Passageway of the Ancients

[rusty_shackleford]

Any of you nerds play the demo for this?

[rusty_shackleford]

this actually looks pretty **** good btw


downloadin' the demo, will make a mini review on it I suppose

[Tweed]

Looks awful.

[aweigh]

Seemed interesting until i saw the footage of the actual combat; don't get me wrong I actually like RTwP, but what's shown here looks super fast. I don't see how it could possibly be satisfying to play, the weapon swings go by at warp-speed.

[rusty_shackleford]

Feedback so far:
The audio has compression artefacts which is kinda annoying. Otherwise, seems janky but decent.

[1998]

Looks interesting, will follow. But wtf is up with their requirements

[rusty_shackleford]

Releases October 16th

[Vergil]

Is looking like **** part of the joke I don't get it

[Finarfin]

I dunno, I kinda like it. Any Idea what it will cost?

[Tweed]

Rusty confirmed for Therian/Otherkin.

[skdursh]

Is looking like **** part of the joke I don't get it

"Graphics" are overrated. Spiderweb Software has been putting out games which exclusively look like a pre-grad's sophomore project for almost 30 years now and most of them are still great games worth playing for anyone capable of imagination. For a small team all I care about as far as visuals go is that they are good enough to get the point across. As always, the actual mechanics of the game are king.

[Tweed]

Is looking like **** part of the joke I don't get it

"Graphics" are overrated. Spiderweb Software has been putting out games which exclusively look like a pre-grad's sophomore project for almost 30 years now and most of them are still great games worth playing for anyone capable of imagination. For a small team all I care about as far as visuals go is that they are good enough to get the point across. As always, the actual mechanics of the game are king.

It's not graphics that are the problem, I don't give a dead moose's last **** about graphics. it's ugly aesthetics. Vogel's games look fine, but this looks like a chunky Unity project.

[Rand]

I give him credit for making a game and trying out some ideas.
I couldn't do it.

[1998]

Sex, race, ethnic...not bad

[Xenich]

Is looking like **** part of the joke I don't get it

"Graphics" are overrated. Spiderweb Software has been putting out games which exclusively look like a pre-grad's sophomore project for almost 30 years now and most of them are still great games worth playing for anyone capable of imagination. For a small team all I care about as far as visuals go is that they are good enough to get the point across. As always, the actual mechanics of the game are king.

It's not graphics that are the problem, I don't give a dead moose's last **** about graphics. it's ugly aesthetics. Vogel's games look fine, but this looks like a chunky Unity project.

Agreed, but if the gameplay is good, the systems are deep and well thought out, it is something I can overlook. In the end, they don't make a good game, they only make a game good looking and a crappy game is still a crappy game regardless of its appearance.

[BosanskiSeljak]

Here is my rant about the item bloat and inventory management:

There are some extremely bad design decisions in this game, and each one builds on top of the other. This is seriously some of the worst inventory bloat I've ever experienced. Instead of listing it out, I'll take you through a journey of only 1 dungeon.

To make my point, let's assume you are a player who picks up everything and explores every nook & cranny on a map. This playstyle doesn't have to be extremely tedious, even in games with lots of loot and restrictions to inventory. Geneforge, Icewind Dale, Svarog's Dream are just some examples from games I've played this year. They each have their problems with this topic, but have QoL features in place to lessen the burden and still don't come close to the amount of items we're talking about here.



This is the map for my test example

So, just got here after spending some time in town cleaning the inventory, leveling, etc. so I have a clean slate. You start going through the rooms, picking things up, fighting the enemies that get in your way, etc. You will fill 3 & a half inventories taking all items without even exploring a quarter of this map. But you don't want to waste time selling everything, so you portal back to the inn and store what you can. Well, the storage doesn't even fit 3 character inventories, so you dump what you can and continue (vast majority of items you get are not stackable fyi). You portal back to the dungeon and enemies have already respawned, repick any locks, so you start the process again barely clearing a quarter of the map before you have to portal away and store your things. But don't forget, your camera settings reset each time you move areas so you have to click that again, and each time you see an enemy your tactics menu pops up so you have to close it even if you're already set up to fight that enemy type. Thus, you go to a vendor and start selling. There is no sort & stack options for inventory, you have to click and drag each item across the screen to put it in the vendors cart (no option to just move all), click sell. Portal back, change camera settings, fight respawned enemies and explore...well you get the idea. I'm not exaggerating when I say you can fill your entire parties inventory at least 5 times over on 1 map. You see how so many minor things compound into bloat?

