crazy on 16/3/2002 at 23:22
Suggested improvements!
Before somebody cuts my head off for not thinking this demo was "perfect", I just gotta say, the demo is great, but I wouldn't shed many tears if they did a few things in a slightly different way in the game itself. ;) But to be fair, I would still buy it if they didn't change it a bit, so there you go.
Arx Fatalis is definately a game I will buy when it gets released, it's a first-person RPG, and it is a good one too. Seems to have an interesting story to it, and some very talented people involved in it's production.
I could say a lot of nice things about the demo, but it is afterall just a demo. It's not the actual game so I'll just save my praise till after I've played the game. This is something the devs have put together to give us the opportunity to help them making it better. So were there things I would have done differently if I was designing this game, sure there were but that doesn't mean this game is not great. Just means that I have a different way of approching things than the devs.
For instance, I think it's weird that a particular lady in the demo let's you steal bread and winebottles like that, but still makes you pay for your drink at the bar. I would use some creative scripting here, but hey, thats just me.
The main bugs will be fixed I'm sure, like: sticking your head through the ceiling, getting permanently stuck in walls, pigs and rats getting stuck in scenery, sudden crashes to the desktop, inventory/book/goldpouch disappearing from view allthough you can still open them and click on the invisible icons if you remember where they are,. etc. etc..
Regrdless however the devs gave us this demo expecting something in return, they want some feedback so that they can improve on their game before releasing it.
I have posted some views on improvements in replies to various threads, so now I decided to make a little list of my suggestions. :) (excluding some old, and adding some new)
Here they are.
1. This is a RPG right, so it would be nice to have an alternative way of progress rather than the tired old "hack'n slash" approch which is needed to exit the cell, getting past the goblin lord, etc. Would be nice if there was a way of sneaking past the cell guard and the goblin lord undetected, it's an implemented playstyle in a number of games these days and it can be really exciting. Not kidding there, taffers! Would be OK to have the option of rendering them unconcious by whacking them on the head from behind, avoiding the risk of direct confrontation. Already from start, there should be three ways of dealing with the confrontaions, the way of a thief: sneaking past unnoticed or escaping, the way of the magician: using powerfull spells, and the way of the warrior: using melee weapons (only option in the demo). However I must state that, the warrior style one plays in the demo works great, it's very inspired by HexenII or so it seems anyway.
2. At times when playing the demo I found it annoying that my character was so damn hungry all of a sudden, a normal person can last for 2 weeks without food, this guy had trouble lasting 30 minutes. He's refusing to eat raw fish even if it kills him, a real fanatic, and well, anything you can kill in the game should be "eatable" as a last resort. Survival of the fittest, ring a bell anyone? But don't get me wrong here, I like this "hungry" situation, ( I have played The Sims you know:D ) it's a nice gimmick but I think it's adding too much of a time pressure. I like taking my time when playing a game, but here I'm sort of constantly searching for food because this character starves to death ever so often. It sort of takes focus away from the more important parts of the game. Great idea but needs some final tuning.
3. When engaged in fierce combat it's a must, being able to easely refill your healthmeter. Anyone who's played Vampire :TMR, knows how important it is having your food icons on screen during combat. However in this demo whenever I fight this goblin lord fellow, even though I constantly try keeping my inventory open (onscreen) it mysteriously vanishes during combat. So when I'm low on health and need to click those bottles or fish or whatever, the inventory is gone. Big bad bug! The inventory as a whole is superb. Kind of a gentle mix of Drakan and Vampire, I like it, it mostly works for me. Kind of miss having it around every time I'm dying during combat though.
4. This ropetrick that was supposed to get this elevator working, drop it or keep it but please give us some alternative to this kind of tedious goosechase. It's really just a fancy variation of the dusty old "find the right key to proceed" rutine. It's really old, definately really, really old, please have mercy. Mmm.., would it be going way to far, even suggesting hm..eh... ropearrows?:rolleyes:
5. Ratsinfestation, oh yeas, scatter little critters around the place, make them really dangerous and you make sure the player is constantly being drained of health. This was one the many elements I didn't quite fancy in Daikatana and I don't like it much in this game either. Make those rats less leathal, or skip them all together. This guy is burning sugar so fast his healthlevel is dropping fast enough on it's own account as it is. These are not ordinary rats, though they look cute and might fool you, these are supernatural Killer rats. One rat can kill a man who's incidentally five times bigger than the actual rat by the way, in just a matter of a few seconds! Is this some kind of misplaced tribute to Vampire : TMR, I wonder? :cheeky: Anyway, nice to have some wildlife around, (please forgive the pathetic use of sarcasme in this last paragraph) but I would seriously like being able to restore some of the health these rodents take from me by eating them after slaying them.
