Finished the demo again, first as a loyal Daratan Praetor and then as a disloyal assassin who joined the Imperial Guards. Great fun as always, truly excellent work so far! The Praetor quest-line was particularly enjoyable, I even felt a tiny little pang of guilt when Maadoran was brought down.
Overall, the game is so much better now than during R3, I almost can't believe how much work you guys have put in. The combat changes are great and I like the new skill system, so hat's off and all that. Also, nice touch with Coltan's poison being more potent than that from the Commercium alchemist (only noticed that just now!), definitely made the fight more manageable with some of the meatshields out of the picture.
As for bugs and such, here is yet another batch of some minor and not-so-minor issues that require fixan:
Crash-related:
- While the loading crash bug is gone, the game will occasionally crash when you enter the map or the main menu
- After crashing, the application will sometimes keep running in the background, chewing up memory (similar to the R3 demo)
Maadoran:
- When you enter the city after going the AG > IG route and killing Antidas, the guide at the gate cannot be talked to until after you have visited the fort - ideally, he should be able to point you in Pavola's direction
- When you are brough to Lord Gaelius after inquiring about the map, he still talks to you as if Antidas is alive even if you killed him, and he doesn't react to either the regicide or mine incident
- The adorable psychopath in the slums who takes you for a guided tour doesn't have the 100 coins you paid him in his inventory if you kill him
- I might have missed it, but I am quite certain that the Boatmen never try to punish you for betraying the guild (attack when you visit them, but that is it). Some ambushes would be nice and would do the warning of shortened life expectancy justice
- Grammar nazi: After the drinkan and eatan for some days during the prottekshun quest, the text incorrectly says "one of the man" instead of "one of the men" when the pimp starts complaining
- The front door in the noble home during the Miltiades quest is blocked by an invisible barrier even when opened, so you have to exit through the back
Praetor-related issues:
- During the Aurelian Interception mission, the text says that the Aurelian Praetor grabs his spear (if you take the abrasive route), but he is actually a sword/shield dude
- After interrogating Sohrab, there is no way to tell Dellar that the ore smelter can create mithril steel - seems pretty important though
- When you approach the compound, its description says "Unfortunately," about the towers, which doesn't make much sense, since you are not looking to infiltrate it
- While asking Cado for help, he repeats the line about tradition twice, it should probably be changed as it breaks mah immershun™
- The Imperial Guards "cease and desist" writ from Cado stays in inventory after the resolution to Teron's events, and the quest to talk to Cado about it stays in the quest log
- When Gaelius holds you prisoner caters to you as his esteemed guest, you only see some stones in the window, not the characters that talk to you (steward, for example)
Mountain pass issues:
- Moar grammar nazi: "Mean time" should be meantime in Bass' dialogue, appears both in the question and his response
- When tasked to go to the Ordu camp, the "leave" option is very confusing. I thought it meant to leave the pass. Perhaps it should be renamed to "explore the camp first" or something like that
- The dialogue with the fellow who sells the metal glove keeps looping when you talk to him again, so you can actually buy several of them, provided that you have the cash
Unremovable ammo:
- Crossbow kid from the Arena also has bolts that cannot be sold/dropped, and the steel bolts given to you in AG2 have this issue as well (I did however figure out that one simply has to transfer them to dead bodies while lootan to restore clean and pretty order in the inventory)
Super-important bug detected:
For non-Praetor characters, the colour of Lord Antidas' hair changes from the appropriate light-grey to brown during certain cutscenes (Daratan infiltration and so forth). Obvious game-breaker!
Balancing suggestions:
- During IG3, it would help a lot to move the PC back 1 tile. As it is, mid-dexterity characters get targeted by Antidas, jumped by 2 spear-dudes and aggroed by Dellar, all before even being able to move
- In the Flavius fight during the Daratan infiltration, you automatically end up right next to him without weapons. A one-tile space between the fighters would help low-dex and ranged fighters tremendously
- Since CS-kills no longer elevate the actual skill, I would suggest lowering the CS requirement for the guard after Flavius from 5 to 4 to make it more viable
- If you return from the bandit camp to Dellar with the ransom offer but end up agreeing to go back and kill them, you have to use force-attack to aggro them which ends up hurting you plenty. A CS option associated with the PC pretending to give the ransom would be great
Miscellaneous suggestions:
- It is very difficult to spot the blacksmith in Maadoran. A large sign on the building, a quick-link through the map and some directions from the guide would all help to make it more accessible
- Aemolas' family puts up quite a fight (especially the male refugee!), but there is no way to drag off his remaining female relative and sell her to the innkeeper. Please fixan this obviously important issue for maximum political incorrectness!
- The fellow Antidas wants you to talk to regarding the map is pretty elusive. Perhaps the sleazy pimp or the bar-owner could point you in the right direction?
- If you join the Imperial Guards during AG2, you never get one of those pretty IG cloaks, nor do you get access to such stylish items as IG shields. I had to make do with a plain red cloak which just didn't cut it *Dawsoncrying.gif*
- When you are evicted from Maadoran as a Praetor and possess the key to the Tower of Zamedi, it would be swell to get the option to go there immediately (unless, of course, the plot actually requires you to go to Ganezzar first)