A quick example of how this effects other elements of the game: I have over 500 regular lockpicks and a few hundred of the "better" lockpicks. Why did I waste skill points on lockpicking for my rogue when I'd never run out of them? All these little things compound on eachother.

Now, okay, this is bad from a game design perspective, but you don't have to hoard loot and explore everything, right? Well, there aren't exactly many quests found in dungeons (so far). You can find some unique gear sets that you definitely want, and I got 1 side quest from an NPC in the dungeon shown above.

Okay you say, I won't pick up trash (and hope I can eyeball what I can use to upgrade my characters) and I'll only take that legendary gearset and take a sidequest item. Well, you still have to search everything. Those insane amount of items aren't just on the floor. There are without exaggeration hundreds of interactable boxes/shelves/etc. on the map. The vast majority of them contain something. But, hold up, some of them are glitched so you have to do some weird contorting to click on the item. You can't just skip it, because that random box could contain a piece of legendary gear. Or, you have to be on the otherside of the wall to click and open a box, a box that doesn't highlight when you're in the room, but when you're on the opposite side of the wall it does. Or, your pathfinding gets ****** up. So, you save a lot of time but it's still very wonky.

------------End of Bloat Rant----------------

And just finished notes:

Became much more enjoyable when I just treated the dungeons as a maze to find the 1 or 2 items necessary and the exit, instead of full clearing.

Some notes (ignoring the previous discussion on the loot bloat):

1. Lots of jank and bugs. pathfinding is atrocious in places, few bugs including being unable to save, etc.

2. Combat and character building are mediocre at best but charming, this definitely isn't a combat persons game. I could've gotten through on the highest difficulty with ease. And all I did was rush in with all 4 characters going melee and having combat AI on (I realized a few hours in I really don't have to prep). The thing is, anyone can beat this game on the hardest difficulty because you're effectively invincible. You can throw all 4 characters into one little area, surrounded by the toughest enemy and boss, but you can heal while paused. If you want to play without cheesing combat, playing a magic character is a must, I'm guessing, because I didn't have a single crowd control or aoe attack.

3. Choices in skill tree are very lackluster, and some aren't needed at all. I did all the traps on my rogue's tree but traps will do like 20 damage to you while you have 5000+ hp on your character. Hell, I went into the final fight without spending 3 levels worth of skill points. Remember Dragon's Eye in Icewind Dale? You won't find anything like that here. Oh and have to add, vast majority of things on the skill tree are active abilities, but you only have 4 slots for abilities on your hotbar.

4. Story and lore sprinkled in aren't done in the seamless way I prefer, and very linear, but a lot of love was put into it and that is obvious.



Needs work to be less tedious, overall mediocre experience with some charm. If you're gonna play, do not clear anything. I didn't even list all the problems that would pad gametime when you play more thoroughly.

[1998]

Here is my rant about the item bloat and inventory management:

There are some extremely bad design decisions in this game, and each one builds on top of the other. This is seriously some of the worst inventory bloat I've ever experienced. Instead of listing it out, I'll take you through a journey of only 1 dungeon.

To make my point, let's assume you are a player who picks up everything and explores every nook & cranny on a map. This playstyle doesn't have to be extremely tedious, even in games with lots of loot and restrictions to inventory. Geneforge, Icewind Dale, Svarog's Dream are just some examples from games I've played this year. They each have their problems with this topic, but have QoL features in place to lessen the burden and still don't come close to the amount of items we're talking about here.



