Swordhaven: Iron Conspiracy - Kickstarter late March

[JDR13]

No impression on demo yet? I only had time to play around with character creation but looking great so far!

I was too tired tonight to play for long, but I messed around with it for about 40 minutes. I explored the first two maps which are square like in BG1 but smaller. Had one battle against a big lizard and reached a village before saving my game. I'll play more in the morning.

It feels pretty good for an Alpha build. The only thing I don't like is the camera which, to me, seems like it's too directly above the characters. I wish it was at more of an angle.

 

[Stingray]

It feels pretty good for an Alpha build. The only thing I don't like is the camera which, to me, seems like it's too directly above the characters. I wish it was at more of an angle.

You can change the camera angle by holding down the middle mouse button and then moving the mouse up or down. If you didn't already know...
(Or if you've turned off the "Alternative Camera Controls" option that's on by default, use right mouse button instead of middle button)

 

[Morrandir]

Backed it on the lowest tier. I'm not totally convinced, but let's see.

 

[purpleblob]

I'm going to put my impression here as I go.

• I liked intro video
• Character creation is detailed and can see good roleplaying potential.
• Background selection should have come after attribute/skills page but before distinctions selection - I think it makes more sense this way since both background and distinctions impact attributes/skills but there is no tooltip which shows what each attribute/skill does - e.g. I've chosen noble which increased "outdoormanship" and I had no idea what this was.
• I agree with @JDR13 - camera angle is strange. I know that you can adjust but even so, angle feels off - feels too top down, its a bit difficult to describe
• Not sure how to transfer items from one character to another
• Not sure where to find information on how many attacks turn I get - I saw some kind of energy meter and I can tell how much energy will be spent by moving but not quite so sure of attacks
• Loading speed is verrrryyy slow but I suppose its an alpha
• I like how you discover hidden items and dig them out
• Environment is pretty
• I've chosen a noble, so I hope I will start off my journey with better equipment in full release - right now, I don't feel much different to a commoner with red hat and a shovel as a weapon EDIT: ok, I clicked on ability but didn't click "learn" so the game couldn't tell which weapon to give me which is why I got stuck with a shovel LOL
• I like crafting. Just failed to made a potion and I'm on 4HP and my companion just left me to die! So my adventure may not long last uh-oh!

 

[Redglyph]

It's only 2.4 GB to download, so I'll quickly do that now and try it later today. Funny that they support RTwP and TB, now; developers usually go the other way.

 

[purpleblob]

It's only 2.4 GB to download, so I'll quickly do that now and try it later today. Funny that they support RTwP and TB, now; developers usually go the other way.

There is no RTwP currently implemented in alpha, only TB

 

[txa1265]

Excellent news - backed the KS ... won't touch the game until release.

 

[purpleblob]

I sunk in about 2 hours so far and had to call it a night (work tomorrow) but I'm having a blast!!! It's so fun meeting new people at the town I've just arrived, making small talks and learning more about them.

 

[Morrandir]

I sunk in about 2 hours so far and had to call it a night (work tomorrow) but I'm having a blast!!! It's so fun meeting new people at the town I've just arrived, making small talks and learning more about them.

That sounds encouraging.

 

[Couchpotato]

I'm surprised they will implement RTwP as their specialty is TB combat. So I'm really not surprised it's not added yet, and might not be added till after it releases.

Then again it's just a demo.

 

[Vaelith]

A bit of an orange flag there (only because I don't want to say red) that they want to do both systems with so few resources. I could see Larian doing something like this and puling it off somehow, and maybe not even. We all saw the woes that Owlcat went through when they implemented it in Wrath of the Righteous, having a significant budget and a pretty large team. Obsidian only managed to implement a workable TB mode a year after the RTwP release of PoE2, and it was messy as hell. An indie studio like this wants to pull this off in time for the game's release while making the game at the same time? I rather they chose one and perfect it, I don't care either TB or RTwP. This will almost inevitably lead to both being lackluster at best, and completely broken at worst.

I'll keep on my stance of wait and see, regardless, and still hope for the best, but less hopeful today than I was yesterday.

 

[daveyd]

I'm also skeptical two combat modes can be done well. I've yet to see any studio pull it off. Since TB is my preference I played Pillars 2 and the Pathfinder games in TB mode: IMHO the combat just wasn't as enjoyable as a it is in games designed for turn-based combat. Perhaps that is partially an effect of them adding the TB mode as an afterthought though. Arcanum is the only RPG I can think of that had both TB and real-time from the beginning (but in that case I don't think either mode is very good).

In theory it can be done as RTwP can be turn-based under the hood with turns just done simultaneously. But a lot of it will be depend on encounter design. I hope they avoid trash mobs as IMO trash encounters aren't fun to deal with regardless of combat system, but they're especially tedious in TB.

At any rate, from my time with the demo (TB) combat seems decent enough so far, albeit a little basic. I think there's potential for a very good game so I'm happy to back it.

My guess is this game may be the reverse of Deadfire and Pathfinder, turn-based fans will be satisfied, but RTwP fans will find it lackluster. Hope I'm wrong, it would be great if everyone could get what they want, but one good combat system is hard enough for developers to implement.