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The mushroom farms are not working. The dew collectors are not working. The game keeps on crashing and not saving. (Grounded) 9/30/2020

Hello, The goal of this topic is to list all the problems we (PS4/XBOX players) found on Deadfire Console version. Feel free to add the problem/bug/crash you constated and rate it with a severity note (from ++1 to 10, ++1= it break the game and make it unplayable, 10 = visual bug nothing too bad but should be fixed)... I will try to edit this topic regularly to add new problems we found in the list... I start with : Very SERIOUS problems which make the game broken, or break the gameplay : • The game crash and the PS4 is returned to desktop (this happen too frequently for a PSN Store game) - Advice : Save each time you finish a fight or before you enter any area, the game is unstable, and must be considered as an Alpha version still under developpment, if you get less than 3 crashes per hour you should be happy . Severity = ++1 • Sometime Deadfire completely freeze the PS4 and we can't do anything except removing power (very very dangerous for the PS4 or any computer), it happened to me in Poko Kohara (can't remember the exact name) in the outside while i opened the inventory, game freezes for 1s on equipping item in inventory - Severity = ++1 • Too frequently, when we try to click "Enchant" on an unique weapon, the game is crashing, and we get a blue screen, i thought i found a way to avoid this while enchanting a weapon which don't crash, i mean one i already tried to enchant like Xoti reaping hook and the enchant screen displayed, but 10 seconds after it crashed the game, great another blue screen, i am not frustrated, not a bit i swear - Severity = ++1 • Under some circumstances (dying in a random?area) the game save can be corrupted (if it happen to me ....) - Severity = ++1 • Sometime transition from one area to another make the game return to home screen and the following message "An error occurred you returned to the home screen to avoid corrupting the save", for me it happen mainly when i am on the ship and want to go in my personal quarters (under the bridge) or if i want to leave personnal quarters to return to world map - Severity = ++1 • Sometime the game crash during save, very nice when you save after a though fight like the one with Concelhaut, i recommend you to buy this broken game if you want to test your nerves and ability to stay ZENNNNNNNN - Severity = ++1 • When swapping characters in any location the game shuts down with PS error code (annoying because you can't complete their personal quests!)- Severity = 3 • Too frequently we click or select an interaction which is right in front of us (door, chest, attack enemy) or we launch an AOE spell and the companion (or watcher) go straight in the opposite side, very very annoying specially during a fight when your tank go at 10 km and can't protect the group or if there is traps around.. Also, because of this sometime it take hours to enter a room, because the interaction is misplaced, we have to trigger cursor mode (triangle) and search the exact point which trigger the interaction/room entrance, ... reloading a save seem to fix this, but it is very disturbing - IT BREAK THE GAMEPLAY PLEASE FIX THIS - Severity = 1 • Once you get further in the game, with the DLC, there are spots where even moving is nigh on impossible, it considers you in constant combat mode while no foes, so you cannot click on items and certain portals needed, I found to remedy that was to open as much things like maps, status, etc. so it forces it to jump, and then detects those portals; Once teleported, it bugs like that again and you need to spend minutes trying to force it. Then once you get further than that area, it keeps crashing in a battle. Note from the player (I was not the frustrated player this time) : Between that and the absurd loading times, I actually yesterday calculated it and for 5 minutes of actual gaming, you spend an hour of loading, crashing, etc.; I'm sorry but between fulltime work and other hobbies, this is just not acceptable for a 59 euro full price game and warrants a refund • Sometime the game start to lag, the game stop responding during 1-4 seconds and then return to normal.. Severity = 2 • Too frequently, while in a store inventory, we can't select any store item (mean we can't buy anything) - Only way i found to fix this is to restart the game - Severity 3 • Loading time are long, too long for a 2020 game, even with on a PS4 Pro + SSD (have both), there is a lot of room/houses/area to explore (mean wait when we enter and when we exit, and waiting from 40 seconds to more than 1.5 minute is frustrating for a console player) - Severity = 3 • Paladin "Lay on Hands" ability is broken, it don't heal, which make the paladin a bit useless - Severity = 2 • Auto pause is bugged (for me auto pause is set if a trap or secret detected) when a secret or a trap is detected during fight, the game auto pause as intended, but it is almost impossible to remove the pause (usually if not during a fight pressing two time square on PS4 remove the pause - this don't work during fight) - FIX : if this happen to you and you can't remove the pause during a fight, disabling the auto pause from the settings should solve the problem, don't forget to re-enable it