Reviews? Do you like this game? [Spoilers]

[alhoon]

Hello, long time fun of Geneforge games (the only games I've played from Spiderweb). 

 

I checked but I didn't find a thread dedicated to reviews so far. I would like to know from players new and old:

Do you like Queen's Wish?  

What is new and what is familiar in this game?

Spiderweb being spiderweb I guess this is character driven and story oriented and not too much pew-pew-boom-boom. But how is it on the writing side? With all due respect, I found the geneforge games a bit "light" on the text and descriptions department. I am not asking for tons of text, I am just wondering whether writing is more in this one. 

Are the new stronghold mechanics good? 

 

I am optimistic about this game and I would buy it eventually but I was considering to wait for a steam sale or something. 

 

 

[Clintone]

I've been very impressed with the writing. 

 

My favorite games had been Geneforge 5, Avernum 5, and Avernum 6 and I recommend everyone at least try those. I've been a bit disappointed with the way things have been going ever since then, with the simplification of the character design system. I loved the interesting spells in the Avernum remakes...but Avadon seemed to lack those and the Queen's Wish doesn't seem to have many interesting spells so far...but it's still early. I would like one of these series letting you cast mass madness on level 1 goblins.

 

I do get the impression your speech and actions are going to have a lot more of an affect on your environment than past games though, although I'm still in the demo. The conversations seem very realistic, and I think I like exploring this new world and learning about it and I'm enjoying not knowing whether I'll do what the queen wants or what direction things will go. That's something different I appreciate a lot...that not having the faintest clue how the ending will go. 

 

I think this is my favorite of the new generation of games anyway, that began with the first Avernum remake, so far. For all I know though, I could decide I like this as much as Geneforge 5 and Avernum 5 and 6 though, just in a different way, depending on where things go from here.

 

I don't like the graphics, but I think that's to make it easier to play on phones or something. 

 

Your relationship with your royal family seems very real, and I like how you're in the ruling class now. You're the person most of your characters from past games used to steal from all the time. That's an interesting change. 

 

I do very much like the fact that you can re-assign your skill points whenever you want. I'm sure that'll keep me from wanting to throw my laptop across the room like I've been tempted to do in past games upon realizing I've been investing in useless skills for the past fifteen levels. 

Edited September 13, 2019 by Clintone

[Drayk Armitage]

I'll write more later, but so far, I think this is the best new game Spiderweb has released since at least 2006 (G4), certainly the freshest and most interesting.  It discards some of the tried-and-true CRPG doilies people are used to.

 

(I say new game because it's harder to compare the Avernum remakes, which are so soaked in nostalgia.)

[Randomizer]

Queen's Wish has some of the best writing since Avadon 2, but you don't always see it unless you pick the right dialogue options or go back and visit places after they have been cleared. For instance the Scorpion Pit has an NPC when you return that almost makes me feel guilty for what I did.

 

While the game seems to be simplified, you can do things in combat that don't appear in previous games. There are fewer abilities, but you can combine them with weapons and potions for different effects. Using an arcane weapon with a combat ability like Sweeping Blow causes magical damage instead of physical to all the affected foes. Then tack on weapon poison potion and/or passive ability from an Utak recruit to get poison and/or bleeding damage too. Three different damage types are possible in just one attack.

 

Also you have to think ahead on managing your party. You don't have unlimited energy to use all you abilities and just recharge them with potions. The game is really balanced to have you running on fumes by the end of each dungeon unless you plan ahead. Some places are set up so you have to push through in one trip.

 

The best part is go to any fort and you can change your party's abilities to fix mistakes or try different ideas. No having to use the game editor or wait until half way through to do it without losing hours of progress.

[TriRodent]

I really enjoyed it. I went into it with a slightly negative viewpoint given the (lack of) graphics shown in early screencaps.  However, given his track record, I was quite willing to give Jeff/SW the benefit of the doubt.  I'm glad I did.  It's a great/ interesting story that has you making serious decisions right up until the very end.  And 'then' you find out that Jeff has plans on carrying the decisions you made here into QW2 for 'your' story to continue (rather than making everyone start at the same point like pretty much every game does). Time will tell if that's even possible, but right now I'm wishing that the Geneforge remake (my favorite series fwiw) was over with so that QW2 was next on the list.

