Small suggestions. Easily implemented ideas, quickfire thoughts.

[RushAndAPush]

I think it would be really cool if you could give your party a name. I also think it would be cool if Obsidian gave party names to rival parties in the world and integrate them into the lore.

Edited April 3, 2014 by RushAndAPush

[Fluff]

I think it would be really cool if you could give your party a name. I also think it would be cool if Obsidian gave party names to rival parties in the world and integrate them into the lore.

That's...actually a really good idea that I've never even though of before. Having the option to name your group if you please while a simple touch would only add that much more to immersion and role playing.

 

Having the option of being the "Hearth Alliance" a group of civilized pacifist Orlans dedicated to bringing knowledge and acceptance of their kind to the world would be much more engaging than being "a group of 6 people" (just a random on the spot example)

[Silent Winter]

 

I think it would be really cool if you could give your party a name. I also think it would be cool if Obsidian gave party names to rival parties in the world and integrate them into the lore.

That's...actually a really good idea that I've never even though of before. Having the option to name your group if you please while a simple touch would only add that much more to immersion and role playing.

 

Having the option of being the "Hearth Alliance" a group of civilized pacifist Orlans dedicated to bringing knowledge and acceptance of their kind to the world would be much more engaging than being "a group of 6 people" (just a random on the spot example)

 

You could name your group in NWN2-SOZ module - was indeed a nice touch

[Fluff]

You could name your group in NWN2-SOZ module - was indeed a nice touch

 

I didn't know about that, that reminds me that I need to play Neverwinter Nights 2 though.. I've had it for awhile of GOG but didn't play it for some reason.

[RushAndAPush]

 

 

 

 

 

I think it would be really cool if you could give your party a name. I also think it would be cool if Obsidian gave party names to rival parties in the world and integrate them into the lore.

That's...actually a really good idea that I've never even though of before. Having the option to name your group if you please while a simple touch would only add that much more to immersion and role playing.

 

Having the option of being the "Hearth Alliance" a group of civilized pacifist Orlans dedicated to bringing knowledge and acceptance of their kind to the world would be much more engaging than being "a group of 6 people" (just a random on the spot example)

Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking. It would add more depth to the lore while adding more role-playing options.

[Failion]

I like how obsidian is going to recognize the character for being sarcastic, friendy, or whatever personality if they consistent with choosing these dialogue options. How about for dwarves intimidating you threaten to cleave the person you are talking legs off. So a witch living in the woods, a human lord, town citizens etc. Eventually you'll get the reputation for that lulzy **** dwarf that wants to cleave everyones legs off if they oppose him or not. 

[Naesh]

I think it would be really cool if you could give your party a name. I also think it would be cool if Obsidian gave party names to rival parties in the world and integrate them into the lore.

The name of the party could be named after the leader, by default. For example, "Tazok's group" or "Tazok's party".

And you could have the option to rename yours, if you want.

 

But i have a new suggestion: make the game with solo players in mind.

 

So, if you decide to go solo, there should be no reference to a party or to multiple people in the conversations.

(if you solo icewind dale you will notice that in the conversations everybody is talking in plural)

 

Some other ideas: enchanted tattoos, poisoned tattoos, cursed tattoos. Tattoos that glow in the dark, but are invisible in the day.

 

In an other thread i have already mentioned an ironman mode, where the save / load feature is disabled and there are time-travel spells instead. These spells actually load up an autosave (after playing a nice looking casting animation). The casting character might retain his/her experience and maybe other things.

There could be bookmark spells as well, that work just like the usual save / load feature. There could be an upper limit on the number of uses of these type of spells. This limit could be achieved by making the casting dependant on some (very rare and expensive) consumables. If you play on ironman mode, then there could be, say, only seven of these in the world. So you can save / load your game at most seven times. When the party gets wiped out, the spell (provided that it is still in effect) loads up the latest save and consumes it.

And of course, on very rare occassions enemy mages could also know of these spells. Imagine that you have almost won a fight, but then the enemy mage casts something (that takes unusually long) and boom, you are back at the last autosave. But this time the same mage will be more prepared, stronger and perhaps some traps and other enemies will be waiting for you as well.

 

Backpacks, bandoliers of different size. Magically enhanced backpacks. Cursed backpacks, that make items disappear or change them into useless crap.

Just like diseases can (and should) be identified by doctors only, these curses could be identified by specific npc's only. I wonder what's going to happen, if the npc you turn to mistreats the curse / mushroom-poisoning, due to lack of competence or something else. "Oh wait! It's not that potion, it's this one, don't drink it!" :D And what about the priest, who tried to cure sickness by mixing some healing herbs into a turn-to-stone potion? :D   

 

And how about long lasting spells or curses that mess with the automap?

