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Everything posted by IndiraLightfoot
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Class review: The Rogue (The Assassin more like)
IndiraLightfoot replied to mutonizer's topic in Backer Beta Discussion
Heh! It gets better. Today I reported a bug, where you actually can long distance heal your killer Rogue, up to 100 m away! What I didn't test is other kind of spells, such as buffs. It feels like the entire game is built around these ninjas. Who would have known? Bushido of Eternity. -
NegativeEdge made a great post in another topic, the latest Sensuki Suggestion thread, and it inspired me. One thing that I personally really like about WL2 is that you have all these non-combat skills, and if you, for whatever reason (your damaged character got blown to pieces by a trap, or you misclicked and moved the whole party in, etc), there are random seeds for saves in that game. So, the next time you try to disarm the trap, there is a new random roll, as it were. To me, this is in the spirit of a CRPG like this. Some sort this behaviour under some degenerate gameplay or save scumming or what not, but: In short, I say "aye" to random seed saves.
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I really hope they'll release a character creation editor before the game, like they did for DA:O. I loved that! Then you could play around with it a lot and even save your character. Later, when the game got released, you were all ready to go.
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[Spoilers] OMG FULLY SIQ BRU ITEMS
IndiraLightfoot replied to Sensuki's topic in Backer Beta Discussion
This right here illustrates what I meant by ashen and smeared faces in the bug thread for patch 301. I wish these faces looked crisper and more distinct - and slightly dirty as well, a tall order, I know - but this is pretty bad. -
On the spells: Is it just me, or aren't most spells AoE? And when they are AoE, those areas are overly wide. Is this all in order to accommodate for the fact that we are handling an entire party in real time? So, easier to aim and apply? I do miss those large amounts of single target spells in the IE games - they were very varied and fun. Per encounter could also be chalked up to easy-of-use reasons.
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From what I can tell by your video this is actually a pretty big improvement to the game. It removes one big frustrating about combat in the game, and that is moving while keeping your recovery status paused, which makes movement during encounters very frustrating. Great thinking! As things are now, PoE would benefit from removing this and then better balance ranged weapons, its damage and firing rate. Dare I say, limit the ammo?
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Once again, instead of the info-deprived pip circle (moving, attacking), we could have had real info about it, coz I agree with curryinahurry, I have often issued commands for ranged attacks and spells and then I can tell in that chaos called battle (and by looking at per encounter numbers on abilities not changing) that those party members never performed that action. If we had a specific icon showing that the action has been taken and that it's now being performed, it would help a lot. I hate discovering that it didn't when it's too late. I know we have the combat log, but it's moving so fast and is full of info tidbits. I don't like to pause as much when I play, so I want better and smarter feedback in combat.
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I just felt like a bit a brief reviewing of all the games and expansions that have been released this year (and more are on the way - I will have to get back on them in this thread later). As I go first, I've decided to pick a format that was standard in the classic game magazines of the 80s. In particular, I'll borrow a few concepts from Zzap64!, which I adored. In order for me to review the games, I reckoned that my playtime needed to be at least 8 hours (like a day of playing it). However, a drawback is that some of the games have endings that are tens or hundreds of hours away, so this means I haven't seen everything in them yet. Well, here are the concepts that I'll be grading them with, using percentages, 0 being awaful, 100 being absolutely excellent: Hookability (fun gameplay and depth) Lastability (including replayability) Entertainment value (the passive fun-aspect of the game: How fun was it to watch, read and listen to) Out of these three, I'll calculate a mean value and call that the overall score. I won't rate them on graphics, sound or value for money. I'll rate the games in order of my playing them this year. Might & Magic X: Legacy Hookability: 78 Lastability: 79 Entertainment value: 75 D3 Reaper of Souls: Hookability: 81 Lastability: 82 Entertainment value: 72 Thief: Hookability: 58 Lastability: 68 Entertainment value: 67 Goat Simulator: Hookability: 28 Lastability: 14 Entertainment value: 48 The Tesla Effect: A Tex Murphy Adventure: Hookability: 63 Lastability: 58 Entertainment value: 77 Wolfenstein: The New Order: Hookability: 67 Lastability: 66 Entertainment value: 70 The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing 2: Hookability: 73 Lastability: 76 Entertainment value: 70 Company of Heroes 2: Western Front Armies: Hookability: 87 Lastability: 86 Entertainment value: 67 Divinity: Original Sin: Hookability: 84 Lastability: 82 Entertainment value: 82 Wasteland2: Hookability: 81 Lastability: 87 Entertainment value: 84 Endless Legend: Hookability: 80 Lastability: 89 Entertainment value: 82 Alright, this results in the following table, using overall scores based on the scores above: 1) 84.0 Wasteland 2 2) 83.7 Endless Legend 3) 82.7 Divinity: Original Sin 4) 80.0 Company of Heroes 2: WF 5) 78.3 Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls 6) 77.3 Might & Magic X: Legacy 7) 73.0 The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing 2 8 67.7 Wolfenstein: The New Order 9) 66.0 The Tesla Effect 10) 64.3 Thief 11) 30.0 Goat Simulator As you can see, a few games released this summer and in early autumn have been excellent IMHO. I can't wait to see how Civ: Beyond Earth and DA:I will score on this list. There is also the possibility of Pillars of Eternity this year. What would your scores be for games or expansions for games that have been released this year?
