Kobold Cleaver and the Demo Room

[Kobold Catgirl]

Day One
Ran out of food today. Probably should have brought some when I came here. The little coffeeshop outside tempts me, but I don't dare leave my chair.

Goblinworks team has left. It's just me and my characters, Cabal Clover and Magda Demofaet. I wouldn't let them take my computer.

I fear I will soon give in to starvation or thirst, but I will not let them take me out of the Alpha. I just have to hold out until the Early Enrollment starts.

I pray to Pharasma that I can withstand the trials.

—Kobold Cleaver

[Kobold Catgirl]

Day One and a few minutes later
They shut down the server and called the cops, so I'm out. Looking back, this plan was pretty s!&~ty.
—Kobold Cleaver

And so the epoch concludes.

[Kobold Catgirl]

Okay, but actually, I'm gonna post my thoughts on the demo in a bit. Sorry I basically camped out there for the whole con—with a forty-minute walk between the Marriott and my hotel, I generally had no choice but to find some way to entertain myself while I waited for my next game. ;D

[Kobold Catgirl]

First, stuff I didn't like (and footnotes addressing my complaints)

It was really hard to navigate and find people! Something like a grid system would be awesome. * I kept trying to just meet up with a pal, but because hexes are so huge, it would always take forever. It was especially rough if I died and got separated from him. When lootable corpses are added, please add some sort of marker to show where you died so you have a clue of where to go!†

Glitch-wise, I was having a lot of trouble liberating stolen goods from the Broken Men. A lot of the time I could select them, but no "You retrieved the swag!" messages would appear. Dunno if that's been noticed by others yet.

Ogres. Are. Boring. Fighting ogres looks cool, but it starts to become an unbelievable drag when they're fought solo.‡ You try to kite, but half the time they "get bored" because you stray outside their turf. Ogres may be the least dangerous monster in the game, but they take the longest to fight—kite and flight, kite and flight, one's dead, kite and flight, another's dead...I realize they're the "Mighty Glaciers", but I think they need both a bigger chasing area and perhaps some ranged units—the latter of which perhaps only show up later in the Cycle.

I'm not sure how WIP the gathering points are, but I don't much care for them. I'm fine with their look, but they aren't at all how I expected gathering to work. Really, I'm just curious as to what Goblinworks currently plans to do with these things—how do these relate to the structures like quarries? How will their spawning points change in the future, when it becomes less random?

Headjumping rules. Don't remove it! Just kidding, you can remove it, but keep it at least to some point in EE so I can get my fellow Freevalians to stage a jumping puzzle competition. ;D

Make trainers easier to find and Thornguards harder to tab.§ I had a real nightmare finding the trainers I needed. These settlements are big, after all. This may only be needed in NPC settlements, since most PC settlements will be small.

Mountains are kind of a pain in the ass. I think it's because I don't immediately realize, "Oh, I can't go that way", so I walk out of Sotterhill and then realize I have to turn all the way around. Making the map demonstrate impassable areas would probably eliminate the annoyance.

Have you heard that archers are overpowered yet? In seriousness, this is an even bigger problem with NPCs. If I see a band of ogres, or a band of ordinary bandits, I'm not scared. A camp of six goblin scouts is literally a bigger concern than a camp of the same number of melee bandits.‖ There is something really wrong with that. Wolves seem to hold up well, though, since they move damn fast.

Those guys who headjumped to Mountain Goat? Wusses. Pansies. I did it solo! Jus sayin yo #yolo

A short descriptor for each active feat would be awesome, and easier to quickly grasp than the numbers. How am I supposed to know what 52 Stamina means when I don't even know how much I have total?

Chat channel changing is a pain in my scaly tailed behind. Switching to view each channel should also switch what channel you're talking in. It's just common sense.

It's really awkward to turn to face someone you're fleeing (and without doing that, you can't tab them). This may be for the best, but it is in some conflict with you being able to attack someone you aren't facing.

We should be able to see attacks like arrows so we can have some idea of where they're coming from. Perhaps a faint streak (that fades quickly with Stealth activated, even, giving the faint opportunity for sniping).

I think Stealth could stand a biiiiiit of a buff. You should at least be able to get in range for a Distant Shot.¶

There is a price on Archangel's head. Go and stand on his head and you will find it! It is up there somewhere! :D

And now, the good stuff.

This is a very pretty game. The graphics aren't realistic or fancy, but they are visually pleasing—pretty colors and shapes are all it needs to get my interest.

