1774 réponses à ce sujet

[Chromie]

Yrkoon wrote...

wsandista wrote...
I really don't get why Obsidian has a reputation for bugs. I really haven't had a worse experience with bugs in the majority of their games(except that Storm of Zehir expansion for NWN2 that was horrible) than I have I had with most other devs.

NWN2 itself was unbelievably buggy on day one.

Let's be fair Obsidian themselves admit that was their fault. Kotor 2, New Vegas and Alpha Protocol weren't since the QA wasn't handled by them and in Kotor 2's case the devtime was cut by 6 or 7 months. Now while I don't like Dungeon Siege III they did a good on the bug cleaning there.

[Yrkoon]

Lets see. Kickstarter is at $3,060,000. Paypal is at about 80k So we're well into $3.1million, with 51 hours left. 3.5 million seems more doable with each passing hour.

On a side note, I don't understand why some things on the kickstarter page are fully opdated today while others aren't. yesterday we reached 3 million and they quickly updated the stretch goal banner to say that the stronghold is in, but we also gained 2 more levels to the mega dungeon since friday, bringing the total to 9 levels, but its graphic still says 7 levels....

Edit:  check that, we're at 62,500 backers, which means the mega dungeon just got to 10 levels.

Modifié par Yrkoon, 14 octobre 2012 - 09:14 .

[Serillen]

Yrkoon wrote...

Lets see. Kickstarter is at $3,060,000. Paypal is at about 80k So we're well into $3.1million, with 51 hours left. 3.5 million seems more doable with each passing hour.

On a side note, I don't understand why some things on the kickstarter page are fully opdated today while others aren't. yesterday we reached 3 million and they quickly updated the stretch goal banner to say that the stronghold is in, but we also gained 2 more levels to the mega dungeon since friday, bringing the total to 9 levels, but its graphic still says 7 levels....

Edit:  check that, we're at 62,500 backers, which means the mega dungeon just got to 10 levels.

Its possible the artwork isnt done for the extra levels yet, I think i read it was being worked on yesterday.

[Jozape]

Serillen wrote...

Yrkoon wrote...

Lets see. Kickstarter is at $3,060,000. Paypal is at about 80k So we're well into $3.1million, with 51 hours left. 3.5 million seems more doable with each passing hour.

On a side note, I don't understand why some things on the kickstarter page are fully opdated today while others aren't. yesterday we reached 3 million and they quickly updated the stretch goal banner to say that the stronghold is in, but we also gained 2 more levels to the mega dungeon since friday, bringing the total to 9 levels, but its graphic still says 7 levels....

Edit:  check that, we're at 62,500 backers, which means the mega dungeon just got to 10 levels.

Its possible the artwork isnt done for the extra levels yet, I think i read it was being worked on yesterday.

Obsidian can't keep up with the speed of the KickStarter now, hence the not so up to date KickStarter graphics. Everything's been moving lightning fast since the last big update.

Note to self: screenshots help sell KickStarters.

[Taleroth]

Yrkoon wrote...

wsandista wrote...
I really don't get why Obsidian has a reputation for bugs. I really haven't had a worse experience with bugs in the majority of their games(except that Storm of Zehir expansion for NWN2 that was horrible) than I have I had with most other devs.

NWN2 itself was unbelievably buggy on day one.

Funny enough, NWN2 was great on day one.

Day three or four, when they released the first patch with natural spell, that broke a few things.

People who rushed through the campaign first had no problems. But then everyone who was a little slower had a few game breaking issues, often revolving around friendly fire. I spent a lot of time finding workarounds for people on the forums.

[Eurypterid]

Last night's Q&A (I was unable to get it posted until now):


Ok, so PayPal says that our transaction log is so long that it has to be compiled offline and then we will get a notice when it is ready for us to download. "Some users may experience a delay of 24 hours." I love PayPal.

Question: what do you think about songs in your games?
Feargus: Songs can have a place, but a lot of the time music is generally a better way to go. And, I'm guessing here that you were meaning that songs have vocals, right?

Question: Something I thought about. since the project eternity is a work in progress name the t-shirts will be related to it and not the real name of the game. right?
Feargus: Good question. We might want to offer both, so people can have Project Eternity shirts if they want. I nice memorial of this time.

Question: 2 days ago I spoke to you" give me the stronghold".Second day I you give us the stretch goal of stronghold. So now I shout fullmouthed:"give me legendry battles with giant monsters!" I will check the update tomorrow;)
Feargus: That is on the whiteboard, but I don't know if that one will come true.

Question: does PE have mini games? I loved the cardgames in the witcher games for instance
Feargus: We have not really talked about mini-games, however Josh has talked about something that Darklands did - unfortunately that is the one seminal RPG I have not played.

Question: So, I'm going through Baldur's Gate 2 (again) and I am concerned about the engine and AI. You are evolving beyond that benchmark? I am thinking of my Wizardry battles (where I'd micromanage every desicion) versus BG2 battles where I micromanaged the AI placement of my fights. I love the spacebar stop and react, I just want my other NPC's to participate intelligently. Even be able to arrive at a destination as a group without a great deal of waiting on one lone wanderer.
Feargus: We are going to have your characters have a varying amount of AI depending on how much you want them to have. I can tell you the pathfinding will be greatly improved - something we always wanted to do in the IE games in the past. Pathfinding being he part of the system that would cause parts of your party to sometimes go completely the wrong way.

Question: Are you aware the Kickstarter account isnt connected to the facebook account?
Feargus: Yes, how Kickstarter connects to Facebook is through personal accounts - not company Facebook sites. The reason that doesn't work well is that you then have to request to be friends with the company and not just like them. We have also heard that Facebook frowns on accounts that are not for people, but are company names instead.

