Pax East Stream Feedback thread

[Gairnulf]

I was sorry to hear was the good old annoying clicking sound which was audible when clicking each active interface element.

 

- The Warchief's head didn't have its own icon...

Edited March 8, 2015 by Gairnulf

[Sensuki]

There are still several items that do not have unique icons or 3D models, unfortunately.

Icewind Dale also had this problem, where unique items didn't really get unique icons. Nothing that can't be rectified post-release, or eventually by modding. 

Stainless Veteran from the RPGCodex is good at icon art. I could ask her to make some for the IE mod.

Edited March 8, 2015 by Sensuki

[Karkarov]

The Stronghold visitors seemed fun, but again, I'm not sure the prices aren't too low and turning decisions into no-brainers.

 

For example Gafol the Drunkard (at 25:24) gives you -2 prestige, as much as some of the upgrades that cost in the hundreds of cp, but in only costs 75cp to pay him off and remove the malus. That's too easy.

one at a time, but that doesn't change anything, only means that before each next upgrade I'll be even richer than I was before and it will matter less and less...

Likely those are placeholder costs.  Also you can pay him off, but he might come back.  The drunkard isn't a building, nothing says he wont be a long term issue or there wont be visitors that are even worse.

[IndiraLightfoot]

Well, the game looks and sounds excellent! Nice presentation as well.

 

The only thing that stuck out to me as bad in any way was that robot army party movement, but I'm sure it will be fixed, since it shouldn't be very hard to do.

Since I don't care about the stronghold, I have no input there really, list or no list.

Edited March 8, 2015 by IndiraLightfoot

[Gairnulf]

Nothing that can't be rectified post-release, or eventually by modding. 

Stainless Veteran from the RPGCodex is good at icon art. I could ask her to make some for the IE mod.

Sure, it's not the end of the world.

 

 

Likely those are placeholder costs.  Also you can pay him off, but he might come back.  The drunkard isn't a building, nothing says he wont be a long term issue or there wont be visitors that are even worse.

I hope they are placeholder values, but by now it really seems too late for them to be just placeholders. I know that people can return.

 

So, the stronghold's stats are 17/23, and this is supposed to be at least mid-game, otherwise he would have a stronghold. I won't use the amount of gold he has as a reference point, because it could have been altered with console commands, and this is probably not a savegame from a campaign started from the beginning.

 

Still, I'd say that a malus that costs you a bit over 10% of your prestige should be more costly to remove than 75cp which in any case will be less than 0.5% of your money around the middle of the campaign.

 

Let's say I counter a malus by building a bonus - instead paying off the drunk I construct a building that adds some prestige.

 

On the other hand, maybe the malus and the price for its removal are scaled progressively - the more you pay him off, the more it costs next time. We don't know if that's not the case. I just hope these are a bit more complicated decisions than open, scroll, and do the arithmetic before you click, or not even do the arithmetic because everything costs an insignificant fraction of your treasure.

 

BTW, I'm ok with the kind of stronghold interface they are showing. Navigating through the same dialogue trees and moving the party around from one type of "butler" NPC to the other quickly becomes repetitive. It's easy to remember NWN2 for those who haven't played DAI where you can see the same problems with stronghold upgrades/maintenance.

 

Well, the game looks and sounds excellent! Nice presentation as well.

 

The only thing that stuck out to me as bad in any way was that robot army party movement, but I'm sure it will be fixed, since it shouldn't be very hard to do.

Since I don't take care about the stronghold, I have no input there really, list or no list.

Strange, I never seem to pay attention to the synchronized movement. Regarding movement, I wish it was walking, but apparently we aren't getting that for now.

 

I stopped on a couple of occasions just to admire the music btw. I think Justin Bell has done some amazing work.

Edited March 8, 2015 by Gairnulf

[Mazisky]

 

i dont agree for having to interact with certain characters for the upgrades of the stronghold.

 

No one said that. I was talking about the NPCs that stay there - the ones that grant the prestige and security bonuses or penalties. If those NPCs are not content, that's really lame.