after your fight... - Severity = 4 • One character block another, this is very very annoying, it was the same in POE, if in a corridor and your tank ended up in the back, he is stuck and can't melee attack because other characters are blocking the path. Severity =2 • During fight, the status window come on top of the spell windows, and we ca no more see half of the spell bar, it is really problematic, because we already fight blinded and with one hand tied in the back, and with this let's say we fight on one feet, blinded and with one hand tied in the back - Severity = 2 • It would be nice if we could zoom in/out the world/Sea map/any map, as we can do when we navigate or are walking, some of us have difficulty to read small characters... Severity = 5 • In the old city, when the group is walking, each time he get the status "Intoxicated" from those poisoned smoke/water (if it is water) the group is stopping and i have to enable cursor mode to get through it (very annoying when it happen every 20 seconds) - Severity = 4 • We should have a way to move an item from watcher/companion inventory to the reserve in one click, in the actual state (may be i miss something) i have to select an item and move it to the stash, manually and one by one, it should be a key (PS4 controller have at least 13 buttons which can be used) to automatically move an item to the reserve (group stash) - Why not "Square" button on PS4 like it was on POE - Severity = 3 • AOE Spells should be more visible, the AOE area should always be visible like it was on POE (if i recall correctly), and we should see the area of effect of spells like the druid Relentless Storm, the first time i launched it i didn't realized it was an AOE, because we don't see any AOE... - Severity = 5 • In a city like Neketaka, we should be able to travel from any room, shop,.., (from the 2nd floor terrace of The Wild Mare in Queen's Berth for example) to any other location in the city, because entering or leaving any room take between 40 seconds to 1 minute, repeat it 3 time to leave the terrace of tavern and enter Neketaka, it is too much, so the best way (you could completely re-code the game for console, this would be the real best way) to avoid this problem would be to be able to travel from inside a shop to any district of the city - Severity = 2 • Wizard "Dimensional" spell do not work as it should be, it don't stun enemies which are between the caster and the ally target. Severity = 2 • Wizard "Expose Vulnerabilities" seem not working, it don't expose vulnerabilities like on POE (we don't see anymore what are the target vulnerabilities, on POE, we have all the infos in the target info windows, if vulnerable to cold, fire, slash, and how much), another broken thing in Deadfire Ekera - Severity = 2 • Sometime (happened several times after i finished a scripted event with Ooze in Neketaka, and during burning house event with the thugs in the back of the house ), if we display the map or any item information pressing "O" to return to the game do not work, only thing which work is force quit the game, anr restart from a save (Fantastic) = +1 • On Xbox, the A button stopped working after some hours of game, the user reported it is the same with all his save, he can't interact with anybody, anything, the button is working, the controller is working ... • In Junvik Village, Gabel shop is bugged, we can open the store inventory but can't buy anything from her, navigation in her inventory is not possible Bugs, and Problems which must be solved asap to enhance the customer experience (Customers = us the players) and prevent other players to avoid buying Deadfire. • Sometime, in our inventory the little description popup disappear, pressing Triangle button work, but... - Severity = 10 • In POE, Wizard Wand had two damage type (piercing and crush), like Scepter which have (crush and slash), now it have only piercing damage type, and a lot of creature are immune to piercing damages, it is a bit unfair, wand should have like scepter two damage type because we wizard don't have much weapon choice it is wand, scepter or staves - Severity = 5 • "Plucked fruit" quest seem a bit bugged, i speaked to Rongi with Serafen which had required "bluff", but dialog choice is still in red... I read the note in his chest and waited on the beach several night around Midnight, but he never came, i felt a lot of frustration to eventually leave the quest for later completely disappointed... Severity = 5 • Sometime after having been close to a sigil (nightmare or any other), even after the fight the curse stay (even one hour after) and we have to save, and reload to "clean" our character and remove the curse... - Severity = 5 • During a fight, we should have access to more informations on the spells, like it was on POE (duration, time it take to launch, area of the spell, if the spell is ZDE or Enemies only, ...) in the actual state we fight with one eye closed, and one hand tied in the back, you can't expect us to write on a paper all the useful informations to be able to have them during a fight... - Severity = 2 • We should have a way to see the position of the character which is attacking (in turn mode)- in the actual state, even on a 50" 4K tv it is very hard to see the location of the character which will attack, i remember on POE (or may be another game) a command which