First impressions

[Donkornleone]

So I decided to give this a try and and drop some feedback.

1) I did not get very far as the game eventually could no longer load my savegames, so my run is effectively over.

2) Something that bothered me more than it should was item weight. A crowbar weighs as much as five axes, while an axe weighs as much as a lockpick. You might want to have a look at that. Maybe consider reducing the weight of certain items to 0, like lockpicks or keys. Also, please add an overall weight value so we can see how much more we can safely pick up (if there already is, please tell me where).

3) Are there really only three spells per element, plus some more for arcane? I suppose more will flow in over time? Some spell levels seem strange, such as light being lvl 2 when it's only a cantrip in most other games I know.

4) Some spells I never tried out because I couldn't figure out what to do with. When would you cast Stone Wall? Also, where can I see ennemy weight so I can tell what effect Earthquake would have?

5) How exactly would air pocket protect you from a fire trap? A gas trap I would get, but fire?

6) Asking a local about their own settlement, they're all like "Oh yeah, I heard about that place! Some mining town, right?"

7) Various bugs I reported ingame: lakes in the ocean, hungry PCs not allowed to eat, magic damage reducing physical armor etc.

[JungleTears]

6) Also some npc's do this

Npc: Go to Renfall
Me: Where is Renfall
Npc: Ask ...Mr x
Me: Where is Mr x
Npc: In Renfall

uhhhh. Thanks i guess

[buchecker]

Originally posted by Donkornleone:

6) Asking a local about their own settlement, they're all like "Oh yeah, I heard about that place! Some mining town, right?"

Can also ask them about themselves and they will describe themselves like a stranger would.

[LordYabo]

Yes, our NPCs need a brain upgrade.
There are certain edge cases to the conversation system that need to be addressed.
When they don't detect a special case, like asking someone about themselves, they default to talking like it's another person.

We're working on the NPCs, i've added your feedback to my list of things to address.
Time to stop the embarrassment.

[LordYabo]

Originally posted by Donkornleone:

So I decided to give this a try and and drop some feedback.

1) I did not get very far as the game eventually could no longer load my savegames, so my run is effectively over.

I'm sorry to hear this. You say later you logged bugs in game, so i'm hoping we got these save files and can look into the issue(s). I want you to be able to keep playing. :-)

Thanks for taking the time to drop feedback. Its the only way I know how the game feels to a new player!

2) Something that bothered me more than it should was item weight. A crowbar weighs as much as five axes, while an axe weighs as much as a lockpick. You might want to have a look at that. Maybe consider reducing the weight of certain items to 0, like lockpicks or keys. Also, please add an overall weight value so we can see how much more we can safely pick up (if there already is, please tell me where).

Originally the inventory system was weight based, just like Skyrim. But it ended up being better for the game to go to a slot based one like Minecraft. So we've done that, but didn't go back and take out the weights and make them 0. Sorry it is bothering you. So whatever slots you see, is how much stuff you can carry.

3) Are there really only three spells per element, plus some more for arcane? I suppose more will flow in over time? Some spell levels seem strange, such as light being lvl 2 when it's only a cantrip in most other games I know.

There were 40 spells in the game but we pulled it back to the 13 core ones you see to resolve bugs and such. We've been rewriting our combat system for months and it's about 2 weeks from being ready for internal testing. The reason we're rewriting combat is to make the 13 + 27 spells much better, more interesting, and most importantly to combo off each other. This wasn't possible with combat as it is. Sorry for the lackluster spells while we're stuck in between.

4) Some spells I never tried out because I couldn't figure out what to do with. When would you cast Stone Wall? Also, where can I see enemy weight so I can tell what effect Earthquake would have?

The tooltip of the enemy should show weight, if you have enough "Lore" about them. You can cast Arcane Insight to get the full details on an enemy including weight.
We can make this better in the future.

5) How exactly would air pocket protect you from a fire trap? A gas trap I would get, but fire?

