What a sequel to this game would need

[Brodie301]

IMHO don't think there should not be shops or merchants, with that said I wouldn't mind running into a NPC to trade treasure for goods with but also be very limited in items he has. For instance he could have had the bone necklace and gave it to you for 3 treasure.
I don't want to have to grind for gold or some kind of currency to be able to get top gear, I want to discover all the top gear after spending my time exploring and puzzle solving.

[teviko]

IMHO don't think there should not be shops or merchants, with that said I wouldn't mind running into a NPC to trade treasure for goods with but also be very limited in items he has. For instance he could have had the bone necklace and gave it to you for 3 treasure.
I don't want to have to grind for gold or some kind of currency to be able to get top gear, I want to discover all the top gear after spending my time exploring and puzzle solving.

I agree...merchants are a bad idea. But I do think some sort of 'refugee' or barter system is a wonderful idea. You come across a band of refugees who will give you <X> item in exchange for something you have found, or are wearing or for performing some sort of quest or favor for them (like...the camp is being threatened by an Ogre...go kill it, in thanks they will reward you with a new shiney sword...Or you trade in your chitin greaves and your staff for...a really spiffy helm, something like that.

Things *I* would like to see in a sequal...

A way to recharge your magical weapons. Have a special recharge station you can go to, and put in some rare materials (having it be rare and limited makes it so that you can't just have an endless recharge supply of magical weapons) and poof, you can recharge your weapon.

I would also love a way for you to reforge your weapons to make them stronger, or faster, or imbue with certain properties that would not over balance the game, and again, you would need a special 'forge' and rare materials to accomplish this.

An open world is not a bad idea, and keeping it inline with HA's game, trees or water sources could be obstacles...or even water could be a 'timed' dungeon or secret crawl where if time runs out..you drown. Pit falls could also be a way to have secret areas.

Being able to import characters is a great idea because we nit picked these characters and made them as special as possible, and then we'd have to restart? But I also think being able to start 'afresh' is a much needed idea, and be bale to boost them up to base level 10 with a limited, but nice selection of armor/weapons to call upon. You would not get the fancy items (like teh orbs or shaman's staff) but you wouldn't be without a staff or a decent sword or armor either.

One of the things that made Dragon's Age such a wonderful game was the idea of being able to make meaningful choices (although DA:O's choices were hardly...meaningful...it was the first idea in having ideas that impacted the way people dealt with you). Like, you could choose to rescue a town, or rescue a child. You choose to rescue the child and most of the town gets wiped and the residents despise you for letting their place get wrecked and you can't get a nice piece of armor. Or you choose to save the town, and the child dies, leaving the residents grateful for your part in saving them, but the parents of the child (say the mayor's child) will not grant you favor and a really nice weapon is closed off. Hard choices that can impact the arc of a game makes the game replayable just to go back and see what would happen if you chose to do it another way.

[Ixnatifual]

I definitely prefer merchants where you can pay in currency to bartering. I find bartering as merely a means to needlessly overcomplicate trade in order to frustrate the player. But I really love the feeling of plundering enough cash from nearby dungeons to finally be able to afford that Fine Long Bow or whatever. As well as to bring gear that's lagging behind the dungeon-found items a bit up to par.

[FreeBooteR69]

I don't think it's out of the realm of this type of game to run into a small underground town, perhaps a small hub between dungeons. A place of brigands, pirates, and other unsavory types who are looking to trade in things frowned upon by surface dwllers, if you know what i mean. Something continually besieged of course, and they need you to go and find the sources and deal with them, for a small fee.

I remember playing Captive many years ago, and thought it was a cool gimmick to have shop keepers in thier dungeons, though they weren't too bright, since you always blew up the bases once you finished and were ready to depart.