Update #62: Production 01 - State of the Project

[J.E. Sawyer]

"It stands at the forefront of experimentation in soul magic and exemplifies the age of discovery."

So while there is obviously focus on soul magic, does it means that there is another way also? Magic is magic, whatever that is, but constantly underlining soul magic, just made me curious if there is another form? Does this imply that there might be another sort of magic in the world?

 

That quote is from an earlier document, before we started using the term "animancy", which is what is being described.  Anyone who uses what could be termed magic is using the power of their own soul, the power of someone else's soul, or the power of disembodied "lost souls" and soul fragments floating through the world.

[silvercross]

Hmm... I hope the inclusion of numbers in the dialogue means that dialogue will be keyboard navigable? (E.g. Pressing the "2" key will select the second dialogue option).

I know the UI is probably not high on the radar yet, but may I suggest font size options? A lot of times, games tie the font size to the resolution size, which just means tiny font for the higher resolutions. This becomes extremely apparent (and straining) when playing Planescape or BG on modern computers with high resolutions.

[J.E. Sawyer]

Hmm... I hope the inclusion of numbers in the dialogue means that dialogue will be keyboard navigable? (E.g. Pressing the "2" key will select the second dialogue option).

 

It is.

[Kevin Lynch]

 

By Brandon Adler, Producer

 

Is the way that Osmaer's dialogue is split up into four pieces indicative of the way multi-line dialogue will be designed throughout the game? My initial reaction is that it's unnecessary to have "Osmaer - " placed before each line as in this example as opposed to having a block with "Osmaer" at the top and the body indented. When there's no alternate character (NPC or PC) speaking between Osmaer's statements nor extra descriptive lines it may be cleaner to remove the extra identifiers. Would that work?

[Nonek]

You know I looked at that new monster and immediately thought of something like the Shalebridge Cradle, but with these poor lost souls as the orphans of the place, tormented and tortured by the orphanages Animancer. Rubble and rotten furniture lying all around, the sobbing of childrens voice, the skittering of clawed feet all around, and somewhere a child with its back to the party, curled in a foetal ball to draw in the unwary and spring the trap.

[Azrayel]

A lovely update, though any update without Tim Cain photo-shopped to something silly and more video of him playing Arcanum feels like it could use a bit of animancy--  holy shazbot the wyrk he's doing on Strongholds sounds great!  I can only imagine the potentially hilarious encounters; although, honestly, throwing a party and inviting your favorite NPCs could be even better than vagabonds and ghastly horrors assailing it.  Which leads me to the question...

 

How much money do you need for a Sid Meier's Pirates esque dancing miniGame?  Think of the applications!  Conflict resolution outside of skill checks for navigating high society!

[rjshae]

Sounds like everything is coming along nicely. I do like the look of the dialogue interface; it has a pleasing old-world style and the bronze-reinforced portrait frame is a nice  touch. I was wondering though whether only one party member will be able to reply?

 

The Wichts look suitably vile, given their nature.

 

Thanks for the intros and for keeping us abreast of the latest developments!

Edited August 21, 2013 by rjshae

[Malekith]

Sounds like everything is coming along nicely. I do like the look of the dialogue interface; it has a pleasing old-world style and the bronze-reinforced portrait frame is a nice  touch. I was wondering though whether only one party member will be able to reply?

 

The Wichts look suitably vile, given their nature.

 

Thanks for the intros and for keeping us abreast of the latest developments!

I think Ziets said that only the player character can start dialogs, but other characters will talk when they have something to add.

[J.E. Sawyer]

Is the way that Osmaer's dialogue is split up into four pieces indicative of the way multi-line dialogue will be designed throughout the game? My initial reaction is that it's unnecessary to have "Osmaer - " placed before each line as in this example as opposed to having a block with "Osmaer" at the top and the body indented. When there's no alternate character (NPC or PC) speaking between Osmaer's statements nor extra descriptive lines it may be cleaner to remove the extra identifiers. Would that work?

 

We'll probably reveal them as individual notes but keep them together in the log.

[Lephys]

I think Ziets said that only the player character can start dialogs, but other characters will talk when they have something to add.

