Silent Winter

Guess I should've read the whole thread before posting (but I was short of time - reading through now) I liked all your ideas but this one especially - would make the druids more unique. If they're near a river, they could plant themselves at the banks and use the force of the river or throw the water at enemies. If there's enough water in the air then they could bring a shrouding fog. This is a great idea that works well with the concept of druids and extends their usefulness outside of combat Ok, this sounds like a good approach - but don't forget to make each choice tactical, not a no-brainer 'bear-shift is best' --- out of time - tbc

I'd be disappointed if we couldn't pause in combat - active-pause was one of the great things about the IE games - if you like frantic combat then you don't have to use it but I prefer to consider my moves in an rpg. I'd love to be able to pause cut-scenes too since long cut-scenes are easily interrupted in my household

I'd like this kind of layout (though not the BG:EE colouring - more like the IWD or BG2 style). I like the idea someone had in another thread of the environment intruding on the UI (like making its edges frosty in icy areas). (The opposite way - having NWN-style floating UI intruding on the game-window spoils the immersion for me - I like a separate screen to look in my pack etc)

Just musing over a point that I've noticed while playing PST recently. I've played a lot of IE games and installed various mods as well. Different writers use a different style to accomodate describing actions / other narrative as part of the dialogue. Some use (parentheses), some use *asterisks*, some use traditional "speech in quotes". Just wondering how you prefer it to be handled. Examples: You'll have to pay for that! (her eyes dart between your party members, trying to keep you all in sight) 1. Ok, we'll pay 2. (Attack her) 3. (Run away) You'll have to pay for that! *her eyes dart between your party members, trying to keep you all in sight* 1. Ok, we'll pay 2. *Attack her* 3. *Run away* "You'll have to pay for that!" her eyes dart between your party members, trying to keep you all in sight. 1. "Ok, we'll pay" 2. Attack her 3. Run away You'll have to pay for that! her eyes dart between your party members, trying to keep you all in sight 1. Ok, we'll pay 2. Attack her 3. Run away Or is there a better way?

I'd agree with that - sounds like a good way to connect the world and the classes. --- On an unrelated note: 'Spirit-shifting' (aka shape-shifting) - needs viable alternatives for the shapes (balanced as per other classes). In BG, the standard forms were Brown-bear / Black bear or Wolf - wolf was faster but had no real advantages to make it worth using and the 2 bears were pretty much the same, giving a strength bonus for combat. So instead, I'd like to see useful alternatives - taking too much damage? shift to armadillo (high defense but low attack) - need to avoid traps? shift to squirrel (weak but avoids setting off traps?) - not the best examples, I grant you.

Unless you can only buy cowardly horses that buck you off at the merest hint of combat (closest horse/combat-related smiley we have )

I want to go into the restaurant, order a steak, then come out later to find one less cow in the pasture Oh, ok, but them cows+sheep better not be immortal (same goes for the horses)

The strength / sharpness of shadow doesn't bother me but as stated, when it's going in the wrong direction (towards the light) it jars more than if simply under the character (which also makes them less floaty). I'd have to see it in action though before I could decide whether I'd really notice in-game.

re: BG1 - Or werewolf island for what, a month in game time? While poor Scar is waiting outside the Flaming Fist HQ for me to come and report on the Iron Throne or (if I do it later) poor Duke wassname is getting slowly (slowly) poisoned. re: BG2 - maybe, but you've still got the 'get what Irenicus knows' angle to make you pursue him, even if you're evil / don't care about Imoen Agreed that BG2 does it well - the side-quests often have good little stories in themselves and work well as part of the greater narrative, also being optional as to when/if you do them. I'm playing NWN2 at the moment (OC) and the side-quests in the Docks annoyed me. I'm supposed to be trying to get into Blacklake district, but I'm asked to 'do this task' so I do, then it's 'do this next task' so I do, but then it's 'do this next task' etc etc - not optional and no idea where the end in sight is. Perhaps if they'd made more of 'we're suspicious of you' and you need to prove yourself in 'these ways' instead of just being 'one more thing,... oh one more thing' [shrug] It has picked up since then though.

