How are people finding the beta?

[TheTeaMustFlow]

As one of those poor souls lacking the wealth to fork out £110 to get to backer beta tier, I'd be interested to know how much those who do have it are enjoying it, and why.

[Freshock]

I'm enoying it very much so far, it's alot of bugs of course but it's fun to get a taste of what the final product will be. I'm loving the combat, trying out the different classes and just discover the maps available. It's definetly worth it in my eyes but I can understand people that want to wait and get a bug-free experience as well - I've just been waiting to get into this game for a long time so I'm happy I bought the beta access. 

[C2B]

I enjoyed what I played. (Though I'm waiting for an update at least for auto attack)

 

It's a beta otherwise and my enjoyment is under consideration of what that means. (Very early beta at that, more or less the start of one actually)

 

 

Whats good is that the actual content seems to be very good/excellent for an optional area.

[Sensuki]

Pretty beta-y

 

A C2B said, the content (quests, dialogues, encounters) is the thing that is the furthest along so far.

Edited August 20, 2014 by Sensuki

[Lythe Vodaine]

It's awesome!

 

It brings back very fond memories of those long evenings (and nights) I spent playing Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, etc.. I'm already in love with this game, and am sure now that it was the right decision for me to back it. Can't wait to get my physical collector's box!

 

Oh, and of course it has bugs, like any Beta (and Alpha) out there. But the more we test it, the less bugs you'll get when the game is finally released.

[IndiraLightfoot]

The atmosphere, the music, the mood, the ambient sounds, the day and night cycles, the story, the sense of a juicy fantasy world with a long history and oodles of cultures...

There are so many things in that regard that are truly great. The list just goes on and on.

 

I also love character creation - but so far it has been a bit underwhelming, partly because these are new systems perhaps, but also because I've had a hard time levelling up any character. Due to my explorative playstyle and mayhap a few quest bugs, I haven't earned a single xp after 7 h of playing now with one and the same party. When that's sorted, I know this will be a fantastic character building game. Josh has really succeeded, it seems, in creating quite varied classes, cool races and background variations!

 

I'll perhaps take a break from the beta for a while now (except for some char creation fiddling) until the following gets fixed:

-Combat pathfinding

-Weird in-combat skill-use freezes

-Quest and xp bugs decently ironed out

-Items disappearing (all my money and items, for instance, were gone after 5 h after I pressed "continue", but when I instead loaded my latest save, everything was still there. Phew!)

 

It's shaping up to be an epic CRPG if you loved the IE-games and/or the NWN-games.

Edited August 20, 2014 by IndiraLightfoot

[Messier-31]

Yeah, well don't get too excited about it, so your hypeness will endure to the final game release

[SophosTheWise]

Basically, I absolutely like the game. It's not yet "love" because I only played for about 3 hours or so without much time. So, as others said, the content is, until now, spot on. Everything oozes Infinity Engine and it's as if Baldur's Gate never left. The game is expectedly dialogue-heavy with class writing, the quests I've done so far all had some fun twists and the environments and music and sound design are pretty awesome (apart from the fact that the music in Dyrford is a bit repetitive but I guess there's more music to come (?)). You absolutely get what you expected. It's the return of the Infinity Engine and it's shaping up to be epic.

 

 

The things that are not so good at the moment:

- Bugs, lots of them. Disappearing items, disappearing pets, sound bugs, small graphical glitches, still broken journal with disappearing notes as well as some addendums to quests that never really get updated in your journal

- Combat is a bit chaotic at the moment. I wouldn't go so far as some people on the Codex calling it a cluster**** but it's certainly a bit fast and since the animations and backgrounds are a lot more lush everything kind of blends together at times, making it hard to distinguish what's actually happening, who's attacking who and who's casting which spell. This only happened in outdoor areas or reaaaaally small indoor areas. In the dungeon I've been it wasn't really difficult. 

[Forlorn Hope]

As one of those poor souls lacking the wealth to fork out £110 to get to backer beta tier, I'd be interested to know how much those who do have it are enjoying it, and why.

 

You can get it as an 25 dollar addon. If I remember correctly the offer ends on friday the 22th of August (the day after tomorrow!)

 

About the beta: Exactly what IndiraLightfoot said Edit: And all the others thus far :D

Edited August 20, 2014 by Forlorn Hope

[siril_dana]

It's okey. There are basic Stuff that need work, such as not being able to enter a building with one character while the others roam the town, I think the devs. Need to play BG again! The combat is weird and some design decisions depart from the games that inspire this one. I also think the game is in the right path, I,m looping forward to the beta updates.

