M. I. Wright

Like many others, I joined the forum as soon as I knew about this thread. I really, really dig the idea of a new 2D isometric CRPG. I'm simply fed up with all the action RPGs around... And with the fantasy setting. Seriously, the fantasy setting is so overused it's not even funny. Thus my opinion is that, unless you're absolutely, positively sure you're going to make some innovative setting, you should avoid fantasy settings like plague. Personally, I'd like to see an actual sci-fi/cyberpunk RPG, but hey, it doesn't really have to be like that. What if we made a RPG with a contemporary setting? One that is about some average joe, living in an average city... That suddenly has to face something crazy? Or something average, if you want to be that groundbreaking. Anyways, there are three factors that, to me, are important for such a game to be good, and those are factors you guys already used in previous games: Fallout 1 had a way to make you feel unsettled and ignorant, which to this day I failed to find in any other game. It's not about game mechanics being hard or something (the game manual, which, by the way, was really neat, explained everything just about right): it's the game itself that is confusing. You are literally thrown out of the vault, with little to no weapons, and you barely have an idea where to go and what to do. You head for shady sands and there it kicks in: you realize that you can do pretty much everything. Which is the second point of my brief list. You should be able to do almost anything. I'm not talking about "anything" as in "lol i can shoot ppl hurp durp". I'm talking about "I can pay this goon to work for me and then pickpocket him to get my money back". Although I couldn't really wrap my mind around it, Wastelands had an interesting take about this. You could use your skills creatively. And there's tons of different skills. Just like in real life... Lateral thinking and lots of stuff you can learn and do. Torment was great because you actually had to... smart your way into the game. You could've finished the game almost without fighting. That means you could get experience by the darndest things, like... Noticing something strange, remembering something some other NPC said, and so on. I would really love to see something like this again. That said, I don't think a PS:T sequel is a good idea; it's ok if you want to use the Planescape setting (although it's fantasy, at least it's not the same old fantasy) or a similar plane/space-dimension based one. Plenty of other users had awesome ideas. I see the general consensus is that the game should be C&C based, and I agree, but, like many others, I want to see some real consequences, as in, something more than "NPC # 354 is mad at you" and "you get a different ending cutscene". For this reason, I feel that the only "game over" should be from your character dying, and not from, let's say, your main-quest being failed. I've always been wondering what would've happened in FO1 if, after surrendering to the Master, you didn't get your game over cutscene... but you got to play as a super mutant instead. Catch my drift? one should be allowed to play his/her heart out. Do things they didn't even come up with. Voice acting is almost completely unnecessary: ditch that and get some real good soundtrack composer(s) instead. Same goes for graphics: everything you can save without adding fancy visual effects, can be spent to make a more "deep" and complex game mechanic. finally, such a complex game will lead to loads and loads (and loads... AND LOADS) of bugs. The game should therefore be easily moddable. there, I'm done. I apologize if you think I sound demanding or just flat out crazy, and I'm sorry for my english. Keep up the good work.