[Breakdown of VIP badges]

Considering there are only around 600 gold backers, they seem to have an overwhelming presence in this forum. I suppose that makes sense when you have pledged so much though!

[What's the ONE Thing You've Wanted In RPG's Over The Past Decade?]

What I really want is extremely hard to pin down.. I would just put it simply as "atmosphere".

 

In Baldur's Gate 2 there is such a sense of mystery.. from the very moment you start the game you are plunged into a situation out of your control, you don't have a clue what is happening and have to rely on your party members to get what little information you can. You are then thrust into a massive city which just oozes atmosphere and activities, with people to talk to, things to see, and everyone has their own story. While for the most part you are guided in the story, it still has just the right amount of freedom so as to feel like a huge world open to be explored.

 

The city is a masterpiece, it feels like home, but there is still danger around every corner.. you think you know it inside out then you find a new area and a new group of people with their own story, voice acting, personalities and quests. There is such a wide range of encounters all squeezed into one area.. taking the graveyard as an example, you go there to confront Bohdi: When you first enter there are typical skeletons to fight outside and in the crypts while you are searching for her lair (even a lich if you are unfortunate to wake it), there are quests to do here aswell, you  end up finding her lair, but on the way is a huge spiders nest part way through the level.. there is also even a whole side area with its own quest to be done with Korgan. Once you enter her lair there are vampires to kill, spells to find, parts of the level to interact with.. it's amazing.

 

So that's what I have missed most.. levels which feel lived in and are packed with interesting stories and characters. I don't want gameplay which is basically "follow this path from A->B to complete the quest", or talk to people you aren't even interested in. I think the atmosphere is much easier to pin down when using an isometric viewpoint though, and I already got a good feeling from watching the latest trailer.

[Update #61: In-game Art]

OH LORD THANK YOU!! 

 

This is exactly what I have been looking for for the last... 15 years? If you can deliver on the characters, story and VA then you will fulfill a dream I didn't think was possible anymore, to play another "IE" game.

 

No words... 

 

Also, is it possible to increase our pledges? I want some way to say thanks (and get some collectors items for memories sake) 

[Item Durability]

I went with the second option. I think there is a place for engaging and interesting crafting experiences, but in general I think they are implemented terribly. 

 

The best examples I have from the original announcement thread would be:

 

1) Baldur's Gate 2's system of finding parts to legendary weapons, then getting a master blacksmith to forge them for you. This adds awesome gameplay through always having an additional goal in the back of your mind plundering forgotten tombs searching for ancient artifacts, a puzzle element of finding the different pieces to the items, great lore - as every item has it's own unique flavour text and history and of course a feeling of reward when you finally finish an item. All of these factors make it a great system and they also ADD something, such as making you explore the game world properly and therefore finding other new and interesting encounters.

 

2) Dark Souls system of finding unique souls from bosses and then forging them into "legendary" items. Obviously this couldn't be put into the game 1:1, but it's a good example of a rewarding, unique and non-trivial crafting system. The items you got also weren't much stronger than items you could collect throughout the game, but they all had a unique feel, weapon model and use.

 

I honestly don't think I have ever played a system which includes "collect 5 goat cheeses to make a cheese sandwich", that I actually liked. It worked in WoW because you used consumables for raiding, they were included as a money sink. But this isn't an MMO.. there is zero need for it. By far the worst system was Skyrim, it was tedious, standard potions were absolutely useless, and the uber potions you combined were extremely broken.

[Update #54: Art Update - Work IS in Progress!]

Unfortunately I feel I have to mirror the opinion of a lot of the earlier posts, I'm just not liking the UI at all. 

 

As others have said nostalgia can be a great thing, but the UI looks blocky and outdated for 2014. I realize it's just a mock up.. but there is so much wasted space there. Honestly though, everyone has already voiced some great opinions on it, so I don't feel like I can add much more input except to listen to previous criticisms in this thread. It should retain that oldschool look (no DotA "cartoonyness" or flash), but it needs to go on a diet and be customizable if possible.

 

Personally I find Hotkey's and UI depth to be far more important than overall aesthetics, and by that I mean.. everything has to be hotkeyable, and it should never take more than one keypress to get to any page on the UI (and no long animations). That was a huge problem I had with the fallout games (the modern ones at least), the map took 3 key presses and long animations to get to.. another example is Skyrim, although i'm sure that UI has been talked to death. That type of thing is my main concern for any UI though, it has to be fast and usable.

 

Thanks for the update as always, and don't feel like you have to rush to show progress! Take as long as you need