Jarmo

Hoping to discuss the plot and events as examples of what would and would not work in Eternity. Will contain spoilers. On a scale of 1-10 I'd give it 7+ It's been a long while since my first playthrough and I'd forgotten nearly all events, even the major ones. And I took different companions, I think. The beginning dungeon is a bit annoying, but sets the story up nicely. There's good characterization, Jaheira is suitably motivated, Irenicus is made to feel like a complex characters with the dryads and all (this ties down nicely with the ending at elven woods, but isn't spelled out in any annoying fashion). Considering the later story, Yoshimo is dumped into you nicely. The next part is the best the game has to offer. You have a strong motivation to gather money and move forward, but you're not railroaded anywhere. The companion candidates you meet are all individuals, have their own stories and agendas. Companion interaction is on par with anything in any later game. In many ways the companions are better than in any later game as well, but the amount of interaction isn't. There's just not terribly much of anything, the few dozen lines everyone has though, do chisel them out well enough. The mini quests are great as well. Skinner quest, unseeing eye, wipe out trolls from stronghold. All good stuff. Eventually though, you'd pick up the plot again. And then things take a turn to the worse. From the asylum to the end, it's a pretty straight road of hacking opponents to bits. Asylum would have been pretty good, if there hadn't been the lower basement levels. Doesn't make sense to me to have the place filled up with deathtraps, kobolds, mummies and lichs. With the cowled wizards such a pushovers for Irenicus, I can't see how they'd survive their own house. Basically the basement is just minipuzzles and combat and I don't like either very much in BG. Then it's off to slash your way through the fishpeoples place, pretty much straight combat. Then off to underdark for some more combat. Underdark has a few good bits in it, but you're stuck with the companions you had when going in and just have to go along the one path. Exit from the underdark is some more straight combat. Viconia deciding she didn't want to continue as my lover was a surprising but a nice twist. Then.. well.. basically you have your freedom back, but the plot leads to bodhi and the endgame with the elves. I had thought I'd visit trademeet or watchers something or a bunch of other locations that had popped up the map, but didn't feel any pull to do it. Also, being around 20th level already I wasn't really getting any better at anything either. I did visit to put a stop to Firkraag, because I had to pull out before when the vampires in the dungeon were just too tough opponents, easily wiping out summoned demons and casting domination or something. This time they were easy pickings (for Viconias fallen deva). Firkraag itself fell as well, but getting a supersword nobody could use was a bit anticlimatic. (Keldorn and Viconia didn't get along and the former ended up dead). But other than that, I probably skipped half of the content because the plot pointed one way (in urgent manner) and random wandering didn't seem like the right or sensible course of action. I think I got the Sphere as my headquarters or something, but never visited it after the first time. Didn't see any reason to. With companions draining the experience you get and not leveling up on their own, there was a strong pull to just pick a few and not play the field. I used Anomen in the early part but dumped him for Keldorn later. Keldorn ended up dead and it was no good picking Anomen back at that point, he was 6 levels behind and with straight leveling wasn't going to catch up or be useful. Viconia was dead effective all the way through, actually being 2 levels above my swashbuckler/mage with the clerics faster leveling. Yoshimo was around while I didn't yet have my thief levels activated and him just dying later without any explanation and without anyone at the bar paying any attention to it was pretty surprising. Took Minsc back later as a pack mule & damage sponge, but being 10 levels behind (and not catching up) made him pretty useless, he had hard time hitting even goblins. Summing up, without spoilers: the characters, both companions and opponents, were great. Main story was pretty good, but had too much combat padding and pointless puzzles. Sidequests were great, being combat heavy and having puzzles wasn't annoying there.

One more. There will be area effect damage in game, or I'm pretty sure there will. If armor has damage reduction, it helps against splinterbombs or whatever, if it's base AC only, you'll pretty much have to assume (like in D&D) that armor doesn't help at all.

