Badprenup

I say no, because they would be devoting resources to unfinalized technology that has already failed on numerous occasions in the past. However, I also say yes because it is a great opportunity to go down a different path and try and do something really cool. So I'm torn on this.

I'd rather have it be simple. Just say what each stat affects, what gear is better than other gear and by how much, and I can figure it out from there.

I'd want to, or a New Game + option

I'd rather you be able to choose from multiple that are completely independent from the plot and entirely optional and customize-able. Have a tower that only a few types of magic users can access. Have a "hole in the wall" place for your thief or assassin that you can unlock through a quest line that requires those skills to complete. Have a nice inn for the warrior, that he likes to come visit when he has to take a break from his journey. Then, take all of them and make them available to anyone for an exorbitant amount if they so choose. That way people can get the house that most 'fits' their class for cheap or through a quest, but if I really want to be the bad ass paladin who chooses to live in a dank slum because I have a past I'm not proud of, let me do that too. Houses should fit for the class and story choices of your character, but you should be able to get one that you want if the house you are supplied with through that character type doesn't suit your fancy.

I'd rather have some static weapons, some that are static with randomized perks, and some that are entirely random.

Nope, you nailed it.

Still going to be going Steam here. Wish I had the money to back for Beta testing, it would be nice, as my temporary stint as a QA tester for Activision is coming to a close soon.

I wouldn't mind this. It would be a neat thing if you could purchase one simply to free them and then they can join you as a faithful follower, and not just a slave. Maybe even give them some combat prowess through side quests (Like if you help a Sorceror with something he will offer to take one of your companions for a short while to teach them some magical skills, which will either severely boost a magic user's skill, allot a ranged or melee user to multiclass with some support stuff, or give your freed slave an opportunity to make a name for himself and be of more use when he returns from training.

Why not both? Scripted events where you can kill party members or potential companions with story changes or relationship changes. Just being able to kill a party member and accepting the consequences of other people leaving your party or having a problem with it. Being able to kill anyone and everyone, from party members to merchants. Kill a quest giver? Breaks the quest and informs you of such. Break the main quest? That's your problem for being a psychopath, might as well just go on a massacre in the places you can go. Hell, it wouldn't even be challenging to put this as an option. All it would be is a single variable on NPCs that will make them invinvible if you happen to be on "Easy" mode.

Multiple monitor support. Game is played in one window, and the inventory and stat pages are always available on the other.

Coming soon to a Kickstarter near you: A publisher looking for backers to finance a studio to make a game which they will then sell to you for $60 a pop.

I'm probably going to get flak for this but I don't mind the idea of a compass or waypoints guiding you to goals. My only, ONLY stipulations are that it is added last so the game is built around getting directions though dialog and other cues, and that it can only be turned on/off when you make a new game (and cannot be changed during the game) or it is off by default and you have to navigate deep into the options to turn it back on.

Good on Obsidian for saying no, shame they won't expose the Publisher (as much as I like them, I bet it was Bethesda Softworks due to their past work with Obsidian and their few occasional brushes with other developers and even fans).

I agree on pretty much all points. Even though it looks like two fantasy mainstays - the elf and dwarf - are already going to be in the game, I really don't care how they fill up the other races. Classes I care more about, but need more information before I can say anything about them. The rest of the stuff sounds like awesome ideas for stretch goals. That is a fantastic way to encourage sidequests. You give the player a single arbitrary goal to achieve that has to be obtained by doing X side quests out of a large list. You could also equate this to the beginning of Fable where you had several options for getting the gold you needed to buy your sister a present. It wasn't quite as varied but it's that kind of freeform environment with a particular end game goal in mind that really lets you play a role.

Ooh another good question, what about multiple monitor support? It would be nice if someone with a dual monitor setup (or triple monitor, like myself) could view the game in one monitor and have immediate and instant access to the inventory and character stats in the other window.

I actually prefer a hybrid of 2 and 4. For the XP for individual characters I would want it solely based on what they do in a battle. However, they would always get some XP for each action, whether it be attacking, casting either positive or negative magic, using an item, or even simply guarding or waiting through your turn. Your individual character's XP is also dependant on other factors in the battle like getting bonus XP for critical hits, dodges, blocks, and killing an enemy (this stuff would be dependant on your stats compared to an enemy so you can't go to a low level area and power level by critting and one shotting the weakest monsters). After each battle, the party gets a set amount of XP based on the difficulty of the fight. This XP is distributed throughout the entire party, giving enough to members not in the active party to keep them close to your level and giving more to the people who actually participated.

I'm hoping it isn't quite that generic. Or at least from there it builds in complexity.

I agree. I wouldn't mind some damage to be determined by the weapon, but I would rather it be based on your actual skill using one. One way this could be done is by replacing the damage stat on weapons with damage multipliers. So all daggers could have anywhere from a .8 to a 2.0 multiplier and swords would be able to get anywhere from a .5 to 2.5 multiplier, depending on the individual weapon. But if you had only used daggers the entire game and had high dagger skill stats, then a .8 damage multiplier dagger would still be a lot stronger than a 3.0 multiplier sword. Not to mention other perks things could have like daggers giving increased backstab damage, maces doing more damage to skeletons, or crossbows having piercing damage.

I agree. While Obsidian is a great company, a lot of their work lacks polish. I think this would be a great opportunity for this to be changed, especially seeing how they came directly to us for financial backing and not through a publisher. I would also love to see a closed Beta for people who have backed enough to purchase the game outright. Sure it would probably spoil the story for a lot of people but a non disclosure agreement and making it a system that you have to opt in for would hopefully limit it to the people who really want to test it and don't mind having parts of the story spoiled.

There are lots of games that give you the option to party, but still being able to solo the game with relative ease. The original Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest 2, 3, and maybe the newer ones in that series all gave you the option of making a party or just a single character. The game is just hard unless you want to spend the time leveling up to stay above your enemies. And that makes perfect sense. If you can take on an enemy with 5 people, you should be able to do it with one, provided you have done enough training to have the strength of 5 people.

I don't have a problem with guns in the game, provided they are used tastefully. Keeping it to one or two character classes and a few enemy types is fine with me. Besides, there are a lot of fantasy games with guns, even some of the really old school ones. And with the fact that we will be able to choose our own class and weapons, and the fact that we are not forced to take on any potential gun wielding companions (except perhaps, temporary story related followers), means you will likely not even have to touch them. Removing support from the game over one weapon type that has been used plenty in fantasy is just silly.