[Bli1942]

The atmosphere/music/quests (when I could complete them) are all good. Combat is unbearable, it needs a lot of work. There are also a lot of bugs, I suppose to be expected. I can't get anywhere if I die or save and reload, I have to play the whole thing in a sitting to get further through it

[Kjaamor]

The style, atmosphere and general design is fantastic, and I think it will be a worthy successor to the IE games.

 

That said, it is overwhelmingly buggy in the same way that the sky is overwhelmingly blue. As of the current release, I am experiencing crashes to desktop and fatal bugs so often that I realise spending money to participate truly is a negative status effect resulting from a failed will save.

 

I have every confidence that they will sort these bugs out and a wonderful game is on the other side, but I would encourage non beta-players not to feel envious of those of participating. At the moment it is seeing a game through a pea-soup of bugs, and other than being able to view and play with character creation I do not feel substantially more aware of the game than I did before beta started.

 

For the record, I'm on 32-bit XP, and I think it reasonable to assume that this is interfering with my experience, since others have claimed to have completed the game and I have barely managed a single quest within. Players in a similar boat may wish to consider their PC options.

[PrimeJunta]

Promising.

 

Okay, longer version. On the plus side, it's pretty stable. Doesn't crash or freeze much, for a beta. It looks and sounds just about finished, a few sound bugs and graphical glitches aside. The writing is stellar. The atmosphere is stellar. I like the way the classes are designed; they really do give dramatically different experiences when playing. The content density feels nice; there's a lot to do in the smallish area we're in, but it doesn't feel overwhelmingly crowded.

 

On the minus side, the combat is a... clusterhug. There are about two or three extremely high-impact bugs which make it really hard to control and therefore frustrating, although there are ways to mitigate this (e.g. only use one or two melee characters). I'm confident this will be a lot better already in the next build. 

 

It's also more than a little rough around the edges -- quite a few *Missing string* messages, white squares which should contain art, odd icons, transparent-colored clothes, a save/load bug that makes items disappear, and what have you.

 

Overall? I'm enjoying the bejeezus out of it. Chargen is quick enough that I can roll up a new one snap-snap-snap and then go give those beetles some more welly. It's fun, and once they've got the combat sorted and the usual finishing up and polish done, this is gonna be a classic, and I have no doubt that they'll get that done. Already looking forward to the next build; enjoying this one in the meantime.

[Kjaamor]

On the plus side, it's pretty stable. Doesn't crash or freeze much, for a beta.

 

I suggest that the difference for me is being on 32-bit XP with a cap on 3GB of RAM, but for me it crashes more often than the average beta.

[PrimeJunta]

Hm, yeah, that's likely to have something to do with it. Considering that Microsoft isn't supporting XP either, I think it's unlikely that Obsidian will test much (or perhaps at all) on it. Upgrade time or maybe switch to Linux and play that one (when it's out?)

[IndiraLightfoot]

I've had one crash in 7 h, after Merdeth and her 20 hog companion copies, on a x64 Win 7 system, so perhaps it's hard to use Vista (I read a few posts about that) and other x32-systems.

[Wintersong]

 

As one of those poor souls lacking the wealth to fork out £110 to get to backer beta tier, I'd be interested to know how much those who do have it are enjoying it, and why.

 

You can get it as an 25 dollar addon. If I remember correctly the offer ends on friday the 22th of August (the day after tomorrow!)

 

Not really sure if buying the addon is worth the effort and money. Don't get me wrong, despite the bugs, I love this BG feeling in the beta and wish there was lots more content. I love the character models (some more than other but still) and the little details. I like the combat (despite bugs and sometimes having trouble knowing what's going on and where). Only crashed once (trying to load a game) and seems to work fine (full screen or windowed).

 

But we are talking about a small section of the game, non related to the main quests, that leads you from level 5 to 8 (or so I read, still stuck at 5), buggy... And I must say that I don't know what else can we expect from this beta before the game releases. I expect some patching to the current beta but will we see some extra areas at some point? Is it just this and no more till release?

 

I mention it because some people may find that to be a serious issue and would prefer not to pay for it if this area is all you get. If that information is somewhere, I have missed it but would be good to know. In my case, I don't mind as it was part of a digital bundle. But someone who just bought the game and then paid 25 for the beta... I'd understand some frustration there.

[Nonek]

If I may ask a few questions to those of you in the know: Is the game just a succession of combat encounters like the Baldur's Gates and Icewind Dales or are there more options and solutions to situations? Do the characters have backpacks or does the inventory just magically disappear as per usual? How is the gameworld, do npc's have routines and lives, vanishing at night and returning at dawn, or are they just static scenery? Why doesn't Dyrford have a stockade around it, is the area near a garrison or largely settled? What is the major career in Dyrford, is it largely agrarian, and what passtimes do the inhabitants partake in?

