Oerwinde

I'm not even that old. Was just a young un when I joined the BIS boards though., was like 14 years ago I think.

Be it random or carefully placed, I don't want to lose interest in looting halfway through the game. The last few major RPGs I've played I actually stopped checking chests and such because I didn't care what was in there because I knew it wasn't better than what I had and I couldn't spare the inventory space.

Also, having loads of actors all volunteering for credit/demo tape content/resume padding is all good, but if you don't have a decent voice director, most of the performances are going to be lousy.

Posted this in the "Upgradeable house" poll thread: Keeps it to a more middle class rather than grand high lord type thing, then maybe in the sequel we can move up to a keep, and in a possible third one we can become king and start ruling over a whole nation.

Honestly I don't even really see the need for too many classes considering how the magic system works. Basically you should have a magic user class, a fighter class, and a rogue class, and everything else should be determined by skills/perks/proficiencies. If you want to have a fighting monk, go with a fighter class, then choose skills/perks/etc. tied to religious training and unarmed combat. If you want a standard fantasy cleric, choose magic user class then skills/etc. tied to healing magic and again, religious training. Basically having most character development tied to skills, with certain classes having skills only that class can use would be ideal. Background perks are also super cool. Like if I want my character to be a nobleman, having a noble house background perk would have other nobility treat me better than if I didn't have the perk, and the lower classes would tiptoe around me and maybe not give accurate info or I might have to work harder to gain their trust.

I love this qualifier.... Well PS:T is probably he greatest RPG ever made. If the NPCs in this game are even half as good as PS:T's were I will apologize for my outburst. They did say that they wanted the story and characters to be as deep and engaging as PS:T, hence putting their focus on fewer companions. PS:T also only had 3 classes and one race, so they're going a step up with this giving us 5 classes and 3 races. I do think if they want to attract more people, tossing out a bit of concept art and a few more ideas of the direction they want to take in terms of story and characters would be a good idea. Give a bit of an example of what they want it to look like, even if its just a concept mock up someone did in a day or two, covered in disclaimers of course. Right now basically we're going on "IE games were awesome, we want something like that, give us money" I have enjoyed everything Obsidian has done, even back to the guys at Troika and Black Isle, so I have complete faith in whatever it is their vague promises are aiming at, but others don't have the same faith.

Maybe they'll add multiplayer if the funding hits 4 million, but I'm pretty sure its not a priority for most people here.

I think it would be cool for your home/stronghold to be an inn. At first it could be a dive, simply having a couple crappy rooms, one of which is yours. As you do quests you could recruit a bartender, cook, serving staff, musicians, etc. and you could expand it, adding the requirements for the various hirelings, bar, kitchen, stage, more rooms, etc. As you expand it, each companion could get his own room with personal touches, you could begin attracting customers, earning an income, and even attracting quest giving customers. Depending on your character you could develop it in specific paths, each path giving different bonuses or quests. Maybe develop it into an upscale inn, earning more of an income, or maybe a gathering place for adventurers, with rumors of dungeons and adventure, or you could develop it as a front for the criminal underworld, running illegal gambling or learning of new areas to rob, or caravans to plunder. I find in games where a house is simply a place to store my loot, I don't go back often, or even put much effort into the place. If it is actually some sort of hub of activity and gives me a reason to return, then I will.

Where's "Badass old guy"? Thats my favorite archetype. The grizzled veteran that everyone thinks can't carry his own weight because he's old, then comes out swinging and kicks the young pups arses. Also a character like Pharaun Mizzrym from the War of the Spider-Queen series. Someone who is extremely intelligent and witty, a cynical optimist. Someone who knows everyone and everything is crap, so why let it spoil his good mood.

With it not being a publisher backed title they don't have to stick to a release date set far ahead of time. If they need more time they can take it. They can release it when its done, or if we get impatient, at least give us forewarning if its in a buggy condition when they release it. Also, with no publisher to deal with, they can support it with patches for as long as they feel like putting the time into it rather than requiring publisher permission. Think how Blizzard was still releasing patches years after release. With this project they are accountable to us. As much as gamers like to think developers owe them something, in this case, they actually do, a solid finished product that lives up to the promises. I don't think they will disappoint.

I'm all for it if it can be implemented properly. Having a system of banks and credit tied into it along with possibly being able to invest your gold later in various assets would be great I think. If all it is is gold=heavy, I voted tie it to difficulty. Maybe have a toggle for those who want it.

I'd like to see languages come into play. Intelligent/educated characters could speak more languages and when entering certain areas you either need to hire an interpreter or have a character who speaks the language.

Ooh, I like sentient constructs. And bringing in the cultural diversity aspects, you could have say a group of autonomous robots fighting a civil war against some sort of deception constructs.

Now here is the question... if you're going to have racism and such, logically you would also include sexism no? There were very few societies until now that viewed men and women as equal. This doesn't mean necessarily that women are the ones who should be discriminated against. A matriarchal society would make just as much sense.

I didn't pay a lot of attention to the art in the back because it seemed to show a lot from previous games and such.

A player stronghold similar if not more in depth than Crossroads Keep from NWN2 (if its not already in the game) more sidequests more towns/cities/areas larger towns/cities more/larger companion questlines Something along the lines of the trading company in SoZ. Start a business/invest in property. Maybe connected to the player stronghold

I think what he means is that good characters and a good story can make pretty much any setting good. So focusing on those over the setting will elevate the setting anyway.

I heard there would be voice acting, just not full voice acting? I'm fine with dialog tree boxes for basic conversations, but for important scenes, they should go for a more a more cinematic look when using voice acting. My guess is it will be similar to Fallout in terms of voice acting. Narration and major NPCs getting a line or two to introduce them.

The SoZ style overland map would be a good way to make support skills useful as well.

I'm at least hoping for a rotatable camera.

Steampunk makes me happy. Who knows, maybe a sequel will have some sort of advanced Steampunk empire invade. Would be awesome.

Cloaks shouldn't always have the hood up. There should be a hood up/down toggle. Temple of Elemental Evil I found did cloaks quite well.

One of the things that makes PnP better than CRPGs in a lot of ways. One of my favorite characters was a half-elf priest of Gond that I played back in 2E rules. The extra proficiencies made him fantastic. Dude could cook, play music, speak like 9 languages, and build pretty much anything. All skills that are pretty much useless in a CRPG but were awesome in PnP.

Agreed. Why can humans have many nations of diverse cultures and such, yet elves and dwarves always have a single kingdom/nation etc. Bring on the clan of Dwarf sailors.

I would like more than just combat options to make fighter type characters interesting.