dunehunter

In the update Tim said there would be prone positions in PE, I wonder what's that for? Will there be any plot that force you to move forward in a prone mode? Or it can protect you from missile attacking?

I feel quite well with the magic system as long as they arrange encounters in a proper sequence. What I means is that a series of short battle follow a big one, then you won't be able to cast spells within the level of spell you have used up between short battles while the cooldown will be over between two big encounters. And I think this is what they want to achieve, freeing the gamers from the rest system while maintaining an old taste.

Never start a poll before, and maybe I should make it simpler next time. Sorry for the poor phrase since English is not my main language.

I've read a lot of threads on what magic mechanism should be and some ideas are very interesting. As to be metioned first, my idea is inspired by a webgame called 'Estiah' and I think it is perfectly in line with my thought on how soul&magic mechanism should work in PE. First of all, for those who aren't familiar with Estiah, I will describe how battle system in Estiah operates. Estiah is a turn-based game and players use cards called charms in battles. Every player has traditional HP to judge how tough he is. However, instead of using mana to activate his ablity, he uses a source called 'spirit'. Each card he uses to attack or defend consumes 1 spirit points and when his spirit points drop to zero, he dies. And this becomes very interesting and tactical because you can damage the enemies' spirit to win the duel instead of reducing their hp, moreover, there are subclass specializes into spirit attacking. Concept of soul points: So let's go back to the topic, I've read the thread 'ablities and spells' and I like the concept of soul point and I'd like to go further into it. I think the devs can use soul points to replace the traditional way of mana or stamina. This is my idea on it: your character will start wih a certain amount of soul points, for example, 30/30 soul points. It won't grow because soul is the nature of a man, but it varies from person to persom, as the devs mention that there are ones with fragile soul and ones with powerful soul. Your initial attribution like wisdom may have a slight impact on it's amount. And maybe you can gain additional soul points in your playthrough. How it works with magic and how it limits magic usage: Similar to those in Estiah, every time you use a spell, you will consume your soul points and the more powerful the spell you cast, the more you consumes your souls. But you won't die if you run out of your soul points. It just exhausts you, maybe reducing your will save or something like that. So the conclusion is though your magic can cast powerful spell like time stop, the total amount of spells is not changed. Thus you should decide wether to use some less powerful spells or a really big one. Moreover, as you see, if you cast too much you will in big danger aganist spells like fear or hold person, so you can't abuse your power and must caculate it with caution. Soul attack and willpower I think in PE there should be some monsters or maybe a magic school that threaten your soul. So I think it's a good idea to have spells like soul devour to reduce the maximun of your soul points temporarily or permanently. For example, if you encounter with a big tough guy who is hard to kill physically, you can kill him with your soul-focused wizard. And there also should be some protection against soul attack, like willpower in Estiah. I'm sorry that I can't express this in a simpler way for that English is not my main language, but anyway, what's your opinion on the topic?

The devs say our character can be of any origins in PE, however, since in the start of the game we witness some very unusual events, plus with the special soul system, maybe we can assume that these events lead to some changes in our soul and thus make us gain unique powers. I think there are both sides of having a great power when gaming. On the one hand, it will definitely add some mysterious verve to the game. The nameless one of PS:T is, of course, a very sucessful example of this. On the other hand, if it is not designed properly, it can make the game less interesting. I lke the idea of the spirit hunger of MotB, but I don't like the idea of 'if I don't do it, I'm gonna die'. And of course without special abilities the game can be equally fun. Look at the older scrolls, the IWD series, the DAO, so what's your opinion on this topic?

I agree with that and I love it when MInsc made a critical hit and shouted 'Go for the Eyes!', and of course I think it should be optional to turn it off.

Don't mean it to be. Just posting the thread because the combat of nwn2 really disappointed me.

I really hope their design of class will contain some kind of conflict. What I mean is classes like mages and templars who are against each other in DAO, evil clerics who can turn dead paladins in BG, or the opposite sides of technology and magic in Arcanum. This really makes the world deeper and leads to more complexed tactic and strategy in combats. For example, using your templar to kill the enemy's mage quickly or your team will be in huge danger and something like that.

I think one of elements that make combats exciting in BG and IWD is screen shaking when one of your charactors make a critical hit and shout his warcry. And this is what ,in my opinion, NWN2 lack of, which makes the combats in NWN2 quite boring. This is really a detailed issue but i wish it will be in PE!