 

Things I don't like/wish were changed:

 

Skill point cap at L20.  With doing everything possible you're going to be capped at L23-4 just from running out of things that give xp.  Having those extra three points would have let me finish off some skill trees I wanted to.  More importantly I wouldn't have been mentally pulled out of the game 75-80% of the way through (when I hit the cap) with the idea of 'why am I doing this if I'm not getting any more credit?'.  You do get benefits after L20, but the big noticable one (skill points) is gone.  Given where in the game it generally occurred (right before confronting the Nisse), it wasn't a place to make people ask 'why bother'.

 

Inventory management: Even with full sized packs (maximum weaver shops) running out of room was a problem. It would have been really nice to be able to stack similar potions/scrolls (a very minor nit to pick I realize...).

 

Not being able to put runes onto bows. Every other weapon/wand could have them but not any of the bows.  Having a slot or two for the L3-4 ones would have been nice.

 

But all in all a very solid game with lots of replay value.

[qqry]

I just say I'am very sceptical right now, after like 7 hours, unfortunately.

 

Especially I do not enjoy battles as I am receiving totally nothing from them. And there is quite many events when something just surprised you, suddenly appeared etc. Also still even most common enemies can be a threat, after which you go back to fort to rest and being honest just waste your time. Really don't like this. Simple going back to regenerating Mana/HP on world map would save me a lot of unecessary time waste.

 

But we'll se after more time spent...

Edited September 13, 2019 by qqry

[Avac Davison]

The thing to remember is that Spiderweb has taken a very different approach to this game, upending the normal style of playing party-based RPGs. Some people will like it, some people won't. I have some things about it I'm not thrilled with, but for the most part am enjoying it. I have it on Casual to see the story, but there has been one boss fight that was so rough, even at Casual, that I had to cheese it back to Fort Haven to do - the 4 spawning slime fight. Once I went back and the 4 were in corners instead of all together in the center of the room, I could pick them off and win. Again, at Casual, it was way too hard. Other than that, I've been OK with everything else. Getting equipment from shops instead of found is a big change, but an OK one. Oh, one other thing I haven't liked - the high rate of evades from enemies. I shouldn't have to go to +hit on everything just to reasonably land blows - that takes customization out of the equation.

 

Overall, happy with it.

[Drayk Armitage]

CRPGs have evolved to this weird place where people expect 95% hit rates.  I don't understand why this happened.  I mean, I can follow the trail of games that led it to happen, but it just seems dumb.  It's certainly not realistic; it doesn't happen in pencil and paper RPGs nor does it happen in any other genre of video game I can think of.

 

Misses on huge, all-or-nothing effects are swingy, annoying, and not fun.  But misses on regular attacks?  They add dimension to combat.  They require the player to plan for contingencies, rather than executing a formulaic victory in every random battle.

 

And another thing, get off my lawn 😛

[qqry]

42 minutes ago, Avac Davison said:

The thing to remember is that Spiderweb has taken a very different approach to this game, upending the normal style of playing party-based RPGs. Some people will like it, some people won't. I have some things about it I'm not thrilled with, but for the most part am enjoying it. I have it on Casual to see the story, but there has been one boss fight that was so rough, even at Casual, that I had to cheese it back to Fort Haven to do - the 4 spawning slime fight. Once I went back and the 4 were in corners instead of all together in the center of the room, I could pick them off and win. Again, at Casual, it was way too hard. Other than that, I've been OK with everything else. Getting equipment from shops instead of found is a big change, but an OK one. Oh, one other thing I haven't liked - the high rate of evades from enemies. I shouldn't have to go to +hit on everything just to reasonably land blows - that takes customization out of the equation.

 

Overall, happy with it.