This is the map for my test example

So, just got here after spending some time in town cleaning the inventory, leveling, etc. so I have a clean slate. You start going through the rooms, picking things up, fighting the enemies that get in your way, etc. You will fill 3 & a half inventories taking all items without even exploring a quarter of this map. But you don't want to waste time selling everything, so you portal back to the inn and store what you can. Well, the storage doesn't even fit 3 character inventories, so you dump what you can and continue (vast majority of items you get are not stackable fyi). You portal back to the dungeon and enemies have already respawned, repick any locks, so you start the process again barely clearing a quarter of the map before you have to portal away and store your things. But don't forget, your camera settings reset each time you move areas so you have to click that again, and each time you see an enemy your tactics menu pops up so you have to close it even if you're already set up to fight that enemy type. Thus, you go to a vendor and start selling. There is no sort & stack options for inventory, you have to click and drag each item across the screen to put it in the vendors cart (no option to just move all), click sell. Portal back, change camera settings, fight respawned enemies and explore...well you get the idea. I'm not exaggerating when I say you can fill your entire parties inventory at least 5 times over on 1 map. You see how so many minor things compound into bloat?

A quick example of how this effects other elements of the game: I have over 500 regular lockpicks and a few hundred of the "better" lockpicks. Why did I waste skill points on lockpicking for my rogue when I'd never run out of them? All these little things compound on eachother.

Now, okay, this is bad from a game design perspective, but you don't have to hoard loot and explore everything, right? Well, there aren't exactly many quests found in dungeons (so far). You can find some unique gear sets that you definitely want, and I got 1 side quest from an NPC in the dungeon shown above.

Okay you say, I won't pick up trash (and hope I can eyeball what I can use to upgrade my characters) and I'll only take that legendary gearset and take a sidequest item. Well, you still have to search everything. Those insane amount of items aren't just on the floor. There are without exaggeration hundreds of interactable boxes/shelves/etc. on the map. The vast majority of them contain something. But, hold up, some of them are glitched so you have to do some weird contorting to click on the item. You can't just skip it, because that random box could contain a piece of legendary gear. Or, you have to be on the otherside of the wall to click and open a box, a box that doesn't highlight when you're in the room, but when you're on the opposite side of the wall it does. Or, your pathfinding gets ****** up. So, you save a lot of time but it's still very wonky.

------------End of Bloat Rant----------------

And just finished notes:

Became much more enjoyable when I just treated the dungeons as a maze to find the 1 or 2 items necessary and the exit, instead of full clearing.

Some notes (ignoring the previous discussion on the loot bloat):

1. Lots of jank and bugs. pathfinding is atrocious in places, few bugs including being unable to save, etc.

2. Combat and character building are mediocre at best but charming, this definitely isn't a combat persons game. I could've gotten through on the highest difficulty with ease. And all I did was rush in with all 4 characters going melee and having combat AI on (I realized a few hours in I really don't have to prep). The thing is, anyone can beat this game on the hardest difficulty because you're effectively invincible. You can throw all 4 characters into one little area, surrounded by the toughest enemy and boss, but you can heal while paused. If you want to play without cheesing combat, playing a magic character is a must, I'm guessing, because I didn't have a single crowd control or aoe attack.

3. Choices in skill tree are very lackluster, and some aren't needed at all. I did all the traps on my rogue's tree but traps will do like 20 damage to you while you have 5000+ hp on your character. Hell, I went into the final fight without spending 3 levels worth of skill points. Remember Dragon's Eye in Icewind Dale? You won't find anything like that here. Oh and have to add, vast majority of things on the skill tree are active abilities, but you only have 4 slots for abilities on your hotbar.

4. Story and lore sprinkled in aren't done in the seamless way I prefer, and very linear, but a lot of love was put into it and that is obvious.



Needs work to be less tedious, overall mediocre experience with some charm. If you're gonna play, do not clear anything. I didn't even list all the problems that would pad gametime when you play more thoroughly.

Also just finished the Dwarfen Fortress I (with barely any enemies in it. You had the same or is that a bug? felt wrong @BosanskiSeljak ) and pretty much agree with all of it. I don't think gold will be a limiting factor at any point, so I am mostly trying to ignore loot. Of course you still need to check most containers because sadly somtimes pretty strong equipment or tears are hidden there randomly.

