First impressions thread!

[Valorian]

 

Combat in this beta can be summed up in 6 words: What the hell is happening here? It's way way too fast. It's chaotic, and whatever tactical/planning you have usually goes right out the window because the game does not give you time to carry out any tactics. 

 

I see that many people have observed the same; action speed and combat overall are too fast. I also think it's important to keep it on the slower side.

[Kharador]

 

If anybody cares, I like the IWD2 icons. I hope they'll keep them. :nostalgia:

Me too!

 

Except some of them get resused for different spells at the same level, which is kind of confusing.

 

 

It's so confusing. There is no reason for mantain the same icons. Is very dodgy.

If you have nostalgia, go to GOG and buy IWD2...

[Vonatar]

As someone in GMT +1 I only got a couple of hours in last night, but assorted thoughts are:

 

- inability to rotate camera and/or objects fading out was a real problem for combat. I fought the lions almost entirely behind a bush and couldn't see anything.

- combat needs a lot more oomph. Hard to know if you're hitting or if abilities are activating

- party members regularly getting stuck on objects when they can't reach the target and stuck in a running animation

- would love to be able to zoom in further as things are pretty tiny at 2560x1600

- UI definitely needs another pass, was really clunky

- no doubt graphics are to be improved with post processing etc. Was quite grainy/fuzzy especially inventory items and some text.

 

Going to put some more time in tonight and test further.

[Kharador]

One of the things for which I am quite concerned is inventory. Certainly I don't like it, the design, few items to take, confused and tatty...

I hope that for the final version they change it all, cause is really disappointing.

[Bli1942]

 

 

If anybody cares, I like the IWD2 icons. I hope they'll keep them. :nostalgia:

Me too!

 

Except some of them get resused for different spells at the same level, which is kind of confusing.

 

 

It's so confusing. There is no reason for mantain the same icons. Is very dodgy.

If you have nostalgia, go to GOG and buy IWD2...

 

 

It looks terrible I think, they don't fit the game. There should be nice polished wood-looking icons

[Crom]

Just to echo what everyone else has said, combat seems to be the weakest aspect right now. I have hard time figuring out what's going on and distinguishing the enemies and characters from each other, wondering if my wizard already finished casting the spell or figuring who's that dummy sitting there, face-tanking the spider. For example, button to display small pop-ups above characters to just show their name and hp/stamina would be incredibly helpful to get a good overview of the battle with a quick glance. Kinda like what the TAB does but also show the player character status and maybe with more compact and less intrusive nameboxes.

[Killyox]

Icons are almost certainly a placeholders.

[mrmonocle]

With disappearing gear and quests I can't make it how I'm supposed to be impresssed at all. My UI impressions. 

Edited August 19, 2014 by mrmonocle

[jttm80]

My first impression: Loading screen seems to be quite slow (especially exit and entering buildings). I'm also playing BG2 right now, and the buildings load really quick.

 

Possible bug(?): After combat, all my characters are moving in slow motion. I'm really not sure what I pressed. (Its not the scouting button)

[Starwars]

-Game looks gorgeous, has a great feel to it. Certainly nails the IE atmosphere. Would love more movement in foilage alá the first demo video from way back, perhaps that idea was scrapped? It's not a huge deal though.

 

-Sound is solid so far. Feels on its way to feeling really full which was always a plus in the IE games. Would still *love* a toggle to keep combat music from playing. I don't mind the music but I just don't like it much when the full choir hits whenever I'm fighting a beetle (not that it's necessarily easy ). Not sure how hard it would be to implement but I'd love a toggle for it.

 

-Inventory takes some getting used to, still not sure how I feel about it. The main interface when you're moving around feels good I think. Journal works well. More icons for items would certainly help.

 

-I'm not sure I agree with others when they say that combat is too *fast*, but it *is* currently quite hard to get an overview of what's happening. It feels like it lacks feedback and I'm having a hard time following the combat log for whatever reason. The speed of it feels alright to me, but I pause often in these games so maybe that's why. Love that it feels so active though, much better than the IE games in that regard. The classes all *look* fun and appealing at least, haven't tried much yet.

 

-Dialogues feel good.

 

EDIT: Also, for everyone who is complaining (not providing constructive criticism), this is still not a finished product. It's not meant to wow you or give you a grand playing experience. It's still beta, and you opt into it by choice. 

Edited August 19, 2014 by Starwars

[fr0sty]

At this phase in development, how much will they polish the 3d models?

 

I think that character models look too cartoony and the lions looked pretty lackluster. Maybe it's the lighting, it just looks a little off. 

I also agree with the comments regarding combat, we need more feedback that something is happening. 

 

Another question, will there be any voice acting? Haven't heard anyone speak a meaningful piece of dialog yet. (Just wandered into the wilderness and starting killing stuff for now)

[sparklecat]

Incidentally, resizing the combat/dialogue log window is an utter pain at present; it seems to be trying to stick to some preset size every time I try to make it bigger, with the result that I spend a couple minutes making incremental progress at turning it into something more readable, only to misclick and have it resize itself back to the default.  Frustrating.

