my thoughts on finishing the game (no spoilers)

[silverkitty]

first of all, the rest of this post is going to sound negative, but it's only because I really enjoyed the game that I'm posting at all.

(1) rogues are a little messed up - the whole decreasing experience for locks and traps doesn't make sense with the rest of the system, where everything else (including using the appropriate key for the lock) is flat experience. (basically, a game system either needs to use flat experience with increasing level caps, or flat level caps with decreasing experience. pick one and stick to it. mixing both doesn't work).

(1a) that and you can't sleep at an inn "until nightfall". it's always until morning. which is wrong for a person who lives in shadows.

(2) the bonuses/penalties for the "axioms" are clearly a holdover from the PnP game, but not in a good way -- there's no penalty in not being able to use priestly healing because the 2 priests both charge a billion times more than the 2 inns across the road. I never used priestly healing, so I wouldn't have cared if it was restricted off of me.

(3) min/maxing is fun, but having "you did that at the wrong time!" penalties is not. specifically, trainers should be worth 5 levels of upgrade per skill, not just the first five levels. books should always be worth 3 skill points, not 3 or 2 depending on when you read 'em, and improving your perception and endurance should raise your mana and health pools "retroactively" (just recalculate as if you had them that way all along). then the player doesn't feel a need to re-start just because they did things in the wrong order. it doesn't really add anything to the game except the "oops" feeling for not being psychic (i.e. for not knowing what trainers and books existed)

(4) rolling stats is a bad holdover from PnP days. just give me 100 points to distribute over the 8 skills already, because I'm going to get the same effect eventually by hitting the button over and over, but with less tediousness in the way. computers are here to make our lives less tedious.

(5) speaking of tedious: I got really tired of switching gear all the time. instead of "return" toggling between weapons, it should shift between entire paperdolls set up for melee, ranged, sneaking, lockpicking, trapspringing, spellcasting, or whatever (let the player define up to X paperdolls however they want, name them whatever they want, and switch between those)

(6) the keyboard and mouse should both be optional components - everything you can do with one needs to map to something on the other, all the time. all the time.

(7) minor spoiler: when you click "male" in the character editor it says you have to play a male for story reasons, but that simply is not so. nothing about the story revolved around my maleness. at all. really. I was expecting to find out something like that I had a wife who had to pretend not to know me or something. but it didn't happen.

but, really, I enjoyed the game, despite a few aspects I found tedious. great work and I look forward to the next ones.

[Daemian Lucifer]

(5) speaking of tedious: I got really tired of switching gear all the time. instead of "return" toggling between weapons, it should shift between entire paperdolls set up for melee, ranged, sneaking, lockpicking, trapspringing, spellcasting, or whatever (let the player define up to X paperdolls however they want, name them whatever they want, and switch between those)

I agree with your other points,except for this one(well,not entirelly).This one would be a nice thing to do when out of combat.But when engaded,removing your armor shouldnt be possible(especially not for the heaviest one).Switching weapons,on the other hand,can be doe,but it should take a round.

[silverkitty]

true. given the engine choice to allow me to hit return to instantly switch weapons, my method would be superior, but you're right that the engine choice is wrong in the first place. it would be pretty conceptually easy for the player to understand if it just always cost turns to change equipment (one for weapon or rings, two for gloves or amulet. four for cape or boots. 10 for legs or torso, or whatever, those are just top-of-the-head numbers - for multi-round changes, assume half N = old equipment removed), and have such changing be interrupted if something smacks you while you're doing it, which would cover (and allow) attempts to change equipment during combat (which would generally fail, and often expose you to getting hit while nekkid), and also cover (and easily allow) changes of equipment out of combat. if you wanted to mix the two systems, then just assign a priority order to the paperdoll items.

most often, switch for me meant rings or gloves - I had a swordsman's gaunlets and ranger's bracers, and so I never hit return, I always hit X and switched my gloves while switching my weapon. but after I stole the ubersword, I often had to sheath it to cast spells because the dang thing weighs 12 pounds and no matter what I raised my concentration to, 10 seemed to always be the limit.

[BasiliskWrangler]

Thanks for your input silverkitty. We'll address most your concerns in Book II.

[Champeene]

To add to the insanity...

How can I read a book and become good at sword fighting or stealing stuff while in the middle of a melee.

That's why in Book II the home should be where you read to get your info and then try out its practicality. (e.g. I read a potions manual and find out that using slime from a blob can be used to create... and then I read a swords book and find out that the best way to kill a noximander is...)

Once I complete the task I get the experience and a level of understanding as reflected in my skills. And reading should be done while you are getting ready for bed after tending to your wounds.

[acoustibop]

... but after I stole the ubersword, I often had to sheath it to cast spells because the dang thing weighs 12 pounds and no matter what I raised my concentration to, 10 seemed to always be the limit.

I managed to find an Adamantine Great Sword + 4 in a shop - so that's the same damage as an enhanced Divine ubersword thingy - and it's only 10lb.

[Bluthand]

I think that the paperdoll idea goes to far and isn't realistic in any place. In EB1 I complain about the handling of the shield because I used to switch between sword/shield and bow during combat. This is somehow realistically done in a combat situation, but it usually takes at least a turn and includes a chance to be interrupted by a hit resulting in the item falling on the ground (or in the inventory).
I would love that the shild is automatically disabled when switching to a two handed weapon (e.g. on the back of the avatar).

ubersword, I often had to sheath it to cast spells because the dang thing weighs 12 pounds and no matter what I raised my concentration to, 10 seemed to always be the limit.

...You should have raised your strength...

Regards,
B.

[Bartek]

How can I read a book and become good at sword fighting or stealing stuff while in the middle of a melee.

Another - although minor issue - regarding the skill books is that they are too cheap IMHO. Skill books should be expensive (like 500 gp. or so) to reflect their usefulness. Generally, books should be expensive in fantasy settings - in medieval times a hand-made book could cost a fortune.