Personal feedback after 110+ hours of gameplay

[Tarvo27]

I wanna say this before I list all the things I had issues with (big or small), I absolutely loved the game in general. This game has so much potential to be super good but it has problems. I'm sure there are people who could word everything I am about to list better, but I'll do my best. Sorry if anything here doesn't seem to make sense, English isn't my first language. I also wrote down things as I played the game so everything is mixed and in no way organized. I played through the campaign mode solo and managed to complete every achievement.



It takes too long to unlock repair smithy

There should be a pier sized frame from normal wood

Monsters rarely spawn inside the house when it's under attack

The building is awkward sometimes because you can only rotate pieces by 90 degrees, please add 45 degree rotations or possibly even lower degree rotations, take inspiration from other survival games with good building mechanics like Rust or Ark or whatever else

Very rarely some platforms just break for no reason after a long time (yes, I'm certain they were at least yellow when placing them) when placed on frames

Flashes that happen when mining ore are a bit too bright and flashy, especially if the camera angle is awkward and you're basically in first person view, it can start to (not physically) hurt your eyes to the point you'd want to look away

Floaty assets (especially flat ones) on slopes

You should be able to destroy orc chests and other chests that are currently indestructible, when they are empty

Trees should respawn after a while (not enough elven wood during campaign at least) but make it so that they don't respawn if people have built over those spawn spots

Would love to see more variety of songs for mining

Would also love to see more variety in enemy voice lines, I feel like them repeating the same 5 lines over and over gets way more boring than the same 5 mining songs

Allow players to dismantle old useless items like pickaxes or weapons

Allow players to place basic wood stairs without needing to have hearth nearby

Poison mushrooms that can't be destroyed are annoying, let people destroy them, people should have the option to clear the area of obstacles not be forced to constantly walk around them, especially when it's in front of a cave entrance that you constantly have to constantly traverse through

Having to go to a new area with a weapon that you deal less damage to all the monsters in it just sucks. Let players make better weapons after defeating a certain boss of an area or something like that, hitting gray numbers trying to find things to craft a new weapon to actually do damage isn't fun

Have armor always get equipped when you pick up your grave, regardless of it's durability, unless the spots are already filled with other armor

Rarely ores spawn inside walls, like true quartz, leaving a annoying glow spot through the wall that you can't remove

Make so monsters don't see you through windows, I was seen through a window on the 2nd floor of my house and somehow when I turned away, goblins teleported behind me inside the house, despite there not being a way for them to get inside the house

Having the interface open for certain actions should speed them up by some amount (example: if you have hearth interface open cooking food is faster)

Some recipes are super easy to miss even if they do spawn(I never found the Garin idol chest in lower deeps, I checked the whole area for nearly 3 hours room by room; make them spawn in curse door rooms or other force spawned rooms like the pump room in a specific location, or better yet, have campaign be a non-randomly generated map and sandbox mode be the randomly-generated mode)

More weapons of every metal (so each metal type can make every type of weapon so players wouldn't get locked out of their favorite weapon just because it's not the highest tier of metal and/or mastercrafted weapons of every type)

Sometimes songs don't match the characters voice (the exact same song was sung previously with a similar voice to the character)

Trying to fight large groups of monsters at the same time isn't that fun, especially when the monsters keep constantly summoning more monsters

Shields seem kinda useless with there being so many attacks that hit through it and short range weapons also seem more useless since even if you use a shield there's still knockback so maybe make it so players take less damage from attacks that go through the shield and get less distance knockback when guarding

In later areas of the game double charged attacks don't feel useful at all, especially with the amount of monsters attacking you at once or because of the attack speed of the monster(s) attacking you (especially the Uruk and Fell Beasts)

There should be more uses for stone or a way to make them into something else (not really sure how or what that would be but I got way too much stone compared to everything else, maybe have a refinery machine that you can put stone in and you have some chance to get low tier ores or gems from stone)

You should be able to process down bars into metal scraps at different rates (iron = least, mithril = the most)

Sometimes my attacks "auto lock on" to targets and move closer to them and just when I try to actually "use" that in combat my character instead doesn't move at all when attacking even if there's 5 monsters around me

I also hate the fact that even if you're 2 houses over and you destroy a roof piece, a house 2 houses over but connected by other houses will suddenly crumble down randomly

Statues should give appropriate area based ore instead of just iron (like silver/gold etc)

Need to have a use for leftover idols/pages

Ground items should automatically delete after an hour or two, this would probably improve performance, I can't believe having hundreds of ground items needing to be loaded is good for performance

Players should be able to build anywhere without mobs spawning in their house (building in a forge and monsters keep spawning in my forge, monsters shouldn't be able to spawn on or close to player's placed building pieces)

Players should have the ability to rename chests for labeling reasons

Improve the building system so there wouldn't be differences in height between multiple floors or walls (placing floors got annoying after a while since my floors kept being a tiny bit higher or lower than every other floor since they were trying to attach themselves to other things around them)

Placing torches on the walls is probably the worst part of building, at least if you're trying to get them all to line up, I can't emphasize on something like toggle for snap to grid type button for building, it's a must if you're trying to build anything that looks even remotely good

The final boss isn't that great of a fight, pretty boring in general, I hoped it was something more than fighting adds and just standing behind pillars; all bosses should be more mechanical, something similar to what MMO's or even other RPG games have, doing different types of attacks (not just ranged and melee), area attacks are indicated by a red ground indicator etc etc.

