Piccolo

I always found Imoen's voice to be incredibly annoying. Also, to the people suggesting famous names for voice actors - NO. This adds nothing to the game experience at all. All it does is waste money that could be spent elsewhere. Besides, in a fantasy game, who the hell wants to hear an NPC speak and think "that's [insert Earth celebrity]". I'm actually in favour of no voice actors at all, but if they insist on having some voices in the game, they should use unknown professional voice actors and limit the voiced dialogue to very basic greetings...

I don't like it when all the best unique items in an RPG are tied into the main questlines somehow, so you can't really miss them. When I acquire them that way, it doesn't really feel like i've made a great discovery at all. Instead, it just feels like i've followed the path the developers intended me to follow, and found an item every single person playing the game will also find. Another thing I hate is when all of the best unique items are guarded by some kind of boss. I understand the need to challenge the player before rewarding them... but doing this all the time makes the whole experience kind of artificial. So I would prefer most rare artifacts to be hidden away in the world, in locations that aren't necessarily quest related, with only faint references to some of the artifacts in lore. Some should be guarded by high level monsters or bosses, while others should be quite easy to obtain once you find their location.

I would hope that the quality and quantity of character portraits in the game is sufficient enough that i'd never have to use a custom portrait feature... but I guess it's always a nice option to have, and not that hard to implement.

Yeah... BG had identifying scrolls / spells also if I recall. Not really a fan of that feature. I'd rather rely on the knowledge of NPCs than a scroll / spell button all the time.

Not many newer RPGs seem to do this anymore (probably because of the increasing trend of holding the player's hand), but I really like the idea of finding an unusual weapon or a piece of armor in a dungeon and not knowing what it is until I take it to a an expert, such as a blacksmith... or in the case of legendary artifacts, a lore master. Unless of course your character or one of their companions possesses such knowledge themselves. Naturally, if you buy a sword from the shop you should get a detailed description and stats straight away, but for stuff you find while exploring, there should be an element of mystery. All you should get is a very basic description of what your character can see with their own eyes - such as 'an ornate looking wooden bow in rough condition'. Then upon taking it to an expert, you might learn that it's a rare type of bow made only by the peoples of a far off land - along with it's value and general attributes. If I recall, most of the IE games took this approach... so i'd like to think that PE will do the same rather than conforming to the player convenience found in modern RPGs.

I don't want it to be dark just for the sake of being dark either. Nor do I want it to have a 15 year old's idea of maturity, like the Witcher series. I trust Obsidian to use mature themes in a way that only adds to the experience.

I would like weapons and armor to have durability, yes. The more the player has to think about what weapons and armor their character should use in a certain situation, the better in my opinion. It shouldn't simply be a case of finding the best sets then using them in every scenario for the rest of the game. Durability has to be handled in a way that doesn't make things too tedious though. If the player constantly has to repair stuff after every fight, it can really suck the fun out of the game.

Nay. So many games attempt romances only for it to come across as a very shallow, gimmicky feature. I'd rather they avoid going down that road altogether and invest the time and effort into other aspects of the game.

I hate being the chosen one in RPGs. It worked well in some games, but now i'm just sick of the idea. I'd much rather be an ordinary character caught up in an epic storyline. Let me define who my character is, and if you really feel you must impose super powers, special abilities, or destinies on characters to make the storyline interesting, do it on NPCs.

I think they should look to sci-fi for inspiration (avoiding the obvious cliches). Just because the game has a fantasy setting doesn't mean some of the races can't be very alienlike in appearance.

Yes, I want this feature. It adds some personalization to your character (beyond portraits).

Not going to happen in a CRPG aiming to follow the IE mould, and i'm fine with that. First person works well for some RPGs, but not others. Also, shhh! People who grew up on late 90s RPGs like Baldur's Gate often like to pretend that those games started it all, and that first person perspective in RPGs is some new devilry brought about by FPS games. Talking about older RPGs from the 80s that had first person perspective will boggle their minds.

Ugh... NPCs specifically placed inside the gameworld with the purpose of holding the player's hand and teaching them how to play the game? No thanks. I vote for a completely separate tutorial that can be accessed via the main menu.

24 Darklands Daggerfall Arcanum Morrowind

Great update. I like that you're trying to avoid skill progression turning into a straightforward and simplistic 'kill stuff to get XP' affair.

Great update. I like the approach they're taking with XP.

Well, the latest kickstarter update makes me feel a little bit happier about having an XP system. They seem to be making a conscious effort to avoid the levelling system turning into a simplistic "kill things to get XP" affair.

I like money to be very scarce in RPGs. Becoming even moderately wealthy should feel like a huge accomplishment

I think they'll hit the 3 million mark comfortably, and could realistically be looking at 4 million+ depending on how much hype the project gets between now and the end date. 5 million might be a little too much to expect, but it's not out of the realm of possibility.

Who the hell does this kind of thing? Seriously? Are you just speculating here on what some players could potentially do if they wanted to, or do you have some kind of proof that X amount of players did such things? I remember plenty of players posting about such methods on the official forums. Another method was to make your character swim into a corner to level up athletics. Is it stupid? Yes. But it also proves my point that such a leveling system rewards grinding. So people exploit the levelling system using ridiculous grinding methods, then log onto the forums and moan about the levelling system being ****? I'm amazed these people are even able to log on without fully functioning brains.

I don't consider The Witcher 2 a valid example. Anno 1404 isn't bad looking, but it still has that slight cartoony vibe I get from all 3D rts games. Age of Empires 2 is about a decade older, and I honestly prefer how that game looks. Civ 5 is just ugly looking. Bad example.

Who the hell does this kind of thing? Seriously? Are you just speculating here on what some players could potentially do if they wanted to, or do you have some kind of proof that X amount of players did such things? I don't think it's right trashing an entire gameplay concept just because a very small number morons go to extreme lengths to level up their character in a singleplayer game.

*sigh* Why is this turning into a TES vs IE thing? Yes, Skyrim sucks as an RPG, but how is that even relevant to the argument? As others have rightly pointed out, TES games aren't the only games that use a more natural method of skill progression instead of XP. TES is just one example of the right sort of idea being poorly implemented.

What...? This is such a stupid comment.

Zeckul - show me just one example of a 3D CRPG or strategy game in top down / isometric perspective that looks as good (let alone better) than some of the best looking 2D examples.