rjshae

Excellent! Plus they are at three times the initial goal.

Hmm, here's a zinger then: what would happen if the PC has a relationship with one of the companions, then a couple of levels later it is discovered the companion (or the PC) is pregnant?

The two approaches (XP for monsters vs. missions) are not necessarily mutually exclusive. If the designers want to allow XP reward for vanilla monster-slaying behavior, they can always implement bounties as side quests. Alchemists will want the extracts from certain creatures; merchants for bandit scalps; village elders for getting rid of orc raiders, &c. The players would just need to be a little more patient about receiving their XP.

It was mentioned that nothing is set in stone yet, so we'll see. Definitely a good idea for the developers to create and maintain a consistent philosophy to the game though.

Yes, the game would need a mechanic that allows you to capture, hold, and transport prisoners. I think you should have to move them cross-country and deal with the consequences. You would also need a way to work with the slavers guild, since they won't necessarily like the competition. Apart from the mechanical issues of implementation, though, I don't think slaving by the PCs needs to be included unless it is a necessary part of the main plot.

They're obviously not going to show sex scenes, but perhaps a watercolor bedroom illustration with a little sonnet from the bard would do? Gives the mood at least.

Yep. It'd be good if this discussion were held in a different thread.

I can live with it, as it were. I never used resurrection spells in a game anyway. Not when you can quickload.

How much XP do you get for handbags at 10 paces?

I know a surge was expected toward the end, but the rate of increase over the past couple of days has been tremendously impressive.

I was hoping they would exert some editorial control and not allow silly names or out-of-context characters. Some people can't resist that sort of awkwardness, so I expect a few "Sir Thomas Furball Cookienose" type oddball NPCs.

I wouldn't say it's dumb; it's just a different design approach with different player incentives. But I'm not sure why you wouldn't get at least some combat experience from a battle, at least for the first few times you fight a particular beastie. Shrug.

The combination of rare healing and a lack of XP for killing monsters provides a strong player incentive to resolve problems without combat. It'll be interesting to see how that works out.

Sure, I could be apply some strict self-control and not reload saves when I get a bad roll, but that's missing the point. The point is that the mechanic isn't well suited for computer games, and could be replaced with something better. It was originally designed back when all you had were a handful of dice, and in some cases a deck of cards in place of random events. The alternative is what? Player-skill-based minigames? Always succeeding when you pick some option in a dialogue? If you're at skill rank X you fail, at X+1 you succeed? Life is a crap shoot and you usually don't always know all the variables. Random seems fine to me.

I'm a little iffy about all this clamoring for making healing rare. It will have other consequences for the game that the same people may not like quite so much. I guess we'll see...

I suspect that will also mean the encounters will require more careful balancing. If the party is in over their head in expert mode then the game is basically over. That's usually not a good thing.

Yep, I remember that. There's a lion pride that specializes in taking down elephants. Some will also go after giraffes, which is dangerous work since a giraffe kick can cave in a chest.

Once you're passed out I'm guessing you'll be helpless and further attacks will go directly to health. At least that is how it works in similar PnP RPG systems like HERO/Champions. Since stamina has a recovery rate, I'd think that will continue to run even if you are passed out.

Thanks, that is an interesting update. I really like the split attribute approach to health; it addresses a lot of the defects of the old hit point system. I hope the developers also decide to include hit locations so we can have more variety in armor components (instead of boring old 'leather armor', for example). The update makes it sound like disease will be a lot more dangerous than in standard D&D. 'Ware Mummies!

I'm sort of expecting something like the Dragon Age/Drakensang systems where there are specific modes and maneuvers fighters can use. It didn't seem that onerous to just activate those when the circumstances seemed opportune, or else you just let the AI handle it.

Didn't the old AD&D-based IE games used different XP scales for different classes? That led to some scatter in when characters would level up. For newer systems it tends to happen all at once. At 60 hours of game play and 12 levels, that's 1 party level per 5 hours. Personally, I can live with that. There will be plenty of other things to keep us occupied.

I'd like a little history, plenty of mystery, and some peasant laborers to keep the bowling lawn properly trimmed. Plus a garderobe, of course, fitted with traps to keep out the riff-raff.

Defensive mode, while you're trying to deflect and parry warhammers, swords, dodge arrows, run for your life when you see an incoming finger of death.. etc., would still drain your endurance and stamina. I don't see how it makes sense for endurace to regenerate while you're actively investing your brain and body and its every muscle into combat. It shouldn't take as much effort to steer a shield into the path of a sword thrust as it does to thrust the sword. There's not as much change in momentum required, and hence your muscles can recover from fatigue a little quicker because they are using less energy. Granted it's not going to be as fast as if you completely withdrew from combat, but it should help.

If they include a climb skill, there is a lot they could do in terms of using a thief as a scout; entering through the upper floor, sneaking about, and seeing what types of defenses the residents have in place. Otherwise, in IE-series combat, I have typically used a rogue for ranged attacks. It'd be good if they could do a little more with that capability.

Hurray! In IWD2 there was nothing quite as frustrating as moving the party to a new location on the map and having half of them take the long way around. It led to constant micromanagement of the party movement. If they can fix that, it would be great.