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That's really a position that doesn't make sense in a medieval context. What does it mean to free the eunuch slaves who ran the Ottoman Beuracracy? What does it mean to free the serfs who were tied to the land their lord owned? What does it even mean to be free in a medieval setting, when your life is foreit for anyone powerful enough to take it, when a king can strip you of your property and exile you from your homeland, when 80% of the population must spend their lives toiling in the fields for the other 20% to be able to do anything else? But it makes sense from a cRPG POV. And having the possibility to do something and see its impact on the game world, to me at least, is lots of fun.

the more you know.jpg I guess that is why so many people are asking about the modding kit

How about PST? Well, what's the difference between a Samurai and a Fighter or an Assassin and a Ninja despite the cultural background? Especially the Samurai isn't a good adventurer class but a fighter in service who needs to obey to his lords commands. Well, you may want to go for a Ronin instead. But even the Ronin is just --ok, this is a rough approximation-- a Fighter with a Dai-Sho. One could say, what's the conceptual difference between a barbarian, a fighter and a paladin? They are all about mashing the other guy. Who said it was Celtic inspired? Did they have firearms too? BTW, where did gunpowder first appeared anyway? I can't say "yeah let's have samurais and ninjas" because it's a matter of fitting the game world or not. I'd love to have different types of cultures in this game. And I'm sure we will have that. And it would be nice to have both something akin to the brute european animals of the XV century, as well as the more disciplined and refined orientals of the same time period. mmm... maybe that will be the difference between humans and elfs. I know this isn't D&D, but it does overlaps it, and in D&D you have monks and katanas. So you may as well have a rogue subclass that is an assassin (disguise, poison), and another that is a ninja (acrobatics, silent). And if you have paladins (lives by its faith and oaths to his god), you may as well have samurais (lives by a strict code of honor, pledges his life to his master). Funnily enough I think the biggest problem is the naming. The words "samurai" and "ninja" cause some distress. If you call them instead "guardians" or "invisible assassins", then everything is going to be all right

Yes, there are other threads including a poll http://forums.obsidi...ble-companions/ IMO the less the number of duplicate threads on the forums the better

http://forums.obsidi...aracterization/ http://psotter.com/n...ternity-part-1/

I'm especially interested in seeing different types of slavery. For "civilized" countries I expect the 40h/week type of slavery It would also be fun to try to abolish it on given countries (and maybe see a prospering country crumble because it only relied on it) or even become a slaver (and become a wanted criminal, or eventually build an empire on crime).

You kind of missed my point. Have you played BG 1/2, IWD 1/2 or ToEE before? Those portraits were done by Justin Sweets, who has done the portraits for the IWD games. Those portraits intend to, well, portrait your character. While the full image is show during party creation, during the game only the face is shown. party creation: http://i.imgur.com/JjmAX.jpg in-game: http://i.imgur.com/9ZTuY.jpg And you simply can't have different versions of those portraits, because it would be insanely expensive, and IMO would kind of ruin its beauty. And nor will Obsidian go with talking heads, because I suspect that would require a lot of money to make talking heads comparable to what it's done nowadays. You have to understand that the "pause" is just an abstraction to provide for a decent gameplay. And for all purposes, the "pull out a gun" scenario can be done anyway with choices in the dialog.

When I posted my answer I guess I wasn't thinking on what exactly the minimap is. What I mean is for a "press M" and a map window shows. Not a constant UI widget on the game with a damn quest compass.

I'd say that I'd like the be able to play the full spectrum. From the paladin that doesn't move an inch from his blinding faith and oaths... to the reasonable, just and chooser of the lesser of evils... to the hypocrite politician defender of morality (just like IRL I guess)... to the manipulative, mischievous and selfish trader moved by ambition... to the bloodthirsty conqueror pretentious of becoming a god... to the psychotic delusional murderous maniac... and anything in between. It's an RPG. Give me those choices and replayability. About karma, reputation and alignments: From an interaction point of view what makes sense is having reputations among factions and NPCs. The devs already said they'll go with this. However I'd like to have karma tags (as in FO) for cosmetic purposes: grave robber, butcher, etc. They always give me a chuckle and are much better than those steam achievements And no alignment system.

