Eschalon discussion

Wow…..too long texts….hnestly is at a complaint for an rpg?

Dasale, how old are you? This game is really not targeted at the "instant gratification" generation. This game hearkens back to the old days, so if you didn't grow up with the Gold Box games and Bards Tale, it might not be for you. This game doesn't have any "wiz bang" features. It is a solidly built engine that allows great character building via combat.

The n00b does raise some interesting points. For one, combat - especially for fighters - is way too simplistic. (a lot more simplistic than Halo's, I'll bet.)


Man I love being an internet jackass!

And you're very good at it.

I'm downloading the new updated and longer demo so I can start over ten or twelve more times.

Hehe, thanks. *takes a bow*

Loving this game, huh? I guess you can throw me in the crowd of people who were very excited at first and were then a little disappointed with the actual product. Definitely going to complete this one though, I'm not that disappointed.

I'm still a bit ambivalent. I enjoy it, but I haven't got to the addiction level. I'm not through with it yet, though.

The game has serveral shortcomings but it's generally quite good. Visuals are simple but very nice, especially outdoors.

What I like most:
- XP system, most XP from quests / exploration, litte for monster bashing
- good balance of game elements (combat vs exploration, dungeons vs outdoors)
- cartography skill

What I dislike most:
- The loot is too randomized, the same chest may contain nothing or 500 g.p. piece of armour, and it is randomized at the moment of opening - reload addiction possible

I never completed Eschalon because I enjoy early character building so much. The biggest weakness in the game is the story. The actual story is okay, but you're not really encouraged to follow it and it only advances once in a while. The game could have used some longer sidequests. I'm an avid reloader

Originally Posted by Bar Tec

What I dislike most:
- The loot is too randomized, the same chest may contain nothing or 500 g.p. piece of armour, and it is randomized at the moment of opening - reload addiction possible

Word.

Moreover, I'd like to see less =amount= of randomized loot, too. Possibly a lot less.
I think I'd be happy with around 20-50% of the loot being preset items; That can definitely make for better gameplay, especially if combined with some creativeness and ingenuity.

Seems to me that Eschalon will get a lot more traction with more experienced gamers. The nostalgia angle is pretty important to the enjoyment of the game, so young (not necessarily by age) gamers will lack the necessary perspective. Similarly, the depth of character creation can only fill the void for those old enough to know that it's been missing.

Basilisk seems to understand this pretty well. Hopefully the subset of the subset of the subset that is their target audience is large enough to make the finances work out and make Book 2 possible.

@dteowner

If he talks about not having enough registrations to make Book II, we're all going to expect you to go to his house and "convince" him of the errors of his ways

You live in the same state, maybe the same city, so it's your job!

From what Basilisk has told me things are looking good for book 2. There is a section in the forums to discuss it.

You can put your ideas for things to improve and whatnot I srongly suggest you do that guys I for one suggested a different scale for overland map to make the world larger and so he can add to the interesting areas instead of random forrest/beach.

Feel free to add any ideas.

Originally Posted by crpgnut
@dteowner

If he talks about not having enough registrations to make Book II, we're all going to expect you to go to his house and "convince" him of the errors of his ways

You live in the same state, maybe the same city, so it's your job!

Don't know exactly where he's at, but I think Basilisk's on the same corner of Indy that I used to be on (the cd shipped from an address a couple miles from the old house). I'm only 2 hours away now, so I can play brute squad should the need arise.

Tried the demo.

Impressive aesthetics for an indie title, but the gameplay seemed exceedingly simplistic. I'm an old-school dude, but that doesn't really help me in being attracted to utterly basic mechanics and barren gameplay.

I guess I missed something, but this strikes me mostly as a watered down rogue-like clone with a bit of a story and some very decent visuals considering. However, I find the 800x600 resolution something of a joke and even as an indie developer you must offer at least 1024x768 - or that's how I see it anyway.

Still, you could tell by the level of polish that the developers were serious when they made it, and that they must be perfectionists on an aesthetic level. They (or is it just one person?) obviously have talent, so I'm looking forward to seeing something a bit more sophisticated than this next time, as significant progress has been made in terms of gameplay since the early Ultimas which is the level of complexity we're talking about here.

The gameplay isn't "simplistic" at all. In fact, I've found it more challenging and engaging than most titles I've played recently. Don't be fooled by the throw-back look. There's quite a bit going on under the hood…

Originally Posted by chamr
The gameplay isn't "simplistic" at all. In fact, I've found it more challenging and engaging than most titles I've played recently. Don't be fooled by the throw-back look. There's quite a bit going on under the hood…

I'm not talking about the level of challenge, but the complexity and depth of gameplay. As I said, I may have missed something but it seemed to be a very basic combat system involving a click on the enemy and that's basically it. I didn't find a way to use any active skills in combat (playing as a rogue), but I guess there are a lot of hidden features if what you say is true. I didn't encounter any NPCs during my time with it (though I'm aware they're there), nor did I find any significant interaction with the environment beyond opening chests or just clicking things to get a little text pop-up. Maybe there are puzzles/riddles?

I might take another look, but somehow I doubt it'll change my perspective.

All the things you mention are in there, DA. If you're coming in with a negative impression (that's an observation and not an indictment), I doubt the demo will be strong enough to sway you. That said, the new demo lets you go further, which will let you experience several of the factors you haven't seen yet. Your experience will change a fair bit based on the character you build, too. Combat WAS relatively simplistic for my axe meister, but that suited my sumo mentality nicely so I wasn't disappointed. Combat can get very complex for stealth types, although it's probably less noticeable at lower levels.

beta 1.04 is available

[FIXED]: Bug with Haste III potions
[FIXED]: Even more map issues.
[FIXED]: Enchant Weapon scroll has proper icon.
[FIXED]: ESC from Portal Spell works.
[FIXED]: The game should now work on most non-English versions of Windows, whereas the previous version would crash when not being able to see "My Documents".
[FIXED]: Made changes to the Character Editor to eliminate a few remaining bugs.
[UPDATED]: Added an additional error message to the save-game process to notify players if there is a problem.

Remember, this is a BETA! Two things to watch out for:

The "My Document" fix may actually cause some problems for people whose Documents are not actually called "My Documents". If the game doesn't see "My Documents", it will attempt to save the game inside the installation directory. You may need to do some manual copying of your saved games to the new directory if this happens.

Secondly: I've incorporated several fixes into the Character Editor. Those of you who have figured out exploits in the past- please give this one a work over and see if you can break it. Hopefully the small skill point bug from the last fix is now fixed as well.

http://basiliskgames.com/betas/eb1_104_update.exe

I'm hoping he stops bugfixing soon and moves to balancing the game. I'd love to see mages, healers, and rogues to be as powerful as melee builds. Almost everyone who has completed the game as a Destroyer was a melee. Kudos to someone doing it as a mage finally.

Originally Posted by magerette
I'm downloading the new updated and longer demo so I can start over ten or twelve more times.

Magerette, I think we must be related We both have major start-over-itis issues. I've never gotten past level 11-12, but I've rerolled at least 10 characters and maybe as many as 20.