TrashMan

Mot modern games nad MMO's suffer from big ego-boosts and pwoer creeps. I wouldnt' cal lBioWare games juvenile...well, their last one are. But the first Dragon age? It has probably one of the best setting I've ever seen. It feels so real because people act like you'd expect normal people would. Especially the mage dillema. I totally see people locking uip mages if they were real.

Agreed. I belive a lot of those problems cna simply be solves by toning hte scale down a bit...and normalizing enemies. Heck, normalizing level/item/power scaling would be a great step i ntaht direction, since "normal" opponents even in small number would always be a fair challenge trought the game - thus not requireing demigods to fight the overpowered PC and his party.

Regarding RPG?s...I dont' consider J-RPG's as true RPG. Not because of some "purity" nonsense, but because of the meaning of the world. Roleplay. JRPG's don't let you actually play a role, you don't get to make any important decisions (and no, swining a sword is not a decision). This might be a semantics issue, but whatever. Romances are not a necessary component for a good RPG - as proven by many good RPG's without romances. Tehy are a nice addition.

ADDENDUM: For combat - no twich-based combat. I prefer slow and tatical combat. Realisticly a combat is not non-stop sword swining. Combatants stop, pull back to cath a breath, wait for an opening, etc..

A long time ago I modded BG2 to give different armors different damage reductions to slashing/blunt/piercing. Worked wonderfull. Of course, a flat number might not work best, but rather a range. Frankly I think the amount of protection armor affords you also depends on your proficiency with the armor. While even a mage can wear plate, a knight is trained to use it effectively. So basicly a mage in armor wouldbe hit more often and would fail to postion properly for effective deflection.

I'm very interested in what kind of mechanics this game will have. Partially, because plenty of RPG have come close to my ideal, but never quite reached it. Pathfinder would be the closest. I enjoyed Temple of Elemental Evil (loved the abiltiy ot actually block acess to aeas with my fighters. Finally a credible mechanic and not the stupid aggro). But D&D does have some parts of mechanics that bug me. Like attributes points only having worth if 2 are invested. STR 10 and 11 were equal. That one point had no effect and that was IMHO bad. But at least the attribute point range made sense. Not like Dragon Age, where you start wiht 15 STR and end up with 80????? That huge attribute change never made sense to me. People don't change that much physicly. Or like Armor Class...which made STR fighters in heavy armor and dex fighters in light armors effectively the same. It bothered me to the point I modded BG2 and put in damage reduction to armor. The feel was quite different and I loved it. And lastly, the bane of almost every game out there - HP inflation. You start with 100 HP at lvl 1 and end up with 80000 at vlv 20/50/whatever. HP is remenant from the old days, when procesing power was a problem and simplicity was key. HP was a representation of your abiltiy to survive - it was health, doge, block, defense, parry - all in one. Yet as games and technology moved on, we now have those distinct attributes as separate. What exactly is the point of inflating HP anymore? To get the feeling of power or improvement? I hate it. It's a cheap and simple way to represent power, but ultimately rings hollow. Power comes in many shapes and forms, so why do game developers simply stick to linerar (or exponential) increase of numbers? Here's an idea - SKILLS. FEATS. Become more powerfull in a more realistic and sensible way. Plenty of games have proven that HP boosts are not necessary. Best of all, this makes balancing easier. If you HP is determined only by constitution (and nothing else) than those bandits early on will never turn to be a fight you can ignore. At high levels you will be be better of course, but your main advantage isn't that you can stand in the middle of a group of 10 of them and let them hit you knowing their they can't really damage you in a meaningfull way. You dont' have a HP shield to hind behind. You have more options and abilities. One-on-one you are a death machine. But even those early bandits will be the end of you if you take them too lightly. Likewise, now those impossible encounters that oyu had to avoid early on become possible to take on (evne if difficult), cause your enemies also don't have a HP shield. And at lvl 1 you won't be a frail flower with only 8 HP that gets trashed by a rat. Your HP would be concsistant, not chanign much (if at all) during the game. At 10HP per CON point, that's 150HP for a CON15 fighter. No bad. Lastly, this applies to items too. No items scaling. No daggers that to 10 damage followed by daggers that do 100, followed by dagger that do 1000. No daggers that out-damage a greatsword. And no ARTIFICIAL limitions on equipment (and no escalating requirements either). If I can credibly use an item (even if clumsily) then I should be able to equip it. If I have enough STR to wear plate mail, then I should be able to wield ANY plate mail... and also any sword. Freedom and realism. Those are the two things I want the most.

Romance is a nice addition, but not a vital element for a CRPG.