Jojobobo

I think I've heard there will be an influence system, though I may be wrong. What I meant by alignment was archetypal alignment and the character's opinions, not a little shifting meter-thingie.

I think a very early respec is fine, such as after the first town as per FO:NV. Sometimes it's nice to try an idea, but you may not want to persue it very far and it saves on restarting the entire game (though I'd still keep race and background/culture fixed - just give people the ability to re-shuffle skill and attribute points). After that though, no more respec.

A mix of both is good. In Arcanum Virgil mirrors your alignment, and gets different character development later in the game depending on how you have impacted him as a person - he is clearly a character that to some extent is impressionable. However, not everyone should be (and not every follower in Arcanum is) - some people have scruples and codified beliefs that they won't change no matter how charming their peers are. So I'd be inclined to go for both - good characters who are corruptable, evil characters who are redeemable, neutral characters who drift according to the players whims and then characters from all three of the alignments who do their own thing irrespective of the PC.

I'd like Arcanum's stealing process: any person could see what an NPC had on them and then you could select items from their inventory and drag it into your own (with equiped items or large heavy items being much harder to steal than say keys). Using this, you can actually focus on what you want to take from someone - like a real thief would. This process could be refined, by having checks for whatever correlates to perception in this game to be able to assess properly what small items someone has on their person and where they might be squirreled away (maybe have them just not in their inventory if your perception isn't high enough, or maybe you have a "lucky dip" option where you try and take from their pockets but without being able to perceive what you are after the chance of success is lower), with equiped items evidently visible but very hard to steal. This is similar to the Elder Scrolls way of stealing from someone's person, but as your Elder Scrolls suggestion focused on stealing items on shelves and such in a shop/house which I don't think could be implemented well in an isometric perspective, I went for None of Them which I'm taking as your "Other, please state" option.

I say yes, play Medieval 2: Total War if you want to see how much fun guns can be in a medieval setting. They were a part of the late medieval period, so if that's when the game is set (approximately) then why not?

I like picturesque, so nice snowy mountains and stuff like that to me are fun. Swamps on the otherhand or barren rock, not so much.

I like the idea, but it's also very difficult to pitch a hint to a reward so that it's not either far too obscure for most people to interpret or far too simple that any player who comes across the hint feels like they're being smacked over the head with it. Plus the fact it rewards those who are good at problem solving - but not everyone is and they may just feel frustrated. As I said, fun but it needs to be handled very well to give it broad appeal among people who will play P:E.

I hope he's really 20 and his appearance is just a sign of how hard he's lived. People wouldn't be saying he's an old fuddy-duddy then, would they?!

HP gain could be controlled upped with feats, rare in game items or temporary buffs to compensate (slightly) on not gaining health on level up. It's puts a bit more focus on managing your character development effectively, but that's not a bad thing. An interesting idea, honestly I wouldn't be bothered either way they go (HP per level up, or some alternative).

I just hope they involve their ears somehow.

Where's the fun in that? Why not have a nice seemingly charming culture of Orlan and then find out they are really slavers (!) who eat babies (!!) and then they all start having freaky short humanoid sex right in front of the player to emphasise their loose morals (!!!). It's obviously far better to pigeon-hole in content that makes no sense and seems out of place just for implicit shock value - everyone knows that.

I think that elements from eastern cultures could quite easily fit into the setting - despite it being predominantly western. It's a fantasy setting, so as such they are far less constrained as to what elements they can incorporate without it seeming weird. I think have martial arts or monk sects will be fine, I'm sure they'll find a way to make them mesh in a way that doesn't feel out of place.

This is a toughie, saying implying that a quest won't inflict impending doom very very soon drains some drama from quests that the devs want to be dramatic - at the same time implying said doom and not delivering on it is also disappointing. Between the two, I'd rather do quests without implied time constraints that they don't deliver on - i.e. come and go from the main quest as you please.

All the better to hear you with, dear.

