Those armor related things sound absolutely Divine. That's one of the things what I truely loved about D&D 3.5e. A wizard, or anyone could equip any armour (as long as their strenght was high enough to actually move with it), but logically suffer the armor check & arcane spell failure penalties.
Thus, a wizard, casting a spell which would require a "somatic component" would have an 85%(?) chance of failure. However, verbal only spells could be cast without any chance of failure.
However, that edition of D&D went a bit overboard with the armor check penalties, relying on the american stereotype of "a knight in full plate can't stand up if knocked down from horseback", thus granting you a -8 penalty to every physical skill, even if you were trained with the armor. But if you wore it without training, you also got that -8 to attacks and all that, if I remember right of course.
Update 36 .. if this isn't the most awsomesauce, I don't know what is ... no, seriously this game is still in its infancy, but just look how much thought is already going into the strategic nature of all the systems...
Movement and Combat Feel - We've been working on implementing all of the basics of party selection, movement, and combat. This includes working on personal space, ally and enemy pathing, friendly "bumping" during movement, ranges of melee attacks, attack timing and delays, target selection, and response time. A lot of work goes into making these elements feel good and feel "IE-ish" (while excluding the IE-ish things we didn't like).
We’ve also been building block-in weapon meshes and putting them in the game to see how they look in terms of scale. This has gone well, but we're still working on proportions. Some thin weapons, like stilettos, rapiers, and estocs, can be very difficult to discern, especially at lower resolutions. Their thicker cousins, daggers, swords, and greatswords, need to be "beefed up" a small amount to help distinguish them. Even though we need to make a few slight adjustments, our overall approach of making weapons with realistic... ish proportions is working well and feels similar to the characters and weapons found in Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale.
Along with implementing the visuals of the weapons, we're experimenting with weapon statistics and mechanics. Weapons are currently classified as slashing, piercing, or crushing, which is a pretty common division of types. We're not currently using damage types vs. armor types in Project Eternity, but the damage types all have properties that suggest a certain type of usage.
Slashing weapons do the most damage when compared to their counterparts from other categories. E.g., if you compare a greatsword to an estoc to a maul, the greatsword does the most damage. When targets have little to no armor, slashing weapons are the ideal choice. Piercing weapons negate a fixed amount of Damage Threshold, which is the primary way in which armor reduces damage. Though they don't do as much damage as slashing or crushing weapons, their ability to ignore even moderately heavy armor means that it is superior to other weapons in those circumstances. While armor can negate a large amount of damage, there's always a small amount that gets through. Crushing weapons do much more through armor, which makes them the best choice when dealing with very heavily armored targets.
So far, this works well on paper, scales well, and seems to hold up in the game, but it is very "mathy" and not necessarily intuitive because you can't always guess a target's Damage Threshold simply by looking at them (as opposed to armor types, which are usually visually apparent). We will continue to experiment with this to see how it feels in the long run. Our goals are to provide tactical challenges to the player and give them to feedback and tools to adapt and overcome when they're in a difficult spot.
UI Design - Tim and I have been talking about our user interfaces recently. We want to make sure that we improve the functionality of the original designs without completely losing the feeling of those interfaces. One thing we want to avoid is making the UI too "minimalist". We don't want it to feel bloated, of course, but we also recognize that the IE games had "solid" interfaces. They looked like they were made of materials -- wood, stone, and metal -- and had substance to them. When you look at the interfaces for the IE games, they help immerse you in each setting. We'd like to do the same for Project Eternity.
Functionally, we're using Icewind Dale II as our starting point. We've been looking at inventory recently. Tim and I have designed a system that uses three types of gear storage: equipment, top of pack (this name may change!), and stash. Equipment is what your characters are currently using and have ready to use. This includes weapon sets that you can swap between during combat. "Top of pack" is a finite amount of gear that you can access outside of combat for a variety of purposes: replenishing consumables, checking out a shiny new sword you picked up a while back, etc. The top of pack cannot be accessed during combat, but is present as a strategic pool of items that you can access while exploring. The stash is where all of the "other stuff" goes: things you aren't using, items you want to sell, and various doo-dads you'll be looking at later.
When you find gear, you have the option of placing it wherever you'd like as long as there's room for it. You can use it immediately, put it in your top of pack, or just chuck it in the stash. Once an object is in the stash, you can access it at camps, your home, and similar locations. We've created this division of inventory space to add strategy to your gear loadout decisions instead of having a weight limit, while also allowing flexibility for backup equipment. Most importantly, it doesn't prevent you from doing what adventurers love to do most: loot everything they find that isn't bolted down.
