So I just finished my first play-through of the Alpha before the update and thought it would be a good time to leave my feedback. I enjoyed the game alot and look forward to seeing more. There's a fair amount here, most of it minor things, so I'll try to be brief and to the point. I also observed many spelling errors and conversation portrait errors which I didn't record here. I didn't look too much into what has already been reported, so alot of this may have already been mentioned/known about.
Warning for spoilers!
GAMEPLAY
- The humor in the game is fantastic! I enjoyed alot of the game's writing.
- Ice ground effects seems to last indefinitely. Very irritating after battle slipping over constantly trying to pickup items/leave the scene. Give ice a duration to melt into water before then evaporating. Also The AI of party members out of combat does not try to move around the ice and will attempt to run straight through it continuously slipping over.
- You should be able to target party members for spells by clicking on their portrait.
- More responsive movement in general would be great.
- Slightly faster movement speed would be great.
- I would prefer a hotkey for toggling between run/walk then the current setup. I found it frustrating at times when my character would switch to walking because the cursor was too close.
- An option to disable screen scroll with mouse would be great.
- When 'Dual dialogs' option is disabled, only one character gets Social bonuses from conversations. This may be intended, but I feel hurts the second character and if I were a min/maxer, makes me feel like I have to have it enabled.
- Some NPC's, notably some market vendors, will not give the option to leave conversation immediately, and you first must choose a topic before given the option to leave.
- A message when the teleporter pyramid is returned to your inventory would be great.
- When bartering, the balance button should first add/remove gold from ONE side of the trade to equal it. It is redundant to have gold amounts on both sides.
- I found it odd that skeletons/ghosts/undead are fear-able.
- You cannot scroll the battlefield during combat with the WASD keys if the mouse cursor is over a skill icon. Was a little frustrating at times.
- There should be a easy way to switch inventories while at a vendor without needing to stop conversation and start again with the other character.
- I would much prefer global gold between the party. Annoying having to move gold between characters depending on who picked it up/sold items.
- Not a fan of DOTs such as fire and poison stopping you when moving through them.
- Some of the lever effects in the Black Cove are not very apparent, even with the message 'Ah so that's what that did' appears.
- It took me some time to advance the main quest after digging up Jake's body and finding two pieces of evidence against Esmeralda. At that point I was at a loss at what to do. The captain hinting at finding further evidence would help, as I had given up trying to get into Esmeralda's secret room.
- I'm not a fan of how in the current Trait system, you are punished for being neutral. You only get skill increases if you favor one side of the balance. Adding in negative effects for each side's opposite would fix this.
- Crafting could use a 'book' to record what you have learnt as easy reference.
- Mouse wheel to zoom the map would be great.
- Picking up crates to put in your inventory is a fairy hidden feature, which I think could use more transparency.
- The Burial Mound elemental pillar events could use more acknowledgement. The only way to know you have done it right at the moment is when the characters stop saying "I wonder what that did". It is already ambiguous that you need to then enter the other Burial mound to see the result. The room you enter thereafter I assume is unfinished, but I was disappointed when there are laying huge piles of gold, but you can only pick up piles of 1 gold.
BALANCE
- Difficulty ramps up quite a bit when leaving town, especially if you head towards the cave that leads across the river or towards Black Cove instead of first going to the lighthouse. Perhaps more warning from the gate guards or more direction to visit the lighthouse first.
- Winter's Breath is very overpowered. Seems to be inflicting it's listed damage multiple times.
- Melee combat seems disadvantageous. It looks like the recent patch helped their damage which should help alot, but trying to navigate through all the elemental effects on the ground can also be frustrating. At times I just had them stand back and cast spells like stun, while my ranged characters did most the work. It makes me wonder if I need melee characters, and instead just survive off crowd control and ice floors.
- DOT's like fire and poison are weak. They only do 1 damage per tick. I don't even mind running through them.
- The Tornado skill seems to always hurt the caster.
- Sometimes the Flurry skill seems to do less damage then a regular attack.
VISUALS
- Animations are great!
- Ice and water ground effects look really similar. It was hard at first to differentiate them for things like electrifying. Making ice more white in color would help.
- The out-of-range grey outline for spell casting is very hard to see.
- Gravestones popping up for dead enemies seems strange. Maybe a placeholder?
