It took 45 minutes to download the 1.2 gigs, but only 4 minutes to download and install the patch stuff.
I am now in and building me a character :)
Character interface was quit and easy- not slow or clunky like Ryan warned. But then again I have a fast computer.
Those ears on the elves- man they look like they could kill if all the elf did was put his head down and charge!
Game time!
Elves are supposed to have +20 perception. Is that meant to be +20 above 0, or +20 above 10?
Goblinworks Game Designer
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Elves are supposed to have +20 perception. Is that meant to be +20 above 0, or +20 above 10?
Racial bonuses are in the same sheet as the skills and upgrades, so they might not be stacking with them correctly yet. There's a bug out on it that will hopefully be resolved soon.
I did get the -10 penalty to miner, which stacked properly with the base 10 value. I know this because I have 1 rank in Miner and a 10 for mining.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Initial launch as admin resulted in what looked like a color negative at splash screen and character creation. When the character did load into the world all character skins looked incomplete, as if their skin was wound spaghetti. Reset my resolution from default windowed/fastest to fantastic/ full scree (appropriate resolution) and it didn't look as if anything really changed. So I logged out and back in, and everything corrected itself.
Spent my exp, ran out and killed a wolf but died to the two bandits with it. Did not get a wolf kill increment. Did harvest some interesting plants and that did increment. Ran back into town and decided to build a second character. Logged out and back in, built a second character, and then have been sitting on 'Connecting to Server...' for the time it has taken me to come here and write this out: no sign of life so will taskman out of it and try again.
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Goblin Squad Member
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From the south-central town, I hit an invisible barrier that would not let me travel due north, towards Thornkeep. There was no apparent elevation change.
Near the mountains, several of the spawn points were "guarded" by ogres!! Not nice.
Crossing hex borders still seems to spawn groups of mobs.
Liking the tool tips, obviously. The conditions icons on targets are very well done.
I like starting out with minimal amount of skill points (1000) and the slower growth (100 per hour).
Finally made it to Thornkeep, which looks awesome!!
I think I am incrementing correctly. Do we get points for assisting kills? Or does the final blow get the kill?
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Goblinworks Game Designer
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I did get the -10 penalty to miner, which stacked properly with the base 10 value. I know this because I have 1 rank in Miner and a 10 for mining.
Your ability score is the minimum for skill totals (with an absolute floor of 10 even with penalties). So if you have no ranks, the total will be equal to the related ability score (i.e., it starts at 10). The first rank doesn't ever really do much beyond unlock any rank-1-based prereqs.
This is admittedly not intuitive, and we'll probably change it before long to your ability score being a bonus to your skill total rather than just a minimum. So getting rank 1 will take you to 20 if you have no penalty.
Just need to put a little more thought into where all the skill bonuses are coming from so it doesn't get too easy to get to 300 when your ability score is really high.
I think I am incrementing correctly. Do we get points for assisting kills? Or does the final blow get the kill?
Kill credit is currently only claimed by the person that lands the killing blow (and shared with that person's party members in most cases). The plan is to ultimately distribute kill credit to the top three players on the creature's threat list (and their party members).
Thanks Stephen.
The melee baddies are sticking way too close to their camps. I nust took down an archer bandit while the melee bandit ran at me, got halfway, then turned around. I can easily trigger a party of creatures knowing that all but the one I am engaged with will turn and run back after only a few meters of backing away.
My incrementing is working. The club falls under "Hammer Expert" though.
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Goblin Squad Member
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| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Unintentional PC targeting has still not been addressed. If they are not going to fix this, they should reduce reputation loss by at least 50%.
1. It is a pretty simple fix, many games have it, but EVE does it the best. A simple toggle, when it is on, you can not target accidentally or intentionally other PCs.
I am not talking about AOE attacks, I'm talking about direct fire bow attacks.