I am also a bit disappointed at the skill trees especially because the game only has 3 classes. When I saw that, I assumed they at least fleshed them out properly, I didn't even bother to beam back to the city to level up until Lvl4-5 and I was doing just fine.

AI also not working too well, even on full aggressiveness and maximum range there is always one **** doing **** all. In general the attack range seems to be way to short, need to stand nose to nose to an enemy otherwise they are not attacking.

[BosanskiSeljak]

Here is my rant about the item bloat and inventory management:

There are some extremely bad design decisions in this game, and each one builds on top of the other. This is seriously some of the worst inventory bloat I've ever experienced. Instead of listing it out, I'll take you through a journey of only 1 dungeon.

To make my point, let's assume you are a player who picks up everything and explores every nook & cranny on a map. This playstyle doesn't have to be extremely tedious, even in games with lots of loot and restrictions to inventory. Geneforge, Icewind Dale, Svarog's Dream are just some examples from games I've played this year. They each have their problems with this topic, but have QoL features in place to lessen the burden and still don't come close to the amount of items we're talking about here.



This is the map for my test example

So, just got here after spending some time in town cleaning the inventory, leveling, etc. so I have a clean slate. You start going through the rooms, picking things up, fighting the enemies that get in your way, etc. You will fill 3 & a half inventories taking all items without even exploring a quarter of this map. But you don't want to waste time selling everything, so you portal back to the inn and store what you can. Well, the storage doesn't even fit 3 character inventories, so you dump what you can and continue (vast majority of items you get are not stackable fyi). You portal back to the dungeon and enemies have already respawned, repick any locks, so you start the process again barely clearing a quarter of the map before you have to portal away and store your things. But don't forget, your camera settings reset each time you move areas so you have to click that again, and each time you see an enemy your tactics menu pops up so you have to close it even if you're already set up to fight that enemy type. Thus, you go to a vendor and start selling. There is no sort & stack options for inventory, you have to click and drag each item across the screen to put it in the vendors cart (no option to just move all), click sell. Portal back, change camera settings, fight respawned enemies and explore...well you get the idea. I'm not exaggerating when I say you can fill your entire parties inventory at least 5 times over on 1 map. You see how so many minor things compound into bloat?

A quick example of how this effects other elements of the game: I have over 500 regular lockpicks and a few hundred of the "better" lockpicks. Why did I waste skill points on lockpicking for my rogue when I'd never run out of them? All these little things compound on eachother.

Now, okay, this is bad from a game design perspective, but you don't have to hoard loot and explore everything, right? Well, there aren't exactly many quests found in dungeons (so far). You can find some unique gear sets that you definitely want, and I got 1 side quest from an NPC in the dungeon shown above.

Okay you say, I won't pick up trash (and hope I can eyeball what I can use to upgrade my characters) and I'll only take that legendary gearset and take a sidequest item. Well, you still have to search everything. Those insane amount of items aren't just on the floor. There are without exaggeration hundreds of interactable boxes/shelves/etc. on the map. The vast majority of them contain something. But, hold up, some of them are glitched so you have to do some weird contorting to click on the item. You can't just skip it, because that random box could contain a piece of legendary gear. Or, you have to be on the otherside of the wall to click and open a box, a box that doesn't highlight when you're in the room, but when you're on the opposite side of the wall it does. Or, your pathfinding gets ****** up. So, you save a lot of time but it's still very wonky.

------------End of Bloat Rant----------------

And just finished notes:

Became much more enjoyable when I just treated the dungeons as a maze to find the 1 or 2 items necessary and the exit, instead of full clearing.

Some notes (ignoring the previous discussion on the loot bloat):

1. Lots of jank and bugs. pathfinding is atrocious in places, few bugs including being unable to save, etc.

2. Combat and character building are mediocre at best but charming, this definitely isn't a combat persons game. I could've gotten through on the highest difficulty with ease. And all I did was rush in with all 4 characters going melee and having combat AI on (I realized a few hours in I really don't have to prep). The thing is, anyone can beat this game on the hardest difficulty because you're effectively invincible. You can throw all 4 characters into one little area, surrounded by the toughest enemy and boss, but you can heal while paused. If you want to play without cheesing combat, playing a magic character is a must, I'm guessing, because I didn't have a single crowd control or aoe attack.

