Domigorgon

To be fair, yes. But on the other hand, he is one of the rare few villians who can be conversed to death.

Yes! But it should be 50-50 in regards to combat vs. dialogue. Some players prefer one over the other. There should be a choice between combat and wits in some situations (not all, of course). Nobody is forcing you to talk, but if you like talking, you should be rewarded from time to time with little hidden gems.

Freespace had better Reapers. Babylon 5 had better Reapers. A Fire Upon the Deep has a better Reaper. Mass Effect had promise, but once you finally found out who and what the Reapers actually were, it was pretty meh.

Kiril Pokrovsky, anyone? He made the music for Divine Divinity and its sequel, Divinity II: Ego Draconis. Personally, never played the games, but I love listening to the soundtrack, as well as playing it during D&D sessions. You can actually download the aforementioned soundtracks from his site.

Or, instead of elves and dwarves who are slightly different, let's have... Orks. Dark-skinned and red-eyed. A race bred for war by human mages. Masters of weapons and tactics. Trolls. Big, hulking, and stupid. Think super-mutants from Fallout. Walking tanks with short fuses. Tieflings. Tainted bloodlines and pawns to higher powers. Infiltrators and spies, lurkers in the shadows. It doesn't take that much to get used to a new race.

In Baldur's Gate your character could get turned to stone. Not for the duration until you kill the basilisk. Permanently. Well, until you find a scroll that dispels the petrification. In Baldur's Gate II your character could get Imprisoned (a spell that seals him alive in an underground bubble). Characters should be able to die and receive serious injuries (in Fallout, for example, you could end up with a broken leg or an injured eye). Auto-healing and dying-only-when-everybody-dies killed the old-school feel of RPGs. I used to know a hard fight when I had to constantly re-load, preparing accordingly before the battle (buffs and potions) and adapting my tactics to the situation. Kangaxx was a real pain. I still treasure the moment when I finally beat him.

What I'd like is if you could press Shift or Tab or something, and it would highlight the floor (i.e. show all the spaces where you can walk, where you can't, and if some items are an obstruction to spellcasting and arrows or not). Baldur's Gate often had walls and buildings obscuring floors and sometimes items. Another button would highlight shadows for example, or hot spots that are ideal for the positioning of your party thief/sharpshooter (unless there is merely a hide-in-plain-sight feature). Like hiding in shadow in Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive, if anyone's played it. Another reason I mentioned traps is that I never found much use for them in any computer RPG. Like non-combat skills, they might require an update. It'd be great if we could get some kind of heads-up that an enemy will pass this way or that, like sending a thief to scout out their patrol route and then set traps along it. Fog of war is a must.

Thank YOU!

In spirit, it will be like the Infinity Engine. Since it has no name yet, I used IE as a reference point.

Please, no. In Dragon Age: Origins you must gather allies in four sides of the world to fight an ancient evil. In Mass Effect 1/2/3 you must gather allies in four sides of the galaxy to fight an ancient evil. In Neverwinter Nights you fight an ancient/resurrected evil. In Neverwinter Nights 2 you fight an ancient/resurrected evil. Oh, and you build a fortress. In Morrowind/Oblivion/Skyrim you fight an ancient/resurrected evil, but mostly just roam and kill everything and/or carry out FedEx quests. Now, those games were not necessarily bad (some I quite enjoyed, actually), but the overarching plot was too damn simple and cliche'd. Now, here's some games that did it right, storywise (IMO): In Fallout 1 you must find the water chip and defeat the mutant overlord. In Fallout 2 you must save your tribe from starvation and disease and defeat a paramilitary organization. In Baldur's Gate you must avenge your foster father and find the secret of your parentage. In Baldur's Gate 2 you must settle a score with a powerful wizard, as well as with your father's progeny. In Planescape: Torment you are an amnesiac at the centre of the multiverse, seeking a cure for his immortality. In Witcher... you don't know what the hell is happening, until you do. Agree? Disagree? Discuss. Also, I've nothing against free roaming and side-quests. Especially when they are anything more than simple fetchfests (Elder Scrolls, I'm looking at you... go and pick your own herbs).

Think of all the Infinity Engine games you've played... Baldur's Gate, Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale... What did you like about them? What was missing? Is there anything you would like to see added to the engine? Anything you would like to see removed? What about the HUD? Did you prefer the BG style, or Planescape? Character portraits or 3D rendered in real-time? Sneaking and traps system? Character commands and formations? Command queue or one-command per action? Customizable AI? Etc.

Infinity Engine games (and original Fallout games) have aged well in all but one thing - art was fixed to low resolutions. Sure, you can now install mods and pretend that you're playing at a higher resolution, but that only means everything is smaller on screen. Also, BG2 limited character sprites to only one-side view, so if your party member carried a longsword and a shield - they would switch hands every time they turned around. Having 3D characters is the best way to allow for modifications and upgrades to the art. I hope the scenes will be pre-rendered sets (like in Baldur's Gate and Planescape: Torment), and not vast and empty spaces interspersed with walls and the occasional shelf or table (like in Fallout and Arcanum).

Thing is, this is an Infinity Engine inspired RPG. That means YOU WILL READ DIALOGUE. Tons of, hopefully. Words upon words. I actually get annoyed with voice-overs in dialogue-driven games. I can read faster than these characters speak. I'm done reading the subtitles while they are only half-way through. I really don't see any reason to have more voice-over than Planescape: Torment or Baldur's Gate had. Sure, okay, maybe some main/important characters could have a bit more voice-over (thinking along the lines of talking heads in Fallout 1 and 2), or save it for cutscenes and banter. Planescape: Torment behaved more like an interactive novel than anything, and everybody loved it for that. But to voice-over every word of all that dialogue? It'd be either too expensive or too shoddy. Leave the voiceovers out of actual NPC interactions, please.

Re-load after party member dies, naturally! Makes even some mid-lever fights more challenging, and forces you to use tactics. Resurrection spells only at higher levels or very expensive; not so that every farmer and their seven sons can afford it.

Traditionally, it's like this: Humans - average, middle ground, reference point. They can be good at anything if they so desire. Elves - magical, long-lived, in tune with nature (and magic). They like songs and culture and live in forests. Dwarves - short but sturdy, deft craftsmen and prud warriors. Change the names and retain everything else, you're still stuck with stereotypes. But come up with something totally alien, and you... well, alienate your audience. Fantasy and science-fiction races (think Star Trek, for example), are not really that alien. They're just specialized humans (Klingons are a warrior race, Vulcans are logical, Hirogen are hunters, etc.). But not all of them must behave that way (main characters often break away, like Worf or Spock). Because when they get some screen time, they become individuals; no longer are they subject to stereotype. Personally, I'd prefer it if Obsidian came up with totally new races (they did say in their stretch goals "new races", it'd be a bit of a rip-off if that meant "another race we snatched from D&D"). Qunari in DA were a good example; too bad that there was only one in the original game (I didn't play the 'sequel'). But to create a race they must decide the overall theme and keep it in tune with the game world. They said they wanted to explore mature themes. Racial issues, slavery and genocide come to mind. All races living in harmony and peace together? Puh-lease. Humans can't stand people who like a different football team. Some relevant topics at TV-Tropes: - our monsters are different - our elves are better - humans are bastards