Larian Studios
Posted By: Martinoso are they deliberately trying to annoy us? - 03/02/21 02:33 PM
I start to think to buy this demo was a terrible blunder. 4 months after EA release we are still stuck at level 4. No new class or race added. No new area. We are waiting for a new release where none of this is announced. Instead of this, we have goblins with a ton of HP and less bugged video sequences. Or am I the only one losing my patetience?
Posted By: pageu Re: are they deliberately trying to annoy us? - 03/02/21 02:48 PM
Which goblins have tons of hp? There's couple bosses with 26-28, but most of them have 8-16hp.
You were actively discouraged to join early access by Larian. We all were. This is a development period, the early stages at that. And, already, Larian demonstrated how much they care about player reaction and consumer opinion.

EA may end being over 2 years long. There is a long way to go before the finished game is done.
Originally Posted by pageu
Which goblins have tons of hp? There's couple bosses with 26-28, but most of them have 8-16hp.
Typically, goblins only have 7 (2d6) hp, so even 8-16 is high. This is not necessarily a bad thing. However, while Larian reduced their AC to compensate, Larian did *not* reduce their Saving Throws (thus devaluing ST spells like Sacred Flame) or give a proportional buff to Sleep.

That said, these goblins have been present from the start. So I'm not sure why OP groups them with updates such as fixing video sequences..
Originally Posted by Martinoso
I start to think to buy this demo was a terrible blunder. 4 months after EA release we are still stuck at level 4. No new class or race added. No new area. We are waiting for a new release where none of this is announced. Instead of this, we have goblins with a ton of HP and less bugged video sequences. Or am I the only one losing my patetience?

"Early Access" doesn't mean what you think it means.
Posted By: Topper Re: are they deliberately trying to annoy us? - 03/02/21 05:14 PM
Try patience. This game will be awesome in time.
Theyre trying to make us happy. even to the point of rewriting a good character to appease forumites.
Developing a game just takes a really long time.
Goblins being interesting to fight is good too, makes the game fun. Also the goblin models and characterisation is great, this is about the best version of goblins in DnD.
Also try Solastra, also EA, but it's goblins wiped me out first time. Mostly as I didn't expect they could climb up cliffs and flank me, but still. Goblins are a threat at low levels. Goblins are cool.
Posted By: Zarna Re: are they deliberately trying to annoy us? - 03/02/21 09:20 PM
This is Early Access, not a demo. This process takes time, sometimes years. We were told that we would only have Act 1 and only get to go to level 4 in this. They probably will rebalance goblins at some point.

Just like we were told the neutral and evil companions were getting released first but people still complain about that as well.
I eventually got sick of hearing that the "early access will go up to level 4". I can't believe people are asking when the level cap will go higher than 4. This has not even been discussed in any way, shape or form.
Originally Posted by Gt27mustang
I eventually got sick of hearing that the "early access will go up to level 4". I can't believe people are asking when the level cap will go higher than 4. This has not even been discussed in any way, shape or form.

I understand Larian stated level 4 will be max in EA. I suggested they go up to level 5 because stopping at level 4 is a big mistake IMO.

If people think the game is broken now, they will be in shock how much more broken it will be at level 5. Level 5 is when each character’s power doubles. It’d be nice for Larian to get some data from all the EA folks.
Posted By: dwig Re: are they deliberately trying to annoy us? - 03/02/21 11:51 PM
Originally Posted by spectralhunter
Originally Posted by Gt27mustang
I eventually got sick of hearing that the "early access will go up to level 4". I can't believe people are asking when the level cap will go higher than 4. This has not even been discussed in any way, shape or form.

I understand Larian stated level 4 will be max in EA. I suggested they go up to level 5 because stopping at level 4 is a big mistake IMO.

If people think the game is broken now, they will be in shock how much more broken it will be at level 5. Level 5 is when each character’s power doubles. It’d be nice for Larian to get some data from all the EA folks.

Yes, I agree. They really should allow level 5 before release so that they can calibrate to that power level. It's probably fine to hold it at 4 for a little while though so that they can get a sense of how we do when we push too far at low level (I think underdark is probably intended for lvl 5).
I find amazing how many people's lives depend on Larian creating new content.
Well I mean, we already bought into EA (for better or worse) and they already have our money, so we're just stuck dealing with whatever gets shoved down the pipeline. The easiest way to preserve your sanity during this process is to completely forget about the game and check to see if it's been updated every two or three months and pray that there's a serviceable product once it hits retail.
Originally Posted by spectralhunter
Originally Posted by Gt27mustang
I eventually got sick of hearing that the "early access will go up to level 4". I can't believe people are asking when the level cap will go higher than 4. This has not even been discussed in any way, shape or form.

