Valorian

This. I prefer wilderness and forests as well so I hope the bulk of the game consists of such areas.

Defensive mode, while you're trying to deflect and parry warhammers, swords, dodge arrows, run for your life when you see an incoming finger of death.. etc., would still drain your endurance and stamina. I don't see how it makes sense for endurace to regenerate while you're actively investing your brain and body and its every muscle into combat. Running in circles is a mechanics design issue as well. Would it make sense for endurance to stop regenerating while you're running, but not when you're attacking or taking blows or trying to dodge them? Cooldowns are a good example. You can run in circles with your whole party around your slower or equally fast opponents (Benny Hill style) until your wizard's highest tier not-per-rest spells are off cooldown and cast again. Valid tactics or not? This can't happen if all spells are per-rest. This can't happen if hit-points don't regenerate on their own (during combat).

There was no default automatic rapid regeneration of hit-points in BG or IWD. You'd regenerate slowly only by having a rare item or a very high constitution score and even then regeneration was not by any means rapid. They've scrapped 'high con = slow regeneration' in 3/3.5 ed though. Of course, once an Obisidan developer describes a certain system he considers to use, no matter how flawed it is, it's hard to express a useful opinion because... *suspense drum roll* ... "it can be done right" ("when the pieces fit together").

That would be wonderful. Yes. They're considering the system I described in the first paragraph. http://www.formspring.me/JESawyer Note that Feargus also answered a question about automatic regeneration of HP with "yes and no". He was thinking about endurance and health probably. With (in combat) regeneration items you have the same problem, but on a smaller scale. That's why I never liked them. I love items with lifesteal properties though, you have to actually hit your enemy to restore a portion of the damage dealt. It's entirely possible that I misunderstood this sentence: "Most damage taken in combat would Endurance, which is relatively easy to restore (through abilities and magic) and regenerates rapidly on its own, both in and out of combat." And that he actually didn't mean that Endurance regenerates rapidly on its own both in and out of combat, but something entirely different, like you nicely explained in your lengthy explanation of what he meant to say. That would be stupid, yes.

Let's imagine characters in project Eternity have two stats that measure damage taken. One is called endurance, the other health. Most damage taken in combat would decrease endurance, which is relatively easy to restore and regenerates rapidly on its own, both in and out of combat. Damage to health would be more serious and much harder to restore, probably only through consumables and/or rest. Having your endurance lowered to 0 would knock the character out. Having your health knocked to 0 would kill the character outright. Now, this is not my idea, but I'd like to discuss this system. Personally, I'm ok with the differentiation between health and endurance, even if I don't think it's necessary to have two bars to measure damage taken. I do understand that they want the player to be able to engage in several combat encounters without resting; and that's where auto-regeneration and cooldowns come into play. However, the issue I see with such a system is that hit points (we can call it endurance, but they'll effectively still be points that are lowered as you take damage; i.e. hit points) would regenerate rapidly(?) on their own during combat: 1) Balancing encounters would be much harder. They'd have to take into account, that depending on the duration of the fight, hit points could regenerate their initial value several times. A creature with 30 endurance could for instance end up effectively having 90 or more HP, if the fight is long enough, because it constantly regenerates. 2) Simply running away or in circles around your opponent, if you're faster, would rapidly replenish hit-points. Or to use a Biowarian analogy, "taking cover" would regenerate all your hit-points back. Unless it's arbitrarily decided that regeneration stops when you're moving away from your opponent. 3) Would this distinction between health and endurance apply to all creatures or just party members? Would enemies have endurance that rapidly regenerates, as well? If it's just for party members, that would be a huge advantage for the player and would also shift the combat system towards an asymmetrical one. In the end, I don't believe that hitpoints (endurance) should regenerate back on their own in the heat of battle. When my character gets hit by a warhammer, or damaged by any other weapon or spell, I see as logical that he/she and his/her body would start recovering only after the running and striking stops; after combat.

A middle ground. Leveling up 12 times, for instance, seems fine. Each level shouldn't be a huge jump in power though.

Descriptive in the sense of denoting emotions: *he smiled*, *his tone of voice.. <>* (if there's no voiceover for that character).. Yes to that.

I agree with nikolokolus. Just one more thing, please make the enchanting/crafting components finite. For instance, I don't want endless herbs (=endless potions). If you intend to bring to the table any resource management, like healing back your HPs, endless potions would trivialize it. In Drakensang everything respawned after cca 15 minutes so I had to keep track where I picked up flowers and where I didn't (such an entertaining mini-game, I tell you) to not completely cheesify the game. In Arcanum you could collect countless of herbs as you traveled around the world. On a side note, a big no as well to respawning enemies and endless random enocunters that are just a cheap XP bag (I'm looking at you Fallout world map).

Resting definitely should be an important event for an adventuring party, and not being able to rest everywhere and anytime is a good thing. Important in the sense that it replenishes all your resources: HP, all (but low level) spells, stamina. I've always hated in games with auto-regeneration how, for instance, traps become trivial. You're in a dungeon (where you probably wouldn't be able to rest), you trigger a trap and suffer some serious damage... then you wait a few seconds and your HP bar is full again.

I'd like a crit confirmation mechanic like in 3/3.5 d&d.

