IndiraLightfoot

Here's a plus and minus list that Aeon1977 made over at the M&M X Early Acess forums, and which I and others have helped put together. It's valid for about two hours of playing: First of all, you managed it to create the typical atmosphere from the start right on, it´s very immersive and going to become a great game for sure. Following is my list of the good and the not-so-good things I came across on my first two hours playing. There may be things you are already aware of or things that are more technical in nature and not belong in here, but I want to have it all in one thread, so here we go, in List form ;-) Plus: + Nice, long intro + Atmosphere is brilliant + Environments have sort of life - trees moving in the wind, birds fly across the sky. Nice. + Title music is very good + Little eastereggs (won´t spoiler in here :-D) + Recycled sounds from MMVI -> Great! + Combat feels very good, I like that it is not too static like in the earlier games, and it can be pulled off quick´n´brutal on the weaker mobs + Very nice death animations + Environments are well-thought. Standing on the bridge in Spider Lair and looking down has something! + Lot´s of story elements / gossip etc. + Bestiary in Journal well done! + Immersion, immersion, I was sucked right in and going Minus: - Lighting of environments is brutal! While the lit parts are nearly blazing and you need sunglasses, the dark parts stay too dark. Especially outdoors and if you fire up a torch-spell indoors it´s distracting. I think, in the first pictures and gameplay vids it was not THAT extreme. - Movement could be executed faster. Just like that. I think its the transition between the tiles which is a bit to slow, the move itself. No problem with the stops though, as this is part of the grid-based experience. Movement should be speed-wise like Grimrock, they did that in a good and fluid speed. - Textures are inconsistent in quality. Some look really good, others like a washy mess (parts of floor, doors etc). - Day / Night cycle is WAY to fast, and so is becoming fatigue. - Clipping errors: In the Spider Lair, some spiders clipped through a barrel and vice versa, as well as the floor clipped through the first chest I found there. - Map needs tooltip for visited location when hovering over a white dot within the map OR implement the possibility to make own notes. - Don´t ask the player if he REALLY wants to enter this or that dungeon. Just throw him in with the message: "You´re entering Spider Lair" or something, this is more surprising. If the player feels like he still doesn´t belong there, he can always exit the place, if he / she wishes. - An unconscious character doesn´t heal after resting and there is no way for him to consume a potion. This is very bad, it hever had been in M&M that way. You should only be forced to enter a temple when being dead, not when being unconscious. - Equipment comparing in the shop would be nice to have - Reduce the chance of getting antidote potions when battling spiders. Now it´s like 100%, being around 65% would be better, as it gives a bit more sense of danger. - Only the selected enemy should have this white border. - After levelling up, you get attribute points, but no Skill points? Did I miss something? (Clarified: have to hit "G" for access to skills / spells) This is it for now, had no weird bugs or game blocking stuff so far, I will update this thread regularly when adavncing in the game. Keep up the good work! ;-) UPDATE 1: + Party barks in combat! - Transition into combat too long - Cave at 115,41: Icon to enter is placed behind the wooden planks - Movement animations in combat could be faster. Feels a little bit like Wizardry 8. Might and magic always had sort of quick, fluid combat. - Weapons break fairly quick... - First game stopper: I casted the spell "Celestial Armour". The turn after that, everything in the commands bar greyed out and I couldn´t perform an action, nor turn left or right.

Great thread! Well, the avatar goes without saying. I used it during the KS for PE, and as a nod to my past. I was a very active forumite and modder over at the NWN2 forums which Bioware hosted, and I happen to love MotB and Chris Avellone's Kaelyn the Dove. And, to quote my profile text: "Indira Lightfoot" is an old favourite player character of mine, rolled up under the 1st ed D&D rules. From then on, I've reused that name in most CRPGs for a plethora of characters.

Alright, one hour into the game, and still not a single fight, which is a good thing in my book. Some new early impressions (since many of them overlap with Hurlshot's and Keyrock's): -It's actually more polished than many games that are released (Legends of Dawn comes to mind) -Quite a lot of RPG love have been infused into this classic M&M brew. There are lovely details here and there in the environ graphics. For instance, if you pick up books, there are nice black-n-white drawings and texts that actually mean something, instead of ho-hum dribble. -The entire first town feels like its full of variants of Skyrim's very own "I used to be an adventurer like you..." -There are repairs and a food system, as well as a day-n-night cycle -The in-game UI is a long, clean and still organic slab along the bottom, a bit weird on widescreen monitors, as it makes for a letter box gaming window -Overall, though, the UI and the simple, but effective character creation system are quite satisfying features -I love that you can turn around and view your surroundings, while it still is a walk-along-squares game. I must say, M&M for me was never more than casual CRPGs for me. I was much more into the IE games and the NWN ones, as I am a D&D fan. So, for what it's worth I can totally see myself playing this a lot, especially if the atmospheres we get later on is as good as the initial one. It's been a pleasant surprise so far, and a toolset down the road is making this deal even sweeter.

