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Don't even bother with ther queen rat until you're level 8 or 9 and even then it's a brutally hard fight.
One of the things that really bothers me about the combat engine is that characters and enemies don't exert a zone of control. I think if I have two fighters in the front and my spellcaster behind them, the rats shouldn't just be able to run past my fighterrs as though they weren't there. Makes spell casters easy meat in a swarm attack and really detracts from the game.
Totally agree with thr OP. I made a "I love Drakensang " post last week, with the same kind of compliments. People can nitpick certain points about the game, but the fact remains - this is a true CRPG in days when they really don't exist anymore. Im farther into the game and I'm still enjoying it a lot, and I definitely also recommend this for any fans of the slower style of RPG - lots of dialogue, fleshed out quests, and lots of stats and skills to upgrade at your leisure.TheCrazed420
I agree. For me, Drakensang has been my favorite game of 2009, hands down.
Thanks for the post Charles coz I ended up absolutely hating you. Hate as in coz you convinced me that I have to buy and play Drakensang....amongst like 10 other games that I've noted down in the "MUST-PLAY-BEFORE-ZOMBIE-ARMAGEDDON!" list.mirgamer
Yes! That is what I am talking about!
You'll love this game.
But take it slow and easy (this isn't Titan Quest or Diablo, and shouldn't be approached as such). Whatever you do, don't forget that when the game gets tough (and it will get very tough indeed) to enable the pause-at-the-end-of-the-round feature. This way you can make sure that your characters are using all of their skills optimally.
Also it's essential that you learn how to use the camera effectively. There are basically two camera modes: one that's in close, and one that's a bit further out.
When I'm in a new area (say, a village, for example), and I just want to explore, then I'll select my character (as opposed to selecting the entire party), and with the camera in close I'll hit the walk button and just slowly walk around. When I'm adventuring on a quest, on the other hand, and am more or less in fight mode, then I'll do the opposite and select my entire party, and with the camera zoomed out I'll hit the run button and run from place to place. Your party will all run together, beautifully, towards their destination, and end up in a perfect diamond formation. It's great. I love it.
About the only place where the camera becomes somewhat frustrating is indoors, in cramped quarters. But if you end up really enjoying the game you'll figure out what works best.
Don't even bother with ther queen rat until you're level 8 or 9 and even then it's a brutally hard fight.
One of the things that really bothers me about the combat engine is that characters and enemies don't exert a zone of control. I think if I have two fighters in the front and my spellcaster behind them, the rats shouldn't just be able to run past my fighterrs as though they weren't there. Makes spell casters easy meat in a swarm attack and really detracts from the game.
bogaty
On the other hand it's kind of neat that NPCs will take out your spellcasters first - that would be my strategy too.
The only thing that's a bit odd here is that we're talking about rats - how do the rats know to take out the spellcasters and healers? It so happens that my rolled player is a mage - did the rats gang up on my character because my character is a mage, or did the rats gang up on my character because they were programmed to take out the player's rolled character first? In other words, had my rolled character been a fighter, would the rats have gone for the fighter first?
Anyway, I'm glad that I'm losing some of these fights, and that I'm being forced to balance out my party. Too many RPGs, these days, just haven't been challenging in the sense that I've been forced to use strategy. I've noticed that when people are defending a certain RPG these days they'll usually tell you to turn up the difficulty level - but that's doesn't actually force me to use new and different strategies, it just makes the current strategy more difficult.
I played the demo last night, before I read your review, Charles Dickens, and I have to say - you hit the nail squarely on the head. This is the first RPG since Baldur's Gate II, that actually captures what I'm looking for in a single player RPG (my favorite genre). Coming off of Oblivion, I had to get used to the control scheme, but within 30 minutes of wandering around, it was no problem. The game IS beautiful, even without the high res textures, and the perfectly crafted music , combined with the storybook visuals, creates an atmosphere that hasn't been achieved by anything else in recent memory. I'm picking up the full game today - probably at lunch.Born_Lucky
Yes! That is what I am talking about!
The game is freakin awesome, gorgeous graphics and environments, music, amazing depth, .... i just have a few rpgs going on now before i sink into it. But this game is an absolute gem.
[QUOTE="bogaty"]
Don't even bother with ther queen rat until you're level 8 or 9 and even then it's a brutally hard fight.