Question: What language is unity written in ?
Feargus: I'm pretty sure the core is C++, however you write everything on top of it in C#.

Question: Paul D and I suggest color coding the physical and digital tiers in the add-on page to avoid confusion
Feargus: Gotcha, I'll see if I can do something more with how they look. I'm not an HTML genius and the skin for tumblr has a lot of customization, but that's not one of them.

Question: Did anyone asked Feargus yet how customizable would our stronghold be? Meaning, do we get to "landscape" the surrounding lands , set policy and such (much like Crossroad Keep) but this time, we'd actually see progress made, roads appear as we put them down, Battlements sport new Balistae towers, mage murder holes, can have distinctive cultural architecture styles such as Angular Solid looking dwarvven walls, majestic elvish aesthetics , practical human engineering works that would be apparent as we build them?
Feargus: Our goal is to have it like Crossroad's Keep. We want it to grow visually as much as possible as well.

Question: How customizable are you planning to allow the player to fiddle with the aesthetics of the stronghold? Meaning, that I will assume there will be some involvement with owning a stronghold, since its place of power and protection / suppression. Would there be stuff like in NWN2 Crossroads Keep where we can go out and gather people / materials to help build up the stronghold, can we affect its architecture, giving it say Dwarven walls, or elvish towers and parapets, can we actively seek to improve its defense by paying and thus placing / building balistae / ornagers / trebuchets / boiling oil cauldrons and place them for defense as well as install arcane defenses? More importantly, I hope this time round, we'd actually see our Stronghold grow visually, with roads appearing as we commission them and such.
Feargus: Things like that are all on the list. I will be honest and say that we have to figure out how far we can get down the list. Since we are not real-time 3D, there is a little bit more difficulty in swapping out models. However, we have been talking about a layered overlay system so that we can change stuff in the art as you make decisions and change/upgrade the Stronghold.

Question: s Cadegund's race and/or class still a secret? I'm thinking she's a priest. In the group picture her hand is to her chest, glowing, like a priest clutching a holy symbol, perhaps even about to turn the many undead that surround them. She seems human, but perhaps she's one of the Godlike?
Feargus: She is a priest and I am pretty sure she is human. Josh likes he idea / twist of guns being something used by the priests of the world.

Question: I found the modifiable AI system in DA:O to be very interesting, IE the part where you set up and arrange skills with qualifiers etc. Might be something to look at for inspiration/ideas/whatevs, for a robust AI system that players (like me) like to tinker with. =)
Feargus: That was a pretty cool system. What I want for PE, is to have a layered system where you can interact with it on a high level or get down into the guts of it. The IE games allowed that as well - it was just a bit more hidden. But not as graphical compared to DA.

Question: you probably already asked this but will we keep PayPal going after the kickstarter campaign ends so that we can get the second city probably?
Feargus: We will keep it up for a while, but we don't know how long yet.

Question: Apparently voice acting for games is pretty cheap anyways. David Lucas who is a pretty famous and talented voice actor apparently commented that it pays the crappiest out of everything he's done. Something like $60 an hour, but he only ends up doing an actual 10 hours of work or something like that. If you think about it, they'll probably wait until the story is written out and the major lines are ready to be voiced, call in the VOs, and have them just go through the scripts.
Feargus: For our bigger games we have to use SAG or AFTA and those are no cheap. A 4 hour session including he actor fees, union fees, studio time and director time is about $3K to $4K. A four hour session gets you between 200 and 300 lines. Actor cost in that (including the union stuff for them) is about $2K of that - I think.

Question: Would it be possible to offer the soundtrack in FLAC?
Feargus: We are going to offer FLAC.



I'll be back in a short while with the Q&A that's currently going on.

[Allan Schumacher]

Let's be fair Obsidian themselves admit that was their fault. Kotor 2, New Vegas and Alpha Protocol weren't since the QA wasn't handled by them and in Kotor 2's case the devtime was cut by 6 or 7 months.

Was KOTOR 2's development time actually "cut?"

[Chromie]

Allan Schumacher wrote...

Let's be fair Obsidian themselves admit that was their fault. Kotor 2, New Vegas and Alpha Protocol weren't since the QA wasn't handled by them and in Kotor 2's case the devtime was cut by 6 or 7 months.

Was KOTOR 2's development time actually "cut?"

I believe Lucas Arts gave them originally a longer schedule and then suddenly Obsidian is forced into a holiday release. 

Chris only ever said this on the matter (could be wrong) "In the end, I do wish there had been more time and I wished I had had more time to work on the end game,"

Modifié par Skelter192, 15 octobre 2012 - 12:41 .

[Eurypterid]

This afternoon's Q&A with both Darren and Feargus:

Darren:Just wanted to give a quick shout out/thanks to Walkir for helping with some German site cleanup! http://eternity.obsidian.net/de/

Darren: Wow, I really really appreciate all of the help guys. It's truly appreciated.

The above is a shout-out to pledgers such as Farudan, Thomas, Walkir, LC, and Raedwulf for help with the German site. If there's anyone else that deserves kudos and is not mentioned, the oversight is mine - Ink Blot.[/i]

Question: I'm a little confused. On the front page in the reward tier section some of the reward tiers have this green circular Halloween themed mark on it. What does that mean? Are there some specific rewards now or?
Darren: That's how Rob drew in the pet.

