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Feedback R10 First Night

Discussion in 'Release 10 Feedback' started by Poor game design, Sep 25, 2014.

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  1. Drocis the Devious

    Drocis the Devious Avatar

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    A lot of this is roleplaying based: I understand this is pre-alpha but I wanted to give food for thought as the game continues to progress.

    1. How are we opening huge doors in Ardoris?
    2. Why are we opening huge doors in Ardoris? Should the guards do that?
    3. First Person view, Rocks the house that rocks the house.
    4. Unable to put back items in NPC areas. If I pick something up, I may just want to look at it (like a book) and then return it to its place.
    5. The Oracle Confirmatory is not an instance. How am I supposed to have private conversations with 100 people running around in those little rooms? Please don't say, "good point we'll make it an instance!" Please don't say "good point we'll make the rooms like crafting stations!"

    I watched the Chris Spears R10 Video. Nice work, Chris! Here's some feedback:
    6. Why are spiders in snowy mountains? Are they warm blooded? I can get past the Dark Elves being above ground during the day as I'm sure that's just the way they work in this world. But the spiders, are those place holders?

    Also, Vertas Pass looks like it's very interesting. I can't wait to visit there beyond talking to the tour guide. It's first on my list of things to do this weekend!

    7. I really like the ability to stack spells and skills on top of each other to make them more powerful. That seems like a good element of strategy that was missing from other releases. I hope we can build on that. Maybe there's a way to make defenses stack so they're not just taking less damage but adding more functional ACTIVE defenses too.

    8. When can we get an active defense that completely blocks something?

    9. I don't understand why we want to encourage people to have characters that change from becoming a mage to a knight (all their armor changes instantly) in the middle of combat. Doesn't this encourage min/max play styles over roleplaying? I'm really struggling to ask a question that doesn't seem "loaded" here. But I'm confused. If it's a roleplaying game, are we all just playing generic hybrid mage avatars?

    10. I think the AI has improved a lot during this build. But it still has a ways to go. Specifically, I'm not sure how we'll be able to balance Single Player mode, with Single Player Online mode, with Multiplayer Online mode with Multiplayer Online Solo with Multiplayer Online I have friends. It seems like most of the scenes are currently designed for Muliplayer Online I have friends or a group of 4 players.

    11. Combat seems too fast to me. Couldn't we accomplish the same 30 seconds using LESS attacks and more focus on what's going on? It seems like there's a lot of wasted motion in combat. For example, you're firing a wand and also firing other magic. The shield seems like it's just a prop (I know it's performing some defensive functions). But at the end of the day it's all damage and cool downs. It's like a 30 second DPS forgone conclusion. Someone is going to do more damage than the other person and realistically that's already been decided based on build.

    12. I run out of focus casting a lot of spells too. This might be a function of not using reagents, but I haven't noticed enough of a difference to justify reagents (during R9, I'll try again this build).

    13. Regarding reagents, if the combat and magic system is just going to be a twitchy DPS swap, then I suppose I don't really see the point in reagents at all. I'll probably change my character to be something other than a mage, swear off all magic and just roleplay my way out of this unbalanced poorly supportive of roleplaying system.

    But as it stands right now, Fire Arrow requiring no reagents, if that's not the most overused spell in the current build I'll be surprised. Why Fire Arrow is a 2nd tier spell in this damage fest I have no idea. It seems like it's the staple of not just mages but every character build with ranged capability.

    Do the stats back up my anecdotal assumptions? If I were min/maxing and could only have one spell out of all of them it would be Fire Arrow. So why make that a reagentless spell?


    If any of this (or all of it) comes off as too critical, I apologize. I have tremendous respect for everyone on the development team. I know everyone is working extremely hard, you're all very talented, and it's very difficult to take feedback, even if it's constructive. I'm really bad at being able to do this myself. So thank you for reading through this. It's greatly appreciated.

    And please, feel free to challenge anything I've said here. If there's anything you should know you can count on, it's that I'll tell you what I think.
     
