The General Suggestions Thread

[musim]

Just did my first run through the demo/beta.  

 

I'm used to the old CRPG's having a combat speed slider.  Is that something that can happen?  Its really hard to gauge the flow of combat currently.  

 

Also an autosave features that saves at the start of each battle and before screen transitions would be really nice.

 

I'll probably have more to add as I literally just played for an hour and those were the things I noticed.  Still have a lot to uncover.  Love the lore and art and feel of the thing.  

Also as with all CRPG's, pretty hard to gauge what stats mean what for whom.  

[Polanski]

In the character sheet, when you mouse over stats (stam. / Hlth. / Acc. / D.T. ...) it should bring up info about the derivations of these numbers, class abilities/stats so on ...

E.g. Health 136   should bring up ( + 90: lvl 5 warrior + 10: Ring of Health + 36 % Constitution)
 

I would also suggest that rightclicking a portrait in the inventory should bring up the character sheet.

[Emitan]

Would it be possible to change "sex" to "gender" in character creation? It would be more accurate and inclusive.

[Mr. Magniloquent]

There needs to be a component which mitigates friendly fire for Wizard spells. The usefulness of Intellect is severely diminished because it effectively forces friendly fire in order to use spells. The fray of melee is too chaotic, and I am frequently left with the choice of damaging/disabling my entire party with the enemies, or not using spells at all. With a Wizard that has an Intellect of 3, I can at least target in between friendlies and get some use out of my spells.

 

While I was a proponent of friendly-fire, enemies move too quickly, engagement is not yet effective, and PC initiative is too unresponsive to effectively time spells before melee is met. Please either introduce talents to screen friendly fire, or include a sort of tiered friendly-fire reduction within the Intellect stat itself.

[Gromnir]

Would it be possible to change "sex" to "gender" in character creation? It would be more accurate and inclusive.

 

 

technically, there is two sexes for humans (and humanoids?) as is a simple biological distinction, but there is potential an unlimited number o' genders as gender is based on cultural and social differences. sex is not a value judgement.

 

our suggestion is to be making interrupts accompanied by a graphic or text indicator. am thinking interrupts is vast under appreciated, but as successful interrupts is largely hidden from the player, perception is getting an unnecessarily bad reputation. 

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Hormalakh]

I've made a few suggestions in another thread I made until I realized that this thread exists. I've attached the same suggestions here in a spoiler.

 

 

Finally got this unoptimized game to work on my computer...Thank you very much fluffle.

a few suggestions right off the bat:

1- I concur about the craziness of combat: one glaring issue I see that I don't think has been mentioned yet is the relatively slow "death animations." With the very transparent selection circles under the enemies (too transparent to see), I don't know which enemies are down and which are not fast enough to select the next enemy. I am pausing battle every 2 seconds because I'm waiting for the enemy to go down to select the next one. Another issue is the lack of contrast among the various combatants. With the spell animations on top of the lack of defined edges of character silhouettes, I can't see where an enemy outline starts and where it ends. This along with the blended feel I get when looking at the battlefield makes it really tough to tell how many units are on the field.

If need be, go for the VATS style complete outline with a red or blue of the silhouette for each character, friend or foe. That should make telling characters apart easier.

2- The controls option requires two very important options: (1) scroll speed both with mouse and with keyboard. As I understand it, the current speed is locked to the FPS of the game. With a scroll speed, allow players to move multiples of 2/0.5 in either direction when moving the screen. Put another option for scrolling speed for keyboard only. (2) Mouse sensitivity/speed. I move my mouse much faster than the game is reacting. I need sensitivity.

3- What the heck is going on with these hotkeys? The hotkeys are extremely unintuitive and all over the place. Furthermore, the actual things that require hotkeys (abilities) have no hotkeys at all. Abilities require hotkeys because hotkeys allow a more useful approach to combat (the one time where speed and agility of the player actually matters). I don't care about a hotkey for the options (which should be utilizing the F-keys anyway. What I care about in hotkeys is the ability to reselect commonly accessed buttons (ABILITIES). This is where if Obsidian followed the RTS/MOBA approach, it would be ok.

