Give Suggestions For Silverfall FULL Version, after playing the DEMO

[mysterd]

I downloaded the demo. Gave it some time. I quite like it, despite some quirks I see with. Now, I have a bunch of suggestions, for the final version of this thing.

Others who have gave the US/UK Demo some time, throw out some suggestions for the FULL version.


1. Configure The Controls Within The Game
--Give me the option to configure the within the game, not just w/in an INI file outside of it. I should be able to do it within the booted-up game itself. Most games do that, these day and age.

2. Configure The Graphical Settings Within The Game
--It is annoying that I can't configure graphical settings outside of the game itself. Give me an option to do it inside of it would be nice. Most games do that, these days.

3. Improve In-Game Performance
--The game just doesn't run that great. It runs like NWN2 did out the box; eh, not so great. I run Silverfall Demo on MEDIUM on my PC, for most settings @ 1024x768. The designers should work on getting it to perform better, framerate-wise.

[Side Note: My PC is a Intel P4 at 3.2 Ghz w/ HT, 128 GF 6600 GT RAM w/ newest drivers for that card, 1 GB of DDR2 RAM, TWO 160 GB Hard Drives].


4. Include a SDK/Toolkit in a the full version
--It'd be nice to be able to add my own content to this game! :)

[Blahman]

I think the game runs just fine, just as well if not better than Titan Quest all the while looking better. I have a Dell Inspiron XPS Gen 2 notebook with 2.0GHz Pentium M, 2048MB PC2-4200 and a GF Go 7800 GTX 256MB. Running at 1440x900, 0xAA, 16xAF with almost every setting maxed out. Runs very smooth.

[avinar]

? it runs maxed out on a notebook?
i really wonder my performance is so bad then. perhaps its due to a memory lack (i currently have 1024 ram). furthermore i run a 2.4ghz AMD 64bit cpu and a geforce 7900GT and the game really doesn't run good at all, not even on medium settings, are you talking US or FR demo? and if you have played both, was there any diffirence in terms of performance?

[[BFs]GBesaw]

Thnaks for the suggestions and feedback :). Avinar, memory could be an issue. Are your running the most current whql nvidia drivers?

[avinar]

well, i indeed think it could be the memory. since everyone with 1024 mb of ram seems to have bad framerates and people with worse cpu's and gfx cards but with 2 gig ram don't have these problems, so i miight upgrade my ram. besides 1024 mb is rather low for high detail gaming.

and my driver version is 93.81 (the current beta driver), but the result was no diffirent when i used the WHQL certified 91.73 driver, so my last bet is idd my memory. i just ordered another module, we'll the result soon than

[switch_foot4]

i made another thread on this topic, didn't know this one existed. I'm not gonna copy paste if you wanan read my suggestions you can see my thread here:

http://www.ataricommunity.com/forums/showthread.php?t=559940

And I have one to add to this topic:

Remove level scaling!

[mysterd]

Make vendors a different color dot than quest givers and NPC’s so they are more easily found.
Good idea.

I have another idea, thanks to your "color idea."

For Dialogue, Separate Player and NPC's by Color And/Or A Line beneath NPC's text.

--Yeah, it seems odd that when in the middle of dialogue trees, the NPC's talking and the player's dialogue lines aren't separated too nicely. They seem a little run-together. So, I have 3 suggestions here.

A. You could separate them by having a big line underneath the NPC's text, so the player knows their dialogue choices. Might make it easy for those who might unfortunately be color blind.

B. Or the player's text could be one color like say white, while NPC's are another color like say yellow.

C. Combine both ideas above; ideas A and B. You could do both ways of separating -- have a line to underneath the NPC's dialogue to separate the text AND have the NPC's text be one color while the player's are another.

[12Volt]

Yes please, I do find it hard. I am actually seriously colorblind.

Thanks!! I seriously was gonna make a topic on that lol

[Imonfire915]

I have a few to add :)

1. More hotkeys number, and being able to customize?

2. A way to differentiate nature and techo quests, maybe add a (nature/techno) somewhere in the NPC dialog/player answer choices?

3. Able to check your companions skill tree?

[warkhan]

Great game, lotsa potencial.

1- make camera controls better.
2- put contol options in game (it is really ridiculous not to have it in game in the first place. What were you guys thinking?!?)
3- I can't see nothing by using the overhead map. Please include merchant locations instead of monster locations. It just doesn't make any sense.

