Sorry, was a typo, is 2.8M

I just want to say that people saying DLC and downloadable expansions are different things is a rage-inducing pet peeve of mine. It is downloadable content. THAT MEANS IT IS DLC!

Agree, but sadly almost all modern DLCs are small things compared to the old expansions, with few exceptions, then I guess people are traumatized with the word DLC

Yeah, I see where they're coming from, but it's become a buzzword to appeal to jaded gamers. "Oh ho ho, look how cool we are. We won't have any of this DLC nonsense! No, we're strictly old school with our downloadable content.".

If I remember correctly, the word DLC originated in the consoles, before this was always expansions or add-ons (I know map packs and little packages with guns/units already existed in this era, but they were free). Using the word expansion the old gamers want to signal they want a proper expansion, not some stupid thing with 2/3 hours of game...

I like the idea of this GZ guy being on board. Hopefully they make the 2.8mil mark? (I doubt it)

I have been a bit put off by the traditional-ness of the whole project, which is mostly why I still haven't contributed yet.

Hopefully something is announced to differentiate it from the rest of the pack in the coming days?

Some more from this evening (Feargus said he's be on again a little later for another session, so there may be yet another update tonight):


Question: A question on the shirts. The Obsidian shirt and the Project Eternity shirt are different in design correct? I didn't notice it but are there design photos of the shirt/s?
Feargus: Rob is working on the art right now. We will have that up by tomorrow at the latest.

Question: anyone know where I can get information about the 2.3 million stretch goal, its not in any of their kickstarter update.
Feargus: All of the stretch goals should now be linked to the update where they were talked about. For the most part. Some of the early ones were talked about in multiple updates, so I might need to refine them a bit.

Question: Will characters be able to use a (reasonably sized) spear both as a two-handed weapon and as a one-handed weapon (together with a shield)? And without resorting to something as stupid as a Monkey-Grip Feat people used to dual-wield Greatswords. (*sigh+facepalm*)
Feargus: We have not decided on how we are supporting spears just yet. Right now our first priority would be to support them as purely two-handed weapons. Then based upon where we are with funding and scope, we would then consider the one-handed with shield option.

Question: Feargus when we will see more about the geography of the PE world? Our only reference at the moment is basically the map. And whats his name? How many suns/moons?
Feargus: Josh is working a lot on cultures and the people that live within the world right now. After that, and with George's help (if we get to $2.8), we will start fleshing out all those things very soon.

Question: I'm really keen to hear more about souls and how they impact the PE world. Are you planning to release any further information about them before the kickstarter ends? No is okay I'm just curious about them. : )
Feargus: Josh is going to be doing a Lore update on Thursday. I'm not sure what his topic is yet, so it might be that. I expect that he will be turning to that (along with the structure of the world) very soon. But, probably not, during the last week of the KS campaign.

Question: If you will give us the opportunity to become a deity in PE, I will up my pledge right away. An adventure in the divine realms where deities intrigue and compete for status and worshippers for instance This is something fresh that has never really been done before. Players have NEVER had the chance to see things with the eyes of a diety (you can become a god at the end of Baldur's Gate ToB but never get to act in the world from their perspective) I think Obsidian has the talent and depth to make such gameplay interesting. What do you say?
Feargus: Gotcha. I think for this first foray into the world of Project Eternity that we will be keeping the characters closer to Level 1 like characters.

Question: Have you seen any creature designs yet?
Feargus: The guys and gals are really working a lot on the races and classes right now. Once Josh turns towards the world more we will start concepting more of that out. The animators are working on developing all the rigs (skeletons) right now to make sure that we can support a fairly wide range of types.

Question: your favorite subject. paladins. will they have any magic at all?
Feargus: From Josh's update: And though they are not always pledged to the service of a god or gods, paladins are so singularly focused on their chosen cause that their souls are continually creating a wellspring of spiritual energy from which they can blast groups of foes in their immediate vicinity.

Question: And what the possibility of a lost-valley type area with pre-historic animals like Chult in Storm of Zehir?
Feargus: I think that would be great for an expansion type area, but we will definitely have fun areas that are different when you are off the beaten path.

Question: do you know whether possession will exist in PE?
Feargus: Sorry, don't know on that one.

Question: Perhaps another way around the whole expansion pack thing. Obsidian put up the expansion pack on their website and people can buy the main game via Kickstarter and the Expansion pack separately. Maybe something they could do after Kickstarter. :|
Feargus: Not a bad idea. Adam and I are talking later or tomorrow morning about how we want to handle it.

