Wombat

Yeah, the OP brought up with the topic of how social views to different sexes could be treated. While I agree with dealing with sexuality beyond the romance/male fantasy format would be interesting, even good intended "features" may backfire if the system steps on some kinds of players. Then again, I haven't heard any complaints about the Legion in FONV.

It's actually true that one of my acquaintances broke his leg bone by a single hit of a female martial artist and such accident is not a totally unusual thing. More minor injuries are usual for him. You could check some female martial artists and ask yourself if you can beat them. Also, many historians believes Tomoe existed while admitting some exaggerations. You could check different sources for this one, too.

My point was: I'm quite happy with the presentation of femininity in Arcanum but some female players seem to be unhappy with it, wanting to make their characters more combat-capable. Defining female roles too strictly would make some people unhappy. So, letting the players give rooms for their characters would be necessary. Also, some NPCs/groups can be heavily prejudiced, reflecting various views, but, probably, they should be more in background rather than being always around the player characters.

I don't think all the male here, for example, can match trained female martial artists. Not only strength but also timing is the key for maximized impact. If you include submission holds, it also negates quite a huge part of sheer physical strength, too. Even historically, there is a quite famous female samurai called Tomoe, depicted in the Tales of the Heike. Even if she is "a match for thousands" is an exaggeration, she could even ripped off the head of a male samurai, making use of the strengths of horses they were riding. Indeed, Kiso, her lover and lord dismiss her for being female in his final fight but it's unlikely that he valued her worth as a warrior lowly. Even at the end of Tokugawa Shogunate, at battle of Aizu, there were a bunch of female fighters who fought male warriors, head to head. Although boy warriors called Byakkotai is more famous, the female warriors were capable of fighting for days against the terribly bad odds even for male warriors (Consider why Aizu needed the help of boys and women in the first place). As for possible presentations of femininity in role-playing game, it was O.K. by me that the treatment of femininity in the world such as Arcanum, for example. In fact, my character, a "proper lady" with silver tongue easily prove her worth in the fashion of "the pen is mightier than the sword" and I, personally, find it a good way to make a twist to the social discrimination (that patronizing "fairer sex" way of thinking), which suited the setting well. However, quite many female players found the rule as restricting. Throwing my eyes to Glorantha, there are quite many presentations of femininity/sexuality. Although typical earth cult's role (goddesses of Earth) is more submissive to male cultures there are some exceptions. Babeester Gor, goddess of vengeance, her cult is unique with its combatant nature among feminine and "weak" Earth temple. Well, however, her worshipers have this habit of hanging male genitals and heads of the defeated from their axes as trophies, so, some factors may need be toned down to the major audiences. Quite a bloodthirsty cult but they have their places in Earth cult of various places. If Tolat cult's amazons find any male, what they would do is enslaving them. However, compared with Babeester Gor's sisters, they tend to appear as NPCs since their society is very closed. The cult is most likely based on the conventional image of amazons. In any case, focusing on a single factor, male/female contrast in this case, may drift off too much from the possible theme of the main story. So, even if the designers are trying to shed some lights on this aspect of humanity, probably, it shouldn't be so restrictive to the main character, at least.

One thing I liked about the resting is that I could adjust the "difficulty" simply by deciding how often I rest. When I began to reload, I went back to the resting place. In this way, low level spells are quite important for me since they need to be carefully used when I run out - and I often ran out of big spells due to this play-style. I didn't touch difficulty slider since, for D&D system, this was the easiest way to adjust "difficulty." The point is, at least for me, how to make it feel danger of adventuring wilderness and, in combat, how the system to let me choose important actions, hopefully at my pace of liking, rather than force me to spam/mash buttons. I, simply, would like to play the game at my own pace. If the designers can let me play in this way, I don't care what system they would choose but...hopefully, I'd like the designers make the system and the lore nicely hands in hands. I know this is luxury in CRPGs but, I'd like to see well crafted world and the system which "expresses" it properly. Yeah, that's my misunderstanding part. I did some guess works right but I was terribly wrong when I thought Obsidians were just teasing as a tactics of Kickstarter (Actually, you had talked of Kickstarter for months before revealing PE). Anyway, in that case, I'd like you designers to take your time. I cannot voice other people but I think yous are doing your best in offering info/thoughts.

