Shadenuat

Arcanum had keychain. But you did't just get it, no. It was another item. When you buy it, every key goes into it, and also journal updates with special new page, which states every key you have on your keychain. Keychain itself just takes 2 squares of space in grid inventiry. I was really shouting something akin to "****ING. GENIOUS!!!!111" when I first bought that item in game. As for other items... I agree with Sylvius, marking stuff as quest or not quest takes part of mystery and choice in inventory management away. I'd rather game did't go that way.

Real-time conversations in AP were fake as nothing happened outside of them, and created fake sense of urgency. Also, I like to play RPG's with blanket on and a cup of hot chocolate in my hand.

Depends. Are they romanceable, and is one of them bi?

Ban LadyCrimson.

There's nothing to debate or defend - Obsidian's heroines are cool, often the spotlight of game plot (Kreia, Safiya), and have good design.

Lock players inside it and create an earthquake which seals entrance when they finish it so players would tear their hair off choosing what exactly they want to carry out of the dungeon. And instead of gold, place inside treasure like chalices and relics which have weight.

Warhammer is a king of style in armor and, well, almost everything - they have to sell these little elves (that's a White Lion of Chrace) in lead and plastic. Sadly, that style was overused due to one specific studio, and then by many others, who did't knew why exactly giant shoulders and humongous amount of detail on armour made sense in that setting. Also, that is, as I said, an elvish armour. Elves are elite there, and Lions of Chrace in particular. Bretonnians, for example, have something you'd expect from regular humans: http://chaosorc.com/...a Boxed Set.jpg As well as Empire: http://1.bp.blogspot.../empire__1_.jpg Peasantry and militia in rags, leutenants in steel, High Elves of Ulthuan from elite order in "fantasy" armor... yeah, it's actually (gasp!) logic in Fantasy. I wonder where would "adventurer" type fit in P:E.

Do a pacifist run.

AGX-17 is my hero, seriously. But to outwalltext Umberlin is't really possible, because she really seems to believe that backtracking to "it's fiction" argument on any discussion about consistencry of style of the setting is a perfectly legit tactic.

I used rat swarms instead of just rats, there's a specific monster swarm for that in D&D. I think swarm, like a meta-unit in modern RTS, would be a cool monster type to animate and fight.

I don't know if I'm repeating myself, but when I think about playing evil, I always think planning. Being good is something usually handled and encouraged on daily basis. People are told to be polite and helpful, and only some of them become ambitious enough to follow up to building something grand. However, being evil on daily basis is either premature (bully) or psychotic. Being impolite is not instantly being evil. Being immoral, like taking a bribe which is too good to pass up, probably can be concidered evil by roleplaying standarts, but it is often a weakness of character or even an action taken of need. So, for me, being "evil" means taking a selfish route at achieving a selfish goal - by literally climbing to it on the bodies of everyone around you. Intimidating a lone trader to give you more money after you saved him from brigands is not evil for me. Becoming a brigand against who he'd need to be saved from, on the other hand, is much closer to what is usually associated with evil. An example of my evil roleplay which I enjoyed at one game: I played as a wizard who had to caretake for his wizardry needs (new spells, artifacts, alchemy and such). So I enlisted as a counselor on arcane to... City Watch. At first I was very loyal and just taked regular pay. But whenever any artifacts came up from raiding bandits, I always was there to have the voice on to whom they go to. Then I started to take little bribes (often creating fictional laws which citizes accidently "broken") and sell items from deceased or arrested criminals on black market. Then I managed to create a small group of guardsmen only loyal to me, and sent them on quests (often very lethal) which helped to keep order in city, but also put even more stuff in my pockets. At the end, gaining lot of trust and power, I was able to create fictional criminal evidence on other spellcasters on city and prosecute them, execute them or send to mines, and grab all their stuff. And if some guards did't like what I did, I sent them to very far, obscure and dangerous service posts away from city. I think this is example of a more realistic, true to life corrupt and obviously manipulative evil which we can see around us. A corporation-like evil if you may. In Fallout: New Vegas, fighting for independent Vegas with YOU at it's seat was something you could followthrough in more evil way than just siding with Caesar.

Because love is one of the core emotional things in the world. So if your brothers in arms don't have each other in a butt, it's not deep character development.

You don't follow the trend. Nowadays what you said is concidered a, if my terminology is up to date, a "Bromance". Every ****ing character development must have --romance in it! Or it's not deep!

Stuff killed me outright like a bullet to the head.

Languages should be taken care of, adding Knowledge(Languages) skill would't hurt either. Haters are so used to crappy "A"-movies where everyone is talking gibberish instead of their natural language they forgot how tastefully that stuff could be done (quenya), or that languages can affect gameplay and mood ("The Last Express").

At least there are operating slavers in region, maybe we'll be able to sell Forton with his useless flip-flops away.

Forton - because dirty pants and sandals in a world where even mages wear armor being afraid of bullets. Makes complete sense.

Well the problem with this "screenshot", or rather concept-art, is... Well, there is that one thing... Err, you know, I think that when you look at it ... Any critic would say th-... you know what? **** it, even with all my poison carefully stored by years of decline and betrayal, I can't say anything bad about this thing. It's beautiful.

Wargames provide lot of simple but effective mechanic elements for cover, just as D&D and most of hex-based wargames out there. Nothing new under the sun - draw some bushes, slap a trigger on it for +4 to AC when person in it attacked by somebody not inside it, - here's your cover/concealment. LOS-type cover, is, of course, a different matter, and are they going to promote LOS-based mechanics remains to be seen.

I think one or two optional puzzles where you need to type answer yourself won't hurt.

Well, make one save at the start of every dungeon/location. If people want that so much, why don't they have enough will to remove F5 and F9 buttons from their keyboard? *sigh*

The only way to create a SIGNIFICANT consequence from one game to another, is to create two games instead of one. It's really simple. You take your chalkboard and draw a plot point. Then draw two lines from it, and write every major change which separates one from another. Now multiply/broaden this by number of races, then classes, then every if/then like joinable companions deaths, and you already need another two chalkboards. That's why I'd better take "100 years later" game. Because I, uh, care for Obsidian's sanity.

It's CRPG, not a platformer, replaying a dungeon is not the same as replaying jumping on three rising blocks. You will get your Ironman where you could LARP being afraid of shadows around next corner and running back and forth and accepting deaths and hiring new companions to up them from level 1 to 22, so please "enjoy your new wife".

There is a reason why combat takes 90% in pages of most roleplaying systems. They need to balance it right of they're crippling the gameplay severely. Planescape gets a pass from me because it's a visual novel, but look what happened with Arcanum, the stuff is broken beyond salvation.

Give a game satisfying ending and players will oppose the sequel with all their heart. It's better your choices would matter in that one game, than developers sitting on a cluster**** of plot lines from previous title after and try to pander to every player out there, but still fail, because you just can't make everyone happy.