[About Ciphers..]

The point is moot anyway. Ciphers aren't psions, even if they'll probably fill the same niche.

 

In the sense that they are not exactly the same thing, true, but, as you said, like the D&D Psionic, they fill what is essentially the 'mind mage' place in various Fantasy game repertoires. Their description doesn't really leave any other possibility. The role is described using the setting's internal logic of souls, in the form of soul manipulation through mental prowess, but at the end of the day they're still using their exceptional minds to do the fantastic.

 

So the point isn't moot so much as you've shifted away from it intoto semantics and hair splitting, as a manner of dismissal.

 

The fact that Ciphers manipulate souls, and all magic in P.E. is soul-based, makes all the difference in the world to me.

That means it's just another kind of magic. It doesn't draw from a completely different source.

I didn't mean to be dismissive, but I've barely slept in 72 hours so I don't have the energy to argue. Especially since this isn't even my native language and I have to struggle with pretty much every post.

 

I don't like psionics in Medieval Fantasy games. That's my opinion. You have a differing opinion. That's fine. I don't see why it has to turn into a huge argument.

[Orlan & Aumaua]

To me it'd actually be more fun if the orlan were the "orc" race, its be a great fun juxtaposition to have the feared and hated race be fluffy, have big ears and come up to a humans belly button. From the sounds of it their guerilla warfare tactics doesn't sound like they'd be that popular, and there is nothing stopping a race of short people from being/having a reputation of being violent and aggressive.

 

Sounds an awful lot like goblins. Apart from the hairy ears thing.

[About Ciphers..]

The point is moot anyway. Ciphers aren't psions, even if they'll probably fill the same niche.

[Where should Endless Paths (the mega dungeon) draw its inspiration from?]

In general, I'm not a huge fan of dungeons just because they have huge logical inconsistencies. If nobody can get in or out, where do all these monsters come from? What do they eat? How do they avoid killing themselves in the death traps sprinkled about the place? It's like you wandered into an Evil Monster Convention. Granted, that might be a pretty amusing idea.

 

I have to third this assertion. If the dungeon is supppoed to have 15 levels, then how is fresh air, water, and food being brought in to see to the needs of the inhabitants and how is all of the waste being handled? If it's populated by undead or clockwork creatures, then that eliminates a lot of the questions of biological viability, but it still leaves unsolved the question of why all of those entities are sticking around after all of these many decades or centures of abandonment. Something has to account for their presence.

 

Maybe there are no inhabitants in the lower levels, except for (giant?) subterranean insects that get in where the walls have collapsed, and/or supernatural creatures for whom air, water, waste disposal, etc. isn't an issue?

Maybe it wasn't a problem for the original inhabitants because the dungeon was actually built as a tower thousands of years ago, but has since been buried by the desert sands?

[Armour & weapon designs - a plea (part III).]

If mercenaries aren't adventurers, then who are?

 

Vikings, the classic raiders and traders, could be considered "adventurers" of a sort and might dabble as hired muscle, but mercenaries are just that: a professional (or at least semi-professional) military force for hire. Mercs are hired to carry out someone else's agenda and adventurers are more properly thought of as enacting their own agenda.

 

I guess it all depends on your definition of what an "adventurer" is.

"Soldier of fortune" and "adventurer" are often used synonymously, and "adventurer" is commonly used as a euphemism for mercenary in fiction (the same way that a grave robbing thief might refer to himself as a "treasure hunter").

Besides, the mercenary companies of the Medieval and Early Modern periods were usually as much freebooters as they were professional armies for hire, so if a pirate is an adventurer then so is a landsknecht.

[About Ciphers..]

While I disagree with the perception of psionics are as purely sci-fi concept,

 

I never said that. I said that it was MORE of a sci-fi concept, and that it often felt out of place in (Medieval) Fantasy settings.

 

equally when psionic (of the trained varieties, not species which possess it naturally) are shoehorned into a world already containing several other flavours of magic, it can feel a bit.... overloaded as a setting, particularly as quite often, unlike the others magics, they aren't given a clear place in the world.

 

THAT was the point I was trying to make, especially in my third post.

Maybe I wasn't very clear. It can be a bit tricky to debate in a language that isn't your mother tongue.

[Armour & weapon designs - a plea (part III).]