Maybe you'll at least have the option of interrupting/silencing them? Not that I'm saying it's stupid that they can talk or something. I just think that allows for reactive choices. I mean, I'd love for that one companion who's super emotional because their friend just died start going off on some guy in the middle of dialogue, but I'd ALSO like to at least be ABLE to tell someone else to subdue them/remove them from the scene so they can relax, given their current state. OR, you know... totally just step aside and let them go off as much as they wish, and maybe assault the person, if he really deserves it.

 

Then again, maybe sometimes you'll be powerless to stop them from talking, while sometimes they'll happily hush, depending on the circumstances.

 

 

How much money do you need for a Sid Meier's Pirates esque dancing miniGame?  Think of the applications!  Conflict resolution outside of skill checks for navigating high society!

As long as the game doesn't transform into one of those "all of life is about dancing" movies.

 

"Hey, you can't go in there!"

 

*Your party dances in perfect unison, with some astounding choreography*

 

"Ohhhh, snap, sir. We're going to have to let them in, now. We just got totally served... if we can't outdance them, then we have to forfeit our jobs as guards to stand in their way."

 

Edited August 21, 2013 by Lephys

[DiogoVincenzo]

Hi developer!

 

I would like to know...this game will be looks like Baldurs Gate or NeverWinter?? the camera will be close like NWN??

 

THX!!

[Volourn]

Good update and nice monster.

 

Hopefully, those interns are getting paid. Kanada has issues with companies taking advantage of interns who do the work of actual employees but don't get paid under the guise of 'teaching'.

 

Still,  good stuff.

[Osvir]

 

By Brandon Adler, Producer

 

Features

 

Journal

We now have a fully functional quest journal in place that allows players to see their quest progress. The UI is currently being implemented, but it is looking great.

 

Is it possible for you to reveal the features of the Journal itself yet? (IE: Can you write the Journal yourself or is it Automatic updates?)

 

Additionally, if the Quest Log is automatic, is it possible to turn it completely manual or could you insert a 100% manual Journal Option? (I want to jot down my own notes, so instead of just clicking the "I Accept this Quest" button and getting an Automatic update, I'd get to choose myself to note it a la example: "I met a man int he alley and he gave me a quest to find his lost cat. He said it might've ran down the sewers"). And if I forget to do it or just plain not do it I could still do the Quest (but the manual/Player Journal could spawn some interesting community stories as well as be interesting to see in an RPG).

 

What I am wondering, in short:

- 1, Are you considering a "Blank Journal" Option? (100% Manual/Player reactive writing)

- 2, Can I edit the Journal content?

 

Sneaking in 4 questions about Descriptions in general:

- 3, Are you considering Spell/Item/Weapon Description Edits?

- 4, Are you considering a "Blank Description" Option? (100% Manual/Player reactive writing)

 

4 = Cast a "???" spell for the first time -> You notice it is a big ball of fire -> Ability to edit the Spell Name "???" into "Fireball" -> Edit the Description "It is a big ball of fire that explodes on impact and deals additional shockwave damage in a small area"

 

This is selfish wishful thinking. Because I would love to jump into the PE world in a "Blank" state. Maybe even call it "Game Journal", and being able to document the experience at first impression value.

 

- 5, Quest or Book Story example: A book that is clearly unfinished, and venturing further into the story of the book where it left off, you could then edit the Book and finish its story.

 

- 6, Puzzle example: Bold, Italic, Underline, a book of mystery. Using the methods of "5", perhaps finding a book of riddles, and being able to edit the text in the book (Making 4 Letters on a page in Bold or other text style could unlock a secret compartment or something)

[curryinahurry]

Nice update, thanks.  The conversation UI looks nice, I hope the full UI has a similar feel....with vertical portraits as an option

 

I need to take some time and read through everything else, but at this point, what I really would like to start seeing is more in-game images.  It may be a bit early, but it really helps give a frame of reference.

 

Cheers

[rjwest0004]

The conversation UI looks great (very well performed IE feeling) but I would suggest a differentiation between speech and descprition. Either a slighty other colour or italic letters or something....or just without the name before because the description in the first line looks like a dialogue line without being one.....

 

My thoughts exactly. 

 

Other than that... WOW! Great work guys!