[Zuryk]

After killing the enemy, should be illuminated magnifying glass. I do not know if we gathered all or not.

 

Good Job.

Edited August 19, 2014 by Zuryk

[Bli1942]

The sound is a bit off in places. The birds are too repetitive and loud and annoying, but if I turn the effects down to a good level, when I go into the inn i can't hear any of the effects noises or dialogue walla unless I turn it back up. Also the birds play throughout the character creation when my character model is standing in a cave which was terrible lol

Edited August 19, 2014 by Bli1942

[Gorionsson]

Looks great, Sounds great. Beautiful game.

Ui responsiveness not good,

Graphical glitch on map screen,

Terrible framerate in outdoor areas, (i'm on a powerful gaming laptop).

Dialog very good.

As others have mentioned, combat is a mess right now, - Hard to keep track of characters in melee, feels chaotic. Auto attack bug?

Combat feels too fast, and we need more time between turns maybe? Very short casting times removes a tactical element i feel.

Enemies move waaaaay too fast as well, Some of your abilities never come to play because of this.

Balance the critters, please. Not all combat has to be tediously tactical,- save that for boss areas.

 

I'm confident this will be a very good game in the end, but combat is a real worry for now.

[PrimeJunta]

Except some of them get resused for different spells at the same level, which is kind of confusing.

 

That certainly needs fixing. Did you report which ones in the Bugs forum?

[crackwise]

I am not a beta backer myself, but from the gameplay videos I have seen so far a couple of things bother me a lot in terms of visual aspects:

 

1. The characters in the game blend rather too much with the background and don't strike out properly. They look as if they are somehow transparent and blurry. Character shadows don't help much in this case either. The characters  look so transparent as if they have all somehow casted shadow door   or are in the etheral plane etc.

 

2. It seems there is only one type of attack animation for each weapon at the moment, e.g. the dwarf keeps swinging his axe from right to left all the time, the paladin thrusts at the same location with her rapier. I hope they make better animations with more variation. (BG2 and IWD2 had different attack animations for instance)

 

3. The ogre fight:  I would expect such a huge creature would knock you back and send you flying when it hit you. It is rather bland at the moment how it just keeps hitting you.

 

I am an nfinity engine era RPG guy, but still this is year 2014. Even though the roleplaying elements are more important to me, I would expect to see decent animations in such a game. Dragon Age (yes, it was 3-D, not the same thing) which came out in 2009 had pretty cool fighting animations, with knock-down and knock-back included. (Remember the epic Ogre and Dragon fights in that game!)

Edited August 19, 2014 by crackwise

[shrubber]

The game shows a lot of promise and visually captures the IE feel quite well.

 

I'm not currently feeling the combat, and combined with the clunky combat UI it's simply not enjoyable.

[Namutree]

 

Balance the critters, please. Not all combat has to be tediously tactical,- save that for boss areas.

 

This is my biggest concern. I feel like combat could become a real chore if every fight is such an ordeal. I might just play the game on easy while exploring, and whenever I get into a fight that is important; I'll turn the difficulty back up. 

[Ahvz]

General Thoughts 

- Area transition icons take precedence over party members for clicking. Can make it difficult to control battle near the edges of the map. 

- Ranger pets always have to be last in party? 

- Items dropped by enemies upon death needs to be easier to spot. In most areas, (like the cave) it's fine, but in grass it can be a problem.

- Items dropped by enemies need to show up behind trees/rocks/houses/obstacles.

- Normal difficulty is great.

- I don't like how characters stick to their original formations if you're only selecting a few characters. I use formations mainly for ease of movement (the narrow, staggered formation just like BG), and a giant L when you select less than all six companions (instead of what should happen, a smaller staggered group) isn't great for movement.

- If the mousewheel does something, can you allow us to rebind it? 

- It took forever for me to find the notification that a quicksave has occurred. Most games put it somewhere near the top of the screen. Could use a less blendy font color, too.

- Grey out Stronghold button (don't allow it to be clicked at all) instead of saying "You don't own this yet." Don't want to ruin the surprise for new players. Or not, because I can see issues with greying it out, too.

- I like the UI.

- I haven't been able to find the number values for my character's personality stats. This is important to me. Am I just missing something?

 

Graphical bugs!

- My ranger ended up with my fighter's portrait in those circle portraits that happen when the characters are offscreen. 

- I lost my ranger pet stamina circle upon loading.

Edited August 19, 2014 by Ahvz

[Namutree]

I am not a beta backer myself, but from the gameplay videos I have seen so far a couple of things bother me a lot in terms of visual aspects:

 

1. The characters in the game blend rather too much with the background and don't strike out properly. They look as if they are somehow transparent and blurry. Character shadows don't help much in this case either. The characters  look so transparent as if they have all somehow casted shadow door   or are in the etheral plane etc.