enlight the character, so we can see his exact location... Severity = 7 • Sometime an enemy have been knocked by Eder (enemy is on the ground, on his back), and when another attack this knocked enemy, the attack make the enemy stand up, even if the turn is not ended and still have the knocked status.. I don't know if it is a visual glitch or a bug ... Severity ? • Sometime when we open a container, we see the content changing in front of us, example : a weapon disappear and is replaced by a potion, i don't know if it is a visual bug, but ... Severity = ? • When a new character is recruited it would be nice if we could see his attributes before choosing his class/multiclass - Severity = 8 • When Eder is killed and get second chance during fight, and it is his turn, he can't attack, he is stuck, the only way is to press square (end turn) or triangle (postpone? turn), this give enemies the chance to kill him (another time) - Severity = 2 • During fight on ship (boarding) companions which are not in the team should be controlled by the player, because they use abilities with friendly fire and kill us, it is very frustrating, and we don't get a game to be frustrated (frustrated because the AI can not be set manually, i mean by us), if we could set AI, it would take 20 seconds for us to prevent companions controlled by AI to use friendly fire spells definitively - ... Severity = 2 • The game is big, but we see always the same tips on loading screen (so much loading screen, always the same tips), we should have plenty tips, many many, not always the same 10 (i say 10, but i haven't counted, in any case there is too few tips on loading screen)... Severity = 8 • Wizard "Essential Phantom" is attacking enemies charmed by Seraphin (they are in green and there is other enemies around, but this stupid phantom attack them and remove the charm), Fantastic when enemies are almost immune to our damages and it take several turns to have enough energy for Seraphen to use its LV1 spell ... Severity = 5 • it would be useful to have the exact life remaining (a number) close the enemy lifebar, it would be encouraging for us when fighting a difficult enemy, and will permit to see what we are doing are useful or useless... On an enemy which have a ton of life, sometime it is very hard to see if we damage his life, even if we see our damages... - Severity = 7 • Ring of Overseeing and any item which have overseeing effect (Ring of Overseeing, Aloth armor) don't work (we can't see the effect on the character (summary, the section with all attributes and curent effects, confirmed by comparing the AOE with and without it, no difference - Severity = 7 • Why are the potions so expensive in gold to craft ? I don't understand why I should pay for something I will craft by myself, is the 3500 gold part of the fabrication ? Gold is a poison if we eat it, if I recall correctly It was the same in POE... Ingredients and potions dropped by enemies or found in containers are so rare, why adding money to the recipe? - Severity = 4 • During ship fight (sea battle) we should have acces to the entire maneuver history, sometime we want to turn starboard and starboard to use specific side canons, but an something happen (a phone call, someone speaking at home) and we can't remember if we turned starboard or the other side, and we can't see the last maneuver in history because it is a "new page", in the actual state of the game we should write every maneuver to be sure we remember, because they will be wiped from the history screen... Should be fixed - Severity = 5 • As a Wizard, i notified we found very very few magical weapons (scepters/wand/little staves) and not a single one unique magic weapon, since i started, and as far I know, no Mage soulbound weapon(scepter, wand, magic staff) in the base game, one wand (useless against a lot of enemies which are immune to pierce damage) in of the dlcs, i found a lot of unique melee weapon, some unique pistols/blunderbuss/rifle, but not a single unique wand/scepter/magic stave, may be later in the game (according to the wiki) but if i should finish the game to have a decent weapon for my wizard, it is a bit frustrating (even in "Magic" shops like Arkemyr shop, there is only unique melee weapons or bow/crossbow not a single magic weapon)- Severity = 8 • In localized version of Deadfire (example french) why trying to translate the name of ship weapons (canons), and other gear ? I defy you to found any information about "Couleuvrine impériale", nothing on internet, nothing on the wikies and because during a ship fight we can't see what weapon do what, what range, how much of turns ? Do you expect us to keep any gear information in head, you try first ? leave their original English name so it is easy for us to found informations about it.. It is the same problem with area name translated, it is very hard to find any informations about "Promontoire de Periki", Names should never been translated, it is kind from you, but it don't help us (the contrary) - Severity = 5 • During Ship fight companion/Sidekick/crew which are far from the enemies are not fighting, they stay doing nothing, do i miss something ? ... - Severity = 6 • After a ship battle when we are victorious and we have the loot window, we can't press "square" on PS4 to get all the loot in one shot and send it in the group stash (reserve) we