Tsuga C

As with a number of previous posters, I wouldn't mind needing material components for high-end spell and one-off, powerful rituals. As a rule, though, it's more of a Pen 'n' Paper element that encourages players to spend their excess coinage, mingle with the locals in the market, draw them to exotic and/or remote locations in search of rare components, and add a dash of verisimilitude to the gaming experience. Verisimilitude? Yes, because throughout all of life it's virtually impossible to get something for nothing and this reinforces that maxim. Why not require material components for all spells? Reality check, ladies and gentlemen: it's a videogame and a significant portion of the players will be too impatient to spend much time gathering mistletoe leaves with a silver or golden sickle by the light of a full moon. They'd rather be hacking critters to pieces and blowing them up than assembling the magical equivalent of chemical reagents for a chemistry lab.

Truth be told, we don't know what they are or are not doing with regards to these classes yet, so this statement is a bit premature. * * * * * Edit: I'll leave the monk to others as I've never cared for the class at all. The druid needs to concentrate on a more primal relationship with the natural world and shouldn't worship a Forgotten Realms-type nature deity per se; rather, they should have a spiritual link with the lands, waters, flora, and fauna itself. To a druid the various gods and goddesses are artificial constructions of demi-humankind and represent an unnatural imposition of an anthropomorphic gestalt upon all of creation. Let the ranger be more or less what it was in AD&D and 3.X, a hit-and-run wilderness warrior with a number of non-magical skills/feat, a handful of magical tricks up his sleeve (spells or powers), and an optional companion of some sort. Archery, tracking, and using terrain to best advantage should be their forte. Dual-wielding a la the 1992 film The Last of the Mohicans would be fine, too, and not necessarily to the exclusion of being a superb archer. The Favored Enemies concept is fine with me and I'd want to choose the enemies, not have them forced upon me.

If I had my druthers I'd turn most of the FX off. Subtle effects I'm inclined to like, but garish, neon sign-like persistent spell effects just mess up the screen and limit my ability to see what's going on. Like the OP, I'd just as soon dispense with the clutter, especially since we won't be able to rotate the camera to find a view that's not totally splashed with pulses and sparkles.

This guy gets it. Please keep the jpgs of your illegal excitement to yourself, thanks.

This makes perfect sense. If you focus laser-like on doing one thing to the absolute best of your ability, then you should be the best there is at that particular vocation. Any class standing toe-to-toe in an anti-magic zone against an equal level Fighter-type character should be at a disadvantage, the degree of disadvantage being generally dependent upon the melee combat orientation of their class in general and their own feats/skills and statistics in particular. When it comes to archery, however, I would put Rangers on equal footing with Fighters as archery is most often their stock in trade.

Bravo, bravo! That truly hits the "Awesome Button" many a time. Suck it, EAWare!

Couldn't agree more. If this is to be a pseudo-Western setting, then the Hong Kong Phooey stuff has little to no business being included. If one of the two major cities is the equivalent of Constantinople, a crossroads of the world (think Silk Road), then perhaps they could be included. I'm still not at all thrilled about their presence, though.

Option #1 smacks of the desire to have it all--build a super class that doesn't need any others for support. This flies directly in th face of the stated strong point of a class system, the promotion of teamwork. As P:E is a class-based game that will feature a good deal of combat, it's safe to say that #2 will be the choice.

Fine, fine work. I cringe when I think of most fan art, but you've hit this one right out of the park. *tips hat* Please feel free to keep posting your work as I'm sure it'll find a grat many fans around here.

David Carradine, perhaps? And those are sandals, not slippers.

I'm very glad that they're still shooting for 2nd quarter of 2014. Mission creep can play havoc with a production schedule, so it's good that they're going to save some things for the expansion packs as necessary.

What they're doing right now looks fine to me. I wouldn't mind the pseudo-3D of NWN1, but the locked isometric promises to be very pretty.

Option #3--necessary, but not the sole determining factor. For me it's only about 40% of my motivation to play as without a compelling storyline and fully developed NPCs, the game would become stale very quickly.

I most emphatically do not choose either the first asinine option or the second, only moderately less satisfying option. If I want to experience disappointment and aggravation, I'll turn on the TV news or read my weekly newspaper. A cliffhanger that holds forth a significant, uplifting promise that we are "turning the tide" wouldn't be too bad, but anything less is simply unacceptable.

