Utukka

It's not about 'inferiority problems', it's that willfully taking an obviously inferior path never feels good. You might love Druids or dwarven fighters to the point that you will take them even if they are weak (i am that way with druids), but that doesn't mean that it's not annoying to willfully making your character weak. Especially if you like overcoming challenges. In that case, if you can beat the game with a weak char in the hardest difficulty, you'll feel something is wrong with the game, and if you can't, well, you may feel you need to use a stronger char. He didn't say the build was weak, he just said it wasn't the most optimal. Big difference between a build that can't complete the game and a build struggling more than another. Sad to say, there will always be 1 build that is "the best" wether it's by a foot or a mile. The worst part is that developers tend to nerf rather than buff the weak.

Just because it's fast paced hack n slash with all customization out the window doesn't mean it doesn't get the point across. Yes it follows a linear story but your character is 100% gear dependant. They could've easily made BG1/2 and any of the other "rpg" gear dependant if they wanted to.

If I understand you correctly...Why even concern about it in a single player only game? People who are gonna powergame are going to do it regardless of if it means killing everything in sight or if it means talking their way through. They will probably save often and just reload if they don't like the outcome. I'd rather they just focus on making a great story and having great combat. Very few games, if any, are not abusable in some form. Fact is, it's up to the player if he's gonna "cheat" the system.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-11/yu-3sf112107.php http://insects.about.com/od/evolution/f/What-Is-The-Largest-Insect-That-Ever-Lived.htm http://www.cracked.com/article_18445_7-thankfully-extinct-giant-versions-modern-animals.html Not a spider, but just points to how big bugs/snakes/rodents and others may have been or could be.

They just make it so easy. As much as they try to penny pinch, they seem to forget some things. When I was younger, I would get Madden/NHL and the occasional other EA game EVERY year. I've only got 3 EA games in the last 7+ years and the only reason I got them was because they were $10 each. They've lost out on an easy $1,000 just from me. Now I know I'm just a drop in the bucket compared to the market, but I can't imagine I'm the only one especially with how hard they are trying to nickel and dime everyone.

I voted for gameplay. The reasoning: If gameplay is horribly bad, buggy, unbalanced etc, I might be able to bring myself to fight through it if the story is amazing and then I will probably never pick it up again. If the story is bad but it's extremely fun, I'll probably still play it.

Always liked BG2:shadows of amn style, also loved Diablo 1 and 2 but the huge waves of trash did become excessive. The one thing I will agree with that others have stated, I'd prefer the magical items add to a "power". Instead of just being +1 +2 +3 +4 etc etc, I'd much rather see them add elemental damage(if you must add increased damage) or effects such as sleep/charm/cast "x" on hit etc etc etc.

BG2

A "earned" exit every few levels would be good or every level if the difficulty is up to par. I can only imagine the difficulty of playing no reload random generated partys on insane/ascension mod from bg2 coming to life in a dungeon without exits. Loved that difficulty but it's nice to be able to take it at your own pace. Also, on a side note, if we're gonna talk realism for a moment, then how bout we put a timer on how long you have to defeat the actual game? Pretty sure in every rpg I've ever played, I can take as long as I want to defeat the bad guy who's supposedly trying his damndest to take over the world.

It hasn't been done because writing a story/programming a game based solely upon a players actions would be HUGE/hard to add an expansion to. Think about this, if I kill the local blacksmith, how many possible outcomes can come from just that one singular act yet alone if I kill or support the king. I'm sure plenty of developers have stopped and said, "man it would be cool if a player could impact the world in full". Would love to see an attempt at it tho.

Just scale the exp gain based on creature/dialouge/trap level compared to character level. When does killing an inferior combatant, outwitting a dumbass, or picking the lock on my bathroom door no longer provide an advantage against Sarevok, a bank vault, or a genius? Example Kobold killing Level 1 Char gets 10 exp Level 5 Char gets 1 exp Level 7 Char gets .01 exp Level 10 Char gets 0 exp Also for those "fearful of multiclassing", just do as BG did, EXP cap, bam, multis can't become as proficient as regular class. Problem solved.

I don't think a cave/underground city has to be a dark dreary place necessarily, combination of light getting in at some areas, water pools, and of course, magic, could make for quite the city.

Glad they're adding this in. Loved rolling random groups in BG2 and seeing how far I could take them on a no re-load insane run, made for some really interesting plays.

Goes both ways, usually it's the PC storming the fort and the bad guys are going on like it's just another normal day at the office or they act suprised to see us there even tho we slaughtered everyone below.

Why not have a mixture of all the above? A "legendary" item doesn't mean it has to be the end all be all of items(although it could be), it could just be something like a thief known for being able to crack any lock and it just so happens that it's due to a piece of equipment he had, which he could still be alive and you have to find or maybe he was killed and the item was taken or maybe it's even buried with the thief. I imagine in a real world that some of these items would be discovered and relocated or potentially even be in use already by someone else. Items in real life have been lost and relocated several times in history through wars and looting(just ask Iraq or Egypt for example). Items could also be like said, locked away in some vault that has yet to be discovered that also has a dragon or some other mythical "guardian" ready to kill you. I'm not a fan of items always being 100% random but I'm also not a fan of knowing exactly where to go as soon as I've played the game once. Hence, a bit of all the above would be most satisfying in my opinion.