COMPREHENSIVE Book III 'Wishlist' (List form)

[Lord_P]

Foraging I could understand being able to do to a small extent while traveling

It could randomly inform you with something like: "You have found useful herbs" and spawn a loot bag. There should also be something to stop the bag from spawning in, for example, water or inside a rock.

[Kreador Freeaxe]

Foraging I could understand being able to do to a small extent while traveling

It could randomly inform you with something like: "You have found useful herbs" and spawn a loot bag. There should also be something to stop the bag from spawning in, for example, water or inside a rock.

I would add that I think if you have the auto-walk lock on, it should disable foraging while walking. And, it could get extremely annoying with high levels of foraging to wander around and constantly be interrupted by the appearance of loot sacks. Could also cause some other sorts of problems (random loot sack from foraging and random loot sack from combat in the same place, so you lose one.

Hmmm. While I think it's logical, the more I think about implementation, the more I see that it might be more trouble than it's worth.

Also, you are considered to be foraging while you walk, but only to the extent of finding berries and such to reduce the rate of hunger and thirst.

[KillingMoon]

You can't exactly stitch up your boots while you're walking in them.

No, but it could be done like in Divine Divinity, which is the only other game I know that has a repair skill. I think there you need to take off the damaged piece of equipment, then click on your repair skill button, which makes a hammer appear. Then you need to click with the hammer on your piece of equipment, which repairs it for a percentage, depending on your repair skill.
I don't know if others find that too fiddly or so, but I liked it. Between Eschalon and Divine Divinity I'm going for 100% with Divine Divinity when it comes to the repair skill.

[Kreador Freeaxe]

You can't exactly stitch up your boots while you're walking in them.

No, but it could be done like in Divine Divinity, which is the only other game I know that has a repair skill. I think there you need to take off the damaged piece of equipment, then click on your repair skill button, which makes a hammer appear. Then you need to click with the hammer on your piece of equipment, which repairs it for a percentage, depending on your repair skill.
I don't know if others find that too fiddly or so, but I liked it. Between Eschalon and Divine Divinity I'm going for 100% with Divine Divinity when it comes to the repair skill.

We could make camping a whole mini game, wherein you set up camp and then decide whether to repair (as you described), forage, or sleep, and each action has a set duration and there's a chance of encounter based on that.

Would actually be cool for a different game than Eschalon, but would be I think too big a departure from the overall structure of the way this game exists. The way you describe repair in Divine Divinity makes more logical sense overall, but is too much fiddling for the way Eschalon is designed I believe.

[Lord_P]

We could make camping a whole mini game, wherein you set up camp and then decide whether to repair (as you described), forage, or sleep, and each action has a set duration and there's a chance of encounter based on that.

Naturally sleeping would restore health and mana faster. Repairing and foraging do what they do (of course). A good use for the spot hidden skill: You might get a warning "you hear a sound" and you wake up. Continuing to camp there would cause an encounter. It's just an idea, because it could be too hard to implement.

Could also cause some other sorts of problems (random loot sack from foraging and random loot sack from combat in the same place, so you lose one.

I thought loot sacks automatically try to avoid overlapping?

[KillingMoon]

A good use for the spot hidden skill: You might get a warning "you hear a sound" and you wake up. Continuing to camp there would cause an encounter. It's just an idea, because it could be too hard to implement.

Not hard to implement, I think, but if you hear a sound, a creature is obviously already there. An immediate encounter you could then still avoid, the creature hasn't spotted you yet, but you will have to deal with it at some stage.

Could also cause some other sorts of problems (random loot sack from foraging and random loot sack from combat in the same place, so you lose one.

I thought loot sacks automatically try to avoid overlapping?

I'm certain I've seen lootsacks spawn two tiles away from the kill, as there was no other free place on the map.
The only known problem with lootsacks is that they can appear on the tile that links with a door or torch, so there's no way to pick up the loot, but that's something completely different.

By the way, talking about how much of a departure of the original mechanics 'monkeying' with camping would be, in Book I there was no Foraging and no Repair, both have in Book II become tied in with camping. And monsters spawn less. There are big differences between the books already when it comes to camping.

[Kreador Freeaxe]

By the way, talking about how much of a departure of the original mechanics 'monkeying' with camping would be, in Book I there was no Foraging and no Repair, both have in Book II become tied in with camping. And monsters spawn less. There are big differences between the books already when it comes to camping.

Repair and Foraging were added as passive skills you used during camping, but the mechanic for how you entered and exited camping mode was not changed.

The bigger problem with Foraging as a passive skill while walking, as I mentioned, would be the annoyance at higher levels of having your walk interrupted regularly by dropping loot sacks. I could see that becoming really, really annoying.

[MyGameCompany]

The bigger problem with Foraging as a passive skill while walking, as I mentioned, would be the annoyance at higher levels of having your walk interrupted regularly by dropping loot sacks. I could see that becoming really, really annoying.

Yeah, like every step. Pretty soon, you'd just ignore them to continue on with the adventure, and every map would be littered with sacks.

I'd be happy if foraging just gave me food (at least on the lower skill levels). Save the alchemy ingredients for moderate to higher levels.

[Lord_P]

What the..?

The bigger problem with Foraging as a passive skill while walking, as I mentioned, would be the annoyance at higher levels of having your walk interrupted regularly by dropping loot sacks. I could see that becoming really, really annoying.

