Hey, Dave. I'll be updating this post as I get more testing done.
HardwareWinXP Pro SP3
Intel Quad-core Q9450 (2.66 GHz)
4 GB of DDR2 RAM (3 GB effective)
GeForce 9800 GT
1920x1080 desktop resolution
Playing in 1280x1024 windowed mode
No problems running the program
Playthroughs1. By the bookBook 1: 1 success, 4 deaths
Book 2: 0 successes, 4 deaths (I freaking give up.
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2. Custom: by-the-book with free save/load, maxed stats, extended combat, healing 2, no intelligent autoheal, dual wielding, weapon rule 3, heal starvation with meals, special items 3Book 1: 1 success, 1 death
Book 2: 1 success, 0 deaths
Book 3: 1 success, 1 death
3. Hardcore: 17/23Book 1: 1 success, 0 deaths (Wow, my poor stat rolls in BTB actually made that harder than Hardcore.
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Book 2: 1 success, 3 deaths (dratted Helghast! :shake fist:)
Book 3: 0 successes, 1 death (boo, Kalkoth instant-death bite!)
General Impressions1. The menu screens are much, much nicer than before. I was impressed with the original Seventh Sense, but this is cooler by far.
2. I like the "most rules cannot be changed once you begin your campaign" tooltip.
3. The various font and appearance options are wonderful. I play on a 32" screen and am really glad for the ability to size my text up.
4. The fanart in here is of incredibly high quality. I had expected childish doodling, not illustrations that match the originals in quality and tone. Hat off to the artists!
5. Playing by the book is just blasted hard, especially when I keep getting crappy stat rolls.
Or maybe I just suck that hard.
6. Book 2 section 333: I'm not sure if the fan illustration here is a good or a bad thing. On the one hand, it does make a vital clue more likely to be noticed by a new player. On the other hand, it might make the clue a little too obvious.
Bugs, etc.1. Pressing the Up or Down arrows or PageUp or PageDown on any menu screen causes a Crash To Desktop. All other keys appear safe to press.
- fixed2. The By-The-Book tooltip contains a grammatical oversight ("Select to default rules...").
- fixed3. "Wield" is spelt as "weild" on the second rule page and in various tooltips on the page.
- fixed4.
Book 1 section 130: It is possible to come to this place more than once. Currently, all visits after the first do not require you to eat a meal here. Is this by design, and should such decisions be handled based on a gameplay setting (with Hardcore and By-The-Book requiring a meal to be eaten each time, perhaps)?5. The "Weapons" icon is a little hard to click since it consists of two fairly thin objects.
- fixed6.
Book 1 section 306: This death is not from wounding and does not trigger the "You have fallen" menu.7.
Book 2 section 213: Death by writer's whim - does not trigger LWYHF menu.8.
Book 2 section 238: The cartwheel game is not updating your belt pouch correctly when you win. Updating only happens after you leave the gambling den.9.
Book 2 section 238: Is it just me or does the RNG seem to foul up in this place? The same number seems to come up again and again. Edit: Upon further testing, it appears that the number that comes up first will keep appearing until you win once. After that, the RNG appears to go back to normal.10.
There seems to be no way to read the erratum page(s). If I recall rightly, they used to be accessible via a right-side tab which seems to have been replaced by "combat rules".11. Book 2 section 240: You are able to click through to the next section without restoring any EP.
- fixed, though there are surely other sections like this. Keep you eyes peeled.12. Loading a game often causes a CTD. I am uncertain right now what triggers it.
- fixed13. Loading a game seems to only load your stats at the point of the save but not change the section you're currently reading. However, quitting the program and resuming play solves the problem. Is this related to bug #12?
- fixed, yes it was very much related to bug #12!\
14: Book 2 equipment section: The text clearly states that you may take 2 items from the list
and exchange one or both currently held weapons with what is available. However, the program does not currently enable the exchange of weapons.
- It's a wording/interpretation issue - I see it as stating that you may use "this opportunity" (of taking two items from the list) to exchange one or both of your weapons. My view is supported by the paragraph that follows the above statement.
15. Book 2 section 337: The text states you keep your backpack and lose your weapons. When I clicked on "lost", the healing potion in my backpack disappeared (I watched it happen). Am unsure if other backpack items similarly vanish.
- in footnote it states that you keep the backpack, but lose all items in it.16. Book 3 Equipment section: Of the items you may choose to start with, only meals are in plural form, suggesting that one may choose to take two meals. The program only allows one meal choice, however.
- text specifically says there is one meal. The plural (Meals) refers to the grouping that the item falls under, the same way that "Quarterstaff (Weapons)" does - there is not more than one quarterstaff available, neither is there more than 1 Special Rations.Suggestions1. A readme file explaining where to place data zips would likely be helpful for first-time users.
- Users shouldn't need to manually place .zips anywhere. The program automatically does it for them. Still, a readme like that is a good idea, and I'll probably include one.2. On the book selection screen, clicking on "Pic" to download cover art had me mystified because I had not paused long enough to read the tooltip. A "downloading cover art... please wait" message during the download process would be helpful.
- fixed, now it's obvious what's happening3. Is there a way for us to scroll through the different covers without having to navigate away from and back to the book selection page? Or perhaps make the covers change every few seconds?
- fixed, you can now flip through all of the book covers, as well as specify your favorite for each book.4. Shouldn't Hardcore mode not use the Generous Armor Removal Method?
- as it is changeable mid-game, and doesn't weigh in when determining whether someone is playing by Hardcore or By-the-book, I haven't been setting it one way or the other.5. The Action Chart icons should have tooltips or descriptive text underneath.
- fixed6. The "Lone Wolf, you have fallen..." messages are very nice indeed. Would the first line look better if moved a little bit south of the top border though?
- fixed, agreed!7.
Would it be possible to see at a glance which books you have completed? This is admittedly not a very important thing to have as most players are presumably going to play the series from start to end. Related to this: if you complete book 2 then go to book 1, would you be able to carry your skills and equipment over? I see now that we can only play books in the right order. Ignore this suggestion, please.
8. I personally feel that the way fanart is handled is better than the way original illustrations are. A single click should give us a large version of the illustration, not a medium-sized version on the left which can then be clicked to give a large picture.
- But, I want people to be able to read the great captions, and see a larger version of the image while still interacting with the section text. I probably won't be changing this.9. Would the artists be interested in contributing fanart for the various special items one could pick up in the books? It would be pretty cool to be able to click on the Crystal Star to see what it looks like, for instance.
- pending10. The "Skip Animation" option is awesome. Could the same be applied to combat as well, please?
- fixed - I have added the option to skip the combat results table animation - this cuts down on combat time significantly - for the impatient types!11. Could the default "restart book" option be set to "restart book with saved campaign data" please? This helps prevent people from wiping out their progress from the last book by mistake. Didn't happen to me, but I can see it frustrating some others.
- fixed12. The graphical change to indicate that you have no backpack doesn't convey the message well. Greying out the section and/or crossing out the word "backpack" and/or "putting a large cross over the box may work better.
- fixed, there is no confusing the issue now!13. Could a set of custom rules be saved and loaded using the GUI?
- no, not easily - however, the game does remember which set of rules you last used, so if you have a favorite set of rules you play with, once you set them, you don't need to re-select them when you start a new game...14. It would be good to have a full list of special weapon stats (weapon rule 3) in a readme file and/or accessible through the program's GUI.
- good idea, but I think half the fun is to wait and find out what the bonuses (and what the weapons) are! A list would completely spoil the experience...ScreenshotsHave sent you around 40MB of screenshots. Hope your email client didn't get a stroke.
I've been at this for hours. Time to take a break!