Update #67: What's in a Game?

[Nonek]

Please sir, may I have some more.

[agris]

Great update, I would like to see more of this type.

 

Brandon, did you ever try managing a project using Access combined with excel? Often times I've needed to construct matrices of experimental conditions (or whatever), and found that what I need is a 3D or 4D matrix (granted, sheets work for that pseudo 3rd dimension). I looked at access briefly, but ultimately decided that through proper groupings I could get it done in excel.

Edited November 13, 2013 by agris

[IndiraLightfoot]

Please sir, may I have some more.

 

Apropos...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZrgxHvNNUc

[Keyrock]

Fantastic update.  I love these detailed "nuts and bolts" type updates.  It really puts things in perspective, especially in light of people, myself included, wanting certain features to be added or tweaked.  Now I have a better idea of just how much of a cascading effect even a small change or addition can make.

[Gyges]

Thank you for your transparency. A failure of the games industry is its obsessions with keeping secrets, which inly cultivates resentment, particularly when fans are dissapointed by an aspect of the end-product. Being clear in your communications with your fans about what will and cannot be implemented would be great too because i think most gamers have grown extremely cynical and only ever expect any PR to be glorifications or outright lies.

On another note, am i late for the "Big Update" or is it still on?

Edited November 13, 2013 by Gyges

[BAdler]

Great update, I would like to see more of this type.

 

Brandon, did you ever try managing a project using Access combined with excel? Often times I've needed to construct matrices of experimental conditions (or whatever), and found that what I need is a 3D or 4D matrix (granted, sheets work for that pseudo 3rd dimension). I looked at access briefly, but ultimately decided that through proper groupings I could get it done in excel.

 

I have played around with Access years ago, but haven't touched it in relation to work. Although on the topic of mixing Excel and other software, we do have a really cool spreadsheet that makes calls to our SharePoint servers. We use it in our issue tracking. Makes it really easy to pull in the information, analyze it, and send it out to the team.

[BAdler]

Thank you for your transparency. A failure of the games industry is its obsessions with keeping secrets, which inly cultivates resentment, particularly when fans are dissapointed by an aspect of the end-product. Being clear in your communications with your fans about what will and cannot be implemented would be great too because i think most gamers have grown extremely cynical and only ever expect any PR to be glorifications or outright lies.

On another note, am i late for the "Big Update" or is it still on?

It is still on.

[BAdler]

hmm, as long as your system doesn't kill your creative ideas.

If everything has to follow a strict process or ruleset, aren't you worried that you would end up settling for mediocrity because you wouldn't spend more time than is allotted on it?

I wouldn't worry about that. These processes aren't something that's specific to Eternity (or Obsidian, for that matter). Also, a little bit of pressure to perform usually draws the best out of everyone.

[ProjectBG2Respawn]

Wonderful work til here !

 

I recently discovered this project while searching a new RPG to play 'cause i can't play Baldur's Gate 2 anymore, i've finished it too many times, you are a hope for people like me.

 

Just wanted to ask a few questions about combats mechanics (maybe it's not the right place, if so i'm sorry) :

 

- Do spells have an incantation time ?

- Do spells evolve during the game or is it differents spells (an example : "shield lvl1", "shield lvl2", etc... or "minor shield", "major shield") ?

- Are there unique weapons or do the enchantements are exclusively made by the player ?

- Talking about enchantements, have they some durability ? And if so, do they disappear at the end of the durability or can they be "repaired" ? 

- Have creatures some kind of unique abilities (like absorbing your intellect, your strenght, your levels, turning you into stone, disappear, make you feel great fears, and so on) ?

- Does a wizard can use a big mace, or are they restrictions for each classes ?

- Am i not too boring with all these questions ?

 

Anyway, it seems i'm gonna buy it immediatly after its release. Continue to keep the good old games alive !

 

PS : sorry for my poor English, please tell me if something isn't clear, i'll manage to explain it a better way.

[J.E. Sawyer]

hmm, as long as your system doesn't kill your creative ideas.

If everything has to follow a strict process or ruleset, aren't you worried that you would end up settling for mediocrity because you wouldn't spend more time than is allotted on it?

 

Moderate pressure tends to increase rather than dampen creativity.  We are also allocating time for revision at the tail end of development.  It's important that we create a world that has a consistent level of quality in a reasonable amount of time.  If we are able to do so, we will have more flexibility to improve (or eliminate) weak areas and polish high points as we see fit.