Make more things show up on the map, like journals and muznakans



Overall, combat is barebones, building is stiff and very limited and random map generation can sometimes be a pain (especially when some things don't spawn) but otherwise it's a pretty good for a starting point. I won't be coming back though, unless I can freely build inside the forge without drakes spawning in my house and tail-whipping all my chests and other placed things until they are destroyed. I hope this game gets even better than it already is. I can't wait to actually play this with my friends.

[Nuggzy]

I agree with most except the shield and auto lock on target. The shield Wall will protect you 360 degrees. You can literally stand there holding block with orcs smashing on your back. You do get knocked back but your shield is still protecting you. The auto lock on target doesn't exist in this game, there is no target lock.

[hottnova75]

I love this game. I can tell they are working hard to make it function on every computer platform better. I notice changes and adjustments as I play. Its called fine tuning. It must be difficult to fine tune for so many different configurations of computer hardware! Congratulations on making a great game, and Thank You for having patience with us players. I think its awesome you can spawn new worlds, because it increases replayability massively.

[dstrelek]

**I was going to post this as a review, but the damn Steam review window won't let me paste to it, so I'm putting it here, since I have no desire to type it out again.**

I love this game so far. When I saw "survival/craft" and "Dwarf", I was in. Then add to that "Lord of the Rings" with John Rhys Davies voicing Gimli, and it was a done deal. So after 27 hours, here are my initial impressions.

Combat is easy to grasp, but hard to master. Damn wolves killed me more times than I'd care to admit. Learning the trick of when to shield rush, when to charge the weapon, and when to back off is definitely fun, especially when you get it right and walk out of a combat unscathed.

Crafting is great. I also love the fact that you have different meals, and get bonuses for eating them at the right time of day. The item "build trees" make a lot of sense in regards to what you need to craft specific items.

Having to sleep is a plus in my book. I am always disappointed by survival games that avoid this mechanic. And I like how this game does it. You actually get tired, which affects stamina. Very immersive. I do wish however that the day/night cycle could be adjusted to last longer. I find it runs by way too fast.

Building is...meh. The pieces to build with are beautiful, but this game won't attract people who love to make elaborate buildings. That being said, I've never been a build nut, so for me the game is just right. I find a suitable part of the mine, wall it off, and set up. Perfect for me. My only criticism is the area could stand to be a little bigger. It can get pretty crowded with stuff after awhile. As well, we could really use a door all by itself as a build piece that you can put into an existing doorway, as one of my favourite things to do is find an existing structure, set up my Hearth, and then repair it. That way I have a base that has the awesome Dwarven architecture.

I like the campaign story, and how it's integrated into the game. Everything you have to do to survive makes sense within the context of the story, and makes me look forward to improving my situation to get to the next part.

Overall I highly recommend this game to anyone who enjoys survival/craft games. And if you love being a Dwarf, and you love Lord of the Rings, this game is a must have.

[Xantanash]

Originally posted by Nuggzy:

The auto lock on target doesn't exist in this game, there is no target lock.

The target lock key by default is middle mouse button. Don't spread misinformation please.

[Nuggzy]

Originally posted by Xantanash:

Originally posted by Nuggzy:

The auto lock on target doesn't exist in this game, there is no target lock.

The target lock key by default is middle mouse button. Don't spread misinformation please.

hmm, well I guess it does, another thing to add to the crappy UI list, it shows attack and block, why not target. Guess I should have looked at the massive set of options in the config closer.

[Tarvo27]

Originally posted by Nuggzy:

I agree with most except the shield and auto lock on target. The shield Wall will protect you 360 degrees. You can literally stand there holding block with orcs smashing on your back. You do get knocked back but your shield is still protecting you. The auto lock on target doesn't exist in this game, there is no target lock.

That is true, I like that part about the shield. There is lock on, but I don't mean the one you use yourself (for me it was middle mouse button I think), it sometimes happens when you try to attack someone at random, it moves your character towards the monster and attacks it, even if that monster on your side and you're trying to attack the monster in front of you. It's technically not lock on, but it feels as such.

[Nuggzy]

Originally posted by Tarvo27:

Originally posted by Nuggzy:

I agree with most except the shield and auto lock on target. The shield Wall will protect you 360 degrees. You can literally stand there holding block with orcs smashing on your back. You do get knocked back but your shield is still protecting you. The auto lock on target doesn't exist in this game, there is no target lock.

