KickStarter Grim Dawn

[Eyeball]

What's up with the retardedly quick Health regen? I didn't ask for this popamole!

 

[Cyberarmy]

Hehehe, you are going to pray for that regen to kick in after a while.

 

[Azrael the cat]

The biggest downside of KS is the backers themselves. The developers are made to feel that they "owe" it to the backers to be inclusive of their ideas. This is not how it is meant to work and if you feel like backing something somehow gives you the right to dictate what goes into the game, you do not understand the difference between backing and investing.

You are not investing in the final product, you don't get a piece of the pie once its done, you are contributing to its creation. The backer rewards are what you get for getting involved in the process early, nothing more, nothing less. Sadly it seems that this has become twisted in on itself and people now think they have a "right" to whine and complain about every fucking thing while the game is still in development. It is NOT how it should work.

It's not all the backers fault though, this is a relatively new way to create a game. Developers are still learning how to deal with it. They need to simply say at the beginning, "this is what we want to make. If this sounds like something you'd like, back us early, get your rewards" and the communication for all intents and purposes should pretty much stop there. In all further discussions with backers the devs need to be militant in their adherence to the original design goals of the project. Either this or they need to be very skilled at PR, placating the backers while stringently sticking to what they personally know is best.

Being swayed into things from publishers is one thing - apart from anything publishers do this with keen knowledge of the industry to increase the sales of the product. The backers on the other hand mostly know fuck all about anything to do with game/software development. Listening to them is simply retarded beyond belief.

There's also the problem that games, just like films and novels, don't and shouldn't ordinarily have a 100% conversion rate into finished products once major development starts. Developers need to have the freedom to say 'hey, this isn't working...but you know we could use this tech/idea for a much better game', or even just to cut their losses if something just isn't going to make the grade. Kickstarter cannot allow for this natural part of creative endeavours, as the nature of consumer-backed products means that you MUST go to completion with that specific product and those specific features, no matter whether a better idea emerges organically from the development process.

 

[Cynic]

This is true, but in GDs case, the game was already quite a ways along in terms of concept and style. As they said in the KS video, they had the bones, they just needed to build the body. It's far more open ended for games like Torment or PE. Presumably they knew very little about what they were really going to do before the KS campaigns while Crate already had an engine and working prototype.

Crate made a bad choice in listening to too many opinions from their forums for a while, they seem to have gotten back on track now though. I do believe that when this game is finished, it will be an excellent ARPG. It remains to be seen whether it will still be relevant at that point. They aim to have it 3 acts long, which at the current pace would mean around 30 hours. I'm cool with that, and if it sells well, there's always chances for expansions down the road.

 

[you know what time it is]

it should be selling pretty decently already, it appears in steam's top sellers tab every now and then

also, considering how underwhelming diablo clones have been lately (including diablo 3), people will gobble that shit like there's no tomorrow

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Just installed this. So, are two-handed melee weapons implemented yet?

 

[Cynic]

Hmm I'm not sure about two handed melee...can't say I've found one yet

 

[Eyeball]

Without reading the thread to know if this has been discussed before, I just realised that GD has no random map generator. What the FUCK is this SHIT?! Hacknslashers live and die by their randomly generated content! It was fine for a game like Divine Divinity to have premade levels because it was story-heavy and a living World. GD has Things that move and need to be killed. Its replayability will NOT stand for static levels!

DEVS!

 

[Cynic]

The maps have variable paths that change on game load. These paths can lead to areas which cannot be accessed all the time. I personally don't want completely random maps, if I want to farm something, I want to know where it's going to be. There's also tonnes of secret passageways etc., even dungeons that can be made inaccessible to an entire play through if you make the wrong choice. It's got more than enough replay value.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

No two-handed weapons yet. Forums indicate it might be implemented in an expansion.
Until then Blitz is pretty good for boss killing, seems to make things easy where they are concerned.

