Are there hard skill checks in the game or do you roll for everything?
There will be some hard skill check, especially in narrative section since that's how we keep track of personality and reputation.
For combat, it'd be similar to XCOM so there are some rolling involved.
How much game will I see in one playthrough (this question has roots in AoD)?
Narrative wise, since certain path is mutually exclusive, you won't be able to see 100% of the game in 1 playthrough.
I can't really give an indication of how much % you can see in one play through or whether or not we can match Age of Decadence in that way. Part of the reason we come to Kickstarter is to expand the writing team. It is one of my pet wish list, that by expanding the writing team, we are increasing the number of narrative choice and the consequences of those choices. Assuming we got funded, you'd see less of the whole game in one play through.
Briefly, here is how we are structuring it narratively.
Act 1 is all about context setting. In the relatively short Act 1, the narrative freedom of this game will be somewhat constrained due to Act 1 also serves as an extended tutorial. We do require a little but of structure for the tutorial to properly serve its intended function. The narrative structure for Act 1 is similar to a Choose Your Own Adventure (CYOA) type of novel/game. In BG context, it'd be somewhat similar to Candlekeep and the first wilderness.
In Act 2, the game opens up and you start to take an active role in the strategy layer. You choose which territory to conquer, etc. Rather than having a giant CYOA narrative structure, we have a numerous small story arcs that get trigerred by player's action or inaction. It's like having many short stories that, when taken as a whole, tells the journey and the development of player's character in the context set in Act 1. This is somewhat similar to an extended BG2's "get 20k gold, don't care how you do it" quest structure.
By expanding the writing team, we can have a much richer Act 2.
In terms of assets, I guess you would see the majority of the assets we made. The only exception would probably be the ending cinematics depending which ending you get.
How is the levelling handled?
Here is how it is at the moment:
Assuming you win, each tactical battle gives you 2 skill points in each of your primary and secondary weapon slot.
Every 4 skill points in your highest skill tree, you get a level up.
No class. What your character can do depends on what you equip him with.
We like the idea of Elder Scroll system where the more you use something, the better you are at it. Originally, we tracked how many times you swing that weapon, say long sword. The more you swing that long sword, the more skill points you have in long sword skill tree. However, in our internal play testing, some players (me!) may (will!) abuse this system by having one character attacking an enemy with long sword and another character heals that enemy ad infinitum. In the end, we simplify it by saying that, as long as you equip that weapon/magic in either Primary or Secondary slot, you gain some skill point in it after the battle.
I also like the idea that the player has some new "toys" after each battle. Hence, after each battle, the player can improve their character a bit by being able to spend 2 skill points that they just earned for each of their primary and secondary slot.
Do note that what I described above is still subject to change as we fine tune it further and hearing input from our closed beta players. So please don't hold me to it.