Just a short list of things for QOL that I would love to see.
1. When I am looting give me the option of modifier keys when clicking on loot. For example:
When I have the loot window open if I hold shift and click on an item it automatically puts the item in my inventory and assigns it to wares. This also needs to be done to send items to camp as well, for example following the previous example except with like Left Ctrl. This would make my looting life so much easier.
2. The ability to Dye, or color bags that you have in your inventory.
I always like to use a little light weight bag to store scrolls, keys and other materials to keep my inventory clean. If you could dye/find/create/ or buy little bags you would be saving the OCD fans out there without much work on your end. No need to go the auto-sorting bags as I am sure that involves more of your time.
3. Characters will not injure themselves with normal move commands while traversing the map.
I have to constantly monitor my characters as they are dropping and jumping to their detriment every time complex terrain comes into play. I love the complexity of the terrain but this is painful. I assume this is being worked on as the game is being tested so this is just a reminder.
4. Let the storage in camp count for camping supplies.
Making me run back and forth constantly between my camp storage and my inventory to use supplies seems redundant and pointless.
5. Tripping and knocking down has little to no impact.
Now this might be due to my lacking knowledge in the ruleset, but when I knockdown enemies there seems to be little effect. Said hostile holligan proceeds to jump back up and, in the same turn pummel me without any noticeable difference to his previous fully upright past self.
6. Critique on animations
Okay so this involves a field that I am knowledgeable in so forgive me if I am a little anal.
When determining how to animate characters you have to always take into account how zoomed in you are to said characters. For example the over exaggerated body movements of most Broadway play acting works because you cannot see their facial expressions as the audience is far away. When you start zooming in on the characters humans focus more on the face as they can make it out more and more. Now the facial animations look decent for the game from what I have seen so far and definatly add to the immersion. What ends up breaking it is you still have alot of extremely exagerated body movements more often than not. Given the zoom of the characters this stops adding dramatic effect and pushed into the comical realm. Most people will not be able to put into words but feel things seem less serious somehow. Given the quality of facial animations the exaggeration is not needed to convey emotion when just chatting, I'm looking at you Wyll if I see one more nose hair because your head is tilted so far back a kneecap might be in order.
In summary the quality of the facial animations is lessened by the over exaggerated body movements which are simply not needed.
I am sure I will think of more as time goes on. Cheers and best of luck Devs!
Last edited by Kelindi; 03/08/2105:30 PM. Reason: update
5. Tripping and knocking down has little to no impact.
Now this might be due to my lacking knowledge in the ruleset, but when I knockdown enemies there seems to be little effect. Said hostile holligan proceeds to jump back up and, in the same turn pummel me without any noticeable difference to his previous fully upright past self.
I am sure I will think of more as time goes on. Cheers and best of luck Devs!
It's the ruleset. In 5e, being knocked down only causes melee attacks to have advantage against you and for ranged attacks to have disadvantage. And standing up from prone costs half your total movement unless you have the Mobile feat, and unlike other editions and PF, standing up doesn't provoke an AoO.
So yes tripping is pretty useless as far as actions go, but it's not Larian's fault.
5. Tripping and knocking down has little to no impact.
Now this might be due to my lacking knowledge in the ruleset, but when I knockdown enemies there seems to be little effect. Said hostile holligan proceeds to jump back up and, in the same turn pummel me without any noticeable difference to his previous fully upright past self.
I am sure I will think of more as time goes on. Cheers and best of luck Devs!
It's the ruleset. In 5e, being knocked down only causes melee attacks to have advantage against you and for ranged attacks to have disadvantage. And standing up from prone costs half your total movement unless you have the Mobile feat, and unlike other editions and PF, standing up doesn't provoke an AoO.
So yes tripping is pretty useless as far as actions go, but it's not Larian's fault.
Tripping can be pretty damn effective if used correctly and when we can get past level 4. If you know your other melee characters will get a turn before the enemy does, then tripping is fantastic. Additionally, if it's the first thing you do as a level 5 fighter, then your next attack will also be at advantage.
Tripping can be pretty damn effective if used correctly and when we can get past level 4. If you know your other melee characters will get a turn before the enemy does, then tripping is fantastic. Additionally, if it's the first thing you do as a level 5 fighter, then your next attack will also be at advantage.
The problem is that it's still usually more effective damage-wise to make N attacks at normal than make N-1 attacks at advantage. Barring any crit shenanigans (Brutal Critical, Smiting on crits, etc), the math doesn't favor tripping until you can make ~4-5+ attacks on the prone character. The math is slightly better when you're turning disadvantage into normal attacking, but not by much unless doing so then allows for a rogue to get sneak attack.
