Underworld Ascendant - Release Day

Didn't back it for reasons I can't remember today. I do remember calling it codex goty sometime in the past.

Like Bards Tale; in this condition it won't sell which means it will only get very limited support. The game has potential but they shot themselves in teh foot. It might very well be that they had no choice but releasing in this condition isn't going to help.

Originally Posted by Pongo
That's pretty sad. I'm still hoping a fully patched version might end up being fun for what it is, if you go in with low expectations etc.

I can live without save-anywhere if it's part of good game design (not sure if that's the case here, I haven't played it yet) but I absolutely need save-on-exit these days. From the Steam reviews it sounds like a save-on-exit isn't really working at the minute either (eg the levels reset - which is really poor).

Fingers crossed that they turn this bad start around in the coming months and get the game working as they intended. A few extra months in development was clearly needed, but presumably they had their reasons to push it out.

What I don't understand is how anyone that plays these kinds of games thought this kind of save system was going to go over well. Matter of fact, these are the kinds of reports that keep me from buying certain games, although since I supported this one, that isn't exactly an option. I guess we all have to hope that they re-evaluate this decision and create a better saving feature.

Well, I backed this but I'm playing Fallout 76 currently, so it'll have to wait.

Originally Posted by Carnifex
What I don't understand is how anyone that plays these kinds of games thought this kind of save system was going to go over well. Matter of fact, these are the kinds of reports that keep me from buying certain games, although since I supported this one, that isn't exactly an option. I guess we all have to hope that they re-evaluate this decision and create a better saving feature.

I don't think anyone thoght that this is a good save system. I guess it's just a lack of resources to implement a peoper save-anywhere feature.

They got $900K and never implemented a real save system?!
Damn, son.

There's a small patch out now. They also mention future fixes in their message:
https://steamcommunity.com/games/692…11426387266185

Today’s hotfix addresses a number of quick fixes for reported bugs and localization issues. It also adds logging to help us track down crashes. Your 21:9 support is here too!

We will continue to work on the top community issues that will take a bit more time to address (save games, AI, saving option settings, art glitches, crashes, player movement and performance, etc.).

It does seem a bit like one of those cases where they ran out of cash and had to release what they had to make payroll. I've seen publishers force this if the publisher is about out of cash, too. Maybe we'll read about it in some post-mortem some day.

At least it sounds like there's hope. If they address those things, this could still be a really good game.

To be honest 900K isn't enough to make a game these days in usa. Also one problem some of these studios are facing (bards tale anyone) is raw talent on the programming side. These folks have a lot of big names; but what prompts my comment is what a very talented 4 or 6 person team can do compare to some of these larger groups.
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Having said that I suspect Larian is also suffering from bloat (aren't they over 100 people now - but i guess a lot of those are content writers and not developers (coders)). I focus on the coders because some of these recent projects have (imho) decent ideas and overall layouts but suffer from a huge number of mechanical errors that quality talent would catch as they develop.

Yes qa should catch obscure errors but the developers have to catch common issues that are impossible to miss.

Originally Posted by screeg
They got $900K and never implemented a real save system?!
Damn, son.

I would easily choose reduced graphics and absolutely no audio over not having an actual save system included from the start. What on earth were they thinking, people aren't going to just sit and play the game until they get to an established save junction, they will likely refund and bad-mouth the game first before going through all of that nonsense. The more I think about it, the less sense it all makes, but at least it does seem like they are aware of some major issues, and are working to fix some of them.

To be honest I think it was a design decision gone gabook. I suspect the high level idea was to reduce save scumming but they didn't connect the original idea with the finish product. I.e, this only works if there are many small levels that can be quickly completed. Bards Tale isn't quite as bad but there are some sections in the game where the save points are excessively far (2 or 3 hours); though many of them are 20 or 30 minutes apart. Anyway it is what it is and hopefully it will be changed.

Originally Posted by Carnifex
I would easily choose reduced graphics and absolutely no audio over not having an actual save system included from the start. What on earth were they thinking, people aren't going to just sit and play the game until they get to an established save junction, they will likely refund and bad-mouth the game first before going through all of that nonsense. The more I think about it, the less sense it all makes, but at least it does seem like they are aware of some major issues, and are working to fix some of them.

Backed this but i can't remember why…certainly from what I've seen/head it doesn't look like a game I'd really enjoy playing. I must have been carried along by nostalgia. At least they released a game though.

Originally Posted by HiddenX
Which free version? - Do you mistake it with Shroud of the Avatar?

Sorry, i mean the free internet version ; Seems i was right anyway, looks like not even 100 patches will make this worth playing.

You mean copy which makes other companies use painfully strong drm ? Why don't you call it for what it is instead of pretending it isn't theft ?

Originally Posted by porcozaur
Sorry, i mean the free internet version ; Seems i was right anyway, looks like not even 100 patches will make this worth playing.

I backed it. Played around with it for an hour until I got a CTD, and subsequently lost my progress. I won't be playing again until it's considerably more stable and the save system is changed.

Originally Posted by you
You mean copy which makes other companies use painfully strong drm ? Why don't you call it for what it is instead of pretending it isn't theft ?

Pretty sure he was just making a common joke about how this game isn't even worth pirating…..

Got it, had some fun with it but kept getting kicked back to starting area due to my POOR SAVING SCHEME. Apparently the developers felt a normal save took away too much of the challenge.

Fortunately I only played for 5 hours in about one day. Got a refund and posted on Steam I would come back after they fix the save "feature"

OMG…..I just went to my kickstarter account and saw that I was a backer. Steam has refunded my hard cash purchase but how long should I wait to down load the keys so Steam don't think I'm a cheater????????

steam doesnt care for keys, they only refund stuff bought on their store

It all worked fine. Just uploaded the keys and the game is back in my inventory. I had the refund go to my Steam Wallet so now I am on the hunt to spend my money on another game . . . .