Along the same lines, the current delineation of abilitiesh passive/active/per-rest/per-encounter is completely unintuitive. Filter these abilities based on increasingly fine categorizations. Passive abilities shouldn't even be shown on the hot bar in the bottom left. They're passive and so you can't even really toggle them. Modal abilities should be in a category of their own. It should be quickly evident which abilities are "switchable" (modal) and which are not. Right now some of the abilities which are modal are sitting next to active abilities and it's unintuitive. I haven't played with all the abilities, but I will try to sit down and look at each classes ability list up to level 5 today and come up with a better positioning for them.

 

 

 

 

I've also got a few other suggestions:

 

1. I really find the Aumaua facial models to be in that "uncanny valley" space what with their hypertelorism (eyes far apart). I understand that they are some sort of "shark-people," but the models for the Aumaua should be changed to get rid of the hypertelorism. I've attached a copy of before and afters of the facial models without hypertelorism and I think they look a lot better.
2. I've got a lot to say about the UI and the way abilities are placed and hotkey use, but I will suffice it for now with this singular suggestion: put the weapon sets completely away from the abilities. Put them to the right of each portrait and keep the abilities separate from them. I've done a mock-up of what I'm describing and attached it here.
3. Allow the player to cancel level ups. What if you aren't sure what to level up yet and you accidentally clicked on level up? The same is true for chargen and other "locked screens."

[Hormalakh]

CharGen: my thoughts and suggestions

http://hormalakh.blogspot.com/2014/08/character-generation-v257.html

[CatatonicMan]

A minimap option in the UI would be nice. I like minimaps.

[reavor]

Could wandering NPCs stop when you click to talk to them? Even if they don't have anything special to say it's still a nice touch. So far they just keep walking away while my characters run after them. "Hey you! I'm talking to you!!"

[Danathion]

I made a new topic on this before seeing this thread, so apologies for the duplication!

 

I've been watching several youtube videos to get a better idea of how people are finding the beta. I've observed that there is some difficulty grasping the Health-Stamina mechanic. it seems to me to be a naming issue and my suggestion is this:

 

Rename Health as Endurance, rename Stamina as Health. The 1:4 ratio relationship remains the same. Endurance should be expressed as a percentage and health as a number of HP.

 

In combat Health is lost and recovered by use of spells, potions etc. However Endurance is recovered only by resting.

 

Healing by magical means addresses only the wound, allowing you to continue to fight, but not the long term effects of battle. Serious wounds (being maimed after falling unconscious) and the physical/mental/spiritual etc fatigue of prolonged combat are only overcome by rest.

 

I believe that is the idea, but for some, the current naming is a stumbling block.

[JohnnySideburns]

Just a suggestion for feeling a difference between different weapons: set the attack speed for melee weapons to be the same, but have the difference be in the recovery-time. That way the weapon with the farthest reach will get the first hit (which i think it should) , but the faster weapons will still get more. 

[Seari]

In chargen why are we not choosing the portrait sooner? In BG2 it was one of the first things you choose, and I personally base my character around it.

[Danathion]

A suggestion regarding attributes I made in one of the many debates about attributes: Have 3 attributes instead of 6.

 

Currently 2 attributes govern a Defence Type, I suggest merging the attributes and calling them by their respective Defence Type titles:

 

Might + Constitution = Fortitude

Dexterity + Perception = Reflex

Intellect + Resolve = Will

 

Fortitude, Reflex and Will should be recognisable and understandable.

 

If possible, I suggest splitting physical and magical damage - Magical damage to be governed by Will.

 

That way you have your Warrior, Wizard, Rogue attribute that everyone is familiar with. Should you desire a frontline Wizard you take a bit more fortitude at the expense of Reflex and Will. Class customisation/experimentation is achieved through Skill choice, perhaps more skills are needed.

