suggestions to improve the game

[Madscientist]

Please write down everything that could make the game better.

I start with:

 

- You should be able to see the talent trees of your chars when you are not at character creation or at the level up screen.

 

- When you create a char and you select a sub class that cannot learn some spells of the base class, the spells that cannot be learned should be grayed out in the talent preview. When you level up, all future spells (e.g. spells from a power level you cannot learn yet) that cannot be learned should also be displayed as unable to be learned. This should make planning your character easier.

 

- When you select a weapon profiency, you should be able to see some info about that weapon type (e.g. base damage, base penetration, weapon special like 2 damage types or more accurency). At the beginning of the game you must chose a profiency, but you do not know what each weapon does and which one is best for your char. When leveling up this is also nice to know.

[Madscientist]

There are several things that should be shown during character creation (or during level up in the talent tree screen), but they cannot be seen now.

This is the first version of the beta, so some of these thing will definitely be added.

 

- racial abilities during character creation

 

- class skills during character creation ( You get class skills when you start the game, but they are never shown during character creation.

 

- costs of abilities (wounds for monks, focus for cipher, phrases for chanters, and whatever the power source of the other classes is called) in the talent tree screen. This would make it easier to plan your char.

 

- Some talents have several options to upgrade them. It is never mentioned that you can select only 1 upgrade for each skill. (At least I think you can only select one upgrade. I am not 100% sure because of the missing info)

 

- Afflictions are grouped according to stats. There are might afflictions, dexterity afflictions, . . . and so on. But it hard to find out in the game which affliction belongs to wich stat. (You can find it out by looking at the talent tree of fighters and paladins, but you cannot look at this all the time).

There are talents (racial and class) that give a bonus to to such afflictions, but the talent description does not show how big the bonus is.

e.g. Wood elfs gain resistence to dex afflictions, but the game does not tell you what dex afflictions are (when you select the wood elf as race, even if the racial talent was shown during character creation) and you do not know if the bonus is +5, +10, +20 or +100 (rather unlikely )

Edited November 18, 2017 by Madscientist

[AndreaColombo]

• The dynamic weather system is very good, but in Tikawara (sp?) it often felt as though it was on a timer rather than random. Every X time it rains. This way the effect feels gimmicky and gets old fast. It would be better if there was a random chance of rain to go with winds of different speed.

Characters don't seem to turn toward you as you initiate dialog. I talked to Poko-dude in Tikawara and he kept doing his thing and moving around instead of facing me, which felt really odd.

Descriptions of abilities, classes, races, etc. could use more specificity. A lot more. What does "Resistance to X" mean? How much resistance? Is it immunity? Is it Y % chance of the effect failing entirely against you? The Fighter has an update for Knock Down that makes the enemy fly in the air before falling prone; does it do anything mechanically on top of adding visual spectacle? The ability's description doesn't say and I'm not wasting a precious talent point for mere razzle-dazzle action. Race descriptions don't mention racial abilities. Etc. Every time there's an ability or spell to pick, I'd like to know exactly what it does mechanically; how much it adds/subtracts to which stats and for how long. If it's a % increase/decrease, it would be good to know if it is additive or multiplicative.

During CC it would be useful if we could use the shield-shaped icons at the bottom of the screen as shortcuts to reach the relative character creation screens.

Edited November 18, 2017 by AndreaColombo

[theBalthazar]

* If a general pool of Talent is not considered by the devs, give weapon focus to all "physical class", who can 'RP speaking' possibly master all the weapons Fighter, Barbarian, Paladin, Monk, Ranger.

 

* Weapon focus down to a bonus of 4 accuracy.

 

* Make Proficiency give 6 Accuracy for reinforce the value of this tricks.

 

* Let appear the empower level at the rest panel.

 

* Increase the might or/and number of empower in the case of single class. For increase the deal. In front of multiclass, the singleclass must be powerful in his domain.

Edited November 18, 2017 by theBalthazar

[Madscientist]

One very importent thing:

 

It is said that several talents improve with power level, but the game does not tell you if a talent improves or not and what is improved exactly.

 

I would like something like this:

 

- Fireball: causes 20-30 burn damage to all creatures in the area. It has 5 penetration.

