Here's my major gripe list, after multiple completions and 164 hours played

[Odd Hermit]

Unenchanted, same name/model weapons/armor should be stackable. I am very tired of spam clicking through xaurip spears and medium shields and then having them clutter the inventory of vendors. I ended up taking them only to trap vendors that I knew I wouldn't be buying anything from just to avoid that.

-

Confusion needs to be confusion not "make this target get mobbed by his whole group". It is way too reliable and easy right now, basically a cheap single target confusion often = crowd control for the entire group and they'll sometimes even kill an enemy for you.

-

LET ME BUILD! ...the companions how I want them. I've done it the boring/weak way already, I want to tinker but I don't want to be stuck without interesting companion dialogue as punishment for that. Hired Adventurers are nice if you want to go all out with specific race/class combos, but I just want to pick decent talents and attributes for the companions and have some real freedom to build them into roles rather than being stuck with a poor base.

-

Should be able to rest anywhere in stronghold free, if I don't want the bonuses. It's annoying having to go through two doors for such a simple thing, as nice as the buildings and interiors looks it gets pretty old. Really, the whole thing is too spread out for convenience.

-

Fists and Druid's spiritshift weapons need better scaling, particularly accuracy, if they're ever going to be a thing on harder difficulties.

-

+2 Move speed is too much/too easy kiting for permanent/long duration effects. My chanter giving it to the whole party trivialized many encounters, plus it was just the no-brainer thing to chant in most situations.

-

Retaliation needs some nerfs. I'm sorry people but it just does. It is far and away the strongest enchant in the game for any melee build other than a weak might tank maybe. Its damage output requires little effort and it activates in situations it really shouldn't.

-

A better balance of micro-management. Casters definitely need more substantial per encounter spells and/or abilities. It would definitely be too much to give them full nuking power but I think they're overpowered as is on boss stuff, and too boring on non-boss stuff if you're not free casting. I'd also say melee builds need some better active abilities. Many are very lackluster. Some are just too spammy(Torment's Reach). The best balance so far is Cipher but of course it's on the overpowered side for other reasons. I think all classes could use more space to build towards either side of the micro-management scale, or the middle.

 

 

 

I could go on with minor stuff and all sorts of balance issues, but these were the biggest nuisances or balance issues for me personally, over the course of multiple playthroughs. They're what reduced my enjoyment of the game the most so far.

 

Some will say "don't use it then!" for some of the things I call overpowered, of course, but while certain things remain crutches other things don't get balanced and player input is skewed by whether or not they used the cheesier things. And I've always been a "use what works" sort of player(aside from obvious bug abuse/cheats) that enjoys optimizing builds and strategies/tactics, if I feel I need to put arbitrary self-imposed limitations on myself, the game just gets boring for me. 

 

Edit: coarse -> course.

Edited April 12, 2015 by Odd Hermit

[Atheosis]

Plays game for 164 hours, and only wants to complain...gamers these days...

[Odd Hermit]

Okay, um...game is great, nice job devs, etc. I backed it and got two copies even. I spent many hours on it. Two thumbs up.

 

It's more fun being critical though than praising the obvious stuff, and hopefully they get something out of constructive criticism from players.
 

[Miquel93]

Plays game for 164 hours, and only wants to complain...gamers these days...

Yeah, how dare he to provide feedback and criticism after obviously enjoying the game. The nerve!

[Monte Carlo]

Plays game for 164 hours, and only wants to complain...gamers these days...

 

Because of course a circle-jerk love-in will really help this game realise it's (not inconsiderable) potential.

[CynicalP]

Plays game for 164 hours, and only wants to complain...gamers these days...

 

Quite right.. 164 hours is a lot of time to invest oneself into there must be an opposite list of reasons that kept you interested to commit your attention for  that 164 time span.

[LadyCrimson]

You can get most of the companions at lvl2 if you really want, to build them as you want. Of course that requires prior knowledge. So yeah...I think the auto-assign skills for companions wasn't the best choice. Maybe it's not as role-play-y, but I'd rather be taken to a level-up screen to assign their stuff when you first add them to your party, vs. the auto-assign.

[Luckmann]

You can get most of the companions at lvl2 if you really want, to build them as you want. Of course that requires prior knowledge. So yeah...I think the auto-assign skills for companions wasn't the best choice. Maybe it's not as role-play-y, but I'd rather be taken to a level-up screen to assign their stuff when you first add them to your party, vs. the auto-assign.

 

Level 2? ...maybe, but more realistic is Level 3. Also, even if you pick up birdlady at lower level, she'll still join you at lvl 4, I've heard.

 

I really, really, really wish they were capped at lvl 2.

[View619]

Plays game for 164 hours, and only wants to complain...gamers these days...

 

You're missing the /sarcasm.

 

Otherwise, http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/constructive+criticism.

