KickStarter Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones - a Lovecraftian Computer RPG

[Roguey]

Roguey on my first playthrough the oil bar was barely moving, i think i've spent like 1 bar segment during the whole warehouse.

Perhaps that was the bug. Given how the warehouse is the only major area that requires light, it very well should drain fast enough for it to be a big deal. I only had to backtrack once though.

 

[the mole]

Close your eyes, go into a room with a crate with a metal transmitter in, and tell me how the crate and transmitter both cease to exist simply because your eyes are closed

It's a gamey convention because you're going to go insane in the dark from all the time it's going to take you to find it. As I said, the fact that you can see at all is a concession to player convenience.

The problem with this is that player convenience shouldn't be a thing in this section, if you can beat the whole area without a lantern, then you should be able to loot the boxes regardless, and take the penalties associated with it

Either make the sanity drain faster, or, make it completely pitch dark so you literally cant see anything

I couldn't beat the quest for probably 5 hours, or more, I had killed everything in the warehouse, and was given no indication that I couldn't loot boxes without a lantern

It's simply unclear to the player, and completely bends the rules

 

[Yosharian]

This room exists yet there's nothing I can interact with here

Incorrect, there are other things in the room to interact with. That's part of what makes this particular event so batshit unintuitive.

 

[Yosharian]

Uh... okay. *rolls dice* You find nothing and lose 5 sanity from the darkness."

But I can SEE the crate.

 

[Roguey]

The problem with this is that player convenience shouldn't be a thing in this section, if you can beat the whole area without a lantern, then you should be able to loot the boxes regardless, and take the penalties associated with it

Either make the sanity drain faster, or, make it completely pitch dark so you literally cant see anything

I couldn't beat the quest for probably 5 hours, or more, I had killed everything in the warehouse, and was given no indication that I couldn't loot boxes without a lantern

It's simply unclear to the player, and completely bends the rules

There are two levels of darkness. In the earlier rooms it just gives you a penalty to accuracy and you can loot crates just fine. In the final two rooms, it's pitch black (conveyed by the frequent sanity drain) and you can't.

Uh... okay. *rolls dice* You find nothing and lose 5 sanity from the darkness."

But I can SEE the crate.

Your character is not you.

 

[the mole]

The problem with this is that player convenience shouldn't be a thing in this section, if you can beat the whole area without a lantern, then you should be able to loot the boxes regardless, and take the penalties associated with it

Either make the sanity drain faster, or, make it completely pitch dark so you literally cant see anything

I couldn't beat the quest for probably 5 hours, or more, I had killed everything in the warehouse, and was given no indication that I couldn't loot boxes without a lantern

It's simply unclear to the player, and completely bends the rules

There are two levels of darkness. In the earlier rooms it just gives you a penalty to accuracy and you can loot crates just fine. In the final two rooms, it's pitch black (conveyed by the frequent sanity drain) and you can't.

Uh... okay. *rolls dice* You find nothing and lose 5 sanity from the darkness."

But I can SEE the crate.

Your character is not you.

How was I supposed to know the crates were lootable

 

[Roguey]

How was I supposed to know the crates were lootable

All areas in a game like this exist for a reason. You haven't acquired your plot coupon yet, there are only these two areas left, the game's text is telling you you're losing sanity because it's too dark, sounds like you need a light. The devs were against having "Hey you should buy a lantern at the store" journal update handholding. Don't you remember the beginning of the game when you couldn't even leave the first room until you picked up and equipped your lantern because it was so dark? That was your tutorial.

 

[the mole]

How was I supposed to know the crates were lootable

All areas in a game like this exist for a reason. You haven't acquired your plot coupon yet, there are only these two areas left, the game's text is telling you you're losing sanity because it's too dark, sounds like you need a light. The devs were against having "Hey you should buy a lantern at the store" journal update handholding. Don't you remember the beginning of the game when you couldn't even leave the first room until you picked up and equipped your lantern because it was so dark? That was your tutorial.

but I had no problem beating the area, maybe if the area became substantially harder, then I would have put that together, but since I was able to beat the area without a lanturn, I just assumed I didnt need it which was logical, either make the area harder, and make a lanturn neccesary, or make it completely pitch black so you know you need a lanturn

in the current state it's unclear, I took it as a challenge and beat it without

it's also completely idiotic that the only way you can get a lanturn is at a gunstore, and you cant figure out the secret recipe to the lanturn with 3 survival, or 3 science, maybe if the game didnt lock progression behind finding a miniscule picture in a gunstore's inventory, which made no sense, then there wouldnt be a problem

but this section of the game is just poorly designed

as a side note the light level in the last 2 rooms is about the same as the light level before the dark room, the way to fix this would be to make the rooms literally completely pitch black so you couldnt see, but I guess if you like arbitrary roadblocks in games that break immersion, then fine, that's what you like

 

[V_K]

The darkness-level has nothing at all to do with the ability to perceive objects BY TOUCH

And how is your character supposed to know what a transmitter feels like exactly?
Your only clue in game as to which crate to loot is its number - which you obviously can't see in the dark.

 

[Yosharian]

The darkness-level has nothing at all to do with the ability to perceive objects BY TOUCH

And how is your character supposed to know what a transmitter feels like exactly?
Your only clue in game as to which crate to loot is its number - which you obviously can't see in the dark.