The idea is you are inside a bubble of clean pure air (presumably coming from some other place in the universe). The bubble is protecting you from the heat of the fire.

6) Asking a local about their own settlement, they're all like "Oh yeah, I heard about that place! Some mining town, right?"

I'll get that fixed.

7) Various bugs I reported ingame: lakes in the ocean, hungry PCs not allowed to eat, magic damage reducing physical armor etc.

Seems like death by a thousand cuts to make a bad experience for you.

What do you think is the #1 first item we can address for you?

[Donkornleone]

Originally posted by LordYabo:

I'm sorry to hear this. You say later you logged bugs in game, so i'm hoping we got these save files and can look into the issue(s). I want you to be able to keep playing. :-)

I tried and tried to reload those broken savegames, and would you know it, it eventually worked. So I'm back in the game and able to report about its... features.

Originally posted by LordYabo:

Originally the inventory system was weight based, just like Skyrim. But it ended up being better for the game to go to a slot based one like Minecraft. So we've done that, but didn't go back and take out the weights and make them 0. Sorry it is bothering you. So whatever slots you see, is how much stuff you can carry.

So weight doesn't actually mean anything, then? I did wonder why I was never overencumbered. Never tried to count my total weight and check because I was afraid I'd jinx it.

Originally posted by LordYabo:

Seems like death by a thousand cuts to make a bad experience for you.

What do you think is the #1 first item we can address for you?

Don't sweat it. The game is clearly not yet in a state where there is any point getting angry about bugs or other stuff. So I'll just report what I come across and let you sort out the rest at your own convenience. I'm still very new at the game, and my bug reports can be a bit confusing. For instance, I reported a bug about settlements and entire parts of the map disappearing and reappearing depending on my location, and panicked about names of settlements changing randomly. The first part was true, but the names were just me confusing settlement and mage tower names.

Other stuff I noticed:

1) I can't seem to find a fellow mage student from the prologue at the place she is supposed to be. I did see other people here complaining about missing NPCs, so I assume it's a known issue and did not write a report.

2) Many quests have alternative solutions where you can complete the quest for another NPC. I get that this is to spice up the rather bland quest objectives (kill x mobs / bring x ressources / go to location x), but it can get very weird when one quest ending should not logically exclude the other. My favorite was this one: An inkeeper wanted to repaint her sign and asked me to bring her some dyes. I also had the option of bringing the dyes to a professional painter for even better paint, so I did just that. The painter then wanted to keep the dyes, so I let him. A bug then caused the dyes to stay in my inventory. I thought I could just have him make some more paint for my innkeeper, but no such luck. So I went back to the inkeeper, my inventory full of dyes, and had to tell her I had no dyes. I couldn't even greet her on behalf of the painter, her old acquaintance.

3) My character is still a fresh 17 year old, but I already feel strong, *very* strong. And filthy rich. I have opened up my second mage tower, complete with portal chamber, and my only deaths were due to me looking down on those skeletons the same way I look down on everything else. I don't know if this progression speed is intended. On one hand it keeps me interested in the game for now, but how long will that last until boredom sets in?

[LordYabo]

I'll answer your last question first:
Yes, as we build we are trying to make it 'liveable' so you can get to content and enjoy stuff. Meaning that age has no factor right now. It's a larger design issue on how we factor in the time passing element but we're trying to get the basics working first.

No worries on the confusion in bug reports. You are doing US the favor here so we try to make sense of it and investigate each one, but if it looks like a dead end we will sometimes park it and await a better report.

Originally posted by Donkornleone:

1) I can't seem to find a fellow mage student from the prologue at the place she is supposed to be. I did see other people here complaining about missing NPCs, so I assume it's a known issue and did not write a report.

