Wow, this is a long update! First of all, thank you for reading our suggestions and bug reports, I understand the dev team are only 20 people, this must be a lot of work. Here's what I think about your post:
- Tallulah is a very cute cat. Her owner must be very relaxed. Is she allowed in the office?
- New area: Cool! Very much looking forward! Are you going to add sidequests to the existing areas as well? We are currently following only one questline at a time and it feels rather linear.
- Shopping improvements: Can you give us more details? Will Gorim finally have more than 10 rations at a time? :)
- Lighting: YES! Thank you! This has been bugging me the most. Thank you for listening to everyone who criticized this. I think buffing monsters instead of nerfing characters with Darkvision would be a good choice, and throwing light sources as well.
- Group loot: That is also a very welcome change.
- Improved faces: Hot. Definitely look more natural now. Kudos to your art staff!
Some things you haven't mentioned in this post:
- Will travel speed have an effect on ambushes and item findings? At the moment, it feels irrelevant whether you choose slow, normal, or fast.
- Please add more long rest areas, or make them easier accessible.
- Can you make feats more fun? Many of them only give flat numerical bonuses, like +1 on strength and advantage on strength saves. I'm missing more feats that give you unique abilities.
- Can we get chests in town to store unused items, like ingredients? After clearing out half of Bone Keep, my characters were lugging around so many flowers and herbs and powders that I had to drop some other loot. Special containers for ingredients, gemstones etc. would also be appreciated.
Thanks for your hard work!
A hoopy frood who really knows where his towel is.
Wow! Absolutely everything in this patch is awesome. This game is going to be amazing, thank you for listening to reasonable feedback. I support the changes (or removal of changes) to light as well for all the same reasons you listed, mostly for consistency in keeping true to the rules but also it is too punishing especially for human characters. Giving monsters some darkness bonus is a great idea for keeping light important as well.
I have no problem with the current lighting system. I know to cast a light spell on the mages staff as he's bringing up the rear and the fighters shield as he's leading. Plenty of light to fight and it let's the rogue dip out if he needs too
I'm happy too with the current interpretation on lighting, but it's interesting that T.A. explores this further. They've showed they knew what they were doing so I'm sure they'll come up with good ideas if a change is required by some.
Amazing work! Loved the EA. I like the lighting as is. Some additional lighting in the environment that can be interacted with would solve any grips I currently have. As someone who came into the game without DnD ruleset background I really didnt see any issues and it makes me a bit worried that the hivemind will detract from your initial vision.
In the last battle of EA I spent six turns chasing after the final skeleton and found it slightly ridiculous the amount of kiting this one enemy could make use off while releasing spells each turn, almost took down my beaten up party 1 vs 4. This somewhat broke the fluid feeling of the combat and had me questioning my enjoyment. This is partly my own tactical failures but it left an unpleasant taste on an otherwise amazing experience.
Anyway I think we are in safe hands.
Thanks for the hard work. Incredible what you have achieved already!
I have no problem with the current lighting system. I know to cast a light spell on the mages staff as he's bringing up the rear and the fighters shield as he's leading. Plenty of light to fight and it let's the rogue dip out if he needs too
What's the purpose of a light spell on the mage's staff? The target needs to be in light not the attacker so aren't you just making your mage easier for enemy ranged attackers to hit?
I absolutely want light & dark rules in the game and love that it is something to consider in combat and makes spells like light and dancing lights important, I just didn't see the need to increase the dim light penalty from what was already in the d&d rules especially when one of the main selling points of this game is how faithfully they have implemented the rules and really made it work so well.
I quite like the light rules as they are at the moment, but it will be interesting to see what you come up with!
I thought the lighting changes were ok. Not to fond of them but they did add a bit more strategy, even so most of the time it only was "cast light on cleric and have wizard move dancing lights to ranged enemies". But yes, giving dim light the same penality as complete darkness and invisibility just doesnt make sense. Im usually against "-/+ x" in dnd, but in a video game, maybe a +2 to ac when in dim light might be good (since we already have stuff like this e.g. +x ac when next to a wall with that one fighter subclass).
Will the level cap go up? Through many back and forths between the Dark Tower and Caer Cyflen, I hit 6th on 2 or 3 of the 8 playthroughs (what can I say, the game has helped immensely with my election and post election anxiety).
Really nice preview and so refreshing to see feedback being taken into real consideration. Keep up the good work!
What's the purpose of a light spell on the mage's staff? The target needs to be in light not the attacker so aren't you just making your mage easier for enemy ranged attackers to hit?
