333 Quick Impressions Thread

[Hiro Protagonist II]

can anyone share screenshots of the new loading, or anyone doing a quick video of this build? It sounds like the changes are a big.

 

Here are the loading screens.

 

 

 

In order: Dyrford Town, Wilderness, Ogre Cave, Dyrford Ruins and Lle a Remens ruins in Stormwall Gorge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Karkarov]

I haven't gotten to play much but so far this is my initial opinions in the order I saw them and felt them.

 

1: Man character models have stepped up, they look cleaner, the hair styles are a bit better done, and everything looks more polished.

2: The stat system is the same as 301.  I am not particularly thrilled.

3: Loading screens are cool, well done.

4: Characters seem to pop a little more off the background and proportions/character size looks more on the money.

5: What happened to all those extra items we got last time in the inventories?

6: BB Fighters hair is sticking out of his helmet and it is RED.

7: Dammit Sensuki there are beetles all over the place now and I blame you.

[Sir Newbie]

 

can anyone share screenshots of the new loading, or anyone doing a quick video of this build? It sounds like the changes are a big.

 

Here are the loading screens.

 

 

 

In order: Dyrford Town, Wilderness, Ogre Cave, Dyrford Ruins and Lle a Remens ruins in Stormwall Gorge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Damn the loading screens sure look nice !!

Edited October 26, 2014 by Sir Newbie

[axan22]

^{First time I have felt this game is actually playable, haven't had any major bugs in village, or up to ogre, great work guys, you have my restored my faith to this game.}

 

^{Talent system way better than the old version (although still needs some improvements)}

^{Lots of new icons for spells and items, still some to go}

^{Examine area are back such as painting etc}

^{First build where I have actually gained a lvl meaning xp works}

^{New Loading screen with tooltips.}

^{Char generation suggests attributes based on class.}

^{Can change default colours on your other heroes now.}

^{Now tells you when your stealing an item.}

^{Backer Npc's have a story in there description (although don't get this at all seems totally out of place)}

 

^{Things I still want changing}

 

^{Can you tell us in Char generation what the druid animal forms do?}

^{Talents need more icons (subsets) at the moment its only general and class, and more info be nice such as numbers how much thing are improves what things actually improve etc.}

^{More portraits please, we have more hair, but still most of the time cant find a portrait to match.  (yes I know you can import)}

 

^{Still not keen on the whole health/endurance thing but doubt that's gonna change.}

[Falkon Swiftblade]

very neat loading screens thank you for sharing. They're a little more real than i expected in the exteriors, i like the interiors a bunch, though i wish there was some kind of narrative element in the scenes, but maybe its intentionally left out at the moment. by narrative, i mean story element, a wagon or a character on the path, or a glyph, etc. its starting to come together more and more.

Edited October 26, 2014 by Falkon Swiftblade

[Sensuki]

Perception is still far more important than other stats imo, everyclass should max perception in current build.

It's because monsters got increased Deflection. Character Accuracy is now in the range where Perception grants more DPS per point than Might does. So yep, in this build Perception is more important.

[Namutree]

 

Perception is still far more important than other stats imo, everyclass should max perception in current build.

It's because monsters got increased Deflection. Character Accuracy is now in the range where Perception grants more DPS per point than Might does. So yep, in this build Perception is more important.

 

Why did they increase deflection so drastically?

[Skie Nightfall]

^{Things I still want changing}

 

^{Can you tell us in Char generation what the druid animal forms do?}

 

This. Even at least in game. I have no idea what it does other than making me look super awesome :D

About portrait, still really need more Orlan ones Does anyone have any to import? It's a slight issue to find when it's a new race

[Bryy]

Aesthetically, the game feels a lot tighter now. It looks a lot "fuller". The Backer NPCs - while severely limited in function - are really cool if a tad disappointing. I'll need to test out combat, but the progression of skills in level up actually look like they matter now instead of just "things you buy". 

[Sensuki]

Why did they increase deflection so drastically?

http://forums.obsidian.net/blog/3/entry-121-tunin-tips-and-tricks/

 

Josh prefers the "doubling and halving" method to balancing.

 

I'm not a game designer and this method seems a bit inexact to me, but that's how he does it. So expect a waveform curve of balancing until it gets a bit closer to correct.

Edited October 26, 2014 by Sensuki

[IndiraLightfoot]

 

5: What happened to all those extra items we got last time in the inventories?

