How was your first trip to A Valley Without Wind?

[Nenad]

I just finished my first trip (session) so I was wondering how was it for the rest of you?

As for me, it started with a lot of interest and reading, then continued with slight tediousness as I saw how the building are empty (this was emphasized by the devs - probably why I noticed), and how I had to explore a lot of rooms for potions. But soon it went to fun. I can certainly feel the addictive component. Not quite sure is that good or bad... well... 4 hours went like 4 minutes, should I complain?

I read up on the dev diaries so I didn't fall in the trap of going in every. single. room.

What did I do and find? Mostly stuck to mine or lower levels. I did want to go to higher but was progressing quickly so i often forgot what civ level I am and went to low level areas. Everything I encountered seems like the usual in this game except a 2 or 3 towers with bosses and loot on top. One of them had only the float-y blue boss of equal level (otherwise 4/5 difficulty) and those were a pain. Not hard per se, I just got used to everything being easy. Found some quartz, memory crystals. No luck with books or gems unfortunately.  Haven't explored the caves much yet.

Art looks great and the music sounds even better than that.

Edit: P.S. When I enter a boss room the up-right notification area lists a bunch of bosses when there's only one. Bug?

Your turn.

[Huw]

Edit: P.S. When I enter a boss room the up-right notification area lists a bunch of bosses when there's only one. Bug?

Yep!

At first I followed the three or four tutorial messages to the letter, then made a few more spells.  I skimmed the getting started guide but didn't read it too closely because I like to discover stuff on my own.

After that, I visited a region adjacent to my settlement which was rich in cedar wood and had a resource guarded by monsters.  I went all over the region, exploring buildings fully and picking up some very handy items, mainly potions.  Then I just legged it to what I assume is the lair near the end of the region.  I've been wandering around underground taking out all the bosses I could find and having a blast.  Oh, and killing every Skelebot Dwarf I find because I hate them.

I'm really, really looking forward to diving into the strategic portion of the game.

[Nenad]

At first I followed the three or four tutorial messages to the letter, then made a few more spells.  I skimmed the getting started guide but didn't read it too closely because I like to discover stuff on my own.

I didn't mention it, but I did the same thing ^^

Also I did fiddle around with the strategic map. Gave almost all my resources by mistaking "paying them" by clicking on them and "killing them" by clicking on them. Don't know how I got lost with that one.

[GabrielKronos]

Yeah, i noticed the messages about bosses too... weirder as it may be, it looks like the game lists all of the minibosses of a particular region or dungeon, with the last name displayed being the one(s) u're gonna face (mostly).

And my experiences were about the same as Nenad, grinding low level areas, hunting for potions, fiddling the strategic maps and citybuilding (I'm almost running out of shards out there, feels like we need a lot more when the settlement have lots of NPC's, like mine which got 14-18 right now).

I'm looking to find another profession book, which I didn't have the luck to find either, even following the tips in-game (look for libraries or studies at small homes in towns, etc...) and i'll get ready tomorrow to fight my first Liutenant.

Oh yeah, does anyone knows why I can only see regions of level 10 or less? Is this a bug or is it related with the Overlord and such? (Because if the latter is right, i'll surely hunt him down like a pack of wolves).

[c4sc4]

I'm looking to find another profession book, which I didn't have the luck to find either, even following the tips in-game (look for libraries or studies at small homes in towns, etc...) and i'll get ready tomorrow to fight my first Liutenant.

What type of regions did you look in? Forest regions, grasslands and rural areas tend to have houses with libraries and studies in them. I believe I have also found some in desert areas.

Oh yeah, does anyone knows why I can only see regions of level 10 or less? Is this a bug or is it related with the Overlord and such? (Because if the latter is right, i'll surely hunt him down like a pack of wolves).

This is intentional. The only tiles that are revealed are ones that are your civ level + 10 or lower.

[GabrielKronos]

Oh yeah, does anyone knows why I can only see regions of level 10 or less? Is this a bug or is it related with the Overlord and such? (Because if the latter is right, i'll surely hunt him down like a pack of wolves).

This is intentional. The only tiles that are revealed are ones that are your civ level + 10 or lower.

Well, my civ level is 8 right now, and I still don't see some areas right now...

[NefariousKoel]

I just wanted to reiterate the point that addictive gameplay is definitely there.  The exploration feel, coupled with the procedurally generated areas is really what I looked forward to and this is what kept me tuned in for a nice stretch.

However, the buildings and dungeon I went through definitely seemed pretty barren.  Most of my gameplay was just hopping around uncovering the fog of war.  I hope to see a lot more .. of something.. to find while we are exploring the unknown. 

This has a lot of potential, and just needs to be filled out.  I have faith in Arcen getting that done, as their innovation, quality, and post-release additions had already impressed me with AI War.

[OobleckTheGreen]

I died twice today, learning the ropes of AVWW, and another time from an obscure (and now reported) mouse-related bug. My feeling is that AVWW has a lot of potential to be a great game and that these early Beta days will help flesh out an already good game into a very awesome one.

My initial impression is that the world is a bit "dry" in terms of content. At this point, all the adventuring is for resources, which although quite necessary, aren't terribly exciting. This is certainly a known-issue and I'm well aware that Arcen has stated that content is now their #1 priority.

I think some UI tweaks will improve gameplay a bit. For example, on my 1920x1200 screen, all the text in status messages is quite small and a strain to read. The health and magic meters could be a little bigger, brighter, or somehow more visible.

The settlement management screen is my biggest mystery. After putting in a solid 6-8 hours of gameplay today I finally made it to Civ Level 7, and of course have had access to the settlement map for several levels. Some management options are obvious. I can see that I can build 3 structures: a well, a house, and a farm, and I could easily figure out how to explore new areas or rescue a stranded settler. Less obvious are the answers to questions like "How many people will one farm feed?" or "Does killing all the monsters guarding a cache of resources mean I automatically get new resources each turn?" Also, the tooltips make reference to more advanced buildings, but I was unable to figure out how or when they might become available. Perhaps these aren't in the game yet.

