Sacred_Path

I always welcome attempts at designing an inherently logical world, where things like the economy are properly simulated. However, from what we have heard about PE so far I imagine a relatively well-off world (well, corner of the world), not a grimdark setting. Therefore, while I'd find it enjoyable to have some references to difference in social standing in dialogues especially, I'd assume that the inhabitants of this region are preoccupied with other matters than peasant riots. *cough* Souls *cough*. Seem to be a pretty big thing. Ditto for religion in general, which seems to be a violently disputed matter. I could well imagine scenarios where peasants, while living in relative poverty, are so caught up in the metaphysical aspects of their life they barely pay much attention to the economic circumstances in which they live.

Nop, never said it would increase my enjoyment if it's mandatory; that would be a weird thing to say, wouldn't it? What I said was that it's very, very likely that the design of this dungeon will be an after-thought if it's completely optional. They have 15 levels to fill, so it will either take a lot of time and ressources to flesh them out (like I suggested), or it can be filled with crap combat. Don't accuse me of having no faith in Obsidian, I do, but that's the reality of it. The game's plot will have to be played out somewhere. In one interview (can't remember which one, sorry) I think MCA even pointed out that PE was actually conceived as a dungeon-heavy experience in the beginning. So we have this huge structure in the game, what a strange coincidence, mebbe it would be a good idea to make some of the plot events take place there?!? Banish the thought. It was a matter of your wording, simply. Which was ambiguous at best, as you'll have to admit. So just be less presumptuous and don't get your pants in a knot

It's also kinda pointless possibly. I assume you'll only play in Expert mode after you're played through the game a number of times. Not knowing just how many branches your dialogue trees will have and how often you'll put in checks, I just guess we'll know what option will trigger what check.

That's not a strong argument though. Not everyone likes puzzle solving. Not everyone likes reading walls of text (yes, not everyone liked Torment!). Still those elements will be mandatory at some point. Why not dungeon crawling? Like I said, maybe only a number of levels could be mandatory. I think everyone who likes CRPGs and IE style games can stomach a 5 level dungeon crawl. that's just, like, your opinion man.

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/62290-environmental-issues-in-pe/ [/shameless plug] As for humble residences, let's reminisce about Gothic 1. The wooden hut was the egalitarian dwelling.

If I got it right, the current take at PE is that they plan to base dialogue options on your stats. That would of course strongly call for non-combat stats. In fact, if you go that way then INT and CHA should probably only represent your ability solving and conversational abilities and maybe be tied to some non-combat skills, but not tied to spell casting or combat. I know there's no way that this will actually happen though.

yeah, you don't have to work because someone else is doing it for you. :S for instance. Or the convenient fact that you can sexually abuse them, like they obviously insinuated in that school assignment. But I guess you can't trust schoolchildren to think about the ambivalence of human actions. They might evolve into people who openly question the world around them, oh my!

It's safe to assume that you won't need a mega dungeon to do that though. You will encounter enough combat no matter where you go. The least I expect them to do is to make use of the fact that this is a totally unique, legendary, 15 level structure. Do something with that. I don't want to catch myself thinking along the lines of "this could just as well be 3 seperate dungeons with 5 levels each". A giant puzzle that connects all levels and has some variation (player choice) in it would be a start.

I expect 'oh crap' moments from a good game. A powerful monster zoning in on you surprisingly can do that. But powerful monster =/= scary. In fact you usally hope to find one at the bottom of a dungeon along with its phat l00tz. What I'd like to see are some suprising/ moving/ creepy moments that have to do with souls, fractured souls, life after death/ undeath/ unexistence etc. Stuff that makes you think about the horrible consequences of certain actions, unforgiving acts, or plain senseless cruelty. If it's done really really well, I might even show one or two goosebumps. I promise.

This just shows how political correctness is detrimental to the building of a free and educated society. And considering that slavery has a millennia-old history, one could assume that there are positive things about it, m I rite?

