IndiraLightfoot

I'd like to see some morale check for certain kinds of creatures, and if they fail such a check, they should try to bolt for it or escape in som other fitting manner. However, no morale check on my companions, please. I'd prefer to have them like my PC, i.e., I decide when I should try to retreat or escape. Obviously, you should be able to pursue those fleeing and even kill them. But the outcome of the encounter xp-wise should be the same.

As a sidenote: Josh's basic setup of misses being very rare and the concept "glancing blow" etc actually is quite similar to what can be found in the Pummeling Table for deciding the outcome of non-lethal and weaponless combat in my DM Guide from 1979!

Precisely, Bartimaeus! The more that vote on the great ideas that get added here, the better! As for the IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII-problem, that is true, but at least it is space-efficient and it looks a bit like graphics, i.e. a bar of some sort. If it doesn't work, I'm sure we can come up with something better. Keep voting up your favourite ideas, peeps!

I'll add a new great idea by JonVanCaneghem: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/63294-stash-the-unlimited-inventory-mechanic/page-3 Instead of just a meta-gamey super-deep stash, there can, among other things, exist scavengers/workers as part of that deep stash and they sorta work as jawas/Sherpa. They can help you do big hauls from dungeons, but you also bring to the table that their operations sometimes can blow up in your face: turning them into looters/robbers/plunderers stealing much of your precious loot. -Magical items are very rare, gold for consumables: ll -Loot is "branded/tagged", origin of items affect NPCs differently: l -Crafted magical items are few, unique and true achievements: ll -Temporary abstract armour degradation in combat, repairs are "automagical": ll -Armours and weapons can get "enfeebled"/"fatigued" over time, easy repair: ll And adding: -Party-members can have individual (non-party) quests in cities to showcase and challenge their personal strengths and weaknesses. ll -Beast-of-burden teams embodying the deep stash; they are useful and sometimes shady: l

Stun: I would be all for a list-based stash of this kind. AGX-17: From a robot to a snyde Manga dude, I like your new avatar! JonVanCaneghem: Great idea! Your scavengers/workers as part of deep stash and working as jawas/Sherpa. They can help you do big hauls from dungeons, but you also bring to the table that their operations sometimes can blow up in your face: turning them into looters/robbers/plunderers stealing much of your precious loot. The outcome of the hauling should depend on some charisma and reputation modifiers. I'm gonna ad your idea to my "Ideas not to be forgotten"-topic over at General Discussions. And hey guys, you know that you can support any of the ideas there just be copying the list at the bottom there and adding an "l" for like to it and copying the list?

Great find, JFSOCC! I'll that! An better still, you just simplified my thread. Obviously, as long as we provide the forum link, we're good to go. Adding quotes is nice, but definitely not a good idea to make a mandatory feature here. -Magical items are very rare, gold for consumables: ll -Loot is "branded/tagged", origin of items affect NPCs differently: l -Crafted magical items are few, unique and true achievements: ll -Temporary abstract armour degradation in combat, repairs are "automagical": ll -Armours and weapons can get "enfeebled"/"fatigued" over time, easy repair: ll And adding: -Party-members can have individual (non-party) quests in cities to showcase and challenge their personal strengths and weaknesses. ll

Hmm, multiquoting wasn't that reliable. Well, I just felt I had to clarify that basically this thread is also an ongoing poll, namely the list of ideas itself. Even if you don't any idea, you can still put an "l" or several "l"s on the list at the bottom of the last post if you strongly agree with any of the ideas. Just remmber to copy the list when you're done, like this (but I haven't voted again, coz I can't double-vote), so let me see them "l"s rolling in: List of great ideas: -Magical items are very rare, gold for consumables: l -Loot is "branded/tagged", origin of items affect NPCs differently: l -Crafted magical items are few, unique and true achievements: l -Temporary abstract armour degradation in combat, repairs are "automagical": l -Armours and weapons can get "enfeebled"/"fatigued" over time, easy repair: l

Alexjh: No gems I really like! They are light, obviously precious and covetable. And special bags for gems and a key ring sounds great too. Vendor trash to me is to much of standard weapons and armour, no need for these. Let's just say that most such items are broken or got top be after combat or something. Thew few you do find could be normal ones and on rare occasions something more interesting. Vendor trash is really anything that are small nidbits of 1-5 gp kind of stuff, or as in Skyrim, all everyday stuff and home decoration stuff dropped into the maps with Bethesda's physics simulator. Such thins should be bolted clutter: eye candy. Also, vendor trash would be if consumables are too common: So no thanks to gazillions of potions and ammo (Perhaps arrows, bolts and bullets should be linked to the weapon itself with just some counter. No need to take up invo space with those.

