Project Update #24: Less than 30 hours to go!

Discussion in 'News Comments' started by Dark Elf, Oct 15, 2012.

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  1. Dark Elf

    Dark Elf Administrator Staff Member

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    Project Update #24: Less than 30 hours to go!

    <blockquote><b>Posted by Obsidian Entertainment</b>

    <object width="640" height="360"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/hxDpewmig9g?version=3&hl=sv_SE"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/hxDpewmig9g?version=3&hl=sv_SE" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="640" height="360" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>

    By the time this update is posted, we'll have only about 30 hours or so before the end of our Project Eternity Kickstarter campaign. You've helped us make amazing progress over the weekend, easily surpassing the <b>$3.0 Million Stronghold</b> stretch goal -- and it looks like we may, in fact, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-nUBcY6jQ8">Dream the Impossible Dream</a> of <b>Big City #2 at $3.5 Million</b>.


    <b>Physical Audio CD of the Project Eternity Soundtrack</b>

    For the last final hours of the Kickstarter, we have a limited run add-on of the <b>Project Eternity Soundtrack</b> in a physical audio CD format for $20. You need to be at a physical tier ($65, $100, $140, $250+) to add-on the audio CD soundtrack.

    <img src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/assets/000/209/795/78e8ae91cce2ae601ffef9329a57744b_large.jpg" />

    Tonight, don't forget to tune in and watch some Obsidian dungeon-delvers tackle a one-shot D&D 3.5E Forgotten Realms adventure in a live stream of BLOOD IN THE BRINE (there will be weresharks). Check out the live stream on <a href="http://www.ustream.tv/channel/project-eternity-live-stream">USTREAM</a> starting at 5PM PST. A recording of the play session will be made and released later for those that miss it.


    <b>Life and Death in the Dyrwood</b>

    For today's update, I was supposed to do a lore update, but I decided that I wanted to talk about a specific subject and how lore and mechanics tie into that subject. Today's subjects are LIFE AND DEATH. Project Eternity is a fantasy RPG inspired by several A/D&D-based settings in which death is, for those with means, a temporary setback (for the Nameless One, it's even less problematic). The priests of the Forgotten Realms run around with boatloads of cure x wounds spells, the ability to banish disease, and even the power to bring the dead back to life.

    In Project Eternity, prospects are not so bright. And when death comes, some try to stay, some choose to go, but most people believe that once they make the trip to the other side, there is only one way back: to begin a new life.

    <b>Common Mortality</b>
    Project Eternity's world is one with limited medicine and medical understanding. Unlike many fantasy settings, there is very little access to curative magic. Remedies for health problems often have only a palliative or placebo effect at best, owing their continued use more to folk beliefs and tradition than any basis in scientific methodology. Though soul-based magic has helped the great exploring cultures from suffering massive pandemics and has helped some individuals overcome illness over the long-term, there is no quick magical "cure" for disease or illness. Most people go through life and death in the ordinary way -- unless they put themselves in harm's way, that is.

    <b>Stamina and Health</b>
    In Project Eternity's combat, players need to be concerned with two elements of a character's vitality: Stamina and Health. The majority of damage a character takes is subtracted from his or her Stamina. Stamina represents how much general abuse a character can take before falling unconscious. Characters lose it quickly and regain it relatively rapidly, even without assistance. Soul-based abilities are able to help replenish or regenerate Stamina and are often used on the battlefield to turn the tide of combat. If a character hits 0 Stamina, he or she is knocked out. Intervention from another character can bring an unconscious character back into a fight.

    For players, the Health of their party members is a tether that makes them consider how far they are willing to venture from a safe resting spot. Though Health is typically lost at a lower rate, when the PC or a companion hits 0 Health, he or she is maimed (in standard play) or killed (in Expert mode or as an option in standard play). Magic may help mitigate damage to Health and slow the tide, but once characters have died (in Expert mode), there is no known magic that can bring them back.

    <b>A Lottery of Souls</b>
    The world belongs to mortals. As time has progressed, mortals have lifted themselves out of ignorance and into ages of increased self-awareness, harnessing the power of their own souls to amazing effect. So... why worship the gods, anyway? For many mortals, worship is a matter of respect and tradition. They consider their gods (or, in some cases, all gods) to be their creators. They follow the guidelines of religion because history tells them that the gods have punished individuals -- and entire nations -- for ancient episodes of religious disrespect and dismissal.

    For others, religious worship is a matter of karmic self-interest. Often, people believe that if an individual's soul arrives in the realm of a pleased god, the god will place that soul into the body of someone who will have a good life. To such believers, choosing to not worship or is to risk spiritual confusion and aimlessness in the afterlife. They speculate that the faithless are entered into a "lottery of souls" from which many will wind up no better -- or much worse -- than they did in their last life. Some of the same faiths also believe that religious apostasy or lax observance is a cause of soul splintering upon death, which many consider to be an even worse fate.