Each power level above lv X (X = the level of the spell) increases damage by 2-5 points of burn damage and penetration by 1. ( If you lose power levels because of afflictions, these numbers are removed from the spell, even below lv X)

 

- Magic missle: Fires a projectile that causes 5-7 corrode damage, penetration 7

Every power level above lv X adds +1 damage and you gain another projectile every second power level above X

 

- Monk fist: 10 - 15 crush damage, penetration 5, +5 acc

Every power level above lv X adds +2 base damage, +1 penetration and +5acc

 

note: Those examples have nothing to do with the numbers in the real game. I have no idea what power level really does because of the lack of information.

[morhilane]

It is said that several talents improve with power level, but the game does not tell you if a talent improves or not and what is improved exactly.

That info is available but only seems to works for some stuff (mostly spells and I saw it on Flame of Devotion). When you open the details of an ability, bring the cursor over the blue text and a tooltip should appear telling your the "power level" improvement currently applied. Example, if beside the word Penetration highlight the blue number and you should see something like 5 + 0.75 Class Power level in a popup. Doesn't work on damage though.

[draego]

Giver players an exit to desktop option instead just a quit that goes to the main menu. i mean you can have both.

Edited November 19, 2017 by draego

[JerekKruger]

- Increase access to Grazes. Either make them universal again, or have all Weapon Proficiencies allow characters to Graze with the proficient weapon as a passive bonus in addition to the modal. This would probably also require that Confident Aim and the Boreal Dwarfs' racial passive be changed, probably to a Graze to Hit conversion.

 

- Change the Conjurer's Summon Familiar ability. This one requires more thought, but at the moment the ability is pretty terrible: it gives a random buff to the Wizard (often useless to the situation at hand) which is removed if a rather frail summon is killed, and it uses one of the Wizard's level 1 spell casts. At the very least I'd change it so that the Wizard chooses a specific familiar at character creation so they have some control over what buff they get. I'd also suggest having it not use a spell cast to summon and be instantaneous to summon. Even with this changes I'm not sure it'd be worth summoning most the time. I probably wouldn't make the familiar a permanent companion both because that would encroach on the Ranger's shtick and because Conjurer/Rangers would get a little crowded. 

[Answermancer]

* If a general pool of Talent is not considered by the devs, give weapon focus to all "physical class", who can 'RP speaking' possibly master all the weapons Fighter, Barbarian, Paladin, Monk, Ranger.

And Rogue

[morhilane]

- Increase access to Grazes. Either make them universal again, or have all Weapon Proficiencies allow characters to Graze with the proficient weapon as a passive bonus in addition to the modal. This would probably also require that Confident Aim and the Boreal Dwarfs' racial passive be changed, probably to a Graze to Hit conversion.

I personally would suggest to just remove graze entirely and re-balance enemies and encounters. POE1 combat issue has always been too much damage dealt (so you die too fast and enemies are HP sponge). Re-putting more in, isn't going to solve anything.

[JerekKruger]

I personally would suggest to just remove graze entirely and re-balance enemies and encounters. POE1 combat issue has always been too much damage dealt (so you die too fast and enemies are HP sponge). Re-putting more in, isn't going to solve anything.

 

That's certainly an option too. I quite like the idea of grazes but if they are removed altogether and the game is balanced around that then that's fine too.

[IndiraLightfoot]

Today, I've watched videos of PoE1, as well as of BG1, plus NWN1 and NWN2, looking specifically at level 6 party combat (1), and also what happens if you bring undergeared level 6ers against level 7 and level 8 baddies (2).

 

1) For Deadfire, the game behaves more or less in line with these games when party and enemy group are of the same level AND you have built melee characters with high enough Armor Penetration.

However, if your Deadfire party and the enemy group are of the same level, but you don't have such AP-crushing melee characters, it all get stuck in your party (if in decent armor) hitting training dummies. Combat takes ages and ages. Whack *Miss*. Khazam! *Fizzle*.

 

2) In these other games, when the enemy group is stronger than your party, the fight goes on for longer, and your skill and how your built your characters are very important. Still, no matter how you slice it, if the enemies get the upper hand, the fight is over quickly. You get crushed by the baddies pretty fast.

But in Deadfire, your slightly weaker party level-wise, has an even harder time hitting anything in any way. Still, the enemies take good time killing you (if your party is well-armored). It becomes a slogfest of a death of dozens of semi-papercuts.

[theBalthazar]

FREE IDEAS FOR PROFICIENCY/WEAPON FOCUS 2.0

 

* One Proficiency at the start...

 

* ...And One Proficiency all Five level. 5 / 10 / 15 / 20.

 

* Proficiency evolve with time and give accuracy. (Level 1 = +1 accuracy, Level 20 = +6 accuracy)

 

* Weapon focus accessible for all physical classes with strong knowledge of weapons : Fighter / Barbarian / Ranger / Paladin / Monk.

