Here's my notes from my playtest of the Ambassador demo. On and off stream I accumulated about 3 hours of playtime. Overall, I had a lot of fun playing in the arena and can't wait to see what you guys cook up. I am mostly looking forward to the Ranger/Archer class as that is my usual go to in any type of RPG. So far my favorite class is the Elementalist.
Playtest Setup:
Valve Index
2080ti, i7 7700k, 32GB Ram
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/571403026
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/572129040
General:
The only noticeable performance issue was after using the Astral Shard system. I got noticeable frame drops after slotting a shard. Other than that, it was smooth sailing.
Snap turning, with the current snap turning method, I have to turn my head the other direction I want to move. This made snap turning for me unusable, so I dealt with the tangled cable.
The holstering seemed to be finicky. Mainly with the health potion. Suggest making the area to holster a bit larger and adding more separation between the weapons and potion.
Drinking potions was also troublesome, I had a hard time getting the right angle when trying to drink them. Also, when finishing a potion my first instinct is to throw it and hear a satisfying glass break.
In the arena there were two music tracks I heard, combat and out of combat. If there are enemies still on the field, I feel like the combat music should still be playing, but if I wasn’t targeted by an enemy, it would play the out of combat music.
In the tavern rooms, there was a fall out of the map glitch on the wall next to the night stand. See my first stream video for more info.
Playing on the Valve Index was pretty seamless. No serious control issues. I would however love to see finger tracking, even if it’s only purpose is wiggling my fingers in front of my face, giving a friend a thumbs up, or “keeping up foriegn relations”.
For the UI buttons to enter the Arena, leave the arena, and start the arena, I had to holster my wand/sword/dagger. I would like to be able to press those with the tip of my wand.
The bosses seemed to be just a higher damage/hp version of the other enemies.
When getting attacked, sometimes I noticed red on my screen from getting hit, sometimes I was confused on how I died.
Elementalist:
Casting spells is very rewarding, but when charging a basic attack while moving, the orb would be in the original spot, and slowly drag behind. Unsure if this is a design choice.
Occasionally, I would summon a fireball, and it would be stuck in place, on the map, for the duration I am in the arena.
When trying to cast spells (using the right thumbpad) occasionally, twice during my playtime, my right controller would be stuck vibrating, and I would be unable to cast anything further. I would have to restart my game to fix this.
The spells worked very well together, but usually led to me doing the same combo. Kite all the mobs to one area, use an ice shield, drop the ground aoe fire spell, and then use the cone fire attack. This usually leads to melting my enemies, which felt very satisfying.
Rogue:
I was unable to use the Stealth Ability in combat, so it was only useful for ambush attacks. In the other modes of the game, that would probably be more useful, but for the arena I used it once. I’d recommend allowing it to be used anytime, so it can either be for an ambush or for a quick escape.
Knight:
I am not sure how effective the Knight’s shield was, but I felt like I could get a lot closer to my enemies. The skills felt right and it was fun to play. Sword and board isn’t my usual playstyle, so I didn’t spend much time with it.
Items:
The armor design all looked really cool in their own way and I really dig the low-poly aesthetic.
The Astral Shard system is an interesting system, I think it will work well. I leveled the Elementalist to 5 and got a Mana shard. I looked at my before and after stats and nothing changed, I’m still not sure if mana is in the game yet.