old school fool

Morrowind, when it came out, was by far the best attempt yet at creating a discrete world, not just a game. Everything about it felt Invented and crafted, while at the same time freeform. The gameworld's internal logic was extensively thought-out (example: The Telvanni mushroom towers, that you couldn't get into unless you could levitate because, naturally in that game world, the Telvanni were all mages and could all levitate) The entire world rewarded exploration and curiosity, and was filled with hidden secrets that you discovered the way you should in an open-world game, through exercising this curiosity. The lore was by far the best of the series, and the character interaction, crucially, had interesting and sometimes amusing gameplay applications--for example Crassius Curio, the perfectly named lech and leader of one of the Great Houses, refuses to advance you in the house until you take off all your clothes for him. Virtually every gameworld object could be interacted with--the devs understood something critical about sandbox games, that the more the player can interact with, the more they are immersed. Not to mention the massive amount of factions, the tons of little sidequests in every nook and cranny, the differing interpretations of the various factions, the very respectable amount of skills, abilities, armors and weapons, and just the sheer amount of locations in the game. And perhaps most importantly, it gave PCs the ability to use the Z-axis in gameplay, via Levitation and Jump, vastly increasing the player's combat and exploration options. Unfortunately, Todd Howard, rather than deepen the faction interactions, fix the AI problems created by giving the PC access to the Z-axis, and maintain the wild inventiveness of the creatures, races, and lore, decided to cash in with Oblivion, creating a dumbed-down, hand-holding, boringly conventional northern European forest-land with some flashy updated graphics and combat mechanics, but having fewer skills, of which even fewer had a meaningful effect or gameplay use, only a third of the factions, none of which interacted with each other in any meaningful way, and the oldest and most hackneyed "Close ye the gates of HELL," plot you could ever imagine. Skyrim, in terms of world variety and PC skill applicability, was a modest step back towards what Morrowind had, but the Z-axis is forever gone, because the developers just can't handle you breaking their precious combat encounters with it. Imaginatively it's still comparatively bland, and the faction and quest design still fall woefully short, because, well, Kirkbride and Rolston are gone, and there ain't no replacing them.

I agree with the OP that the combat tactical play was a significant step forward, and that the most significant step was in character positioning, as in the usage of backstabs and spells like Cone of Cold, as the OP mentioned. Bioware paid a fair amount of attention to encounter design in DA:O, and it showed. You really had to think about when and how to use abilities, or else wipe dismayingly fast, at least in the early-to-mid game, before the balancing problem turned the game into a walkover for your mages. It was also significant that Bioware was able to use both a mana/fatigue bar and a cooldown mechanic, and was able to make both matter at the same time, without one rendering the other trivial. That was an impressive feat, IMO. Another significant step forward was in the spell combos, like in using grease + fireball. Or Cone of Cold plus the Two-Handed fighters' power attacks to shatter opponents. Those spell combos and cross-party combos were especially satisfying to pull off. And then the gambit-type mechanic, when you figured out how to set it up properly, really worked. Really, there were so many good ideas refined and meshed effectively that it mystified me why DA reportedly went off the rails so badly--I say reportedly because I never played it, the NeoGaf forum's OT thread having effectively (and thankfully) scared me off. Though even there, I understand, with all the ways DA2 failed, evidently they tightened up the cross-class combos even further, making them even more synergistic. I think here is where Obsidian can benefit, by studying and refining even further the mechanics DA:O implemented in the combat system, specifically in how well they meshed the mana/fatigue and cooldown mechanics, as well as the cross-class party combat synergies. Bioware also made fighters interesting, in a way they hadn't been for a while. We know the Obsidian plot and character writing will be top-notch anyway, and the New Vegas crafting and loot systems were more intricate and better-balanced than anything Bethesda has ever put out, but they haven't designed a complex party combat system for a while (if you don't count DS3) and I think here they have a good opportunity to refine a lot of the mechanics DA:O introduced, while at the same time avoiding the pitfalls--the late-game balancing problems, the full-strength heal after every fight, the cut-scenes undoing all your careful fight preparations, etc. It seemed Bioware was aware of the full-strength heal problem, but the mechanic they used to deal with it--the permanent injuries, which could only be removed with a healing kit--didn't quite cut it. We know cooldowns are in PE already, and I think a mana bar, combined with the tome system they are working on, has an opportunity to create something that incorporates all DA:O's strengths with none of the weaknesses.

