Finished the game; some thoughts and suggestions

[D4t4v4mP]

First off, i'd like to thank all those involved with the making of this game. It was 80+ hrs of fun for me in my first playthrough and i can see myself rolling a 2nd char in the near future.

I believe that this is a very strong first release however, as with all games, there is still room for improvement.
The points bellow are some of the areas that i personally believe that the game could be improved upon.

Difficulty.
As many have mentioned before, the game is a tad too easy on the hardest difficulty setting and that is a shame as it overshadows the (excellent) combat system. You should be forced in one way or the other to use the combat system in its fullest in order to survive; not just in boss fights but in every single fight.

Right now there is no real incentive to not get hit or to play by your class's strengths. For example, i played a pure Finesse character right from the beginning of the game. By mid-game i could just take hits and mash the attack button instead of evading/playing smart and still manage to come out victorious.

Tweaks i would suggest to make the game more challenging in this department:

#1) Increase potion cooldown + decrease the amount of potions that can be simultaneously active.
Tone it down to 2-3 (various) potions per fight (in total). For example, in any boss fight i could chug down a crit potion that could make crits occur more often, a +dmg potion, a +exp potion, an hp regen potion and finally multiple hp potions. That trivializes things. Personally i'd like it more if you had to get tactical with your potion choices; if i knew that i would be limited to 2 potions per fight for example i'd have to make the choice of going all out with +dmg and +crit potions or play it safe with +hp regen and +hp potions.

#2) Bosses/named enemies should be red and red only.
I came across boss fights in side quests where the boss was yellow or even gray but most times bosses were orange. I think that in hard mode, all bosses should be red and their minions should be yellow or orange (for end-game bosses). That way you'll have to prioritize targets and boss-fights would become much, much more interesting.

#3) Some enemy types shouldn't fall bellow yellow regardless of your level.
Ettin, Jottun, Bolgan, Thresh and other larger enemies should be at least yellow (preferably orange) at all times, whereas wolves and sprites could fall down to gray.

#4) Fate gain should be toned down by a lot. You should be able to use Reckoning mode only once per region. I'd prefer that i'd have to clear out a full region (incl dungeons) to fill out the fate bar, or if there was some kind of bonus for winning boss fight without going into Reckoning mode (better drops for example).

#5) Narrower riposte window.
Let's assume that attack animations are divided in 3 stages: a) launch attack, b)mid-air and c) collision/hit. Right now you can parry in stage b) while i'd prefer if you could parry + riposte just a sec before stage c).

My second major point is lore and story delivery.
I've seen others claim that the story is weak and the lore is non-existent while i've seen the exact opposite; there is too much lore. From the relationships between the summer and winter Fae courts to the Alfar divide and to more delicate details that lie scattered within the world like the Motus Minning company expeditions and the ground-breaking Prismere discovery it is evident that there is a rich back-story, one that could be easily explained in various novels.
I believe however that the story and the lore are delivered to the player in a poor manner. Most side-quests feel like "go there, kill that" and player choices feel of little to no consequence. You really have to go out of your way to experience the lore in this game and that shouldn't be so imo.
It's nice that the player is given the choice of weather he/she wants to experience the story or play this as a pure action game, however this way the story feels too distant and disjointed from the action imo.
When you finally have to face the lore/story in the main quest the NPCs start to make too many references or mention that many names where you end up not caring at all and you're like "alright let's kill some more dudes and get this over with".

I would like to see a stronger connection between the action and the story. Maybe take a few "blue" lines of dialogue out, introduce some quests where if you do a favor with one faction you'll have trouble with another, etc.
Espionage/diplomacy quests would be god-sent in Adessa for example given the Roman-like hierarchy of the Gnome society.
To summarize; a tighter connection between the story and the action plus a larger variety of quests whose content is dependent on the race and the region of the quest giver is what i'd want to see in the future.


