rjshae

Mostly good suggestions. I'd like to see stronghold architecture that is plausibly realistic and medieval in style. No well-lit pool rooms, tea rooms, frilly decorations, or aviaries; just cold, cramped, dimly-lit stone rooms with open, unpaned windows. Something serviceable that a knight would own, rather than a count. Putting it in a defensible location would be a big plus; atop a hill or at a bend in the river. Perhaps an inner courtyard that is open to the sky, a tower for a cranky old wizard to occupy, stables, and a granary and well shaft in case of a siege. Environmental effects would be good, such as the sound of wind whistling through the window cracks and down the chimney, beams of gradually shifting daylight sparking with dust, a water seep where a crack needs fixing, &c. And a frequently used garderobe, of course, just buzzing with flies. But I'm sure I'll be happy with what they give us.

Their implementation of Paladins will be interesting to see. How will this class integrate into the system of reputation? Will the Paladin's decisions be locked into support of a particular faction ahead of time?

Born of a fleshy pod, no doubt. There's kind of the makings of a swamp creature in there. Maybe with some sharper detail, normal maps, and more natural tones it might work out half-way decently.

^^^^^^^^^^^ Yup, plus such items can become a channel or focus for specific soul-based powers, without being magical themselves.

Posters have responded rather negatively to the idea of mini-games in this forum. Vehemently, in fact. But I did enjoy the little games of dice poker in The Witcher.

This is probably the singular element of your list that is the biggest challenge to implement. Good AI covering all of the potential events and contingencies across a multitude of characters can be a lot of work. The remainder just require some careful game design and clear thinking. I don't know, BG2 managed it; Cowled Wizards showing up if you cast magic in the streets, anyone? True. But that is just a small faction responding to a singular type of event. It's easier to code than a large population with diverse responses and complex institutions.

I wonder how much the problem is the result of having a large team of developers with each working on, say, different parts of the map or aspects of the game world? It's much harder to maintain consistency that way. The larger the setting grows, the worse the problem becomes.

It seemed like the way they did spell casting times in D&D v3* worked fine. Most just took a standard action.

It would be preferable if they pre-loaded a random seed key with each game startup so that you get consistent results with each load but different results with each full playthrough. That would add significantly to the replay value.

IIRC, when the party entered into a combat situation in Dragon Age 2, they auto-prepared their weapons and shields using a fairly dramatic animation. Alas, sometimes it was the only clue that you were entering combat because of the nuisance camera angle. But perhaps I'm not remembering the details precisely.

Interesting, well-informed discussion by the way. Thanks.

I'm pretty sure they already have something in mind for the character story.

I'd say 55% story, 45% gameplay. A game that excels in either one can be fun to play, but a good balance is preferable. I particularly like gameplay that features a lot of variety in tactics.

probably...the guy has a stick up his ass the length of a broom handle. I'm a n00b here, so just learning about the ignore mode. Foop.

One difference between a well-made sword and an enchanted swords should be that the well-made sword requires a skilled swordsman to fully exploit. A tyro wielding a sword like a bar of iron will be equally inept with a plain sword and a masterwork weapon. But an enchanted sword should actually help the tyro fight better. Perhaps give the masterwork weapon a better chance of penetrating armor, while an enchanted sword has a better chance of penetrating the defense.

I'm not clear that I fully understand the full motivations for wanting 'weird' companions. Is it just a desire for the exotic or mysterious? Do you just like quirky, eccentric behavior, or do you really want strange capabilities? I mean I'm a big sci-fi fan, but truly alien species are just plain difficult to write well, and equally hard to comprehend. Trying to role-play them properly may be impossible for us humans.

Yes, but let the game engine handle the action like it does in DA2. (Yeah I know, gasp, horrors, and all that.)

Sometimes I just want to choose between chicken or fish.

That might be hard to implement without causing the graphics to tilt. For example, a tall tree would be on a fixed point on the ground, but the top would shift against the more distant background.

Yes, that is a problem with the D&D approach to sub-races. All the bonuses really do is allow you to push the envelope on certain stats. If they want to do that, they could just provide three different point cost sequences for the favored, normal, and unfavored stats. The racial differences would be much more emphatic if the modifiers were applied to the derived statistics rather than to the base ability scores. For example, they could give elves significant bonuses (+3) to Move Silently and Hide skills, rather than just bumping up Dex. A -2 penalty to Fort would be more distinctive than a reduction in Con. Adding racial-specific magic abilities would also help.

How about a good speaker who won't cost half the budget?

Yes, magic-based forging techniques could produce items of exceptional properties, without them necessarily being magical themselves. (Like a titanium-based sword.)

Zhjaeve? *Shudder* I swear that if I hear "Know that..." one more time, my speakers are going through the window. (Kidding, sort of.) I mean, she was a reasonable character design. But using repetitive style to emphasize a culture difference gets really old.

I've never liked the way guilds were implemented in cRPGs. For example, you basically have 'a' thieves guild that runs all thievery everywhere. I don't think that's the way it worked during the middle ages. Adding some cultural aspects to guilds would help.

While a fair point I'd say having one out of eight wouldn't harm your enjoyment more than it'd enrich mine. But again, anything they go for is fine by me. But a game is like a symphony and much can be gained from having a counter-point to the mundane as long as it's not forced. It probably depends on what you mean by weird. Exotic would be okay; somebody from another culture with different values yet still able to share an understanding with the player.