 

It should be obvious as to why he spent 164 hours of his free time playing the game.

[Atheosis]

 

Plays game for 164 hours, and only wants to complain...gamers these days...

Yeah, how dare he to provide feedback and criticism after obviously enjoying the game. The nerve!

 

 

Not the point at all.  It was the lack of any positivity despite playing the game a 164 hours that was the issue, not the criticisms.  The OP acknowledged as much.  People are really anxious to share all their issues with the game and reticent to share praise.  It's really not cool.

[Roackeru]

I fully agree about retaliation. Late game I was just charging with my solo barb in the middle of everything and they would just kill themselves from double retaliation from the blood plate and the shield.

[Cluas]

Agree with most stuff you said, Hermit.- But I only played like 100 hours

[Ohioastro]

These are very reasonable comments and I concur.  In particular, it would help substantially if casters got a single per encounter spell a bit earlier.  then they'd be less like autoattack bots in trash battles.

 

I'd like them to look at the balance of the crafting ingredients some.  There are a few bottlenecks that seem off - for example, you can run all the way to the endgame without being able to craft the second, let alone the third, quality tier.  Those aren't such an enormous edge that this seems warranted.  I'd also like the ability to overwrite enchantments.

 

A tooltip that would be very,very useful for crafting: say what a given ingredient is actually used for.  Since it is deeply counter-intuitive in some cases that item X can be used to upgrade weapons or make, say, potions.

[LadyCrimson]

 

You can get most of the companions at lvl2 if you really want, to build them as you want. Of course that requires prior knowledge. So yeah...I think the auto-assign skills for companions wasn't the best choice. Maybe it's not as role-play-y, but I'd rather be taken to a level-up screen to assign their stuff when you first add them to your party, vs. the auto-assign.

 

Level 2? ...maybe, but more realistic is Level 3. Also, even if you pick up birdlady at lower level, she'll still join you at lvl 4, I've heard.

 

Hence why I said "most."

Altoh, Eder, Kana, Durance lvl2, and I thought you could pick up the ranger and druid at 2 as well but I could be not recalling correctly what clvl you're sorta "forced" to be at that point even with avoiding everything you can. Could be 3, yeah.

[Grand_Commander13]

Not the point at all.  It was the lack of any positivity despite playing the game a 164 hours that was the issue, not the criticisms.  The OP acknowledged as much.  People are really anxious to share all their issues with the game and reticent to share praise.  It's really not cool.

The fact that he played for 164 hours is implicit positivity.

[Odd Hermit]

You can get most of the companions at lvl2 if you really want, to build them as you want. Of course that requires prior knowledge. So yeah...I think the auto-assign skills for companions wasn't the best choice. Maybe it's not as role-play-y, but I'd rather be taken to a level-up screen to assign their stuff when you first add them to your party, vs. the auto-assign.

 

Attributes and starting choices of ability/talents matter a lot. They're what you go through the whole game with. Even getting them @ level 2 doesn't save them for me. Being behind 1 or more talents/abilities from the start and having a weak attribute spread ruins any potential they have of being built into something both interesting and powerful, for me.

 

This is especially true if you're kinda stuck on PotD. Hard isn't very hard anymore for me, given how well I know the mechanics and encounters. But having weak characters on PotD difficulty often forces me into tedious and "cheesy" tactics(kiting/splitting) to make up for their weaknesses. And just generally, I like having an interesting synergy to my groups which the companions don't really provide.

Edited April 12, 2015 by Odd Hermit

[cavemandiary]

I agree with most of your points, but it baffles me that you didn´t mention the biggest offender of all : The lack of AI.

[Odd Hermit]

I agree with most of your points, but it baffles me that you didn´t mention the biggest offender of all : The lack of AI.

 

Lacking enemy AI or lack of companion AI?

 

I am into micromanaging the whole group so the latter doesn't bother me at all. Either way, we've already gotten a response from the devs about it - they couldn't fit it in for release and plan to implement in either patch or expansion.

 

I'm hoping it comes with enemy AI improvements, 'cause that's what bugs me more since enemies are just too predictable/simple right now.

[cavemandiary]

 

I agree with most of your points, but it baffles me that you didn´t mention the biggest offender of all : The lack of AI.

 

Lacking enemy AI or lack of companion AI?

 

I am into micromanaging the whole group so the latter doesn't bother me at all. Either way, we've already gotten a response from the devs about it - they couldn't fit it in for release and plan to implement in either patch or expansion.

 

I'm hoping it comes with enemy AI improvements, 'cause that's what bugs me more since enemies are just too predictable/simple right now.

 

I was referring to companion AI, as it gets pretty tedious to micromanage 6 companions, but that´s just me I guess.

[Odd Hermit]

 

I was referring to companion AI, as it gets pretty tedious to micromanage 6 companions, but that´s just me I guess.

