Hinterland: The yes its out thread

[Tyjenks]

With all due praise and respect to Dave Markell's original thread (http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?t=45712), I thought the game deserved a fresh start and there is little usefull information related to any gameplay features in that thread. The few things that have come out I quoted below.

The tooltips and the brief list below of key functions is really all you need. The rest is just figuring things out as you go by looting, levelling and building.

If people object to a dupe thread, by all means let it die on the vine. Just giving folks the option.

Keyboard Shortcuts
ESC - Cancel current dialog, or bring up the save-and-exit dialog
Control-O - Open Options Menu
Spacebar, or P - Pause game
Tab - Toggle Region Map
T - Toggle the overhead view while in town
WASD - Move your character
1,2,3,4 - Use a healing potion (press 1 to heal your character, 2 to heal party member #2,etc.)
Shift - Prevent your character from moving (helpful when you want to click somewhere while being sure not to move closer to a dangerous situation)
Right-click - On an enemy, engage it (helpful when you want to be sure you attack, and not move, loot, or do anything else that left-click does)
Shift-click - On an item, delete it (or sell it to the merchant, if you've recruited one) immediately, with no confirmation
R - When placing buildings, choose another orientation (some lots only have one possible orientation; most have two)



Originally Posted by Rorschach http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/images/buttons/viewpost.gif (http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?p=1491384#post1491384)
You should start by hiring food producers first (farmers, herders, trappers). They make 2 food per day with the initial buildings and equipment. Each person consumes 1 food per day so you must have a food producer in the town for every non-food producer (including you). Once you take your lord out and start taking out the easy areas you may run across items that will increase their food output (snares, hoes, fertilizer etc.) Head back to your town and equip those immediately and then head back out to get more gold and loot.

Once you get your food situation under control (the food number is no longer red) then you can move onto your town gold and items production and working on training up more advanced townspeople.


Yep, get your food going first. Also, get some gold (wiping the level one areas at first), upgrade your outpost to a manor for 20G(the only building you start with) and then you can upgrade your farms for 12G and that will increase your output. There is a tooltip if you hover over the food number at the top of the screen that shows the amount coming in and amount being consumed.

NOTE: Spiders are hard. Don't be afraid to run from them.

[Tyjenks]

Question, if I put an item in the village stock, that improves something for a villager (plow for farmers for example), and it breaks, will they take one from the stock without me assigning it?


No sir. Trips back to town are necessary, but as you are notified when something breaks, it is not a big deal. SOme of the tools take a while to break. The Oats and fertilizer are used up more quickly.

[Lorini]

The second game is a lot more fun than the first one was :) I now have a Trapper, a Farmer, and a Herder so lots of food for all! I also have a hostel so I can entertain 3 visitors.

I still strongly urge TM to consider not letting fame drop below 0 and to start off the Easy difficulty level with more food, so that you have more of a chance to see what's what before getting nasty starvation messages. And could they please leave out the 'you're a disgrace' messages?

[Chowhound]

Do visitors to the town consume food, or just you and your followers?

[Rorschach]

Just townspeople and you. Visitors are free. Assume they're living on your couch or a hostel/inn if you get one of those going. :)

[Rorschach]

If you don't have food producers (or some other necessary type of villager) in your visitors list click on the Advertise button at the top and it will deal you a new set of visitors for 2 gold per slot.

[Tim James]

Demo? Tom Chick review?

[Tyjenks]

I still strongly urge TM to consider not letting fame drop below 0 and to start off the Easy difficulty level with more food, so that you have more of a chance to see what's what before getting nasty starvation messages. And could they please leave out the 'you're a disgrace' messages?

Different starting characters do start with different beginning resources. So if you want to be a baby about food, get one with higher resources and/or good food production.

Well, your fame won't drop if you don't get killed. :)

[Morberis]

Oh thank his tomatoey goodness the Spaghetti Lord, actual instructions!

Thank you!

[Tyjenks]

Anyone have problems with followers disappearing?

I ran out of food running around and then hired a farmer so I wouldn't starve... and then he disappears... twice... so yeah I starved to death.


Food is consumed on a timer. If you have no food and hire a farmer, chances are he will need to eat before he starts bringing in the crops. If he tries to eat and there is none, he will bolt.

Early on, getting that food production going first is muy importante. Make sure you equip herders and trappers with the misc. tools if you get them (Like Rorshach said earlier). Or else, they will generally only produce enough food for themselves and there will be no net gain in hiring them as food producers. There are also specific weapons also that help all producers produce faster. The item will say so in the tooltip which villager it will aid, if it has that capability.

[Lorini]

Different starting characters do start with different beginning resources. So if you want to be a baby about food, get one with higher resources and/or good food production.

Well, your fame won't drop if you don't get killed. :)

But the problem is that you do get killed. So why the horrendous penalty? I guess I was wrong about this game, I thought it was being billed as a strategy game similar to Majesty, where you aren't heavily penalized for mistakes and the game play is casual and light and fun. Losing 20 fame from your start at 2 fame, meaning that you can't get farmers, herders, etc and then losing the game to starvation because of that is just not fun. Who is going to grind enough fame to get back to 2 fame if they are at -40? You can't fulfill any King's requests that would get your fame back up because you can't hire any visitors because you have no fame. You can grind 2 fame at a time but at -40 fame, that would take clearing 20 areas before you starved to death. I'm very surprised that this issue got through testing.

All any sane person is going to do is delete the character and start over. So why put them through that?

[Tyjenks]

The initail creature set-up is also pretty random. Only go to the areas that have one little dot on them as those have only level one creatures. You basically have to clear some of those early areas out by being a little careful in order to get some gold and equipment to move forward. Many times, you also get fame from clearing areas.

The early stages are very much about managing gold, food, and your character's health. Healing potions are not plentiful as in Diablo. Even when you get access to herbs and hire an herbalist you do not have a tidal wave of re bottles of yumminess. You can't just wail on stuff hit the #1 key and clear half the map. Kill a few things, go back to town and rest. Upgrade a couple things and then repeat.

EDIT: I was kidding about you being a baby, btw. ;)

[Morberis]

But the problem is that you do get killed. So why the horrendous penalty? I guess I was wrong about this game, I thought it was being billed as a strategy game similar to Majesty, where you aren't heavily penalized for mistakes and the game play is casual and light and fun. Losing 20 fame from your start at 2 fame, meaning that you can't get farmers, herders, etc and then losing the game to starvation because of that is just not fun. Who is going to grind enough fame to get back to 2 fame if they are at -40? You can't fulfill any King's requests that would get your fame back up because you can't hire any visitors because you have no fame. You can grind 2 fame at a time but at -40 fame, that would take clearing 20 areas before you starved to death. I'm very surprised that this issue got through testing.

All any sane person is going to do is delete the character and start over. So why put them through that?


Indeed this just happened to me on my second playthrough and it made it a *(^^, took so long to get back my fame so I could hire a farmer that I was out of food again. Which seems to mean another restart!

Alot of these problems would have been solved for me if they actually told me how to play the game when I click on "How to play"

Edit: Am I the only one that seems to link the idea or raiders? They're a convenient source of income that comes straight to you in the early game.

Also, what does the setting "Game length" change?

[ravenight]

You do get 1 fame for each monster you kill, and higher level areas give more fame, so getting up from -40 to 0 doesn't mean clearing 20 areas, but more like 5-6. Still takes some time, of course.

All any sane person is going to do is delete the character and start over. So why put them through that?

The answer here is basically that you can lose the game, so if things go really poorly you aren't stuck grinding to pull yourself out of the hole, but the landing is soft, so that you don't just lose instantly when you wanted to pull yourself out of the hole (like when a character you've played for an hour or so in a longer game gets into trouble).

[Tyjenks]

Also, what does the setting "Game length" change?
It relates to the number of areas you have to clear:

Short = 20 areas
Medium = 35 areas
Long = 50 areas

[Therlun]

First impression:

- Its a boring action RPG.

- Very little management or building.

- 95% of your time is spent watching your guys attack monsters and running between monsters and town.

- Badly documented.

- Interface needs work (right click on item to switch between inventory-town would be my first suggestion).

I made screenshots and notes, but the "first time played" AAR can be done quickly:
Hired different kinds of people. Some produced food, one produced worthless armour and weapons, one healed me.
Killed many monsters.
End.

[Sarkus]

Demo? Tom Chick review?

I get the sense that the early adopters are still trying to figure the game out, due to a lack of any instructions/manual. Hopefully by later today we'll see some actual impressions.

To be honest, all the questions are not convincing me I need to buy this right this moment. :-)

Edit: Therlun proved me wrong. Now let's see what the reaction to his impressions are.

[Rorschach]

Protip for not getting killed: Any health potions in your inventory can be used with hotkeys. #1 is your lord, 2, 3, and 4 are mapped to your party members. So if you're about to die, hit the #1 key and start running away.

Keep an eye on shields and swords (attack and defense). If the bad guy's swords are more than your shields you're going to take damage quickly. Level number is an okay estimation of power but if you're fighting a group of baddies and one of them has high swords but low shields take him out first.

It IS an action RPG with an ability to manage your home base and party configuration. For me it's a great beer-and-pretzels game with enough variety in game settings and randomness in the loot, monsters, world config, and available townspeople to give it high replayability.

In some respects it reminds me of Multiwinia or an XBLA game. Pick up and play, bash some stuff, come back to it when I'm tired of other games and try to build my next town in a different way.

[Jab2565]

So far I haven't lost my lord to a fight yet, I almost did when a poison dagger almost did me in. I do agree though that having a negative fame is a bad idea, and setting it at 0 would be fine. What determines if a follower will run away or get killed?

[Rorschach]

Mostly it's the rate of damage the follower is taking. I'm pretty sure they'll always run when they get to a critical level of health, but the baddie may be able to get that last whack in and kill the follower. Boost their defense (shields, armor, misc) to give them a better chance of running away.