I don't know I do prefer to set all my difficulty settings to the hardest, but if they have both HoF mode, Ironman and a FO:NV style hardcore mode I don't think the game would actually be enjoyable with all of these features turned on at once. It really depends how they do things.

I know I've already made a suggested, but an Orlan based on Tyrion Lannister would be fun too.

It really depends how large a scale wizards will be able to cast spells on, and how well they'll be able to control their magic. Also don't forget wizards are going to have grimoires of magic, so presumably their casting is linked to them somehow and they don't have almost infinite capabilities. All that being said, these are some interesting ideas.

All pertinent issues, a well thought out thread on the whole. For monks, well there's plenty of unusual weapons that shaolin monks have used historically (source: Deadliest Warrior of course) so despite them being a traditionally unarmed class maybe now is the time to let them make the transition to using unusual and specialist weapons. Or, if they're still an unarmed class, give them katars and the like. That would make them a bit more looty, in conjunction with nice robes as you said. I think for feats, just don't have auto-acquisition of monk specific feats on level up - then you still have all the regular monk options but more options besides that (well, maybe - as this might result in giving the monks an extra feat on some levels - perhaps not an ideal solution). For wildshape, I'm not convinced shape changing should be druid (or any class) specific; more like a quest reward or some such. Druids having wild shapes is a D&D hold over, so it is maybe something they'll change in P:E - though this doesn't really answer what role would druids have without wildshape and honestly I couldn't say; their spellcasting abilities have always been a bit weak on their own. For rangers - I have nothing worthy to contribute, but I'd like to imagine the devs do have something more to offer than just a rogue/fighter hybrid. Here's to hoping they'll have a juicy update soon that'll answer some or all of these questions.

I'd imagine they'd be androgynous and otherworldly (with shifts in how that otherworldly-ness represented itself dependant on subrace). I don't just want to see an Aasimar/Tiefling rehash, superficial similarities are fine but it would be nice if they weren't derivative.

People use drugs to escape reality all the time - an issue that I'd consider mature and can have severe consequences on people's lives. Saying that escapism isn't a mature theme doesn't really hold water, it all depends on the delivery of theme. On a not really related note, I think perhaps there is a bit of a focus on negative mature themes (which, granted, I've been a big contributor to). Mature themes could focus on other mature issues, parenthood for example is one that isn't inherently negative.

I never mind filler quests, it really depends on the disposition of the quest giver - if they're likeable and have a distinct personality that helps flavour the quests they give no matter how generic they are. Filler quests sometimes have a purpose too (find item x, bring it here - then receive a bucketload of information about it's context plus a multitude of non-filler quests that spring off it), for example in Arcanum there's a simple filler quest that is the beginings of a massive and enthralling conspiracy. Plus I think it bears a mention that if you're always doing something extraordinary and amazing then that seems just as contrived as having loads of filler quests, and filler quests help make the more interesting quest seem even better by comparison. As a final point, for realism's sake alone sometimes people would ask you to do something ordinary. I'd be happy (in fact I think it would be ideal) if there were about 30-40% filler quests. Grind quests where you have to fill a quotient of items or kill a certain number of monsters would be boring however.

A mix would be nice, but not too heavy on the hordes as they can get tedious.

Arcanum isn't too bad for crafting, each item only requires two components and most of those components are easy enough to find as long as you know where to look - it certainly doesn't seem as bad as having 20 items dependant on sourcing one more to build something. You can get saltpeter in both general stores and technology stores (perhaps maybe gunsmiths too) so it's not rare and if you wait a day store stock will regenerate. I'd be for class specific (or at least specialised) crafting, it would help give each class a more unique feel and enhance the fact that you need a varied party to make a large assortment of junk.

Meal mages - more like sandwich mages, ha! I'm the first one to make a lame joke about the spelling error, right guys?

Yeah becoming a ruler and taxing might be fun, I guess it depends how preeminent the devs want the PC to be - but really owning big swaths of a city would make them pretty important anyway.