Amentep

If the narrative is developed over multiple days...then yeah, I think the PC and NPCs could care about a whole lot of things which might include their appearance. As mentioned above, I saw "dress up" as meaning that the OP was suggesting that the game be Project Eternity: Fashion Show. I think there's a difference in wanting a character to look a bit like their portrait and wanting to try out outfits for hours.

Seems like that is playing dress up, though. Who's to say the gear will be vastly different looking, as well. When I posted my thread on crafting to alter/fit armour or clothes to different characters, there was a post that presented the idea as a "Barbie dress up" - ie that dressing ones character up was the important part of the game. Hence why I said I didn't think it would be dress up as that's what I took you to mean. Odds are the looks will be different but probably not strikingly different (being an isometric game unless they give you a vanity view on the character sheet). I thought they didn't have the NPCs have altering looks with equipment so that they wouldn't have to bother with that part of development since it was a stunted dev cycle. Mind you I wasn't kicking around the BSN any longer so may have had the wrong impression

I don't think people want to play dress-up. I do think people like to be able to give their characters a "certain look" when they create them to greater or lesser degrees.

Yeah I remember the competitions that 'Tess did ... man looking at those names makes me nostalgic...

Tabbards! Thank you I was trying to remember the name. As I recall, some armor wouldn't take the color you picked on the color palette. Also some armors would reverse the major/minor color back in the IE Engine days. I know I mentioned in another thread the possibility of crafting required to fit clothes / armor (for size & body differences) (which wasn't a liked idea) and in that said it could also be used to customize armor further. I think we all recognize some desire to customize the PC (to greater or lesser degrees). Being able to wear a Tabbard over armor could allow that for some players, I think. Mind you no matter how much customization of appearance is put in, there will probably be someone or some group who wants more. I'll be happy with whatever Obsidan comes up with, I'm sure, since ultimately its - for me at least - a very minor part of the game.

I'd be for gnomes if they were more like originally put forth by Paracelsus - earth spirits about 2 spans high (~18 inches) as opposed to D&D gnomes who are a lot like magical dwarves in presentation.

Noober / Neeber characters. Some people found them funny. I didn't. Challenge at higher levels devolving into just throwing larger and larger mobs at the player and nothing else. Skills or abilities that are clearly superior to others, particularly to the point that the game seems to be inclined to make you take them in order to play. I think I'm okay, though, on all these things (ie I doubt we'll see them).

Reviewers tend to be bought and paid for by publishers. You can't tell me that reviews like DA2 getting 5/5 are accurate. Reviewers are just a part of the marketing hype machine. They never give honest reviews. Occasionally, you see reviews where the reviewer criticizes the game a bit but then still gives it a 85 or 90. its a fair point that I've seen made on reviewers that they won't risk alienating the patronage of distributors. That's why I left room for doubt that pirates might have a room to play for good or ill (given that there used to be issues with pirates trashing games only to turn out they'd gotten their hands on an incomplete build - dunno if that happens much anymore). That said, I enjoyed DA2 pretty much despite all of the stuff that I shouldn't have liked in it. So yeah, not really a taste arbiter, me.

I'm not crazy about lockpicking minigames either. This is partially because they seem to either err too much on the side of the user (making it relatively easy to lockpick any lock with a modicum of personal skill) or too much on the side of the locks (in which case even with a good skill the user has a hard time doing the minigame). Ultimately I'd like my characters skills to be their skills, not how fast I can bop some tumblers up. That said I actually wouldn't mind the idea of the lockpicking skill encompassing multiple types of locks in some way (maybe after X skill rank you add new locks to your repertoire showing your expertise?) or specialized equipment. I just don't think I as the player should be required to pick a lock for my character with my skills when they're the one whose invested the time in learning how to pick a lock.

You know, I'm amazed I didn't remember you were the black king! Awkward!

Are you telling me you would NOT want to see the devs bagelheaded and acting out a scene from West Side Story? Yes, I think ultimately such a thing would haunt me in my nightmares until the day I died. Or a real long time, at least.

I really felt like John Carter should have done better Box Office. Alas it'll be one of those films in 10 years people will wonder why it was a flop, IMO.