It's hard to browse the Kickstarter comment pages but probably, it's the quote below. [Edit]BTW, totally off topic but, to anyone responsible for the board application, could you make a "show developer posts" option? I definitely cannot read all the posts, especially when quite many of them appear to be getting repetitive. Going to the designers' profiles and choosing show posts can be an alternative but it feels less convenient.[Edit]

Sorry if this sounds like a nitpick but... The general tone of PE world setting seems to be going to be western fantasy but how do you think of the D&D tradition of putting weapons unfamiliar to a certain culture in the "exotic" weapon category? Between cultures which have no/a few communications, things tend to appear exotic from both ends: I the designers built the world carefully with various cultures and their own origins, there couldn't be a categorization such as "exotic" outside of in-character commentaries. I'm O.K. with prejudices/ignorance/stubbornness from NPCs but I don't like the system governs the world based on prejudices since it forces me to see the world in a certain way.* The same goes to with alignments (not in PE), inter-relationship among religions/ideologies, race/gender/social status related discriminations. Biases from the cultural/individual differences but to realize such world where various viewpoints are available, the designers should be able to see things in various ways. Here, just in case, I'm not demanding political correctness, which also varies among different backgrounds, but a bigger pool which lets the players to experience different viewpoints and possible story-developments/simulations, encompassing solid themes, in such a "pool." IMO, this makes role-playing interesting. * An apparent exception would be Darklands, where the designers put the players into a certain environment and let them see things in a way how the inhabitants see the world. However, of course, the designer needs to be fully aware of such "cultural gap (generation gap?)" to come up with such a system. At superficial level, it may look like an exception but the design philosophy is much more calculated. PS thax for the OP about the summary.

I like the flexibility of skill system and it is often convincing in a detailed world setting, reflecting various aspect of character backgrounds. I'm not convinced by Cain's explanation of character archetypes, either, since they could make a certain skill-sets and name it under class archetypes for those who are not accustomed to skill systems. Just my opinon, though. As for RTwP, yes, as long as there are tactical choices available, I don't mind RTwP or TB. TB requires the player input every single turn even when there are not important choices for a certain characters but RTwP, with auto-pause options, the players let the computer pause the game when their inputs are needed. About the race specific weapons, I wonder there is an interesting setting like an elf bow in Glorantha setting. Faction specific equipments such as signature weapons would be interesting, too. I wonder if I mentioned this but the players like to have personalized equipment, whether through their story choices, crafting, classes or factions. Anyway, thanks for the update.

Darklands is set in real world setting and, by design, these "miracles" appear to somewhat look like coincidences to our eyes. I'd like to see such RPG but, in the world of PE, magic seems to have much more obvious effects. Also, considering D&D audiences who are accustomed to fireball and meteor strike, it's quite possible that magic can be implemented in such a showy way. Personally, I'd like the designers to optimize the setting/game-play for mature audiences but some D&D traditions may not be avoidable. As of the game-play difficulty levels, some number adjustment could be enough but, it would be harder to make the content enjoyable for both mature and those who feel nostalgic about D&D games. At the moment, we can only trust the words by Tim Cain below. gamrReview with Tim Cain

He looks surprisingly young for the age. Happy Birthday!

That's why I asked if the setting allows various views/interpretations to the obvious inequality, the answer to which seems to be "yes". For I don't like it to be just a setting for one-shot story but to keep room for various possibilities of development for different campaigns/quests. In this way, a believable and cohesive world which lets us imagine various ways of living is quite important, I think.

I'd refrain any judgment on "the deities", for the time being. As long as there are various interpretations for them, there shouldn't be much problem. That said, I've gotten an impression that "godlike races" may not be able to join a certain factions. If so, is this same for some other races and other backgrounds? Also, do "godlike races" have choices in terms of their own faiths/beliefs even if they are regarded as sacred/cursed from a certain factions/religions?

