JFSOCC

I certainy like the idea of having certain plots (of land) that have several options as to what they can become. As your faction, or those you are allied with spread their influence, some of these will be filled in. (out of several pre-made options) That will certainly make the world come alive more.

If we're doing cliché names, how about "Soul's eternal journey" Fits nicely with the project eternity name, the heroes journey that most RPG's tend to be, and the soul mechanic that the core lore of the game is built around. Since since the souls are undying things in this world, I think that fits nicely.

sounds cool, so why not

Like the sword from colour of magic (terry pratchett) Now that's a sword with character

Actions have consequences, but they shouldn't be crippling if you get it wrong incidentally. Mistakes should be ok, many mistakes and you should feel the stares and glances coming your way

But couldn't this already be done with faction reputation? If you pick factions which are more on the down low, whether they're crime syndicates, secret societies, paranoid noblemen or just groups that don't chase fame, you'd get a standing amongst those with an ear to the ground, but not elsewhere. If you pick the gaudy factions to do jobs for, then those who enjoy more discretion might shy away from you, while the public would love you more. here's a thought: I'd enjoy it if different party members could have different reputations, so someone might tell something to one party member, but not another.

adding more (different) enemies, better enemy AI (including item use for instance) on higher difficulty. there's plenty of ways to up the difficulty that aren't economy related. I don;t want it to be a much different game on higher difficulties, just harder.

For me that's precisely it. I think it would be incredibly cool that you could go on without the main character if he or she dies, but I simply wouldn't. I would reload. It's my story that I care most about, after all.

Not being able to afford gear I would enjoy playing with is not how I want the game to up my difficulty.

wolves are social animals that know their place in the pack, I would say that requires enough self-awareness that you can call them sentient.I don't think you mean with sentience what is meant by sentience.

I watched video game highschool. It was both atrociously bad and incredibly good.

A hallcuniory terrain where the damage comes from the real terrain hazards being invisible to those affected seems much cooler. Like you walk on a stairs unaware that the building you're in is decrepit and has been for ages, you fall through a hole in the staircase to your death, because you saw the building as it used to be not as it is.

I loved what they did in Quest for Glory V, where when you died they would have a little epilogue with a morbidly funny rhyme or poem which was most of the time relevant to the way you died

"You are all weak! You are all bleeders!" But in all seriousness, I love my puzzles but they shouldn't be in bottleneck locations and they should flow from the world, and not be contrived and added as an obstacle to beat.

Someone on this forum recommended me Hyperion by Dan Simmons, so I bought it and I am reading it. I'm liking it so far, but it's fairly early in.

it's very engaging, but a little low-brow.

I really like this idea, in some form or another.

If everyone can learn anything and get all the feats and learn all the abilities the whole class system is redundant. Why not use classless system like in Fallout and World of Darkness? Well... "Everything" you could of course have a pool of abilities and skills that are class exclusive, and a pool of skills and abilities that are more general. Not anyone can learn to read minds, but everyone can learn how to use weapons.

I would prefer an upkeep rather than a time limit. that forces the choice "Many for a short time, or a few for longer"

priests can consecrate the ground to lay deadly traps for undead, build funnels, walls that undead can't cross and weaken those that can. I've actually always thought that the ability against undead is a little too narrow. (unless you populate the game with undead up the wazoo) So how about that priests are just particularly good against anything they consider to be unnatural?

I'm all for the majority of beasts to be humans. And having lots of children around to show that mortality is high in this society. Walking on a map and seeing an ooze slowly digest a corpse and therefore not be hostile to the party would be a nice thing too. those things flesh out the world.

Polish(the thing that makes it shine, not a nationality), mostly. I think If I enter a building after a big fight (like in icewind dale's start when you need to clear the town of goblins) I wouldn't mind seeing a scripted event where some strong dude is picking up a corpse, moves to the corner and dumps the corpse on a pile of already waiting corpses. that kind of thing shows the player that the world is alive, and that things happen without the player. I don't want to see NPC's standing around forever without doing anything ever. Some scripted events that take place whether or not the player is paying attention, and which don't take away control from the player to force the player to see it, those make a world more alive.

Batons. Whenever I see Kali I just think YES! (Kali is a martial art where the movements you learn for unarmed, dagger/knife and batons are the same.)So I'd think it really cool if I could have a character that could fight with these weapons.

I don't dislike this idea. As long as there is some trade-off. (pegasi needing to eat expensive magic berries which means you only want them if the gear you transport is valuable)

I agree, time shouldn't pass so fast that you can't take the time to look around before a day has passed.