Hi, Badazhel!
It’s always interesting to hear different perspectives. I agree with some of your points, others … not so much
.
1. On merchants, I do hope we’ll get more as the game progresses, but wouldn’t want them to be artificially isolated from events. Though were you aware Withers in the camp will trade with you? He doesn’t have vast amounts of money, but enough to offload stuff as long as you’re not going totally loot mad. Personally I don’t tend to trade with him just because it doesn’t make story sense to me, but it’s an option.
2. Companions are very much a matter of preference, and Shadowheart came out top in
this poll about favourite characters on these forums. For me, she ties for top with Gale and Astarion, and even before her character was “softened” in later patches I didn’t find her abrasive unless I pestered her by keeping on pushing for answers she’d told me she needed to know me better before giving, in which case I figured I deserved her ire. Lae’zel definitely is abrasive, but for me that’s a large part of her charm, and I wouldn’t want her softened. Both, I think, have plenty of personality that has the potential to develop into interesting character arcs.
4. We know from publicity that we’re getting Minsc and Jaheira in the full campaign, and are expecting Karlach and probably some other companions. Plus I believe Larian have said in the past we’ll also be able to recruit mercenaries, or party members who aren’t full companions. I think it’s likely we’ll get plenty of choice of party members in the full game … fingers crossed.
5. The camera is a common complaint here, and I agree.
6. As Ragnarok alludes to, helmets are already toggleable, though I still hope we’ll get some better looking ones in the full game so I don’t feel as much need to turn them off.
7. I’d be all for being able to set and update a colour scheme for our characters (like with BG1 & 2) that would tint elements of clothing they donned.
8. Stealth is another common complaint here, and personally the poor handling of ambushing from stealth is probably my number one game mechanic problem. We don’t know if Larian are going to change anything here, but I live in hope. I certainly felt that enemies got worse in patch 9 at responding to attacks from out of their line of sight, so even if we don’t get an overhaul of stealth, hopefully at least that will get fixed.
10. A party size of six is another common request (with a
huge megathread to back that up). Personally, I much prefer a party of four and think it represents a good balance of challenge when it comes to party composition, combat length and turns per combat for each individual party member, but I think I’m probably in the minority on these forums at least.