ELEX ELEX RELEASE THREAD

[Lambach]

Well, that ending was..... anti-climatic. Overall, while I did enjoy the game despite some glaring flaws, I just don't feel like replaying it, not any time soon anyway.

Now I need to decide whether to replay the first Risen, since I haven't done it in well over 5 years, or somehow suffer through Original Sin 2 for long enough that the retarded system changes stop bothering me. Decisions, decisions....

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Well, that ending was..... anti-climatic. Overall, while I did enjoy the game despite some glaring flaws, I just don't feel like replaying it, not any time soon anyway.

Now I need to decide whether to replay the first Risen, since I haven't done it in well over 5 years, or somehow suffer through Original Sin 2 for long enough that the retarded system changes stop bothering me. Decisions, decisions....

Realms of Arkania HD

 

[circ]

but the question is, is it better than fallout 4? i know i know, not a fair comparison, but curious

 

[Lambach]

Realms of Arkania HD

 

[T. Reich]

After 45 hours and having completed pretty much every non-faction quest in the game, I've joined up with the berserker bros.
I've explored approx 2/3 of the game's world (not counting Xacor, but Xacor is really fucking small anyway) and got to lvl30, I'm able to use all the best gear already.
Needless to say, PB's inability to properly spread content throughout the game rears its ugly head again. As for many other Codex bros who also engaged in thorough exploration and questing before committing to a faction, it took me barely an hour to go from the fresh faction conscript to the highest attainable rank.
I swear, if PB stopped making all side-quests being available fro mthe start of the game, and made them only triggerable from later acts, the game's pacing would improve dramatically.

 

[Darth Roxor]

After 45 hours and having completed pretty much every non-faction quest in the game, I've joined up with the berserker bros.
I've explored approx 2/3 of the game's world (not counting Xacor, but Xacor is really fucking small anyway) and got to lvl30, I'm able to use all the best gear already.
Needless to say, PB's inability to properly spread content throughout the game rears its ugly head again. As for many other Codex bros who also engaged in thorough exploration and questing before committing to a faction, it took me barely an hour to go from the fresh faction conscript to the highest attainable rank.
I swear, if PB stopped making all side-quests being available fro mthe start of the game, and made them only triggerable from later acts, the game's pacing would improve dramatically.

This never was that much of a problem in the older games tbh. Mostly because the factions had more exclusive quests to them + the total quest count was spread across chapters as you progress through the main quest. The biggest problem here imo is the terrible pacing of the main quest, which is almost completely disjointed from the "side" content, and the parts that aren't (like big bang) might just as well count as side quests anyway, because their connection to the "main" quest is minuscule at best.

 

[Gepeu]

it took me barely an hour to go from the fresh faction conscript to the highest attainable rank.

That's because factions are designed to join them as soon as it is possible. The entry is at level 5th, the first promotion at level 15th and the second promotion - 25th level. If you join them during a late game, it's only natural you roll through the ranks fast, since you're already a buffed out badass.
Seems ok to me.

 

[Tigranes]

After 45 hours and having completed pretty much every non-faction quest in the game, I've joined up with the berserker bros.
I've explored approx 2/3 of the game's world (not counting Xacor, but Xacor is really fucking small anyway) and got to lvl30, I'm able to use all the best gear already.
Needless to say, PB's inability to properly spread content throughout the game rears its ugly head again. As for many other Codex bros who also engaged in thorough exploration and questing before committing to a faction, it took me barely an hour to go from the fresh faction conscript to the highest attainable rank.
I swear, if PB stopped making all side-quests being available fro mthe start of the game, and made them only triggerable from later acts, the game's pacing would improve dramatically.

This isn't PB's inability, it's called open fucking world where you deliberately made a choice to postpone faction joining a million years beyond when it is first possible.

