metiman

I don't see anything wrong with this idea. Well except that it was inspired by one of the worst computer games ever made. I'd very much like to sell EAware on the idea of mass suicide.

Yes, in PS:T, I can't imagine any room for an additional player-made character (besides which it's impossible given the narrative and everything) or playing without party members because that would strip a very substantial amount of content from the game. I doubt this is true of PE, however, so there would be room for self-made parties in the name of tactical replay value for single-player campaigns. In BG, the only way to create a self-made party was to first create in MP mode and then move it into SP mode, right? That's a workaround, not an intended self-made party mode for SP. IWD was different, if I remember right, because you're required to build your party anyway. So the implementations were not equivalent in the least. But because this would still be played in SP mode, adding this feature wouldn't require concessions in the content that adding MP would--so I'd support this for replay value and for those folks who do prefer the tactical side (I remember that after I replayed BG2 so many times, I started making my own partial parties too). Basically the party interactions would be lost, but I suspect the vast majority of players will still play an NPC party campaign before jumping straight into the self-made anyway. We know that MP won't be implemented for both technical and content reasons, but adding this doesn't seem like an awful stretch because it's technically SP. ya most likely it wouldn't be a big problem. But if the devs choose not to include it, I bet its because of it not fitting similar to PS:T and not because they just don't want to include it. I would like it to be there if possible. I've soloed PS:T more than once. I found it enjoyable. It would have been nice if I could have generated my own characters as well. Also this game is not the PS:T sequel-in-spirit. It's supposed to be more of a hybrid of that and BG2 and maybe IWD as well, although IWD isn't getting much love on the front page poll. So I assume there will be a greater focus on strategic combat than PS:T had.

No, not really. Maybe it's just me, but I don't want to be the psychiatrist to the majority of the companions. I wasn't referring to the kind of trivial problems that Bioware might come up with if that's what you're thinking. I'm not talking about neurotic companions that you have to fix so that you can sleep with them or anything like that. I'm also not talking about melodramatic soap opera stuff. Remember I'm trying to deconstruct what it was about Torment's story that was so compelling. That's my context. Not Biotrash games. In terms of tragedy it may be that I just personally find it more compelling and believable.

I prefer more significant gameplay effects than just temporary stat bonuses. That seems to trivialize the whole god/diety thing. I like the idea that the gods are dangerous. That contacting one is something to be taken very very seriously and maybe a sacrifice or semi-secret ritual is necessary. I like the Lady of Pain model. A god/diety is someone to be feared.

It probably depends on the game. The problem isn't your hardware. It's your OS. I run XP 64 bit and XP 32 bit for compatibility reasons. I've had trouble getting Icewind Dale to run in XP. IIRC, I had better luck with Windows 2000 for Icewind Dale 1. There should be no problem getting BG2 to run on XP. I'm not sure about PS:T. It has been too long since I've played it. One option is to multiboot different OSes. Another is to install XP on a VMware virtual machine.

Torment had a superb story with well written dialogue throughout and an interesting setting, lore, and even slang. This game is supposed to inherit some of what made that game special, but what was it about the Torment story that made it so special? I think one answer is suspense and mystery. Torment had a suspenseful story which is almost unheard of in cRPGs, but there was more to its magic than only suspense. The story was thoughtful. It raised philosophical issues and encouraged pondering things. There was also an element of tragedy and sadness to the story of TNO and also Deionarra. In general happy characters are boring. Stories are about conflict and often the more serious the conflict the better. Slight conflicts make for a slight story, but some conflicts are so serious that things can never end well. That's why I think tragic stories tend to have more emotional impact. Mark Morgan's wonderful soundtrack also helped with this of course.

How about saving the game during combat?

I could be wrong but I think Obsidian is hoping to come up with a story that is 'good to follow'.

Or 6 mages. Or 6 thieves. That's why it adds replayability. Due to those weird sort of playthroughs which can be quite challenging and fun. Of course this only matters if the combat is actually decent.

