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How do you fail - let me count the ways...
joresnik
#1 Posted : Saturday, July 16, 2011 1:23:26 PM
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1. Classes and races are ridiculously imbalanced. Good examples - Rangers have insane requirements. Why? They're not even that impressive. And is there any reason to make an Orc? They appear inferior to every other race, in multiple ways.

2. "Hey, we're lost. Lets just check our map. Ok, we are......um.....uh.....I have no idea, since the map doesn't show our positon. Well, we'll just head south, which is.....uh.......um......no idea since we don't have a compass." If I am wrong about this, please tell me.

3. You get 6 characters. Only the front 2 can use melee attacks There are 6 primarily melee classes, 3 primarily ranged classes, and 1 real melee/range class that is insanely difficult to get. This means the best option is to create 2 characters from the 6 melee classes, and 4 characters from the 3 ranged classes. Seems like a really bad design to me. At least make it so that the front 3 can attack so you don't have to make such a caster-heavy party.

4. I spent literally hours trying to roll a Ranger. After about a thousand rolls, I finally got the stats close, and decided to try and level him up. I put him in the back row and began my adventure. In the first battle, he got killed...RIP'd in fact....and could not be revived. Hours wasted within 5 minutes!!! Any game that frustrates you to the point of quitting in less than 5 minutes has SERIOUS ISSUES!

5. We can buy weapons and armor. But we have no idea what the weapons do for damage, or anything else about the items. I guess we just assume more expensive = better? I picked up +1 chain mail. Is it better than the plate mail I'm already wearing? I have no idea.

6. Lack of info can absolutely kill a game (just ask anyone that tried Final Fantasy XIV Online). There is nothing gained by not telling people what requirements are needed for each class.

7. Why can't we pick our own spells for our casters?

8. Why does my healer have no healing spells?

9. No ability to sell items.

I should point out that I was playing the free version. Perhaps some of these issues go away with the paid version, but from what I've seen so far, there's nothing worth paying for here.
John Gaby
#2 Posted : Saturday, July 16, 2011 1:29:53 PM
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Sorry this game was not your cup of tea, it is not for everyone. Some of the issues you mention are being addressed, others have been discussed in this forum.

Thanks for giving it a try, and thanks for taking the time to give us some feedback.
kotto7877
#3 Posted : Saturday, July 16, 2011 7:00:48 PM
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My first reaction was... ROFLMAO.

At first I thought this must be a troll, but now I'm reconsidering. Just in case... here are some short answers for you.

First off, check out this site; it has some of the details (er, spoilers, in the spirit of this game) that you're looking for:

http://www.zimlab.com/oubliette/ipad/index.htm

In particular, check the Starting Tips page:

http://www.zimlab.com/oubliette/ipad/tips.htm


Now for some short answers (see the above website for more detailed answers):

1. Think about this... the general consensus of Oubliette veterans is that the most powerful party consists of 2 high-level samurai and 4 high-level rangers. Rangers still not sound impressive?

Reason to play around with orcs: they level up very quickly.

2. Scroll of Cartography, Scroll of Location, level 3 mage spell

3. Legitimate concern, been discussed here before; different folks have different opinions about this.

4. Wow, didn't take me that long, probably more like 2h off-and-on (while doing chores) to roll 4 rangers. Learn how to use temporal portals, to "back up" your new character before he dies, so you can restore him if he does die. Use temporal portals a lot to back up the character until his hit points are sufficient to survive a few blows. In addition, to save you the pain of rolling a ranger only to have him die in training... roll up a ranger but choose Peasant. Create a temporal portal. THEN enter the peasant into a ranger guild. That way if he dies, you can... use the portal.

5. Go to the Transfer Items screen then click the Info button next to each item to see its stats.

6. Nothing to say..

7. I don't understand the question.

8. He has healing spells but not in battle. In battle, you're limited to using healing items. This bugs me, too, especially when my 2 melee characters both get paralyzed and my other party members don't have Kotier-casting items equipped. Sucks to not be able to replace my paralyzed melee characters with other melee characters, especially when my spell casters are running low on spells.

9. This is being changed in the next version, AFAIK, and the general store will include random items for sale, pawn shop style.

Response to last comment: Maybe I'm too new to the android scene, but I don't understand why folks get so pissy in forums, amazon market, and android market when apps are so frakkin' cheap. We're not talking about a $60 xbox 360 game here; we're talking less than one tenth of that. But then maybe I'm just not in touch, because I have been known to buy $50-200 devices just so I can play retro games portably (read: HP 200 LX, GP32X Wiz, RetroGen, FC Mobile II, FC 16 Go, Palm Treo 720p).

