Dxmc4

It would be interesting to have a really heavy bureaucratized civilization where just figuring out how to get a pass to get to the next area would be a labyrinthine puzzle, like applying for a street vendors cart license is here in Canada.

One thing enemies shouldn't drop is too many health/mana items. In some games where that happens it makes things a little too easy. Making those items tougher to find affects your strategy and the pace of the game. So loot drops should be more limited to, say, gaining items you might need for crafting, occasional useful armor or weapons, etc.

I'm not crazy about fireplaces. Nice idea but makes me think my character should be sitting in an overstuffed chair reading the "History of the Last Six Ages In Sonnets".

One idea would be to have the player acquire a broken down castle/stronghold that has to be repaired/improved through spending, acquiring certain items, completting certain quests etc. Kind of like Overlord. As you improve your stronghold it's functionality increases. Better forge means improved blacksmithing neans better weapons, armor. So not just a stronghold but a focus of development.

They really haven't given out any details yet that I'm aware of, but I'm going out on a limb and say the 747 cabin isn't on the list. A stronghold is what I would like most with quests required to obtain it -- ala BG2. Definitely you wouldn't get your stronghold until you've completed a certain amount of the game. You should have to win your castle/stronghold, and it should take a great battle. But even if no 747 cabin, media room, jacuzzi it shold still be a functional place where you could have servants, do alchemy, enchanting, etc. It should serve as a focus point in later stages of the game, somewhere you can get back to quickly, like the respawn thing in Neverwinter Nights.

I want a castle, like Divinity 2. Someplace spacious where I can store my loot, do crafting etc. Somehow an ordinary house or inn just doesn't cut it. If you're going to go that route go big, or forget it. And did someone just say Sims ? My mind must be going I couldn't have heard that. What would be next, an Angry Birds type mini-game ?

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Divinity 2:DKS. I liked being able to morph into a huge dragon and fight incredible aerial battles, and it sure made it a lot easier to get around the map. That sort of thing might be a little over-ambitious here but Larian Studios, which makes the Dvinity games, is not a huge studio either. I would prefer something along those lines to something like Dragon Age with it's relatively static dragon battles, run to catapult, shoot dragon, run to next catapult, shoot dragon some more, etc. I also remember some interesting dragons from Neverwinter Nights, and it showed that dragons can have a lot of purposes and can integrate a lot of different character elements.So I think dragons would be good if done imaginatively.

It's interesting how limited the concept of fantasy has become. Fantasy is totally open by definition, it's limited only by imagination, so it really shouldn't just automatically be about elves, dwraves, etc. Fantasy in literature is not as limited but I think that games tend to incorporate the most popular, mainstream elements of fantasy literature and create a sort of paradigm where expansion tends to be resisted. It's not necessarily about creating a lot of new races, more about the exploaration of new possibilities for characters and races, different forms of communication, different alternatives for dealing with dialogue, character relationships, etc. One of the things I really liked about Divinity 2: The Dragon Knight Saga was that it was very flexible, you could fairly easily add a few skills from other classes outside your normal class to create a different kind of character. I would like to see that flexibility in a new RPG, rather than getting locked into certain traditional roles.

I also would not use multi-player, I would like to see the focus on creating a really involving SP that incorporated the most engaging aspects of the older games but with the improved graphics and gameplay of newer games. I think that the challenge of creating and managing a diverse party was always one of the most involving aspects of SP in the old games. I just kind of realized that recently when I fired up Icewind Dale for the first time in years after reading some of this discussion. As for Steam, I wouldn't want to see it there becaue of the unnecessary and restrictive DRM, I think it would be better on GOG where you wouldn't have that, and also GOG has a smaller more specialized customer base and one that I think has more appreciation for these kinds of RPGs.

Hey SqueakyCat, this forum looks a little livelier than our other one. I also think it's great seeing a company take a chance like this, it's so rare these days to see someone taking a chance on a new IP and it really deseerves to be supported, it would be great seeing an old school RPG done with modern style I'm looking forward to it. Best of luck to Obsidian and youhave a great night too SqueakyCat.