Pax East Stream Feedback thread

[Valmy]

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.

 

Didn't they do this in the IE games?  I thought it would be annoying but it never was.

[Gairnulf]

 

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.

 

Didn't they do this in the IE games?  I thought it would be annoying but it never was.

 

At least in the IE games you had options to hear selection/command sounds never/seldom/always. It was even separate options for selection and command sounds. If you want no command sounds in PoE you have to turn "Effects volume" all the way down, which mutes all other sounds except the music. It's really dull.

[Falkon Swiftblade]

OK, so I rewatched the stream in a quiet place so I could take in everything and few thing's stood out.

 

The Cool stuff :

 

• noticeable polish has been put in the character art portraits and ui from a few months ago. It does feel more modern, yet there's nod's to the old games.
• Wow that music leveled up. The combat music in the Beta few versions back was actually borderline painful to listen to in parts. This was exciting, felt familiar, yet unique enough I don't think I'll get worn out listening to it, Hi5 Justin!
• Love the scripted storybook stuff with the sound fx, though it would be nice if the companions could also have little blurbs like gasps of surprise, banter like complaining to be asked to go swimming or cheers or something based upon the encounters.
• Overall, the companion VO turned out much better than the initial stuff shared with us. It kinda sounded forced for the guy initially, but these were pleasant. (Is there a player voice to choose from as well?)
• love multiple ways to do content such as alternate entrances and I hope there are secret passages in the game you would miss out on if your skill points are too low. 
• I like the bounty system. It would've been cool to have a trophy wall for the heads or items you collect to display in your stronghold.

 

The stuff still needs some tweaks :

 

• The Combat music needs to fade out slower over a second or two after the fights. It ends too abruptly and doesn't transition well. Also I think I saw someone say the combat music and environmental music needs to pause and have some breathing room in between and that's exactly right.  We need to have some moments of silence and certainly after a fight could use a breather.
• Combat animations and running need a little stutter when they take off and the characters need to lean forward before they actually run and maybe when they stop there's a little wobble or at the least they slow down when they stop. Anticipation and follow through are missing from the animations. Everything is too rigid and mechanical.
• Some legibility issues. It's a horrible idea to have fonts on top of a graphic that's not a solid color unless the background is a very light texture, and by light i mean barely noticeable. There's still some kerning and leading issues I hope are possible to give some space in the text walls.
• vfx should appear and disappear to serve a purpose. The visual clutter with 6 people on screen plus the numerous monsters is a bit chaotic and I don't know what can be done this late in the game, but it really messes with the flow.

 

 

Something I don't know if it's possible to include and may already be in that would be nice is if there were hot keys to switch players and their abilities without having to click on the icons would be cool, but not necessary. As long as they continue to work on it post release I think between the community and the dev's this should be super great!

[Shevek]

I personally dont care if the Stronghold is menu driven (would be annoying to have to run around to all the npcs). I will say that seeing the drunk or the merchant in the Stronghold might be nice (even if you only interact with them via a menu) but its not a deal breaker.

 

It would be nice if it were a bit more populated. As the stronghold gets better, there should be more people mucking about.

Edited March 9, 2015 by Shevek

[Justin Bell]

To those who commented on music, thanks for the kind words.  I'm very happy to hear that you like the music you heard on the panel.

 

Regarding sliders for command VO frequency, disabling them, etc we might get that in at a later date but I can't promise.  As someone pointed out earlier, it's too risky to do right now.   But rest assured it's on our list and if we can find time to get that in we'll do it.  But with a game this complex, there are "bigger fish to fry" as they say.

 

Regarding the duration between the end of combat and start of area music...  You folks have any specific suggestions?  I can tune that pretty easily.  Right now I think the combat fade out is about .5 seconds, and the pause is about 3.

[Justin Bell]

Also, the crickets of eternity have been eradicated.  Poor little fellas.  We used some very strong insecticide on them and wiped out a few generations of the little buggers.

[Sensuki]

I would suggest making it like 6-9 seconds or somewhere around there. It would also be good if there is a pause between wilderness tracks, or loops of wilderness tracks.

 

Baldur's Gate had such silences when exploring, and a short break from the music contributed to placating annoyance of repetition.

Edited March 9, 2015 by Sensuki

[BAdler]

 

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.

Just so you guys are aware, everyone who visits your stronghold actually walks around it. You also get hirelings (and companions) that fill the stronghold.

 

All of those visitors in the menu where actually inside the main hall. We didn't show it off. I don't think these visitors have extensive conversations though. I know you can interact with them.

 

One thing I was thinking about showing was the other, sharper way you can get rid of the drunkard.

[Sensuki]

Cool, thanks for clearing that up. I noticed there was also a merchant there with an item, can you talk to him and buy the item through dialogue, or does it have to be done through the interface?

 

Also as a big critic of the music, I did indeed like some of the combat tracks I heard in this, I thought they were quite fitting and matched the IE style, better than the other combat tracks I've heard so far. But I'm not as big on the Wilderness tracks - they're more classically oriented, whereas I enjoyed the stronger renaissance and medieval music elements that the Infinity Engine games included. Hopefully there's a bit more variety in the full soundtrack

Edited March 9, 2015 by Sensuki

[Falkon Swiftblade]

 

Regarding the duration between the end of combat and start of area music...  You folks have any specific suggestions?  I can tune that pretty easily.  Right now I think the combat fade out is about .5 seconds, and the pause is about 3.

