[[merged] Vancian Magic System and cooldowns]

I don't know, people have been decrying the vancian style magic system for years but no one has been able to do better. The only other system in use is mana or, in ttrpgs spell points, which when you come down to it is still a form of vancian magic only without the slots being filled from the outset.

 

There are also fatigue based systems. For example, in the PnP game Blue Rose, when you cast a spell you have to roll to see if the effort causes you fatigue. The more powerful the spell, the more difficult the roll. In addition, each subsequent casting within a short timespan increases the difficulty of the fatigue roll. The effect is that rapid casting is more likely to cause you to build up fatigue, and eventually you can pass out if you push yourself too hard.

 

Anyway, I don't like D&D's spells-per-day system, so I hope they don't end up using it. If they want to force you to prepare spells strategically, that's fine with me, but casting the prepared spells should drain mana or build up fatigue or something. A system like the one Everquest used would be a way to keep the strategic element of having to choose a small number of your known spells to prepare, while not leaving mages useless after their meager number of spells per day run out. In Everquest's system (both in the computer game and the OGL PnP game), you scribe your spells in a spell book but can only memorize eight at a time. This forces you switch spells around depending on the circumstances you find yourself in, but since casting your memorized spells drains mana (which regenerates over time, a process that you can expedite by meditating), you can cast them as much as your mana will allow and only need to rest for a few minutes to replenish your mana when it runs out. This system, to me, strikes a good balance between utility and strategic preparation.

[Regarding powers and sense of urgency.]

The problem with OP's suggestion, as I see it, is that it seems like giving the player 48 hours to defeat the antagonist still doesn't change the fact that your primary goal is defeating him. I can't see why, from an in character perspective, I would be dilly-dallying with exploration and side quests when the big threat is still out there. I would be focusing on him. Even if it seems like I have time to spare, preventing some evil dude from summoning a demon that will destroy the world strikes me as the kind of thing you don't want to leave for the last minute. I'd want to get on it as soon as possible so that I'm sure to get it done. Or if I don't confront him right away, I would be spending my time preparing and strategizing, not doing stuff unrelated to the impending apocalypse.

 

What I'm trying to say is, when there is a threat of some sort looming over you, it seems strange for your character not to be focused on that.

[Races - Don't stick to Tolkien]

I'm not a huge fan of the traditional fantasy races, but they can be interesting if they are given the same range of ethno-linguistic diversity as humans (that is, Dwarves shouldn't all speak dwarvish and have a unified, dwarven culture). I can't think of any instance where I've found this to any significant degree outside of my own pen and paper campaigns (although I'm sure it must have been done somewhere). From what little we've heard about the game, however, it sounds like the races will be subdivided into distinct cultures, which actually has me pretty excited about the game (although, I'm ready to be disappointed in this area; I was pretty excited about Dragon Age back in the day when they announced that they had hired a linguist to create languages for the setting, but not only were they almost completely unused in the final product, they ended up sharing vocabulary with existing european languages, which just felt strange; it's not like it's hard to make up a new lexicon for your fictional language).

[Cant (lingo, jargon...)]

I would definitely prefer that the game not use a made up dialect or try to sound medieval by throwing in select elements of Early Modern English (e.g. archaic pronouns like thou and ye). I want the world to be one I feel I could live in. I know I can't, but it should trick me by feeling in some way familiar. If I enter this world and am bombarded with mixture of American English and something else, it would make the world feel distinctly foreign and make me acutely aware that I am not a part of it. As my character is from this world, the language spoken should seem familiar.

[Magic mechanics]

If we're talking about ritual magic, then requiring advanced preparation makes sense to me. I don't really like when games make you prepare more conventional spells in advance, though (e.g. the Vancian magic system). When you have to memorize how to cast a lightning bolt but then forget it as soon as you cast it, it makes magic feel... not very magic. I don't know, I've just never got the D&D magic system. It has always made magic feel week and awkward to me.

