Ok, so I've been playing the game for a good 3-4 hours and I'd like to share some things I encountered, be they bug or otherwise.
First off, I'd like to say that overall I really enjoyed these first few hours. So good job, Larian!
I've made notes while playing and I'll try to copy these as coherently as possible, without being redundant because I might have written some things down twice or thrice.
Character creation
- If you go back to the menu in the creation screen, the game crashes.
- Maybe this was me, but for the life of me I couldn't figure out where the skills where located. So I couldn't choose starting skills, something I would expect when there is a custom option.
- Some talents give clear %, others just a vague indication of what they do. This makes it really hard to decide which one is the better option, or suits you better.
- Quick-witted, the talent which gives 10 % more xp, seems a must-take in a game where the enemies are finite. Talents that everyone should take are generally better avoided in a game.
- Fleetfooted and Rosy Cheeks appear to be the same in their description.
- When I chose the talent which increased my overall health, I didn't start with full health.
General impressions and gameplay encounters
- When I shoot a fireball in a pond with fish, the water evaporates, but the fish keep swimming on the sand.
- I killed the two starting legonaires and the orcs on the beach. The legonaires whom I saved actually had a bad attitude towards me, even though they didn't see me kill the other two.
- The map resets everytime I load a game or go upstairs or downstairs in some areas, meaning I have to explore everything again.
- When I go up or down stairs/hatches etc., the other character teleports to a seemingly random spot in my vicinity instead of following me.
- I found a lot of the same items. (In my case maybe a dozen of the same amulet.)
- Amulets and ring can be sold for a substantial higher amount than weapons and the like. Even rings without any stats could be sold for over a 100.
- There are two ringslots, yet I could only equip one ring.
- It doesn't matter if you die because of traps, as long as the other character survives. This makes disarming them simply a case of triggering the trap with just one character.
- As soon as you have the healing spell, there is no more need for any other kind of out of combat healing.
- Slipping on a surface can cost someone a good 3 turns in combat. This felt a bit overpowered. Also, out of combat the whole slipping thing is very annoying.
- A lot of skills lack any sort of explanation. For example I had no idea what Inspire, the fighter skill, was supposed to do.
- In my experience, the game is too easy. I managed to beat a party of level 5 + 6 Orcs, led by a gigantic one, with my 2 level 4 characters.
- The inventory still has a long way to go, I'd love an autosort.
- Make Esc be able to close any open window, like crates or the journal, before going to the menu.
- I tried eating a fish, which gave my character a temporary intelligence boost. Since a higher intelligence means more ability points when you gain a level, this would mean that everyone would try and eat a fish just before that last bit of xp needed to gain a level. Most people will probably load again and again till they succeed. I'd make it a permanent one-time bonus or make it so temporary bonuses don't count to stuff like this.
Unbalanced features
- All the figther skills cost 5 ap, with a 4 turn cooldown. A lot of spells cost 3 ap, with a 1 turn cooldown. This combined with some other things (listed below), made me feel like a mage is the much stronger class at the moment.
- Intelligence governs how much ability points a character get each level. Since intelligence seems more important for a mage, this gives the mage a huge advantage. Being able to invest 3 points more each leven in for example fire spells, feels like a bit too much.
- Combine the above point with the intelligence requirment on rings and amulets and I see no reason not to start with a mage.
I think this is it for now. I hope that wasn't too boring a read. Once again, I really enjoyed my first few hours with the game. There is still a lot of progress to be made, but that's the point of an alpha.
Cheers.
