thetrin
Hail, peons, for I have come as ambassador from the great and bountiful Blueberry Butt Explosion
I've heard a number like 50 different armor sets, and it's got a world the size of an Elder Scrolls game.
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Kingdoms of Amalur demo impressions thread [Up On 360/Origin/Steam/U.S. PSN]
- Thread starter CrunchinJelly
- Start date
I've heard a number like 50 different armor sets, and it's got a world the size of an Elder Scrolls game.
I heard 40+ for main quest and they claim 200-300 for ALL quests, but multiplying that by a reduced bullshit factor, i'd imagine at least 100 hours.
RedAssedApe
Banned
Pretty much anytime there is a deal, people from the deals sites use this to report it to Amazon. Sometimes it does in fact result in a price match (albeit for everyone). You should see this link at the bottom of every item description:
Dev speed run for 100% completion was at around 200hrs, something like 2million random loot combinations, 240+ unique handcrafted armor sets, lots of weapons, 120 handcrafted dungeons, player housing,etc. This all comes from the devs which id be usually pretty skeptical of but these guys have been about as open as I've ever seen so no. Much reason to doubt them right now.
Robobandit
Member
well, I decided to go for the collector's edition.. it looked too awesome to pass up.
QisTopTier
XisBannedTier
where did you read that at? That kinda goes directly what it says. Plus I remember in a video they said that if you wanted to use any weapon when ever you found it that was the thing to go for. So it would kinda make sense. I'm really unsure about it D:
Still no word on the pop-in/LOD stuff?
I'd also like a more agressive ground clutter setting. Blizzard made WoW look a lot better by adding more grass and foliage to the ground, thus hiding the "plain" and flat ground textures.
That would do a lot for the open world stuff, imo.
I'd also like a more agressive ground clutter setting. Blizzard made WoW look a lot better by adding more grass and foliage to the ground, thus hiding the "plain" and flat ground textures.
That would do a lot for the open world stuff, imo.
Elginer
Member
GameSpot UK put up a nice video explaining what the game is for those not in the know. I think this does a great job of really showing off the game.
http://youtu.be/8DvldPRJoIU
http://youtu.be/8DvldPRJoIU
Looks like this is what it does:
http://forums.reckoning.amalur.com/showthread.php?2961-Answers-From-the-Reckoning-Team-01-25-12
According to the 38watch wiki, Shadowcaster does get Poison Blink 3, which makes sense given the progression of blink in the other destinies; it wouldn't make much sense for Shadowcaster as the top tier destiny to lose blink like that. Does that change your build much?
After much tinkering, this is my build.
Basically, Faeblades/Daggers with Bow/Chakrams for my basic combat setup which I would switch around for gameplay variety and depending on the strength of equipment found. Four actives are Mark of Flame, Ice Barrage, Storm Bolt/Tempest and Smoke Bomb. Two sustained are Blade Honing and Envenomed Edge.
The three elemental spells are situational. Apart from those, Smoke Bomb can be a great CC skill since it combines with the Poison Bomb upgrade to stun and poison and make me undetectable. From being undetectable, I can pull off critical hits which would have massive damage due to Blade Honing and Assassin's Art.
The only problem with this is that I'm only just beginning to realize how utterly powerful the top tier skills in in the Finesse tree really are. Paralytic Poisons and Execution give passive chances to stun and deal massive damage without additional mana costs involved; this is far more powerful than the top tier stuff in Might and Sorcery. I'm thinking a downgrade to Spellcloack destiny might be worth it to max out Paralytic Poisons and Execution.
One thing we need to have is gamers trust. It's something elusive in every business today. I promise you the hours we're claiming are there.
If you are a normal RPG player, and don't grab every single quest, and do the main quest line, I know because I've started down this path, you're going to get a very easy 100+ hours out of the launched content in Reckoning.
If you are a completionist, every quest, main + branching, talking through the dialogue, you won't do it in under 200 hours.
YES IT IS!!!!
Check it out here!!
Check it out here!!
How long does it take to reach Level 40?
