JFSOCC

Well Sensuki, I'm thinking about letting my rogue do some crafting. Anyway. This whole thread seems to be the loss aversion parade. I think you'll find it will work fine in the game.

Seriously Double Fine failed? I am so surprised!

Well, my experience with BG was "combat started, pause, queue up commands, unpause, wait half a second, pause. Did something change? no, ok unpause, pause, ah, let's see. oh, so my warrior has weakness... I don't have a cure for that on my mage or cleric, unpause... yeah. I'm thinking I'll pause a lot.

I don't usually like item degradation, so why don't I mind it here? For a few reasons. 1. it only affects items for which it makes sense 2. Items can be repaired indefinitely. 3. This might actually make it worthwhile and interesting to keep something you've crafted and customised early on, your signature weapon. 4. You will never lose an item. 5. An item will only become less useful if you have neglected it for way too long 6. There are alternatives to crafting for keeping your gear in order, but crafting becomes a skill with merit. 7. There's nothing wrong with gold sinks, let's face it, what's the point of loot if you can only collect it?

At first I saw Durability and screamed NOOOOO! but turns out false alarm. Great update, totally dig it. Got a question: Can we "experiment" to find crafting solutions we don't have the recipe for? Or can it only be done with the recipes?

My most loved and hated stat. Loved for its utility, hated for its execution.

I think it will be fairly difficult to keep up with all the possible information outlets during the project. And things are still mutable. It would be a lot of work. And when the game comes out, you'll have a lot more information than you've gathered in all the time prior to add to the Compendium. Not to mention that the information might be released by Obsidian themselves at the time of release. I wish you the best of luck if you want to do this, I think it's cool, but it might be hard and frustrating work.

The problem with dropping some legacy is that there is always going to be someone who loved that particular piece. However, the examples discussed were all things which can be improved upon. Someone who is an expert at DND (2, 3.5) would have had no problem playing IE games, but anyone without that background would have been baffled by some of the things which were or weren't possible. When I first played baldurs gate aged 13, I didn't know anything about DnD, other than "geeks dress up in weird costumes and play it" This time, Obsidian chooses to create a system which sets us all on equal footing, which we all have to learn from scratch, and to be honest, that pleases me greatly. Not only did I take issue with some of the fundamentals of DnD (alignment, for one) but no standalone game should ask you to have pre-requisite knowledge from outside what is given to you by the game. All the things pointed out by Obsidian as in need of improvement, ARE in need of improvement, HAVE led to degenerate gameplay. More often than not this was because they were tied to another Intellectual Property, and had to deal with legacy issues from that ruleset. I am grateful that they're no longer bound by this. And I don't think it's the specific ruleset which made the Infinity Engine games memorable. I think the nostalgia pertained to the narratively rich setting, the reactivity, and the strong dialogue. The artwork and the freedom to play at your own pace should be included in that list as well. I don't think Obsidian is betraying their fundamentals because they're not making a copy of previous games. In fact if I had thought they wanted to make a copy of games past, I wouldn't have backed the project. All things evolve over time, today we know more, got better tools, have more experience, and are free from constraints with publishers. That, IMO is going to be the recipe for a good game. And the thing which will elevate a good game to a great game is passion. Obsidian sold their Kickstarter as "the game they always wanted to make but couldn't" To me that says that this is their passion project. The Project they're willing to sweat over, work late for, tinker with till it's right. The project they can put themselves in. If I'm right, and this is how the developers feel, then I don't even think it can go wrong.

The Quarantiners. These new lands are sick with plague, there is disease everywhere. There isn't really, but that still seems to be what the nobility believes. The Quarantiners have no desire to disabuse them of that notion. Officially they are doctors charged with preventing disease spread throughout the world, in reality they are a ruthless gang of looters. The Quarantiners do know their job, but during their travels they changed, whenever a town, or a section of a city has been found to be "diseased" The Quarantiners have the right to place the location under quarantine, and take whatever measures are needed to cure the disease or at least stop its spread. In reality they scout out locations, see if there is wealth, see how well connected those who own the wealth are, and if it's all clear, they place the location under quarantine. Quarantine law allows to Quarantiners to isolate their victims, to order them to partake in examinations, and to burn the bodies of any infected, or even the terrain if the infection is severe enough. Effectively removing any evidence of their crimes. If your town or ship or house is unlucky enough to be placed under Quarantine law by the Quarantiners, chances are good there is no real disease (or one they spread themselves) they will make off with whatever of value they can find. Their upsurge in wealth, combined with their governmental mandate has made the Quarantiners a powerful political force as well as ruthless. They've been growing bolder as they've grown more powerful, placing entire city blocks under their "protection" or going after "plagued individuals" which oppose them. The Quarantiners have lobbied for and gotten more duties and rights in their pursuit of a "pure and healthy society" giving them wide interpretation to decide what "purity" means. So far, only small rumours exist about the Quarantiners inquisitorial excesses, the cat is bound to get out of the bag. Joining the Quarantiners is possible by appointment. For some reason some members of society have taken to attacking the Quarantiners, these ignorant souls don't realise the good the Quarantiners are doing, of course, so the organisation has been allowed to recruit their own guards. Excepting a few captains, the guard are posted on the OUTSIDE of Quarantine zones, for their protection, of course, and thus are ignorant of the darker going ons of the Quarantiners. The player may encounter the Quarantiners because they wish to help out curing the sick (boy are they in for a surprise) or because they need to get inside a quarantine zone. They may have heard the rumours and are investigating, or perhaps they feel that there might be some loot for themselves.

