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Hey guys, so, this will probably be more of a personal therapy session than a criticism/discussion of the game. :D I am having problems dealing with the sense of urgency in PoE. Let me first say that in most CRPGs, I try to roleplay my characters to a certain degree. I try to make choices that fit my character and choose activities/quests that fit with their made-up personality/way of living. Now, in PoE the dilemma is that after encountering Maerwald, the PC can be sure that he/she is going to loose his/her mind sooner or later. I would imagine that this is a problem the PC would try solve as quickly as possible. At the same time though, the PC is pretty much required to do side quests and travel around the dyrwood/white march for months on end with the threat of loosing their marbles looming above you at all times. Actually, I had the same problem when playing Baldur's Gate 2 ages ago. I think I never finished it because I felt rushed. Especially when playing a "good" character, I found it very difficult to travel all around the countryside while your childhood friend (Imoen) is taken hostage and, for all your character knows, tortured. Am I alone in this (please tell me I'm not :D)? Any tips on dealing with the feeling of being rushed? Best regards, Polarius

This was originally a response to the thread of "Urgency: please have it" (link: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/60235-urgency-please-have-it/), but it went into a whole 'nother direction, so I choose to make a topic of my own to potentially discuss it. So keep that in mind as it starts out with the 'urgency' topic and then moves on. Mmk? :D Honestly, I like urgency. I somewhat loathed Skyrim (for example) for not being urgent: you're the chosen one, you have to save a world from impending doom. So if I choose instead to join 10.000 guilds and do even more 'find my lost jewelry' quests, why hasn't doom impended yet? What did the evil dragon of evil do all day? Sit on his arse? Some doombringer... So urgency would be a 'must' for me, if the story lends to it, which I very much support (as opposed to 'here, go play in this sandbox world!')... On a related note: consequences when you're not urgent could potentially be very interesting, and if they choose to not railroad/script the consequences (i.e. make the consequences specific to the missed quest, for example, instead of making it an unchanging part of the main plot), or instant-game-over it, could lend to a lot of replayability. E.g.: Well crap! The village you were supposed to go to, to save from the Evil Bastard, has vanished from the map (apparently he did his Evil Bastardly job well without waiting for you to show up to thwart him) because you loitered around too long somewhere else... Incidentally, you weren't around to find out the next step in his master plan. Now how do we further the plot? What's his next step? How do we find out the next step of his master plan? How cool would that be? It could potentially involve a whole new gameplay mechanic of chasing down leads and investigating, setting up an intel network across several cities, etc etc. This could make the possibility of parallel missions interesting as well: instead of the Mass Effect 2 style of 'here are 9 missions you can do in any order you like! With no consequences if you choose 1 instead of the other, YAY!', you can have 2 or 3 missions that can happen at the same time, but you can only choose to chase down 1 lead, choose to do 1 mission (which you may or may not find out after the mission is over; as in: hmmm, let's do the investigatory mission first before going to the village where Evil Bastard has been spotted --> Well crap, apparently the Evil Bastard destroyed the village, but at least I found a piece of vital information that might come in handy later, or that unlocks some other important mission; and vice versa, of course: let's go save the village --> you have saved the village, but at the expense of some vital piece of info). Again, it leads to replayability. That could take a lot of work, granted, but hey, that's what additional stretch goals, or possibly mods, can be for, right? ;p (no offense to game makers if that comment is just plain wrong, though... O_o) So... Ideas? -Tim

For my sins, I'm starting this topic based on some things I've seen in other folks' threads. What I'd like to see is a living world where stuff happens that doesn't relate entirely to my character. On the other hand, I don't want to feel like I'm constantly missing content. There's a reason the PC is the mover and shaker in cRPGs.... the players want it that way. However, if you make the PC part of a larger movement, or at least an independent operator amid larger movements, then you have more leeway. What I'd like to see is other groups trying to accomplish things. We have factions, and that provides at least some of the other groups working on their own ends. Celsius had his own take on this: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/60534-player-the-only-competent-force-in-the-universe/ What I want is for the player to either be in competition with another adventuring group or cooperating with them. If they are at odds, then both groups can vie for both items, objectives, vital information, and other things. If the groups are cooperative, I'd like to see the other group be able to borrow npcs (for either martial prowess or vital non combat skill), items, share information, and help in any other number of ways. The PC and the other group can accomplish more and perhaps have their own relationship that begins in one way, perhaps cooperative, but ends another way, enmity born of betrayal perhaps. Alternately, the groups could start at odds and then fall in together either for practical reasons or personal friendship. Here's another thing. I remember having to sacrifice stats and other goodies for my companions in both PS:T and BG2. That's going to be the typical good/evil sort of choice with which folks identify. What I'd like to see is something entirely. You can sacrifice a companion not for selfish vs selfless reasons but because you have a choice between saving thousands at the cost of one or perhaps it could serve the greater good in one way or another. I tell you what folks committed to playing a good two shoes character won't bat an eye at losing some stats to be able to show their 'golden haired savior' capacity. The same player will agonize over choosing between personal love and friendship and the community. Here's something similar: There's an NPC companion with a special skill, such as pathfinding, tracking, and hunting. The party is in a bind because the enemy is chasing them. The companion, being a noble bastard, decides to throw off the trail of the enemy. He volunteers to do so and the PC discusses the issue with him. If the companion goes, he cleans up the party's trail, creates a new trail for the enemy, and draws as many of them off as long as he can. It could be a simple skill check affected by things such as: loyalty to the PC, loyalty to the party, skill, stamina, and any other number of factors. Alternately, the companion says he's going to draw them off, but just runs away to save his own skin. That's always an option. I'd like the PC, from the very beginning, to feel like he's a part of the world rather than central to its every working and I'd like the game to reflect that fact in a variety of ways.