First to Firebrand:
1) Yes, there should be a large variety of enemies, they don't need to be all-new, but sufficiently different, i.e. a bit different color scheme (we've got quite a couple done in this style), a bit more or less HP/speed, slightly different attack modes etc.
2) I think the attribute system should be changed, let's forget about anything existing like D&D rules and build one instead on the realities of what we want in the fight engine: we want melee attacks to become stronger, all kind of attacks and movement to become faster, these two are absolutely clear I guess. There are two others that could be implemented, one to use less mana/whatever for a spell or a magical weapon discharge, and/or another to make projectile attacks stronger. These are the basic varieties I see, there are a couple of minor ones that might be looked at, but they aren't as important as the others, and as far as creating the 2-4 basic attributes a character has, these additional things (increased range for melee weapons, larger area of effect for splash damage projectiles like the fireballs from the 4th weapon of the mage) could be influenced by one of them. Oh yes nearly forgot, there is still another thing: defense from attacks of all types (melee, projectile, magical).
OK now to moosy-moose: <!-- s:P --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_razz.gif" alt=":P" title="Razz" /><!-- s:P -->
3) What ideas for the improvement of the Hexen fighting system? I don't know, did you have something specific in mind? The only thing I can think of right now is something I wanted from the beginning: a slightly better AI. I say "slightly", because I don't want the super-killer AI of the latest technology, it would make impossible the best thing the DOOM engine has, the dozens or even more monsters at one time on the screen, you fighting them all. I think AI should be a bit smarter in things where it is very annoying right now (like when you place a couple of monsters in a test map in any kind of formation, they'll just all home in to you and stand into each other's shots, I don't mean teamwork but they should at least try to avoid at least to stand in the fireline and also to scatter a bit around the player so he has less of a chance of annihilating 25 monsters with a single fireball).
4) The spell system of KMOD wasn't exactly the best thing for KMOD, but it was simple to implement. The standard RPG system of most games with you carrying around several weapons and going to your inventory to click with the mouse on one to equip it into your hands is too much of an action-killer. I don't yet have the complete idea but what I've been thinking about already some years ago is a system where you have certain kinds of weapons always available (if you have one of that type), e.g. if you are the fighter, your #2 weapon is an axe, and you only have one axe at any given time, but either you can buy (or steal/loot/find) another one, or you can let it be enhanced by a smith, enchanted by a conjurer etc. This way your weapons would stay the same, but increase in effectiveness over the course of the game. And it would also mean that whenever you're in a fight, you've got the marvelously simple weapon system of DOOM: press a numeric key and you got that weapon in your hands. Also, "weapons" mean everything you use in that way, i.e. a melee weapon, a projectile weapon and a spell are all handled the very same way (just like in the original Hexen). Any kind of defensive magic or any kind of non-weapon effect is reached either through artifacts (once again, just like in Hexen) or through magic scrolls (like the Ambit Incant or how it was called in Hexen, just this time with many different scrolls for many different purposes).
As for a Journal, I guess one is needed, but it doesn't have to take up much info, it could be nothing but a collection of maps, notes and quests. Regarding a spellbook, I'm unsure, by now after having looked at the amount of work needed, I'm rather reluctant to add ANY feature to the game that would be different from one class to another. I think different HP/speed/weapons are rather enough difference for the 3 classes.
5) Shops should be for buying and selling the same as browsing the inventory normally and activating an item in it - the program should know when you are in buying mode, in that case it shows the shopkeeper's inventory, you can "activate" any item and if you've got enough money, it's bought, i.e. transferred to your inventory. And when you're in selling mode, the program shows your inventory, and instead of activating an item, it is sold when you "activate" it. As for how to enter buying and selling mode, it could either be that you go to a shopkeeper and push the space button and you are in one mode, you go to his assistant and you are in the other mode - or that you go to the shopkeeper, press space and you are in the conversation mode and there there are always two topics which allow you to enter the buy and sell screens (or any other idea someone has and is better).