Core Four Class Design and Advancement - We want our classes to feel familiar but flexible, so we've designed our "core four" (fighter, priest, rogue, wizard) to reflect traditional D&D roles and allow you to build outside of them. In our current design, each of the classes starts with two active use or modal abilities and one passive bonus.
Fighter
Defender (Mode) - In the Defender mode, fighters' melee attack rates decrease while their melee defenses increase. This is a particularly useful mode to enter when a fighter is blocking a route of attack to protect other party members. Surge - This active ability allows fighters to rapidly regenerate Stamina for a short period of time. Melee Accuracy - Fighters have inherent skill with melee weapons that is reflected by a small accuracy bonus.
Priest
1st Level Priest Spells - Priests gain access to all 1st level priest spells. Priests can cast a fixed number of 1st level spells before they must rest to recover their uses. They can cast any combination of different spells up to the per-rest limit. As priests gain levels, their 1st level spells will eventually become per-encounter resources. Recovery - The Recovery ability regenerates a modest amount of Stamina for allies (including the priest, if in range) in a Medium-sized area at Short range. Sacred Circle - All allies standing within a Small area around the priest gain Accuracy bonus. This bonus does not include the priest unless there are no conscious allies in range, in which case it applies to the priest.
Rogue
Escape - The rogue may hop a short distance away and all hostiles lose him or her as a direct target for 3 seconds. After the 3 seconds are up, enemies can target the rogue normally. Reversal - Reversal prepares the rogue for the next melee attack against him or her. When it hits, the rogue takes reduced damage and instantly rolls to the opposite side of the target and executes a powerful melee attack. This will even allow rogues to move past enemies that are fully blocking a path. Sneak Attack - This damage bonus applies whenever the rogue "flanks" an enemy or when the rogue is hidden from an enemy. Flanking means that the rogue is within a short distance of the target and on the "opposite" side of that enemy from an adjacent ally.
Wizard
1st Level Wizard Spells - Wizards can access all 1st level wizard spells immediately. Unlike other wizard spell levels, the wizard does not need to find scrolls or grimoires to use any 1st level spells. Wizards can cast a fixed number of 1st level spells before they must rest to recover their uses. They can cast any combination of different spells up to the per-rest limit. As wizards gain levels, their 1st level spells will eventually become per-encounter resources. Blast - When wizards use any implement (i.e. a wand, rod, or scepter), they generate a Blast on the target. The Blast does a modest amount of damage to all enemies in a Small area around the target (excluding the target). Familiar - All wizards can summon and dismiss familiars. Familiars are mobile "totems" for the wizard, providing defensive bonuses to allies near them and inflicting defensive penalties to enemies near them. Players can also access the master's spell list through the familiar, though casting a spell through the familiar still requires the master to physically cast it; it's simply targeted from the familiar. Familiars are weak and fragile. If a familiar is killed, the wizard takes damage and is unable to summon his or her familiar until he or she rests again.
As players advance their characters, they have the ability to choose class-specific abilities and more class-neutral talents (more like perks or feats) to customize their character capabilities. If you want to keep your fighters very low maintenance, there are a large number of passive fighter abilities and combat-oriented talents that you can buy. If you'd like to make a fighter that's much more "active-use" (more like a 4E fighter), you can choose to buy more modal and active abilities. Similarly, while all wizards gain additional spells, you can use talents to boost a wizard's damage with implement weapons and Blasts, making them more useful when you're not having them chain-cast a series of limited-use spells.
The same also applies to skills, which are used for a variety of non-combat purposes. All classes start out with bonuses in the skills that their classes most commonly use, but players can choose to reinforce or play against that top. If you want to make a paladin who delights in picking locks, you can do that and get a lot of utility out of the skill -- though the character will never be quite as good as a rogue who specializes in it.
We hope that these approaches use the strengths of a "role-ready" class system while allowing players a large amount of helpful flexibility in how they develop characters over a (hopefully) long and fruitful adventuring career.
That's all for this week, and this year! We'll be back in January with more details on what we're up to and where we're going in the months to come. Thanks for reading!
If I'm not mistaken a lot of the same guys are behind this that made the original Baldur's Gate.
You would be mistaken because most of these guys at Obsidian were originally from Interplay/Black Isle Studios who made Fallout 1 & 2, Planescape Torment and Icewind Dale I & II. They didn't make Baldurs Gate.
