This is looking pretty interesting… An open world gold box style game is appealing to me in theory, but it all depends on how interesting the quests are. I'm not interested in a million generic fetch quests or "go here and slay this monster" quests. I like quests that have a story behind them and affect the world at large. If I save a town from a dragon, the people should react to it. On the other hand, if I fail or turn down a quest, there should be consequences beyond not getting the gold or experience. I'd rather see a game with a smaller number of quests that are complex, well thought out, and unique than an endless grindfest. That was my issue with Skyrim- sure the world is huge, but for the most part it's SO boring.
Perhaps "open-world" was a bad term. My original intention was that there would be multiple large-scale stories and a lot of small-scale stories that a player could follow. There wouldn't necessarily be one main quest, but instead be many long-term stories.
There probably would be some side-quests here and there (totally optional), that might involve some of the things that you mention. It's hard not to create an RPG that doesn't have some elements of a fetch-quest or kill-the-monster quest in it somewhere.
Regarding the"Magic Identification" (aka Lore in D&D), I'm wondering how you plan to implement it. While the idea that a person who studies magical lore will be better able to identify legendary magic items certainly make sense, it doesn't really make sense the way this skill is often implemented; for example, in NWN 1 & 2, if you fail the lore check for a magic item, you simply cannot use / equip it until you either pay a merchant to identify it, or increase your lore skill. Usually this is a minor inconvenience; merchants charge ~100GP to identify an item or you can buy a lore potion / scroll to identify the items, so ultimately the lore skill isn't worth spending points on.
First, I will say that everything I post pictures about is a work in progress, and may change. Some of the screens I've already posted here have already changed (the UI is now totally different and the combat screens have undergone several evolutions). This is because building the game sometimes presents obstacles I have to work around as a one-man crew, or presents me with opportunities that allow me to do things better than originally anticipated.
In regards to magical identification, my original idea was that it would be like old-school D&D, where you could use some items without identifying them (armor, for example), but you're not sure if it's better than something else until you identify what it's doing.
Shops won't identify items. You have to identify them yourself, so the skill is definitely going to be useful.
I'm also not sure how I feel about the logic behind Resistance skills being skills. It seems that a resistance to poison or disease would be determined by one's constitution (and magical spells or properties that raise it) but how could one raise it with experience? I suppose it could be the "acquired poison immunity" trope a la Princess Bride, but in reality this doesn't work for all poisons. (I know I'm talking about "reality" in a fantasy game, but when something isn't explained by magic, there should still be a logic or rationality to it). Arguably it works for resist disease (you could knowledge about strengthening your immune system). I'd prefer having some sort of alchemy skill that makes you able to brew healing potions or recognizing medicinal plants but I'm not entirely convinced that Resistance should be a skill you can upgrade with practice or research. Just my opinion though and I may be over-thinking this.
Actually, I agree with you on this, and have gone back and forth about it several times. I put them in because even though they aren't technically "skills," they are something that a character can develop if they want to focus on those things. I'm not sure that using the word "Skills" was the right choice.
I look at those particular items like "saving throws" in D&D. Why does a character get better at saving against poison just because they go up in level? Why does a spell have a lesser effect? In this case, I just made it so that a player can focus on it or spend the points in something else (like being better with their weapon or diplomacy).
However, I am considering removing them. And, this is precisely why I need feedback like the kind you've provided. The game can only be made better if people smack me upside the head and say: "Hey, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense;" because when you're busy building code and working out systems, you don't always see those little things.
So, thanks for that.