have to take each item one by one, i notified it do not work mostly when there is a lot of items (more than one page in the loot window)... - Severity = 8 • During the navigation on the world map (ship moving on the sea) we should have a way to mark a known destination / or a point on the map, so we could point the ship the the marked location direction and navigate to it. In the actual state, if i want to return to Neketaka and i am far south east, i have to check the known destination windows then click a destination then estimate the good direction and move, and repeat several time until we reach our destination, sasdly the destination don't remain displayed on the navigation screen as it should be... I don't want to use the auto navigate because one time the ship gone into a tempest... May be i miss something but in this case things should be better explained... - Severity = 5 • When selecting a single item in a sell menu by pressing x, it is moved to the basket right away. But if you have few similar items, game will first suggest you to define how much things you need to sell (it's logical), but then you need to move it with the stick to the basket, which is ridiculous - (Possible fix = Long press X on PS4 to sell the entire pile of items - it take me time to discover it) - Inventory and sell items should be more handy - Severity = 5 • On town screen (Map ?), moving mouse cursor with a stick is also completely ridiculous, it should be with r1\l1 or with arrows, same goes for level up menu - Severity = ? • Controller Touch ad should be mapped to the inventory or map, or better be customizable. currently it is mapped to the tutorials, which are mostly not used during the majority of the game - Severity = 5 • no POE save import for a new game. I was not expecting this at all. How could it be wiped out from game? (Me too, but we can at least re-create all our POE choices (and name the set of choices) while pressing Square during New Game creation, and then Selecting the set of choices in the end of NG creation) - Severity = ? • On Xaur tuk tuk island (in the cavern where you found Mother Sharp Rock crew member), two Xaurips are not marked as a combat objectives. when you kill the rest, they are attacking you, engaged character is defending, but it is not counted as a combat mode. as a result, Mother Sharp Rock is still frightened to exit the cage... Possible fix kill those two Xaurik while using the wheel menu->Attack - Severity = 5 • The quest screen should have an indication when a quest is validated (each time going in the quest list and checking the quests one by one, if we have something to do in neketaka for example is painful)... Severity = 4 • After we finished Palegina quest and saved Giacolo, later i returned on the Dunnage and the godlike are still here, we can re-enter the room like if Giacolo was still here and the quest not finished - Severity = 5 • when we are in shop inventory, there is no way to compare a seller item to our items (example : compare a seller glove to our gloves)... • When we are selling items, in the trade window, if we sell more than 20 different items, we can no more see the first item in the window, we can't double check if we don't sold something important to us, this because the sold items section have 20 slots and can't be scrolled down up left right to see all the items... We only see the last twenty... • During scripted interaction (when we have the sort of book on the screen) we can't go up and read previous text - Is is problematic because some event need us to read carefully and understand what we do or have done to decide carefully - Severity = 4 • After healing the Green Lady and her daughters, we receive the "nature's mark" but there is nothing in the Effect screen... Something is missing ? • While we are in a shop inventory we can't press "Triangle" button for more informations on an item (to see the benefit of an enchant for example), neither do the same on a Grimoire to see which spells are inside... - It should be fixed - Severity = 4 • Most of the time, when we change the team composition (remove a companion to add another companion), the group is not complete and one of the companion (the new one or the removed one) is alone wandering and not part of the team, very annoying when you enter a battle thinking your group is complete and finally it is not, also the removed companion can be here and bug the fight, because ha have a turn even if he can't do nothing (no fight) and random companion in the group (may be more) can't do nothing to (can't attack even if it is his turn) - Severity = 2 I will continue to add problems i found while hoping someone on Obsidian side will read this and FIX THOSE PROBLEMS, because in its actual state the game provide more frustration than pleasure and is mostly not playable, some games are time eater because you farm, or because there is a lot of things to do, but Deadfire is time eater, because we spend 30% of our playing time to relaunch the game because it crashed, or because we spend a lot of time searging internet a solution to bypass a bug we found in the game... The best advice i can give to any player who want to try Deadfire, is save constantly, save your game each 5 minutes, save after each fight, save before going in the inventory, be very careful because the game crash very very frequently.

