Thangorodrim

The only cliche/trope I am dead against in the CRPG is the combat solves every solution one ... this is a CRPG not an ARPG ... if I want to kill everything that moves then I will play an FPS or ARPG ... I like there to be situations where talking or listening your way out of the problem is actually the best solution (and the most rewarding) ... like the Ogre in the tower at the beginning of IWD ... you can kill him (depending on the dialog options you choose) or you can solve his problem ... solving his problem actually rewards you with more experience ... in a game like PE where we will likely hit our level cap before the final battle (if we fully explore all the side quests), I like there to be alternatives to the "kill em all and let God sort them out approach"

It seems few people actually read my idea, its not planed to play as merchant who owns a shop/crafting junk etc. but to have completely different class which is severally limited in all classic RPG skills and is instead compensated by cash so that player is forced to search for other NPC to perform even the simplest quest. Basically you are forced to play using your brain instead of muscles. PE is already a tactical strategy game if they follow the BG/IWD models, so you will definitely use your brain ... I think the commander approach where you can't do anything yourself would not work well in practice ... even in strategy games like Majesty it is tough to pull off ... in an RPG you usually have physically weak classes like the Mages or Ciphers (in the PE Universe) that are already limited in what they can accomplish themselves and rely on other members of the party to fill the roles you would want to hire people for ... with party based combat (along the lines of BG/IWD) you already control everybody's actions so I am unclear what you gain from being a merchant general sort of character ... maybe I just don't understand how that would work with the party based system ... why not just be a mage and take a merchant skill ... wouldn't that essentially do the same thing?

I would support that ... I am more used to the concept of stamina in RPGs limiting the number of repeated tasks you can perform or the amount of time you can perform draining tasks (running, combat, etc) ... I am much more used to thinking of vitality in relationship to health and Hit Points

I wouldn't mind seeing a merchant skill that gives you better abilities at buying and selling and I wouldn't mind having some sort of shop perhaps as an expansion to your stronghold but I wouldn't want a merchant class ... although the thought of the unique items like the +4 purse of bartering and the belt of infinite bargains does give one pause

I actually like the cursed objects in the vein of the Rings of Power (in Lord of the Rings) or some of the Eldritch magics in the Cthulhu Mythos ... you can gain extraordinary powers using them but the rings of power gradually destroy you and the Eldritch magics gradually drive you insane ... so using them becomes a strategy in itself ... use them too much too soon and you can't use them later when you really need them ... hold them back and you better have alternatives or you might never make it to the end when you really could use them ... I never really like cursed weapons and usually sold them off ... none of them were ever offering benefits that outweighed their penalties

I would like some class specific elements to the stronghold ... fighting areas for developing fighting skills ... libraries for research or magic ... gardens for herb lore or healing I like the idea of being able to hire specialists (blacksmith, healer, agriculture specialist to increase crops yields, etc) I like the idea of some limited expansion of both size and scale (increased land holdings improve tax revenue but attract more bandits, upgrades to men at arms make bandit defense more viable, etc) I would like the stronghold to help in healing perhaps (heal twice as fast in your stronghold) I like the idea of some quests associate with your stronghold ... maybe it is like the Amityville Horror or The Shining and you need to cleanse it first ... maybe it is like the house with the Lich in Oblivion where there are a number of steps to gain position ... and lots of combat in the interim ... once you get it there could be minor quests like rebellions, bandit attacks, kidnapped staff or workers ... lots of possibilities there I don't like the idea of armies ... turns it into a different game completely That's some of my thinking

It's all in how you approach games and the beta ... for me, since a game like PE will be a marathon of game play 50-100 hours (hopefully closer to the 100 than the 50), I can experience the beta like an appetizer ... it will only increase my appetite for the full game to come later ... to me the only risk of a beta is if the game is bad then the beta can ruin your anticipation of the final game ... I am not expecting that in this case so I think it will only increase my desire to play the full version later on ... of course, others mileage may vary

There are lots of possibilities depending on how they design the world. Speech skills (flatter, intimidate, interrogate, etc) are always interesting and give more variety to the dialog options. I like the idea proposed of some sort of observational skill that lets you detect traps or secret doors more easily (maybe give you some flexibility if you didn't want to bring a rogue/thief character) Bash as an alternative to lock pick is always nice for strong fighter types. A first aid or medical skill, maybe combined with some sort of Herb lore skill would be useful and maybe give some flexibility on the priest types who are usually in a party strictly for healing or management of undead foes. Woodcraft and exploration skills for Ranger type characters are also useful and interesting. If items or gold become rarer as some people have proposed in other threads then some sort of bargaining or shopping related skill could be useful. If we have weapon or item degradation then a repair or blacksmith/leathersmith skill would be useful.

