|
|
Post by slayernz on Nov 25, 2013 14:37:59 GMT -5
Maybe on Brutal you don't gain SP or HP when you level up - only with a camp fire. Even stick to Hard and below for that cool goodness.  |
|
|
|
Post by fallen on Nov 25, 2013 23:19:47 GMT -5
The jury is back - we are sticking to more SP pots.
|
|
|
|
Post by beuns on Nov 25, 2013 23:21:22 GMT -5
The jury is back - we are sticking to more SP pots. Glad to hear that |
|
|
|
Post by johndramey on Nov 26, 2013 17:03:07 GMT -5
Just got around to finishing up the Red Hills, so thought I'd come post my reactions. First, I have to agree with pretty much everything slayernz said, the whole prologue is a lot of fun. I didn't really keep track of the typos, but there are some. I'll try to keep an eye out for them and shoot you an email with their location/fixes whenever I find them. I really have to say the whole bridge scene was quite cool, very Lord of the Rings-esque. It was an awesome little call-back to one of the staples of fantasy and it made me smile when it went down. The character building that you guys are doing is pretty cool. It's pretty interesting to see the character interactions and hear them talk to each other about their pasts. I really can't wait to see what kind of back story each of them have. Really interested in the story of the game, can't wait to see how it unfolds! slayernz Love those choke points! Ever notice no matter what you do the Hunds attack when you are in a wide open space, and they have allot of room to maneuver? Love the animation on them, they really look meaty and powerful, the motion is very fluid. The hunds were pretty awesome. I saw them posted on facebook a while back and was pretty interested in seeing them in motion. The brothers did an awesome job building and animating them, they really seem like big scary beasts when they are charging at your lines. Definitely good fan service for us long time TB supporters but nothing that would make new people scratch their heads. 3. We are discussing allowing a Level Up! to restore your SP to full. This would go a long way to make Red Hill beatable without needing to just keep pouring potions into the mix. A very long way I think, but past level 3 or 4, it starts to slow down so it would not far less of a game difference anymore. Thoughts? This is actually an ok idea. I know you decided to go the SP pot route, but I don't see this causing too much of a balance issue for the players. However, pots aren't that big of problem and it will preserve the sense of "Oh man I gotta get out of here!" so either way is good for me. |
|
|
|
Post by fallen on Nov 26, 2013 18:08:18 GMT -5
johndramey - thanks for the great feedback! Found a little animation bug with the hunds that I am fixing (their back legs stay stuck out when they stop running sometimes) and we have now added the last extra pots. RH has become a slightly more gentle introduction, but I think that the sense of urgency is still strong.
|
|
|
|
Post by hosh on Dec 2, 2013 15:58:53 GMT -5
I just got around to playing the Prologue last night. I like it!
The instructions were pretty good too. Just at about the point where I was thinking there was something missing, there's a dialogue that discusses it.
Like the other folks, there was a definite sense of urgency. I played Nightmare (of course). By the time the hunds had showed up, I was nearly at the end of my resources. The group had leveled up twice, no rest area in sight. I had only one potion left, one that gives 400+ health, that I'm trying to save down the road. Everyone but the Outlander was down to about 40% HP or less, mage and cleric nearly out of SP I only survived it since I took a couple chances and explored some side areas, managed to score a second weapon for the Outlander to dual-wield. That made a huge difference. When the party got on the bridge, I was looking for some lever to pull the bridge off, hoping I wouldn't have to fight those guys as bosses. That would have been a very short run!
I'd like to have explored elsewhere, including trying the stairs. Maybe I'll do that in Easy. In Nightmare, it felt like I had to make choices. For example, I set up my characters to raid officer's quarters but chickened out at the last minute. Maybe I would have gotten better armor, but I've never played a party-based RPG where the party was close to dying, on the run.
I saw a few bugs, but maybe folks had already reported it:
(1) In one battle, I did something else and came back, everyone was topped off on AP. I wasn't sure if I got taken back to the last round or something.
(2) After that, the portrait with the character you are controlling no longer showed health/spell bars. That persisted past combat. I forgot what I did to restore it.
I had not played since... P2 I think? The descriptions during the level-up is much better improved. And I see that the wizard also has support spells similar to the thief, so that's good.
|
|
|
|
Post by slayernz on Dec 2, 2013 16:07:34 GMT -5
I've tested and can confirm you can't try the stairs, rightly they are inactive. Would be nice to get a dialogue prompt saying "It would be suicide to go that way" For your bugs, #1, maybe you found another encounter (encounter within an encounter), or maybe you hit the turn button by accident just before you went away? #2, that is a bug, and exiting to menu and returning resolves that. The biggest problem with the training dialogues is that ideally, if you are describing something (eg the Golden Arrow pointer), either show a picture of it in the dialogue box, OR change the way the dialogue presents with some sort of indicator pointing at the particular UI element. But that's a niggle - and something that can be tweaked. Oh oh oh ... I did find a bug when fighting the boss of the dungeon guards. When I came back into the game from the menu, I found the thief had spawned UNDER him. I was, however, allowed to use the thief's dagger, so stabbed him from below. Effective in a way |
|
|
|
Post by hosh on Dec 2, 2013 16:11:32 GMT -5
Yes - the suggestion would be that when you hit the Level Up (still in combat, nowhere near a campsite) your SP bar is returned to full. Cory laughs at me too because I don't want to do HP bar too. It would definitely RH be a more sure win. I'm ambivalent about this because I kinda like almost-dying. :-D SP refill without HP refill would be pretty cool, even in the story sense. It's a classic Anime trope that would go over well. |
|
|
|
Post by fallen on Dec 2, 2013 16:45:27 GMT -5
hosh - we are majorily impressed that you beat Red Hill on Nightmare! Congrats, we were considering that basically impossible under the current balancing rules. Any idea how many times you died? We have canned the idea of SP / HP regen on level up -- too many people voting it's like anime or it breaks their sense of realism / suspense. A few more potions does the trick.