Ahh i forgot totally, "Evaded" is a single word that I hate most for last few days. REALLY.

[qqry]

32 minutes ago, Queen's Vlish said:

CRPGs have evolved to this weird place where people expect 95% hit rates.  I don't understand why this happened.  I mean, I can follow the trail of games that led it to happen, but it just seems dumb.  It's certainly not realistic; it doesn't happen in pencil and paper RPGs nor does it happen in any other genre of video game I can think of.

 

Misses on huge, all-or-nothing effects are swingy, annoying, and not fun.  But misses on regular attacks?  They add dimension to combat.  They require the player to plan for contingencies, rather than executing a formulaic victory in every random battle.

 

And another thing, get off my lawn 😛

Give us some modifier, any hit chance. When I am standing, with 2hand weapon, next to some 1tier enemy, I expect to hit.

Current modifier is imo horrible, really, started swearing.

[TriRodent]

45 minutes ago, Avac Davison said:

The thing to remember is that Spiderweb has taken a very different approach to this game, upending the normal style of playing party-based RPGs. Some people will like it, some people won't. I have some things about it I'm not thrilled with, but for the most part am enjoying it. I have it on Casual to see the story, but there has been one boss fight that was so rough, even at Casual, that I had to cheese it back to Fort Haven to do - the 4 spawning slime fight. Once I went back and the 4 were in corners instead of all together in the center of the room, I could pick them off and win. Again, at Casual, it was way too hard. Other than that, I've been OK with everything else. Getting equipment from shops instead of found is a big change, but an OK one. Oh, one other thing I haven't liked - the high rate of evades from enemies. I shouldn't have to go to +hit on everything just to reasonably land blows - that takes customization out of the equation.

 

Overall, happy with it.

(Sorry to quote the whole thing, on rather dumb fone and editing qoutes is a pita...)

 

Re the four slimes. Yeah that one was for me one of the harder early dungeons.  And if you leave to heal/come back in a few levels...all four are back...sigh.  You should though have gone back to Ft Muck to rest/heal, much shorter distance game time wise.

 

I believe your to hit chances go up slightly with each level (or I was getting better equipment). Hang in there

[Drayk Armitage]

2 minutes ago, qqry said:

Give us some modifier, any hit chance. When I am standing, with 2hand weapon, next to some 1tier enemy, I expect to hit.

 

Why?

 

Serious question: trying to understand.  Is it basically because that's what we're used to?

[Randomizer]

11 minutes ago, qqry said:

Ahh i forgot totally, "Evaded" is a single word that I hate most for last few days. REALLY.

I started counting and my record is 5 monster evades in a row, a hit, and 2 more evades just trying to kill one monster that doesn't even have a high evasion against either damage type.

 

Then you reach the endgame where monsters do have higher evasions and you have a true reason to hate.

[mikeprichard]

1 hour ago, qqry said:

Give us some modifier, any hit chance. When I am standing, with 2hand weapon, next to some 1tier enemy, I expect to hit.

I agree the to-hit RNG (and most RNGs) implemented with an artificial cap (be it 90%, 95%, or whatever%) is a somewhat nonsense holdover trope/game mechanics crutch from the decades-old DnD 20-sided dice roll routine. A highly skilled warrior standing next to a slow-moving zombie (to take an admittedly more extreme example that nevertheless tests the case) shouldn't "always" have a 5%, 10%, or whatever% chance to miss the zombie. Such a situation quite obviously doesn't make sense, even in the context of a fantasy setting. I've always found this a tough gameplay choice to accept. Ideally, there should be even up to a 100% chance to hit in some situations, while on the other extreme depending on the e.g. battlefield conditions/player skill and equipment/enemy skill and equipment, a significantly lower hit chance "cap" may even make sense. It's just simpler on the developer to code in a flat hit chance cap to apply across the board, but defending that cap as somehow realistic in every situation is - to put it mildly - always going to be a stretch.

