dwight_schrute

Suppose I get beaten and have to reload. Given what I've learned about the enemy party, I make proper arrangements and prance through the fog of war toward the baddies. Is there a chance that enemy characters are positioned differently, have a different choice of equipped weapon, or have another tactic in mind? I guess, two other questions are from the same category: will saves be disabled during combat and conversations, and do random monsters respawn in the wilderness the way they did on reload in BG?

I like to have a level field vis-a-vis npc. Let them take their best shot and pray the AI is good enough to be believable: fighters cover mages, archers keeping the distance, run around a corner to drink a potion, stuff like that. I so hope the AI is good..

Obsidian already made BG3 once. Called it NWN2. Romances, donkey-eared elves, all that one can wish for.

It would be nice if it cost a few seconds of action to at least one of them. Huh, I stopped looking into every trashcan in Arcanum fairly quickly. As soon as I figured out that I can find a set of worn socks, apple core or whatever answered my engineering needs in any city at any time. What's the point in picking up rat hides for 1 gp apiece, if you need to take out a mortgage to buy that shiny chainmail +1 anyway? This whole stash thing reminds me of how a short, but atmospheric video of campfire in BG was replaced with kneeling for five seconds by NWN2. What kind of resting is that? Would I like to spend five minutes before leaving a city to decide what crap I might need in the dungeon, and how much inv space should I leave for loot? Wouldn't bother me in the slightest. Packing your bag is a part of adventure.

Why having a killable merchant makes it so irresistible to whack the poor guy? I don't think I ever killed a merchant. What's the fun? I don't think ramping up a shop's defense means anything as long as abusing save/load is on the table. I do have distaste about the unkillable characters, either. It's not like I ever bothered to kill a kid back when they were mortal in fallout 2. An excellent way to protect a shopkeep is to integrate the guy into the environment. Take, for example, New Reno: killing Jagged Jimmy J would cost you an extremely valuable informer on the streets. And why would you ever kill Renesco, with his connections to half the families in the city? The guy deserved a good beating, I have to give it to him, but blackmailing him into giving up half of his crap was so much sweeter. On the contrary, when T-ray steals your car, you have no qualms about ending the dude. Why? Because nobody in the city will mourn him.

I liked how npc's in F1 were reacting to player forgetting to holster his weapon. I don't remember anyone giving a damn about your helmet or your gun's safety ever since. I remember having a shortcut in NWN2 that switched my party between "city" and "outdoors" outfits. That was convenient. Also, I always wore that snazzy red tux whenever on the streets of Tarant. What am I, a peasant?