How are people finding the beta?

[Flow]

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...

 

There's no main story content in the PoE beta. Just a few unrelated quests.

 

Unless spending time with the character creator is going to ruin things for you, I'd say you're safe. Though you might as well wait until they patch a few of the major bugs at this point.

[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...

 

There's no main story content in the PoE beta. Just a few unrelated quests.

 

Unless spending time with the character creator is going to ruin things for you, I'd say you're safe. Though you might as well wait until they patch a few of the major bugs at this point.

 

 

Pretty much any town exploration at all would be a spoiler for me.  If it were just random wilderness areas, maybe I'd play a few minutes, but...

[Sensuki]

If you're skeptical I'd skip playing for now, especially considering the state combat is in. A lot of people I know don't want to play the beta, they want the release version, rather than experiencing the unpolished mess.

[Osvir]

@Title: Exciting

Edited August 20, 2014 by Osvir

[ManifestedISO]

The guys at RPS have had a positive reaction playing the beta. He created a character rolling physical dice. 

 

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/08/20/228491/

[Karkarov]

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 plenty of solutions.  I easily talked my way out of the Ogre quest for example.  In fact if you stop to talk to him he is a rather lucid chap and isn't even all that bloodthirsty.  I could give other examples but I don't want to spoil it.  There are also plenty of quest hints buried in dialog and passing stat checks related to it.

 

That said, the whole beetle debate from last week about is it worth it, should I do this or that, etc etc..... uh pure bunk.  Those beetles going to attack you man, you can either take the initiative or they will.

 

 

Pretty much any town exploration at all would be a spoiler for me.  If it were just random wilderness areas, maybe I'd play a few minutes, but...

Take Sensuki's advice and skip the beta.  There are no "main story spoilers" but there are plenty of hints on what is going on with the main story and lots of stuff dropped in different quests.  For example there was a big event that happened in Defiance Bay right before the game starts I guess that you can hear about.  Not to mention the story behind some of the rather intricate quests in the Beta itself.

 

If you want no spoilers at all.... avoid the beta forums and don't play it.

Edited August 21, 2014 by Karkarov

[Bryy]

It's a very good game in a very unstable wrapper. I'm not touching the beta again until I see what is in the first update. The most glaring thing is the quest bug where your journal keeps resetting.

[Karkarov]

It's a very good game in a very unstable wrapper. I'm not touching the beta again until I see what is in the first update. The most glaring thing is the quest bug where your journal keeps resetting.

Apparently that only happens if you hit continue instead of load then manually picking your save from the title screen.

[Morzan]

I'll be frank. I'm quite disappointed with the quality of textures. It all looks OK-ish when it's zoomed out, but on the inventory screen, or when you level up, it's ugly. I think we would be better off without those close-ups. t's not like we need them. Since the launcher doesn't have any graphical settings, there may be a way to make all this look better. But as of now, they don't stand up to today's other offerings at all. 

Then there is the UI, I'm not a fan of the way the game displays available "mana", it's hard to see/read. Inventory screen - if they just got rid of the big portrait on the left, paper doll and got a smaller quest items a storage buttons, they could easily make all the item icons a little bit bigger, so I could actually tell what I have in my inventory at a first glance.

Spell icons are also too small, blurry, pixely even. I get that if they got bigger, they would probably got in the way too much, but there is a solution to this too. Just get the portraits on the side and action bars at the bottom like every other game does. I mean, screens are wide now-a-days, so UI elements that are on the sides are less intrusive anyway.

[TheTeaMustFlow]

Thanks very much for the responses. While it looks like I'd be better of not forking out however much money I'd need for the beta, it still looks like the final game is going to shape up very well 

[Chaos Theory]

I'll be frank. I'm quite disappointed with the quality of textures. It all looks OK-ish when it's zoomed out, but on the inventory screen, or when you level up, it's ugly. I think we would be better off without those close-ups. t's not like we need them. Since the launcher doesn't have any graphical settings, there may be a way to make all this look better. But as of now, they don't stand up to today's other offerings at all. 

Then there is the UI, I'm not a fan of the way the game displays available "mana", it's hard to see/read. Inventory screen - if they just got rid of the big portrait on the left, paper doll and got a smaller quest items a storage buttons, they could easily make all the item icons a little bit bigger, so I could actually tell what I have in my inventory at a first glance.

Spell icons are also too small, blurry, pixely even. I get that if they got bigger, they would probably got in the way too much, but there is a solution to this too. Just get the portraits on the side and action bars at the bottom like every other game does. I mean, screens are wide now-a-days, so UI elements that are on the sides are less intrusive anyway.

 

I'm fairly sure nothing, visually/graphically, has been optimized...  really at all.  I'd imagine it's one of the last things they do before release.  So rest easy, mate.

Edited August 21, 2014 by Chaos Theory

[Ink Blot]

Apparently that only happens if you hit continue instead of load then manually picking your save from the title screen.

 

No, it happened to me as well and I never used the 'Continue' option. Always loaded from the title screen. And the time I had it happen, I was actually firing up the game for the first time that day.

[Nonek]

Another question for you learned ladies and gentlemen, if you don't mind: How is the culture of the Dyrwood portrayed in Dyrford? Are there phrases peculiar to the local inhabitants? Traditions and customs to be observed that leap out from the normal rpg observances?  Are there any social peculiarites that are worthy of discussion? Is there a unique local manner of dressing oneself? How do the local people view foreigners such as the protagonist and their party? What is the prevailing mood of the populace with regard to national events, patriotism, worry, etcetera?

