Sabin Stargem

I am hoping that Obsidian goes for the nuclear option.

I like your explanation. A good retcon can lend depth to a setting.

I want a Fallout game where the focus is on creating a settlement and the power struggles between the various leaders of your vault. The individuals that you sell scrap and information will influence and eventually dictate how the game's story develops. Do you capture sane ghouls for a would-be slave trader? Can you race the clock to get life-saving medicine for the Overseer? Should your people force their way into another vault? Bethesda has created a storytelling device with the settlement mechanics. Obsidian can build upon that, just as New Vegas had done with Fallout 3.

That sounds glorious! Ditto!

No, John, you are the Gods. Don't be silly Bryy, you know turning yourself into a god isn't an ending option in Eternity. They are saving that for the Eternity 2 Expansion, Throne of Bha.... uh Eothas. Throne of Eothas. That works for me.

I figure that it would be an ideal step for releasing a GOTY or complete edition of POE.

As far as I know, Infinity engine did literally nothing to support modding. Like, at all. It took dedicated fans and people among the devs of an engine willing to answer questions when asked to create modding scene there. I agree that times have changed and explicit mod support is a feature that supposed to go without saying... in AAA projects, which PoE isn't. Externalizing data should be enough. Unforunately, Obsidian didn't do that, or at least not so much. Endless Space is a Unity Engine game that supported modding. Considering that POE also uses Unity, Obsidian should be able to pull it off. Whether or Obsidian believes in the value of modding...well, that remains to be seen.

Voice acting works best for visual novels - it is there to convey the personality of characters. Not as important in a WRPG, since you can lend mechanical weight to the actions of characters in addition to narrative. That is why the adventure-book sequences are good for POE, since they allow the game to recognize the abilities of characters and give feedback.

Yeah, more of those would be good.

I think that Obsidian should try to support modding for their games. Modding gave the IE games long legs, keeping their fanbase alive - one that adopted New Vegas and Pillars of Eternity. As a company that tries to be profitable, Obsidian should try to expand and maintain the fanbase whenever practical.

...Yeah, that argument makes sense. Someone with a good grasp of math can go into engineering, coding, physics, and many other occupations. Why would a magic user become a purebred wizard by default? What value does that offer to players?

Having your character be a wrong choice by design isn't going to endear anyone but the masochistic. I don't want to play a game, make progress, only to hit a wall that says "Ha Ha! You suck for wanting to use a sword! Start over with a mage!" That is not my idea of fun. Further, someone who fights for a living would presumably use the best tools and techniques for the job - including magic. Be it through gear or technique, eschewing magic in a setting that has magic is unrealistic. Applications of magic would be dependent on the role. A swordsman would use magic that can be cast during melee without impeding their flow, though limited in scope. Archers may very much like to see in the dark, a fell wind guiding their arrows into the opposition's vitals. Rogues blending into the scenery, backstabbing a foe...whose screams never reach her comrades, due to a veil of silence. As far as I am concerned, all classes should be fun to play. Any limitation of a class should be a very careful and deliberate decision.

I would prefer it if swordsmen, sorcerers, and gunslingers are able to draw on magic, but use differing methods to achieve their goals. Having magicians completely obsolete other classes isn't fun, ultimately limiting the resilience of a ruleset and weakens the setting.

I wouldn't mind an crafting upgrade that allows a pistol to be one-handed.

I liked the Infinity Engine games, but that was in spite of the ruleset, mechanics, and design. THAC0? That...doesn't compute for me. Nor does the arbitrary limitation of priests to blunt weaponry, or how druids cannot use anything beyond "primitive" weapons. I can't dual-class Minsc into Cleric, without him losing access to Lilacor. Limited inventory size. Many spells that don't scale with levels. S. L. O. W. T. R. A. P. D. E. T. E. C. T. I. O. N. Good riddance.

Technically, I can finish POE. But missing out on quests, messed up stats, and a broken stronghold do not appeal to me.

Disposition ought to represent the player's personality, not their reputation. A deceitful person might not be known to others as deceitful, since that is the point: To fool other people about who you truly are. A deceiver won't advertise this, unless they are very stupid. However, having perks arise from taking various actions would make sense. For example:

I don't think there should be a limit on how many traps can be placed. Rather, I think there should be two checks: A mechanics or lore check to set up the trap, and a stealth check that conceals it from enemy sight. Magic traps should use Lore for setting up, on account that magic isn't the same thing as mechanical knowledge. Identifying and disarming a trap requires Lore or Mechanics, depending on the trap type. When hovering the cursor over a trap, a character sufficiently knowledgeable about the trap can understand the effects of the trap. EG: A Magic Trap that has the Animate Dead property, with an area of effect that covers several corpses in the room. Identifying traps is easier than disarming - this allows players to decide whether or not they ought to risk tampering with the trap.

I am going out on a limb and guessing that Obsidian is using the Engwithans to pull the wool over our eyes: There are no gods to them, because they did not consider the planet to be a deity. Hopefully, we get to fight and kill Eora in POE 2.

I am going to wait for the expansions and their patching before casting a verdict on POE. For me, I typically don't play games until their life cycle has ended - so the end result is much more important than the stepping stones that lead to it.

I think that Obsidian should add mechanics to make the Awakening leave an impact on the player. For example, say you come across a group of standard monsters. No big deal...then the Watcher "Awakens". This alters the party, world, and monsters in a way that makes the battle become much more difficult - the monsters changing into different beings, the terrain bearing dangerous spirit-plants that grasp for the living, the true nature of the companions being unveiled. Events that are meant to disturb the player and to endanger the protagonist. The lore that Luckmann posted supports the concept:

It feels like that Obsidian was trying to mimic the Bhaal-Spawn from Baldur's Gate 1 & 2, but rolled a critical failure. For POE, The Watcher would inevitably go mad - while in BG, many people wanted to kill the player on account of being a Bhaal-Spawn. The threat of Bhaal is much more concrete, while the "madness" of the Watcher is...well...hm. I dunno. To say the least, Obsidian really needs to hammer home the Watcher's madness if they want to make it a worthwhile gimmick.

Well I hope to god PoE doesn't try to be a sandbox game. Sandbox games suck. I play Obsidian game for the tight plot structure and amazing storylines. Ditto. I prefer narrow experiences for my games, because they concentrate enough "awesome" to make me notice. A jack of all trades like Skyrim just makes me feel nothing.

Um...post #10 utterly defines "wall of text". Please fix it.

I think the vision system could be improved, along with the stealth. Concerning vision distance, I think it would be good if NPCs at a long distance would give a "general" shape without telling the players what it is specifically. Classes, skills, tools, range, lighting, and abilities can alter the vision cone so that it would be possible to identify creatures at range. Extreme range = Quadruped shape Medium range = Dog shape Short range = Hound of Magran Mind you, there is an issue that crops up with vision and distance: If you can see other creatures, they presumably can see you. This might result in monsters gravitating towards the player. Depending on how they are balanced and the intention for the area, that can create an unintended consequences. On the other hand, not including that would be unrealistic.