DOS2 thoughts thus far
Praise
- Phoenix Dive is back!!! Melee move abilities were some of my favorites in classic DOS, and the removal of dive in EE was saddening. The new warrior moves seem so much more interesting, with dive and that hammer shockwave, even a warriors's thunder-jump. In general I'm already seeing that the skills available in 2 a more interesting that in 1. And we don't even have skill crafting yet!
- I'm loving the UI improvements, the improved visualization on range of stealth sight lines, and backstabs. I also love the increased verticality and high ground bonuses.
- The walking/running animations on the digitigrade lizards is really impressive
- The magic and physical armor is neat, and I like the indirect dialog
Campaign
- The ability to change names on origin characters. Perhaps not for the Red Prince, but if there is no voice acting, why lock the names? It makes sense to give them a default name, but the ability to edit would go a long way to giving people a sense of agency over their character.
- On that note, I'd really like to see the starting tag options for customs expanded. I understand the focus is on the origin characters, which makes sense, but the tag system presents a huge opportunity to make custom characters feel functionally customizable.
Arena
- Perhaps when modding comes out it will be possible to download custom arena maps? Not to flood the options list with a sea of server-side maps, but that the game host could select custom maps they had installed?
- Premades seems a sensible way of doing this, but obviously we'd need more in the future, i imagine that's planned. Still, is there a good way to do customs? It would be clunky to let people customize after joining a game, but perhaps there could be a menu where you could customize a roster of arena characters tied to your profile. That's what I'd like to see.
- The dynamic of getting source points from slain foes especially in 4 player battles I really like, an advantage to taking first blood instead of sitting back. However, I feel like the advantage of gunning for a source point immediately in 2 player is a bit much? I think they shouldn't be lying around, or there should be a greater cost to getting to them. They're easier to get to than the chests, but more valuable.
Specifics:
- In the quest with the Druande smuggler and the Lizard oracle, it seemed a fantastic opportunity for competitive questing when the Prince can get him to consume the stolen drug, making it awkward for other players who want to prove the elf's innocence. Yet when I did so, the other player approached stingtail and the choices did not seem to reflect the fact he had consumed the drug. Perhaps it's just something you haven't gotten to, but this layer of interaction seems like the kind of thing that'll really make competitive questing feel intricate.
- The Meat Golems sound like normal people. I assume this is just a placeholder but it's suuuuper awkward.
- I was thrown twice into the same jail, but the second time the door was not repaired and the key I stole was left with my other possessions. It would be really cool to see stuff like that reset, rather than being tossed in a doorless cell. They took my mage pants though, probably some sort of bug.
Bugs:
- the host player once quick-saved right as I entered dialog. Upon loading, I found myself trapped in a blank dialog. Saving again and reloading solve this, however.
