1varangian

Another big question is: Will there be divine magic? I hope not. It makes faith a much more interesting and morally complex concept if the gods aren't physically manifested. If the answer is yes.. I hope it will be very narrowed down in what it can do and only reflecting the faith in question. Divine magic should be a manifestation of a very specific divine power instead of Clerics getting massive generic spell lists. Divine magic could also be more subtle in nature.. blessing, bolstering allies or weakening those who the deity opposes. Not so much fireworks.

That painting reminds me of a world that always has happy endings.. like Narnia or something. I can't imagine severed limbs in that style. In a mature setting, the consequences of combat should be apparent. But to each his own.

Multiplayer has the potential to make the game experience exponentially better, so yes.

Another thing I would like to see would be the ability to "power up" your spells. Being able to gradually buff your spell power is something a CPRG platform would allow very nicely. Spending more stamina on a spell would result in more damage / larger AoE / longer duration / harder to resist etc. Much more elegant than learning similar, more powerful versions of the same spell at a higher level. And you wouldn't need as many spells. You could power up your Fireball to effectively become Firestorm. This would be limited by feats and levels of course.

Exhaustion / fatigue based system. Definitely the most interesting and also best for a mature setting where power should come at a price. Also with long casting times for more powerful spells that can be interrupted. Interrupting enemy spellcasters and protecting your own while they conjure something battle-changing adds a lot to the tactical side of things. Freedom to build a frail archmage or a caster with combat skills is a must as well. It would be good if the same fatigue / exhaustion system would work for warriors and combat abilities, so the same rules apply to everyone and all classes need to rest equally. But magic would be more dangerous as you could potentially kill yourself by channeling too much energy.

I think DA2 with its "style" looks utterly ridiculous and all the characters have a plastic feel to them. A cartoony feel does not go well with a serious RPG with mature themes. I sincerely hope they will anchor the style to realism in PE, and then just add some great designs and a stylised color palette to make it visually attractive. You can definitely do stylized without going cartoony. The Disciples series do this very well and the art in Disciples 3, both 2D and 3D, is simply awesome. I'm also hoping they will have a lot of 2D art in Project Eternity. Since you can't zoom in, it would be great to be able to inspect characters and monsters and see a hand drawn portrait, preferably in black and white, like illustration of an old book.

I would like to see a system where you start out as one of the 3 archetypes - warrior / rogue / spellcaster - and then can branch off into other classes as you level up, if you meet the requirements. Warrior - Knight - Commander \ Paladin Warrior - Berserker - Reaver Rogue - Skirmisher - Assassin Illusionist / Mystic - Mage - Elementalist \ Druid - Archdruid

Darn, I had hoped I accomplished an understanding. That the core concern was enemies having difficulty or ease beyond justification, making the setting appear silly. Are sickly beggars a challenge in Baldur's Gate? Certainly not. Unfortunately, supposed common city guards in Amn are. But that's scaling game design scaling everything. Sure, they probably didn't want you to burn the city because you aren't low level anymore, but that's not reason to make everything in the city a high level opponent. A better option would be to add high level oponents to places of interest (such as important magic shops) and make the player suffer his low reputation (if all he does is pillaging without care and no PR work). So while this shows that scaling game design isn't abolished just by rules-based game design, its also clear that the latter is a good first step to keep writers and encounter designers from causing the former without justification. Let's not assume PE will have a DnD like power curve where high level PC's can mow through hundreds or thousands of low level opponents. Perhaps they will make the power curve a bit more realistic in what a lone warrior can do against many. It will also help make the setting more believable if a single high level PC can't wipe out the entire city guard at will.

Hear hear.. I really hope they will design the combat system with this principle. I absolutely hate it when they just give some "boss" a ridiculous amount of HP to make for a longer fight. When you could easily have a system where someone is actually hard to hit or damage within one set of rules, better reflecting their weapon skill or things like thick armor. I'm also hoping the power curve of PC's won't be nearly as steep as in DnD games where high level PC's can just mow through thousands of orcs. Being outnumbered by "low level" enemies should always be dangerous. There should also be some amount of realism in how much more powerful a human can potentially get. i.e. not being able to take on 20 people alone, regardless of levels.

