Messages

Any idea on when the GOG version will update?  I see 1.29 is out on Steam but it's not been out on GOG for at least 3 days...

I dropped an iron jaw trap and a crossbowman walked right into it.  He now has 0 health but is still "alive", stunned, and slowed. 

Potential UI improvements:

1) How about showing amount of aura somewhere, and progress towards objectives (like getting 11 apples)?  I accidentally ended the 11 apple scenario early because I didn't realize I was going to reach 11.

2) If we are going to drag items from reserve to characters to equip them, how about dragging from character  inventory to character to trade? 

3) It would be nice to grey out reserve items a character can't use when you click on a character.


Design issues:

1) In the hunt for the apples scenario, some bandits are stuck in the area with two chests.  Why can't the bandits attack the bushes to escape? 

I just stuck an 8-turn time limit on the battle at Adelbrae; that'll be in the next update. :)

Thanks for the 8-turn limit on Adelbrae, but I was talking about the fight against the 2 bandits in the forest.  That one is very easy to grind because the bandits don't attack when the retaliation kills them, and all characters in this scenario can retaliate.  So all you need to do is to kill one bandit, and get the other bandit down to 5 HP or less, and then he'll run around not doing anything.  Repeatedly set a snare trap and rest with Sabrina to level her to level 3, and then pull the bandit for 20 XP / turn.  Since there's no time limit and the bandit never hits you, you can easily gain mega-levels.

Emma can also reach level 3 by this point to gain access to Pull, but it requires more work.  She needs to hit the trainer at every move in the very first scene, and then do all the damage in the two-bandit battle (kill the first bandit, and wound the second one down to 5 HP or less -- without backstabs to increase the number of hits.)  That gives her just enough experience to get level 3 and Pull, and then she and Sabrina can both gain 20 XP / turn.  (20 XP for swordsman-pull seems a little out of whack to me.  Why do you get more XP than actually hitting an opponent, or for even shoving an opponent?  And this XP action costs 0 energy and doesn't cause a weapon to break down, so it's spammable.) 

In general, it feels like while some effort was taken to prevent XP grinding (casting Mind Shield on fully healed characters doesn't do anything), it could be improved.  In Adelbrae, for example, the last bandit was so wimpy that I could routinely heal him for XP so that my Photokineticist could light bomb him again for XP.  Light bombing causes the bandit to miss, and then you repeat.  The 8-turn limit will prevent this exploit for this battle, but not for other ones. 

[very]

But no time limit, or restrictions on Fighter Pull (for 20 xp) in the very first scenario?  That one's very easy to power-grind Sabrina (and/or Emma) to level 20+. 

I feel a turn limit for the first two scenarios (bandits and town defense) would be a good idea.  Right now I can grind up Emma, Sabrina, and Louise to infinite levels in these scenarios without risking anything beyond a big "negative score" (whatever that's supposed to mean).

Also, there's a quick way through the doors -- open them with the "O" key.  (I know it's in the manual, but this should be better documented in the tutorial tooltips.)

What about capping the amount of XP that can be gained in a single mission from a single activity?  For example, I think it's pretty trivial to power-level Louise up in mission 1 by getting her into a state where she can shield-rest-shield-rest ad infinitum once she heals for 14 -- I just kill all the attacking bandits except for 1 and let him wail away generating XP. 

General feedback after playing up to the first merchant:

1) Pathfinding should be smarter and avoid snare traps when possible when there is an alternative trap-free path that is equal in cost. Example: a character sets a trap one square north, and then tries to move NE, that the path goes north then east through the trap, instead of east then north.  I can manually override this by specifying move one square east, then one square north, but it's annoying.

2) In the campaign, there appears to be an autosave at the start of each battle, but I learned to my dismay that it's not a specialized slot.  IMO, any auto-save should never overwrite a manual save, just a dedicated auto-save. 

3) How about adding save points at a merchant as well?  It would be nice to experiment with different purchasing choices without having to refight an entire battle. 

4) There should be some visual indication of auto-looting occurring at end of battle (a screen that pops up at battle end indicating the loot acquired from bags.)  Also, since some scenarios don't allow auto-loot, players should be able to know this without having to finish the scenario first -- show the value to the player in the scenario settings.

5) It seems odd that the economy doesn't support selling or even trade-ins.  I understand this may be for game balance reasons but it doesn't feel realistic.

Bandit is missing?

I admire the developer's vision on many things such as no saves during combat but giving xp for pushing/shoving allies seems to encourage pointless grinding (as well as potentially unbalance future missions).  Perhaps find some way to cap xp given for repeatable actions such as pushing the same person many times? 

Just tried copying my save files to my browser save directory and can now get those attacks from the online version.  However, when I go to Deeper Downs to get cash and then go back to Ravinale, I get ambushed by guardsmen, I see lots of NaNs where numbers should be, and I can't move. 

Thanks for the definition, I learned something today. 

You're certainly right from a technical perspective, but from a usage one, I think you're going to get more confused users like me who may think that the game is slightly unprofessional for having a typo in the opening sequence when there's a similar, common word that would make more sense.  In general, affect is not used as a noun in standard conversation -- the link above even mentions that it's a technical term for psychologists and psychiatrists. 

There's also a bug in Crypt 3 at the riddle door where I tried to ask Rahel for help.  I couldn't get it to work (it said that person is not here.)  and eventually after asking Griffin for help (who told me to ask Rahel), I asked Rahel for help again and got stuck in an endless loop of conversation options.

OK.  Also, there's a minor typo in the opening prison escape sequence -- I think you mean Rahel's accent is flat, not her affect. 

I'm playing the downloadable demo (activated with code).  Should I redownload?

On Brutal mode, found a bug where I bought Bow Counterattack for Rahel fairly early (just got her up to 19 HP and the stats for Split Shot 2) but then it appeared again for purchase later after I loaded a game.  I bought it again, and she promptly lost it on load.  Can you check to see if it's being saved?

Also, for the stones quest, if you kill the scorpion and return to the husband first and get 250 from him, you are not given an option to appease the wife.

There are still some weird issues with the Mahboob quest, where you talk to people and can't get options sometimes. Also, loading the game causes the husband to reappear and ignore you even if he left because of misdirection.

With 15/15 Power/Defense, can't get Vengeance despite Feedback 3, can't get Cryo Cross despite Elemental Blast 4 and Mind Blast 4, and can't get Big Shield, but Set got it at Defense 14.  What's wrong with my Hero?  (I've killed the Bandit Leader but haven't completed Mission 3)

There are music issues (no music) when you go to the Deeper Downs twice in a row without going somewhere else. 

Clicking on conversation options during the training screen leads to unpolished menus.

The AI passed up the opportunity to backstab in this situation:

BOO
O*B
OOO

* = hero facing right

The Bandit in the upper left moved to the position on top of hero instead of left of hero for the backstab.

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Also for combat UI would be nice to see : 1) shaded ground depicting the walking range of the unit you mouseover (similar to Heroes of Might and Magic 2 or later) and 2) the standard damage of each move as you mouseover it (i.e. Mind Blast Cost : 2 Damage: 10)