Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem (diablo clone)

Jag · Post by **Jag** » Fri Feb 14, 2020 4:08 pm

Reemul wrote: ↑Fri Feb 14, 2020 4:03 pm
Tao wrote: ↑Thu Feb 13, 2020 5:52 pm Nearly 5 hours later and the game is still not in a playable state. They seem to have fixed the authentication issue but no one is able to create a game instance. Official statement on Twitter is we are working on it, this may take several more hours. Guess the recent 3 week launch delay should have been 4 weeks.
Did you see they had 62,000 players the most they had ever had was 1,932 players in beta. Always going to be a struggle with a small company.

You could of course just play offline for a few days without any issues, maybe thats too easy

Your character has to be either all offline or all online. No sharing between the 2. So if you create an offline game, it can't go online. Supposedly they deployed new servers to fix the issue though. They have been very responsive about it.

https://steamcommunity.com/games/424370/announcements/

infinitelurker · Post by **infinitelurker** » Fri Feb 14, 2020 6:28 pm

I was just able to play online for a couple of hours, and all was running smoothly. No small lags selling items like there was yesterday, and no other anomalies. Really enjoying it thus far.

Skinypupy · Post by **Skinypupy** » Fri Feb 14, 2020 11:03 pm

This looks interesting enough to take the plunge. Will probably start an offline character, then maybe reroll once the servers come back online (they're down as I write this).

Other than the ability to play with other people (something I would rarely, if ever, do), are there any other benefits to playing online? I.E. Bonus XP, additional content, online-only gear, etc.

Tao · Post by **Tao** » Fri Feb 14, 2020 11:47 pm

If you have not purchased yet you may want to wait a day or so. Beyond the servers being offline, there is no ETA from the developer when they will be back. I am sure it wont be indefinite but might be worth waiting. Additionally, there are reports that whatever is going on is also affecting offline play. Folks are reporting losing their stash, tabs, or their entire character when the hotfixes are being applied. Again I am sure everything will be sorted out eventually.

Skinypupy · Post by **Skinypupy** » Sat Feb 15, 2020 12:39 am

Played for a couple hours in offline mode, very impressed so far. Gameplay is very fluid, skills feel appropriately powerful, gear progression has been fun, it's had some challenging battles, it looks fantastic, and the skill system - while a bit overwhelming - will be fun to dive into.

A couple nitpicks though:

- Wish there was some sort of fog of war on the transparent map that shows where you've been and what is still unexplored.
- Finished a side-quest in a basement area, and the quest reward box that asked me which weapon reward I wanted (and takes up 1/4 of the screen) popped up while I was still being attacked by other mobs. Made it nearly impossible to finish killing the mobs, and I ended up having to simply choose a reward at random to get rid of the box.
- I've apparently launched a few enemies into space with critical hits. Funny to watch, but I'm guessing the way they fly off the screen is a bug.
- Seen quite a few minor graphics bugs
- A bit more inventory space would be nice. It fills rather quickly, even when I'm not picking up junk gear anymore.

As Tao said, there's no rush if you're interested. Still feels like it needed a bit more time to bake, but seems like it'll be fun.

Genghis · Post by **Genghis** » Sat Feb 15, 2020 11:50 am

I supported via Kickstarter back in 2016. They still have not sent me game keys. I notified thier support a few times. It looks like it has happened to a few people. One would think they would make sure that early supporters would be able to get in, even if it was only to the single player part.

infinitelurker · Post by **infinitelurker** » Sat Feb 15, 2020 4:05 pm

Genghis wrote: ↑Sat Feb 15, 2020 11:50 am I supported via Kickstarter back in 2016. They still have not sent me game keys. I notified thier support a few times. It looks like it has happened to a few people. One would think they would make sure that early supporters would be able to get in, even if it was only to the single player part.

That's not a good way to handle any supporter of your product. I hope they come through for you soon.

I'm sending positive vibes to the developers right now. The pressure they're under on launch week and now with this extended maintenance (It looks like the latest is that the online play servers won't be back up before Noon UTC tomorrow) has to be unreal.

I've been able to continue playing with an offline character and still having a ton of fun.

