Seriously? Can anyone comment on this? BG in Bavarian (or most other German dialects, I guess) would be absolutely hilarious (I think... I haven't played it yet). Like the dialect editions of Asterix&Obelix.

edit: Found one example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IVLEjIyxbg&t=4m0s
Hilarious!

52,618
backers
$2,336,703
pledged of $1,100,000 goal
11
days to go

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/obsidian/project-eternity/posts/323119?ref=activity
Update #18

This week we announced our Mega Dungeon, our base classes, the cipher and barbarian classes as stretch goals, and the Adventurer's Hall as another stretch goal. We are coming up on our final week of the Kickstarter, and we have exciting stuff planned for you in the coming week including new rewards, a special inside peek into Obsidian, and a first look at Project Eternity.

Exclusive Backer Pet, Hardcover Books for $250 and Name in the Game for $500!

At the $50 tier and up we have an exclusive in-game pet for you! The pet is optional and will not have any in-game function besides being a quiet companion that will never leave your side. We are looking for ideas on what the pet could be, so let us know what you would like to see in our forums.

We have great news for $250 and up backers! We are upgrading the Collector's Book at the $250 level to a hardcover at no extra charge. The Collector's Book is a full-color book that includes concept art, our monster manual, information about the campaign setting, and a special behind the scenes look at the making of Project Eternity.

Additionally for our $500 backers and above, we will let you put your name and a personalized message on a memorial stone in game. Your unique message will be encoded into Glanfathan runes, and can be decoded using a unique in-game ring. It's a way for all of us to remember your large contribution to Project Eternity.

Tim Answers Your Combat Questions from Reddit

Kaboom asks: Hi Tim! I'm curious how the close combat in P:E will turn out. Will the melee of P:E encompass stuff like reach weapons, opportunity attacks, flanking, grappling, charging, prone/standing-modes and so forth?

Tim: Yes, we are looking to include many of these features into our close combat system. Specifically, opportunity attacks and flanking are definitely in, as well as charging. We're not sure about reach weapons yet (we need to figure out if that attribute on a weapon will be worthwhile enough in combat and will supportable with the appropriate UI), and while we will support prone positions, you won't be able to attack while prone because the animations involved are too different from attacks while standing that we would have to make every animation twice, once for standing and once for prone. This limitation also means that grappling abilities will not be included. There are too many new animations needed and special case limitations that apply, e.g. how does a human grapple a centaur or a dragon or an ooze?).

Tim answers more of your questions in the video and the text version is on our forums. Also check out the Project Eternity reddit group.

Mod Support

From Neverwinter Nights 2 to Fallout: New Vegas, we've enjoyed supporting the mod community, and we are continuing that with Project Eternity. It is awesome to see how you extend the worlds we make.

To make getting mods easy, we are excited to announce that our friends at the Nexus will be the official spot to download Project Eternity mods once the game is released. They have been a great host for mods for our past games, and we want to continue the trend with the Project Eternity Nexus. Check out the Nexus Network at www.nexusmods.com.

Our plan is to release our file-format information and expose as much of the data in the game as possible for you to extend and edit. We traditionally do not "hard-code" numbers so that our designers, and you, have the power to easily change and iterate on RPG data. We also plan on releasing localization tools to let communities around the world create localized versions for languages we are not translating Project Eternity into.

As we get more familiar with Unity during production, we will be extending Project Eternity even more for mod makers. Look forward to announcements in the months ahead as we make further progress and can provide you with more information about tools and mod support.

The Endless Paths Grows!

We've passed 52,500 backers! The Endless Paths of Od Nua Mega Dungeon continues to grow larger! The next level will be added at 55,000 backers. Thank you for helping us to spread the word about Project Eternity!

Mod tools woohoo.

Pet... okay?

More combat info... sounds good.

Endless dungeon... meh.

I don't think it'll actually be endless - the impression I get is that it's going to be something similar to Watcher's Keep from Baldur's Gate 2: Throne of Bhaal.

