Shards of the Realm - turn-based tactical RPG with expansive overland - now available on Early Access

[Fenyx]

View attachment 64524

I understood I can not explain it correctly by myself... so I've just reworked it to following. Hope it will be more clear
UPD: I see bug as on your screen as on my. The constituton is also displayed as accurasy. It's a bug, I'll fix it

UPD1:
I hope now it's clear

 

[udm]

That's what I thought too, but for my orc light priest, this is what I get when I try to increase his Accuracy:

View attachment 64524

It's a feature)) It's displays current value of attribute and the addition. So current accuracy 0 and you spend 2 point to the attribute. 0+2 = 2 in total after level up completion ) Next level it will disaplay 2(2).
Ther reason it's made in such way, for my opinion much easier sum 2+2 than remember where exactly and how much points you alredy placed ) So it's just matter of taste for representation
UPD: Looking to it now, I see there is small change require. Need to switch columnt and actual addition display as (n).

Maybe need to display as Accuracy: 0 + (n)

No it's definitely a glitch in the level up screen. Increasing Constitution causes Accuracy number to go up. Of course, this doesn't actually affect the final result, but it definitely shows the wrong stat being increased (i.e., Accuracy) in the level up screen.

EDIT: Just saw the post above this one. Did you manage to replicate the bug in the level up screen? Try increasing Constitution and see if the Accuracy goes up instead.

 

[Fenyx]

That's what I thought too, but for my orc light priest, this is what I get when I try to increase his Accuracy:

View attachment 64524

It's a feature)) It's displays current value of attribute and the addition. So current accuracy 0 and you spend 2 point to the attribute. 0+2 = 2 in total after level up completion ) Next level it will disaplay 2(2).
Ther reason it's made in such way, for my opinion much easier sum 2+2 than remember where exactly and how much points you alredy placed ) So it's just matter of taste for representation
UPD: Looking to it now, I see there is small change require. Need to switch columnt and actual addition display as (n).

Maybe need to display as Accuracy: 0 + (n)

No it's definitely a glitch in the level up screen. Increasing Constitution causes Accuracy number to go up. Of course, this doesn't actually affect the final result, but it definitely shows the wrong stat being increased (i.e., Accuracy) in the level up screen.

Yep, agree. It's fixed and will be included to this week release (tomorrow, maybe day after) The images above display how it will look like

 

[udm]

Any tips on using Starburst/Starlight effectively? Seems pretty weak overall compared to other default attacks.

 

[Fenyx]

Any tips on using Starburst/Starlight effectively? Seems pretty weak overall compared to other default attacks.

It's not so weak if take its base damage, non-harm to allies into account and ballistic nature. However, because it deals damage over time at the end of a turn, it might seem otherwise. You could morph it into an additional heal for support or turn it into instant damage instead of a DoT but it will harm in that case )) The Light Priest is a support subclass, so it won't be a true damage dealer on its own (yes, I do prefer DnD 3 over DnD 5...). With multiclassing, though, you might find some possibilities )

 

[Fenyx]

Any tips on using Starburst/Starlight effectively? Seems pretty weak overall compared to other default attacks.

BTW, I suppose OldBugger might have more knowledge in this area than I do, since my perspective is based on imagination and prediction of how it should work, whereas he has much more actual game experience than I do ))

 

[udm]

Can confirm after about 10 hours in that this game has the addictive "one more turn" (or more like "just 10 more mins" or "just 1 more combat") quality that OG X-Com had. Good shit.

 

[Fenyx]

Can confirm after about 10 hours in that this game has the addictive "one more turn" (or more like "just 10 more mins" or "just 1 more combat") quality that OG X-Com had. Good shit.

The hardest part is keeping the same tempo until the end )
I have a few questions so far:
• What is the current world level, and what gear do you mostly use (basic, normal, or ancient)?
• How complex are the fights?

 

[udm]

World level is currently 2. Still using basic gear (I'm assuming "basic" refers to one level above the default equipment that characters start with).

What do you mean by fight complexity?