Skinypupy · Post by **Skinypupy** » Sat Feb 15, 2020 4:39 pm

Played a bit more offline, and am now running into multiple bugs. Items disappearing from my inventory, items on the ground that I can't pick up, two CTD's, not saving skill choices, etc.

Think I'm gonna request a refund for now, and revisit this one once things have been smoothed out a bit.

infinitelurker · Post by **infinitelurker** » Sat Feb 15, 2020 10:13 pm

I just completed Act 1 with my offline character. I haven't seen any disappearing items or losing progress as of yet, fingers crossed. I have had one lock up during play where I couldn't alt-tab away at all and had to restart, and one crash after exiting the game. Other than that it's been smooth.

About the ending of Act 1...

Spoiler:

Max Peck · Post by **Max Peck** » Sun Feb 16, 2020 1:25 pm

I've been playing offline, and the only bug I've encountered is that my spells stopped doing any damage. Quitting and restarting the game cleared that.

Tao · Post by **Tao** » Sun Feb 16, 2020 3:58 pm

Edric phase 3...WTF? Apparently my build is completely useless. Guess I will try mage or melee.

infinitelurker · Post by **infinitelurker** » Sun Feb 16, 2020 6:16 pm

Tao wrote: ↑Sun Feb 16, 2020 3:58 pm Edric phase 3...WTF? Apparently my build is completely useless. Guess I will try mage or melee.

There was a skill for my mage that I read about online that helped me, after a bunch more tries, to finally beat phase 3:

Spoiler:

Hyena · Post by **Hyena** » Sun Feb 16, 2020 9:50 pm

In the beta, I fought against the Act 1 boss with my dual-wield pistol guy and pretty much smoked him. First two lives went down quick, third one took a while. Roll/evade is your best friend. There is also a flashing red image, albeit very faint, where his next power attack is going to be.

Haven't fought him in full release, and I had a couple of unique (ring and a necklace), so might not be apple's to apples.

Tao · Post by **Tao** » Sun Feb 16, 2020 11:10 pm

I did the same as Infinitelurker and turned to the interwebs. Apparently lots of comments about the difficulty of this fight in phase 3. A good 90% of the folks commenting were either mage or ranged. Saw the comment about using the Golem for mages, apparently the tip for ranged bow builds is use pistol, preferably with a shield for this fight. I had a decent shield and picked up a yellow pistol from the vendor and redid the fight. By sticking right on top of Edric and getting to his flank or back as much as possible I was able to finish the fight. With the shield in place I could even face tank him for a second or two. I also wasn't aware that using dodge gave you momentary immunity to damage so timing the roll

Spoiler:

also helped. By trying to stay at range I was basically hamstringing myself and getting one-shotted by some of his attacks (with 1100 Force and 1100 hp).

Jag · Post by **Jag** » Mon Feb 17, 2020 2:54 pm

I went 2H melee and basically facetank bosses especially with the shield skill. There is also a passive skill that switches your willpower to rage so you can start every fight with a full rage bar. Game changing.

Up to level 32 with my offline character.

infinitelurker · Post by **infinitelurker** » Mon Feb 17, 2020 6:44 pm

I have to say, this game has it's hooks in me way more than Diablo 3 ever did. I'm at level 35 now with my offline character, and just hit the end of Act 2. Similar to Act 1, it looks like the boss battle is going to take more than a few retries, although I am lasting better than I did the first go around.

If you look at the Wolcen subreddit, you'd think this is the worst game release in history. If you don't need to play online with friends, don't let the downers get to you and give it a try. I've already got over 22 hours logged since last Thursday and having a blast.

Tao · Post by **Tao** » Tue Feb 18, 2020 2:47 pm

I now have two characters in ACT 2, my original Ranger who is now dual pistols and a Summoner/Toxic mage. I will most likely sideline the Ranger for a bit as I really think I will need to respec him. Frost is awesome against trash mobs or even champion packs and the ricochet build is fun but it falls way short on Bosses who seem to be immune to freezing.
I am running the Toxic Golem and Skeleton Archers as well as using Parasites on the mage. Parasites is awesome so far, however I am still a little confused on how it works. For some reason my possessed monsters suddenly seem to die when I possess something else but not all the time.

