is the most well managed kickstarter out there and I have a real hard time finding any reason to think this is the truth. We know little to nothing about how well PE is tracking to internal milestones and one of the few dates we have gotten were for the fullfillment site which is seriously delayed. Obsidian have done little to say that anything would be otherwise.

 

 

Now I hope this is all a bunch of unfounded worries on my end and that the fullfillment site was just reduced in priority because they realised they simply didn't need it to be ready yet.

Edited September 11, 2013 by mrmud

[C2B]

I think the delayed fullfillment site is slightly worrying because at least to me it creates doubt of the PE project management.

Remember when they said it would be done well before the end of the year (last year).

We are rapidly closing in on a 12 month delay essentially with no information on why.

 

 

1st off that was the plan for the initial simple fullfilment. We actually did get a very few updates on the status since then.

 

Secondly if anything this is a sign of GOOD project management. It's called prioritizing. The fullfillment site can *fullfill* its job at nearly any time till a month/a few months before release. It has a very, very low priority and that is perfect.

 

Obsidian investing its resources in actual game development (especially compared to Double Fine) is a good thing.

Edited September 11, 2013 by C2B

[C2B]

 We know little to nothing about how well PE is tracking to internal milestones and one of the few dates we have gotten were for the fullfillment site which is seriously delayed.

 

Yes, we do (at least approximatly). We even know when the production phase started. (And a lot more if you pay attention and count 1+1 together)

 

It seems to be a bit delayed atm if you take the current date, but by a managable margin. Naturally, we are a bit behind with info though. Till the production update came out many of us assumed they are still in vertical slice, which would have been a more worrysome delay.

Edited September 11, 2013 by C2B

[Lephys]

Several high profile kickstarters have gone seriously over budget. Both Broken Age (double fine adventure) and Wasteland 2 have had to double their kickstarter budgets. Are PE facing the same problems? Are things taking much longer than expected and this is why the fullfillment site has been downgraded in priority?

If anything, it's pretty comforting, then, that they've prioritized actually working on the game over spending precious resources on a fulfillment site instead. I don't see it as the fulfillment site being downgraded. Or, hopefully not. It shouldn't ever be a higher priority than project progress in the first place.

 

The only thing that I can possibly call them on is the inaccuracy of their "soon" estimation. If they weren't really sure when it was going to be done, they should've just said "We're not sure, but we'll let you know." But, that doesn't change the fact that it won't be done until it's done. And we don't know when it NEEDS to be done, because it's dependent upon the project's status and when they're able to get to it. If they don't get to the fulfillment before they fully finish the project and we're all sitting around playing P:E without any fulfillment stuff or options, THEN there'll be a problem. So long as it happens before then, I'm not seeing any issues, really.

 

When they say they're working on it, I trust that they're not lying, even if it's not going to be as soon as they initially hoped.

[Sensuki]

many of us assumed they are still in vertical slice, which would have been a more worrysome delay.

The first production hint was when that Neogaf thread went up about being contacted for their Backer Inn details.

[jethro]

Both Broken Age (double fine adventure) and Wasteland 2 have had to double their kickstarter budgets.

WL2 had to double their budget? Are you refering to the deal with Deep Silver? If yes, where is that "doubling" coming from? And where did you get the information that they had to? As far as I can judge from the information we got told it was a highly beneficial deal for inXile, they outsourced exactly that part of game production for which publishers/distributors were really made for. If you carefully read the press release, they say it is a "distribution deal". Whenever they talk about money it is always about money they save because they don't need to build their own distribution/fullfillment department. There is no indication at all that they get any money from Deep Silver. And if you count the maybe 500k they probably had reserved for fullfillment/distribution and usable for development again as a hidden subsidy, that is debatable as that is still all money the backers gave them and that should be poured into development as best as possible.

 

If it is not the Deep Silver deal, could you give us a hint where you got the info?

 

Now I hope this is all a bunch of unfounded worries on my end and that the fullfillment site was just reduced in priority because they realised they simply didn't need it to be ready yet.

The longer a fullfillment site is up the higher the chance that information on it is outdated and users asking support where that site was again and where the place is to change email/adress/addons and "my browser collapsed, did you get the information?", "I tried to change my address but it didn't work" "Someone hacked my email account. Please change the information", "Someone seems to have changed my information by asserting that my email account was hacked. Not true, I'm the real one"

 

The longer the site is up the higher the chance that someone breaks into the site and causes lots of work like reinstall and reset of all passwords, call for reentry of your address and addons.

 

It saves money/time/people to open the site only when it is needed. I don't know if someone at Obsidian thought about this or they just felt that the site was lowest priority, but it just makes sense.

Edited September 12, 2013 by jethro

[mrmud]

WL2 had to double their budget? Are you refering to the deal with Deep Silver? If yes, where is that "doubling" coming from?

 

I was sure I had read it somewhere, but now that I try to go back and source it I can't find it anywhere.

I might have just dreamt it up.

Edited September 12, 2013 by mrmud