lissom

What defines half the game in this genre, the other guys. One of the trends I've noticed with enemies in many of these games is that have dymnamic leveling. AKA, we'll make sure you can kill this. It makes combat boring and trivial as it basically removes the possability of ever running into any hard enemies(bar some cheese factors). And seeing how you can already load a saved game if you die, there are't an consequences for dieing anyway. So combat is meaningless and bland blandness. That was one of the greatest things about BG II, you could actually get a sense of accomplishment from succeeding in hard fights. So the relative meaninglessness of death was fine because you had to reload frequently when you screwed up. In BGII you could cheese fights by making all your own party and going fighter/other, etc, but I'm talking about playing with the default party choices and turning the hardness up a notch. aka well within the designers' parameters you could find things that were reasonably hard, and seemed reasonable. And by seemed reasonable I mean that the only thing hard about the fights wasn't that the game went and added 2x the health to mobs. You have to figure out how you were going to kill that dragon etc. IWDII, the "dragon" guardian in the snake temple, that is what I would define as unreaonably hard. It was only hard becuase it was basically immune to everything so unless you had the "right" party configuration (or so I assume as I only had one I could try), you had to reload until you got lucky with some spells (Perhaps all barbarians or w/e could take him easy). That was just cheesy and seemed foolish, anything that is immune to stuff is hard..... and also kinda boring. One of World of Warcraft's, etc big steps over AD&D was that basically no one is immune to damage except under brief and exceptional circumstances.

I think that 14 dungeon levels are amazing. I think that if you have them all in a single dungeon that is going to run the risk of becoming the game (it wasn't the endless dungeons that made Nameless so epic). Or if not becoming the game, then becoming monotinous(aka like Diablo). Perhaps splitting it up into several dungeons would be more engaging.

And what I liked about them. As most of you are from the real Black Isle studios, I took artistic license. Because I'd really like it if Eternity was true to those. #1: Planescape Torment. Be good, be evil, take any path you want. The reactions to what you did felt realistic. Every other game I've played where alignment matter, felt very contrived. Combat was good, if a little on the easy side. #2: Icewind Dale 2: Combat was probably the best I've seen for an RPG. The story line was great. The bit about finding your way in the woods was annoying and added nothing to the game. The black dragon at the Yan-Ti(or w/e those snake people were) was just too hard to kill, you had to gimick it, and that is disapointing. #3: Baldur's Gate II: Best RPG world. Combat was as good as AD&D rules allowed (basically very exploitable if you didn't use the given characters). The dragons in BG II were some of the hardest oppoents, and yet you didn't have to find some gimik to beat them (well maybe one of them). Dragons were very good encounters. The special "curse" on the main character was interesting, and played out well. Best story lines for "additional" characters (Planescape comes pretty close though). Jon Irenicus is definitely the best bad guy. Some things I've never liked about RPGs, the place rogues have. They are either over powered or weak, and really at the end of the day you pick them becuase you cannot get anyone else to do traps/locks(unless you love rogues, but hey I can make a party with a warrior/druid/mage if I please without the massive headache that not having a rogue can cause[i forgive clerics for being required]). I really like that you weren't forced to use one for utilities sake in Planescape (and who needs one outdoors in Icewind Dale). Best class: Nameless(yeah you get to choose one then too, but he is a class all on his own really). On a non-god like character, druids in Icewind Dale II. Perfect balance of magic and combat prowess(I used mine for both depending on the fight, formerly mages have been my favorite character is basically every game), and somehow not over powered to boot(i.e. a party with all druids strikes me as weaker then a party with just one). It was a masterful balance. And lets face it, shape shifting is just fun. What really made them powerful was they they could fill in any gap depending on what the encounter was like even if they couldn't do that rogue quit as well as someone born to do it(i.e. warrior/cleric/mage). They also had a larger than normal "foot print" so you could use their forms to close off doors in combat. Save the mage! So you probably think for $65 I think I own the place. lol Glad to see you back in action with games like Planescape, keep up the great work!!!!