|
|
|
|
Post by hosh on Dec 2, 2013 19:14:46 GMT -5
hosh - we are majorily impressed that you beat Red Hill on Nightmare! Congrats, we were considering that basically impossible under the current balancing rules. Any idea how many times you died? We have canned the idea of SP / HP regen on level up -- too many people voting it's like anime or it breaks their sense of realism / suspense. A few more potions does the trick. Thanks! Though ... By Red Hill do you mean the entire game or just the Prologue? I've only beaten Prologue. Or is that what you mean? So far, I have not died once, it is my first run through P3. We'll see how it goes in the Deeps though! There was one part that might have been iffy where I might have gotten free APs, but I am not entirely sure. There were a couple close calls and I lucked out on an early part. I chose to raid one of the side rooms immediately after breaking out. That had the long narrow hallway. So when that elite guard and the other baddies came by, I was able to retreat all the way down there. The pathfinding was such that once a single enemy unit was in that long hallway, none of the other units were able to follow (I guess because I retreated outside the normal limits of the pathfinding code?), so did not move on their turn. So effectively, each unit showed up, one at a time showed up to the kill zone. When the archers showed up, all I had to do was move all my guys to the side of the door so that there were no line-of-sight, which lured the archer in for the kill. I spent a lot of time stacking up both buffs and curses while shaving it close to conserve SP, since my tactics depended on it. (Which was why when I ran out of SP and potions towards the end, the bridge escape was poignant). It would have sucked more if they had tried flanking from the other way (but I had not open that door). If I were the opposition commander, I would have sent the big dude as the spear point to drive people into that room with all the archers following right behind, sent the other melee guys on the flank, even if it meant slowing down the other guards. I had not realized the door could have been open from the west until later, and even then, I didn't realize its significance until I typed this up :-D Besides, where else would the prisoners go? Corner them then crush them ... If I had to slog through that out in the open, that would have affected the battles later down the road (assuming I survived). As it was, there were a couple points later where I had to do a fighting retreat to take advantage of bends in the tunnel so that the enemy archers can't coordinate with the melee guys. And while I prefer the Outlander to be the primary tank and melee, with both cleric and mage playing support, there were times I had to step the cleric up to knock some heads. The mage was completely useless and a liability without spells (as should be). I'm not sure if the weapons you find in chests were randomly generated or not; without dual-wielding that spear I found and the basic sword, the Outlander can't dish out enough damage. (Frankly, I was surprised it worked, I was expecting to die :-D). As it was, I ended the prologue with that single potion. Other things that worked in my favor: Stone Skin and other buffs do not time out outside of combat, so sometimes I get a couple free rounds of Stone Skin. Which matters when every little bit of SP counts. |
|
|
|
Post by slayernz on Dec 2, 2013 19:27:21 GMT -5
Red hill is the part before the bridge. Getting that far on Nightmare is tricky ... finishing the whole prologue all the way to the eastern gates is hairraising! Stone Skin is almost essential at the higher difficulties. It's the only thing that makes you feel your armor isn't made out of pantyhose
|
|
|
|
Post by hosh on Dec 2, 2013 20:37:11 GMT -5
Red hill is the part before the bridge. Getting that far on Nightmare is tricky ... finishing the whole prologue all the way to the eastern gates is hairraising! Stone Skin is almost essential at the higher difficulties. It's the only thing that makes you feel your armor isn't made out of pantyhose Oh I see, Red Hill is part of the Prologue. Gotcha! Yeah, so I finished Red Hill; will get back with you guys after playing it more. Having leveled up, now I have access to the Warder Shield in addition to Pureflame Shield, in addition to the +2 bracer for the Outlander. We'll see if my character build pans out. |
|
|
|
Post by absimiliard on Dec 18, 2013 14:52:33 GMT -5
Stone Skin is almost essential at the higher difficulties. It's the only thing that makes you feel your armor isn't made out of pantyhose I'm pretty sure my Outlander has Stone Pantyhose instead of Stone Skin. I hadn't realized it until you'd pointed it out First Cat, but clearly that's the right term given how hard he gets hit. -abs |
|
|
|
Post by johndramey on Dec 18, 2013 20:33:26 GMT -5
Haha, slayernz's play on words is quite apt. I'll admit to running Vraes a little on the light side, just have him equipped with the overcoat for armor, but he really needs the buff from my level 3 Stone Skin to not be absolutely ripped apart in combat. I still need to top him off with Myshana's Tears quite frequently, but that's mainly because of my play style and the fact that poor Vraes is taking, oh, I'd say 90% of the focus of all enemies. |
|
|
|
Post by captain nemo on Dec 19, 2013 19:54:50 GMT -5
So the Prologue ends at the bridge ??
I brought Episode 1 as soon as I got the game. So was just wondering where the change from Prologue to Ep 1 was.
|
|