Question: Is there a site where the people of OE are introduced? =) Sometimes I'am a bit confused about so many names.
Darren: Heh yeah, we're a confusing lot. Here's a super quick primer: Feargus - Our CEO, and generally the guy up here on KS. Adam - Project Manager and Lead Programmer. Guy on video streams. Often wears a hat. Josh - Product Director, Tattooed guy, lead on Fallout New Vegas, and really into gameplay systems. Tim - Senior Programmer and Designer, big pencil guy, and also really into gameplay systems. Darren - CIO, back office type. I do a lot of the non-game programming, websites, IT, admin, etc. I'm the guy on Twitter most of the time too.

Question: Do you have any feedback on whether people are willing to "buy" the expansion to PE? To me, the numbers do not add up, I thought we would have at least 10k out of the 60k backers that would want the expansion, but we are not even close to that. I think it might be because of the complicated add-on system, some people do not even read the whole homepage, they read about PE somewhere else and come to kickerstarter to pledge somewhere in $20-$80 range. Expansion for $20 is a great deal but people dont see it there when pledging, they see it at $165 lowest and that is too much for most. Maybe you should advertise it more, or create special lower tier with it, it could give us some extra kick (10k backers upgrading with expansion addon -> extra 200k right there)
Darren: Well we have seen a lot of addons additions but I think you're right about addons - if it was more clear (that is, worked more like other shopping sites) it could do even better. It's definitely something that's Kickstarter is currently not well equipped for, but it seems like a popular feature now. Hopefully Kickstarter will be adding that as an addon (pun intended!) so future projects can make use of it. Just in case folks aren't sure how that works, just click the big Manage My Pledge button and add whatever amount to your current pledge while keeping your currently selected tier the same. We'll send a survey out a couple weeks after the Kickstarter is done asking how you want to allocate the money. -Darren

Question: DocDoomll already posted this Obsidian Forum link up, but there I think there would be a lot of interest is getting this particular question answered/pointed out to the Devs.

http://forums.obsidi...han-resolution/
Darren: Thanks for pointing that out - I'll foward that along. I'm definitely one of the folks in that camp (as is Josh) and someone internally who reminds people about the screen resolutions out and coming. I'll keep reminding people about high resolution screens (Retina, etc.) and to see how we can best support this so you get the clearest look. The only drawback here (as is noted) is space and video memory, but we're on PC's, so we can figure those kinds of things out hopefully.

Question: One option for that could be an optional high-res download pack.
[/b]Darren:[/b] That's a great idea actually.
Cannot find the question associated with this response - Ink Blot.
Darren: RE: Windows 8. If we want to support selling it in the Windows Store, yeah. I've been using Windows 8 RTM for the last month, and boy. It's got some awesome new tweaky stuff in the desktop mode, but I'm really struggling to like the Metro side of things, and after reading some of the Windows Store stuff recently about mature titles potentially being blocked in Europe, etc., it doesn't look good currently...

Once again I cannot find the question associated with this response - Ink Blot.
Darren: We'll see where things land. Making a big city is a reallllly large amount of work (but just to say it, it's nothing compared to adding multiplayer and testing it, especially cross platforms), so with KS + PayPal - KS Pledges That Don't Go Through (don't forget those!), we'll have to see where we land!

Question: Windows 8 is not very different from the previous versions of Windows. The complaints from game developers have less to do with any real difficulty in programming and more to do with financial (e.g. Valve worried that the Windows Store will rain on their parade) and philosophical (Notch not wanting to be part of closed system like the Windows Store).
Darren: That's right. As far as gaming goes, it works just as well as Windows 7 on the desktop side. XCOM and ToEE play great for me, as will PE. It's just whether or not to be sold in the Windows Store, which is a more closed system like Apple's App Store (and they take the same cut, so that's why Steam and other online stores are concerned.)

Just to say it, there are some really nice little improvements to the desktop mode in Windows 8 though. I really like the new copy dialog box, it shows a performance graph on copy speed, and I like the new Task Manager. For folks with multiple monitors you don't need Ultramon anymore. The taskbar can be extended across all monitors. Lots of other little niceties too. I dislike the Start Menu personally because I'm a neat freak and like things to be cleanly divided, etc., and don't like that it takes up the entire screen, and since I don't have a touch interface, that side of things is lost on me, but I wouldn't say it's the "Windows ME" version though. It's nice and fast (especially booting - it's crazy fast). But like Fred says, it's just the philosophy of closed systems that rub game devs the wrong way, especially when it starts getting into censorship type things.

Question: Are you going to use some ideas from The Black Hound for PE? Some stuff of the little information known about it seemed really interesting. I know Josh was working on transforming it to a NWN2 module a few years ago, but AFAIK, nothing came of it.
Darren: Hmmm I'm not sure, but I bet Josh has some of those ideas percolating for PE.

Question: this question was brought up here earlier. where will you host the extra digital tiers for us to download from? I don't think Gog.com has different tiers for it's games
Darren: I believe you're right. We are going to look into what we can do distribution-wise ourselves too. Not promising anything (because it's all work I'd need to do, hah!) but we'll come up with something to deal with that.

Question: I am very happy they are not adding multiplayer to the game. MP for too long has been added to games just to have it and like walkir just said it takes funds away from the game... and we want the best game possible... at least IMO
Darren: RE: Multiplayer - I know this is definitely something lots of folks want, and it's certainly hard for us to describe in enough detail the difficulties and complexities it adds (certainly when you start thinking about cross-platform support and the amount of testing that involves.) There are also limitations it puts on story development too. Some people really didn't like the 'protagonist' idea from BG (but others, like me, were fine with it.) But of course, with time and money, can't all things be solved? That's not to say though that a future Eternity project couldn't (or won't) have multiplayer. If we had enough funding, it would allow us to add the resources to properly do MP, but at this funding level, we just couldn't tell you guys, "we can do it" and be honest with you or ourselves. Please know though that we don't take that lightly though!