 

[Eyeball]

I am a bit puzzled by how they've balanced damage in this game. Playing as a pure demolitionist, I can shoot and shoot and shoot at yellow-texted demolitionists all I want for years but only do limited damage but 1 thrown grenade 1shots both them and everyone standing around them. Gameplay for me has devolved into me running in circles taking potshots at the opposition while waiting for my grenade skill to recharge, which was also how I beat the act 1 end boss. I am currently level 19.

Is that how it's supposed to work or am I missing something?

 

[Aothan]

sounds like a difference between well what might be categorised as projectile damage compared to explosive damage, or howsoever different skill types are determined.

if any of the beta players have finished the second act I'm curious to know how impressions fare, would it be a good addition to the first act in terms of game play development and expansion ?

 

[Minttunator]

I finished the currently available content (including the second act) just the other day and I can't say the second act differs all that much from the first. It's all a bit bland, to be honest - I like the art style of the characters and equipment but the environments are rather dull. Character development, while interesting, is also a lot less complex than I was hoping for - I suppose Path of Exile has spoiled me.

 

[kazgar]

Updated their Journal

I pledged for this, still haven't tried it, still sorta waiting for the release, so I haven't heard from em in a while. Looks like its trucking along.

Progress Since Act II

Grim Greetings,

I normally try to reserve sending updates through KS for big announcements, so as to spare your email too much spam but it has been long enough that I felt a proper KS update was in order.

By the way, for anyone who would like to receive notification of all our updates, you can do so by following us on Facebook, Twitter or just by periodically checking the feed on our homepage. Of course, we also encourage everyone to participate on our forum and voice your feedback.

Build 19 has gone live today and unleashed two-handed melee weapons along with the "roguelike" dungeon, Steps of Torment. It also includes a new experimental constitution mechanic that is intended to help out-of-combat regen not seem infinite and more of a resource you need to use somewhat strategically. Previously we released dual wielding for pistols, so that checks a couple of stretch goals off the list!

Build 19 also includes a lot of behind the scenes coding work to make our new quest system work with multiplayer, in advance of our anticipated multiplayer release this summer (possibly by the end of July). These changes required a lot of testing and fixing that prevented us from releasing B19 sooner but we've already gotten a lot of work done on B20 content in the meantime.

In Build 18 we introduced crafting with over 150 item recipes and a new quest to rescue one of two rival blacksmiths. We also added a veteran mode starting difficulty for players who wanted a little more challenge. The character info sheet received a major overhaul to provide much more detailed information about your characters. For example, OA and DA roll-overs now show your chance to hit, miss, crit and be crit by your last target / attacker. In Build 18 we also greatly randomized the way enemies were spawned, resulting in more diversity in the mix and size of encounters. Most enemies also now switch from run to walk once they've closed within a certain distance of the player and then back to run if the player gets out of range, promoting a more controlled feeling to combat and allowing for more tactical movement on the player's part when dealing with big groups of hard-hitting enemies.

Since the release of Act II, we've also done a bit of work to improve the look of the environments and lighting. We've adjusted textures, added assets and tweaked environmental effects to make areas more distinctive.

There have been tons of smaller improvements, balancing changes and fixes that can be found in our change logs.

Act III is shaping up nicely with about 80% of the environmental art finished, 60% of the terrain currently built and the enclave of Homestead finished but not yet populated. About 65% of the enemies and one of the end-game bosses are finished. Now that dual wield pistols and 2h melee is released, our animator will be able to focus more of his time on enemy animation. We're hoping to release Act III this fall. Some progress has also been made on Arcanist and, depending on how playtesting goes, that might be ready in August.

We also have a secret new layer of character development in the works that will add a lot of depth and diversity to class builds but it is a little premature to talk about yet. We look forward to sharing more information on that in the coming months!

Until next time...

Arthur

 

[Metro]

Just another three or four years.

