Rathmor comments and suggestions

[Verdite]

Any suggestions, feedback, or ideas are more than welcome here for the demo posted here: http://www.swordofmoonlight.com/bbs/index.php?topic=630.0

[Holy_Diver]

Reading the story I recommend using names that are anglicised. Player's eyes will just glaze over if the names don't flow with the text they are reading. You might put the foreign pronunciation in brackets when the character is introduced. I intend to setup a names and places system for Ex for just this kind of thing. Might be better to just put bracketed names in a manual. Since different languages will want to localize different names differently.

A common problem with Skyrim... or a critique I kept reading places anyway... was this kind of thick backstory with new alien proper nouns in every other breath. If makes the whole thing incomprehensible and unpleasant more or less. King's Field (not DS) does a great job of this sort of thing. Play the games if you haven't. Even Lovecraft only uses an alien name once per story and always only to point out the queerness of the tongue.

EDITED: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglicisation

[dmpdesign]

SO far the demo is cooking along well I think.  Its definitely far different from the first demo...will that cool little village with the Chocobo type birds still make it to thefinal cut?

Your custom enemies definitely give the game a fresh feel, and the changes to the gameplay/engine from SomEx are apparent and enjoyable.  My hope for the new year is to see you start progressing with the game levels and story...not because I don't enjoy your posts with new enemies etc, but because I am excited to play more of your finished idea :)

Keep up the good work as always Ben.

[Holy_Diver]

I noticed this (http://www.swordofmoonlight.com/bbs/index.php?topic=628.msg8375#msg8375) new (locked/sticky) thread.

Just want to encourage Verdite to make a better effort to explain some things like "Analog Mode" in that thread, and also to post a link to this thread if it is indeed the "Rathmor comments and SomEx instructions thread" thread now. You should probably make that "Rathmor Demo" while you are at it. And you could have just stickied this thread until there is a new demo

PS: I know you can be sensitive to not receiving as much praise as you would like. Please please don't be discouraged if there is not a whole lot of feedback. That's par for the course. People in general never live up any standard of decency real or imaginary. If it was up to people in general we'd all still be cave men picking our noses for dessert. Steer the course

EDITED: Here (http://www.swordofmoonlight.com/bbs/index.php?topic=634.0) is a bunch of very relevant posts that were culled from this thread at some point. Relevant at least until the demo is thoroughly updated.

[scott]

This is looking really good, however I find healing to be a bit of a problem. I can't seem to find any way to heal myself other then sea plant roots, and those don't heal much. I'm too scared to enter the caves again without a decent source of healing. 

Also I've noticed a chest on the beach that I'm unable to reach. It looks like I should be able to get to it by walking inbetween the shore and the cliff but no matter how hard I try I can't seem to squeeze past it. Is there another way around or is this something you overlooked?

[Holy_Diver]

This is looking really good, however I find healing to be a bit of a problem. I can't seem to find any way to heal myself other then sea plant roots, and those don't heal much. I'm too scared to enter the caves again without a decent source of healing. 

Also I've noticed a chest on the beach that I'm unable to reach. It looks like I should be able to get to it by walking inbetween the shore and the cliff but no matter how hard I try I can't seem to squeeze past it. Is there another way around or is this something you overlooked?

I don't think there is a way to recover HP. I spent a lot of time with the demo pre-release but I haven't exactly played it thru. If there was a way to heal yourself Verdite would've told me how as I advised at least twice that there should be some means. I think the sea plant item is for healing poison as explained by the NPC, unless something was changed. It may also recover HP but I don't think so.

As for the area being inaccessible. You can change the player radius in the Ex.ini file to .25 which is what SOM uses, but you will peek thru walls if you rub up against them. It looks easily passable, but the shore is like a wall. There are many issues such as these as explained in the opening post. The demo is not intended to be polished. I've wasted a lot of time itemizing these issues for Verdite myself

[Verdite]

Here you go scott thanks for the feedback. Quick fix attached if you are finding it too hard.

I personally dont find it hard. Theres tons to find on the beach that you can take back to the village to sell for gold, then buy better equip with. Telid shells, for instance, sell for a good amount and there are hidden ones in the barnacle plants along with starfish. You can buy good armour and gloves from Taltareg, and there is a good sword hidden in a barrel on the beach.

Hope you enjoy it more with that guidance.

[scott]

Well its not quite that difficult (yet) but if you get stuck in a corner like I did..... lol, oops  .

Also its good to know the shells and stuff are ment to be sold. I had thought that was the point but held onto them anyway cause I thought they might have had a diffrent use. Perhaps you could add this to Taltareg's dialouge when you first speak with him?

[dmpdesign]

I am in some agreement about the healing...I am not a fan of downing 10 sea herbs to get to full health.  But i also realize this a very early demo and it does showcase your customs.  Holy.. the issue i experience with menu/ picking up items is SOMs inherent need to queue keypresses so since the cancwl nutton is the same as the interact button i often find picking up items a pain.  Perhaps a keypress debounce could be added?

[Holy_Diver]

Well its not quite that difficult (yet) but if you get stuck in a corner like I did..... lol, oops  .

Also its good to know the shells and stuff are ment to be sold. I had thought that was the point but held onto them anyway cause I thought they might have had a diffrent use. Perhaps you could add this to Taltareg's dialouge when you first speak with him?

One of the nice things about SOM (I am nearly certain) is you can buy back the items that you sell, kind of like a pawn shop if the shop was setup correctly for that.