When this game came out it was unplayable for me. Obsidian did nothing to address the issues I reported so I was unable to play. I've waited until V2 to try again but all the same issues are there. - Saves are immediately corrupted on game exit causing save load to loop back to menu - Clicking "Conintue" in the menu loads the encampment from the beginning of the game then pauses and will not unpause - Game locks up the majority of times on launch and must be killed and relaunched. (I have windows hang reports but this also happens on Linux) - Save states can be "fixed" by deleting the tempsavedata on both windows and linux every time you launch the game - On Linux the cursor starts on the bottom left of maps regaurdless of where the characters are - Game performance is absoluately terrible when running since V2...it was terrible at launch and it's worse now - Steam Sync does not work I've submitted bug reports, tickets, Obsidian has ignored all these issues. I have tickets that still have never been addressed since the second day of the games release! The only effort Obsidian has made was on these forms where a dev "fixed" my saves. I was then trolled about how I was thankless about this "help" meanwhile everyone ignored the reality the game just immediaetly corrupted the saves the dev fixed. Fixing saves does not address the problem of how they are becoming corrupted! Fast forward to now and I've tried all my old tricks and new. The game is a fresh install since v2, I deleted it months ago after it was obvious Obsidian gave 0 ****s about dealing with issues. I nuked the registry entries, wiped all old directories in hopes of removing any and all traces of the old bugged out v1.X version of the game or its files. None of this has helped on Windows or Linux. The game is still a worthless mess and obviously I'd like to PLAY the damn thing. I didn't back this project so I could spend my days trolling the forms about Obsidians **** support, I just want to play the god damn thing!

I just bought the game and tried to activate it on steam but it said this key is already been used. Here is the message but it is in german.

I'm having a problem to shoot arrows, outside combat. I press the "F" key, the aim turns red, but when i click the mouse button, it simply doesnt shoot, like if the mouse button wasnt working. Anyone facing this problem too? Any suggestion to fix this bug? Thanx

Ok too all out in cybor space who read blogs. Need help. I have been replaying the Storm of Zahir expantion of Neverwinter Nights 2. (Got the dimaond as a gift) and have run into a problem that makes no sence. So Sa'Sani has just killed her helper and has run off to the temple of the serpent. I followed and asked the gnome if he had seen her. I get to the temple and Yet I SEE IT but can not enter into it. All the eyes have been collected all missions....as far as i know are done... Im level 17 with all toons and NOTHING !!!! WHATS UP? /.... thank you please help if u can

Sorry I'm tardy to the party I just learned about this entire thing a few hours ago! I went through all of the updates and saw all of the videos...after spending a while crying tears of happiness I finally composed myself and decided to share my thoughts and express my thanks to all of the developers for continuing my favorite type of games! Thank you very much. ----Pathing---- -Pathing is massively important. In IE games I really disliked indoor / close corridors fighting because the characters would often waste time running in a wrong direction. It was especially annoying if a pillar blocked line of sight for a ranged command 40 yards away and the character would move directly toward the target instead of taking the single step to the left/right to regain view. When Starcraft 2 first came out the first thing that made me cry tears of joy was how fluid and perfect the pathing was. You could select hundreds of units and watch them perfectly navigate around a series of obstacles with a single click. It was so beautiful that many people were making videos just showing off how cool it was. If I could spend more time monitoring spells and actions being preformed instead of making sure my recent commands are properly being executed the enjoyment would increase tenfold. I know this is really obvious but I just felt like mentioning it! ----Spells---- -Spells that had a long casting time (almost a full turn) were sometimes difficult for me to manage when I have to pause countless times in between it's actual cast. This happens often in large scale battles where certain death can occur at any fraction of a second. Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition did a great job helping this problem by creating an icon on the player portrait symbolizing the current action being performed. I would love to see something similar, if not identical to this! ----Replayability---- -I've seen a lot of games being accused of having little replayability because of it's linear play style, yet calling Baldur's Gate a masterpiece because of how opened ended it is. I don't understand this logic because Baldur's Gate is completely scripted and after you've played it 100% you will know what to expect on each subsequent play through. I love that game to death but it's never been the same as my first play through because I truly didn't know what to expect behind every inch of shroud my first time around. I think the perfect solution for these things is to have a randomization system for events. Any "Rogue-like" games have the right idea; you can create randomized sections of the game that doesn't change the storyline in anyway but offers the element of suprise for the player. I'm not saying the game should be randomly generated like a Diablo map (1 and 2 ...lol@3) but certain "insignificant" areas would have random chances to create a type of event. For example : You approach the Friendly Arms Inn and instead of that mage who attacks you, one of the following happens : 1)Nothing 2)One or more randomly generated characters attacks you. 3)One or more randomly generated characters greet you, and offer you some advice. This advice could be something like "Greetings traveler, careful if you travel east... I heard the howls of a large pack of wolves." Then somewhere in the east a pack of wolves would be created in the nearest spawn point used for such events. 4)A generic traveling merchant would offer you some standard wares. 5)A silly flavor text event happens that pulls you into the atmpsophere, or at the very least makes you grin before moving on. This is a very basic example, but having multiple playthroughs where the feeling of exploration and genuine suprise can be kept is such a big deal for me and makes the game incredibly more fun! ----Exploration---- -Hidden items are always fun to find. It's like an Easter egg hunt but instead of chocolate goodness you find a sum of gold, or a magic scroll, or a potion. Nothing necessary, and nothing big but just a little way to reward players who take the time to look or have a good eye at catching cleverly placed secrets. Holding the tab button to highlight everything would be an exception to this rule, and these secrets wouldn't be shown through that button (if it exists). ----Life in the City---- -Something that I loved about BG1 and BG2 was how long you could enjoy the game while being in a single place. The major cities had a perfect balance of places to explore, places to experience combat, places to shop, and places to progress storylines. You never had to leave the city walls because "I feel like fighting something now." I would love it if there were even more reasons to stay in the city! A few ideas I have are : Auction house / Retail Investments : Instead of selling an item directly to a merchant you could place it on an auction or lend it to a shop keep in the hopes of earning extra gold with some patience. You would return to the auction house or store you owned/invested in several game play hours or days later and either collect the gold you asked for (if the game decided it sold) or scan through the offers you got for the item. For example : Say you placed a +1 Longsword on the market. When you return about a day later you get the following options: 1)Don't sell; Keep +1 Longsword. 2)Accept offer : +1 Flail. 3)Accept offer : 1000 gold. 4)Accept offer : Scroll of Identify, 200 gold, and Potion of Minor Healing. The options would always vary between existing and total profit as well. Sometimes you would see great deals and other times you would see lousy deals and be forced to decide. - An idea I had about cities is having minor quests that utilize a player's skill set. Imagine if you ran across someone injured somewhere and at the cost of one of your heal spells/or potions you just saved someone's life. Maybe someone has a disease or negative effect and asks you for a cure. If you happen to have the right spell, you can decide to heal them or even charge them a specific amount of gold for your services. I know a lot of people would see these things as pointless but interacting with the world in non-combat ways is extremely satisfying for me and really increases my enjoyment of the game. I loved the idea of paying for spell casts when you went to temples, and I always wished I could go around selling spells. ----Weather Effects---- -Day and night cycles can have interesting effects on game play! I would love to see spells and abilities that have both positive and negative effects based on current sun/moon cycles or rain/sun/snow conditions! ----Item Related Quests---- -Finding Pommel of the Equalizer in BG2 instantly made me happy. It was a brilliant idea by the developers to put a partial item in the beginning of the game that did many things to the player. It explained to them through game play mechanics alone that this game has specific item pieces in the world, there's definitely a place you can craft items at, and that the items in the game have stories fueling their special powers. I loved this concept but I felt like there could have been more than there was in the game. I would love to see a lot of items that are craftable through exploration and am just as equally interested in learning the stories behind them. Creating actual quests revolving around piecing together legendary items would be a lot of fun! ----Stat Related Quests---- Something Dragon Age Origins tried to do but didn't deliver properly were quests that are directly dependant on your characters skills and/or stats. I think they didn't do it right because it wasn't used enough. There were very few examples of when it actually mattered, and it felt like a lazy attempt to instill a feeling of significance in the world but in the end further illuminated the linear path they took. I think there should be a large variety of NPCs placed throughout every city and even some amongst the wilderness. They should be randomized to discourage meta gaming, compliment replayability, and encourage exploration. These NPCs would present to the player problems such as: 1) Someone needs help with identifying a potentially cursed scroll or item. A spell of indentify completes the quest and earns the player a reward. 