Edited September 14, 2019 by mikeprichard

[ZorroDragonslayer]

Nice game. Well written! I especially like the fact that the petty, petty things have been removed. Grabbing and searching for $1 and $3 items and junk on the floor was a big time waster. Thanks!

[mikeprichard]

33 minutes ago, ZorroDragonslayer said:

Grabbing and searching for $1 and $3 items and junk on the floor was a big time waster.

This, as well as the ability to freely respec (reassign skills) for your characters whenever in your fort, are the most welcome improvements to previous Spidweb titles for me as well. Back in the old Geneforge/Avernum days, I couldn't help but spam the "g" key to scour every square inch of ground for any piece of junk I could hock at a merchant, made even worse in games that didn't yet have a junk bag, and even worse(r) in games where each merchant had limited gold for barter. Ay yi yi, that was tedious. Great to see this kind of "streamlining"!

Edited September 14, 2019 by mikeprichard

[Davies]

Two things I don't like about it:

 

1. The lack of personality in your companions, a real step back from the way things were in Avadon. That said, I understand that managing your relationships with the various NPCs is hard enough, and that adding that level of writing would make the entire thing that much more complex.
2. The limited inventory, which I suspect led to me missing out on a lot of cool items because I just couldn't carry them all.

Everything else is great fun (though the last battle with the Nisse had me tearing my hair out) and I'm definitely looking forward to the sequel.

 

 

[ladyonthemoon]

I must like this game since I played it yesterday from around 6 pm to 3am this morning...

 

I haven't played enough to give a sound advice about it though.

 

Congratulations and great many thanks @Spidweb!

 

Edited September 14, 2019 by ladyonthemoon

[Owenmoz]

So far im enjoying it to be honest. It feels like there is a lot of depth to it and i like how very little is face value you really are thrown into a world where you arent sure what is going on and how your actions affect the future and you have these choices relatively early on. Which like ostensibly the earlier choices wouldnt matter much. But i still find it interesting cause you dont know enough. Like should i support the Owen? Is there information missing? If i give the land to that lord am i ostracising a faction? Moreover is supporting a seemingly fairer faction going to have overall negative effects in the future. Thats one part i trully did enjoy about the orzamar questline in DA:O for instance. And i have been begging for eons for a fort managing option too and to see it finally here is so good. And its complicated enough that you need to be smart about it. As they can be detrimental if you manage it stupidly. 

I like the fact that diff cultures have their own bonuses that heavily ofsets the fact that you cant really choose classes. The only real complain i have so far is the combat. Im sure its rewarding in that you have to strategise no matter the difficulty but. Im more use to having to go back home and recharge often only if i was like stupid not like as a must. 

[Muscleguy]

Not much impressed, the game is very simplified compared to the Avernum series or Avadon. You can only get things through chests which sit there giving off sparks. Please. 

 

Haven't found any wandering monsters to level on. I'm going to have to increase the difficulty as well as Normal is really easy. 

 

Also I don't like not knowing which character is going to act first. What is the point of being able to change the roster order if it has no effect?

 

Lacking in game play and interest would be my initial verdict. 

 

Also when you kill some things white writing telling you things +something etc flit up and away too fast to read and they are not recorded in the text box. So wtf just happened? No idea. And this with all animation on, full resolution etc on a mid 2010 Macbook Pro set to use Internal graphics only. Heaven knows how fast that stuff moves on modern systems. 

 

Not sure about the direction Spidweb is moving in. I bought the first Avadon but I've never finished it or even close. I get bored and give up. NPC with personal issues and psychobabble? Spare me. This one looks like it might be similar in which case Meh! the Shareware Demon will be unfulfilled. 

 

I'll go back to playing Avernum 4 with it's broken difficulty settings. Playing it on Torment and finding it very, very easy. 

 

Right, so I've retaken the port, got a load of extra supplies, well some it seems and I'm to rebuild some of the Fort's buildings but there is no way to tell the function of the buildings which need to be rebuilt and I have insufficient resources to do them all. I'm liking this game less and less. 