Edited August 21, 2013 by rjwest0004

[Contentment]

Things are looking great so far, loved the update and can't wait to see more.

[ManifestedISO]

 

Stronghold

Tim went on a tear and got most of the backend systems for the player stronghold in place. There are a ton of really fun things you can do with your stronghold like sending companions on missions, buying rare loot off of merchants, building upgrades, and even purchasing hirelings to defend your keep from attack. Watching Tim's stronghold get robbed blind because he has low security and high prestige never gets old.

 

Seriously looking forward to this. Thank you for including it. 

[Ieo]

I'm jealous of the new hires, interns or not. *sigh*

 

I like the conversation text style, more PST-like with textual description alongside the dialogue. Not necessarily in the typographic sense--I'll leave that to the font fiends--have y'all seen the documentary Helvetica? It's a real hoot. Available on Amazon Prime if you have it. And I like the surrounding old-school wood texture. At first I thought I wanted stone, like the old BG series, but wood is actually "warmer" and more inviting than stone, in a way. Hard to describe. 

 

That aside. I'll have to watch the video later...

[Zeckul]

NGUI only uses bitmap fonts, so we'll have to adjust the kerning and other errors by hand, but we're aware of it.

Following your comment, I briefly researched the topic; Unity itself supports dynamically sized fonts (http://docs.unity3d.com/Documentation/Components/class-Font.html), perhaps it's possible to modify NGUI to take advantage of that. EDIT: some effort was already made to that effect (http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/165254-Unity-4-dynamic-font-support-for-NGUI)

 

One way or another, fonts should scale with resolution to some degree; after all you'll be supporting resolutions from 720p to 1440p at least.

Edited August 21, 2013 by Zeckul

[Lephys]

And I like the surrounding old-school wood texture. At first I thought I wanted stone, like the old BG series, but wood is actually "warmer" and more inviting than stone, in a way. Hard to describe.

Agreed. Although, I think I'd like to see more natural/grown type visuals and less synthetic-styled stuff. In general... not specifically in the dialogue UI. Think tree-trunk instead of carpentered table. Or, a combo could work, I suppose.

 

I dunno. I know it's silly, but sometimes, the excessive amount of tool-crafted look/feel kinda makes the UI feel a lot more like it's intruding in the screen. Like it doesn't really belong, but someone installed it by hand.

[Hormalakh]

What does this mean in regards to the sate of the vertical slice? Do you be on to production before or after the VS is finished?

[Zed]

Great job! Sounds like you've been very busy!

 

As always, I have an "entitled gamer god what's wrong with him" edit of the UI bit :D

WARNING: extreme nitpicking.

 

 

Ignore the suggestion in yellow text if the scrollbar has an exact click-somewhere-on-the-scrolline-scroll in which case it wouldn't really serve a purpose.

[igorina]

Interesting update. I am very excited about the creatures and curious about armor sets -  I'd love to see them
And (I really have to say it) the cat on the video is awesome

[curryinahurry]

Stronghold sounds like it is off to a great start; I really like the idea of being able to send your companions on missions.  My question is, will we be allowed to play through these missions as our companions (possibly leading a group of npc hirelings, or in tandem), or will the mission events be reported back to the PC?  

Edited August 21, 2013 by curryinahurry

[Wombat]

Stronghold

Tim went on a tear and got most of the backend systems for the player stronghold in place. There are a ton of really fun things you can do with your stronghold like sending companions on missions, buying rare loot off of merchants, building upgrades, and even purchasing hirelings to defend your keep from attack. Watching Tim's stronghold get robbed blind because he has low security and high prestige never gets old.

How tolerant this stronghold thing will be if I spend my time on exclusively adventuring?  In Xcom: Enemy Unknown, I ignored base management and ended up with losing cities, which are not reversible-once lost they are gone forever.  In fact, I made a typical mistake as an RPGamer in that game by completely ignoring resource management gameplay.  Eventually, I managed to hold my hands on controlling resources enough to proceed the game but bit annoyed by the fact the game didn't allow me to play it in my own way:  Simply piling up tactical successes and build characters were not enough to let me proceed the game.  I know we are talking of different games, though.

Edited August 21, 2013 by Wombat