Seagre the Dominator Seagre is a Wizard who has chosen to study the Mindpowers of a cipher in order to further his own power. Finding a fairly secluded town in which the locals were easily overpowered, he's taken over most of their minds. Those he couldn't control through his mind now serve him out of fear for their loved ones. Each now stands in place until Seagre directs them to fight for him, pleasure him, feed him. Seagre cannot pierce the mind of a conscious person, but anyone who falls unconscious will be restored under his control. Seagre doesn't fight himself, he uses his victims to do that for him, and as such he has access to a diverse array of combatants. Seagre has some limits, which are key to defeating him. 1. He cannot fight with more than two of his dominated victims at the same time. He can only move when he is fighting with one of them. 2. There is an upper limit of minds which Seagre can control, he hasn't reached it yet, but overloading him may be key to defeating him. 3. Anytime one of his dominated victims dies, Seagre will need a small amount of time to access another thrall. 4. Seagre himself is not very strong or well armoured. He attempts to stay out of range/sight, but in melee will quickly fall. 5. At night, Seagre sleeps, He has his strongest thrall guarding his barricaded room, but his other thralls will be active (but not free either) Anyone who is under Seagre's thrall will lose their mind if Seagre dies. Seagre has made no secret of this fact. -- Stranglerfish Strangler fish are eel-like fish which thrive in shoulder-high water. Strangler fish kill their prey by latching on to the limbs of their victims. immobilizing them and drowning them. Whenever they successfully kill a target, they enter a feeding frenzy, ignoring anything but a direct attack until there is no more food left. In this way, they can strip a victim to the bones in ten minutes. Stranglerfish live in schools and attack together. Defeating a stranglerfish school involves killing them one by one before they've got all your limbs locked down, a process which is slowed for each one latched on to the victim. Leaving the water will not remove the Stranglerfish, but it will prevent more from latching on. Stranglerfish generally don't strike a target unless they're fairly certain they can drag it down in less than a minute. A player will likely encounter Stranglerfish anywhere where animals gather to drink, or cross shallow water, on occasion they can be found in tidal pools.

Haleberd. Haleberd is a normal looking +2 Halberd in the hands of any class, except in the hands of a fighter or paladin. When equipped to A fighter: gives a +5 health and stamina boost, when an enemy is struck with Haleberd there's a 20% chance it steals 1 stamina. When equipped to a Paladin: Whenever an enemy is killed restores a small amount of stamina and a tiny amount of health on the wearer, and gives +1 to defence for 1-3 rounds to the Paladin Eemse's slingshot. The bountyhunter Eemse specialised in bringing in her targets alive. Her Slingshot deals only minor damage, but has a chance to stun, each successful stun removes 10% of the target's base stamina, when a successful stun removes the last bit of stamina, the target falls unconscious and cannot recover until a minute after combat has resolved.

Eemse's identifying kit The solitary bountyhunter Eemse carried these tools with her to ensure that her targets were indeed who they appeared to be. Looks like a metal orb, when used on an unconscious target, it has an 80% chance of correctly identifying the target. (100% if the user is a cipher)

Cookie tin (of decay) Anything stored inside ages drastically, as if weeks have passed in minutes. Metal rusts, bread get mould, meat gets maggots, paper fades. Great for making forgeries look old, or disposing of evidence and letting it decay naturally until it's unrecognisable. Not so great for storing items. Has no effect on magical items. Child's delight: A rare drug, completely removes anxiety and understanding of social norms. Hilarity ensues. Retriever spider: Metallic automaton will find nearest item and pick it up, then return to its owner. Does not trigger pressure traps.

Status effects were what made Guild Wars combat interesting and tactical. having them in P:E wuld not be remiss, but then, I don't doubt we'll have them.

