I'm thrilled to see this game is still being supported with patches. I'm late to the game, but loving it -- in a very completist way (over 160 hours so far, read all the books, etc). I never quite finished BG, though I went through IWD twice.
I'd like to share some thoughts, some of which are bugs, some just mildly annoying. Please forgive me if I get carried away.
Some things I've noticed that would be nice to see fixed, though probably of very low priority.
First, there's quite a few magnifying glass icons in Twin Elms that cannot be clicked. Off the top of my head:
Roof of broken tower in centre east of Hearthsong
Celestial Sapling, leaves at the top of the lift
Both statues in Burial Isle (one can be clicked about 1cm above the icon, the other not at all)
Some water somewhere -- can't remember if it's Hearthsong, Noonfrost, near the boat to Burial Isle, or somewhere else entirely. Admittedly, it looks like a duplicate of a message nearby.
Honestly, I think these messages should be clickable at any time they're within the full viewing radius of a character (not necessarily in sight), and the character should not need to move towards it. This already appears to be partly true for some.
Second, I think it would be useful to run a grammar checker over all your book text, item description text, and at least some of the conversation text. I've read nearly everything I've encountered so far (end of Act 3), and there's some typos, double words, etc. But the really problematic thing is changes of tense -- really takes the reader out of the story. I suspect the text was retasked (or possibly a draft made it into the final game), but it's relatively easy to fix. A good grammar checker can quickly identify the problems for human intervention -- something every game, news article, blog posting, etc could benefit from!
Third, there's some issues with some quest text -- not surprising in such a complex game. The one I picked up on yesterday is the stronghold visitor, Geyda. If Geyda is sent away with no escort, she leaves the stronghold twice (two identical lines in the stronghold log), and just 3 days later (all other non-human subject options take 4 days) a message appears that her body was found in Heritage Hill -- even when she's sent to the other locations. I think there's a similar issue with the text on the current events page if you give her money to hire help ... but I was bored after spending over an hour verifying all the quest branches for the wiki -- sorry.
Fourth, the party combat movement AI can be *really* annoying. I've often noticed my melee character taking a hugely circuitous route to reach an enemy that can be reached in a straight line. I suspect an ally is usually occluding the straight line path just slightly, but the other side can be totally open and this still happens.
An equivalent issue is with ranged attacks across obstacles. The best example is the bounty in Lle a Rhemen (sp?). In theory, the ranged characters can cast AoE spells and snipe from the ledge while the front line chars block the stairs. In practice, the ranged chars spend a lot of time trying to descend the stairs or otherwise repositioning. (I also noticed that summonings refused to project to the bottom level, which totally compromised the second half of the encounter for me). This is partly an issue with visibility from one level to another (need to be right at the edge to see down), and partly a path-finding issue.
I'd also like to see characters stick to the target I've assigned them: my rogue archer often stops shooting at distant, paralysed targets in favour of nearby, non-afflicted options (Aggressive AI mode).
On a related note, the way inaccessible map areas are revealed is somewhat flawed. Two good examples are the centre section of the south of the Burial Isle, and the high cliff across Stormwall Gorge. Basically, line of sight is handled in a somewhat 3D manner, which makes it impossible to reveal certain sections of maps with vertical walls. I can understand why this is done (eg: dungeons), but I think exceptions are needed for areas like these. Because it ends up looking a bit silly.
Also on the same note, one of the things that really frustrated me with Infinity Engine games was that many maps could never be completely revealed. I really wanted to see a "full reveal" switch implemented once a certain percentage of the map was revealed. For example, if the revealable area of the map was 90%, once more than 88% had been revealed, a switch could be saved that revealed 100% of the map. This would also reduce save file sizes! (The numbers might need tweaking.) Frankly, though, this would work better on a section-by-section basis, with some sections marked as being impossible to fully reveal, and when each/most/all sections were revealed above a certain percentage, the "full reveal" flag for that section/whole map would activate. There are less naive ways of doing this, but I suspect my approach could be quicker to implement, with some tweaking. Why do it? Because otherwise some of your artwork is totally wasted.
One more combat issue. If Auto-pause activates at the moment a graphics-intensive spell effect takes hold, all user-interface actions are really slow, especially mouse pointer changes and mouse-over graphics. I think I see this a lot because I've activated Auto-pause on Character Ability End (one of the most useful auto-pauses, to my mind). I admit, the fact this is happening suggests a fundamental programming decision about what happens when the game pauses. So it could be well-nigh impossible to correct the mistake.