NPC combat is super satisfying because it lasts.☞ I kill a bandit, he ain't coming back. I can't wait to help bring down escalations in EE so I can have a real impact, though getting distinct loot from each bandit might help me feel like I'm accomplishing something anyways.

Magda Demofaet, though now deleted, was a real blast. I was able to give her stealth and archery, while also focusing on full plate. My point is, training is great. Tons of flexibility. Sidenote, can we see armor check penalties to skills on the character sheet? I didn't think to check, but Goblinworks says the penalties exist regardless.

Also, watching the single Thornguard repeatedly chase off the ganker, looking mad-as-hell? Priceless. Did you guys notice the time when the ganker got away and the Thornguard turned, walked away, and jumped over a house? I thought that was great. Reminded me of Batman or Spiderman.

As always, I enjoyed myself most when teamed up with someone. I'm very excited about this game, and regret only not being able to think of more questions while I was there. And also attacking that one guard. That was a bad idea.

* Xill time. On the one hand, it would make things easier. On the other, it disincentives (is that a verb?) players naming locations themselves. On the third hand, though, community names aren't much use to new players. On the fourth, this encourages the hiring of guides (or the use of newbie guides like in the nice Program that's been set up).

† Worth noting is that when more landmarks start getting added, like watchtowers and the "Points That Are Interesting" mentioned on the PFO panel, navigation may get easier. I am fully in favor of people experienced with the terrain getting an advantage.

‡ On one hand, that's good, since the point of the game is to fight in teams. On the other, solo play should be dangerous or even suicidal, not just boring.

§ I have ADHD, and I have this tendency to press stuff an "even" number of times. It's this weird fidget thing. Like, I just went back and forth between "s" and "Backspace". Point being, I have this tendency to press buttons while I walk, and if I have a guard Tabbed on by mistake...if anybody should require you to actually click painstakingly on them to attack, it's the guards.

‖ Okay, maybe not literally.

¶ Then again, making that impossible encourages 'clever' stealth tricks like hiding behind trees to close. Just allowing someone to shoot-stealth-shoot-stealth repeatedly is overly nasty and a bit unreasonable, not to mention encouraging to the lazier PvPers.

☞ Idea for a boss with the Mark: When he's killed, he respawns in your settlement! This is a good idea. Use it now or I will take DeciusBrutus's dollars to your competitors!

Whew! Do I like to hear myself talk or what?

[Ravenlute]

I thought this was actually helpful and you brought up some good points.

Ogres should be scary!According to the Beastiary they move as fast as a normal human (30 ft) so I don't know why they'd be any slower.

A possibly great method of dealing with kiting and such is to give all melee characters a ranged attack that is available to use as they try to catch their prey up to a certain range. When they get close enough then switch back to melee. The same could be true for normally ranged characters, giving them a melee attack to use up close as they try to escape to a better distance.

Reflecting on the Beastiery again, Ogres throw javelins, so should it be in PFO and don't forget their Reach for melee!

[Virgil Firecask]

I'm pretty sure a lot of the tuning hasn't happened since a lot of the variety of attacks aren't in. So, the ogres might be tossing some horrific debuff on you, but its effect isn't in. Which means, they should be kicking your tail, but aren't due to whatever effect is either broken or in development.

[Kobold Catgirl]

In a perfect world where GW could afford fancy animation stuff, it'd be neat to have the ogres use some sort of hook contraption to pull PCs closer, or pick the PCs up and throw them towards the ogres' spawnpoint (or just towards other ogres).

When Goblinworks starts doing "refinement" sorta stuff, I fully expect ogres to develop similar abilities to enhance the "beatdown". I saw five ogres swarm an unlucky demo tester in what can only hyperbolically described as something I'm probably not allowed to say here. Suffice to say it looked awful and he died fast. That is how ogres should be: F+!$ing terrifying.

[Ravenlute]

Kobold Cleaver wrote:

That is how ogres should be: F@++ing terrifying.

Yes! To those who say, "but Ogres are only CR 3 creatures," I counter with Humans are even less than that. Give those Ogres some classes like any adventurer and you'll be in for a world of hurt.

As a side note, I propose the ability to permanently test Ogre Barbarians as a race/role option for Stone Bear Clan.

[Hogar, Freevale]

Thank you KC! I enjoyed your report very much. I hope you had a good time!
See you in EE for some headjumping! ;)