AgentOrange

I don't mind stuff like card games, things like poker and black jack - Caravan in New Vegas was a very well designed little game - so long as they are completely optional; I actually had a lot of fun playing Black Jack in NV and getting kicked out of casinos for winning too much. However none of the skill based checks should involve mini-games, absolutely none. It completely removes the point of having a skill check in the first place if you then have to waste time on some repetitive puzzle anyway, especially when you then have a chance to fail that puzzle (player skill disconnect, why the hell would should my expert level hacker fail a moderate difficulty word search minigame because I can't spelling); it is destructive against any sense of reality as well, when some ultra high level military security computer has the same security system as the nuka cola factory janitors electronic journal, better to leave the intricacies whatever security system you're hacking up to the player's imagination or convey it through words. Jesus **** it's somewhat unrelated but the water pipe hacking game in Bioshock, I mean ****.

A dancing god.

**** morals. Choices should be based on logic and the prospect of gain. You make a choice because it suits your ideals at the moment, not because it is the "right" or "wrong" thing to do. Sell slaves, give plague ridden blankets to orcs (incredible ****ing allegory there, ****), what is this high school English class?

Only being able to rest at inns and houses is foolish, it's an adventuring party not a group of aristocratic dandies. That said, the system in BG and NWN were too easily abused, and took the challenge of attrition away. Maybe some sort of limit on the effectiveness of resting in the wilderness, only recovering a portion of your health and stamina and not having full access to all rest related abilities, whereas resting in a more comfortable location gives full benefits. Also I think you should be able to put a character on watch when you rest in a location; the character would not recover any stats but doing so could prevent, or give some kind of advantage in, ambushes.

Mm, without quality voice acting (KotOR 2, Fallout: New Vegas) or the detailed facial expressions that real people can have in films, it would definitely help to have character descriptions.

Use that model. Collect everything Prosper has ever written. Bam, the most prosperous companion of all time.

I don't see how having an overhead, static map of the city would be being "spoon fed directions"...

Stop being a poophead.

That's one of the most unimaginative plot points possible.

The fact that romance is being talked about as a mechanic is in itself so incredibly absurd, every discussion about it is rendered similarly absurd.

You can place route of points on map and your character would run automatically in game using them. I figured that out, but I still feel that it is weak and less convenient compared to Planescape Torment's map system. Arcanum's local map simply did not cover enough ground in my poinion. Also, the simplest of paths (straight lines) kept giving my character's pathfinding hiccups. No, you're right, the map was quite awful. There's really no benefit in having a map that is permanently focused on a small area, it's just disorienting, especially in a large city - which Arcanum happens to have more of than most similar RPGs. A map like Planescape's or Baldur's Gate would have been far more useful. I think the HQ Map and Widescreen Mod fix the problem somewhat.

Really doesn't seem necessary, a needless complication. I mean if the combat required the use of cover, then the destruction of said cover would be an added strategic choice (X-Com), but simply having the environment be destructible for the sake of it? I can't say I see the point.

Seems like a system that would be better suit for loot fest games, like Diablo. I don't like the idea of feeling as though my equipment or spells are never as good as they could be, simply because I don't use them all the time in every situation. I think investing points into weapon and spell schools is enough.

Day/Night cycle will probably be in. I don't think quests should be exclusive to the time however, as that will inevitably lead to fast-forwarding (resting) in order to get or turn in a quest. Slight alternations to monster spawns would be fine.

Been replaying Arcanum recently, and it has a rather interesting and deep critical success/failure system. It is tied to the Magick and Technology dichotomy, so that those with Magickal affinity have a higher chance to critically fail when using tech, but tech savvy people will critically fail if their opponent is highly magickal. Obviously this doesn't work for PE, but it would be neat if the critical chances had a calculation process that went behind simple chance - having a higher chance to critically fail when using a a certain weapon against a certain enemy, or when a certain race uses a certain weapon. It has happens far too often in Arcanum though, I see a critical success/failure at least twice per battle. It should happy only once in a every few. Overall I love the idea of critical hits and failures; some of my fondest memories from Fallout are the situation when a battle was turned in my favor or against me because of them - running out of ammo and managing to puncture an opponents eyes with my hands, or accidentally setting myself on fire when a molotov explodes prematurely.

My favorite "boss battles" in an IE game were the opposing adventurer parties and mercenaries in Baldur's Gate 1. A group of humanoid characters with the same spells as mine own at their disposal. It was a chance to make use of every spell in the book, because like you they could be affected by just about every spell and would be casting their own buffs and such.

No, those are randomly generated abilities. And are best suited for loot-fest hack and slash games like Diablo. Not PE.

My biggest issue with the game was how Stealth was a non-option in almost every boss fight. I'd like to hear one of the devs talk about that; did they just run out of time to make more options for boss killing? It was a similar situation in Deus Ex: HR, you sneak through the whole level and suddenly have to run around guns blazing because the boss is so aggressive.

Agreed. I want to be able to bind spells and abilities to all the number and function keys, and the alt, shift, crtl variants of those. The last thing I want is to lose a battle because I was fumbling with inane key-board commands or trying to mouse click an ability.

Should be able to name your character whatever you want. If you're not the type who cares about immersion you should have the freedom to name your character xXxBongSmiter420xXx. I dislike having to choose a forced surname.

One who has to pay the bills.

This is wrong. Period. By having the real time element you are, by definition, incorporating an element of "twitch" gameplay. You can call that tactical if you want to, thinking on your feet etc, but it is far different from having the absolute tactical field control which is only possible in pure turn based. I'm fine with PE having RTWP, but don't try to say it's somehow more tactical than turn based...

I would love this. Getting rid of a party member, only to run into them later on in the story, and find out they have been doing their own thing - possibly being more successful than you (sort of like how Porkey would turn up at certain points in Mother 2 to jeer at you). Or like you say, come back and try to cut you up. Of course this would mean that getting rid of a party member is a permanent choice.

Just get the guys who did the Hotline Miami soundtrack. Fantasy RPG with electronic synthwave music. Do it.

I agree. Don't necessarily want flames and skulls and spikes mind you...but if I wanted completely realistic and authentic armors I'd go read a ****ing history book. Or play a Total War game.