ELEX ELEX RELEASE THREAD

[Tigranes]

I don't get it, why is gating a city in an open world game arbitrarily via Chapter marker or main quest progress or whatever preferable to gating the same city via quests specific to entering that city?

You could make the city harder to get into so it's more likely higher level characters will enter it, and then make Dome City have a lot higher level content. I wouldn't mind that at all, that sounds good to me.

However, someone who plays until level 35 until joining a faction would still have levelled (or dodgerolled) like fuck until they did all of that content anyway, so it wouldn't have changed his experience.

There are many things that could be done to improve the spread of content in Elex, but that doesn't really have a lot to do with the specific complaint of "I became a demigod and spent 80 hours before joining a faction now there's not a lot to do game has bad pacing", which is what I'm saying is not valid.

 

[Shadenuat]

It's valid because of different things however:
1) It's too easy to become the demigod without joining a faction - too much xp, respawning monsters, endgame weapons are just sitting at random places and sometimes are very easy to get;
2) Even if you ARE a demigod, plot still forces you to join a faction.

Together that forms a hole in logic of a "you are nobody without faction hardcore not mass effect shepard game" (vault dweller)

 

[Tigranes]

I think totally legitimate criticisms are being mixed together into a larger framing that just doesn't hold water. I think the main quests have low quality, I think there's way too much Natural Elex around, and so on. I don't think that really has much to do with the original complaint - "it sucks I can get to lv35 before joining faction then blaze past faction promotions" - and I don't think the legitimate criticisms really lend this complaint any more validity.

For that complaint to be legit, we'd have to ask:

• Is it really a problem that you can do heaps of sidequests and explore many areas without joining a faction or progressing in the main story? No, it's a fucking open world game, I don't think the game gets better by arbitrarily locking out Domed City or Xacor until you see the Chapter 3 splash.
• Is it really a problem that you can become a demigod before joining a faction? No, because most players see all the cool skills factions give you & all the NPCs telling you to join faction etc etc and usually you join a faction long before then unless you deliberately set out to not do so. Which is fine, the game gives you the freedom to do that. I don't see what is gained by removing that.
• Should the game let you bypass joining a faction if you make yourself a demigod? Sure, that'd be a nice touch of reactivity, but that's more about a cool nonlinear option that isn't there rather than some glaring issue of pacing.

The real issue with the game lies elsewhere - the Elex, the shitty main quests, the dearth of truly high level sidequests.

 

[T. Reich]

This is all bullshit, because you don't seem to understand that good pacing is one of the things that makes for a good game, and lack of thereof will usually result in a rather uneven gameplay, both in terms of narrative and overall game balance.

Besides that, all the good PB games had quite a bit of content gated by chapters:
In G1, you wouldn't be able to do much in terms of questing unless you joined a faction (and started chapter 2). The difference between starter armor and even starter faction armour (let alone endgame armor), as opposed to Elex, was so large that high-level monsters would mean your imminent death in early chapters. And a good deal of decent weapons could only be acquired from traders, and were locked until chapter 3 (or 4). Without those weapons you would deal no damage to even moderately-strong foes. Some locations were locked to you until you reached the later chapters.
In G2Notr, you can't access Jharkendar or Mine Valley until chapter 2. Even then, more than half of mine valley is essentially of-limits due to extreme monster toughness unless you engaged in extreme forms of grinding. The importance of good armor is even higher than in G1, meaning that you can't really wing it with just hunter's clothes. While a good deal of quality weapons can be found early on with some bold exploration, the game's progressive leveling system (and the mandatory nature of stat-boosters that you don't get to use until chapter 3 usually) ensured that you'd be short of stats to equip those weapons. The quests (and experience rewards for them) were more evenly distributed across locations and chapters.
In R1, it's basically the same - most weapons are chapter-locked at traders, so is armour, and so are two special barrier-removing skills that unlock access to most of the game's later dungeons. Plus the game's structure itself forces you to join a faction ASAP (either stick with the bandits and get sent to the city in short order anyway, or stumble upon the inquisitors and get drafted anyway).

