MorganJha

Well with 13 levels, the Path is almost a game in a game. I think it's not far away from Diablo 1. I agree that it should be a great challenge, but it is although a good opportunity to make something unusual. Dungeon crawling is good, roleplaying is awesome... So 13 levels just opening doors, disarming traps and kicking ass without meeting anyone would be annoying. The only thing I hope about this dungeon is that it will surprise us.

Speaking of statistics... I think restraining the equipment that a character can use because of his stats is nonsense. Indeed, why couldn't a warrior use a leather armor because he has low dexterity? It's just an armor and I think that he is totally able to put leather pieces on... Same thing for a wizard's staff. My rogue should be able to equip that staff, although he couldn't be smart enough to use its power, rendering it useless. A sorceress who has a full plate armor in her backpack should be able to wear it, even if she can't use the armor's full abilities. The full plate just doesn't become heavier because she tries to put it on. In my opinion, all characters should be able to use all equipment but without the required stats (or training), they can not use it at its best or can not activate the powers bound to that equipment... And that is a flaw of d&d system.

I think level scaling is a real immersion-killing feature. First, in all rpg universes, there are merchants, townsmen, hunters and travelers. They are all supposed to have a life. They should be able to travel from a city to another without having to bring their two handed sword + 15 vs dragons and pumpkin pies. Merchants should be able to trade with the other towns, lumbers should be able to cut down trees without being attacked by a horde of goblins just because a random adventurer is around and so ever. In Oblivion, bandits are well scaled at the beginning and fairly realistic. They have leather armors, iron swords and are really a threat for level 1 characters. But when you have a level 50 character, a full daedric armor and Umbra sword, meeting a bandit that could afford half a city just by selling a part of his glass armor is silly. Changing the mobs isn't a good idea either, because a average guard should be able to deal with an average bandit. And the average bandit should remain an average threat for this guard, even if the local hero is level 50. The local bandits shouldn't turn into "master ninja bandit chiefs" just because of the same hero. Or villages would be in real trouble. So level scaling is a bad idea... For areas that are supposed to be "crowded". If an adventurer begins to explore savage areas, dark dungeons and forgotten ruins, everything could be in it and so level scaling doesn't bother me. While exploring a dungeon that is avoided by villagers because they say it is dangerous, I expect to fight anything. If I just want to buy new boots in the nearby town, I expect to fight goblins of nothing at all, not dragons or Godzilla-sized demons...

Rats? in a tavern? By Moradin's hammer!! In a warehouse! And a dwarf gives you the quest... in Candlekeep!

Hello, sorry for the awful english... To my mind, each player should be able to choose his own difficulty setting by activating (or not) various options before beginning the game. Indeed, each time a game offers difficulty settings, they have an impact on many aspects of the game. If normal mode allows me to save the game at anytime and fight average mobs, I may not want to see the possibility to save during fights disabled as I raise the difficulty level. So the solution offered constiting in choosing the items I want to enable or not seems good to me as it means that you can create a custom difficulty setting. Moreover, once you have activated a feature, you could not turn it off. You choose your gaming experience at the beginning of the game and you must keep it all the way. As far as grinding is concerned, another topic is dealing with it and with experience rewards, but I am not sure how you can determine whether someone is grinding or not. For instance, if I look for a random guy in a dangerous area and can't find him the first time because I had not seen him (everybody knows what I am talking about I think), how will the game decide if I'm grinding because I killed all mobs on the map twice or if I'm just stupid?