First impressions thread

The first mission (about six skeletons, I think?) I managed to pass without any understanding of what was going on. I know enough about tabletop RPGs to recognize good and bad combat positioning for my team, and so I beat that mission not by understanding a thing about this game but simply by saying "oh, I don't want to stay there, those guys will gang up on me" and taking opportunities to attack when I didn't feel overwhelmed.

I got to the dragon fight, and spent 15 minutes (3 or 4 attempts) over and over just dying because I don't understand the game at all. Finally on one attempt I managed to discard all his armor, attack him 4 times in one turn, and then on the next turn he missed his armor roll and my attack finished him off. It didn't feel like skill. I didn't gain any understanding of the game systems or mechanics. There were dozens of things that confused me, that felt unpredictable or unexpected, that all lessened the feeling that I could possibly make informed, strategic decisions or play skillfully.

After beating the dragon I realized that I wasn't actually playing the beginning of the game. Inexcusable. You don't have to start me with a fresh character, the crappiest gear, and everything else that a typical game starts out with - you DO have to start me out in an environment where I can learn the basics, experiment, make mistakes, and not end up hating your product.

I played through the first adventure after claiming my free human warrior and said enough. I don't care if the tutorial eventually makes an appearance. I'm not wasting my time, or sacrificing my enjoyment, just so you can have a game experience that starts at Z and eventually winds up at A.

 

"Head to the armory to exchange your loot for something useful"

The what? Where? These things still haven't been introduced or explained even remotely.

Attempts to click on 'Orcs Head Tavern'
"Are you sure you want to abandon the current mission?"

The hell? What mission? The one I just completed?

This is almost becoming hilarious.

Edit: The armory message appeared before the armory was even visible on the map. Having never won a battle before I had no idea that I had to collect loot from the dungeon area. Keep up the awesome tutorial, I'm learning everything I need to know about how not to design games.

 

If you are unable to comprehend the intention of big red buttons, im afraid you´re quite hopeless, no matter which game you play. And that´s besides the fact that looting stuff is very quite obvious a central part of the game. I guess you tried a ego Shooter once but disliked it because nobody told you to use the gun in your hand to shoot people?

 

For the record, I completed the mission and quit the game before seeing any big red buttons.

When I reloaded the game I was on the map, with a message about visiting the armory, but there wasn't any armory.

Gentley - kudos to you mate, it seems you're demonstrating exactly the kind of playerbase that this product will be full of upon release: a bunch of uptight, unhelpful assholes who have overlooked this game's deficiencies because you've been waiting for a beta key for god knows how many months/years to endow your life with the illusion of meaning. Everyone on this forum talks about how amazing their "first experience" was. I don't believe it one bit. All I've seen is a cirlce-jerk of fanboys who would prefer to ingest feces all day every day rather than admit they made reservations at a ****ty restaurant.

I'm going back to Duel of Champions. Good riddance to Gentley and his ilk.

 

Woohoo, feel the Rage
Yeah, have fun somewhere else, allthough i´m not sure you know how to do that.

 

The only true part about his rant is the fact, that the game doesnt tell you, that you have to click the adventure you are currently at to continue it. Alas, one could say it doesnt take a genius to guess that you continue an adventure the same way you start it. Missing that while there´s nothing else to click besides the tavern... well lets just say you should never ever try to play dwarf fortress.

 

I had no problems whatsoever, everything seemed pretty clear. I quit and came back a few times with no noticeable bugs. Just lucky i guess

So far its good fun.

 

Whew, okay, an explosion happened in here.

First, to everyone everywhere: it's alright, we're all on the same side, we want the game to be good. No need to insult anybody.

Second, the intro: from the description of the problem, it surely isn't "the worst introductory experience ever"--it's fairly standard in gaming to give you a powered-up intro before you start your normal gaming experience. Knowing that, we have to figure out what REALLY went wrong.

Thus the folks in the thread started to make suggestions from the details: so you were confused about cards, we can't help you with that without specifics; but did the tutorial crash? Okay, that alone explains a lot. The situation obviously isn't about a bunch of other people in love with an incompetent program: it's about a crash, and the designers need to know that. Any more detail you can provide would help (assuming folks haven't already pegged it).

 

I have really enjoyed playing this game. It does remind me alot of playing the old D&D with my friends back in the late 70s and early 80s. The artwork is great, and the graphics are very nice. I also enjoy the comments of the two brothers in the cut scenes. One item that has gotten me frustrated is the lack of running cards. It could be that the items I have collected do not have many, but I am attempting to get behind the trogs in the ice caves, and I never seem to get the movement cards. I can usually kill 2-3, but by that time I have l lost 1-2, or my characters are almost dead. I spend more time moving around to stay out of their long reach.

Other than that, I really enjoy the game.

 

Don´t even try Just get some lavapit spells for your sorc and burn them to death, win in 2-3 rounds without getting hit once. Requires luck.

 

Loving the astetic of the game. Amazing throwback to when I first started playing D&D. The gameplay is smooth and intuitive, and the games are fast paced and tactical.

My only concern is how 'in your face' the paywall is. I could see that turning a lot of people off, even if the game isn't a pay to win it gives the impression of being so.