Not really. What drew me to Spellcloak was thinking that it had Poison Blink and the other Shadowcaster did not but what is getting me to stay is, as you say, the ridiculous synergy of the top skills. 8% Stun per swing? +25 damage (on average) per swing? Bleed is pretty common/cheap since Shadow Flare is a basic juggle primer and Poison is everywhere.
That said, I can live without either if they're not as good as they seem; Smoke Bomb is a PBAoE Stun anyway and who knows if +25 damage per swing is actually that big of a deal later in the game.
So, assuming those two aren't that great, I'd do closer to your build: 66 Finesse/57 Sorcery
Basically add in Bow use as a weapon swap while still retaining most of the poison synergy; I don't like the sound of Arrow Storm/have better area of effect skills so it gets docked the point. 3/4 Smoke Bomb seems fine for 4s Stun + 6s Stealth and the Poison upgrade is just to gain Poison synergy. Shadow Flare is only there to get the single point into Enduring Agony for +20% to the Poisons. I presume it's just duration and not damage. If it's damage, I may have to trim out four more points for it...
Gaining crits restore Mana means more spells to be slung so access to all three elements over in Sorcery. Elemental Rage would be nice but I don't have the points to spare for it without dipping to 61/62, which also means ditching Scattershot. I guess that would depend on the usefulness of Bows in general though. Probably this build for 61 Finesse/62 Sorcery.
By the way, Arcane Weaponry II is a one-point wonder for Chakram builds since it's a Staff/Sceptre from Block attack. No reason for the second point here so it can be spent elsewhere.
CornBurrito
Member
Played the demo a few times. First impressions below.
- The dungeon feel a bit too corridor-like, especially after playing Risen.
- I also hate bumping into invisible walls both in dungeons and in the overworld. Overall it doesn't have anywhere near the wonderful sense of exploration as Risen had.
- But the combat system is interesting, the story seems good enough, and the main character looks pretty good without a shirt on. I also enjoy the art style a lot.
- I wanted to play a stealth based character, but when crossing the overworld map I'd be surrounded by bandits with no warning whatsoever. Do I have to be in stealth mode/walking the whole time if I want to be a stealth based character? Traveling would take far too much time to be enjoyable.
- The enemy AI makes me a bit angry with how discriminatory it is. I am getting attacked by bandits and I can't take them out all by myself. I lead them near a bear. What does the bear do? It focuses exclusively on me. The fuck? It is a wild bear. It should attack the bandits just as much as it attacks me.
- Really... I need an EA account to play a single player demo?
Will definitely buy when on sale. If the full version requires me to be online all the time then I might wait for BOMBA price.
edit: People have already found out the most powerful class/skill combinations? And it seems to be stealth/magic. I kind of wanted to go pure mage since daggers start out so weak.
- The dungeon feel a bit too corridor-like, especially after playing Risen.
- I also hate bumping into invisible walls both in dungeons and in the overworld. Overall it doesn't have anywhere near the wonderful sense of exploration as Risen had.
- But the combat system is interesting, the story seems good enough, and the main character looks pretty good without a shirt on. I also enjoy the art style a lot.
- I wanted to play a stealth based character, but when crossing the overworld map I'd be surrounded by bandits with no warning whatsoever. Do I have to be in stealth mode/walking the whole time if I want to be a stealth based character? Traveling would take far too much time to be enjoyable.
- The enemy AI makes me a bit angry with how discriminatory it is. I am getting attacked by bandits and I can't take them out all by myself. I lead them near a bear. What does the bear do? It focuses exclusively on me. The fuck? It is a wild bear. It should attack the bandits just as much as it attacks me.
- Really... I need an EA account to play a single player demo?
Will definitely buy when on sale. If the full version requires me to be online all the time then I might wait for BOMBA price.
edit: People have already found out the most powerful class/skill combinations? And it seems to be stealth/magic. I kind of wanted to go pure mage since daggers start out so weak.
The real question is why does the Might/Sorcery hybrid only get regular blink. Why not lightning/fire blink! Not that I believe it's going to need it, but I really love elemental effect teleporting and it's one of the things that really draws me to the finesse/sorcery hybrid destinies.
TheApatheticOne
Member
Awesome launch trailer, definitely not making the wait any easier what-so-ever!