Note to John: Wonder what one game I bought an HP 200LX to play portably? Three guesses, and the first two don't count.. :-O All the other DOS games were bonuses (esp HackLite and Wizard's Lair II), but there was one game I really had in mind when I bought 200LX.
Snafaru
#4 Posted : Saturday, July 16, 2011 7:40:47 PM
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@kotto7877 re:HP 200XL, let me show you something cool, see this pic: http://www.flickr.com/ph...hi999/2403408738/?reg=1 take a note at what game is running on it, close enough!

Snafaru
joresnik
#5 Posted : Saturday, July 16, 2011 10:44:09 PM
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kotto7877 wrote:
1. Think about this... the general consensus of Oubliette veterans is that the most powerful party consists of 2 high-level samurai and 4 high-level rangers. Rangers still not sound impressive?

Reason to play around with orcs: they level up very quickly.

2. Scroll of Cartography, Scroll of Location, level 3 mage spell

5. Go to the Transfer Items screen then click the Info button next to each item to see its stats.

7. I don't understand the question.


Response to last comment: Maybe I'm too new to the android scene, but I don't understand why folks get so pissy in forums, amazon market, and android market when apps are so frakkin' cheap. We're not talking about a $60 xbox 360 game here; we're talking less than one tenth of that. But then maybe I'm just not in touch, because I have been known to buy $50-200 devices just so I can play retro games portably (read: HP 200 LX, GP32X Wiz, RetroGen, FC Mobile II, FC 16 Go, Palm Treo 720p).


1. If you have to spend an hour to make one, as opposed to 5 minutes to make a good Sage/Mage, and he's just arguably better than a Sage/Mage (as I gather from your statement 'general consensus') - or even if he's just barely better - it definitely seems imbalanced. As someone I used to work with always said, 'the juice isn't worth the squeeze.' As for Orcs, I don't see the value of leveling up a weaker character more quickly, but that might just be me.

2 & 5 - Good to know there are ways to do both. But you'd still think they could just list weapon/armor stats next to the items. Sure, you can see the stats for items you already own, but you have no way of knowing what weapons to buy. Seems like a no-brainer to me.

7. Clarification: why are our characters' spells automatically assigned, rather than allowing players to look through a list of available spells and pick the ones they want?

As for your last response: If I can aviod it, I would avoid spending a dime for a game I don't like. I would have absolutely no issue with spending a lot of money for a game I like, but I need a reason to shell out the cash, no matter how seemingly small. I know I was harsh with my post - this game does have potential. But it does definitely need improvement.
Guest
#6 Posted : Saturday, July 16, 2011 11:02:49 PM
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Also, one thing I find a bit odd - why are rangers restricted to humans, but paladins - who are traditionally human only - aren't?
John Gaby
#7 Posted : Sunday, July 17, 2011 7:51:14 AM
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joresnik wrote:
1. If you have to spend an hour to make one, as opposed to 5 minutes to make a good Sage/Mage, and he's just arguably better than a Sage/Mage (as I gather from your statement 'general consensus') - or even if he's just barely better - it definitely seems imbalanced. As someone I used to work with always said, 'the juice isn't worth the squeeze.' As for Orcs, I don't see the value of leveling up a weaker character more quickly, but that might just be me.


Why is there this obsession with players that the races/classes be 'balanced'? Life is not balanced, and I see no reason that the game should be either. Yes, if this were a PvP game, it would probably be necessary to make the classes balanced, but it is not. When balancing of the classes becomes a priority, often you end up with little real difference between the classes. Part of the fun of the game is (or should be) discovering what you can and cannot do with each class.

joresnik wrote:
7. Clarification: why are our characters' spells automatically assigned, rather than allowing players to look through a list of available spells and pick the ones they want?


Because those are the rules for THIS game. If you don't like those rules, fine, but then perhaps this is simply not the game for you.

joresnik wrote:
But it does definitely need improvement.


And I don't disagree with that. We are going to address some of the issues that you have mentioned, but I really do see it ever turning into a game that you would be happy with. As I said from the start, this is not a game for everyone.

I want to make it clear, however, that I DO appreciate the time you have taken to give your feedback. It was not just a rant, you took the time to list the things that you disliked. Even critical feedback is useful (perhaps even more useful than positive feedback).

Thanks
John Gaby
#8 Posted : Sunday, July 17, 2011 7:55:17 AM
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Guest wrote:
Also, one thing I find a bit odd - why are rangers restricted to humans, but paladins - who are traditionally human only - aren't?


Well there is actually no real good reason for this other than that is the way it was in the original PLATO game and I am something of a traditionalist. The original reasoning was to make it harder to roll a Ranger (because you could not use an Elf). In the original game (which was multiplayer), the Ranger was the supreme character, and we wanted to make them rare. (Unfortunately, in this version it appears that that honor actually goes to the Samurai). After all, if it was easy to create one, then everyone would have been running a ranger.
Guest
#9 Posted : Monday, July 18, 2011 11:17:55 AM
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John Gaby wrote:
Guest wrote:
Also, one thing I find a bit odd - why are rangers restricted to humans, but paladins - who are traditionally human only - aren't?


