"Jefferson" Project Forum News

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(Originally posted by Veldrin)

Here are today's "Jefferson" project forum highlights. Please take into account that these are only single parts of various threads and should not be taken out of context.

J.E. Sawyer, Lead Designer

Portraits: Portraits will just be faces. There is no "paper doll" other than the in-game character model that's rendered on the inventory screen. The socketing system used on the model has slots for body, back, hands, head, feet, eyes, beard, mustache, and hair.

Quote: JE, Will these head shots be artist renderings or just a close up of the 3d model face you choose and paste together?

Player choice.

Quote: I got the impressions that Josh meant you could either buy individual items, or choose pre-determined packages.

Correct.

Quote: Don't you understand that limited-class or classless games are vague and shallow: when you determine a character it isn't by analysing the abilities he has (note: abilities that any other character can get!)

Did you play Fallout? SPECIAL is no less restrictive. Many of the Perks in SPECIAL have extremely steep prerequisites. When someone takes the Slayer Perk, it's because they've put a lot of effort into qualifying for it. "Any character" can qualify for a PrC given enough levels. Similarly, "any character" can qualify for a Perk in SPECIAL given enough levels. Well, actually, a lot of Perks in SPECIAL are more restrictive when it comes to ability scores, so it's actually harder in some ways.

Quote: The main point of PrCs or kits is that you have a specific character with special skills that other can't get, but those abilities are gained at the cost of other abilities.

The ultra-specialized character class is the ruin of class-based systems. The ultra-specialized character (like a kensai or Red Wizard of Thay, for example) often voluntarily "opts-out" of performing their restricted/sucky abilities in favor of always using their totally awesome (and often overpowered) abilities. The other members of the party often cover that "gap" in 99% of the cases (unless the DM just contrives situations for the character to suck, which is extra lame in a CRPG).

What sucks about being a kensai in BG2? Almost nothing. Armor restrictions, that's it. In the old kensai class, it was even worse. OMG, U CAN NEVER EVER USE ANYTHING BUT YOUR CHOSEN WEAPON. Yeah, but who cares when your chosen weapon can do max damage on request n times/day and has inherent mega bonuses to damage?

Quote: What I want to say is that classes make the character special and not his simple abilities: the latters are defined by his class.

I still have yet to hear why this is true only for classes. Your argument seems to be:

* It is cool to have a character with abilities that "only" he or she can get.
* Classes determine this.
* Ergo, more classes make even more coolness.

This ignores the following facts:

* Given enough levels, anyone can qualify for a given prestige class.
* Feats in D&D and Perks in a classless system (SPECIAL) can also have very high requirements that involve the player making sacrifices (often in a more balanced way).
* A very significant body of Fallout players can testify to how cool it is to get a Perk like Sniper or Living Anatomy. You have to work towards those goals and make choices about how you make and level up your character.

Because of this, you still haven't convinced me that more classes/prestige classes are necessary.