Post Anything Here About the Demo

[Temuldjin]

Here are a few idea for options for some of the Tarot Card Skills branches/minor choices I was thinking off and wanted to share.

- Exsanguinate -
1: The ability to drain more enemies at the cost of a lower amount of blood per target.
2: The ability to drain all 3 types of resources from a single target at the same time in all 3 states, at the cost of the the drain being less effective compared to how it is now.
3: If a Exsanguinate attack would be the killing blow on a enemy you could have that enemy resurrect as zombie/minion for a limited time, or such a kill could have a % chance to resurrect an enemy. ( ways to balance this could be it can't be used on boss type enemies, or any enemy loses all abilities/magic and weapons and can only strike you with their bare hands )

- Mist Form / dodge -
1: A Drastic reduction in cool down and mana spend to use the skill.
2: A Drastic increase in the length you travel while dodging ( maybe 3-5 times more ) so it can be used as some sort of traveling skill if the player so desires.
3: The Ability to dodge through enemies, and any enemy dodged through would suffer damage. ( this turns an otherwise defensive skill in to an offensive one )

- Dance Macabre -
1: An increase to the Attack Speed, maybe even at the detriment of the overall damage if the % of attack speed ends up being very high.
2: An added Life Steal effect to the card.
3: An increase to the damage from the skill, at a cost of a lower attack speed. Whenever this would negate the overall attack speed gain from the skill entirely or just partially would properly need testing. ( so instead of an increased attack speed with increased bloodlust you would gain a damage buff instead )

- Telekinesis -
1: The ability to target yourself and to use it to levitate yourself to places you normally don't have access to. ( turning a purely offensive skill in to mobility skill, this could be a way for players who choses not to use the Batform Tarot Card to still have ways to get up to places that are normally " out of reach "
2: The loss of the ability to fully charge a Telekinesis attack to gain a much more powerful knockback effect when you use the quick tap Telekinesis Attack.
3: Pyrokinesis, adding a burning type effect/damage over time effect on Telekinesis when you use the fully charged version of the Telekinesis Attack.

I think these options would be a great way to customize your character and make it fit the playstyle you desire while also making it unique by gives you several different interesting upgrade choices for your Tarot Card.

Edit: After thinking about it I though this post would fit better in the feedback/suggestion section under gameplay area of the forum, so I posted it over there.

 

[Calypso]

SKILL SYSTEM EXPLANATION REWORK:

OK, so first off i think jacks explanation is fine. It works well but i feel it could use some ironing out. I found the word salad a bit much even though i know how the system works for the most part and i still got a bit overloaded. I think the MAJOR and MINOR ARCANA is fine but spread throughout. 80% of people who are jumping into DHS for the first time or even later are just going to end up calling them SKILLS regardless of the fancy wording. So use the basics.

"The Tarot Deck represents our Skill and Loadout system, classified by MAJOR and MINOR Arcana, When you select a MAJOR ARCANA or Main Skill it will slot into the Major ARCANA slot to show that its ready for upgrading and customizing. Youll notice that you can now see the MINOR Arcana or Passive skills represented by the main skill you picked" etc. Right now it feels like its for US the DHS fans who have followed this thing and watched the streams. Make it for beginners. Make it for the casual gamer who has never played a game before and wants to not thing too hard (for now) about what skills to pick.

TK SFX: i love TK its super cool. I would love to see some particle effect(brought to you by Unity Particle System! )that shows a giant hand grabbing the dudes or pushing them with a mind blast how soul reaver did with a big transparent ball. Something of that nature just to indicate its happening.

GLITCH: small MIST FORM glitch where the effect hangs in the air after use longer than its supposed to i think? unless its intentional ignore please lol

ok thats all for now!

 

[Temuldjin]

How can you not love this face?

 

[Acwhammy]

Ok so first off, thanks for access to the demo! Secondly, unfortunately it doesn't run well and is largely unplayable on my computer. I built this computer in 2014 so I didn't necessarily expect it to run will with these specs, and I'll be upgrading soon. However, for reference, here are my current specs:

Windows 7 64 bit
GeForce GTX 650
i5-4590 CPU
8GB RAM
DirectX 11

I did manage to play for just a few minutes and I am in agreement with the following people on these remarks:

Right out of the gate feedback regarding movement.