 

Being able to cast powerful spells through a ritual system that employed some of the stuff that OP suggests would be kind of neat, but I'm not sure how much of a dynamic system you could make within the confines of a computer game. Having to work a ritual in a specific instance as part of the plot would work, but being able to use it in unscripted ways seems like it would be difficult to program. I guess it could work for stuff like summoning.

[Photorealism vs Stylisation]

Out of all the top-down/isometric RPGs I've played, Icewind Dale and Temple of Elemental Evil have definitely struck me as being the most beautiful. In fact they are in the running for the most beautiful games that I've played from any genre. You would not hear any complaints from me if Project Eternity took after one of the two in terms of art style.

[Combat - Immersion v. Simplicity]

I like the concept of reach in turn based games, but I don't think it will work very well in a realtime with pause system due to how hectic their battles tend to be. Unless using a weapon with reach applies some sort of zone of control, I don't think it will be a viable tactic in in RTwP.

[Little, simple things for immersion.]

I like being able to do these things, but given the small buget of the project, it seems like it might not be the best use of their time. If it wouldn't drain their resources, then I'd be all for it.

[PC starting location speculation: Hill's Edge, Baelreach or Twin Elms]

Since we apparently start off witnessing something amazing, it's also important to find an area of the map where one would likely see something extraordinary.

 

Godhammer Citadel sounds like a place where extraordinary things happen.

 

I thought of that, too, but from the cryptic passages teased during the countdown, it sounds like the Godhammer Citadel was destroyed 200 years ago and is now a crater that people visit on some sort of pilgrimage.

 

"Two centuries ago, your divine champion told the people of Dyrwood to grovel at his feet. If you've come on pilgrimage to the blasted crater that was our reply, Godhammer Citadel is *that* way."

 

I guess you could start as a pilgrim, but that would presuppose a specific cultural background, and they have said that you will be free to choose your culture (although I guess all cultures could theoretically engage in the pilgrimage, although that seems unlikely). Otherwise I'm not sure why you would be there without some set background, which it sounds like they are trying to avoid. It seems likely that the Godhammer Citadel will have some role to play in the story, but I suspect that we won't visit it until later in the campaign.

[Time]

I'd prefer to have a running day/night cycle, but lack of one in the Neverwinter Nights and Dragon Age games has never really bothered me.

 

If they do include a running day/night cycle, I'd like to see them do something with it where certain areas become magical or dangerous at night (like the city of Daggerfall in Dagerfall or the Kithicor Forest in Everquest). Or where certain abilities work differently at night/some kinds of magic are more potent while others are weaker (e.g. magic that is influence by the sun is weaker at night while magic that is influenced by the moon is stronger and vice versa). Also, stealth should be easier at night (except against creatures that can see in the dark). I think this kind of thing builds immersion nicely.

[PC starting location speculation: Hill's Edge, Baelreach or Twin Elms]

Well, since we don't really know anything about these places except for their location, it's hard to narrow things down too much. An additional possibility is that we won't start in a town/city at all. Throne of Bhaal started in a clearing in the woods. It is possible that the momentous event that we witness at the start of the game won't occur in a city. We could encounter it while travelling, sort of like if Baldur's Gate had begun with that first encounter with Sarevok. Or it could start while spending the night at some inn. Or it could start at your campsite, sort of like BG 2 (in the intro that explains how you ended up in Irenicus' dungeon but without the getting kidnapped part). Some terrified person could stumble into your camp only to be horribly killed by some magical force which would cause you to somehow contract some affliction that would drive you to enter the story.

 

I agree that the standard would be to start out in some village, but maybe they'll take a different approach. If we do end up in a village at the start of the game, it probably wouldn't be our home village, given that the game isn't supposed to presuppose a set origin for our character. It could be like Arcanum, where we are on our way to somewhere when we get waylaid by the event that sets us upon our quest and end up stranded in a small town. In such a case, I will go with Midwood as my guess for the starting town. It appears to be on a major thoroughfare, yet is still fairly isolated. Or maybe Dyrford since a ford seems like a good place for stuff to go down.

