The Drunken Lizard Pub

Great game. I'm looking forward to II. Some ideas for consideration:
1. Allow me to put multiple ingredients into potions mix page to make multiple potions. Having to move crap around five times in order to make five healing potions really gets old fast.
2. I agree with others about the number of fast travel options- just let me jump from screen to screen faster using more quick travel points on the maps.
3. My game would slow to a crawl when entering an area lit by many torches or lamps. This was probably my Mac powerbook G4, since it is not an intel machine. This bogged down so badly that it was quicker for me to quick travel to another town than try to leave by walking.
4. I regret that I couldn't get to Darkford by any means once I missed the bullying option. Being able to get people to talk again after a while would have been good.
5. I once lost my precious longbow. I had put it into the potion screen and was prepared to try to enchant it. I worried that the process might go BLAM because I wasn't doing things right, so I clicked to save the game while the bow was in the slot in the potions screen. I then went on exploring and died shortly thereafter. When I restored my game from the saved version, I'd lost the bow. It was no longer in my inventory (as weren't the ectoplasm and mercury). A rare glitch, but one that hurt my progress.

Great game overall. Reminded me of the old rpgs. Good work.

Thanks Scarlett! You'll be happy to hear that all these suggestions are already in the process of getting implemented for Book II.

Because I don't want to start a new thread I hijack this one here.

3. More equipment. I'm not asking for Diablo II here, but something in that direction.

I agree and disagree. It took a while, till I noticed that the amulets were always the same. No alchemy +1, +2, only +3. The same rings etc.

But I liked it a lot, that there were so few magic Items and I upgraded my rusty Sword with an Iron Sword and then a Steel Sword. If you get a magic Item which only gives +2 on a skill it is something special. I find this more realistic instead of the uberloot of Diablo.

Other things I liked:
- I think the production value of Book I is really good for an indy game. (Or at least it seems so if you played a Spiderweb Software RPG before *g*). The graphic may only be 2D isometric, but it looks nice. There are glowworms in the night, a few magic effects, it looks snappy to select your inventory/character windows, the sound/music is atmospheric. I pay gladly money for something polished.

- The plotline and guidance for the player was good. While the beginning was extra-hard (poison = dead) I always knew what to do next. And although the quests were linear, there was a certain nonlinear feel to it. A little more freedom of choice in solving them would be nice (not necessarily good/evil. Example: solve a quest for a blacksmith and get a unique axe or solve the same quest for a mage and get a unique spell.) I also love different endings.

- The size of the areas and dungeons were okay. If they would be much larger I would find it too tedious.

Things I disliked:
- I was thrilled of the diverse set of skills because of roleplaying feeling. So I invested at character creation a few points in cartography and was pleased about my nice drawn automap. Later in the demo I came about the sextant quest and learned that I had invested my precious skill points for nothing.
Almost didn't bought the game because of that. And I googled this help-board, so I could look up which other trainers were around, which fairly spoiled me and robbed me of some surprises/fun.

- No running, only walking. Perhaps relate it to endurance/strength: A smart mage can portal around, a physical fit fighter can run a long time.

- The character system is rather limited, because the only reasonable character is a fighter/mage hybrid with almost all attribute points spend for Perception and using buffing spells. You should look at the RPG-system from Fallout and steal the best from it. For example:
Attributes have a decent influence on your skill level.
There are no meaningless attributes. Very high intelligence may not be usefull in combat (perhaps enables more dialogue options?), but gives more skill points every level. Very low intelligence lowers you skill points every level, but your other attributes are higher.
I love the trait/perk system in Fallout: Being "small stature" improves sneaking and stealing ability, but negatively affects heavy weapon skills and maximum carrying capacity. And being a "heavy-handed" "bruiser" is like playing Conan the barbar.

- Let certain people disappear after solved quests. It broke my heart that after I brought back the wedding ring of the slain husband, his poor widow still remained in the dangerous wilderness, endlessly waiting for him. A more scripted approach would make the world seem less static.

- Make bashing/magic-lockpick impossible for some chests/doors, so a high skilled thief has its uses.

Hi,

some more "ideas" (for book III / IV....)

make skilling more selective:
i.e. get points only for used skills: opening doors/chests and disarming traps
might give points for this and related skills, but not for bow/sword, etc.

also general experience should be divided : for above example, get exp. for intelligence, dexterity, even wisdom, but not strength or speed

thinking on rpg like DSA, which I had been "forced" to join....
(Das Schwarze Auge yet a paper rpg...the black eye,
have no idea if this is available in english)


so long
NinjaGremlin

Ralf wrote:Because I don't want to start a new thread I hijack this one here.

3. More equipment. I'm not asking for Diablo II here, but something in that direction.

I agree and disagree. It took a while, till I noticed that the amulets were always the same. No alchemy +1, +2, only +3. The same rings etc.

But I liked it a lot, that there were so few magic Items and I upgraded my rusty Sword with an Iron Sword and then a Steel Sword. If you get a magic Item which only gives +2 on a skill it is something special. I find this more realistic instead of the uberloot of Diablo.

Good point, it does give the items character when they're all "hard scripted". But still, I feel that more magical items are needed, and also more kinds of effects. Maybe some hybrid like Diablo where some items have unique names and scripted effects, and others are more random in nature. Also, I agree the Diablo II-style - where every item you find is magical with a dozen of effects - would be over the top for this game. It was over the top even for a Diablo game, in my opinion. The regular items never felt important or interesting.

As for the rest of your post, I agree.