Rubarack

It wouldn't be that hard to get it to search for the word "cloud" anywhere in the text box ignoring capitalisation, so that cloud, Cloud, clouds, a cloud or the clouds would all work. Still, it's probably too much effort for the gain needed, the best solution is probably to hide the answers behind an "I'm ready to answer" option and have a much higher penalty for failing to answer after selecting that than for admitting "I don't know".

I really can't agree with this. I understand where it's coming from but an AoE spell without friendly fire risks is dramatically more powerful than one with them. I don't think there should be a menu option to increase weapon damage by a factor of 5 and nor do I think there should be a menu option to increase AoE spells efficiency by a similar amount. By all means have AoE spells which do dramatically reduced damage that target only enemies but don't leave such an important aspect of game balance to a menu option. On topic I really loved this in Baldurs Gate games, I wouldn't say it was essential but hopefully there will be other considerations with similar depth if not.

I'd like to see you get a certain amount of mana (say 20) every combat and a pool (say 100) that refills when you rest (which happens at plot specific moments) The amount you get in each combat doesn't replenish your pool so you can expend a lot to get out of tough situations or get past difficult battles, but are never forced nor encouraged to do nothing.

I know you guys have trouble suspending your sense of disbelief but there's a very important factor here. No injury should be more troublesome than reloading the save before the battle started. If you make combat challenging and resources limited then save scumming becomes a necessary strategy. Even beyond that these designs are very good at making injuries inconvenient. I don't want to have to fret about every bandage or arrow in a party. I want to focus on the adventure, exploring, characters and the strategy of combat. Not having to hobble back to town at quarter speed so I can haggle with the town physician about how much to pay for treating an injury and whether he can get supplies then having to wait an ingame week and a real life hour before trekking back and realising the system would be identical if I just regenerated to full life after the battle and just go a couple gold less in rewards. Some things can be safely abstracted to keep the story flowing. Make HP stand for "Heroic Power" and let me regen to full after each battle.

It's done essentially, they've pitched it as RTwP and they can't go back on it now. I like turn based strategy for combat but it's a very different style for roleplaying. Encounters take so long using pure turn based you can't have any throwaway ones, and I for one would miss them if they were gone.

So, basically WoW? I'd be happy with that. WoW got a lot of things wrong but class design wasn't one of them. That said within the context of a tactical RPG using real time with pause there's a lot to be said far characters that don't need much babysitting.

For myself I'd love something like 4e D&D or Final Fantasy Tactics. I loved Baldurs Gate for the tactical aspect but you were breaking the game with every decision because AD&D was never meant to be balanced. Something designed around tactical combat would be ideal for me.