One of the things that really bothers me about the combat engine is that characters and enemies don't exert a zone of control. I think if I have two fighters in the front and my spellcaster behind them, the rats shouldn't just be able to run past my fighterrs as though they weren't there. Makes spell casters easy meat in a swarm attack and really detracts from the game.
Charles_Dickens
On the other hand it's kind of neat that NPCs will take out your spellcasters first - that would be my strategy too.
The only thing that's a bit odd here is that we're talking about rats - how do the rats know to take out the spellcasters and healers? It so happens that my rolled player is a mage - did the rats gang up on my character because my character is a mage, or did the rats gang up on my character because they were programmed to take out the player's rolled character first? In other words, had my rolled character been a fighter, would the rats have gone for the fighter first?
Anyway, I'm glad that I'm losing some of these fights, and that I'm being forced to balance out my party. Too many RPGs, these days, just haven't been challenging in the sense that I've been forced to use strategy. I've noticed that when people are defending a certain RPG these days they'll usually tell you to turn up the difficulty level - but that's doesn't actually force me to use new and different strategies, it just makes the current strategy more difficult.
They went after your PC because he's a mage. Mine was a burglar and was pretty much ignored as the useless git he was. Spellcaster got her face gnawed off and then they just gang sodomized my burglar until he had five wounds and went down. Fighters didn't last much longer. Once they get behind you and get the free criticals, it's all over.
The game needs zones of control. As it stands now, swarm attacks are far too powerful.
How do the rats klnow? - I tell you.
In the wild, animals always go for the one that is the weakest against physical attack. They can just tell, by instinct who that would be, and in the game - it's most likely your mage. . . . Well that's one explanation anyway.
[QUOTE="Charles_Dickens"]
[QUOTE="bogaty"]
Don't even bother with ther queen rat until you're level 8 or 9 and even then it's a brutally hard fight.
One of the things that really bothers me about the combat engine is that characters and enemies don't exert a zone of control. I think if I have two fighters in the front and my spellcaster behind them, the rats shouldn't just be able to run past my fighterrs as though they weren't there. Makes spell casters easy meat in a swarm attack and really detracts from the game.
bogaty
On the other hand it's kind of neat that NPCs will take out your spellcasters first - that would be my strategy too.
The only thing that's a bit odd here is that we're talking about rats - how do the rats know to take out the spellcasters and healers? It so happens that my rolled player is a mage - did the rats gang up on my character because my character is a mage, or did the rats gang up on my character because they were programmed to take out the player's rolled character first? In other words, had my rolled character been a fighter, would the rats have gone for the fighter first?
Anyway, I'm glad that I'm losing some of these fights, and that I'm being forced to balance out my party. Too many RPGs, these days, just haven't been challenging in the sense that I've been forced to use strategy. I've noticed that when people are defending a certain RPG these days they'll usually tell you to turn up the difficulty level - but that's doesn't actually force me to use new and different strategies, it just makes the current strategy more difficult.
They went after your PC because he's a mage. Mine was a burglar and was pretty much ignored as the useless git he was. Spellcaster got her face gnawed off and then they just gang sodomized my burglar until he had five wounds and went down. Fighters didn't last much longer. Once they get behind you and get the free criticals, it's all over.
The game needs zones of control. As it stands now, swarm attacks are far too powerful.
The trick to defeating the rats is to gang up on the rats one rat at time. If your party members each take on a different rat then you'll lose the fight. Alternatively, you could just go away and level-up your party some.
This game is a great RPG, the only annoying thing about it is the fact that the NPCS don't say much...rmfd341
When you say that the NPCs don't say much, do you mean that not all of their dialogue is spoken?
Initially, I was letdown when I saw that most of the dialogue was text-only - but now, surprisingly, I'm actually enjoying it that my characters don't speak their lines aloud. It allows me to use my own imagination, and it re-enforces the feeling that I'm taking part in a story. I also used to play text adventures a lot, so it sort of takes me back to the golden days of adventure gaming.
If you mean, on the other hand, that your party members hardly ever speak during the course of the game, then I'd have to say that that's a good thing. I was never really an admirer of the KOTOR system, where one of your party members would announce that they had something on their mind, and would then proceed to launch a speech about something that happened to them on their home-world twenty years ago. Unfortunately, this would usually happen right before a big battle. It's like, hey, guy, can't you see that we're about to engage in a big battle here - maybe you could give us the sob story at a more convenient time? I never wanted to listen to that crap anyhow, to tell you the truth.