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[301] BB Priest Long Distance Healing
IndiraLightfoot posted a question in Backer Beta Bugs and Support
I'd say this would count as a bug. If I use Escape with a Rogue, then the Rogue gets to teleport away as far away as 100 m. However, if I had the priest healing the Rogue, right before, and I have also tested right after that, the heal will still connect like a long-distance call, even 100 m away! The BB priest certainly knows her stuff. This overclocks the range of the healing spells by yards and yards! -
[301] Endless boardom - Immortal Knocked Out Boar
IndiraLightfoot posted a question in Backer Beta Bugs and Support
I rolled up a new character in order to test other stuff, and started as usual, by doing the Nyfre-Medreth run. After I took down that party, there was something wrong. Endless boardom set in! That boar companion, which I hadn't used knock down on (unless the AI did it for the BB Fighter), lay on the ground, and when I moused over it, I got this info screen: Even weirder, this "knocked out" condition on a baddie, turned combat and non-combat states into fleeting concepts. It lay there, knocked out, a few seconds went by, and then the combat music stopped. I could loot everybody, but as soon as I attacked that boar, the combat music restarted, and even weirder, whatever I threw at it, it didn't take any damage (see my combat log above)! Everything registered as either 0 damage or if I cast spells on it, it didn't affect it at all. I could do this forever. It refuses to die, and I can leave it there. Even worse, it blocks the quest from getting finished. I hate that boar! -
The General Suggestions Thread
IndiraLightfoot replied to Rosbjerg's topic in Backer Beta Discussion
Great find! I'd post that in the bugs section with a "[301]" at the start of your thread title, then it will most definitely get noticed.- 290 replies
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Aww! I thought this was a thread for thanking OE that they included a rich and lovely assorted collection of godlikes for us to pick from. Well, cheers, anyways, coz I love them, just like I loved the Genasi in NWN2!
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As long as it's not above the head of the party members, I'm good. It's not necessary to see what each person is doing and where. I reckon, it should be apparent via the graphics of the models themselves. I just can't get over how invasive it is for that precious fantasy combat immuh-shun. Some mouse-over, showing me the health, like "303/440", I can live with it, but not those pip bars (not even on enemies). They are blights on my fantasy combat screen. Therefore, at a bare minimum, move those indicators near-portrait instead. Then it's much easier to see at a glance which action each party member is taking at any given moment.
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All I can say is that curryinahurry's column-like UI has a huge potential, with the combat log making it form a stumped L. This also lends the game that "fresh" space-y feel of having no real top or bottom UI clutter. Mind you, I like the old style too, but it has nothing on this kind of suggestion, IMHO.
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curryinahurry: I really, really, really like your UI suggestion! On one hand, it feels rather fresh and widescreen-adapted for being a UI for a party-based RTwP CRPG. It also lets the game shine to its fullest, showing off the areas and the combat top-notch. On the other, it is classic, in that it uses the side, as well as being ambitious, of including everything near the portrait. I can only dream that something like that is a toggable UI in the final game.
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These are excellent points! I still like the BG:EE-addition of action icons (but not on the portraits). However, what you sum up here about the importance of clearcut idle stances and the player intuitively noticing idle characters is what PoE sorely misses. I agree - and if done right, it could at least somewhat eradicate the need for near-portrait action icons. A big yes to the pips/health dot bar over each party member and all the baddies being all wrong. For the enemies, an optional simple bar would be enough. I'd prefer just a simple number at mouse-over, like: (273/540). Yep, I can't reiterate this enough: the pips are cluttering the screen and they don't help at all - also, the recovery of a character's action should be displayed elsewhere, preferably near-portrait. I really hope Josh & Co agrees with us on the pips needing to be redone/replaced-thing. And indeed: The combat in PoE is indeed more difficult in the IE games, because of those reasons. I have played BG1+2 with all-caster parties and even all-fighter parties. The latter is so much easier and semi-automatic that it's not even funny.