 

And now despite having enough resources I can only do two buildings. If I try for another one it says 'You might need the resources for something else'. Yes, like rebuilding this building. So in the game I do not have full control of resources and how and when the use them. Treating me like a simpleton. 

 

I have played SW games since Exile 1 way back when you had to snailmail for the release code. I still have the original hints book as well. In other games if I want to use all my herbs to get potions at one shop I can and on my own head be it. 

Edited September 14, 2019 by Queen's Vlish
5 posts in a row is a little much, combined them

[ladyonthemoon]

5 minutes ago, Muscleguy said:

So in the game I do not have full control of resources and how and when the use them. Treating me like a simpleton. 

You'll have full control later. Just keep playing.

 

Maybe you should take a break? Right now you only see what you do not like.

[Drayk Armitage]

This is interesting.  Some things have been simplified on the surface, and that leads to two responses from players: (1) "this is actually deeper, because now the focus is on the choices that actually matter" and (2) "this is dumbed down."

 

3 hours ago, Muscleguy said:

Haven't found any wandering monsters to level on.

You don't get xp from random encounters anymore, so you can't grind.  Yes, this was a deliberate choice.  (Jeff has been complaining about grinding on his blog for I think over a decade now...)

 

3 hours ago, Muscleguy said:

Also I don't like not knowing which character is going to act first. What is the point of being able to change the roster order if it has no effect?

The roster order affects the marching order.  That's the same thing it's always done.  I believe it does still break ties when it comes to initiative -- which is all it ever did in other Spiderweb games, at least for the last 15 years.

 

The main reason you're not seeing a fixed turn order is that there is no longer a strict "1 turn per round" setup.  If you increase (or decrease) your Speed Bonus, you'll get more (or fewer) turns than other combatants.

 

2 hours ago, Muscleguy said:

And this with all animation on, full resolution etc on a mid 2010 Macbook Pro set to use Internal graphics only. Heaven knows how fast that stuff moves on modern systems. 

It might be easier to see what's going on than it is for you.  But man, congrats on having a 2010 laptop in full working condition, that's pretty amazing.

 

29 minutes ago, Muscleguy said:

Right, so I've retaken the port, got a load of extra supplies, well some it seems and I'm to rebuild some of the Fort's buildings but there is no way to tell the function of the buildings which need to be rebuilt

They have tooltips (with an apperance delay of zero).  The tooltips tell you what they do.

 

25 minutes ago, Muscleguy said:

And now despite having enough resources I can only do two buildings.

You have to do those two buildings first and report back to Miranda.  Which the game tells you, repeatedly.  After you report back, you can build whatever you want.

[Muscleguy]

So I go to Miranda who gives me more resources to buy a smithy and an apothecary. But I can't none of the other building sites will let me build anything saying i need to keep my resources. So does that mean the two I did order rebuilt happened to be the two I need or what?

[Drayk Armitage]

Steps are

 

1) build a building - click on the marker next to the building

 

2) "buy" the thing you want to place there - button in lower left of screen

 

3) place the thing you bought, in the building you built - button just to the right of #2 button

[Randomizer]

The two you rebuilt are useful and as an example of doing it.

 

When trying to rebuild others the Buy Shop menu shows the cost for each one you can build and will be a lighter color if you don't have enough resources to buy it. Your current resources and money are shown at the bottom of the menu. You probably are missing one thing that will let you buy another shop.

[TriRodent]

18 minutes ago, Muscleguy said:

And now despite having enough resources I can only do two buildings. If I try for another one it says 'You might need the resources for something else'. Yes, like rebuilding this building. So in the game I do not have full control of resources and how and when the use them. Treating me like a simpleton. 

 

I have played SW games since Exile 1 way back when you had to snailmail for the release code. I still have the original hints book as well. In other games if I want to use all my herbs to get potions at one shop I can and on my own head be it. 

You're still in the tutorial...of course it's going to treat you like a simpleton, that's its purpose (well, other than teaching you how to play moving forward).  Once you learn the basics, 'then' you can start doing what you want.