They're different but not because it makes sense, only because that's the way the dice rolls. Or is there a sensible explanation why greatsword 2d6 balances to middle scores, while both greataxe 1d12 and bastard sword 1d10 are all over the place?

It'd be fun, and yeah there's certain pleasure in seeing things go boom. Probably not worth the effort to implement though. But what really annoys me, is when I have a vorpal warhammer of ultimate boom, giants strength and can summon huge earth elementals at will. And then I come across a shack I can't get into because the door is locked. And it can't be lockpicked because "you need a key". Or there's this fence and I'll just have to go round. These don't really need destructable terrain to be solved though, but rather better game design.

I'm fine as long as it's not totally out there, with desert and swamp side by side, river flowing uphill or frozen and temperate areas right next to each others. And even those would be ok, if the uphill flowing river is a known mystery. Magic fantasy and all that. That said, I'd prefer a map that'd follow "the rules". But if the plot demands a swamp in the mountain, then just put the swamp in the mountain.

Not complete realism, where the armor either blocks the blow, or the spear goes 5 inches through and you die. But unless the weapons are good against different targets, what's there to separate them? If mace against an unarmored opponent does less damage than a sword, as it should, and the same is true for armored opponent, then what's the point of using mace? Would blunt weapons just be a category of bad weapons, don't use these. In D&D they're not good, but viable because of abundant skeletons and because clerics are forced to use them. If on the other hand, warhammer does just the same damage as a sword and swings just as fast, then there's no separation. Different classes just for visual flavor? If it's just the same otherwise but better against skeletons, why ever use a sword?

1-8 I'm fine with 1d8 but since it's about dice and this is a crpg, it should be done away with already. First, because it's more confusing to newcomers, and secondly because it misleads developers. You hardly ever see crpg weapons doing 1-7 or 1-5, just because the ancients didn't have dice like that. Instead they fall back to silly things like 1d6+1 , which means the weapon does, for some unknown reason always at least 2 damage and is better than 1d8 weapon in that regard. Second. I'd like the damage the final bonus to come from weapon extra stats + character stats + character skill. So a master swordsman of equal strength and equal weapons, would still do more damage with each strike, in addition to connecting with more strikes. Easier example would be of archer, if two archers hit the target every time, but only the other one puts all arrows into the bullseye, I'd think he'd be more likely to put them into center of the mass or to orcs face on each shot, thus more damage on each shot.

It'd still be pretty important to have different weapons do different kinds of damage, although it's a major source of controversy when you'd have to decide which weapon is good against what kind of armor. Far as armor goes, I'd go with bigger is better. Plain chain is not as good against blunt trauma as padded cloth, but you'd usually wear some kind of padding under the mail anyway, so I'd be just fine if chain is just better. For weapons, I'd just lump them into good, average and weak against armor. Swords and scimitars and the like, would be weak, but they'd have a big base damage and quick strikes. Hammers, maces and stuff like that would be good, but with lower base damage and slower strikes. The average bit is hardest, I'd say piercing weapons at least, but I'm unsure if perhaps axes should be here, or at the weak group, only with maybe higher base damage but slower strikes. Pretty sure this grouping wouldn't get universal acceptance, especially as it comes to which weapon does what. But basically it would give options, you could still deal with a heavy armor opponent with your sword, but it'd just take more strikes than usual. Or you could fight with a mace, while it doesn't slice up unarmored opponents as fast, goblins and the like are still down with one strike.

Pretty much exactly at that. Well maybe the adventurer could be a little more adventurish, but that'd definitely work and it'd be a wide variety anyway.