[Tyjenks]

It IS an action RPG with an ability to manage your home base and party configuration. For me it's a great beer-and-pretzels game with enough variety in game settings and randomness in the loot, monsters, world config, and available townspeople to give it high replayability.
Yep. Every game there is access to different things and the game depends on how you manage what you are given. It is about adapting. The scarcity of resources is definitely different and certainly separates it from a Diablo-esque game. Those coming in expecting to operate like they would in a hack-n-slash title will have trouble initially. You have to be much more mindful of things.

NOTE: If you see the poionous spiders, be very wary. A couple of those with added poison damage can knock you smooth the fuck out. With mobs in general, it is sometimes best to edge into range so that you pull only one or two at a time.

SPACE BAR to PAUSE!!!: If a fight is getting hectic, feel free to pause to assess the situation. You can drink potions, change equipment and send a party member home all from a paused state.

[Larinson]

My impression after about a half hour of play is that it's an enjoyable little game. I haven't really had any problems so far, except that my guy is a bit shit at fighting. I don't take people out into the wilderness with me (yet), and I've got no problems with food. Not got many resources yet. Except souls....

[Tyjenks]

All of our drooling over it for months did not help with expectations. I tried to hit reset and come into the game and take it as it came. If you do that and take it for what it is, it is great fun and insanely addiciting. No, it is not the deep city-building/strategy/RPG that we may have built up in ouor minds, but for a 20 dollar game made in the time it was, I think it easily does everything TM set out to do and focuses on 'teh Fun' rather than some of the other features which it certainly lacks.

[peacedog]

Lack of manual is a little disappointing.

The need to loot every corpse individually is something every game like this should avoid - there's no reason to put something like this in a game when better mechanics have come to be.

Otherwise I'm intrigued. It has a little bit of Stronghold (old school, mind) to it.

[Morberis]

I'm going to have to try it on normal with the game length set to long but I'm willing to say its fun, but for me personally so far Dwarf Fortress with a good tileset is funner. But thats because I prefer growing my community more than fighting.

[Gendal]

The interface is a bit wonky but was easy enough to figure out once I puzzled out double clicking on villager portraits. Liking the game quite a bit after an hour of play. It's not super deep from what I can tell but after an hour I can see myself playing several games of it. I am completely in love with the underlying concept, though several orders of magnitude more complexity would not go amiss. See: Dwarf Fortress.

I wouldn't get too down on the game putting you in situations were a restart would better serve you. From what I can tell it's meant to encourage replayability with shorter game sessions, so a restart isn't near the punishment it is with most games.

Also it's another example of Steam's broken vista support. I had to launch it with steam having administrator permissions, otherwise it would just never show a window and run as a background process indefinitely.

[The Bird Flu]

I just finished a short game on easy. It's fun. With those settings I breezed through the game in about an hour and felt like I was just getting to the 'cool stuff' when it ended. I'm going to start a long game on difficult now.

[Larinson]

I am completely in love with the underlying concept, though several orders of magnitude more complexity would not go amiss. See: Dwarf Fortress.

Completely agree. Dwarf Fortress should be my favourite game of all time. But I just can't get to grips with the ASCII.

I'm guessing that Tilted Mill at some point made a conscious decision to try and keep it reasonably light, rather than going down that route, which is fair enough - I guess there is not a huge audience for that style of game.

I'm looking forward to getting a better run at it tomorrow.

It has a little bit of Stronghold (old school, mind) to it.

I hope you're talking about this:

http://content.answers.com/main/content/img/amg/games/drg000/g007/g00783o595o.jpg

Utterly fantastic game!

[Reed]

Hey all,

We've added a manual (http://www.tiltedmill.com/hinterland/manual.php) to the official site (PDF version coming soon!)

[Cubit]

Hey all,

We've added a manual (http://www.tiltedmill.com/hinterland/manual.php) to the official site (PDF version coming soon!)

Awesome. Thanks for the update guys.

[Tyjenks]

Hey all,

We've added a manual (http://www.tiltedmill.com/hinterland/manual.php) to the official site (PDF version coming soon!)
Oooh, Sweet!

I nearly always start off playing games on some average/normal difficulty. In Hinterland, however, starting off on easy gets you going with stuff and warms you up to features. Hour or hour and a half for a few short games on easy and you should be ready to go. Medium-sized games lets you play for longer and you start having different options open up with regards to visitors and the upgrading of their buildings.

[tim edwards]

I'm astonished at how badly documented and explained this is.

[flyinj]

Wow, it's funny. This game is exactly what I thought it would be. And I love what I see so far.

First question though, regarding food:

Should I just keep advertising until I get some food producers initially to get into my town?

[Rorschach]

Advestising costs gold (2 per slot I think) and you'll need some gold to build the homes for the food producers. So you may want to wait and take out some level 1 sites and get some more loot and gold before going ad crazy. You can also talk to (click on) the visitors and kick them out for free so new visitors can show up sooner.

[CustodianV131]

Just got it! I like how quick you can have game just gone gold with steam.

Played a bit, can't really say anything yet. Time to sleep for a while now, but eager to return to my little community tomorrow!

[Jab2565]

I'm astonished at how badly documented and explained this is.

I agree, I just finished a game on medium/medium. Here are some questions and concerns I have.

1. What does each spell caster do as their attack? Such as the difference between a high priest and a light priest.

2. Prayers that are researched, if it doesn't say specifically, do they work all over the map?

3. I wish that on the minimap it will show the corpses of your followers to let you find them easier to loot their bodies.

4.Starting a game on difficult, I was not offered any food producers, there should be some kind of safe guard put in place so that you will always be offered a food producer from the start. edit: Didn't know you could kick out visitors without a penality so never mind about this one then.

5. Do support spell casters level at all? It doesn't seem right that they're not getting any exp for keeping my guys alive.

6. What is the difference between random resources and all resources?

7. When villagers are creating something (bows, potions, shields, etc) I would like to be able to mouse over the item to see what it does. Also I would like to tell them specifically what to make.

8. What does the blessed icon mean over my character?

9. Lastly I would like more information regarding enhancement items (plows, maps, traps, etc). Such as the difference between using a map on a hunter, and using a snare.


Other then that list I like HinterLand, only suggestions I would have for expansions would be more follower types, perhaps unique events that could happen, and maybe being able to choose theme lands (undead world, fire world, etc)

[peacedog]

I hope you're talking about this:

http://content.answers.com/main/content/img/amg/games/drg000/g007/g00783o595o.jpg

Utterly fantastic game!

Yes, very much so. Noit the RTS like game.

It's what comes to mind with the building of structures and whatnot. Granted, in strong hold you never controlled a central character and sometimes it was unpossible to get all the little AI creatures to do what you wanted them to do (hey, like Majesty. . . ).

Reed, thanks for the manual link! Now, how about some rapid-looting facilitation. ;)

[Pogo]

http://content.answers.com/main/content/img/amg/games/drg000/g007/g00783o595o.jpg

Utterly fantastic game!

Oh man would I love a direct sequel to that game... I think I've logged almost as many hours on Stronghold as I have on X-Com.

[Gendal]

Never even heard of D&D Stronghold. Sounds awesome. Curse you Apple from keeping me away from PC Gaming during the 80's and 90's!

Having some minor visual problems now. The minimap started only displaying the top half, some of the job icons are overly large on the followers screen obscuring their level, and in the town overview the top corner is mostly obscured, as if it's not zoomed out far enough or centered incorrectly. Nothing game breaking, and the more I play the more I am liking it.

Just got two followers perma killed, including a healer I was starting to love. Didn't even know that was possible. New stuff is constantly showing up, including a guy who it's later claimed can build ballistas? Awesome. Some raiders also showed up while I was out adventuring and I heard a bunch of coin sounds, which was them stealing food and gold. I managed to catch up with them outside of town while they were fleeing, from what I could tell they had all the missing items which I was able to recover. Very nice.

[flyinj]

Is "misc inventory" the same as "town inventory"? I've been dumping my town helping items into the town inventory, assuming it was. Am I supposed to be doing something else with them, like assigning them to the workers/buildings they benefit?

[peacedog]

Never even heard of D&D Stronghold. Sounds awesome. Curse you Apple from keeping me away from PC Gaming during the 80's and 90's!

In the 80s Apple did well enough. 90s. . .well I remember leaving my LC3 behind for my first ever PC in 1994. Woosh!

Stronghold was funky but I liked it. There's a large map and you sort of sprawn out from the central square by building structures and such. Most areas have creatures there you either need to win over via diploamcy or kill. Many buildings spawned people who could fight. It was a bizzare game in many respects, but had it's points.


Just got two followers perma killed, including a healer I was starting to love. Didn't even know that was possible. New stuff is constantly showing up, including a guy who it's later claimed can build ballistas? Awesome. Some raiders also showed up while I was out adventuring and I heard a bunch of coin sounds, which was them stealing food and gold. I managed to catch up with them outside of town while they were fleeing, from what I could tell they had all the missing items which I was able to recover. Very nice.

I found a guard who could upgrade ballistats (iirc). I assumed it was a trait of all guards, but I dunno. Am I reading correctly that I can just leave items in the town stash and the appropriate professions will make use of them?

[Clay]

I had the same minimap problem, which was mildly annoying, but not too big of a deal. It only happened while I was in town. I just played a game on Easy and thought it was a lot of fun. It's good to be able to finish a 'whole' game in under 2 hours. I like the feeling of accomplishment. Too frequently I start a game, save, only to return and start again. Anyhow, it sounds like the larger maps are more involved with regards to city building and take longer to complete.

Good work Tilted Mill. I'm glad you were able to pull this off! I hope it sells well.

[tiohn]

How the hell do you get your merchant to sell things?

[Gendal]

Apparently all of my graphical issues, including the minimap, are related to widescreen resolutions. Dropping it down 1600x1200 fixed everything. Hopefully they will get this fixed sooner or later.

How the hell do you get your merchant to sell things?
Just drag them onto the play area and it asks if you want to sell them. You might be able to shift-right click stacks to sell also, not sure.

[Jeff Fiske]

Is "misc inventory" the same as "town inventory"? I've been dumping my town helping items into the town inventory, assuming it was. Am I supposed to be doing something else with them, like assigning them to the workers/buildings they benefit?