2. Or what GW needs to do is turn off the mouse cursor auto center.
3. GW could also take click targeting off and have tab targeting for Mobs and another key for PCs.
This issue is by far the worse one in the game.
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Goblin Squad Member
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| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Ok vast improvement to alpha 7 BUT... This combat system NEED's to be fixed. I am playing as a wiz caster. First I need a mouse look toggle button. As I am possibly the inventor of wasd controls back in the days of descent 1 I feel it is my duty to inform you that A and D are strafe key's not Q and E. If you insist on keyboard turning keys then leave them but when Mouse look is toggled A and D MUST change into strafe keys. Next while the left hand is controlling movement one of the mouse buttons or the easy to reach F key is an appropriate next target key. TAB is a STUPID key for targeting even capslock or Q would be better. The reason for this is simple when TAB is reached the little finger must leave it's position on Ctrl shift or caps lock. If you think im full of it then try it yourself. Look away from the keyboard and put your fingers in the wasd position then try hitting tab then try hitting F. I realize you will probably add key customization at some point but the default keys are just straight up bad choices. Why not have the mouse wheel scroll through active feats/spells? I know it's not a shooter but at least 40% of your players will have played a fps. The fps key positions are what they are for a reason namely ergonomics and efficiency. EDIT . Ok I found the keymap file(awsome) but still need an Mouse look on off toggle key and a way to cast spells with my right hand preferably on the mouse.
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Goblin Squad Member
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| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
OK, I need to get this off my chest. The procurement of items and resources so far doesn't make a heck of a lot of sense to me. How can I be travelling through a forest, and still be unable to "find" any wood? How can I kill a camp of bandit archers, but there isn't a bow (or even a bowstring!) to be found among the corpses? We should be awash in mundane daggers, bows and swords, and common materials like wood should be there for the taking.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Just to throw this in DDO style combat kicks the junk out of TAB targeting garbage. TAB targeting = a wiz or archer standing at point blank with an ogre trying to cast spells. It looks stupid and kills depth. You can change it now or whenever im rich enough to buy GW and make you change it. EX DDO players are the perfect demographic for PFO. For any fans of TAB targeting imagine playing skyrim with TAB targeting LMFAO Im sure someone will try telling me skyrim is not an RPG lol. If you have no arms then I totally get it otherwise smh. A good combat system is intuitive to the point that you forget you are using a keyboard. Right now combat starts and moving around stops as I must take my right hand off the mouse to select spells at wich point I am not a wizard anymore im a guy pushing awkward buttons on a keyboard and swearing when i fail to target the next enemy while casting a spell. Goes something like this TAB 11111111111 TAB 1 TAB TAB ^%$@ SH&^ 1111 222 !@#$# RAGE QUIT. That is nowhere near enjoyable. I recall someone on this board complaining about DDO combat because they had to "chase a goblin around" Gues what $%^hole in pnp you also need to chase goblins around to hit them. If people don't like chasing agile enemies around maby they should play an archer or mage or crafter. Dumbing down combat in a pvp mmo is the equivalent of putting 3 foot wide boxing gloves on boxers because some of them are not as skilled.
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Goblin Squad Member
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The 8-hex freeze still exists.
Not my experience. When I woke up this afternoon, most were gone so I left Kindleburn to the north bound for Ossian's crossing. Character died twice (stupidity) but no crashes. between OC and Thornkeep there was one crash (at a time that many players indicated there was log server problems. If there were problem. I think they are gone.
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Goblin Squad Member
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hmmm, this is not specifically alpha8:
is there a reason i can´t sort the spells on my focus/wand the way i´d like?
maybe that´s just me, but i would like to sort heals/buffs 1-3 and attack spells 4-6, or the other way around, but can´t.
This leads to me attacking other players instead of healing them more often then it would otherwise.
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Goblin Squad Member
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OK ..
- For me personally the game is good but cannot play from home have to visit a friend. Alpha 7 worked fine at home (50Gb/s fibre) but Alpha 8 times out continually.