Sedrefilos: Aquatic elves, sahaugin, pech (I just adore those little buggers), more or less all kinds of undead, lots of mimics and monsters that appear to one kind of monster but is in fact something else (I love surprises), piercers (I miss them so), owlbears and skulks.

This is a very important topic. Things that I would love to see implemented in PE is: -Useful stuff, no "vendor trash" -A Top of the pack that makes encounters challenging and strategic -Instead of an unlimited stash, I'd like to see a carting/beast of burden/thrall hub system, where you can sink a few flags into the map, and these flags mark the points where you'll have your mobile bigger stash available

Hi all! I've just re-read a few topics that I liked and realized that there are so many neat ideas that get buried in them and sooner, rather than later, we will get accused of necroing threads just by mentioning them. That won't do! So, I'm starting this little thread. My idea is that we post our absolute favourite ideas here, and that we do it continuously, as we find new ones. I'm not saying that each time you press like somewhere, you should rush to this topic and post it here. The ideas here should be carefully selected by you. It should be things that you feel PE would benefit greatly from, so you do it in fear that the neat ideas may be soon lost in oblivion. BUT! There are house rules in this thread as regards of what kinds of ideas that should be posted here: -Preferably, it should be rather unique ideas -Also, post nothing that is already stated by OEI to be included in the game -Moreover, no glaring pet peeve details, please, like "the combat xp vs objective xp"-war -And no, you can't post ideas of your own. You have to quote someone else -Yes, it will happen that someone else had the great idea and you didn't know about that, so you quoted somebody that got the same idea later. That is absolutely fine! -Lastly, this is not the place to debate the presented ideas. Please use the links to debate ideas where they came from. SO NO DEBATE POSTS IN THIS THREAD AND! There is a format to this thread. I will show you, but first I'll try and describe it: -Post your great idea as a quote from where you got it. Shorten it down to make it to-the-point -Supply us with a link to the quote of the idea so others can read it in full at its original location and press like if they want to -Make a short description of the quoted idea, followed by a colon and then a single "l" as in "like" -Finally, and most importantly, at the bottom of your post, you should copy the list of great ideas. It's like a baton in a relay. EACH POSTER HERE MUST COPY THE LIST OF GREAT IDEAS AND PLACE IT AT THE BOTTOM! -You are not allowed to remove othere people's ideas from the list -Obviously, you can post here without proving new ideas: Then you will be making your opinion heard about the ideas on the list. All you need to do is add a single "l" after each idea on the list. Hopefully, when the "l"s accumulate it will begin to look like horizontal bars, which clearly shows how appreciated the ideas are ****************************************************************************************************************** Alright, I'll go first. Here are a few ideas I think are worthy of this list: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/63120-money-in-project-eternity-get-rid-of-adventurer-based-economy/page-2 I think the best way to set up the economy is to have magic items be very rare and exclude them from the economy. Nobody buys them except eccentric collectors who have lots of money to spend, and nobody sells them because they are too valuable. You have to do quests or steal/kill to get them. That way the economy is just there for the first part of the game, just like in Baldur's Gate where after chapter 2 or 3 you shouldn't need to buy anything ever again. A new spell scroll or some magical ammunition might be nice, but your weapons and armor are pretty much set, only to be replaced by magic items you find while adventuring. Basically gold should be used for consumables only. Anytime you can buy items, it upsets the balance of the game. You can really twink yourself by selling off all the loot you find/steal in order to get one high level item, making the rest of the game too easy. However, if all the items are being heavily coveted/guarded by their owners, then you come to appreciate each one you earn much more. Where it could get interesting, however, is if there's multiple currencies that are being kept track of. We know there is going to be two big cities, so you can have two different currencies just off of that. Dungeon delving and killing stuff from a different age can produce its own currency as well. Currency in one area doesn't necessarily convert to an equivalent currency in another area, especially if the two areas are not on friendly terms, and depending on what background activity is going on in game, could cause events to happen for the party. For example, if the party went to clean out an elven burial site and spent the money found there in an elven area, that could cause a bounty to be placed on the party by the elves after a couple of days to be brought in for questioning...dead or alive. Or spending money from one city at the other city when they are not on friendly terms could result in the party being contacted by the local thieves guild for possible jobs. http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/63120-money-in-project-eternity-get-rid-of-adventurer-based-economy/page-2 "Falkon Swiftblade" Posted 25 January 2013 - 05:22 PM All this talk of weapons and thresholds, and everything that goes into it reminds me of when I played Star Wars Galaxies, the Vanilla version and when you finally unlocked your jedi – which was a miracle in itself when you did – you had to collect resources to build your lightsaber and each little piece contributed to the stats like what you have going on here. I really liked that system because no two players had the same saber even though on the outside it potentially looked the same. You may need a generic type of materiel like Metal, but there may be five types of metal to choose from at a time depending on the region you were in, and those all had different quality. My weapon may have a higher damage output but it was fragile and could break easy, and they had sub components that made up the final product. For reference for anyone at Obsidian who wants an idea for crafting for our weapons, here's info regarding saber construction as used in the old SWG. Maybe you guys could use something similar. http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/63207-update-39-non-core-classes-cooldowns-attack-resolution-damage-vs-armor-and-a-tileset/page-10 "Lephys" Posted 29 January 2013 01:34 AM Equipment Degradation: The possible solution? Abstract the degradation a bit so that it's a temporary effect, similar to (but not quite the same thing as) a typical de-buff in many RPGs. AND, perhaps, allow for some control over the likelihood or frequency of degradation. A perfect example would be with the weapon types. Maybe, since crushing is so effective against heavy, plate armor, a maul would be the only thing with a chance of damaging the armor itself. And maybe, if a sword is least effective against heavy, plate armor, using a sword against plate would have a chance to damage the sword (Hey! We're creating synergy between degradation AND weapon-swapping! 8D). Heh. Either way, going along with their per-rest/per-encounter system for many durations/limitations for things, at the very LEAST I'd say your stuff should "automagically" get repaired when you rest (an abstraction of the assumption that if you're a seasoned warrior who relies on his gear all the time, you know how to repair it when you get some down time and/or the assumption that you're going to go somewhere to get it repaired anyway.) Another potential layer to such a system would be actual honing/improvements (re-temporing/forging/sharpening/armor reinforcements) that could be optionally purchased and applied to equipment to reduce the likelihood of even short-term armor/weapon durability penalties. http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/63249-on-combat-item-swapping-and-armor-deterioration/page-2 "TRX850" Posted 30 January 2013 - 12:39 AM I agree it doesn't really suit this style of CRPG. But it depends how you view degradation. Complete degradation into broken, irreparable, irreplaceable scrap won't fly with anyone. And temporary, encounter-only debuffs seem a bit artificial and not really a threat. What I was getting at a few posts back is the idea that your weapon is a bit like your character: it's fully functional until it reaches 0 HP. Then it enters a "state", but not unconsciousness. Just degraded. Reduced to about two thirds of its base stats until you fix it. The easiest way would be to camp and regain half the item HP free of charge, assuming you had a normal whetstone (a few GP from blacksmith merchant) or a requisite armour repair talent. Of course, at low levels, you could just replace the items from regular loot drops. The question is, how do you adapt as you gain levels and acquire magical arms and armour? Do you keep paying a blacksmith to repair them fully, or do you choose a longer term strategy via talents and skills and do it yourself? Think of the weapon/armour as being "Enfeebled". http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/63249-on-combat-item-swapping-and-armor-deterioration/page-3 List of great ideas: -Magical items are very rare, gold for consumables: l -Loot is "branded/tagged", origin of items affect NPCs differently: l -Crafted magical items are few, unique and true achievements: l -Temporary abstract armour degradation in combat, repairs are "automagical": l -Armours and weapons can get "enfeebled"/"fatigued" over time, easy repair: l

