Thoughts on Owl's Head and the Pre-Alpha game thus far.

I don't like the camera angle, and I never got the impression any of the buildings were designed for that POV. Something like the radial-isometric camera from Dungeon Siege seems more fitting.

 

Erik contemplates his future in Britannia...



It was an interesting first run-around. I found the controls reasonably easy to handle, but at the same time I felt they were a little awkward and I'm not sure how well they will work when things get more hectic. Double-clicking to interact with objects instead of a single-click seems an odd choice, unless the single-click is being preserved for something else.

I didn't run across any obvious bugs, although there were some definite rough edges to the experience. For example, the guards' gait is a little bit ... odd (and seems to change abruptly when they get near ... is it some kind of peculiar LOD effect?). The chat box can be scrolled using the mouse-wheel, but unfortunately this also zooms the camera -- I am assuming this is not a bug, but just something that hasn't been tidied up yet. The chat box also seems to have a disconcerting tendency to appear and disappear at random on occasions.

The animals were cute, though.

I went for a walk outside the town, and headed off towards the distant hills, but eventually hit up against an invisible wall. I wonder how long-distance travel is going to be accomplished.

At the moment, it is pretty, but a bit underwhelming. But as it is still an early alpha, I guess that's to be expected. I shall be interested to see how things develop.

 

Bok bok, bok, bok bok bok, bok!

 

I have played for a while now and here are some of my observations:

- Please make it possible to move the camera without pushing the right mouse button all the time for the next alpha version. My middle finger literally hurts because of constantly pushing my finger on the right mouse button. This could be implemented for example by having a keyboard button to toggle the mouse between changing the camera angle and using objects. This is how it is implemented in X-Rebirth for example and its a great system.

- The town and the surroundings feels alive and atmospheric. It makes me want to explore more and more.. It is very clear to see now that the social aspect of the game will be very important.. I hope that it will be possible to play with my friends in the US and not just with local people around my country, that would be very important for me.

- The lighting is very atmospheric and beautiful in this game. More light and more darkness please.. Make it even more atmospheric. I can kind of see the stars in the sky, but I want to see the stars as if I would in the middle of the desert!!

- The way we communicate with the NPCs is very nice, but I don't know if the NPCs are supposed to react into what you are saying to them at all yet.. no matter how much i tried I couldn't get them to react to what I was saying at all."Can I have a beer please?" the NPC answers "What do you mean?" and nothing happens.

- I know this is pre-alpha, but the inventory is very clumsy. The game will need a much better item inventory than the small sack we currently have. Also it is a bit frustrating that we can drag the icons across the screen. Often when I open a chest, the inventory icon is on top of the chest one, and I have to move them apart. Make them static it will save a lot of hassle..

- As mentioned before, the animations require a lot of improvement, but I assume they are currently placeholders. At the moment it doesn't "feel" right to use your character.

- Housing, if you want to make it appealing to the players, you have to add the possibility to customize the houses externally as well (just as with our characters..) It becomes very quickly boring to see the same type of houses again and again in the city.

That's all that I can say at this (very early) stage of the game, but I am looking forward to the development, and the game does look very promising so far.

P.S I was very surprised to see suddenly a message popping up on the game from Richard Garriott saying "Thanks guys for playing the beta." It was a nice touch, and I can't wait to see how the social elements of the game will be implemented.

 

I'm not much of a tester and never will be. But for the 20 minutes I played, I'm excited!

 

Havn't had a lot of time to play around with things like house decorating yet, but I did do a quick walk around the town, checked out some different house types, and talked to a few guards. Here are my impressions so far:

Positives
- graphics are looking great so far, i'm playing on fantastic setting and the environment looks a lot better than what I was expecting from such an early point of the game.
- animals look really good and give me high hopes for monsters and other critters down the road.
- the little bit of house decorating I did seemed effective and simple to use.
- the conversation system, while obviously needing a lot more work, shows a lot of promise and will add a lot of immersion to the game
- I like the day/night cycle. Night is nice and dark and feels like nighttime and like you actually need to grab a torch or candle.
- I like that the style of inventory with the open bag and being able to place anything anywhere in it, like it was in UO, is back.