Sawyer tried to implement a lock-picking mini game to Jefferson aka The Black Hound but the idea was quite unpopular. A bit confusing thing to me is that Sawyer doesn't seem to like the conversation mini-game in Deus Ex: Human Revolution while I think the design philosophy behind it is basically same with what he suggested in his lock-picking mini-game idea.* How to implement skills are always an issue especially in party management games since the game-play is mainly the party combat mini game. Implementing other mini-games related non-combat skills feels pretty unnatural compared with something like the Elder Scroll series (Why should the players need to do lock-picking in the first person view while he doesn't do it in combat?). Also, if the designers go for a strict simulation mechanism, the players shouldn't be involved in the details of each activity while the lack of any other challenge outside combat can make the game feel less involved, where the riddles and puzzles fit in the old IE games. That said, indeed, some skills won't be struck by the oddity tied with the main game-play: Crafting skills in FONV were more or less resource management factor with the crafting UI, which shouldn't be called as a mini-game. This kind of system can be find either FONV or IE style games without problem except that one of the themes of FONV was survival, which is a different topic. Frankly, I don't know how Sawyer and Can deal with the issue. If they go for Darklands sim style, then, the players are only allowed to choose from given choices for their characters - other options will be blocked (Thus the option for them is done at character building/possible respecing). Let's see possible implementaion of Stealth Skills on the basis of party management game off the top of my head Making stealth have roles in combat mini-game and/or maneuvering hostile areas. Just offering different routes through lock-picking like Move/Throw Heavy Objects in DXHR. Lock-picking/pick-pocketing to gain quest-related info/items. Spotting useful info/items. Depending on the map design, the players may be able to divide their parties into stealth team/combat team/negotiation team: Negotiation team buy time, stealth team sabotage, combat team - well kicking some peoples' a$$es. It seems this hugely depends on how the designers design each map since such implementation require each map to be unique. Depending the abilities of each designer, the gap of each map can be too obvious. Even the rushed IWD2 had this problem. *As for whether implementing a conversation mini-game in PE, though, I agree that, considering the core system of NPC reactions, I'd rather like to see Alpha Protocol style C&C rather than Darklands sim or Deus Ex: Human Revolution mini-game. Indeed, I value the implementation in DXHR, to some extent, since it requires the players to pay attention to the characters of NPCs. However, I have never touched the game after finishing it and I don't think it would be interesting even if I played it again.

Depending on the setting for the PCs gainging powers, you may even be able to justify respecing. Soul series seem to have an explanation but I haven't played them - they were on consoles and, maybe, too "actiony" to me. And yet, possible explanations for skills may be hard to think of.

I like the world which have various interpretations about these spiritual factors, too. Through social status, ethnics, religions, and even languages, various recognitions of the world make it three dimentional and rich. However, at least, as for religions, the main plot of the PE can be related with a power secret which are concealed to the majority. This reminds me of Mask of the Betrayer. In Mask of the Betrayer, the gods have a big secret, which was related with the axis of the plot. While I think it's well done for the Forgotten Realms setting, knowing the "truth" didn't make much of interesting choices. It was between destroying the system (In fact, this was not allowed and you need to simply leave the gods) or exploit the power of a god (so-called evil ending). It sounds epic in a way that you can be "powerful" in evil ending, but, personally, I'd like to see the world with more open to interpretations or more personalized story like Planescape: Torment. If PE has something common with MotB, since PE is going to have many factions, it might simply end up with what you to do with the secret of the power - give it to your favorite faction, or exploit it by yourself, or...(Speculation TM) In any case, the existence of the truth can nullify the other theories. In that case, the players is going to hear various religious/philosophical theories, only to end up with a single truth. If so, it is going to rely on the actual presentation of NPCs from various backgrounds and how the players can sympathize/feel against them.

Desirably, depending on how the players to deal with quests, even the same can be solved in an investigative way, as well as a bloodthirsty way. It would be not wise to expect suth thing in every single quest but, at least, I think that is what the designers are aiming at.

