[Drugs]

Well they're already in the game, fortunately/unfortunately depending on your stance:

 

svef - Svef is the Aedyran name for a potent narcotic ...

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.

[Humor. How much, where and what type?]

I voted "None" just to be a wiseacre, and because there was no "Let's let the writers decide" option.

 

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

[Humor. How much, where and what type?]

Putting a X number of quest as a meter for how much humor should be in the game seems far-fetched.

 

Yes. A desperate choice. Nothing better came to mind

[Humor. How much, where and what type?]

Threads like this makes me wanna sighloud and facepalm a lot.

 

Yes, there will be jokes. And characters. Exciting, isn't it.

 

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.

[Drugs]

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?"

[Humor. How much, where and what type?]

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?

[A Matter of Mood...]

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.