BB v364 Playthrough

[Shevek]

I am working on uploading my play through of the latest Backer Beta. I figured those that didn't have access might want to see what it plays like and hear some of the new VO, etc.

 

It is not finished yet (I still have to finish up an overland area and the final beta dungeon). Still, theres a couple hours worth that I have recorded. I have a full time job, a wife and 3 dogs, so I don't often have much time to play. I will try to get the last part or two done soon though. Still, you can watch the first 4 parts.

 

Special note: I am not an entertainer and I don't try to take on a quirky personality. So, I am not going to tell a bunch of bad jokes or use some kind of funny voice. Basically, the videos can be a bit boring (especially since the music wasn't working in this patch!). Still, they should be of value to those that want to see how the game plays.

 

 

EDIT:

I start up a bit slow, explaining each of my custom characters and their abilities. You may want to skip the first 10 minutes or so if you want to get to the actual playing.

Edited December 8, 2014 by Shevek

[gogocactus]

That was really enjoyable to watch. Thanks a lot for uploading.

[Starwars]

Good job. I reposted this on the STEAM forum of PoE, hopefully someone will find it interesting there also.

[Teslacrashed]

As somebody who can't stand to watch most YT videos because of "OHSOWACKY" personalities, thank you.

[Sedrefilos]

nice stuff for us "no-betaers". I prefere the relaxed, informative tone that the loud, "funny" tone too. Thnx Shevek.

[ISC]

More!

[Shevek]

Lol, tried to record that next part but I sounded too tired. Might try to upload the rest of this series this weekend when I have no work and more energy.

Edited December 9, 2014 by Shevek

[Shevek]

Ok, next part redone and nearly reuploaded (it should show up soon; HQ version will come in a bit later since YT takes a while to encode the HQ versions). I detailed how the scripted interactions work and I began going through the Beta's final dungeon.

[speed]

Thanks Shevek for taking the time and doing this....Always thought the engagement system was a great concept and glad to know u think it works well... would love to hear your opinion on the attribute system....is it too streamlined? What i remember about the games from the past, things like damage and accuracy parameters were controlled by different attributes for different classes (not that i remember much, but i think intelligence used to affect the combat effectiveness of a spellcaster the way strength and dexterity would for a melee character)

 

And i believe Deflection is now what thac0 was in the IE games, right? And this is a predetermined value for every class? Does it kind of minimize the scope for customizing your character?

 

Really appreciate the way u assess and analyze the various aspects of this game....cheers!!

[Shevek]

Attributes are far better in this game than the IE games. In the IE games, certain stats were useless beyond certain values and others were useless in certain ranges (so, there was little difference between 8 and 15 strength other than item requirements/encumbrance or little point in having dex above 18). Some stats that you think mattered in IE, actually didn't. For example, intelligence only became useful in the recent EE versions of the game (before then, it was possible to cast level 9 spells with really low int). Wisdom was crap in IE, imo (the manual said it affected spell casting and saves but it didn't). Charisma was useless (if you really wanted charisma, Ring of Friendship set to 18 when it was time to sell stuff). So, compared to that, PoE is FAR FAR better. There is an impact on your character for every point spent and more stats are of value to more classes than in the IE games.

 

Still, a couple stats feel a bit underpowered (specifically, Dexterity and Resolve). Resolve is feeling slightly better since they slowed the speed of combat (so, fights last longer and make the duration bonus from Resolve more meaningful) but I still dump Resolve on many characters (I keep it at 10 or higher on some but I do take it to 3 on many). Dexterity is currently bugged. Once it gets fixed in the next patch, I will test it. I think it may be useful on some classes where you need fast casting (like a Priest).

 

Also, items are better with regard to attributes in this game since they give flat bonuses rather than set your attribute to a certain number (so, gloves of ogre might gove you +2 might rather than setting your might to 18 or whatever). This ensures that your attribute choices matter no matter what gear you get (so, you can't dump str and then completely reverse that with a Str belt or gloves or whatever).

