2009-04-02, 09:57 PM
In lieu of a "Diadem of Maunstraut" board, I'm making this thread for discussion...
Formalities aside, I'm thoroughly enjoying this game for the most part.
I could've waited to make this post, but I wanted to say one thing before I forgot about what seems to be a clipping bug (of which I'm sure there might be many, but nonetheless...)
This bug bit me particularly sorely because I ran into it after my first successful go thru the section of the earth realm which won me the earthen armor (exact name wanting) ...basically upon my exit I headed immediately for the save point just outside the cave, and in my eagerness I found myself fallen thru the hillside, and to make matters worse this soon resulted in my HP hitting 0 no less (apparently the default action once without solid fooding)
Normally this might not warrant fixing under such already buggy (and generally irreconcilable limitations) but being as it is right behind a save point, I suggest giving it a once over before your next release iteration (please)
I'm not sure I have any further technical complaints which do not seem indigenous to SoM itself. But I feel like for all the talk of great difficulty in the publishings surrounding DoM, though there is a fair dose of genuine challenge, much of it appears to be simply the product of giving great one-hit kill power to the monsters of DoM. It would be far more rewarding I think to somehow limit the ability of normal monsters to do so.
(In turn perhaps items could be made to delay the player before successive use inorder to return some damage potential to monsters)
In fact the later game is not so difficult at all due to the unlimited spawning of baddies and no exp leveling off. I realize it is probably difficult to balance the game, and SoM perhaps ties your hands in terms of growth formulae... but perhaps at least you could balance out the early stage of the game by doing something like letting the player start with a full set of knight armor. It is after all very heavy, and the astute player might decide to discard it for the leather armor for more freedom (at their own risk)
...
Furthermore it seems a bit paradoxical for a chosen champion of sword and magic on a quest for a king to begin completely naked without weapon or magic. Perhaps you should even begin with a holy endowed mace, and a significant attack spell (though the bullet would seem much)
To further balance that you could greatly increase the undead and bug population.
Another nice feature if possible might be to make the larger monsters more powerful. They do have a longer reach, but it would be nice if size always equaled a greater challenge. Also again the immediate respawning I think actually makes the game easier (not what you want if your goal is challenge)
edited: Also there are a number of errs and oversights in your online documentation (maps etcetera)
Just some thoughts, and probably not the last of them.
I realize SoM is probably a bit of a straight jacket (though I have a fairly thorough grasp of its capabilities -- ie. with little time in it's trenches) but it never hurts to share impressions. Plus btw, though I'd admit this is an unexpected place to say so, I think I'm in the impression to remake SoM according to open and state of the art standards, so come what may, someday you will probably have a chance to do virtually anything with DoM you could possibly imagine. So here's to the future~
PS: Great job! Can't wait to find out if I get to do battle with The Master Therion himself...
Formalities aside, I'm thoroughly enjoying this game for the most part.
I could've waited to make this post, but I wanted to say one thing before I forgot about what seems to be a clipping bug (of which I'm sure there might be many, but nonetheless...)
This bug bit me particularly sorely because I ran into it after my first successful go thru the section of the earth realm which won me the earthen armor (exact name wanting) ...basically upon my exit I headed immediately for the save point just outside the cave, and in my eagerness I found myself fallen thru the hillside, and to make matters worse this soon resulted in my HP hitting 0 no less (apparently the default action once without solid fooding)
Normally this might not warrant fixing under such already buggy (and generally irreconcilable limitations) but being as it is right behind a save point, I suggest giving it a once over before your next release iteration (please)
I'm not sure I have any further technical complaints which do not seem indigenous to SoM itself. But I feel like for all the talk of great difficulty in the publishings surrounding DoM, though there is a fair dose of genuine challenge, much of it appears to be simply the product of giving great one-hit kill power to the monsters of DoM. It would be far more rewarding I think to somehow limit the ability of normal monsters to do so.
(In turn perhaps items could be made to delay the player before successive use inorder to return some damage potential to monsters)
In fact the later game is not so difficult at all due to the unlimited spawning of baddies and no exp leveling off. I realize it is probably difficult to balance the game, and SoM perhaps ties your hands in terms of growth formulae... but perhaps at least you could balance out the early stage of the game by doing something like letting the player start with a full set of knight armor. It is after all very heavy, and the astute player might decide to discard it for the leather armor for more freedom (at their own risk)
...
Furthermore it seems a bit paradoxical for a chosen champion of sword and magic on a quest for a king to begin completely naked without weapon or magic. Perhaps you should even begin with a holy endowed mace, and a significant attack spell (though the bullet would seem much)
To further balance that you could greatly increase the undead and bug population.
Another nice feature if possible might be to make the larger monsters more powerful. They do have a longer reach, but it would be nice if size always equaled a greater challenge. Also again the immediate respawning I think actually makes the game easier (not what you want if your goal is challenge)
edited: Also there are a number of errs and oversights in your online documentation (maps etcetera)
Just some thoughts, and probably not the last of them.
I realize SoM is probably a bit of a straight jacket (though I have a fairly thorough grasp of its capabilities -- ie. with little time in it's trenches) but it never hurts to share impressions. Plus btw, though I'd admit this is an unexpected place to say so, I think I'm in the impression to remake SoM according to open and state of the art standards, so come what may, someday you will probably have a chance to do virtually anything with DoM you could possibly imagine. So here's to the future~
PS: Great job! Can't wait to find out if I get to do battle with The Master Therion himself...