[f2k]

Well, so far I like the demo, but there’s still room for a lot of improvement…


1) Fix the lag. Or perhaps this should be “use less RAM”. Seriously, there’s no need for this game to consume 1+ gig of RAM. That’s just insane!

2) Fix the quest descriptions. For example: I should go rescue a party and then bring them back to camp. I found them, brought them back to camp, and then spent nearly half an hour running around camp trying to get the *bib* quest to register as complete.

3) Work on game balance. Starting as a warrior, I often found myself in serious trouble. Running into two ghouls or skeletons was very nearly a death sentence. As a mage it’s just a minor annoyance. I was hoping that the classes were better balanced – especially considering how open the character system is. As it is now, I see little reason to fight with a sword – magic just seems so much better.
As for game balance in general, I found that I had to proceed very carefully for the first five or so levels no matter whether I concentrated on sword or magic. And even as level ten, basic groups of enemies can easily get the drop on me.
I’m not saying that the game is too difficult, but it certainly is a challenge at the beginning.

4) When I refuse a quest, why does it not go away? For example: the blacksmith asked me to go and install pumps in the swamp. Me, being a tree-hugging elf, refused. But he still continues to pester me whenever I visit him.

5) Make it a bit easier to figure out how to influence your nature / technology alignment. I would have thought, for example, that doing missions for the healer and refusing to do missions for the blacksmith would have shifted me towards nature. Not so, I’m still stuck on 0%.

6) Finally, fix the camera. In my opinion, the camera should: a) let me control the distance and angle independent of each other, and b) let me zoom further out. Guild Wars would be a good example of how the camera should work.

[[BFs]GBesaw]

Good suggestions -- f2k, what are your system specs and in game settings?

[f2k]

My rig is a 3 Ghz single-core Pentium with 1 Gb DDR RAM and a club3d 7800GT card. Not the most powerful rig, I'll admit that much, but it should still be enough to run a game like this.

The game is set to mostly medium settings, with shadows and reflections set to low and the phys-engine turned off. But the funny thing is: I tried changing all the settings to high, and there wasn’t more lag because of that. The only real difference was the load times. They are already insane (on my computer the game takes nearly 5 minutes to load), but with everything turned on they went through the roof - somewhere around 10 minutes or so...

A friend of mine (using a 4 Ghz dual-core Pentium with 2 Gb DDR2 RAM and a Radion 1950 card) is running this game with few, if any, problems. The difference, I believe, is the RAM. When running on his computer, Silverfall easily takes between 1 and 1,5 Gb RAM - something that it cannot do on my computer. Yes, his GPU is also a lot better than mine, but we don't think that this is an issue at all. You see, when monitoring our GPUs, neither his, nor mine, sweats at all when playing Silverfall (his card doesn't even speed the fan up when playing), so we concluded that it was the extra RAM that made the difference.

[avinar]

i tried silverfall on high quality (even set of shadows and so on. and it still doesn't play good. i have 1500 ram, 2.4gig, geforce 7900gt. i still experience stuttering

[carnage665]

hi all, ive been playing the demo for 2 days now. since there are no video options in it, i was wondering if one of you (who already are playing the full version of the game) could tell me which different resolution you can choose to set the game to?


favo games (titanquest, guildwars, diablo2)

grtz all

amd x2 64 5200+
asus sli crosshair mainbord
2gb corsair ddr2 800mhz
asus en7900 gs top 256mb
20" ws monitor

[[BFs]GBesaw]

Look in your Monte Cristo start program group -- you should see a Silverfall Demo Options Icon. Run it. You should be able to set your screen resolution and other texture options.

[carnage665]

try to make more item diversity in the game (being able to modify, upgrade, enhance or personalize some of your items)

this would make for a longer-lasting, game experience, so not everybody would have the same items

grtz

[Newdaddy1]

I found this on the internet this guy has GREAT intell on the game and i agree with him 100%

