Redshift Community

i'll just stick my insignificant thoughts and hopes here. its probably way too far in development for anything "new" to be added in but i just wanted to say some things and let it off my chest..basically, nonsensical rambling, enjoy or something...

Things that i'll like to see in the sequel:
-Diverse population; what i mean by this is that in the past game there was all these races you could choose from but most to all of the npc's were the basic human race, the "Etherim" i believe. i'd like to see Seirys, Derths, Nogurs etc mingling with the population, even though everyone seems to hate eachother in this game.

-Clear lore; The previous game didn't take itself too seriously, even though that was probably part of the charm of the game but the lore seemed lacking because of it. There was all these cool races and countries ( or continents, i dunno) in the game but they seemed like they were just...there..well, tbh i never got to the very end of the game so all this might be irrelevant but whatever. I've sidetracked a bit so back on topic, basically i never got a real feel of what was really happening, what has happened in the past, why each race hated each other, ect etc. so in all, (this is probably just rambling at this point) i'd like a more fleshed out lore or fleshed out story in the sequel, one that would explain the lore of The Quest's world.

-Competent city guards; this one is short. i'd like the guards to either ward off enemies or straight out attack them. I've been in many situations as i'm being chased by an orc, i run into town and the orc just follows right through and the guards don't seem to mind a bit.

*takes a deep breath* okay, that's it, oh, also a friend just showed me that you guys just released a steam version with new graphics, sweat! I never got to the end of the quest mainly due to me having to use the ipod to play (and i despize those things). Hopefully now, i'll be able to fully enjoy the game.

P.S will the old graphic's be available to choose in the steam version? don't get me wrong, the new stuff looks great but its just not what i'm used too.

Old thread (and sadly dead) but I can't think of a better title for my own "thoughts, suggestions, hopes".
Most of these are nits.

Some UI stuff

• I've been playing TQ on and off on iOS since soon after its release; first on iPod and then iPad mini. The controls worked well. Nice Big Buttons and widgets are easy for Nogur fingers to mash. Moving to TQHD I was very disoriented- all the widgets were tiny and I kept missing the hitboxes. Took several hours of playing before they were semi-usable and several more before I could actually hit them most of the time. I still can't imagine how this would be usable on an iPod/iPhone.
  Upshot: be careful when you downsize existing widgets that people have grown accustomed to. I was close to the point of giving up before my fingers finally started to work right. If you think you may need to add more widgets later down the road, budget for them in the initial TQ2 release. Please!
  
• Taking away features (even small, silly ones) will annoy people. For me, Rotation Lock in TQ was essential. With TQHD I have to manually enable/disable Rotation in iOS every time I switch the app out. If its not too late to add Rot lock to TQ2 (or TQHD???), that would be nifty to have. But more than that, once things are baked in, let them stew. Unless there's a good reason to remove them.

Graphic stuff

• Ability to rescale textures in the Editor, or add palettes other manipulations without needing to make multiple copies would be nifty. I realize you're looking at newer devices with more and faster ram but.... still. I'm rooting for old machines with inferior specs. I know that's not as much fun....

Sound

• MIDI import for expansions?

Scripting

• I want a pony!
• loops.... strings.... more access to game environment variables.... all the things that are difficult to implement
• And a unicorn!

General / Editor

• Possibility of redefining races, stats, skills, other things that were baked in for Legacy/TQ? There might be good reasons not to do that. But still... neat to have.
• Test early, test often. While the mice are away.... let the Cat play. So to speak.
• Character view mode? Render of char with worn equipment? Just for fun!

Real-time combat, real-time movement

• PLEASE
• GOD
• NO

thanks!

Spam Troll wrote:Old thread (and sadly dead) but I can't think of a better title for my own "thoughts, suggestions, hopes".
Most of these are nits.

Some UI stuff

• I've been playing TQ on and off on iOS since soon after its release; first on iPod and then iPad mini. The controls worked well. Nice Big Buttons and widgets are easy for Nogur fingers to mash. Moving to TQHD I was very disoriented- all the widgets were tiny and I kept missing the hitboxes. Took several hours of playing before they were semi-usable and several more before I could actually hit them most of the time. I still can't imagine how this would be usable on an iPod/iPhone.
  Upshot: be careful when you downsize existing widgets that people have grown accustomed to. I was close to the point of giving up before my fingers finally started to work right. If you think you may need to add more widgets later down the road, budget for them in the initial TQ2 release. Please!
  
• Taking away features (even small, silly ones) will annoy people. For me, Rotation Lock in TQ was essential. With TQHD I have to manually enable/disable Rotation in iOS every time I switch the app out. If its not too late to add Rot lock to TQ2 (or TQHD???), that would be nifty to have. But more than that, once things are baked in, let them stew. Unless there's a good reason to remove them.

