What are Your First Impressions of 2D?

from Demigod Forums

2D has some nice tweaks to gameplay and UI, as well as fixing the netcode to an extent.  Some totally random, end-of-long-day thoughts:

The only netcode frustration at this point is that certain players seem to act as evil twins for each other, and will never be able to join a game to which the other has connected.  Some of these players are allergens for any other player, so if you get one of them in your game no one else can join after them.  I think I'm lucky because I can join most games and play with most people but it's still difficult to get a 3 v 3 and I've about given up on the mythical 5 v 5....

This is the first Beta in which I enjoyed playing Generals and felt successful with them relative to Assassins without exploiting obvious imbalances.  I like Oak, and I like having Sedna on my team.  Oak and QoT need some work on their minions, but Oak is far more powerful at this point.  He and Sedna seem evenly matched, depending on build.   

I think Regulus has become more boring to play with, generally, because his bread and butter abilities were nerfed fairly drastically.  To an extent I feel like I am playing the Beta 1 Regulus, investing mostly in Angelic Fury and damage speed and crit items.  Mark of the Betrayer is kinda cool, but it currently provides little disincentive for strong enemies to keep from using abilities and weak enemies will simply keep from using their abilities.  It would be cooler if it were on a fuse - so if the tagged enemy uses an ability within 10 seconds of being marked they get double the damage and debuff, otherwise after 10 seconds the mark will activate with reduced damage and debuff.  Up the damage slightly and we'll start to see more Regs using this.  (I might make a separate post about Mark)

UB needs to do more damage and have a quicker exit strategy if he is going to be this frail. 

Rook's towers still can't compete to Boulderslams, especially when the hammer always hits.

Angels before catas is a good call, and I like the portal upgrade being replaced with an xp upgrade.

I still don't understand why we have trebuchets in this game.  They don't provide the damage stream of archer towers or the chain of towers of light.  When they hit you it hurts a bit, but I'd prefer that they focus exclusively on enemy buildings and become available a rank or two earlier - then I might buy them. 

All I got right now.  What about the rest of you, thoughts on 2D?

demigod
10,732 views 32 replies
Reply #1 from Demigod Forums Top

Connections work quite like a charm, Item prices have been ballanced alot. The Rook got one evil hammer now.

Reply #2 from Demigod Forums Top

The Rook's hammer seems to have a slight radius nerf (there is no solid empirical evidence of this, it just *seems* that way), the outter damage has been halved... however the inner damage remains the same.

The difference is that now the hammer hits the ground where the target is standing at completion of the slam, rather than where the target was when the Rook started swinging... so the target could literally be an arrows range or larger away and still get hit.... once the Rook starts swinging you WILL be hit.

 

Vundarbread cleared this up in IRC as a bug/mechanic issue:

 

5:57 PM <vundarbread> It's grabbing the player's position when the animation completes. It's not a mechanic, it's a bug. I'm on it now.

...

6:13 PM <vundarbread> Yes. It is. It's fixed on our end now.

Offworld Trading Company
Reply #3 from Demigod Forums Top

I'd say the game is up to a 7 out of 10 (up from 6 out of 10 in beta 2C).

Connectivity is better.  Balance and pacing needs a lot of work. But this build is semi-fun now.  I think we'll be in a position to get Beta 3 released in a state where people will start to say "Ahh okay, I get it. This IS awesome!"

I'm going to work on a long report.

Reply #4 from Demigod Forums Top

good news

Reply #5 from Demigod Forums Top

I'm still on the corner when it comes to this build. It's has some serious problems with my system, but I'm trying to see if I can find some resolution to that on my end right now.

Reply #6 from Demigod Forums Top

The new sounds are decent.  I turned down the new audio settings to low but didn't help my framerate.

Everything else feels just like the other Beta 2s.   I haven't tried network games yet since my computer can't handle it.

Reply #7 from Demigod Forums Top

My First impression:
Hammer Slam


Apart from that connectivity is a lot better, and there have been a few changes for the good :)

Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top

First impression: It's a smaller download! :D

Also the history notes could do with a little more detail. What skills were broken with Sedna that should now be working? :)

Reply #9 from Demigod Forums Top

First impressions from a game: Nothing can kill all the angels that spawn (we had 50+ at the end of game). Assassins need additional health compared to generals to be able to go toe to toe.

Reply #10 from Demigod Forums Top

Nah only unclean beast does, reg and ROok are fine trust me I play the alot especially Reg. Reg can do fine on his own against generals and is very good at falling back to towers than chasing and snipe. The Rook bug were Regs snipe doesn't hit him is very anoying. connections better, armor is too powerful, reduces like half damage with 7,000 gold worth thats too much. Rooks as unkillable as ever with 7,000 health and lif half damage reduction. I just can't do that much damage without him teleporting to base. I like Reg's snipe.

