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.

I really don't care as long as I can play the game with or without magic. If the game assumes that I will be using certain items at certain levels then I expect the entire party to have those items. If the game doesn't assume I have certain things at certain levels then having them feels like a bonus. Either way I'm fine. We wind up selling 99%+ of the gear we find, usually for much less than they are worth. If there's no reason to have the cash then there's no sense in collecting gear. If there's decent gear to be found in shops then we will need to be able to afford them which means a lot of useless but magical stuff will populate the leveled lists, NPCs, and monsters. I just recently finished a play through of Icewind Dale II and I was a little upset at the abundance of junk items but there wasn't enough of the stuff I needed to outfit my whole party.

I kind of like the idea that I can complete the game without having to slaughter everything between the opening cutscene and the end credits. I love being able to out smart the bad guys and just go around them if I choose to that's what role playing games should do If I want to play the role of a merchant, or pacifist mage, or a cripple, I should be able to play through the game with out having to break character to do it. By the way I have a 42 level character in skyrim that hasn't fought anything. She's rich and powerful though. Since you don't gain xp for anything you don't need to kill anything.

Thanks for the link to the interview. Probably the only thing I really care about is the modding tools. I don't like multi-player for these kinds of games, and as long as it's in English I don't care much about the languages it's translated into, but since the game will likely sell better overseas if there are more languages supported I'm sure the devs wold like to have as many languages supported as possible. I'd really like for the game to be as expansive as possible so using the extra cash to add content is my first priority.

I won't miss them if they aren't there. I won't be looking to kill them if they are.

I'm betting the issue would be with onyx using RAD game tools. I can'y find a any recent prices but when NWN 2 was released the modding community hit the great wall of granny making it impossible to add animations to the game. The price for the software was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars range. RAD supplies a lot of middleware and the onyx engine use bink video and granny.

One of the things I liked about Icewind dale and Baldur's gate was that the monsters remained static. D&D style monsters are always the same level with the same powers and abilities. (until4e anyway) and if I were to run into a challenge that was a little too tough I could always spam the rest button to spawn more goblins or orcs or what ever and earn some more experience before moving on. Some times it was fun to do this, sometimes it was necessary to avoid having to repeat encounters until you figured out the optimum method of dealing with them. I hope that if the game is linear that I can do this again as it was part of what kept me playing their games and looking forward to the next release. If the game turns out to be a sand box where I can choose a path or do some exploring outside of the main story I'd like to know that there are places I could go where the critters are weaker than me or they are impossibly strong. Sure some scaling is good but I'd really prefer static monsters to those that are always my level.

Since this is going to be a single player game, a mana pool is just as good as any other. The problem I see with spell points and mana pools in ttrpgs is they upset the balance between the classes. Being able to cast multiple versions of your highest level and most powerful spells tends to cause friction at the table, but in a squad based single player system this isn't the main concern. The idea that your spell casters are going to be more valuable is an issue though and some might feel the same friction in their squad as others do at the table. If there is going to be a multiplayer component such as co-op play this balance issue will raise it's ugly head once more. The caster being head and shoulders above the non casters. As for a fatigue system I worry that this would cause serious survival issues if the word "fatigue" means what it I think of as fatigue i.e. sapping ones strength to the point where they can no longer function. Sort of like a body builder's work out which leaves them so drained that they couldn't protect themselves or fight effectively. Otherwise it's just another word for mana, magicka, or spell points.

Yes but no matter what system used to power or restrict access to spells this is going to happen anyway. You will find the combination of spells or powers or what have you that works best for the way you deal with situations and use them to the exclusion of the rest

I don't know, people have been decrying the vancian style magic system for years but no one has been able to do better. The only other system in use is mana or, in ttrpgs spell points, which when you come down to it is still a form of vancian magic only without the slots being filled from the outset. Unlimited access to all of the spells available doesn't make a whole lot of sense from a balance perspective so we can rule that out. Maybe if the souls thing I heard mention of is related to spells it would slowly allow greater power to be expended to fuel these spells but it would just be another form of mana. I prefer spell slots and memorization. It would be less work for me in the long run.

I've played games with it and without. If the game is designed to be a sandbox where you can do pretty much what you want and crafting is just something else to do I like it. In games where it allows a player to make useless or inadequate items I surely have no use for it. If everything is level based and the power level of the stuff you make is dependent on that level then everything you make is useless or less useful than the stuff you will find, that is unless you can make unique items. I find that in games like these you wind up with a lot of excess cash, you never want for potions or scrolls, or weapons and armor for that matter. If the game supplies all of your needs I can't see wasting precious code resources on item creation. If on the other hand the game is designed to be stingy with powerful and useful items, potions and the like then being able to make your own is a boon. So the question then becomes, what system are they using and do we need to be able to make our own stuff. Unless it's going to add enjoyment to the game then go on and include it. If it does nothing for the game but waste precious resources I say they should give it a pass.