I've been playing the demo of Silverfall (http://www.silverfall-game.com/en/) (see the preview on IGN (http://pc.ign.com/objects/791/791205.html)). Like Dungeon Siege and Titan Quest, Silverfall reminds me of Diablo 2, which I loved. It's a role-playing game in which your character goes on quests, fights monsters, collects treasures, upgrade items, learn new skills, etc. The graphics are great, or would be, if my computer was fast enough. Some of the more interesting things about it:
Graphics. The characters are surrounded by a black outline. See this screenshot (and others) on IGN (http://media.pc.ign.com/media/791/791205/img_3986018.html). It reminds me of cartoons, where the outlines help separate the important characters from the backgrounds. It's more than this though. Silverfall's graphics look hand drawn, at every angle and zoom. I can't figure out how they did this.
Physics. It can take advantage of a physics accelerator card. I didn't see much that would benefit from physics though, and it's sort of annoying to have to install a physics library.
UI. The UI is really smooth compared to Dungeon Siege, although not quite as nice as Diablo 2 for reasons I'll list below. The use of the mouse and hotkeys is nice.
Factions. The nice twist on this type of game is Nature vs. Technology. When you complete or reject certain quests, you gain favor with either nature or technology (these are diametrically opposed). When your favor with either faction increases, you gain access to better items and skills. Also, in the story your faction becomes stronger, which changes the storyline and the appearance and buildings in the city. A third path is to favor neither side, accepting quests on behalf of both. This gives you more experience from quests, but you no longer have access to the special items from each faction.
Quests. A consequence of the nature vs. technology factions is that some quests will make you worse off. In most RPGs, the more quests you do, the better. But here, the quests can hurt your standing with one of the factions, and you can lose access to items, skills, and further quests. So you need to think about which quests you accept.
Skill Tree. Like Guild Wars and unlike Diablo, you can change your skills, at a cost. I think this increases the enjoyment of the game the first time through, because you can try out several approaches without starting over, but it may decrease enjoyment the next time through the game. It's a good tradeoff though, because it helps a large number of casual players at the expense of a small number of dedicated players.
Classes. There are races but no character classes. Instead, you can choose your skills to build your own style of character. There are skills for melee, ranged weapons, light magic, dark magic, faction (nature or technology), and your race (human, goblins, trolls, elves). This yields a large set of styles of play. I tried one which combined melee and dark magic, and a different style that combined light magic and nature skills.
It seems silly, but I think the black outlines and the hand-drawn look of the characters and other objects are a sign of something important. Before 3d accelerator cards, graphics were drawn by programmers and artists, and games had lots of different visual styles. With 3d cards, a certain style supported by the card is cheap, fast, and easy. All other styles are more expensive, slower, and harder to program. This has led to a far less diverse set of visual styles. Okami (http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/action/okami/review.html) is a rare exception. (Side note: I'm not sure how the Silverfall developers implemented their outlines. At first I thought it'd be a single pass over the buffer to look for differences in Z values, but when you zoom in you can see the outlines are at the vector level, not the pixel level, so it's possibly a shader that looks for normals perpendicular to the screen. And I have no clue how they made everything look hand-drawn.) In old-style art, it was easy to identify objects. You could tell what was clickable, what was a button, where a person was, etc. Artists weren't looking for realism. They wanted to express concepts and emotions and ideas in game art. Newer games tend to be cluttered. Just look at how much harder it is to see all the objects in The Sims 2 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Sims2_photo.png) vs. The Sims 1 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:TheSims.jpg). Newer games are more realistic, but less artistic (http://www.scottmccloud.com/inventions/triangle/triangle.html). The harder it is to see what's on the screen, the more effort the player makes in seeing things, and the less effort the player can make in deciding things. Although there are games like Quake and Halo where much of the challenge really is in seeing things, I don't think RPG and strategy games fall into that category. I like games where the challenge isn't in seeing the objects on the screen, but in deciding what to do. I hope the shaders in graphics cards enable game developers to explore more visual styles.
Since I'm on the subject of displaying information for players, there are several things that Silverfall seemed to get wrong:
Camera rotation. I spent way too much time rotating the camera in Silverfall (and Dungeon Siege). I spent no time doing this in Diablo. Does rotating the camera add to the game? No, I don't think it does. Yes, it's "cool" and people seem to expect it, but it didn't make the game better. In fact, it made it worse.
Zoom. You can zoom in to see your character close up. The character looks really nice when zoomed in. But this mode is useless when actually playing the game. For playing, you want to be zoomed out as much as possible. (In fact I'd like to zoom out even farther than Silverfall allows.) This means that all the effort to make the zoomed-in camera work (for example, distant objects, level-of-detail terrain, and expensive high-resolution texture art) is a waste. Unfortunately you need some of this to put on the box so people will buy your game. But it's a big waste.
Loading zones. When you travel from one zone to another, the game stops and loads the next zone. That's a minor annoyance. The big problem is that all your spells are cancelled. Techniques for avoiding loading screens are well-known (http://www.drizzle.com/~scottb/gdc/continuous-world.htm). I don't mind if there's loading when you enter a tunnel or cave or dungeon. It's when you see arbitrary boundaries unrelated to the game that it becomes annoying.
Terrain. The demo takes place in a swampy region. The terrain is very bumpy. It looks like it was randomly generated (maybe Perlin noise?). The small problem is that the random-looking terrain adds nothing to the gameplay. It just gets in the way. The big problem is that the slopes that are walkable and the slopes that are not at not distinguished in any way, except by clicking and finding that your character doesn't move. At the very least the cursor should change color or shape to indicate that some area isn't accessible.
Map. This is actually a complaint about lots of games. If I were Indiana Jones and I had to go to 3 places to collect artifacts, I'm going to mark those 3 places on my map. Far too many games have a notion of an "active" quest, and only show that one place on the map. No! Make the map work like I would actually use it. Show me all the important places I need to keep track of. Let me add markers. Let me add notes. Let me draw lines. Don't make me keep a second map on paper because your map is so lame.
Quest Listing. There are some bugs in the Silverfall quest list, which I'm sure they'll fix before release. For example, it doesn't remember where you were the last time you brought up the list. A bigger problem though is that the quests do not keep track of who assigned the quest (and where). I found myself often re-reading quest descriptions, trying to guess who would have assigned such a quest. Some of them are on the map and some are not. Some of them trigger the rewards automatically and some do not. It's a mess. Just as with maps, the quest listing should match what I would do on paper. I would keep track of who gave the quest, where I need to go, and what the potential rewards are (especially related to faction). I would allow adding notes, assigning priorities, and sorting the list. For example, there was one quest I received that I was not ready to do. I'd like to move it to the end or otherwise mark it as "later" so that it doesn't clutter up the list of active quests I want to work on. And if the map shows all quests, it should also use different markers for active and postponed quests.
Trees. I've saved my biggest complaint for last. The graphics in Silverfall are great. I admit that. The problem is that the swampy area has lots of trees. In the default zoomed-out view, the canopy of trees blocks your view. So the game very helpfully hides the leaves. In addition, tree trunks block your view. So the game very helpfully hides the trees near your character. But tree trunks still block your attacks. So you now have a completely mysterious and maddening situation in which invisible objects block your attacks. Your attacks are blocked and you can't see why. This is truly bad. Just get rid of all the trees. They don't add anything to the game. Alternatively, since it's unlikely the developers will do that at this point, just let me walk and attack through the trees.
I really liked the demo of Silverfall. It's really promising and it could be lots of fun, except there are some little (easily fixed) things that really detract from the experience. Even with the flaws, the demo was more fun than most other games I've tried. I hope the developers read this post and fix these problems before release. (Oh, and if you're reading this: lose the cheesy box cover art.)

