Ember - a party-based RTwP RPG inspired by Ultima VII and Baldur's Gate

[Filthy Sauce]

Roqua - you might of already figured this out, but you use the Tab key toggle item tags (not Q, thats queued mode)

Also, on your inventory window there is a red button lower left- it will change the the inventory system to the one like in the later ultimas.

 

[Roqua]

Roqua - you might of already figured this out, but you use the Tab key toggle item tags (not Q, thats queued mode)

Also, on your inventory window there is a red button lower left- it will change the the inventory system to the one like in the later ultimas.

Thanks for the info on the inventory. Also, tab just highlighted stuff in my general area, whereas Q highlighted everything on the screen (and paused the game).

Is this not true for you? I greatly dislike only being able to highlight thinks in my immediate area, and would love to see the full screen highlight without pausing. Can this be done?

 

[Filthy Sauce]

Thanks for the info on the inventory. Also, tab just highlighted stuff in my general area, whereas Q highlighted everything on the screen (and paused the game).

Is this not true for you? I greatly dislike only being able to highlight thinks in my immediate area, and would love to see the full screen highlight without pausing. Can this be done?

Doesn't look like it. I agree it sucks. I'm finding the controls and UI in this game are total trash. Can only play 20 mins at a time before getting annoyed.

 

[Severian Silk]

I tried playing FF4 on my phone using touch controls and could not get the hang of them. Touch screen controls suck.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Game doesn't even start, anyone else have this issue?


EDIT: Dunno what I did but it fixed itself.

 

[GrainWetski]

I tried playing FF4 on my phone using touch controls and could not get the hang of them. Touch screen controls suck.

I did the same with Chrono Trigger. Very painful to control even turn-based games with touch crap.

Never understood how anyone could entertain the idea of playing something like Baldur's Gate with them.

 

[Severian Silk]

I tried playing FF4 on my phone using touch controls and could not get the hang of them. Touch screen controls suck.

I did the same with Chrono Trigger. Very painful to control even turn-based games with touch crap.

Never understood how anyone could entertain the idea of playing something like Baldur's Gate with them.

I meant the free movement outside of battle. You have to drag your finger across the screen and the character follows it (I think).

 

[Hobo Elf]

It's a competently put together game, I guess. I'm not very far in so I haven't seen much, but there are some nice touches like bandits patrolling around, wolves roaming the forest and attacking other animals instead of everything being just static all the time. I just feel like they really crapped out on the char building and combat. They could've gone deeper but it was obvious that this game was designed for tablets in mind so they made it as bland, as simple and as uninspired as possible. The game recommends that you mix and match stats, but I have a feeling that you can easily get by just by pumping any one of the major stats you want and you'll not be any worse off for it. Pretty boring. Combat is, so far, me just spamming Double Strike until I'm out of energy and then auto attacking the rest and then resting to fill up my Energy. There's no resource management as there is no penalty for endless resting. Just dump all your Energy on skills to get the encounter over ASAP and rest. They could've easily made this a better game had they designed it for the PC from the get go.

And for those who are having trouble highlighting items and interactive objects: pressing Q puts the game in Query Mode where you can see all the interactive objects lying about on the screen even if you aren't standing next to them. It's better than Tabbing.

 

[ArchAngel]

It's a competently put together game, I guess. I'm not very far in so I haven't seen much, but there are some nice touches like bandits patrolling around, wolves roaming the forest and attacking other animals instead of everything being just static all the time. I just feel like they really crapped out on the char building and combat. They could've gone deeper but it was obvious that this game was designed for tablets in mind so they made it as bland, as simple and as uninspired as possible. The game recommends that you mix and match stats, but I have a feeling that you can easily get by just by pumping any one of the major stats you want and you'll not be any worse off for it. Pretty boring. Combat is, so far, me just spamming Double Strike until I'm out of energy and then auto attacking the rest and then resting to fill up my Energy. There's no resource management as there is no penalty for endless resting. Just dump all your Energy on skills to get the encounter over ASAP and rest. They could've easily made this a better game had they designed it for the PC from the get go.

And for those who are having trouble highlighting items and interactive objects: pressing Q puts the game in Query Mode where you can see all the interactive objects lying about on the screen even if you aren't standing next to them. It's better than Tabbing.

You are saying this like 80% of BG players didn't do the same with the addition of loading a save if enemies attacked. People like me tried to play it "fair" and only rested when no other options was available (low on health, no spells, low on potions).

Same can be done in this game.

