Hertzila

One interesting idea would be a forced disadvantage from the magical incident the PC observes. It would give an actual reason for the PC to go around the world trying to discover just what happened and how it can be fixed. Maybe not a simple "deaf in one ear" or "can't smell" but something more complex. Or something complex that causes a simpler one.

I feel like I'm hammering the same point but why not give a sneak attack bonus to everybody who can attack from sneak? If your double-door sized warrior can somehow sneak behind a guard, he sure as hell should get some bonus for that. But the thing is, in the end it's the sneaky type, usually the rogue, who will benefit the most from this. If somebody else manages to be the sneaky type, I'd argue that he should get the bonus too. I'd like to add bow-and-blackjack trusting Garrett-like thieves and Solid Snake -like infiltrators to that list. All of whom should have a sneak attack bonus if there is one, whether or not they really are rogues.

I partially disagree on the grounds that the writers can't anticipate everything the player might do without infinite resources and limiting the player to a scale the writer's can anticipate is the exact wrong way to go. The writers can't be (nearly as) dynamic as a DM can be and that will lead to problems with the Vancian magic system. I do agree that on the more major instances it's the developer's fault if we can't anticipate what is approximately going to happen there (unless that's the whole point).

"...If your DM is decent..." being the key here. We won't have a DM in this game, or in any CRPG for that matter.

Vancian magic would be my least liked magic system. It might work in a P&P enviroment as a handy limiter, but in a CRPG a mana or fatigue system works much better. Even pre-loaded spells that come in handy scrolls or require a pre-cast time with mana/stamina cost work better IMO. Secondly, have scalable spells instead of multiple similar spells for the same thing. If my wizard has a basic "Arcane Veil" spell, make it more powerful by either increasing it based on skills, allowing extra time and stamina to be used on it or allowing the spelltome to be enlargened directly (or all at the same time), instead of having an "Arcane Veil 1/2/3/4..." spells or "Mighty Arcane Veil", "Superior Arcane Veil" etc. Also, please keep resistances as rare things or at least the complete immunities. They can screw over a wizard way too badly. Or whatever it's resisting/immune to.

If they'd really want to make the big cities feel lively, they could take a page from the Hitman: Blood Money. In one level, there's a parade going on and there are NPCs everywhere in the main roads. Literally. You weave through them and in general you can't do much with them but it really did give it a bustling feel when pretty much every square metre has like four NPCs in it. Or Assassin's Creed, where small to moderately sized chunks of random NPCs wander aimlessly before stopping somewhere to shop or talk. Add in a time-based modifier that removes the amount of those chunks when night starts to creep in and you can somewhat simulate city life. Something like that might be a bit too much for this game but having random people walk around in the streets as a mass in Hitman's or Assassin's Creed's style would help with the big city feel.

What? Yes it does. The rest of your party waits a bit as the rogue does his thing. "But that is boooring" you might say? Your face is boring. If you want to go from point a to point b without any enemies knowing, you can only take your stealthy characters. So basically you'd be forced to fight every encounter you want to avoid, unless all your characters have high stealth. Unless rogue exploration can identify a path that the others can take that wouldn't alert the guard, or the path of least resistance, or even secret paths. Or provide the team with a diversion to get the enemies attention away from the main team, the rogue can probably lose the fools chasing him. Or mask the team's presence with things like smoke bombs or noise mufflers. Or a brief but effective "hide in the shadows" ability for everybody. Though admittedly that'd be kind of a letdown unless it's a high cost and high level thing.