[QUOTE="bogaty"]
[QUOTE="Charles_Dickens"]
On the other hand it's kind of neat that NPCs will take out your spellcasters first - that would be my strategy too.
The only thing that's a bit odd here is that we're talking about rats - how do the rats know to take out the spellcasters and healers? It so happens that my rolled player is a mage - did the rats gang up on my character because my character is a mage, or did the rats gang up on my character because they were programmed to take out the player's rolled character first? In other words, had my rolled character been a fighter, would the rats have gone for the fighter first?
Anyway, I'm glad that I'm losing some of these fights, and that I'm being forced to balance out my party. Too many RPGs, these days, just haven't been challenging in the sense that I've been forced to use strategy. I've noticed that when people are defending a certain RPG these days they'll usually tell you to turn up the difficulty level - but that's doesn't actually force me to use new and different strategies, it just makes the current strategy more difficult.
Charles_Dickens
They went after your PC because he's a mage. Mine was a burglar and was pretty much ignored as the useless git he was. Spellcaster got her face gnawed off and then they just gang sodomized my burglar until he had five wounds and went down. Fighters didn't last much longer. Once they get behind you and get the free criticals, it's all over.
The game needs zones of control. As it stands now, swarm attacks are far too powerful.
The trick to defeating the rats is to gang up on the rats one rat at time. If your party members each take on a different rat then you'll lose the fight. Alternatively, you could just go away and level-up your party some.
Nope, you have to resort to game-y tactics like slowly advancing to the edge of detection range and drawing them off one at a time. It's cheap, it ruins the atmosphere of the game, but it's the only way you'll be able to take on some of the later fights. Trying to gang up on one enemy can work, but your magic user's still going to be a quivering pile of goo when the fight ends. Makes even bringing one along pretty much a waste of time in most dungeons and buildings.
[QUOTE="rmfd341"]This game is a great RPG, the only annoying thing about it is the fact that the NPCS don't say much...Charles_Dickens
When you say that the NPCs don't say much, do you mean that not all of their dialogue is spoken?
Initially, I was letdown when I saw that most of the dialogue was text-only - but now, surprisingly, I'm actually enjoying it that my characters don't speak their lines aloud. It allows me to use my own imagination, and it re-enforces the feeling that I'm taking part in a story. I also used to play text adventures a lot, so it sort of takes me back to the golden days of adventure gaming.
If you mean, on the other hand, that your party members hardly ever speak during the course of the game, then I'd have to say that that's a good thing. I was never really an admirer of the KOTOR system, where one of your party members would announce that they had something on their mind, and would then proceed to launch a speech about something that happened to them on their home-world twenty years ago. Unfortunately, this would usually happen right before a big battle. It's like, hey, guy, can't you see that we're about to engage in a big battle here - maybe you could give us the sob story at a more convenient time? I never wanted to listen to that crap anyhow, to tell you the truth.
Although I agree about the KOTOR "chit chat before big battle" thing.... (I never liked it also), I must say that all dialogue in Drakensang should be audio spoken. I know it takes us back to old school RPG and the likes, but in this day and age and with the quality of other RPGs, all dialogue should be audio as well as written.Everyone complaining about mages getting gankedshould trythe mage armor buff spell(Fastness of Body). Maxed out, my mages tank better than my warriors. That and Ice Cold Warrior are amazing. Crowd Control skills also allow better control of mobs, particularly the Stone spell, and sleep.
Do you get to control the actions of all your party members? For example can I pause the game tell the mage in my group to cast a particular spell on a particular enemy and do the same thing for all of the members. (including myself obviously)
Do you get to control the actions of all your party members? For example can I pause the game tell the mage in my group to cast a particular spell on a particular enemy and do the same thing for all of the members. (including myself obviously)
Erratic_Knight
Yes, if you want to, you can pause and give all of your characters battle commands...ie, tell your spellcaster(s) to cast specific spells (you can even choose the magnitude of certain spells with some spellcasters) or tell your tanks to use certain special attacks.