You don't need Vancian memorization for resource management at all. Some spells can require rare ingredients or focus items to cast (pool, large mirror, portal.. things you can't take with you). Spells that "solve issues" can be easily limited in this fashion. I'm not at all suggesting spellcasters should be able to do a Rogues work at will. I actually don't even think there should be spells to open locks and detect traps, I was just using them as examples. Telekinetic power to smash a door down.. yes.. pick a lock.. no. Want to get in undetected? Bring a rogue.

A game like Baldur's Gate was actually designed around limited resting and you can totally go through entire adventures without sleeping at all. Unfortunately, what consequences it offered for inconsequential resting were not enough. If you play a D&D game without rest spaming, the whole game improves, otherwise its kinda mediocre. You do realize a stamina bar might just be called mana? Its another spell point system, which incurs the danger of too abundant resources limited by the poor cooldown mechanic. A real twist would be if you casted directly from hitpoints from the start, and then I'd reserve my own judgement. The rest spamming is a problem and vancian memorization encourages resting whenever you need the "right spell". So best to move away from that. If losing Stamina incurs physical penalties it's not the same as Mana. Stamina can also be universal for any class while Mana is not.

I hope they get away from DnD mechanics like d20 to attack and d8 for damage. Each weapon could simply just have a Damage Rating.. like Slashing 5 or Bludgeon 11. These would be modified by your Strength and Feats / attack mode / special move. Armor, which I hope will actually reduce damage instead of make you harder to hit, would have a corresponding Armor Rating. They could then use some more or less devious Damage vs. Armor formula to calculate damage dealt to make the most out of the digital platform. Likewise I hope Attack Rating / Accuracy / Defense Rating will be presented in percentage values because they are the most comprehensible ones. 60% Attack Rate vs. 30% Defense Rate = 42% probability of landing a hit.

Perhaps Eternity will have a stronger focus on non-combat magic? In that case I wouldn't want to see constant camping and resting for 8 hours just to memorize a Knock or Detect Traps. I don't like the Vancian system mainly because Vancian casters simply aren't as cool as ones who don't forget their spells on a regular basis. I also like the concept of specialized spellcasters.. say a Fire Elementalist. A situation where a Fire Elementalist has "run out" of fire spells but still has enough power to cast Shield and Resist Elements doesn't make sense to me. I don't want a mana system either.. I'd like a system where Mages pay for power directly with their stamina and once that runs out, their health or life force. So every spell cast would tire the caster and incur cumulative penalties or even damage their health. To make you actually think when to use magic and when to stick with a weapon.

There's no need for psionic powers to be separated from magic. As for reading minds, it's impossible to implement properly in a CRPG. It's also something I hope would not exist in the setting.

Dragon Age: Origins did this really well with 4 major domains of.. Primal (elemental fire, ice, air, earth) Spirit (mind, force) Creation (nature, life) Entropy (death, undeath, decay) + Arcane All domains have an opposite. Specializing in one really says what kind of mage is in question: Elementalist / Sorcerer / Druid / Necromancer. I'd like to see something similar.. save for the complete lack of non-combat magic.

Magic definitely has to make sense in the world. If mages can control minds, turn invisible and perform all kinds of suspicious deeds they would be met with general distrust. Free healing is another thing. If magic can heal wounds and cure sickness, disease and injury are much less significant. If healing was about transferring life force instead of creating it, it would create much more interesting scenarios dealing with altruism and selfishness... healing being demanded of mages without necessarily understanding it hurts them.

I would like to see a game that would only have humans for a change. Culturally and physically diverse of course, but still humans. You could easily have all archetypes fit into different human races.. the nimble archers, the hardy brutes, the all-rounders etc.. I can stomach elves and dwarves if they aren't too mainstreamed.. but if there will be gnomes and halflings I'm going to despair. As far as non-human races are concerned.. it would be far more interesting to see humans with demon blood for instance.

Yes please.. a realistic approach with weapons and armor and combat in general. It always helps the world feel more believable. I just can't take a character waving a weightless giant sword seriously at all.