3. Choices in skill tree are very lackluster, and some aren't needed at all. I did all the traps on my rogue's tree but traps will do like 20 damage to you while you have 5000+ hp on your character. Hell, I went into the final fight without spending 3 levels worth of skill points. Remember Dragon's Eye in Icewind Dale? You won't find anything like that here. Oh and have to add, vast majority of things on the skill tree are active abilities, but you only have 4 slots for abilities on your hotbar.

4. Story and lore sprinkled in aren't done in the seamless way I prefer, and very linear, but a lot of love was put into it and that is obvious.



Needs work to be less tedious, overall mediocre experience with some charm. If you're gonna play, do not clear anything. I didn't even list all the problems that would pad gametime when you play more thoroughly.

Also just finished the Dwarfen Fortress I (with barely any enemies in it. You had the same or is that a bug? felt wrong @BosanskiSeljak ) and pretty much agree with all of it. I don't think gold will be a limiting factor at any point, so I am mostly trying to ignore loot. Of course you still need to check most containers because sadly somtimes pretty strong equipment or tears are hidden there randomly.

I am also a bit disappointed at the skill trees especially because the game only has 3 classes. When I saw that, I assumed they at least fleshed them out properly, I didn't even bother to beam back to the city to level up until Lvl4-5 and I was doing just fine.

AI also not working too well, even on full aggressiveness and maximum range there is always one **** doing **** all. In general the attack range seems to be way to short, need to stand nose to nose to an enemy otherwise they are not attacking.

Gold won't be a limited factor at all - you'll be so rich despite buying the couple things you might want - Samael's tears sell for a shitload of money (even if you destroy them). I think I bought something like 2000 healing potions and I still had ~600 gold left over by the end. 600 gold, but the latter half of the game I barely picked up any loot at all. I also had ~30 samael's tears just sitting in the inventory untouched + those expensive full plate armours.

You don't have to look for the tears tbh and those legendary armour sets in the first dungeons are all you need. There is a Samael's set which I only got one piece of because I stopped clearing things by the time those pieces started showing up. Dev said thinking about changing the respawn of enemies to only if there's a tear lying around (makes sense lore wise) so eventually they'll make a difference but for now they're just good for money.

As for the AI, I didn't have problems with it, only pathfinding. Then again, I basically just used the entire party in melee. Select all --> press target, with combat AI on. I never got comfortable using magic because I never needed it other than occasional heals. This was all on "Strategic" difficulty, I should've gone higher, I think I'm literally the first person to complete this game on a difficulty higher than standard (the achievement was at 0% until I unlocked it).

I'm thinking of remembering where I got armour sets and making maps of it but I honestly forgot most of it already apart from Dwarven Mines. And as for the enemies in Dwarven Fortress I - there weren't many to begin with over there so you're good.

[1998]

Here is my rant about the item bloat and inventory management:

There are some extremely bad design decisions in this game, and each one builds on top of the other. This is seriously some of the worst inventory bloat I've ever experienced. Instead of listing it out, I'll take you through a journey of only 1 dungeon.

To make my point, let's assume you are a player who picks up everything and explores every nook & cranny on a map. This playstyle doesn't have to be extremely tedious, even in games with lots of loot and restrictions to inventory. Geneforge, Icewind Dale, Svarog's Dream are just some examples from games I've played this year. They each have their problems with this topic, but have QoL features in place to lessen the burden and still don't come close to the amount of items we're talking about here.



