Hi DAD,

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Apparently you did not get what I was talking about because you seem to be trying to help me out while I have seriously finished the game exactly 37 times based on the major directory list of the saved-saved games.

No, I'm not trying to help you solve the game. I haven't even finished it myself. I was trying to show a way to play so that the classes can have meaning other than difficulty. I was also agreeing with the fact that baricades disappear mysteriously because the game says so.

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Being able to pick the lock of the poison room for example does not hurt the game but when you find the key that drops from TIPSIX then you do not know which door does it belong to because the game designer made keys consumable and locking doors with their keys forbidden.

I never though of that with Lockpick. I've never used it much so never had any keys left over. Perhaps if you've picked a chest or door and come back later with the key, the key vanishes anyway? But who closes doors or leaves things in chests (aside from their stash)? What if chests and doors were closed by hidden NPCs (like what Geoff does with his shop) and lock automatically?

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Now here is my technical criticism in which I would have allowed door locking with their keys to keep my items safe. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />
In that way a key is not consumable and I could try all keys on any door to see if any fits.

I think that a key ring item could help this. Opening the key ring would show a list of keys and what they open, if known. I agree that there's no reason others shouldn't be able to thieve from you (aside form that pickpocket).

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When the cursor passes over a weapon out of the 4000 items that I have in my list, each weapon displays a statistic related to it, so why wouldn’t keys have tags relating them to the coordinates in which they were found and if there were any specific relations to someone such as the one that dropped it or the house which I found it behind or near to. Keys are definitely items too and the game would have been much more exciting if one MUST find the right key rather than picking its lock.

I like that idea (where keys are found). Perhaps with finding keys, this could also be a class related thing. A Warrior must combat monsters to get the key, but a Survivor could pick the lock, getting the artifact first that can help kill the monsters (for experience).

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On the other hand, finding a magic-set-of--lock-picks should allow me to open any chest or door while keys could act as clues.

Keys as clues? What do you mean? I think magical lockpicks are too overpowered if they open every lock. What about if they have +1 Lockpick, even above level 5.

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If someone objects on keys being items, then I would reply that I found spoons being defined as items!

Yet I've found only one fork in the game! Poor sods must be having a terrible time trying to eat with a knife and spoon. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

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Barring the player from casting spells or applying skills to force a scenario cripples the variance of the game.

Agreed. The character should at least cast the spell and watch it blow-up in his face. It's not fair to cripple any one class at any point in the story. Perhaps have a magical force that dampens all skills for all classes by one or two levels. Characters aren't crippled, but still have the turmoil of being held by a superior force.

P.S. I haven't reached that part of the game so let me know if I've lost the plot.

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In fact, I dream of a game that allows multiple beginnings and offer multiple ends; thus, while interacting with the simulated worlds you create your own story line through the combinatory possibilities of reaching an end from a given beginning.

Shadow Watch does that to a degree. There are 162 random starting possibilities and you can control the direction of the game from there to branch out further. But there's only one end. The game is similar to UFO: Enemy Unknown, but with just combat and training, no micro-management.

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Imagine a choice of a class based on a career that leads to be a superstar or a president or a happy go lucky punk or whatsoever as a Role-Playing-Game with lot of interrelations and the possibility of a multiplayer set up.

Now take this idea into a Science-Fiction or a Fantasy background allowing the assent to become the ruler of the Universes or a galactic singer or a cosmic pirate or even a rift runner. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

Throw in thousands of characters by assembly and not by pre-rendering then focus on the dialogs to be context generated rather than pre-edited and you have the game of eternal FAME.

That would be amazing. A bit like The Sims, but with a story. A number of MMORPGs have ideas like this. I played Space Merchant for a while. You could be a trader, cop, underworld-member, bounty hunter, part of an amarda, pirate, planet owner, explorer, bar-hopper... so many things, all without any class restrictions at all. It's just very hard to apply a story to so many possibilities. It'll happen, just wait...