Liberty4all
Banned
huge thread, tried to find more info on this ... in a nutshell can somebody tell me if there is a clear winner on 360 versus PS3 versus PC versions?
About to download the demo not sure which to get.
I'm sure the PC version will look the best but control scheme is important to me in a game like this ....
About to download the demo not sure which to get.
I'm sure the PC version will look the best but control scheme is important to me in a game like this ....
Looking at your build in more depth, I would change quite a few things. I wouldn't max Envenomed Edge, Inoculation, Lunge and Poison Bomb. Additional points in Envenomed Edge and Poison Bomb only increases damage by relatively minuscule amounts so they don't seem like they are worth the points investment. I'd rather pump them into the bow path and have the option of the bows as a secondary weapon in case I find a really powerful bow.
Inoculation seems unexciting since poison damages in such games don't usually tend to be a big deal but that's an assumption though. Additional points in Lunge increases the damage by relatively small amounts and yet results in higher mana costs so I'm a little wary there. A Finesse/Sorcery build would be relatively hungry for mana so I would only add one point there if I want the skill unless additional points enhance other attritubtes of the ability.
I chose Tempest over Elemental Rage because it is far more mana-efficient in terms of damage and I was trying to limit my build to a max of four actives.
Thanks for the tip on Arcane Weaponry II; gonna tweak my build now.
Lonesome_Raod
Member
I loved the launch trailer. I need this game right now.
You don't need one. You can just cancel and not log into an EA account and th demo plays just fine. The only reason to log into an EA account is to unlock the bonus content for ME3.
PC version has seamless 360 pad support. According to impressions, seems like PC>PS3>360.
PC version supports the X360 gamepad, so I'd say go with that if you can connect one to your PC.
Liberty4all
Banned
Thanks. Do you really need a pad to play though? I don't have a USB 360 pad ...
so if I have to play m/kb on PC or pad on PS3 ... which version would be preferrable ?
Baconsammy
Banned
Nope. Plays with keyboard and mouse too. Just a preference thing.
You don't need a pad to play. It depends on what you find more comfortable. Some people prefer the kb/m to play this game, some prefer the pad.
It really depends on what you prefer to play with. I'd say download the demo for both the console and the PC and then see which version you find yourself happier to play with.
CornBurrito
Member
How does Melee/Magic work out? Is it underpowered?
I'm also thinking of going Universalist.
I'm also thinking of going Universalist.
Liberty4all
Banned
Thanks guys. Downloading Steam demo now. I have a top of the line rig so I'll try it maxed out then download PS3 version later tonight.
Yaska
Member
Why not use both on PC? pad (using ps3) and m/kb that is. That's what I'm doing atm. Comfy couch-mode pc is the greatest.
Also enjoyed the demo quite much, and ended up getting the pc version from Steam
(was stunned to see EA putting a game on Steam again)
You can also use a PS3 pad on your PC with the Motionjoy drivers. They can be set to emulate a 360 pad, so the game will support it natively.
It's hard to tell without playing the full game but Might/Sorcery seems to have some very viable bulds. You definitely are going to have a defensive focus if you play it though as it ends up being the 'paladin' like build but with a more elemental/mystic flavor as opposed to priestly. I suppose you could play it glass cannon style but you'd be ignoring some of the most powerful aspects of both trees and I imagine pure Sorcery or Finesse/Sorcery would suit you better from a pure damage standpoint.
Envenomed Edge is a pretty big jump, though; +0.75 to +4.5 on average per swing ... though it's probably +Insignificant to +Slightly Less Insignificant. That said, it, Inoculation, Lunge, and maxed Poison Bomb were essentially point dumps. Tweaking things a bit means that I can get a Faeblade/Bow/Chakram 79/44 build with less point dump skills. It's just debatable if having the option for a Bow ever is better than passives, even if they are bland.
But if Bows are useful at all (and if triple weapon upkeep isn't terribly hard), I can't think of a reason for my 79/44 build to be anything but this. Especially with Longbows having a chance at Bleed per shot to trigger Execution.
