What do you want?

[Pen N Popper]

People!  Let me pose a question to you:  What do you want in a new game system?  Wouldn't it be nice to have a system where our creative and talented team can implement anything our collective hearts desire?

Now, please understand that I have no insight into the direction of the new Layonara game system.  I'm sure too that many of our crazy ideas (well, mine at least) are just that, crazy.  So just like all our other suggestions for the current NWN game, they are just suggestions.

Here are some of mine:

• Ingame adjustable "floaty text" names for our PCs
• Ingame adjustable portraits for our PCs
• Ridable animals (including giants)
• Climbing, jumping, swimming
• Physical emotes for RP (crosses arms, etc.)
• More variety of combat emotes (jab, slash, chop, etc.)
• Hats, headbands, open helms
• Grappling hooks
• Thrown spears, daggers, swords
• New poison system
• New trap system
• Adjustment to invisibility and stealth functioning
• Flying mounts and aerial combat (griffons, giant eagles, dragons)
• Water travel and combat (ships, canoes, rafts)
• Persistent objects anywhere without worry of lag
• Ingame progression for use of skills (sneak, trap, listen)
• Barkskin that only applies to the skin, not clothing

Phew!  I'm sure you too can think of cool things that haven't been done in NWN.  (Yes, I know some of the above have been done in NWN elsewhere.)

It's clear that the Layonara storyline will continue.  It's clear that our PCs will not only impact the remainder of V3's lore but also the next generation's lore as well.  That is, of course, if we choose to.  

Leanthar and the project have given us the resources to keep on going across the NWN desert to a new land.  We are pioneers marching towards the setting sun.  When the morning sun rises once again over our shoulders, what it will illuminate is unknown.  Do you seriously think, though, that it won't be worth exploring?

[stragen]

What do I want in a game system?  I'll take this to mean the entire game software.  On day, many years ago I encountered a game called Dungeon Seige, the thing that blew me away was that it didn't pause to load between levels; there were no transitions.  This was a joy in multiplayer-coop.  Since then I have expected every game to be the same.

What do I want in  a game system?

No Transitions!


If the game system means the 'combat magic and dice mechanics' behind the world then I favor classes systems as opposed to DnD type class based systems.  Though I do admit that d20 works well in a computer game.  But I can see the need for something similar to classes in a layonara based computer game, due to the rigid structure of the world as it is currently defined.

[Makashi]

*imagines G'ork in a canoe battle and just starts laughing*

The one thing I'd like to see is a lot of the community moving over and the RP experience only to have got better.

Besides that....I guess something like...*thinks for a while* Ah!
Adding to the subject of horses, dual mountable saddles, so two people can go somewhere on a single horse.

What and what won't be able to go in, I've no idea!

[Nehetsrev]

Well, asthetically speaking of for player customization ability, another few additions that might be nifty would include:

•  Models that are scaled to match the height given in a character's description at creation, so people can create characters of varying stature and actually see the difference in-game.
•  Adjustable eye-color at character creation.
•  In-game player-alterable hairstyles (independent of aforementioned headbands / open helms brought up by Pen'N'Popper)
•  Belt, Glove/Gauntlet, Boot, Amulet models that show when equipped, independently of the main suit of clothing/armor worn. (Like Helms and Capes do in NWN.)
•  Personalizable Items, i.e. the ability to spend a resource (gold or XP perhaps) to give an item a unique name.
•  A Printing Press (Gnomish or otherwise) or system for making multiple copies of player written scrolls/books.  Obviously there'd be a price for each copy equivalent to the type of parchment used plus 20%-50% or some-such.

Given time I could probably think of a whole lot more interesting ideas, but for now these are some I'd be really happy to see.

[ycleption]

Mechanics transparency.

One of the things I enjoy about having a system based on D&D is that most game calculations are simple to understand, displayed when they happen, and there is no mystery about exactly what items, spells, skills, etc. do.

[Kirbiana]

Dogs and cats that can live in our houses, with floaty names like the horses.  And for our farms, sheep we can herd with summoned border collies!
 
 

[Gunther]

Well, if we're going to be paying for the privilege of playing, then I'd like to see a more servile attitude from the staff.  Customer service people!  Personally, I need somebody to come over and dust and vacuum my place.  And clean the bathrooms.  And that trash isnt going to walk itself out to the curb tonight.  If Leanthar, Orth and OneSt8 could hop on a plane and take care of all that for me, that'd be super.

[Leanthar]

*smiles*

[Marswipp]

A virtual bed you can sleep in in real life!! :p

[Dorax Windsmith]

I love the way you think...right on!  I don't know how many of your suggestions are possible right now, but those are some great ideas.

[Marswipp]

Mine's just out-there.

[D Blaze]

An additional decimal place added on to the lb. of items so every small thing wouldn't be forced to weigh either 0.0 or 0.1

Money
Coin Weight

Multiple Coinage (To see all coin varieties installed, and used differently throughout the world)
-The True being the basic standard most people in the world accept.
-The elves of Voltrex using thier Towers, and maybe both True and the Queen's Gold at a very poor exchange rate, and not even touching the dwarven coin.
-Inns and dwarven merchants more inclined to use the Inkeeps Piece.
-And richer merchants and other wealthy cities using the Queen's Coinage
-Pawnshops(in whatever form they will exist) paying out in True only.

A fluctuating exchange rate based on region, and also varies over time.

A slightly slower day/night cycle

A night sky (whenever it clears of clouds) that shows Orn and Ausir, and maybe the deity constellations.