Maybe I misunderstood, but my concept for legendary is that they are powerful (i.e., the best) magical items that have an amazing lore behind it. The stuff of legends.

I would just add that I'd like for the mini-map feature to depend on a skill. And its detail depend of the level of the skill. for example: if your skill is low and you're at a labyrinthic dungeon, the mini-map may have wrong directions

First of all I don't want a world cluttered with magic/unique/legendary items. These should be rare. And for legendary items... I mean... how many legends are there? In a world that has seen war many times across most countries, then maybe we get a legend for every decade or so, and that is likely a single item. With that said, if the player finds 5 or 6 of those, it is a great victory. I also agree with what Raban said. Skills should be more important than weapons. And furthermore, I rather have different weapons with different effects, than a single better weapon that fits all. Back to the items, this would be valid possibilities for finding such items: - by killing a very powerful humanoid - as a supposedly mundane item (ring) which you can see that there is a lot more to it if you have a very high lore and read a certain book (you then have to use the book on the item, to unleash its power, for example the book as some spell that needs to be recited) - by finding obscure references to them in lore and then deducing their location, which leads to hidden dungeon - clearing up a mega-dungeon BTW, Gyges, since you like polearms, what do you think of mounted combat with polearms and gleaves? see here

Agreed. What I want is for (1) the world to make sense and for me (2) to be given the chance to cause changes in it. Also, there should be conflict in that world and allow the player to take sides or impose his own. This is not a my little pony world. (1) - if women are warriors, let them be wear light plate armor like Joan of Arc - if they are harlots in a tavern, let them show cleavage - if they are clerics of a church, let them be humble and in appropriate robes - if they are witches or priestesses of an evil cult, and if the occasion fits, let them be virtually naked and act like sex succubus to charm/seduce the PC or some of his companions (Ulysses and sirens anyone?) when outside of battle (non-combat skills). And if the player is smart, let him dispel her illusion spell and see her true form. (2) - if I want to play as a paladin preaching gender equality, human/elf/dwarf rights, and race equality, then let me do so - if I want to play to play as a misogynist slaver, then give me that possibility (and before someone comes preaching "that is wrong mkay", let me say that I'd also love to have a drow alike race where females are in charge, due to cultural reasons, strength or plain intelligence) This is not a "let me shove my morals upon you and teach you about democracy with the use of lethal force" THIS IS SPARTA a cRPG!

sea has some pretty good points there. However I'd like to see a behavior that fits the companion in question. - some will wait for you where they stand (leadership skill in effect to even allow you to betray them in some way or the other), - others may refuse unless you escort them to the nearest town, - others may simply say they'll leave and never see you again (it's up for you to decide)... and who knowns, maybe you'll find them again... maybe as friend, maybe as foe.

I want myself a playa house too man. So that I can chillax with my hommie sapies, dwarfies barbadus and elfies delicatus... you know what I mean. Then we acquire the services of the town harlots for some cultural dancing. Yah see. And finally we start the festivities by doing some herbology... for medicinal purposes, yah know what I'm saying. just a little tongue in cheek on the whole matter Overall I find the whole house idea to be boring (considering what I've seen in BG2). So you get a house or a castle, and then what? You never go there again. The end. However, I liked the castle upgrade idea by Dxmc4 here because it opens up for a very cool idea that makes the whole house idea worthwhile: Having the village/city where your castle is fend off against an invasion. Now this could be something fun. Or having a safe location where you can experiment with forbidden magic, like raising the dead.

Having an Ultima like world interaction would be great, but I rather Obsidian to focus on what they do best, instead of experimenting with sandboxes and NPC life cycles. Maybe they can try that in a future expansion.

Yes! YES! A delicious manual mmmmm. With concept art and lore, and having the cover and pages befitting of the game setting. I know Tim Cain loves these things so there is a very high chance we end up with a great manual.