- for people new to alpha ... the damage to equipped gear combined with no armor drops at all and reduced weapon drops is causing issues for newer players trying to play a melee character. The increased recipe and implement drops are good but reducing the weapon drops and having virtually no armor drops now that damage is in has caused serious issues for newer players.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Continuing comments...
1. Love the character building aspects of the game. From the pace of gaining xp to the different elements of what goes onto the Paper Doll.
2. Gripe over the continued lack of Rogue gear drops. If we are killing hundreds of bandits, can we get ONE FREAKIN' shortsword and MAYBE a suit of light armor?
Maybe GW should consider having a vendor for one melee weapon and one ranged weapon for each of the classes?
No player generated crafting system / economy was built around the production of starter "junk" gear.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Running around solo, I went from Thornkeep to the western town about halfway to the cliff-o-doom (along the southern edge of the map), north from there to the town that is just a dot, then into the main mountains and across the entire northern edge of the map, then came down the eastern edge to within 6 hexes of thornkeep before I crashed, so I went over 36 hexes without a crash. (took about 3.5 hours to make the loop, enjoying the scenery, i.e. killing and gathering) Bottom line, the 8 hex bug was definitely NOT happening to me.
Random drops to desktop did happen, mostly around other people.
Love the graphics, and the big towns. (And the ears)
What's with the empty street layout with the ogres in the hex where Forgeholm will be in EE ?
:D
gripes:
Would like a right-click &report for the handful of d-bag names I saw.
Couple of shrines had bandits *just* outside agro range.
Once in all my deaths, in town, I came back atop a tree.
Once I saw a node atop a tree.
Up a steep hill, sometimes mobs could come get me, sometimes they sat down there and caught arrows until they died.
Get recipes and spells working and I think we have an MVP
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Goblin Squad Member
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| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Ok vast improvement to alpha 7 BUT... This combat system NEED's to be fixed. I am playing as a wiz caster. First I need a mouse look toggle button. As I am possibly the inventor of wasd controls back in the days of descent 1 I feel it is my duty to inform you that A and D are strafe key's not Q and E. If you insist on keyboard turning keys then leave them but when Mouse look is toggled A and D MUST change into strafe keys. Next while the left hand is controlling movement one of the mouse buttons or the easy to reach F key is an appropriate next target key. TAB is a STUPID key for targeting even capslock or Q would be better. The reason for this is simple when TAB is reached the little finger must leave it's position on Ctrl shift or caps lock. If you think im full of it then try it yourself. Look away from the keyboard and put your fingers in the wasd position then try hitting tab then try hitting F. I realize you will probably add key customization at some point but the default keys are just straight up bad choices. Why not have the mouse wheel scroll through active feats/spells? I know it's not a shooter but at least 40% of your players will have played a fps. The fps key positions are what they are for a reason namely ergonomics and efficiency. EDIT . Ok I found the keymap file(awsome) but still need an Mouse look on off toggle key and a way to cast spells with my right hand preferably on the mouse. Just to throw this in DDO style combat kicks the junk out of TAB targeting garbage. TAB targeting = a wiz or archer standing at point blank with an ogre trying to cast spells. It looks stupid and kills depth. You can change it now or whenever im rich enough to buy GW and make you change it. EX DDO players are the perfect demographic for PFO. For any fans of TAB targeting imagine playing skyrim with TAB targeting LMFAO Im sure someone will try telling me skyrim is not an RPG lol. If you have no arms then I totally get it otherwise smh. A good combat system is intuitive to the point that you forget you are using a keyboard. Right now combat starts and moving around stops as I must take my right hand off the mouse to select spells at wich point I am not a wizard anymore im a guy pushing awkward buttons on a keyboard and swearing when i fail to target the next enemy while casting a spell. Goes something like this TAB 11111111111 TAB 1 TAB TAB ^%$@ SH&^ 1111 222 !@#$# RAGE QUIT. That is nowhere near enjoyable. I recall someone on this board complaining about DDO combat because they had to "chase a goblin around" Gues what $%^hole in pnp you also need to chase goblins around to hit them. If people don't like chasing agile enemies around maby they should play an archer or mage or crafter. Dumbing down combat in a pvp mmo is the equivalent of putting 3 foot wide boxing gloves on boxers because some of them are not as skilled.
