Seagloom

Awesome stuff here. I must admit some of those details exceed my expectations. Looking forward to seeing how subraces play out. As someone that generally sticks to human, it'll be neat to stick to them and still have options.

Magic in the vein of what D&D labels enchantment and illusion. Spells that alter perception and affect the mind are not nearly as common in RPGs as elemental magic. Illusion in particular is virtually nonexistent outside D&D. It's why I went straight for the mesmer when I started playing GW2. Those schools aside, any magic that is of the subtler control variety piques my interest. I like blowing stuff up with fireballs once in awhile, but I dislike it when that's all a magic user gets to do.

I liked BG's multiplayer function. Had a blast playing through campaigns co-op. At least when we stopped to coordinate a strategy. Despite that, I'm hoping Obsidian focuses on the single player experience. There's already Divinity: Original Sin coming to scratch my multiplayer RPG itch, and I'd rather see anything the stretch goals list suggests before multiplayer in PE.

Another vote for a house tied to a character's class. If not, at least make it a fun place to revisit like the Sink in OWB. However, if I could get my personalized dream stronghold it would be an inverted tower descending ever deeper into the earth. I'm corny that way.

Old-skool. I like using my own custom portraits. Unless there are a ton of appearance customization options, which I doubt, 3D portraits will not be anywhere near as personalized.

I agree it isn't necessary. There is no worthwhile reason in my mind to include a gauge for a character's personal morality. Karma in New Vegas was a good example. It was just... there. It served no purpose with the faction system. All a morals system does is hamper role-playing by encouraging a rigid approach to every dilemma. It can also unfairly influence a player's impressions of an NPC instead of forcing them to get to know the character and reach their own conclusions.

No sir, you do not. I lurve Justin Sweet's work. It would be awesome if he did the portraits.

I favor the NWN2 and Fallout approach. Unless they can throw enough money at writing and implementing these choices to make each option influence the entire game, I don't see how it can possibly get any better than that. Having a few key conversations where my character's past experiences affect the outcome are always nice. Being able to define personality traits in a way the game recognizes and provides feedback on are also great. Sadly, between identifying characters based on race, gender, and potentially class, these details often get left by the wayside.

No, I didn't pledge to get a new BioWare game. I don't harbor any ill will towards BioWare and I know Black Isle and Obsidian collaborated with them before. However, my interest in this project is seeing what Obsidian can do when left to their own devices. I have long believed in the potential of this studio and how much more awesome a game they could develop without being fettered by corporate shenanigans. This is the first time that could actually happen. I do not want to see that opportunity squandered.

I see this approach as a positive, not a negative. If my party needs a healer and the only available choice is a smug immoral jerk, I like the idea that choosing to leave him behind has a tangible consequence. Clinging to your convictions is not always going to be easy. While I welcome more characters to interact with, I don't think Obsidian should include a bevy of alternatives solely so every player can have their cake and eat it too. Sometimes in life you gotta work with people you don't like to accomplish a goal. It's not an unusual circumstance.

I don't mind elves as long as they are not the Tolkien inspired D&D variety. Standard issue elves make me cringe. What I would love to see are elves based on Norse mythology. The *real* elves.

This about covers it. I can live with short gameplay length if there is no padding. Bad filler is the death of replay value. I find trudging through act 1 of NWN2 painful because of it. Most of my games fall apart once I reach Old Owl Well. If I finish it, I can usually push myself through to at least act 3. Ideally I want a longer game, but if the added length is thin on non-combat content, forget it. Waaay too much filler combat in RPGs.

It's difficult to say without knowing what Project Eternity will include. A reasonably safe bet would be the aesthetic. Planescape had a captivating style I did not see in any setting before or since. Tony DiTerlizzi did an amazing job, and Black Isle managed to capture the spirit Sigil excellently in Torment.

I kind of sort of agree with this? I do think games can shy away from content that could ruffle feathers too often. I thought New Vegas dropped the ball here, in fact. Working for the Legion as a woman felt like a push, and the ending slides made it sound like there weren't even any consequences for the PC. At the same time, this sort of thing can be very hurtful depending on personal experience. At their core, video games are entertainment. For some of us they are escapist entertainment. In real life, women deal with a bevy of social issues on a regular basis--many of which have a hugely negative impact on their development and later, their adult lives. Getting to play a game where you don't need to deal with that as much, kick ass, and get to live a power fantasy is not only fun, it can be cathartic. That isn't to say I think all sensitive topics should be shied away from. Only that they should be handled with consideration for your entire audience. It's a tightrope that is all too easy to fall off from in pursuit of "mature" storytelling. Striking the right balance is tough. I think writers should keep trying to get it right. I just hope they are actually trying when they do, and not settling for weak shock value to garner attention.

I loved the way House and the NCR were handled by contrast. In my first game I actually stood in front of Yes Man for a good twenty minutes after finishing the "Side Bets" quests and thought very carefully about whether my character would betray house. She eventually did, and although I felt justified in my decision it never sat completely well with me. I was put off by the NCR before long for the reasons you cited and more. To me they are almost as unappealing an option as the Legion is. However, the key difference is presentation. With the NCR, I get to meet many of their rank and file and see they are decent people caught up in a machine. I meet a disenfranchised ranger relegated to gathering intelligence, a crippled former ranger, well meaning scientists, and so on. There is contrast. For every shifty NCR character there were a few who were decent or at the very least, understandable given their lot. Caesar's Legion by contrast is full of wall to wall psychos. Other than that one merchant, a line or two from Raul, and Caesar's own words, I'm not shown anything to suggest these people are more than cartoon villains that get their kicks from the suffering of others. I see slavish, ruthless devotion to a cause and that's all. On top of that, I encounter numerous examples of how the Legion lies and manipulates people to their ends. Yes they keep roads safe in their territories, but the tradeoff as presented is horrific and it is not until the ending that you get any inkling a Legion led west might not be a pure hellhole forever. Contrast this with House who wants to set himself up as a dictator and asks me to kill a bunch of people in one quest, but is otherwise almost benign in his goals. I suppose the big disconnect between us is I believe reasons should justify actions for a faction to have any credibility as a believable entity. Caesar may have his reasons for what he does, but his army is actually little different from the orcs you used as an example. Using terror to assimilate then maintain order to build your people into a vast conquering army sounds pretty orcish to me. In the end, I was left with the impression that the Legion were the main antagonists of New Vegas for no other reason than that kept being reinforced from as early as Goodsprings. I'm hoping this will not be the case in PE.