My thoughts on the "rocket launcher."
First of all, in the newsletter, it sounded as though rocket launchers would be a common, preferential choice of pure mages, and that any old player could choose never to wield a blade, bow or blunt, instead, blasting away with their rocket launcher. In contrast, enchanted mage staves are said to be a rarity. From MSFD's statement of such (in another thread) I kind of see rocket launchers as being in the same class as weapon artifacts in Morrowind - the stuff you almost regret finding, since it's so horribly overpowered that combat is typically over in one swing. At least it's mercifully short.
My biggest concern with rocket launchers is that they seem to be neatly compartmentalised away from the game's core systems. No skill is required to use one, nor is any skill gained. The only link to the system is whether the player uses Mysticism and soul gems to keep their launcher juiced, or they spend money to do so. Allusion was also made to an item with unlimited "rocket sauce", so once you get that, you just have a weapon with infinite ammo and occasional reloads.
So, in other words, at some point in the game, it's expected that an item completely dependent on player skill, will supplant entire character builds. From a RPing perspective, it's utterly retarded. There's little reason for a character not to make that choice, unless you're already an uber bladesman/bluntsman/bowman. Likewise the stagnation of skill progression is unlikely to be accounted for in any RP terms, and although such artifacts lend themselves so well to being decisive in a power struggle, I'm doubtful that such quests would be implemented in any interesting way.
From a powergaming/munchkin point of view, you have something that stagnates skill progression, which could be an interesting choice to make, but from the sounds of things, the player is going to be unperturbed by the fact, like they were with the uber weapons in Morrowind. So that basically leaves item progression as the munchkin's sole outlet, and given that these artifacts are rare it's probably going to be a long time between drinks.
From an action gamers perspective, it's probably great fun for a little while, but the appeal is going to fade fast. Sure, havoc physics and brilliant spell effects are fairly new to RPGs, but for those of us who have already played games like Max Payne 2, with it's cinematic ragdoll sequences, or the countless FPS games that involve blowing shit up, it's nothing new. Also, since the game is being developed in parallel for both xbox and PC, it's unlikely that the shooter elements offer any challenge to a keyboard/mouser, since encounters have to also be playable with a more cumbersome analogue stick.
In contrast to the traditionally "handiwork" of mages in first person RPGs, it doesn't stand up. First of all, the character and progression of said character, is paramount to being an effective spell caster. So even if the act of aiming at something and pulling the trigger can be compared to FPS gaming, there's still a great deal of underlying depth to concern the player. Secondly, a mage's hand is a conduit for all sorts of crazy. I'd hope that a typical combat situation against multiple opponents as a frail mage would require a careful interplay of varied spell effects. A rocket launcher has a single spell, and encourages repeated use, even if traditional spells can be cast offhand.
So it seems to me, that artificial, illogical choices from the player's perspective must be made in order to preserve the character and the game experience. Just once, I'd like to see such uberness accounted for by the game and setting. The good guys recognise the potential for misuse with such unconstrained power, so the seek to either control or destroy it. The bad guys, either want it for personal use, or recognise the potential for equipping shock troops, since no skill is required beyond recharging, and that's what allows them to exert control over their rocket launcher troops.
To address the "fun" discussion, I think the rocket launcher is an ideal illustration of how something that in itself is fun, can actual transpire to harm the interplay of the game's systems.