2) Someone needs help with picking the lock off of a box they found. If you're party is capable of picking the lock then you are presented with three options : accept the reward of "x" amount of gold, share half of what's inside of the lockbox, or chose the evil route and just kill the person and take everything for yourself. 3) Somebody challenges you to play a card game. If you agree to playing the game it automatically determines the winner based on your stats. If you lose you forfeit an agreed upon amount of gold prior to the bet. If you win you earn the agreed upon reward and are told in a quick text popup something like "Your quick dexterity catches the hussler trying to cheat you, he apologizes and forfeits." Or, "Your sharp intellect overcomes your oponent, and you win the game." These small stat checks are insignificant in comparison to the grand scheme of the game but offfer a very rewarding feeling when you are tested on the spot and walk away the victor. ----Difficulty and Danger---- -Something I really hate is level scaling. I hate fighting something blindly with the comfort of knowing level scaling is on my side. I think anyone who has played BG2 can say that their first encounter with Kangaxx the Lich was a very humbling and likely hilarious event. It would sadden me if anyone ever actually got frustrated upon dying there. That event alone made me recognize that I'm living in dangerous times where anything can happen and I'm not the Rambo of the world like in most video games. This is further emphasized with how Irenicus brings the wizards to their knees in the beginning. Trying to fight them yourself soon after learning that you can't cast spells in the city and deciding to do it anyway soon proves that you're no match against them! Taking the time to avoid a recognizable danger is way more satisfying because it reminds me that I'm not playing a normal video game, I'm playing one of the best ever made! It's also satisfying to be rewarded upon recognizing danger and having it pay off...and then later in the future returning to that location and showing off how strong I've become during my journey and to overcome and obstacle that was once a sure death to my former self. ----Awkward Game Mechanics---- -I love having a large variety of characters/companions that join my party but I never want to have my intentions of playing with a certain group get in the way of their perception of me. I would take everyone if I could but you can only have 5 other party members with you. I get that, I like that, I think a total of 6 is a perfect number and I hope it stays that way because personally I think 7 or more would get a little too crazy. HOWEVER... I don't want a dialogue option saying "Sorry but you can't join us; we're full." What the hell does that even mean? Is this game that prides itself on immersion actually have a dialogue option that's directly referencing a game play mechanic? That bothered me really bad. What should have happened is you should either let them join or say something along the lines of "I think it would be better if you met with me at 'insert hub like copper coronet'." At least that way the player wouldn't be discouraged about potentially pissing off the NPC. And yes I know that as far as stats/numbers go you aren't actually experiencing any real disadvantage from the NPC you're turning down but I have watched many others including myself experience a pang of guilt because of the game forcing you to chose that dialogue option. A great example is when you are in BG1 and you have 1 empty slot and a group like Jaheria and Khalid want to join you. Or Minsc and eventually Dynaheir. You are in middle of the wilderness and you say to their face "We don't have room for you.". That is a large error in game design, I think, and should be at the very least rephrased. Another example of awkwardness is when you first enter Spellhold in the game BG2. You're decently far into the game at that point and almost assuredly have a full party by then. You suddenly meet Imoen and are forced to decide somebodies fate on the spot. Not only is that just an awkward way of putting the player in a tough position entirely based on game mechanics, but you also are very likely to have to reload since there's a strong possibility that whoever you decided to boot out of the party had some crucial items in their inventory. BG2 forces you to go through the clunky process of redoing the entire portion of that game simply because a game mechanic got in the way of your game's momentum. Sorry about the length of this rant but it's very important to me and I wanted to be sure to get my point across.