Wish List for Book II?

[PhilosophiX]

Well there's nothing here. Excuse me for being annoying and jumping in with the first post.

My wife requests that in Book II, please give us the choice of sex, at least Male/Female, but if you want to add more I don't think anyone would stop you. heh.

[Fleisch]

If Book II is indeed going to be party-based, I'd like some Jagged Alliance 2-style elements included, in terms of the characters (different personalities, some of which don't get along with each other). I'd rather generate just my own character, and encounter the others, so the challenge grows with my party.

If you're planning on changing the combat engine, you could do way worse than take cues from JA on that, too. Way better than Fallout's combat. Don't do real-time with pause, please.

[adamantyr]

If a party is implemented, I'm divided on whether it should be creator-based (you make all party members) verses narrative-based (you make one character, and encounter others on your travels and ask them to join you.) Creator-based is actually more "old-school" than narrative, and it gives you a greater amount of control. I think I would like that better.

Also, I only have 1280x1024 size monitors, so the windowed size isn't too bad, but I think it may be necessary to make the in-game graphics larger. You can always use an approximation algorithm to resize them downwards for lower-resolutions so you have roughly the same amount of window size.

Adam

[Gribble]

Larger demo. Look at the Spiderweb games. You get a good idea what the world is like, you're able to complete multiple quests, meet lots of characters. And let's face it, who isn't going to buy the game after putting in half a dozen or more hours?

Stronger storyline. I'm basing this off Book 1's demo. Things may pick up later on. In which case, see above. The writing is good, mind you. I particularly enjoy the descriptive blurbs that appear upon entering certain areas. I wish there were more of it, though.

Dialog needs work. First, it would be nice if the dialog window included a "log" button which I could click to see everything a particular NPC has ever said. Characters need to be fleshed out a bit more. They need a "hook". Something that gives them a voice of their own and keeps them memorable. As is, the characters I've met in Book 1 so far don't seem alive. They're just there to provide information or request that an item be delivered from point A to B. Again, perhaps later on the player will bump into more important characters who are fully fleshed out. A representative needs to be included in the demo, though.

I'd like to see a hotkey bar on the bottom of the screen. Frequently used items and spells could be dragged onto this bar and activated with a single click of the mouse. Better yet, each box could correspond to a number. That way I could tap 1 to quaff a potion, then hit 3 to ready a fire dart spell.

Movement speed needs to be improved. It's been said in a dozen places, but it bears repeating. Please allow us to run. Book 1's world is big I don't want to trudge slowly from one end to the next. It discourages exploration and causes frustration.

I highly recommend that a writer be hired. Someone who can focus on adding more depth to Book 2. A person dedicated to writing dialog, crafting interesting quests which go beyond the atypical fetch this, kill that routine we've seen so many times in the past. I realize your goal with the first game was to get back to the roots of RPGs, but there are some things better left in the 80's. FedEx quests being one of them.

[dak]

In book two I'd like to see more detailed character graphics.. if it is possible. I am also woundering if in book2 you'll be able to import your character from book 1?

[Plainclothesman]

I'll second Gribble's suggestions. The main thing that made me hesitate to buy Book 1 was that (in the demo) neither the story nor the characters grabbed me at any point. It's a fun game, but for a CRPG to hold its own in a modern environment it needs to play to the strengths of the genre. Good writing's one of them. Book 1 seems to have got the descriptive pieces right, but the rest needs work.

[RezoApio]

Regarding party-based, I would prefer to have only 1 character and encounter the others along with the story.

Also I would love to have a good system about character don't mixing to well together, maybe even to backstabbing the other party member ?

[Vennor]

please give us the choice of sex, at least Male/Female.

As far as I know it's impossible, becouse Book II will be sequel to Book I. I mean - second part will begin, where first has ended, so it would be strange if character would have changed his gender [ugh, don't know if I wrote it well].

My requests? Haven't played Book I for now, so I can't say anything right now.

Edit: Oh, I've got one! Cooperation would be nice! But I think I read somewhere that Book II will have co-op surely.