I understand Larian stated level 4 will be max in EA. I suggested they go up to level 5 because stopping at level 4 is a big mistake IMO.

If people think the game is broken now, they will be in shock how much more broken it will be at level 5. Level 5 is when each character’s power doubles. It’d be nice for Larian to get some data from all the EA folks.
Yeah, lvl 5 is the first major power jump for just about every class, so I think they'd be smart to include it in EA at some point.

I am curious how Rogue's Uncanny Dodge will work in the current build. Reactions behave strangely.
I couldn’t care less for lvl as long as the combat is still a new super Mario version with DnD painting.
Originally Posted by Martinoso
I start to think to buy this demo was a terrible blunder. 4 months after EA release we are still stuck at level 4. No new class or race added. No new area. We are waiting for a new release where none of this is announced. Instead of this, we have goblins with a ton of HP and less bugged video sequences. Or am I the only one losing my patetience?
This is why I will not play any early access games what's the point in playing a game that is unfinished when I can just wait until it is finished
Posted By: DiDiDi Re: are they deliberately trying to annoy us? - 05/02/21 09:13 PM
Originally Posted by TheInfinitySock
Originally Posted by Martinoso
I start to think to buy this demo was a terrible blunder. 4 months after EA release we are still stuck at level 4. No new class or race added. No new area. We are waiting for a new release where none of this is announced. Instead of this, we have goblins with a ton of HP and less bugged video sequences. Or am I the only one losing my patetience?
This is why I will not play any early access games what's the point in playing a game that is unfinished when I can just wait until it is finished
To help making it the kind of game you want it to become.
I do not know about you but I rather not use huge amount of time to play games...

Being in ALPHA let you:
A. You do know system requirements. If not happy you can upgrade hardware.
B. Test gameplay (though currently limited to not all classes and only Normal difficulty level) and for sure when full release comes there is not learning curve so much you already know how to play and since early access finishing whole game will not take so long since you know already some parts how to finish them.
C. Classes test different classes and races and builds.
D. Give suggestions and feedback on the forums.

Now I do hope they would release a bit more classes (and stuff like all Players Handbook Cleric Domains) before full release... but regarding level naah I do not need that now in full release there are more levels.

Well what you feel Normal is to easy like me? I am sure they will release different difficulty level the Alpha is on normal there is likely to be Easy, Normal, Hard and Nightmare as example I do not know how they will name them or how many difficulty levels.

This all being said I hope they release a Patch 4 in February 2021 with more content and not some simple bug fixes only. Disclaimer I do not know when Patch 4 will be released or what it will contain?
Originally Posted by DiDiDi
Originally Posted by TheInfinitySock
Originally Posted by Martinoso
I start to think to buy this demo was a terrible blunder. 4 months after EA release we are still stuck at level 4. No new class or race added. No new area. We are waiting for a new release where none of this is announced. Instead of this, we have goblins with a ton of HP and less bugged video sequences. Or am I the only one losing my patetience?
This is why I will not play any early access games what's the point in playing a game that is unfinished when I can just wait until it is finished
To help making it the kind of game you want it to become.
I get what you are saying but the last thing I need is to play a game that is unfinished that's what pretty much put me off from ever completing Pathfinder Kingmaker that game had so many bugs in it time they fixed all of the bugs the damage was already done for me
Originally Posted by Terminator2020
I do not know about you but I rather not use huge amount of time to play games...

Being in ALPHA let you:
A. You do know system requirements. If not happy you can upgrade hardware.
B. Test gameplay (though currently limited to not all classes and only Normal difficulty level) and for sure when full release comes there is not learning curve so much you already know how to play and since early access finishing whole game will not take so long since you know already some parts how to finish them.
C. Classes test different classes and races and builds.
D. Give suggestions and feedback on the forums.

Now I do hope they would release a bit more classes (and stuff like all Players Handbook Cleric Domains) before full release... but regarding level naah I do not need that now in full release there are more levels.

Well what you feel Normal is to easy like me? I am sure they will release different difficulty level the Alpha is on normal there is likely to be Easy, Normal, Hard and Nightmare as example I do not know how they will name them or how many difficulty levels.

