Probably there was some white knighting involved, but you have to say, boob armours are pretty fucking stupid.
It may be like that. But we'll see how it's going to play out.

I was pretty much furious in some moments in Shadowrun Returns, for example, when you had to move in turns across the map only because there was some enemy nearby you haven't killed.

But anyway, I'm going to replay ToEE pretty soon, it seems ;P

If I remember correctly, If you changed your mind about casting a spell and were able to pause before casting, you would see a partial casting spell effect and then lose that turn.

Design flaw: armour that could kill you. The armour in the concept art looks better than most "boob armour", even before they changed it (no divet in the raised chest area):

http://i.imgur.com/zViYXMJ.gif

And the spell too :P

Implement something like in Arcanum where when you see the enemy, the combat becomes turn-based, when no enemy is present, you can move in real-time until you or your party actually sees the next enemy. And yeah, I played Arcanum turn-based.

I agree with that. An armour's purpose is to divert blows, not guideline the blows to where it hurts the most. But that's like the stairs in castle towers that turn in the wrong direction ...

Edit : I previously said I didn't mind boob armor, now that my eyes have been opened, I hate it goddamit !

In storytelling, one needs to distinguish between the extraordinary and the believable. It is entirely possible for a setting to be extraordinary and believable at the same time; all it requires is that the extraordinary be consistent and smoothly integrated. Literal breast plates fail to be believable in all but the most stylized settings, as there is no practical reason for functional armour to look like that.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/obsidian/project-eternity/posts/575528

Production 01 - State of the Project

Update #62 · Aug 21, 2013 · comment
Update by Brandon Adler, Producer

State of the Project

Hey, everyone. As you know, over the past six weeks we have been working on our first production milestone - the cleverly titled Production 01 milestone. Our first target has been Defiance Bay (our first BIG city) and the team has been busting their collective butts to get as much fantasy roleplaying goodness as possible into the city.

In George Ziets' own words, "Defiance Bay is the capital and largest city in the Dyrwood, gateway to the riches of Glanfath, teeming with adventurers and explorers from all over the region. Defiance Bay is a city of the common people, where the most prominent and respected citizens are self-made men. It stands at the forefront of experimentation in soul magic and exemplifies the age of discovery."

A ton has been accomplished in a pretty short amount of time and we would like to share some of it with you.

New Hires

April Giron

April is our new Art Intern. She has been doing an amazing job in creating the interiors that populate Defiance Bay.

Holly Prado

Holly is an Environment Artist that joined us about a week ago. She has already made a large contribution in filling out the existing areas with new props.

Matt Perez

Matt is a new Design Intern. Along with creating NPCs, quests, and blockouts, he also does maintenance work on areas (hooking up transitions, loot passes, encounters, etc.).

Ryan Torres

Like Matt, Ryan is one of our new Design Interns. He also creates dialogues, quests, and blockouts.

Brian Macintosh

Brian is Project Eternity's Programming Intern. While he has been implementing many features, he most closely works with the Concept Artists to get our UI to Alpha.

Areas

Art

The Environment Artists have wasted no time in constructing an expansive Defiance Bay. For this first milestone our target was to get three of Defiance Bay's districts to Alpha level quality. It was a little ambitious, but the team did really well. The city feels full of life and character. I am pretty impressed with the speed that the team is able to get all of this together.

Design

While the Environment Art team is busy filling out the visuals, the Area Design team is meticulously planning and executing quests, NPC dialogs, and other goodies throughout the city. They were able to get three of the city's districts completely blocked out in under a week. Considering the size of the city, it is a pretty good accomplishment.

Two of those districts are now at an Alpha level and even at an early stage, are a lot of fun to play. In addition to that, our two new Design Interns - Matt and Ryan - have been filling in the areas with smaller quests and NPCs. It is really starting to make the city feel alive.

Characters

Creatures

The Concept Artists, Animators, and Character Artists have been burning through our creatures. We are taking a different approach in Project Eternity than we have on other projects. Instead of taking a creature from concept to a final, polished product, we have been taking creatures to a blockout stage before moving to the next.

This allows us to get creatures into the game much more quickly. It also lets us be more flexible with how we spend our polish time. Overall, we think it will lead to a better experience.

Even with this short amount of time, we have been able to get about eight different creatures into the game.

Since it would be pretty mean of me to talk about the creatures without showing one, here is a small taste of one of my "favorites" - the wicht.

Creature of my nightmares...

I think Josh's description says it best: "Wichts are the bodies of children that were born without souls, grew to adolescence, and were then possessed by a malevolent lost soul or soul fragment that has been artificially inserted through animancy. This process arrests their physical development and transforms their outward appearance, leaving no doubt as to what they are."

Items

In addition to the creatures, our Character Artists have been filling out the remaining armor sets that are left. We have all of our basic armors in place for all of our races. This is a pretty significant feat this early in the project. Now that we are done with the base item and armor sets, we can focus on making magic and unique variants.

