DYWYPI

There is a very quick way to do this, if you have a save from before rescuing Mother Sharptooth in the Caverns of Xaur Tuk-Tuk. Just kill the first few enemies there, bring Eder to look at her cage, and choose to ignore her over and over again.

That doesn't make them not standard effects. You can't enchant a weapon with Marking or Stunning and so on, but they're nonetheless predictable, standard effects, and ones presented not as a special, unique effect for a specific item or couple of items, but as a generic property, complete with fixed values for the effect and a number you can use to compare it with other generic properties. Spell-effect-on-trigger enchantments are perhaps the exception there and could make for some more interesting items, if they weren't so sparsely used. I don't understand why you're discounting enchantments other then Fine, Exceptional and Superb. Not all Superb items are equal, but - at least in theory - all 8/12 items should be roughly as good as each other, or at least have sets of enchantments that are equally powerful before considering synergy. It's that level of fine, systematic balance, with all possible effects carefully genericized and weighed against each other - and perhaps most crucially(?), that weighing-up being presented directly to the player rather than having happened under-the-hood while the items were being developed - that spoils the sense of idiosyncrasy and spontaneity about finding new items,

They're still drawn from a standard set of effects. Outside of soulbound weapons, which are a step in the right direction even if it's a shame there's so few and that they're class-exclusive and restricted to weapons only, you're never going to find a new magical item with an unexpected, unique ability - or even a unique version of a common type of ability. All elemental enchantments do 25% extra damage as that element., all bane weapons deal 25% more damage and have +5 accuracy against their enemy type, and so on. It makes balancing easier, but it also makes items feel a lot less special. I'd much rather have slightly less laser-focused item balance, and more weird and idiosyncratic weapons, armor, and wondrous items. Enchantments use a 12-point scale for balance, which is displayed on the item card. Fine/Exceptional/Superb count for 2/4/6 points respectively.

The problem doesn't lie in being a sword with enchantments, since that's obviously what all enchanted swods are, it lies in being a sword with genericized enchantments. When I find a sword that dispels magic on hit in an IE game, it's not "Enchantment: Spelldrainer (4pts)", it's a sword that dispels magic when it hits, probably the only one with that specific effect in the whole game. Unique, idiosyncratic magical items give a much greater sense of discovery and wonder than those with a selection of standardized effects balanced on a visible 12-point scale.

Do people really hate having unique items in stores? Personally, when playing NWN or IWD or BG, one of the feelings I absolutely loved was happening upon a new shopkeeper loaded with a treasure-trove of expensive armor to fantasize about being able to afford. The existence of such stores also makes the commonly found Shortsword +2s and the like much more of a treat; they might be useless, but with a dozen of them piled up in my bag of holding, when I get back to town that's a pleasingly solid chunk of gold to set against the next suit of full plate with a cool or situational enchantment that I see.

I loved the narrated monologues in between many IE-engine game chapters. Felt and sounded just like an important DM description. "The tunnel slopes upward into the welcome glare of daylight..."

While I have no real preference with regards to Vancian-style casting, I would like to see spell preparation being a thing, rather than just having all spells you know available at all times - for instance, a mana-based system, but one in which only your selection of X different spells (per spell level?) can be cast, changeable when resting. It allows for forward-planning and strategy in choosing which abilities your wizard will have access to in a particular day, and allows for greater flexibility and variety in the spell lists.

I want something that feels like BG, or IWD, or a typical PnP game. These games are not about being brutal, or edgy, they're about telling a story and giving you an adventure. We don't need a Warhammer Fantasy fanfiction here - I want a world that can be described as "vibrant", not "gritty". Extremes should be present, yes, but they're only extreme if the norm is... well, not extreme. Sell me a setting as being interesting, unique, or lively, please; while the presence of mature themes is not a problem when used correctly for impact, those who settings specifically sold as "mature and gritty!" appeal to are those who are less mature, not more. And in particular, no rape, please. It's gotten to the point where talking about rape seems to be the modern teenager equivalent to talking about farts in the elementary school playground and giggling.

I don't really think that the issue here is quite photorealism versus stylization, but rather that of realism versus caricature. Virtually all modern (Western) RPGs seem to opt for bland, caricature-less design of characters and places - all humans have the same body shape with different faces and possibly minor variations in scaling, most buildings are dull, realistic, functional blocks (and often with reused models, but that's another gripe for another time). Where are all of the hunchbacked crones with crooked noses, fat merchants, buildings set into great trees, that sort of thing? Photorealistically-modeled or otherwise, it doesn't mean a thing if the designs lack personality in the first place. I'm hoping that we'll be seeing similar levels of caricature to those we saw in IE-era areas and character portraits.

Personally, I'd rather see non-obvious weapon-specific bonuses (ie. ones with a more abstract justification than "halberds have reach because they're long") be player-side rather than weapon-side - that is, to be based on the PC's skill/talent/feat/whatever-you-want-to-call-them choices that specialize in that weapon type, not just specific to the weapon - or just reserved for magical weapons and artifacts. It feels more symmetrical to have all weapons use the same basic system prior to modifications from PC abilities and enchantments. Also, I hope we'll be seeing D&D-style fixed base damage for each type of weapon, none of this "Inferior Cardboard Longsword deals 1-5 damage, Steel Longsword deals 4-13 damage, Glowing Fey Blade deals 55-203 damage" nonsense.

