Game News Obsidian Reveals 'Project Eternity' - Kickstarter Live

[LeStryfe79]

They clearly had 6 races and 8 classes planned. The stretch goals are complete BS. Thanks for treating your customers like Idiots, Obsidian. I thought I liked those guys, but Goddamn, they are giving us the same medicine Bethesda gave them. Horrible.

 

[Soilent Green]

Pledged. RTwP is a major buzz kill for me, but everything else looks pretty damn good, thus far. Hopefully, if my raise at work goes through, I'll have enough monies jewgoldz to up my pledge for both this and Wasteland 2.

 

[Curious_Tongue]

They are a bizness trying to make money and kickstarter is a way to find investors. If you want to give your money to them so they can give it to bums with crappy projects go ahead. if I donate money to them (if they put in dwarves)l; I want them into invest my money into the project I invested in and not give it to some loser whose project sucks.

They kick forward 5% of the profits of said project, not 5% of the donations.

 

[Volourn]

O RLY.

 

[LeStryfe79]

O RLY.

SOZSOZSOZSOZSOZSOZSOZ

 

[Volourn]

Why spam about SOZ as it has nothing do with this.

 

[LeStryfe79]

I hit those keys by mistake. Sorry.

 

[Jasede]

Not too worried about player housing.
Think the keep in BG 2.

...

At least I hope that's what they think.

 

[maverick]

Hope... hope never changes...

 

[Taluntain]

They didn't think that it's a sure thing that they'd get funded in a month...

Wait, what?

No, seriously. WTF? I could understand saying "well, we took bets and some said we'd make it in a day but I wasn't sure", but being all shocked and apparently not having the next steps prepared well in advance strikes me as really bizarre. As if they hadn't seen the Wasteland KS happen...

 

[Gozma]

I know Obsidian needed to go this way to make a midbudget RPG but I'm waiting for the Kickstarter that obviously steps over the line with some developer that could lift up their leg and fart out a 5 million dollar title so their better guys working in the blockbuster mines could get a chance to make their dream games

 

[yes plz]

Meh, I figure the stretch goals are to string the biodrones and other retards along who gush over shit like home bases to get as much money as they can out of them. The only one that really concerns me is the 'add a new region' one. One of Obsidian's consistent problems with their games is making the game world too big and stretching themselves too thin. A lot of their games could've been improved by cutting out an area and giving the extra attention to other parts of the game, usually the ending.

 

[Data4]

Housing in games like TES makes a little sense, since you do amass a bunch of shit that you might not want to throw away, so it's good to have a place to store them. Without that conceit, houses in a SP game are completely worthless. All it makes me picture is some :foreveralone: dork spending hours in game doing interior decorating that no one else will see (short of "Hey, look what I did with my ABSOLUTE LACK OF A LIFE!??" screenshots). Resources spent on that or dumbass romances are resources I will not contribute to. No kickstart from me.

 

[suejak]

Meh, I figure the stretch goals are to string the biodrones and other retards along who gush over shit like home bases to get as much money as they can out of them. The only one that really concerns me is the 'add a new region' one. One of Obsidian's consistent problems with their games is making the game world too big and stretching themselves too thin. A lot of their games could've been improved by cutting out an area and giving the extra attention to other parts of the game, usually the ending.

You mean like New Vegas, where they cut out everything east of the river due to time concerns, resulting in approximately 2 major Legion towns?

 

[yes plz]

Meh, I figure the stretch goals are to string the biodrones and other retards along who gush over shit like home bases to get as much money as they can out of them. The only one that really concerns me is the 'add a new region' one. One of Obsidian's consistent problems with their games is making the game world too big and stretching themselves too thin. A lot of their games could've been improved by cutting out an area and giving the extra attention to other parts of the game, usually the ending.

You mean like New Vegas, where they cut out everything east of the river due to time concerns, resulting in approximately 2 major Legion towns?

New Vegas wasn't what came to mind. KotOR II (which, I think even MCA said could have used another area cut -- Korriban, I think it was) and Alpha Protocol were. Though, in regards to New Vegas, the Legion had a lot more problems going on then only having just two towns, like how they were written as cartoonishly evil for starters. I think one of the slaves you can talk to mentions how they've over heard the Legion talking about wanting to rape you if you're playing as a female. Had they cut a town from New Vegas, like maybe Primm, they could've maybe actually made the Strip half way decent.