Features

Journal

We now have a fully functional quest journal in place that allows players to see their quest progress. The UI is currently being implemented, but it is looking great.

Conversations

While we have been getting more and more Alpha UI into the game, I was particularly happy with how the conversation UI came out. Take a look for yourself, though. Even though this is still a work in progress, I think everyone did a great job. Let us know what you think of the conversation UI in our forums.

Work in progress conversation UI.

Stronghold

Tim went on a tear and got most of the backend systems for the player stronghold in place. There are a ton of really fun things you can do with your stronghold like sending companions on missions, buying rare loot off of merchants, building upgrades, and even purchasing hirelings to defend your keep from attack. Watching Tim's stronghold get robbed blind because he has low security and high prestige never gets old.

World Map

Eternity now has a fully functional world map. When the party enters a qualifying transition, the world map appears. Players can then select to travel to a location by selecting that icon on the map.

Fog of War

One focus for this milestone was to get our Fog of War system in place. Beyond a few tweaks, Adam is pretty close to slaying that beast. It's a really robust system he created that takes some inspiration from rogue-like games. Using Adam's tool, designers can quickly create a fog map, edit it, and set locations that should only be revealed at specific times.

AI

Steve, our AI Programmer, has been putting work into spellcasting AI this milestone and it is coming out nicely. Enemies are more crafty than they were now that they are casting spells intelligently. There's going to be even more AI work - roles for our enemy AIs, for example - put into our next milestone.

10k Backer

We had our first $10,000 backer, Timothy, come for a visit. We all had a blast and it was great to meet one of our fans and show him the game. We even have a picture of Timothy preparing for Josh Sawyer's inevitable betrayal.

Tim, one of our 10k backers.

Josh Sawyer on Game Design

Lastly, I will leave you with a video that Josh put together about the importance of real-world knowledge in game design. Take a look.


Real-world knowledge in game design.

Stop by our forums and let us know what you think. See you in a couple of weeks.

The secret is to cheese it. Always use the spell that duplicates your character at a lower level, and get the helm from the Adventurers mart that does the same thing. Before casting the spell/using the item, load up your character with equipment with special abilities, or usable spell scrolls. Duplicate your characters before getting into the fight, and have the doppelganger use the protection from magic scrolls, ring of the ram attack, etc. Even better, if you have a multi-classed or dual-classed character (or thief), use a spell or spell scroll to duplicat your character, and then have the duplicate use the helm to duplicate themselves. If they have good enough equipment, it won't matter that their levels suck. Also, I think if duplicate 1 casts protection from magic on itself, I think it caries over to the new duplicate. I used to have Korgan dup himself after giving him a +4 staff, and have the duplicate goes berserk., It would be immune to the maze spell that Kangaxx's final form casts. Everyone else just hung off in in fog of war area of the screen.

New great stronghold update:

Hello! I have spent much of my time for the last few weeks devoted to making the game’s stronghold system, which was one of our Kickstarter project’s biggest stretch goals, into one of the best systems in the game. Josh has created an amazing and detailed stronghold design, with lots of upgrades and activities and random events that really make owning a stronghold fun and exciting. I want to spend this update explaining what we have made in the game, but first, let’s talk about the stronghold itself.

First, a caveat: I am going to describe the stronghold as it is currently designed. This design is mostly programmed already too, but as with all development, it might change as we finish the art and audio, fix any bugs, and tune the game play. So please view this as a snapshot of the stronghold development as it exists today.

You will be offered the stronghold early in the game, before you finish Act 1. But the stronghold itself is old and dilapidated, and you will want to upgrade it as soon as you can. These upgrades will, in turn, open up new activities and events that can happen, which will make the stronghold a dynamic and fun place to own.

So let’s go through the many reasons why you will want to have a stronghold.

Bonuses
There are five bonuses you will receive for getting and upgrading your stronghold.


Resting bonuses. Some of the upgrades to your stronghold will grant temporary bonuses to your attributes or non-combat skills when you rest there. As examples, you can build Training Grounds to improve your Strength or a Library to improve your Lore skill. Some of these upgrades are expensive, but you’re worth it.
Adventures for idle companions. You will eventually have more companions than will fit in your party, so you will have leave some of them behind. While they are idling away at the stronghold, they can take part in their own adventures, earning additional experience for themselves and extra money, items and reputation bonuses for you!
Ingredients. Many of the stronghold upgrades will generate ingredients used by non-combat skills. For example, Botanical Gardens create Survival ingredients over time, and a Curio Shop produces ingredients for use by both Lore and Mechanics.
Special offers. Sometimes visitors to your stronghold will have rare items for sale, or perhaps they will offer you items in return for something else. Pay attention to these visitors. Some of these items may be nearly impossible to find any other way!
Wealth. Don’t forget that by owning a stronghold, you also own all of the surrounding lands and impose a tax on all of the inhabitants. It will feel nice for a change to have someone recognize your high standing and give you the money that you so richly deserve.