Misc inventory slot on the individual. (Helm, artifact, ring.)

How the hell do you get your merchant to sell things?

Drop it on the ground, anywhere in the world. That gives you a confirmation dialog. OR Shift click on it. (This is the same as destroying it, if you don't have a merchant.

Note: You must have a merchant, and the guy buys everything for the same price. (Seems like a raw deal initially, but as you play the game more you will see why.)

[Rorschach]

Is "misc inventory" the same as "town inventory"? I've been dumping my town helping items into the town inventory, assuming it was. Am I supposed to be doing something else with them, like assigning them to the workers/buildings they benefit?

Misc. inventory is the fourth slot for your characters. You can see the effectiveness of some of the tools by the amount of food/gold they produce when equipped.

EDIT: Ninja'd by Jeff.

[Tyjenks]

1. What does each spell caster do as their attack? Such as the difference between a high priest and a light priest.
Have not had a lot of priests yet. The ones I do, I usually leave to research. However, the light priest/acolyte will sit back and heal injured party members.

2. Prayers that are researched, if it doesn't say specifically, do they work all over the map?From my experience, they either say that they work for in town or throughout the map. THe ones throughout the map usually only work for your character. You should be able to tell what is active by the tooltip when you hove over the icon that is on the character portrait.

3. I wish that on the minimap it will show the corpses of your followers to let you find them easier to loot their bodies.
Could be a feature in a future patch or expansion.

4.Starting a game on difficult, I was not offered any food producers, there should be some kind of safe guard put in place so that you will always be offered a food producer from the start. edit: Didn't know you could kick out visitors without a penality so never mind about this one then.

5. Do support spell casters level at all? It doesn't seem right that they're not getting any exp for keeping my guys alive.
Support healers and casters should level the same as melee, but I am not sure about the rate for healers or how equally it correlates to damage dealers.

6. What is the difference between random resources and all resources?
Random resources means you are not guaranteed to have every single one in a specific game. Say playing a medium game, clearing all 35 areas and you may never get iron to promote a craftsman to a smith or herbs so you can never recruit an herbalist. All resources mean there is at least one of each for that game.

7. When villagers are creating something (bows, potions, shields, etc) I would like to be able to mouse over the item to see what it does. Also I would like to tell them specifically what to make.Well, you can do that, but only in town as that is where it goes. Unless you mean you want an alert that shows what is made. After enough playing, you will learn what each item does and will know when you are alerted he made "X". For ex., there is a total of 4 bows (IIRC) that fletchers can make. Telling them specifically would be nice, but I think TM wants to keep as much randomness in the game as possible. It makes it all the more satisfying when something good gets made. (For me at least)

8. What does the blessed icon mean over my character?
That is a good question. Not sure I have had that. There is a lot of stuff crammed in there and you only get to fool with a small portion of it in each game.

9. Lastly I would like more information regarding enhancement items (plows, maps, traps, etc). Such as the difference between using a map on a hunter, and using a snare.

That, too, would be handy.

[Jeff Fiske]

I found a guard who could upgrade ballistats (iirc). I assumed it was a trait of all guards, but I dunno. Am I reading correctly that I can just leave items in the town stash and the appropriate professions will make use of them?

No - you have to manually equip them in their Misc inventory location---though it seems that this is something worth noting since a few of you are thinking the same thing, so maybe we can do something about that.

Couple of things. If you mouse over icons, numbers as well as read some of the text in the hire and talk dialogs you will get some hints about what people can evolve into what professions and what resources you need to see that happen.

Guard, who is better (faster) with 1h weapons can upgrade to a Watchman if you have access to Stone. He then loses the ability with 1h weapons as he sits like a fat cat near his tower- but his tower makes up for it.

Also, choose your Class well they have a huge impact on what you have to do for the first half hour to hour of play. Then again, the Short - Easy game is intended to be just the type of place to 'test drive' a Class and starting option. Playing as the Outlaw, is not that easy, on any setting!!

Blessed Icon? Whenever you mouse over an icon it tells you what the effect is. If you are saying that this is what you did and it said "Blessed" I am impressed. High Priest adventuring, not bad... It is a powerful buff that can do different things. (Speed, attack, defense- random of course but very large bonuses based on your ablities!) Bless will also cancel a curse, or vis-versa. (Though curse frequency needs to be turned up right now.)

[Tyjenks]

Some raiders also showed up while I was out adventuring and I heard a bunch of coin sounds, which was them stealing food and gold. I managed to catch up with them outside of town while they were fleeing, from what I could tell they had all the missing items which I was able to recover. Very nice.
Be careful with that as if they steal too much, YOU VILL LOSE! Also, you do not always get all the items back.

[Tyjenks]

How the hell do you get your merchant to sell things?

Drop it on the ground, anywhere in the world. That gives you a confirmation dialog. OR Shift click on it. (This is the same as destroying it, if you don't have a merchant.

Note: You must have a merchant, and the guy buys everything for the same price. (Seems like a raw deal initially, but as you play the game more you will see why.)

Also regarding the Merchant...once you have him and say your fletcher or smith is making a lot of useless stuff, you can click on the craftpersons portrait and set him to Sell items he is making. THat way you will have additional gold income and the items he/she makes will not be cluttering up your limited town inventory space.

[porousnapkin]

I had a blast with the first playthrough. I went easy difficulty as the Yeoman and was challenged but never to an absurd degree. The combat and movement is really fast. The game doesn't focus on in-combat tactics too much (though pulling helped in some of the harder areas) but mostly focuses on giving the player lots of development choices, both for the city, the central character, and the followers. I spent more time equipping and figuring out who I wanted next in my city then auto-attacking nearby opponents. And I thought all the choices were interesting.

The game doesn't teach players very well how to play it, certainly. I went through quite a few visitors before a Farmer showed up. So I assumed that my declining food supply with no means of gaining food was because I was doing something wrong myself, and spent a lot of the early game trying to figure out how to farm. But a full game on easy on a small map took about an hour and a half to play through, so I feel like it wouldn't have been a big loss if I had ended up in the corners some of you described and had to start over.

My biggest complaint is there's no economy or resource screen. I wanted to check my projected daily food income and usage on some screen so I had a better idea whether I should have been hiring more farmers or other professions. As it was, I usually paused the game and tried to come up with an estimate off the followers screen. But that's not terribly accurate because I don't know how much my items were increasing or decreasing various farmers.

Great first impression. If repeated playthroughs are this fun, I could see putting quite a few hours into the game. There's still a lot of professions I have yet to see. And I really don't think the first game is THAT hard without a manual. It reminded me a bit of my first game of Sins of a Solar Empire. Although I guess it's a lot easier to screw yourself over before you know whats happening in Hinterland.

[Rorschach]

My biggest complaint is there's no economy or resource screen. I wanted to check my projected daily food income and usage on some screen so I had a better idea whether I should have been hiring more farmers or other professions. As it was, I usually paused the game and tried to come up with an estimate off the followers screen. But that's not terribly accurate because I don't know how much my items were increasing or decreasing various farmers.Hover over the food number (not the icon) and you'll get a breakdown of inputs and outputs.

[Tyjenks]

You can do the same with gold and it will give you a per day total.

[Jab2565]

I noticed something else, once you select either a temple of good or a temple of evil, I think that forces you down that path until you demolish the building. Also a tip I found out, if a follower is killed , don't destroy the building , you can buy the same follower for a discount as they use the same building as their home.

I do like the variety of loot that is showing up, I got some awesome drops when fighting the final group of raiders (level 13s). I ran into spiders on my second playthrough on hard, I think the spell casters are harder, as they wiped out my health faster during my medium game.

[Tyjenks]

Also a tip I found out, if a follower is killed , don't destroy the building , you can buy the same follower for a discount as they use the same building as their home.

Yep, that discounted amount will show in parentheses (how the hell do you spell that) as the price when the same type of follower who died shows up as a visitor.

BTW, If all the visitors down the left side of the screen get in the way (You can have a max of five if you upgrade your Hostel all the way), you can click on the triangle in the upper left-hand corner next to the word "Visitors" to minimize those characters. You cannot do the same for your party, though.

[habibi]

My screen tears and there is no V-Sync option. Any ideas how to fix this?

[Dave Markell]

Still can't wait to play this, but I have to finish one run through King's Bounty first. After the summer gaming drought, is nice to have these kinds of problems again.

[Tyjenks]

Still can't wait to play this, but I have to finish one run through King's Bounty first. After the summer gaming drought, is nice to have these kinds of problems again.

Apologies for stealing your thunder in creating a new thread. :)

[tylertoo]

Great first impression. If repeated playthroughs are this fun, I could see putting quite a few hours into the game. There's still a lot of professions I have yet to see. And I really don't think the first game is THAT hard without a manual.

Likewise with me. I hit 'purchase' with some trepidation, given the issues raised today in this thread, but just finished a two-hour visit to Hinterland and enjoyed it greatly.

Before starting, I left this thread and the official site's 'manual' open in Firefox and expected to have to alt-tab to them as I played. But, I didn't. I got the hang of it pretty quickly. Spent a lot of time rushing back and forth between the town and wilderness, and didn't have problems with food supply after the initial hires. I did have trouble in combat by staying in battles I should have run from, and then finding my fame way way down. The UI could use some improvement, but I never found it a hindrance. I did have some graphical weirdness in the mini-map, as others have reported.

But, all in all, a good time was had, and I feel like I've just scratched the surface. Nice job, Reed.

[Shadari]

My screen tears and there is no V-Sync option. Any ideas how to fix this?
You can probably force that in your driver settings.

[Gendal]

I did have some graphical weirdness in the mini-map, as others have reported.

Did you see my 'all graphical problems caused by widescreen' post? Try setting it to a 4:3 resolution and see if it fixes it for you.


Support healers and casters should level the same as melee, but I am not sure about the rate for healers or how equally it correlates to damage dealers.

You can watch their staff skill improve visibly while they heal your guys at least, so they are leveling up just healing.

[Tyjenks]

Yeah, that is their healing level (Is that what you meant, the little wand dealies). I am still not clear on how their actual character level increases.