I'm just not a dungeon diver. I play RPGs more for exploration and story, neither of which are strongly represented in dungeons.

So the pet is basically an exclusive preorder bonus. Never did like those.

Purely cosmetic though..doesn't affect the game.

Christ people stop correcting me, I know what it is and am using the word endless because THEY DO.

The Endless dungeon just felt tacky and lame to me at first but then I got thinking about combat. If combat gets hard and you need to level up going there could prove useful.

New Q&A session with Feargus:


Question: Just what were you thinking? This pet, because it is cosmetic, and has no real value should not even be in a tiered pledge. Give it to all, or make it a pledge goal and make it worth pledging for.
Feargus: We were working on giving something a little extra to the people who have pledged a little higher in appreciation for that. We looked at a lot of games and how for the CE versions of the games, they would offer a special pet that you got with that. The pet goes to everyone who has pledged $50 or more. We will get all the tiers updated.

Question: Haha, I forgot about mods. Mods do solve everything. I predict non-combat scripted pets (by script I mean they occasionally chip in dialogue at various parts of the story or in response to certain events like your hp getting low) within a month of release. Probably actually less if a modder gets their hands on a beta copy and starts modding early.
Feargus: We spent a ton of time talking about supporting mods, there were a lot of concerns - but in the end it really is just fun to see all the stuff everyone can do with our games when we open access to them

Question: As a sidenote, you guys should totally add actual ingame pets you can get that don't count towards party size that have script involvement (but are probably non-combat). Ranger pets, pixies, whatever.
Feargus: Absolutely - those might be called Animal Companions, but I didn't just say that. :)

Question: I know most of you don't agree with me, but I just believe everyone should get the same game. I realize that it's just a pet and that it will have little or no impact on game play, but I feel that even those who pledge less than I should benefit from the exact same experience. After the pet, what's next? Additional skins for the $110 tier? A new class at the $250 tier? A new region for the $500 tier? Where do we draw the line?

I associate this type of practice with the big publisher tactics we're trying to get away from and it's definitely disappointing to me. That is all I have to say on the matter.
Feargus: The line was already drawn. We talked before this all started and told ourselves we would not offer any game affecting content that only some people would get. Actually, that is not true. We have talked about giving the higher level tiers - $250+ free copies of the expansion pack (full adventure like Sword Coast). Haven't decided on that one. An expansion pack that would come out months after the game

Question: Ahh, in which case would those who pledged the highest digital only tier also possibly get the planned expansion? As in 2 digital expansion copies?
Feargus: We are still toying with a higher digital tier. If it had something like the expansion and another digital item worth as much as the game - what amount do you think makes sense?

Question: About the update graphic- the one for the MegaDungeon in Update #16 was wonderful. Please put something like that on the main page, drawing each level as it's added :D.
Feargus: Thanks! Adam and I are going to be working on the main page a lot today in preparation for the next week - where I don't think he and I will be sleeping much.

Question: Sorry for bugging you, but I guess you missed my question.
The problem: As of now, there are 25k backers at $20. This is the single largest group, and thus the most important one to encourage to raise their pledges.Some campaigns I've taken part in had a really neat way to encourage early backers to up their pledges. The question: would you consider sending an email to us at $20 and offering us to get higher levels at an $5 discount, not by switching pledge level but by adding the amount to our present pledge (eg adding $25 to get to the $50 level)?
That way...
a) people at $20 don't have to pay relatively more to get to a higher level than those at $25 = rewarding early backers AND encouraging the single largest group to up their pledges
b) you don't loose out, since as the system stands, most vacant $20s are probably taken by those at $25
Feargus: hat's really good idea. The tough thing is how Kickstarter works. The only way we can do that is by offering more tiers that would get gobbled up before you guys could get them. Hmm.... We could offer something that was worth $5 for you guys, but I don't know if Kickstarter keeps a record. If we offered something else that was worth $5 to everyone at $35 and above? Just thinking here, trying to work through how the system works.