[QUOTE="Charles_Dickens"][QUOTE="rmfd341"]This game is a great RPG, the only annoying thing about it is the fact that the NPCS don't say much...FelipeInside
When you say that the NPCs don't say much, do you mean that not all of their dialogue is spoken?
Initially, I was letdown when I saw that most of the dialogue was text-only - but now, surprisingly, I'm actually enjoying it that my characters don't speak their lines aloud. It allows me to use my own imagination, and it re-enforces the feeling that I'm taking part in a story. I also used to play text adventures a lot, so it sort of takes me back to the golden days of adventure gaming.
If you mean, on the other hand, that your party members hardly ever speak during the course of the game, then I'd have to say that that's a good thing. I was never really an admirer of the KOTOR system, where one of your party members would announce that they had something on their mind, and would then proceed to launch a speech about something that happened to them on their home-world twenty years ago. Unfortunately, this would usually happen right before a big battle. It's like, hey, guy, can't you see that we're about to engage in a big battle here - maybe you could give us the sob story at a more convenient time? I never wanted to listen to that crap anyhow, to tell you the truth.
Although I agree about the KOTOR "chit chat before big battle" thing.... (I never liked it also), I must say that all dialogue in Drakensang should be audio spoken. I know it takes us back to old school RPG and the likes, but in this day and age and with the quality of other RPGs, all dialogue should be audio as well as written. Yep. We're in 2009, not 1999. It should be an obligation...But I think the company wanted to lower the production costs, as I recall reading somewhere that they spent 2.5 million euros on Drakensang, if there were actors... It would be higher...Audio spoken dialogues should be a very very MINOR thing when judging a RPG.
No, it should not be an obligation nor should it be a major criterion when judging a game.
A lot of gamers have kinda lost the plot coz of being fed by unnecessary "fluff" features. BG series have very little spoken dialogue and it still trumps 95% of new RPGS. Even KOTOR could hardly match up to it in terms of its epic story. While i love KOTOR, the only reason it was such a "HOLY MOLLY! THATS AWESOME" with gamers is that twist with Darth Revan's story. Which is heavily inspired by Darth Vader's concept afterall, imho. (Jedi turned to Sith and came back to Jedi).
Bogaty, that's interesting about the rat situation.
It just goes to show that two people playing the same role playing game might have vastly different experiences fighting any given battle, depending on how the two people have leveled-up their parties. Myself, I just blasted right through the cellar and didn't have a problem until the end. The final group of rats just swarmed in - but as I said above, as long as I ganged up on the rats then all four party member were able to dispense with each rat in just two rounds. I went from rat to rat to rat, and cleaned them out, easily.
There's only one thing I'm confused about - are we talking about the same quest here?
This is the quest to free that rogue guy from the prison in Ferdok, correct? The quest takes place in the cellar of the brewery? I'm confused because you wrote that you had to resort to drawing off the rats one at a time, and defeating them that way. I tried that a bunch of times and it didn't work. If I slowly advanced on the rats, and I drew one off, then I drew them all off. Even the rats that were the farthest away came swarming in?
Audio spoken dialogues should be a very very MINOR thing when judging a RPG. No, it should not be an obligation nor should it be a major criterion when judging a game. A lot of gamers have kinda lost the plot coz of being fed by unnecessary "fluff" features. BG series have very little spoken dialogue and it still trumps 95% of new RPGS. Even KOTOR could hardly match up to it in terms of its epic story. While i love KOTOR, the only reason it was such a "HOLY MOLLY! THATS AWESOME" with gamers is that twist with Darth Revan's story.mirgamer
That the characters don't speak their dialogue aloud should've been a big issue for me - it's not.
I don't know what else to say. It's just not. I'm actually enjoying it. It's nice to be able to use my imagination. I also find that I'm focusing more on the text, and seem to be remembering what was said more vividly?
Bogaty, that's interesting about the rat situation.
It just goes to show that two people playing the same role playing game might have vastly different experiences fighting any given battle, depending on how the two people have leveled-up their parties. Myself, I just blasted right through the cellar and didn't have a problem until the end. The final group of rats just swarmed in - but as I said above, as long as I ganged up on the rats then all four party member were able to dispense with each rat in just two rounds. I went from rat to rat to rat, and cleaned them out, easily.
There's only one thing I'm confused about - are we talking about the same quest here?