Say that five times fast!!!
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Goblin Squad Member
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Continuing comments...
1. Love the character building aspects of the game. From the pace of gaining xp to the different elements of what goes onto the Paper Doll.
2. Gripe over the continued lack of Rogue gear drops. If we are killing hundreds of bandits, can we get ONE FREAKIN' shortsword and MAYBE a suit of light armor?
Maybe GW should consider having a vendor for one melee weapon and one ranged weapon for each of the classes?
No player generated crafting system / economy was built around the production of starter "junk" gear.
Its not just rogue gear, all drops other than implement and recipes are down on 7. Armor is non existent.
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Goblin Squad Member
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first impression:
Making a character:
Humans: Decent: You have enough choices that you can make a character that looks decent. Of course I am firm believer in you can never have too many choices. Racial benefits fits the human are good at every thing. The jack of all trades master of none.
Elves: first impression on the character creation screen. I never realized that elves are that ugly. I actually had to go check out some pathfinder art work to assure myself their ears are really that big. The males are a little better to me their arms are too long and skinny. The racial traits are very nice and game play wise I think they are fine just graphic makes me want to put a bag over their heads.
Dwarf first impression is perfect. I really love what you do with the dwarf. racial stat are also a nice match with how I think a dwarf will be played in game.
When I got Hilderguard in game I was very surprised to see that I believe she looked in better in game then she did in the character creation screen. Now that a first to any game I have ever played before.
Left game with the idea of seeing if elf look better in game and now stuck at connecting to server.
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Goblin Squad Member
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If I start combat sprinting, I'm able to keep sprinting while firing my bow. It makes my life a lot easier since nothing can ever catch up, as long as there aren't any powerful ranged creatures in a group I can wipe out anything, even large camps - just sprinting and shooting.
Seems like a simple thing to fix: using a combat ability disables sprint for as long as you remain in combat.
If I start combat sprinting, I'm able to keep sprinting while firing my bow. It makes my life a lot easier since nothing can ever catch up, as long as there aren't any powerful ranged creatures in a group I can wipe out anything, even large camps - just sprinting and shooting.
Seems like a simple thing to fix: using a combat ability disables sprint for as long as you remain in combat.
I disagree with this. Sprinting is essential in combat. I think firing your bow while you run in a circle around the enemies needs to go.
Stam just needs to be there. That's the only issue. We're talking making bows go from OP to a very niche weapon as soon as they make it so you can't really run while shooting.
If you have a long bow, you don't need to sprint though. Secret skillz.
I think firing while you run with your bow should be in the game at some point, but I think it should be a very late game ability. It seems awesome to imagine bandits coming out and swarming you while they are assaulting you with arrows. But going to the rogue free-bow man, going out with your bow as a (whatever) and soloing everything except groups of large ranged foes... is lame.
I thin we have covered the "don't like's" fairly thoroughly. So instead of talking about what we don't like, what was enjoyable!?
I, for one, loved the graphics. There is more to be done; but Mike has done a very good job for the time he has had available to him.
The 8 Hex bug is definitely dead. My computer crashed a few times last night, but only after several hours of play and *far* more than 8 hexes of travel.
The Exp system feels very good. It's meant to be slow and it is. But it doesn't keep me from enjoying the game at all.
CRAFTING! I can see now that being a crafter will truly be a dedicated job. I might give my character 1 level of Bowyer, 1 level of sawyer and 1 level of smelter just so I can make my own arrows from time to time. But to really get into it... that will take a lot of exp and building connections with suppliers.