[Sarkus]

I have to say that despite my earlier concerns, this is a good game. The big flaw is that it seems to have a lot of depth that demands a deeper manual/strat guide to explain.

A hint for starters - turning off the possibility of raiders attacking your town and/or the king demanding loot makes things easier for the first game or two where you likely to be making mistakes.

Edit: Also, am I missing something or is the town inventory really that tiny? Really sucks if it is - I managed it in a short, easy game but I can see hating that limitation in a longer, more complex game.

[Fugitive]

Just completed a two-hour game, and although it was a bit simpler and faster-paced than I expected, there was still something satisfying about going "Oh dear" when I get badly thumped by a high-level monster and then later coming back with a rampaging party of guards loaded to the brim with magic gear.

I also went the easy/small route for the first game, though things were complicated by the lack of herbs (I had All Resources off), so I could never produce my own potions and often had to run back to town in between chipping away at a camp. And the economy started to matter more than I thought it would towards the end of the game, as the king started demanding larger amounts that I wasn't going to get from hunting alone.

[Tyjenks]

Turning all those options on and off, BTW, affects gameplay as well as your scoring modifier once you complete a game. Your choice of character class can also affect that modifier.

All resources on/Map revealed on/Raiders off all reduce the modifier and vice cersa.

Requests off has no affect, but you also do not get fame bonuses from completing requests.

[Dave Markell]

Apologies for stealing your thunder in creating a new thread. :)

Bah, no worries. Besides, you were the first to get REALLY, REALLY excited about the game. You deserve one of your very own.

[Gendal]

Edit: Also, am I missing something or is the town inventory really that tiny? Really sucks if it is - I managed it in a short, easy game but I can see hating that limitation in a longer, more complex game.
Been playing for awhile now and it's not much of a limit. For one, you can sell stuff once you get a merchant, for another all those followers you have make great extra storage. Equip them with the latest and greatest, don't leave the peasant clothes on them. That way if they get raided they have a fighting chance, plus it's less room in your inventory if you need it later.

My one request is a sort function on the followers page. Just keep it sorted by job/color or let me arrange it manually.

[Tyjenks]

Well, I just happen to have one of those fancy AAR's, which I absolutely never do. What could be more sketchy than describing a videogame in storybook format?!?! I am kidding, I am just bad at adapting my gameplay to words.

Well, I have done one that turned into a schlocky Hinterland story. Every cliche from bad Fantasy writing I could cram in I did, but it does follow pretty closely a Easy difficulty, Medium length game I had. It will most likely need to be broken into a couple of posts. Pointing fingers and laughing is perfectly fine, but I don't care because I believe this game is just that fun.

[habibi]

V-Sync in driver: Oh ya.. forgot about that. Thanks.
I enjoyed the game on Easy.. great game. Love the graphics.. it's refreshing to see "painted" art... I'd highly recommend to anyone.. for $20, it's a steal!

[Tyjenks]

As a foreman of Dwarven decent, I began my time as leader of this tiny spec of land with reduced Gold production, so early on I bolstered any of my attributes, which would mitigate that drawback. I also selected an additional Shield to supplement the weak defense of two. I had 35 evil infested areas to cleanse and it was time to let the decimation begin.

With the reduced starting gold and gold production along with relatively low food, I had to focus on getting some funds. This meant attacking some foes close by of which there were plenty. The majority of the first and second rings of wilderness were lowly goblins that were excellent for rolling through for some coin. No farmers were available once I returned to town so I had to settle for a trapper who I had picked up a snare for and this gave me a much needed food boost. Gold was coming slowly so after another trip out of town, I picked up a Goodman. She began my economic upswing.

With the availability of three villagers and two of them being farmers, I scrounged up enough gold to recruit them, upgraded by outpost to a manor house and expanded my farms. Food production was never a problem after that as I was able to pick up additional farmers here and there and upgrade them accordingly.

By now, I was level three and I recruited a level two herder and used my meager equipment, which consisted of a sad little spear and a helmet, so that I could have a companion in my killing. A Craftsman was now available. Early on with relatively no weapons and equipment showing up, anything he could produce would be beneficial. Once I had the requisite 20 gold, I put him to work. He must have had an extra helping of gruel because he churned out some reinforced leather armor, a helmet and a decent short sword. All of these could be immediately put to good use.

The middle stages of my village set in and I fleshed out my economy. I was a little distressed, as I had not uncovered an herb field. I had herbalists banging on the door of the manor, but alas as much as I required their potion-making services, their presence would do me no good and I was forced to watch them walk out of town. Herders and Trappers came to town and they nicely added to my food production. I equipped them with oats and traps and compasses and almanacs as necessary to boost their hunting and cattle breeding capabilities. One craftsman was promoted to fletcher to begin the creation of the all-important ranged weapons. I went ahead and put him to work researching more advanced bows, so once I equipped my next villager, he could do some damage. I also hired another Craftsman to continue the armor, shield and helm production. My villagers were a pathetic lot and with the ever-present danger of raiders, they needed some protection. Plus, I had plans for a promotion to smithing for this new Craftsman when I finally stumbled on a source of iron.

My first stroke of luck arrived. My fletcher created a magically imbued bow which could definitely do some damage. I recruited a decent Herder and geared him up to do some back-up. Still no iron or herbs though and morale around the town was a tad low as better equipment and healing potions were in short supply.

[Tyjenks]

My two villagers had become quite the hardy adventurers and they accompanied me near and far all over the realm. We uncovered some magical portals, which provided the all-important instant travel back to town. Raiders from as yet undiscovered bases had sniffed us out and were visiting us regularly. The villagers were still under equipped so, once we received word Raiders were in the area, the quick trips back to the village were necessary.

An acolyte decided to grace our fair town with his presence. We immediately built him a temple and expanded it to a temple of light. His tenure as Acolyte was brief and he began service as a Priest of Light. Research began in earnest on prayers, which would aid both the villagers in their efforts to defend, and my party as it traveled in search of resources, treasure and wealth.

The King had been making small requests of me as leader of a town in his kingdom. They had been modest and I sent the gold and food he required of my people immediately in the hopes that he would appreciate the speed with which I satisfied his desires of us. With my gradual rise in stature along with the village, the King decided he could press me. His requests became larger and larger demands on the economy. Expansion took a back seat to satisfy our sovereign. With each successful fulfillment, our fame in the realm grew. Our inn had two more additions built to house the visitors, which were now flocking. A traveling musician settled in town and required a hefty start-up fee for his performances, but the music the bard created more than made up for it, as the citizenry was deliriously happy.

The steady increase in food stores was welcome. We had picked up plenty of items both magical and not to aid the citizens in their efforts. Equipment and weapons from the more menacing of enemies was making my party quite formidable, but it was nearing time for a fourth. We had discovered two rather intimidating strongholds on the outskirts of the wilderness. Our village could not reach its full potential until we had rid ourselves of their constant threat.

The town was relatively calm as of late and the hiring of guards had been shunned, as the price for their services was too high. However, it was time to add a trained soldier to my crew. After this was done, a great sum of over 300 gold was withdrawn from the coffers and given to a High Priest to entice him to set up shop. He said he saw potential in our little hamlet and would lower himself to settling here. His prayers in addition to that of the priest of light on the other side of town would give us the edge we needed in the showdowns, which were inevitable in their coming.

The gods had not seen fit to ever provide us with herbs and so with a full party and the last of our healing potions, we set out for the Ogre base far to the Northwest. We were expecting a heated battle and were not disappointed. Fortunately, the prayers and the work of our recently promoted smith made us equal to the task. I will not say that it was easy, but there were no lives lost nor did anyone turn tail and run. Our rewards were pleasing, but the shouts of victory were hollow. Word of our worst fears reached us soon after the last Ogre met his end; the Dark Dwarves were to the northeast and none would be safe until their menace was obliterated.

After a trek back to town for a crucial recuperative interlude, my experienced party set off to the Dark Dwarf fortress. We were equal parts invigorated and afraid. The ratio tilted toward the latter once we spied the band of adversaries we had to face. Some were twice as seasoned as our assembly and no doubt equally as well equipped. The plan was, therefore, to lure them out one or two at a time. As soon as the battle was joined, that plan went to hell.

The melee was fast and furious and once the clatter began about half of their number, which totaled 8 or 9, pounced upon us. One member was lost before the onslaught drove us back. I rushed to his aid as he fell and I called a hasty retreat. The odds were evening, but I am not sure our town had the stomach for the losses our cozy citizenry would be required to take. A second attempt yielded similar results. As yet another party member went down, our lone ranged specialist furiously attempted to beat back the evil dwarves, but it only served to draw their attention a moment too long. He was rushed and fell as well.

As we scurried for cover, I looted the enemies’ still fresh corpses and while what I found was more valuable than anything these eyes had heretofore glimpsed, the price was high. A third attempt had to do it, as our resources were bled dry and our manpower had weakened considerably. This attempt was the one that nearly saw my death.

As the blows rained down, I saw the enemy begin to thin and then all I saw was black. I awoke in town and was told only their leader remained intact. One more had fallen in our efforts, as I lay helpless on the battlefield. I rose immediately and grabbed a sturdy looking guard from the barracks, threw him a bow, which had returned with us from the last battle. It looked like nothing I had ever seen. The guard’s height may have eclipsed that of the bow by a foot if that. With my head lowered, the two of us strode out of the village. The thrill of our progress was entirely blunted by the tragedies we had suffered.

The leader saw us coming and stood waiting. He saw the blood in my eyes and new his time left on this earth could be measured in minutes, but most likely seconds. I had to respect the bold stand he took, as my fury could not be matched. The pummeling swamped him and he stood still for the last swing, nodded to me, and it was done.

My men and women gave their lives willingly for the good of our people and it would sully their sacrifice if I were to sulk. I took heart in that fact as we came back to the cheers of our people.

[TheSelfishGene]

It's ok. I wouldn't recommend it ... but, you know, they're an indie developer, ect., so i don't mind the purchase.

It's not really what i expected, nor what i was hoping it would be.

