rjshae

Just an FYI but even for us it was over over 4000 years from the the time of Sumer until to first firearms were made. If you want to go from the first cultures such as Hassuna and Samarra it was over 7000 years. It's not a foregone conclusion that gunpowder and firearms would have appeared in Europe when they did if the alchemical technique hadn't been imported from China. Instead, they likely would have appeared much later after further scientific progress had been made. We can't assume this new setting would follow the same sequence of progression as Europe.

Magic makes all things possible, and elves are a magical race.

Update addiction? Maybe we need to start a support group thread?

This isn't middle earth. It's a different land, so name changes can provide a little color.

I suspect we won't gain a stronghold until we're at a pretty high level. But, until then, perhaps we might be able to turn over prisoners to the local lord.

I'd actually prefer they use a term like 'fey touched' or 'fey kin' rather than 'half elf'. The latter just seems so mundane and mechanical.

I know I'm going to regret asking this, but... will the Priests be carrying holy hand grenades?

Probably going to be a Giant easter egg...

Yeah, if they can build posh mudcrabs, they can mod spiders into giant web-spinning kitties.

Thank you! I wonder how well features like echoes would work given the 2D nature of the graphics? Shrug.

Well if they do have chainmail bikinis, you're going to need a magnifying glass to see them. Seriously, I don't think it will be a problem with this game. Many of the core audience are mature adults looking for mature themes.

Sorry I didn't mean to have that effect; just pointing you to a related discussion. Personally I'd like to see some tutelary deities, such as a patron deity of a particular city.

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/61374-gods-wishlist/

If they already have the software code and libraries handy, they could perhaps implement 3D sound originating from point sources on the isometric area view (with occlusion for blocking structures). That would be a nice advancement, I think.

Not wanting to torture myself by watching somebody else play a game I've already run through on more than one occasion, please can you tell us how far he got?

Hey, congrats on getting married! You should write a letter to your future kids.

There are some VR immersion therapies that are used to manage people's phobias. But I think it's better to do that under carefully controlled conditions with a skilled therapist. Playing games that are designed to initiate strong emotional responses probably ain't it.

They can probably do a lot of interesting variants of stock D&D monsters, just to change things up and challenge people's expectations. For example, a 'whiptail spider' with a barbed appendage that can be used to spit nets of spider silk.

Mmm... yes. I think I've seen a few of them on this forum, in fact. Anonymuse, the great deity of all trolls.

A little unrequited love between companions A and B could be entertaining, while throwing a little social turmoil into the group dynamic.

I enjoyed playing the Drakensang series of games and there are many elements of that system that worked well for me (with room for improvement, of course).

Yes, that could be interesting. It would also be an opportunity to break out of the mold of wandering around with a full party of six characters. The investigation could be restricted to just the PC and the cipher detective, at the request of the client.

That works well, but it would be nice to have a rationale for why the monsters are getting more difficult the deeper you go. Something akin to an ecosystem perhaps, with the richer, more rewarding aspects toward the bottom. If it is an undead dungeon that wants to prey on life forms, then the most desirable real estate would be nearer the top. So why aren't the toughest undead up there waiting for tasty adventurer morsels to wander in? One thing I'd like to see some type of consistent motif appearing in places throughout the dungeon. (Regardless of the variations in themes.) After all, this dungeon complex was built at the behest of a single owner. This pattern would serve to link the parts together in the player's mind, much as music does in a movie. I'm not sure what the motif would be though; perhaps distorted human heads or stretches of Inca-like masonry?

Well... even the most benevolent princes had torture chambers and had their foes drawn and quartered in the Europe pre modern times. Hell The most benevolent nations today still employ torture chambers. We just outsource the torrure to third world nations or freelance specialists... if we dont have black ops or prison camps where torture is an official secret . Call it a lust for "realism" in a fantasy game. Yes it's realistic, but I'm not sure it's beneficial or really necessary for most types of stories. Even if it's added then it's still not essential to actually go through the motions. Sure, you could build a torture chamber and hire a torture master. When you decide to send a prisoner there for torment, do a fade out/fade in and read the results of the interrogation. Anything else would be tasteless.

Yes, most the core elements would be there. But the writing, the area art, new creatures, new effects, music, and other add-on components would still need to be developed separately. Plus the law of rising expectations would kick in and they would need to improve upon the original in order for it to be perceived as providing a worthy successor. Hence, I'm not sure that the price difference would be that significant. Still, at least they would then have some capital to use from the sales of the original and the expansion.