 

Adventurers =/= mercenaries, which wore very garish outfits indeed.

 

 

If mercenaries aren't adventurers, then who are?

[Where should Endless Paths (the mega dungeon) draw its inspiration from?]

Yeah, but there IS a dungeon, right? So the question isn't "Should we have one?" but "What should it be like?"

Believable?

 

As in completely devoid of monsters or anything even remotely supernatural? How avant-garde. I like it!

 

Edit: Nevermind me. I haven't slept in... forever.

[Monks in Project Eternity]

Bah! The Sōhei's got nothing on the Yamabushi! Ninja monks ftw!

[Orlan & Aumaua]

The Orlan will obviously look like a mixture of Ferengi and Hobbits, only with hairy ears instead of feet. Duh!

 

Edit: ... and two-toned skin. Which is... weird.

[Armour & weapon designs - a plea (part III).]

Such outfit could be appropriate for wealthy citizen or for freelancer when he is proposing himself for the job or when he is on guard duty, but such parrotish and impractical for off-road journey outfit is no-use for adventurer, imo. Aside from said - pretty much dislike this European fashion. And it's too late one for the setting, imo.

 

It's definitely not "too late". Not by much, in any case. That looks like a late 15th/early 16th century landsknecht (mercenary) outfit (at least if your remove that ridiculous makeup), which would be perfect for P.E.

Also, "adventurers" often wore very garish outfits during the Renaissance. Far more so than the nobility, at least during the Counter-Reformation.

 

Edit: Ach! Beaten to it.

[About Ciphers..]

But it usually feels horribly out of place in Medieval Fantasy.

Illithids? Githzerai?

*Btw could be good examples of two paths for cipher. Manipulate other's will or form the world with your's.

 

The Illithids are abberations believed to hail from The Far Realm, a plane beyond the known Multiverse full of weird lovecraftian beings (doesn't get much more sci-fi than that).

The Githyanki and the Githzerai were created by the Illithids from human slaves.

I'm okay with them since they're not native to the Prime Material Plane, and because they're so rare. They still stick out in more "traditional" high fantasy settings, like Forgotten Realms, IMO, but since all settings are part of the same Multiverse I guess their presence is justified... Unfortunately, that rule can be applied to pretty much any creature from any D&D setting.

[Armour & weapon designs - a plea (part III).]

Polish Winged Hussar armor (mid 17th century).

 

 

 

Roman-style parade armor of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (mid 16th century).

 

[Changing companion alignment.]

Personally I'd like to see something loosely related to what Obsidian did with KOTOR 2. If you had high influence with a companion their alignment would be shifted towards yours. While I understand that there won't be any alignment in P:E, there will be some sort of influence system (preferably invisible) and I think that it'd be cool to have your companions begin to mimic your world views to a degree. Of course this would only work for companions who can be influenced, but in my mind Obsidian already has a handle on that especially since in KOTOR 2 you could not influence everyone, Kreia was always neutral, and the psychotic wookiee Hanrrar (or whatever his name was) was always evil.

 

The problem with how KotOR2 handled alignment shifts is that, while it may have affected their appearances, what items they could use and how much Dark and Light Side force powers cost, it didn't change their personalities in the slightest. At least in BG2: Throne of Bhaal and DA:O when you converted someone to your way of thinking, it changed some of their dialogue. In DA:O, if you "hardened" Alistair, it could even have an impact on the ending.

[About Ciphers..]

I rather disagree, and there are plenty of implementations over the years, of such class types - literally decades and decades worth - that I'd like to think that the idea that it's a sci-fi trope would be stamped out by now. Still, in regard to the Cipher, I don't think we have enough information to know, for sure, that Obsidian intend them to be such. It seems readily possible, even likely (it's hard not to draw a line between the Cipher and a D&D Psionic, simply because most of the classes are, essentially D&D Classes 'with a twist'), but they certainly haven't shown all their cards on the subject . . . yet.

 

I said that it's MORE of a sci-fi trope, and that I find it a little bit out of place in fantasy settings (I don't mind it though). The fact that a lot of fantasy novels, films and RPGs have been using sci-fi tropes, and vice versa, ever since the New Wave of the 60s and 70s doesn't change the fact that psionics is first and foremost a sci-fi trope, just like magic is first and foremost a fantasy trope.