This. When I replay BG as a different PC class (or different party makeup), I approach it differently (trying to make my PC the 'main' guy.) When I was a thief, I used more stealth and backstabbing to open a fight (then running away into my waiting team). When I played as Mage, my team were to keep the enemies off me while I picked them off with spells. When I played as Druid, I became the summoner/buffer/disabler. Some fights, especially boss fights, needed a very different approach. I'm tempted to try a run-through with only thieves or only druids. Different classes give you different skills to play with. How to use those skills to best advantage is part of the fun

It would definitely be a good take on tutorials. I guess it would stop them from having to destroy / otherwise make inaccessible the training area.

Instead of 'you awake in ...', how about 'You fall asleep (possibly after eating some suspicious looking cheese) and have a nightmare about an old man who insists on teaching you how to control a party and other such useful tidbits...'?

That sounds good - at least for some spells/abilities. Do you envisage these herbs/whatever as ingredients (i.e. needing to collect new ones to make a new 'vine of stinging constriction') or as 'mutagenics' that unlock abilities once and then can be used? (Or a combination of the 2?)

Love the detail on the environment and the characters. Armour looks very well done. I also like that the enemies look similar but have different types and are differently equipped. [Opens door] Bring it on [later discover that they had just massacred the local performing-arts society...oops ]

Making killable npc to unkillable is so trivial operation that you can't even say it takes coding time as you can do it with bool variable and simple check function. And modern game engines features with all their fancy ready-made character system usually have such feature and much more variety giving systems already build in. But it will take lots of writing time to make world to react you random innocent villagers killings and without such reactions your immersion would probably break as well, even with ability to kill innocents, as it would feel quite hollow if game world don't react any way in your psychotic rampage. Fair point - I think BG did it ok in this regard - simply have all the witnesses turn hostile (and enter panic mode) and then you can't get them to stop for a chat about anything. If their cries also call the guard then job's done as far as immersion is concerned. Better would be for the guards to show up and not immediately know who's to blame (if there were any enemies still standing (and your local reputation didn't suck) you could talk the guards into blaming them). That might not be coming in P:E, just an general idea. I'd still like reputation to be non-universal and not to go down if there are no witnesses left alive.

Reverse pick-pocketing - being able to 'plant' evidence on an unsuspecting mark to throw suspicion off you and keep the guard busy while you thieve something more valuable. (could work if the pick-pocketing is done via a 'chest' interface - simply place one of your inventory items in an empty slot on the mark)

Whilst I can't see a good reason for actively putting some of the suggestions into the game, I'd like to point out that doing something in a game is not the same as enjoying it in real life. I can play GTA and drive over a line of pedestrians as it's the most expedient escape. In real life, even witnessing such a thing, let alone the idea of doing it myself, would horrify me. The fact that it doesn't horrify me in a game just means that I can separate fantasy and reality. So while adding the writing and coding to be able to rape random NPCs seems like a waste of limited resources to me, making innocent villagers (of any age) immortal would only serve to break the immersion (and also use up extra coding time). (Not so randomly kidnapping the noble virgin and *threatening* to kill/rape her unless paid a hefty sum, might have an excuse to be in)(but not to the point of coding/writing a rape-scene). There's also the case that innocents die by accident and the player feels bad for them (e.g. I was fighting that lot in Ulgoth's Beard in BG1 - was in a tight spot, couldn't see anyone else around so let off a fireball - turned out later that a couple of townsfolk had gotten killed in the blast). I'll stick with my suggested preference for more subtlety though.

I'm playing through NWN2 at the moment and it's not that I dislike the characters (well, not all of them) but I hate the way the game forces some of them into your team. There are only 3 slots and sometimes you're forced to use one up with a particular character. I can understand having to take Khelgar to go to the Ironfist caves or some other optional-side-quest pairing but to have the Paladin or Ranger forced on your party for main quest parts, for no other reason it seems than to introduce them to your party, really annoys me. So I hope the companions in P:E are all optional (I'll probably play with them all at some point but on my own terms). Personal side-quests are fine (IF I choose to have them in my party) but my party for the main game should be my choice. FF did this party-forcing too for some areas of some games but it usually tied it to an in-game reason. Still prefer not to have it at all.

