Aldereth

FYI, Magic Candle handles the split party by giving the ability for the player to "flip" to the "non-adventuring" characters when the "main party" is not in combat. The non adventuring members will be at the location appropriate for the job in the town you left them. eg. smith for forging, library for researching. I don't think there is too much interaction for the crafting players other than stop whatever they are doing. I don't remember exactly what happen if you stop their job, I think they will rejoin your party after "x" amount of time passed or walk around the town they are in and start another job. I think split party can be an idea that can be further developed. Personally, I would like more "game"/activity for the non adventuring party integrating some of element from that old, old Koei strategy games like Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Nobunaga's Ambition. Like NPCs would have some "off line"/non-adventuring stats they can develope by doing jobs/quest. So if the player decide to rotate them out for other duties like running a shop, would improve their "business skill" + some extra change in the pocket. And when you get your stronghold, you can have the guy you groom for running a business to take charge of the treasury to improve your domain's income. A more elaborate version could involve a character volunteer as guards and with improved skill in "military leadership", your NPC can become guard captain in certain city thus giving you some mid game benefit of know the guard captain in a major city. And in late game, you could run into the problem your NPC friend has found his life calling as a guard captain and kind of leave the adventuring to you. A further complication can be in late game, your decision made you an enemy of the city you former ally is now defending making him an antagonist/enemy.

I can almost hear the people who would prefer to have something more subtle scream bloody murder now. Myself, perhaps a little bit more tone down without the Lightling but yes, something along that line.

In a way, I get what you are saying TC. A lot depends on what type of game this is. BG2 and PST while both use IE engine, they are two very different game in terms of plot. PST's story, world, and pretty much the whole thing is basically written with a very specific protagonist in mind while BG2 is almost the exact opposite. So it really depend on how the PE team want for their story. While I personally prefer the PST approach, but I think they are probably going to go for the BG2, non-specific protagonist simply becuase there are more BG2 fans out there as either backers or potential customers. Not to mention, a very story centric game with a very well defined protagonist is a very risky proposition. A few wrinkles in the plot that kind of make the players lose immersion and the whole game will sink with it. Look at Dragon Age 2.

Don't mind a bit of ego stroking as long as it does not become a resource sink. A combination of combat animation and gears would probably be the most straight forward way. Reputation tracking would help if one does not over do it like how Fallout 3 would have half the town complementing you and giving you craps, CONSTANTLY. If one really want to go the extra mile (IMHO, overboard) and resource allow, perhaps a little bit of heroic / villainous lighting on the character model. Kind of a tone down version of the Jedi/Sith back/spot lighting when when you see yourself in the character page in KOTOR 1 & 2. And this has to be an option that can be turned off since I am pretty sure some people will find this a bit too much

Kind of a very fine line between "just cause" and actual benefit. I feel that the biggest problem is that money in cRPG after mid-late point of any game is basically useless. It just does not have the same purchasing power as real currency in real life. I would argue the only real currency in any cRPG are actually XP which you can trade for real benefit. Closely follow by equipment as not so "liquid" assets that you trade off at salvage value to upgrade to a better class of equipment. cRPG Money and game world economy up to this point for a non-MMO cRPG thus far were (and still are) just window dressing to help with the immersiveness in the beginning to mid game. After you get to the mid point of the game, its uselessness is obvious and actually break immersion if the player spend but a moment to think about it. Equipment maintainance, Player housing/stronghold, are mere money sink method to dress up the problem. Basically, to create some fluff to cover up this hole. Thus far, I think the investment and upkeep of something useful method is the best cover up in the sense that it doesn'tr require too much management and maintain some semblence of immersion. If single player cRPG want to have money and a game economy that is engaging for the player then I think they need to make money and economy part of the game world. Player action big (as big as plot decision) or small (selling the armor they got off the bandits) has effect in the economy and in turn the game world and the play experience. Then you would give power to in-game currency because they can change the very experience the player is going to get from that play through.

If it doesn't affect the plot, don't put it in. I doubt anyone would care too much about this. If however, this is a come of age story or mid life crisis or a coming out of retirement story then by all means enforce a certain age restriction.

You may want to check out this old gem; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magic_Candle They implemented split party system that is quite interesting. You could have some members doing crafting why others continue questing. Wish someone could refresh that in more innovating way.

