KickStarter Stoneshard - open world roguelike RPG - now available on Early Access

[Harthwain]

Edit: Darkest Dungeon owners have a coupon for this game. I'm weak and I cannot resist coupons

Werid. I heard that Battle Brothers owners also have a coupon. I have both, yet I didn't get one.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

Yeah I got a coupon for owning DD. Is this game worth what I just spent on lunch? Hmm...

 

[Nerevar]

Well just died and lost 1 hour of clearing maps. It was the bandit camp mission at the fort seems like so many guys and then having to do 3 floors more. Oh well I can do it again later.

One thing I noticed is there a tailor in mannshire? Can't seem to find it. Also repair costs are way too high they'll need to be adjusted along with the different vendors in general. Weapons don't seem balanced, I think one handed swords are the best.

I'm close to finishing the content I think, I have been playing with the game at double speed just so I can walk faster.

 

[Lady_Error]

Tried the demo. Itemization is actually pretty good, as well as the skills and the magic stuff.

It is still is a simplistic rogue-like hack'n slash though - probably one of the best in that genre, but still. Unless, there is more to it that I haven't seen yet.

Also, the savegame system is obviously not good. I hope they change it.

 

[Xunwael]

First-save, tried geo/pyromancer lady. Magic (fire, at least) just seems overpowered. Cooldowns don't matter much when you can just run away while they tick down. Bursting all your damage followed by a period of downtime doesn't matter much when you can just stand around while they tick down, or even just run away while they do. She also had very good survivability with a duelist's buckler and a defensive main hand, giving her really high avoidance. So she can stand there and melee a couple of normal goons just fine in a pinch, though obviously you don't want to do that since you'll take a bunch of wounds. Eventually her hubris got her killed, when she tried to fight a bear during a rainstorm.

Maybe magic shouldn't tick down while you run or something. It's not that huge a problem right now since they eventually catch up to you (she was never gonna kill that bear in that rainstorm, it simply had too much health), but with more magic schools added in the future shit might get real out of control with the utility (assuming the other schools aren't just going to be colour-changed damage).

Second-save, tried the hunter-guy. Died to the first enemy I encountered, some soldier just sitting by the road. Shot him in the face like 5 times but then he reached melee and obliterated me. Archery seems kinda crappy, with its low damage and massive accuracy penalty (or wasting a turn taking aim). But hard to tell from literally just one fight.

Third-save, tried knight lady. She also died to the first enemies she encountered. Dude with mace just stunned her and his buddies bet her to death. Should probably try greatswords instead of sword-and-board with her so she doesn't have to stand there praying to RNGesus that the enemy doesn't random into some practically-instakill ability in the 10 turns it takes you to end him.

Fourth-save, tried berserker guy. He made it all the way to the 4th task before he perished. Unsurprisingly, maxing damage is better at keeping you alive than maxing defense. Dude was alright against one enemy at a time, but against multiples in a row he became a whirlwind of death that obliterated anything in 2 turns max. His trait doesn't show up as a buff, so it's kind of hard to keep track of, but it updates the stats so it's definitely active. Obviously weaker than magic since he still *did* take damage, where the wizard rarely if ever got scratched, but he killed everything so fast that the damage/wounds were mostly regenerated passively. Ultimately, he got too big for his breeches and decided on a detour into a point of interest, where he encountered some kind of rogue enemy at a bandit camp who teleported around like an anime villain and murdered him in like three turns.

I guess teleporting enemies might pose a problem for the infinitely-kiting magic-users as well. That would be pretty lame too, though. A rock-paper-scissors where you instantly die the second you encounter your counter isn't very exciting.

On a disappointing note, the tutorial/intro is much more exciting than the rest of the game. The save-point being right next to the battle instead of minutes away in town, the 10-15 times more EXP gain showering you with levels also makes it feel more satisfying, and finally, the bossfight is actually a bossfight, not just another generic NPC but this one has a name and very slightly bigger stats.

Game certainly has huge potential, but it seems years away from being as great a game the whole way through as it is now during the intro section. Still enjoying it for what it is right now though.

