First Impressions (v364)

[BlueLion]

Much prefer combat now, speed is better and balance seems much more on point. As discussed above readability still has it's issues. 

[Cubiq]

Actually i'll argue that it's too easy now (not the spiders obviously). I killed Medreth on path of the damned 3 times out of 4 in bb gear yesteray.

And i have to agree with Justinian, high contrast difference of the map is the biggest issue.

I once did a screenshot of the game and messed around with it in an image editor to bring down some of the lighting contrast and it started to look a lot better.

Though maybe a faster way would be to put a dark outline around characters.

Edited November 27, 2014 by Cubiq

[Sensuki]

The only thing that made any difference was slowing the creature recovery factor and movement speed down, the global recovery scaling doesn't really do anything.

 

Humanoid enemies are so easy now, they drop like flies.

[Cubiq]

I think they fixed the monk also?

I noticed i'm barely taking any damage on hard vs Medreth

Edited November 27, 2014 by Cubiq

[Sensuki]

yeah I think Turning Wheel was tuned down, on the other hand though, the monk as a class is pretty useless now

[Cubiq]

I haven't tested them yet, but their Stunning Blow should be still pretty good.

Applying -30 deflection, and then have everyone focus them down.

Edited November 27, 2014 by Cubiq

[Sensuki]

You don't have enough abilities to spend wound points though, due to the change to advancement.

[Sensuki]

I think they fixed the monk also?

It does less damage, but it still does a lot, on one health pip he still does like 90 damage per hit.

 

I hate the change where they want you to right click to inspect how much damage an ability does, is this a joke?  GR8 UI IMPROVMENT GUISE

 

However I like the move back to individual status effect mouse overs. That was a much needed reversion - got it right in v257, no reason to change it.

Edited November 27, 2014 by Sensuki

[GilliusThunderhead]

Lets start with the absolute basics in regards to clarity.Character sprites need to be on top/in front of background, when travelling through dense trees make some of the foliage transparent.

[archangel979]

The only thing that made any difference was slowing the creature recovery factor and movement speed down, the global recovery scaling doesn't really do anything.

 

Humanoid enemies are so easy now, they drop like flies.

Well they slowed them down by giving them correct recovery time penalties based on their armor and player character did get an increased bonus from stats. 

 

I guess they need to buff humanoid enemies in other ways now. 

[Sensuki]

Marquee select is now a perfect square, no missing pixel in the corner

 

Cheers Brian.

Edited November 27, 2014 by Sensuki

[Sensuki]

Now with Full Party Twerking:

 

[Sensuki]

Does Korgrak even have a recovery time in this version? He just seems to play animations as soon as his swing finishes, no recovery ever.

[Sensuki]

This is why combat is too fast, it has nothing to do with action speed

 

 

Your party drops an enemy in a round of attacks, and they drop you in a single hit

 

And after this happened, I just reloaded my game

 

 

I could do 60-90 damage in the same opening with the same weapons/abilities.

Edited November 27, 2014 by Sensuki

[Quantics]

Urgh. VFX need to be tones down seriously.

 

In terms of visibility, something drastic needs to be done in certain areas. Just look at the situation below:

 

 

Terrible unit visibility is caused by:

• Oversaturated and overcontrasted background. The contrast is so high the shadowed areas are almost entirely black!
• Grass being far too detailed. There is too much variation between light and dark blades, creating visual noise
• Grass overlapping units adds more confusion and noise

It truly feels like the background was rendered with NO consideration to gameplay at all. You're not rendering photorealistic paintings here, you're making a game that needs to support gameplay!

What needs to happen:

• Re-render grass to be shorter and less visually noisy
• Reduce saturation and contrast levels of background
• Implement clearer unit shading and rim-lighting, increase unit contrast

Now let's compare to a game where sensible decisions were made to the art to support clarity and gameplay:

 

 

I had high hopes for this game but seeing how Obsidian are neglecting the most basic considerations of gameplay this late in development depresses me.

 

 

 

 

 

I totally agree. 

 

I've said it numerous times in various threads (to the point that even I was getting fed up of hearing me say it ).

 

You should copy-paste your message this into a separate thread for more... visibility.

 

It is a big enough issue and it is about time Obsidian finally acknowledges it.

