[Kickstarter] Darkest Dungeon

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 9:17 pm

So I headed to wrong way and hit a dead end. I got pretty beat up along the way of course, and now I'm back in the entrance room. Can I leave and return to town, do some crap and come back with the same quest, or do I need to abandon it to leave the dungeon? And how do I camp?

I'm in the first dungeon.

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 9:27 pm

You can quit the quest and start it again, but keep in mind that since dungeons are randomized, you will be starting from scratch. I haven't encountered camping yet either, but from what I understand it's only available in larger dungeons. I'm sure there will be some sort of tutorial when the time is right.

tru1cy · Post by **tru1cy** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 9:28 pm

GreenGoo wrote:So I headed to wrong way and hit a dead end. I got pretty beat up along the way of course, and now I'm back in the entrance room. Can I leave and return to town, do some crap and come back with the same quest, or do I need to abandon it to leave the dungeon? And how do I camp?

I'm in the first dungeon.

Tutorial? I'm not sure you can leave the tutorial, but there should be a little white flag in the map area... click that to retreat from a fight or a quit a quest

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 9:28 pm

tgb wrote:You can quit the quest and start it again, but keep in mind that since dungeons are randomized, you will be starting from scratch. I haven't encountered camping yet either, but from what I understand it's only available in larger dungeons. I'm sure there will be some sort of tutorial when the time is right.

Can I leave the dungeon without abandoning the quest? Or are they one and the same? I'm in the entrance room but there is nothing to click on to have me actually leave, outside of the abandon quest button in the upper left corner.

tru1cy · Post by **tru1cy** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 9:29 pm

GreenGoo wrote:
tgb wrote:You can quit the quest and start it again, but keep in mind that since dungeons are randomized, you will be starting from scratch. I haven't encountered camping yet either, but from what I understand it's only available in larger dungeons. I'm sure there will be some sort of tutorial when the time is right.
Can I leave the dungeon without abandoning the quest? Or are they one and the same? I'm in the entrance room but there is nothing to click on to have me actually leave, outside of the abandon quest button in the upper left corner.

you either succeed on your first attempt or quit the quest to leave

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 9:39 pm

So...stress got out of control and I abandoned the quest, causing even more stress. Now I've got all 4 in various stress relieving activities ("I'm not that flexible!").

There are only 3 new heroes to recruit. What now? Any way to pass the time to advance the stress relief and/or have new recruits show up? I see there is a night/day cycle. If I wait long enough will that actually impact my current activities and recruitment?

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 9:47 pm

GreenGoo wrote:So...stress got out of control and I abandoned the quest, causing even more stress. Now I've got all 4 in various stress relieving activities ("I'm not that flexible!").

There are only 3 new heroes to recruit. What now? Any way to pass the time to advance the stress relief and/or have new recruits show up? I see there is a night/day cycle. If I wait long enough will that actually impact my current activities and recruitment?

I ran into the same situation. I ended up having to take the party member with the least amount of stress (least is relative in this case) and putting her to work again in order to have a party of 4.

dbemont · Post by **dbemont** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 9:54 pm

tru1cy wrote:Btw, some of your guys will refuse to go into dungeons that they outlevel. Which is an awesome mechanic, but freaking annoying

Yeah, so if you are going after a boss who is level one, you want to collect a group of resolve 2 heroes. Once one hits 3, he won't go on that quest.

I know the game isn't done, but that's the kind of thing I hope they make more clear in the final game.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 10:35 pm

tgb wrote:
GreenGoo wrote:So...stress got out of control and I abandoned the quest, causing even more stress. Now I've got all 4 in various stress relieving activities ("I'm not that flexible!").

There are only 3 new heroes to recruit. What now? Any way to pass the time to advance the stress relief and/or have new recruits show up? I see there is a night/day cycle. If I wait long enough will that actually impact my current activities and recruitment?
I ran into the same situation. I ended up having to take the party member with the least amount of stress (least is relative in this case) and putting her to work again in order to have a party of 4.

There's no way. They are all over 90% stressed, and I just paid for them to get some stress relief.

I'd rather start a new game than pull one of those guys from their current activities. I'll just boost the stage coach by 2 next time, which should result in 4 heroes per week showing up.

edit: 1.5 meg download I just noticed. Not sure if it was a patch or just recovering a file for whatever reason.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 10:47 pm

Restarted. Welcome to rogue-likes.

edit: Lost my whole party. Was testing affliction and death's door mechanic. You can't retreat from a battle in the tutorial, so that was that.