 

The separation is meaningless, and needlessly restrictive of creativity. I might as well go about burning the last several decades worth of sci-fi.fantasy cross overs and mixtures, of which there are more than I could rightly count if I were to believe otherwise. We'd lose some of the most definitive Fantasy and Sci-Fi out there if anyone were to mind the pointless generalizations.

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm personally a big fan of New Weird and Slipstream. I just think that if you're to use stuff like psionics in Fantasy, it can't just be something that's thrown in there as an afterthought, which is often the case (like in most D&D settings - Dark Sun being the only exception that I can think of). There are some sub-genres of Fantasy (mostly of the Science Fantasy variety) in which it feels right at home. Dying Sun, for instance. Or Sword and Planet like Star Wars, I guess. But it usually feels horribly out of place in Medieval Fantasy.

But that's just my opinion.

[Thieving]

 

At first, this idea sounds brilliant.

 

While this is a realistic assumption based on real markets, assuming the pool of competitors is small enough, I don't think it should apply here on much of a noticeable scale. There are several reasons for this.

 

First, in an RPG, there are several things that are to be considered abstractions. One of those things, as represented in a "big" city in a game, is it's merchants. Sure, mechanically, you may only have the option of purchasing weapons from 1-3 merchants in a town. However, this is simply a representation of the available merchandise. In a "real" big city, you'd have many such options, so driving 1 of them out of business would impact the overall marketplace minimally. It's not until you impact the majority that you'd see these kinds of changes occur. In smaller villages, however, this issue wouldn't necessarily apply. It's very feasible for a village to only have 1 blacksmith.

 

Second, if such a system was implemented, it'd need to be forgiving enough not to discourage players from playing a particular style of play. You wouldn't want to make playing a thief less viable because using your thieving skills makes the rest of the game more difficult(ie higher prices).

 

While there are probably ways to implement this sort of thing effectively, I'd prefer to see effort spent towards making thieving more realistic, so that "cleaning someone out" isn't really as viable of an option. I've noticed in several games, people stand by and watch you pick locks in their house, empty their drawers, and still speak to you as if everything is hunky dorey. I'd prefer that people in the game care about their belongings, and actively seek to protect them. As far as pickpocketing goes, I think a system that had increasing difficulty for subsequent attempts would work well. This would be accompanied by the ability to target specific items in your target's inventory for theft, and create a scenario where people would need to carefully choose the items they tried to steal, rather than just stealing everything they see.

 

It wasn't really meant as a serious suggestion. And when I wrote it, I was thinking of a small village with maybe two or three weapon vendors, not a big city (since they tend to be very rare in cRPGs, if they even exist). Excellent point, though.

[About Ciphers..]

 

I rather disagree, and there are plenty of implementations over the years, of such class types - literally decades and decades worth - that I'd like to think that the idea that it's a sci-fi trope would be stamped out by now. Still, in regard to the Cipher, I don't think we have enough information to know, for sure, that Obsidian intend them to be such. It seems readily possible, even likely (it's hard not to draw a line between the Cipher and a D&D Psionic, simply because most of the classes are, essentially D&D Classes 'with a twist'), but they certainly haven't shown all their cards on the subject . . . yet.

 

I said that it's MORE of a sci-fi trope, and that I find it a little bit out of place in fantasy settings (I don't mind it though). The fact that a lot of fantasy novels, films and RPGs have been using sci-fi tropes, and vice versa, ever since the New Wave of the 60s and 70s doesn't change the fact that psionics is first and foremost a sci-fi trope, just like magic is first and foremost a fantasy trope.

[Armour & weapon designs - a plea (part III).]

Oh...sabatons. I don't think I've seen such with that kind of extremely long toe before. Usually they seem more like short claws, not foot long rod spikes.

 

This particular kind was popular in the 14th and 15th centuries.

[Armour & weapon designs - a plea (part III).]

Also, that pic of the armor with the very long "toes." What in the world are the long toes for? I mean, I can see kicking your enemies in the shins or something, but it would be hard to run/fight with those on, I'd think. And running the risk of impaling something too deeply and getting "stuck?"

 

They're called sabatons, and they were tapered like that (à la poulaine) because that was the fashion of the time. As simple as that.