Question: Honesty time. Are we doing better than you expected, about the same, or worse?
Feargus: We are doing better than I expected. Well that's not totally true. I had really high hopes, but doing something like this feels like jumping out of an airplane hoping that the parachute is going to open.

Question: If PE will have ships, that implies some mastery of wind. Will there be some level of mastery of flight as well? Thinking hot air balloons/gliders, not engine based? Could add another dynamic dealing with enemies "on wing"?
Feargus: This time out, I think we are going to be sticking fairly close to the ground.

Question: would be great to buy games straight from Obsidian period. I don't suppose that would be the case with stick of truth.
Feargus: Funny you should say that. Darren has made a pledge to get our own store up that will sell everything we make (as long as we can get agreements in place with our publishers). I know it sounds a bit odd that we need to get an agreement in place to sell a game that we have made. But, it's not actually weird or an evil publisher doing anything. We just need to have an agreement like anyone would who sells the game - like a publisher would have with Amazon.

Question: So, how long were you actually planning on adding paladins? I noticed that you had a real blast trolling about them, even though you knew that they would be added as a stretch goal. :)
Feargus: I was finally over-ruled this morning. :) j/k We have been talking about it for a while, however Josh and Tim really wanted to get their heads around them truly fitting into the world. If that hadn't happened, we probably wouldn't have put them out their as stretch.

Question: Feargus the idea about selling the expansion direct by Obsidian and not as an KS add-on is interesting, but they will be available soon as a option to get more funding (and counting for the strech goals) or only a lot of time after? I guess many people will glady up ther pledges because of this expansion
Feargus: Gotcha - like I said we are still winding our way through what would make the most sense for us and all of you.

Question: Is there any chance of a cheaper tier with Wastelands 2 and the expansion? I would love to get in on those and through a little more support to you guys, but I can't really afford the $165 tier and I don't need the other stuff it comes with.
Feargus: We are talking about the expansion as an add-on, but aren't sure if we will offer it yet. As for Wasteland 2 - inXile put up a new store just yesterday and you can get it how you want it here: http://wasteland.inxile-entertainment.com/

Question: If I remember correctly this is a time of expansion and exploration in the world (seafaring boats trying to brave the sea monsters to find new lands). Are these expeditions being funded by the ruling classes of the world, and what are they hoping to find? (this is more of stuff to put down for world building. I know it is too early to answer these type questions.)
Feargus: That would be a great question for Josh. We should be doing an AMA this week - I'd throw it out to him then.

NOTE: I was unable to find the question associated with the following comment by Feargus - Coelocanth
Feargus: The money raised for the stretch goals doesn't all go to the development of that stretch goal. Any additional funds that we raise will be used to have additional people work on the project, such as area designers, programmers, and artists. All of these fine people will make the game's story larger and improves the quality of the game.

Paladins at 2.7 Million, I hope this happens. Damn it, I'm starting to want this game.

Good idea, I'd love a Resident Evil 1-2 style game, static/fixed camera angle, pre-rendered backdrops with 3D models for characters and props.

Someone kickstart this man's idea immediately!

Anyone know if they mentioned if they'll continue running Paypal preorders post-Kickstarter? I want to get the Humble eBook Bundle, but to get the money I'd need to pull my pledge and I doubt I'll be able to get enough money to repledge in the remaining week or so till the end.

Feargus is on the KS comments section now. I'll ask and see if I get a reply.

George Ziets. For one thing, he did lead design for MotB, the first NWN2 expansion.
The draw for me at that level is the Chanter. I love bards.

Gazoinks, Feargus responded with this:

"Yes, like Wasteland 2, we will keep on taking pledges / donations after the Kickstarter is over on PayPal. This is what Wasteland 2 is doing.

Wasteland 2"

So yeah, you'll be fine.

Okay, another Q&A session this evening:

Question: Michael Ryan just had a question about the cloth map. Will that be offered as an add-on, and if not, will it come outside the Collector's Box so he doesn't have to open it/break the seal to get to the map?
Feargus: We don't know if we are going to offer it as an add-on. For the one that comes with the CE, we were assuming we were going to put it in the box.

Question: received my special edition X-com today, and found a wonderful art book in it...and a 3 page manual. Which I find a bit disturbing, because I'd really rather know more about how the game works. So will PE have a real manual? I miss the days when I could actually use the manual as a reference instead of google.
Feargus: Our plan is to have a real manual. I don't know if it will be 350 pages and spiral bound, but it won't be no 3 pages!

Question: Is PE going to have humor injected into it like BG (volo and elminster in the manual) and Fallout, or is it going to be serious business?
Feargus: I would expect humor, but more our style humor than Bioware's.