I'd like to point out that that has already been confirmed as being included in the game. Other that that, I'd like to add trapping, alchemy of some kind (focused on poisons?) and mechanical tinkering versatility. Not necessarily in a same rogue but as possibilities. Maybe even as combinations: poisoned traps, mechanical lockpicks that make it faster, that sort of thing. Well I don't personally mind that as it's an abstraction anyway - but I think perhaps the difference is something like if using such a magical cloak was a specific ability that could be used, say, once a day, people wouldn't necessarily mind. I think the issue people had was more that a standard hide was literally having people be invisible in the middle of the open as a normal function of hide. As for those, I meant to imply them with the second point but I was trying to be fairly concise. I'd like to extrapolate on poisons a bit - I like the idea of them ingame BUT preferably under two conditions - firstly that they have to be made or bought (ie. no automatic poison abilities on level up, these things take effort if you want them) and secondly that there are different kinds, not just "poison". Different antidotes would also be preferable too, but possibly not worth including mechanics wise. But I'd far rather have a selection of various poisons to choose from along the lines of having various effects from stamina damage, ability point damage, status effects like blindness or paralysis, chance of spellcasting failure etc. The effects could be more severe depending on how skilled you were at making them. The soul ability thing will most likely be based on either stamina or some soul power meter (mana), so I doubt it's a strict once a day kind of thing. Since every class is going to have soul abilities anyway, which will include "magic" on previously non-magical archetypes, it makes most sense to give rogues ones that allow invisibility, inaudibility, intangibility and such sneaking kind stuff. Of course it's not necessary to use them when playing but it does open up a lot of possibilities. I hope sneaking will be affected by other things than just skill. Lighting conditions, mist, armor, boots, background events, among others. A variety of poisons would be very nice, if not necessary. Having only one kind of poison would just be unimaginative. Give me a variety of effects for them. Have some induce hallucinations so they can't fight back at all, induce sleep so they'll just snore while the party runs by, drain their stamina and/or health slowly but surely, force magical effects on them or just inject deadly neurotoxin into their bloodstream, all good fun. Having only one antidote would be simple but kinda boring, while having an antidote for everything would be impractical. So why not have levels for the antidotes? The higher the level the more potent toxins it can remove, either by lowering the effects or only removing the ailments that are equal or lower to the antidote's levels (say, neurotoxins would be level 5 poison, so antidote must be at least equal to work; drain stamina might be a lvl 2, in which case anything equal or above 2 would suffice).

I'd like to point out that that has already been confirmed as being included in the game. Other that that, I'd like to add trapping, alchemy of some kind (focused on poisons?) and mechanical tinkering versatility. Not necessarily in a same rogue but as possibilities. Maybe even as combinations: poisoned traps, mechanical lockpicks that make it faster, that sort of thing.

I'd be fine having some rather evil or extreme narcissist/sociopath as the main antagonist for the main quest, if it's at all applicable as a basic "save the world!" plot. If we're going to have any kind of world-destroying or soul-reincarnation-destroying plot, the main villain basically has to be at least mildly nuts for his actions to make any sense. But that doesn't mean there have to be clear-cut good guys. You could have several factions with different morals and agendas that'll try to get you to support their cause, eventually giving them all the power and resources that the villain collected that weren't destroyed. Who would you give them, if any of them? Would you rather start your own one, or just wrestle one of the existing ones more into the dircetion you want them to go? Done well, it would work nicely even in a more morally bankcrupt setting. Though I'd much rather see a main quest more about what the heck happened to you (seeing as the player char got caught in some kind of disaster or something) and figure out how it affects you now, how it will affect you and if at all possible find a way to fix it if it seems detrimental. Maybe with a side dish of revenge against whatever did it to you and with a self-discovery story for a dessert.

I'm with the "flanking and sneak attacks for everyone" group. However, since flanking requires you to get behind your target and sneak attacks need the target to be caught unaware, both of which a guy who can stay unseen through various methods (which incidentally is usually the rogue) can do far better than the frontal assault type guy, I don't think that making the bonus available to all is such a drawback to the slick rogue who can get that bonus nigh all the time. Considering the rogue soul abilities seem to head towards invisibility, distraction and illusion abilities/magic, he might actually be able to disappear at a moments notice just like that. You can't hit what you can't see, so... Still, I'd prefer my rogue be more like Garrett from Thief or their tech-equivalent Sam Fisher from Splinter Cell. If you stretch the combat abilities, I guess I could see a Solid Snake type rogue too. But the basic idea would be of the guy who's mobility is completely unsurpassed, who can at least seemingly appear right beside you and you wouldn't know a thing even when he pricks you with a poisoned needle, or a dagger. The type of guy who lays traps, scouts ahead and uses alchemy and (time/triggered/remore) bombs to cause havoc among the ignorant enemy. The guy who can get through (nearly) any kind of mechanical obstacle, be it a lock, trap, mine or a mechanical sentry. The guy who's most likely to have a very diverse set of skills that can get him through anything. In combat, he'd figuratively or literally just disappear, either never to appear again or to give you a quick noogie before sneak and flank attacking your sorry ass. With a wheellock. Since Obsidian said that the class archetypes are expanded more than previously, I'd expect a somewhat versatility from everybody, so rogues having different "builds" to do different things wouldn't strike me as odd. Maybe you have the assassin rogue, while I've got a real thief. A third might have a mechanical wizard.

