Fimbul

Drawbacks yay - restrictions nay! Mages should be able to don armor but with mali on casting. Thing is I hate fail chance on casting, I'd rather have reduced maximum cast level or increased cast time. Specials feats to be able to use medium or heavy armor in the first place would also be okay for me. I'd like to play a heavily armored warlock that may not be able to cast high level spells, but hands out magic missiles like candy.

Re-spawning is okay if the monsters stop to yielding XP rather early, based on monster and player level. I'd hate to go back and find an area completely deserted, the game world would feel less dynamic to me. Re-spawning could very well improve the dynamic and consistency of the world. I know some would argue that re-spawning is the opposite of consistency, but what if you clear a bandit camp in the woods and wildlife would have taken it over when you return. An other example would be if you clear a bear cave (bears being formidable foes at this point) near a road and whenever you'd return there would spawn some minor wild animals or bandits that sought refugee in the abandoned cave. It would be a great way to show the player the consequences of his/her actions. Those re-spawns should mostly yield less XP and loot (if yielded at all, since it isn't clear yet) and be weaker than those before them, just so that the player can't get much out of them but it doesn't seem like he/she depopulated the whole world!

That's my general viewpoint. Narration itself doesn't add much for me ... that's going to be dependent on whether I like the narrator's voice/intonation, and that's a hit and miss affair for most people. So if we're talking imagination here, I'd actually rather just have text and imagine a voice myself. Or really, sometimes, none at all if possible - I'd rather story/narrative be somehow integrated into the game itself in some way, rather than needing huge chunks of sudden exposition. eg, there's the too many cutscenes ="I'll just watch watch a movie" aspect (which I agree with) but there's also the "then I'll just read a book" aspect. It's a fine line at times. Well, if it was in the BG and IWD style with floating text, you could always mute the sound and read yourself.

A nice example where narration and atmosphere made the whole game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7VJ4lP-05A Of course there was also a good portion of awesome graphics involved, but images can build as well an atmosphere! For those who don't know Dear Esther: You walk through the whole "game" with almost no interaction at all, save that you might trigger additional narration if you visit certain places. It's actually more like a set of beautiful landscapes that you walk through while a touching story unfolds through the narration. I recall someone calling it "interactive poetry". Don't try it if you're looking for action or suspense!

Yes put'em all in! Orcs, dragons, fairies, hobbits and pokemons and don't ever dare try something new!

I prefer real-time but a pause function with diverse settings for auto-pausing is a must have! The IE games are only superficially in real time, the game mechanics still work with turns and you can actually make them stop after each one. Since PE is a homage to these games from the beginning, I presume a similar system will be put to work.

Archers often ended up being the most effective character in my parties, although I too did scarcely choose a ranger for the task, with the exception of the BG2 archer subclass. I preferred a warrior/mage class combo and gladly forwent armor and fast level-up for the extra punch down range. Ranger's should have some unique mechanics for ranged combat, to make them more interesting! Three examples from the top of my head: - piercing missile on crit - choice of targeted limb, with chance of crippling (I love this in the Fallout series) - fletching: infinite availability of certain ammo types, depending on level

Funny... I'd rather it be the other way around. I like to choose of different 'cultures' of humans rather than 'races'. In my opinion elves and dwarfs are boring because they are just extremes on both sides of the human spectrum - the agile and the sturdy. It seems unimaginative to me to choose extremes. ... let's have it the traditional way and have them coexist... serves us both!

Sound's like a trophy room to me. I'd like trophies to be added to the stronghold as I progress through the game, prisoners would make decent trophies I guess, given that I didn't decide to kill them when I had the chance. I wouldn't spend too much effort on a more elaborate prison concept, though! Maybe I should take some time reading through the other stronghold thread to check if that trophy idea got called out yet...

Quick understanding, cultural diversity, creativity and flexibility are the common traits associated with humans. They usually manifest in additional points or more freedom during character creation. Imho there's nothing to improve here.

So if people are afraid of death, you may not die in the game? It's a game! Be thankful that you get an extra kick out of it! If you're afraid of them: Fight'em, purge'em, hit'em with a stick and kill'em with fire! I personally don't have any particular fear or phobia, so excuse me if I lack a little empathy.

...meaning we are point zero on the scale to measure advantages and disadvantages in this particular context. Would feel kind of forced if humans had any advantages but quick learning or something like that. game: humans have +1 strength. random human: Well I don't feel very strong... game: humans have +1 dexterity. random human: Actually I'm kind of clumsy... game: humans have +1 intelligence. random human: Deeerrrp game: humans learn rather fast. random human: Uhm well we better DO, since we don't live as long as other races.

I too prefer realistic gear over fancy, shining mumbo jumbo. The IE games rarely had fancy effects on their weapons or armor but that was surely due to the limited graphics. I always thought of the D&D +X suffix more as a quality statement than one of magic, although it is clearly defined as the latter. There sure are a lot of interesting item attributes that could be explained in a more profane manner.

The original IE games weren't very randomized in terms of loot: Bosses yielded unique weapons, lieutenants something like a short sword +2. After two or more play-throughs you were pretty sure what enemy would drop which loot, that took some excitement out of it. I'd like to have some randomization on common magics (more than + on damage or hit modifier) but also have notorious epic and legendary items at definite places. The NWN series did better with it's variety of attributes and modularly designed items, so I'd say Obsidian already knows how to do it right.

What's wrong with the way it was in earlier IE games? It's dark, people go inside - some sleep, some roam the streets at night, some begin to work, some inns are even more crowded than at daytime. I don't need the NPCs to go shopping for milk and cheese, I'm okay when they behave slightly different night and day. But don't get me wrong, I also don't mind if there is more. I'm just a little concerned about how much effort it would take in comparison to things I deem more important.

