A release from 2016 with low system requirements and it still looks good. Very nice! :)

As I already have enough RPGs in my backlog I'll at least wait for some reviews though.

I backed the Kickstarter so I wonder if I get a GOG copy?

Some users worry about security flaws not DRM.

There is no need to panic though. All software could contain bugs, which leads to security flaws. You don't run a java vulnerable server. Also you can disable all java execution inside your browser by disable or uninstall the required plugins.

It's a general principle that you don't use software you don't need and run only trusted software from known sources - like the games we all buy on GOG. :-)

As for Java, it's a programming language. Java code is compiled to bytecode (let's say an intermediate language) that runs on Java Virtual Machine (JVM). So the bytecode is portable to different systems, as the virtual machine addresses the differences.

JRE is the runtime that includes all the basic language libraries and the virtual machine needed to run Java compiled code.

The whole concept is similar to .NET, if you're familiar with it (but java was first).

There's also an open version, not just the Oracle's one. I have JDK (Java Development Kit - includes JRE) installed on all my systems (OpenJDK on FreeBSD, OpenJDK and OracleJDK on Linux).

After reading the thread and watching a game-play video I'm not so convinced anymore. I do not like the hungry/thirsty mechanism and the game being Java based doesn't help either.

I have to agree with all the worries about the hunger/thirst system...

Yes, it does. But it does it badly so that Java programs are aliens on every system (beside Android) and behave differently to native programs in weird ways.

Oh good, I'm not alone. All I could think while watching the trailer was that it looked like UO, but all the comments until now were comparing it to other games :-D

I own, but have not yet played, Eschalon, so I couldn't make that comparison.

Oh, don't even get me started on that system. It's one of the areas where I think Skyrim was a definite improvement. When I play those older ones now, I just "cheat" and use a mod that gives all stats a +5 modifier (as long as you've leveled a related skill at least once). Far more fun than microing your skill gains to have good stats available at level up.

I prefer native code too, as it's faster, but I don't feel Java programs are aliens.

If you mean that the graphical user interface of Java programs has a different "look and feel", it's due to Java GUI libraries. So yes this is true, java doesn't replicate the system GUI. I haven't had a weird experience though.

*scrolls through thread* Java? Seriously? Got rid of that years ago and keeping it away. Sure, should probably be all right if browsers don't use it, but if it is written to need it (which it shouldn't be), should be packed with it and not installed for the whole system. Like the UPS management software I had (didn't even install that again since getting this computer last year), used Java but had its own bundle with it, didn't care whether it was installed on the system or not, didn't try to install it.
*shakes head* Looked potentially interesting somewhere down the line, maybe, if not too hard and with a guide for those skillbooks people mention, because otherwise it'll just be infuriating to find them and realize you wasted valuable skill points if they're limited, but with this on top, no way.
In that case what you need is to know exactly how it works beforehand. Would much prefer direct train through use instead of that (every X increases in a related skill, +1 to the attribute in question, and either no levels or, if needed for something, level up every X skill increases, no tricks to it), sure, but at least once you do get the hang of it you can have a fully maxed char, or at least maxed in all bar luck if you took too long to realize just what to do to get that maxed too. That doesn't really happen in other games, which tend to go for overspecialization, and THAT is annoying.

Not the look, more the feel (and behavior). Try them on multi-monitor setups. I only use a very few Java programs but already had a lot of subtle issues with them: Windows which launch on the wrong screen, windows which slightly change their size on every re-launch, pop-ups which appear on the wrong screen, switching a window to full-screen mode moves it to a different screen, gray windows which need manual refresh to draw the content, ... and on top of it, the behavior even changes with the window manager you use.

Most of my (bad) experience comes from using Java programs on Linux though. Maybe the integration of the VM is better on Windows. Windows users are more used to that sad "one pop-up locks the whole application" behavior anyway. :P

Performance is another problem. It reminds me of FreeCol, which gets quite unplayable in later states of the game. But that also may be an issue of the game itself and not of Java in general.

Or something like Wizardry 8, where skill increases (from use) have no effect on stat increases (from level up).

I prefer daggerfall. You get your skill based level ups and they affect your attributes, which affect your HP and the like. The level ups aren't compartmentalized like in Morrowind, Oblivion and even worse in Skyrim.

Daggerfall has a few aspects I don't like:

1. Starting stats and stat/HP gains are random.
2. The higher your starting skills, the lower your potential level advancement.
3. Your highest minor skill is, IIRC, more important than your lowest major skill for advancement purposes. (In other words, it's the minor skill, not the major one, that determines when you advance.)
4. You get no extra reward for accomplishing harder challenges. (In Wizardry 8, strong enemies give more XP, and casting (or failing to cast) powerful spells gives you more skill experience; you see none of that in Daggerfall.)
5. Daggerfall still has HP gains from Vitality being non-retroactive.
6. The fact that only your main skills affect level advancement, combined with level scaling, leads to the counter-intuitive strategy of making sure the skills you actually intend to use are all Miscellaneous.

Wizardry 8 has none of these issues, except for the fact that it does have level scaling (but with manual leveling (you only level up when you click a certain icon) and skills not being tied to level advancement, it doesn't lead to the same issues you see in Daggerfall (and, from what I've read, even worse in Oblivion)).

Of note, Arena (which I'm playing right now) only has issues 1 and 5 out of this list.

I see. They are quite a few and of course your experience with programs written in java has been degraded.
The Java programs I use are mainly programming tools and I haven't noticed such problems.

I can only point out that the behavior changes with the window manager you use, are expected to some extend and that "one pop-up locks the whole application" is the programmer's choice (the modality type of a dialog).