And of course, you have to take into account the chances that your Shove Prone attempt fails, in which case now you're still making N-1 attacks at normal.
Tripping can be pretty damn effective if used correctly and when we can get past level 4. If you know your other melee characters will get a turn before the enemy does, then tripping is fantastic. Additionally, if it's the first thing you do as a level 5 fighter, then your next attack will also be at advantage.
The problem is that it's still usually more effective damage-wise to make N attacks at normal than make N-1 attacks at advantage. Barring any crit shenanigans (Brutal Critical, Smiting on crits, etc), the math doesn't favor tripping until you can make 5+ attacks on the prone character. The math is slightly better when you're turning disadvantage into normal attacking, but not by much unless doing so then allows for a rogue to get sneak attack.
And of course, you have to take into account the chances that your Shove Prone attempt fails, in which case now you're still making N-1 attacks at normal.
Listen, I'm not a math person, so I'll just ask for a source on that. I find it hard to believe that advantage is actually disadvantageous compared to normal rolls in terms of inflicting damage if it offers you the chance to turn a miss into a hit, the chance to crit, and the chance do any other damage that may not otherwise be allowed. If I had to just go by my own thoughts on the matter I would say, as with most of my opinions, it's all situational. Can your fighter only do 1 attack? Is your fighter the only melee character in the group? Is it the enemies' turn right after the fighter's? If yes, then yeah, it's pretty useless, and actually pretty detrimental for the rest of the party. If not though, then I'd rather take having advantage than not.
Only really the Advantage from True Strike I think is not worth it because it has too many conditions to be useful for a low-level character.
However, I would use trip if I knew I was first in turn order amongst my crew and the target had already acted this turn. That's a slam dunk of pain there!
Assume a 65% chance to hit and the same to knock them prone.
5 normal attacks with 65% chance to hit 5 [1d8+3=7.5] attacks at normal are expected to deal 5*0.65*7.5=24.4 damage, plus the additional 1d8 crit damage 5% of the time -> 24.4 + 5*0.05*[1d8] = 25.5 damage
One successful trip followed by 4 attacks at advantage 4 attacks at Advantage are expected to deal 4*(1-0.35^2)*7.5=26.325 damage, plus the additional 1d8 crit damage 9.75% of the time -> 26.325+ 4*0.0975*[1d8] = 28.08 damage The (1-0.35^2) term represents the chance that you don't miss on both d20s.
Accounting for the 35% chance we fail to knock prone You have a 35% chance to not knock the target prone, meaning you'll make 4 attacks at normal with an expected damage of 4*0.65*[1d8+3]+4*0.05*[1d8] = 20.4, where again the second term is accounting for the extra crit damage. Thus, our total expected damage for an attempted trip and 4 attacks is 0.65*28.08 + 0.35*20.4 = 25.4 damage. This is barely LESS than making 5 attacks at normal.
Again, I'm not accounting for crit shenanigans or sneak attack being allowed on only the prone enemy. And of course I'm not taking into account the benefits of reducing an enemy's speed. And the math slightly chances for different % to-hit, but 65% is roughly the expected for 5e. A higher chance to hit makes things even worse typically.
Edit: The math significantly changes if the following attacks would deal more damage. E.g., the fighter (dealing 1d8+3 damage) knocks an enemy prone, gets 3 follow-up attacks, and then the rogue (1d6+3+3d6) also gets to have a higher chance to hit. In this scenario, the prone+4 attacks deals 33.74 damage and the 5-attack-only deals 32.15 damage. It's better to knock prone.
Edit2: Further building on the above sneak-attack scenario. If there are a total of 2 normal (1d8+3) attacks + 1 (1d6+3+3d6) sneak attack we're back to it being better to simply attack than to shove prone + 1 attack + sneak attack.
Okay so this involves a field that I am knowledgeable in so forgive me if I am a little anal.
When determining how to animate characters you have to always take into account how zoomed in you are to said characters. For example the over exaggerated body movements of most Broadway play acting works because you cannot see their facial expressions as the audience is far away. When you start zooming in on the characters humans focus more on the face as they can make it out more and more. Now the facial animations look decent for the game from what I have seen so far and definatly add to the immersion. What ends up breaking it is you still have alot of extremely exagerated body movements more often than not. Given the zoom of the characters this stops adding dramatic effect and pushed into the comical realm. Most people will not be able to put into words but feel things seem less serious somehow. Given the quality of facial animations the exageration is not needed to convey emotion when just chatting, I'm looking at you Wyll if I see one more nose hair because your head is tilted so far back a kneecap might be in order.
In summary the quality of the facial animations is lessened by the over exaggerated body movements which are simply not needed.
First post updated with this. Thanks for letting me know about the ruleset I have been reading up on it.
