HangedMan

So, Pillars of Eternity II is up for pre-order on Steam, and I was combing through it. I found this picture on the pre-order page; I don't believe the code has been added yet, but if it's a repeat, sorry about that. Edit: never mind. I jumped the gun, and got way too excited. It's one of the earlier codes, and I just wasn't reading it right.

Make the cookies. By Magran, I hope you made those cookies. If anything has inspired faith in me, it is those delectables.

I love all three of these, especially number 1; soulknife is my favorite class. Also, killing someone with a weapon formed of your intent to kill them is the best kind of... recursion? Is that recursion? What word can we use there? I support you getting a sofa in your office. We must support the artists. I like it, it's a small touch, but the small touches are important. It could even come up with a few dialogue choices down the line. "Now, I'm not a man of the cloth, but Magran would want us to... SHOOT THEM![initiate ambush battle]" That could actually windup being in the game, as we may get a ship stronghold this time around. I want to talk to my ship and not be crazy. Kind of like how I could talk to my fortress in PoE1 and not be crazy. That could be fun, but I feel like it would be difficult for it to be implemented; would you want to see it as an actual item that someone wields, as a character with a class level, etc.? This sounds like fun on paper, but then it's not fair if you decide to take a non-Deadfire origin; what would those people get?

I'm not really a fan of pre-buffing, though I can understand why some people want it; and if they did implement pre-buffing, I would want the game balanced with the assumption that buffs are NOT used. In this way, people can, in their own way, set the difficulty of encounters. Try an encounter on its own; get wiped out? Try it again buffed out! But I would like to see utility spells. I like the idea of, if I have a naturally stealthy character; why not give him a little 'performance enhancement' courtesy of the wizard, or even the priest? Of course, that's one less spell slot I'll have for when the fighting breaks out, but that's how choices and consequences work.

Minsc was pretty amusing. I'd definitely like to see some quirky characters in this game. They need not even be on the team per se; maybe a recurring NPC? In Neverwinter Nights 2, the sort of... absent-minded Aldanon fulfilled that sort of role, at least for me, briefly.

I like this. I'm saving this.

I like it for this idea alone; you could do a lot with this. Maybe a leading conversation where you can flesh out, for instance, some of your past lives, which may affect this npc's relationship with you, or with other party members. Maybe even the dialogue tree could unlock a certain skill, or grant some kind of bonus (or even just remove a handicap you might have for whatever reason).

Cross, from the Playstation 1 game Kartia: Word of Fate. He was technically a villain, but I'd call him some type of anti-villain. He was obsessed with training himself to perfection, and only served on the side of the bad guys because it gave him access, not only to forbidden knowledge, but some high level challenges. I like the idea of someone who isn't necessarily bad, just opposed to you, and who constantly challenges you because overcoming you will allow them to become better; the kind of person who wants to truly reach the peak and pinnacle that they are capable of, who is motivated not necessarily out of greed or a desire to use that power to get what he wants, but more-so curiosity.

This. Very much this.

I like this idea. Especially the part about displaying item properties; it would be nice at a glance to see what the damage, for instance, of all my weapons are, or how much armor each piece of armor has, just at a glance; being able to compare things by just following the numbers down columns.

Do you think you could find a link to this?

I would like for the option of a Throat Slit, which is exactly what it sounds like. Sneaky sneaky, get up behind someone... grab them around the head, hand over mouth, draw knife across throat, let them spray their blood all over the place before dropping the corpse like a sack of bricks. Somebody trained to do exactly that. I mean, how can people keep their composure when they're killing multiple people in a short amount of time? Same thing, people who've trained to do it. Enough training, especially of the hands on variety, can make anything easy. Then again, you do bring up a good point about armor. I think stuff like steel gorgets should stop my proposed Throat Slit, for instance. Maybe armor should offer varying degrees of sneak attack defense/protection? Or make sneak attacks do a lot more damage, but still subject to damage reduction from armor.

Speaking of this--and I ap0ologize if it's been brought up before, I saw this and instantly responded, rather than reading-- I should be able to bring some oil with me. Like, lamp oil. Kerosene. What-have-you. Those old wall sconces and braziers and the like? I should be able to start fires in them, in the dungeons. It would be an awesome way to leave a 'trail of breadcrumbs', so to speak (so long as the lights don't start going out; or being put out).

I love the ideas here, and would genuinely love a game where character creation is such a big deal. However, much like Odglok, I don't think PE is the place for it.

I'm personally hoping for a Morte-like character.

You're welcome. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what you can, in terms of making that widget into a game. If you need a beta tester or anything like that, please consider me. Also, just an aside note about the casino-esque games I mentioned; I'd really only support their being there, because it would make sense for something like gambling to exist in the game. It's not something I'd spend much time on, as I generally avoid most games-inside-of-games; I have no real love for it.

