IndiraLightfoot

unzubaru: Make a Let's Play PE on Youtube! Just kidding. Welcome to the forums, and I wouldn't mind seeing that kind of coop, but at best, we'll have to wait for an expansion for that, a bit like Storm of Zehir in the case of NWN2.

I just want to emphasize how tired I am of the "from rags to riches"-setup of CRP-campaigns. MotB worked perfectly fine without any stronghold pile and droves of wealth, as did PST, and those weren't exactly bad games, eh? BG1 almost had all this worked out to perfection, but then BG2 ruined it all. I know the stronghold is in, but personally I couldn't care less about playing a feudal wall street wolf. I want engaging stories and exciting encounters, not tonnes of money and items to micromanage.

As much as I like casual bouts with ARPGs now and then, I want PE almost to be the opposite as far as loot and gold go: -Less money available/acquirable (whatever the currencies) -Less weapons/armour a/a -No potions and no scrolls a/a (at least they should be extremely rare, treasures in their own right, not fast-food ketchup bags and toilet paper) -magical weapons/armour should be very rare -Magical jewellery and special magical items should be even rarer -No loot explosions when opponents die, just bodies to loot, and the bodies should linger after death (at least awhile). No loot bags, please -High level loot should be a/a almost as an exception to the rule, if not only for the reason that it's annoying to get the message: You're not of the required level to use this item." -I like early games to progress slowly, mid-games too, late game as well: meaning: No loot extravagances, please -No crafting that breaks the system in any way. At best, crafting should be used in order to replenish basic items, whether daggers, short swords, gloves or arrows -Make shops/stores immune to abuse of the kind: Dump money on them and gear an über-party far too early. Give them scarce stocks and have these stocks undergo changes as time goes by. Minor lucky items could be inserted into these collections, as long as they are just a fraction better and very uncommon

Indeed, they love the smell of newly ground coffee beans in the morning! There have been a few legendary shops deep within dungeons in the CRPGs over the last 30 years that I've played, and often they are outright bizarre. However, for a few shop encounters, I think the game designers got away with it. Perhaps it was Dungeon Explorer II who topped them all with the Gream Reaper shop, where you also could gamble with your life/lives, by playing Black Jack with Death himself. And, well, how to make backtracking right? As you mention, adding a few mindless random encounters along a lengthy backtrack very rarely adds to the fun (especially if you are out of spells and gimped in some way - I've had such moments early on in ToEE, where I must as well restart, but stubborn as I am, I try to fight till the bitter end.) Perhaps PE will have mechanics related to health, stamina and spell recuperation that actually would make even a few random encounters fun, as long as the encounters make sense story-wise and as that combat is varied and challenging enough? Another solution is to tell the players with a splash screen/illustration card "Suddenly, the cavern collapses behind you. At the same, a chasm opens up in front of you..." And then they have to take another way back home, which is a new - problem solved and more content for us!

I think the Mouth of Sauron as portrayed in Jackson's LotR-movies was inspired by Judge Death:

Bethesda threatening Mojang with a law suit over the use of the word "scrolls" in a game title comes to mind.

Who needs ordinary news channels? News at all? I mean, we have this great thread to read instead! Yonyuro: You certainly put your finger on one of the major issues - backtracking! Plenty of the classic CRPGs had this, but when is it bad and when is it at least tolerable? And can it ever be good? Once again, as an example of bad backtracking. If you did the bugbear quest in NWN2 OC with Khelgar in tow and then end it with his notorious "Here goes!", you had to back track all of the bugbear cave and then the serpentine winding path leading up to it. It alone took quite a while. It felt like a quarter of an hour, and you didn't get to play the game a single second, you just had to watch your party pathfinding. And tolerable then? Well, if we stick with NWN2 OC, most quests within Neverwinter had much less distances to backtrack when you have done your deed. Also, Obsidian had scripted a few encounters on the way, sometimes with cutscenes and all, so the backtracking could all be part of the adventure. Finally, a city environment isn't as dead as some desolate canyon. Already, we are starting to see the contours of what good backtracking would be: More story-related interruptions during the backtracking, and not just an endless stream of random encounters on identical placeholder maps that don't make sense (Dragon Lance-CRPG-series of youre, I'm looking at you). I mean, the solution is not to make a back door in each dungeon that leads back to the entrance just for bizarre convenience, like in Skyrim. That was just lame. And I don't like too much map teleporting either. I totally share this philosophy, as this would encourage multiple playthroughs more. In some ways, NWN2 did a good job in making this a reality. Yet again, Skyrim failed miserably, letting you be the master of all factions all at once and completing all quests and strands in one playthrough. It was disappointing to say the least. Just because I'm more pressed for time nowadays, does not mean I want a game that is meant for one playthrough only. I want a game that will last for years to come, like the IE games and the NWN-games. Agreed. I would have loved for the possibility to refuse that Grey Warden and then suffer through some tormented anti-quest while the world is crumbling around you. TRoar, great post with points that can't be underlined enough! And I love your way with words, Wals! :D

