Lv99Wizard

Such a mechanic will frustrate the vast majority of players and be interesting to only a very few. I'm not sure that would warrant it even being an option in the hardcore modes. It's certainly interesting though and might increase the longevity of the game.

I honestly think it was just a diagram to represent how many levels have been achieved. I really doubt there will be a massive statue extending from level 3 to 13. That would be super boring. And how exactly are you going to fight a statue 100m+ tall in an isometric view? It would look silly, like attacking 10 giant toes. I hope the dungeon will have a lot of variety, personally, because 13 levels is a lot.

What self-respecting wizard *holds* their grimoire? Obviously, it will be suspended in mid-air by tendrils of magic.

This is an excellent idea for a project with infinite money. But in reality, I don't think it would be a good allocation of resources. If Justin Sweet (for example) was to submit some portraits for free to Obsidian just to showcase his skills to the world, that would be awesome. Someone should tell him.

the DA:O and NWN UIs have a completely different feel to the IE games. The IE games had perfectly good UI's so I hope those are emulated, with the possible inclusion of a minimap, but I'm really on the fence about that. I really like the intricacy of the IWD2 interface with it's Greek motif. The one thing that's really important is a resize-able dialogue window. I really want the ability to maximise that when necessary (and read back previous choices) and minimize it in combat (to 1 or 2 lines).

Seriously? (I can't find a P:E facebook) I really think that should count towards the next mega dungeon level.

Man if random people just started pooping on my work (even though I actually know what the eff I'm doing since it's my chosen *career* and they're nobodies) I'd be a little mad. Also, a name is literally the least important aspect of a race (and pretty much anything) in a new fantasy setting. I can't think of anything more petty to cry about. Such a thing literally doesn't exist. You couldn't even Wish (lvl 9 Spell) for it. edit:had to replace some mean words.

I think that, because technology has advanced so much in a decade, it will be a lot easier/quicker/cheaper to implement the creative ideas and iterations that P:E (and the mega dungeon) will go through. So, I don't think that 8, 9, 10 or more levels will impact the size of each individual level. Obsidian have all the monies and about 18 months to make it happen. This mega dungeon will be huge and awesome.

Excellent update. I'm playing "dream the impossible dream" as we speak. That screenshot is awesome! It definitely recaptures the feel of the old IE games. But! I was really hoping to see a character I know it's really early and so on but characters in P:E won't be the 2D sprites like the previously were. I was really hoping to see what 3D characters would look like...Maybe just before the end of the kickstarter?

I like the Endurance/Health idea personally. Blocking a mace strike with your shield will obviously take effort but won't do any damage. Having your endurance then regenerate seems perfectly sensible to me. If, instead, your character actually gets hit by the mace then the damage taken shouldn't heal without spell/potion/salve. What's important is that you don't have to deplete endurance points to cause damage.

Would having cover mechanics just devolve into the party hiding while the mages throw spells at people? That's probably a worst case scenario though. It could work.

Otiluke's Resilient Sphere was also sweet. Send your weakest party towards the enemy. Let them surround him/her. Otiluke's resilient sphere followed by every AoE spell you had centered on the cluster of hapless enemies. Good times.

More classes = more awesomeness. I never tried playing a Bard in the original IE games but chanters sound very interesting. Especially this part: "chanters are able to recite their chants while occupied with other activities"

Web and/or Entangle. (Followed by the brutal cascade of Skull Traps/Glyphs of Warding/Fireballs.) That was the beauty of that system, no singular spell was perfect alone but there were Earth shattering combinations.

How is "promising an expansion of P:E" not expanding the game? What kind of cognitive dissonance is this? Facebook likes are completely free but it's far more important than that. It allows the presence of the project to explode, driving up the potential backers in KS and PayPal. Wasteland 2 wasn't an enticing reward to me personally and I was totally hoping for a screenshot that Fergus has been teasing all week. For those reasons, and not the ones alluded to by the OP, I found the update underwhelming. Also, I wish they would do portraits (like the dwarf ranger they first showed) rather than concept art.