[habibi]

TheSelfishGene: What are you hoping the game to be?

I find that when the tools I gave to the farmer or craftsman broke, I have to go back to town and re-equip them with another tool. Is there a way to automate it?

[Tyjenks]

I find that when the tools I gave to the farmer or craftsman broke, I have to go back to town and re-equip them with another tool. Is there a way to automate it?

Unfortunately no. Some of them last a pretty good while though, but I think some of the tools' lives are random, too. The Oats and fertilizer are used up more quickly. SInce you generally make a decent amount of trips back to town, I just check the misc. slots on each of my townies when I go back to heal up or upgrade. I do not find it to be too big of a hassle.

[Jab2565]

I think I must have had a fluke during my first game, as I haven't found any tombs, crystal balls, or anything to unlock the upper villagers in my hard game. Do certain followers start out better with weapons compared to others even though their stats are similar? I've been using hunters, and craftsmen as my followers and it's been good so far.

[RepoMan]

Did you see my 'all graphical problems caused by widescreen' post? Try setting it to a 4:3 resolution and see if it fixes it for you.
Wait, what? This game doesn't support widescreen?

FAIL. I don't play games that don't support widescreen. (My monitor is severely challenged at not scaling everything to 16:9 aspect ratio, and let's face it, arguably most monitors these days are widescreen. Well, maybe not in Hinterland's $20 demographic, I guess... but still.)

I'll keep an eye out for the inevitable post-release patches. (INEVITABLE, do you hear me, Tilted Mill???)

[MMcGlumphy]

Wait, what? This game doesn't support widescreen?

It's not that is doesn't support widescreen - it supports all standard resolutions, including widescreen ones. It's just there are some glitches in the minimap when running under a widescreen resolution.

It's not a game breaker, either. The minimap still functions. It's just not rendered as intended. I'm sure it's something that will be corrected in a patch very soon.

[TheSelfishGene]

TheSelfishGene: What are you hoping the game to be?



Something a bit less ... hectic. More CotN and less 7 Kingdoms meets Diablo. Running around desperately trying to find gold to shut the king up, while running around keeping everyone's special items refreshed, while running around fighting off random attacks, while running around ... ect. And i fight... skeletons. Spiders. Kobolds.

I'll play it a bit more, but honestly, eh. Sort of a Wierd Worlds-like, lite game. Has an "OEM preinstalled software" vibe. I'll keep at it for awhile though, perhaps it gets better...

[Calistas]

I've just bought it, although I don't have the time to play much (what with a lot of other gaming haha), but I bought it because I want to see more of this sort of game and I hope the developer will keep up the good work.

Next game we need. Zombies and a little town holding out against them! Go to it!

[garin]

I just finished my first game on Easy. I like it a lot, and it's pretty close to what I expected from the first screenshots. Never found a relic (should have gone with temple of evil) or the wizard's tome thing. Looking forward to another playthrough on a harder difficulty.

[habibi]

while running around keeping everyone's special items refreshed, while running around fighting off random attacks, while running around ... ect. And i fight... skeletons. Spiders. Kobolds.

I agree on the running around although I think it's my style of gameplay. I could play it slower, I guess.. just fending off any incoming attacks while I build my town.. So, you too can take it slow if you want to.

[Brian Rubin]

Welp, based on this thread, I purchased it. Won't be able to play it for a few days, but I'm looking forward to it.

[Disconnected]

So... When's this thing coming to Impulse? Me no want no fogging Steam.

[Merakon]

After a few frustrating initial attempts, I finally just finished my first game. Fun lite game that I think will get better on higher difficulties. At first I was frustrated because I kept running out of food, either due to my own poor planning or raiders taking food from my town. It's pretty harsh when all your people starve to death, you don't have enough gold to hire anyone else, and you've already cleared the easy regions.

[habibi]

I had a request from the King to contribute 100 food. I had 105 and I thought, ok, why not. Right after I contributed, all hell broke loose! Looks like I don't have enough to sustain the villagers (silly me for not checking my production rate) - people start starving and leaving my cause ... one pet peeve - the game will tell you that someone left.. but not who that person is. So I can't tell if my farmer left or my merchant.. and that makes it difficult to recruit. In my case, a few farmers left and I had to start looking for replacement but I had to look hard to know who left.

But it was fun!

Another pet peeves: bringing up Follower in 1600x1200 - I see that some of the characters overlap.. eg the icon showing the profession would overlap the character level number of the character before it... hopefully will be fixed in a patch.

[Gendal]

Beat my second game on med/med with 72xx points. Never got a bard or musical instrument and my Necromancer was a big disappointment. By the time the skeletons attacked the target was already dead. I still had a blast, going to start up a game on hard now.

[Calistas]

Having fun on Easy, except the confusion about running out of food right at the start, and it seems that if you recruit int he wrong 'tick' your people will leave before they harvest/trap/grow more food. Or something. Bit annoying.

[Therlun]

After playing another game my first impression hasnt changed.

I wouldnt be so disappointed if the whole game werent limited to an extremely simple action rpg.
I agree that the basic foundation of the city building part sounds fun, and there is a good amount of variety within the many different professions/upgrades and resources they are connected to.

However, my main gripe about the game is: all that is almost completely irrelevant. You just fight monsters... or better put, you watch your guys fight monsters. There is nothing else to do, because all the building and development only provides stuff for the monster slaying.

There is no "society" and your townspeople are faceless grunts.
If one dies, who cares? Just hire another one.
If you lose or cant hire a special guy, who cares? Its not like it makes any difference if the monster is automatically attacked by a mage or a guard or a peasant.

I can accept that people might think its fun. If you focus on the action-RPG parts and like looting it can be entertaining.
I cannot accept the claim that it is "deep" or there is any kind of complexity though.

[Chris Nahr]

So I played for a bit on easy and I like the game a lot so far. Bonus points for the orchestral soundtrack with recycled Greensleeves! (What can I say, I love Greensleeves.)

Some interface issues I noticed:

1. When you give a villager a new item the stats shown in the dialog don't reflect the new item until the dialog is closed and re-opened. That's very awkward and should be fixed.

2. The activation radius when clicking on a monster is too small. Granted, I didn't know about the Ctrl+Click trick since the manual wasn't available yet but I do think that a "near" click should count as an attack.

3. On the cosmetic side, the plain Windows 2000 dialog text is very dreary. How about a little faux-medieval frame for those buttons? Initial characters in blackletter? Something to create a fitting atmosphere...

Nice job overall, now I'll have to read the manual and play some more.

[habibi]

There is no "society" and your townspeople are faceless grunts.
If one dies, who cares? Just hire another one.
If you lose or cant hire a special guy, who cares? Its not like it makes any difference if the monster is automatically attacked by a mage or a guard or a peasant.

After my second play through on Medium difficulty, I must agree with you. I wish I could be more connected to the townspeople instead of just clicking on the "Advertisement" to continue to replace the ones who left. They became just another guy in a sweatshop to produce stuff.

I am not sure about the replayability.

[Jonathan Crane]

2. The activation radius when clicking on a monster is too small. Granted, I didn't know about the Ctrl+Click trick since the manual wasn't available yet but I do think that a "near" click should count as an attack.


This. I found myself occasionally flailing around to try and attack the giants who were raiding my town. Look, I'm not god's gift to gaming, but I should bloody well be able to click to attack a fricking giant on the first go.

I'll have to look more closely at the dialog box, as I didn't notice the impact of any of the items (at least in a numbers sort of way), but as Chris points out above, I didn't close and reopen the dialog box.

That being said, this is a wonderful game, and I had to stop myself from finishing my first game last night so I could get enough sleep to go to work.

[garin]

I just finished a game on Difficult and I think that the choices you make are a lot more meaningful, especially at the beginning.

I second the request for better organiztion of the 'followers' screen, though. Having them arranged by profession would make a lot of sense. Also, sometimes the portraits are spaced so closely together that the character level is obscured.

[Mysterio]

FYI: the PDF manual is now linked on Steam.

[Chris Nahr]

Just finished my Easy game, and I don't really have any complaints besides what I mentioned above. Even the graphics look fairly decent at higher resolutions. Great little game, obviously a walk in the park on this level... but that's what the higher difficulty levels are for!

I played a knight, by the way, and I like the tradeoff between "knows how to fight" and "knows how to run a town". I could solo most areas but had enormous trouble getting my economy going because I didn't have enough gold to afford the gold producers. Maybe I'll try some merchant type next...

[tylertoo]

Did you see my 'all graphical problems caused by widescreen' post? Try setting it to a 4:3 resolution and see if it fixes it for you.

I had seen your earlier post but just decided to leave it widescreen and live with it, since its just odd lines in the mini-map. I only reported it in my post to add to the chorus. I saw mention of the mini-map issue (not your fix) on the official forum yesterday and the devs seemed surprised. Did they not test it in widescreen? Anyway, thanks for the fix.

I will say the graphics overall look better than the off-putting official videos posted last week. Not great, but better.

My men and women gave their lives willingly for the good of our people and it would sully their sacrifice if I were to sulk. I took heart in that fact as we came back to the cheers of our people.


Great AAR, Ty, keep it going!

[Tyjenks]

I like the fact that everything is so completely random. You can play one game and get few ranged weapons and skew your development towards melee. The next game, you could satisy a request from the King and he may gift you with a powerful Bow. At that point, you recruit someone for ranged duties. You may be relying on your craftsman to generate some armor early on and then a raid comes, you cannot make it back to town and he gets killed. If Gold is scarce, advertising can be costly, so that Craftsman shop remains empty for a while. Some games, the final boss monsters, through luck of the draw, are 4 or 5 levels higher than your Lord. Should you plan for that in the beginning and do more soloing to level your Lord or do you slowly flesh out a full party hoping to draw the final bad guys out one or two at a time. Sometimes the final bosses are not too bad and you can roll through.

The scarcity of resources forces you to think and with different things appearing in different games, there is no one magical build order that is going to let you steamroll each map. Plus, you cannot just rush in and time your potion clicks so that you get almost to zero, heal up, get down, heal up. Potions are not plentiful and they don't restore you fully. They are bandaids at best.