You don't even know when your map started to behave strangely, or when the items started to disappear from your backpack. "Hey, where is my +2 dagger? And what is this smelly dead fish doing in my backpack?" :D How about a cursed backpack, with a periodically opening portal in it? Wonder where your items went? Perhaps that goblin shopkeeper stole it from you, who sold you this backpack? So that's why it was so cheap! Of course the same goes for gem bags / other container items.  

 

An additional bonus feature would be if we could tint / paint the armors / shields / swords somehow. Mmm. I would tint everything black.

In bg the color of each avatar was customizable, if i remember correctly. It's a nice alternative to have. 

 

And i want a sidequest, where someone from the party accidentally breaks a (fake?) item from a shop and we end up having to pay for it / go for a fetch quest / use magic / silence the shopkeeper. How about forged money by the way? Or thieves disguised as city guards, who claim that some of our money is forgery, therefore they have to take it?

Imagine that the party enters a city for the first time, then a couple of (fake? corrupt?) guards claim that we are in breach of custom / law, therefore we have to pay a fine.

Imagine the reactions of the party members, when they find out that there is no such custom / law!

[Fluff]

But i have a new suggestion: make the game with solo players in mind.

 

So, if you decide to go solo, there should be no reference to a party or to multiple people in the conversations.

(if you solo icewind dale you will notice that in the conversations everybody is talking in plural)

 

I do believe that's actually already the plan, because I remember reading somewhere that they wanted it to be possible to go through the entire game without companions..although I imagine this will be significantly harder.

[Hassat Hunter]

Mentioned this in another thread as some snide remark... but hey, it's actually rather good a suggestion, and might find a good place here

 

How about an option that the loading screen (from savegame, not area) would instead of useful tips display one of the many randomly selected ways of how this was all DM generated hogwash.

"It was all a dream, this really happened..."

"In the last minute, a timebubble sucked up the last remaining party member, who was now able to inform his team and prepare better..."

"Your wizards future spell had effect... now you know what NOT to do!"

"Meanwhile, in OUR dimension..."

"Fortunately, those were just your evil twin counterparts. Now the real heroes enter the fray!"

[Lephys]

And of course, on very rare occassions enemy mages could also know of these spells. Imagine that you have almost won a fight, but then the enemy mage casts something (that takes unusually long) and boom, you are back at the last autosave. But this time the same mage will be more prepared, stronger and perhaps some traps and other enemies will be waiting for you as well.

DA2 almost did this, in the form of enemies drinking potions, and random groups of 15 enemies spawning out of the ceiling itself once you killed enough of the previous wave, or downed a powerful enough foe, etc.

 

I gotta say, the whole spells idea is quite creative, and technically interesting in isolation, but enemies getting to essentially reload quicksaves or alter time to that extent is going to be 99% annoying and 1% cool.

[rjshae]

 DA2 almost did this, in the form of enemies drinking potions, and random groups of 15 enemies spawning out of the ceiling itself once you killed enough of the previous wave, or downed a powerful enough foe, etc.

 

A reason given for this is that you are replaying the exaggerated story as told from the perspective of Varric. You can see that in particular when you play the sequence where Varric takes on a horde of enemies with just his crossbow Bianca.

[Naesh]

 

I gotta say, the whole spells idea is quite creative, and technically interesting in isolation, but enemies getting to essentially reload quicksaves or alter time to that extent is going to be 99% annoying and 1% cool.

 

Yeah, you are right on that. Hmmm. The time-warp spell should work / be castable only if a given time has passed after the last time-warp spell was cast in the vicinity of the area.

Years / hours .... this depends on the particular area.

 

Aaand.... let's put a code into the AI script that limits the use of this type of spell depending on the real-life hours since the last time-warp spell was cast.

So, the player encounters this type of spell at most once in every X real-life hours. 

How does that sound? Still too annoying? Hmmm.......

[Lephys]

A reason given for this is that you are replaying the exaggerated story as told from the perspective of Varric. You can see that in particular when you play the sequence where Varric takes on a horde of enemies with just his crossbow Bianca.

I get the exaggeration, but, for instance, that Varric-versus-horde scenario is already exaggerated beyond the rest of the gameplay/combat. That, and it vastly fluctuates with difficulty settings. So, even if it's supposed to just be due to exaggeration, I don't think it was well executed. I mean, you spend 5 straight minutes getting some commander unit down to 15% health, and not dying in the process, and he just instantly downs a potion real quick, and is now full health. On tougher difficulties, he could do that multiple times, WHILE it was even harder to ever get him from just-above that potion-drinking mark down to 0HP before he got to drink a potion. And 15 enemies spilling down into your personal space feels at home in a game like God of War, or Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, but in a "tactical combat party-based RPG," the tactical aspect is a little lost when, no matter how well you do in 90% of the combat scenarios, halfway through them, you're always going to be surrounded by dudes. Kinda wipes the whole "approach and placement" aspect away from combat, a bit.