 

[Hobo Elf]

It's a competently put together game, I guess. I'm not very far in so I haven't seen much, but there are some nice touches like bandits patrolling around, wolves roaming the forest and attacking other animals instead of everything being just static all the time. I just feel like they really crapped out on the char building and combat. They could've gone deeper but it was obvious that this game was designed for tablets in mind so they made it as bland, as simple and as uninspired as possible. The game recommends that you mix and match stats, but I have a feeling that you can easily get by just by pumping any one of the major stats you want and you'll not be any worse off for it. Pretty boring. Combat is, so far, me just spamming Double Strike until I'm out of energy and then auto attacking the rest and then resting to fill up my Energy. There's no resource management as there is no penalty for endless resting. Just dump all your Energy on skills to get the encounter over ASAP and rest. They could've easily made this a better game had they designed it for the PC from the get go.

And for those who are having trouble highlighting items and interactive objects: pressing Q puts the game in Query Mode where you can see all the interactive objects lying about on the screen even if you aren't standing next to them. It's better than Tabbing.

You are saying this like 80% of BG players didn't do the same with the addition of loading a save if enemies attacked. People like me tried to play it "fair" and only rested when no other options was available (low on health, no spells, low on potions).

Same can be done in this game.

During combat in BG/IWD you had to pick and choose who you'd try to CC and which enemies you'd use your damage spells on for the greatest profit. Some encounters could be long with lots of enemies or very hardy enemies that would drain your casters' resources long before the fight was over so you had to maximize the effect of your spells to support your frontliners as much as possible. Here you just spam to win, rest, repeat. In Ember you're not making tactical choices based on resource management. The way to win is to dump your combat resource (Energy) on the enemy ASAP and so far it doesn't really matter how I do it, as long as I do it. I don't have to single out any specific nasty enemies who I might want to take out first.

There's a penalty to resting in BG/IWD in the form of being ambushed by pretty nasty monsters, especially nasty if you are wounded and low on spells. Whether or not you reload until you are able to sleep without a problem is up to the individual player, but at least a risk mechanic does exist, even if it's not perfect. You also cannot rest if there are monsters close by. In Ember you can rest right in front of the enemy as long as they haven't aggroed you yet.

 

[ArchAngel]

It's a competently put together game, I guess. I'm not very far in so I haven't seen much, but there are some nice touches like bandits patrolling around, wolves roaming the forest and attacking other animals instead of everything being just static all the time. I just feel like they really crapped out on the char building and combat. They could've gone deeper but it was obvious that this game was designed for tablets in mind so they made it as bland, as simple and as uninspired as possible. The game recommends that you mix and match stats, but I have a feeling that you can easily get by just by pumping any one of the major stats you want and you'll not be any worse off for it. Pretty boring. Combat is, so far, me just spamming Double Strike until I'm out of energy and then auto attacking the rest and then resting to fill up my Energy. There's no resource management as there is no penalty for endless resting. Just dump all your Energy on skills to get the encounter over ASAP and rest. They could've easily made this a better game had they designed it for the PC from the get go.

And for those who are having trouble highlighting items and interactive objects: pressing Q puts the game in Query Mode where you can see all the interactive objects lying about on the screen even if you aren't standing next to them. It's better than Tabbing.

You are saying this like 80% of BG players didn't do the same with the addition of loading a save if enemies attacked. People like me tried to play it "fair" and only rested when no other options was available (low on health, no spells, low on potions).

Same can be done in this game.

During combat in BG/IWD you had to pick and choose who you'd try to CC and which enemies you'd use your damage spells on for the greatest profit. Some encounters could be long with lots of enemies or very hardy enemies that would drain your casters' resources long before the fight was over so you had to maximize the effect of your spells to support your frontliners as much as possible. Here you just spam to win, rest, repeat. In Ember you're not making tactical choices based on resource management. The way to win is to dump your combat resource (Energy) on the enemy ASAP and so far it doesn't really matter how I do it, as long as I do it. I don't have to single out any specific nasty enemies who I might want to take out first.

There's a penalty to resting in BG/IWD in the form of being ambushed by pretty nasty monsters, especially nasty if you are wounded and low on spells. Whether or not you reload until you are able to sleep without a problem is up to the individual player, but at least a risk mechanic does exist, even if it's not perfect. You also cannot rest if there are monsters close by. In Ember you can rest right in front of the enemy as long as they haven't aggroed you yet.

