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KickStarter Serpent in the Staglands Thread

Deleted Member 16721

Guest
But anyway, will you let us know if the trash mobs are as bad as the negative reviews say? The story looks really interesting, but I'm not jazzed up about kiting trash mobs for hours on end.

I only kited one enemy so far in 6 hours and it was because I was in an area I shouldn't have been in. You can hire mercs that are pretty strong though. This new member I just added has 14 STR and is a good fighter, so I can go back to some areas and fight normally. I can also use Linguistic curses to make enemies easier to fight. AND I can bind the soul of another chick to add to the party who has major Linguistic curse ability, but I feel bad binding her soul against her will and all that.

Not encountering a bunch of trash mobs either. But I followed the story so far and went to the areas I was pointed to at the start. The enemy to exploration ratio is fine by me.

I can't think of a less exciting title for a video game.

I actually think it's one of the best titles for an RPG. And it tells the story exactly, there is a serpent in the Staglands that is trying to fuck you over.
 

Deleted Member 16721

Guest
They did a pretty cool thing with the combat. Enemies will be triggered and attack, but only if you come within a certain range. You may see a group of 6 crop goblins scampering about, moving around the area, but only 2 see you, so you kill them, and maybe even stand still and a few others get triggered as they patrol the area. It's pretty satisfying to take down groups that way. I wouldn't call it kiting as much as just playing smart and letting the enemy come to you. Neat stuff I haven't seen before in a game with RTWP combat.
 
Joined
Mar 31, 2013
Messages
40
Anyone saying the name is bad is an idiot. It is evocative of intrigue, betrayal, and also properly fantastical.

Unfortunately, the game is wildly uneven. I can't remember the specifics that annoyed me, but character development in combat always felt extremely... banal? I seem to remember sticking to the same tactics throughout the entire game (Tank + Blood Cocoon) with maybe some tricks here and there. It didn't help that if you had a dedicated healer then they were literally defined by their Occult stat and not much else. Quests were kinda shit and solutions to them weren't as exciting as the linguistics skill had me hoping, but that's really not that surprising given 2 people when giant companies like BioWare rarely do any better these days. Puzzles in the game were all based on a cipher IIRC, even in areas that it made no sense.

The ending is genuinely terrible and feels the most rushed out of anything in the game. The Expansion That Never Was was sorely needed.
 

Monkeyfinger

Cipher
Joined
Aug 5, 2004
Messages
778
They did a pretty cool thing with the combat. Enemies will be triggered and attack, but only if you come within a certain range. You may see a group of 6 crop goblins scampering about, moving around the area, but only 2 see you, so you kill them, and maybe even stand still and a few others get triggered as they patrol the area. It's pretty satisfying to take down groups that way. I wouldn't call it kiting as much as just playing smart and letting the enemy come to you. Neat stuff I haven't seen before in a game with RTWP combat.

AKA the game doesn't have social aggro. I think social aggro is one of the most important parts of a good AI.
 

Deleted Member 16721

Guest
AKA the game doesn't have social aggro. I think social aggro is one of the most important parts of a good AI.

It has some. Dogs will attack in packs, but crop goblins are somewhat scattered about. Even though there may be 6 in the area a few will be off doing something else while you handle the first couple. Trust me, try it and see for yourself, it's actually an interesting system how they did it. It feels very satisfying to knock out enemies this way. Never saw it before in a CRPG.
 

Sratopotator

Savant
Joined
Sep 21, 2016
Messages
149
god damn, how low the codex has fallen. SitS is a perfect title to showcase the hypocrisy of some supposed hardcore gamers, and the consequences of it.
At its lowest, the game is a mediocre but acceptable Fallout/BG mashup.
Apart from typical steam opinions ("first 30 minutes are too hard!" "I don't understand!" "Nothing is explained!") any actual critique can be summed in one sentence: "Systems and questlines are a little bit too barebones and combat is full of 'hit and miss' ideas". And no, combat is absolutely NOT full of junk fights - reviewers probably refer to a specific area at the beginning of the game, or maybe two/three outdoor areas sprinkled around the map.

Even from this perspective, the game deserves a bit more praise than it gets - even from people who played it, but did not fully enjoy it.
I get it, you probably see some potential, but get angry at specific design decisions. Should it be enough to put the game away? Sure. Maybe.
Is it enough to sperg around the web saying that the game created by two people does not check all the boxes, and is therefore shit? Fuck no and fuck you!

SitS is a perfect title for Fallout buffs to try out. Why all those Nevada, Resurrection and ATOM players have not touched SitS is beyond me.
At its highest, the game is a very enjoyable story RPG with emphasis on exploration and adventure elements. The game has bit generic, but nevertheless interesting setting, and the way the story is set up is rather unique. Writing is top-tier, at least when compared to writing in crpgs.
Even those few things should be enough for storyfags and atmosphere fags to sing praises about the game. [Ultimate proof that the codex is NOT full of storyfags?]