 

[Alienman]

Played the archer dude and managed to clear the first dungeon. Used archer to soften up targets, than I used axe and shield in melee. You can find both for free in the guards barrack. Worked out pretty well. The only really dicey bit was the dungeon boss. He hit damn hard, so that was a close call. Overall the game feels really good, I'm only hampered by there being no story. Or well there is some, but it's not complete. I found the prologue very intriguing and want to continue with that to the end before I spoil myself too much, so I'm probably gonna take a break to avoid the burn out. But yes, seems great so far.

 

[sser]

How long is it at an Early Access point? Is the entire game open to play? Most roguelike EA games you can basically do everything, but this one (judging by the tutorial) is a little more on rails.

 

[felipepepe]

How long is it at an Early Access point? Is the entire game open to play? Most roguelike EA games you can basically do everything, but this one (judging by the tutorial) is a little more on rails.

Looking at the road map, it's the tutorial (which is excellent) + the world map with 2 types of dungeons and 16 quests:

To fully explore all the content with one character, you’ll need around 7-10 hours, which is roughly translated into gaining 8-10 experience levels.

Currently in-game content includes:

• Two settlements - Osbrook and Mannshire
  
• Two types of dungeons
  
• Three enemy factions: brigands, the undead, proselytes
  
• 16 types of contracts
  
• 200+ items and 100+ abilities
  
• Hunting
  
• Health system
  
• Economy

But the roadmap looks good:

I had fun for a while, but it's probably best to uninstall and come back in mid-late 2021 for the full experience.

 

[Metro]

Game looks great but I'm not a fan of playing unfinished stuff. The roadmap makes me want to wait until next year to buy it. Although right now I can pick it up for like $11 after using the coupon from DD. Or it could be bundled in a year!

 

[Harthwain]

How long is it at an Early Access point? Is the entire game open to play? Most roguelike EA games you can basically do everything, but this one (judging by the tutorial) is a little more on rails.

The tutorial (Prologue) is on rails, but the actual game seems to be much more open. Judging by the Roadmap they have yet to add "Global Map Mode", so it's still probably not as open as it will be in the final version of the game.

 

[Ranarama]

This is officially the slowest turn based game ever. And forces you to use mouse controls?

I'm gonna get bored of watching the little guy slowly make his way around the levels.

 

[Harthwain]

It's not that slow. Especially considering that your character auto-walks to any given spot, provided he doesn't see an enemy on the way or you won't interrupt him yourself. This makes moving around feel smooth, without turning it into an annoyance (ignoring enemies when auto-moving would have been very bad).

 

[Ranarama]

It's strictly worse than roguelikes with actual auto-explore, and slower than moving manually tile at a time. In fact that's a trend about the game all over. It's just plain worse than playing Brogue or whatever. It even replicates picking up single items from Diablo and right clicking menus to do a single action is fucking retarded.

The interface is Dungeons of Dredmor jank all over again.

It's also picked the worst compromise for permadeath ever. No saving on game exit means you can just quit if it's gone badly since last save and scum the levels.

But it looks nice, so it'll sell.

 

[Modron]

No saving on game exit means you can just quit if it's gone badly since last save and scum the levels.

Oh god I have to exercise personal restraint? How will I ever survive.

 

[Harthwain]

It's strictly worse than roguelikes with actual auto-explore, and slower than moving manually tile at a time.

It's a matter of personal taste then, I think. Because to have to move manually tile-by-tile would kill the game for me, since it'd require constant input while not speeding things by all that much. As it is right now I can move a large distance by doing only a few clicks and I don't feel like it's taking me forever.

It's also picked the worst compromise for permadeath ever. No saving on game exit means you can just quit if it's gone badly since last save and scum the levels.

Sure, but you're literally wasting your time by doing this. I'd rather keep my progress.

 

[Gerrard]

I'd rather be able to quit at any time I want. This save system is fucking retarded and I don't buy the "it's the engine's limitation" for even one moment because that would be a sign of monumental incompetence. This isn't a SNES we're playing on.