 

[Haba]

Oddly enough, I am actually happy that it takes a while. Can only stomach so much H&S, so chapter every six months is more than enough.

But what the hell is that "roguelike dungeon". Randomly generated?

 

[kazgar]

Oddly enough, I am actually happy that it takes a while. Can only stomach so much H&S, so chapter every six months is more than enough.

But what the hell is that "roguelike dungeon". Randomly generated?

Went and had a look, don't think its that good, but its somewhat interesting

Unless you have started a hardcore character, you won't die permanently in Grim Dawn but we have tried to capture the thrill of rogue-likes in these special challenge dungeons by sealing the door upon entering and disabling riftgates so that there is no escape except by gruesome death or fighting your way triumphantly to the end.

From Here

 

[Aeschylus]

Oddly enough, I am actually happy that it takes a while. Can only stomach so much H&S, so chapter every six months is more than enough.

But what the hell is that "roguelike dungeon". Randomly generated?

As I understand it, the dungeon requires you to craft a special item to enter, and if you die inside you can't go back in until you craft another. The dungeon also contains enemies 10-15 levels above you, so it's somewhat tough.

 

[sser]

Oddly enough, I am actually happy that it takes a while. Can only stomach so much H&S, so chapter every six months is more than enough.

But what the hell is that "roguelike dungeon". Randomly generated?

As I understand it, the dungeon requires you to craft a special item to enter, and if you die inside you can't go back in until you craft another. The dungeon also contains enemies 10-15 levels above you, so it's somewhat tough.

This seems to be a new thing for the hack and slash genre. Torchlight 2 had the maps you could purchase at the end of the game and Diablo 3 now has that adventure mode where you gotta find keys to open 'rifts' (random dungeons).

 

[Cynic]

Kind of cool.

 

[Great Deceiver]

I've been following the development of this game for a couple of years now, finally got around to buying it and playing the early access beta.

I'm around level 20 now and I like it a lot, as far as these types of games go. There's a lot of atmosphere to the game and the soundtrack is pretty good; it's nothing out of the ordinary as far as gameplay goes however, it has a similar multiclassing setup to Titan Quest but the abilities are a little more varied this time around - it's definitely a more active game than TQ. I'm playing as a Soldier with some Demonology thrown in, and it's quite fun.

It's a mindless clicker for sure and I've no idea how the content towards the end goes, but I think I've outgrown the loot grind in these games (I've played more than my fair share of these hack'n'slash iso games) and would rather play something with some sort of mood now; there's some nice music and cool aesthetics here that take some of the tedium away from the naturally repetitive gameplay.

Overall, it runs well, looks cool, has a nice moody soundtrack and isn't insultingly childish in the way that Diablo 3 was. The story is mostly bollocks but I hope there are some cool demons later on.

I'm happy to support the developers, I don't see how it could compete with the big names but I don't really care about that anyway. Best of luck to them.

 

[Sensuki]

I haven't played since the very first few Alpha builds. I enjoyed Titan Quest Immortal Throne quite a bit. I found this to be pretty good, but a bit meh.

Demolitionist was the best class back then. Kiting was easy too.

When I played it the performance was not fantastic. I have an i7 and a HD7970 and I was getting 40-60 FPS (which to me is terrible, compared to Titan Quests 120-200 FPS)

That said, this is better than Diablo 3.

But the character building and double classing was the best (and the only good) thing about TQ

You can dual class in Grim Dawn, I did.

 

[Great Deceiver]

Performance for me is a locked 60 on an i5 with a gtx 770, maybe they've optimized the game in this time. Loading is pretty quick too.

 

[Grunker]

I enjoyed Titan Quest [...] I found this [...] a bit meh.

in other words, complete garbage

 

[Sensuki]

Just played it for about 30 mins then, you're right they have improved the performance. Not as good as TQ but it's a lot smoother. They've also cleaned up the earlier areas and added in some extra undergrounds. New animations are nice too. P cool.