Game News Project Eternity Kickstarter Update #16: Mod Support, Exclusive Backer Pet, and Combat with Tim Cain

[Crooked Bee]

Tags: Adam Brennecke; Obsidian Entertainment; Pillars of Eternity; Tim Cain

In yet another update to the Project Eternity Kickstarter campaign, Obsidian Entertainment promise mod support and an exclusive in-game pet for backers. The update also has Tim Cain answer some more questions submitted via Reddit, confirming flanking, charging and opportunity attacks, among other things. Additionally for $500 backers and above, Obsidian will let you put your name and a personalized message on a memorial stone in game -- HOWEVER, I remind you that you can get your name into the game much cheaper, for just $50, if you donate to the Codex Eternity fundraiser.

Exclusive Backer Pet

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.

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.

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.​

I hope the pet will be kawaii. ^_^

Also: in the Reddit interview, Tim explains how they currently envisage cooldowns working in the game. Go give it a read.

 

[FeelTheRads]

I hope the pet will be rapeable.

Or at least a pet romance mod.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

I hope the pet will be kawaii.

We can kill it, right?

 

[commie]

Man, one more stretch goal and our pets will be able to have battles!

 

[almondblight]

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?).

Alright everyone, keep this saved for the next time someone says that focusing on the graphics doesn't come at a cost to gameplay.

 

[Infinitron]

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?).

Alright everyone, keep this saved for the next time someone says that focusing on the graphics doesn't come at a cost to gameplay.

Let's try to fix it: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/61...bout-at-least-letting-us-fire-ranged-weapons/

 

[good little toastboy]

I thought firearms were quite rare in this setting and only be single shot stuff. Firing a bow while prone? Can you really wind a crossbow while being prone? Introducing crouching just for the sake of an attack modifier seems utterly pointless too. I don't think either really has a place in this game.

 

[Infinitron]

Firing a bow while prone? Can you really wind a crossbow while being prone?

That's why my thread says "prone or crouched". Or you can wind the crossbow while standing and only fire it prone, I dunno.

If they're going to implement stances we might as well have full use of them.

 

[maverick]

We should have a fundraiser for a codex troll as a pet

 

[Jaesun]

racofer Did Lovers Lab add a Project Eternity forum yet?

Edit: And man am I PRAYING Prosper will do some mods for PE as well. <3

 

[Allanon]

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?).

Alright everyone, keep this saved for the next time someone says that focusing on the graphics doesn't come at a cost to gameplay.

It's not graphics, it's animation - difference being that unless you choose to make a text based game, you'll need animations no matter what graphics you have - 2d, 3d or a mix. So it really comes down to how much time/money you want to invest in specific features. I think they have made all the right choices trying to avoid unnecessary work by choosing Unity as their engine and using the assets store. If the say tripling animation work is too much considering the project's constraints then life is tough. Nothing to do with them trying to go for the eye candy and cutting features as a result.

 

[racofer]

racofer Did Lovers Lab add a Project Eternity forum yet?

Edit: And man am I PRAYING Prosper will do some mods for PE as well. <3

None that I know of.

 

[Ogg]

We should have a fundraiser for a codex troll as a pet

That's a pet I'd like to pet.

 

[Shannow]

Stances are stupid in this kind of RT game. Prone is simply the same as in D&D, i.e. "knocked down". That's fine by me.

Anyway, this idea with being able to cast low-level stuff at will might turn out good. I've thought of making spells free to use in the D&D system once you're able cast spells of 4 levels or so higher. So Magic Missle would become free once you're able to to cast level 5 spells. Another idea was to give the caster a certain amount of spell levels that he can cast, eg. either 9x level 1 spells or 1x level 9 spell. But I didn't think it'd work out well in D&D. In another system that's balanced around that stuff, it might.

What Tim misses in the warriors vs casters balancing is that they were supposed to have different strengths and weaknesses. A caster might slay a dragon with a single Finger of Death while a fighter would never be able to overcome it. While the caster'd be attritioned to death by 20 single orcs in succession that the fighter'd simply laugh about. I like the system. Of course it requires good resting mechanics

 

[kaizoku]

I hope the pet will be kawaii. ^_^

mmm... maybe it would have been more logical to have quoted this post instead:

I hope the pet will be rapeable.

Man, one more stretch goal and our pets will be able to have battles!

this is now a pokemon thread

 

[Crooked Bee]

I hope the pet will be rapeable.

Or at least a pet romance mod.

Furry detected.

 

[Rivmusique]

Could you please provide a bit more detail on how skill/spell cooldowns are going to factor into the games combat system?

Sure, let me give some specifics on how we are planning to incorporate cooldowns into the wizard class. First off, cooldowns are NOT on individual spells. For any particular spell, you cast it, and when you are done, you can cast it again right away. But one limitation is on spells of a particular level. When you cast a certain number of those spells, in any combination, then the whole spell level group goes into a cooldown, and you can't use any of them until that cooldown has passed. That cooldown is long enough that for short battles, you are limited to casting a certain number of spells for each spell level. For long battles, that cooldown might expire and you can start casting those spells again.

So all fights will be balanced around the player having a full repertoire of spells/abilities off CD and ready to go? Hope the majority are interesting and there isn't too much trash that dies once you exhaust your highest level damage abilities.

 

[Jaesun]

I hope the pet will be rapeable.

Or at least a pet romance mod.

I'm sure the nexus will not disappoint and accommodation your needs. That or Lover's Lab will step up to the plate.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Furry detected.

Did they confirm furry pets?

I was thinking scales. Or, dare I even hope for oozing?

 

[Vault Dweller]

 

[Ogg]

One of the greatest romance in RPG history.

Also, were his lips really this pink? It looks like he's been trying his little sister make up.

 

[Jaesun]

Maybe he was a tranny all along?

 

[ghostdog]

We should have a fundraiser for a codex troll as a pet

And make it a pet that will ally with enemies during combat, steal from your loot and bite off your arm if you try to pet it.

 

[nihil]

No per-ability-cooldowns.

I should've known Tim Cain wouldn't do something that awful, but Feargus scared me a while there.

 

[kris]

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?).

Alright everyone, keep this saved for the next time someone says that focusing on the graphics doesn't come at a cost to gameplay.

It's not graphics, it's animation - difference being that unless you choose to make a text based game, you'll need animations no matter what graphics you have - 2d, 3d or a mix. So it really comes down to how much time/money you want to invest in specific features. I think they have made all the right choices trying to avoid unnecessary work by choosing Unity as their engine and using the assets store. If the say tripling animation work is too much considering the project's constraints then life is tough. Nothing to do with them trying to go for the eye candy and cutting features as a result.

It is still about graphics. In the goldbox games the one animation was okay even if you hit prone. It is the belief that with fancy graphics it looks to ugly to just use the same animation as people seemingly don't understand what happened if the animation doesn't show that the blow connected.