I think the implementation is reasonable in a way it can satisfy any play style. Only people who wouldn't be happy with that is probably those who want to be blocked by other possible game-plays by strictly defining their characters - other possible ways should be for replay-value, they would say. I understand their point but I find, Cain's decision is, at least, reasonable. PE focuses on party-based game-play (solo play seems to be possible, though). It would be good if any character has his role no matter in the game-play how the players decide to tackle obstacles. I think it's a kind of similar line of thought with what Sawyer wrote about weapon balancing: Likewise, if there are pacifist and militant companions, who go through the same advancement system with the players, and if you choose either pacifist path or militant path, the choice of your companion NPCs will be restricted by that, which wouldn't be good resource-wise, too. In any case, if everything is done right, the most valuable rewards for replays would be reactions to your choices from NPCs both inside and outside of the party members, which forms an important part of the narrative.

As for IWE2, you maight mean Sorrow's Tear. It's an interesting quest which ties the setting with the item, which makes a rather simple item memorable. If it had other choices to make a different item, depending choices the players made in the quest, it would have been even better. Yeah, I'd like to see stories and items can be interwoven to make the experience personal. Even if we are using crafting skills, the materials and/or knowledge needed for a certain types of weapons may only be available through a certain choices the players made.

As for the power balance issue, anything can be done as long as the rule-set/setting allows the characters to become legendary/god-like creatures. This is almost an innate problem with rule-set like D&D. IWD2 tries to pretend the PCs are just mercenaries but it made the story somewhat ridiculous and some people felt it's pathetic of the enemy regions were defeated by just some mercenaries. There are suitable rule-sets for a certain types of stories. I like more moderate rule-set with more moderate rule for the protagonist but I think PE seems to be "epic" route.

No EXP for just killing, according to the video by Tim Cain.

I think that the designers will choose somewhere in between since they are talking of even "mining" skill (not confirmed as a skill but just mentioned as an example in Tim Cain's video), for example. It may basically work like FONV but the prices of vendors buying the item may vary depending on the conditions and local needs. I know Arcanum's crafting system was not popular among some people, too. In any case, in general, if I, or any other person thought that the designer should do exactly what we stated, then, they wouldn't be able to make a game. They are game masters and we are telling our opinions and views as their players. Actually, I think Sawyer and Cain are one of the best possible combinations when it comes to this type of game design.

Related with lore, people in a certain cultures may value a specific animal's fang/fur, especially if such items have gotten important roles in their daily lives/beliefs.* Likewise, groups with advanced technology compared with the standards of other areas may find other usages to a certain materials. *Maybe, some items price can be high during the time of their festivals/rituals but I wonder if Obsidian is going this far. A possible quest with such flavor would be nice. I liked some quests in Morrowind, which reflects people's lives and beliefs.

Another adventuring party as a rival is an idea which was planned for Van Buren, aka Black Isle's version of Fallout 3. Now with multiple factions? Maybe, interesting. I think I did this in my playthrough of Alpha Protocol. I ended up with letting an cooperative NPC killed for gaining info. I thought that NPC wouldn't be killed so easily, means, there was a failed commuication between I and the desifner, though. In any case, it's more interesting to make decissions in the world with more complicated conflicts. As a possible twists, maybe, sometimes, royality backfire? Don't disagree but, according to given info so far, the protagonist seems to be "in a wrong place at a wrong time" in an influential incident and thus be going to be involved in the interests of various factions.

A good article indeed. See how he shines when he is talking of what he excels. As for influence system, Alpha Protocol had some interesting twists, which made me think that it may not be alway good to attract attentions of a certain people - I kind of felt as if the protagonist was stalked. I wished the themes were much deeper. However, thining of that, I'm not a great fan of 007 series.

The thread starter haven't played Fallout: New Vegas? Also, like in Gothic series, if you have a skilled hunter, he will be probably able to get wolf pelts and meat form wolves, horns and fangs from different types of animals, which can be sold to NPCs and/or made into items through craft skills. An odd thing is most role-playing game is that dropped armor and weapons tend to be much cheaper than what we can buy from the stores. Rune Quest had more "realistic" solution, you don't have anybody interested in weapons since there is not much demands for them. And, with that encumbrance system, it doesn't worth carrying them all the way to big cities, which have more demands on various things.