Hormalakh

Another thing they could do is "realism!" seriously, though, instead of a time-down before yor switched weapon is available, maybe they have a "throw your current weapon down and unsheath your other weapon". You'd have to pick up your weapon after each battle (god this would be so annoying)... nevermind...timed cooldowns better IMO

The thing is, it isn't really tactics if you always know what kind of armor your enemy is wearing before you even attack them. What I mean to say is, while I understand with humanoids and being able to see what kind of armor they have and basically remembering what kind of armor creatures have, there should probably be some sort of question like "should I spend an attack on switching weapons, (if the battle is long) or should I stick with my current weapon and finish this quickly. Some sort of drawback for quick-switches would be a great way to make weapon/armor mismatches more of a decision/choice as opposed to some sort of boring/frustrating/useless exercise. It should take up perhaps a single "attack" so that switching up weapons isn't always necessarily the thing you want to do and is more dependent on the situations and less dependent on solely the armor your enemy has. That is much more tactical and I think more fun too. As for your halberd example, I think that would be a good idea too to throw that in the mix. You'd have some weapons that you don't switch out, you just switch your attack type (change from crushing/piercing/slashing), but once again, these weapons aren't particularly "equally the best" at all three attack types. I would imagine a maul/club would be much more damaging (as a crushing weapon) than a halberd. But that doesn't mean you can't use a halberd to strike crushing blows. Once again, you have a question to answer, and not a pre-solved problem. The question here would be "should I switch to a heavier weapon (maul) and risk the single attack or stick with this weapon and finish the battle?

Interesting videos....

I do think that Valorian has hit on an important point about weapon-switching no longer being tactical and becoming more "reflexive" when armor type is known. I am interested in hearing how this will be remedied.

It wasn't really a serious proposition just because I doubt it's feasible and worthwhile, but one of those "wouldn't it be cool things." It's just basically more eye candy and might serve only marginal gameplay elements.

I think a big part of Jenda's issue could be solved with an intuitive UI set up.

You know what would be really cool? Getting enemy information in your journal under a "flora and fauna" tab. As you kill more and more of them, you get more information about them. Along with some concept sketches that the artists did as if they were sketches you'd find in a journal.

Watching that video brought back so many memories. I just spent an hour watching Bugs with my wife! The Rabbit of Seville still cracks me up to this day. I hope you've forced your kids to watch these as it would be a sad childhood without Chuck Jones. He was always able to effectively use the music to tell his stories. Amazing. Here's the Rabbit of Seville without the dialogue and a "stylized" Barber of Seville composition. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mykC1QPCAw How do? Welcome to my shop Let me cut your mop Let me shave your crop Daintily, daintily... Hey, you! Don't look so perplexed Why must you be vexed? Can't you see you're next? Yes, you're next, you're so next! Still cracks me up.

Honestly, I would love to sit and watch Chris play all of Arcanum and listen to his comments (and woooo's), but I can't spend that much time. I didn't even get a chance to watch the whole D&D session they did because 1) sound problems 2) it was too long. Speaking of which, please use a decent microphone this time! No technical issues!

In 2013, with a $4mil budget, you can't make a AAA game with all the bells and whistles. It's that simple. They'll do the best they can.

I put some links in my OP for Fallout death animations as well as "The Immortal" Death animations. Take a look.

Makes combat more worthwhile too You'll get the "safari hunter types" who go out to fill out their bestiaries as much as they can. The equivalent of a Project Eternity Pokedex, except it's about the things you've killed. Of course, as soon as I say Pokedex, the whole idea becomes trash...

Oh I don't think they would only do "stabbing" with mace. I'm talking about each weapon having its own basic attack, but then instead of mace having two swings (front hand and bak hand) it would only have one type of swing, but then death animations are in.

Let me know and I can test it

So... since you're here. I just tried using it. I'm getting the quote box, but not the "quoted from" portion. I'm using Firefox 18.0.1. Cleared cache and did a hard reset. As in, I'll see the box where the quote is but I don't see who worte it. Edit: So I tried doing some nested quotes. Can't really see who wrote what until after it's published.

I am in agreement with you in regards to qualitative descriptions as opposed to quantitative "nummerical" descriptions. I also find your idea on "creature knowledge" interesting! It would be a great non-combat skill for players to invest some points in when it comes to "gathering information." Although, when I think about it, the problem is that this only works for the first play through. Really after that, there's not much reason to invest in the skill since you already know that information...so now that I think about it, it wouldn't be easy/interesting to do unless creature stats changed systematically with each new game. Also, newer players would not be privy to that information while veterans would know that "duh rock elementals always have heavy armor." After a while, it doesn't much matter, and the tool-tip becomes useful (even for vets) when you're trying to remember/find that cheat-sheet with all the monster info that the rock elemental was a heavy armor enemy.

Heh, yeah I'm appreciative alright. It's not very often you get to talk to a game developer about a game they're currently making. It's pretty awesome. I'm heading out, but I did want to thank Mr. Sawyer for his time. Have a great weekend Josh, and everyone else too.

How will you notify players of enemies defenses? Will this be meta-gaming knowledge that we can find in the manual or will it be UI-accessible in-game (like a right-click shows you their defenses)? It would be nice to have the option of either a numerical display and a "color-coded"/abstracted (high/medium/low) display. Although, this is considering that this information will be available in-game.

I'm assuming that's what the arcane veil is for.

Beauty in simplicity (a singular attack mechanic) with intact complexity (defense). Nice.

BTW, this design choice stems from your thoughts on not having certain mechanics outputting to more than one input right? Basically, don't let a single mechanic affect multiple numbers (leveling automatically increases your BAB). Anything that should increase I guess builds from a singular "skill point" currency. If you want to build certain aspects, then you purchase those skills with points. Am I reading this right?

So would a shield reduce the chances of a touch attack? How would glances and hits work in such a system? Would it be the same reduced/normal damage? Sorry, there's so many questions. It's not really possible to say much without all this information to help illustrate. Can't wait for the update to clear some of these things up. Will we have the similar "multiple attacks with high BAB"? I imagine we wouldn't since it's Real-time and we don't have to do rounds.

What new update? He said it like a couple of posts before.

Hey Josh, one more question: Is the game is going to have magic or special attacks that use touch AC or something similar? The idea here is to allow a character concept for a wizened old wizard who can't hit hard enough to damage but can get his hands on his enemies for touch attacks. Any thoughts?

Thanks for the answers Mark! Very informative. Have a great weekend.