Leferd

Jungles > Forests.

To add to the screen shaking, if the critical hits result in a kill, the victim needs to explode like a blood sausage. Because it's cool. ... Long knife, frankly I don't see what you're talking about. The critical hits and its visual effects are a longtime feature from the IE and even original Fallouts. It's not actiony or even new-fangled. It's nothing like how you described in the Bethesda games, which btw, I despise. Anything that goes away from that is always a good thing in my book. Again, it's a relatively inexpensive way to indicate a critical hit and adds flavor without really breaking the fourth wall, so to speak.

Keep the classes distinct and generic. I am under the assumption that this game will be a relatively low level adventure ala Baldur's Gate, with sequels that will further level up the characters to "epic" goodness. Introduce further specializations and sub-classes then. For right now, Tim and Josh should concentrate in making the basic classes fun and balanced. Introduce too many variables and you will approach feature creep. Not good when dealing with a modest budget.

Been there. Done that. I want to see jungles!

Yes please. It's a nice and relatively inexpensive way to provide a visual/audio que of a critical hit. Good suggestion. I really don't get all the hate and relatively mild vitriol directed at this idea.

BG, BG2, and PST along with Fallout and Fallout 2 are in my all time favorites along with Medieval/Rome: Total War, NHL 93-94-95, Tony LaRussa Baseball, Metal Gear, and KotOR/K2:TSL.

Slartibartfast.

No official name yet.

I generally like Gaider's work. I really do. I've interacted with him numerous times in the Bio and old Interplay boards. I like the stuff he's written in BG2, Kotor, DA, and parts of NWN, HOTU. But his novels are...mediocre. That's not an indictment. I read them, and enjoyed them for what they are. I think for a professional writer, he is an average prose novelist. Drew Karpyshyn is another story. His books are really the only ones I've even entertained the thought of requesting a refund for. They are laugh out loud funny in the least flatering way. I'll stand by my comment and tell it to his face. Do I want to go into detail why I think his books are bad? No, not really. But they are amateurish, rushed, have poor pacing, cheesy dialogue beyond belief, and have the worst attributes of poor fan-fiction. Worst part is, I'm ashamed to say I've read better fan fiction of his own material. He is a hack. Call me insipid.

Play Planescape: Torment. Or read his Fallout Bibles or Planescape Torment design document. Both freely available on the Internet.

David Gaider is an excellent crpg writer. He is a mediocre prose novelist. Drew Karpyshn is a mediocre crpg writer. He writes trashy novels. Chris Avellone is a "legendary" crpg writer. He is a talented cartoonist. Will that translate well to prose? I'm hopeful.

From the way you frame the question, sure.

They may be AAA developer but this isn't a AAA project. This doesn't have a AAA budget, and certainly won't have AAA distribution. Even Steven Soderbergh makes small budget films that makes a profit in between his high budget blockbusters.

Must absorb. Will ponder.

If they are going to include co-op multiplayer, it'll definitely be in.

Because players like tangible rewards for their labors. It gives one the sense of progression md advancement. XP awards work. So in essence, story and experience without tangible reward is not enough and makes for sub-optimal game design. That said, I'm in the camp for not rewarding wanton murder for the sake of XP.

I believe Sawyer mentioned somewhere that there will be slavery present in the game world. It was a topic that he wanted to address maturely. That said, I hope modern western moral sensibilities don't color calls for its abolishment in-game.

Start with the basics archetypes: Fighter Thief Wizard Healer Ranger Add from there: eg: Knight, Bard, or whatever fits the setting.

Well they were dubbed as *cough* legendary. These guys are known because they are typically the front men, giving interviews and are typically in lead roles. We see their tangible contributions in products. We read their writing, discuss their gameplay systems, etc.,... We don't really see if a programmer's particular line of code is brilliant, or if a tester routinely reproduces obscure, but game breaking bugs at a higher rate than anyone else. That said, this is a small team, I believe the expected size is roughly 20, so we'll see the "legends'" contribution more directly than in other bigger projects.

Yes.

Wedge formation + Charge!

No problem. Also, both Avellone and Sawyer have running blogs on this site. Look at the top right corner of the page for the blogs link. As already mentioned, Sawyer also has his mindspring as well.

No manual is complete without tables. I'm suspecting that the this will be included in the Collector's Book.

I'd like them to be rare. But then again, my preference is that the leveling is kept so that characters remain in the lower level tiers, ala Baldur's Gate. We will then advance to higher levels in sequels ( but not absurdly so).

This poll is so incredibly flawed, given the target audience.