Comment by Darren: I did announce on Twitter that at $4M I would push like heck to get a dog companion in the game (request from Fallout fans). Not sure the team officially recognizes such a stretch goal however, but at least we have *something* for 4M!

Question: If it's going to be a mediaeval Dogmeat, then at least make it a Vorpal Wolf / Direwolf etc.
Personally, I'd hope for a bird of prey of some sort ('maltese' falcon, anyone?
Darren: I was trying to get the guys to make a Mini Pet Giant for the game. They looked at me with dull eyes. Maybe that would fly! We could name him Boo-Hoo?

OK how about this. If we get to $4M I will try to push some kind of familiar/pet that is more substantial than just a little critter that follows you. Doesn't have to be a dog...! Let's design it right now for the designers! I love doing that to them, and they love it too!

Question: Are we on 7 or 8 levels total for the mega dungeon? The "Support Project Eternity" banner shows 8, working towards 9. But the "Mega Dungeon Progress" graphic farther down the Kickstarter page only shows 7 levels.
Darren: Rob swears he's working on the dungeon art right now. Hope to have an update to that graphic soon. We're adding levels faster than he can draw them! (I guess that's a good problem to have???)

Question: .I've said it before and i'll say it again.i would LOVE to see a spiritual successor of Vampire Bloodlines from you guys,especially with Tim Cain being on your team.Is there any chance of that?
Darren: I would love to do that project. Troika's Vampire was *easily* one of my most favorite games. In fact, I think I need to get that out when I theoretically have time to play games and play it again.

Question: can we have some info about the fauna of the world so we can pick an appropriate pet?
Feargus: We'll get more about the world and parts of the world released in the coming weeks and months. We have already started talking about how we are going to keep everyone updated.

Question: what about digital cards in pdf that we can print if we feel like?
Feargus: Good idea, I'll put that on the big list of everything.

Question: can you tell us a little more about the documentary? Are you planning on monthly-ish episodes like DFA or a compiled feature release at the end?
Feargus: Somewhere in the middle. We want to give you guys some stuff between now and the end, but did want to keep the budget a little controlled and not have the company have to final 18 or 20 episodes.

Question:
Feargus: They will not be gone from the game. Let me check with Josh how he is thinking about it. I think I know, but there is a feeling that I might have it wrong.

Question: Any idea how death will work in PE? If a companion dies will you have to go back to a town to revive him, or will he be revived when the battle is over, or will he simple be gone from the game? Or maybe you are planing something else?
Feargus: They will not be gone from the game. Let me check with Josh how he is thinking about it. I think I know, but there is a feeling that I might have it wrong.

Question: Will project eternity be sold at retailers when released? I have some friends who are interested in the game, but can't back it here, but want physical copies of it.
Feargus: Sorry, I'm not sure about that yet.

Question: Will there be an option to import/export characters from and into the game (so they turn up in the Hall of Champions, or you can start the game with them)? Swapping characters and savegames on floppies with gamingbuddies used to be one of the fun things to do when we didn't have all this momrpg stuff … It would be awesome if you could now actually make a party out of your friends' characters … and some geeks could like … start project eternity geocaches filled with memorycards or something ^.~
Feargus: That's a very cool idea. Putting it on the list.

Question: Could you make the back design of the cards a KS exclusive, differentiate them from the Store sold ones further down the line?
Feargus: That is a great idea! I'll e-mail Adam and ScottE about that right now.

Question: So to get this straight, I need to have a physical pledge of at least 65$ to add the deck of card?
Feargus: Yes, since we are already shipping to someone at $65, we don't have to figure out the difference in shipping or the change for international. Apologies for that.

Question: Since you guys are already going mad with physical items, how about a 2013 wall calendar with a piece of PE concept art for each month?
Feargus: We talked about that as well ( the calendar ). As we get close to the end, we are a little worried about having things get too confusing with all the add-ons and additions and new tiers. But, we like the idea, so that might be something we can offer later.



Feargus: Pay Pal is at $85K.
Feargus: So, I was looking around for video interviews and stuff last night. And found this, (safe for work and Torment related).
Fixed an incorrect reference in the update - the characters are not necessarily companions in the game, just key characters. Sorry for the confusion!

[Allan Schumacher]

Skelter192 wrote...
I believe Lucas Arts gave them originally a longer schedule and then suddenly Obsidian is forced into a holiday release. 

Chris only ever said this on the matter (could be wrong) "In the end, I do wish there had been more time and I wished I had had more time to work on the end game,"

I don't know the full details, but having the time be actively removed seems very unusual.

Curious what would have motivated that.


Though your quote from Chris just indicates that he'd liked to have had more time, which is more just a statement of the obvious (given the state of the ending) rather than actual proof.

I doubt there's any sort of evidence that would indicate, definitively, that the production schedule had time removed from it.  I imagine there'd be a contractual nightmare if that was the case.

[Taleroth]

Either way, I think the one Tim Evans blog post said it was 9 months with something like 15 people. Which seems pretty fast to the lay among us.

Avellone seems willing to take blame for how it was managed. They overscoped it a bit.

Modifié par Taleroth, 15 octobre 2012 - 01:11 .

[RainyDayLover]

Does anyone know if Canada counts as international shipping?

Going to increase my pledge but I'm torn between the $140 and $165 tier...I really want every single penny to go towards the funding of the project, so I'd rather do the $165 digital tier than the $140 physical tier (because I'd be paying $20 extra for shipping). But then I really want the boxed version. Ugh, decisions.

[Gatt9]

Looks like Ray (The doc) just backed PE at the NPC level according to twitter,  awfully cool of him!

