Newbie playthrough with feedback
Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2012 9:22 am
After playing DD alpha (I think) two years ago and now again, I quickly decided to pre-order and play the beta. I'm doing my first playthrough right now so I figured I'd give feedback as I progress in-game. I've had some experience with alpha but I wouldn't call myself an expert.
I'm sure a lot if not all of the points I mention have been covered in different posts already - if anyone thinks there is a specific post I should be reading to compare my feedback against, please tell me!
To start off, I ordered and paid. Nothing happened, no email or anything. Then three hours later I got some ten-odd mails confirming my purchase etc. Seems like the mails didn't get delivered for some reason and the system decided to send more as a result.
Anyway, next day I jump in. No problems with Unity thankfully. The graphics are very nice, I think, with easy access to a lot of important information in the dungeons. I love the partitioning of the health bar, showing not only how much health will be taken off by a hit, but also how many hits are needed to kill a monster and how many hits the monster needs to kill me. Very useful and quite intuitive.
I'm having a bit of trouble understanding the spells. That may be me, of course. It took me a while to figure out that PISORF's damage is based on my base damage - maybe display the damage on mouse-over? In fact, I'm not sure the calculations are always correct - one time my base damage was 32, I PISORF'ed a Meat Man against a Warlock and the resulting damage was 15 instead of 16. Anyway, similar thing with BYSSEPS: could the mouse-over display my resulting attack value? With GETINDARE, at first I didn't understand that I'd get an accumulating dodge chance, 5% for every cast, that is consumed once I dodge.
Dungeon gameplay: in the alpha, I could pretty quickly see whether a dungeon was winnable or not. Can I find the right spells and some useful (i.e. higher level but killable) monsters before exploring half of the map? If not, restart. In the beta, more spells strategies are viable which is great. But for me that also means it can take longer before I know the dungeon's not doable. So time to failure is longer, which leads to quicker frustration. This could definitely improve once I get to know the game better. What's the experience of veteran players?
I'm sure a lot if not all of the points I mention have been covered in different posts already - if anyone thinks there is a specific post I should be reading to compare my feedback against, please tell me!
To start off, I ordered and paid. Nothing happened, no email or anything. Then three hours later I got some ten-odd mails confirming my purchase etc. Seems like the mails didn't get delivered for some reason and the system decided to send more as a result.
Anyway, next day I jump in. No problems with Unity thankfully. The graphics are very nice, I think, with easy access to a lot of important information in the dungeons. I love the partitioning of the health bar, showing not only how much health will be taken off by a hit, but also how many hits are needed to kill a monster and how many hits the monster needs to kill me. Very useful and quite intuitive.
I'm having a bit of trouble understanding the spells. That may be me, of course. It took me a while to figure out that PISORF's damage is based on my base damage - maybe display the damage on mouse-over? In fact, I'm not sure the calculations are always correct - one time my base damage was 32, I PISORF'ed a Meat Man against a Warlock and the resulting damage was 15 instead of 16. Anyway, similar thing with BYSSEPS: could the mouse-over display my resulting attack value? With GETINDARE, at first I didn't understand that I'd get an accumulating dodge chance, 5% for every cast, that is consumed once I dodge.
Dungeon gameplay: in the alpha, I could pretty quickly see whether a dungeon was winnable or not. Can I find the right spells and some useful (i.e. higher level but killable) monsters before exploring half of the map? If not, restart. In the beta, more spells strategies are viable which is great. But for me that also means it can take longer before I know the dungeon's not doable. So time to failure is longer, which leads to quicker frustration. This could definitely improve once I get to know the game better. What's the experience of veteran players?