 

 

 

Nah many people like less micro heavy combat, it's something that's been requested multiple times. Some people also like the idea of their companions kinda doing their own thing. It can even be fun(sometimes) to add some chaos to fights even when the AI does something dumb. Just a different kind of experience.

 

The devs are planning on working on it though which is why I didn't mention it.

Edited April 12, 2015 by Odd Hermit

[AlphaMagnum]

Is Retaliation really that bad? I mean, apart from the barbarian's (bugged) One Stands Alone passive, does it really do that much damage on other character classes or on barbarians without that passive?

 

I'm not sure as to what sorts of abilities trigger Retaliation, so I won't comment as to it being too easy to prod, but I am curious about how it stacks up in the absence of other effects.

 

Also, are you certain that it stacks? Because that's pretty weird given how pretty much every other bonus doesn't stack. A simple fix might just be preventing stacking rather than nerfing the effect itself.

[Blovski]

 

Unenchanted, same name/model weapons/armor should be stackable. I am very tired of spam clicking through xaurip spears and medium shields and then having them clutter the inventory of vendors. I ended up taking them only to trap vendors that I knew I wouldn't be buying anything from just to avoid that.

-

Confusion needs to be confusion not "make this target get mobbed by his whole group". It is way too reliable and easy right now, basically a cheap single target confusion often = crowd control for the entire group and they'll sometimes even kill an enemy for you.

-

LET ME BUILD! ...the companions how I want them. I've done it the boring/weak way already, I want to tinker but I don't want to be stuck without interesting companion dialogue as punishment for that. Hired Adventurers are nice if you want to go all out with specific race/class combos, but I just want to pick decent talents and attributes for the companions and have some real freedom to build them into roles rather than being stuck with a poor base.

-

Should be able to rest anywhere in stronghold free, if I don't want the bonuses. It's annoying having to go through two doors for such a simple thing, as nice as the buildings and interiors looks it gets pretty old. Really, the whole thing is too spread out for convenience.

-

Fists and Druid's spiritshift weapons need better scaling, particularly accuracy, if they're ever going to be a thing on harder difficulties.

-

+2 Move speed is too much/too easy kiting for permanent/long duration effects. My chanter giving it to the whole party trivialized many encounters, plus it was just the no-brainer thing to chant in most situations.

-

Retaliation needs some nerfs. I'm sorry people but it just does. It is far and away the strongest enchant in the game for any melee build other than a weak might tank maybe. Its damage output requires little effort and it activates in situations it really shouldn't.

-

A better balance of micro-management. Casters definitely need more substantial per encounter spells and/or abilities. It would definitely be too much to give them full nuking power but I think they're overpowered as is on boss stuff, and too boring on non-boss stuff if you're not free casting. I'd also say melee builds need some better active abilities. Many are very lackluster. Some are just too spammy(Torment's Reach). The best balance so far is Cipher but of course it's on the overpowered side for other reasons. I think all classes could use more space to build towards either side of the micro-management scale, or the middle.

 

 

 

I could go on with minor stuff and all sorts of balance issues, but these were the biggest nuisances or balance issues for me personally, over the course of multiple playthroughs. They're what reduced my enjoyment of the game the most so far.

 

Some will say "don't use it then!" for some of the things I call overpowered, of course, but while certain things remain crutches other things don't get balanced and player input is skewed by whether or not they used the cheesier things. And I've always been a "use what works" sort of player(aside from obvious bug abuse/cheats) that enjoys optimizing builds and strategies/tactics, if I feel I need to put arbitrary self-imposed limitations on myself, the game just gets boring for me. 

 

Edit: coarse -> course.

 

 

1. Yep

2. Yep

3. Would like as an option.

4. Hm. Probably.

5. Hard to disagree.

6. Eh, I like it. On Hard I've found messing around with kiting is rarely worth the hassle.

7. I don't like it but you're probably right.

8. Don't know if I agree. Personally I'm usually running out of HP before I run out of spells.

[Odd Hermit]

Is Retaliation really that bad? I mean, apart from the barbarian's (bugged) One Stands Alone passive, does it really do that much damage on other character classes or on barbarians without that passive?

 

I'm not sure as to what sorts of abilities trigger Retaliation, so I won't comment as to it being too easy to prod, but I am curious about how it stacks up in the absence of other effects.

 

Also, are you certain that it stacks? Because that's pretty weird given how pretty much every other bonus doesn't stack. A simple fix might just be preventing stacking rather than nerfing the effect itself.

 

It is a full attack and gets all the bonuses from whatever modals and passive talents you have and so on.

 

You can have enemies kill themselves on you even while you're disabled for most of the fight with a good retal build.

 

And with weapons with draining or spell strike effects it gets pretty insane.

 

Relative to literally every single other enchant property in the game it is dramatically overpowered.