Can we get the option to change how the movement works? ( " Key bindings " to alter what keys are bound to what buttons. )

Instead of the " a " button turns you're character to the left and makes him run left, and the " s " button turning yourself towards the camera and running towards the screen, and " d " turns you're character right and makes him run to the right.

Could we get the option to change that to " Strafe " left, run " Backwards " and strafe " right " instead? as a Keyboard and Mouse player I would prefer If I could be more in control of where my character is facing and how he is turning, through 20+ years of being a PC gamer with Keyboard and Mouse I've gotten accustom to be able to control the camera with my mouse which leaves me with more options for precise combat focused movement controls of the character itself. (always being able to face my opponent even if I am moving)

I like the idea of being able to strafe left or right.

Independent of the combo system I would also like to see Guard and Parry-and-riposte options as well as a Perfect-Dodge addition to the dodge-system that is basically the dodging equivalent of parry-and-riposte. A counter-attack option where you attack in a specific moment during enemy attack to parry it could also be fun to experiment with.

The stagger is good but possibly additional attack effects can be implemented on certain attacks like knock-down, knock-up and knock-back. I am also partial to jumping into the air after an enemy has been knocked up and comboing the enemy there but that is lower on the wish list for now.

I like the idea of being able to block/parry, or some sort of guard/parry key.

Also, is there a way to jump?

Graphics/Bug: I noticed when I knock the armor off my enemy a big red box appears on the floor underneath them. I'm assuming this is just an issue with my GPU not being able to handle it but not entirely sure so I wanted to mention it.

Thanks again and hopefully in a month or two I'll be able to upgrade my computer and will get some more play-time in and give proper feedback.

 

[Temuldjin]

1. I like the idea of being able to strafe left or right.

2. Also, is there a way to jump?

3. Graphics/Bug: I noticed when I knock the armor off my enemy a big red box appears on the floor underneath them. I'm assuming this is just an issue with my GPU not being able to handle it but not entirely sure so I wanted to mention it.

1. They did eventually add strafe, Press " Shift "

2. Not yet.

3. Try and boot up the demo again and take a few screen shots of it, you never know it might be useful for the developers.

 

[Lord Scara]

Not to harp on about the same thing but, mace still feels remarkably useless why would i spend mana to use the mace when i can force push and get a similar result with mass appeal?

 

[Lord Scara]

Additionally the Bloodlust mechanic feels less like a system i want to engage with and more a chore so i can enjoy a sense of power in a which for all intents and purposes is meant to be a power fantasy. I don't think it would be over reaching to have more than a single source of Bloodlust generation I.E. generation as blood pool falls when you recover through exsanguinate, it generates a bit more based on how low your pool was.

 

[Temuldjin]

I fully agree with both of your posts Scara.

 

[Golden Xan]

Not to harp on about the same thing but, mace still feels remarkably useless why would i spend mana to use the mace when i can force push and get a similar result with mass appeal?

Rend was a temporary skill meant to satisfy a necessity at the time. Telekinesis is likely to replace it in a more lore-friendly and interesting way.

Additionally the Bloodlust mechanic feels less like a system i want to engage with and more a chore so i can enjoy a sense of power in a which for all intents and purposes is meant to be a power fantasy. I don't think it would be over reaching to have more than a single source of Bloodlust generation I.E. generation as blood pool falls when you recover through exsanguinate, it generates a bit more based on how low your pool was.

The idea is that there should be multiple ways for the Vampire to acquire blood other than Exsanguinate. In any case, the Bloodlust system is still going to get tweaked a lot, so the gain might increase in speed, and the decay may have delays before triggering, or decrease in other, specific ways. In its current state it does feel like a chore.

 

[Golden Xan]

Ok so first off, thanks for access to the demo! Secondly, unfortunately it doesn't run well and is largely unplayable on my computer.

Sorry to hear that. As the game gets developed, there will be a time for optimization, and then it's likely it will run more smoothly on older specs.

I like the idea of being able to strafe left or right.

That was the original intention, it will likely become a part of the default controls, or at least an optional configuration, over time. Without the use of special keys for it.

I like the idea of being able to block/parry, or some sort of guard/parry key.