6) Sure there could be quests and story-bound elements and jump'n'run-dungeons filled with traps to the brim - but they all MUST be completely optional. I.e. there could be a bunch of dungeons you don't have to enter that have tons of puzzles, difficult jump'n'run and similar crap for those who like it, but none of it should be mandatory. Ask yourself the question: how many times did you play Heretic and how many times did you play Half-Life? I mean completely through, from the beginning to the end... yes because in Heretic you could play it again and again because while gameplay might've been repetitive, it was good gameplay and while Half-Life offered more variety at first look, much of this variety was crap nobody would want to tediously navigate through even a second time, much less so a twentieth time (which I think most of us can claim as a number for having played through Heretic and Hexen). Let's make the main game story/action line somewhat short and straightforward, but something that people barely finish and want to start again and again <!-- s:) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_smile.gif" alt=":)" title="Smile" /><!-- s:) --> (what was the last FPS you had this feeling with?), and add a million little nuances that you can visit/read/solve/jump/fight through, but only if you want. Let's have the game "only" twenty small to medium sized maps that can be raced through in an hour or two if you're good at the game and know where to find what, and add the other 100 maps as an option you do not HAVE TO go through every time you want to play the game. Like in the original Hexen, there are quite a couple of areas you can skip if you're impatient, this far it should be WAY more. I want KH to be much less difficult to solve at first attempt than Hexen, but at the same time it should offer much more depth for those who are interested in it. The depth should also be accessible in different unrelated parts, e.g. if you're interested in the culture and history of the world, you would have only to visit towns/villages and a couple of hermits or monasteries maybe, but it should be farely easy to find and enjoy the background info. Similarly, if you're a dungeon freak who wants to fight his way through 500 dungeons filled with the same deadly traps and jump'n'runs that take hours to complete because you fall down twenty times for every single jump before you suceed, then they should be able to have any amount of it they want (this is one point where lots of the freely modifiable maps we've got at our disposal could be used), if someone is a quest freak there might be a lot of sidequests that don't have anything to do with the main story (indeed use completely different maps), and so on.
7) No, NPCs and convo sytem don't go, I also want "cut scenes" of one kind or another. What I meant is that quests don't reward you with EXP, but with money or rare items (or small quests with even less, maybe only a handful of common items or even just a shitty "thank you, brave knight":lol:). EXP is gotten only for killing monsters and for NOTHING ELSE, that's the best way to keep even the most fucked-up thief style player focused on what the game is all about (hear me, Camper? <!-- s:P --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_razz.gif" alt=":P" title="Razz" /><!-- s:P -->).
<!-- s8) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_cool.gif" alt="8)" title="Cool" /><!-- s8) --> "A heroic story that makes the game feel more epic and memorable, but it doesn't influence the gameplay (very good anti-example is Half-Life)." - "Could you expand upon this, as my mildly primitive mind is struggling to make out exactly what you mean."
What I mean is that there can be a damned good and fascinating story without including tedious gameplay sequences. Instead of letting you jump from one ledge to the other for twenty minutes and then crawl through an air duct and then swim through three rivers and been picked up by a helicopter, I'd rather have a 30-seconds cut scene which might consist of nothing else but what Hexen or Strife did. I mean the way Strife did it was IMO much more awesome than many of the technically more advanced solutions. And even the original DOOM/Heretic/Hexen one is quite cool IMO if not overused. A good background pic, with a well-written text and a fantastic music that makes you shudder with delight gives IMO a lot more feeling and makes it cooler than any 30-minutes active playing through what the character went through. And since these can be skipped with the press of a key, they don't prolong a quick and furious gameplay if you've enjoyed the story five times already and only want the action this time, without interruptions.
9) What do you mean with "IP"?
10) I visualize it the way it was in Heretic, you kill a sucker and it dies and now and then an artifact or some ammo drops out which will remain there for you to pick up. One thing DOOM and Heretic did very well and Hexen left out and was IMO a mistake, is to collect a large part of your gear and especially ammo from corpses you killed, besides the EXP it gives an additional impulse to hunt down and stamp out every little whining critter. I mean this IS a bloodthirsty game, there is no point in denying it. <!-- s;) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_wink.gif" alt=";)" title="Wink" /><!-- s;) -->
11) As mentioned above, I'm yet unsure about the journal and spellbook, that's why we are discussing this as a team after all, it shouldn't all be one person's idea but the creation of a team.
12) To do software: sounds good, is there anything out there you know about? Janis is the webmaster and as long as you bring something PHP/MySQL based he'll surely say "yep, that can be set up easily". <!-- s:) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_smile.gif" alt=":)" title="Smile" /><!-- s:) -->
If I left out anything, just put the Q again as usual.