ledroc

I LOVE this post and have been thinking the same things for years. Most recent games are focusing on the wrong things in my opinion. Sure the flash gets the games off the shelves aka Skyrim but the AI stops people from playing them, aka Dragons in Skyrim I truly hope this game gives us a legitimate challenge bordering on frustrating but makes it fun at the same time. Best table top D&D session I ever played pushed the party to the limit but still let them win. Face it, none of us want save game spam fest, but we also dont want to roll over everything. One of the big pieces of this is caster viability. How many spells did you use in the BG or ID games? Very few in my experience. I loaded my party up with bows and went out sniping. This was fun at first but got a bit boring later on. I kept seeing all these fun spells in my spellbook that I had little to no use for. This was due to lack luster AI and relative monster strength. Kiting is a good example of exploiting the AI. There are several encounters in the above mentioned games where you could stand behind a tree and the AI couldn't path to you so the monster would just go left, then you move, monster goes right, you move. All the while your party is peppering the poor guy with arrows. I am really also hoping for an "aggro" based combat model, so much so I think I will put up a poll about it.

Limit the ammo but extend the stacking to 100 or something. 20 is just not enough per stack

I propose an entirely new way of looking at inventory and one I have considered building myself. Why have tiny little squares that represent "slots" for inventory? I don't see real people carrying around alchemist drawers to keep their stuff in? People have pockets and backpacks and belts. Why not do something original that truly makes the game stand out. I liked Skyrim approach to inventory but the out of the box UI was terrible. Why not have inventory searchable? Press "I" it brings up your backpack that really is just an empty search box, you type a letter and all the items starting with that letter show up D - brings up Dagger and Diamond I've never liked the grid style inventory management with small icons. To me the icons are not needed. I don't need to see a mini picture of my short sword, since 90% of them look the same. Inventory should be limited by weight not by "slots" I hated that in BG1, your fighter can't pickup a scroll because he has extra arrows along. Seriously? That is just so 1990 Just my .02

AI challenge. So, being a lifelong gamer, starting back with my Texas Instruments TI-994A One of the biggest challenges I have found is balancing the AI. This was the same when I was GM for table top D&D as well. You want to give the party a challenge but at the same time you can't walk all over them either. What are your plans for AI balance? Will it scale with gear? Will monsters be static for the zone/area they are in so as you grow more powerful you can go back and whoop them. Will you have any respawns? Will the NPCs you meet have the same abilities that you do, so facing casters and stealthy rogues, etc? I have seen things on both sides of the coin. Games that are just way too easy to be fun, where they just become a loot fest and likewise games that are too painful to ever get through and are so linear that you end up getting stuck and just quitting. I would love to see some options to where you aren't stuck going down a single path and where the challenge is just enough to frustrate but no so much you want to quit.