teknoman2

have you played torment?

having the characters drop unconscious without dying outright is good, as long as there is no get up at the end of the fight and just wait a few seconds to regenerate your hp. the characters that didnt get KO'd in the fight, will have to actively heal those that fell to a positive hp value and the wounds suffered should stay until you are properly healed and not just regenerate... this is not call of duty after all. and that brings me to another option of this system: enemy casualties. when you fight wolves, bears, zombies, and other non sentient creatures you just kill them outright and you're done with it. but what if you get into a bar, meet a party of adventurers that are in a bad mood and want to pick a fight with you? their KO's should be just like your party's. they go down at 0hp, but dont die unless you finish them off. at that point you may get all sort of options. just kill them and loot them (you may get in trouble with the law depending on your status), loot them without killing them (you get less loot but dont risk other trouble), heal their leader (after the looting) and interogate him to see if he knows anything of interest and so on

you know, the soundtrack is probably well on its way already. that song Sawyer sang is almost certainly part of the soundtrack. some of his coments seem to indicate that at least. so voting for who will be the composer now is useless

why must guns mean steampunk? pirate themed games and movies have guns but are not steampunk... their settings are closer to fantasy. dont be confused with arcanum! the fact that the first game to put elves, dwarves, gnomes and guns in the same setting was steampunk, does not mean that all games with that setup will be steampunk. take warcraft 3 or wow as an example

resistances and immunities are fine, as long as they dont get too specific. its fine if an enemy can only be hit by magical weapons or if he is immune to arrows and you need to use melee, or even if he is immune to a certain type of magic (cant very well expect a fireball to hurt a fire elemental now can you?). but its a big no if you get something like "this one can only be hurt by this or that particular type of weapon" (ie a mace or a spear) or "this enemy is immune to all damage except ice arrows" and so on

all of it... its nice to have options if i want some wild animalistic sex with no strings attached i should be able to get it as easily as i would have the chance to "pick up the soap". and if i feel romantic i can just beat around the bush for awhile before going for it. not everyone likes the same thing so there should be options for every taste

1. yes 2. absolutely not!!!! you MUST get new dialog options based on the context of the conversation and stats that are relevant to it, but there must be in NO WAY a (click this to win) stat indicator near the the choice if you meet a con artist and he tries to scam you, you get 3 basic responses along these lines 1. fall for it 2. pretend you dont care/ have the money 3. say no outright if your intelligence is (using d&d to make it easy) 15 you get a 4. fake interest to learn his intentions for later use if your intelligence is 18 5. weasel your way into reverse scaming him and take his money of course the dialog options will not be as clear as that and SHOULD NOT have a (int 15) or (int 18) indicator to show you that are special. you have to figure it out by yourself by reading them. besides the game is made to appeal to rpg veterans who want something old school style, not snot nosed illiterate 10 year old children who want pretty explosions and anime style combat, and consider the story and dialogs a waste of time

From current information 2D backgrounds with 3D charachters. How *exactly* though we'll see with the first screenshots. i suppose something like the graphics of Final Fantasy 7-8-9 or adventures like The longest journey or Syberia. its easier and cheaper to make high res 2D backgrounds for isometric view than make a completely 3D enviroment, and also easier and cheaper to make a 3D character model than 16 different 2D models for each character

problems with asymetrical combat mechanics existed even in baldur's gate. based on the rule system, to hit someone with AC -9 you had to get: x (dice roll) + y (attack bonus from stats) >= 19, yet some enemies (Sarevok most of all) could land a hit with any roll except 1 that was reserved for critical miss. or my main character could hit anything with a maximum AC of -3 with a dice roll of 2, and he was getting a shipload of 1s on every fight, especialy againsts enemies that were considered bosses. also if you used a spell on someone who was imune to its effects, you would get a message saying something like "the spell had no effect"... still i often got a message saying "spell cast: silence" "enemy mage: silenced" "enemy mage: casts fireball" and im like "WTF?" (in BG there were no "silent spell" or "still spell" abilities). i do hope not to see stuff like that in the game

the resurection method i described last page, is based on souls as the magic system of the game. resurrection should not be a widespread practice but a thing that can only be performed by people with extremely strong spiritual power and only on people with similar power.

i think that having extra dialog options based on stats and skills is a must, but (as it was in torment) there must be no clear indication that the dialog option comes from a stat ([science 75],[sneak 50] from FNV) also its good to have circumstancial options that come from finding hidden knowledge about the guy we talk to (like a ring with an inscription in icewind dale that opened a new set of dialog options with the innkeeper) faction reputation can also come into play... if the pc is an esteemed member of a faction, the other members will be more prone to believe what he tells them than what they would be if he had a bad reputation and finaly in important dialogs there should be the option to consult with your companions before choosing an answer. if a required stat or skill is high enough, you may get a new option after hearing them out. if not you may still pick the best of the default answers if your real life stats allow you to do what the character's stats did not, and you may also get the option to let one of your companions answer for you. in the last case you will have a rough idea on what he may say based on his previous input, but you dont get to see what he will say if you pick him.

i think a "temple of elemental evil" style system would work with the proper variations when a party member gets to 0 hp falls unconscious. then he can get up to -x hp without dying, where x is his constitution or what other similar stat they will use in the game. if the battle ends before he dies, he can be cured, but will still have a semi-permanent penalty due to injury, that can be healed either by a doctor or by the party's healer with the use of the highest level healing spell of the game (that means only at very late stages you can be "safe" from injuries). if he drops to -x-1 hp, he dies and will have to be resurected, but that will require more than just casting a spell. since the magic system is based on souls, the resurection magic will require for one of the party members to send his own soul in the afterlife to retrieve the soul of the dead guy. that means a party member will have to solo brave a dungeon of increasing dificulty as the level of the deceased gets higher. he can abbandon the attempt at any time and will have to wait a day before trying again, but if he fails he will have to be brought back along with the other guy by another party member. if the last member fails, then the game is over (of course you can save before trying the first time and load if you fail, unless they implement a no save hardcore mode and you play that). the time one can remain dead and resurectable would be as many days as his wisdom or intelligence and after that he's gone for good