Question: Roughly what would the scale of each level of the Mega Dungeon be?
Feargus: A good size? If you played IWD, the levels of Dragon's Eye or thereabouts is what we are thinking. Maybe a bit more as well.

Question: I haven't yet played IWD. I'm a young gamer(the age at which I started gaming, not my actual age. .:P), and I just picked up the D&D collection on GOG a few weeks back.. Playing BG right now.. Others are queued up.. :D
Feargus: Ok, I can give an example. The largest map in BG is an 8x8 map, with each square being a 640x480 screen. Each level in our dungeon will be, most likely, between a 6x6 and 8x8 BG dungeon level.

Question: Another question. Would it be possible to add $ 140 to my pledge to get a second collectors edition? I'm thinking about gifting one to my brother but I don't want to pay additional $ 30 for international shipping.
Feargus: Let me get that on the list, I'm not sure just yet.

Question: Hi there, regarding the $1k tier, any chance we can get more info regarding the level to which our items/NPCs can be customized, what the process will be, etc?
Feargus: Shoot. That was what I was going to do this week. I'll be in the office in a few hours talking with Adam and we will make sure to talk about getting info out on that. Sorry for the delay.

Question: Are you counting the donors on Paypal towards the dungeon level? How many donors do we have via pay pal now?
Feargus: We are internally and are going to get the art updated today with all the PayPal info.

Question: Will the loot improve the deeper you go into the dungeon? Will there be mini bosses or even an end boss?
Feargus: Better items as you go deeper - definitely. Mini-Bosses - yep, we often call those Lieutenants. Big Boss at the end - why spoil the surprise? :)

Question: Yeah..Saves question: for instance you make char A.. you see saves A-Z.. then you select char B and you see save A-H specific for that character.. I personally find that you see character a-Z's saves all in one list is very annoying.
Feargus: Gotcha - I agree and on the list. High up. :)

Question: When possible, can you give us some information regarding the differences you anticipate between high-end items we help design prior to release compared to the player-created items WHEN that stretch goal is met? Obviously there will be backstory for static items that ship with the game, but will one be "more powerful" than the other?
Feargus: Very qood question. Let me check with Adam to see what he was thinking. We don't want to restrict data, but the items you guys create will be powerful in the game and matter. One thought is that we want to associate the designed items with quests.

Question: can you elaborate more about the mod support? we're obviously not talking about a game editor a la nwn here so what? forum support? guides? download sites? (add anything else you want here)
Feargus: We are going to work on releasing as much as we can. I don't mean for that to sound ambiguous, we are still early in working with Unity and figuring out what can be released with it (taking into account what the different versions of Unity allow people to do)

Thanks again for that.
Reading through that, i have an uneasy feeling about the way some of the questions were worded or come across (come across really quite pushy - surprised Feargus doesn't show some annoyance). People seem to expect a perfect game and want things in they want and not others, picky pick picky. Developers will have a hard time pleasing everyone. Too high expectations from pledgers?

I think a combination of too high expectations and too many diverse wants from the pledgers.

Anyway, more on the update (Feargus is on now again, so I'll have even more later):



Question: I have three questions for you:
1. you mentioned briefly in the initial video for this project that you wanted to add things to the game that you were never able to add before because of the publisher. What sort of things do you mean?
2. do you plan to have the ability to have your own character bio, similar to that of BG and BG2?
3. where do you plan to release this game, outside of Kickstarter? (GameStop, Best Buy, etc.)
Feargus: (1) I don't have specifics other than the game in general is one that is a very hard proposition with publishers at this point.

(2) Yes, we are going to have a place where you can put your character bio in.

(3) Not sure yet. We are going to talk to distributors about that and see if we can get it into stores as well. However, that might not happen - which means the boxes that from the reward tiers in KS might be the only ones.

Question: I know you've decided against full voice acting - does that apply to the companions as well? Or will it be as in NWN2 where the companions were fully voice acted (which I personlly think is great)? Thanks :-)
Feargus: I think the companions will have more voice compared to other NPCs in the game, but I don't think we will be voicing every line. We want to give the writers the ability to "go nuts" and not worry about bleeding into another voice session (300 lines = $3K to $5K with SAG, director, studio, etc...).

