I'll try summarizing as best:
What needs work
*Inventory System:
It's in sore need of Multi-selection, especially for food that has to be manually sent to camp.
Inventory Screen should still remain up instead of closing after you read a book or a note.
Mini-map should be clickable and draggable for easier wandering without sacrificing POV.
*Camera should have more freedom regarding angles/rotation.
It's really janky when half of my party is on high ground or when climbing ladders or jumping.
*Throwing potions right now is a little weird:
At first, I really liked the idea, but am I the only one who can’t right click pots and throw them from the hotkey bar? I have to manually go into Inventory to Throw. This, and, as much as the idea is nice, it’s sort of unrealistic considering it’s splashing the feet. It’s not too much of a bother right now, but I imagine implementing an “Auto-catch and drink” function (or animation?) into AI can really smoothen it out.
*Task order should not affect certain quests when there are logical alternatives.
While a lot of criticism are the triggers regarding if and when Companion scenes show up, this becomes particularly troublesome with certain quests, such as the Owlbear cub subquest. Wiping out the Goblin camp first shouldn’t lock the quest, especially for Druids or Rangers who are able to communicate with it and use the same method of assuring its safety to visit camp. When you force task order for a quest to continue, it defeats the "open-world" aspect of the game, since it forces players to play questlines and locations linearly while also reducing choice when DnD is heavily based on choice/role play. This, however, should not apply to ALL quests – only ones with logical alternatives.
*Which brings me to another point: More alternative paths/choices please!
One of my favorite series, Dishonored, utilizes variety of ways of completing missions or eliminations. Even though it all led to the same goal, it allowed the game to feel much wider than it was and despite not being open-world. Right now a lot of quests and interactions still feel very restrictive in what we can and can't do.
*Companion relationships still feels bare, even though Companions have such embellished personalities.
There needs to be more dialogue or interaction with TAV, especially when walking around. Most of it is just surrounding Companion to Companion, whereas BG2 handled it by involving TAV sometimes in dialogue when two Companions spoke to each other. Not expecting it to be *every* conversation though (it shouldn't be). But Tav still definitely feels distant, and I think the relationships between the party shouldn’t be only reliant on camp scene triggers. Give us discussions outside of scenes while roaming.
*Romance on Celebration night feels like most Companions are breaking character with each other.
Astarion makes some sense in wanting to *try*, but it’s not really logical for it to happen either since everyone dislikes him for being a vampire spawn, and Lae'zel comes across as finding everyone inferior as a species and in personality, mostly regarding current Companions as a nuisance but necessity. It doesn't make sense for her to sleep with people she candidly dislikes and feels forced to accompany. Polyamorous does not = anyone and everyone. The same obviously goes for Wyll.
-Suggestion: What COULD make sense is that certain Companions still have their night of fun with outside random NPCs. This makes much more sense, imo, because it's no strings attached situation and Companion secrets are still kept secret.
*Time Mechanics:
Day, Hour, Month, or at least Day and Hour. I think this should also affect environment, because it’s kind of weird to be near the end of EA and still finding blood pools everywhere or bodies around. You’d think the Tieflings or Druids would clean up by then. Time Mechanics doesn’t have to affect every quest though, except for situations like saving Tulla from the poison, which is already implemented.
Glitches and bugs:
Dialogue after a fight sometimes automatically goes to a Companion instead of TAV. Super annoying.
*Hag Quest is ridiculously bugged.
You have to put on the Mask from inventory to get through Gnarled Door. It doesn't work from the Equipment screen. Sometimes it doesn't even work at all -- had to reload twice before the Gnarled Door responded.
*Party members who are supposed to die or down but don't near the end of a fight are softlocked and immovable.
Only solution is to kill them with another team member and revive them. This has happened several times in the Hag Quest, but not sure if it's recreatable in other locations.
*Enemies doing something that isn't possible in their position and freezing the game because they stopped mid-frame and their turn never ends.
I already sent in my dxdialog file about this, though it only happened once in Goblin Camp on high ground behind where Crusher is.
*Companions stop following you if they get locked out of a jump or ladder while it's in use. This happens quite frequently.
Like many others, *Game crash, but specifically when reloading Quick Saves (Cloud on on Steam). It happens less frequently with the hotfix released today, though.
*Companion teleportation happening randomly.
It happened after the hotfix inside the owlbear cave. Essentially, Astarion was stuck in a loop of running to where the party was and then teleporting back to floating midair over the hole in the cave. Reloading didn't help, but Quitting and loading to a previous save did.
*I hope this is a glitch, but Detect Thoughts not working on Companions.:
If it's not a glitch, maybe consider it as an alternative to using the tadpole for people trying to play Neutral or Good campaigns or just want to avoid the future drawbacks of the tadpole. If it goes this route though, I do expect hard checks for Detect Thoughts on Companions infected by the tadpole.
Wishlist:
Make a non-sexual Romance option with TAV and Companions during the celebration.
It allows the relationship to build without sacrificing a Romance scene or TAV roleplay immersion depending on alignment or just personality.
Track/Hide quests. : I'm not asking for those navigating lights like in Fable or even exact location, but just being able to hide quest markers on the map that I'm not pursuing would do wonders.
More activities to do in End of Day Camp.
Dinner with Companions? Sharing stories or arguing by the firepit? Patching up equipment or wounds? Not expecting cinematics, but just like sitting and hearing dialogue or banter rather than TAV being the only thing running around and speaking or moving.
Day/Night cycles Some people have mentioned it for more stealth opportunities, but I just think the Night is swell.
Personal Journal Entries: out of all the things I missed from BG2, it's Journal Entries! For hardcore role-players, it's allows for more immersion in the story, and it can also generally be useful for keeping notes, reminders, and important, etc (puzzles, time-crucial quests, etc).
Stretching it, but Cowardice dialogue options. Sometimes I just want to go the Rincewind route. At least for the laughs at Companion reactions.
Probably Not Going to Happen, but I still Dream of It:
Jan cameo. I know it's too much to ask for him as a Companion, but Jan has always been my all-time favorite Companion in the series.
Let me get DRUNK in Camp or Celebration night and have interactions.
And, a request from my SO who doesn't play but would consider on this condition: More cats, with a petting feature.
Annnnd, that's it. I think the game is looking to be phenomenal. I emphasize though, that it would be *exceptional* for roleplaying and additional choices to quests and Companion interactions were more available. Also, apologies for any weird formatting. It's been a really long time since I've used a forum, but I tried making it as clean as possible since I really wanted to give some feedback on what I think so far. Cheers!
Last edited by fperry2; 23/07/21 08:13 AM.