I like the way that Planetside 2 does it. Everything that gives a mechanical benefit can only be purchaced with in game currancy (certs). Stuff like upgrading your ammo capacity, improving your HP ect can only be bought with certs. Anything that provides a 'sidegrade' like most of the weapons can be purchaced either with cash, or certs. Anything that provides a cosmetic upgrade, like camo skins or spinning rims for your APC are cash only.

 

Just started playing yesterday, and it's incredibly addicting. The card-based mechanics are very well-executed and are surprisingly deep, strategically. Getting new gear is exciting, especially when it's uncommon. I love all the little touches that add so much personality to the game's aesthetic- the banter between Gary and his brother being especially endearing. The battles are a joy to plan strategically, and I've been in some truly exciting and equally dire straits.
The F2P, I feel, is done pretty tastefully- you made it seem like a friendly bit of help. I haven't played multiplayer yet, so I don't know how much that will affect the competition- using money to get super-rare weapons does feel like it could make things a little uneven. But I suppose I have no right to complain about that- though I would pay money for this game, I'm sure you're already set on the F2P path.
Overall a very neat game so far- I'm looking forward to seeing it completed.

 

Just got in Friday (thank you Grombak!) excellent game so far, the strategy is solid so far the difficulty has been pretty good, I find myself begging to draw an attack or spell that I need. Love all the light touches of nestalgia for those of us that have played RPGs for so many years. I wonder a bit that Gary and Melvin's names aren't switched... My first thought of Gary as GM made me think Gary Gygax (in memorandum) but that doesn't seem to be the case. All in all fantastic single player campain so far...see everyone in multiplayer soon!

 

So based on the OP statement of not reading other people's comments on their first impressions here are mine. I was accepted into the beta a few days ago and I am enjoying the game quite a bit. I only have level four or lower characters at the moment and if it helps to know how far in, I was just given pizza to purchase a new skin for one of my characters.

I really enjoy the deck building with new items. I think this will keep me interested for a long time by chasing new loot to find new cards. I have enjoyed the battles as they have not been just push overs. I fought one where my warrior died in the battle and I had to use my wizard to kite the remaining two monsters around the room and use the difficult terrain to keep them at bay while I whittled down their health. I won that battle but it taught me quite a bit about card management, board positioning, and flanking. I think perhaps this one battle significantly increased my understanding of this game. I thoroughly enjoy the atmosphere with Gary and Melvin stories. It is fun to play the game and have it not take itself too seriously. The personality lends itself very well to how I would run the game if it physically existed.

There are some minor things that perhaps I missed in the tutorial. One is that once you click on a card, you are completely committed to playing the card. I have accidentally clicked on a spell when I had meant to right click. This left the spell ready to cast with only an ally in range. I saw no discernible way to cancel the card and ended taking the hit and wasting the card. Now, the reason could be, that I enjoy playing this on my TV in the living room. As this is not a twitch game, I love sitting on the sofa to play this game. I have connected a computer to my TV (complete cord cutter here, no real TV outside rabbit ears), and have a wonderful SMK Link mini remote keyboard (Smk-link Wireless Ultra-Mini Touchpad Keyboard) for operating at a distance. However, the game's text is a bit small for this use. If the text could scale it would be a beautiful game to sit back and play. Also, the sound is spectacularly loud. I have my computer sound turned down to barely audible with the "ding" on the Windows volume control and yet a swing and a hit on this game is still shaking the house before I adjust the volume level. This could be a browser problem I am not sure and have not fully tested yet. I am running Firefox 21.0. I will test on other browsers and update this post.

I also feel that the pizza levels are a bit high. In a world where I pay piecemeal for all of my entertainment (cord cutter here), I am acutely aware of value to dollars. To be accepted into the club for one month is more expensive that a month of Netflix instant streaming. If I want to drop the price down to be less than Netflix, I have to commit to a year's membership and pay upfront. As someone who plays many games, I might go a month of two without playing a specific game. I did this several times with WoW and it convinced me to stop playing altogether because I felt I was wasting my money. I understand that your company would like to have a reliable income to work with, but the price and length of commitment is more than I am willing to do at this point in time. This does not mean that I will only play the free version of this game. I do feel that certain aspects will warrant me to make purchases. However, I am certain that if the initial monthly cost was brought down to the level of the twelve month commitment price, I would more likely purchase the club membership. In the meantime, I will likely purchase other characters or skins or other items on a as-desired-basis. I can see a $2-$8 monthly budget depending on items in the game for sale. This probably means that I will buy the $5 level of pizza slices and not much more. This is still a $60 yearly commitment, but probably the limit to what I would spend.

Overall I do really enjoy the game and I will try and give feedback as I play and discover more of this game.

Thank you for accepting me into the Beta,

Dapperdanman

 

Hey, I have started the game little over a week ago and i figured I would give my impressions. Since it's y first post Id like to introduce myself and say that i have been playing a ton of games over last 15 years or so and many TCG's both irl and online. I would like to say that I enjoy the game very much. I have been looking for some new low cost collectible card game for a while now and have tried a lot of them but this one seems the best so far. I must congratulate you job well done. Today i completed the campaign and saw the challenges and i found myself continuously switching items back and forth for every mission. It would be nice if you create some presets that i can switch between. It would make those challenges much more convenient. I think that the current business model is very nice. Particularly, i like the club option. I hope you introduce more cards, more maps and the game gets bigger.