Question: wow thats mighty expensive.. someone asked this allready once.. but do you know the budgets BG and BG2 had?
Feargus: I do. That was when I was at Interplay and there are these pesky confidentiality agreements. Sorry.

Question: Will the encounters in the mega dungeon be scaled according to which floor of the dungeon you are on (e.g. instead of 5 ghouls you encounter 5 ghouls and a lich on a lower level)? Or will each dungeon level have a fixed level (e.g. the first floor has level 5 monsters, the second floor has level 8 monsters, and so on)? Or a combination of both?
Feargus: It will get harder as you go down into the dungeon with each level. The one thing we have been talking about is if different dungeon tiers (every two or three levels) are a bunch harder than the last tier, so you have to come back after you have gone up levels. Not sure yet.

Question: on the progress chart you see a castle ontop of the dungeon.. will that be there? so x layers + a castle ruin layer?
Feargus: You know it might - I'll have to go back and look. The castle is ummm... artistic license... Rob liked putting it up there to give context to the dungeon. However, castle ruins would be cool. He might just have created more work for himself. :)

Question: My question was about the possiblitiy of wearing capes above armor....
Feargus: Honestly, I don't know. I would say we would want to make sure we had plenty of armor / clothing variations for classes, races and NPCs - after we have a good number of those, we would look into doing stuff with capes.

Question: So you can only get the game right now if you pledge? As of now, it is up in the air whether it will be released outside of Kickstarter?
Feargus: Yes, we need to figure out if we can find a distributor who will want to take the game to retail.

Question: people wondered earlier today whether the dungeon, if deep enough, would become like an underdark or ultima underworld with it's own cultures and subquests, ones unseen on the surface
Feargus: We had talked once about adding a stretch goal ( really high one ) to add in the "under-dark" equivalent for the game as a while, not just the dungeon, can't remember where that idea went.

Question: Capes are hard to do. In ToEE, they had alot of clipping but they were flowy. In games where there is no clipping, they too stiff and look bad. Best just not to show them.
Feargus: We got them to work in KOTOR2, because your "armor" under them didn't change much, so we could use 3D Studio MAX to render out the animation for every single frame of every single animation. Ugh... It took months. If we had lots of armor variations it wouldn't have worked or every time you changed armor we would have had to load all 300 to 400 animations again.

Question: How functional and customization is the Player house going to be? Will there be shops, storage, etc?
Feargus: t will have elements of those, but it will still be a house. When we get to a stretch goal that turns the house into a Stronghold the size of Crossroad's Keep, then it will have multiple versions of all that stuff. Wait, what did I say? :)

Question: Will I get pet to my add on copies of the game or is it limited only to those copies which come with my CE edition?
Feargus: Good question, let me see how that would work.

Question: Why was the Project Eternity logo changed? :)
Feargus: Rob worked on another logo and we stated to like the direction it was going.

Question: 1.would all the stuff we are wearing change the look of the character doll in the inventory scene and would that propagate to the game play character doll?
2.would armor look unique on the character doll or would it it be like in BG were all of them looks like the generic base armor with different color like plate mail, chain mail etc.?
Feargus: (1) Changing your armor will change the look of your character.

(2) We are going to mostly have armor that everyone can wear, since we want to create as many sets as we an. We will, most likely, create some armor that is special / unique to a character, companion or class.

Question: Since DaBlue has just given your artist some extra work for the dungeon, I have a suggestion to give a story in the game lore for the Castle and it's dungeon. Keep some journal pages or parchments on the Castle Ruins, which tell a part of the castle's story.As you descend, you find more pages which flesh out the story... The Boss has the final page, of course.. :D
Feargus: Cool idea!

Some of those people keep asking about retail release - my concern with that will be it will cost a lot (i assume out of whatever KS budget Obsidian receive) and would prefer they concentrated on putting the money into the game instead)