I love the Stash, but I hate reorganising it. I'm trying to keep one of everything, plus enough items to enchant (it's my first play-through...). But I'd like to keep them in a predictable order. While there's many complex functionalities that could be added, the one I'd most like to see (and that feels feasible) would be a grouping function. Fundamentally, clicking the Group Identical Items button (possibly with confirmation dialog, probably limited to the currently-visible type of gear), would move all items of the same type to immediately follow the first item of that type. So if I had 15 flails in inventory, scattered across three tabs, clicking the button would find the first flail and move the other 14 to insert them immediately after the first. Unlike the very useful filter options, this would be a permanent move (not a temporary display). While I would love to also move all Fine Flails to immediately follow the regular flails, I suspect adding that functionality as well might compromise some people's sorting schemes -- a step too far.
I also noticed that shift-clicking an item into the Stash moves it to the front of the stash rather than the end. While this adds flexibility for reorganisation, I'd prefer a game option whether to add to the start or end of the Stash with shift-click.
(Accidentally) double-clicking an item in the stash appears to equip it and switch the items, inserting the previous item where the old one came from. I nearly lost my main character's armour this way! (When I say "lost", I mean I couldn't remember what I used to have equipped and there was no obvious way to find it, hidden in the middle of the stash.) This is dangerous functionality, to my mind. I don't think double-clicks should be recognised on stash items.
It may already be possible, but there's a big pain point with eating food items outside combat. Basically, I have to enter the inventory, move the food item to the character's belt, put the item it replaces back in their general inventory, then repeat for every character, then exit inventory, pause the game, access each character's belt pouch in turn and click the food item, unpause, reenter inventory, switch items back between belt and general inv. That's just crazy! This isn't combat. Surely, dragging the food item over the character portrait in inventory should queue up eating the food (with some kind of instant audio feedback)? I tried that and it didn't seem to work. But I may be missing a less obvious mechanic. If not ... strong request!
Finally, my most common frustration is accidentally undoing an auto-pause. The combat log flows by so fast, it's basically impossible to track. So I periodically feel it's been too long since the last auto-pause, and hit Space. Very often, an auto-pause has just happened, so I actually *unpause* the action! On occasion, this compounds, so I end up hitting Space three times in quick succession and still haven't paused the game! The fix to this is very easy -- taken from Blizzard's book with how they handled some of the skills in Diablo 3 recently. Basically, there needs to be a dead period just after each auto-pause. That is, hitting Space up to 1 second after an auto-pause is triggered does not unpause. While the time interval can be tweaked (half a second?), I can't see any good reason why implementing this would cause an issue for any player -- and it would help a lot!
Well, 3 bug reports turned into more than a dozen "complaints." Sorry about that. (I prefer to think of them as concrete suggestions.) I hope there's something useful in there.
[As a total aside, I'm looking for work. Wouldn't be averse to testing... Currently living in Melbourne, Australia.]
Question
Starlite
I'm thrilled to see this game is still being supported with patches. I'm late to the game, but loving it -- in a very completist way (over 160 hours so far, read all the books, etc). I never quite finished BG, though I went through IWD twice.
I'd like to share some thoughts, some of which are bugs, some just mildly annoying. Please forgive me if I get carried away.
Some things I've noticed that would be nice to see fixed, though probably of very low priority.
First, there's quite a few magnifying glass icons in Twin Elms that cannot be clicked. Off the top of my head:
Honestly, I think these messages should be clickable at any time they're within the full viewing radius of a character (not necessarily in sight), and the character should not need to move towards it. This already appears to be partly true for some.
Second, I think it would be useful to run a grammar checker over all your book text, item description text, and at least some of the conversation text. I've read nearly everything I've encountered so far (end of Act 3), and there's some typos, double words, etc. But the really problematic thing is changes of tense -- really takes the reader out of the story. I suspect the text was retasked (or possibly a draft made it into the final game), but it's relatively easy to fix. A good grammar checker can quickly identify the problems for human intervention -- something every game, news article, blog posting, etc could benefit from!
Third, there's some issues with some quest text -- not surprising in such a complex game. The one I picked up on yesterday is the stronghold visitor, Geyda. If Geyda is sent away with no escort, she leaves the stronghold twice (two identical lines in the stronghold log), and just 3 days later (all other non-human subject options take 4 days) a message appears that her body was found in Heritage Hill -- even when she's sent to the other locations. I think there's a similar issue with the text on the current events page if you give her money to hire help ... but I was bored after spending over an hour verifying all the quest branches for the wiki -- sorry.
Fourth, the party combat movement AI can be *really* annoying. I've often noticed my melee character taking a hugely circuitous route to reach an enemy that can be reached in a straight line. I suspect an ally is usually occluding the straight line path just slightly, but the other side can be totally open and this still happens.
An equivalent issue is with ranged attacks across obstacles. The best example is the bounty in Lle a Rhemen (sp?). In theory, the ranged characters can cast AoE spells and snipe from the ledge while the front line chars block the stairs. In practice, the ranged chars spend a lot of time trying to descend the stairs or otherwise repositioning. (I also noticed that summonings refused to project to the bottom level, which totally compromised the second half of the encounter for me). This is partly an issue with visibility from one level to another (need to be right at the edge to see down), and partly a path-finding issue.
