Grayman

tank style aggro and control is not a good mechanic. some foes should be dumb or have their own quirks but most enemies should actively try to win the fight to the best of their ability. Maybe get a limited form of multiplayer working when their systems are setup and see what works in their game. Some of the writing on fighters talked about them taking damage for the party. I hope that does not mean mmo style aggro systems.

Number two is the most comfortable option. I don't find hard choices fit with an arbitrary party limit, we are full or i need a mage more than you aren't great lines.

Investigation quests can be some of the best in their games when done right. If the writers can make the player think they figured it out themselves and not through the dialog boxes it gives a great feeling. As far as just slaughtering the cult, presumably they do not label the NPCs as evil cultist when the mouse hovers over them.

New inhabitants in cleared areas would be great if someone took the time to write it in. I think that should even apply to the forest animals in a special case.

i had thoughts like this about a non lethal fighting state being an option for townies and intimidation but the extra dialog may be a killer on it. usually the script will allow evil playing, it is the random theft and non quest murder that can catch up with you.

there could always be different sub classes or skill choices that lead to one type of class x or another. Originally there were only 5 classes planned so think along the lines of there being no paladin but the warrior type class can go down that route through specialization.

I have enjoyed flatter level curves as well. I find that the longer the game scales upwards the more likely things get shaky somewhere. With games that expand over time like mmos there is usually a tipping point where one of the old caps just felt better.

I like all types of games where the opponents have similar abilities and play by the same rules as the player. If the game cheats too much with immunities and effects the player start losing a lot of their tactics. Make allowances for special cases and give some unique statuses, abilities, and items but keep the default as normal rules where another player could be swapped in for the ai into a fair game.

Different subraces and cultures seems like a great way to cover a lot of ground. Elves and Dwarfs may be boring but several areas of the world having different types of the common and uncommon races can tell some cool stories. Different areas of the game map can be along different areas of "societies advancement" and multiculturalism.

What if they run out of Kickstarter money before it's finished? they go to kickfinisher

Magic is more like to be overpowered than a firearm? Assuming this game has bows, crossbows, and fast magic projectiles they all cover similar tactical options of fire arms. Dodging a crossbow is just as zany as dodging a rifle shot.

Muskets and bombs. Could be quite an interesting world. How about an arcanum styled boomerang?

I like having discussion tied to stats but learning and saying the right things like Deus Ex and Alpha Protocol is a big part of conversation paths as well. As this game won't be based on DnD it may not have the planescape talkers are wizards problem. In Fallout's SPECIAL system diplomacy takes points away from combat styles equally.

What does magic mean for the people in this world? It is common but not everyone has it so what about the people who do. Are they idolized, feared, or marginalized? What role in society do they play? Is some low level magic used by this society everyday and what are its effects? Do people hide their magic or do they try and act more strong souled than they are? What does a strong soul mean? Does that person live a lengthy life eventually deadened by outliving many who they loved and cared for but those people had to come to face the reality that they will not live as long as their strong souled companion because through fate, determination, or luck they are weaker person? How would 20% of society being able to cast a knock or light spell change that world? What is happening in these peoples lives for the last 10 to 20 years? Rock and Roll, civil rights, anti war counter cultures, environmentalism, terrorism, financial collapse? There are too many ancient prophesies in games where people worry about what happened 1000 years ago.

the predjudice based attack sounds interesting. In general I do not like an ability that forces the ai to dumbly attack the person the player wanted them to.

Any treasure weight trade offs I am picturing for gold could be accomplished by making the loot goods instead of currency. With that trade off in mind all that is left of weight gold is tedium of muling cash. The big heavy pile of currency gold that is difficult to carry can just be made into chalices or ornamental weapons. That solution also avoids the split it up and leave behind the coin that breaks the encumbrance systems back method.

I could see a character like that having a drastic event to their story line where they purposely try to cause a party wipe by stealing or attacking someone in a very powerful friendly or neutral area.

Maybe it fits under shadow archetype, I want to see a character who is with the party, doesn't like that fact, but has some reason for staying and the group for keeping them. From the TV tropes list maybe a Loser or this world's version of a Mock Millionaire. I want to see a character weak in combat but has other skills (chef, explorer) and story reasons to be around (embedded reporter), someone to circle the battle and throw rocks but prove a great asset elsewhere.

An interesting evil house may be doing it the morrowind way. The player kills someone and moves in. Unlike that game actually make this a specific house in the story though and have repercussions for this.

I associate housing with the practical element of stopping there between adventures changing some gear and organizing for the next. The housing should be large enough for the whole party(or not if that is written in! poor gumbert sleeping under the table) and they should have their own activities in the house area instead of following the main PC around in party mode. The safety of the location should be played with at some point. If in typical RPG fashion the player is entering homes and taking things there should be NPCs with the guile to do likewise. The player and PC are not the only adventurers in the world. It looks like weapons and armor in the game will have lore attached so there should be a way to show it off or at least store all of those. If the Crown of the Third King has a story in the description don't restraint players stash so much that they vendor it. If storywise an armory of gear does not fit then consider having a museum or collection society that the player gives these items too after they are cycled out of active gear use. If the player really wants it back that is why there are thieves.

One of the flaws I have found in the typical CRPG model is that there are only two states of the world: peaceful and deadly hostile. In the real world if I were to steal a toaster the person may only verbalize they are upset(this can be scripted in all rpgs today) or try to physically stop me, but they will not murder me. Even in most communities in the fallout world the jump from peace to fighting to the death is instant and inappropriate for social life. A fisticuffs, restraint, and other medium violence combat option would open up the role playing options a lot. This may be more suited to single avatar games and the reactivity is making time costs soar but this is what has always bothered me about open world RPGs. This also makes the party capture scripted event less unbelievable. A more general thing would be tracking as much as possible in the game and throwing comments on some of it. Killing all the monsters between Dyrford and Twin Elms should get a comment about how sociopathic that is. Pay attention to timing too, if someone is trying to farm xp in a zombie ghost hellhound attack and goes to resupply those zombie ghost hellhounds should win. For combat I find that most games have the quantity to quality ratio backwards and use a high number of encounters that play mostly the same. Fewer, longer, explicitly designed encounters would be a lot more enjoyable than waves of combat.

Have fun making the game you want to make as a team and bringing us along for the ride.

Hello, I registered for this thread. Obsidian has become one of my favourite developers over the last few years. I would most like to see Alpha Protocol's conversation system and branching storyline. I really felt like even after playing the game several times that anything could have happened and had new plot details revealed each time I played. I am not sure what budget level you would aim for with a kickstarter. In third person games I like the hubs of Vampire the masquerade and Dues Ex Human Revolution. If the lower budget of an isometric game lets your team focus on great writing and system design I would be just as likely to kick in on that though. I mostly enjoy modern settings or fallout but would be equally open to fantasy.