 

[Fenyx]

World level is currently 2. Still using basic gear (I'm assuming "basic" refers to one level above the default equipment that characters start with).

What do you mean by fight complexity?

Battles complexity. New enemies appear, old are growing... Most hard part for me now is balance now, but will see...

 

[udm]

So far at world level 2, things are still OK. After getting the hang of flanking and combat mechanics and using Pool of Destinies to change my characters' stats, I'm having an easier time in combat, barely taking a scratch on most characters. But that's because I'm only at world level 2 I guess. Might get more difficult later.

 

[Fenyx]

yep. what is most useless class/subclass os far by your opinion?

 

[udm]

All have been pretty good so far after tinkering with different Skill and Feature combinations, but I've only used Sniper, Protector, Dark Priest, Light Priest, Cryomancer. However, if I had to choose one, it'd be Light Priest as it's easier to use the wrong combination of Features and Skills and end up with a waste of party space. There are some Skills which I didn't get much mileage out of:
- Heal/Group Heal (too many MPs needed, better to just use Starburst with the heal upgrade)
- Inflict Wounds
- Poison Arrow
- Default Starburst

In general I haven't used much of the DoT skills because they don't seem to last too long (Starburst only lasts one round!) and don't do enough damage. Better to just go for direct damage.

 

[Fenyx]

All have been pretty good so far after tinkering with different Skill and Feature combinations, but I've only used Sniper, Protector, Dark Priest, Light Priest, Cryomancer. However, if I had to choose one, it'd be Light Priest as it's easier to use the wrong combination of Features and Skills and end up with a waste of party space. There are some Skills which I didn't get much mileage out of:
- Heal/Group Heal (too many MPs needed, better to just use Starburst with the heal upgrade)
- Inflict Wounds
- Poison Arrow
- Default Starburst

In general I haven't used much of the DoT skills because they don't seem to last too long (Starburst only lasts one round!) and don't do enough damage. Better to just go for direct damage.

Thank you) Heal is underestimated, due to how HP works. If you took damage and restore it in battle, after battle you will have minimal HP. For example you had 100, then took 50 damage and took wound, heal it up to 100 again - after battle hp will be lowered to 50 and you need to restore it taking into account wounds.
So heal itself allows to keep minimal hp as much as possible.

Inflict Wounds - strongest non MP single target damage per use, but next 2 truns , but gives protection.

Poison arrow, maybe weak. Will keep collecting thoughts. Althogh it's maybe best single target damage skill per use, but part of damage is DoT.

Default Starburst we discussed)) Kind of balace feature taking into account support role of Light priest.

 

[udm]

Thank you) Heal is underestimated, due to how HP works. If you took damage and restore it in battle, after battle you will have minimal HP. For example you had 100, then took 50 damage and took wound, heal it up to 100 again - after battle hp will be lowered to 50 and you need to restore it taking into account wounds.
So heal itself allows to keep minimal hp as much as possible

Yes that is true, and in fact that's what I've been doing to get the most out of it, but it doesn't change the fact that in the heat of combat, it is not worth the 4AP+4MP (IMO), unless you get the Skill that lets you regenerate MP. But that would mean having to do a very specialised Heal build with not much synergy with other Skills and Features.

Poison arrow, maybe weak. Will keep collecting thoughts. Althogh it's maybe best single target damage skill per use, but part of damage is DoT.

I'll have to play around more with DoT skills in future to see how well they work compared to characters that just do direct damage.

EDIT: Ok, seems like Inflict Wounds is really quite reliable even by default. Nice.

 

[SpoonFULL]

Seems interesting with many systems and themes at play here. Wanted to try the demo on my laptop as the graphics did not look better or more detailed than Pillars of Eternity (for example). In the menus (where there is absolutely nothing except text and text boxes), the FPS was 9! The game then crashed when I tried to run it, producing an Unreal reporting message (I assume this is Unreal 5).

I understand this is early access, but I don't think that providing a demo that requires a RTX 2060 for an isometric game with lesser graphics than a 5 or 10 year old game will encouage people to try it. I hope that I can play it one day when there is better optimisation as it sounds interesting.