Reply #11 from Demigod Forums Top

Quoting Heavenfall, reply 9
First impressions from a game: Nothing can kill all the angels that spawn (we had 50+ at the end of game). Assassins need additional health compared to generals to be able to go toe to toe.
End of Heavenfall's quote

 

Agree.  As a melee Demigod Assassin if you're wading into a mass of enemies even as Rook your health starts to plummet pretty fast.  However, it is possible that perhaps I just needed to buy more armor items?  Regardless, I felt like I needed to spend my gold on Citadel upgrades in order to stay in the game.  Another reason why I think Citadel upgrades should be tied to something other than gold.

Honestly, though, when I was playing I couldn't shake the feeling that this game ought to be called Demigod: Insect Wars.

Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top

The only Demi that manages to kill Angels is QoT. Even then it doesn't seem aesthetically sound, spikes hitting angels and all. Also those reflection-type armors would eventually kill the angels if they were to aim Demis, right? And Reg's AoE/regular attack kills angels too. Either way if not for the angels, the end of the game would come much later, giving an unfair advantage to some Demis that are damn near unstoppable late game.

Reply #13 from Stardock Forums Top

First gameplay impressions: The AI Rooks seem a little thick. Caught the enemy one just standing around behind play with full health a couple of times. Maybe he was regenerating mana? Seemed a little strange.

Don't know if this is a 2D issue or if it's ongoing but turning AA on 2x makes all the game objects you can hover-highlight (demigods, flags, citadels etc) highlight the entire screen, so you get a greenish tinged screen or yellowish. I've not used AA since a couple of betas back though, may not be a new issue. (GeForce 8800GTS in Windows Vista)

The "rings" page of items seem a little underpriced. Narmoth's Ring (sp?) is 3600 with the 10% discount from a Favour item? Will check it's not just because of that but all the other prices seemed right. 3600/4000 for 9% life steal seems a bargain next to other items like Ashkandor from the Artifact shop.

Also liked the Rankings page. Frogboy clearly cheats. ;)

Overall it's about as fun as the previous beta which isn't surprising since there's no huge changes. :)

[Update]

Also, nice work on the short splash page before the logos roll.

And was the default speed increased from 2C to 2D? Everything seemed to be moving around the board quite a bit quicker in my second run through.

Reply #14 from Stardock Forums Top

Now the Plenor Battlecrown is 1500 gold for 2250 mana and 100% mana regen(which is a near tripling of some Demi's total mana pools!!)

Reply #15 from Demigod Forums Top

Quoting Fire-Ice, reply 14
Now the Plenor Battlecrown is 1500 gold for 2250 mana and 100% mana regen(which is a near tripling of some Demi's total mana pools!!)
End of Fire-Ice's quote

Yeah Plenor battle crown is one of the first items on my buy list for the Rook... nonstop hammer time after that :)

Reply #16 from Demigod Forums Top

1- No more MINECITY with my Regulus :typo:

2- Took me a few sec to undestand which item from citadel was bought or not 

3- Regulus vs Rook, still have the bug with the arrow or snipe circle around and sometime miss  

4- No more combo kill with the Rook unless vs Regulus or QoF without her shield

5- Item price drop can make comeback more easy for the losing side

6- Need rank 8 to get catapular, which can make game longer

The only good part is Rook hammer, that all

Reply #17 from Demigod Forums Top

Ive also noticed minions are a lot more...massed? when it reached the priest stages I would see the mass of 40+ (or however many) minions too regulary. In beta 2C I think the amount of minions spawning were good.

Angels before Catapaults do make the game longer....that with the fact u need rank 8 to get them as well makes them longer - as Flurus mentioned.

And Flurus im not sure if your aware of the Rook Hammer bug...If he starts the Rook Slam animation when your next to him it will always hit you full damage regardless of where you are when it actually hits the floor.

Need to play some more though to give more solid feedback.

Reply #18 from Demigod Forums Top

Quoting DalzK, reply 17
And Flurus im not sure if your aware of the Rook Hammer bug...If he starts the Rook Slam animation when your next to him it will always hit you full damage regardless of where you are when it actually hits the floor.
End of DalzK's quote

Ya, now you say it, I notice it, but at least, no more 2 hits combo kill

 

and NO MORE WINDOWS MODE :thumbsdown: but alt-tab work fine

Reply #19 from Demigod Forums Top

Forced Windows Mode works fine though, (Edit the Shortcut, add +windowed and resolution to Target) +windowed 1280 1024 (example).

Performance for this build is terrible, the game competely fails on lower end machines now and is utterly unplayable for people who do not have really nice computers.

Reply #20 from Demigod Forums Top

Double check to put your settings on lowest...My were on highest as default.

 

Ya, now you say it, I notice it, but at least, no more 2 hits combo kill
End of quote

Ive had plently of 2 hit kills...why would that have changed?

Reply #23 from Demigod Forums Top

warp stone is way to cheap for what it can offer. 2250 -2500 is a good price.

Reply #24 from Demigod Forums Top

Ouchy...Thank God I managed to customize my computer...3pfs post-combat on lowest settings :O

Reply #25 from Stardock Forums Top

Yeah, there are way too many spawns. I was completely unable to see or adequately control my hero by late game.