Paladin's Cove beta release, and feedback

Ted, i agree super super fun but some balance issues for sure. The wererats are a bit much for a first level party... but with luck its doable. I find a sorcerer with daze and sleep to be super useful. And i think fighter or barb with a reach weapon is critical.

 

Glad your having fun, Ted.

The tough encounters at first level are a necessary evil of keeping each chapter open-ended, and letting you play the quests in any order you want, and each one is generally balanced for a party of level 2-3. So, yeah first level can be pretty lethal at times, if you pick the wrong quest to begin with. The recruits can surely help, as you mentioned. (Getting through that first level can be a bit rough in KOTB too )

Also, the game is scripted to add bonus creatures to the encounters in most quests in chapter one when the party gets to levels 4 or higher. This prevents the quest from becoming too easy at higher levels. Just something to keep that in mind if you ever play through again. Also, every encounter at the Hidden Fortress is randomized for a fresh experience each time you play.

Unfortunately, the base encounters are not reduced in power for first level parties.

Pathnodes inside the walls are complete, and you can travel from any spot to any another spot. There are a few minor exception like alleys that were intentionally left un-pathnoded so a player has to creep in those areas. These are very few, and as I said they were left that way on purpose.

The area outside of the wall was a late-comer in that map's develpoment. Up until a short time ago, the "darkness on the edge of town" was directly outside town walls. Then one day I decided to put some stuff out there and it's kind of not really finished yet.

So outside the wall, the pathoding is only done in and around the druid area, but even there it's still a WIP. All other areas outside the walls (other than that druid area) are NOT pathnoded at all. But since most of it is open area, the party can kind of move around OK.

And just as a reminder, I'll quote from the ReadMe.

Code:

   There is very little to explore outside the walls of the town, UNLESS a
   quest demands you go there directly as PART OF THAT QUEST. It's mostly
   just there for flavor, and future expansion, so you don't need to spend time
   wandering around out there exploring. The only exception is the Druid area
   to the east of town, which may have some interesting things going on.

 

So does that help explain why I always get stuck in the lower left area outside the walls: things start flashing black, and my guys stop moving getting stuck in place, etc?

And this is why I got started walking around outside the wall. I've been looking for all the stupid sea turtles.

I killed three near that boat, but I've walked all around that inside harbor area numerous times, and no other sea turtles appear.

But I always get the "you didn't kill them all, so I hired someone else to do it" response, so I reload and start walking around more - endlessly.

This is why I attempted to try to go to the two areas outside the walls that have water, but there's nothing out there.

So I guess I can't complete this quest because only three appear, and it seems that he wants an unknown number to be killed, so the quest is always botched.

 

Not to spoil anything but there are a few more turtles in the water in the harbor, you do not need to leave the keep to find them.

 

Thanks.

Exactly - let's not spoil anything, but I've been walking around in that harbor for so long that I'm surprised I don't have rusty armor and barnacles growing on me

 

Haha, I understand! I felt the same way.

 

OK, I know I've walked there numerous times, but I finally hit the magical spot.

Quest is successful.

Thanks!

 

Possibly fighting Lycanthropes at level 1-3 reminds me of a similar thing that could happen in World's Largest Dungeon.

 

Thanks for all the feedback on this one.

I've changed the captain's dialog to make it 100% clear that the turtles are all INSIDE the town waters, inside the walls, and all by the docks right there by the inn. Sorry to make you guys run around outside the wall like that.

Also, I made it clearer in his dialog that you must ENTER THE EXTERIOR MAP WHEN IT'S NIGHTTIME for the turtles to appear. So, you can't just be outside when it's daytime, then pass time out there until night, and then go look for them. You have to enter the exterior map at nighttime. This may have been why you couldn't find them.

This is an unfortunate limitation of how I scripted the turtles with day/night transitions. It's on my to-do list to make it so the turn on/off anytime it's day or night, in their san_heartbeat function. Then it won't be a problem any more.

 

The DR/10 is the worst part, I would think.

In all fairness they are only CR2 creatures with about 13 hit points, and there are only a few of them at a time. Doing 10+ weapon damage in one strike can be a challenge for early parties, I know. But they are very easily taken down with Sleep, Magic Missile, Tasha's, etc.

The leader at the end may be a bit more of a challenge.

 

I understand about requirements for the waiting for dark and entering the Exterior map after dark.

This is how I found the first group, but after that battle, I was not able to walk around to find the second group.

It was the same night and after the first battle. And I walked in that area numerous times.

 

Marc, one thing i noticed is that i saved before fighting the turtles and then died (unlucky color spray got my martials) so i reloaded and when i reloaded i could not get the turtles to spawn. Not sure if i did anything wrong or if reloading caused an issue?

But i ended up remaking a new party and it was fine.

 

I am at the Crossroads, but neither of the army leaders wants to talk to me. I just get an endless loop of "may i ask you more questions" type of dialog with both group leaders. I was told to go talk to both sides, but they don't seem to want to talk with me.

For curiosity I even healed a few people, and got some interesting dialog, but I did not heal everyone. Right now, it is not clear if i need to do that or not.

I've not visited the corn field, but I've cleared everything else on the map. I'd like to kill them, but they are too tough for me right now. Their dialog choices is a little weird. I'll try again, but it seems that you either agree to do it or you fight, and this is a battle i cannot win in my current condition.

 

In Chapter Two, at the Crossroads, when

Spoiler: Spoiler

beginning the Three Birds quest, the game is terribly "laggy" but it normalizes itself as soon as you defeat the Toll Collectors

Also, all throughout the game, a possible (?) Cleave bug: Upon reaching the level when my Fighter gets the bonus attack, he is losing the second attack whenever cleaving! ( it's like the game treats the cleaving attack as his second attack ) However, I can get around this by selecting Full Attack from radial menu, in which case all is as intended , ie attack + cleave + attack again