Allan Schumacher wrote...

Skelter192 wrote...
I believe Lucas Arts gave them originally a longer schedule and then suddenly Obsidian is forced into a holiday release. 

Chris only ever said this on the matter (could be wrong) "In the end, I do wish there had been more time and I wished I had had more time to work on the end game,"

I don't know the full details, but having the time be actively removed seems very unusual.

Curious what would have motivated that.


Though your quote from Chris just indicates that he'd liked to have had more time, which is more just a statement of the obvious (given the state of the ending) rather than actual proof.

I doubt there's any sort of evidence that would indicate, definitively, that the production schedule had time removed from it.  I imagine there'd be a contractual nightmare if that was the case.

As I recall,  from various news sites over the years,  Lucas Arts decided they wanted a Star Wars game on the shelf for the holidays,  possibly due to Star Wars Galaxies becoming increasingly disappointing.  Obsidian's original schedule would have been negotiated prior to it becoming apparent that SWG was a dead stick.

[Eurypterid]

RainyDayLover wrote...

Does anyone know if Canada counts as international shipping?

Yes, us Canucks have to pay for shipping.

[Eurypterid]

Q&A with Adam Brennecke:

Question: This might be a silly question, but are the playing cards going to be almost paper thin like the red dead redemption playing cards, really disappointing, or something like bicycle playing card level of quality?
Adam: The playing cards should be good quality.

Question: I've gotten some very good answers from my fellow backers here, but since you are here, Could you briefly explain the differences between the various books you offering. Specifically the Collectors Book / Campaign Almanac / Strategy Guide?
Adam: The collector's book will not be offered as an add-on. Sorry. For a simple answer: Strategy Guide = Tips and Tricks on how to play the game. Collector's Book = Art, Concepts, Making Of/Behind the Scenes, Monster Info, additional lore, and info on companions/characters Almanac = All about the World, History and Lore of Project Eternity

Question: what are the plans for the game keys will we be locked in to a version of the game or can they wait till they redeem it to choose Linux/Win? Another one was about combining orders with friends so they could all get collectors editions but not have to pay $30 each for shipping.
Adam: We are not sure if the physical game disc will contain all platforms yet - we are still looking into it. No combining orders with friends, sorry. We don't have any way of tracking that.

Question: Are subraces a possibility? I know that for me, they were one of the highlights of IWD character creation.
Adam: Yep, subraces are in.

Question: Question regarding the Audio Novella, For those of us who are in tier(s) which have the PDF, is there a smaller add-on that we can do that gets both the audio and the PDF. After having the pdf, $20 for the same content in audio format seems a little steep. Just for clarification, I meant the opposite, the audio being an add-on (hopefully at a reduced cost) to the tier(s) with the Novella PDF. The thinking being, the tier(s) already has the content, and paying $20 for the same content in a different format seems a bit steep. So to sum up having something similar to the "physical tiers". The "Novella" tiers would have the option of adding the Audio Novella for a nominal charge (say $10?) Well thats what I would suggest anyways
Adam: Sorry, we don't plan on having the Novella PDF be an add-on with the audio. I'll discuss this with Feargus, but I can't make any promises right now.

Question: Is there any way to watch a recorded version of your IWD2 game? Same question for the D&D session tomorrow and a potential recording.
Adam: I have the recordings from Friday and Saturday. I'll look at posting them for download once things calm down a bit

Question: If Obsidian could find a way to confirm that the physical disk WILL have all three platform versions on the disk, then I will upgrade to the physical tier pledge.
Adam: Sorry, I can't confirm it. We will try, since it's a much less of a headache for you and us, but I can't guarantee it at this point since it's so far down the road.

Question: If anyone is interested, I've created a fairly comprehensive information guide for Project Eternity here: http://www.sorcerers...showthread.php… Cheers!
Adam: Hah. I think that's a great idea.

Question: Is it possible for the almanac and/or the strategy guide to get physical printed versions?
Adam: Right now there are no plans for physical versions. That might change depend on demand.

Question: Not all platforms on the physical disc?! *brainmelts*
Adam: I think you are confusing my statement. You will choose your version, and we will ship that version to you, or you don't get to choose and you get all three versions. I'm not sure if we can have all three versions in the same box/disc set yet. Does that make sense?

Question: Can we confirm (at least) that there will be a physical edition for each platform? In contrast with Claudia, physical copies of Windows & Mac versions are meaningless to me. Worse, in fact, since I'm pledged at a healthy level in support of Linux gaming. If I have to buy a Win/Mac only box, I'd probably need to reduce my pledge to a digital-only level. And possibly cry a little. :-P
Adam: Physical edition for each platform, yep.

Question: Please please please tell me there's been discussion about a physical almanac?
Adam: We will look into doing a physical almanac if there is a demand for it. Books are very expensive to make and ship, so we wanted to cut down on overhead of doing more books.

Question: Is there an office betting pool on how much P:E will raise?
Adam: All of our expectations of the project were blown away, so we would be all wrong by a large margin

Question: After the KS, how often do you guys plan to release development updates and videos? Weekly? Biweekly? Monthly?
Adam: As much as we can. I would like to do something weekly, but I don't want it to be a distraction to the team during production. We gotta make a game after all We also have to be careful with spoilers moving forward.

Question: Ray finally backed the game and is going to create a custom NPC.
https://twitter.com/...572211693596672

Pretty cool!
Adam: Wow.

Question: any idea who is DMing tomorrow?
Adam: Josh is DM

Question: is the cooking with tim PDF in the $80 tier, I can't seem to see it on the tumblr rewards list
Adam: All backers get the Cooking with Tim PDF.

