Prelude to Darkness 1.35 suggestions

[andrewsk]

I have just downloaded Prelude to Darkness 1.35 and I must say that I am quite impressed. I lan on registering in the next week or 2 but do have a few suggestions.

-Could right clicking with the mouse exit you from open windows?
-Is there any way to see where you are on the map?
-Have you thought about an automap you can see while moving in the main window (like the one just added in divine divinity?)
-If a character is too far away to talk to, the party should move towards them and initiate dialogue.
-Could you add camera control to the wheel mouse? (Forward-backward zooms in and out - hold it down and you could rotate the camera)

Thanks for a great RPG hope these suggestions are helpful/

 

[reaver]

Sugestions, bugs and minor details

Well I played the game for some time now (yes I'm still addicted) and here's some feedback (it's pretty long :shock: but might be an added value tough):

Suggestions:
1) After winning a battle against bandits and not picking the items, when you reload the save game:
1.1) Where are the bodies (I'm sure I've killed them all, who ate or buried them)?
1.2) And why are the items pilled the other way around (drachs used to be on top but
after the reload they are at the bottom).
2*) It would be nice to see some decay (0.5, 1 day) of the corpses you just killed just like the random-encounters were a battle has been fought; Might as well implement some kind of stripping after killing a bunch of bandits and looting their asses.
3) I want to see more blood: when I hit a critical or other special attack, you could multi tile the blood strains and when a bleeding bandit walks make it a blood trail!
Not sure about the critical/special attacks (haven't got any yet) but does the inflicted get penalized with TACO or AP's :
4) Could u plz implement more arrows at once (buy)?
5) The auto-center in combat is pretty annoying as well. I have to scroll my arrowers toward their target every other AP-turn.

* Even if it means the savegame gets larger I don't even notice when t'game autosaves.

Bugs and not consistent details:
1) In combat when you have the shortbow (low AP) and switch to greataxe (high AP) within the same round of combat, you get to attack with the AP's from the shortbow.
2) The help screen:
2.1) in the main help screen "Loose" the entry main.
2.2) In the skill screen the text Combat skill bonuses doesn't quite fit.
2.3) Same screen u can see '<'previous topic'>' but cannot click on it, only after scrolling down, which also isn't very consistent?
3) The map screen:
3.1) "Loose" the zooming function in the valley layout (it just turns into a vague picture)
3.2) In citadel and Land's end view there isn't a NESW symbol and the one in Kellen is
significantly different in comparison to the other.
4) The journal: just highlight the "close" text form white to yellow (ondragover or
oncollision).

In the quest for the perfect game any comment may help... right?
Overall I still think the game rocks (big time) 8)

 

[thathmew]

A lot to reply to here, which is great! Keep the suggestions coming, I'm still working on things, I can't guarantee everything will make it, but it all helps, even if just when thinking about our next project.

ok, on to the specifics:

-Could right clicking with the mouse exit you from open windows?

Unfortunately not really because right clicking is used for too many other things, it does exit from the pop-up action menu, though.

-Is there any way to see where you are on the map?

The main valley map shows where the party is approximately, but the other maps aren't to a consistent scale or orientation so actually showing the party's location is not possible, I'm working on better mapping for future games, but prelude will probably remain the way it is.

-Have you thought about an automap you can see while moving in the main window (like the one just added in divine divinity?)

Yes, we actually had one for a while dispaying a small area and showing friends/enemies, but it didn't add much and we found it actually took away from suspension of disbelief and finally it was buggy and so axed do to lack of time. <sigh>

-If a character is too far away to talk to, the party should move towards them and initiate dialogue.

yeah, look for that one, probably in the next patch.

-Could you add camera control to the wheel mouse? (Forward-backward zooms in and out - hold it down and you could rotate the camera)

It's technically in there, this is an anooying one for me that I just haven't been able to get working right, something to do with directinput not really working the way it says it does. I still bang on it occassionally, but its low priority generally.

) After winning a battle against bandits and not picking the items, when you reload the save game:
1.1) Where are the bodies (I'm sure I've killed them all, who ate or buried them)?
1.2) And why are the items pilled the other way around (drachs used to be on top but
after the reload they are at the bottom).
2*) It would be nice to see some decay (0.5, 1 day) of the corpses you just killed just like the random-encounters were a battle has been fought; Might as well implement some kind of stripping after killing a bunch of bandits and looting their asses.

yeah, it's all due to savegame things, bodies are not saved just to keep down on the dynamic items, it's in large part because each one actually has a unique texture, so it's not feasible to save them all, and saving and loading re-sorts items. Eventually I'll probably fix those, but it's minor enough to be low priority.