It rather depends what these actually mean in in-game terms. Crafting as in restoring powerful ancient artifacts or creating unique or semi-unique armors from the hides of mythical beasts? Sure, that's great. Crafting as in being a level 34 Blacksmith and wanting to make six more Pitted Ankheg Plates so you can level up and learn how to craft a new Sharp Cold Iron Sword? I think I can pass. Enchanting really depends how you do it. If it's expensive, rare, and non-overpowering enough, it can be an interesting way to customize and improve your favorite items. But we need to steer far, far away from TES-style enchanting that essentially makes magical loot irrelevant due to its potency and the fact that it doesn't work on already-magical artifacts. Basically, I'd like those if they're given to an NPC that the player pays for their services, and who requires unique or at least uncommon and unusual ingredients in order to create unique or at least uncommon and unusual items or effects, but absolutely not an MMO-profession style implementation. They should feel special, unique and rare. I want to find some Sparkling Fairy Dust in a treasure cache and know that I can take it to Bob McEnchanter at the Mage's Guild and have him give my favorite dagger my choice of a +1 bonus or fire damage, not to farm Sparkling Fairy Dust in order to put Intermediate Fireblasting on everyone's weapon. Alchemy is potentially a bit different, since the items it makes are consumable. Being able to make the potions you need, or to convert the ones you don't into them, could be a potentially useful and interesting mechanic. It might even convince a hardcore potion / wand / scroll hoarder like myself to occasionally use one or two! Spell improvement, like enchanting, would have to be rare and unique. It also seems kind of superfluous, given that spells will presumably be improved and changed with level-ups in any case.

Themes should be included because they fit with the message or story that the game is trying to convey, not because they are or are not mature. In any case, I would much prefer to see the some of the more grand-scale philosophical points that I see in this thread - nature of good or evil, differences between culture, that sort of thing - than a perfunctory "Hey, look, rape and slavery, that makes us deep, right?".

They definitely are, simply because not all dialogue is worthy of a voice-over. Every barkeep who gets interrogated doesn't need his infodump fully-voiced and five times slower to listen to than to read. A simple "My inn's as clean as an elven arse!" when I initiate conversation is all that he needs. Far from being merely unnecessary, it actually detracts from my interest in the conversation. Just look at tabletop games. Sometimes the DM will put on an accent, drag out props, put on some music, the full works. Sometimes he'll just say "The barkeep tells you that goblins have been sighted on the northern edges of town". And of course, that's not even considering other factors, like cost and the effect it has on the developer's ability to be flexible.

Oh, yes, this. This a hundred times. This is one of the things I really didn't like about 4E. Obviously, dragons or people with unique abilties will have powers that the PC doesn't have access to, but they still need to use the same system for acquiring and using those powers - the laws of the universe aren't different because one guy is being controlled by a player. It's a great balancing aid, and it's also one of those little things that really goes a long way in making the game universe feel less like a game. On a related note, I also hope the combat system will have the same degree of transparency that D&D-based cRPGs tend to have. DA:O's homespun system really put me off with how difficult it was to actually tell what was actually going on under the hood in fights. Bring back dice rolls!

Inventory Tetris just doesn't work as a means of immersion. Everything you gain in terms of immersion from the feeling of a real, physical inventory is lost by the fact that you have just stopped your adventure to spend fifteen minutes playing Tetris with your inventory objects. If not the IE's nice, simple single-slot style, then NWN-style where you have loads and loads of space and Bags of Holding are aplenty is fine, but I hope this stays faaaaaaar away from a Diablo-esque Knapsack Filling Problem Simulator system. More adventuring, less fiddling with vendor trash value/space ratios and backtracking.

Yes, but the issue is that in a tabletop game, you can just brush it off like that. Coins have weight, yes, but it simply gets written off in however long it takes you to say "We head back and put it in the bank, then we head back over to..." or "Yeah, we stash the loot with our mute-and-invisible donkey caravan and keep going to the town". In a cRPG, you actually physically have to run over to the bank, or whatever, every time in order to do that. It becomes an actual chore for the players, not just for the characters. I don't really see that avoiding the "billion gold" situation simply by making it more tedious to get there is really an advantage at all.

My main problem with "modern" RPG romances - and character relationships in general, come to think of it - is how utterly divorced they tend to be from the overall narrative. If this game is going to have them, please, actually bring them up and make them feel relevant at times other than the pre-final-confrontation trash-talking and during each charater's Obligatory Companion Quest. Also, bring back NPC-initiated dialogues, including romantic ones, if those are in the game at all. Nothing separates the NPC-relationship stuff from the rest of the game like having it all buried behind three tiers of "Hey, what do you want?" -> "I want to ask you something." -> "Let's talk about us.". NPCs don't feel like they have a life that doesn't revolve around the PC 24/7 if they rarely say anything without prompting.

Pointless, pointless, pointless. Do you bother with this kind of thing in a PnP game? No, of course not, no sane DM is going to waste everybody's time shuffling numbers around - if it's not ignored entirely in favor of something that the players and DM both are actually interested in, it's just handwaved away with a "We drop off our loot while we're in town", And while the latter's fine on the tabletop, where the DM can just say "Okay, you do that, then what?" and it's over, it's not okay in a cRPG where dropping it off, or whatever other system is in place for it, actually involves taking time to physically travel there and navigate the UI.