POLL: As funding continues... What's next?!

[Joby]

UGH... sorry guys... Fargo came up to me and wanted me to add "special effects" as an option. Since we are definitely already going to do numerous translations in multiple languages, he told me to replace that with the special effects one. Doing those kinds of things is very time consuming, so he's curious if that's important.

OK, hopefully this was the last change... sorry. I'm not going to change it again... unless Fargo tells me.

[Sub-Human]

UGH... sorry guys... Fargo came up to me and wanted me to add "special effects" as an option.

Really?

This is awesome.

[Gaelen]

I see a lot of people don't want voice acting, and I can see why that would be preferable, but I personally find that I don't like reading too much text on a computer. (It's ironic because I'm an avid reader.) If there is a large enough group (although not the majority) of people that does want full voice acting AND the kickstarter amount is high enough, would you consider doing full voice overs with the option to turn it off for those that do not want it?

[Sobboth]

I would rather enjoy better locations, better/longer side quests, better/longer main quest instead of a bigger world and more quests.
- F:NV too many quests, many were not so bad but most of them were too short (which made the game mechanical).
- Baldur's gate 2 : lot of really huge side quests (with quest inside the side quest) you can only complete after several hours of gameplays. More than half of the maps were dedicated only to them. In fact avoid as much as possible small side quests, or include them into big side quest.

[cbk]

I would rather enjoy better locations, better/longer quests instead of a bigger world and more quests.
- F:NV too many quests, many were not so bad but most of them were too short (which made the game mechanical).
- Baldur's gate 2 : lot of really huge side quests (with quest inside the side quest) you can only complete after several hours of gameplays. More than half of the maps were dedicated only to them. In fact avoid as much as possible small side quests, or include them into big side quest.

I agree, if I have to fetch another drink to some NPC to gain +1 exp...

Having said that, I don't mind some easy "quests" early on, to ease you into the game world and mechanics.

[Saul Stice]

As above, i'd rather see a medium world but full of detail and with very interesting quest than a huge world with redondancies.

[Workbench]

I see a lot of people don't want voice acting, and I can see why that would be preferable, but I personally find that I don't like reading too much text on a computer. (It's ironic because I'm an avid reader.) If there is a large enough group (although not the majority) of people that does want full voice acting AND the kickstarter amount is high enough, would you consider doing full voice overs with the option to turn it off for those that do not want it?

It's just way too expensive to warrant the cost. More and better text beats voices anyday imho.

[Gorny1]

I see a lot of people don't want voice acting, and I can see why that would be preferable, but I personally find that I don't like reading too much text on a computer. (It's ironic because I'm an avid reader.) If there is a large enough group (although not the majority) of people that does want full voice acting AND the kickstarter amount is high enough, would you consider doing full voice overs with the option to turn it off for those that do not want it?

It's just way too expensive to warrant the cost. More and better text beats voices anyday imho.

I agree to that. Without too much voice-acting there is more money for good dialogs as texts.

[Sycraft]

My top requests, in order:

1) More QA, general polish. Make the game better in every way, not bigger. Less bugs, better running engine, less graphics glitches, better quality sound and graphics, etc. A smaller, better polished release will go way farther than a bigger problematic once.

2) Along those lines would be more diverse graphics and sound. Hire on some more people and just have more variation in the world. More variations in NPCs, weapon graphics, and so on. Don't have one gunshot sound, have several. That kind of thing. Again a higher quality kind of focus.

3) Larger world with more quests and things to explore. Don't get me wrong, I all kinds of want this, just quality first, quantity later. If you've got the budget after the first two, go for this.

4) Voice acting. This is provided it doesn't hurt the rest of the content (as in doesn't take too much money) and that you feel you can have it done well. Not Hollywood, of course, but not amateur night. I'd rather have none than bad voice acting.

5) Mod tools. I'd hold off on these perhaps and more look at funding them if the game sells well enough that you can do it. So long as you make the fundamentals of the game easy to mod (as I mentioned in my other post, things like zip containers, XML or other human readable definitions, standard sound formats, maybe LUA for interaction scripts, etc) I don't think any tools are so important from the get go. If the game comes out, does well, and has some legs, use some of the profits to polish up the internal tools and give people a set of good mod tools. However concentrate the funds on a good game.


For reference the thing I don't at all care about is an iOS/MacOS version. I use a PC for gaming, and my mobile platform of choice is Android. I would say only make a version for those platforms if you think there's money in it. Also maybe do some real market research on that, since Mac fans tend to be vocal, but not necessarily as prevalent as they'd like to think. Weigh cost vs market.