2D portraits add so much atmosphere to a game and the customization is invaluable! I also like the idea of different portrait variations for light, medium and heavy armored and injured chars. It would work just like the implementation of small, medium and large character portraits in the BG and IWD series, only that variation of size is obsolete anyway since scaling is simple to implement nowadays, fading of one variation to another without popping as well. I believe such stuff counts to the 4 million goal but it would also be enough to implement the script and leave the rest to the community.

Weight and volume based, like in NWN(2). Imho you can almost never go wrong with realism... almost...

I would like no cap but with a reasonable soft cap: So basically there would be no limit for earned XP and (as given) ability- and skill points, but once you would clear a map, where the enemies would yield a fixed amount of XP, there would only respawn enemies that yield XP up to a certain level (player level at first determination on map + x ) and then no XPs at all. The enemy strength, when first entering the map, would be determined by the player level... just a little bit of math here and there. Thus the enemies would pose a challenge, no matter what level the player would have, with the exception of the enemies' strength being determined once and after that the player would have the possibility to visit previous locations and return stronger... at least on low and medium difficulty. I just like to get the most out of a game in terms of character ability while having a fair challenge at the same time.

I'm with you: Whole days were spent customizing characters, even drawing their portraits and writing biographys, just for them to be put on a shelve and for me to continue midgame with an other save. For my main play-through I tend to recreate a likeness of myself; often times that wasn't possible due to me having a mohawk. Most character creators, if at all, have a thin, spiky one or something that is too bushy and rather looks like a little dog. I had a short mohawk - just a strip of hair and the rest shaven bald. This litlle detail drove me crazy. Today I have a job and can't walk around with mohawk at work anyway, so that's out of the world.

Extremely wrong example. The boss by itself would be an objective (hence XP), and thus your "example" of why the system sucks excludes using the system. A better example would be instead of a boss it was 20 gnolls. Why is taking the straight-road and killing them much better than spending time getting around them and quietly steal the objective? Answer; It shouldn't be. Using the system they plan for PE it wont either. Doesn't mean killing the 20 gnolls is useless, you still get to the objective after all after doing it. I seriously doubt running to the objective and away is going to be an issue. And heck if it is, it's ON a gnoll. Stealth players could pickpocket, however a non-rogue party? You have to kill them to acquire the item... I don't know why you are so concerned with my comment but you've got me entirely wrong on several instances! First of all: You pretty much said what I was saying. I think getting XP only for objectives is good in respective to the player not being tempted to kill the enemy guarding the objective, just for the extra amount of XP! Furthermore the example is not wrong because I made it clear that the objective is IN the treasury, would the boss be the objective I would have said so, but it is not! I call it boss because it's a strong enemy that yields (edit: or would yield) lots of XP. Of course it could also be several enemies, but it doesn't matter! Please leave my examples alone, they're fine! You should be rewarded for being an idiot and drawn into a fight? Tell me more about how it makes sense to get rewarded for seeking trouble where there is none. I marked the spot. Please take your time to read comments thoroughly before criticizing every sentence. Cause exploring is all about killing stuff. There wont be no NPCs along the way. There wont be items to find. There wont be quests to complete. Nope, exploration is only... MURDER DEATH KILL. This isn't Diablo. This is Project Eternity. Spritial sequal to Baldur's Gate and Planescape:Torment. If you can let people walk waypoints and complete quests, as some MMO's allow, you seriously need to judge your way of making a proper game... As well as if you can't create areas that are nothing but killfodder. You know I try to be objective, but that one is very rude! I played Infinity games my whole life and Diablo is nothing to me besides them! What I mean with "walking waypoints" is that the player hurries from one objective to the next and doesn't mind enemys at all. In MMORPGs it's called "rushing" - sounds familiar? I think this behavior is not what you want to see in this game. By the way I use subjunctive mood on purpose, you don't have to take everything I write as if I was 100% sure of what outcome a given scenario will have in the game. Look, I don't take it personally, but I think you've read and commented in a hurry. You are doing people wrong if you do that.

Summon cats? Why not? We had summon bunnies in BG2! Wasn't it something like: Those were the times!

Drawn portraits and the ability to import your own! I dislike 3D portraits in modern RPGs and loved the poster like portraits in the infinity style character screen. Don't know if there is a statement about this yet.

but the possibility to reload takes the challenge out of this I feel, as you can just reload if you fail a fight, change up your spells and all is fine.. You can do that anyway, and if not you've hit a dead end in the game and that's bad for the player and the designers! Ability systems bear the hazard of miss-skilling. Next everyone wants the possibility of reskilling, and what's that again? By the way, wasn't there a stretch-goal with some kind of ironman mode?! I bet there will be a game mode with no reloading allowed

I agree that the whole process of preparing your spells for a certain scenario is pretty fun and challenging and I hope what the designers have in mind is a hybrid of both systems: Preparation of spells, but with cooldown instead of consumption. Although I somehow liked that in the infinity games mages, priests and the likes become less powerful during a fight, you can get a similar tactical challenge if you set the cooldown timers high enough.

Hmmm intriguing idea: When did a rouge sneaking around a boss and stealing the objective ever get the same exp as a warrior simply slaying the boss?! Most people would slay the boss anyway - rouge or not - just for the XP. But I like it better to use abilities like diplomacy (intelligence / wisdom), intimidation (strength / constitution) or reflexes (dexterity) to evade confrontation. Such ways should be available for almost any encounter in the game and XP and loot should be even higher in case of success! Giving XP only for objectives might make the player run waypoints and make exploring less attractive.