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 11:59 pm

Lord have mercy! I quickly recruited nine heroes, because the rest of my fodder adventurers were getting beaten senseless and overstressed. Finally I beat the first quest, but I think I may have poured 9000 gold into getting the 3000 gold reward! The second time I tried to complete the quest, I ended up with the entire team getting Afflicted. Abusive sucks, as the abuse they dole out stresses other team mates, leading to an affliction spiral. I did luck out and have one person persevere in there test of mettle, becoming heroic instead of afflicted! She then proceeded to "Kick Ass for the Lord." Still, I had to run. I suppose that it is intentional that there are few healing skills and - at least from what I can see - no healing provisions. Otherwise it might get to be a bit too easy?

I have found that stun locking is the way to go.

Nightwish · Post by **Nightwish** » Wed Feb 04, 2015 12:13 am

I don't know if anyone is still following Quill18's playthrough, but apparently there are still a few visual bugs (which is normal).
FYI, the on screen indicators don't update automatically and the stress reaction bonus and malus clearly have the sign reversed.

EDIT: Sorry, they were recorded a few days ago, so they might be fixed.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Wed Feb 04, 2015 12:23 am

Really great. Assuming the skill improvements and armour/weapon improvements are fun, this just swept all my other games to the sidelines for awhile.

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Wed Feb 04, 2015 12:35 am

baelthazar wrote:Lord have mercy! I quickly recruited nine heroes, because the rest of my fodder adventurers were getting beaten senseless and overstressed. Finally I beat the first quest, but I think I may have poured 9000 gold into getting the 3000 gold reward! The second time I tried to complete the quest, I ended up with the entire team getting Afflicted. Abusive sucks, as the abuse they dole out stresses other team mates, leading to an affliction spiral. I did luck out and have one person persevere in there test of mettle, becoming heroic instead of afflicted! She then proceeded to "Kick Ass for the Lord." Still, I had to run. I suppose that it is intentional that there are few healing skills and - at least from what I can see - no healing provisions. Otherwise it might get to be a bit too easy?

I have found that stun locking is the way to go.

Food heals (2HP I think). Just select the character needing the healing and rt-click on the food.

Between this game and Human Extinction Simulator, I'm feeling like a bit of a masochist myself.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Wed Feb 04, 2015 1:05 am

Food heals 5%, rounded up I think.

So 20 or less, heals 1 hp.

21 to 40, 2 hp.

TiLT · Post by **TiLT** » Wed Feb 04, 2015 1:31 am

tgb wrote:I wish there was more specific information as to the various buffs and afflictions. I had a character examine a confessional and become "absolved of sins", but I have no idea what that actually did. Another maxed out on stress and became "abusive", but other than making rude comments I didn't see any difference in her performance.

You can hover over parts of their character sheets to learn all these things. I don't have the game in front of me right now, but I remember the special aflicitions for maxing out stress are shown prominently close to the character's name.

I don't know what "absolved of sins" does, but "abusive" makes the character criticize everything his allies do, stressing them constantly.

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Wed Feb 04, 2015 3:29 am

One thing I finally noticed - when a character breaks and develops an affliction, stats that are affected positively turn yellow, and those affected negatively turn red.

ydejin · Post by **ydejin** » Wed Feb 04, 2015 5:58 am

tgb wrote:One thing I finally noticed - when a character breaks and develops an affliction, stats that are affected positively turn yellow, and those affected negatively turn red.

Thanks. I hadn't noticed that.

dbemont · Post by **dbemont** » Wed Feb 04, 2015 7:36 am

One strategy I have been experimenting with... Pay a lot of attention to a character's critical hit rating. Dealing out critical hits seems like the best available stress reducer. Characters often reduce their own stress for just a good hit, but crits seem to reduce stress for the entire party. This seems way more practical than the jester's stress reduction song, which costs you an action that could be better spent, and must be delivered from the 4 spot only. (Of course, opponents' crits have the opposite effect, and I have yet to find a strategy for not starting dungeon runs with a bunch of those.)

noxiousdog · Post by **noxiousdog** » Wed Feb 04, 2015 11:39 am

I was in at the $15 kickstarter level. Should I be able to access it now?