 

Honestly at this point you may want to step away for a day or two and then come back with a fresh outlook of, 'its a new game, let's see what's different and how I can succeed'.  Because right now you seem to be in a mental place of 'I'm not going to like this...now to find some reasons to justify that position'

[Muscleguy]

Oh dear, it's a managing resources game. No, no, no. Will not be buying it.

 

15 minutes ago, Queen's Vlish said:

Steps are

 

1) build a building - click on the marker next to the building

 

2) "buy" the thing you want to place there - button in lower left of screen

 

3) place the thing you bought, in the building you built - button just to the right of #2 button

 

Except it won't let me place anything despite having done all of the above. I cannot be bothered having realised after he had a sleep that this is a resources management game. I'm not interested. Give me enemies to smite, monsters to purge, missions to bring iron bars or tools or swamp nodules. Fine. But manage resources? Forget it. 

Edited September 14, 2019 by Queen's Vlish
combined posts

[Drayk Armitage]

Muscleguy, this is not a chat room.  Please at least attempt to not make multiple 1-2 sentence long posts in a row.  Especially when you repeat the same thing in both and they are 3 minutes apart.  Friendly mod request.  Thanks.

[TriRodent]

Just now, Muscleguy said:

 

Except it won't let me place anything despite having done all of the above. I cannot be bothered having realised after he had a sleep that this is a resources management game. I'm not interested. Give me enemies to smite, monsters to purge, missions to bring iron bars or tools or swamp nodules. Fine. But manage resources? Forget it. 

Right, because being a member of the ruling royalty, one tasked with getting an underperforming colony back up and running is all about killing orcs and not the greater overall economic picture...

 

I get that this game isn't for everyone and sincerely hope that you find one more to your liking, but did you really not read any of the intro sections that explained what your task was going to be?

 

If it helps, think of building the buildings as a skill you need to develop/level up on, as they do impact how well you will do in the combat you desire (a part of the game that will take up most of your time...)

[Drayk Armitage]

13 hours ago, mikeprichard said:

A highly skilled warrior standing next to a slow-moving zombie (to take an admittedly more extreme example that nevertheless tests the case) shouldn't "always" have a 5%, 10%, or whatever% chance to miss the zombie. Such a situation quite obviously doesn't make sense, even in the context of a fantasy setting.

If there's no other combat going on, I'm with you.  If there is other combat in the immediate vicinity, I don't buy it.  The highly skilled warrior still has to pay attention to other things, dodge other enemy attacks or make sure they aren't placing themselves in a vulnerable position while they garrote the zombie.  In an action game, we expect a 1:1 correlation between pixels on the screen and what actually happens, but in an RPG there is a huge layer of abstraction -- people don't actually stand around in combat waiting for their turn, rather everyone's turns happen at once and combatants attack and defend themselves simultaneously.  So unless the warrior and zombie are truly far from the rest of the fray, it's not as simple a case as it looks.  The random die rolls represent a multitude of different things that affect the battle; they may be fed mainly be two stats, but the randomness is the result of more than those two stats.

[mikeprichard]

1 hour ago, Queen's Vlish said:

If there's no other combat going on, I'm with you.

Right. Although it's a bit of a tangent to the earlier posts, I'm simply pointing out that "always" (as is the case in Spidweb games and the DnD tropes) assigning an arbitrary max hit chance cap never makes sense, as your post also shows above. Such a system results in the entirely possible and real case where our dude is just standing around next to the zombie, with all other enemies gone, and still has a significant flatly assigned chance of not hitting it. It's just nonsense.

I do understand the reasoning - it makes coding hit chances a lot simpler to make them one-size-fits-all - but while it's a practical solution, it's not a realistic one.

Edited September 14, 2019 by mikeprichard

[Drayk Armitage]

I mean, that's one extreme edge case.  There are lots and lots of edge cases where any of these highly abstracted, generalized rules are not going to fit.

