peteham wrote on Apr 7, 2015, 09:52:
Still, I wonder how many of the comments I've seen regarding poor writing come from people interacting with backer NPCs without knowing what they are.

That's definitely fair. I also fell into that camp when I first started playing the game as well, though I didn't think the quality was bad, just that some content felt a bit out of place. For the most part the NPCs seem to have been edited / proofed to fit within the world. But big picture, it's a really innovative way to include the community and enrich the game world.

Memorials on the other hand are all over the place in regards to writing quality and content.

peteham wrote on Apr 7, 2015, 09:40:
So... These are the best NPCs? Good grief.

Still going to wait for another patch or two before diving in. And possibly a backer NPC removal mod.

It's an article on Something Awful...

yonder wrote on Apr 2, 2015, 01:56:
I'm honestly curious as to your history with QA and software development cuz... well... yes. Yes it IS that bad. This should have never made it anywhere near release. But nothing will ever touch Pool of Radiance and their "uninstalling this game may erase your OS" bug. NOTHING will touch that.

Technically I've worked as a QA, tester, and designer and higher-ups had tried to push me into being a QA manager before I completely burned out. No, it is not that bad. Yes, it is entirely within reason that something like this made it through to release (obviously depending on when it was introduced).

Technically speaking this is -not- a game breaker. The game still loads, runs, functions, story triggers still launch and the player is still technically able to proceed through the product. Regardless of your personal feelings on the matter it is not a game breaker. If double clicking on an item crashed to the desktop or locked you in the inventory screen or otherwise impeded your ability to progress etc. then it would be an actual game breaker. This is just a major inconvenience.

Coming up to release the focus on QA would have most likely been revolving around story triggers and blockers. Making sure that particular events triggered when they were supposed to and that skipping ahead through side quests didn't break main quest progression. Most of that would be done using debug tools rather than paying a tester to actually sit there and play through the entire content as well, it's just not feasible with a product of this scope.

And balance issues would not be getting addressed in the final QA passes prior to launch, that would come along in a future patch - same as text issues and other polish. There's only a finite amount of testing time and priorities need to be established, and like it or not, technical functionality trumps pretty much everything in the final pre-launch crunch.

The only way I can see a new Guitar Hero game not bombing is if they actually renegotiated all their licensing deals and somehow manage to copy Rock Band's ability to carry over the bulk of their previously existing content.

Most people who liked the genre enjoyed both franchises, and personally I preferred the GH set lists. But when Rock Band 4 can potentially have a solid 300+ song library right out of the gate simply by having owned the previous iterations, Guitar Hero (seven? ...seventeen?) needs to offer better than just whatever is on disc.

LurkerLito wrote on Apr 1, 2015, 13:06:
I agree about the buffs, they just seem so useless. I play a wizard character and I don't even bother with the protection spells at all. They seem useless because the aren't instantly cast, they last a few seconds, so unless I am psychic I don't see how to really use them effectively in combat. Better to have more offense and kill them faster than buff to protect your team.

I haven't played that much (still in Act 1) but with auto-pause enabled on enemy detection you essentially get the 'psychic' ability to see an encounter before combat begins. I've always been able to redirect my party during that pause break then send in my sneakiest character (doesn't need to be a rogue) to scout the hostile mob.

Though personally I prefer mass blindness over protection spells.

Kosumo wrote on Mar 31, 2015, 22:32:

Cutter wrote on Mar 31, 2015, 22:23:

Just like Loverboy - Lovin' Every Minute of It?

lol, classic 80's white tee shirt rock

I'm actually really intrigued by that cover at the start hahah also that Guild bass holy wowwie wow.

Mr. Tact wrote on Mar 29, 2015, 09:21:
It's weird, you'd think a bug like that would get noticed in testing.

Yes and no. It's definitely a major issue and something they'll absolutely address now that it's been identified but it's technically not a game breaker or blocker (which is likely what their focus was nearing release). Odds are most of the QA playtime was spent in debug(god) mode and making sure the various story triggers fired appropriately depending on what path the Player chose throughout the game.

That's not to say the bug doesn't break a player's experience, but it doesn't stop the game from functioning or the player from progressing (even if it's at a potentially substantial disadvantage). Priorities and limited time frames after all, not an excuse, just a reality of software testing.

HorrorScope wrote on Mar 28, 2015, 11:12:
A little slopppy like its predecessors in choosing a skill and making it stick quickly and clearly. Sometimes you think you have X selected, but it doesn't fire. Not having a que is a little bummer.

Something I noticed was that if the character has started the animation for their current action selecting a new action or skill won't stick until the current one ends and the cooldown bar reappears over them.

And I totally agree that a queue system would be awesome, even just 2-3 actions would make a huge difference.

MoreLuckThanSkill wrote on Mar 27, 2015, 22:33:
Currently, Wizard and Chanter are kind of bad,

I started as a Chanter and I'm liking it (focused on summons at the moment) . Takes a bit to get used to though I wouldn't call it bad. But I'm also definitely a spacebar spammer from lots of BG / NWN gaming.

I think the whole no HP heal / camp method is to encourage people to use their 'per rest' abilities more often rather than saving them for a bigger fight that doesn't necessarily happen as well. I had a hard time keeping my wizard companion alive until I started spamming more spells (and setting a custom formation to hold him further back).

I also need to say I really like the speed toggles. Double speed for scouting / sneaking around, half speed for more involved combat.

As for bugs the only thing I've noticed is a few text formatting issues after maxing the font size to 140% (running fullscreen 1080). Some of the longer item names overlap with their prices in the store or some text segments start off mostly scrolled out of the dialog window. One or two tutorial popups ran longer than my monitor. But I don't have to squint and that makes me happy.


