Alpha Test Feedback Thread 5/5/17

In regards to runespell accuracy would it be appropriate to have the spell animations correlate to the accuracy at which you cast the spell? A visual indicator of a bright orange\white fireball when casting with high accuracy provides a visual reward allowing one to know if it was cast well or not. Additionally the speed at which you cast a spell could potentially increase its velocity allowing the spell to connect faster but also making it harder to control. It would really highlight and reward those skilled with the runemage class. The only issue with doing this is trying to figure out how to make other classes have a similar skill gap. Lastly, I really did love ff11 skillchains wink :wink:. Rewarding coordinated party play with a similar feature would be a dream come true.

This alpha test was my first experience with OrbusVR, and I have to say that experience was fantastic. Ironically enough, as soon as I started getting frustrated with runes I was hooked and played until I couldnā€™t stand up anymore. I love that training your character can be more about improving yourself rather than just some internal system numbers. I hope to see more of this approach with other classes as it really increases the immersion factor and makes the experience intensely engaging.

All the bugs I found have already been mentioned by others, so I wont reiterate my experiences with those. Instead I thought Iā€™d provide an idea that could help address some of the requests others have made. Part of it has already been mentioned: A spell book. However, perhaps that idea could be expanded a bit to satisfy more than just one feature.

Itā€™s been mentioned that we like sharing information between players, and I agree wholeheartedly. It was really cool to see a near-constant group of players around the training dummy in town helping each other figure out rune techniques and combos. To that end, I think itā€™d be really great to add a general purpose notebook. Since we can already hand-draw runes, itā€™s feasible that we could hand-write pages in a notebook. Hopefully this could be done without drastic limitations on the notebook size, or demands on storage space and network traffic.

The notebook could have a section where the system could automatically create entries (or not, as desired). It would satisfy the need for a quest log, though Iā€™d actually recommend players write their own quest log entries themselves rather than having stuff pop into their notebook suddenly. Perhaps in-game rune templates could be added to the notebook by the system (itā€™s magic, so why not?) by placing your notebook on a rune pedestal or something you have to quest for, with the starting town providing the basic fireball rune-adding-item right off the bat. To avoid system-created notebook additions entirely, you could make a stone rubbing of a rune on a pedestal or bas-relief, which would be really neat especially if making rubbings were used in other parts of the game later on.

In addition to its use as a spell book and quest log, you could also use your notebook to keep track of your friends (and enemies!), draw maps, keep track of recipes for alchemy and whatnot, or take whatever general notes youā€™d like. You could even document the various plant and animal species in the realm like a field researcher if it suited your fancy, or just relax and sketch a nice vista you discovered somewhere. The best part is that a you could turn to a particular page in your notebook and share that information with other players, which would also allow easier communication in the event that someone is having difficulty with their microphone.

In any event, I had a blast! Looking forward to seeing where this game goes in the future and am stoked for the next alpha test on the 19th. Great work!

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Hmm looking at that party Iā€™m pretty sure you guys just snuck past the boss for that picture :stuck_out_tongue: @likwidtek is pretty bad

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HAHAHA You just salty

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Iā€™d think accuracy vs effectiveness of spells (damage / healing / duration / etc.) would actually be a great idea.

This said, I feel there would have to be a place where you can practice or an item which would actually tell you what you did vs the real form vs and the result obtained vs the max result. (A sort of school ?)

When I started, I tried mage and just changed because I did not know the runes. When I came back, I had memorized a couple of them, but my inconsistency made it tought to know what I was doing wrong.

I was with a player that practiced the resurect for 2 hours and wasnā€™t able to do it consistently, and for me I was able to do it without any trouble after the 1 try. When I tried showing Him, it was difficult because I wasnā€™t able to see the result of is runes. (Maybe think apprenticeship ?)

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The problem I have with accuracy vs effectiveness is the fact that making the rules for the drawn runes ā€œlooseā€ causes the system to end up recognizing different spells. This happens every time people start complaining that the spells are to hard to get, then @Riley_D loosens the rules to make it easier. You start casting fireball instead of frostbolt and so on. This makes drawn runes like a box of chocolatesā€¦You never know what your gonna get.

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That last suggestion is exsacly what we players nees

Yeah for Vulcan who went all the way to learn resurect :wink:

P.S. I was Doomzy in that test and I do hope to have the pleasure to teamup with you in the future :slight_smile:

I had a great time playing!

Has anyone mentioned that you can harvest while dead? :slight_smile:

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Hi Riley,

Just a heads up, I actually canā€™t hear from my left (just 1 ear working) and itā€™s ok for sounds / music / effects. But it really starts to hurt when you talk to people / NPCs. Itā€™s actually worse then in real life and I have to be on the left side of PCs or NPCs to hear then. If I am on there right (my left), I donā€™t even hear them speaking.

When using speakers, it doesnā€™t matter that much because you can hear with at least one ef them. But with headphones (I think itā€™s going to be the norm with VR), It is really annoying (worse then in the physical/real reality)

Could you put an option for mono voices ? When you use this option, you then hear every voices (PCs / NPCs) in both ears withtout the geospatial input (distance is ok, but not right / left)

Thanks again for the hard work

You do know that you can use your computer settings to make everything mono output yourself right?

