Jojobobo

Yeah Dominate was what immediately sprung to mind when people started talking about special dialogue options for me too. Apart from the usual mind control enemies to fight one another or make them have a mind blank, how else would people want to see their combat abilities implemented? Honestly, I can't think of any fresh takes on these kind of abilities so I'm interested to see what they pull out of the bag.

I think by now Obsidian would probably have a more unified vision of what they want in the game and what they do not. I really wouldn't imagine they'd curtail their vision of the game by making things they don't really feel would be appropriate or help cohesiveness in mechanics optional solely to satisfy fans.

I don't think I will Ironman my first run, on top of the reasons I listed I do like to reload when I've done something really stupid. If it's a toss up between persevering with a character that for a stupid reason no longer feels up to scratch to me (not because they're not adequate, but because I missed out on some quest I really wanted to experience in hindsight) or reloading, I'd rather reload. I think Ironman is punishing not because once you're dead you're dead, but if you do happen to miss something you wanted to do or find through negligence or otherwise there's no going back. I love playing on hard difficulty settings, but at the same time I don't think having zero room for error - especially from the off - would be very fun.

Did you have to make such arousing models? Jesus, I thought this board was supposed to be safe for work.

I like quick saves, but not for the reasons you may think. I'm used to playing Arcanum and VTMB, which were buggy on release. Quick saving is a very easy method to circumvent bugs by giving you a save very close by to the bugs incidence. Not that I expect this to be a problem with P:E, but even if it had say one or two bugs on release (very good by modern standards) having a quick save immediately before them takes a lot of the hassle out of a bug (finding that the save before your current was two or three hours ago and having to play through a large portion of the game to get back to where you were). Plus I've had saves get corrupted before, quick saving also prevents this too by providing backups.

What I want to know is whether each class will work on a solo basis? Classes like paladin do seem to have the party based mechanic in mind, but it would be nice if each class functioned well autonomously. In fact, by making them work well on their own I think it might enhance how they worked in party as it would make the core of each class viable.

Honestly I want information on all of them, but if I had to pick 4 it would be priest, druid, monk and paladin. I think they're the ones that are crying out for a bit more background and what P:E's specific take on them will be (priest and druid because the heath mechanic in this game will be quite different and they won't have too much healing based magic, monk because people don't think it will "fit" with the medieval vibe and paladin because it resembles the DnD warlord). It would allay fans' fears if nothing else.

I don't mind mini-games, but at the same time I wouldn't miss them if they weren't included and they do require the devs to throw resources at them to implement them properly. If they did have an obligatory mini-game (lockpicking) it should be randomised in a way that meant it was always challenging (for example the hacking in Bioshock was a good example of this, you never knew what pieces of piping you were going to get and so had to think on your feet). However they do always seem to lose the enjoyment factor over time. Non-obligatory mini-games (Pazaak, Caravan) are also good, but again they're one of those things if they aren't there people wouldn't notice or care.

I don't really mind either way, if they can introduce a mini-game that somehow doesn't get repetitive then fine but otherwise a skill check would be best.

I'm going to go for a cipher, playing the suave debonair type that reads people's minds. I'll go with whatever race synergises best with that (i.e. whatever race seems both sophisticated and well liked). I think I'll have a good playthrough to start with too, just because it's nice to have that as a norm before trying out more unusual moralistic options.

I like the idea of P:E's paladins - an influential and charismatic leader rather than a whiter than white saintly type. It seems interesting to have someone who is inspirational because they are a shining beacon of their own ideals (be they religous, chivalrous or similarly dogmatic in regards to some sort of philosophy); their belief - whether others believe in the same things as they do or not and perhaps in spite of it - should be a powerful and rallying force. This also gives them scope to be evil, which shouldn't be barred from any class. Change isn't always a bad thing.

I think all of these things will help to define a class, but it is more than that. Some people have already mentioned soul energy in this context, and I'm inclined to agree it will have great role in defining a class. I believe that in the P:E world someone might start as a class because it's there vocation, it matches there philosophies or it is in line with there combat style - but over time there soul will react to the class choice and tune into it. This further attenuates their focus; honing in their abilities, philosophy and personality because of how imprintable souls are through lifestyle choices. In this way, there is a metaphysical aspect that distinguishes classes from each other - a new axis that hasn't really been covered in games before. I think in P:E classes will boil down like this, or at least something along these lines.

I'd say yes for a lengthy and involved magical ritual with complex effects, but no for simple (the majority of) spells, so I voted other. Necessitating ingredients for most spells would not be a fun mechanic IMO, on top of this they have said they'll already have grimoires in the game - so that'll probably make spells a bit more resource management based as it is.

I'm in agreement for the most part, but reduced movement speed in swamps would just be annoying.

