Game News Depth of Peril demo is out!

[speeler]

BTW, I noticed that once my warrior was attacking, he would auto-switch and keep attacking after my 1st target died. Maybe that was just a default response to getting hit, but if it was actually auto-switching targets, that should be easy to apply to mage/priests in the process of spellcasting...

He should auto attack to defend himself before you were attacking also. If not, something is broken. A ranged auto attack would have to be a little different but could probably be done.

I cranked it up and it was better, but I found a cheesy exploit for which you might want to improve the AI. It's easier to defend than raid because you get all 5 henchmen PLUS 4 hired monster guards. So I would raid a patsy, playing possum and waiting for a 3rd covenant to seize the "opportunity" to raid me. Then I'd cancel the raid, and clean up with all 10 of my guys (including me) on the 4-5 raiders at my home. They would keep suiciding, though, until about 25% lifestone health, at which point they would finally stop. Then I'd raid them and finish them off before anyone else could do anything. It just seemed like it took too long for the 3rd covenant to figure out that their "sneak" attack wasn't sneaky enough. Maybe if the patsy joined in and also raided my home, then it would be a bit more interesting. Maybe the raiders should do what I do and focus on the hired monsters first, since they don't resurrect... (at least at tougher difficulties?)

Part of this is the randomness of the enemies. You were lucky that someone else didn't jump in on the raid I'm going to see if the covenant should bail out of a bad raid quicker though and see if I can easily make them focus a little more on the guards.

lots of stuff like "deep wound" or something, that mentions it does extra damage over time, but how much? For how long? Is it really worth spending 4 points to get 10% extra chance of that happening? I don't have any fucking clue. Same with "leaches x power", wtf is power? Other stuff like that.

Ok, I now explain deep wound skills (bleed and rupture) a little better. I also fixed the smite skill (leaches power) to make more sense. Power is the generic term for a classes skill power source (mana, faith, momentum, and rage). I've tried to fix all of the references to power, but apparently I missed at least this one.

Also, you can't plan for the future without seeing the future level effects, just seeing what the next level does is not enough. Example: One of my skills added 6% for first level, then 12% (total) for 2nd level, but then only 17% (total) for 3rd level.

I'll have to see if there is a good place to put this somewhere. Actually most of the time the bonuses are linear. The second point might be different than the first point though.

Oh! And having an "accept skill point allocation" button would be a godsend. It's extremely easy to accidentally click the wrong skill, and no way (not even alt-tab, kill, re-load) to undo a simple mistake like that.

I'm thinking about adding an accept button, a reset last skill, or a more general reset skill button.

Speaking of alt-tab, I get horrible graphics corruption when I do that, and since "alt" for show items is right next to the windows key, it happens occasionally.

I'm looking into this one.

Shit, this is long, but I have another little beef that I thought about while playing yesterday night. There's extremely little reason to play a mage. Imgaine a classic mage-warrior tandem. The warrior takes the heat while the mage nukes everyone. If I'm the warrior, I can hire a mage with 4 good spells. Plus I get ALL my euquipment slots and all my skills to make myself as badass as possible (particularly, hard to hit and full of life). If I'm a mage, though, I wouldn't focus on more than 4 spells anyway, my meatshield can only use 3 pieces of equipment, and I haven't seen much cloth armor stuff that would really help my mage be more effective at casting spells (being more armored as a mage is pointless because you'll never be armored enough). So by doing it that way, I'm just screwing my team out of 6 or so pieces of loot that could have been helping us. Since getting loot and being strong are big parts of the game, it seems like this is just dumb. Best fix: let NPCs have all the same inventory slots that characters do. Alternate fix: make mages not suck so much.

I keep hearing this but each time it's a different class There are some unique items and magic modifiers on magic/rare items that will help out a mage (mostly +mana and +mana regen items). It's also easier for the player to use drinks and mana potions then it is to give them to your recruits. Also as you get to higher levels it makes a lot of sense to use more skills.