[muze]

Just getting into the demo. Def an old school Ultima feel that I like, and a nice change of pace from some recent RPGs. I will probably purchase the full game.

I don't think there is ocean travel. That was SUCH an important an awesome part of the Ultima series, using ships, ship to ship combat with pirates (then stealing their ship if desired), combat with sea serpents etc. And the necessity of ship travel to reach islands. There were even small boats (called skiffs) for river travel. Something that many Ultima successors like Divine Divinity, this game, and other free roam RPGs like Oblivion and Gothic haven't included. You get to the coast and .... turn around.

So this is what I would request for Book II, would anyone else agree?

If a party is implemented, I'm divided on whether it should be creator-based (you make all party members) verses narrative-based (you make one character, and encounter others on your travels and ask them to join you.)

Why not a combination? You create your entire party, or just 1 character, or 2 or 3, and then allow NPCs to join and fill out the rest? I've always wanted that out of a party system, the best of both worlds. I can roll up three characters of my own design, and then allow 3 NPCs with personalities to join up and make things more interesting.

[PhilosophiX]

please give us the choice of sex, at least Male/Female.

As far as I know it's impossible, becouse Book II will be sequel to Book I. I mean - second part will begin, where first has ended, so it would be strange if character would have changed his gender [ugh, don't know if I wrote it well].

My requests? Haven't played Book I for now, so I can't say anything right now.

Edit: Oh, I've got one! Cooperation would be nice! But I think I read somewhere that Book II will have co-op surely.

Well from a technical point of view it is understandable that in Book I, the character can only be male. It's a lot easier to program in a story without all the additional hassle of programming two scenarios (one for male and one for female).

At the same time recent statistics show that 45% of all gamers are now women, and do they want to be forced into the role of a bloke? I doubt it. I don't even like been forced into the role of a bloke, I played through Morrowind quite happily as a female character. Okay fair enough, it would be a bit strange if the character suddenly changes gender, but I find it rather disturbing to think that we'll be forced to play as a bloke for the whole damn trilogy. In the words of my wife, who was looking forward to playing right up until she saw you can't pick a female character; "Sexist Ba*****s". (She's only half kidding.)

Okay so to do it in book two (and appease the sticklers) you might have to have a second story arc, which kicks off if the character chosen is female (which runs parallel to the male character's story). It's not something which is impossible, just slightly harder.

One would assume that if Book I is a success, which I am sure it will be the developer will have the resources available to do a lot of things in Book II that weren't in Book I (or wasn't that the point of this forum), so a female character wont be easy, but since having two scenarios would add to the replay value, it is a viable option.

Come on ladies... please help me out here, what do you think?

[Serpent's Sister]

What about at the beginning of Book 2 you met some sort of midievil type (or Eschalony type) witch doctor/chemist whom you could buy a transgender type potion or he could do some sort procedure on you. If you made it be fairly expensive, where you'd have to go on some mini quests to find enough gold to get the sex change and then come back to the "doctor" to get changed. Of course then what type of extra skills would you get becoming a woman (everyone knows being a woman is always a better option ) and what extra or different dangers would women encounter that would not effect a male character?

[macdude22]

I'm almost positive they've said you'll get a gender choice in Book II.

[PhilosophiX]

I'm almost positive they've said you'll get a gender choice in Book II.

Superb! (Perhaps now my wife will stop beating me every time the topic of Eschalon comes up! hehe)

[BasiliskWrangler]

Book II will have multiple genders and races.

[MaxEd]

I've only played a demo so far (going to buy full version after I complete my diploma work for University ), but I have 2 ideas:

1) Make combat more complex. May be allow to aim for body parts (like in Fallout), or use more complex system with counter-attacks, threat zones etc. (like in Temple Of Eelemental Evil)

2) Make graphics bigger. This is a common complaint I hear from those who saw Eschalon. Make characters at least a big (relatively to the screen size) as in Arcanum. This would probably require more artists/time, of course...

Also, may be we could have an open beta next time? You know, just to catch more bugs before the full release?