Obsidian Entertainment - Project Eternity Stretch Goals

I like all the future goals, cept the house thing. This whole "have your own home in a game" just smacks of some queer vibe. If you tie quests to it, or if it's at risk from giants/hordes of angry orc/ an irate Martha Stewart, now that could be interesting!


-Carn
 
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I like all the future goals, cept the house thing. This whole "have your own home in a game" just smacks of some queer vibe. If you tie quests to it, or if it's at risk from giants/hordes of angry orc/ an irate Martha Stewart, now that could be interesting!


-Carn

It can be a way to enhance the role playing environment of the game, especially if you can customize your house according to the particular background and tastes of the character you are playing.

And I've noticed that if I ever become too rich in an RPG, the game usually becomes a bit boring, so it's good to have some very expensive items to save up for and gold sinks like expansions to the house.
 
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I dont get the obession with houses in RPG's either. It's a nice feature in Terraria and such games where you need to build a quick shelter for the night, and in some FO and Skyrim mods where you can set up a camp anywhere. That's something that can add to the gameplay.
 
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For me, there's something very much missing from the stretch goals, and I hope as such that that's because it's in the base game. I want a remarkably fledged out spell and counter spell system worthy of comparison to BGII. Dragon Age, in addition to its other issues, felt very watered down when it came to magical combat - it just couldn't compare to the retinue of arcane cantrips I had grown accustomed to in D&D.

If you're going to go down the [tired] road of fantasy and magic, give us a magic system with incredible breadth!

That sounds like something that would be in the base game.
 
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I gotta agree with the several rpg watchers who said the stretch goals look pretty chintzy. Not sure what is up with that, maybe they will expand these later on or something to generate a bit of excitement. As it stands, those goals are a big "meh"
 
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I couldn't resist and finally increased my pledge from 35 to 65 for the boxed version (+15 $ int shipping). They deserve every cent of it.
 
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I gotta agree with the several rpg watchers who said the stretch goals look pretty chintzy. Not sure what is up with that, maybe they will expand these later on or something to generate a bit of excitement. As it stands, those goals are a big "meh"
And is it me, or has it slowed down a bit because of down ? :) Maybe I'm hallucinating, I hope so.

Anyways, I agree that the stretch goals could be better. These smaller goals (one extra class etc.) always feels like something that would be just tacked on instead of being an integral part of the design of the game (to that end, I would have liked the initial design more fleshed out, I dont want to negate the removal of publishers but still a short informal design document is always nice). I'd like to have bigger (and possible fewer) stretch goals as well, which would be more general and allow more creative freedom to the devs. I trust the devs, not all those individuals with their personal features. Will still back them of course, in particular their recent Fallout NV convinces me that they still got what it takes.
 
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Oooo, there's a mental game for the Mac users. If you pay them then MAYBE they will get enough money to make a Mac version.

Regarding the goals - I think most of those development efforts have to be fully funded by the Kickstarters. In the case of the base game, they can spend $2 for every $1 pledged because they will also be getting sales revenue after the game is done. But having one extra potential companion isn't likely to increase sales a whole lot so the extra development there has to come from the Kickstarters. (At least that's my guess - I'm hardly an expert in crowd source funding models.)

What really floors me are the people tossing out $3000+ on this game. And, in return, the developers will put your picture in the game and send you a signed copy of it. SERIOUSLY?? I've always thought collectors' editions were pretty nuts but this is way beyond that. I'm already <ahem> at the thin end of the bell curve when it comes to spending money on gaming but… wow. And $10,000 to 'party with the devs'?? I could buy a state senator for that kind of cash!
 
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And is it me, or has it slowed down a bit because of down ? :) Maybe I'm hallucinating, I hope so.

It's slowing down pretty much as you would expect for a kickstarter project, which seems to be a big burst in the first few days, then bouncing around at a much lower level for most of the pledge period, then an uptick right near the end.

For an example here's Wasteland 2's profile.

Things like Mac and Linux ports, or translations, or 100 extra character portraits, or get an orchestra to do the soundtrack, or whatever, where they can take that $200K they got for it and hire a guy or gal to work specifically on that thing, in parallel with the main development, are the sort of stretch goals that I like. Even if they be somewhat humdrum.

It's the ones they increase the scope of the project, like more companion characters and more story and whole new areas, where I don't see an obvious way that the $200K they get can be directly be applied to that specifically because it inherently requires more work from the core team if you want to keep the quality up, I worry about. Be they ever so much more exciting.