The reason for that is that no encounter was made with that setting in mind. And I don't remember any game having mounts back then. Also they would be a million times more expensive since they were using sprites. Besides horses, I think monstrous mounts can make fights also more interesting through their sheer size and special skills (tail whip, fire breath, thrusting, grappling). Yes, those are goods reasons for them not being in the game. However!, considering today's screen size which can give for a RTS scale of things http://i.imgur.com/pBoW5.jpg, and if interesting outdoor locations are added (large plains, ancient battlefields, ongoing battles with dozens of npcs/critters!), then they can have a lot of use. Additionally, they also provide some variety to combat. It doesn't make sense to be ridding inside a town, a dungeon, or any small location. In terms of animations, I'm not entirely sure of what is required. You have the critter movement (which will be already part of the game if you have big critters in it), you have the mount, the unmount can be the mount played backwards, the combat animations stay the same with some rotation matrix applied to the torso, with some exceptions. And yeah, if you enter a dungeon you leave them outside and cast an invisibility sphere Otherwise they might get stolen or you get ambushed from behind. Well, that is another roleplay aspect. You can get a single mount and use as a mule first. Or decide to go with a smaller party so that you're able to buy 3 or 4 mounts. Or just wait until you have the resources to buy 6 mounts. About the budget required, which is the key point here, FWIW I would rather have this than a house. For me it would be something cool to have, and I'm fine with: - not having this at all - only having it for cosmetic purposes (giving the world more realism) and fast travel - having some special enemies using mounts (which just love to thrust, step on, and then chew off your mage's head) - all of the above with full mounted combat for the player as well (but only if we have several battles that can make use of this)

Couldn't wait could you? http://forums.obsidi...nion-on-mounts/ (yet even went with less options than the ones I mentioned)

I was going for a poll but I'll wait for some feedback first, as also to see on what you think on what the possibilities could be. So let's see how it goes, and if it's worthwhile I will start a poll. Maybe some of you are getting the "y u wanna do that?" reaction, so I'll tell you my reasons for wondering about this: 1) combat is RTwP and there was mention of trying to explore its mechanics What better way than considering kinetic energy equations and Newton's laws of motion? And what can be more fun that ridding across the plains with a polearm (or a gleave) and impaling (or slicing) hordes of minions? 2) there was mention of fast travel and skills So at the very least this could be a way to fast travel as long as you have the appropriate tame/ride skills. 3) this was what planted the seed and made me wonder about it. You can blame it on Justin Sweet I hope I don't regret starting this thread... Disclaimer: I never played WoW nor Mount and Blade. (two opposites, I know)

Check the stretch goals thread: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/60521-what-do-you-want-to-see-as-new-stretch-goals/ Vote for "More and better artwork (more portraits for PCs and diversity for NPCs, also artwork for items)" ??? Profit

Each sequence would feature concept art of the area and just a few sentences describing its general feel, while plays in the background. It could also be used as a vehicle for sneaking in some lore bits. What do you think? YES! This is something I also want to see. And Obsidian is free to expand from "the few sentences" to something meatier. While this thread explicitly says narration, I have to say I'm more than happy with just being presented with good music, nice artwork, and an interesting textual description of the scene. No need to voice over everything. Also, how about if some of the books you read also "spoil the player" with either sketches or concept art for the subject discussed in it? For items I think sketches are the best choice (like in BG), but for some of the characters or locations I believe they should be treated with some concept art. What can I say, I'm a sucker for concept art.

Simply not possible when you have stuff of this level of quality: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/60122-stretch-goal-hire-justin-sweet-to-make-portraits/#entry1188511 These are full body portraits, but the point stands. Besides, with Sawyer's and Avellone's writing you don't need portraits to convey how characters are feeling or their reactions towards you. Their writing is capable of more than that.

What about a bearded dwarf babe? Also looking forward for some delicious concept art wallpapers mmmmmm

hold your horses there young'n! I don't want an entirely silent game... I can't even fathom a BG2 with a silent Irenicus. Blasphemy i say! there will be voice characterization http://psotter.com/news/exclusive-interview-project-eternity-part-2/