Advanced Game Design Cont.

I've decided that if anything, the Dark Messiah version hold more ground than any other game idea I have.

Just brainstorming some ideas for gameplay:

Gameplay is realtime, fights are either turn based or real time.

The player can select to go into turn based at any point in the game, by hitting a certain button. This is similar to the "FEAR" style, but first seen in the Might and Magic series (NOT heroes of might and magic). It allows the player to actively swap between RT and TB play.

A good user will use this to his / her advantage when exploring, for example, catacombs or close-knit areas, where surprises can lurk behind corners. I would probably have the users pre-define a set of skills and /or spells on a hotbar, and have them default bound to 1-10, with the option of rebinding quickbar slots to any other unused key (Dark Ages of Camelot). IE binding "u" to quickbar 2, position 1. So that the user may use that ability on quickbar2 instead of having to swap quickbars, then pressing 1, simply by hitting "u".
These sort of features are important for making gameplay enjoyable and seamless. When a user is annoyed by using their abilities, there's not enough consideration into the design of the interface.

This is ubiquitous for all game designs, in my opinion.

-- Drew