Please bear in mind I've played through quite a few times, so I appreciate that newer players will have slightly rougher experiences.


  • Stat balance still encourages mages to purely pump int (both mine finished with +14/15) or str / con (averaged +12/+11 for fighters at the end). I mean this seriously: not a single character I've played has put a point into stats other than str, int, dex, con.
    • Suggestion: it's fine for gear to have split stat requirements? However, players will max their primary stats asap.
  • Skills maxing out at 5 is fine; however, players will seek to max to 5 immediately on main skills (esp. mages). This is why the old Might&Magic / Wizardry mechanic of Grandmaster trainers etc was used - to artificially slow this desire down. i.e. Can't train when the NPC is on the other side of the world.
    • Sword n board fighters will end up with 4/1/4 skills (1H/shield/armor) most likely. Mages will end up with at least two schools at 5. You get the idea - mages still have it very easy.
  • Gold / Luck. Played through with an average +4 luck bonus, no barter, selling found gear + minor crafting (branches > spears only). Finished with ~18k gp, three spell schools maxed out & having bought some expensive (2.4k) items. This feels about right, given that pumping luck is costly (HA! Base:2).
    • The curve here is purely about spell tomes. Without them, your mages are pretty useless. But I'd suggest x2 on level 4, x4 on level 5 costs.
  • Combat balance - the only fight that challenged me in the slightest was the lighthouse boss. In all other fights, AI didn't seem to use skills (notably - mechaboss 5000), had low AP [probably due to stats being calc'd correctly?] and otherwise weren't a threat. I finished having used approx 3-5 healing potions (yes, I have stacks of them).
    • AI should have far more skills and/or an AP bonus. By far the most threatening AI? Those who spread poison on dying, due to AoE huge effect [zombie + water = massive poison pool]
  • Likewise, level challenge feels "off". In a static environment, you're always going to have an optimal way to approach the game, as XP progression is fixed. You will be level ~7/8 as you take on Evelyn, yet her + minions are level 5. This goes for internal enemies in Black Cove as well. There simply isn't enough of a difficulty spike past Black Cove entrance / Mechaboss 5000, excluding the optional statues.
  • Summons - suffice to say, fire/air wreak havoc with the balance here. With +15 int, you can open with a fire elemental.
  • Earth Magic - no spells before level 3, mostly crappy. No-one will use it.
  • +20% HP perk is OTT for fighters, given it's a %. 500ish hp @ level 9.
  • Crit based 2H builds could be abused ~ I'll have to re-do a game, but I had Mohanana (?) @ level 9 with +23% crit chance (2H sword with +17% crit, +5% crit perk) damage range >180 before crits. She had no luck skill, I could imagine this being fun, if it's a multiplier...
  • Chain lightning / jumping fire spells with +14/15 int obliterate current AI. I suspect this is because resists don't seem to be implemented yet (barring for elementals). More common AI should have higher +elemental resists. (And PLEASE... UNDEAD = NO POISON! Unless it's acid...)
  • Range on Winter's Breath is now paltry, but worse - targeting still seems to report on old variables. i.e. travel range is much lower than tool-tip. This is a bit broken at the moment.



I'll think of more - the TL;DR is that AI needs to use skills (as demonstrated by lighthouse boss) for any challenge.

Last edited by SteamUser; 16/02/14 02:25 AM.