Just my idea of a change...

[Adrian]

...probably the only things I would seriously love to see changed is:

Quick travel should be based on map - it's horrible to sit there and walk through 4 maps to get to one place because it's in between two quick travel points. And for those that say "get the portal spell" - I'm a ranger and I don't have much skill in magic.

A slight change to the battle mechanics. It's hard to believe that with a Dexterity of 42, a bow weapons of 18 (which gives me something like 27 to hit and 25 max damage + 3 because of my bow and enchanted arrows), that 9 out 10 shots hits a Taurex BUT 5 out of those 9 hits cause NO damage. It makes it nearly impossible to kill one without dying half the time, or fleeing in circles trying to get far enough away to keep trying. I'm not saying "make it easy", but if I have to rest for two days every single time I kill just one of those things, I get bored quickly.

Perhaps an increase in how powerful magic spells can be at lower level spells with a high level character. Even a 15th level Mage simply doesn't have enough mana (this is with the 20+ amulet and 20+ ring), for a sustained battle with multiple opponents because Fire Dart at level 6 only causes about 20 damage at most but sucks up 12 points PER shot. Deep Freeze sucks up 18 at level 3, and causes more damage but drains you even faster. An increase of say, +2 damage per every 2 levels after level 4 would make a huge difference and make it easier at times when trying to fight a large group at once. There isn't a whole lot of strategy for battles short of "blast at them till they die"

Other than those ideas, I love the game and can't wait for #2.

[Daemian Lucifer]

Perhaps an increase in how powerful magic spells can be at lower level spells with a high level character. Even a 15th level Mage simply doesn't have enough mana (this is with the 20+ amulet and 20+ ring), for a sustained battle with multiple opponents because Fire Dart at level 6 only causes about 20 damage at most but sucks up 12 points PER shot. Deep Freeze sucks up 18 at level 3, and causes more damage but drains you even faster. An increase of say, +2 damage per every 2 levels after level 4 would make a huge difference and make it easier at times when trying to fight a large group at once. There isn't a whole lot of strategy for battles short of "blast at them till they die"

The problem here is in the core concept of DD spells,and is not eschalon exclusive.In many games DD spells are good only in the begining and buffs/curses overwhelm them later(if there are no instakill spells like power word kill).I stopped using fire arow long ago,and prefer predator sight+bless+enkindle weapon combo.You get massive bonus to to hit(x2 with predator sight,and about 10%-25% with bless),and even bigger bonus to damage(+10 or so on every single hit).Add haste or invisibillity here and this becomes an overkill.And mana is no problem once you can brew your own +100 mana potions,and all these superb spells cost you only about 50 mana for the next 100 or so rounds.To do that amount of damage with DD spells,youd need to siphon at least 30 mana per each enemy(even if you use mass damage spells).

One way around this is to make DD spells scale with your level,and the other is to make them scale more steeper.So,a first level fire arrow would do 2-4 damage,second level would do 6-10,third 14-22,etc.

As for the arrows,you are right just partially.It sucks when you encounter a monster that is (almost) immune to your primary mode of damage,but thats mostly your fault for making such a highly specialised character.However,there should be plenty of ways for making arrows deal different types of damage.For example,having potions that light up your arrows and turn them into flaming ones.Or ways to imbue explosive arrows easilly(although cotly).These would be a nice addition to the game.

[Krafen]

Perhaps the magic skill could add a damage bonus as well? This would help damage on lower-level spells scale. As you increase your skill to be able to use the higher-level spells, lower-level spells continue to improve. A slight discount in spell cost for lower-level spells might be incorporated as well.

[Adrian]

I'm very fond of the old D&D games, having played them as a child (when they came out. I'm only 24!). Low-level spells, like Magic Missile never got too powerful (max of like 25 points damage), but they got powerful enough as you gained levels that you wouldn't need to waste a huge amount of them to kill ONE enemy. The biggest thing that drags me down in Eschalon is that combat with just ONE enemy, even at high levels, can take a long time of me running in circles, trying to get far enough away to keep firing.

It has gotten easier, though. With Bless +3 and a lucky find of an Assasins Ring (+5 to hit, +3 damage), giving me a to hit of 34, I'm killing even Taurax's quickly.