Me too. Combat still has a long way to go, and we might end up presenting that in the future, but for now, the thinking is the undead don't care too much about getting damaged too much, their bodies are already considerably destroyed. They care about dishing out damage.
Either way, the Vampire is meant to be able to dodge from enemy attacks, which is his own signature way of avoiding damage when necessary or desired.
It's possible we'll bring guards or parries in some capacity in the future, but it may not happen.

 

[Acwhammy]

Ok so I was able to get the game to run on my laptop and spent a good hour or more on it last night. Here are my initial impressions:

I would like the S button to turn my PoV around as well as my character, rather than just my character only. As of now, I have to turn him around, and then rotate the camera around as well, and since the mouse is so fast I usually overcompensate. My combat quickly evolved to: Dash through the enemy using space bar, then turn around and hit them from behind - which moves me to my next point:

The mace attack, or "rend" ability seems like a great idea in theory- knock their armor off and/or stun the enemy to set them up for a killing blow. However, I've found the mace attack to be much harder to land a hit with. Often times as I approach the enemy to attack with the mace, my character will either just push the enemy out of the way, or I won't be lined up correctly to hit a blow. The accuracy with the mace seems much lower than the accuracy with the sword, which takes away the fun and purpose of the mace to me; especially when swinging the mace expends magick energy.

Bug? During one session of gameplay, as I was trying to switch over to mist form, my character would automatically dash first before going into mist form, rather than just convert to mist form without dashing.

Bug? Also during one session of gameplay, my game completely froze after about 30 minutes while experimenting with the target lock function.

I, too, have noticed that the enemies eventually just start to stand around like meatbags after a while posing no real threat. Right now they simply feel like target practice, but in the future I'd like an option to have them present more of a challenge, once the player gets used to the controls. Maybe have a tutorial mode? And then a normal mode?

To answer Denis's questions:

• Do you feel like a vampire when you play?
• Systems Feedback
  • how do the systems feel?
  • Trinany System
  • Blood Lust
  • Tarot System
• Performance
  • How does the game run?
  • Check out the "esc" key for the button maps with debug options

Yes I feel like a vampire. Strangely enough, the mechanic that makes me feel more like a vampire is going rapidly in and out of mist form, rather than exsanguinating. Exsanguinating from a distance looks really cool but I have to really suspend my disbelief thinking that I can just draw blood out of the air from a human from a distance. When I first started playing, I didn't realize this and I was attempting to stun my enemies before drawing blood from them. Exsanguinating feels like "easy" mode and I believe draining blood from an enemy should present more of a challenge (perhaps stunning them first, and/or knocking off their collar armor/head armor). It's also funny when I'm exsanguinating the last drop of blood from an enemy and their head gets chopped off.

Trinary system: So far this is awesome! I know it's just in it's beginning phases, but I've heard a lot about it from your past videos/streams and really liked the idea. And now, after seeing it in action, it looks and plays great. I like how the UI display on the left fluctuates as I'm transitioning states, it's very intuitive to understand. Also, the look of the game changes when going from the physical plane into the magick and essential planes which means I'm always aware of which state I'm in. I believe this will be one of THE big unique selling points of the game. Yes, fighting as the undead is cool but gameplay is what sells me, and the trinary system is unique and has lots of space to grow and I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes.

Blood Lust: I haven't developed a strong opinion about this yet. I do like the way my character speeds up and teleports when blood lust is fully charged, but I'm on the fence about whether I like HOW it is charged. My gameplay quickly adapted to: Exsanguinate, dash through enemies, turn around, exsanguinate, rinse, repeat, until my Blood lust was fully charged. Then have fun with my telekinesis/teleport abilities. I believe another player made a suggestion about gaining bloodlust through a variety of ways. I'm not sure what the answer is here but there can definitely be some improvement.

Tarot System: I watched the video and also listened to several streams about this system in the past. I like the idea of "earning" or "collecting" tarot cards and also leveling them up. I'm a collector and I also like to see my progression rewarded so the theory behind this system seems great. However, the demo doesn't showcase this very well as of yet so can't really comment on that. What I would like to see in the demo is a separate panel where we can access our tarot skills. I know there are only 5 skills right now but I would LOVE to have access to the interface of slotting the tarot cards.

Speaking of which, I'd also love to see what our inventory menu/screen looks like, and the character paper dolls. As I stated I know we don't have a lot of "stuff" to play with at this point, but just being able to have access to these screens/menu would be a lot of fun.

