Giantevilhead

Just make the unlimited stash an option you can either switch on or off. In fact, a lot of these debates/pointless arguments can be avoided if they just make it so that certain features can be switched on or off.

But isn't it somehow unrealistic ? Entire race that decided that they should act dumb so they can fool other races, I like idea that they are inteligent but are consdier dumber, but rather then making them act I would make them race of army guys, not a bunch of savages, but rather their whole culture center around cult of army something like Prussia during reign of Frederick William I . Therefore typical orc would easily accept orders, and woudn't think to much about because it was order, and because of this they would be consider slightly dumber culture. The entire race wouldn't act dumb all the time. They wouldn't act dumb in their own cities/nation. It's only when they go out into other nations that they pretend to be dumb. Since orcs look brutish and animalistic, most other races just assume that they're not very smart. There would also be a lot of people, especially merchants and business people, who are in on the conspiracy and help maintain it because they benefit a lot from it too.

I think orcs should be as intelligent as other races but they should act dumb to trick people into lowering their guard. So for example, rich merchants would hire orcs as body guards for secret trade negotiations thinking that the orcs would be too dumb to take advantage of that kind of sensitive information but then the orcs would use that insider knowledge to make smart investments.

Well, it is sort of a conceit of the series. ME, like a lot of sci-fi stories, is predicated on the premise of "earth is the most important planet in the galaxy, and humans are the most awesome species ever." That's the way it is in Star Trek, Stargate, DC, Marvel, etc. Heck, in the DC universe, earth is literally the center of all creation, destroying the earth would collapse the entire multi-verse. In the Marvel universe, earth was specifically created to battle an all powerful universe eating entity.

A Might and Magic game by Obsidian would be awesome, especially if the story follows Heroes of Might and Magic 4. I hate how badly Ubisoft has been treating the franchise.

The devs obviously know more about the costs than you do, and if they say it's cost prohibitive to re-record dialogue for the sake of editing the script, I'll believe MCA over you. And for the record, Ron Perlman is a film and TV "real actor." Not a "voice actor." His primary work is in the film industry. Lots of "real actors" do voicework on the side because it's a quick and easy buck in between or even during major projects like TV shows or movies. Ron Perlman obviously commands a much higher fee than your Jennifer Hales and Phill Lamarrs. I mean, have you seen the City of Lost Children? Ron Perlman is no mere Steven Blum or Mark Meer. And Bethesda likely shells out tens or even hundreds of thousands when they get people like Liam Neeson, Christopher Lee or Patrick Stewart for their games. Where did I say that I knew more about the costs than the devs? I simply asked a question about the costs. Since the devs never gave a breakdown for the cost of voice overs, I asked a question about how much having voice overs would cost if they don't use established voice actors. I would assume that getting the guy who did the narration for Bastion would be a lot cheaper than getting Ron Perlman even though they would likely give similar performances.

Look at SWTOR and tell me VO is cheap. SWTOR is full of well known voice actors like Jennifer Hale, Nolan North, Grey DeLisle, Steve Blum, etc., who are veterans in the industry. I specifically said that they could look for newer voice actors who aren't as expensive. While it is true that voice acting requires a lot of talent and skill, I don't think good voice actors are as hard to find as people think. Look at Bastion, the narrator for that game was virtually unknown and he did a great job. There's a lot of untapped talent out there in every field. You can find artists who are as good as professionals on deviant art. You can find great writers on blogs and fan fic sites. You can find very talented comedians, actors, voice actors on youtube.

Is adding voice overs really that expensive if they don't use big name or expensive (voice) actors? They don't necessarily need to hire the most well known voice actors like Ron Perlman, Kevin Michael Richardson, Phil Lamarr, Tricia Helfer, Jennifer Hale, etc. There are plenty of talented young or new (voice) actors out there.

The mysterious wise old monk/martial arts master, who may also act outrageous and raunchy, is a bit of cliche. Forton does remind me of Master Roshi, or just about any elderly character, from the Dragon Ball series. Still, hopefully Obsidian can make the character interesting.