This is the missing NPC issue. We were trying to have a hotfix out Friday, then today, and still not resolved (keep finding more issues) so hopefully tomorrow.

professional painter for even better paint, so I did just that. The painter then wanted to keep the dyes, so I let him. A bug then caused the dyes to stay in my inventory. I thought I could just have him make some more paint for my innkeeper, but no such luck. So I went back to the inkeeper, my inventory full of dyes, and had to tell her I had no dyes. I couldn't even greet her on behalf of the painter, her old acquaintance.

I thought we fixed the inventory not decremented issue. I'll have someone look at that tomorrow.

Yes for the quests they are hand crafted as we build the simulator and systems so you choose Branch C and you get those results. I'm working on the more dynamic quests which are systems driven.

[LordYabo]

I'm told the quest writer double checked and fixed this quest to remove the items from inventory. It'll come out in Thursday patch.

[Donkornleone]

Originally posted by LordYabo:

I'm told the quest writer double checked and fixed this quest to remove the items from inventory. It'll come out in Thursday patch.

Good, although my issue was more with quests branching for the sake of branching. It's frustrating having to choose one branch when you could easily complete both branches, and then have the NPC you did not choose look at you reproachfully because they got left out for no particular reason. Why can't I tell the painter to make some more effing paint for my innkeeper? Or at the very least bring her some other perfectly ordinary and serviceable dyes? Or when my healer sends me to find ingredients for a potion that will heal the archmage, and some guy asks for them so he can cure his daughter, why can't I tell the healer to make another bottle of the stuff for the guy's daughter (if she exists and he isn't lying out of his arse), without revealing her secret recipe? From what I understood you'll overhaul your quest system anyway, so I'm mostly saying this for further reference for your writing people.

Other than that:

1) Could you make it so that questgivers will tell us about time limits for their quests *before* we accept or decline?

2) Could you mark dungeons/monster lairs so that we can tell what monster types inhabit them, even in the fog of war? That would make it a lot easier to find the right locations for kill quests. Note: I have stopped clearing dungeons. Kill quests are very prevalent, making monsters a valuable ressource, which means that clearing their lairs only makes quests harder to solve because you have to look for another monster den. Not sure is this is intended, just thought I'd mention it.

3) Will you eventually add different visuals for dungeons/monster lairs? It feels weird exploring a wolf/spider den that looks like a university.

4) Will you add a basic character generator? Nothing fancy, just some images so we have a face for our mage and an image for our inventory instead of a black shadow?

[LordYabo]

Originally posted by Donkornleone:

Good, although my issue was more with quests branching for the sake of branching. It's frustrating having to choose one branch when you could easily complete both branches, ... so I'm mostly saying this for further reference for your writing people.

I just posted it to Nolan on our internal chat.

1) Could you make it so that questgivers will tell us about time limits for their quests *before* we accept or decline?

Yes, good suggestion.

2) Could you mark dungeons/monster lairs so that we can tell what monster types inhabit them, even in the fog of war? That would make it a lot easier to find the right locations for kill quests.

You mean an already discovered dungeon map tooltip shows the race? Yes I can do that.

3) Will you eventually add different visuals for dungeons/monster lairs? It feels weird exploring a wolf/spider den that looks like a university.

Yes, this is often requested. The short long story is the 3d artist I was working with got carpal tunnel and dropped out of the industry. I shipped what I had and didn't revisit it given other priorities. We will address the dungeons and the dungeon variety in Update #7. We have some pretty radical ideas for changes. This also gives me time to get a new 3D artist.

4) Will you add a basic character generator? Nothing fancy, just some images so we have a face for our mage and an image for our inventory instead of a black shadow?

We added the ability to put in custom portraits for NPCS and the player, so you can generate them with AI or grab one from the web. I thought this was better than a portrait picker/generator. Right click your portrait in the Relationship tab and you can put in a custom one there.

Other players have asked to be able to click through the portraits we have to make a portrait, so that is on the drawing board.

My original design was to never show the player because it'll never be equal to the player's imagination. So that is why it is just a black silhouette.