First impressions. I played through a couple of characters, managed past the first island with two adventurers (both got themselves killed at the first opportunity upon arriving new land, but what the heck). First off, I got to say the game is pretty rich, with abundance of items and monsters, consistent theme and feel, etc. The interface is quite easy to pick up for someone who played ADOM or similar. Comments, nitpicks:
* Character creation: I personally like to assign a name after I've assigned gender, class, and race. Not a biggie, though, and probably a question of taste.
* A command to display character info in-game (without dumping it in a file) would be nice.
* On a related note, I didn't feel very connected to my skills, so a way to access/display them would be nice. I get the impression that some of them aren't fully implemented yet, but also noticed that while some characters were unable to use a spinning wheel because they had no fibres to use, others reportedly didn't know how to spin.
* I love to skin stuff and make cloaks of them! I'm guessing armoured bugs, for instance, yield better equipment than regular animals. Looking forward to discovering more crafting mechanics. But the fact that I was able to skin a skeleton is perhaps a bit over the top?
* Also, a command to display the keybindings would be nice. Ie. pressing "?" might bring up a list of commands, please?
* The "a"pply command left me confused a few times. If I'm not standing next to anything, the game tells me as much, but trying it when standing on a sarchophagus, for instance, prints nothing, as if there is a feature missing? Is there a way to open coffins, dig up graves, etc.? I had no idea how to use a shovel.
* The "w"alk command isn't very practical at the moment, IMHO. It would be better if it behaved more like typical roguelikes, ie. stopping when you pass over an object or reach a forking path.
* Kicking in doors doesn't seem to work, which is fine enough. I guess it's a simple question of balancing. On the other hand, it would be nice if evil characters had a way to rob the boathouse, for instance.
* The one thing I did manage to do with kicking, was to kick items through walls. You should probably take a look at that
* Inventory behaves weird sometimes. Let's say I want to drop something, and the "d"rop command puts me in the inventory screen. Sometimes, pressing the letter corresponding to an item picks that item, other times it scrolls, seemingly at random. Items past the letter "y" are completely inaccessible, unless I choose to filter the item list. (This may be because I'm playing under Linux with wine)
* Regarding inventory, I wouldn't mind if weapon/missile damage were displayed next to the item in question. As it is now, I have to equip everything and press "W" and "R" to get at that info.
* The "f"ire command is also acting a bit wonky. Sometimes it autotargets the closest enemy, sometimes is jumps to an entirely different place in the map (the last place I shot at something), and sometimes the cursor starts out over my own avatar, seemingly at random.
* Creatures who bite: "The kestrel stabs you." That looks pretty weird. You might consider a synonym that fits all kinds of piercing/impaling attacks better. Also, hitting a mole with a blunt weapon should ideally yield the message: "You whack a mole." (Sorry about that
)
* I noticed that archers and goblin pelters don't actually shoot anything. I'm supposing this will show up later.
* Not a big problem, actually, but I was a bit confused the first time I met a wrecker, since I thought he was a red flower at first.
All in all, not only promising, but already quite fun to play. And I have the feeling I've just been scratching the surface so far.
As always,
Minotauros