Other tweaks that i'd like to see in the game:

i) Make dispelling/lock-picking/persuasion worth to invest in.
As of now a char with zero or a couple of points in dispelling/lock-picking can still open/dispell hard/very hard chests, making these skills less valuable than others. Persuasion checks can also be bypassed with quick-saving/quick-loading.
May i suggest that your character needs to have his skill leveled up to a certain degree to even attempt a check at these?
For example with 4 lvls in dispelling you can attempt to dispell up to easy-diff chests. Should you try to dispell a higher lvl chest you'd be greeted with a message like "the runes/scribes are too complex for me to dispell" or "this lock is too complex for me to try to pick" or something along those lines.
Chests that are very hard/hard to dispel/lock pick should also yield better drops.
Regarding persuasion checks, there shouldn't even be a green option unless you've leveled your skill up to a certain degree and it shouldn't be possible for you to quick-save/quick-load past persuassion checks (if you failed once you should always fail unless you level up your skill more).

ii) Stealth needs a bit of work imo.
Especially its synergy with the assassin's art finesse skill. I'd prefer it if at Nightblade level, instead of having a guaranteed 300% crit after a successful evasion, your visibility changes according to how many points you've invested in the Stealth skill (max stealth = invisible). That way it would make more sense to invest in Stealth + the assassin's art skill.

iii) In the sagecrafting combine screen can we have a slider instead of doing the same thing (scroll and combine) over and over again?
Let's say i want to combine 19 cloudy shards into 9 lambents and 1 cloudy. Wouldn't it be better to have a slider that prompts you with how many shards you want to combine instead of scrolling down to the shard that you want and doing the same thing 9 times?

iv) More camera options/camera zoom-in/out + a FoV slider

v) Larger shared stash/shared stash between characters.
A heirloom system would also be nice (a-la Torchlight), where you get to choose 10-20 pieces of equipment to pass down to another (new) char. Some other creative strokes could be added to this department too like weapons that are passed down gain different bonuses/ different names according to your actions (for example a simple sword that you used to kill a boss in the game would be renamed/uppped in stats and color when passed down to "sword of the niskaru slayer" or something along those lines.

vi) It would be cool if, with a high enough blacksmithing skill, you could replicate the appearance of some unique items that you have found in the game.
Early unique items are out-classed by mid/high tier greens and blues and it would be awesome if you could keep the looks with some boosted stats of your choice.

vii) Make it so that you can drop from ledges/heights.
I am not bothered by the absence of a jump button/feature but i would like to be able to fall off cliffs by rolling, etc. Right now, the invisible wall at the edge of a cliff feels like an unnecessary player-friendly element imo.


In conclusion, i strongly believe that with some of the tweaks/changes mentioned above, the overall experience would sky-rocket to new heights and could transform this already great game to a genre landmark.

Thank you for your time.

[fabiostahl]

If they really wanted to improve the game, they would just copy everything from Elder Scrolls (except the good combat system), but I don't think that would be right.

I just finished all side quests and the main quest in 70h32m. Last boss was amazing but easy to kill. The ending was disappointing. The cutscenes from Mel Senshir are far better. I don't know why S38 got lazy in the end.

Anyway KoA was a fun game. But it's better to look for another RPG instead of playing it for the second time. Anyway I'll expect for KoA 2 for sure.

[D4t4v4mP]

Originally Posted by fabiostahl

If they really wanted to improve the game, they would just copy everything from Elder Scrolls (except the good combat system), but I don't think that would be right.

Either i don't know how to read or this sounds very conflicting to me. First you say that if they wanted to improve the game they could (would doesn't seem like the right aux. verbal choice here but w/e) copy everything from the TeS series and call it a day.

Then, after you suggest that, you say that that wouldn't be right.
Er, like what wouldn't be right exactly? On what grounds? Would you reiterate on that please a little bit more with a couple examples?

Personally, the only thing that i deem worthy of copying from the TeS series is the world/geometry/environment structure. Bethesda is an industry leader in that department imo but that's as far as their games go. All other departments; combat as you mention, loot, npc interaction, character animations, combat gear feel, are mediocre at best.

Walk around in full plate armor in Demon Souls/Dark Souls for example and hear the plates clatter and clamor as they clash together or listen to the thumping sound of your footsteps as you run in an empty corridor. Priceless.

