KickStarter Grim Dawn

[ArchAngel]

As for performance, you said fine which can mean a lot of different things to different people. Do you have constant 60FPS in the game? Even on Plains of Strife when fighting 20 enemies at same time?

Yes, getting 55-60 FPS everywhere. When fighting so many enemies, there IS a slowdown as the game goes down to 40-45 FPS, but it's still playable. I kill a few enemies and the FPS goes up. Seems like optimization problem (LOD related?) but nothing that has resulted in unplayable game or resulted in a crash (for me, personally). Then again, I am using 660Ti, it's ancient so I am guessing people with better GPU's, like 970, will not be having such slowdowns so the problem could be just the GPU not being able to render so many enemies on-screen.

That's PC gaming for you. Unpredictable performance for everyone.

That is strange because my PC is stronger and while I do get 60 fps often, in some areas it does come down to 35 or so and I don't even have everything maxed. (960 and i5 4690 here).

 

[ortucis]

Some I don't even know what they do. WTF is a "vitality resistance"?

Game does a very bad job of explaining a lot of things. Vitality damage is done by some boss enemies (I haven't noticed smaller enemies doing it, maybe they do) when your health just starts draining. You will hear loud thumping sound with every drain too. During the battles, it basically means you have to time your health potion consumption during such attacks, or risk dying if you have a small health bar/numbers. It's actually pretty challenging, had me running away trying to use potions a lot of time.

Vitality damage is done by certain undead (Warlocks, Monstrosities, Kilrian), Order of Death's Vigil, and some C'Thonics (the Leeches, the rest mostly do chaos damage).

Yup, I now remember some other enemies doing it too.

But here's the thing, I only realized what the damage was when I saw a red icon popup in the corner and quickly mouse over it before it disappeared. It's fucking stupid how the game doesn't explain what different damage types/resistances are (unless I missed it, somehow). I had to mouse-over and read what kind of damage the enemy is doing using which ability, EVERY SINGLE TIME. And the fucking icons in corner last like a second, forcing you to get attacked so you can read the bloody tooltip.

Titan Quest didn't have such issues. No idea wtf they were doing during beta. TQ didn't need a shitty beta to be a good game.

That is strange because my PC is stronger and while I do get 60 fps often, in some areas it does come down to 35 or so and I don't even have everything maxed. (960 and i5 4690 here).

I have i7 2600K, 16GB DDR3 along with my 660Ti. The game is installed on a 7200 rpm HDD as well. So basically, no bottleneck.

Your i5 sounds like it's the issue. Could be slow HDD as well. Hell, could be porn.exe that's launching when you start your PC.

PS: I should also mention, my 660Ti is a factory overclocked card from Gigabyte. It's faster than the reference 660Ti.

 

[ArchAngel]

That is strange because my PC is stronger and while I do get 60 fps often, in some areas it does come down to 35 or so and I don't even have everything maxed. (960 and i5 4690 here).

I have i7 2600K, 16GB DDR3 along with my 660Ti. The game is installed on a 7200 rpm HDD as well. So basically, no bottleneck.

Your i5 sounds like it's the issue. Could be slow HDD as well. Hell, could be porn.exe that's launching when you start your PC.

PS: I should also mention, my 660Ti is a factory overclocked card from Gigabyte. It's faster than the reference 660Ti.

Doubt it since my CPU is better overall unless you have yours overclocked. I also have it on 7200 rpm HDD, HDD does not cause FPS slowdowns, it can cause stuttering.
And I did a clean windows install just 2 weeks ago barely installed anything on it.

Maybe I should create a Nvidia profile for the game and try to play with options there.

 

[ortucis]

Doubt it since my CPU is better overall unless you have yours overclocked. I also have it on 7200 rpm HDD, HDD does not cause FPS slowdowns, it can cause stuttering.
And I did a clean windows install just 2 weeks ago barely installed anything on it.

Maybe I should create a Nvidia profile for the game and try to play with options there.

HDD slowdowns look like FPS slowdowns to many people.

As for the profile, I added the exe to tweak the profile. nVidia already has a profile for the game. But I always add the exe to tweak it and make some options work.

 

[RoBoBOBR]

This may be well known, but official game guide explains quite a bit of stuff, like damage types and difference between flat damage and % damage modifiers. http://www.grimdawn.com/game.php

Performance-wise i run it on i5 that's several years old, with a bit of overclocking, 16G Ram and GeForce 6800 (IIRC) and i notice no slowdowns, even on big packs with 20+ mobs (or several of those packs on botched pull =).

 

[ArchAngel]

Doubt it since my CPU is better overall unless you have yours overclocked. I also have it on 7200 rpm HDD, HDD does not cause FPS slowdowns, it can cause stuttering.
And I did a clean windows install just 2 weeks ago barely installed anything on it.

Maybe I should create a Nvidia profile for the game and try to play with options there.

HDD slowdowns look like FPS slowdowns to many people.

As for the profile, I added the exe to tweak the profile. nVidia already has a profile for the game. But I always add the exe to tweak it and make some options work.

