Wish List for Book II {Compiled}

Here's where all things related to Book II are being discussed!
Poxx
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Re: Wish List for Book II {Compiled}

Post by Poxx »

- Multiplayer ( 2-6 players, "a la lord of the rings" ) so I can play together with my partner ( doesn't have to be online multiplayer, just a local LAN multiplayer ). The server will wait for all players to input their next move, then execute those and then it's the monster's turn. This can go very fast, almost real time as long as both players 'keep the move on'.
This is my main wish for book 2
- Lockpicking : Simple locks should have 3 tumblers. The more complex the lock the more tumblers the locks will have.
Each 'tumbler' will 'roll' for success / failure, this would make it REAL nice. I love lockpicking etc... ( I never used it since I have lockmelt, which is much better and it doesn't require a constant stream of lockpicks ). Basically I would like to see the lockpicking animation enhanced based on the complexity of the lock ( seeing the same animation tends to get dull, and picking that 8-tumbler mithril lock will just be SO much more rewarding :)
- More riddles / puzzles. Make the game more difficult , we love it !
- harder monsters, less 'cheats' like teleporting / invisibility / running in and out of screen to rest etc. At this moment the monsters are a tad too easy.
- Longer storyline. I would love to play the game more than 12 hours. Perhaps make the monsters more difficult at low levels so people HAVE to level up to kill them ? ( At this point a level 1 ( assuming he would have no experience from the quests before ) could kill Gramuk... which doesn' t make much sense ).
- More variable quest lines ( gotta love them too ).
- Allow moving around with keys instead of mouse-only.

Got loads more but you must be a busy man indeed. This is a great game, can't wait till book 2 comes out
dare49devil
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Re: Wish List for Book II {Compiled}

Post by dare49devil »

12]More save slots
-Yess. =)
16]A storage area
-*nod* I would just go with...Any place where you can sleep in a town, AKA the inn, where the innkeeper is...He should have the option, upon talking to him/her, "Would you like to view your safety deposit box?" Something around those lines. Of course, the first encounter would require you to talk to him about stuff..And somewhere the innkeeper mentions about keeping private items..Then you would 'ask further questions about that' and he explains to you...And he tells you that a one time fee is required, X gold. And, say, it gives a XxX (slot wise) screen that opens which graphics that it looks like a box or something.
18]Keyring
-Agreed. Nothing big, just something small. You can have it automatically put keys on when finding one...Then take them away when using them, or just keep them there, and have the keyring expand every X levels. Or just have it expand to however keys you have.
19]Automatic stacking.
-Not much to say here. I vote yes! Just...Use common sense for which items use this property of auto-stack.
38]bigger multi-tile monsters
-EPIC! I like. Would be interesting. I automatically pictured a 2x2 fat octopus looking monster! Haha.
'the ability to look at maps you've drawn when you're not in that area'.
-This...Would..Be..Great! A more up-to-date map system would be very...beneficial? Awesome? FABULOUS? =P
01 A release on Steam
-Done.
02 Steam Achievements
-Eh...I dunno about this one. I feel some of the Steam Achievements that are released are rediculously unfair and tedious. Some like: "log 100 hours on X game.' If they are like the L4D ones..Those are very reasonable!
05 More recipes for modifying armor. Maybe some resitance recipes.
-Some variety isn't that bad of an idea. Hmm. Resistance Recipes sound interesting. I am sure some extra Alchemy stuff will be included in Book II.
06 maybe penalties for modifying an item twice unless you have a high alchemy (20+).
-Huh? I think if you imbue a piece of armor with +2 armor. Then later your alchemy is higher, you should be able to re-imbue it for the +3 armor. Same with weapons, and any recipe that is applied to equippable items. Perhaps...You would need to visit a NPC to 'remove' your original imbue, which would, of course, require X gold.
07 Backstabs: instant death for monsters that have not spotted you. You have to hit with a short bladed weapon.
-Highly disagree with this one.
While playing EB1 I often found myself missing a screenshot button.
-Simple built in feature that saves in the same folder where 'saved games' are would be cute.
- Lockpicking : Simple locks should have 3 tumblers. The more complex the lock the more tumblers the locks will have. (seeing the same animation tends to get dull, and picking that 8-tumbler mithril lock will just be SO much more rewarding :)
-I agree. Small enough of a detail.
- More riddles / puzzles. Make the game more difficult , we love it !
-I'm sure there will be much more in Book II. =P
- less 'cheats' like teleporting / invisibility / running in and out of screen to rest etc.
-There will be balancing. But remember some 'cheats' as you say, such as running in and our of screen is just how this type of game is made. The spells such as Portal and Invisibility will probably have some sort of nerf to it. They aren't game breaking by any means though.
- Longer storyline. I would love to play the game more than 12 hours.
-Book I was their first release, and I am proud of it. I think it was expected around 20ish game time on average. Not bad. I highly believe that Book II will be longer.
- More variable quest lines.
No doubt there will be more, with a larger game comes more goodies! =)
- Allow moving around with keys instead of mouse-only.
-Please, pleaseeee! :D
Poxx
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Re: Wish List for Book II {Compiled}