Try to play Mr Goody-two-shoes in a Witcher game and see how far that get's you, or play Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines to witness some really unique NPCs that you'll remember for a life-time.

The TeS series doesn't have any of that. They focus on the world instead and it would've been jaw-dropping if i witnessed it for the 1st time in Skyrim but after Morrowind/Oblivion/FO3 i'd expect them to focus on other departments too.

Too many TeS/Skyrim references and comparisons in these forums by the Skyrim Police it's not even funny.

You're putting the game on a pedestal and it's totally unjustified.

Unless you've restricted your gaming diet to a max of 10 RPGs or some Zynga games that is.

[Chromodar]

Originally Posted by D4t4v4mP

ii) Stealth needs a bit of work imo.
Especially its synergy with the assassin's art finesse skill. I'd prefer it if at Nightblade level, instead of having a guaranteed 300% crit after a successful evasion, your visibility changes according to how many points you've invested in the Stealth skill (max stealth = invisible). That way it would make more sense to invest in Stealth + the assassin's art skill.

I could argue several points, but I more or less agree with most of them. The quoted one though, I strongly disagree with. Nightblades are not the only ones to whom stealth kills are an integral part of gameplay. Shadowcasters in particular would loose a valuable part of their toolkit.

[rheedend]

Originally Posted by D4t4v4mP

Difficulty.
As many have mentioned before, the game is a tad too easy on the hardest difficulty setting and that is a shame as it overshadows the (excellent) combat system. You should be forced in one way or the other to use the combat system in its fullest in order to survive; not just in boss fights but in every single fight.

Right now there is no real incentive to not get hit or to play by your class's strengths. For example, i played a pure Finesse character right from the beginning of the game. By mid-game i could just take hits and mash the attack button instead of evading/playing smart and still manage to come out victorious.

Well, if you get hit, specially in the first levels, or without exploiting blacksmithing, you are going to die in two hits.

Tweaks i would suggest to make the game more challenging in this department:

#1) Increase potion cooldown + decrease the amount of potions that can be simultaneously active.
Tone it down to 2-3 (various) potions per fight (in total). For example, in any boss fight i could chug down a crit potion that could make crits occur more often, a +dmg potion, a +exp potion, an hp regen potion and finally multiple hp potions. That trivializes things. Personally i'd like it more if you had to get tactical with your potion choices; if i knew that i would be limited to 2 potions per fight for example i'd have to make the choice of going all out with +dmg and +crit potions or play it safe with +hp regen and +hp potions.

I agree, potion chugging is kinda op :S

#2) Bosses/named enemies should be red and red only.
I came across boss fights in side quests where the boss was yellow or even gray but most times bosses were orange. I think that in hard mode, all bosses should be red and their minions should be yellow or orange (for end-game bosses). That way you'll have to prioritize targets and boss-fights would become much, much more interesting.

#3) Some enemy types shouldn't fall bellow yellow regardless of your level.
Ettin, Jottun, Bolgan, Thresh and other larger enemies should be at least yellow (preferably orange) at all times, whereas wolves and sprites could fall down to gray.

So, you want just colored names? Why don't you talk about levels instead. The real problem is that you outlevel too fast the content you find.

#4) Fate gain should be toned down by a lot. You should be able to use Reckoning mode only once per region. I'd prefer that i'd have to clear out a full region (incl dungeons) to fill out the fate bar, or if there was some kind of bonus for winning boss fight without going into Reckoning mode (better drops for example).

I don't use reckoning mode, or if I use it, I don't mash the QTE button. I already level TOO fast to gain even more exp

#5) Narrower riposte window.
Let's assume that attack animations are divided in 3 stages: a) launch attack, b)mid-air and c) collision/hit. Right now you can parry in stage b) while i'd prefer if you could parry + riposte just a sec before stage c).

Doing that would make the game even easier. Right now you can only block midcombo, or at the start. Letting you block ALWAYS, would be godmode actually.