These bonuses all sound great, right? Well, they are great, but they are just the passive benefits from owning and upgrading a stronghold. There are a lot of activities you can do too, once you take possession of your stronghold.

pe-tim-hard-at-work-580.jpg
Tim in his typical Stronghold creation attire.

Activities
First and foremost, when you get your stronghold, you are going to want to upgrade it. Upgrades are improvements to various parts of the castle, usually to add to the security or prestige of the place. Security affects how much taxes you collect as well as helps reduce the number of “bad” random events, while prestige increases the number of “good” random events as well as increasing tax collections, too. Upgrades can also serve as prerequisites for other upgrades. For example, you cannot build your Training Grounds (and get your Strength bonus after resting at the stronghold) until you have repaired the inner bailey of the stronghold.

Every upgrade costs money and takes time to build, but as long as you have the prerequisites completed, you can have as many upgrades building simultaneously as you can afford. And you don’t have to wait at the stronghold while they are built, either. You can continue adventuring, and you will be notified when they are built.

You can begin collecting taxes from your populace as soon as you gain the stronghold. The amount of taxes you collect increases with your prestige (because people know of you and like you), but the amount also increases with higher security, since some taxes are lost to banditry. You will want to keep both of those values high.

You can also employ hirelings to stay at your stronghold. These people will provide bonuses to your prestige and security, but they cost money to employ. Some will leave your castle if you stop paying them, but others will wait around to get paid again (but not provide any bonuses until they are).

If you have cleared the dungeon and built a prison under your stronghold, then when you are fighting some of the named NPC’s in the game, you will be given an option to take them prisoner instead of killing them. Prisoners are kept in a cell in your prison, where you can visit them and talk to them, and occasionally use them as leverage later in the game. But you will need to keep your security level high, or you might suffer from a prison break!
Finally, several upgrades will produce ingredients used by non-combat skills. This feature, along with upgrades that can improve your skills, makes your stronghold a great place to craft and store items. You can stop by your castle occasionally and make food, potions, scrolls, armors and weapons, and any that you don’t need immediately can be stored in chests and other containers in a variety of places around the stronghold. You know, in case of an emergency.

Which brings us to random stronghold events.

Random Events
As you play the game after getting the stronghold, whether or not you are physically there, you will be told if a random event happens at the stronghold. Sometimes, you will need to deal with the event immediately, but usually you are given some time to decide what to do.

The most common event at your stronghold is having a visitor arrive. There are all kinds of visitors, but they all share one thing. They can adjust your prestige and/or security just by being at your stronghold. Some visitors are wonderful and give good bonuses, and you will want them to stay as long as possible. Some of these visitors can even be employed as hirelings and will stay on as long as you pay them. Others are not so great, and you will want to offer them one of your companions to act as an escort to their next location, or perhaps simply pay them to leave. Some visitors will offer rare items for sale, and some might even offer a very rare item in exchange for one of the prisoners in your dungeon. As you can see, visitors require some decision making on your part.

As mentioned above, your idle companions can take part in adventures as those events arise. You will be informed of what adventures are available, how long they will last, and what the rewards will be (in general terms). If you send a companion on an adventure, he or she is unavailable until they complete it and return with the rewards. You can recall any companions early, but then they earn nothing. Why would you ever want to recall them then? Because your stronghold can get attacked!

Attacks are the most potentially dangerous of all stronghold events. Occasionally troublemakers (of various sorts) will decide to attack your castle. You will be warned ahead of time of any such attack, so you can return to the stronghold and take part in it directly, if you want. Otherwise, the attack is simulated and you are told the results. A well-defended stronghold can repel any but the most concerted attacks, but there is always a chance of damage which can destroy upgrades, kill hirelings, and cost money. The threat of attacks is the most important reason to keep your security level as high as you can afford.

I hope you have enjoyed this sneak peek into the world of Project Eternity and the role your stronghold will play in the game. No matter how you play the game, your stronghold is certain to provide many benefits and also be a lot fun too!

Fog of War......well can't wait to clean all the black gunk off my screen.

Can companions die while off on their own adventures i wonder?
Sounds like Stronghold will be quite involved... which is ok i guess. Im guessing if u choose to take a NPC prisoner you get either more or less XP than killing on a quest?. Im actually wondering - its starting to sound a bit ambitious...:P

Check out the new Kickstarter Realms of Goldesia...seems like they are giving away free oculus rifts to first 75 backers...

Check out the new MMORPG - Realms of Goldesia on Kickstarter. The game will be compatible with VR Oculus Rift headset. Seems pretty cool...They are also giving away oculus rift free at one of their reward levels.

Sounds like a marketing ploy to get people to back them.... since it *is* a MMO... which lot of people really aren't interesting in

I'm reminded that it's been over a year since the Kickstarter now and we still haven't seen any ~gameplay~ videos yet, just that scene of the animated waterfall and river, come on Obsidian...