[mysterd]

I found this on the internet this guy has GREAT intell on the game and i agree with him 100%

I've been playing the demo of Silverfall (http://www.silverfall-game.com/en/) (see the preview on IGN (http://pc.ign.com/objects/791/791205.html)). Like Dungeon Siege and Titan Quest, Silverfall reminds me of Diablo 2, which I loved. It's a role-playing game in which your character goes on quests, fights monsters, collects treasures, upgrade items, learn new skills, etc. The graphics are great, or would be, if my computer was fast enough. Some of the more interesting things about it:
Graphics. The characters are surrounded by a black outline. See this screenshot (and others) on IGN (http://media.pc.ign.com/media/791/791205/img_3986018.html). It reminds me of cartoons, where the outlines help separate the important characters from the backgrounds. It's more than this though. Silverfall's graphics look hand drawn, at every angle and zoom. I can't figure out how they did this.

I found the graphics styles interesting, too.

Though, I do like the Option that if I want, I can TURN OFF the Black Outlines.

[carnage665]

i read the silverfall interview on ign (think it was nr 2) in wich they said "For the moment, there are no unique ones, but we are working on it."

Does this mean that in future patches there will certainly be these new "unique" item types or are just still thinking about wheter or not they are gonna be in the game at all?

grtz

amd x2 64 5200+
asus sli crosshair mainbord
2gb corsair ddr2 800mhz
asus en7900 gs top 256

[f2k]

Well, I just got my hands on another gb of RAM. Man, what a difference it made. I can now run the game on almost full setting (minus the phys-engine) without any major lag.
But oh boy... those load-times are killers...

[Harwel]

Camera control needs some work. It's very clunky and at the very least needs adjustability to the rotation speed. The zoom in and zoom out features are also kind of odd, but I'm getting used to them.

