Scroll

[Cat1]

Just started playing... It says in the introduction that the scroll will tell Graham where the items he needs are, and people he needs to talk to.  However whenever I look at the scroll all it says is what the items Graham needs are - nothing about where they are etc.  No problem if it doesn't tell where they are - I just want to make sure I'm not missing something that I need to know in order to play!

[wilco64256]

Remember during that tutorial when it drew Shamir for you?  That's your hint to get you going.

[Cat1]

Cool, yep I've been to see Shamir, but now I'm not sure if the scroll is supposed to tell me where to go to get the items I need (as that's what the tutorial said), or whether I just go around looking for them?

[kindofdoon]

You need to find the ingredients yourself. The scroll just tells you which ingredients are available at the moment.

[Cat1]

Ok no problem - I prefer it like that anyway.  Just didn't want to miss something important Thanks for the quick responses!

[KatieHal]

The 'tells you where' part will be noticeable when you need to tell Hassan where you want to go.

[drunkenmonkey]

It would have been nice if the items on the scroll highlighted when you were in the area where they were located. That way the player will know which quest item he is going after and can make a choice on which quest item to concentrate on. Of course in ep 2 all the items were merged into one quest, but in later eps I will expect multiple quests and side quests in which to gain items to help Graham on his way.

[rudy]

It would have been nice if the items on the scroll highlighted when you were in the area where they were located.

That would make it a tad too easy IMO. The game as it is now is well-balanced for both beginning and experienced adventurers. If it would be made easier, then the more experienced adventurers would just run through the game unchallenged, which would eliminate most of the fun.

[drunkenmonkey]

That would make it a tad too easy IMO.

That is a valid point, but whilst knowing what you are questing after, the player would still have to go through all the obstacles to reach it. Offering the player some guidance is not really a hint and does not affect the puzzles, I think. But denying the player that - it was okay in episode 2 because of only three locations - should not be to make the game seem harder, when that's what the puzzles are meant for.

[atec123]

That would make it a tad too easy IMO.

That is a valid point, but whilst knowing what you are questing after, the player would still have to go through all the obstacles to reach it. Offering the player some guidance is not really a hint and does not affect the puzzles, I think. But denying the player that - it was okay in episode 2 because of only three locations - should not be to make the game seem harder, when that's what the puzzles are meant for.

Being a Myst/Riven+ROTS+RHEM player, I am used to not really having any guidelines for what you are questing for.  just the list of stuff you need is easier to get in this game than that information would have been in one of those games.  That was actually a challenge.  I beat the episode without hints or a walkthrough, but it took a while, in a very "king's quest" way.  With no guidance, it gives you the feeling that you really need to try everything, even if it doesn't really make sense and that is a really fun part of any KQ game.

[chucklas]

It would have been nice if the items on the scroll highlighted when you were in the area where they were located. That way the player will know which quest item he is going after and can make a choice on which quest item to concentrate on. Of course in ep 2 all the items were merged into one quest, but in later eps I will expect multiple quests and side quests in which to gain items to help Graham on his way.

My big issue is that the items aren't in the accessable locations on the map (all of them at least).  It is a bit misleading.  I think this was something they had to implement for the episode format to work.  I imagine certain islands are not complete and thus they had to make it so you could not travel to them at this point.  You need to go to all of the accessable locations, but you don't have to find all of the items at these particular locations.  Somehow the map not only knew where the items were, but where you had to go to find the items you would need to obtain them.  Kinda a stretch in my opinion, but it probably helped with the episode release...etc.  If there were no episodes I imagine the map would not say anything about locations and you would have to do more exploration.  With that being said, will the game once all episodes are released change this so all islands are accessible from the beginning?  It would make the puzzles slightly harder and in my opinion the overall game slightly better as well.

[wilco64256]

Take a look at the Director's Cut thread for more information on that idea.

[KatieHal]

Yep; that is the idea for the Director's Cut. And yes, restricting the islands was mostly to help make the episodic format work. As mentioned elsewhere though, once an island opens up, it's open for you to explore in all later episodes, so the world only gets bigger as we get further into the game.

[kindofdoon]

So in the Director's Cut version, will exploration be the same as in the episodic format (the map progressively becoming larger, with more places to explore as you progress)? Or will you start with the whole map to explore?

[wilco64256]

So in the Director's Cut version, will exploration be the same as in the episodic format (the map progressively becoming larger, with more places to explore as you progress)? Or will you start with the whole map to explore?

The whole map.  Items will be in drastically different locations in some cases and there will be more complex puzzles for obtaining or using some of them.

[wilco64256]

Wow, this sounds awesome. How long after the release of Episode 5 should we expect it?

I have no idea on that one, just depends on how much cleanup we'll need to do.  Mostly it'll just be logical stuff like programming adjustments and whatnot - all of the animations and things like that will already be in place.