newcomer

[ray]

Hi,
i had the honor to try this game and I had a few comments. I have already played many RPGs on the computer, and I especially like the Fallout game series. Game Andors trail has a similar fighting system and that I also like it. But as a newcomer (i have Android for only few weeks) and maybe i will speak for a wider range of users, I have a few comments.

1. From the first level this game seems really unbalanced. For example, when I went into the catacombs under the church, I passed the first floor quite well, but the second was so difficult that I just had to leave and come back later, because monsters were very heavy (but other were easy). A lot of other places have the same problem and you have to come back later (have to buy better weapon, kill creatures for skills).

2. Another thing is the graphics of the main character, which I really do not like. The whole surroundings and other characters are nice, but why is the main character so different? So the main character graphics should be nicer. Maybe its only my opinion.

Sorry for my bad English, but because I really quite like the game, I wanted to say a few suggestions as a newcomer. But as i said i like your work and Andors trail is a good game.

[Mino]

I think it would be cool if the character looked different based on what armor and weapons you have, but otherwise, I think the graphics are fine, and not as important as the game play itself.

For your first comment, the problem isn't that the game is unbalanced, but if you're just starting out, there's a lot more quests you can open compared to when the game first came out (or even last December when I started playing) so you were kind of forced into starting the lower level quests first. The example you listed was only added after the last update, so its meant to be more difficult.

I would start on the quests in the home town (kill rats, get bread, find that lady's husband, etc.) to build up exp and money and get some weapon and armor upgrades before venturing to the other towns and starting other quests.

Maybe the next update could also have each quest listed with a difficulty rating based on the level of the player (and maybe also their equipped stats) similar to when it lists the difficulty of each creature.

[Kim]

Maybe the next update could also have each quest listed with a difficulty rating based on the level of the player (and maybe also their equipped stats) similar to when it lists the difficulty of each creature.

Having a quest difficulty rating is a good idea, but it cant use the same way monsters are rated as that is based entirely on math. A fixed rating would be good enough.

The question is, should the rating use the same terms as with monsters (easy, hard etc.) or something new like a level-range (eg 1-4 or 14+).

[Al-Khwarizmi]

Why make things unnecessarily linear and streamlined? Why not let the player make his own decisions?

I'm quite new to this game but I'm an old-school RPG and CRPG player and I remember one of the most stellar moments in a CRPG was in Might & Magic 7, when in the initial island, at the very beginning when you were low level and badly equipped, you were sent to a cave with a frigging *dragon*. The quest was to recover something from the cave and the normal way to solve it was staying away from the dragon and running because you couldn't face it. But if you were brave and sadomasochistic enough, you could use tactics and careful planning and actually beat the dragon, getting an amount of loot that would let you cruise ruthlessly through the rest of the early game. Oh, the feeling of victory!

Seriously, in the latest years linear RPG's where difficulty scales with the player are quite "on fashion" (probably due to console influence) but I think one of the best things about RPGs is assessing risk and making decisions about where to go first, which is totally stripped away from the game if you do something like what is being suggested here. One of the greatest things about an RPG is coming back to the dungeon with the terrible enemy that blasted you to smithereens some levels ago, and being able to destroy him now.

In the particular case of Andor's Trail, it is a game that doesn't punish you much for dying (you lose some exp, but no gold or items) so I think it's fine if the player ventures into too difficult areas and dies sometimes. It's part of the fun. I want to learn by myself which places are difficult and which aren't, so I would leave that as it is, with the per-monster appraisal dialog (which is nice) and nothing else.

[Mino]

I'm all for being able to choose which quest to start whenever you want, but I think having an idea of how difficult a quest will be, based on current levels, can help you make that choice.

[Dreia]

Most RPG/MMO type games assign an intended level to a quest, not that you have to do the quest at that level but that the difficulty is geared for somebody with that amount of experience. It would be an easy thing to put an intended level to the right of the quest name in the list?

~D