I'd also give Linux a miss entirely given that it's 3D support is a complete mess (ask iD and Mozilla about the massive driver problems). I wouldn't want to see a lot of money poured in to a platform that isn't going to generate many sales. Now if you decide to go with an engine/toolkit that makes Linux porting and QA easy then maybe ok, but realize there are not many Linux gamers out there and the OS itself has some problems that make games on it difficult.

[undecaf]

Larger world and more content for sure. More dialog, more possibilities to solve quests, more outcomes for said quests, more diverse NPC's and locales (with consistency through little details such as where their food, weaponry, meds and electricity comes from, and stuff like that), more reactive and robust ruleset, etc.

More atmospheric and diverse music (by Mr. Morgan) - definitely.

Keep it focused, spend on some (only some!) voice acting if the budget allows only after the game is otherwise satisfying.

Better eyecandyeffects are always a plus, but not at the expense of something more worthwhile, keep it reasonable. And again, if the budget allows after the other essentials (like writing, gameplaymechanics, skill/stat mechanics, and music).

I see mod tools (and 8-bit versions and such) as the very last thing to consider (even after VO and "special effects"). The game should be thoroughly finished and polished out of the box and not specifically needing any modding. Possibility for fanmade content is a good thing, but first things first, lest's make the game as good as possible before considering such extras.

[Gaelen]

I see a lot of people don't want voice acting, and I can see why that would be preferable, but I personally find that I don't like reading too much text on a computer. (It's ironic because I'm an avid reader.) If there is a large enough group (although not the majority) of people that does want full voice acting AND the kickstarter amount is high enough, would you consider doing full voice overs with the option to turn it off for those that do not want it?

It's just way too expensive to warrant the cost. More and better text beats voices anyday imho.

I agree to that. Without too much voice-acting there is more money for good dialogs as texts.

How much did the voice overs for something like Oblivion or Skyrim cost?

I'd be fine with voice acting on the level of Neverwinter Nights 2. Everything wasn't voiced, but enough was to give my eyes a rest.

[hiptanaka]

Essentially, I would like any extra money to go into the weaker parts of the game. Is the game the size of Fallout (1)? Make it bigger. Are the animations stiff and impacts doesn't feel right. Improve animations. Etc.

EDIT: I.e. save a bit for extra polish.

[danvolodar]

Uh, folks, I hope you notice that a mod kit pretty much equals "all of the above and more"?

[hiptanaka]

Uh, folks, I hope you notice that a mod kit pretty much equals "all of the above and more"?

I'm much more interested in a complete vision from a good developer than I am mods. I never really play mods.

[juGGa]

If you want to add voice acting, do it for the characters that have most dialogue.

[Kide]

Definitly the bigger world and more contect is priority number 1.

After that more dialogue options with NPC's others plus some limited amount of voice acting. (First and foremost dialogue options even without voice acting, but limited voice acting would be mutch appreciated!) I do not need even in the slightest way to have everything voice acted, as text in most cases is more than enough, but some voice acting like in baldusr gate 2 or arcanum would be awesome!

Next on my list would be a beatiful artwrok and NPC portairs etc.
and at the same level other expanded audio, as that is one of the key things to create the athmosphere.

Then graphics or explosive graphics too. (I do not need 3d isometric game though, but something with graphics as pretty as in baldurs gate 2, yes please!) And it had nice spell effects and alike too, so anything that resebles those I would be more than happy with. But these are less important to me nevertheless.

[Gaelen]

Uh, folks, I hope you notice that a mod kit pretty much equals "all of the above and more"?

I'm much more interested in a complete vision from a good developer than I am mods. I never really play mods.

I agree.

[undecaf]

Uh, folks, I hope you notice that a mod kit pretty much equals "all of the above and more"?

I'm much more interested in a complete vision from a good developer than I am mods. I never really play mods.

I agree.

Thirded.

[Sobboth]

I feel exactly the same as Sycraft especially this part :

Larger world with more quests and things to explore. Don't get me wrong, I all kinds of want this, just quality first, quantity later. If you've got the budget after the first two, go for this.

Quality over quantity.
And don't imitate F:NV quest strucure where even longer quests were a succesion of 3 /4 short linear quests (short quest 1, next short quest 2, ect...).
An exemple of an excellent and long side quest : fallout 2 Wrigh family quest to explore sierra army depot.
When you start this quest you have no idea it is going so be so long and so intersting, at each step that was wow ! (and so easty to miss this quest, amazing the content they put into it !).

[oldmanpaco]

A Mod Kit increases the lifespan of this game indefinitely.