This is the map for my test example

So, just got here after spending some time in town cleaning the inventory, leveling, etc. so I have a clean slate. You start going through the rooms, picking things up, fighting the enemies that get in your way, etc. You will fill 3 & a half inventories taking all items without even exploring a quarter of this map. But you don't want to waste time selling everything, so you portal back to the inn and store what you can. Well, the storage doesn't even fit 3 character inventories, so you dump what you can and continue (vast majority of items you get are not stackable fyi). You portal back to the dungeon and enemies have already respawned, repick any locks, so you start the process again barely clearing a quarter of the map before you have to portal away and store your things. But don't forget, your camera settings reset each time you move areas so you have to click that again, and each time you see an enemy your tactics menu pops up so you have to close it even if you're already set up to fight that enemy type. Thus, you go to a vendor and start selling. There is no sort & stack options for inventory, you have to click and drag each item across the screen to put it in the vendors cart (no option to just move all), click sell. Portal back, change camera settings, fight respawned enemies and explore...well you get the idea. I'm not exaggerating when I say you can fill your entire parties inventory at least 5 times over on 1 map. You see how so many minor things compound into bloat?

A quick example of how this effects other elements of the game: I have over 500 regular lockpicks and a few hundred of the "better" lockpicks. Why did I waste skill points on lockpicking for my rogue when I'd never run out of them? All these little things compound on eachother.

Now, okay, this is bad from a game design perspective, but you don't have to hoard loot and explore everything, right? Well, there aren't exactly many quests found in dungeons (so far). You can find some unique gear sets that you definitely want, and I got 1 side quest from an NPC in the dungeon shown above.

Okay you say, I won't pick up trash (and hope I can eyeball what I can use to upgrade my characters) and I'll only take that legendary gearset and take a sidequest item. Well, you still have to search everything. Those insane amount of items aren't just on the floor. There are without exaggeration hundreds of interactable boxes/shelves/etc. on the map. The vast majority of them contain something. But, hold up, some of them are glitched so you have to do some weird contorting to click on the item. You can't just skip it, because that random box could contain a piece of legendary gear. Or, you have to be on the otherside of the wall to click and open a box, a box that doesn't highlight when you're in the room, but when you're on the opposite side of the wall it does. Or, your pathfinding gets ****** up. So, you save a lot of time but it's still very wonky.

------------End of Bloat Rant----------------

And just finished notes:

Became much more enjoyable when I just treated the dungeons as a maze to find the 1 or 2 items necessary and the exit, instead of full clearing.

Some notes (ignoring the previous discussion on the loot bloat):

1. Lots of jank and bugs. pathfinding is atrocious in places, few bugs including being unable to save, etc.

2. Combat and character building are mediocre at best but charming, this definitely isn't a combat persons game. I could've gotten through on the highest difficulty with ease. And all I did was rush in with all 4 characters going melee and having combat AI on (I realized a few hours in I really don't have to prep). The thing is, anyone can beat this game on the hardest difficulty because you're effectively invincible. You can throw all 4 characters into one little area, surrounded by the toughest enemy and boss, but you can heal while paused. If you want to play without cheesing combat, playing a magic character is a must, I'm guessing, because I didn't have a single crowd control or aoe attack.

3. Choices in skill tree are very lackluster, and some aren't needed at all. I did all the traps on my rogue's tree but traps will do like 20 damage to you while you have 5000+ hp on your character. Hell, I went into the final fight without spending 3 levels worth of skill points. Remember Dragon's Eye in Icewind Dale? You won't find anything like that here. Oh and have to add, vast majority of things on the skill tree are active abilities, but you only have 4 slots for abilities on your hotbar.

4. Story and lore sprinkled in aren't done in the seamless way I prefer, and very linear, but a lot of love was put into it and that is obvious.



Needs work to be less tedious, overall mediocre experience with some charm. If you're gonna play, do not clear anything. I didn't even list all the problems that would pad gametime when you play more thoroughly.

Also just finished the Dwarfen Fortress I (with barely any enemies in it. You had the same or is that a bug? felt wrong @BosanskiSeljak ) and pretty much agree with all of it. I don't think gold will be a limiting factor at any point, so I am mostly trying to ignore loot. Of course you still need to check most containers because sadly somtimes pretty strong equipment or tears are hidden there randomly.

I am also a bit disappointed at the skill trees especially because the game only has 3 classes. When I saw that, I assumed they at least fleshed them out properly, I didn't even bother to beam back to the city to level up until Lvl4-5 and I was doing just fine.

AI also not working too well, even on full aggressiveness and maximum range there is always one **** doing **** all. In general the attack range seems to be way to short, need to stand nose to nose to an enemy otherwise they are not attacking.

