DtheHun said:
I have chased down a deer, dismounted to get the meat, then an army of animal rights activists stomped me into the ground.
Ditto but with me it was a boar. Unfortunately, other parties can't distinguish hunting from hostility - bared weapons = auto attack.
Explorer was a fascinating experience. Initial reactions:
1. Crossing grid corners was disorientating.
2. Crossing into mountain barriers was horrible - troops packed like sardines in a gully where it was tough to find an exit.
3. Almost impossible to identify friend from foe in the heat of battle - can troop labels be reinstituted?
4. Problem exploit - it was too easy to sidle up to a party & recruit their strongest members before drawing a weapon & slaughtering the rest.
5. I got totally lost, which added to the experience, but a mini-map guide would be awesome.
6. Loved the animals running through scenes.
7. Larger parties were often difficult to lead when horses all coagulated into knots.
8. I didn't mind the travel time even though I couldn't find A or B
9. I loved being barred from Distar Castle (presumably I'd attacked the wrong party) and then subjected to a fusillade of arrows from its battlements.
10. Once inside a general goods shop in Tulga there was no menu option to buy things.
11. None of my party seemed to care that I couldn't buy them any food.
12. Any chance of a compass? Being given a direction after crossing a grid didn't help me much.
13. I couldn't work out looting & was particularly disappointed about not being able to retain horses acquired in battle, but that's vanilla Warband.
14. Being inept at telling friend from foe, I died a lot, which meant I kept becoming someone else - randomly moving from someone with great stats and equipment to someone else who was as useless as me.
15. Caravans and parties of farmers looked great.
16. Sometimes sky boxes clouded over with shield textures unless I camped to refresh the scene.
17. I never had a precise idea of how many companions were with me at any time.
18. Are any parties hostile if I keep my weapons sheaved? I don't think I encountered any.
19. Riding into a battle in progress between two other parties was strange. I didn't know what to do or which side I'd end up on if I drew my sword.
Overall it was an amazing demo of something I had considered impossible with the Warband engine. Great job Ruthven. I'll be fascinated to see how you refine the gameplay and concept.
PS I was playing with the first patch added.