This is the quest to free that rogue guy from the prison in Ferdok, correct? The quest takes place in the cellar of the brewery? I'm confused because you wrote that you had to resort to drawing off the rats one at a time, and defeating them that way. I tried that a bunch of times and it didn't work. If I slowly advanced on the rats, and I drew one off, then I drew them all off. Even the rats that were the farthest away came swarming in?
Charles_Dickens
The 4 level dungeon beneath the brewery. My first time trying it, I was only level 3 and got shredded more often than not. The second time I went in, I was level 6 and was able to do as you said until the Queen Rat. Tried again at levels 7,8, and finally 9 and I was only able to kill her at level 9 because of a game glitch where the Queen Rat got hung up on a rock and couldn't move. She still kept summonning wild rats and they ripped my party to shreds. The Dwarf went through 8 healing potions before that damned rat finally dropped.
Okay, played the game for an hour or so, and I was mesmerized by the graphics and advanced character stats. However, I find the camera very inconvenient. I can rotate right to left, but I cannot rotate up-down. Zoom in and out is not that helpful either. Often my camera is far away from the characters. Ever since I got my first party member, things got even messier. There should have been a chase camera option like in Neverwinter Nights, or at least an option to freely rotate the camera via mouse or some keyboard button. Also, the came requires a bit too much micro managing for my liking. I don't think I have the patience to go through all this :|DeadManRollin
This is the kind of statement that honestly baffles me - I heard this statement about NWN 2 as well. People complained about NWN 2's camera, so Obsidian basically provided every type of camera movement possible... and people still weren't satisfied. What more could they do? They provided so many options it was almost ridiculous.
I'm not sure what to say here. I'd like to help you out, but why is the camera inconvenient?
For me it's perfect. To control your entire party you simply click on the square icon on the bottom right of the screen. Then you click backwards once on your mouse's scroll-wheel to zoom out the camera. If you want to control the height of the camera you simply push forward on the mouse, or you pull it back. All you have to do to move your party is click on the ground. Your party will march forward and the camera will follow right behind.
It works perfectly?
The one worry I have is your statement about micro-managing. There's really no micro-managing in this game, apart from the standard gameplay that's required of a classic party-based RPG. Many RPG gamers have been dismayed in recent years by the dumbing-down of RPGs. We actually like to have control over our party - but that's not micro-management, it's just normal RPG gaming?
What are your favorite RPGs.
You really should stick with this game. It's a tremendous amount of fun.
[QUOTE="Charles_Dickens"]
Bogaty, that's interesting about the rat situation.
It just goes to show that two people playing the same role playing game might have vastly different experiences fighting any given battle, depending on how the two people have leveled-up their parties. Myself, I just blasted right through the cellar and didn't have a problem until the end. The final group of rats just swarmed in - but as I said above, as long as I ganged up on the rats then all four party member were able to dispense with each rat in just two rounds. I went from rat to rat to rat, and cleaned them out, easily.
There's only one thing I'm confused about - are we talking about the same quest here?
This is the quest to free that rogue guy from the prison in Ferdok, correct? The quest takes place in the cellar of the brewery? I'm confused because you wrote that you had to resort to drawing off the rats one at a time, and defeating them that way. I tried that a bunch of times and it didn't work. If I slowly advanced on the rats, and I drew one off, then I drew them all off. Even the rats that were the farthest away came swarming in?
The 4 level dungeon beneath the brewery. My first time trying it, I was only level 3 and got shredded more often than not. The second time I went in, I was level 6 and was able to do as you said until the Queen Rat. Tried again at levels 7,8, and finally 9 and I was only able to kill her at level 9 because of a game glitch where the Queen Rat got hung up on a rock and couldn't move. She still kept summonning wild rats and they ripped my party to shreds. The Dwarf went through 8 healing potions before that damned rat finally dropped.