I prefer Vancian magic over the "mana points" concept as it forces one to think strategically and tactically regarding which spells and how many of each your wizard chooses to memorize on any given day. In a magic-related vein, immunities are a variable I'd like to see minimized. I don't mind resistances of appropriate levels, but I'd like to see that immunities are kept to a bare minumum in P:E.

Detailed descriptions of what my PC sees are all to the good, but leave the emotional reactions within the purview of the player. Let us determine how our PC would react to input from the surroundings.

As of today, Nov. 7, 2012, 44% Nay and 56% Yea. Well, it'd definitely be a source of talk on the forums should such an unwinnable encounter be included in P:E and I'd like to see something command permanent respect from the players. Bring it on, Obsidian, and let the gnashing of teeth and shattering of fragile egos begin!

Review this thread: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/61341-unwinnable-encounters/page__hl__unwinnable

gameplay--think NWN1 & 2, not Diablo. storyline--something written by adults for adults (e.g. Planescape). companions--love 'em or hate 'em, they need to be fully fleshed out and inspire a reaction from the player; generic, forgettable NPCs are the bane of roleplaying games because you don't care about interacting with them. replayability--if the game is sufficiently engaging that I want to play through it 5 or 6 times, it's a solid game. player agency--if the game is totally on rails, then the replay factor is largely shot to heck. tactics and party formations--if I can stumble through encounters blindly while chatting on the phone, the game is lame. thorough bug testing/quality assurance--I'm paying for a finished product, not a beta test. art and design intended for adults, not 8 year-old children--let's keep the arms & panoplies realistic and avoid blowing my credulity out of the water; de-emphasize "teh kewl", over-the-top nonsense. toolsets that are reasonably friendly for novices--NWN1 was excellent in this regard.

Ieo has the right of this one. There's simply no need for pushing "teh kewl" via over-the-top, "badass mofo" silliness. Let our party strike more often and with greater power and precision as we advance, but we can do without turning our avatars into splashy, comicbook superheros.

From Update #9: Along with these modes, we also want to introduce the Godlike races. These folks have been described previously as being similar to the humanoid "planetouched" in D&D: aasimar, tieflings, and genasi. That is a good high-level description of them, but they are viewed differently by various factions, faiths, and cultures in the world of Project Eternity. Godlike were "blessed" before birth by one or more of the meddling deities of this world. Though their appearances vary, they are unmistakeably otherworldly when anyone gets a clear look at them. Sometimes, the reaction they get is overwhelmingly positive. Many times, the reaction is overwhelmingly not. For better or worse, the physical "gifts" that mark them as Godlike always come with supernatural blessings (and curses) of their own. I think that quotation by and large settles things.

Disarm, trip, bull rush, and subdual--should they prove possible in the engine--would be welcome additions to melee that would open up numerous options in quests. Bounties offered could be tailored to the sort of person offering the bounty and why they were offering it. Bringing the fugative back alive to be questioned should be more lucrative than a simple 'Wanted: Dead or Alive'-type situation. Non-lethal options, where appropriate, would be a fine addition to P:E.

Aasimar and tieflings were just fine in D&D and could make for some interesting characters with all of the pointed social interactions and moral/ethical dynamics you could ask for if the DM knew what he was doing. Half-celestials and half-fiends were everything the aasimar and tieflings were, only more so and they were best suited for NPCs or player characters in decidedly high-power campaigns. Just as a gut reaction and not knowing all that much about the design of P:E at this point, I'd say that the aasimar and tieflings are the way to go. Yes, they're "spicy", but they won't completely overwhelm and dominate all the action in a party of conventional mortals.

I'll side with those advocating a strong measure of storyline independence for the companions, but in melee I want them doing exactly what I order them to do. If a companion is mediocre in melee but superb as an archer, I darn well want them to maintain a healthy distance from the opposition and only engage in melee if they're outright forced to do so by being mobbed.

BG-style all the way. Spells not losing their utility as the relative level of the party goes up is a major factor in my vote. Also, I'd like to see non-combat spells serve a vital function in P:E. In D&D 3.X terms, divinations, transmutations, and enchantments need to get a bit more love. Not every worthwhile spell need be of the evocation, abjuration, conjuration, or necromantic schools. Yes, this will take some planning, but it'll also bring P:E closer to being a tabletop roleplaying game and I think this is a worthy goal.