- Probably a placeholder but Warrior skillbooks should be a different icon than regular books.
- In combat, the opportunity attack 'ring' visual should not show if the enemy cannot attack you such as if the enemy is feared/knocked down/stunned.
- The arrow vendor in the town market is very hard to see. I had been through the market many times before I finally spotted her. She blends in to the background very easily.
UI
- Tooltips for many spells/abilities not very clear. Spells like 'Stun' do damage and can be cast at range but don't mention it in the tooltip. Summon abilities don't state how long they last. Many Abilities have vague descriptions. Class abilities such as 'Way of the Warrior' could be worded better to something like "is required to LEARN Warrior skills". If any of the weapon/spell mastery abilities increase damage as you put points into them, they should state so.
- A hotkey/escape key to close containers would be a godsend.
- Tutorial message about identifying enemies by holding down the 'Control' button would be useful as that is not something I learned for quite some time, and is the point of investing in the Loremaster ability.
- A buff icon for the 'Inspire' ability would be useful.
- Firefly is a confusing spell that could be helped with a better tooltip. The 'circles' you get to place seem to be based on range, but this is not clear to someone unfamiliar with the spell.
- Do any base stats, such as strength/intelligence increase damage? It should be stated if so.
- Skill books should show what the spell does. Either the same info as the spell tooltip or at least the flavor text. Those unfamiliar to the game are gambling to get a spell they want.
BUGS
- There are certain buildings, namely the Barracks and Inn, where a full party will get stuck inside when attempting to follow the leader in or out. Have to manually move each one at the moment.
- Buff/Debuff icons bug out alot and disappear.
- Talking to Unsinkable Sam with the Pet Pal ability, automatically gives the Journal entry for getting the collar after defeating a giant crab. I never did so.
- Banter with companions still includes dual conversation even if the game option is disabled.
- Overhead dialog text can sometimes be very quick to disappear, not giving the chance to read it. Usually happens when text is near the edge of screen.
- The spell hit outline when casting a spell in combat is not always accurate. This is especially noticeable for the Flare spell. Flare seems to assume it will hit everything from the caster to the destination. Cone spells such as Winter's Breath and the Earth Elemental spell, also tend to hit more then the outline advises, both in range and radius. Ice wall as well.
- Various times, combat would end with enemies still alive, and then immediately start again. Seems like it was due to range or LOS.
- After combat gold drops don't always show up with 'Show Item's hotkey.
- A couple of times when in combat, a party member would be teleported back to the scene of the last combat I did.
- The 'Lighthouse Monstrosity' only hits for 1 damage.
- During the first thug fight across the river, all party portraits turned a flat red color and remained until a reload.
- Damage/status text against large enemies is too high above the model and cannot normally be seen.
- Summoned creature health does not update in combat.
- Leaving the game menu open for an extended period of time causes all sound/music to stop until a reload.
- If you use scroll bar tab to scroll inventory and then switch to using the mouse wheel, it doesn't remember the current position.
- When switching inventories from a character with many times to one without, the game doesn't readjust the inventory position properly.
- If you open a second inventory screen and try to compare items, it uses the first inventory screen's character.
- Can't sell Muddy Boots. Is it a quest item?
- Tried equipping bow in combat without having any points in the bow ability. The attack animation was then bugged for the rest of combat, attempting to shoot a bow, but having a sword equipped.
- The 'Unlock' skill book doesn't teach anything. A duplicate of the Lockpick skill?
- Some gold has an unlabeled tooltip and doesn't stack with other gold.
- The Regenerate skill book is mislabeled as 'Heal'. Bought it because I thought it was a different skill.
- 'Push Dagger' can't be sharpened at a grind stone. Intended?
- If you close the map while the cursor is over a map label, the label sticks until you refresh the map.
- The game was crashing alot for me just walking around on the beach where Evelyn's lair is, as well as in the lair itself.
- After fighting the merchant to get the staff of Pergamon, I got a journal entry about "the path to the lair mentioned in Evelyn's Diary was guarded". At that point, I had not read the diary.
- Evelyn's 'backpack' is a chest.
- The bookshelves in Evelyn's house are accessed from outside.
- The cultist battles in Evelyn's lair would sometimes start before the appropriate conversation. The battle would then halt in the middle, the conversation would ensue, and then the battle starts again.