If I'm not mistaken a lot of the same guys are behind this that made the original Baldur's Gate.
You would be mistaken because most of these guys at Obsidian were originally from Interplay/Black Isle Studios who made Fallout 1 & 2, Planescape Torment and Icewind Dale I & II. They didn't make Baldurs Gate.
Ok thanks for the info. I was wrong then. It's probably gonna be a great game anyway.
This thread has a ring of regeneration! Anyway, it's looking like a promising project and I'll probably buy it when it comes out. That said, I didn't support the Kickstart because I'm distrusting, by nature, and I'm also unwilling to buy a product, sight unseen.
That said, I didn't support the Kickstart because I'm distrusting, by nature, and I'm also unwilling to buy a product, sight unseen.
Yet you pre-ordered and bought BGEE sight unseen, especially with the many bugs and problems at launch.
Didn't see this entry. What might look like a contradiction is, in fact, not. I had played BG/BG2, so this wasn't an unknown entity to me insofar as game play and story went.
How many RPG's look great, but end up unsatisfying, whether to play (controls/UI/ergonomics), redundancy, or underwhelming plot/dialogue/characters? Maybe (I sure hope it will) the game will be awesome. However, it might also be a major disappointment. While the same is true after I purchase something, if it exists, I can at least look at reviews and get a feel for it before purchase. Kickstarts assure me of no such thing and I simply don't have the disposable income to throw at things I may not really enjoy or want, so I don't play in the Kickstarter lottery.
That looks ad bass. @reedmilfam is right though, we've been tricked before haven't we my precious. I am highly encouraged but am reserving judgement until I can get hands on with a demo or at least read some trusted reviews of the finished produced.
That said, I didn't support the Kickstart because I'm distrusting, by nature, and I'm also unwilling to buy a product, sight unseen.
Yet you pre-ordered and bought BGEE sight unseen, especially with the many bugs and problems at launch.
Didn't see this entry. What might look like a contradiction is, in fact, not. I had played BG/BG2, so this wasn't an unknown entity to me insofar as game play and story went.
How many RPG's look great, but end up unsatisfying, whether to play (controls/UI/ergonomics), redundancy, or underwhelming plot/dialogue/characters? Maybe (I sure hope it will) the game will be awesome. However, it might also be a major disappointment. While the same is true after I purchase something, if it exists, I can at least look at reviews and get a feel for it before purchase. Kickstarts assure me of no such thing and I simply don't have the disposable income to throw at things I may not really enjoy or want, so I don't play in the Kickstarter lottery.
But if you already own BG (which I'm assuming you do), then how is pre-ordering BG:EE any less of a risk than funding a Kickstarter game? After all, for it to be a worthwhile purchase, BG:EE would need to improve on BG in a meaningful way (otherwise you're just left with another copy of a game you already own), and there was no guarantee of this, anymore than there is a guarantee of quality for a Kickstarted game like Project Eternity.
About the UI being more like from IE-games... that's good news ! I hate the UI in nowadays rpgs (I think I first saw it in NWN), where theres all kinds of boring looking text windows saying "loading module..." etc, THAT was some really immersion breaking shit. And it looks ugly as hell!
My hope would be for Overhaul and Obsidian to work together on a possible BG3.
Just like old times.
I can dream.
The Project Eternity engine looks really cool and this could truly be a return of "old school 2D isometric RPGS", so a BG3 in the future actually looks alot more of a possibility now than ever!
@TJ_Hooker - Because I could not install BG from my original discs on Windows 7 - what I was buying, if anything, was 64-bit OS compatibility.
I'm fine with people disagreeing with my take on Kickstarter, but less so in some attempt to find an inconsistency in my behavior. I assure you, there is none. For those that love kick-starts, pledge your money and be happy. It's between you and the team developing said project.
I don't pre-order new games, no matter how many 'goodies' the publisher offers (I hate that by the way, but whatever) and I don't buy into nonexistent (yet) games (Kickstarter). For me, BG:EE was not 'new'. In a similar vein, BG3 is something I'd get after release, not before (should it ever come to fruition).
I've been utterly disappointed by too many games to do otherwise. I usually wait for quite some time to get new titles because of this and, if I'm even partially unsure, I'll wait until the price plummets to $19.99. It's how I roll, especially when even BioWare games became suspect (Looking at youDragonAge ][!).
@TJ_Hooker - Because I could not install BG from my original discs on Windows 7 - what I was buying, if anything, was 64-bit OS compatibility.
