Kissamies

Me too, but if I am stuck with a class system, multiclassing does make it a bit more like classless and bearable.

Finally got around playing that HD version of Ur-Quan Masters last weekend. It's fine job. Spotted only a few bugs and Star Control 2 is great as always. Now I'm trying their alpha of "Project 6014" fan expansion. That looks pretty promising as well so far.

If Ranger would be named something else, I'd probably prefer "Scout" over "Hunter", but Ranger is fine really.

Heh, I'd love it if there was a some sort of reference to MCA's let's play in PE, like a lady lost in the hills because she refuses to read the map, or an ailing wolf a Ranger can tame and nurse into full health.

People always complain about the camera in NWN2. I don't get it. I admit that it's not great, but once you set it up and stick to the mode that actually works, there's nothing wrong with it. Did you guys try to use the character mode in combat or something? Character mode is for those rare occasions when you want to run through a large already cleared area.

NWN's point clearly wasn't the OC, but that's always all that people talk about when the game is mentioned. Almost a pet peeve of mine. The real failure of the game if probably that it was too hard or too much work for most people to play in the traditional tabletop GM and players style, but despite this failure a lot of good came out of it. 3rd party single player and coop modules and the persistent worlds. Easily the best BioWare game overall because of this. DA:O might have had something similar if they had put more support on the toolset and not rushed to make DA2. I tried some of the modules early on, but gave up in disgust when it was mostly derp roads. Personally I like NWN2 better mainly because 3.5 rules and some other minor improvements like that and the terrain system making the world less blocky. Tools were harder to use, which was both a blessing and a curse. Less modules, but also less bad modules to wade through to find the real gems, or that how it felt like to me. I'm excited about Shadowrun Returns anyways because I love Shadowrun and the editor is cherry on top.

I don't love or hate Steam, I'm somewhat indifferent about it. I used to hate it when it was new and didn't work so well. The whole concept of always having some extra program running on the background was offensive to me. Even the server browser was and remains worse than some dedicated browser programs at the time. Over the years however, it steadily improved and I got more used to it. Still, I resisted buying anything directly over Steam for a very long time until I tried some sales. I still only mostly buy anything on Steam from sales. I think it's convenient for games that are more casual for me and I wouldn't really want to use it with games I'm more serious about. Don't love it, but I'd rather have everything just on Steam than have my games spread out on half a dozen similar platforms. I think I should use GG and GOG more, though. Their model is more attractive.

This got me playing Arcanum too. The first time, when the game was new, I didn't get very far actually. I guess I'm not very hardcore Maybe I make it this time with the mods and some glances at guides. I already see that I could have designed my character better. Well, nothing that grinding the XP by hits system can't fix.

Might be an interesting idea to have some nonmagical items, especially shields, get damaged or even destroyed as a result of critical hits, but probably not so fun gameplaywise.

Just because there's some wheellock guns, doesn't mean that the game should go all technology! or inventors! with it's themes. Sure there could be some renaissance clockpunk style contraptions somewhere or maybe plots involving some genius inventor (who might also be a wizard), but actual gameplay elements that have player as the inventor would be too much, I think.

I have no strong opinion, but I'd prefer sufficient attack animations. If there's a wide variety of weapons, there should be a variety of animations as well or we'll have the silliness like stabbing with an axe or repeatedly bashing foes in the head with a rapier again. That breaks my immersion much more than enemies always dying the same way. Ranged weapons don't really need multiple animations, but melee does. Also, as it was said before, it'd be nice if the animations reflected the attack rolls, but having good dodge and block animations and such may be too complicated to easily implement.

So I guess the animal companion is a core class feature for Rangers. Not a big fan of that, though I must admit that the implementation fits the whole soul lore perfectly. The Chanter seems interesting, though.

Nah, Cartman is more amusing when he gets his comeuppance. I think I'll make a jew character and side with Kyle just to see how Cartman reacts.

Nah, I think "formalized" is a better word for it. It's been around so much that people have come to expect it, no matter if it is actually a good mechanic or not.

