OP
enthusiast
Joined: Aug 2015
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Gameplay- Character Chatter
- Currently there’s no voice acting, so it's not a problem yet, but in DOS1, NPCs would spout random lines constantly, pausing only a few seconds between. They would never stop. It was even worse in the Enhanced Edition which I couldn’t even play because of it. Please do not make NPC chatter happen so frequently. It’s beyond irritating. At least make a minimum delay of 60 seconds, although a selectable delay would be best.
- This would be priority #2.
- Please cut off the NPC chatter when I’m in a dialogue with someone. I mean, don’t even let the current loop finish. Suspend it or something. In DOS1 it was really annoying hearing random chatter in the background while I was in dialogue with another NPC.
- Reduce the frequency that my character complains about the quality of the items I’ve picked up. Considering all the trash items that can be sold, my characters complain an awful lot, and it’s pretty irritating. If you don’t want me to sell candles and crates, make them have 0 value.
- NPC Dialogues
- If I talk to an NPC, I can have a complete conversation with them. Then, if I switch to another character in my party and talk to them again, it’s like the first conversation never happened. While it’s interesting to see the different effects different options and characters can have, this is also exploitable. For instance, when I came across the well where you can give the dead guys money for some epic stuff, I went through this exchange with each of my characters, netting me some hefty upgrades. It didn’t make sense that I could talk to them again after they’d passed on, but each time I interacted with the well with a different character, the conversation would start again from scratch, and I’d get the stuff each time.
- An alternative to allowing players to explore all their options by talking to an NPC with different party members would be to have all the party members involved in the conversation (since they are standing right there, after all), which would be represented by the different party members’ unique dialogue options being available regardless of which character initiated the dialogue. Re-writing existing dialogue would not be necessary for this as it still makes sense that the NPC would address the character initiating dialogue with them as it works now.
- When talking to an NPC, if there’s an option to ask them additional questions, that option remains even after my only option from there is “*Change the subject.*” For instance, when talking to Saheila, I have the option “*Say you’d like to ask a few questions.*” But I’ve already asked all those questions, so if I choose that option, my only option is “*Change the subject.*” If there are no more questions to ask, then “*Say you’d like to ask a few questions.” should no longer be an option.
- If you save Gareth before talking to Tarlene, the conversation with her is a bit weird. You tell her that you’ve already saved Gareth and he’s back at the camp, but if you then “ask her why she’s out here watching”, she tells you that her boss (Gareth) went into the ruins and may or may not be dead, at which point you can offer to go find this guy that you’ve already told her you’ve saved. The fix would be that, if you tell her you saved Gareth, drop the “ask her why she’s out here watching” dialogue option.
- Tutorial
- The tutorial should include Examine (from right-clicking on a character) without having to get Loremaster first. It should also specifically note that you can get descriptions of status effects on that character there.
- The tutorial should point out the chat and combat log toggles in the corners of the screen.
- Enemy Combat AI
- If a melee NPC is unable to path to your location, it should check paths that would be available if not for destructibles, and if it finds one, it should attack or move the destructibles on that path. This would dramatically reduce barrel abuse.
- If AI is going to follow-up Tactical Retreat (or other displacement abilities) with an attack, they should not retreat away beyond attack range. It just exhausts their AP when they run back into range. It seems like they always retreat to maximum distance despite their next action.
- Enemies often attack a couple times, then, as their last action for the turn, apply buffs. If an enemy is going to apply buffs, they should do so before attacking.
- Sometimes an enemy will throw a grenade, but it doesn't quite make it to my characters, however it does hit other enemies (allies of that guy). There might need to be a range check before tossing grenades to make sure it'll actually hit the intended target. Also, they should try to avoid hitting their allies and themselves in the blast.
- Sometimes an enemy will go up a ladder, then immediately go back down the ladder. I don't know why they do this, so I don't have a suggestion here. I'm just pointing out that they do that, and shouldn't.
- AI should not attack someone who is immune to an element with that element. Maybe one attack, but they should realize it’s ineffective after that. For instance, AI should not use poison attack on those with the Zombie trait.
- AI that is Burning should avoid running into poison clouds and oil puddles unless my characters are also in those areas. If my characters aren’t in it, that AI character will surely die, but without purpose. At least if my characters are in there, they’re going to take damage as well.
- AI should not use abilities that only apply a status effect (that being they do not deal damage) on characters that have the appropriate armor remaining to block it. For instance, if I've got 1 magic armor, that's enough to block Decaying Touch, but the AI will still use it on me, even though it will have no effect.
- NPCs out-of-combat should not allow the player to repeatedly attack them without retaliation.
- Design
- Don’t put candles on containers that have top-opening animations. In the Seeker camp, there are candles on crates, which looks odd when you open them, because the candles don’t move, and pass through the lid. It especially looks odd when you take the crate and the candles are floating there mid-air.
- A crafted item should not weigh more than the sum of its parts.
- Vitality refers both to your health and the combat skill named “Vitality”. That’s confusing. When a new player sees gear with “+2 Vitality”, they may think that it gives them +2 Health. Why not call Health “Health” instead, leaving Vitality as the skill name. Instead of “+x HP” on gear it can say “+x Health”, which makes more sense since Physical Armor and Magic Armor are also HP. This change would also make it a lot easier to explain the new system to people, and it would avoid tautological descriptions like “Vitality increases your total amount of Vitality.”
- Items & Equipment
- Some equipment has an “on contact” effect, such as “Inflict Chilled on contact”. Change the wording to something unambiguous such as “Enemies that hit you are chilled.”
- Crafting
- Allow me to put the same stack in both slots for crafting. Currently, if I want to make Thread, I have to split the stack of Hairs and put each stack separately into each slot before combining them. It would be better if I didn’t have to split the stack first.
- Allow me to combine items from any party member’s bag, rather than just the active character’s. Currently I have to rearrange my inventory before crafting.
- Movement
- Reduce the delay before I can act after picking up an item. I can currently bypass it by right-clicking, but it’d be better (especially for people who don’t know that trick) for it to simply be faster.
- The speed my character/party walks out-of-combat should be determined by the length of the assigned path, not the direct distance between their current position and their destination. Currently, if you’re standing on one side of a wall, and you tell your character to move to the other side, even if they have to walk a great distance to get there, they will still walk very slow.
- During combat, it’s very difficult to move on/near a corpse or other lootable object since that object is a mouse magnet (if the mouse is anywhere near it, looting it is the only action you can do). I’m generally not looting things during combat, but I am moving around, so I need the interface to accommodate movement over looting. Perhaps decrease the magnet area around the object, or add another way to move to that spot.
- Character Creation
- Allow us to create a character without assigning the skill/stat points. There are several reasons for this, but my immediate need for this is testing. There is no drawback to allowing people to finish creating their character without allocating the points, since they can just allocate them once in-game, anyway.
Last edited by Darxim; 14/11/16 03:09 PM.
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