Jarmo

I can see how the poll is going to go. With the question of "baldurs gate style vs modern style" it really doesn't matter if you're asking about user interface or resolution preferences, mentioning BG is autowin. Nevertheless, I'm replaying BG2 now and the journal is crappy. It's possible to find stuff from there and live with it, but it's a pain to use. Guess modernized means fixing it so it works like a modern system, which would work. I'd say the poll needs a third option of going with the base BG style. I think I'd prefer separate story journals and quest journals, where one would read like a journal mentioning a lot of stuff. 23.344. Wolf Year: Travelled to Fleet Hills, fought a group of ogres. 23.345. Wolf Year: Travelled to Littlehaven, rested at Littlehaven Inn. The other journal would be purely quest notes.

As a first thought.... no I don't think I'd wish for something like that anytime soon. As a second thought.. these would have made fine fodder for the oversexualization thread. Note the slightly different levels of protection from female and male versions of vampire plate mail. But then.. well yeah. These could be the kind of stuff vampire lords and demonic kerberos-trainers might wear. Gaudy, full of look at my **** while I'm casting dominate person. Maybe full of magic protections or whatevers. I could see these as lootable goodies, not as something you'd see around all the time. The halberd in the first picture though.. no. No-one could use that. No matter how strong the wielder is, Newtonian physics dont allow for swinging weapons heavier than the swinger. Considering how there was something about elves still being practically at stone age, don't see why not. The helm (being the only bit of armor in the picture) is just fine, sword, spear and shield likewise. I'd like if some areas would have the normal clothing much to this style, Add scale or mail hauberk for the wealthier warriors, metal gloves and boots next, maybe faceplates or visors as well.

I'd just go with iPad, but if dragging files and connecting with stuff seems important, maybe the upcoming MS Surface would fit the bill better.

Reminds me I really liked the Cuman designs in TW: Stainless Steel mod There was this even neater example somewhere, with real simplified face plate, basically just eye and mouth slits which looked just evil. Looks like the 7.0 version is coming up nicely, I'll have to reserve a month for when I get my paws on that. Anyway, I really like the design, what with plated arms and legs, hauberk, and enough clothing to make it anything but plain. It'd be neat if Eternity had facemask separated from helm, though many helms would combine both.

Actually I'd be fine with ammo having (some) weight, if you could stack unlimited amount into one slot. So I'd have 40 normal arrows taking a slot, 110 +1 arrows taking another and 17 acid arrows taking yet another. Just do away with the BG system where you have only room left for either a ruby necklace or a full plate armor. (but not 2 necklaces, because of no) I really hate the situation where I could still carry extra 500lbs (giant strength) but can't fit 6 lousy paralytic bolts anywhere.

Not something from a local shop obviously, but that'd be great example of something you'd loot from the necromancer who'd been wearing it to gain influence and intimidation over the band or orcs he'd been bossing over. Or something. Wonder if the green showing through is his skin? Then it'd be pretty weak leather armor with plated gloves and boots. But if it's a part of the armor it could be a pretty effective suit. Lot's of valid reasons for a bit of extravaganza, though most would be about making an impression. I'd like to see stuff like that in the game. Alongside plainer examples. Because if that'd be the casual design, then it'd just be a gothic circus where nothing is special looking.

Armor: Well this was here before but I couldn't find a better example.. A bit of this and that. Combining convenience and effectiveness. The legs have plate, but the boots are still boots made for walking. Some overcoat, furs and cloak. Brash outfit telling who's the boss. The helm is a bit much for constant wear though. I'd like to see something you could wear and travel around in with reasonable comfort. Full plate or something you really can't even wear without a squire for help is maybe not perfect. Particularly as horser are probably not invented yet in Eternity. Can't be all about comfort either, because you just had 4 pitched battles earlier this week and are expecting to go toe to toe with an ogre tomorrow. But then again, you will have to walk 23 miles up a mountain for the fight. I'd like to see a distinction between military uniforms and adventurer outfits. Weapon: Bastard Sword Not posting a picture, but similar reasoning. Not as long that you couldn't conveniently carry it sheathed (like greatsword) or at all (morningstar with spikes in every direction). Long handle for 2-handed swinging gives plenty of oomph when necessary. Maximum effect for something that's practical to have around at all times. Maybe add a mace and a buckler hanging about somewehere for backup and for the times they'd work better.