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If a portrait has more than one tiny icon above its portrait, the mouse over only works for the icon to the left. The next icon, to the right, will then get interpreted as if it was the one to the left (as if the icon to the left had a big invisible hitbox overlapping it). Dragon's Lair icon on its own But when it's to the right of other icons, its mouse over info no longer gets displayed. Another example. I have tested this on several maps, including Dyrford Crossing. The bug persists. EDIT: Haha! I check again, it's not a bug. It's intentional. However, it fooled me. I'd much prefer that the icon I mouse over, gets displayed firt, above the other. I even missed that they were stacked, and thus the info for both icons was included. Well, correction, please make sure that the icon you mouse over, gets displayed as a priority, instead of showing up below in a list of icons. Or, best of all, only show the icon that I mouse over, and not all of them in a stack.
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I have been in combat for the most part of my many hours in the PoE beta, and still now, at patch 301, I feel a bit overwhelmed by having an entire party clashing against X number of baddies: I don't feel I have the right amount of info on what's going on in that fray - I lack a general view of what's going on at any given moment at a glance. I reckon one of the culprits is the so-called pips. You see them above the heads of your party members in green and above the heads of baddies in red. These are action and recovery indicators. To the left, there is a teeny weeny circle with a few actions presented in it, when you take them. If you see two feet that means your character is on the move, if you see a sword, it means it is performing an attack, and then you see a thin vanilla-coloured bar beneath it. It usually zips by pretty fast, and this is the recovery time. Another culprit is my choices of action being too far away from the in-game area where the fighting takes place OE has placed the action icons above the portraits down in the left corner. Like Sensuki suggested earlier, I'd love to have those actions form a bar above the centre hub instead, where it's closer to the action, and so your action choices will be quicker! This is, after all, a RTwP-game. What I have done below is some simple mock-up. Please view it as a mere seed for further UI suggestions on action and recover indicators in PoE. Personally, I reckon the pips are more confusing, than helping. In this mock-up, where I have shifted my paladin's action bar into the middle, I have deliberately kept the pips, just to show you what a mess it is. You see how they overlap, how their lit up in various degrees of brightness, how dark parts of the map etc more or less hide them, especially the red pips of the baddies. If they will remain in PoE, I will have them turned off, that's for sure. My idea for action & recovery indicators is, I think, simpler, clearer and much more informative. Whenever your characters have taken an action, we would see that action above their portraits, and it will use similar (or in my mockup the same) neat icons that OE has already made for all actions, and also, for what kind of weapon you're carrying. So, in the mockup picture below, it is only my paladin that has taken action (please, again, ignore the pips above party members and baddies- I just left them there). And here she is using her sword, so that becomes the action to the left above her portrait, and also she uses her once-per-encounter skill with that burning sword damage, and that is the action to the right above her portrait. These two action icons will appear above the portrait until the action has been performed. Then begins the recovery time. At that moment, the once-per-encounter icon disappears (since it won't recover again in this fight). But the paladin's weapon, which was involved in the attack is still in recovery. So it get's shaded/darker, and you see a red bar above it, doing the same thing as the thin vanilla bar did in OE's floating pip-thingie. Just for über-clarity, I did add a red "R" on the shaded sword icon as well. So, for every encounter and for every party member, there will constantly be action I& recovery cons like those of the paladin in these two examples given above each portrait. This means that I get to see at a glance what's going on all the time, and I don't have to have a jumble of floating icons in the midst of combat. I view that as a piece of art, and I loathe to see it cluttered like that. I realize this is not what the classic IE games did. It's more a PoE-adapted BG:EE action icon-version, where I have added recovery to the info by the portraits. I really like it, and I think this would improve all combat immensely. You will never ever wonder any more what everybody is doing in combat. As for the baddies' action and recovery info, I'd prefer to have that all invisible. I don't need that info. Make it a toggle, I guess, and then keep the red pips on those, for folks that appreciate them. BIG DISCLAIMER: The size, brightness and design of my action and recovery icons above the paladin portrait are just ****e! It's a mock-up, after all.
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Seari: I was a proponent for critical misses/fumbles as well, and as things are now, I'd love to see these "misses" be replaced with critical misses with some "fun" negative effects attached to them depending on what kind of attack it is.
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I was one of the vocal proponents for having a miss in PoE back then, thank you very much.
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Here is a big reason why v301 "feels better"
IndiraLightfoot replied to Sensuki's topic in Backer Beta Discussion
Good point: All my saves are from Normal difficulty. -
Here is a big reason why v301 "feels better"
IndiraLightfoot replied to Sensuki's topic in Backer Beta Discussion
We'll see what happens if Josh makes all the baddies hit hard like that ghost, right across the board and even harder, but we keep it all as it is now. That could be a fun game - no swift and naked solo Orlan stabbing humanoids in the calves no more.