Kamaz said:Puddles seem funny to you, but water effects is pretty interesting topic - of course, not in cRPG area, I agree with you. Its very interesting topic from graphics point of view. Since QA were about game and not about RPG features, this seems ok to me.
What would puddles add to the game though? Maybe you could jump in them repeatedly to add to your Athletics skill, or walking around them would add to your chances of increasing your Wisdom attribute upon level up!
Music? Again, nothing to do with RPG features but very important part of game structure.
Music can set the mood, sure.
1000 of NPCs? Well, I still dont understand why you can't see simple comparison - in setting its said 100 people in [some Morrowind town] and game offers 20, approximetly how much will there be in that city of err..that other province.You dont care? Thats your problem, actually this question was pretty interesting to me and I allready spoke about that. In Outcast there were crowds of people in the city if you turned specific option on and it was nice feature - running away from guards and hiding into crowd.
Well, you also like LARPing, so.. Talking about running away from guards and hiding, can't you do that with less CPU intensive tall grass? Or behind objects like benches and other things? Ducking in a building or down a dark alley?
Tell grass, trees, park benches and other things don't need to have NPC schedules, or interact with the player, be killable, and so on.