[I want to be a dragon]

How do Dragons fit with the soul concepts? Are they soulless? Are they souled? Are they intelligent or just giant animals (frankly if their just giant animals, give us Dinosaurs instead, IMO)?

 

If a character could "be" a dragon, what does that mean about them? About their souls? Could the mythology of PE even have this make sense?

 

To me these are the questions that would need to be examined.

 

Just because souls are a central theme of PE, the game shouldn't revolve entirely around souls.

[The size of elves?!]

 

Bioware's Dragon Age adopted the size of D&D elves, but played them out more 'realistically'.

What happens if you have the size of a dwarve, but are slender like a kid instead of massive like a hulk and have lots of ruthless humans around you?

Well, since everyone is stronger than you, you get either abused (in every possible way), enslaved or even killed (or all together).

Actually, it really hurt to see the elves in Dragon Age either be primitive savages or (sex-) slaves of humans.

 

 

Such an explanation never convinces me. If individual physical strength is what determines a species' success, why aren't all the humanoid peoples subjugated by giants then?

 

I think elves need not be arrogant jerks towards humans and dwarves, but if you include them in your world, you should let them keep their dignity (which seems to the case in PE).

[Meta-dungeons, for Obsidian to consider.]

<snip>

 

Good lord you like to write...

 

A meta-dungeon (abiding by the standard meaning of the prefix "meta-") can be either

 

a) a dungeon composed of dungeons, or

b) a dungeon inside a dungeon.

 

It seems to me that b) is just... continuation of the same dungeon, so it obviously needs to be a), however the hell you'd actually make "a dungeon composed of dungeon" without it just being a dungeon.

 

But I feel the OP will want me to go derper than that.

 

If you are trapped in a dungeon within a dungeon,

?

[How to write the dialogs for cipher class?]

I guess you'll actively decide to use your mind-reading powers and if you do so, the target may become aware of your intrusion and react accordingly.

[Preferred Spell Icon Style]

I voted Icewind Dale. It's like BAldur's Gate, but has brighter and stronger colouration.

[Adam's Playthrough of Icewind Dale 2 for those who missed it]

Thanks for the videos! Was Adam part of the Icewind Dale II team?

[Arachnophobia, "no spiders", what should be important in P:E?]

I don'tmind spiders enemies, but generally they're just so overused in RPGs. Most people find spiders at least slightly revolting or downright horrible, stirring these feelings is basically as original as using rape as fool-proof device to establish a character as terribly evil.

 

Odds are several decently sized spiders have crawled in your mouth, while you slept, repeatedly over the course of your life, so a few big spiders in a game won't hurt you.

 

 

[Pacts with demons and infernal bargains]

As long as such bagrains are rare and meaningful, I'm interested. If they'd be something like class-features, then not so much.

[Project: Name of the Game?]

Yeah, this was dicsussed a few days ago. Project Eternity has become such a famous name on the internet that it is reasonable to me to keep it (at least partially as headline or subtitle).

[Companions]

I like Cadegund, she looks badass. I'm looking forward to new information about all of them.

[Elaborate ownership of stores and other assets]

If, like in Baldur's Gate II, each class gets a different stronghold, operating a business might be well suited to rogues, or crafters of magical items, but not fighters ruling an area. I would not like store ownership to be part of every stronghold.

[Stronghold Prison]

Thinking about it, why should every opponent fight to the death? Some enemies might surrender to you and be thrown into the dungeon to be ransomed (or to rot).

[Do you like to see some "weird" companions?]

Companions that are not what they seem are always exciting to me. They need not try to murder you suddenly without warning, but an unexpected revelation of a hidden agenda is nice.

[Puzzled by the main concept of the game....]

I realise that I've maybe observed the matter from a wrong perspective in my previous comments. I think it's not about you versus your soul, but about individualism versus determinism. You are determined by your nature (soul) to behave in a certain way, but you may strive to chose your own path.

 

What do you think?

[Puzzled by the main concept of the game....]

Let's be blunt. What you see as a soul isn't what is being described here.

 

A soul in this game is something which is separate from the brain. The brain makes decisions, has memories, is in fact the primary decision maker. The soul is just there, offering special abilities, offering memories and skills at times, and recording affairs in its own memory. It has been in other people too. It's not a soul like you say, but a fictional soul.