 

2. It seems there is only one type of attack animation for each weapon at the moment, e.g. the dwarf keeps swinging his axe from right to left all the time, the paladin thrusts at the same location with her rapier. I hope they make better animations with more variation. (BG2 and IWD2 had different attack animations for instance)

 

3. The ogre fight:  I would expect such a huge creature would knock you back and send you flying when it hit you. It is rather bland at the moment how it just keeps hitting you.

 

I am an old school infinity engine RPG guy, but still this is year 2014. Even though the roleplaying elements are more important to me, I would expect to see decent animations in such a game. Dragon Age (yes, it was 3-D, not the same thing) which came out in 2009 had pretty cool fighting animations, with knock-down and knock-back included. (Remember the epic Ogre and Dragon fights in that game!)

This game has serious functional issues as it is. The last thing Obsidian needs to worry about is making sure the animations are neat.

[sparklecat]

 

Except some of them get resused for different spells at the same level, which is kind of confusing.

 

That certainly needs fixing. Did you report which ones in the Bugs forum?

 

Not yet; I'll go in and look through the spell list later today.

[mrverbal]

Let me start with: Loving it so far. Obviously hoping we can fix some things and add some polish, but game feels very deep and character creation has a frankly dazzling array of options. So the below are things that I am critical of, but overall I feel positive thus far

 

I've come into this paying very little attention since I shut up and gave you my money, so some of this may be things that have already been discussed in emails.

 

However! It won't have been for whoever buys it on steam or GOG, so it seems valid.

 

1) I don't really have any idea how high or how low a stat makes you average. If my resolve is 3 - or 18 - what does that mean, exactly? Feels  a little like I'll get in, play a few hours, and restart once I have some idea how characters work. (I mean, I'm assuming these are essentially D&D stats)

 

2) The initial loading screen feels a little like the game has crashed. Some kind of loading-image or bar would help a lot!

 

3) When I'm doing my stats, the bonus for whatever the default 'where I grew up" is added in to my stats, causing bad feels when I realise what I'm getting is less of a bonus and more of a moving a point from A to B. Would be better if it was only added once you get to that screen.

 

4) Selecting spells - I'd like there to be some mechanical info. Ok, so Minoletta's minor missles summons 3 spell missles. (What the hell is a spell missle? Sentence does not entirely parse). How much damage do they do? does the damage scale with my stats? With level? If it is with stats, can I move spell selection to after stat selection so I can have some idea which spells are best?

 

5) Still on stats: I may have missed it, but it's not entirely intuitive which stats are in general most important for which class. If I'm a wizard, do I need high resolve? High int? does my Str matter at all? I've currently got no idea because there doesn't seem to be any real info in the character creation section. Is there a manual before I get this far?

 

6) For the godlike: This might just be me, but I suggest not defaulting first to the death godlike. They are the most extreme-looking of the 4, and it may turn players off the option before realising there are other options.

 

7) In the game itself: In the shop (winfreths), there is an item called *Missing String* and I'm guessing it isn't some quest to return some string to someone. Some items also have odd icons (such as the paladin boots which apparently look like a sack of rice)

 

Several instances of text of the kind 'Invalid object - benevolentrank2' (EG - talk with innkeep)

 

9) Aaaand combat. Combat feels wildly chaotic, and not in a good way. I felt in general I had no idea what any of my characters were doing or who was where. I didn't know why there were dots over everyones head - HP? Actions? It was the fight with Medreth and his men, and it just felt like a giant mess. I was getting constant "weapon ineffectives" for BB fighter, and couldn't tell if he was being unlucky or was just dreadful.

 

Overall, thus far, the asthetics and the world - excellent. Super deep. Lots of potential. But the combat is a bit of an ugly mess, IMO.

 

edit: Apparently there is abug forum and I should crosspost some of this over there

Edited August 19, 2014 by mrverbal

[Ashen Rohk]

I'm loving that pathfinding is an issue that constantly comes up like it wasn't a massive issue in IE game.

 

Some nice feedback here though for me to consider while I play tonight

[Ahvz]

6) For the godlike: This might just be me, but I suggest not defaulting first to the death godlike. They are the most extreme-looking of the 4, and it may turn players off the option before realising there are other options.

 

I agree with this. Also, all of the female godlike tend to have one head option that's less extreme than the others (wraparound horns for the nature godlike, halo for the moon godlike, the second death godlike/fire godlike option) and that would suffice for default... but every one of the male choices have extremely large horns or other radical features, the death godlike especially so. It's bad enough that I don't think I'll be playing a death godlike when the game comes out like I had planned to. 

 

That reminds me - I'd suggest a different order for character creation. Gender -> Race -> Appearance -> Culture -> Class -> Voice.