 

[Fenyx]

Seems interesting with many systems and themes at play here. Wanted to try the demo on my laptop as the graphics did not look better or more detailed than Pillars of Eternity (for example). In the menus (where there is absolutely nothing except text and text boxes), the FPS was 9! The game then crashed when I tried to run it, producing an Unreal reporting message (I assume this is Unreal 5).

I understand this is early access, but I don't think that providing a demo that requires a RTX 2060 for an isometric game with lesser graphics than a 5 or 10 year old game will encouage people to try it. I hope that I can play it one day when there is better optimisation as it sounds interesting.

Thank you for your feedback! Unfortunately, it isn't an isometric game but a fully 3D one, and Unreal 5 itself has minimum hardware requirements which I can not avoid. As you can see, even the simplest menu results in just 9 FPS on your system. I’m afraid there’s no straightforward way to optimize further (or at least none that I’m aware of).

The only suggestion I can offer is to lower the graphics settings from the in-game menu, since they default to higher levels.

Regarding your crash report: Function: Tactical_Win64_Shipping!FRendererModule::BeginRenderingViewFamily
This points to Unreal’s internal code rather than an issue with my own code or optimization. Unfortunately, Unreal games often include engine-related crashes that even large teams struggle to fix, sometimes for over a year after release.

 

[Fenyx]

Seems interesting with many systems and themes at play here. Wanted to try the demo on my laptop as the graphics did not look better or more detailed than Pillars of Eternity (for example). In the menus (where there is absolutely nothing except text and text boxes), the FPS was 9! The game then crashed when I tried to run it, producing an Unreal reporting message (I assume this is Unreal 5).

I understand this is early access, but I don't think that providing a demo that requires a RTX 2060 for an isometric game with lesser graphics than a 5 or 10 year old game will encouage people to try it. I hope that I can play it one day when there is better optimisation as it sounds interesting.

By the way, I tried running the game on my old laptop with an older i5 processor, a GTX 1050 (mobile), and 12 GB of memory, and I got around 25–30 FPS on the default settings (60 FPS om main screen).

What hardware setup are you using? Maybe the issue isn’t with your graphics card, but memory

 

[udm]

Bros, have to say this game is really good. I've clocked many hours and I feel like I've only barely scratched the surface. The combat is excellent, just really good, solid, tactical fun, and I imagine with different party compositions, each playthrough will be different.

It's not perfect. Actually it's far from perfect. If this were to be reviewed by CGW, it would probably be a 3/5 game. The UI makes my eyes bleed and triggers rage in me despite the dev's best efforts to fix things, the sound effects are hilariously bad, AI-generated texts are tedious to read, and some design decisions don't make sense (why is there a skill that allows you to use Dexterity to shrug off certain damage types, like poison?).

But, unless I'm mistaken (I'm not), there's nothing else like it in the market. It really is fantasy X-Com meets Mount & Blade. You research to unlock new tech, produce shit to sell, and find and kill monsters so you can cut open their bodies to produce shit to sell (and advance further in the game).

Also, it's the first game I've ever played where melee attacks can actually friendly fire. I mean it in the sense that you can actually miss an enemy with a sword, and end up hitting an ally

Spoiler

Thinking of writing a review for this when it's out of EA. Maybe.

 

[udm]

Also, it's the first game I've ever played where melee attacks can actually friendly fire. I mean it in the sense that you can actually miss an enemy with a sword, and end up hitting an ally

Combat sometimes feels like this:

 

[Fenyx]

Bros, have to say this game is really good. I've clocked many hours and I feel like I've only barely scratched the surface. The combat is excellent, just really good, solid, tactical fun, and I imagine with different party compositions, each playthrough will be different.

It's not perfect. Actually it's far from perfect. If this were to be reviewed by CGW, it would probably be a 3/5 game. The UI makes my eyes bleed and triggers rage in me despite the dev's best efforts to fix things, the sound effects are hilariously bad, AI-generated texts are tedious to read, and some design decisions don't make sense (why is there a skill that allows you to use Dexterity to shrug off certain damage types, like poison?).