It's basically relies on them being able to shift other stuff off those core people and to free them up for it. Which you can obviously do to some extent, but seems to be higher risk to me, and there will be a limit before you start blowing out the schedule.
 
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What really floors me are the people tossing out $3000+ on this game. And, in return, the developers will put your picture in the game and send you a signed copy of it. SERIOUSLY?? I've always thought collectors' editions were pretty nuts but this is way beyond that. I'm already <ahem> at the thin end of the bell curve when it comes to spending money on gaming but… wow. And $10,000 to 'party with the devs'?? I could buy a state senator for that kind of cash!

I see it as a donation. I don't expect $3000 dollars worth of fun/awesomeness in return for a donation of $3000. The same goes for donating to the Red Cross or Doctors Without Borders etc. I just expect them to do a good job with the money I'm donating to them.
 
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I'd caution people to maintain perspective - how much game do you think you can get for $1.1M? This might be Obsidian's dream project but they will still (likely) be very constrained by budget.

I want loads of OPTIONAL companions…

And 5 classes?….

…I want a remarkably fledged out spell and counter spell system worthy of comparison to BGII….give us a magic system with incredible breadth!

… I'd expect new land masses, plots etc.

Plus Mac, Linux, housing then pay for boxes, cloth maps, take out shipping…

Don't expect a commitment to "loads of optional companions" until they have a lot more money on the board.
 
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I really hope these guys watched the Bones - Reaper Minis kickstarter and took some of that to heart as to how to do things right. If they do then they could easily reach upwards of 4 million or higher and the starting number of NPCs, races, classes could look quite small compared to what higher possible stretch goals might allow. If they don't engage with that kind of intensity, planning, and frequency then they will more likely end up somewhere between 2.4 and 3.3 million (pulling numbers completely out of my ass of course.)

Sadly I'm worried that their continued work on current games like the Stick of Truth might mean they don't have quite the time to devote to the campaign period compared to the guys at Reaper minis. If it follows the same sort of shape of pledges/day as wasteland 2 did and has a similar ratio of average pledges to peak daily pledges it would end somewhere around 3.7 million. Even getting a few more peaks with big reveals and good communication could easily push it well above that - assuming similar remaining but unpledged donor capacity is available.

Given the teasing done for this project ahead of time and significant first to second day drop off compared to Wasteland 2 though, I believe the peak to average ratio will be more significant for this project as it may have taken longer for some instantly convinced supporters to actually hear about the previous project for the first time. In light of that I think they will have to work harder to convince remaining potential supporters to maintain anything like that sort of momentum and would fall far short of 3.7 million if they don't throw in a few big reveals, concept art dumps, and interesting tidbits down the line to entice the unconvinced. If they do that though then it could get very high indeed.
 
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I'd actually prefer if they don't put too many 'stretch goals'. They are really not part of the game (Mac/Linux support, even housing, etc). An RPG is a complex thing, as they well know, adding one extra node to the graph means connecting that node to all the other nodes in the game, it's not a linear progression of work, it's more exponential.

I'd say, stay as it is, and make the game as originally planned. As we all know there will be delays, and the extra money they get should go to cover those inevitable delays.

Once the first game is done, the engine is done, the assets are there, then the sequel can introduce extra races, classes, etc. Building on what's done.
 
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I'd actually prefer if they don't put too many 'stretch goals'. They are really not part of the game (Mac/Linux support, even housing, etc). An RPG is a complex thing, as they well know, adding one extra node to the graph means connecting that node to all the other nodes in the game, it's not a linear progression of work, it's more exponential.

I'd say, stay as it is, and make the game as originally planned. As we all know there will be delays, and the extra money they get should go to cover those inevitable delays.

Once the first game is done, the engine is done, the assets are there, then the sequel can introduce extra races, classes, etc. Building on what's done.

I'm not saying they need a LOT of stretch goals but that if they want to maintain momentum they need enticing reveals of some sort. That doesn't have to be in the form of stretch goals, but could also be in the form of information about the game or greater elaboration as the kickstarter window moves along.
 
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A house is okay, but I've yet to see it make a game substantially more interesting. After all, you're not going to be spending much game time there.

I'd rather see them include a polished toolset for adding mods and spend more time on setting development.
 
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