Yeah, like every step. Pretty soon, you'd just ignore them to continue on with the adventure, and every map would be littered with sacks.

I'd be happy if foraging just gave me food (at least on the lower skill levels). Save the alchemy ingredients for moderate to higher levels.

Looks like my idea was shot down and killed by forum regulars. Foraging needs to be fixed in some way, though. It has been mentioned a long time ago, that you shouldn't be able to find sulphur in Hellice Lake or willow bark inside Hammerlorne.

[Kreador Freeaxe]

What the..?

Looks like my idea was shot down and killed by forum regulars. Foraging needs to be fixed in some way, though. It has been mentioned a long time ago, that you shouldn't be able to find sulphur in Hellice Lake or willow bark inside Hammerlorne.

Not killed. We're all discussing pros and cons. The only one who can kill an idea is Thomas, and he's not weighing in on these discussions that I've seen. He's lurking and trying to discern what sorts of changes he can reasonably make to please people without upsetting too many other people and without too much monkeying with the engine.

I do agree that Foraging finds should be delimited similarly to random encounters. Certain items should almost never occur in some places and be more common in others. Your one specific example I might disagree with--sulphur in Hellice Lake. Sulphur springs occur all over the place, and with all of the craggy mountains I would say there's lots of volcanic activity deep beneath that area. Some of the plants would be much less likely, such as belladonna. Those specifics would have to be figured out by Thomas for how he wants things to play out. He may give each possible item a weighted probability based on the area, so that at really high levels, you might be able to stumble on a stash of extremely uncommon material for an area, but never at lower levels.

[Lord_P]

Your one specific example I might disagree with--sulphur in Hellice Lake. Sulphur springs occur all over the place, and with all of the craggy mountains I would say there's lots of volcanic activity deep beneath that area.

Mountains? The Solenguard Mountains are atleast 2-3 maps away from northwestern Hellice Lake. Even the mountains north of Durnore (can't remember the name) are 1½ map to the west. South-west Hellice Lake is really in the middle of nowhere, nearly devoid of any terrain features. I may be wrong, but I think it's hard to find sulphur in the middle of a frozen lake. Even if it's 'deep beneath', it would require some digging.

About noximander venom: Why can we even forage it? I haven't seen any noximanders in Mistfell. Unless it grows on the ground...

[MyGameCompany]

Looks like my idea was shot down and killed by forum regulars.

Sorry, didn't mean to come across that way. As Kreador said, we were just discussing ideas. I apologize if it seemed like a personal attack. That wasn't our intent.

[Kreador Freeaxe]

I'm not looking to get into a detailed argument about the specific ingredients. I agree with you on the principle of adjusting Foraging to make items more or less accessible based on where you are. The specifics of how those things are determined should really be left up to BW because it's a matter of game balance more than concerning ourselves with pure logic. This is, after all, a fantasy cRPG.

Clearly, logically, ambergris should only be found in quantity near an ocean coast (it being whale barf and whales not doing a lot of swimming up streams or walking across vast savannas). Given the uses of ambergris, that may throw off the balance of the game to require that you ONLY find it on the coast. See what I mean?

Or the game could be balanced such that a player who wants to do all their own alchemical ingredient hunting has to determine where the ingredients are most likely to be found and camp there (and risk the camping encounters in those areas--some of the best stuff is likely to be found in some of the most dangerous places to camp). Then Crazy Bernie could write up some new books helping to point players in the right direction for groups of ingredients.

[Lord_P]

Sorry, didn't mean to come across that way. As Kreador said, we were just discussing ideas. I apologize if it seemed like a personal attack. That wasn't our intent.

Heh, no problem. It was a bad idea afterall.

Or the game could be balanced such that a player who wants to do all their own alchemical ingredient hunting has to determine where the ingredients are most likely to be found and camp there (and risk the camping encounters in those areas--some of the best stuff is likely to be found in some of the most dangerous places to camp). Then Crazy Bernie could write up some new books helping to point players in the right direction for groups of ingredients.

Yes! I agree, for adding depth is always good (unless it's unwanted depth ).

[Threlkish]

I haven't seen this suggestion in the thread, so I hope I'm not repeating something someone else has already come up with. Apologies if someone missed it.

I'd like to see an option to cancel active spell effects before they would naturally expire. This may seem odd, but there are times when it makes sense to do it.

In Book II, my mage was exploring Westwillow. I had Gravedigger's Flame active so I could see, and Predator Sight active so I could spot bad guys at a distance.

With this character, I prefer to fight in the dark. I'm doing most of my attacking with ranged spells, so the darkness penalty doesn't matter, and if I do have to fight hand-to-hand, fighting in the dark with the Bless + Predator Sight combo active gives my character a much better chance to hit than his foes have.

However...as long as I've got Gravedigger's Flame going, the bad guys can see me just fine (and the ones with ranged weapons can shoot at my fleshy little mage dude, who does not react well to pointy objects). I like to use it to help navigate around in the dark, but it would be nice to have the ability to cancel an active spell, so I could "go dark" and make it harder for enemies to hit me.

Is putting in some sort of means to cancel an active spell (or effect) a viable mechanic, and if it is, are there other players who would find this helpful?