Monte Carlo

Why did nobody call the police? Two guys waving big swords about in a park?

This would go a long way toward preventing blow-back from people wondering why Obsidian can't use the entire $4 million on the game. Because it's so obvious why they can't that it's not worth nurturing their ignorance, perhaps? What "blow-back" do they have in the first place?

Hey, I think there's room for some crazy stuff too. Always loved Elric... And War Hammer fantasy battles FTW....

As long as some of you are happy to be thrashed at Company of Heroes I'm in.

I think this is from Rift, but for a tank sword & shield character I like it...

Am worried about "Morrigan Disapproves -20" style anti-betrayal metrics / metagames but apart from that am indifferent. It's still a one-shot deal, whichever way you look at it.

I would love to see them try. Read the Kickstarter small print, even a class action full of legal lemmings would bounce right off it.

Geralt and Triss make sense because it's a game where you play a defined character. Again, not my cup of tea but given the game is predicated on Geralt's life then it's palatable. My problem here is that I find romances in games creepy on a *visceral* level. Can't help it.

Given that this game is meant to take us to about 12th level (in analogous D&D terms), the ending might be a bit tricky. We have an XP and, hopefully, a sequel. So the ending of P:E needs to be satisfying, consistent with the power-level but not The End (BG1 fell down considerably in this respect, asking you to 're-set' the Sarevok battle to play TotSC). So, depending on how the game ends, I'd be happy to mosey about, finishing stuff (maybe bits of the mega-dungeon for example). It would be a nice twist from the norm.

I note that Merin is a novelist, which might explain his POV as much as his preference for romance content, in that he sees how a plot and characterization fits, but with a bias towards that element of the game. For me (and I'm a writer, too, but came to it much later in life), a good story in a game is icing on a cake. Not the cake. Horses for courses.

It's a false analogy --- a game is not a novel, and might be no more than it's sum of parts.

Thanks Sensuki, I like the mechanic of augmenting skill shortfalls with equipment, i.e. "buying" the difference in resources.

Please no. I hate this mentality where players feel they have to pick up and sell every last scrap of loot they find. It's just as bad as grinding out kills for XP. I'm in favour of limited inventories and actually having to think and make choices when it comes to what you carry.

Great fantasy-themed Middle-Eastern characters.

In the spirit of old AD&D rules tables... I present the Monte Carlo Dungeon-O-Matic background generation table... But first: OK, OK, assume you don't want your character to be a 'ho. Dice Roll / Character Background 01-10 --- Toothless peasant with body odour, congenital heart problem, rat-like face but epic ability to eat pies and fart like a cabbage-filled bison 11-21 --- Dullard with soul-crushingly menial trade or profession, bovine features, tragic pretensions as to social advancement, acne 22-30 --- Tribal savage, paints face with gore, eats family members, worships a candle, believes that meat products have souls 31-32 --- Dentist 33-40 --- Bourgeois artisan, owns a pair of shoes, shiny complexion, tendency to lie, fatally attracted to dentists 41-50 --- Agricultural in-breed, awesome ability with scythe, strangely attracted to lactating quadrupeds, master of the banjo 51-60 --- Spawn of insane religious cultists, goes from door-to-door with leaflets, wears bloody robes, can chant in twelve languages 61-70 --- Nauseatingly cute and talented child of champion athletes, addicted to performance-enhancing herbs, intellectual capacity of a meat pie 71-80 --- Drunken rake, ironic facial hair, wears velvet codpiece, failed to qualify as a dentist 81-82 --- Accountant 83-90 --- Minor nobility, in-bred, awesome ability with silver cutlery, strangely attracted to lactating domestic servants, master of the lute 91-98 --- Scion of self-made merchant, wears a wig, has minor NPC to tie shoe-laces, wishes he / she was a Drunken Rake (qv) but daddy never went to college 99-00 --- Splintered avatar of Dark God, flashing red eyes, deep voice, electrically charged whip, pet Balrog, wishes he / she was an Accountant (qv)

Sez who? Says anyone who knows anything about good world buidling or design. PE is not based on the real world, it shouldn't use real world designs. That isn't a large leap of logic. I don't want to see a German Landsknecht wandering around an elven ruin, it would straight out make no sense and be lazy to boot. I am also sure Obsidian is perfectly capable of looking up authentic real world armor/weapon designs on their own so I don't know why all these pictures keep getting spammed. Why don't we trust them to do their own research and let their art team create their own original gear designs to bring their world to life? If we put you on a room on your own, would you still start a fight? Sheesh, find another thread to haunt. Morale Vampire.

As an atheist myself I still get a WTF feeling about atheism in a fantasy world where gods are real. It would be like not believing in rain. Or trees. "I refuse to aclknowledge the existence of that cliff! Watch as I walk straight over it!" Wanting to be some sort of nihilistic god-slayer heralding the end of days OTOH sounds quite cool.

The damp, tattooed and frequently drunk contigent of Britons grows by the hour. Our vomit-stained horde will march on California, smiting all who oppose us with a combination of mindless ultra-violence and insolent whimsy.

Please, for the love of all that is holy, lock this thread.

If I'm honest, the only thing I'd like to see are some discussions between the writers and the designers, too see how that part of the creative process works. For everything --- items, character dialogues, lore. But I understand why they might not do that until afterwards, and having a camera sitting there while your working might be a bit of a pain.

No co-op no MP.

Detailed character backgrounds, unless it is a game with a pre-defined character (PS:T, The Witcher, DA2) is a fairly new concept. Ambiguity / sketchiness was fine, it allowed the player an element of imagination and it allowed the developer to create an open plot. Adding character traits and backgrounds adds flavour to that without shoe-horning you into someone else's character. I hate being told who I am in a CRPG. Put it like this. I make a fighter called Rolf. On his character screen it says Background: City-Boy: You grew up in a teeming metropolis, the son of a tradesman. You have the gift of the gab and can run rings around vendors less smart than you. Mind you, go out into the wilds and you quickly miss the bright lights and a down-filled quilt... All of these things might give minor bonuses or penalties in a number of contexts. Maybe I also start with a bit more money, and even an heirloom item linked to my urban heritage (as you leave to make your fortune, your father gives you a treasured ring that belonged to his father before him. Won on the battlefields of 'X', it bestows minor protections against curses and hexes). There's plenty there for me to be getting on with. Too much detail and I start thinking I'm just an extra in someone else's movie.

JWestfall speaketh much wisdom, which should be heeded. I feel the sickly iridescence of entitlement here, and it must be cleansed.