My second major point is lore and story delivery.
I've seen others claim that the story is weak and the lore is non-existent while i've seen the exact opposite; there is too much lore. From the relationships between the summer and winter Fae courts to the Alfar divide and to more delicate details that lie scattered within the world like the Motus Minning company expeditions and the ground-breaking Prismere discovery it is evident that there is a rich back-story, one that could be easily explained in various novels.
I believe however that the story and the lore are delivered to the player in a poor manner. Most side-quests feel like "go there, kill that" and player choices feel of little to no consequence. You really have to go out of your way to experience the lore in this game and that shouldn't be so imo.
It's nice that the player is given the choice of weather he/she wants to experience the story or play this as a pure action game, however this way the story feels too distant and disjointed from the action imo.
When you finally have to face the lore/story in the main quest the NPCs start to make too many references or mention that many names where you end up not caring at all and you're like "alright let's kill some more dudes and get this over with".

I would like to see a stronger connection between the action and the story. Maybe take a few "blue" lines of dialogue out, introduce some quests where if you do a favor with one faction you'll have trouble with another, etc.
Espionage/diplomacy quests would be god-sent in Adessa for example given the Roman-like hierarchy of the Gnome society.
To summarize; a tighter connection between the story and the action plus a larger variety of quests whose content is dependent on the race and the region of the quest giver is what i'd want to see in the future.

I think you want something completely different from what's actually in the game, asking too much maybe?

Other tweaks that i'd like to see in the game:

i) Make dispelling/lock-picking/persuasion worth to invest in.
As of now a char with zero or a couple of points in dispelling/lock-picking can still open/dispell hard/very hard chests, making these skills less valuable than others. Persuasion checks can also be bypassed with quick-saving/quick-loading.
May i suggest that your character needs to have his skill leveled up to a certain degree to even attempt a check at these?
For example with 4 lvls in dispelling you can attempt to dispell up to easy-diff chests. Should you try to dispell a higher lvl chest you'd be greeted with a message like "the runes/scribes are too complex for me to dispell" or "this lock is too complex for me to try to pick" or something along those lines.

Dispelling is worth until dark barrier removal. Very hard dispel chests can be a pain in the ♥♥♥ if you aren't lucky. Yes, you can save&reload, but you know? Doing that BREAKS everything in almost every RNG based game

As of now a char with zero or a couple of points in dispelling/lock-picking can still open/dispell hard/very hard chests, making these skills less valuable than others. Persuasion checks can also be bypassed with quick-saving/quick-loading.
May i suggest that your character needs to have his skill leveled up to a certain degree to even attempt a check at these?
For example with 4 lvls in dispelling you can attempt to dispell up to easy-diff chests. Should you try to dispell a higher lvl chest you'd be greeted with a message like "the runes/scribes are too complex for me to dispell" or "this lock is too complex for me to try to pick" or something along those lines.

Chests that are very hard/hard to dispel/lock pick should also yield better drops.
Regarding persuasion checks, there shouldn't even be a green option unless you've leveled your skill up to a certain degree and it shouldn't be possible for you to quick-save/quick-load past persuassion checks (if you failed once you should always fail unless you level up your skill more).

Most of the persuasion checks I've found were on non-cancellable conversations, so, unless you know for certain that there's going to be a check, or you abuse AGAIN Save&Reload, there is actually pretty usefull. I'm on my 20's and it's the second skill I have higher, because of useful outcomes.

About chests and containers, they should be redone ( like in Dead Island maybe ). It's hillarious opening a very hard dispel/lock to find a crap lesser potion, then looting some rock finding omgzomgimba epic weapon

ii) Stealth needs a bit of work imo.
Especially its synergy with the assassin's art finesse skill. I'd prefer it if at Nightblade level, instead of having a guaranteed 300% crit after a successful evasion, your visibility changes according to how many points you've invested in the Stealth skill (max stealth = invisible). That way it would make more sense to invest in Stealth + the assassin's art skill.