I'm fine with people disagreeing with my take on Kickstarter, but less so in some attempt to find an inconsistency in my behavior. I assure you, there is none. For those that love kick-starts, pledge your money and be happy. It's between you and the team developing said project.
I don't pre-order new games, no matter how many 'goodies' the publisher offers (I hate that by the way, but whatever) and I don't buy into nonexistent (yet) games (Kickstarter). For me, BG:EE was not 'new'. In a similar vein, BG3 is something I'd get after release, not before (should it ever come to fruition).
I've been utterly disappointed by too many games to do otherwise. I usually wait for quite some time to get new titles because of this and, if I'm even partially unsure, I'll wait until the price plummets to $19.99. It's how I roll, especially when even BioWare games became suspect (Looking at youDragonAge ][!).
Yep, to quote the 43rd President of the USA: "There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again." —Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 17, 2002
The backrounds look awesome, the water, the effects, the lighting, all superb.
But the character models they showed in that video, and their animations, were just... out of place. I assume they are not finalized, but they won't look much different.
Doesn't it feel to good to be true to you guys? The number of upcoming cRPGs is ridiculous - PE, Torment, Divinity: OS, Wasteland, Chaos Chronicles, Grimrock, Age of Wonders III, Grim Dawn and many others.
This is what happens when the world doesn't end when it's supposed to - 2d is back in business.
I think it's just a bit of backlash against the cinematic 3D 3rd person Mass Effect copying binge. While I love ME (the series), I very much want some modicum of choice. In-depth RPG's still have a place (tactical, rather than first-person) and the response to these games is a sign that people miss and love those games.
These things also come in waves. However, I'm hoping that this is a sign of some changes, such as:
Less FPS style creeping into other games (let FPS be FPS and RPG be RPG) Less 'to be successful, we have to have multi-player AND if you don't play multi-player, the single-player game is affected (ME3 crap) Less dumbed down to be console-friendly games (not that console games are bad, but they are different)
Doesn't it feel to good to be true to you guys? The number of upcoming cRPGs is ridiculous - PE, Torment, Divinity: OS, Wasteland, Chaos Chronicles, Grimrock, Age of Wonders III, Grim Dawn and many others.
This is what happens when the world doesn't end when it's supposed to - 2d is back in business.
whut age of wonders III, I hadn't heard about that one. I liked 2, it (to me) was the closest thing to Master of Magic. That stardock game was supposed to be MOM but, at least to me, when I tried it it fell pretty far short.
edit: I looked up Grim Dawn to see how that was coming along and there were posts about Path of Exile which seems to be a free to play diablo killer
Comments
Those armor related things sound absolutely Divine. That's one of the things what I truely loved about D&D 3.5e. A wizard, or anyone could equip any armour (as long as their strenght was high enough to actually move with it), but logically suffer the armor check & arcane spell failure penalties.
Thus, a wizard, casting a spell which would require a "somatic component" would have an 85%(?) chance of failure. However, verbal only spells could be cast without any chance of failure.
However, that edition of D&D went a bit overboard with the armor check penalties, relying on the american stereotype of "a knight in full plate can't stand up if knocked down from horseback", thus granting you a -8 penalty to every physical skill, even if you were trained with the armor.
But if you wore it without training, you also got that -8 to attacks and all that, if I remember right of course.
Movement and Combat Feel - We've been working on implementing all of the basics of party selection, movement, and combat. This includes working on personal space, ally and enemy pathing, friendly "bumping" during movement, ranges of melee attacks, attack timing and delays, target selection, and response time. A lot of work goes into making these elements feel good and feel "IE-ish" (while excluding the IE-ish things we didn't like).
We’ve also been building block-in weapon meshes and putting them in the game to see how they look in terms of scale. This has gone well, but we're still working on proportions. Some thin weapons, like stilettos, rapiers, and estocs, can be very difficult to discern, especially at lower resolutions. Their thicker cousins, daggers, swords, and greatswords, need to be "beefed up" a small amount to help distinguish them. Even though we need to make a few slight adjustments, our overall approach of making weapons with realistic... ish proportions is working well and feels similar to the characters and weapons found in Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale.
Along with implementing the visuals of the weapons, we're experimenting with weapon statistics and mechanics. Weapons are currently classified as slashing, piercing, or crushing, which is a pretty common division of types. We're not currently using damage types vs. armor types in Project Eternity, but the damage types all have properties that suggest a certain type of usage.