I certainly don't fucking want them to gate half of the world behind joining a faction just because you can't pace your own fucking open world game, they needed to just make the main quests not shit, instead of gating sidequests

 

[T. Reich]

It's not about gating content behind joining a faction, but rather rationing the availability of quests over time.
FFS, they already do that with the main quest by means of chapter structure!
Considering that joining a faction IS chapter 1 of Elex, PB would've done a much better job with pacing if:
1) They should've put more effort into hammering in the message that joining a faction ASAP is THE most important thing to do.
2) They should've made travelling to other factions easier to facilitate that early choice.
3) Half the quests should've been only made available from chapter 2 onwards. For example, a named character doesn't want anything from you in chapter 1, or they are only a small part of some side-quest. And during chapter 2 you come to them, and they're like "hey, I have this problem now...". It may even have something to do with some quests you completed during chapter 1, for dat reactivity.
And I probably would've made the Domed City accessible only from the chapter 2.

 

[Tigranes]

1) Every fucking dog walking down the street tells you to join a faction
2) You get a quick 'port from Abessa to Ignadon & the kidnapping dude in Abessa, I agree they could have had something for Tavar
3) This is literally gating content and all you are saying is you want it because you can't be trusted to exercise your freedom and I dont know join a faction before you're levelled up to endgame

Sorry but it just sounds like you just want a lot of content gating and PLEASE DO NOT ENTER just so that your own weird way of playing doesn't feel weird

 

[Grimlorn]

Professional victim sounds right!

But yeah, it seems out of place that there are no colored people when you consider that Magalaan is very similar to our world. It was a modern world after all where all cultures should had experienced some degree of mobility and migration.

You think anyone gives a shit if some developers create a game with a fictional earth like setting and it only has Asians or Black people as the sole occupants? Of course not. Only when it's white people do we have to consider it and call it racist. Fuck these race baiting scum and the morons who fall into their trap and seriously consider their fucking stupid opinions. Everyone should be coming together to make fun of these idiots, so they stop spreading their stupidity around. But everyone's too afraid of being called a racist right?

 

[Shadenuat]

Sorry but it just sounds like you just want a lot of content gating and PLEASE DO NOT ENTER just so that your own weird way of playing doesn't feel weird

That's not his point. He wants side content to stay as relevant throughout the game as main quest content.

Otherwise after you finish side content, gameworld becomes stagnant from thereafter, which happens in Elex.

 

[Murk]

I also think there should be more content related to main quest that develops over time. G1/2 and R1 had this -- the majority of side content should stay available from start, but there should be more shit happening after certain chapters are concluded. Though chapters in this game feel way off from anything in the previous games. Really, they could not exist and the game wouldn't feel any different other than Introspective Jax on the hill type cutscenes.

 

[Raghar]

2) You get a quick 'port from Abessa to Ignadon & the kidnapping dude in Abessa, I agree they could have had something for Tavar

I remember a conversation in Berserker's city, where someone says he found a path with only weak monsters that connects to Outlaw settlement. The problem is it was during my test how well can I run it on certain settings, and I don't remember where was that conversation.

 

[T. Reich]

2) You get a quick 'port from Abessa to Ignadon & the kidnapping dude in Abessa, I agree they could have had something for Tavar

I remember a conversation in Berserker's city, where someone says he found a path with only weak monsters that connects to Outlaw settlement. The problem is it was during my test how well can I run it on certain settings, and I don't remember where was that conversation.

It's REALLY easy to get from Goliet to Fort by the following route:
1) Go from E exit of Goliet towards the lake with the island.
The area is free from monsters, and there are several berserker workers making rounds, just in case.
2) From there, follow the road towards the industrial complex on the southernmost part of the Eden-Tavar border.
You will only need to avoid a couple of raptors and ripper lizards. Outrunning is an option.
3) Navigate the complex and descend to the island factory.
The possible encounters include a ripper lizard, a couple of ripper bugs, and a few reapers - all easily avoibadle by exploiting the architecture.
The island factory itself is absolutely safe.
4) From the island factory, follow the road towards the old windfarm.
This is the only dangerous place - the exit from the island is guarded by a small reaver outpost with a couple of jackals and ripper bugs on the way. Sprinting all the way will let you drop the chase.
5) Follow the road towards the S entrance of the Fort.
The place is virtually free of monsters, all of which are easily avoidable.

