Beta Feedback

[VYRUS]

Think this is the first time I've played a beta and the time it took to download was more than my played time.

1. Camera controls feel horrible, like it's got some sort of badly integrated accelleration.
2. Couldn't get a menu up to change resolution or any video/audio settings (tried every key on my keyboard).
3. Took 3 restarts before my mouse appeared in the main menu for me to start a new game (wasd and arrow keys did nothing).
4. No shadows ingame
5. Walking makes the character look like it's sliding accross the floor
6. Went up to the first quest giver, exclamation mark appears, no indicator of what button to press to speak to him, again tried all the usual (space bar, enter, Q, E, F, LMB and RMB).

After the above the frustration made me leave. Would not call this a beta by any means, this is more like an early alpha build if that.

Can't comment on the quality of the rest of the game because I was unable to go any further than described above.

[Soverance]

I'm sorry you had a poor experience with the beta demo. The reason you weren't able to get very far was because you were attempting to play without a gamepad controller, and the beta demo does not fully support keyboard/mouse input.

As outlined in the post announcing beta access, as well as the form you filled out to request a beta key, the Ethereal Beta demo only supports Windows 64-bit systems and Gamepad input.

I tried not to send keys to anyone that responded "No" when asked if they had a gamepad, but I'll admit that a few got through. If this was you, then I apologize!

Otherwise, the game's controls are outline in-game under the Options -> Controls menu, as well as online in the Game Guide[soverance.com].

[VYRUS]

Originally posted by Soverance:

I'm sorry you had a poor experience with the beta demo. The reason you weren't able to get very far was because you were attempting to play without a gamepad controller, and the beta demo does not fully support keyboard/mouse input.

As outlined in the post announcing beta access, as well as the form you filled out to request a beta key, the Ethereal Beta demo only supports Windows 64-bit systems and Gamepad input.

I tried not to send keys to anyone that responded "No" when asked if they had a gamepad, but I'll admit that a few got through. If this was you, then I apologize!

Otherwise, the game's controls are outline in-game under the Options -> Controls menu, as well as online in the Game Guide[soverance.com].

I do have a gamepad but I didn't realize it was necessary. I'll give it another go later on with a gamepad and update the OP with feedback. Thanks for the response.

[Soverance]

Originally posted by VYRUS ▼:

I do have a gamepad but I didn't realize it was necessary. I'll give it another go later on with a gamepad and update the OP with feedback. Thanks for the response.

Absolutely!

Be sure to read the Beta demo gameplay tips found in this post[soverance.com] for some info that should make for a better experience with Ethereal.

Your other feedback is certainly valid. I've still got work to do trying to make everything look as best I can. I had turned off all the dynamic shadows for more consistent performance in the beta build, but I certainly plan to add them back in the final build.

You are correct about the character's movement - there's a sort of "dead spot" at certain low speed where his animations don't seem to work as well as they should. It's certainly more obvious when using W/A/S/D as opposed to an analog stick, and it's basically non-existent when you've toggled Sprinting (push in on the left stick, L3, to toggle Sprint). Either way, hopefully I can get the gliding error sorted out quickly!

Also, FYI, that first "quest giver" NPC is not actually a quest giver - instead he is supposed to be the Tutorial NPC, but as this is Beta the Tutorial is not complete, he doesn't actually do anything yet. Instead, you can simply go interact with the Portal to continue the game.