Final comment on game design... It seems like Priests are really interesting, but get screwed more than any other class as far as being spread thin. They need str to do more damage, dex to survive and hit things, vit to survive, int for crits (could skip this), and spirit to cast spells! By comparison, warriors need 3 attributes (str, dex, vit), mages need 2 (int, vit), and rogues look to need the same 3 as warriors (haven't played one yet, not sure). It just seems like it'll be much harder to be a "good" Priest than other classes. I obviously don't have a clue how the later parts of the game work out, though, so I may be way off base...

I'm not sure priests get screwed exactly since they can melee, heal, use buffs, and have offensive spells but yes their attribute allocation is harder than the other classes.

 

[AnalogKid]

Hey, thanks for the responses Steven! This is getting pretty detailed, so I actually moved over and registered on your boards to continue all my little thoughts.

For the broader audience of the 'codex, though, I want to mention one impression I have from the demo that kind of surprised me. The "strategic" aspect _really_ adds to the game, even if it's not a real strategy game. Its not the depth of the strategy that does it, but just the pure fact of being in competition with the other covenants. After I've unified the town, I can keep questing and killing and looting in a world that I own, all to myself. But it doesn't _feel_ as fun. When I do something well or get some uber-loot during a game with other covenants still around, I feel extra happy because I know I just got an edge on them.

There's a ton of ideas that everyone has about how to improve the strategy stuff, but the simple fact that competition exists with other covenants trying to accomplish the same thing as the player is an extremely cool feature. Well done!

 

[Jedi_Learner]

I finally got around to playing the demo, and I found it quiet enjoyable. The graphics and animation are nice, and starting the game I was suprised by the surround sound. Some of the tomes I came across had extremely long stories, feeling a bit out of place with the otherwise simple but addictive gameplay. I had it on the easiest difficulty, but some of the AI touches were nice, I raided another faction and half-way in the battle another faction came along and helped me.

I had a few problems though. All the areas I came across were the same sizes and shape, feeling more or less the same places except for the different monsters and some textures. The Black Forest was properly the most different, but then again it was mostly in darkness. (Map Image)

The save system could of been a little bit better as well. It would of been nice to have more than one save slot, and exiting the game forced you to save, which I didn't really like. I'm not sure I'd want to pay $29.99 just for the files though, but then again I'm a cheap bastard.

And then Windows had to screw me over, just when I found a very rare Relic. It's quiet a nice demo, so if you haven't given it a go, you might be suprised.

 

[Jasede]

The game really looks like this? I ignored this title until now, but the way that grass and those mushrooms look makes me want to play it.

Yes, i am a graphic whore. At least partly.

 

[speeler]

We did fix a few crashes bugs after the demo was released and before the final game, so it should be more stable. I should mention that the demo was pretty stable in the first place though.

The game does auto save every couple minutes so very rarely will you lose anything important even if you do crash.

Yes, that's what the game looks like.

 

[Jedi_Learner]

The game does auto save every couple minutes so very rarely will you lose anything important even if you do crash.

I just had a check of my character, and the Relic is gone. I must be very unlucky...

I'll understand if you don't want to answer, but even this early how are you doing in terms of sales speeler? Better or worse than you expected? Just curious before you ask me why. :wink:

 

[Vault Dweller]

The game really looks like this? I ignored this title until now, but the way that grass and those mushrooms look makes me want to play it.

Yes, i am a graphic whore. At least partly.

Didn't you read my preview, bitch? That's it, you are banned.

 

[speeler]

I'll understand if you don't want to answer, but even this early how are you doing in terms of sales speeler? Better or worse than you expected? Just curious before you ask me why. :wink:

They are about what I expected, which means slower than I would like. The people that bought the game and many of the people that played the demo are really liking the game though, so I think word of mouth will slowly catch on. Ok, so why do you ask?

 

[Jedi_Learner]

I'll understand if you don't want to answer, but even this early how are you doing in terms of sales speeler? Better or worse than you expected? Just curious before you ask me why.

 

[speeler]

Ok, I'm dumb missing the obvious.

 

[Jedi_Learner]

Just to let everyone know, a new updated version of the Depths of Peril demo is now available. You can find linkies here if you're interested in trying the game.