In contrast, in Elex:
1) You can literally go from the starting point to the walls of ice palace in Xacor from the get-go. No other areas are locked from you.
2) Only one faction's headquarters are readily accessible, while the other two are quite a bit away, which usually motivates you to get a bit of grinding to get stronger before you decide to visit the other faction cities.
3) It's super-easy to abuse elex potions from the earliest stages of the game (like, from lvl3-4 when you can learn chemistry), and to quickly boost your stats so high as to trivialise early content.
4) The difference between faction-less armour and tier-3 armour is laughably small. Most faction-less body armour gives 12-14 DR, T3 faction armour gives 30 DR. Compare that to G2's values of 20 vs 150(!). And you can easily supplement it in Elex by skills and jewellery as well.
5) Only select few weapon types are trader-only, while majority of the good weapons are actually found while exploring. Moreover, there are no limits to upgrading them once you acquire the weapon upgrade skill. This, coupled with (3), results in exponential character power growth once you get started.
6) All of side-quests are available for completion from the get-go, rather than gated behind faction choices and restricted locations.

 

[Tigranes]

This is all bullshit, because you don't seem to understand that good pacing is one of the things that makes for a good game

??? I am specifically saying that Elex allowing you to complete 90% (more?) of sidequests before joining a faction if you purposefully avoid joining them and spend 45 hours levelling up to endgame is not a big problem because it is an instance of a player taking the freedom of an open world game to an extreme rather than a typical/encouraged scenario.

I am additionally saying that Elex does suffer from numerous pacing problems, which are not best solved by arbitrary gating of quests and areas to future chapters.

I don't really see how any of that amounts to "durr hurr pacing who cares". For example, yes, I agree that elex quaffing is ridiculous and faction armours should matter more. However, I see your point 1) as a positive - e.g. if a player decided to jetpack run around at level 5 to epxlore every inch of the map, I don't really see it as a problem.

Re. weapons and armour I'm curious to learn more from people, because my own playstyle always involved upgrading weapons and I never really found unique weapons to be any good, so it's always been more about meeting the stat thresholds rather than ever feeling that this weapon is too good to be found in the wild. (If anything it's the opposite.)

So many of the problems seem to come down to Elex quaffing, and I've found player experience/pacing is vastly improved by swearing off Elex, and refusing to abuse jetpack/companions/etc to beat/bypass monsters beyond my level. Of course, in that area, it's perfectly legitimate to argue that the game should constrain players more to protect its own pacing.

 

[Murk]

Most unique weapons are equal to +1 or +2 gear, but are worse than standard weapons refined to +3.

The exception being the Thunderclap, The Redeemer, and The Mortal Stream. Phantom String also gets a potential spot because of the bonus skills it grants to non-Berserker play throughs.

Not sure if heavy crossbow +3 beats Daryl's Revenge, but eye-balling it would seem to. All unique melee weapons absolutely pale in comparison to their +3 counterparts, and their reversed polarity on stat reqs often means that people who wanted to use that type of weapon don't have the stats required for it when it would be a good choice... and when they do have the stats, have better options.

IMO the biggest thing would be to rebalance the weapon choices quite a bit and remove a lot of the pointless fluff. Every weapon category has two weapons where-in one is slightly worse and has lower stat reqs and the other is slightly better but has more stat reqs... normally this would be fine, but in practice it just means you use the better one.

Example: broadsword v horned sword; serrated axe v scrap axe; acolyte sword v regent sword; chainsword v chainsaber.

The latter is always the better option, as if they come with a natural +0.1 bonus that remains that way when upgrading them. If they made the difference bigger, like 20+ stat point difference and damage difference, then sure why not, but as of now a single 'dual skill amulet' is all you need to use the better one. And there's no point in upgrading the crappier weapon past +1 since you'd be investing in a weapon you plan to ditch pretty soon (not to mention there are plenty of +1 versions already spread around.)

I'd also ditch the weird variants of the plasma and laser rifle since it's even harder to make sense which is better unless you have equal upgraded versions of each to do a quick comparison. Not that it matters since the unique laser and unique plasma rifle are best anyway (and don't require you to use elex to upgrade them).

Unrelated but did anyone ever figure out wtf 'reflector' mod for outlaw weapons does? The description just says it makes it look cool. Is that really it? Oh well, swag > stats.

 

[puppyonastik]

Has PB or THQ Nordic spoken about sales? Be they "too low", "just right", or "higher than expected"?

 

[Gepeu]

They are huge

 

[jungl]

uninstalled the game yesterday. Its boring as fuck when you become just a tad strong. Don't care about the story its already beyond stupid.

 

[Tigranes]

The Redeemer is definitely a killer weapon, but in many cases I've found that their power v. requirement ratio is lower than normal weapons. E.g. Ignex Artifex - the only reason to ever use it is if you never go beyond 40STR or whatever it was in a DEX build but still want to use melee weapons. So it's only ever good as a backup stick. So even before you get +3 upgrades, I usually don't use most of the uniques.

 

[Zerth]

So, What happens when you're under reiner's suggestion after admitting you lied to him and then be forcefully recruited to the clerics? Something similar to being captured by the inquisition in R1sen during first chapter?.