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I donā€™t believe that anyone has mentioned that one. I never thought of trying to do that. lol

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Two Suggestions:

  1. Could you reposition the turret on the Musketeer? I found myself grabbing my toolā€¦let me rephrase thatā€¦I found myself grabbing my harvester when trying to grab my turret a few times. Perhaps located hovering over the weapon arm shoulder. Left handed weapon, left shoulder. Right handed weapon, right shoulder.

  2. Why do you need a harvesting tool to pick a flower? just make a pickaxe for ore, stone and wood. For flowers just pick them up like you would loot. Instead of (like with loot) you pick it up instantly there would be a gathering progress bar that has to fill. Iā€™m sure when itā€™s time to mine stone and ore, and when you chop trees itā€™ll require multiple hits to empty the node.

Of course some might argue that you need to get more than the flower, you need the roots for potion making. my response to that is. You also need to, wash the roots, boil the roots, ground the roots, etc.
If your looking to keep it down to one tool, That would be your best bet. The pickaxe will mine ore and cut trees.

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  1. Idea for in game spell references

Since I imagine you want everyone to spawn in pretty much the same place so that people of different classes can all team up. Could you have an underground house in the starting village that people are invited to once they select that class. You would only be able to enter it as a runemage, and at the bottom there could be signs for apprentice magicians to practise.

You would get a quest that takes you there once you equip runemage but there are guards on the doors to keep out any potential inquisitors (anyone who canā€™t perform magic/has a magic wand).

Just a suggestion for a way to keep the basis of the lore weā€™ve been given but let people practise their spells. I suppose it depends whether you want wizards to be outlaws, and if so to what extent.

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Hi Luvstosmooch,

Yes I know about putting everything mono via my settings, but thank you for your info (others might not know).

The thing is, when putting everything mono, you lose the geospatial/3D feeling (even with just one ear). Frankly, itā€™s what I would do without any other choices. (My other option is always beeing on one side of the groups/people to whom Iā€™m talking)

But it would be great (Iā€™m thinking Best practices here for the long term) if VR Games/ Software would integrate a setup for Voices where you can set it up without the geospatial concern or/and make them louder then the rest of the sounds for people with hearing problems.

Just my 2 centsā€¦

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2 Spell difficulty

Also, parts of the resurrection spell started to become too reliable. I donā€™t know if this was just me but yeh. The first one I got like 95% of the time (too easy imo), the second one felt okay, it was pretty reliable but was also a complex shape so I was okay with that. The third one, I honestly donā€™t remember what it was mean to look like, it turned into big circle, with two little circles above it. Or as it was fondly referred to: Squiggle squiggle squiggle.

I donā€™t know if you can individually tweak the runes, nor how hard you want the resurrection spell to be, but right now it seems very reliable.

3 Rituals in combat

On a second note (third if you count my last comment), currently you canā€™t perform a ritual whilst in combat, to my knowledge this is deliberate, which I get. The only problem I had is we couldnā€™t revive people as a team. When we found ourselves facing 2 significantly less fluffy monsters than we imagined (with rather large tongues), that we couldnā€™t take on. What we tried was, 3 people go in and distract the monsters whilst one went in to resurrect. Unfortunately just being in the tongue monsters agro range whilst our party was fighting them meant we couldnā€™t cast the ritual. I would consider making the ritual only be interrupted by taking or giving damage.

This being said, I would understand if you wanted to keep the ritual to a purely out of combat tool and you have to be alone to cast it.
My idea may work better if the rituals were harder to cast (as in worse recognition so you have to be more accurate).

4 Overall spell difficulty

Oooh and 3rd/4th point (I know, Iā€™m a bottomless pool of great ideas :wink: ), I know partway through this test you pulled down the difficulty of casting all the spells. I might think about upping it again next test, maybe more incrementally than it came down. Turning it down was definitely the right move for this test, as people were just becoming frustrated. But spells should take mastery to be able to cast reliably and I think you could push the requirement up from where it is currently before we go to early access or even beta (this would be an easier pill for some to swallow if there was in game references for the spells).

Okay Iā€™m done, until like 5 minutes when I remember something else and come back again >: D

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I disagree with turning spell difficulty back up any. It will become unplayable, for me, again. The better idea that wouldnā€™t exclude me from using the class is power based on precision. I printed the runes out and literaly held the wand to the paper and couldnt get the spells most of the time. Spent almost an hour trying fireball, including using the tracing method, without success. I know its a ā€œmeā€ issue, I cant stand still well, so hands arenā€™t steady, but I would still like to be able to play it.

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I get where youā€™re coming from. Not being able to cast at all isnā€™t acceptable, but at the same time, we canā€™t have people having mastered half the spells after playing once. Maybe this power based on precision is a better idea. Tips :tophat:

I think some people are disappointed not being perfect at spell casting. I think it depends on your outlook and how much patience you have. I spent hours practicing spells to get things reliably and have no problem with it. In the moment I would fail fireball 5 times in a row and only be disappointed in myself. I know for a fact there are people big time complaining that werenā€™t any worse than me and Iā€™m perfectly happy with the class. I donā€™t know why some people want this game to be the same as a keyboard game and give you an easy way out like pressing a button to cast a spell.

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