rjshae

Understood. Well hopefully they'll at least allow the opponents (and NPCs) to use mounts.

Ugh, time limits for the entire game severely hinder the experience. I don't mind them for a particular quest, but an overarching time limit basically rules out every significant activity except the main plot line. It's more enjoyable to allow your character time to grow and expand, then (perhaps) start to impose a growing sense of urgency toward the end game.

It would make for a very linear story if you're not the leader. You'd have to have a significant influence on the decisions made, or else it just boils down to a combat simulator.

Thanks for the link. Clearly they would need to be made useful in combat for mounts to have value, but the fact that mounted knights were the dominant military arm in Europe during the medieval era speaks for their importance.

Rideable mounts could make an interesting tactical addition to a click-and-move style isometric game. They weren't included in the BG or IWD series, so they would represent a step up in terms of novelty and capability. But the use of mounts would need to be fully integrated into the interface, such as with the character portraits stacked on top of their mount images and hot keys for performing mount actions like mount and dismount. What do you think? Should the party be able to mount up and rampage around the map on coursers? Should knight characters charge through an orcish patrol with his lance? How about facing bandits using hit and run tactics like mongolian horde mounted archers? Moving cross country would be much more rapid with a mount, and the party could use a horse-drawn cart to haul their loot.

A horse, of course. There were horses in Oblivion, but they were awkward to control. Having horses in a click and move game would be a nice addition and add a lot of tactical variety to the combat.

HORSES! Coursers, destriers, palfreys, quarterhorses, ponies; the whole works. I'd love to see the party be able to mount up and go riding across the map, charging down enemies with lances, or escaping at a gallop. Plus the foes will have horses, of course, and the party would need to deal with that. I'd be a significant step up from the BG/IWD game where you could only move around on foot. Having horses fully integrated into the game would be a big step closer to the tabletop experience and add a lot to the movement capabilities of the party. Wagons too, I think.

The predicament then is--present a stretch goal within the next couple weeks and thus introduce the expectation for mod tools, or stick with the original plan of waiting for another year or so to see where development goes with the risk of somehow not having enough resources for the player tools (additional licensing? I dunno). I understand Obsidian has thought about this a little but is placing it on the back burner to give priority to the main vanilla game, which is all well and good--I think the vast majority of players appreciate a clear, high-quality goal... But given that players know the engine being used and its capabilities for player tools, I wonder if Obsidian needs to seriously consider moving the priority forward for future planning purposes. I'm not sure it would be a good idea for Obsidian to promise a Mod tool as a stretch goal, given that they are not certain how much they can commit to it. Another consideration is that the stretch goals are what draw in the additional contributions; how many of those would want modding tools? There are plenty of other things they can add with the money that would add value to the game and interest uncommitted investors. Maybe add a skilled voice narrator, include compute-intensive cut-scene graphics, allow characters to purchase and use horses (mounted cavalry charge?), wagons and a ship, build more spell sets, publishing a campaign setting for table-top gamers, &c.

Listening to your customers is usually a good business practice. I'm not sure if that is entirely true in the video gaming business, but it's probably at least good for generating buzz and looking for prominent areas of interest.

Perhaps a Necrotic Shelter for defense against the inevitable plague of undead?

The funding has increased by 0.5 million over 9 days. There are 17 days to go, so they may just make 3 million at the current rate. That leaves room for 3-4 more stretch goals at 0.2 million per goal. Personally I'd love to see future support for 3D displays, but that probably wouldn't draw much support at this point in time.

I had an idea a while back for a game with an actual "economy", where different items are worth different amounts in different places and dump-selling a lot of the same item causes the price to drop like a rock and eventually merchants just won't buy any more. Likewise, if you buy a lot of the same item (like, say, healing potions), the price goes up. Over time, the gluts and shortages would tend to even out over the world as trading took place. I guess that would depend on how much of a world trading system exists. Medieval economies had a lot of guild-based monopolies and trade would be hampered by road tolls, banditry, and wars. Some nations (like Venice) may have tight control over the trade of certain goods. Bankers could charge prohibitive interest rates that makes borrowing risky. The net effect may make rates vary considerably and produce a market for adventurers to trade in scarce and expensive goods. Speaking of economies, it might be interesting to set up an auction system for high-end magic items. Item holders may engage agents to sell the items, which would be bid for by wealthy clients. This would cause the items available to vary over time, and to range in price depending on who else is interested.

