Jobby

Those are specifics. The saying "only 9 (or 10, or 12) plots" refers to the basic overreaching plot, not the minute details of how they're brought about. It's just one of those sayings, with many grains of truth but not necessarily to be taken super literally... Anyway, games having similar plots is no different than the 1000's of films and TV shows with the same basic plots/premises. I can't remember the last time I saw a movie where the plot itself (not the details or how's, but the plot) wasn't something I've seen before. Video games haven't been around as long...but they are still going to be influenced heavily by whatever the developers of a game have read, watched, or played themselves. I can't really think of a specific game that reminds me another game story wise, because to me they're all largely the same to begin with if that make sense - the details can make them either more or less interesting, but it still all feels familiar. Oh yea? Try to find one single element in any game that is similar to PS:T. Some games are better and more original than others. You're kidding, right? The amnesiac chosen one on a journey of self discovery, and finding out that his past self is a bad person? That is 100% cliche. The 'weird' elements aren't a function of the computer game, but the D&D setting. Don't get me wrong, I like the game, but the (lack of) originality isn't the reason why. See "Angel Heart" an early Mickey Rourke film or "Memento" I'm sure it's been done before elsewhere aswel. Can anyone think of any game stories which they felt really innovated the genre/method of storytelling? When I was younger I played console rpgs more and I remember the story's of Suikoden 2, Alundra and FF7 really drawing me in. Could be the old rose tinted glasses of nostalgia but Alundra especially was like nothing I'd ever played before or since. For the record I realise everything can be broadly categorised if that's what you want to do, I'm just interested in any stories people have discovered that have an element of freshness to them.

On a more serious note: Can your loyal devout faithful followers who would never have thought to question or criticise your design desicisons get some sneak super secret info on the next kickstarter? Pretty pretty please? :D

What, is your name? What, is your quest? What. Is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow!?

For me, Septerra Core's the one to beat. Which shouldn't be too difficult, that game had issues. Of course Baldur's Gate 2 stands out to me for being unintuitive to the point of impenetrability. I only figured out that lower armour scores are better because it wouldn't make sense for leather to offer more protection than steel. And if a spell wasn't either "this does damage" or "this heals" then I just couldn't figure out why I would even want it. Sure, I probably could figure it all out if I wanted to put in the effort, but I don't want to put in a lot of effort to just grasp the basics of a system. And yet you learned English!? The king of unintuitive convoluted Latin languages? (assumption that located in the Netherlands means you are Dutch). I personally suggest that it is worth the effort, also, detailed spellcasting is not the "basics of the system" but rather the complicated nightmare that adds to the wonderful plethora of tactical possibilities :D

I loved the occasional inter-party battles that could develop in BG1, it made my playthrough feel like more than just the main campaign but an epic journey where i couldn't predict everything. Clearly POE with its well written fully fleshed out NPCs doesn't have the luxury of certain characters deciding to kill each other mid-game which I understand. I do hope recruitables aren't just going to be happy/whiney but stick with you till the end regardless though. I'm not suggesting an arbitrary reputation modifier affecting an arbitrary alignment (which doesn't make any sense anyway). But it would be interesting if certain decisions could turn certain members of your camp against you, especially if those decisions affected something they themsleves hold dear or care about.

I would also like to see some kind of transition between "summoned" and "un-summomed" other than instantaneous disappearance, by your logic surely the act of summoning should just make them appear in one frame? Again nothing fancy, re-use of the death animation for skeletons would be fine, a fade would be fine, or a burst of fancy colours and **** would be fine. I really don't care what the effect is as long as it's there. Not a deal-breaker, not gonna make me cry myself to sleep, nor will I forsake Obsidian studios and consider them forever more as my own personal Judas'. It's just that the implementation in that video looks somewhat unpolished and amateurish which doesn't befit a game displaying such wonderful artwork, character models and animations.