I think the optimal death system would be one where... - PC's can die in combat and death is permanent.. but - being knocked out happens often but a PC actually dying takes a lot of damage (some kind of Life / Vitality buffer after being knocked out) - resurrection does not exist, or comes with a terrible price - no instant death magic that can one hit high level PCs

How would 20% of society being bakers change that world? Being a baker would be the most mundane thing imaginable. Magic by definition should be the opposite of mundane. I really hope mages will be rare and controversial.

PnP is quite different from a computer game with its limitations however. CRPG's tend to be a lot more combat oriented than most PnP games and utility spells like teleport and scrying are much harder to implement in a CPRG. Vancian casting means memorizing spells in slots, spontaneous casting is a much later addition. I don't like it if a game has 4 different ways of casting magic but I can understand how some would. I prefer a system where you have magic and one way to channel it instead of multiple systems within a system. A mage is a mage.. wizard / sorcerer / warlock is just needlessly complicated. There could be specialization options within the mage to make them play differently.

I really hope they won't use a vancian magic system. Firstly, it encourages you to memorize only combat spells. You never know when you might need that Knock, but a Fireball will always be useful. And then when your mage has his time to shine with a utility spell, you simply don't have it memorized because of all the times it was a wasted slot. Secondly, it makes no sense why you have the power to cast 3 different spells but not 3 casts of the first spell if it happens to be the one you really need. Suddenly forgetting how to recast that Fireball never made much sense to me. "Preparing" spells for single casts has a very scientific feel to it.. it's like an alchemist making a firebomb. Nothing wrong with that but I like my mages more flexible even if it would mean narrowing down their powers. Whatever they end up with I really hope they only have one system for spellcasting. No arcane / divine / wizard / sorcerer / warlock / I couldn't decide how it works -kind of mess. Just magic and one way to use it.

Consider that if magic is very abundant and low cost, the spells have to be nerfed down for balance reasons. I would much rather cast few spells that would be powerful and awesome than churn out weak spells ad infinitum. On the visual side of things even the most impressive Fireball gets old really fast if it's tossed around too often... and magic just becomes less magical. Magic shouldn't have to be the only thing mages know. Fight with a sword or staff a la Gandalf.. and when you cast a spell let it be something significant. Ok I would like to see more spellcasting than Gandalf in LotR but much less than say Dragon Age. I also like the idea that using magic requires a special gift of sorcery or channeling so not everyone can learn it. It's supposed to be magical, not mundane.

I was really excited to read Project Eternity will deal with mature themes. Too many RPG's these days don't seem to be taking themselves seriously and therefore lack the emotional impact a strong story could potentially make. I'm hoping a more mature approach extends itself to magic as well. In a mature setting, magic and power should always come with a cost. The extreme costs being corruption, insanity and potentially physical manifestations of the former. The cost of using even simpler magic should be such that casting spells would always be a choice with consequence. It makes magic feel much more powerful and awesome when casting a single lightning bolt actually turns the tide of combat as opposed to mages freely spamming weak magic attacks every round. This would translate into a magic system where you pay for your everyday spells in stamina or fatigue, something that you wouldn't be able to regenerate after each encounter. Casting spells would gradually weaken the mage until a proper rest can be had. Reaching too far could drop the mage unconscious or even kill them (sacrificing themselves to save another perhaps). More powerful spells would require sacrifice of some kind, perhaps a deal or pact with a demon or a powerful entity. Delving too deep into dark magics would result in corruption.. something that would make mages feared and controversial - a great tool for drama. Powerful magical feats like resurrection should come at a terrible price.. e.g. the resurrected person coming back as a vegetable or insane.. or having to sacrifice another to transfer the life force.. and still bringing someone back as a vegetable. Another tool for a strong emotional story. Potions should follow the same rules with unwanted side effects instead of being bought and consumed like ale. Abundant use of healing potions can really make for lackluster combat.. think of Dragon Age Origins when you finally meet your nemesis in a climactic duel... and only win because you have 15 greater healing potions in your pack - massive anti-climax when you clearly would have lost without a ridiculous amount of potions. So I'm hoping the combat, healing and injury systems will be designed with this in mind. On the same note, I hope magic items will be rare and unique and crafted for a specific purpose. Too much magical junk everywhere kind of just makes every piece less awesome. I'm really hoping the devs are considering the above. This game deserves a magic system that is much more than just repeated fireworks and another way to mindlessly kill things. This game has the potential to be truly great.