Well there is actually no real good reason for this other than that is the way it was in the original PLATO game and I am something of a traditionalist. The original reasoning was to make it harder to roll a Ranger (because you could not use an Elf). In the original game (which was multiplayer), the Ranger was the supreme character, and we wanted to make them rare. (Unfortunately, in this version it appears that that honor actually goes to the Samurai). After all, if it was easy to create one, then everyone would have been running a ranger.


Elf Rangers are the absolute hardest thing to roll. I finally got the stats for one after hours of rolls only to find out that Ranger is human only. I have 5 human rangers in the time it took for 1 Elf.

There should definitely be Elven Rangers. It just feels.. STRANGE otherwise. When I think of fantasy rangers I can't help but see an elf dual wielding blades.
John Gaby
#10 Posted : Monday, July 18, 2011 3:30:27 PM
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Guest wrote:
There should definitely be Elven Rangers. It just feels.. STRANGE otherwise. When I think of fantasy rangers I can't help but see an elf dual wielding blades.


Well perhaps I will change it. Truth be told, the DOS version allowed any class to be a Ranger. It was only the PLATO version that did not.

What do people think. Would anyone object to allowing a Ranger to be any class?
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#11 Posted : Tuesday, July 19, 2011 4:16:20 AM
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John Gaby wrote:
Guest wrote:
There should definitely be Elven Rangers. It just feels.. STRANGE otherwise. When I think of fantasy rangers I can't help but see an elf dual wielding blades.


Well perhaps I will change it. Truth be told, the DOS version allowed any class to be a Ranger. It was only the PLATO version that did not.

What do people think. Would anyone object to allowing a Ranger to be any class?


Sounds good to me. Orc ranger FTW!

Your character has died of old age during training.

Doh!
Guest
#12 Posted : Tuesday, July 19, 2011 8:50:10 AM
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I vote yes to Elf Rangers. It doesn't seem right to limit that class to Humans only. To me, Elves were always more iconic rangers than any other race, but a Gnoll ranger would be just sweet! lol Dead before you know it, but sweet.
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#13 Posted : Tuesday, July 19, 2011 9:33:40 AM
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definitely yes to elf rangers, I prefere the DOS version
scorpio7777
#14 Posted : Tuesday, July 19, 2011 10:20:47 AM
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I'm going to vote 100% YES on the Elven ranger change. Pointy ears and pointy swords just work well together.
John Gaby
#15 Posted : Tuesday, July 19, 2011 11:20:21 AM
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Ok, will bow to the will of the masses. The race restriction for Rangers will be removed in the next version.
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#16 Posted : Thursday, August 11, 2011 8:12:31 PM
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I played this game when it first came out. It was always hardcore. The balanced game was avathar which became avatar.

This game has never been balanced, always wiped out your party when you started. And was much hard to roll a good char because the more times you rolled, the lower your average stats became.

This version is way easy, except no polymorphing means no kobold rangers, which I really miss.

The bottom line is that the concept and playability of this game has about 35 years of playtestingand enhancements. The concepts are proven, you just have to get over the paradigm of mass marketed dungeon games where everyone can win no matter how they arrange their party. Here you die a lot and have limited time to win before you get old and die permanently.

Phroedrick, Ranger Prick, Night Crawler, Big Electric Cat, et al.

P.s. John bring back polymorphing please, human rangers are just molds. They need to be recast into leveling machines.

John Gaby
#17 Posted : Thursday, August 11, 2011 9:12:11 PM
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I don't think we will bring back polymorph. It really only worked because you had to risk permanent death, and this game really doesn't have permanent death. Note, however that, by popular demand, there will be no race restrictions on rangers in the next version.

And you are right about this game being much easier than the original. I really can hardly believe that I get a lot of complaints that it is too hard. What a bunch of wimps current gamers are!
andrew
#18 Posted : Saturday, August 13, 2011 9:11:28 AM
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This game doesn't fail. People's attention spans fail. This game is not supposed to be easy.

It takes an investment of time to develop good adventurers. it stinks when they die, but portal gems make it possible to roll back anything that was permanent. One could argue that after you get established, the game is pretty easy... for me, the only challenge at that point is defeating monsters with level drain or insta-death abilities.

My opinion is to keep it challenging. Enhancements are nice, especially UI enhancements. Game play should remain in the spirit of the original. The changes to make starting out a bit easier should lessen the pain. It's great that you are open to suggestions, but the decision remains with you John.

Maybe you could make people pay money for 'sandbox easymode' where restrictions are removed, nobody dies and flowers grow in the dungeon wall cracks ;)
Alot of games have that where you can unlock features with real money.
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