KickStarter Grim Dawn

[Wise Emperor]

How big is that alpha? How long does it take to finish it? Will final version be much bigger?

 

[General Maxson]

How big is that alpha? How long does it take to finish it? Will final version be much bigger?

I think alpha is around 1/3 of the final game.

 

[godsend1989]

Whats the point then playing a ranger class if you can only kill them 1 by 1 ? its a game it suppose to be fun not real, thats why Diablo 2 is still the king, you start out a weak peasant and by the end your a god, thats fun.

 

[Mastermind]

Demolitionist has some aoe skills that can kill multiple enemies in one shot.


I don't like this game. I wanted to like it, I really did, since I loved TQ, but there's just no comparison. TQ's a better game. The skills in GD are boring. So are the levels (which, despite what people here are saying, are identical in structure to TQ ones, if not worse). The setting would work better for a more well rounded RPG. I found myself wanting to wear black mascara and listen to Linkin Park by the end of the alpha. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not. The weapon variety is pretty terrible. I forgave it in TQ due to the primitive setting, but the inclusion of guns without any variety whatsoever is unforgivable. Hopefully some of these issues will be hashed out in the full version, but so far I'm fairly disappointed.

 

[Cynic]

Bro, it's an alpha. They'll be tweaking skills etc as they monitor how people are playing. Remember they've got a beta phase to get through as well before the full launch.

I think there's enough weapon variety but I think the differences between the types are not pronounced enough. I think what they really need is a comparison window between what you've got equipped and what you are thinking about equipping, that way, you can larp all you want and still have good shit.

I'm finding the combat a lot of fun, but there are issues with being 100% melee. I think they really need to address that. That being said, I'm having a wicked time using environmental obstacles to avoid large packs, firing off some rounds with cadence and then going in for the kill with forcewave and some melee.

The setting is fantastic IMO. Have only praise to sing about it. Not sure why you want to wear mascara? Tranny?

 

[Cynic]

No one playing anymore?

You're missing out.

Haven't had heaps of time to play, still only level 14, but my earlier assumption that melee was going to suck has been proven completely wrong. It's a lot of fun. I've just recently got Blitz and Blade Arc and these skills make the Soldier fucking awesome. Combined with a bit of a Demolitionist's abilities to stop some mobs in their tracks and my bro is a lot of fun to play.

Here's the thing - this feels different to Diablo 3, in a really good way. While D3 had super fast paced action combat, which for what it was, wasn't terribad, GD makes you think about shit. You think about spacing, about timing. There's a lot of random shit going on in the fights, attacks can miss, or be deflected. Suddenly that plan you had to take out these 30 zombies and elite pack coming towards you isn't going so well, and it's oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck time. I love that shit.

The kiting to heal mechanic is fine. Sure, you can run away and come back, but some of the mobs self heal as well, so usually it's kind of like just an admission that your previous strategy didn't work and you have to try a new one. So far the only fights that I've found a bit silly are boss ones, where it seemed there was only 2 tactics - kite and shoot, or run in for some quick damage with melee and then run out. BUT, the fights are tense, and in that sense I think they are fun.

I've also got to say, the encounter set ups are excellent. You can tell that they have actually put a lot of thought into which mobs get grouped together, and how this is going to force your tactics one way or another. It keeps the combat interesting and allows for using a wide variety of different skills to win.

I've only died like maybe 3 times, and that was because I was being a stupid, go for glory commando that I am.

The maps are excellently randomized. Each time I play there might be a different cave somewhere that I couldn't get to before. They're also pretty large and offer a lot of fun just in terms of exploration. Loot has been pretty good so far, but I think they need more variety in what melee weapons do. Maybe I just haven't found enough loot to comment on this yet though.

To summarize - this game is as awesome as I thought it would be. Really hoping they can keep the quality of what is in the alpha consistent throughout the beta and on to the full release.

 

[Gurkog]

I missed the kickstarter, but preordered it shortly after. I am not too worried about quality as long as it isn't clunky. I like to shut my brain off and mow down hordes in ARPGs.

 

[Cynic]

Switching your brain off might get you killed quick in this game

 

[Cynic]

Btw bros, this is a PC/ATI related question.

I inherited a pretty good rig from my brother who moved overseas. Well it was good when he built it in 2010. Anyway, it has an ASUS EAH5850 graphics card, which has an AMD Radeon HD 5850 graphics engine in it. Now I haven't updated drivers for ages. I made the mistake of letting steam update the driver for me and it fucked itself and crashed. When it rebooted it said "cannot find graphics card" so I was all like fuuuuuuu steam, but also self hating for having put my faith in fuckware.

Anyway I opened the drivers for the graphics card in the device manager and it had changed driver from the ASUS drivers to ATI's and I guessed that might have been what was causing the problem.

