Lynx88

But of course, there are many ways to skin a manticore. That was just an example, on the understanding that the manticore in question is also a 1-time encounter like a 'boss' fight sort of thing that you mentioned. I wouldn't go so far as to make it as in depth as Monster Hunter in terms of harvesting bodyparts and materials though.

What you describe is quite possible, and indeed present in a few other games, namely The Witcher, Gothic, Risen and so forth where you can easily be killed if you aren't being focused, no matter how good your armour is or what level you are.

Turn-based is nice, but I think a real-time with pause, or perhaps a simultaneous-turn based system would be preferable. I really, really don't care for waiting for the enemy to take their turn 1 by 1, especially neutral/civilian NPCs like in Fallout.

Lol well that's how a discussion forum is supposed to work. Sure beats forums with little to no developer feedback/involvement. Those are easy to spot, they're the ones with a higher number of speculative polls than anything else. A sound suggestion, there's a somewhat similar system in games like Gothic/Risen, where you had to find a suitable trainer to be able to gain certain abilities and increase your skill levels. Certainly crafting skills don't spontaneously come out of thin air (yes i'm looking at you, Skyrim), and having trainers makes more sense, and could potentially provide new sidequests where the trainer wants a favour in return. That's only if the effects granted by the unique materials made the item game-breaking/imba, but it doesn't necessarily have to be. As Kaz put it, side-grade. An example would be using a manticore's spines (that you have thoroughly murderized to death, of course) to give your armour an immunity to poison attribute. Getting hit by other poisonous foes while wearing the armour would still damage you, but the poison isn't applied. I do agree that unique materials should be difficult to obtain, and generally only used to improve specific item/armor types at a sufficient level of quality. And if a material can be used to upgrade a range of equipment, it shouldn't be unique, at the most rare so if you really, reeeeaaaalllyy want to upgrade all your armour including your polka dot pantaloons with iridescent wyvern scale powder (so you can out-bling everyone else and possibly cause blindness, nausea, vomiting and headaches to enemies), you can do a little grinding in wyvernville.

Zoom would be a definite plus, and having a fixed perspective isn't a big deal. It worked for Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale and all the classic RPGs we know and love, and it'll work just fine for Project Eternity.

My take on the first issue, is it wouldn't be a problem to have unique items, but balance still dictates that these can't be over-powered. Perhaps they can have certain attributes specific to that piece of equipment. In this way, unique items can encourage a further specialisation later in the game (upgradeable unique weapon gives a damage bonus to undead, if you are a paladin who can use the weapon to its full potential. And as you upgrade it the weapon becomes more potent against more powerful enemies). You would still have cause to keep and use equipment that you've been lovingly upgrading, for they by right should have the widest range of customisability/upgrades. I don't like the idea of hard class restrictions either, so unique items would be able to be worn/wielded by any character, but only those with the proper training/class will get the special bonuses associated with it. Personally as a hoarder, I also noticed a tendency to keep stuff 'just in case', and end up with a huge stockpile of materials, scrolls, gems etc. To deal with this issue, unique crafting materials can only be used to craft specific, high level items, or when your own armor has reached a certain tier of quality. Materials shouldn't be too hard to obtain, and some games (like Kingdoms of Amalur) have even allowed players to 'break down' armour and salvage crafting materials (an exception can be made for unique items, which cannot be broken down and salvaged). Again, if hard limits to upgrades isn't desirable, then have the NPC smiths advise you to save it for later, but will still upgrade your current equipment if you insist. Adding this level of flexibility would mitigate the hoarding syndrome and make the upgrade curve smoother. All this in addition to the suggestions Somna put forth, like gating upgrades by region/upgrade time/cost as and when its necessary.

Hi, my first post here I think that armor progression shouldn't replace each other, like the example of leather armor replacing hide armor. Rather each should have separate 'upgrade' paths, as outlined in the 'Tier' system. For these to remain viable throughout the game, use the functional descriptors for the upgraded protection bonuses ("fine scale" is crafted by experienced armour smith, protects the joints better and has better armour rating), and cultural/material descriptors unique to the armour type to confer that armour's unique bonuses so they have more "character" (iron feather scale is lighter than normal iron scale, gives dexterity bonus/doesn't have penalty for dodge). So, if you allow the functional descriptors and cultural/material descriptors to be combined, you'd have a "fine iron feather scale" armour that has a better armour rating than regular Tier 1 scale, and confers a dexterity bonus/no dodge penalty. This way, even if a particular armour has better protection than other armour types, certain effects or bonuses found only in a certain armour type's upgrade path won't make it obsolete. Better yet, letting players upgrade their current set of armour will create a sense of attachment to it instead of just tossing it aside whenever a shiny new upgraded version turns up in a shop somewhere, which just happens to be the correct size and fit for the character. This could also tie in to the crafting and enchanting part of the game, to make these upgrades possible only through getting the requisite materials and sending it to a blacksmith/armor smith to be upgraded. Many games i've played in the past have given me a feeling of, "I really like the look and feel of this armor, but I have to replace it because another different armor set has better stats and it'll be very difficult if not impossible to survive with my current gear". In effect, this will also avoid "killing the visual concept of the rough-hewn rawhide-wearing ranger or barbarian".