Killed me. ...but, to answer your question - in one of the updates I believe it have been said, that you will be able to get through the game even without some, or any, party members. So your easy would't probably be less easy than regular Infinity Easy. Unless they completely FUBAR things up, it will probably be significantly easier, as a large part of the difficulty was poor control schemes and the fact that 2nd ed did not translate to computer well at all. Also, I continue to maintain THAC0 should die in a fire. I've heard this before but I still don't get it. What makes 3rd edition more computer friendly? Most of my favorite cRPGs were 2nd ed. based. Also what alternative is there to some kind of thac0? Just hitting every time?

I don't think that tl;dr stuff is necessary here. Check the age poll. Very few posters are teenagers and PS:T was the most popular game. I think the vast majority here are at least readers.

Oh. I see. It was probably only some implementation detail that caused that problem. It was very awkward.

I forgot about that. It's an excellent point. For me a DVD with DRM is pointless. GOG download may be the only DRM free option.

I found the radio broadcasts in FONV to be slightly amusing. Nothing more. For me it added little to the game play.

Of course you could also just choose not to have trash mobs. I'd be surprised if even Obsidian knows such specifics at this point.

How do you hold/swing a sword with both hands and also carry a shield?

Why? In terms of developer resources it seems trivial to implement. It's not like they have to balance the game for it. Just loop the existing character generation function and allow your slots to fill with custom characters. They wouldn't even have to support the feature if they don't want to. If playing with 6 characters introduces additional bugs for that mode they may choose to eventually squash the bugs or not. The feature wasn't officially supported by BG2 but lots of people did it and it didn't seem to introduce any more bugs. It definitely adds to replayability.

It would be nice. I don't see how anyone coud object to a IWD / SoZ impementation. The only argument against would be any additional resources necessary to implement it. I have no idea what those sorts of specific implementation details might be. Probably mostly additional dialogue to be written that changes based on who is talking. I noticed in BG2 that some conversations might change slightly based on which NPCs you had with you. I guess this is just a more extreme version of that.

Well I'd like to see a promise that the game will not have any cooldowns. At least that you cannot permanently turn off. I don't see any reason to believe that it will but if it does I won't be playing the game no matter how good the story is. It's a total deal breaker for me. If they announce cooldowns I will withdraw my money entirely and keep my fingers crossed for other projects. If they announce romance minigames I'll be dissapointed but hopefully they'll have the good sense to make them entirely skippable. Ideally even completely turned off in options.

Nice post Freddo. I'm glad to see this thread getting some attention again. I also find Jeremy Soule's music to be rather boring and Inon Zur to be even worse. But I find Secunda achingly beautiful. Sounds almost Mark Morgan-ish. So he clearly has talent. Maybe he's just not selective enough about what work he lets escape out into the world.

I believe "save-scumming" is a console-kiddie term. It implies that having any kind of save is a bad thing. It implies checkpoint-only saves is a good thing. At least that's my understanding. There is no such thing as "save-scumming" in a PC-only game. If you don't want saves you will very likely have an ironman mode where if you die you have to start the game from the beginning. Or how about having an adult level of discipline and just don't save? Definitely not my cup of tea. I find repetitiveness boring. If I have to replay even a small portion that I have just played it is a serious penalty to me IRL. If I have to replay large sections more than once I likely will just uninstall the game at that point.

I did say "in-spirit". After reading the penny arcade interview with TIm Cain this may be more of a sequel-in-spirit than I was thinking. It sounds like there are going to be immortal characters with many lives.

Yeah. I just saw the other thread that links to an article about boob-plate by an actual armorer. Settles the issue for me, but I still don't think human female strength differences are adequately reflected in RPGs and have a hard time role playing a human female character as a fully plate armored warrior with a 18/00 strength and a two handed sword or other giant weapon. Maybe with steriods in the game. For non-human characters of course there is no problem.

Actually if this project is succesful enough you may actually see a genuine 100% sequel-in-spirit to PS:T in your lifetime. MCA has been talking about the idea even back on the Interplay forums. He has always said that he would love to do one and based on interviews this project does not seem to be it. Well, except for the partial sense in which MotB was as well.

By 'play' do you mean actually finishing? Would playing even for an hour count? This is the problem with polls. You really have to be careful with defining your terms.