Balanced, engaging, challenging and satisfying randomization is always best. However, the quest scripting in story RPG's pretty much always has to be fixed, and that usually means that level design has to be fixed as well, simply because the development budget is just not big enough to allow the resources to be thrown at randomization of these elements. That's the great tragedy of story RPG's, that the sales are usually just not big enough to allow for the sort of randomization that would allow for an endlessly fresh game experience. The last cRPG to seriously attempt universal randomization of quests and levels was Daggerfall, and the bugs that result from such an approach pretty much always end up being deal-breakers. And Obsidian really seems to excel at the meticulously plotted and designed element of RPGs. Randomization has never been a particular focus for them. And they've gotten better and better over the years at making fixed encounters that have the appearance of randomization, or that can lead to emergent gameplay. The things I can think of that would helpfully augment their designed encounters in fixed dungeons would be a random encounter system while traveling in the overworld that had a good amount of variety (more than BG2, if possible), and a wandering or patrolling monster system in dungeons, in addition to the set and scripted encounters. A mix of the set encounters and the patrolling monsters would probably not be too expensive and difficult to balance, while keeping things different and fresh enough across multiple playthroughs.

Yeah, I thought the trailer music worked really well. For both aesthetic and financial reasons (in-house already!) Justin should be given the chance. However, that's not to say additional people couldn't be brought on, depending on the amount of music needed to keep the setting fresh. If there's 4 writers and 7 level designers pumping out scads of content--we know what a workhorse Avellone is all by his lonesome--it would be easy for 1 composer to get overwhelmed. I'd say it would all depend on the amount of content to be scored, who would work well with Justin, the final budget, etc. Mass Effect 1 didn't suffer from having both Wall and Hulick on it, so I don't see why PE would suffer from more than one guy. One thing I don't feel absolutely necessary, especially considering the cost, is full orchestral music. Not that I know all that much about how much full orchestras cost nowadays, but I imagine it's comparatively steep next to the rest of the budget, and furthermore, most orchestral elements can be synthesized pretty well.

There were some things the newer RPGs, like Dragon Age, did well. In DA, you had to be tactical in combat and conserve your mana, because lyrium potions were rare and expensive. The sustained buffs taking a portion of your mana/fatigue seemed to work well in eliminating tedious "buffing cycles" before every combat. What Dragon Age didn't do well was create any method for using strategy, since you always had the same spell arsenal, and always just ended up using the most powerful ones you had. Honestly, I would keep the DA limited mana supply, keep the sustained buff type system, but add something I described before the threads got merged, when I think it got a little lost in the shuffle. Add a mechanic whereby mages can "meditate" upon certain schools of spells before adventuring, or on rest, or whatever mechanic you prefer, and then these spells cost 1/2 mana, or 1/3 mana, of all your other spells. This mana cost reduction would persist until the mage rested and "meditated" upon another tome. So there's still some benefit to strategic spell management before going into the dungeon, while eliminating the 3-strikes and you're out (of spells) situation until you rest again, as well as the micromanagement of your spell book that you had to do in BG2. Compensate by having mana regenerate very slowly, so there's a reason to keep using your low-cost spells. This "meditated" spell mechanic would work even better if the dungeons had "wandering" monsters that would stumble across you while you're sitting around in an unobtrusive corner waiting for your mana to recharge; your mana would never sufficiently recharge if you didn't use your strategically chosen low-cost spells. This could easily be worked into the "Tome" spell system the devs are describing. Each mage has 1 "tome" for each school, 1 of which he can "meditate" upon, to keep it fresh in his mind, and lower mana costs. Or he can create customized "Tomes" of various spells for various situations, whichever is least tedious to use. Strategy is preserved, and the tedium of spam-resting is eliminated.

I can see how the seriously hardcore would want to replay it again with custom characters, but honestly, with New Vegas I was perfectly content going through the game with my favorite characters several times. By the time I was done with my Boone/Veronica/Lily run, I was ready for my Arcade/Cass/Raul run, and after that I was ready to have my memory refreshed with the other three again. I believe most people would prefer even deeper existing character companions with more backstory/quest content before the custom character maker. So, OK for the Adventurer's Hall stretch goal, but after the 1. deeper character, 2. additional map/expanded high-level-end game content, 3. surprise dev team addition stretch goals. IMHO, that's what the majority of fans would want. After we get those, sure, let's have the Adventurer's Hall.

I just have one more suggestion to add. I'm a little concerned Obsidian is going a little off the rails with their stretch goals. An adventurer's hall is nice, I suppose, for those people who aren't fond of deep writing and character interaction, but honestly, why aren't they playing Diablo or Skyrim instead? One of the huge draws of Obsidian games is precisely the characters--their storylines, their reactions--to you and each other--the deep conversation trees. I think the devs need to own their talents and quit the overly self-effacing stuff, like, "Yeah, Veronica and Boone and Lily were what made New Vegas special, but we'll let you bypass all that awesomeness if you want and make a party of deaf-mute meat shields, lol." Forget that, own your talents, own why people love your games in the first place: Give us a stretch goal like "25% more lines for the characters," or "extended storylines for all character quests by 30%," something like that.