That is true, I like that part about the shield. There is lock on, but I don't mean the one you use yourself (for me it was middle mouse button I think), it sometimes happens when you try to attack someone at random, it moves your character towards the monster and attacks it, even if that monster on your side and you're trying to attack the monster in front of you. It's technically not lock on, but it feels as such.

yeah I found it in the settings. Don't know why they don't have target in the center of the ui above the mouse overlay. It is lock on target, which to me would be more of a problem then it's worth in this game. You need to be able to move around, block and switch targets too much for that.

[Tarvo27]

Originally posted by Nuggzy:

Originally posted by Tarvo27:

That is true, I like that part about the shield. There is lock on, but I don't mean the one you use yourself (for me it was middle mouse button I think), it sometimes happens when you try to attack someone at random, it moves your character towards the monster and attacks it, even if that monster on your side and you're trying to attack the monster in front of you. It's technically not lock on, but it feels as such.

yeah I found it in the settings. Don't know why they don't have target in the center of the ui above the mouse overlay. It is lock on target, which to me would be more of a problem then it's worth in this game. You need to be able to move around, block and switch targets too much for that.

Oh, that's what you meant. I didn't even know that was a setting. That would've been nice to know lol.

[Xantanash]

Originally posted by Tarvo27:

Oh, that's what you meant. I didn't even know that was a setting. That would've been nice to know lol.

Originally posted by Xantanash:

The target lock key by default is middle mouse button. Don't spread misinformation please.

[Nuggzy]

Originally posted by Xantanash:

Originally posted by Tarvo27:

Oh, that's what you meant. I didn't even know that was a setting. That would've been nice to know lol.

Originally posted by Xantanash:

The target lock key by default is middle mouse button. Don't spread misinformation please.

And how did your comment give him anymore information then it gave me? At least he had the decency to try to explain it instead of the comment acting you you have never made a mistake in your ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ life....And now thanks to me he knows it's a setting....

[Tarvo27]

Hey, it happens, I happened to miss the comment about it being a command, just like I never noticed it was a setting, that's okay. Thanks to both of you for pointing this out.

[=MoonShard=]

My biggest issue is the unbalanced audio. Sometimes its all quiet and then you smack gobling or kill one and its scratching your ear drums with noise. or Singing is super quiet and the ambient music is louder lol

[Rhel]

Originally posted by Tarvo27:

Originally posted by Nuggzy:

I agree with most except the shield and auto lock on target. The shield Wall will protect you 360 degrees. You can literally stand there holding block with orcs smashing on your back. You do get knocked back but your shield is still protecting you. The auto lock on target doesn't exist in this game, there is no target lock.

That is true, I like that part about the shield. There is lock on, but I don't mean the one you use yourself (for me it was middle mouse button I think), it sometimes happens when you try to attack someone at random, it moves your character towards the monster and attacks it, even if that monster on your side and you're trying to attack the monster in front of you. It's technically not lock on, but it feels as such.

I know what you're talking about. I've experienced it all too often while using the two-handed axes first power attack. Sometimes when using the first power attack, your character will "dash" forward and then swing. At times, I'll be facing an orc and my character will dash backwards and attack some random goblin. At other times though, my character dashes like ten meters and obliterates every orc in the path of destruction because she targeted the one goblin at the back of the pack of enemies. So I just took the good with the bad. lol

[Vaaluin]

Just a big ol' YUP to this entire post. I don't think I disagree with a single one.
My biggest personal issue with the game is the performance. I can deal with all the odd design choices or outright lacking QoL systems but the performance degrades SO much over the course of the game. I'm in Dwarrowdelf about 24 hours into the game now and it's stuttering and chugging along compared to when I started. I don't know if it's the ton of items laying around my world (which I'm now trying to pick up in hopes it helps) or something else, but it's destroying my enjoyment of the game. Haven't even played in a couple days because I don't want to deal with the performance.

[Tarvo27]

Originally posted by Rhel:

Originally posted by Tarvo27:

That is true, I like that part about the shield. There is lock on, but I don't mean the one you use yourself (for me it was middle mouse button I think), it sometimes happens when you try to attack someone at random, it moves your character towards the monster and attacks it, even if that monster on your side and you're trying to attack the monster in front of you. It's technically not lock on, but it feels as such.

I know what you're talking about. I've experienced it all too often while using the two-handed axes first power attack. Sometimes when using the first power attack, your character will "dash" forward and then swing. At times, I'll be facing an orc and my character will dash backwards and attack some random goblin. At other times though, my character dashes like ten meters and obliterates every orc in the path of destruction because she targeted the one goblin at the back of the pack of enemies. So I just took the good with the bad. lol

YES! This right here. I hate when it usually happens but it's sometimes nice dashing through multiple monsters with a charged attack,