I find ok how it's stealth now. It's an instagib skill if used properly, and that's how its supposed to be. Funny thing, you demand more challenging combat on one way, but on the other hand you want permastealth+permaparry? :S Something's wrong here

iii) In the sagecrafting combine screen can we have a slider instead of doing the same thing (scroll and combine) over and over again?
Let's say i want to combine 19 cloudy shards into 9 lambents and 1 cloudy. Wouldn't it be better to have a slider that prompts you with how many shards you want to combine instead of scrolling down to the shard that you want and doing the same thing 9 times?

Man, are you a bit lazy aren't you? XD

v) Larger shared stash/shared stash between characters.
A heirloom system would also be nice (a-la Torchlight), where you get to choose 10-20 pieces of equipment to pass down to another (new) char. Some other creative strokes could be added to this department too like weapons that are passed down gain different bonuses/ different names according to your actions (for example a simple sword that you used to kill a boss in the game would be renamed/uppped in stats and color when passed down to "sword of the niskaru slayer" or something along those lines.

Larger stash ok, shared stash, well, again I think you don't know what you want. Sharing gear would make the game even easier ( altho you also rant about how is easy it is :P ). I know it would be cool sharing all your sets and so, but one of the points of this game is farming for gear. What's the point on leveling another char with ALL his gear already waiting for him on the stash? Would you play 70h without worrying about gear? I think nope

vi) It would be cool if, with a high enough blacksmithing skill, you could replicate the appearance of some unique items that you have found in the game.
Early unique items are out-classed by mid/high tier greens and blues and it would be awesome if you could keep the looks with some boosted stats of your choice.

This is not a MMO man, what are you demanding is HUGE.

vii) Make it so that you can drop from ledges/heights.
I am not bothered by the absence of a jump button/feature but i would like to be able to fall off cliffs by rolling, etc. Right now, the invisible wall at the edge of a cliff feels like an unnecessary player-friendly element imo.

It already exists, on specific points, you know

[Chromodar]

Originally Posted by rheedend

This is not a MMO man, what are you demanding is HUGE.

Is it?

Add another box to the blacksmithing window, where you can place a new salvage component that causes the new item to use the same skin as the item you salvaged the component from. All you really need to do is make up names for the components.

Ideally you'd want unique and set items to be salvaged only for the visual component as well, which may or may not be more trouble to do.

Anyways, while I agree that this would be nice, I would rather see gameplay improvements. Starting with the difficulty. But apparently that's exactly what 38 are working on right now (along with FoV/camera fixes), so all is good.

[D4t4v4mP]

Well, if you get hit, specially in the first levels, or without exploiting blacksmithing, you are going to die in two hits.

Early game that is correct but mid-game things change fast.

So, you want just colored names? Why don't you talk about levels instead. The real problem is that you outlevel too fast the content you find.

Obviously i'm talking about lvls here, i'm not talking about the color itself. Jeez.

I don't use reckoning mode, or if I use it, I don't mash the QTE button. I already level TOO fast to gain even more exp

The mechanic is already in the game. Crippling yourself doesn't compensate for the fact that it's there.

Doing that would make the game even easier. Right now you can only block midcombo, or at the start. Letting you block ALWAYS, would be godmode actually.

Narrower parry window = more difficult parries i.e you need to time it better, just before the hit. What i am suggesting here is more difficult parries. Parries seem to me a little bit easy as of now. I didn't say anything about about combo-breaking, you misinterpreted this point completely.

I think you want something completely different from what's actually in the game, asking too much maybe?

First of all i am not asking, 2nd this is an opinion, 3rd the devs themselves seem interested in hearing opinions based on their game and 4th no i don't think that it's too much for this game. It has the lore to support that type of storytelling. Also aiming high is always a good thing when coupled with effort

Dispelling is worth until dark barrier removal. Very hard dispel chests can be a pain in the ♥♥♥ if you aren't lucky. Yes, you can save&reload, but you know? Doing that BREAKS everything in almost every RNG based game

Dispelling is worth until dark barrier removal

Anyway, the fact that it breaks everything in every other RNG (as in Random Number Generated i assume?) game doesn't mean that this game shouldn't try to get it right. All i am saying is that there should be a level-based barrier (:P) that prevented you from even attempting to roll chests that are above your skill level.