To add my bit on the realistic, mundane vs fantastic, wild debate, I'd like to see 3 basic categories. The weapons and equipment used by: Military. Down to earth, based on historic designs, not necessarily a direct copy but I wouldn't mind if it were. Padded armor and other ungodly uncomfortable stuff at low end, pretty plain hauberks and stuff at the higher end. This stuff also trickles down to common folks, brigands and the like. Adventurers. And some mercenaries, maybe some lords and such. Realistic, but more wild, brash and arrogant, more comfortable. Leopard skins, embedded gems, embroideries, embossing, most magic items should fall into this category. This is stuff to show off, brag about your wealth and uniqueness and gather attention. It's also the gear the adventurers wear pretty much all the time, not just for the occasional campaign/battle or during guard duty, so comfort is important. Protection and combat utility is also paramount, but there's surprise value in having something offbeat. Necromancers, demons, evil overlords, vampire enchantresses, angels and deva The primary concern is the looks. You want to keep the orcs in line, maybe you just don't care if you show too much cleavage since you have immunity to normal weapons anyway. The weapons can be quite a bit larger than normal, if you have the power of ten men. Just go wild with the stuff. But newtonian physics should still apply, action-reaction and stuff. If you swing a weapon heavier than yourself, you're swinged yourself by the counterforce. The leather corset might have magic enhancements, but if it doesn't cover you it wont protect you either. These would end up in adventurer use through looting, might have value and use, but should have the negative sides also.

You know, I almost added the counterargument about how it's better to just not be hit by a giants 300 pound warhammer right away. But I'm kind of arguing with myself enough already. Anyway, the way I'd see it is even -50% from a dragons strike or ballista shot is still quite a lot! And I'd like to see you be significantly, not just marginally, better off if you do get hit and are wearing a heavy armor. And you're still significantly better off anyway, if you do dodge the attack. Probably not dragon stepping on you though, but slashing with its tail with big pointy spikes. The spikes would penetrate.. a bit, but mostly you'd be tossed to the side, probably stunned and unconscious. While the unarmored one would just be splattered all over the place. Yea, give weapons the stun also.

At least it's not as completely over the top as something like this: But yeah, fine design and actually pretty much down to earth all over, while still not a straight copy/paste from the history books.

Not having played new X-COM, can't comment on that but agree with OP in principle. There's something like "Oh, players are having fun playing the game in a way we didn't intend, quickly do something!" And then there's the bunch of players who've learned to game the system, are really proud of that, and get insulted if someone doesn't like everything in their game. Been (re)playing BG2 the past week, and while it's not really hard hard, it can be frustrating. And its difficulty settings don't work too well, rather causing the difficulty go all over the place. On easy you do a lot more damage and take less. So something like an ogre is just fine and easy. But a mage that autocasts invulnerability to everything is just as invulnerable on easy as on hard, until you dispell the defenses. And if he casts dire charms and death spells, you die just the same on easy as hard. Basically I advocate varied difficulty settings, with easy being real easy and hard being real hard. If someones happiness and game enjoyment is broken by someone else having fun playing on easier settings, I'd say it's time to do some soul searching and find out why your happiness is so fragile..

If a reseller has 3rd generation iPads in stock, there's bound to be a discount. It's not like 3rd is a bad product anyway, 2nd generation is just fine as well.

Combination of 1,2 and 3, but 1 reversed. The heavier armor and baggage, the harder it should be to avoid being hit. Discussed here as well.

Pretty much this yeah, but assuming things are done at even a slightly higher resolution than in ToEE, you can see pretty darn much detail from the tiny characters. Probably to the level of seeing if it's a greatsword or sweihander, but obviously not to the level of decorations. Those would be inventory only fun. This. Though in all fairness, it's not like revolvers have disappeared or that there'd be a consensus on which main battle tank or fighter plane is really best, or whether it's better to take along an AK-47 or M-16, or something more modern. Or if it's worth paying the premium for real kevlar or if the cheaper alternative is just as good. Or trusting the available information to be unbiased.

Its in my "I'll return to these one day" pile. I started and finished the tutorial and just knew it'd get good right now... and then gave up without going to the first mission. While botching my way through the tutorial, I just knew there'd be more of that horrible hacking ahead and horrible sneaking and I just couldn't remember how anything was done. So maybe I should just replay the tutorial, but I abhor the thought.

