Isn't it too late for suggestions?

[vdweller]

I see many interesting posts for many things like wishes and ideas. But at some point we should all take into account the fact that the game should have been under development for some time now. If that's the case, it means that many user requests/ideas are quite pointless, because programmers don't tend to go back and change all this stuff they've made so far just to include, for example, new combat AI, dual wielding and other stuff which may be cool to think of, but after exceeding a certain "development threshold", can't be really taken into consideration.

I'm not saying that the EBIII subforum should die, and my post is entirely based on the bold speculation that the game should be at least halfway done. But I just wanted to point out that it may be futile to expend precious brain matter on things which may have been already done their own way

[IJBall]

I agree that it's likely too late now for any suggestions that are going to require significant engine reworking - things like Dual Wielding, etc. are very unlikely to happen.

But I think smaller-scale changes could still happen. I would think any new monsters or mobs could be added to the game even relatively late in the process. Ditto changes to maps and the addition of new maps (e.g. dungeons). So suggestions like that may still fly.

So, at this point, new "big" stuff probably isn't going to happen. But I think "small" or "medium" new stuff maybe still could.

(Personally, on my end, I'm expecting the pretty much unchanged Book II engine for Book III - I'm just mostly hoping for the Book II engine with a fair amount of the GUI-improvements (e.g. more hotkeys!) included...)

[KillingMoon]

I think continuity between the different books will often be the first concern.
To stick to that example of Dual Wielding - I see that as being at odds somewhat with the current weapon feat system, which is based around reaching a high level of proficiency with one weapon.
Take piercing weapons, we have a double stab now as weapon feat when reaching a higher level, must we add a dual wield to that? I think that's unlogical, it should be one thing or the other, not both, regardless of in what stage of development Book III is.

Like that, most ideas posted here can quite easily be discarded as being at odds with the current game, or taking things too far away from it.
Naval adventures... party combat... horse riding... romances... it would seriously surprise me if any of that ended up in Book III. It also seems like a lot of people are wanting stuff because they've seen it in another game. But it's still interesting to read what people are wishing for.

[IJBall]

Like that, most ideas posted here can quite easily be discarded as being at odds with the current game, or taking things too far away from it.

Many of the recent ideas, maybe.

But many of the ideas we've seen over the past 2-3 years have been quite good, I think.

Naval adventures...

I really wish that boating/sailing would be integrated into Eschalon. I don't even think it would be that difficult to implement (just make it basically a tiny sail boat, and if you encounter combat, the game could just automatically stand you up in the boat, and prevent you from sailing away...)

It's the one place I feel the Eschalon series has really failed to deliver, in comparison to, say, the Ultima series (or even Avernum). Lacking the freedom to just go sailing up and down the coasts is that one thing I felt was really lacking from Book I and Book II - that was one of the things I really loved about, say, Ultima IV.

I can definitely live without horse/steed-riding. But I'd really love to see proper boating in Book III.

[KillingMoon]

I really wish that boating/sailing would be integrated into Eschalon. I don't even think it would be that difficult to implement (just make it basically a tiny sail boat, and if you encounter combat, the game could just automatically stand you up in the boat, and prevent you from sailing away...)

Perhaps adding the possibility to the engine wouldn't be the biggest problem, but you need to know how characters will travel before making a map, and a rough Eschalon map has been around for a while already.
On this subject I think I'm going with vdweller and say its kinda late.

It would be nice to see an RPG with a seafaring element in it, though. The latest generation of RPG's seems to have ignored it. I'm not familiar with Ultima or Avernum, so I don't know what they are doing.

Seafaring as just a means of transport is easiest to realize, I think. To have enemies and battles on the waves as well is more difficult. There it would help if you have a game engine that has combat maps seperate to the adventure map, like the Heroes of Might and Magic series. There it works well.

[dbgager]

I think battles on water would not be to hard. If you just think of a boat as something that toggles the abilty to traverse water..and water then is just considered like any other terrain. Then battles would happen just like any other battle with no change. Although this might make some unfair exploits such as sitting on water and fighting an enemy that could not get to you with ranged weapons.

[vdweller]

I'm not referring to your naval adventures proposition, but I get the constant feel that many users suggest things for the sake of suggesting something that nobody else has posted before (yay first suggestion yay!) or because they've seen it somewhere else, totally ignoring the current game infrastructure, for which we know that it' won't have astronomical differences from EBII. It would be OK some months ago, but now it's just like an internal competition of who will suggest something new, and as things go we may also see stuff being suggested like the main char travelling to space in real time, an in-game Harvest Moon simulator full with Hentai options, first person 3D combat, voxel rendering, three weapon fighting, enemies who converse with you using Alicebot-level AI, the ability to solve 6th-degree equations and gain XP, character hair having weight, deep and meaningful romantic relationships, and mini-games within mini-games within mini-games