by bluehinter » Tue Jul 07, 2020 7:26 am
Getting a lot of the crashes already listed on Windows 10.
[*]Some characters seem to randomly end up with no starting equipment. Restarted with the exact same characters, and it was fine.
[*]Quick Save / Quick Restore doesn't do anything. The only way to save is to do it manually.
[*]After multiple restarts several of the wizard spells seem to be broken and instantly crash the game, especially any that you are allowed to cast outside of combat.
If I had to take a stab in the dark, I'd say this is maybe because it's trying to play an animation frame or sound clip that doesn't exist or is misspelled/miscapitalized. I've run into this a lot when modding games that are programmed in XML and it's often a pain in the $#!@ to track down.
[*]Getting teleported to the oubliette, crashes the game... but only sometimes.
[*]I haven't yet figured out why some items appear in your group inventory, but clicking on them loads them into your character's possessions, but there's no way to transfer back to group inventory. (Items like the cryptic note for example)
And not so much a bug a gamer-punishing flaw: The game expects you to have an encyclopedic knowledge of spell/attack ranges and travel paths, and know *exactly* what action you want to perform from the get-go. Deciding you'd rather do something else or discovering that enemy isn't in range of your attack/spell, almost always results in a "you cancel your action" which effectively means you've just lost your turn, in a fight against enemies that pull no punches. (Sometimes you can hit right click to back out of a decision, but other times you can't. It's not consistent.) This may be some exceeding draconian 3.5 rule to prevent characters from waffling or saying "no, I didn't meant to do that" but it makes for a very annoying and unfriendly cRPG experience, especially as there's no real tutorial to speak of.
As single player cRPGs are meant to be played at your own pace, who cares if you decide to back out of performing an action, as long as you haven't pulled the trigger so to speak?
Personally, I'd say this element of punishing the player for not being a D&D 3.5 expert should be removed from the game entirely, or at the very least, there should be a menu option where cancelling an attack/spell doesn't result in a lost action, ideally independent of the "Easy" setting.
Also tied in with this, item use and purchasing is also overly confusing. You can't preview what effects armor/weapons will have on your player and which spells are learnable/castable prior to purchase. And even if it's in your inventory, half the time items that you can't use because of your class or level aren't highlighted red. Often they look completely normal, except when you click on them or drag them nothing happens and sometimes (but not always) you may get a pop-up telling you you can't do that because you're not the right level/class.
Again, I think most computer RPG players expect a bit more hand-holding here when it comes to the game engine itself making it clear when you can't use/do something. I grew up playing 2nd edition D&D (20+ years ago) so I have a vague recollection of what some of the spells and class abilities do, but I'd rather spend my time focusing on the tactical/decision making/do I really want to fight an entire room of cultists? part of the game than getting bogged down in the nitty gritty of the 3.5 rule set. I'd recommend using some sort of two-color highlight system for items/spells that can't be used, with possibly a mouse-over tool-tip. Red for things that this player absolutely can't use because of class, and orange for items where you can't use it now because you aren't high enough level.