The poll is missing the most stupid of all the possible options. Final Fantasy loot system, where enemies have loot that's only obtainable by stealing it from them during combat. Wait until they're dead and you can't get the best stuff anymore. No. Loot everything they have - they have and use everything that's lootable. If the bandit fights with a rusty knife and wears rotten leather pants - you get a rusty knife and rotten leather pants. And you also get the half eaten fish from his pocket. If the bandit also had a potion of flatulence, you'll get that too unless he already used it in combat.

In 3D first person games like Skyrim or FO:NV exploring is great, hey what's that I see half a mile away, l'll go look. In BG where you see all of 10 meters away, exploration is more akin to doing a colouring book. Walk over all the black areas and you'll see a pretty picture. Not fun, just tedious zigzagging over the map until all the black is gone.

Replaying BG2 now with a base party of 3 + occasional temporaries and trying to keep sane while managing inventory is just pants. With NWN system and plenty of storage bags it'd be ok. Even plenty of backpacks would be enough. The problem's not maintaining enough ammo, it's the psychological inability of tossing away perfectly good magic items instead of hauling them to a shop. Which could be fixed by not having valuable magic items in game to begin with. -- BTW, it was max of 40 arrows per bunch in BG2.

I voted "no" because I dont want to do that. I'm done when "the story" is done. But its not like I'd actually get my knickers in a twist if the option is there. I'm just not going to use it. A bunch of RPG's have had the option and I never used it. What I do want is the last quest followed by the big the end, roll on credits with some epic music. If there's a question of "do you want to keep adventuring" after that, it's all the same to me. What I don't want is *pling* "main quest complete + 25 000 XP" with a note of "you can now export your character or keep adventuring". Give me the proper cinematic ending and if someone wants to continue after that, it's no hair off my back.

I'm sure that's the plan... * But if it comes to that, is it better to deliver the game on time then patch it up later (which will happen anyway), or take the extra 6 months to polish it up, deliver a better product but fail on the schedule. * actually I think that's not the plan anymore, I'd guess they're formulating the new plan right now, based on the extra content and resources compared to the original 1,1 million plan.

Maybe this could be the exception to the rule. Give starting equipment based on culture and background, that's actually worth getting. And if there's a proficiency system you can pick at start "weapon focus bec de corbin" why not just roll with it and give the bec de corbin? Shouldn't be an impossibly hard coding task. And you must have had it to develop the focus anyway... If you're a noble, why not give a good brigandine as well? Unbalancing for the first 15 minutes? So what. But if, on the other hand, you start by being mugged by an angry god or whatever it is that happens, I don't see why you should have anyhing. That's what I'd actually prefer. KotOR2 start was pretty great, start with some crap and work from there. I always like those starts the best,

What experience? Would they be demanding an extra part of my experience, ie level drain me? Or would I be demanding back the experience they've earned, ie level draining them instead? Anyway, if someone joins me to get their ancestral sword from the tomb of evil leprechauns, I'd expect them to want it as well. But then, if it's a nice enough sword we might have to part ways in unfriendly fashion, leaving him bleeding at the floor of his family mausoleum.

That's a conclusion easily agreed with. This also hopes for significantly lesser damage from longer ranges, both for arrows and firearms alike. For armor, I'm hoping for a more Fallout style approach (not exactly the same though, since it didn't work very well), where you have one stat for your general bullet dodging skill and another from armor providing damage reduction.

I just wanted to stress this. When Paradox started to use Steam as the primary distributor, there was a lot of discussions about it and how it would work. Turned out they were right. You can use Steam exclusively as a distribution platform. It is possible to start the downloaded game by the exe file from the game directory without even launching Steam. Of course, Steam features won't work if Steam isn't running. So, most people were all right with the move to Steam in the end. But you can't install to a new computer without logging in and authorizing your account. That's DRM. Steam reserves the right to boot you from the service and/or remove the game from your account for whatever reason they come up with. After that, when you need a new computer, the no-drm steam won't be any better than regular drm-steam. Or do the let you download a standalone installer you don't need steam for? In that case I'm mistaken. I use Steam and generally don't mind, but the "trust us, we're good about this" is still there. And not in a good way. Wouldn't have felt the need to point this out again, unless...