Post by Poxx »

Some more ( Just to keep Steward busy :D )

- Luck attribute ( Much like intelligence / wisdom / strength ). This attribute would affect everything in the world in a small way. Think of the amount of gold you get from a chest. The higher your luck, the more gold / better items you could 'randomly get'. It could affect the chance of getting jumped on while sleeping, bartering with people. chance to land critical hits etc. Make no mistake this is a HUGE change , and almost all algorithms will have to be reviewed ( so I don't see this happening if it's not already in the pipeline ). But ye, would be nice to see the 'luck factor' in the game.

- Charisma attribute ( Also like intelligence / wisdom / strenght etc ). This attribute would affect your charismatic and diplomatic abilities. Prices in shops will be affected by this stat. Also outcomes of discussions with interactable mobs would be affected by this. Grazz for instance ( the only friendly goblin in the game - apart from the vault keeper ) would only talk to you if you had charisma 15 , otherwise he would just sit there , or perhaps you can talk to him but can only select "I will kill you now" option, which basically is the same. This would make the game more dynamic.

- Character traits ( Evil / Chaotic / Good ). If you choose to be the good samaritan ( you chose the "Lillith is my friend !" option ) you will attune towards 'Good'. Some people will give you quests only if you are the same trait. For instance, you will only get the quest from the priest if you have done 2 'positive' quests beforehand. On the other side, you won't be able to get the quest from the thief in the inn, because he only deals with noticeably evil people, people he can 'trust' to do the job. This would be a nice feature ( but again, a big one to implement )

- More intelligent monsters ( but this has been discussed before ). Better pathing algo's , smarter moves ( waiting behind a pillar if you're a caster , and stopping to shoot ( and moving in melee range ) if you are "air bubbled". I would also love to see more 'tactics' from a goblin warlord for instance, steering his troops so that the fight gets a bit more challenging than the usual 'run and sleep until mana is replenished then kill'-tactic

- Pets ( I'm not a huge fan of pets but they can be nice in some scenario's )

- Archery needs a major revamp. Who carries around 2.000 arrows just to complete 1 dungeon ?... They need unlimited arrows. Or perhaps an unlimited 'basic' arrow, and limited 'magic arrows' or whatever. But I always think "man.. there goes another gold" whenever I shoot at a mob. I don't think "wow... that was a great shot" but "how am I going to afford my next instance" and "I hope I won't run out of arrows just before the last boss again". Maybe let the archer create his own arrows ( fletchery ) while 'sleeping' ( like a mana user needs to sleep to get mana back, maybe the hunter can spend the same amount on making arrows at his campfire ? ( everyone knows that hunters never sleep :D )

- Boobie-trap skill : allows placement of boobie-traps. Now you can only walk into them. Successfully disarming a boobietrap will also allow you to use the boobietrap for next time.

- Diseases : Please , please let the diseases wear off like they do in normal life also.

- Different diseases and poisons ( the higher the mob, the worse the disease / poison ). I didn't notice any difference between a poison in Citadel or in the starting area.

- Mob levels. ( determined partly by 'Luck' attribute ). The higher the mob , the lower armor rating ( better armor quality ) / higher hit rating it has and magical resistances, more hp and mana etc. Bosses will be much more fun this way, and even easier to program. ( just take a normal goblin and promote him 5 levels :) ).

