A few questions before I buy the game.

[tatiana]

I'm seriously considering buying Enshrouded to play with a friend. I have already done some research, but there are some questions I could not find answers to:

1. Are the keys rebind-able?

2. Is there a way to increase contrast of the graphics, especially during daytime in bright sunlight? I have read someone say on the user suggestions board that turning off anti-aliasing helps. Is there anything else I could tweak? My PC only meets the minimum requirements.

3. How does the Pacify Enemies setting work? Does it mean they wouldn't attack from behind, or swarm on us, or both? Does it make a big difference?

4. How many non-combat skills will I need to spend points on? I mean skills such as double-jump, etc.

5. Is there fall damage and how easy it is to avoid?

6. How feasible is taking over an abandoned village? Will a flame altar placed in the middle of it protect the entire area, at least eventually? How easy is it to repair holes in the walls and floors? Or is it easier and quicker to just build our own houses?

7. I've been watching a playthrough of Enshrouded by Chiselchip, and noticed that in his co-op episodes chests usually contain Two weapons instead of one. Is that a setting he tweaked?

Thanks in advance!

[Eightball]

1- Yes, most keys/mouse settings can be rebound.

2 - There are some graphical adjustments you can make (and you can always adjust your actual monitor settings as well), but without knowing what you want to accomplish it is hard to say if you will be able to get there. Why do you think you will need to adjust anything beyond default contrast wise?

3 - When Pacify enemies is on they will not attack you unless you attack them. It completely changes the 'risk' element in the game and I would suggest you should seldom, if ever, use it. Maybe on a post playthrough, resource farming only map for example.

You can adjust the enemy 'awareness' which alters the range at which the detect you and will react to you if you want to make things more dangerous (or less).

4 - It depends in part on what you consider a non-combat skill. Most skill 'trees' will have nodes that might not directly affect combat, but that you will need to take in order to progress up the tree to higher level perks. So, for instance, you might need to take a node that increases your constitution (so your health pool) to get to a more direct combat perk.

There are a number of utility perks, like better mining and logging (as well as double jump), but you don't 'need' to take many if any of them. Even double jump is not mandatory -although some will argue it is- to successfully complete the game. In the end you will have more than enough perk points to build out your character to match your playstyle; it is just how you spend those first perks that can make an early impact. For instance I tend to avoid spending all the perk points needed to get Double Jump early on and instead spend them on perks that up my DPS.

There are a number of skill tree maps online so you can see what is available.

5 - There is. You will have early access to a glider that takes up its own inventory slot and will never be lost, even on death. As long as you have stamina you can activate it and it is probably the best way to avoid long fall damage. But generally fall damage can be avoided as in any other game; watch where you step.

6 - It is easy and for people like myself, the preferable way to build a base as opposed to doing so from scratch. You do need to clear the area of mobs before you place your altar. Understand that a placed altar has a set build area and this build area can be increased in size 3 times beyond the first. You can ultimately encompass some rather large villages/forts once the altar is max upgraded for building area.

Repairing is easy from the start. Repairing to match the existing material of the building in question might not be as easy. Since building is 'block' based and there are a variety of textures for blocs in game (37+ I think) if you do not have the matching texture unlocked yet you will still be able to repair a building, but your repairs wont visually match the rest of the building. Once you do unlock the right texture/block it is easy enough to go back and repair your repairs.

7 - When you are playing co-op and your group is together when you loot chests (meaning one member is not on the other side of the map picking berries) then the loot amounts adjust for the party size.

You can also change the settings in game to alter the amount of loot present when a 'stack' is looted. So what might, on default, be a stack of 5 iron arrows, can be buffed up to be a stack of 25 arrows.


If you do play with a friend, and co-op is quite fun, then I suggest you make sure 'personal progression' is on for both you and your friend IF there will be times when one of you might be playing while the other person is not.

And respeccing your perks is cheap and easy so don't be afraid to try new things.

You both may want to consider using a 3rd party chat program as well to communicate in game.

Also, if you have never completed a playthough you may want to keep everything on default difficulty at first. BUT that is not to say harder is not fun. I actually completed my first playthroughs on Survival difficulty. Made things harder, but it also made me play a bit smarter.

Have fun!

[Wisp Cat]

Originally posted by Eightball:

5 - There is. You will have early access to a glider that takes up its own inventory slot and will never be lost, even on death. As long as you have stamina you can activate it and it is probably the best way to avoid long fall damage. But generally fall damage can be avoided as in any other game; watch where you step.

I feel like I should add a couple notes of caution here:

First, try to land on horizontal surfaces. If you land on a steep inclined surface, that can interfere with your glider and, if it's far enough down to flat ground, lead to massive (perhaps lethal) fall damage.

Second, try to not let yourself be confused by real world knowledge. It's totally safe to land on your head - your in-game neck is really, really strong. But you can die if you land on your feet (without your glider active - the only way to land on your head is with your glider active).

And, of course, like Eightball hinted - running out of stamina while you are in the air is bad news.

[tatiana]

@Eightball:
Thank you very much for the detailed answer!

