What do you want in Project Eternity?

I want the story to be more involving than a lot of party based games, I think the trouble is when you have a party in a game developers often don't know how to distribute focus effectively and as such it becomes difficult to make all party members evocative, interesting or relatable in some way. If they can pull that off I'll be very pleased - I'm sure I'll like the game regardless but I really want it to be capable of being one of my favourites rather than something I play for a few weeks and then forget about.

I also want purty locations, but I think that's pretty much a given.

On a related note, will there be a new subforum created here when the game comes out for discussion? I was curious as the game is more or less a spiritual successor many old school RPGs, Arcanum being one of them, and it's one of those things that many people here are investing into - however I realise this might set the precedent for people wanting subforums for any flavour of the month rpg. I guess selfishly I prefer to discuss games here rather than elsewhere on the internet as I think people here have worthwhile opinions, which is a rarity in forums that are dedicated to a brand new game.

 

Player housing

All I want


Also I want the possibility to assume a noble title or something.

 

I too have been thinking a little on Obsidian's use of party members/followers. They tend to be fairly well written which of course is important. However, only the ones that are forced upon you tend to have any impact on the story whatsoever.

Compare Kreia from KotOR II with any follower from NV (or Arcanum for that matter). (Heh, it might be unfair to compare ANY character with Kreia.) I'm all for optional followers to prevent being forced to play the game teamed up with some arsehole you can't stand. However, a character as complex and important as Kreia is very hard to pull off if it's the player's choice whether to dump her on Nar Shaddaa or to have her tag along. Now Virgil says a few things here and there and has his own little quest, but is in no way an important part of the story. Boone from NV is equally unimportant. I think I got him to say one thing story related in the entire game: "That Benny guy was a piece of work". However when asked later if the name Benny rang any bells he simply responded "No".

I want interesting, important and complex party members, but I'd also like to critically hit them in their eyes whenever if feel like it. I fear this combination is impossible even for Obsidian. If that's the case, I'm not sure which option I'd prefer.

 

I'm just here to express interest in a Project Eternity subforum.

And maybe a Torment: Tides of Numenera one? Yes/no?

 

I would like to see interplay between between party members. As I recall, there was some of this in DA:O, but mostly just making the PC choose sides in arguments, thereby gaining or losing some kind of 'like' points or something. I guess I'd like the NPCs to be more complex and believable than standard RPG fare. For instance, maybe the uptight dickhead paladin loosens up a bit when you have a bard in the party, or becomes an even bigger dick when he's trying to impress that cute ranger babe who joined the crew. Maybe the pc takes a liking to cute-ranger-babe, but his charisma isn't high enough and she decides to hook up with paladin dickhead. Maybe cute-ranger-babe has an unfortunate accident when no one is looking (she had it coming), and paladin dickhead is grief-stricken, so the bard hooks him up with some booze to take the edge off, and he becomes paladin drunkhead.

Anyways, I'm not necessarily asking for love triangles. Just, you know, something more than, "Well if he's joining the group, I'm outta here!" or the occasional blurbs like, "So, you're a paladin huh? That's pretty cool I guess. Neat sword bro."

 

I also suffer from extreme cravings for an economy that for once isn't half-baked. In every single role playing game I can think of, the economy will over time suffer from insane levels of "inflation". I use quotation marks since the prices of goods and services doesn't actually increase. The goods are rather rendered useless as the player gets more and more powerful and replaced by more expensive alternatives. Services (such as those offered by doctors for example) tend to stay cheap and useful throughout the entire game though.

At the beginning of most games you can buy 'lesser healing potions' that became useless once your hit points reaches certain levels. You can then buy the more expensive 'moderate healing potions' that remain useful for a while, until you have to replace them with 'greater healing potions' and so forth. The same usually goes for equipment and other things.

These problems were semi-avoided in games such as New Vegas (where the stimpaks' potency were increased as you gained levels) and Bloodlines (where the money you could earn was limited). However, you still had to replace your old and reasonably priced gun with a newer one which costed more caps than one could possibly carry. This, of course, isn't a problem in itself since it means that no matter how much money you have it's always useful. What does happen is that the immersion suffers.

"Hmm, I've spent thousands of coins in Ristezze's shop and sold him loads of super gear dirt cheap. He should be rich, rich, RICH! Yet here he is, complaining over his lot in life. Why hasn't he done anything about it?"

This is something I've wondered in every single role playing game (apart from Bloodlines, however the limited money is a dull solution). It's even worse when you're assaulted by endgame bandits that carries equipment worth more than twice the amount of gold that the average city dweller owns. Why don't they sell their überarmour and epic sword of instant kill and simply retire? But not even the dumb bandits are the worst offenders. It's the silly side quests that you keep doing for precious xp!

"What's that dear? Your goat has run into that monster filled dungeon and you need it for you and your family to survive? Well, I guess I *could* give you a few hundred thousand gold pieces that's simply taking up room in my backpack. But hey, that would make sense! I will therefore face the dangers of the dungeon and save your precious goat!

 

Madam Lil's.

 

Interested in a subforum for PE. I enjoyed ToEE very much, just found the world very very small. did a TLR on everything but OP. Go go power rangers.

 

I am in favour of Madam Lil's.

 

For me, the games tend be very reliant on the combat systems. As long as those are interesting (that is, not repetitive and have sufficient depth without being overwhelmingly complex) the rest is just gravy.

 

I'm with Philes*, the main thing to get right is that the game should be fun to play. Don't spend too much effort making the game's economy seem realistic. The truth is - there is no economy - it's just a mechanism to allow the player to buy and sell stuff. If you want a game with a more realistic economy, play a space trading or city building game or something like that where it's one of the major gameplay components. Of course, those don't always get it right either, but at least they try to.

* I'm not with Philes.

 

I want the game's main antagonist to be a well-intentioned extremist who I'll be tempted to join even/especially when playing a good guy.

 

I want diversity.

I want to be able to play an evil person even if the main story was originally meant to be for a good one.
In such a way that you could have murdered [KeyCharacter] but still finish the main story. I want that for lots of quests actually.

Being a huge Arcanum fan, and less of a Baldur's Gate fan... I'm not sure my needs will be met.