Because they want to have a level playing field for posters ... if some people were mounting spoilers on their rear ends to increase their posting speeds it would be unfair ... OH, you meant the other kind of spoilers :D

I think if it is not something sudden ... you hear grumblings from the NPC well in advance so you can choose to ignore them and face the consequences, make repairs in the relationship, or cut the dead beat loose ... whichever suits your playing style ... I would have no problem if there are a couple of scripted betrayals that are used to advance story elements also

As others have noted ... not all cliches are bad ... The Lord of the Rings is considered by many to be one of the greatest Fantasy novels ever but it is very cliched by the definitions of people here ... I think they can walk the tightrope of picking certain elements that will make for good story and game play and abandoning those that don't help PE become a unique and viable IP for Oblivion ... I trust their judgement to sort that all out and I look forward to seeing what they will come up with

I don't think they should have respawning every time you leave the game (like the ARPGs) but it is realistic that even after you clear an area there should be some influx of new creatures or inhabitants ... I think it should be geography based ... dungeons and wilderness areas can repopulate quickly (say within a week of game time) ... areas around cities or more populated areas might take longer (say a month of game time) ... this can give the world a lived in feel without creating the constant grind of of the ARPG ... anyway ... that's my take on it ... if they want to create a grinding location then they could use either the Mega Dungeon (let it repopulate every time you leave) or something like sewers and crypts that can repopulate more rapidly

They will make a profit even if they do a game almost exactly like PST so that's out the window. One can hope but I don't remember PST being very combat oriented and I suspect there are a lot of players looking forward to the Icewind Dale style tactical combat ... kind of defeats the whole point of having a party of followers if you can't use them to full effect ... but they already have my big chunk of dollars either way

Why can't the beta enhance the magic ... no pun intended ... and anticipation. As noted earlier, the Beta will only be a snapshot of the final product, since it is also about testing and debugging you will get lots of resets and want to try lots of different things you might not normally do in the game. If you think that will ruin your overall enjoyment later, then you might need to abstain ... but if you can treat it as an enjoyable appetizer before you get the scrumptious meal later ... then you can enjoy both and it will only add to your anticipation and enjoyment

You people don't really get why they went to kickstarter to pitch this game do you? Quit appealing to mass market trends for your arguments, you're going to ruin this game with that ****. What does how many units PST sold have to do with anything? Even going to KS to get the initial funds I am sure they would still like to make a profit (the KS money has to be used exclusively for the development of the game). With 75,000 original donations and potentially more in sales they do have some responsibility to balance things out for the majority of potential users (and we will not agree on all of the features) ... there were a lot of games used in the pitch of this project, of which PST was just one ... personally I would love to see the scope and scale of Baldur's Gate, the combat and dungeons of Icewind Dale, and the excellent story of PST. They may need to retain a few cliches and to break a few to create a viable game. Also, if we would like to see a PE 2 someday we should want them to have overwhelming success on this project

For me the regions are there to facilitate game play and different races and encounters ... as long at the inhabitants of the different regions match their region (farmers in plains, deer and bears in forests, monsters in mountains and swamps, etc) I am okay with a little creative license ... Fallout 3 might have had a realistic post apocalyptic landscape but it was pretty boring and repetitive ... since things like magic already violate our accepted rules of reality I am willing to carry over the same suspension of disbelief on magic to the landscape to facilitate the best range of gameplay

I am not as concerned with most of the cliche's unless they don't fit the story ... to me, that has been what was missing from RPGs in recent years ... a good story A game like Bioshock was only mediocre in its genre class (FPS in that case) but it had a really good story and that made up for some of its shortcoming ... you also didn't fully understand the true story and goals until well into the game ... I think that makes for good gameplay I am less concerned with the epic hero cliche if that matches the story ... the story should drive the game design and choices ... not the other way around The two cliches that I think could stand a little shaking up: Character abilities - we tend to get locked into archetypes in characters in RPGs; although it wasn't a perfect implementation I liked the Oblivion approach where your character gained abilities based on what they did ... do magic and your magic improved ... do fighting and your fighting improved ... so your character could be a jack of all trades or a specialist ... it was totally up to you based on how you played Hostile beasties and races - I understand the mechanic to enable the quests and combat for character leveling, however, I would like to see more neutral encounters (peaceful Orc villages, animals that run away from you, etc) ... you could still engage in combat in these situations but there could be an impact to your reputation (wipe out a village of peaceful Orcs and your infamy goes way up) Other than that I am okay with many of the cliches as long as they facilitate a good story and good gameplay ... that is more important to me than a specific cliche