Yes it can if FPS slowdown is short because it takes a moment longer to load something from the HDD, but for me it lasts for the whole battle vs those groups. My HDD is black edition so it is at least as fast as yours. I can move the game to my SSD drive to see if there is a difference but Steam does not have a easy way to do that so I didn't want to bother so far.

Personally I think the main cause is the old engine that was never improved enough to work with modern hardware. But I will try with nvidia profile first.

 

[ortucis]

This may be well known, but official game guide explains quite a bit of stuff, like damage types and difference between flat damage and % damage modifiers. http://www.grimdawn.com/game.php

Performance-wise i run it on i5 that's several years old, with a bit of overclocking, 16G Ram and GeForce 6800 (IIRC) and i notice no slowdowns, even on big packs with 20+ mobs (or several of those packs on botched pull =).

When fighting big mobs, it only slows down for me when a lot of special effects are going on. Chain lighting spell every 3 seconds from my Shaman to all enemies using their abilities plus crystals shooting laser beams at me. I am guessing the SFX are the reason of slowdowns in these fights. Meh, doesn't bother me.. I kill a few and FPS goes up again.

Funny thing. Combat in this game is more satisfying than the shit combat of Dragon Age: Inquisition. BioWare needs to learn from TQ developers.

My HDD is black edition so it is at least as fast as yours.

I think it depends on manufacturer. Mine is 4TB NAS drive from Hitachi (before they were bought by WD). Black Edition is just WD and compared to NAS drives, Black drives are nothing.

But anyway, try lowering Image Quality from nVidia CP to "Quality" or "Performance" and lowering pre-render frames. I am hoping they increase performance in battles in future updates (maybe dynamically lower quality of effects when a huge mob gathers around player?).

 

[ArchAngel]

This may be well known, but official game guide explains quite a bit of stuff, like damage types and difference between flat damage and % damage modifiers. http://www.grimdawn.com/game.php

Performance-wise i run it on i5 that's several years old, with a bit of overclocking, 16G Ram and GeForce 6800 (IIRC) and i notice no slowdowns, even on big packs with 20+ mobs (or several of those packs on botched pull =).

When fighting big mobs, it only slows down for me when a lot of special effects are going on. Chain lighting spell every 3 seconds from my Shaman to all enemies using their abilities plus crystals shooting laser beams at me. I am guessing the SFX are the reason of slowdowns in these fights. Meh, doesn't bother me.. I kill a few and FPS goes up again.

Funny thing. Combat in this game is more satisfying than the shit combat of Dragon Age: Inquisition. BioWare needs to learn from TQ developers.

Yep, same for me. It does not help that I am the cause for couple of SFX due to my multiple totems, auras and such. Also devotions activating from those attacks and the rest.

 

[Average Manatee]

Lol, Diablo 1 and enemies with memorable AI and "defining movement and attack patterns".

Grim Dawn has:
- enemies that hang back and summon bunch of demons
- enemies that throw nets at you to immobilize you
- enemies that heal/buff other enemies
- enemies that reflect damage
- enemies that perform powerful AOE magic
- enemies that throw acid at the floor
- enemies that turn slow but charge at you

etc. etc. etc.

Diablo 1 was extremely simple game with limited amount of things going on for it. The Butcherer is memorable because it was the first time you met a boss like that. Not because of some special genius design. If you add a butcherer to your roguelike today, it will be "without any memorable AI", no matter how complex behaviour patterns you add to it.

Enemies with different attacks or stats isn't an AI pattern, and I haven't noticed any of the rest. Not a single enemy in Grim Dawn that I can find actively kites you or dodges your projectiles or simply moves in a way to be hard to hit.

Agreed on the enemies part but at least different enemy types fight each other. Not like in other games where they seem to be part of a larger conspiracy against you, boars and mosquitoes and skeletons alike.

Yeah this was one neat thing.

 

[Leechmonger]

My framerate tanks in big battles (24 fps). I'm running an i7 2600k, Nvidia 780m, 16 GB RAM, and the game is installed on an SSD. CPU is old but processor performance has barely changed in the last 5 years.

 

[gestalt11]

Umm, I don't really comprehend how the Celestial Powers work I think.
I have to attach it to a skill. So does this Celestial Power only activate when that skill is also active at the moment?

You need to be careful with this, if you put, for example, Arcane Bomb(25% chance) from Widow onto Grasping Vines from Shaman. Then the Bomb can potentially proc on each tick. Not sure if that is for both the physical damage and the bleed, but I think it may be. So various "patch" style things that tick off damage fast can proc an Celestial proc quite fast.

For the on hit/on block effects its much simpler as you just put it on an aura or a buff and if that thing is active there is a chance the proc happens. But the attacks are much more complex since not only can some things proc them much quicker but they shape of the attack may not play well with the attack you put it on (for example acid spray is a cone and put it on a circular AOE may not be as good as a targeted power that can hit the first mob in a line)

 

[ortucis]

I thought all Celestial powers were passive upgrades (similar to Skyrim celestial thing).

 

[oldmanpaco]

I thought all Celestial powers were passive upgrades (similar to Skyrim celestial thing).

If you fill up a full constellation about 1/3 of them give you a skill.