I don't know, I always got some kind of perverse pleasure out of preparing the perfect spells for an encounter I hadn't expected in the BG series. Albeit by that merit I must also have experienced some kind of frustration at prepping my mage with "web" only to run into hordes of spiders. I personally enjoyed that system but I'm not adverse to change as long as we don't go down the Arcanum mana route where PC casters were invulnerable spell spammers, great game but the magic road was boringly overpowered.

I plan to give it another month until I'm convinced the "final-ish" post release patch comes out, otherwise the game is very good though, people seem to be horrendously critical and perhaps it is the rose-tinted glasses that others have alluded to, I personally try to evaluate games objectively and for me WL2 does most of the things that FO1&2 do and in some cases better. To be honest though for me BG1&2 are the pinnacle of crpg gaming, as a result I will be highly disappointed if certain things do not match my expectations (to be frank I'm already disappointed with the absence of romances). Ultimately though if I choose to judge this based on BG1&2 which is a rather lofty bar I will be disappointed. But then I have to remember back in the day craving for crpg goodness I didn't judge Arcanum on BG1&2, I loved it, I didn't judge KOTOR 1 or 2 on BG and loved them so ultimately if I have to judge this on anything it will be DA:O which if it doesn't come up favorably against then I can be thoroughly disappointed, cuz that game was weak. (IMO)

Please just release it finished. I played Wasteland 2 for about 10 hours and suddenly Steam starts installing a 1.5gb patch, seriously! If you had told me it wasn't finished I could have waited a friggen week before having to start again! I'm now holding off until I'm convinced it's finished, otherwise a rather enjoyable game though.

The attributes have been balanced to be useful for all classes, so how can racial bonuses contribute to min - maxing? I really hope the race we choose affects far more than a paperdoll image, both in terms of combat and how the world reacts to you.

Why does a saga have to be "save the world"? I mean obviously there has to be a bit more to it than "wash the dishes" but I'm sure they can centre events around a civil war / political unrest ect, and still make it feel suitably epic without some crazy emo bastard sociopath who wants to destroy the world because his girlfriend dumped him. I wouldn't be too concerned about the individual games not having satisfying conclusions, if they decide to expand the scope I'm pretty sure with an entirely new IP and the freedom to do whatever the hell they want they could easily create one satisfying story arc that could form part of a bigger picture if things are successful.

Try some NPC mods Khalil, they're not exactly Black Isle writing but they do make the game more fun I personally was under the impression dialogue wouldn't be AS big a focus as other things but that was most likely due to the devs downplaying BG2 scale comparisons (understandably), glad to be wrong though.

Surely choice without consequence is meaningless?

I'm all for lots of weapons that provide distinct tactical advantages in different situations, as opposed to +2 is better than +1 ect. And as I recall the Vorpal sword was pure awesomeness I also can't say there was any combat in BG I didn't enjoy although enemies with a sense of self preservation would be good to see. Though I do see where your coming from for the most part.

Perhaps for some sort of balance you could have cloudkill spells that insta-kill summons? For both the player and the Computer obviously. I do understand the implications regarding balance and tbh I don't know how the BG series got away with it but I do have fond memories of commanding my small army of summons in certain playthroughs so I hope you can find a way round the issue without limiting us too much. That being said you were still limited to each rest (if you tried to play the game fairly seriously), however in this system I image it will be per combat encounter I think, so perhaps another limiter could be introduced? Per day summons? Reagents? I did like someones idea earlier of temporary CON losses for the summoner, as long as the AI is smart enough to realise that and then focuses it's attacks on said summoner to dispell all his minions and leave you a man down, perhaps for further balance the summons can only be within a certain distance of the summoner to prevent him from hiding behind a rock 3km away? I realise this is getting convoluted, just a few ideas Do not like the idea of CON losses if the summons die tho (that's what they're there for :D) I would propose that the CON doesn't restore until the end of the battle (not rest) regardless of whether they die or are "unsummoned" and I always thought at the end of a battle it looked much cooler when there were bodies/skeletons/spiders strewn everywhere. Only thing i would say is please don't make the special item summons limited to the overall limit of summons, as in my opinion if you already have a summoner this completely devalues said item, although i could understand if you decided to do that.