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QCF Design Community • View topic - Beginner thoughts


Beginner thoughts

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Beginner thoughts

Postby berpdreyfuss on Thu Jun 28, 2012 3:34 pm

Some thoughts from a (not total) beginners perspective.

I played the alpha, so I already knew about a lot of things and techniques, and only had to adjust it to the beta. For me, the beginning went rather fast, i would have liked (and maybe someone who doesn't know the alpha even more) to spend more time on the easy dungeon. Maybe that you have to beat it with some class/race combinations to learn about them. I heard there are more tutorials planned, but somehow I never liked the tutorials in DD, it felt much better to learn while playing or through solving the puzzles or beating the challenges, which are a very good addition.

This way, you could learn more basic stuff before things are getting more complicated with gods and preps and so on.

One thing that felt a little bit different compared to the alpha is the attitude towards dying or retiring from a dungeon. When I started playing the alpha, I was expecting (from what I've read about it) to die a lot and it took some time before I even beat the first dungeon. Later on, I was still relying on a certain dungeon layout or glyph to spawn to make a succesful run and I had to restart a lot. It maybe because I already know the game now, but somehow in the beta it feels like you should win a run if you start one. I don't know if that makes sense...

Anyway, thanks for the great game and for the discussions in this forum!
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Re: Beginner thoughts

Postby Darvin on Thu Jun 28, 2012 5:25 pm

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Re: Beginner thoughts

Postby Nandrew on Thu Jun 28, 2012 6:35 pm

What Darvin said (yeah, okay, not my most epic reply).
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Re: Beginner thoughts

Postby squirrelnest on Sat Jun 30, 2012 8:15 am

As a beginner and a casual, this seems like as good a place as any to unload my beginner perspective.

I played the alpha for like a week before getting the beta. I only herd about the game from the guys who do the "extra credit" show about game design. If they didn't tell you about the shout out, a Digipen professor helps write the show and called your resource system "brilliant." It is too.

Point being, I started the beta with little play experience. The process of learning to regain fight, cat fight, and pick which mobs to ignore was a fun curve. I feel like I'm stalling now, but I also know of certain resources in the game I'm not using well yet (gods mostly) so I also know where to work on improving.

Only 2 things in the game really feel too hard to me. One is that, honestly, my best runs come when I can find two level 2 monsters quickly. Runs that go poorly often involve me uncovering half the map before I find something I can cat fight. While Its safe to assume there is a valid strategy for maps where I have to get my first level from five level ones, I haven't learned it yet.

My other issue was mentioned in this thread- between prep costs and the 100 gold to get my locker item back, dying hurts. Its probably supposed to, and once of the greatest things about indy games like this is that you're free to set the challenge rating where you want it. It does serve to make me a little afraid to experiment though. Just a moment ago I killed a boss in venture cave and decided to start testing out the plant god. I spawned so many plants I had to kill one to get to the trophy, and she killed me for it. Granted this is a one time learning experience that won't get me again, and probably belongs in a game like this. It just feels like a good example of a harsh moment.

Don't take these two comments as complaints though, DD has been really fun, and if it was as easy to master as say, Final Fantasy Tactics, it would probably be as boring as Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.
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Re: Beginner thoughts

Postby Nandrew on Sat Jun 30, 2012 8:29 am

Heheh, interesting perspective. :P

I think with regards to the 5 lvl-1 versus 2 lvl-2 ... Idunno, I think there's also the matter of accepting that you'll not always have an optimal game loadout, and being adaptive is key when ANY random generation system comes in. We've tried to make the alg a little smarter as the beta has progressed, but sometimes I find myself chewing on a bunch of lvl-1 critters if it looks like I'm starting to explore a dangerous amount of the map. Sure -- in some scenarios the extra 4 XP can leave you short a threshold, but that has to be weighed against the resources lost trying to earn it at all costs. :P

The economy, progression and gold costs are still something that we're trying to address, and our general rule of thumb has been to include something new every week to alleviate that grief for newer players while still making sure that forward movement is reasonably well-controlled (in theory, only a min-max veteran should be able to blaze through the unlock system, while everyone else needs to prove themselves a little more on one or two dungeons: kinda like alpha).

Extra Credits is awesome.
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Re: Beginner thoughts

Postby Darvin on Sat Jun 30, 2012 8:35 am

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Re: Beginner thoughts

Postby squirrelnest on Sat Jun 30, 2012 8:49 am

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Re: Beginner thoughts

Postby Lujo on Sat Jun 30, 2012 1:47 pm

I almost got pwned by Shifty Brickwork!
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