Also, you wouldn't walk very much in them. Full plate was almost exclusively used by cavalry troops.

Poulaines, also called crakows.

[Thieving]

A more believable scenario would be that if you robbed a shop/merchant of everything, the merchant would go out of business, close shop, skip town in search of a new start and that building would be repurposed by the town's merchant prince ruler, sold by the merchant for the money needed for a new start or even abandoned.

 

and his competitors would raise their prices.

[Where should Endless Paths (the mega dungeon) draw its inspiration from?]

Whatever they do, please, dear god please, no freaking dark elves! The last thing I want to see is a masturbatorial DnD SnM fetish kingdom. The underdark was freaking annoying in that respect... hated every second of it.

 

There are many different kinds of dark elves, not just Drow. They don't have to look like gothy bondage aficionados covered in Spikes of Villainy™.

While I do prefer my dark elves to be cruel and tyrannical (as opposed to just being subterranean elfs like the Dökkálfar, or the elves who never who never saw the Light of Valinor like the Moriquendi), I've always disliked the short, black-skinned and white-haired variety that D&D introduced. If there will be a dark elven subrace in P.E., I hope it won't be another Drow-clone.

 

Not sure if you're talking about BG2 or Hordes of the Underdark, but I loved the Underdark in BG2. One of my favorite parts.

[About Ciphers..]

While I do like psionics, I've always found it a little bit out of place in fantasy settings. It's more of a sci-fi trope. I'm also pretty sure that it's already been established that Ciphers will be soul manipulators. That doesn't mean that it won't be very similar to psionics, gameplay-wise, however.

[In-Game Tutorial]

Tooltips that can be turned On or Off at any time, using the Options menu.

[Orcs - discussion]

If orcs are shown as a savage and primitive race, I'd prefer if this would be because of lack of cultural advancment. While most races have sort of a renaissance, orcs would have bronze age or a bit later era going on. If they're shown as a primitive race that is.

 

Then there has to be a reason why their cultural (cultural is probably the wrong word here - a people doesn't have to be technologically advanced in order to have a complex and sophisticated culture) evolution has halted. Maybe they live in an isolated and unforgiving environment where the necessary resources for developing a civilized society are lacking. Easily harvested and highly nutritious grains, for instance. Or large beasts that can be domesticated and used as work animals. It's hard to develop past the Mesolithic stage without those things.

 

But if orcs are at the same level as, say, humans, I would like to see them as a "shy" race, a race that shies away because of it's differences might be a cause to be harassed for. So this brings me to think about more magic and scholarship centered orcs, who tend to live in seclusion and work as private as possible.

 

And if orcs are said to be barbaric, it wouldn't necessarily have to mean as in fur clad primitive warrior. For example, greeks viewed persians as barbarians, so why couldn't a similar thing be applied to orcs(or any other "different" race). Also a persian culture vibe would be good for a orc race IMO, alongside with a mongolian culture model.

 

The word "barbaros" referred to anyone who didn't speak the Greek language. It was probably onomatopoetic, an imitation of the incomprehensible babbling of non-Greek speaking peoples. The original definition of a barbarian is a person from a foreign culture. While it was used in a derogatory manner (since the Greeks, just like most other peoples, considered themselves to be superior to all others), it didn't have anything to do with being primitive or uncultured as we understand those words today. The meaning has changed, however, and I think it would just be confusing if P.E. was to use the ancient Greek definition of the word when referring to other cultures. Especially since there is a Class called Barbarian which is designed to be a brutal and "primitive" warrior.

[Minor Races]

That elephant guy just looks silly. I think minor races that are too obviously descended from or related to real world animals are a horrible idea. How is the elephant samurai going to feel if I decide to moonlight as an ivory poacher? Is the Pig-man going to try to jihad me for eating bacon? The whole thing just gets absurd.

 

Gods, demons and monsters who look like anthropomorphized animals are pretty common in real-life mythology, and real-life mythology is by far the biggest influence on the fantasy genre. I can think of a number of gods who are commonly depicted as elephant-men, yet I can't remember any myths that mentioned... say, Ganesha, having to fight off ivory poachers.

Minotaurs, centaurs, fauns, manticores, etc. are all pretty common in fantasy, so I don't really see what the problem is, as long as we're talking about rare supernatural beings rather than playable races.