I took this route during my first run of Elex, at approx character level 6.

 

[Tigranes]

Sorry but it just sounds like you just want a lot of content gating and PLEASE DO NOT ENTER just so that your own weird way of playing doesn't feel weird

That's not his point. He wants side content to stay as relevant throughout the game as main quest content.

Otherwise after you finish side content, gameworld becomes stagnant from thereafter, which happens in Elex.

Yes, but how can you do this without gating side content until later?

Sure, I'm not opposed to a few sidequests cropping up later, but what's the point of gating Abessa till Act 2 and stuff? All it does is add railroading, and honestly, if you're going to explore the whole world deliberately avoiding the progression of faction quests & everyone (including main plot dudes) telling you to join a faction, then that's exactly the kind of freedom open world should give you & it's dumb to complain about what you chose to do.

 

[Shadenuat]

Yes, but how can you do this without gating side content until later?

Reactivity? Chapters emulate progress of time, so events should happen. For example, in Risen things become worse as plot progresses, like lizardmen show up. You can take one of their weapons and go to a smith you helped in previous chapter, and since he's now free from work, he can forge obsidian weapons for you. So you now have a goal to go and get some obsidian chunks.

All it does is add railroading

As opposed to Elex Main Quest, which is TOTALLY not railroading. Undying plot NPCs included.

As for Abessa, there is a part in main quest where huge force of albs comes from north and attacks abessa. That would have been a logical time to check fate of Domed City or create an actual siege situation, instead of an awkward script.

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

Some other flaws:
You can have only a maximum of 100 saves.
IF your WIndows suername has some speshul characters like š or something, the saving system fucks up.

The saving system flaws sounds like pure consoltard crap. They didn't even bother fixing it.

hory shit nigga now thats just pure distilled autism

This is especially funny, since they fixed that with the first Patch almost a month ago:

Update October 27th 2017
Changelog
Engine
- Crash fix for systems with more than 16 logical CPU cores.
- If savegame limit is reached, “Create new savegame” is hidden. (limit is 99)
- Fixed saving for all Windows user.
- Fixed some freezes in tutorials. The tutorial won't be shown if the corresponding key bindings are not valid.
- Fixed saving after the Big Bang fight was not possible.
- Fixed pink water on some older AMD/ATI graphic devices.
- Fixed game freeze when you try to interact during an evade roll.

So he's probably playing the pirated version and is still casting his butthurt by blaming the dev.

From what I can tell so far (30 hours in and got to the Cleric city by now), the "hitbox" issue that these imbeciles keep copy-pasting is simply not true, since I haven't experienced it once yet and evade usually works perfectly fine if timed right.

They're also repeating the same old shit as if they didn't have some original thought, I have some issues with the game so far too, but they're a bit different:
- No SLI support / playing at 4K/60 is impossible without
- The world is maybe a tad too big for its own good, the concentrated action and "something interesting to find at every corner" effect of Gothic 1/2/Risen gives way to a bit of "not more of this shit" of the Bethesda games, although not anywhere near the same level
- Jetpack and Teleporters make it easier to move around, but don’t help with getting as familiar with the world and experiencing the progress of beating a tough enemy to get by him and open up a previously locked part of the map quite the same as in previous games if you can just fly over, there’s also quests that become kind of pointless and trivial due to it (like getting stuff out of the garbage dump, or anything where you basically have to get by NPCs) because instead of elaborate quests to get there, you can just fly right in.

I agree with them on two things though:
- Jumping/Rolling animations definitely require some work and attract negative attention early on. It's kind of strange that Piranha Bytes can't hire a good animator to do some good character animations for their games when this is a recurring complaint and there's already systems available for free that can do a better job: https://www.mixamo.com/#/?page=1&query=jumping&type=Motion,MotionPack but one gets used to them after a few hours. Maybe someone should put up a Crowdfunding campaign for a few thousand Euro for Piranha Bytes to be able to hire an experienced Animator
- The HDR lighting effect when entering buildings is definitely very overdone, so are God rays / Also Disable Depth of Focus immediately after starting the game for better visuals!