One month with all news would have been much worse. Come on, folks! Let'em make the game!

Prosper: I draw my gun before even reading your post correctly, it seems! Sorry. sorophx: Yup! One include had to go then, and then cue system("PAUSE"); Thank you, or should I say, Kiitos!

PE will be quite encounter heavy, as opposed T:TON, so if Obsidian play their cards right, they'll make those encounters varied and complex enough for each playthrough to be different on that account alone. Factions certainly help there. Then, it's story-heavy as well (Yum!), so they can make each playthrough become quite different. And add to that, those FF-book-like illustrations with texts, where the player gets to pick event-specific choices here and there, and we have a veritable feast of playthrough proliferation. T:TOn will have a harder time, I reckon.

Robsidious: Tell me about it! For some a certain feature is treasure, for others it's garbage. We'd better not bring up the UI, coz that alone has caused quite an uproar in this very forum. Obsidian won't be able to please everyone on each and every feature, but I do trust that the overall result will be clever and well-informed. If some of these features aren't what I hoped for, I'm sure I'll happily adapt. I won't curl up and cry my eyes out, that's for certain. Metabot: Interesting theory, almost like paying something wonderful forward to the next generation, semi-subconsciously.

#include<iostream> #include <conio.h> using namespace std; main() { int a,b,c; cout<<"Enter two numbers"<<endl; cin>>a>>b; c=a+b; cout<<"Sum of two numbers are"<<c; cout<<c<<endl; getch(); }

As a huge fan of MotB, I think you have identified perhaps my biggest gripe with that NWN2 expansion right there (I actually thought the spirit meter was fitting somehow, but perhaps it was with you for too long). One of few new games that have really impressed me in the last year or two is Dishonored. My avatar certainly hints at me digging it. However, Dishonored too had a similar annoyance, but this time it was what PrimeJunta called "lack of transparency". If you did a no-kills playthrough, you had no idea if you had haphazardly killed someone directly or indirectly. And some acts were like two hours of game play. It wasn't fun when you saw you had some inexplicable death on your consciousness at the end of it. I would so much appreciated if I at least could check if my hands are clean while playing the game. Things like this is so unnecessary and so easy to rectify. And it doesn't have to be in your face like in FNV, where if you somehow short circuit a quest by killing some NPC, you get a pop-up saying something like "quest failed" on the screen. It's well enough with some info screen that I can get to via some short key. As for Dishonored, I kept coming back to it several times with replays and all, because each playthrough could be done in so many ways. Also, there were plenty of hidden sections of the game (with the vertical aspect of the maps being even more important than the horizontal). Just like in FNV, I did nice guy-runs as well as killer sprees. While the game was rather linear, and the story was pretty straight forward, I came to appreciate the environment, the soundscapes and the gameplay so much that I kept coming back. I soon have more hours invested in Dishonored than Skyrim. Heck, even the achievements were fun. Now, that's a first! They really were. I hope Obsidian takes a page or two from Arkane Studios book when it comes to making fun encounter resolving achievements.

Good point! I've been playing Wizardry 8 a bit, and I noticed that you got to give your character a full name (surname and all), and then a nickname. It works like a charm!