 

[markec]

Bought the game.

Playing on ultra difficulty.

Having a blast.

 

[hilfazer]

So, What happens when you're under reiner's suggestion after admitting you lied to him and then be forcefully recruited to the clerics? Something similar to being captured by the inquisition in R1sen during first chapter?.

Spoiler

You can just leave.

 

[Gepeu]

It's just a suggestion, after all.

 

[T. Reich]

So, What happens when you're under reiner's suggestion after admitting you lied to him and then be forcefully recruited to the clerics? Something similar to being captured by the inquisition in R1sen during first chapter?.

After that happened, I reloaded and murdered the fuck out of that cunt and both of his companions.
Decided to join the berserkers afterwards.

 

[frajaq]

have you done your duty yet

 

[Grunker]

I think totally legitimate criticisms are being mixed together into a larger framing that just doesn't hold water. I think the main quests have low quality, I think there's way too much Natural Elex around, and so on. I don't think that really has much to do with the original complaint - "it sucks I can get to lv35 before joining faction then blaze past faction promotions" - and I don't think the legitimate criticisms really lend this complaint any more validity.

For that complaint to be legit, we'd have to ask:

• Is it really a problem that you can do heaps of sidequests and explore many areas without joining a faction or progressing in the main story? No, it's a fucking open world game, I don't think the game gets better by arbitrarily locking out Domed City or Xacor until you see the Chapter 3 splash.
• Is it really a problem that you can become a demigod before joining a faction? No, because most players see all the cool skills factions give you & all the NPCs telling you to join faction etc etc and usually you join a faction long before then unless you deliberately set out to not do so. Which is fine, the game gives you the freedom to do that. I don't see what is gained by removing that.
• Should the game let you bypass joining a faction if you make yourself a demigod? Sure, that'd be a nice touch of reactivity, but that's more about a cool nonlinear option that isn't there rather than some glaring issue of pacing.

The real issue with the game lies elsewhere - the Elex, the shitty main quests, the dearth of truly high level sidequests.

Spot on, from my experience.

 

[T. Reich]

Meanwhile, I'm on to chapter 3.
Lvl 35, and leveling at this point has stopped to a crawl. But it's ok, because at this point I have pretty much maxed out all the essential stuff.
On "difficult" no combat apart from the rare 6+ vs 1 fights presents any real danger at this stage, and I'm not using explosive/knockdown weapons either.
I got gud with ranged weapons, so I can usually pick off approx 1-3 enemies at distance and engage the rest in melee.
Will contemplate upgrading to "ultra", though I don't think it will amount to much at this stage.

I'm partially rescinding my complaint about the lack of questing in later chapters.
Once I hit chapter 3 and visited Thorald, I got a whole huge bunch of quests all over the map. And then there's a whole new bunch of companion quests to do, as well.
All in all, it definitely motivates to explore the world more, plus these quests are a bit more time-intensive than the chapter 2 main quests.

On the other hand, the plot really does coherence at this point, as many other posters remarked. Talking to Thorald and getting a whole bunch of wildly assorted quests from him felt like a string of non-sequiturs.

 

[Iznaliu]

have you done your duty yet

That probably won't stop Skyrim or something from winning the award.

 

[frajaq]

I like to think a game released in 2011 won't win any steam award this year

 

[Lahey]

Elex has shitty reactivity though. It pains me to say it, but credit where it's due; numanuma had the best c&c of the year.

 

[Reapa]

Elex has shitty reactivity though. It pains me to say it, but credit where it's due; numanuma had the best c&c of the year.

except numanuma is not a game.

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

Elex has shitty reactivity though. It pains me to say it, but credit where it's due; numanuma had the best c&c of the year.

Hold up. I'm apparently one of the only people on earth who enjoyed reading TTON, but I felt like there was lots of little choice and consequence (which dropped off substantially after the first hub), but very little that was meaningful except for the end. The whole thing was like a loosely tied together series of vignettes--lots of choice, not much consequence. Did picking your favorite color really change anything? I don't have the wherewithal to read a million words again in order to find out.

Elex vacillated between moments of great C&C and being totally on rails--it was a lot more reactive in the early game. I did like how they locked you into the various endings based on your behavior/elex potion abuse. But I guess I can't think of anything better from the last year, which is what PB should put on the back of the box.

 

[ghostdog]

Has the game been patched at all concerning the various balance issues it seems to have, or at least has PB shown any signs that they'll try addressing them?

 

[T. Reich]

No. Mods will fix it, as is usual for PB games.