I've always loved fighting undeads in RPGs. They're not only visually extraordinary and appealing from a lore point of view, but it's the variety of special properties that make them the most interesting opponents. From lifeleech to level drain and curses, from a paralyzing touch to presences which cause decay all around them, from the chilling grasp that saps strength and constitution to disease inducing corpses and the dreadful touch of fear .. and so on. Then there's the immunity (or resistance) to sneak and critical hits, to mind affecting spells.. Different tactics are needed to deal with them.

Baldur's Gate 1.

I already do that, but when playing the game the first time I have no idea whatsoever how long or how challenging it is, so the designers saying (through a mode); Hey, 10 or 15 resting sessions is enough. It will be hard, but not impossible. And it's actually more useful than a mode that doesn't let you play anymore when you die. It's simple - you die, you start a new game, if you want to. But guessing the number of appropriate resting sessions on my own for the game to be challenging as a whole is another story.

Modes are great. And since we're at it.. *Suggestion time* :D Well, resting will play an important role in replenishing our party's resources. I'm guessing it won't be possible to rest everywhere, but still, I don't expect there to be greater obstacles against rest spamming. What I'm proposing is a mode that limits the number of times the party can rest throughout the game. Obsidian will know this game thoroughly, and they'll know best what number that would be to ensure a very challenging, yet not almost impossible experience. It doesn't even need to be a hard cap, this mode could be designed so that only after let's say, resting 15 times, some unpleasant events start happening. Having some items stolen during sleep, horrible nightmares that can damage one's soul.. etc. If not, being permanently unable to rest after you use your resting button [number] times would be perfectly fine too. If there's a mode that deletes the saved game, I guess this isn't too much to ask either.

I just don't want them to be endless. Or the resources to make them (herbs for brewing potions shouldn't respawn, for example). I voted for very rare/rare.

I know, but the way he put it.. it still leaves open the possibility of some level scaling. So if level scaling does find its way into PE, I'd like the option to get rid of it completely. That's one of the perks of reaching the stretch goal for modes.

That's how I imagined it even bofore the in-depth explanation. It sounds promising. Casting magic missles is more fitting for a mage than throwing rocks, for sure. Now, if those magic missles could miss.. it would be ever better. I still want to know what about the regeneration of other resources like HP (and stamina). I guess active abilities will work on a similar principle as spells: lower level on cooldown, higher level on per-rest.

Yes, it should be really easy to kill it with fire in the options menu.

He didn't mention if HPs regenerate on their own after combat though.

Pff, and I meant to write this in that other, Reddit QA part 2, thread. :/

They also didn't say how powerful auto attacking was for fighters. It could end up being very powerful or even too powerful, considering we'll be able to auto attack an unlimited number of times. I'm sure they know spells need to be balanced based on the system they are using. Why are you constantly being an annoying clown? Yes, auto-attacks can be imbalanced as well. But spells, because of their variery and effects, have the potential to be much more imbalanced. I'm just pointing out that they should pay attention to it and I don't see why would that upset you to the point of making sure to tell me how they have everything under control and that it will be balanced just fine. We don't know that. I'm just pointing out that they do in fact know what they are doing. I just don't see why people feel the need to remind them of completely obvious things. It is painfully obvious that they will try to avoid the problem you brought up. Since you're bringing this up... Arcanum's combat system was completely imbalanced. By investing heavily into dexterity my character was able to steamroll over the majority of encounters easily, on his own. fair enough. again, apologies. I edited into the other post. It's fine. Sorry for the annoying clown comment.

They also didn't say how powerful auto attacking was for fighters. It could end up being very powerful or even too powerful, considering we'll be able to auto attack an unlimited number of times. I'm sure they know spells need to be balanced based on the system they are using. Why are you constantly being an annoying clown? Yes, auto-attacks can be imbalanced as well. But spells, because of their variery and effects, have the potential to be much more imbalanced. I'm just pointing out that they should pay attention to it and I don't see why would that upset you to the point of making sure to tell me how they have everything under control and that it will be balanced just fine. We don't know that. I'm just pointing out that they do in fact know what they are doing. I just don't see why people feel the need to remind them of completely obvious things. It is painfully obvious that they will try to avoid the problem you brought up. Since you're bringing this up... Arcanum's combat system was completely imbalanced. By investing heavily into dexterity my character was able to steamroll over the majority of encounters easily, on his own.

They also didn't say how powerful auto attacking was for fighters. It could end up being very powerful or even too powerful, considering we'll be able to auto attack an unlimited number of times. I'm sure they know spells need to be balanced based on the system they are using. Why are you constantly being an annoying clown? Yes, auto-attacks can be imbalanced as well. But spells, because of their variery and effects, have the potential to be much more imbalanced. I'm just pointing out that they should pay attention to it and I don't see why would that upset you to the point of making sure to tell me how they have everything under control and that it will be balanced just fine. We don't know that.

I'd like to add one suggestion. *If* you're going to add any level scaling to the game, please, let us kill it with fire and eliminate all its traces with an option under Expert mode or whatever other mode. Thank you.

Informative. Depending on what kind of spells they decide to implement on the lower levels of magic, it could end up being very powerful or even too powerful, considering we'll be able to cast them an unlimited number of times. Note that he didn't answer if HPs regenerate on their own after combat.