I'd like a system that resembles a good DM - and that comes down to saying, "you can't rest at this time". It doesn't matter where you are, you just aren't tired enough again to sink into that magical fix-me-up sleep. I'm not sure about the specifics, such as game time or real time determining when you can rest and when not, but restricting resting in certain areas probably won't be enough. That would only encourage/ enfore backtracking. And this is slightly off topic, but if resting really is about the only way we have to get back health, make it sensible. Such as having medical skills that are applied when you're resting. Otherwise it's just really really cheesy (no, even a high level mage can't heal you, but simply snoring for 30 hours will invigorate you).

Eternal Eternity. Rings a bell somehow

I think I prefer dialogue skills over attributes, mainly because it reflects player choice better. If I raise my intimidation skill, I expressly do so to become more intimidating (durr). If I raise my strength, I mostly do so to deal more damage, not for talking. If I'm given the choice to use my fighter's strength for intimidation purposes, I'll be like "thanks, I didn't intend that but it's still nice". It's more like icing on the cake rather than strategy. Also you'll usually get more skill points over the course of a game than attribute points, so you can differentiate better according to your preferences. Raise intimidation by 3 at this level, or also put 1 into smithing and 1 into alchemy? Then again, this is better done in a single player game. In a 6 man party, all your dialogue skills are going to be piled up on one or two characters, which is always bad. So I'm mostly neutral.

I predict a cybernetically enhanced Putin will still be in office in 2080.

The backdoor for them is that they didn't promise anything besides a mega dungeon of 15 levels, not that it will have quests. Or even be fun. I'll still be mad if I find the dungeon to be lacking in quality though, not just because they didn't adopt my ideas.

Dyrwood Chronicles: A Link to The Witcher (Enhanced Edition)

Uhm no. By helping the game to reach a specific stretch goal you are exactly acquiring the right to claim it. It's like putting up a stretch goal saying "dwarves and elves at 2m!", then after hitting that goal you say "lol, there'll be no dwarves and elves actually. We thought about it and it's just too damn cliché!" As far as I can see people just don't want a crappy location. Seems legit to me. My motivation for making at least part of the mega dungeon mandatory is basically twofold: 1) It's easier to implement into the narrative, increasing the coherence of the world and immershun. You have some sprawling, legendary structure somewhere in the world, it better be tied into the environment. 2) it increases the chances of interesting quests leading up to and inside the dungeon. Inevitably the dungeon will get more designer love if it's a necessary part of the game. There's no point in the "if you care about rewards and XP u r bad roleplayer!!1" argument, and it's certainly not a good argument against those who want balance in all (most) things. I want this game to both make sense and be of a tactical depth, not one with endless optional content that doesn't test your skill as a player and screws more things up than it fixes.

y he so mad tho?

So true, there are many types of bonds that can be formed under the umbrella term of romance: - oaths of friendship over the sound of cracking Orc skulls (lolmance) - characters trying to evoke your empathy with their 'traumatic' past (failmance) - characters with vague intentions playing hard to get (facepalmance) - exploring issues of transgender love (buttmance) - furries and quadrupeds as love interests (beastmance) - a budding interest in dead bodies/ inanimate objects (necromance)

"you cannot rest at this time" No amount of backtracking could/should/would change that. Just one way to handle it (and not one I'd like to see, mind you)

dafuq is he doing with his hands well scratch that. It's kinda cute <3

And how long do you think it will take for your fighter's stamina to hit zero (not mentioning the fighter's ability to bounce back from damage)? Face it, there's no way around the fact that characters can take a dozen hits before getting there. Most people didn't sign up for a masochistic combat simulation (and yes I'm also one of those who would have welcomed that)

Hit point bloat WILL happen. Do you think they'll do a hardcore simulation withn no healing magic AND you die from 2-3 sword cuts?

It's indeed new that there should be no healing magic at all. Can of worms and all that

Ah, but the definition of the fantastical wizard did not exist, that's the point. It's like defending DnD monks by saying 'but shaolin exist!' - yes, they do. But that's not the point. But I realize this is something important to you so I won't press the matter any further.