[J.E. Sawyer]

Wonderful work til here !

 

I recently discovered this project while searching a new RPG to play 'cause i can't play Baldur's Gate 2 anymore, i've finished it too many times, you are a hope for people like me.

 

Just wanted to ask a few questions about combats mechanics (maybe it's not the right place, if so i'm sorry) :

 

- Do spells have an incantation time ?

- Do spells evolve during the game or is it differents spells (an example : "shield lvl1", "shield lvl2", etc... or "minor shield", "major shield") ?

- Are there unique weapons or do the enchantements are exclusively made by the player ?

- Talking about enchantements, have they some durability ? And if so, do they disappear at the end of the durability or can they be "repaired" ? 

- Have creatures some kind of unique abilities (like absorbing your intellect, your strenght, your levels, turning you into stone, disappear, make you feel great fears, and so on) ?

- Does a wizard can use a big mace, or are they restrictions for each classes ?

- Am i not too boring with all these questions ?

 

Anyway, it seems i'm gonna buy it immediatly after its release. Continue to keep the good old games alive !

 

PS : sorry for my poor English, please tell me if something isn't clear, i'll manage to explain it a better way.

 

Yes, spells have casting times.  They will likely wind up with three different casting lengths: immediate (what it sounds like), short (~3 seconds), and long (~6 seconds).

 

Spells don't inherently scale, but we may offer Talents that scale spells (Talents are one of the last RPG elements will be implementing and the most flexible until then).

 

There are a lot of unique weapons and the player can add enchantments.

 

Item enchantments do not have durability.

 

Yes, creatures will have unique abilities.

 

Wizards can use any weapon they want, but they gain bonuses when using wands, sceptres, and rods.  Their default accuracy with melee weapons is not good.

[freedomispopular]

This kinda reminds me of what Ken Levine said about Bioshock Infinite. They had cut so much stuff that they had actually made like 3 games' worth of content. Just goes to show why so many games end up being rushed, especially when given unreasonable deadlines from publishers (thankfully not a concern here), and it also shows just how much work these guys put into what they do. Looking forward to more updates of this sort.

[szczypior84]

I'm reading your updates for a long time, but I need to admit this update is great!

And yeah, I want it more

 

On the other hand, how long does it take to create such update? is it workload for you?

 

Have a nice day!

[DaWu]

Hey Obsidian just stopped by to say that this is looking AWESOME! The graphics are wonderful! Keep it up cant wait!

 

 

 

 

p.s. can we expect to see some game video anytime soon? just a character walking through a level or something similar. havent seen much of the game since the early days

Edited November 13, 2013 by DaWu

[Osvir]

Hey Obsidian just stopped by to say that this is looking AWESOME! The graphics are wonderful! Keep it up cant wait!

spoiler to lessen the post height

 

 

 

In light of this one, I'm curious. Will we be able to click stuff (Question-marks or whatnot) and gain more information? For instance, the table with the big map:

 

"There's a big map here showing the world" or something.

Edited November 13, 2013 by Osvir

[J.E. Sawyer]

 

Hey Obsidian just stopped by to say that this is looking AWESOME! The graphics are wonderful! Keep it up cant wait!

spoiler to lessen the post height

In light of this one, I'm curious. Will we be able to click stuff (Question-marks or whatnot) and gain more information? For instance, the table with the big map:

"There's a big map here showing the world" or something.

 

 

Yes.  We do this a lot, all over the place.  You will see a question mark cursor and can click for a text pop-up with more info.

[Lekian]

Absolutely great update! Really enjoyed it, especially the screenshots.

 

I also appreciate the developers being around answering members questions, keep up the great work!

 

Not sure if this has been answered but can we expect the BIG update for two weeks time?

[decado]

 

hmm, as long as your system doesn't kill your creative ideas.

If everything has to follow a strict process or ruleset, aren't you worried that you would end up settling for mediocrity because you wouldn't spend more time than is allotted on it?

 

Moderate pressure tends to increase rather than dampen creativity.  

 

This is true.  I wish more people understood this.

[rjshae]

 

 

hmm, as long as your system doesn't kill your creative ideas.

If everything has to follow a strict process or ruleset, aren't you worried that you would end up settling for mediocrity because you wouldn't spend more time than is allotted on it?

 

Moderate pressure tends to increase rather than dampen creativity.  

 

This is true.  I wish more people understood this.

 

Definitely. Necessity is the mother of invention. Challenging circumstances can bring out new approaches and clever ideas, whereas comfort and surfeit leads to stagnation.

