Hormalakh

He said 10 lockpicks. But he also said marginal. I don't think he actually had the specifics worked out when he said 10. Perhaps, he was trying to make a bigger point: that marginal shortfalls can be made up with items that can be used up.

I loved how Arcanum kept magic and tech completely and absolutely separate. Just like this game isn't going to have huge ridiculous Final-fantasy swords and the like, I doubt there will be cigratte-bunched guns. It would make more sense to have a magically endued metal that the gun is made of, so it's less likely to misfire. Or maybe the gunpowder is more potent (magically) allowing longer ranges for these guns. Maybe the guns increase damage slightly. Something fairly subdued, just like their swords and other melee weapons. Envenomed arquebus. Gun has a poison spell on it that makes bullets poisonous as they hit creatures. that sort of thing. Inscribed with dwarven runes making the gun unbreakable, etc. Elven guns with a faster firing time.

He is a drug-abuser afterall. LOL

That looks like a cartoon image you'd see where the guy is smoking a whole bunch of cigarettes at the same time. Ridiculous.

Marginal! Marginal! Reading comprehension is key people. He said marginal. You don't use 99 lockpicks. That isn't marginal. You use 1 lockpick for a 1-5% increase. That's it. Marginal. MAR-GEEE-NAL.

Ugh you got my hopes up. Don't title your thread that way next time please.

As long as we agree stamina isn't a good term, I'm happy.

I do have that issue with intelligence not factoring in too. But then you need to give big dumb characters a way to "win" too. Especially if it's main-story driven. As for the slip of paper, you still have to realize that that slip of paper has to do with that certain puzzle and maybe still have to manipulate the words on the note befoer deriving the answer. "tak the first three letters of my name and add it to the last three letters of the season of the dead. -sunsarr" -> sunsarr + winter - sunter

Keep it optional - localizers and those with a poor grasp of English might need it. I won't. Everyone's happy.

If you take the xDy system, you can show it too. It just occurred to me that the normal distribution works with dice. So if you want a standard deviation that's more narrow, you use more dice. If you want "skilled weapons handler" to make a difference you just add an offset (without increasing the total to hit). 4d6, 3d8 and 2d12 are (almost) the same range but have different standard deviations. Add an offset like -2 or +3 (but no more than 24 or less than 0 to hit) and you'd get a skill adjustment. So I guess the dice system could work to describe that system after all.

Not only should a skilled playe be more likely to hit an enemy, they should also be more effective with a weapon, causing more damage.

It was written in jest. This is a game afterall Nobody should be taking this stuff that seriously. Except for the devs - it's their job to do so.

The masses have spoken! Stamina it is.

The whole point is for vitality to remind you of hit points because that's what the devs are aiming for with the "stamina" mechanism. They're both hitpoints (stamina/vitality and health). Health is a fairly constant (over short periods of time, barring damage) factor whereas "stamina" is a more variable (in short periods of time) factor representing hitpoints. The fact that vitality evokes images of health to you speaks to the point that I'm trying to make: stamina is only meant to be used as a hitpoint mechanism and not any other mechanism.

Why would you leave your friend? That's the whole point of this discussion. If you were a true friend then you wouldn't be leaving the companion high and dry. If you're going to treat him like dirt, then he's going to act like a hireling. He's going to demand payment, since it's all business with you. As for godmode, apparently P:E will end at around a D&D equilavent of Level 15. So no godmode.

Couldn't a rogue be a merchant sub-class? That's the way I've always seen merchants anyway, a bunch of bloody thieves and robbers....

Thanks for the link. I like Brian's work.

A lot of people on the forums have been trying to incorporate stamina into a variety of different actions and mechanisms that apparently the devs didn't have in mind. Per J.Sawyer [source needed] stamina is meant to be mainly a combat-specific marker, and not used for things like encumbrance, magic "points", running, etc. I don't blame these members because stamina usually implies energy used for doing a series of different jobs. I frankly don't like the term stamina as a term used mainly for combat or "hit points." Instead, I propose that the devs use the term "vitality" to describe this term. It has more of a combat-oriented connotation, and will not confuse players as to the actual use of the mechanic. "Health" as it stands for a long-term hit point system works. But "stamina" doesn't. Use vitality instead. The definitions (per dictionary.com are listed below) Stamina: noun strength of physical constitution; power to endure disease, fatigue, privation, etc. Vitality noun 1. exuberant physical strength or mental vigor: a person of great vitality. 2. capacity for survival or for the continuation of a meaningful or purposeful existence: the vitality of an institution. 3. power to live or grow: the vitality of a language. 4. vital force or principle.

Edit: Wrong post.

Now you're just fishing for likes.

Dynamic lighting has been confirmed. In older games, (BG/BG2) as the day turned into night, an animation would play right before the map changed. I don't see why this wouldn't be possible. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bssuD7HE198

Models are 3d. More animations are always good, but they shouldn't be created while sacrificing other more important things. I think weapon animations falls behind 3D model work for the character (the so-called "paper-doll").

I really liked Casey Edwards's music: both Noble Serenity and Dwarven Dweller. Celestial Terrain sounded too heavy for me. Anyway, now with the live instruments stretch goal being hit, I hope that OEI is willing to do a call for sample music from musicians who are interested in sharing with Mr. Bell's creative direction. More music from different musicians is double-plus good.

Maybe they can incorporate the enchantment/crafting mechanic into this somehow? Each curse has a certain set of ingredients that you need to mix to make a potion to drink. But the specific ingredient you need differs for each curse and you need to get that information from a temple or someone with high-lore. Once you know the set of items you need, you then have to either craft the potion yourself or get someone else to do it for you. Ultimately, for each curse, you have to 1) find out the potion requirements. 2)Go find the potion requirements in the game 3) Make potion. They can make these curses-time dependent as well, if you don't cure the curse after a certain period of time your stats start to fall. If you wait too long, your health falls, and you end up dying (maybe after playing with the curse on your person for 10 real-world hours).

Eh, not really... if the concept is understood by most players, then you can always assume that a weapon will give higher damage with increased skill. The standard deviation bit might be a little difficult to convey, but I'm sure they can figure out a way of conveying that. Maybe a graph like I showed. Have a "standard" curve for like a simple "sword" always hitting 2-8 with a standard deviation of 2. Then everything is always compared to that standard. The good thing about this is that these all already have equations that a computer can quickly calculate. he only difficulty with this is if this game becomes Pen and Paper, maybe they can give a software program that calculates the damages for you. You could always use a calculator too. Edit: Also, I just realized the irony of xDy damages being confusing for me when I was young, and now coming up with a much more complicated system.