I absolutely want light & dark rules in the game and love that it is something to consider in combat and makes spells like light and dancing lights important, I just didn't see the need to increase the dim light penalty from what was already in the d&d rules especially when one of the main selling points of this game is how faithfully they have implemented the rules and really made it work so well.
Yes, your character may be in the light, but in close combat this will be ultimately be anyway the case and after all you can also cast it on the sword or shield of your front line fighter. However some mobs that are lurking in the shadow are actually penalized by light, because it is too bright for them. In this case you actually want to have the light on you. To bad we can't cast it on arrows ;)
I do agree that the dim light default from D&D would have been probably enough, and I don't think that everyobdy then would run around as Elf or Dwarve just because of that.
In general I am with Hatox that I think that the current lightning implementation is fine and indeed require some tactics. After all it is probably rare that you run a group without any character being able to cast a light cantrip. Even then, in most cases there are torche holders on the wall that you can set aflame. It would indeed be nice if there would be more options, like being able to craft a flaming arrows to set them on fire, or to throw a torch, or casting grease and set it on fire. It just provides ample of options...
More content! With that, you should definitely be able to reach level 6 by the end of Early Access
- Please add more long rest areas, or make them easier accessible.
It would be nice to add some waypoints and landmarks that we can discover along the travel routes. Like a big old oak hangman tree, a little wayward shrine of Arun, an abandoned farmhouse or a fishermans hut, a waterfall with a hidden chest, a crumbled overgrown statue of Maraike, a moss filled clearing with a fery ring (higher chance of finding some ingredients), a Troll bridge, a crossroad (for the ones in need to bargin with Demons) you name it. Small little spots, not bigger then 20x20 on the map that we could eventually revisit or use to do our own route plotting. ;)
Anyway, I can't wait to continue exploring Somasta, so thanks for all your hard work :)
much needed qol! awesome!
the faces for character customization! AMAZING WOWWOWOW!
I really like the light consideration in the dungeon: In any case I think the biggest challenge is the fact that Disadvantage is more than just an approximate -5 to your roll it also drastically reduces the chance of a critical hit, which is often the only way to get a hit...
I've had to suffer through being DM'd with heavy handed "disadvantage" and its a long slow slog...
However, I also think that "darkvision" is way too prevalent and powerful in DnD. However, I'd also suggest that one aspect of darkvision that is overlooked is that there's often a radius component to it (you can see up to X in darkness as if in light)... which also might play well into a strategic.
My humble suggestion - give every race a darkvision radius.
Darkvision(Radius): No penalty in Dim light up to Radius, -3 in Darkness. Beyond Radius: -3 penalty in Dim light - Disadvantage in Darkness
Humans could be 5 or 10 feet.. Others could be longer.
Pure darkness should always obfuscate and ideally allow stealth checks to become invisible (which technically is still just disadvantage ... but in a game you could possibly let characters passive perception allow detection and targeting)
Had a foe lose concentration using levitation and fall to the ground during combat, then my wizard hopped down 10 feet and finished it off with scorching ray... probably some of the most fun I've had in an RPG. Really excited for the full game.
Lighting:
Characters should be able to fashion 'molotov cocktails' or improvised combustibles that can be thrown. Something as simple as a flask of lamp oil with a wick. Characters with either alchemy or herbalism skills should be able to fashion such mundane devices to shed more light and burn longer.
Also, sometimes the monsters should have an AI that tries to extinguish non-magical light sources (consuming actions) - particularly those that prefer dark environments such as cave dwellers. Magical or magic using monsters could also use spells to extinguish light sources. Light sources actually carried by the party, or within 5 meters, should gain a saving throw - the party would realize what the foe is intending and act to prevent it.
Night watch:
You should always be allowed to set up a watch rotation to lower the chance to be ambushed while taking a long rest. Characters with 'meditation' or less sleep requirements should have higher alertness (advantage) at detecting ambushes. Characters on watch with low-light vision should be given a bonus to perception rolls as well.
Setting up a watch rotation should be, in general, a one-time thing but should be adjustable at will. When the party is down a member due to severe injury or death the others will take up the slack, but suffer skill check modifiers during travel until the missing member is healed/raised. (Severe injury would be 30% health or less, which would take them off the watch rotation).
Players should be able to actually cast spells and change their route at any time during travel (i.e. leave a location long enough to perform a full rest, cast spells for healing/divination, and then return).