[Strigoi]

It looks like a early Beta, and this is not a bad thing. I am glad to see the lore and presentation so far, and I am sure a lot will be improved in the next few iterations.

But, frankly, I won't play a lot. I want to have the 'new game' feeling when it's finally out for real.

So far, I am content.

[PrimeJunta]

 

It's a very good game in a very unstable wrapper. I'm not touching the beta again until I see what is in the first update. The most glaring thing is the quest bug where your journal keeps resetting.

Apparently that only happens if you hit continue instead of load then manually picking your save from the title screen.

 

Unfortunately not. It's happened to me a lot, and I never Continue.

[Karkarov]

Another question for you learned ladies and gentlemen, if you don't mind: How is the culture of the Dyrwood portrayed in Dyrford? Are there phrases peculiar to the local inhabitants? Traditions and customs to be observed that leap out from the normal rpg observances?  Are there any social peculiarites that are worthy of discussion? Is there a unique local manner of dressing oneself? How do the local people view foreigners such as the protagonist and their party? What is the prevailing mood of the populace with regard to national events, patriotism, worry, etcetera?

Hard to tell since we have no access to any area that is not Dyrwood right now.  There are various little things that pop out, but we can't really post them for fear of someone going "SPOILER!!!!!>>!>!>!????!?"

 

The place has plenty of character and there is a definite history you can learn about in game.  But it is a small town, like 6-7 buildings and about a dozen actual unique people.

[Darvon]

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.

 

The 2D environments are great, the combat is beyond abysmal.

 

On a scale of 1 to 10, I'm enjoying the beta regret/10.

 

Obviously the ship has sailed, but I'd cancel my order to get even a quarter of what I pledged back. I'm hoping I can offload an unopened collectors for like $40 after release.

 

 

Edited August 22, 2014 by Darvon

[PrimeJunta]

@Darvon don't give up on it at this point. The combat is broken because of a relatively small number of high-impact bugs. The underlying design is sound and very IE-esque. Fix the bugs and it'll be a lot better. Add the polish like in Sensuki's suggestions and it'll be awesome.

[Namutree]

 

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.

 

The 2D environments are great, the combat is beyond abysmal.

 

On a scale of 1 to 10, I'm enjoying the beta regret/10.

 

Obviously the ship has sailed, but I'd cancel my order to get even a quarter of what I pledged back. I'm hoping I can offload an unopened collectors for like $40 after release.

 

 

 

And I thought I was upset. It's too early to give up man. This is just the beta; give Obsidian a chance to make things right.

 

How is the beta so far? Very buggy. Buggy and flawed; like a beta would normally be.

[happyelf]

It's a beta, but it's hard to offer feedback when bugs get in the way. I'm waiting until some fixes are in to ramp up the feedback; right now there are too many known issues in the way of knowing how certain things really work.

[Bli1942]

 

It's a very good game in a very unstable wrapper. I'm not touching the beta again until I see what is in the first update. The most glaring thing is the quest bug where your journal keeps resetting.

Apparently that only happens if you hit continue instead of load then manually picking your save from the title screen.

 

 

Nah that happened to me as well from regular loading, I avoided continuing because they said that in the email but it didn't help

[TheisEjsing]

I really enjoy the beta. I find the birds singing in character creation the only thing, which is weird to me. The rest of it, atmosphere, looks, combat and dialog is fantastic. And so very EI'sh. =)

[Bli1942]

I really enjoy the beta. I find the birds singing in character creation the only thing, which is weird to me. The rest of it, atmosphere, looks, combat and dialog is fantastic. And so very EI'sh. =)

 

I am hoping the sound design is early stages, after all it's an easy thing to do later on in the cycle. While the music is amazingly fitting and some of the sounds are good, they are repetitive (especially the birds) and not balanced well at all. If you turn the bird noises down to a tolerable level in the open world, then other effects like the fire noise and chatter can't even be heard when you go into the inn. Hopefully there is a lot more work to go into that stage

 

And yeah, playing through the character creation is pretty awkward!

 

I quite enjoyed the beta so far but I'm waiting for the first patch to jump back in as the game bugs me out of doing anything too fast

Edited August 22, 2014 by Bli1942

[BillyCorgan]

Same for me.

I don't really play the beta actually... too many bugs.
Waiting for the first patch.

[Karkarov]

@Darvon don't give up on it at this point. The combat is broken because of a relatively small number of high-impact bugs. The underlying design is sound and very IE-esque. Fix the bugs and it'll be a lot better. Add the polish like in Sensuki's suggestions and it'll be awesome.

Very very true.  I think a large percentage of issues also comes from three things:

 

1: People want to play it like it uses the D&D rules except it doesn't use the D&D rules and people haven't taken the time to learn Eternity's rule set.

2: You are dropped into a game with a new ruleset you have never played at level 5 with an almost full party, the learning curve is very brutal.

3: By the Dev's own admission your party is undergeared for a group of level 5 guys and it shows, my first beetle encounter was very hard and almost wiped me.  My last one after gearing up?  I mowed them down like wheat before a scythe, it wasn't even funny how easily I killed them.