 

[jungl]

Game reminds me of nethack but very slow paced. Also reminds me of jagged alliance kind of with travelling between sectors. I hate the map system at least let us edit it to put a dot where we are. Why can't my guy buy paper and mark where he is if he can wrap bandages around his ass and apply herbs and bandages to his swollen anus.

Idk it seems promising. I thought nethack sucked. I like the immersion stoneshard has going for it.

 

[moraes]

After playing 4h I'm tired of the hopping animation, a fast traveling mode that skips the walking animations would be good. Also, the interface elements gets constantly in the way of the character range of vision, but you can scroll the screen by holding MMB. Mouse movement is retarded and walks over traps that the character has already discovered. I think going with a keyboard-centric interface would be much better, with a (l)ook command that automatically hides interface elements and snaps to PoI like hostiles and destructibles, a (g)et command that spawns a list of items to pick up and a functional autoexplore command.

 

[Modron]

functional autoexplore command.

Why do people keep asking for games to play themselves in this thread? You can use the arrow keys by the way if you are tired of the simple pathfinding (needs to be repositioned for us right handers for sure).

 

[moraes]

functional autoexplore command.

Why do people keep asking for games to play themselves in this thread? You can use the arrow keys by the way if you are tired of the simple pathfinding (needs to be repositioned for us right handers for sure).

Because roguelikes shine in the moments where the right or wrong decision means your character dies or survives and the autoexplore function is a staple of the genre. I derive no pleasure from walking from forest tile to forest tile. Yes, I realize this isn't a roguelike anymore, but it has roguelike sensibilities.

You can use the numpad for movement.

 

[The Wall]

People have been trained to loath any effort, they just wanna lay on bed, be dorrito fed by their argonian slave and get constant endorphin injections (cooldown: 5 sec) from Dr. JEW

Some of the biggest supporters of Decline live on this forum. They're middle aged, bored, short on time, short on attention, short on patience, short on hair and just wanna eazy victories in all vidya gaemz, cause in their daily lives all they experience are hard defeats. Go, rate me edgy cause you know deep down itz true

 

[The Wall]

Game looks & plays awesome! If you have 15 minutes of patience, you figure out pretty much all so far implemented systems. Never before have I travelled more of the map with less clicks than in Stoneshard. P.S. 1) Kill all wolves on roads and sell them on Chinese food market 2) Buy better mace

 

[jungl]

Survival elements are really annoying. Game plays more like a hardcore version of the Sims then a rougelike. I feel like I'm managing the worlds biggest baby. Constantly needs to eat food and drink alchohol and take drugs cause he got a booboo on the head. oh oh watch out im down 10 hitpoints and my guy sad from the booboo on his head, should really rest the extra 30 turns and eat a meal of chicken breast to cheer up the little guy. Don't worry only 1 bandit with a mace and shield i took out 6 just a while ago. oops waah fumble "more baby noises" DEAD.

This game is roleplaying a world stongest man athlete in medieval world who needs 10k calories a day but also happens to be the worlds biggest degenerate baby that needs constant baby formula and alchohol to get by.

 

[PrettyDeadman]

Survival elements are really annoying. Game plays more like a hardcore version of the Sims then a rougelike. I feel like I'm managing the worlds biggest baby. Constantly needs to eat food and drink alchohol and take drugs cause he got a booboo on the head. oh oh watch out im down 10 hitpoints and my guy sad from the booboo on his head, should really rest the extra 30 turns and eat a meal of chicken breast to cheer up the little guy. Don't worry only 1 bandit with a mace and shield i took out 6 just a while ago. oops waah fumble "more baby noises" DEAD.

This game is roleplaying a world stongest man athlete in medieval world who needs 10k calories a day but also happens to be the worlds biggest degenerate baby that needs constant baby formula and alchohol to get by.

A man's gotta eat.

 

[Serious_Business]

I feel like I'm managing the worlds biggest baby.

Sounds like married life eh?

I can't stop laughing at the word "booboo", great experience, thanks a lot