 

* Two physical classes can stack weapon focus in each branch. (cost 2 pts and it is RP, martial master have superiors knowledge of weapons than magic classes)

 

* Nerf of weapon focus (6 to 4) to stay consistent.

Edited November 19, 2017 by theBalthazar

[draego]

If they stick with the current party inventory management they should just remove all individual inventory. My feeling is either do this or go back to POE1. As of now there is no need for individual inventory. I ok with either system but with just that one change if they stick with the current system. 

[Answermancer]

 

 

I personally would suggest to just remove graze entirely and re-balance enemies and encounters. POE1 combat issue has always been too much damage dealt (so you die too fast and enemies are HP sponge). Re-putting more in, isn't going to solve anything.

 

 

How would you solve the issue of abilities missing all the time and feeling useless then?

 

I think that's the biggest issue with lack of grazes personally. Spending a bunch of talent points, and power points / spell levels, and potentially a long cast time just to have nothing happen 60% or more of the time is just less fun than having something happen IMO, even if that something is a lot weaker.

 

Just my opinion of course, but like I've said previously, even D&D tends to have partial damage or effect for "misses" these days, especially in 4E and 5E but even earlier editions had it for some spells.

[una322]

The UI for inventory in poe 1 was perfect, you could trade between your party by dragging items very easily. In poe2 you have to pick up the item drag it to the party members face icon hope that you click the dead center or it cancels then drag it again to there inventory window. That just isnt good no matter how you look at it.

So yeh as others said just remove that and have an entire party stash.

 

I dunno if its just me but i really enjoyed the camping kits mechanic for resting, having a limited number at higher settings was really fun, and it was its own mini game in seing how far you could push your party before you really needed to rest. Right now it just feels as if you can rest after each fight which really takes away any strats inbetween encounters.

[TheC]

I am sure that during your real campaign, your party would have much better equipment than what we start with for the beta. That will make a big diff.

[KDubya]

I'm OK with the current graze system where only Fighters get them (and Boreal Dwarves against wilder and primordial)

 

It gives them their niche. Barbarians get carnage for AoE, Fighters get grazes, seems fair to me.

 

If they can give grazes to spells where a graze downgrades the affliction sounds like a fine addition. So a graze with paralyze gets you immobilized instead.

[Katarack21]

I'm OK with the current graze system where only Fighters get them (and Boreal Dwarves against wilder and primordial)

 

It gives them their niche. Barbarians get carnage for AoE, Fighters get grazes, seems fair to me.

 

If they can give grazes to spells where a graze downgrades the affliction sounds like a fine addition. So a graze with paralyze gets you immobilized instead.

With the new tier system, that's *perfect*. That's a viable solution, IMHO.

[AndreaColombo]

^ I agree.

 

However, what about spells that only deal damage?

[Katarack21]

Then they just graze like a weapon, with reduced damage.

[AndreaColombo]

Sounds good to me.

[Answermancer]

Yes, I also agree, if they are concerned about graze CC being too powerful (and it sounds like they are), then this would be the ideal solution IMO.

 

Degrade the CC to a weaker one. Lower duration. Deal graze damage.

[morhilane]

 

 

 

I personally would suggest to just remove graze entirely and re-balance enemies and encounters. POE1 combat issue has always been too much damage dealt (so you die too fast and enemies are HP sponge). Re-putting more in, isn't going to solve anything.

 

 

How would you solve the issue of abilities missing all the time and feeling useless then?

 

I think that's the biggest issue with lack of grazes personally. Spending a bunch of talent points, and power points / spell levels, and potentially a long cast time just to have nothing happen 60% or more of the time is just less fun than having something happen IMO, even if that something is a lot weaker.

 

Just my opinion of course, but like I've said previously, even D&D tends to have partial damage or effect for "misses" these days, especially in 4E and 5E but even earlier editions had it for some spells.

 

Spell accuracy is currently lower than what you get with weapons unless you use Empower because spells don't get as good accuracy bonuses as weapons do. That needs to be fixed first. Right now, it's a better idea to have your Wizard use weapons than damage spells.

 

Also, I agree that spells should have diminished effects on "save" unless the creature is immune if they are to keep the current amount of per-encounter cast, recovery speed and spell magnitude.

[Katarack21]

Is the combat log movable? Like, I know you can adjust it's size, but can you move it without selecting a different layout setting, like you could in Tyranny?

Because that would be *awesome*.