Incline Let's brainstorm a new Icewind Dale game.

[oldmanpaco]

So what's the best inventory system for our codexian Icewind Dale?
I'm leaning towards Arcanum style grid with varied item sizes.
Oh, and you need camp supplies to rest. Kingmaker style. They take some space, just enough to make the player think about supplies. The mechanics shouldn't be harsh, it's more about a mental barrier against mindless rest spam.

Infinity Engine-style inventory does the job just fine.
Camp supplies as inventory item is a good idea. Anything else, though, is taking it too far into survival game territory.

Fuck IE-style pre-rendered backgrounds. I want a 3D world I can interact with in my RPGs (keep the isometric perspective, though).

Turn-based combat with optional RtWP to keep the die-hard purists happy.

The best survival system was used by wasteland 1. Keep that canteen on you or you're going to die in the desert dumbass. Camp supplies or warm clothing or whatever don't need to be an expendable item. They just need to be carried by someone. Heavier/bulkier versions of tents or clothing could give better bonus or something.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

How many games took place in the cold frozen weather (or alluded to)? I can think of a few I guess.

1. Shard of Spring
2. Demon's Winter
3. Bardstale
4. Part of Bardstale 3
5. Icewind Dale 1
6. Icewind Dale 2
7. Secret of the Silver Blades
8. Phantasy Star series.. partly

and i draw a blank..

 

[Ontopoly]

Make it a spiritual successor so if it ends up sucking you don't tarnish the name with your ineptitude. Forgotten realms doesn't have enough to offer to risk associating yourself with WOTC. Keep that DnD combat rules(keep it rtwp.) Put so much snow that we don't even know what color the earth underneath is. Don't make it 3d. Don't forget to include a lava level.

 

[curds]

Heavier/bulkier versions of tents or clothing could give better bonus or something.

That's taking the survival mechanics too far imo (for an RPG). Also we weren't talking survival mechanics here anyway, the expendable camping supplies are to prevent rest spam, not to add realism or new systems. If the item isn't expendable then it's not doing anything to prevent rest spam.

Yeah the WL2 canteens were good. Simple and worked for the setting.

 

[oldmanpaco]

Heavier/bulkier versions of tents or clothing could give better bonus or something.

That's taking the survival mechanics too far imo (for an RPG). Also we weren't talking survival mechanics here anyway, the expendable camping supplies are to prevent rest spam, not to add realism or new systems. If the item isn't expendable then it's not doing anything to prevent rest spam.

Yeah the WL2 canteens were good. Simple and worked for the setting.

Meh you prevent rest spam by not letting you rest in a unsafe location like say a dungeon.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Eh... ASCII 3D. Its the new thing according to one game.

 

[curds]

Meh you prevent rest spam by not letting you rest in a unsafe location like say a dungeon.

I prefer having the chance to rest if I had thought to bring/conserve supplies than just not being able to rest at all. Of course you could still be ambushed if you rest somewhere really stupid.

 

[Ontopoly]

Change graphics to 3d

Spoiler

It's butthurt time codexers!

You're a shit troll for two reasons.
1. Stupid obvious bait of a suggestion that is so over the top that no one would ever take you seriously.
2. you admitted to being a troll under your stupid spoiler tag.

 

[MajorMace]

I'd make it the only way it could possibly improve the original formula : a goddamn good ol' tile-based game.

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

No Josh Sawyer.

No romances.

AD&D art direction.

Full party creation with a heavy focus on dungeon crawling/great encounter design.

Ruleset should be 2E or 3.5.

Story is grounded, perhaps personal and not reliant on the need to be overbearingly epic. Not intrusive and not full of NPCs foaming at the mouth to infodump your asshole to oblivion.

UI compliments the winter theme and game world, make it slightly unwieldy so it gatekeeps mobile/WoW/Dragon Age fags.

Giant spiders of icicle origin.

 

[jungl]

The party consists of slaves sold from the underdark to a powerful hag coven in icewind dale. Magic forces the party to be loyal to the coven or die. The Hag coven leader lends the party to various hags to do missions. These missions include things like stealing blue dragon eggs. Turning children into mice, backstabbing other hags and infiltering the underdark. A powerful archfey spirit that considers itself icewind dale is secretly controlling the hag coven and gifts the player powers like languages and illusion allowing them to converse with all the monsters and other bizarre creatures of icewind dale. You'll need to be able to use all these powers to your advantage as the hags send you in suicide missions.

 

[Syme]

Wilderness locations like in BG1. Icewind Dale is hundreds of miles from what would be even remotely considered civilized lands, yet you just hop from landmark to landmark without much inbetween. Also, random encounters, and don't forget to add the white Dracolich to the encounter table as per the Forgotten Realms Dungeon Master's Screen. Players need to learn that travelling the Spine of the World isn't same as travelling the Sword Coast.

 

[vazha]

I am surprised so many people want "a lot of combat" - For me, there were way too many filler encounters, especially in the second game. I d say a formula of "build up tension -> minor skirmishes & side quest battles -> big encounter (like the goblin siege in chapter 1)" would be ideal. In short, better encounter designs and many battles are mutually exclusive, so I d go for the former. More skill checks a la tabletop would also be nice.

And oh yes, hire Mr. Sweet again, but make him draw at least ten portraits for each race & combo.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

Remove the rest button.
Party regenerates and memorizes spells as game time goes by. Christina Avellona writes a bunch of in-game books and in-game bards, which the player can read/listen to to pass the time while the party rests. Great immersion!