 

Although I am inclined to indicate there are no such things as souls.

 

Then a term like 'ancestral spirit' might be more suited to describe the phenomenon that is called 'soul'. The quality of the sentient human brain that distinguishes it from others is called personality; a soul is the essence of a person/personality.

[Puzzled by the main concept of the game....]

I agree, that sounds confusing, Darth Trethon. As far as I see it, the term 'soul' is commonly regarded to be synonymous with 'personality', or 'spirit'; further, once you pass on, it is commonly assumed the spirit/soul/personality either ceases to exist, or passes on to the some kind of afterlife (sadly, there are no absolute definitions on what a person precisely is, and the same probably applies to 'soul', too). Then there are philosophers, like Gilbert Ryle, who argue that body and mind are not separate entities.

 

Now it appears, that, in PE, a person is a single entity of body + personality that is possessed by a soul. Upon death, that soul passes on to the next vessel.

 

I am confused, too. If you/your personality are opposite to your soul, the term soul is applied wierdly.

[Integration is King]

I really don't like thieves's guilds. In real-world Middle Ages, cities were among the first places to be under constant protection by the law. Citizens had to swear oaths of allegiance to the city and authorities generally had a much better idea about who was moving in their jurisdiction than rulers of rural areas. Thieves, ok; powerful individuals who employ criminals, ok; but no state within the state governing all things illegal.

Real world Middle Ages towns != fantasy metropolis with 300.000 inhabitants

In fact Real world != fantasy world

 

Depends on the fantasy setting in question. If you want to emulate a medieval atmosphere, you should take medieval realities into account. If you have skyships, living automatons and flying crystal cities, on the other hand, you're not bound by reality.

[Sheathed weapons]

My own selfish request is to have a toggle to go to civilian clothes - if only because I play a thief and would like to, y'know, not be in my thief gear when not thieving.

 

That's an interesting thought. Maybe wielding weapons and wearing armour could affect the way you are treated by people you want to intimidate or talk peacefully with.

[Integration is King]

I've never liked the way guilds were implemented in cRPGs. For example, you basically have 'a' thieves guild that runs all thievery everywhere. I don't think that's the way it worked during the middle ages. Adding some cultural aspects to guilds would help.

 

I really don't like thieves's guilds. In real-world Middle Ages, cities were among the first places to be under constant protection by the law. Citizens had to swear oaths of allegiance to the city and authorities generally had a much better idea about who was moving in their jurisdiction than rulers of rural areas. Thieves, ok; powerful individuals who employ criminals, ok; but no state within the state governing all things illegal.

[Do you like to see some "weird" companions?]

Planescape is inherently wierder than more worldly settings. I don't expect the companions to be as exotic as those encountered in the planes.

 

Generally, I'd like game to have the level of companion-wierdness Baldur's Gate I and II have.

[Aumaua Race - Expectations and speculations]

That's interesting. It appears that both Hawaiian and Maori are related Polynesian languages. By the mere look of the word, aumaua might indeed be inspired by Polynesian.

[Integration is King]

You get "urgent emergencies please hurry!" where you can take your sweet time and nothing changes. (Every RPG ever except maybe Fallout).

 

I generally agree with you, but I think most of the time the game should not put you under time pressure.

[Project Eternity: Fan Soundtrack]

The music is wonderful. I very much like Dwarven Dweller. Thanks for sharing it with us!

[Sheathed weapons]

It would be nice for swords, but might be difficult to implement for your arsenal of flails, morning stars, battle axes, halberds, javelins, etc. In the end it is probably more elegant to simply have the weapons and shields disappear into your inventory.

[No Bathos please]

Well, I'm sure Chris Avellone, if he happens to stumble over this thread, will find your point remarkably helpful.

 

See, the guys at Obsidian don't need us to know that theiy story should be well thought out. And they don't need us to get it done. Currently, there are only bits and pieces known about the world and the plot of the game. What I see and my experience with past games allows me to be confident that I will not be disappointed by Project Eternity. I won't be invited over to Irvine to work at the project, so the most productive thing I can do right now is to have a positive attitude. Unless there is a piece of concrete information to discuss that's all we can do.