My Medium game I detailed before I never had a herbalist and had basically no potions for the last thrid of the game. It was brutal and took a lot of party management in fights to not get anyone killed. The fame penalties are not as painful when you are that far along, however, at this point, you start thinking about your final score and competing against previous scores. Those deaths are costly in the final tally that then gets multiplied by 15 for a win.

No it is not deep. No the city building, strategy aspects or RPG features are not as fleshed out as games specific to the genre, but the whole bundle of stuff put together makes for an addicting mix.

[Tyjenks]

Great AAR, Ty, keep it going!
I dunno, writing that damn thing took almost as long as playing it, but once I got started, I could not just give up.

Thanks, though. Just glad someone read all the way through. Can't say I would have done the same for you. ;)

[McCrank]

Question to the devs...


What is the plan for support on this game? Are you waiting to see how it sells? Any concrete plans to patch and/or add more content? Right now, seems that the king always asks me for food or gold, would be nice to maybe switch it up a bit (swords, kill monster, etc).

-Chris

[Hemlock Bones]

I am pleased in the amount of management you can do while the game is paused. Very good.

[Tyjenks]

Question to the devs...


What is the plan for support on this game? Are you waiting to see how it sells? Any concrete plans to patch and/or add more content? Right now, seems that the king always asks me for food or gold, would be nice to maybe switch it up a bit (swords, kill monster, etc).

-Chris

Well, until they wake up from their celebratory hangovers....

I believe further patching is in store.

There are rudimentary quests the king may ask of you that occasionally occur. Find sword for the king. Find bag of horse poop for the king. The location of the sword or poop is then marked with a blue X on the regional map.

[Brian Rubin]

K, just played my first game for about 20 minutes, easy difficulty level and such. REALLY enjoying it. I really like the back and forth between going out and getting stuff and managing my town, which is so far doing quite well since I read this thread and hired food producers straight away. :) Fun stuff! :)

[tylertoo]

FYI: the PDF manual is now linked on Steam.

The last page of the PDF manual (http://www.tiltedmill.com/hinterland/downloads/Hinterland_Manual_v1.0_single_page_format.pdf) is extremely... uh... insightful.

[BigWeather]

I know I may get some glares for this, but...

Any chance we can get this on XBLA or, to avoid the cost / effort required to grind through XBLA certification, XBLCG (once it is released later this fall)?

This seems like it'd be a perfect candidate. Fast paced, short games, limited amount of keyboard interaction making a controller mapping possible (heck, if Civ could do it...).

Just a humble request. =)

Of course, only being able to charge 800 points ($10) for XBLCG could knock that option right out. =(

[Mysterio]

The last page of the PDF manual (http://www.tiltedmill.com/hinterland/downloads/Hinterland_Manual_v1.0_single_page_format.pdf) is extremely... uh... insightful.

You noticed her, too, huh? Sorta reminds me of the psycho women I've dated in the past. ...shiver...

[Tyjenks]

You noticed her, too, huh? Sorta reminds me of the psycho women I've dated in the past. ...shiver...
She should show up in a loading screen occasionally. Freaky wood nymph. There is also a mermaid that I am rather partial to.

[Shadari]

I managed to play for a little over an hour yesterday and found it to be quite an addictive little game. Once I finish up on Spore I'm going to spend some more time with this delightful game.

Also, it's the number one seller on Steam today. I hope it does well and we get more games like this in the future.

[Shadari]

Oh yeah, the female goblins are HAWT!

[Tyjenks]

Also, it's the number one seller on Steam today. I hope it does well and we get more games like this in the future.
Sweet! Man, I hope it does well. Even if I care nothing about their future games (which is highly unlikely), the TM people are decent folks and seem to have a good company and environment in which to work.

This whole thread and my efforts in it are only made so as to shrug off the stain on my reputation that is Empire of Magic. I hope we can all move past that dark time now.

[tiohn]

The female character portraits all look puffy and bruised, especially about the eyes.

[Jab2565]

A few more comments:

1. Last night while using an acyolite (mis spelled?) it did receive spell/attack exp, but not defense or health exp. I'm not sure if he leveled at all, if he did it happened very slowly.

2. One suggestion I have (not sure if it's in there already) would be to give villager types attack bonuses with certain weapons. For example, farmers have a bonus with 2 handed spear weapons, craftsmens hammer, etc.

3. Has anyone tried taking the fortune teller, herblisist out adventuring and can comment on their spell types?

4. Lastly does someone's title effect their stats? For ex: taking a craftsmen out vs taking a smithy out.

[Gendal]

1. Last night while using an acyolite (mis spelled?) it did receive spell/attack exp, but not defense or health exp. I'm not sure if he leveled at all, if he did it happened very slowly.

After playing considerably more I see what you guys are getting at. On the spell casters their attack exp does go up pretty fast but since they never get hit (and if they do, they die/run) their defense xp never budges. The manual hints that the overall level is a combination of def/atk exp so that probably explains why my casters are always left at the level they were hired at while everybody else does a decent job keeping up with my main.

[Tyjenks]

A few more comments:

1. Last night while using an acyolite (mis spelled?) it did receive spell/attack exp, but not defense or health exp. I'm not sure if he leveled at all, if he did it happened very slowly.

2. One suggestion I have (not sure if it's in there already) would be to give villager types attack bonuses with certain weapons. For example, farmers have a bonus with 2 handed spear weapons, craftsmens hammer, etc.

3. Has anyone tried taking the fortune teller, herblisist out adventuring and can comment on their spell types?

4. Lastly does someone's title effect their stats? For ex: taking a craftsmen out vs taking a smithy out.
1. Until they get hit, their defense will not raise. And I, too, am still unclear as to how their health stat and overall character level is raised. My guess from just watching things, the health 'experience' increases as you are losing health. Once you get enough experience from losing health, you go up a level in health, your max health increases, and the bar completely fills back up. No guess whatsoever about how the overall character level increases. (Acolyte)

2. Yeah, since those weapons give them benefits when working in town, it would be nice if their familiarity with the weapon would allow combat bonuses. Not a curent feature, I don' think.

3. The herbalist heals like a priest/Acolyte. To tell you the truth, I have fooled with other combinations of party members a ton, but have still not gotten around to using them all. At some point I move from experimenting to wanting to improve my economy and win. :)

4. The stats are determined by their overall level. They may vary a little bit even within the same profession and that is reflected in their cost. For ex. A Level 1 Farmer with 2 ATK and 1DEF is 8 Gold. A Level 1 Farmer with ATK 3 and 1 DEF may be 9 gold. A Level 2 Farmer...11 Gold and so on. Also different professions do have different starting stats, but the variation within overall character level (i.e. all Level 2 professions) is usally only one or two ATK or DEF levels.

Not sure that is very clear.

[Fugitive]

1. Until they get hit, their defense will not raise. And I, too, am still unclear as to how their health stat and overall character level is raised. My guess from just watching things, the health 'experience' increases as you are losing health. Once you get enough experience from losing health, you go up a level in health, your max health increases, and the bar completely fills back up. No guess whatsoever about how the overall character level increases.
Oh, so that's what happened... I was on the losing end of one fight, about to die with no potions left, and suddenly my health shot straight back up to full again, without any obvious indication of what had caused it or level gain.

[Tyjenks]

Oh, so that's what happened... I was on the losing end of one fight, about to die with no potions left, and suddenly my health shot straight back up to full again, without any obvious indication of what had caused it or level gain.
Yep, the health level is separate from the character level.

[Scott Edgecumbe]

I installed Hinterland last night and managed to get in 2 games before going to bed. Overall, I had lots of fun, and I see myself enjoying this game for some time to come. Here are my comments after two plays (I posted this over at the official forums as well):

Magical Followers:
- There should be some kind of indication about what powers the individual magic user types have when they are adventuring. Do they Heal? Buff? Do Damage?

Town Interface:
- Desperately needs a hotkey to bring up followers page. It's nice to hit "T" to bring up the town map, but there needs to be a hotkey (perhaps "F") to bring up the followers page.

- There needs a way to sort followers and retain their new positions. Either let me drag the followers to a new slot, or let me sort them by level or profession.

- Item Production: Let me see all the potions and items that my followers can make or research. Let me pick what they make or research! If I upgrade a Herbalist, maybe I still want them to make Healing Potions rather than Heavy Hands potions or goblin juice. Perhaps the item that a follower is currently working on could be displayed under their portrait on the Follower page.

Items:
- Relics, Musical Instruments and Tomes need a higher drop rate. I found 1 evil relic and 1 musical instrument in my first game, and 1 good relic in my second. I never came across any Tomes in either game.

- Magic Items: Some Items I found had a bluish glow on their icon, however, it is not always obvious what the magical effect is. This should be more clearly documented in the tool tip. For example, I find an Axe of Ice: Does it do Ice damage? Freeze the enemy? Do extra damage?

Bugs:
- Can't upgrade buildings when paused from town map or follower page.
- Can't switch to a new visitor when viewing a visitor: you must close current visitor window first. You should be able view other visitors by just clicking on their portrait.
- I've crashed twice in combat, and had to reboot my PC.

Wishes:
- More character portraits, or let me add my own.

That's all I have at the moment. I'd love to see some of these items patched.

[Sepiche]

I agree with most of your points, except this one:

- Relics, Musical Instruments and Tomes need a higher drop rate. I found 1 evil relic and 1 musical instrument in my first game, and 1 good relic in my second. I never came across any Tomes in either game.

Personally I kind of like this the way it is and from what I've read it's intentional that those items don't always drop in a game. I think it adds to the replay value that you always have to adjust your tactics depending on what items and resources you have available.

[Pogo]

I don't have the game yet, plan on buying it tonight, but I believe Reed or someone else in the other thread mentioned tomes being very powerful and you should feel lucky to get one.

[Scott Edgecumbe]

I don't have the game yet, plan on buying it tonight, but I believe Reed or someone else in the other thread mentioned tomes being very powerful and you should feel lucky to get one.

That makes sense, but I wanted to try out a Wizard! Maybe the drop rate should be tied to the difficulty level or something like that. Or maybe I just need to be more patient and play more games of Hinterland...

