Initial R26 feedback

My feedback notes as I played through R26 this morning.

• default controls are terrible, running at the camera is terrible.
• No over the shoulder / behind camera option is ridiculous
• pgdn/pgup, again, no step-by-step zoom without being forced to use a mouse. why have the keybinding if it doesn't mirror the behavior of the mouse?
• spin/turn rate using the keyboard is not the same speed as the mouse. It has to be.
• holding right click continuously for hours at a time, to get any kind of decent turn/spin rate and camera follow is ridiculously bad, and does nothing but cause repetitive stress injury. Terrible.
• Before even knowing what the three skill modes are (not training, maintaining, training), the player is losing pooled XP just by finishing the scene after talking to Arabella. If the only way the skill use system is effective is having one skill enabled at a time, then that's the way the game should start, and the player can turn on what they want.
• What about players who want bludgeon, and not blades?
• why isn't there the ability to custom allocate all the money (thousands of gold) represented by all the skill templates (fighter, mage, ranger) instead of forcing me to take blades, when I want something else instead?
• The second scene, after Arabella, runs the GPU at 99%, constantly, no matter what video quality settings are used. (No other game in the past 3 years runs my GPU at even 70% continuously. In SotA, it's lucky to ever go below 70%. the last thing you want is for the player to have his GPU fans at 100% in the second damned scene of the game. Optimize that junk.
• can't seem to remove a chat tab. right click. nope. left click, nope. drag, nope. Grrr.. Ah, excellent, it's because the "remove tab" is off the screen, when the chat interface is at the bottom of the screen. Nicely done, GUI team.
• Ok, that whole "walking near NPC's/corpses makes you slow down to 1/10th speed" that's gotta go. that's not cool, fun or good.
• trees look terrible, rocks look terrible, especially at a distance. some textures are fuzzy, some sharp, right next to each other.
• where's my widget that shows how much XP I'm going to lose when I die? Where's my accumulated decay widget/value?
• loot needs to go into the chat/combat log.
• dummy XP consumed per auto-attack swing went from 5 per to 3 to 2 per, maybe adjusted by XP pool size?
• dropped to 2 per after below 4k. maybe 3 at 8k? at 2k, drops to 1 XP consumed per swing.
• every time i open the client now, it moves the window to the upper left corner of the desktop, instead of centering it. broken.
• my progress in the battle of highvale is not preserved. I've had to repeat the scene three times now, from scratch, because each time I don't "finish it". to be clear: my progress is NOT being saved on the server, for this scene, for the same character, just because I don't finish it all at once. However, it's tracking the items and the gold, so I can just farm this scene for gold, indefinitely? That's not good.
• arrows are bigger than the bow, in the battle of highvale
• there's no indication how to get the key from 'Bard' in the battle of highvale. The only reason I know to ask is because i've done it before, when the scene was completely different.
• dots ticking on characters after the source of the DoT is dead is terrible. That's gotta stop
• combat animations are exactly the same as R25, and just as ridiculous, and out of sync.
• in combat health regen is too low
• the healthy trait is not worth leveling up , as it's not a percentage, but a fixed amount, versus the health pool that is not, and in the face of non-linear xp requirements to level it up.
• overworld map was oversaturated white, like the planet is too close to the sun and everything is about to burst into flames. looks horrible.
• water in the rivers flows away from the ocean. great.
• again, overworld map runs the GPU at 100%, non-stop, no matter what settings.
• So, a quest from the battle of highvale is not for resolute, it's for soltown, so you can't complete it. (edvard's notes for guard stanley). soltown, being on the other side of a pass, is not accessible at level 1.
• Also, I can't enter resolute. the "open gate" lever doesn't work, and speaking to the guards does nothing.
• So, that's where my testing ends for now, because I can't proceed or progress in the first quest, and my adventure level won't increase beyond 1. huzzah for R26?

 

Lots of good feedback here, perhaps a little harshly worded but I appreciate someone's honesty more than the usual "everything is wonderful, sunshine and rainbows!" That being said, most of these things were openly stated as not to be expected just yet, specifically optimized scenes and performance. I know that several of your UI related complaints are being worked on and a few of the blockers you mentioned have already been formally submitted as bugs and should be fixed by the end of the weekend.

"Release weekend" is always a little bumpy, that's why we're all here. I'd say stick with it and give it another go on Saturday/Sunday.

 

We will be doing a sanity pass on all three tutorials next release. There is a caravan wagon that will take you to Soltown from Highvale (the non-tutorial version).

 

• default controls are terrible, running at the camera is terrible

not confirmed, although I dont understand which camera you are runnig at.

• No over the shoulder / behind camera option is ridiculous

not confirmed, behind camera is standard mode.

• pgdn/pgup, again, no step-by-step zoom without being forced to use a mouse. why have the keybinding if it doesn't mirror the behavior of the mouse?

You are playing without a mouse? Why? Even in Ultima 7 Iolo convinced me to use one.

• spin/turn rate using the keyboard is not the same speed as the mouse. It has to be.

What is "the same speed"? Mouse can go as fast and as quick as I want, depending how fast I through it around the table.

• holding right click continuously for hours at a time, to get any kind of decent turn/spin rate and camera follow is ridiculously bad, and does nothing but cause repetitive stress injury. Terrible

Worked fine for me ever since like in every other game this kind.

• Before even knowing what the three skill modes are (not training, maintaining, training), the player is losing pooled XP just by finishing the scene after talking to Arabella. If the only way the skill use system is effective is having one skill enabled at a time, then that's the way the game should start, and the player can turn on what they want.