At one point I had six or eight of the rail-gun mobs which was really cool but then other times I can only have two running. Typically I lose monsters when I am possessing the really large ones like the guy that swings the mace or the one that sucks the life out of you. I cannot figure out what the limiting factor is. The most fun was when I possessed one of the monsters that sits in the opaque shield and summons zombies, I literally had a horde at that point.

I am also using Plagueburst which I really like as well. I am also running a modifier that causes a ton of health globes to drop. One issue with the mage however, is the more you use willpower abilities the more your rage builds up, using the standard staff I had no way to dump the rage so I am trying a pistol/catalyst load out right now. I slotted in the Auto turret and use that to dump rage and start my willpower regening. I may try Gunslinger as a replacement or try Infinity Blades with the staff again.
Playing Online is still a major PIA, servers will still really wonky yesterday. I really should just move to offline but I am loathe to start from scratch again, particularly since I have a really nice purple I found last night, have total of three now, and would hate to lose them so soon. If the dev's cannot sort this out they should at least give some options to import your online characters to offline. Oh and be careful using the rail-gun skill, I tried it last night and it causes major screen issues, apparently this is a known problem that was never fixed.

rittchard · Post by **rittchard** » Tue Feb 18, 2020 2:57 pm

I don't think this was mentioned elsewhere, but the game uses CryEngine, and is (I think off the top of my head) the best looking ARPG in existence. YMMV. Not leaps and bounds above the competition but definitely a great looker and makes you curious how D4 will compare.

Gameplay wise, clearly a lot of influence from PoE, but I'm way too early in to tell if it's intended to have a true online component (e.g. economy) like PoE. It doesn't seem like it at first, which would render it more of a Grim Dawn/TQ experience where you can play online but there's not a true incentive. Nothing wrong with that, but it just puts it a notch lower in the ARPG universe.

I'm really early in so it's hard to make a solid judgment in where it will ultimately stand amongst the giants in the ARPG world. Certainly the core gameplay has a great feel to it and there seems to be a good progression feel in terms of customization, both from loot and in choices you make. Each level you get 10 points old school style to divvy, plus a crazy giant passive tree point a la PoE, which helps to refine your specialization, the closest thing to defining a class. Unlike PoE there is no fixed starting point, so every character has the same overall potential to move along the tree. Also you can use any weapon, and that will define what skills you can choose from to use, which you slot in a way similar to D3. Also similar to D3, the skills level up over time and you can pick a specialty on them (e.g. increased damage or reduced cooldown). It seems to be meant to give you the maximum amount of flexibility, but of course it's likely that only certain builds/designs will be deemed "viable" over time. For a casual player, though, it seems like that may not come into play, and you can play the game as freely as you like.

I've tried one of each "Starting" types (ranged, magic and melee), and each has its pluses and minuses. Early on it felt like melee was the easiest/strongest to play, but now that my ranged has made some progress she is also kicking ass. I'm heading her toward the "White Arrow" treeline which sounded cool to me.

There do seem to be lingering bugs, I haven't encountered anything horrible - yet. The online server issue was a mess during release but hopefully they've ironed that out. A few QoL changes are definitely in order, like the UI scaling on mouseovers of items and spells. Way too tiny for me to see.

All in all I'd say this has huge potential, if not to be one of the very top tier online ARPGs, to at least be on the order of TQ/GD for very high quality single player games.

Tao · Post by **Tao** » Tue Feb 18, 2020 11:01 pm

Well think I am done for awhile. Leveled my mage to 35 and have attempted the Act 2 boss twice now. This has to be one of the absolutely worst designs i have ever seen in a game, this even beats the ridiculous POE boss fights in it's first year. You absolutely have to stand in the white circle when it appears or you simply die, unfortunately I either can't see it half the time because it's under the mass of bodies that have been summoned into the very small space or I can see it but the whole ring is occupied by monsters. Oh and the Golem is completely useless in this fight, he just stands in front of the boss unable to hit him. I got him down to about 40% health both times but keep getting insta-killed when the floor erupts. This fight is a mix of Belial from D3 and Kitava from POE but the absolute worst mechanics of both plus just poorly coded mechanics and graphics. Oh and my health/force is just shy of 6K.