 

Anywho...

 

 

I gotta say, the whole spells idea is quite creative, and technically interesting in isolation, but enemies getting to essentially reload quicksaves or alter time to that extent is going to be 99% annoying and 1% cool.

Yeah, you are right on that. Hmmm. The time-warp spell should work / be castable only if a given time has passed after the last time-warp spell was cast in the vicinity of the area.

Years / hours .... this depends on the particular area.

 

Aaand.... let's put a code into the AI script that limits the use of this type of spell depending on the real-life hours since the last time-warp spell was cast.

So, the player encounters this type of spell at most once in every X real-life hours. 

How does that sound? Still too annoying? Hmmm.......

 

Ehhh... I dunno. It's hard to say for sure, but I think anything but limiting those spells to affecting just the enemy caster(s) and their kin would be overbearingly annoying, no matter how much I wanted to like the interestingness of it. It's just... almost the entire aspect of progress through the combat facet of the game would simply be undone, merely because someone cast a spell.

 

I WILL say this: in one way, it might be interesting, at the very least, to have one encounter that does this, in which the successful casting of the spell is "combat failure." So, maybe the spell takes like, a minute and a half to channel, and you're fighting away all the while, and if it gets cast, the player's in no different a situation than if he had lost the combat, his whole party were killed and he had to reload the last save before combat began.

 

Otherwise, I think it's best to restrain time-control magic a bit. As I mentioned above, I think it's more interesting if it JUST affects the "team" casting it (and/or just one target at a time... instead of just turning back time "for everyone"). You could do a lot of interesting-yet-reasonable short-term effects with it, though. Maybe your buddy gets debuffed or DOTed, and you have a spell that reverses time (only so far as effects are concerned -- it wouldn't heal any hitpoints or damage done) for that target by 10 seconds (game time -- the spell lore could say something like "the past several minutes" or something, *shrug*). Thus, anything cast on that person in the last 10 seconds would be gone. So, to combat someone you know has that spell, you'd probably want to stagger your debuffs/ailments, so that, at the very most, they can only remove like one at a time, instead of clustering them all together in a 10-second window and allowing them all to be removed at once.

 

Also, this could work pretty well with the Rogue, and his reliance upon ailments (were they called Afflictions?) for maximum carnage. Maybe the enemy team stacks up 4 afflictions on you pretty quickly whilst their Rogue makes his way towards you for a Sneak Attack or Lethal Strike or whatever (because of all your afflictions), and you cast that spell, reversing time back to before those afflictions were on that person. Thus, the Rogue gets to that character, and is suddenly surprised that all he can do is make regular strikes and/or use regular abilities. That could be cool.

 

OR, it could simultaneously work in an offensive fashion, if you target an enemy instead of a friend. Did that enemy Paladin just bestow some manner of awesomeness upon that Barbarian who's now charging your arse? REWIND that Barbarian back to his un-booned self, at the opportune moment, and he strikes expecting to be awesomer, but he's actually just regular. Surprise.

 

. Of course, such a thing would, methinks, need to be regulated pretty well. Otherwise, if you could just replace 6 of your spells per day with an Undo button, especially with 2 or 3 different characters, you'd just use that all the time to negate everything your opponents were doing. Whether it be a cooldown against your target, or a long cast time. OOOH, a channeled version might be cool. It reverses time by 1 second per tick, up to 10 ticks, so, if you get interrupted at 6 ticks, it's only gone back 6 seconds. *shrug*. I dunno, though, 'cause it'd just get crazy to actually have to try and figure out exactly what point at which you needed to reverse time for a given character to result in the desired state for that character.

 

It is very interesting, though, functionally. I like the possibilities. But, like I said, you'd probably be best working it into the tactical combat system with more in-encounter boundaries on its effects, rather than actually resetting like 15 minutes of gameplay for the player. Even with limited ways of avoiding that, a lot of it would be luck, and it just plain sucks if you have to redo a bunch of gameplay just because an enemy AI got a single spell off, no matter how tough it is for that to actually occur. Making it tough to pull off just makes it a lot less likely, but it doesn't mitigate the sheer annoyance of the effect whenever it DOES get pulled off.

[Ffordesoon]

This seems almost too obvious, but please let us use any additional mouse buttons we may possess as hotkeys. A surprising number of games only detect two or three buttons on a mouse, and it is infuriating.

 

EDIT: Please note that I have had minimal sleep, and may be making this problem up and/or not thinking straight. If this is the case, please be polite when you correct me, thanks.

Edited April 22, 2014 by Ffordesoon

[JadedWolf]

I really hope the game will include a key-up to highlight lootable items, like in BG2. I'm replaying Torment right now, and it is such a pain to have to mouseover every nook and cranny just to find the items your companion dropped when he just died.