Most of the persuasion checks I've found were on non-cancellable conversations, so, unless you know for certain that there's going to be a check, or you abuse AGAIN Save&Reload, there is actually pretty usefull. I'm on my 20's and it's the second skill I have higher, because of useful outcomes.

But as you said it can be bypassed. With the change that i'm suggesting you can't do that so someone like you who has invested in this skill get's to pass the check successfully, whereas the other guy who tried to cheese it with F5 + F9 will fail the check every time.

I find ok how it's stealth now. It's an instagib skill if used properly, and that's how its supposed to be. Funny thing, you demand more challenging combat on one way, but on the other hand you want permastealth+permaparry? :S Something's wrong here

About the parry you misinterpreted it completely, plz read my previous point. Also, i referred specifically to the Nightblade's assassination "perk" which comes later in the game.

That ability gives you a guaranteed +300% crit every time you evade.

I suggested for that mechanic to work differently and take into account your Stealth lvl + make use of the Assassin's Art skill.

So a "perk" which depends on one skill and one ability to reach its full potential. Dunno if it'll work irl. Just a suggestion.


Also,not demanding, suggesting. Big difference.

Man, are you a bit lazy aren't you? XD

I don't know what to say in this one. If you want to repeat the same action over and over without merit or you believe that the UI is perfect as is and there is no room for improvement then good for you lol.

Larger stash ok, shared stash, well, again I think you don't know what you want. Sharing gear would make the game even easier ( altho you also rant about how is easy it is :P ). I know it would be cool sharing all your sets and so, but one of the points of this game is farming for gear. What's the point on leveling another char with ALL his gear already waiting for him on the stash? Would you play 70h without worrying about gear? I think nope

Again i don't rant, if you think this is a rant thread then i believe that you've misunderstood the intentions of my post (which it seems that you did actually hence the overly-defensive attitude).
Also, this is a single player game. If it had a NG+ mode where enemies would become more difficult or hell if it would allow to just simply start a new game with all or some of your gear wouldn't that be fun?

I mean i got some pretty cool robes which i cant' use that would look killer on a mage. Wouldn't it be great if, when i get to roll a mage and reach the level/stat requirements to wear said robes, i actually had them laying around? Where's the game-breaker in that? They already have specific level/stat requirements.

And no re-spec'ing to a mage isn't the same as rolling a mage from the get-go.

This is not a MMO man, what are you demanding is HUGE.

So wait, to add uniques as salvageable equipment but to only salvage their layout/looks is an overly-complex mechanic that could only be done in an MMO? Seriously? Lol.
The mechanic is already there; you can salvage equipment up to rare status.
All i am saying is if you got a unique item:

salvage->keep the looks/schematics of said unique-> craft a new item with the looks of the unique item that you just salvaged but new stats according to the components that you used.

Yet again, i'm not demanding anything. This ain't my sugar daddy's company to go around demanding things. All my points are suggestions. There is a distinct difference among the two.

I don't know if i can make it clearer than that.

It already exists, on specific points, you know

Yeah man, i know. I played the game for 80+ hrs how couldn't i know? The point is that i consider this a redundant mechanic and too-much hand holding. Just an opinion.

Also what's up with the attitude? I clearly said that i enjoyed the game a lot and i offered some suggestions that in my opinion would make the game even better, given that from what i've seen the devs themselves are asking for feedback.

Yet you go around replying in a snarky, overly-defensive tone like i just insulted a family member of yours. Damn.

Also @ Chromodar :

I could argue several points, but I more or less agree with most of them. The quoted one though, I strongly disagree with. Nightblades are not the only ones to whom stealth kills are an integral part of gameplay. Shadowcasters in particular would loose a valuable part of their toolkit.

Haven't played a Shadowcaster so i can't comment on that. 90% chance i am wrong and you are right. What i was trying to say is that the Stealth mechanic should be more integral to a Finesse character and it should synergize better with the array of his abilities. I don't know why but it felt a bit tacked-on to me. Maybe i' m wrong.