Yeah, I did that post as I was leaving for work so I didn't look into the active skill count. That said, I'm assuming Elemental Rage is Shocking/Burning/Freezing damage so it gets the benefits of the other skills; if it doesn't, it's essentially going to be scrapped. It's too inefficient at Lightning/Fire/Ice damage, really. Especially considering you'll basically get some of those skills on the way up anyway. Though, it also depends on the moveset for ER attacks.
To be fair, I think you can't really move it around too much since you'll run into a wall relatively soon. Would've been nice if it could have been placed anywhere though!
Wolfgunblood Garopa
Member
From the Reckoning forum Q&A, not sure if posted before:
I'm a lot more hyped after reading that.
I'm a lot more hyped after reading that.
LiquidMetal14
hide your water-based mammals
I think this game just went on the buy list after reading Curt's comments. I hope this game does well enough at least to make more games. I love the art and feel of the game. I'm not just saying that. I've been sold almost from the get go. Glad to also read the demo issues are ironed out. I had no real issues except the audio coming in and out for a short period of time. Other than that, it played great and was fun.
I have to buy it now. I don't know if Curt will read this but I hope the Steam version is Steamworks and has cloud saves+achievements/etc.
I have to buy it now. I don't know if Curt will read this but I hope the Steam version is Steamworks and has cloud saves+achievements/etc.
Liberty4all
Banned
Holy crap.
1) I had NO idea this forum existed, and I am and have been on the internet, and a gamer, for a pretty long time.
2) I've read every single post in this thread since taking off last night from Boston to get to LA. (LA Times, G4 and Kimmel today for the Reckoning launch, Kimmel skit, I think, is hilarious).
I founded 38 Studios over 5 years ago and as much as I'd like to tell you guys this thread is cool, it's way way more than that. That you guys have created this much traffic since our demo is flat out stunning, incredible.
Ya I wish there'd been 52 pages of SOLD!! Day 1 buy here! I totally get it.
Let me start by apologizing. The demo? Ya, it is way way WAYYYYY more buggy than anything ANYONE should ever release, much less a demo.
A demo is supposed to be a DEMONSTRATION of the game. In some ways, for you without buggy demos, it sort of is, but it's just impossible to convey the depth of breadth of a game that has anywhere from 40-50 hours (main quest line play) to 2-300 hours (for completionist) in it at launch. It's like saying you hate baseball after the 1st pitch in the top of the 1st inning.
That was EXACTLY why we argued EA in favor of not having the demo. It's also exactly why I was wrong, and EA was right. Yes there are people that were on the fence who now will not buy it, there were people who weren't buying it anyway, who still aren't, but the massive awareness and the insane amount of 'had no idea about this game, now it's a day 1 buy" and "Was on the fence but am now sold" posts mean EA hit this one perfectly in INTENT.
The demo has been a God send, especially when I realize even in this thread, how many people became aware because of the demo.
In a partnership there is a lot of give and take, and I believe in my team, they are world class, but when you have a publisher there are things happening you'd rather not choose. Shipping old code out 3 months prior to gold master to a 3rd party with no stake in the demo success can be problematic. I am sure they made the best demo they could but as a studio packed to the gills with gamers, we refuse to believe code has to be unplayably buggy at launch, it doesn't.
So to those that have had a horrid demo experience, I'm sorry, it's on us, our name is the name on the box we care about.
I promise you, my word, that demo from a bug perspective is in NO WAY representative of the final code or product.
That is not going to change your demo experience, that is likely not going to make you buy it if you decided against it, but you spent your time (which is every bit as valuable to us as your money) playing something we made, and we owe you that much.
Couple things about me up front. I have thick skin. 10 years in Philly and the last 7 in Boston, I'm a big boy, I've heard most everything. I have a 12 year old son with Autism, the word retard offends me, deeply. I'm married to an insanely beautiful woman (so far over my ski's it's embarrassing) and have 3 other kids, 16, 14 and 9. The boys (3 of them) are gamers, oldest is a hard core gamer/athlete (like dad) and a ranked SC2 player.
I was a gamer LONG before I owned a game company, just like I was a fan long before i played in the big leagues. I so desperately WANT to post as a gamer and fan, but understand it just isn't going to happen.
For that my PR and Marketing folks have each other on speed dial, and sweat constantly...