 

[octavius]

"Surely, there is more to RPGs than dwarves?"

Sure, but none of them as worthy of pledging money for over dwarves.

Are you having problems reaching up to that Reply button?

 

[suejak]

Meh, I figure the stretch goals are to string the biodrones and other retards along who gush over shit like home bases to get as much money as they can out of them. The only one that really concerns me is the 'add a new region' one. One of Obsidian's consistent problems with their games is making the game world too big and stretching themselves too thin. A lot of their games could've been improved by cutting out an area and giving the extra attention to other parts of the game, usually the ending.

You mean like New Vegas, where they cut out everything east of the river due to time concerns, resulting in approximately 2 major Legion towns?

New Vegas wasn't what came to mind. KotOR II (which, I think even MCA said could have used another area cut -- Korriban, I think it was) and Alpha Protocol were. Though, in regards to New Vegas, the Legion had a lot more problems going on then only having just two towns, like how they were written as cartoonishly evil for starters. I think one of the slaves you can talk to mentions how they've over heard the Legion talking about wanting to rape you if you're playing as a female. Had they cut a town from New Vegas, like maybe Primm, they could've maybe actually made the Strip half way decent.

I don't get you people who think the Legion is cartoonishly evil. Some people actually think they're preferable to the NCR within the context of the game. Moreover, part of the reason some people like you view them as being cartoonishly evil is that they didn't have enough time to develop them more fully. We never saw a single actual Legion civilian settlement -- we only saw military bases and conquered cities. Had they had more time to develop the Legion areas of the game, I'm sure people like you would have been given even more evidence against your gut assumption that the Legion was an "evil" group.

 

[Comrade Goby]

Meh, I figure the stretch goals are to string the biodrones and other retards along who gush over shit like home bases to get as much money as they can out of them. The only one that really concerns me is the 'add a new region' one. One of Obsidian's consistent problems with their games is making the game world too big and stretching themselves too thin. A lot of their games could've been improved by cutting out an area and giving the extra attention to other parts of the game, usually the ending.

You mean like New Vegas, where they cut out everything east of the river due to time concerns, resulting in approximately 2 major Legion towns?

New Vegas wasn't what came to mind. KotOR II (which, I think even MCA said could have used another area cut -- Korriban, I think it was) and Alpha Protocol were. Though, in regards to New Vegas, the Legion had a lot more problems going on then only having just two towns, like how they were written as cartoonishly evil for starters. I think one of the slaves you can talk to mentions how they've over heard the Legion talking about wanting to rape you if you're playing as a female. Had they cut a town from New Vegas, like maybe Primm, they could've maybe actually made the Strip half way decent.

I don't get you people who think the Legion is cartoonishly evil. Some people actually think they're preferable to the NCR within the context of the game. Moreover, part of the reason some people like you view them as being cartoonishly evil is that they didn't have enough time to develop them more fully. We never saw a single actual Legion civilian settlement -- we only saw military bases and conquered cities. Had they had more time to develop the Legion areas of the game, I'm sure people like you would have been given even more evidence against your gut assumption that the Legion was an "evil" group.

The Legion didn't even do anything evil.

Slavery makes sense in that environment. As does crucifying degenerates.

However the way the slaves were presented made no sense. Women being used as pack rats, what?

 

[TwinkieGorilla]

What does God think of gay sex in computer games?

 

[GarfunkeL]

However the way the slaves were presented made no sense. Women being used as pack rats, what?

Slavery makes no sense from utilitarian viewpoint. Furthermore, Chinese communists used women as pack rats during the Civil War as did the Vietcong and NVA later.

 

[Haba]

They clearly had 6 races and 8 classes planned. The stretch goals are complete BS. Thanks for treating your customers like Idiots, Obsidian. I thought I liked those guys, but Goddamn, they are giving us the same medicine Bethesda gave them. Horrible.

They might as well have 10 races and 20 classes planned. And five continents of locations.

How hard can it be to understand how those things go? The same thing comes up with every Kickstarter that has "stretch goals".

1.1 million might be just enough to get you a game with Obsidian's production costs. 2 million will allow them to relax a bit more, but even there they'll probably be forced to make cuts and leave out things they had planned to implement. Keep in mind that every single Infinity Engine game shipped with bugs and cut content.

Ideas are relatively cheap, implementation, balancing and testing is expensive.