Question: I'm sure I know the answer to this, but I'll ask anyway - I was able to convince the Fiancee to let me get a high tier reward as she'd get a copy of the digital download, but now with all the extras, she's decided she wants those too (Project Wasteland, Expansion etc.) - Will these be offered as an extra, or do I need a new reward?
Feargus: We are talking about offering he expansion as an add-on. Should have an answer on that in the next day. As for Wasteland, I would suggest looking over at the new store at inXile and picking what level she/you would like for it: http://wasteland.inxile-entertainment.com/

Question: Will there be drinking in game along with the associated status augmentations due to drunkenness?
Feargus: I'm guessing that there will Ale and it will probably have both positive and negative effects. We have always like putting things like that in games - all the way back to Fallout. Although, I'm pretty amazed we didn't get in trouble for the amount of drugs and drug references in Fallout. I did think that Fallout actually made you not want to use drugs because of the addictiveness system though.

Question: Still no comment about Blackstream's romance quote?
Feargus: I'm going to go with whatever Chris said in the interview. And, I'm sticking to that stance. :) In other words, if Chris said it - then that is what we will be doing.

Question: I'm currently in at the $500 level, but really want the Obsidian t-shirt (wanted one since TSL). Unfortunately, I can't afford to go to $525 at this time. Will Obsidian shirts be available via an Obsidian store at some point? Could an Obsidian tee magically find it's way into the $500+ tiers?
Feargus: Darren has promised to get an Obsidian store up soon, so that we can sell games and other merchandise as well. We are not totally sure when, but the hope is within the next 30 to 45 days (giving ourselves some trial, error and testing time).

Question: Will druids have the ability to summon or charm animals?
Feargus: I want to say yes - since that is a very druid thing. However, I'm going to leave that for Josh to answer in the AMA we will be doing this week.

Question: What about clocks in PE, day/night switch (twilight maybe)? Maybe some quests related to day/night like in BG2?
Feargus: We are going to work on a day/night cycle like the IE games. We think we can simulate it without having to do the full map switch over though - but we will see. As for day/night quests - it really depends if the designers want to do them when they are making their areas. In other words, it's not a design pillar, however it's not a restriction either. We try to give the area designers a huge amount of freedom to do what they want in their areas, as long as they support the main story, the companions, the factions, and the main themes of the game

Question: Since you have selected the Unitity engine, will Obsidian also publish some of the content and maybe even tools in their asset store?
Feargus: We have been talking about it. Not sure what we will do, but the Unity store is pretty cool and we have purchased and tried out things from their ourselves already.

Question: With regards to Chanters, when you say "they create chants from different verses they collect" does that mean something like gathering bits of lore and putting them together to create different kinds of custom effects or something? Like how in Magicka you build custom spells out of different elements and it's a really flexible, deep system, only Chanters would be less about murderbeams, more about shamanistic rap battles. Or is it something a bit more.like dragon shouts in Skyrim where each verse upgrades a chant and each chant has a specific function?
Feargus: I'm going to defer to Josh on that one. Great question to ask in the AMA that will be either tomorrow or Thursday.

Question: BTW, we know what's coming on thursday, but what do you have planned update wise for tomorrow (technically today in certain parts of America)
Feargus: To be honest, the update for tomorrow is going to be something of a "maintenance update". We are going to list out all the tiers in text, so everyone has a reference. We can then update that update, to keep it current. We will have a couple more things to update in there as well - but it won't be a momentous update. Thursday will be BIG!

Question: Earlier you mentioned that you want to fund PE purely from KS funds. So, what happens if the money runs out?
Feargus: Then we start spending our own money. :) We are also going to be looking at seeing if we can get distribution deals that could also help fund. A distribution deal is where we have a publisher build and ship the product - we still control everything else.

Question: Do you really anticipiate needing that funding with how far we've shot over the goal at this point though? Hopefully any distribution deals won't take too much out of your profits.
Feargus: I don't think I explained that very well. The only reason for us to look at distribution is to get Project Eternity into retail stores. The only publisher for the game digitially will be us. I worked for a publisher for 12 years, working directly with the retailers is not something that is worth our time.

Question: Will you guys continue running Paypal preorders post-Kickstarter? Any thoughts on that?
Feargus: Yes, like Wasteland 2, we will keep on taking pledges / donations after the Kickstarter is over on PayPal.




And... of course the post is too long. Will add the rest later when the forum allows me to - Coelocanth

The internet is running out of space! Ahhhhhhhh ....