The General Suggestions Thread

[Rosbjerg]

Please discuss your thoughts, ideas, complaints, suggestions etc. on Pillars of Eternity here.

[PrimeHydra]

It seems odd that the Load Game and Save Game screens don't auto-expand the active character (where applicable). Each time I have to click my character's name to expand his saves. Folks will restore games for the active protagonist much more often than not.

[PrimeHydra]

Call me OCD, but whenever I get a new quest, I like to immediately review it in my journal. Pillars pops up a nice-looking scroll with a new/updated quest (resulting from the conversation I just ended, for example). But clicking the scroll doesn't do anything...feels like it should bring up the Journal with the associated entry expanded. 

Edited August 20, 2014 by PrimeHydra

[sheriffharry]

1) make combat a bit slower (but not as slow as the "slow" mode)

2) make the creature engaged with a selected character recognizable somehow (indented circle beneath ?)

[ctdavids]

I would love for tab-highlighting to highlight the container/bodies dropped by slain enemies like it did in the infinity engine games.  On that point, wouldn't mind being able to AoE loot the bodies but maybe there are objections to this.

 

I would also like a bit more visual/audio feedback on combat.  Or at least a visible queue of abilities that a character is going to perform.  I find myself having to watch my cypher carefully to see if she's cast her charm spell yet or not.  Either that or watching the combat log for her name.  Not the most enjoyable of experiences.  Quite possible that's something that's still to come, but it definitely leaps out at me as a location for improvement.

[krellen]

I would love for tab-highlighting to highlight the container/bodies dropped by slain enemies like it did in the infinity engine games.  On that point, wouldn't mind being able to AoE loot the bodies but maybe there are objections to this.

 

It currently does highlight containers, but not dropped loot from enemies. (It's possible "Expert Mode" disables this?)

 

As for my suggestion: when I click on a member of my party, I want to select them to the exclusion of the rest of the party. Having to click only on the portrait or click them twice feels too "sticky" for me.

[ctdavids]

 

I would love for tab-highlighting to highlight the container/bodies dropped by slain enemies like it did in the infinity engine games.  On that point, wouldn't mind being able to AoE loot the bodies but maybe there are objections to this.

 

It currently does highlight containers, but not dropped loot from enemies. (It's possible "Expert Mode" disables this?)

 

As for my suggestion: when I click on a member of my party, I want to select them to the exclusion of the rest of the party. Having to click only on the portrait or click them twice feels too "sticky" for me.

 

 

Yes, sorry, I meant the dropped item "containers".

 

I also agree with your suggestion.  There have been a number of times where I've moved my entire party when I really only meant to move one person.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

I think the culture selection should come before attributes, as they contain an attribute bonus.

 

Have Flames of Devotion give a damage bonus over a small period of time rather than provide a one shot attack.

[Kiel29]

The culture coming after the attributes is a bother, but the aesthetic of attributes in the middle I like. I've just gotten used to selecting what culture I want, then clicking back and doing the attributes.

[Namutree]

Lower the hp of petty enemies by 10%. Few know how much it would help this game.

[Roarkkk]

Some suggestions based on the 3 hours i got to play.

 

1) Stealth - Actually it has a different name, can't remember it. But anyway, i could not figure out how it works. Also im not sure if ambush/backstab is possible for rogues? Maybe i'm missing something or maybe it's not clear or intuitive enough.

 

2) Skill points - 1/3? 12/15? This confused me. every 3 points you get 1 upgrade to the skill. But what are the 1/3 etc for?

 

3) Combat - After many fights i realized that combat pace is OK. The problem for me is the speed at which everything moves. It almost always ends up in melee combat, making many abilities and spells useless. Also it favours clamping of mobs/NPCs, making it harder to figure out what is going on. To me it seems that everything moves far too fast when comparing it to combat pace. I'd like to see a movement slow down. 

 

 

So far the game is shaping to be epic. Really really pumped about this. 

[Koth]

As per a suggestion from Grotesque in the following thread: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/67163-please-bring-back-the-pencil-drawings-of-items/?p=1483683

 

Please bring back the pencil drawings of items from BG series. Its a minor thing and should not come at the expense of obviously more critical items, but it certainly would be appreciated.

[Roarkkk]

Minor suggestion: 

When viewing an item detailed description, the ENCHANT button placement is tricky.
A small window opens and you have a big button below, i'd expect that button to close the window instead of opening the enchant screen :s

 

Maybe it's just me, but i find that confusing. So you could add another button to close the window, or rather re-think that button placement. 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

The culture coming after the attributes is a bother, but the aesthetic of attributes in the middle I like. I've just gotten used to selecting what culture I want, then clicking back and doing the attributes.

I think that selecting culture after subrace would make the most sense.

[makryu]

Ok, my thoughts then after 2-3 hours and having explored about 50% of what's in the beta.