Skinypupy · Post by **Skinypupy** » Wed Feb 19, 2020 1:13 am

I did a Steam refund over the weekend. Then had an IRL friend who wanted to try it, so I bought it again tonight. Steam is going to think I'm nuts.

Ran up through level 10 with dual-wield pistols, him dual-wield melee. Was fun, but ran into a couple more nasty bugs. Biggest one being that there were a few times where I couldn't target any flying mobs with a ranged attack. Thankfully, they couldn't hit me either. We sat there and watched to see how long it would go on. After 3-4 minutes of them hitting me with no damage and me not being able to target them at all, my buddy killed them in one hit and we moved on. Not sure what I would have done there if I were playing solo.

Also had a bug where it wouldn't allow me to move. No matter where I clicked, the cursor would just jump right back to the middle of the screen. A teleport to town and back fixed it, but that was rather annoying. Saw a bunch of misspellings on skills and other text boxes as well.

Fun game, but definitely still feels like Early Access. I'd probably recommend waiting until they get a few things sorted out.

infinitelurker · Post by **infinitelurker** » Wed Feb 19, 2020 11:04 am

I’m in the same situation as Tao as far as the Act 2 boss goes. I think I understand what they’re going for with these high difficulty fights, and man did it feel good when I *finally* got past the Act 1 boss. However, I’m not getting any better at the Act 2 one after many tries. I keep changing up my build and skills to look for what works better, but not having luck yet. It’s a shame, I’m more of a casual player (I’m not checking math/crits/etc to ensure the game is working as expected), and I’m really enjoying this game for the progression/skills - see my last post above, but it all dies on the vine if I can’t get past the boss fights to keep playing new content.

Tao · Post by **Tao** » Wed Feb 19, 2020 11:48 pm

So sitting at work today it dawned on me that I completely forgot to use the

Spoiler:

while fighting Lambach.

I never really used it during normal play so it didn't cross my mind. So because I have a masochistic streak I tried the boss again, took another 3 tries this evening but I was able to down her(?) just barely. Each attempt I tried a different load out of skills since the Toxic Golem did nothing, the Toxic Skeleton Archers died instantly, Parasites was useless because oh by the way her(?) hit box was about the size of a dime and nearly impossible to find reliably. I switched the Golem to the caster form and dumped the skeletons archers for the dropping ice shard (Etheriels Tear?) and dumped Parasite for Infinity Blades because I could occasionally stand in front of her and spam them and a few hits would get in with the bulk of my damage being from my staff auto-attack and Plagueburst, which I would use on the spawns which would leave a cloud of poison gas which I think was doing damage to the boss. Basically all indirect damage attacks where I was not constantly getting the "you need a valid target" message, Finished her off with the

Spoiler:

. Wish I could say it was fun or satisfying but it was mostly annoying and very very buggy, especially after the first loss. Oh also having (3) second winds during the fight and loading health potions in both slots also helped. I did get a nice reward as a drop, the unique

Spoiler:

.

Skinypupy · Post by **Skinypupy** » Thu Feb 20, 2020 1:16 am

Tao wrote: ↑Wed Feb 19, 2020 11:48 pm So sitting at work today it dawned on me that I completely forgot to use the
Spoiler:
Apocalypse form
while fighting Lambach.

I'm not sure what that is. Is it something that unlocks as part of the story?

I'm level 15 and don't recall seeing anything about activating that, outside of that very first fight in the tutorial (I assume that's what it is).

Tao · Post by **Tao** » Thu Feb 20, 2020 11:10 am

Skinypupy wrote: ↑Thu Feb 20, 2020 1:16 am
Tao wrote: ↑Wed Feb 19, 2020 11:48 pm So sitting at work today it dawned on me that I completely forgot to use the
Spoiler:
Apocalypse form
while fighting Lambach.
I'm not sure what that is. Is it something that unlocks as part of the story?

I'm level 15 and don't recall seeing anything about activating that, outside of that very first fight in the tutorial (I assume that's what it is).

Yes it's story driven, IIRC after the ACT I boss fight you have a conversation with one of the Primordials and it unlocks.

