rjwest0004

My takeaway is that your core audience wants more story, more worlds, and a continued focus on quality RPGs, not superficial games or content. Obsidian stands for deep story-driven RPGs. That us what we come to you for, and why we love you. You guys are some of the best world builders and story tellers in the business, so don't lose focus of that.

My thoughts exactly. Other than that... WOW! Great work guys!

Thanks for the updates. Love everything you said here. Core classes with lots of customization. Looting without extreme inventory management issues. Scalable resolutions for larger displays. I love all the thought you guys are putting into it. Obviously you guys have tons of experience and insight into what works well, what doesn't, and what you want to try differently. Keep up the good work.

Yes, I am all for no quest markers If and Only If, there is a good journal system. If the system can break down Main Quest and Side Quests, and further have an entry for each side quest which highlights the important information relevant to that side quest in a journal format, then that would be great. I don't think I have ever seen a system designed quite like that. Example: Main Quest --- Side Quests --- ---Find Lost Relic ------NPC1 mentioned that a Lost Relic could be used to forge superior weapons/armor ------NPC2 said relic was last seen in Forbidden Forest ------Relic may be in a cave controlled by Dwarven bandits ------Dwarven bandits were seen in the northeast of the Forbidden Forest ------NPC3 saw a cave in the northeast of the Forbidden Forest, just east of Forest Lake ---Side Quest 2 ---Side Quest 3 ------Details I think this would encourage more dialogue with the NPCs while trying to piece together the information you need to achieve the objective. This would require a lot of work to implement, but that is in my opinion the best option as far as discovery and immersion. Barring something like that, I would prefer quest markers to at least get you in the general area. As someone who loves games but where time is a premium, I hate coming back into a game a week to a month later and trying to figure out what the heck I was supposed to be doing or where the heck I was supposed to go to do it. All it does is make me go to the walk through websites and wikis to find the next step.

I'm definitely in favor of Quest for XP. I liked the Witcher style where you did get some XP for killing monsters, but it was minuscule compared to the amount you got for questing. I like the XP for sub-quest objectives though. If the quest is to rescue a kidnapped victim, you should get the same amount of XP for sneaking in and picking the lock/pickpocketing the key, persuading the kidnappers to release the victim, or killing the kidnappers. Deus Ex: HR really turned me off because the game rewarded you for completing a level without killing anyone, and more rewards for going through undetected. That should be a choice, but not such a substantial reward without purpose. Of course, if the quest IS to steal something without being caught, then you should not get as much XP for being detected and having to fight your way out...

Hmmm... reading through all these comments, I was thinking that maybe the dungeon could be a quest to uncover some long lost ancient civilization. At the very bottom would be some new race, which would of course include an NPC ally option, and a small underground city with unique items/treasures. But to get there, you have to fight through "endless" levels of baddies and puzzles.

I think if the mega 14 level dungeon was part of a side-quest, then that would be OK. 14 levels would be rather long, but if there are way points/warps/teleport stones to get in and out quickly then it would be OK. If you get tired of dungeon crawling for a bit, you could warp out, and then come back where you left off later. There has to be something to draw you there, and something to keep you going. If they are going with the Quest for XP instead of Kill for XP (which I prefer), then you would really need a reason to keep going besides loot and gore. But assuming that each level would take an hour to get through, then that would be 14 hours worth of content just for that dungeon. Like Brannart said, a game within a game. And I am all for that. Another option would be to have certain levels that you can't access until your character reaches a certain level. Certain spells or skill levels to unlock the doors/puzzles, etc. Then as you level up, you would be curious to see what lies on the next levels of the dungeon.