New Real Time With Pause Dungeons & Dragons RPG - SWORD COAST LEGENDS

[Keyrock]

Rolled a Paladin (knight) with max Str and Cha. I played one to level 5 during the prerelease so I know what to expect for the next few levels. So far Ive just left the party members on autopilot during combat and they seem to perform competently. So far, so good.

I'll give the game credit in that department.  The companion AI has been impressively competent in my experiences so far; I can mostly control one character and the rest of the party don't act like complete idiots when I leave them to their own devices.

[Volourn]

Or are they 'competent' b/c the game is that easy. L0L

[Darkpriest]

EDIT: Found combat log.. NVM

Edited October 21, 2015 by Darkpriest

[Gfted1]

Or are they 'competent' b/c the game is that easy. L0L

 

I'm not far enough in to get a feel on the difficulty but I'm playing on Normal. For me, combat is already more entertaining than PoE so I guess that's a win.

 

Although I really wish the party members didn't "bark" every click. It annoys me to no end to hear some version of "as you wish" every friggin time I click a spot on the ground to move to.

[Keyrock]

I'm not far enough in to get a feel on the difficulty but I'm playing on Normal. For me, combat is already more entertaining than PoE so I guess that's a win.

Yeah, I'm enjoying it more than Pillars combat, probably largely due to it being less cumbersome and flowing better.  Not having to babysit every character every second of a battle does wonders for my sanity.

 

 

Although I really wish the party members didn't "bark" every click. It annoys me to no end to hear some version of "as you wish" every friggin time I click a spot on the ground to move to.

 

Agreed 100%.  I don't want to turn barks off completely, but having the character bark every. single. time. I click to move to a spot is driving me mad.

 

Edit:  Looks like they added an option to turn barks frequency down, it's supposedly in the audio options.  I'll check it out when I get home. 

 

Edit 2: The option to lower the frequency of barks is called "Command Sounds".  I initially though it was controlling the volume of barks, but if you mouse over it, it tells you that it governs the frequency of barks.

Edited October 21, 2015 by Keyrock

[Keyrock]

The simplest way of explaining my (admittedly limited) experiences with Sword Coast Legends is that this game is a lot more Dragon Age: Origins than it is D&D.

[Monte Carlo]

I'm still getting a ham sandwich vibe, maybe I'll watch some of it on Twitch or something.

[Keyrock]

I'm still getting a ham sandwich vibe, maybe I'll watch some of it on Twitch or something.

I can't really disagree with that impression.  11-ish hours in and the game is very paint by numbers.  It's enjoyable, but it's taken precisely zero risks so far and it's trying it's damnedest to tick off every single item on the fantasy RPG trope checklist.

 

[shameless plug]If you're looking to see a video of it, I'm doing an LP of the game.  Here's a link to part 1.  It's rather non-spoilery as it's just character creation and the tutorial at the beginning.  If you proceed to part 2 and beyond, then you'll be getting into spoiler territory, as that's the game proper.[/shameless plug]

Edited October 23, 2015 by Keyrock

[Cantousent]

I went to look, my Key Rockin' friend. I have to admit that this one just didn't sell me. I can see where the combat could be fun. PoE combat can be fun, but it's too much of a technician's playground and... Gairn? One of the regulars recently pointed out something that made sense. The PoE combat is too easy to make really getting into the nitty gritty of the stats necessary, but the joy of the system comes from what seems to me to be really finely conceived interrelated combat mechanics. I think I would probably agree with the folks who think the combat could be fun in Sword Coast, but the game itself appears to be lackluster in terms of story and setting. I bought AoD recently and I've spent a total of ten minutes on it, so it's not like I'm jonesin' for a new game. I think I'll skip this one or maybe pick it up when it inevitably ends up in the bargain bin... probably on the all hated STEAM. Thanks for the feedback. I've been following this thread pretty well for the past several pages and it helps when other folks do some of the scouting for us prospective buyers.

[Darkpriest]

Soooo, I finished the game... it play better than DA:I in tactical mode, and it was okish. I miss the true D&D rules for character builds and I dislike the tons of HP on enemies (plus level scaling). I think that they could improve the artifacts department (like add some sets, make relics like holy avenger really a sword you want to use and not meh crap).

 

Story was not that bad, typical FR stuff, so I kind of enjoyed it, even though it is full on railroad. There are some things in side quests though that can help you affect some  final outcomes, so that was surprising.

 

You can expect to get up to lvl 18, maybe 19 if you will try to farm for random encounters.

 

Overall, I do not regret spending money on it, but at the same time it only made me crave for a new "NWN" type game within D&D system.

 

EDIT:

 

If anyone wants to plan some co-op game, I'd like to join that experience :D perhaps not with my lvl 19 paladin, but yeah

Edited October 24, 2015 by Darkpriest

[Keyrock]

How long did the campaign take you?  I'm about 15 hours in (I play slow, though) and, I guess, early in Act 2.  I wonder how much more campaign I have left?

