jethro

I guess that's only one drug so that might be the extent of it, but at least one drug is definitely in the game. I guess for me taking buffing drugs in a game is no more boring or repetitive than using buff spells, though svef doesn't sound like it has a buffing capacity anyway. I don't really see how becoming a drug dealer is anything like a mini-game as it focuses on PC-NPC interactions, and I like rpgs where you have other revenue streams apart from crafting/finding items to sell and rewards from quests, but each to their own. As I said I have no problems with quests (and that includes main quests) with drugs. It seems svef will be used to enable some "magic" change that doesn't depend on you having a special class with you, excellent use for a drug in the game. My comparision with sim city or a mini game is because if you are a drug dealer (or any kind of dealer really) and the game doesn't just want to put up a text "You now have 100 addicts" and add some money to your bank account, then NPCs have to be programmed to either come to your castle or search you out in the streets. That would mean they either have to simulate lots of NPCs and their daily movement ala Sim City, or one or two token NPCs randomly pop out of nothing when you are in the city to stand as proxies for your 100 addicts. The first would break their budget, the second break your immersion. Sure, if there is a cool quest idea for that it could work somehow, but just for you to feel like a drug peddler? Its the wrong game.

Ah, sorry. I should have added a "I don't mind or care" option. Sadly can't edit the poll anymore.

Yes. A desperate choice. Nothing better came to mind

I had no doubt they would include humor. But I'm just playing MotB now and while I like it there just isn't enough humor in it. It's too serious for its own good. It may be that it has a better balance if you take evil companions (so much easier to do, possibly One of Many may have some funny lines), but for me there is something missing here You obviously think this poll is useless maybe because you like the status quo or you think it is just a yes/no question. I don't because I'm voting for more humor, MUCH more humor.

I voted no. I don't see a reason to specifically include drugs, apart from as part of a quest or if it makes sense for plot points. The usual way drugs are used in RPGs are as buffs similar to spells. But what it then comes down to is either you drink them before every fight (which is a boring repetitive task) or they just fill up your inventory and you drag them around anyway because you just possibly could need them in the next fight. Or the drugs are for special cases like "Cure poison". Then you keep them around cluttering your inventory just for the one time you really need them. And often you forget to use them at that moment when it would have really been beneficial and instead got by by using a few more healing spells instead. They just don't add to the fun of fighting, they are a clunky substitute for low level priest and cleric spells. The other idea mentioned was that you could be drug dealer (of forbidden substances) and grow a few addicts. So do you really want more clunky minigames in your RPG, especially ones that sound more like sim city? Remember, this is a project on a tight budget, you can't expect them to produce a whole sand box environment alongside a fully fleshed out story. That (legal and illegal) drugs could be used in quests on the other hand is really not a question. We could as well ask "Should there be shovels in PE or not?"

Every IE game had some level of humor (or did it? Can't remember with IWD, but I never finished it). Because it is difficult to measure how much, especially since some humor can be hilarious to one person and undetectable to another, I won't ask anything like "Same as in BG1 ?". So I will just put up a more artifical scale and ask for type and where you want to see humor surface. As a measure I would put the humor level of PS:T at "every 12th quest" but could be wrong there, it might be lower. I can only remember Morte and the philosophical brothel, it is just so long ago that I played the game Also I'd like to mention that humorous companions have the advantage that humor-averse players can simply avoid the humor by throwing Dr. "Two-Face" Jekyll or Hermann the Brute Squad out of the party while others can get a healthy dose by taking them along. And companions like Morte and Minsk are easily the most often cited companions of the IE games (at least that is my impression) and not in negative way as far as I can tell. As a measure I would say one Minsk is the equivalent of 8 to 10 humorous quests. What say you?