I agree with others that the final sequence doesn't necessarily need to be an actual boss encounter ... this is to be a more traditional RPG and not an ARPG (like Diablo, Sacred, Titan Quest, etc) ... I think they need to map out their story first and decide what kind of story they are presenting ... their ending sequence should align with that story ... that could involve a battle with a single "boss" (like in BG1 or BG2) or it could involve a battle with a group ... or it might not involve battle at all but some sort of choices or puzzles to be solved (Fallout 3) ... write a good story and decide what ending works with that story ... we will have plenty of battles in the game so we don't necessarily need a final battle (unless that fits in with the story requirements)

I think you have to balance it with what is fun ... if you take out all the money then the game does become much more difficult as you must fight to earn even minor upgrades in your equipment (some might prefer this approach but I am not sure if the majority would like that) ... I think one of the issues with these games is that in the late stages you become so powerful that the money doesn't mean much to you anymore ... it is just an encumbrance since we achieved the stretch goal for a fortress the money could definitely be used to enhance that item so it is more than window dressing ... money could be used to upgrade your castle and retainers ... having larger amounts of treasure in your vaults could trigger special events in the game (bandit attacks, rebellions in the villages, etc) ... if you had the repair function then maybe money lets you upgrade your smithy to do cheap repairs (or your temple to provide healing salves and elixirs ... maybe you could trigger unique special events like a dragon attack if your wealth became too large the other approach is that you use the money to buy some incredible late game item or ability ... something that will give you an advantage in the late game but not overwhelmingly so ... this could be class specific and maybe at a level of finance that you must choose between the fortress options and this ... to allow for different playing styles I would think that both of those items could be implemented without extraordinary difficulty and they would definitely make money more meaningful so that you do don't go to a desert of encounters where hardly any of your encounters result in anything beyond experience ... sometimes players need more of a carrot with meaningful or repetitive equipment and treasure drops

Several other options that could be used: 1. Supply and demand economy - if you continuously sell the same items in a region then the price gradually drops to nothing (1 GP or so) so that you are forced to ignore certain types of loot after a while; this reduces the amount of money you can get without varying your selling tactics 2. Money affects reputation after you get your stronghold - you could be allowed to store your excess funds in a vault in your stronghold. As the amount in storage reaches certain thresholds it could give you access to higher level guards for your keep, or keep expansions, or alliances with other kings ... things along those lines 3. Equipment degradation - although I am not fond of this approach, using funds to keep your equipment in optimal shape does denote a certain level of realism in a game (and it can become a money sink for more expensive equipment); if the equipment performance degrades as it becomes in more of a state of disrepair then that encourages you to make this investment 4. Equipment upgrades - there could be several levels of a given item and you could upgrade to these higher levels with additional funds That's some of my thinking on this

I think a reasonable amount of loot gives the world a lived in feel ... it also gives you something to work for in the beginning when you know you will need to buy basic items to keep your characters going and surviving ... I think as long as they balance the difficulty correctly, with a traditional RPG (like this one sounds like it will be) you tend to be very loot driven at the beginning of the game while you are leveling and trying to get a few levels under your belt ... as you mature you become a little more balanced in the mid game where artifacts and artifact hunting become more important ... and the end game is mostly about artifacts or really high level loot ... if you spend the whole game hunting for loot then you are like all the other ARPGs ... but if it can progress through the balanced stages I think that makes for a better traditional RPG

Well if you went with the famous study that says 55% of communication is non-verbal (body language, appearance, etc), 38% is vocal (how you sound, tone, etc), and 7% is what you actually say then you could easily turn it into some form of weighted formula (good for programming) that uses your appearance as an element of the non-verbal (along with other factors) and maybe something like a combo of charisma, intelligence, and wisdom for the words portion ... I'm sure they could figure something out that isn't too hard to program in

Unless you can magically detect people alignment this shouldn't be part of how people react to protagonist, as reputation already cover PC actions. If they have alignment in the game it should be used, if it isn't there then it wouldn't matter ... I think the premise of alignment affecting your interactions in D&D was that body language or bearing might give you away ... and it was only your diametric opposite that really affected your interactions (Chaotic Good and Lawful Evil were not good bedfellows ) ... but it was just a suggestion

This would be good. I think if you have the option to have a weapon ready and drawn or in its sheath or put away then speaking to people with drawn weapons might impact how they view and talk to you ... I know my reaction would be different if someone was pointing a longsword at me while we talked

I think they might be better served by making a portion of their website for fan generated material ... not for the game itself but to keep fan interest and provide glitzier stuff for visitors to see ... Blizzard and their fan sites have been served by this approach for years with postings of fan fiction, fan art, etc ... that would allow the creative type to indulge their creativity but without impacting the game design, development, or QA ... I think having lots of engaged fans and fan articles would help the final product when it launches as well so they get more new purchasers, in addition to the KS folks