[Classes]

Well, this is probably too detailed for the scope of this game, but here is tentative list of the classes I would like to see, each with its specializations/subclasses listed below it (although the specifics could change once we learn more about how magic works in the game):

 

Warrior - Relies on martial techniques (possibly enhanced by magic if all player classes use magic). The Warrior subclasses/specializations would be:

• Knight - Uses heavy armor to mitigate damage
  
• Auxiliary - Uses light armor (focuses on avoiding rather than mitigating damage)
  
• Archer - Uses bows and crossbows
  

Mage - Relies on magic in combat

• Necromancer - uses death magic to harm or heal
  
• Animist - communes with spirits and manipulates spirit energy; can heal
  
• Elementalist - harnesses the power of the elements
  
• Sorcerer - affects the minds of others with his magic (can hypnotizes/dominate enemies, put people to sleep, or drive them mad)
  

Rogue - relies on stealth and trickery to debilitate or incapacitate foes

• Thief - can hinder foes through an assortment of dirty tricks; can steal items
  
• Assassin - uses precise strikes to vital points to quickly fell adversaries; can make poisons
  
• Ranger - lives in the wild places and uses traps and ranged attacks to overcome enemies; can make curative poultices
  

Templar - A character who mixes martial and magical techniques in combat

• Holy Knight - a paladin who uses martial might to slay adversaries and white magic to heal the wounded
  
• Hell Knight - the Holy Knight's dark mirror; uses martial might to devastate foes and black magic to siphon life from one being to another
  
• Berserker - Draws spirits of war into him/herself to attain a state of singleminded fury wherein he/she becomes a killing machine who is almost immune to pain or injury
  
• Warden - A fighter who can use nature magic and can take the form of various animals
  

Alchemist - A character who uses a mix of magic and technology (e.g. bombs, guns, potions, mutagens)

• Chemist - Can create bombs and potions for any situation
  
• Witch - Ingests mutagens to temporarily gain superhuman martial abilities in combat
  
• Artificer - Designs and uses contraptions that employ a mix of magic and technology to give the Artificer and edge in battle (think of the tech skills in Arcanum; the artificer can forge guns and things like the Chapeau of Magnetic Inversion)
  

[Travel Map/World Map and Encounters]

My preference would be for Fallout/Arcanum style travel since that gives traveling a sense of weight, like you're really traversing a great distance, but I don't mind BG or BG2 style travel (which is probably good since I suspect they will be using this kind of system, what with it being an Infinity Engine game in spirit). If the game has random encounters while traveling, which I hope it will, it should definitely be possible to flee from them like in Fallout 1 and 2.

[How should magic work?]

I really dislike the spells per day system that D&D and its variants use. I almost never play a spell caster in those systems because of how awkward I find it. It never feels realistic to me (I mean to the extend that a magic system can be realistic); it seems like a nonsensical way for magic to work. I would much rather see a fatigue system such as the one OP suggests (or really any system other than Spells Per Day, but the fatigue system sounds better). I have some pen and paper games that use such a system, and I think it strikes an excelent balance between utility and seeming like a system that could actually exist in a world that had magic users.

[Level scaling]

I would prefer to have no level scaling (or at least limited level scaling). While Freddo has a point that a lack of level scaling can lead to the odd situation in which stuff is segregated to specific areas according to level, this is not nearly as immersion breaking for me as having enemies that should be pushovers being almost as challenging as elite warriors and having bandits decked out in high end equipment that is worth so much that any sane bandits would have just sold the gear and retired to some tropical island, rather than risking their lives attacking similarly attired individuals.

 

Limited use of level scaling can work if only certain enemies scale with you. For example, if the primary antagonist scales with the player, this ensures that s/he will present a challenge regardless of how much you may have outleveled your average bandit, thug, gnoll, etc. Personally, I don't mind if I can kill a boss easily due to leveling up a lot, but I understand why designers might want to avoid this.