In the end, combat damage is all about resource usage. Some amount of damage can be repaired with the resources at hand: potions, spells, healing kits. How much damage do you want the party to incur before they have to retreat to a safe location and spend money to repair the heavier damage? Making the party constantly backtrack whenever they suffer a serious injury can make for a tedious game. Instead, players will simply choose to restore the game and run through the combat again. Yes a system that incurs specific physical injuries adds a nice level of realism, but it will be up the designers to balance that against the other game play goals.

Good answers. The component I don't particularly like about RTwP is when the party members just start running all over the place, attacking whomever, without trying to maintain decent group cohesion. I'd like the characters to fight as a team and not have to be constantly yanking them back into formation. Modding may be a nice addition, but I'll bet most people can probably live without it. There are plenty of other game engines out there where people can spend their modding energies. Still, modding does seem to extend the life of games, so, if the game is a retail success, it wouldn't surprise me to see it made available at some point.

Perhaps as a result, coins are made of materials that a wizard is unable to replicate for some reason, such as cold iron, or tapping a coin with cold iron causes it to lose the magical charge. Alternatively, a wizard's guild controls the money supply and guarantees the monetary value through some type of arcane binding.

I think I'd like to see just a few basic classes, but allow them to quickly branch out into various specialities. Thus: Hunter (Barbarian/Ranger/Scout/Trapper) Warrior (Fighter/Paladin/Knight/Archer/Thug) Adept (Wizard/Sorcerer/Warlock/Necromancer/Elementalist/Alchemist) Mystic (Druid/Cleric/Monk/Shaman/Diviner) Trader (Thief/Bandit/Pirate/Sage/Merchant/Artisan/Smuggler) Everybody gets a major and a minor class; the minor can be the same as the major for increased specialization.

Something simple. Undoubtedly different types of currency exist, but smaller denominations can be integrated into the game by assuming they are used to take care of logistical issues like basic food, drink, clothing repair, haircuts, ointments, and so forth. I don't think the player should need to worry about those details, but perhaps an overview could explain why they aren't part of the game.

New reward: one free PE vomit bag with every 10 screen shakes we add! But what about the splattering body bits flying across the screen?

Another approach would be to role play a character, have him or her rise to a position of relative power and wealth, choose a mate, settle down and have some children. Time in the game then moves forward until the children become young adults and you start playing again as one of the offspring. At that point there may be some calamity that thrusts the young character into an adventuring career, leaving behind your old character. This would give the game built-in level limiting while allowing the tale to continue onward with a whole new character. The actual character you get would be based on your original character intermixed with the mate you select, along with some optional choices.

Remote, harsh, uninhabited wildernesses are kind of dull. Unless you're building a survival simulation, I think they'd get old pretty fast. Most of the interesting role-playing activities are based around intelligent life forms. Even a brutal artic setting is more interesting when there's a barbarian tribe to visit or an old crypt to explore.

Personally I'm waiting for the giant half-dwarves.

Hey, if they ever end up building a modder's toolset then we'll be able to create our own. Until then, I'll be happy to see what they come up with.

Mysterious ruins of an ancient civilization, about which the locals know very little. Otherwise, medieval Europe will do just fine.

Cannon-fodder monsters that aren't just clones of each other.

Yes, Vizima we excellent in terms of atmosphere and little details. It really added a lot to have the locals run for shelter when the rain started, or having the group of pigeons go flapping off the ground as you approached. The architecture felt very medieval. Another couple of cities I enjoyed for their architecture and atmosphere were Nadoret from River of Time and Ferdok from Drakensang. That old style European atmosphere really adds a lot to the game. The cities in the Baldur's Gate series, while enjoyable, didn't feel authentically medieval. They were too clean and modern looking. I like to feel like I'm strolling through narrow medieval streets with overhanging, half-timbered buildings, inadequate lighting, scruffy looking characters, and slop being tossed out the upper windows.