My Beta Feedback So Far

First, I’d like to say that I’m enjoying the server very much and consider my complaints below mostly trivial and I will certainly continue playing even if they are not addressed. Also, I may be missing alot since none of my chars have made it very far out of Dohral.

- When’s the beta over already? Will there be a vault wipe when the beta is over?

- Dungeons, there is a lack of lowbie dungeons, or at least ones that I can find. This has been somewhat addressed in another thread, but I still haven’t found the lizard caves.

- Merchants are wicked annoyihg. Some say pick from the non-existant stock, some only let you purchase one item at a atime. Buying one item at a time is frustrating when you need to buy 50 herbs to use a herbology formula.

- College is nice, but has potential for uberness, at least based on the manual, but it doesn’t work as advertised. I’ve been spending precious skill points in crafting, but enchanting hardly ever works even when it appears to. I recommend better feedback as to why nothing happens even when the success animations go off.

- Death System. Stop with the soul runes already. Death holds no fear due to the near infinite number of soul runes my chars possess and they get more every server reset.

- Food, drink, bathing and haircuts are boring, nwn is an escape from rl to me, I don’t want to deal with mundane stuff.

Hello MIZFAT! Thank you for your feedback! We always appreciate the PLAYERS point-of-view, it helps to broaden our perspective as builders.

I'm very glad to hear you are enjoying the server. THANK YOU for visiting.

I'll try to address your questions as you presented them.

- When’s the beta over already? Will there be a vault wipe when the beta is over?

Gosh I wish I knew! LOL We are perfectionists - we jiggle with this and poke at that until everything is JUST so. We largely rely on PLAYER feedback to keep us informed of problems in the module such as broken objects/transition and especially scripts that don't work as intended. It is a HUGE module, and although we try to test it as we go, sometimes it takes PCs rolling over something a few times to find the less obvious problems. So, when the beta will end, I cannot really say, except to say, I hope 'soon'. When beta is over, there will NOT be a vault wipe, but there will occur - straining to not leak any details - a world changing event.

- Dungeons, there is a lack of lowbie dungeons, or at least ones that I can find. This has been somewhat addressed in another thread, but I still haven’t found the lizard caves.

We are building more low level dungeons even now. I know we need more more more, and I assure you we are working on it. Soon, two whole provinces to the west will open up to players, with more adventure opportunities for all levels there (emphasis on lowbies too).

As an FYI - to find the lizards, start at Tivook Inn (Tivook Crossing) and go WEST, the road will wind around a bit, in time it will bring you close to the river, you will hear the river if you have your speakers and effects loud enough. There, go offroad, see, the river, follow the river EAST, and you can't miss the lizards. Follow them to their cave.


- Merchants are wicked annoyihg. Some say pick from the non-existant stock, some only let you purchase one item at a atime. Buying one item at a time is frustrating when you need to buy 50 herbs to use a herbology formula.

Yes, those are our OLD style merchants, we're replacing them with the new style and have several in place now. Watch for improvements in all the merchants soon. The new merchant also allows for multiple items bought/haggled for as one group, and even shop lifting!

- College is nice, but has potential for uberness, at least based on the manual, but it doesn’t work as advertised. I’ve been spending precious skill points in crafting, but enchanting hardly ever works even when it appears to. I recommend better feedback as to why nothing happens even when the success animations go off.

Yes. It is a work in progress. We recently made some adjustments to it, and refinements continue to be made. If you are using the crafting system, please take an opportunity to chat with Eriniel or myself live online when you see us, so we can get your specific feedback on what works best and not there, as well as let us get a 'measure on your crafter' so we can better understand the results you are getting (read your skill levels and all that other stuff that impacts crafting). THANKS for this, I hope to pick your brain further online soon. I do agree the system has allowed some abuses, we are working to remove those as we find them.

- Death System. Stop with the soul runes already. Death holds no fear due to the near infinite number of soul runes my chars possess and they get more every server reset.

I agree, the system is about to overhaul, stay tuned for ONE potion of Vitality ONLY per PC. ATM you can use the Wand of Misc on a soulrune to condense sets of them into stackable potions of vitality fyi.

- Food, drink, bathing and haircuts are boring, nwn is an escape from rl to me, I don’t want to deal with mundane stuff.

You know, I wrestled with these notions a long time before I chose to use them, the reason I chose to use them was kind of complicated ...

Without food I can't poison PCs in social engagements.
Without certain types of food, like meat items, I can't justify having the wolves leave off chasing your PC as he drops gear and flees.
Without need of water, predators at the water holes are wasted CPU cycles.
Without allowing a PC to clean up, I can't justify making stinky PCs easy to scent track.
Without haircuts I can't slip you rumors as easy, nor warn your PC of the strange rash he's gotten on the top of his head since that last swamp expedition.

In short, we use this to enhance ROLE PLAY, your PC is a human or something like it and so those things that humans do that we DMs can use to play with the story, we tried to enable here. The DM can use your limited water supply to make the desert seem more real and make it more deadly; force you to make difficult choices about the refugees you find along the way too. Food - bringing it to those who need it, can be the basis of whole adventures. I know catering to some of these things can be tedious at times, but the many hooks they provide to DMs to help draw your PC along into some plot or other are priceless.

NOTE - if you dislike them utterly, there ARE magic items that can make your PC NEVER HUNGER, NEVER THIRST, NEVER FATIGUE, etc.. so, you see, having these things even extends MAGIC here. I do agree, they ARE sometimes a hassle, but I tried to minimize the hassle and maximize the better aspects of it. It is always, a fine line to tread.

You will notice we left out the end part of eating and drinking? Why? because adding them would not add to the adventure much if any. Nobody likes the "Quest for the Toilet Paper!" AND it does not add to the game, so we skip it.

Anyway, hope some of this proves helpful to you. Dialog ALWAYS is helpful to me, so THANK YOU again for your feedback. PLEASE KEEP IT COMING! We love to hear from you.

Be well. Game on.
GM_ODA

good answers

I see the merchants have already been updated. There is a bug with stackable items though. If I have a stack of 2 acid flasks and purchase a stack of 3, I get them for free, plus the merchants still has 3 that I can get again and again until I end up with a new stack at which point I pay only for the last 3 I bought. (it's obvious that the module onAquire event script is where the transaction actaully occurs, but that doesn't fire when just the number of items in a stack increases. you should move that to the merchant inventory onUnaquire)

Also, I kinda don't want to report this one because I have been exploiting it, but the tag based script for the "dusty old books" is not checking the event id and gives xp onAcquire rather than onUse.

Mizfat wrote:

Also, I kinda don't want to report this one because I have been exploiting it, but the tag based script for the "dusty old books" is not checking the event id and gives xp onAcquire rather than onUse.

May not be my place to post here, but I wanted to say I respect your decision to report that. Takes guts to fight the temptation, trust me, I know. =P Someone give this guy a cookie!