2 - I have been looking at several YouTube guides for the game, and always felt like the sun was a bit too bright in the starter zone, making things difficult to see. As this problem seems at to disappear at night, at dusk and in forested areas, I've made an assumption that the devs simply overdid it with the post-processing effects :-)

3 - Me and my friend both have a disability that affects our reaction times and hand-eye coordination. That's why I thought that the Pacify option might minimise the number of times we are surrounded by mobs, so that we don't need to turn around or dodge quite as much. This seems less of a cheat than lowering their health or damage.

What's the hotkey for dodging, btw?

4 - Thanks for the suggestion about the skill tree map! I will take a look at one. I just don't want to be in a situation where I spread my perks in so many different directions that I don't have enough to max out even a single "class".

Constitution Is combat-related, by the way, because it's something you need in a fight. Better mining and logging are not combat-related, but I'm unlikely to spec into those - they seem to be for builders, and I prefer smaller houses, that I can easily find my way around in. :-)

Me and my friend have played about half a dozen games in co-op over the years, and it is always a blast! Thanks for reassuring me! The more I find out about Enshrouded the more perfect it seems.

[tatiana]

Originally posted by Wisp Cat:

Originally posted by Eightball:

5 - There is. You will have early access to a glider that takes up its own inventory slot and will never be lost, even on death. As long as you have stamina you can activate it and it is probably the best way to avoid long fall damage. But generally fall damage can be avoided as in any other game; watch where you step.

I feel like I should add a couple notes of caution here:

First, try to land on horizontal surfaces. If you land on a steep inclined surface, that can interfere with your glider and, if it's far enough down to flat ground, lead to massive (perhaps lethal) fall damage.

Second, try to not let yourself be confused by real world knowledge. It's totally safe to land on your head - your in-game neck is really, really strong. But you can die if you land on your feet (without your glider active - the only way to land on your head is with your glider active).

And, of course, like Eightball hinted - running out of stamina while you are in the air is bad news.

As I've mentioned before, I am currently watching a playthrough of Enshrouded on YouTube, and gliding seems to be a lot easier than in Guild Wars 2. So if I never had any problems controlling the glider in GW2, controlling it in Enshrouded will be peanuts!

[Eightball]

I always find, at least in my experience, YT vids don't really give me the true look a game will have on my system. I am betting things will look better on your gear than you may expect.

As an aside if you do find the starter area a bit too bright you may want to look at some vids that take in the Kindlewaste (desert).

If I recall the default key for 'evade' (dodge) is Ctrl -I play on m/kb-, but I quickly remapped that one.

Some settings you can adjust (and these are via the World edit) to make combat situations a bit more to your liking while not overly minimizing risk -you wont feel like you cheated- are 'perception range', 'simultaneous attacks' and 'attack frequency'.

Perception/awareness range we already mentioned.

Simultaneous attacks changes the number of mobs that can attack you at once, so if you are facing multiple mobs they will, based on your setting, attack as a group or down to one at a time, the next one waiting for the current duel to end. This might be the setting you would find most beneficial to mess around with.

Attack frequency affects how quickly any one mob will swing/shoot/cast again when in combat. The change being applied to their individual default attack speed.

As to perks and classes this game really leans away from the archetypal tank/healer/dps pure classes and is more into mix-and-match skills to meet your playstyle. You can, no doubt, focus on say magic (and further focus on staves or wands), but you will still find yourself with enough perk points to spread out into other areas.

Solo play promotes more hybridization than co-op for obvious reasons, but ultimately you will have enough points to do what you want. And again it is so easy to refund your perk points you can play one session as a mage and then the next day play as an archer if you feel the whim. (just start collecting appropriate gear to support your swapping).

And I mentioned constitution because it serves, at least for me, non-combat functions as well; like increasing your survival chances from those falls you talked about or running through lava!

Don't forget there will be some 'universal' settings you can access on the main screen as well as specific 'world' settings you can access through the edit button on that particular world. Whoever hosts the world can alter it.

AND my last two cents in this overly long post:

The map is handcrafted with much to discover. If you like to explore there are things to find in even the most remote areas. BUT the map is static so although you can alter things like mob density and such the POIs will stay where they are on your next play.

I highly, highly encourage you to stop watching any YT vids or reading any guides or walkthroughs and just play the game blind.

Go in, explore, discover, overcome. I think you and your mate would find it far more enjoyable.

[tatiana]

I have looked at some Kindlewastes videos and they are even brighter than the starter area! I will definitely need to find a way to tone down those visuals...

The simultaneous attacks setting seems like the one we will need to tweak.

Constitution is still a combat-related stat no matter what anyone says, even if it does have other benefits.

Enshrouded is genuinely the first game I've ever encountered where I've watched a playthrough beyond the first episode! It's not my fault that I love the lore of it, and I will watch it to the end if I have to! Have you never re-read a book in your life?

Besides, as me and my friend have a poor sense of direction as well, I wanted to see if there are any particularly labyrinthine areas to get lost in. So far, only Pikemead's Reach seems like it could present a bit of a problem.

Sorry about the rant, and thanks again for all the advice!