[Meepalasheep]

1. I really find the Aumaua facial models to be in that "uncanny valley" space what with their hypertelorism (eyes far apart). I understand that they are some sort of "shark-people," but the models for the Aumaua should be changed to get rid of the hypertelorism. I've attached a copy of before and afters of the facial models without hypertelorism and I think they look a lot better.

 

I have to disagree with you there. With your suggestion, I think they look really boring. I think they should stick with their original design, the new races in PoE are weird, and I like that.

Edited August 23, 2014 by Meepalasheep

[Polanski]

In chargen why are we not choosing the portrait sooner? In BG2 it was one of the first things you choose, and I personally base my character around it.

agreed

[Shadenuat]

Probably being worked on now, but I want to highlight the need for more solid and striking spell effects. In IE games many things, including those, were abstract, almost RTS-like, that perhaps lied in the fact that Bio at first wanted an RTS-game.

 

All AoEs had clear borders and worked in a very precise way. Although the best example of that is probably Temple of Elemental Evil which, why a TB game, had such precise borders for AoE effects that you could hit enemies as long as little thin border line touched them at least a bit.

 

The other thing is that many spell effects feel... stock. Modern. 3D. Look at Planescape effects once again, that feel almost alive, they play out like classical animation. Check on vibrant magic missiles moving in random patterns and leaving sparks everywhere. Check on Grace's Call Lightning, that was so amazing, that developers then adopted that impressive blast for Icewind Dale games. Or Ravel's branch magic. Many spells not only were very pleasing to look at, but also were thought provoking because of lore that supported them.

 

Make spells last on screen a bit longer, leave some additional effects like burning ground. I'd also bring back chanting and standard spell cast animations for everyone, because without those it's hard to know who casts what. In BG2 I can predict what is coming at me by just hearing spell chant and seeing what color little sphere is in mage's hands. Not everyone wants chants probably, but there must be some way to know about spells without slow mo+textsupport+pause after every spell.

 

For now I was impressed with Arcane Veil, Beetle Shell, Circle of Protection, a few sunlight-based spells... that's kinda it.

 

It also feels to me that some spell names are unnecessary complex. D&D has a mix of general purpose names (Haste, Slow, Magic Missile) and lore names (Bigbi's Fist, Melf's Meteors). But in PoE it seems that designer was working hard on making every spell consist of at least 3 words, with at least a word being uncommon. It is a bit too hard to remember and manage in your memory. It seemed like Chanters/Ciphers got that treatment in particular.

 

Actually, while I'm at it, it feels like there is a lot of lore dumping on a player, and sometimes lore is not that relevant to plot or how player would act with that knowledge. An example I used on Codex was "Thayne". It is not an uncommon title for fantasy genre, recently used by all so popular Skyrim, as well as by dwarven lore in various settings and games; but PoE has a specific dialogue line just for it.

I think dialogue might be kept for things that are important, like monster names or locations; general stuff can be left in the books you find around the world.

Beta sometimes made me remember that "words made up by author/quality of writing" chart.

Edited August 23, 2014 by Shadenuat

[Mayama]

Probably being worked on now, but I want to highlight the need for more solid and striking spell effects. In IE games many things, including those, were abstract, almost RTS-like, that perhaps lied in the fact that Bio at first wanted an RTS-game.

 

All AoEs had clear borders and worked in a very precise way. Although the best example of that is probably Temple of Elemental Evil which, why a TB game, had such precise borders for AoE effects that you could hit enemies as long as little thin border line touched them at least a bit.

 

The other thing is that many spell effects feel... stock. Modern. 3D. Look at Planescape effects once again, that feel almost alive, they play out like classical animation. Check on vibrant magic missiles moving in random patterns and leaving sparks everywhere. Check on Grace's Call Lightning, that was so amazing, that developers then adopted that impressive blast for Icewind Dale games. Or Ravel's branch magic. Many spells not only were very pleasing to look at, but also were thought provoking because of lore that supported them.