Nowadays I do need the excuse. If I'm playing a thief, I'm probably going to sneak about and loot every building, but if not, I'm not going to peek in every building to see what's there, unless I have a reason to. And if there's a forest on my map, I'm not going there unless there's something specific I'd like to do there. Maybe if I'm a ranger or a druid I'd go wandering for no reason but "it's there". Replaying BG2 right now and there's tons of buildings I haven't been to and several map locations I've yet to visit. Maybe I should/could, but can't see the reason when there's a bunch of unfinished quests around anyway.

As long as the spell names are either visible all the time, or appear immediately on mouseover. BG2 symbols were the pits, with slightly different red arrows for magic missile, acid arrow, flame arrow and whatnot.

First give starting equipment and cash according to your class and background, acces to a shop. Then the event, toss us naked in a bush because that's how the plot goes. Nah, can't say, it completely depends on the kind of start they've envisioned. I'd assume it'll be start with nothing, get access to something right away, work from that.

Although, the proper kind of heavy crossbow you'd pull using a feet or crank, would be able to fire at about the same speed as a musket, maybe 3 or so shots per minute, yet it's bee generally accepted to be a once per round weapon. Now once per combat for those as well?

The move from longbows to rifles has more aspects than mere military effectiveness, though I'm not sure how much the matters mattered. Well known and as already mentioned, using longbow well required lots of training, while crossbow and rifle did not. That means a bow is a long investment from the common people, who'd also purchase & maintain their own bows. So it's inexpensive for the kings and lords. Muskets and arquebuses... I think at least the latter would be provided, unless mercenaries were used. But... having common people armed and trained, also means common people are very dangerous and harder to boss around. Peasant revolts become that much scarier. Bunch of angry peasants with pitchforks is one thing, a bunch of trained angry longbowmen is quite another. And then theres the military effectiveness. So you got a bunch of trained longbowmen with their 100lb pull bows. Then you go on a campaign and they all are malnourished, get fever and dysentry. After a couple of months, there's 1/3 of them actually capable of using their 100lb bows, while the arquebusers do fine as long as they can stand. Crossbows work fine also, but arquebus has lighter ammo, easier to transport in large quantities.

The thing about fetch quests I actually hate the most, is when you'd be forced to run back and forth for no good reason. For magic coat we'll need a wolfskin. So you run to forest, snuff a wolfpack, get back. Then we'll need a rope. So you run to the nearest gas station and get one. Then we'll need deers antlers. So you... run back to the forest, slay a deer and get back with the antlers. Then we'll need turpentine. So you go omg this bloody questgiver is so going to die, ...before running back to the nearest gas station. PS:T Played well on this, but on average it's the pits of hell realizing you're just running about so the game will reach its "50+ hrs gameplay" target. If the game is 15 hrs good stuff and 15 hrs filler, please just remove the filler and give me the good stuff.

Reminds me, there was one really neat quest in Skyrim, where if you had fallen to just follow the quest arrow syndrome, you'd end up in a wtf I just helped to murder and eat a priest??! You could alter your quest at any point, but there was no obvious "now choose" indication there was an option.

What, europe, what? Where? That's not the europe I live in! Please tell me that's not true.

I'd like multiple meters, hidden or otherwise. Ignore the actual numbers, but for everybody: Likes you: 1-100 Respects you and/or your abilities: 1-100 Approves your faction status: 1-100 Loves/lusts after you: 1-100 And maybe more. So someone sticks with your group because he likes you, maybe considers himself your tutor. He doesn't think much of your abilities, doesn't care or approve what faction you're from and certainly doesn't love you. Someone doesn't like you, approve of your actions, thinks you follow the wrong god, doesn't love you, but you did kill the troll under the bridge and you're a master swordsman, he'll follow and learn. The paladin doesn't like you or the way you behave, doesn't love you, and disapproves your lack of combat prowess. But you're on a task that's important for his church so he'll deal with it. Maybe he'll stick with you later also, because head priest would not like to see you die. And the last one doesn't care of anything mentioned above, just wanting to get in your pants. Worth a few weeks of trouble. Combinations also.