Game balance seems like a mess. Fire and Frost magic are insanely powerful compared to air, at least through the demo. Ranger-types also seem weak compared with magic or melee. Maybe this changes at the high end... it's hard to say based on a demo with three (2.5?) zones and level cap of 14.

Other than that (and the fact that the game is a huge CPU and RAM hog, I have no complaints. I've only played the demo and am dying for the full version... make it come sooner! :D

[BahamutBBob]

Played the demo, and have one complaint. Why do I have to install PhysX drivers to play it? I don't have a PhysX card...

Gonna play some more of the demo later, it's pretty fun.

[Booshka]

Graphics: Pretty good. I think that they could run a little smoother, but they are still nice.

Gameplay: It's a tad repetative and the storyline is not motivating at all. The desire to find ultimate items really keeps this game going. And that's about all that keeps it going.

User Interface: Absolutely atrocious. It looks as if it were designed in Photoshop by some high school student. It works.. barely.

Terrain: Not bad, but rather buggy. The boundaries set by the developers do not appear on the minimap and are either an ocean, or just something that looks like it can be walked on, but can't. The transition from one map to the next is horrid. There is no marker, no portal, no nothing to notify you that you are walking into another zone besides (Which I'm assuming is temporary) a pink color that you have to walk into. A marker or notification on the minimap or on the regular map that shows where a new zone/map starts would be extremely helpful.

Skill system: Boring, lacks choice and will not inspire much more than the creation of one character per player.

Items: Okay looking. Keep in mind that the more unique and elaborate looking the "Ultimate" items are, the more players will want them (Therefore, the more they will play).

Death: I've not been so inconvenienced before to have to pick up my body and singly place every item back where it belongs. That's assuming I'm not either being attacked or ran after by whatever killed me. This sets you back quite a bit and becomes annoying very fast.

Loading screen: Not intuitive, not special, just seems as though concept art was placed on a screen with one spinning cogwheel at the bottom (Which means nothing to the player but the fact that you will be waiting). Perhaps a bar showing the loading progress or anything coherent to loading would work.

Controls: The screen turning is extremely clunky and not smooth whatsoever. Not to mention, using the arrow keys to move the PoV does not corrolate with any other vital keys used to play or move. Making it a hassle just to change the screen direction.


Final Verdict: This game is not ready at all. It needs much work. Huge changes include the text (Sometimes hard to read and does not catch the eye), the user interface (Absolutely hideous) and the controls (They need to be placed more conveniently to the player).

Score: 6/10

[Deadgarth]

I too oddly experience low framerate gameplay like many others I've read about. This is while playing on High settings with physics disabled. There's hardly a difference on medium and low is a little better.

My system: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4Ghz, Nvidia GeForce 8800GTS, 2gigs DDR2 PC2 5300 RAM, Windows Vista

Im using Nvidia latest certified drivers not the newest beta one, but I'm sure those drivers plus Vista could be part of the problem although from what I've read people have these issues almost all around.

[shadowmage]

- When you die its run back naked to your tombstone. Which of course is right next to whatever killed you and you are naked. And when you click the tombstone your items go into inventory - they arent equipped. - Didnt like this 5 years ago in D2 - dont like it now.

- Names of friendlies are in Red. Umm a standard convention would be green friendly, red enemy. Like the dots on the mini-map.

- Accept / cancel options are Grey tick or grey cross - for heavens sake havent the developers heard of colours?

- Assigning attribute points / skills - if you click plus thats it, there is no minus button to change your mind, you dont even have an accept button, so clicking the X to close the screen the points are still assigned - I think I hate that the most.

- Its a left mouse button click fest - click to move, click to attack, keep clicking to attack. How about WASD keys for movement and click once to keep attacking the same target?

I liked the graphics :) I like the idea of a steampunk type game.

Will I buy it? I dont think so - Unfortunately what I perceive as poor User Interface is enough to put me off.

However the demo did serve its purpose - giving me a taste of the game so I could decide if I wanted to purchase it.

[Harwel]

- When you die its run back naked to your tombstone. Which of course is right next to whatever killed you and you are naked. And when you click the tombstone your items go into inventory - they arent equipped. - Didnt like this 5 years ago in D2 - dont like it now.

Second complaint about this... why not just buy Life Insurance from the banker goblin? Or, equip whatever random loot is in your pack when you die, which will generally be enough to recover your corpse successfully? Just curious... I didn't really find this to be problematic at all.

[shadowmage]

I guess because the interface annoyed me so much I didnt play that far into the game.

And at lvl 1 - I had no random loot in my pack. So I had to run naked back to my tombstone.