Sensuki

HOPEFULLY, they'll do a nice big update for us.

Well the thing is, the engine is owned by BioWare. There's not really much point using it if you can use another engine and make a very similar game without some of the shortcomings (lack of math in the code or whatever, various other things).

Thri-Kreen was a joke I made in another thread, but okay

I read on here that Feargus said it would be available from October 3. Not sure which thread.

The number went backwards! 1,995,632 to 1,995,619 oh no

I think you had to hit an enemy to -10 HP for a monster to 'gib' in BG. Not all monsters would do it. Mostly humanoid ones.

I think people are more interested in what they've got in store for us after 2.2M. It seems like they're saving that update for post 2.0M

I'd like to see a different take on them if they are included, such as their volatile nature or something.

And in turn missing the context and developments of the thread.

Aeternitatis

Something that embodies Varys the Spider / Littlefinger style of play would be cool too.

I support this notion. You point I punch.

Read the thread, not just the original post.

In Baldur's Gate 1 it was rare to pick up a level 1 companion. Imoen, Khalid and Jaheira. The rest were either level 2 or somewhat scaled depending on when you recruited them. I recruited Kivan and Minsc at level 3 and they were level 4 and about 4K XP higher than me, but Branwen and Dynaheir were under-levelled. One idea is sort of a similar system (but more optimized), where if you pick up certain companions late, you may miss out on portions of their story, but they will be higher level (rather than them just sitting there 'status quo' as the 3E DM guide would say, but that's probably another thread all together).

Random Dungeons in an ARPG game = awesome. Random Dungeons in a game like this = bad. I want something that is an ode to Durlag's Tower, Absolutely trapped out the wazoo, smart and frustrating encounter design (eg. Skeletons with elemental arrows + Sleeping Cloud traps ~_~), except with more exciting quests.

That's taking it a bit too far. I was talking more AD&D numbers over 3rd edition numbers, for the nostalgic purpose of giving the game that infinity engine feel.

It's not the size of the numbers that matter. It's the curve. This, as you've already mentioned, also ties into my own sense of how easy or how difficult the game itself (and the rules it uses) makes it for me to identify with my party members. With a linear progression, there's a game play need to introduce such nonsense as group leveling which makes no sense to me from an individual character standpoint. With that linear progression, though, that newb character will always be just as far behind my character as they were before, which messes with encounter balance and item usage (it items are restricted by character level) and who knows what else. You also run into a more stringent need for that level cap: Baldur's Gate: TotSC had things like infinitely respawning monsters, but because of the exponential curve, there would come a point when it simply didn't matter how many times you rested in the wilderness: the XP you gained simply accounted for proportionately less of that next level you were grinding for in the first place. I actually removed the XP cap for that game with a mod once, and with the way I played the game (occasional monster grinding, resting in dungeons to try and replenish my mages spells, etc) it still didn't make a difference in terms of the levels my group of six characters were able to acquire. Not a single extra level was had by my removal of that XP cap. Which is good, because it means that the designers of the game and the system that game used actually got it right. Basically, will agree with the notion that the choice of rule system for your game can make it easier on BOTH the players to identify with the story elements you're trying to convey with those rules, and the designers who have to try and put it all together. Nothing screams "poorly thought-out mechanics" like artificial limits and arbitrary barriers being thrown up all the time that, at best, do nothing to positively reinforce the story elements that are being portrayed, or, at worst, actively tear down the story your writers have created. This is what frustrates me so much about Bioware these days. The game, while still fun enough, simply ooze with such contradictions, to the detriment of the very story they're trying to tell. I just wanted to quote this as hopefully one of the designers will read this post. Absolutely 100% true.

on the slavery topic I think one of the interesting things that George R. R. Martin did in A Dance with Dragons is explore how a culture that survived off slavery would go without it. For instance if a certain faction in the world tolerates slavery and the player character and party aided the abolishment of slavery in that town/city or region and then left, the outcome may not necessarily be a positive one.

This one goes in with the non-combat style of play but I wouldn't mind seeing the repercussions of violence take a toll on the world. For instance if you solved a quest with violence when you could have solved it peacefully, it would be good if you could see the consequences of your actions, such as the hardships of the families of those you have slain (The Witcher 2 showed this during the Prologue if you killed Aran La Valette, his mother was (raped?) and tortured had to give in to the Nilfgaardians demands), the toll it has on the environment (such as a city becoming poorer, shops closing due to loss of business). On that topic, one thing that isn't shown that well in games is that when the 'nobles' go to war, the common people suffer.

I prefer to do ALL of the actions myself, but YMMV. For instance, see enemy casting mirror image, pause game asap and get someone to try and interrupt the spell during casting.

Sure I'd love a game that had no leveling system and completely revolved around player skill (I'm not old enough, but I recall some of the Ultima games being like that), but this game won't be

That said Mass Effect 2 was a pretty fun game. Cliche's or not.

It's not really slower, it's just larger numbers in use with an exponential XP curve.

No one's said that so far But yes Sylvius has it, the curve is more important. I was stating that I preferred the larger number system because of Nostalgia.

Yeah that's one of the reasons why it worked so well in Baldur's Gate 1 (and 2 especially), where you had certain quests that you needed certain NPCs for, such as requiring Valygar in the party to do the Planar Sphere stuff. That way you could trade people in and out as needed and they were still effective.