Alright, this is my first Ubisoft game (hey, it's true!), so it was a bit of a hassle to get that Uplay Lite loader. However, after having it remember me, and reloading steam, then pressing Play is not any worse than when I played Kingdoms of Amalur and that Origin-thingie. It's not good, but I can live with it. The UI and music so far is pretty lovely, at least for a nostalgia trip. I also notice that out of the four classes we get to show in this alpha stage have advanced classes ahead, so there will be prestige classes to all classes, it seems. Neat! Well, I shall head back to character creation. I have an entire party of four to create. Yay!

Downloading it now on Steam. This is exciting!

Heh, Oby, cool pic! Is there perhaps a Pech-gene involved here somewhere?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_history_in_Russia Unsurprisingly, it seems that Russia, just like most of the West, presented more or less the same situation for homo- och bisexuals for centuries (categories, which by the way, are rather new inventions of the 1800s), and even in the early USSR. During Lenin's reign, homosexuals held seats in the government. Saying that Russia is something utterly different, an almost alien culture with no same-sex relations whatsoever, has no historical bearings, and must be regarded as part of ideological claims. I recall in the '80s, how the Soviets kept feeding the world statistics that they had 0 % homosexuals in their massive chunk of the Warsaw pact. It was just so bizarre, as several guest Russian students and teachers at the unis I attended were openly gay. Sure, they had to keep a low profile back home, but that's nothing new to LGBTs all over the world. It's indeed a matter of universal human rights, and it ought to be a non-issue, since a steady percentage of all cultures, including their most beloved icons, idols and rulers, can be classified as LGBT in one or the other. It is also natural, as a great percentage of all species in the world exhibit homosexual behaviour: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexual_behavior_in_animals

Surely, Josh donning Don Quixote's fallen mantle and bringing with him the good squire Sancho "Feargasaurus" Panza on a Medieval sightseeing in France, Spain, the Balkans and Turkey is a given. I hear that nearly all the wind mills have tumbled down in these regions. Wonder why?

teknoman2: I know the feeling! I recall when I've made a number of characters in NWN 2 (only difference being I played thru the whole OC or more less hastily) and then opted for a warlock, and to my wonderful surprise, it really felt like a new game, again (within reason, of course). That's one definition of good variety to a character creation system - there should always be new play styles to be discovered.

JFSOCC: Great poem! Only thing is, I got a feeling that it will be included in PE...er, sorry...EP.

You'd best ask Ken, but if I'd wager a guess, I'd say it's some classic pin-up girl reference.

Well, in keeping with my earlier post and the current theme, courtesy of OEI's new 3D Artist Ken LeSaint:

Nice site, Prima Junta! Thank you for that, or should I say "Kiitos"? I avidly supported the Torment - Numenera KS, and a few days InXile sent me Monte's Player's Guide. It seems such a PnP-friendly system. Hopefully, InXIle will manage to translate it into a great CRPG as well.

Here's some new gameplay footage: I've just watched it, and one thing that stuck out is that they have kept a number of sounds from earlier M&M-games, perhaps not down to the sample, but it is a nice nostalgic touch. Also, day-n-night cycles seem to be in, and so far I like the Elven ranger the best. The atmosphere seems great, although obviously almost generic, which I don't mind as long as it's fun to play. The glowing mushrooms in subterranean settings reminds me of a lot of CRPGs, mmm...

Indeed, it's right up there with over-medicated Elaine hollering "Stella!", and Babu Bhatt being miserable at his café and waving his 10 inch nail for a finger.

I didn't know where to put this pair of broiler legs, so I dump them here in all their glory. These pictures of Cristiano Ronaldo’s incredibly veiny legs, posted by MARCA with the title: "Football in His Veins"

A legendary fawner, eh? Big Brother is nothing but a voyeur with far too much resources.