Rjshae: A few posts back I wrote about me enlarging and sharpening the sign in Photoshop. I could or more or less make out "Ponytail". In the same post I mention rocking horses as being a 17th century invention.

And a NWN2 classic: Neeshka's "Hells, hells..." That was her grudging when you pressed her too hard as a picklock thrall. Not exactly my favourite NPC, too teeny for me, but she certainly had her moments.

This Kickstarter update has an impressive list of first-posters to show for itself. Welcome, the new forum subscribers: -Neonarg -Atomictown -remur -Ladon -Kozzy -Feersum Endjinn -OliverUv -Lantros -bowenandarrow -The Invisible Man -Lumasini -Segev -Messier-31 -benwa69

So, that would be "word-icka", then?

Josh asked for continued speculation on the basis of the Orlan picture: Well, after having enlarged the jpg in Photoshop and after some sharpening and colour shifts, I'm rather sure I can read the sign in the upper left corner: It says "PONYTAIL", and although a bit doglike, it is a pony that seems to be a rocking horse. Interestingly that toy did not appear before the 17th century. I actually own one myself from the 19th century. So perhaps PE will be based on other 17th century stuff as well. Well our Sherlock Orlan decipher has a flintlock pistol in his belt, introduced at the beginning of the 17th century. Finally, the sign on his vest certainly is interesting: a symbol for water at the bottom, a fist clenching a rod above it. Could this be symbol for the god of light and redemption? I mean, redemption of a crime and all that. But the rod is not particularly shining if it's supposed to be a symbol of light. Or is our Orlan a member of a customs office in the city: the waves being the water in the harbour, the clenched fist equals autority and the rod is a symbol for a pen and straight books and tariffs. He feels a bit like a constable scrying the weapon, which certainly has pierced somebody deep. The blood is high up on the blade.