Doesn't matter, the game should tell me that there is something there but I need to get a light to see what it is.

 

[V_K]

Yeah, and Caius Cosades' house should have a huge map marker pointing to it.

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

I'm waiting for a Lovecraft RPG where you play as the horrors rather than the humans. You can still start off weak and stuff, but the point of the game should be to become stronger and create dominion over the weaklings.

Try "Cultist Simulator":

https://store.steampowered.com/app/718670/Cultist_Simulator/

(never played myself, but it looks cool)

I've played it. It's a cool enough game, but the writing leaves a lot to desire and the gameplay is just dumb imo.

 

[the mole]

The darkness-level has nothing at all to do with the ability to perceive objects BY TOUCH

And how is your character supposed to know what a transmitter feels like exactly?
Your only clue in game as to which crate to loot is its number - which you obviously can't see in the dark.

but I could see it in the dark, the problem was the player was given no indication that they needed a lantern to loot boxes in slightly dark rooms

If the room was pitch black and I literally couldnt see the box I would have no problem with it, but you can see the box

 

[Fedora Master]

This is by far the dumbest tangent in the thread.

 

[the mole]

which part of it is dumb, that the developer deems you need a lantern to loot a box in a slightly dark room although the box is clearly visible

 

[Fedora Master]

The part where this is completely irrelevant compared to the major problems the game has.

 

[the mole]

The part where this is completely irrelevant compared to the major problems the game has.

It's an important issue based on the fact that it's obtuse

feel free to list the issues you think the game has, because I think it's pretty good overall except for one section, but you want to be a mod it seems

 

[Stakhanov]

So you fought ghouls blind, took needless sanity damage, yet need the game to spell it out that you should be taking a lantern? Do you need flashing red lights a la COD to figure out that maybe that isn't what you should be doing? This reminds me of Dishonored play-testers.

 

[Fedora Master]

In the current state of the game it might very well be that the crate is simply bugged and only works with a lantern, not for any gameplay or realism reasons.

 

[the mole]

So you fought ghouls blind, took needless sanity damage, yet need the game to spell it out that you should be taking a lantern? Do you need flashing red lights a la COD to figure out that maybe that isn't what you should be doing? This reminds me of Dishonored play-testers.

I took on a challenge and succeeded against the odds, I think the game shouldnt throw an arbitrary mechanic in just to confuse the player, you did something that required less skill than I did, at the very least I should get the reward for that

the box is plainly visible

 

[the mole]

In the current state of the game it might very well be that the crate is simply bugged and only works with a lantern, not for any gameplay or realism reasons.

it wasnt bugged, I simply needed the lantern, I asked here several days ago

 

[V_K]

The darkness-level has nothing at all to do with the ability to perceive objects BY TOUCH

And how is your character supposed to know what a transmitter feels like exactly?
Your only clue in game as to which crate to loot is its number - which you obviously can't see in the dark.

but I could see it in the dark, the problem was the player was given no indication that they needed a lantern to loot boxes in slightly dark rooms

I don't know man, I did the stabber quest first and when I walked into that tunnel next to the mafia club and nothing was interactable, while I was getting sanity damage, it took me exactly 2 seconds to realize I need to leave and come back with a lantern.

 

[Fedora Master]

In the current state of the game it might very well be that the crate is simply bugged and only works with a lantern, not for any gameplay or realism reasons.

it wasnt bugged, I simply needed the lantern, I asked here several days ago

That's not my point. The game is so buggy right now you simply can't tell what's gameplay and what's a bug. You asked for problems with it, here they are.

 

[the mole]

The darkness-level has nothing at all to do with the ability to perceive objects BY TOUCH

And how is your character supposed to know what a transmitter feels like exactly?
Your only clue in game as to which crate to loot is its number - which you obviously can't see in the dark.

but I could see it in the dark, the problem was the player was given no indication that they needed a lantern to loot boxes in slightly dark rooms

I don't know man, I did the stabber quest first and when I walked into that tunnel next to the mafia club and nothing was interactable, while I was getting sanity damage, it took me exactly 2 seconds to realize I need to leave and come back with a lantern.

ok once you know you might need a lantern, where do you get one, is your first guess the gunshop

 

[V_K]

In the current state of the game it might very well be that the crate is simply bugged and only works with a lantern, not for any gameplay or realism reasons.

it wasnt bugged, I simply needed the lantern, I asked here several days ago

That's not my point. The game is so buggy right now you simply can't tell what's gameplay and what's a bug. You asked for problems with it, here they are.

I dunno why you're so butthurt, personally, I encountered exactly 2 game-breaking bugs in my playthrough, and a couple smaller ones. That's an extremely stable release by modern standards.

I took on a challenge and succeeded against the odds

So you played a dumb hero and were surprised that he turned out too dumb to find the right box?

ok once you know you might need a lantern, where do you get one, is your first guess the gunshop

It was such a non-issue that I don't remember. I might had already had one, just forgot to equip it. Honestly, the game telegraphs that you're gonna need a lantern so hard with that opening dream sequence that it was a no-brainer to buy one once I saw it in some shopkeeper's inventory.
Besides, there are like 5 stores in the game, it's not like checking them all would be an impossible task.