Have you ever wanted to leave the ground and soar like a bird -- or perhaps a bat? In January 2012, a Connecticut-based inventor was granted a patent for what the application describes as "a completely dynamic human powered flying suit" that is modeled after the bat's style of aviation. The inventor explains in the patent application that bats are fellow mammals and the flying creatures "most closely related to human beings." The device consists of a pair of strap-on batlike wings with rigid and non-rigid portions that can be manipulated by the wearer once aloft. Initially getting off the ground is a bit trickier: Unlike bats, who simply do what comes naturally, the wearer of the flying suit would have to be towed, or ride on a bicycle, skis or rollerblades down an incline and then assume a leaning-forward flying posture and leap into the air at the appropriate moment [source: USPTO]. The question is: Would this really work? Wingsuit flyer

EP - An Electrum Piece A hump-backed hag didn't need to bend down as she raked up a patinated coin with her claws for nails. The tarnished piece of metal lay there in a disturbed part of a plundered tumulus. She chuckled at her wind fall and turned her behind up the slope in order to get some free speed down it And then, whammy! A skeletal hand grasped her arthritic arm. She screamed as her old age spots turned white from the violent crushing grip. "Why?" she howled. "That coin is not yours to have. It's not from this world," a booming voice replied from within the burial mound. Then she got dragged into the grave, literally, and the old hag was never seen again, and the disturbed part by the tumulus was even wider now.

Wals, chalk that up to GB's world-leading CCTV coverage. Practically every corner in London has at least one video camera watching you.

Yes, I am one of those players that love the character creation process almost as much as entire games. The deed of getting out the dice and roll up a well-planned and fun and exciting character is a highlight in any RPG. However, in PnP, there were games that had this process drag out for days (no names mentioned). In the brave, new (*cough*)world of CRPGs, it usually is a much faster one. Obviously, the character creation in PE matters a lot to me, and the same goes for how much and often we get to enhance or change our player character when it's levelled up. So here follows some personal reflections, questions and wishes for PE's character development schematics. I like to see diversity, even within Races and Classes. In fact, in another thread, I proposed that Cultures should be lend the same weight as those when we create a character. Backgrounds in most CRPGs have been far to meagre and generic in most CRPGs. And, if Religion is in with a polytheistic smorgasbord, I'd be quite happy if we get to pick a god that has certain boons that go along with it (if we pray and visit shrines, that is - it should take some devout affection to get the benefits). If PE's character creation is done right I should be able to roll up six characters myself, all Orlan mages, and they short come out of character creation like a party of six rather diverse individuals, and as they progress in levels, they get the chance to drift even further apart in identity and capacity. And wouldn't it be great with starting equipment kits that reflect your choice of Culture and Religion? I'd be over the moon for something like that! I'd like the attributes to matter quite a bit: STR, CON, DEX, INT, WIS and CHA or whatever it is in PE, should have a more than notable effect on one's character's strengths and weaknesses, and it should work that way even when your level 5 or 10. Those points should be relatively hard to change once picked or rolled during character creation. Getting later increases to those values should be a feat or a stroke of great luck, not a standard event every second level. As for whether the attributes should be rolled up and then you get to distribute a few points on top, like in ToEE, or whether it should be a fully controllable pool of points that you distribute to your heart's content, I have no idea, since I love both systems! There should be heaps and heaps of skill choices, and those skills should be possible to continue to increase as you level up, a bit like 3.5 Ed D&D, which is my favourite character generation and development system. PE don't need to make a differentiation between weapon proficiencies and skills and what not. The word skill would probably suffice, no? Picking gender, height, weight and perhaps age is a must, but I don't need a gazillion faces and portraits to chose from, but that's just me. As PE will be dealing with a more zoomed out view, then it would be great if it could include the option of making characters with a much wider berth than the standard super-fit and slender models (the stick insects, as we used to call NWN1 models), it would make it easier to identify party members in-game. What are your thoughts on all this? Surely, I can't be the only character rollaholic on this board?

I'll gladly be your M&M X guinea pig, Lady Crimson. It will be an honour!

I really hope the music is good, and that the scope is as great as it seems. I'd like to have plenty of choices and interesting and varied loot. And seemingly, the deluxe edition will be available at Steam, since that is most likely a must for me in this case.

Well, that trailer sure looked sweet. It has nostalgia written all over it1 Perhaps I will try the game out, after all. Weirdly, though, I can't seem to find it on the internet. Uplay doesn't have the deluxe edition, and on SteamDB I found that this was Aug 15: "Might & Magic X - Legacy Digital Deluxe Content Steam Store and Retail Key". What gives?

Spectacled Greenheads - Whence They Came Umpteen green-headed poem failers Coming home across the briney sea When the anchor's weighed And the journey's made Yes they'll start the party With a heave-ho, me-hearty