Again, getting creative makes this an easy fight. Have your mage use the animal tame spell, and have all of those wild rats fighting on your side. Easy win.[QUOTE="DeadManRollin"]Okay, played the game for an hour or so, and I was mesmerized by the graphics and advanced character stats. However, I find the camera very inconvenient. I can rotate right to left, but I cannot rotate up-down. Zoom in and out is not that helpful either. Often my camera is far away from the characters. Ever since I got my first party member, things got even messier. There should have been a chase camera option like in Neverwinter Nights, or at least an option to freely rotate the camera via mouse or some keyboard button. Also, the came requires a bit too much micro managing for my liking. I don't think I have the patience to go through all this :|Charles_Dickens
This is the kind of statement that honestly baffles me - I heard this statement about NWN 2 as well. People complained about NWN 2's camera, so Obsidian basically provided every type of camera movement possible... and people still weren't satisfied. What more could they do? They provided so many options it was almost ridiculous.
I'm not sure what to say here. I'd like to help you out, but why is the camera inconvenient?
For me it's perfect. To control your entire party you simply click on the square icon on the bottom right of the screen. Then you click backwards once on your mouse's scroll-wheel to zoom out the camera. If you want to control the height of the camera you simply push forward on the mouse, or you pull it back. All you have to do to move your party is click on the ground. Your party will march forward and the camera will follow right behind.
It works perfectly?
The one worry I have is your statement about micro-managing. There's really no micro-managing in this game, apart from the standard gameplay that's required of a classic party-based RPG. Many RPG gamers have been dismayed in recent years by the dumbing-down of RPGs. We actually like to have control over our party - but that's not micro-management, it's just normal RPG gaming?
What are your favorite RPGs.
You really should stick with this game. It's a tremendous amount of fun.
Well, he kind of stated what was wrong with the camera and I agree with him. For a game that supposedly old school to not have included a top-down camera angle is not very helpful. It's a WoW/MMORPG camera, not a click to move camera, well you can click to move, but the camera does not stay centered on your party. The camera remains still until your party is just at the edge of the screen and then it moves. But it doesn't recenter on your party, it moves just enough to keep your party in the screen. Anyway, it's not a game breaker, but it is a little bit of an annoyance for me and others that I've noticed, especially when you are controlling a party of four characters in a tactical style of combat that these games provide.As far as control goes - I guess I do things different than most. I have it set to control almost like Oblivion.
Camera sensitivity - set to 1
Then I will either hold "w" and just rotate the camera to steer (most of the time), or .
I will use w to go forward while using Q&E to turn + A&D , with some camera rotation ( I use this much less often)
I almost never click to move my characters.
That's great for a game like Oblivion or Fallout 3 but here you are controlling four characters with several enemies during each fight. The camera should almost be like an RTS style camera (free look). I don't want to use my left hand for control of my character movement, I want to use it for skill hot keys 1-9, inventory, journal and map. I use my right hand on the mouse for selecting my party members and moving them to a spot on a battlefield. I realize that everyone has their own tastes, but for a game like this which is more like NWN and Baldur's Gate rather than Oblivion, you think they would of looked to those games to see what controls scheme works best. Anyway, this was a German developer, so maybe European players are more used to the controls they implemented. Maybe a future patch could at least add some camera options in. Anywho, I didn't come to start a flame war because I like the game, I just think some more camera options are needed.
[QUOTE="bogaty"][QUOTE="Charles_Dickens"]
Bogaty, that's interesting about the rat situation.
It just goes to show that two people playing the same role playing game might have vastly different experiences fighting any given battle, depending on how the two people have leveled-up their parties. Myself, I just blasted right through the cellar and didn't have a problem until the end. The final group of rats just swarmed in - but as I said above, as long as I ganged up on the rats then all four party member were able to dispense with each rat in just two rounds. I went from rat to rat to rat, and cleaned them out, easily.
There's only one thing I'm confused about - are we talking about the same quest here?
This is the quest to free that rogue guy from the prison in Ferdok, correct? The quest takes place in the cellar of the brewery? I'm confused because you wrote that you had to resort to drawing off the rats one at a time, and defeating them that way. I tried that a bunch of times and it didn't work. If I slowly advanced on the rats, and I drew one off, then I drew them all off. Even the rats that were the farthest away came swarming in?
TheCrazed420
The 4 level dungeon beneath the brewery. My first time trying it, I was only level 3 and got shredded more often than not. The second time I went in, I was level 6 and was able to do as you said until the Queen Rat. Tried again at levels 7,8, and finally 9 and I was only able to kill her at level 9 because of a game glitch where the Queen Rat got hung up on a rock and couldn't move. She still kept summonning wild rats and they ripped my party to shreds. The Dwarf went through 8 healing potions before that damned rat finally dropped.