Another thing about killing things vs sneaking past them and this might have been mentioned before - I haven't read it all: When you kill enemies they are not going to bother you again, but if you sneak past them you might have to sneak past them again when forced to backtrack. I think most players, myself included, will prefer the certainty of dispatched enemies in many situations especially when the perceived cost of dealing with them is low.

Oh, I agree that you shouldn't be able to craft items that are as strong or stronger that legendary artifacts in the game, but that's no reason to do away with crafting completely.

Coming from PnP systems that don't generally give XP, CP, karma, or whatever for defeating individual enemies, I've always disliked the kill XP in these games. It's gamey and makes me feel that I'm missing out unless I exterminate everything. That feeling I can resist, but it also makes me feel that if I sneak past too many enemies, I'm not getting the XP the devs expect me to have and my character will be too weak later on. These together make me fight more tedious trash combat that I'd like and tempt me to act against my character concept, unless that concept is a murdering psycopath. I'd be happier without kill XP. Maybe there could be some other kinds of rewards like achievements or in game reputation. Kill a hundred Orcs and the Orcs will fear you.

NWN2 all the way. BG2 style is just really quests where you have to find quest items in exchange for reward item, you can add that even without calling it crafting. But really, I would prefer NWN2 style because it adds customization. Items made this way should never be as powerful as the legendary items found in gameworld, but the player could create exactly what he wants. Suppose the player is really good with polearms and needs a flaming weapon to deal with trolls. He's provided with a legendary flaming sword, but that doesn't allow him to use all his neat polearm feats. So he crafts a flaming halberd instead. Sure it only does 1d4 flame damage compared to the sword's 2d6, but it fits his character better. That sort of crafting is also a pleasant time sink for those who want to customise their character's gear to the max. Of course there could be BG2 style find weapon pieces quests on top of that.

Probably ranger, but it depends on how the class is. If it's too much just ranged combat and not enough nature warrior/scout, I think I play cipher instead.

I loved BG1's wilderness areas too. They gave it the feel of a world instead of just a series of areas. However, if there's an overland map like in Fallouts or Storm of Zehir, such areas are unnecessary. The overland map is even better in giving that feel and satisfying the wanderlust.

I don't like it at all. Maybe if the glancing blows were stamina damage only and just in melee, it might be OK, but I still wouldn't like it.

Hmm, some people always seem to hate NWN2 camera vehemently. I don't really get that. Sure it wasn't great and I had to initially adjust the values on ini file because they didn't go low enough in-game settings, but after that it was not especially bad unless you insisted on using the mostly worthless character mode.

I've always disliked the Vancian system. With all the D&D adaptations, I have learned to live with it, but I have never really liked it. I guess it has some redeeming qualities when the game system has a huge library of spells and player has acces to most of them. Choosing the spells to use beforehand is slightly less bewildering than having to browse a huge library in middle of action, but it is still clunky and unfun. I prefer to have less, but more adaptable spells and some other system like fatigue points, for example. With buffs I would like less and more adaptable as well. Could have them on/off style as well. I hate casting a huge number of buffs before battle and also having to worry when they wear out.

A simple, gamey but workable compromise form Storm of Zehir: The inactive companions do fall behind in exp, but you can spend gold to have then trained back to your level. I like the concept of them doing their own thing and then having player play them in flashbacks, though.

Being good with ranged weapons makes sense for the ranger because they are practical for him, but I hope the class won't be too married to the ranged combatant idea. In my mind that is not what defines the ranger and neither is beastmastery or having some mystical connection with the nature, though those are nice traits to have optionally. I think the defining features are wilderness survival and pathfinding, ability to cover ground. My idea of the ranger is much like the second point in DCParry's post. The self-sufficient hunter and scout. As for actual abilities, I think the main things would be best survival and tracking skills and the ability to move quickly on the overland map, if there is one. Could also have good movement speed overall as long as light armour is used. Another ranger thing I think is practicality, carry only light gear but get most out of it. Most combat advantages might not be straight bonuses, but the ability to ignore certain penalties. A specialised fighter might be a better archer when shooting targets on a sunny day, but a ranger would beat him at shooting an obscured target at rainy swamp after staying awake for 48 hours. Animal companions can be cool, but I hate it when they are forced on me.