Slashing weapons do the most damage when compared to their counterparts from other categories. E.g., if you compare a greatsword to an estoc to a maul, the greatsword does the most damage. When targets have little to no armor, slashing weapons are the ideal choice. Piercing weapons negate a fixed amount of Damage Threshold, which is the primary way in which armor reduces damage. Though they don't do as much damage as slashing or crushing weapons, their ability to ignore even moderately heavy armor means that it is superior to other weapons in those circumstances. While armor can negate a large amount of damage, there's always a small amount that gets through. Crushing weapons do much more through armor, which makes them the best choice when dealing with very heavily armored targets.
So far, this works well on paper, scales well, and seems to hold up in the game, but it is very "mathy" and not necessarily intuitive because you can't always guess a target's Damage Threshold simply by looking at them (as opposed to armor types, which are usually visually apparent). We will continue to experiment with this to see how it feels in the long run. Our goals are to provide tactical challenges to the player and give them to feedback and tools to adapt and overcome when they're in a difficult spot.
UI Design - Tim and I have been talking about our user interfaces recently. We want to make sure that we improve the functionality of the original designs without completely losing the feeling of those interfaces. One thing we want to avoid is making the UI too "minimalist". We don't want it to feel bloated, of course, but we also recognize that the IE games had "solid" interfaces. They looked like they were made of materials -- wood, stone, and metal -- and had substance to them. When you look at the interfaces for the IE games, they help immerse you in each setting. We'd like to do the same for Project Eternity.
Functionally, we're using Icewind Dale II as our starting point. We've been looking at inventory recently. Tim and I have designed a system that uses three types of gear storage: equipment, top of pack (this name may change!), and stash. Equipment is what your characters are currently using and have ready to use. This includes weapon sets that you can swap between during combat. "Top of pack" is a finite amount of gear that you can access outside of combat for a variety of purposes: replenishing consumables, checking out a shiny new sword you picked up a while back, etc. The top of pack cannot be accessed during combat, but is present as a strategic pool of items that you can access while exploring. The stash is where all of the "other stuff" goes: things you aren't using, items you want to sell, and various doo-dads you'll be looking at later.
When you find gear, you have the option of placing it wherever you'd like as long as there's room for it. You can use it immediately, put it in your top of pack, or just chuck it in the stash. Once an object is in the stash, you can access it at camps, your home, and similar locations. We've created this division of inventory space to add strategy to your gear loadout decisions instead of having a weight limit, while also allowing flexibility for backup equipment. Most importantly, it doesn't prevent you from doing what adventurers love to do most: loot everything they find that isn't bolted down.
Core Four Class Design and Advancement - We want our classes to feel familiar but flexible, so we've designed our "core four" (fighter, priest, rogue, wizard) to reflect traditional D&D roles and allow you to build outside of them. In our current design, each of the classes starts with two active use or modal abilities and one passive bonus.
Fighter
Defender (Mode) - In the Defender mode, fighters' melee attack rates decrease while their melee defenses increase. This is a particularly useful mode to enter when a fighter is blocking a route of attack to protect other party members.
Surge - This active ability allows fighters to rapidly regenerate Stamina for a short period of time.
Melee Accuracy - Fighters have inherent skill with melee weapons that is reflected by a small accuracy bonus.
Priest
1st Level Priest Spells - Priests gain access to all 1st level priest spells. Priests can cast a fixed number of 1st level spells before they must rest to recover their uses. They can cast any combination of different spells up to the per-rest limit. As priests gain levels, their 1st level spells will eventually become per-encounter resources.
Recovery - The Recovery ability regenerates a modest amount of Stamina for allies (including the priest, if in range) in a Medium-sized area at Short range.
Sacred Circle - All allies standing within a Small area around the priest gain Accuracy bonus. This bonus does not include the priest unless there are no conscious allies in range, in which case it applies to the priest.
Rogue
Escape - The rogue may hop a short distance away and all hostiles lose him or her as a direct target for 3 seconds. After the 3 seconds are up, enemies can target the rogue normally.
Reversal - Reversal prepares the rogue for the next melee attack against him or her. When it hits, the rogue takes reduced damage and instantly rolls to the opposite side of the target and executes a powerful melee attack. This will even allow rogues to move past enemies that are fully blocking a path.
Sneak Attack - This damage bonus applies whenever the rogue "flanks" an enemy or when the rogue is hidden from an enemy. Flanking means that the rogue is within a short distance of the target and on the "opposite" side of that enemy from an adjacent ally.