Gold won't be a limited factor at all - you'll be so rich despite buying the couple things you might want - Samael's tears sell for a shitload of money (even if you destroy them). I think I bought something like 2000 healing potions and I still had ~600 gold left over by the end. 600 gold, but the latter half of the game I barely picked up any loot at all. I also had ~30 samael's tears just sitting in the inventory untouched + those expensive full plate armours.

You don't have to look for the tears tbh and those legendary armour sets in the first dungeons are all you need. There is a Samael's set which I only got one piece of because I stopped clearing things by the time those pieces started showing up. Dev said thinking about changing the respawn of enemies to only if there's a tear lying around (makes sense lore wise) so eventually they'll make a difference but for now they're just good for money.

As for the AI, I didn't have problems with it, only pathfinding. Then again, I basically just used the entire party in melee. Select all --> press target, with combat AI on. I never got comfortable using magic because I never needed it other than occasional heals. This was all on "Strategic" difficulty, I should've gone higher, I think I'm literally the first person to complete this game on a difficulty higher than standard (the achievement was at 0% until I unlocked it).

I'm thinking of remembering where I got armour sets and making maps of it but I honestly forgot most of it already apart from Dwarven Mines. And as for the enemies in Dwarven Fortress I - there weren't many to begin with over there so you're good.

The first two sets you already get in the Family Chapel, one of them is actually unmarked and only includes 2 pieces.

I am also on Strategic and so far no issues whatsoever, bascially blasting everything away with AoE spells. How long did it take you to finish?

[BosanskiSeljak]

Also just finished the Dwarfen Fortress I (with barely any enemies in it. You had the same or is that a bug? felt wrong @BosanskiSeljak ) and pretty much agree with all of it. I don't think gold will be a limiting factor at any point, so I am mostly trying to ignore loot. Of course you still need to check most containers because sadly somtimes pretty strong equipment or tears are hidden there randomly.

I am also a bit disappointed at the skill trees especially because the game only has 3 classes. When I saw that, I assumed they at least fleshed them out properly, I didn't even bother to beam back to the city to level up until Lvl4-5 and I was doing just fine.

AI also not working too well, even on full aggressiveness and maximum range there is always one **** doing **** all. In general the attack range seems to be way to short, need to stand nose to nose to an enemy otherwise they are not attacking.

Gold won't be a limited factor at all - you'll be so rich despite buying the couple things you might want - Samael's tears sell for a shitload of money (even if you destroy them). I think I bought something like 2000 healing potions and I still had ~600 gold left over by the end. 600 gold, but the latter half of the game I barely picked up any loot at all. I also had ~30 samael's tears just sitting in the inventory untouched + those expensive full plate armours.

You don't have to look for the tears tbh and those legendary armour sets in the first dungeons are all you need. There is a Samael's set which I only got one piece of because I stopped clearing things by the time those pieces started showing up. Dev said thinking about changing the respawn of enemies to only if there's a tear lying around (makes sense lore wise) so eventually they'll make a difference but for now they're just good for money.

As for the AI, I didn't have problems with it, only pathfinding. Then again, I basically just used the entire party in melee. Select all --> press target, with combat AI on. I never got comfortable using magic because I never needed it other than occasional heals. This was all on "Strategic" difficulty, I should've gone higher, I think I'm literally the first person to complete this game on a difficulty higher than standard (the achievement was at 0% until I unlocked it).

I'm thinking of remembering where I got armour sets and making maps of it but I honestly forgot most of it already apart from Dwarven Mines. And as for the enemies in Dwarven Fortress I - there weren't many to begin with over there so you're good.

The first two sets you already get in the Family Chapel, one of them is actually unmarked and only includes 2 pieces.

I am also on Strategic and so far no issues whatsoever, bascially blasting everything away with AoE spells. How long did it take you to finish?

24 hours.

First ~20% of the game I did full clears taking everything which took a long time.

Next ~40-50% I played normally, looking for things but not taking everything and not full clearing.