I second C2B. It's important to have the stretch goal map and all the goals laid out on the page, it gives people something to shoot for, Build it, and they will come, and all that. That said, you need some distant ones to get people fired up...3 mil, 4 mil, even the crazily unreachable 5 million, because you never know. My suggestions: 3 mil. George Ziets and all the other guys you had to fire after the Microsoft cancellation are back, because Obsidian are known to make some of the best-written and most intricately-designed games in the business, and MOAR NARRATIVE CONTENT!!11!! 3.5 mil (Or however much is needed to make them): Mod tools. A must, as has been said before. NWN, Morrowind, people are still modding--and buying!--these games today, to a great degree because of the terrific modding tools. These tools would galvanize the community like nothing else. Also, yet another faction and land, because everyone loves to explore. Nothing spells longevity and enthusiasm for an RPG like the thought it would require multiple playthroughs just to see all the content. There's a reason Bethesda sells 10 million copies a pop nowadays, and it's obviously not because of the writing. Present this one with a new map, though, in addition to the map we've all already seen, so people can see what's being added. Leverage your writing talent to sell the new locations, with pop-up descriptions when you mouse over them on the map. Do it on your forums, do it on the facebook page, just so long as you do it. 4 mil. Secret dungeons for ultra-high level characters, as well as other types of high-level content. This is what gets the hardcore fired up, and they're your backers right now, and most likely to up their contributions. Finally, 4 mil. also needs a surprise announcement, that no one saw coming, but that everyone will agree is a fantastic addition. Because fans want to be listened to, but they also want to be led. Since you'll be needing even more narrative designers to populate the new land, IMHO you should add the Mad Inventor of Morrowind, Ken Rolston. He's worked on D&D since the horse-and-buggy days, he was to a great degree responsible for what made Morrowind so unique, before Todd Howard led them down the dumbed-down path of Call of Skyrim, he's wanted to do another text-heavy RPG for forever, and since the implosion of 38 studios is conspicuously available, and, oh, did I mention, MOAR NARRATIVE CONTENT!!1!!!!!111!

From what I've read, it appears most people want to retain the tactical and strategic magic system depth of the original IE games, with their multitude of spells, combined with the need to use your magic resources carefully in combat. On the other hand, the resting mechanic to "recharge" spells is disliked by many--the Vancian system was imported wholesale from the old DnD systems, just because that's what was done--everyone loved the tabletop games, the systems were detailed and robust, so why fix what ain't broke? But what works in a tabletop game doesn't work in a cRPG. Mechanics that require downtime or grinding--like walking 10 minutes to town and back just to replenish your spells--are boring, let's face it. Unless some element of play can be added to the mechanic, then it's just a chore the player has to do to get back to enjoying the game. As wonderful as the panoply of options and strategies the old Vancian system offered, cRPG systems have moved on, let's face it. Mana bars (or, most likely in PE's case, "soul" bars) are here to stay. Cooldowns, along with mana bars, have been shown to be effective too, most recently in Dragon Age, at least until Bioware's balancing problems led to late-game nukefests with your AoE spells. But there's a way to keep the mana bars and cooldown timers while retaining the tactical aspects of the old system. The old systems had spells organized into schools--evocation, conjuration, etc.--so why not make a mechanic whereby every mage has an option to pick, before resting, a "school" for meditating upon? The spells in this school could cost half-mana, or half soul-energy, compared to spells from every other school. So there's strategic benefit to picking, say, the ice-magic school before venturing into the fire-giant lair, while minimizing the micromanagement of the old systems of having to reorder your entire spell book before every new dungeon. Mana would recharge real-time, but slowly, so no need for "resting" downtime, unless you were so dumb as to be trying to kill the Polar Bear pack with icestrike, in which case, you deserve what you get. Higher-level mages could get the options of meditating on more "schools" before battles, if they wanted. So an eighth-level mage could concentrate in 2 schools, and a 15th level mage could have 3, or a 15th level could even double-concentrate in 1 school, so those spells cost 1/3 normal mana. This would even add to roleplaying, if combined with, say, Fallout-style perks. So, say, your icemage Baldric Winterkill, if he took the right perks and concentrated enough, could theoretically take down that ice-resistant Polar Bear pack by spamming ice-strike. It would only do 1 damage each time, but if he spams it for 10 minutes while his fighter tanks and his triple-concentrated-in-healing-spells mage heals the tank, it could theoretically be done. Not the most efficient way to do things, but hey, it's his choice, and role-playing choice is what it's all about. My $.02