Skinypupy · Post by **Skinypupy** » Thu Feb 20, 2020 11:17 am

I assume it has something to do with that "primordial essence" gauge in the middle of my screen? The one that has yet to move after 5 hours of playing?

Tao · Post by **Tao** » Thu Feb 20, 2020 2:36 pm

Yep, give it a few more levels (20-ish) and it should all make sense.

Speaking of making sense, while the over-arching story seems interesting (also somewhat plagiarized) there are a couple of plot holes that occurred to me as I get further along.

Jag · Post by **Jag** » Thu Feb 20, 2020 3:26 pm

The primordial form is helpful since it's practically unkillable. However it literally hits like a wet rag right now. Supposedly the coming patch will buff it.

Some of the mogs in this game are pretty incredible looking too.

Pyperkub · Post by **Pyperkub** » Thu Feb 20, 2020 3:29 pm

Tao wrote: ↑Thu Feb 13, 2020 5:52 pm Nearly 5 hours later and the game is still not in a playable state. They seem to have fixed the authentication issue but no one is able to create a game instance. Official statement on Twitter is we are working on it, this may take several more hours. Guess the recent 3 week launch delay should have been 4 weeks.

I really don't understand why these launches don't use AWS servers and auto scaling for load. This seems to happen every single time a game launches with a significant online component.

Lorini · Post by **Lorini** » Thu Feb 20, 2020 4:10 pm

Pyperkub wrote: ↑Thu Feb 20, 2020 3:29 pm
Tao wrote: ↑Thu Feb 13, 2020 5:52 pm Nearly 5 hours later and the game is still not in a playable state. They seem to have fixed the authentication issue but no one is able to create a game instance. Official statement on Twitter is we are working on it, this may take several more hours. Guess the recent 3 week launch delay should have been 4 weeks.
I really don't understand why these launches don't use AWS servers and auto scaling for load. This seems to happen every single time a game launches with a significant online component.

Are you sure AWS will let them use their server? I could see a game launch such as this or D4 totally taking out their system.

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Thu Feb 20, 2020 4:16 pm

Lorini wrote: ↑Thu Feb 20, 2020 4:10 pm
Pyperkub wrote: ↑Thu Feb 20, 2020 3:29 pm
Tao wrote: ↑Thu Feb 13, 2020 5:52 pm Nearly 5 hours later and the game is still not in a playable state. They seem to have fixed the authentication issue but no one is able to create a game instance. Official statement on Twitter is we are working on it, this may take several more hours. Guess the recent 3 week launch delay should have been 4 weeks.
I really don't understand why these launches don't use AWS servers and auto scaling for load. This seems to happen every single time a game launches with a significant online component.
Are you sure AWS will let them use their server? I could see a game launch such as this or D4 totally taking out their system.

AWS hosts Netflix and Amazon.com on Prime Day (and 95% of the infrastrcuture for the 11th largest bank in the US). They can handle it.

Pyperkub · Post by **Pyperkub** » Thu Feb 20, 2020 4:23 pm

Lorini wrote: ↑Thu Feb 20, 2020 4:10 pm
Pyperkub wrote: ↑Thu Feb 20, 2020 3:29 pm
Tao wrote: ↑Thu Feb 13, 2020 5:52 pm Nearly 5 hours later and the game is still not in a playable state. They seem to have fixed the authentication issue but no one is able to create a game instance. Official statement on Twitter is we are working on it, this may take several more hours. Guess the recent 3 week launch delay should have been 4 weeks.
I really don't understand why these launches don't use AWS servers and auto scaling for load. This seems to happen every single time a game launches with a significant online component.
Are you sure AWS will let them use their server? I could see a game launch such as this or D4 totally taking out their system.

I don't think you comprehend how large and well architected AWS is. This is kittens compared to what they handle.

