PraetorJudis on 7/3/2002 at 11:04
Actually, you can skip Ortiem's dialogue. I just did it. One of the lines required to firmly push ESC several times, but I did manage to skip every line in the conversation.
xman on 7/3/2002 at 13:01
Actually, I pressed that damn Escape key at different paces and during different durations (from a few milliseconds to more than 2 seconds) and it just kept ignoring my request... Really weird, strange, odd, awry, warped and bizarre thing... (does anyone know of more synonyms? ;))
Le Magot d'Oz on 9/3/2002 at 02:53
It could be great if esc skips the whole dialog and the spacer skips only one line ...
addink> change foreign by forgotten or ancient as you want
Karl =>
1) I'm agree
2) he's complaining enough ! althought as I go through the demo with an mental based character I didn't heard him complaining that often ; anyway I think you should lose/not regain you life/mana point when you're starved
but ... you don't know your torch is gonna suddenly light off (could be important if it's your last one...)
3) I read somewhere it was previously possible but actually removed as it was more a contraint than a gameplay improvement : it doesn't bring anything to the player whereas eating give his health points back (althought you could get those back by sleeping or make some visions/dreams/nightmare during your doze...)
4) I'm agree ;)
5) the cursor didn't disappeared on my system... (except in magic mode : the more you're far from the center of the screen, the longer is the jump of the cursor)
6) it seems to be leek and carrots (althought it's not conic carrots...)
7) the red cross means that you will put the object on the ground, while the blue arrow means you will throw it away ; the exact final position of the object is immediately visible before realeasing the object (of course it's VERY difficult to put it where you want...)
8) I'm agree ;)
9) I didn't remember but I know understand why I thought to have more wine in my inventory (it's not that alcoholic dog who drink it ;) )
10) you actually could... maybe not on your system :p but it could better (see my first sentence)
11) I wanted to post that elsewhere but you've preceded me !
you draw runes of 3 different colors (thats enough... and sometimes usefull :) )
will you play Arx with a mighty warrior you're usually fond of, even if you're not weight limited in your inventory ?
xman on 9/3/2002 at 10:57
Quote:
Originally posted by Le Magot d'Oz will you play Arx with a mighty warrior you're usually fond of, even if you're not weight limited in your inventory ? I suppose I'll first play with a more balanced character... Just to see what characteristics are really needed in the game. (What would be great is that I eventually can't conclude objectively of any best characteristic, which would mean that you can play the game YOUR WAY).
Le Magot d'Oz on 9/3/2002 at 14:45
I think it's also the way I will play... but strenght will be no doubt my minor concern
I found something else that REALLY ANNOY me : if you do not attribute ALL your skill points BEFORE going upstairs (maybe changing to any area), the remaining is WASTE without warning !!!!
xman on 9/3/2002 at 15:34
Indeed this must be a bug. You shouldn't lose your extra points.
And about stength you'll probably need a little for holding powerful weapons...
[spoiler]The two-handed sword after the password door requires strength=12[/spoiler]
Kharan on 9/3/2002 at 18:52
Some random thoughts...
Recovering hitpoints by sleeping would be more realistic and immersive than the fast regeneration rate. Sleeping should be possible anywhere, but with the danger that you'll be killed if there are monsters around. That way it wouldn't restrict gameplay. Actually I'd like it if all three (food, water and sleep) would be needed by the player and there was a UW-like status screen showing the need for all (plus the date to give you a sense of time and progress), but I'm probably in the minority.
Why can't you fill bottles with water, by the way? They should be filled when the player drops them in any water. Odd that I haven't heard the player complain about being hungry once.
Thrown objects and spells (and arrows?) should go where the cursor is instead of center of the screen. Also the throwing limits (the red cross) should be taken out and the cursor should change straight from dropping an item to throwing it.
Too bad about the decision not to have branching conversations. I know it'd be more work but this is probably the weakest link in Arx and will make the gameplay more linear (for example, how do you accept/decline subquests without dialog choices?). I'd rather have written dialog if it has choices than spoken dialog without choices. I hope there is at least freedom of movement, meaning you can (and have to) visit old levels.
Is bartering in the game? I know you can buy beer from the bar, but other than that? I hope I can sell my items (at least to a shop) and buy stuff from any friendly NPC.
All objects that the player can pick up should be be placeable in the inventory.
There's a bug which causes fish to disappear when you place them near the fireplace in the castle. Throwing them works alright.
Armour and weapon condition indicator should be onscreen only when inventory is open.
You can catch mice with cheese, but why can't you cook and eat them?
If apple pies, why not mushroom, fish and cheese pies? ;)
Every corpse should have meat in them, but some should make you sick (humans, spiders). In fact, you shouldn't have to cook the meat before eating it. Uncooked meat just would make you sick.