Question: What will the tone of the game be? Playing ToEE right now I find it somewhat alittle to funny and less serius. And it was the same with Fallout 2.
Adam: More serious, but still humorous when appropriate. Like most Obsidian games (sans Southpark

Question: will there be guilds or factions in the game? And if so, will joining one guild/faction have consequences (additional quests, other faction treats you as a persona non grata etc.). Would definitely increase the replay value.
Adam: Yes there will be factions (one was added in a stretch goal). Can you join them? Mayhaps.



Feargus is on now, so I'll probably update a little later.

[Eurypterid]

Some Feargus Q&A for tonight. Darren's currently on. I'll have that later:

Question: the documentary will have subtitles?
Feargus: Hadn't thought about that. Putting on the list. It's something we should try to do.

Question: so are you sitting in your boardroom chuckling over your hoard yet?
Feargus: Actually, the work begins Wednesday a 9AM. Adam said we should take Wednesday off - I gave him a look.

Question: You should just have an in-game reference to the total # of comments when the kickstarter ends. Something like someone had 50,438 gold or whatever. Then, its an inside joke.
Feargus: That's a great idea!

Question: May I know the difference between the COLLECTOR'S BOOK and the STRATEGY GUIDE?
Feargus: The Collector's Book is an overview of the world, concept art, the manual and info on the development of the game. The Strategy Guide goes through how to play the game - strategies and solutions to all the quests.

Question: Strategy Guide = Tips and Tricks on how to play the game.
Collector's Book = Art, Concepts, Making Of/Behind the Scenes, Monster Info, additional lore, and info on companions/characters
Almanac = All about the World, History and Lore of Project Eternity
Feargus: Thanks - great way to say it succinctly.

Question: Adam was just leaving so I couldn't get an answer, or maybe you guys haven't worked it out yet, but, the question that is burning in my mind right now is on character creation. I for one really loved how I could roll dice for my character stats in Baldur's Gate and Temple of Elemental Evil. I was just wondering if that may be something you guys are considering adding as an option to do in this game too?
Feargus: Josh is a fan of point buy systems, so I would expect that is the direction. I'll put it on the list of things for him to cover in an update in the weeks to come.

Question:
Feargus: The reason for the $500K step in stretch goals is because of the big city. As for a release date, we need to look at everything and figure it out - if we get to $3.5M. It is possible, however we do have a few other artists and designers who have made these games, which we could bring onto the project. But, I don't want the team to get too large.

Question:
Feargus: The reason for the $500K step in stretch goals is because of the big city. As for a release date, we need to look at everything and figure it out - if we get to $3.5M. It is possible, however we do have a few other artists and designers who have made these games, which we could bring onto the project. But, I don't want the team to get too large.

Question: How do you feel about how we're over $100k per day?
Feargus: It is pretty amazing. It's going to be really interesting to see what will happen in the next couple of days. PA did amazingly well the last 48 hours - 20% of their overall funding. So, we shall see.

Question: How important will currency be in the game, and what steps are you taking to ensure that there are enough money sinks to keep it important from start to finish?

Josh: I think currency is really interesting and it says a lot about the state of the world and the cultures in it. My interest is not necessarily shared by everyone, so I don't know how important individual currencies will be. What we use as money sinks will depend in part on how our stretch goals turn out. We already have a player house and that can be a good money sink. If the stronghold is funded at $3 million, that can be a huge money sink. Additionally, some crafting options and the Adventurer's Hall can serve as money sinks. "

@Feargus-

This section made me think about how cool the idea of different currencies was in New Vegas, but unfortunately it was never really fully fleshed out and you basically always wanted caps. Are you guys going to try to make different currencies matter in some way in the game?
Feargus: Josh on currencies: "I think currency is really interesting and it says a lot about the state of the world and the cultures in it. My interest is not necessarily shared by everyone, so I don't know how important individual currencies will be. "

Question: I may be missing something, but why doesn't Josh Sawyer respond to questions from fans like the rest of you are happy to do?
Feargus: Josh goes around the forums a lot and posts in a variety of places. We decided a few weeks ago that we would each try to cover different things. Also, Josh has been spending a ton of time designing the world so that he has great things to update you all on with lore. And, he has the formspring account....

Question: And make sure you set your teams bonus to n+1 of whatever Metacritic score you end up getting for PE. You know, for old time's sake. But really, Just make the best game you can with the money you have, and release it when it's ready.
Feargus: Thanks! And that is the goal - make an awesome game that wouldn't have been made otherwise.

Question: Do you plan to ensure the game includes high resolution settings for those who have high end PC's? CD Projeckt did the same thing for 'The Witcher 2' by including an ubersampling mode
Feargus: We are rendering at 2560x1440 and there will be some options for higher end machines that are pure eye candy. However, like the IE games, we want as many people to play the game and play it in a form that is how it is meant to be played. So, our focus is to make it look incredible on low end machines. Now, like I said there will be some candy for the higher end machines - and only them will probably be able to run it at 2560x1440.

Question: "We are rendering at 2560x1440" I hope the 16:10 master race will be taken into consideration, here.
Feargus: I think that will work fine - we just draw another 160 pixels.

Question: I would caution you, however, from taking the late-night crowd on your comments section as a true represenation of the backers at large. 18 months out and already talking about delaying the project? That's a scary sign.
Feargus: I think you will find that how we talk about things at Obsidian is being honest and pragmatic. In running the project we want to have the right number of people on it and the right number. To fit within the funding that we are getting (more than we expected), we could just keep on increasing the team. We like to be careful about that though and potentially keep the team smaller and go a bit longer. Not saying we are doing that, but it's how we would look at the problem in order to make the best game possible.