 

You have to fit for the broad majority of cases first.  Then you add exceptions for edge cases to the degree that you can.  But you can't catch all of them.  You do not throw out a general rule that applies most of the time because of edge cases.  It would be far less plausible to not have a hit cap at all, and to have 100% hits repeatedly flying around in the middle of a melee.

[mikeprichard]

It's actually something that happened A LOT in previous Spidweb titles. Again, the point is not that 100% hits should be the norm - it's that the system should be more nuanced and realistic to allow for the obvious fact that e.g. 90% max hit shouldn't also be the norm.

That said, maybe this problem doesn't apply as much in QW if hit chance focuses more on individualized enemy evade stats rather than constantly hitting some arbitrary across-the-board cap - I'll see how it goes.

Edited September 14, 2019 by mikeprichard

[Lord Blade]

I find the game to be okay. I kind of like the new fort building stuff, and the choices you get to make (as small and rare as they are). But the rest of the game feels so much simpler than previous ones. I'd love to see these new mechanics added in with say all the existing stuff from Exile. :)

[Drayk Armitage]

I don't think any Spiderweb game has had 100% hit chance ability on regular physical attacks...

[mikeprichard]

Right, they haven't as far as I'm aware either.

Edited September 14, 2019 by mikeprichard

[Drayk Armitage]

Then I'm confused as to what the it was: "It's actually something that happened A LOT in previous Spidweb titles."  (if not "have 100% hits repeatedly flying around in the middle of a melee.")

[mikeprichard]

Not sure where you're coming up with this bizarre notion of "100% hits repeatedly flying around in the middle of a melee", unless you're just trolling again to put words in my mouth to fuel some other debate. As I've already explained, I'm pointing out the silliness of an arbitrary hit chance cap that applies in every situation regardless of the conditions. In any event, I'm referring to the case of not being able to hit some chump enemy when all 4 of my guys were surrounding it and it was the only enemy left, just because the code says "nope, you hit your 90% cap". Happened all the time.

Moving on to a separate topic within the topic - do random outdoor enemy encounters always respawn, or is each one unique and non-repeatable? I get the gist of Jeff's focus on not "grinding" XP (although that was already largely addressed in prior games by having enemy kills reward diminishing XP returns at higher character levels, so I don't see how it was a big problem to begin with). However, it will be fairly annoying to have to always avoid the same respawning encounters which will give no loot or XP rewards on the map - would completely kill the sense of reward/progression by having to invest time in repeating the same tedious encounters for essentially no point. As long as I can permanently "clear" each such encounter - even with no immediate rewards - so I don't have to run around it every time I'm on the map again later, I could handle this. But can anyone please explain how this works?

Edited September 14, 2019 by mikeprichard

[qqry]

17 hours ago, Queen's Vlish said:

 

Why?

 

Serious question: trying to understand.  Is it basically because that's what we're used to?

Because it makes sense, or doesn't?

[TriRodent]

I 'think' outdoor encounters are unique (so you can clear the path to 'x', go back to a fort to rest, and then not have to reslog through them to get back to 'x' after you're at full health.

 

As to the xp issue...I dunno, that's up to Jeff.  It may though be him wanting everyone to be at roughly 'this' level when they reach 'that' point in the game.  That's easier to accomplish if only certain events give xp.

 

It could also be that you are royalty and should be concerned with the overall strategic vision of Queen Mom.  Accomplishing things that move that forward (reclaiming a quarry for instance) means more than wiping out a few generic mirefangs along the way.

[Drayk Armitage]

35 minutes ago, mikeprichard said:

I'm pointing out the silliness of an arbitrary hit chance cap that applies in every situation regardless of the conditions

 

And I'm pointing out that all CRPG rules are like this: general rules that the game uses unless an exception is programmed in.  Exceptions are great, but in reality there are an infinite number, so they can't all make it in.

[mikeprichard]

8 hours ago, TriRodent said:

I 'think' outdoor encounters are unique (so you can clear the path to 'x', go back to a fort to rest, and then not have to reslog through them to get back to 'x' after you're at full health.