SophosTheWise is proving to live up to the name; it's a very good point, and it's one I fully support and get behind. I personally found the existential skeletons in Divine Divinity to be amazingly hilarious, and would love to see that the humor in the game comes from their world, not bits and bobs of our world shoehorned (and/or gently caressed) into place.

I like your program. You put a lot of work into it, and it shows. After reading your explanation, I found it intuitive and fun; the interface is pretty basic, but as it is a proof of concept, I completely understand that it's not polished. I think, if you coded it in flash, and expanded on it a bit, you could actually come up with a pretty neat stand-alone widget that I'd like spend several hours playing with. Or even utilize it as a cool mini-game in a flash game. However, I don't really want to see that kind of mini-game in P:E. Really, the only ones I'd accept would be games of chance/luck, like in a gambling hall. I think, for this game, if their was to be a crafting system, it'd be sort of... choosing stuff from lists. In example: List A) Equipment type List B) Material type List C)Misc things So I could, for instance, select: Dagger Steel Ruby and end up with a Steel Dagger with a ruby in its pommel (increasing its sale value? Maybe an enchanted ruby that gives elemental damage?). I feel that sort of set up would allow for plenty of customization, while also being smooth and streamlined; things I look for in this sort of game. Still, though, you an awesome dude, and you should feel awesome for making this.

I can see these ideas having an appeal, but I don't want them in PE, either. As for why... well, upgrayeDD has already done a wonderful job.

I like the idea itself, but I don't think I'd like it in PE.

And you know enough about this game and its creation that you can certifiably say non Ironman Mode will ruin the experience? Maybe the specific experience and feeling they're going for is one accomplished with a save-anywhere mechanism.

Along those lines, there are potentially other creatures besides horses that can supply heavy labor. Picture the trolls that opened and shut the gates to Mordor in the LotR movies. Wizards should certainly be able to summon and perhaps bind elemental creatures that can perform actions not possible with human laborers. There may be an entire industry centered around the capture and breeding of enchanted creatures for use in alchemical processes. I want to run a bath house that uses an enslaved water elemental to produce fresh water, and an enslaved fire elemental to heat things up to just the right temperature.

I want to find remnants that give me an idea of what used to be in the place, and who inhabited it. A mouldy journal, some frescoes on the wall, so on, so forth. Also, this.

Did you just compare nicotene addiction to be an being unable to force yourself to accept consequences in a video game? If not reloading a save in a video game makes you feel physical reactions akin to being a smoker who quits cold turkey you need to get yourself put in a hospital. No, really. If it doesn't then you need to grow up and stop making comparisons between two things that are so different they aren't even in the same universe. I just cant bring myself to face my terrible, terrible, video game addiction. I was able to shake the heroine habit after a few days but not reloading video games after choosing the wrong dialogue option is so much harder. I mean, the consequences are so minuscule that I can't bring myself not to do it. With the heroine, when I would disappear onto the street for months at a time, my family would flip out and cry. I figured I should probably stop. But with the video games no one suffers. So I just cant seem to stop myself. That's why I need the game developers to do it for me. It sounds like you need my patented Videogame Aversion Therapy Clinic! Using the latest and greatest in Aversion Therapy techniques, we will have you unable to even approach a game, let alone play one, in as little as three weeks! Side effects may include PTSD, drowsiness, nausea, severe and potentially lethal injuries, and Empty Pocket Syndrome.

I disagree. Mind you, I am in favor of the Trial Of Iron mode, which Obsidian has come flat out and said will be included, and is Ironman Mode in all but name. You don't need a hundred percent prediction to do self-inflicted Iron-man mode. You just need to have enough willpower that when temptation comes knocking at your door, you say "Go away, I hate you!" instead of "Oh, come right on in, chief! What did you bring with you this time?" I've done self-inflicted Ironman Modes, and adhered strictly to the ruling. The one time I deviated was with a Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl playthrough, in which case, I would use the level auto-saves to reload, in the event that I had a CTD from a bug. And I managed to do one run through (on Stalker difficulty) all the way to the true ending. After four games wherein I completely deleted the saves, and started over again. Mind you, I know, by and far, not everybody has the wherewithal to tell temptation to sod off; more people can't than can. I'm just saying, their are people out there, because I can't possibly be the only one; that's statistically impossible. And you know what, I had a great sense of accomplishment when I finally did beat those games. Not just the rush of victory under those conditions, but also because of the rush I got from knowing I was able to make myself adhere to those rules, instead of having the game hold my hand. For me, at least, Trial of Iron would take some of the wind out of my sails.