rjshae

This. This is the essence of good design. Ah, so every game that has ever been made is a bad design? You're espousing nonsense. Making the game especially hard to reload just encourages a different path through the game; one that requires dealing with failure rather than just reloading until you obtain success.

How is that a problem? It's realistic to come back to an unsolved problem when your skills have improved. I'd just call that a good simulation.

Ah, no. This one is just too restrictive. I'm okay with the idea of your character becoming increasingly familiar with a piece of equipment and thereby gaining some benefits as the game progresses. But the idea that the PoS armor you acquired at the start can't be replaced with a new suit made by a master craftsman is completely unrealistic.

I think it's easier than that: at the start of the game a global random key is generated. During the game compile, each randomly branching outcome is also assigned a random value. During play, each branching outcome is determined using an XOR operation between the global key and the outcome random value. Thus the game save only needs to store one key. And yes I've suggested this before.

Character power levels in virtually all cRPG make absolutely no sense at all. They rise from near peasant status up to some of the most powerful figures in all the land within the effective time span of a few short months. I usually just accept it as a core element of the genre.

Agree with all except number 3; that one seems an unnecessary level of detail. Unless the latitude is of specific importance to the story, an average day length should do fine in most circumstances.

Multi-classing and prestige classes are cludgy attempts to make a class-based system work like a point-based system. They can provide character customization through other means.

I think they meant stuff like hatemances, where you try to get some character to hate you, just like making Marburg hate you enough allowed you to kill him in Rome. Mmm, nope. That's not it. LOL But no matter; other means other any way you slice it.

Other-mance? All I know is, cow farmers do it in the dairy air... Geddit?

It depends on the type of combat. Continuous, mundane battles with vanilla tactics can become boring. I prefer pitched battles that form a component of a story, whether it is the main quest or a side mission. But in the case of exploration, random battles are necessary to provide an element of risk.

You poor, deluded gamer. Real men play in codpiece only mode.

In dark conditions with no light source, it is possible for your vision to adjust to night sight over the course of a half hour so that you can see a surprising amount of detail. This is known by astronomy hobbyists who try to maintain dark conditions so they don't have to spend another half hour getting their full night sight back. Another factor in this equation is the type of moon system found around this planet. It may not necessarily be the same as the Earth. There could be multiple moons, a ring system, or the world may be a moon orbiting a giant planet. Any of these factors could cause the night time to be brighter than on Earth.

Regarding undergarments, it would be good if the artists could make those look less like modern attire. There are some historical examples they could use for ideas.

No (That's where Is topped playing FO3 and never finished the game) Yes it's a odd little circumstance, but I'd like to encourage you to keep playing. The fact that several of the kids were taken by slavers indicates that they've survived through luck and being well hidden, but their days are numbered.

I found it interesting that the design slice is much larger. It left me wondering which part of the slice is the biggest contributor to the cost? Is it because this requires development of a whole new game system, or that this is a new setting needs to be fleshed out and integrated? Perhaps both?

I think perhaps you're not looking at this correctly. Terrain effects can be implemented by applying area effects to the maps: regions are designated as a particular terrain type (say, heavy vegetation or light marsh), and anybody inside a region is subject to those programmatic effects. Once a particular terrain area effect has been scripted, it can be used over and over again. I've done the same thing in the NWN2 Toolset using the DnD effects and it works quite transparently. It took just a few hours to script all the different terrain types and thereafter I just apply it where needed. Yep, exactly.

I wonder if the developers will include any cut scenes featuring the main villains? That would be one way to give them more of a personality.

This is clearly a case where the experienced professionals are much better informed about just how much QA to plan for. I just appreciate the fact that they are willing to share this much. The backup plan for this concern can be covered by the enhancement pack, which can include post-release bug fixes for the game engine (and so forth).

Nor should dumb mimes be imprisoned in invisible cages.

Does that really count as ironman mode?

It depends on how you feel about tactics as a gaming art. If you just want to line up and whack at your enemy until they drop, then exploiting terrain advantages probably isn't for you.

Well if the outdoor combat all takes place in grassy fields with level roads then it wouldn't add much value, true. But terrain effects are a big part of what makes wilderness adventures different. Adding them in would give the game more of a table-top feel, assuming that the party will be adventuring in areas with actual terrain features.

Yes, I agree, although coding the effects of height and slope would likely be a little more challenging. Another aspect that occurs to me is that terrain effects from vegetation features like brush and swamp growths would make Rangers and Druids more valuable during combat in the wilds. A sniping enemy ranger using hit and run tactics through thick brush could be a real headache for the party.

Another reducio ad absurdum argument. I very much doubt that adding a somewhat more detailed inventory system is going to add significant overhead to your inventory management activity.

I'd like to ask what you think about terrain features in OE and how much detail their effects should have on the game mechanics? It is certainly possible to implement a number of interesting effects from different terrain types. The terrain effects in DnD v3.5 included movement costs, skill modifiers, concealment, melee combat modifiers, difficulty of footing, and terrain hazards. Slopes had a significant impact, with movement being reduced when going uphill and eased going down, plus a combat bonus was received when fighting uphill from your opponent. I don't recall seeing much impact from terrain in the IE games. But I would definitely like to see terrain effects in PE, primarily because they can add a lot of detail and variety to the combat tactics. Of course, that would mean that the enemy AI will need enhancement so as to compensate for terrain and exploit it for tactical advantages. Thoughts?