Just curious what your thoughts are on this, what features you like in RPGs and what features you don't like.

There are a few things that should be considered set in stone:
* There wikl be multiple party members.
* Combat will be turn based. It will not be tactical (so no grid).
* There will be no (global) levels or experience points for each character. (I haven't ruled out individual skills, if that mechanic exists, having their own levels and experience; I've only ruled out the most common growth system found in CRPGs (don't know how common it is in TRPGs).)
* It will be possible to save manually, and (barring programming bugs that would hopefully be patched) the game will never overwrite your saves without permission. (This means that it will not have roguelike-style permadeath.)

So, given these constraints, what features would you like in this hypothetical RPG?

(By the way, if I were to actually make it, it would probably draw much (but not all) of its inspiration from the SaGa series.)

My CRPG will be 3D, multiple party members, class based system, preferably all mages or multiple mages classes, with high experience/level reached.
RTwP or turn based I don't care.

How would that even work? How would your characters progress?

I think it most definitely needs:
- single character only
- tactical, grid-based combat, if not then perhaps anything not turn based
- have global levels
- have perma-death and an automatic save system

I didn't know such shit taste even existed.

There will be electric guitars. And bunnies. And donkeys.

For me it would pretty much be Fallout 2. Manual saving, 2D isometric, turn based. If it had party members they'd have to not be constantly running into battle and dying when I tell them not to though. I enjoy levelling up and not having a level cap. Also, a finite number of quests and nothing recurring so they can all eventually be ticked off completed or failed (unlike Skyrim with it's constant "take this object to this place" quests).

A horror RPG would be cool.

If I were to design a CRPG, I'd probably dispense with levels and go for using XP as a sort of "universal currency" for upgrading your characters. Want to improve your Constitution (carry size, hitpoints), go to a trainer and spend XP and gold to improve it, and so on, and of course every time you upgrade an attribute, power or whatever it becomes exponentially more expensive to train. That way, the player would have absolute control over their characters' progression, you could actually go full min-max and have a Wizard with only a few hitpoints.

You'll love Tangledeep Legend of Shara.

So, as far as the exp itself goes, essentially the system from Evil Islands. No trainers or gold there though, just the exp.
Also think Beyond Divinity works like that?

I would add:

- Action oriented.
- Player skill should matter when executing an action.
- Lots of mini games, that the player will have to engage with at various points in the story.
- No distinct classes, anyone could be anything by just equipping the right stuff.
- Easy, no grinding is ever needed.
- Main character should be male.
- I almost forgot: lots of cut scenes.

:p

No millions of sidequests... I mean, the story is usually "the world is ending" but there's always time to do menial tasks, right?... I believe Icewind Dale is the rpg that better handled sidequests. They were all "along the way" of the main quest, they were optional but never had to leave the main plot on hold, and they were a few, not "sidequest the game" like several rpgs do just to increase the lenght. Also, I don't like games being too long, I prefer to have a short trilogy than one big long game.

First of all I would like to see an interesting story, preferably with some branching plot and sidequests a-la Witcher. And since it's *you*, who want to make this game, I explicitly note - I don't want game to be preachy about politics and identity politics in particular.

On gameplay sid of things I personally would like to see survival elements. Like stacking rations and water before going to dungeon, having injuries that can be healed only with special spells/items/NPCs.

Day/Night cycle would be neat. Btw, will *global* movment be also turn-based?

A couple things I would *not* like:

- NPCs who join your party (This is my pet peeve, I hate it when NPCs join my party!)
- Procedurally generated dungeons/areas (All areas should be manually designed)

You both forgot it absolutely MUST HAVE stealth sections where being found out by the enemy mooks automatically sends you back to the beginning to try again. :-p ;-)