Wizard
1st Level Wizard Spells - Wizards can access all 1st level wizard spells immediately. Unlike other wizard spell levels, the wizard does not need to find scrolls or grimoires to use any 1st level spells. Wizards can cast a fixed number of 1st level spells before they must rest to recover their uses. They can cast any combination of different spells up to the per-rest limit. As wizards gain levels, their 1st level spells will eventually become per-encounter resources.
Blast - When wizards use any implement (i.e. a wand, rod, or scepter), they generate a Blast on the target. The Blast does a modest amount of damage to all enemies in a Small area around the target (excluding the target).
Familiar - All wizards can summon and dismiss familiars. Familiars are mobile "totems" for the wizard, providing defensive bonuses to allies near them and inflicting defensive penalties to enemies near them. Players can also access the master's spell list through the familiar, though casting a spell through the familiar still requires the master to physically cast it; it's simply targeted from the familiar. Familiars are weak and fragile. If a familiar is killed, the wizard takes damage and is unable to summon his or her familiar until he or she rests again.
As players advance their characters, they have the ability to choose class-specific abilities and more class-neutral talents (more like perks or feats) to customize their character capabilities. If you want to keep your fighters very low maintenance, there are a large number of passive fighter abilities and combat-oriented talents that you can buy. If you'd like to make a fighter that's much more "active-use" (more like a 4E fighter), you can choose to buy more modal and active abilities. Similarly, while all wizards gain additional spells, you can use talents to boost a wizard's damage with implement weapons and Blasts, making them more useful when you're not having them chain-cast a series of limited-use spells.
The same also applies to skills, which are used for a variety of non-combat purposes. All classes start out with bonuses in the skills that their classes most commonly use, but players can choose to reinforce or play against that top. If you want to make a paladin who delights in picking locks, you can do that and get a lot of utility out of the skill -- though the character will never be quite as good as a rogue who specializes in it.
We hope that these approaches use the strengths of a "role-ready" class system while allowing players a large amount of helpful flexibility in how they develop characters over a (hopefully) long and fruitful adventuring career.
That's all for this week, and this year! We'll be back in January with more details on what we're up to and where we're going in the months to come. Thanks for reading!
Original post (including a "beardy" Josh video)..
http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/63020-project-eternity-update-36-off-to-our-elfhomes-but-first/
news so glad I put heart and soul:
http://eternity.obsidian.net/
No more games with horrible graphics, hurt my feelings. Are better in my memories.
There you go.
OH... MY... GOD!!!!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/obsidian/project-eternity/posts/450388
Just like old times.
I can dream.
How many RPG's look great, but end up unsatisfying, whether to play (controls/UI/ergonomics), redundancy, or underwhelming plot/dialogue/characters? Maybe (I sure hope it will) the game will be awesome. However, it might also be a major disappointment. While the same is true after I purchase something, if it exists, I can at least look at reviews and get a feel for it before purchase. Kickstarts assure me of no such thing and I simply don't have the disposable income to throw at things I may not really enjoy or want, so I don't play in the Kickstarter lottery.
I'm fine with people disagreeing with my take on Kickstarter, but less so in some attempt to find an inconsistency in my behavior. I assure you, there is none. For those that love kick-starts, pledge your money and be happy. It's between you and the team developing said project.
I don't pre-order new games, no matter how many 'goodies' the publisher offers (I hate that by the way, but whatever) and I don't buy into nonexistent (yet) games (Kickstarter). For me, BG:EE was not 'new'. In a similar vein, BG3 is something I'd get after release, not before (should it ever come to fruition).
I've been utterly disappointed by too many games to do otherwise. I usually wait for quite some time to get new titles because of this and, if I'm even partially unsure, I'll wait until the price plummets to $19.99. It's how I roll, especially when even BioWare games became suspect (Looking at you DragonAge ][!).
"There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again." —Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 17, 2002
The backrounds look awesome, the water, the effects, the lighting, all superb.
But the character models they showed in that video, and their animations, were just... out of place. I assume they are not finalized, but they won't look much different.
Oh well.
This is what happens when the world doesn't end when it's supposed to - 2d is back in business.
These things also come in waves. However, I'm hoping that this is a sign of some changes, such as:
Less FPS style creeping into other games (let FPS be FPS and RPG be RPG)
Less 'to be successful, we have to have multi-player AND if you don't play multi-player, the single-player game is affected (ME3 crap)
Less dumbed down to be console-friendly games (not that console games are bad, but they are different)
Anyway, time will tell.
edit: I looked up Grim Dawn to see how that was coming along and there were posts about Path of Exile which seems to be a free to play diablo killer