Jag · Post by **Jag** » Thu Feb 20, 2020 6:55 pm

Pyperkub wrote: ↑Thu Feb 20, 2020 4:23 pm
Lorini wrote: ↑Thu Feb 20, 2020 4:10 pm
Pyperkub wrote: ↑Thu Feb 20, 2020 3:29 pm
Tao wrote: ↑Thu Feb 13, 2020 5:52 pm Nearly 5 hours later and the game is still not in a playable state. They seem to have fixed the authentication issue but no one is able to create a game instance. Official statement on Twitter is we are working on it, this may take several more hours. Guess the recent 3 week launch delay should have been 4 weeks.
I really don't understand why these launches don't use AWS servers and auto scaling for load. This seems to happen every single time a game launches with a significant online component.
Are you sure AWS will let them use their server? I could see a game launch such as this or D4 totally taking out their system.
I don't think you comprehend how large and well architected AWS is. This is kittens compared to what they handle.

This is a small French company. I think I read they went with a smaller provider. Probably cheaper.

Tao · Post by **Tao** » Thu Feb 20, 2020 7:23 pm

Apparently lost all the progress from last night, quest progression, levels and items in my inventory. Found a really neat unique helm too. I know, I am a fool for keep trying to play Online mode.

Hyena · Post by **Hyena** » Thu Feb 20, 2020 8:13 pm

After that 1st snag, I haven't had any issues at all. Very fortunate common as I've heard that there been some major issues with lost items like you're reporting, Tao.

Skinypupy · Post by **Skinypupy** » Thu Feb 20, 2020 11:38 pm

Friend was at level 21, I'm at 15. He was probably 8-10 quest steps ahead of me as well. I joined his game to see if I could help with a boss...we promptly both got wiped.

Now my quest - even if I start my own solo game without him - is locked on his level 21 quest instead of where I was at 15. So I have no idea WTF is going on in the story because it jumped ahead a bunch of steps. I also really don't know where I'm supposed to go, since the active quest marker is fixed on his quest spot that's far above my level, instead of being where I left off last night in my own quest.

Christ, this game is such a buggy mess.

morlac · Post by **morlac** » Fri Feb 21, 2020 10:58 am

Works great offline...just saying

Tao · Post by **Tao** » Fri Feb 21, 2020 11:08 am

morlac wrote: ↑Fri Feb 21, 2020 10:58 am Works great offline...just saying

Want some popcorn with that salt?

infinitelurker · Post by **infinitelurker** » Fri Feb 21, 2020 11:40 am

I finally got past the Act 2 end boss. I ended up grinding a few extra levels and upgraded gear, and that coupled with the latest patch I was able to defeat it. I’m just happy I can continue with the story for the time being, until the next boss I suppose.

It seems like after the latest patch I’m getting better drops (more gems too), but could just be RNG shenanigans.

morlac · Post by **morlac** » Fri Feb 21, 2020 1:03 pm

Tao wrote: ↑Fri Feb 21, 2020 11:08 am
morlac wrote: ↑Fri Feb 21, 2020 10:58 am Works great offline...just saying
Want some popcorn with that salt?

LOL. I just feel bad for he Devs. Game is a ton off fun and no way they could have planned, scaled for how the game sold. They just didn't have the budget...until it sold this well. They'll get it sorted out eventually and plenty of other bigger developers have done the same. Hell, I thought this game was going to be vaoprware for a good year before development started picking back up again. Lastly, not sure there is a harder genre to balance correctly than ARPG. It can take years of data and constant tweaking to get it right. Hell, it usually never stops getting tweaked.

Skinypupy · Post by **Skinypupy** » Fri Feb 21, 2020 2:12 pm

morlac wrote: ↑Fri Feb 21, 2020 1:03 pm
Tao wrote: ↑Fri Feb 21, 2020 11:08 am
morlac wrote: ↑Fri Feb 21, 2020 10:58 am Works great offline...just saying
Want some popcorn with that salt?
LOL. I just feel bad for he Devs. Game is a ton off fun and no way they could have planned, scaled for how the game sold. They just didn't have the budget...until it sold this well. They'll get it sorted out eventually and plenty of other bigger developers have done the same. Hell, I thought this game was going to be vaoprware for a good year before development started picking back up again. Lastly, not sure there is a harder genre to balance correctly than ARPG. It can take years of data and constant tweaking to get it right. Hell, it usually never stops getting tweaked.

Lots of the issues, at least the ones I've been running into, don't have anything to do with how much the game sold. It's easily the buggiest game I've played in years, and that's without getting into any of the online connectivity problems.