 

Make spells last on screen a bit longer, leave some additional effects like burning ground. I'd also bring back chanting and standard spell cast animations for everyone, because without those it's hard to know who casts what. In BG2 I can predict what is coming at me by just hearing spell chant and seeing what color little sphere is in mage's hands. Not everyone wants chants probably, but there must be some way to know about spells without slow mo+textsupport+pause after every spell.

 

For now I was impressed with Arcane Veil, Beetle Shell, Circle of Protection, a few sunlight-based spells... that's kinda it.

 

It also feels to me that some spell names are unnecessary complex. D&D has a mix of general purpose names (Haste, Slow, Magic Missile) and lore names (Bigbi's Fist, Melf's Meteors). But in PoE it seems that designer was working hard on making every spell consist of at least 3 words, with at least a word being uncommon. It is a bit too hard to remember and manage in your memory. It seemed like Chanters/Ciphers got that treatment in particular.

 

Alot of the spells look quite nice in slow motion

[Caerdon]

Death godlike should be somewhat resistant to blinding effects - they're wearing a visor.

[mrmonocle]

Okay, make resolve determine how many per encounter abilities you can use

[Randomthom]

Please, put the party portraits down the side, not along the bottom. We all play on widescreen these days, screen real estate is much more forgiving like that.

 

Obviously the UI isn't finished regarding the feedback it gives but the layout is a much more fundemental element.

 

Regarding feedback though, it would be great if the selected character portrait grew very slightly (~10%) when selected.

[Qiushui]

How about letting the player have the option to have portraits on the side or bottom.

[Mr. Magniloquent]

The side would be a much better option. I don't know why they are trying to duplicate the IWD2/TOEE UI. The additional space on the size also provides greater room for displaying things like....status effects, and character action bars. Whereas status effects are currently far too small and ambiguous with their tiny little tags affixed to the top of a portrait, action bars and indicators are quite obstructive. Both could be placed by their portrait and appropriately sized if they were on the side of your screen, rather than lost in combat or crammed into the bottom.

[Sarky]

If I recall correctly the BG games had status icons inside the portraits, saving screen space.

[Zitchiock]

How about letting the player have the option to have portraits on the side or bottom.

[sparklecat]

My comments/suggestions as I went along:

 

- The "Quicksave completed" text could be present a bit longer on the screen.

 

- When I click the tab to collapse the dialogue log box, the tab to open it again moves rather far up the side; took me a bit of searching to find it to uncollapse the log.

 

- Are the food/potions/scrolls in the crafting menu going to tell me what the item actually does?  Maybe once I've used one of the item, if not before?

 

- Why is it that I've put the same number of points into athletics and survival, but athletics is at 4 overall and survival at 3?  Oh, apparently priests get +1 to athletics.  It'd be nice if the skills screen and character sheet made explicit where the numbers were coming from; the latter simply says Athletics: 5 (Base) when I click on it.

 

- I would like to be able to save extra skill points I don't want to use yet for the next time I level; if I don't have enough to hit the skill level up threshold, I'd prefer to wait and see what I want to do with the points by the time I do.

 

- I would like clicking the god I chose for my priest (as well as my... racial subtype?  Meadow Folk, etc.) to tell me what I'm getting from having chosen them, when I click them in the character screen.

 

- Where can I get a look at all my priest spells?  I found the grimoire, but it seems that's wizard only.  Also, I think one's spell book/list of combat abilities is important enough that it should be part of the HUD along with inventory, etc., as well as starting off bound to a key.

 

- The mouse wheel scrolling equivalent on my laptop trackpad doesn't zoom in and out like an actual mouse wheel would.  And it seems I can't bind it to any keys, which is a problem.

 

- Attempting to fight a group of lions when your party and the lions are all behind a large tree is very difficult.