dmbot

I'm not sure if the romance is bugged for me. I had a lot of conversations with Xoti, then we kissed after I finished her quest. I have her at +2 reputation but since then I there was nothing. Does the romance simply end there...?

Why the hell would they just copy and paste an existing game? It should be somewhat different than BG2! And don't get me wrong, BG2 is one of my favorite games, but it has been like 14 years since it came out, it should be improved on where possible. I like where they're going, they just need to work on balancing and tweaking, but the basic systems are fine as far as I'm concerned.

I think it makes sense that there's a point in which you must "give up" on certain low-level skills and pick a few you commit too. You have a party, you don't need EVERYONE to have high mechanics, just the resident mechanic guy. That way everyone in your party has a specific use. It makes little sense for the mage to suddenly branch out into athletics mid way through the adventure. Of curse, this could pose a problem with things like "Lore" playing a large part in conversation, because only the PC's Lore rating in used, but as long as they give just as much content to the other skills in conversation and out of it you won't feel cheat out of any content for not going with Lore for the PC.

I would also like that, but it's clearly secondary - considering the game also needs more portraits, assets, icons, UI elements etc.

I would also like some fat body-type options!

I don't get this. You think some minor graphical tweaking and early music are the most difficult to fix? I would be much more concerned if the content and writing were not up to par, considering THAT's the hardest parts to fix. Swaying and contrast can always be added and music tracks can always be commissioned... (Not that I agree with you on these two points)

I can't for the life of me figure out how to detect traps, or is it simply not in the beta...?

I also have some problems with the colors. I really like that the armor you're wearing is so prominent, but they should make it more tinted to the character's main colors. I keep getting armored guys confused with each other...

So, yeah... I don't mind the beetles, they're insects and probably work on instinct without much consideration. But the lions? It just seem very weird to me that an animal would jump on six humans if it's not necessarily feeling threatened. In BG bears for example only became hostile if you got too close to them, and I really like that. I would much rather see just a bit more realism in how animals attack me. If I'm playing a druid or other animal lovers, I don't see a reason I'd HAVE to fight a bunch of lions if I'm smart enough to leave them be, no?

I am all for more companions! I think having a variety and options in the cast is very important, especially as the game is getting bigger. One of the best things about games like BG and PS:T was the cast, their banters, interactions, special quests and what not. I would also like to see romancing (done right, not the Sex Scene Mini Game BioWare made it to be) as one of the stretch goals. I think it would help take the interaction with the cast to a much deeper level. WIlderness Areas are nice, but I much prefer cities and such and if I had to choose I'd much rather see more companions.

Great article! I wanted to comment about the first point, combat. While I agree with you, I think it's also important to not make the companions too great. In BG2, for example, some of the companions were built with some downright weird stats allocation - Anomen, a cleric, had 13 wisdom, many fighters had less than 18 strength and many were uselessly multiclassed. This just made them more interesting and usually really drove the character point home. This worked because in party-based RPGs, as long as the companion has a role he can feel serviceably, he is useful enough. He does after all have 5 more charactesr to help him pull the weight, and you only really need one character of each role. So, what I'm trying to say is that I'll love to see characters creativity also presented in their stats and such even if it doesn't make 100% strategic sense. Another thing I think is important and you didn't mention - Most recent RPGs chose to have mostly the player initiate dialogue with companions. You know, you talk to them, you see what's new, they tell you about themselves then you do it again an hour later to see if any new option popped up. While this is fine, I think this is a bit overplayed. I think these sort of dialogues work much better when they are initiated by the companion (like the BG2 banters.) I think it makes them feel more alive and active when they can decide to talk with you just as much as you can decide to talk with them. And since you mentioned influence - I personally hope to not see it in P:E. I think it ruins the immersion and makes me care a little less about the companion - Especially if there are "prizes" for high loyalty. Instead of caring about this character as a person, he becomes a tool I use to gain some bonuses or to "max out" the loyalty meter.

Alright, I don't know how many people this bothers besides me, but it really stood out in MoB for me (Which is still the best RPG of the last 10 years). It's actually getting quite widespread in RPGs today and it must stop. I'm talking about this situation - After I'm talking with an NPC, the game will inform me he now likes me more by 4 arbitrary points, and sometimes when I have enough "he likes me points" I will get a bonus. Now, at first this might not seem so bad, it incentives the player to talk to their party and care about them. But a second look will reveal where this fails - When a player is informed that a character now likes him less by "6", he will not just take it, he'll reload the game and just say what he know she wants to hear - Because there's a clearly better outcome that he learns of immediately after the fact. Basically, the problem with this sort of system is that it incentives the player to have all the characters like him, like some sort of minigame. But sometimes, it's better when a character doesn't like the player - it create much more memorable interactions an banters when you're not sure what everyone thinks of you or what makes them like you or hate you. This also ruins any immersion those interactions bring. The unpredictable nature of these banters in older games is part of what makes them so immersing and engaging, it was like you were really interacting with those characters and that made you care for them. So please, just hide these sort of parameters. Thanks

I think that the biggest advantage of this model, is that the game doesn't have to cater to the mainstream audience, but you can make game that are aimed at the dedicated few. What this means to me, is that you won't have to spend money on things like voicing every line in the game, porting it to consoles, making it accessible to a wider audience, using top of the art graphics etc. I guess my point is, I'd be more than happy with the production values of the early 2000s games.You can instead focus on what us, the dedicated few can appreciate - Excellent story, deep and words-heavy dialogues and texts, isometric tactical combat, getting down and dirty with stats... What made old school PC RPGs great! I would happily pledge 100$ or possibly more (which is saying a lot, as I'm a rather poor animation student!) for a game like that. All I want is for the classics such as the Baldur's Gate series, Planesace: Torment etc. to be the inspiration, the game to largely based on the Infinity Engine gameple-wise and for the game to be PC-centric (Sorry, console-folks, but I believe this kind of game should be PC centric, beside, consoles RPGs don't really need any Kickstarting!) The setting should be unique and interesting and the story should to be something a little more interesting than "save the world", the characters shouls to be more than "elf wizard". Basically this game should have Romancing, reading, imagining and most of all - Role playing! My dream project would be a having the game set in the Dark Sun campaign setting. How amazing would that be? I understand if that could never happen due to licensing costs though.