Side note: The ESC key should be updated to reflect what the shift key does. I didn't know there was an option to toggle strafing until I asked on the forums.

Me too. Combat still has a long way to go, and we might end up presenting that in the future, but for now, the thinking is the undead don't care too much about getting damaged too much, their bodies are already considerably destroyed. They care about dishing out damage.
Either way, the Vampire is meant to be able to dodge from enemy attacks, which is his own signature way of avoiding damage when necessary or desired.
It's possible we'll bring guards or parries in some capacity in the future, but it may not happen.

I realized this after spending more time playing. It doesn't seem as necessary to block with a character like the vampire that mainly uses evasion. However it would be nice to have a block ability on a more tanky-type character like the Revenant perhaps? And seeing as how they plan on releasing other Houses, we will have access to play more types of creatures than the undead, correct? I imagine some of these creatures may like to block

 

[Rx_Bishop_MD]

I walk away from things for just a little while and this page explodes. I was playing the demo and I wanted to add a few suggestions. If they have been talked about then here is just another opinion of the same things:

1.12 feels great. @Temuldjin has a great list of bugs and other things, which I experienced all of and Tem goes into great detail so I dont plan on rehashing that.

The one thing im not currently a fan of is the mist form. With the binding to 'E' and 'Space' it seems like something else could be done. My suggestion is that 'E' only changes realms and 'Space' only does the mist dash. (or at least an option to toggle 1 the other or both) it makes sense to be able to freely change between the realms. Im not a fan of having to dash before I get into magical, and i dont like not being able to dash in magical. To long of a press results in going back to physical a dash then immediately back into magical.

On that subject there does seem to be something happening that maybe im not aware of that forces me out of magical into physical which is a pain when im trying to restore my magic

 

[Shinnull]

hello so thanks for letting me test the game
i like so far now i found some interesting bug
when i use keyboard and mix mist form with lmb and rmb like in a combo of some sort the actor freeze and can't move or use anything unless something will hit him to unfreeze him. i can reproduce it

 

[Dkorador]

I need more things to give an opinion, by now this is too little for me , i can only give an opinion about the design, and graphically is good... but for now is too repetitive do the same thing over and over again, i need more

Will there be a story/campaign mode? and jump? and block button? and i suppose that will be video options to put more or less quality...

(waiting more)

thanks

 

[Varik Keldun]

Will there be a story/campaign mode? and jump? and block button?

this is purely a combat demo, story / campaign will not come till first age. Jumping and blocking might be possibilities.

 

[Denis Dyack]

I need more things to give an opinion, by now this is too little for me , i can only give an opinion about the design, and graphically is good... but for now is too repetitive do the same thing over and over again, i need more

Will there be a story/campaign mode? and jump? and block button? and i suppose that will be video options to put more or less quality...

(waiting more)

thanks

Welcome @Dkorador to the forums. Yes, all this and more, but now this demo is only focusing on the combat. As the game develops we will add more and more pillars like narrative, persistence, and other RPG elements.

 

[Temuldjin]

Pre Alpha Combat Demo Room that is showing 5% of the abilities the Vampire will have against a single enemy type with basic A.I is bound to feel repetitive...

 

[Dkorador]

Welcome @Dkorador to the forums. Yes, all this and more, but now this demo is only focusing on the combat. As the game develops we will add more and more pillars like narrative, persistence, and other RPG elements.

aahhh ok, nice, then i will wait for more content

I only have one suggestion of the skills, i think that the skill of suck blood would be better leave it for the end to finish killing the enemy when he is almost dead (when he only has one hit left to die)

 

[Denis Dyack]

aahhh ok, nice, then i will wait for more content

I only have one suggestion of the skills, i think that the skill of suck blood would be better leave it for the end to finish killing the enemy when he is almost dead (when he only has one hit left to die)

Thanks for the input. We have several mechanics being implemented soon that address your suggestion in a different way but accomplish the same result.

 

[Varik Keldun]

I only have one suggestion of the skills, i think that the skill of suck blood would be better leave it for the end to finish killing the enemy when he is almost dead (when he only has one hit left to die)

That would be very similar to how Blood Omen worked, once low on life or stunned with mace would allow you to drain them.