Again, getting creative makes this an easy fight. Have your mage use the animal tame spell, and have all of those wild rats fighting on your side. Easy win.Only if you'd planned for it and used XP to buy that spell and level it up. I didn't, didn't have the spare XP, and didn't want to spend the points on that particular spell.
I don't do that during fights - When I'm in battle, I play "Baldur's Gate" style, pausing and giving separate orders (usually) to each team member. Also - On another forum someone said they used "meek you be" on the queen (?) rat. Has anyone tried that? Born_Lucky
Some people are playing Drakensang more like Titan Quest than Baldur's Gate - these people are playing at a thousand miles an hour, and aren't even pausing after every round when engaged in difficult fights. They're saying that pausing makes the game 'move too slowly' - and honestly I have no answer for that. Pausing, and issuing separate command orders, and creating a battle queue, is obviously fundamental to a classic, party-based RPG.
But the camera issue that some people are having still baffles me. I would've made for a horrible game designer, because honestly the camera, for me, is just perfect. You click on the ground and the camera follows right behind your character - how is that difficult?
When I'm engaged in battle the game pauses after the first round, then I simply pull the camera back and commence to issue orders separately to my party members, and then watch from high above as the battle takes place. Simple.
For me, games like Titan Quest have much bigger issues. The camera in Titan Quest just about drove me nuts. It was fixed in the air, and you couldn't drop it down to see what was in front of your. Or a game like The Witcher, which didn't allow me to walk my character - somebody else in this thread was making fun of me for mentioning that, but honestly that was a huge issue for me. If I can't walk my character then that just destroys the atmosphere. But here's the thing, the camera in The Witcher, and the camera in Drakensang, are completely identical. There's not one single difference between those two cameras. You click on the ground. Your character marches forward. The camera follows. Baffling.
But anyhow, I can see that Draknesang isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea, and that some individuals are going to find fault with even the tinniest little detail. Alright. Bring on Call Of Duty 15 then. Where's COD 15 going to be taking place by the way - on the moon?
I found the camera fine in outdoor locations but somewhat problematic in dungeons. It was sometimes difficult to reposition the camera so I could select a location on the ground that I wanted to move to. The zoom features didn't seem to work properly in confined areas. It's a minor quibble though. For me, the lack of zones of control was the biggest flaw in the game design.
The horrible save game corruption bug that twice wiped out my entire campaign was the real killer. Still patiently waiting on a patch that'll likely never come.
The horrible save game corruption bug that twice wiped out my entire campaign was the real killer.bogaty
What!
[QUOTE="bogaty"]The horrible save game corruption bug that twice wiped out my entire campaign was the real killer.Charles_Dickens
What!
See my post on the first page. It's a bug called NEBULA ASSERTION error and it's causing headaches for some owners. Basically, the save games get corrupted and you have to move all your saves to a different folder, completely uninstall and then reinstall the game, and move the saves back one by one from oldest to newest until the error repeats itself. Say the error repeats itself on the third save back from your latest save, all those saves are now corrupted and you have to delete them all.
The first time I got the error, I was about 15-20 hours into the game and I lost about 5 hours of playing time. The second time in, I was about 35 horus in and every single save was corrupted. I gave up after that as I have no desire to slog through all the beginning stuff again when there's a likelihood of getting the same damned bug further down the line.
Yup, I scoured the official forums, the RPGDot forums and the GameFAQ forums and tried every suggestion listed. None worked.
bogaty
Wow, bogaty, that's a real deal breaker. I sure hope that doesn't happen to me. There's a chance that I might actually finish this game, which is something that I almost never do.
Yikes. Now I'm scared.
When I got home from work tonight I launched Drakensang, intending to play for a half an hour... 2 hours later I forced myself to exit the program.
My god, that Moorbridge Marshes is just dripping with atmosphere (in particular, I love the way that The Undead drop to their knees and moan after you've killed them for the second and hopefully last time). I'm now convinced that Drakensang is going to be the RPG that I was hoping Dragon Age would be... Bioware is going to have to come up with something pretty damned special to top this one for me. I actually bought a brand new Alienware core i7, chiefly to be ready for Dragon Age - but now I'm glad that I own such a system in order to play Drakensang.