So I went and downloaded the latest drivers from ASUS, and the display came back to normal, but there were some errors along the way, something to do with MS visual studio not installing correctly.

I am pretty sure my ATI drivers are not up to date, I want to update them. I noticed a bit worse performance on this game after doing this update.

Should I uninstall all ATI stuff via the install tool and then reinstall?

 

[General Maxson]

Ati has that express uninstall everything ati option, or something like that. Do that, and erase the folders that are left over from ati, like C:\ATI. Then go to ati official and carefully select the appropriate driver for your card and install it. Should be working perfectly. Also, use the complete catalyst package install option.

 

[Cynic]

I uninstalled with ATI install manager but didn't delete the folders in c:/ but when I reinstalled it said it needed to create a new folder there so perhaps they were already deleted? Anyway I reinstalled and now have the latest drivers installed but...

this rig has 8GB of RAM and a quad core i7 processor (I think 2.8 ghz)...despite that I'm noticing the game is running more choppy after the update...I wonder why...

 

[Sensuki]

I upgraded to a HD7970 and I actually don't really see much of a performance increase lol.

 

[Cynic]

Seems like some people have good luck with their cards and others not at this stage. It's a bit much to expect it to be properly optimised so I guess I should really just get over it.

 

[Sensuki]

I didn't upgrade FOR Grim Dawn so I don't care.

 

[Cynic]

Cool story bro

 

[Sensuki]

About the performance problems didn't mean your post

 

[TemplarLord]

Cynic

Not to derail the thread further but you should try uninstalling all ATI/AMD related drivers with Driver Sweeper.

Install it, select only AMD - Display (if you have something ATI related that's fair game too), and Clean it. Reboot, and only install these drivers.

Win7 drivers for HD5850 - x86
Win7 drivers for HD5850 - x64
WinXP drivers for HD5850 - x86

Of course, pick whatever OS you're using. It's pretty good advice to always install official drivers rather than outdated manufacturer ones.

 

[Cynic]

Yeah I've used driver sweeper before, on my other PC and it did improve performance, guess I should do it again. I'll give this a shot tomorrow.

 

[Zewp]

No one playing anymore?

I've decided to drop it until the full game is out. I played a bit of the alpha, but I'd rather not spoil my experience further for when the final game releases.

 

[Jedi Exile]

I've finished alpha today and liked it. Gameplay was really fun.

 

[sea]

No one playing anymore?

There have been no new beta releases in quite some time and it's not going to substantially change before release in all likelihood. Can only play the same content so much.

 

[Cynic]

Used driver sweeper and shit is sweet now.

I think I'm almost at the end of the alpha. Game is still awesome. My build is almost pure soldier and I'm having a blast.

At this point my only concern is that they can finish this ASAP.

 

[Cynic]

Grim Dawn forums full of retards shit is making me rage.

 

[Renevent]

Well you were kind of a rude asshole. The Grim Dawn forums are actually one of the better forums out there. Most people stay fairly civil and there's a nice amount of discussions going on.

Anyways I like the alpha, though overall not sure how I feel about the game as a whole. It's definitely fun and they are on the right track, but so far there's a few things I'm kinda disappointed with. The skills in each mastery aren't as well designed as they were in TQ, at least in my opinion. Obviously we only have 3 masteries at the moment so when we get the others (and skills get tweaked) perhaps this will improve.

I'm finding the levels big enough, but so far waaaaaay too repetitive visually. TQ was fantastic in the fact as you progressed the scenery changed quite a bit and I thought they had better design overall.

I agree with your criticism about the hellhound pet.

Beyond that so far for an alpha I think they've done a pretty damn good job. They've improved the feel of combat a great deal and added some other nice tweaks/improvements. It's already fun mechanics wise, they just need to really fill in the content and perhaps tweak a few things here and there.

 

[Cynic]

People are too fucking sensitive. I admit my last post over there probably went a bit far (I apologised) but the previous thread about the healing mechanic was full of annoying shit.

I find their forums to be good, but a bit heavy on cock sucking. That's the worst possible thing for a game at this stage. They need highly critical, well thought out feedback.

I have begun to agree with your thoughts about the levels, perhaps they should make them slightly smaller, I don't think they have enough money to add more variety. The out door bits are good, but lots of caves look similar, maybe they are planning to have a different outdoor/cave/dungeon aesthetic per act.

I feel that the skills are sitting okay for the most part, Soldier feels really good, very fun to play as, I've gotten an occultist to level 11 now and I must say that some of the skills are a little awkward. I think for this class you really have to have a clear play style in mind and it needs to be dual classed. I had to respec a bit after trying out the skills. They don't have anything to help them tank and they need a bit of extra power to their ranged skills if you want to play distanced. But, I do think they will be very effective in multi player.

The Alpha is great, for an alpha. The big question is whether they can fix the issues and keep the content good and varied throughout the full game.