Played Driftmoon editorial edition (.51) and it was awesome!

DarkWolf 14 years ago

So yeah, I've completed the game (as far as you could complete it) and it was quite awesome. I really like the graphical style you've used.
I do have some questions though, based on the version I played.

- Will fighting mechanics be improved?
I noticed it's not much diffrent than clicking away. And whilst it works, it is somewhat dull the more you do it. Plus it was a slight hassle positioning yourself to let your AI helper get swings at the enemy. Will the AI have any improvements as well?

- How much freedom will the player have in the game?
As far as I've played it, it was a linear game. Will you (once you've reached the town) obtain more freedom on what to do, where to go and what path to choose? Will there be shops with abundant items to buy? A lively town, or towns, to explore and interact with?

Well, that's all for now. I hope to get some of my questions answered!

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ville 14 years ago

Glad to hear you've liked it!
The fighting mechanics have been improved, currently they're more strategic with less clicking involved. You click on an enemy to start combat. And you can click on different skill buttons to execute that skill, such as Precise Strike, or Defence Posture. It's a lot like Baldur's Gate or Dragon Age if you've played any of those.

I haven't played with the friendly AI too much yet, so there's room for improvement. I haven't been so frustrated with their inability to get to the enemy, I've been more infuriated with the friends dying all the time.

About alive towns, I'm going to have to say there will be some settlements, but not big ones. I just don't have the thousands of hours required to make them. I'm probably only going to include people you can actually do something with, so there won't be hundreds of people with just a name, nor hundreds of houses with nothing to do in them. So you'll likely see smaller villages. There will be shops, at the very least weapons/gear shops, possibly magic items shops or herbs shops.

As for the freedom aspect, it won't be a fully open world, so the freedom is limited in such a sense. You can at least choose which maps to play, that is which paths to take on the larger world map, which wasn't in the demo yet. And many of those maps will feature different ways to pass the quests set in them.

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DarkWolf 14 years ago

Thanks for your reply.

I've gotten a better image at what the final product will be and so far I like it, alot! I do have some follow up questions and comments, if it's not a bother for you to answer them ofcourse

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Like in Dragons Age, settlements were also small, with major NPC's being there to progress the story and supply you in critical ways, whilst there were also minor NPC's which had a story to tell or add to the feeling (mood), lore or otherwise engaging you in the world of the game. I hope that you'll have something similar in mind too to suck us in an interesting and filled world. After all, I understand that you're looking to immerse the player in a far away land as evident by your company's name.

About the combat; How big can they eventually be? I've been familiarized with 1on1 and similar sizes, but are substantionally bigger battles possible and viable? I can imagine one instance where such a fight could occur to defend a position with friends against a big number of enemies. Ala that mission in Dragon Age where you defend a small village against the zombies that come from the castle. Or in a "Defend your castle" sense that you defend a building of some kind.

How many different items and weapons will be available in the full game? Some games tend to have some kind of a linear path at which you "unlock" your items, which only makes it psuedo-freedom of choice. As I understand, this is done to balance the game somewhat or to keep specific items interlocked with a specific part of the game. Will your game have a wide variety of things to buy where you'll have the freedom to buy anything as you please, or will the player be coaxed to buy this first, then that etc...

One kind of... annoyance I did had is that the camera is zoomed in at such a level that your vision is quite small and confined. Whilst this is most likely a design choice, it does feel kind of constricting when exploring.

I'll be looking forward to the release. If there's any way I could help on a user-end basis, contact me and I'll be more than glad to help!

Thanks for your reply. I've gotten a better image at what the final product will be and so far I like it, alot! I do have some follow up questions and comments, if it's not a bother for you to answer them ofcourse :) . Like in Dragons Age, settlements were also small, with major NPC's being there to progress the story and supply you in critical ways, whilst there were also minor NPC's which had a story to tell or add to the feeling (mood), lore or otherwise engaging you in the world of the game. I hope that you'll have something similar in mind too to suck us in an interesting and filled world. After all, I understand that you're looking to immerse the player in a far away land as evident by your company's name. About the combat; How big can they eventually be? I've been familiarized with 1on1 and similar sizes, but are substantionally bigger battles possible and viable? I can imagine one instance where such a fight could occur to defend a position with friends against a big number of enemies. Ala that mission in Dragon Age where you defend a small village against the zombies that come from the castle. Or in a "Defend your castle" sense that you defend a building of some kind. How many different items and weapons will be available in the full game? Some games tend to have some kind of a linear path at which you "unlock" your items, which only makes it psuedo-freedom of choice. As I understand, this is done to balance the game somewhat or to keep specific items interlocked with a specific part of the game. Will your game have a wide variety of things to buy where you'll have the freedom to buy anything as you please, or will the player be coaxed to buy this first, then that etc... One kind of... annoyance I did had is that the camera is zoomed in at such a level that your vision is quite small and confined. Whilst this is most likely a design choice, it does feel kind of constricting when exploring. I'll be looking forward to the release. If there's any way I could help on a user-end basis, contact me and I'll be more than glad to help! :wink:

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ville 14 years ago

Immersion is indeed a key point in roleplaying games.I intend to do my best to tell the story that's set in the big Driftmoon world I already have in my head. I can do a lot by using NPC's that tell parts of their lives. And I've always loved the stories told only by clues, a footprint, a bloody weapon.

I see immersion as such a big factor that I've found myself playing roleplaying games that have had otherwise bad mechanics, but have had an otherwise interesting world. An example would be Ultima VII. The combat, the spellcasting, the inventory management, they're all subpar by today's standards. But that game has definitely the liveliest world I've ever seen in an RPG.

Since the combat mechanics are somewhat similar to Dragon Age, they could have similar enemy amounts. There will be skills you can use on multiple targets at once, but most will focus on the selected opponent. So I'm seeing the common case to be two or three enemies, but I don't see why there couldn't be significantly more. And since we can have multiple characters in a party, there can be some pretty big battles. But I'm tuning the mechanics for the smaller battles, since I want to feel that the combats matter and are tactical instead of just bashing.

My plan for item progression is to have a system similar to Diablo, where you can buy any kind of items, but the item drops are only somewhat better than your previous gear. I haven't given this much thought yet, but it's actually next on my todo list. Possibly the items will have random attributes, and there can be rare items that have significantly better attributes.

I'll play around with the camera. There's no actual reason it's so close, other than that the framerate is faster if we have less things to show.

I'd be very glad of any help! The best way to help right now is to comment on my blog posts, give me new ideas to chew. You seem to have well worded opinions, such comments are especially welcome.

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JakeWedding 14 years ago

can we have a epic flashback kinda thing at the end, where your like your father, the baron and he's fighting along side the last of soldiers?

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ville 14 years ago

Well the plot is a bit different, but there may be some epic scenes in the new one.

I haven't included any flashbacks in my plans for the moment, I usually like to play all the time and not watch cinemas.

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Narvius 14 years ago

A *playable* flashback.

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JakeWedding 14 years ago

Playable flashback where you cant change fate but can go and do actions inside of it

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Played Driftmoon editorial edition (.51) and it was awesome!

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