FlintlockJazz

Something Chris Avellone said in an interview about whether those who donated to the Kickstarter had actually played the games being used as reference before at all and what the proportion of us had not actually played Infinity Engine games got me thinking. Here's what I'm refering to: I'm intrigued, just how many of us did play these games and how many did not? Forum poll is not going to be by any means accurate but I'd be interested to see what we get...

No contrived decisions. I'm thinking Virmire here, where the entire situation felt forced in order to try and make you 'choose who to save' and yet no only didn't really give you a valid reason to choose one or the other beyond whether you wanted to bang them or not but that the whole situation seemed false and geared up to put you in that situation. No bikini armour. No forced in 'dark and edgy' stuff. When a game shovels in 'dark' and 'gritty' stuff in order to try to be mature it usually has the opposite effect. Not that dark and gritty isn't good, but when it's used to try to look mature I find it ends up feeling more like a teen fanwank fantasy. Like Morrigan was in short. No cooldown abilities or other MMO gameplay mechanics like tanking, aggro or the holy trinity. DAO felt like an MMO at times and that was to it's detriment. No cinematic movie approach. This is a game, I want it to be written like it's a DnD adventure, not a action film where I sit back and watch as my character is all awesome. This is the problem I have with Bioware's games, they seem more interested in being films and telling you the plot and how to act rather than letting the player steer. No "You are the chosen one!" I understand that we are going to have a special role in the world in the game and be wanted by people because of some circumstance, but hopefully that doesn't mean that I have to save the world or am destined to save everyone from the World Eating Crotch Sniffer!

Except that makes zero sense. NONE of the armor of the time could reliably stop a handgun bullet, let alone a bullet from an arquebus at ranges where the firearms were at all accurate. Unless the bullet expends its energy against the veil allowing the armor to block the greatly slowed projectile. Maybe it's not that the bullet can get through, perhaps guns only take down the veil and the bullet used is destroyed along with it, with the effect being that the mage is now vulnerable to follow-up attacks? The mage then wears armour in case their veil gets taken down and they need time to put it back up again?

Oi, don't make me come over there and bash you over the head! LARPing has plenty of gameplay involved, and is proper roleplaying, I'm not sure how it's relevant to cRPGs but it's not just about dress up. When you get whacked over the head by a rubber sword one too many times you'll start realising that there's some skill involved.

I definitely like the art style, despite the boob plate the armour actually looks good, better than a long shot for those of us who appreciate practical armour have been getting, and the drawing itself is just so well done. And the pose is just badass! By the way, is it wrong to admit that when I see an exposed midriff the first thing that comes to mind isn't how attractive it is but how you could get some decent stabs in their with an sword or mess it up with an axe swing?

Which bit of concept art are you guys talking about there? Have I been sleeping again and missed out on new stuff? Oh hell yes! :D I can see that being some upstart mage challenging his master, calling down impressive displays of power to show that 'he is the master now' only for the master to go "so this" and shoot him. :D EDIT: Edited post to shrink it down a bit.

Multiple for me: Baldur's Gate, Planescape: Torment, and Neverwinter Nights 2. I'd also say their work on Alpha Protocol helped gain my confidence (I know others may say the opposite, but I really liked that game).

I can see that being a non-combat skill instead of a class though.

I pretty much never play as a mage, but having a brace of pistols and a rapier would change my mind quickly And that's a good idea, when the spells fail, there's always a trusty wheellock. It's something that's already seemed obvious to me: if there are pistols and muskets around which are relatively simple to use why wouldn't a mage have one stashed on him for those rare "Oh crap!" moments? :D "You're out of spells now mag-" *BANG!* "My finger can still pull a trigger..."

Oi, no need to insult us larpers! And actually, in the systems I play in we insist that the player wear something that looks like what it's supposed to be, so if you want to have the benefits of plate you have to wear something that looks like plate!

Personally, I'd prefer it if everyone could use any type of armour, but not necessarily want to - i.e. some armour types would benefit certain playstyles more, while prohibit others. But that's a discussion for another topic What if the wizards looked like this, only with a cuirass worn on top of that? Practical, well protected, but still very wizard-ish. That sort of armour would suit them best I'd think - it doesn't limit freedom of movement much. Rapier is a precision weapon, I'd think it'd suit a magic user well. Wizards could be required to have one hand free at all times, for the purpose of spellcasting of course; that said maybe they could elect to equip a shield - losing access to their spells, but gaining some defensive measures. Possibly as a last ditch effort? I like it, breastplate over mage robes fits brilliantly, and the rapier works though I can also see him with a brace of pistols working too, especially if they work well against rival mages.