That's weird - can't edit my post and it didn't show up right. I was trying to say that I agreed with Osvir re: BG and FF characters. What I found good about BG characters, even in BG1 - they were so endearing. I cared whether Jahiera and Khalid lived or died and Minsc was just so lovable (Boo too of course). Their battle cries and click-me one-liners brought them to life and their role in the team made them valuable. In some other games it's been a multi-legged killing machine with no personality. BG2 improved on the characters with the added intra-party banter and dialogue interjections along with personal quests. And now we have the BG1 NPC-Project that adds the same life to BG1.

I'd like there to be more subtle uses too - lying and cheating, conning the farmer out of his land so your sponsor can build a car-park (or fantasy-world equivalent - maybe dig it up for the gold-mine he knows is under there) I'd like in-world consistency though - if enemy-fireballs will roast civilians then mine should too - making the aforementioned moral choice between killing the innocents to get the bad-guys (and scoop up the magic-sword) or trying to protect the innocents but letting the bad guys get away with the 'sword of coolness'. Being ebil with consequences is important (but the consequences should be balanced, making it a choice not a no-brainer) Using a reputation system might be flawed though - Baldur's Gate had reputation going up/down too easily and was also universally known and not suitable for someone who wanted to play more subtle evil. The 'Virtue' mod took separate account of known-reputation and moral-correctness of actions (so your party could know you to be evil, while the townsfolk thought you a hero). I wonder if we could get something like this in P:E? (so you can be subtly evil / morally objectionable without the local guard running you out of town at a look) Edit to add: I'd prefer it if it weren't the PST style of lying where your dialogue choices are: TRUTH: We'll take good care of your farm Mr Brown LIE: We'll take good care of your farm Mr Brown Where it's really stuck out there "This will get you good/lawful points and that will get you evil/chaotic points" but rather I make the statement "We'll take good care of your farm Mr Brown" and then the game tracks a variable "FarmerBrownPromise (1)" - then I can decide later what to do with it - if I betray him or support him, the game (and reputation/whatever system) judges me then (and initiates appropriate consequences)

I'd also like some unique weapons/armour rather than the +/- against 'enemy A' Not sure I've got any great ideas for them though. Like a sword that drains your stamina/health continuously while equipped but deals extra damage - so you're weakening yourself in exchange for hitting harder - you can't keep it equipped while exploring but if you can finish the fight quickly or use it for a big hit at the beginning/end before switching to another weapon...? (or instead of a continuous drain - suffer half the damage you deal out?) Or a ring of light, making exploring dark areas viable (perhaps inhabited by shadow creatures that would attack you unseen without it) but paralyzing your hand/arm in position so you can't use a bow / sword / shield with that hand/arm. How about making large shields actually inhibit your movement instead of being the same as small shields with extra-bonus? Most of the rest I can think of involve trading accuracy for damage or protection for speed. Just thinking out loud.

I'd like to 2nd/3rd the post about class-updates (but only if it doesn't really take time away from actually making the classes) Druids with their own unique spell-lists sounds great - makes the class unique. The idea of a Spirit-Quest as a personal quest is good too (maybe you'd need to collect the right ingredients for the 'dream-smoke' or something to initiate it. Not sure the planet needs a soul as such but it doesn't need to be as specific as a 'druid deity' - a general balancing force of nature might work that the druid can tap into.

So far I'm pretty hopeful about the end-result. I really don't mind a new combat system, so long as it's fun to play and not just 'different' for the sake of it - from what I've heard so far, we're getting.the fun version. The world, lore, classes, races and creatures that we've seen have the right 'spirit' to me and the screenshots look fantastic. Too early to tell of course but I'm looking forward to finding out