Arcanum in my opinion got it's elves pretty spot on - they were the nature loving into song and dance types but many also saw themselves as inherently superior and more sophisticated than the other races (someone due to their longevity, they believed that their very long lives gave them more wisdom than other races). This lead to great city destroying wars and the rise of dark elves (which in Arcanum was just an ideology) - who believed whole-heartedly that the other races were weak and needed shepherding by elves. Here you can see some of the classic stereotype has been adhered too but there is also a nice twist (and not illogical one at that - the elves kind of do have a point that longer lives should lead to greater wisdom) on what is wholly conventional. I'd like to see a similar twist in P:E elves, and for the dwarves too in that regard. A nice balance is always a good thing.

I wouldn't like to see anthropomorphic animal races. They strike me as lacking ingenuity as all you basically done is select a animal race, enlarged or shrank it to human like proportions and made it stand on two feet - where's the creativity in that? Obviously you create some creativity through lore and such but untimately the race is just a walking animal. That's why I think the Orlan and Aumaua are definitely good ideas, the devs have to get creative with them as they are brand new concepts - they'll obviously have drawn inspiration from somewhere but it's not as derivative as just using a regular everyday animal. Saying that, I don't see why there could be animalistic subraces. We have no idea how these races came to be; maybe the Orlan were originally some sort of animal that elevated itself to sentience, began walking on two feet and over time became significantly different from the base animal (just like we're quite distinct from the majority of primates). In that regard you could get a throwback subrace that reflected more their primitive roots; with claws, slit eyes, sharp teeth and an excess of body hair - that sort of thing. I don't think it's arrogant for humans to be in a fantasy setting, it gives people a race to play that is distinctly like they and so for most people makes the game more relatable.

Bet that won't stop them getting nasty with one another. Honestly, I'd have liked to see half-breeds - and more than just half-human half-whatever; a half-dwarf half-orlan for example. I've never seen a game where a half-breed had one half that wasn't human, and it would have made an interesting addition. But if it's not in the game then no big. Also this only rules out racial mixing through sexual reproduction, it doesn't mean to say a half-breed couldn't be made as some sort of Frankenstein's monster or through a strange occult blood mixing ritual - still that I would imagine would very much limit such an individual to being an NPC.

I think it's a fine idea, just not in Project Eternity as it is meant to be similar to old school IE games - which this mechanic is not. It would be nice to have this mechanic in a game where everything you did had a risk factor or chance to it - which would enforce the face you should just roll with the punches. In fact I'd be will to say this shouldn't really be in an rpg, or it should be in a game with rpg elements but isn't strictly an rpg. People spend to much time designing and preparing characters in rpg games to enjoy leaving aspects up to chance.

I can see what you mean, but if they're putting in an Ironman mode to implement this would probably be trivial. Granted in most games without an Ironman mode people play dead is dead anyway, but it is just nicer when the process is automated.

Arcanum didn't use a tutorial, and it was fine. As long as the UI is intuitive, I don't see why there necessarily must be one. Maybe have a more simplistic starting area so you can aclimatise to the game, but having text boxes spring up telling you precisely what to do is a bit trite. EDIT: Or if they must have a tutorial, have a way that it is easily bypassed. For example if the tutorial was set in a tunnel, show the player right at the end once they've played through the entire area once that there was a hidden passage they could have used from the start to bypass the whole thing.

I liked the Vodyanoi in the Witcher, so that's how I'd like my beastlike races to be in P:E - not playable and antagonistic. I like races that follow inhuman and inscrutable gods that put them at odds with humanity for reason the PC will never understand.

So we all know that an Ironman mode (or "The Path of Iron"), is going to be in the game - but what about continues? Continues would be a middleman where you could die maybe 1 or 2 times (or more preferably, a number of your choosing) and then your current save would get deleted. This would allow the difficulty to be more tunable, which is in my mind a good thing, and I wouldn't think that it would be much more difficult (if at all) then implementing Ironman mode which they already are doing (with Ironman, you'd simply have zero continues). Plus, whilst not reminiscent of IE games, it would be reminiscent of games on old consoles such as the NES or the Sega Master System, etc. A good idea, or does it stink?

Being completely left field - I'm going to say Ocean House from V:tM~B, not in terms of appearance but in terms of ambience. I want proof that an isometric game could scare me, something which not one has achieved so far. Od Nua was mad, his home should give a disturbing insight into his troubled mind.

I don't think followers leveling up when they're not with the main party is a great idea, it's essentially rewarding the player for work they're not doing. At the say time, it's hard to imagine a follower would sit idly by twiddling their thumbs when they're not with the PC - so an argument can be made quite easily for either side. Maybe they level up, but at a greatly reduced rate.

I'd like a minor non-playable race in the main game to become playable in the expansion.