 

 

Antony Davis said something like "it's nice to see people walking around in the stronghold", maybe we can still hope

[IndiraLightfoot]

I stopped on a couple of occasions just to admire the music btw. I think Justin Bell has done some amazing work.

 

Yeah! Justin has outdone himself, it seems. Fantastic pieces of music.

[Mazisky]

I think that we must give credit to Justin Bell, after he was heavily criticized.

The bells of Justin revenged himself : - )

Edited March 8, 2015 by Mazisky

[h3st]

For example Gafol the Drunkard (at 25:24) gives you -2 prestige, as much as some of the upgrades that cost in the hundreds of cp, but in only costs 75cp to pay him off and remove the malus. That's too easy.

But he's also temporary. If you build something, it doesn't go away after three days, does it? :V You can even get rid of him for free if you have a goon available. If they'd had the prison built, maybe that would be an option as well?

 

It makes sense that it's cheaper to pay off some lout than to restore a building—and awful guests can ruin very nice locations. Your expensive rugs won't look as nice with barf all over them.

[Gairnulf]

 

For example Gafol the Drunkard (at 25:24) gives you -2 prestige, as much as some of the upgrades that cost in the hundreds of cp, but in only costs 75cp to pay him off and remove the malus. That's too easy.

But he's also temporary. If you build something, it doesn't go away after three days, does it? :V You can even get rid of him for free if you have a goon available. If they'd had the prison built, maybe that would be an option as well?

 

It makes sense that it's cheaper to pay off some lout than to restore a building—and awful guests can ruin very nice locations. Your expensive rugs won't look as nice with barf all over them.

 

Sure, it may play differently than I imagine, but I doubt he would return right the next day if I pay him off. On the other hand if he returns too often and costs very little, it will just become a nuisance.

Edited March 8, 2015 by Gairnulf

[Shiroco]

In my opinion the game looks fantastic and I have no real complaints. Yeah, there are some things that could be done differently or could be improved but I'm pretty sure that I'll have fun with this game and that's the thing that is important to me. I'm not sure the tone regarding the stronghold is the right one. They didn't show much of the stronghold and even if it is handled through a menu it isn't all trash. There could still be other npcs, events, quests etc.

Regarding the low price to send the drunken dude off....it would make absolutely no sense to pay thousands of copper pieces to remove an annoying drunkard form _your_ stronghold?

Edited March 8, 2015 by Shiroco

[Lord of Riva]

The game looks really great, im happy to have bought it already.

 

The NPCs seem to be very interesting and i guess i already thought about the party composition.

 

To questions remain though:

 

1) As others have stated, it would be nice to see the NPCs in the stronghold actually running around, i dont mind managing them through lists to have a efficient way of interacting with the stronghold mechanic, but still having them around would be way cooler. Did we ever get the info if them hanging around is happening? (or the other way around if they arent.)

 

2) I wodner if we can use custom made adventurers for stronghold issues (like escorts etc) or if that is companion only? That would be an incentive to design some yourself even if you like the companions.

 

Bonus question that came up: Will Companions incerase in level if they stay in the stronghold?

[iampolo]

Im just here to say that i really like it overall, music, design, even combat looks much better now. But, but... Stronghold NPC interaction trough a menu is kind of lazy. I don't expect this to be changed before release, but maybe 1.1 patch, or something like that could be really cool.

[SkySlam]

The game looked amazing to me: the atmosphere, the companions (stories, looks and voice overs), the battles and the music were all great in my eyes. I'm not that worried about the stronghold either.

The scripted interactions and the legendary "you must gather your party..." are the cherry on top.

My only minor disappointment is the annoying voice of the main character, I'm surprised how they let it pass, considering those continous "YES" "OH?" "MH?" "INDEED"... it's very irritating in 20 mins of gameplay, can you imagine 20 hours? And 200 hours? I hope we'll be given the option to have a mute main character; hearing the companions' banters is enough for me, because they are amazing.

[Starwars]

Agreed. They've said they're gonna look into more audio sliders after release but I would kill for a toggle to have a silent party-leader at least. The constant "OK, alright, fine, mhm, indeed" and so forth is gonna drive me insane.