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Wed Feb 04, 2015 11:49 am

At work. *grump*

It came to me this morning that until you successfully complete a quest with a hero, he's basically fodder. Once he fails a quest, he's a liability with very little chance of having developed positively (ok, this is not exactly true, but bear with me). If you haven't spent any money on upgrading a hero's armour or weapons or skills, and he hasn't finished a quest, he's probably no better than a new recruit, and chances are he's worse, due to his stress levels and negative afflictions and such.

My current game has a roster of 9 heroes I'm rotating through stress relief and dungeoning. My next game I'm going to simply throw away anyone who has stress and isn't leveled yet (you start with 2 guys who've made it to level 1) until I manage to successfully complete a quest or pay to have their abilities or armour/arms improved. I've wasted a lot of money on stress relief that is usually only partially effective (and sometimes generates new negative traits. Bar drinking recently made one of my heroes a "tippler" which limits him to drinking as his only source of stress relief. He can't do anything else now) and does nothing to improve a hero's chance of success in a dungeon.

I will say that the stress mechanic s what makes this game what it is. I don't want to see it nerfed any more, and once I get "good" at the game, I could probably accept a small increase in stress generation. Right now it seems to be just right. Annoying, stressful, debilitating, challenging. That's what it is for me and my rookies. Any more and it would be too much. Any less and it would be less of a factor in my gameplay decisions.

I think the game is quite good, and it has REALLY captured my imagination. That said, it's not the best thing since sliced bread. I can see how some aspects of the game could become mundane and less interesting, the more success you have, possibly. Don't get me wrong, I like what I'm playing a lot, but it's probably not for everyone. It doesn't have a universal appeal. You have to like being frustrated and losing and dealing with bad luck (nothing like taking a HUGE crit in the first battle after entering a dungeon to put a sour mood on the entire foray). Luckily the game makes those things really fun, but it's not going to be for everyone.

Got a Hellion. Her aoe combined with a highwayman's aoe and things just got a whole lot closer to a level playing field.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Wed Feb 04, 2015 11:50 am

noxiousdog wrote:I was in at the $15 kickstarter level. Should I be able to access it now?

I would be pissed if I kickstarted it and couldn't access it now. Hopefully you can.

Sepiche · Post by **Sepiche** » Wed Feb 04, 2015 1:08 pm

Small spoilers, but here's the cutting edge of what items to use to cleanse different objects:

Spoiler:

Mr. Fed · Post by **Mr. Fed** » Wed Feb 04, 2015 1:09 pm

stupid OO effect

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Wed Feb 04, 2015 1:29 pm

Mr. Fed wrote:stupid OO effect

The art style and design got me hooked and the OO effect landed me. I haven't paid 20 bucks for a game since Mordor ($28) and before that, I can't even remember.

tru1cy · Post by **tru1cy** » Wed Feb 04, 2015 2:40 pm

Mr. Fed wrote:stupid OO effect

You won't regret it. Game is awesome even in early access state

AWS260 · Post by **AWS260** » Wed Feb 04, 2015 3:12 pm

tru1cy wrote:
Mr. Fed wrote:stupid OO effect
You won't regret it. Game is awesome even in early access state

abr · Post by **abr** » Wed Feb 04, 2015 3:30 pm

noxiousdog wrote:I was in at the $15 kickstarter level. Should I be able to access it now?

I backed at the same level and was a bit confused if I was entitled to a key right now, so I sent them an e-mail basically saying this and, if I were entitled, how to get the key. Rather quickly an email arrived that contained a Steam key and I was able to start playing.

Oddly enough, this morning another email arrived telling me that Nomad level ($15) does not include a Steam key for this early access state but by sending 5 bucks via PayPal, I could upgrade and get a key. Well, tough luck buddy, I won't be giving mine back.

wonderpug · Post by **wonderpug** » Wed Feb 04, 2015 3:35 pm

From the Kickstarter page:

It says $15 gets you the game when it releases, which it has not yet done. For $20, you get to join early access on Steam when available, which is what we're in now.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Wed Feb 04, 2015 3:44 pm

Aside from that sucking (kickstarting and getting the game after joe blow steam customer), it's actually pretty cool that you can give them another 5 bucks and they'll bump you up at this stage.

RMC · Post by **RMC** » Wed Feb 04, 2015 10:20 pm

Sigh... I bought it, and I am putting way too much time into this game...

Holman · Post by **Holman** » Wed Feb 04, 2015 10:31 pm

GreenGoo wrote:Aside from that sucking (kickstarting and getting the game after joe blow steam customer), it's actually pretty cool that you can give them another 5 bucks and they'll bump you up at this stage.

