Ninjamestari

I didn't really like the whole Endurance concept from the original game. I think that if a character falls in combat, it should die and not just be knocked out.

I like the idea that characters require resting every now and then, but both the power-charge system and vancian magic seem somehow unnatural, unintuitive and forced. What I would suggest is to go back to the roots of the concept in reality. The proposal is simply to have a rapidly regenerating (both in and out of combat) Stamina-Resource that is drained whenever your character does something exerting, like attacking, sprinting, performing special moves, casting spells etc. The regeneration speed would be relative to the maximum amount of stamina you have, something like 5% per second. Now the fatigue mechanism in this would be that for every 100 points of stamina spent, your maximum stamina is temporarily reduced by 1, so spending full bar's worth of stamina would reduce your maximum stamina pool by 1%. In time this would add up and force the character to rest in order to be able to function again. Now how this would work in PoE2, I'm not sure, but I think a simple system that has far reaching consequences is better than a complicated system of wounds and power charges that don't really achieve anything else besides necessitating rest. Potions, poisons and spells could be made to play around with this mechanic; for example there could be a poison that slowly adds fatigue to your character, a character might catch a disease that affects his/her fatigue rate etc. The stamina resource itself would allow for a multitude of more interesting and fluid ways of managing special moves for fighters rather than an arbitrary and unnatural "per encounter". This game is a computer game after all, so certain restrictions that force these mechanisms on PnP simply do not apply. I just felt like putting this out there. Thoughts, ideas?

A thousand times this! :D It wouldn't even be necessary to require your character to develop an addiction, maybe there just is a special brand of mushrooms that Forton likes, that once you eat 'em allows you to see and interact with Boo (or a big smack in the head, or both as alternative methods). Or another talking hamster! Maybe it's not Boo, but a friend of his who happens to be looking for Boo; there could be a very interesting side quest involving reuniting the Hamster with Boo. Maybe the hamster is heartbroken after "Boo ran off with that brute of a ranger!" Or, the hamster could be actual, but you could only communicate with it once you've hit your head bad enough/eaten the special mushrooms, that would initiate the "Where is Boo?" Quest. To have a plausible context for this in the game world, there could be some sort of trickster god/spirit involved in the whole affair.

The thing is that I can never roll stats high enough to accurately represent my incredible awesomeness.

Whoa, slow it down guys. You're becoming so immersed in these ideas of yours that you're forgetting what was your goal in the first place

I don't see any reason to waste productive time and brainpower into something as trivial as this.

I think you're over thinking the whole thing, this is going to be a game, not a real world simulation. I find the traditional D&D system to be sufficient, and I see no reason to waste any effort in creating a system that will probably not be as fun and/or functional.

I think there definitely should be some party members who outshadow you in their awesomeness. I want more out of a game than just some damn ego boost; my ego is too large as it is anyway, and I'd rather have it humbled down a little bit.

I think the whole "rogues are rogues because their souls give them rogue-powers" is kinda retarded, It would be better if the soul thing would be a little more in the background, allowing actual world skills and techniques to be significant. If everything is just a dumb soul-fest, soul this soul that and then some soul sausages and bacon, it becomes rather dull and boring. Souls lose their mystical appeal if they're treated like common objects.

What's the point of having an ambush if you know it's going to happen? No, just NO! I understand your line of thinking, and I know that the DA games took this kinda **** way too far, but what you're suggesting isn't any better; always knowing what will happen is extremely boring. Sometimes you see the enemy beforehand, sometimes they get the jump on you; meaning that you won't have the tactical advantage of a planned formation and positioning when the battle begins. The whole friggin point of ambushing is to catch your enemy pants down. Sometimes we need to get into situations where we don't know every variable, or even if we did there would be too many of them to accurately device a guaranteed win strategy; that's just life. Adapting to unpredictable situations is part of the fun, so are surprises during the battle. Some of the sweetest moments in games are of the "WTF?? this guy can do THAT!?" - variety. As for movement speed, it's a factor you'll have to consider when making your party and choosing your equipment. Perhaps dressing everyone in that Full Plate wasn't such a killer idea after all? Perhaps you should keep a scroll of haste handy for tricky encounters? Being slow is a rather huge weakness, maybe you can use that "Slow" - spell to further gain the advantage in terms of mobility.

I don't think this idea would work; it promotes repetitive saving/loading rather than creative thinking. The outcome should depend on the choices and performance of the player, not random chance.