Shift-clicking should pick up all items of a stack in inventory.
If item A can be used on item B, item B should be usable with item A.
When you poison someone or use incinerate on them, the green and red colours look silly. At least make them a bit less obvious.
Bruny on 9/3/2002 at 23:06
It was a little awkward at first but I started to get used to it. Unfortunately I'm not very far along as I can no longer load any of my save games. But so far:
<ol><li>I experienced the same bug as most other people where jumping into the hole at the end of the first map dropped me quietly back to my desktop. But the second time I loaded it I made it without crashing.<li>The movement is still awkward mainly because of the overemphasized bobbing, but I don't find it quite as impossible to deal with the more I play. I wish you didn't move up and down quite so much when you're walking over objects and rocks and debris and such.<li>Mouse response speed doesn't seem to be consistent. I turned it all the way down at first and sometimes the mouse responds waaay too slowly and other times too quickly. Turning it up, same problem. Sometimes it's too fast and sometimes it's too slow.<li>Crouch down then look around with the mouse. Especially when you're near a wall the distortion is huge. I thought we'd gotten past that with modern games.<li>Combat is extremely awkward for reasons I can't put my finger on. Perhaps it will improve as my skill increases but it's hard to register "hits" on your enemies. Reminds me of the sword in Daikatana. By "register" I mean there's really little concrete feedback for a hit (thinking about the nice "Thunk" when you hit somebody with a crowbar in Half-Life and you could swear you actually felt it through your mouse) and it seems very difficult to tell whether you're close enough or whether you'll actually hit them or not. Maybe this is based on a percentage chance to hit? That would explain it but I still don't care for it. For example, crouching down to kill a rat. Sometimes I hit him, and sometimes I seem to miss even when I'm right up close. Maybe because, for example, when you hit somebody with a bone, the swing coninues through, like the bone is going right through him, where in other games it stops at his head or where ever. If you hit the guy on the head with the bone it should stop at his head.<li>In the area where you need to find the rope, my screen suddenly became really, really dark, so I almost couldn't see and the letters were invisible in all my dialog boxes. So I quit the game then couldn't load any of my save games no matter how many times I tried. So there I am.<li>I don't understand why demos don't go way out of their way to provide lots of help and readmes and documentation and tutorial maps. They do it in the full game but nobody ever seems to give a damn for demos. This is the *most important* place to put stuff like that. If you're trying to figure out whether you like a game and will buy it it doesn't help if you're confused all the time.<li>Does stealth actually work? Can't seem to sneak up on anybody.<li>Please please call it "Load/Save" Game. Edit Quest means nothing to me.<li>The opening dialog is pretty bad. Let's say the narrator don't sound like the most masculine fellow around and leave it at that.</ol>
Enough of the complaints. Maybe this is a tech demo or compatibility test and the real demo is due sometime later. If so then I'm grateful they risked so much by letting us have a sneak peak! Thanks guys! Onto the great stuff:<ol><li>I LOVE the magic system. The spell book, runes, all of that is great. I'm having trouble memorizing my 3 spells and unmemorizing them (no documentation, the help blurb disappeared from my screen too fast), I'm glad you can memorize three of them and I'm glad you have to work a bit to use others. I like the sound when you trace out the rune. Everything. Don't change a bit of it.<li>I haven't played enough to really get a thorough impression but it sounds like combining things in your inventory and using inventory items in creative ways with your surroundings will be really fun, like Lands of Lore and the old adventure games I used to like so much. Just as long as there aren't too many silly restrictions (E.g., why can't I eat my fish raw if I want to? Ever hear of sushi?)<li>The graphics are great and I like the atmosphere of the dungeons. Things like rocks and skulls sticking in walls when you throw them don't really bother me at all. I haven't noticed any texture seams like other people or anything like that. It all looks great. <li>You have the option to bind more than one key to a control. Hey! I used to take that for granted too, before NOLF. Now I'm grateful for the little things.<li>The cursor effect, leaving a faint trail behind it on the screen is cool.</ol>
I'm looking forward to getting this game, assuming they fix the crashing bug at the very least. It's been so long since I've played any kind of first person fantasy game.
twisty on 10/3/2002 at 02:51
Has anyone else had the problem where you involuntarily throw an item of your inventory away whenever you come out of the savegame screen?
Ark on 10/3/2002 at 13:00
Kharan, you can refill empty bottles with water if you use them with 'quiet' water. In the outpost, upstaris, in the room with the outpost captain there is a bathtub, use the bottle there to get them filled again.
You can use them to extinguise the fire in the outpost, at no cost, because when you use the water bottle with fire is doesn't get empty (bug?)
A.-