More than the ability/permission to kill NPCs in a given cRPG, I would rather see a cRPG that incorporate writing and game mechanic that make players NOT want to kill any NPC even if that capability is there. Or at least kill for a reason. Interesting NPCs written with depth is a good deterent to dissuade player from doing random killing in the name of "roleplaying" evil. Sure give the player the ability to kill them but it is going to be their loss when they miss out a good part of the character's story. Consider combining writing with game mechanic that encourage players to be more engage with the game world. What if there is an in game mechanic to have each major population center (from village to megacity) can have various stage of developement throughout the entire game plot. So the settlement would grow or shrink depending on plot event as well as player actions. If the player help defend or build a community, that community will grow (village becomes town...etc.) and open up new resource in the form of recruitable NPCs, quests and items while a competing community would shrink or stagnate. So if players start killing in a community, the community would stagnate at that stage or shrink down. The player would not be able to check out the new buildings such as shops, inn, churches the community is going to build later in the game or meet NPCs that would spawn if the community is left to further develop. Instead buildings will get abandoned. More impersonal guards would spawn in the place of dead NPCs the player killed. And if the dev want to spice things up, spawn in some interesting bounty hunters that is after the hefty bounty on the PC's head. Put some story there, maybe one of the bounty hunter is recruitable and is only available in the "evil playthrough". Sometimes, when players want to randomly kill NPC is an indication that the player is simply bored and killing to check out the loot is the only way the player can stay engaged. Wouldn't it be better to encourage the player to be more engaged with the game world not to mention add to replayability?

Said it somewhere else before. Forget about good, bad and neutral. Give NPCs thier personal motivation and agendas. Outline the extent and means each NPC pursuit these agendas. If their goals conflict with the PC, then they are the antagonist. And when their goals matches that of the PC then they are allies. Let the players interpret their methodology as good, bad or neutral. If there is anything to go for in characterization is depth. Give the NPCs more layers.

I suppose this is the price we pay for Voice Over. DA 1 & 2 or any cRPG is already quite a bit better when this kind of program driven combat barks go. It is especially annoying in action game. I remember the numerous call for help for wingman from old space sim like Wing Commander Series. These easily scared pilots would scream for help as soon as more than 1 enemies fire at them and their shield got dented a bit. By the time I turn around to check on him/her, he/she would have launch missiles and have already blown the few bogies up and their shield regenerated. In cRPG, the idea for these combat bark VO is add character. But the way it is implemented by firing them with couple of "if" condition has damn firing the same thing over and over again to become very annoying. In the past, dev. has add more barks to mix them up but I think they could do more in two area to make it better. One, make those conditions for firing off a combat bark much rarer. 2nd, put a limit of how many combat bark a character can have per combat.

In terms of the end products of crafting, the most useful (and more balance) are actually those from action RPG and MMO like Diablo and WoW. But the crafting process is grindy and kind of a bore. And it really lack the sense of wonderment creating a new game object. I suppose, the dev. can implement some kind of "tech" tree to mix things up but I don't know how to make it less grindy.

Too late, over 50% of the post is about what MCA said about romance in the interview And "promancer", relax, just base on the amount of pages that was written, it will be in for sure. Beside whether you are promance or nomance, all the doom romance, lover's betrayal, hatemance MCA had done in previous game are quite entertaining and sometimes endearing and dare I say romantic I particular like his take on using speech as tool and I would personally like to see he develop this idea further.

Seems like a more accurate description is an engineer. I think if correctly implemented and scripted, it can be interesting. They maynot even have to build a separate class for what you want. eg, a rogue subclass that specialize in crossbow, firearms, alchemy (with nades), traps and crafting skill enabling the building of specialize ammo, traps and other contraption like a turret like ballister or cataput. Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing an actual philosopher that specialize in speech with a combat system that integrate speech ability into combat that can affect the PC party as well as enemy morale.

Magic and guns together... I guess that would be like implementing the arsenal from Borderland. :D

I personally like the idea of increased familiarity and any idea that promote players to develop a signature weapon. I mean, would we think less of Dirty Harry if he gave up his S&W for a M4 carbine? What if King Arthur gave up Excalibur for a +5 flaming vorpal sword? However, with the history and culture for cRPG especially in the North American market, this is going to be a tough sell. We love our gears. Look at the generally negative replies thus far. Personally I love to see a combat system would have 2 component for damage+effects. The damage + effects from weapon skills and the damage + effect from weapon. This way, one may even throw class restriction for weapon out the window IF PROPERLY BALANCED. Can wizard use a long sword, yes if he has basic skill but he is doing standard damage.

Respec is more suitable for Action cRPG and MMO but have little place for a story driven one. Let's face it, you can come up with a plot to explain and spend the resource to develope something like dual class in AD&D rules. But a full respec would involve unlearning skill. That would kind of break the story most of the time. Beside, for a story driver cRPG, it is much more appropriate to have your character be a sum of all he has done, mistake and all.