 

As far as deflection, the entire attack resolution system is very different. It feels real good to me (especially with recent changes to combat speed). Basically, the mechanics for Saves and Armor have been aligned. Also, there is MUCH less missing and you can sometimes Graze enemies instead of Hit or Crit them. Read about it here. I do not feel this limits character customization as much as other factors (especially since deflection values have recently been tuned up across the board) but I do think that character customization could be better. When they announced that the game would not have multiclassing, they said that they would approximate multiclassing through other character development choices. This has not happened (and probably won't). Still, I find that I can make a couple build types per class.

 

 

EDIT:

Looks like I might not finish this playthrough. They have an update coming out tomorrow, haha. I will try to record it tonight since the last dungeon isn't very long. I want to show enemies attacking eachother (ghosts vs. spiders) and some of the more challenging enemies but if I stay long at work, that may not happen. Ah well, hope it was useful to you guys.

Edited December 10, 2014 by Shevek

[Naith1]

Any chances of your play-through part 6 Shevek?   

 

(Especially due to the fact that they postpone a release of a new BB build)

[ISC]

Any chances of your play-through part 6 Shevek? 

 

(Especially due to the fact that they postpone a release of a new BB build)

+1!

[Shevek]

Maybe, I have a conference this weekend but I should be able to find a free moment. You arent missing much though. The last dungeon is the weakest part of the beta - mainly due to enemies having over powered abilities. There are spiders that do aoe frost attacks that do more damage than most single target attacks. There are also ghosts that constantly launch powerful projectiles at your weakest party members. Its very beatable but the encounters arent as well tuned as the rest of the beta.

[Sedrefilos]

Nontheless, I'd like to watch it if you get the time and appetite to record it. Enjoyed the other 5 a lot.

[Shevek]

Alright, its up and thats a wrap. The dungeon is very short (more of a large crypt). I show how I down the last guy using cheapness since hes flanked by two crystal eater spiders (which do way too much damage). YT will have the HQ version in a bit.

[Naith1]

Thx Shevek for your part 6. That was a very educational series. After all, don't you think that selection circles are still slightly too big? (both team and opponents)

 

Hope, they're gonna change this in next builds.

[Shevek]

It doesn't really bother me either way but a few others have mentioned that they want the circles to be smaller. I am not sure if the devs have commented on that.

[AndreaColombo]

How come you're playing with Color Blind Mode on?

 

Tangentially, is there a way to apply per-pixel occlusion to selection circles like it used to be in the first version of the beta? I understand the reason why it was removed, but now selection circles are always on top of everything and that's immersion breaking at times. I wouldn't mind the option to revert back to original behavior.

[Shevek]

I am slightly color blind - hence colorblind mode.

 

The only option that exists with regards to selection circles is to hide them.

[Mlatimudan]

Loved the videos since I didn't get the memo about the kickstarter so I'm not a backer, I would love it If you did some more in depth stuff like classes or combat or even how classes and skills affect conversations.

 

The only guy I saw that does class videos is "RPG shack" and while his videos give an ok view of a class he seems to think PoE is D&D since he keeps talking about setting stats to 16 for a +3 or taking weapon proficiency to avoid a penalty which I don't think applies to PoE. 

 

(I don't think his videos are bad and I quite liked his class videos but I think a video from someone relatively familiar with PoE-s systems could be better)

[Nakia]

Thank you very much for the playthrough.    They were very well done and I think gave a very fair view of the Backer Beta and the game potential.

[Grape_You_In_The_Mouth]

Yeah thanks for the vids, they're good stuff

[Sedrefilos]

Nice. At last a full play through the entire content. The game looks great. Of course you can't tell the problems by watching it but all the great stuff are in (nice graphics, great dialogue/roleplay, class variety, cool rtwp combat -at least visualy- etc). I don't see why some people don't get the IE "feel"; if I didn't know about the game, I'd think it was a HD remake of BG or IWD or a new one of that series. It is as IE in 2014 as you can get.

