Report on Alpha from a few hours at PaizoCon

[Drake Brimstone]

While I only played for a few hours.. it could be more then that I may have lost track of time :P I tested a few features.

COMBAT (I only did PvE, no PvP)

Archery:

Powerful, especially in that you can kill things at range and if you are shooting at a Melee fighter you can frequently kill them before they reach you. I've heard from the Devs that Magic Staves are actually more effective at ranged attacks. (Right now anyway, always subject to change.)

Bugs: The Monster AI is still a little stupid, you can take a large group of melee monsters easily by moving to max range with your bow (This also works with any long ranged attacks.) and concentrating fire on one monster. All of them will come, but have no fear, once the first one is dead all the others loose interest and return to their positions. You can then heal up and target the next one. Repeat till they are all dead.

Melee: I've used a Mace and a Greatsword during my time testing.

I was effective, but not as effective as I could have been, there are some features that aren't in yet that I'm sure will improve Melee fighting.

Bugs: Facing doesn't matter, as long as you are next to your target you can be facing away from them and still hit them. Cleave does not work as intended, they said they are working on it.

Other Bugs, all combat:

You can equip two weapons... any two weapons it seems. I successfully equipped combinations such as a Bow with wands, maces and shields. I even managed to equip the bow in my Offhand with the Mace in my main hand. Now I wish I tried to equip a Greatsword with the bow using the same bug :P

How to duplicate the Bow in Offhand bug (because it really tries to not let you and I'm sure the Devs want to know how to stop it.) First, equip the bow in your main hand. Next equip an offhand weapon in your offhand. Now drag the offhand Weapon to your Main Hand, they swap places, you are now wielding the Bow in your offhand.

Magical Combat:

In order to use combat "spells" you have to equip the right kind of "weapon" such as a Wand. You then select which abilities to have on your hot bar, you do the same with regular weapon abilities. I didn't extensively test these but one thing I know is the bug about Power not regenerating... ever. Fortunately power is only used for a few things, unfortunately one of those things is the Heal Spell. And yes, they are working on that bug too.

Gathering:

It takes a LONG time to gather from a node, though I'm told training the appropriate skill decreases the time I wasn't able to train my skill very high during my testing to see it for myself. There is currently no Animation or Progress Bar for gathering, I think they said that is a high priority to add considering I think it takes 15 seconds at base skill to harvest a node. Harvesting is very much like WoW in regards to clicking the node, but there are no tool requirements and you don't know what you are going to get. All "ore" nodes are "Shiny Rocks" or something like that. You don't know if it is going to give you Coal, Cinnabar, Iron or Gems just by looking at it.

Refining:

I managed to collect enough Iron Ore and Coal to craft some Steel Ingots, this is the extent of crafting that I managed to do because of a lack of XP, if I just had another 3-4h worth of xp I was told I'd have enough for the training in Weapon smithing to have some recipes. It took a little over 7 minutes to refine the ore into ingots with the skill level I had. I stuck around and waited but you don't have to.

One last bug, though I know they know about it considering I heard coming from behind me a "Is he hovering?" and I got to explain that it was a trick of the lighting and shadows because my Hair was fully visible to at least me while stealthed, don't know if others could see it, and it cast a shadow while the rest of the character didn't cast a shadow while stealthed.

That is pretty much the extent of my testing in that short of time. Graphics looked fairly good and I can't wait to play some more.

[KarlBob]

Thanks for the report. Bow and greatsword would be fun to see.

[Lam]

Thank you. And a plus 1.

[Kitsune Aou]

KarlBob wrote:

Thanks for the report. Bow and greatsword would be fun to see.

I'd like to see a greatsword go flying as though it were an arrow shot from a bow.

Picture it, then laugh.

[Jiminy]

Drake Brimstone wrote:

Harvesting is very much like WoW in regards to clicking the node, but there are no tool requirements

Thanks Drake.

I'm hoping the above changes and that harvesting will require a tool (or tools) that have a per use mechanic. Characters have to buy a heap of them (making merchants happy) and then balance gear vs implements out, or they have to have to make constant trips back and forth to town or get someone else to relay implements to them. This means they either leave the area open for others to move in for a time, or they have to actually talk with other people.

All far better interaction than just digging rocks for hours on end and not worrying about implements or forward planning.

[Drake Brimstone]

I was hearing they were planning on having tools and are still working out how they would implement it.