There so many great posts here that my head is reeling! I begin by replying in short order to Josh's questions: a) Not at all, as long as PE isn't Shadowrun Returns-short-changed b) Difficulty done right is something I feed on (like Karkarov's post mentioned), but done wrong it's pure annoyance c) A number of something elses, in fact. See below (with the help of my fellow forumites) ^This is a good starting point. Design the game just like you wanted it to be. I have a high tolerance for that kind of games, but it seems Obsidian aims for an RPG that has varied tactical encounters with plenty of ways of resolving them on the fore front, so I have high hopes in that regard. A very important point, and this happened time and time again in the classic IE games as well, not to mention NWN 2 OC, when those pesky orcs appeared, as well the bugbears, etc. Me too. In fact, I feel set my difficulty so this scenario will happen every now and then. I like to get wiped out and then have another shot at it. You won't see me picking the ironman mode with just one save. Others had already underlined this, but not this good! Hat's off to you! I share this faith in Obsidian managing to make a game that we can tailor to our CRPG preferences. However, it shouldn't be too many options, with like monster level sliders and what not. And like I said, I love challenging encounters, and indeed, an epic RPG is epic, so please Obsidian, keep it that way, no matter what. I like this brave stance of yours. So many ask for "old school RPG" with rose-tinted glasses on. Hopefully, the Obsids know the shortcomings of the classics only to make PE an epic CRPG worthy of 2014, without dumbing the game down or making it too easy or a crowd pleaser in every sense of the word.

Bollocks! It's in the eye of the beholder, one-eyed or not. Just a heads up!

The proper name of that store that specializes in blunt weapons? Bruce's, of course!

It was just a matter of time. Soon enough, an atomic flush in a school will drown people, mark my words.

Ahh, "seas of free time", those were the days... And indeed, JFSOCC, I want PE to be so vast and long that it lasts for months and years, and that it become that friend that someone mentioned earlier in the thread! PrimeJunta: You're dead on, there! If it was easy to tell efficient game design and dumbing down apart, there would be lots of great CRPGs on the market right now, and it ain't. Also, all those mean challenges that are über-boring that we endured back in the day, I mean they just have to go. Btw, what exactly is turd pudding? Is that black pudding with moose droppings in it?

And a chilly farewell to Rotta, the abomination that is supposed to be Jabba the Hutt's child. Slimy Hutts don't have children. They just snap right off and become two adults when the time is ripe. This is common knowledge!!

... wouldn't this lead to a new body growing out below the decapitated head as well? Dark Elf: That is so cool. Didn't think of that! This make the Indestruct an even worse enemy. Chop the wrong bits off and it multiplies. Gasp!

Ieo: Sorry for the wall of text. I just got all emotional. And PST EE is perhaps not a bad idea. I replayed like a year ago, and then crashes were aplenty. Naurgalen: I think comparing CRPGs with books and ARPGs to movies is you being too kind on the latter. I think those old school RPGs are like classic cars and ARPGs are like drumming with your fingers on a dashboard on one such car.

Precisely! No holding hands, just a nice journal to read if one feels a bit lost or forgetful. Nota bene: When I question whether I can handle PE, it's not my groping for some kind of handholding. I hate those pesky exclamation marks like everyone else, but rather I'm just acknowledging the great investment I used to make in games that I still love, and whether I can muster that same bravado again, as I am a bit more mature with bad night vision and in need of reading glasses.

Ink Blot: Go head and use it or do a spin-off, be my guest! I have a wife and two kids as well - a boy and a girl. Unfortunately, my wife doesn't share my passion for RPGs or gaming in general. I have tried, believe me, arranged PnP sessions with some friends, but she just can't stop laughing. She prefers card games (and is a shark in those waters) and Candy Crush.

Osvir: I see what you're getting at. It seems just like a few fantastic experiences I had over some persistent NWN1 worlds. It took patience and a much more rewarding roleplaying. It was truly roleplaying, almost like PnP. That kind of multiplayer is never a bad thing, and add to that the co-op system that Larian Studios is developing for D:OS, and you get lots of roleplaying goodness without it ever becoming that rushed hogging going on in MMOs.