Definitely not confirmed. The game is intended to be played in a way that you don't have to bother about skill on/off. Min/Maxing is only relevant if you are really going for high levels. And these don't care for the lost tutorial XP.

• What about players who want bludgeon, and not blades?

I quess this will be a detailed question and answer story in the final release. There is no reason to push that now. This few points for starting XP don't block you to test the game with bludgeon (I was bludgeon all the time).

• why isn't there the ability to custom allocate all the money (thousands of gold) represented by all the skill templates (fighter, mage, ranger) instead of forcing me to take blades, when I want something else instead?

See above. Not yet in there.

• The second scene, after Arabella, runs the GPU at 99%, constantly, no matter what video quality settings are used. (No other game in the past 3 years runs my GPU at even 70% continuously. In SotA, it's lucky to ever go below 70%. the last thing you want is for the player to have his GPU fans at 100% in the second damned scene of the game. Optimize that junk.

Could you please optimize your language?

• can't seem to remove a chat tab. right click. nope. left click, nope. drag, nope. Grrr.. Ah, excellent, it's because the "remove tab" is off the screen, when the chat interface is at the bottom of the screen. Nicely done, GUI team.

You have very serious problems there. Write a bug report, please.

• Ok, that whole "walking near NPC's/corpses makes you slow down to 1/10th speed" that's gotta go. that's not cool, fun or good.

Stop running through persons.

• trees look terrible, rocks look terrible, especially at a distance. some textures are fuzzy, some sharp, right next to each other.

This is to be further optimized.

• where's my widget that shows how much XP I'm going to lose when I die? Where's my accumulated decay widget/value?

You are quite a power gamer are you? Think about this: It is even considered to remove the experience bar at all.

• loot needs to go into the chat/combat log.

Ha! I support this! Good suggestion. Thank you.

• dummy XP consumed per auto-attack swing went from 5 per to 3 to 2 per, maybe adjusted by XP pool size?

The XP invested in each skill per use is based on the pool size and the current skill level. Seems to work as intended.

• dropped to 2 per after below 4k. maybe 3 at 8k? at 2k, drops to 1 XP consumed per swing.

Yep, the formula is XP-Pool/500, rounded.

• every time i open the client now, it moves the window to the upper left corner of the desktop, instead of centering it. broken.

Confirmed. It always puts my client between both of my monitors. Hopefully fixed for release.

• my progress in the battle of highvale is not preserved. I've had to repeat the scene three times now, from scratch, because each time I don't "finish it". to be clear: my progress is NOT being saved on the server, for this scene, for the same character, just because I don't finish it all at once. However, it's tracking the items and the gold, so I can just farm this scene for gold, indefinitely? That's not good.

I have not started in highvalve. But you can return to most of the scenes again and again, yes. But I guess there are more interesting ways to "farm" gold.

• arrows are bigger than the bow, in the battle of highvale

Haha, good point.

• there's no indication how to get the key from 'Bard' in the battle of highvale. The only reason I know to ask is because i've done it before, when the scene was completely different.

Tutorial needs some tweaks, indeed. In Bloodriver I was also a bit in doubt why I had to get this dagger and couldn't just pass the gate.

• dots ticking on characters after the source of the DoT is dead is terrible. That's gotta stop

You are bleeding. Why should you stop bleeding just because the target is dead?

• combat animations are exactly the same as R25, and just as ridiculous, and out of sync.

Didn't checked if there should be an update. Tbd

• in combat health regen is too low

Not confirmed. Seems to be like intended. Now you need food for increased regeneration, need healing spells or even health potions.

• the healthy trait is not worth leveling up , as it's not a percentage, but a fixed amount, versus the health pool that is not, and in the face of non-linear xp requirements to level it up.

If you say so. I will level it. The first XP don't harm anyone. For final balancing you can are free to make detailed suggestions.

• overworld map was oversaturated white, like the planet is too close to the sun and everything is about to burst into flames. looks horrible.

Bloom was reintroduced and they are playing around with this. Should be optimised in the next releases.

• water in the rivers flows away from the ocean. great.

Which scene? New or old Water?

• again, overworld map runs the GPU at 100%, non-stop, no matter what settings.

What are your computer stats? Works fine for me. Maybe send Portalarium your computer stats?

• So, a quest from the battle of highvale is not for resolute, it's for soltown, so you can't complete it. (edvard's notes for guard stanley). soltown, being on the other side of a pass, is not accessible at level 1.

Same here for Aerie that is quite far away. Died 4-5 times until I reached Aerie starting from Soltown. However, I guess this is intential as the other "beginners quests" of Aerie and Resolute are not finished. Soltown has more starting quests, so its wise to send the new players there.

• Also, I can't enter resolute. the "open gate" lever doesn't work, and speaking to the guards does nothing.

Haven't been there. Please create a bug report.

• So, that's where my testing ends for now, because I can't proceed or progress in the first quest, and my adventure level won't increase beyond 1. huzzah for R26?

The story is not in there. You are pre-alpha testing the features of the game, not the story.
Please remember this before ranting next time.

Yours

Roterik Torfduenn

 

Required for the story.

 

I'd love more camera options too! Over the shoulder would be nice, and a farther away zoomed out view too.

Another character in the same scene will give you that clue.

Personally, I would get rid of health regen in and out of combat -- except if you have a spell or item's effect (like regen from food) going on.