6: BB Fighters hair is sticking out of his helmet and it is RED.

7: Dammit Sensuki there are beetles all over the place now and I blame you.

5. I'm not sure what you mean, but for instance, if you pick up the shells after killing those beetles, they don't show up in the invo. They are actually automagicallly transferred to your stash.

6. He could be a half-fire-godlike...

7. I'm afraid you are correct. Not sure if it's them paying him homage or pulling his leg.

[IndiraLightfoot]

 

The game really isn't running well at all. I hate the merger of talents and skills.

 

I know, this is my main hate with this build as well. It makes it so much harder to choose your abilities and your skill points. You end up having to sacrifice something.

 

And this is why I like this system. It's almost esoteric, and every choice matters. It's a bit like those amulets in WL2 - they often give you some bonus in one skill, but also drag you down in some other capacity.

[Sensuki]

5. I'm not sure what you mean, but for instance, if you pick up the shells after killing those beetles, they don't show up in the invo. They are actually automagicallly transferred to your stash.

In v301 you were given an extra Morningstar, some potions, a bunch of traps ...etc - all of those are gone in v333

 

7. I'm afraid you are correct. Not sure if it's them paying him homage or pulling his leg.

On Hard I don't think there are any less beetles, they are all now in groups of 3-5 rather than spread thinly across the map. There are now four larger groups of beetles - much better.

 

The beetles are now also off the footpath, so you can avoid them if you want. However on Hard there's now a group around the statue in the middle.

Edited October 26, 2014 by Sensuki

[PrimeJunta]

Okay, early impressions.

 

The variety of talents is delightful (and I really love some of the names—very DnD-ey, in a good way), as is the way they blew open the builds, esp. the fighter one. Now it is pretty close to what that original vision described--you really can take it in different directions, although the best class abilities are still front-line oriented. But that's cool.

 

Not so thrilled about the decision to completely connect skills to talents. I think the intent is to give you an optimization problem, having to find the best compromise between the combat talents and the skills you want to have. It's not a very fun optimization problem though IMO. I'm either ignoring the skills and picking the talents for what they do, or ignoring the talents to get the skills I want. Either way I'm treating one fairly big subsystem as irrelevant which can't really be the intent. I would rather see that decision rolled back. The old system was mechanically fine; just the level-up UI was kind of... not good. Why not just have a simple, basic point-buy system with the price going up geometrically? Display your current skill levels, the cost to level up each skill, and the number of skill points available. Cf. VtM:B for example. 

 

Lots of small but nice improvements to the UI in many places. Give a much more polished feel to the whole. Some (not all) of the character model heads now look good even in CC, which does a lot to make the game look less "cheap".

 

I'm am getting pwned by the beetles. Ouch. Dunno if it's something I'm doing wrong or if they really did make them that much tougher, but... ouch.

 

Dengler still won't talk to me. Do I have halitosis or something?

 

Like the loading screens. Another nice bit of polish there. Loading times though still need optimizing. I find it especially jarring to have to wait when entering buildings. Do something about that plz?

 

Overall?

 

I like the way the game is starting to cohere visually. The new icons, loading screens, tweaks to the UI, tweaks to the character model, etc. are extremely promising. If all they do on that front is make moar icons for everything, I'll be pretty happy.

 

I like the revisions to the character-building mechanics... other than the choice to link skills and talents.

 

I like bestiary XP, but don't like trap/lock XP. The BB is too small an the XP awards too inflated to say much more on that though.

 

The combat however isn't progressing as fast as I'd like. Despite the individual improvements to the combat UI the overall experience hasn't jelled. It's doesn't "feel" any better than in 278; it's still chaotic and confusing, and it's hard to tell what you did wrong when you get your ass handed to you. That's a bit disappointing since they have had a while to iterate on it by now. I think the main problems right now are with pathfinding (still!), movement speed (still!), and numbers balance. The balance also appears to swing wildly from buld to build; 278 was pretty hard, 301 was easy, 333 is very hard. Keep banging on at that though, you will get there... but this part does need attention.

Edited October 26, 2014 by PrimeJunta

[Hiro Protagonist II]

On Hard I don't think there are any less beetles, they are all now in groups of 3-5 rather than spread thinly across the map. There are now four larger groups of beetles - much better.

 

The beetles are now also off the footpath, so you can avoid them if you want. However on Hard there's now a group around the statue in the middle.