I value humor a lot. Frankly it wouldn't disturb me not a bit if the game changed to a satire or to South Park in the middle ages. But that probably would go to far for a lot of people. So I vote for dark and sublte humor through side quests, side quests NPCs and companions. Think about it, companions have the advantage that you can select whether you want to have the humor magnet with you or not. And lets not forget that Minsk and Morte are the best remembered and most-cited companions in the whole canon of IE games. So as an example you could add as a possible companion for the more in-your-face humor Hermann the Brute Squad, former village idiot, now your front line fighter, just don't let him decide policy. Not only would he be comic relief, but if the player chooses to create a low-int PC, imagine the wonderful discussions ensuing between those two. Another companion could be the source of more subtle humor (Ephentos, the failed former radical who tries to convince everyone of strange ideas like democracy (where you vote which son of the king should get on the throne and when). The rest of the companions would be straight and earnest, brooding and philosophical so that humor-averse players have the simple means to avoid unnecessary humor in their dark fantasy.

I always get a smile on my face hearing the words "planescape" and "arcanum". Simply for that I would kickstart anything you propose (if that anything had lots of story in it ;-). And I know at least two others who would put up money in a second. But you are looking for preferences and suggestions. Here we go: I would have said a turn-based RPG is a must, but I don't remember any mayor successful turn-based RPG, after Baldurs Gate made RTwP the standard. Except for Wizardry 8, but that was tedious because of too many fights (I never finished it). Maybe my desire for turn-based is just nostalgia. Or the desire for really tactical combat which on the other hand should be secondary to story and setting. Still, if you have something like RTwP, why not add a config option to make it turn-based through automatic stops (there is no problem with having actions that need more than one turn). If you add appropriate difficulty settings for turn-based and RTwP or even RT, everyone is happy and you can even market it to the action-RPG crowd. Although, I think you tried that with Arcanum and the real-time wasn't really working (or is my memory faulty in this regard?) Mature story and characters and ideas is a must. Don't censor yourself to appeal to the masses. A strange, unusual or even weird, mysterious setting and humour would be wonderful. Both Planescape and Arcanum had the right mix (probably F:NV too from what I heard, but I'm slow and still playing FO3 at the moment). Did I say humor? If not: humor. It's what made Portal such a resounding success. What made Planescape unforgetable was the story and how everything fit together (read 4xis.black's post in this thread again, he found the right words). Really, the story should be your number one priority. As lots of people said, no romance, NWN1 forever gave me a phobia for that. The setting should be something fresh, paying for a licence is probably too expensive. But you may find fresh settings where you don't need to pay through your nose for that, webcomic or book authors might be happy about the promotion. Probably a post-apocalytic setting isn't the best right now because surely we'll get more of that with Fallout 4. Steampunk or similar would be wonderful, but you might say "been there, done that". If not, take a look at the webcomic "Girl Genius". What wouldn't we give for gigantic steam-robots ;-) ? Maybe some unusual (for games) hard-SF setting like a generation ship where you wake up and find a new primitive civilization surrounded by high-tech. Or the alien civilization you are thrown into as sole (as far as you know) survivor of a spaceship crash and must learn the rules (and can offer something new to them as well which would give the opportunity to incorporate a quest system). Read books by C.J.Cherryh or Iain Banks culture novels like 'Player of Games' for inspiration about interesting aliens and AI. Maybe an alternate history setting. From Nazis-won-the-war to church-rules-everything. Aliens-live-among-us could be interesting, see the movie District 9 why it must not always be an invasion scenario. A time travel main story where your actions in the past are necessary to overcome obstacles in the future. I know, difficult to do as an RPG (instead of as an adventure) but that would really be something novel. Something similar to "Superhero League of Hoboken". I know many who always hoped for a new incarnation of that game. Not the mechanics (the game had its flaws no doubt and the story was simplistic), but the scenario was great, inept superheroes with superpowers like create organizational charts or see inside pizza boxes. Set in a postapocalyptic New York. Pleasantly weird and rich opportunities for satire and humor. Something else you might think about is whether you could open-source the game. Would make it possible that your game gets expanded, improved and bug-fixed by a community of fans and take on a live of its own. Without having to support a complicated construction set.