I don't really have any issue with the inventory or UI so far (aside from some bugs where it can sometimes disappear through a wall), but I'm playing with controller and mostly melee, I just switch over to Mouse+Keyboard for ranged weapons sometimes.

But that doesn't make the game overall any less great than it is.

Also don't know how people can say the game is fugly, especially compared to some of the Bethestard games:

Spoiler

Spoiler

ALl of them are cheap workarounds.

Still cannot save more than 99 saves.

HDR is still eye rape; nothign fixed about it.

Hitboxes still retarded.

Quote me when the unacceptably bad hitboxes are fixed.

 

[T. Reich]

Sorry but it just sounds like you just want a lot of content gating and PLEASE DO NOT ENTER just so that your own weird way of playing doesn't feel weird

That's not his point. He wants side content to stay as relevant throughout the game as main quest content.

Otherwise after you finish side content, gameworld becomes stagnant from thereafter, which happens in Elex.

Yes, but how can you do this without gating side content until later?

Sure, I'm not opposed to a few sidequests cropping up later, but what's the point of gating Abessa till Act 2 and stuff? All it does is add railroading, and honestly, if you're going to explore the whole world deliberately avoiding the progression of faction quests & everyone (including main plot dudes) telling you to join a faction, then that's exactly the kind of freedom open world should give you & it's dumb to complain about what you chose to do.

I didn't say locking Abessa, just the domed city.
The domed city is a really interesting place, seeing as every faction is in there. Only letting a player from chapter 2 onwards (when they already joined a faction) could've produced a wide variety of interesting questing intertwined with your faction choice.
In addition, the domed city would then be able to play a larger role in the game, rather than being completely side-lined in the main quest (you only need to go there to recruit Caja).

In hindsight, meeting the Claws adds a whole bunch of optional quests to all the faction cities. This could've easily add a ton more time to improve the pacing of the latter acts - including that while doing those quests, other characters could contact you with other stuff to do as well.

P.S.: And I'd like to also point out that PB already did gate some of the stuff in later acts - most noticeably it's half of the companion quests.

 

[Zlaja]

After 45 hours and having completed pretty much every non-faction quest in the game, I've joined up with the berserker bros.

 

[Elex]

Sorry but it just sounds like you just want a lot of content gating and PLEASE DO NOT ENTER just so that your own weird way of playing doesn't feel weird

That's not his point. He wants side content to stay as relevant throughout the game as main quest content.

Otherwise after you finish side content, gameworld becomes stagnant from thereafter, which happens in Elex.

side content in elex is pretty much 80-85% of the game.

when you finish the side content... well you have finished the game.

you can also rush the main quest (10-12 hours at best?) and ignore side content, in that case the game will be full of side quest.

yes at some point all the quest will be completed and all the places explored, and the game don’t force you in a certain order because the end of the main story still allow jax to run around and complete the sidecontent.

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

I agree with Reich on gating the Domed City until later—it’s already blocked off until you do the entrance quests anyway.

In fact, I wish they’d scrapped most of the main quest and made it about the war for Abessa. Chapter 2: getting into the dome by proving your bona fides, chapter 3: shifting the balance of power in the dome. Chapter 4: the Albs invade and you’re trapped inside the city for dome siege. Presumably everyone turns on each other and the dome falls. Chapter 5: reclaiming the dome. You beat back the Albs and the world has a brief respite from their attempts at conquest. But the hybrid (a very different hybrid from the one PB made) is still out there, your brother is still out there, and there are no fucking aliens. Cue Elex 2, the Albs strike back.

 

[Darth Roxor]

If anything, the dome should have been the starting town instead of Goliet.

 

[Elex]

If anything, the dome should have been the starting town instead of Goliet.

this make sense.


......but a part of me desire the game starting in ignadon (and with harder quest for join clerics of course).

 

[T. Reich]

If anything, the dome should have been the starting town instead of Goliet.

Frankly, it could be so much more than it is now!