 

Again, thanks a lot Shevek.

[middydj]

Nice of you to upload these. It will be nice to be able to finaly play this once it releases.

[Hassat Hunter]

Probably late to the party, but enjoying these vids now, hopefully you'll do more for newer versions?

 

Comments so far (and maybe some suggestion for OE probably too late and/or they never read):

* Damn, that looks IE-like, almost like you just booted BG2 with a slightly aweful UI. Purty.

* Holy tripping markers Holy Radiance!

* Text starts with ", doesn't end with it, but after the widespace another " and it ends with "... heh. Each single convo it seems too...

* That's quite a bit more VO than I expected. That makes me sad . Also a character portrait (talker/talked to on other side) on that UI would do wonders...

* That dark brown is rather hard to make out on the brown background. Is it more easily disconcernable ingame than on those vids?

* Vendors having limited gold amounts... nice to see that little touch added. Do they re-stock or is it 'if gone it's gone?'

* Game seems to really fear full-screen effects eh? What's up with all the boxed loading screens, maps? :/

* Hmmm, how feasible would it be for custom1/custom2 to have it actually reflect the stance (so all those blocks, it takes the 6 selected blocks and show them, instead of random preview image). That'll be pretty nice I think, and very helpful too.

* And then have the "stance" selection item actually reflect the stance, rather than BG's default. Or do I rackle up stuff already added?

* Bestiary; Order per animal type? Sure, alphabatic is nice, but sometimes you might just want to check out all beetles or so.

* Selected abilities stay active to read on the side, rather than the default abilities description. So you know absolutely sure what you've picked? Seems small to add, but a huge user-friendliness buff.

* Probably dialogue UI should list gold too, if it allows options like giving 400cp. Just be nice IMO.

* Still think a 'loot all in sight' would be nice (displaying the same pop-up but with nearby loot corpses added, not auto-pick everything up), then you can select who to get it or the camp rather than having to individually click 5 corpses. So if all 5 have gold (2 a piece) and 2 have armor using it would give you choices what to do with 10 gold and 2 armor, instead of 2 gold, 2 gold, 2 gold armor, 2 gold, 2 gold armor. And of course it would only do bodies, not nearby chests or such.

* Combat looks very IE'ish to me, just with some HP-bloat it seems (both PC's and enemies). Also 'hits for 0.0 piercing damage' I saw in the log (vid III). Whut?

* TRAP DISARM XP? KILL IT... KILL IT WITH FIRE. Whhyyyyy? Why Obsidian? Why?

* (12:02) hits for 0.0 slashing damage, heals for 0 endurance... yup, combat log could use updating. Hope those are gone now?

* Rather stuttery gameplay... guess to be expected from beta.

* The "inactive" loop really looks bad on fast mode (well, okay, normal too).

* Also annoying, the 2 colored lines on spells. I assume that's the original distance (middle)+added distance by modifiers (like stats)? If so I really hope we can turn it off and just have the outer circle...

* Even though I am no fan of the 'infinite inventory of stash', they might want to make it slightly easier to do than the select, take all you are currently doing 100+ times per vid. I suppose just clicking stash could transfer all items immediately there would help a lot in making this less click-intensive. Or is that too prone to error?

* Stops chanting "chant 1"... hope it allows custom naming? Cause that just looks silly IMO.

* Chanter phrases kinda lacking effect stats in the level-up screen.

* Love the floating book and scepter in the end of IV... moving around as being used but unable to see the character using them XD

* Probably nice if oft-used lines like "I want to rest" or "Let me see your wares" do NOT grey-out, as they appear to do in your vids.

 

Well, looking forward to seeing the last 2 parts later, if not an updated version with a newer beta. Thanks for the indepth look!

 

Also:

Edited January 15, 2015 by Hassat Hunter