 

[Jigby]

1. Make the game mechanics open and moddable, minimize hardcoded stuff.
2. Game should be mostly linear\semilinear, nonlinearity encourages pokemon gotta-catch-them-all mentality, where in the place of pokemons you have robe of vecna\celestial fury\amulet of power. It also puts more constraints on the party building aspect (if you're stuck with your current setup, you can't just go to a different location).
3. Dungeons that are filled with traps\enviromental obstructions etc. Traps should be easy to understand, the idea is not to create overengineered dungeons, but again to put more pressure on party building by creating constraints (hey, now you need a dude that can climb!)
4. Pacing is paramount, you should be able to take a party from lvl 1 to 20 in 50 hours.
5. Crafting is fine, but it shouldn't be all-encompasing. Again fixed/semirandom loot that you build your party around.
6. Lotsa classes\races\deities. Choices!

And most importantly

7. NO STORYFAGGOTRY!

 

[Kev Inkline]

Old games are awfully complex and time consuming, I think we need to tune this new entry to match more modern taste, ok.

1. Make the game in Gamebryo engine, this is proven and looks the best of available engines.
2. In character creation, introduce hairstyles (unfortunately no blond/white hair available)
3. Introduce skin colors, too, but only dark colors, goes better with darker gamut displays, ofc.
4. Simplify the combat, like a lot: A slow powerful attack, and a quick attack + a projectile.
5. Weapons: 1) Sword (slow), 2) knife (quick) and 3) bow
6. Introduce effort exp(*): If you fail at some task, you still get 125% of the original exp reward, so that the players will keep on pushing forward.
7. Give the wizards 3 spells only, this makes people to adopt with more nuanced strategical approach - but these don't have to be memorized.
The said spells:

*1. Fireball
*2. Divine Blessings (restores every party member to 100%, and if dead, raises from dead and does the same)
*3. Power Word Death: Kills every hostile creature visible to the characters

Does this sound still too complex? I think we could remove one weapon if the system is still too hard to handle?


(*) Also known as participation award in more experience gaming circles

 

[Johnny Biggums]

This is all great stuff guys but where's the SPICE? This is 2020. I'm talking surfaces, I'm talking verticality. I'm talking characters taking giant, super gay looking two foot jumps to disengage!

 

[Darth Canoli]

Infinity Engine-style inventory does the job just fine.
Camp supplies as inventory item is a good idea. Anything else, though, is taking it too far into survival game territory.

Fuck IE-style pre-rendered backgrounds. I want a 3D world I can interact with in my RPGs (keep the isometric perspective, though).

Turn-based combat with optional RtWP to keep the die-hard purists happy.

Interactive and mostly destructible environments are good on paper, as long as it doesn't follow DOS footsteps but rather take UFO path, i'm all for it.
Also, it should go along some sobriety/engine optimization so the game doesn't become a loading simulator.

Aside from that, i agree.

And fuck survival features!

How many games took place in the cold frozen weather (or alluded to)? I can think of a few I guess.

1. Shard of Spring
2. Demon's Winter
3. Bardstale
4. Part of Bardstale 3
5. Icewind Dale 1
6. Icewind Dale 2
7. Secret of the Silver Blades
8. Phantasy Star series.. partly

and i draw a blank..

Xulima has interesting desert and snowy areas and also a lava area (one of each).

 

[Lagole Gon]

Don't forget to include a lava level.

We make a lot of edgy jokes here on Codex, but you just took things too far.
Get out of this thread. Get the fuck out. There will be no lava level. Reported!

 

[AwesomeButton]

Game Director: Joshua Eric Sawyer

 

[AwesomeButton]

No Josh Sawyer.

No romances.

AD&D art direction.

Full party creation with a heavy focus on dungeon crawling/great encounter design.

Ruleset should be 2E or 3.5.

Story is grounded, perhaps personal and not reliant on the need to be overbearingly epic. Not intrusive and not full of NPCs foaming at the mouth to infodump your asshole to oblivion.

UI compliments the winter theme and game world, make it slightly unwieldy so it gatekeeps mobile/WoW/Dragon Age fags.

Giant spiders of icicle origin.

Dream on my friend, as in the real world Swen adds elf-on-dwarf sex scenes and hires Josh Sawyer in human stretch goal capacity.

 

[Jvegi]

No Larian bullshit, which means no TB.

Story must enhance combat, never get in its way.

Make leveling and gearing fun.

Snow.

Profit.

 

[Plane Escapee]

The party shall meet Father Christmas and be given presents. He shall tell female members of the party that ""Battles are ugly when women fight" yet still give one of them a very powerful magic bow. They proceed to eat breakfast together.

Saunas shall be scattered throughout the game and can be used as an alternative to resting.

Thou shalt hath a competitive skiing mini-game and thou shall shut up and enjoy it.

Also ice-fishing mini-game.

Penguins and polar bears in the same area and sometimes they fight.

Introduction of harpoons as a new weapon type.

Strong independent lesbian princesses that break into song at any given moment. The song is a powerful debuff and you can't attack or target them, nor can you leave the area while a song is going on.

Sweet brown goat's cheese.

Less nerd stuff.

 

[Joggerino]

Great suggestions guys but don't forget the expanded romance options. First every character has a 50% chance of being homosexual and they only reveal that to you after 50 hours of romancing.

 

[NJClaw]

No Josh Sawyer.

Sawyer did nothing wrong on IWD 1 and 2 (if we ignore that weird sneak attack nerf bullshit). He gimped rogues showing a very superficial understanding of the ruleset, but it was an honest rookie mistake. After seeing in NWN 2 that allowing a rogue to use his only class feature doesn't destroy the world, he wouldn't make the same mistake twice.