NYRTHOS - Third batch of testing, bug reporting and gameplay feedback (Alpha)

A third summary of testing Czech hand-crafted old-school RPG - Nyrthos. Still a long way to go, but definitely a progress has been made.

Playtime: 2 playthrough session (v0.9.13b), 2:30:00 (I died a lot.), 8.+13.8.2013

SUM-UP: The main issue I see in the combination of long walks between areas (waypoint system?), difficulty setting in context of a freemium nature of the game and dialogue double-click bug. I did find an important 2 weapons exploitable glitch (see below). Overall it looks promising, but there should be a hell of a lot tweaking, if the game is supposed to be freemium. The player experience, feedback loop from the game and flow of the gameplay is not there yet.

Keep up the good work, guys!


Feedback:

01 [art] - new opening layout is good.
02 [bug] - still at the end of the screen, graphical bugs.

03 [?] - The message "there is not enough energy for running" appears while fighting, annoying.
04 [GUI] - levelling - after choosing skill - some sound or feedback, that I learned new skill is needed. There is no difference between one skill I learned and second skill which I have to learn yet.
05 [GUI] - levelling - How about whitish-aura-circle around the symbol?

06 [sound] - enemy throwing bombs - sounds like he throws thunder.
07 [GUI] - red crossing in the inventory - available in gold/premium - could be replaced by something motivational, less negative - Could some kind of a green plus button do the trick? Red crossing feels "you are blocked" green plus button feels "there is an option".

08 [sound] - mini boss fight at the end of the first location - no sound when he use skills.
09 [sound] - fireball - sound of launching the fireball is late, should be more early.
10 [bug] - most of the dialogue needs to be clicked twice - too frustrating.

11 [sound] - selling sound - when selling, there should be sound / feedback of the bargain.
12 [quest] - Repair the bridge - I got wood before I got the quest - it kind of disturbing the flow.

13 [bug] - met an glitched black mist (44hp, unkillable)

14 [gameplay] - difficulty is quite hard - for freemium model game it is very frustrating. The player should not run before three basic creatures, for a regular full-purchase game it is ok I think, but for the freemium game it is not.

15 [GUI] -Map isn't logical... or for me it is unreadable.

16 [balance] - at the Grinder shop - cost of items in diamonds currency are all the same but in gold different.
17 [GUI] - in context with the difficulty, some kind of indication, that I should not be here? could help a bit. (at a monster, a sign, a symbol...)

18 [?] - Undead Brommor/Rommor - two different names in dialogues, before and after.
19 [story] - some terms - "big ass"/ "awesome"... too modern language for the overall dark fantasy setting.

20 [GUI] - No indication about names of the NPC - You have to remember names from dialogue, when there is no dialogue option, you can't examine the name.

21 [bug] - a dead blinking body. Graphical glitch.

22 [quest] - Carlon's quest - duck meat - I got stuck, my inventory was full, when I got to the fire to cook the meat. The steaks fell out and I could not pick them up again. Happened few times, even without the quest.

23 [bug] - an expensive amulet with no function - I have found an amulet with description just "?", its value was around 5k, but no apparent stats.

24 [exploitable bug] - Weapon Attack Glitch - when you have two weapons, an old AXE and a lightning SWORD, each has a different attack speed - an axe is almost immediately ready but the sword takes quite a lot of time to recharge. When you select the AXE, click on the enemy and just BEFORE the swing will finish you choose the SWORD, you will hit for Swords damage and it does not need to be recharged.

The rhythm can be mastered. [Q - Click - W] [Q - Click - W] [Q - Click - W]...


Nyrthos Exploitable 2 Weapons Switch Glitch

25 [UX] - loot - I know it is a beta, but overall there is not enough interesting loot yet. I can see, that there is a crafting system to be implemented in the future, so that could solve the issue. I am looking forward to the craft system.

26 [GUI] - the road south is sometimes nearly unclickable because of the health overlay.

27 [GUI] - When there is more text than will fit in the dialogue screen, there is no slider.

28 [bug] - when selling a bunch of the same item, you can click on the diamond shop after you try to sell the item but before you finish the bargain. In the new window, you can still see the icon of the item.

SPEC: Processor: i5-760 2.80Ghz; RAM: DDR3 4GB Kingston 667MHz; GPU: NVidia GeForce GTX 460 1GB; OS: Win7 (6.1) Ultimate 64b, SP1, DX11 Chrome: 28.0.1500.95 m