Question: have you got anything planned for reaching triple your [starting goal]?
Feargus: At $3.3M we go DRM only. At $3.4M we go DRM Free. At $3.5M DRM only......and so on. Oh and Paladins are out at $3.45M, but back in at $3.55M and then out at $3.65M....


More seriously we will talk more about other things tomorrow when we are all in the office again. Avellone is back from his week in Austin.

Question: Are we not getting a secret stretch goal tomorrow?
Feargus: Not sure at this point - but we will spend a ton of time tomorrow talking about the options we have up on the whiteboard. I would hate for one of our last announcements to be the dumb one.

Question: will the roles break down into the traditional "Tank / DPS / Healer / Troller" type of roles - and various combinations thereof? Or is it more complicated / totally different than that.
Feargus: Some of those roles work well from the standpoint of designing classes surrounding combat tactics that make sense. What I know that Josh wants to do is to make sure that our multi-role classes do not feel like they are 50% as good at the normal roles, but still play a core part in the tactics of combat.

Question: So, what's the first quest in PE? Killing rats?
Feargus: Killing barrels.

Question: will they at least be ill-tempered barrels?
Feargus:Aren't all barrels ill-tempered?

Question: I'm really hoping the game starts out, where depending on what race/class you choose, you might start in a different town.. or at least different part of the city and have a different start game experience that influences you in certain ways that might not happen if you'd started with a different race/class. People are shaped by their environments and they react to the environment more than they shape the environment proactively.. so having a different environment for each starting race/class would be awesome.
Feargus: We have some ideas to let the main characters earlier life play a role (and be defined by the player), but we are not sure if we will create actual different levels at this point.

Question: I think you should remove the 2.8million and 3.0million descriptions and add the 3.00 stretch goal to the main stretch goal picture.It will make the description size smaller and much more easy for new pledgers to read...
Feargus: We will get that done very soon. Probably first thing in the morning.

Question: I really like how in Morrowind you can answer that imperial agent's questions at the beginning, and have your character defined by the answers. Such as what would you do if someone stole your sweetroll? Or, say you took an arrow to the knee, would you give up and become a guard? Anyways, I think it would be interesting if one could help define their character through a series of questions somehow. Just a little idea.
Feargus: Similar to what we have prototyped - but a bit more visual. It looks pretty cool.

Question: Is the facebook mega dungeon likes going to end when Kickstarter does, or will that get to continue?
Feargus: We might keep that open for a bit, but we will need to shut it down at some point.




Feargus: New Interview
Feargus: Paypal Numbers - $87,7K and 1,813 backers.

[Yrkoon]

Eurypterid wrote...

Question: So, what's the first quest in PE? Killing rats?
Feargus: Killing barrels.

Lulz.  A jab at IWD2.  Win.

Also we're past $3.2 million.     We did 164k on Sunday.    So....150k on monday, and then another 150k on tuesday and we've got ourselves a second city.  Piece of cake.  We need a real challenge.  They should come up with a 4 million stretch goal.

Modifié par Yrkoon, 15 octobre 2012 - 05:36 .

[Eurypterid]

Latest from Darren:

Questions: I worry that all these levels of the Mega-dungeon may become a hack and slash fest that grows tedious over time. The first torchlight had endless dungeons which became boring and repetitive quickly. My hope is that you tie enough story telling and lore into the journey to make people motivated to finish
Darren: well, it may take us some time to explain that big huge guy that Rob's been developing in the Mega Dungeon picture... It could take several levels to uncover various bits of lore...

Questions: Can't say I'm thrilled to uncover the "bits of lore" regarding the statue's waist area...=P
Darren: Never know - there might be a big story we could tell there... ok, that was just horrible.

Questions: but, will he be wearing a codpiece?
Darren: I suppose we'll just have to get the dungeon deep enough to find out! To quote Robocop, "I'd buy that for a dollar!"

Questions: Had this game been funded by a publisher... how much of the budget would be gobbled up with non-development nonsense (and not so useless nonsense).. I mean.. how much is 3.5mil budget in a home-grown game compared with a publisher-run game budget of 3.5mil? Can we expect a whole lot more because of the 3.5mil budget as a result of there not being publisher's interests to worry about?
Darren: Tough to answer that one directly, but I'll give it a shot. It's not really going to be much different (in fact, it'll probably be more expensive to make w/o a publisher.) When we do games for publishers, there are extra things that occur (some of which can happen on PE too): Requests to change things by say an art or creative director or producer, or maybe say from a licensor or an executive (we owner types can sometimes be "enemies of fun" but we try to do that only after careful consideration). There are often demos for conventions, executive management reviews, vertical slice demos, a variety of press tours, etc. For PE, we have to take on all of the traditional things the publishers did that weren't managed by us. We have to market the game, design the box, write and layout the manuals, hire QA folks and manage them, hire localization folks and manage them, put together a store and streaming system, etc., so there's quite a bit of extra work actually that comes with that. Fortunately, many of us worked for publishers so we have experience with that side of the business too, and it's something we just plainly *really* want to do.