 

Pros:

 

- Overall visuals are great, nailing the expected "updated IE" feeling.

 

- Small touches such as the bestiary are great.

 

- The dialogue framework, if adequately used in the full game, has the potential to influence future CRPGs. It is truly compelling.

 

- I appreciated the importance of items such as the grappling hook in environment interaction. I think this is an area in which CRPGs were always lacking and the scripted interactions are a nice solution to that.

 

Cons:

 

- The environments feel a bit too static, and it contrasts significantly when water or other large moving element (I've seen only the watermill so far) is present. I don't know if there is any possible fix for this, but if I had to try I'd say there has to be more numerous small moving elements occurring at a more frequent rate. I'd also say that the outdoor tall grass adds negatively to this impression. I think you kind of expect tall grass to move, whereas short grass like in past IE games gets a free pass for being static.

 

- Too many "pop-up dialogue" NPCs. Since the game isn't voiced for the most part, I sort of expected verbose random NPCs with useless but entertaining banter. If the beta town is any indication, I'd say the rate for fleshed out NPCs vs "pop-up dialogue" NPCs is pretty much on par with what I'd expect from a fully voiced Bioware game (that is, mostly only named characters directly related to quests have real dialogue) , which is a con to me in this game.

 

- The lions don't fit in. Remove the lions, please .

 

- I think every change, such as XP prizes or a new bestiary entry should be signaled with notifications such as the ones used for quest updates, or something similar. There should be more "fanfare" when the player progresses in some way.

 

- I don't feel like the inventory interface is making it easy enough to know what's the better equipment for your character. A mouse over pop-up window with green and red stat alterations would work wonders here, especially since the system itself is original and foreign enough.

 

- Lack of more varied portraits, especially ones matching the godlike heads. I assume this is planned to be present in the full release.

 

- The attribute system felt odd to me: I can't pinpoint the reason why, maybe there are missing directions on to what will really be relevant to what in the game, or maybe it's because it doesn't feel like it matters so much where the points will go.

 

- The skills felt lacking to me. I sort of expected a more varied selection, and more active uses for them, a la Fallout. The way it is, it feels underdeveloped as a system.

 

- Dedicated abilities screen, please? Is it somewhere I was too dumb to find?

 

- Combat doesn't feel as satisfying as in the IE games. I think there are a number of reasons for that.

 

     *The combat sounds aren't truly doing justice to what's happening in the combat. Maybe the fact that they're buggy and missing often has to o with it, but I also found the volumes misplaced at times.

     * The amount of combat info above the characters heads isn't helping. It detracts from the action severely, I think. It doesn't help that the hp meters look ugly, and that the recovery bars diminish instead of increase, which just felt counter-intuitive to me. I think this area could use a major overhaul, with the recovery bar and action circle info going to the portrait area, with hp remaining as an option, but with reworked art (a classic continuous bar would look better, I think). The status icons also feel too small. I would favor them being bigger.

     *The combatants feel grouped too closely together. I think this impression is in part due to the fact that their circles overlap. I think a much clearer way would be to go with the classical IE where the circles didn't overlap. Also, the circles could be used to indicate who's engaging and engaged with who, as that is a mechanic which I found myself ignoring mostly due to the difficulty in identifying what was going on.

     *Who's using which abilities on whom could also use some work. As subdued as I think the effects are intended to be, I think they still have to be more visible in some way.

 

I guess that's it, I'll be sure to post other impressions when I get to play more. I think the devs shouldn't shy away from delaying the game to address these issues. The game is clearly promising, I'd hate to end up seeing its potential somewhat wasted.

[Karkarov]

 

The culture coming after the attributes is a bother, but the aesthetic of attributes in the middle I like. I've just gotten used to selecting what culture I want, then clicking back and doing the attributes.

I think that selecting culture after subrace would make the most sense.

Concur.  Culture needs to come before the stat selection, ideally right after race.  I know it is how it is for aesthetic reasons but unless you are going to play the Aeyder culture you always have to go back.

 

Perception and Resolve need to be changed to be more than out of combat stats.  I suggested it elsewhere I will here again.  Either scrap 6 stats altogether and drop to 5 combining the two stats into one, which I know may not be possible, or significantly alter what they do.

 

Assuming we have to keep 6 I suggest....

 

1: We scrap interrupt and it's resistance all together.

2: Make Perception give a 1% (maybe even lower) bonus to Deflection and Critical Chance.

3: Keep the Will defense on Resolve but also give it a 1% bonus to DT (this is very small, a 10 Resolve would only give BBFighter 1-2 more DT in his starting gear) and +1% to Critical Damage.

 

Those are ballsy propositions but they will definitely make them desirable stats. 

[600lbpanther]

Just a quick random firing - stream-of-thought - session I had after playing a bit. 

