TotalBiscuit explains AVWW in one sentence.

[x4000]

I definitely agree with what TB said about NPCs.

Picking up NPCs is definitely more out of selfishness than any real desire to help them. They have something you want (ability at some job) and there isn't any negative consequences to seeing somebody in need but running the other way or ignoring the mission.

That's one I definitely agree with also, and I take it not too much as even criticism.  It's something I'd like to do a lot more with, but right now there are bigger fish to fry.  At some point in the next months that's a major avenue of expansion I want to explore more, though.

[TotalBiscuit.]

I'd love an actual example of where I've blamed a game for my own ineptitude because I go out of my way NOT to do that. Your example with Walking Dead is particularly poor since you don't seem to have actually understood the criticism. The criticism is that the two choices are two extremes and there is no reasonable medium. On the one hand, UI on holds your hand too much and tells you too much about the decisions you're making. On the other hand, UI off doesn't work well because the interaction points don't actually relate properly to the action you're taking so they're not remotely intuitive. You don't unlock handcuffs by poking the chain in the centre with your key, you unlock them by putting the key in the lock, yet the game seems to think otherwise which makes interacting more of a guessing game than anything else because it doesn't make any logical sense.

It seems that some of this analysis is too complex for some people and they completely misinterpret it, which is a shame. Thankfully the developers and such do not and understand where I'm coming from.

I don't know who this "TotalBiscuit" is, but I suppose I should be flattered that people care enough to impersonate me on forums these days.  I just wish they wouldn't act like spoiled pseudo-intellectual pre-adolescents when they do so.

Just ignore him from now on.

Anyway, as I said in my video, I'm just not sure what to make of this game quite yet.  I definitely love the exploration, but it lacks some depth in its combat and some of the backgrounds are quite jarring.  I appreciate all the comments and feedback, though!

[x4000]

Hoo boy, things just got really surreal.  Well, good to talk to you Total-Biscuit-the-real.

[BobTheJanitor]

No, I am Spartacus.

[TotalBiscuit.]

Hoo boy, things just got really surreal.  Well, good to talk to you Total-Biscuit-the-real.

Glad to be here.  I always to support indie titles, especially creative ones that take some risks with their concepts like this one.  It has a bit of a ways to go to live up to it's full potential, but I just noticed that it's already been having patches since it's release on Steam.  I may have to do a follow-up video in a few weeks if there are significant enough changes!

[Bluddy]

Then they're out of luck.   Unless I rendered all the assets at 2x resolution of what they were now, I cannot express how bad this would look if scaled up.  Absolutely, incredibly, terrible.

Seriously, I don't think it'll be anywhere near as bad as you think. Virtually every game out there does it with their gui. Do you think games can afford to have infinite resolution guis? No way! They make their gui at some resolution, and resolutions above that just get scaling. If you do linear scaling with no bilinear/trilinear filtering, you'll get horrible results. But if you use filtering, it'll look pretty good. Not as good as a UI tailored to that resolution (of course), but nice and legible. And since you're working on a 3d engine, you get filtering for free. Graphics cards eat filtering for breakfast. Also, you don't need to scale by that much.

Try it on one gui element -- just the mana bar, for example. See how it goes.

[nanostrike]

Wait, what?  Did I just get trolled by a TotalBiscuit impersonator?

I think I'm just gonna sit this one out from now on.  *Grabs popcorn*

[Volatar]

Then they're out of luck.   Unless I rendered all the assets at 2x resolution of what they were now, I cannot express how bad this would look if scaled up.  Absolutely, incredibly, terrible.

Seriously, I don't think it'll be anywhere near as bad as you think. Virtually every game out there does it with their gui. Do you think games can afford to have infinite resolution guis? No way! They make their gui at some resolution, and resolutions above that just get scaling. If you do linear scaling with no bilinear/trilinear filtering, you'll get horrible results. But if you use filtering, it'll look pretty good. Not as good as a UI tailored to that resolution (of course), but nice and legible. And since you're working on a 3d engine, you get filtering for free. Graphics cards eat filtering for breakfast. Also, you don't need to scale by that much.

Try it on one gui element -- just the mana bar, for example. See how it goes.

Seconding this. If you are playing at 1920x1080 you are probably sitting far enough back for scaling not to be an issue.

[tigersfan]

That's the resolution on both of my monitors, and I'm close enough that I can touch them both at the same time while sitting back in my chair.

[x4000]

TotalBiscuit: Thanks for the support! You know us and post-release content. We try to take that sort of thing as far we can as fast as we can. We're getting there!

Regarding the scaled GUIs: Guys, we already use bilinear filtering for everything; you're right, gpus eat that for lunch. But I get enough grief about the graphics without adding blurry scaled textures to the mix. It probably would not be eye-searing; we already scale the minimap this way. Text works incredibly poorly, but the rest might be okay; the problem is that text more than anything.

However we also now get into all sorts of code challenges for scaling the GUI, what with needing other elements to move based on the new larger size, clickable areas to resize, etc. Its not something we can just try in 5 minutes unless we were taking graphics only, it would take a few hours to do a true proof of concept.

My strong feeling is that when people play where the HUD is too small for them, then they can't see anything else well either. Small pickups and text get too small to see. Icons on doors are hard to distinguish. Pretty soon you've scaled up the whole game rather than just the HUD. And that's already possible!

[Drjones013]

I seriously have to weigh in on the anti-switching side.

I am almost certain that this will be added in as an option only, and not thrust upon us all. 

Yep, you can count on this.

Have to agree, it's an opinion, after all. I'm hoping that if the mousewheel idea is implemented I can disable it again.

[Bluddy]

I don't think you'll ever get people to play in a lower fullscreen resolution than the highest one they can support -- doesn't matter what they can or cannot see. It's a point of pride. "I paid for this resolution and I'm darn well going to use it!"

Though everyone has at least one old relative who runs Windows at 640x480 on a 1900x1200 monitor and doesn't notice the difference. Preferably with heavy flickering.

[zebramatt]

Am I wrong in thinking that there already exists a GUI element to indicate which spell is currently selected for your main attack? And that you can scroll this indicator along your ability bar to change which spell your primary attack key triggers?

It strikes me that if I haven't imagined that feature then it should be relatively trivial, and no less intuitive, to have a mode where a hotkey press jumps the selection indicator to the relevant ability slot.

If I am imaging that feature, on the other hand, then you may disregard the above!

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Not to be, you know, doubtful/paranoid, but I'm asking Totalbiscuit on Twitter if he's actually owning either of these accounts. I'm sorry, but the guy strikes me as too busy to involve himself on any particular forum. I should have asked him when the first guy impersonating him came on, he sounded off to me. And quite frankly, if your impersonating TB, you need to get a life. Seriously. TB doesn't need his fanbase covering him, he can handle himself.  And if I'm wrong and the 2nd TB account is the actual real account, my apologies, but until I get verification from him, you'll excuse me if I take what either account says with a giant grain of salt.

King

[KingIsaacLinksr]

At 1680x1050, the UI doesn't bother me and I don't really want it any bigger. Granted, I'm not at 1920 so idk if its worse there or not.

King