I'd also like to see characters stick to the target I've assigned them: my rogue archer often stops shooting at distant, paralysed targets in favour of nearby, non-afflicted options (Aggressive AI mode).
On a related note, the way inaccessible map areas are revealed is somewhat flawed. Two good examples are the centre section of the south of the Burial Isle, and the high cliff across Stormwall Gorge. Basically, line of sight is handled in a somewhat 3D manner, which makes it impossible to reveal certain sections of maps with vertical walls. I can understand why this is done (eg: dungeons), but I think exceptions are needed for areas like these. Because it ends up looking a bit silly.
Also on the same note, one of the things that really frustrated me with Infinity Engine games was that many maps could never be completely revealed. I really wanted to see a "full reveal" switch implemented once a certain percentage of the map was revealed. For example, if the revealable area of the map was 90%, once more than 88% had been revealed, a switch could be saved that revealed 100% of the map. This would also reduce save file sizes! (The numbers might need tweaking.) Frankly, though, this would work better on a section-by-section basis, with some sections marked as being impossible to fully reveal, and when each/most/all sections were revealed above a certain percentage, the "full reveal" flag for that section/whole map would activate. There are less naive ways of doing this, but I suspect my approach could be quicker to implement, with some tweaking. Why do it? Because otherwise some of your artwork is totally wasted.
One more combat issue. If Auto-pause activates at the moment a graphics-intensive spell effect takes hold, all user-interface actions are really slow, especially mouse pointer changes and mouse-over graphics. I think I see this a lot because I've activated Auto-pause on Character Ability End (one of the most useful auto-pauses, to my mind). I admit, the fact this is happening suggests a fundamental programming decision about what happens when the game pauses. So it could be well-nigh impossible to correct the mistake.
I love the Stash, but I hate reorganising it. I'm trying to keep one of everything, plus enough items to enchant (it's my first play-through...). But I'd like to keep them in a predictable order. While there's many complex functionalities that could be added, the one I'd most like to see (and that feels feasible) would be a grouping function. Fundamentally, clicking the Group Identical Items button (possibly with confirmation dialog, probably limited to the currently-visible type of gear), would move all items of the same type to immediately follow the first item of that type. So if I had 15 flails in inventory, scattered across three tabs, clicking the button would find the first flail and move the other 14 to insert them immediately after the first. Unlike the very useful filter options, this would be a permanent move (not a temporary display). While I would love to also move all Fine Flails to immediately follow the regular flails, I suspect adding that functionality as well might compromise some people's sorting schemes -- a step too far.
I also noticed that shift-clicking an item into the Stash moves it to the front of the stash rather than the end. While this adds flexibility for reorganisation, I'd prefer a game option whether to add to the start or end of the Stash with shift-click.
(Accidentally) double-clicking an item in the stash appears to equip it and switch the items, inserting the previous item where the old one came from. I nearly lost my main character's armour this way! (When I say "lost", I mean I couldn't remember what I used to have equipped and there was no obvious way to find it, hidden in the middle of the stash.) This is dangerous functionality, to my mind. I don't think double-clicks should be recognised on stash items.
It may already be possible, but there's a big pain point with eating food items outside combat. Basically, I have to enter the inventory, move the food item to the character's belt, put the item it replaces back in their general inventory, then repeat for every character, then exit inventory, pause the game, access each character's belt pouch in turn and click the food item, unpause, reenter inventory, switch items back between belt and general inv. That's just crazy! This isn't combat. Surely, dragging the food item over the character portrait in inventory should queue up eating the food (with some kind of instant audio feedback)? I tried that and it didn't seem to work. But I may be missing a less obvious mechanic. If not ... strong request!
Finally, my most common frustration is accidentally undoing an auto-pause. The combat log flows by so fast, it's basically impossible to track. So I periodically feel it's been too long since the last auto-pause, and hit Space. Very often, an auto-pause has just happened, so I actually *unpause* the action! On occasion, this compounds, so I end up hitting Space three times in quick succession and still haven't paused the game! The fix to this is very easy -- taken from Blizzard's book with how they handled some of the skills in Diablo 3 recently. Basically, there needs to be a dead period just after each auto-pause. That is, hitting Space up to 1 second after an auto-pause is triggered does not unpause. While the time interval can be tweaked (half a second?), I can't see any good reason why implementing this would cause an issue for any player -- and it would help a lot!
Well, 3 bug reports turned into more than a dozen "complaints." Sorry about that. (I prefer to think of them as concrete suggestions.) I hope there's something useful in there.
[As a total aside, I'm looking for work. Wouldn't be averse to testing... Currently living in Melbourne, Australia.]
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