Also hope they add a sort button to the stash (or am I just missing the obvious?)

I don't know what the classes are. I don't know what unique twists they've done to the typical D&D / fantasy genre. Don't know how they tweaked combat either.

But I do know I have a $50 Steam card ready for Thursday AND a day off from work

theyarecomingforyou wrote on Mar 22, 2015, 16:27:

What people should be moaning about is the fact that the new download system required uninstalling the game and redownloading it all again. People should be annoyed that the original upload for 1.1 was corrupted, meaning that downloads had to be reset. People should be annoyed despite that issue being fixed the install still crapped out at the end, with the workaround to be enabling patch repair under settings. People should be annoyed that the online multiplayer is broken, with CIG advising people not to bother until Monday.

Good. Use your aggressive feelings, kitty cat. Let the hate flow through you.

MindStalker3 wrote on Mar 8, 2015, 17:01:
Maybe if they want to add a feature like new instrument support, they just make it a free update.

If anything in the genre justified a paid expansion new instrument support would be it. New versions weren't bad as they did provide new soundtracks the hassle was playing old content through newer versions. Harmonix got it right with allowing users to import the bulk of their old content into the new game and always added substantial improvements with each version.

GH was just a mess by the end of it, which was unfortunate since they had a lot of great tunes. Personally, I preferred the GH soundtracks but RB was just a better overall product.

Top Tier soundtrack?

Dark Side of The Moon please and thank you.

Blue wrote on Mar 5, 2015, 10:59:
Here's the big question I haven't seen addressed... will they finally manage to bring The Beatles Rock Band content to the main game?

Doubt it. I don't ever recall Harmonix calling it anything more than a technical issue, something about the video backgrounds being too intricately tied to the tunes. I'd be very happy to be wrong about that though.

As for the foot pedal thing. After having gone through 2 plastic ones I stripped the guts from one of them and hooked them up to an entry level Pearl kick pedal. It worked flawlessly until I got a real e-kit.

It's a simple mod. There are 2 main components, a magnet embedded into the pedal itself and a wired sensor in the base. Setup the hammer so that it strikes the latch that would normally hook up to a bass drum when you kick. Superglue the magnet to the fastener at the edge of the center bar. Duct tape the sensor on the side nearest the magnet and adjust it so that they make contact when the hammer hits the frame. It took me longer to figure out how to type this than it did to make it work.

nin wrote on Mar 5, 2015, 11:02:

Rock Band 4 will focus on the core experience and the roots of the franchise – guitar, bass, drums, and vocals. There will be no Pro Guitar or key support in Rock Band 4. We will continue to support “Pro” mode for Drums.

This doesn't really surprise me given their experience with pro mode. The pro-drums are just a graphic swap based on the underlying sample of the chart. Pro-guitar was a novel concept but unless they go 1:1 with Rocksmith it seems like a futile endeavor.

On the other hand I am kind of surprised they'd drop keys but not really. Not everyone likes piano rock and if you spent the money on a keyboard you probably wouldn't want to be forced to use it to try playing guitar or bass parts.

Silicon Avatar wrote on Feb 28, 2015, 14:18:
Gun range is rarely realistic so all you end up with in most games (as far as sniper rifles go) is a regular gun that does a ton of damage on crit.

If you tried to model a sniper rifle in a lot of modern turn based games you'd just be shooting NPCs from 7 screens away and then watching their dumb AI try to get to you. Alternatively you would be the one taking cover from 7 screens away trying to get to your assailant.

It kind of sounds like the sort of fun that would get boring and aggravating really fast.

Would asking for more than maybe 2-3 tiles of sniper rifle range compared to an assault rifle be that game breaking though? Maybe just get rid of sniper range entirely and if you have line of sight you have progressively less chance to hit.

Recognize guitar / music games for the niche they are. The people who like them will support them.

Having said that, I don't think the industry should bother with a new generation of plastic pseudo-instruments. Go the Rocksmith route and let the players buy their own gear and provide a custom interface. That way when people come over, they won't see a bunch of plastic 'toys' cluttering your living room, they'll just see musical instruments.

Orogogus wrote on Feb 26, 2015, 12:49:

panbient wrote on Feb 26, 2015, 10:55:
On the other hand Relic never tried selling The Last Stand as a stand alone product.

Am I misunderstanding, or isn't that exactly what Relic did?

http://store.steampowered.com/app/56438/

That; that's The Last Stand as a standalone product, isn't it? For $10?

My bad. I just got the DoW games pretty much on release and enjoyed the mode as an addition to the regular game. Never did beat wave 20 either

On one hand it's not a horrible idea given the popularity of other MOBAs and The Last Stand mode from the DoW2 games.

On the other hand Relic never tried selling The Last Stand as a stand alone product. Minimum $25? I don't think so. And while I enjoy twin-stick shooters on my ps3, I'm not nearly as interested in them on my pc.

{PH}88fingers wrote on Feb 22, 2015, 08:14:
I still don't understand how it's a bad thing that rich people help fund the game for the rest of us...

That was never really an issue.

The issue was the fact that the scope of the project keeps expanding and seems to be looking at the funding as a revenue stream (that will keep providing money) rather than start-up capital (to get the job that was pitched done). It went from being "we're hoping to get X amount of money to make Y game" to "we'll keep adding to Z game until we stop getting money then you'll get what you get".

The fact that it's an unprecedented project should be a concern rather than a justification for the behaviour.

Here's the other thing, most rich people don't like wasting money (one of the fundamental reasons why they're rich in the first place). They like getting something back from their spending, even if the results seem absurd to poor people. And if they don't get something back, they can afford lawyers who can rather than just raging about getting screwed over on the internet like the rest of us.

... and it's only a 26 GB download...

what the actual shit?