GM was...GM on BIS. She and ApocalypseCow aka Ace pretty much led the Red Light District thread. Ah, #blackisle. It was a lot of fun until it wasn't. Which was usually about 10 minutes after a new game came out and everyone scrambled to play it and stopped talking. Last time I was there, everyone was MMOing. Which reminds me, wasn't there board member chess matches run through #blackisle? I always got the short end of the stick on those. One time I didn't even get to move once the entire game and the only action I saw was when I got killed by Onkel and his (IIRC) toilet brush.

I've always thought it might be neat to see a system that treats the typical "HP" bar as something more akin to a 'hit avoidance" bar (HA) factoring the ability to dodge, parry, block and absorb blows with armor. This bar grows with experience, better skills and better equipment. Then there is a HP bar that rarely changes and represents injuries. When "hit avoidance" is exhausted, a blow goes to HP and any character could easily get killed in one final blow. HP bar goes down and only comes back with magical healing or days of rest. Maybe with certain % damage there has to be major or minor injuries. HA Bar goes down and it can improve back fairly rapidly (reflecting getting ones wind back) and repairing damaged equipment. Probably a bit more complicated than what anyone would really want though. So I just always see HP as an abstraction for not being stabbed in the gut or something until you run out, and then you are stabbed in the gut.

To my mind, I haven't been promised anything (cue Kresselak from IWD); so in that sense I don't think I can be dissapointed unless I hate the game. But I prefer to always judge a game by what it is (when I play it) as opposed to what I wanted it to be. I figure that's fair.

What is there not to get? Bagelheading, why bagelheading is desirable, why anyone would want to look like they have an O-Ring fused on their head. That sort of thing.

"Klaatu Barada N... Necktie... Neckturn... Nickel... It's an "N" word, it's definitely an "N" word! Klaatu... Barada... N...[coughs] Okay... that's it!" I can see where it'd be reasonable for subduing a character you should have killed making a quest harder or vice versa. I don't think that every character choice should lead to a positive outcome, although I imagine it might increase the number of things you have to check for (thus making it more complicated as it goes on).

I'm glad to see this is going to happen.

I don't get it.

I did mention the "if it were easily doable..." which would include not a resources hog. And yes there are other non-combat mechanics. Sneaking and dialog are both fine non-combat mechanics. Subduing, though, at least as I see it would be a combat mechanic. its just a non-lethal combat mechanic.

I'm not sure opinion or consensus (mass opinion) really matters; you're never going to experience the subjective quality of the game until you've played it which will always be after the procurement (means regardless). Until then you're only really looking at what the buying public feels (which may or may not accurately represent the game). Also, I've played a lot of buggy games and never experienced a problem, and I've played games that were considered very solid and had problems - subjective experience is subjective. However to be fair advance word can get consumers motivated; in that way buggy games or games with promised features that don't exit/don't work/don't deliver could be identified by reviewers, pirates and early adopters affecting the life long sales of the game to some degree, which in turn could cause companies to rethink releasing buggy or incorrectly presented features on games (I think "over-hyped" is too subjective - I didn't buy Fable when it came out because despite of the early hype and promises it was pretty clear a lot of features had been cut from the game by the time it shipped, so can't really class that as over-hyped personally). That said I'm not sure that piracy serves as a consumer based risk mitigator in regard to purchases in a way that reviewers or early consumer aren't/wouldn't.

Not really my intent, but I suppose I should have anticipated it... I like disarming mechanics but most games it never seems to either (a) be effective or (b) make much difference. Same with trips.

Oddly enough, I feel like making bad choices and having to go back to an earlier save is appropriate negative feedback. In games where you just respawn and keep hacking with a xp/gold penalty it just doesn't feel like there's a consequence to really, really bad decisions. In that sense some kind of permadeath supports choice and consequence. I dunno, depending on what script was set up, it was very easy for BG/IWD characters to get pulled after enemies in my experience leading them to being alone and surounded. Fallout 1 and 2 was also bad for this, as I recall. I seem to recall in BG2 you have to change to D&D rules (or am I thinking IWD?) for the character to still get "chunked" and unable to be brought back (portrait removed from the party).

I think there are a few old timers who don't do anything but lurk in addition to the ones who've posted.

I could see that happening - although I imagine if people had no information in the game players wouldn't continue to try it everytime... ...aw who am I kidding, there'd people who'd try to subdue everyone just to see what they say.