Oh I agree that BG is for sure more tactical even if I only know about Ember by reading people talking about it and watching a review video but the rest of what you said is just not true. BG (without mods) lets you abuse rest well. The encounters when sleeping in most areas are weak and the strong ones can be dealt with save/load.
Kind of people that did that will also do it in Ember. In BG you could also open every combat with Invisiblity and Fireball (or stealth and fireball) and rest afterwards making every encounter piss easy (except 75% of encounters are vs few trash mobs you don't need to spend any resources on except some non magical bullets or arrows).

I am sorry, but the resting part is up to each player to control himself. Even in NWN2 that let you rest anywhere without penalty and it only took 5s I rested as rarely as possible to not abuse that. If you are abusing it in Ember it is your own fault. Play on Hard and rest rarely.

 

[Drowed]

I am sorry, but the resting part is up to each player to control himself. Even in NWN2 that let you rest anywhere without penalty and it only took 5s I rested as rarely as possible to not abuse that. If you are abusing it in Ember it is your own fault. Play on Hard and rest rarely.

I see this argument appear from time to time, and it keeps sounding ridiculous every time.

It basically boils down to "the game offers the [X] mechanic, but if it's unbalanced, it's your fault if you decide to use it". The dumbest thing of this is that it can essentially be applied to everything, at any time and in any context. Found a strong weapon? Don't use it. This class is "too strong"? Don't pick it. This ability is too powerful? Ignore it. I'm not against anyone using artificial self-imposed barriers/restrictions for fun in any game whatsoever, but let's please stop trying to imply that there's a "right way" to play any game when it was the game itself that offered the mechanics that we are using. If it's like that, then it's a poorly designed game, period. (BG included.)

 

[ArchAngel]

I am sorry, but the resting part is up to each player to control himself. Even in NWN2 that let you rest anywhere without penalty and it only took 5s I rested as rarely as possible to not abuse that. If you are abusing it in Ember it is your own fault. Play on Hard and rest rarely.

I see this argument appear from time to time, and it keeps sounding ridiculous every time.

It basically boils down to "the game offers the [X] mechanic, but if it's unbalanced, it's your fault if you decide to use it". The dumbest thing of this is that it can essentially be applied to everything, at any time and in any context. Found a strong weapon? Don't use it. This class is "too strong"? Don't pick it. This ability is too powerful? Ignore it. I'm not against anyone using artificial self-imposed barriers/restrictions for fun in any game whatsoever, but let's please stop trying to imply that there's a "right way" to play any game when it was the game itself that offered the mechanics that we are using. If it's like that, then it's a poorly designed game, period. (BG included.)

Normally I would agree with you but when the fun game is hidden just behind a bit of self restriction that is not hard to do, yea it is your fault for not doing it. Just like original UFO, it had no ironman but if you didn't play self imposed ironman it was not the same fun game.
It is not like we are asking you to stand on one foot and wear a blindfold while playing the game.
Often it is preferable to leave options for players. New players can rest often, the experienced ones that want a bit more challenge can rest rarely.
In WL2 some people reloaded a save after opening chests and getting things they didn't like. I just took whatever fell out and moved on.

 

[V_K]

What about "dark dungeons that are fully interactive and feature movable objects"? Are there any and do they serve any puprose?

 

[jungl]

This games fairly entertaining more worth playing then stormguard and Halcyon 6 that were released on steam recently. Both of those games suffer from too much repetition.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Oh I agree that BG is for sure more tactical even if I only know about Ember by reading people talking about it and watching a review video but the rest of what you said is just not true. BG (without mods) lets you abuse rest well. The encounters when sleeping in most areas are weak and the strong ones can be dealt with save/load.
Kind of people that did that will also do it in Ember. In BG you could also open every combat with Invisiblity and Fireball (or stealth and fireball) and rest afterwards making every encounter piss easy (except 75% of encounters are vs few trash mobs you don't need to spend any resources on except some non magical bullets or arrows).

I am sorry, but the resting part is up to each player to control himself. Even in NWN2 that let you rest anywhere without penalty and it only took 5s I rested as rarely as possible to not abuse that. If you are abusing it in Ember it is your own fault. Play on Hard and rest rarely.

As I said, how liberally one uses the Save/Load function is up to the player, but a penalty mechanic does exist and isn't as abuseable if you are playing as legit as possible. In BG/IWD if you are playing by the rules i.e no loading if a party member dies or when a camping session goes afoul then you have to start factorizing that into your dungeon crawling as well. How far will you risk pushing yourself and how many spells do you want to conserve in case you need them for an ambush. If there are no mechanics to penalize you from going willy nilly with the resting (in fact it's encouraged in Ember since you get Rested Bonus% XP for resting) then it is NOT up to the player to control himself, but to use the mechanic to its full extent the way it was meant to be. The problem is that the way it is intended to be sucks and so is a failure on the designers part.