[Chromodar]

I personally think stealth synergizes pretty well not only with my daggers, but also my frost traps. Smoke bomb also relates to stealth, and is by far the most fun of the iwin abilities (tempest/meteor, relentless assault).

I dunno, maybe it's because I don't have the mindset that I'm a stealth character. I think stealth feels pretty good if it's just one of many tools, instead of your entire focus.

[D4t4v4mP]

Originally Posted by Chromodar

I personally think stealth synergizes pretty well not only with my daggers, but also my frost traps. Smoke bomb also relates to stealth, and is by far the most fun of the iwin abilities (tempest/meteor, relentless assault).

I dunno, maybe it's because I don't have the mindset that I'm a stealth character. I think stealth feels pretty good if it's just one of many tools, instead of your entire focus.

Yep smokebomb's pretty fun.

Maybe it's because i tried to focus too much on stealth, coming from a DX:HR/Thief/MGS background. I may roll a finesse hybrid and try to approach stealth with a more open mindset and see if that yields better results

[rheedend]

Originally Posted by D4t4v4mP

...

You didn't jarate anyone don't worry :P

Imho smoke bomb is the best skill in the game. Only because of what lets you do, stealing, backstabbing, breaking a cast, a "free" heal, running or rebooting completely your combo strat.

I can't see myself playing without that

Anyway, I'm the only one who hates that bows are supposed to be roguish? I HATE them

[alphagamer_sxe]

Originally Posted by D4t4v4mP

First off, i'd like to thank all those involved with the making of this game. It was 80+ hrs of fun for me in my first playthrough and i can see myself rolling a 2nd char in the near future.

I believe that this is a very strong first release however, as with all games, there is still room for improvement.
The points bellow are some of the areas that i personally believe that the game could be improved upon.

Difficulty.
As many have mentioned before, the game is a tad too easy on the hardest difficulty setting and that is a shame as it overshadows the (excellent) combat system. You should be forced in one way or the other to use the combat system in its fullest in order to survive; not just in boss fights but in every single fight.

Right now there is no real incentive to not get hit or to play by your class's strengths. For example, i played a pure Finesse character right from the beginning of the game. By mid-game i could just take hits and mash the attack button instead of evading/playing smart and still manage to come out victorious.

Tweaks i would suggest to make the game more challenging in this department:

#1) Increase potion cooldown + decrease the amount of potions that can be simultaneously active.
Tone it down to 2-3 (various) potions per fight (in total). For example, in any boss fight i could chug down a crit potion that could make crits occur more often, a +dmg potion, a +exp potion, an hp regen potion and finally multiple hp potions. That trivializes things. Personally i'd like it more if you had to get tactical with your potion choices; if i knew that i would be limited to 2 potions per fight for example i'd have to make the choice of going all out with +dmg and +crit potions or play it safe with +hp regen and +hp potions.

#2) Bosses/named enemies should be red and red only.
I came across boss fights in side quests where the boss was yellow or even gray but most times bosses were orange. I think that in hard mode, all bosses should be red and their minions should be yellow or orange (for end-game bosses). That way you'll have to prioritize targets and boss-fights would become much, much more interesting.

#3) Some enemy types shouldn't fall bellow yellow regardless of your level.
Ettin, Jottun, Bolgan, Thresh and other larger enemies should be at least yellow (preferably orange) at all times, whereas wolves and sprites could fall down to gray.

#4) Fate gain should be toned down by a lot. You should be able to use Reckoning mode only once per region. I'd prefer that i'd have to clear out a full region (incl dungeons) to fill out the fate bar, or if there was some kind of bonus for winning boss fight without going into Reckoning mode (better drops for example).

#5) Narrower riposte window.
Let's assume that attack animations are divided in 3 stages: a) launch attack, b)mid-air and c) collision/hit. Right now you can parry in stage b) while i'd prefer if you could parry + riposte just a sec before stage c).