I think the rogue class would pretty much cover the travelling merchant. But the bigger problem is that the plot would have to have a merchant/trade/business facet to support the merchant (sub)class and to make it interesting and I question how many people would be interested in roleplaying a merchant. And let's not forget how useless gold is at late game in any cRPG,

The most interesting in terms of play mechanics that was implemented in games before would likely be crafting gears. Personally, I would like to see a game that properly implementation of Look in the vein of keen observation. Would it not be absolutely cool for characters with a non combat skill that allow you to see the world in an entirely different context. Imagine a cRPG where your character can do what Sherlock Holmes did in the BBC series Sherlock.

The most horrifying thing Obsidian can do is put a question mark (?) or an exclaimation mark (!) above any characters.

Both Coincidence and you are right from a playthrough as an evil Nameless One and see his "help" from literally a Pracitical point of view. What he had done help Nameless One to survive so that he(along with the Practical One) get a round two with the Transcendent One. While the paranoid one created more traps that does physcial harm as you point out, it does not mean that Practical One did not put you in danger. Case and point, he did turn on you at the end. Not to mention he purposely risk to get on the radar of V'hailor to see if his "axe of justice" can kill the Transcendent One. If memory serves, V'hailor's axe is one of the few thing that can kill Nameless One dead. I am sure Practical One probably leave a long list of enemies that would have done much harm too if not for the Paranoid Ones life long effort to erase everything the previous incarnations. On a spiritual level and for a basically good Nameless One, the Practical One is through and through villain and antagonist, he basically broke Dak'kon will and bully Mort into virtual slavery. And I would count Dak'kon and Mort as Nameless friends and ally. Any douchebag who do that to the protagonist's friends and ally is no friend at all. And if one were to look at the larger picture, the whole adventure is more of a spirtual journey where Nameless One learn to own up to all the deeds (misdeeds and sins, really) he and all his incarnations have committed. All the vile and dispicable act the Practical One has done probably earn Nameless One another eternity in Hell. So from the emotional context of the story, he is through and through villain. And getting back on topic, cRPG can use more "villain" and antagonists that can engage the player at an emotional level where the player would find even the help from these characters to be absolutely vile and revolting

<Warning PS:T spoiler> Personally, I think PS:T feature 2 of the best written "villain" in cRPG - Ravel Puzzlewell and the Practical Incarnation. Ravel was wicked, obsessive, misunderstood, cunning, tragic and completely and madly in love with the PC. The potential romantic interest in the form of Fall from Grace and Annah has a bottom line in their attraction to the PC. You can do crappy stuff to drive them away. Not Ravel, her love/obsession is absolute and have no bottom line. Because of her nature, her expression of love almost invariably lead only to tragedy. And upon her passing, even the infinite multiverse feel a lot smaller. Practical Incarnation from PS:T was ruthless, manipulative, selfish to the extreme and mades for a good "villain" even when he is technically "dead" when the game begins. The crappy mess that he leave across the planes for the PC are not just physically threatening but also make the PC(player) angry, sad and have to confront himself with some soul searching questions. Referring to these two Titans of "villainy", I think it would serve future cRPG better to just forget about using a moral compass of good, evil and gritty grey which plague so many games and movie now. Just write characters with deep conviction, intense emotion and multifacet personality whose agenda happened to conflict the PC.

All for that during dialong and non combat situation, it helps "endear" characters to the player so long that it does not happen so often that it takes too much player attention away from their own character. Aside from the helpful in dialog options and skill checks, I would also like to see the ability to use non-active (not in your current group) characters for stuff such as crafting, taking care of the maintainance of the keep. Heck, it would be even better to send them on small mission and quest that could (slightly) influence how the plot plays out.

You know, Dragon Age Origin tried a bit of that in the beginning witht the different origin, didn't really carry through too much though. While we are on Vampire the Masquerade, I thought I would mention again, I am mostly impressed on how VTM handle food. Feeding is an integral part of the game where as food in other games are boring chores.

I always find the cRPG monks modelled mostly after the Shaolin monks of the orient to be a bit jarring. It is just that cRPG almost exclusively give unarm combat mastery or fancy martial weapon skill to this class and the fighter class are undiscipline baffoon who rely solely on great strength. I would like to some of that unarmed or fancy (Hong Kong action movie inspired) martial arts with weapon or bare hands be employed by normal fighter class. Just give this class the extra mystical/spiritual power. Like the fighter can specialize into a more dexterity base martial artist (with or without weapon) with a wide selection of weapons and armor and can rely a bit on their strength bonuses for damage. While the monk would not have such a wide selection of equipment, but have something extra in the form of mystical spiritual power than goes with the moves. eg. heal themselves, imbue their fist or palm with power...etc.

It may be trivial but a city with people walking around make it feel alive. It would be less of a problem with PE is using a 16 bit graphics but if the screenshot they put up is any indication. The graphics fidelity that was used, having fully rendered characters standing around is just so glaring for our brain not to notice.