 

They're also at the statue on easy.

 

These are the locations on easy with Dyrford Crossing. You only need to kill 6 of each critter for a bestiary page. There are 7 wood beetles and you can leave one which is what I do.

 

 

 

 

 

Also Ogre Cave

 

 

 

 

 

And Stormwall Gorge.

 

 

 

 

 

I have the maps for the Dyrford Ruins and Stormwall Gorge Ruins but I'm just cleaning those up. I also have a chart from lowest to high kill XP rewards. Interestingly, the Lions at Stormwall Gorge give some of the best xp rewards in the game and they are really easy to kill. You can auto-attack on easy. The Spider Queen is one of the lowest xp rewards. Presumably this will all be fixed in later versions.

 

And the Pwgra summon Blights which can be Rain, Wind, Flame and Earth and reward 144 xp each. And each type of Blight has a bestiary page for them. Seems to be random. But you'll come across them if you go kill the ones in Dyrford Crossing and Stormwall Gorge. I didn't put them on the maps because it's random what is summoned and how many.

 

On a side note, you can see a lot of wasted space on the Stormwall Gorge map. I hope that bottom part is opened up in the final game because it seems to be a waste if it isn't. I only did the Stormwall map once and never again since there was no xp rewards. You can walk past below the lions and straight to the ruins and ignore the top half. Now with this version there's 6 lions to kill for xp. If there are any other lions in the final game, I would ignore them like I do with that 7th wood beetle at Dyrford Crossing. At least it's got me back on the map.

Edited October 26, 2014 by Hiro Protagonist II

[Hiro Protagonist II]

I have to add that this beta is like a kill xp game like the IE games and it comes across as more rewarding to me. The Spectres in the Stormwall Ruins give you one of the highest xp rewards in the game and it's great fighting them and being rewarded. They are damn hard in this version and it's good being rewarded for overcoming them. Otherwise, that map would have been ignored by me yet again. And I'm sure I'll be avoiding a lot of unnecessary fights without xp once I get that Bestiary page in the final game. I'm already doing that in the beta. So it's still a big thumbs down with it's shoddy implementation. Doesn't make any sense there's an arbitrary number of kills. eg. You know there's 7 wood beetles but only kill 6 and leave the last one alone. Might as well just go full combat kill xp imo.

Edited October 26, 2014 by Hiro Protagonist II

[Karkarov]

I like that hiro pointed all that out, maybe that is why I have beetles coming out of my butt now, so they can be sure we max the bestiary entry for beetles and test all that.  That said, there are still too many beetles.  There are now more beetles on normal than there were in the original BB release.  I am still a little mystified as to why they took out that extra gear which was really helpful for testing different things at the start, not to mention gearing your pc who is still wearing level 1 junk. 

 

So far other than the massive beetle overpopulation issues, the change to the skill system (just change it back please), and the stat system being the same as last release I think this is a positive step in the right direction.

[Sensuki]

There's not more Beetles on Hard. Can't say about the other difficulties.

 

Beetle placement on Hard is now fairly optimal actually. Kudos to whoever changed it.

[Doppelschwert]

Actually, I think there is a reason to make the enemies this hard - the community will work some way around it at some point by abusing the system, which is a good way to get feedback on which mechanics/talents/abilities are OP and need some rebalancing.

 

Either that, or the balancing is coming along very slowly.

[Hiro Protagonist II]

Going through the what seems like hundreds of screen shots I did yesterday and deleting them. I'd thought I'd share what happens when you scout and knowing you should turn back, you scout that one pixel more. This happened in the Lle a Rhemen ruins in Stormwall Gorge.

 

BB Fighter scouting. Then gets swamped by enemies and against all the odds my party is alive! Admittedly, some classes a little tiny bit OP    but it was definitely an 'oh crap moment'.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stealth isn't the be all and end all but it is a bit cheesy atm. Enemies do trigger if you get too close.

Edited October 26, 2014 by Hiro Protagonist II

[Sensuki]

Figured out one of the reasons why the Medreth fight is harder - THE MONK GUY
 

 

 

Dat Turning Wheel damage y0

[Sensuki]

 

Item comparisons are in

[Sensuki]

I absolutely hate the new double click camera center, holy christ that's annoying. I always accidentally do it.

 

Make option plz.

[Quantics]

Item comparisons are in

 

 

Yep this is really good news !

[Sensuki]

Stash access is now an option in the game options menu.