 

I'll say this for the game, 15 hours and no crashes, no glitches that I've noticed, no problems whatsoever.  It kind of shines a really sad light on the state of video game development as a whole where a game releasing rock solid is remarkable.

[Darkpriest]

it says on steam i've clocked 49h, so i guess it is around 30-35h. I remove the time spent on various character concepts, and partial afk

[Volourn]

L1 Beholders. L0LZ 'Nough said.

[Darkpriest]

L1 Beholders. L0LZ 'Nough said.

 

or wolves with 300+ hp... IMO the game would be so much better if it followed the Monster manual for enemies and removed level scaling, and gave true D&D character development.

[Darkpriest]

So anyone up to testing the game in the Co-op mode? I prefer EU people cause of ping, but yesterday i was playing with some people from East Coast with only 150 ping and it was playable

 

EDIT: I am also open to an RP themed run, if anyone wants to go that far.

Edited October 25, 2015 by Darkpriest

[Keyrock]

I'll be up for co-op once I finish the campaign in solo, but that likely won't be for at least a week, seeing as I'm halfway through at most right now.

[brindle88]

I downloaded it from steam today.

 

I want my money back.

[Leferd]

It's gotten very mixed reviews here. Anyways, there's already a 29 page thread for this game:

 

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/70467-new-real-time-with-pause-dungeons-dragons-rpg-sword-coast-legends/

[Cantousent]

I downloaded it from steam today.

 

I want my money back.

Hey, brindle, I moved the topic here. You'll find a variety of views on this topic here, I assure you! :Cant's crooked grin icon:

[Volourn]

"IMO the game would be so much better if it followed the Monster manual for enemies and removed level scaling, and gave true D&D character development."

 

DnD has level scaling within the system. the point is it shoudl make sense. L1 beholders do NOT make any sense.

[Darkpriest]

"IMO the game would be so much better if it followed the Monster manual for enemies and removed level scaling, and gave true D&D character development."

 

DnD has level scaling within the system. the point is it shoudl make sense. L1 beholders do NOT make any sense.

 

yeah, you can add levels HD etc, but some monsters, like you pointed out, are just out of place at low levels or high levels...

[Guard Dog]

I played around with the "toolset" or what they call the DM editor. Total waste of time. Those hoping for a NWN style toolset to make scripted single player or multi-player modules (like me) got the short end of the stick after all.

 

All and all this game is, well not a total disappointment but it just isn't that good. If you haven't bought it yet, wait for the price to drop. I expect you won't have to wait long.

 

For myself, I'm done with it. I haven't even finished the OC but it's just not an enjoyable experience for me. The story is just ok but the mechanics of the game and the bastardized rule implementation just ruined the whole experience IMO.

Edited October 26, 2015 by Guard Dog

[Monte Carlo]

Thanks for all the feedback, I've got limited gaming time atm and still haven't finished PoE. I've been Diablo-ing in fact.

 

Will maybe pick it up when it's dirt cheap in a year or so but until then I'm waiting for The Division, FO4 and Warhammer.

[Guard Dog]

IGN Review: http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/10/28/sword-coast-legends-review

 

This sums it up perfectly:

 

 

Abilities are few and chosen from short skill trees (with most of the branches merely amounting to more powerful versions of previous spells), and cooldowns are many. In the field, that leads to big spurts of violence from two or three abilities, followed by sloggy waits while the hero doles out tedious autoattacks in preparation for the next cooldown to finish. Sometimes the enemy's already dead by the time that happens. It's a setup that grows boring fast, and it doesn't help that some enemies have massive health pools that get even deeper on higher difficulties. In frustration, I eventually just cranked it down to Easy mode — not because it was hard, but because it was boring and I wanted it to end sooner.

[Keyrock]

Over 20 hours in and I'm still eager to keep playing, which is a good sign.  The story is still bog standard, though.  You can spec you characters in a way where you take a whole bunch of different active abilities, rather than taking a few and increasing them to make them more powerful to give you more things to do during a battle, plus there are similar abilities that are weaker but have lower cooldowns.  Also, there are items that reduce cooldowns, if you use those, especially if you stack a couple of these on 1 character, you can use some abilities multiple times during a battle.  With that said, I do agree that this game could benefit from shorter cooldowns.  I think a reduction of around 30% across the board would make for more engaging combat.  Still, I'm enjoying the combat, probably because I don't have to hold everybody's hand through it all the time, making battles exponentially less tedious.  My only complaint with the companion AI so far is Jarhild using Unyielding Avalanche (I spec'd her into a 2-hander wielder) during easy fights.  It feels like such a waste using an awesome 120 second cooldown ability when fighting a single archer.

 

Anyway, I guess I'm probably about halfway through the game now.  Hopefully I can finish it before Hard West comes out, but I won't go nuts if I don't.

Edited October 30, 2015 by Keyrock