Last 30-40% I just spedrun it, only going for the fights and treating the dungeons like a maze just trying to find the exit (or the final fight)

Continuing the game like I did at the beginning would've definitely been a good 80 hours

[Tweed]

Starting to sound p.mediocre

[1998]

@BosanskiSeljak Whats going on here

Finished the second part of the Dwarven Fortress. Picked up the Ring of Revealing, but the only chest it was revealing was the first one in the room with that ring. The quest also remains active. I assume its a bug, I sure hope I can finish the game either way, no chance I am replaying that part.

[BosanskiSeljak]

@BosanskiSeljak Whats going on here

Finished the second part of the Dwarven Fortress. Picked up the Ring of Revealing, but the only chest it was revealing was the first one in the room with that ring. The quest also remains active. I assume its a bug, I sure hope I can finish the game either way, no chance I am replaying that part.

The ring of revealing shows hidden chests in previous dungeons as well.

I'm not at my PC right now so can't take a screenshot showing exactly where but I know there's 1 in Dwarven Fortress I (near middle of the map in a random small side room, you know where there is a longer more linear hallway connecting 2 big areas), and 2 in the Family Shrine level from earlier (one in the Chapel I believe, or near it, and one in a room close to the start). That should remove the quest, but also keep in mind I'm pretty sure you need to have it equipped.

Then you can keep going to after Dwarven Fortress

[1998]

@BosanskiSeljak Whats going on here

Finished the second part of the Dwarven Fortress. Picked up the Ring of Revealing, but the only chest it was revealing was the first one in the room with that ring. The quest also remains active. I assume its a bug, I sure hope I can finish the game either way, no chance I am replaying that part.

The ring of revealing shows hidden chests in previous dungeons as well.

I'm not at my PC right now so can't take a screenshot showing exactly where but I know there's 1 in Dwarven Fortress I (near middle of the map in a random small side room, you know where there is a longer more linear hallway connecting 2 big areas), and 2 in the Family Shrine level from earlier (one in the Chapel I believe, or near it, and one in a room close to the start). That should remove the quest, but also keep in mind I'm pretty sure you need to have it equipped.

Then you can keep going to after Dwarven Fortress

There was also one in the Gatehouse. Entry still there but OK, I thought there should be more around the Fortress, that part seemed so empty compared to the previous dungeons.

[1998]

@BosanskiSeljak How do I find Valadius? I cleared the Dark Keep, the Citadel. Have been in both basements. Of course found the one hidden chest in the Citadel, but this one only points me at some hidden compartment in a bookcase. I guess they are referring to the ones on the second last floor in the citadel, but I can't find anything there.

edit: I am ********

[1998]

I think for now I'll keep picking up those lockpicks, never know when you may need them

[1998]

Didn't enjoy that one, weird game.

[Tweed]

Didn't enjoy that one, weird game.

Calliope? Samael? Metatron?

Bruh, if you wanted to hang out with Jewish angels and demons and Greek gods you could have played Megaten.

So it wasn't very gud?

[1998]

Didn't enjoy that one, weird game.

Calliope? Samael? Metatron?

Bruh, if you wanted to hang out with Jewish angels and demons and Greek gods you could have played Megaten.

So it wasn't very gud?

It was barely a game, more like a walking-loot simulator. All you did was going through very poorly designed dungeons picking up garbage.

The only NPCs you meet are a few shopkeeps that's it. Not a single settlement. Well there was one city but it was deserted like everything else in this game. You could not enter any building and were just wandering around for pretty much no reason (one silly sidequest for no real reward/no EXP).

There were a few enemies, but combat was trivial. The average encounter was over in less than 5 seconds. Not even sure why my party was so strong, you can barley make out what's happening during combat.

Character system is also meaningless, by the end I had most skill trees maxed out, but I was almost never using any of the skills anyway. Not needed. You got only 4 slots for skills anyway, not much flexibility there. And even if you would bother swapping out Fireball for Thunderstorm, there is no point. Not that the game has any elemental resistance.

There were few side quests, but usually just fetch something. Not that it mattered, they didn't give any EXP.

Story was nice, but only told via journals, or lore dumps from your companions. It would have made for a great NWN module.