This is what gaming is all about. Great gameplay, great graphics, decent story. (Okay, I'll shut up now.)
Also, how many frames are some of you guys getting - I'm at 1680*1050, with all the sliders maxed out, and I must be getting around 60 fps. When my party is running towards its destination the animation is incredibly fluid.
I'm still awating an RPG that can match Diablo/Diablo 2..Mr_NoName111That'll be Diablo 3 - an action RPG, of course, unlike Drakensang and Dragon Age Origins, which are classic, party-based RPGs. Quite a big difference, really.
The only gripe I have now being late in the game is the tediousness of harvesting and the barrels. I need to explore everything so smashing barrel after barrel for Ferdok Pale Ale is getting tiresome. The harvesting just takes way too long too. Other than that, still a solid game, just fought a nice boss battle, and had a related quest that provided some good laughs.TheCrazed420Are you saying that near the end of the game we're forced to start smashing barrels? Or are you saying that you personally have been smashing barrels because you like to horde loot? I hate smashing barrels. I don't mind opening coffins inside crypts, but barrel smashing almost never rewards you with anything substantial. This reminds me of another cool thing that happened to me last night while I was playing: I decided to explore the entirety of the Moorbridge Marshes map, since I find that area to be so atmospheric. There was a slight drop in the terrain, so I went down and explored the dell. There was no reason to be there, other than it looked like a cool place. On my way out I spotted something sandwiched in between two trees - it was a treasure chest with, get this. 7 Ducats of gold in it! My party leader took the gold and actually said aloud: "It's good to go off the beaten path every now and then." How often in RPGs do you find yourself exploring an area that's out of bounds, wishing that you would get rewarded for doing so, but never do. In Mass Effect there was a neat little quest in which you were asked to scan the keepers - if you managed to scan all the keepers then you were provided with a nice little loot drop: essentially, you were being rewarded for exploring the entirety of the map, and looking into nooks and crannies which you might otherwise have ignored. I thought it was cool that in Drakensang the developers had rewarded me for exploring the marshes - you wouldn't want that sort of thing to happen all the time, of course, but to have it happen every once and a while is nice, and it now gives me an incentive to explore all of the other maps when eventually I arrive at them.
[QUOTE="Charles_Dickens"]
[QUOTE="bogaty"]The horrible save game corruption bug that twice wiped out my entire campaign was the real killer.bogaty
What!
See my post on the first page. It's a bug called NEBULA ASSERTION error and it's causing headaches for some owners. Basically, the save games get corrupted and you have to move all your saves to a different folder, completely uninstall and then reinstall the game, and move the saves back one by one from oldest to newest until the error repeats itself. Say the error repeats itself on the third save back from your latest save, all those saves are now corrupted and you have to delete them all.
The first time I got the error, I was about 15-20 hours into the game and I lost about 5 hours of playing time. The second time in, I was about 35 horus in and every single save was corrupted. I gave up after that as I have no desire to slog through all the beginning stuff again when there's a likelihood of getting the same damned bug further down the line.
Got it fixed. Turns out that the Nebula asserion error was designed to screw up pirated copies of the game but that it also affected some people (like me) who bought the d/l version from Gamersgate. Redownloaded and it seems to be working fine now.
[QUOTE="bogaty"]
[QUOTE="Charles_Dickens"]
What!
bogaty
See my post on the first page. It's a bug called NEBULA ASSERTION error and it's causing headaches for some owners. Basically, the save games get corrupted and you have to move all your saves to a different folder, completely uninstall and then reinstall the game, and move the saves back one by one from oldest to newest until the error repeats itself. Say the error repeats itself on the third save back from your latest save, all those saves are now corrupted and you have to delete them all.
The first time I got the error, I was about 15-20 hours into the game and I lost about 5 hours of playing time. The second time in, I was about 35 horus in and every single save was corrupted. I gave up after that as I have no desire to slog through all the beginning stuff again when there's a likelihood of getting the same damned bug further down the line.
Got it fixed. Turns out that the Nebula asserion error was designed to screw up pirated copies of the game but that it also affected some people (like me) who bought the d/l version from Gamersgate. Redownloaded and it seems to be working fine now.
Great to hear. I'm aways into the game and your original post had me concerned. I have the disk copy of the game so I'm now breathing easier.
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