Kickstarter stretch goal budgeting with massive projects like this is less accurate than tossing a coin. It is not like you can apply a scoping model on a game project to get accurate estimate on costs.

 

[villain of the story]

Yeah, Darklands is Sawyer's favourite RPG which obviously have no significance. Darklands = skill based. Judging by the stretch goals, this will be class based, the same way IE games were. So shove that Darklands reference up your asses, cocksuckers.

Also, the stretch goals are crap. 2x New Playable Race, Class, and Companion. What kind of furry fantasy is it that they can shit out new playable races like that? And more importantly, will the new races have a cultural context within the game or will they simply be new make-ups with altered stats? Am I right, The Brazilian Slaughter?

Well, at least most of their games have been good at some level sans Alpha Popamole. I guess I would be content if they made a isometric+party analogue of FNV.

Slavery makes no sense from utilitarian viewpoint.

Explains the 3500+ years of mainstream slavery.

 

[LeStryfe79]

Sorry, but these are by far the worst stretch goals I've seen. When they listed them, they knew good and well all those goals would be met eventually. Basically I'm saying that they had no intention of releasing a game that small in scope. It would have served no purpose except as a lower budget Dragon Age with better writing. I guarantee you that those wouldn't have been stretch goals had the game not reached the minimum so quickly. There's no way Sawyer, Cain, and Avellone have been dreaming of doing an old school homage with such sparse content. It's just too moronic. One of the biggest failings of today's games compared to the IE glory days has been a lack of depth, scope, and variety. The biggest culprits of these failings, of course, is the overindulgence of better graphics, cinematic cut scenes, and full voice over. Without these culprits, Project Eternity has no excuse for being so limiting, and furthermore might as well not even exist. As far as I'm concerned, those stretch goals aren't even real, as I highly doubt they're actually real in Obsidian's minds either. It's a stopgap and an illusion, and that makes me feel like they are treating their customers like fools. There are better ways to go about a kickstarter, and I hope this isn't a sign of future decline.

 

[Frusciante]

I'm kind of dissapointed with how they handle their kickstarter. Some basic substantial info about the combat system, number of races, number of classes and art direction is necessary from an 'expectations management' perspective alone. The current lack of real info is only going to lead to dissapointment and a lot of butthurt.

Also the charme of kickstarter projects is the direct contact with customers. If you're asking your fans directly for money I would expect at least some art work and basic info ready to be shown. And if they keep that for later in the kickstarter project then they are just playing incredibly stupid games with us to build the hype and get more money instead of being upfront for once.

 

[Darth Roxor]

In related news, directly from the horses mouth

Dear Fans,

There is some dissatisfaction with the way the game is turning out to be, and Kickstarter has been overwhelmed with Email requests to withdraw pledges from our project.

I won't lie - this has been pretty devastating. More than $150k is already gone, and we're trying to get Amazon to stop allowing the pledges to be canceled. Come on guys, it's a pledge! As far as I am concerned, the ability to withdraw pledges is a big problem with Kickstarter as is. Their customer support is way too helpful

Nonetheless, at this point I have a choice: either to continue to support a vision that a minority of hardcore players wants (including myself!), or make something that will allow all of us here to feed our families.

Believe me, this decision didn't come easy to us. Just ask Chris Avellone and his ever-dwindling supply of Xanax

I don't want to beat around the bush. So, let me describe exactly what we're going to do. Like ripping off a band-aid.

First of all, majority of people are concerned with romance options in the game, so we're paying special attention to that. I personally believe it's not really a bad thing, as I always craved more emotional connection with the gameworld. I promise it will be tasteful.

Now, the big whopper are the companions. We've listened to a lot of feedback, and the polls on our forums clearly show that people prefer to have a "visceral oomph" to their party members. After careful consideration, we decided to go with full voice acting for them. Believe me, all the great writing is still there, for those of you as nerdy as I am :D It's still like reading a book, only much faster-paced!

Plus, this gives us a chance to implement a cover system that Baldur's Gate never had.

Also, we are implementing in-game housing, how cool is that?

Despite that one poll (you know which one), we are KEEPING the quasi-isometric perspective, guys, because we don't want the game to look exactly like Dragon Age/Mass Effect. Baldur's Gate, after all, had its own style.

So, all in all, this may actually be some pretty great changes! I think we've hit the sweet spot with these compromises and it will make everyone happy. I am still enthused about the game and hope you are too!


All the best,
Obsidian Entertainment