A camera POV not limited to the 0-90 degree arc.

[Drizzlin]

Well off the top of my head, I want to be able to name the items I craft, or at least add to the discription. I would like everything I ever craft to have my name on it. Perhaps at the bottom of the discription, "Made by so and so".

Small detail, but cool.

Other than that I just want what is promised. If it says flying monkey, i want a flying monkey!

[Talan Va'lash]

- To be able to draw on the ground from the DM client. Just a pencil tool in several colors that generates a bitmap overlaid on the ground polygons. This would also alleviate the need to create art for a large number of "floor rune" placeable objects. Also allows for the ooc labeling of stuff on quests that there isn't an appropriate model available to represent (no matter how many models there are you'll always be missing the one you want at some point.)
- - Let PCs draw tattoos on their characters with the pencil tool too.

- Ability to embed images in item descriptions beyond generic "item type" or "appearance generated" images. Think maps and illustrated books.

- Ability to equip an unidentified item.
- - Cursed items (This requires the item above really.)

- Three dimensional coordinate system.
- - Combat mechanics that allow advanced tactics (requires the item above.)
- - - Altitude/height advantage (easier to fight down a hill than up one.)
- - - Cover

- Lighting that affects game mechanics.
- - Partial concealment in dark spots (this would give a purpose for low-light and darkvision equivalents.)


I could go on and on really...

[egoober]

- Dynamic areas! Areas (or even "overlays" of placeables) that can be created and saved, then reloaded by a GM when needed (say, after a server crash, for example)

- Custom NPC creation from within the GM client

- Talan's list

[Marswipp]

Flanking and cornering; the advantage goes either way!
Freedom to equip weapon/armor of choice
POV: First-person
More flexible ranged weapon range (The better trained can shoot farther)
Deitey choice has some effect on the weapons and armor the religous classes are allowed start with
Projectile deflection should happen by chance without training; more often with (but still should be super difficult)
Launched projectiles can be avoided
Launched projectiles have drift
Allow two stats (STR, DEX, INT, CON, WIS, CHA) to start at eighteen (Example: 16 STR, 18 DEX, 16 CON, 12 INT, 18 WIS, 10 CHA)

I'm out of ideas for now.

[lonnarin]

All excellent suggestions.  What I'd like to see most of all is a combat engine that factors in how "fresh" a fighter is when he attacks and does damage.  Naturally a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed unwounded fighter will perform better than one who's dangling at 1hp near death.  Long battles should be truly brutal, with the same foes you're fighting getting progressively tougher as your endurance runs down and your physical body is being torn apart.  This is why I love Shadowrun so much; it obliterates the Rambo stereotype that a guy can run around all day with 6 bullets in his chest as if nothing was wrong.

Another thing I'd like to see is a shift away from the cast&forget system of magic.  Instead, a mana system where you drain energy as you cast more spells is far more realistic, witht he mana bar slowly replenishing so that spellcasters are best off resting between big blasts.  Also, spells themselves should gain in power and ferocity as you train them, so that a lvl 15 wizard's fireball blows a lvl 5 wizard's one out of the water.  If the spellcaster could further set his OWN power level with his spells, say he wants to cast a lvl 5 fireball vs the lvl 15 one his can surely cast, then it should drain him less and he should be able to cast more of them before resting.  Furthermore, the spellcaster should get *tired* from casting spells, not just simply run out of mana.  If his mana bar is half full, he should be moving at half speed and disorientated/exhausted, and when his bar is empty, he should pass out in the field of combat.  Maybe also casting spells PAST the "zero mana" point should not only knock him out, but also take a chunk out of his actual health to represent his body being overtaxed by uncrontrolled energy.

As for classes, I say abandon them altogether ala Shadowrun & Oblivion.  It's far more realistic to say that a man is a collection of the skills he possesses rather than a stereotypical cookie-cutter class like we have in D&D.  Maybe somebody would like a martial artist who casts healing spells and has high scholarly and diplomacy skills like a holy monk... or perhaps a spellswordlike blaster/fighter combat mage who gets in the thick of it for maximum carnage... or a "dirty fighter" type who has the offense and defense of a melee master but takes cheap shots and sneaks around like a rogue.  What they are should be a factor of what they train, and no form of training should be entirely restricted from anybody who's willing to sink in the effort to do so.

The very notion of levels altogether is abhorrent; far better is it to just train skills and stats directly with experience points than to save up all your training for certain murderous thresholds of "x amount of enemies are dead, now I can get better!"  Training ones abilities should be a constant and gradual thing; people get stronger, people get better, but not overnight.

In essence I'd like to see a classless, levelless, capless system of character advancement where it's less about seeing a power-rating over people's heads, but more to actually see a player in action for one to gauge their "experience".  I for one am far more afraid of the guy who confides in me that he was a sniper in 'Nam who killed 14 vietcongs with his survival knife vs. some guy who tells me what color/degree his blackbelt is.

[jrizz]

Nice stuff Lon

[Gulnyr]

To go along with D Blaze's money comments, I'd like to see a more robust background economy.  It's cool to have characters be a part of the economy, but not completely drive and be the totality of it.

[Skywatcher]

I'd like to see the ability to switch multiple items in inventory simultaneously (equipment configuration hot keys)  Put on all your undead hunting gear and set the hot key then switch over to you giant slayer gear with a single button push.  This concept would also be nice for spell books.  Set all the slots for memorized spells in your book and then define that as a spell configuration that can be restored with a single button push.  Then you could have your solo config and your party buffer config and your party mega artillery config available with a single button push and rest.