1. Chanter song book – Why do I have to hit the “?” button then click on a chant to see a description when everything else in the game is a hover-over-and-reveal-description function?
   
2. Is there a “collect all” inventory option on the keyboard?
   
3. Will all dropped items have the same graphic?  If there is not a way to differentiate what type of item(s) are being dropped (i.e. potions, weapons, scrolls, vendor trash, etc.) without clicking into it then can a “hover over” option be offered so I can quickly see what is in the mix?
   
4. I wonder with the “infinite stash” option if it would be better suited to a “roleplaying world” if you could summon a "runner" or “gopher” to haul items back to chests / strongholds?  That way, it mitigates the amount of traveling back to town you have to do while offering a plausible explanation for an “infinite stash”.  The only stipulation is that the amount of runners allowed at a time and/or time it takes for them to deliver goods to storage has to be ironed out.  Also, you possibly could have a "runner" or "gopher" fetch items / armor / weapons that you need.  The ultimate point is to reduce travel time to town while offering a reasonable reason as to why you have an “infinite stash”.  (There are reasonable reasons in game as to why fire can shoot from a wizard's finger tips but there does not seem to be one for "infinite stash" yet.)
   
5. This is probably a personal issue but it’s hard for me to target enemies when bunched in group or close to each other.  Someone help me out please.
   
6. I play on a 55” screen so maybe this is inherent just to bigger screens but when creating a character there is a lot of side-to-side head action (i.e. – choose race/class/etc. on left then look to right to read description).  It would be a nice feature if one could choose an option and the description offered is not on the opposite side of the screen.
   
7. How do you exit the game / return to main menu when you are in character creation mode?  The ESC key is not offering anything for me and the back button only goes to choosing race.
   
8. Not sure if I missed this option:  What are thoughts on "party mode formation" options that are tailored to playing style / party make up.  (i.e. - Option that puts warriors up front and wizards in back.  Scouts up front.  Wizards and priests in middle.  Etc.)
   
9. I cannot make a 2nd new character.  The NEW option in main menu brings me in-game with same character I created before.  I am assuming this is a beta bug but just wanted to post it in case I am the only one.
   
10. Feel free to add any.
    

[PrimeJunta]

1. Add a facing arrow to the right-drag formation positioning UI, so it's easy to see where the party will be facing.

 

2. Overhaul the Stash UI. Use a split pane rather than a floating pane, which obscures the inventory.

 

3. Add "Cancel" and "Accept" buttons to dialog-type panes, instead of only being able to exit them with Esc or the closing cross.

[Sensuki]

1) make combat a bit slower (but not as slow as the "slow" mode)

Don't make the combat slower, the recovery times for characters wearing armor (and shields) is already long enough to slow down character actions in the game.

 

Wizard spell cast times and recovery times are also pretty slow.

 

People keep saying the combat is too fast, when the action speeds in combat are not too fast, it's a whole bunch of other factors.

 

Movement speed and amount of damage dealt by creatures and large ranged weapons are a couple of them.

 

I would refrain from making too many judgements about combat until some of the critical bugs are fixed - such as auto attack, the retarded pathfinding and selection issues.

[Cluas]

I would like to be able to zoom in/out a little more. 

I know it is coming, but I really really need an option for "area scrolling speed" (it is too slow)

The "tab" highlight have to work on everything...

Animals hostile by default? (I'm thinking the lions, they don't seem to fit in)

I don't like areas with nothing in them (i,e the mill)

Combat is fine. I love it. Please don't slow it down, or make it easier....

MAKE CANCEL WORK EVEN IF YOU PRESSED A TRANSITION TO A NEW AREA (I guess this is actually a bug)

[Sensuki]

You can't zoom in any further. The closest zoom is the source art level. Any closer and you'll pixelate the background.

[Cluas]

You can't zoom in any further. The closest zoom is the source art level. Any closer and you'll pixelate the background.

Thanks. How about zooming out then? Is it a matter of resolution? The biggest screen i can get is 1920x1080 and it is almost perfect, just need to zoom out a tiny bit more...

Edited August 21, 2014 by Cluas

[Doppelschwert]

- Make the UI distinguish clearly between 'At will', 'Per Encounter', 'Per Rest', 'Modal' abilities by grouping them into rectangled frames.

 

- Make Resolve combine the interrupt/resistance against interrupt stat and give perception a bonus to the range of ranged weapons, range of targeted abilities and radius of engagement, making it beneficial to all classes.

[eatplayhate]

- Make the UI distinguish clearly between 'At will', 'Per Encounter', 'Per Rest', 'Modal' abilities by grouping them into rectangled frames.

 

Seconded.

[Osvir]

Idea/Brainstorm/Suggestion for Necromantic Chanters and/or Forbidden Magic.