As long as he is strong enough to wear it If made right it wouldn't be too heavy to wear at all. Contrary to popular belief, plate is quite light and has better weight distribution than most other armours (for instance that cuirass' weight would be held by the hips more than the shoulders), and so I can see a mage quite happily wearing light breastplates.

I hope the OP is happy, his thread lead to the post that cleared out the romance thread!

I agree; I really want some depth to the characters and how they relate (or not) to the PC or others. I was entertained by BG2's party antics - some of which wasn't PC Centric - (Korgan pursuing Mazzy or Mazzy forcing Valgyar to be her squire for example) and some was (Edwin or Jan's dialogues). But I don't recall any of them having the depth of the romance dialogues (but my memory may be cheating here). Yep I think you're right: there was banter but no actual friendship tracks. And I recall seeing more of the romance tracks than of the banters too. Always thought that you should have been able to ask Minsc for Boo's advice whenever you wanted to too.

First off, I agree with others that dark=\= mature. Secondly: I hate and I do mean HATE contrived dilemnas. I despise being railroaded into a 'hard choice' just to make me choose which character to save, especially when there's really nothing more to go on than 'who you like more' like the Virmire choice. Hard choices yeah, but don't force the situation when it don't fit.

Sewers are must have, especially for a rogue character. I loved how you were able to use them as an alternate route through the city in Baldur's Gate when the cops were looking for you. More of that stuff please! Probably too hard to do in an isometric game but I would love it if they ever managed to do travel by rooftop! That would be even better for a rogue, especially if you could climb using skills and such. :D

For me, it depends. If romances are in the game I want them to fit the characters, story, game and setting. Because of this it is entirely possible the answer would be "0" or "52" depending on what the game would support and work within its confines. I see romances as one possible avenue of PC-NPC relationships which could include friendship, platonic love, mutual respect, or enmity. To me, "Romance" is your character and an NPC developing a relationship through speech and action that involves romantic feelings and/or commitment toward each other. I do not believe that this needs to end in sex - depending on the structure of the story it might make perfect sense for the two characters to not have sex at all and yet their relationship is still there. Part of the problem many - including myself - have with romances in video games is that they are PC centric to the extreme. The NPC gets sublimated to the PC and the romance only fails if the PC slaughters baby kittens in front of his/her intended. I'm not for that. I think for a romance to work right, the PC should meet some "criteria" established for what the NPC would pursue (or like to be pursued) by. I also think the player should be able to flirt with a "flirty" character who would never actually have a romance (essentially the PC should be able to fail at romance for reasons other than the PCs choice just as bad choices could fail any relationship in the game). This is a problem I do have with romances: you don't or shouldn't have to have romances in order to have relationships, and yet often I find that's all you get, either bang em or develop very little relationship with them. I find often that I'll do a romance just to be able to interact with a character. So I'd rather friendship tracks are made for all characters rather than romances for some, but thats just one rabbit's opinion...

You know, a setting with the races from the Dark Crystal could be interesting... Gelfling!

I don't recall there being a swamp in the IE games, which just makes me want one even more since it could look so cool and fairytaleesque. The ones in the Witcher games and even NWN2 were awesome I thought.

The Rabbit approves. I have spoken, so it shall be!

That, sir, is very very wrong, well done! :D Honestly it puts it in perspective, your typical adventurer is pretty much a sociopath who goes around murdering people for loot, so this is a logical extension...

You know what I would love? If they made one of the romanceable females really unattractive! And I mean really unattractive, and then make her romance the best one. We always get supermodels as romance options, be different for something more 'real'. Plus I want to see how many are indeed just after eye candy and sex! :D

I dont see any reason this would have to be true. Why don't you see any reason? Devs will not waste resources on descriptions that won't be relevant and may cause confusion to players (seriously, that has been used before). Either they will need to find some way for the description to change or not bother at all.

Why restrict them to mace? That part never made sense to me, let them use a multitude of weapons or weapons special to their god (historically no one was restricted to blunt weapons)

The dunce hat is also not the pointy hat I refer to. This is the pointy gandalf hat wizards wear: Notice the wide brim ideal for keeping the rain and sun off you (essential for travelling) and the point sweeping backwards instead of straight up? That's because it's awesome.