After a bit of thinking, I'm leaning towards Fallout system afterall. With both damage treshold and percentage reduction in addition to damage avoidance by dodgin skill and other factors like dexterity and encumbrance. Only I'd like the damage tresholds a bit higher than in FO. In D&D terms something like 8 points and 50% for full plate would be fine. So without strength bonuses you wouldn't be able to hurt a knight with sword or bow at all, unless you score a critical. And if it'd be a critical bypasses the treshold (but not % reduction), you'd still be looking at 1-4 points max. If that sounds unreasonable, it shouldn't. Crusader knights were described to look like porcupines after battle, with arrows pointing everywhere, unable to penetrate the chainmail but still stuck in padding or the cloth bit over the armor, they'd be fine, besides a few scratches an occasional bleeders. Or how later medieval knights (wearing plate) would abandon shields alltogether, because they were protected well enough to make them practically invulnerable and they needed heavy 2-handed weapons to harm opposing knights. Further, I'm in favor of shields adding to the dodging/deflection skill, and I wouldn't like heavy armor to negate all dodging. Maybe there could be an armor skill, where anyone can wear any armor, but untrained wearer suffers much higher dodge penalties? -- All 3, dodging, treshold and reduction, because that'd make an agile fighter a viable option. And would help with situations where going against big opponents that'd hit 34 points of damage, I'd still like a definite advantage from wearing armor. Taking 30 or 34 points is no big difference if going by treshold alone.

Forgot to mention it was still an awesome twist, despite totally ruining all my plans for a succesful group. I had also used Anomen quite a lot and a bit of Minsc and Jaheira, but I did really focus on grabbing all the possible XP just for the three of us. One down really makes things painful, that's one million XP I'm not getting back and could have really been of use..

I'm thinking if it was a female barbarian in the picture, even with an added strategic strap, there's still be a storm of feces hitting the admirer. Other than that, there's no armor in the picture, just harmful shoulder ornament, but the axes are just fi... wait.. how is he holding the left hand axe?

Thought to mention, I'm just replaying BG2 after a long while and I don't think I had the same companions before. Thought about adding Minsc or Anomen as replacements, but decided against. Just the two of us... --- But I really think I should have been able to resolve the matter peacefully, especially considering how they both were very happy with how things were going, just unhappy about each others company.

A critical hit could, for an instance, mean that the attacker struck the weak point in the armour. Yeah, special circumstances like that are implicit in any critical hit. If someone brandishing a saber just scored a critical on an enemy wearing full steel plate, it stands to reason that his physical strength didn't just increase by several orders of magnitude, allowing his slashing weapon (something which will never penetrate a suit of plate mail unless it's made of some vastly superior material,) to shear through a solid steel breastplate. Yea to this. I don't see the reason to do criticals as extra damage and go through armor, one or the other would suffice. Or it's fallout all over again where a machine gun against power armor either doesn't do damage at all, or it's a ALL 12 BULLETS WENT THROUGH YOUR EYESLITS DIRECTLY TO YOUR BRAIN!! TAKE 1203 points of damage and DIE!!!! Also this yeah. I'd like to see some benefit from going about in light armor. Not just for realism but to better validate going agile duelist. More than D&D's less dex bonus, but if you're clumsy to begin with, then wearing heavy plate is no hinderance at all.

Just like it was in BG. I'm sure there's a bunch who'd like it exactly like that. Yeah. One journal, let's call it Quest Notes, with only a list of ongoing quests and immediately shows you your "next task" for each of them. The second journal, let's call it The Journal, which lists pretty much everything you've done, including zigzagging over the world map without achieving any goals.

Give me ToEE and a warrior with Glaive, Great Cleave and combat reflexes and I'll look your stuttering pause every second gameplay, and raise 10 minutes worth of extatic symphony of destruction.

I'd have prefered turn bassed. I liked ToEE and Fallout systems better than those in BG, IWD and whatever. But no big deal either way. NWN and NWN2 were just fine already, so I'm good.