I've lived my life being very open and very honest, and that's been as good as it has been bad. It's usually pretty easy to tell where I stand.
The thing that has changed over these past few years is that when I post in forums like this, FoH, Tribal Wars, our Reckoning forums, is that I represent over 400 people and their families, and that's a pretty huge deal.
Generally people that post the real bad stuff about me are Democrats and Yankee fans, and that's cool, I get it. But you Yankee fans, keep hating, that's cool, I understand. Please don't come here and post 'You" have 27 or 28 rings or whatever, unless your Derek Jeter because YOU have none, I have 3, I was honored to play with 3 very special groups of men and be a part of 3 World Championships, and that made some folks mad...
I keed. In all seriousness this forum, this very place, like FoH and the others, is where 38 Studios becomes the next great gaming company, or not. Everything we become is literally 100% dependent on you. You'll either love our stuff and want it bad enough to buy it at full price (pre orders and week 1 sales are EVERYTHING to a company like ours) or you won't, but there will be no BS here.
We're a studio of 400 hard core gamers who want to make awesome games we want to play, for gamers. That's our secret sauce, that's the thing we MUST hold onto as long as we can. When that stops i'll likely walk away.
It's why, even though it's painful, reading the good WITH the bad is essential. If you don't listen to players you stop making games players want to play, and that sucks.
It's also why I have finally come to grips with the fact that in a forum like this one post can start "Art sucks, hate it, derivative..." to "Amazing art, the world is vibrant and alive!" and both can be right. It's 100% subjective. Even though I watched this world come alive and I have seen the personal sacrifice hundreds of people have made over hundreds of thousands of hours, some people aren't going to like it.
What I can assure you is there was and never will be one short step, or short cut, to ANYTHING we do or make. People that bought our CE and SE are going to realize that even more, as both are way beyond anything, quality wise, I've ever purchased.
Quality trumps all, saying that after the demo may sound hollow and you might call BS on me and us for it, but I promise you where we control 100% of the work we will set a bar that will be insanely challenging to meet, and continue meeting it as long as we're around.
So again, thanks for this, this thread took up my entire flight out, 6 hours and 11 minutes, but it was worth it because we're prepping for a new sort of 'Opening day" and threads like this don't pop up for games people aren't interested in. It's the same thing I told young players walking into Yankee Stadium, be good enough to get boo'd because Yankee fans are highly intelligent, they don't boo players that suck.
I'm sure we'll be chatting more, just wanted to say thanks and we hope you think Amalur is as awesome as we do.
Can't wait to try it out, downloading now =)
I don't know about you guys but I think I am just going to max out the sorcery tree. I don't really want to invest in multiple trees because it doesn't make sense to use more than two weapon types, which you need to take points in to move up in other trees. It's only easy to swap between two types. If I dabbled into finesse I'd have to grab daggers or faeblades, but then that would mean I wouldn't be able to use one of the sorcery weapons I spent points in, so those points are worthless. Guess it'll be staff and chakrams for me.
Hmmm, good point on the passives. Though I presume you would go for at least one point in Lunge to begin with? The problem with this is that additional points in that skill could actually be detrimental there.
Yeah, even with the benefits from the elemental passives, ER still seems highly inefficient. Such a pity since it looks so awesome when executed.
As for Arcane Weaponry II, you're right. I only had one place to move it to and that's Arcane Weaponry III. That's better than nothing, I guess.
How are you planning to go about leveling in the game though? I am considering a pure Sorcery build at first and going for the Archmage destiny and shortly after re-speccing to Shadowmaster. Seems like it'd be easier/more efficient to do a pure class first and then re-speccing into a hybrid class.
I don't think it's the best build (yet, anyway) but it's what jumped out to me as something interesting; the bonuses from the Destinies look great on paper and the synergies are fun to play with. Faeblades/Chakram is just my favorite weapon combination from the demo as well.
Might/Finesse caters too much to a crit heavy MightWeapon/Longbow build due to the bonuses for my tastes while Might/Sorcery looks interesting as a Juggernaut-esque build. All the pure builds don't interest me all that much and Universalist looks nice as a "I want to use the best X that I see drop" build with various passive (or spell) support.