3) I want to see more blood: when I hit a critical or other special attack, you could multi tile the blood strains and when a bleeding bandit walks make it a blood trail!
Not sure about the critical/special attacks (haven't got any yet) but do they get
penalized with TACO or AP's

I'd love to do more blood, and leave more bloody trails/footprints etc, but as it's primarily aesthetic it's kind low, although I agree it would add a lot.
Each critical/special attack type is affected in different ways, most take more AP's and have a lower to hit, but given the power level once you get them, its' not too noticeable.

4) Could u plz implement more arrows at once (buy)?

yes, actually I can probably do that for the next version, it's just a scripting detail

5) The auto-center in combat is pretty annoying as well. I have to scroll my arrowers toward their target every other AP-turn.

hmmm, I'll see if there's a way around that, maybe I can add a toggle to change it on and off.

Bugs and not consistent details:
1) In combat when you have the shortbow (low AP) and switch to greataxe (high AP) within the same round of combat, you get to attack with the AP's from the shortbow.

that's definitely a bug I'll look into

2) The help screen:
2.1) in the main help screen "Loose" the entry main.
2.2) In the skill screen the text Combat skill bonuses doesn't quite fit.
2.3) Same screen u can see but cannot click on it, only after scrolling
down, which also isn't very consistent?

Good catches/suggestions.

3) The map screen:
3.1) "Loose" the zooming function in the valley layout (it just turns into a vague picture)
3.2) In citadel and Land's end view there isn't a NESW symbol and the one in Kellen is
significantly different in comparison to the other.

zooming is kinda legacy, I originally wanted more detail, not just zoom in on the same picture, but now it's still there in case you get travel-to locations that are very close together. Which I don't think actually happens, but in the interest of the possibility, it's still there.

4) The journal: just highlight the "close" text form white to yellow (ondragover or
oncollision).
yes, Travis and I are working on a better journal screen with an actual "close" button.



thanks for all the suggestions and bugs, keep 'em coming,
-mat

 

[reaver]

Ok part deux

A few other annoying things/suggestions:

1) Whenever combat begins, either during resting or not, let the party face the enemy:
- (kinda looks stupid when you have someone on guard and let the whole party look the other way).
- Also very annoying when you'll have to find (scrolling around) the enemies after you've gotten attacked during your rest period. (when you face the enemy you only have to scroll one way).

2) In regard to this could there be a party group formation of some kind? Especially for combat.

3) Very weird yesterday my archer missed his target and his missile skill improved?
(Ok whenever you shoot an arrow you're learning but if you miss you're just learning how it's not supposed to be done).
So my suggestion: just delay the improvement until he/she gets a clean hit.

That's it,
good luck with the patch/other games!

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Re: Ok part deux

3) Very weird yesterday my archer missed his target and his missile skill improved?
(Ok whenever you shoot an arrow you're learning but if you miss you're just learning how it's not supposed to be done).
So my suggestion: just delay the improvement until he/she gets a clean hit.

Think of it, like you said, as learning from a mistake. Honestly, I like the idea of it going up regardless of a hit or miss. Otherwise, you'd never be able to train those skills from low level, or even from zero skill.

Though, I'll admit, it is rather funny when you get nailed with a critical, knocked unconcious, and see that guy's ARMOR skill raise.

 

[thathmew]

Whenever combat begins, either during resting or not, let the party face the enemy:

yeah, that should be pretty easy to do.

3) Very weird yesterday my archer missed his target and his missile skill improved?
(Ok whenever you shoot an arrow you're learning but if you miss you're just learning how it's not supposed to be done).
So my suggestion: just delay the improvement until he/she gets a clean hit.

I thought about delaying until success for improvements, but in the end decided it wasn't worth the bother. It's more of a hassle than it seems at first glance. As Saint P noted our model is an any use or practice can lead to improvement, I'm a believer in general that one can learn at least as much from mistakes as successes. <shrug>

I also agree formations would be nice, but probably not going to happen in this iteration. You can change the party's marching order your party using the portraits, but that's about it. I might be able to easily change the rest ambush code though so the party is placed a little more advantageously when they've got a guard active.

-mat