Negatives
- run speed feels slow. I think there should be either a sprint option or movement speed should be ever so slightly increased.
- I strongly feel the need for a jump key. Especially with the little fences around the lots, and short railings in many of the house types, there needs to be a way to hop over those. It really breaks immersion when I can't move past a knee-height object.
- the camera controls feel a bit clunky to me. I think this is because to turn the camera you need to use the right mouse button. I think it would feel a lot better if the camera had a degree of 'stickiness' and would turn at least a certain amount with your character. The right mouse button to rotate the camera could still stay to be used for looking around at things, but I don't think it should be the ONLY way for the camera to follow the character.


All in all I am really impressed with the state of the game so far and I see a lot of promise here that makes me excited for future releases.

 

Again I don't like holding the mouse button down to look around.
Things can get placed partly in the walls and on top of each other
Inventory needs some work, I like the style but the items seem to big for the bag or something.
Is there a run button? if not it needs one
We should be able to turn the conversation box off and see what we type above our heads.
It would be nice to have a sheath for carrying around the sword.
And I wish I could carry the candle for light.
I ran around the city to find out you get stuck at the bridge and have to go all the way around again. err

added later - instead of new post
We should be able to either kick or hit the barrels to break them.
conversations gets mixed up between npc's, who we target should be who we are speaking to.
esc should close one bag at a time instead of everything
streets need names or something so npc's can give better directions
needs a compass
needs a ladder to get to the top of the lookout points along the city wall
we should start closer to where we logged off at - of course not stuck anymore

 

I rather enjoy the inventory system as it is. Some items might be a bit too big though as said.

 

The problem I have with the inventory is that it becomes very messy when you have lots of items inside the bag (especially on 1920x1080). It will be difficult to find items. I guess I'm just a bit too organized

 

My only gripe, and its a huge one, are the controls. I've been running around for a couple hours now and I'm really no closer to moving my avatar smoothly/reliably. It would be near unplayable for combat. Constantly needing to turn the camera to see where I'm going (and it is slow to turn!), and the WASD keys are hard for me to handle.. I'm having a rough time maneuvering around doorways and objects.

Is this normal for 3D pc games these days? Am I just too used to console gaming or fixed view PC gaming? Will there be mouse movement or other changes to the controls later?

 

What I have been doing with some ok success is use the W key to move forward (double tab W to autorun) then hold the right mouse button to turn

 

Trying to use a gamepad now
hard to use the mouse pointer but helps with looking around

 

I thought it was too dark too at night but once players have houses with torches all over them it may lighten up quite a bit..just a guess

 

Maybe this is related to your video settings because I thought it was substantially more bright than in most games at night. I had no difficulty seeing.

I am impressed by what I see at this early stage.
Owl's Head is looking great!

 

After about 2 hours of playing and several bug reports, mostly about falling through terrain, I would have to say that I am very impressed by the visuals. I was taken aback by several things, such as the tesla tower, the shattered moon in the sky, and yes, the stars in the sky. Would be nice to have recognizable constellations that actually chart through the sky. Walking around was a bit awkward using the wasd keys ( I'm accustomed to moving around using a mouse). Also, couldn't explore the Benefactors village castle because of a bug with the stairs (fall through them), making it impossible to explore the second level. I really wanted to compare it to the founders castle, which is actually very nice, spacious and has an 'aged' look to it. Placing items in a house was a bit of a pain. Still figuring out rotation, but sometimes, I would either lose the item through a wall, or it won't place at all. Climbing stairs was also a bit of a nuisance. I kept falling off the spiral stairs on the wizards tower and small tower. I also got stuck on the terrace of the small tower ( bug already reported ). Will spend more time exploring tomorrow, but have to be careful concerning the terrain. The drunken old lady walking on the water of the fountain gave me a chuckle.

Edit: Will have to try the Q and E key for rotate.

 

The Esc key should only close one bag/box at a time.

 

We need a notebook for sure to remember clues we find out.
Get rid of the highlighted words.
Maybe let us click on words we want added to our clue book.

 

The game is visually beautiful! Beyond expectations, especially this early. I don't like the controls and camera setup. Hopefully that is just because it is alpha and it hasn't been refined yet.

 

I don't think the animals know about walls yet?

 

The only problem I have with the shattered moon is that it moves mostly perpendicular to the debris trail. Assuming the debris trail is in orbit, wouldn't it make more sense to have it move lengthwise across the sky instead?