So since playing more I have realised the slot allocation is not too hard to deal with, considering the amount of attribute points you get and if you are really desperate you can take the Mnemonic talent too. My new issue with this is it has felt almost pointless to up your skill classes due to the bonuses being quite situational. Huntsman is only active on high ground, Aero does not affect non-magic armoured opponents, Geo only buffs poison damage/physical armour restoration, etc. the only ones that feel worth it are the melee ones and Pyro as they buff damage as a whole, Poly as that gives a free attribute point and hydro can be ok as heals getting bigger is never bad but if you don't need to heal or don't end up versing magic damage opponents it's bonuses are also worthless. Hunstman particularly feels pointless as you can just put points in Ranged for the damage increase.
I have been watching the blood spray interaction more closely and to be honest it's ridiculous, to the point of me and my friend laughing til we cried, because my friend got tongue licked by a frog in the cave in Fort Joy and he sprayed almost half his characters body worth of blood around him lol. Like a stupid amount of blood for the attack that hit him, it would most likely have bruised severely but not shed that amount of blood lol. He had like a small cone of blood under him and behind. Way too much lol.
In my opinion conversations have been the worst done part of both D:OS games, with the first game if I was not around in time for a dual-dialogue to start and a trait choice happened, I would miss out on it entirely and that seemed silly to me. It was a two player game with no air of competition and so missing trait choices seemed pointless to me. In this game currently, dialogues are not easily predictable as to when a choice will matter or not, special tag choices often don't change the outcome at all and sometimes normal choices can end the dialogue early and stop you being able to talk to them again without a clue that will be the result.
To me conversation seems all over the place and unclear half the time, when I first talked to Sebille I ended up with only the option for her to join us or the option to tell her to stand down and let me defend myself (which could have given me and option to resolve without a fight but the dialogue again was not totally clear on that) and at the time my friend and I did not want anyone joining our party and so ended up in a fight and killing her, which leaves a companion down permanently on that save file, never to be able to join us in the future. That's not terrible as we don't usually play with companions but if that had happened on my solo save file I would have been marginally upset as I would have had to load again, but again the dialogue was unclear and for that I ended up at that option which I did not want. I like to follow logical paths a lot of the time and this conversation pattern for most situations does not seem to progress in a logical pattern at all, which while being true to life, makes it very hard to achieve certain goals or aims in a game. Like talking to Migo and having any path you choose end up in a fight, bar giving him a yarrow flower, seems pointless to have so many options if they all end up at the exact same result... to me, conversation mechanics and flow just feel weird and messy.
So far i can make approximately as many action in one turn as i can in DOS1 so AP change doesnt bother me yet. We can still save some APs for the next turn which is the best mechanic that was needed in AP based systems since long ago.
I don't feel that's the case with this game, having a base 4 AP per turn, playing Wayfarer (Huntsman with crossbow), you can do approximately one basic attack and maybe a 1 AP skill and that's it. In D:OS1 you could do at least 2 basic's a turn plus a skill early game before the town, very big difference to me. It was made pretty clear to me when I went a Geo/Hydro Elf and got adrenaline from the body at the start, and in one turn I did Adrenaline, Flesh Sacrifice and only then did I feel like I was playing like a normal start on D:OS1. I felt like I had options then, like I could move and do a couple of skills and a staff of magus, compared to not even considering movement more than maybe 1 AP worth and having a single basic attack. The start feels horribly restrictive. My crossbow user still doesn't quite feel like he can do enough in one turn as I haven't been able to buff his AP in any way as there isn't a stat to improve it at the moment and he doesn't have haste or adrenaline or anything yet and so is stuck on 4 AP start and per turn leaving him very few options with a crossbow costing 3 to do anything with... bows are far superior in this way as they only cost 2 meaning crossbow's will be left in the dust again.
Saving AP is great but as I've been saying with this, there is barely ever AP left over on a turn and I need to take both Adrenaline and Flesh Sacrifice and then maybe even haste to feel like I did in D:OS1. I understand later game being more restrictive so you don't win the fight in the first turn before the enemy moves but early game it just feels like you're a lump with a single action and minor movement lol.