^ Happy with races. Happy with map.
Very glad devs put in little class wep hand out guys. That is very cool.
Many mining nodes. Drop rate seems interesting in groups. I think when it drops armor/wep in a group, at least a group of two, that both players get the same loot.
Would like to see dura loss on more than death. I haven't lost anything yet. I'm traveling the world with my invulnerable longbow.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I haven't lost anything yet.
On the other hand, some lost so many weapons and armour that they pointed out to Ryan that he may need to add distributors for replacement Softwood Clubs and Peasant Clothes, depending on when repair will enter the game. The "two points of Durability lost on only one death" bug is pretty scary when it hits, too.
Durability loss on more than death is just like perma-death: one can simulate it upon oneself easily enough without making all those less skilled at survival face the same challenge.
The "two points of Durability lost on only one death" bug is pretty scary when it hits, too.
Wait, that's a bug? Because I was loosing 2 and 3 points all night last night....
Also, I, too, am without club or clothes. But you know what. I have a more shortbows than you can shake an arrow at, so I am good to go :) And when those are gone, I will visit the wizard trainers! j/k
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Goblin Squad Member
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I'll play along and throw in some positives.
1) Enjoyed the new TK layout. The elevation changes and taller buildings gave it a more medieval feel. I am starting to wonder if paint is outlawed in the River Kingdoms.
2) It seems like the height of signs has been changed, so they present themselves better to the player. My above comment regarding paint applies doubly here, though!
3) The dwarf is awesome! I have seldom played dwarves in TT PF, but I will absolutely be rolling one in PFO. The gathering animation on the dwarf model made me laugh every time I saw it.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Here are my observations:
Install was no large issue. I have MASSIVE time differences between the desktop and the laptop to start up the patcher - we talk <1 min vs 5 min. Just in case people wait for a long time.
Dropping connection is BAD. The game seems to play on but you suddenly slash right through enemies and become 'a ghost'. Seems the issue was the place I dedicated as desk for the desktop. I tested it 2 meter away on the dinner table and all is fine. Will need some way to improve my WiFi (not a GW issue - but I mention it if people experience similar issues).
Login and connection to the server or even the GW webpages sometimes is okay, sometimes takes a while, sometimes needs to be stopped and restarted to work.
Game play - not sure how the plus 20 mining works for dwarfs - but the reason Thod became a dwarf. I did manage some 60 coal and 50+ iron yesterday on my own - also some bloodstones - enough for some lesser vitals.
Wanted to make some armour - but realize I need smelter 3 and armoursmith 3. Currently seem unable to find how much XP I still need, so how much time it takes - no worry - have seen such info online before and will find it again.
This won't be a problem in the proper game. People who say there is no armour - well - we might need to wait for it to be crafted and that won't work in the first 24 hours.
Same goes for weapons. Useful stuff takes a few days to gain the necessary levels. But a settlement and alliance should have someone doing that. Or several people. I should be partly self sufficient in this respect in 2 days just between myself and my son and 3 or 4 characters.
Gathering: The key to gathering is to know where to find what. Early days will be a lot of wandering around. It took me several hours with client 7 to find a source for coal. This time I found coal immidiately but lacked iron.
This has been rectified and the bottleneck is now XP to get to smelter 3 and armoursmith 3.
Wood is no problem - have a lot of pine - less yew. But as I said - you need to know where to go. So after a while you know where to move when you miss x.
So wood/coal/iron is just the question to find the right hex.
Wool and pelts are different. They seem to be pretty rare. I have 2 pelts and 3 wool compared to 80+ wood and 100+ iron and 80+ coal.
The main problem here is that you need some of that nearly for every weapon. Will have to make some basic strips and hope that they last for some weapons.
I got some hide and steel banded as a drop - but it is close to disintegrate. The original club is gone and one of the two shortbows is gone. So yes - time to get producing weapons and armour. But this should only be a temp problem. Guess focussing on this in the first 2-5 days might pay a lot of dividents.
