Sacred_Path

It depends on how you feel about tactics as a gaming art. If you just want to line up and whack at your enemy until they drop, then exploiting terrain advantages probably isn't for you. It has been said it makes for a tabletop feel, but that's not exactly true because there's the transition to realtime. It's more of an RTS feature, but this game won't have the strategic depth of an RTS, while on the tactical level RTS is mostly about twitch skills. Face it, this idea is bad and you should feel bad

This thread is totally relevant and should be forwarded to Feargus immediately. Or maybe to MCA so he can grind it down and snort it

Enlighten me, what would be the gameplay value of having to micro-manage your wizards to hide behind trees/ on hilltops, and in realtime no less?

I refer you to my earlier post about hedge wizards, who obviously evolved from wizards hiding in shrubbery to avoid snipers and artillery fire.

bromance > romance

In most games, that's the only reasonable thing to do. Play w/o reloads and against the clock for difficulty. I hope that PE will be balanced in such a way that the higher difficulties are still superbly balanced in all respects like melee vs. magic, direct damage vs. status effects etc. but that kind of thing is very rare.

Gize, will PE be bug free enough to even make Ironman a viable choice?

oh, the IE era rants about how cloaks must be visible. Good times

that's entirely dialogue driven.

Well, definitely tied to the different factions. You should never punish a player for a certain approach. While it might add some challenge to the pacifist-cause it's also really frustrating if you can't do a proper playthrough because everyone hates you just because you've been nice. o.O It's just about balance. Like it has been said, diplomacy is too often akin to an insta-win button. You shouldn't always get patted on the head for it on top of that.

Pacifism should be, like vegetarianism, spat and looked down upon. Not necessarily by us, but certainly by factions in the game. Use diplomacy? Lose reputation. Or at least suffer in standing with a certain faction. Oh, but I hear the masses howling. Well, at least some snide remarks should be directed at you if you peacefully solve a quest that had originally intended you to kill.

A brothel is pretty much mandatory after the ToEE incident.

The breasts of your love interest will scale to your level.

Having them stand back isn't a solution to this problem. Imagine a world where bandits, skeletons, slimes and rats just stand there in awe while your glorious band shuffles by. No, my point from my previous post stands.

Didn't you have to split your party somewhere in the Ice Temple in IWD2? Anyway, I'm all for this. Realms of Arkania 2 made sort of good use of this, not only for a single lever puzzle in a dungeon, but for different areas of the game. Made it worthwhile to have i.e. two characters who were good at picking locks or with social skills.

Dilldapp is the new white gazebo. In seriousness, I don't think it's a good idea to base every region on a different existant culture, or even to base only one on a real culture and the others are generic fantasy. That would be pretty horrible IMO. Now the entire Dyrwood region could be based on one specific culture/ epoch but I don't think so after reading the lore tidbits.

They add that element of uncertainty, too "You are confronted by an Angry Bussekater. Run away yes/no"

I've never heard of a Bussekater or Dilldapp before, but I'm sure the game would profit immensly from them.

This ain't no Diablo.

In a CRPG, how would you account for the different life expectations (different races have different definitions of what's old)?

There is something to be said for skimpily clad barbarian elves. If only because it's oh-so-contrarian.

True, but personally I'm surprised what people can interpret to be a feelbad ending. That just seems to be such a jaw-clenching approach to playing. To me the only feelbad ending is one that completely negates all your previous actions (destruction of the world when you tried to save it). But there are so many possibilites inbetween.

Summoning limits. Such a cheap means of faking balance. In a game w/o resurrection like PE, these should be done away with to spread out damage.

I know this is a troll thread, but I want PE's writing to kick as many feelgood clichés in the groin (critically) as possible. Like I said in another thread, if there are romances, I want less than ideal (physically and personality-wise) characters aggressively pursuing the main character; no idealized persons enganing in unrealistic and kitschy behaviour. Do the same for storytelling; go loopy where necessary. This is such a unique opportunity, with no meddling publishers to mind.

If the additional XP would make up for the fact that you have to deal with 6 foes instead of 1 is just a balance issue. Especially if you count the additional "cost" that comes with it (like spells and items used up). IOW, I'm sure difficulty could be increased as you describe it w/o XP alleviating the problem. Especially in an Ironman game, and considering that you probably can't resurrect anyone.