KickStarter Serpent in the Staglands Thread

[roshan]

Im stuck on the first map of the game (after exiting temple). where should i go exactly?! I explored the whole area but find no way out...

There is an exit to the south that leads to a village.

 

[Ninjerk]

Is this really how far we've fallen? Can't find an exit for the first map?

 

[an Administrator]

Is this really how far we've fallen? Can't find an exit for the first map?

I had to install the new patch. Its working now.

 

[ArchAngel]

You are strange..

 

[an Administrator]

They are a small team doing a big job

 

[Ninjerk]

Wonder if anyone could provide me some general impressions about this game.

...

One fact that I dislike in the lore is "gods" stuff.

- Combat is a clickfest with cooldowns
- While I don't think character creation and advancement is as bad as some do, it's still a dumbed-down version of 5e rules. Skills, proficiencies, archetypes, and spells are all mixed up together in a way that gets less satisfying the more you play.
- It runs like shit, and I don't have much faith they'll put in the work to optimize it at this point
- One save slot per character. Ugh.
- Extremely mediocre writing
- Mostly bad voice acting
- Make sure you set the play mode to default to "solo", otherwise you'll have random jackholes hopping into your SP game.
- I played up to the first town (Luskan), and have pretty much had enough. So far, the story has not mentioned gods.

Bottom line... I'm not giving them $20 for this.

Did this get moved into this thread?

 

[Infinitron]

Serpent in the Staglands, Sword Coast Legend, Seven Dragon Saga. It's hard, men.

 

[Fry]

Oops. So much S.

 

[Excidium II]

Never too much S.

 

[Ninjerk]

It read like an overly harsh critique of PoE, but I knew there was no town called Luskan in it....

 

[BishopOfBattle]

One fact that I dislike in the lore is "gods" stuff. It is a thing that I dislike in general in fantasy settings: by rational thinking, it is hard to call a supernatural entity "a god", just because it has powers. "A god" is something that's existence is not a certainty, something you believe in, or not, but you're not sure if it is there or not. Because of this dung&dragons is a major decline for me - "gods" just exist there, they walked among humans and you have to deal with it. Why are they called "gods" then if they existence is assured?

By rational thinking there is no god. By definition a god is just a being being worshipped. It doesn't matter if it's there or not, it just has to be worshipped. A lot of cults have their own christ-figures and gods, which are just plain humans. The worshipping part makes the god, not the power. Also, the old greeks already had legends of gods walking amongst men. So this concept is ancient, and not due to dungeons & dragons.

Also: It's fantasy, they can take every spin on the topic they want, without having to strictly adhere to any real world definition. You can dislike it, but it is nothing wrong with it.

 

[hell bovine]

Wonder if anyone could provide me some general impressions about this game. My feelings are mixed about this - I liked the concept about self-written journal entries, the lore is quite nice, but that completely pathetic combat system just made me not interested in wasting time on this game. It is not "difficulty" when two people have hard time killing one wolf without getting gravely wounded. It is "tediousness".


One fact that I dislike in the lore is "gods" stuff. It is a thing that I dislike in general in fantasy settings: by rational thinking, it is hard to call a supernatural entity "a god", just because it has powers. "A god" is something that's existence is not a certainty, something you believe in, or not, but you're not sure if it is there or not. Because of this dung&dragons is a major decline for me - "gods" just exist there, they walked among humans and you have to deal with it. Why are they called "gods" then if they existence is assured?

Using your line of reasoning ("something that's existence is not a certainty, something you believe in, or not, but you're not sure if it is there or not") you could disprove of virtually every fantastical creature in fictional worlds. Ghosts? Vampires? Elves? How many of fantasy games have them?

SitS seems heavily inspired by pagan folklore. If you look at pagan mythologies, the lines between fantastical beings with superpowers and gods is often very blurred. Deities and other supernatural beings walking among mortals - how doubtful do you think people were about this in the old times? Consider how many of the old rites and superstitions survived until now; that's how deeply rooted they are.

 

[Infinitron]

Science fiction stories of advanced races posing as gods to lesser beings are common. These stories are probably inspired by real life occurences, such as those of some Aztecs believing the Spanish conquistadors were gods, or Pacific cargo cults like this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Philip_Movement

That at least suggests that the idea that "gods are defined by not answering" may not be true.

 

[Viata]

None of them answered prayers of their followers. That's what make them "gods". They don't answer.

This is wrong. You can find many Christians who will say their god did answer them. As the going says, "god works in mysterious way". Greek Mythology also had gods answering their people. Not answering has nothing to do with them being a god.

 

[hell bovine]

Using your line of reasoning ("something that's existence is not a certainty, something you believe in, or not, but you're not sure if it is there or not") you could disprove of virtually every fantastical creature in fictional worlds. Ghosts? Vampires? Elves? How many of fantasy games have them?