Also I have a gtx970 and have had no problems.

 

[ortucis]

I thought all Celestial powers were passive upgrades (similar to Skyrim celestial thing).

If you fill up a full constellation about 1/3 of them give you a skill.

I have done that for most of the constellations already. I've been doing nothing but hunting for shrines for the whole game so far.

 

[gestalt11]

I thought all Celestial powers were passive upgrades (similar to Skyrim celestial thing).

The constellations withe a reddish star have some sort of power. These cane be EXTREMELY important. Arcane Bomb/Witchblade proc + acid spray is a major stacking -resist debuff. Getting something like Behemoth and Tree of Life heal/regen procs can significantly increase your survivability. Crab has what appears to be a pretty strong block proc but I have not tried it. Tortoise is actually a quite useful proc to get in the early game and can be finished in act 1.

These power are "level" themselves. Low end near center have 20 level, mid tier have 15 and edge one have 10. These powers level via normal XP gain as long as they are slotted onto something. So getting to a power you want early on can be good just to level them up.

 

[made]

Haven't spent a single destiny point so far. The UI is a total clusterfuck, clearly inspired by Skyrim's excuse for a skill tree.

Just had my first crash so far at the Necropolis. :O

 

[ortucis]

I thought all Celestial powers were passive upgrades (similar to Skyrim celestial thing).

The constellations withe a reddish star have some sort of power. These cane be EXTREMELY important. Arcane Bomb/Witchblade proc + acid spray is a major stacking -resist debuff. Getting something like Behemoth and Tree of Life heal/regen procs can significantly increase your survivability. Crab has what appears to be a pretty strong block proc but I have not tried it. Tortoise is actually a quite useful proc to get in the early game and can be finished in act 1.

These power are "level" themselves. Low end near center have 20 level, mid tier have 15 and edge one have 10. These powers level via normal XP gain as long as they are slotted onto something. So getting to a power you want early on can be good just to level them up.

Then these powers sound like something I will avoid like plague.

So far, every time I have died, I have felt like "yeah, I let them corner me, I didn't use strategy" and I come back pissed off to take my revenge (and my grave stone..). If these celestial powers make me even harder to die, then fuck that. Right now I have a perfect balance between survival and feeling strong enough as I level up. Celestial bullshit sounds like something that will just make me feel OP.

I'll avoid unlocking any such powers (I was worried about red stars before anyway).

 

[Durandal]

Go to My Documents/My Games/Grim Dawn/Settings and open options.txt
scroll all the way down until you find a line that says maxResourceThreads. Change the value to how many cores you have
You can also mess with some other options there such as lowering quality in exchange for FPS

 

[Hobo Elf]

Enemies with different attacks or stats isn't an AI pattern, and I haven't noticed any of the rest. Not a single enemy in Grim Dawn that I can find actively kites you or dodges your projectiles or simply moves in a way to be hard to hit.

The eyeballs do just that. When you attack them they move away and behind mobs of enemies to block you from getting to them. Sadly, this is the only example I can think of where the enemy AI does something that actually matters.

Then these powers sound like something I will avoid like plague.

So far, every time I have died, I have felt like "yeah, I let them corner me, I didn't use strategy" and I come back pissed off to take my revenge (and my grave stone..). If these celestial powers make me even harder to die, then fuck that. Right now I have a perfect balance between survival and feeling strong enough as I level up. Celestial bullshit sounds like something that will just make me feel OP.

I'll avoid unlocking any such powers (I was worried about red stars before anyway).

You'll be singing a different tune in Elite and Ultimate where having at least 1-2 defensive procs is almost mandatory unless you love dying constantly.

 

[ortucis]

Go to My Documents/My Games/Grim Dawn/Settings and open options.txt
scroll all the way down until you find a line that says maxResourceThreads. Change the value to how many cores you have

That's a bad idea. It'll probably end up causing more crashes.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Might as well pimp my Shaman now that I finihsed gearing him up as well. ultimate difficulty for resi handicap, DPS and Health are with all buffs active.

Just lol at those leds or whatever.

 

[made]

Armor design clearly inspired by WoW.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Armor design clearly inspired by WoW.

Yeah. Between this and my DEE Occultist with armor clearly inspired by WoW Warlock armor, it's quite clear where most of their art inspiration for the Legendary items came from.

 

[ArchAngel]

Might as well pimp my Shaman now that I finihsed gearing him up as well. ultimate difficulty for resi handicap, DPS and Health are with all buffs active.

Just lol at those leds or whatever.

That life is kind of low. My lvl 58 with low level gear and no soldier class has almost 12000 life.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Might as well pimp my Shaman now that I finihsed gearing him up as well. ultimate difficulty for resi handicap, DPS and Health are with all buffs active.

Just lol at those leds or whatever.

That life is kind of low. My lvl 58 with low level gear and no soldier class has almost 12000 life.

I'm not dying so I wouldn't call it low.
Edit: I have some points invested in Counter Strike which does seem to be pretty useless. I might respect them into something more useful, not sure what yet. Might either cap out Decorated Soldier, Military Conditioning or Wendigo Totem. Gotta try and see which works best for me.