Yeah I'm a Forgotten Realms lore junkie, so the game keeping its lore straight is very important to me.
Re. the look and feel of the game, I don't think we are going to get a game that looks and feels like the original games. Sorry. The reason I say this is the following. This game is indisputably a AAA game. None of the Infinity Engine games, the NwN games, the recent crop of so-called "cRPG renaissance" games, or even the D:OS games are AAA. And if you are going to make a AAA game, you are playing at a completely different level. As a simple illustration, we all know that D:OS2 sold exceedingly well. If BG3 sells double, even triple what D:OS2 sold, it would be a huge failure and financial disaster for Larian. BG3 needs to sell a minimum of 10 million, and likely closer to 20 million copies for it to be considered a success as a AAA title. That means it needs to satisfy a gaming audience well beyond people like us, people who are hardcore RPG niche gamers, and reach the casual mainstream gamer audience. So no clunky UIs, no isometric perspective, lots of "help" for the player, a modern look and feel, high-end graphics, etc.
So more Dragon Age than DOS2? Interesting. If that is the case, Larian really does have a lot of work to do to prove themselves at that level of cinematic production.
Not impossible though, i mean look at the jump from Witcher 1 to 2 to 3. You are right, UI will need to change for such a game. It will be more of "you are the character" rather than "you are the god of the gameworld". In which case it does require something more understated. I do keep to my original statements though in regard to any potential inventory system.
I know I will likely be ignored, but I really would like to see sparing use for quest arrows or markers in the main HUD. An alternative would be to flesh out the journal system for modern gamers. That may be too much to ask for AAA though
I still would prefer painted character portraits to CG models.
What I would like to see is some well defined pre-created characters akin to DOS2, that can have a pre-built cinematically optimal transition into the gameworld that can be tweaked. I like toying with character creator's, but I realized when playing DOS2 that it would take a lot of extra time to create a character as interesting and deep as some of their pre-made ones. Its nice to be able to jump into a well made character right away.