 

What I don't want to see (unless the game runs on rails, and you never return to earlier areas) is level scaling across the board like in Oblivion. In addition to the issues raised in the first paragraph, this kind of level scaling also tends to take away the sense of accomplishment you get from leveling up. In games with no level scaling when you face guys who could steamroll you back in the day and beat them down without breaking a sweat, it reinforces the sense that you've learned something from your journey. Surviving adversity has made you a stronger person. With level scaling, however, you often lack this sort of tangible feedback to show you how much you've grown over the course of your adventure. In fact, for all intents and purposes, you haven't grown. Everything is just as much a threat to you as it ever has been. You may have some new tricks, but they aren't necessarily any more effective than the tricks you started out with.

[I DO want to play inventory Tetris]

As long as it isn't like the Witcher 2, I probably won't complain. I find inventory management tedious, and the Witcher 2's system made it a headache beyond belief. I don't know why they didn't just stick with the system from the first game.

 

Having to play Inventory Tetris doesn't bother me too much as long as I can see everything and organize it to some degree, rather than having to scroll through a long list. The old Infinity Engine style inventory would be the simplest way to go.

[Art by Justin Sweet & Vance Kovacs for Project Eternity!]

Icewind Dale had some gorgeous art, so I'd totally be down with bringing in artists who worked on it. As an above poster mentioned, Brian Menze is at Obsidian, so hopefully he'll bring some of the same beauty to Project Eternity's artwork.

[Status and Resources]

I like this idea. It reminds me slightly of the diplomacy system in Daggerfall where you had different skills for interacting with nobles, commoners, and criminals (or something like that; I haven't played it in close to a decade).

[Symmetrical Combat Mechanics]

I would definitely prefer a system in which NPCs operate according to more-or-less the same rules as PCs. That is, a human NPC of roughly the same level should not have ten times as much HP as the PC. I always found the human boss fights (e.g. Loghain, Ser Cuthrien, Arl Howe) in DA:O to be really tiresome because these NPCs had ginormous health bars, and the fights just became a process of whaling on the enemy and periodically healing yourself for ten minutes until s/he dies. It made me feel like a panzy who was incredibly outclassed and only won because I had a ton of health potions.

 

In contrast, in Final Fantasy Tactics, human enemies always had comperable hitpoints to your character. They might have special abilities, but you felt like this adversary existed in the same world as your character. It also meant that combat was more about strategy and less about drinking several gallons worth of health potions.

 

I really hope that Project Eternity takes the latter approach to enemy design as it not only promotes fun, tactical combat but also makes the game world feel more authentic and immersive.

[Urgency: Please Have It]

I'd be in favor of some sort of time-sensitive mechanic for certain situations because, for me, it makes the world feel real. For example, I liked in Mass Effect 2 how if you didn't immediately go to rescue your crew when they get abducted, then it would lead to them dying. This didn't prevent you from completing the game; it simply was the logical consequence to delaying a rescue mission. This sort of reactivity made the world feel authentic and gave the protagonist's actions weight.

 

The exact opposite occurred in Dragon Age: Origins where there is supposedly this army of monsters descending on your home, but you can waste infinite amounts of time fiddling around with side quests with no consequences. No matter how much time you wasted hunting down rogue mages or whatever, the invading horde never conquered more territory until the plot advanced through the main quest line. This always irritated me because it completely destroyed any feeling of immersion in the conflict.

 

So, I'd prefer that there be times in the game when you can wander around doing side quests if you want, but when a crisis emerges, I think there should be some sort consequence for being off task. This shouldn't be an automatic game over like the water chip quest in Fallout 1, but it should show that the threat won't wait for you to "get around" to dealing with it. For example, if you hear that a village is under attack and don't go to defend it, the next time you visit it, it should be burned down or at least pillaged. You can still continue with the game of course, but your inaction is reflected in the world through the village's pillaged state. This wouldn't necessarily be a punishment for inaction; your character may not care if the village gets pillaged. Whatever your feelings on the event, the possibility of this outcome shows that the world has internal consistency. The rules of cause and effect apply.

[Composer for Eternity?]

Pretty much any of the composers who have worked on Obsidian/Black Isle/Troika/Bioware RPGs would be good. I have always loved the music in these games. Mark Morgan's work on PS:T and Mark Griskey's score for KotOR II have especially stood out to me.

 

For an out of left field suggestion, I really liked Bj