- Rain. anyone noticed that it never rains in Eschalon , but it does rain in the intro movie ?... :) I'd love to see some rain, weather effects, storm , lightning etc.

- Multilayer dungeons ( I think this has been said before ) with more than 1 floor. Basically it's already there but it hasn't been utilized fully.

- Nights should be more dangerous than days, this will add to the atmosphere. Bats / ghosts / vampires / liches etc should only come out at night or in tombs / caves. In daylight the mobs would be easier and more common ( you certainly don't expect to see a bat during the day for instance... )

- Weapon enchants should be permanent ( +1 damage / +2 damage etc.. ) you can keep upgrading your enchants but every time you upgrade the chance of failure increases. Let's say you got a nice Axe of 9 base damage. You enchant with +1 damage, with 95% success. Then you can enchant it for +2 with 80% success ( all ofcourse depending on your enchanting skill ) , and if that is successful you can put +3 on it with 40% success. you can then enchant it again with 5% success rate ( you get the idea ). If the enchant fails at any time, the weapon can never be enchanted anymore and will keep it's previous enchant. Ofcourse, the materials needed to enchant a weapon are VERY expensive ( nearly as expensive as the weapon itself ). Some sort of cheat protection ( save game reroll ) needs to be in place for this though. I find it too easy to save and reload a few times.

- Different types of weapon enchants ( +2 fire damage / +2 cold damage / +2 electricity damage etc. )

- Forging weapons could be implemented. The weaponsmith skill could be learned. Also armorsmith ( for armor ) etc could be implemented. Basically I'd love to see 'basic' professions in the game ( nothing like WoW which takes forever, just some simple professions ).

- Gear quality indicator ( Sword is at 90% ). It will break at 0% so you have to repair it in time. Same with armor etc. It also becomes less efficient if it's not maintained.

- Swimming should be a learnable skill and useable to cross water area's

- More different types of weapons : Mage Staff / Crossbow / Flail / two-handed weapons / double-edged axes etc )

- visible weapon effects ( depending on the enchant ) like fiery blade or a lightning blade or cold blue smoking blade

- Class specific unique skills list. ( If you choose a rogue you can use fireball , and if you're a mage you cannot dual wield or backstab, only warriors ( fighters ) can wield plate armor etc ).

- Map Markers ( sometimes I come accross something on the map and I want to note down the location just in case ). for instance when I saw the oubliette I wanted to put on the map where the oubliette was so I could find it again.

- Summoner mobs ( mobs that can summon other mobs , like a sorceror goblin that summons spiders ). They could be used in boss fights and you can program them so they are squeamish and try and run from you. This would make fights very interesting : You cannot ignore them because you will be overrun by summoned spiders, but you cannot spend too much time chasing them either because other mobs will be taking advantage of that.

- More evil , like Liches / Vampires / werewolves / spirits / zombies / ghouls etc... I haven't seen a lot of diversity in mobs unfortunately, I'd love to see a lot more different mobs. Even with 1 'model' you can still get a few different 'mobs' for instance big spiders, small spiders, red spiders, white tipped spiders etc.. now they are much the same.

That's all I can think of right now, I'll probably come up with more though :P
dare49devil
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Re: Wish List for Book II {Compiled}

Post by dare49devil »

- Luck attribute ( Much like intelligence / wisdom / strength ).
-Eh. There are some skills that are like this...You just combined a bunch of them and called it luck and an attribute. lol.
- Charisma attribute ( Also like intelligence / wisdom / strenght etc ).
-Same.
- Character traits ( Evil / Chaotic / Good ).
-I am not too sure about this. I don't really like the idea. I feel like this limits the things I can do in the game.
- More intelligent monsters.
-There will be monsters that heal over time in Book II. (and I am sure their AI will be somewhat changed)
- Archery needs a major revamp.
-I disagree. People always complain about the archery thing. I never have a problem with it. But that aside, I *THINK* that you can make arrows in Book II (unless that was rumor)
- Boobie-trap skill
-Eh, I feel this would become abused.
- Diseases : Please , please let the diseases wear off like they do in normal life also.
-This make sense. Though the developers may have had a different idea of diseases in their mind when creating it for Book I.
- Different diseases and poisons ( the higher the mob, the worse the disease / poison ). I didn't notice any difference between a poison in Citadel or in the starting area.
-Actually there were two levels of diseases I believe.
- Rain. anyone noticed that it never rains in Eschalon , but it does rain in the intro movie ?... :) I'd love to see some rain, weather effects, storm , lightning etc.
-There are weather effects in Book II.
- Gear quality indicator ( Sword is at 90% ). It will break at 0% so you have to repair it in time. Same with armor etc. It also becomes less efficient if it's not maintained.
-There is a durability factor in Book II if you want it. I disagree with the less efficient idea.
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Re: Wish List for Book II {Compiled}