My hopes for expansion. 1. subtropical or tropical setting 2. Can use imported character from vanilla game 3. Character data saved some decisions you've made in that game. 4. Can be linked such that you can return to original game content. (not a great priority, but would be nice) 5. Empty map which allows for a ton of locations from the modding community.

alright fair enough

if you have 1k submissions and 10 are actually good, that's enough.

ok guys I've seen enough plate and chain, now on to something else.

how can you stand the bugs! it itches just watching it!

Ideally, levelling up should make you only marginally stronger, but offer you more ways to solve problems. So fighter level 1: 10 Awesomepoints and can fight an enemy in fair melee Fighter level 2: 10.5 awesomepoints and can fight an enemy in fair melee, or alternatively can kick at his shins, dealing less damage, but affecting his opponent's running speed. He's marginally stronger, but he's gotten another way to solve problems. The challenge is only marginally easier to overcome for an unskilled player, but a skilled player will make the best of his new options.

I have mentioned it in several other places, but I guess it belongs in this thread more than anywhere else: I believe the solution is to gamify resting. Making resting part of the game, picking a spot, setting up camp (campfire, tents/bedrolls, traps, fences, gong pit) setting a watch schedule. This way, resting takes some time, but it does not become boring and repetitive. You can make camp fast if you feel safe (no watch, big campfire, no tents, just bedrolls, no traps) You can make camp fast if you just want to reactivate an ability (watch schedule excludes mage, big campfire, tent for one, bedrolls for others, no traps) Or slow if you expect trouble you can handle: (2 watchmembers per 2 hour period, campfire, tents, traps, caltrops) Or if you expect trouble you may need to run away from: (2 watchmembers per 2 hour period, no campfire to draw attention, no tents to pack up again, no traps, but some caltrops, and an extra alarm spell further out, camouflage netting) Different environments and situations would call for different approaches to setting up camp. A camp set up would need to be torn down again (or abandoned if you can afford to waste the resources) Between days, you can keep the camp and schedule set up, in case you wish to rest several times. The problems this solves: 1. Time frustration -it's easier to restock full health in safe areas, it will require less resting. But you do have to make the effort of spending time setting up a bigger camp. (so not one click back to full) 2. Rest scumming: You're not going to set up camp to heal a scratch. You can set up camp faster to heal minor injuries, but this is a calculated risk which the player has control over. 3. Resting as immersion breaking reset button: No more one click resting, resting becomes an experience part of the game. Different areas will dynamically influence the decision on how to build your camp. A cold location may require a campfire irrespective of the number of enemies roaming the region, a secluded spot may not require a watch, caltrops and an alarm spell may be all that is required to keep those goblins at bay. This way you can Rest anywhere; (and make informed choices to deal with risks) Spend as much or as little time as you want on resting. (and make informed choices to deal with risks) While the game can be balanced on the fact that: Not everywhere is suitable for resting Rest scumming is going to be at the player's own risk. Camp can also make for cool content. You can have some exposition of the area or lore, or one of your companions motivations, through campfire tales. You can have interesting things happen at camp during the night. (based on the location, situation and camp set-up) And personally, I think it's much more immersive because you'll be experiencing something rather than using a button for a game mechanic. You'll be that adventurer, camping in odd places.

If they ever need voice-sets for PC's for things like command and control and combat. They could ask the community to send in their "For the Horde"'s" and "At once my liege"'s All the would need to do is give the lines people need to act, I imagine they'd have 10k submissions within a week.

I think a good ending means that the topics discussed in the story must come to some sort of conclusion. That's the purpose of having an Arc. An arc has a person or setting begin in a certain position/mindset, then challenge that position and mindset, and at the end they will have either changed and/or know more about why they have their position. Knights of the Old republic II, while not properly finished, managed to do this by discussing the nature of the force, its purpose, the way it is affected by the user, and how much the user is affected by it. At the end, although everyone could have a different answer, most people will have thought about it and likely have evolved and nuanced their view. This is what Obsidian is very good at, in my experience. I think we don't have to worry about seeing proper character arcs and story arcs. And once that is set up properly, I'm sure the ending will write itself.

My favourite colour, of course I want some exclusivity

I hope that every class can be played in different ways. I for one prefer the charismatic rogue. I hope you can make choices what to do for each class both in role-playing and in combat. One player might play his or her rogue as a counterer, using lockdown skills to prevent an enemy from using abilities. (disarm, disable, stun, shock, etc) Another player might play his or her rogue as a debuffer, AKA dirty fighting (weakness, bleeding, poison, slow, blindness, etc.) And yet another likes the classic evasive, skilled positioner critical damage rogue. (Sneak attack criticals, evasion, mobility, flanking.) Or perhaps a player has ideas for his rogue which are different still.