Wow, already the 40th update! And then we get to see a Sherlock cipher with clan vibes, and also a wonderful pantheon insight from mr Ziets! I couldnät be happier. And I really do like your approach to religion and gods, it's well-informed and fits the great variety of a big RPG like this. How exciting! Can't wait to dive into your world.

Very true, LadyCrimson!

But in many ways that is what spell casters have done to melee characters all these years in CRPGs: They've lowered their armour with spells, they have made them miss more often with weapons, or they have cushioned blows, etc. It would be business as usual, but effects that could come from an ogre bashing your body too hard yet again rather than an evil warlock shaking you up.

Welcome to the forums, Silhouetteless! I'm not sure if you've played these games, but calling NWN2 an action RPG while the others is "strategic RPG" (whatever that is) just feels so out of place. I've played all games in the poll and heaps more. Here's my little sum-up: ToEE: nice mechanics, but too little RPG for me BG: a classic, great story it really captured the pen-n-paper D&D feel well BG 2: another classic, perhaps a bit more linear, but some story content was mindblowing IWD 1: Decent story, but actually rather empty and shallow. Decent stuff IWD 2: Storywise there was no improvement over IWD1, but D&D 3rd ed worked better in many ways for a computer game, also nice UI Planescape: Yet another classic, where the writing and the story makes the whole game NWN 1: Decent story, same goes for expansions. It was the toolset and server play that made it come to life like no other game before it NWN 2: In parts, great story, MotB-expansion, marvellous story, Storm of Zehir, decent story All of them can be described as click-fests in some regard, but more importantly, all of them were quite strategic RPGs very much thanks to nice implementations of D&D. Also, they are party-based games. Calling anyone of them "action RPGs" would be weird. They were not Diablo, Titan Quest or even Might & Magic. At least I think of hack-n-slash when I hear action RPG or point-n-click.

Maggotheart: As things stand in our little debate here, armour repairs would be "automagically" repaired in-between encounters. It would be just like a temporary de-buff to reflect things that occur in the fray of battle, as it were. And also, your suggestion, would be just as tedious, although a positive effect, so that too ought to be automated if it's in.

Jotra: Not being a Luddite, but you voted for cars to be in! Even trains make me shudder in a game like this, but perhaps a few mining carts and a few stretches can be stuffed in the mega dungeon somewhere. P.S. I did vote for submarine or something similar, just because I'd love to see some underwater maps in PE. I've always loved such settings in D&D: aquatic elves, sahaugin... Mmm...

Curryinahurry: You bring the solution yourself to the thing that you're skeptical about: If some temporary armour degradation can set in, then so can temporary magical armour degradation set in, and drawing that line full out: active spells, such as CC or barriers/resistances can get degraded to, either via spells or by timers or logaritmic degradation over time. IIRC, Diablo 3, made a few such changes to certain spells to make the game more solid. Rjshae: Which of course would be solved with a wisely devised Top of the pack and reasonable item swapping regulations.

Heh, I certainly agree with everything you guys posted! Freedom of action and lots of consequences is the way to go, and unintended ones can be fun at times too. As a side note, for the main plot lines of a hopefully vast game like this it will most likely be vulnerable to us messing something up without our understanding, but I'm fine with that. I think I get more annoyed with systems that tell me what I've done just after each encounter. Perhaps that was one of the lower points of the reputation system in FNV: You immediately got transparent feedback of what you've done. Weirdly, I sorta like when I get ambushed by a silent assassin and then reads the order on his dead body afterwards and realize that I have myself to blame for his getting hired in the first place. I know some players want to do all things in a game in one play-thru else it counts as bad design (As with the various "factions" you could join in Skyrim, coz yeah, not only could you joined them all, but also there wre no consequences for doing so, and no surprises when a faction realizes that you're two-timing them). As for alignment: In PnP D&D it was sometimes fun and comforting with LG, NG, CG, LN, N, CN, LE, NE and CE. It also tied up well with whole pantheons and powers-that-be in all kinds of planes and dimensions. But in CRPGs I've come to appreciate more open systems that treat each action as tied to specific causes and effects.

Nice topic, TRX850! And many of your ideas in your first post sounds great. I have only one objection, really. I've grown tired of universal reputation systems in CRPGs. If I mess something up in one corner of the world the grapevine gets effective like the Internet. I'd rather see a more piecemeal reputation system that actually is corrupt and contradictory in itself. But yes, consequences, big and small, please! As for souls and alignment I think Dishonored did it very well: The godlike entity in the game didn't sort you into a certain alignment in that game, but your actions had good, bad or even neutrally wierd consequences. So, I'd love to see the soul as quite a plastic beast that can be quite different things - it should follow the wide diversity if character choice.