KickStarter Serpent in the Staglands Thread

[Johannes]

"josh-balanced" should be a word in the forums or urban dictionary.

Like, that game was so josh-balanced that all I needed to do was spam one talent to win the entire game.
Or, that game was so josh-balanced that I didn't need any hard counters.
Or, that game was so josh-balanced that half of my brain fell asleep while I was playing it.
Or, this movie is such a watered-down, politically correct, and josh-balanced mess.

There's already a smoother term for that. Banalced.

 

[Gladius]

So, anyone can confirm, if there is actually only 1 ending in this game ?

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Yea it's really the inverse of a chosen-one plot. You were a god, and now are mostly mortal. Are you a bad enough dude to figure out why?

The Unchosen One must...not choose? He'll just stay home, thanks.

 

[Athelas]

For starters, not being or having been anything godlike would help.

Better:
Some random kid with barely any experience in life trying to get somewhere without even knowing where that is. That would be as low-key as it gets.

You just described the plot of Baldur's Gate, which I wouldn't exactly call low-key. It all comes down to execution.

 

[Whalenought_Joe]

Sam Ecorners — we were just annihilated that next day, thanks for that! We'll take a trip back to Chicago for another drink after our next release and you can just straight kill us with intoxication next time.

A-fucking-men to that. This game is the dog's bollocks. Finally started playing 7pm the night before last, eventually quit at 9am yesterday morning. I don't think that's happened to me with a videogame since...actually, I can't remember when. Resident Evil 1 maybe? Which was like 20 years ago?

That makes a year of our lives worth it to hear that — thanks!

And thanks everyone for the feedback and kind words — we never expected or needed a huge audience for this, but are glad some of you are enjoying it! After recovering from said blistering headaches, we're writing the last we needed for that art book and have a KS update planned soon for that. A agris & ArchAngel community update with some of those UI / hotkey requests will be in this week as well, though the next update proper will be the expansion.

So, anyone can confirm, if there is actually only 1 ending in this game ?

It sounds like you got the ending for getting the moon lord into quite a bit of mischief, in which there is no redemption button at then end. The ending situation is created by what choices you've already made for your character, not so much would like to make at that point (beyond a trump card).

 

[cepheiden]

For starters, not being or having been anything godlike would help.

You just described the plot of Baldur's Gate, which I wouldn't exactly call low-key. It all comes down to execution.

In my last post I wrote explicitly that not being anything godlike should be a given. Baldurs gate is the exact opposite of that. It doesn't matter when it is revealed that you are some kind of god. It shouldn't happen at all.

 

[ArchAngel]

For starters, not being or having been anything godlike would help.

You just described the plot of Baldur's Gate, which I wouldn't exactly call low-key. It all comes down to execution.

In my last post I wrote explicitly that not being anything godlike should be a given. Baldurs gate is the exact opposite of that. It doesn't matter when it is revealed that you are some kind of god. It shouldn't happen at all.

So you want a most common story told 1000 times? No thanks.

 

[ArchAngel]

Sam Ecorners — we were just annihilated that next day, thanks for that! We'll take a trip back to Chicago for another drink after our next release and you can just straight kill us with intoxication next time.

A-fucking-men to that. This game is the dog's bollocks. Finally started playing 7pm the night before last, eventually quit at 9am yesterday morning. I don't think that's happened to me with a videogame since...actually, I can't remember when. Resident Evil 1 maybe? Which was like 20 years ago?

That makes a year of our lives worth it to hear that — thanks!

And thanks everyone for the feedback and kind words — we never expected or needed a huge audience for this, but are glad some of you are enjoying it! After recovering from said blistering headaches, we're writing the last we needed for that art book and have a KS update planned soon for that. A agris & ArchAngel community update with some of those UI / hotkey requests will be in this week as well, though the next update proper will be the expansion.

So, anyone can confirm, if there is actually only 1 ending in this game ?

It sounds like you got the ending for getting the moon lord into quite a bit of mischief, in which there is no redemption button at then end. The ending situation is created by what choices you've already made for your character, not so much would like to make at that point (beyond a trump card).

Can you prepare some marketing post about the release of the game and we can post that on any forum we visit?
The game is awesome! Tnx for making it! I look forward to more things from you two.

I look at this like I looked at Shadowrun Returns which was a really fun game with limitations that I hoped would be slowly enhanced with iteration. It worked for Shadowrun, I hope you future is also bright (once people actually know this game is out :D)

 

[Johannes]

For starters, not being or having been anything godlike would help.

You just described the plot of Baldur's Gate, which I wouldn't exactly call low-key. It all comes down to execution.

In my last post I wrote explicitly that not being anything godlike should be a given. Baldurs gate is the exact opposite of that. It doesn't matter when it is revealed that you are some kind of god. It shouldn't happen at all.

Instead of a random farmer boy doing errands of ever-increasing prestige, the game has an actual story to it. Is that so bad?

 

[Immortal]

I just don't wanna be a fucking god from the moon.
Is it too much to ask to just play a normal adventure without all this shit thrown at me before I have even started moving my sprite?

• I Don't wanna be a God or Some kind of Highlander Spawn of a God
• I Don't wanna be some reincarnated boyfriend of Atheist Jesus
• I Don't wanna be a Warden-Commander / Blood Mage Hero of Some City Dragon Age 2 Sucks / Inquisitor / Spectre / Goat Tranny
  
• I Don't wanna be a mutated monster slayer
• I Don't wanna be some chosen one by these Lizard people
• I Don't wanna have Gith Silver Shards stuck in my ass

Just once, Can't I just be a fucking dude?
Not saying the game sucks.. it's just my personal preference. Games like Wasteland 2 / Shadowrun / Final Fantasy Tactics were so great because your just a person (within reason of the story's plot) and you don't ever become some god like being who SARVES TEH WURLD.. your part of some conflict just like everyone else and you maybe come out on top where some other people didn't.