Graphic stuff

• Ability to rescale textures in the Editor, or add palettes other manipulations without needing to make multiple copies would be nifty. I realize you're looking at newer devices with more and faster ram but.... still. I'm rooting for old machines with inferior specs. I know that's not as much fun....

Sound

• MIDI import for expansions?

Scripting

• I want a pony!
• loops.... strings.... more access to game environment variables.... all the things that are difficult to implement
• And a unicorn!

General / Editor

• Possibility of redefining races, stats, skills, other things that were baked in for Legacy/TQ? There might be good reasons not to do that. But still... neat to have.
• Test early, test often. While the mice are away.... let the Cat play. So to speak.
• Character view mode? Render of char with worn equipment? Just for fun!

Real-time combat, real-time movement

• PLEASE
• GOD
• NO

thanks!

Why no real time combat? I have no issues with the turn based combat but i feel as if thats just nostalgia on my part and objectively, the game would improve with real time combat

no matter how i see it, the turn based combat is restrictive and shallow.

1. makes all weapons and magic homogeneous in function by eliminating potential for weapon/casting speed. pretty much makes it impossible to give active differences between light and heavy weapon or swords and maces or many damaging spells and having to rely only on passive differences. having real time combat and consequently real time weapon attacks would make combat infinitely deeper and more interactive.

2. makes combat predictive and exploitable since everyone moves at the same speed as you. makes many degenerate strategies like poison+calm, paralyze locks, monster drags to town, etc possible since you always move first

3. eliminates the movement aspect of combat which is a major part of combat to cut out of a game. its impossible to incorporate things like strafing, attack+retreat or retreating for superior positioning since all monsters will be right on your heels since the turn based system makes all monsters move together with you.

4. breaks immersion by altering you of a monster's presence and ruins possible for an element of surprise which is a quite the loss in an open world game.

Just some weaknesses with the system that i tried to overcome adding more convoluted rules to the turn based system but ultimately conclude that its just a flaw with the system and not the execution.

As for technical stuff, it's up to Elendil, hopefully he'll answer soon.

As for the realtime combat, yes, we have many reasons to switch to that, and Pohdoh wrote some of them here. Yes, one of the most important things is the speed - it's a very complex thing and I really missed it in TQ1. In TQ2 there will be more difference between light and heavy weapons (or spells, etc. - each of them will take different time so you have to be careful, also heavy armor slows you down, etc.). Monsters will have their own speed, including movement and action. Characters/races/etc. will have their own speed. Also in TQ2 you'll be able to sneak, for example. The movement aspect of a battle is also important, now you'll have it at last in a combat. And, well, for the graphic side, at last you'll really see the animations of the monsters, not just a quick sliding and then standing there like sculptures. : )
And many more - many of TQ2's new skills and combat tactics will need the speed.
You'll love it, don't worry. : )

UI: We'll design Q2 to be as playable as possible. Which includes careful sizing and positioning of touch controls.
Graphics: who knows how the Q2 will work in the end.
Sound: no midi. Q2 will feature normal compressed (mp3/vorbis) music. Which you'll be able to add in the editor.
Scripting: Q2 will use Lua.
Editor: just like graphics. It's too early to really talk about features. We'll try to make it flexible for sure.
Real-time combat: I think this has been answered already, but I'll add that it'll definitely won't be a "twitch-fest". We'll want to fix the shortcomings in The Quest, but the pace of combat should still be slow enough to think and react.

I want to point out that turn based does not limit usage of speed or movement. First of all you could use a timer for all characters to indicate when their next turn is going to trigger. Something like Monsters Den Godfall did. You could also have multiple actions per turn, which could be limited to one attack and one movement, or be free to use any actions. And for weapon effects, I could think of hundreds of possible ways to make weapons more interesting than just a damage value. One weapon could for example have multiple attacks or abilities which you choose from. That being said, while I prefer turn based games, I'm going to buy TQ2 regardless when it's finished.

That game is completely different.

What we have in mind is more like Eye of the Beholder (or Dungeon Master, if we want to go back to the beginnings). It's realtime, but it's "turn based" in a way. You cannot just spam attack, everything takes some time. But the main point is that it should feel intuitive. Your group of adventurers stands in a corridor. As they move forward they run into a monster. They can hit it and the monster can hit back. All in "real time", no separate battle screens and such and the monster won't wait forever for you to react.

Of course you can add arbitrary depth to a turn based solution. We want a realtime system for its feel mainly, not because a turn based system is too limiting.

I didn't say it's similar in any way, I know it's way different, but I was only referring to the timer mechanic that could be adapted to other types of games, such as this. But whatever.

Just throwing my 2-cents:

1. Disenchant

Ability to remove all enchantments from an item

2. Respec

Ability to reset / reshape your character. Should be an extrodinary event, but is necessary with a "fixed" game, where you can't really grind into godhood and are stuck in a good story with a weak character.