 

Fade out I feel like should be over a few seconds 3-5 also fade in should also be about 1-2 seconds. pause should be much more, at least 10. I guess it's tricky to know when to start combat music. Is there a difference between combat start and combat music? I feel like as long as there's some time ~ 10-30 seconds when music is not playing in between combat and environmental music it's ok. Sometimes even a few minutes is fine because just listening to birds and running water in an environment can help ground you in the moment.

[Bli1942]

There's nothing wrong with having quite long silences before music comes back in, like 30 seconds to 2 minutes. And in between wilderness tracks. I like when it's just silent for a while, provided the background fx is nice

[Falkon Swiftblade]

Also, as far as environmental music vs combat music it might be appropriate for a short version of it to play upon entry into a particular zone, and a longer piece to play somewhere as you explore the zone. I like how Kingdom's of Amalur did it when you entered in the faction halls or when you quick load into a town you've visited so it was ~10-30 second snippet of a larger piece of music. 

Here's a lil example of how it all came together. Notice how thing's fade out over time and you can still enter combat for a few seconds before the combat track kicks in. There's area transitional music ~ 0:25 and 3:25

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEdc3NWq2io

Edited March 9, 2015 by Falkon Swiftblade

[Stun]

Baldur's Gate had such silences when exploring, and a short break from the music contributed to placating annoyance of repetition.

Yeah, but correct me if I'm wrong here... that was a bug. In both of the BG's. Ambient music, specifically, would simply stop playing after a while when you were exploring. If you quick saved, it came right back.

[Stun]

One thing I was thinking about showing was the other, sharper way you can get rid of the drunkard.

Toss him in the prison?

Kill him?

 

Both?

[Justin Bell]

 

Baldur's Gate had such silences when exploring, and a short break from the music contributed to placating annoyance of repetition.

Yeah, but correct me if I'm wrong here... that was a bug. In both of the BG's. Ambient music, specifically, would simply stop playing after a while when you were exploring. If you quick saved, it came right back.

Was it really? Didn't know that.

 

Pillars definitely has many moments without music. There's a 4 minute cool down for area music, and it doesn't always restart when entering new scenes except where we force it to. I think it'd be kind of cool to expose those parameters in the options UI, but such a thing is VERY low priority right now. Maybe for future games.

[Sensuki]

I think a larger gap is more appropriate between wilderness tracks, fade from combat to wilderness is probably fine at somewhere between 10-15 seconds or so. 6-9 as I stated before might be a bit short.

[Justin Bell]

I originally had the cool down at 7 minutes, but received some feedback from the team that it felt too long, particularly during lengthy dialog sequences. I'll mess around with the combat cool down and give larger values a try.

[Sensuki]

The current 4 minutes sounds fine (I think? audio is bugged in v435) for wilderness tracks and yeah cool, sounds good.

 

Off topic: Justin what medieval/renaissance music do you listen to for inspiration for this soundtrack, if you've used any?

Edited March 9, 2015 by Sensuki

[Falkon Swiftblade]

Justin, How much music is in game vs what's on the CD?

[GreyFox]

This game really needs the IE style volume sliders and check boxes for the VO Selection and Commands...that should be a higher priority than it seems to be...was it viewed as trivial along the way or something? Nothing trivial about hearing them squirt out YES YES YES NO MAYBE YES YES YES SIR SIR SIR NOPE K K K K YES YES nonstop all game long.

 

The VOs are pretty damn good except for the main character set(s)...

Also can we please tone down the spell FX and visual clutter in combat?

 

This game + the IE mod is going to kick ass though. The game looks brilliant and the writing is fantastic...I definitely like the scripted encounters/events. I also like the way the characters look in their different gear. If we can eliminate the droid army movement that'd be great as well though!

 

Justin's combat tracks are definitely top notch but I disagree with some of the theme/wilderness style of music...but that could just be style wise as they don't sound bad by any  means. Combat music fade could be 6-7 seconds.

Edited March 9, 2015 by GreyFox

[TrueMenace]

This game really needs the IE style volume sliders and check boxes for the VO Selection and Commands...that should be a higher priority than it seems to be...was it viewed as trivial along the way or something? Nothing trivial about hearing them squirt out YES YES YES NO MAYBE YES YES YES SIR SIR SIR NOPE K K K K YES YES nonstop all game long.

 

The VOs are pretty damn good except for the main character set(s)...

Also can we please tone down the spell FX and visual clutter in combat?

 

This game + the IE mod is going to kick ass though. The game looks brilliant and the writing is fantastic...I definitely like the scripted encounters/events. I also like the way the characters look in their different gear. If we can eliminate the droid army movement that'd be great as well though!

 

Justin's combat tracks are definitely top notch but I disagree with some of the theme/wilderness style of music...but that could just be style wise as they don't sound bad by any  means. Combat music fade could be 6-7 seconds.

I agree on everything you said except I don't find the visual FX as cluttering the screen. To each their own. 

[Sensuki]

They probably deliberately wrote the player voice sets with rudimentary lines so that they would 'fit any concept' - that gave them a smaller margin for error and ... the VO that they got for it isn't really that great - swing and a miss. 

Why oh why, did they just not take inspiration from the IWD ones, they are the best voice sets in any RPG that allows you to select your own voice set IMO.

[IndiraLightfoot]

A final dive into the beta would feel quite good right now. Here's hoping it'll drop soon.

[Mazisky]

Did you erase cricket sound from the game?? I liked that sound..maybe a bit too loud but still the right sound for a night environment

Edited March 9, 2015 by Mazisky

[Sensuki]

Yeah there's nothing wrong with crickets, but yeah they shouldn't have been used for EVERY night time scene.