I've really only looked at one build so far :x
If you don't get the Weapon Mastery, I don't count the weapon as being invested in. Thus, you actually have to manually invest in two separate weapons so it doesn't matter what trees they're in! I get what you mean though; kind of sucks to know that my Finesse/Sorcery build has access to all the Dagger, Staff, and Sceptre skills but will never actually use them :|
Lunge would be Active Skill 5 (Shadow Flare / Poison Bomb / Storm Bolt / Ice Barrage). It's one of those debatable skills. As for Lunge and it's cost, I assume it probably should be (BaseWeapon + DmgMod) * (OtherDmgMultipliers) rather than just (DmgMod). At least, that's about the only thing that make sense for the cost to scale so ridiculously.
If it ends up being useful as a one-point wonder skill, I'll nix a point somewhere for it and Poison Bomb will be something I have to go out of the way to use.
Edit: Basically, I view Lunge more for Might/Finesse than Finesse/Sorcery; Harpoon to drag in small things, Lunge big things. Gives Might/Finesse full battlefield control.
Possibly Finesse to start. It depends on the drops I get for the most part. Sorcery may be the way to go but it'll depend on how I feel at the start of the game, I think :x
You can move up the entire might tree without ever touching any of the weapons skills at all. Sorcery is a little trickier because you end up having to choose between the pet and some of the weapon lines (But the sorcery weapons seem the most interesting to me anyhow).
Finesse is definitely the hardest to splash without using the weapons. To be fair it's also the most interesting part about the tree to me; fast daggers are just a lot of fun to use in action combat systems as short animations can be a huge advantage.
It was the first build that jumped out at me as well but I always have a fascination with using caster type weapons on a tank so I didn't want to turn down the option for a Staff/Chakram using mystic tank. It's not an often supported playstyle; for once I can be tough and self sufficient without having to be a clergyman!
For what it's worth I do think the 'most powerful/best build' will be something with Sorcery...and it could easily be pure Sorcery with a splash of something else.
I'm not sure what to make of Might/Finesse exactly but I didn't really care for the destiny bonus and found the trees to be a bit dull in combination.
I thought I was going to do a pure Sorcery build but the issue with such a build is that I felt like I was wasting a lot of points in skills I didn't want just to reach the pre-requisite for the top-tier destiny (Archmage), such as Summon Faer Gorta.
It's a fair argument about keeping your weapon choices to two but if you're maxing out the Sorcery tree, you are going to have seven active abilities and assuming a pad setup, you would have access to only four at any point in time. So three are effectively "wasted" or are essentially the equivalent of weapons you don't use.
From what I've been reading, it seems like the game is likely centred around the player dealing damage primarily with his weapons. That explains the unusual strength of the mage's arsenal of weapons in the demo since a mage is expected to rely on those for the entire game. From that perspective, it would seem to make more sense to have access to more weapons than abilities, IMO.
Faeblades/Chakram are my favourite as well but Chakrams don't seem to syngergise at all with the Finesse skills which is a huge pity.
Agreed. Sorcery is a tricky tree to navigate.
I agree with your remark on the previous page that there is a lot of tension between the high-tier destinies and skills. The system is pretty well-designed in that regard.
Fine Ham Abounds
Member
I'm not gonna lie, I watched the trailer, then clicked on the Bulldog Puppies Learn to Walk link at the bottom of the page, and left an all around happy camper.
As far as I know they self-published on steam. EA is only a co-publisher.
Yeah, they really don't. There's a good chance I end up with Dagger/Chakram or Faeblade/Staff instead. Or maybe aesthetics and "fuck yeah!" will win out in the end and I stick with Faeblade/Chakram.
Yeah, it was actually refreshing to have been stumped by what do I plan to in regards to the top-tier skills and the Hybrid destinies. That aspect of the system seems rather well done for it. Making these kinds of choices is what fuels the min/maxing.
I planned to Platinum XIII-2. That uh ... may not happen haha.
If I do stick with pure sorcery, is staff/chakram good? I haven't tried playing the demo too much so I don't know if there is synergy or not. I'd like to just stick to one tree for my first playthrough. I am playing with mouse/kb (I hate gamepads) so the amount of skills doesn't make a difference to me.