Amy Hennig, main writer behind Legacy of Kain games Soul Reaver, Soul Reaver 2, and Defiance. Whoever was wrote for the Heroes of Might and Magic III expansions (particularly Shadow of Death), Heroes of Might and Magic IV and some of the later Might and Magic games.

I would imagine that the concept of souls will be integrated into vampiric lore. I think they could be similar to a combination of the Spirit Eater from Mask of the Betrayer and the vampires from Legacy of Kain. Due to their immortality, their souls do not go back to the reincarnation cycle so they feed upon mortals and use parts of other people's souls to take their own place in the cycle. They could have powers deriving from their ability to manipulate souls and knowledge of the reincarnation cycle. They could steal the knowledge and experiences of others or use the souls of those they consume to bolster their own. They could have greater power over souls and gain access to a soul's past lives. They could also be great powers in the world. Having greatly influenced or even built up entire societies throughout the ages. People could flock to vampires seeking favors, offering up parts of their souls in exchange for information of their own past lives or for ancient knowledge and skills possessed by vampires.

It would be interesting if gods purposely hid their existence because they discovered potential dangers in souls and faith. Maybe souls are like beacons in the metaphysical realm. When people pray or worship, they draw attention from other worlds and planes of existence. Gods from other worlds and realms can sense the devotion of mortal souls and will try to encroach upon this world. Perhaps due to the eternal nature of souls, every soul has the potential of becoming a god through some way of retaining all the knowledge and experience of every life it has ever lived. However, the gods do not want newer gods to rise and challenge their power so they conceal themselves and hide the secrets to obtaining godhood.

Considering how important souls will be, it would be pretty cool to have something like the Elder God from the Legacy of Kain series:

Since in a lot of fantasy worlds, gods are sustained by the beliefs of their worshipers, I think it would be interesting if gods are also influenced by those beliefs. For example, if people believe that a certain god is fickle and shortsighted then that god will become more fickle and shortsighted over time. And when a god gains more worshipers, they also start to lose their own free will as they become subject to the beliefs of mortals and change in ways to conform to those beliefs whether they like it or not. This would have a flanderization effect where a god's defining traits and features become more extreme over time. So a war god may have started out being a bit ruthless bu then becomes consumed by blood thirst and cruelty over time as a result of the fears of mortals. So it's a balancing act for the gods, they want the power gained from worshipers but they also want to keep their own free will. Some gods choose to abandon all their followers because they don't want to be controlled by others while other gods don't care about losing their free will in their quest for more power and try to spread their faith as much as possible.

But Sandro is not very charismatic. He relies on deception and sabotage rather than leadership skills. He's the kind of guy who pulls the strings from behind the scenes. Although, unlike other villains, especially other necromancers, Sandro actually learns from his mistakes. He learned to keep his megalomania in check and the importance of having allies. It's just too bad that Ubisoft screwed up the entire franchise and killed the old Might and Magic universe.

I definitely want a villain who can be extremely charismatic or likeable regardless of what their methods or goals are. Kane from Command and Conquer is the perfect example of this kind of villain. He's a sociopathic cult leader who lies to everyone, conducts terrorist campaigns against his enemies, and does horrible genetic experiments on civilians. But he's just so damn charismatic that you like him even when he's telling you to detonate a bomb that would blow up half of Europe.

First of all, you have to define what you mean by "realism." Do you define "realism" as being like the real world? If so, then no, it should not be like the real world. A game should not follow the same rules as the real world. Or do you define "realism" as being logically consistent and making sense? If so, then yes. A game can have a bunch of made up rules but they should have some logic to them and you should keep your made up stuff consistent.

I am glad that President Obama has won but he really needs to do a better job of communicating with the American people. He needs to explain some very basic logic to people. Heck, with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, this is a perfect time for President Obama to explain why we need disaster relief at the federal level. Hurricanes and earthquakes are not going to magically avoid police stations, fire stations, relief supplies, rescue personnel, etc. If you have all the infrastructure, resources, and personnel completely invested in the states that will be hit by the disaster then what happens when that infrastructure is damaged or destroyed by a natural disaster?