[ashtonw]

I guess I'm alone in not liking the descriptive writing. I prefer mainly dialogue, like in BG. Aside from that, combat will take getting used to but I think I will like it. The main problem right now is starting out with a ton of spells and not knowing anything about them.

[The Loyal Nub]

It's got a lot of promise I think and the quests, world, races, dialogues, music are already pretty well done and immersive but the combat is a major issue right now. It's too fast and it's hard to tell what exactly is happening without pausing often (very often). The models are very nice but there still needs to be some work to make them distinct against game backgrounds. It's as someone else already stated "beta-y."

[The Loyal Nub]

If I may ask a few questions to those of you in the know: Is the game just a succession of combat encounters like the Baldur's Gates and Icewind Dales or are there more options and solutions to situations? Do the characters have backpacks or does the inventory just magically disappear as per usual? How is the gameworld, do npc's have routines and lives, vanishing at night and returning at dawn, or are they just static scenery? Why doesn't Dyrford have a stockade around it, is the area near a garrison or largely settled? What is the major career in Dyrford, is it largely agrarian, and what passtimes do the inhabitants partake in?

 

Outside Dyrford there are a lot of combat encounters. No backpacks. I haven't spent enough time in Dyrford to note the full routines yet. During the day it was very active with a lot of conversations and activity. No stockade however there are a few troops/guards. It's an agrarian area by the looks of things. But as soon as you leave the town you load to another zone so it's not exactly "open world" where you can find a farm and run by some travelers or at least I have not seen that yet. I arrived in town, took a quest, and fast traveled to another zone to work on that and it's there I found a lot of fights with creatures. 

[IndiraLightfoot]

If I may ask a few questions to those of you in the know: Is the game just a succession of combat encounters like the Baldur's Gates and Icewind Dales or are there more options and solutions to situations? Do the characters have backpacks or does the inventory just magically disappear as per usual? How is the gameworld, do npc's have routines and lives, vanishing at night and returning at dawn, or are they just static scenery? Why doesn't Dyrford have a stockade around it, is the area near a garrison or largely settled? What is the major career in Dyrford, is it largely agrarian, and what passtimes do the inhabitants partake in?

The atmosphere in the game world is very much like BG and IWD, but it hasn't got the depth of the best Ultima iterations, probably not even a third of that lived-in feel. D:OS certainly did a decent job at the latter, btw. This means that the concept/sense of roleplaying is leaning towards the story, the history and a few major and minor NPCs with cool twists and turns to them and it also leans just as much, if not heavier, on developing characters through xp progression and making plenty of choices during that advancement. Then, of course, in the finished game, you'll hopefully get quite reactive and non-hollow party companions too. Such a mix in a CRPG is very dear to me, so I'll probably love it, but for the Ultima VII fans, it most likely won't do the trick. It will do quite nicely, but it'll never fill its shoes - and it never meant to do that. It's trying to fill the shoes of BG or NWN2.

Edited August 20, 2014 by IndiraLightfoot

[Nonek]

Thank you and much appreciated.

[PrimeJunta]

If I may ask a few questions to those of you in the know: Is the game just a succession of combat encounters like the Baldur's Gates and Icewind Dales or are there more options and solutions to situations? Do the characters have backpacks or does the inventory just magically disappear as per usual? How is the gameworld, do npc's have routines and lives, vanishing at night and returning at dawn, or are they just static scenery? Why doesn't Dyrford have a stockade around it, is the area near a garrison or largely settled? What is the major career in Dyrford, is it largely agrarian, and what passtimes do the inhabitants partake in?

 

There are multiple solutions to situations, and the quests are nicely written and the solutions are tied to the writing, so it's a lot more than "go to place X, kill monster M and bring me the head" (although that may be one of the possible solutions). 

 

Wilderness has lots of wildlife waiting to ruin your day.

 

No backpacks. I'm imagining there's a pack of invisible llamas following everyone around carrying the loot.

 

Haven't noticed NPC routines. They feel very IE-ey, i.e. you'll find them where you left them, mostly.

 

Dyrford appears to be in a peaceful area. Some bandits and annoying wildlife around, but no keep other than some ruins; seems to be a long time since the last war.

 

Dyrford seems pretty agrarian. There's a currier, a smith, an herbalist, a peasant, and an innkeeper you can talk with at least.

 

I'm kinda wondering about pastimes too actually, since apparently they've largely given up on attempting to making babies, although they do appear to jump at the opportunity when it presents itself.

[Chaos Theory]

I'm on the fence on whether to even play the beta.  I've got it downloaded, but I just don't want to spoil anything.  I learned that the hard way with Wasteland 2, which I don't even care to replay upon release now.  Plus, I'm still grinding through Original Sin...