Edited November 27, 2014 by Quantics

[IndiraLightfoot]

The good:

-Loads of polish

-At least indoors, character models pop enough over the background, but like I've others already pointed out - they don't in outdoor areas (the ghost effect is almost gone, though)

-The speed of combat is pretty nice now

-Auto-attack is working, sometimes

-For the first time, I felt like I really want to play this game for the combat as well. I made characters with low Might, Perception, and pumped Int, Resolve, which perhaps made it all the more exciting. I don't know. I used spells more (due to lowered speed), and overall had quite some fun in combat. Much of the frustration is gone. I even got to a point on Normal, where my Camping Supplies dwindled (I forgot to buy any), so I had to make my way back - it felt nice, actually - my priest was even mortally wounded and in red.

 

The bad:

-Combat still tends to mimic a magnetic grinder, where the party and the enemies apparently are of metal and clank straight into the middle with sounds and fireworks going off

-Auto-attack is far from reliable. Not even the Chanter summons attack. It feels weird to order three skellies and a ghost to attack a mortal. 

-I'd strongly urge Obsidian to add Lore Xp to Cultists as well. I went the Ruins route, and I haven't got xp (except for one or two locks) in two hours.

 

Overall impressions:

In many ways, the game is beautiful. It looks and sounds like an IE game done in the year 2014. The scope seems pretty big and rewarding.

However, the gameplay and the combat has much more in common with NWN2, and also DA:O and DA:I. I know some people will be really annoyed about that. Personally, I'm starting to like it a lot.

Edited November 27, 2014 by IndiraLightfoot

[Sensuki]

However, the gameplay and the combat has much more in common with NWN2, and also DA:O and DA:I. I know some people will be really annoyed about that.

 

You can say that again.

Edited November 27, 2014 by Sensuki

[BlueLion]

I'm with Indira here and, as a big fan of DA:O, am loving the direction the combat has taken in this latest patch. Now, please tone down VFX and improve readability and visibility.

[Sensuki]

DA:O can die in a fire.

 

That game is the epitome of "how to do bad RTWP combat 101"

Edited November 27, 2014 by Sensuki

[Cubiq]

Actually i'm playing DA:I atm and i find it more fun that what I'm playing here. I was never DA fan and i still find IE games better.

On nightmare difficulty you actually need to be resourceful and the stuff you can pull off with positioning shield block and correct use of CC is really amazing. PoE doesn't even come close in this regard.

I keep discovering better tactics to fight all the time.

They also fixed the healing problem elegantly with Armor and Barrier mechanics, where it allows you to not take health damage if you play really well.

Where it falls short is the bad controls, unreliable party AI and lack of spell selection.

(I rely on party AI because the tactical controls camera is tedious to use.)

Edited November 27, 2014 by Cubiq

[Hiro Protagonist II]

 

[Sensuki]

It always says that when applying a non-damaging debuff, it takes up two combat log lines just to say you affected a unit with an affliction AFTER it's displayed the original hit.

[Hiro Protagonist II]

Yeah. Why even have it in the log. You could just say BB Rogue hobbles enemy for x seconds.

Edited November 27, 2014 by Hiro Protagonist II

[Gairnulf]

This version appears to be a lot easier than the last, I killed Medreth without even an ounce of effort. Likely due to the stat changes.

 

I noticed that too, I just can't figure out is it due to changes in the rules and if yes then which changes.

 

More colors

They probably had this planned anyway but adding white was something I requested too.

[Sensuki]

I noticed that too, I just can't figure out is it due to changes in the rules and if yes then which changes.

It's mostly due to the attribute and recovery changes I would say.

 

Opening - Because you the player usually use 'an opening' in combat, your opening actions are now even more important due the slower global recovery time - you get the same opening power with less incoming damage later on.

 

Attributes - Characters now do more damage, act faster, have higher Deflection etc because of the increase from Attributes. Constitution was not increased either. BB Rogue has 22 Perception so she now gets a huge +24 Accuracy from that. BB Fighter has 22 Might so he gets +24% damage - pretty significant.

 

The ACC-DEF situation against humanoids now probably swings more towards ACC > DEF, so you will be doing better damage more often.