TriRodent - thanks for this and your other helpful responses! I'm really hoping that's the case here. Would get pretty tedious (not to mention unimmersive) to end up wasting time on the same group of punk enemies whenever I wanted to get around the map, despite my having defeated them earlier - fast-traveling aside.

Slarty - to close the topic, I agree, as you also admit, that it's not a great system. More exceptions/customization (player accuracy skills, enemy evade rates, terrain effects, etc. - which need not be "infinite" variables as you seem to think) are always better than a flat arbitrary cap.

Edited September 15, 2019 by mikeprichard

[TriRodent]

Another option is to fight through them, 'discover' the location, use the map or walk back to the fort to recover, and then use the map to bounce right back to the start of the location (assuming that the outdoor monsters did respawn) as that would put you there at full health...but yes, that kind of screws up the mental immersiveness...

[mikeprichard]

Yeah, TriRodent... just waiting to check this all out myself after 1.0.1 comes out. Fingers crossed the same mobs don't keep magically cropping up just to get in the way. If past Spidweb titles are any indication, they probably won't, but QW is its own thing.

Edited September 14, 2019 by mikeprichard

[Randomizer]

Wandering outdoor monsters don't respawn, but a few have loot. I tend to avoid them if they aren't ones with loot just to avoid having to go back to recharge energy.

 

Killing them when they are bandits will reduce theft risk by 5% in Haven Lands.

[mikeprichard]

Awesome, Randomizer - appreciate the confirmation. As a completionist, I'll probably eventually whip 'em all just to clear the map, though I assume some will be too difficult the first time I encounter them.

[alhoon]

Thank you all for your reviews. I look forward to this game, thanks to you all. 
Since there have been spoilers added in this thread, I will depart but you still have my thanks. 

 

In my opinion, since the game is new and people may check the reviews of the "old timers" here to see if this is their cup of tea, perhaps spoilers should have been kept out. Still, thank you all for your opinions. 

[Jarinex]

It’s very interesting to see how polarizing this game has been lol. It seems it’s either a “love it or hate it” thing.

[mikeprichard]

There definitely have been strong reactions as expected with any major design changes, but I wouldn't consider myself on either extreme just yet. I've pointed out some concerns/flaws here and elsewhere, which of course any game will have, and I completely understand the motivations between each of the seven major changes laid out by Jeff in his blog post (https://jeff-vogel.blogspot.com/2019/09/queens-wish-is-out-heres-why-its-so.html). My biggest disappointment I've read about so far is the fact that a completionist playthrough will have you maxing out stats as early as 75% of the way through the game, which is not great design for several reasons - it was a problem with Avadon 1 that was later largely remedied in Avadon 2 and 3, but it's reappeared here. Otherwise, I'm not a big fan of the implementation of the dungeons being "infinite henchmen respawn machines" - i.e. after you go in and kill those two wolves, then return a day or even a minute later, those same two wolves have apparently been cloned back into the same spot, and will continue to be ad infinitum, until you defeat the head honcho and all the henchmen immediately disappear for good. There's probably not a seamless/immersive alternative way to achieve Jeff's goal of forcing players to "strategically" beat each dungeon in one run, but I feel there has to be a better approach than this.

[Randomizer]

Jeff had a goal with the new system that players would be running on empty by the time they finished the dungeon. Energy management would become important so you couldn't use abilities to steamroll over the early fights and then recharge by going back to a fort or using potions. While on normal difficulty you could figure out ways that would leave something leftover after a few dungeons, by the time you do the game in torment difficulty that doesn't happen that often.

 

The game is designed to keep you going to new areas. Fighting the same fights over and over again to grind up a level is discouraged. It's better to have several saves for a dungeon so you can think about what you are doing wrong and just replay the last few minutes. Most dungeons have about 6 fights with one that is really hard. If you are lucky, then you can do them in an order that leaves you in good shape for the boss fight and do the lesser ones on the way out.