If the magic is drawn from stamina, have the stamina regenerate less when wearing heavier armor. Not prohibitively but enough that high level tactical nuke spells can practically only be cast once per fight. Robe or light armor wearing spellcasters would regenerate it quicker, allowing more frequent use, but are consequently vulnureable to more damage, especially from firearms. Similarly, I could see staves helping with magic while swords would work better for parrying and would allow charging it with a spell to cast it simultaneously. Also, allowing wizards hold a spell charged sounds like a great idea. Maybe tie it to being stored in either a weapon or a tome.

As long as the robe-wearing guy is willing to risk a rogue sneaking up to him and shooting him at point blank in the back of his head, most likely killing him instantly. "Should've at least had leather, pal!" Or a rifled gun wielding ranger getting a lucky shot.

Josh mentioned that it's the very high speed that makes bullets skip/demolish the arcane veil. I guess one could make a generalization that anything going close to Mach 1 is effective against magical protection, which is why some wizards (battlemages, I'd presume) have decided to screw robes and wear actual armor. Without armor, a rogue armed with a wheellock pistol would kill the wizard easily.

Nice to see an update that actually gives us a glimpse of the work done there. Yes to a definite tier system and armor trees. I can understand somewhat with the want to keep everything viable but IMO that way lies a dead end. It makes everything just equally boring instead of equally exciting. Having actual tiers which are always definite improvements makes it a much more satisfying experience of getting ones hands on that next tier armor. Of course the armor could branch out in different ways, say a light armor tree branches into a "common" line with the best overall stats, while another branch would eschew that in favor of additional stealth benefits (say a cultural difference between subcultures). Similarly some unique variants or exotic versions could "jump tiers" into a much higher one, but be more specialized into something than the others of its tree (eg. a megabeast-of-whateverville-hide armor that would be like a tier 6 light armor but instead of being just equal to their protection, lack some of it but makes up for it with excellent protection from the elements). But the basics remain the same and a tier 6 armor of it's branch will always be better than tier 5 armor of the same branch. Yes, it should be made obsolete. Maybe, if it's really felt necessary, some exotic armor branch could offer the same kind of visual look while keeping the armor's tier up-to-date but otherwise they'd have to go with the tier system too. Cultural descriptions, please. Those are the most interesting ones and could offer a lot of variance to explore and balance. If necessary, include material descriptions when, for example, differing the same culture's heavy armor that has simply switched the construction material. Leave the "masterwork" and "superior" type descriptions for custom-made and specially fitted armor. And whatever you do, do not go with the +1 method of naming. Not of huge concern, but if the thematic naming is not felt necessary, I'd suggest going with the "realistic" approach: switch around the armors depending on their actual features rather than their origin and branch.

However, how would the other guy know if the PC is bluffing? How would it make a difference in the resulting conversation? You could as well have one option that states that you are going to rip their arm off if they're not going to tell the truth. If they call your bluff, you then are presented with the ability to either suck it up or start combat. IMO, that's a better way to do bluffing and lying rather than seperate options. Tagging a dialogue's tone is more logical, though having clearly different lines might work better. Still, having [sarcastic] or [chuckling] in front of a line is understandable and it could work well.

However, since option 1 stops the guards from actually investigating, it could have some unforeseen consequences. Imagine the victims family and friends becoming bitter and begin organizing their own vigilante systems in place of the guards, since to them, they're obviously either corrupted or lazy. Or they'll figure out that it was you who got the guards stop investigating and suddenly the public opinion on you plummets. Or it'll actually just be more suspicious since you're clearly trying to get them to stop investigating, even if you are successful (there are other guards and they all probably have superiors that are none too happy about guards abandoning their posts and risking public outcry).