[Tyjenks]

Wizards and Dragon Eggs to raise dragons are hard to come by. Because of the random values given to the required items combined with the random appearance of the necessary visitors and/or resources, some stuff is going to be rare.

Like Sepiche said, the difficulty in acquiring some things makes me want to dive backin and try to get the stuff I have not had yet.

[Destarius]

I have a tome, but how do I get a Wizard?

[Tyjenks]

I have a tome, but how do I get a Wizard?
One has to show up as a visitor in town and then you have to meet other requirements like a minimum amount of Fame and Town Quality in addition to having the tome. Those minimums are fairly high and he does not show up as a visitor too often. Now if you have plenty of gold and the hostel maxed out with upgrades, you will have 5 visitors available and can keep clicking Advertise until one shows up. I have never recruited a Wizard.

[MonkeyPunky]

I enjoyed my couple hours last night and am looking forward to more tonight. I finished my first game (Entrepreneur, Easy, Small, all options, lots of dying) with a 611 ending score. I think a friends leaderboard, like XBLA, would be really cool.

[Scott Edgecumbe]

One has to show up as a visitor in town and then you have to meet other requirements like a minimum amount of Fame and Town Quality in addition to having the tome. Those minimums are fairly high and he does not show up as a visitor too often. Now if you have plenty of gold and the hostel maxed out with upgrades, you will have 5 visitors available and can keep clicking Advertise until one shows up. I have never recruited a Wizard.

I've not seen a Wizard show up, but you don't really need one to, since you can promote your followers. First, hire a Herbalist and then upgrade his building to a Lab so he becomes an Alchemist. Then, once you have a Tome, you can upgrade his building again to a Wizard Tower, and at that point the Alchemist should become a Wizard.

At least, that's how I think it works: I have not tried it because I have yet to find a single Tome.

[Tyjenks]

One has to show up as a visitor in town and then you have to meet other requirements like a minimum amount of Fame and Town Quality in addition to having the tome. Those minimums are fairly high and he does not show up as a visitor too often. Now if you have plenty of gold and the hostel maxed out with upgrades, you will have 5 visitors available and can keep clicking Advertise until one shows up. I have never recruited a Wizard.

I've not seen a Wizard show up, but you don't really need one to, since you can promote your followers. First, hire a Herbalist and then upgrade his building to a Lab so he becomes an Alchemist. Then, once you have a Tome, you can upgrade his building again to a Wizard Tower, and at that point the Alchemist should become a Wizard.

At least, that's how I think it works: I have not tried it because I have yet to find a single Tome.
Or that. :) I think I was incorrect, I was thinking of some other character. Needless to say, there is a lot to get a handle on, but since you do not have to know it all for every single game, you can sort of ease into it.

[Hansey]

I'm really enjoying this game as well. I'll add a couple of comments that I noticed, and I didn't see mentioned in this thread (apologies if I missed it).

I noticed that there appears to be come kind of "aggro" system, though I"m not sure how in depth it is. Every time I would go out adventuring with my wizard, even if I hit a mob several times, the instant my wizard started throwing spells at it, the mob would change target to him. Every time. Maybe it's not aggro per se, but those mobs sure don't like the wizards. ;)

Wizards are pretty squishy, and when he died, I couldn't recruit a new herbalist to take the place of the wizard. I had to wait for another wizard to show up to move into the existing building. Same thing with the loss of my dragoneer. I never noticed these types even visit my town however prior to having the buildings already.

At one point, I lost my dragoneer in battle, and once I realized I couldn't just move a generic herder into the building, I thought that was it for dragons - assumed the odds of my getting another dragon egg were pretty slim. The building sat empty for awhile, and eventually I decided to just demolish it to make space. Upon demolishing the building, I was thrilled to find that the dragon egg was returned to my inventory! I could then just use it to immediately upgrade an existing herder. I assume the same will hold true with say, demolishing a wizard tower, though I haven't had to do that yet.. the one time I lost a wizard I was able to recruit a new one who was visiting.

I really looked forward to this game, and I wasn't disappointed. The only real peeves I'd had so far were lack of hotkeys, all of which have now been posted, which makes things a lot easier.

[ydejin]

Wizards are pretty squishy, and when he died, I couldn't recruit a new herbalist to take the place of the wizard. I had to wait for another wizard to show up to move into the existing building. Same thing with the loss of my dragoneer. I never noticed these types even visit my town however prior to having the buildings already.
So do Wizards start out as Herbalists? I have all the Wizard stuff/loot, but haven't seen a Wizard in my recruiting pool. What's the upgrade path from Herbalist to Wizard?

[Hansey]

It was mentioned earlier in this thread, but yes, wizards start out as herbalists. The path is Herbalist -> Alchemist -> Wizard, but you need to find a tome to upgrade from an alchemist to a wizard.

[Jab2565]

The wizard is a powerful guy, I can take on enemies 5 levels above me with a wizard in my group. I'm noticing some path finding issues, spell casters seem to stay right next to my melee guys which makes them prime targets for attackers. Also I wish that the dragon could level up in combat like my other guys.

One problem I have is that I reach a point in every game that I don't need any more villagers, and I still have 20 or so more sites to go. Hopefully TM will add in more follower types at some point.

[habibi]

Being in Steam, I wish this game have Achievements, much like Half Life 2: Episode Two. That would be really cool - to be able to unlock achievements.

[habibi]

Hmm, any dev reading QT3? maybe I should post in the official forum..

[Hansey]

I'm noticing some path finding issues

Ah yes, I've noticed this as well, but more with getting stuck on objects in the world. I'll be running with my group toward some unexplored area, and suddenly I'll notice one of my group members is lagging behind. Backtracking finds him hung up stuck between a set of spiked fences or some other such set of objects where the opening on one end is narrower than the other.. and because of the way I ran by it, he's trying to go through the end he doesn't fit through. I have to place my character on the wider end so the follower will set himself free.

[Merakon]

Just finished a difficult/medium game with random resources. The difficult game had a lot more tension -- I liked that. Although it disappeared in the mid-game -- that wasn't so good. Starting as an outlaw on difficult was too difficult for my newbie self, although I know once I get the hang of it, I'm going to want to do a map as an outlaw.

In general I am a randomness-lover, but I feel like playing with random resources was too much of a handcuff because I never found a source of fresh water which is a requirement for too many upgrades. I think I'll be going back to all resources.

[Tyjenks]

Ah yes, I've noticed this as well, but more with getting stuck on objects in the world. I'll be running with my group toward some unexplored area, and suddenly I'll notice one of my group members is lagging behind. Backtracking finds him hung up stuck between a set of spiked fences or some other such set of objects where the opening on one end is narrower than the other.. and because of the way I ran by it, he's trying to go through the end he doesn't fit through. I have to place my character on the wider end so the follower will set himself free.
If you are running across many areas and get far enough ahead, your follower will warp to right behind you.

Have not quite figured out aggro either. If your wizard is the first to do damage, the MOB will, obviously go toward him. I do believe it has something to do with damage being dealt. Early on, if I find a powerful ranged weapon there is nothing I can do to draw a MOB from bee-lining to the archer accept hope I can wail on him and wear him down so the enemy only gets one or two hits in. However, if I have a decent melee weapon and if they fire one off first and I am doing decent damage, I can usually draw MOB attention to me.

Most games, my Lord gets the best melee weapon and can successfully tank most encounters. One or two good whacks on all the Mobs will do it.

[Jeff Fiske]

Hmm, any dev reading QT3? maybe I should post in the official forum..
Most TM employees check out QT3 pretty regularly. I am sure you have seen Reed, Raveknight and myself all posting in this forum. (Zimmitti posts frequently here as well.)

But, since Reed will get mad if I don't suggest this- please feel free to come and post in our forum as well. Nothing wrong with having multiple suggestions, comments or complaints, and getting reactions.

[Tyjenks]

In general I am a randomness-lover, but I feel like playing with random resources was too much of a handcuff because I never found a source of fresh water which is a requirement for too many upgrades. I think I'll be going back to all resources.

I love the randomness too and it does suck and is frustrating when that vital resource never shows up. That said, I like having to adapt my gameplay based on what I am given and I always play with random resources (plus random increases your score modifier). The fact that it is set-up so that you can play with random or all resources is great for just the reason you suggest. Too much hassle, just play what you like.

The best thing though, I played a medium game and short game (both medium difficulty) over about a 4 hour period and both developed very differently.

If you guys could not tell, I think I am going to like this game.

[~EFG~]

Reading this thread (Tyjenks posts especially) make me really want this game.

[habibi]

If you guys could not tell, I think I am going to like this game.
You are just liking it? I'm already loving' it :)

[Calistas]

I hope the next one has a more.. "realistic" map? I find it hard to explain, but a map less like a very big piece of turff. And more RPGish options. And more family management options!

I am still enjoying this though :) - Good value and good fun. It feels a little like Tilted Mill are testing the water with this. I hope the water feels good and the jump right in and develop this interesting niche!

[Gendal]

Totally addicted to the game for now. All I have to say to the complaints is a shrug of the shoulder. Can't really argue with them, it's not like they are wrong. The combat is very shallow and the graphics are not fantastic but damn do I enjoy playing it. Conquering the little sections, selecting my guys, upgrading the entire town with goofy powerful equipment, making potions, etc.

Hopefully TM releases some more content too, free or otherwise.

[Sarkus]

One thing that I think they need to adjust (unless I'm missing something) is the whole guard profession versus others for melee. The way it stands, unless you specialize a guard as an archer, you might as well take the highest level townie regardless of what they are. The weird thing is that the game does require specialists for magic users/healers, but for melee you really should just take the best levels.

[Chris Nahr]

I second the request for an explanation of character leveling. I understand how the three attributes increase but I still don't know about the character level itself.

[Destarius]

One thing that I think they need to adjust (unless I'm missing something) is the whole guard profession versus others for melee. The way it stands, unless you specialize a guard as an archer, you might as well take the highest level townie regardless of what they are. The weird thing is that the game does require specialists for magic users/healers, but for melee you really should just take the best levels.