Overall, I think this is a great start for Beta. I had a lot of fun (and some frustrations) learning the game today and I'm really stoked to see what the Arcen team comes up with in the coming days and weeks. My advice to new players? Level 1 is the hardest and the learning curve is rather steep with very little in the way of guidance (yet). Stick with it and you'll soon discover a game absolutely brimming with potential.

 

[coconutpete]

I'm 3 hours into the game right now. Civ lvl is only level 2. I can't seem to find a lot of bosses. Anyone know the best way to find them? I've searched loads of houses already only to find 1 boss.

The artistic design indeed looks great, though all the buildings are clearly way too empty, but they're working on that I guess!

I've had a lot of fun with the game already, but it does need some more stuff to do and so on.
Keep on the good work Arcen!

[c4sc4]

I'm 3 hours into the game right now. Civ lvl is only level 2. I can't seem to find a lot of bosses. Anyone know the best way to find them? I've searched loads of houses already only to find 1 boss.

The artistic design indeed looks great, though all the buildings are clearly way too empty, but they're working on that I guess!

I've had a lot of fun with the game already, but it does need some more stuff to do and so on.
Keep on the good work Arcen!

Bosses can be found in rare commodity towers, in underground dungeons and guarding resource deposits.

[FallingStar]

I've been lurking about for awhile, looking forward to this game's arrival, so had to jump on the first day bandwagon when I could.  I guess my overall impression is that there's still a lot of "stuff" needed to fill out the world but the basic game seems solid and fun.

Also had about 5ish hours broken up across the day, got to civ level 7.  Two deaths, both to bosses.  One "oops 4 levels higher than me hits really hard" and one "darn hit the wrong button then jumped into a bolt of fire while running towards a door."  I have two settlements working away merrily, so I did figure out the settlements.  Right now I really need to find crafting bits to get more spells as I've been a bit unlucky on that it seems, and the starters aren't doing much to bosses with 15k + health.

Most of the prelaunch quibbles I had looking at the art I didn't notice in game, animations looked fine to me when I was running wildly and I didn't notice the background ladders as much as I feared.  I did notice I was often more watching the minimap as I played than the game, as I often missed the items if I just looked at the main screen.  Perhaps a bit of a shimmer on some things might help?

Best bits of my early journey:   Most all of the spell visuals.  Hitting my first boss fight (the twin darkness bats), completely unaware of what I was getting into and having a hectic (but victorious) few minutes.  Going "huh no health regen?  My mana isn't coming back on its own?"  which actually made outfitting feel more important and exploration more a necessity.  Getting up to level 3/6 and getting those whiney people in my settlement to do something for me.  Quite liked several of the songs.  The load screen oddly enough.  Laughing at the mass rhino population spawning in a bathroom in a random house.  An outdoor fight with marauders getting close to my camp.

Worst bits in my early journey: my early wanderings where I went into lots of houses - just because it felt same-y from room to room (content) and I didn't have enough of a goal to where I was going; got better when I started to figure out the world map.  Have a recurring Unauthorized access exception bug that makes the game tell me to quit every 10 minutes (I'll figure out the bug tracker tomorrow if needed on this one).  The random number generator hating me in finding spell learning scrolls or gems - or I'm just bad at finding them still.  Some boss fights that felt more "stand with boss offscreen and shoot in its direction for 2 minutes" - just a bit lacking.  I think most of the rest is just content things that will be resolved as more is added, like commodity towers feeling repetitive with the minibosses.

For the future, I'm a bit worried what I'll find in that evil tower I just uncovered, especially when I consider how big and nasty some of the minibosses have been.  I look forwards someday to getting some of the history about the world and understanding more whats going on macro story wise as well.

In all I had a good time.  Took longer on it than expected on day one, and am excited to see where it all goes.  Oh and on a random note - I liked the management of how character death now works.  I do feel some attachment to my character as I play, and there's something that strikes me as poignant about a character striving to make the world better turning evil and going about killing things because I as the player messed up.  Feels like there should be some epic story there.  But anyways, enough for now, more to explore.

[tigersfan]

Definitely adding more content, and more background into the world, and more bosses, and more enemies, and more room decorations, and more everything!

[Huw]

Definitely adding more content, and more background into the world, and more bosses, and more enemies, and more room decorations, and more everything!

He means it, too.  As fans of AI War and Tidalis can attest, we can probably expect an avalanche of shiny new stuff for a long time to come, even when beta is over.  It's one of the things that makes Arcen my favourite indie developer.

[BobTheJanitor]

I did notice I was often more watching the minimap as I played than the game, as I often missed the items if I just looked at the main screen.  Perhaps a bit of a shimmer on some things might help?

Agreed with this. Sometimes the lush vegetation in a cave can make the little dull rock deposits hard to notice. In one cave I found a survivor hidden behind a tree. Wouldn't have noticed him if I didn't walk past him and see the brief popup. And those memory crystals are so tiny and innocuous that it's easy to completely miss them. Some sort of glow, perhaps even colored glow to differentiate these things from regular light sources, or maybe some sort of sparkly particle effects to draw the eye would help a lot in these areas.

[tigersfan]

Definitely adding more content, and more background into the world, and more bosses, and more enemies, and more room decorations, and more everything!

He means it, too.  As fans of AI War and Tidalis can attest, we can probably expect an avalanche of shiny new stuff for a long time to come, even when beta is over.  It's one of the things that makes Arcen my favourite indie developer.

It was one of the things I liked about Arcen before they paid me to be here.