    AvatarGG, Lord Albert and smack like this.
  2. Lum the Mad

    Lum the Mad Developer Emeritus Dev Emeritus

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    As noted in the Known Issues, there are supposed to be switches which the guards operate, but we could not get them working for this release.

    Good point, the Oracle will politely ask others to leave before giving you counsel. (This was actually something Lord British wanted implemented but we couldn't get to work reliably yet).
     
  3. abovenyquist

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    Just as an aside, I think this R10 is much smoother than previous versions. The polish paid off.
     
  4. jiirc

    jiirc Avatar

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    Drocis, I was planning on writing up a I hate the spells focus costs post based on yesterday's dev test and the time I spent playing earlier today in the most recent dev test. I didn't have time to and I'm glad I didn't. Tonight, NA time, I played with the same deck I was using earlier, what a difference in focus costs. I was able to cast a lot of spells without running out of focus the way I was earlier. I was able to choose when I went out of combat to replenish health and focus instead of trying to fight with no focus. My deck is all magic, no combat spells. It consists of mostly arrows (5/5 of fire, ice, obsidian, and lightning. I had reagents for lightning and ice arrow as well. It really helps to stack spells every chance you get, it drops the focus by 5 for every extra glyph in the stack, ie a stack of 2 drops the cost by 5 points. I also maxed out the tactics for focus in the skill tree. I must say that I am impressed in the changes they made between the last two builds, 149 and 154.

    Kudos to the devs for the spell focus cost changes.
     
  5. StrangerDiamond

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    you guys lucky you can even play...
     
  6. Zoucrew

    Zoucrew Avatar

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    Is it 10:30 yet!!!!
     
  7. Drocis the Devious

    Drocis the Devious Avatar

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    Agreed, it's looking VERY sharp.

    The one area I think that's probably not been true (at least last night) was Ardoris. They added in NPC's all over the place and I think that may be slowing it down a bit more than how it worked in R9. But overall, it's been a great experience (even with the crashes) so far. It literally made me want to spend more money.

    Note: I'm playing on a high end machine so keep in mind that experiences may vary. But the future looks bright. I think when they start to optimize the game for average PC's people are going to be very pleased.
     
  8. abovenyquist

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    Yeah, Adoris is definitely clunkier than it was in R9, and it's clunkier than the other cities. I'm guessing that since Adoris is a more recent edition, it hasn't got the level of polish yet that some of the other cities have, maybe.
     
  9. adaamhimself

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    Ardoris is brutal. At points my frame rate was crawling. What sorts of improvements are feasible? I mean, it's not as if the scene is THAT busy.
     
  10. Sophi

    Sophi Avatar

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    i noticed that heal spells are seeming to target me without me having to target myself, am i seeing that right? if so, wonderful!! makes combat much easier!
    not so many crashes while zoning, still a couple but not near as bad as R9
    my one little problem so far is that i am totally unable to find the innkeeper in owls' head who sells the house deeds - is that a misprint in the instructions??? If not, pls someone tell me where the dang inn is!! If it is a misprint can you correct that pls?
    tyvm
     
  11. Lum the Mad

    Lum the Mad Developer Emeritus Dev Emeritus

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    If you are having difficulties in Ardoris, and not running the 64-bit client, I *strongly* recommend you do so.

    I can't say that the 64 bit client will be required for the final version, but it will definitely help with Ardoris on this release.
     
  12. StrangerDiamond

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    I can't connect to the patch server just like in UO !!! been like that for two days argh, I submitted a bug report but sadly noone seems to have found a solution :(
     
  13. Drocis the Devious

    Drocis the Devious Avatar

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    Is there an option to run the 64 bit versus the 32 bit client? My OS is 64 bit, but I thought the client just recognized that automatically at start up?

    Ardoris is running fine for me, just not as good as Release 9. And of course I'm still suffering from random crashes (bug reported) but that's not just in Ardoris anymore.
     
  14. smack

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    Nope, you need to set this option in the Launcher, not the in-game Options.
     
  15. Drocis the Devious

    Drocis the Devious Avatar

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    Thanks smack, now I remember setting that a few releases ago. I just double checked it, I'm saved to 64 bit.
     
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