Tlantl

So how many of us run PnP rpgs? Do we ignore level appropriate encounters in favor of a constant stream of impossible or walk through encounters? maybe a few set encounters when we build the world but for the most part not so much. My players would have fits and rightfully so. It's the same thing in a crpg, the difference is all of the encounters are preset. A video game can be optimized to give each of us the challenges we desire while keeping the really easy or impossible encounters to a minimum. I'm sure all of you who scream that you don't want level scaling don't really want the game to play that way, what you really want is to be able to play the game in such a way that the level scaling doesn't break immersion. Other wise game designers wouldn't have to make ever increasingly difficult monsters to fight, or allow us to add power to our characters as we play. Oblivion went too far in this, but it was pretty much the way morrowind played as well. The thing about morrowind was that there were those creatures and NPCs in the game that were very hard and some that were easy placed in certain regions, where in oblivion someone for got to tell this to the Todd and his game was pitiful in comparison. I'm sure I never had this problem with any games I played by Obsidian, theirs have other issues, but I can assume that those issues came with using other peoples code and having to adhere to the dictates of a higher authority. An issue I don't for see with a game they designed, wrote and produced in house..

Yes, that would add realism and variety to the combat. No, i want my weapon of choice to be effective against all enemies the same I don't care. I have a different idea about this So why does every poll have these annoying answers? Isn't a simple yes no maybe or I don't care good enough? No!

You want dro go to the wizards of the coast, they gots dro lots of 'em, seems everything they do now has something to do with them. Me I had it up to here with the damned things. If there's one thing I'd beg the devs not to include, that would be dark elves.

I actually liked the giblets flying around on a particularly good hit. I wouldn't mind those coming back but in extreme moderation.

Or not!

Screen shaking when critical striking with a toggle to turn it off so I don't have to suffer through it.

I'm of a mixed mind on this one. I like to think things would be more realistic if gold, which actually weighs a lot, actually weighed something in game. Making things cost more gold than you could possibly carry could be interesting. On the other hand I just can't get behind the idea in practice. I'd become frustrated having to convert my coins into lighter forms of currency such as gems the way we do in our PnP games. There's nothing like travelling with a mule so that you have enough carrying capacity to deal with large piles of coins or other goods. Thank the gods for extra dimensional spaces.

I think random encounters work best when they are set encounters that happen at random or in random places. Sometimes the plot can be enhanced or a sub plot introduced in such a way. In my TTRPG games I use this mechanic to confuse the players, drop hints about the big picture, or to eat up resources before an important encounter. I also use other kinds of not so random encounters when the players pass through hostile territory, including ethnic sections of cities. I like them and would be a bit unhappy about their not being in the game.

According to what principle? if the game on the hardest setting it's -let's say- twice as hard, that experience bonus shouldn't make the game easier. Just reward the player a little more, to a minor extent. And I'd like to point that, as I already stated, I'm not very fond of that suggestion, but your objection sounds a bit baseless to me. wouldn't adding a bonus to earned XP make reaching the highest level easier? I'd assume that becoming stronger while the game stays the same would make playing the game easier, maybe even a cake walk that negates the difficulty setting. I wouldn't much care since I don't actually plan on upping the difficulty from the default setting unless the game is really easy on that setting. I'm not much of a fan of having to beat on something for twice as long as normal to simulate a harder game. That's not to say these guys are just going to lower my chance to hit and increase hit points to the extreme like many other games do but it is the easiest and most common method of making games more difficult.

So let me get this straight, you want the devs to waste precious resources making a half dozen animations and effects for every spell in the game that gets a slight power increase as you gain levels? I guess if we want to give up dialogue or a wider variety of items or have less detailed backgrounds, or maybe have some unknown hack come in from off the street to compose music, or give up the added stretch goal content like new races and classes, they could do that. Who knows what they'd wind up having to skimp on to supply us with all these different animations and visuals, just so your 5th level fireball looks sort of/kind of different from your 4th level fireball.

I think the only way we should be able to have the gear we want and to have it look the way we want is if we made the stuff ourselves. I wouldn't want everything I found to look just like the stuff I already have unless the only changes needed were attaching bangles or a new coat of paint. I wouldn't mind there being multiple copies of certain models with better stats and abilities built in so that I could actually find a breastplate that looked like the one I was wearing but was far superior in durability enchantment or made from a more exotic material. These would likely be very basic and common though. I'd say if you want special or unique looking gear you'd need to make it yourself or have a craftsman make it for you.

I'm more than happy with a hack and slash rpg. Interpersonal relationships are not something I want in a video game. If I want romance I'll buy a harlequin novel. If it's in the game and I can't ignore it I will be a very unhappy camper.

I'd prefer a simple pass or fail when it comes to lockpicking. I also hope that I can break a lock or force open a door or other locked object. There's nothing as frustrating as failing to open a lock and not have other options for getting past the darned thing.

As I remember, in Icewind dale and baldur's gate there were different custom settings for tactics and aggression. Clerics could be set to heal as the default and when a party member was injured he'd heal her or if you preferred you could set them to use certain spells in preference to others. I would certainly hope these are part of the game since with out them combat would indeed become pause fests where you had to micro manage your party or nothing would get done. Personally I would love to be able to set my own character to act independently of my input. that way I'd be able to watch the whole fight and make strategic decisions rather than having to spend all my time controlling one character at the expense of a faster battle or dead NPCs.

I say give the P the option to fight this way if he wants, but let the rest of us do as we please. I would hate to have some arbitrary restriction on fighting styles just because some other body doesn't like them. In TOEE I had a fighter rogue with great cleave who used a glaive, if she won initiative there could be several sneak attack-cleave attacks in a row, it was awesome.