khango

I'm not sure I want stuff really rare or really abundant, but I'd like to see pretty much every party members have something cool that fits their character/class. You know, not random generic longsword +3, but you know, if you have a Paladin or something, then they can have some sort of holy armour gained from quest/backstory, or if you've got Demetrio the duelist, maybe he'd have a sword that could force people to have duels with him or something. I think there's a lot of room for personalized magic equipment that fits with characters or stories.

I think a race of giant beetles would be cool and not out of place for Europe-ish fantasy. Neither would a praying mantis-ish race. Or a pill-bug-ish race. I think the issue with insectoid races is mostly that it's hard to make them compelling as characters while keeping them different enough to truly be foreign. It can be done, but the easy thing to do is just make them super-specialized and mostly act like a human. I could see some really weird quests coming out of insects. Something kind of related that might be important is whether souls migrate species/racially.

If you can't kill them, what happens with they run into your skull trap?

I always assumed wolves were filled the pocket change of all the little children they ate on the way home from grandma's house.

I hate ludicrous weapons. Even if you have ridiculously strong characters and exotic materials, I don't think you'd end up with swords shaped like 20ft ornate meat cleavers, or see all kinds of non-functional shapes. That said, I'd love to see some interesting weapons from non-European heritages. I'd also like to see swords done right -- not every melee weapon should be driven by strength, at least past a certain point. I'd love to see rapiers that fought like rapiers.

I think it would be cool to have mixed races. I think it could be done algorithmically, just have a slider in increments of 8ths. Would work out fine if however you're doings stats the limits/starting conditions could be slid fractionally. Would work for special abilities, too - fractionation could make them less effective or only available at a higher level or something, or they could even be odds based -3/4 elf gets 3/4 chance of having each special elf thing. That said, I'd certainly be fine with some combos being infertile. But I don't think a system for it would be a huge development sink, though it might be more of a convo scripting sinkhole.

I generally hate level scaling. That said, I wouldn't be against letting certain types of NPCs/humanoids earn experience themselves. For example, if there were one or two other parties of adventurers that were doing stuff that you crossed paths with every so often, it would make sense that they got stronger. Likewise, if there's some kind of ongoing war or battle, it makes sense that those participating in it would get stronger as they fought in more battles. However, it does not make sense that the sewer rats would continually become stronger and stronger mutant menaces. This brings me to the other side of the coin -- I hate hate hate level scaling, but I also hate it when 6 people can barely kill a rat when starting out. If you can kill a peasant at level one with no issues, why the heck is killing a stupid wild animal next to impossible? (I haven't had huge problems with this in infinity engine games, perhaps excluding Icewind Dale, but just keep it mind.)

Developer/Linux user reservations about C#/mono mostly have to do with two things - Suspicion about licensing/dependencies on free/non-open components, which is applicable to open source projects, but not stuff like this The .net platform enabling idiots to spread horribly architected and insecure websites like a plague (for the record PHP has this among its problems also) Neither thing seems that applicable to this project. Hence Linux users like me are supporting it. All that said, I really don't get the 'Unity-phobes.' Unity seems like a good engine. There really aren't that many options for multi-platform engines that have good combos of price/value/features. The impression that you can't do '2-d' with 3-d engines that some of you have is also silly.

I was happy with run/walk in PS:T, but I agree, IWD and such just crawl. I think in BG2 I forget about it because of boots of speed. Problem is that it can be abused. In IW:D even without running you can basically lead any kind of basic undead and hit it with ranged if you feel like that sort of thing is a flaw.

I don't know about your clerics, but mine call lots of lightning and cast lots of glyphs, not even mentioning druids, or the evil necromancer ones... I think if you have clerics, their spell selections should reflect their deity.