New stuff: Found some impure iron ore and some standard iron ore in badland hexes. Not sure if this is good in any way or I was just lacking miner skills to get the truly good stuff. Hadn't seen these before.
As such I think you have 2 options: Have a rough first week or wait for some people to get the economy going. In any case - generate a character as early as possible to that it generates XP if you find the cold start too rough.
Achievements
In 24 hours I gained:
Crafting: Sawyer tier 1 common and uncommon,Smelter tier 1 common for crafting - enough to go to train level 2
Fighter level 1 (you want to survive outside)
Bandit slayer level 1 - still need 2 wolfs, 3 goblins and 6 skeletons to reach the level 1 for these - and realize killed 1 goblin dog.
Gathering: Mineral level 3, Pland level 3, Essence level 1. Only junk is missing - they are more difficult and less common.
Hammer expert 1 and shortbow level 1.
So all in all a lot. You can see that I started to focus on gathering first. Monsters got killed if there was an opportunity - or today when I gathered with my son (I take minerals, he essence) as it is better to surive if you are not alone.
Bugs and Errors (non standard ones):
An invisible wall close to the badland hex. You walked along until you found a breach.
Once found a wolf inside town. I'm in the town without a name on the map - the 'dot'. Guess he had cover from the Thornguard around a corner. Actually shows even inside town isn't 100% safe.
Edit: one more - the apothecary in the town represented by the dot has a cleric trainer and not an apothecary trainer outside. Makes the place non-funtional
Summary: The game I think works as intended. Some bits don't work yet as nobody is high enough level yet or knows where to get the right ingredienst/has collected them all to ensure a player economy is working. This will work out itself over time.
The game is rough around the edges. New players have a very high learning curve. The best we can do is to help them and educate.
There is a danger of backlash and people feeling frustrated about that. We need to soften the blow to them as far as possible to ensure we don't lose them. But settlements that help them will benefit from loyal members / loyal players down the line.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Its not just rogue gear, all drops other than implement and recipes are down on 7. Armor is non existent.Not non-existant. After only 5 or 6 hours of tackling mobs I got a novitiate's chain...
I also have found novitiate's chain, runespune robes, and something something rogue leather something...
Only one set of each and the grinding of wolves, bandits, goblins, and ogres has been EPIC in scope to get those. I am longbow expert 7+ among many other things...
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Goblin Squad Member
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The good things:
A lot of terrain was added. It needs polishing but the world is MUCH larger.
I like the slow exp gain and the choices it forces. I don't mind waiting for things.
I am tempted to say I like the slow armor and "some" weapon type drops. As hard as it is for "us" to coordinate and craft, it should not be easy loot from mobs.
Love Thornkeep. Not a fan of running around (lots of space) between so many buildings, but I will adapt.
Glad to have more depth in character races and appearance. More will follow, I am sure.
Thank you for the proto tool tips. They could be polished to an easier display, but I am glad to see them in, regardless.
I will reserve negatives for the GW alpha forums. They are really just polish issues and implementation of planned mechanics, anyway.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I was finding many wool and pelts a few hexes west of map center: wool from a few interesting plants and I scavanged pelts from piles of junk. I haven't been able to get in with workable graphics since yesterday so I haven't had a chance to make leather & hides. There are many goblins in that area as well. The area is NW from the town in south central area of the map (its name starts with an M).
I like the new map, just wish it zoomed well to be legible and clear.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Elves: first impression on the character creation screen. I never realized that elves are that ugly. I actually had to go check out some pathfinder art work to assure myself their ears are really that big. The males are a little better to me their arms are too long and skinny. The racial traits are very nice and game play wise I think they are fine just graphic makes me want to put a bag over their heads.
LOL, got that right. The massive ears are too anime for my taste.
I really like having a game to play that doesnt look like it was vomited by anime fan boys.