The familiarity bonus would not be so great as to make newer stuff useless. The point would be to make older weapons more on par with newer weapons, not to make them better. That rusty shortsword you get at the beginning of the game is never going to be as powerful as a +10 vorpal great ax of doom no matter how much familiarity you have with it.

Except it's the opposite of a loot fest concept. You're actually encouraged to keep older equipment instead of constantly trying to trade up your equipment for better versions. That's the whole point. It's a system meant to keep weaker weapons/armors/spells more useful later in the game so you're not just throwing away a +1 sword for a +2 sword, then throwing that +2 sword away when you find a +3 sword, and so on.

Some games have systems where the more you use a certain weapon or the more enemies you've killed with a certain weapon, the more effective it becomes. I think it would be interesting if Project Eternity included such a system for weapon, armor, and magic. There are some obvious effects to weapon/magic familiarity like increased damage, hit chance, attack speed, etc. Similarly, greater familiarity with armor increases protection and reduces penalties. There would be other effects like special abilities/attacks/spells that are easier to perform or has extra effects based on familiarity. Perhaps there could even be abilities/attacks/spells that actually require a certain amount of familiarity with a certain weapon/armor/spell. The most obvious advantage of a familiarity system is that older equipment/spells remain viable throughout the entire game. A new weapon or armor may be more powerful than the one you have but since you're less familiar with them, you can't use them as effectively as your old equipment. Certain weapons/armor/spell could also be easier to master than others so you can choose between a weapon/armor/spell that starts off weak but quickly increases in effectiveness/power due to faster familiarity or a weapon/armor/spell that starts off strong but takes a long time to master. Additionally, there could be two layers of familiarity, one associated with the weapons/armor/spell you're using and one associated with the type. For example, when you use a dagger, you don't just gain familiarity with that specific dagger but also with all daggers or all daggers of that type. Of course, familiarity with specific weapons/armor/spell increases much faster than familiarity with type and you can gain familiarity with type by using more weapons/armor/spells of that type. They could convey different advantages and disadvantages. For example, having greater familiarity with the fireball spell makes fireballs cheaper, more powerful, faster, and less damaging to allies, but having greater familiarity with explosive type fire spells can allow you to create spell combos or more effectively resist/counter explosive type fire spells cast by enemies.

Useless authority/military/law enforcement figures who depend on the hero to do their job. When a governor or a king hires your party to solve a crime, root out a spy, or destroy some bandits, the military/police/intelligence service should continue trying to find ways of solving that problem on their own. If your party screws up or takes too long, there should be a chance that the military/police/intelligence service ends up solving things on their own. In fact, you could inadvertently help the authorities solve the problem by accidentally giving away clues or evidence that you gathered on your own. In these types of quests, there should be a competition between your party, the authorities, and possibly other adventuring parties. You can try to collaborate with the authorities or another adventuring party and split the bounty but you risk being taken advantage of, or you can try to trick them into doing dirty work for you or revealing information they've gathered but you'll earn a bad reputation.

I just hope that they don't have a stereotypical monoculture.

The Brotherhood of Nod also had some awesome propaganda and slogans like Peace through power. Kane lives in death. One vision! One purpose! Brotherhood. Unity. Peace. A cult of personality like the Brotherhood of Nod would be great in Project: Eternity.

Motivation, morality, ethics, and philosophy are all very important but I would actually like to see Obsidian write a villain where those factors are secondary. I'd really like to see a villain who is just so charismatic that they can convince people to follow them regardless of what their motivations or the moral implications of their actions are. Kane from Command and Conquer is a good example of this kind of villain. He's just got that right mix of charm, authority, and mystery that he makes you like him and want to listen to him even when you don't know who he really is or what he has planned. And he's able to commit horrific acts of terrorism and genocide while still retaining his charm and likability. I would love to see a villain like Kane in Project: Eternity.