My second major point is lore and story delivery.
I've seen others claim that the story is weak and the lore is non-existent while i've seen the exact opposite; there is too much lore. From the relationships between the summer and winter Fae courts to the Alfar divide and to more delicate details that lie scattered within the world like the Motus Minning company expeditions and the ground-breaking Prismere discovery it is evident that there is a rich back-story, one that could be easily explained in various novels.
I believe however that the story and the lore are delivered to the player in a poor manner. Most side-quests feel like "go there, kill that" and player choices feel of little to no consequence. You really have to go out of your way to experience the lore in this game and that shouldn't be so imo.
It's nice that the player is given the choice of weather he/she wants to experience the story or play this as a pure action game, however this way the story feels too distant and disjointed from the action imo.
When you finally have to face the lore/story in the main quest the NPCs start to make too many references or mention that many names where you end up not caring at all and you're like "alright let's kill some more dudes and get this over with".

I would like to see a stronger connection between the action and the story. Maybe take a few "blue" lines of dialogue out, introduce some quests where if you do a favor with one faction you'll have trouble with another, etc.
Espionage/diplomacy quests would be god-sent in Adessa for example given the Roman-like hierarchy of the Gnome society.
To summarize; a tighter connection between the story and the action plus a larger variety of quests whose content is dependent on the race and the region of the quest giver is what i'd want to see in the future.


Other tweaks that i'd like to see in the game:

i) Make dispelling/lock-picking/persuasion worth to invest in.
As of now a char with zero or a couple of points in dispelling/lock-picking can still open/dispell hard/very hard chests, making these skills less valuable than others. Persuasion checks can also be bypassed with quick-saving/quick-loading.
May i suggest that your character needs to have his skill leveled up to a certain degree to even attempt a check at these?
For example with 4 lvls in dispelling you can attempt to dispell up to easy-diff chests. Should you try to dispell a higher lvl chest you'd be greeted with a message like "the runes/scribes are too complex for me to dispell" or "this lock is too complex for me to try to pick" or something along those lines.
Chests that are very hard/hard to dispel/lock pick should also yield better drops.
Regarding persuasion checks, there shouldn't even be a green option unless you've leveled your skill up to a certain degree and it shouldn't be possible for you to quick-save/quick-load past persuassion checks (if you failed once you should always fail unless you level up your skill more).

ii) Stealth needs a bit of work imo.
Especially its synergy with the assassin's art finesse skill. I'd prefer it if at Nightblade level, instead of having a guaranteed 300% crit after a successful evasion, your visibility changes according to how many points you've invested in the Stealth skill (max stealth = invisible). That way it would make more sense to invest in Stealth + the assassin's art skill.

iii) In the sagecrafting combine screen can we have a slider instead of doing the same thing (scroll and combine) over and over again?
Let's say i want to combine 19 cloudy shards into 9 lambents and 1 cloudy. Wouldn't it be better to have a slider that prompts you with how many shards you want to combine instead of scrolling down to the shard that you want and doing the same thing 9 times?

iv) More camera options/camera zoom-in/out + a FoV slider

v) Larger shared stash/shared stash between characters.
A heirloom system would also be nice (a-la Torchlight), where you get to choose 10-20 pieces of equipment to pass down to another (new) char. Some other creative strokes could be added to this department too like weapons that are passed down gain different bonuses/ different names according to your actions (for example a simple sword that you used to kill a boss in the game would be renamed/uppped in stats and color when passed down to "sword of the niskaru slayer" or something along those lines.

vi) It would be cool if, with a high enough blacksmithing skill, you could replicate the appearance of some unique items that you have found in the game.
Early unique items are out-classed by mid/high tier greens and blues and it would be awesome if you could keep the looks with some boosted stats of your choice.

vii) Make it so that you can drop from ledges/heights.
I am not bothered by the absence of a jump button/feature but i would like to be able to fall off cliffs by rolling, etc. Right now, the invisible wall at the edge of a cliff feels like an unnecessary player-friendly element imo.


In conclusion, i strongly believe that with some of the tweaks/changes mentioned above, the overall experience would sky-rocket to new heights and could transform this already great game to a genre landmark.

Thank you for your time.

Yeah, if the game were like this, it would be a better game.