Exanima Beta Released - NDA Lifted

[mercy]

+ Graphics and character generation is awesome!
+ GUI is good and the letter window is okay: text should be larger and the whole letter-reading window should occupy the center of the screen and dismissable by closing its window - you don't hold a letter 3 meters away from you in the corner (of your eye) when reading, do you??
+ Atmosphere is surprisingly good

- Real-ish shadows in combat is really distracting..
- You could have completely left out this experimental animation system and gone with traditional 3D mocap instead… You will never ever ever gonna fix this. You fell in your own trap and there is no escape. Swinging the torch in place looks completely botched: feet should be firmly planted on ground, not skidding = basic 3D anim 1o1. This whole anim system just gets in the way of hack&slash fun..

 

[Tony]

- You could have completely left out this experimental animation system and gone with traditional 3D mocap instead… You will never ever ever gonna fix this. You fell in your own trap and there is no escape. Swinging the torch in place looks completely botched: feet should be firmly planted on ground, not skidding = basic 3D anim 1o1. This whole anim system just gets in the way of hack&slash fun..

Of course everyone is entitled to their own opinion but I very strongly disagree with this. While the animations don't look as cinematic and/or flashy as motion-captured animations they more than make up for this by using physics. This means you can use momentum, feints, tactics, maneuvers, create your own combinations, large wind-ups (slow but powerful attacks) or short wind-ups (quick but less powerful), footwork, proper timing, ripostes, parries, dodges, trips, knocking people off balance, body checks, turning your hips and shoulders into an attack to generate more force, etc... basically the system is incredibly dynamic and every fight is unique.

The game would lose almost all of this if they switched to motion-captured animations; there's no way to achieve this level of maneuverability using static motion-captured animations. It would become the same boring and predictable combat system which is used in every other game and it would lose almost all of its current depth. I prefer a game that is fun and engaging vs. one that looks like a Hollywood movie but lacks substance and depth. What they currently have not only works but it works very well and it's the closest thing I've encountered (in a game) to an actual fight.

 

[Jan]

@Jan that type of saving will never be in exanima, the only time you can save/load is when you exit and continuing a game. unless someone mods it in, skyrim like saving wont be added.

yeah the devs specifically don't want saving in their game(s). It does make it tough for sure. but still enjoyable. nothing that you are used to in regards to conventional rpg's will be in Exanima or SG.

Ok, thanks for the info! Well I do find this game fun to play, I just need to learn how to fight. Even the first guy in arena gives me hard time. I can´t read his movements yet and when trying to make some cool combo on him I just jump face straight into his mace ... I was looking for a fantasy rpg game hard like this for a long time. A game that is not hard because the enemies just have more HP than you but a challenging gameplay - you screw up you die.

 

[Tony]

Ok, thanks for the info! Well I do find this game fun to play, I just need to learn how to fight. Even the first guy in arena gives me hard time. I can´t read his movements yet and when trying to make some cool combo on him I just jump face straight into his mace ... I was looking for a fantasy rpg game hard like this for a long time. A game that is not hard because the enemies just have more HP than you but a challenging gameplay - you screw up you die.

It's great because you have to actually learn how to fight and it's not just mashing buttons to victory. The enemies feel like actual real opponents and not mindless idiots who do the same thing over and over. When you do start to become proficient in combat you'll notice it (it's very satisfying!) and I'm sure you'll have many epiphany moments where you discover some new tactic or maneuver and things just start to click.

 

[Don Kanaille]

Hey, um... when I log in as a contributor, the page is just blank white?

 

[Vacuous]

yep, many of us have the same problemos. No idea whats going on though...

 

[Holy.Death]

Just died to two hits in the head by an axe. Ouch. Game is much harder than Dark Souls, because Dark Souls saved progress at certain checkpoints. Here? You're dead. You start over. From the beginning.

By the way. I think the torch should deal way more damage when hitting humans, or flammable enemies (like mummies). I can understand zombies don't care for being hit with a burning torch, but I do expect torch being more dangerous than a stick under certain conditions.

 

[Brendan]

Hey, um... when I log in as a contributor, the page is just blank white?

Sorry guys this was a server issue - should be fixed now.

 

[Don Kanaille]

Sorry guys this was a server issue - should be fixed now.

Thanks! Everything if fine now

 

[TeoLolstoy]

Hello guys - sorry if this is the wrong thread, but I'm kind of in a hurry. So, my girlfriend just bought the 30 pound tier for me but didn't receive any confirmation besides the paypal email. I only bought a game once directly through PayPal (Unepic - go check it out, it's awesome!) and after pledging I simply got an automatically generated email. This doesn't seem to be the case. So, how does this work? I hoped to be able to play for a bit tonight. Any help would be appreciated!

By the way, thumbs up to the devs. I've been following the game since the Kickstarter (back then I was just a student without any money and now I'm working full time, sheesh, where did the time go?) and it really looks awesome and I cannot wait to see more!

 

[ZaratanCho]

Hmm i don't see the 30 pounds tier available on the contributions page anymore but as far as i remember it was a special tier added later and it gave you the development videos but no alpha or beta access and you couldn't upgrade.

You'd need to sort that out with the devs. ;d

 

[TeoLolstoy]

Hmm i don't see the 30 pounds tier available on the contributions page anymore but as far as i remember it was a special tier added later and it gave you the development videos but no alpha or beta access and you couldn't upgrade.

You'd need to sort that out with the devs. ;d

I'm sorry I was of course talking about the 20 pounds tier. I had the Swiss francs price in mind when talking about 30, sorry for the confusion!

Edit: Nevermind. She got the email!

 

[Nynuc]

So can we make our old videos public? or do they remain under nda

 

[ZaratanCho]

you should be seeing more recent and complete videos from players as this version is not under NDA.

Naturally, why would you show the old versions which were under NDA because of their state, their state is still the same. New and improved is better. ;d

 

[Nynuc]

the old versions which were under NDA

A had a good couple of dueling videos is only reason I asked. But yeah. Guess I got confused.

 

[Downstairs Eddie]

I like the added blocks of stone when you first spawn. Makes it clear you fell through the roof and reminds me of the Exanima wallpaper.

 

[Faelivrin]

I like the added blocks of stone when you first spawn. Makes it clear you fell through the roof and reminds me of the Exanima wallpaper.

Mhmm now that's an interesting theory. I had another. On one of the latest notes you find it is hinted that

Spoiler

Either Thaven or Hamon, while doing his experiments found a subject that was able to 'guard his mind' against him and that eventually take a weapon and escape. This suggest me this subject (us?) might be a thaumaturge too, and that he is being turned into an undead. When he wake up (resurrect) he is a lil messed in the head and can't remember a thing.

 

[burgzaza]

I like the added blocks of stone when you first spawn. Makes it clear you fell through the roof and reminds me of the Exanima wallpaper.

Nice I did'nt thought about that

 

[Murf]

I like the added blocks of stone when you first spawn. Makes it clear you fell through the roof and reminds me of the Exanima wallpaper.

Thought the same thing, got eh wallpaper on my 2nd monitor so I see it everyday and that's exactly what I thought when I saw those blocks

it is the underworld, gotta get there somehow

 

[Samwise]

I am getting a '404 - File or directory not found' error when I click the download link. Can anybody help?