I don't think randomization enhances replay value. Quite to the contrary in fact; it's the amount of personal choices, both in the game world and in the character sheet, that make the second and third playthroughs differ from the first. I dislike having Diablo like random elements; they only serve as a constant reminder of the artificiality of the world and thus weakening my immersion. I mean they work in Diablo, where immersion isn't going to happen anyway, but in a story driven real RPG immersion is one of the things that makes or breaks the game.

So is there some sort of conclusion to this discussion? Has obsidian announced something about romances or are people fighting it out here just for the heck of it?

There are several traits that define elves; Slender, beautiful, dignified, arrogant, noble and long lived. I believe them all to be important to the idea behind the elves. Straying from this and trying to be too original usually just ends up badly. If you don't get a really brilliant vision that somewhat ties the world perfectly together, don't venture too far away from the basic concept. This basic principle applies just about everywhere; trying to be different just for the sake of being different is rather stupid.

If you're going to venture too far from the traditional concept of vampires, and make them some sort of supernatural human-spiders, I don't think they should be called vampires anymore. If you come up with something cool, I'm all for exploring the possibilities, but I don't think vampires would work without the blood thing. However, there is a way that would fit the universe; maybe vampires are mortal bodies that have lost their souls, thus they need some other form of supernatural force to sustain them; that could be the blood of those who still have their souls. Blood could be something that carries traces of the individuals' souls, providing substance for the vampire. There is a whole bunch of ways one could expand on that concept to account for the extraordinary abilities wielded by vampires, perhaps their vulnerability to sunlight and whatever traditional vampire traits need to be added. All in all, I don't really care whether or not there are vampires involved, but if they're called vampires, then they should *be* vampires and not some weird spiderman monsters.

This thread represents perfectly the classic kind of backwards thinking people suffer from; everyone is arguing and discussing about which methods we should use when they haven't even agreed on the general direction yet. In general I think that special "prestige class" type abilities should be learned in the game and not through additional classes that anyone can pick. They should represent achievements in the game world , not just a choice made during a levelup.

OMAIGAD, not again. Another escapist dreamer enters a thread to oppose mundane and boring realism. Nope, mundane realism just doesn't fit the setting. If the world was a low magic world and more focused on realism and less on some über metaphysical soul-**** with firearms, the mundane gritty looking style would fit perfectly. As it stands however, mundane and realistic would feel very out of place.

Story comes first, without it I won't even touch the game. If the story is good, I'll play through the game at least once. Additional playthroughs after that requires the combat and character building to be interesting. That is the order of things.

I absolutely hate the vancian memorizing system, it may work great on pen&paper, but on computers it's just ridiculous and unnecessary. Other problems with most magic systems is the way summoned monsters are handled; having a limitation of 1 monster per mage, or just having plain weak and useless summons is a very common sin. There's nothing quite like the feeling one had with a Diablo 2 necromancer that had multiple skeletons to do his bidding.

A high magic world with firearms; this is a disaster waiting to happen.

I'm fine with having the ability to play a strictly religious paladin.. But only If there's also the ability to play a diabolical demon summoning dark mage seeking immortality through evil magic.

I like being happy. I rather dislike being depressed. Being happy just is better than being depressed. So why in the nine hells would I want a depressing ending? The ending doesn't have to be all hug hug, president makes a speech and fireworks light up the sky with trumpets blowing in the background, but in general I would really rather have a happy ending.

Why can't we have both a stronghold that acts as our base of operations, and the ability to invest in the businesses of the world? Why shouldn't we be able to own inns, taverns, brothels, shipping companies and the like? All that money you get from those investments could go a long way in upgrading your stronghold with summoning chambers, divination equipment, portal rooms for quick travel, libraries for arcane knowledge, forges and smiths for special equipment etc. etc.

I particularly hate the "Ancient evil is returning to consume the world of the living" cliche. Maybe some ancient evil fellow could come along swinging a club and be shot in the head by a newer villain or something like that. Maybe a whole tribe of evil man-eating cavemen could be accidentally woken up and then slaughtered by another villain. Then there is the hero with a giant sword, there could maybe be a young boy who tries to fight someone but is unable to lift his oversized and extremely heavy sword.

This game is set in a high fantasy environment, mundane realism doesn't really fit the theme here. The design of weapons and armor should reflect that; style should be prioritized over pragmatism and realism. Nothing too over the top or ridiculous like bikini chain mail or elephant sized swords that shoot beams of multicolored light, but not too mundane either.