Questions: any idea about how often can we expect a documentary episode and how revealing it will be? Tim Schaefer's episodes were usually teasing about what might be spoilers of even the most tiny aspects at first,
Darren: you know, I'm not sure yet. I think it will be a combination of bits we leak out through the development, and then a comprehensive one at the end. Once the KS is done we'll start talking more about that (and we're definitely welcoming feedback on our forums - seems like something quite a few folks have interest in)

Questions: I would -greatly- like the ability to annotate my maps and quests as I could in Baldur's Gate II.
-Please- include keyboard shortcuts for everything!
-A minor feature I've not seen elsewhere is the ability to individually name my items.
-A minor addition that could have made a big difference in Baldur's Gate II was macros.
-What's my party size limit? I like the ability to have a small army, meaning 10-20 units. Not all these need to be fully fleshed-out characters, though it would be nice.
-I want the game to be soloable by at least some builds, a la Baldur's Gate II with Monks, Thieves, Rangers, and Sorcerers.
-Unlike Dungeon Siege III, -please- make it unmistakably clear what each stat (and item) does! Don't name a stat "Doom!" Say, "Critical Hit Damage" or "Critical Hit Frequency." On a similar note, make sure people understand the relative importance of each stat. Perhaps put gear tier labels on all items, like in Dragon Age 1.
-A lower priority is making custom classes, a la The Elder Scrolls games. It's still fun to determine my character's mechanical abilities based on -my- picks, not on what the game developers thought was best.
Darren: Let me try to tackle a few of those:
- Map annotation: I agree. I'd like to see that too.
- Keyboard shortcuts: This is a must-have feature!
- Naming items: No spoilers yet.
- Macros: That was definitely something we learned in NWN2 too. I'll make sure they're on the feature req list.
- Party size: I think Josh said 5 or 6. Apologies if that was confirmed as one or the other! Note: It's been pointed out by one of the devs (Feargus?) that the party size will be 6: your character and up to 5 companions - Ink Blot
- Soloable: That's very challenging to do balance-wise (and would unfortunately be a "B" feature) but it is a cool one. We'll see what happens!
- DS3 stats: Yeah agreed. With a PC focus too we can do more with the interface to help teach players about any stats we create and what they do.
- Custom classes: Not sure how deep this will get. We've announced specific classes you'll choose (as opposed to older Dungeon Siege that you would evolve) but Josh and Tim will update that over the coming months.

Questions: can we count PayPall backers towards the Mega Dungeon levels? I wanna see the codp... er the sandlas. Yes. Them sandals are on my mind!
Darren: Yep, PayPal will count, but to keep the math easy I've been telling folks it applies once the Kickstarter period ends. That allows us to focus on the KS number, and then PayPal can cover any lost pledges (those unfortunately do happen at the last minute! Some projects have lost [multiple] 10k backers when it comes time to settle up!)

Questions: one thing BG2 did a lot better than BG1 was monsters never came out of nowhere or bunched in a nieche. it felt like there was an explanation of them being there istead of being put there by a level designer. I hope we'll have this feeling in PE as well
Darren: Agreed - I have this weird thing against that too. Something that used to bug me about Doom way back in the day. Even though it's a computer game, I like things to make some semblance of sense.

Questions: an you tell us anything about the Fauna in the game? will it be the same as Faerun when it comes to animals that aren't monsters?
Darren: Hmmm not sure about the fauna. I'd expect several DVD's. The maps are going to be large. VERY large.

Questions: I've never been so completely stoked for any game that had yet to be released, let alone one over a year away. Way to go, Obsidian!
Darren: Thanks Ross. I think I can safely say the same about working on the game too.

Questions: Quite a few gaming sites have started to add a description for PE to their list of games. A lot of those entries are rather sketchy, incomplete or even partially wrong. Have you thought about compiling and sending out a press package to help them fix that? (this might also help with boosting the coverage a bit)
Darren: That's a great idea. I'll pass that along to Feargus and crew. Also if you see sites that have bad info, we can reach out to them specifically too.

[Cultist]

The influx of funding is so intense this last days...

[Corto81]

Yrkoon wrote...

Eurypterid wrote...

Question: So, what's the first quest in PE? Killing rats?
Feargus: Killing barrels.

Lulz.  A jab at IWD2.  Win.

Also we're past $3.2 million.     We did 164k on Sunday.    So....150k on monday, and then another 150k on tuesday and we've got ourselves a second city.  Piece of cake.  We need a real challenge.  They should come up with a 4 million stretch goal.

I'm getting slightly worried.

A 10-13 level mega dungeon AND a second major city?

I just don't want them to bite off more than they can chew and then end up watering down their original plans for the game.

[Yrkoon]

  Well, there's  no one stopping them from delaying the game's release if they ever find themselves in such a situation.  But I doubt it'll get to that.  This extra money  (3x as much as they asked) will probably go toward increasing their staff  accordingly for the project.

  Also...I'm not getting this from any website or developer, but I just have a gut feeling that they already have a ton of content written and just sitting there, waiting to be used. Lets remember that  Black Hound/Project Jefferson was 80% complete before it was scrapped. I don't think that content simply disappeared from existance. I'm betting a lot of it is going to go into this game.

Modifié par Yrkoon, 15 octobre 2012 - 07:39 .

[Remus Artega]

Corto81 wrote...

Yrkoon wrote...

Eurypterid wrote...

Question: So, what's the first quest in PE? Killing rats?
Feargus: Killing barrels.

Lulz.  A jab at IWD2.  Win.

Also we're past $3.2 million.     We did 164k on Sunday.    So....150k on monday, and then another 150k on tuesday and we've got ourselves a second city.  Piece of cake.  We need a real challenge.  They should come up with a 4 million stretch goal.

I'm getting slightly worried.

A 10-13 level mega dungeon AND a second major city?

I just don't want them to bite off more than they can chew and then end up watering down their original plans for the game.

I doubt that they would be so irresponsible as to make promises they can't keep...

[Jozape]

Currently standing at about 3.25 million. When are we going to get 4 million stretch goal?!

[Cyberarmy]

Jozape wrote...

Currently standing at about 3.25 million. When are we going to get 4 million stretch goal?!

If they put some goal like a new continent or some large sea adventures, im so robbing a bank.