Tried the awesome character.
Its actually a pretty good move.
At first i didnt like it, thought its almost like dumbing down or pandering to players who complained about combat difficulty a lot but ... its actually a good move.
It just lets the less experienced in combat system players play the game in an easier, much quicker way.
And the only price for that is that they get a bit of a sarcasm - which they can use to joke about themselves and no one would mind.
"hey guys i just played AoD using my awesome character :p The game is pretty good... although the combat is a bit on a heavy side... blah, blah, blah... !"
The extended intro text following the awesome character is also funny. Its not overblown and that is better.
The "opening vignette" change is hilarious.
Felt like mad Tv Steven Segal joke
Then i visited the Feng man and killed that other loremaster for him. Easy peasy.
That got me some ka-ching.
Then i infiltrated the Daratan compound. I figured...why not. Im awesome.
So i went to a side palisade and jumped over easily. Cause im awesome.
And thats the place where i have a first question.... why am i jumping over the fence at the place that has one guard tower few meters away and a whole training yard full of soldiers right in front of me?
Wouldnt be more awesome if i jumped over from some other place?
I have to say the compound is pretty covered from all directions but that one seems like the worst possible one to choose.
Then i got the option of just going back or try and do some awesome sneaking. So i went for it dude.
And the crossbow bolt hitting my chest was apparently more awesome than my sneaking.
Whats up with that? :p (
rhetorical joking)
Then i had a nice chat with some guards and some torturers. They were so nice i decided i will just honestly tell them i just, like... went for it... because i have this map i want to give to their Lord really badly. Because it awesome.
Then they tortured me anyway.
That was not awesome.
But i guess since i am awesome, they decided to just throw me out after they saw i was telling the truth the whole time.
Which was pretty awesome at that point.
I think they were so impressed by my awesomeness that they returned all my loremaster loot, weapons, armor... i think only money was missing... if i saw everything correctly.
And i lost only a few HP points... and i think i can just fix that at some doctor.
So that wasnt so bad...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Why exactly we cant use the city walls to infiltrate the compound? I can even climb/go into and up through a tower on the wall encircling the city on the left (if youre facing directly towards the Daratan palace) and walk over it, despite some guards at the top level of the tower, until i just come to a full stop invisible wall for no reason.
Putting at least some sort of barricade there would seem more logical.
Or letting the player go until he can jump into the courtyard and then imposing that same sneak check on him.
The best would be if the player could choose which of the two (or more) of awesome spots to use for going over the fence/palisade.
Secondly... shouldn't torture be a bit more serious deal?
And even if we just get kicked out after... why with all gear and just HP reduced, which can then be easily fixed?
Money is taken... right?
I think something more could be added there...?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Anyway, after that i loaded the regular mercenary.
The intro is much, much better. I liked the previous one but it had problems, with gear and whatnot.
This is much more easier to get into, and very appropriate.
It just flows much better. Transport to a trader and back works just fine.
Although... why that trader and not the smith?
I went back, caught a thief, let the assassin go away after he did his job, went for splitting his loot. So i followed Vardanis and got into the thug attack.
Now, by that point, i had a Krokspar, the starting one handed spear, some merchant stuff, which included a ... long knife or something similar and one net i bought.
Maybe one other smaller weapon.
As you know the game lets you choose "equip your weapon" option, presented as a dialogue option.
Since i presumably put my Krokspar spear into my inventory while Verdanis discussed the deal with Cado.
Well, it didnt work. The only thing that got put into my hands was the net. So i had to waste one turn to open the inventory and couldn't get into the fight fast enough to prevent Verdanis from being killed.
Well, maybe its doable even so but this seems like a small bug that pops up if the player has more weapons in the inventory.
Ill try to do it in a similar way again tomorrow.
Oh yeah, attributes are still fairly unbalanced in usefulness.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nice move putting the pre-order interface at the end. Much better position then at the start as i suggested.
And it works.
Nice addition of explaining the demo and the scope of the whole game too. Cool screenshots.
Zanny all around.
Except the world map that still doesnt show Teron by default, and if you click its name on the side you just load back. clicking the names of other cities doesnt move the map towards them either.
That would be like nice to have there, and if not then just adding some names just next to the cities on the map itself would be nice.
