Thursday, 4 September.
1. Got e-mail with key a little before 2pm (USA/Eastern time) -- good !
2. Launched Impulse, and in the "My Games" section, DEMIGOD was already there, associated to the key (which I did not have to enter) -- good !
3. Downloaded the game : a 611.74 MB file, which came in at a steady 820 kb/sec (+/- 10) -- good !
4. When the download was finished, the process shifted to file extraction on my C:\ drive ... and the extraction crashed, rebooting my PC -- not good !
5. Came back to Win XP desktop, and relaunched Impulse : was informed that the process could be resumed -- good !
6. File extraction freezes my PC : the HDD red light does not flicker anymore, and I lose mouse & keyboard -- not good !
7. I press the reset button, and come back to the desktop. (I feel a little anguish.) Ummm ... that has NEVER happened to me before, with any game : a file-extraction process that crashes the PC.
8. I speculate that a background program might be interfering. I do control/alt/delete, opening the Windows Task Manager, and I manually close the most non-essential programs & services which I am allowed to close, hoping that I am removing the cause of the interference.
9. I launch Impulse again, and resume the file-extraction process ... which completes itself with success -- very good (oufff...) !
10. Afterwards, the installation runs to its very end, creating an icon on my desktop.
11. I launch the game, and change a few graphical settings in the options to get better framerates : I turn off shadows & AA.
12. There is no single-player mode ... but you can go around that if you do not wish to compete against other beta testers through a LAN. I host a LAN game, even though I am not connected to any other PC. I am then given 2 comp allies, to play against 3 comps. The game setup options are disabled : I cannot change that 3 v 3 situation ... but I may change the demigod-type of my A.I. allies & opponents. OK, then. I select all 6 demigods and launch the (pseudo-LAN) game.
13. The battle starts, and I have no idea whatsoever what to do. I do not have a clue how to play. I study what my 2 allies are doing, but since they must fight against 3 enemies, I am not contributing to the team effort. Oh, well ... I'll try to read somewhere how the game is played, and I shall be back.
I hope this First Contact tale has been informative to other totally clueless n00bs.
Interesting. Thanks for the read. I haven`t gotten my e-mail yet, but I assume Stardock is swamped with processing the pre-orders (all in one day, given they also charge credit cards today too). On the other hand (grin Devil`s Advocate`ishly), sending out a pile of e-mails isn`t that difficult.
Eh, the former probably more than counters the latter.
Anyway, good report. I`m glad they have a skirmish option, although I imagine playing with equally clueless (!) folks online with voice comms would be beneficial in regards to learning the interface. Isn`t there a 'playing Demigod' thread somewhere on the forum? Something posted by the developers?
1. I came back into the game, and I tried 2 of the 3 demigods available (in this beta 1). My main problem, I'm ashamed to admit, is that I have not figured out how to use the special powers of the demigods.
You have those buttons, associated to special powers & keyboard keys. I click on the buttons or I press the relevant key, and nothing ever seems to happen.
(I've never experienced such a difficulty when playing at World of WarCraft.)
It's perhaps simple & obvious ... but I don't seem to get it, yet.
2. At a resolution of 1440 X 900, with no V-synch, no shadows & no AA, the game looks good, and the framerates are fine & fluid.
3. After 45 minutes of intense play, I've experienced no big bug or crash. If only I could figure out how to use those special powers...
Some special abilities activate automatically and immediately. Others have to be targeted at something before they fire.
Thanxxx Kitkun. I suppose that I'm experiencing a targeting issue. I click on a button or key, and I must then mismanage the targeting ... which is easy to do when your target is caught into the dense & dynamic confusion of a battle.
But when I click on buttons, they don't seem to change their visual appearance : I do not see on the buttons themselves any visual cues that the special powers have been activated (for an automatic expression or a targeting possibility). In other games, when you activate a special power, the corresponding button gives you a visual feedback that it's not inactive anymore.
It's quite possible that I miss something obvious. I'll try again, of course, and pay more attention.
I'm noticing... it takes FOREVER to finish a map. Maybe it's because I'm new to the game (as we all are) but man, everything takes so long to kill (towers of light especially seem to be very resilient).
Sorceresss, most abilities seem to go in to "cooldown" when they are activated. That's the main visual cue I've seen.
You are learning the abilities first, right?
Thanxxx for your query ... but I don't understand what you are refering to ! Here is what I said on another thread concerning my problem (sorry if I quote myself) :
« I've only played about 45 minutes up to now, and I haven't figured out how that skill system works [...] I'm usually confronted with "greyed out" buttons, and no effective skill to use.
For example. I have a cold, blue aura around my feet, but the left buttons associated with cold skills remain greyed out. The only colored button is the one to the right of the cold skills, the button that would make me switch to fire.
But if I press it, I become on fire ... but then, it is the fire-skill buttons that are greyed out, and the only button that is colored is the one that would allow me to revert back to the blue-aura state.
It's perhaps simple & obvious to some of you, but I haven't figured out in 45 minutes how to make the skills work. I'll try again today.
[...A] poster mentions training a skill after transformation : I do not understand what that means, in practical game terms. You transform from a cold state to a fiery state : that, I understand, I can do it easily. But then what ? How do you train to acquire skills ?
I feel dumb : it might be obvious, but I don't get it. »
You mention "learning a skill first", and another poster said "training a skill after transformation" : I guess you both mean the same thing ... but I don't understand how to do that. I feel dumb.
At the very start (level 1) your hero doesnt have any of the skills you see on the hotbar and they are greyed out. Whenever you level you get a skillpoint which you can assign to learn a skill. This is done by clicking on the yellow blinking button with a number corresponding to the number of skillpoints you have. Only after having trained the skill will you be able to use it.
Thxxx, Wrathmont : I see what you mean. I'll try that, later today. (Giving you +1 karma for your time & trouble.)
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