The story is great, I just wish my characters didn't feel like they were in perma-stasis after act 5. It's like woohoo, I get out of sigil, Annah kisses TNO, and that's it for the remaining 4 or 5 acts. And she's like the exception to the rule... none of the rest really have much to say to begin with. Dak'kon is okay, but seriously, you're going to unlock all the circles in like the 1st ten days game time, not over 9 chapters, which leaves what? A couple encounters with other Githzerai? Don't get me wrong, I like the PS:T chars, they just feel frozen far too soon. Some of the NPCs have the same vibe -- they just keep saying the same stuff regardless of what happens. Because BG:2 pulled off that whole switcheroo where lots of stuff changes when you get out of the Underdark and your NPC development lasts longer it comes across a bit nicer. It also helps that every party character has a (somewhat) extensive side quest. I mean imagine if you had to go to Limbo with Dak'kon, right?

I love the pause based systems. Just please don't make me have to constantly shuffle inventory. Like yeah, I should be able to switch from sword and shield to bow without having to manually de-equip from inventory management, even if you penalize me a moment or two.

I hate mana pools and (usually) cooldowns. (Cooldowns can be done right, but you end up with more of a fatigue meter, and it's still hard.) I'm indifferent about Vancian. I don't hate it, I rather like it, in fact. I do REALLY hate leveling spells. I can live a little more with them just gradually improving with use, but leveling spells has never sat well with me. And it tends to lead to restricted variety. In the realm of plausible, I think a vancian system where at high level you start to lose the need to memorize a few low level spells might work nicely. Like if at level 18 you could cast your most frequently used level 1 spell 'at will,' and then at 28 your most frequently used level 2, or something. Possibly the reason I don't have a huge gripe is that I like Sorcerers, and they tend to be about making the right decisions to give your spell choices a cohesive theme, which I think is nice. Often times one spell school will have a set of spells that work well together, which gives your sorcerer a good flavor. I think people fall into that with wizards, too, but don't realize it as much. In the realm of amusing, what if you had to build up a reserve of blubber by eating all the time, and then every spell you cast converted the blubber to magical energy, joule for joule or watt for watt or however it works? Possibly I also don't have a huge gripe because I also like how the day/night cycle works in.

I'm hoping they're kind of like BG:2 strongholds/keeps and tied to story and character quite a bit. That said, I think a library might make a cool one.

So I'm of the ilk that loves BG:2, thinks PS:T is good, and like the other infinity engine games, but don't think they really quite compare to the first two mentioned. The reason, I think, is that my RPG experience is defined by characters and stories. More than the other IE games, these two games have a compelling/interesting overarching storyline. Perhaps judged on the storyline alone, PS:T wins, but that's kind of moot. What I really think takes them beyond the others is the party interactions and characters, and they are the chief reason why BG:2 comes across as better the PS:T. (PS:T's aren't bad, they just don't really progress - by mid game, your party feels frozen, while in BGII stuff happens through the whole script almost.) I really hope that Project Eternity has party members that have interesting back stories, have interesting quests, have interesting personalities, and who have their own opinions about things, sometimes strong enough to tell you no, but also, and, perhaps most importantly, can change because of your influence. This is why BG:2 wins - it felt like you could have some sort of influence with your party beyond a canned romance. Being able to get Viconia to change alignments was a particularly nice touch. I think a great world is nice. I think a great story is nice. But I think great characters that you get to have an influence-opinion-personality tug-of-war with are what make an RPG great. So I'm really hoping the party members you can get are well developed interact with each other as well as the PC.

I'm a Linux user and I've hopped on to a Kickstarter here and there once Linux support seems clearly within reach. You won't get my money not supporting it and I pay more than average. For the random record, I had original BG II for Mac of all things, and now I've got nearly every Infinity Engine game off GOG because they run great in Wine, or GemRB, usually, except that it's usually more of a hassle than wine. Personally, I think Linux support can be key for a good Kickstarter, but I'm biased... But after all that... the original reason I was going to post in this thread... ... I do not own a Windows box. I'll say it again: I do not own a Windows box. All the games I play, I play on Linux. So for whatever that's worth...