    <b>Gods for All Seasons</b>
    People worship many gods, but usually the ones who are most associated with their way of life. Farmers may worship gods of light, growth, or storms. Warriors worship gods of battle and fortune. Though some faiths are exclusionary, most people will say a prayer to any god when the circumstances are right -- farmers praying to a god of battle when their lands are invaded, warriors praying to a god of growth when they're starving in the wilderness.

    Sometimes the same god -- or gods -- may have a different identity in a different part of the world. The most notable is one of the most widely honored, if not warmly embraced. Called Berath in Aedyran and Cirono in Vailian, it is the god of cycles, of doors, and of life and death itself. People commonly place or carve the figure of Berath in doorways, windows, and other "portals" from one place to another, figurative or literal.

    In Eír Glanfath's ruins, explorers have discovered two common figures, Caoth i Bhád and Bád i Caothaí (Life in Death and Death in Life, respectively), semi-skeletal female and male figures who occupy positions opposite each other in doorways -- like a twinned display of the split aspects of Berath/Cirono.

    <b>Necromancy</b>
    Despite the assumed natural cycle of things, there are individuals in the world of Project Eternity who either want to know more about that cycle or who choose to alter that cycle. Broadly speaking, "necromancy" refers to any attempt to do either, whether that involves speaking with the soul of a dead mortal, attempting to tap into the unconscious past lives of a living soul, or to bind soul energy or a complete soul inside of a dead body.

    These acts are viewed with differing levels of criticism depending on the culture. Many folk share the interest of necromancers and would like to understand more about the eternal cycle, but are also afraid of what they might learn. Some extremists are opposed to any and all necromancy, and tales say that a quiet and powerful cult that has worked for centuries to discredit, trap, and even murder necromancers for their efforts. To the people who oppose necromancy with such violent passion, mortal understanding should have limits, and they fear the consequences for the world should those limits be unraveled.

    <img src="http://media.obsidian.net/eternity/media/updates/0024/PE-Sagani-350x427.jpg" />

    That's all for today's update! Thanks for reading.

    <a href="http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/61533-update-24-less-than-30-hours-to-go-life-and-death-and-audio-cd-soundtrack/">FORUMS: Discuss Sagani, Life and Death, and the rest of Update #24 in the forums.</a>

    <a href="http://www.facebook.com/obsidian">FACEBOOK: Like Obsidian on Facebook! 40,000 Likes for another dungeon level!</a>

    <i>Update By Josh Sawyer</i>

    <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/obsidian/project-eternity/posts/328976?ref=email&show_token=0502f53c0532c148">Care to comment? View this update on Kickstarter →</a>
    </blockquote>
     
  2. Muro

    Muro Well-Known Member

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    What a pleasing update. I always had a problem with how lightly death is being treated in most fantasy worlds. Not to mention how baffling it is when the gameplay makes it a mere temporary inconvenience while the plot tries putting emphasis on how death is serious business. For example, in Arcanum, the game tried to tell us
    Virgil's climatic death and following resurrection was a big deal, with his experiences during the few minutes of being dead being very rare and spiritually developing. The whole idea became a lot harder to buy though when everyone in the player's team, including both the player and Virgil, could have very well died and returned to life a dozen times by that point of the plot.
    Planescape Torment introduced a creative inversion, making unending life the Nameless One's torture and death a goal of sorts. For all other games, permadeth is best death.
     
  3. Dark Elf

    Dark Elf Administrator Staff Member

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    I wonder what the role of clerics is, now that healing spells are a rarity?
     
  4. Vorak

    Vorak Administrator Staff Member

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  5. Jojobobo

    Jojobobo Well-Known Member

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    From the AMA:

    Still from how they've painted Paladins, sounds like they might overlap quite a bit.

    I just realised that the gods of death statues they are talking about are the two on the screenshot, I'm slow on the uptake today.
     
  6. Yuki

    Yuki Well-Known Member

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    Remember that time when Virgil's brother was dead and it was all sad and then you realize that the game has a very accessible resurrection spell that dedicated characters can learn as early as level 18
     
  7. Muro

    Muro Well-Known Member

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  8. Xz

    Xz Monkey Admin Staff Member

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    But Virgil was only level one when his brother was dead.
     
  9. Dark Elf

    Dark Elf Administrator Staff Member

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    Arcanumland survival rule #1: Always die in proximity of a high level white necromancer.
     
  10. Yuki

    Yuki Well-Known Member

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    Also yo they broke the stretch goal
     
  11. Jojobobo

    Jojobobo Well-Known Member

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    I'm holding out that they update the Endless Paths picture and we get our first glimpse of Od Nua's massive wang.
     
  12. Jojobobo

    Jojobobo Well-Known Member

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    Great. Od Nua's bottom half is clothed. That just ruined the game for me.
     
  13. Muro

    Muro Well-Known Member

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    No schlong? Cancel all the pledges.
     
  14. Jojobobo

    Jojobobo Well-Known Member

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    It was the same in the Watchmen film with Dr. Manhattan. All through that film he walks around with his blue dick flopping about, but when he's a 100ft giant fighting in Vietnam of course they slap a small bit of fabric on him to hide his enormous shame. I for one am not at all happy with the current state of media predjudice against naked oversized males, it's time someone took a stand!
     
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