Even without any of these changes it's a great game, but ...but.... then there's always that big but......eh, well, why not, ..........overall, the Arx Fatalis demo indicates the coming of a great game! cheers.! :)
addink on 17/3/2002 at 01:38
I agree in parts* with crazy. [* part 1 and the conclusion that is... :D]
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but.... then there's always that big
but......
Being an avid Thief fan, I'm all for a non-agressive/alternative way of playing.
But this game is admittedly inspired by the UW-series, which -btw- I just adored playing (spent a couple of months of my life playing those games...
...sigh... good times...). The main choices in the UW series were not about "do I sneak,fight or magic my way through this quest". They were mainly about an agressive/non-aggressive approach to solving quests. You had to get the NPCs to like you if you didn't feel like sneaking/fighting/doing magic.
Although I would like to see crazys ideas implemented, I'd like to see branching dialogs even more...
2. Hunger. I don't know what I do differently
but I can easily finish the demo on only a small snack...
3. Fast replenishment. I actually prefer the not being able to eat whilst engaged in combat, it adds realism. It always strikes me as odd that a lost limb can be fixed by quickly eating a sandwich. :D
Also I like food or potions to have a slow effect, like the hypos in SShock. And I liked the sleepingbag concept in UW: actually having to find a place that's safe to sleep.
But maybe that's just me being silly.
4. Find key X for door Y. I agree with crazy: it is old.
But any quests in any RPG-game is based on the principle 'do A for result B'. Sometimes it is spelled out, like "get rope to fix elevator". Sometimes the actual assignment is is implied "find box to drop coin in (otherwise: no subquest for you)". That's just the core of quests in RPGs.
[btw: who needs rope arrows when you can levitate :angel:
MEGA SPACIUM MOVIS ]
5. Rat infestation. Again I don't seem to have any problem. The buggers come towards me: I get my trusty bone ready: when they're close enough: I whack them:
if (note:
if) necessary: take a step back and repeat action... Now, with spiders: that's a different story,
poisonous bastards! they die quick enough
but a small bite suffices...
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the Arx Fatalis demo indicates the coming of a great game! cheers! :)PS.
just a thought about point 2 and 5: I have a pretty classic configuration having C:\WINDOWS\Desktop as my desktop folder... I noticed the seemingly random appearence of small LOG files on this desktop. Could it be that because of my 'classic' config, I have less problems than others? Like I said... just a thought.
Ziusudra on 17/3/2002 at 02:50
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Originally posted by crazy Suggested improvements!
1. This is a RPG right, so it would be nice to have an alternative way of progress rather than the tired old "hack'n slash" approch which is needed to exit the cell, getting past the goblin lord, etc. ...Yeah, but, it's not nearly as bad as say DiabloII. Still, RPG's need to evolve beyond the hack and slash or stat quest paradigm.
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2. At times when playing the demo I found it annoying that my character was so damn hungry all of a sudden, a normal person can last for 2 weeks without food, this guy had trouble lasting 30 minutes. ...Um, I finished the demo at a leasurely pace and I never got hungry. And I had food left over. You do know you can cook raw food, right?
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3. When engaged in fierce combat it's a must, being able to easely refill your healthmeter. ...Try pressing the 'F' key. A help file or a larger font in the options screen would've been nice.
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4. This ropetrick that was supposed to get this elevator working, drop it or keep it but please give us some alternative to this kind of tedious goosechase. ...I think this is just something we're gonna have to put up with in games. At least they provided two ropes.
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5. Ratsinfestation, oh yeas, scatter little critters around the place, make them really dangerous and you make sure the player is constantly being drained of health. ...I had this problem the couple of times, but after a while I was able to kill them without taking damage.
What I don't quite understand is why the menus are slower than the game?
And why is the font on the options menu so small? I found it
really hard to read.
It was a really fun demo. I think I'll very likely buy the game. :thumb:
crazy on 17/3/2002 at 19:26
I spend a lot of time on a level, I don't rush through because I like exploration :angel: (Or maybe I should just admit to not being the best gamer in the world:erm: .) Try spending a few hours exploring the place before using the elevator and see how far the food you've been given lasts you, not to mention if you take some damage during your encounters with rats and stuff. I don't save before a fight just to reload untill I win without taking damage, and since I'm not a great fighter (I prefer a less violent approch) I usually take quite a bit of damage. That's why I feel that this hunger sensation which overwhealms my character could be toned down a bit. My character's got an eating disorder, ;) it's OK some people in real life also has this problem. I usually compensate the loss of heath during combat by clicking the appropriate icons, yes. In Drakan, in Wheel of Time and in Vampire. Its helps alot, and concidering me not saving before battle, I'm really "dead scared" of not winning. :cheeky:
Couderc on 18/3/2002 at 07:08
"4. This ropetrick that was supposed to get this elevator working, drop it or keep it but please give us some alternative to this kind of tedious goosechase. It's really just a fancy variation of the dusty old "find the right key "
Of course this will always be in games, however I do hope this isn't the majority of "puzzles" in Arx.