I'm not sure you follow. Our world have had many gods before Christian one. None of them have been proved to be real. None of them answered prayers of their followers. That's what make them "gods". They don't answer. That's why I cringe when I see superguys with superpowers being called "gods". Why should you believe in something when you have clear proof that something exists? You don't believe - you have knowledge that it is real because it answered you, gave you a bit of their power or whatever. The fundament of believing in a deity is that you don't have a simple answer.
Other races and creatures like elves are just there, they're element of the fantasy world, okay. My butthurt is caused by giving a name "god" to something that shouldn't be called this way.

I think you are projecting your own beliefs, to be honest. To which I have to say, what you wrote about elves - just an "element of the fantasy world" - can be easily applied monoteistic gods too.
PS I come from a very Catholic country, and what Viata wrote applies to many people I know. They have no doubts about "divine intervention", and will happily recite all manner of superstitious nonsense as proof.

 

[sstacks]

One fact that I dislike in the lore is "gods" stuff. It is a thing that I dislike in general in fantasy settings: by rational thinking, it is hard to call a supernatural entity "a god", just because it has powers. "A god" is something that's existence is not a certainty, something you believe in, or not, but you're not sure if it is there or not. Because of this dung&dragons is a major decline for me - "gods" just exist there, they walked among humans and you have to deal with it. Why are they called "gods" then if they existence is assured?

I don't think the concept of a god has to be based on whether their existence is uncertain, whether in ancient mythologies or fantasy works. In many of both a god is just a being with a lot more power than a regular person, and usually much longer lived or immortal.

Even the God of the Bible basically says, if you look at creation it's obvious I exist.

 

[sstacks]

Whalenought just posted this on their Twitter feed:
"It's the Moon Lord's winter solstice festival in Lumen Targ tonight! I bet nothing goes wrong"

Looks like they may have something in game tied to the Winter Solstice? (Dec 21)

Whalenought_Joe

 

[Wintermute]

Isn't that just a reference to the start of the game? It starts the day after the Moon Lord's winter solstice festival. And something did go wrong.

 

[Severian Silk]

Never too much S.

I agree.

 

[sstacks]

Isn't that just a reference to the start of the game? It starts the day after the Moon Lord's winter solstice festival. And something did go wrong.

Yes, but I also thought maybe they had something in game that would trigger on the actual solstice for fun.

 

[Zanzoken]

Finally got around to picking this one up and have spent a few minutes rolling characters + looking at the systems... am I wrong in stating that there is effectively no damage-dealing magic? I see lots of buffs and debuffs, and a couple of healing spells, but nothing that would make for a purely offensive caster.

If so then that seems like a pretty glaring oversight in a fantasy RPG... even games that are biased against spell-slinging (like D&D) at least had fireballs and stuff.

Also, this is fairly minor but the toons look identical to me regardless of gender... as in, the chicks are just as bulky and muscular as the dudes, and everyone kinda looks like they have a beard. Love the rest of the art and art design but this aspect of the sprites just puts me off.

 

[Johannes]

Finally got around to picking this one up and have spent a few minutes rolling characters + looking at the systems... am I wrong in stating that there is effectively no damage-dealing magic? I see lots of buffs and debuffs, and a couple of healing spells, but nothing that would make for a purely offensive caster.

If so then that seems like a pretty glaring oversight in a fantasy RPG... even games that are biased against spell-slinging (like D&D) at least had fireballs and stuff.

Also, this is fairly minor but the toons look identical to me regardless of gender... as in, the chicks are just as bulky and muscular as the dudes, and everyone kinda looks like they have a beard. Love the rest of the art and art design but this aspect of the sprites just puts me off.

Foul Creep, Nauseate, Searing Light are purely damage-dealing spells iirc, with no status effect on the side. Then a lot of the debuff spells have also a damage-dealing component, like Hallucinogen.

 

[Anthedon]

Finally got around to picking this one up and have spent a few minutes rolling characters + looking at the systems... am I wrong in stating that there is effectively no damage-dealing magic? I see lots of buffs and debuffs, and a couple of healing spells, but nothing that would make for a purely offensive caster.

If so then that seems like a pretty glaring oversight in a fantasy RPG... even games that are biased against spell-slinging (like D&D) at least had fireballs and stuff.

Also, this is fairly minor but the toons look identical to me regardless of gender... as in, the chicks are just as bulky and muscular as the dudes, and everyone kinda looks like they have a beard. Love the rest of the art and art design but this aspect of the sprites just puts me off.

There are no spells comparable to Fireball in SitS, magic is more about utility. I used dyed cloaks to distinguish my characters at a glance. You can buy/find those fairly soon IIRC.

 

[Wintermute]

even games that are biased against spell-slinging (like D&D) at least had fireballs and stuff.

 

[sstacks]

The magic system in SitS is a bit different, but yes you can deal damage via magic. As others have pointed out there's no direct damage like magic missile or fireball.