What about "dark dungeons that are fully interactive and feature movable objects"? Are there any and do they serve any puprose?

I'm still in what I consider to be the tutorial phase so I haven't seen any complex interactivity yet, but I got a case where I had to drag and drop stacks of hay that were blocking a door. This scenario was set up as an obvious tutorial for the player so it's not such a complex or exciting secenario, so let's hope that it sets us up for more interesting stuff like hidden trap doors underneath stacks of stuff.

 

[ArchAngel]

Oh I agree that BG is for sure more tactical even if I only know about Ember by reading people talking about it and watching a review video but the rest of what you said is just not true. BG (without mods) lets you abuse rest well. The encounters when sleeping in most areas are weak and the strong ones can be dealt with save/load.
Kind of people that did that will also do it in Ember. In BG you could also open every combat with Invisiblity and Fireball (or stealth and fireball) and rest afterwards making every encounter piss easy (except 75% of encounters are vs few trash mobs you don't need to spend any resources on except some non magical bullets or arrows).

I am sorry, but the resting part is up to each player to control himself. Even in NWN2 that let you rest anywhere without penalty and it only took 5s I rested as rarely as possible to not abuse that. If you are abusing it in Ember it is your own fault. Play on Hard and rest rarely.

As I said, how liberally one uses the Save/Load function is up to the player, but a penalty mechanic does exist and isn't as abuseable if you are playing as legit as possible. In BG/IWD if you are playing by the rules i.e no loading if a party member dies or when a camping session goes afoul then you have to start factorizing that into your dungeon crawling as well. How far will you risk pushing yourself and how many spells do you want to conserve in case you need them for an ambush. If there are no mechanics to penalize you from going willy nilly with the resting (in fact it's encouraged in Ember since you get Rested Bonus% XP for resting) then it is NOT up to the player to control himself, but to use the mechanic to its full extent the way it was meant to be. The problem is that the way it is intended to be sucks and so is a failure on the designers part.

What fucking rules? Are you on drugs? You set one rule for yourself but laugh at my rule? Loading a game is as much a part of the game as is resting. If you rest all the time and claim game should not let you then saving and loading a game is also normal and expected if the game is not ironman/roguelike.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Oh I agree that BG is for sure more tactical even if I only know about Ember by reading people talking about it and watching a review video but the rest of what you said is just not true. BG (without mods) lets you abuse rest well. The encounters when sleeping in most areas are weak and the strong ones can be dealt with save/load.
Kind of people that did that will also do it in Ember. In BG you could also open every combat with Invisiblity and Fireball (or stealth and fireball) and rest afterwards making every encounter piss easy (except 75% of encounters are vs few trash mobs you don't need to spend any resources on except some non magical bullets or arrows).

I am sorry, but the resting part is up to each player to control himself. Even in NWN2 that let you rest anywhere without penalty and it only took 5s I rested as rarely as possible to not abuse that. If you are abusing it in Ember it is your own fault. Play on Hard and rest rarely.

As I said, how liberally one uses the Save/Load function is up to the player, but a penalty mechanic does exist and isn't as abuseable if you are playing as legit as possible. In BG/IWD if you are playing by the rules i.e no loading if a party member dies or when a camping session goes afoul then you have to start factorizing that into your dungeon crawling as well. How far will you risk pushing yourself and how many spells do you want to conserve in case you need them for an ambush. If there are no mechanics to penalize you from going willy nilly with the resting (in fact it's encouraged in Ember since you get Rested Bonus% XP for resting) then it is NOT up to the player to control himself, but to use the mechanic to its full extent the way it was meant to be. The problem is that the way it is intended to be sucks and so is a failure on the designers part.

What fucking rules? Are you on drugs? You set one rule for yourself but laugh at my rule? Loading a game is as much a part of the game as is resting. If you rest all the time and claim game should not let you then saving and loading a game is also normal and expected if the game is not ironman/roguelike.

The primary function of Save/Load is to record your progress so that you can continue later. It's not a gameplay mechanic and games shouldn't be designed with it in mind. You can use and abuse it however you want but do not consider it to be a part of the game's rules. Loading a game after having one of your PCs killed is the PnP equivalent of making a bad roll and then going "but that doesn't count, right?". The rules are that if a character dies then they stay dead until they are resurrected. The gameplay mechanics support this rule and that's the way the designer has intended for it to work. Just the same way how abusing the Rest function in Ember is supported by the designers via mechanics that encourage you to sleep because you get bonus XP for doing so and how there are no risk penalties attached to it.

