Sensuki

Apologies in advance about the amount of "um and ah" in the videos, I think I do that more often when I'm tired.

Part 3: Art, Graphics, Areas & General Mechanics Part 4: Advancement, Animations & FX, Sound and Combat

Here is my Backer Beta Version Review for v301. This time I have produced four shorter videos instead of one long one, which unfortunately takes a lot longer for me to produce due to my slow upload speed. The first video is a review of the v301 patch. I start off with the negative things first, so don't be alarmed, as I highlight the good things about the patch after that. The second video begins my long list of detailed critiques and suggested improvements for upcoming patches and focuses on Character Creation, User Interface, Inventory and Controls. The third and fourth videos can be found in my post below, since I can only embed two videos per post. If you do not want to watch the videos but just want the general points, here they are below in the spoiler tags: Version Review Video 2 Video 3 Video 4 Previous Suggestions: Recovery time should not pause while moving Revamped Character Creation Show Derived Stats during CC Talents and Feats Inventory Mockup v2 Desynchronized Character Movement Version Review v278 bb Cultural Gear Selection Navmesh for AoE Targeting Animations & Model Collision Inventory Mockup Dyrford Crossing Area Design Main HUD Mockup Beta Version Review v257 bb Fog of War Inventory & Item Tooltips Combat Feedback Comparison Re-wrote CC Class Ability Descriptions Item Descriptions and Contextual UI Rant Area Map Functions Main UI Tooltip Stuff Selection Circles and Targeting

Yeah they haven't done the icons for the majority of items. That said more is being added with each patch. Lots of items are missing unique item art as well. Currently all necklaces/amulets are cloaks, and plenty of hats are helmets etc.

Not even a beta backer IIRC.

I agree with that one.

Handbrake e: I only have 1mbit upload speed, so I don't 'stream' it to youtube. I record the OpenGL window and then transcode/compress it with Handbrake, then manually upload it.

yeah screw lock and trap xp

FINISHED! Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIRfCmyR7ijJU11xQVn2SXIwmeuajTkom ~ 12 hrs playtime

I know that the paint over is probably a separate layer that could probably be moved to a new image, not sure. Have to ask about it really. The other consideration is the navmeshes would have to be redone as well, and probably other things. But IF they can be redone in isometric, pleaaaase do it (IMO), even if it's in a post-release patch. 5000.

Because they've already done paint overs on I think up to 100 areas already (that may be wrong), and if they were to re-render the levels in isometric, Kaz would need to paint over them again. I'd love if they could do that xD but nope, that's not going to happen.

Assuming they don't change the recovery time formula (I think they will though), it's as easy as deleting one check for !isMoving in the code. If/when they do change it, it will be more difficult to make it work correctly, but I will be looking into it if this suggestion is ignored, as I also will not play with it paused while moving.

I think I was the first to mention it, back in my #008 suggestion but it's a feature that pretty much everyone wanted, so it's not surprising it has been added.

I don't think the lower angle can be fixed. I'm surprised issues with combat were not picked up in internal testing before paint overs to be honest, but anyway. One thing that helps in the Infinity Engine games is that units have a very faint dark outline, it's not a highlight, but rather the colors of their avatar have a really dark edge. Here is a blown up picture of an Icewind Dale 2 character You see the dark pixels around his boot, armor and helmet - that helps the character noticeably stand out, it's only something I noticed on my recent Icewind Dale playthrough. Characters in Pillars of Eternity do not have this, and thus they blend into the environment and eachother as a result.

That's a good point, they have made a few changes in the recent patch which I really disliked but if they are made optional it should be ok.

I thought I'd just make a post regarding Brandon Adler's post on weekly patches The current rate of patches is probably a little bit slow, but I also think that a patch every week might be a bit too quick. inXile promised weekly patches for Wasteland 2 during the beta but were unable to achieve it because the studio/team was simply not built for that quick of a turnover. You guys likely have a larger in house team than they did (I guess?) and have been adding extra programmers over the last few months (nice to hear that Dan Spitzley is on the team ). You guys might be able to handle a patch a week, but is a patch a week worth it ? The beta backers are not on the project full time, and while many people are usually pretty keen on a patch day, it's because the wait for the patch was long and people have been hanging out for it. I have a feeling that a patch a week will kill many people's enthusiasm and result in less overall testing being done, especially when the smaller patches will not be containing 'big' changes like the last few have. Most of the bug reports come in the first week of the new patch, particularly in the first few days, and then bug reports slow down. Suggestions/new threads tend to come after a few days/bit longer as people have had a chance to thoroughly play the new version and formulate an opinion. I think every two weeks would probably be more ideal, it would allow you enough time to get in moderate fixes, it gives more of the backer base time to get to try the build and it at least allows for some anticipation. There are a lot of people that are simply jumping into the new patch for an hour or two and posting about it on the forums, and this is reflected in the hours logged on their steam profile. I don't know if a patch a week gives people enough time to fully test the patch - particularly with stuff like changes to ability and spell mechanics, it's very hard to go through all the classes in a week and respond to the changes, particularly when the changes are not documented (as they were not in the last patch). I think this could end up promoting less 'thorough' testing overall. I might be wrong, but I thought I'd post my concerns anyway.

Hahah.

Dunno why they didn't just hire Dan Simpson.

You remember the other day how I was saying that the lower camera angle isn't good for combat? Well that's why. It's even worse when tall creatures (such as Forest Lurkers) are in front of player characters, you can't even see your own units.