SitS' lack of financial success is, again, a perfect showcase of not-so-hardcore-anymore effect. The audience is theoretically there, so what's going on?
The game does appear as being hard to approach, at least at first glance, but if someone has a working brain, all which is needed for a proper playthrough is a single restart after 30 minute session (cause character creation) and a little skim of the manual.

Where are all those positive reviews and sales, you fucks? SitS is obviously rough around the edges, but it also is a lot more unique and interesting that Russian fallout 2018 edition (as good as it is), so what the fuck?
[just saw the SitS steam review counter for the first time and i'm fucking disgusted]
 

Gunnar

Arbiter
Joined
Jul 10, 2016
Messages
819
A lot of people don't like the ending because there are two endings, and one of them is the "bad" ending, and it's very easy to get the "bad" ending if you just play the game straight up, which feels unfair. When I did a playthrough to get the "good" ending, I started to like the ending a lot more because you see what they were going for. When you play to get the bad ending, you're trying to complete quests, collect experience, gold and items like in any rpg. For the good ending, you sort of have to play as a benevolent god. Killing any person seems hard, but it's actually very easy to go through the whole game without harming a single person, you have so much power to avoid combat entirely that even killing a bandit that was trying to kill you seems like a spiteful and evil act. This is why the Native quest gives you the bad ending no matter what side you choose, it's trying to bait you into acting like a petty human, when a god would just stay out of it. It's the same with the bounties, you just don't need the experience or gold a human would that you get from killing them, at least not enough to justify killing people for it, no matter if they are criminals. The game is almost like a puzzle where you have to figure out how to get that good ending, and it leads you to this understanding of your character. It doesn't let you get away with acting petty and evil the whole game and then make the altruistic choice at the end. It's different, and I liked that.
 

Goromorg

Savant
Joined
Aug 23, 2015
Messages
278
Or you can act like a selfish trickster god, soul bind every strong adventurer you meet to protect you from harm, make a pact with a vampire and enjoy one of the cruelest yet grimly satisfying endings RPG has to offer.
 

Deleted Member 16721

Guest
So I find the game fantastic so far. The lack of reviews, praise and attention do show a general lack of "hardcoreness" when people speak that they are, it's not true. This game is not even that hardcore, it's on the level of Baldur's Gate 1 in term of difficulty, nothing too crazy. But it's a very good game, I'm loving it so far. Definitely an underrated gem of a CRPG. Can't wait to get strong enough to complete some of these challenging encounters I've found already!
 

Sratopotator

Savant
Joined
Sep 21, 2016
Messages
149
So I find the game fantastic so far. The lack of reviews, praise and attention do show a general lack of "hardcoreness" when people speak that they are, it's not true. This game is not even that hardcore, it's on the level of Baldur's Gate 1 in term of difficulty, nothing too crazy. But it's a very good game, I'm loving it so far. Definitely an underrated gem of a CRPG. Can't wait to get strong enough to complete some of these challenging encounters I've found already!
Just to make it clear, by 'hardcore' i mean niche players. Not necessarily 'good' or even 'tactical' or 'systemic'.
Probably not the best use of the word, but it may be useful here.
If something appears as hard to approach, whatever the reason, it may be considered hardcore. I think.

Additionally, it may be that the terminology around the word 'hardcore' is tainted and useless. It has a lot of connotations and may misinform the player. It may be that some games or even parts of gaming market, are lost/disappearing partly because of that.
Sorry, interesting topic, but it's not the place for it.
Or is it? :cool:
 

Deleted Member 16721

Guest
Yeah I knew what you meant by it. Niche players basically. Those who claim to want games like this but then completely shun them when they release and play something like PoE instead. Shame, it's a fantastic game, top tier modern CRPG IMO.
 

Merlkir

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Oct 12, 2008
Messages
1,216
I picked it up again recently and finally gave up on it completely. I'd give it a negative review, but I also like the devs.
In the end it was a lot of small stuff that just added up to a mostly frustrating experience. Clunky ugly UI, repetitive ugly graphics (not because pixels, but I had genuine trouble recognizing what many things were. Like doors and cave exits for example, which kinda makes it hard to navigate.), lots of trash mobs (could be the locations I was in, sure. But hey, if they're at the beginning...) who respawned randomly (Nothing more fun than loading the game up right into a big group of enemies!), boring empty maps with nothing to do, sometimes the high difficulty (though it was less of a problem than I thought at first)...
I saw glimpses of freshness and originality (and those were indeed delightful!), which were then drowned in a sea of gray frustrating boredom.
It felt like a prototype game that had an awesome idea, but needed six more months of polish.

(Also a minor pet peeve - the game claims to be inspired by the bronze age, but beyond arms and armour being made of bronze and a little bit of the religious stuff, there didn't seem much that would fit that description.)
 

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