 

[ArchAngel]

Oh I agree that BG is for sure more tactical even if I only know about Ember by reading people talking about it and watching a review video but the rest of what you said is just not true. BG (without mods) lets you abuse rest well. The encounters when sleeping in most areas are weak and the strong ones can be dealt with save/load.
Kind of people that did that will also do it in Ember. In BG you could also open every combat with Invisiblity and Fireball (or stealth and fireball) and rest afterwards making every encounter piss easy (except 75% of encounters are vs few trash mobs you don't need to spend any resources on except some non magical bullets or arrows).

I am sorry, but the resting part is up to each player to control himself. Even in NWN2 that let you rest anywhere without penalty and it only took 5s I rested as rarely as possible to not abuse that. If you are abusing it in Ember it is your own fault. Play on Hard and rest rarely.

As I said, how liberally one uses the Save/Load function is up to the player, but a penalty mechanic does exist and isn't as abuseable if you are playing as legit as possible. In BG/IWD if you are playing by the rules i.e no loading if a party member dies or when a camping session goes afoul then you have to start factorizing that into your dungeon crawling as well. How far will you risk pushing yourself and how many spells do you want to conserve in case you need them for an ambush. If there are no mechanics to penalize you from going willy nilly with the resting (in fact it's encouraged in Ember since you get Rested Bonus% XP for resting) then it is NOT up to the player to control himself, but to use the mechanic to its full extent the way it was meant to be. The problem is that the way it is intended to be sucks and so is a failure on the designers part.

What fucking rules? Are you on drugs? You set one rule for yourself but laugh at my rule? Loading a game is as much a part of the game as is resting. If you rest all the time and claim game should not let you then saving and loading a game is also normal and expected if the game is not ironman/roguelike.

The primary function of Save/Load is to record your progress so that you can continue later. It's not a gameplay mechanic and games shouldn't be designed with it in mind. You can use and abuse it however you want but do not consider it to be a part of the game's rules. Loading a game after having one of your PCs killed is the PnP equivalent of making a bad roll and then going "but that doesn't count, right?". The rules are that if a character dies then they stay dead until they are resurrected. The gameplay mechanics support this rule and that's the way the designer has intended for it to work. Just the same way how abusing the Rest function in Ember is supported by the designers via mechanics that encourage you to sleep because you get bonus XP for doing so.

We can agree to disagree then.

Ember has easy resting instead of regenerating health/mana like DAO. Still a better choice as players can put simple rules on themselves and get a tactical game out of it while in DAO you cannot. This makes it more similar to BG.

 

[Severian Silk]

Guys, ArchAngel is not butthurt, so stop picking on him.

 

[crpgnut]

If you rest all the time you lose out on XP bonus. So, yes you can rest after every battle. You will be several levels lower than somebody who uses strategy when fighting and tries not to spam rest. Does it matter? Not on normal much, but it makes hard pretty challenging. You really don't want to rest all that often, so you can be the same level or a little higher than your enemies. The game does have a slow respawn timer too, but it didn't figure much into my play. I'd go back for spiderwort, when it respawned.

 

[ArchAngel]

If you rest all the time you lose out on XP bonus. So, yes you can rest after every battle. You will be several levels lower than somebody who uses strategy when fighting and tries not to spam rest. Does it matter? Not on normal much, but it makes hard pretty challenging. You really don't want to rest all that often, so you can be the same level or a little higher than your enemies. The game does have a slow respawn timer too, but it didn't figure much into my play. I'd go back for spiderwort, when it respawned.

And how do you get his XP bonus? It increases over time without resting or some other method?

 

[V_K]

It's rather complicated. The actual XP bonus (i.e. the one that is currently in effect) decreases with each kill. The potential XP bonus (the one you get after your next rest) becomes bigger the more time you spend without resting. You can still cheese it quite easily if you want - just teleport to a safe location and spend some time there.
But rest-spamming is not the problem, really. This game has more hand-holding than fucking Oblivion, it doesn't let you figure out anything yourself. It's an insult to Ultima legacy.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Yea I figured out that the rest bonus does indeed increase by time spent in between rests, although you can just leave the game on idle and then come back later. But I've also noticed that the spawn rate of enemies is almost instant so it kinda makes this whole mechanic pointless in that way. They could've made XP more limited and then added this bonus XP mechanic as a resource to manage to maximize your XP gain.

 

[DemonKing]

Just saw this is available on IOS on the app store. Has anyone tried it on that platform and is it ok? I played IWD:EE on my IPad and that was quite fun.