jb.

AI and pathfinding in IE games is literally the worst thing I have ever seen

Not exactly true... Humans don't have a mechanical advantage, it's the ability to sweat that allows persistence hunting. I believe what happens is that, in very hot midday sun (like temperatures in excess of 40 degrees C), the animal cannot maintain a rapid pace because it will overheat and need to rest in shade. The human, on the other hand, can sweat the heat away and continue a slow pursuit. In temperate climates where the extreme heat is not an issue, persistence hunting not feasible, because the animals are better at travelling long distances than we are. But I'm not an expert in the topic (I certainly have never done it lol). Anyways, very few humans can run like this. So while perhaps your warrior with like 26 CON could run continuously (and that's asking a lot when he's got 100lb of gear on), what about the 11 CON skinny mage? Not everyone going to be a marathon runner. So, I support the idea of a rapid walk as the standard pace, maybe with a limited time "sprint" option for when youre trying to run away from something really big and angry, and youre like "why is my dude WALKING??"

Since there's permanent character death, I plan to make use of the Adventurer's Hall. That way I can have a hired adventurer on hand, probably fighter of some sort, and if a battle starts going badly I can have the hired chump hold them off while the rest of my party runs away.

I'm pretty sure that gif is appropriate to any situation

Yes, I very much approve

I always found it a little absurd in BG2 how the inside of buildings were massively larger than the outside, like everything is a tardis

Wow. I love the direction they're taking with stamina, health and death. This actually may be the most promising news I've read in an update so far, since the initial video. Upping my pledge!

I think I just watched that on youtube, and the commentary grossly overplayed the situation... yes, seven lions attacked a lone adult female elephant, but they were unable to bring her down. I don't think they make a habit of it, especially if there's more than one elephant, which is usually the case as females travel in groups. Male elephants travel alone, but they are much larger than females (up to twice the weight) and more aggressive, so lions seem to steer clear of them. It's quite common for lions to attack a young elephant though.

Sure, they need not all be extremely difficult; a range would be ideal. But it'd be nice if there were some that were very tough. Although your party may have weapons and magic, the beast could have some form of magic as well, even if it's just a supernaturally tough skin. In our own world, I'm imagining an armoured warrior attacking a rhinoceros, and it seems like an ill-advised venture. If the people in the PE world can have exceptional abilities, it's only reasonable that some animals do too, and they needn't all be aggressive. Sidenote: I didn't know that lions would attack elephants. At least, fully grown ones. Gonna google it.

Typically in cRPGs, it seems the very large beasts (eg dragons) are all carnivores, or so aggressive that they attack on sight. This is contrary to what we observe in our world, where most very large animals (mammoths, elephants, whales) are herbivores, and for good reason; big animals need a lot of food. Plants are much more readily available than meat, and they don't try to run away from you, so you can make do with a slower metabolism. In PE I'd like to see the occasional massive beast wandering around eating leaves and not attacking you on sight. You may choose to fight it and gain xp, but it could be an extremely powerful creature, and there may be a herd of them. Story possibilities are here too, such as angering the local druids by poaching, or working with them to stop poachers. Thoughts? (apologies if this has been posted before. threads on this forum go by so fast it's impossible to keep track of them all)

Absolutely agree with op

What about a toggle to run (eg, left click = walk, ctrl+leftclick = run), but this uses up a recharging "sprint" meter at a rate that depends on your character's armour and strength? That way you could have your character charge into a ranged opponent, or flee hastily, at something other than a sustainable walking pace.

Limited ammo, but with the ability to recover (some) arrows that have already been shot. Maybe have a 40% chance of the arrow being recoverable, or something like that. Then there can be magical kind of "never-break" arrows.

Level scaling!

precisely