rjshae

But what if existence incorporates every conceivable purpose? Is there any difference between that and existence serving no purpose? Wouldn't anything you do then serve its purpose?

Yep, a hearty well done! They're blowing the door off any expectations.

Can you please define? Well, for example, human races that mixed with others during ancient times, leaving them with some legacy of their original powers. Perhaps a longer lived, handsome strain that shows unusual resiliance against poison or disease; they are particularly artistic in nature. Or an elven-like strain with a unique penchant for certain magical arts. A tall strain, descended from half-giants, that is well endowed with physical stamina and strength. Mayhap even a fork-tongued clan of itinerant peoples who can inflict a burning toxic bite and possess the ability to see warmth. How about a changeling race that dwell among the humans in disguise, but have a beast-like natural form? &c. &c. There can still be dwarves and elves, but they can be made reclusive and the subject of much distrust. Mediaeval humans are bigoted creatures who hold little trust for foreign humans; never mind other races entirely.

Personally I'd be fine with a mix of unique human variants, which isn't represented in the poll.

I'm not sure how well it would work, but possibly they could do an inverse of the voice acting in Mass Effect 2: a short voice over insert combined with a longer text explanation. A set of brief voice overs could be used to express the emotive state while the text gives the full information. Maybe they could use an animated graphic to show a facial expression. Shrug.

Agreed. It should also be possible to write the targeting interface in such a manner that it informs you when friendly fire is a possibility. (Maybe by having the targeting area change color when an ally or neutral is in the area.) That situation may change during the delay needed to cast the spell, but at least you wouldn't have unknowingly targeted a non-foe.

Death by a Thousand Opinions...

Plausible ecologies. Implausible ones should be purely magical or supernatural in origin.

Map notes are useful for cities and overland maps where there is a lot of detail. But I do enjoy the look of an artistically hand-drawn map, rather than a technological marvel. So I could probably live without automatic notes.

I think the developers should decide the nature of the gods and their pantheon, based on the cultural setting they develop.

Yes, being able to cast a fireball anywhere without worrying about the consequences is really cheezy. It's okay for an arcade-style game, but not for one with mature themes. Then again I don't like twitch games where you can accidently whack a friendly; it should be the skill of the protagonist that matters, not your skill with the mouse.

Yes, tutorials are welcome the first time through. But an opt-out for subsequent replays is a must. Thanks.

Maybe in a hard-core mode; but I wouldn't want it for the normal game. For me it's too much micromanagement to be enjoyable.

From a replay perspective, a nice stretch goal would be a gritty, hard-core mode, as in Fallout: New Vegas. Weapons can break, armor can become shredded, bow strings can snap, physical impact can break bottles, heavy hits cause significant injuries, gold has weight, encumbrance hinders activity, foul weather weakens you, and the party can starve to death if they don't find food. &c. &c.

Yes, nice artwork. Not a glorified Lancelot type; just a regular Joe fighter in plausible looking armor. The only oddity: what's he doing carrying a whip in his shield hand?

Don't forget that europeans tend to be alot more polite than our american cousins - don't take offence it isn't their fault the majority are big-headed, rude and arrogant Okay, I was going to let that slide, but please don't think the "majority" of us are rude, arrogant and big-headed. That may very well describe our government leaders, but not the vast majority of the people who live here (including the developers of this project). What a sweeping generalization.... Yes, and Europeans are snobbish, hateful and depressing. So it goes.

It would be nice to have a magic item system that makes some economic sense. D&D doesn't really. Why would a small town merchant in a high level campaign ever be selling a +5 longsword of dancing, for example? None of the locals should ever be able to afford it, and if the merchant did manage to sell it off (without being robbed), he should be able to retire.

What's the rush man? Chillax. Or as the dwarves say, "barrup... erp"

Hmm, a biased poll question. How useless.

Given what is effectively a modest overall budget, I'm guessing the developers are going to apply the KISS principle and not bother implementing little details like this. But it might make a nice add-on for a hard-core mod. Or... hey, maybe they can include a "hard-core" mode as one of their stretch goals?

Gender equality in the West happened because of the industrial revolution, which significantly diminished the economic value of muscle mass. I'd imagine it would happen in a fantasy setting as a result of magic. (Plus there are a few special cases like Amazons and Valkaries.) But for a PC it doesn't really matter; you're a special case regardless of your gender.

I wonder. Since they seem to have a somewhat hindu/buddist theme of reincarnation of souls, maybe they will look to east Asia for inspiration? How about the Garuda? Or the Naga?

If I may, I'd like to put in a plug for an athletics skill to cover forms of movement like running, swimming, climbing, jumping, balancing, and maybe even levitating or low-altitude flying. Those are elements that I've come to miss from the tabletop games because they add significantly to the player's options for completing missions. Granted these actions may be more difficult to include with a fixed isometric perspective. But they would add another means for potentially bypassing combat. Why not include climbable walls and swimmable streams where they would help the party bypass opposition? It would be fun to sneak into a mansion by climbing up to the roof, or entering a pirate ship by swimming up to the side and climbing aboard.

54. 26 is old? Bwahahahahaha...!

What about a "Marshalling Party" panel that would allow various options and lists the time that must pass for these to occur? It could, for example: Send current party members to specific base locations. Compute a minimum, low risk round trip time to retrieve party members from their various locations. Allow a more rapid character retrieval by paying to dispatch a messenger. Restock the party with basic supplies like ammo, healing kits, thief tools, &c. Go and rest up the party in a nearby inn. With such a dialog interface the player can just make the changes happen without all of the tedious travel. (You'd still have to use it from a safe location, of course.)