Well, if you go for a watch tower, you get a turret building, always a good thing if you position it at a strategic point in your town design. I haven't seen the point of going archers only because my archers tend to follow me into melee range if I'm melee, so I've been building close-quarter grunts.

As for wizards - thanks everyone! I'm going to recruit a wizard later.

Having played 2 games (easy/short, medium/long), I think I'm starting to miss a layer of strategic depth which I'm not sure is fair to ask for since it's a $20 game.

I think the game would be better if
(1) there were diplomatic options with other factions,
(2) a larger, more natural map which focuses around the various features e.g. crypts, fortresses, caves etc instead of a grid (a large unrealistic change, I know);
(3) enemies who aren't simply whittled down from attrition but will gain strength and numbers over time,
(4) being able to specify what was being made by the various craftsmen (instead of totally random garbage, such as when the fletcher throws up a bone bow when he can be making longbows),
(5) not everything selling for one gp - good grief, peasant clothes cost as much as my 14 attack 7 def weapon,
(6) an option for your people to just raid your town inventory for whatever misc. equipment they can use instead of making this an exercise in management (and task-dependent, so if they are researching, they will swap out for a research item if available)
(7) unique named mobs who would try to stomp your city ("Flee for your lives, the dragon Kh'argar approaches!"), which would require your town to really come together to defeat (and finally make my plate-armoured farmers worth something), and make all those turrets really work for their money;
(8) more visual feedback on spells or more spells - right now totally underwhelming;
(9) an auto-run back to base feature would be nice, but I understand path-finding is a bitch.

[Chris Nahr]

I hate to say it, but I think many of these suggestions are terrible and sound as if you want a different game altogether.

I think the game would be better if
(1) there were diplomatic options with other factions,

No, no, no! There's already this other low-budget action-RPG that came out recently which is all about diplomacy with various factions. I hated it, way too complicated. Let's keep this one nice and simple.

(2) a larger, more natural map which focuses around the various features e.g. crypts, fortresses, caves etc instead of a grid (a large unrealistic change, I know);

Would be nice but ultimately a purely cosmetic change.

(3) enemies who aren't simply whittled down from attrition but will gain strength and numbers over time,

That would completely unbalance the game as it stands.

(4) being able to specify what was being made by the various craftsmen (instead of totally random garbage, such as when the fletcher throws up a bone bow when he can be making longbows),

Yeah, I'm not sure what's up with the craftsmen making bad items when they can make good ones. I don't need to specify which ones, just always make the best one available.

(5) not everything selling for one gp - good grief, peasant clothes cost as much as my 14 attack 7 def weapon,

Again, would completely unbalance the game as it stands, and selling isn't supposed to be part of a realistically simulated economy.

(6) an option for your people to just raid your town inventory for whatever misc. equipment they can use instead of making this an exercise in management (and task-dependent, so if they are researching, they will swap out for a research item if available)

I'm not sure it would be a good idea to completely remove the player from these actions. Yeah, it's busywork but IMO it contributes towards establishing the atmosphere and a connection with your townsfolk.

(7) unique named mobs who would try to stomp your city ("Flee for your lives, the dragon Kh'argar approaches!"), which would require your town to really come together to defeat (and finally make my plate-armoured farmers worth something), and make all those turrets really work for their money;

That's a nice idea but we'd also need a button to quickly get everyone out of their houses and join the fight.

(9) an auto-run back to base feature would be nice, but I understand path-finding is a bitch.

Like (6) this is totally against the spirit of the game IMO. It's an action-RPG where you directly control your character, not a city-building simulator or an indirect-control scheme like Majesty.

[Jeff Fiske]

One thing that I think they need to adjust (unless I'm missing something) is the whole guard profession versus others for melee. The way it stands, unless you specialize a guard as an archer, you might as well take the highest level townie regardless of what they are. The weird thing is that the game does require specialists for magic users/healers, but for melee you really should just take the best levels.

*Combat//exp spoilers below*
In the beginning gameplay the guard is not always worth the money. But, he gets a significant speed boost when using melee weapons.

The Archer gets a speed bonus with a bow.

So the proper statement would be once you can afford it, you should take the highest level guards or archers and have them be in your party.

EXP & Leveling- As you do damage, your attack improves. As you block damage, your defense improves, as you take damage, your health improves. How quickly it improves is marked by the white background behind each stat.

The amount of exp is affected by a level to level comparison of the two combatants. Healing casters get a flat rate for each cast.

Every 4th stat increase for any character is a level. For your character, you get to choose an ability as well.

Gaining skill in Attack or Defense increases your health a small amount. Gaining skill in health gives you a large amount of health and 'heals you', as does picking health as an attribute.

[Tyjenks]

*Combat//exp spoilers below*


Every 4th stat increase for any character is a level. For your character, you get to choose an ability as well.

AHA!!! At first, it seemed like your character levelled with every 2nd Health level increase, but when I realized it was not that, I guessed it could be some funtion of multiple level increases. That is a great yet simple levelling mechanic so that you do not have to mess with XP points.

My problem is, without having the spoilery benefits you listed above Jeff, that it is really fuzzy and diffcult for a player to weigh the positives and negatives of different options. On the one hand, I like that I am not toiling over min/maxing choices, but on the other, the benefits for classes and equipment are hard as hell to judge. Until you spelled out the Guard benefits, I really could not tell the difference between them and a Farmer similarly equipped and levelled.

[Tyjenks]

If you guys could not tell, I think I am going to like this game.

You are just liking it? I'm already loving' it :)

Well, I did not want to over sell it. ;) Although, I also thought it was blatantly obvious and "like" was a little cheeky.

[Tyjenks]

@Destarius: Chris pretty much summed up my thoughts on your issues. I am certain that TM wants to tweak and possibly add things to Hinterland in the future, but too much fleshing out and piling on of features would detract from the streamlined, pick -up-and-play fun. I think currently, there is a pleasant balance between fighting, inventory management, upgrading, and loot grabbing. There are plenty of cool things that could be put into the game, but that balance might me screwed up if things were not added evenly across those different facets of the game.

Some people may loathe additional inventory management and the simple fact that everything sells for 1G means that you don't have to sit and sweat over what things or worth. You know automatically. Beefed up raiders may lead to lots of folks playing with Raiders completely off. At higher levels, the raiders may move from being a nuisance which must be accounted for, to the sole focus of the game as one attack could mean wholesale slaughter. As it is, Raiders can do damage, but cannot really ransack your town.

Again, I believe all suggestions made to TM are taken into account as I think they monitor forums and feedback all over the place and incorporated much of what gamers desired into the game. For me, Hinterland has hit on a delicate balance in gameplay that is supremely enjoyable.

(Did I say the word "balance" enough in there?)

(4) being able to specify what was being made by the various craftsmen (instead of totally random garbage, such as when the fletcher throws up a bone bow when he can be making longbows)

Well, you can sorta cheat with the fletcher, smith and others. Switch to research and then immediately switch back to production and it will randomly select a different item to be made. Repeat until the item you want him to make shows up in the queue.

[Jag]

*Combat//exp spoilers below*


These aren't spoilers but rather information people need to play the game. I *want* this information so I can play at higher levels. I don't want to have to guess how something works. I want to plan it out. That adds depth to the game.

I am loving this game. The forum effects from GT/OO made it a 1 day purchase for me and i'm glad I did. It gives me the same vibe that Majesty did. Simple, but fun. Random, but strategic in its own way.

I do think it needs some tweaking, so hopefully fan feedback will makes its way into the game. Otherwise I can see people losing interest after a short while.

My suggestion is to do something to give healers more survivability or maybe the ability to resurrect followers (at a high cost) so you don't have to start all over if you lose one.

[Tyjenks]

These aren't spoilers but rather information people need to play the game. I *want* this information so I can play at higher levels. I don't want to have to guess how something works. I want to plan it out. That adds depth to the game.

I agreed with this point above as some of it is just too fuzzy and there is no clear way to know what benefits you are gaining when making a choice, but will play devil's advocate with your post and my own point....

Sometimes it is nice to just sit down and play and not have to worry about min/maxing. :) Just figure things out as you go and get a feel for the game a play with what ever options you think are fun.

[LionelThompson]

I just finished my first game, medium/long, and if I never played it again, I'd say it was worth the $20. I do see myself playing again, and I am sure these have been repeated, I had a couple of issues/wishes:

- the biggest one is that even on a large map, I never got a dragon egg, nor a crystal ball or whatever was needed to hire a necromancer (though that last one may have been my fault). With so few flavors of class in the game, this took out a lot of depth.

- going with above, there was not enough variety in NPCs. Do we really need 3 types of food gatherer when there really isn't anything that differentiates them? Why can't I buy neat magical stuff from the merchant? The craftsmen, even upgraded, made garbage that I just sold off. Also, why does an uber magical item sell for the same amount as a stick (1gp each)?

- I did not bring any casters with me since I could never get any, but I hope they bring more flavor in combat. I'd like to make tough choices about the make up of my party if I am going to be a spectator, like Kohan did so well, then let me participate in some other meaningful way. In addition, there were so many lots of property in the town, that I also had no tough choices there. I had one of each craft of interest and six lots for my adventure team (to rotate out the injured) and had at least 6 more lots of land.

I do not mean to crap on the game. I bought into the buzz, supported a small dev team, and had a lot of fun with the game, and I anticipate still playing. I just want 'more' of it to sink my teeth into!

[Jag]

I agreed with this point above as some of it is just too fuzzy and there is no clear way to know what benefits you are gaining when making a choice, but will play devil's advocate with your post and my own point....

Sometimes it is nice to just sit down and play and not have to worry about min/maxing. :) Just figure things out as you go and get a feel for the game a play with what ever options you think are fun.

I would agree except on harder levels the game doesn't forgive bad choices. You are pretty much forced to make the right decisions from the start. Having the right information is key to making those decisions.

I don't disagree about just sitting down and enjoying a simple game. That's Risk or Stratego. But this game does have some depth and requires you to make certain choices or lose. The way I see it you