You can play that "It's a Reverse of the Chosen one ahmagawd genius" line if you want.. again this all comes down to feels. For me though - You are throwing me into a world where I don't know anything about the races or where I am and it would be nice to slowly integrate me into the world without just making me a moon god.

 

[GJIG]

I like the high-key start quite a lot. You're not some sort of all-powerful, inherently benevolent entity which would restrict/bias your available actions by too much. The game makes it quite clear that you are being hunted or at the very least part of some unknown plot, and at genuine risk of what is presumably an eternal death. It makes for a nice paradigm where you need to weigh your paranoia against honest intentions: do I straight up murder this guy who seems just a little bit suspicious and might have been sent to scout out where the Moon Lord is hiding, or do I let him go just in case I'm mistaken? Do I soulbind this companion so they can't betray me, or do I choose to trust them while preserving their free will? I don't know how meaningful these decisions actually are because I've not played very far, but I am having a ton of fun making them, and that's all thanks to the setting. As far as I'm concerned, this lens of paranoia and mortal danger makes the world much more fun to explore than if you were just some random dude who coincidentally stumbled upon the over-arching plot with no particular reason to actually care about it (or god forbid some highly contrived cliche reason).

 

[roshan]

So I just started this, combat is interesting so far, quite the reload fest, though that might just be the low levels. The magic system is interesting, once your characters start casting a spell, they keep doing so, and it seems unlimited. This actually leads to cool scenarios where your mage is blasting a goblin with foul creep, while another mage heals the tank. Or two mages are both blood cocooning each other. Pretty cool. Lots of kiting too, because combat is deadly, very BG1esque, but with a higher challenge/randomness factor.

However, I think audio feedback needs some work. I was just lamenting the lack of combat music, but just heard it trigger during the last battle. Perhaps a bug of some sort? I only have it trigger one battle out of four or five. The game could also really use spellcasting chants, and sound effects for spells. Also, once the music for the starting area died down, I started hearing ambient sounds in the forest. They seem to be mutually exclusive. Would be interesting if the game could layer the ambient track and a music track, the way the IE games did it. I'm a bit confused regarding attack sounds in combat - it seems your characters have sounds for hits/misses, but enemies don't?

 

[roshan]

Oh yeah, and what are good spells to boost? Which of the aptitudes is most useful? Should I save my skillpoints till I get access to better spells?

 

[Ninjerk]

The overall soundtrack can leave something to be desired (there's a couple kind of "generic townscape" tracks that you will get somewhat tired of by the time you're wrapping up), but there is one location that has a unique track that just really sells the atmosphere of the place.

I'm guessing you will want a Dex+Occ caster for slightly faster healing and utility spells and some kind of Int caster for offensive casting. I'm not sure how the latest balancing affected Eclipse, but that was a nice little spell for awhile (heals party for portion of damage caused by the target). Most fights are best approached by getting everything's attention with one high AC character (primarily because spells take so long to cast and there aren't very good options to get the AI to change targets or any really effective way to shield weak allies), but BEWARE the Clevean horrors.

 

[ArchAngel]

I made my main guy a support character. I took rally and cast support spells.
But I got no clue if rally works, there is no visual effect to show when it activates. I know in some patch it was changed to activate upon first weapon attack and not start of battle but I still don't know when it is active.
I noticed when enemy debuff my character a red icon shows up next to the portrait, can we get a green icon to show buffs are active?

 

[Gladius]

It sounds like you got the ending for getting the moon lord into quite a bit of mischief, in which there is no redemption button at then end. The ending situation is created by what choices you've already made for your character, not so much would like to make at that point (beyond a trump card).

Yeah, but for example, Octavian has accused me of soulbinding people, and I have never did that, so I just assumed that it has nothing to do with what you did earlier.
Anyone has managed to see a good ending then ?

 

[NotAGolfer]

I made my main guy a support character. I took rally and cast support spells.
But I got no clue if rally works, there is no visual effect to show when it activates. I know in some patch it was changed to activate upon first weapon attack and not start of battle but I still don't know when it is active.
I noticed when enemy debuff my character a red icon shows up next to the portrait, can we get a green icon to show buffs are active?

I'm pretty sure that's already the case?
I had buff icons under my char's portraits (that was before the patch that switched it to activate on first strike). The thing with these buffs is that they only last 5 or 6 seconds or so when unskilled; so you might not even notice them (which is good, else they would be too imba, you have to invest skill point to make them powerful).

edit: Dunno anymore if I even used Rally. It worked for spearhead and those grade 2 elixir buffs and something else though.

 

[ArchAngel]

I have not seen one for Rally. I know it lasts for 5s only.

 

[GJIG]

Are any of your War Book skills activating in-battle? I've run into a bug on V9 where all of my War Book skills just stop working for some reason, so I need to unequip them in the War Book then re-equip them before they work again.

 

[ArchAngel]

Catelyna shield skills seems to be always active. Explosive elixir of vilhelm seems to work when he hits but I also seen it not do extra damage.

 

[Sensuki]

It's just too bad that it was Sawyer who got Sensuki and not them.

My biggest regret

 

[ArchAngel]

It's just too bad that it was Sawyer who got Sensuki and not them.

My biggest regret

It is not too late, they are still developing the game with expansions.

 

[Sensuki]

Yeah, but I'm really burnt out at the moment.

 

[ArchAngel]

Yeah, but I'm really burnt out at the moment.

At least play the game and give short suggestions like the rest of us. No need to do extensive video reports on everything.

 

[Sensuki]

When you play a game you want to enjoy it right? I'm not playing any games because I'm not in the mood to enjoy them.