[Lasweetlife]

Well, given that they stated that you can talk to your prisoners in the stronghold, I would hope that that goes for your guests and visitors as well.

[Archaven]

I previously made a thread about how bad PoE looks but i'm surprisingly clueless how PoE looks so beautiful in the PAX East demo. Was wondering if the demo was greatly polished just for the presentation? I watched earlier stream where in sewers in looks really bad. But now it's really clueless it looks freaking beautiful. I hope throughout the other areas it will be consistently as beautiful. This changed my mind and i'm going to get the Royal Edition on Steam.

[Shiroco]

I have to admit that I didn't notice the "Yes" "Hm" etc. But that probably should be adressed since not many people are that ignorant to that chatter ;P

[Gairnulf]

Agreed. They've said they're gonna look into more audio sliders after release but I would kill for a toggle to have a silent party-leader at least. The constant "OK, alright, fine, mhm, indeed" and so forth is gonna drive me insane.

I'll let the people who know about modding say if this is so, but I think it shouldn't be difficult to implement a toggle in the IE mod that shuts off all party command sounds, if the references to them are hunted down within the code.

[Rumsteak]

Liked:

• The excellent combat music that feels very BG-y
• The "young Whoopi Goldberg" Aumaua portrait.

Disliked:

• The companion selection voices that were too loud for my taste. Also, during combat some of the selection sounds felt out of place, as if companions were sipping a nice little cup of tea in their comfy little armchair while discussing William and Kate's latest royal baby. Selection sounds should be disabled during combat, or replaced with more fitting ones that show aggressiveness, anger, etc.

Uncertain:

• The stronghold interface felt like playing an old bad online browser game like Travian, clicking buttons all the time and stuff. I am giving the benefit of the doubt though, since we were not shown much of the indoors with possible NPC interactions.

Edited March 8, 2015 by Rumsteak

[Rhaeg]

Bored on a Sunday evening, so time for another panel/stream feedback thread

 

First of all

 

Thankyou for listening to the community feedback about the last panel. It was *much* better this time. Most of the developers were involved in explaining things about the game and made comments during the gameplay, and seemed more invested in the presentation than sitting there while one person speaks and plays like last time.

 

[*very long post*]

 

Progress is looking pretty good. With some improvements made to the Cyclopedia entries to better explain the mechanics to new players, better pathfinding, AI and performance, among other things - I think it should be a successful release.

 

 

Well, I'd like to add that eh, well... , you know...

 

*reads again*

 

I see you have the situation well in hand, Sir. Carry on!

Edited March 8, 2015 by Rhaeg

[SkySlam]

Ahah, the tea metaphor is really fitting!

For sure we need some intense and less generic comments like "Victory shall be ours!", "Me axe be bloody ready!" "Swords, not words!"... just to name those that immediately come to mind. It's also true that we've heard only a small part of companions' banters.

 

Anyway, I believe that the voice/audio/sound department is kinda easy to fix/improve, because I've seen it worked on during the final phase of development even in other games (D:OS for example).

[Havelok]

I previously made a thread about how bad PoE looks but i'm surprisingly clueless how PoE looks so beautiful in the PAX East demo. Was wondering if the demo was greatly polished just for the presentation? I watched earlier stream where in sewers in looks really bad. But now it's really clueless it looks freaking beautiful. I hope throughout the other areas it will be consistently as beautiful. This changed my mind and i'm going to get the Royal Edition on Steam.

 

You might like the look of some areas but not others. *shrugs* . Glad to see you've joined the rest of us in believing the game is gorgeous.   

[OldRPG'sAreGood]

I'm actually happy that there's another way to manage the stronghold than running from one NPC to another. Never liked that personally. The prestige factor seems interesting, is there more accurate info about how it will affect the character & world? 

 

Otherwise, I'm liking the music, the game looks great, and I'm pretty hyped. 

[TrueMenace]

One thing that has always bugged me was the character quips whenever you select them for an action as other posters here have mentioned. Selecting the companions and they respond with "What is it" or "Yes" gets annoying when they say it EVERY TIME you select them. They need to tone it down.

Edited March 8, 2015 by TrueMenace