One thing that I always wondered about Planescape: Torment was why would I need to specify if I'm bluffing or lying when I'm saying something. Why not just have that option, and then leave it up to the NPC to either buy it or call my bluff and I'd work with that. It always striked me as somewhat artificial. I can't remember if it was Project Eternity's or Wasteland 2's update but I remember one of them saying that while skills would show up like that, you still need to watch what you say or you'll talk yourself into a corner. So, why not a simple system like that: if you just click on the [Wisdom] or [speech] option all the time, you'd usually end up contradicting yourself and failing to convince the other guy otherwise.

To answer you one more time even if you do have a rather... lackluster response record... If you run out of stamina, you will get knocked out, in which case all damage goes directly to health and you can't fight back. You'll need to actively protect your KO'd party members so they won't get killed. It's completely possible for just one of your guys to stay conscious and repel the enemy before force-feeding others or letting them rest a bit or however they'll recover from fatigue. Heck, if the game has poisons, you could get into a situation where everybody is KO'd but because your poison is killing the monster, you'll just have to rest for a while and hope no monster comes up. If your health goes down to 0, it will 1) cause the guy to become maimed, which I guess would either require a hefty amount of rest or a visit to a (witch) doctor 2) result in a permadeath in expert mode 3) require a reload. Any of these hardcore enough for ya? If not, too bad. You won't like it. And that's good, if not even great! PE doesn't have to conform to everybody, not even to most people, like AAA titles need to these days. Especially since this is prefunded, they have absolutely no need to try and grab the masses, absolutely no need to get everybody enjoy the game. Maybe you won't like it, maybe you'll consider it the worst thing after non-sliced bread. You know what? It's all right. PS. Evidently, your fabled Baldur's Gate also had Mass Effect Garbage in it, if resurrection is so easy in it. This'll actually be even better than BG by that logic, if your ranking is based only on the case of how easy it is to get your party members back from the dead.

http://steamcommunity.com/id/hertzila Hello there.

While I wouldn't say 'no' to a magic vs. technology conflict, to me it seems more as if the arcane veil is simply unable to handle fast-moving projectiles, similarly to how our modern combat armor has trouble defending against slow melee attacks.

According to the post about tech level, there's definitely one use for the assasination types to carry a couple of wheellock pistols: breaking a wizard's arcane veil. Supposedly it can't withstand high-velocity projectiles, so firearms are pretty much ideal weapons to kill wizards. Which might make for an interesting use of weaponry when magic starts to fly. Instead of fighters trying to close in to melee range and rangers pelting them with arrows, melee types would grab for the one-shot pistol they have, while ranged guys would level their rifled firearms (if they have invented rifles/rifling in the game).

Not voting, because the poll is missing the 'it really doesn't make much sense' option. For a mercenary type character or a companion with a clear agenda, it might work, but as a general mechanic it sounds stupid as hell. Suppose there's a guy I rescued and then suggested that maybe he could travel with me. Why would he suddenly go "Oh but you must pay me 1000 gold or I'll refuse to leave." Or if I happen to meet a girl that seems bored as heck to her present life and suggest that I'm looking for companions to adventure with. Unless she immediatly demands payment I can't understand why'd she suddenly want some sort of compensation from what is essentially voluntary work. Especially if I have taken good care of them in both cases. And for the mercenary, Jagged Alliance 2's AIM's method of 'payment up front for a set amount of time' would seem like a lot more logical way to do business. Adventuring is a fickle business after all... Sidenote1: Is the poll talking about actually severing the ties to the companions so they won't be companions anymore, or is it talking about just telling them to take a rest at the player's house or stronghold (completely justified if they're injured and need it)? Because if it's the latter, it makes even less sense. Sidenote2: How would taking experience even work? They've leveled up with me, they've got all the experience already.

Umm... I'm not exactly the most rule-abiding of us myself but wouldn't eating another member of the Order be in somewhat of a bad taste? (*da-bum-tshhh*) And why does that drumset always seem to follow me? Makes sneaking freakishly hard. Forsooth, young chap! In order to order things in the proper order, the order of orders in the Order must be very orderly! I have no idea what I just said. Verily my friend.

IMO, if we're going to have vampires, just use the 'classical' type or a moderate variation of it. You know, drink blood; can't stand faith, garlic and such; hates days; likes night and darkness a lot; fangs; tough as hell, tend to be smart... If we're going to start to completely re-invent vampires by making them kinda like them in a roundabout way, if you look at them the right way and it's tuesday, it starts to smell like calling a smeerp a rabbit. Just call it a smeerp and be done with it.