But, unless I'm mistaken (I'm not), there's nothing else like it in the market. It really is fantasy X-Com meets Mount & Blade. You research to unlock new tech, produce shit to sell, and find and kill monsters so you can cut open their bodies to produce shit to sell (and advance further in the game).

Also, it's the first game I've ever played where melee attacks can actually friendly fire. I mean it in the sense that you can actually miss an enemy with a sword, and end up hitting an ally

Spoiler

Thinking of writing a review for this when it's out of EA. Maybe.

"AI-generated texts are tedious to read"
I'd prefer to call my texts AI-corrected or AI-translated rather than AI-generated (except for global map events, which indeed were AI-generated). Usually I prepare texts in my native language or English and then use AI tools to correct or translate them. But the tedious writing style itself is entirely mine—I wouldn't want to share that unique achievement with any AI! :D

"Dexterity to shrug off certain damage types, like poison"
Poison is an indirect damage type, and the Dexterity in this perk helps you avoid indirect attacks. Projecting this logic into real life, higher dexterity would enable you to quickly leap away from hazards like fire or quickly shake poison off your armor before it harms you. And let's not forget DnD3, where the dex focused monk multiclassing was one of the best tank builds ))

"The UI makes my eyes bleed and triggers rage"
I'm not finished with the UI yet )) I've just sent a request to my friend—a UI/UX designer—to take a look. Let's see what she suggests and how difficult it'll be to implement )) But I don't promise too much )

 

[Tyranicon]

Also, it's the first game I've ever played where melee attacks can actually friendly fire. I mean it in the sense that you can actually miss an enemy with a sword, and end up hitting an ally

Pretty neat mechanic, but best used if you're fighting low level mobs. If it happens too much for your own party it could get annoying real fast.

I'm assuming raising hit chance and related will mitigate this?

 

[Fenyx]

Also, it's the first game I've ever played where melee attacks can actually friendly fire. I mean it in the sense that you can actually miss an enemy with a sword, and end up hitting an ally

Pretty neat mechanic, but best used if you're fighting low level mobs. If it happens too much for your own party it could get annoying real fast.

I'm assuming raising hit chance and related will mitigate this?

Actually, it works both ways. Enemies may hurt each other even more often than the player does due to massive hit boxes.

Yes, accuracy can almost negate this effect, but you need to consider what's more important—healing, MP, movement, or increasing hit chance, since it's already pretty fine for melee. And besides, it's impossible to max out all attributes anyway.

On the other hand, positioning matters even more than accuracy ))

 

[OldBugger]

Also, it's the first game I've ever played where melee attacks can actually friendly fire. I mean it in the sense that you can actually miss an enemy with a sword, and end up hitting an ally

Pretty neat mechanic, but best used if you're fighting low level mobs. If it happens too much for your own party it could get annoying real fast.

I'm assuming raising hit chance and related will mitigate this?

Actually, it works both ways. Enemies may hurt each other even more often than the player does due to massive hit boxes.

Yes, accuracy can almost negate this effect, but you need to consider what's more important—healing, MP, movement, or increasing hit chance, since it's already pretty fine for melee. And besides, it's impossible to max out all attributes anyway.

On the other hand, positioning matters even more than accuracy ))

As Fenyx says it does happen especially with ranged combat but also bad positioning with melee can make it happen more.
Example if you put another unit opposite say a cyromancer which has the Lucky feat (this give 25% chance to fire another shot) if the target dies on the first shot the second can easily hit your character as the target hits the floor.
Also surrounding an enemy with more than 2 of your characters close together is not always a good idea.
Positioning is what I can only describe as analogue and it is not determined by grid based mechanics so allows you to get in all manner of different positions.
In very rare cases the enemy can stand almost top of one of yours and this can make it happen on nearly every shot but I have only seen this a maybe three times after 200hours and could be bug.

 

[rojay]

In very rare cases the enemy can stand almost top of one of yours and this can make it happen on nearly every shot but I have only seen this a maybe three times after 200hours and could be bug.

Let's hope that's a bug.