There was a lot of complaining on the Kickstarter forum, and the designers were very cool about it.

Lorini · Post by **Lorini** » Wed Feb 04, 2015 10:33 pm

So this becomes a game I don't want to play because I want the game state to stay. I reluctantly took my best melee down into the dungeon to face the boss and she died and now I'm sad

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Wed Feb 04, 2015 10:35 pm

One element I read about and completely disregarded is the relationship between torchlight and the quality of drops. I had been putting as much as I could into torches before each expedition, and keeping light t about 75% minimum. Now I wantto go back and do it all again so the drops will be better.

Then again, I'm only in Week 6, so there's more than enough time to make up for it.

RMC · Post by **RMC** » Wed Feb 04, 2015 10:36 pm

tgb wrote:One element I read about and completely disregarded is the relationship between torchlight and the quality of drops. I had been putting as much as I could into torches before each expedition, and keeping light t about 75% minimum. Now I wantto go back and do it all again so the drops will be better.

Then again, I'm only in Week 6, so there's more than enough time to make up for it.

So the drops are better the darker it is?

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Wed Feb 04, 2015 11:54 pm

RMC wrote:
tgb wrote:One element I read about and completely disregarded is the relationship between torchlight and the quality of drops. I had been putting as much as I could into torches before each expedition, and keeping light t about 75% minimum. Now I wantto go back and do it all again so the drops will be better.

Then again, I'm only in Week 6, so there's more than enough time to make up for it.
So the drops are better the darker it is?

Yes, but stress is higher too. Early on you don't have enough stress relief in the dungeon to handle the normal amount of stress you get, let alone more from it being too dark. Later on, I'm assuming, you have more tools to deal with stress.

I had a pretty good game going into week 6 or 7 when I realized that stress was creepingly killing my game, as my cash dwindled and heroes weren't able to shake off all their stress in 1 week/1 payment.

Not sure what to do. Eventually you run out of cash and then I guess you start firing guys (I assume that's possible) and hiring newbies, which just puts you back where you started. Which is sorta the point I guess. Still, it's a difficult mechanic to come to terms with.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Wed Feb 04, 2015 11:57 pm

Lorini wrote:So this becomes a game I don't want to play because I want the game state to stay.

I've quit 3 times tonight for that exact reason. But no playing means no progress and no progress is boring so...more heroes die or go insane as they fail miserably to handle even the smallest threat (if luck is bad).

And why does everything bleed my guys? They are all gushing blood constantly. Sure there are bandages, and the plague dude has the cure bleeding if you're lucky, but you can only cast it on 1 hero per turn, and you can't cast it out of combat at all, but the bleeding continues...which sucks. Oh well.

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Thu Feb 05, 2015 2:17 am

I haven't worried about my best guys being stress-free. I send them out again even with 25% stress. Don't forget that a couple of critical hits/kills can do wonders for reducing stress, and a couple of times I had parties finish a dungeon with less stress than they started it with. Then again, I've only now sent my party out to a dungeon that ends with a boss fight.

I also learned the importance of abandoning a quest if you have to. I know it runs counter to how these games are usually played, but he who fights and runs away, and all that. You may not get the quest reward, but you get to keep everything you find. Speaking of which, I equipped my Graverobber with a really nifty +20% ACC knapsack - and the fool gambled it away in the Tavern. (another awesome event).

This game just keeps on giving. I still can't believe it's EA. The developers could have released it as 1.0 and no one would have been any the wiser.

IceBear · Post by **IceBear** » Thu Feb 05, 2015 7:31 am

I sent my only healer to meditate at the abbey for stress relief. Actually managed to survive a dungeon without a healer, but it was a close one. So I was really looking forward to using my healer in the next run, but noticed she wasn't in my list of heroes anymore. Read the log and saw she has gone on a vision quest. Hopefully she comes back soon

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Thu Feb 05, 2015 9:13 am

tgb wrote:This game just keeps on giving. I still can't believe it's EA. The developers could have released it as 1.0 and no one would have been any the wiser.

Really? I have 13 games right now in EA and I really don't enjoy it (the idea that I have so many). From their statements:

How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?
“For the full release, we are planning to add more dungeon environments (one of which is the Darkest Dungeon), more character classes, story mode completion, additional monsters, items, quirks, narration, and dialogue. We also have reserved some time to add other new features and make changes based upon player feedback!”

That's pretty impressive then if you think it's solid now.