[BAdler]

I'm reading your updates for a long time, but I need to admit this update is great!

And yeah, I want it more

 

On the other hand, how long does it take to create such update? is it workload for you?

 

Have a nice day!

 

I can't speak for others, but I usually work on an update over the course of a few days. The breakdown is close to this:

• Create Update Content
  • Two to three hours.
• Collect Images
  • Thirty minutes to an hour. Depends on what we are showing. For this one, it didn't take long.
• Review
  • The leads review the update a day or two before. Usually spend about thirty minutes updating everything.
• Coding the Update
  • I will then take the update and hand code it in HTML. This is because some of our distribution methods (specifically Kickstarter and our newsletters to PayPal backers) require it for proper formatting. This takes me an hour or two depending on the complexity of the update.
• Posting the Update
  • This is the actual posting of the update and any prep work for it. Our images all have to be placed in an S3 bucket and videos need to be uploaded. Overall, this is probably another two to three hours.

So this update probably took about half a day to a full day of my time over the past week. This is fairly typical of our updates.

[Labadal]

Must say that I'm surprised. Never thought about how much time an update takes. I knew it was more time consuming than most people thought, but I personally thought it took an hour or so. Maybe we should have less frequent updates if that is how much time needs to be spent on them. Or hire me, tell me every dirty little secret about the game and I'll post the updates.

[Messier-31]

Great update with lots to read and get familiar with.

 

So this update probably took about half a day to a full day of my time over the past week. This is fairly typical of our updates.

 

By the way, something bugs me... how long before the kickstarter ended Obsidian was working on Eternity? I mean, how much work, any work (most basic ideas, concept art, sketches) was done before you guys knew it will get so many backers?

 

Also - how do you guys come up with made-up names of characters, places, and such? Probably not wth a "Here-kitty-kitty walk-on-keyboard-for-a-sec name-generator"?

 

Cheers!

[rjshae]

 

• Coding the Update
  • I will then take the update and hand code it in HTML. This is because some of our distribution methods (specifically Kickstarter and our newsletters to PayPal backers) require it for proper formatting. This takes me an hour or two depending on the complexity of the update.

 

hand coding HTML is fun but time consuming. Might be faster to use a tool.

[ProjectBG2Respawn]

 

Wonderful work til here !

 

I recently discovered this project while searching a new RPG to play 'cause i can't play Baldur's Gate 2 anymore, i've finished it too many times, you are a hope for people like me.

 

Just wanted to ask a few questions about combats mechanics (maybe it's not the right place, if so i'm sorry) :

 

- Do spells have an incantation time ?

- Do spells evolve during the game or is it differents spells (an example : "shield lvl1", "shield lvl2", etc... or "minor shield", "major shield") ?

- Are there unique weapons or do the enchantements are exclusively made by the player ?

- Talking about enchantements, have they some durability ? And if so, do they disappear at the end of the durability or can they be "repaired" ? 

- Have creatures some kind of unique abilities (like absorbing your intellect, your strenght, your levels, turning you into stone, disappear, make you feel great fears, and so on) ?

- Does a wizard can use a big mace, or are they restrictions for each classes ?

- Am i not too boring with all these questions ?

 

Anyway, it seems i'm gonna buy it immediatly after its release. Continue to keep the good old games alive !

 

PS : sorry for my poor English, please tell me if something isn't clear, i'll manage to explain it a better way.

 

Yes, spells have casting times.  They will likely wind up with three different casting lengths: immediate (what it sounds like), short (~3 seconds), and long (~6 seconds).

 

Spells don't inherently scale, but we may offer Talents that scale spells (Talents are one of the last RPG elements will be implementing and the most flexible until then).

 

There are a lot of unique weapons and the player can add enchantments.

 

Item enchantments do not have durability.

 

Yes, creatures will have unique abilities.

 

Wizards can use any weapon they want, but they gain bonuses when using wands, sceptres, and rods.  Their default accuracy with melee weapons is not good.

 

 

Thanks for this quick answer.

 

"the player can add enchantments" this is really interesting.

 

To be honest, when i see games in developpement which tends to recreate and modernise past glories, i'm generally very critic and i look for some faults, even little things.

 

But errr, i don't find any here.

 

Just to say you are awesome you guys to keep fans of RPGs informed and to do such a good job.

[Tuckey]

Looks like a haunted house. I hope you have secret doors and passages for us to find