Post by Grindstone_82 »

three wishes:


- nerf Alchemy. That is, don't make the higher ranks accesible to everyone via training/ rings, and don't allow for imbuing or brewing unless someone has the proper recipe in their books. That should remove Alchemy from the "necessary for everyone" list of skills ;)


- It would be nice if the character's background would ever be adressed in the game afterwards, be it his origin, axiom or profession, or a combination of these.


- more of a question, if you include gender specific bonuses, why not make them so large that they would actually do anything? 2-3 points should suffice, but 1 is... not even cosmetic. Not when all attributes start between 7 and 14 and you can crank them up to 30 at the start.
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Re: Wish List for Book II {Compiled}

Post by Evnissyen »

Not sure if this has been asked before:

In Book II, will it be easier to use a spell you haven't already arranged a quick-key for? (As it is in Book I, you have to set a quick-key for a spell if you want to use it.)
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Re: Wish List for Book II {Compiled}

Post by Grindstone_82 »

dare49devil wrote:
- Luck attribute ( Much like intelligence / wisdom / strength ).
-Eh. There are some skills that are like this...You just combined a bunch of them and called it luck and an attribute. lol.
- Charisma attribute ( Also like intelligence / wisdom / strenght etc ).
-Same.
Uhm, there is something like Charisma in the game? You mean a stat that would influence NPC reactions, or open up new dialog? So far I haven't encountered that. It would be awesome to have though. If there is one thing missing from E1 in my book, it's diplomacy. The only thing that even comes close to Charisma is the Mercantile skill, but store prices are really only a minor aspect of Charisma/ diplomacy skills.


- Character traits ( Evil / Chaotic / Good ).
-I am not too sure about this. I don't really like the idea. I feel like this limits the things I can do in the game.
It would only limit the things you can do in one game, thereby enhancing replay value. In a perfect scenario, i.e. an evil alignment would open up certain quests, allow you to use certain items, and influence NPC reactions, while preventing you from doing some other quests or using other items.

The "problem" with this in Eschalon would be that you choose your axiom at the start of the game though, so your "alignment" would be pretty much set in stone. A nefarious character should not be allowed to become a saint during the game. So, since BW said there are "title" specific quests, and title depends on axiom among other things, you could say alignment will be a factor in Book II (albeit a minor one).
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Re: Wish List for Book II {Compiled}

Post by IJBall »

Jedi_Learner wrote:I assume the Lantern returns in Book II, so I have a suggestion. When one purchases or re-fills a Lantern, you can use it for 500 turns before the Lantern requires re-filling. Been playing Book I this weekend in preparation for Book II, and I felt like I was re-filling the Lantern far too many times while in Whistling Caves and other dark locations.

So my suggestion is this: please increase the number of turns from 500 to a number between 1000 and 1500.
One other suggestion, re: lanterns - filled lanterns should cost more, and should have higher resale values, than empty lanterns.

It was a minor annoyance, but it still bugged me no end in Book I when I would re-fill a lantern and try to resell it, and the merchant would offer me the same price as for an empty lantern!! :evil:
Last edited by IJBall on April 16th, 2010, 10:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Wish List for Book II {Compiled}

Post by Unclever title »

While on the subject of lanterns (though this is more towards enchanting) I recently found in Book I that if you enchant a lantern it becomes a shield. The model changes from that of a lantern into that of a shield, and it no longer gives off light. This is similar to the effect of enchanting Demon Oil it will no longer explode and cause fire on impact but instead will act like a humble throwing weapon.

While turning a lantern into a shield is a fantastic party trick It'd probably be better to revamp it in Book II or III.
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