[Lephys]

I really hope the game will include a key-up to highlight lootable items, like in BG2. I'm replaying Torment right now, and it is such a pain to have to mouseover every nook and cranny just to find the items your companion dropped when he just died.

I'm fairly certain it's been stated that this is in, though it's not going to highlight that tiny hidden lever/trap/secret door that your party comprised entirely of blind mole people isn't capable of spotting.

 

Basically, anything your party is already capable of detecting but just isn't already being highlighted for you, the player, on the screen, can be highlighted with a button. Methinks.

[Lord_Darkmoon]

A 3D like, detailed, immersive and animated world map would add a lot the atmosphere and immersion imo

[Naesh]

The random rolls at character creation could be handled differently than in bg.

 

On 'easy' / 'normal' difficulties you can reroll arbitrarily many times. On 'hardcore' difficulty setting you can reroll at most X times.

Plus, it would be nice to actually see the dices rolling on the screen. And the color / transparency of the dices could be randomized. Or not. I don't know yet.

 

There is also the idea of throwing dices with the cursor, but i'm not sure about that. It's pretty annoying.

 

And i don't want a detailed, immersive 3d like world map. I would rather have in-game made maps, that can be purchased from vendors / etc. (or tattooed on someones back)

If you want to go somewhere, you can start by going from one end of the screen to the other, or, just obtain a map and select where you want to go.

A precise, correct map. Not a fake one. Heh-heh.

Edited April 28, 2014 by Naesh

[Silent Winter]

The random rolls at character creation could be handled differently than in bg.

 

On 'easy' / 'normal' difficulties you can reroll arbitrarily many times. On 'hardcore' difficulty setting you can reroll at most X times.

Plus, it would be nice to actually see the dices rolling on the screen. And the color / transparency of the dices could be randomized. Or not. I don't know yet.

 

There is also the idea of throwing dices with the cursor, but i'm not sure about that. It's pretty annoying.

PoE will have point-buy for the stats - no dice-rolls.

 

 

If you want to go somewhere, you can start by going from one end of the screen to the other, or, just obtain a map and select where you want to go.

A precise, correct map. Not a fake one. Heh-heh.

 

 

 

I like the idea of buying maps - even fake ones - a fake map could lead you to 'here there be kittens' that turns out to be dragons

[JFSOCC]

A non-list UI for Saves where you can build a branching tree of savegames.

[PillarsofEternity]

A 3D like, detailed, immersive and animated world map would add a lot the atmosphere and immersion imo

 

I'd like to see the map as basically an interactive version of the map they have already made: 

 

http://media.indiedb.com/images/games/1/20/19152/pe-pillarsofeternitymap-1750x1426.jpg

[Labadal]

I hope we have descriptions of locations like The Banner Saga did. I liked reading those.

[rjshae]

 

I really hope the game will include a key-up to highlight lootable items, like in BG2. I'm replaying Torment right now, and it is such a pain to have to mouseover every nook and cranny just to find the items your companion dropped when he just died.

I'm fairly certain it's been stated that this is in, though it's not going to highlight that tiny hidden lever/trap/secret door that your party comprised entirely of blind mole people isn't capable of spotting.

 

Basically, anything your party is already capable of detecting but just isn't already being highlighted for you, the player, on the screen, can be highlighted with a button. Methinks.

 

It's a nice idea, but can lead to endless, repetitive mouse clicking if not handled correctly. How about if you click on a spot nearby and see an outflowing ripple of light showing the area of exploration?

[Lephys]

I'm confused... do you mean the searching mechanic could lead to lots of repetitive mouse-clicking? 'Cause we were just talking about the "highlight stuff that's lying about on the ground but that might be inadvertently camouflaged with the surroundings, to the player's eye, despite the fact that your party absolutely knows of its existence" button.

 

I am rather interested in how to do searching, though. I'm not immediately sure of the best way, but I know that "click a button and detect things in a radius" is bland, and that definitely leads to a bunch of repetitive mouse-clicking and slow-movement in jerky steps just to "explore."

 

I think Josh said it will basically just be a modal thing, and the closer you are to something (plus the longer you're near it), the better chance you'll have to detect things, relative to their difficulty to detect.

 

I do hope there's at least some form of clue system, though. Manually searching, I'm fine with. And obviously it's going to go a little slower than just jogging through areas. But, maybe instead of you just magically discovering that a section of wall is really a door, you simply detect something out of the ordinary, which is revealed to you via descriptive text. You then must "puzzle" out where the door actually is by finding a switch or something. *shrug*

 

I mean, obviously there'll be simpler things that are just kind of hidden, and you simply see them. But, with anything that could feasibly use it, I think the descriptive text is a good way to go. Basically, your character's keen awareness lets you find clues, so that you, the player, still get to do more than jog your guy around clicking the "FIND ALL THE THINGS!" button.

[rjshae]

Sorry, it sounds like I responded without following enough of the thread.