This all being said I hope they release a Patch 4 in February 2021 with more content and not some simple bug fixes only. Disclaimer I do not know when Patch 4 will be released or what it will contain?
While I mostly agree with you, 5e is a system where level 5 is a huge bump up from level 4. It's the level where just about every class begin to get into their own, be it by getting multiple attacks, 3rd level spells or other powerful class features like Uncanny Dodge and Bardic Inspiration on short rest. With the current experience yields, we could pretty easily hit level 5 around the time we go into the Underdark (possibly even a lot sooner).

Because of this, it might be a good idea both to get to know how much more powerful the player's party will be in practice by letting us test it for them and how this impacts the overall difficulty of the Underdark specifically. If the stats they have for the Underdark from our playtesting is based on us being level 4, it might end up all too easy when the game is released and people go there when every one of their characters are significantly stronger.
I wish there would be a little more communication from Larian so we have an idea of what feedback they’re addressing and we’re not repeating the same conversations over and over. They seem to like huge announcements accompanied by videos – which I love – but just having someone active on this forum or posting minor weekly updates would go a long way. D&D Beyond has some of the slowest development in the history of software, but they really engage with the customers, acknowledge bugs so you don’t need to report them dozens of times, and even do weekly dev video updates with Q&A. Imagine that!
Originally Posted by LukasPrism
I wish there would be a little more communication from Larian so we have an idea of what feedback they’re addressing and we’re not repeating the same conversations over and over. They seem to like huge announcements accompanied by videos – which I love – but just having someone active on this forum or posting minor weekly updates would go a long way. D&D Beyond has some of the slowest development in the history of software, but they really engage with the customers, acknowledge bugs so you don’t need to report them dozens of times, and even do weekly dev video updates with Q&A. Imagine that!

The thing is, they know that gamers are fickle. So all of this irritation with their lack of professionalism will continue to build and build, but it'll eventually plateau because the consumerbase can't do much more than get themselves banned from this forum for aggressively denouncing their ineptitude out of frustration. And all Larian has to do is drop even an insignificant patch that corrects a handful of glaring issues to shut down the naysayers, give the cheerleaders some pep in their step, and they can buy themselves two-to-three more months of silence before they feel compelled to do their jobs again.

This is legitimately the worst EA process I've ever seen. It's bad when there's negligible advancement of the product, but it's terrible when there's not even a dialog between the developer and their jaded EA participants because they know that all they have to do is prop Sven up in a 5-minute long video talking about how much progress they've made and how thankful they are for our patience.
As I always said...Larians decision to go full on Witcher 3/ Dragon age/ mass effect AAA cinematic dialogues is slowing game development to a crawl...and in my opinion ( and as tons of other recent games as proof..)getting other more important content stuff cut out of development.

Barelly any news, nearly no updates on gameplay/ui , only bug patching and cinematics content fix/add on.
They had less money, a smaller team and way more community updates during the DOS development cycle.
Man, so many of you don't know what EA means. Goodnes. "But muh content"
Originally Posted by mr_planescapist
As I always said...Larians decision to go full on Witcher 3/ Dragon age/ mass effect AAA cinematic dialogues is slowing game development to a crawl...and in my opinion ( and as tons of other recent games as proof..)getting other more important content stuff cut out of development.

Barelly any news, nearly no updates on gameplay/ui , only bug patching and cinematics content fix/add on.
They had less money, a smaller team and way more community updates during the DOS development cycle.

This is exactly what it is. The game is turning into a hand-holdy JRPG because it's being packed to the brim with filler cinematic fluff moments for everything.
Vendor conversation? Cutscene.
Random person on the side of the road with one line of dialog? Cutscene.

I don't know when this company started equating quality with production value, but I'd like to play my game instead of watch it.
I'm praying that some exceptional modder finds a way to gut the entire game of bloat and just turn conversations into dialog boxes.

People can say that "they're separate teams" and "it doesn't affect the budget" all the want to, but the fact that every single thing in the game needs an awkward zoom-in to a vignette has likely doubled the production time on this thing and is unnecessarily pushing out the retail release date just so that a minority of people can have a ye olde soap opera fantasy.
Originally Posted by Tzelanit
This is exactly what it is. The game is turning into a hand-holdy JRPG because it's being packed to the brim with filler cinematic fluff moments for everything.
Vendor conversation? Cutscene.
Random person on the side of the road with one line of dialog? Cutscene.

I have been wondering if they can keep this up when we get to the city. Either the city is going to be sparsely populated and underwhelming, or they’re going to have put a RIDICULOUS amount of work into it.
Posted By: grip Re: are they deliberately trying to annoy us? - 10/02/21 07:42 PM
Originally Posted by Tzelanit
ye olde soap opera fantasy.

Oh I am so stealing this term. Its brilliant. 😂
Thanks.
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